monthly economic affairs april, 2014

APRIL 2014Volume-III, Issue-IV

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to raise joint military forPakistanGulf States

APR 2014 4 http://www.economicaffairs.com.pk APR 20145http://www.economicaffairs.com.pk

APRIL 2014

Pages 10-11

Ballot, bombs, bloodshed & bullets– Kiren Lakhani

Pages 16-17

Pakistan’s green growth plan gets underway to tackle climate vagaries– Saleem Shaikh

D I S C L A I M E R

Utmost care is taken to ensure that articles and other information published are up-to-date and accurate. Furthermore,responsibility for any losses, damages or distress resulting from adherence to any information made available through thecontents is not the responsibility of the magazine. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily

reflect the views of the editor, publisher and the management. Comments and suggestions are welcome.

Exclusive

Pages 14-15

– Tammy Swofford

A mutually beneficial relationship

6

6th Ladies Fund® women’s awards 2014

– Afrah Jamal

News in Brief...........................12-13

Paper Miracles bags “best stall” award at WEXNET exhibition.......18

Trial, tribulations and the jury.....19

Total Siyapaa: A tale of cheerful absurdities and follies.............20-21

Mind sciences and its scope...22-23

Diabetes in Pakistan to double by 2035........................................24

Energy, taxation & political economy of Pakistan....................25

Redefining Pakistan.................26-27

Economic downturn and domestic terrorism.................................28-29

Don’t forget the mountains....30-31

Prospects of Pak-Russia ties.........32

PML-N leading the country to a new era of ICTs.............................33

Technology: Impacts, challenges and the future.........................34-35

The NSP and peace in Pakistan

Pages 8-9EDITORIAL

The main opposition parties in the parliament are criticizing the

present government for not disclosing the name of the friendly

Muslim country which has gifted $1.5 billion aid to Pakistan.

Opposition parties are apprehending that the significant aid

maybe to deploy Pakistani forces in the Middle East to safeguard

Saudi interest and other Arab countries.

It is largely believed that the trusted friend is Saudi Arabia which gifted

Pakistan $1.5 billion to help shore up its foreign exchange reserves, meet debt-

service obligations and undertake large energy and infrastructure projects.

Whether it is a gift or something else, but the assistance has contributed

to a sharp recovery of the Pakistani rupee, which rose to a nine-month high of

97.40 from 105.40 against the dollar between March 4 and 12, its strongest rally

in 30 years.

Every country has a right to safeguard its interests and they do it the

way it suits them. The argument that most of the critics are making is that any

involvement in the Shia-Sunni tussle in Arab region would have repercussions

back at home. The most glaring example is that when Pakistan joined the US

war against terror for economic gains, it instead economically harmed the

country tremendously and even shook the core of her existence as a nation. The

war has now become solely ours as the US and Nato forces will soon exit the

region thus leaving the war against terrorism to Pakistan.

Political parties in the opposition may have their own axe to grind but the

experience with the US and Saudi freebies are different. While US has always

adopted carrot and stick policy for Pakistan, Riyadh has always shown her

generosity and support to Pakistan in difficult times, whether its following the

US sanctions after nuclear test or the devastating earthquake.

Saudi Arabia has always willed for a strong Pakistan, probably in order

to counter the overwhelming Israeli military sway in the Middle East, in case

the Jewish state with US backing, tries naked aggression to change the Arab

political map. In case of any such aggression, Pakistan would be the only stick

that the Saudis may hold. The Saudi rulers know that the well-trained Pakistani

soldiers, on active duty or retired, will fight as valiantly for Saudi Arabia as for

Pakistan and even more because of the holiest of holy Muslim sites there.

Adviser to Prime Minister on National Security and Foreign Affairs,

Sartaj Aziz said that Pakistan has not changed its foreign policy due to foreign

funding.

Under the circumstances, the government in Pakistan should take all the

stakeholders in confidence and consider all aspects wisely to accept all kinds of

assistance from the Arab states whether it is in the form of financial aid, loans,

investment or trade with the understanding that no strings should be attached.

There is no doubt that the relation between the two countries is historic

and unique. The government should not be nervous about the criticism regarding

Saudi help. The existing relations would need to be strengthened in the days to

come and cooperation between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan would be mutually

beneficial for both the nations.

Penny for your thoughts

EDITOR– Tausif-Ur-Rehman

Deputy Editor– Maria Khalid

Correspondents– Aamir Rizvi– Muhammad Bilal Khan– Shiraz Nizami– Afrah Jamal

ADVISORY BOARD– Haroon Akhtar Khan– Hamidullah Jan Afridi

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the need to enhance bilateral cooperation in the field of defense.”

Saudi Arabia’s close military ties with Pakistan, although not new, now have a new dimension. Officials revealed that Saudi Arab fears that one of the unintended consequences of international efforts to reach a nuclear deal with Iran could end economic sanctions on Iran, enabling it to secretly pursue its ambi-tions. With one of the largest armies in the world and the only declared nuclear power among the Muslim states, Pakistan is in a unique position to assist Saudi Arabia with its defense needs.

It is pertinent to mention here that last year, BBC reported that Saudi Arabia has in-vested in Pakistan’s nuclear weapons projects. However, both Pakistan and Saudi Arabia de-nied the report.

Moreover, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia are also chalking out a common strategy against

terrorism, extremism, human & drugs traffick-ing and maritime piracy. Human trafficking and maritime piracy have become major secu-rity concerns to socio-economic stability, in-vestment inflow and above all energy security in the region. The recently occurred horrible incidents of Somalia pirates badly exposed regional vulnerabilities and security derisory. Therefore, Pakistan-GCC security bloc aims to jointly cope with this widespread menace in the days to come.

Food Security

Pakistan-GCC strategic partnership also looks at solutions for threats of food insecurity and water conservation. Food security has be-come a burning issue in the region especially in the GCC due to increasing water shortage. According to KSA notification, Saudi Arabia would close self-production of wheat and oth-er food products by 2016 keeping in view the severe shortage of water. This issue could be resolved by utilizing untapped irrigation land in Pakistan. Pakistan will lease out 100,000 acres agricultural land to GCC to produce crops to their needs.

Greater Economic Integration

GCC is one of the main sources of worker remittances to Pakistan. Millions of Pakistanis are employed in these countries. The GCC is also one of the biggest sources of investments and joint ventures in the country. GCC agreed to further boost up the economic integration and to provide more overseas em-ployment opportunities to people of Pakistan for the win-win situation to both sides.

Moreover, Saudi Arabia’s macro-econo-my stands tall in the ongoing global economic recession, EU/US debt crisis. It extends its resources and financial reserves ($590 billion foreign exchange reserves, the third largest in the world after China and Japan) for the better-ment of its people and regional economies. So way forward, for Pakistan and Saudi Arabia is to enhance economic ties for the benefits of both the countries.

Energy Security

GCC agreed to provide Pakistan a long-term oil credit facility valuing about $10 bil-lion. The matter was taken up during the visit of Saudi Foreign Minister Saud Al-Faisal to Pakistan in the first week of January.

At present, Saudi Arabia provides over 10,000 barrels of crude oil per day to Paki-stan’s refineries. Annual crude import bill is around $7.5 billion.

Apart from Riyadh, Kuwait will also

provide oil on deferred payments of six months that will help Pakistan build its foreign currency reserves.

Arab Spring In a larger context, Middle East region

is passing through its toughest challenge of survival. From Manama to Hama, the political map of the Middle East is being redrawn. The waves of change (Arab Spring) have already produced serious dints in the socio-economic plans and physical landscape in the region. Even the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is feeling the pinch of ongoing Arab Spring and has already lost billions of dollars. It is hoped that the proposed Pakistan-GCC security bloc would be instrumental to maintain law and or-der, peace, harmony and sovereignty.

Peace in Afghanistan

Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have high stakes in bringing peace in unstable Afghani-stan. Both the countries can pool their resourc-es to maintain peace in the region at large. The way forward for both countries is to work jointly for bringing peace in Afghanistan and in the region.

The writer is a team member of monthly Economic Affairs. He can be reached at [email protected]

akistan, being the sixth largest army of the world and sole nuclear Muslim state, will assist the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) con-sisting of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain,

Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates in setting up of a formal ‘ joint se-curity bloc’ to combat any external or internal security threats.

According to reliable military sources, the policy initiative also stressed for a strate-gic partnership which would also ensure food safety and economic integration. Under this strategy, Pakistan will assist the GCC to fur-ther strengthen its existing Peninsula Shield and to raise a force of 100,000 guards that will operate under Joint Defense Council, having its headquarters in Bahrain. Most of the retired Pakistani soldiers would also find employment in the envisaged force.

The joint military bloc would be dif-ferent from that of Peninsula Shield, as the joint military is being raised for joint efforts

to confront threats. Its main goal is to combat the threat from al-Qaida and border incursions from neighboring Yemen.

Pakistan will also assist GCC to up-grade their weapon system and fighting capabilities of the GCC Peninsula shield. The prospects of having new weapon system and unifying military training would also be initiated under this planned joint strategic security bloc. The Saudis are also seeking Chinese-built JF-17 Thunder fighter planes.

The raising of joint military shield was also discussed during the recent visit of Crown Prince Salman bin Abdul aziz, who is Saudi Arabia’s deputy prime minister and defense minister. The joint statement issued following the visit of Crown Prince Salman bin Abdul aziz visit said “The two sides also agreed on

Sajid Gondal

Pakistan will assist the GCC

to further strengthen its

existing Peninsula Shield and to

raise a force of 100,000 guards

to raise joint military forPakistanGulf States

COVER STORY

APR 20149http://www.economicaffairs.com.pk

No autonomy has been given to the counter-terrorism body (NACTA). All powers lie with the "federal government", and then the ques-tion arises, what is the purpose of NACTA when the Board of Governors include10 out of 18 “political people”?

To bring peace and create deterrence in our beloved homeland, good governance and rule of law is must. We need to bring certain reforms in anti-terrorism laws and strict im-plementation of these laws should be ensured. Government should bring all stakeholders on board while making reforms in these laws.

While bringing reforms, first, govern-ment should negotiate with all stakeholders including terrorists who in order to meet their political gains and for making money, are causing huge financial loss to the country as well as killing innocent people. As per NISP concept paper, “the country suffered a loss of more than US $ 78 billion in the last ten years only. More than 50,000 Pakistanis, including civilian, Armed Forces and Law Enforcement Agencies’ (LEAS) personnel, have been af-fected.”

Secondly, reforms in anti-terrorism laws

are must. By bringing reforms terrorists who are caught/arrested will not get relief from courts as it is said that presently they are get-ting relief from the courts due to poor laws. Third, emphasis should be on speedy dispen-sation of justice.

In the current situation, government should first go for dialogue and if negotia-tions remain ineffective then it should go for surgical strikes. If that is also useless then a full-fledged operation is must. If this happens, there will be some losers, for example, inter-nally displaced persons (IDPs) and the people who will lose their property and businesses. They should be compensated and government should assure “opinion leaders” of the area that they will be taken care of.

Government wants to put into operation 57-point NISP Implementation Plan in the next five years. However, interestingly, ex-ecutive summary of its concept paper reveals, “The Implementation of NISP will require an estimated cost of 32 billion rupees and it will be implemented till December 21, 2014. Pro-vincial component of this estimated cost is Rs. 22 billion and Rs. 10 billion is the estimated

cost of federal components though it will also be supporting the provinces.”

If one reviews this policy document, by and large it is a commendable effort of the government but what about implementation? Government vowing that it has started to put NISP into practice, one can hope for its timely implementation in letter and spirit. If, timely implemented, it can minimise scourge of ter-rorism in the country and law and order situa-tion can be improved.

This policy could also influence foreign policy of Pakistan especially in the wake of Afghan end game as NATO forces are sched-uled to leave Afghanistan this year. Internal politics always influences foreign policy of a state.

