Why only Musharraf?
Thursday, July 30, 2009
However, the question is why should only he be prosecuted. Why not all other military rulers who took over the reigns of the country suspending the constitution. It is immaterial as to whether they are dead or alive. Many accomplices without the support of whom the take overs were not possible are still living.The cases must be proceeded with even the punishment is to be executed symbolically as was done with Cromwell of Britain. And, all of them are not dead either.
Labels: Governance, Law, Pervez Musharraf, Politics, Power Politics
posted @ 11:29 PM,
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Modern Designer Furniture from Eroom Service
Italian and European designers are known all over the world for contemporary furniture designs. You will certainly like to have your house or office furnished with the designer furniture. Eroom Service is an exclusive selection of contemporary bedroom furniture; platform beds, modern bedroom sets, Italian leather beds and modern bed frames. The good thing is that you can select the sizes, color and finish as per your own choice. Visit their user friendly web site and you will be happily surprised to find what you need. Comparing with the quality and class of furniture, the prices are pretty reasonable and affordable. And, their customer service is excellent. They deliver at your door step and fix it up for you.
posted @ 11:07 PM,
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Lion of PML(N)
The first question is as to why such an animal was imported whom we could not look after within our meager resources. The second question is as to why more money should be extravagantly spent to sustain an animal who needs nothing of the sort back in Siberia. Yet another question is to identify other such like ventures where the money being spent is not worth its price. Having narrated the story accompanied by live pictures of the lion, the TV channel showed the interviews of half a dozen from amongst the masses. None of them supported the project and in stead criticized the government for wasting the money which can be spent to alleviate the sufferings of the poor.
Labels: Governance, PML(N), Politics, Poverty
posted @ 12:57 PM,
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High Speed Satellite Internet
If for one reason or the other the cables of manual dial up or broad band Internet get cut due to severe climatic conditions, a person like me who solely relies on the use of Internet used to become totally helpless losing dollars. Otherwise, too, one is cut off from the rest of the world and even neighborhood. The Internet connection offered by Wild Blue Internet is cable free. It offers 50 times higher speed than the manual dial up connection. This Satellite Internet connection is available virtually all over America; in all its nooks and corners. It has a very large number of satisfied clientele which continues to grow and enjoy its unique facilities. The price packages offered by them are very attractive, economical and affordable.
posted @ 12:06 PM,
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How I Use the Internet
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Having to survive without the Internet when every one seems to be living in the cyberspace and achieving is a new king of anxiety. It is very hard to perceive life offline especially for those who have integrated Internet in their lives and work.
The Internet is a shorter route to many things: obtaining information, conducting business, making decisions, socializing or spending leisure time. Researchers are trying to find out Internet's impacts on life on and offline. Celebration of the Internet Free Day or the 20-year net veteran Steve Cisler's expedition to put himself "in other people shoes who are not online" are some cases in point.
For generation that is growing up with the Internet, the essence of existence lies in their presence online and being disconnected in their totally connected circle means like living in a digital dark age. This fraternity thinks that every one in the world is online. They forget an overwhelming majority of humanity which is without the Internet. Convinced that there is nothing that cannot be done online, this generation looks up to the Internet world for help and support for every thing from writing term papers to writing emails 'to the future' or doing what many will not try in real life -- even shy adolescents are active and bold in the virtual world when engaged in Internet communications as a passionate past time. I browsed MSN Member Directory with my search preference (Pakistan, single and looking, age 20-29) and found 20 pages of results showing Pakistani males and 20 pages of Pakistani females. Well, in today's world, the Internet does net people in a well knit circle together!
Always looking to own new gizmos, experience new technologies and find ways to do novel things online, it is the youth who are future computer scientists, engineers, programmers, developers and end users (also the Web queens and the Net princes). Youth are worst affected by no access to the Internet or outages. How do you perceive life without the Internet? "Without the Internet my life is unimaginable. It gives me feelings of being a dweller of the Stone Age if all of a sudden I were to quit use of the Internet. But like radio, television, or telephone, or cars and microwave ovens, the Internet is not going to go away. So I think of making best of it rather than thinking about living without it," says Sara Kazmi, editor Ravi, a magazine of Government College University Lahore. Jaffar, a Syrian student of de'Montmorency College of Dentistry Lahore says, "A lot of thrill and interactivity is attached with the world online so it really is painful to perceive life without the Internet."
