We’ll change country’s fate if allowed to complete term: PM

 

MANSEHRA: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday said his government would change the fate of the country if allowed to complete its five-year term. He said this while inaugurating the 4,320 megawatt Dasu Hydropower Project in Kohistan.
Speaking at a gathering after inaugurating the project, the prime minister said the project would help overcome loadshedding and put the country on the road to prosperity and development. “Our government is not just making tall claims of starting mega development projects; we have started this mega project which will meet the energy needs of our country,” he said amid cheers by the locals.

Nawaz said that the project would be completed in record time with an estimated cost of Rs500 billion. “I am confident the people will reject the elements who are out to block the development process,” he maintained. He added that work on the Diamer-Bhasha Dam would also start soon.

The premier advised his detractors to wait for five years as his government had the mandate of the people. “Our government is taking steps in the larger national interest and we are proud of it,” he said, adding he would honour all the pledges made during electioneering.

A group of people who were protesting on the occasion, were asked by the prime minister to meet him. He assured them the government would meet their demands. “Kohistan is rich in natural resources and the time is not far when this area would be a model city like Islamabad and people would come to invest here,” he added.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Sardar Mehtab, Federal Minister for Water and Power Khawaja Asif, Secretary for Water and Power Nargis Sethi among others were also present on the occasion.

Nawaz Sharif also visited Naran in the Kaghan valley and stayed there for some time. He also met a delegation of hoteliers. They apprised the prime minister of the electricity problems in the area.

Nawaz Sharif asked Khwaja Asif to build a 2MW small hydropower project on the Kunhar River to solve the issue. Security was put on high alert in Dasu, the headquarters of Kohistan, and Naran.

Opposition insists PTI-led KP govt failed to bring change

PESHAWAR: When the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) formed government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa last year, Chief Minister Pervez Khattak boasted about his party’s preparedness to run the government.

“We aren’t among those governments that start thinking what to do after coming into power. We have come prepared,” he said in his first speech in the provincial assembly. As his young and inexperienced MPAs thumped desks, he continued: “As soon as we sit in our offices, we will start work. We will not waste time in thinking what we have to do because we exactly know what we will do.”

After a year, critics say, most of his government policies are in disarray. They are still figuring out what to do by flirting with different ideas. “In the first year, at least it dawned on them that policies don’t exist,” said Sikandar Sherpao, Qaumi Watan Party’s provincial president. He served as senior minister in the PTI-led government for over five months, but parted ways when unilateral action was taken against his two of party’s ministers on charges of corruption.

“The first year of PTI government is disappointing,” said Afrasiab Khattak, a leader of the Awami National Party. PTI created a wave, particularly in KP, on the slogan of change. It promised in its manifesto to eradicate corruption, introduce a uniformed education system, hold local government elections, bring revolutionary improvement in health, put in place a system of accountability, ensure rule of law and good governance and set up a library in the Chief Minister House.

What many doubted even then was Imran Khan’s claim to realise several of the objectives within three months. Many wondered how he would do it, but PTI chairman appeared cocksure to deliver on the promises. He wanted corruption to go away in three months and hold local government elections during the same period. He wanted to bring a change and introduce a system of accountability in three months. And he wanted the Chief Minister House turned into a library.

“The way he made promises, people thought it would establish a role model government. He dashed people’s hopes,” said Pir Sabir Shah, provincial president of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and former chief minister. “The change people hoped for never arrived,” he added.

After a year, Afrasiab Khattak believes the PTI squandered ANP’s gains against terrorism. “They blamed terrorism on our policies and said they would control it as soon as they would assume power. Today, we see an upsurge in acts of terrorism,” he alleged.

He said the PTI government’s policy of appeasement enabled militants to run a state within a state. He alleged that the government was unwilling to take ownership of the “struggle against terrorism” which had turned police into a demoralised force. “The minorities are insecure. The well-heeled people pay bhatta and ‘Fatafication’ of settled districts including Bannu, Kohat and Charsadda is underway,” he said.

The PTI claims it brought down the level of corruption, but its critics don’t buy it. “The corruption couldn’t be eliminated in 90 days. It continues even today,” Sikandar Sherpao said. “Action speaks louder than words,” Afrasiab sneered.

According to Sikandar Sherpao, it was the first time in the province’s history that a sitting chief secretary issued a charge-sheet against the chief minister. Khalid Masood, provincial general secretary of PTI, said they discouraged practices that could allow opportunities for corruption. “We discouraged corruption at ministerial level and we are still microscopically watching ministers,” he said.

The PTI fired two of its ministers a month ago on bad performance, but many believe the action was partly taken on charges of corruption against the two ministers. “Not we, the party itself produced a charge-sheet against its ministers,” said Afrasiab while making the point that the PTI government is corrupt. “We offer tenders online and made appointments in education through NTS,” Khalid Masood claimed. “We ended political interference in police,” he added.

The Fata Research Centre, a non-governmental organisation, in its one year government review concluded that corruption under PTI government has declined. However, it did not explain how it had declined.

