Raid the evaders

April 27, 2024

This refers to the news report ‘FBR mulling options to penalize unregistered traders’ (April 25, 2024). While the imposition of an extra tax of 10 to 15 per cent on unregistered traders appears feasible, it is not likely to succeed unless smuggling is curtailed.

Since most of our traders are unregistered, they will simply buy from smugglers. There are many markets in Pakistan where smuggled items are sold. It would be more beneficial for the country if such shops are raided and the seized goods are auctioned off.

Shakir Lakhani

Karachi

https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/1182644-raid-the-evaders

 

After the recent general elections, Gallup Pakistan said that their predictions had turned out to be true. Their opinion polls had forecast that Imran Khan was popular in KP (45%) while Nawaz Sharif was popular in Punjab (35%) with Imran Khan very close (34%). The election results were exactly what their surveys had suggested.

Recently, however, Gallup Pakistan revealed that in Pakistan 84% of those surveyed supported the imposition of taxes, while 11% were opposed to paying any tax. In my opinion, it should have been the opposite. Most people in Pakistan either don't pay income tax (or hate paying it), so it's evident that those who said yes were actually scared that they would be victimized by the government if they said no. The surveyors probably conducted the poll in urban areas, if they had gone into the countryside and asked, they would have been beaten up.

So far, no surveyor has ever asked me for my opinion, so I wonder just who do they ask their questions. It looks like they have a permanent list of three thousand people who are asked for their opinions.  

Imran Khan's wife Bushra whom some people call Baysharam (shameless) Bushra, has been acting strangely in recent days. Confined to her husband's palace in Bani Gala to serve a jail sentence, she claims that she's being slowly poisoned by her government appointed guards. It was she who persuaded the government into keeping her at the house, as she didn't want to go to jail, but after her jailed party workers protested, she wants to serve her sentence in Adiala jail (where her husband is living in luxurious surroundings). 

The government got her examined by doctors who found nothing physically wrong with her. The day before yesterday, after all her medical reports were found to be normal, she complained of pain in her stomach, so the government again sent three lady physicians who examined her and advised her to change her eating habits. 

I, however, believe that she's trying to fool the government to send her to where her friend Fara Gogi has gone after taking the looted jewelry and cash accumulated by Bushra. Either that, or Bushra is suffering from severe depression, caused by anxiety and worrying that Fara will refuse to hand the looted money back to her. 

I hope the courts don't fall into the trap to let her go. But considering that Imran Khan has so far managed to "convince" senior judges, anything is possible.

 

Going cashless

Monday, Apr 22, 2024

The high crime rate in Karachi and many other parts of the country makes me wonder why people are forced to carry so much cash, even when they know that they can be robbed any minute. It is time for the government to make some rules that help turn the country into a cashless society. One way to do it is to ban the use of cash to make purchases over a certain amount (say Rs5000). Another would be to reward those who pay their bills via cheques or online payments. Unfortunately, some banks charge a fee from those who make online payments. I recently started paying my credit card bill online via my bank account (in a separate bank from the one that issued me the credit card) and I was shocked to find that the receiving bank charges a rupee for every thousand rupees if the payment is made electronically. Needless to say, this encourages one to make payments by cash, and indirectly increases the incidence of street crimes while also helping facilitate white collar crimes such as tax evasion, embezzlement, bribery, and smuggling.

Shakir Lakhani

Karachi

https://e.thenews.com.pk/detail?id=300185

Two recent events have shattered the illusion that the UAE is a modern, efficient state. The first was the Iranian drone and missile attack on Israel, the other was the recent flooding of streets after heavy rains.

After the Iranian strike, flights to and from the UAE were affected. The residents were panic-stricken and spent sleepless nights. In an all-out war between Israel and Iran, the UAE would be the most affected nation, being Iran's close neighbor and having a large population of Iranians. 

The recent heavy rains also proved that the UAE is unprepared for emergencies. Every road and almost every building in the emirates was flooded, with more than knee-deep water everywhere. The country had to close down for three or four days, and Dubai airport is still not fully functional. The Emirates and FlyDubai airlines dumped their passengers in nearby airports and did not give them water or food for many hours. Dubai police also beat up many passengers who protested.

The question arises: will the UAE successfully cope when a war breaks out in the region? I doubt it. At the first landing of a missile in the country, people will rush to airports and the nearest borders, desperately trying to leave the country. 

In 2005 I went to Saudi Arabia for performing Haj with my wife and daughter. We wanted to see the huge cemetery outside Madina where some Muslims had been killed in the early days of Islam, But the Pakistani bus driver prevented my wife and daughter from going there, as Islam didn't allow it. At the gate of the cemetery was a huge signboard with a saying from the Prophet (pbuh) according to which women are allowed to visit graveyards. I went back to the Pakistani bus driver and told him about it. His response was that it was not true and that Arabs don't know the real Islam.

