insaf ki awaz
TRANSCRIPT
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About Insaf Ki Awaaz
IPF- Islamabad team had an informal discussion and
interview with Mr. Asad Umar, member of the
IPF-Islamabad advisory board. Mr. Umar often takesout time to guide us regarding IPF activities and
helps us realize the goal of helping PTI in an effective
manner. His help and motivation to IPF has beeninvaluable in facilitating the launch of this important
newsletter to highlight different issues and to sharedifferent contributions and articles from our
members and non-members alike.
It was a candid discussion in which he talked about
his recent interview on Khalid Dar’s comic “DarlingShow,” his vision about PTI, IPF and Islamabad,
internal systems within PTI and gave his views
regarding the perception that PTI has a one sided
stance on drone attacks, the war on terror, militancyand terrorism in general. Some of the important
excerpts of this interview are shared here:
Q: Why did you join PTI and not any other party?
Asad Umar: PTI is the only political party in Pakistanwhich can bring about fundamental change, which
is what Pakistan needs. The problems of Pakistan
cannot be solved any longer by tinkering on the
edges, you need fundamental reform and for thatyou need vision, you need leadership which has
courage and which is ready to take on the vested
interests which control Pakistan.
Q: What is your vision for IPF and Islamabad?
Asad Umar: IPF should provide the technical and
professional inputs which are required to formulate
policy and to shape the views of the leadership ofPTI, so when the views are founded on good
analysis, good research, they are obviously much
more impactful and the chances of them creating apositive impact on the society is much greater. That,
to me, is the role of IPF.
About Islamabad, we have a number of plans which
include linking Islamabad to the global network to
make the city an economic hub like in Bangalore and
Dhaka.An important plan is to devolve power tovillage councils, we need to empower the people of
Islamabad. Islamabad’s dynamics are different fromother places nearby and therefore we need to have a
proper political system in place where the citizens of
Islamabad are politically, financially, administratively
empowered. Not only they will be able to deal with
the day to day problems that we talk about in thecity, like current issues of even drinking water not
being available, which is a shame, but also more
long term plans like the vision for Islamabad, how itshould be in the next 25 years. This can all be done
once we have a proper local government system in
Islamabad where the citizens of Islamabad are
empowered to do required development andmanagement of the city. Also, given the current
location and institutions here, we’d like to make
Islamabad a global city of knowledge. We also wantto increase the percentage of children receiving
vocational training to 20% to 25% and would like to
have the best vocational skill development system in
Islamabad.
Q: How has the experience been in the last 18months since you’ve joined politics and do you
think you have been able to achieve what you
hoped for in these last eighteen months?
Asad Umar: I am satisfied with the opportunity I’ve
had to make a contribution and I think it has been a
very exciting eighteen months. The party in thegeneral elections, due to often discussed reasons,
‘Insaf Ki Awaz’ is aliterary journal with the
primary objective ofshowcasing Pakistan
Tehreek-i-Insaf's
enigmatic and resilientprofessionals and youth. The journal publishes
both creative andcritical arguments andoffers a wide range of
interesting articlesincluding inspirationalstories, youth centric
awareness drives,educational and welfare
oriented articles,interviews, and
proposals for aprogressive future,
especially for Islamabad.
Interview with Mr. Asad UmarSenior Leader, Policy Head of PTI and MNA from NA-48, Islamabad
It gives me immense pleasure to know
that Insaf Professionals Forum -
Islamabad is launching a monthly
journal to keep people updated aboutthe issues of Islamabad, Rawalpindi and
adjoining areas. The journal will cover
views and ideas of PTI well wishers, party
workers and supporters.
I wish IPF all the best with this initiative and
would like their members to continue
working for raising awareness about different
issues and also recommend their possible
solutions.
Thank You
Imran KhanChairman
Pakistan Tehreek e Insaaf
Message from Imran Khan
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by Insaf Professionals Forum - IslamabadIssue: 1 - December, 2013
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was not able to get the kind of mandate that we
needed to bring about change in all of Pakistan, butother than that I think it has been a tremendously
rewarding journey and a fantastic experience.
