China-based telecom firm threatened against 'vulgar' publicity

By Jawwad Rizvi

LAHORE: A China-based telecommunication company, which has invested billions of rupees in Pakistan, has recently received threats from Jamaat Tauhid-wal-Jehad to stop what it called its 'vulgar' advertisements. A threat letter was received by the Quetta office of the company by post on December 04, 2008, The News has learnt. The letter, which is also available with The News, was on a printed letter pad of Jamaat Tauhid-wal-Jehad, and its text was also printed, not hand written. The logo of the letter contained the picture of a flag with a man covering his face and holding a sword and a shield. Sources said the letter was signed by Abu Omar Saif on behalf of Jamaat Tauhid-wal-Jehad, which is an unknown organization in the country. The company, in its letter to Interior Secretary Syed Kamal Shah on December 5, 2008, mentioned of the threat and sought adequate security for its staff throughout the country, especially the women at their Quetta office. "Similar threats from unknown individuals and groups have become a recurrent feature now and where such threats intimidate company's foreign nationals working in Pakistan, these may also hamper further investment in the country by our parent company, the letter sent to Syed Kamal Shah read. Earlier, the company had also received security threats at their Islamabad, Blue Area office, on November 27, 2008, about which the company informed the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA). Taking action on it, PTA Telecom Member Mushtaq Ahmed Bhatti had written a letter 2(1)/2008-M(T) to the secretary of the Interior Ministry on December 03, 2008, requesting for taking action to protect the company. Jamaat Tauhid-wal-Jehad in its letter had told the company to stop 'vulgarity and obscenity' in their public promotion campaigns. The letter said the company had employed at their offices indecently dressed women, whom it should sack. Further, the letter demanded that all the billboards, posters, banners and other promotional campaign material should be removed because they are obscene. The outfit has instructed the company to use natural scenes in their promotional campaigns. The letter gave 10 days to the company and warned that if the company does not act upon its instructions, then it will target the company installations. "All installations of the company will be our target and our snipers will easily silent the company's receivers and senders installed at towers from 1500 meter distance," letter of Jamaat Tauhid-wal-Jehad read. The letter said the company had right to do business freely within the norms, and should respect our religious rights. On the company's request, the ministry of interior on December 24, 2008, in a letter No. 5/11/2008-KP asked all the provincial home secretaries and police officers, and the chief commissioner and IG police of Islamabad to make foolproof security arrangements to avert any untoward incident. The company spokesman told The News that all its advertisements were aimed at informing the public of all the options available to them, in a simple and easy-to-understand language through common people not celebrities. "Our company has never used women as main characters in its advertising campaigns; in fact, we have set the trend of not using glamorous female faces and moved away from songs and dances our advertisements," he stated. The spokesman further said the company - the world's biggest cellular communications company now investing in Pakistan - seeks full protection of the government to its offices, installations and staff members, especially women, against this threat.

97 sites for Centre to sell fertilizer in Punjab

Friday, December 26, 2008

By Jawwad Rizvi

LAHORE: PUNJAB has offered 97 sites in various districts for Urea fertilizer sale to the federal government, The News has learnt here reliably. The federal government has assigned the National Fertilizer Corporation (NFC) to supply 50 per cent of total Urea through the government channels in order to ensure its availability and curb the black marketing.The Punjab agriculture department sites will be used for the purpose while extra staff will be deputed for administrative measures. The police help is also acquired for the sales of Urea fertilizers through the government channels. The agriculture department will only provide administrative support while the Utility Store Corporation staff will sell the fertilizers. The Punjab government has offered these sites in a bid to rectify the elements involved in malpractices in the Urea trade. On the other hand, the NFC has only 28 sites which are insufficient to ensure the urea supply through the government channels. So, the federal government has decided to seek the help of the Punjab government. An official of the federal ministry of industries revealed to The News that the government had not involved the Punjab government in money maters in the sale of Urea. The financial matters will be solved easily as both the NFC and USC come under the umbrella of the ministry of industries. If it involves the Punjab government in financial matters in the sales of Urea, it will create problems, he added. He further said the federal government needed the administrative support to achieve the target, therefore, the Punjab agriculture department sites would be used for the purpose. He said the Punjab agriculture department had infrastructure so the no extra financial burden would come on the federal government for the sale of urea through official channels. An official of the Punjab agriculture department said the Punjab had offered the administrative services free of cost to the centre in urea sales. He pointed out the farmers had been facing serious problems to get urea fertilizer which might hit the ambitious production target of wheat production. Thus it is also beneficial for the Punjab government to ensure urea availability of its farmers, he added.In the ongoing Rabi season, the farmers had been facing huge problems to get urea fertilizers likewise it had faced problem in getting the DAP fertilizer during Kharif season. The federal government is responsible for urea fertilizer shortage as the Punjab minister for agriculture Malik Ahmed Ali Aulkah had informed the federal government about urea fertilizers stocks positions and its requirements and expected shortage in the Federal Committee for Agriculture (FCA) meeting held at Islamabad two months ago. However, the federal government despite the mentioning by the Punjab agriculture minister had delayed the import of urea which further aggravated urea shortage.

