Imran Khan questioned the decision making process in Pakistan today. Why is parliament not kept in the loop. Just like the previous PLMN government when all decisions were made by Abbajee (the brains in the family) in the kitchen cabinet, now all PPP stalwarts ahve been pushed out of the process and decisions are made by the traitors like Husain Haqqani

The PMLN is supporting the governemnt yet its ministers have resigned–not working but getting paid. The foregin reserves up from $200 million to $17 Billion are down $10 billion Dollars in the past 100 days–and sinking. PM Gilan cannot lift a finger without the approval of unelected Zardari and unelected Sahrif who tour the world to make decision—not made in parliament

Duh! I didn’t know–tubelight hasn’t come on yet!

http://rupeenews.com/2008/07/03/duh-i-didnt-know-tubelight-hasnt-come-on-yet/

PPPP PMLN incompetence pushing Pakistan into IMF trap AGAIN

http://rupeenews.com/2008/07/07/pppp-incompetence-pushing-pakistan-into-imf-trap/

Go Haqqani Go! “Haqqani is a traitor”! Haqqani hecklers speak for Pakistan

http://rupeenews.com/2008/06/29/go-haqqani-go-haqqani-is-a-traitor-haqqani-hecklers-speak-for-pakistan/

A mouse roars in Kabul, a jackass breys in DC. Inaudible grunts from the PMs house

http://rupeenews.com/2008/06/23/a-mouse-roars-in-kabul-a-jackass-breys-in-dc-inaudible-grunts-from-the-pms-house/

It was with the help of some devine providence, a turn in international events and with much difficulty that the previous government extricated Pakistan from the jaws of the IMF. Within 100 days the PMLN-PPPP coalition governemnt has pushed the country on the brink of being sucked into an insidous IMF ambuscade.

Pakistan may have to eat IMF humble pie againISLAMABAD: The biggest challenge lying before the government is to prevent Pakistan falling into the IMF programme during the current fiscal, as any slippages resulting into growing imbalance on external front will force the incumbent regime to seek Balance of Payment (BoP) support from the Fund.

“The government has envisaged imports growth in the range of 6.5 per cent and exports growth 16% for 2008-09 in order to curtail the current account deficit hovering around $13 billion. If any slippages occurred on external front, the government will be forced to approach the IMF again for seeking BoP support,” official sources confirmed while talking to media here on Sunday.

The rapid depreciation of rupee against another weaker currency US dollar has touched its low level of Rs 70.15 against one US dollar. The rupee is under extreme pressure because of depleting foreign currency reserves, which are now reported to be around $11.2 billion.

“The current account deficit surged up to $15 billion against foreign inflows of $10 billion, resulting into creating yawning deficit of $5 billion on account of external front in the last fiscal year 2007-08, ended on June 30, 2008,” the sources said and added that the government had to utilise $5 billion from its hard earned foreign exchange reserves to fill this gap.

How long can Pakistan afford to spend its precious foreign currency reserves in order to fill the gap? the sources questioned while pointing out that the foreign reserves had already depleted by over $5 billion in last few months. The sources conceded that there was no realisation of grave situation at the highest level of the PPP led coalition government so they were unable to devise damage control strategy.

Suggesting strategy to avoid falling into the trap of the IMF programme, the sources said that there were many ifs ands buts involved in it as the government would have to reduce its trade deficit by scaling down imports of all kinds of luxury items. The government has taken certain measures in the budget 2008-09 but there are requirements to take more actions on this front in the upcoming Trade Policy 2008-09, which would be announced on July 22, 2008.

“The privatisation process should be accelerated, the FDI should be encouraged,” said the sources and added in the same breath that after stabilising macroeconomic situation and normalizing heated political environment, Islamabad will have to again move into the bond market in order to arrange few hundred million dollars to bridge its yawning gap. If the government remained unable to take all these corrective measures, there will be no other choice but to seek the IMF support again, which will be a great insult for the whole nation.