Q: Sir, with your joining the party and experience,
do you think proper mechanisms and systems
can be introduced and made effective in theParty?
Asad Umar: The party grew so rapidly after October30th last year, that even in the best of organizations,
you would then have some growing pains in terms
of institutional development and that is what
happens in even fast growing businesses. Theyexpand rapidly and institutional development lags
behind and it takes some time to catch up and kind
of the same thing happened with PTI, particularly as
there was a general election which came up.However, holding of the intra party election was a
major step in that direction and now further
institutionalizing of PTI is in process. I am quiteconfident in the next year or two years you will see
PTI becoming more and more institutionalized in its
character.
Q: Which areas do you think work is in progress as
far as mechanisms are concerned?
Asad Umar: Specific things for example are, there is
an ideology council which has been approved,
which is supposed to formally put together contentin terms of what the ideology of the party is and will
develop training programs through which all the
cadres can be trained. The second thing which theCEC has approved, is the grievance handling and
disciplinary committee, because you’re hearing a lot
about how there isn’t enough discipline in the party
and there isn’t an effective procedure foraccountability and dealing with people’s grievances
when they arise so that has been approved by the
CEC also. Another example would be the Central
Finance Board which was created so there is a formalFinance Board which looks after all the financial
matters and similarly a formal fund raising
committee was created. So, for different areas youwill see more and more institutionalizing taking
place.
Q: How do you think government of Pakistan can
provide jobs to millions of jobless youth?
Asad Umar: What we want to have is a trade and
investment led growth, the big opportunity in
Pakistan will arise if we can bring peace to the
region and the biggest, most high profilecommitment that PTI has is towards achieving
peace. If you can achieve peace in the aftermath of
American withdrawal from Afghanistan and ifAfghanistan settles down and our tribal areas and
KPK become peaceful, then it opens up the entire
central Asian market and that’s a tremendous
growth driver that can come out of there. Similarly,we are supportive of improving trade relationship
with India as part of our overall improvement of
relationship between Pakistan and India. If you look
at the history of the world, never in the history ofmankind have so many people been lifted out of
poverty as has happened in the last fifty years in
east Asia, China, Indonesia, South Korea, Singapore,
Thailand. All these countries have seen remark ablegrowth and this has been primarily driven off the
back of increased trade, so that is one aspect that
we want to emphasize and the second issue is
investment. Investment has really collapsed in thiscountry and by restoring confidence in the
government and by opening up the economy and
by attracting in particular the overseas Pakistanis,
we want to bring back the investment into thecountry, so we get strong GDP growth. Whenever
we’ve had high periods of growth it’s always been
high aid flows or loan transfers to militarygovernments during periods of regional crises,
with all the political baggage that comes with it,
that is not sustainable growth, and obviously we
need investment growth in the economy before wecan create jobs.
Q: What do you have in mind to stop brain drain,
educated people going out of the country for
better living and environment? Asad Umar: We have to create jobs and create a
system. There are two parts to it, first, equip people
with the right skills, for example we are notinvesting anywhere close to what we should for
vocational and technical skills. There are far too
many kids going into general education and
therefore not having the skills the market demandsand so not being able to get jobs. So there is that
part of it and to create a system, where economy is
growing, where investment is coming and it’s a
system which is based on fair play and merit so thatpeople have confidence that they get a fair deal
and a fair chance. Optimism and hope returns
among the youth of Pakistan and that’s how you
get them to believe in the future of Pakistan. It ismore than just getting a job; it is recreating and
reigniting that faith and belief in the future of
Pakistan for people to stay here. When I was ayoung professional we had opportunities to go for
jobs which would pay much higher salar ies outside,
but you stayed here because you believed in the
future of the country and you said if I’m going tostay here, I will have a great future and obviously
there is no place like home. So if I can be happy,
prosperous, and peaceful in my own home why
would I go anywhere else? That belief in the futureand that hope is to be reignited.
