Judges appointment on 5-5-14

IT could only be whispered during the era of the all-powerful Iftikhar Chaudhry, but judicial
overreach had become an uncomfortable fact of life.

And perhaps, from an institutional and democratic perspective, nowhere was the overreach more
troublesome than the court eroding the authority of parliament in critical areas. The sacking of a
prime minister was a spectacular example of that overreach, given that it could be argued quite
robustly that it was parliament`s, and specifically the speaker of the National Assembly`s,
constitutional jurisdiction to determine disqualification in the circumstances of Yousuf Raza
Gilani`s conviction. Yet, there was an even more troublesome example of judicial overreach and
it came in the wake of the 18th Amendment when the Supreme Court led by then chief justice
Chaudhry took issue with the new appointment process for judges of the superior judiciary. Until
then, never had it been suggested that a constitutional amendment could be judicially reviewed
and it seemed astunning development that a Supreme Court may even contemplate striking down
a constitutional amendment.

In the end, the court refrained from declaring parts of the 18th Amendment unconstitutional, but
made its preferences clear leading to a meek surrender by parliament in the name of the 19th
Amendment. As a result, the court had achieved an appointment process for superior court
judges that would largely be driven by the superior judiciary itself. Not satisfied with that,
subsequent judgements by the Supreme Court on appointments under the 19th Amendment made
it crystal clear that a hermetically sealed judiciary had been attained: an appointment process in
which parliament had a nominal role, but where the choices of the judicial representatives were
almost never to be questioned. In effect, the superior judiciary had told parliament that not only
every act of parliament would be absolutely open to any amount of judicial scrutiny the courts
saw fit, but that the composition of the judiciary itself wouldbe decided by the senior judges.
This was an extraordinary state of affairs that remained unchallenged during Mr Chaudhry`s
tenure, but now parliament is trying to claw back the space it had so timidly surrendered.

This week, a sub-committee of the Parliamentary Committee is set to meet and approve its
recommendations for strengthening the role of the PC in the two-step judges` appointment
process that is initiated, and presently controlled, by the Judicial Commission of Pakistan.

A basic point must be reiterated here: precisely because judges have significant, in many cases
unrivalled, power and their jobs security extends to virtually insurmountable constitutional
protection, scrutinising and debating the professional and other relevant records of judicial
candidates is vital. There is no reason why parliament representing a spectrum of mainstream
political thought in Pakistan cannot have a sober and detailed debate on the eligibility of
candidates and why its opinion cannot carry weight
World bank loan
THE World Bank`s soft loan of $1bn to be disbursed next week must improve foreign exchange
stocks, bring greater exchange rate stability and cut the government`s debt servicing costs. In
return, Islamabad will implement reforms to prevent the power sector from collapsing, boost
growth and investment and cut poverty. Not a bad deal.

The bank has also approved a new five-year Country Partnership Strategy, promising a `notional
financing envelope` of $11bn for developing both the private and public sectors. The
disbursement of these funds from 2015 will, however, hinge on the successful execution of
reforms, especially the ones agreed in the deal with the IMF last year. Pakistan has of late
received substantial funds from multilateral lenders and friends from the Gulf as loans and gifts.

It has also raised $2bn through the sale of Eurobonds to global investors, and is expected to float
more papers in the months to come. These inflows have helped improve the government`s fiscal
position, lifted the burden on its budget and eased pressure on the rupee. It is unlikely to face any
serious challenge on this count any time soon. But this improvement in `macro- economic
indicators` is not going to last very long if the government loses its focus on economic, financial
and governance reforms.

There are many who still doubt the government`s commitment to address structural rigidities
pulling the economy down because of political reasons. To support their scepticism, they often
point out its failure in the last budget to tax the wealthy and powerful. Not only that, the
government has allowed amnesty for those who hadn`t paid taxes at all to encourage them to do
so now. But the scheme`s unlikely to take off because the habitual tax dodgers know how to
bribe their way out of a difficulty unless the government demonstrates its resolve to punish them
for tax law violations. The government plans to revoke SROs giving tax exemptions of Rs480bn
to different lobbies in the next three years but stops short of talking about abolishing the
provisions in the income tax laws that debar probe into sources of remittances received through
banks. If it expects to sustain the recent macroeconomic gains for long without taxing the rich
and mighty, it is gravely mistaken
Transparent land records
WHILE the official deadline for the Punjab government`s land record computerisation project is
supposed to be December of this year, it is fair to ask how realistic this deadline is, especially in
the wake of a brewing internal dispute in the provincial set-up. As reported, the assistant
directors land records of the Punjab Board of Revenue have threatened to resign `en bloc` due to
alleged victimisation at the hands of some officials overseeing the project. Considering the
crucial nature of the land record project, as well as the fact that it was launched as far back as
2007, during Pervaiz Elahi`s stewardship of Punjab, the provincial authorities need to deal with
the internal crisis judiciously to ensure the project is not delayed further.

