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?
sorry, i forgot to attach the second link which show dollar/pkr exchange rate under musharraf from 2000 to Oct 2007.
http://img514.imageshack.us/img514/3755/pakmushft3 .gif
one of the best ways to measure how the economy is doing is to look at the performance of exchange rate over time. below are two graphs which indicate the performance of pak rupee (pkr) during two different period. first graph shows the performance of pkr during the decade of democracy i.e. from 1990-99. during this period dollar/pkr exchange rate went from around 21 to 52 which amounts to around 9% depreciation per annum.
http://img513.imageshack.us/img513/5372/pkrdemocra cyan0.gif
in contrast, under musharraf from 2000 to Oct 2007, pkr has gone from 52 to 61 which amounts to annual depreciation of 2%. if musharraf’s government had mismanaged the economy to the extent that economy was mismanaged in the 90’s, pkr currently should have been trading at around 105 instead of 61.
to see how exchange rate depreciation impacts the economy, multiply the price of oil by 61 and 105 to get an idea of the impact on purchasing power of average consumer.
Lion heart:
At the time of Mush’s take over, the dollar to rupee rate was in the low 50s and not around 65. It very briefly threatened to shoot up to 100 after the nuclear tests but NS was able to get the situation under control after some time. There were no impending fears of the rate shooting up to 100 on Oct 11, 1999.
check
here
So your facts and figures are not accurate.
What I know that Pakistani economy was destroyed in 1973 in name of nationalization by a elected PM. He cried about 21 families.
In the same era India promoted “Made in India” slogan and they increased tax on imports. In India there are even less then 21 families which have controls over wealth like Tata Birla who is even a Parsi.
The facts is Indian politicians may be corrupt but they are sincere with India when it comes to national interest.
Unfortunately we made more economic progress in time of dictatorships (except Yahya Khan )
One who lived in many countries can see better as out sider.
criticism is ok as long its not one sided.
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Pakistan’s economy is on track to sustain the healthy growth it has posted in recent years, and political uncertainty will not hamper it, a senior official said on Sunday.
“The ongoing political uncertainty in Pakistan will have no impact on the economic growth of the country,” said Salman Shah, adviser on finance to Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz.
“I don’t think it is necessary that politics should derail your economics,” Shah told a news conference, a day after the government announced a pro-growth annual budget.
Pakistan’s economy has grown at an average annual rate of 7.0 percent over the last five years, and the government has set a target of 7.2 percent GDP growth for 2007/08. Growth is estimated to have been 7.02 percent in the year ending June 30.
But fears of a derailment have arisen as President Pervez Musharraf is going through the most severe challenge to his authority since he came to power in a military coup eight years ago.
Musharraf, who controversially aims to be re-elected by the sitting assemblies before they are dissolved for a general election at the end of the year, plunged the country into a crisis three months ago by suspending the country’s top judge.
“Why should politics derail your economics?” Shah said.
“It is to the advantage of every Pakistani that the economy keeps growing, and anyone who tries to disrupt that will not be allowed to do so by the people.” Continued…
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSISL23 01720070610