Fire , Fire and more fire?

A book by any serving head of the state is obviously going to be discussed to the bone, with every comma and semi colon analyzed and discussed. However, I hope that the President’s team is following the debate over the book very closely and hopefully picking up the signs, dangerous as they may be. Five years down the line General Mushraff might find himself bemoaning the date the book was launched and consider it the beginning of the end. Just what am I talking about?  Read all about it   in my  weekly  column  in the POST  entitled Fire, Fire and more Fire.

A fig leaf for corruption

The present Pakistani government   with Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz at the helm of the financial affairs have followed a steadily expanding privatization policy. Let me confess from the very onset that I am a strong supporter of privatization.  My  whole perspective  on privatization  can be summed  up  in this oft  quoted   question : Why  are whales extinct  and cows aren’t ? Well because no one owns whales. “However, I am convinced that the process that is being labeled as privatization   presently is anything but. Privatization means breaking monopolies not creating them.  Privatization involves   open bidding and the winner would be the highest bidder not the hidden one.  Privatization means that the government gets out of the business of being in business. It does not mean that the government formulates policies for one individual or company.

Therefore,  although  I stand for  privatization  per se,  in Pakistan  I  stand  with  the  anti  privatizers .

I   will close with  one  example. The Pakistan Telecommunication Corporation Limited  (PTCL) shares have been sold to the Dubai based  Estilaat. While  there a number of  gray areas in the deal one   is : the GoP  has promised Estilaat that   no  new permits  will be issued  to  private telephone  companies for the next twenty  five  years  thus  creating a   monopoly.

This is not   privatization  in the interests  of   citizens.