Pakistan Under Musharraf Regime

Pakistan Studies Presentation

Pakistan Under Musharraf Regime Presented to Sir Aamir Sultan

Group Members Wasio Ali Khan Abbasi Mohammad Osman Khan Shamayl Ather Usmani Aneela Shafi

Introduction

Pakistan came into existence on 14th of August, 1947. Since then, Pakistan had experienced both civil as well as military governments, the latter being more prolonged than the former. The first military coup came in 1958 with General Ayub Khan taking over the government, imposing Martial law and establishing himself as Field Martial for a whole decade. By the end of the decade, Ayub Khan had established himself as a politician by removing his uniform, and he himself became victim to yet another military takeover, though voluntarily, with the power going into the hands of General Yahya Khan. In Yahya Khan’s three year short tenure we saw the breakup of Pakistan, with the Eastern wing becoming an independent country named Bangladesh while the western wing being succeeded by a civil government headed by Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. Bhutto was ousted out by his handpicked Army chief, General Zia-ulHaq in 1977 and was hanged after a highly controversial trial. For eleven years General Zia-ul-Haq headed the Pakistan nation and took active part in forcing the Soviet Union out of Afghanistan throughout the 80s. Zia-ul-Haq, along with many high profile personalities from home and abroad, died in a plane crash. From then, a decade of musical chairs game was played between Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif that ended with yet another military coup, bringing General Pervez Musharraf into the high seat of power and till this day, he holds the offices of President and Army Chief. His seven year old regime had experienced situations of varying nature, both domestically and internationally. We will review the performance of Musharraf Regime from two perspectives categorized in the following categories. Military Politics and Leadership Economics International Affairs and War on Terrorism

Let’s review how the government sees its performance…

The Official Version: Military:

Pakistan Armed Forces have continued to live up to their name and have been performing well in various spheres of life, both domestically as well as internationally. Although the Pakistan military suffered in the 90s due to the inability to cope with the national affairs by the politicians and civil officials as Pakistan suffered from bans and restrictions of military nature from the developed countries, still the armed forces maintained their high performance through sheer dedication and used the limited resources they had to keep themselves updated against the neighbor who is ever purchasing and increasing its inventory with latest military gadgets. The Military officers had been actively participating in capturing known Al-Qaeda members, rooting out terrorists, unveiling the terrorists organizations, carrying out relief operations and defending the borders against any possible aggression. Through their sheer dedication and hard work, terrorists were caught who were responsible for the attacks on high ranking personalities, including President General Pervez Musharraf himself and the current Prime Minister, Shaukat Aziz. Through military intelligence, terrorist organizations such as Jaish- Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi were unearthed, banned and their members caught. The terrorists involved in the suicidal attacks on Christian schools and churches were caught through the military intelligence that used all its available resources for tracking, sorting and forensic investigation that ultimately led to the lead organizations involved in several similar activities. With the capture of culprits and the disbanding of organizations, there has been a considerable downfall in terrorist activities that used to haunt the major cities of Pakistan. Pakistan Navy showed its operational readiness in the face of disaster. When Tsunami struck the Indian Ocean in late 2004, two of Pakistan Navy’s ships were on goodwill visit to Maldives and Thailand, sufferers of the devastating disaster. Even with the very limited resources they had, the naval officers dispatched rescue parties through helicopters to look for

survivors over the affected islands of Maldives and provided food and medicine by any means possible. Hundreds of tourists of varying nationalities were rescued and safely delivered to their respective consulates in Thailand. Engineers and Field doctors of Pakistan Army were deployed in Srilanka to take care of the affected people and help in restoration of crucial infrastructure. The international media acclaimed the performance of Pakistan Navy and the governments of the affected countries expressed their gratitude for the services provided without any delay.