Though matters as sensitive as land management reforms cannot be rushed through, there must
be some sort of time frame: seven years is a long time and the Punjab government has changed
the deadline in the past. The computerisation project must be a priority for the Punjabauthorities
asits successfullaunchcan serve as a model for other provinces.

Perhaps the most positive outcome of the scheme will be greater transparency in land
management, reducing the oversized role of the patwari, who currently is king of all he surveys.

The role of the middleman in land deals has been described as `predatory`, and not without
reason. The patwari has various roles in rural society, perhaps the most important of them being
to keep track of sale and transfer of property. Critical information for such transactions is
recorded manually in archaic language difficult for the average person to understand.This creates
spaceforfraud, bribery and other underhand behaviour that can be employed to fiddle with land
records. In theory, it is this exploitative system the computerisation project seeks to replace.
There is no reason why the system cannot be made more transparent and user-friendly, as long as
the state has the intention to change it
Other news
Water release cut hits power generation
ISLAMABAD/LAHORE: With hydroelectric power generation declining further by up to 600
megawatts, the Indus River System Authority (Irsa) is under pressure to bail out power
companies as electricity outages have gone beyond an average of 10 hours a day.

According to sources, Irsa has been reducing discharges from water reservoirs for the past two
days due to increasing flows in river Kabul. `This has upset the power authorities,` said the
sources, adding that the Ministry of Water and Power had desired higher discharges from
reservoirs to partially offset the peak energy demand.

An official said the ministry had asked Irsa to review its discharge pattern butthe authority had
declined to oblige because the provinces were not ready to increase their demands for irrigation
at this stage.

Irsa informed the government that it would continue with the priority of building
upstorageatthisstage asthe Kabul and Chenab rivers met provincial irrigation requirements in the
early part of the new cropping season.

The sources said the power shortage could increase over the coming days amid increasing
temperatures in the catchment areas and resultant better flows in rivers not contributing to dams,
like Kabul and Chenab.

Officials said the furthercut in discharges from the two dams was expected because of improved
Kabul flows and none of the provinces had any problem with the prevailing discharge pattern
because their indents were being fully met.

Irsa was releasing about 47,000 cusec of water from Tarbela Dam and 50,000 cusec from
Mangla two days ago when the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) produced an
average of 3,200MW, with a peak of 4,000MW.

Itcurtailed the discharges to 35,000 cusec from Tarbela and 45,000 cusec from Mangla, thus
cutting down hydropower generation by 400500MW.

On Sunday, Irsa made another cut to 30,000 cusec from Tarbela and 38,000 cusec from Mangla.

The officials said the river Kabul flow had risen to 75,000 cusec from 50,000 cusec a couple of
days ago becauseofasuddenincrease in temperatures in its catchment areas leading to snow
melting.

Likewise, river Chenab was also contributing reasonably to the irrigation system as its flow
increased from 25,000 cusec to 35,000 cusec. Flows in both these rivers were expected to
increase in coming days as temperatures went up, the sources said.

Meanwhile, people continued to face hardships due to frequent outages.

Both cities and villages faced loadshedding almost on an hourly basis, exceeding the power
shutdown schedule of eight to 10 hours in urban and over 12hoursinruralareas.

The massive loadshedding has disrupted the routine business.

`We were expecting that the situation would be better this summer than last year but it is almost
the same,` a resident of Lahore said.

According to the National Transmission andDispatch Company (NTDC), the total power
generation on Sunday morning was 11,200MW.

`Since the total demand was 14,200MW, there was a shortfall of 3,000MW,` an NTDC
spokesman told Dawn.

He said the situation would improve after release of the required water from Tarbela.

The spokesman expressed the hope that `Sunday`s downpour will also help in improving the
situation
Govt plan Rs 650 bn fiscal adjustment
ISLAMABAD: The government is expected to propose in the next budget fiscal adjustment of
about Rs550 billion for the financial year 2014-15 through a combination of revenue
enhancement measures and expenditure control steps.

A senior government official told Dawn that more than Rs230bn would be raised through gas
and electricity t ariffs under the fiscal consolidation programme agreed with the International
Monetary Fund (IMF).

