President Putin a strategist: A great survivor against all odds by Senator A. Rehman Malik

It is internationally well-recognised fact that power is seized with the intention not to relinquish it. Power breeds more power and power is used to overpower the opponents and to prolong the rule.

The election of Vladimir Putin gives him another six years as Russia’s president at the age of 65 and he is the longest serving leader after Joseph Stalin. He will no longer be eligible to run for the presidency in the next elections and till then he will be in power for quarter of a century by 2024. By then Russia’s modern history will have been shaped by this former KGB operative, around whom a personality cult has evolved. On the one hand he has managed to revitalise Russia, giving it once more a leading role in international affairs and making it a force to be reckoned with. He will rub his shoulders with many leaders of the world including President Donald Trump. His intelligence skills will be again in gear to over smart his opponents both at domestic and international fronts.

The world will face many political and diplomatic ups and down and one does not know many more Victor Bouts will be arrested through string operations to embrace Russia but I think the arm race between USA & Russia will continue at the expense of world peace.

There will be counter allegations from both sides with reference to Syria, Iran and Afghanistan. This region has not yet forgotten the low flying drop of Russian arms for Taliban and Northern Alliance via low flying from Iran by world’s most low altitude flying pilot Victor Bouts who is presently undergoing life imprisonment in USA after his extradition from Thailand through a sting operation.

Now once again USA has blamed Russia for supplying arms to Taliban. It looks like as if the Cold War between Russia and America has once again started, which would, unfortunately, continue over various international disputes.

The Russian leader President V. Putin is a living legend who started as intelligence operator in 1975 and rose to the rank of Lt. colonel mainly spying in East Germany and held that position for 17 years till 1990. He then returned to St. Petersburg and was appointed deputy Mayor to his mentor, the then Mayor of St Petersburg namely Anatoly Sobchak in 1994.

After the loss of mayor ship by his mentor in 1996, he moved to Moscow where he was appointed as head of the security, commanding the three major security agencies including the KGB. The change of circumstances forced the then President Boris Yeltsin to appoint him as acting president in 2000.visited St Petersburg while I was in exile on invitation of one of my business friends. My friend is well placed businessman who narrated me the story of Mr Putin at my request, as I was really impressed with the rise of Mr Putin. I met a couple of other people in the city and I found almost everybody to be the fan of Mr. Putin. I made out in my two days visit that Mr Putin has developed the skill as to how could one touch the hearts of his people.

I visited the half drowned ship during the World War II from where one gets a chance to see amazing scene of sunset like a big fireball dipping into the ocean.

Russian having amazing past history suffered through the World War II, and then embraced yet another setback of disintegration of Soviet Union under President Gorbachev. The disintegration of Soviet Union was basically result of defeat in Afghanistan followed by collapse of its economy coupled with up roaring of central Asian states. President V Putin had learnt a lot while in St. Petersburg, which basically served as launching pad for his political career. It will not be wrong to say that had he not been the deputy mayor of this city, he would have not been able to become the longest serving leader of Russia. President Putin who, a leader of caliber, has brought the stability to his country. Russia under Putin has not only recovered from the shock of disintegration but it paid USA in the same coin in Iraq and now in Syria. President Putin has become living political visionary and he has the art to deal well with his opponents.

I happened to meet him in one of the international conferences as Interior Minister of Pakistan and observed him closely and found him to be a deep and mysterious personality. He has used his Intel skills like senior Bush who was also an ex -Intel.

The analysis shows that his success lies in allowing the various syndicates and mafias operating their way in the beginning till he took them into full grip and then he handled them with iron hand and subsequently brought all the institutions under his direct control.

The world is terming Putin as dictator and some blame that he won his election with rigging. The reality will be out one day. I, however, think that he is a big political scientist of the present times and he has understood his people well. He has gained the confidence of masses with his caliber, which he is strengthening with the passage of time. The witch-hunt between USA and Russia would continue both at state and people level at the cost of their diplomatic and people to people contact.

Let us now overview the present and future relations between Russia and Pakistan in the presence of many challenges for president Putin both at home and abroad.

There are several factors, which have brought Pakistan and Russia closer, including US quest for hegemony in the region, longer presence and continuation of war in Afghanistan, as well as US President Donald Trump’s aggressive posture against Pakistan. President Putin considers Pakistan as highly important for the stabilisation of Afghanistan and for the regional peace, Russian rightly believes that the problem of Afghanistan cannot be solved without the constructive involvement of Pakistan and Iran.

Both Russia and Pakistan are collaborating at the moment in the energy sector as well. On October 16, 2015 Pakistan and Russia signed an agreement to build a $2 billion pipeline. The North-South gas pipeline, with a capacity of 12.4 billion cubic meters per year, would connect the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) terminal in Karachi to Lahore. The agreement was signed during the first visit by a Russian Energy Minister to Pakistan in three decades, and marked a new beginning in commercial ties between the two countries. The 1,100 kilometer pipeline is expected to be completed by 2018.

In addition to that, both Moscow and Islamabad have enhanced military to military relations. The first ever joint military exercise, Druzbha (a Russian word meaning “friendship”), was conducted between the two armies in September 2016. Russia also participated in the Aman-17 international naval exercise hosted by Pakistan in the Arabian Sea in February 2017.

In addition, on July 3, 2017 Russia’s Gazprom International and Pakistan’s Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in Moscow. The MoU is aimed at mutual cooperation, joint ventures and use of state of the art technology that would aid exploration and development in Pakistan. This positive shift of policy has happened during the tenure of President Putin and I feel Russia would attach more importance to Pakistan in the future.

If the USA hostile and anti-Pak policies continued then I foresee a nuclear block in making consisting of Russian-China-Pakistan.

Pakistan should not lose the opportunity to be friendlier with Russia by expanding its areas of cooperation with Russia based on mutual interest and confidence. I feel that President Putin would play his vital role further to enhance friendship with Pakistan.

In the end I would like to say that President V Putin is a doer and will not only survive but also he would continue to be a big challenge for the West and he would keep the fellow world powers on their toes.

The article was published by The News International on March 31, 2018; link to the original article: https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/298378-president-putin-a-strategist-a-great-survivor-against-all-odds

The writer is Chairman of think tank “global eye” & former Interior Minister of Pakistan. Email: rmalik1212gmail .com, Twitter Senrehmanmalik, GlobalEye_GSA, 

Self-Invited coup-Mr Prime Minister wake up by Senator Rehman Malik

The word coup always brings the mind under pressure, because it is synonymous to force of action. The first internationally well recognised expression of a coup is the army takeover which was very common in the world in 50s when Africa suffered heavily and then Pakistan when Gen Zia-ul-Haq deposed the elected PM ZAB and then played his innings as Martial Law administrator with the support of USA.

