Wednesday, November 28, 2012

4Pakistani.com

4Pakistani.com

Ties with India: Industries ministry suggests gradual opening up of trade

Posted: 27 Nov 2012 09:45 PM PST



ISLAMABAD: 

After fierce resistance from farmers' lobbies and the textile ministry, the Ministry of Industries is also gearing up to slow down moves to open up trade with India, believing it will hurt the infant domestic industry and has proposed a gradual phase-out of negative trade list over a period of five years.

Pakistan is planning to grant most-favoured nation (MFN) status to India by the end of December and start free trade in January. The Ministry of Textile and farmers' lobbies like the Farmers Associates Pakistan are opposing free trade with India on fears that it will swallow up Pakistan's economy.

According to officials, the Ministry of Industries has recommended to the government to link the opening up of trade with reciprocal measures by India to ease the non-tariff barriers that stand in the way of Pakistan's exporters. In case, it says, India stops removing the barriers during a period of time, the phase-out of negative trade list should be stopped by Pakistan for the same period.

The ministry says the commerce ministry has identified 636 items for trade with India after consultation with the industry and a study conducted by IBA Karachi. But generally there is little to rely on predictability.

The traditional measure used is the Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) index, ratio of a product's share in a country's exports to its share in world trade, it says. "As such, the RCA index simply records a country's current trade pattern and it cannot be used to say whether or not it will make sense to support a particular sector or tariff lines for inclusion or otherwise in the proposed negative list."

The ministry notes the RCA index misses the loss and setback suffered by the manufacturing industry. The industry feels while trade liberalisation is welcome, it will only benefit both sides if undertaken in a structured manner, providing space to the industry in the backdrop of the energy crunch, floods, law and order situation and high interest rates. The rising unemployment also cannot be ignored, it says.

textile

According to the South Asia Free Trade Area (Safta) accord, except for the items placed in the sensitive list, the rest of the tariff lines will come down to 0-5% by January next year.

"This will not only allow a huge quantum of tariff lines to be opened up for trade, the tariff will also be reduced drastically, for example, from as high as 35% to 5% in January 2013, which may have a huge cost impact on the local industry faced with a plethora of domestic supply-side constraints," the ministry says.

It argues it is absolutely necessary to mitigate to some extent the effects of a sudden transition that will entail huge economic implications for the industry. The Safta impact should also be factored in while assessing the actual economic impact.

The ministry suggests that the negative list should be phased out over a period of five years and the phase-out should start after three years. The exercise should be in consonance with sensitivity levels of tariff lines in order of 'least' to 'highly sensitive'.

The ministry suggests a year-wise tariff reduction plan, starting with 25% in the third year, 25% in the fourth year and remaining 50% in the fifth year. However, the tariff reduction should be linked with proportionate measures taken by India for easing non-tariff barriers.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 28th, 2012.

After 22 months in Af-Pak hot seat, Grossman to ‘return to private life’

Posted: 27 Nov 2012 08:44 PM PST



WASHINGTON: US special ambassador to Afghanistan and Pakistan Marc Grossman is due to step down from his post next month, a State Department spokesperson confirmed on Tuesday. 

In the immediate aftermath of Grossman’s mid-December departure, his principal deputy David Pearce will take over.

Grossman had taken over the office of special representative after the death of Richard Holbrooke in late 2010. At the time, Grossman was living a retired life and had been asked by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to come back and take charge of the vacant hot seat. He had reportedly agreed to do so for a period of two years.

“After almost two years in the position, and with Secretary Clinton’s agreement, he will return to private life. The secretary thanks Ambassador Grossman for his efforts to help create the ‘diplomatic surge’ that Secretary Clinton laid out in her 2011 speech at the Asia Society,” State department spokesperson Laura Lucas said on Tuesday.

The spokesperson added that Ambassador Grossman’s work has helped set the conditions for a peace process in Afghanistan, that would enable Afghans to talk to each other in efforts to reach a negotiated settlement.

“This has been a major line of effort in support of the President's objectives to disrupt and defeat al Qaeda and ensure that Afghanistan can no longer become a safe haven for terrorists. Under Ambassador Grossman's leadership, the United States also has worked to build a relationship with Pakistan based on identifying our shared interests and acting on them jointly. This work will continue.”

During his time as special envoy to the region, Grossman oversaw a particularly difficult period in Pakistan’s relations with both the US and with Afghanistan.

