Insaf Ki Awaz

8/13/2019 Insaf Ki Awaz

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/insaf-ki-awaz 1/4

About Insaf Ki Awaaz

IPF- Islamabad team had an informal discussion and

interview with Mr. Asad Umar, member of the

IPF-Islamabad advisory board. Mr. Umar often takesout time to guide us regarding IPF activities and

helps us realize the goal of helping PTI in an effective

manner. His help and motivation to IPF has beeninvaluable in facilitating the launch of this important

newsletter to highlight different issues and to sharedifferent contributions and articles from our

members and non-members alike.

It was a candid discussion in which he talked about

his recent interview on Khalid Dar’s comic “DarlingShow,” his vision about PTI, IPF and Islamabad,

internal systems within PTI and gave his views

regarding the perception that PTI has a one sided

stance on drone attacks, the war on terror, militancyand terrorism in general. Some of the important

excerpts of this interview are shared here:

Q: Why did you join PTI and not any other party?

Asad Umar: PTI is the only political party in Pakistanwhich can bring about fundamental change, which

is what Pakistan needs. The problems of Pakistan

cannot be solved any longer by tinkering on the

edges, you need fundamental reform and for thatyou need vision, you need leadership which has

courage and which is ready to take on the vested

interests which control Pakistan.

Q: What is your vision for IPF and Islamabad?

Asad Umar: IPF should provide the technical and

professional inputs which are required to formulate

policy and to shape the views of the leadership ofPTI, so when the views are founded on good

analysis, good research, they are obviously much

more impactful and the chances of them creating apositive impact on the society is much greater. That,

to me, is the role of IPF.

About Islamabad, we have a number of plans which

include linking Islamabad to the global network to

make the city an economic hub like in Bangalore and

Dhaka.An important plan is to devolve power tovillage councils, we need to empower the people of

Islamabad. Islamabad’s dynamics are different fromother places nearby and therefore we need to have a

proper political system in place where the citizens of

Islamabad are politically, financially, administratively

empowered. Not only they will be able to deal with

the day to day problems that we talk about in thecity, like current issues of even drinking water not

being available, which is a shame, but also more

long term plans like the vision for Islamabad, how itshould be in the next 25 years. This can all be done

once we have a proper local government system in

Islamabad where the citizens of Islamabad are

empowered to do required development andmanagement of the city. Also, given the current

location and institutions here, we’d like to make

Islamabad a global city of knowledge. We also wantto increase the percentage of children receiving

vocational training to 20% to 25% and would like to

have the best vocational skill development system in

Islamabad.

Q: How has the experience been in the last 18months since you’ve joined politics and do you

think you have been able to achieve what you

hoped for in these last eighteen months?

Asad Umar: I am satisfied with the opportunity I’ve

had to make a contribution and I think it has been a

very exciting eighteen months. The party in thegeneral elections, due to often discussed reasons,

‘Insaf Ki Awaz’ is aliterary journal with the

primary objective ofshowcasing Pakistan

Tehreek-i-Insaf's

enigmatic and resilientprofessionals and youth. The journal publishes

both creative andcritical arguments andoffers a wide range of

interesting articlesincluding inspirationalstories, youth centric

awareness drives,educational and welfare

oriented articles,interviews, and

proposals for aprogressive future,

especially for Islamabad.

Interview with Mr. Asad UmarSenior Leader, Policy Head of PTI and MNA from NA-48, Islamabad

It gives me immense pleasure to know

that Insaf Professionals Forum -

Islamabad is launching a monthly

journal to keep people updated aboutthe issues of Islamabad, Rawalpindi and

adjoining areas. The journal will cover

views and ideas of PTI well wishers, party

workers and supporters.

I wish IPF all the best with this initiative and

would like their members to continue

working for raising awareness about different

issues and also recommend their possible

solutions.