Pakistani authorities are at present in Dubai to finalise various budgetary measures in
consultation with an IMF mission as part of the third review of the $6.78bn bailout package. A
successful completion of the review will lead to disbursement of $550 million in a couple of
weeks.

The of ficial ruled out the possibility of an increase in electricity tariff before September because
of the prevailing electricity shortage even though the government had to generate about Rs120bn
through the power sector in the next fiscal year.

`In a political economy, you cannot afford to increase power tariff when voters are suffering
from long hours of loadshedding in sizzling temperatures,` he said.

The situation would come under control between July and September and the government would
withdraw more subsidies and increase tariff for a few categories for cross subsidisation after that
period.

Another Rs135-150bn, the official said, would be saved by withdrawing statutory regulatory
orders (SROs) in the budget. The government has committed to phasing out the SROs of about
Rs480bn in three years and introducing a law which will bar issuance of SROs in future.

The of ficial said Finance Minister Ishaq Dar wanted to withdraw most of the SROs, but the
political leaders were not prepared to deal with withdrawal of more than one-third of them
because of pressures from businessmen in their constituencies.

The government has already given the IMF an undertaking that it will cut expenditure by up to
Rs130bn through reduction and rationalisation of subsidies, particularly those relating to power
tariff.

`In the context of the 2014-15 budget, we will further rationalise subsidies by roughly 0.4 per
cent of GDP,` Finance Minister Dar wrote to the IMF.

The government is in the process of sharing with the IMF the third round of three-year subsidy
rationalisation plan to bring tariff to cost recovery level, including incorporation of financing
cost of past loans into consumer tarif f.

The IMF was of the opinion that an increase in gas infrastructure development cess (GIDC),
coupled with higher-than-envisaged quantities, was expected to deliver about 0.36pc of
annualised GDP in additional revenue.

The government said it had already reached about 0.4pc of GDP with a recent notification issued
after the Supreme Court rescinded a stay order against GIDC, thus helping the government to
actually retrieve the tax for the full financial year.

The IMF recently said the government would have to move beyond GIDC to rationalise gas tariff
so as to depict true cost of imported gases and development of unconventional gases like shale
and tight gas.

Mr Dar made a commitment to the IMF that the government would `continue to work on a
comprehensive gas price rationalisation plan`. This has also been necessitated by about 300pc
increase in gas production prices allowed under the recently announced petroleum exploration
policy and also to factor-in expected import of liquefied natural gas (LNG) later this year whose
cost is expected to be more than 500 times more than the current domestic production prices.

`As new production and additional gas supply from imports come on line, the cost of this gas
will be fully reflected in the base tariff on a semi-annual basis, beginning with the next
adjustment in endMarch 2014,` Mr Dar said in his letter to the IMF.
Over Rs6 billion gas stolen by commercial, industrial consumers last year
ISLAMABAD: A total of 7,231 cases involving thef t of gas worth Rs6,357 million by
commercial and industrial consumers were detected by the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited
(SNGPL) and Sui Southern Gas Company Limited (SSGCL) in the first nine months of 2013.

According to sources in the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources, 11,010mmcf of gas
was stolen in the jurisdiction of the two companies over the nine-month period. The companies
recovered about Rs1,030m fromthose involved in the wrongdoing.

The SSGCL detected 792 cases amounting to Rs210m both in the commercial and industrial
sectors during the period.

The SNGPL detected theft of 10,731mmcf of gas, worth Rs 6,147m, and could recover only
Rs974m.

A total of 2,370mmcf of gas, worth Rs1,582m, was stolen by 6,180 commercial consumers while
8,361mmcf of gas (Rs4,565m) was stolen by 259 industrial consumers.Of the 6,180 thef t cases
involving commercial consumers, 2,776 were detected in Lahore, 1,028 in Gujranwala, 592 in
Sheikhupura, 528 in Faisalabad, 398 in Multan, 251 in Gujrat, 216 in Peshawar, 141 in Sahiwal,
87 in Sargodha, 57 in Islamabad, 53 in Rawalpindi, 46 in Bahawalpur and seven in Abbottabad.

Industrial consumers were involved in 259 cases of gas theft and of these 63 were found in
Peshawar, 51 in Lahore, 35 in Gujranwala, 30 in Sheikhupura, 19 in Multan, 14 in Rawalpindi,
12 in Gujrat, 11 in Islamabad, 10 inFaisalabad, six in Sargodha, three each in Sahiwal and
Bahawalpur and two in Abbottabad.