The PTI failed to hold local government elections even after one year, let alone three months. According to Khalid Masood, the PTI government is ready for it since April 2014 but the Election Commission of Pakistan is not yet prepared.

Opponents also criticise PTI government for its ‘bad governance and incompetency.’ It failed to utilise funds of the annual development plan of 2013-14. “Around 70 percent ADP could not be spent,” Afrasiab said. The FRC report substantiates his claim as it says the government spent only 31.22 percent of the ADP. “There is no leadership in the PTI,” Afrasiab said, adding that it appointed a battalion of ministers, advisors and special assistants. “We thought they would work with 10 ministers,” he added.

Sikandar Sherpao alleged that the PTI government interfered in bureaucracy and transferred administrative secretaries frequently. He sees no improvement in education and health. “People have felt no change at all,” he said.

Pemra terms Geo shutdown, change in position illegal

 

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) has declared the closure and re-positioning of Geo TV illegal.
A Pemra spokesperson on Friday said that shutting down and pushing the Geo TV channels to the last numbers by cable operators was a violation of Pemra rules. Therefore, Pemra has issued a notice to the cable operators to seek their response.

Pemra has also summoned the administrative authorities of ARY News, Express News and Dunya News over telecast of objectionable content for multiple times on their respective channels.

The Pemra spokesperson said that the decision to summon the authorities of the channels was taken by the Council of Complaints on the complaints of a large number of people.

It may also be mentioned here that the government has decided to take action against three members of Pemra and has issued show cause notices to Israr Abbasi, Mian Shams and Fareeha Iftikhar.

These officials had, without any authority, announced recently to suspend Geo’s three licences after a meeting that was declared illegal by the Pemra spokesperson.Reports said that the notice was issued to the members for maligning Pemra by levelling baseless accusations.

Countering ‘obscenity’: Change the channel, says Rasheed

Islamabad: Jamaat-e-Islami’s crusade to rid the country of ‘obscenity’ has always been monumental.

Jamaat’s members are found a little extra vigorous these days about cleansing our culture of “fahashi.” Hardly a day goes by when Jamaat members do not pressure the government to curtail “the growing obscenity.” On Tuesday they moved a resolution asking for a ban on a few television channels which showed ‘obscene’ programmes, including Geo’s musical show ‘Pakistan Idol’. They had a grouse against virtually all 100 or so TV channels. How come news and religious channels are part of this grand design to spoil the nation, you may ask. Elementary: all of them show advertisements which allegedly entice ordinary folk by showing sexy legs, armpits and what not. The list of advertising items that could possibly encourage the pious to envision “wrong ideas” (ganday khayalat) included soaps, shampoos, mattresses (what the hell!), hair-removing creams and, of course, that rubbery Western invention meant to control population. No wonder we have doubled our population in the last 25 years and are all set to match India in numbers in another 50 years. The pious brigade should care, as these impoverished hordes are not likely to have clothes, forget about food, which could generate lots of “wrong ideas.”

Jamaat’s Tariqullah was overly agitated that almost all TV channels show obscenity and nudity. He bemoaned that this was spoiling our youth as these channels show “naach-gana and music all day long.” On Wednesday Jamaat’s Sher Akbar again raised a storm about the growing obscenity. We already have YouTube banned here. One may agree about having filters to check the unwanted substance but there is a limit to how much we could shut ourselves from the outside world. Particularly in the age of the globalised village where every child is exposed to the Internet and satellite TV, not to mention the new vistas that 3G/4G licences will open. If one were to follow the Jamaat strictures, it would have us everything closed from TV to the phone to the Internet.

It is pertinent to recall that when Imran Khan, who played cricket at that time, invited several noted Indian artistes including Rajesh Khana and Rekha for the first open air theatre musical event in Lahore, the Jamaat and its student wing the Islami Jamiat-e-Tulaba opposed it tooth and nail. Imran had arranged the event for raising funds for his hospital. The sticks-bearing IJT activists threatened to stop the event forcefully. Imran then held talks with the then Jamaat leaders and an agreement was struck only two days before the scheduled date of the event following which a very successful musical function, including dancing, was held at Qaddafi Open Air Theatre.

It is heard that some people in the government have teamed up with the likeminded people outside the government to push the Pakistani media into the dark ages and embarrass PM Nawaz in the world. They are completely ignorant of the advancement the world has already achieved. Nawaz ought to remain vigilant about the designs of such people who may be hatching a big conspiracy against him. It is the first time that Nawaz has got the mandate from both the left and right sections of the people. These intriguers will surely end up in damaging the vote bank of Nawaz.

Here are a few problems that we may have against the Jamaat doctrine. Obscenity is a relative term, which may mean different things to different people. Jamaat-e-Islami definitely does not have the mandate to impose its interpretation of morality with the kind of representation it has in parliament. The Jamaat has only three elected members (the fourth being on a women’s quota), two of them from distant Dir on the Afghanistan border. They constitute less than one per cent of the 447 members of the joint houses.

