From the video and the report published by The News of the World, it seems that Pakistani cricket has fallen in its worst condition ever. It has been alleged that 7 players were involved with the scam and The News of the World has even published the name of four crickets: Asif, Butt, Amir and Akmal. Mazhar Majeed who is supposed to be an agent of some of the players has been arrested by England police.
Match fixing allegations are nothing new in Pakistani cricket and it is perhaps the most important problem for the country’s sporting image. In the video, it was seen that Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif would bowl two no balls in different overs and in the match, exactly the same thing happened.
It is reported by Cricinfo that Yawar Saeed, the team manager, asked the players not to meet Mazhar and Azhar Majeed. He said to Cricinfo, "When we started this tour, I told the players they should not be entertaining these two in their hotel rooms. These boys are their agents and, anywhere we tour in the world, we tell our players that they are not allowed to have agents in their hotel rooms. It is the policy on the tour."
Because of bad security condition in the country, no foreign team agreed to visit Pakistan since March 2009.
Louis-George Arsenault, director of emergency operations for Unicef in New York, has criticized the world community for not coming in forward to support Pakistan in its worst crisis. The country is suffering from its natural disaster in history but international response has been almost lukewarm.
He said, "One of the major challenges that we have which is quite extraordinary is the lack of level of support from the international community.
Right now, our level of needs in terms of funding is huge compared to what we've been receiving, even though this is the largest, by far, humanitarian crisis we've seen in decades."
BBC News talked to some experts about the matter and some of them stated that Pakistani government needed to deal with the matter of transparency. There is a perception in some parts of the world that corruption is high in the country.
Dr Elizabeth Ferris of Brookings Institution said to BBC, "People are always sceptical about their money reaching flood victims, particularly in countries with reputations for corruption. But Haiti didn't have a very good reputation in this regard. [Pakistan] President [Asif Ali] Zardari trip to Europe [during the floods] was not a good move. For a few days, that was the 'story' of the Pakistani floods, which doesn't inspire people to be generous, particularly in this economic climate."
Pakistan is now in dire needs of foreign aid. Many people are suffering from food shortage in the flood affected areas.
Pakistan cricket team keeps their hope alive to level the series after securing a 4-wicket victory with a stressed finish over England in the third test match at Kennington Oval in London. With this victory, the touring side could reduce their defeat margin 2-1 in the four-match test series showing both brilliance and fragility. They can level the series 2-2 if they can win the fourth and final test match.
In the second innings, Pakistan was set 148 runs to win the match after they bundled out England for 222 runs. Pakistan made good start after coming to chase down the target. They needed 24 runs to win with six wickets remaining and more than a day to spare.
The least predictable team in the world was put under immense pressure after losing 3 wickets for 8 runs. Azhar Ali was run out for five while James Anderson bowled out Mohammad Yousuf for 33. Kamran Akmal was trapped lbw by Graeme Swann. These early loss indicated that Pakistan is unable to chase this low scoring target.
However, two young players, Umar Akmal and Mohammad Amir led the team to reach the milestone. These two players successfully chased down the winning score before tea. Umar Akmal scored unbeaten 16 while Mohammad Aamer was not out on 4. Mohammad Aamer was named man of the match with taking 6 wickets for 101.
Skipper, Salman Butt was the highest run scorer with 48. Mohammad Yousuf played well in his come- back match as he scored 56 and 33 in two innings of the match.
England won the toss and decided to bat first. They scored 233 runs in the first innings. In reply, Pakistan scored 308 runs and gave 75 runs lead ahead of England. Losing all wickets, England scored 222 runs and made 148 runs to let Pakistan bat in their second innings. Pakistan overcame this target with four wickets and more than one day remaining at hand.
Fourth and final Test match will start from 26 August 2010. It will take place at Lord’s in London.
More than 4 million people have become homeless from the ongoing devastating flood. It is the worst flood in the history of the country. The worst is not over yet.
The United Nations earlier today, gave this figure and revised the earlier number of homeless people. The UN earlier said that the number of homeless people was around 2 million. This increase in number surely makes the task of rebuilding the country even more difficult and expensive.
