PMIK In Washington

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Will loadshedding end?

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There is no shortage of plans collecting dust in the government archives as well. We all know what needs doing. The question is how do you get the plan funded?
According to estimates, Pakistan will need $10 billion in capital spending to deal with the power crisis in the coming years and another double this amount to build large dams. Let’s see where we can find the first $10bn.
Public funding is out of the question. The exchequer, already burdened with billions of dollars of circular debt, will not be able to absorb such large capital expenditures.
The next possibility is to look at the multilateral financial institutions (MFIs) like the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank.
MFIs may finance technical and feasibility studies, they may even co-fund projects in hydropower and provide concessional loans to undertake grid improvement projects

Similarly, the bilateral assistance agencies such as the USAID may offer project specific assistance for such things as capacity building of personnel and very specific efficiency improvement projects. From the money received under the Kerry Lugar act, for example, the turbines of some public-sector plants were upgraded to release a few hundred additional megawatts.

Still, it would be naïve to expect the international agencies to play more than a marginal role in financing Pakistan’s energy plan.

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Under the power sector reforms that began in 1997, the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) was unbundled and vertically disintegrated into independent generation companies (Gencos); distribution companies (DISCOs) and a transmission company (NTDC). The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority was created as the industry regulator.

The incoming government will need to complete the transition to the industry regime of the future; that is based on competition, open access and market-based pricing.
Like the imposition of value-added tax and agriculture income tax this will not come without a great deal of pain; a major reason why all governments since 1997 have been reluctant to complete the power-sector reforms.

Even if the incoming government is able to cut through all the bureaucratic red tape, the reforms will take a minimum of two painful years to complete. Immediately after that, Pakistan will be able to turn to the most plausible source of financing for its energy plan: private capital.

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In a distressed world economy, investors seek watertight guarantees. Power plants commissioned under the 2002 power generation policy have, in recent years, faced frequent and prolonged shutdowns on account of fuel shortages — natural gas and furnace oil. When the existing plants are lying idle, seeking new investors is frustrating.

A key decision the incoming government will need to make is on the choice of fuels going forward. There is a moratorium on building new furnace oil and natural gas-fired power plants.

Unfortunately, coal has recently become a no-no with most of the international financial community (except China, but for coal transportation, railways would need to move first). Nuclear and hydropower are very long term. Alternate energy — wind and solar — are good options but cannot yet become mainstay.

One way to fast track investment would be to revive the 1994 power policy; specifically the clause relating to capacity payments; while the reforms are under way on a parallel track.

The stumbling block here would be the issue of furnishing larger sovereign guarantees. Pakistan’s financial limits to provide any further guarantees are already
overstretched.

To circumvent this, the new government may access the MFIs’ programmes that extend sovereign and political risk cover to investors where governments in developing countries are unable to.

The challenge here is that even if done at full speed, the preparation of paperwork and processing time for an application is about 18 months. In addition, the MFIs often have their own set of conditions they want the government to sign.

The silver lining is that we can expect the thermal and small hydro projects that are already in the pipeline to start coming on-stream during the next five years — on the proviso that they’re able to achieve financial close.

If the incoming government shows sufficient will to take the energy sector reforms forward, then that pipeline will deliver energy projects a lot faster. A great deal of that work has already been laid out for the next government. The will to push through the reform is what is now needed.

What future awaits Imran Khan?

                                                                       What future awaits Imran Khan?

Imran Khan, Pakistan’s greatest cricketing hero, has no time for doubters. This time next year, he says, he will be Prime Minister of Pakistan. The corruption that plagues the country will be no more. Extremism will be on the wane, and the economy, now comatose, will be booming. Mid-soliloquy Khan notices a raised eyebrow – few in Pakistan think he has any realistic chance of winning the upcoming election, let alone performing such post-election miracles.

A recent Pew Global Attitudes Project poll gave him a 70% approval rating, compared with 36% for the then Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and 14% for President Asif Ali Zardari – political analysts and pollsters say he would be lucky to get 20 to 40 seats in the next election. That’s largely because Pakistan’s entrenched patronage networks and lingering feudal system have always firmly steered the rural vote in favor of the established parties-leaving little chance for Khan’s party in much of the country. “Popularity doesn’t necessarily translate into electoral success,” says Mohammad Waseem, a political-science professor at the Lahore University of Management Sciences.

