Dance Publicaly but don’t smoke in private

Following Twitter, quoting tweets and participating in trends that was half of my life once. Than i left it actually i was done following the same routine and tweeting on the same political topics again and again. After an year i made my come back thinking not to follow the political trends but the paparazzi. Oh Man what a comeback going for #MahiraKhan . Pehli bar Mara aur Mar hi diya. I thought Pakistan is led by dirty Politics man. After following the mahirakhan trend for 30 minutes i realised following that dirty politics was far better than discussing and accusing a super star for smoking. I belong to a small villiage at indian border in narowal districts where 2 out of 3 ladies smoke hukkah or cigarette sitting in b/w the family members. Oh those were backward illiterate ladies and what about mahira ooppsss she is well educated liberal and modernize girl. Why no one is discussing those old ladies but mahira because she is a super star. The problem is not smoking a flag or wearing short skirts, the problem is unemployment yeah those bashing mahirakhan has nothing to work on so let’s fuck twitter with or without any reason yesterday it was qandeel baloch today it’s mahira and if they will again not have any job to do tomorrow they will go for saba qamar or mawra hucain. Who cares all they have is time. All those bashing mahira needs to be fair and realize is it truly right what they are saying? Do they really belive murder of qandeel baloch is justifiable? If so, go to your father and ask if any female of your family ever smoke? Grandma or her mother or your mother or aunt. If you get the answer in yes, you guys no better what to do but if in case answer is no thanks GOD because now you don’t have to bring your family your izzat on twitter. Because the problem is not at their part but in your minds. And now we give a damn to what you guys think. Watching Mahira Dance on Shakar wanda way mera piya mujhe say milan ayo is right and watching her not dancing with a smoke is nauzubila astagfirullah is called double standards. “Stop Bullying and Mind your Own fucking Business”.

Education and social safety nets: what budget numbers say

The most frequently asked question after the announcement of the annual budgets is: What has the budget offered for the common man?

This question can be answered by looking into the fresh orientation of social sector related budgetary allocations and burden of indirect taxes on poor.

Within the social sector, allocations for education and social safety nets can directly impact the lives of poor and lower middle class.

For fiscal year 2016-17, federal and provincial governments allocated Rs790.704 billion for education which made 2.83% of GDP. The federal government had allocated Rs108.971 billion for education as compared to Rs97.88 billion allocated in 2015-16. The current education budget for 2016-17 was Rs84.201 billion and development education budget was Rs24.77 billion. For FY 2017-18, Rs132.521 billion have been allocated for education with a current budget of Rs90.516 billion and development budget of Rs42.005 billion.

Apparently, increase of 11.3% in federal education budget for the fiscal year 2016-17 and 21.6% in 2017-18 bodes high satisfaction. Yet, pessimism seeps in because both policy target of spending 7% of GDP for education as set in National Education Policy 2009 and political promise of incumbent government to spend 4% of GDP on education have not been kept.

The problem does not only lie in the low allocation. The actual issue is the release funds for the planned projects. Firstly, one-third of the schools do not actually receive the development funds allocated for them before the close of fiscal year. Secondly, half of the schools, which receive funds, do not receive them within first two quarters. Naturally, performance outcome is expected within the year of budget allocations but due to delayed disbursal of funds, a performance lag creeps in and this lag has become recursive over the years.

In addition, the overwhelming emphasis of the current budget on development of new schools reflects the government’s myopic priority of directing its resources to increasing access to education instead of achieving a pragmatic balance of increased access and improved quality.

Social Safety Nets include, but are not limited to, public spending incurred in lieu of Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP), Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund (PPAF), Microfinance Initiatives (MFIs), Pakistan Baitul Mal (PBM) and Prime Minister National Health Programme (PMNHP). BISP is the flagship poverty reduction programme amongst these in terms of scale and budget outlay.

The Economic Survey 2016-17 mentions some achievements of BISP revealed by an Impact Evaluation Study (EIS) conducted by Oxford Policy Management (OPM). These include reduction in poverty gap by 7 percentage points amongst the BISP beneficiaries, increase in consumption expenditure by Rs187 and increase in adult food expenditure by Rs69 per month.