Fertiliser crisis takes toll on agriculture sector

Friday, December 26, 2008

By Jawwad Rizvi

LAHORE: The agriculture sector has encountered difficulties during the year 2008 following a surge in international food prices and due to poor planning of the previous government.For sustainable agriculture growth, long-term policies are crucial but the previous government neglected the fact that Pakistan is an agrarian economy which plays a vital role in its growth and put the sector on the backburner.The sector faced worst-ever fertiliser crisis in the history of the country during the current calendar year. On the other hand, farmers were deprived of the benefits of their produce while middleman mafia minted money from the trade of foodgrains and fertilisers.Round the year, the farmers faced huge difficulties in getting fertiliser as they did not get di-ammonium phosphate (DAP) in Rabi season and in Kharif season they were struggling to find urea. In this whole episode, the middleman smuggling mafia, which had been involved in a flour crisis earlier, remained active and smuggled fertiliser, sending prices to historic highs in the range of Rs3,100 to Rs3,300 per bag of DAP.Price differential between DAP and urea discouraged farmers from purchasing DAP. Previously, the price difference was double which has now increased to five times. DAP has risen to Rs3,100-Rs3,300 per bag while urea is being sold at Rs650-660 per bag. Still over three lakh tonnes of DAP is available, but farmers are reluctant to purchase.Earlier, the year started with a flour crisis when international food prices swiftly rose, triggering smuggling of flour from Pakistan to Afghanistan and Central Asian States due to the price differential between local and international markets.The country recorded a big fall in wheat production at around 21 million tonnes compared to the target of 23.5 million tonnes. After production decline, the newly elected provincial governments took administrative measures in a bid to stop illegal movement of wheat. The Punjab government raided godowns where millions of rupees worth of wheat was hoarded by middlemen.Despite those administrative measures, the federal government decided to import wheat to meet domestic food requirements as local output fell below target. It planned to import 2.5 million tonnes of wheat out of which around 1.8m tonnes had been imported so far at an average price of $400 per tonne, putting an extra burden on the kitty at a time of financial crunch.Other major crops also faced a disappointing scenario during 2008 due to poor marketing and administrative steps of both the provincial and federal governments. Rice prices, for the first time in the history, rose to a high of Rs150 per kg, but it encouraged farmers to grow more rice leading to a bumper crop of 6.4 million tonnes during the year.However, the farmers failed to get minimum prices due to an improper marketing mechanism and poor administrative measures. The government brought in Pakistan Agriculture Storage and Services Corporation (PASSCO), but targeted results could not be achieved. This situation may disappoint farmers and cause a fall in rice production next year.On the other hand, the middleman mafia was active in paddy procurement areas and it seemed this time again consumers would pay high prices of rice despite a bumper crop and growers would also suffer.Cotton is one of the major crops and provides raw material to one of the largest industries, which is textile. Around 12.6 million bales have been produced this year compared to last year’s crop of 11 million bales. However, growers did not receive actual return on their produce because of delay in fixing minimum price of cotton by the government and lethargy of Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) in the procurement drive.Cotton production has failed to take a quantum leap in recent years due to viral attacks, mealy bug and cotton leaf curl virus, which could not be prevented this year too. Besides that, no breakthrough has been made in the introduction of BT and hybrid seeds of cotton which seem to be crucial to boost cotton production and reduce dependency of farmers on pesticides to protect their crop from pest attack.Sugarcane crop also registered a decline this year due to which sugar output would also be lower. The country is expected to produce 4.3 to 4.4 million tonnes of sugar compared to consumption of 4.7 to 4.8m tonnes, showing a shortfall of four lakh tonnes. To cover the gap, the TCP has 4.5 lakh tonnes of sugar in stocks while millers have 2 lakh tonnes in their godowns.The performance of minor crops is also not much encouraging, though the sunflower crop has recorded a remarkable increase due to a surge in international palm oil prices. Local ghee and cooking oil producers offered handsome prices for sunflower, which encouraged the farmers of cotton belt to grow it.Water scarcity has remained an issue this year too. The country faced acute water shortage both during Rabi and Kharif seasons, causing an irreparable damage to per acre yield of different crops. Because of canal water shortage, the growers increased their dependency on tube-wells, triggering issues of salinity.Irrigation of land through tube-well water also escalated the production cost for farmers as they ran their tube-wells on diesel due to long-hour power outages and unannounced loadshedding.The federal government has not so far made a positive change in its policies for the agriculture sector. International forecast of a sharp fall in food prices may create problems for growers who sow more on hopes of getting good prices.

