Mafias run Pakistani economy: Dr. Kaiser Bengali

According to Dr. Kaiser Bengali, an eminent economist Pakistani economy is mostly run by mafias, who often join politics and the government to get “legal benefits.”

These mafias enjoy monopoly profits, which they use to further strengthen their political designs.

Dr. Bengali, who remained Advisor to the past governments in Sindh, Balochistan and Centre, while speaking at an online post-budget 2020-21 webinar on Sunday said sugar, wheat flour, fertilizer and paper industries are minting money by availing various subsidies and incentives in the form of tax exemptions. Most of the owners of these industries are either in the government or they are relatives of the ministers.

“You have heard about the sugar scandal and a good thing has happened that an inquiry report has been made public, which exposed how the sugar mafia is looting the national wealth by adopting all “legal procedures.”

Describing further, Dr. Bengali said the sugar mafia provides wrong figures and manipulates the situation for their benefit. First, they export sugar and claim subsidies on exports then create a shortage in the country to raise its prices. These sugar mill owners are mostly politicians, who often make policies for their benefit. Sugar mills are not paying properly costs to sugarcane growers and swindle taxes like FED and GST through manipulation.

Flour mills receive wheat from the government’s procured stocks at subsidised rates. The main aim of this incentive is that they would supply flour at lower rates. In fact, these mills purchase wheat from the open market and then sell flour at higher by mixing the rates. “They put the subsidy on wheat in their pockets and sell flour at higher rates,” he said.

In Pakistan, three paper mills have created a cartel, which has made many publishing houses bankrupt as they sell paper at higher rates. “Now the situation is such that most of the curricular books, even in Urdu are published and imported directly from China and Indonesia as there is no import duty on published books. The paper mafia is so powerful that every year the government announces to change the duty structure, but it always fails to do so.

He said most of the fertilizer manufacturing units are owned by the Military subsidiaries in Pakistan, which receive Sui (natural) gas at very cheaper rates, almost free, and also receive subsidies on the selling of fertilizer to growers.

It is a matter of fact that more than 60 per cent of fertilizer is being used by Punjab, whereas Sindh consumes only 20 per cent. The Sui gas-producing province Balochistan consumes only 4 per cent of the fertilizer, thus most of the subsidy goes to Punjab at the cost of smaller provinces like Balochistan and Sindh that produce the natural gas.

“We have not seen the reverse transfer of the benefit from Punjab to Balochistan,” he said adding that Punjab does not provide any subsidy to Balochistan while supplying wheat the people of Balochistan have to purchase wheat at the market rates.

Watch the entire speech: Click here

Sacrilege of Hindu COVID-19 deceased in Dadu

Sindh’s customary secular and Sufi traditions were shattered when some religious zealots in Dadu city thrashed the body of a deceased Hindu Kewal Ram who died because of Coronavirus when his relatives were performing cremation at Shamshanghat, a dedicated place to perform the last rituals of Hindus.

These Muslim zealots, living in the neighbourhood forcibly entered the walled Shamshanghat and tried to intervene during the last rituals by putting out the fire while throwing buckets of water and desecrating the body.

Dadu was once famous for religious harmony where hundreds of Hindu families still live in a peaceful environment. In recent years, religious fanaticism has increased in Dadu city as well where religious mind Muslims have become intolerant.

According to reports, a group of religious zealots intervened in the cremation of Seth Kewal Ram Rathor, a notable Hindu and trader of Dadu city by asking the relatives not to perform cremation near their homes as the deceased had died of COVID-19. They were fearing the spread of the virus in the neighbourhood.

Click Here to watch the video

The relatives and Hindu notables of the area assured that cremation rituals were being done according to the government Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and there was no chance of the spread of the virus. However, the intruders were insisting to stop the rituals.

Local police were called, which forced the intruders to go out of the Shamshanghat and the final rituals were completed under the supervision of the Police.

According to the FIR, registered on behalf of the state, dozens of people had entered Shamshanghat and threatened the relatives of the deceased to stop the rituals because they were fearing the spread of the virus. Some of them were carrying buckets of water, which they threw on the fire in an attempt to put it out.

