A Pakistani's logical reaction to India's moon mission

 There are many reactions, watch my reaction too.

My reaction to India's moon mission

Implications for Pakistan on FATF’s grey list

The international watchdog against money laundering and financing of terrorism, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), has put Pakistan on a list of “jurisdictions with strategic deficiencies”, also known as the greylist. The greylisting should be placed in the larger picture of US-Pakistan relations that have had many ups and downs.

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Will the Markhor save PIA ?

The Markhor on the tail of PIA aircrafts is welcomed. Markhor is the national animal of Pakistan and we know it is a fighter and does not lose heart in hard times.

To Privatize or not to Privatize: PIA

PIA - Unfortunate-much needed - Privatization

Nostalgia can be additive. It is hard to imagine an airline which was once run by Air Marshal Nur Khan, under whose exemplary leadership PIA was portrayed as the Ambassador of the nation is now edging towards privatization.

PIA not only helped Emirates & likes of Singaporean airlines to spread its wings but also owns the famous Roosevelt Hotel in Manhattan where several movies like Wall Street, Maid in Manhattan, Men in Black and The Dictator have been shot.

What went wrong?

Although there are lot of reasons for PIA’s downfall, but for me the negative numbers and accumulated losses in the balance sheet are results and not causes of the failure.

With pilots found drunk, crew members smuggling mobile phones, ghost employees who get paid for nothing, political recruitments, poor planning, interference from the govt and the elite class which travels business and uses privileges at a feeble cost are all to be blamed for this. There is no reason for the hue and cry for an ailing elephant close to its fall.

It is hard to imagine that an airline with merely 26 operational aircrafts supports a staff of 16,600 regular and 2,700 contractual employees. With 742 employees per operational aircraft, PIA is perhaps the world’s least efficient airline. No wonder the airline was running losses up to 3 billion rupees each month. In comparison, Air India with 27,000 employees for a fleet of 122 aircrafts carried 221 employees per aircraft. Several western airlines have fewer than 20 employees per operational aircraft.

Nawaz government seems to be following the Kenyan model. In 1994, the Kenyan government had sold 26% stake to a strategic partner and by the year 2000 it had doubled its passengers and cargo and started recording profits.

I strongly feel after the 26% stake in PIA is sold to an ‘unknown strategic partner’, the real story will begin which will be a turnaround for the national carrier. In the second stage, the GOP might manage an IPO which will be quite attractive for the Gulf and Pakistani financial institutions and the government might maintain 10-20% stakes in the airline. PM Nawaz recently spoke about employees being rewarded for not falling prey to the trade unions and reporting to work so there is a hint of 3-5% of stake for PIA employees who support this stance of the government.

Unfortunately, turning the table and making PIA profitable is not a possible task for the current government as the mess is huge. The objective here is to transfer this ‘burden’ on tax payers’ money to a taxable source of income for the GOP. The extra baggage needs to be offloaded!

Denying developing countries access to coal is like restricting food aid to the poor

Coal mining plays a significant role in many national economies. Developing countries rank highly among the world's major coal producing countries. In cases of China, India and South Africa coal is utilized for domestic electricity generation. Moreover, these countries have export markets generating export revenue. Colombia and Indonesia earn considerable export revenues from the coal production industry which is highly export-oriented. Coal currently provides 30% of the global energy needs, 41% of its electricity and 68% of its steel.

Coal in Electricity Generation

Pakistan is the sixth most populous country in the world with an estimated population of 184.35 million in 2012 - 2013. With a growth rate of 2.0 percent in 2012/2013, it is estimated that Pakistan will move to the fifth position by 2050. With rapid urbanization and population boom in major cities of Pakistan, the demand for electricity continues to exceed the supply. As per the Power and Water Ministry the supply of electricity stands at only 12,150 MW while demand is 16,400 MW creating a shortfall of 4,250 MW. Opportunity lies in the crisis, they say.

Increased investment in the technological development and higher labor productivity through improvement in education, health and training facilities are the main modes of increasing productivity of human resources. But how is this all possible without an investment in the energy sector, primarily coal.