Similarly, it boasts of an increase in cash transfers to the tune of Rs115 billion in FY 2016-17 from Rs102 billion in FY 2015-16 and increase in target beneficiaries to 5.42 million till March 2017 from 5.29 million beneficiaries in FY 2015-16. Quarterly cash grant per family has also risen from Rs4, 700 in FY 2015-16 to Rs4, 834 in FY 2016-17. For the FY 2017-18, Rs121 billion have been allocated to target 5.5 million beneficiaries.

But if one takes into account the increase in food inflation by 3.9% during Jul-April period of FY 2016-17 as compared to 2.1% during the comparable period in FY 2015-16, the increase in cash transfer grants by Rs134 seems futile.

Similarly, the decrease in poverty and increase in consumption expenditures revealed by OPM’s EIS coincided with the fall in commodity and oil prices. Hence, an upward shock in either one of these can lead to a rise in transient poverty in the short-run and chronic poverty in the long-run.

Above all, assuming 6 members per family, the quarterly grant of Rs4, 834 is actually giving Rs9 per day per member of a family. This petty cash can by no means achieve the goal of drastic poverty alleviation through assets formation.

Apart from these functional imperfections, a recent KAP survey of beneficiaries of Social Protection Schemes (SPS) conducted by SDPI also revealed that although majority of poor have cursory knowledge about the SPSs, they don’t have any concrete knowledge of the eligibility criteria.

PMNHP was launched previous year with an outlay of Rs10 billion. This year, Rs20 billion have been allocated for the programme. It provides in-patient medical coverage to the enrolled beneficiaries. Real time data on PMNHP is showing enrolment of 1.07 million people and 134,154 visits to the hospital. It’s commendable that data is being uploaded on real time basis but the question is that number of visits – although not very high – is not the right indicator to judge the success of PMNHP since it covers in-patient treatments. Instead, data of treated patients should be reported. It is quite possible that one patient has made three to four visits per year. So, actual outreach can’t be assessed through this data.

Moreover, government should consider including more hospitals on its panel. Since its eligibility criteria are based upon the poverty survey conducted under BISP, almost all the empanelled hospitals are located in the urban centres. The brochures of PMNHP have a preposterous “incentive” of providing local transport cost of Rs350 thrice a year. But if God forbid someone in Gujjar Khan gets a fracture, they can’t commute by local transport to DHQ Rawalpindi for better treatment.

Common man’s plight is not hard to comprehend if one briefly reviews the contours of revenue collection in Pakistan. Indirect taxes made 61% of the much trumpeted revenues collected during the fiscal year 2016-17. The incidence of indirect taxation is on those who are falling below the poverty line as well. According to a 2015 report of Social Development Organisation, the richest 10% of Pakistanis contribute 10% of indirect taxation and the poorest 10% contribute 16%. On the other hand, direct taxation has also become regressive in nature and is pulverising the middle and lower middle class.

Urgency of Government towards Social Protection and Education Budget

“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” –Benjamin Franklin

Over the past four years of PML-N Government, no significant change has been observed in terms of Budget allocation to Education sector either under the Head of Education Affairs and Services, Higher Education Commission and Ministry of Education and Professional Training. Social protection refers to policies and programmes that aim to help address risk vulnerability and chronic poverty. There are a wide range of instruments used for social protection including income support, child grants, disability benefits, and pensions, as well as education focused tools such as scholarship, vouchers or school-based feeding programme.

Unfortunately the focus of Government in terms of Budget allocation towards Education and Social Protection is not very pleasant. The percentage share of budget allocation on Education and Social protection remains stagnant over the last four years. This year again Release of Federal Budget 2017-18 is not showing any major change. Government promised several time to allocate 4% of GDP to Budget but still failing to fulfill their promise.