Today I am not talking about any army coup but of another form of coup, which has brought us at the verge of bankruptcy. I will first discuss about this self-invited coup, which I would name as an “economic coup”. In fact, our past rulers laid the foundation of economic coup in 1952 by taking the first loan and thereafter successive governments got addicted of loans to run their affairs. These loans started as soft loans initially which subsequently turned into loans on heavy interests. The loans given to states are subject to sovereign guarantees by the Governments through State Bank.

The Soviet-Afghan war which was engineered and controlled by USA through Zia-ul-Haq got us further under heavy finical burden and our begging bowl started becoming bigger and bigger. Unfortunately, this bigger bowl failed to even meet the growing requirement of the country as it had got a big hole in the shape of heavy financial burden vis-à-vis millions of Afghan refugees in Pakistan. This war also brought with it limitless miseries in the form of gun running/flow of drug to Pakistan besides increasing our expenses on western boarders because of our growing conflicts with USA and Afghanistan.

The country was suffering economically because of the unwise participation in Afghan -Soviet war, which had given birth to extremists and militants. USA left us high and dry and our economic situation worsened with the burden of Afghan refugees and emergence of Talban and Al Qaeda. It was unfortunate that the help extend to USA as friend crippled our growing economy and all economic sectors related to our growth because of the law and situation created by terrorists.

The Americans have always been interested in our strategic assets and database. We went wrong by not linking our support with-retiring of our foreign debts with the assistance in the war on terror to USA. I once proposed this suggestion in an international donor’s conference held in Sarena Hotel Islamabad in the presence of USA delegation and unfortunately our economic team did not endorse my proposal in this open meeting.

The handling of economy and internal security as per the constitution of Pakistan is the responsibility of the government. We say past is past and is to be forgotten but past does give nations the required guidelines as to where we went wrong.

We as nation are victim of self-invited terrorism coup and economic coup. These coups will not be averted unless we take practical step to retire our debts and bring a comprehensive action plans both for national security and foreign policy.

I am very sad to mention below about the worrying situation wherein we have mortgaged almost all our national assets rather we have mortgaged our national pride.

The government have now started putting national assets of extremely high value as guarantees (mortgage) in exchange for more loans or otherwise for Sukuk Bonds. The national assists like Jinnah international airport Karachi, Peshawar-Faisalabad motorway, Faisalabad-Pindi Bhattian motorway, Islamabad-Peshawar motorway, Islamabad-Lahore motorway, PTV, Radio Pakistan has been mortgaged and despite in Pakistan these assets are no more ours. There are many more and I expect the government to make it public as nation must know about this big achievement of the government. The position of loans stands as under

IMF Loan: $ 6.2 billion

World Bank and other multilateral banks: $ 9.7 billion

Bilateral countries: $3.6 billion

US aid: $33.4 billion

Saudi Arabia (Islamic Development Bank) $242 million

Paris club France: 625 million Euros

Japan: 192 Billion Yen

China: $162 Million

Euros bonds and Sukuk bonds: $ 2.5 billion

Budget deficit (2017): Rs. 1.863 trillion

Expected budget deficit this year: Rs. 1.9 Trillion

Growth rate of Pakistan: 5.8 %

Inflation rate: 3.80 %

Rate of one dollar in 2013: 100 PKR

Rate of dollar today: 110.76 PKR

We have bad effects of economy deficit on imports and exports. The current account deficit (CAD) had recorded at $12 billion during the fiscal year (FY2017). The CAD surged by 122 per cent to $5.013 billion in the first four months (July-October) of the current fiscal year as compared to $2.259 billion a year ago. The CAD is widening as higher imports growth offset the improvement in exports. The CAD is likely to touch $18 billion by the end of current fiscal year. The CAD is widening due to massive increase in trade deficit. Pakistan’s trade deficit widened by 36.32 per cent to highest ever level of $32.58 billion during fiscal year (FY17) because of the record increase in imports and decline in exports. Country’s imports were recorded at historic level of $53.02 billion during the FY17 as against $20.45 billion exports during previous financial year. Same trend continued in the current fiscal year. Pakistan’s trade deficit had swelled to $15 billion with exports of $9 billion and imports of $24.1 billion during first five months of the current financial year as against $19.9 billion of the same period last year.

Now according to an estimate, Pakistani currency is likely to come under further pressure due to the widening current account deficit, and any further depreciation weakens the country’s debt affordability besides stoking inflation. Pakistani Rupee is facing an on going depreciation pressures against the US dollar. The Government’s debt affordability would also likely to be weakening further. Moreover, Pakistan’s current account deficit will remain around current levels, ranging from 3% to 4% of GDP, due to the high import intensity of domestic-driven growth.

I had predicted in my previous article about the fall of Rupee against dollar and it stands at Rs 116 to a dollar today. If the PKR (Pak Rupee) depreciates markedly further, the country’s central bank will face the difficult challenge of anchoring inflation expectations at moderate levels. The Rupee is likely to loose more if the government does not take SOS drastic immediate steps to halt further fall of Rupee against Dollar.

I will write as to how I halted the fall of Rupee against the Dollar by taking administrative and punitive measures under the instruction of my government. The public record is the testimony of my actions.

The economic coup has hit the Rupee hard which means public will suffer more in the form of increase in the prices of all commodities. I had proposed some immediate measure for debt retiring plan and will table a bill this connection. We must realise that these economic and terrorism coups have brought us to the verge of national debacle.

I appeal to the CJP to take up this matter and take the commitment of time line for national debt retiring plan where the PM/ all CMs and Governor of State Bank be present. This will be the real service for Pakistan.

The Article has been published in “THE NATION” on March 26, 2018. 

Link to original Article:- 

Self-Invited coup-Mr Prime Minister wake up by Senator Rehman Malik

Hasty sackings by President Donald Trump by Senator A. Rehman Malik

USA administration used to be considered as one of the most stable administration and with protection of the constitutional posts and some duly ratified by the Congress.

There are so many Congress committees, which overseas various ministries including the working of CIA and FBI which are considered to be the most powerful agencies in the world. The CIA is known to even destabilise the countries and involved in making and breaking the non-compliant foreign governments.

