‘Qarz burhao, mulk bigarho’ By Huzaima Bukhari and Dr Ikramul Haq   [This article first appeared in the Business Recorder of August 30, 2013.] In 1997 the slogan of Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) was ‘Qarz Utaro, Mulk Sanwaro’ [retire debt, adorn country], which is reversed in 2013 as all efforts are underway to increase public debt – both domestic and external. The new slogan appears to be ‘Qarz Burhao, Mulk Bigarho’ [increase debt, damage country]. People of Pakistan have yet not forgotten the fate of ‘Qarz Utaro, Mulk Sanwaro’ Scheme announced by Nawaz Sharif on February 23, 1997 along with

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My today’s tweet: While equipping their army with any weapons, the citizens must be cautious the same may be used against them also- lesson from Syria and co! https://twitter.com/khalilkf

[Cost: Lives of 45 citizens of Pakistan. Lesson Learned: Fokkers grounded for passengers services. Outcome: No one is responsible!] This time the temptation is irresistible. Long ago perhaps 15 years back I happened to go along with some kids to an entertainment park in Lahore. We bought tickets to enjoy rides, etc, inside the park. The back of the tickets read as: Ride at your own risk. I was staggered: are not the people running this business responsible for any mishap? I decided to write on this way of avoiding/evading responsibility, and thought we had accepted this way of behaving

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In the midst of dust and destruction unleashed by the politicians, The Express Tribune of today, August 28, has the following story to exalt our spirits: Matta: Change in the offing can be observed in many ways – in changing attitudes, changing congregations, changing social dynamics. The recent book fair in Matta – held from August 14 to August 15 – saw all that, and more. [The Express Tribune, August 28, 2013] With discounted books on subjects ranging from general knowledge to literature, the fair became much more than just a gathering. It came to symbolize a beacon of hope

In 2004, the Pakistani government placed an order for a luxurious Mercedes Cardiac ambulance at a cost of more than 13 million rupees (about $225,000). The vehicle, first of its kind, will be used exclusively by a select group of VIP patients in the capital, Islamabad. No doubt the privileged few will include civil and military bureaucrats and so-called representatives of the people. But, at the same time, a large number of taxpaying people eager to buy a car are being denied a fair deal. Over the past couple of years the local car industry, which suffered negative growth of

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This picture is worth a thousand words!  Published in The Express Tribune of August 26, 2013, it’s a sharp comment on the hidden face of Tehreek-e-Insaf.

For nearly three decades, an earnest man named Narendra Dabholkar traveled from village to village in India, waging a personal war against the spirit world. If a holy man had electrified the public with his miracles, Dr. Dabholkar, a former physician, would duplicate the miracles and explain, step by step, how they were performed. If a sorcerer had amassed a fortune treating infertility, he would arrange a sting operation to unmask the man as a fraud. His goal was to drive a scientist’s skepticism into the heart of India, a country still teeming with gurus, babas, astrologers, godmen and other

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It’s possible that after more than half a century of animosity, India and Pakistan could be on the path to lasting friendship. That path is strewn with obstacles, many of them of Kashmiri origin, but just as the cricket matches are uniting the people, so free trade, a concept also espoused at January’s summit, could prove a further catalyst to lasting peace and prosperity. Both India and Pakistan have long histories of economic introspection and protectionism. Over the past decade, India has begun to throw off the shackles of its socialist economic model, abandoning its discredited drive for self-sufficiency and

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The Declaration of Independence of July 4, 1776, is one of the greatest documents human history has produced. The more one reads it, the more meaningful, more insightful it becomes. Another aspect is its way of asserting certain things negatively. That is what I am interested in presenting here. Let us see whether the Declaration substantiates this sort of reading between the lines. The first para of the Declaration states that when a People separate (or dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another) from other People, it is necessary to declare the causes which impel them to

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Communist Party cadres have filled meeting halls around China to hear a somber, secretive warning issued by senior leaders. Power could escape their grip, they have been told, unless the party eradicates SEVEN subversive currents coursing through Chinese society. These SEVEN perils were enumerated in a memo, referred to as Document No. 9, that bears the unmistakable imprimatur of Xi Jinping, China’s new top leader. Seven Western Perils: 1. Western Constitutional Democracy;  2. Universal Values of Human Rights; 3. Media Independence; 4. Civic Participation; 5. Pro-Market Neo-Liberalism; 6. Nihilist Criticisms of the Party’s past; . . .  See the full

See it negatively or positively! That’s life!  [The News, August 21, 2013]

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Matiullah Turab is nearly illiterate. He is a metal smith by day and poet by night. He relies on his mind to retain his poems. “A poet’s job is not to write about love,” he growls, his booming voice blending with the ambient noise of the workshop. “A poet’s job is not to write about flowers. A poet must write about the plight and pain of the people.” That’s Turab’s choice. He is a people of the poet. “With his unflinching words, Mr. Turab offers a voice for Afghans grown cynical about the war and its perpetrators: the Americans, the

The so-called nationalists maintain Drone attacks are damaging the sovereignty of Pakistan! These nationalists include Rightists of various hues such as Jamat-e-Islami to Jamiat-e-Ulama-e-Islam (F), and other somewhat liberal elements as well. They know that Pakistan is a declared ally of the US in the war against terror, and in that case, it’s of no significance whose Drones they are and whose territory they are targeting. Also, Bob Woodward’s Obama’s wars and Wikileaks establish Pakistan’s tacit approval of the Drone attacks. Sure, the nationalists’ anti-American stance and dubbing the present government as US-backed validate their argument. Indeed, by way of

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Taxes for whatBy Huzaima Bukhari & Dr. Ikramul Haq The government’s yearning for “more and more taxes” has become a point of irritation for the citizens who argue where are the entitlements promised in the Constitution as quid pro quo? Successive governments — military and civilian alike — have failed to convince the people that payment of taxes is their collective responsibility. The major reason for tax defiant culture in Pakistan is abuse of taxpayers’ money by Riasti Ashrafiya (state oligarchy) — militro-judicial-civil complex and public office holders — for plots, perquisites, personal comforts and luxuries. People say if the government

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Today, on Pakistan’s independence day, www.google.com – how beautifully used the image of Urial and  its horns! Fantastic! See the last year’s Google.com presentation!

