No Mr. Prime Minister

 

The Prime Minister of Pakistan, Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani, may we ask that you being the leader of the house in the Parliament, when will you awake and sack your Minister for water and power for his contempt of the parliament, in telling the biggest lie of the year to the nation, that too on the floor of the house, that electricity load shedding has been terminated.

Sir, believe me these silly persons have made your government and the PPP look as the most irresponsible and callous government, ever witnessed by this planet. People faced the hardships of all the load sheddings of electricity, gas and water, they also beared the burden of price hikes of every conceieveable item in their daily lives, they also put up bravely with all the law and order chaos and mega corruption scandals, but please don't be so heartless by further rubbing salt into their wounds already inflicted by your most inefficient government.

All the previous tenures of the dictators in Pakistan look like an era of paradise, if compared with your regime of last four years.

In fact, now you and your government has become a laughing stock. Hope you remember that in early November, 2011 Dr. Asim, your another talented minister for minister for gas & natural resources, boasted that gas load shedding will end in the year 2012.

Mr. PM, then you have the audacity to say every now and then that there are conspiracies against the democracy. Sir, with this inept performance, who needs to conspire against you.

Remember, if you will not act, someone else will. Don't create your own demise. Since, elections are almost due, it is humbly suggested to pull up your socks and start delivering immediately.

You and your government must know that future is not ahead of you, it has already happened. Unfortunately, it is more ruthless and callous, then all of you combined in the government. It grinds slowly but it's mesh is very very fine.

With best of the hope that you will act, before it's too late. You are not only the Prime Minister of Pakistan but you are also the custodian of the great & shining legacy, image and reputation of the Shaheeds Zulfiquar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto.

Syed Nayyar Uddin Ahmad

Sent from my iPad.

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Attract, keep vital employees to guarantee success

 

Teamwork key to success of businesses: Mian Shahid

Negative environment fatal for organisations; former president UBL

Attract, keep vital employees to guarantee success: ex-president ABL

Islamabad: [Feb 17]

Mian Shahid on Friday said effective teamwork is essential to the success of any business while lack of cooperative environment is fatal for organisations.

Organisations are energised when individuals harmonize their contributions and work towards a common goal while lack of teamwork cripples businesses, he said.

Speaking at a capacity building seminar, Mian Shahid, CEO Saudi Pak Insurance Co. said that selecting right team members is a challenge for management as teams with wrong members would eventually fail no matter how hard they try.

He said that many corporations with frequent replacements, distrust, unnecessary secrecy, and negative attitudes are on path of self-destruction.

Success in corporate culture lies in being positive, open, and invigorating, he said adding that members of any team can only thrive in a challenging and creative environment.

Mian Sahid said that destructive organizational climate as well as positive corporate culture comes from the top-down.

"Management of any company is largely responsible for the work culture that an organization develops," he stressed.

Managers can foster a good climate by making their expectations clear through detailed job description, personal discussions and empowering each team member. Disagreeing without reasoning leaves team confused, he added.

He said that corporate culture in Pakistan lacks recognition which is key to success. Failure of management to regularly give out positive recognition pushes employees to seek negative recognition.

Mian Shahid said that recognition should not be limited to outstanding performers; those who don't fall in the category of star employees also deserve it.

He said that those managers who are not included in decision-making process are deprived are sense of ownership, they will focus on themselves which will be counterproductive for everyone.

Former President UBL Aziz Memon, former President ABL Salim Sheikh, Majeed Memon, Hassan bin Dawood, Altimish Malik, and others also spoke on the occasion.

They said that alternative to provision of opportunities and challenges and promotion of unique talents and strengths is boredom and mediocrity which is very expansive to afford.

Individual are very important but effective and efficient teamwork goes beyond individual accomplishments, they observed.

They said that managers who are not principled, honest, respectful, encouraging, committed, enthusiastic, and a good listeners are a liability for every business.

Attracting and keeping vital team members is the key to future of entrepreneurs, the speakers concluded.

--
Ali Asad,

PRO, UIG
Cell: 0321-2047618. Ph: 0213-581-0441/2
Address: 212 Clifton Centre, Clifton, Karachi.

About United International Group:

UIG Member Companies include United Insurance Co, Saudi Pak Insurance Co, Apna Microfinance Bank, Tawasul Insurance LLC, Abu Dhabi, United Track System (Pvt.) Ltd., United International Agro Services, United Software & Technologies International (Pvt.) Ltd. & United International Farms. The Group is in process of expansion…

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article to use if you wish - apologies for x-posting - ditch if you don't want

 

British justice in dock over Abu Qatada

By Yvonne Ridley

Istanbul

 I am overseas as the whole Abu Qatada hate fest unfolds back in London.

 And from my seat over-looking the Bosphorus I am cringing with embarrassment and wondering what on earth has happened to my country.

 The screaming headlines, the overly animated MPs and the behaviour of government ministers rather reminded me of the notorious monkey-hanging legend from Napoleonic times which to this day haunts the good people of Hartlepool. But I will return to that later.

 Never do I recall reading so much hysterical nonsense over one person yet British parliamentarians from all parties, so-called anti terror experts and mouth pieces for rightwing think tanks continue to compete for a slot on TV to whip themselves up into an unprecedented frenzy.