Thank You

Imran KhanChairman

Pakistan Tehreek e Insaaf

Message from Imran Khan

Layout & Design Strategy: Salman BurkiEditor: Sulaiman Malik

by Insaf Professionals Forum - IslamabadIssue: 1 - December, 2013



was not able to get the kind of mandate that we

needed to bring about change in all of Pakistan, butother than that I think it has been a tremendously

rewarding journey and a fantastic experience.

Q: Sir, with your joining the party and experience,

do you think proper mechanisms and systems

can be introduced and made effective in theParty?

Asad Umar: The party grew so rapidly after October30th last year, that even in the best of organizations,

you would then have some growing pains in terms

of institutional development and that is what

happens in even fast growing businesses. Theyexpand rapidly and institutional development lags

behind and it takes some time to catch up and kind

of the same thing happened with PTI, particularly as

there was a general election which came up.However, holding of the intra party election was a

major step in that direction and now further

institutionalizing of PTI is in process. I am quiteconfident in the next year or two years you will see

PTI becoming more and more institutionalized in its

character.

Q: Which areas do you think work is in progress as

far as mechanisms are concerned?

Asad Umar: Specific things for example are, there is

an ideology council which has been approved,

which is supposed to formally put together contentin terms of what the ideology of the party is and will

develop training programs through which all the

cadres can be trained. The second thing which theCEC has approved, is the grievance handling and

disciplinary committee, because you’re hearing a lot

about how there isn’t enough discipline in the party

and there isn’t an effective procedure foraccountability and dealing with people’s grievances

when they arise so that has been approved by the

CEC also. Another example would be the Central

Finance Board which was created so there is a formalFinance Board which looks after all the financial

matters and similarly a formal fund raising

committee was created. So, for different areas youwill see more and more institutionalizing taking

place.

Q: How do you think government of Pakistan can

provide jobs to millions of jobless youth?

Asad Umar: What we want to have is a trade and

investment led growth, the big opportunity in

Pakistan will arise if we can bring peace to the

region and the biggest, most high profilecommitment that PTI has is towards achieving

peace. If you can achieve peace in the aftermath of

American withdrawal from Afghanistan and ifAfghanistan settles down and our tribal areas and

KPK become peaceful, then it opens up the entire

central Asian market and that’s a tremendous

growth driver that can come out of there. Similarly,we are supportive of improving trade relationship

with India as part of our overall improvement of

relationship between Pakistan and India. If you look

at the history of the world, never in the history ofmankind have so many people been lifted out of

poverty as has happened in the last fifty years in

east Asia, China, Indonesia, South Korea, Singapore,

Thailand. All these countries have seen remark ablegrowth and this has been primarily driven off the

back of increased trade, so that is one aspect that

we want to emphasize and the second issue is

investment. Investment has really collapsed in thiscountry and by restoring confidence in the

government and by opening up the economy and

by attracting in particular the overseas Pakistanis,

we want to bring back the investment into thecountry, so we get strong GDP growth. Whenever

we’ve had high periods of growth it’s always been

high aid flows or loan transfers to militarygovernments during periods of regional crises,

with all the political baggage that comes with it,

that is not sustainable growth, and obviously we

need investment growth in the economy before wecan create jobs.

Q: What do you have in mind to stop brain drain,

educated people going out of the country for

better living and environment? Asad Umar: We have to create jobs and create a

system. There are two parts to it, first, equip people

with the right skills, for example we are notinvesting anywhere close to what we should for

vocational and technical skills. There are far too

many kids going into general education and

therefore not having the skills the market demandsand so not being able to get jobs. So there is that

part of it and to create a system, where economy is

growing, where investment is coming and it’s a

system which is based on fair play and merit so thatpeople have confidence that they get a fair deal

and a fair chance. Optimism and hope returns

among the youth of Pakistan and that’s how you

get them to believe in the future of Pakistan. It ismore than just getting a job; it is recreating and

reigniting that faith and belief in the future of

Pakistan for people to stay here. When I was ayoung professional we had opportunities to go for

jobs which would pay much higher salar ies outside,

but you stayed here because you believed in the

future of the country and you said if I’m going tostay here, I will have a great future and obviously

there is no place like home. So if I can be happy,

prosperous, and peaceful in my own home why

would I go anywhere else? That belief in the futureand that hope is to be reignited.

