Dont Worry Democracy is Here!

[fatman17]

Corruption is rampant in the land of the pure, but dont worry democracy is here!

The pillars of the state are at loggerheads with each other, but dont worry democracy is here!

Karachi is burning, but dont worry democracy is here!

Food inflation is at its peak, but dont worry democracy is here!

The Flood effectees have been forgotten, but dont worry democracy is here!

The world wants us to tax the rich, but dont worry democracy is here!

No Police and law and order in the rural areas, but dont worry democracy is here!

India diverts water from the rivers of kashmir, but dont worry democracy is here!

Power outages / loadshedding are crippling the industry, but dont worry democracy is here!

The govt. education system is bankrupt, but dont worry democracy is here.

No dams to store water, but dont worry democracy is here!

Fake degrees wallas are reigning supreme, but dont worry democracy is here!

No justice for the poor, but dont worry democracy is here!

The govt is bankrupt, cant pay its bills, but dont worry democracy is here!

According to the govt, all is well in the land of the pure, but dont worry democracy is here!
The world wants our nukes, but dont worry democracy is here!

There is no democracy in the political parties, but dont worry democracy is here!

We pay lip-service to defend our sovereignity, but dont worry democracy is here!

The WoT is sapping the country and economy, but dont worry democracy is here!

and finally.....if we dont change ourselves, we wld be long gone, and then we dont need to worry about democracy!

Long-Live Pakistan & its People!

 

[KALKI]

^^ Congrats on the 10000th post sir!

 

[flameboard]

We Pakistanis need to stick together and we will get through this. You are wrong in one aspect and that is that fact that alot of these problems stem from times when our democracy didn't exist for example during the time of Perwaiz Musharraf and Zia-Ul-Haq. All countries have had their bad rulers and bad times this was just how Pakistan suffered such times, we just need to make sure this doesn't happen again.

 

[Evil Flare]

democrazy cannot work in Pakistan ... Its Final .

 

[forcetrip]

We Pakistanis need to stick together and we will get through this. You are wrong in one aspect and that is that fact that alot of these problems stem from times when our democracy didn't exist for example during the time of Perwaiz Musharraf and Zia-Ul-Haq. All countries have had their bad rulers and bad times this was just how Pakistan suffered such times, we just need to make sure this doesn't happen again.

The 170 odd million Pakistanis also want to stick together with you. But unfortunately they are stuck in Pakistan. But thank you for your kind words.

 

[fatman17]

Still 7m flood effectees without shelter: UN

Saturday, October 23, 2010

ISLAMABAD: Seven of the 21 million Pakistanis affected by this summer’s floods are still without shelter, the United Nation’s Pakistan Office reported this week. And an estimated 14 million continue to need urgent humanitarian assistance.

These figures are an indictment of the Pakistan ruling elite’s incompetently organized and poorly funded flood relief effort.

They also are an indictment of the imperialist powers. Under conditions where Pakistan has faced what the UN has repeatedly described as the world’s largest humanitarian crisis in decades, the agency has repeatedly had to plead for the “international community” to come to assist Pakistan.

The western-dominated IMF and World Bank have tied flood aid to their demand for Pakistan to implement market reforms. Washington, meanwhile, has intensified its pressure on Pakistan to expand its counter-insurgency war against Taliban-aligned groups in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

Pakistan’s floods began with heavy rains in the country’s north-east in late July and continued as the water travelled the length of the Indus Valley over the next two months. More people were displaced in Sindh, the country’s southern-most province, than anywhere else, although authorities had weeks of warning about the impending floods. The vast majority of those now lacking shelter are from Sindh.

According to the Government of Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority the floods killed 1,961 people. But these figures could still rise sharply due to the spread of disease in relief camps, inadequate food aid, and the disruption of the country’s food supply.

At an Islamabad press conference called to release a “Floods in Pakistan Fact Update” October 18, UN spokeswoman Stacey Winston said, “At least seven million people are currently without shelter in the flood-affected areas.”

According to the report, the floods destroyed or damaged 1.9 million homes and ravaged public infrastructure in a 50,000 square kilometer area—an area larger than the Netherlands. About 10,000 schools and 558 health facilities have been severely damaged.

The UN has requested international donors provide $US346 million to provide flood victims with emergency shelter, such as tents, and transitional shelter mean to last several years while permanent housing can built. So far the UN has received only 20 percent of that sum.