Recalling the disgrace meted out by the multilateral creditors by imposing conditionalities, the sources said the World Bank Mission came to Pakistan before the announcement of the budget 2008-09 and their tone was changed as our all out efforts failed to get the desired results.

The WB, the sources said, is lending multilateral institutions but they were not ready to lend money without imposing very tough conditions. “If some one gives you money, you will have to comply with its conditions,” the sources commented. The sources opined that the government`s full attention was towards political issues but the biggest challenge was emerging on the economic front. “This government lacks the vision as well as the strategy to tackle crucial issues and without giving economy its first priority the complex issues cannot be resolved,” they concluded

THE IMF MANDATED ECONOMIC RESTRUCTURING IS POISON FOR PAKISTAN

“Strong Economic Medicine”: Weakening Pakistan’s Central Government

Pakistan has a federal structure based on federal provincial transfers. Under a federal fiscal structure, the central government transfers financial resources to the provinces, with a view to supporting provincial based programs. When these transfers are frozen as occurred in Yugoslavia in January 1990, on orders of the IMF, the federal fiscal structure collapses:

“State revenues that should have gone as transfer payments to the republics [of the Yugoslav federation] went instead to service Belgrade’s debt … . The republics were largely left to their own devices. … The budget cuts requiring the redirection of federal revenues towards debt servicing, were conducive to the suspension of transfer payments by Belgrade to the governments of the Republics and Autonomous Provinces.

In one fell swoop, the reformers had engineered the final collapse of Yugoslavia’s federal fiscal structure and mortally wounded its federal political institutions. By cutting the financial arteries between Belgrade and the republics, the reforms fueled secessionist tendencies that fed on economic factors as well as ethnic divisions, virtually ensuring the de facto secession of the republics. (Michel Chossudovsky, The Globalization of Poverty and the New World Order, Second Edition, Global Research, Montreal, 2003, Chapter 17.)

It is by no means accidental that the 2005 National Intelligence Council- CIA report had predicted a “Yugoslav-like fate” for Pakistan pointing to the impacts of “economic mismanagement” as one of the causes of political break-up and balkanization.

“Economic mismanagement” is a term used by the Washington based international financial institutions to describe the chaos which results from not fully abiding by the IMF’s Structural Adjustment Program. In actual fact, the “economic mismanagement” and chaos is the outcome of IMF-World Bank prescriptions, which invariably trigger hyperinflation and precipitate indebted countries into extreme poverty.

Pakistan has been subjected to the same deadly IMF “economic medicine” as Yugoslavia: In 1999, in the immediate wake of the coup d’Etat which brought General Pervez Musharaf to the helm of the military government, an IMF economic package, which included currency devaluation and drastic austerity measures, was imposed on Pakistan. Pakistan’s external debt is of the order of US$40 billion. The IMF’s “debt reduction” under the package was conditional upon the sell-off to foreign capital of the most profitable State owned enterprises (including the oil and gas facilities in Balochistan) at rockbottom prices .

There are obvious similarities in the nature of US covert intelligence operations applied in country after country in different parts of the so-called “developing World”. These covert operation, including the organisation of military coups, are often synchronized with the imposition of IMF-World Bank macro-economic reforms. In this regard, Yugoslavia’s federal fiscal structure collapsed in 1990 leading to mass poverty and heightened ethnic and social divisions. The US and NATO sponsored “civil war” launched in mid-1991 consisted in coveting Islamic groups as well as channeling covert support to separatist paramilitary armies in Bosnia, Kosovo and Macedonia.

A similar “civil war” scenario has been envisaged for Pakistan by the National Intelligence Council and the CIA: From the point of view of US intelligence, which has a longstanding experience in abetting separatist “liberation armies”, “Greater Albania” is to Kosovo what “Greater Balochistan” is to Pakistan’s Southeastern Balochistan province. Similarly, the KLA is Washington’s chosen model, to be replicated in Balochistan province. (Michel Chossudovsky is the author of the international bestseller America’s “War on Terrorism” Global Research, 2005. He is Professor of Economics at the University of Ottawa and Director of the Center for Research on Globalization)