Flow of goods from India continues

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

By Jawwad Rizvi

LAHORE: The flow of goods from India to Pakistan has continued uninterrupted through different routes despite the war hysteria created by New Delhi after the Mumbai attacks last month.No slowdown has been noticed in imports of different products from India, however exports of Pakistani goods to India have plunged due to non-serious behaviour of traders and government of the neighbouring country.A study conducted by The News has found no major impact on imports from India by the Mumbai incident. But on the export side, downtrend has begun. Pakistan mainly exports cement to India through rail and sea routes and its exports has sharply declined due to non-tariff barriers.Annual trade between India and Pakistan currently stands at $2.3 billion with balance heavily tilted in favour of Delhi. Pakistan imports some $1.95 billion worth of products from India including fruits, vegetables, seeds, spices, maize, soybean, mushroom, medicines, chemicals, cotton and others. On the other hand, its exports are worth only $400 million.The high trade surplus for India means if it stops trade with Pakistan, it would lose a good market of its products. Sea trade has a huge share in total trade between the two neighbours.In 2004-05, trade between the two sides totalled $835 million only, which has now increased two times. These days, Indian vegetables are coming from Wagah border regularly and the Mumbai attacks have not hampered the flow of commodities. Around 70 to 80 trucks loaded with Indian tomato, potato, cotton and other items are arriving daily.India has suspended land trade through Muzaffarabad-Srinagar route after the Mumbai incident and has also threatened to stop trade from other routes. However, facts indicate it will not take an extreme step of stopping trade with Pakistan when it is massively in favour of it.The business community of both sides is against war and says the two governments should resort to dialogue instead of indulging in war talk.Talking to The News, Vishal Malhotra, a Mumbai businessman doing business with Pakistan, slammed the Indian government for giving ‘sweeping’ statements and said “war has never been a solution to any problem.”He said business with Pakistanis was good, but “now the Indian government is taking cosmetic measures to hinder trade. It will spoil the whole trade between the two countries and a third country will benefit.”HK Bhatia, an exporter based in New Delhi, said his sales had sharply increased since bilateral trade between the two countries through land route started. He was of the view that politicians should not destroy trade for their politics.“We want other land routes opened,” he said, adding the Indian government should not initiate war.Mehfooz Ahmed, a Karachi-based exporter, said his Indian counterpart had cancelled orders for lead and cement owing to difficulties created by Delhi government. He pointed out that Indian traders were ready to do business but their government was not giving them any room and not showing flexibility, ignoring the fact the balance of trade was in its favour.Jamil Magoon, a veteran leader of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI), said the leadership of both countries should boost confidence of the business community in order to stabilise the region. “War will take both the nations 100 years back,” he remarked.