The other categories hit by no access or disconnections are of IT professionals and those end users who are supplementing their earnings by pursuing income generating activities online. Zahid Shahzad, a techie says, "When I am disconnected, I attend to those assignments that otherwise keep piling up in the in-tray waiting for my attention. And, I keep jotting down things and thoughts, what I would do when online." Hafiz Munir is an urbanite computer engineer with his roots in the village where his mother, brothers and sisters live without telephone or possibility of the Internet access. He says, "I have always been going to my village to refresh my urban attitudes but going has become greatly difficult since I have put my work and life on the Internet. And it is no only me. No IT professional can afford to live without continuous connectivity. One of the reasons is that others assume IT people as 'on call' every time."
Users who have been online all their life have started taking it for granted. Any interruption, short or long, is frustrating. What do you do when you have to live offline for reasons beyond control? "Me and every one in my circle (presence on the Internet seems to be defining social circles) groans and grumbles when ever there is a disruption in connectivity; and there are so many," says Sara. Enthusiastic users have connections from more than one ISP (and the Internet cards at hand) and still "the first thing I do is to ring one or two ISPs and inquire, then I ask my friends before I decide what to do. One has to run around if there is a hardware or software problem that needs a repair or reinstallation. In our country you can do nothing in case of electric failures, telephone line disruptions or ISP 'maintenance' problem. Even respective departmental inquiry stations and help lines will not tell you what is happening," laments Arshad Mahmud. And Hafiz says, "After ascertaining the cause, I look for alternatives to remain online till things are back to normal at my own work station."
Acquiring necessary skills and hooking on the Internet at later stages in life was a major shift for those who were in the middle of their life when Internet necessitated changes in job specifications and descriptions as well as in societal norms. It is comparatively easier for this class to strike balance in on and offline life.
For Maryum Yunus, switching from the position of a sub editor in a print publication was a major shift -- especially in terms of Internet access and experience online. "The usage of the Internet mainly depends on what sort of work one is doing. I have Internet exclusively available to me at work as well as home. For my newspaper job, use of the Net was essential for me. I would logon and remain online more though I never was a freak. My present job as the Assistant Manager Image Marketing does not require active use of the Net. I only need to go online every now and then for a short duration to download my emails, fire off replies, weed out spam to keep the inbox under limits, exchange Hello Hi with friends if I can could catch someone online or to surf any specific site and look for particular information. Life never stops for me if I am disconnected or do not go online for days. After all people had been living, working and communicating even before IBM launched the personal computer. No?"
Life offline is rather harder for those who are yet striving to go online; those who are aware of the Internet and what people are accomplishing online. In our infrastructure poor country, majority of people are not online, for a variety of reasons. "I always dream about life online and what all I will be able to do when I join college in the city," told Mumtaz, a metric student from village Mong who is using computer since last one year and is to go to the city for college education where he will be able get connected. "People are migrating to cities for providing opportunities to their wards in the online world," says Hafiz.
There is an equilibrium point between the virtual and real life though it is getting difficult to point out where that point is. Life online is difficult but life can be much more enriching for those who are online, can take control of the Internet and are not mesmerized by its rhythm.
Labels: Digital Divide, Internet, Technology
posted @ 12:30 PM,
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Health is Wealth
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
It’s a universally accepted fact that some sort of regular physical exercise for half an hour to one hour is essential for keeping good health. How many of us follow this practice? Similarly, we all know that we should take balanced diet. How many of us truly take the trouble to find out as to which is the balanced diet for us? How many of us resort to diet control if we are patient of blood pressure, diabetes or coronary disease? In my opinion, the proverb, “Prevention is better than cure” applies the most in respect of health. The ones from amongst us, who follow it, live a better and healthy life. The ones who don’t are the cruelest to our own individual selves. A stitch in time saves nine.