The stagnancy regarding advancement of technology and procurement of new and advance weaponry broke in the current regime. Pakistan Army inducted the locally made Al-Khalid tanks which had gone under very rigorous testing before inclusion in the army. The locally upgraded tank, AlZarar, was also highly praised for its improved performance and high accuracy. The Army has now made new contracts by which officers will receive training of high sensitivity from USA and UK that will further improve the already high standards of performance among the military masses.

Pakistan Navy had a successful induction of the first Agosta submarine into its fleet. Even after the terrorist attack in 2003 that resulted in the death of a dozen French Engineers working on the project, the program was continued by all means possible and with the result, Pakistan Navy now enjoys the possession of one of the most potent Diesel engined subs capable of deep diving and attacking while remaining at very low levels in water, unmatched in South Asia except Chinese subs. Apart from that, Pakistan Navy have/had made several contracts by which it will acquire modern equipment such as •

Chinese F-22P Frigates which will be locally made through Transfer of Technology

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Phalanx Airborne Early Warning System

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British Castle Class Petrol Vessels

•

P-3C Orion Surveillance Aircrafts

With the acquisition of the above mentioned equipment in the next 7 years, Pakistan Navy would be able to improve its offensive capabilities and widen the surveillance parameters in the open waters. Pakistan Air force also enjoyed the advancement with the induction of improved Mirage fighter jets, successful flights of co-produced JF-17, induction of F-7s from China and the chances of acquisition of the more advance versions of F-16s from US. Apart from that, the PAF is also looking forward to inducting Chinese J-10 fighter aircraft as well as the BVR missiles. In the next decade, PAF would be counted among the most modern air forces with high standards of performance. The major success PAF achieved was in 2005 as it participated in the infamous Air Force exercise, Antonian Eagle, in Turkey where 10 other nations had sent their F-16s for participation.

All the advancements are being paid by various means. All the modern equipment being purchased has high costs, going into several Billions of dollars. For that, the USA and UK have already provided funds totaling $4.2 Billion for 5 years that would be used for the purchase some of the mentioned equipments. For the rest, they are being acquired on credit which will be financed through defense budget in the long-run.

Politics and Leadership The current regime had taken several steps to bring better people in the political scenario, figures capable of leading Pakistan for a brighter future. Initially the Military regime had shortlisted the candidates for the ministry posts and appointed them by going through the process of scrutiny and in-depth interviewing. This was done because capable people were not getting their due share of exposure and the political scenario was hacked by the inept leaders who enjoyed the majority vote of the innocent people. Nearly all the well educated and learned people were either incapable of leading, were not interested in getting themselves involved in the politics or had left the country for a better future.

Seeing that, General Pervez Musharraf took steps that would encourage capable figures to return back to Pakistan as well as instill confidence in the local leaders to take more active part in the political process.

A new political process was developed that would take the politics to grass root level. The Local Bodies Elections were designed in the way that would not only allow the common man to choose his/her own leaders but also choose the representatives of the areas where he/she lives. This coincides with the Islamic concept of governance to some extend as in Islam the leaders are not just there to lead the people. The leaders are actually the servants of the nation and have to solve problems of any type at all levels. The leaders of previous governments were not servants but rulers, therefore ignoring the immediate needs of the people in areas far off. With the Local Bodies Elections, the leaders would be in direct contact with the representatives of union councils from all over Pakistan and can actively and immediately solve problems, no matter what the locality.

This system was tried in 2001 and it showed good results. All the Nazims elected through this process got into competition in developing their areas of living and improving the conditions of hygiene and transportation. The good results continued to be shown in the elections of 2005 where the ill performing Nazims failed to gain any support while those with better

performance and administrative skills advanced to the next stage of political process and many even reached the provincial level through 2005 provincial elections.

Pervez Musharraf revived the old Muslim League and made Chaudhry Shujaat its president. The main aim was to bring forth better people that were capable of leading the nation. The new party contested the 2002 elections and won considerable votes which showed that people did trust in them. In coalition with MQM and many independent contestants that forwarded support to Muslim League-Q (Q for Quaid-E-Azam), the new party holds the majority in Assembly and has actively taken several steps to ensure that Pakistan’s progress should not be hampered in any way.

