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PAKISTAN'S VISION 2030
ISHAQ DAR 
THE MAN WHO DEFAULTED PAK ECONOMY THREE TIMES



TRAP OF AMERICA FOR PAKISTAN
Lt Gen ® Amjad Shoaib
Reply
IMPORTANT MEETING OF PAKISTAN EX SERVICEMEN SOCIETY
Lt Gen ® Amjad Shoaib



IMRAN KHAN ALREADY WARNED GENERAL BAJWA ABOUT KPK

IS STATE BEHIND CURRENT WAVE OF VIOLENCE OR A REFLECTION OF WEAKNESS AND INCOMPETENCE ?



WHO BENEFITS FROM PAKISTAN's BIGGEST TERRORIST ATTACK IN HISTORY ?
Zia Sarhadi
https://crescent.icit-digital.org/articl...in-history

The January 30 terrorist attack on a mosque inside the Police Headquarters in Peshawar has led to wild speculation about the perpetrators. The explosion was so massive that it caused the roof to collapse resulting in 101 deaths—all but three of them policemen. They were gathered for midday prayers. At least 217 others were injured.

Explosive experts say that the collapsed roof points to the fact that at least 100 kgs of explosives were used. The 10-12 kgs of explosives strapped to the vest of the suicide bomber could not have caused such damage. Further, if the blast was caused only by a suicide bomber, there would be damage to the mosque floor as well. There was none.

This immediately raises the question about how such huge quantities of explosives could be brought inside the mosque that is situated deep inside the heavily-fortified police headquarters in the provincial capital that is located in the Red Zone (high security zone). Incidentally, the building is named after a daring police officer Malik Saad Khan Bangash, who was martyred in 2007 while chasing the terrorists. The KPK Inspector General of Police, Muazzam Jah Ansari, told the media that the suicide bomber has been identified from CCTV footage. He entered the area dressed as a policeman and was, therefore, not searched. That still leaves the question of the huge quantity of explosives brought in. Surely, even a suicide bomber could not have strapped 100 kgs to his body.


Media reports in Pakistan say it was the Tehreek-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP). The banned terrorist outfit had announced on November 28, 2022 that it was ending its ceasefire with the government. It was already tenuous but soon thereafter, it escalated attacks. The first occurred in Islamabad where a policeman was killed at a checkpoint when he attempted to stop a suicide bomber. This was followed by the more daring operation at the Counter-Terrorism Centre (CTC) in the southern KPK city of Bannu on December 18, 2022. The CTC is located inside the military garrison. How could TTP terrorists enter the military garrison and take at least 40 police personnel hostage? There have definitely been security and intelligence lapses in these escalating attacks. Some astute observers, among them retired army officers like Haider Mehdi and Adil Raja, have gone further. In their Vlogs, they point the finger straight at the former army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa, his successor Asim Munir, Director General ISI Nadeem Anjum and Director General ISI-Counter-terrorism, Major General Faisal Naseer. In June 2021, Bajwa had proposed to the cabinet that the government should bring in the TTP by releasing its members from prison. There was vehement opposition to the proposal from several cabinet members.

Acting as the sole authority, despite having no constitutional authority to do so, Bajwa still went ahead and released 100 TTP terrorists in November 2021. This was followed in June 2022 by releasing some of their top leaders. Not only did he have no legal authority to do so, the more serious question is, why did Bajwa act this way? Was he carrying out the orders of his bosses in the Pentagon? The consequences have been devastating for the country.

Coupled with Pakistan’s bankrupt economy, the direct result of political instability caused by the removal of Imran Khan from office on April 9, 2022 through a US-army engineered coup, chaos is deliberately being created. The army, taking its orders from the US, does not want elections to be held in Pakistan. They fear that Imran Khan’s party would sweep the polls and with a two-thirds majority in parliament, he would amend the constitution curtailing the military’s powers.

Pakistan’s unelected rulers and bosses are simply not prepared to let go of their monopoly on power. They are busy creating more instability as well as involved in political engineering by cobbling together a king’s party. Recent resignations of members of the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz group), People’s Party and other opportunistic politicians to jump on the new political bandwagon all point to this scenario.


While poverty has increased with skyrocketing prices, life has become intolerable for ordinary people. The misery index will go up many degrees as the IMF has imposed new stringent conditions before providing a bail-out package of some $7 billion. The Fund’s conditions include increasing fuel prices that are already extremely high, removing subsidies for exports and floating the rupee against the dollar.

