The Barbarism of Pakistan Society

Pakistan is a deep feudal and patriarchal society. While in India the problem is being effectively tackled, and there has been reduction in no. of child marriages, bu huge margins. The culture in Pakistan prohibits that. There is a common practice of giving girls in family feuds, compensation. This mainly applies to minority girls. The trauma which the girl goes through of marrying a older man is never documented. The problem lies in the inherent culture of Pakistanis. Here is a news report, from a Pakistani daily...

"Not a week goes by without news of another young girl being married off to an older man as compensation for a family feud. Most recently, according to press reports, a panchayat in Vehari, Punjab, decided to give a five-year-old girl to a 40-year-old man as punishment for her father eloping with the man's sister. Ironically, the father had already left with the woman, and the girl and her mother, already aggrieved at her husband's infidelity, were left behind to bear the consequences. This barbaric trend, called vani and swara, draws from distorted historical memories and cultural practices, feeds off strong patriarchal under-currents of this society. Child brides suffer the consequences of the ignominy for which the men of their family are responsible. In addition to being labelled and ridiculed as a "vani bride" all her life, the girl also suffers from physical trauma. Medical experts have routinely reported treating young girls with fistula and anaemia, which are a direct result of early marriage and motherhood. Legally speaking, there is cover available to young girls against these inhumane practices. But the laws available are vague and inadequate. Though Pakistan ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Child in 1990, the practice of vani was made illegal only in 2004. Even then, the legislation, which outlaws child marriage, is weak with many loopholes. According to legal experts, this is so because there isn't strong legislation specifically focusing on the practice of vani and swara. The basic law, which deals with this issue, is Child Marriage Restrain Act, 1929, under which the crime of child marriage deserves punishment of only one month. The Pakistan Penal Code has also been modified in attempts to provide legislative protection to girls. Section 310-A declares the giving away of a girl to settle a dispute a penal offence carrying a sentence up to 10 years. In 2004, the Law and Justice Commission recommended amendments to Article 366-C of the Pakistan Penal Code, which would mete out rigorous imprisonment to individuals found guilty of practising vani and swara. The amendment unfortunately has still not been passed. Even the Chief Justice of Pakistan, earlier this year, called out for amendment in laws to prevent the practice of Badal-e-Sulha (compensation for compromise). In addition to inadequate legislation in matter of protecting girl children, there are sociological factors serving as roadblocks to child protection. In rural areas all over Pakistan, the overwhelming patriarchy is reinforced by the archaic cultural belief of women's place as carrier of the family's virtue. But interestingly enough, even in urban areas, distanced from the "backward" rural customs, the concept of child marriage is not considered taboo. According to a report by the Population Council in 2002, in comparison to 58 percent of women in rural areas, 27 percent of urban women were expected to get married before the age of 20. This means that in cities, almost three in every 10 girls would be married off before they crossed their teenage years. This practice arises from tradition and family ties where it is not considered inappropriate to marry off girls in their early to mid-teens. Even under the Muslim Family Law, the legal age of marriage for women is 16. Although, some in the Sindh government have been trying to raise the marriageable age to 18, this will be an uphill battle especially with the presence of men in the assembly who stoutly defend such traditions. Another factor which is adding to the losing battle of child rights is the dearth of information available out there. Many in remote rural areas are not even familiar with the concept of legal age of marriage. In this regard, media can aid the government in spreading out the word. The barbarity of letting a young girl suffer physically and emotionally must be stopped. The situation warrants introduction of an appropriate legislation and a massive awareness campaign. Unfortunately, however, no substantial gains will be made in this regard unless the people themselves accept such practices to be wrong."

Fake growth during Musharraf!

There was no real growth during Musharraf. His economic policies did not result in any significant revival of Pakistan's economy. Here are some excerpts from Pakistani authors-

1. The economic Survey of 2007 showed the growth about 7% during 2000-2007. However many economists doubt the authencity of figures. We should also rememeber that it was a military government and was easy to hide the real figures or scrutinise by independent agencies.

2.Herald magazine (December 2008 issue) reports that Karamat Ali, executive director of the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research, ‘believes that the official growth figures were often met with skepticism.’ With regards to the poverty level figures, Karamat Ali states, ‘In 2007, the Planning Commission’schief economist was transferred when he refused to approve government’s claim that poverty level had been reduced by 10 percent from 33 to 23 percent. These figures were clear manipulation as according to the latest UN assessments, poverty has intensified to the extent that in over half the country,hunger stalks one-fifth of the population and malnutrition about two-fifths. In Dawn(July 2009) this month, Kaiser Bengali, reported, ‘The years 2000-2007 … composition of growth brought little solace to half the population and, in fact, misery for the bottom quarter.’

3.Development and growth in an economy results in falling unemployment level. However, in Pakistan, this was not the case.Unemployment levels actually rose in some sectors. In the industrial sector, for example, unfavorable economic policies led to the closure of mills and subsequently high unemployment. Furthermore, reported Kaiser Bengali, “in the period when the agriculture sector grew by 1.5 percent and the banking sector grew by 30 percent ….. this was jobless growth. It was profit-centered and not wage-centered. It ensured that stock market indexes and corporate profits boomed but was meaningless for the people, who are now faced with the stark reality of unemployment and declining real wages.

4.It was profit-centered and not wage-centered. It ensured that stock market indexes and corporate profits boomed but was meaningless for the people, who are now faced with the stark reality of unemployment and declining real wages. Of course, official labor force statistics have reported a decline in unemployment. That, however, is a product of blatant data manipulation that the previous regime had come to specialize in.”

