Aqil Sajjad
Like many Pakistanis, I admire Imran Khan and his sincerity. But supporting him politically is a different matter. He and his party – Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf (PTI) – have some serious soul searching to do before people give it their political support.
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Imran Khan is one of the few principled politicians we have. There is no doubt that he truly cares about the country. His bold stance on May 12 and his consistent support for the restoration of the judiciary was unmatched by any other prominent politician. His cancer hospital and the projects he has started in the field of education have been praised even by many of his critics.
Someone like myself, who is dissatisfied with the politics and corruption of the leading parties, is naturally attracted to Imran Khan who talks about principles and accountability. However, as much as I like Imran for his honesty and devotion to the country, I have some concerns about him and can not help agreeing with Shafqat Mahmood’s statement that Imran never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity.
Being politically inclined, I have even considered joining PTI at times, but reservations about his politics prevent me from doing so.
Imran Khan has been in politics for 13 years, and this is a long enough period to develop the party into a vibrant, democratic entity. Unfortunately, PTI still comes across more like an Imran Khan fan club rather than a democratic political party. For the most part, there is an absence of grass roots forums that meet regularly where any party member can raise issues and be heard, and the party line almost completely comes from the top.
Secondly, Imran does not realize that politics requires an appropriate mix of idealism and pragmatism and confuses this balancing act with opportunism. If he wants to serve the people of Pakistan by coming into power, then his decisions should be geared towards that goal. He had an excellent opportunity to launch himself when Nawaz Sharif offered him 20 odd seats in 1997 and again when Musharraf was willing to help him become the prime minister. Instead of spurning these offers, he should have taken a few ministries and worked hard on demonstrating through performance that he was someone who could truly deliver if given a chance. This could have provided him with the impetus needed to launch PTI into a force capable of getting elected into power on its own and then implement its reform agenda.
This unwillingness to balance idealism and pragmatism also creates doubts about his ability to deliver even if he came into power some day. It makes one wonder whether he would really take a practical approach towards addressing the country’s problems.
On top of all this, Imran Khan has a very confused stance on the Taliban where he still falls well short of fully condemning them.
He has been very consistently and forcefully bashing the Americans in recent years but the same kind of condemnation for the Taliban has not been forthcoming. This sharp contrast, when the Taliban have killed many more Pakistanis than the American drones, and when they are directly trying to destroy the state structure to establish their own rule, is hard to understand. It has taken some strong criticism for Imran Khan to finally make a few "too little too late" statements criticizing the Taliban, whereas what one expects from a good leader is the ability to clearly identify and point out a problem well ahead of time.
His stance on the current situation in Swat has again left a lot to be desired. He first vehemently opposed the military operation but did not explain what the government should do when the Taliban break a peace agreement and keep on expanding into neighbouring districts as they blatantly did after the Swat deal. Only after coming under regular fire has he finally accepted that a military operation can also be an option. He rightly says that bombings should be avoided and the operation should be carefully targeted, but the national debate could have been more focused on discussing how military action can be carried out in a way that minimizes civilian suffering if he and others had not been creating confusion by insisting that there should never be an operation.
In yet another example of muddled thinking, he now argues that before sending the army, a group of politicians should have been allowed to go and try to convince the Taliban to abide by the Swat peace deal. This makes one wonder why he did not publically propose this in the days leading up to the operation and what he is trying to accomplish by undermining the military’s efforts now that the time for this idea has clearly passed.
I really admire Imran Khan for his sincerity, but these are some of the serious issues that he and his party have to come to grips with, before PTI can make serious headway in realizing its full potential.
Federal Supply Schedule contracts: “the rest of the story”. (Marketing Issues).
Set-Aside Alert October 18, 2002 | Johnson, Thomas D.
In a previous issue we discussed some of the advantages of GSA Federal Supply Schedule contracts and how they can be the keys to success in the federal market.
GSA’s Federal Supply Service manages most Federal Supply Schedule programs, although the Department of Veterans Affairs has been delegated responsibility for several schedules covering hospital and medical equipment and supplies.
GSA Schedule categories cover a wide variety of commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) products and services. This includes supplies, furniture and equipment used in offices, labs, hospitals, warehouses, libraries, and post housing. It also includes vehicles, tires, batteries, boats and groundskeeping equipment.
In addition to commonly used products, GSA now provides for contracts for a large number of commercial services. Schedules have been created to cover auditing, credit services, engineering, environmental remediation, management and business process consulting services, and marketing. Many small service businesses are negotiating contracts under these latter contracts.
Being awarded a schedule contract tells all federal agencies that you have established prices, terms and conditions that GSA considers equal to or better than prices you charge to other customers. This gives both primes and agency buyers a reason to talk to you: they know that some of the paperwork is complete. However, some of your competitors probably have schedule contracts, so you’ll have to fight just as hard to find the opportunities, manage the procurement and win the order.