All states actually serve their own in-terests based on their domestic environment and choices of the individuals which finally becomes the choice of state. But our foreign policy and choices of our leaders are quite complex in nature. The recent loan taking from Saudi Arabia is an example. Reuters reported a Pakistani official’s quote, “Saudi Arabia loaned $1.5 billion to Pakistan last month to help Islamabad shore up its foreign exchange reserves, meet debt-service obligations and undertake large energy and infrastructure proj-ects.”

However, experts are of the opinion that there is a long list of compromises behind this loan. Putting Iran-Pakistan (IP) gas pipeline deal into doldrums is one of them. Nation states follow almost similar patterns of for-eign policies, and that is their self-interest. It is quite disturbing what our leaders keep in mind while formulating foreign policies. If United States can go for a nuclear deal with Iran after a long standstill of 34 years, why cannot Paki-stan go ahead on IP gas pipeline deal?

The writer is pursuing an M. Phil in International Relations from IQRA University Islamabad. He tweets @irfanchaudhri and can be reached at [email protected]

Finally government brought the much awaited national security policy, the National Internal Se-curity Policy (NISP) 2014-2018. Time and again, different policies

have been made during different regimes in the past. Did they remain fruitful? And the answer is NO. A few remained fruitful and others failed to produce results due to poor implementation.

Now when this new security policy (NISP) has been approved, newly established National Counter-Terrorism Authority (NACTA) will be raised in order to remove the menace of terrorism and establish peace in the country.

If you go through the document, especially NACTA Act, it needs amendments.

The NISP and peace in Pakistan

Hafiz Muhammad Irfan

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to disrupt the Afghanistan elections and so it is using scare tactics to keep democracy out of Afghanistan. Election workers have been kidnapped; villagers have been tortured and killed. Just recently, the Taliban took credit for killing a campaign worker for Abdullah Abdullah and a suicide bomber attacked Ismail Khan, the vice-presidential candidate.

“We have given orders to all our Muja-hadeen (holy warriors) to use all force at their disposal, to disrupt these upcoming sham elec-tions, and to target all its workers, activists, callers, security apparatus, and offices,” the Afghan Taliban warned in a recent statement. “The actual election has already taken place in the offices of the CIA and Pentagon; and their favorite candidate has already won", they con-tinued. It seems as the Taliban is the leading force in the area, regardless of how violent or unjust they may be.

Still, there is no real evidence that the April 5th elections are going to be rigged in any way; and furthermore, the Taliban did not say who this “favorite candidate” might be.

The Taliban so far have been targeting the police, prominent businessmen, public health workers, election officials, and even or-dinary citizens. Fears seem to be well-found-ed, especially since the Taliban is challenging elections for the simple fact that they do not believe in a stable democracy for Afghanistan. In fact, the Taliban’s version of Islam outright opposes all deliberate bodies that happen to be in favor of a one-man ruling system – perhaps because the Taliban itself came into power as a result of instability.

Unfortunately, the Taliban rose to power as a popular movement because they brought stability, law and order to a chaotic area. For a while, the Taliban presence seemed to decrease crime rates, but strict enforcements resulted in abductions, kidnappings, and hostages taken for ransom. Order was lost for these self-pro-claimed “Men of God” and this has made them very dangerous.

• Reports of Taliban executing large numbers of civilians during conflicts with the National Islamic Movement of

Afghanistan in the Faryab province• Targeting of ethnic Hazaras and ethnic Tajiks and Uzbeks by Taliban• An estimated 2,000 – 5,000 people reportedly killed by Taliban in Mazar-i-Sharif• Taliban killed an estimated 500 peo-ple in its recapture of Bamiyan• Reports of an estimated 300 civilians (including women and children) killed by a Taliban official in the southeastern province of Zabol• Human Rights Watch advocates have documented massive violations under the rule of Taliban• Taliban attacks on the Hazarah Shi-ah population resulted in an estimated 2,000 civilian deathsShortly after taking Kabul the Taliban

enforced the most drastic interpretation of Sharia Law ever seen including bans on mu-sic, movies, television, women’s magazines, pigeon keeping, haircuts, dancing, and kite flying. Ignorantly, television sets, radios, cas-settes, and photographs were destroyed by the Taliban in an effort to bring out their ideal so-ciety. Unfortunately the hammer fell the hard-est, as usual, on the women.

Even the United States Department of State thinks the Taliban has adopted a “blood and circuses” approach to criminal/political justice. People found to be in violation of the edicts are subject to punishment on the spot. This often includes beatings, unwarranted de-tention, and public executions that sometimes took place in front of over 30,000 people in the center of Kabul Stadium. Because of the Taliban some women suffered being stoned to death for committing adultery while caught ho-mosexuals had walls toppled on them because of their sexual transgressions. As a result, tens of thousands of people have fled their homes in search of protection.

Women no longer have the right to ade-quate education under Taliban rule. Girls over the age of eight cannot even attend school. Sadriqa, a young but wise woman living in Ka-bul, candidly stated, “The Taliban has clamped

down on knowledge and ignorance is ruling instead.” What do the women and other citi-zens have to look forward to next? An attack on health care?

Under Taliban rule, women are to be giv-en only the most rudimentary access to health care and medical attention. In most hospitals, male physicians could only examine a female patient if she had all her clothes on. I ask, what sort of meaningful diagnosis or treatment can be administered to a woman who has been ex-amined in such a slipshod way? It can’t; and that is why Afghanistan has the world’s second worst rate of maternal death during childbirth. In fact, about 16 out of every 100 women die giving birth in that country!

The upcoming elections would be a monumental benchmark for Afghanis and per-haps even for the entire part of South Asia. The question remains whether or not people will join the 21st century by implementing some-thing stable such as democracy or whether they will go back 800 years to be ruled by the whim of some self-righteous religious dicta-tor. The Taliban cannot stop the elections by launching the same kind of battle that drove them to power in the first place, so the terror attacks are quickly becoming bolder.

Recently, the Taliban has been mounting attacks on military bases, killing twenty-eight people so far as they took their frustrations out on a Polish base in Afghanistan. Hell, there are even attacks being made on restaurants. Suicide bombers stormed local establishments and killed the patrons inside, removing twen-ty-one people from their earthly families.

Nils Horner was just another tragic loss in the mounting number of murders being per-petuated by the Taliban. In fact, the Swedish radio reporter was simply standing near the ruins of one of those targeted restaurants on that day in March. He was planning to meet and interview a survivor of the actual attack. Instead, Horner got killed as he stood there, oblivious to the gunman behind him. He never got the interview, he never told the story of the survivor; and soon, the truth about the whole situation will become nothing but a part of for-gotten Afghani history.

APR 2014 10 http://www.economicaffairs.com.pk

allot ombsloodshedullets O

n March 11, 2014 the peo-ple of Kabul

witnessed firsthand the terrors of democracy as pistol fire clapped and blood ran in the streets. People in the upscale neighborhood of Wazir Akbur Khan, a diplomatic area that is favored by Westerners,

screamed and ran in fear while chaos took over the city. When the smoke cleared, a Swedish radio journalist, Nils Horner, lay dead - the 51-year old man having come to cover the elections in Afghanistan.

The Taliban did promise to use “full force” to disrupt the elections. March 11th marked the day when we all figured out exactly what they mean by that statement. We quickly learned the hard way that “full force disruption” meant killing off those whose only weapons were their minds and voices.

The Taliban denied being involved until after the fact, as the extremist wing, Fedai Mahaz Tahrik Islami Afghanistan, proudly took responsibility. Their justification for the chaos was that they believed Horner to be a spy for British Intelligence, although they had absolutely no proof of their ridiculous claims. It is not un-common for unfounded allegations of spying to circulate among members of the Taliban. After all, this is a group that once hanged a 7-year-old boy for espionage before beheading two teenagers for supposedly being spies.

It seems as though Horner’s murder has more to do with electoral politics than anything else. The Taliban has pledged

Kiren Lakhani

Western Democracy

and the Taliban Square off

TERRORISM

The author is a recent business graduate, a social media enthusiast and a freelance writer. She can be reached at [email protected]


IMF releases $555.6 million third tranche to Pakistan

WASHINGTON: The International Monetary Fund approved on March 24 a fresh aid disbursement to Pakistan after the country passed the second review of its ongoing $6.8 billion support program.

The IMF immediately freed $555.6 million for the country, with the money helping the government bridge financing gaps while it un-dertakes fiscal reforms required under the program.

It was the third tranche of the three-year program, approved in September 2013, which required the government to implement strict economic reforms, particularly in its troubled energy sector and tax system.

The review followed the resignation at the end of January of the governor of the State Bank of Pakistan, Yaseen Anwar, after what was widely reported as policy differences with the government. In the last fiscal year, Pakistan's economy grew at 3.6 per cent and inflation fell to single digits. But the central bank has warned inflation could surge this year.

Economists say growth needs to be seven per cent to absorb the country's booming population.

Govt eyes Rs137bn from part sale of OGDC, PPL, UBL

The dis investing of 10 to 20 per cent shares of three public sector entities OGDCL, PPL and UBL is expected to fetch Rs137 billion in the proceeds, Chairman of Privatisation Commission, Muhammad Zubair said on March 20th.

Mr Zubair gave a detailed briefing to Finance Minister Ishaq Dar during a meeting which reviewed the progress made by the Privatization Commission in pursuing the time line for the disinvestment of OGDCL, PPL and UBL which have already approved by the Cabinet Commit-tee on Privatization. The privatization minister said that as a first step towards dis investing, shares of the three state-owned entities will be offered to general public through prospective capital markets, and in this regard, the appointment of financial advisers will be completed by the third week of April.

Chinese energy firm signs $3.5bn MoU

Pakistan and Gezhouba Group of China on March 18 signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for setting up of total of four coal-fired power projects of 2,640 megawatts at Gadani with an esti-mated investment of $3.5 billion.

Simultaneously, another Chinese firm State Grid Corporation of China (SGCC), held meetings with Pakistani authorities for construction of transmission line from proposed Gadani Power Park to the national grid when the government announces shortly a transmission policy for private investment. Water and Power Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif witnessed the MoU signing ceremony. President Gezhouba Group Chen Xiano Hua and Managing Director Private Power and Infrastruc-ture Board N AZuberi signed the MoU.

Under the MoU, China Gezhouba would install three projects of 660mw each (1,980mw) based on imported coal at Gadani. The com-pany earlier this year had signed another MoU for a 660mw coal power plant at the same park. Kh Asif said that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s idea to set up a 6,600mw Gadani Power Park project had generated a lot of interest among the international and domestic investors.

SBP blocks sale of Meezan Bank stake

Kuwait’s Noor Financial Investment Co said the proposed sale of its stake in Meezan Bank had been blocked by the central bank of Pakistan, which felt the prospective buyer had not met its standards for suitability.

Ownership of Meezan Bank, Pakistan’s first and largest full-fledged Islamic lender, may be a sensitive issue for regulators as they seek to develop Islamic banking in the country. In a bourse filing on March 16, Noor Financial said the prospective buyer would continue to seek approval from the regulator, with the offer set to expire on April 15.

Little is known about the prospective buyer, identified only as Vi-sion Financial Holdings Ltd in a separate filing by Meezan Bank. Last December, Noor Financial said it planned to sell its 49.1 percent stake in Meezan for $190 million and expected to book a $24 million profit. Regulators are stepping up their efforts to develop Islamic banking in Pakistan, aiming to double the industry’s branch network and reach a 15 percent share of the banking system by 2018.

As of December, Meezan Bank had a network of 351 branches and held assets worth 329 billion rupees ($3.3 billion), a 20 percent in-crease from a year earlier. There are five full-fledged Islamic banks and 14 Islamic windows in Pakistan, with several looking to grow or spin off their existing operations while new entrants are also expected. Last month, Meezan Bank said it was in talks to buy the Pakistan operations of HSBC Bank Middle East, a 10-branch business which the British lender has been trying to sell for the past two years.

