Education Reform: Signs of Hope

zeemax #: you have still not answered my question:

......why don`t the retired officers start an independent corporation/trust and called in Retired Officers Trust and run it in the open market, like all other coroparations.......why do they associate it with the army......why do they need a serving lt. gen. to be the chairman of the board of their bank?......etc.

.....are they getting any advantages by associating it with the army, or is it just for nostaligia sake........if they are getting an advantage, then it is the unfair advantage i am talking about.........if they are not, then why in the world do they associate it with the army.......

zeemax #133:``The only amounts, if any, with Askari bank would be just some loose petty cash. The budget is not handed over to the coas, to do as he pleases nor can he put it in a bank started by his brother.....``

...yes this is exactly what i was trying to point out to you.......you had stated that, ``After that it is upto those department`s own rules/regulations which banks to use etc.``....by the way, rest assured, it is not, ``some lose petty cash........`` i`ll try to get you the details of exactly how the askari bank overlaps with army`s own ventures........

....``overlapping their trust with the military, I believe this to be factually incorrect and just a surmise on your part, unless you can come up with some references to the contrary``

.....the head of the board of directors of askari bank is a serving lt. gen......this is one simple example of a conflict of interest.......there are quite a few more......you have, yourself, highlighted that so many of the army`s companies are running in a loss.......how are they able to stay in business........who bails them out of these loses?........take a guess....

.......who appoints the head of fauji foundation......is it just a coincidence that it is always a a retired general?.......i believe not.......

there are many examples on the material side, where resources of the army are used by these trusts, however, just the simple fact that a private entity (according to your definition) is overlapping with the army, gives that private entity an unfair advantage...don`t you think.......

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......after all having a serving coas and president as the head of the board should be allowed in every country........

.....contd....

If you`re still not convinced, you may check on the total deposits of Askari Bank against the military budget ... or even a small fraction of it ... :~)

#127 by bulleya

Yaar bulleya, it seems you`re not clear about these things at least in case of Pakistan. As you correctly say, the ``budgets`` of all Govt authorities including the military are not handed over in lump sum, but rather as utilized according to the budget. It`s the same in Pakistan. This `budget` of the military is with the State Bank of Pakistan Rawalpindi where the Controller of Military Accounts has a checking account. The only amounts, if any, with Askari bank would be just some loose petty cash. The budget is not handed over to the coas, to do as he pleases nor can he put it in a bank started by his brother..... I hope this point is clear now.

Re overlapping their trust with the military, I believe this to be factually incorrect and just a surmise on your part, unless you can come up with some references to the contrary.

:~)

#121 dot: while you are on the subject, you may as well carry it all the way to how we are all matter that was forged in long dead stars - all heavy elements including carbon (of which life on earth is largely composed) being formed inside stars, and being released when those stars die. Out of that come clouds that give birth to new stars as well as to planets (of which earth is one).

One could go deeper still, and consider things beyond our known universe of space (which extends a ``mere`` 12 billion or so light years) and time (which extends a ``mere`` 14 billion years or so back before which there was the big bang and ``before`` that we have no clue what was going on).

Reality (of which we become aware through science) is thus proving to be far more profound than any religion as understood in centuries past. We are not just ``such stuff as dreams are made of`` (as shakespeare said), but stuff we cannot even dream of.

PS: the above is my profound thought for the day. :-)

BTW muttawa zeemax, evian has left a message for you!

some of the comments on this board are like the comments of this character....

#125 lol, so true!

yes, true so is the cow, goat, lamb, etc.........but the vulture, hyaena etc live on dead carrion like many human beings!

zeemax #113: ``The entire budget including army is passed by the Parliament and allocated to respective authorities. After that it is upto those department`s own rules/regulations which banks to use etc. One can`t go back to the people for routine operational issues time and again.``

so, if the pakistan army wanted to put all its budget in a bank started by the coas`s brother that would be ok........if it wanted to spend all its budget on getting clothes for the coas, that would be ok, also.........

.......in any country, there are powerful oversight committees, of elected officials, that oversee evey penny of the govt. budget, including the military budget.......the militaries aren`t allowed to spend it any way they want......and the budget they get is against specific tasks and equipment......it is not a lump sum, handed over to the coas, to do as he pleases.....

......if we agree with your argument, then why should the army even invest in defense equipment........if they can do with the budget as they please, then why not simply turn itself into an industrial conglomerate all together......there would be nothing wrong with that, according to your description.......in fact, this is what it is doing through army welfare trusts and fauji foundations etc........

.......these welfare trusts are the equivalent of having a nationalised bank, being run by the taxpayers money.....however, the profit of the bank does not go to the govt. to spend on the welfare of all the taxpayers.......it only goes to the members of the Ministry of Finance.......

the answer to the following question should clarify things for you: why don`t the retired officers start an independent corporation/trust and called in Retired Officers Trust and run it in the open market, like all other coroparations.......it could use the pooled resources of all army officers........but would have no access to army resources/budget etc.......

......why do they insist of overlapping their trust with the military?......surely they must be getting some advantage......and if they are getting that advantage (which you are unwilling to recognize), then why isn`t that advantage provided to every businessman?

#125

A gadha is veg ... or didn`t you know?

Re: # 123
BTW zeemax, I am a strict vegan whoch sort of leaves me out of the loop. It is you brainless meat-eaters who eat the high-residual-toxic-level food that need to be careful - whether you a vulture or a human being! Or as they say ghade and insaan mein pharak naheen!

#123 (lol!)

zeemax who is to say what one comes back as (finger wagging icon). It all depends on your transgressions and the accumulation of these transgressions. What you considered minorcould be major and the vice-versa.

Hence at the pearly gates you have to answer to St Peter and you get that grade of hell. Or you get reduced number of virgins etc etc.

Phal bhugatne padegee.....(to put it in a language you can understand)

#121

Sure it is. Just make sure you don`t come back as a vulture given the iLog of SR.

Re: # 121
or as the horrible hindoos would say

purnamadah purnamidam purnaat purnamudachyate
purnasya purnaamadaya purnameva vashishyate

purnamadah: `That is complete.`
purnamidam: `This is complete.`
purnamadah purnamidam `That is complete, this is complete`.
purnat purna mudachyate - `From that completeness comes this completeness`
purnasya purnamadaya - If we take away this completeness from that completeness`
purnameva vashishyate: `Only completeness remains.`


interesting.....

Re: # 118

According to Buddhism you are incarnated and reincarnated in this world till such time you have committed no transgressions.

Think about it - this is logically plausible.
You die - your body decomposes into the basic chemicals. these get recycles through the food chain somewhere some place...essentially you are coming back but in a different form...maybe...the sperm and the ova which created you, could contain (however remote this might be) some element of your past!

So your thinking you might be sivaji is not not far fetched - or could it be Sivaji had a part of you from a previous life!

This eternal cycle is pretty mesmerising.

Re: # 117
[....We can be eternally indebted to the Brits for atleast one -- English....]

Sure... and the blacks should be ``eternally indebted`` to white slave-masters to bring over their ancestors from africa. Now, as americans, they have such a good life - right?

English is just an un-intended consequence of being enslaved and colonised for hundreds of years. Brits were NOT here to teach you english - they were here to exploit you... that`s the truth... So while we use english to our benefit, we are not ``indebted`` to anybody...

In fact, our english should be used pay the brits back... Tata`s take over of Corus should just be a start... :)