Foreign aid is coming but the aid is slow to come and inadequate. Aid agencies have called for pouring in more aid to the country that is already devastated with violence and civil war.
Asian Development Bank (ADB) said, "While the assessment will take several weeks to complete, the damages so far are staggering."
UN spokesman Maurizio Giuliano told to a news agency, "The donors are improving their contribution. They are giving more and more. The response of donors to this crisis is getting better and better but it is still inadequate.
According to rough estimates, over four million people in Sindh and Punjab still do not have a roof on their head.
This situation is of high concern."
Leading newspaper of Pakistan, Dawn reported that there is now fear of outbreaks of diseases like malaria. Dawn also reported that many people are very angry with lack of government initiatives to help the flood victims.
According to Unicef nearly 1,500 people have died in the ongoing devastating flood in Pakistan. Hardly anyone in the country can remember of a flood of this magnitude in their life time. A large part of the country has been very badly affected.
Pakistan is a country mainly famous for hot climate not for rains. In fact, a good part of the country falls in Thar Desert. Thus, the country rarely witnesses devastating flood. This year is surely an exception. Heavy monsoon rainfall has changed everything and made life miserable for nearly 3 million people.
The worst part is that the flood has affected a large part of the country. It is becoming a mammoth task for the government agencies to help the victims. The government has not appealed for any international support but if the bad rainfall continues then the government might have to appeal for support from international community.
It is still not clear what the financial damage would be of this flood. However, for ordinary people in the country, the flood has brought maximum suffering. In many parts, people have lost home and have received little or no amount of relief.
Two major business organizations in Pakistan are now fighting over the import tariffs of Polyester Staple Fiber (PSF).
All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) is asking the government to remove the 4.5% import duty on the import of PSF as raw material for it makes their products less competitive in the international market.
According to APTMA’s statement, there is zero percent duty on the import of
PSF- blended-yarn while textile mill owners have to pay 4.5% import duty on PSF. This is a serious “tariff anomaly” and should be rationalized.
On the contrary, domestic manufacturers of PSF are telling the government not to cut the tariff on PSF for it would hurt the local industry. A leading PSF manufacturer in Pakistan said that the APTMA’s claim of importing PSF-blended-yarn at zero duty is “incorrect and baseless.”
He said that the importer of PSF-blended-yarn has to pay nine percent duty.
Pakistani PSF manufacturers said that the textile mill owners can import PSF at zero duty under the DTRE scheme. As a result, they can price their products competitively.
However, this has affected the local PSF producers. This low duty is one of the main reasons behind the failure of Dewan Salman Fibres, one of the largest PSF producers of the country.
Production of PSF is a highly capital oriented business because PSF is manufactured from crude oil through a series complex chemical process and requires lots of expensive machineries.
Hence, it is very much important that government improvise tariffs on importing PSF. Neighboring countries such as India, China, Korea, Taiwan etc have tariffs on PSF imports.
Pakistan is facing an acute shortage PSF and after the closure of Dewan Salman Fibre it further increased which also drove up the price of PSF in the local market by 30%. Because of this textile mill owners are importing PSF paying only 4.5% duty instead of paying 30% more.
Repatriation of dividend and profit by foreign investors increased to $729.6 million in Pakistan in July-May period and reached equal to same period of last fiscal year.
The amount of dividend and profit repatriation decreased 10% in July-April to $609.6 million but observed a massive increase of $120 million in May 2010 which increased the overall amount of dividend and profit repatriation in July-May period of the current fiscal year.
This surge was observed in the first eleven months of the current fiscal year against $729.5 million at the same period last FY.
According to State Bank of Pakistan, there was a slight increase of $0.1million in July-May period during FY 2009-10 compared to same period in FY 2008-09.
Business Recorder reported due to slow economy dividend and profit repatriation observed a 29 percent decline to $319.5 million with a monthly average outflow of $53 million in the first half of the current fiscal year but now it increased to $66 million.
Though FDI saw majority of repatriation of profit and dividend, the overall amount of repatriation through FDI actually declined 4.16%. 66% of the amount repatriated has been sent in FDI. In July-May period, investors sent $544.8 million to their home countries earned through FDI against $568.5 million at the same period last year
On the other hand, repatriation of profit and dividend through Foreign Portfolio Investment (FPI) increased 15% or $23.7 million during July-May period.