Realistically, with these numbers the fact that 22 million children of school going age are out of school doesn’t surprise us anymore.  Although after 18^th amendment Education is provincial subject but after 18^th amendment coordination and planning with provincial governments is federal responsibility. Now where is the Budget allocated for the coordination with provincial plans of Education? There is no Budget allocated for this cause. Similarly where are the reforms to bring any substantial change in terms of capacity building of teachers or upgrading the technology in the institutes?  If there is a need of provincial training or any other productive programs in provinces, federal government should step in. Even with 2.9 % budget of Social protection government is failed to help out because of the three major issues in the programs i) Social protection programs are not targeting the right population because the baseline poverty score card used for identification is too old now. Ii) Access to social protection program is also a big issue. There is no exclusion in it. If an illiterate and disabled person has no access to these programs, there is no mechanism that government facilitate them at their door. Iii) No constant increase has been observed in budget allocation for social protection, which shows lack of policy.

Over the period of PMLN this tenure a drastic change on the budget allocation has been observed from 39,000,000,000 in 2013-14 to 62,183,456,000 in 2017-18. Which itself shows poor governance as government is allocating more and more on Territory Education and neglecting the primary education. In Parallel to it Government is losing up on Education and Professional Training, The Budget allocated to for Education and Professional training were PKR 6,423,731,000 in 2013-14, now it has been reduced to PKR 4,225,362,000. Improving the social sector without bringing Education, capacity building and social protection into account is not very logical.

A very interesting aspect of Budget Allocation to Ministry of Education and Professional training are the all Allowances. Although overall budget shows a very significant decrease but even with decrease the situation of allowances can be seen in the table below:

Ministry of Education and Professional Trainings	2017-18	2016-17	2015-16	2014-15	2013-14
Current Budget
Allowances	429,116,000	439,706,000	448,104,000	374,367,000	137,721,000
Regular Allowances	359,943,000	375,092,000	404,491,000	335,632,000	125,260,000
Other Allowances (Excluding TA)	69,173,000	64,614,000	43,613,000	38,735,000	12,461,000
Development Budget
Allowances	5,825,000	5,468,000	5,148,000	2,715,000	977,000
Regular Allowances	5,045,000	4,138,000	2,906,000	912,000	300,000
Other Allowances (Excluding TA)	780,000	1,330,000	2,242,000	1,803,000	677,000

So this is what has been happening in the budget; cutting the overall budget of education and professional training but increasing the allowances, when you have only 633061 trained teachers out of 1723790 total teachers in the country. In the UNESCO-sponsored world assessment of the six EFA Goals, Pakistan was placed in the category of countries which would fail to achieve even any of the targets, including primary education and literacy set for the year 2015. In an unchanging and static society, education only serves the purpose of transferring the cultural heritage to the next generation. But in a changing society, education prepares people for change and creates flexibility and adjustment in them to accept contemporary needs and trends of society, thus becoming a ray of hope.

If government really desire to bring a positive change in the social sector of the country, Bringing about an education revolution requires drastic changes in the attitude toward education management, financing, and training of young people in fields that are needed in the community. In viewing education as an agent of social change, the person who brings change is not ignore able. In the whole process teacher becomes an agent of change; he or she becomes the voice of the poor and deprived people. He becomes social reformer and he imparts value framework to his students and eliminates inequalities which are generated on the basis of class, status, color and creed. There is a strong need to bring committed and trained teachers in our education system, especially at primary level.

Does budget matter in education

“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest” by Benjamin Franklin.

Over the past few years, governors, policymakers and other elected officials are having to cut education spending due to immense budget deficits. In Pakistan, Balochistan comprises 44% of land and only 5% of the total population. The indicators including weak development, low literacy rate and huge poverty level differs Balochistan from the rest of provinces. Government has been struggling for last six years to endorse education but it still stands behind to the other provinces.

The educational system in Balochistan is categorized by Low primary school enrollment, lack of access to secondary education, a shortage of middle and secondary schools, inadequate access to female education, high dropouts and high gender disparity. From primary level of education to middle school education the transition rate from primary to middle levels is only 23%.