A press release, issued by Police department on Thursday stated that Dadu Police have arrested three nominated accused namely Izhar Solangi, Ghulam Hussain Solangi and Mohammad Yousuf Solangi. The FIR registered under Sections of 295A, 186, 296 and 297 Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) has nominated six persons whereas 20-25 others were included in the case.

Economic Survey paints dismal picture of economy

The provisional Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate of Pakistan for FY 2020 is estimated at negative 0.38 per cent on the basis of 2.67, -2.64 and -0.59 per cent growth in agricultural, industrial and services sectors respectively, states the Economic Survey of Pakistan 2019-20 released on Thursday, a day ahead of the presentation of Annual Budget 2020-21 in the National Assembly on Friday.

Presented by Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance Hafeez Sheikh the Economic Survey document has presented a dismal picture of Pakistan’s economy as most of the economic indicators have gone nose dive.

For example, the negative performance of both Industry and Services has overshadowed the growth in the agriculture sector, which grew by 2.67 per cent. This sector is badly hit by the locust swarms in Sindh and Punjab, the major agriculture provinces.

The economic team of the government has put all the burden of the downward slide of Pakistan’s economic indicators on the overall slowdown due to the lockdown after Coronavirus (COVID-19) in March 2020, although the economy was not performing well even before the start of COVID-19.

The provisional growth in the industrial sector has been estimated at -2.64 per cent mainly due to a negative growth of 8.82 per cent in the mining and quarrying sector and a decline of 7.78 per cent in the large-scale manufacturing sector. Due to the lockdown situation in the country, the growth estimates of the Small-Scale Industry for FY2020 are 1.52 per cent.

Similar to the industrial sector, the services sector of the economy has also witnessed a significant impact of the lockdown situation in the country due to COVID-19, particularly in the Wholesale and Retail Trade and Transport Sectors. The services sector has declined provisionally at 0.59 per cent mainly due to a 3.42 per cent decline in the Wholesale and Retail Trade sector and a 7.13 per cent decline in Transport, Storage and Communication sectors.

The finance and insurance sector, however, witnessed a slight increase of 0.79 per cent. The Housing Services, General Government Services and Other private services have contributed positively at 4.02, 3.92 and 5.39 per cent respectively.

The fiscal deficit has substantially reduced to 4.0 per cent of GDP during July-March, FY2020 against 5.1 per cent of GDP in the comparable period last year. Similarly, a remarkable turnaround is visible in the primary balance, which posted a surplus of Rs 194 billion during July-March, FY2020 against a deficit of Rs 463 billion. Overall, the improvement in the fiscal account is largely attributed to a higher provincial surplus and a sharp rise in non-tax revenues.

The government has retired Rs 736.47 billion to SBP against the borrowing of Rs 3,204.72 billion in last year. On contrary, the Government borrowed Rs 1,760.38 billion from scheduled banks against the retirement of Rs 2,213.85 billion last year.

Exports during July-April, 2019-20 remained at $ 19.7 billion compared to $ 20.1 billion during July-March, 2018-19, posting a decline of 2.4 per cent.

The total imports during July-April FY2020 declined to $ 36.1 billion as compared to $ 40.3 billion same period last year, thus registering a decline of 16.9 per cent.

During Jul-April FY2020, remittances increased to $ 18.8 billion as compared to $ 17.8 billion during the same period last year, with a growth of 5.5 per cent.

During July-March FY2020, the current account deficit (CAD) reduced by 73.1 per cent to US$ 2.8 billion (1.1 per cent of GDP) against US$ 10.3 billion last year (3.7 per cent of GDP). The significant reduction in CAD reflected mainly the impact of macroeconomic stabilization measures taken by the government.

The executive summary of the Economic Survey 2019-20 can be accessed online from the website of the Ministry of Finance. Please Click Here

Unabated use of religion against opponents in Sindh

Sindh has witnessed two recent incidents in which the religious tool of blasphemy law was (mis)used against the opponents.