After budget, prices of daily necessities shot up in the wholesale and retail markets in Pakistan. Even, Utility Stores Corporation (USC), the government subsidized chain stores, which sell commodities at lower prices compared to the wholesale shops, also revised its rates.
From June 10, 2010, prices of various commodities increased in the open market as well as USC stores.
Daily Times reported that traders and wholesalers intentionally increased the price of sugar in fear of sales tax.
At present, wholesale price of per kilo sugar stands at Rs.61 against Rs. 57– Rs.58 per kilo before budget. On the other hand, retail rates increased to around Rs.65 per kilo against Rs.62.
Fareed Qureshi, Secretary, Karachi Retailer and Grocer Group, held the wholesalers responsible for charging higher prices. He also admitted of a sharp drop in the demand of sugar as consumers changed their habits to cope with the high price of sugar. The same trend is also visible in other kitchen items such as rice, pulses, different varieties of flours etc.
At the UTC stores, per kilo sugar is sold at Rs.45 which is far lower than the wholesale market. Still people are not buying.
Prices of ghee and cooking oil increased to Rs.15 per kg. Currently, a tin of five kilo ghee is selling for Rs.674 against Rs. 600. A jar of 450 gram jam is priced at Rs.137 against Rs. 75. An 800 ml bottle of summer drinks is being sold at Rs. 20. An increase of Rs. 5 has been made
After the budget, such rise in commodity prices made people very unhappy, especially the poor people.
On May 28, 2010, Paul Ross, Country Representative, IMF said that by implementing Value Added Tax, Pakistan government could become self-sufficient. Mr. Ross was providing a lecture on Regional Economic Outlook survey for Middle East and Central Asia by IMF.
IMF and World Bank are now insisting on Pakistan to introduce VAT in the country.
Mr. Ross said that in order to become less dependent on foreign aids it is very much important that the government of Pakistan increase its revenue collection and invest those money in the private sector.
Mr. Ross added that inflation and availability of credit to private sector are the biggest challenges for the government of Pakistan. By declining the rate of inflation, the government would be able to reduce poverty.
Paul Ross said that Pakistan government should draw policy that focuses on economic growth along with ensuring political stabilization in the country.
IMF projected Consumer Price Inflation (CPI) at 11.8% for Pakistan in 2010 which would decline to 6.3% in 2011.
The IMF released a $1.13 billion loan to Pakistan after its latest review of the country’s economic performance. The loan was due by the end of March but it was delayed due to disagreements over implementing VAT and raising the price of electricity between Pakistan government and IMF.
According to the condition, Pakistan government was supposed to increase power tariff by 6% within April 1, 2010. Government of Pakistan assured the IMF that they are committed to achieve their goal.
Salman Butt is favorite to become the new captain of Pakistan test team. Selectors will name the Pakistan squad for England tour on 22 May. It is likely that the left-handed batsmen would be appointed new test captain for Pakistan test team.
Pakistan selectors do not have many options for the captaincy role as PCB recently imposed indefinite ban on the senior players like Mohammad Yousuf and Younis Khan, while another former captain Shoaib Malik was banned for a year.
The board punished a number of Pakistan players on disciplinary ground after Pakistan team had returned from a disappointing Australia tour earlier this year.
Shahid Afridi, who was imposed monetary punishment, is currently Pakistan’s twenty20 captain. He is expected to continue his job for next month’s Asia Cup and limited over matches during the England tour.
Pakistan will take part in Asia Cup Cricket 2010 starting from 15 June before heading to England. In England, Pakistan will play two Twenty20 and two test matches against Pakistan, before facing England in a four-match test series and five-match ODI series.
Jawaid Bilwani, the convener of the Value-Added Textile Forum Pakistan, recently called for the government to ban the export of cotton and yarn in order save the value added textile sector of the country.
He also revealed that this sector created 42% employment including 15% for women in Pakistan, but because of government’s poor policy countries like Bangladesh are importing raw materials for their garments industry and exporting the value-added products to earn foreign exchange.
