Nawaz Sharif speech... Where are the policy statements Sir?

Where are your Structural Reforms & Policy statements?

Govt. sets policies and people do...

Why is every thing in future tense please? What is the accomplishment yet Sir? You have already increased inflation since your arrival and the beasts are not even afraid to continue killing with gay abandon. Is "dafaa khayali palau na pakayen" please. Where is the money for your grandiose plans? There are many lacunas in your speech and is conspicuous by the absence of important policy statements. Speech is well written and will definitely impress the un-informed. I wouldn't call it fooling the uneducated!

There is no mention of the root cause of all problems that is the zamindari and sardari system, in English we call it feudalism. There is no mention of it at all nor any mention of land reforms for this agrarian country. There is no mention of building a strong and honest merit based Civil Service that is the framework by which good governance is done. There is no mention of Judicial Reforms that are long over due.

In short there is no mention of any Structural Reforms. It is not the job of the Prime Minister to do projects. You set in motion a policy and people do it. Policy benefits accrue to millions of people not few. You give them the right environment and then regulate properly that is being a good Prime Minister. Create an environment Sir. We are a nation of brilliant people all we need is Law and Order and a Government that understands governance has a road map in all areas and knows how to kick start an economy not run it.

I am fairly disappointed by your speech although it was nice to hear you talk at least. But when you analyse  it seems to be just a hollow promise coz you don't have the basics right and the systems around it are not in place to support it. How will you sustain them? I hope and pray that you are able to do what you promise and prove me wrong. 

I do not want to go into specifics now suffice me to say you have not addressed the power issue rightly. No that is not the route. There are better and far cheaper solutions. The transport system idea is good but let it not be just on paper. To start with revive the circular railway in Karachi that will help all. You can later or simultaneously do the metro project. Yet you are thinking laterally and you won't find the right solutions until you think vertically. Specifics later inshallah.

You have solicited our ideas for Pakistan but you have not said where and how do we communicate with you? Allama Iqbal and Quad e Azam ka Pakistan - hope it comes about. Amen.

Allama Iqbal said: 

Masjid tho bana dee shab bhar mein eeman ki hararath walon ne, 

mun apna purani paapi hai barson mein namazi bun na saka.

Listen to the speech in case you have missed.

http://www.pkaffairs.com/Play_Show_Prime-Minister-Mian-Muhammad-Nawaz-Sharif-Address-to-Nation--19th-August-2013_42495

Thinker

For Nawaz this could be the last nail in the coffin.

Nawaz Sharif should not have started this blame game... now it is going to hurt him like nothing else...
The motives were ulterior. All could see. It has obviously back fired. You did this so that the Cancer Hospital gets hurt. People should not give zakath, fithra and donations in Ramzan. How could you do it  Mr. Nawaz Sharif -twice PM of Pakistan although did not succeed both times. Please keep things political if you want to acquire the leadership of Pakistan again. You are being downright non-political Sir. Now you cannot answer to Imran Khan's 11 questions. You might face the music.
You have left these two to do your job Khaja Asif and Ch. Nisar. Both are people of low intellect and integrity. They have no class either. They are known to make enemies quickly aur aap rappus mein aa rahay hain. Fire them first, if you want to come back to power. This will give some self respect to your other supporters who are otherwise going to desert you en mass if things continue as they are.
A quick apology would be in order and come to terms with reality and please stop hitting under the belt. Play the game fair and square. If you do not pay heed to my advice you are going to suffer Nawaz Sharif Saheb.
http://tribune.com.pk/multimedia/videos/417177/

No body seems to be serious about Balochistan!

Placate the Baloch and sideline the sardars...
Already late but it is time to take political action and not succumb like Nawaz Sharif in front of Sardars...

Creative thinking is the need of the hour. Love not hate is the need of the hour. Statesmanship and not vendetta is the need of the hour. Our Baloch brothers our co-citizens and our compatriots who have been badly let down. In the desire to please the sardars we completely forgot about the real Baloch, the son of the soil and our co-citizen, our compatriot, our brother. We both got freedom on the same day August 14, 1947. We have to go back to the basics.