Apart from being the sixth most populous state, the country is the sixth richest nation in respect of coal reserves, amounting to more than 200 billion tons. For further clarity, these coal reserves account for 2% of the reserves in the Asia-Pacific region and 0.2% of the world. Of this 200 billion tons, 185.5 billion tons (93%) of the coal reserves are in Thar in the province of Sindh which is 8 hours drive from the coastal city of Karachi. All coal is sub-bituminous and lignite in grade and is optimum for the energy sector. With the Chinese assistance Pakistan has 3 X 50 MW power plants in Lakhra, Balochistan and only 15 MW is being produced which is only 0.1% of the actual energy mix as displayed above. Majority of the electrification is via Oil which has traded above the $ 100 mark for quite some time in the international market and Pakistan nearly imports all its oil requirements. The other primary source is Gas. Gas is currently being increasingly consumed by the industries, households and the transportation sector in Pakistan. This has caused bottlenecks in timely supply of gas resulting in shortages and power cuts. The other source is hydroelectric where Pakistan faces an issue of water shortages in rivers and banks which have sources in Indian controlled Kashmir. There have been several rounds of dialogues between the two neighbors India and Pakistan to abide by the Indus Water Treaty and Pakistan has voiced its concern on international conventions and forums regarding India building dams in Kashmir. 

The current energy mix is quite expensive which is causing unrest in public and pushing businesses out of the country. The Pakistani economy can save around $26 billion in fuel costs over the next 15 years if thermal plants of only 420MW are shifted to coal.

Many of the countries with significant coal reserves also have significant coal production. However, Pakistan is counted amongst those nations whose coal reserves are yet to be utilized at a large scale. This provides economic opportunity to further develop the coal extraction industry and poses a great potential for a secure and affordable domestic energy supply using the indigenous coal reserves.

Pakistan currently imports more than 6 million tons of coal annually to meet the requirement of its thriving cement and ailing steel industry resulting in loss of foreign reserves and lost employment opportunities at home.

The current prime minister of Pakistan, Mr. Nawaz Sharif and his government, have several times shown interest in setting up greenfield power projects in Gadani and converting diesel and furnace oil based thermal power plants to coal. There has been no constructive talks on how could Pakistan mobilize its internal resource to attract capital inflow.

Earlier governments had policies directing towards exploiting the local Thar coal reserves to produce energy, but due to Asian Development Bank’s withdrawal of USD 1.4 billion in finance, Pakistan will resort to coal imports, atleast in the short run, to provide cheap electricity to the consumers and breathe life into industries, textile in particular. It appears that multilateral banks listen only to their donors, not their customers. And donor governments, like the US and the EU, are more interested in being politically correct on climate control than actually addressing poverty. It is interesting to note that US is the largest producer of coal, accounting for 13.4% of the global coal production and consumes 88% of the coal produced domestically and half of the electricity produced in the country is generated through coal.

For critics: Coal has a bad reputation due to the widely held view that it causes global warming and is responsible for death of many miners. What people don't tend to realize that coal has changed the living conditions of many in the developing countries such as India and China. For example, China, a model country for the developing world, has witnessed 536% growth in GDP since 1990 and more than 660 million people have been lifted out of poverty. Today more than 99% of the Chinese population has access to electricity. Coal has proven to be a "critical enabler" for successful economies. This has helped countries to further invest in cleaner technology and renewable energy resources. Coal is potentially the "fuel" towards any successful economy.

Footballs: Proudly Made in Pakistan

Every other person wants to grab and spread mischievous news when it comes to Pakistan. Amongst, all the crap the media feeds, the optimists have to take initiatives to explore the positives existing in the state and portray it to the outside world that we do not fight, and curse Uncle Sam all day. Instead the country has relatively better to offer the world and this time its Albert, football for London 2012.

Ready to kick-off

We all know that when it comes to football, it has to be Adidas. But, a few know about the sweat of hard-working men and women of Sialkot, Pakistan. This city has the highest income per capita after Karachi and is home to some of the progressive and ever-growing industries of Pakistan, sports taking the lead.

