Pakistan's Problem? Privatisation!

From Pakistan's leading English newspaper:

KARACHI, Oct 16: Eminent labour leader Habibuddin Junaidi on Tuesday said that the policies of privatisation and downsizing imposed by the present rulers had rendered more than 0.8 million labourers jobless. In a statement issued here on Tuesday, he said that workers had been suffering for past 10 years due to the privatisation and downsizing which had affected hundreds of thousands of families as the policies had resulted in the closure of more than 4,000 industrial units.

He said that promulgation of Industrial Relation Ordinance-2002 and inclusion of Article 27-B in the Banking Companies Ordinance were hanging over workers like a sword.

He appealed to all labour organisations and every worker to join hands against privatization and downsizing.—PPI

Commenting @ Sadly, No!, Mandos indicates that the story we are not getting is that the Pakistani courts are not going along w/ Mushy's privatisation plans. I think we all agree that making sure there's profit (on the backs of workers, of course) involved is the best way to stop terrorism & keep Pakistan's nuclear weapons out of the hands of the Taliban or Bin Laden. Don't you?

Dawn again:

HYDERABAD, Oct 23: Employees of Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (Hesco), on the call given by Pakistan Wapda Hydro Electric Central Labour Union, staged demonstrations and rallies across the province (CBA) on Tuesday in protest against proposed bifurcation and privatisation of Wapda [Water And Power Development Authority - Ed.] and growing joblessness, price hikes, lawlessness and terrorism in the country.

In Hyderabad, hundreds of Hesco employees led by central chairman of the CBA, Abdul Latif Nizamani, provincial secretary Iqbal Kaimkhani, Malik Sultan and Qazi Saleem Anwar staged a procession, which started from Labour Hall and terminated at the press club after marching on different roads.

Mr Nizamani said that 150,000 Wapda employees would not tolerate the authority’s bifurcation at any cost. The administration of Wapda in Sindh paid half month’s salary to employees as Eid advance although the Punjab government had paid full salary to all its employees, he complained. He demanded that the half month salary should be counted towards bonus else the employees would refuse to accept salary of current month. The employees would stage rallies throughout the country on Oct 30 on this issue, he said.

Mr Nizamani blamed government’s inefficiency for growing terrorism, lawlessness and unemployment and condemned bomb blasts in Karachi on Oct 18.

He warned that if the authority did not revise pay-scale of all the non-clerical staff on the pattern of clerical staff the employees would resort to tool down strike.

Hesco employees in Shikarpur staged a rally and a demonstration at Lakhi Gate Tower Chowk. Labour leaders demanded shelving Wapda privatisation policy and urged the government to accept their demands.

They said that there seemed to be separate laws for Wapda employees in Punjab and Sindh. Presently, Wapda had no power generating unit due to which there would be more load-shedding during next summer, they said.

They offered fateha for the innocent people killed in Karachi blasts and expressed grief over the sad demise of revolutionary poet Sarvech Sujawali.

In Nawabshah, members of CBA staged a rally and a demonstration at Manuabad.

The union leaders Fazal Shaikh, Inamuddin Qureshi, Saleem Taj and Anwar Chandio said that the half salary was given to them on the directives of Wapda chairman before Eid but it was not being converted into bonus and was being deducted from their salaries.They demanded that the deduction of Eid bonus
from their salaries should be stopped and Ordinance 2000 and privatisation policy should be withdrawn.

From Dawn, Oct. 29:

The senior vice-chairman of the union, Ali Said, said the international financial bodies had been pressurising the government to privatize profit-earning units at throwaway prices to multinational corporations.

He warned that Wapda workers would not tolerate the plunder of national assets. He said the privatization of Wapda would translate into an increase in the energy charges.

He called upon the government to control the deficit in Wapda by initiating rightsizing in the officer cadre.

Further from Dawn:

CHARGE-SHEET AGAINST JUDICIARY: While it started with what it called “visible ascendancy in the activities of extremists and incidents of terrorist attacks” as grounds for the action, the proclamation contained a long charge-sheet against the superior judiciary some of whose members, it said, “are working at cross purposes with the executive and legislature in the fight against terrorism and extremism, thereby weakening the government and the nation’s resolve and diluting the efficacy of its actions to control this menace”.

[T]he proclamation contained a long charge-sheet against the superior judiciary some of whose members, it said, “are working at cross purposes with the executive and legislature in the fight against terrorism and extremism, thereby weakening the government and the nation’s resolve and diluting the efficacy of its actions to control this menace”.

“... (T)here has been increasing interference by some members of the judiciary in government policy, adversely affecting economic growth, in particular,” it said, adding that there was “constant interference in executive functions.” Well. No government in its right mind can put up with that sort of thing for very long. Checks & balances, our ass! And here's a real beaut, a gov't. official sucking up at the IMF & World Bank:

Pakistan economic aide stresses more privatization WASHINGTON, Oct 23 (Reuters) Pakistan is eager to deepen economic reforms that have delivered historic growth in the country despite political turmoil, Salman Shah, an aide to Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said Monday. He said Islamabad was eyeing “second-generation reforms” to follow a bank privatization program that helped power five years of 7 percent growth and doubled Pakistan's GDP during the seven-year tenure of President Musharraf. “These second-generation reforms would mean a leaner government and a much more active and aggressive private sector,” he said in Washington, where he attended the semi-annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. Shah appealed to foreign investors and governments to maintain interest in Pakistan, and said: “In the war on extremism, it's very important that we succeed in Pakistan and that's for the entire world.” “On our own, we are not going to be able to sustain it.” (Posted @ 11:15 PST)

Some sort of editorial:

The people are witness to what happens when the government tries to use unrestrained power to achieve its narrow political ends at the cost of independent institutions so badly needed for improved governance. Or when it ignores official rules for the benefit of the privileged with its negative outcomes.
[...]
It is the beneficiaries of reforms and the strength of public opinion that can provide support to formal changes in rules and regulations to make them effective. The masses, however, would only rally for governance reforms if they perceive them to be gainful for themselves.What do they care for free market, privatisation or institutional reforms, if it does not help them improve their lot? No matter how prudent, if free market means offering free hand to powerful market players to squeeze vulnerable customers and increase their profit margins, people’s opposition is but logical.

If privatisation put them out of job in a shrinking labour market no amount of theoretical argument will convince them to back it. If an autonomous central bank fails to make commercial banks share the gains of financial reforms with their depositors, the SBP will have to contend with the support extended by commercial banks in its favour.

Nothing convinces better than personal experience. The gains of institutional reforms in the economy will have to reach people for them to understand their relevance to progress.Reforms should not lead to consolidation of the traditional elite and the renter class at the cost of equality of opportunity, competition and economic efficiency.

So. Bush bought the same load of crap from Mushy as from Putin. Just look Bush in the eye & he's yours, like a rodent hypnotized by a snake, or a deer caught in headlights. Perhaps that explains his sparkling business career. Slick Texas oilmen looking him in the eye: "Shore, George, they's plenny uh earl here. Jes' keep drillin'."

And slick Pervis "Mushy" Musharraf has fooled Bush into giving him money to buy weapons that will be more useful against Pakistan's permanent enemy, India, than against the fanatical Islamic terrorists Pakistan allows to stay in Waziristan.

It'd be pretty damn funny if this libertarian "privatisation" crap resulted in A-Bombs in the hands of people even crazier than libertarians. In an ironic way, of course.