Labels: Health
posted @ 12:44 PM,
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Pain relief through Tramadol On Line
Like all other medicines, the correct dosage of Tramadol is important so as to minimize its side effects. Fill out a questionnaire and submit it to Tramadol On Line. Their United States Physicians will examine the questionnaire and prescribe the right dosage for you. They send the prescription to U.S. certified pharmacies which will ship your package via FedEx Next Day Service. That’s not all. Tramadol On Line, offers cheapest Tramodal. Their customer staff is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
posted @ 12:15 AM,
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Load Shedding and Blogging
Monday, July 27, 2009
Pakistan is passing through the worst period in terms of power supply and electricity load shedding. Living in the second largest city of our country, we are fortunate to be having relatively less of load shedding. But, mind you, the relatively less load shedding means having it for an hour every alternate hour of the day. You can well imagine as to what must be happening in other smaller cities, towns and the rural areas. The foregoing is only the planned part of load shedding. The unplanned part is that you are never certain as to when the light would go off or it would get back.
Load shedding is adversely affecting all sections of society not only in one form or the other of physical and economic aspects but it is also affecting us all psychologically, a loss which is difficult to quantify. Bloggers are no exception. They remain alert and wait for the light hour to begin and get down to their blogging knowing that they have, at best, an hour to do the work before the start of the load shedding hour. However, they are also psychologically constrained for fear of the unplanned part of load shedding. They are all the time writing a line and saving it so that they don't have to start afresh if the light goes off unannounced. This certainly is affecting the quality of writing which can be better done with mind in peace. Bloggers who also write paid posts have added pressures and losses. They can't bid for the posts during the load shedding time and are also under pressure to submit the accepted posts meeting the time deadlines which are in hours. The reader would think as to why don't the bloggers UPS or generators. If the bloggers could afford these luxuries, why should they be blogging?
Labels: Blogging, Loadshedding
posted @ 2:28 PM,
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Web Hosting Geeks
Sunday, July 26, 2009
There are countless web hosting service providers making tall claims of assured, uninterrupted and reliable service. They happen to offer the service at dirt cheap rates. Most people think that all one needs to have is a good web site and don’t give due importance to the selection of a web hosting service provider till such time they start experiencing problems such as downtime or slow load times both of which start detracting the potential customers/visitors away from you web site.
Green web hosting have made the selection of a web hosting service provider easy for us all. Through their user friendly web site, Geeks present top ten web hosts plus the award winner web hosts. Neatly laid out comparison of the different features of these web hosts makes everything self explanatory. The independent reviews of these web hosts and others who are presented on the side bar make the job of selection of a good and reliable web host easy for a web master even if he happens to be somewhat naive on the subject of web hosting. Geeks have a blog of their own which is full of useful tips for SEO and other internet related matters.
posted @ 4:40 PM,
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Musharraf's Accountability
Thursday, July 23, 2009
This time, America has categorically stated that for it Musharraf was history and it would not interfere in the prosecution of Musharraf. The President of Pakistan, Mr. Asif Ali Zardari, too, has made a similar statement. Pakistan army is least likely to interfere. So, the stage is set for Musharraf to face a large number of charges in the court which would include abrogation of the constitution. Musharraf's prosecution will become an important milestone in the history of Pakistan which would once for all shun the interference of army in the affairs of the country and put Pakistan on road to democracy.
Labels: Democracy, Pervez Musharraf, Power Politics
posted @ 1:37 PM,
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ADT Home Security System
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
ADT network has four interconnected command centers strategically located throughout the United States. Irrespective of where you live in States, you can have the system installed and free your self of all types of security concerns in your house. Easy to use, the system can be armed or disarmed with the touch of a button. The system is very economical and can result in a saving of up to 20% in home owners’ insurance expenses. Consultation is free. ADT's user friendly website contains all the details you may like to know about the home security system. Newsweek has praised the services of the ADT Security Company.
posted @ 7:06 PM,
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Gilani says, “Enough is enough"
Monday, July 20, 2009
Gilani said: “Enough is enough. I have assessed the performance of my ministers during the last one year. Now I have to make some changes according to merit, not according to somebody’s liking and disliking because I am responsible for running a country of more than 170 million people”.