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“Judges rule on the basis of law, not public opinion, and they should be totally indifferent to pressures of the times.” [Warren E. Burger (1907-1995), Chief Justice, US Supreme Court] If the Chief Justice’s case was before the country’s highest court of law, what was the need for the lawyers, civil society organizations, political activists and ordinary people to come out to the streets? This is the trickiest question that must be answered to understand the July 20 judgment. Also, this brings us to the first context: what transpired before the reference was filed against the Chief Justice. There were

“Judges rule on the basis of law, not public opinion, and they should be totally indifferent to pressures of the times.” [Warren E. Burger (1907-1995), Chief Justice, US Supreme Court] The best thing that best explains Supreme Court’s July 20 judgment is: it’s never too late to mend! As is being claimed it’s historic, it’s daring, it’s a people’s verdict, it’s a turning point in Pakistan’s history; of course, it is all these or may be more than that! But things are meaningful only in a context. Without context, they lose their import also. So, they must needs be put

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In another article, Deadly debt trap, Huzaima Bukhari and Dr. Ikramul Haq talk of Riyasati Ashrafiya’s plundering and monopolization of wealth and resources of Pakistan. They write: “The way the government is moving our foreign debt would reach US$75 billion in 2015 and domestic debt would be Rs22 trillion. The policies of appeasement towards tax evaders, money-launderers and plunderers of national wealth and monopolisation of resources by Riasti Ashrafiya (state aristocracy) have pushed the country towards disaster.” And: “The present crisis testifies to the failure of power-hungry, money-greedy politicians and incompetent, inefficient and corrupt bureaucrats. Even the so-called technocrats always take

My Filipino friend, Nonoy Oplas, runs a blog, Government and Taxes, hitting hard at the tax exacting governments. It provides a discussion venue about the role (and misrule) of big government and high taxes. Visit the blog: WWW.FunWithGovernment.blogspot.com

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A larger section of the sovereignty lobby tries to evade the real issue of institutional sovereignty facing Pakistan; rather it appears that their crying over the spilt milk of external sovereignty is a ploy to that effect. This larger section includes so-called nationalists mostly from the Right and the Center. They all glorify a militarized Pakistan. Despite that Pakistan is an ally of the US in the war on terror, they want Iqbal’s Mamula (a little bird) to fight Shahbaz (a hawk). In their vision, they see Pakistan militarily confronting US, then US collapsing and Pakistan emerging victorious replacing the

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Morality and fundamental rights are the first principles which must take precedence over everything, be it ideologies, religions, systems of government, on the one hand, or elites, aristocracies, theocracies, bureaucracies, dictatorships and democracies, on the other. That is the lesson that human civilization teaches us, and without which a society based on co-existence cannot exist. It is the failure to learn this that explains the emergence, persistence and spread of world terrorism nearly unprecedented in the history of violent movements. Presently al-Qaeda, Taliban and the likes of them are its manifestations. Certain characteristics single this terrorism out as the most

The term of Riyasati Ashrafiya is slowly gaining currency in Pakistan. It’s not merely a term; it connotes a phenomenon, a malady, a dilemma the state of Pakistan is afflicted with. That the institution of state in Pakistan has been captured by various elite classes of Pakistan, and they use it to plunder the wealth the citizens of Pakistan create. That has given rise to a new class, Riyasati Ashrafiya. That was the theme of my Urdu book, Pakistan Mein Riyasati Ashrafiya Ka Urooj, which was published in February 2012. On July 26, 2013, the Business Recorder published a lengthy

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It is the rule of law alone which hinders the rulers from turning themselves into the worst gangsters. [Ludwig von Mises, Austrian Economist, 1881-1973] He was born in Pakistan, and was brought up for public life by the military elite of Pakistan. He was a businessman turned into a politician by them. He was corrupt, laundered his illegal money. He was a liar who concealed the facts, didn’t speak the whole truth. He was a weak person who could not tolerate the dark dungeons he was put into by his regime’s over-throwers. He compromised his staying in his own country

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Mostly it’s like a rule that the issue a government and its functionaries spend a lot of time on is no issue at all. Drone attacks over the Pakistani territory and the zeal of the government of Pakistan from its top political and military leadership to the parliament should be treated likewise. Indeed, everyone whether he is in the government or outside it, whether he is an ordinary citizen like me or a special dignitary like Mr. President and Mr. Prime Minister who are sitting over the public exchequer of Pakistan, all (and sundry) are stormily concerned about the sovereignty

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These days a Pushto couplet is circulating. Here is its English translation: Your eyes are like a DroneI was martyred like a Talib

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Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations; entangling alliances with none. [Thomas Jefferson, 1743-1826] American people create abundant wealth. So, they are prosperous and happy. It is only because they are economically freer than many nations on earth. In consequence, that makes them politically freer. What makes all that possible is their declaration of independence, constitution, bill of rights, and their independent courts, which promptly ensure the continuance of rule of law, which in turn help a free media to exist, and it is this combination that guarantees personal freedoms to American people: to do whatever they like to

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