Through these systems new leaders began to emerge on the political face of Pakistan. The first person to become prime minister through this process was Zafarullah Khan Jamali. Never in the history of Pakistan did we have a Prime Minister from its largest and most neglected province. Zubaida Jalal proved to be another figure capable of leading while Shaukat Aziz managed to hold on to its ground even though politics is not area of expertise and now he’s the Prime Minister of Pakistan. Another person to climb the stairs of success was Dr. Amir Liaqat Hussein who was able to channel his popularity, generated through the Geo program “Aalim Online” which he hosts, into his political agenda and managed not just to reach Assembly on pure merit but was by far most fit for the position of Minister of Islamic Affairs.

Reduction of voting age from 21 years to 18 years, setting the education level to at least Graduation for participating in the political process, to limit the number of terms as head of state to two (which means no one can be head of state more than 2 times) and increasing the number of Assembly and Cabinet members in accordance with the population of Pakistan had been some of the measures taken by the government to improve the political system of Pakistan and oust the inept, illiterate and corrupt people from the politics. The system of Local Bodies Election is still new and it will take time to mature. Elections of 2007 will show how much

effective this system had been in improving the political situation of Pakistan and how much time is needed for the system to mature further.

Economics The economy of Pakistan has seen a total transformation in the last 7 years. In 1999, Pakistan was on the verge of bankruptcy with foreign exchange as low as $1.2 Billion dollars, external debt nearly $40 Billion, interest rates as high as 20%, tax base was very narrow as only a small percentage of population bore the brunt of taxation, 66% of revenues went to debt retirement, foreign investment was a meager $300 Million, poverty risen to 34%, there was virtually no growth in any sector of the economy, exports were declining and developed countries had slapped many bans and restrictions over Pakistan. The country was very close to being called a failed state.

It was up to the new government to devise ways to counter these problems and stabilize the economy. Several measures were taken which included reviewing the taxation system and modernizing it so that not only will the tax base be broad but also common man would be able to pay the taxes. Hardly any new taxes were imposed, rather the previous taxes were either reduced or removed altogether which instead of hampering the revenues, increased them from Rs.302 Billion in 2000 to Rs.700 Billion in 2006, an increase of 130% as compared to an increase of 50% in the decade of musical chairs, i.e. in the 1990s.

Pakistan economy was agrarian based while the world economy is more based on Services and Industry. Because of that, increase in exports still did not generated enough revenues to even counter the import bill and a deficit $5 Billion remained on the balance of payments. Measures were taken that allowed the industrial and service sectors to come back to life and work for the progression of the economy. This not just increased the imports but also showed phenomenal increase in the Exports as well which passed $10 Billion mark and have been close to $17 Billion in 2006.

The GDP growth rate, which was 3.2% in 1999, reached 8.6% in 2005 and remained around 6.8% in 2006 despite the Earthquake last year. Industrial and Services sectors have been growing for the past few years.

The industrial sector grew by 9% in 2006 and 15.2% in 2005 while the services sector grew by 8.8% both the years.

The per capita income, which was $430 in 1999, has increased to $847 in 2006 while GDP has risen from $65 Billion in 1999 to $125 Billion. The credit rating has also improved in many international organizations such IMF and WB, placing Pakistan in B and BB category of countries respectively.

Stock Market performed well and made new records. Karachi Stock Exchange was awarded the title of best stock market for the year 2002 when it reached the level 5000 in comparison to 1100 in 1999 while in 2005-06, KSE surpassed 10,000 mark, benchmarking it’s performance and achieving what the stock markets of developed countries achieve.

The loans previously were granted on high interest which was about 20%, making it impossible to take loan for business. It was reduced to just 5% in the subsequent years to allow the smaller businesses to grow and flourish while allowing the larger business to increase their production lines as well as facilities.