It's a tall claim. I doubt if Mr. Gilani is serious about it. Even if he is, the next question is whether Mr. Zardari and his party will let him do it. There are over 90 persons working as ministers or enjoying the status of a minister. Not only the number is too large for a poor country like Pakistan to afford, most of these are the nominees of Mr. Zardari. Curtailing this number or replacing some of these will be at the cost of losing parliamentary support of these and the ones supporting them. These are the ills of democracy which are not likely to let him move in the right direction even if he so desires.
Labels: Democracy, Governance, Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani, Zardari
posted @ 12:01 PM,
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Indian Involvement in Balochistan
Saturday, July 18, 2009
The statement said Prime Minister Gilani mentioned that Pakistan has some information on threats in Balochistan and other areas. Both prime ministers recognised that dialogue is the only way forward. Action on terrorism should not be linked to the Composite Dialogue process and these should not be bracketed. Indian Prime Minister Singh said India was ready to discuss all issues with Pakistan, including all outstanding issues.
Once Pakistan Prime Minister drew the attention of the Indian Primme Minister Manmohan Singh towards Indian involvement in unrest in Balochistan, the latter replied that if Pakistan gave any information on the subject he would look into the matter. The Indian Prime Minister did not negate that India was meddling in the Balochistan situation. It implies that India accepted her involvement in Balochistan. By asking for a proof from Pakistan, India wants to know as to how much of that involvement is known to Pakistan. Perhaps, after getting this information, Indian Prime Minister would admonish the agencies involved in Balochistan as to why they have failed to conceal their activities.
Labels: Balochistan, Indo-Pak Talks, IndoPak Relations
posted @ 11:32 AM,
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Blogging is Like Building a Home
Friday, July 17, 2009
Blogging is like building a home. You start putting things togather (working hard) and ultimately end up having a nice place. No?
posted @ 12:48 PM,
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MPA Shumaila Rana asked to resign
Thursday, July 16, 2009
LAHORE: The Pakistan Muslim League has demanded resignation from its MPA Shumaila Rana due to her involvement in a theft case. An investigation team of the PML-N has urged Shumaila Rana to tender her resignation, as her scam has raised questions regarding the party’s credibility before the general public.Shumaila Rana has been accused of stealing the credit card of another woman at a function and misusing the same to buy jewelry worth thousands of rupees. GEO TV has shown the footage of the event which leave no doubt about the involvement of the worthy MPA in the case. Resignation of the MPA is not enough. She must be prosecuted like any ordinary citizen would have been and exemplary punishment be given. With PML(N)ruling Punjab, the prosecution of the worthy MPA should not be a big deal. What Shumaila Rana may have done in the past more in her capacity as MPA should also be looked into. Selecting and nominating such like persons as MPAs puts a question mark on the judgement of the PML(N) top leadership and the system, if any, through which party nominations take place. Such is the state of our leadership whom we have elected.
The PML-N investigation team has affirmed that if she was innocent, then she has to face the media to prove her innocence.
Labels: Leadership, Legislators, Parliamentarians, PML(N), Shumaila Rana
posted @ 8:43 AM,
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14 Senators enjoying their previous official positions
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Fourteen sitting senators are enjoying their previous official positions as chairpersons of standing committees despite dissolution of all such panels with the oath-taking of 50 new members on March 12, 2009.
Mir Mohabat Khan Marri, Gulshan Saeed, Abdul Ghaffar Qureshi, SM Zafar, Tahir Ali Mashhadi, Wali Muhammad Badini, Ahmed Ali, Saeed Ahmed Hashmi, Muhammad Talha Mehmood, Naeem Hussain Chattha, Abdul Razzak Thahim, Abdul Raziq, Engr Rashid Ahmed and Kulsoom Perveen are the 14 beneficiary senators.
A chairperson of a committee, whether of the Senate or the National Assembly, receives Rs 12,700 extra as honoraria. He/she is authorised to receive Rs 3,750 daily (Rs 1,000 a daily allowance, Rs 750 conveyance allowance and Rs 2,000 housing allowance besides Rs 5 per kilometre or Business Class air ticket for travel purpose).
