Are our rulers divine?
Ambassador’s Diary
Dr Samiullah Koreshi
Monday, June 28, 2010 - Our rulers are going round with a begging bowl in US and West Europe. Persons are committing suicide in Pakistan out of starvation. Common man is in dire straits for his inability to meet his two ends meet. The economic scene is dismal. But our leaders are rolling in wealth. While common man cannot dress properly they wear Savil Row suits, and dress like film actors. There is not the slightest indication in their behaviour, in their houses, love for most expensive fleet of cars, in their lavish style of stopping reeking out of the public money Every rupee they can extract etc.
The Chief Justice of Pakistan has taken many actions for the benefit of the country to bring home the need for accountability. One such actions was to demand the list of loan defaulters who had huge mounts of loans written off since 1971, province wise. I wonder who was given the absolute power to write of huge amounts of loans taken from public money with the banks. These loan write off beneficiaries were allowed to eat up billions of rupees. They were not poor persons who could not pay back loans , they were not small borrowers but the mighty lords of the country, political heavy weights. In case of small borrowers the banks would have had loans recovered through their noses. The Supreme Court has also asked for the details of the properties which were mortgaged to the banks as sureties against the loans, and the Attorney General has been asked to assist in the enquiry. These loans were in huge millions totaling billions. For the Political barons to ask for small amounts would have been below their dignity. It is said that there were cases where ‘ big” people established banks whose money they gobbled.. The account holders are going round trying to get their money. It is feared that when the real figures are revealed, and if there is no hanky panky in supplying the figures, the amounts of written off loans might well be in astronomical figures comparable to the amount of charity we are begging abroad.
One thing people would like to know whether in countries like US, UK India, such huge amounts of loans have ever been written off and if so, were they the mighty political barons or those financial institutions which went into bankruptcy? I wonder if in India there has been cases of write off of such huge amount of loans of political barons . It could emerge from the enquiry that the blessings of such generosity is a feature of Pakistan only but I would like to wait for the facts to emerge.
This is part of the big enquiry From where the high and mighty of Pakistan got the power to do as they please , pardon their beloved ones the moment they are sentenced, to write of loans, or do anything the mighty in Pakistan wish to do. From where they have such unfettered powers. It seems that the Rulers in Pakistan can do whatever they want, as if they have some divine attribute to have no limitation on their powers. It seems that even the so-called Maharajas did not exercise such unfettered powers as our rulers have started to take it for granted. One thing is well known about democracy: No one can just by word of mouth do whatever one wants. This is just to stop such arbitrary powers that limitations are provided in all REAL democracy. It is negation of democracy to take actions on personal whims or likes and dislike of rulers. All actions have to conform to the law and observance of the procedures required to ensure that due care has been taken to remove any doubt that the action was motivated by personal considerations . There are cheeks and balances and procedures through which decisions of the Rulers have to pass, Orders of words of mouth are extreme arbitrary authoritarianism and militate the essence of democracy.
The extraordinary powers to grant pardon or bestow any favour like write off of loans where they exist in foreign countries are exercised only under very exceptional circumstances , very rarely and with much deliberation. Such extraordinary powers are exercised where quite obviously there is a borderline cases where it would lead to injustice were an exception not made. The ‘discretionary powers do not create a zone in which all reserves of rules are thrown to the winds and there is no limit to the cases in which discretionary powers can be used. Discretionary powers do not mean taking action in total disregard of normal limitations. To give an example of the right of a “democratic” rule to determine the strength of a cabinet can it mean that the Ruler can nominate a cabinet of one thousand ministers ? Nowhere it is written how many ministers can be appointed in a cabinet ( Now an indication has been given in the 18th Amendment to limit the size of the federal cabinet but it remains to be seen what will be its fate, Or the Government cannot appoint five thousand Special Advisers to the Prime Minister and the President. One may ask are these high and might so ignorant in affairs of the State that they need unlimited Advisers and Special Advisers “with the rank and privileges of a cabinet minister” or is it a whimsical approach to nepotism and favouritism? Or appoint Roving ambassadors or special envoys as many as one pleases.
Do our rulers not find that in those countries which are counted as democratic rationality and not whim of the rulers determine what should be done? Perhaps it would be useful for Pakistani rulers and power elite to find out how their counterparts dress, live, what kind of cars they use, how much money is given to them for entertainment, how much is the expenditure of Indian President on each item, entertainment, maintenance of the Prime Minister’s house etc. They may try to come down to the facilities available to their counterpart in that “poor” and “small” country. They might go and visit the State Guest Houses and see how public money is spent carefully there. What is the harm in making such comparisons?
While on this subject of saving money, may I venture to request whether the Government has taken any action on the information made available to them that in Tokyo half of the electricity is produced by burning the waste of the city, Have they approached the Japanese Government to solicit information on utilization of waste for producing electricity, have we asked our Embassy in Tokyo to seek information on this method or not ? If this is one of the several cheapest methods of producing money why should we not find out how it is or was being done? I was surprised to learn from my house cleaner, who works as cleaner in CDA, that he knows that in Japan the waste is first sorted out in various type of waste and then used for this purpose. Obviously he had a briefing in the CDA on the use of waste in Japan. To run a country is by selfless service not by loud and cheap propaganda of beating drums of singing praises of what :we: have done. Thick lading of propaganda can become counter productive and boomerang on the rulers. It becomes sickening.
