Adil Najam
Former Prime Minister and PML(N) leader Nawaz Sharif is back in Pakistan.
Reportedly he landed in Lahore to a large reception by his supporters and was escorted to a special bullet proof car that had been brought for him. According to The News:
A special plane carrying the PML-N Chief Nawaz Sharif, his brother Shahbaz Sharif and other family members arrived in Lahore from the holy city of Madina on Sunday evening. The convoys of PML-N workers arrived in Lahore to accord rousing welcome to Sharifs. Large welcome banners and pictures of Sharif brothers have been displayed at several places in Lahore. The special plane Boeing777 carried Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif along with 26 members of their family from the holy city of Madina.
The central and provincial leaders of PML-N, lawyers and members of civil society have arrived to receive Sharifs at Lahore Airport. Nawaz Sharif is expected to first visit Data Darbar in a procession and address a public meeting. Security had been tightened in Lahore especially on the airport ahead of arrival of the PML-N leader. Provincial home department has allowed only hundred party leaders to receive Sharifs at the airport, party sources claimed.
According to sources, bullet-proof cars for Sharifs reached in Lahore last night from Saudi Arabia. Meanwhile, the home department said that the authorities have decided to give free hand to Nawaz Sharif but he has not been permitted for holding a public meeting and rally.
Nawaz Sharif, Shahbaz Sharif and other family members will be transported to home from the airport, a home department statement said. However, thousands of PML-N workers succeeded in arriving airport by crossing the barricades put up by police. On this occasion, the workers raised slogans both in favour of Nawaz Sharif and against the government.
Readers would remember from our prior posts that in August the Supreme Court of Pakistan had ruled that he could, in fact, return to Pakistan despite whatever ‘deal’ he had made with Gen. Musharraf at teh time of his original flight to Saudi Arabia. However, when he did return to the country in September, he was unceremoniously and dramatically deported back to Saudi Arabia with theatrics which rivaled his own attempts not to let Gen. Musharraf land in Pakistan many moons ago.
Now it turns out that he has made yet another ‘deal’ with Gen. Musharraf which has enabled his return.
It is not fully clear what the ‘terms’ of this deal are. Nor what the Musharraf-Nawaz Sharif deal mean
s for the earlier Musharraf-Benazir deal that had enabled her return some weeks back. Nor, in fact, is it clear what what his return (and the fact that now both Benazir and Nawaz Sharif are back in Pakistan) will mean for the future of Pakistan’s politics and the (supposed) forthcoming elections.
In despair, one even wonders if it means anything at all? Or is this just one more drama in the string of topi dramas that have come to define our distraught and fractured polity?
actually, its not surprising that people relying on “jang” for data analysis would be lying in order to prove their point such as india’s annual exports amount to $200bn:
http://uk.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idUKDEL132742 0070501
“…Exports for the full year stood at $124.63 billion, up 21 percent compared with $103.06 billion in 2005/06,…”
note that india’s IT exports totalled another $30bn in 2006/07. india’s total exports in 2006-07 therefore amounted to around $155bn. moreover, as the link above indicates, india, like pak, is running a current account deficit although’s india’s deficit as % of gdp is lower than that of pak.
also if someone has evidence of pakistani govt providing false data, then that person can take pak government to court in america. pak govt has borrowed money from u.s. based investors by issuing sovereign bonds. under u.s. law, borrowers face a huge penalty for providing misleading data. anyone who has proof that pak govt is fudging important data such as export statistics can make millions of dollars by suing pak govt in an american court. since u.s. courts are free, winning the case should be easy.
as far as economic performance under musharraf that has nothing short of spectacular as measured by stock market returns over the last eight years. stock market returns were spectacular due to sound economic management best example of which was managing of foreign liabilities. when musharraf came to power, pak’s foreign currency debt was around $36 while reserves totalled about $1bn. pak’s net debt therefore stood at $35bn on which annual interest service cost would amount to $1-1.5bn. essentially then, pak was bankrupt in 1999 because pak’s interest payment due amounted to more than its reserves. in comparison, pak’s net debt currently stands at $24bn ($40bn fcy debt – $16 fcy reserves). as a result of lower foreign debt burden, pak is easily able to meet its foreign liabilities along with being able to spend moeny on infrastructure projects such as highways etc.
btw by examining the the trend of pak’s fcy debt over the last 20 years, we can also see the level of corruption prevailing under bb/ns. when decade of democracy started in 1990, pak’s fcy debt amounted to around $20bn. by the time democratic period ended, pak’s debt had ballooned to $36bn excluding frozen deposits. so what did pak had to show for the $18bn increase in debt? answer: nada except for the $1bn lying in reserves. the other $17bn were lost through mismanagement and corruption. and yet paksitanis want to let these people back in. as i always say, nations get what they deserve.
The Transparency International is not the best instiution to gauge corruption. Its ratings depend a lot on perception. Its a known fact that ISI has been and is involved in the politics of the country and the jour tour of siyasat. It builds the hype of corruption under civilian governments preparing the turf for the military to take over. It never investigates anything against the military personnel, nor did NAB. How can you know how corrupt the military really is unless its accounts are made public? This land what the call the military land is basically owned by Punjab government and was not meant to be used for anything but military purposes. But our “imaan-daar” faujis have converted it into commercial property and doled it out among the officer corps. Is this not corruption? And no body dare investigate these things.
Has any body ever asked how much was bequeathed to Musharraf by his middle class parents? How much he earned in total over the last 40 years of his military service? How he managed to send his son abroad? How much assets he has now? Do you think that ISI would ever investigate the accounts of Musharraf? That would always keep his image as “clean” and the Transparency International going on perceptions would keep saying its less corrupt. So much for accountability and cleanliness.
Well I dont know much about Sartaj aziz and can not comment.
As for “foreign aid” myth, out of 10 billions, 7 billions were spent on millatry activities and thats not on balance sheet.
Pakistan was rated no 2 corrupt country in BB second era. I think Pakistan current rating is 42. I am not sure what was rating in NS era.
What I meant to say, that people come and go, but we should appretiate good things and new government should continue good decsions. Anti Musharaf should not imply that every thing should be reversed back to 1999.
@Aqil Sajjad
Dollar to Rupees parity during BB first tenure as PM was Rs. 15. In Nawaz second tenure as PM the parity became almost to Rs.65 and people were talking of Rupee touching Rs.100 against the dollar had NS remained as PM.
However for the past 8 years, dollar to Rs. parity has been steady at Rs.61. Credit goes partly to the increased inflows and partly to better fiscal discipline administered by Government agencies under Musharraf.
Regarding Sartaj Aziz, if I remember correctly, he was being called ‘Surcharge Aziz’ when he was the last FM. Economists are just dry number crunchers who cannot even balance their own personal budgets let alone do the national budget. Shaukat Aziz with his background in finance was absolutely the right choice to stabilize Pakistan.
Finally, Corruption Under Musharraf, care to elaborate with any proof where Musharraf has benefited or you are just poofing in the air like the rest of anti-Musharraf folks?
I would say again that while talking of corruption we totally forget that DHA, AWT, SF, FF, BF, Okara Military Farms are also corruption.