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Khan’s anti-corruption message and stance against the ongoing American missile strikes from drones against terrorist suspects in Pakistan, which he calls a violation of national sovereignty, may have electrified large swaths of the young and urban middle class, but historically speaking, the latter group seldom votes in significant numbers-only 350/0 of the country lives in cities. Parliamentary seats are won from Pakistan’s rural constituencies, explains Waseem, where “Khan is up against two well-structured mainstream parties... juggernauts with extensive vote-capturing capabilities. I can see [Khan winning] 35 seats, maximum.

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And while that’s far short of what Khan would need to form a government, 35 seats would be an unprecedented showing for any new party in a fair election. Khan would then be well positioned to win a majority in subsequent elections. Either way, as the first relatively new name in a political cast that has changed little over the past two decades, Khan stands to shake up a system in desperate need of transformation. What’s less clear, however, is what the man devoted to remaking Pakistani politics actually stands for.
Mr Right?
At times Khan’s Sheer Force of personality and attractiveness seem to make small matters like policy and core beliefs marginally important. He is big on populist gestures – and being adored.
His first move as Prime Minister, he says, will be to close down the lavish prime-ministerial palace in favor of conducting the business of state from his hilltop bungalow.
Beneath the Surface

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If Pakistanis made their electoral decisions based purely on how anti-establishment their candidates are, Khan would be a shoo-in. He has made a career out of being a voice in the wilderness, resigning from Parliament in protest against the former military dictator Pervez Musharraf and boycotting the 2008 elections that brought the PPP into power, furious over a U.S.-backed amnesty agreement that cleared Sharif, Zardari and Bhutto from past corruption charges. Since then he has been a regular presence on television talk shows, railing against corruption, drones, tax evasion and what he calls the U.S.’s mismanaged war on terrorism in Pakistan. “By what law are drone attacks justified? Suspects are being eliminated without trial. Not just them, but their women, children and any neighbor who happens to be there. So when terrorists take revenge with a suicide attack, they justify it as ‘collateral damage,’ just like the Americans,” says Khan.

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One of Khan’s biggest successes in his 16-year campaign for the prime minister-ship has been his ability to convince the middle class that he is one of them. Never mind that he shares the same privileged background as his rivals-attending Lahore’s elite Aitchison College before moving to the U.K. and later enrolling at Oxford at 19-he identifies with the suffering masses, speaking passionately about his return to Islam. He has spent some of his wealth directly on the people whose pain he insists he feels. In ~ he opened the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital & Research Center in memory of his mother,

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 who died of cancer in 1985. The world-class facility provides free care to 750/0 of its patients and is widely considered to be one of the best-run institutions in the country. Khan’s vocal opposition to American drone attacks in the tribal areas has also won him widespread accolades from a nationalist populace growing ever more anti-American. “Whether he is a good politician, whether he is going to win, who knows,” says a former U.S. official who has known Khan for several years and requested anonymity, lest Americans be accused of supporting one candidate over the others. “The point is that anyone who wants to talk about corruption, about a future in which you get along with your neighbors, anyone who stands up to the Americans and says ‘We don’t see it this way,’ anyone who is open and honest about that deserves a place in the political firmament.    

Imran Khan cricket career(IK)

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Full name Imran Khan Niazi

Born November 25, 1952, Lahore, Punjab

Current age 66 years

Major teams Pakistan, Dawood Club, Lahore,New South Wales, Oxford University,Pakistan International Airlines, Sussex, Worcestershire

Batting style Right-hand bat

Bowling style Right-arm fast

Relation Cousin - Javed Burki, Cousin - Majid Khan

In a nutshell Imran Khan is indisputably the greatest cricketer to emerge from Pakistan, and arguably the world's second-best allrounder after Garry Sobers. He took a mediocre side and transformed them into world-beaters, leading them to the World Cup title in 1992.

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Batting and fielding averages

	Mat	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	Ave	BF	SR	100	50	6s	Ct	St
Tests	88	126	25	3807	136	37.69			6	18	55	28	0
ODIs	175	151	40	3709	102*	33.41	5105	72.65	1	19		36	0
First-class	382	582	99	17771	170	36.79			30	93		117	0
List A	425	384	80	10100	114*	33.22			5	66		84	0

                                                                                                                                          

Bowling averages

	Mat	Inns	Balls	Runs	Wkts	BBI	BBM	Ave	Econ	SR	4w	5w	10
Tests	88	142	19458	8258	362	8/58	14/116	22.81	2.54	53.7	17	23	6
ODIs	175	153	7461	4844	182	6/14	6/14	26.61	3.89	40.9	3	1	0
First-class	382		65224	28726	1287	8/34		22.32	2.64	50.6		70	13
List A	425		19122	11312	507	6/14	6/14	22.31	3.54	37.7	12	6	0