 The bizarre thing is they know little or nothing about Abu Qatada in terms of actual facts. Yet their hate knows no bounds or logic but, what the heck ... he's a Muslim and in the current climate Muslim-baiting has become a perfectly acceptable sport in the UK.

 Tragically, this incoherent rabble illustrates exactly what happens when foreign intelligence meddles with our democracy.

 Want to know where the secret evidence about Abu Qatada came from? It came from those acting for Arab leaders and their wealthy friends.

 Those in power in the Middle East have feared and despised the Palestinian cleric for decades - his ability to articulate and inspire and influence ordinary people across the Arab world horrified them.

  Feeling their very existence under threat they conspired to have him tortured, tried and executed so when he escaped and fled to the UK and continued to criticise them they worked their influence on various lick-spittle toadies in Whitehall to have Abu Qatada silenced.

 It is to our eternal shame that we complied - bedazzled by their billion dollar arms deals and massive contracts, brown envelopes and secret accounts.

  And when the British Government decides to make public its secret evidence against Abu Qatada I may consider doing the same to show exactly how foreign intelligence agencies planted evidence and hoodwinked us all.

 Abu Qatada's presence in the UK meant big business for some and other detractors on the fringe of this corrupt circle have also made a nice little living for their rightwing think tanks and blogs over the years by fanning the flames of hate on behalf of the corrupt kings and rulers in the Arab world. Some of them to this day still have no idea who is pulling their strings.

  One has to wonder just which governments really benefitted from Theresa May when she parroted the words that Abu Qatada is a dangerous man just the other day. 

 I'm not sure she is even aware of where it came from herself and to be fair to her, she is not the first government minister to line up and say the same without producing one shred of evidence.

 It's certainly safe to say we can ignore the special intelligence briefings against Abu Qatada – these were concocted by the same sort of craven liars who tried to convince us all that Saddam was 45 minutes away from nuking us to oblivion.

 And it's interesting to note that one of the most vocal critics of the cleric is the now discredited Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón, another serial liar who was finally exposed and discredited just the other day. He went as far as to say Abu Qatada was the spiritual leader of Al Qaida in Europe - he produced not one shred of evidence but who would dare question the word of one of Spain's most eminent judges at the time?

 Yet despite Garcon's spectacular fall from grace, the convicted felon's words continue to be repeated ad nauseum by feckless fools and journalists too dumb to realise they're doing the dirty work of those Arab regimes still standing.

  But in this current climate of fear against all things Islamic there are a poisonous few with their own anti-British agenda who are capitalising on the situation.

 And their agenda is very anti-British. Do we need reminding we are a nation of people whose calm rationale and stoicism are world famous. Rarely have we allowed ourselves to be whipped up into a state of panic.

 Despite decades of so-called Irish terrorism – sponsored by US dollars - we remained untroubled by The Troubles refusing to allow the IRA affect our daily lives and routines.

 Sadly in the USA, many of our American cousins wake up frightened, they go to bed frightened and they are constantly being told by their government to be afraid, very afraid. This state and media manufactured paranoia has now impinged on all of our lives - the nonsense we have to go through at UK airports is a direct result of hysteria sweeping across from the other side of the Atlantic.

 Which brings me back to the embarrassing episode of the monkey.

 At the time of the Napoleonic Wars in Britain there was a fear of a French invasion and much public concern about the possibility of French infiltrators and spies.

 Fear mongers managed to turn ordinary, level-headed citizens into barking mad fools so much so that on the day some storm wreckage from a sunken French vessel washed up on the shore of Hartlepool it created mass panic and hysteria. 

 Fearing an invasion was underway they began examining the wreckage strewn across the beach and discovered a rather bedraggled, sorry-looking survivor. It was the ship's pet monkey dressed to amuse in a military uniform but because the people in Hartlepool had never encountered a Frenchman they assumed the monkey must be one.

 By this time all rational thought had left them and so they joined in the hysteria about the French threat and put the monkey on trial. They questioned the animal at length and because it was not forthcoming with any coherent information they concluded it must be a French spy and should be executed. And so, taking the law into their own hands, they hung the monkey on a makeshift gallows.

 The story soon swept beyond Hartlepool's border and to this day the town is ridiculed and has become the butt of many a joke all because their forefathers allowed themselves to suspend all reason and logic.

 Let's remember why Abu Qatada came to Britain with his family in the first place ... he was fleeing persecution in Jordan, a country where human rights are as rare as hens' teeth.

 He was advocating the Arab people rise up and overthrow the dictatorships and tyrants from Jordan, Libya, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Saudi and beyond. A call that would be encouraged and welcomed in today's climate of the Arab Spring.

 And when he fled, he chose these shores because of the UK's reputation as a beacon of human rights where justice and fairness still exist in a world corrupted by treachery, greed and fear. His audience was never British, he had no influence in Europe and he is a threat to no one apart from the brutal tyrants in power in the Middle East.

 Given enough rope the gaggle of British MPs and media fuelling the lynch mob pursuing Abu Qatada, may very well hang the British reputation for fairplay … and from my view overseas it is now dangling by a thread.

  * British journalist Yvonne Ridley is a patron of the human rights organisation and London-based NGO Cageprisoners.

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