Both FBI and CIA agents are present in the American embassies throughout the world under different capacities with specific assignments from their headquarters. CIA agents are controlled by a senior agent called as Station Chief. Basically, both these agencies are the real eyes and ears of the US Administration. These agencies also get assistance from diplomatic service, which is part of State Department, in the respective country. Basically the success of secretary of State and director CIA depend on their teams both at home and abroad.

President Donald Trump over a span of a year has fired a number of most senior advisers including FBI Director James Comey, Chief Strategist Steve Bannon, FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe and most recently Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. President Trump sacked some, such as Rex and Comey, while others resigned for a variety of reasons.

The Acting Attorney General Sally Yates from the Obama administration was the first to get dismissed on Jan 30 2017 after she refused to defend the first iteration of Trump’s travel ban on Muslim countries. Feb. 13:

The national security adviser Michael Flynn resigned on 13th Feb, shortly after a controversy surfaced that he had misled officials, including Vice President Pence, about his communications with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.

Normally, the chief ushers in US administrations hold their positions for several years and over a number of administrations and so the reasons for Angella Ried’s dismissal on 5th May are unclear yet.

James Comey, the FBI director, according to the White House, was fired on the basis of Justice Department’s recommendation, over his handling of the Clinton email probe on May 9.

Mike Dubke, Trump’s first communication director resigned right after 3 months on the job. He said he didn’t know Trump before getting hired and so he didn’t want to work on his campaign.

The director of the Office of Government Ethics, Walter Shaub handed his resignation on 6th July as he had repeated clashes with the president.

After the hiring of Anthony Scaramucci as Trump’s communications director without the advice of White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer, he announced his resignation on July 21, 2017.

White House assistant press secretary Michael Short resigned on July 25, 2017 right after Scaramucci said he was intending to fire him while talking to the press.

Reince Priebus within a period of six months of his job as chief of staff handed his resignation on 28th July 2017, as he was often a target of Trump’s loyalists over his performance.

Anthony Scaramucci couldn’t work for more than just 11 days and was removed on the request of newly appointed Chief of Staff John Kelly on 31st July.

Steve Bannon was removed from his position as White House chief strategist on Aug. 18, 2017 after immense pressure was imposed to remove him. After John Kelly appointment, he was being increasingly isolated inside White House being a hardcore populist.

The White House on 25th August 2017 announced that Sebastian Gorka was no longer a part of Trump’s administration as counterterrorism adviser whereas he insisted that he had resigned. After his dismissal he said Trump’s populist campaign agenda had been hijacked by establishment figures.

The Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price resigned on 29th Sept. 2017 after a major criticism came upon his use of $400,00 private flights while traveling on official business.

Dina Powell, Trump’s deputy national security adviser, who was a driving force behind the president’s Middle East policy, departed herself from the administration on 8th Dec 2017.

A former “Apprentice” star, Omarosa Manigault Newman who joined the Trump administration as the director of communications for the White House Office of Public Liaison was fired on 13th Dec 2017 as she came under fire for bringing her 39-person bridal party to the White House for a photo shoot in 2017.

Rob Porter offered his resignation as the White House staff secretary on 7th Feb upon allegations of domestic abuse and physical violence against ex-wives.

Yet another person, White House speechwriter David Sorensen resigned on Feb. 9 over domestic abuse allegations.

White House communications director Hope Hicks would be resigning in the coming days as she announced it on Feb. 28. She has been the longest serving aide of Trump’s administration and the announcement came a day after Hicks confessed to a House intelligence panel that she has occasionally told “white lies” for Trump but denied lying about anything relevant to the Russia investigation.

FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe was recently fired on March 16. He was fired just two days before he was to retire. He said that his firing is a part of the Trump administration’s “war on the FBI” he was removed because of the “role I played, the actions I took, and the events I witnessed in the aftermath of the firing of James Comey.”

Trump’s longtime personal aide John McEntee was put aside from the White House and was moved to Trump’s 2020 campaign, where he will serve as a senior adviser for campaign operations on March 13.

Rex Tillerson the secretary of the State served as the nation’s top diplomat since February 2017. Rumors of his departure had circulated for months, especially after he reportedly called Trump a “moron” in front of other Cabinet officials in July 2017. CIA Director Mike Pompeo would replace him.

If you look at the profiles of these advisers you would find that they were the close aids of President Donald Trump before landing in the White House and had spoken good words about the ability by praising each adviser.

The world is wondering was there something wrong with Donald Trump or in reality these advisers were incompetent and could not come to the expectations of the president. When compared we would find the administration under president Bush and president Obama had been significantly stable with continuity of the US policies.

Secretaries of State like Condoleezza Rice, John Kerry and Hillary Clinton almost completed their tenures. I had my personal working experience with the above three secretaries and found them most professional and competent. We can say that the three secretaries survived because of their competence. The recently fired Secretary Tillerson had the same administrative, intelligence and diplomatic tools but he failed to perform to the expectations of President Trump. Obviously President Trump cannot get himself absolved of the incompetency of the sacked or resigned top advisers unless he justifies his actions to the Americans, which has created a history for the Americans.

The American public has the right to question the ability of the president for making wrong choices on the most sensitive official positions, which matter a lot, both for the Americans and the world, being a superpower.

Let us see as to how President Donald Trump was being seen to be working. Majority of his actions were not as per the book but significantly through personal wishes. Against all norms as set by the USA state procedure, he adopted a new way of communication to run the affairs of the government. The people of USA often hear his policy statements through Twitter rather than through official communication channels, which brought embracement to USA many times.

His twitters messages and threats to various States were unbecoming of a president of a superpower. The threats to Pakistan via twitter and later on to the president of North Korea were nothing but reflected on his perplexed emotions. I am sure if he has taken the expert advice as per the State rules then he would have not given such undesirable tweets.

The American administration despite having many constitutional protections, in fact, has failed to block the hasty actions of President Donald Trump and I remember the famous TV show “Yes Minister”. The official functionaries followed “yes minister” phrase and it now looks that it is perhaps looking that Mr. president is “Mr. President “ who wants see NO to anything.

The unstable and hasty decisions by President Trump or his teams are not only going to detrimental for USA but also for the world. Will President Trump continue to treat State of USA as his personal empire or he will start working with capable advisers, as any mistake by him can cost heavy for USA.