The special envoy had spearheaded US’ efforts to secure international funding and a long term commitment to Afghanistan in the Bonn and Tokyo conferences.

He also oversaw the security partnership agreement between US and Afghanistan which determined the role of US troops in Afghanistan through 2024.

Grossman was also part of the back channel negotiations with the Taliban. Those talks though came unstuck over, among other issues, the transfer of five Taliban commanders from Guantanamo Bay to relatively relaxed confinement in Qatar.

Health campaigns: Polio immunisation drive re-launched

Posted: 27 Nov 2012 07:42 PM PST



LAHORE: 

District Coordination Officer Noorul Amin Mengal administered polio drops to several children at Khan Colony in Gulberg Town on Tuesday, launching a three-day campaign to immunise under fives in 50 union councils in the city.

The government, assisted by international health agencies, has conducted several campaigns to vaccinate children against polio all over Pakistan, one of the few remaining countries in the world where the disease still exists. However, thousands of families have refused the polio drops because of ignorance about the effects of the vaccine, officials say. Many of these families are of Pakhtoon ethnicity. At Tuesday's ceremony, Mengal appealed to the residents of Khan Colony to ensure that their children get immunised against polio. Representatives of the World Health Organisation and the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) and local health officials attended the event.

Earlier, the DCO met students learning Pashto and asked them about their experiences going door to door and informing Pathan residents of the city about the anti-polio drive. He thanked them for their service and handed out cash prizes and letters of appreciation from the government.

Presiding over a meeting at the Town Hall, Mengal directed city government officials to devote their full efforts to the anti-polio campaign. He assigned responsibility for monitoring performance and attendance among the members of the polio teams, saying that officials must be out in the field by 8am. He instructed them to check bus stands, the zoo and recreation areas of the city for children who had not been immunised.

The DCO also told off several officials for turning up late for the meeting or not attending the entire proceedings. The town municipal officers (TMOs) of Data Ganj Bakhsh Town, Ravi Town, Iqbal Town and Samanabad Town and the deputy district officers (health) of Wagha Town and Cantonment were late for the meeting. The TMOs of Nishter Town and Gulberg Town and the DDOs of Aziz Bhatti Town and Nishtar Town did not attend the entire meeting. They were instructed to hand in explanation letters for their conduct on Wednesday.

Far more HIV patients than reported

Special Health Secretary Babar Hayat Tarar has said that the number of HIV patients in the Punjab estimated by health organisations including the World Health Organisation and the United Nations Children's Fund was much higher than the official record of 3,666 patients. Health organisations estimate the number of HIV patients in the country to be between 40,000 and 45,000.

He was speaking on Tuesday at an advisory meeting for MPAs organised in connection with World AIDS Day. He said Punjab was the only province in Pakistan where the government was running an AIDS Control Programme on its own for the past three years. He said the government would keep running this programme.

Special Assistant to the Chief Minister on Health Khawaja Salman Rafique said there was a dire need to launch a movement to raise awareness about various diseases. He said the number of patients would keep increasing if preventive measures were not taken seriously and then no amount of money or hospital beds would be enough to meet the demand.

Rafique said the increasing population was the biggest hurdle in planning healthcare needs. He called upon the clergy, the media and the public to play a role in controlling the population growth rate and preventing deadly diseases, like AIDS. He said the government was discharging its duties effectively to ensure dengue control on a permanent basis.

Parliamentary Health Secretary Dr Saeed Elahi said legislators should seek to remove negative perceptions by publically meeting with infected patients. He said legislators should also narrate the effects of HIV and AIDS in public to make people cautious. He said legislators should also work to frame effective laws to control viral diseases.

Dr Elahi suggested that members of parliaments who are also doctors by profession form a caucus to propose development policies. He said legislators should also consult the clergy and education institutions to strengthen campaigns regarding different diseases including AIDS.  He said legislators should work in coordination with NADRA to collect data about patients with diseases and issue them treatment cards and immunisation cards to the patients.

Begum Shaista Pervaiz Malik, MPA Arifa Khalid, Maulana Raghib Naeemi and journalist Sohail Warriach made suggestions regarding prevention of HIV.

Punjab Control Programme Project Director Dr Salman Shahid gave a briefing regarding the steps taken by the government to control the disease.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 28th, 2012. 