Pakistan’s MCB Bank plans to take a 55 percent stake in Islamic lender Burj Bank, alongside an additional investment by the private sector arm of the Islamic Development Bank. That deal, which still re-quires regulatory approval, would involve the sale of Bahraini Bank Alkhair’s 36.9 percent stake in Burj Bank, which it classified as held-for-sale in June 2012. — Reuters

Iran cancels Pakistan gas pipeline loan

TEHRAN: Iran says it has canceled a planned $500 million loan to Pakistan to build part of a pipeline to bring natural gas from Iran.

Deputy Oil Minister Ali Majedi says Iran has no obligation to fi-nance the Pakistani side of the project and also doesn't have the money. Majedi’s comments were posted on the oil ministry's website, shana.ir, March 22.

"Pakistani officials were told in recent talks that, given the sanc-tions, Iran is not able to finance construction of the pipeline (in Paki-stan) and has no obligation to do so," he said.

He said Tehran will demand compensation if Islamabad fails to take Iranian gas by end of this year. Under a valid contract, Pakistan is required to finish construction of the pipeline on its territory by the end of 2014.

"If a contractor is chosen today and pipeline construction begins today, it will take four years to complete it. Should Pakistan fail to take gas by the end of next year, Iran will demand compensation under the terms of the contract," he said.

Pakistan has welcomed an Iranian offer to approach third parties, including European companies, to finance the project. The Iran-Paki-stan pipeline is designed to help Pakistan overcome its mushrooming energy needs. Pakistanis experience frequent blackouts.

Iran has already invested over $2 billion to construct the Iranian side of the pipeline. But there are serious doubts about how Pakistan could finance the $2 billion needed to construct the pipeline, which also faces US opposition.—AP

Pakistan postpones special trade status for India

Pakistan postponed a much-publicized decision to grant India special trade status by the end of March.

Pakistan's decision to give India "Most Favored Nation" (MFN) status was connected to a policy of improving trade and business ties with its neighbors. “The decision to grant MFN status to India has been postponed due to lack of consensus on the issue,” Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif told reporters at The Hague in the Netherlands, where he is attending a two-day nuclear summit.

“We have deferred the decision also because of the forthcoming elections in India. We do not want to favor one single political party in India,” said Sharif. “I have directed my team to talk to all the stakehold-ers, and develop a consensus on the matter," said Sharif.

He did not elaborate on who was unhappy with the decision but it is generally believed that the country’s powerful army and right-wing parties are uncomfortable with such close relations.

Mobicash reaches 30,000 retailers

Mobicash – the Mobilink’s mobile financial service – reached 30,000 retailers around the country in the first 15 months, said a press statement on March 24.

Mobicash was launched in November 2012 with 2,000 retail-ers. It offers its customers the safest and securest way of meeting their financial needs, said the statement. Over-the-counter services include utility bill payment, money sending and receiving facility and a secure mobile wallet solution, it said.

In 2013, Mobicash recorded around seven million transactions worth Rs12 billion, said the press statement.

Aniqa Afzal Sandhu, head of Mobile Financial Services, Mo-bilink, said, “Our vision is to ensure financial inclusion for Pakistan-is.”

PTCL introduces 4 Mbps speed as minimum benchmark

Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) has added another feather to its cap by introducing 4Mbps as a minimum benchmark for broadband speed nationwide.

President and CEO of PTCL, Walid Irshaid while commenting on this new initiative said "PTCL is passionately pursuing its vision to bring broadband access to everyone, regardless of income levels and geographic terrain".

Over the last few years, the expansion of PTCL broadband foot-print and upgrade of existing infrastructure have all come together to change the very dynamics of information and communications technol-ogy services in the country.

The new initiative is a step further in ensuring that country pro-gresses at faster speed and creates opportunities for the citizens of Paki-stan to make economic gains using ICT services.

And this is just the beginning of our high speed broadband initia-tive; there will be more to come in the future. "PTCL, being the leader in the broadband services, connects customers in more than 2,000 cities and towns across the country.

NBP holds 65th annual general meeting

National Bank of Pakistan held its 65th Annual General Meeting at a local hotel in Karachi on March 28th, 2014. The meeting was well attended by the shareholders. The Chairman NBP, Mr. Muneer Kamal and President NBP Mr. Syed Ahmed Iqbal Ashraf also attended the meeting. The bank’s performance during the year was highlighted in a presentation to the shareholders. The shareholders were informed that central bank reduced its policy rate by average 200 bps from 2012 besides linking minimum profit rate on deposit with SBP repo rate thereby increasing the minimum deposit rate to 7% from 6 % last year. Calculation mechanism for profit payment was also changed. Due to these factors the bank’s interest margin like other banks remained under pressure. The impact on net interest margin was partially offset through volume increase especially in high yielding advance salary, agriculture financing and gold loans. The bank posted operational profit (pre-provision profit) of Rs. 27.5 billion compared to Rs. 32.4 billion (restated) last year registering a decline of Rs. 4.9 billion mainly due to the above-mentioned factors. The bank’s pre-tax profitability decreased to Rs. 7.1 billion compared to Rs. 21.4 billion (restated) due to higher provision charge in overseas branches and lower net interest margins. Provision coverage is around 80%, which will strengthen the balance sheet and benefit the bank once recovery efforts yield results in years ahead. Administrative expenses were kept under strict check which increased by just 4 %.

The bank’s growth in balance sheet remained healthy. NBP’s domestic deposits were increased by over 10% in 2013 with CASA deposits constituting 69% of the total deposits. The bank is well capital-ized with capital and reserves of Rs. 156.3 billion and capital adequacy ratio of 15.24%.

NEWS IN BRIEF


In the aftermath of the Devyani Kho-bragade affair the media tilt against India-U.S. relations has allowed for an estuary-like commentary to prevail. This is most notable within the brack-

ish waters of India's journalism corps. The frank embarrassment of the Indian govern-ment, confronted with the reality of a career

diplomat arrested in a very public manner and indicted for visa fraud, is duly noted. But the story has lost its freshness. The news print is best recycled to the local fisherman's wharf.

Separating the acute and momentary political angst of the day from a greater real-ity can be hard. Bad news sells because of our primitive need for excitation. Writing the good news is harder work. This is the news written for a disciplined readership.

Policies, treaties and accords which cir-cumscribe the relationship between nations create the complete package known as for-eign policy. Beyond any flash point of con-cern the existing precedents give guidance and point the way for resolution of conflict of interest. Foreign policy is like a Byzan-tine mosaic. Individual tiles and stones come together under the hands of skilled crafts-man. The finished product is a depiction of both the history and the future of combined

national interest.While mosaic is not a Byzantine inven-

tion, the Byzantines did manage to move the decoration from floor surfaces to the walls. They crafted remarkable mosaics with a few simple changes. This feat as accomplished with lighter-weight tesserae and different cement composite. Artists also played with tiles, stone, and glass to create shimmer-ing decorative expressions. One experiment which worked well involved placing gold behind clear glass tessarae. The mosaic then appeared to emit an ethereal and delicate light. Foreign policy is like gold-enhanced tessarae. What goes on behind the scenes is not the stuff of fish markets. The mosaic can be beautiful, and almost celestial, when crafted with care.

One of the earliest Byzantine buildings is the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia located in Ravenna. The exterior of the building does not capture the imagination. What is hidden inside is breathtakingly beautiful. I like to imagine the India-U.S. relationship resem-bles the mosaic of two birds perched on the same water bath. Both enjoy the same water source. But one bird watches while the other takes a drink. India and the United States have a long history of looking out for the in-terests of each other.

One of the strongest of historical bonds exist in the realm of higher education. Our na-tions share a rich heritage. You send us your best students. We open the doors of our top-tier institutions. Global markets and national leadership are the ultimate beneficiaries of this unique arrangement.

From the mid-twentieth century until the present, the United States has been the dream destination for Indian graduate students seek-ing invigorating environments for post-gradu-ate studies. This has been especially true for Stem-immigrants, our foreign student popula-tion engulfed in learning the disciplines of sci-ence, technology, engineering and math. They account for more than 40 percent of the master and doctoral program candidates. As of 2011, that number stood at 205,600 students.

Indian nationals have functioned as one of the largest demographic of foreign students within U.S. universities for multiple decades.

These post-graduate and doctoral can-didates grace our classrooms and move freely within our campus research labs.

In November of 2013 The Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) released an inter-esting report. The first time enrollment of international graduate students was up ten percent (2012-2013). This is a substantial gain. Responding institutions reported a total

enrollment of 220,000 post-graduate students in 2013.

What is astounding is how the upward spike in first time enrollment was driven by students from India. The number of first time enrollees from India increased forty percent this year. The nearest competitor for berths within America's university institutions was Brazil, with an increase of 17 percent (2012-2013).

Students from China, India, Korea and Taiwan account for roughly one-third of the science and engineering candidates in the U.S. It is interesting to note that the patriarchs of the science and engineering, PhD students are ap-proximately 15 times more likely to have a BA degree than their contemporaries are to have tertiary education. In my mind, this type of candidate has an added value. On the cusp of adulthood, the students are marking their own professional emergence within the context of a family which already contains measurable benchmarks for higher learning. (6) Education is valued within the context of familial goals.

One of the battles which is currently be-ing fought is over STEM immigrants and their post-graduate status. After experiencing life in America STEM immigrants are inclined to seek out H1-B work visas so that they may re-main on U.S. soil. The issuance of this legal

document gives a six year window for the worker to seek permanent residency. H1-B for the aforementioned demographic are based on a small percentage (7 percent). In a sense, this is a gift extended back to you. We want your citizens to take what they have learned, return to your shores and invest in your economy. We do not want to function as a talent vacuum. I think this is a form of quiet justice. If we keep your nation’s best as our eternal investment we show ourselves a bit too greedy.

But corporations with high tech needs paint a different picture. The law of supply and demand creates a rather merciless process which distinguishes between those who can flip a burger and those who can work an algo-rithm in their heads. There is a widening gap in the need for STEM talent pools which cannot be met by Americans alone. We have plenty of burger flippers.

My mind is drawn back to the mosaic in the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia. Our foreign policy should continue to extend robust ben-efit to our friends, the people of India. Let us work, for the common good.

A mutually beneficial relationship

Tammy Swofford

India and the United States:

Policies, treaties and accords which circumscribe the

relationship between nations create the complete package

known as foreign policy. Beyond any flash point of concern

the existing precedents give guidance and point the way for resolution of conflict of interest.

The writer is a freelance journalist and author of the novel Arsenal. She can be reached at [email protected]

Corporations with high tech needs paint a different picture. The law of supply and demand creates a rather merciless process which distinguishes between those who can flip a

burger and those who can work an algorithm in their heads.

WORLD POLITICS


An ambitious eco-nomic growth ini-tiative focusing on efficient and sus-tainable use of nat-

ural resources has been launched by the governing political party in northwest province of Khyber-Pak-htunkhwa.

The Green Growth Initiative (GGI) aims to boost the province’s socio-economic development by efficiently using natural resources

without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs according to Imran Khan, chairman of the Pakistan Teh-reek-e-Insaf (PTI), a national political party.

PTI came into power in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province as a result of elections held in May 2013. The party had promised its supporters to implement the GGI if elected, saying that it would cre-ate green jobs, boost growth and reduce poverty in the state.

Experts say that poverty is a major cause of deforestation as people cut down trees to sell the timber. The new government be-gan the GGI on March 1 with a campaign to plant 8 million trees by June 30.

“The GGI reflects our understanding well that the transition to a green growth economy is vital from an environmental conser-vation and climate change mitigation and adaptation viewpoint. Above all, it promises huge economic returns,” Imran Khan said during the initiative’s launch in Peshawar, capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, in February.

Malik Amin Aslam Khan, a former state minister for envi-ronment, who as PTI’s green growth policy advisor is the archi-tect of GGI, described the provincial government’s strategy for “greening” economic growth as having three prongs: defining environmental challenges and identifying solutions within sec-tors such as energy, water, forestry, transport and agriculture; integrating green growth policies into these sectors; and creat-ing political support for the vision of a green economy.