With an expanding economy and money flowing in, following sensible economic policies result in building up reserves and decreasing a country’s debt level. In Pakistan,debt levels rose dramatically between 1999 and 2008. If you sift through history, debt levels between 1947 and 1999 was Rs 2,946 billion. Conversely, if you look at the trend in the past ten years, the government borrowed so heavily that our debt level increased by Rs 2,749 billion to Rs 5,695 billion. Ultimately, it took the previous government eight years to bring up the debt to what was accumulated in over 50 years. Ishaq Dar (the first Finance Minister under the current regime) said in Nation that “those who claim to have broken the begging bowl have actually enlarged it…” High level of debt is not conducive for sustainable development as debt is a burden and has to be paid off. It suggests that Pakistan was living way beyond its means and needs to either expand its economy (which it was unable to do) or contract in future to bridge the gap (which is currently happening).

5.General Musharraf's regime has broken all records in borrowing and has pushed the country into a debt trap. Recent State Bank reports showed the government had borrowed a staggering amount of over 15 billion dollars in the past four years, as the country's total debt and liabilities had peaked to an all time high of 40.322 billion dollars. Such debt, apart from additional borrowing, is also composed of rescheduled debt as the Musharraf government continued borrowing to fund the basic government duties due to its inability to generate sufficient wealth from the domestic economy. Such amounts of debt have never existed in the history of Pakistan. By the end of 2004, the total external debt was 33 billion dollars. If the government had stopped borrowing as it claimed, the country's total debt would have declined to 23 billion dollars, based upon Pakistan's regular yearly payments by the end of June 2007.

More of it in the next article. But it should be clear, that there was never a real growth, as aclaimed by mnay. It was ll rich-consumer driven, whic did not increase any employment or built any industries in Pakistan. Taht is why, as soon a democratic and free government came, evryhting collapsed like a House of cards.

Pakistan asks India for Railway engines

The government of Pakistan has requested India, to provide about 50 railway engines on lease. With no domestic production facility in the country, Pakistan is in a serious shortfall of 250-300 engines. Pakistan has mostly imported its engines from china, which have largely proved full-inefficient and costly. This has also resulted in huge decline in the railway fortunes of Pakistan.

India is increasing its railway connectivity, and has decided to start 48 new trains this fiscal year. India will also build 1100 km of new railway lines. While the only problem is financial crunch, which will be easily solved next year, by increase of passenger fares by 10-15%.

On the other hand Pakistan railways will close 102 railway lines this year because of lack of locomotives and increasing losses. So only 157 train services will cover a population of 180 million.

http://nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/Politics/12-Oct-2011/Railways-reaches-a-deadend

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2011%5C10%5C12%5Cstory_12-10-2011_pg12_10

Pakistan puts embargo on collecting Poverty figures!

The planning commission of Pakistan had put a embargo on collecting Poverty figures, fearing that they might have risen to much!Given the rising utility tariffs as well as the eroding rupee value, both internally and externally due to a global recession, as well as our government's macroeconomic policies, even a die-hard government supporter would be unable to convince the public that poverty levels during the last three and a half years have declined.

The government's data collection arm, namely the Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS) has been accused over the years of gross data manipulation on the instructions of the country's top political leadership. These accusations were not specific to Musharraf's regime, though reports indicate that Shaukat Aziz used FBS more blatantly than his predecessors. And the three statistics that have the greatest political impact, namely the rate of inflation, poverty levels and unemployment have been subjected to more manipulation than others. Having said that, one could easily be accused of partisanship if one absolves the present government of manipulating statistics, as there has been evidence of data manipulation during the past three years as well.

Moreover, ADB in 2006 had criticised the method of collection of poverty figures in Pakistan. Read the full report in ...http://www.brecorder.com/editorials/single/600/0/1239337/?date=2011-10-07

It is evident that whereas India does not fear to show its true figures, Pakistan does. This is also the answer to all the internet Pakistanis who keep on saying about poverty in India.

The illusion of Musharraf's economic growth!

Its all been agreed, that Musharraf era had created a illusion of economic growth. There was no economic growth in real sense. Only consumer driven growth which had increased due to high influx of aid during the period. There was no infrastructure development, no electricity production and no development of industries. The Pakistani government had no real vision to steer the economic growth.

This fact hardly recognised by the Pakistani think-tanks, has now been able to gain momentum. Musharraf's era did not increase tax collections. The Tax-GDP ratio has gone too low.

Hereis an article from pakistani Financial ....

"Probably the greatest wrong that the Musharraf government gave to Pakistan was the perpetual lies that his PM and his economic team foisted on to the country. Old habits die hard and the continuation of those lies is now a way of life with the public functionaries. The other day, it was mentioned that functionaries belonging to a real estate company were caught with fictitious land documents.

The owner is way up with every political party that is in power. The expense that comes with it is so huge that the country will reel under it. It happened in the US and in the EU zone countries. Once that bubble bursts, the end will be significantly different. Pakistan is already reeling under huge deficits not of finance but of every damn thing under the sun. The distribution network has been undone by the price increase and there is now no way that the country can undo what has happened as a result of the inconsequential postings that have been given.

Pakistan's competitive edge has been eroded by the inefficiencies that have been perpetuated by an inefficient human resource and a corrupt leadership-style in which a corrupt distributed leadership plays a humongous part. The distributed leadership is part of the new management style where the lower functionaries are allowed to work independently, but within a certain sphere of work rules and regulations. These rules and regulations are kept up-to-date by the political leadership. Where the political leadership is found inept and wanting in discretion and the rule of law, these and other national matters and issues cannot be resolved."

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