Continue reading »]]> The Speaker of the Sind Assembly recently made a ruling that lawmakers should avoid using the terms “Interior Sind” or “Karachi and Sind” when debating on the floor of the house or he would strike them off from the record as Karachi and Sind are not separate and Karachi is a part of Sind.

He made this ruling in the backdrop of the demand of creating new provinces in the country.

The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) to whom the speaker belongs has been demanding the “Seraiki” province for the Seraiki speaking people in the Punjab province. Surprisingly this demand comes at a time when the elections may be held in the next 6 months or so.

Punjab is the largest province of Pakistan and sends the most lawmakers to the National Assembly. Seraiki people comprise nearly 40%  of the Punjab province so creating a separate province for them would increase PPP’s re-election bid. This division would however have some negative impct on the PML(N) who command a strong presence in the province and are thinking of winning the next elections based on the present government’s dismal handling of the day to day affairs.

The PML(N) has countered this by demanding the division of the Sind province thereby giving the Urdu speaking people (Mohajirs) their own province which did not go too well with the PPP party as they have a strong presence in the Sind province.

The recent ruling of the speaker is part of the PPP’s policy of treating Karachi as a part of Sind and dispel any impression at the government level that Karachi is not a part of Sind.

Following news item appeared in Daily Jang on January 21 2012

Continue reading »]]> I just came across this video on Youtube and really liked the way the video makers brought point in the form of a cartoon on how the American Dream was lost when their financial system was hijacked by the top bankers and financial institutions in the shape of the Federal Reserve.

I really cannot say whether everything is correct but most of the events described in this 30 minute video are correct and I really commend the video makers for their homework.

Comments?

Continue reading »]]> I remember listening to the 9pm Khabarnama on the state owned PTV channel during the 1990s and listened with aplomb when the news caster told that today the Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) witnessed a mega gain of 35 points and on other days with disdain that the market went down by 20 points. The KSE was range bound in the 500 to 700 points range and the daily market turnover was also low. At that time the political conditions in the country were not stable with each government sent packing within 2 years of taking office. The interest rate at that time was more than 15% and people were content with placing their hard earned income in banks knowing that their investment would be safe and they would receive fixed profit on them. The stock market was always seen by people as a betting place for the rich and filthy rich. All of this changed with the start of the next century.

Come 2000 and with the pro-economic policies of Pervaiz Musharraf and his economic team the stock exchange started to pick up with renewed vigour. The Government wrote off NPLs of banks and encouraged companies to list themselves on the stock exchange. The Government also made amendments which allowed DFIs and other financial institutions to invest and earn in the market and encourage the concept of equity to the person on the street. The KSE rose more than 2000 points in a couple of years. The interest rate was nearly halved to 6% and people started to invest into stocks rather place them in banks at low interest rates. Mega companies such as OGDC, PPL and PSO etc. floated their shares in the stock market through IPOs. News of people gaining profits in the millions started to spread like wildfire and the stock market reached 4000 points in 2004. The market index had increased by 5 times and market capitalisation increased to several hundred billion rupees.

The broker membership fee at the stock exchange which was a paltry hundred thousand rupees or so was a prized asset of over Rs.5 million in just 4 years. The 5 year Bull Run in Karachi Stock Exchange made so many millionaires into billionaires that it gave rise to the exponential rise in the real estate sector of Pakistan.

Continue reading »]]> There is no place like Home, and we all know that. But lot of Pakistanis except politicians are ready to leave the country not becuase of financial crisis but solely becuse of security issues, there is no value of a human life in Paksitan at this time, and this is the real reason everyone is leaving my country.

Continue reading »]]> MQM had recently parted ways with the PPP led government in the centre as well as the Sind province after the alleged rigging in the Azad Kashmir assembly elections and postponement of elections that were to be held in Karachi. As the political heat started to rise the PPP government dropped a bombshell in the shape of re-instatement of the commissioner system that was in place before the 2001 local government of Pervaiz Musharraf. All city government bank accounts were frozen and the provincial government started the accountability process of the city government since 2005 i.e. the time when the MQM backed city government under Mustafa Kamal came into power.

The provincial government is also proposing to increase the number of divisions in Karachi and realigning some constituencies in Karachi and Hyderabad which would affect the MQM seats in the legislative assemblies. Right now MQM has 51 seats in the Sind assembly and that number may go down to around 40 when the next elections are held in 2012. These are ominous signs for the party as there loss would be a gain for the ANP and PPP.

The dire law and order situation in the city may also force the MQM to demand a separate province comprising of Urdu majority areas in the Sind province based on the same model demanded for the Hazara province in the Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa and Siraiki province in the Punjab.