Pakistan General Elections 2013

[tramp]

Imran's 6-point plan to build a 'new Pakistan'


Just days before the general elections, Pakistan Tehreek--e-Insaf chief Imran Khan vowed to build a 'new Pakistan' where there would be no room for corruption, oppression, nepotism, and misuse of power and public money.


Khan made six commitments in a bid to become the next prime minister in the May 11 elections. He promised to always be honest and truthful, wage 'jihad' against injustice and tyranny and side with the oppressed if he came to power, reported the Daily Times.

Khan further pledged he would establish supremacy of the law; never leave Pakistan and keep his all assets in the country. He would not indulge in nepotism and misuse of power and protect the taxpayers' money, he added.

Imran's 6-point plan to build a 'new Pakistan' - The Times of India

Notable is his silence about the rise of religious extremism which is the paramount threat to a stable Pakistan. He obviously cannot comment now because he has taken the support of mullahs to get enough traffic to his rallies.

 

[Agnostic Muslim]

lotta baazi you mean??

The term 'Lota' is typically used to refer to politicians who switch political parties depending on which way the wind is blowing - I don't believe Mazari left the PTI to join another political party so the term is not really applicable in her case.

 

[Agnostic Muslim]

Notable is his silence about the rise of religious extremism which is the paramount threat to a stable Pakistan. He obviously cannot comment now because he has taken the support of mullahs to get enough traffic to his rallies.

He was in fact one of the first major political leaders (before Zardari and the Sharif's) to speak out forcefully against the sectarian terrorism in Quetta.

 

[tramp]

I don't think I read anything about the attack on Joseph's Colony, at least immediately after it happened.

 

[Agnostic Muslim]

I don't think I read anything about the attack on Joseph's Colony, at least immediately after it happened.

Not only did he condemn, he actually visited Joseph Colony:

Joseph Colony arson: Punjab government to blame says Imran Khan
By Our CorrespondentPublished: March 13, 2013

LAHORE: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chief Imran Khan has held Punjab government responsible for the Joseph Colony incident in which more than 100 homes of the Christian community were burnt by a mob on Saturday.

During a visit to the colony on Tuesday, Khan said the tragedy could have been avoided if the provincial government had acted earlier and taken action against those involved in the Gojra riots.

"I condemn this"¦this is the biggest injustice that could be done to a minority community," he said.

PTI chief said the law enforcing agencies had compelled the residents to vacate their homes [instead of safeguarding them.]

He said recruitment in the police was politically driven and use of the force for political motives had become rampant in the Punjab.

He said the incident had given Pakistan a bad name internationally.

Khan expressed solidarity with the victims and offered them his support. He was accompanied by Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri, Jahangir Tareen and Abdul Aleem Khan.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 13th, 2013.
Joseph Colony arson: Punjab government to blame says Imran Khan – The Express Tribune

 

[tramp]

Not only did he condemn, he actually visited Joseph Colony:

Good if he did. But his links with the militants is public knowledge. May be its political expediency. And on the part of the militants, they want to prop up an as yet untested leader.

sorry off topic: you use the sobriquet Agnostic Muslim... is it not an oxymoron? Can there be something like that? Won't it amount to heresy, according to Islam, punishable by death?

 

[Agnostic Muslim]

Good if he did. But his links with the militants is public knowledge. May be its political expediency. And on the part of the militants, they want to prop up an as yet untested leader.

What 'links with militants'?

IK has advocated 'dialog with the Taliban' as a means of ending the violence, but I do not believe he has links with militants.

 

[Blackwater]

@ Agnostic Muslim

will musshy travel to other parts of pakistan or just Sindhi? is his bail valid all over pakistan or just sindh???

 

[farhan_9909]

Notable is his silence about the rise of religious extremism which is the paramount threat to a stable Pakistan. He obviously cannot comment now because he has taken the support of mullahs to get enough traffic to his rallies.

Mullah?no

Almost 80% of the young youth is with Imran khan.

I guess mullah's are the most against him

 

[sayareakd]

I think IK and Mushi will be send to other world and Kadri would be PM.......

 

[Blackwater]

I think IK and Mushi will be send to other world and Kadri would be PM.......

can Canadian become pak PM. Kya aain iski izzazat deta ha? kya yeah khula tazaad nahi

 

[sayareakd]

can Canadian become pak PM. Kya aain iski izzazat deta ha? kya yeah khula tazaad nahi

duel citizenship is nothing new for Pakistanis..............

when he will be arrested or exile that citizenship will come to his rescue................

 

[Agnostic Muslim]

Musharraf might win a solitary seat from Chitral, but the APML is not going to make any waves as a political party.

 

[bose]

Nawaz Sharif will spoil IK's calculation in Punjab. He is getting good support in his meetings.

