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LPG price hike unjust, unethical
Hitting masses for profit in biting weather cruelty


Islamabad: Jan 08
The Pakistan Economy Watch (PEW) on Sunday said recent hike in Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) prices is unjust and against the interest of masses braving severe weather.

Decision of upward revision of LPG prices from Rs 80857 to Rs 92188 per tonne by Pakistan Petroleum Exploration and Production Companies Association (PPEPCA) cannot be justified as there is no indication of any cost increase in the production, it said.

Moving price up by Rs 11331 per tonne for the sake of profit amounts to cruelty and against the ethics of business, said Dr. Murtaza Mughal, President of the PEW.

According to industry experts LPG production cost hardly cross Rs 22000 per tonne and addition of 16 per cent GST add 3520 to it, he said.

One tonne of LPG is sufficient to fill 85 cylinders of 11.8 kg each which should have resulted in hike of Rs 133 per cylinder which is not the case on ground, said Dr. Murtaza Mughal.

He said that around 75 per cent production of LPG is controlled by government owned OGDCL, PPL and Parco that proves that the hike was sanctioned by those who take pride in their pro-poor stance.

Besides adding to profits of state-run companies, any increase in the prices automatically adds billions to the profits of private players like Attock Group, Hashwani Group and JJVL, he added.

He said that there should be some check on the moves of LPG producers who are playing havoc with masses in biting winter when demand is increased by around 700 tonnes per day to 2500 tonnes.

Prices is regularly been revised upward while local production remain stagnant at 900 tonnes, he informed.

He said that politically well-connected JJVL, the only company allowed to extract LPG from pipelines of SSGC may not be able to continue operations beyond March 2012 as its production has already declined from 450 tonnes per day to 150 tonnes.

He asked the CJP to take note of the situation and intervene in the interest of masses, especially those living in the remote areas like Gilgit-Blatistan, Chitral and Fata.

