Published in the Friday Times
Sir,
According to the news, the government is considering to enhance the sales tax rate from 15 per cent to 17.5 per cent in the forthcoming budget. This step will only serve to enrich the smugglers and those who indulge in the under-invoicing and mis-declaration of imported goods. What is needed is the imposition of VAT or sales tax at the retail stage. Billions can be collected by strictly enforcing this measure.
Shakir Lakhani
Karachi
Published in the Friday Times
Sir,
As usual, the government has penalised industrialists who are desperately trying to run their factories. By increasing sales tax; withholding tax; and taxing electricity bills, salaries, and other measures, the authorities have dealt a death blow to the already sick industrial sector of the country. At the same time, nothing has been done to tax those who are looting the country. The smugglers and those who indulge in underinvoicing and misdeclaration of imported goods have not been touched. Neither have retailers been axed. Absolutely no steps have been taken to generate employment. Instead of revenue, this budget will generate more thieves, robbers and smugglers. But then, in the words of the prime minister, these are also "honourable men," like the hoarders and black-marketers. Why not re-name the country "Smuggleristan" or "Corruptistan"?
Shakir Lakhani
Karachi
Published in the Friday Times on March 7, 2008
Sir,
Although the people rejected Musharraf and his allies in the elections, the Americans are not happy. They think Musharraf is indispensable for Pakistan. They have been pressuring both Zardari and Nawaz to let Musharraf remain in office. So what was the point in holding elections? Why did we waste those millions on asking the people what they wanted if we can't decide fr ourselves who our leaders should be? Why doesn't the US dictate to India who should be president or prime minister? There is only one way forward now: restoration of the sacked judges and accountability of those who looted the country during the past five years. The nation would love to know what happened to all that flour which we had in such abundant quantity, that our prime minister exported it and then we had to import it at a huge loss.
Shakir Lakhani
Karachi
Published in Daily Times on October 5, 2007
Embed from Getty ImagesSir,
One can now expect PPP chairperson Ms. Benazir Bhutto to say anything to please her foreign masters. First, she said that she would allow the IAEA to interrogate Dr. A Q Khan. Now comes the statement that she would allow the US to bomb targets in Pakistan. I suppose we shouldn't be surprised if her next proposal would be to ask the Indian government to send troops into our tribal areas to put down the militants. It seems that Ms. Bhutto puts a higher value on her political ambitions than the sovereignty and dignity of the country.
Shakir Lakhani
Karachi
Published in the Friday Times
Sir,
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| Photo Credit: The Friday Times |
Whenever a man is killed and a case registered, the relatives of the murderer force the heirs of the victim to withdraw the FIR. Why can't we treat every assault and every murder as a crime against the state and take away from the victim or his heirs the power to forgive the assailants or killers? The way things are, according to the Qisas and Diyat laws, the murder of a wealthy man can be arranged by his heirs, who can then forgive the killer. If these laws are withdrawn, the assailants or killers will no longer be able to threaten a victim or his heirs
Shakir Lakhani
Karachi
Published in the Friday Times
This is with reference to the letter under the caption "The real moral lesson "(Oct, 30). The writer has suggested that the scriptures should also be consulted for finding the reasons for the recent earthquake.
I'm not an expert on religious matters, but all the religious scholars in the mosques I pray in are of the unanimous opinion that the earthquake occurred because of the sins and moral corruption of the people of the area.
They also say that the time of death of each individual is fixed, which means that those who died in the quake-stricken regions would have perished at the exact time of their deaths even if there had been no earthquake.
Therefore, we cannot blame the builder of the Margalla Towers, since those who were unlucky enough to be buried under the rubble would have died anyway, even if the building had not collapsed. Consequently, there is no use making rules and regulations to force builders to construct earthquake-resistant structures.
Will someone who knows about such things shed light on this matter.
Shakir Lakhani
Karachi
Published in the Friday Times on September 14, 2007
Sir,
According to a news item, a nine-year old boy killed one person and injured another after seeing his father fire a gun in the air while celebrating Independence Day.Even if the victim;s family agrees to a compromise and does not take legal action, the police are ignorant of two other crimes committed by the boy's father.