“We are doing the best we can with what resources we have,” said Winston. But more support is needed for shelter to protect families during the winter months ahead.”

The fact sheet reported that the floods washed away at least 2.4 million hectares of standing crops and resulted in the deaths of 1.2 million livestock and 6 million poultry. “More,” it added, “may die without proper feed and veterinary support.”

Although the flood waters have receded, the UN report noted that acute health risks remain due to the unavailability of clean water, sanitation and basic health facilities.

Over the past two months, there have been more than a million cases each of diarrhea, skin disease, and acute respiratory infections. There have been an estimated 300,000 new cases of malaria and 921 confirmed dengue cases.

Another UN agency, the IRIN, reported that people are aware of many of the health threats but face overwhelming problems.

“We know malaria is a risk, but what are we expected to do when we have no roof to sleep under, no proper cots to tie nets to, and a situation where dirty water stands everywhere?,” Saghir Muhammad of Thatta in Sindh, who was displaced by floods, told the IRIN.

A government official in Thatta explained to the IRIN that there are no resources to drain away the pools of stagnant water left by the floods even though there are prime breeding grounds for the mosquitoes that transmit malaria: “Of course [the pools of stagnant] water should be drained away, but we have no equipment and it is not easy anyway to get rid of so much water.”

Other groups and agencies are warning of the threat of hunger and malnutrition.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) has said millions of flood victims could go hungry this winter. The secretary general of the IFRC, Bekele Geleta, pointed out that “unlike an earthquake, this is a slow onset disaster and the full effects may not be known for months to come.”

According to the IFRC, malnutrition has risen to 14 per cent across Pakistan and 30 to 50 percent of children arriving at health centres show symptoms of acute malnutrition.

UNICEF paints an even grimmer picture of the children affected by floods. 125,000 children under the age of 5 are severely malnourished and half a million more suffer from moderate malnutrition. It estimates that the 75,500 “severely” malnourished children are ten times more likely to die from disease than merely the malnourished.

The World Food Programme (WFP) warned, in a report issued last week, that severe and moderate malnutrition is “rising dramatically in some flood-affected areas.” “Sadly,” said WFP spokeswoman Jackie Dent, “we are getting low on funds and by November we have a pipeline break for several commodities.”

Three days prior to the UN announcement that 7 million people in Pakistan are still without shelter, the Friends of Democratic Pakistan (FoDP)—a grouping dominated by the US and European powers—met in Brussels.

The meeting, which was co-chaired by Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, considered recent reports from the World Bank and Asian Development Bank that estimated the floods caused $9.7 billion in damages to houses, schools, crops and indirect future economic losses. This is a far cry from the Pakistan government’s initial estimate of $43 billion.

But even if the lower estimate is correct, it represents more than a quarter of Pakistan’s annual national budget.

Yet the scale of the disaster confronting the Pakistani people did not prevent the gathering from demanding “continued efforts by the Government of Pakistan under its reform programme towards economic stabilisation and sustained economic revival, including widening the tax base, and taking other necessary structural measures to generate and enhance the maximum possible term development.”

This is a demand for Islamabad to speed up implementation of an IMF restructuring program that calls for the government to phase out within the current fiscal year all subsidies on energy prices, otherwise cut government spending, and introduces a new value-added sales tax. The IMF has held up the last tranche in an $11.3 billion loan negotiated in the fall of 2008, insisting that the funds will only be released after these socially incendiary measures have been implemented by Islamabad.

With much fanfare, the Obama administration has pledged several hundreds of millions of dollars in flood aid to Pakistan. But it is taking this from monies already earmarked for Pakistan under a five-year aid plan adopted in 2009, the Kerry-Lugar bill. And Washington continues to balk at Islamabad’s longstanding plea for the US to reduce tariffs on Pakistan-made cotton goods, the country’s biggest export-earner.

 

[somebozo]

democracy go to hell..we need a strict danda for next 40 years to become insaan!

 

[jazzy b]

democracy go to hell..we need a strict danda for next 40 years to become insaan!

iron ka danda ya plastic danda.lol

p.s: just kidding

 

[majesticpankaj]

democracy go to hell..we need a strict danda for next 40 years to become insaan!

don't you think, you already have your share of dictatorship. what you have achieved?? do you want another 40 years of unaccountability??

