Trump has shaken the world. The way he ditched Ukraine and imposed tariffs on two allies (Canada and Mexico) proves that he cannot be trusted to stick to any future agreements he will make. In his first term, he backed out of an agreement with Iran that the previous Obama government had signed. Now he wants Russia to improve relations with Iran (this is something the Israelis must be dreading). Europe has already decided to help Ukraine because they consider Putin to be the greater menace. Now that Trump wants the war to end on Russia's terms, he will have to remove sanctions and oil prices will go down soon (particularly if Trump removes sanctions on Iran as well). The Saudis of course will not like it. 

I wonder why Trump's advisors are not asking him to take it easy. If he's allowed to have his way, his own country will suffer. The US arms industry will collapse. Higher tariffs on imported goods will hit ordinary Americans. For Pakistan, things look good. Lower oil prices will be good for Pakistan, and removal of sanctions on Iran will mean Pakistan will be able to buy Iranian gas. Let's hope that happens.

Daily you hear or read something that makes you wonder whether Pakistan will be able to survive. Besides Imran Khan's efforts to weaken the country, and attacks by terrorists in KP and Baluchistan, the rampant corruption of our police and judiciary make me despondent and regret not leaving the country when I had the chance about fifty years ago.

The stunning revelations in the Mustafa Amir murder by someone who is a criminal and psychopath has proved that our judges can be bought (something that has been evident for some time). The lower court judge, after talking to the killer's father, reversed his decision and remanded the killer to judicial custody instead of handing him over to the police. He was so stupid that he spread "whito" over his original order and wrote the revised order on it. It makes you wonder how he ever got to be a judge. As for the killer's father, one wonders how he managed to become a citizen of the US. Then there are the cops who actually helped the killer (Armaghan) to indulge in smuggling of narcotics.

Then there is the case of the woman who ran over two waiters two years ago in Islamabad. The woman (Shanzay Malik) fled after killing the two men. Of course, if she'd been an ordinary person, she'd have been convicted, but being the daughter of a Supreme Court judge (Shehzad Malik), the lower court magistrate said the cops didn't present enough evidence against her (although there was a CCTV footage of the accident).  

I know that people will say that this kind of thing happens in many other countries, but Pakistan has enough problems of its own without its police and judges being criminals.

 Palestinian question

THIS is with reference to the editorial `Trump`s folly` (Feb 13). Donald Trump must have been surprised at the reaction of Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and other Muslim and non-Muslim countries, which strongly rejected his plan to ethnically cleanse Gaza. We should be grateful that he has inadvertently caused all Muslim nations to unite on at least this issue.

One thing seems to have escaped notice of the rulers of Muslim countries. When Benjamin Netanyahu said Saudi Arabia has enough land to take in all Palestinians, they should have pointed out that about three million people living in Israel are descendants of European Jews who forcibly occupied Palestine after World War II.

They are the ones who want to remove Palestinians from their lands. Why not remove these European Jews from Israel and settle them in the United States, Australia and Canada? These countries, after all, have enough land mass to play home to not three million, but 30 million more people.

This should solve the Palestinian problem once and for all. The US will no longer have to give billions of dollars in aid every year to Israel.

The descendants of non-European Jews, in the meantime, will live peacefully along with Palestinian Muslims and Christians, just as their ancestors did.

Shakir Lakhani

Karachi

DAWN, February 23, 2025

https://epaper.dawn.com/DetailImage.php?StoryImage=23_02_2025_007_008

 

 

Stuck with crises 

Published in The News on Saturday, Feb 22, 2025 

This letter refers to the article ‘Crises? Not in 2035’ (February 19, 2025) by Dr Nasir Iqbal. Even though I would like to believe that the steps mentioned by the writer can be implemented, I highly doubt it. Replacing the present income tax with a consumption tax will deprive thousands of corrupt officials from the opportunity to further enrich themselves. Abolishing cash will be met with fierce resistance by the vested interests who indulge in tax evasion and smuggling. 

 In the same vein, dividing the country into 38 provinces will be vehemently opposed by the party ruling (or misruling) Sindh. And then there is the exponential rise in the population, which would require drastic measures in order to control. Failure to do so will pose a serious threat to the country. 

Shakir Lakhani 

Karachi 

The News, Feb 22, 2025

If there is one thing we know for sure, it's that most of our parliamentarians are crooks. Even the few who are not financially corrupt (like some in the religious parties) tend to favor their friends and relatives when awarding contracts or giving jobs in government departments. Our legislators tend to think that parliament is supreme and that the courts have no right to object to any laws passed by them, even those that violate fundamental rights. The main tussle nowadays between the government and the judiciary is the transfer of judges from other courts to the Islamabad High Court, which has almost always favored Imran Khan when deciding cases against him. By appointing anti-Imran or pro-government judges, it hopes it can keep Imran Khan in jail for a long time.