National Database System was improved and NADRA played a big part in efficiently handling the database of Pakistan’s nationals. The methods and techniques employed made the system easier and efficient and it was easy track people with multiple or fake identities in matter of seconds. A similar process was applied for the taxation system to broaden the tax net so that business, both small and large, could be brought into the system directly or indirectly which increased the revenues tremendously.

Foreign Direct Investment, which was just $300 Million in 1999, touched $3.02 Billion from July 2005 till April 2006, first 10 months of fiscal year 2005-06.

International Affairs and War on Terrorism

Pakistan’s relations with other countries have improved in the past 7 years, including USA and India. In 1999, Pakistan had strained relations with many countries for some reason. Kargil conflict had tensed the situation in the subcontinent while the western block and developed countries had put restrictions due to the 1998 nuclear testing.

From 1999 to 2001, the Pakistani government had to work hard in order win back the confidence of other countries and prove that Pakistan is not in shambles or a failed state. What rescued Pakistan from this situation was the 9/11 attacks that changed the political and military scenario of the world. Once again Pakistan became the frontline state to bear the brunt of war in which multi-nations were involved in Afghanistan, this time fighting against those they had supported earlier.

Relations with US improved as Pakistan joined the coalition against Terrorism and President Bush hailed General Pervez Musharraf’s efforts in curbing out terrorists and capturing Al-Qaeda members. Subsequently relations with UK also improved as several bans were relaxed and loans were rescheduled while USA not even rescheduled the majority of its loans but even reduced them by writing off a few. USA even supported the case of Pakistan in Paris Club (coalition of developed countries that provide loan to highly indebted countries) which also did the same.

In December 2001, Indian parliament was attacked by a group of people that resulted in big chaos and a couple of attackers were killed an identified. India claimed them to be Pakistanis and blamed Pakistan for the incident which they surprisingly called “as bad as 9/11 itself”. Indian forces were mobilized and they stood at border looking at Pakistani counterparts throughout 2002. World focus was shifted over the subcontinent and many feared that a Nuclear war might break out between the two powers. Several attempts were made to improve relations, including the famous handshake in

an international conference where President Musharraf went to then Prime Minister of India, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and shook hands with him.

Still the relations remained tense and did not improved till the government changed. In what could be called a political drama, Sonia Gandhi refused to take the seat of Prime Minister and gave it to Manmohan Singh, the lead character who turned around the economy of India as a Finance minister in 80s and opened India to the IT technology which it leads tremendously today. Later, on the invitation of Indian government, President Musharraf made a visit in 2005 that helped in improving the relations between the two countries.

Pakistan’s relations with China increased to new heights as the cooperation widened further and China began making heavy investments in Pakistan, noticeably in Gwadar which has been in international limelight for some time. Recently Pakistan and China signed a contract by which the level of cooperation between the two countries would rise further and new projects will be jointly taken over by both the countries. President Pervez Musharraf had visited China in 2006 and struck many deals that would allow Pakistan to not even access Chinese markets and increase its exports to China but also gain vital advantages through transfer of technology of many industrial related machinery and construction gadgets. Also China granted loans to different sectors of economy on easy terms and conditions and rescheduled many older loans. With positive results of high profile joint venture, the JF-17 Thunder Fighter Aircraft, there are chances that more similar projects will be taken up in future. President Pervez Musharraf also visited countries which were not visited by any of the previous leaders. Among those included the Scandinavian and some European countries where no Pakistani head of state had ever put a foot as on official visit. This helped in improving relations with these countries and opened new prospects of increasing exports by searching for new markets among those that remained unexplored to this day. The War on Terrorism helped Pakistan in many ways. Firstly it helped in the relaxation of restrictions over Pakistan and secondly, it allowed Pakistan to obtain some vital resources related to Economical as well as military

nature that helped in the stability of its economy. Not just that, Pakistan also was now in position to take out the extremist elements of the society that were active in sectarian killings and violence. Catching these culprits had been a very tough job as they blended easily among masses and only through forensic investigations of suicide attacks and arresting people directly or indirectly related to these activities as a result of those investigations did some of the most active extremists were caught and eliminated. In doing so, severe domestic pressure was felt as the Islamic elements of the society protested and more extreme elements demonstrated over the streets against the government’s actions, but the government still continued its agenda against them and was able curb the culprits.