The government has set up an Inter-Ministerial Com-mittee on Green Growth and a task force on Green Growth, with the provincial chief minister as its chair, to run the GGI.

Khan said that the exact cost of the initiative have not

yet been worked out but estimated them to be in the range of 40 to 60 billion Pakistani ru-pees (about $390 million - $590 million) over five years. He said the financing would come through reallocation of existing funds to in-crease budgets for forestry and clean energy, attracting private-sector investment in waste management and carbon sequestration, lever-aging capital market funds for commercial projects such as hydroelectricity and solar en-ergy, and funding from donors.

According to Khan, a core objective of the GGI is promoting water efficiency in households, agriculture and industry. The initiative also calls for green public transport such as buses running on compressed natural gas and rechargeable electric batteries, using renewable energy – particularly hydropower – to power the province’s economy, and increas-ing the climate resilience of public infrastruc-ture such as schools, medical facilities, water and sanitation networks, which are often dam-aged during floods.

Ghulam Rasul, senior weather scientist at the Pakistan Meteorological Department, welcomed the government’s emphasis on in-creasing water storage capacity to generate hy-dropower and said this would help cope with the impact of increasingly intense monsoon rains.

The rivers which criss-cross the province make it vulnerable to flooding, and rapid deg-radation of forests has exposed the province to landslides and flash floods during the wet sea-son, which runs from July to September.

“Possible massive collateral damages resulting from overflowing floodwater can be avoided, if controlled through building up dams of varying sizes in the province and managed for economic gains by diverting for watering existing agriculture lands and irrigat-ing new ones,” he said.

Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province is home

to 40 percent of Pakistan’s dwindling forests, and under the GGI, a major campaign aims to increase the proportion of forest from 20 percent of the total land mass to 22 percent by 2018. This will entail converting at least 30,000 hectares (74,000 acres) of additional land into forest every year and planting a total of 2 billion trees.

Khan said it was logical to develop the forestry sector through the REDD+ pro-gramme, a global financial instrument that provides carbon credits for standing forests.

Forestry officials in the federal climate change division in Islamabad say that the province can earn over $850 million annually through the REDD+ programme.

Even if the forestation goals are achieved, protecting and maintaining the forest will prove the tougher test for the government, commented Pervaiz Amir, former member of the Prime Minister’s Task Force on Climate Change.

Amir believes that corrupt provincial for-est officials who are part of the timber “mafia”

must be replaced with honest officials. He says reforestation efforts are highly vulnerable to failure as long as those responsible for illegal felling remain unpunished.

“Efforts for greening the province would go down the drain, if the provincial govern-ment do not chalk out viable, effective strat-egy to contain the timber mafia, which has cleansed decades-old forests over thousands of hectares,” he said

“This would, however, require exem-plary punishments for the timber mafia and corrupt forest officials.”

Khan said that he hopes the GGI will lead political parties in other provinces to re-spond with their own initiatives.

“At the end of the day, it is our country’s environmental resources that we want to con-serve and use them wisely for achieving green growth goals,” he said. “We want the initiative as a globally replicable model in the future.”

The writer is climate change and development journalist

Saleem Shaikh

Pakistan’s green growth plan gets underway to tackle climate vagaries

ENVIRONMENT


WEXNET exhibition, which is Pakistan’s premier exhibi-tion dedicated solely to the promotion of women entrepreneurs, was organized by the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) at the Expo Centre, Johar Town, Lahore from 21st to 23rd of March, 2014. WEXNET aims to provide a formalized platform to women giv-ing them an opportunity to exhibit their products, network, learn from others’ experiences and form collaborations and partnerships for mu-tual benefits.

Paper Miracles experienced the WEXNET trade fair expo for the first time, displaying its unique artisans work to promote the innovative jewelry and accessories made from recycled paper to the international delegates, local dignitaries, corporate visitors and the general public.

“Paper Miracles is an exemplary initiative. This year, the theme of the exhibition is ‘Women hold up half of the sky-celebrating wom-en’s leadership.’ Paper Miracles’ team and the paper beads artisans symbolizes WEXNET’s theme well and are inspiring examples of what female entrepreneurs can achieve using their creativity and tal-ents,” said Roubina Taufiq Shah, Director of Trade Development Au-thority of Pakistan( TDAP).

In the crowd of more than 300 stalls, Paper Miracles clearly stood out as the only stall showcasing stylish and trendy accessories made from recycled paper. The visitors admired the quality of each product and unconventional use of waste paper. “This is the first time I have seen such a successful initiative which not only positively empowers women, but addresses the environmental issues like the importance of recycling in a very professional way,“ said a female customer who purchased earrings made from Urdu newspaper.

At the closing ceremony of the WEXNET exhibition, Minister for Women Development, Zakia Shah Nawaz acknowledged and dis-tributed awards to selected participants. Out of hundreds of domestic and international exhibitors, Paper Miracles was one of only two or-ganizations which were given multiple awards. TDAP praised Paper Miracles for their innovative approach and for their contribution to positively impacting the lives of the artisans.

Paper Miracles was also awarded the “Best Stall” award for its aesthetics and tasteful display of its products and was recognized as one of the few outstanding brands with the level of professionalism and quality products ready to participate in international trade fairs and compete in the global market.

“It is an honor to receive such a prestigious award and recog-nition amongst so many talented women entrepreneurs from all over Pakistan.” (Paper Miracles)

Paper Miracles


bags “best stall” award at WEXNET exhibition

The question at hand is to evaluate whether the fate of an individual can be judged using lay mem-bers of the public who lack legal expertise or whether with those

who possess it. On one hand lay men and phi-losophers see the jury system as the ‘embodi-ment of the democratic process’, whereas legal professions have raised doubts in its use within the criminal justice system. Trial by jury is commonly used in the Crown Court (Criminal Division) for indictable offences within the UK and rarely in civil courts.

The role of the jury is defined as ‘…a body of men temporarily selected from the cit-izens of a particular district, and invested with power to present or indict a person for a public offense, or to try a question of fact’. There-fore the jury (which consists of 12 members in England and Wales) is responsible for weigh-ing the evidence presented to them in court by lawyers, judges and witnesses and expected to return with a guilty or not guilty verdict. In cases involving trial by jury, the judge serves the final sentence. Alongside this, the judge is responsible for assisting the jury with techni-cal legal terms, a summary of the evidence presented and the information that needs to be taken into consideration in order to deliberate upon.

A further argument against juries is the fact that the judicial system grants too much authority to people who lack legal knowledge and expect them to conclude a verdict, which could be life changing for the defendant. Crit-ics argue that people who lack legal exper-tise would not attain the qualities to present a fair verdict; rather legal experts that have spent years practicing the law would be more

competent based on their experience. In support of the jury system, judges are

just as likely to make wrong decisions when handing out sentences. The fact that lay mem-bers do not have legal expertise poses as an ad-vantage as well. They ensure a simple process by judging the situation from what ‘an ordinary man’ would have done in a similar scenario by using common sense. Deliberations that take place amongst the jurors when concluding a verdict must remain strictly confidential and cannot be shared outside the twelve-jury mem-bers. It ensures no undue influence and pres-sure from the outside to be imposed upon the final verdict. Therefore jurors are instructed to avoid reading newspapers, access social me-dia sites or any medium that could potentially influence their decision and infringe the case. The seriousness of this matter can be demon-strated through the case of Joanne Fraill in 2011, who was sentenced to eight months im-prisonment on the charge of contempt of court due to contacting the defendant using face book. However the confidentiality of delibera-tion carried out by jurors can also be seen as a downfall as this hinders research upon jury decision-making. The procedure and topics of discussions that take place within the four walls of the jurors’ private room will always remain a mystery. Therefore it can be argued that the Criminal Justice System’s ‘apparent blind faith’ in a jury’s capability to make the right decision may in fact be misplaced.

The use of jurors in complicated fraud trials can be problematic as most evidence is presented numerically or statistically, there-fore ‘having a good working knowledge… could almost be regarded as a necessity’. In such cases jury members fail to understand the facts of the case and return with not guilty verdicts. In 1986, The Roskill Committee pro-posed that due to the frequent misunderstand-ing demonstrated by jurors in relation to fraud cases, that they should be ‘dispensed’ from such cases. Psychologists carried out research in Cambridge University and found that in fact jurors’ way of understanding can be strength-ened through the use of visual aids and dia-grams as well as by asking the judge questions and the meaning of legal definitions. Most ju-rors are not even aware that they are allowed to do this, and those who are aware of this fact still opt not to ask judges.

The next question to consider is that if ju-ries were to be omitted from use within courts then what system should take its place? The first suggestion is to use judges. As explained above, they are the most dominant figure with-in the judicial system as they submit the final sentence and are considered as the most expe-rienced legal experts. It has been established that juries are used only in a minority of cases; therefore judges arguably would pose as the better alternative. However judges aren’t per-fect servers of justice and present drawbacks. Judges are expected to be unbiased, however how far this standard is met is open to debate. The stereotypical profile of judges are present-ed as old, white, English, upper class males-making them even more susceptible when tak-ing in the defendants’ account features such as ‘…pre-trial status, socio-economic status, race and attractiveness’. Therefore judges have the tendency to be inconsistent in handing out sen-tences and arguably undermine fairness.

In order for the judicial branch to operate systematically and fairly, trial by jury needs to be reviewed in order to put issues surround-ing its use to rest. It could be suggested that instead of removing the system, it be reformed instead, to prevent juror mishaps from occur-ring. Possible future reforms include the need to focus on how information is presented to ju-rors. This can be done by providing adequate meaning of legal abbreviations from the start of the trial, supplying jurors with legal books for educational guidance to avoid misunder-standings of legal jargons and finally judges should be encouraged to use simplified lan-guage for jurors to understand.

The fact that courts still use trial by jury affirms the evidence that being judged by one’s own peers clearly plays out its benefits. Arguably it is costly and time consuming, to use a jury, yet the practical benefits of the sys-tem outweigh such issues. Historical nemesis it may be, but British institutions have long standing practical values and trial by jury is one of the many traditional customs still prac-ticed today, carrying a sentimental attribute which can not be so easily dismissed.

The writer is a Forensic Psychologist at the University of York and has presented research papers at International Psychiatry and Psychology Conferences.

Trial, Tribulations and the Jury

Fajar Fawad

OPINION

fighting each other initially, get united against the Western policeman in the end and beat him jointly to avoid his attempt of playing “divide and rule”. So, love is beyond the confinement of religion, nationality and race.

As the story unfolds, we come across the protagonist Aman Ali (Ali Zafar) who is in the city of his girlfriend Aasha (Yami Goutum) to meet her parents for a formal proposal, but, unfortunately lands in jail after being suspected and arrested by the police. On the way. Aasha, somehow manages to get him free and tries to take him with her to her parents’ home, but Aman foresees a bad patch in life and suggests her to postpone the program for at least a day. Any ways, he has to surrender before his would-be-wife and the next moment, he is at the house of Aasha where a series of troubles, nuisances and ridiculous traps is awaiting him desperately. The more he endeavours to do something impressive, the more embarrassing situation comes out of those actions. Here, it is desirable to mention that the Punjabi expression “Siyapa” stands for chaotic situation and trouble. In the end, after all little misunderstandings and the conflicts of confusing egos, both Aman and Aasha comprehend the real theme of love and humanity and fall in each others arms to stay united forever.

As comedy is always beautifully yoked with the melodies to complement each other, it is surprising that all the sound tracks and certain scenes that were the part of the teasers and trailers are not the part of the film. Moreover, it was edited abruptly on some occasion that gives the impression of incoherence. Any ways, Ali Zafar, in addition to being leading male in the movie is also the playback singer and musician of it. So far, as his acting is concerned, he will have to go beyond that circle which is confining him in all the films such as “Meray brother ki dulhan”, “Chashm-e-baddoor” and the present one.