Q: Why PTI CEC and Core Group don’t have

enough youth representation, while we bank on

them for votes?

Asad Umar: We do have youth representation in the

CEC, you can argue it is not enough, but remember

that all of these positions are elected positions andwhen these elections were being held not only was

the youth allowed but was encouraged to contest. In

KPK, the youth vigorously participated in the

elections and for the highest positions, not just forthe small youth positions but for highest positions

for the president of the province. So i t’s a democracy

based system and in the end whoever won, endedup in the CEC.

Q: Why isn’t the PTI leadership grooming newleaders who would like to work for the party and

lead instead of relying on seasoned politicians just like other parties? Don’t you think we arebecoming a conventional party?

Asad Umar: Majority of our members in the KPK

assembly of PTI, except for a couple of seats, are allnew faces and have never been in the assembly

before, so this statement that we are relying on

traditional and seasoned politicians is not based on

facts. Also, more than 30% of our seats in KPK weregiven specifically to youth. Majority of our

candidates in other provinces like Punjab were also

all new faces and approximately 30% of the tickets

were given to youth but we didn’t win that manyseats from Punjab.

Q: According to many people, PTI can appeal to

both right wingers and leftists/liberals because

of its centrist and balanced views and is the right

party to unite people. Do you think, with PTI’scurrent stance on issues like the American war on

terror, drone attacks, conducting talks with the

militant outfits, an office for the Taliban and aone sided anti American stance, PTI is becoming

another rightist party just like JI, JUI (F) etc.?

Asad Umar: PTI in its economic manifesto today ismore progressive than any major political party in

Pakistan, with very tangible, concrete plans to

transfer resources from the elite to the masses ofPakistan. This is the heart of the PTI economic

program. How PTI will try to convert Pakistan into an

egalitarian society is by throwing a massive amount

of money in education and the single biggest chunkof educational funds will be going to girls’ education

because education gives you skills and empowers

you to come out of poverty on a sustainable basis.

Massive health expenditures push you under thepoverty line so this safeguards you from going under

the poverty line. The biggest single increase in

expenditure will be on mother and child health, and

the mother and daughter health in particular, neverbefore has any Pakistani party come remotely close

to making the female as central a part of its

development priorities as PTI has and in concreteterms with actual facts and figures. In one month

the KPK government has enrolled 75,000 girls in

schools which is a tremendous achievement and

work is still in progress. About trade relations withIndia, we have been the key speakers in the Aman Ki

Asha initiative. Both Mr. Imran Khan and I have

continuously stated that the relations need to

improve on high priority. Our foreign policy standcategorically states that we want a good relationship

with the west and a working relationship with

America.

Our manifesto says in writing that we will not allowanybody to violate the sovereignty of Pakistan andwe should not allow the soil of Pakistan to be used to

violate the sovereignty of anybody else. In terms of

peace, we are against army operations whether they

are in urban areas in Karachi, or in Baluchistan asthere are innocent casualties. We support the

Kashmir issue, but we oppose any violent means to

settle the Kashmir issue. What sort of liberalism is

that which supports army operations, or death anddestruction? PTI does not believe in labelling people

right, center or left as that really does not matter.

Please note that every single party of Pakistan hassigned the APC to have dialogue with these militant

outfits. PTI’s stance has been the same on both

drones and engaging for talks to give peace a

chance if it can work out. It has been agreed in theAPCs, by all the parties including PPP, MQM, ANP,

PML N, so why is PTI only being blamed? PTI has

always condemned terrorism and its different

manifestations, and the outfits at different times andby name.





“I would rather work in an alien environment than struggle my way in Pakistan andreceive no recognition or appreciation in return. I paid for my own education; thegovernment didn’t provide me with any compensation, so why should I do anythingfor the government for free? I speak on the behalf of all the other doctors here; noneof us would stay in UK if we had an opportunity to leave. While politicians are busyfighting on TV talk shows, what everyone fails to recognize is that soon Pakistan willhave no good doctors left and they will only have themselves to blame.” These arecomments of a Pakistani doctor working in Wales, England. The question is have wecreated jobs for doctors here? Have we built any hospital in public sector since 1980?And what have governments done to BHUs (Basic Health Units)?