“Our economic challenge at this moment is unimaginable. The conditions we have to fulfil [to complete the IMF review] are beyond imagination,” the US-army imposed prime minister Shehbaz Sharif admitted


The dollar-rupee rate has plunged to Rs 276. Even at this rate, dollars are simply not available in the market. The government’s coffers are empty. Financial experts say the exchange rate will surpass Rs 300/dollar. With a serious trust deficit, overseas Pakistanis, who were the biggest earners of foreign exchange during Imran Khan’s government, have drastically cut their remittances. The country’s total reserves stand at $3.6 billion but this is money deposited by other governments and cannot be disbursed.


Even if granted, the IMF bailout package will be merely a stop-gap measure. Pakistan needs a lot more than this amount to pay the interest on its mountain of debt. This has been accumulated over the years to pay for the rapacious lifestyle of its elite. Most of the money has been pilfered out of the country to buy properties abroad or stash it away in foreign banks.



There is a long list of crooks and other assorted criminals that have stolen the country’s wealth. The Sharif family, Zardaris and an army of generals and judges have all had their snouts in trough. The overwhelming majority of people do not pay taxes. The thieves at the top also do not pay for electricity and get free fuel for their vehicles. Corruption has been institutionalized. Such lifestyle is unsustainable. It can only be ended if those plundering state resources are held accountable. That will not happen unless there is a representative government with a strong mandate to introduce changes in the constitution that would put an end to such practices.

The campaign of terror unleashed against critics of the entrenched elite, whether in uniform or civilian clothes, and the arrest and torture of journalists and senior members of Pakistan Tehrik-e Insaf (led by Imran Khan) all point to the fact that the power-wielders will not give
up without a fight. Since they want a fight, let the people give them one.


Unless the people rise up to smash this corrupt system and drag its beneficiaries into the streets beating them to death, there is little hope for Pakistan. Time is running out; the people have to decide quickly otherwise they will be starved to death, the country broken up and the elite and their families will simply flee. They already have palatial homes in Britain, Belgium, France, the US and Canada.
Reply
THE DEATH AND LEGACY OF GENERAL PARVEZ MUSHARRAF IS A SIGNIFICANT MOMENT IN PAKISTAN. HE WAS A CONTROVERSIAL MILITARY LEADER BEHIND THE KARGIL WAR AGAINST INDIA AND LAUNCHED A MILITARY COUP AND SUPPORTED USA's GLOBAL WAR OF TERROR . ANOTHER REMINDER THAT PAKISTAN WAS AND IS A GARRISON STATE.

IF ANYTHING IT IS ANOTHER REMINDER THAT THE COUNTRY OF 220 MILLION NEEDS TO SORT OUT IT'S GOVERNANCE MODEL . IN THIS REGARD CIVIL MILITARY RELATIONSHIPS NEED TO BE IRONED OUT. THE MILITARY NEEDS TO RE-DEFINE AND FOCUS ON DEFENCE AND SECURITY MATTERS. IT IS CLEAR THAT SINCE THE FALL OF THE PTI GOVERNMENT IN MARCH  2022 THAT THE MILITARY AND IN PARTICULAR THE ISI AND MILITARY INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES HAVE BEEN INSTRUMENTAL IN REGIME CHANGE. THIS HAS LED TO ABUSE OF POWER AND HUMAN AND CIVIC RIGHTS VIOLATIONS. THIS IS NO WAY TO LEAD THE COUNTRY WHICH HAS CHANGED DRAMATICALLY.

GIVEN THE DIRE STRAIT OF THE POLITICAL ECONOMY THE ARMY SHOULD FOCUS ON DEFENCE OF THE REALM AND COMBATTING TERRORISM WHICH IS RAISING IT'S HEAD MENACINGLY AGAIN. THE IMF AND WORLD BANK CONDITIONS IS COMPROMISING THE COUNTRY'S SOVEREIGNTY AND MAY ALSO ENCROACH ON CUTTING DOWN THE MILITARY. 

THE COUNTRY FACES A NATIONAL EMERGENCY ON THE LINES OF WHAT HAPPENED IN SRI LANKA. PAKISTAN IS FACING 3 TYPES OF CHAOS IN THE DOMAIN OF THE   POLITICAL-ECONOMIC- TERRORISM ARENAS. 


AS A MATTER OF URGENCY  THE ARMY SHOULD FACILITATE FREE AND FAIR ELECTIONS IN ORDER THAT THE PAKISTANI PEOPLE CAN ELECT THEIR OWN GOVERNMENT AND NAVIGATE THESE DANGEROUS TIMES.     


PAKISTANI FORMER PRESIDENT MUSHARRAF DIES AT 79




OBITUARY: PERVEZ MUSHARRAF 
Orya Maqbool Jan




GEN.MUSHARRAF's CONTROVERSIAL LEGACY ?
THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY !




FORMER FOREIGN MINISTER KHURSHID MAHMUD KASURI REACTS ON PERVEZ MUSHARRAF's DEATH



REMEMBERING GEN. MUSHARRAF:  GOOD, BAD AND UGLY 
HUMAN CONTRAST WITH GEN ZIA AND & GEN BAJWA
Dr. Moeed Pirzada






IMF COMES WITH BRUTAL DEMANDS, NO MONEY
SHEHBAZ DISAPPOINTED 




IMF SETS TOUGH CONDITIONS FOR PAKISTAN
INFLATION TO RISE 
Imran Riaz Khan



WILL PAKISTAN STUMBLE ALONG UNDER ELITE CAPTURE MAFIA OR IS THERE HOPE?
WILL THE SYSTEM CHANGE? HOW ?



DRAFT OF NEW BILL CRITICIZING ARMY AND JUDICIARY IS NOT ALLOWED ANYMORE
Reply
CALL THE ELECTIONS NOW TO SAVE THE COUNTRY
PRESIDENT ALVI WARNS !



GEN.ASIM IN USA ? MARTIAL LAW OR TECHNOCRATS?

Will Army split as a consequence? With Adil Raja! 


LAWYERS ANNOUNCED TO BACK JAIL BHARO TEHREEK OF IMRAN KHAN




IS GEN.ASIM's COAS APPOINTMENT QUESTIONABLE?




WILL PUNJABIS RISE IF MARTIAL LAW IS IMPOSED?
WILL PROVINCIALISM RISE ? Dr. MOEED PIRZADA's ANALYSIS!





ONLY ONE WAY FOR PAKISTAN's DEVELOPMENT AND SUCCESS 
Orya Maqbool Jan




IMF CHIEF WARNS PAKISTAN COLLAPSE & PAK ELITE IS SHOCKED !





IMF's DEMANDS: GOVERNMENT IN TROUBLE 
Lt Gen ® Amjad Shoaib




IMF DEAL: BEGGARS CAN't BE CHOOSERS
Orya Maqbool Jan




MILITARY, POLITICIANS, BIG BUSINESS, CORRUPT ELITES SUCKED PAKISTAN's BLOOD . DEMOCRACY ONLY OPTION!





HOW IMPORTANT IS LOYALTY TO THE RELIGION AND THE COUNTRY?
Lt Gen ® Amjad Shoaib
Reply
IMRAN KHAN's  VIDEO MESSAGE EXPOSES HOW THE PAKISTAN ARMY CHIEF(COAS) ACTS LIKE A SUPER KING THROUGH WHOM EVERYTHING NEEDS TO BE VETTED AND PASSED BY CIVILIAN ELECTED GOVERNMENTS. WHAT HE DIDN'T AMPLIFY IS THAT WESTERN POWERS IN PARTICULAR THE USA AND ITS CIA OVERSEES THIS IN ADDITION TO THE IMF.  THIS INDIRECT CONTROL NEEDS TO GO IF PAKISTAN WANTS TO RECLAIM  ITS FREEDOM AND SOVEREIGNTY.

IT IS DEBATABLE IF IMRAN KHAN HAS SEEN THE LIGHT AND POSSESSES THE KNOW HOW TO LIBERATE PAKISTAN FROM DEBT ENSLAVEMENT. IT'S ALL WELL TO ATTACK CORRUPTION BY MAFIAS AND ABUSE OF POWER BY THE ARMY. BUT HE HAS NOT DECLARED WAR ON USURY AND EVERYONE INVOLVED IN IT. UNLESS PAKISTAN HAS AN ISLAMIC GOVERNMENT WHICH ESTABLISHES ISLAMIC JUSTICE PAKISTAN WILL CONTINUE TO BE SUBJUGATED. 



SOMEONE SENT THIS TO GENERAL BAJWA BY IMRAN KHAN TALKING ABOUT HIM 





GENERAL BAJWA TOOK US HELP TO COUNTER IMRAN KHAN
IN PAKISTAN  






GENERAL ASIM MUNIR REALIZED HOW BAJWA FAILED PAKISTAN 




IS ARMY BARRIER AGAINST JUDICIAL REFORMS ?
Will Judiciary allow elections postponement beyond 90 days 




SUPER KING BAJWA, NO US , BEHIND OUSTER : IMRAN

https://www.dawn.com/news/1736897/super-...ster-imran



• Ex-PM says former army chief used him as ‘punching bag’; blames him for prevailing crises



• PTI chief says ‘conspiracy’ which removed him from power ‘exported’ from Pakistan to US



• Alleges Sharifs, Zardari want him disqualified


LAHORE: After months of allegations, former prime minister Imran Khan has given a clean chit to the United States and instead held former army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa responsible for the ‘conspiracy’ which resulted in his ouster via a no-confidence motion in April last year.