The Opposition View Military

Since the military take over in 1999, President Pervez Musharraf has been on the drive to increase military spending in comparison to India and has been using military tactics in handling the domestic situation.

In the year 2002, when Pakistan and India were on the brink of yet another war, the government announced the freezing of Defense budget that is it will not be increased that year. That was a deception as a simple look on the details answered the query. Payments to retired personnel (Pensions) were not included in the defense budget but had been transferred to civil pension accounts. Pensions make a big sum from the total budget of Defense and transferring it away to civil created enough space to purchase more weaponry and equipment and also created more chances for corruption.

Also the government of President Pervez Musharraf is on yet another drive to appoint retired Army personnel to civil posts for which many better qualified and deserving candidates are available. Most recently the retired Army Officers were appointed as Vice Chancellors in government universities which simply violates several clauses of constitution as well as Educational Agenda in which merit was to be the key factor to determine the appointed person.

For the past 5 years, there had been several complains about the corruption in the army in several deals that were made for purchasing equipment. Also mismanagement has been seen in defense budget which had been reported several times but no action has been taken.

The current regime had created NAB (National Accountability Bureau) to catch the crooks. The initial operations of NAB were commendable but later it turned into just another dead organization. In his book “Pakistan’s Drift into Extremism: Allah, the Army, and America’s War on terror”, the author Hassan Abbas writes about NAB that it had a dynamic head who was capable of catching corrupt people of the society but the government posed him the dilemma. NAB was never allowed to indulge in matters relating to Military on the basis that Military has in-house correction system which will catch any corruption being done, but NAB was also not allowed a free hand even in catching corrupt retired military officials, and no one can stop NAB except the head of state which is none other than Pervez Musharraf himself. The biggest achievement of NAB was the capture of retired admiral Mansoor who was in Texas, USA and who had transferred huge sum to his account from the submarine deal kickbacks in the 1990s.

With the departure of that head, NAB now is being used as a another tool to use against those that oppose as NAB is only catching small fishes and letting the big crocodiles swim away unhindered.

On the name of modernizing military equipment, government is spending hefty sums which could have been utilized in the infrastructure development, educational and health reforms. F-16s, which are on the brink of being obsolete design, are being purchased for about $900 Million or so when better aircrafts could be purchased from else where. With more such deals and a budget nearing $1 Billion for the defense, nothing can be said for sure how military plans to finance all these deals. Military tactics used in handling domestic affairs have created a very bad stigma on the society. Using aircrafts, gunships and missiles to target our own people and land have alienated the Balochis and brought Pakistan in bad light. Americans fire guns and missiles in Pakistani territory on the name of attacking Al-Qaeda members while our own military carpet bomb the hilly areas and attack with missiles at targets which result in huge collateral damage, but still the government fails to change its stance and continue its brutal hand in domestic affairs. The case of Bugti is very new, very fresh in everyone’s mind, a person who had been chased into hiding and then bombed into his mountainous house where he died by being crushed in the

rumbles. If that is how the government chooses to treat those who are not just the leaders but also one of the most senior politicians of the country, then we may very soon witness the repetition of 1971 case of breakup with the largest province becoming a separate country.

Leadership and Politics

The political system of Pakistan have always been in hot discussions as there had been some level of unseen activities that play their part in the making of the government. From the beginning the political system was not allowed to mature and the elections had been rigged many times to achieve unethical and illegal goals.