Tractors for growers of more wheat at tehsil level

Friday, December 12, 2008

By Jawwad Rizvi

LAHORE: For maximum participation of every district in the “grow more wheat” campaign, the Punjab Agriculture department had planned to give a tractor as prize at tehsil level, The News has learnt. In this regard, a proposal was made by the Punjab Agriculture department in consultation with Agriculture Minister Malik Ahmad Ali Aulakh for achievement of over ambitious wheat production target of 20 million tonnes this season.The prize will be given to wheat growers who showed increase in their per acre yield compared to the last year’s. The summary of the proposal has been sent to the chief minister for final approval and is likely get his nod in a couple of days. Officials of the Agriculture department has said that Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif had announced to give 225 tractors under the grow more wheat campaign to the farmers of the division achieving maximum per acre yield.However, after a meeting, the minister and Agriculture department official pointed out that under this distribution, the competition would only be between three divisions and maximum participation of the wheat growers would not be ensured. Thus for maximum participation of the framers and create their interest in wheat production, a proposal was made to have the wheat production contest at tehsil level. Under the initial plan when the chief minister had announced tractors as prizes for wheat growers, 100 tractors were reserved for the division coming at 1st number in wheat production, 75 attaining 2nd position and 50 for the 3rd position holder. However, this plan has a loophole that only three divisions will contest and the rest of the divisions will be ignored. There is also a probability that the big wheat sowing divisions will get comparative advantage over small divisions while wheat yield in barrani areas will register an increase this year after timely rain. Thus, the officials and minister were of the view that if the tractors were be given on division basis, then only three divisions or barrani areas would get the prize and rest of the six divisions have nothing to get as encouragement and work hard next time.In such a scenario, the official of the Agriculture department in consultation with the minister has devised a plan in which they had decided that the tractors should be given to the farmers achieving more per acre yield at tehsil level in order to create motivation among them.There are 127 tehsils in the province and out of the 225 tractors, 127 would be given at tehsil level and two at every district level. Thus, 70 tractors will be given this way and three each at divisions level, which comes out to 27 tractors and the rest could be given to the growers achieving more per acre yield at provincial levels. Punjab Agriculture Minter Malik Ahmad Ali Aulakh said the proposal had been forwarded and was waiting for the CM’s final nod.

The article was published in The News on Friday December 12 2008.

Tanners cancel India tour due to Mumbai incident

Sunday, December 07, 2008

By Jawwad Rizvi

LAHORE: Pakistan Tanner Association (PTA) has canceled its scheduled visit to India after the recent Mumbai incidents.Newly elected chairman of the PTA Agha Saiddain talking to The News said that the PTA had canceled its tour to India following the uncertainty there. The visit was scheduled before the tragic incident in Mumbai, but after the incident the PTA has cancelled it due to security reasons, he said.A group of tanners were to participate in the Chennai Leather Fair-2009 to be held on January 31, 2009. But after the Mumbai attacks, the PTA has unanimously decided in a meeting of the association to drop the participation of PTA members in Chennai leather fair, he added.Some Pakistani companies had registered themselves to participate in the Chennai Fair and 40 representatives were planning to go there, he mentioned.However, after the irresponsible statements by Indian politicians and allegations on Pakistan for being responsible for the Mumbai unrest, the PTA has decided not to attend the fair, Saiddain remarked. The managing committee of PTA has also passed a resolution condemning the terrorist attacks of Mumbai in the meeting.Talking about the wave of terrorism in Mumbai, Agha Saiddain expressed that Pakistan itself is a victim of terrorism but unfortunately the Indian leadership always points a finger on Pakistan for any such terrorist activity in India. He said the leather industry of both the countries has an excellent relationship but under the present circumstances, they feel there is a great security risk for their members in the forthcoming fair.He requested the leadership of both the countries to start a relationship based on trust and sincerity for the betterment of both the nations. He further said that people living below poverty level are in large numbers in both the countries and both can not afford a conflict.Agha Saiddain said that both the governments should resolve the matter through bilateral negotiations based on trust and confidence in the interest of both the nations.Talking about trade with India in leather products, Agha Saiddain pointed out that Pakistan had traded over $130 million with India in 2007-08 which is 3.1 per cent of the total leather industry trade of Pakistan. Being a niche market after the shifting of the shoe industry from China to India, Pakistani leather has great demand in India, he said, adding, Pakistani leather is one of the finest in the world.He pointed out that Pakistani leather is the need of the Indian shoe industry as cow leather which is the finest of its kind, is scarce in India. This is because the slaughtering of cows is a crime in India, since it is considered a scared animal for them.Talking about the Pakistani leather industry, he said that Pakistan is far ahead of India in terms of technology and is currently producing at par with Italian quality leather, while India had been banned from importing processing chemicals and machines which delayed the technology transformation in the country.