Q: Why PTI CEC and Core Group don’t have
enough youth representation, while we bank on
them for votes?
Asad Umar: We do have youth representation in the
CEC, you can argue it is not enough, but remember
that all of these positions are elected positions andwhen these elections were being held not only was
the youth allowed but was encouraged to contest. In
KPK, the youth vigorously participated in the
elections and for the highest positions, not just forthe small youth positions but for highest positions
for the president of the province. So i t’s a democracy
based system and in the end whoever won, endedup in the CEC.
Q: Why isn’t the PTI leadership grooming newleaders who would like to work for the party and
lead instead of relying on seasoned politicians just like other parties? Don’t you think we arebecoming a conventional party?
Asad Umar: Majority of our members in the KPK
assembly of PTI, except for a couple of seats, are allnew faces and have never been in the assembly
before, so this statement that we are relying on
traditional and seasoned politicians is not based on
facts. Also, more than 30% of our seats in KPK weregiven specifically to youth. Majority of our
candidates in other provinces like Punjab were also
all new faces and approximately 30% of the tickets
were given to youth but we didn’t win that manyseats from Punjab.
Q: According to many people, PTI can appeal to
both right wingers and leftists/liberals because
of its centrist and balanced views and is the right
party to unite people. Do you think, with PTI’scurrent stance on issues like the American war on
terror, drone attacks, conducting talks with the
militant outfits, an office for the Taliban and aone sided anti American stance, PTI is becoming
another rightist party just like JI, JUI (F) etc.?
Asad Umar: PTI in its economic manifesto today ismore progressive than any major political party in
Pakistan, with very tangible, concrete plans to
transfer resources from the elite to the masses ofPakistan. This is the heart of the PTI economic
program. How PTI will try to convert Pakistan into an
egalitarian society is by throwing a massive amount
of money in education and the single biggest chunkof educational funds will be going to girls’ education
because education gives you skills and empowers
you to come out of poverty on a sustainable basis.
Massive health expenditures push you under thepoverty line so this safeguards you from going under
the poverty line. The biggest single increase in
expenditure will be on mother and child health, and
the mother and daughter health in particular, neverbefore has any Pakistani party come remotely close
to making the female as central a part of its
development priorities as PTI has and in concreteterms with actual facts and figures. In one month
the KPK government has enrolled 75,000 girls in
schools which is a tremendous achievement and
work is still in progress. About trade relations withIndia, we have been the key speakers in the Aman Ki
Asha initiative. Both Mr. Imran Khan and I have
continuously stated that the relations need to
improve on high priority. Our foreign policy standcategorically states that we want a good relationship
with the west and a working relationship with
America.
Our manifesto says in writing that we will not allowanybody to violate the sovereignty of Pakistan andwe should not allow the soil of Pakistan to be used to
violate the sovereignty of anybody else. In terms of
peace, we are against army operations whether they
are in urban areas in Karachi, or in Baluchistan asthere are innocent casualties. We support the
Kashmir issue, but we oppose any violent means to
settle the Kashmir issue. What sort of liberalism is
that which supports army operations, or death anddestruction? PTI does not believe in labelling people
right, center or left as that really does not matter.
Please note that every single party of Pakistan hassigned the APC to have dialogue with these militant
outfits. PTI’s stance has been the same on both
drones and engaging for talks to give peace a
chance if it can work out. It has been agreed in theAPCs, by all the parties including PPP, MQM, ANP,
PML N, so why is PTI only being blamed? PTI has
always condemned terrorism and its different
manifestations, and the outfits at different times andby name.
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“I would rather work in an alien environment than struggle my way in Pakistan andreceive no recognition or appreciation in return. I paid for my own education; thegovernment didn’t provide me with any compensation, so why should I do anythingfor the government for free? I speak on the behalf of all the other doctors here; noneof us would stay in UK if we had an opportunity to leave. While politicians are busyfighting on TV talk shows, what everyone fails to recognize is that soon Pakistan willhave no good doctors left and they will only have themselves to blame.” These arecomments of a Pakistani doctor working in Wales, England. The question is have wecreated jobs for doctors here? Have we built any hospital in public sector since 1980?And what have governments done to BHUs (Basic Health Units)?
