Pakistan Headlines 11/11/2016

Headlines

• K-Electric Sell-Off Establishes the Injustice of Privatization of Public Property

• Democracy is a System of Compromise to Secure the Corrupt Amongst the Rulers and the Opposition

• Nawaz Sharif Commits Pakistan to Further Exploitation by Trump

Details

K-Electric Sell Off Establishes Injustice of Privatization of Public Property

The Abraaj Group on 30 September 2016 announced via a press release that a $1.77 billion stake in K-Electric will be sold to China’s state-backed Shanghai Electric Power (SEP). K-Electric, formerly known as KESC, is a power generation and distribution company which, as a sole distributor, serves around 2.5 million consumers in the metropolitan city of Karachi, whilst also serving some other parts of Sindh. Upon IMF dictation, K-Electric was privatized in 2005 and then later in 2007 it was bought up by the Abraaj Group. As per the government narrative, K-Electric was privatized due to the country's growing energy crisis and its growing losses.

Under the so-called care of Pakistan's current rulers, KESC was doomed to fail. Initially generation expansion was restricted in KESC by government policy in a bid to attract private companies investing in the power sector as Independent Power Producers (IPPs), which led to an ever increasing deficit between generation and demand and thus the public were subjected to ever-increasing power shortages. Then successive governments, all under IMF supervision, crippled enterprise, unfairly interfered in matters of strategy, hired without merit, over-burdened staff with its political workers, made policies to halt the progress of the organization and adopted unnecessarily bureaucratic and ineffective government structures and styles. All of this led to a self-created energy crisis and a loss making company which was the convenient justification for privatization and compliance with the key IMF demand. If this was not due to malicious policy, then how is it that after privatization, private management was able to dramatically turn-around these loss making firms within little time? No private entity would buy a loss making company without realizing its full potential of earning large profits. As mentioned in their annual report, K-Electric in the last couple of years has been annually yielding profits of billions of Pakistani Rupees. The IMF, under the banner of boosting investor confidence, has overseen back-breaking increases in energy tariffs, where the consumer has to pay a major chunk of their income on energy. Adding to the people's woes, after privatization, the poor were penalized even further, as a policy was adopted to increase power shortages in areas where bill recovery were lower.

With the take-over of K-Electric by yet another private entity and Pakistan being bound in bondage to the IMF, the Muslims will be subjected to even higher tariffs and further discrimination between the rich and the poor in providing basic services. By turning state and public entities into private firms, the public is being exposed to the never-ending greed of a few private parties, such that the poor will be deprived of these basic needs. It is the current capitalist system which mandates the wholesale privatization of the wealth-laden public and state properties, contributing to a great concentration of wealth in the hands of the few. Unlike the Capitalist system, the Khilafah "Caliphate" upon the Method of Prophethood will establish Islam which forbids the transfer of such public properties such as oil, gas and electricity into private hands. In the Khilafah "Caliphate", it is the responsibility of the state to provide basic necessities like electricity, food, shelter and clothing to all of its inhabitants. Unlike the capitalist system, the Khilafah "Caliphate" will provide fundamental necessities without discrimination between rich or poor.

In its Introduction to the Constitution, Hizb ut Tahrir has adopted in Article 139, “The State is not permitted to transfer private property into public property, since public property is confirmed by the nature and characteristic of wealth and not by the opinion of the State.” And in Article 140, it has adopted, “Every individual from the Ummah has the right to utilise anything from public property, and it is not allowed for the State to permit someone to individually possess or utilise it.”

Democracy is a System of Compromise to Secure the Corrupt Amongst the Rulers and the Opposition

As reported in Dawn Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) on November 1 said its November 2 lockdown will instead be marked as a day of thanksgiving in Islamabad. "Go home and rest," Khan told supporters, "You have to return to Islamabad tomorrow to celebrate thanksgiving at Parade Ground." "I am elated that the investigation into Nawaz Sharif's [alleged corruption] will begin day after tomorrow." The Panama Papers leak issue first gained global prominence on 15 April 2016. Since then a series of discussions, debates, confrontation and protests have been going on in a bid to account the rulers and opposition implicated in the papers. The lingering on of the Panama papers not only exposes the whole rotten setup of Democracy and its rulers, but also of the role of the opposition parties. The Muslims are rejecting the current system as they are well aware that Pakistan has a long history of such scandals, with a small corrupt elite with access to power always getting off scot free. For the survival of the system and credibility of the opposition parties, it has become essential for the corrupt elite to restore misplaced faith in the system. Most recently, the current political medium and its mouthpieces in the media have been dominated by the tussle between the opposition PTI and ruling PML-N regarding a brewing lockdown of the capital in the light of the Panama Papers. And on the eve of the scheduled show down, the PTI chief, Imran Khan, made a compromise that frustrated his followers for his lack of principles, changing the lockdown to a thanksgiving day because the Supreme Court has taken up the matter of Panama Papers.

