UN Resolution against Drones - And the Jingoism

The UN General Assembly passed a unanimous resolution against the drones on Wednesday December 18, 2013. It clarifies one thing for sure that there is a government in Islamabad today that knows what it is doing and how things must be done in the modern civilized world. While the jokers of Pakistan politics continue to play their “Dhandhli and Dharna”, the PMLN government has convinced the world, working on a diplomatic level, that drones are a threat to peace and are counter-productive in the quest for curbing the terrorism.

It is a successive victory of Pakistan at diplomatic front during the last two weeks. Earlier this month European Union awarded Pakistan with the GSP+ status and now the success in the UN on the issue of drones against the will of the all-powerful United States is an achievement that deserves applause. It also signifies the efficiency and effectiveness of this government that launched a potent diplomatic offensive at the international level to win two of the long-awaited battles at the diplomatic level on two of the most prestigious forums of the world.

“Trade – not Aid” was an election slogan of the Pakistan Muslim League (N) and from the day that PMLN took over the government in Pakistan, it has been working tirelessly on this mission. The deals with Turkey and China earlier this year and now the GSP+ status are examples of the seriousness of the government in this regard. It is a fact that terrorism is one of the major hurdles in the way of economic boom in Pakistan and the PMLN’s efforts in this regard can also not be undermined at all. They, after coming into power, immediately called an All Parties Conference but it couldn’t be held unfortunately because of some “extremely important elephants that needed to be saved” in London. 

Post by I Hate Imran Khan (The Master of U Turn).

However, the APC was convened a few weeks later and it was decided that the government will hold talks with the Taliban. Unfortunately, a drone strike that killed Hakimullah Mehsud stalled the process and we went back to square one.

 

It was a huge set back to the peace process but the government didn’t lose hope despite the jingoism of the opposition parties, mainly one overly excited about the drones i.e. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. It is strange that while the Imran Khan led PTI was holding their other favorite “Dha” i.e Dharna (first is Dhandhli), the PMLN government was doing what it actually should have done about drones. It was continuously engaged on all forums taking up the matter of drones and was engaging other countries in its pursuit for ending this menace. As a result, it was able to carve out support from all quarters of the world and a resolution was passed unanimously by all the countries in the United Nations.

Funny it is that the government is, for the first time in the last fourteen years, doing the right things in this War on Terror and the opposition is still on the same path of confrontation. PMLN was time and again accused of being a friendly opposition in the previous tenure to the Pakistan People’s Party government but it never resorted to useless criticism in order to wash this stain away. It kept supporting the right moves by the government and Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, the then Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly, always remained highly critical of the government’s inability and corruption, thus maintained a balance. Every time he spoke, he had something very important to say and never once faltered in his long speeches; never said a word that was irrelevant or baseless. Contrary to what we saw during the previous government, the opposition today has been crying hoarse since day one over the alleged rigging in the Elections. They have never come up with anything significant that could be either presenting a bill, point towards some mistake committed by the government or even discussing a certain act.

Yes, but they have done one thing with all the valour and devotion in the world and that is “condemnation” - Condemnation of anything and everything that any of their opponents ever did. It is rightly asked if Shirien Mazari, the Secretary Information of PTI, is actually the Secretary for Information or she is the Secretary for Condemnation in her party. Imran Khan constantly kept asking for end to drones and the government was also doing the same but in a different manner. While he was staging sit-ins, the government was being a little sensible in its approach and was able to win support of the world in the United Nations.

But old habits are seldom forgotten. The opposition was totally unaware of what the government was doing in this regard which clearly indicates that there is hardly a working relationship between the government and the opposition and also indicates towards the lack of interest of PTI in the national issues. Some lady named Anila Khawaja who runs Imran Khan’s twitter handle was so ill-informed that despite several stories published in the national dailies about the government’s expedition for getting a resolution passed in the UN General Assembly unanimously against the drones, she was stupid enough to tweet from @ImranKhanPTI (that is Imran Khan’s official Twitter handle by the way) that even the UN was passing resolutions against drones but the government of Pakistan was not taking a clear stance.