The Chief Justice of Pakistan has taken many actions for the benefit of the country to bring home the need for accountability. One such actions was to demand the list of loan defaulters who had huge mounts of loans written off since 1971, province wise. I wonder who was given the absolute power to write of huge amounts of loans taken from public money with the banks. These loan write off beneficiaries were allowed to eat up billions of rupees. They were not poor persons who could not pay back loans , they were not small borrowers but the mighty lords of the country, political heavy weights. In case of small borrowers the banks would have had loans recovered through their noses. The Supreme Court has also asked for the details of the properties which were mortgaged to the banks as sureties against the loans, and the Attorney General has been asked to assist in the enquiry. These loans were in huge millions totaling billions. For the Political barons to ask for small amounts would have been below their dignity. It is said that there were cases where ‘ big” people established banks whose money they gobbled.. The account holders are going round trying to get their money. It is feared that when the real figures are revealed, and if there is no hanky panky in supplying the figures, the amounts of written off loans might well be in astronomical figures comparable to the amount of charity we are begging abroad.
One thing people would like to know whether in countries like US, UK India, such huge amounts of loans have ever been written off and if so, were they the mighty political barons or those financial institutions which went into bankruptcy? I wonder if in India there has been cases of write off of such huge amount of loans of political barons . It could emerge from the enquiry that the blessings of such generosity is a feature of Pakistan only but I would like to wait for the facts to emerge.
This is part of the big enquiry From where the high and mighty of Pakistan got the power to do as they please , pardon their beloved ones the moment they are sentenced, to write of loans, or do anything the mighty in Pakistan wish to do. From where they have such unfettered powers. It seems that the Rulers in Pakistan can do whatever they want, as if they have some divine attribute to have no limitation on their powers. It seems that even the so-called Maharajas did not exercise such unfettered powers as our rulers have started to take it for granted. One thing is well known about democracy: No one can just by word of mouth do whatever one wants. This is just to stop such arbitrary powers that limitations are provided in all REAL democracy. It is negation of democracy to take actions on personal whims or likes and dislike of rulers. All actions have to conform to the law and observance of the procedures required to ensure that due care has been taken to remove any doubt that the action was motivated by personal considerations . There are cheeks and balances and procedures through which decisions of the Rulers have to pass, Orders of words of mouth are extreme arbitrary authoritarianism and militate the essence of democracy.
The extraordinary powers to grant pardon or bestow any favour like write off of loans where they exist in foreign countries are exercised only under very exceptional circumstances , very rarely and with much deliberation. Such extraordinary powers are exercised where quite obviously there is a borderline cases where it would lead to injustice were an exception not made. The ‘discretionary powers do not create a zone in which all reserves of rules are thrown to the winds and there is no limit to the cases in which discretionary powers can be used. Discretionary powers do not mean taking action in total disregard of normal limitations. To give an example of the right of a “democratic” rule to determine the strength of a cabinet can it mean that the Ruler can nominate a cabinet of one thousand ministers ? Nowhere it is written how many ministers can be appointed in a cabinet ( Now an indication has been given in the 18th Amendment to limit the size of the federal cabinet but it remains to be seen what will be its fate, Or the Government cannot appoint five thousand Special Advisers to the Prime Minister and the President. One may ask are these high and might so ignorant in affairs of the State that they need unlimited Advisers and Special Advisers “with the rank and privileges of a cabinet minister” or is it a whimsical approach to nepotism and favouritism? Or appoint Roving ambassadors or special envoys as many as one pleases.
Do our rulers not find that in those countries which are counted as democratic rationality and not whim of the rulers determine what should be done? Perhaps it would be useful for Pakistani rulers and power elite to find out how their counterparts dress, live, what kind of cars they use, how much money is given to them for entertainment, how much is the expenditure of Indian President on each item, entertainment, maintenance of the Prime Minister’s house etc. They may try to come down to the facilities available to their counterpart in that “poor” and “small” country. They might go and visit the State Guest Houses and see how public money is spent carefully there. What is the harm in making such comparisons?
While on this subject of saving money, may I venture to request whether the Government has taken any action on the information made available to them that in Tokyo half of the electricity is produced by burning the waste of the city, Have they approached the Japanese Government to solicit information on utilization of waste for producing electricity, have we asked our Embassy in Tokyo to seek information on this method or not ? If this is one of the several cheapest methods of producing money why should we not find out how it is or was being done? I was surprised to learn from my house cleaner, who works as cleaner in CDA, that he knows that in Japan the waste is first sorted out in various type of waste and then used for this purpose. Obviously he had a briefing in the CDA on the use of waste in Japan. To run a country is by selfless service not by loud and cheap propaganda of beating drums of singing praises of what :we: have done. Thick lading of propaganda can become counter productive and boomerang on the rulers. It becomes sickening.
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