--
Dr. Murtaza Mughal
Cell:  0321-5157671
President Pakistan Economy Watch

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Upright Opinion
January 7, 2012
President Zardari was Evasive in his Interview    
By Saeed Qureshi
In his first of its kind interview with GEO Television's premier journalist and Capital Talk show's anchor Hamid Mir, Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari displayed an easy yet evasive posture. Hamid Mir reputed to be an adept media wizard in interviews with prominent figures loaded him with all sorts of intriguing and nagging questions.
Yet president Zardari looked unruffled and exhibited a non- challant countenance as if he was neither interested nor frustrated with the tough nature of questions as well as the scathing tone and tenor of the otherwise a polite interviewer.
The interview came after the lull of a long time and perhaps for the first time from a head of state who was exceedingly controversial and has been in the eye of storm of serious allegations ranging from colossal corruption to sowing a politics of intrigues and deviousness in Pakistan. His interview exuded a cumulative impression as if the whole world was on the wrong side and he and his party were treading the right track and serving the nation of Pakistan in an exemplary manner.
He ruled out any tussle with the opposition parties, with the judiciary and even with the armed forces of Pakistan. While even the novices of Pakistani politics were crying foul about the gross and unprecedented mismanagement of Pakistan's affairs, president Zardari dilated on Benazir's Income Support Program that in his view was changing the destinies of the downtrodden and would turn a new leaf in the economic and social well being of the poor people of Pakistan.
Of the host of biting questions, those about army's complicity in harboring Osama bin laden's covert stay in Abbottabad and Haqqani involvement in the so called Memogate scandal were paramount but were either parried by the president or were answered in a counter-question manner.
When asked why army was implicitly blamed by his government for Osama's clandestine sojourn in a place near Kakul Academy, the president deflected its onus by pointing out that it was alluded to the former president Musharraf and not to the incumbent army hierarchy.
The counter question about Haqqani projected involvement in the memo gate scandal, president Zardari shot back by pleading that if he( Haqqani) was in league with Mansoor Ijaz then why he should come all the way to Pakistan to take to legal recourse.
He completely absolved himself of even knowing Mansoor Ijaz who has rudely jolted the sitting government in Pakistan. Mr. Ijaz an American citizen claims that Hussain Haqqani and Asif Zardari were both involved in the drafting and sending of the Memo to president Obama's former national security advisor James Jones.
President Zardari categorically ruled out any compliance of the apex court's verdict to write a letter to the Swiss courts for reopening the so called Swiss bank account cases that primarily focus on both late Benazir Bhutto and Asif Ali Zardari. He took shelter behind the off- repeated plea that reopening of the Swiss bank cases was tantamount to the trial of late Mohtrama Benazir Bhutto and her grave; adding that the PPP would never allow that.
He argued that fundamentally these cases were instituted against her late spouse and not him and thus were essentially to denigrate her. He however, mooted the proposition that once he was out of the presidency, the next government could pursue those cases and do whatever they would like.
President Zardari shuffled his answers between two hats that he is wearing as the chairman of the PPP and being the president of Pakistan. When the crafty anchor would remind him of a pledge or declaration that he made but was not honored, or not well taken by the people, he would dismiss it by saying that he did so as the chairman of the party and not the head of the state.
Was he trying to hedge under the party's chairmanship by giving an impression that the party chairman's decisions could run counter to those that would be taken as the head of state? More often than not he would place many debatable decisions in the basket of the parliament which he ruled was independent and sovereign.
He though that the institutions and national building departments such as PIA, Railways, Steel Mills and WAPDA were not going to dogs but were weakening and could  be rehabilitated. Referring to his frequent visits to China, he expressed his robust hope that with those links that he established there, would bring fruit in the longer run and Pakistan would reap huge economic benefits out of those.
About the relationship with India, he highlighted his interaction with the Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh with whom he claimed to have raised the water question that in his view if not decided amicably,  would assume monstrous proportions for the both the neighbors in future and would spell disaster for their economies.
He mockingly downplayed the sudden surge of Imran Khan on Pakistan's political horizon by childishly comparing it with PPP"s legendry founder late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. He argued that while Mr. Bhutto rallied around him the downtrodden and underdogs of the society, the PTI chairman was embracing the renegades, opportunists and runaways from other parties who were crooks and merely joined him for selfish motives.
It was a myopic analogy by president Zardari because to preempt that all those who are joining the PTI would turn out to be swindlers and self serving villains were naivety and a simplistic denouement against a budding leader.
Moreover, Mr. Bhutto emerged in a different set of circumstances that happen once in centuries. It was dismemberment of Pakistan, although he had already formed his party. But to claim that all rank and files in his party were commoners would not be an objective assessment. Also it is primarily not the categories of humans or their social standing but the sincerity of purpose that can come from any person rich or poor, low or high. Mr. Bhutto later expelled all his pioneering revolutionaries and fell back in the company of Sardars, aristocrats, elites, oligarchs, feudals and high class thugs.
President Zardari told the interviewer that his party would contest the next elections on Mr. ZA Bhutto's famous slogan of "Roti, Kapra and Makan". When Hamid Mir pointed that people were suffering from a deluge of problems with no water, no power, no gas and no Roti, how the people would again believe in his party, president Zardari referred to Farzana Raja's income program and insisted on showing clip of her speech to prove that people were very well off now.
When asked as to why the reference about the retrial of late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was being sent to the supreme court now while it was not done so during the two stints of Benazir Bhutto's as prime minister, president Zardari evaded  an elaborate answer and responded by merely saying that she wanted to do but could not do so.
The unique interview which was eagerly watched by the people in and out of Pakistan left many questions marks than clearing the fog of apprehensions and allegations about the performance of the incumbent coalition government and the murky conduct of the leaders now ruling the roost.
About the PPP leaders notably Dr. Zulfiqar Mirza and Shah Mehmood Qureshi leaving the Pakistan People's Party, the president dished out his point of view that merited more elaboration. To the public allegation of Shah Mehmood that Pakistan's Atomic program was not safe in the hands of president Zardari, he disclosed that the nuclear regime was not under him anymore and was transferred to the parliament already.
The writer is a senior journalist and a former diplomat
To unsubscribe or for comments please write us at qureshisa2003@yahoo.com
You can read this and other articles at www.uprightopinion.com
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Dear Qureshi Sahib,
Muslims of India missed a historic opportunity. With 25% of the population in 1941, they have gone up to 38% (in India/Pakistan and BD). They would be ruling the subcontinent now. They are 16% in India and will have to wait till 2175 to be the majority in India.
Did you know that Muslims were a minority in the Punjab and Bengal in 1881, but had become the majority by 1921.

