Help Pakistan – drop the debt

Dear Friends,

As Pakistan struggles to rescue families from flood waters and fend off disease and starvation before winter sets in, it is scrambling to pay out a shocking 30% of its annual budget revenues to foreign creditors on debt incurred by previous dictatorships.

If Pakistan is obliged to make these debt payments, rescue efforts for tens of millions of people whose lives have been devastated could be crippled. Earlier this year, we persuaded creditor governments to drop Haiti’s debt after it was devastated by an earthquake — and now we could do the same for Pakistan.

Right now international financial institutions and donor countries are assessing how to assist Pakistan. Let’s come together and call for life-saving debt relief for the people of Pakistan. Sign the petition below to stop these stifling debt payments and let Pakistan rebuild, and it will be delivered directly to ministers and senior officials attending the Annual Meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

http://www.avaaz.org/en/pakistan_cancel_the_debt/98.php?cl_taf_sign=sNJfJd6N

Pakistan’s staggering $55 billion debt burden comes from decades of reckless spending by its autocratic ruling elites, matched by irresponsible lending on the part of Western creditors and banks.

The cyclone that broke Pakistan’s back

It wiped out villages. Destroyed crops. Over 3.6 million people were directly affected. Most estimates suggest that half a million died; some suggest as many as one million perished. Nearly 85 per cent of the area was destroyed. Three months after the catastrophe some 75 per cent of the population was receiving food from relief workers.

It happened in Pakistan. Yet few Pakistanis even know of it by name. Fewer still remember that it eventually contributed to Pakistan’s break-up. The 1970 Cyclone Bhola hit then East Pakistan on November 12, 1970.

Historians tend to agree that although there were many other forces at work, the devastation caused by the cyclone and the widespread view that the government had mismanaged the relief efforts and West Pakistan had generally shown an attitude of neglect, contributed to high levels of anti-West Pakistan feeling, a sweeping victory for the Awami League, and eventually the breakup of Pakistan and the creation of Bangladesh.

Such, then, are the forces of nature. And such are the forces of history.

As we hear newspaper headlines proclaiming the historic magnitude and devastation wrought by the floods on our plains, it is worth remembering that 40 years ago The New York Times was describing another calamity in Pakistan as the “worst catastrophe of the century”. Much more importantly, we should pay close attention to the lessons of history, and the lessons of nature.

The lesson of how policy mismanagement led to public dissatisfaction and eventually contributed to national dismemberment. Of course, this is not an entirely parallel situation since so much more had already gone wrong in the East Pakistan case — and the cyclone was a contributor to, not the cause, of how history unfolded — but Bhola’s lessons should not be lost on the politicians, policy-makers and people of Pakistan.

150,000 survivors at risk again

Fresh flood warnings were issued in Rajanpur district on Monday as district officials ordered the emergency evacuation of areas previously untouched by the fury of the raging torrents.

The warnings put about  half a million people at risk, including 150,000 who had taken refuge from the surrounding areas and were being asked to evacuate on an emergency basis, The Express Tribune has learnt.

A 40-kilometre tract of land stretching from Jampur to Rajanpur tehsil is now under threat. “The second wave has hit us badly,” District Coordination Officer (DCO) Muhammad Usman told The Express Tribune. He said these are areas where people had gathered after escaping the earlier floods.

“We are trying to plug the breach but we have also warned the people to evacuate the area,” he added. He said the River Indus had overflowed its banks and washed away a 20-foot long bank of the Qadra Link Canal. He said the administration was working to strengthen the second embankment wall at Hazoori Wah.

According to him, breaches have been made on three other embankments to deflect som of the water pressure but there was another threat as well because the waters had also washed the bank of the Qadra Link Canal, which is five kilometres away from Fazilpur.

Over 150,000 people from the surrounding areas who had taken refuge in Fazilpur are being asked to evacuate yet again.

By hook[ah] or crook

KARACHI: Frail Sadori Mai may have survived the loss of all her possessions when the flood hit her hometown but she could not overcome the loss of her hookah.

All the survivors gathered at Razzaqabad relief camp in Karachi have their own grievances but Sadori is unique in her sorrows. Her family lost all their earnings in the flood but the loss of Sadori’s hookah was too much to bear for the 60-year-old.

However, her wrinkled face broke into a smile when she got a new one. “I bought this for Rs200,” boasted Sadori, pointing to her newly acquired hookah. “I can survive without roti but I cannot live without hookah,” she claimed.

According to Sadori, she has been smoking hookah ever since she can remember and cannot imagine having to live without it. Even her family is immune to the gurgle of the hookah. “We lost everything in the floods but my mother told us in Jacobabad that if she did not get a hookah she would kill herself,” recalled her son Ahsan Ali.

