analysis
Power play

Pakistan’s democratic development, at least in the recent decades, has not
witnessed such a favourable situation where power is dispersed; and incentives
to retain democratic system outweigh ‘other’ non-democratic options  
By Raza Rumi
Endless predictions about the fall of PPP led coalition government have been made by the pundits since the day it came into power. The recent hullabaloo has been made in the context of forthcoming Senate Elections due in March 2012, which ceteris paribus will ensure a simple majority to the PPP and its allies in the Upper House. Given that the Senate is an equalizer in federalist politics, this would mean that legitimate representatives of the smaller provinces would be permanent stakeholders in the system beyond this government.

support
Who benefits from US aid to Pakistan?

A critical analysis of the dynamics of aid and Pak-US relations 
By S. Akbar Zaidi
Not only was economic aid heavily overshadowed by military and security related aid, but until recently it was even lower than economic aid provided by other multilateral and bilateral donors. The funds that were provided were designated for primary education, literacy programs, basic health, food aid, and support for democracy, governance, and elections, with almost all of the funds going through and disbursed by USAID. Some cash transfers were also made available to the Pakistani government, but it was not “obliged to account for how this type of aid is spent,” and the “US government has traditionally given these funds to the Pakistani government without strings attached.”

Stuck in time
Agriculture research remains low on the priority list of
the authorities concerned 
By Tahir Ali
Agriculture research in Pakistan in general and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in particular is being undermined by scant funds, negligence by the government and private sector, and some procedural hitches.
Agriculture research expenditure in Pakistan is just 0.3 percent of its gross domestic product while it is 2, 0.5 and 0.4 percent in Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh respectively. In 2002, research expenditure in China and India was $2.6bn and $1.4bn but it was only $0.17bn in Pakistan. It is much less than the average international expenditure of $10bn for that period. And this meagre allocation too is on the decline for many years in actual terms.

In the right direction
India and Pakistan have shown some maturity in
talking trade; do they actually mean it? 
By Dr. Abid Qaiyum Suleri
Unfortunately, a mention of Pakistan and India; and one gets ready to hear some unpleasant news. However, after a long time the meeting between Pakistani and Indian Commerce Ministers resulted in an excuse to rejoice. Not only that, after three and a half decades Pakistani Commerce Minister visited India. Both the ministers were also able to take some tangible and positive steps towards trade normalisation between their countries.

In the line of losses
Long term steps are needed to solve the
problem of loadshedding 
By Mehtab Haider
With the release of Rs11 billion to overcome woes of the power sector for the time being, the government made the last ditch effort to avoid spread of violent protests against outages of electricity.According to official documents available with The News on Sunday, power outages caused shortage of up to 5000 MW in peak demand season. The estimated production loss in terms of GDP stood at 2 percent or $4.4 billion on per annum basis while average fiscal burden was 2.5 percent of GDP equivalent to Rs 250 billion.

Points of agreement
The new openings for movement across the LoC offer opportunities to work more closely together 
By Arif Kamal and Siddiq Wahid
In the last sixty years the divide in Jammu and Kashmir State has not only estranged those with ethnic, linguistic and cultural linkages on either side of the divide but also further isolated several small but unique cultural enclaves.The issue, no doubt, needs to be addressed at a political level; but until such time it will be important that opportunities be created for people on the two sides of the J&K divide to dialogue, get to know each other again, which might indeed contribute to a mutually acceptable solution.

firstperson
Lessons in law

“Believe in having a society governed by the rule of law — where there is justice for all and impunity for none” 
By Zaman Khan
Soli Jehangir Sorabjee is a veteran Indian jurist. Born on March 9, 1930 in Bombay, he studied at Government Law College. Sorabjee was admitted to the bar in 1953. At college, he was awarded the Kinloch Forbes Gold Medal in Roman Law and Jurisprudence (1952). He was designated Senior Advocate of the Supreme Court of India in 1971. He also served as Solicitor-General of India from 1977 to 1980. He was appointed Attorney-General of India on 7 April 1998, a post he held until 2004.In March 2002, Soli Sorabjee was awarded the Padma Vibhushan (one of India’s highest civil award) for his defense of the freedom of expression and the protection of human rights. He worked on the Citizen’s Justice Committee which represented the 1984 anti-Sikh riots victims.

Chile, Wall Street and us
There is no sign that a Camila Vajello will emerge to bring together the tens of millions of young Pakistanis who would benefit from universal education, progressive taxation, quality public healthcare, and so on 
By Aasim Sajjad Akhtar
Over the past couple of months, thousands of young Americans have joined hands with teachers, the unemployed and the progressive activist community in a protest movement the likes of which the United States has never seen before. The objective is to call attention to the rapacious and institutionalised plunder of the ’99 percent’ of people by the nexus of big business and state that dominates American political, economic and cultural life. The method is occupation of Wall Street, the nerve centre of global capitalism.

 

 

 

analysis
Power play
Pakistan’s democratic development, at least in the recent decades, has not
witnessed such a favourable situation where power is dispersed; and incentives
to retain democratic system outweigh ‘other’ non-democratic options  
By Raza Rumi

Endless predictions about the fall of PPP led coalition government have been made by the pundits since the day it came into power. The recent hullabaloo has been made in the context of forthcoming Senate Elections due in March 2012, which ceteris paribus will ensure a simple majority to the PPP and its allies in the Upper House. Given that the Senate is an equalizer in federalist politics, this would mean that legitimate representatives of the smaller provinces would be permanent stakeholders in the system beyond this government.

Since General Zia ul Haq’s martial law, Senate elections have been engineered by Pakistan’s civil-military establishment to retain their control over democratic governance. Musharraf played a similar game. However, the functions and role of the Upper House have expanded now with the enactment of the 18th amendment to the Constitution. Budgeting and finance bills cannot be approved with the endorsement of the Senate and legislative proposals have to go through the process of Senate ratification. Hence, the nagging worries that any post-2013 government would have to deal