Violence versus prosperity

Posted: 27 Nov 2012 06:41 PM PST



A mother grabs her child by his hair and thrashes him soundly, yelling at the top of her voice. The child is guilty of doing exactly the same thing to his younger sister because she hit his puppy over the head with a stick for, seemingly, no reason at all. The father emerges from inside the house. He wants to know what all of the furor is about. His wife screams at him and he hits her hard across the face. Then he kicks his motorbike, which falls over with a crash with something — goodness knows what — breaking in the process.

The parents grew up with violence in their respective childhood homes and know no better: their children have already learnt the violence and unless the chain is broken, their grandchildren will learn the same and so on down the line. This ingrained violence — for that is what it is — spills over into society at large, creating ever-spreading ripples as it goes.

The same can be said of Pakistan today: we are a nation brought up on hard knocks, stressful situations and downright fear of so many diverse, yet overlapping, things that it is difficult to highlight just one example. Unless, that is, the accusatory finger perpetually aimed in India's direction is taken as a point in case.

The two neighbouring countries have been at war overtly and covertly more than once and a high percentage of the populations in both countries is still blindly prepared to blame the other for each and every single one of their woes. This ridiculous situation is further aggravated by biased press policies on both sides of the border with extremely outmoded, self-destructive policies being perpetuated, which are way past their sell-by date. Hanging on to and aggrandising past hatreds is self-destructive to the nth degree. And even though trade barriers are slowly coming down and visa regulations are supposedly relaxing, old grievances are still being continually whipped up. This does not, by any stretch of the imagination, promote the desperately needed peace which leads to prosperity for all.

Not satisfied with allowing ourselves to be continually beaten with the 'hate India' stick, we and our Afghan brothers and sisters are now increasingly at each other's throats, largely due to organised mudslinging in both directions. In the long term, this will be equally destructive for both as the two countries — Pakistani interference in Afghan internal affairs aside — have much to offer each other on a sustainable basis.

The regularly stoked up animosities between Pakistan and India and Pakistan and Afghanistan serve no one other than those with vested political interests, foreign war mongers and unscrupulous global profiteers. And as always, it is the people, especially those living on or below the poverty line, who suffer from these machinations of economies based on greed.

It is imperative that the people of these three adjoining countries take time to seriously dissect the misinformation being heaped on them from biased quarters. They must think for themselves and reach their own commonsensical conclusions and join together in peace.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 28th, 2012.

US senate may hear draft bill which subjects CSF funds to conditions

Posted: 27 Nov 2012 05:40 PM PST



WASHINGTON: The US senate has included in its calendar the hearing of National Defense Authorisation Act 2013 (NDAA), which seeks to place Pakistan under the spotlight for action against terror groups such as the Haqqani Network, Quetta Shura within Pakistani territory, against improvised explosive device manufacturers, ensuring security of Nato supplies and not detain Dr Shakil Afridi.

The full text of the bill, which was released on Monday, stipulates that the conditions associated with the Counterinsurgency Fund meant for Pakistan, should be met. It says that no reimbursements against claims can be made during the period that the ground lines of supply through Pakistan were closed. Additionally, the bill says that no more than $ 1,750,000,000 can be given to Pakistan in the fiscal year 2013. This figure does not include reimbursements made to Pakistan during fiscal year 2013 from previous funds.

The text of the bill states that the Secretary of Defense has to certify to congressional defense committees that Pakistan has reopened and is maintaining security along the ground lines of supply to Afghanistan before Counter insurgency funds can be released.

The certification requirements include that Pakistan is not providing support to militant groups including the Haqqani Network and the Afghan Taliban as well as the Quetta Shura present in Pakistan and believed to be involved in carrying out cross-border attacks against the US, Afghan and coalition forces. The Secretary of Defense also has to certify that Pakistan is taking actions against such groups which are based and operating from Pakistan.

The requirements add that “Pakistan is demonstrably cooperating with United States counterterrorism efforts, including by not detaining, prosecuting, or imprisoning citizens of Pakistan as a result of their cooperation with such efforts, including Dr Shakil Afridi.”

Additionally, the Secretary of Defense will have to certify that Pakistan is demonstrating “a continuing commitment, and is making significant efforts toward the implementation of a strategy, to counter improvised explosive devices, including efforts to attack improvised explosive device networks, monitor known precursors used in improvised explosive devices, and develop and implement a strict protocol for the manufacture of explosive materials (including calcium ammonium nitrate) and accessories and for their supply to legitimate end users.”