First, he should have kept his gun securely locked in a safe place, and second, he should never have fired his gun into the air. Too many people have been killed or injured when people resort to aerial firing during wedding celebrations, and I knew someone who almost died when a bullet came down from the skies and pierced his shoulder blades. The police should register a case against a boy's father for these two offences.
Shakir Lakhani
Karachi
Sir,
I think there's something wrong with the country if the leader of its main opposition party says that the earthquake is due to God's anger and his daughter blames what she calls "obscenity" in the media for the deaths of thousands of children, amongst many others. If earthquakes are the wrath of God, why do they occur beneath the oceans where no humans (and therefore no obscenity) exist? I agree with the religious leaders: we have to change our lifestyles. But not in the direction they want We need more science programmes on television and more emphasis on scientific education so that our people no longer need mullahs to explain the causes of natural disasters. So no marks for guessing why the mullas are so strenuously opposed to modern education!
Shakir Lakhani
Karachi
Published in The Friday Times on October 15-21, 2004
Sir,
It was rumoured that a holiday would be declared in Karachi on October 6, so that people could see a cricket match between Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
This is a good thing, since it will help us in our heartfelt quest to be ranked the poorest country on the planet. Seeing that we're so good at multiplying, it won't be long before our population exceeds that of China. And more holidays will certainly help us attain that target speedily. Industrial production and expert targets don't mean anything to the 95 percent of our countrymen who're still living in the seventh century.
And while we're at it, why not declare holidays during the entire month of of Ramazan? I've yet to meet a real red-blooded Pakistani muslim doing any work without complaining while fasting.
Shakir Lakhani
Karachi
Published in the Friday Times on November 25, 2005
Sir,
Te new chief executive of a public company that manufactures and sells electric power will draw a salary of only Rupees 18 million per year, or 15 lakhs per month - in addition to transportation allowances and the Provident Fund. He has graciously declined to accept any other benefits under the service rules (although he is fully entitled to all of them). It's so nice to know there are such people in the country who are not greedy and who have the interests of the shareholders at heart.
Shakir Lakhani,
Karachi
Published in The Friday Times on September 21-27, 2007
Sir,
Why is so much fuss being made over Shoab Akbar's swipe at Asif? After all, Shoaib is just a boy(only 32), and you should not deprive him of these small pleasures. In fact, he should be allowed to get away with a couple of murders as well. These things happen in the great game of cricket. You can't be a good bowler if people get upset when you hit another cricketer with your bat. What are bats for if you can't use them for striking people? I think we should let him loosen up whenever he wants to. The best way to relax is to see one of your teammates double up in pain after you have hit him with your bat.
Shakir Lakhani
Karachi
Published in The Friday Times on April 2005
Sir,
Every year, people who have nothing else to do raise doubts about Karachi being the birthplace of Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah. These people clearly have vested interests in declaring Jheruk as Mr. Jinnah's birthplace. Jheruk was never a part of Karachi. In fact, Sindh itself was part of the Bombay Presidency at the time the Quaid was born, so why don't these people say that he was born in Bombay? Why do they ignore the great man's statements that Karachi was his birthplace?
Regarding the history books published by the Sindh Texbook Board which mention Jheruk as his place of birth, it is well-known that in the early days after the Partition, there was practically no supervision and thus someone got this inaccuracy inserted in the text books at the time. This sort of thing is being done even now. Former Indian deputy Prime Minister Mr LK Advani has said many times that he was born in Karachi, yet I have seen articles and met people who claim that he was born in Advani Mohalla, Hyderabad.
Shakir Lakhani,
Karachi.
Published in the Friday Times on March, 2005
At no time in history (except perhaps before the crash of 1929) have stock prices risen so spectacularly as in the past two months on the KSE. According to KSE chief, the surge is not artificial. We know that no huge oil reserves have been discovered, there have been no dramatic changes in the profitability of the PTCL. Six months ago, the Balochistan crisis would have caused the market to plunge by at least a thousand points. We should not forget the surges have always been followed by steep declines. One can only pray that the small investors don't go bankrupt in case of a crash.
Shakir Lakhani
Karachi