One just hopes that the new Jamaat Ameer, Sirajul Haq, may have grown out of his Punjab University days when IJT goons considered it holy to stop people from, among other things, celebrating new year. And this approach to force people might have been the reason why Jamaat stands reduced to the periphery from one of the two biggest parties until 1970. We hope Sirajul Haq will learn from the experience of its sister organisations in Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Jordan, if not Turkey, who may have adapted to the changing times. A few lessons in Islamic history will not be out of place. Muslims conquered the Middle East within 40 years but it took 300 years to convert large populations in Egypt, Syria and Jordan etc to Islam. The reason for rapid Islamic expansion was largely because earlier Islam adjusted to the local mores of the Indians, Chinese and the Persians etc. No wonder Iran, Afghanistan and Central Asia celebrate Nauroze even today and retain most local names. And the downfall of most Muslim empires started when someone like Aurangzeb enforced ritualistic puritanism as opposed to more accommodating Sufi tradition.

Thankfully, information minister Pervaiz Rasheed rescued us with a classic answer. He requested Jamaat members to encourage their cadres to learn using the remote controls and change a TV channel every time it shows something nude or obscene. This was quite a change in the PML (N), which had removed billboards of shampoos and soaps in their heavy-mandated government in 1987.

PTI’s Asad Omar also wondered in the cafeteria that how come Jamaat members get to see all these nude ads whereas he was yet come across anything like that. We were not sure whether he was talking about himself or his party, such being the shenanigans of Maulvi Khan these days. In any case, Asad needs to check this out from his coalition partners in the KP. We hear the coalition seems troubled by the 14-member informal forward bloc that has emerged against Pervaiz Khattak.

The surprising development was that MQM’s Salahuddin Sheikh joined the Jamaat ranks by asking for the steps that Pemra may have taken to stop such ‘obscenity.’ This was different from the liberal position usually taken by Altaf Bhai’s team. Perhaps the absence of Haider Abbas Rizvi in the National Assembly is beginning to impact the MQM.

Tailpiece: Asad Omar again challenged Ishaq Dar’s latest claims about the economic revival. His thesis was that the rupee got devalued earlier because the State Bank purchased dollars from the market as proved by IMF report, which mentions the buying of $125m. Also, he questioned the government claim about the reduction of debt-to-GDP ratio. He believed it had actually shot up from 58 per cent to 63 per cent. Will some one please educate us on this in plain speak?

US envoys to make climate change priority: Kerry

WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State John Kerry has called on American ambassadors around the world to make the fight against climate change a top priority ahead of new UN talks next year.

In his first department-wide policy guidance statement since taking office a year ago, he told his 70,000 staff: "The environment has been one of the central causes of my life."

"Protecting our environment and meeting the challenge of global climate change is a critical mission for me as our country's top diplomat," Kerry said in the letter issued on Friday to all 275 US embassies and across the State Department.

"It's also a critical mission for all of you: our brave men and women on the frontlines of direct diplomacy," he added in the document seen by AFP.

He urged all "chiefs of mission to make climate change a priority for all relevant personnel and to promote concerted action at posts and in host countries to address this problem."

The clarion call comes ahead of key UN-led talks in Paris next year when the international community is due to try to set new emissions goals for greenhouses blamed for global warming.

The emission levels will be applicable to all countries, not just the developed world, and will come into effect in 2020.

The new agreement will replace the Kyoto treaty which is due to expire in 2015.

The United States, which along with China is the world's top polluter, did not ratify the Kyoto Treaty arguing that developing countries should also be obligated to cut greenhouse gases.

Kerry travelled to China last month and won agreement from Beijing that the US and China would cooperate closely ahead of the Paris talks as they aim to agree emissions targets.

In his policy guidance, Kerry set out a seven step program to enhance the focus on tackling climate change including boosting multilateral and bilateral efforts.

"We're talking about the future of our earth and of humanity. We need to elevate the environment in everything we do," he said. It was, he said "our call to conscience as citizens of this fragile planet we inhabit."

Kerry is currently weighing a decision on whether the US should approve the building of a pipeline carrying oil from the tar sands of Alberta, in Canada, to US refineries in Nebraska and then Texas.

An environmental review found that the Keystone XL project would not add significantly to greenhouse gas emissions.

But opponents are calling on Kerry to reject the proposals by Canadian operators TransCanada, and a small but noisy protest was held late Thursday outside the State Department.

ECB did not see enough change to warrant any moves: Draghi

FRANKFURT: The European Central Bank decided not to take any action at its meeting on Thursday because economic and monetary conditions had not changed enough to warrant it, ECB President Mario Draghi said.
The bank left interest rates unchanged but also failed, as many had expected, to suspend weekly operations to soak up money it spent on sovereign bonds at the height of the euro zone debt crisis, known as sterilisation.
"The suspension of sterilisation is one of the instruments that is in our list but we didn't see any development in the money markets that would lead to that unwanted tightening of monetary conditions that would justify the use of this instrument," Draghi told a news conference.
He also said a survey of conditions showed no major changes to prompt any moves.
"We saw our (economic) baseline by and large confirmed," he said. Pausing the so-called sterilisation of the Securities Markets Programme (SMP) would have added around 175 billion euros in liquidity to the market.