The PTI chairman made these remarks during an interview with the Voice of America English aired on Saturday and a separate televised address on Sunday. On both occasions, the former premier took swipes at the ex-chief of army staff, who, according to Imran Khan, was the source of all the crises plaguing Pakistan today.





“Whatever happened, now as things unfold, it wasn’t the US who told Pakistan [to oust me]. It was unfortunately, from what evidence has come up, [former army chief] Gen [Qamar Javed] Bajwa who somehow managed to tell the Americans that I was anti-American. And so, it [the plan to oust me] wasn’t imported from there. It was exported from here to there,” Mr Khan told VoA in a sharp U-turn from his previous position of blaming the US.





In the televised address, Imran Khan termed Gen Bajwa, who retired in November last year, ‘super king’ and admitted that his three-and-a-half-year stint in the Prime Minister’s Office was more like of a puppet.


“Gen Bajwa had become an expert of everything, including economy, politics, and foreign policy,” Mr Khan alleged.



“Gen Bajwa used to get the credit for good decisions and Imran Khan used to serve as a punching bag for every wrong decision,”

Mr Khan claimed, alleging that the former army chief was responsible for the “political and economic ills” faced by the country today.

Imran Khan also slammed the former chief for hampering the process of accountability. The PTI chairman claimed Mr Bajwa had decided that there would be no accountability of Shehbaz Sharif as he had already taken a decision to elevate him as the prime minister. “No accountability was held thereafter,” he said and claimed that the former army chief had also acknowledged this in an interview with a columnist.   “If Bajwa could be criticised or [held] accountable for his actions, he would not have been able to damage the country to such an extent,” he added.





‘Elections only solution’



During the address, Imran Khan doubled down on his demand for elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa following the dissolution of provincial assemblies. He believed that only fresh elections could drive Pakistan out of the current economic and political mess.



According to the PTI chief, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and the incumbent caretaker government were duty-bound to hold general elections in Punjab and KP within 90 days of the dissolution of the assemblies. “On the 91st day, the caretaker governments will cease to have constitutional cover,” he said, asking the bureaucrats and police officers to disobey the ‘unconstitutional caretaker government’ after the end of its three-month timeframe.




Mr Khan alleged that the Sharifs and Zardaris were afraid of elections as they first wanted to create a “level-playing field” by disqualifying him from contesting elections and then putting him in jail along with his party leadership.



“The ruling coalition in the federal government is afraid of one person and one party, which is Imran Khan and PTI, and wants to block us to get their NRO given to them by Gen Bajwa,” he alleged.



The former premier also went after the ECP and said the electoral watchdog was taking decisions on the “instructions of PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif”.





‘Stand with judges’



Claiming that the ‘mafias’ would now try to ‘pressurise the judiciary’, Mr Khan urged the nation to be ready to stand with the judges in these “trying times” as he linked the survival of the country with the supremacy of the rule of law.





“Statements have already started pouring in against the judiciary after its verdict directing the ECP to hold elections within 90 days,” he stated. It may be mentioned here that a single-member bench of the Lahore High Court has asked the ECP to consult the Punjab governor to ensure elections in Punjab are to be held in the constitutional timeframe.





Speaking about the IMF deal, Mr Khan said the government’s agreement with the Fund would open floodgates of inflation and push millions of people down the poverty line. Asserting that the Pakistan was rapidly growing in economic terms, the former prime minister said the IMF had in Feb 2022 – only six weeks before PTI government’s ouster – acknowledged that Pakistan’s economy was making record progress.



In the past 10 months, the PDM government has “shattered the economy” and almost every person has lost one-third of their income due to an increase in inflation owing to the wrong policies of the incumbent rulers, he added. “Who is responsible for shattering the economy showing robust improvement,” he asked.





‘Failure of security forces’



Talking to VoA, Imran Khan said international relationships should not be based on “personal egos” but on the interest of the country’s people. He was responding to questions about his approach towards the US upon a possible return to power and his allegations about the country’s involvement in his ouster.



“The people of Pakistan, their interest is that we have [a] good relationship with the US,” he said, explaining that it was a superpower and Pakistan’s biggest trading partner.



The PTI chairman blamed the “negligence” of Pakistan’s security forces and intelligence agencies for the rising incidents of terrorism in the country.
Reply
USA HAS GIVEN THE GREENLIGHT TO THE PROXY GOVERNMENT TO TAKE OUT IMRAN KHAN. THE PTI SUPPORTERS HAVE MADE IT CLEAR THAT THIS IS A RED LINE WHICH WILL BE RESISTED. IS THIS GOING TO BE THE SPARK THAT IGNITES POPULAR PROTEST ONTO THE STREETS?