The aggregate projected budget of Balochistan is Rs198.395 billion including 23.22% expressively for education. An amount of Rs5 billion has been distributed for the establishment of the Balochistan Education and majority of this fund will be for infrastructure development. In addition, Rs324.884 million has been allocated for the establishment of facilities to schools and colleges. Rs400 million has been budget for furniture and scientific tools to schools, Rs750 million for renovation of schools and Rs500 million for the Chief Minister Endowment Fund. The budget also allocated Rs750 million for the up gradation of 200 primary schools to middle schools, and Rs425 million for upgrading 50 middle schools to high schools. Moreover, that the education budget for fiscal year 2014-15 is 16% more than last year’s budget.

Budget against Education in Balochistan

 

Serious challenges are faced by Balochistan in the areas of access to primary education to its population. Slow growth in enrolments, low survival and transition rates from one class to another class and higher gender disparity mean a large number of children are out of school. The drift shows that Budget for Education of Balochistan in 2014 was decreased from 23.9 Mn PKR to 22.4Mn PKR but Education Score, Enrollment Score, Achievement Score and Survival Score was improved whereas we can observe a minor decrease in Gender Parity as compared to year 2013. Therefore, we can say that Budget has not a big factor to Improve Education in a Region like Balochistan. However, its management and circulation is significant for progress.

 

Budget against Education in KPK

The graph shows that KPK Budget was Increased to 42 Mn PKR in 2014 from 12.3 Mn almost three times increase to 2013 and can observe significant changes but overall Education Score is slightly dropped.

Does Money Matter in Education?

On average, aggregate measures of per-pupil spending are positively allied with upgraded student outcomes. The schooling resources which cost money, including class size reduction or higher teacher salaries, are positively related with student outcomes. Continued improvements to the level and distribution of budgets across local public school districts can lead to progresses in the level and distribution of student outcomes. Money alone may not be the answer, more equitable and adequate allocation of financial inputs to schooling provides a necessary underlying condition for improving the equity and adequacy of outcomes. Therefore, increase or decrease in budget have no effect in Educational system but must be spent wisely to yield benefits.

Balochistan government should mend the governance and quality of service delivery predominantly in education sector. Monitoring and evaluating the quality of education and Gender equality must be integral part of overall strategy of provincial Education Sector. Gender participation should be enhanced by providing the prospects for girl’s education and female teachers may be employed for primary schools. Manifold approaches of service delivery such as community supported schools, public private partnerships and evening classes for school education in existing buildings may started at those places where education facilities are not accessible. Provincial budget allocation for education, principally for development, may possibly be improved and feasible strategy should be developed for viable support from donors to progress.

When I Quit Smoking..!

“Not only will giving up cigarettes put more money in your pocket, your body will thank you for it” by Auliq Ice.

It’s been fifteen days to Smoke a Single Fag. Having smoked approx. 20 cigarettes a day for the last 10 years, I decided enough is enough. It has taken me a while of thinking about quitting but leaving a ten year’s old habit is never been easy. You have highly functioning Nicotine in Your Blood. Neither the E-Cig nor the Nicotine Patches, nothing actually can change your habit. The Only thing that matters is the State of Mind and self Determination. I found hard for the first few days, when I was in those situations I would reach into my pocket to get my packet, then realize I had quit but once my brain caught up, I was fine and now these experiences have become less and less. Moreover, your friends, brothers and street boys every one smoke in front of you and making you to think it’s not possible to live without it. You started feeling dumb, irritating, losing concentration to work, it become difficult to pass time and above all the problem of Constipation. When a craving hits, you focus your attention on any other activity as i did. I started with keeping Bubble Gums and when someone starts smoking in front of me I take one of the Bubble Gum. After four days my Jaws were tired of Chewing, I need something else as an alternative. So next thing I did was start calling or texting someone to distract my thoughts. It worked but the Smell, after seven days I started losing my determination. This was the most terrible time to control myself. It lasted for two days. Two days of Hell, full of thinking, self-determination and patience. To keep this self-determination and patience my life partner helped me out. Now, after two weeks I am as cool as ice, air smells amazing, eating is a completely new taste experience and when I walk past a smoker I am not tempted. I smile and thank myself for taking control of my own body. I often get cravings of the taste of my Marlboro Lights and need a cigarette in order to get out of bed in the morning because of slight headache, tired and disoriented. However, I may start smoking once in a moon but after three months as once I complete my Deadline to fight against me. I am not recommending any smoker to quit smoking but just want to say all, once try to Judge your self-determination by challenging your strong habit known as ADDICTION.