Ayub Khan had introduced the concept of Basic Electorates, a system that insured that he’ll remain president for as much time as he liked. That system died with his government while the recent government took lead from that and made a hybrid system which combines certain concepts of Basic Electorates and Democratic concept of political hierarchy. According to Basic Electorates, through elections people were elected from all over Pakistan (numbering in thousands) which in turn represent the people of Pakistan and would vote if they believe the president is capable of remaining the head of state for another term of 5 years. This insured that the influential president can remain in power for another term even if his government didn’t delivered what was expected of it.

According to Democratic Concept of Political Hierarchy, people are elected at Provincial, National and Federal level which form the hierarchy of government that manages the country’s activities and develop the infrastructure at all levels. The Musharraf Regime took concepts of both the systems and made a hybrid one with the name Local Bodies. The Local Bodies elections brought numerous Nazims from all over Pakistan (again thousands in numbers just like the Basic Democrats) that were directly under the Federal government, bypassing the Provincial governments. This system made the provincial governments virtually worthless as everything was

handed over to the Local Bodies, including funds totaling to Billions of rupees.

The funds were meant to be utilized to solve immediate problems of the people, develop infrastructure, improve facilities and work on fast pace so that time could be saved which otherwise would have wasted in the traditional hierarchy.

The system might have proved worthy of appreciation if it would have been under Provincial government rather than Federal, or at least the elections would have been fair. Instead everything was rigged and those people came to power that were supported by the Musharraf. Numerous cases have been notified to the higher authorities about the rigging of 2002 and 2005 Local Bodies elections but no action has been taken so far.

President Musharraf claimed that this system will take the political awareness to the masses at grass root level. Instead what it did was to take corruption to grass root level, where the Nazims got large amounts of funds directly from the government without any proper check and balance, permitting them to mishandle the money and increase their personal income illegally. The proof is there for everyone to see, especially in Karachi where the major roads and areas with high traffic are suffering from the so called development projects where the building material is lying like an orphan beside the roads (the materials includes large drainage pipes, cement mixing machines, charcoal and bricks) and roads are being dug and refilled at regular intervals without solving any problem. Ask any person and he’ll have tales to tell about the corruption cases they have experienced themselves. Every institution have corrupt elements in large numbers than there ever had been, making it difficult for a person to get his work done without transferring large sums under the table.

Another political maneuver that hindered the political process was LFO (Legal Framework Order) which an opposition, Mr. Mian Raza Rubbani termed as “A Fraud on the Constitution”. Because of the LFO, the Musharraf regime was able to pass amendments without much hindrance and gave powers to the president which are damaging to the establishment of a stable, democratic government. It also allowed the president to put-in his handpicked people to seats of power and authority, the clear example is of current Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, who was brought into the powerful seat of Prime Minister through backdoor activity.

Musharraf government also played the game of breaking people from various parties and bringing them under the umbrella of PML-Q, Musharraf’s political party which he conveniently revived in order to associate himself with the leadership and wisdom of the founding father of Pakistan, Quaid-EAzam Mohammed Ali Jinnah. This breaking of members from parties began after the elections where people elected from party tickets of Muslim League Nawaz Group and PPP where offered membership of PML-Q with lucrative facilities, greater authority and unfair advantages. There were some who were forced to abandon their party and join PML-Q, the alternative being jail as their track record of corruption was compiled and ready to be brought to court if they didn’t complied positively with their offer.

Result being that political parties lost their elected members and thus their numbers declined in provincial and national assemblies, giving majority to the current regime which could use it to pass their favorite laws and suspend clauses they disliked. In order to succeed in their plans, the governments were formed after accumulating members from various parties as if they had formed the governments earlier, they could not have gained majority anywhere and would not have been able to form any government without strong coalition with the two dominating political parties. This breaking allowed them to form government with majority with party that got 4th or 5th number of highest votes, showing that how much the majority political parties were reduced through unfair means.