PAKISTAN WHICH IS IN A VERY DANGEROUS CRISIS MAY ALSO STEER IN AN UNEXPECTED DIRECTION INCLUSIVE OF AN ARMY REVOLT. WATCH THIS SPACE.    



PEOPLE ARE UNHAPPY WITH THE ROLE OF ARMY GENERALS
Engineer Ali Mirza





WILL JUNIOR ELEMENTS IN THE ARMY TAKE MATTERS IN THEIR OWN HANDS ?
Adil Raja's startling observation!


POLICE ARRIVED TO ARREST IMRAN KHAN AT ZAMAN PARK WITH PRISON VAN






IN CONVERSATION WITH SAKIB SHERANI 






TWO NATIONS
F.S. Aijazuddin 
https://www.dawn.com/news/1737429

AT this doleful time, we should mourn with our Turkish and Syrian brethren. They have suffered a horrendous series of earthquakes and aftershocks. We must, if only because, during the floods of 2010, the Turkish people came to our rescue.

That was when Mrs Erdogan donated a diamond necklace for our flood victims. Perhaps the Pakistani VIP’s wife who purloined it for her personal toshakhana might like to donate her jewellery towards the relief of today’s Turkish and Syrian homeless. In Pakistan, which is balanced precariously on its own fault lines, we are enduring separate seismic traumas. Daily, we are made to relive the same two-nation theory that split and continues to keep us apart.


In 1947, we became independent, one country comprising two disparate nations — the eastern wing with its own culture, language and ideology, and here in the west, a loose confederation of socially disparate provinces, each with its own subculture, local dialect and provincial pretensions.  Today, we are again two separate nations.  After 1971, the four provinces of West Pakistan became a residual Pakistan, but with two separate nations — Mr Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s Pakistan Peoples Party, and the rest. The higher strata enjoy the benefits of five-star roti, designer kapra and makan (usually abroad), while the lower strata wait still for Bhutto’s successors to redeem his promise.



Gen Ziaul Haq’s tenure reminded us that there were two nations — one with its capital in Rawalpindi and the other located in Islamabad.


Today, we are again two separate nations — Mr Imran Khan’s populist Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf vs the rest. Dr B.R. Ambedkar in his Pakistan or Partition of India (1945) described an earlier confrontation between the Quaid and the Mahatma. Replace the names of Jinnah and Gandhi with those of modern political adversaries, and you will see how two nations are created: “Mr Gandhi and Mr Jinnah have retired to their pavilions as players in a cricket match do after their game is over [.] There is no indication whether they will meet again and if so when. What next? It is not a question which seems to worry them.”



Those opponents had two alternatives: agreement or arbitration. Then, just as today, the first appeared unlikely. The second involved intervention by a third party — what, in modern political parlance, is referred to as a neutral umpire. The theory applies also to religion.

We have two major sects — Shia and Sunni. The rest — the minorities, including other faiths represented by the white panel in our flag, don’t seem to matter anymore.

We have two nations evolving out of our inequitable educational systems — an English-speaking elite and an Urdu-speaking mass. Educationists have forgotten the commitments contained in the 18th Amendment to our Constitution, passed unanimously with fanfare by our parliament in April 2010. Had it been implemented, by now, every 13-year-old Pakistani girl and boy should have received free education up to secondary level.

The provinces should have had in place “the curriculum, syllabus, planning, policy, centres of excellence and standards of education”. Where are they, and, if they exist, in which province?  Our schizophrenic country contains two nations — the privileged Haves and the s­uggling Have-Nots. Soon — sooner, if prices rise the way they have — the Have-Nots will have cause to revolt against the Haves.


We are governed by two nations — one civilian and the other in uniform. Each has its own laws, its own economy, its own budget, and its own domestic and foreign policy.  The recent fun­eral of former pre­sident Gen Pervez Musharraf has shown that one nation buries its dead with full military honours in Karachi, while the civilian leadership in Islamabad chooses not to send any representative to his funeral, not even a president. Queen Elizabeth II was luckier. Our PM did manage to be in London to participate in her funeral.  But then, we do this with all our incoming and departing leaders. To quote Kahlil Gibran: “Pity the nation that welcomes its new ruler with trumpeting,/ and farewells him with hooting.

Now that farewells are being mentioned, with the deaths of two icons — Amjad Islam Amjad on Feb 10 and Zia Mohyeddin on Feb 13 — future litfests have lost their voices. Neither Amjad sahib nor Zia sahib needs an epitaph. Their creative lives will serve as their monument.