Mine was Smoking what is yours?? ?

Future of Food Industry

As renowned American food writer James Beard said, “Food is our common ground, a universal experience.” Food sustains and nourishes us, and it also increasingly connects us to a global food web that is intertwined with politics, economics, environmental concerns, culture, and science.

Looking at the future it concerns leaders from all aspects of the food supply chain to grapple issues with long-standing effect on the industry. Our goal is to supply adequate food to a growing global population, dealing with declining resources and keeping healthy revenues. However, the question is: how can we produce actionable solutions to feed the growing population of tomorrow in a way that everyone can feel good about it?

The future of food industry will take shape in a world where climate is altering, biodiversity is deteriorating, contagious diseases are spreading more extensively and worldwide food sourcing is raising security and sustainability concerns. Recent migration drifts will generate new burdens as the rural-to-urban movement continues which has been the main reason for the increase of population.

Pakistan is a developing country and agriculture is its most important sector mainly due to its primary commitment of providing healthy food to fast growing population. With the current rate of population growth, the population is expected to get double by 2050. In view of continuously rising population of Pakistan, the food demands of the country shall naturally increase because of increase in food consumption patterns and habits.

To target such future increase in food requirements, the major focus of the planners is to come up with ideas to diversify the agricultural production to meet the future needs. Thus, production system needs to be channelized towards higher production of fruits, vegetables and other high value agricultural commodities. Therefore, improving market infrastructure, arranging safety net programs, provision of better education and health facilities could be the central elements of any strategy to reduce chronic food insecurity in both the rural and urban areas in future.

The cultivated area has increased by 40% during past 60 years but on the other hand population has increased four times increase which is exerting pressure on cultivated land. The extra-ordinary rise in price of food is another alarm bell about food insecurity. Pakistan should try to adopt new agricultural technologies in terms of genetic modifications of crops that improve water productivity and bring breakthroughs in the use of saline water such as GM crops which could contribute to increase in food production and higher food availability. Doing this may also have an impact on food quality and nutrient composition. Finally, growing GM crops may influence farmers’ income and thus their economic access to food. This technology has reduced food insecurity by 15–20% among cotton-producing households.

Moreover, the farm households should be able to finance expensive inputs and diversify their livelihoods through optimum mix of farms and non-farms sector. The unproductivity of the agricultural activity has many causes; key concerns behind this including distributional inefficiency, occupancy of land, water scarcity and low investment in production and technology. Try to improve farming systems productivity by adopting practices such as conservation tillage, soil fertility management, soil and water conservation, water harvesting, and integrated pest management, etc.

Correspondingly, every year Pakistan is facing severe flood issues. As a result of this, shortages in food grains occur. In order to meet these shortages, government should make policies of support prices, storage and distribution. There should be systematic commodity forecasting mechanism so that food demand-supply mechanism could more effectively be managed. Instead of diverting development resources in case the food production is below the national demands, a separate food security fund should be created.

Youth, Economy and Future; Missing Links

The ratio of youth is a significant demographic feature of Pakistan’s population. The rising militancy and violence in the country, deteriorating socio-economic conditions and a decrease in employment opportunities have caused disenchantment among the youth. The youth in conflict-hit areas are the most affected because of closure of educational institutions and discontinuity of education due to a combination of militancy and security forces’ operations,  Political violence at university campuses, particularly in Karachi, has also had severe implications for Pakistani students. Students hailing from conflict areas, studying in Islamabad, show symptoms of major psychological problems. Further, incidents of harassment and violence in the country’s leading universities present worrying signs of possible radical tendencies among the educated youth.  However, despite grave implications, not a single study has been conducted so far to focus on radicalization among the educated youth of Pakistan. The present study is an effort to assess the general perceptions of the educated youth in Pakistan on specific social, political and religious issues in order to identify factors that enhance radical sentiments among them. The scope of the study is limited to students of post-graduate colleges and universities in Pakistan.