Pakistan’s ‘brain drain’; why they want to leave.
Do we know or do we Care?Dr Muhammad Ismail Ramay
Having been raised in Karachi until graduating from
medical college in 1990, I could never have imaginedthat at some point in my life, I would be migrating to
Islamabad. The faint memory of Islamabad I have
from my childhood is of a guest house where our
family stayed for about four days and all I wanted todo was to listen constantly to the cricket
commentary covering the test series between
Pakistan and England in 1974. My second visit toIslamabad was not until 2007 when after exhausting
all my options of migrating to Karachi from US, I
decided to give it a shot in Islamabad. Very quickly, Ifell in love with this beautiful city!
After spending about two decades of my life in the
US, I wanted to use my skills and training to improvehealth care in Pakistan. After acquiring a job at Shifa
International Hospital, I found temporary housing in
a guest house located opposite to Shifa and started
exploring Islamabad. Blue area, Jinnah Super, Super,
and the area around I-8 Islamabad were my hide
outs. Being a morning person, the first thing I
noticed about Islamabad was that I did not have tofight humidity in Islamabad as much as I did in
Karachi during my run. Karachi has pretty much
uninterrupted heat starting from March till end ofNovember at least, whereas Islamabad’s summer is
short, lasting from June through September. Better
still, summer was frequently interrupted by rain
which actually cooled things off.In comparison,Karachi’s brief showers, if they even happen in July,
were followed by intense humidity-you take a
shower and you drench in your shirt again needing
another shower! Finally, Islamabad’s mornings are alot pleasant because compared to Karachi’s
morning;dry heat in Islamabad compared to themoist heat of Karachi. The winter turned out to be
even sweeter. It actually was cold in Islamabad, butnot like Chicago where every bit of the city is
covered by snow for about three months and the
sun in hiding causing winter blues. Islamabadexperiences a few days of near zero temperature, but
no snow and the sun is out almost daily even during
the winter. It is not very difficult to experience asnowfall in Murree at only a 90 minute drive. To top it
off, I ate the carrot halwa about three times a week at
Fresco during winter and savored every bite of it.
One day the owner told me to take off my jacketbefore eating carrot halwa as it will warm me up. I
don’t know if it was psychological or something else
but I did well without the jacket that particular night!
I had seen a bit of the world by 2007 and I found
Islamabad to be a beautiful city compared to many
other cities I had lived in the US. I arrived here in July
By Dr. Nadir
Why I Love Islamabad
Currently around 7 million Pakistani’s live abroad, and according to previousinterior minister, 1.7 million Pakistani left the country illegally from 2009 to 2012.
This does not include those who are caught without any travel documents at Taftaan (Pak-Iran border) and sent back home, to try another route to reach Turkeyor Greece. Has anyone seen National Geographic video documentaries aboutconditions of Pakistani asylum seeker camps in Greece? Perhaps yes. Does ourgovernment hold any short or long term plan to create jobs within Pakistan?People leaving Pakistan head for any country in Europe preferably Spain or UK.
There has been a continuous brain drain from the country. Not only qualifiedprofessionals and university graduates, but even semi-skilled or unskilled workerswant to leave Pakistan in search of better job prospects, with as many as 50%saying they would never come back. Official estimates of Pakistan’s OverseasEmployment Corporation are that close to 36,000 professionals, including doctors,engineers and teachers, have migrated to other countries – an unofficial estimateputs the number closer to 45,000. Until the government makes concentrated
efforts to create jobs, institutions improve their working environment, andpromote professionals from within for top positions and pay accordingly, Pakistanwill continue to be disadvantaged by the ‘brain drain’.