Over the years, Sadori has seen many tough times and she is saddened by the floods that have made her homeless. But she is hopeful that these times will pass and she will be able to return home. It is this hope that allows Sadori Mai to sit back and relax with a puff or two as she hangs out outside her tent with her neighbours and old friends from Jacobabad.

Bilawal… or Bakhtawar?

KARACHI: Bakhtawar Bhutto Zardari has decided to start practical politics in Pakistan very soon.

“Bakhtawar’s decision to enter into the politics of the country is a laudable act, which will bring a new socio-economic development for the democracy loving people, particularly women,” Advisor to Sindh Chief Minister Sharmila Farooqui said in a statement issued from her office on Thursday.

Farooqui said that Bakhtawar, by following the philosophy and wisdom of her mother Benazir Bhutto, would become the beacon of light for the downtrodden women and would struggle to ensure them a high status in society. Farooqui said that she will work parallel to the PPP government for the welfare of the people.

“Bakhtawar will revive her mother’s commitment and struggle for providing justice, freedom, social rights to the people besides raising the flag of her mother’s mission,” the advisor said.

Farooqui said “the time is not far when the daughter of a great mother Benazir Bhutto will rule the hearts of the Pakistani people by following her mother’s struggle to provide rights to the down-trodden people, strengthen democracy and lead the country towards real progress.”

113 people dead in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

The death toll of those killed in floods in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa rose to 113 on Thursday.

The areas worst affected by the flash floods in Khyber Pakhthunkhwa include Shangla, Dera Ismail Khan, Swat, Tank and the North Waziristan tribal agency.

Senior Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa minister Basheer Bilour said that  over 50 bridges have been swept away.

Fifiteen bridges, 300 shops, more than 80 houses and a hotel were washed away in floods in Swat and Bahrain.

Twenty-six people have died due to rains and floods in Shangla. Lightening struck and killed nine people in Dhairy, while eight drowned in floods in the Kohistan area.

Six people were swept away in floods in Lower Dir, while two children died in Marzoi area of Shabqadar when the roof of a house caved in.

WHY EMPLOYEES LEAVE ORGANIZATIONS ?

Really An Eye Opener
Must read and ponder on it……………..!!!!

WHY EMPLOYEES LEAVE ORGANIZATIONS ?
- Azim Premji, CEO- Wipro

Every company faces the problem of people leaving the company for better pay or profile.

Early this year, Mark, a senior software designer, got an offer from a prestigious international firm to work in its India operations developing specialized software. He was thrilled by the offer.

He had heard a lot about the CEO. The salary was great. The company had all the right systems in place employee-friendly human resources (HR) policies, a spanking new office, and the very best technology, even a canteen that served superb food.

Cyclone Phet down to one

KARACHI: The latest storm path forecast on tropicalstormrisk.com shows Phet downgrading to a Category-1 tropical storm before it hits the Pakistan coastline.

Authorities have already evacuated nearly 1,000 people and were on standby for more. In a worst-case scenario up to 50,000 people could be affected on Pakistan’s coast, said Commander Salman Ali, a spokesman for Pakistan Navy in Karachi.

Although the storm has weakened significantly, it manged to kill two people in Oman on Friday. Oman also halted its oil and gas production as Phet hit the country’s coast, but no facilities were damaged, DPO and Oman LNG spokesmen said. Phet hit Sur, where Oman’s three LNG production facilities, known as trains, were located, but no damage was reported.

Pakistanis handed over to Jordan

ISLAMABAD: Three Pakistani nationals, including The Express Tribune columnist Talat Hussain, producer Raza Mahmood Agha and an NGO representative, were handed over to the Jordanian Embassy in Israel on Tuesday, more than a day after they were detained by Israeli authorities that stormed the ‘freedom flotilla’ they were travelling on.

On Monday, Israeli authorities in international waters stormed a six-ship convoy carrying aid supplies that was intending to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza, killing several people.

Pakistani authorities had desperately tried to contact Hussain, Agha, and their colleague after the raid, but could not establish a direct contact with them.

30 burnt alive in India bus accident

BANGALORE: At least 30 people, including 10 children, were burnt alive on Sunday when a bus bound for the southern Indian city of Bangalore ploughed into a roadblock and caught fire, police said.

The state-owned vehicle veered off a small bridge after colliding with the roadblock in the dark and fell into a ditch, local superintendent of police Labhu Ram told AFP from the accident site by phone.

“The bus caught fire when the diesel tank exploded on impact,” he said.

The bus had 64 passengers on board and was on its way from Surpur in southern Karnataka state to the IT hub of Bangalore, 600 kilometres away.