NAB TO FILE REFERENCE IN EDEN HOUSING FRAUD

National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has decided to file reference before accountability court against son-in-law MR. Murtaza Amjad of ex-chief justice MR. Iftikhar Muhammad Choudry and other co-owners of Eden housing projects. The reference will be of 19 billion rupees. This has been decided by NAB after having failed to reach plea bargain with the owners. The owners have already fled the country in order to avoid any proceedings against them and NAB has blamed interior ministry for failure to place these people on Exit Control List in time despite specific request by NAB. NAB has said in this regard that it had requested interior ministry to place Dr. Amjad and his sons Murtaza Amjad and Mustafa Amjad to be placed on exit control list but interior ministry failed to do so and all of them fled to Canada. NAB has now decided in its regional board to file reference against Murtaza Amjad, Dr. Amjad, Anjum Amjad and Mustafa Amjad.

GAWADAR OIL CITY AND PETRO CHEMICAL CHAIN

Khusro Bakhtiar, Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Reforms has said that around 8 billion dollars investment is expected in the proposed Gwadar oil city project and the petrochemical chain to be developed under CPEC.

Briefing Senate Special Committee on CPEC he said that huge investment is coming to Pakistan’s oil sector being very lucrative.

He said that the government was exploring different avenues for investment in the ML-1 project and inviting the third party including Japan or Germany to invest in Karachi to Peshawar railway track.

The Senate Special Committee on CPEC was informed that besides Saudi Arabia, UAE and Korea has also shown interest in investing in the oil city in Gwadar. The government is currently negotiating with Saudi state oil company ARAMCO to set up an oil refinery in Gwadar, the minister revealed.

“Both UAE and Korea want to set up oil refineries in the port city,” he said. The minister further informed the committee that free trade agreement with China would be finalized/renegotiated during 2019.

Members of the committee raised questions over including the third party in CPEC. Khusro Bakhtiar has said that CPEC was a strategic bilateral legal framework agreement between Pakistan and China and no third country could become the partner in the framework. However, he said that any investment in the CPEC projects by any third country would be done after prior approval of the two countries. The committee also showed concern over the issues of the missing portion of CPEC Western Route and directed the federal government to complete the portion from Dera Ismail Khan to Zob, from Zob to Quetta and from Quetta to Sohrab on a priority basis. Senator Usman Kakar said that work on the project was pending for the long and previous government had shown least interest in the project.

The planning minister said that the Western Route was an integral part of CPEC and the government is giving high priority to the western route.

The committee was informed that the D.I. Khan-Zhob part of Western Route was being constructed under CPEC and it was on the agenda of JCC on CPEC to be held in Beijing this month. The minister assured the committee that remaining parts of the route which were not under CPEC will be included in the PSDP and work on these projects will be initiated very soon.

The minister said that the present government has established new joint working groups on CPEC in agriculture and socio-economic sectors to increase cooperation in these sectors. The minister said that these two sectors would be on the agenda of the upcoming JCC meeting.

Gawadar port is going to be the hub of trade in the region very soon and those who are investing right now are expected to reap huge returns in the future.

SALARY OF CAPTAIN IN PAKISTAN ARMY

Normally a captain gets 45-50 thousand salary excluding other benefits.
He has to pay mess bill from his own pocket.
If  unmarried he will get a free room in the BOQs (Bachelor Officers Quarters).
If  married, his salary would be about 7-8 thousand higher than that of a bachelor's and  is entitled to get a free govt house inside cantt area.
He is promoted to major after about five years.

SAAD ALI

 Saad Ali  now a professional race car driver learnt to drive at the age of 17 and got his racing license at 19. Saad participated in the Formula BMW race series in 2006-7 and in the Formula Gulf 1000 championship in 2014 in which he stood third. He also took part in F3 Testing and has won local carting competitions.

His father is a retired  Air Force officer and wanted him to take up flying like his brother but 28 year old Saad believes open wheel racing is just as exhilarating as flying a fighter plane.

Dawn interviewed him about the challenges faced by professional race car drivers and how driving on public roads can be improved.

Q: What inspired you to become a race car driver and what are the challenges in this profession?

Answer: The feeling of sitting in a race car and  adrenaline rush are unbelievable feelings. We are given one life which we should spent doing what we always dreamt of doing.

The biggest challenge a race car driver faces is funding. A driver needs at least US $300000 a year to participate in a race. It is very difficult to find a sponsor in a country like Pakistan because people don’t know what open wheel racing is about. My father paid for my expenses so I could participate in races. Other than cricketers, sportsmen and athletes do not have much support, which is one of the reasons A1 racing failed to gain popularity in Pakistan.