Educated unemployment is very high and salary levels for skilled professionals areoften kept forcibly low by governments to maintain an egali tarian income policy.Inlast 2 years, a couple of universities in Islamabad terminated services of 20 highlyqualified senior level professors for salary reasons. Fifteen of them were holdingPhD degrees from developed countries and had left the country and now are partof education cities in UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Qatar. At the beginning ofthis year FIA advertised posts for inspector and sub inspector, 72,000applications
were received. After a question in the then national assembly about appointmentletters, the interviews were postponed. Last month, hiring for the special task forceto fight terrorism was in process and 500 candidates were caught cheating.Nobody knows what happened next? An estimated 1.2 million job seekers areentering the job market and there are no jobs. A current minister retorted on a TVtalk show before May 11 elections, “our workers are getting impatient, they want
jobs, and we must win these elections”. Imagine what is he going to do aboutmerit? Jobs are usually for sale under corrupt political mafia or available throughpolitical contacts rather than merit. This fuels anger against the system and leads toPakistan's professionals leaving the country.
While the danger of the brain drain to Pakistan is clear, a big part of the problem isthat there are not enough opportunities offered to the country's highly skilledprofessionals. Industries are being shut down and no new jobs are being created,forcing many IT professionals and engineers with reasonable experience to thinkabout leaving the country for better opportunities abroad which can match theirqualifications and experience and pay them accordingly. Pakistanis all over theworld have an interest in their homeland, just last year they sent homeapproximately $13 billion in remittances. While this revenue is vital to the country ’sforeign exchange reserves, it’s the expertise of these expatriates that is needed,
just as much as their money. The absence of highly qualified doctors, engineersand scientists is playing havoc with the long-term economic growth of the country.
If Pakistani Government is serious about controlling its alarming brain drain, itmust provide better job opportunities that compensate professionals based ontheir skills, talents, and experience. It must stop quota allotment of jobs to MNAsand MPAs. It must take action against those who sold government jobs in the last 5years, must enforce merit, and double it’s funding to HEC so that universities don’tterminate professors for salary reasons.The government must also stop dumpingits workers into already over-crowded PIA and Pakistan Steel Mills. Otherwise,Pakistan will continue to lose its skilled professionals to other countries wherebenefits and opportunities are plentiful and a merit-based system is established.
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by Insaf Professionals Forum - IslamabadIssue: 1 - December, 2013
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Islamabad, the city itself, is proof that when we want to, we can
do things right. We can make a city that is planned and beautiful.
However, on a global level one of many differences between us
and the developed world is - cleanliness. Despite being a
Muslim country, our society barely reflects "cleanliness is half of
faith." It is important that we, the citizens of this beautiful city
take some responsibility to preserve this beauty and work
together to make it even better.Public service is not restricted to
government partisans; everyone needs to take an initiative to
make a collective effort to keep the city clean. Most of us ensure that our homes and cars are inimpeccable condition, but keeping clean should not be limited to personal space. In most developed
countries cleaning the area surrounding your house is a requirement by law, keeping in mind they have
to face severe weather conditions that we are generally exempted from in Pakistan.
CDA’s role in keeping the city clean is insufficient; there are various street corners with huge garbage cans
overflowing with rubbish, lack of supervision/regulation of emptying these garbage cans and plastic bags
are seen flying everywhere.It is time that our energy is harnessed to bring a change around us. We can
dedicate a few hours once a week to engage in a cleanliness project for a clean and healthy environment.
The emphasis here is on volunteer work but we first need a structure. Volunteers from each sector will be
allotted streets in their own vicinity which they will be responsible
for. Each sector will have a supervisor to regulate the task of
cleaning. A particular day(s) will be decided on which volunteers will
carry out this activity and once a week supervisors will monitor the
streets in different sectors to ensure that things are going according
to plan.It should also be recognized that many households have green areas
surrounding their houses which should also be developed and
maintained. For example, if there is a chunk of land in front of your
house that belongs to CDA, you should voluntarily develop the area; plant some flowers or maybe even a
tree; this will not only be a feast for everyone’s eyes but also have a long term impact towards cleanliness in
the city.Let us start with this humble cause which can be followed by bigger goals - as the famous John F.
