The Daily Pakistanpolitics Oct1-15, 2018

• Oct7-2018--The punjab chief minister who has the looks of an uncouth political worker could be moving towards disqualification after he rejected the SC directed investigation about his involvement in a police officers transfer...many think that the orders came from somebody in the primeministers house...!
  
  
• Oct7-2018--CNG prices rise by 20% to Rs103/4 after a massive increase in gas prices by the PTI government...the government is bent upon putting the load on the lower to lower middle economic group of people and benefiting the rich industrialist, bussiness and agriculture classes...
  
  
• Oct7-2018--Shahbaz Sharif remanded to NAB by a court in Lahore for ten days...Small number of PMLn workers created a ruckus...
  
  
• Oct7-2018--Imran Khan says that CPEC projects are under review to settle balochistan objections...several huge projects including the new Lahore airport and railways track dualisation can be stopped or minimized...The railways project was to cost $8 billion..many think that the chinese want them to create their own resources for the remaining projects after the power system problems have been minimized...some power projects such as four nuclear power stations can also be delayed...the industrialists also opposed the huge tax free status of the projects as well as the new industrial estates...a road from gawader to khunjerab already existed and minor changes could have solved the problem...however the sharif government preferred to build an almost totally new motorway type road direct to the chinese border and the roads were funded by ADB and WB financing...apart from some roads that were built by the NHA with army funds...what balochistan wants is not known...gawader port and city are in balochistan...many surmise that they want at least one or two industrial estates plus investment in agriculture and mining...the saudis have offered to invest in a refinery and gold mining...!direct funding of the balochistan government can only be managed by the pakistan government...or they could go to the chinese and other donors and give them a list of projects that they want funded
  
  
• Oct6-2018--The PMLn says that the government is clueless about foreign policy...they started out being friendly to iran who now want to subjugate them on even CPEC...they tried to became friendly with india but than the the indians turned turtle...now they want to again become friendly with the USA and indicate that they will not allow intra afghan negotiations if they are not included...!they also started to improve battered relations with saudia but those too seem to have stalled...many are suggesting that either the military is pulling the wrong strings or someone else is pulling its foreign strings...
  
  
• Oct6-2018--Either Imran Khan and Asad Umar are dumb economists they fail to realize that the IMF always says the same thing...electricity and gas tariffs raise, control fiscal irresponsibility and now they are advocating massive foreign exchange corrections...sell off loss making state enterprises...they have called the governments economic measures pathetic...The 24000 assets that they plan to sell are being used efficiently even though they are not making any money..if the governments sells them off they will have to spend an additional 2400000000 to hire additional accommodation every year...the money that will be generated from sales is also not expected tobe used for any profitable venture...1
  
• Oct6-2018--The government is suggesting that pakistanis owned 10000 properties in the UAE and UK...while the pakistanis in the UAE are mostly bigwigs in england almost every pakistani immigrant and even their children own their own homes...
  
• Oct6-2018--NAB has arrested the opposition leader Shahbaz Sharif after calling him in for questioning in the Ashiana scheme...earlier the chiefministers principal secretary was questioned and Ahad Cheema the LDA director general has been in custody for some time...they questioned Shahbaz for a hour and than arrested him...the ashiana housing scheme was supposed tobe a low cost housing scheme for the homeless...however in the first phase the houses constructed were given to loyalist bussinessmen and contractors...the cost was supposedly 4 lakhs per apartment...but after that the scheme stuttered to a halt while PMLn men were getting registered as homeless all over punjab...with byelections on Oct 14 the timing is unfortunate...!the government is suggesting that the former chief minister will also face cases in the model town killings case and the saaf paaani company scandal...!Saad Rafiq and his brother who were behind the ashiana contractor have also been called for questioning...apparently the chief minister did not give the ashiana contract to the lowest bidder but favored Saad Rafiq's front company...?
  
• Oct5-2018--The IMF still wants to increase electricity rates...This issue started in 1982 when electricity price was Rs1...!They also want to increase gas prices further...electricity price is around Rs25-30 if all the taxes and surcharges are included...Like the primeminister house buffalos the government on IMF orders wants todo away with supposedly 2400 assets which probably include PIA and the steel mills...previous privatizations or sell offs have not helped the economy in any way...next on the chopping block is supposedly the PM house furniture and decorations...one hopes something is left for the people when the PTI has sold of the rest of the country...it seems tobe simply loot ghasoot in another name...The IMF is focussing on low reserves and wants to raise the dollar price further...they also predict higher oil prices...the dollar was at Rs7 when this policy was initiated in the zulfikar ali bhutto era who devalued the rupee by 130%...at the moment raising the dollar price further will help neither exports nor reserves...IMF policy will only cause substantial inflation...The only way to control the economy is thru substantial reduction in defence and provincial allocations...the development allocations are also unnecessary under the PTI scheme of things...controlling the dollar, reducing further tax expansion and controlling prices and spending is the way to control inflation and the economy...The IMF recipe is only a way to cause further problems as has happened with previous IMF advice...The PTI economy can at best be called the buffalo economy...the buffalo eats too much so increase the price of milk or sell the buffalo...!even if you sell the buffalo it just wont change the nature of the problem...you will still need milk and have to buy it from somewhere...The PTI is like the pukhtun who goes around punjab urging them to sell their properties...and when they do they they either leave the country or have to live in a poorer neighbourhood...
  
• Oct4-2018--Puns and taunts are the name of the game these days...There is rana mashood a PMLn provincial who says the establishment thought the PTI were horses...but have had to settle for their being mules...a dangerous term used in the heroin trade...There is Asad Umar brandishing the non filers argument...a non filer by definition is someone whose income is not sufficient for filing an income tax return...something allowed by law and a legal entity..however Asad Umar and the PMLn want to discriminate against these people and say they cannot buy this and that...that is clearly a human rights violation...Than there is the information minister calling the opposition thieves and looters...if mushahidullah a PML senator supposedly a loader in PIA later on got his brothers appointed and promoted in PIA...than why do you not fire these thieves and looters...Than there is the supposedly clean hands with dirt of dubai in his fingers...Bilawal taunting Imran that dharnas and governance are two different matters...Asad Umar should know that if there are so many illegal non filers out there than why has the great government of pakistan only located 169 of them ...!non filers obviously are not chakris otherwise they would be in the SC fighting for their rights...!
  
• Oct4-2018--The SC wants the Orange Line completed...the contractors say they are not being paid...SC says if they dont want to work new contractors be hired...Punjab government says that if the SC allows cost of project tobe enhanced by Rs.15 billion they will pay the contractors...?Now u tell me which of the them has honesty as a principle...!
  
• Oct4-2018--Bilawal jumps into the PMLn camp and will fight by elections jointly with PMLn...!