Education Reform: Signs of Hope

Re: # 147

Storyteller Storyteller - Were you able to retrieve your cake rusk ? Did it survive in the swimming pool of caffeinated tea and milk? Was there any sugar involved to shake and break the solid structure of cake rusk?

Please tell us more.

Interesting article on the point I am discussing, in Newsline:

http://www.newsline.com.pk/NewsDec2006/cover3dec2006.htm

``......Earlier, in 2005, when a parliamentary committee had summoned the Managing Director (MD) of the Fauji Foundation, he refused to appear before them saying he was not accountable to the committee as Fauji Foundation was a private company.......On November 22, 2005, the federal education minister declared on the floor of the house that Fauji Foundation was not given any public money.....However, on December 28, 2005,.....The government of Pakistan agreed to compensation for the losses incurred by the Fauji Jordan Fertiliser Company, renamed Fauji Fertiliser Bin Qasim Ltd. in the wake of non-implementation of the provisions of the Fertiliser Policy, 1989.....``

``......The foundation is run by the administration committee and the board of directors...The administration committee’s chairman is also the defence ministry secretary, and its members are chief of the general staff, Pakistan army, adjutant general, Pakistan army, quartermaster general, Pakistan army, chief of logistics staff, Pakistan army, deputy chief of the naval staff, Pakistan navy and the deputy chief of air staff, Pakistan air force. In other words, there are several public servants, including generals, serving on the administrative committee of this “self-supporting entity in the private sector.”

The question is: are public servants allowed to be members of the administrative committees of private corporations?...``

zeemax #142: ......you have still not answered the question i asked.....

``Bulleya, for one, unfair advantage is part and parcel of the capitalist system. There is no room for the disadvantaged or less-advantaged. Wouldn`t you agree? ``

......actually, all attempts are made to limit unfair advantage in any system.....only systems in which such advantages are limited, are successful.......when it gets so blatant that serving lt. gens. head the boards of banks and other industry, it destroys the private sector and the country......hence your argument is quite a weak excuse to justify the interference of the army into business........using that argument, the mafia is justified also......

``Secondly, with the exception of the Chairman Askari Bank, ALL others are retired Faujis in the banks as well as all of their trusts including the chairmen and CEOs...``

.......this is like saying, other than the President of Pakistan, all other politicians, members of the assembly are retired officers and civilians!!....hence pakistan is a democracy.......

``There must be a reason for it and I`ll try to find out from friends in Askari i.e. why only the bank.``

.......it`s not only the bank.......it`s everywhere......as i highlighted he headed the DHA also......the reason is simple.......i explained it to you in detail.......either he is an expert financial mind.....or it is to have access to the resources/budget of the military.......

``As for Defence Housing Authority, I don`t know where you got that any serving General is its head. He is not....... while the Corps Commander is head of its Executive Committee for day to day executive powers in line with rules laid down by the governing body. Similarly for DHA Lahore, the Corps Commander is indeed head``

.......you have answered your own question........what business does the corps commander have in being the head of the executive committe of the largest real estate developer in the country.......why is he there......once again, the same reason the other lt. gen. is the head of the bank........to utilized the resources/budget etc. of the army.......

.......there is a reason there are strict rules in every other country on serving generals/presidents/prime ministers etc. being heads of private sector enterprises......it is called conflict of interest, i.e these folks will use the govts. resources under them, to benefit the private sector companies they head.....they will also use their influence to get contracts for these private sector companies......

......this is exactly the reason, any private sector company would want a president/pm/corps commander etc. to head its board........it could mint money using his influence over the taxpayers resources........

.......if these generals want to head these organizations while serving and join them after retirement, then they should be run like other publicly owned organizations, like national bank, pia etc........i.e. the profits should go to the govt. which should spend them on the whole population.......the profits should not go to one group, i.e army,while the liabilities and funding is handled by the taxpayer.......

as i keep saying, army welfare trust, fauji foundation etc. are some of the biggest scams in the country......they use taxpayers money to benefit and employ a small group........there is after all a reason, other countries would never allow the army to get involved in the industry.........

however, if you want to keep supporting these companies because you think they are efficient, then please go ahead and do so......do, however, remember that some of the most efficient industries in usa were (are) run by the mafia.......efficiency is the not the criteria to be used here......the legalities of the funds and how liabilities are handled is the criteria......

there is a lot you don`t know about the military......things one can only learn by being in it.........

Re: # 51

Urstruly

Please tell me how you posted this Urdu on chowk. I miserably failed to do that at #26 when I tried to paste here an article from BBCUrdu. Will you or any chowky friend kindly teach me how to do this?