Some of the loose statements mentioned hereunder will show his instability and lack of appreciation of international principles of governance:

• He said he would force the military to commit war crimes.

• He said about women, “You have to treat ’em like shit”

• He proposed to create a database system to track Muslims in the US and advocated shutting down mosques as well. He even called for a ban on Muslims entering the US after holding the prime office.

• He being racist said a US-born judge couldn’t be impartial because of his “Mexican heritage”. He also called Mexican immigrants rapists.

• He advocated assassinating terrorists’ families.

• He advocated waterboarding as punishment even if it doesn’t help gain information, because “they deserve it anyway.”

• He said women should be punished for having abortions.

• He publically made fun of a reporter’s physical disability.

• He responded to the murder of 49 people at Orlando’s Pulse nightclub with “appreciate the congrats for being right on Islamic terrorism”.

• He being a white supremacistre-tweeted bogus crime statistics that wildly inflated the rate at which blacks kill whites.

• He conspiringly claimed he saw thousands of Muslims in New Jersey celebrating the 9/11 attacks.

• He doesn’t pay his bills and also has refused to show his tax returns database.

• He once said he didn’t know how many articles were there in the constitution as well as he didn’t know the meaning of the term “Brexit” less than a month before the UK referendum on leaving the EU showing the height of ignorance being the President of US.

• He even gave weird remarks about his daughter saying, “If Ivanka weren’t my daughter, perhaps I’d be dating her”.

Look at all the remarks and his official action as president then it is not difficult to make out that president is least bothered as to what he has to state as president and where to hold. If it continues then day is not for that he brings some irreversible national loss and embarrassment to USA. Every adviser out of these 22-sacked advisors will have their side of the stories and the world will get to over dozen of books out of these advisers.

All these hasty actions entail to a vital question that if President Donald Trump was utilising the services of his elite agencies namely CIA and FBI like his predecessors or not. It is also worth questioning if these two agencies are actually supporting Donald Trump or not as the changes in the CIA and FBI suggests a kind of mutual mistrust between the agencies and White House. A world power who used to make & break the other governments globally with powerful CIA is now going through its own internal crises. Will the world ever witness a non-interfering policy of USA?

Now world is waiting to see the final report of former director FBI Mr Muller on Russian scandal and one has to see if he would be able to get away with the allegations or get into deeper trouble. The history will prove if these continued sackings of advisers were competency or incompetency of President Trump.

The writer is Chairman of think tank “Global Eye”, Chairman Senate Standing Committee on Interior and Former Interior Minister of Pakistan. He can be reached at Email: rmalik1212@gmail.com, Twitter @SenRehmanMalik

The original article was published by The News International on March 22, 2018 and the link to the Article is:  Hasty sackings by President Donald Trump by Senator A. Rehman Malik

Pride of vote under attack by Senator A. Rehman Malik

These days the media is discussing the misuse of “the vote” and that the vote itself is the real victim of today in the hands of its caster.

Let me introduce myself; my name is “the vote” and I am centurys years old and used to elect people’s representatives, in different stages in different countries, to work and struggle for their cause. My value is very scientific and mathematical and I am casted throughout the world by families, businesses, counties and beyond.  I become the deciding factor if used prudently. I bring people’s popularity and can defame too.  I create public opinion of what is good and what is bad. My prudent use depends on my master. I am single and I am always loyal to my master and I have no ability to be used without the consent of my only master. I am not private property of anyone but work for both majority and minority to decide their fate. I am sometimes misused and my misuse brings lot of injustice in the societies.  My blatant misuse and abuse produces corrupt and incompetent politicians and rulers as well while my just use brings honest and competent rulers who lead the countries to progress and prosperity.  When used by the greedy and corrupt elements, huge monetary value is attached to me before I am pushed into a box.  I feel worst when my master is greedy and dirty, as my use in his hand will bring me bad name. I create the legislative houses to produce constitutions and legislate the laws for the benefits of those who cast me through good governance. My strength and importance depends on the conscious of my masters who use me for betterment or otherwise in the given situation regardless he used me for business, government or Parliament. I am considered as a might and used according to dictates of my masters.

My value and effectiveness come into force when I am pushed into a box or a computer click, which become a deciding factor within this democratic world. I am the one who sets the numerical game and sets the course of success or failure with my might. My misuse can be lethal when I am on sale by my masters and I become an unwilling victim of the evil desires of my masters. My pride is my prudent use, which brings qualitative changes in the nations. I am even misused worldwide and I have no choice to say NO.

In Pakistan, price tag to my prestige was first attached when a political party of the opposition tried to use me to oust a democratically elected government through a ‘No Confidence’ motion.  Thereafter, my sale continued unabated by all the politicians for their own benefits without caring for my own prestige and dignity.  My prestige as VOTE was terribly hurt in Pakistan recently which is much talked about in the media. I have been a victim of my misuse in Pakistan by my masters and some others who, through forgery and deceit, had often made me suffer through rigging to get their desired results. My sufferings and this injustice was never looked into seriously in the past and my voice got suppressed with powerful noise and influential of mighty misusers.  My lovers may lose faith in my “might” as I have become a saleable commodity and one gets me who bids the highest for me. I have been wounded with a bruised face in the hands of my own masters whom I had once helped to win the elections of the provincial assemblies. I am hearing lot about nice horse trading under my name, and there is a chance that I will be once again be hurt and bruised by these greedy masters whose faith is not in the pride but dirty money. My bidding was done openly in all of Pakistan but no protector of mine came to my rescue; although the greedy and unconscious masters sold me out against my wish in the open bazar. Will the authorities ever take a notice of me as a victim having lost my pride and my face, which has been defaced with their greed for dirty money? I hope my voice will not be suppressed any more through newly printed currency notes and my masters will not be eagerly looking forward to putting me to bidding in the future.  I appeal to give me my pride back and restore my confidence and get this dirt and dirty money out of my face. Save my pride by restoring my value and save Pakistan.

I, as the vote , demand that all those my masters who had sold me out by hurting my pride must be now punished to save me for further sale and people start losing confidence in me.  Will all the political parties consider take legal action against some of my greedy owners to restore my pride ?

The Article has been published in “THE NATION” on March 10, 2018.

Link to original Article:- Pride of vote under attack by Senator A. Rehman Malik

The Urdu Version of the article published in Naw e Waqat on March 11, 2018

Paralyzed Economic Growth by Senator A. Rehman Malik

We are protecting our land, air and sea borders for which we have been spending billions of Rupees. We have to spend huge funds on the imposed war on terror, but we have been consistently ignoring our economic borders since 1951.

