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 |