xiaahmad
Chief Minister (5k+ posts)
http://thespokesman.pk/index.php/history/item/7324-mera-sultan-falls-in-love-with-turkish-model
Amir Mateen
Islamabad—It was Ishaq Dar’s turn to face the music. The Finance Minister came under fire on Monday for being absent to answer the financial queries at the National Assembly. And he also had the audacity to leave nobody to answer on his behalf--as is the usual practice. Such omissions seem more
glaring when the number of people who sleep without a meal, electricity and gas grows by the day. The members clamoured to know what was going on with the ever-increasing fuel and commodity prices, devaluation of the rupee and what not.
Dar remained absent on Tuesday as he flew away with the Prime Minister to,we believe, study the so-called ‘Turkish model’ that the Sharif Brothers are trying to emulate here.Shahbaz Sharif is a frequent flyer to Turkey and has got it engaged in numerous development projects from education to infrastructure in Punjab.But it was the Metro Bus project that the kid brother thinks won him the last elections.
Our Gallery pundits claim Shahbaz has now sold the ‘Turkish delights’ to the Prime Minister. So Turkey is the new rage or, let’s say, the revival of the old love. You might notice that Turkey is silently replacing the Saudis, Iranians, the Americans, even the Chinese in Pakistan. It is not just the Pakistan public that is hooked to the popular Turkish TV serial ‘Mera Sultan,’ our very own Sultan is trying to replicate Salman the Magnificent here.
Gone is the Ameerul Momineen fad of the 1990s. It's good as Turkey remains one of the only countries in the world where Pakistanis are treated with extra affection—and vice versa. Here is the problem. Turkey turned around its economy through massive internal reforms and after pursuing zero-conflict with its neighbors for over a decade (though it seems faltering on the latter after the recent conflicts with Syria, Iran etc). It generated immense resources before launching its infrastructure revolution.
We know Mera Sultan loves motorways, metro systems, bullet trains,underpasses and flyovers so much. Where do you think all this inspiration for the new Islamabad city and airport is coming from? The issue is that Mera Sultan has got his priorities wrong. He cannot reinvent the Ottoman glory before restoring order by dealing with, for a start, terrorism. And for this he does not need a ride on Bosporus.
A bigger issue is: where will the money come from for these dream projects. If the opposition claims are half as true as it claimed at the Parliament, Mera Sultan should fear about providing basic daal-roti, let alone the highways to Kashghar and beyond. The gist was: the government has absolutely failed to generate resources. The banks have no cash for any project financing because the government gobbles up all cash flows. The ambitious budgetary targets are way behind—the most important being the likely shortfall of a massive Rs 137 b in tax receipts.
The deal with the IMF came into serious question at the National Assembly. PTI’s Asad Omer blasted the government in his maiden speech at the Parliament. It was short and crisp but had everybody scared about the economic state of affairs. He asked (the missing) Ishaq Dar to explain 5.5 per cent devaluation of Rupee in the last five months.
“The Finance Minister keeps saying that he will never devalue Rupee,” he said. “Yet the rupee keeps falling down. Is it just the market forces or the government is doing it because to please the IMF.” According to him the IMF in its latest review fears that Rupee may fall down to Rs 127 against Dollar. The government inherited a growth rate of 3.5 per cent from the PPP and set a target of 4.6 in the budget. The IMF fears it might come down to 2.6 per cent. The country will have 1.2 million more people unemployed.
The PPP government made history by borrowing a whopping sum of Rs 550 billion in the last five years. The PML (N) government has crossed that limit by borrowing Rs 636 billion in just 60 days. “Should we believe Dar who says it will not be inflationary or the State Bank which says it will be doubled at 12 per cent,” he asked aptly. “Is the IMF awam-dushman or the government which has accepted these terms.”
He was spot on to argue that the issue about giving the MFN status was debatable but the IMF has no business to dictate this to us as seems the case.
The PTI seemed on the offensive. Arif Alvi concurred that everybody waits for the government plan on privatization. The issue was not about privatizing PIA’s 26 per cent shares but more important is that it should be part of the larger plan to revamp the national airline. Smaller parties as JI, MQM and even some government back benchers joined in to attack the government on its economic policies.
Shazia Marri too impressed everybody by her maiden speech asking for “a revisit to the IMF agreement through the Parliament.” It was good to see a jiala-style aggression that is missing from the feudal that the PPP has gathered in the National Assembly. It was not a small feat for Shazia to win a seat vacated by the Pagaro family after leaving her reserve seat. She came down heavily against Dar for “making a bigger kashkol (begging bowl) after promising to break the older one in the polls.”
Dar definitely needs to do a lot of explaining when he returns. And it’s not just because he is the Finance Minister. The joke around town is that he is a one-man kitchen Cabinet with access to the harem of Mera Sultan as the family person--and everything gets decided on the dinner table. Tail piece: Mera Sultan might remember that he shares his love for turkey with his former nemesis—the jailbird of Chak Shahzad. And while he is there, he might take a few lessons from the Turkish how they curbed their generals. Or check this out from Hooram Sultan.
