NEWS

1. Former FBR Chairman, Shabbar Zaidi has said that if all government land is sold, Pakistan can repay its loans four times. He was speaking at a seminar on the economic crisis. He said that we have to use geopolitics for our benefit. The project of the gas pipeline from Iran to India is incomplete because we are sitting on it like a rogue. We must promote regional trade. But we are not doing it. We can sell our cement to India. He said that the reason for the delay in agreement with the IMF is that it is forbidding us from paying China by taking loans from it.  (Intekhab Daily)
2. Pakistan Awami Tehreek has started a “Save Sindh Resources” march in Karachi. The Awami Tehreek leaders said those working against Sindh interests must leave Sindh. They said they see deliberate attempts to hand over Sindh resources to outsiders. The women participants said their march was also against issues like inflation, lawlessness, and militancy. The protesters also said outsiders are being recruited in Sindh institutions. (Pahenji Akhbar, Feb.12)
3. Three Kohli families leaving behind their ancestral place in Pakistan near Masan, Sindh, have left for India. The villagers gathered in large numbers and it was an emotional scene at the time of saying bye to the Kohli families. Amrish Kohli and others said they had relatives in India and they were leaving Pakistan out of their own will. (Pahenji Akhbar, Feb.12)
4. A meeting on counter-terrorism and security of foreigners was held in Gwadar under the chairmanship of the Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah. The minister said there should be no negligence in the implementation of security measures. He also said that vacancies in security institutions should be filled on priority basis, and local people should be given priority in the recruitment. (Ummat, Nawai Waqt)
5.  Some 15 terrorists with heavy weaponry attacked Gomal Police Station in Tank and ran away upon retaliation. The encounter lasted fifteen minutes. (Aeen)
6. Balochistan Jamaat-e-Islami Chief Maulana Abdul Haq Hashmi said that 75 percent people in the province are forced to live below the poverty line. (Qudrat)
7. The central President of the National Party Doctor Abdul Malik Baloch has said Balochistan is still burning in the fire ignited by Pervez Musharraf.    Speaking at Turbat, he said that hundreds of youths are burnt down in this fire but the rulers of Pakistan are still unaware of it. The country at present is in the grip of an economic and political crisis. The conditions imposed by the IMF have increased inflation beyond imagination. Many industries are closed down and others are on the verge of closing. Our rulers are still busy with political engineering and new test tube experiments. They are increasing problems of Balochistan. (Intekhab Daily)
8. Dy. Chief Jamaat-e-Islami Balochistan Maulana Abdul Kabir Shakir stated that those who made Balochistan a desert have been in the Government for the past several decades and the Federal Government and the Establishment are also involved with it. There is no heir of the people, the national resources have been brutally looted, a record of corruption has been established, the constitutional democratic right of the people of Balochistan, especially Gwadar, has been taken away, which is illegal and unjust. (Urdu Point)
9. Corruption is rampant in the Sindh Waste Management project being executed by Chinese company CK in the South district.  Bogus billing and bogus attendance are reported.  Fraudulent practices are alleged in door-to-door collection of waste. (Urdu Point)
10. The National Party has condemned the silence of the Missing Persons Commission on the disappearance of Rashida Zehri and her husband. (Urdu Point)
11. The Foreign Ministry has taken strong action after the reports that Afghan citizens are taking visas for Pakistan after showing fake documents. According to sources the Foreign Ministry has issued orders to all Embassies of Pakistan in Europe to stop issuing visas to Afghan nationals. (Dunya Daily)