Poetry is the language of mourning. One poem of Amjad sahib’s (almost a haiku in its brevity) is both prescient and poignant. Its title is The Wind Cannot Read: “I had installed/ several signboards carefully/ throughout the garden. I planted signs: ‘Don’t pluck flowers.’ I didn’t realise that the wind cannot read.”  Like the wind, death too is illiterate.




DIVIDED IN CRISIS  
Maleeha Lodhi

https://www.dawn.com/news/1735593/divided-in-crisis 


While the economy teeters on the brink and a new surge of militant violence threatens the country’s security, the political situation descends into more chaos.


The country’s intensifying challenges prompted Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to call an all-parties conference but this did nothing to lower the political temperature. Indeed, there is no indication that political leaders are willing to pause their political war to find solutions to Pakistan’s multiple crises. Instead, recent developments have plunged politics into a more volatile and confused state. Uncertainty rules as politics gets messier.


The dissolution of the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assemblies opened another chapter in the fierce political confrontation between the government and opposition. While opposition leader Imran Khan hoped this would force the PDM government to call early general elections, the ruling alliance stuck to its guns and insisted that national polls would only be held once parliament completes its full term in August. But it left the PML-N-led government having to deal with the constitutional obligation of holding elections to provincial assemblies in the stipulated 90-day period. Its governor in Punjab is however demurring over fixing a date. This despite the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) writing to him and proposing dates between April 9 and 13 and reminding him of his constitutional duty to announce elections within 90 days from the date of dissolution of the assembly. ECP has also suggested between April 15 and 17 for the KP election.


The delay reflects PML-N’s reluctance to press ahead on this count. This was laid bare in a recent meeting of PDM heads. News reports indicated that a case was made by some in the party to delay provincial elections on the grounds that these should follow a digital census due to get underway in March. This, it was argued, would be consistent with an earlier decision of the Council of Common Interests that the next elections should be held according to a new census. This argument ignores the fact that such decisions cannot override constitutional stipulations. Some in the ruling party have apparently invoked the financial cost of holding multiple elections as an argument for delay, pointing out that holding two provincial and national elections at a different time would be unprecedented in the country’s history.

PML-N’s assessment seems to be that provincial elections within 90 days would advantage Khan. If PTI does exceptionally well that would set the template for national polls later. Given the political cost the ruling alliance is incurring due to the tough economic measures it is taking to resume the IMF loan programme and the worsening energy crisis, it needs time for a course correction to improve its position before going to the polls. Party leaders also think more time would enable them to end internal discord and divisions in what is their rudderless Punjab organisation today.

The country’s multiple crises have not persuaded political leaders to pause the political war. Whether or not this political calculation is well grounded, any effort to delay provincial elections will further complicate the situation, even spark a constitutional crisis. The matter will again be left to the courts to decide. Already the governor’s prevarication over fixing an election date is in court. More litigation can be expected with the Supreme Court likely to be involved if provincial polls are postponed beyond April. This would mean asking the courts to suspend the 90-day constitutional requirement, which will take some doing. It will certainly reinforce the growing impression that PDM is running scared of elections. 


For his part, KP Governor Ghulam Ali has said that the law and order situation in his province was not suitable to hold elections. After the terrorist attack on a mosque in Peshawar, which claimed over 100 lives, he wrote a letter to the ECP. In this he asked it to consult all relevant stakeholders including political parties and law-enforcement agencies before fixing a date for the polls in view of the “alarming” security situation in the province. Later, the Punjab governor wrote a similar letter to ECP citing the country’s security as well as economic situation. While the timing of provincial elections is still up in the air, if they are held on schedule, it will mean there will be elected, and not neutral caretaker governments in place when general elections are held. This will create its own complications and hand the losing party an excuse to explain its defeat and more consequentially to reject the outcome — a catch-22 situation.


Adding to the current political confusion are by-elections announced to 33 National Assembly seats for March 16. ECP has fixed March19 for another 31 seats. These became vacant after the resignations of PTI MNAs were hurriedly accepted by the National Assembly speaker. So, a major electoral exercise will get underway in March whose outcome may shape political dynamics for general elections but in which winning candidates from PTI will not even join the current NA. In any case, whoever wins will only serve for four months as a member before the Assembly is dissolved. The PPP has decided to contest the by-elections but PML-N is still undecided — indecision increasingly becoming the hallmark of the party leadership.