We were not freed so that we be the slaves of some one else. I was infuriated the other day when in a forum some one was of the opinion that we must pay sardars money  like the Brits did to buy their loyalty. He was also of the opinion that Balochs were the slaves of Sardars. I took strong objection to it. They are no body's slaves but equal citizens of a proud country called Pakistan. Those who made them slaves should be dispossessed of the their power. Their power comes from land. Take it away from them and give to the poor Baloch who they have tried to crush for over 60 years.

We have paid money for the past 60 years to sardars what do we have on hand? All the money eaten up by the sardars, no development what so ever, arms in every body's hands and total anarchy. No safety, no security, no schooling, no hospitals, no roads, nothing. Whatever the Federation gives Balochistan is consumed by the Sardars. Enough is enough. Pakistan has to talk tough to the Sardars and befriend the Baloch. All policies should be aimed to benefit the common Baloch not Sardars.

Regardless of the threats development of Baluchistan should start right away. We need to give them safety and security. The State shall provide that while every body including the sardars surrender their weapons. Otherwise there will be no safety and security to do any thing. The process of education and hospitals and infrastructure development must start now without any delay.

It is time to get into political negotiations with the Baloch or their elected representatives. A Baloch means a Baloch on the street, the common Pakistani in residing in Balochistan. Do not talk to the Sardars they have failed the people of Baluchistan miserably. If Pakistan talks to the sardars, then it is the death knell to the relationship between the Balochis and Pakistan.

Bring the Baloch in the fold of Pakistani fraternity. They have no problem with us. They are there all over Pakistan. Their rights have been usurped by the Sardars and not Pakistan please understand that.

But alas where is the leadership to lead Pakistan out of this morass with firmness, resolve and a dying wish to do good for the people of Baluchistan and keep the country united. Will some one rise to the occasion please?
I wish I could write in the local Baloch dialect. Will someone translate in the local Baloch dialect please?

Also read another article on this blog: http://thinker-thinkingoutofthebox.blogspot.com/2009/07/myth-of-pricely-state-about.html
Amazing pictures of Baluchistan:  http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=1333279

If you live by the sword you die by the sword...

Revenge politics has got you nowhere Mian Saheb... Stop living in the past... understand the new ground realities and don't be fooled any more...
It is high time you realised Mian Saheb that Allah does not like revenge. He says all the time "forgive as I forgive you". My father had issued an Eid Card once and sent to every body saying - Make forgiveness your creed.

The only constant in this world is change. So times change things change. One should realise that. Grasp the new realities. You were so transfixed on what Musharraf did to you in October 1999 that you could not grow beyond it and comprehend the new realities and opportunities to take advantage. Instead of doing something good for the country which you are fully capable of, you were stuck on revenge with Musharraf.

The result was Mr. Zardari took full advantage of you. He literally fooled you as is the universal perception. He got every thing and you got nothing. And now he has got your government dismissed. That was the height. Even now Mian Saheb, millions love you, try to understand the situation. The president is way too smart for you. I strongly urge you to play real politics, not revenge politics if not it will hurt you and your party more and more.

First forget and forgive then see The Pakistan situation in new light. There is a lot you can do. A lot. You must have new agendas. This judiciary thing is fine. Judiciary must be free and without judicial activism but you must have other important issues too Mian Saheb. Like what? Read on this blog I have written earlier, something on economy and let me briefly repeat here.

You have public appeal so do things for the public. One thing you must do is release the people of Pakistan from the yolk of the landlords and sardars. One way to do is to bring land ceiling. You see land is limited and people unlimited. Let there be more ownership of land. More people should be owning land than few. That gives self employment opportunity to more people. More people become affluent than few. With their new found wealth they want things. Don't import. Make them locally and give them. You set in an industrial revolution.

I propose no more than 60 acres per person including no more than 15 acres of irrigated land if under a canal. Under a dam more people should have access to water than few after all it is the nations wealth that is being used to build a dam. So why should only a few benefit from a mega project? Maximum number of people must avail of the facility that will also ensure better productivity. Mian Saheb campaign for it. You will sweep the polls from Kashmir to Sindh.

Mian Saheb campaign for making the economy a manufacturing one unlike the trading one the banker Shaukat Aziz made it. Make policies such that people are encouraged to manufacture and market it nationally and internationally. Give free land outside towns with roads, electricity and water and some export incentives then see how the economy booms. We may have to bring labour from abroad like in Saudi Arabia (but without their terrible laws of course).