Pakistan was born in 1947 as the largest Muslim country that came into being with unprecedented sacrifices of the people from all walks of life. The Pakistanis were happy to have their homeland where they would have the freedom to work and have prosperity as they got rid of Hindu domination and English colonial rule. The displaced people having lost their dear ones had only one satisfaction, which was the feeling of having their own beloved country and sole identity as Pakistani.

The father of the nation started to lead, and he was determined to make the nation as a strong leading nation. During the struggle, his health could not allow him to complete his mission. The murder of PM Liaquat Ali Khan brought a further set back to the country, and the state started facing both administrative and political issues.

We want to compete in the world economic race as the country had all the major ingredients necessary to become a developed nation; it has a geo-strategic location, vast deposits of natural resources and a large population in the working age. There are countries that got independence after us and had much lesser resources than us, yet they are now a part of world’s major economies. Israel, South Korea, Malaysia, China, Japan, UAE, Russia, Singapore, Hong Kong and India are countries in roughly the same region as Pakistan. All of these countries came into being around the same time as Pakistan. All of these countries have a higher GDP (Gross Domestic Product) than that of Pakistan, 283.7 billion USD, and all of them are ranked higher in the Human Development Index (HDI) as well. A glance at the GDP of the nations mentioned above will make the comparison more nuanced. Israel’s GDP is 318.7 Billion USD. China has a GDP of 11.2 trillion USD. GDP of South Korea is 1.411 trillion USD. Malaysia’s GDP is 296.4 USD. Japan’s latest calculations in this regard are 4.939 trillion USD. UAE has a decent GDP of 348.7 billion USD.

The comparison shows that their progress as compared to ours is much higher and speedy. The main reason for us to keep losing the growth as compared to other countries seems to be the balance of repayments of foreign aid. Pakistan is to repay the $6.5b debt over next 15 months, as the chain of taking loans started in 1952 and never stopped since then.

What happened to us right after independence? What were those factors, which kept on deteriorating our national economic growth status and our economy? Let us take few factors, which affected us adversely including the incompetency of Governments and their finical teams coupled with many other crises that led to our failure since independence.

Firstly, right after independence our neighbour India never left a single chance of striking us on every front. India gave a blow to our sovereignty by supporting Mukti Bahni with funds and its forces, leading to the tragedy of East Pakistan. Moreover, factors like the illiteracy rate, growing unemployment, energy crisis, inflation, and terrorism have been acting as major hurdles to our economic progress. The lack of proper strategizing of our actions according to the need of the time and looked towards the international donors rather than dependence on domestic resources. We have been continuously ignoring our agriculture sector, mineral rich regions, and water resources.

Strategically, President Ayub played in hand of CIA by handing over Badhaber airbase to Americans against Russian which was the first mistake on the part of our Government. Landing in the laps of the USA against Russia was the beginning of our economic and political control by CIA as its operators through their agents crippled our independent decision making. The American ensured that our key quotients like grains/ petroleum products and Indian animosity were played to increase the American dependence and increase in defence import yet the USA did not come to help when Pakistan was under attack in 1971 resulting in the creation of Bangladesh.

Mr. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto came into power at a time when the East wing of Pakistan had fallen to become Bangladesh, and the whole nation was in the demoralised mode. He got engaged to stabilise Pakistan. The worsening of the economy, however, continued and even the successive governments did not plan anything about repayments of our debts and imported Finance ministers could not give the Nation debt retiring plan due to poor foreign and financial policies. Instead, every finance minister of every successive government felt pride in getting further loans from the IMF and world bank, and it was tragic that even the finance teams floated bonds and FRBC backed by the Foreign loans. The same practice is continuing till today.

I, having served five years as a cabinet minister and as a Senator had always been hearing, both in the cabinet meetings as well as in the Upper House, the finance teams boasting of securing loans but never talked about having an efficient debt retirement plan. I am on record asking the government as to why there is no retirement plan? I remember a conference in Serena Islamabad on Pak Economy on the support of friends of Pakistan where I raised the point to help Pakistan by retiring our debts as this war on terror has adversely affected us. One of the senior members opposed my demand saying that: “here we are building the grounds for more loans and you are inflicting it with debt retiring programme”.

I was never happy with this growing load of loans, which were contributing towards rising inflation, budget deficits, debt servicing and balance of repayments and directly affecting our economy and sufferings of an ordinary man are increasing. This uncertain economic situation is not a happy sign for local growth and foreign investment to our country. The Nation has full right to ask the finance team of the government to explain the debt retirement plan if any? Moreover, both private and public sector banks were looted by the businessmen as well as by the businessmen turned politicians adding to the miseries of the nations. Loans secured from these banks worth billions of rupees were either not repaid or got written off.

We stand today far behind other developing nation due to our poor short-term fiscal policy, loan based budgets, small tax base, fudged figures based on five years plans, the balance of repayment issue, political instability and bad governance with uncontrolled corruption in public and private sectors. The successive governments have always preferred to give development funds to their MNAs and MPAs to solidify their vote bank. They would prefer to invest in those projects which could fetch them instant publicity with prominent pictures on the front page and TV advertisements during prime time but never thought to first get rid of our debt by diverting such funds to the national debt retirement program.

We cannot join the international race of prosperity unless we sort out our ground issues and I feel that our nation can still recover from this unfortunate situation and catch the missing bus of prosperity if we take the following steps:

•            Divert at least 50 percent development funds for next ten years to debt retiring plan.

•           A complete ban on development funds to the MNA and MPAs.•           No further loans from IMF and World Bank and other donors come what may.•          Create a “Pak Property Overseas Bank” for overseas Pakistani only to participate in the National Debt Retiring Plan. The government should invest $ 3billion in this bank and sell the 49 percent shares in dollars to the overseas Pakistanis.•          75 percent directors of the board should be from overseas Pakistanis, and the other 25 percent should be from Government/ private sector, and it should be under Parliament oversight to give confidence to the overseas Pakistanis.•          The said bank should create a consortium of Chinese and Turkish banks, and this consortium should take over half of the Debts on mutually agreed terms with Pakistan.•           Overseas Pakistanis must be given attractive incentives in investments/interest based income/property development in Public-Private Partnership through this bank. This will generate billions of dollars, which will go towards the retirement of national debts.•           The government should also announce its debt retirement plan integrating the above proposals.•            Every province should contribute at least five properties to be sold to overseas Pakistani and amount should be deposited towards debt retirement.•            Parliament should formulate a strategy for National debt regiment programme and set time to get rid of the loans following the Turkish Model. A bill should be presented in the house for legislation under the name of “National Debt Retirement Act”, containing law with a time limit and backing of constitutional provisions to retire the national debt and to require all the stakeholders to participate in the process of retiring foreign debts. The participation should be based on the principle of shared equity. The Act must also contain provisions to ensure the protection of the investments of overseas Pakistanis.