Some judges, on the other hand, have been known to act against legislators without even considering the evidence against them. Nawaz Sharif, for instance, was disqualified for not receiving a salary from his son's company (in which he was a director). Everyone knew at the time that the judges were doing so under pressure from the army. And the same judges gave undue favors to Imran Khan and his cronies, when the latter was the blue-eyed boy of the establishment. But of course judges and legislators share the same DNA, which is why both are equally to blame.

It's become routine now. Punjabi speakers going back to their home towns in Punjab from Balochistan are massacred almost every other month and the government is not at all concerned. It reminds one of the last few months of united Pakistan before it was dismembered. If the government does not do something to stop the killings immediately, we might see the country disintegrating again.

Usually, the terrorists stop a bus going to Punjab, order all the passengers to get out, then check their identity cards to find out which ones are Punjabis. One man miraculously escaped in the latest killing spree on 18 February because the details in his national identity card were in English, which the terrorists couldn't read. 

The question arises, why can't the government have police squads escorting such buses? If the British could control lawlessness a century ago, surely it can be done now. But the usual response is "The President, Prime Minister, Chief Minister, etc have condemned the killings and have vowed that every effort will be made to arrest and punish the killers, blah blah blah". Something drastic needs to be done, and done immediately, before the situation gets out of hand.

I've never understood why some Pakistanis kill others at the slightest provocation. Perhaps it's the lack of education. It is said that the literacy rate in the country is 60 percent, but I doubt it. Perhaps in the cities it could be 60 percent, but in the rural areas, you can't find literate people anywhere. I once had a worker from rural Sindh who called city folks cowards. In his area, he said, if a woman asked for a divorce, she was immediately killed and her body fed to dogs. Then there are so many cases every year when a man kills a woman because she broke off her engagement to him. Even a divorced woman marrying someone else is killed by her former husband.

Which brings me to the latest case that has shocked the whole country. This man (Armaghan) killed a friend of his because of a dispute over a girl (who has fled to the US). The victim was shot dead, his body transported to Hub and burnt. The killer (who must be around thirty) is apparently a gangster with about forty guards, who shot a police officer when the cops wanted to enter his house for investigation. Hundreds of unlicensed weapons were found in the premises. The killer is a narcotics dealer as well. The lower court judge was so scared that he refused to give the police physical remand of the killer. Three police officers have also been suspended for negligence in the case, apparently they also knew the killer is dangerous. 

I know one thing for sure: this man will be set free in a few days after being "forgiven" by the victim's parents. This is why the country is in such a mess.

I've often said that Pakistan should be re-named Corruptistan.  The latest scandal involving massive over-invoicing in the import of solar panels proves that honest Pakistanis are a dying breed.

Normally, it is under-invoicing of imported goods that can enrich the businessman as well as the Customs personnel helping him. Imported goods costing, say, a hundred thousand dollars are under-invoiced to show the value as twenty or thirty thousand dollars, and the duties and taxes paid are charged on the under-invoiced value. The importer saves at least thirty thousand dollars this way. The balance seventy or eighty thousand dollars are remitted to the foreign supplier via unofficial channel (havala). This has been going on for a long time.

Now the importer has found a new way to make money. He imports goods on which there is zero duty and taxes. Ten thousand dollars worth of imported goods is over-invoiced as thirty thousand dollars.  The excess money remitted to the foreign supplier is treated as advance money for other under-invoiced goods. If the actual value is thirty thousand dollars, the invoice value is shown as five thousand and the duty and taxes paid accordingly.

This is what happened in the import of solar panels in which the government was deprived of a hundred and ten billion rupees. Truly Pakistanis are very creative when cheating their government.

Right now it looks like the richest man in the world (Elon Musk) has the US President Donald Trump in his pocket. He is in full control of the government, sacking employees right and left in an effort to reduce government's expenses. He also got Trump to impose tariffs on imports, particularly those from China. However, the Chinese reacted calmly, subjecting American goods to more tariffs and curbing exports of sensitive materials to the US. This must have shocked both Musk and Trump, both of whom believe that everyone can be bought.

But the greatest surprise for them must have been the strong reaction to the suggestion that Palestinians in Gaza should be expelled to Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. Even the threat to stop aid to Egypt and Jordan didn't work. Perhaps this is the one good thing to have happened. Muslims, particularly Arabs, are united on this issue. Maybe at some future date, the Muslims of Kashmir will also get Arab support in their effort to gain freedom.

First it was the European Union which warned that Pakistani exports to the EU would no longer enjoy duty free status if human rights violations, child marriages, media curbs, etc were not ended. Now the IMF has sent a delegation to meet politicians, judges and others to determine whether there has been any improvement after their money started flowing. I'm against this government's policies, particularly the curbs on the media, but why do the EU and the IMF suddenly want to do it now?

Why didn't the EU say anything when the then Bangladesh government started executing pro-Pakistani politicians some years back? Is there something about Pakistan that they feel threatened by?

I can't help thinking that it is Imran Khan's blitzkrieg that's behind all this. He is so rich that he doesn't mind spending a few million here and there to get out of jail. Last week he got another US politician to ask Trump to get Imran released. One wonders how far the convicted leader will go to malign Pakistan.