EDITORIALS

1. Defence Ministry has now decided to make sacrifices in its defense budget and also bring in austerity in the army in bid to save the country from going bankrupt. Earlier, the Shehbaz government had agreed to all tough terms of the IMF but the government had said no to making cuts in the defense budget. And, this was amongst the reasons coming in the way of formal pact for an IMF loan. Now that defense ministry has shown its readiness for cuts, others at high civilian posts, politicians and heads of institutions will have to take lesson and cut down unnecessary expenditure to save the country from going in the default mode. Often it is country’s poor who have made sacrifices, now it is time that country’s elite and others at high places do their bit for country’s sake. (Ibrat Edit)
2. Lynching of a person facing blasphemy charges at Nankana Sahib Punjab is not only a violation of human rights but also is against laws of land. This is not the first such case in our society. It is time the government starts taking measures to bring an end to incidents like the one at Nankana Sahib. (Ibrat Edit)
3. For the survival of the country, it is necessary that elements indulging in lynching in the name of blasphemy should be punished as soon as possible under the anti-terrorism laws.  (Edit – Daily Pakistant, Jehan Pakistan)
4. Money lending is becoming big business and it is also becoming reason enough for rise in suicides.  Sindh government should start taking action money lenders because the money lenders are not extending financial help to the needy but are pushing debtors to acts like suicide. (Sindh Express Edit)
5. The world is well aware that the economy of Pakistan is continuously falling after the regime change on the night between the 9^th and 10^th of April. The foreign exchange reserves have depleted from 16 billion dollars to 2.9 billion dollars. An agreement with IMF has not materialized so far. The IMF is insisting on certain conditions before any agreement. This attitude of the IMF is the result of the bitter experiences of the past. Why it should give loans many times to an agricultural country that is rich in natural resources and has enough manpower? Pakistan did not take any steps to upgrade and improve its agriculture sector, and it has not constructed any dams in the last 50 years to improve the condition of agriculture and to tap hydropower. The anger of the people is rising against the PDM government which has lost its game of power. (Intekhab Daily Edit)

COLUMNS

1.My one simple question to readers is: How come the public sector is making profits in India?  Railways, power houses and other public sector utilities in India are making profits. This is a fact despite India’s population being 10 times more than Pakistan’s. But the Indian authorities have never sold their public sector enterprises on the ground that the units were no longer profit making. God knows why we keep failing every-time and countries that came up after Pakistan, have been rising and progressing well like we see in Bangladesh. Now our PM says he does not know how to bring an end to inflation, unemployment and poverty in the country. It is time our PM Shahbaz took lessons from India’s Kejriwal and Bangladesh’s PM Hasina Wajid. This requires sincere feeling for teeming helpless and poor Pakistanis and also concern for our coming generations; our PDM rulers do not seem to have such empathy. (Dastgir Bhati in Sindh Express, Feb.12)

2. Senator Irfan Siddiqui has said in parliament that he did not know as to who had authorized chief justice to speak against all PMs, which he said was no more than a fatwa. We showed respect unto judiciary even when Zulfikar Bhutto was hanged; showed respect even on four occasions when martial law was imposed in the country; respect was shown unto the judiciary even when army men in unfirm were allowed to contest polls; respect to judiciary was also shown when one PM was disqualified for not taking salary from his son. Do courts remember how they had given permission for martial laws in the country? Were any remarks made those days against the army? Irfan Siddiqui also went on to say in the Senate: When one PM is hanged and the court observes: “It was our mistake. There were pressures on us”. Ticking off the chief justice, he added: Our parliament too has its space and pride.   How come the Chief Justice Supreme Court made irrelevant observations against our parliament. If courts cross their limits and make irrelevant and political statements, then our politicians’ reactions should not be read as contempt of court. The judiciary should see for themselves as to what they are doing. Important and sensitive provinces like Sindh and Balochistan are put to test under every government. Speaking in Karachi at one function, Balochistan National Party’s Akhtar Mengal spoke on the country’s controversial political issues. Mengal said: Our country has still not achieved the goal for which it came up. In Pakistan, we forget our people and our nation for the sake of power. Mengal said there is no peoples’ State in Pakistan, but a controlled democracy. PM has no power in our country. Others were making merry but blame was often put on to politicians. Mengal also warned that politics of hatred will never come to an end unless there was a united effort to tackle class-based issues and other problems. Incidentally, it is time we took lessons from political failures and experiments being done in country since 75 years for political survival. We need reforms at all levels, be it at parliament, or judiciary, in every State’s machinery. The constitution has laid down principles very clearly but we do not go by it for running our country. Despite being resource rich and with fertile lands, tensions amongst institutions coupled with dictatorial spells and controversial policies have led the country to the brink of collapse on the economic front. In the light of the questions raised in parliament with regards to judiciary and other institutions, all should sit together and take decisions keeping in mind respect for one another; the VIP culture be done away with now and country be made truly peoples’ welfare State by stopping all unnecessary expenditures on protocols and other unwarranted and un-necessary heads. Parliament’s supremacy, guidance from elected representatives and rule of law should be ensured to help country regain its place of pride. (Ali Mahmad Memon in Sindh Express, Feb.12)