We need to fight for our Economic borders as strong economy can only defend our geographical boundaries by the provision of modern technology as the future is of the advanced technology and there will be hardly any room for conventional wars. Hence we need to make our economic indicators stronger to make our nation stronger and invincible, and it is possible only if we generate strong economic efforts through the right fiscal policies with the help of capable economists to drive the nation out of the crisis. The government, in fact, needs to look into its fiscal policy and bring incentive-based policies to attract the overseas investments by its own sons of the soil abroad for this bank.

We have already lost 70 years, and we are still unable to build a prosperous and uncorrupt Pakistan for our present and future generations. We now at least must take practical steps to set the right economic and planning courses and give something to our new generation instead of providing the atmosphere of disappointment. Let us work collectively for their prosperity instead of hollow slogans for our vote bank. We have already missed the bus of prosperity. Pakistan needs to wake up and choose a right path to make itself stand tall among developing nations.

Let us all rise above politics and help our country Pakistan which needs our collective efforts to bring it back to the trail of prosperity and arise as a proud nation. Let us shed our dead weights and get rid of the economic shackles of international financial institutions. We have to get rid of loan-based developments, and even our CPEC project is also based on long-term loan, which one day has to be retired. Our foreign reserves are depleting, and if we keep on taking loans any further, our future generations will find themselves under heavy debt and they will have to suffer for no fault of theirs.

There is going to be no divine help as we are the only one to rise ourselves and get rid of this alarming national economic issue. I have jotted down my humble vision and proposals to overcome to stop the eruption of this economic volcano.

I will propose an Act under the name of “National Foreign Debt Retiring Plan” and will make it public for people’s input before tabling in the House.

The Article has been published in “THE NATION” on March 08, 2018.

Link to original Article:- Paralyzed Economic Growth by Senator A. Rehman Malik

Indian anti-Pak move through USA/FATF by Senator A. Rehman Malik

After 9/11 the world came very heavy on money laundering and USA activated UNO to bring in international money laundering laws and accordingly number of charters and resolutions were passed and almost the whole world became signatories of such UNO resolutions.

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) was constituted in 1989 by G7 countries to observe movement of terror financing funds and point out None Cooperative Countries or territories that are found to be non-cooperative in dealing with the money laundering or terrorist financing. The Group of Seven or G7 is a consisting of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States, being the largest and advanced economies in the world. It meets regularly and based on intelligence FATF proceeds against those countries, which do not follow the directions of FATF.

The FATF follows an elaborate process to assess compliance, based on which it issues public statements on countries with deficiencies. Countries on this grey list are practically treated like pariahs in the international financial system. Presently North Korea, Iran and Uganda are examples of those countries dealing with it. The USA in furtherance of anti-Pakistan Indian narrative, moved a motion against Pakistan, duly supported by UK, in the meeting of FATF held on February 18-23, 2018 to place Pakistan on a global terrorist-financing watchlist to be monitored by FATF. France and Germany subsequently joined this nomination. In fact this entire anti- Pak move has been engineered with ill motives and the entire allegation levelled are India specific and not USA specific. It was alleged that JeM front Falah-i-Insaaniyat and LeT and its front Jamaat-ud-Dawa, are transacting financial business without much difficulty. LeT and LeJ was earlier banned by me as minister and even TTP was banned during our tenure.

In fact India has been struggling hard to implicate Pakistan in terrorism related issues to cover its brutalities in held Kashmir. India tried to fabricate evidence against Hafiz Saeed and despite my direct request to the then interior minister and through diplomatic source for any evidence against Hafiz Saeed, but India has miserably failed to provide the claimed evidence and the government was fined by the Supreme Court of India for having failed to provide evidence. India continued to work against Pakistan to defame it on one pretext or the other and eventually it managed through USA to have Pakistan included in the watch list.

Surprisingly, USA has first placed Pakistan on watch list for so-called religious freedom violations whereas it completely turned blind eyes on the human rights and religious freedom violation in Indian Held Kashmir. Under the government of Premier Narendra Modi, the religious minorities like Muslim, Sikhs, Christians and even Dalits have been persecuted harshly and they were denied to perform their religious rites in the country.

There is background to engineer this action against Pakistan and let us examine some historical facts:

USA decided to fight a war on the soil of Afghanistan by dragging Pakistan into the war. According to available record CIA recruited the most wanted criminals and there were reports that they were paid in dollars from series of bill notes, which were not listed. It was confirmed to me by one of the then senior most intelligence official that the said Bill notes were used in Afghan Jihad and it was the same time when FIA under me had detected dollar supper note, which was being printed and circulated from remote area of Thailand. President Bill Clinton himself thanked Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto during her visit to White House where I also accompanied her. This was the time when Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto had stated that we need to control this monster of terrorism otherwise it will come back to bite us and it is proven down the line that the monster of terrorism is now biting the whole world. It was Jehadis created by USA, which engineered entire trouble not only for Pakistan but also for the whole world and hence FATF must look into the background and distribution of dollars to the criminal brought in to fight at the soil of Afghanistan. It should be put on the next agenda and FATF must investigate the origin of this terrorism and the CIA operation in Afghanistan. Pakistan is suffering from this virus of terrorism injected by CIA.

These are the same paid Jehadis who are emerging in different forms and instead of helping Pakistan to get rid of these terrorists, USA is putting pressure on Pakistan. We Pakistani firmly believe that it is India, which is using USA against Pakistan through FATF.

The economic and commercial consequences of such grey listing can be quite disturbing. It would be harder and more expensive for Pakistan to borrow money from the international markets if it is put on the FATF watch-list. While the US worked on Saudi Arabia and Turkey, India dealt with China alone to muster the support of these countries against Pakistan. Hectic diplomacy went on in New Delhi, Washington and Beijing as FATF considered the proposal in Paris. Eventually, the Indian delegation, struck a deal with the Chinese team that related to support for a greater FATF role for Beijing in the future. Soon, all the three objections were removed and the proposal went through.