The Secretary of Defense is also allowed to waive these limitations if he testifies that the waiver is in the US’ national security interests, along with justifications for the waiver.

Previously, the NDAA 2012 bill froze $ 700 million in the Pakistan Counterinsurgency Fund.

The text for NDAA 2013 can be found here.

Recovery of $120m: NAB all set to issue notices to Karkey

Posted: 27 Nov 2012 04:43 PM PST



ISLAMABAD: 

Acting upon the apex court's Monday orders, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) will issue notices to Turkish power company Karkey to pay $ 120 million owed to the state for failing to honour its agreement.

The notices are ready and are likely to be sent to the Turkish firm today (Wednesday), NAB officials told The Express Tribune. Karkey's four ship mounted power plants will not be allowed to leave Pakistan's port unless the payments are received, they added.

"NAB has already written to Port Qasim and other maritime authorities to not let the ships exit without the bureau's prior approval," said an official of the corruption watchdog requesting anonymity.

According to the agreement signed between Karkey and the Pakistan government, the former was supposed to provide 260 megawatts of electricity, but ended up generating only 60MW. A sum of $ 79 million was reportedly paid in advance to the company, whereas it owes a total amount of $ 120 million for failing to live up to the agreement.

Karkey's ships arrived as part of the government's strategy to deal with the present energy crisis. However, the Supreme Court struck down the deals in March this year following allegations of widespread corruption.

NAB, on its part, has not been able to stick to one course of action. Earlier this month, it issued orders to the port authority to let the ship mounted power plants leave the country, but revoked its decision following widespread criticism from the media.

During Supreme Court's hearing on Monday, petitioner Faisal Saleh Hayat maintained that the total outstanding amount payable by Karkey was $ 128 million – a claim NAB has challenged.

The court warned NAB Chairman Admiral (retd) Fasih Bokhari that he would be held responsible in case any discrepancies were found later.

The bench also asked NAB to initiate criminal proceeding against Karkey and other rental power plants (RPPs) following the court's ruling that the deals were "illegal". However, NAB is yet to take any action against the Turkish firm.

During Supreme Court's hearing, NAB's prosecutor-general KK Agha said the matter was a sensitive one given Pakistan's relations with Turkey.

In the past, some have accused NAB of being reluctant to take action against those who pushed for the unpopular deal as these include powerful functionaries including Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf – an allegation the bureau vehemently denies.

One official of NAB said that action against the Turkish company's local partners will be taken soon.

The bureau has arrested former managing director of Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) along with some other officials. Liabilities worth Rs5 billion have already been recovered from nine RPPs, the official added.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 28th, 2012.

Elections on time: ECP, govt quell whispers of poll postponement

Posted: 27 Nov 2012 03:37 PM PST



ISLAMABAD / LAHORE: 

In the face of continued whispers of delayed polls, hopes for an on-time election received a shot in the arm on Tuesday from the election watchdog and the government's information point-man.

Both issued optimistic statements regarding the next general elections – an exercise that is still the subject of much speculation despite the government's insistence that it will be held on time.

Speaking at a press briefing on Tuesday, Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Secretary Ishtiak Ahmed Khan said that he had told the prime minister earlier in the day that the commission would complete all arrangements in terms of holding the elections by December 31, and added that the premier had expressed satisfaction on the effort.

Separately, Information Qamar Zaman Kaira added to the statement, saying during a luncheon with journalists that elections would be held in May next year under a neutral caretaker setup.

"Nothing but a natural catastrophe can postpone the next general elections," Kaira said.

Law and order

One of the principal issues being put forward in the speculation of delayed elections is the current law and order situation. But the idea was dismissed by both the ECP and the information minister – in word and in deed.

The ECP secretary said the body had turned down the Balochistan chief secretary's request to postpone by-elections of a provincial assembly seat due to the volatile law and order situation in the province.

"The ECP has refused the Balochistan chief secretary's request for postponement of by-elections as it is the duty of the provincial government to maintain law and order."

Earlier this month, the ECP had announced a schedule for the by-election of the constituency PB-18 Sherani-cum-Zhob (Old Zhob-I) to fill the seat rendered vacant after the death of MPA Abdul Khaliq. Polling is scheduled to take place on December 24.

He said that he had informed Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf that the commission would hold meetings with the federal and all provincial governments to ensure that law and order is maintained during polling.

The information minister also chimed in on this issue, saying that elections were held in 2008 even though the law and order situation was not exemplary at the time.