 

The youth potential if properly harnessed can bring a socio-economic revolution in Pakistan. On the contrary, if youth issues, perceptions, ideas, are not assessed and subsequently addressed in a timely manner it may turn into a ‘nightmare on street to prosperity.’  The aforesaid scenarios, the optimistic as well as pessimistic, have implications for public policy, which is considered important not only in the context of growing security challenges in the region, but also in the realm of global knowledge based economies. All over the world youth is being given prime importance in future policy making due to rapidly evolving knowledge base; new and emerging technologies; ever growing potential of social and economic networking in modern times; and livelihood challenges. In order to underscore the need for youth focused policy making, the UN has declared August 2010 to 2011 as International year of youth. If youth issues are not addressed in new growth initiatives at national as well as provincial level, it may have serious repercussions. Increasing spells of joblessness, among educated and uneducated youth both, will have far reaching impact on the economic and social life of young people. For majority of youth entering into labor market, it is not easy to find work after completing general education as they lack life and occupational skills. Youth unemployment results in social disintegration, discord and disagreement. Hence, lack of proper employment opportunities for young people can have negative consequences for poverty alleviation strategies as well. Hence there is a need to formulate inclusive growth strategy.

 

Pakistan’s slide towards radicalization is not a foregone conclusion. In fact, a positive change in the current environment could produce a scenario highly amenable to progress. That said, proactive and well-placed policy responses are required to undermine the present risks posed by poor educational quality, the stratified nature of the education system, and disparate economic opportunities, and further exacerbated by constricted migration options, a negative role of the state, and misplaced U.S. policies. Recent developments in the Pakistan-U.S. relationship do not bode well for a permanent multifaceted partnership. The stern U.S. diplomatic signals in response to peace overtures by the newly elected democratic government in Pakistan and now unilateral cross-border strikes from Afghanistan are creating a bilateral lift. Both sides need to be careful not to allow concerns on the War on Terror front to hijack their broader relationship. It is necessary for policy makers to avoid considering youth in Pakistan as a homogenous group. Various types of labour market outcomes within and between different regions of Pakistan show the difference in needs of young people to provide better employment opportunities. Employment policies cannot be truly effective if youth is not considered as an asset to the society. The needs of youth must be addressed in a comprehensive manner keeping in view the educational, social and labour market requirements in different regions of the country. To create youth employment opportunities; there is a need for integrated approach comprising supportive economic policies that take into account issues pertaining to both labour demand and supply. Such policies should be integrated into the overall job creation policies of the country. The authorities concerned should design and implement enterprise based youth employment policies according to their regional demand and supply conditions and type of the industry existing there. All provinces of the country should formulate and implement policies and programmes for promoting youth and female employment in their respective provinces. In order to boost employment growth in the country, the government should finance short-term contracts for young researcher at universities and subsidize the posting of researchers to small and medium size firms and institutions.