Mr. Bilwani was addressing the media at a press conference while talking about the downgrading situation of the value-added textile sector of the country. He expressed that Pakistan has a 25% deficit of cotton, compared to neighbor India’s 30% surplus, and around value-added textile units make 70% of the total textile units in the country.
Jawaid Bilwani blamed the spinning sector for exporting raw cotton and yarn, and thus, creating a negative impact on the textile sector of the country. He also revealed that 50% mills were forced to close down in dearth of enough cotton and yarn to continue the production.
In terms of cotton production, Pakistan stands 4th in world map and it has the 14th biggest value-added textile industry in the world.
Mr. Bilwani also provided alarming statistics revealing that 400 value added textile industries have been shifted to other countries, while 200 were completed closed down. That is why, he called on Textile minister to inflict a ban on exporting cotton and yarn to other countries.
A delegation of Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) met High Commissioner of Britain in Pakistan Adam Thomson earlier today. Zahid Maqbool, Preside of ICCI led the delegation and the two parties talked about increasing business ties.
Adam Thomson informed the ICCI members that right now, more than 100 British companies were carrying out their business activities in Pakistan and more UK companies were interested to come to this country and get an idea about the business opportunities here. He also assured the ICCI delegates that his office would help Pakistani businessmen to get visa to England easily and visit there. He also informed them that his office was trying to boost the image of Pakistan in the UK.
At present, UK is the second largest business partner of Pakistan. Mr. Thomson expressed the desire that his country wants to be the largest business partner.
On their part, ICCI leaders briefed the High Commissioner about the business opportunities and environment in Islamabad and in the rest of the country. They informed the High Commissioner that the Pakistani government had opened up the economy for foreign investment in the last few years and there was good opportunity for British companies to invest in various sectors like oil and gas, telecommunications, education and health.
Zahid Maqbool, Preside of ICCI, requested the British High Commissioner to take active measures to ease the visa problems faced by Pakistani businessmen and students.
Hearing of banned and fined Pakistani players started today in the presence of an arbitrator. Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) handed punishments to seven of the Pakistan cricketers who represented their countries at international level. The players who were banned and fined include Younis Khan, Shoaib Malik, Mohammad Yousuf, Shahid Afridi, Rana Naved, Kamran Akmal and Umar Akmal on disciplinary ground. The punishments were imposed following Pakistan’s disappointing tour of Australia. Pakistan team lost all the matches to Australia on that tour.
Three players: Afridi, Kamran and Umar Akmal- were not present at the hearing as they are currently in West Indies to represent Pakistan in the ICC World Twenty20 2010. Their hearing will begin after they come back home. Expect Mohammad Yousuf, who has retired from international cricket, all other players appealed against their punishments.
Today, Younis Khan, Shoaib Malik and Rana Naved were present at the hearing before arbitrator Irfan Qadir along with their lawyears.
Lawyers of three players _ Younis, Malik and Naved _ appeared before arbitrator Irfan Qadir on Friday and requested access to the relevant documents.
The PCB had fined Naved two million rupees ($23,500) and suspended him for one year for poor performance while Malik was handed similar punishment for indiscipline. Younis was indefinitely banned from representing Pakistan for alleged infighting with Yousuf.
Qadir said Younis requested an early date for the next hearing which will be held on May 8. Malik and Naved will reappear before the arbitrator on May 22.
Younis Khan’s lawyear also wants the hearing to be open for the general public so that they can come to know about the truth. Well, there is no problem if a player is punished for his wrongdoing, but what about the PCB officials? They also have to take the responsibility of Pakistan’s humiliating performance in Australia. Then why they are not hiding their face by imposing ban on the players.
Pakistan cricket selectors have announced a 15-man squad for ICC World Cup Twenty20 2010 which will be played later this year. In this squad, only nine players have been picked who have the experience to play the Twenty20 World Cup 2009. Twenty20 World Cup 2010 will be a tough competition for defending champion Pakistan. They will have to struggle hard to defend their trophy. Pakistan won the trophy in 2009 after defeating Sri Lanka in the final match at Lords. Fans will be watching to see if they can hold the crown for the second time. Pakistan has been placed in Group A along with Bangladesh and Australia. They will start this tournament with the match against Bangladesh on 1st May, 2010. Here is the squad:
Pakistan Squad for T20 World Cup 2010: Salman Butt, Mohammad Hafeez, Khalid Latif, Misbah-ul-Haq, Fawad Alam, Umar Akmal, Shahid Afridi (Captain), Abdul Razzaq, Yasir Arafat, Hammad Azam, Kamran Akmal (Wicket Keeper), Umar Gul, Mohammad Asif, Mohammad Aamer, Saeed Ajmal.