In the first case, the state on Tuesday filed a blasphemy case against a professor of Shah Abdul Latif University Khairpur Sajid Soomro with charges of contempt of Islam as he reportedly took part in the funeral of a Sindhi writer Atta Mohammad Bhanbhro. Prof. Soomro was later arrested by Khairpur police from his home early on Wednesday.

Prof. Sajid Soomro is also a famous writer and a member of Sindhi Abadi Sangat.

Another incident took place in Hyderabad where Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) Fazlur Rehman group started a social media campaign against a leader of Women Action Forum (WAF) Dr. Arfana Mallah alleging that she has done blasphemy by condemning the Blasphemy law. Interestingly this law has been condemned by many, but why JUI-F found it objectionable in the case of Dr. Mallah.

The JUI-F’s local leadership asked the party workers through a Facebook post to gather at a mosque in Bhitai Nagar and from there they will proceed to a police station to lodge an FIR against the women rights activists Prof. Dr. Mallah who is teaching at the University of Sindh, Jamshoro.

Dr. Mallah had played a key role in organising the Aurat March at Sukkur in March this year despite severe opposition by fanatics and religious leaders including provincial leadership of JUI-F. Before the March, the JUI Sindh had threatened to stop the march.

Later, Women Action Forum issued a press release condemning threats to Dr. Arfana Mallah. “We demand that police thwart such nefarious attempts and that this situation is handled in a timely and lawful manner before any damage is caused,” the WAF statement added.

Interestingly both the victims are professors of universities. According to the FIR against Prof. Soomro, the police have included Section 295-A of the Pakistan Penal Code, which pertains to deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage the religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs.

Misuse of the Blasphemy law is quite common in Pakistan as this law, was made stringent by the Military dictator General Ziaul Haq and was misused against the opposition and minority activists. The law has hit vulnerable sections, especially women and minorities. In Sindh last year a couple of serious incidents happened in which people from the Hindu community were made targets.

I don’t know what is the main cause of concern for JUI-F leadership in Sindh this time against Dr. Mallah, but it is a matter of the fact that the religious zealots have always used this law as a tool to gain their nefarious designs.

According to a post by Azam Jahangiri of JUI F on Facebook, Dr. Arfana Mallah uttered derogatory words against the Blasphemy law in her Facebook post while condemning the registration of a case against Prof. Soomro. Therefore, his party under the leadership of Taj Mohammad Nahiyon is determined to lodge a blasphemy case against Dr. Mallah.

RIP Steel Mills

The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the federal cabinet on Wednesday announced laying off all the 9,350 remaining employees of the Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) with a golden handshake incentive worth around Rs 20 billion.

Presided over by the Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh the ECC, however, decided to retain about 250 employees for a period of 3 months for the execution of the human resource rationalisation plan and completion of formalities.

This news sent a shock-wave among the workers and trade unions, which have been demanding the release of salaries of workers. They have announced to launch of a movement against the PTI government’s move. The social media is filled with speeches by Prime Minister Imran Khan and Asad Umer who had addressed PSM workers before coming into power. They had pledged to revive the Mills and not to retrench any workers. The social media posts indicate they have done the opposite.

At least two retrenched workers of PSM Ejaz Samoo and Muhammad Yunus Baloch reportedly suffered heart attacks and died due to the shocking news.

At least five trade union leaders of Pakistan Steel including Yaseen Jamro, who is the Chairman of the current Collective Bargaining Agent (CBA) of the PSM (Steel Mills Insaf Union) were arrested while protesting outside the mills on Thursday and were later released by police.

According to the government, each employee would be paid an estimated amount of Rs 2.3 million.

The Supreme Court of Pakistan on March 13, 2020, asked the federal government to lay off all the redundant employees and appoint new people if it wanted to keep PSM running.

Established by former Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto with financial and technological support from the former Soviet Union in 1973 the Pakistan Steel Mills was once the largest industrial mega-corporation complex producing steel for industrial purposes. The project was formally launched by former Military dictator General Ziaul Haq on 15 January 1985.