APR 201421http://www.economicaffairs.com.pkAPR 2014 20 http://www.economicaffairs.com.pk

Finally, the well-awaited light comedy of Ali Zafar “Total Siyapa” is on screen now to entertain the cinema gores and to provide food for thought to the critics. The well-organised and considerably vibrant and glam-orous premier was held the other day by Geo Entertainment, at a newly built modern cinema of the city, with Ali Zafar onboard. Besides, Aamna Shaikh, Muskan, Humayun Saeed, Ijaz Aslam, Asif Raza Meer and other showbiz stars, media personalities, business icons and people from all walks of life graced the

occasion.

The film is a light story, imbued with situational comedy and diversified ironic angles and most of the times, keeps the viewers energetic, smiling and laughing. The locale is of a foreign country that has not been named in the film, and the story revolves around a Muslim youngster Aman Ali from the West (Pakistani) Punjab and a Hindu girl Aasha and her family from the East (Indian) Punjab. The implicit theme of Aman ki Aasha is also traceable from the names of the leading characters, the love-birds. As the plot develops further, it becomes obvious that the message is love and we see that Indian and Pakistani neighbours,

A tale of cheerful absurdities and follies

– Muttahir Ahmed Khan

ENTERTAINMENT


of learning and healing of different diseases and psycho-emotional disorders. Have things changed in recent past in the context of people trusting such fields?

Dr. Moiz: Presently, the society is go-ing through a crucial period on socio-eco-nomic levels. Price-hike, poor law and order situation, unemployment, tense relationships and declining socio-moral values have made people desperate. They are ready to go to any place and any person for the solution of their ever increasing issues and disorders

In our part of the world, due to illiteracy and obscurity, people think Reiki is Shirk as it calls for help the millennia-old symbols instead of calling Allah who gives both sufferings and Shifa (cure).?

Dr. Moiz: Actually people here are not ready to seek knowledge or to conduct any research and start giving verdicts on the basis of their half-baked education and information. It is why they are easily exploited by the so-called spiritual and faith healers who further drag them towards the quagmire of evil practices. We must remember one thing very clearly that all the positive deeds that result in the benevo-lence and welfare of the humanity are Divine and all the practices that harm the human-ity are Satanic. We call for help only the Al-mighty and nobody else. So far as process and symbols are concerned, they are just resources like medicines, food and physical exercises that people avail for recovery.

Initially, it was thought that only the backward and illiterate people believe in unscientific methods of healing or spiritualism. Now, the Western world is adopting spiritual ways, meditation and parapsychology. Has this trend of modernisation popularized and developed mind sciences and parapsychology?

Arooj: First, there is a difference be-tween westernisation and modernisation. With the passage of time, everything evolves and gets improved on the basis of new experiences and research. Even in old times, people used to go to several faith healers and spiritual prac-titioners while there were others who would not have any belief in spiritualism and prefer going to doctors, herbal experts and ayurvedic healers for logical methodology. Today, we have developed forms of all the fields. We have specialist surgeons and physicians in dif-ferent diseases and medical fields. In the same way, we have modernised and improved insti-tutions and centre for mind sciences, parapsy-chology, yoga, reiki healing and other spiritual practices. This is modernisation. Westernisa-tion, on the other hand, is a trend of following Western culture and philosophy.

All these branches of knowledge and enlightenment are purely Eastern, but why were they ignored by Eastern people and developed and researched on modern lines by the Western experts?

Arooj: The Western people were more educated and liberal and their minds were open to accept and experiment with the new chang-es. On the other hand, we hardly welcome any change or new practice. So, the developed nations have modernised and promoted these Eastern treasures of knowledge on modernised and scientific lines by conducting research on these fields. That is why the present world is more inclined to reiki, meditation, spiritualism and mind sciences, unlike the previous genera-tions.

These days, medical treatment is very expensive and the treatment by a psychiatrist is even more expensive. People can hardly afford that. How can we advise people to go for proper treatment in these circumstances?

Arooj: People must understand the val-ue of health and life. There are certain things in life that cannot be cheaper or easily af-fordable. Some medicines and equipments of curing procedures are highly costly and their maintenance is also very expensive. So, the financial crunch will always be there. Believe me; Pakistan is still very economical for medi-cal health services and treatment charges in comparison with the Western countries. Psy-chological treatment is very expensive every-where on the globe, but it is still affordable in our part of the world.

In the East, fields of mind sciences, para-psychology and spiritualism remained confined to handful individuals who gifted and shared their knowledge and experiences only with their informal devotees and family members. Only West established proper institutions for certain fields and expanded them to the general public and learners. Had Professor Usui not faced that difficult question about Reiki while teaching at an American university, the Reiki would not have been revived. What do you say?

Dr. Moiz: Actually the systematic knowledge and organized study of different fields was available in Western world. That is how they attracted the learners. In East, the possessiveness for and withholding knowledge has always been prevalent. The great scholars and experts in these Eastern fields of yoga, meditation, mysticism, etc confined conferred upon their knowledge and blessings only on those disciples who served them for years.

Arooj: Whatever is introduced or pro-moted by the Western world, even if it has its origin in the East, it becomes a value-added phenomenon. Even the artists and singers who

have sung even a single song or played a minor role in the Western showbiz world, are deified when they come back to their native Eastern countries. In East, the spiritual education and knowledge was regarded as a privilege of the learners or people who had strong socio-moral character and altruistic nature. But in West, knowledge and education is imparted to every interested and enrolled candidate without any thought of their moral norms and the justified use of these powers.

Do supernatural creatures and Jins really exist and also affect our lives and everyday affairs as people complain?

Dr. Moiz: Being Muslims and the be-lievers of the holy Quran, we believe in the existence of Jins as the creatures of the Al-mighty. They have certain extraordinary powers like passing through the walls and changing forms. They do not come across or in contact with human world very often as it is misconceived. Psychological interpretation of these syndromes is very different but it is known as a disorder in the nervous system. In certain diseases and conditions people assume and even demonstrate extraordinary physical power and energy. Their facial expressions and sound gets totally changed and they start behaving in a violent and aggressive way. People who believe in supernatural creatures’ influence consider these psych-emotional dis-orders an outcome of Jins and spirits and claim that the patient is possessed by them. In both the cases, it is the central nervous system that is targeted.

How do you deal with the people who come to you for treatment but cherish firm belief that they are possessed?

Dr. Moiz: It is a matter of strong belief and conviction. So when people who believe they are possessed, come to us for treatment, we do not negate their notions and assure them that we liberate and rescue them from that evil creature. The patients of hysteria and schizo-phrenia need both counselling as well as medi-cines for normalising their central nervous system.

Arooj: Your beliefs regarding supernat-ural forces are mostly based upon the stories narrated by your elders and the people around you. If you are told in your childhood that su-pernatural creatures or Jins sprinkle blood on floors and walls, you will see that at any suspi-cious place. If you are told that Jins pelt stones and throw crockery, you will experience that. It is all about your preconceived thoughts and imaginations. If the cases of supernatural crea-tures exist, they are very rare and not too per-vasive as people in our society report or talk about.

Muttahir Ahmed Khan is a Pakistan-based Educationist, Writer, Journalist, Analyst and a Psychotherapist.


Were you fascinated by these mind sciences

powers like hypnosis, telepathy, etc, from your childhood, as common children usually are when they watch certain movies and read stories about these phenomena?

Dr. Moiz: Yes, I was fasci-

nated to an extraor-

di-

nary extent. My education was general and I started my practical life as a busi-nessman, following the footsteps of my father. In 1980, I went to America in as-sociation with my business organisation, and during the years I spent there, I felt inclined towards doing something differ-ent and spiritual to shatter the monotony of materialistic world and mundane life. Then, I met Shri Yogendra of Bombay, a spiritual personality and Yogi of a high calibre, who changed my lifestyle and thinking process. He is my inspiration and mentor in this field. In 1986, when

everybody was dreaming of going to America for a better living and promising economic career, I decided to penetrate further into this mystic and mysterious world of spiritualism and came back to Pakistan. It was an unbelievable move for my friends and family members.

So when did you lay the foundation of The Institute of Mind Science (TIMS) which is now attracting a number of people from different walks of life and far remote areas?

Dr. Moiz: After coming to Paki-stan, I established Institute of Classic Yoga, with the help of some friends. That institution was a small one housed in a residential building. We went on work-ing and making progress and now you can see a full-fledged Institute of Mind Sciences. Under its platform, people are being trained and educated in different

fields of parapsychology and spiritual practices, and when they learn, they

start serving humanity.

Previously mind sciences were not a popular or even a familiar field or subject

Prof. Dr. Moiz Hussain (Ph.D) is internationally acknowledged in

the field of mind sciences and sufism and has been sharing his

knowledge and expertise in mind sciences and sufism to people

of all ages, professions and nationals through his workshops,

seminars, lectures and theosophical sittings all over Pakistan

as well as in USA, UK, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Germany, Austria,

Switzerland, India and many other countries. He is a certified

Psycho Orientologist and a Clinical Hypnotherapist from USA.

Urooj Moiz, his daughter, has joined his team since the last 10

years and has become a very popular and trusted counsellor.

Besides hosting many informative TV shows on mental health

and psychological issues, the duo of father and daughter

appear regularly on different morning shows, talk shows and

other socio-educational programs on various leading channels

enlightening people with knowledge, awareness and experience.

Talk about Mind Sciences and its scope

Prof. Dr. Moiz Hussain, Founder of The Institute of Mind Sciences, and Urooj Moiz

Muttahir Ahmed Khan

INTERVIEW


Mr Lars Rebien Sø-rensen is one of Europe’s leading bio-industrialists,

the president and Chief Executive Officer of

Danish health care giant Novo Nordisk A/S. He joined Novo Nordisk, a world leader in diabetes

care, in 1982, working in its Enzymes Marketing

department. He was made a member of Corporate

Management in 1994, and in 2000 was appointed

company President and CEO. Headquartered in

Denmark, Novo Nordisk is a global health care

company with 90 years of innovation and leadership

in diabetes care. Novo Nordisk employs approxi-mately 38,000 employees in 75 countries, and mar-kets its products in more

than 180 countries.

There are around 6.7 million people with diagnosed diabetes in Pakistan. It is estimated that this number will rise to 12.8 million by 2035, which puts Pakistan among the top countries with

the highest number of population suffering from di-abetes “Pakistan will be on top of the countries with the highest number of diabetic patients in the next 20 years, Lars Rebien Sørensen said in exclusive in-terview with Economic Affairs.

You highlighted the urgency and the scale of the challenge presented by diabetes in Pakistan. What are the reasons for this alarming growth of diabetes?

Ignorance is the main reason for the increas-ing diabetic patients in Pakistan. Just imagine that almost 7 million people are diabetic in Pakistan whereas only 0.5 million are using insulin, not knowing that they are suffering from a silently kill-ing disease.

Around 120,000 people die in Pakistan every year as a result of diabetes related complications and many more are being incapacitated, much of which can be successfully avoided.

Diabetes is a major challenge to the health care system in Pakistan as well as to people’s qual-ity of life. Only around 3-4% of people with diabetes reach their treatment targets. The health care sector, government and the industry needs to work together to make this happen.

The diabetes phenomenon is not limited to Pakistan only. It is growing around the world with an alarming pace impacting individuals, families and societies. As of now 382 million people are af-fected with diabetes in the world and the Interna-tional Diabetes Federation estimates this figure to be 592 million by 2035.

What would you suggest for the damage control?

Most importantly there is a need to educate the population and health care providers regarding DM, as this will ultimately serve as the best hope in controlling the disease and its complications. A national strategy to reduce the burden of this disease is required which would need more resources to be earmarked for diabetes care. The task is challenging

and stakes of success and failure are high. In this battle there is not much time for delay.

Education and prevention is important to fight diabetes. Four out of five diabetics world-wide are living in middle or low income countries with half of them unaware of their condition. Small improvements in glucose control can lead to sig-nificant reduction in complications. Pakistan needs to increase its health spending, if ignored, future generations in this country would have to face a lot of challenges in the health sector.

How is public health important for poverty alleviation in Pakistan?