Labels: Corruption, Governance, Leadership, Legislators, Senators
posted @ 10:23 AM,
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Postponement of Local Government Election
Friday, July 10, 2009
After a meeting with heads or representatives of Sindh, Balochistan, the NWFP, Azad Jammu & Kashmir, the Northern Areas and Punjab, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani announced Wednesday that the Local Government elections, due in the current year, stood postponed till further decision in this regard by the provinces. Meanwhile, the local bodies (LBs) would be run by administrators appointed by the provincial governments from out of the state bureaucracy. (Local government elections are held every four years and the last ones were held in August 2005.)The prime minister says the local bodies polls have been postponed on the request of the NWFP government as hardly any electoral activity is possible there due to terrorism and displacement of millions of persons who are not expected to be in their constituencies for the foreseeable future. He said: “Provincial representatives have agreed that the local government was purely a provincial subject which had been taken over by the federal government by including it in the Sixth Schedule”
It is surprising that all parties of the ruling coalition have agreed to dissolution of local governments and their management by the administrators appointed by the government. Elections of the local governments have been postponed, reportedly, for one year, due to prevalent situation in the country. And this has been done by a democratically elected government. Situation in the country, except foe NWFP is certainly not that bad warranting the postponement of elections. Such precedence will set a bad precedence and it may be used for the postponement of general elections four years. It appears that the ruling coalition parties don't expect a favourable response from the masses of elections are held. Let us hope that the provincial governments take over the subject of local governments and hold their elections without any loss of time in stead of waiting for another year.
Labels: Democracy, Devolution of Power, Local Governments
posted @ 7:05 PM,
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Presidential Ordinance to Undo SC Ruling
Thursday, July 9, 2009
The petroleum product prices have been inflated again through president ordinance as the Petroleum Development Levy has been imposed on petroleum products with immediate effect, Geo news said early on Thursday.
Labels: Governance, Petroleum Price, Supreme Court of Pakistan
posted @ 1:50 PM,
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Supreme Court Asserts
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
However, the question is as to in what all areas of governance the apex court can and will interfere. Prior to the levy of carbon surcharge, Supreme Court had stayed the increase in fuel rates. By introducing carbon surcharge on fuel, the government wanted to recover the money from the masses under a different name bu6 the same head of fuel. It implies that the government and the Supreme court will continue to play the game of hide and seek. The former does not appear to be learning any lessons from the decisions of the apex court.
Labels: Carbon Surcharge, Governance, Supreme Court of Pakistan
posted @ 5:51 PM,
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Investment in Education
Monday, July 6, 2009
IN the times we live in, human capital has emerged as the most significant and decisive factor in a country’s progress. One can safely say that most developed countries owe their rise to their educated and skilled manpower.
Interestingly, countries replete with natural resources and other assets are lagging behind primarily because of a dearth of trained human capital. Pakistan has an inherent advantage as it has a larger younger population whose strengths and skills can be tapped for national development in order to be turned into real human capital.
Labels: Education, Education Reforms
posted @ 11:25 AM,
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State Gifts and Musharraf
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Former president General Parvez Musharraf, following in the footsteps of his hand-picked prime minister Shaukat Aziz, has taken away 168 expensive gifts worth about Rs 40 million (at the pitifully low official price) given by top foreign dignitaries along with him (mostly free of cost) before leaving Pakistan to settle in London. These gifts include dozens of boxes of jewellery, necklaces, pearls, diamonds, four American revolvers, Rolex watches, gold, earrings and rings.
The lacuna that the gifts can be purchased by the government officials at the market price is the root cause of this ill. The market price is to be determined by the subordinate officials who certainly will not like to displease their departing bosses. It's a matter of give and take. It's common knowledge that in all other public auctions, it is clearly stated that the government officials and even their relatives can not participate in the bidding. Why this exception has been made in case of state gifts is an open question?