Campaign for conservation of foreign exchange and import substitution. Give a few years of this dose, Pakistan will be the most prosperous country in the world. Then don't be selfish help others in need. Muslims all over the world need our leadership. You can then provide it and help them in so many different ways.

Give the devil his due...

The vexed 60 year Kashmir Issue was almost resolved with backdoor diplomacy - Washingtonpost.
Don't get me wrong. I am no admirer of any dictator or any landlords purportedly to be leaders of the people of Pakistan but let's give the devil his due which our sense of fairplay demands. Was it this desire to etch his name in history and do something for Pakistan that he somehow wanted to complete his tenure and accomplish something before he left? Probably yes.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/21/AR2009022101714.html
It now transpires that he was close to a deal with India on Kashmir. I have posted the link above that will tell you all about it. Now this was no small achievement. It is terribly sad that a single mistake of Shaukat Aziz let this fellow down. This is a classic example of what happens when you are surrounded by not true leaders but cronies.

While he did a lot of good he was the victim of his own policies in so many areas, there is no denying that but one thing that hurt him most was the media that could not digest the newfound freedom granted by him. They started biting the master that freed him. So much of scorn was aimed at him so thoughtlessly that the thinkers in Pakistan were forced to think if it was not harming the national interests. Now it seems their fears were not unfounded.

The report says that there was going to be almost no border in Kashmir and Indian troops were going to be withdrawn. That was a huge success for the people of Kashmir. But then Musharraf's popularity spiralled down so much that India found it easy to wriggle out of it. One wonders how and when could we get to that point again.

It is fashionable to blame Musharraf for every thing but let's not ignore the good the guy did. His intense backdoor diplomacy that we now know may have been the factor he wanted to cling to power as long as he could and get some results. Apart from picking on him for overthrowing an elected government you can't much attack him. He was engaging India positively, dealing with the a Neocon President in Washington - wonder if any other president could have done any different and the country was cruising ok.

While there was growing insurgency in NWFP due to the Taliban and AlQaeda factor, the country was doing well economically. I bet there was more prosperity somehow. Foreign exchange reserves were swelling, dollar was holding around Pk.Rs 60, energy was not so expensive, law and order not as bad as now, Pakistan was attracting investment too. Then comes this issue of Judical Reference against Iftiqar M. Choudhry and all hell breaks loose.

What people do not talk about which I want to do now is the way he brought back the politicians into the country. If he wanted he could have carried on somehow with Muslim League Q etc. But he brought back Benazir and in the end even brought home Nawaz Sharif. They owe their political existence to him. You may argue adinfinitum on the merits or demerits of NRO but the fact remains he ensured free and fair elections and handed over the power to the politicians.

Is he The Messiah we have been waiting for... the next hero! Can he deliver?

Great day for Pakistan! He has finally spoken of Character... Hope he is serious!
It was heartening although very surprising. The Prime Minister has finally spoken of character today. He said something the whole nation has been waiting since the new guys took up office to run the country. He spoke of people having character. He said public memory is not short as generally promoted but people do remember if there is a scandal or if a reputation is tainted.

If Mr. Geelani sets the pace of character in public office he will be a hero for Pakistan we have all been waiting for since the Qaed e Azam - the first and the last hero of Pakistan. Mr. Geelani would be only the second hero. The nation does not give hero status to Ayub Khan, Yahya Khan, Z.A.Bhutto, Zia Ul Haque, Benazir, Nawaz Sharif, Musharraf and Asif Zardari. The military men are discounted for being dictators and the politicians for their mismanagement and corruption allegations.

Will Mr. Geelani campaign for zero tolerance for corruption and lawlessness and 100% tolerance for religious differences? Unfortunately presently the reverse is true. There is 100% tolerance to corruption and lawlessness and zero tolerance to religious differences. Efficiency like inefficiency percolates from the top similarly if there is no corruption at the top you can hope to have lesser and lesser corruption at lower levels.

Now that The Prime Minister is setting the pace can we hope that our children will usher in an era where there is fairplay with justice, zero lawlessness and zero corruption. Can we expect that there will be no favouritism and people get opportunities based on merit. Can we hope that our natural resources are shared by most citizen not just a few, that there is more equitable distribution of national wealth. Will he say bye bye to regionalism, nepotism and favouritism?