The amendments current regime passed made it possible for General Pervez Musharraf to hold two offices at once, President and Chief of Army. There was even a time when he was holding four offices, which he now reduced to two. This act violates the spirit of constitution as according to the constitution, no person who is in service of government can become head of state. General Pervez Musharraf, being in service of government as the Chief of Army, is also the President of Pakistan. Another amendment gave powers to the President to terminate the government anytime, practically without giving any reason. This gave him a huge advantage as whoever will be the Prime Minister will have to follow his instructions and orders, or else be ready for termination that can come anytime for any reason.

President Pervez Musharraf also made it difficult for the previous leaders to come back and participate in the elections on account for numerous allegations that have been cased against them. Leaders like Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif would simply be arrested if they set foot in Pakistan, forcing them to remain in exile for the past several years.

A large vacuum of popular leadership has been generated through this act as there hasn’t been any leader that demands similar authority and respect as that of Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif in the past several years. The western system of politics is quite different as they generate capable people worthy of leading parties every now and then. In Pakistan, very few people are able to come this far and lead with such capacity. Throwing them out and bringing in weak substitutes not even weakens the political process itself but causes lack of political experience and exposure to the emerging political activists and leaders.

Another problem Pakistan suffers from is transparency. With so much corruption and rigging of polls during elections, there is little transparency in the country and the biggest proof is the Transparency International’s recent report in which Pakistan stands amongst the most corrupt countries. Out of 145 countries, Pakistan stands on 132 with a score of 2.1 while the neighboring country India stands on 91 with a score of 2.8. China and Iran stand on 71 and 88 respectively, proving Pakistan to be the most corrupt nation after Bangladesh in the South Asian region.

Economics

The economical situation of Pakistan is better than it used to be in 1999 as economic indicators have been showing positive signs at various fronts of the economy. But in all these indicators, the wizards at the ministry of finance have been playing the game of numbers while the government simply supports them rather than bring forth the reality.

Firstly, the government has been ignoring the illegal practices of several companies and letting them function normally. This allows the companies to convert black money to white, causing the root problems to penetrate into the system deeply rather than eradicating them. The recent case of telecom company, Paktel, can be considered as the company spokesman had clearly said in a press conference that they are not willing to be blackmailed and become part of the corruption cycle, therefore deciding to close the countrywide operations.

Such bold statement being said so openly does indicate that illegal practices are rampant in the government and similarly other companies are taking part in the process, clearing suspicions as to why very little action had been taken against the companies for bad, and in most situations, worse performance of network. This maybe not be limited to telecom sector only and probably has deep roots in other spheres of business as well.

Under the current regime the inflation rate had been all time high, going into double digits at one time and still it hasn’t been brought close to the safer limits. Prices of every essential and non-essential item has seen dramatic increase, putting heavy burden on the already diminishing middle class and making life miserable for the poor. Many prices had been artificially increased through storage of essential items in very large quantities to earn huge profits. Such practices are illegal as they hurt the economy, but even though it was in common knowledge, no steps were taken to rectify the problem and catch the responsible people.

Petroleum prices had reached to record level of 57 rupees a liter. Although the major reason behind the rice was the sudden and tremendous rice in oil prices in the international market that was touching $70 per barrel, the practice of price change had been most critical and self explanatory about the motives of the big fish of the petroleum sector and government. The prices have been reviewed twice a month for possible increase and never since the first increase in price due to rise in international rates did the price was reduced even though the price in international market has reduced considerably and for some time it has been hovering around $50 per barrel. The advantages of decline in price is not being transferred to the general public and the government is not giving any clear indication as to the proper reason for not reducing the oil prices which has caused tremendous increase in transportation costs and driving prices of nearly every item up.

The prices of real state have also shot up dramatically due to incorrect handling of economic policies and lack of foresight about future effects. The change of interest rate and very little control over inflation has caused the investment to move towards real state, causing the prices to go skyrocketing. House that previously costed Rs.3 Million saw an increase of at least Rs. 1 Million within a few months into the price increase.