Few would dispute that Imran was the finest cricketer Pakistan has produced, or the biggest heartthrob. Suave, erudite and monstrously talented, he gave cricket in the subcontinent real sex appeal in the 1970s and 1980s. As such he and TV completed the popularisation of the game in his country which Hanif Mohammad and the radio had begun. Thousands, if not millions, who had never dreamt of bowling fast on heartless baked mud suddenly wanted to emulate Imran and his lithe bounding run, his leap and his reverse-swinging yorker. He also made himself into an allrounder worth a place for his batting alone, and captained Pakistan as well as anyone, rounding off his career with the 1992 World Cup. He played hardly any domestic cricket in Pakistan: instead he just flew in for home series from Worcestershire or Sussex, or rather from the more fashionable London salons. His averages (37 with the bat, 22 with the ball) put him at the top of the quartet of allrounders (Ian Botham, Richard Hadlee and Kapil Dev being the others) who dominated Test cricket in the 1980s. And whereas Botham declined steadily, Imran just got better and better: in his last 10 years of international cricket he played 51 Tests, averaging a sensational 50 with the bat and 19 with the ball. He gave no quarter during some memorable battles with West Indies - Pakistan drew three series with them at a time when everybody else was being bounced out of sight - and he led Pakistan to their first series victory in England in 1987, taking 10 for 77 with an imperious display in the decisive victory at Headingley. After retirement he remained a high-profile figure, with his marriage - and subsequent split with - the socialite Jemima Goldsmith and a not entirely successful move into the labyrinthine world of Pakistan politics.                                                                            

About Imran Khan (IK)

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Imran Khan was born in Lahore into a family of Pashtun origin, the only son of Ikramullah Khan Niazi, a civil engineer, and his wife Shaukat Khanum. Although long settled in Mianwali in northwestern Punjab, the family are of Pashtun ethnicity and belong to the Niazi Shermankhel tribe. A quiet and shy boy in his youth, Khan grew up with his four sisters in relatively affluent (upper middle-class) circumstances and received a privileged education. He was educated at the Cathedral School in Lahore. He studied at Oxford University, England, where he excelled at cricket, and at Aitchison College, In 1972, he enrolled to study Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Keble College, where he graduated with a second-class degree in Politics and a third in Economics. Khan's mother hailed from the Burki family which had produced several successful cricketers, including such household names as cricketers Javed Burki and Majid Khan. Early in life, Khan developed an interest in cricket, which is an extremely popular sport in Pakistan.

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On 16 May 1995, Khan married Jemima Khan, in a traditional Pakistani ceremony in Paris. A month later, on 21 June, they were married again in a civil ceremony at the Richmond registry office in England, followed by a reception at the Goldsmiths' house in Surrey which was attended by London's elite.described as "tough" by Khan,after Imran and Jemima arrived at Zaman Park in Lahore from their honeymoon at one of the Goldsmiths' farms in Spain, they were greeted by international and local reporters. It was also announced that Jemima has converted to Islam and she would use 'Khan' as her last name. Imran's decision to join politics alarmed opposition politicians and intelligence agencies mainly because of Jemima's half Jewish ancestry, this also became a major point of criticism especially by Islamic parties who alleged that he was related to 'Zionists'. As an agreement of his marriage, Khan spent four months a year in England while other he spend in Lahore. The marriage produced two sons, Sulaiman Isa (born 18 November 1996) and Kasim (born 10 April 1999).

                                                              Imran Khan and his Wife Jemima(IK)

couple was in crisis, Jemima placed an advertisement in Pakistan newspapers to deny them. It read: "Whilst it is true that I am currently studying for a masters degree at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, it is certainly not true to say that Imran and I are having difficulties in our marriage. This is a temporary arrangement. On 22 June 2004, it was announced that the Khans had divorced ending the nine-year marriage because it was "difficult for Jemima to adapt to life in Pakistan".The marriage ended amicably. Khan has said the six months leading to the divorce and the six months after was the hardest years of his life. After the divorce Jemima returned to Britain with the boys, according to the divorce settlement Khan's sons visit him in Pakistan during their school holidays while he stays with his former mother-in-law, Lady Annabel Goldsmith, when he comes to London to see them. According to Jemima, Imran and she have remained on very good terms even after the divorce.