Muhammad Asif Raza (PAS)

THE Quetta meeting of the National Finance Commission last week has made a marked progress on the outstanding issues related to vertical and horizontal distribution of financial resources. In a major departure from its past stand, Punjab has also agreed upon adoption of a formula based multiple criteria for distribution of the federal tax revenues between the provinces. But the more difficult part – determination of the weightage of different indicators in the multiple criteria formula for horizontal distribution of federal divisible pool funds – is yet to come. The major achievements made at the Quetta meeting included consensus over distribution of gas development surcharge (GDS) and gas royalty among the provinces. The NFC has recommended equalisation of GDS, gas royalty and its well-head price in order to remove reservations of Balochistan. After equalizing GDS, royalty and well-head price of gas, Balochistan would be the main beneficiary as it would get additional funds to the tun...

WASHINGTON : US Senator John Kerry, one of the co-authors of the Enhanced Partnership with Pakistan Act, has issued a list of 'myths and facts' about the proposed legislation also known as the Kerry-Lugar bill. This is how he explained the bill: Myth: The $7.5 billion authorised by the bill comes with strings attached for the people of Pakistan . Fact: There are no conditions on Pakistan attached to these funds. There are, however, strict measures of financial accountability on these funds that Congress is imposing on the US executive branch — not the Pakistani government, to make sure the money is being spent properly and for the purposes intended. Such accountability measures have been welcomed by Pakistani commentators to ensure that funds meant for schools, roads and clinics actually reach the Pakistani people and are not wasted. Myth: The bill impinges on Pakistan ’s sovereignty. Fact: Nothing in the bill threatens Pakistani sovereignty. Myth: The bill ...

WASHINGTON: The following is the text of the Kerry-Lugar Bill passed by the Senate on Thursday, Sept 24, 2009. It will now go to the House of Representatives and if passed without amendments, will be sent to President Barack Obama for signing into law: S.1707 Enhanced Partnership with Pakistan Act of 2009 (Engrossed as Agreed to or Passed by Senate) SEC. 203. LIMITATIONS ON CERTAIN ASSISTANCE. (a) Limitation on Security-related Assistance: For fiscal years 2011 through 2014, no security-related assistance may be provided to Pakistan in a fiscal year until the Secretary of State, under the direction of the President, makes the certification required under subsection (c) for such fiscal year. (b) Limitation on Arms Transfers: For fiscal years 2012 through 2014, no letter of offer to sell major defence equipment to Pakistan may be issued pursuant to the Arms Export Control Act (22 USC 2751 et seq.) and no license to export major defence equipment to Pakistan may be issued pursuant to such...

This should be a moment of somber introspection and reflection that a neighbour as old and close as Iran has had reason to point the finger, instantly, at Pakistan for complicity in the mayhem of Sistan, largely because of the common perception that it has become a kingpin in the American agenda for the region, of which Iran is a principal target. By Karamatullah K. Ghori THE deadly blast in Iran ’s Sistan province, bordering Pakistan , last October 17 has just added another gory di- mension to the saga of mayhem and mur- der already engulfing Pakistan and Afghanistan . The wave of terror has reached the shores of Iran , a relative is- land of tranquility until now. It’s an open secret that Iran has long been in the cross-hairs of those who would like to redraw the map of the re- gion around Iran and Pakistan . They have developed enormous stakes in it, especially since the occupation of Iraq . Ace investigative journalist, Seymour Hersch, reported in The New...

ALTHOUGH the fighting in the north of Sri Lanka ended six months ago, you wouldn’t know it from the security checks still in place in and around Colombo, as well as across the rest of the country. Manned by the army as well as the police, these are stark and ever-present reminders of the brutal civil war that saw over 80,000 dead in 34 years of conventional and guerrilla warfare. Having won the war, the government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa is now struggling to win the peace. After the fighting ended in May, over a quarter of a million Tamils found themselves in enclosed camps, living in appalling conditions. But gradually, the situation has improved, and according to the UN, nearly a hundred thousand internally displaced persons (IDPs) have been released. But whether they have much to return to is questionable. Years of fighting have devastated their villages and farms, apart from wrecking the infrastructure in the north and the east. Another problem many of these unfortunate Tami...