In an earlier column we introduced a number of the Federal Supply Service centers that share the contracting responsibilities for GSA Federal Supply Schedules, sometimes also referred to as Multiple Award Schedule contracts (MASC). If you would like a copy of that column please call our office at 202-364-6473. Here’s the rundown on the other FSS centers.
General Products, 819 Taylor Street, Fort Worth, TX 76102, 817-978-2514, fax: 817-978-2776, purchases products for the following uses: recreation, hospitality, law enforcement, facility management, industrial and environmental control and management. Their Solutions and More (SAM) schedule covers everything from crafts and toys to theatrical and A/V equipments to toiletries and bed linens to fire and rescue equipment. In the facilities and security markets, they establish contracts for water and sewer equipment, prefab structures, power generators and distribution equipment, security and guard services, and facility management services. Industrial and environmental solutions include boats and motors, material handling and shop equipment, vacuuming and cleaning equipment, recycling containers, chemicals and special purpose clothing. If you sell products for Homeland Security, Fort Worth is a required stop on your government sales journey. site power supply calculator
Management Services, 800-241-7246, is in Auburn WA, a suburb of Seattle. This center focuses on energy management and environmental services, language translation, and worldwide logistics support (LOGWORLD). The popular Management, Organization and Business Improvement Services (MOBIS) schedule is managed by this center, providing consulting services for business process reengineering, systems analysis, facilitation, surveys and training services. Here’s the place to develop a contract to sell business management and problem-solving services. If you are into environmental compliance, GIS or mapping, remediation, hazardous material management or related training and certification services, discuss the Environmental Services schedule with Cindy Duncan at 800-241-7246. She’s also the one to see about energy audits, energy management program support and electricity and natural gas purchases through the Energy Management Services schedule.
Office and Scientific Equipment, 1941 Jefferson Davis Highway, Arlington VA, 703-305-3044, contracts for the full range of products and services for scientific and medical research, public safety, electrical/electronic parameter analysis, and environmental testing and analysis. In the office equipment field, this is the center that handles copying, imaging and document management, mailroom management services, photographic equipment, shredders, typewriters, calculators, even stencil cutting machines. On the services side, document destruction, litigation support, records management and equipment repair services are managed here. here power supply calculator
The Services team is also at 1941 Jefferson Davis Highway, Arlington VA. This group develops contracts for expert services, travel, transportation, finance and accounting, engineering, marketing and media services. Some of these fields are relatively new schedules programs. The engineering services schedule covers all specialties of professional engineering, and all phases of an engineering engagement or project. The financial services contracts cover audit and accounting services, credit and collection, and travel and purchase cards. Marketing and Media now covers website design, public affairs and public relations, trade show/conference planning and event management, market research and analysis, and radio/television/media services, as well as commercial photography, art, graphics and video production.
Where do you go from here? Get a more thorough understanding of the center that contracts for your products or services by starting at www.fss.gsa.gov. Look for a link to the center that interests you, then follow it to that page. There you will find descriptions of the various schedules. Then look for the solicitation in the GSA/FSS section of FedBizOpps. Review the (lengthy) solicitation, and then call the designated contract specialist with your questions.
In addition to publishing SetAside Alert, Thomas D. Johnson has over 20 years of experience assisting companies in marketing to the federal government. He can be reached at 202/362-6662 or via tojo@worldnet.att.net.
Johnson, Thomas D.
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Scope of Political Marketing
http://www.political-marketing.net Offer political Marketing Services
Political Marketing is being used and implemented with different names and different shapes since centuries. In 1950 Political Marketing was defined as a separate subject please sees history of Political Marketing for reference and details.
Still this subject is in developing phase and need to do a lot to formally recognize Political Marketing as separate subject. In my point of view Political Marketing is highly significant in all countries especially in democrat governments and more especially to developed countries. Political Marketing is essential for political parties, leaders, government and as well as for general public. Political Marketing brings stability in political culture of a country that in return brings prosperity in national economy at root and gross level. Without Political Marketing or misuse of Political Marketing it is really intricate to better understand public needs and it is so intricate to create and develop good governance in a society.
Visit http://www.political-marketing.net for more details
To better understand the scope of Political Marketing I would like to quote two examples. 1st for the country where Political Marketing is being implement since many years and in contrast to this the another country where Political culture is not developed yet in parties as well as political leaders are not aware about Political Marketing.
On 1st hand I will like to quote USA. Where we can see very clear that Americans are implementing Political Marketing since many years in America, before elections the candidates create and develop a philosophy for their election campaign. So they are clear about what they are communicating in their dialogue. At all level their philosophy remains same, their goals, mission and objective does not change, audience to audience and place to place.
What ever they communicate for coalition parties or public, in New York or in any other state, the theme of their communication at all level remains same because they are well prepared, we can