Once this happens see how Pakistan develops. It will be the choicest destination of every one in the world. People will invest massively, industries will flourish and tourism will bring in foreign exchange which we can use not for importing consumer goods but technology that will make consumer goods, export and provide more and more employment all over Pakistan. I hope somehow my message reaches the Prime Minister and he is steadfast in what he said. Amen.

Musharraf's mistakes...

The blunders were too costly...
On being freed, a man went wild dancing on the street and hit the nose of a person. He went to court. The hitter defended that he was a free man and could do any thing. The judge decreed: right, but the moment his nose came in your path the other man's freedom began. So here is the punishment.
Freedom comes with responsibility Sir...
This is precisely what Mr. Musharraf and the media have not understood. Freedom of the Press is fine but they cannot go wild as they have for the past so many months. Any freedom comes with responsibility. Where is the responsibility. Where is integrity to your profession?
Inept political leadership caused the take over of military...
The media does nothing concrete and positive but simply and only criticizes the President. Yes he came to power as a military man. But the situation was created by sheer arrogance and irresponsibility of the political leadership. Who can deny this?
Mr.Nawaz Sharif's life saved...
You just can't take one thing and keep harping on it. You must also see if Mr. Nawaz Sharif had not done what he did, for which he was punished for life, the opportunity would not have been there for the Junta to take over. He left for ten years on his own and got a pardon.
Army should be in the barracks for sure but the entire blame cannot go to them alone...
I am one of those who firmly believes that the army should be in the barracks for sure. But the ground reality is different. This guy when he took over, Pakistan was about to default. There were no reserves left. Nawaz had indeed become an elected dictator. Remember what he had done with the previous Chief of Staff. So blaming The President for just belonging to the army is not fair.
Ministry of Information erred grossly... where were the guidelines Sir?
The way, without guidelines, freedom of press was given by the President was his biggest blunder. While this should have helped Pakistan and Pakistanis it has helped the opposition. Media immediately took sides. I was amazed why the media rather a few in the media were taking sides instead of being neutral and just reporting and anlyzing. They cannot conduct media trials as they have been doing.
Media trials by the unscrupulous should be stopped...
They would start with judgments "that the government has totally failed, what do you think?" Leading question. You get the desired answer not necessarily the correct one. Why are some journalists doing this, guys like Kamran Khan and Kashif Abbasi etc? They would go to the extent of that 16 crore people have passed a judgment etc. As if they have taken a poll or done a referendum. Media trials going unabated. And their holier than thou approach. My God. I was all perplexed.
The journalists are scared of PPP. Why? Where is the freedom of press then?
On hard investigation I found that they are very scared of PPP even a passing negative reference would attract a threat. Some say that they get paid extra and also get the protection. Now media is power and if such unscrupulous elements get in, they exploit. And they have. President does not take action. They know it and are having a field day. They have even abused the President and the freedom they are enjoying for the first time in 60 years. Does it happen any where else in the world?
Freedom of the press is a lethal weapon cannot be used with carelessness...
In India for instance pass a negative reference against Rahul Gandhi, then see what happens to them, leave alone Sonia and Manmohan Singh. Their houses will be burnt and they will be taught a lesson that will be a deterrence for all other journalists. Freedom of the press should have been given with due guidelines so that it did not become a free lethal weapon in the hands of the opposition. Pakistan media is like wild bull right now.
Is Muhtharama an official title of the corrupt and twice failed ex-Prime Mininisters? Media should refer to her as Mrs.Benazir that is all...
Why should Benazir be called a Muhtharama in media? Their party workers call her that, it is fine. Does one call Respected His Highness Mr. Bush or Mr. Gordon or Mr.Blair in international media? This is ridiculous. Is it some official title for the corrupt, a former Prime Minister twice removed on corruption charges and misrule or something. A Pakistani journalist is not a PPP worker. If he is then surely he or she can call her Muhtharama although corrupt people cannot be respected.
This is a major blunder of The President. Other blunders you will read later. Keep reading my blog. Thank you.

Has the opposition gone bankrupt of ideas

Your Manifesto is not for the people... why?
It is about time we started thinking in the larger interests of the people of Pakistan and the country itself. Why is it our so called politicians only talk of issues that will bring them to power? Why don't they talk of issues that affect the people of Pakistan - the majority that is poor and does not have any political power what so ever most unfortunately.