Doesn’t it put on display the lack of maturity of these good for nothing losers? Yes it does, but, in my well-considered (not humble at all) opinion, it is not because they didn’t know about it. They knew about it but they were being led by nature. As the saying goes, habits can change but nature doesn’t. They were yet again playing the same old game that was on display in this image that I posted around a year ago on this very blog.

While I praise the government for their effectively taking this matter up on all the relevant forums of the world through aggressive diplomacy, I call for an end to nuisance by the maniacs in the PTI who believe that they have a monopoly over everything good happening in any part of the globe.

No. It was not Imran Khan whose useless Dharna and Dhandhli mantra did nothing to let the world know of Pakistan’s stance on the drones. It was actually Nawaz Sharif’s and his team’s brilliant diplomacy that brought the world to our stance. It is time for the PTI to stop staging these worthless sit-ins and start working. Their planned sit-in in Lahore is certainly not going to end the inflation in Peshawar that, by the way, is highest among all four provincial capitals of Pakistan according to the stats revealed by the State Bank of Pakistan for the month of November.

GSP Plus Status in EU … Yes, We Survived Again

It is December and every December since 1971 brings with it some sorry memories for the nation. We lost a hand in the very month and 90,000 of our soldiers were made prisoners by the Indian Army. The humiliating ceremony of the surrender by General Niazi in Paltan Ground, Dhaka, was given coverage throughout the world. We failed to keep Bengal with us, true. It took away one of our hands from us but what it couldn’t take away is our resilience. It couldn’t fade away our resolve to struggle for a democratic country and our will to survive.

If there is one thing that is displayed from every aspect of our lives as a nation is that we know how to survive. Under situations when all the experts count our Cricket Team out of a tournament, we somehow manage to sneak into the final four and at a number of occasions we have even managed to win those tournaments. Such was the case even with the World Cup that we won in 1992. And it happens all the time. We survived from the Earthquake, we survived from the floods. We have a habit of lifting ourselves up whenever world starts to count us out. And that is what happened again yesterday.

Last night when the news broke that the European Union has awarded GSP+ status to Pakistan, the first thing that came to my mind was exactly this, ”It seems we’ll survive … again.” There have been days in the past when our existence was threatened from our Eastern borders. A mighty India just the other side of the border with a nuclear strength and its media threatening that it could run us over any moment, gave several of us a few sleepless nights. But just then, when the entire world was against us, on May 28, 1998, we came up with five nuclear explosions, letting everyone know that we, too, have the ability to destroy India if we get attacked. And that we haven’t fallen yet and that … We have survived!

This time, unlike the military threats in the past, the challenge is much different. However, it is probably more lethal than all the military threats that we have had so far and this challenge is our troubled Economy. Just a few months back, we all thought that this economy does not have the ability to bounce back. The rising prices of dollar in the country made even the best of economists worry and the investors’ trust seemed shaking. But while most of us were unable to anticipate, the Karachi Stock Exchange continued to perform well. God knows whether it was a gimmick or genuine, however, it seems to have paid off.

The massive inflow of investment within just a few months and the continuous good performance of the Stock market has brought trust into the market and with it crossing new barriers every new day, the prospects seem to be good for the foreign investment. At this juncture the support that the government has won from the European Union is like a lifeline for our economy.

Pakistan, through this opportunity, will be able to access 27 different countries of Europe without paying the duty for its products. Quoting directly the message on Facebook by Hina Pervaiz Butt, MPA from PMLN: “PAKISTAN WINS GSP+ status by the Eurpean Parliament, which means Pakistan’s textile manufacturers and exporters will now have access to 27 European countries without having to pay duties. During last 5 months, PM Nawaz Sharif engaged Ambassadors of EU, British govt. in particular, CM Shehbaz paid special visit to Germany, Diplomatic channels were used to make US influence the EU in support of Pakistan. 360 degree professional lobby finally worked for Pakistan in winning GSP+ status. With this privileged status, our textile exports are expected to touch the figure of $14.4 billion in next 5 years, millions of jobs will be generated. Predicting the increase of demand of our textile which will eventually need more energy for production, an LNG import deal is already done with Qatar which will bridge the gap of gas demand/supply by Nov 2014. It’s the WIN of Pakistanis and the acknowledgement of our Quality Products in the WORLD.”