Pakistan’s ‘brain drain’; why they want to leave.

Do we know or do we Care?Dr Muhammad Ismail Ramay

Having been raised in Karachi until graduating from

medical college in 1990, I could never have imaginedthat at some point in my life, I would be migrating to

Islamabad. The faint memory of Islamabad I have

from my childhood is of a guest house where our

family stayed for about four days and all I wanted todo was to listen constantly to the cricket

commentary covering the test series between

Pakistan and England in 1974. My second visit toIslamabad was not until 2007 when after exhausting

all my options of migrating to Karachi from US, I

decided to give it a shot in Islamabad. Very quickly, Ifell in love with this beautiful city!

After spending about two decades of my life in the

US, I wanted to use my skills and training to improvehealth care in Pakistan. After acquiring a job at Shifa

International Hospital, I found temporary housing in

a guest house located opposite to Shifa and started

exploring Islamabad. Blue area, Jinnah Super, Super,

and the area around I-8 Islamabad were my hide

outs. Being a morning person, the first thing I

noticed about Islamabad was that I did not have tofight humidity in Islamabad as much as I did in

Karachi during my run. Karachi has pretty much

uninterrupted heat starting from March till end ofNovember at least, whereas Islamabad’s summer is

short, lasting from June through September. Better

still, summer was frequently interrupted by rain

which actually cooled things off.In comparison,Karachi’s brief showers, if they even happen in July,

were followed by intense humidity-you take a

shower and you drench in your shirt again needing

another shower! Finally, Islamabad’s mornings are alot pleasant because compared to Karachi’s

morning;dry heat in Islamabad compared to themoist heat of Karachi. The winter turned out to be

even sweeter. It actually was cold in Islamabad, butnot like Chicago where every bit of the city is

covered by snow for about three months and the

sun in hiding causing winter blues. Islamabadexperiences a few days of near zero temperature, but

no snow and the sun is out almost daily even during

the winter. It is not very difficult to experience asnowfall in Murree at only a 90 minute drive. To top it

off, I ate the carrot halwa about three times a week at

Fresco during winter and savored every bite of it.

One day the owner told me to take off my jacketbefore eating carrot halwa as it will warm me up. I

don’t know if it was psychological or something else

but I did well without the jacket that particular night!

I had seen a bit of the world by 2007 and I found

Islamabad to be a beautiful city compared to many

other cities I had lived in the US. I arrived here in July

By Dr. Nadir

Why I Love Islamabad

Currently around 7 million Pakistani’s live abroad, and according to previousinterior minister, 1.7 million Pakistani left the country illegally from 2009 to 2012.

This does not include those who are caught without any travel documents at Taftaan (Pak-Iran border) and sent back home, to try another route to reach Turkeyor Greece. Has anyone seen National Geographic video documentaries aboutconditions of Pakistani asylum seeker camps in Greece? Perhaps yes. Does ourgovernment hold any short or long term plan to create jobs within Pakistan?People leaving Pakistan head for any country in Europe preferably Spain or UK.

There has been a continuous brain drain from the country. Not only qualifiedprofessionals and university graduates, but even semi-skilled or unskilled workerswant to leave Pakistan in search of better job prospects, with as many as 50%saying they would never come back. Official estimates of Pakistan’s OverseasEmployment Corporation are that close to 36,000 professionals, including doctors,engineers and teachers, have migrated to other countries – an unofficial estimateputs the number closer to 45,000. Until the government makes concentrated

efforts to create jobs, institutions improve their working environment, andpromote professionals from within for top positions and pay accordingly, Pakistanwill continue to be disadvantaged by the ‘brain drain’.