Another clear example of economic mishandling is the ever increasing import bill that is always higher than our exports. The permission to import second hand vehicles without any clear restrictions erupted in a frenzy of car imports, causing burden worth Billions on the import bill. Thousands of cars were being important in a month and a very large number of these have been left to rot for the past few years at the harbor due to non-payment of taxes.

In yet another economic turmoil, the government had been privatizing vital government organizations. Privatization is relatively new in Pakistan which western countries had adopted 20 years ago and every supports it, but the privatization procedure being followed has shown shocking results. Companies and organizations have been privatized at throw away prices.

Worth of hundreds of millions has been given away in barely 50 or so millions of rupees.

Union Bank, having few branches in Pakistan, was acquired by Standard Chartered bank. The amount paid for the acquisition had been considerably higher than the funds generated through privatization of Habib Bank which has 1500+ branches all over Pakistan. This shows some of the mischievous activities at the government level that are being hid from public view. The case of Steel Mills is open to every one where no rules were followed in the privatization attempt. No process was followed and the profitable organization was being given away at a price that was even lower than the cost of the land over which the Steel Mills was located. Through some real effort the privatization was proved illegal and the decision was reversed, but the government is still trying to prove it was right at doing so.

Another surprising fact came into view about the privatizing funds. The privatization commission keeps 10% of the income from privatization for its own use and the rest is forwarded to finance ministry which use these funds to repay debts. A large sum of Rs. 80 Billion ($ 1.25 Billion) went missing, earned through earlier privatizations of government owned companies and institutions. The money was forwarded to finance ministry but wasn’t utilized in debt relief as still the figure is same as it previously was. Ministry refuses to comment over the matter and their balance sheet does not show the amount, either received or stored while PCs balance sheet clearly shows transfer of funds to the ministry. Where that huge sum disappeared to, nobody has any idea.

The financial institutions have been looting the people off their deserving money as there is no check from the government. Banks have been giving less interest to their depositors in comparison to official interest rate, earning huge profits and giving very little back. The lack of check has caused the people their fare share of earnings from their deposit accounts.

International Relations and War on Terrorism

Musharraf regime has had some interesting encounters at domestic and international level which has transformed the relations with other countries to a whole different platform. The cooperation with USA has increased significantly and so has the relations with India. Although President General Pervez Musharraf should have tackled some of the situations of higher sensitivity with greater care, still the outcome had been encouraging.

The cold relations with India have seen drastic improvement since the arrival of new government under the guidance of Sonia Gandhi and leadership of Manmohan Singh, which resulted in a successful visit of Indian prime minister to Pakistan and the signing of Islamabad Declaration. The opposition supports the regime on the matter of War on Terrorism. Pakistan has suffered a lot due to terrorism, resulting in deaths of many well known and respected personalities and murder of professionals that were big assets for the country. By participating in War on Terrorism, Pakistan also is preparing itself to grip domestic terrorism in iron hands and eliminate wherever found. At the same time Pakistan is also playing a bigger role against international terrorism by being an active member and front line state against the terrorist outfits which are feared throughout the world.

The matter which should have been handled in a better way was the Abdul Qadeer Khan case where our national hero was practically humiliated, not just in front of Pakistani people but to the whole world. The way Pervez Musharraf came up announcing the nuclear proliferation, it seemed like Pakistan had been denying charges of nuclear proliferation from so many years just for fun and suddenly decided to let out the secret. The military manner of handling such a sensitive case of national honor and integrity showed how much understanding of international relations, diplomacy and national security from a political point of view is lacking in the current government, especially the head of state.

Also President Pervez Musharraf failed to extract long term benefits from participating in the War on Terrorism from the developed countries and like Zia government, acted like temporary shelter for the developed countries to use and leave when the work completes.

Sources and References



In the Line of Fire: A Memoir Musharraf

by



Pakistan’s Drift into Extremism

by Hassan Abbas

 LFO: A fraud on Constitution

Pervez

by Raza Rabbani

 Interview with Opposition Member Dr. Safdar Ali Abbasi  Official Website of Pakistan People’s Party (PPPP)