This certainly is a great achievement and the months and years to come will surely prove that this government has achieved one of the most vital milestones in the form of this GSP+ status from European Union. The efforts for the acquiring of this status and other trade agreements by this government will certainly reap long term benefits for Pakistan and the future will surely be much better than the past.

We can safely say that we have survived again. Thanks to Pakistani public that it voted wisely and gave the mandate to the party that has done wonders in the past and is capable of doing it again. May Allah help us all!

We Must Cherish What PMLN has Done So Far

While the government is being grilled from all quarters on the issue of inflation, the facts are a little different from the popular mantra. It is true that the electricity prices have increased during the last few months but it is also true that so far the electricity prices have been increased only once during the current tenure of the Pakistan Muslim League (N) government. It is also true that though this rise in the price of electricity was criticized on media and the legislators alike, the price hike was carefully directed towards the privileged classes of the country and the 68% of the consumers did not get affected by this price hike. There are PMLN achievements that we must mention and cherish and we should celebrate them instead of being pessimist all the time.

At the same time, the government made sure that the problem of load shedding gets resolved. While the Prime Minister and the Water and Power Ministry have been constantly working in this regard, the line losses were also controlled. A crack down on the gas and electricity thieves was carried out by the government and there was significant success. 3933 criminal cases have been registered in the province of Punjab since June this year and out of these 3,933 cases 3,311 were against the power theft and 622 against the Gas theft, according to the report published in the Express Tribune on November 22, 2013. This had caused a loss of Rs. 5.479 billion to the national exchequer.

We also need to see that the commercial use of fuel consumption has also dropped significantly. According to the stats revealed by Hunbultex Pvt Ltd the Electricity Bill of the company for the month of November last year was Rs. 19,136 and the generator fuel had a cost of Rs. 42,000. On the other hand, this year the same company has paid Rs. 36,972 as electricity bill and nothing for the fuel as they did not require any generator this year. Apparently, it can be said that the company saved around twenty thousand rupees despite the rise in the power tariff at their office just because there was no load shedding.

The food prices have gone rampant, it is true. There is no arguing the fact that the prices rose to a level that nobody could even anticipate but that is true for the oil prices as well. While the government had estimated the cost of the oil to rise to about $ 115 per barrel in the budget for this year, the oil prices rose much higher due to the US-Syria standoff. Right now, the government is unable to control the oil prices and the dire situation of the finances of Pakistan, courtesy the previous government’s criminal negligence, it is almost impossible to give any subsidies as well. Besides, the district management simply cannot do anything about the market forces. At most they can bring the cost down from Rs. 30 to Rs. 28 for a given commodity but nothing more. It also needs to be noted that the prices have come down drastically during the last two weeks but there is no mention of this price cut anywhere in the media which is an intellectual dishonesty and even the Prime Minister mentioned this last week during the launching ceremony of the Youth Business Loans Scheme.

It is true that there are problems but talking about the problems only will never take us anywhere. We need to realize that there are positive things happening as well and unless we do not look towards the positive aspects, we are never going to get rid of the negative effects of the problems.

We can always feel pride in mentioning that our exports have increased this year comparing them to the last. We can feel pride in the fact that EU has granted us the GSP+ status that will allow us to have access to 27 countries of the European Union without paying duties. We can cherish the fact that there is no load shedding, scores of new power projects are being installed and the country is about to make it to the goal of becoming load shedding free within the next five years. And of course we can feel happy that no corruption case has surfaced during the last six months and Pakistan has improved twelve places in the corruption indices according to the Transparency International.

Things are improving and we must acknowledge the government’s resolve to take Pakistan forward and trust their efforts because it was us who voted them to power, nobody else.