Do you remember an old adage:
‘ye cheez to Takkay ki nahiN hai’ (This thing is not worth a Takka).
Well, today the tables have turned. What was once true of BD Takka is now true for a Pakistani Rupee. As of today 1 Bangladeshi Takka equals 1.14 Pakistani Rupees . The phenomenal slide of Pakistani Rupee, which started around January 2008 continues unabated. Pakistani rupee is now trading at very close to 80 Rupees to a US dollar. Yahoo Finance was quoting Pakistani rupee at Rs 78.375 to a US dollar on October 6, 2008.
We also had a post on this topic back in May 25, 2008 when Rupee had slid down to Rs 68 for a dollar but this time slide in Rupee’s value seems like the steepest in history of Pakistan. Rupee has lost almost one third of its value in the past 10 months.
The question that everyone is asking is whether current Government is capable of controlling this situation or is it beyond anybody’s control.
Pakistan’s finance Minister (since May 12, 2008) is Mr. Naveed Qamar and atleast I’ve not heard anything from him about what are Government’s plans to bolster Rupee’s value or to stop fast depleting foreign exchange reserves of Pakistan (now down to approx $8.1 bn).
What is happening to a common person among all this turmoil is depicted well in a sher by Anwar Masood.
“jo dil pe guzarti hai raqam karte raheN ge”
kal tum ko bata deN ge raqam kitni bani hai
Reference:
This has been turned into a Mush supporters vs those who criticise his policies thread and the discussion is now centered more around cutting and pasting numbers that support one’s case.
This is where one starts to wonder if we are over politicised since we often fail to take positions on various issues independent of which party or leader we support.
Has the gdp increase substantially during the Mush period? Sure it has. Has Pakistan received substantial financial relief from other countries after 911? Again, the answer is a big yes.
Is it reasonable to quote in isolation the growth in gdp while ignoring the fact that he was operating in a very different and far more favourable situation than the govts in the 1990s? Certainly not. Every govt should be judged while keeping in mind the situation it has to work with instead of just quoting numbers out of context.
Musharraf’s performance should therefore be evaluated by considering the extra amount of foreign inflows after 911 along with the growth in the gdp. After such an analysis, if one can say that his govt made good use of the extra money to put Pakistan on a sustainable path for development, then he indeed deserves praise. On the other hand, if a careful analysis shows that the growth was mainly consumption driven and sustainability was largely ignored, then one should conclude that he and Shaukat Aziz lost a golden opportunity.
The way some of Musharraf’s supporters continue to quote numbers about how the gdp has grown while completely ignoring the context and addressing whether enough was done to make the growth sustainable is as ridiculous as those Mush bashers who quote the number of suicide bombings in Pakistan under him and comparing with the earlier periods in order to unfairly put the whole blame for this problem on him.
Mr. Banker,
Are you certain that U.S $ will go above 100 in the next few months.Will it ever come below 80 again?
AFTER SEEING THE CURRENT ECONOMIC SITUATION AND THE FAILURE OF CORRUPT GOVERNMENT OF MR10%. THE ONLY THING COMES INTO MY MIND ARE THE LAST WORDS BY FORMER PRESIDENT PERVAIZ MUSHARAFF:
“PAKISTAN KA ALLAAH HAFIZ HAI ”
AND FOR ALL THOSE PEOPLE WHO BLAMING PAST GOVERNMENT FOR CURRENT ECONOMIC CRISIS BECAUSE AS PAKISTANIS ITS IN OUR NATURE TO BLAME SOMEONE ELSE FOR THE PROBLEM THAT CREATED BY OUR OWN…UNDER PRESIDENT MUSHARAFF RULE YOUR FOREIGN RESERVES REACHED TO $17 BILLION FROM ONLY 3 BILLION IN WHEN HE CAME INTO OFFICE…THE CURRENT PRESIDENT ASIF ZARDARI HAD MADE THE NATION BANKRUPT IN JUST 8 MONTHS….YOUR DOLLAR RATE KEPT AROUND 60 RUPPES FOR 8 YEARS, BUT BECAUSE OF THE MEHARBANIS OF YOUR CURRENT PRESIDENT ASIF ZARADRI SAHED IT HAS FALLEN TO RUPPES 80 IN 8 MONTHS!!! ONE MORE THING THAT I WANT TO ASK FROM PEOPLE OVER HERE AND ESPECIALLY FROM MR OWAIS MUGHAL WHERE THE HELL ARE YOUR BELOVED LAWYERS AND
MR CHEIF JUSTICE IFTEKHAR CHUDUDARY !!!! ARE THEY ALSO HAVING FUN WITH THE MONEY THAT THEY GOT FROM MR 10% WHO HAS BECOME NOW 100% PRESIDENT ASIF ZARDARI ….?