 

[tramp]

duel citizenship is nothing new for Pakistanis..............

when he will be arrested or exile that citizenship will come to his rescue................

Suitcase economists | Opinion | DAWN.COM
Suitcase economists

IN a rare moment of bold, honest, reflection, on Dec 24, members of the National Assembly's Standing Committee on Finance, which included at least one prominent PPP member, demanded the resignation of Pakistan's finance minister, Dr Hafeez Shaikh.

As reported on Dawn's front page, perhaps signifying the importance of the nature of the demand itself, they made the case that the finance minister "had no time to listen to parliamentarians' proposals to put the economy on right [sic] track".

They were clearly outraged enough, according to the report, to "force" the chairman of the committee to write a letter to the prime minister asking for the finance minister's removal. They demanded that the finance minister be replaced by an "elected member".

It was not just the inability of the finance minister to listen to the parliamentarians' proposals which was significant in the reasons for demanding his removal, for this must surely be a more generic demand affecting most other ministers as well, given the nature and quality of service and governance. But the members of the Standing Committee on Finance had much more to say about the status of Pakistan's finance minister.

Members of the committee stated that the finance minister was available "only at the time of the budget speech", but more importantly, made the point, that like his predecessor Shaukat Aziz, he was an "imported finance minister", and that "we really need to get rid of these suitcase economists". Strong words, indeed.

One must agree with a great deal of what the members of the standing committee have said. The finance minister, one of the most important cabinet positions at any time, but more so when the economy has done poorly, has performed far worse than many expected. By all accounts, his tenure has been one of many failures, where the absence of leadership and direction has been the hallmark of his office.

Moreover, it is also true, that he has spent much of the last three decades outside Pakistan in the World Bank, and by that definition is a 'suitcase economist', who will probably leave Pakistan once his tenure is over, as he did the last time he ceased to be a minister in the Musharraf government.

In fact, perhaps in the last decade or so, Dr Hafeez Shaikh has lived in Pakistan only on account of him being a minister in one government or the other.

What is more interesting, however, is that Dr Hafeez Shaikh only follows in the footsteps of not just one 'economist' — Shaukat Aziz, who was actually not an economist — but numerous economists imported almost exclusively from the World Bank and the IMF, to head the three most important economic and financial institutions in Pakistan. It almost seems like a rite of passage.

Mahbubul Haq was the most illustrious, and was the key economic manager of both generals Ayub Khan and Zia ul Haq. Later, Moeen Quraishi from the World Bank became caretaker prime minister in the 1990s and his colleague Shahid Javed Burki adviser on finance to the prime minister.

Governors of the State Bank almost always seem to be recruited from abroad: Muhammad Yaqub (IMF), Ishrat Husain (World Bank) and Shamshad Akhtar (Asian Development Bank). The incumbent deputy chairman of the Planning Commission is also a former IMF official. Clearly Dr Hafeez Shaikh is just the most recent recruit in a long line of economists asked to join the government from abroad.

Interestingly, it is unelected governments — caretakers, military — which invite such technocrats, a tradition which the incumbent PPP government seems, sadly, to be following.

The inability to find, in the words of the Standing Committee, "an elected member", is a sad reflection on the abilities and trust of the PPP in its own constituency, to not be able to find political, elected or resident economists to head the finance ministry and the Planning Commission.

What is more disappointing, however, is that it has taken the Standing Committee on Finance almost three years to wake up and realise that the current finance minister is 'imported', a well-known fact and a grievance which they should have voiced at the time of his appointment.

Clearly, while they too are complicit in allowing yet another suitcase economist to be imported, asking him to be removed with just a few weeks left of his tenure has little to do with him being imported, and reflects entirely on his dismal performance, a fact which has also been acknowledged by the committee.

However, the biggest irony is that the two most important positions in the cabinet, the finance and foreign ministries, are held by former Musharraf ministers who were colleagues in a government which has been responsible for most of Pakistan's economic and foreign crises since 2008.

It is not just the Standing Committee on Finance which has failed to set a new precedent and standard with regard to who ought to be competent to qualify as Pakistan's finance minister, but the fact that the democratic, elected and political PPP has had to take crutches from a military dictator's government, is a sad comment after almost five years in power, on its ability to believe in itself.

 

[Yusuf]

If I had to vote, even I wouldn't vote for the PPP:Bilawal

According to Press Trust of India, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has left for Dubai after a tiff with his father, President Asif Ali Zardari, over the affairs of the PPP, leaving the party without its star campaigner for Pakistan's general election.



Bilawal, recently named patron-in-chief of the Pakistan People's Party, developed differences with Zardari and his sister, Faryal Talpur, over the party's handling of key issues, including militant violence, sectarian attacks against Shias and the award of party tickets for the polls scheduled for May 11.



