BUSINESS NEWS IN BRIEF...13.06.2011

Business News

Monday, June 13, 2011 08:49

- Asian shares mostly off after Wall St tumbles

- Oil mixed in Asian trade
OPEC also said in Friday''s report that it expected global oil demand to increase by 1.6 percent to 88.14 million barrels per day in 2011, slightly lower than its previous forecast. However, it added, "A volatile oil market is making future oil demand estimates hard to manage." (AFP)

- Trade under Pak-Afghan transit from Monday
Officials said biometric system would be installed within the next three to four weeks.

- KPK presents Rs 249 bn budget
ve the expected income and remove deficiencies of the system.

- Pak Railways to run business trains
The GM Railways said that an amount of Rs220 million, incurred by private sector, is being spent on renovation of these business trains.

- KP budget with Rs249bn outlay today

- KSE-100 Index gains on fresh buying
Dealers expect a steady market in the coming days, despite the hit to sentiment from the government''s decision to maintain a capital gains tax on individual investments in the budget for the fiscal year 2011/12 (July-June), announced last week. (Reuters)

- KSE-100 index surges 47.63 points
In the money market, overnight rates remained at the top level of 13.90 percent, unchanged from previous day''s close amid tight liquidity in the interbank market. (Reuters)

- Punjab announces Rs 655 billion budget
A 15 percent increase in the salaries of government employees has been allocated in the budget. Rs 23.90 billion have been allocated for education and Rs. 26.40 billion for health. Rs 50 billion have been allocated for the Police and maintenance of law and order in the province.

- Most Asian shares mixed, China trade fears weigh

To Presidency, via WikiLeaks
The WikiLeaks have elicited no government investigation, no suo motu notice. But for those who care, they have achieved something bigger. They have agitated the political animals and if reputations are worth creating and protecting, WikiLeaks have enriched data reputation and images are built upon and broken.
There is the secular MQM which wants to be taken note of by the Americans. There is Maulana Fazlur Rahman who, perhaps inspired by rumours of US-Taliban parleys in Pakistan and Afghanistan, promotes himself as the prime minister of the country and advising the US not to put all its eggs in the PPP’s basket. There are the Sharifs who are let down by the Americans who they can contradict, and the Saudis who they can’t. And of course, there is Asif Ali Zardari.
I for one find it difficult to say if the cables enhance Mr Zardari’s reputation or detract from it. It is detraction if the desire is to see a would-be or sitting Pakistani president to hold its own against the Americans, even if as a client but as a client who knows his rights. It is enhancement if Mr Zardari is to be measured on the old scale of just how much sympathy he can generate. I know a few people out there dislike him. In my case, after going through the Leaks, I felt more sympathy for my president than I had ever done.
As the WikiLeaks helps recreate the scene, consider the mountains Mr Zardari had to scale as he pieced together a PPP government after the 2008 general election. His problems have been well documented by the cables the American envoys in Pakistan sent to Washington. One of these cables dating back to a day or two before the Feb 2008 polls spells out his preference for Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi as the prime minister of his party (Mr Zardari was duly advised against it given the chances of Mr Qureshi holding his own). In this message and others, he is seen pondering over his choices and Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani figures as more unlikely prime minister in these.
Mr Gilani’s name was far below Mr Qureshi’s and Aftab Shaban Mirani’s in a list of probables that in its original form had Mr Zardari on the top. He did wonder aloud about his own candidacy. It is unclear if he dropped out purely under advice of the then ISI chief Maj General Nadeem Taj or there were some other factors (as well) behind his decision. In any event, Mr Zardari appears to have been denied what he must have considered as his privilege as the head of the biggest political party.
In a cable belonging to the period soon after his Murree declaration along with Nawaz Sharif, Mr Zardari displays his knowledge of Pakistan’s political history when he says that 30 days could often extend to 80 or 90 in the country. As he speaks in the context of the pledge he had made to Mr Sharif to restore the judiciary in a month, it is here that he escapes the pale of a sympathetic analysis and offers himself for a scrutiny by those wanting to judge a politician on the basis of his political guile. But such diversions are momentary and before long the right course is rediscovered.
The WikiLeaks confirms the names of a couple of men Mr Zardari felt duty-bound to protect. One of them was a general by the name of Pervez Musharraf while the other was Abdul Hameed Dogar who Musharraf had chosen as his chief judge after deposing Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry and many of his colleagues on the bench. Mr Zardari, as a president who would have been a prime minister, appears to be lacking in the powers worthy of his high office as he fails to honour the promise he had made to these two gentlemen. In the bargain, he gets a few more sympathetic gasps out of the forever sympathetic folks like yours truly.
The feeling turns to that of protest if not of outright grief as another cable in the Dawn-WikiLeaks Pakistan Papers collection has Mr Zardari complaining how arch rival Nawaz Sharif felt no threat to his life from the militants. Not only this, he is actually quoted as telling a US envoy that he was broke and couldn’t even pay his private guards.
That is one image to have for a very watchful politician who is so eager about public perceptions that, again according on the authority of a WikiLeaks cable, he had once asked his party’s MPs to sacrifice their expensive wrist watches and sport cheaper versions more in sync with the times.
A tick equal to the value of a tickle or a bit too ticklish than that – have your pick. But with growing, overpowering sympathy, to me it was an innocent attempt at keeping your wards under your watch.
Low rate of terrorists’ conviction worries military
ISLAMABAD: The military authorities have expressed serious concern over what they call dismally low rate of terrorists’ conviction by courts throughout the country and have asked the government to see if some necessary changes could be made in relevant laws, Dawn has learnt through reliable sources.
At a recent meeting between top civilian and military leadership, the sources said, the issue of increasing number of terrorists securing easy acquittals from courts, mainly in the absence of adequate evidence, came up and it was decided to have a complete review of the law of evidence.
The meeting decided to review all laws relating to handling of terrorists, in particular the law of evidence should be carefully studied and loopholes be identified for amendment or where there was a need for addition or a new law, the matter must be decided on a priority basis by the ministry of law.
The military, the sources said, was particularly worried about the terrorists who had been arrested since the launch of army operations in Malakand division and Fata, but eventually acquitted by courts.
However, Barrister Zafarullah Khan, a Supreme Court lawyer, found little wisdom in the suggestion for amending the law of evidence which, he said, was in practice in several countries and being successfully implemented.
Accepting the alarmingly low rate of conviction of terrorists, some of them caught red-handed by law-enforcement agencies, Mr Khan said the problem wasn’t with the contents of law of evidence but with the prosecution department of police. And it’s a countrywide problem, not restricted to any particular province and area, he added.
Mr Khan, who was a prosecution lawyer in the murder case of General (retired) Ameer Faisal Alvi who was killed in Islamabad in November 2008 and the accused were set free for lack of evidence, said that in the wake of increasing terrorists attacks in the country, law-enforcement agencies were facing problem at three different levels in securing judgments against terrorists.
One, he said, it was difficult to find an eyewitness in cases of suicide bombing or other terrorist activities. In legal terms, an eyewitness is considered an irrefutable piece of evidence. But eyewitnesses preferred to stay away for fear of reprisals from terrorist organisations involved in the crime, he added. Also in such cases there is always a joint investigation team comprising police, the FIA and intelligence agencies which although find causes of, and leads to a certain incident, provide little help in prosecuting an accused.
In the Marriot bombing case and Parade Lane Mosque attack, courts had to acquit the accused for lack of evidence, said Mr Khan. In response to a question, he said the government needed to pay special attention to prosecution departments of police. He said instead of appointing a government lawyer after investigation into a certain case, the prosecution should be involved from day one so that it could get hold of presentable evidence.
“What is happening at the moment, police although complete their investigation they don’t collect adequate evidence from court’s point of view. As a result, an accused easily manages to secure a favourable judgment,” said Mr Khan.
The failure of prosecution by police was also substantiated by a Supreme Court official involved in monitoring provincial anti-terrorism courts. The official, who preferred not to be named, said that in majority of cases in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the
province which had a dismally low conviction rate, police had hardly provided one pager statements. In some cases, he said, even FIRs were found missing. Hence the criticism of judiciary for lack of conviction of terrorists was highly misplaced.
Yes, it is a fact that in the absence of modern gadgetries, police cannot provide forensic evidence which in many cases can be used to convict terrorists. The government should pay special attention to the matter, said the official.
However, he agreed that there was a need of review of not only the law of evidence but also the entire legal set-up created in 1997 by the then prime minister Nawaz Sharif to counter terrorist activities.
Over the past 10 years or so, the official said, the country had faced different types of terrorist activities and, therefore, the legal system needed to be revised accordingly.
Shortage of urea Cotton, rice production targets may be missed
Pakistan may miss the production targets of cotton and rice in 2011-12 as the first consignment of urea would not reach Pakistan by the end of July, reducing productivity of Kharif crops by 15-20 percent. The government has set GDP growth target for 2011-12 at 4.2 percent with contribution of agriculture sectors of 3.4 percent, with major crops accounting for 3 percent, minor crops 2 percent, livestock 4 percent, fishery 2 percent and forestry -1 percent.

