ISLAMABAD (PPI) – World Bank appreciated “signs of improvement” in Pakistan’s economy which has potential to grow.
WB will provide all possible assistance to Pakistan in facing economic challenges, said visiting WB VP for South Asia Region Ms Isabel Guerrero in meeting Friday with Finance Minister, Dr. Abdul Hafeez Shaikh. World Bank wants to see Pakistan moving on path of development with a vibrant economy, she observed.
Dr. Sheikh said World Bank played “crucial role in economic development of Pakistan and we expect this relationship will continue in future as well,” He spoke of challenges faced by economy, like inflationary pressure, energy deficit and circular debt. The government has taken measures to counter these. He said in order to maintain macro-economic stability, policies of fiscal, debt reduction and reducing inflation to single digit are being followed. For growth acceleration, government introduced structural reforms, productivity, efficiency enhancement process, improvement in governance and encouraging private investment….
Now compare that to IMF’s barf the very same day to the very same person:
Get your act together, IMF tells Islamabad
ISLAMABAD: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has for the first time conveyed a strongly-worded message to Pakistan, asking it to get its act together if it wants to keep the Fund’s $11.3 billion programme on track – a tough task which involves achieving some unrealistic targets set in the budget.
Finance ministry officials said that the strict warning was given by the visiting IMF Mission Chief for Pakistan, Adnan Mazarei, in a meeting with Finance Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh. The meeting started on a bitter note, as the minister could not make it to the venue on time, which made the IMF representative angry as he had to wait for over half an hour, said insiders.
The IMF thinks that the government has set over-ambitious targets in the budget and is not taking the required actions to achieve them, said the sources.
Mazarei termed the budget deficit target and its financing plan “risky” and told the finance minister in explicit terms that Pakistan did not have a secure “financing plan for 4 per cent budget deficit target”.…
Remember a few weeks back BBC interviewed the British former Chief of General Staff General Sir Francis Richard Dannatt. The revelation he made about why NATO was fighting the “War of Terror” was certainly quite interesting.
He was asked about the importance of Kandahar which is the focus of the next big NATO operation in Afghanistan. Here is his response:
FRD: “Kandahar is absolutely critical. And if one analysis what all the people have been saying over the last two or three years they all recognize Kandahar was critical. After all, Kandahar is effectively the power base of Taliban and Taliban, if they want to try and control the country, first of all they’ve got to control Kandahar, and then they have opened up the access from Kandahar to Kabul”
Q: Now why should we care, in this country, given that it is costing us a small fortune — and much more importantly — many, many lives have been lost as to who is in control of Kandahar?
FRD:I think that gets into the wider question of as to why we are in Afghanistan and what’s it all about. And I think it is disappointing that two or three years into our major deploymenta in Southern Afghanistan, we still haven’t got that clear in peoples’ minds. The fact of the matter is that the Taliban is effectively a front for Al-Qaeda. Al Qaeda is the expression of the militant Islamist agenda. If we don’t oppose it and face it off in Southern Afghanistan, or in Afghanistan, or in South Asia, then frankly that influence will grow; and it could well grow — and this is an important point — we can see it moving through South Asia, through the Middle Est, to North Africa , and to the high watermark of the Islamic Caliphate of 14th, 15th century.Now I don’t mind if the people of Southern Europe, the Balkans, become Muslim by religious conviction or by democratic process. But what we don’t want to see is the perversion of one of the great world religions — Islam — either politically motivated to use it for their own political purposes. That is what we have to face down. And if we don’t face it down in Southern Afghanistan, and in South Asia, we’ll have to do closer to home. Much better to face it at arms length. That’s the reason why we got to get it right. Let’s get it right. Let’s get it done, in conjugation with the Americans, who have much more clout that we have, and then we can do what we all want to do, that is, get our guys back.”
Of course the General is being very sneaky here and he is lying through his teeth. This bit is meant for local consumption only. He is trying to scare his country folks with the oldest of cons: that if you don’t support us in Afghanistan, the Taliban will come over here and convert you to Islam.
But the real reason for this ‘war’ comes to us courtesy of German President Horst Koehler.
Koehler, coincidentally in a radio interview, let the truth slip out that they are in it for the money; it has nothing to do with terrorists or religion (BOTH ARE BUT SCAMS) and everything to do with MAKING MONEY. Plain and simple.
Now of course revealing such a ‘secret’, exposing the behinds/souls of the whitey by a whitey certainly was a major faux pas — it of course has lead to his resignation. Here’s the story:
Did bloggers bring down the German president?
BERLIN: President Horst Koehler’s shock resignation this week came after mainstream media jumped on comments about Germany’s overseas role that they would have missed if it hadn’t been for bloggers.
Koehler, whose job was largely ceremonial but who spoke as a kind of moral arbiter, was on his way back from visiting German troops in Afghanistan when he gave an apparently innocuous interview to a German radio station.