The Karachi issue

The other issue that could possibly pose a threat to the next elections is the situation in Karachi – which contributes represents the most seats in the National Assembly and the provincial assembly for a single city. The issue doesn't pertain to the law and order situation, but the issue of voter lists and constituencies.

The issues are both highly sensitive, and could have repercussions or involve a protracted implementation process – given that just the pre-census house count was hit by a number of scandals, and the inability of ECP staff to go door to door in the city.

While commenting on the Supreme Court's direction for fresh delimitation of constituencies in Karachi and the issue of 3 million votes being transferred out of the city on ethnic and political grounds, the ECP secretary said he was going to hold meetings with the Sindh administration in this regard.

The secretary has been summoned by the apex court on November 28 regarding the fresh delimitation.

He hoped that the matter would be finalised in the next couple of days. After finalising the proposals, we will take political parties into confidence as they are the real stakeholders, he added.

On Monday, the Supreme Court had taken notice of the ECP's failure to redraw constituencies in Karachi so as to make them multi-ethnic instead of ghettoized. The apex court's order in this regard had come as a part of its recommendations to reduce ethnic violence in the city.

The Supreme Court has summoned the ECP secretary on this matter on November 28 – and warned that contempt proceedings could be initiated if its orders were not followed by the ECP.

Additionally, last week, the Supreme Court had directed the ECP to review Karachi's electoral rolls after it received numerous complaints that the city's ruling party, Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) had influenced the process of pushing out some three million votes out of Karachi of people who hailed from different party of Pakistan but had settled in the financial capital.

This issue is set to heat up with the MQM also filing a petition to become a party in the case.

Caretaker set-up

Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira on Tuesday said the government was committed to holding free and fair elections, which would be held under a caretaker setup in May next year.

He said the elections will take place within two months of the caretaker government assuming power. "The caretaker government which will be formed as per the Constitution," he added.

He said the caretaker setup will be announced after consulting the opposition to ensure free and fair elections under the supervision of an independent election commission.

Kaira maintained the PPP-led government had strengthened the ECP by awarding it unprecedented autonomy. The federal minister said conducting weapon-free by-polls in different constituencies in the coming months would be the real test for the ECP.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 28th, 2012.

Hundreds gather to say goodbye to Ardeshir Cowasjee

Posted: 27 Nov 2012 02:36 PM PST



KARACHI: The funeral rites for Ardeshir Cowasjee, the renowned columnist and patriarch of all things Karachi, were held on Tuesday morning in a dignified way befitting of his stature.

His Bath Island residence was packed to capacity with some of the city's most well-known residents turning up to pay their respects to Cowasjee, who died in Karachi on Sunday.

His children, Ava and Rustom Cowasjee, and his brother, Cyrus, greeted each mourner as they passed by to the place where Cowasjee's body was laid. After the completion of the rites, his body was to be transported to the Tower of Silence.

Unlike the crowded, far-too-public spectacles that funerals have become, replete with screeching sirens of government cars bearing influential power brokers and their entourages, the air was silent, broken only by the murmurs of people speaking to each other.

Among the hundreds at the Cowasjee residence on Tuesday were Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation's Dr Adibul Hasan Rizvi and Dr Anwar Kazmi, Dr Faridoon Setna and his wife, Dawn Group's Hameed Haroon and Amber Saigol, Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre Executive Director Dr Tasnim Ahsan, Unilever's Fareshteh Gati-Aslam, Canvas Gallery's Sameera Raja, author HM Naqvi and Nazish Ataullah, formerly of Lahore's National College of Arts.

His bel

The house staffers put out a remembrance book as attendees queued up to view his body and pay their respects.

Cowasjee had insisted that his funeral would be open to followers of all faiths, and his belief in a pluralistic Pakistan was evident in those mourning his death: if on one chair, a woman prayed on a rosary and clutched a bouquet of flowers, at another, a woman was clad in a burqa and on a third, a man wore the traditional Zoroastrian prayer skull cap. The attendees reflected the wide social circle that Ardeshir Cowasjee inhabited, and the number of people who had had some interaction with him, however brief – through his columns, his occasional speaking engagement, an off-chance meeting.

Attendees sat by the pool against which Cowasjee was photographed and interviewed countless times. His cars, that he once whizzed around on all over Clifton, were locked up in the garage.

From a window, one could spy his chair, now empty forever.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 28th, 2012.
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