Reserves: Shahzaib Hasan, Mohammad Sami, Raza Hasan, Naveed Yasin, Sarfraz Ahmed (Wicket Keeper).
Among 15 players, there is only one uncapped player in the squad. He is Hammad Azam. Hammad Azam is an all rounder. He impressed the selectors with his performance in U19 world cup in New Zealand where Pakistan lost to Australia in the final match.
I think that fans will be surprised for the exclusion of Shoaib Malik and Rana Naved-ul-Hasan. These two experienced players have not been able to get their place in the squad for their long term ban.
There was confusion about the selection of captain for the upcoming Twenty20 World Cup. Selectors announced Pakistan squad without naming a captain. After a long dispute, Shahid Afridi was named captain for Pakistan cricket team. Shahid Afridi was seen leading Pakistan cricket team in the last Twenty20 World Cup when Younis Khan took retirement from the shortest version of cricket.
Pakistan T20 captain Shahid Afridi is not satisfied with the squad. He wanted some changes in the main squad. He also talked with Chief selector Mohsin Khan and Coach Waqar Younis and discussed about the team. May be, from next year, captain’s input will be considered prior to the team’s selection. But it is not possible now. However, if you look at the squad then you can see that Pakistan’s batting line up looks little bit shaky. How can they defend their title with these batsmen?
Ahead of the Twenty20 World Cup, Misbah-ul-Haq, Salman Butt and Mohammad Hafeez have been recalled.
Who will open for Pakistan? It seems that Salman Butt will open along with Mohammad Hafeez. The inclusion of Salman Butt in the squad will be a big challenge for him to prove his skill in the shortest version of this game. I am hopeful about the performance of Mohammad Hafeez in this upcoming Twenty20 World Cup 2010. He has become able to make his place in the squad after showing his excellent performance in the RBS T20 Cup.
The inclusion of two Akmal brothers was perhaps a good decision taken by Pakistan Cricket Board. Both Umar Akmal and Kamran Akmal will tour the Caribbean country with Pakistan cricket team. Umar Akmal is a young promising batsman. He has a lot of potential to be one of the future star players. I think I don’t need to use more words for Kamran Akmal. You already know that he is an effective wicketkeeper-batsman. He will be a big threat for the opposite teams.
Misbah-ul-Haq is one of the most senior players who have been selected for the forthcoming T20 world cup. Misbah-ul-Haq had been left out from all three forms of cricket game last year by the selection committee. The only reason was that he was not consistent in performance. However, he was picked up in Test squad at the request of Mohammad Yousuf but his bad performance dropped him again from the ODI squad.
The inclusion of Abdul Razzaq will be a big boost for Pakistan cricket team. He is consistently performing well. His all rounder performance may lead Pakistan team to win the crown for second time. However, Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi went under huge criticism after being found ball tempering. For this incident, he has been punished twice. ICC banned him for two matches while PCB fined him. He was also punished for his poor performance in Australia tour. Despite his punishment, Afridi remains in the running. Yasir Arafat is another all rounder.
Pakistan selectors have included only one wicketkeeper in squad. I think they will select second wicketkeeper for any necessary. If Kamran Akmal is injured then the second wicketkeeper can replace him. Sarfraz Ahmed is a wicket keeper and he is in the reserve team.
In this squad I can see only two experienced fast bowlers- Umar Gul and Mohammad Asif. They both are good and wicket taking bowler. But I hope that selectors will also think about Mohammad Sami. He is also a good fast bowler. Mohammad Sami has been included in the reserved squad. Saeed Ajmal is the only specialist spinner in Pakistan squad. Pakistan cricket team can cover their lack of batting with their strong bowling line up.
Perhaps poor ground fielding is the main problem for Pakistan cricket team. We have seen them to suffer a lot for their weak fielding. What will they do to improve their ground fielding?