Re: # 146

.... the cake rusk is not to be confused with the lowly papa - a dry and bland cousin that is primarily consumed by the lowly civilians of pakistan ......... only faujis eat cake rusks ....... however it is rather ironic that the men in khaki are sometimes referred to as papays ........ go figure !

Re: # 145

Storyteller - Can you please let the curious ones know about the kind of rusk involved in the picture? Thanks in advance.

kutay khasi karna ....... neutring dogs

a couple of years ago i was sitting in a friend`s drawing room, carefully dipping my cake rusk into a cup of tea, when i was accused of wasting my time by castrating dogs ........... needless to say, i was so shocked by the accusation that the rusk dropped into the tea and i had to fish it out with a teaspoon ............

............anyway, there i was, talking to my friend who had just returned after spending 20 years wandering the deserts of the middle east without running into an angel or a prophet, when his father, the jernail, walked in with his cane and and took a swing at the black bear that had lain there for as long as i could remember ........... instinctively i shot to my feet and stuck out my hand .....

me : as salaam o` aliakum, uncle ............. sir!

jernail (nodding his head and wagging his stick, ordering me to sit down): oye, what are you doing here?........... how is amreeka ?..... how is clinton and what his her name .....that girl in the beret ?

friend : monica ?

jernail (looking at his son with his eyes flashing): ........and i hope you are doing something productive in amreeka instead of lying around like your friend who spends his day chasing after a little white ball ...... so what have you been up to?........... have you decided what you are going to do with your life or are you just going to play golf and take naps for the rest of your life ............

friend: aba ji, dont worry about me ..... i have plenty of money to last me a lifetime even if i don`t do anything ....... but i am getting close on reaching an agreement with ......

jernail: beywaqoof gadhay ! .......... you think a million and a half dollars is plenty of money ........ if you had stayed in the army, instead of running after the sheik`s petro dollars, you would easily have made general and retired in a couple of years with millions in the bank ...........look at your brother, he is only a brigadier and already has four plots and still has a long way to go ........... any general, worth his name, who retires today is worth at least five or six million dollars ........ remember i told you all that 20 years ago? ....... now, phugto !

i guess he must have caught me yawning and looking at the neel gai mounted on the wall next to the moth-eaten marco polo sheep, the gurkha knives and other captured indian military paraphernalia ..........

jeranil: oye, and what are you up to nowdays ........ did your father pay for your airline ticket so you could come and see the old man ?....... what are you doing in amreeka? anything productive ya sirf kutay khasi kar rahay ho !

......... and that is when my rusk fell into the tea .....

#137

Haha ... I see some people celebrating arrival of their year ... haha

Kung Hei Ding Hai

#137

Haha ... I see some people celebrating arrival of their year ... haha

Kung Hei Ding Hai

#134/135 by bulleya

.... if not, then how about you and i start a company, and make musharraf the head of the board of directors.......based on your defintion, that shouldn`t be a problem.........there should be no conflict of interest.....it would not give us any unfair advantage over our competition......Following is the Board of Directors of Askari Bank. Askari Bank is a, ``private `` bank launced by the Army`s industrial arm.

Bulleya, for one, unfair advantage is part and parcel of the capitalist system. There is no room for the disadvantaged or less-advantaged. Wouldn`t you agree?

Secondly, with the exception of the Chairman Askari Bank, ALL others are retired Faujis in the banks as well as all of their trusts including the chairmen and CEOs. I fail to see how you count retired Faujis as overlapping with the military`s resources? My dear, they ceased to be the military`s resource when they retired.

As for Chairman of the bank who is always a serving General, I agree with your point. There must be a reason for it and I`ll try to find out from friends in Askari i.e. why only the bank.

As for Defence Housing Authority, I don`t know where you got that any serving General is its head. He is not.

For DHA Karachi (these are all different authorities for diferent cities mind you and not one behemoth), the Secretary Defence is Head of its governing body while the Corps Commander is head of its Executive Committee for day to day executive powers in line with rules laid down by the governing body. Similarly for DHA Lahore, the Corps Commander is indeed head but the provincial secretaries of Punjab in Law, Finance and Housing Departments are all members of the governing body. (Source: Wiki and The Defence Housing Authority Lahore Ordinance 1999)

Making unfounded surmises and labelling of the Pakistan Army as Real Estate Moguls is totally wrong and spreads damaging misperceptions which you can see all over Chowk etc. The military trusts/foundations have done a brilliant job of providing capital intensive services where private sector was either missing in the field or running away with people`s money through fake housing societies and apartment projects.