 

[ajtr]

i dont understand pakistanis.when the are under dictator they fight for democracy and when democracy comes they pray for return to dictatorship.The truth is after 63 years pakistanis are not still sure about what sort of governance they want.

 

[fatman17]

Pakistan racing to become No 1 most corrupt country

By Ansar Abbasi

ISLAMABAD: Corruption in Pakistan has attained new heights in 2010, as the country under the Zardari-Gilani duo, is said to have surpassed several other badly corrupt nations of 2009, it has been learnt.

A serious charge sheet of corruption against Pakistan is all set to be released by the Transparency International on Tuesday (October 26).

Sources in the World Bank (WB) and Asian Development Bank (ADB), which contribute to the preparation of the Transparency International report, told The News that corruption in Pakistan had massively increased during the last 12 months. “You will soon be hearing really bad news about Pakistan,” a source warned, disclosing that as against last year when Pakistan had slipped five ranks from the 47th most corrupt country in 2008 to 42nd, the 2010 scenario was much worse.

The sources said Pakistan’s downslide amongst the most corrupt nations was deeply depressing. “It seems the country (Pakistan) is fast racing to become number one on the list of the most corrupt nations,” a source commented.

Transparency International Pakistan Chairman Adil Gillani, when contacted, said the Transparency International was releasing its report in the afternoon of October 26. He, however, did not say what the report would bring for Pakistan.

The last report of the Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) 2009 was released in November 2009, which showed 2.4 as Pakistan’s score. Out of 180 countries, Pakistan was ranked 42 in the list of most corrupt nations. In 2008, its ranking was 47.

According to the WB-ADB sources, reports of international organisations like WB, ADB, Bertelsmann Foundation Index (BTI), Economist Intelligence Unit, Freedom House and Global Insight, concerning the state of affairs in Pakistan, particularly in areas of governance and corruption, are really worrisome.

Sharing the details, the sources said the WB International Development Association (IDA) Ranking Resources Allocation Index, which in case of Pakistan was 29th out of 75 countries in 2009, has slipped by five countries this year and reached 24th out of 77 countries.

Quoting another sign, the sources said the ADB Composite Country Performance Rating (CCPR) had 12.79 score last year but this year this sore had come down to 12.20. Referring to yet another indication, the sources said the BTI, which adjudged Pakistan as 32nd out of 122 in 2009, this year found Pakistan’s rank to have slipped by 21 countries, to 112 out of 122 countries.

In an American survey released on October 14, 2010, Pakistan has been declared worst in Corruption and Access to Civil Justice. The Rule of Law Index, which assessed 35 countries around the world on nine key variables, suggested high-income countries generally respect the rule of law more than poor countries. In Asia-Pacific, Japan, Australia and Singapore scored well with the Philippines and Indonesia dragged down by weak justice systems and corruption. Pakistan was near the bottom of nearly every index, and worst in fundamental rights, corruption and access to civil justice.

The glaring proof of absence of the rule of law in Pakistan is clear from last one-year mega corruption cases of National Insurance Corporation, Pakistan Steel Mills and Rental Power Plants. The corruption cases have been taken up by the Supreme Court instead of the government and its top accountability apparatus — the National Accountability Bureau.

Pakistan, on the other hand, scored the lowest — 34th or 35th in five of the variables and 32nd or 33rd in three of the other four. In ‘order and security’, which dealt with the absence of crime and violence, it ranked 24th, higher than, among others, most of the Latin American and Sub-Saharan African countries covered in the survey.

Kenya, which though scored poorly in the survey, did best with respect to criminal justice, where it ranked 25th, ahead of most of the Latin American countries, Pakistan, Liberia and Nigeria.

International bodies have been advising Pakistan that it needs immediate enforcement of good governance and transparent administration, to counter the acute problem of corruption.

Pakistan Steel Mills, EOBI, PIA, Rental Power Plants, KESC, NIC, NHA, OGDC, PSO, Pepco, CDA, DP Division, DHAs, Pakistan Steel Mills, TCP, NBP and many other organisations are said to be facing serious corruption.

 

[aristocrat]

YOU need to give democracy time to mature.