Of the 769 commercial gas theft cases detected by the SSGCL in the nine months of last year,
582 were detected in Karachi, 49 in Hyderabad, 47 in Quetta, 37 in Sukkur, 28 in Larkana, 18 in
Nawabshah and eight in Jacobabad.

Of the 23 industrial gas thef t cases, 15 were found in Karachi, seven in Hyderabad and one in
Sukkur.-APP
Economy to grow by over 4 per cent this year, says Dar
ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has expressed the hope that Pakistan`s economy
would grow by over 4 per cent and inflation would remain in single digit because of growth in
both agricultural and industrial sectors during the current financial year.

Addressing the First Business Session at the 47th Annual Meeting of the Asian Development
Bank in Astana, Kazakhstan, on Sunday, Mr Dar said that fiscal deficit had been
restrainedtoaround6pcthroughan increase in revenues and reduction in expenditures along with
positive growth in exports and remittances.

According to a statement issued by the finance ministry in Islamabad, the minister said that
necessary domestic reforms were being undertaken along with the govern-ment`s preference for
regional integration through increased connectivity.

He outlined the PML-N government`s plan to overcome macro-economic challenges.

During the Constituency Breakfast Meeting, the finance minister urged the ADB to revise the
absolute poverty line from $1.25 per day to $2 per day in conformity with the latest revision
adopted by the International Monetary Fund. At present, 2.4 billion people (40pc of world
population) were living below the poverty line of $2, he added.

Highlighting the recent natural disasters in Pakistan and the response and future strategy of the
National Disaster Management Authority, at the Governors` Plenary Session, Mr Dar stressed
the need for re-ducing the exposure to natural hazards and disasters.

He urged the ADB, World Bank and IMF to devise different strategles and action plans for
promoting disaster risk reduction programmes.

During a meeting with Kazakhstan`s Minister for Finance and Deputy Prime Minister Bakhyt
Sultanov, Mr Dar extended an invitation to President Nursultan Nazarbayev to visit Pakistan this
year.

He requested the minister to consider measures for easing the movement of people and
enhancing cooperation in the areas of trade, investment banking and finance.

Mr Dar emphasised the need to examine existing frameworks for increasing the level of bilateral
trade which was far below the potential of the two countries.-APP
Ibrahim says mistrust major hurdle in govt-Taliban talks
MINGORA: Jamaat-i-Islami provincial chief and member of Taliban negotiation committee Prof
Mohammad Ibrahim said here on Sunday that there were a lot of hurdles in holding direct
dialogue between the government and Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan.

However, the negotiation committee would continue its struggle to assist both the sides to
achieve the objective of restoration of peace, he added.

`We are struggling to remove mistrust between both the sides so that peace process can be
accelerated,` Mr Ibrahim told journalists after addressing a donor conference, organised by local
chapter of Jamaat-i-Islami.

He said that government andTaliban were showing seriousness in the talks but lack of trust was
the major obstacle that had been causing difficulties since the peace process was initiated.

Mr Ibrahim said that militancy didn`t surface in days and weeks rather the country had been
facing law and order situation for the last 12 years. He alleged that the policy of Pervez
Musharraf created law and order situation in the country.

The JI leader said that security forces should play their role in the peace process. They started the
war and they should shoulder major responsibilities for its peaceful end, he added. Mr Ibrahim
said that there was consensus among all political parties that peace should be restored through
dialogue. The AllParty Conference, held on September 9, 2013, also empow-ered the prime
minister to take steps for resolving the issue through peaceful means, he added.

He said that they were not trying to create gap between the government and army. He asked the
political parties to express their concern at proper platform instead of issuing statements to
media. `Yes, we have the right to issue statements for clarification when chief of army staff and
chief of air staff issue political statements,` he added.

Prof Ibrahim said that rulers claimed that government and army were on the same page. `If it is
the case, it is a great achievement,` he added. He said that restoration of peace was their dire
desire and they would continue their struggle for the cause.

To a question, the JI leader said that neither peace could be re-stored through military operations
nor Sharia could be implemented through suicide attacks.

To another query, he said that Imran Khan did not take JI into confidence about launching
protest against the alleged rigging in the last general elections in the country.

Mr Ibrahim said that the PTI chief would take part in Allama Tahirul Qadri`s drive. `I don`t
understand as to why Imran Khan took this decision. It doesn`t reflect political maturity,` he said.

He said that JI had also reservations at election results in some constituencies in the province and
Fata but it was not a proper time to take up the issue.