I have questions and everybody is worried how come China & Saudi Arabia gave unexpected support to the motion although both the countries have very close relations with Pakistan. It is worrying for every Pakistani, as Pakistan had developed high dependence on China both in terms of economic as well as strategic.

Pakistani Foreign Office took the threats of PM Modi lightly to push Pakistan into diplomatic isolation and India, with its anti-Pak mind set, supported by USA managed to infect Pakistan through FATF. This was the second USA-India led anti-Pak move to further pressurise Pakistan.

Impact on Pakistan:

If Pakistan is eventually placed in the watch-list of FATF then Pakistan will be put on regular monitoring, all banking transactions in the country will come under closer global watch, Pakistan’s credibility in global financial transactions would be eroded significantly. Specifically, the economic and commercial consequences of such listing can be quite disturbing. It would be harder and more expensive for Pakistan to borrow money from the international markets.

Every businessman and Pakistani tourists would be subjected to rigorous scrutiny and in other words we would be under suspicion in the eyes of international community regardless of the fact that we have made sacrifices in terms of finances and human lives in the war on terror. Ironically what reward we got in the end for that help and support tendered to USA! Nothing as we the fighters against terrorists have been declared the abettors of terrorists. Another lesson learnt by Pakistan, if at all we remember the lessons of the history.

How to counter this?

It has been decided that if Pakistan does not take further action against militants operating within its borders its name will be put back into the list. Pakistan has been given time of 3 months till June to crack down on the militants and submit its action plan report if it wants its name to be removed from the list.

Government of Pakistan first need to demand the details of the allegation of money laundering, specific militant activities, money laundering cases reported against Pakistanis or business houses, specify border militant activities, specific terrorist financing with banking transactions at both ends.

How and where Pakistanis have found involved in money laundering of terrorist financing directly affecting USA. USA is third party and is acting on the complaints of other two independent countries and Pakistan must demand where and how these three Pakistani organisations have directly hurt these countries.

We must constitute a task force consisting of members from FIA, ISI, MI, Nacta and State Bank to deal with the suspected terror financing and money laundering. Moreover, our National Action Plan needs to be revisited and international requirements may be made part of it. Madrassa Reforms must be given special attention and already proposed law may be enacted.

I will wait to write further till I hear about the exact allegations against Pakistan.

The writer is Chairman of think tank "Global Eye" & former Interior Minister of Pakistan and PPP senior leader.

The Article was originally published in "The News International" with the link:Indian anti-Pak move through USA/FATF by Senator A. Rehman Malik

No thanks -Do not want to be PM by Senator A. Rehman Malik

I was flying today from Islamabad to London when a Pakistani-British young man, after a very polite greeting to me, sat beside me on a vacant seat and directly asked me as to why there is such a mess in Pakistan and why we are a direction-less nation? He expressed his grave concern about the on going political and economic situation in the country stating “We ‘overseas’ Pakistani are very worried about our home land”. I tried to explain but he was not satisfied with the on going situation.

He left but his discussion and concerns about the situation in Pakistan shook me up. He made me seriously ponder the question that are we as a nation really direction-less and why? In order to answer this question one needs to look back at the political history of the country since its independence The answer lies in the objective analysis of the power struggle between political and non-political forces. This power struggle landed the country not only into political polarisation but also into economic/financial dependence on the international financial institutions, which are mainly controlled by USA and Europe.

A cursory glance of the political/democratic history of the country would explain as to how Pakistan plunged into political polarisation. This polarisation ultimately weakened the successive civilian governments and the institutions to the extent that those governments were more concerned about their survival rather than pointing the country into any direction, which could lead to the prosperity.

Mr. Liaquat Ali Khan took his office as the first Prime Minister on 14 August 1947 but was publically assassinated on 16 October 1951, being in office only for4 Years, 2 months & 2 days. Subsequently, Sir Khawaja Nazimuddin was elected as the Prime Minister on 17 October 1951 but his government was dismissed by the then Governor General Ghulam Muhammad on 17 April 1953 lasting his office for only 1 Year, 6 months. Mr. Muhammad Ali Bogra replaced him on 17 April 1953 but again the Governor General dismissed his government on 12 August 1955 and he remained in office for only 2 Years, 3 months & 26 days. Then Mr. Muhammad Ali was elected as Prime Minister on 12 August 1955 but he fell victim of a No Confidence vote by his own political party on 12 September 1956, being in office for only 1 Year 1 month. Mr. Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy took the office of Prime Minister on 12 September 1956 but resigned on 17 October 1957, after having lost his control over his own party and the coalition party in the parliament. He remained in the office for only 1 Year, 1 Months & 5 days. Then Mr. Ibrahim Ismail Chundrigar became the Prime Minister on 17 October 1957 but he lost the confidence of the House on 16 December 1957 after 1 Month, 29 days being in the office. Sir Feroz Khan Noon then became the Prime Minister on 16 December 1957 but after just 9 months and 21 days in the office, his own party’s President declared martial law on 7 October 1958.

After a gap of around 13 years, Mr. Nurul Amin took the office of Vice President under Yahya Khan on 7 December 1971 till 20 December 1971, for about 13 days, when ware broke out between Pakistan and India leading to the creation of Bangladesh. On 20 December 1971, Mr. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto first took over the office of the President, as there was no constitution as well as the parliamentary form of government, till 14 August 1973 when he, after promulgation of Constitution of 1973, he resigned and took the office of the Prime Minister – first directly democratically elected Prime Minister. He was in office for 3 years, 10 months and 21 days when on 5 July 1977 his government was toppled by the then Army Chief. The country remained under martial law and under the reign of Gen. Ziaul Haq till 24 March 1985, when Mr. Muhammad Khan Junejo was elected as Prime Minister. He remained in office for 3 years, 2 months and 5 days when the President dismissed his government by exercising his powers under 18th Amendment in the Constitution.

Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto was the first Muslim lady elected as Prime Minister on 2 December 1988 but the then President by invoking his powers under Article 58(2)(b) of the Constitution, dismissed his government on 6 August 1990, just after 1 Year, 8 Months and 4 days being in office, on the allegations of corruption, which were never proved. Mr. Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi was then installed as caretaker Prime Minister on 6 August 1990 till 6 November 1990 when new Prime Minister was elected.