Now that DHA has opened up the high-end/high-rise seafront market like the Creek Marina/Vista in Karachi, you see all the foreigners queuing up to compete. This is mega risk-taking and entrepreneurship, not exploitation.

:~)

...... and this really bothers the heck out of me ....... here we are worrying about gunga din while poor cameron is being going through this :

Actress Cameron Diaz has accepted ``substantial`` libel damages from a US tabloid over a false claim that she was having an affair with a married man.
Ms Diaz, 34, sued publishers American Media Incorporated over pictures and a story that appeared on the National Enquirer website in May 2005.

......damn !

Deceased former Playboy model Anna Nicole Smith left her entire estate to her dead son, excluding any other heir from inheritance, it has emerged.
Daniel Smith died last year, aged 20, just three days after Anna Nicole gave birth to her daughter, Dannielynn.

........... and here we are worrying about what some tin pot dictator and his merry men are doning in some godforsaken place that doesn`t have any oil or sandy beaches ........

.......... i don`t know why, but i really don`t care that much about the paki army forcing the people to eat just one brand of cereal , but this really moved me to tears :

Pop star Madonna has said she ``wants to be like Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and John Lennon``.
The 48-year-old made the statement on US radio station Sirius - but added she wanted to ``stay alive``.

``For me, the best thing in the world is to see something or hear something and go: `Damn, I wish I did that. That`s inspiring,``` she added.

Re: # 136

my God Pakistan is an army occupied country.....these Khaki bastards have no shame -- plundering the country -- left and right -- in broad day light -- and these corrupt to the bone uniformed askariya lashkariyas have the grotesque face to accuse the civilians of corruption!

#136 by bulleya on February 16, 2007 12:23pm PT


``private`` bank


maybe they mean private as in Pvt Abdul, not private sector..

capt clueless...think about it..if the generals weren`t runnign banks and stuff, they`d launch foolish operations like the one in kargil and end up having to abandon private abdul`s body when they lost...

so this is really a good thing...

Following is the Board of Directors of Askari Bank. Askari Bank is a, ``private`` bank launced by the Army`s industrial arm.

Lt. Gen. Waseem Ahmed Ashraf - Chairman
Lt. Gen. (R) Zarrar Azim - Chairman Executive Committee
Mr. Shaharyar Ahmad - President & Chief Executive
Brig (R) Muhammad Shiraz Baig - Director
Brig (R) Asmat Ullah Khan Niazi - Director
Brig (R) Muhammad Bashir Baz - Director
Brig (R) Shaukat Mahmood Chaudhari - Director
Mr. Zafar Alam Khan Sumbal - Director
Mr. Kashif Mateen Ansari - Director
Mr. Muhammad Najam Ali - Director
Mr. Muhammad Afzal Munif - Director
Mr. Tariq lqbal Khan - Director (NIT Nominee)

.....the chairman of the board is a serving lt. gen. of the army.......in his spare time, he is also the adjutant general of the whole pakistan army.......i.e. the guy responsible for running the personnel of the whole army of 500,000 people........he must be the only serving lt. gen. in the whole world who is heading the board of a, ``private`` bank......and pakistan may be the only country, where the army`s top brass has such impressive credentials that their serving generals are invited by, ``private`` banks to serve as their heads.......not only when they are retired, but when they are serving in the army!!........

......however, it would be bad enough if, lt. gen waseem was only the head of a, ``private`` bank.....he is also the head of defence housing authority........now DHA is no small little authority........it is the largest real estate organization in a country, where real estate is one of the top five businesses in the private sector........to give you an idea of its assets, just one of the mosques built in DHA costs Rs 500 million.......

........who else assists lt. gen. waseem in running DHA....Vice President DHA, Maj General Zakauddin and Administrator DHA Brig Abdul Ghafoor........the names may have changed this year, but, rest assured, the ranks are the same.........

.......this is just the example of one serving general.....there are many more like him.......he heads a major bank, and the largest real estate corporation in the country and is, simultaneously, running the whole army..........allah be praised!!....could a serving lt. gen. in the usa become head of wells fargo bank and remax realtors, while simultaneously running the us army!!...............

.......just the overlap of army and private sector, based on this one individual`s appointment should be enough to convince anyone how much the army welfare trusts etc. overlap with the serving army.......what talk of resources and budgets, the people running the organizations are the same serving generals!!.......

at least, the guy should have had the dignity of retiring, before taking over these, ``private`` sector positions......however, once he retires, he will be onto bigger and better things.....he will be on the same line as retired general javed ashraf qazi....i.e minister of railways, senator, minister of education, secretary of science and tech.........