An imam of a mosque in DHA said the other day that women are not allowed to pray in mosques as it is against the teachings of Islam. Apparently he's never been to Saudi Arabia, where women pray in practically every mosque.

I have heard from other deeply religious men that women are responsible for all the world's problems, like floods, earthquakes and other natural disasters. But I can't understand how they have reached such conclusions. Such people are convinced that women should not be allowed to go out of their houses (unless it's absolutely necessary, like rushing to a hospital for delivery of their babies). Until recently, Saudi scholars were propagating that those women driving cars would suffer from all kinds of diseases, including cancer. Which is why women were not allowed to drive cars until recently.

The question remains: why do they hate women so much? 

Finally, Iran retaliated after Israel's killing of its general and others in its embassy in Damascus. It sent three hundred drones and missiles from its own territory to Israel. Bu most of the projectiles were shot down before landing in Israel (the Jordanian Air Force played a major role in this).

But new details emerging after the attack suggest that it was more of a face-saving exercise by Iran (abetted by the US). The fact that Iran informed the US before launching the missiles proves this. As the US (and therefore Israel) knew about the attack just before it happened, they were ready with their anti-missile system and neutralized most of the drones and missiles before any damage could be done. Ironically, the only casualty was a Muslim girl, who was seriously injured. There was some damage to a military base, but it was insignificant.

Did Iran get any benefit from its so-called attack? None, as far as I can discern. But Israel is the real beneficiary. Now the attention of the world has been diverted from Gaza, where Israel can go on killing Palestinian children. As expected, the West criticized Iran severely, even though they said nothing when Israel killed the Iranians in Damascus.

The US and Israel also now know that their anti-missile defense system is near-perfect. It increasingly appears that Iran was trapped by the US into attacking Israel.

 Even though I'm only partially retired (I spend three hours daily at work), most of my time now is spent at home. Fortunately I've always been physically and mentally active, so for me retirement is not the hell it is for most men of my age.

I grew up in a house where everyone spent a lot of time reading. My father was an avid reader who spent a fortune on books, magazines and newspapers. Even after TV came to Pakistan, he never gave up reading. We used to have four morning English newspapers, two Gujarati morning papers, three English and one Gujarati evening papers. Besides all this, he used to subscribe to Readers Digest, Saturday Evening Post, Time and Newsweek, plus two weekly Indian English newspapers. He would also buy novels (Edgar Wallace, Erle Stanley Gardner, Leslie Charteris, Rex Stout and others). Reading all that stuff resulted in my being the most knowledgeable boy in school. 

Now that I am almost retired, my reading habit has proved very useful. I read at least one book every week (some are books written a hundred years ago, others are recent), and I watch movies and dramas on Netflix. I also spend a lot of time walking.

Yesterday at the annual family Eid dinner, I saw how incredibly ignorant my nephews and nieces are. I wanted to tell them to read as much as possible, but they are addicted to video clips sent by their friends through Whattsapp, so their general knowledge is virtually nil. I don't see how they can survive into their old age without succumbing to dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

 

In Zia-ul-Haq's days, it was common for criminals to be sentenced to many lashes, even though it was repugnant. I remember a Memon being sentenced to many lashes (he was a diamond and narcotics smuggler). A relative told me a man is rendered impotent after receiving so many lashes. Another Memon told me that the convict paid a huge amount to be lashed lightly. I saw him many times after he was released, and he seemed in normal health.

After a long time, a man has been sentenced by a woman judge in Karachi to eighty lashes for falsely accusing his wife of committing adultery. This is welcome news, although I doubt if the sentence will be carried out. The man had refused to provide for his wife and baby daughter, claiming that the child was not his, as his wife had bad character and was having extra-marital relations. His wife had got him prosecuted, and he was given the sentence. I think it would have been better if he'd been sentenced to at least five years in jail.  

In another piece of news, a woman was shot dead for marrying against the wishes of her family. This is very common in the country. Even in the twenty first century, Pakistani women are regarded as the properties of their fathers and brothers, who simply can't tolerate their sisters refusing to marry their cousins. 

 

Beyond the tradition

IT is an established Pakistani tradition by now for all losers to cry foul right after general elections. The refusal to accept the election results, of course, is part of the tradition. The tradition stops right here, or at least it used to stop right here. Never before had a losing party appealed to foreigners to interfere in our internal affairs. Even in the massively rigged elections of 2018, the losing parties had not damaged Pakistan’s image by seeking intervention from countries and entities abroad for their own vested interests.

But today, the party that got the largest number of seats in the recent elections is doing its best to hurt the country by seeking help from anyone who in its wisdom can help its cause. First, the party officially wrote to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to demand a forensic investigation into the election results before finalising its programme with the government. Then some of its supporters staged a demonstration outside the IMF headquarters in the United States, demanding that Pakistan should not get a loan.

So, then, what next? Why not ask the IMF or the World Bank to come here, and conduct fresh elections in the country?

Shakir Lakhani

Karachi

April 7, 2024

https://www.dawn.com/news/1826234/beyond-the-tradition