PPP: The local chapters of youth and women wings of Pakistan People`s Party have demanded
of the central leadership of the partyto restore all sacked office-bearers.

Addressing a joint press conference here on Sunday, the sacked divisional president of Peoples
Youth Organisation Khurshid Ali Buhadarkhel and district president of PPP women wing
Naseem Akhtar alleged that the party`s units in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were dissolved on the
suggestions of conspirators.

They said that the decision of the party leadership was undemocratic. They alleged that Swat and
other districts of Malakand division were not given proper attention during the previous
government of PPP.

They said that they were neglected in provision of jobs and other facilities. The PPP leaders said
that they were supporting PPP women wing former provincial president Asma Alamgir
Change in privatisation dynamics
THE government is targeting the transfer of the entire power generation and distribution in
public sector to private hands in the medium term, starting in fiscal year 2015 to conclude the
process in 12-18 months, according to Minister of State and Chairman Privatisation Commission
Muhammad Zubair.

`We are not talking about privatising companies but using privatisation as a complete solution to
the current crisis in the power sector because there are many issues involved from power outages
to lack of investment, regulatory reform, improving energy mix to tariff structure,` he elaborated.

To do that, the privatisation commission is engaged with the National Electric Power Regulatory
Authority (Nepra) to upgrade its capacity and convince its leadership to ensure `free flow of
approvals and permission once the distribution and generation companies in the public sector
move into the private hands.

The private sector-led distribution and generation companies (Discos and Gencos) about 14 in all
including 10 Discos would like to have quick tariff approvals for generation of electricity for
improving supply side and also its distribution to ensure improve service delivery. This is
another story that the regulator has been working without a chairman for more two years now
and a member for more than a year.

This is important because when a Disco is sold, the private sector manager would like to set up
generation plants to improve its supply side and also save on generation margin paid to a Genco.
And to resolve power sector crisis would require all focus on all areas simultaneously.

In moving in this direction, the chairman of the privatistion commission and a former IBM
executive considers K-Electric a success story although he argues that the initial private owner of
the KESC as it was known then had neither experience nor knowledge to run a power utility. The
areas like Lyari, Landhi and Korangi, where even law enforcement agencies did not enter since
1998, have now been made to pay their electricity bills by the new K-Electric management.

As the financial advisers are to be appointed later this month for transaction of Faisalabad
Electric Supply Company and Muzaffargarh Thermal General Company, the government has
included Lahore Electric Supply Company in the fast track for privatisation. The board of
directors of Lesco have already approved its privatisation.

The government believes that sale of Fesco would be the most difficult transactionas the
authorities would need to answer all questions relating to the power sector reforms at the very
beginning for subsequent transactions to follow.

Mr Zubair argued that he had reasons to believe that all the Discos could be privatised
simultaneously because every Disco would have different regional investors. `Buyers are
different for each company`, he said and hoped to conclude the sale of Fesco by March 2015,
followed by Lesco in another 3-4 months. There are people who are very keen to purchase
Hyderabad Electric Supply Company as well as other utilities.

The entire generation, distribution and transmission system requires a lot of investment but
losses of one entity do not allow another to attract financing. The government at present is not
only required to provide subsidies but also compromising on quality of service, and the entire
nation is paying a huge economic cost.

He criticised the Supreme Court of Pakistan decision in 2007 to overturn the privatisation of
Pakistan Steel Mills, saying this badly affected investor sentiment.

Irrespective of the merits of the sale process, the government was expected to get a few billion
rupees. Instead, since then, it had injected more than Rs100bn into the mill, and was now
providing it another Rs18.5 billion restructuring package.

The people were now questioning the PSM restructuring package and asking why the
government had not taken on the corrupt mafia. The government had followed the advice of
former governor of State Bank of Pakistan Dr Ishrat Hussain to move ahead instead of indulging
in past investigations that was not going to yield anything but loss of investor confidence, he
argued.

Regarding PIA, he said, the national carrier would be divided into at least five subsidiaries for
managing surplus employees after parking all its liabilities into PIA Holding Company. The
PIA`s core business airplane, routes and flight staff would be separated, and its 50 per cent
shares sold along with its hotel subsidiary, to finance restructuring of surplus staff and other
subsidiaries such as those managing kitchen, ground handling, poultry and so on. These
subsidiaries will be looked after by the holding company.

Mr Zubair argued that the public sector entities whether in the financial sector, aviation or power
were created with public money to provide services to the people but this did not happen. The
privatisation should lead to world class services for the people with transfer of assets to private
hands.