We want Heroes not Villains please...

Choice between Villains...
Is it our destiny that we can only choose from a list of proven villains, each twice failed. Do we not deserve heroes? Or is it too much to expect? Perhaps. Where are the heroes? Who I consider as heroes is not the hero for others. There is only one undisputed hero and that is Mr. Jinnah. Every single leader after that is tainted one way or the other.

For me Ayub was a hero, probably he was the first Pakistani leader I heard about when growing up. I sort of liked him. But you talk to people they disagree. He is accused of derailing democracy and destroying the then existing institutions.

I even attended the funeral prayers of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. But no one agrees that he is a hero. He is accused of autocracy, arrogance, vendetta, lack of vision and above all integrity. For me his biggest blunder was nationalisation of industries that crippled the economy and stunted growth. He made many industries no more viable and Pakistan lost the world export market by overnight becoming uncompetitive. He is also blamed for dismembering the country into two.

Every thing that Zia did, I wonder if he did anything besides Umras, is over shadowed by his military credentials. It is a long story what he did and didn't.

However I can't recall any thing big he did on the domestic front in Pakistan. He may have had some successes on the international arena. His Kashmir policy was a failure so was Khalistan policy after initial successes. His crowning glory is the success achieved in ousting a super power in Afghanistan. But that did not help Pakistan but we fought a proxy war for another super power that has never been nor can ever be our reliable partner.

But the price we paid for America and Afghanistan is so great that for the next 50 years we are stuck with it. The Kalashnikov Culture. So Zia is most certainly ruled out also as a hero. I would have liked to call him a hero for his humility and his histrionic talents.

But one thing is clear in my mind and that is the regimes of Benazir, (now called moothorama by media) and Nawaz Sharif. My, what periods. Truely tumultuous for its incompetence and rampant corruption. They competed against each other in loot and plunder. If one was the patron of a 10%, later cent per cent, the other was a looter par excellence. Remember his "dollar bhijao and mulk bachao".

God alone knows where all that money went. The country went bankrupt in Nawaz's time and was about to be declared a default state. In moothorama's time her husband is on record as having said "things are good today, only 50 died." This is the state of our elected so called democratic leaders. Heroes? Where are they? Villains. Villains. Villains.

Don't we have a third choice? So far none, because whatever development Pervez Musharraf might have done is disregarded because he hails from the military. He is a very strong contender though from what he has achieved on the domestic front. An assembly completing it's full term is an achievement in itself. There has been development all over Pakistan even in remote towns and villages.

My driver who hails from a remote town in Punjab says they could never have imagined, roads and drainage there and he attributes that to the present people at helm and prays for Pervez Musharraf. People have benefited. The prosperity is visible. Mega projects have been completed in record time and the work goes on. If his policies reach there logical conclusion the country will benefit enormously. History will then judge if he was a hero.

There surely are the down sides like inflation that went uncontrolled. He did not introduce any measures to remove feudalism. He failed miserably to understand the Indian psyche in solving the Kashmir problem and did not even take advantage of 9/11 in solving the same issue. He did the dirty job that America should have done for itself. Why should we have been involved in problems which Arabs create for themselves by being inactive for past 100 years. Why should we pay for their follies when they do not even consider you as Muslims.

But what ever he may do he will never be accepted as a hero publicly although in heart of hearts of poor people he could possibly be a hero. So let us leave at that.

I have not the faintest idea how we could have a hero as a leader. I am clueless for the time being. If you have some ideas how we can have a hero as our leader please post it here.

Let a commo man serve, not rule, Pakistan

In a democracy there is no place for rulers, all are co-rulers, let a common man serve the people of Pakistan...
Have the people forgotten the utter misrule and corruption in the periods, two each of Benazir and Nawaz Sharif? Do they want the country to be plundered again with wanton disregard to national interests.

If Pervez goes and if he is replaced by a commoner who feels, thinks and acts for Pakistan it makes sense, but if were to choose once again from the failed two villains then the third villain is a better choice.

There should be a struggle against the feudal system that is at the core of all the ills in Pakistan. Who ever brings in land ceiling, does away with the land lords and the vested interests we shall bring him into power. We don't want the same villains again please.