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November 2010

ISLAMABAD: SBP reforms to eliminate role of institutional investors in National Saving Schemes

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* Containing inflationary pressure major objective of monetary policy

* Current account deficit expected to widen during FY11

State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) reforms are aimed at phasing out role of institutional investors in National Saving Schemes, review of the Export Finance Scheme (EFS) and Long-Term Financing Facility (LTFF), so as to ensure removal of distortions by narrowing the difference of interest rates on subsidised schemes with the market interest rates and making them more focused to achieve objectives for which they are created.Read More »ISLAMABAD: SBP reforms to eliminate role of institutional investors in National Saving Schemes

Don’t mess with Pakistan —By Pervez Musharraf

Sporadic and superficial global support has made Pakistanis feel dangerously betrayed

The world is watching Pakistan, and rightly so. It’s a happening place. Pakistan is at the center of geostrategic revolution and realignments. The economic, social and political aspirations of China, Afghanistan, Iran, and India turn on securing peace, prosperity, and stability in Pakistan. Our country can be an agent of positive change, one that creates unique economic interdependencies between central, west and south Asian countries and the Middle East through trade and energy partnerships. Or there’s the other option: the borderless militancy Pakistan is battling could take down the whole region.
Read More »Don’t mess with Pakistan —By Pervez Musharraf

Should We Ride on a Sick Horse or a Donkey?

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Qaisar Sultan

Nawaz Sharif has revealed his intellectual side by suggesting that democracy is like riding a horse and autocracy like a donkey; he forgot to mention the rough riders holding the bridle of the mustang, a free roaming feral horse (Our democracy). Democracy has been treated in Pakistan in the manner: “They shoot horses, don’t they”. Nawaz Sharif talks in terms of horses and donkey, breaking legs and hands and snatching eyes from the socket, jackal’s heart with a lion’s roar. In the wild west of USA, when a horse got leg injury and was dying, they shot the horse. This is the state of democracy in Pakistan. We have nothing more than corrupt and less than mediocre men calling themselves true lovers of democracy. They only desire money and power. The poor countries in the third world, per capita income of less than $3,000.00, have tried democracy, and have failed terribly. What is it that democratic governance that works for civilized world fails in the third world? Among religious fervor, factionalism, illiteracy, feudalism, militarism and poverty democracy has lost its traction and purpose. Though it does not sound sensible that we oppose a system that works for developed countries; it is imperative to look at this issue in the light of what is at hand. If the democratic governance has utterly failed in our country, is it not better to have a benign autocracy in place of a failed democracy?Read More »Should We Ride on a Sick Horse or a Donkey?

From Quetta to Karachi: The Diversity within Pakistan

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Bushra Zulfiqar
 I board an early morning flight from Islamabad to Quetta. In the last one year, this is at least my 30th trip to Balochistan, the beautiful but bitter Province of Pakistan. I have been going there for work regarding setting up quality education initiatives for girls, the marginalized, poor and destitute children of this Province which geographically covers more than 50% of Pakistan’s width. The flight to Quetta lasts one hour and fifteen minutes and almost always has a rough landing. Sleepers like myself who are blessed with the ability to fall deep asleep as soon as the plane takes off, always wake up with a jerk. I wake up to (other than the jerk) the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA)’s airhostess announcement, welcoming us to Quetta international airport. PIA is Pakistan’s national airline which was once regarded the best in South Asia and which actually helped setting up the Emirates in the 1970s. Gradually, as most other institutions of the country deteriorated, PIA also suffered its share of the blow. The feeling of a lost glory always re-appears while travelling PIA.Read More »From Quetta to Karachi: The Diversity within Pakistan

THE CHRISTIAN EXTREMISTS

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BY ALI SUKHANVER

It is a difficult question to be answered; what do the Americans hate; Islam or the Muslims; but it is a day light fact that the Muslims are maltreated in America. Complaints of harassment, discrimination, and violence against Muslims have been increasing at the rate of 30 percent per year since 2005. Before that year this rate of increase was 10 percent per year. This growing hatred against the Muslims could be to some extant an aftermath of the 9/11 incident but more important is the role of the extremist element ruling over the Christian church in USA. As referred by Jerry Brice in a recent article, Reverend Franklin Graham, one of America’s most respected Christian activists said at a dedication of a chapel in his home state of North Carolina, “We’re not attacking Islam, but Islam has attacked us. The God of Islam is not the same God. He’s not the son of God of the Christian or Judeo-Christian faith. It’s a different God, and I believe it is a very evil and wicked religion.” Such Christian leaders have poisoned the situation in such a horrible manner that even a common man in America, who labels religion as a private affair, tries to keep himself at a distance from the Muslims.Read More »THE CHRISTIAN EXTREMISTS