Diabetes is associated with high rates of hos-pitalization, blindness, renal failure and non-trau-matic amputation. The economic impact of diabetes is high and it is a major contributor to the escalating health care cost worldwide.

Pakistan has 50 percent of its population be-low poverty line and if any member of the family suffers from diabetes that would consume all sav-ings of the family, paying the cost to be cured. It’s alarming that the government of Pakistan doesn’t in-vest in public health; unfortunately the poverty level rises and jolts her GDP growth.

Novo Nordisk is the biggest insulin manufac-turer in the world. We consider it our responsibil-ity to educate people and increase awareness about diabetes. We have launched awareness campaigns in many countries and now we are looking forward to start awareness campaign in Pakistan, I hope that it proves beneficial for the citizens.

How do you see the investment opportunities in health sector of Pakistan?

Huge potential, I say. Pakistan is a market of over 180 million with friendly investment policies, amazing equity and interest rates. The work force here is energetic, skilled and focused. There is im-mense potential in public health and I will give a message to Danish investors to visit Pakistan, meet the people and officials here and take investment op-tions into consideration.

Diabetes in Pakistan to double by 2035

Maria Khalid

Maria Khalid is the Deputy Editor of monthly Economic Affairs. She can be reached at [email protected]

Though various sources can be tracked to raise the level of national exchequer, national tax base remains most important. The Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N),while having majority in the federal government plans to increase tax to GDP ratio up to 15% which is currently 9% and has been declining over time. Pakistan has a workforce of 58 million out of which only 2 million are registered

taxpayers. Monetizing the potential 3.2 taxpayers can provide additional tax financing to the development programs.

The creeping reform process in the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) is also a big hurdle. If this institution still believes in its current passive strategy, it needs around 32 years to target the potential tax payers. To identify the hidden tax payers, the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) should facilitate the FBR department which is very difficult otherwise.

The alternative financing mean which is the tax financing in the present case becomes very important especially when the PML-N government seems divided over a proposed increase in gas tariff presented by Mr. Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, the Federal Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources. However, the limited options provided by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) may not allow government to suspend the gas price rise as the government is supposed to collect around PKR100 billion under the IMF programs.

A number of factors in po-litical economy do not allow the government to raise the gas prices. The textile and industrial sectors both claim that the proposed rise in gas tariffs would not allow them to take benefit from the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) by the European Union. In addition, the CNG sector is afraid that such a rise would throw various CNG stations out of the business. All these factors may give benefit to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in the local government elections scheduled in the end of January. On the other hand, the government is under severe pressure as it is al-ready facing criticism over the past rise in electricity prices.

The statutory regulatory orders (SROs) provide various tax exemptions to the business community. SROs are a source of corruption, and loss of revenue in Pakistan. They contribute to tax leakage of around 3-4% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Nine out of ten SROs issued by the government give tax benefits to monopolies. These SROs reduce the competitiveness of the industry which is reflected in the form of inefficiency and reduced exports. The FBR needs to bring back the confidence of taxpayers by revising tax policies, reducing administrative problems and tax evasion culture.

However, making the tax filing procedure easier for the persons willing to pay taxes and targeting the others who do not pay taxes at all, can increase the tax collections. The complicated tax filing system creates various problems to tax payers and needs to be made easy. Further, incentive schemes for tax collectors can increase tax collections. The absence of such incentives promotes leakages, reducing tax collection.

The role of the provincial government is very important in increasing tax revenues. India has a 16 % tax to GDP ratio in which the federal government contributes around 10% while the provincial governments collect the remaining 6%. After the 18th amendment, the provincial governments in Pakistan are empowered to devise the provincial policies. Following the Indian model can increase Pakistan’s tax to GDP ratio significantly. Though there are provincial tax laws in Pakistan, however, the provincial governments are unable to implement theselaws in agricultural sector showing their lack of commitment.

The absence of accountability in the FBR does not allow the tax to GDP ratio to rise. The regular tax audits of the business entities can reduce the tax evasions. Various politicians and members of parliament pay fewer taxes out of which around 51 include senators. The absence of penalty for tax evasion makes the things worse and this situation needs urgent attention.

Energy, Taxation &

The author is a researcher at the Sustainable Development Policy Institute. He can be reached at [email protected]

Political Economy of Pakistan

Muhammad Zeeshan

INTERVIEW ECONOMY


acts of terrorism and ultimately war. The fact that we did not ‘choose’ our beliefs in which we were born, we did not ‘choose’ the sects within which we were born makes religious intolerance completely unneces-sary. Different religions and different sects have lived together all over the world and in Pakistan - why the growing intolerance?”

The Constitution of Islamic Repub-lic of Pakistan 1973 by Justice Muham-mad Munir states, “Wrongs practiced in the name of religion are not protected by the Constitution providing for the free exercise and enjoyment of religious pro-fession and worship…. Everything which may be equally an exercise of religion is not required to be tolerated and the right to exercise religious freedom ceases where it overlaps and transgresses the rights of oth-ers.” (Volume 1 pg 369)

The Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan 1973 does not differentiate be-tween followers of different religions and sects by offering different degrees of fun-damental rights to its citizens.

Article 25 under the Constitution lay out;

Equality of citizens: (1) All citizens are equal before law and are entitled to equal protection of law. (2) There shall be no discrimination on the basis of sex

(3) Nothing in this Article shall pre-vent the State from making any spe-cial provision for the protection of women and children.It is an extremely sad case of affairs

when non-state actors decide to take the de-cision in their hands to a) make a determi-nation as to who is, and who is not a citizen and b) to then inflict hatred and brutality upon those deemed to be non-citizens. In any civilized society, Equality is one of the three pillars the structure of the soci-ety balances itself upon. The other two are Liberty and Justice. If we refuse equality across the board to all citizens, we are auto-matically denying to them; liberty and jus-tice! In an extremely interesting paper by Thomas Christiano dealing with the subject of equality and democracy, “Equal consid-eration of interests means that advancing the interests of one person is as important as advancing the interests of any other per-son... It is an elementary requirement of justice that individuals ought to be treated equally.” Pakistan needs to ensure none of its citizens are victimized or reduced to the level of second class citizens!

But then there comes evidence of interfaith respect in Pakistan which re-stores confidence in the country. Sikandar Chandio who guarded the Hindu Temple at Johi. “Chandio’s Muslim family ‘protects’ the only temple in Johi, a town in which

no Hindu family resides. A Hindu man handed over the charge of the temple to his grandfather, Jamaluddin,” says the lo-cal newspaper. (February 8, 2014) Report states “I was born in this temple, so were my children. We all are watchmen of this building.” Pakistan needs more Sikandar Chandios!

E.A. Bucchianeri in ‘Brush strokes of a Gadfly’ recounts an enchanting dialogue between Socrates and Plato;

“Socrates: Have you noticed on our journey how often the citizens of this new land remind each other it is a free country?

Plato: I have, and think it odd they do this.

Socrates: How so, Plato?Plato: It is like reminding a baker he

is a baker, or a sculptor he is a sculptor.Socrates: You mean to say if some-

one is convinced of their trade, they have no need to be reminded.

Plato: That is correct.Socrates: I agree. If these citizens

were convinced of their freedom, they would not need reminders.”

Pakistan needs to redefine itself; super-fast.

The writer is a lawyer, academic and political analyst. She has authored a book, ‘A Comparative Analysis of Media and Media Laws in Pakistan.’

Wrongs practiced in the name of religion are not protected by the Constitution providing for the free exercise and enjoyment of religious profession and worship.


Jinnah’s speech of 11th August 1947 printed by most dailies was a cen-sored version released. Resultantly, to date there remains confusion whether Jinnah wanted Pakistan for only Mus-

lims or for all religions. Besides, there are quite a few controversial issues that have deep-ened the lines of division within Pakistan. On ground there is flagrant violation of the Con-stitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan 1973. The chapter of fundamental rights that awards equal rights to its ‘citizens’ is often flouted. Groups decide who classifies as a citizen of Pakistan and who does not. Hatred, anger, os-tracism is directed towards those deemed not

to be ‘citizens’ of Paki-stan.

Let’s establish first, the meaning of a citizen.

Black’s Law Dictionary de-fines it as, “One who under the

Constitution and laws of United States, or of any particular state, is the member of the po-litical community, owing allegiance and being entitled to the enjoyment of full civil rights…” (Centennial Edition 1891-1991 Pg 244)

Nowhere does it award a superior status to one group of people over the other based on religion, gender, ethnicity or any other basis.The Objective Resolution, made a substantive part of the Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan 1973 states, “Wherein shall be guar-anteed fundamental rights including equality of status, of opportunity and before the law, social, economic and political justice, and freedom of thought, expression, belief, faith, worship, and association, subject to law and public morality..”

If all are equal at all levels, where did we go wrong? So horribly wrong? Dr Haroon Ul-lah, Member of Secretary, Kerry’s Policy Plan-ning Staff and author of a recently published treatise, “Vying for Allah's Vote; Understand-ing Islamic Parties, Political Violence, and Extremism in Pakistan” talks about the driv-ing force that guides political extremism in Pakistan. He talks, among others; of the death of Salman Taseer and reactions to his murder,

killed for supporting minorities’ rights and those of women in Pakistan. He talks of struc-tures of the religious parties and the conflict within the defining parameters of the rightist groups. A mention, well understood and ac-cepted within Pakistan but need to be better understood by those in the west, “Any use of the term ‘‘sharia’’ must come with some caveats. The fact that Islamist parties share roughly similar conceptions of the role that sharia should play in governance should not obscure the significant differences in their po-litical programs, their different interpretations of what sharia entails, or the contested nature of the term ‘‘sharia’’ itself.” (Pg 11) He con-tinues to share, “Differences regarding what sharia entails exactly, and who has the right to define and enforce it, help explain the surpris-ing fact that Islamic parties that occupy much the same space on the continuum are as likely to disagree with one another as they are with groups to their right or left.” This is the key to Pakistan’s dilemma of defining herself. Bull’s eye! Very interestingly, the Supreme Court of Pakistan has referred a plea to Islamabad High Court; a plea filed to enforce sharia in the country. The court has been allowed 3 months to adjudicate upon the petition.

In an earlier oped I had written, “The desire for peaceful coexistence must aim at cultivating, first and foremost, a tolerance and understanding towards these differences by all. Failure to do so must result in differences,

Redefining

Yasmeen Aftab Ali

Pakistan

“The desire for peaceful coexistence

must aim at cultivating, first

and foremost, a tolerance and understanding towards these

differences by all. Failure to do so must result in differences, acts of terrorism and

ultimately war.

OPINION


It is difficult to reject the notion that socio-eco-nomic develop-ment does not

significantly affect ter-rorism. When an alter-native view is taken we note that a country's so-cio-economic circum-stances affect terror-ists' behaviour through terrorism's opportunity costs. It can be argued

that this reasoning also holds for the case of supreme value terrorism and poor socio-economic development is conducive to terrorism. We find that socio-economic variables indeed matter to terrorism, contrary to other results. Clearly countries like Pakistan can benefit from eco-nomic development and growth in terms of a reduction in terrorism. Central to this argument is the observation that because terrorism is not a mass phenomenon but rather is undertaken by politically marginal actors with often narrow constituencies, the economic status of sub-national groups is a crucial potential predictor of attacks. The majority of studies conclude that socio-economic factors are poor indicators of terrorism. Yet factors such as poverty and education continue to be por-trayed as fundamental drivers of terrorist violence in political rhetoric and practice targeted at preventing terrorism.

As we sit in the middle of an ongoing economic crisis in Pakistan,

socio-economic issues have been forced into the limelight. At first glance, the global financial crisis has brought about a widespread lack of economic growth and youth unemployment rates of over 64% in Pakistan in the background of increasing levels of anti-austerity atti-tude across the whole country. The question is, does the current socio-economic landscape create the perfect storm for domestic, home-grown terrorist group recruitment? The resounding response to this question is ‘perhaps’.

