fatman17
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Good and bad news
June 5, 2013 – March 31, 2014: The best piece of news out of the current season of news is that Pakistan’s economic management has taken a U-turn from consecutive disasters of yesteryears. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has revised its GDP projection upwards from 3 percent to 3.4 percent. The World Bank has revised its GDP projection upwards to 4 percent. According to the IMF, GDP growth for 2014-15 will accelerate to about 3.7 percent. The IMF has also confirmed that the “preliminary data for the 1st quarter 2013-14 recorded 5 percent growth.”
The ADB has promised to provide $3 billion in the form of project aid and programme loans. The World Bank has promised $1.7 billion for energy and infrastructure projects (a total of $10 billion over five years). The Islamic Development Bank has promised $730 million.
The Ministry of Finance has sold Eurobonds worth $2 billion-a magnitude the ministry has never achieved before (this was against an initial target of $500 million). Then there’s 3G for an additional $1.2 billion.
The economy is picking up steam. The private sector has started growing (credit to the private sector has gone up from Rs53 billion last year to Rs231 billion). Machinery imports are already up a wholesome 26 percent. Incorporation of new companies has gone up by 17 percent. Local cement dispatches have gone up by 9 percent.
The one man behind this economic turnaround is Ishaq Dar, the PML-N’s super-minister. In December, this man claimed that he would bring the almightily dollar down to Rs98. In March, the dollar had come down to 98. On February 14, this man said that “Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves will increase to more than $10 billion by the end of March.” By end-March, our reserves had reached $10 billion.
A robust economy creates business opportunities and business opportunities generate jobs. And additional jobs will put tons of smiles on a million Pakistanis-poor Pakistanis who haven’t smiled for long.
April 1, 2014 – April 7, 2014: On March 31, General (r) Musharraf was indicted. And then came the two speeches – Khawaja Saad Rafique’s and Khawaja Asif’s. And then came a commando’s question – “Why do they hate us?” And then came General Raheel Sharif’s “will resolutely preserve its own dignity and institutional pride” speech.
Our army is in a state of a bloody war. Imagine: 5,681 of our officers and our jawans have accepted martyrdom so that the rest of us can live. Our army is laying down lives so that you and I can live in peace.
Imagine: 5,681 army families have buried their loved ones. There isn’t a unit in the army that hasn’t buried a life-long friend, a colleague, a pal, a buddy or a mate. There isn’t a battalion in the army that hasn’t smelled death as close as two coats of paint.
For the information of our honourable ministers, a military defeat results from discouragement not casualties. Here’s a COAS who has built a 38-year military career based on non-confrontation. Imagine what the general must be going through to have come up with a statement like that. Imagine what our soldiers must be going through when one of them, as old as my son, asks his general “Why do they hate us?”
The really bad piece of news out of the current season of news is: The civilian government’s ‘Project: Greater Civilian Control is being managed recklessly – and heartlessly.
The writer is a columnist based in Islamabad. Email: farrukh15@hotmail.com
Twitter: @saleemfarrukh
June 5, 2013 – March 31, 2014: The best piece of news out of the current season of news is that Pakistan’s economic management has taken a U-turn from consecutive disasters of yesteryears. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has revised its GDP projection upwards from 3 percent to 3.4 percent. The World Bank has revised its GDP projection upwards to 4 percent. According to the IMF, GDP growth for 2014-15 will accelerate to about 3.7 percent. The IMF has also confirmed that the “preliminary data for the 1st quarter 2013-14 recorded 5 percent growth.”
The ADB has promised to provide $3 billion in the form of project aid and programme loans. The World Bank has promised $1.7 billion for energy and infrastructure projects (a total of $10 billion over five years). The Islamic Development Bank has promised $730 million.
The Ministry of Finance has sold Eurobonds worth $2 billion-a magnitude the ministry has never achieved before (this was against an initial target of $500 million). Then there’s 3G for an additional $1.2 billion.
The economy is picking up steam. The private sector has started growing (credit to the private sector has gone up from Rs53 billion last year to Rs231 billion). Machinery imports are already up a wholesome 26 percent. Incorporation of new companies has gone up by 17 percent. Local cement dispatches have gone up by 9 percent.
The one man behind this economic turnaround is Ishaq Dar, the PML-N’s super-minister. In December, this man claimed that he would bring the almightily dollar down to Rs98. In March, the dollar had come down to 98. On February 14, this man said that “Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves will increase to more than $10 billion by the end of March.” By end-March, our reserves had reached $10 billion.
A robust economy creates business opportunities and business opportunities generate jobs. And additional jobs will put tons of smiles on a million Pakistanis-poor Pakistanis who haven’t smiled for long.
April 1, 2014 – April 7, 2014: On March 31, General (r) Musharraf was indicted. And then came the two speeches – Khawaja Saad Rafique’s and Khawaja Asif’s. And then came a commando’s question – “Why do they hate us?” And then came General Raheel Sharif’s “will resolutely preserve its own dignity and institutional pride” speech.
Our army is in a state of a bloody war. Imagine: 5,681 of our officers and our jawans have accepted martyrdom so that the rest of us can live. Our army is laying down lives so that you and I can live in peace.
Imagine: 5,681 army families have buried their loved ones. There isn’t a unit in the army that hasn’t buried a life-long friend, a colleague, a pal, a buddy or a mate. There isn’t a battalion in the army that hasn’t smelled death as close as two coats of paint.
For the information of our honourable ministers, a military defeat results from discouragement not casualties. Here’s a COAS who has built a 38-year military career based on non-confrontation. Imagine what the general must be going through to have come up with a statement like that. Imagine what our soldiers must be going through when one of them, as old as my son, asks his general “Why do they hate us?”
The really bad piece of news out of the current season of news is: The civilian government’s ‘Project: Greater Civilian Control is being managed recklessly – and heartlessly.
The writer is a columnist based in Islamabad. Email: farrukh15@hotmail.com
Twitter: @saleemfarrukh
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