Dr. S. Akhtar Ehtisham
(607) 776-3336
P.O. Box 469,
Bath NY 14810
USA
Blog syedehtisham.blogspot.com
All religions try to take over the establishment and if they fail, they collaborate with it, be it feudal or capitalist.
======================================================
Upright Opinion

January 5, 2012

Population Explosion Turning Pakistan
into a Slum

By Saeed Qureshi

Do Pakistan's
planners and economic managers ever realize that the fast growing population is
the biggest threat to the sustained development of that country? The pace of
development is out of sync with the unremitting growth of population that of
late has reached a staggering mark of 187 million.

The birth rate
outpaces the death rate with 31 births and 8 deaths per thousand. For every
thousand individuals Pakistan has to feed 23 more mouths every year. Food
already getting scarce, the utilities, housing, roads, jobs, health facilities,
water, power, educational institutions have to be proportionately created for the
burgeoning population.

The trend of
urbanization is taking its toll on the living conditions and environment in the
cities. The rural areas being grossly neglected for development of
infrastructure and provision of basic facilities, the rural dwellers migrate to
the towns and cities where they take up menial and small jobs for survival. The
earning members have to carry the burden of their family members some of whom
may also join in the odd jobs they seek to pool the cost of living. The statistics
tell us that 36 percent population lives in big cities while 50 per cent
population resides in towns with roughly 5000 thousands population or over.

The migrants create
shanty towns, or occupy inhabited or odd places to live with several members
huddled in a small room made from unbaked bricks or mud. The Pakistan's cities
suffer from inadequacy of utility and social services such as gas, water,
electricity, health, education and good public transportation system. The uninhibited
trend is to build houses anywhere without approval of the local government or municipalities.

One can witness the
ugly and haphazard growth of ramshackle shanty towns or even modesty good houses
coming up around the main cities such as Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad. Karachi
presents the worst scenario as far grabbing of land and expansion of small
settlements and colonies around the cities are concerned. These makeshift
colonies are cordoning the cities with filth and dirt and sewerage flowing in
the unpaved lanes with swarming worms and flies.

In the absence of a
proper and pre-planned  town planning,
the houses constructed haphazardly, do not have a wider access to move and thus
small, narrow lanes and uneven dirt paths are used as approach connections to
the houses. Now wherever one builds house of free will and without as we call zoning
rules, the access road and provision of electricity and running tap water and  gas connections take years before these are piecemeal
provided.

It would be
interesting to note that in 1951 when both East and West Pakistan were
together, Pakistan's population was around 30 million which at present stands
at 180 million alone in West wing now Pakistan. While population has mushroomed
exponentially, the resources to cater for the needs of the growing population
have not been correspondingly created. Pakistan is replete with huge natural
resources one of which are huge coal deposits .But woefully these were not
utilized by mining and thus there is acute scarcity of fuel and gas and
electricity that could be produced by using coal.

The construction of
dams both for irrigation and power generations were always kept on back burners
for a variety of untenable reasons. The Kalabagh dam that should have been now functioning
for decades was left in lurch due to provincial bickering and thus no
government could pick up the courage to complete this very vital project.

We have mayhem
situation in Pakistan. There is an unremitting and unprecedented chaos all
over. The industrial sector is being shut down; the people are using firewood
to cook food and to warm their houses. We are moving back towards the primitive
ages. The agricultural crops are not enough to feed the people. The entire
system of governance and provision of essential utilities on sustained bases
has been in doldrums.