Kennedy quote states, “ask not what the country can do for you, but ask what you can do for your country.”
By Mrs. Naureen Ibrahim
Clean Islamabad ProjectKHANNAPUL ISLAMABAD -TRAFFIC JAMS
Traffic jam has become a persistent problem at KHANNAPUL
in Islamabad, particularly due to the single lane bridge andgenerally due to encroachments on the bridge and along its
sides. The motorists have complaints about the
establishment of illegal transport stands and fruit / vegetable
stalls on both sides of the bridge. When the traffic over thebridge is jammed, the motorists start going the wrong way,
causing the traffic jams at Missile Chowk signal at the
Islamabad Expressway. This results in causing hindrances to
the flow of traffic going towards Airport and Rawat.
ITP has conducted a couple of surveys under supervision of SP(Traffic) to identify various points in the area where traffic flow
is not smooth and traffic jams are quite usual. However, no
concrete steps have been taken so far to overcome the traffic
problems. There is an urgent need to build a new 2 way bridgeor flyover to enable smooth traffic flow across the bridge.
The traffic turning towards Airport and Rawat fromKHANNAPUL needs to be disciplined in a way that it does
not disturb the flow of traffic towards the Airport and Rawat
on the Islamabad Expressway. The illegal transport standsacross the two sides of the bridge should be demolished.
Also, the encroachments shall stay away from the main road
and the cooperation of venders in this regard would play a
vital role for smooth traffic flow.
By: Hafeez Ahmad
With the on-going scrutiny of finger prints by NADRA for general elections, it has
become obvious that the public mandate was stolen. This will result in loss of
public confidence in the electoral system of Pakistan. This alone is the biggest
blow possible to democracy. However it’s a relief that at least NADRA is playing itsrole in bringing transparency to the electoral process or exposing the lack thereof.
All the constituencies that have had their votes verified by NADRA, have proven
major discrepancies so it’s a national issue rather than a regional or provincial issue.
It seems the only Government body that is interested in transparency with regards
to elections in Pakistan is NADRA. Meanwhile, the only political party interested in
transparency seems to be PTI. KP Assembly has been debating biometric local
body elections for the past couple of weeks. It seems that the only hope for
transparency in future elections is the initiative of KP Government to hold first ever
biometric local body elections in Pakistan. This would serve as a successful model
for future general elections as well.
RIGGING IN
ELECTION AND ECPBy Sulaiman Malik
of 2007 and was amazed with the green pastures of
the city. During my run in I-8, I would change pathsto discover the dense forestry, spread all over the
surroundings. Some mornings were really hot, but
most were very pleasant in the summer, particularlyafter rain or during rain when a sweet smell was
prevalent. I hiked the trail in Islamabad leading up
high in the Margalla hills and enjoyed the work out.
Compared to Phoenix hikes, Islamabad Mountainsare softer and greener and certainly very much
worthwhile to hike, like the Phoenix Mountains that
I used to hike frequently as well. The view from the
top of the hike in Phoenix from the squaw peakmountain is breathtaking, and although I did not go
all the way up to the top in Islamabad, I am sure that
completing a hike and enjoying the final view inIslamabad would be as rewarding as it used to be in
Phoenix. Another difference I observed was that
traffic was a bit more orderly in Islamabad compared
to the chaos in Karachi. I could always find a parkingspot in the blue area where I frequently dined and in
Karachi it was certainly a pain in the neck to find a
parking space. I could even walk after having dinner
in blue area and felt safer in the city. Whenever, Itravelled from Karachi back to Islamabad, I could
breathe better because of so much less pollution in
Islamabad. Many people spoke of a lack of life andactivity in Islamabad which I found untrue. Jinnah
Super was always humming with life in the evenings
and although shops closed earlier in Islamabad, I did
not mind as I like to go to bed early anyways. All inall, I liked Islamabad to the point of buying an
accommodation here which was not very cheap.
Layout & Design Strategy: Salman BurkiEditor: Sulaiman Malik
by Insaf Professionals Forum - IslamabadIssue: 1 - December, 2013