Mr. Nawaz Sharif was elected as Prime Minister for the first time on 6 November 1990 but on 18 April 1993, the then President of Pakistan dismissed his government after being in office for only 2 Years, 5 Months, 12 Days. His government was, however, reinstated by the Supreme Court of Pakistan. In the meantime, Mr. Balakh

Sher Baz Mazari acted as caretaker Prime Minister from 18 April 1993 to 26 May 1993, for only 1 Month and 8 Days. After reinstatement, Mr. Nawaz Sharif remained Prime Minister from 26 May 1993 to 18 July 1993 for 1 Month and 22 Days, and resigned as a settlement to oust the President as well.

An unknown Pakistan-origin US national Mr. Moeen Ahmed Qureshi was imported from USA to install as caretaker Prime Minister on 18 July 1993 till 19 October 1993. For 3 Months and 1 Day. Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto again won majority seats in the National Assembly and was elected as Prime Minister on 19 October 1993 when once again the then President of Pakistan dismissed her government on 5 November 1996, just after 3 Years and 17 Days – once against frivolous allegations of corruption, which were yet never been proved.

After the dismissal of the government of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto, Malik Meraj Khalid was appointed as caretaker Prime Minister on 5 November 1996 till 17 February 1997 who remained in the office for 3 Months and 12 Days. The elections once again saw Mr. Nawaz Sharif to be elected as the Prime Minister on 17 February 1997 till 12 October 1999, when Gen. Pervez Musharraf toppled his government just after 2 Years, 7 Months and 25 Days.

Mr. Zafarullah Khan Jamali took oath of the office of Prime Minister on 23 November 2002 when he resigned on 26 June 2004 just after 1 Year, 7 Months and 3 Days. Chaudhary Shujaat Hussain was, consequently, elected as Prime Minister on 30 June 2004, for only 1 month & 27 days when he resigned on 26 August 2004 to vacate the office for Mr. Shaukat Aziz. He was elected as Prime Minister on 28 August 2004 and he resigned on 15 November 2007 after 3 Years, 2 Months and 18 Days, after completing his parliamentary tenure. Then Mr. Muhammad Mian Soomro took over the office of caretaker Prime Minister on 16 November 2007 till 24 March 2008.

When the PPP won the elections, Mr. Yousaf Raza Gillani was elected as Prime Minister on 25 March 2008, who remained in the office till 19 June 2012 for 4 Years, 2 Months and 25 Days when the Supreme Court disqualified him and he resigned. Consequently, Raja Pervaiz Ashraf took the office of the Prime Minister on 22 June 2012 for 9 months and 2 days when he resigned on 24 March 2013, consequent to completion of parliamentary tenure. Mir Hazar Khan Khoso then took office of caretaker Prime Minister on 25 March 2013 till 5 June 2013. Consequent to the victory in the general elections, Mr. Muhammad Nawaz Sharif took the office of the Prime Minister for the third time on 5 June 2013 but the Supreme Court disqualified him on 28 July 2017, after 4 Years, 1 Month and 23 days. Mr. Shahid Khaqan Abbasi is currently Prime Minister since 1 August 2017, in place of Mr. Nawaz Sharif.

We as Nation have to revisit our failures and success and should sort out the grey areas and the reasons for having come to this situation. Let us overview the timeline of the evolution of the democratic institution such as the office of the heads of the governments throughout the life of the country. Right since the day of our first Prime Minister to the last one, we are led to believe that the office has been victim to non-democratic forces. The heads of the governments were either shown the doors through dismissal of their governments or through forced resignations.

It is matter of record that two prime ministers were publicly assassinated whereas the first democratically elected Prime Minister Mr. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was deposed by the non-democratic forces and then judicially murdered. One of the major services he had rendered for the national cause was the introduction of first consensus constitution in 1973.

These maneuvers led to political polarisations coupled with corruptions in the society and drainage of national resources. The drainage of national resources caused dependence on external financial resources to cope with the national developments.

The fate meted out to the heads of the governments, amongst other fallouts, also resulted in the weakening of the state institutions thus rendering the nation without any specific direction. We were left without any permanent foreign policy to protect our national interests. We were left to look for external/foreign financial assistance and currently Pakistan is faced with US$ 80 billion foreign debts. Pakistan has to secure more foreign financial aid to service its existing external debts meaning we have to make compromise on our own national priorities.

The major beneficiaries of the political polarisation in the country were the mafias of all sorts, who had been manipulating the situation in their own benefits. They had assumed the role of wheelers & dealers to fix the election results to their advantage. Obviously, when the elections results are fixed and a winner emerges out of the elections with the blessings of these mafias, then the winner would have different priorities than the national priorities.

The political situation has been marching toward uncertainty and a fearful atmosphere for the last few weeks where crime has become dominant, and the drug and land mafias have become more powerful than the state. Electable politicians have become buyable commodities and the public representatives are available in the “Political Mandi” for open auction regulated by the mafia. Political activities have turned into a political Mafia stock exchange. Most recently Imran Khan was, allegedly, offered RS 40 Corers for a senator seat in KPK and the nation expected him to launch a FIR which if not registered, puts his own party under questioning.

A country where the governments are made through the heavy mandate of billions instead of heavy mandate of public, then we are bound to meet with the same fate which we are exposed to today.

In view of above do we have any way to take the elections out of this mafia where all of our provinces are directly affected with this deadly infection? Yes. We can provide sincere election reforms to block the exploitation of political differences by the mafias to their benefit/advantage. We have to ensure fair, transparent and impartial elections and to offer unflinching support to the democratic process in the country. It is the only option if we are sincere with the future of the country.

What is happening to the country today is due to our own failings and we including me are responsible for it. We have failed as politicians, parliamentarian, bureaucrats, and members of the judiciary. We have failed to play our due role in defining its directions and failed to work to achieve the objectives. Our failures gave birth to the mafias and helped strengthening their role in the politics. This time is not for when genuine politician will be either eliminated from politics or forced to leave for being unable to sustain themselves before the Mafias. Now the time is approaching when a genuine politician will be obliged to say “NO to the post of Prime Minister, as no person with conscience would like to carry out the agenda of Mafias and subsequently get humiliated and land in jail.

The writer is a PPP Senator, former Interior Minister of Pakistan, and Chairman of think tank “Global Eye” and Senate Body on Interior and Narcotics.

 The article was originally published in "The Nation" and the link is: https://nation.com.pk/02-Mar-2018/no-thanks-do-not-want-to-be-pm