With the fast
growing population which is the easiest pastime for a jobless person, the country
has passed into the phase of horrendous backwardness. See our roads, our buses
and markets places full of encroachments with animals stalking the roads. Can
one believe this is a state that came into being only six decades ago and looks
like a medieval land?

The unchecked
growth of population is a sure recipe for unemployment, lawlessness, poverty,
breaking down of institutions, corruption, environmental degradation, poor
quality of life, the spread of diseases, and the loss of hope for a better
future among the public. When resources are scarce and demand gets higher and
higher by the day, the people would resort to crimes, stealing, and robbing,
killing and even prostitution.

The edicts of the
religious clergy that population control was a sin should be ignored as these
demagogues have no alternatives to give food to the entire population nor have
any plan to provide basic needs, utilities and services to the teeming
millions.

It is critically
important that emergent measures should be taken to cap the wild and
unrestrained proliferation of the population in Pakistan. Otherwise beside the
poverty graph going up, there can be riots all over country which are already
sporadically taking place in Pakistan.

It is up to the
authorities and the respective governments in Pakistan as to how they bridle
and control the population explosion for better life of the citizens. There are
many research documents and studies that are internationally available and also
in Pakistan which if implemented earnestly and with full force of law, the
population can be restrained.

Thus there will be less
new humans to be taken care in several ways from housing to medical care and
jobs and provision of basic needs both in terms of social services and public utilities.
That situation would take off an enormous load on the government exchequer as
well as lessen the burgeoning socio-economic problems. It is foregone that the
people with less socio-economic hazards and public service irritants can be more productive
than those reeling under abject and degrading living conditions.
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Recent Activity:
Editor,
Tariq Khattak, Islamabad, Pakistan.
GSM = 0300-9599007 and  0333-9599007
Email: Tariqgulkhattak@gmail.com

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 پاکستان، تھائی لینڈ، ملیشیاء، سنگاپور اور انڈونیشیاء انسانی اسمگلروں کے مشہور اڈے ہیں، جہاں سے ہر سال ہزاروں افراد کو آسٹریلیا اور نیوزی لینڈ بھجوایا جاتا ھے، اس خرناک سفر میں ہر سال سینکڑوں پاکستانی بھی جان و مال سے ہاتھ دھو 
بیٹھے ہیں، آسٹریلیاء اور نیوزی لینڈ جانے کے لیئے ہر سال ہزاروں افراد جن میں پاکستانی، ایرانی، افغانی، ویتنامی اور 
انڈونیشین وغیرہ شامل ہیںسنگاپور، ملیشیاء اور انڈونیشیاء کے خطرناک سمندری راستے کے ذریعے لانچوں میں کئی کئی 
دنوں کا سفر طے کر کے آسٹریلیاء و نیوزی لینڈ جانے کی کوشش کرتے ہیں، مگر کوئی قسمت والا ہی ہوتا ھے،جو پہنچ 
پاتا ھے،جبکہ اکثر کو یا تو لانچ والا کسی نامعلوم جزیرے پر آسٹریلیاء ظاہر کرکے چھوڑ جاتا ھے،تو کئی کو انڈونیشین نیوی
گرفتار کر کے جیل بھجوا دیتی ھے،یا پھر کئی افراد کو تو کشتی ذیادہ لوڈ ہونے کی وجہ سے سمندر میں ھی ڈوب جاتی ہے، 
یا کئی کو راستے میں لانچ والا عملہ خود ہی مار دیتا ہے، آسٹریلین امیگریشن کے مطابق ہر سال بمشکل پانچ سو سے سات 
سوتک افراد آسٹریلیاء و نیوزی لینڈ پہنچ پاتے ہیں، جبکہ سینکڑوں جیلوں یا موت کے منہ میں چلے جاتے ہیں، اور کچھ 
انڈونیشین جیلوں میں کئی سالوں سے پڑے ہوئے موت کی بھیک مانگ رہے ہیں،آسٹریلیاء و نیوزی لینڈ جانے کی کوشش
کرنے والوں میں پاکستانیوں کی تعداد ذیادہ ھے، جن کی اموات کی خبریں اکثر انڈونیشین، سنگاپوری اور ملیشیاء کو اخبارات
میں چھپتی رہتی ہیں، پاکستانی میڈیا کو بھی چاہیئے کہ وہ ایسی خبروں کو ہائی لائٹ کرے تا کہ ایف آئی اے حرکت میں آئے 
اور عوام میں شعور پیدا ہو، اورکرپٹ حکومت پاکستان اپنی عوام میں اس بات کو پھیلانے میں تشہیری مہم چلائے،
گزشتہ ایک سال کے دوران انیس سو بارہ پاکستانی آسٹریلیاء جاتے ہوئے گرفتار ہوئے ھیں، جبکہ چھ سو سے زائد جانوں 
سے ہاتھ دھو بیٹھے ھیں۔۔