At the end, we can say that they are not a very balanced team.
Pakistan and England are going fight for T20 series in Dubai later this month. There is now a lot of pressure on Pakistan cricket team to perform well as they have done very badly in the Australian tour. Shoaib Malik has been named as the captain of the team. I guess that Afridi was the captain of Twetny20 team but he is suspended for two matches for ball tempering in the last T20 match in Australia. Afridi will not be available for the first match but he will come in the second match.
Shoaib Malik is a good batsman but it is perhaps the bad time for him to lead his team. There is a lot of pressure and expectations on him now. Of course, the captain cannot do anything alone. It is a team sports and all the 11 players have to perform.
Pakistan is going to play two Twenty20 matches against England in Dubai international stadium on February 19 and 20, 2010. Thus, it has become Pakistan and England Twenty20 series 2010 and it will perhaps attract a lot of viewers on Television than the attraction on crowd in stadium. The two matches will be live broadcast in TEN SPORTS TV channel in South Asia and from now TEN SPORTS is giving advertisement of the matches. These matches are not that much important for any of the two teams because it is only two matches. However, they have some significance considering the fact that Twenty20 World cup 2010 will take place in April and May in West Indies.
You may wonder that why the matches are taking place in Dubai of UAE. If you are a cricket fan and collect information about world cricket then you should have known that for many months no foreign team has been touring to Pakistan because of security concern. So, Dubai and Abu Dhabi are becoming the second home for Pakistani cricket. In UAE, thousands of people of Pakistani origin work as emigrant workers and they are always happy to be in the stadium on a Friday. Here is the schedule below:
Date
Teams
Time
Venue
19 February 2010 (Friday)
Pakistan vs England- 1st Twenty20 match
GMT 14:00
Local Time 18:00
Indian Time 19:30
Dubai International Cricket Stadium
20th February 2010 (Saturday)
Pakistan vs England- 2nd Twenty20 match
GMT 14:00
Local Time 18:00
Indian Time 19:30
Dubai International Cricket Stadium
The organizers are hopping that many fans will come up for the two matches. The organizers have also tried to decrease the ticket price so that more people come. The price of the ticket is just AED 75 and this price is for the 19 February match. 19 February is going to be Friday and it is the holiday in UEA. So, you can expect a good turn out for the match. For the next match on Saturday, the ticket price has been just AED 50. Well, I think that the ticket price should have been decreased even further for Saturday’s match because in Saturday not many people will turn up for the match.
Pakistan’s recent performance is very bad. They can not play in their home stadiums for many months and this is perhaps one of the main reasons. They have less match practice than other countries. Pakistan just finished a very miserable tour of Australia in which they played three matches and lost all of them. Pakistan also played five ODI matches and lost all of them and they played one T20 match and even lost that one too. In the final Twenty20 match, Shahid Afridi was found guilty for ball tempering and he had been banned for two T20 matches. So, most probably Pakistan will have to play against England in this series against Shahid Afridi. This will surely make the Pakistani team weak. I am not sure if Afridi and Pakistani team has appealed against the ban and would be able to play. Another notable player who cannot play is Mohammad Asif.
Many people in Pakistan are very unhappy because of the way their national team lost against Australia. The Pakistan cricket team could not even secure one draw or one win in the entire tour. Now, Pakistan’s coach and captain have been called in the country to explain the bad performance. However, I don’t think the coach and the captain had anything to do with the bad performance.
The players are not in good shape and what Pakistani government and cricket board need to do is arrange more matches for the team in places like Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
I really think that Pakistan cricket board and Pakistani government should now focus on the England series in stead of investigating the reasons of humiliating defeat in Australian tour.
On the other hand, England recently went to South Africa for a four-match test series. The two teams also played five ODI matches and two T20 matches. The test series was draw. England won the ODI series by 2-1. The t20 series was also a draw. So, England had a very good tour of South Africa because South Africa at this moment is the number one ranked country in the world.