Q: How do you drive on public roads?

Answer: I feel safer in a racing car. I check my seat belt a few times to make sure it is fastened on before I get onto a public road. I do have an urge to just floor the accelerator, but road safety comes first.

We need to have more racing tracks where young people, can race and this will also make public roads a lot safer.

Q: How can the driving experience on our roads be improved?

Answer: I think the whole system needs to be over hauled. All licenses should be cancelled and everyone should be asked  to take a fresh driving test. They should be issued another license only after they clear the test.

Since this is a bit harder to accomplish, I guess the police should be more vigilant and clear road markings and signs should be put up.

PIA PRIVITIZATION

PIA is the national carrier of Pakistan and has about 15,000 employees.
            
Most of the airports in Pakistan are witnessing a travel chaos these days as protesting employees of the PIA blocked operations in protest against proposed privatization of the organisation. Situation took an ugly turn a day before yesterday when three protester employees were killed in a shooting incident, which they blamed on security officials but the rangers and police denied opening fire and told that butts found on spot were not that of security forces' guns.

PIA which was one of the world’s leading airlines until the 1970s now suffers from frequent cancellations and delays and has been involved in numerous controversies over the years, including the arrest of a drunk pilot in Britain in 2013. PIA has also faced problems acquiring security clearances to the European Union for cargo flights. The airline has also traditionally handed  thousands of free tickets each year contributing to its big losses.

PIA’s financial statements reveals that the airline has suffered losses worth Rs.119.84 billion over the last ten year. Flight delays and cancellation has become the norm of the airline as its flight delay ratio is more than 35% which is very high and especially due to this reason its passengers are now shifting to other airlines.

The government claims that it has increased the fleet size from 18 to 38 which has brought down its losses significantly but still the employees to plane ratio is 390 which is still very high as  compared to global average ratio of 120. The other major problem is huge loans of more than 250 billion rupees so the finance cost is very high which erodes its trading profits.

However the government has made it clear that neither any employee will be sacked nor their facilities withdrawn but it has  warned the protesting employees that the government would use its authority against all those elements who had locked the airline offices without any reason.Many flights were delayed and passengers could not get their boarding passes. Federal Minister for Finance Ishaq dar on Sunday said that the government would not privatize the airlines but would get a "strategic partner" which would have 26 percent shares. the government has given a fresh commitment to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), promising it will sell the national carrier to a strategic investor by March next year.

“The timelines to sell a minimum 26% of PIA shares were discussed during the on-going eighth review of the $6.60 billion IMF programme,” said Privatisation Commission Chairman Mohammad Zubair.

PIA’s cumulative losses were Rs 227 billion ($2.2 billion) as of June 2014. The government has to inject Rs 12 to Rs 15 billion annually to keep the airline alive and pay employees.According to the audited financial statement for January-March period of 2015, the accumulative losses of the airline increased to Rs228.7 billion – a net addition of Rs2.1 billion in three months. The total liabilities grew to Rs329.7 billion as of March 2015 while its assets were recorded at Rs186.7 billion.

Adviser to Prime Minister on Aviation Captain (Rtd.) Shujat Azeem is said to be in opposition to the privatization.He is in favor of restructuring and revival of the entity and under the same strategy, PIA is in the process of acquiring ten narrow-body aircraft, five ATRs and two wide body aircraft on lease. Few of these planes have already joined the fleet.

PIA has yet not been converted into a public limited company despite the National Assembly having passed the Pakistan International Airlines Corporation (Conversion) Bill, 2015...it is a must to hold the first board of directors meeting of the airlines to convert it into a public limited company.  

The government has invoked the Essential Services Act of 1952 to break the strike of PIA unions against the proposed privatization plan appeared to be an act of panic but it also shows that the government is determined to privatize the organisation as promised to IMF. IMF has now allowed 10 more months for the completion of the task.

The whole nation has to bear losses of badly run public sector businesses.Privatization is necessary as it is evident from empirical data that it is government intervention that causes economic inefficiencies which are removed in private hands. It is no rocket science to conclude that incapable, incompetent and corrupt person if appointed to head any public corporation, would result into losses and bankruptcy of that organization as has been done in most of the public companies. Private administration safeguarded its interests and runs the organisations profitability as it is their own money they invest to acquire any entity. 

Better late than never.