Current thought is evolving in respect to this question. There is now a more nuanced discussion of the similarities and differences be-tween domestic terror and international terror. There is a move away from simply asking ‘if’ to asking ‘how’ socio-economic factors might

Economic downturn and domestic terrorism

Dr Fawad Kaiser

Analysts continue to debate how the relationships between socio-economic issues such as poverty, level of education and

terrorism manifest themselves in today’s recession-riddled world?


influence participation in or provide support for terrorists groups. Poverty has been flagged repeatedly as a potential breeding factor

for membership of terrorist organizations. Poverty and unemployment are often blamed for creating feelings of hopelessness and desperation and poor economic conditions foster a lack of economic opportunities, resulting in a limited number of options for gainful employment. This generates a positive relationship between unemployment and individual levels of willingness to engage in terrorist violence, but this relationship is complicated. For example, while individuals from higher GDP coun-tries are more likely to have a range of economic activities available to them and less likely to engage in terrorist activities, high levels of unemployment can increase the potential for terror organization to re-cruit well-educated individuals capable of carrying out more effective, brutal attacks. Conversely, economic growth has also been linked with increase in terrorism and support for terrorism. In this case, economic growth has been shown to inflame political and social unrest as a result of the shock waves of change that resonate through a society. These changes cause higher degrees of social inequity. This incites discontent and frustration, leaving the gateways open to terrorist groups who are keen to channel and offer solutions to the frustrations.

However, there is contrary evidence which negates the link be-tween poverty and terrorism. Osama Bin Laden and the 9/11 hijackers came from comfortable backgrounds and one third of suicide bombers are reported to come from middle-class backgrounds. Thus forwarding an interesting hypothesis that higher levels of education, combined with poor economic opportunities have the potential to increase the appeal of terrorist organizations to disgruntled individuals. These findings go some way towards explaining the lack of political will to fully reject support for the link between socio-economic factors and terrorism. As a result, the continued political focus on social issues in order to prevent terrorism appears to have some basis. In summary, these mixed and, at times, contradictory findings make it hard to confidently identify a straightforward association between poverty and terrorist group mem-bership or support at this point in time.

Analysts continue to debate how the relationships between socio-economic issues such as poverty, level of education and terrorism mani-fest themselves in today’s recession-riddled world? While the evidence suggests that terrorists are not any more likely to come from an econom-ically deprived or uneducated background, the potential of economic changes to fuel political and social unrest requires additional explora-tion. Will the tremors of austerity measures create new or additional

social inequalities and cul-tivate frustrations over poor expectations about future economic choices? Will these dynamics affect the terrorist organizations’ thinking to recruit highly educated individuals?

Observations drawn from this empirical evi-dence base deserve a cau-tionary note in relation to home-grown terrorism, as they are built primar-ily upon an understanding of international terrorism. Some researchers have argued that the repeated focus on international ter-rorism is irrational, as in-cidents of domestic terror-ism are far more numerous than international terrorist incidents (less than 20% of reported attacks). In fact, some suggest that domestic terrorism incidents outnumber international terrorist incidents by eight to one. Others believe that countries with higher levels of eco-nomic development experience more terrorist attacks than those with lower economic development. Debates in this area suggest efforts to refocus the analytical lens onto domestic terrorism and, thus, home-grown terrorism to truly understand the similarities and differences be-tween these two types of terrorism. This refocus is likely to have lasting implications for national and international policy and practice, and may open the window to a new understanding of the relationship between socio-economic factors and home-grown terrorism.

Analysts are still unable to provide a definitive response to these questions but the evidence suggests that, whilst not creating a perfect storm, the current economic crisis has created a ‘weather alert’ worthy of observation.

Dr Fawad Kaiser is Professor of Psychiatry and Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist with the Huntercombe Group in UK.

Osama Bin Laden and the 9/11 hijackers came from comfortable backgrounds and one third of suicide bombers are reported to come from middle-class backgrounds. Thus forwarding an interesting hypothesis that higher levels of education, combined with poor economic opportunities have the potential to increase the appeal of terrorist organizations to disgruntled individuals.

ECONOMY


Don’t forget the mountains

Mountains are the water towers and storehouses of energy for our world, yet very little thought is given to the mountains and the people who live in mountain areas. Especially con-

sidering this year’s theme of Water and Energy, this is a big mistake. Take for example the Hindu Kush Himala-yan (HKH) region which is the source of ten large Asian river systems and provides water, energy, and ecosystem services to more than 210 million people directly and indirectly to 1.3 billion people living in downstream ar-eas. This region also has a huge hydropower potential of 500 GW, of which only a fraction has been developed so

far. Yet, benefits of providing water and energy to down-stream users rarely reach mountain dwellers, though they often bear the costs of the un-sustainable use of both.

It is obvious that water and energy are intercon-nected in more ways than one. The most obvious con-nection is hydropower – the production of energy using water. But an equally important, but often overlooked, aspect of this nexus is the use of energy to produce wa-ter. This is exemplified by the pumping of groundwater. Groundwater is now the most important source of irriga-tion in the region – South Asia has roughly 25 million wells and tube wells, all used for agriculture. In Ban-gladesh and the plains of Nepal, much of the population depends on groundwater, which is often pumped with relatively expensive diesel fuel due to lack of electric-ity. The same holds true in the neighboring Indian states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and West Bengal. Both water and energy are needed to produce, process, and transport food – the third dimension of this nexus. The approach of looking at water, energy, and food within an intercon-nected nexus is now widely accepted and used to im-prove our understanding of their inter linkages at global, regional and local scales. I would like to highlight how this important nexus plays out in a mountain context. From a mountain perspective, there are at least three dif-ferent, yet interrelated ramifications of this nexus.

Aditi Mukherji


First is the issue of upstream-downstream linkages within a shared, trans boundary river basin. Mountains are the source of water, which then flows downstream to be used for various purposes, the most important of which is food production. Given the scarcity of land and uneven and often inhospitable terrain in the mountains, mountains cannot grow enough food to meet its needs, often sourcing its food from the plains. The plains, on the other hand, derive energy security from the hydro-electricity generated in mountain areas. This energy is used for many things, including the pumping of ground-water to grow crops. One key issue here is: how do we ensure that mountain communities are able to derive benefits from the services (water and energy) that they provide to downstream users? This calls for an integrated approach that spans entire river basins where nexus prin-ciples have been internalized by all key decision makers. This also needs to be underpinned by a framework for regional cooperation that ensures that energy and other services derived from the mountains are adequately paid for by downstream users.

Another issue is that of the seasonality of water and energy demands. How does one meet the energy needs of dry season irrigation in the plains at a time when river water levels are running low? The obvious answer is to construct hydropower dams with storage. While such dams are indeed needed, the inherent fragility of moun-tain ecosystems makes them environmentally problem-atic. Here again, the nexus approach provides a less obvious, but equally appealing solution. The transition zone between mountains and plains happens to be an ac-tive recharge zone for groundwater. In the plains just be-low this transition zone, say in parts of Nepal Terai and in Indian Bihar, there is a large unmet irrigation demand during the summer season – a demand that is unmet even though groundwater is available in plenty. This is due to the lack of access to affordable energy. Electricity produced through hydropower schemes upstream can be used to exploit groundwater and bring down ground-water levels in the summer season and then the aqui-fer storage can be effectively recharged using monsoon flow. Again, this requires an integrated approach where

surface and groundwater are co-managed.Finally, there is the issue of water, food, and en-

ergy security at a local scale in mountain regions. This calls for local solutions. Solar pumps are increasingly used in the mountains to transport water up from streams to settlements, which are often located on ridges high above deep river gorges, for household use. Further-more, there are examples of dedicated small hydropower plants being used to generate electricity locally to pump up surface water from rivers to irrigate farms in the flat lands, or tar, in the mountains.

Himalayan river systems play a significant role in downstream agriculture and food security in South Asia. The global community must look to mountains to resolve issues of energy, water, and food security, and to help people cope. To date, the conservation efforts of mountain people remain unrewarded, yet we have all reaped the benefits. Institutional mechanisms need to be established and strengthened to secure payment and reward mechanisms for mountain ecosystems services including surface and groundwater, water storage, and others relating to energy and food security. What hap-pens to the mountains is of global concern – whether or not there will be enough food and energy for all will depend partly on what happens in mountain regions.

Mukherji ([email protected]) is Theme Leader of Water and Air at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), Kathmandu.

ENVIRONMENT

“The defence cooperation between Rus-sia and Pakistan couldn’t be fastened because of two reasons. Firstly, Russia isn’t inclined towards Pakistan due to its long-lasting rela-tionship with India and secondly Russians be-lieve that some Chechen commanders who are at war with Russia are harboring in the tribal areas of Pakistan bordering the Durand line”, said Senator Mushahid Hussian Syed in an exclusive interview with monthly Economic Affairs.

As a matter of fact Pakistan itself is a victim of external intervention, facing the backlash of global war on terror going on in neighboring Afghanistan, said Mr. Mushahid and added, if any Chechen fighters are hiding in tribal areas, it is against the will of the state and Pakistan has already lodged war against the foreign elements hiding in the tribal belt. It is very clear that Pakistan is not going to tolerate or harbor any elements which desta-bilize its relationship with neighboring coun-tries. However, the mistrust caused due to these non-state elements is a minus factor in Pak-Russia relationship.

The legacy of cold war still overshad-ows the relationship. Both the countries missed a lot of opportunities to grow together due to this mistrust only as they do not have any other fundamental conflict of interest, he continued.

During the cold war era, India successfully remained aligned with the Soviet Union as well as with the United States, whereas Paki-stan kept itself limited to rela-tions with the US. If India had maintained equal relations with the Americans and Russians then why couldn’t Pakistan do that? he questioned.

After the disintegration of Soviet Union, a new phase of friendship started amid Pakistan and Russia. In 1992, the Russian Vice Presi-dent, Alexander Rutskoy’s visit to Pakistan was a step forward, showing Russia’s willing-ness to foster relations with Pakistan. Unfor-tunately, Pakistan didn’t respond positively as there should be a follow-up visit from her side therefore missing the opportunity to turn its relations with Russia friendly, which could also bring in economic benefits.

However, Mushahid said, “President Musharraf and Zardari made good attempts to bring Pakistan and Russia back on track. In my opinion, Pakistan should nurture its rela-tions with Russia as it would be beneficial to both countries. Having Russians as allies can help in various fields that could be helpful in strengthening Pakistan’s economy.” For ex-ample, Russia can provide technology as well as financial assistance to revamp Pakistan Steel Mills, it can help Pakistan in oil and gas exploration, as you may know Russia’s, Gaz-prom is one of world’s biggest oil companies, he said. However, said Mushahid, all this re-quires shift in our foreign policy and political will.

While reconciling relations with Rus-sia, Senator said, our foreign policy managers should keep in mind that the Indo-Russian re-lationship is very strong and could be a major factor hampering development of relations between Pakistan and Russia. Particularly,

India may resist the defense cooperation between

the two countries, he said.

We should remember that during President Ayub’s regime in 1968, India got very upset when Soviet

Union decided to sell arms to Pakistan. So, I am sure that if Pakistan moves forward to develop good political and economic relations with Russia, the phase will come when we buy arms from her”, he said.

After the disintegration of Soviet Union and particularly after the incident of 9/11, policies of both countries have changed sig-nificantly with regards to regional context. Recently, Pakistan has been able to develop good relations with President Karzai while the Russians also have some communication with the Afghan Taliban, which they didn't have before. "I don't foresee any conflict in the policies of both countries with regards to situation in Afghanistan after the US draw-down", he said.

Russia has political interest in stability of Afghanistan, but they would be unconform-able with the export of any sort of terrorism from Afghanistan to Central Asia and the re-gion falls under its immediate sphere of influ-ence, he said. Russia has troops in Tajikistan, bases in Kyrgyzstan, and they have lot of eco-nomic interest in Central Asia. Russians are worried about the situation in Afghanistan and increasing influence of Taliban and their pos-sible relation with fighters in Chechnya, Dag-estan and other Muslim areas of Russia could have adverse effects on the region, he said.