There are two important conclusions to draw from all of this. One, that political turmoil, ceaseless power struggles and frequent appeals to courts to settle political disputes are
all taking place at a time when the country is faced with serious challenges to its financial solvency and security. This shows a disconnect from reality by the warring parties. It also suggests a lack of concern for issues that will actually determine the fate and fortunes of the country. Two, the searing political divide and polarisation portends a troubled outlook for what might happen before, during and after general elections, whenever they are called. With political parties constantly on a collision course, unable to agree on anything and confronting each other on everything, there is little chance of any consensus on the rules of the road leading to national polls and, more importantly, on accepting its outcome. This suggests political stability might remain elusive in a country that needs it more desperately now than ever.
Reply
PAKISTAN IS PLUNGING INTO UNCHARTED TERRITORY WITH THE DEFENCE SECRETARY ADMITTING PAKISTAN DEFAULTING. THE IMPLICATIONS OF THIS WILL BE REVIEWED FOR THE COUNTRY'S ECONOMIC, POLITICAL AND MILITARY FUTURE



PAKISTAN HAS DEFAULTED- KHWAJA ASIF's ANNOUNCEMENT




IS PAKISTAN HEADING TOWARDS VIOLENT CIVIL WAR ?
Generals not giving up stranglehold over country!



WHY MAJORITY OF PAK ARMY OFFICERS THINK ABOUT THEIR OWN WELFARE & NOT PAKISTAN's DESPITE THEIR OATH?




ANGRY LETTER FROM YOUNG ARMY OFFICERS!
ARMY REFORMS ESSENTIAL TO SAVE PAKISTAN!
ELITE HYPOCRITES



PAKISTAN CANNOT PROGRESS IF IT REMAINS A SECURITY STATE ! WE'LL IMPLODE IF WE CONTINUE LIKE THIS !



PAKISTAN's REAL ENEMIES :
CORRUPT PAKISTANIS OR ISRAEL & INDIA?




WHAT IS THE ARMY's ROLE IN POLITICS IN PAKISTAN?




PAKISTAN: THE GARRISON STATE :
ORIGINS, EVOLUTION, CONSEQUENCES (1947-2011)
Dr. Ishtiaq Ahmed





PAKISTAN ATOMIC PROGRAM AT RISK ?
Lt Gen ® Amjad Shoaib






PRICE OF ELITE CAPTURE

Maleeha Lodhi
https://www.dawn.com/news/1738063/price-...te-capture

PAKISTAN’S bane has long been a narrow, oligarchic power elite that has dominated its politics and controlled its economy at the cost of people’s welfare and the country’s progress and development.


Its entrenched position over decades meant that governance challenges multiplied with force and intensity, leaving the country with daunting problems of solvency, security and mounting energy and water shortages.
These were left to fester rather than be addressed. Chronic instability and an oligarchic political order impeded the evolution of modern governance.

Patronage-based politics practised by elected and military governments alike relied on working networks of influential political families, kinship groups and biradaris to maintain them in power. But this mode of governance failed to meet the needs of an increasingly complex society. Yet the mass of unfulfilled public expectations never persuaded the elite to meaningfully respond to the needs and demands of the people.

This power elite resisted meaningful reform — whether land reform, tax reform or reforms in governance. It also acquired ‘rentier’ characteristics: using access to public office as a means of leveraging state resources to transfer wealth and acquire sources of unearned income.

This has been a common feature of both civilian and military elites. Both used patron-client relationships to reinforce their dominance and protect their economic interests and privileged status.

With successive civilian and military governments living beyond their means, unwilling to mobilise domestic resources and averse to economic reform, that fact alone contributed to miring Pakistan in perpetual financial crisis, with virtually every government in the past five decades leaving the economy in much worse shape for its successors to manage.

Borrowing both at home and abroad became its preferred way of managing public finances, which has landed the country today with an unprecedented and unsustainable level of debt. Can the stranglehold of a narrow elite over the economic and political system be broken?

The politics and economics of elite ‘capture’ has long been discussed in the country. Published some years ago, Ishrat Husain’s impressive book, The Economy of an Elitist State, highlighted how one per cent of the population constituting an elite group maintained a stranglehold on the affairs of the state. Its power and dominance persisted through different forms and changes of government. As did inequality, which continues to characterise Pakistani society.


Husain’s main argument was that the respective roles of the state and market had been reversed as a narrow elite rigged the markets and hijacked the state to advantage itself. It concluded that this concentration of wealth and political power at the expense of the majority of the population had created a situation that was neither socially acceptable nor economically sustainable.

Now an important new book has joined this debate and generated many webinars and podcasts across the country that take this discussion forward. Big Capital in an Unequal World: The Micropolitics of Wealth in Pakistan by Rosita Armytage offers a fascinating insight into Pakistan’s ‘uppermost’ elite, and its networks and methods that help to maintain its position and reinforce inequality in the country.