Punjab to hire expert for NFC recommendations

By Jawwad Rizvi
LAHORE: The Punjab will hire a consultant for National Finance Commission (NFC) to give a final shape to the recommendations of Working Group of NFC, The News has learnt here reliably.
The decision to avail the services of consultant was made in the maiden meeting of the working group was held in the chair of Punjab minister for finance Tanvir Ashraf Kaira, official privy the meeting revealed.
The consultant will give a final shape to the recommendations of the Working Group on NFC and also assist the members of the Group in evaluating the new demands of the province in the NFC award. The meeting has also decided that consultant should be worked on NFC earlier. However, other qualifications of the consultant were not discussed in the meeting either the consultant will be an Economist or Chartered Accountant.
The Punjab has started work to prepare proposals and recommendations to present province's point of view in National Finance Commission (NFC) and the first meeting of the working group for the NFC of Punjab held under the Chairmanship of Provincial Minister for Finance and Planning and Development, Tanvir Ashraf Kaira which attended the members of working group. The meeting reviewed the various proposals and recommendations regarding Punjab's stance for NFC. The meeting also discussed the present NFC award in detail. It was decided in the meeting that final proposals would be prepared to present Punjab's stance in NFC.
Talking about the proposals, the official privy the meeting that the working group participants had suggested to develop Punjab’s stance on population basis as the province population has rapidly grow. Thus the province share should be more then the current awarded share. The meeting was also suggested that Punjab will again take up the issue with the federal government to give the right of General Sales Tax (GST) utilization.
It has learnt the meeting of the NFC which was due to held on November 25 2008 was cancelled due to untold reason. However, The News has learnt that the meeting was postponed as the Chief Minister Punjab has changed the members of the working group.
In the first working group the nominated members were Punjab Finance Secretary Tariq Pasha, Chairman Planning and Development Board Punjab Sami Saeed, Non Statuary member from Punjab in NFC committee Saeed Qureshi, former chairman planning commission Shahid Amjad Ch, former Punjab Finance minister Shahid Hafeez Karadar, professors of Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) Ijaz nabi, Dr Ali Cheema, Dr Faisal Bari, Pakistan Peoples Party nominated MPA Shah Jhan Bahti, Pakistan Muslim League nominated MPA Muhammad Yar Hiraj.
However, the chief minister has appointed new members in the Working Group. He made Punjab Minister for Law as Co-Chairman of the Working Group. The other newly appointed members are Sajjad Hussain, Tasneem Norani, Javeed Masood, Ch Riaz Ahmed and PML-Q MPA Atta Manika by replacing former chairman planning commission Shahid Amjad Ch, former Punjab Finance minister Shahid Hafeez Karadar, PML-Q MPA Muhammad Yar Hiraj.
Official in the Punjab government revealed that CM had made these changes to give maximum representation of the private sector stakeholders to develop Punjab formula for NFC award.
It is worth mentioning here the differences among the provinces were not resolved in Musharraf tenure NFC award due to which the last government had made decision to increase 2 per cent every year in the decided NFC award shares.
The Punjab has always emphasises to distribute the NFC award on population base while the Sindh demanded revenue base share and NWFP and Balochistan asked to divided share on areas basis.
The news was published in The News on Saturday December 06 2008