In the interview, aired on May 22, Koehler appeared to imply that military operations like in Afghanistan were, in part, commercially motivated and necessary to protect Germany’s economic interests.
“[A] country of our size with its … export dependency should also know that, if in doubt, in an emergency, a military engagement is also necessary to defend our interests, for example free trade routes,” he told Deutschlandfunk.
Newspapers and magazines went wild, with the president, head of the International Monetary Fund from 2000-4 and who was a year into his second term, accused by commentators of advocating “gunboat diplomacy”.
Stung to the quick by the criticism and saying that he had been misunderstood, and to general surprise, the popular Koehler quit as Germany’s head of state.
But the offending interview had initially been ignored by the mainstream media and would have been forgotten had a few eagle-eyed bloggers not picked up on what the 67-year-old had said…
(Of course fools will still deny it, as they deny the absolute truth that Kiyani/Pak Army is in it for the money alone, damn the religion, damn humanity)
I want you to read Koehler’s words again and realize that he reveals a lot more than Afghanistan; he is basically confessing:
“We, First World countries like Germany, carry out military operations (i.e. make war) in third world countries like Afghanistan for no other reason than to make money and to sell/use our locally manufactured arms (i.e. to support our military-industrial complex).”
Side-Note: DON’T miss the part about who Koehler’s last employer was — Yes, the same IMF who is turning the screws on us right now. Or did you think IMF is working for our betterment? 😉
Political uncertainty, chronic insecurity and a budget deficit inflated by spending to tackle a Taliban insurgency are all threats to recovery, but the outlook is far brighter than when Pakistan was on the brink of default in 2008.
(Translation: We are getting our interest payments — no matter how the government screws it’s own people for it — and they have promised to squeeze more blood of their citizens, hence the “outlook is far brighter [for us]”) WB sets 48-hour deadline for $300 million loan Asks Pakistan to hike power tariff by 6 pc, make progress on VAT
But you know it will be shoved through, parliament approval or no approval: Impose VAT for IMF loan
The United States has urged Pakistan to impose Value Added Tax (VAT) from July 1 in order to get the next loan tranche from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), leaving Islamabad helpless in its efforts to convince the IMF to continue the $11.3 billion programme without VAT.
Impose VAT for IMF loan
“ISLAMABAD: The United States has urged Pakistan to impose Value Added Tax (VAT) from July 1 in order to get the next loan tranche from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), leaving Islamabad helpless in its efforts to convince the IMF to continue the $11.3 billion programme without VAT….”
Of course — just like North Waziristan Operation — our government is still pretending to be debating the issue in the parliament (“which is ‘supreme'”) and the “decision will be our own and not one dictated by U.S. or I.M.F.” so you know VAT is coming July 1 and everything has already been worked out so be ready to see an immediate 15% increase in ALL prices due to VAT alone come July 1 (“Hey, don’t blame us! YOU guys are costing too much to KILL“)
Amazing! The guy who helped rape the country as privatization minister under Musharraf has been selected to be new Finance Advisor (to replace Shaukat Tareen). I am sure IMF/WB are delighted!
Wah Ray Democracy!
But no surprise, really. Remember the four governors of all four provinces are still those installed by Musharraf, the policies being followed are all those of Musharraf, the COAS is the one selected by Musharraf. So who needs Musharraf. It does remind me of the old Eric Margolis article ‘Zardari is the New Musharraf’
If you are to buy the official spin that “Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin was working tirelessly to help the country in a tough time (and did wonderful job doing it)”, does it not follow that his stepping down “to focus on his private business interests” kind of shows what he holds more important.
Of course he was always working for his personal business interests and those of IMF/WB — WB, by the way, is his business partner and joint owner of Silk Bank:
“In March 2008, a consortium comprising the International Finance Corporation (IFC), Bank Muscat, Nomura and Sinthos Capital, led by Tarin and another Pakistani banker, Sadeq Saeed, bought an 86.55 per cent stake in Silk Bank for about $213 million.”
(IFC is the private investment arm of the World Bank)
This also means a government bailout of Silk Bank is on the way so in effect you and I will be borrowing money from WB to pay WB (Silk Bank). And what do we get in return? Liability to pay the principal and interest for this bailout…
P.S. Oh, and don’t forget the IMF loan of $11.3 billion (plus interest) and the IMF-enforced ‘conditionalities’ that you are enjoying. Make sure you send a “Thank You!” note to Tarin 😉
All the world is hailing Hollywood and Hollywood is patting itself on the back having raised $57 million for Haiti where 150,000 plus died and over a million are left homeless. But then I think of what Hollywood spends on making a single movie and things fall into perspective. Take for example the recent hit ‘Avatar’: Continue reading ‘Haiti-wood, U.S.A.’
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