The author casts her book as an ethnography of the micro-politics of elite lives, which she had the opportunity to observe during the time she spent in the country, working and then researching here. It is as much a study of the daily experience of modern capitalism among Pakistan’s business elite as an insight into the social conduct, relationship building, marriages and political connections of its members.

She describes Pakistan as a compelling case of elite power, which, like many rapidly developing states, is run
by an oligarchy of economic and political interests and afflicted by high levels of instability. But this instability is encouraged by powerful families that benefit from it through what she calls the “culture of exemptions”.
More on this later. Armytage sets out to investigate Pakistan’s elite and configuration of power involving the institutions and structures that determine the allocation of wealth and political influence. But she finds that beneath the formal structure lie networks of power and influence linked by family and social connections through which economic and political competition, deals and alliances are, as it were, pre-negotiated.

The book argues that major wealth in the country is concentrated among a limited number of families that dominate the principal political parties and leading firms and have family links with the senior echelons of the military.
She observes that marriages among the slowly expanding elite help to create bonds between families and promote ‘political dynasty making’, which insulate elite members from threats to their power and influence.


In many respects, chapter six is the core — and the most interesting portion — of the book. In this, Armytage details the “culture of exemptions” that enable members of the elite to maintain and buttress their positions and thwart competition. The use of law as a mechanism, plus extra-legal and sometimes illegal activities constitute the means of wealth accumulation and preservation as well as tax avoidance.

She writes that, “Like the global elite of which they are a part, the Pakistani elite direct the legal and regulatory structures that determine the flows of wealth and opportunity within the country, while simultaneously operating outside of, and above these structures”. This she calls the culture of exemptions.

The broader conclusions she draws from her study are that elite capitalism in Pakistan is far from being an anomaly but the specific nature of its elite and highly localised form of business and finance contradicts the widely held assumption that the world is moving towards an era of globalised and standardised capitalism. An important finding is that Pakistan’s elite-dominated economy shows little sign of transitioning to a globalised high-finance economy.

What rings so true is how its “hyper-provincialised” character gives its members an inward-looking economic and political focus. Most of the economic elite are not globally focused players and have also acquired an anti-West orientation.

This is a must-read book that should encourage more debate about the role of the elite and especially how its stranglehold over the economic and political system can be broken by a growing middle class that seeks, but has yet to secure a bigger voice in national affairs.
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THE FILL UP JAILS MOVEMENT HAS BEEN LAUNCHED IN PAKISTAN. THE PAKISTANI PEOPLE HAVE LOST ANY FEAR OF THE STATE. THE STATUS QUO IN PAKISTAN IS NOT FEASIBLE FROM ANY RESPECT.  IT IS IN PAKISTAN'S PRESENT AND FUTURE TO CALL ELECTIONS NOW. THE PAKISTAN ESTABLISHMENT MUST LISTEN TO THE PEOPLE OR FACE THE UNPREDICTABLE DANGEROUS CONSEQUENCES. THINGS ARE STARTING TO GET OUT OF CONTROL AND MOVING TOWARDS A REVOLUTIONARY PHASE.

SHEIKH RASHEED CHANTING  'BILO RANI CHOR '
SLOGANS DURING JAIL BHARO TEHREEK




JAIL BHARO TEHREEK IS WINNING SUPPORT FROM ALL THE CORNERS OF PUNJAB

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THE PDM's END GAME BEGINS 
DO THEY WANT PAKISTAN TO DEFAULT ?






ROTHSCHILD COMPANY 200 YEARS BUSINESS AROUND

THE WORLD AND INVESTMENTS (AND PAKISTAN)
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WHAT THE ROTHSCHILD & CO GROUP DOING IN PAKISTAN?   DANGEROUS TIMES?






US DELEGATION IS MEETING IMRAN KHAN AT ZAMAN KHAN LAHORE




IMRAN KHAN IS GIVING THE EXAMPLE OF SRI LANKA TO THE POWERFUL CORRIDORS
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PAKISTAN's IMRAN KHAN SAYS GOVERNMENT WANTS HIM OUT OF THE WAY


MOEED PIRZADA EXPLAINS THE PLAN FOR RANA SANAULLAH TO INVOLVE PTI 



ISLAMABAD POLICE IS UNABLE TO ARREST IMRAN KHAN AT ZAMAN PARK



WHY TV CHANNELS DID NOT AIR IMRAN KHAN's SPEECH AS BILAWAL MAY LEAVE


 

WAJAHAT KHAN EXPLAINS ABOUT THE POLICY OF GHQ FOR QAMAR BAJWA AND FAIZ




I AM READY TO TALK TO THE ARMY CHIEF BUT WILL NOT BOW DOWN
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