Sources told Business Recorder that the Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) has made certain arrangements to import urea from the international market to bridge the shortage of the commodity in the domestic market. TCP has been tasked to import 50,000 tons of urea because the commodity's import under Saudi Arabia Basic Industry Corporation (SABIC) has been delayed.

"Cotton and rice are the major crops that would be affected as a consequence. This, in turn, will have a severe impact on overall GDP of the country. Thus, non-availability of urea at this critical period of time when the major crops, especially cotton, needs fertiliser, can reduce the crop's overall productivity by 15-20 percent and thereby reduce the overall GDP growth in the next fiscal year", sources said.

"Two-three bags of urea are used per acre of land. If the quantity of the fertilizer used is reduced by just 10 percent, the overall productivity per acre would be reduced by about 4-5 percent", they added.

The requirement of urea is 6.4 million tons against its 6.7 million tons production capacity but short supply of gas to the fertilizer manufacturing plants has resulted in lower output of urea compelling the government to import the commodity.

The fertilizer-manufacturing companies have been provided 80 percent of their gas requirements since January 2011. One urea manufacturing plant of Engro stopped operation owing to the gas shortage.

Sources said that the government is providing gas to the manufacturing plants at discounted rates that accounts for Rs 320 per urea bag less than it would have been otherwise priced.

Ibrahim Mughal, Chairmam of Agriforum, told Business Recorder, "The farmers don't want any subsidy to be extended to the fertiliser-manufacturing companies because the effect of this subsidy is not passed on to the farmers and the middle man gets the entire benefit". He added that the price should be explicitly printed on each bag.

He said, "Research and Development (R&D) in Pakistan needs special attention. It is really pathetic that Pakistan has not developed its seeds used in the production of major crops. Every year, millions of rupees are spent by the governmental agricultural departments to import seeds. In Pakistan, these imported seeds are sold at 3 times their imported price."

Mohammed Saleem Mansoori