Two sources privy to the development told the news agency that Bilawal had made it clear to his father that he felt the PPP had not strongly taken up issues like the shooting of teenage rights activist Malala Yusufzai by Taliban fighters last year and three devastating bomb attacks on Shias in Quetta and Karachi that killed nearly 250 people.



Bilawal was supposedly upset with the PPP's handling of issues that affect the youth, especially in the wake of efforts by other parties like Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf to woo the youth ahead of the polls, the sources said.



The 24-year-old nominal chief of the PPP was angered by Faryal Talpur's refusal to award tickets to certain candidates in Sindh province that he had recommended, a source said.







"Last month, Bilawal had recommended the names of some 200 PPP workers and asked former Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah to give them jobs but Talpur had intervened, causing bad blood between them," the source said.



Bilawal discussed these matters with his father and sought authority to take decisions in party matters.



But Zardari sided with his sister, who plays a key role in the PPP's affairs, the source said.



"When Zardari told him that he would be handed over the command of the party after he is groomed politically, Bilawal got upset and left for Dubai," a source said.



Matters got so heated on one occasion that a source quoted Bilawal as saying: "If I had to vote, even I wouldn't vote for the PPP."



Bilawal's abrupt departure for Dubai last week has caused considerable disquiet within the PPP as the party had been banking on him to appeal to the voters who have traditionally voted for the Bhutto family.



"Bilawal had been projected as the PPP's star campaigner as the President cannot participate in the campaign due to pressure from the courts," a PPP leader said.



"Without Bilawal, the PPP cannot touch the emotions of the people, especially the hard core PPP workers," said the PPP leader, who did not wish to be named.



The leader said he feared the PPP might not be able to get the "Bhutto vote" if Bilawal did not take part in the campaign.



PPP leaders have acknowledged that Bilawal will not be present when the party launches its election campaign on April 4 from Garhi Khuda Buksh, the traditional stronghold of the Bhutto family in Sindh.



However, they contended that Bilawal was not participating in the event for "security reasons" and would instead deliver a telephonic address.



Latif Khosa, recently elected secretary general of the PPP, told a news agency that there were security threats to the party's leadership, especially Bilawal.



He said, "Bilawal may not attend election rallies due to security concerns and is likely to address gatherings on telephone or via video-conferencing."



PPP spokesman Qamar Zaman Kaira too said Bilawal would not attend the rally on April 4 because he was "facing more threats than other leaders of the PPP".



Party leaders are also concerned that the PPP's campaign is now likely to be led by former premier Yousuf Raza Gilani, who is known for his lack of charisma.



This would place the PPP at a disadvantage as it is up against seasoned campaigners like Imran Khan and PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif.



Gilani sought to play down the issue of Bilawal's sudden departure from Pakistan, saying there were no differences between Bilawal and Zardari or Talpur.



"In our families, our children give immense respect to their elders," Gilani told a news agency.



Hasham Riaz, Bilawal's chief of staff, said Bilawal had gone to Dubai for "routine business".



He claimed the reports of differences between Bilawal and his father "mere rumours". Asked if Bilawal would come back to Pakistan, Riaz said: "Of course."



Bilawal himself will not be eligible to contest polls till he turns 25 in September. The PPP had formally launched his political career at a massive rally in Garhi Khuda Baksh that marked the death anniversary of his mother, former premier Benazir Bhutto, in December last year.


http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/201...en-i-wouldnt-vote-for-the-ppp-bilawal-bhutto/

 

[farhan_9909]

Re: If I had to vote, even I wouldn't vote for the PPP:Bilawal

may be a New drama from PPP.

i dont or now we pakistanis dont believe in anyone from the bhutto family except the fatima bhutto

 

[tramp]

Re: If I had to vote, even I wouldn't vote for the PPP:Bilawal

may be a New drama from PPP.

i dont or now we pakistanis dont believe in anyone from the bhutto family except the fatima bhutto

If Pakistanis do not believe anyone from Bhutto family, I wonder, how PPP which campaigned on the charisma of that family, got the most number of seats in the last elections. So, obviously, the family has a huge following, may be in Sindh.

 

[farhan_9909]

Re: If I had to vote, even I wouldn't vote for the PPP:Bilawal

If Pakistanis do not believe anyone from Bhutto family, I wonder, how PPP which campaigned on the charisma of that family, got the most number of seats in the last elections. So, obviously, the family has a huge following, may be in Sindh.

only because of the BB death..otherwise Nawaz even in 2008 was confirmed to be the PM.

 

[Blackwater]

Re: If I had to vote, even I wouldn't vote for the PPP:Bilawal

only because of the BB death..otherwise Nawaz even in 2008 was confirmed to be the PM.

nazam sethi has become CM of punjab, known for being anti -nawaz