 

[fatman17]

In the crosshairs

Dr Farrukh Saleem

Elements within the executive organ of the state are in a state of war. The Supreme Commander has nominated Gen Awan as Commander, Central Command, Gen Naek as Commander, Tactical Command, and Gen (r) Pirzada as Commander, Strategic Command. Operation "Malign Judiciary" – the generals have deployed their troops and identified their weapons of choice, unit responsibilities as well as unit locations.

Commander, Central Command, has selected his arsenal with great care. Weapons of choice include politicisation of the adversary and making your opponent controversial. Central Command's central motto remains: "As to the juror or the witness, bribe both."

Commander, Tactical Command, is mostly about gaining time – through adjournments and by trying to change horses in midstream. Tactical Command also seeks to attract public support via speeches by the PM. Tactical Command wants to be the highest bidder and its motto remains: "Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder."

Commander, Strategic Command, commands weapons of mass destruction. Strategic Command's cache includes de-notification of your opponent. Strategic Command's battle cry remains: "Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful."

Central Command has succeeded where many others have failed: the Lahore incident, for instance. Can the weapons used by Central Command bear fruit over the long run? I have my doubts. Tactical Command, in the meanwhile, has won big. Imagine: the NRO verdict was a good 10 months ago. Has Strategic Command hurt or helped the foe? Some say the judiciary's pre-emption has put Strategic Command on the back foot. There are others who disagree with that. I think the jury is still out.

The target of them all has tools of its own. Yes, there is the Constitution that states: "No criminal proceedings whatsoever shall be instituted or continued against the president or a governor in any court during his term of office (Article 248)." But the Constitution is not just the text – it's the text plus judicial interpretations and conventions.

The judiciary has no armaments it can call its own. All it has for weapons is grace, dispassion and non-partisanship. The short order on the 18th Amendment was nothing but undiluted grace – "knowledge is folly, except grace guide it." The short order has, once again, very gracefully, silenced hawks coming out of every *** hole in Islamabad. The short order is living proof that grace, dispassion and non-partisanship can easily subdue Gen Awan's arsenal of choice. The motto on this side of the fence is: "A good judge conceives quickly, judges slowly."

Executive-judiciary battles are not unique to Pakistan. Six hundred years ago, Richard II became king of England at the age of ten. The king named Robert Tresilian, Richard's favourite lawyer, as the chief justice of the King's Bench. The king ordered Tresilian to give out a verdict challenging public opinion. Chief Justice Tresilian was captured and then executed by a mob – executed for his loyalty to the king.

Seventy-five years ago, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the 32nd president of the United States, schemed to "pack the court." The United States Senate, on public demand, intervened and neutralised the president.

In Pakistan, battles will be won and lost. If push comes to shove, the one who has public support will win. And public support shall remain with the judge who has two ears, both alike.

The writer is a columnist based in Islamabad. Email: farrukh15@hotmail.com

 

[somebozo]

YOU need to give democracy time to mature.

At the expense of sovereignty, economy and derailing of own country. And by the time sh1tocracy matures the foreign agencies will have planted moles everywhere. We need to learn from example of Turkey where army helped raise a generation of proper leaders and then stepped down. The security and integrity assurance behind any country is their armed forces. At times of war, democratic leaders run to save their a55.

Ata Turk wasn't a democratic leader, neither Stalin was nor a bunch of many other successful leaders. They all rose from the military and used their disciplines to push their countries forward.

Democracy at best is turning your country into a giant international casino where everyone channels secret money to puppet leaders for their own twisted goals.

 

[Bangalorean]

At the expense of sovereignty, economy and derailing of own country. And by the time sh1tocracy matures the foreign agencies will have planted moles everywhere. We need to learn from example of Turkey where army helped raise a generation of proper leaders and then stepped down. The security and integrity assurance behind any country is their armed forces. At times of war, democratic leaders run to save their a55.

Ata Turk wasn't a democratic leader, neither Stalin was nor a bunch of many other successful leaders. They all rose from the military and used their disciplines to push their countries forward.

Democracy at best is turning your country into a giant international casino where everyone channels secret money to puppet leaders for their own twisted goals.

All that is fine if the leader (dictator, general whatever) is benevolent and efficient. If he turns out to be a psycopath like Idi Amin or a warmongering mass murderer like Hitler, god save your country.

And apart from the fact that you have no means of predicting what type of leader you'll get, how do you know if that leader will actually step down in some time like you're hoping?