Till 2000, Pakistan was producing 75% of the footballs for the football lovers of the world. However, the market share has reduced to 40%. This is due to intense competition coming from China, Thailand and India who have high production capacities. But, is this decline in market share really a concern to the manufacturers in Sialkot? Have they revisited their strategies or production capabilities to regain their market share? Well, the answer to this is NO! Irrespective of China, India and Thailand producing at a greater pace than their Pakistani peers, the Pakistanis do not compromise on what they promised to offer, i.e. unmatched hand-stitched quality-rich football. 


Adidas did learn a lesson in FIFA World Cup 2010, when the Jabulani (Made in China) attracted heavy criticism from the world-class players and fans from all over the world. It was high time, when the giant decided to switch back to the soccer bearing the 'Made in Pakistan' tag.

Let's all hope that we produce good quality leaders, just like our soccer balls which are resistant to unnecessary kicks.


To know more, please visit: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xcxqx9_soccer-is-big-business-in-pakistan_news 

From Jenabhai to Jinnah

Muhammed Ali Jinnah was the son of Mr.Jenabhai, who was the most respected merchants of Karachi. At a very young age of 24 M.A. Jinnah enrolled as an advocate Bombay High Court after he passed the Bar examination. 


Very soon M.A. Jinnah's reputation in Bombay as a lawyer had become formidable. Once he was interrupted thrice by a judge who said "rubbish" on each occasion during a hearing, Jinnah said, "Nothing but rubbish has passed from Your Lordship's mouth throughout the day." He was surely turning out to be the fresh voice for Indians.

Barrister Jinnah in his chambers

Sarojini Naidu described Jinnah as " an ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity."


Once when Jinnah appeared before the Public Services Commission in 1913 he was asked whether he was not concerned that under a system of simultaneous examinations the backward communities (like the Muslims at that time) would be at disadvantage? Jinnah firmly replied: "I would have no objection if the result happens to be, of which I am now doubtful, that a particular community has the preponderance, provided I get competent men." Then Islington (in-charge of India Office) further added: "It has been represented to me that further difficulties might arise if you put a Hindu in charge of a Mohammedan population. Do you think that a Hindu who got a few marks more than an educated and influential Mohammedan would make a better and an efficient administrator when he was in-charge of a population which was largely Mohammedan." Jinnah's response :" I say, that in this case you will be doing the greatest injustice to the Hindu...i do not see why a Hindu should not be in charge of a district where the majority happens to be Mohammedan."

This was the prime reason why M.A.Jinnah was made the member of the INC (Indian National Congress) and not the Muslim League....
When Jinnah sat for his entrance test, he chose Lincoln's Inn in 1893. It is said that he chose this Inn particularly because on one of the New Hall's main entrances he saw a fresco depicting the name of PROPHET MUHAMMED (PEACE BE UPON HIM) among the group of lawgivers of the world.

History Repeats Itself

I was going through the newspaper a few days back and I was surprised to read that an unemployed Chinese turned to a millionaire when he borrowed money from the bank to trade in 100 tons of garlic. To my surprise he made a profit of 125%…Wow!!! so is this a better investment than gold ? My answer is YES!…
Reasons: the demand for vegetables tends to be inelastic which means whatever happens to your income there will be a negligible impact on the amount you spend on food items. The second reason which I want to bring to your knowledge is that what exactly happened in the 1930′s “Great Depression”. There was a transition in an economy , a clear shift from the agriculture sector to the manufacturing sector and then in the 90′s when the Asian stock markets (known as the tiger economies) declined there was a shift from manufacturing to service industry. So what will happen now? Is there another sector left to exploit ?NO…The present scenario suggests that most of the non-oil producing countries will gradually shift to the traditional industry – YES the agricultural industry. Russia which is currently experiencing negative growth asked its steel workers to start potato cultivation on state owned lands. China is providing its farmers with cheap credit so that they can afford luxuries in order to encourage agricultural production, and EU pays excessive subsidies (under the Common Agricultural Policy) to its farmers. Agriculture sector will further grow due to increase in investments made by Saudi Arabia in Australian lands for crops and many other Non-Agricultural industries are investing in countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh and etc.
More importantly this will also serve to the basic need of every human being and that is to live in an environment free from carbon, but nevertheless it will have drawbacks attached to it.