Gas import projects: Country must woo foreign investors

 Compressed natural gas (CNG) has been used as a vehicle fuel for decades. At present, about 5 million vehicles are estimated to be running on CNG worldwide. Many countries including India and Bangladesh don’t have any indigenous substitute for gasoline and they lack proper gas infrastructure, but still they sell CNG at lower prices compared to Pakistan despite importing liquefied natural gas (LNG) and paying for conversion for its use in vehicles. As a policy, US and many EU countries have been promoting the use of gas to reduce reliance on imported fossil fuels due to uncertainty in the supply chain and to save foreign exchange. Pakistan became the largest consumer of CNG in the world in 2011, overtaking Iran, Argentina and Brazil in the number of vehicles using gas as fuel and replacing the more polluting fuels. With 21% of vehicles converted to CNG, Pakistan is way ahead of India that has little over one million vehicles converted to CNG, Italy which has 730,000 vehicles on CNG and China 450,000. In 1964, average daily supply of natural gas in Pakistan was around 47 million cubic feet per day, which now stands at 3,800 mmcfd. Natural gas is also a fuel of choice for power generation due to it being cheap, environment-friendly and high efficiency of gas turbine-based combined cycle equipment. Natural gas is a dominant fuel, accounting for 47% of the primary energy demand in 2007. Since 2000, natural gas and petroleum are the main sources of energy, accounting for 50% and 29% of the energy consumption respectively. Nevertheless, the consumption of petroleum products is decreasing because of increase in their prices. As natural gas is the cheap and cleaner alternative energy source, it is important and timely to investigate the linkage between gas consumption and economic growth. Pakistan needs to ensure that this source of energy is able to cater to the growing demand. However, the gas demand and supply projections indicate a gap of around 1,700 mmcfd, so any commitment of additional gas supplies to industries in the long run seems to be impossible. This may be possible through IP and TAPI gas pipelines, which could take a considerable time. To cover this gap, an alternative is LNG import, for which there are plans to bring 3.5 million tons per annum (around 500 mmcfd). Pakistan has a huge potential to attract foreign investment in gas import projects as demand for energy increases consistently and existing infrastructure for gas distribution promises maximum profits. It is imperative that an appropriate natural gas policy is framed to improve energy efficiency that aids economic growth. Being one of the largest users of condensed natural gas, Pakistan should also increase investment in infrastructure and technology development. It should intensify private-public partnership which ensures a more reliable supply of gas, operational efficiency and better distribution. A commitment to increasing gas exploration, attracting investment and providing incentives would ensure sustainable supply of gas to propel the economy. This would also ensure that the price for locally produced gas is kept at an affordable level.

 

Bridging the Gaps of Democracy through Civil Societies in Pakistan

 

The fundamental responsibility of civil society is to make boundaries and control the power of state because democracy based on commanding and well-functioning state. Main function of civil society is to observe the working of state officials such as how they use their supremacy; raise public concerns without having any violence and access to all information which is directly related with freedom of information laws as well as rules and regulation about corruption. Secondly, for the best governance reformation, it is required to make a code of conduct that strives to reduce the corruption and improves responsibility among public officials. Devoid of these codes of conducts, it is not possible to implement these anti-corruption laws. Thirdly, civil society is to play a significant role in supporting the political contribution. In this regard, NGOs can achieve this by educating people about their rights and duties including independent citizens and taking part in election campaigns and votes. Moreover, NGOs can develop citizen’s skills to resolve the community issues as well as can develop values of democratic life such as tolerance, restraint, cooperation, and respect for conflicting points of view. These values are possible only through practice. NGOs especially women’s groups have refined these values in young community and adults through diverse programs that practice, participation and deliberation. Subsequent to dictatorship, comprehensive modification is required to educate the young people about the principles of democracy and past crimes. Civil society works as a constructive partner because it is an arena for the expression of miscellaneous benefits such as fulfills the requirement and concerns of their associates including women, students, farmers, environmentalists, trade unionists, lawyers, doctors etc. NGOs can present their views to parliament by contacting individual members. Civil society can build up democracy by providing new forms of awareness and unity that incise the old concepts of ethnic, linguistic, religious, and other identity ties.  Democracy can be stable on the basis of this awareness and as a result of this civil life becomes comfortable, complex, and more tolerant. NGOs can also provide a platform for futuristic political leaders to recruit and train them. NGOs can play a significant role in mediating and serving to resolve clashes.  In other countries, NGOs have developed formal and training programs to mitigate political and tribal conflicts. Lastly, civil society is independent state and must be responsible, receptive, comprehensive, effective and legitimate at all levels with the respect and support of its citizens. 

Civil society can act as motor force for mediating the state-society dynamics, this commitment is influenced by the growth of communication technologies that results resourceful information transferring, movement of capital and human resources between organization and defensive boundaries.

Being the part of an NGO/Think tank I observed that civil society individuals enhance their capability to safeguard state hindrance into social and individual life. As mediators, they contribute in decision-making processes and directly interact with the government. They act as facilitator of both democracy and promote economy and also the key to a successful democratization.

Along with it Civil Society organizations lack clear and enforceable rules and extremely dependent on international donors whose priorities can overlook the requirements of anticipated beneficiaries. They require a set of practices and institutional frameworks that associated with voluntary actions and to perform duties that each and every one can help with it and tied in government spaces for participation.