Syed Fawad Ali Shah
Correspondent
CNN TV Brunei darussalam
Mobile# 0060163264403
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Till such time, Pakistan will listen to such non-sense talk from USA, their interference will increase minute by minute. I think their next demand will be to shift the former envoy, from the PM house to US embassy in Islamabad.

I will again repeat one can't be insulted more than he permits.

Pakistan should clearly tell now to USA, that the uneasiness in Washington on memo gate scandal, is forcing us to conclude that their is more than meets the eye and it apprehends that something is fishy about American hand, in the whole episode, about which they are worried, lest the beans may be spilled.

Because, as they say he who cries, is definitely hurt.

So now it is high time, Washington should also come clean about it's role in conspiracies against Pakistan, it's so called friend. Or else be shut up and mind it's own business.

Syed Nayyar Uddin Ahmad.
Lahore - Pakistan

Sent from my iPad.
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                                PRESS SECTION
            HIGH COMMISSION OF PAKISTAN
                             132 Jalan Ampang,
                        Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
                Tel (603) 2161-1370 - Fax (603) 2161-0384

Press Release

Pak-Malaysia trade up by 10 per cent, says Pak envoy to Malaysia
Pakistan's High Commissioner to Malaysia, Mr. Masood Khalid, has described 2011 as a significant year in bilateral relations between Pakistan and Malaysia.
In an interview with state-owned Malaysian news agency Bernama, the High Commissioner said two-way trade between Pakistan and Malaysia was already up by over 10 per cent, with greater commercial and economic interaction through exchange of business delegations, investment conferences and participation in trade fairs and exhibitions.
He said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and Pakistani Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani had the first bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Perth in October. "During the meeting both leaders reaffirmed their commitment to further strengthen traditional ties," he said.
Masood Khalid said new areas of cooperation, such as halal industry, agriculture, education and sports, witnessed increased activity, and for the first time, Pakistani beef was introduced in the local market. "Pakistan also emerged as a major supplier of rice, textiles and livestock to Malaysia," he said.
On the maritime front, he said a Malaysian naval ship earlier participated in the Aman (Peace) naval exercise held in the sea near Karachi while Pakistan had participated in the recent Langkawi International Maritime and Aerospace Exhibition.
He said the Joint Committee on Defence Cooperation had also held its meeting in Kuala Lumpur to boost defence cooperation between the two countries.
He said for 2012, Pakistan intended to build on what it achieved last year. "The exchange of high-level delegations, joint commission meeting, expansion in trade, more educational linkages and people-to-people contacts are on our agenda to take our relationship forward," Masood said.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 7th January, 2012


--

Hamid Raza Khan
Press Attache
High Commission for Pakistan in Malaysia
132 - Jalan Ampang, 50450 | Kuala Lumpur
Phone: + 603 - 21611370
Fax: + 603 - 42563906
Mobile: + 601 - 02441963
Email:      presspak2011@gmail.com

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