Having a production capacity of 1.1 million tonnes of steel  Pakistan Steel Mills is spread out over an area of 7,550 hectares (18,660 acres) including 4,205 ha (10,390 acres) for the main plant, 3,266 ha (8,070 acres) for the township and 81 ha (200 acres) for the 110 MG water reservoir. In addition, it has leasehold rights over an area of 3,043 ha (7,520 acres) for the quarries of limestone and dolomite in the Makli and Jhimpir areas of the Thatta district. (For further details pl. visit: Pakistan Steel’s History.)

The PSM, which has been facing many crises since the 1990s stopped its commercial operations in June 2015 without formulating any human resource plan for its 14,753 employees which has since come down to 9,350 in 2019.

Despite its non-functional status, the fate of such a large number of employees remained undeclared as they have been demanding their dues since 2015.

During General Pervaiz Musharraf’s era, the federal government tried to privatise it, but the Supreme Court of Pakistan stopped its sale.

I can recall that I wrote a feature in monthly Newsline in its May 2006 issue with the title The Grand Steel Steal, in which I highlighted the military government’s design to sell an important national asset.

Although it was an inevitable decision on part of the government as it is unable to pay huge amounts of salaries to the employees, who are virtually kept redundant due to the non-functioning of the corporation since 2015. The successive governments had failed to revive the Steel Mills, which needed huge capital investment. Once the Sindh Government had shown interest to buy the Mills, but it backed out due to unknown reasons.

کورونا وائرس وبا، ماسک اور ہمارا رویہ

آج گلشن معمار میں بینک گیا. ہفتے کا پہلا دن ہونے کی وجہ سے رش بہت تھا. نمبر لے کر کونے میں بیٹھ گیا۔

دیکھا کہ کچھ لوگوں نے (مجھ سمیت) ماسک پہن رکھے تھے مگر کافی لوگ بغیر ماسک یا سیمی ماسک لگائے ہوئے تھے (مطلب ماسک تو لٹکا ہوا تھا مگر آپس میں بات کرتے ہوئے مونہہ سے ہٹارہے تھے۔).

ایک شخص جب گیٹ سے اندرآیا تو ماسک پہنا ہوا تھا. مگر بیٹھتے ہی ماسک جیب میں ڈال دیا۔ گیٹ کا چوکیدار بغیر ماسک کے اندر آنے نہیں دے رہا تھا۔

پاس میں دو پثھان بغیر ماسک کے ایک ساتھ بیٹھے تھے، ان کے کندھوں پر چادریں تھیں، جن کو مونہہ پر ڈال کر اندر آئے تھے مگر بیٹھتے ہی کپڑا ہٹا دیا. بینک افسر ان کے پاس آیا اور کہا کہ اپنا مونہہ ڈھاپ لیں یا ماسک پہن لیں. کہنے لگے گرمی ہے اور تمہارا اے۔سی بھی ٹھنڈک کم دے رہا ہے اس لیے کپڑا ہٹا دیا ہے. افسر کے اسرار پر بھی انہوں نے اپنا چہرہ کھلا ہی رکھا۔

جس بندے نے ماسک جیب میں ڈالا ہوا تھا اس کو بھی افسرنے پاس آکر کہا کہ ماسک پہن لو، مگر اس نے سنی ان سنی کردی اور ویسے ہی بیٹھا رہا۔ مگر جب اس کا نمبر آیا تو میں نے دیکھا کہ اس نے جیب سے ماسک نکالا اور پہن کر کھڑکی پر گیا۔

بیٹھے بیٹھے میں سوچتا رہا کہ ہماری قوم اس وبا کے پھیل جانے کے باوجود بھی کتنی نان (غیر) سیریس ہے اور میں ایسے رویوں پر افسوس کرتا رہا۔

پھر میرا نمبر کال ہوا۔ جب میں کھڑکی کے پاس پہنچا تو دیکھا کہ شیشے کے اس پار بیٹھے تمام کیشیئرز میں سے کسی ایک نے بھی ماسک نہیں پہنا ہوا تھا۔