Economy under Barrage

International terrorism became a prominent tool of political agenda in the late 1960s. It was applied by Palestinians for the attainment of their legitimate political rights. It was adopted as a “weapon of the poor”. The largest act of international terrorism occurred on September 11, 2001 in a set of coordinated attacks on the United States. The United States has made the “War on Terrorism” the centerpiece of its global strategy since the attacks on Pentagon and World Trade Center on 11 September, 2001. It has proclaimed its leadership of a world-wide alliance to exterminate this scourge of terrorism. But the bombing of Afghanistan is not a revenge for New York and Washington. It is yet another act of terror against the people of the world. Each innocent person that is killed must be added to the toll of civilians who died in New York and Washington. The United States is pursuing its War on Terror without addressing its root causes which are social, economic and political in nature and not military. In the immediate aftermath of American invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, Al-Qaeda and Afghan Taliban sought refuge in Pakistani tribal belt due to the porous nature of the international border and started organizing their resistance to US forces in Afghanistan from safe sanctuaries. Socioeconomic and politico-religious complexion of the tribal region also favored these militants. At the same time, many criminal groups also started operating in these areas, which remained at large after looting, robbing, kidnapping and even killing people. The world is currently confronting terrorism in different manifestations. After the 9/11 terrorist events, the phenomenon of terrorism has abruptly changed the socioeconomic and geopolitical situation of the world. Terrorist groups have linkages with each other and are utilizing each other’s areas for recruitment and training, exchanging illegal weapons, engaging in joint planning and ventures, and also providing administrative and other logistic support. Pakistan is also facing the menace of terrorism which is eroding the country’s social structure, economic development and political system. The acts of terrorism are threatening Pakistan’s law and order situation, violating human rights of the citizens, damaging basic infrastructure and economic opportunities. In the post-9/11 landscape, effectively checking political violence and terrorism in Pakistan through preventative legal measures remains a challenge at both state and local levels. The immediate costs of terrorist acts are loss of human lives, destruction of property and infrastructure and curtailment of short-term economic activity. Additionally, terrorism creates uncertainty, reduces confidence and increases risk perceptions; leading to lower rates of investment and lower economic growth. In fact, Pakistan has not only lost precious lives and infrastructure; according to official estimates, it has also suffered a loss of around $ 35-40 billion since 2001-2002. Pakistan’s economic growth came to a near halt at around 2.00 per cent in fiscal year 2009, not only as a result of the global financial crisis, but also because of internal issues. These included a war on terror launched by security forces in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and the Federally Administrated Tribal Areas (FATA) bordering on Afghanistan, and the resultant displacement of some three million people from their homes.  Both the war on terror and the rehabilitation of the internally displaced persons (IDPs) consumed a big chunk of the government’s financial resources, thus widening the fiscal deficit and halting economic growth. Pakistan has suffered more than any other country due to the war on terror. With the threat of terrorism, normal business requires more time and extra security. Thus, terrorism leads to a general slowdown in economic activity. Moreover, the terrorists have challenged the writ of the government by creating chaos and uncertain conditions that have tarnished the soft image of Pakistan. According to analysts of international economics, the soft image is like a cashable commodity, as it is an important source for attracting foreign direct investments (FDI). The FDI fell to $ 463 million during the first quarter as against $1.116 billion during the same period the previous year, a decline of 58.5 per cent.  The frequent incidents of terrorism have given a bad name to Pakistan in the world and international markets.  Terrorism has damaged the economy, polity and society of Pakistan, on multiple levels. Efforts to deter terrorism may take the form of severe penalties under anti-terrorism laws, such as circulating descriptions or photographs of terrorists in the media, offering rewards for information, or might involve a naturally evolved deterrent, such as pressuring the kin of terrorists. Pakistan the government has introduced “special” legal measures to deal with certain criminal offenses outside the regular criminal justice regime. As Nicole Machiavelli wrote in The Prince, “fear is maintained by a never failing dread of punishment. How do these principles of anti-terrorism apply to Pakistan? Have stringent laws reduced acts of terrorism and deterred those who might commit them?