Amir Mateen
Islamabad—It was Ishaq Dar’s turn to face the music. The Finance Minister came under fire on Monday for being absent to answer the financial queries at the National Assembly. And he also had the audacity to leave nobody to answer on his behalf--as is the usual practice. Such omissions seem more
glaring when the number of people who sleep without a meal, electricity and gas grows by the day. The members clamoured to know what was going on with the ever-increasing fuel and commodity prices, devaluation of the rupee and what not.
Dar remained absent on Tuesday as he flew away with the Prime Minister to,we believe, study the so-called ‘Turkish model’ that the Sharif Brothers are trying to emulate here.Shahbaz Sharif is a frequent flyer to Turkey and has got it engaged in numerous development projects from education to infrastructure in Punjab.But it was the Metro Bus project that the kid brother thinks won him the last elections.
Our Gallery pundits claim Shahbaz has now sold the ‘Turkish delights’ to the Prime Minister. So Turkey is the new rage or, let’s say, the revival of the old love. You might notice that Turkey is silently replacing the Saudis, Iranians, the Americans, even the Chinese in Pakistan. It is not just the Pakistan public that is hooked to the popular Turkish TV serial ‘Mera Sultan,’ our very own Sultan is trying to replicate Salman the Magnificent here.
Gone is the Ameerul Momineen fad of the 1990s. It's good as Turkey remains one of the only countries in the world where Pakistanis are treated with extra affection—and vice versa. Here is the problem. Turkey turned around its economy through massive internal reforms and after pursuing zero-conflict with its neighbors for over a decade (though it seems faltering on the latter after the recent conflicts with Syria, Iran etc). It generated immense resources before launching its infrastructure revolution.
We know Mera Sultan loves motorways, metro systems, bullet trains,underpasses and flyovers so much. Where do you think all this inspiration for the new Islamabad city and airport is coming from? The issue is that Mera Sultan has got his priorities wrong. He cannot reinvent the Ottoman glory before restoring order by dealing with, for a start, terrorism. And for this he does not need a ride on Bosporus.
A bigger issue is: where will the money come from for these dream projects. If the opposition claims are half as true as it claimed at the Parliament, Mera Sultan should fear about providing basic daal-roti, let alone the highways to Kashghar and beyond. The gist was: the government has absolutely failed to generate resources. The banks have no cash for any project financing because the government gobbles up all cash flows. The ambitious budgetary targets are way behind—the most important being the likely shortfall of a massive Rs 137 b in tax receipts.
The deal with the IMF came into serious question at the National Assembly. PTI’s Asad Omer blasted the government in his maiden speech at the Parliament. It was short and crisp but had everybody scared about the economic state of affairs. He asked (the missing) Ishaq Dar to explain 5.5 per cent devaluation of Rupee in the last five months.
“The Finance Minister keeps saying that he will never devalue Rupee,” he said. “Yet the rupee keeps falling down. Is it just the market forces or the government is doing it because to please the IMF.” According to him the IMF in its latest review fears that Rupee may fall down to Rs 127 against Dollar. The government inherited a growth rate of 3.5 per cent from the PPP and set a target of 4.6 in the budget. The IMF fears it might come down to 2.6 per cent. The country will have 1.2 million more people unemployed.
The PPP government made history by borrowing a whopping sum of Rs 550 billion in the last five years. The PML (N) government has crossed that limit by borrowing Rs 636 billion in just 60 days. “Should we believe Dar who says it will not be inflationary or the State Bank which says it will be doubled at 12 per cent,” he asked aptly. “Is the IMF awam-dushman or the government which has accepted these terms.”
He was spot on to argue that the issue about giving the MFN status was debatable but the IMF has no business to dictate this to us as seems the case.
The PTI seemed on the offensive. Arif Alvi concurred that everybody waits for the government plan on privatization. The issue was not about privatizing PIA’s 26 per cent shares but more important is that it should be part of the larger plan to revamp the national airline. Smaller parties as JI, MQM and even some government back benchers joined in to attack the government on its economic policies.
Shazia Marri too impressed everybody by her maiden speech asking for “a revisit to the IMF agreement through the Parliament.” It was good to see a jiala-style aggression that is missing from the feudal that the PPP has gathered in the National Assembly. It was not a small feat for Shazia to win a seat vacated by the Pagaro family after leaving her reserve seat. She came down heavily against Dar for “making a bigger kashkol (begging bowl) after promising to break the older one in the polls.”
Dar definitely needs to do a lot of explaining when he returns. And it’s not just because he is the Finance Minister. The joke around town is that he is a one-man kitchen Cabinet with access to the harem of Mera Sultan as the family person--and everything gets decided on the dinner table. Tail piece: Mera Sultan might remember that he shares his love for turkey with his former nemesis—the jailbird of Chak Shahzad. And while he is there, he might take a few lessons from the Turkish how they curbed their generals. Or check this out from Hooram Sultan.
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