Suggesting the way forward in Pak Russia relations, Mushahid recommends that Pakistan should move through the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), and should seek Russia’s help in becoming a member of SCO which would be helpful in order to im-prove relations with Russia.

Almas Haider Naqvi is an Islamabad based Journalist currently pursuing M. phil research on Pak-Russia rapprochement, challenges and prospects.

Prospects of Pak-Russia ties

Mushahid Hussain Sayed is a journalist, geo-strategist, politician, an avid writer and reader. Currently, he is member to the Senate of Pakistan and also the Chairman of Senate Standing Committee on Defense and Defense Production. He is the Secretary-General of the Pakistan Muslim League (Q).

Almas Haider Naqvi

INT

ER

VIE

W


Owing to the sagacious polices of PML government, we are entering into the new era of latest information and communication technology: said Anusha while chairing the high level meeting at the Ministry of Information Technology. The meeting was convened to review the progress of different

projects, which are being carried out under the direct supervision of Ministry of IT, Federal Secretary IT Mr. Ahklaq Ahmad Tarar, Additional Secretary IT Mr. Azmat Ali

Ranjha and other high officials of Ministry of IT were also present in the meeting.The Minister said that the government has assigned utmost priority to the

development of ICT sector and put in place all possible measures to accelerate the development of technology in the country. The inception of 3G and 4G technology

would definitely bring economic growth and prosperity, which would help to provide an opportunity of millions of new jobs to the educated youth of the country.

The Minister has further said that youth should not only use latest technology for entertainment purpose but also must explore the technology for development of database

purpose and software. The government attached great priority to the E-government system, which is being implemented in all federal ministries and their attached departments to create

“less paper” environment and to ensure efficiency, transparency and good governance so that efficient and cost effective services could be provided to the people of Pakistan.

The State Minister said that the establishment of 500 UTC’s (Universal Tele-centers) in rural and remote areas throughout Pakistan would work as “resource centers” which would facilitate the

people by offering them services of birth registrations, e-commerce, e-health, e-learning, registration and verification of SIM cards/ID cards through NADRA. She stressed that the objective behind the

establishment of Tele-centers was to create job opportunities amongst the youth and to enhance ICT awareness in the remote and neglected areas of the country.

The Minister of IT further added that the government is vigorously pursuing the project of technology parks, which will be established in three metropolitan cities of Pakistan (Islamabad, Karachi and Lahore

respectively) in order to provide conducive technological environment and to facilitate the companies working in the ICT sector.

PML-N leading country to new era of ICTs: Anusha

REPORTINTERVIEW

dell

Highlight


The Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research (ECSSR), UAE organized its 19th Annual Conference titled Technology: Impacts, Challenges and the Fu-

ture on March 18-19 2014.It was staged under the patronage of His

Highness, General Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dha-bi, Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces and President of ECSSR.

Dr “Jamal Sanad Al-Suwaidi’s Welcome Address

Dr “Jamal Sanad Al-Suwaidi”, Director General of the (ECSSR) presented welcome address in the opening session of the confer-ence. He said that technological progress has led to qualitative leaps forward in all areas of life, accompanied by radical changes in think-ing and it is the main tool for globalization.

Importance of Good Planning “We believe that a good planning will

allow us to use the technology as a tool to achieve our aims and overcome the challenges

that may be experienced by other societies”, he added.

Combination of HRM and Technological Development

He said all individuals, institutions and decision makers need to work closely to ex-change their ideas in order to reach a develop-ment plan that can maximize the use of human resources and technological advancements in the best possible manner.

Royal Highness Princess “Rym Al Ali’s Key Note

It was followed by the keynote speech by her Royal Highness Princess “Rym Al Ali”, the founder of “Jordan Media Institute” in the “Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan”. She spoke highly about the research book titled, From Tribe to Facebook: The Transformational Role

of Social Networks written by H.E. Dr. Jamal Sanad Al-Suwaidi. She elaborated the role of media technology in the regional countries. She pinpointed many impacts of emerging media in terms of knowledge societies in the region. She quoted American entrepreneur and TV producer Frederick Siebert‘s six stages of the technological phenomenon.

Different Media Scenarios “It seems like some countries are in the

middle of the phase with increased government control while others are struggling to preserve the value of this new and improved channel of communication; all still far from the level of balance” she further added.

Importance and effects of the media outlets and communications platforms

She highlighted the importance and ef-fects of the media outlets and communications platforms these days. She had serious reserva-tions about quality of these tools of persuasion and communications. She talked about elec-tronic media, social media and importance of message and news.

Media as an effective tool “At the end of the day media is a tool

we are dealing with the full effects of which are still unclear. We are not victims or passive users. We have largely become passive users of this tool and each of us use information that

travels through the internet in different ways” she explained.

Social Media in the Middle East

She said that in the Middle East, social media has produced a parallel world. The sub-ject whether they have triggered uprising has been overanalyzed, and in my opinion, exag-gerated. There is a limit to what technology can do. There is still need for more dialogue. The influence of the media should be har-nessed for this purpose.

Question of Privacy She raised the question of privacy.

Snooping with the personal information and lives of the customers should not be encour-aged. According to her it might disturb societal fabrics and culture of tolerance in the world.

This was followed by four separate panels that discussed the regional and global impacts of current and potential technological advances against a backdrop of growing global interconnectedness and globalization.

Day One: Responsibility and Values

The first panel of the conference mainly discussed the responsibility and values of us-ing technology rather than technology itself. While the speakers highlighted the growing role of technology, they called upon govern-ments, institutions, parents and society in gen-eral to encourage responsible thinking towards using technology as a tool.

Panel Chair The panel chair, Mohamed Nasser Al

Ghanim, director-general of Telecommunica-tions Regulatory Authority (TRA), UAE, ex-plained the country’s leadership focus in creat-ing smart cities that are more people-centric. Mohamed Ghanim said the UAE intends to add services never seen or heard of before be-cause of the country’s aims of using various innovations in technology.

Smart Government and Smart Cities

“We have started to engage in Smart Government and Smart Cities at the same time,” said Mr Al Ghanim. He rated it as the most important challenge that involves co-operation and responsibility between all the institutions involved. He said “we need to create efficiency to transfer existing processes to become smart. We need to tailor the ap-proach to those who are using the technology the citizens. We need to work with hundreds

of agencies and prioritize the goal in question. This is not a government centric issue, but it is about what the user wants, and what the people who live in our cities want, he added.

Statistical Data Professor Philip Howard from the Uni-

versity of Washington, USA said “for the last 5 years and in particular during the Arab Spring, mobile phones are a big part of the story.”

“Today, some 75 billion apps have been downloaded for smartphones, and there are some two billion smartphones out there. If the average phone has 38 apps on it, and the apps ping a server three times a day, the net-work generates 226 billion location points,” he added.

Role of new innovations Professor Linnar Viik, Former Director

of Skype Technologies Ltd and Associate Pro-fessor and Member of the Board, Estonian In-formation Technology College, Estonia, said that innovation can emerge from new tech-nologies and non-technological knowledge. He said that non-technological innovations are closely related to the know-how, skills and working conditions that are embedded in or-ganizations.

Development of information technology and Perspectives

“We have reached a point in the devel-opment of information technology where our perspective of our current position and our future prospects are both too small and too large. We have a right to be interested in both aspects of the technology because our current position should tell us whether we are using the technology profitably and our vision of the future should help us prepare ourselves and our society for the next generation,” said Professor David Alan Grier, Associate Profes-sor of International Science and Technology Policy and International Affairs, The George Washington University, US.

Day Two Prof Alfonso Gambardella from Boc-

coni University in Italy said “the problem with

ideas is that many are worth nothing, but very few are worth a fortune”.

Winning Ideas “We do not know which are the winning

ideas, so we have to try many before we find the ones that will be successful,” he said.

Prof Gambardella said that large compa-nies must invest in new ideas when it comes to technology, as often the person with the blue-print of an innovative idea cannot finance the project himself.

“In the division of labour there is room for investors, producers of ideas and the buy-ers of ideas. The division of labour is not something that enables some companies and not others; because it is a division that enables many parties to do many things.”

Smarter Technology Martin Ford, president of Acculant

Technology in the US, said that as technology gets smarter, machines could soon replicate the repeatable tasks of many human workers.

“If you look at the workers out there, millions of them, for the most part, are doing jobs that on some level are routine and predict-able,” he said.

Prof Nayef Al Rodhan, from the Univer-sity of Oxford in the UK, explored the chang-ing face of technology and its relationship with ethics and biology.

Main Message The ECSSR conference concluded with

the message that companies in the UAE need to take more risks and invest in innovative ideas and technologies. During the conference the ECSSR called on companies to increase their support for innovators. The question of privacy, innovation, big data management, eco-system and the last but not the least dawn of smart era was the main area of discussion during the two international conferences at ECSSR, the jewel of genuine research provid-ing philosophical answers and practical solu-tions to all the policy makers, businessmen, economists, scholars and above all, rulers.

Technology: Impacts, Challenges and the Future

Mehmood Ul Hassan Khan

The writer is a research scholar, specializes in geopolitical issues of the GCC, CIs and South East Asia. He has keen interests in cross cultural dialogue and conflict resolution.

ECONOMY

They conquered Everest in their spare time & crafted empires; their names were featured in Forbes ‘30 under 30’. Somewhere along the way they had reset the bar. Their contributions had not gone un-noticed.

The people who had made the list included trailblazers, trendsetters, risk-takers & crusaders, seen at the 6th LADIES-FUND® Annual Women’s Awards. An event to salute an un-

likely band of heroes who left a legacy of courage and com-passion also acknowledged ex-ceptional women on the rise.

LADIESFUND® launched by Dawood Global Foundation (2007) & headed by Tara Uzra Dawood, celebrates these achievements by adding powerhouse women and their noble causes to their wall of fame. It also makes its core mission - Educate 1000 Girls, the lynchpin & encourages the entrepreneur within our ranks. The

talented Alycia Dias, who performed the anthem & walked away with a musical scholarship, would be joined by other hopefuls, awarded with fel-lowships, grants or monetary support to kick-start their fledgling careers.

The ceremony, held at Mohatta Palace (Karachi), home of Fatima Jin-nah, opened with an Indonesian Cultural Welcome Dance, but its glitzy tap-estry would be inlaid with sombre undertones. Women, who make empower-ment as a motif, do so at great personal risk. The ‘Khushhali bank Idol Award’ awarded to those who had fallen in the line of duty like the families of brave polio workers (Anita Zafar Jumani & Akbari Juman). There were sympathetic sponsors on hand to take care of the special needs of children they left behind.

The audience would catch brief glimpses of Pakistan’s impressive philan-thropy record and its largest orphanage – SOS Children’s Village which has 2000 projects in 133 countries. Outside Europe it is reportedly the largest self financing charity.

The (late) Parveen Rahmen, director OPP (Orangi Pilot Project) the biggest poverty alleviation scheme worldwide that helps 3 million people and serves as a model project would be posthumously awarded the ‘Courage Award’ along with (late) Zahra Shahid Hussain (PTI). While their struggles underscore the volatile landscape & successes often get eclipsed by tragic headlines, these are the voices capable of overrid-ing the prevalent narrative of despair.

There were a few brave men on hand – including Faisal Qureshi (PTV host - Perspectives) who had graciously agreed to host (but had to leave midway), & British / Indonesian Council Generals who acted as presenters.

6th

Momentum Award

Angie Marshall

Award winning makeup artist who

styled 3rd runner up Miss Universe 2011

2014

Ladies Fund® Women’s Awards

Trailblazer Award

Khalida Brohi

- Founder Sughar Program that

empowers village women & honor

killings

Alycia Dias

Families Of Parveen Rahman

& Zahra Shahid Hussain (PTI)

Indonesian Welcome Dance


Afrah Jamal

Nazneen Tariq Khan (Fundraising Chair) (R)

KARACHI DIARY


monthly economic affairs april, 2014

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