Musharraf made the mistake of NRO, but Pakistanis made the mistake of voting NRO-holders into office. However since the February 18 election already happened, and Musharraf resigned, it is pointless to talk about it.
It is interesting however that Pakistanis are still obsessed with Musharraf, despite a new govt being in power for eight months which has brought no fresh policies.
Free elections does not mean that you withdraw cases against criminals and corrupts, those who have looted the country.
Free elections go hand in hand with free judiciary. But I believe that was too much for Musharraf-Shaukat to digest specially since the chief justice stopped the sale of Pakistan Steel at pittance.
basic math skills are a useful tool for economic analysis.
under shaukat aziz/musharraf’s tenure, pakistan’s reserves went from $0.5bn to $16bn, mkt cap of stock market went from $5bn to around $70bn, govt budget expenditure went from $10bn to £30bn, pakistan went off the imf progarm and instead was able to attract $8bn in fdi during the last full year of last govt. pakistan’s fiscal position at the end of s.a/musharraf tenure was better than that of india. pakistan debt to gdp and budget deficit/gdp (consolidated) was lower than that of india’s at the time of shaukat aziz’s last budget.
one of the biggest beneficiaries of of shaukat aziz’s policy was a certain mr. shaukat tareen - a man recently appointed as the economic czar by the current government. shaukat tareen and his financial backers operating under the union bank umbrella bought the local operations of bank of america at distressed valuations in late 1990s and later sold the merged bank to standard chartered bank at a profit amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars. certainly would be hypocris on the part of shaukat tareen to turn around and badmouth the policies of last govt when he himelf has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of shaukat aziz’s economic policies. question also arises why would the democratic govt appoint a man who more likely than not will follow the same policies as the previous government?
as for forgiving zardari, that was a part of package deal with bb. as i recall, there was a clamour for free elections in pak last year both locally and internationally. for free elections to take place in pak, ppp would have to participate and ppp would only participate if bb/zardari combo were allowed to return. otherwise bb would have gone to her neocon backers which would further turn the heat on pakistan. pakistanis however had a chance to repudate ppp at the polls but they did not. now i hope ppp gets a chance to rule for the next 5 years. pkr/usd rate will be well over 100 by then but thats the fate pakistanis deserve.
Dear All,
I am regularly reading this $Rs blog which has now grown into
a ”us versus them ” forum.
Will Mr Shaukat Aziz please stand up and be counted as the last Prime
Minister and respond. He is under no binding agreement.
However he is under obligation to the hapless people of Attock and Thar from where he was made to file his bye election papers.
He should say that ” banda e mazdoor ke auqat ” in Attock and Thar have not changed for the worse(they were exactly the same before he took over and left it exactly the same).
Let this blog be a blog and not a cut/paste shop.
A note: The in- camera session.
” jaan kek kar jo bulaya to bura maangaye,
aina unko dikhaya to bura maangaye.
And I would again say to be patient, after all, they are ”our” elected reps.
Not all of us should start mudslinging again, today.
Wait a bit, just a bit, a little bit, please —–
Sincerely
Naseer
Funny thing is it is Musharraf and Musharraf alone who with his NRO gave Zardari a clean slate and is responsible for withdrawing all the cases lodged against him with taxpayers money.
Who gave Musharraf the right to forgive Zardari and waive off all the money he has looted from the country. Was it Musharraf’s money that Zardari looted? How we simply seem to overlook this fact and put all the blame on Pakistani nation?
First things first. The immediate solution is to get around $10 billion for the this fiscal year as aid. We might get it since Shaukat Tarin is on board. But being a banker, I hope he does not screw up the future economy as Shaukat Aziz ended up doing with his policies.