The problem is not with Imran Khan's compromise on principles alone, but is deeply rooted in Democracy, which has its origins in the compromise between the Christian clergy and secular philosophers in Europe. In Democracy, man is granted sovereignty for legislation and therefore the ruling elite has the authority to make laws which serves their interests and the judiciary merely passes judgment based on these man-made laws. Behind the scenes of agitations, shady deals based on compromise are made so that the opposition and rulers all get a share in exploiting the wealth of the country. So, we see that the recent judicial proceedings over alleged election rigging in 2013 yielded nothing, which was also the case in the Asif Zardari corruption case, Ayan Ali money laundering case, Baldia Town neglect, Raymond Davis case and the Abottabad commission. Nor will the outcome be any different for the Lal Masjid commission against Musharaf or the Memogate scandal or the current tussle over Panama Papers. Always the powerful are protected, kept in place or granted a safe exit and the role of the corrupt opposition and ruling parties is merely to achieve that, for there is indeed honor amongst thieves.

There is no solution to Democracy other than its abolition and the restoration of Islam in ruling. Islam has given an excellent system of law, the Shar’ia, that is designed by the Creator of man, who knows man better than he knows himself. The Islamic Shar’ia is a fixed law emanating from the divine sources, the Qur’an and the Sunnah, which are free from control by any man, no matter how powerful.

Islam does not permit powerful elites to usurp the rights of the masses, as law making is forbidden for man. Laws in Islam are derived from the Quran and Sunnah, leaving no room for human legislation. In Islam, the Khaleefah is chosen by the Ummah in order to implement Islam alone and he is accountable in front of the Ummah on his implementation of Islam. Regarding each and every law that the Khaleefah institutes in the state, he must satisfy the Ummah, and her representatives in the Majlis e Ummah, that it is derived from the Qur’an and the Sunnah. Neither the Majlis nor the Khaleefah have the authority to legislate, rather both are bound to an independent, fixed reference, the Qur’an and the Sunnah. It is only in the Islamic ruling system of Khilafah "Caliphate" that laws are defined by the Creator, leaving no room for humans to define right or wrong for themselves. In Islam the system and its details have been defined. Therefore what are considered crimes, how to persecute criminals and what to do with the plundered wealth, does not need months of agitation, posturing and compromises before settlement. Allah (swt) said,

(وَمَنْ لَمْ يَحْكُمْ بِمَا أَنزَلَ اللَّهُ فَأُوْلَئِكَ هُمْ الْفَاسِقُونَ)

“And whosoever does not judge by all that Allah has revealed, such are the Fâsiqûn” [Surah al-Mai’dah 5:47]

Nawaz Sharif Commits Pakistan to Further Exploitation by Trump

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on 9 December 2016 felicitated president-elect Donald Trump on his victory in the US elections, saying he hoped to work with him for rejuvenating bilateral ties. “I look forward to closely working with you, to bring our two countries closer and making our partnership an important vehicle for the realisation of peace, security and prosperity in the region and beyond,” Mr Sharif said in his message of greetings. “I wish to reaffirm my government’s commitment to further strengthening and deepening of our relations, in a manner truly reflective of the aspirations of our two nations,” the prime minister further said.

Further strengthening and deepening relations with the United States, the foremost in hostility against the Muslims, will condemn Pakistan to even worse instability, insecurity and poverty. Decades of alliance with the United States has denied Pakistan ever achieving its great potential and worse, weakened it. The United States has been working to remove the Muslims as an obstacle to the rise of India. To provide relief for India, the current rulers have implemented US demands for the burial of the Kashmir issue and the declaration of those who are fighting for its liberation as “terrorists.” The Raheel-Nawaz regime abides by current US demands to ensure that Pakistan does not undertake any befitting response to repeated Indian Line of Control and Working Boundary violations, whilst other demands ensure that Pakistan co-operates with India over its concerns regarding “terrorism,” including intelligence sharing. And the Raheel-Nawaz regime is calling for the United States to arbitrate over Kashmir on the one hand, whilst on the other hand, sacrificing our troops to protect the US military forces stationed in Afghanistan from a vigorous tribal resistance.

Know that submitting to American demands will never bring the Muslims security or prosperity, but will only bring more demands and ruin. The US incites disturbances and disputes to justify intervention in the regions she wishes to dominate. Then when the US is ready to attack, it demands the use of our air bases, seaways and air corridors to launch its attack. Then when the US has invaded, it demands the right to exploit the wealth of the Muslims, whilst its violent intrusion shakes the region, severely disrupting the economy. And then when the US faces fierce resistance to its occupation, it demands that Muslims fight Muslims. At every stage, America demands the use of the strength of the Muslims against Muslims, so as to dominate over all of them, politically, economically and militarily. Allah (swt) said,

(يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لاَ تَتَّخِذُوا عَدُوِّي وَعَدُوَّكُمْ أَوْلِيَاءَ تُلْقُونَ إِلَيْهِمْ بِالْمَوَدَّةِ وَقَدْ كَفَرُوا بِمَا جَاءَكُمْ مِنْ الْحَقِّ[

“O you who believe! Choose not My enemies who are your enemies as friends showing them affection even when they disbelieve in that truth that has come to you.” [Surah Mumtahina 60:1]

And He said (swt),

(إِن يَثْقَفُوكُمْ يَكُونُواْ لَكُمْ أَعْدَآءً وَيَبْسُطُواْ إِلَيْكُمْ أَيْدِيَهُمْ وَأَلْسِنَتَهُمْ بِالسُّوءِ وَوَدُّواْ لَوْ تَكْفُرُونَ)

“Should they gain the upper hand over you, they would behave to you as enemies, and stretch forth their hands and their tongues against you with evil, and they desire that you should disbelieve.” [Surah Mumtahina 60:2]