Labels: Corruption, Governance, Leadership, Moral Values
posted @ 9:22 PM,
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Mobilizing the Nation Against War on Terror
Saturday, July 4, 2009
With all above happening in our country, the life goes on as usual except for a few statements from the political leaders and regular programs of discussion on TV channels. Has the government or anyone else seriously thought of mobilizing the nation? Even the electronic media has not been able to produce one good national song reflecting the current situation. There is a need for the government to find ways and means to mobilize the nation and implement the same as a well thought out policy.
Labels: Media War, Mobilizing the Nation, War on Terror
posted @ 11:59 AM,
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Loyalty Vs Misconduct
Friday, July 3, 2009
Whereas the pandemonium which took place in the provincial assembly (and was witnessed by the entire nation on the TV channels) is a matter of shame and concern for our worthy parliamentarians and the entire nation, it is important to note that the worthy minister has not shown any regrets on this happening and has in stead stated that he would not apologize for his misconduct. He maintains that he loves his leadership, Sharif brothers of PML (N), and can't hear anything against them. Loyalty to one's leadership is more important to him even if it has to be displayed through misconduct. There has been no response to this from the worthy Sharif brothers or the top leadership of PML (N) who should have corrected the minister. This shows the mindset of our worthy leaders of the top and second highest echelon. Isn't t a matter of pity?
Labels: Leadership, Legislators, Moral Values, Parliament, PML(N)
posted @ 9:08 PM,
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State Gifts and Shaukat Aziz
According to The News International, Pakistan, Friday, July 03, 2009
Former prime minister and billionaire, Shaukat Aziz, had taken 736 gifts worth with him on his last bye-bye Pakistan flight to London. The state booty included half a dozen more necklaces, 18 kt gold, gold coins, pearls, crowns, diamonds, Rolex watches, bracelets, carpets, Chinese pandas (presumably figurines because the list does not elaborate) etc after getting them massively undervalued by the obliging Cabinet Division evaluators by paying only token money. One sources said, the total value of these 736 gifts, whose total price keeping the importance of those gifts given by the heads of foreign countries in the open market view, would easily be over Rs100 million, but it was priced at Rs25 million so that one of the richest prime ministers of our history with Rs7 billion declared assets with Election Commission of Pakistan could retain them free of cost.
This is the true state of affairs of our worthy rulers. Needless to say that if cases of other rulers are investigated, the story is least likelt to be any different. It's not a question of a few million rupees but that of the mindset and the ethics. Will the present government take measures to prevent the repitition of such like swindling?
Labels: Corruption, Ethics, Governance, Leadership, Moral Values, Shaukat Aziz
posted @ 12:35 PM,
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PM! Deeds Speak Louder than Words
Thursday, July 2, 2009
The usually soft-spoken Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani minced no words on Wednesday when he promised dire consequences for senior bureaucrats approaching parliamentarians and ministers for seeking favours in service-related matters.
He was speaking at the outset of the first cabinet meeting after the passage of the budget.It was an interesting reversal of priorities considering that only a few days back on June 27, The News had run a story about instances when the prime minister’s office was itself found involved in forwarding such recommendations based on the request of parliamentarians
Our worthy Prime Minister thinks that he can enforce discipline, good governance, honesty and other such like good values upon the bureaucrats without personally following these values.Otherwise, how else can the PM justify the recent appointment of a grade 20 DMG officer as ambassador to Paris. A few months ago, the worthy PM appearing in a TV program had promised that in future he would adhere to merit while making appointments. Where is that promise?
Labels: Governance, Leadership, Merit, Politicisation of Bureaucracy
posted @ 11:08 AM,
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Political Bribery
Rather unexpectedly, the prime minister has announced a doubling in the annual development fund for the 342 members of the National Assembly, raising the amount to Rs20 million for each fiscal year. It is not clear if the benefit will be extended also to the 100 members of the Senate, who, till now, had been on par with the legislators in the lower house. But even if this does not happen, it is quite obvious that there will be a considerable new drain on the exchequer as a result of the decision. Oddly enough, no mention of it had been made in the budget and the prime minister's announcement came as the budget session concluded.
Labels: Development, Governance, Political Bribery
posted @ 12:41 AM,
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