3. We have petrol in the country but a deliberate shortage is being created. Remittances from Pakistanis overseas have come down. Factors like black marketing, hoarding and smuggling to Afghanistan have become rampant. Inflation is neck-breaking now. How to make rulers accountable for the mess Pakistan finds itself today? If not others, at least the finance minister should tender resignation. He should also seek an apology from the country-men. Actually, Nawaz Sharif and Mariam too should apologize. These three have caused country big deficits, like Imran Khan. It is the earlier government and establishment who need to be made accountable for the return of the fresh terror wave and also for questionable policies about Afghanistan. For God’s sake, stop self-enrichment programs and stop just make big claims. If State does not treat all equal like a mother does unto her children, several others who have mindsets/inclinations like Akbar Bugti, Javed Hashmi and G M Syed and also several other peace-loving citizens will turn to TTP and ISIS because children given step-motherly treatment often turn up as disobedient. (Prof. Sadiq Anar in Pahenji Akhbar, Feb.12)

4. A video has come to light wherein former premier Imran Khan was heard saying Gen Javed Qamar Bajwa was really powerful with all the powers were vested with him as the chief of army staff during his period in office.  He was also heard saying “How can the system run if powers and authority are vested with the army chief and a PM is made accountable?” It is strange that Imran Khan has realized this too late. The facts coming to light now clearly indicate that he was brought to power not with peoples’ votes. The 2018 polls will go down in history as the most controversial for the reason that every roadblock coming in the way of Imran Khan’s getting into power was removed. It was ensured that PPP and ML(N) were kept out of the corridors of power. Imran Khan could get a simple majority to form a government only when all independent candidates were brought in and were included in his government. Later Imran Khan started targeting his political opponents with support of his friend, and former ISI chief, Faiz Hameed. PTI is waiting once again for the establishment’s call. PTI has never wanted to go back to people for getting back into power. Imran Khan does not believe in peoples’ power and he should not talk about political power because basically Imran Khan has a fascist mindset. For him power means one man show. He is one such person who can say yes to any terms and conditions to get back to power and would forget all that he talks now once the establishment is ready to coronate him. If any PM is to be made powerful enough, then political parties will have to stop fighting amongst themselves; they will have to come together to promote and strengthen democratic culture in the country. If anyone is to be made super king, it has to be a politician and not any general; a super king must not only understand his powers and authority but should also assert those powers and authority and be accountable to people and none else. (Akhtar Hafeez in Sindh Express)

5. The nation also has a question that if people think that the military rulers are the cause of the country’s problems and issues, then why is it not told what the country’s economic condition was until 1985? Was the country in debt before? Did we always look forward to foreign aid? Was there inflation in the country before?  Today, Pakistan economy has become so weak that we are waiting for foreign aid with a begging pot, sometimes from China, sometimes from Saudi Arabia, sometimes from the United Arab Emirates, sometimes from the United States, sometimes from the IMF. We are forced to accept the demands of the lenders. Just see where has the world progressed in 2023 while we have gone backwards even from 1960 in financial and economic terms. Who is responsible for this? Everything can happen in Pakistan. Pakistanis can do everything but the problem is that everyone has their own interest. Every other person prefers personal interest over national interest. The amount of wealth that has already been created at home and abroad will be more if the decision makers first sacrifice their privileges and personal interests for the national interest to get the country out of trouble. Those who vote for them should also use their common sense and think of the country instead of hating or loving someone. (Nawai Waqt in Akram Choudhary)                   

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