This series is t20 series and Pakistan is the current world champion in T20 cricket. Just a few months ago, in England Twenty20 world cup cricket took place and Pakistan was the champion. So, Pakistani supporters are now expecting that their team can defeat England easily. On the other hand, English cricket fans are hoping that England can win because Pakistan’s recent performance is very bad in world cricket. So, it is a very good opportunity for England to take advantage of the situation and win the t20 series.
I think that the series is taking place mainly for money rather than playing cricket. First of all it is only just two T20 matches and there is no ODI or Test matches. So, it is a sad matter for cricket fans of both the countries. Pakistan cricket board is under serious financial stress and they will get some decent amount of money from TEN SPORTS who will broadcast the matches live. I think that they will also get some money from the sponsors and that is perhaps why the two matches are taking place.
Shamim Adam has written a nice report in Bloomberg: Pakistan May Sell as Much as $1 Billion of Bonds. The report will give you a general idea of the current condition of Pakistani economy. Pakistan is suffering from many problems. Increasing budget deficit is becoming a major cause of concern because the deficit is around 5% OF GDP. GDP growth is slower compared to its two giant neighbors India and China. Internal security concerns and war on terrorism in tribal areas have also become very expensive for the government. Security concern is also a major obstacle when it comes to attracting foreign investment. So, selling bonds and government assets seems to be the wise thing to do at this moment.
One good part of Pakistani economy is that its foreign exchange reserve is growing and by the end of this year, this reserve may reach to $20 billion. This is a healthy amount and it will perhaps help the country not to get too much dependent on IMF.
Inflation is a big problem for the people and in the current fiscal year, there is no respite from this problem.
Indian government has expressed its willingness to talk with Pakistan in the level of foreign secretaries. Pakistan has welcomed the decision. India closed door to its neighbor after the Mumbai terrorist incident on November 2008. Kashmir is the problem that is not going to go away and I am not that hopeful about any improvement in relationship between two countries. Well, the decision makers in both the countries have to change their attitude.
Just a few days ago, Pakistani players were invited to play in Indian Premier League but no Pakistani player was selected. This caused a national outrage in Pakistan. Indian government leaders stated that they had nothing to do behind this and it was a matter of BCCI.
Thus, I believe that Indian government should think of improving cultural relationship between the two countries instead of going for any official level dialogue. Discussion in the level of foreign secretaries will not bring any benefit if cricket ties remain closed.
On the other hand, Pakistani government would have to take the security concerns of India seriously. Anti-India propaganda is a very popular thing among political parties in the country. Same is true in India too.
If you are interested about Pakistani educational system then you should read as it will give you some food for thought.
According to Griff Witte, illiteracy is a big obstacle in the fight against terrorism in Pakistan. There are hundreds of religious schools called “madrassas” and often we reports that many of the extremists come from this background. However, Mr. Witte also stated that the general public schools are also in no better condition because of two factors.
First of all, there is acute shortage of funds for these schools and often conditions are not ideal for getting and giving lessons. For example, in the report, you can see a picture of a school with the following caption:
“Classes at PehlviHigh School, near Islamabad, are canceled when it rains because the roof leaks badly.”
The second problem is that the ruling establishment of the country is not eager to change the curriculum or philosophy of the public schools. The army, the religious groups and feudal lords are the major share holders of this ‘ruling establishment’ and they don’t want to increase the quantity and quality of public education of the country- this is what came out in the report of Mr. Witte.
Oil and Gas Development Company Ltd (OGDCL), the flagship energy company of Pakistan, is looking forward to sign an agreement with China National Petrochemical Company and SINOPEC to explore new mineral deposits in North Africa, Far East and smaller Arab countries.
The company forwarded a summary of the proposed joint ventures to the Ministry of Petroleum. The summary highlighted that the Chinese companies does not have International exposure and modern expertise. For this reason, they could not expand overseas. OGDCL has highly qualified professionals to carry out and supervise oil and gas exploration activities overseas. The company has all the necessary expertise ranging from preliminary geological surveys to operating oil and gas processing plans but it does have enough resources to sustain risk. The Chinese have adequate reserves for overseas ventures.
OGDCL will swap assets for reserves acquisition with percentage of working interest in international market. It also prepared a list of spots that had not yet been visited by international oil companies. The countries include Uganda, Sudan, Yemen, Morocco and some regions of central Africa.