Educated unemployment is very high and salary levels for skilled professionals areoften kept forcibly low by governments to maintain an egali tarian income policy.Inlast 2 years, a couple of universities in Islamabad terminated services of 20 highlyqualified senior level professors for salary reasons. Fifteen of them were holdingPhD degrees from developed countries and had left the country and now are partof education cities in UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Qatar. At the beginning ofthis year FIA advertised posts for inspector and sub inspector, 72,000applications

were received. After a question in the then national assembly about appointmentletters, the interviews were postponed. Last month, hiring for the special task forceto fight terrorism was in process and 500 candidates were caught cheating.Nobody knows what happened next? An estimated 1.2 million job seekers areentering the job market and there are no jobs. A current minister retorted on a TVtalk show before May 11 elections, “our workers are getting impatient, they want

jobs, and we must win these elections”. Imagine what is he going to do aboutmerit? Jobs are usually for sale under corrupt political mafia or available throughpolitical contacts rather than merit. This fuels anger against the system and leads toPakistan's professionals leaving the country.

While the danger of the brain drain to Pakistan is clear, a big part of the problem isthat there are not enough opportunities offered to the country's highly skilledprofessionals. Industries are being shut down and no new jobs are being created,forcing many IT professionals and engineers with reasonable experience to thinkabout leaving the country for better opportunities abroad which can match theirqualifications and experience and pay them accordingly. Pakistanis all over theworld have an interest in their homeland, just last year they sent homeapproximately $13 billion in remittances. While this revenue is vital to the country ’sforeign exchange reserves, it’s the expertise of these expatriates that is needed,

just as much as their money. The absence of highly qualified doctors, engineersand scientists is playing havoc with the long-term economic growth of the country.

If Pakistani Government is serious about controlling its alarming brain drain, itmust provide better job opportunities that compensate professionals based ontheir skills, talents, and experience. It must stop quota allotment of jobs to MNAsand MPAs. It must take action against those who sold government jobs in the last 5years, must enforce merit, and double it’s funding to HEC so that universities don’tterminate professors for salary reasons.The government must also stop dumpingits workers into already over-crowded PIA and Pakistan Steel Mills. Otherwise,Pakistan will continue to lose its skilled professionals to other countries wherebenefits and opportunities are plentiful and a merit-based system is established.





Islamabad, the city itself, is proof that when we want to, we can

do things right. We can make a city that is planned and beautiful.

However, on a global level one of many differences between us

and the developed world is - cleanliness. Despite being a

Muslim country, our society barely reflects "cleanliness is half of

faith." It is important that we, the citizens of this beautiful city

take some responsibility to preserve this beauty and work

together to make it even better.Public service is not restricted to

government partisans; everyone needs to take an initiative to

make a collective effort to keep the city clean. Most of us ensure that our homes and cars are inimpeccable condition, but keeping clean should not be limited to personal space. In most developed

countries cleaning the area surrounding your house is a requirement by law, keeping in mind they have

to face severe weather conditions that we are generally exempted from in Pakistan.

CDA’s role in keeping the city clean is insufficient; there are various street corners with huge garbage cans

overflowing with rubbish, lack of supervision/regulation of emptying these garbage cans and plastic bags

are seen flying everywhere.It is time that our energy is harnessed to bring a change around us. We can

dedicate a few hours once a week to engage in a cleanliness project for a clean and healthy environment.

The emphasis here is on volunteer work but we first need a structure. Volunteers from each sector will be

allotted streets in their own vicinity which they will be responsible

for. Each sector will have a supervisor to regulate the task of

cleaning. A particular day(s) will be decided on which volunteers will

carry out this activity and once a week supervisors will monitor the

streets in different sectors to ensure that things are going according

to plan.It should also be recognized that many households have green areas

surrounding their houses which should also be developed and

maintained. For example, if there is a chunk of land in front of your

house that belongs to CDA, you should voluntarily develop the area; plant some flowers or maybe even a

tree; this will not only be a feast for everyone’s eyes but also have a long term impact towards cleanliness in

the city.Let us start with this humble cause which can be followed by bigger goals - as the famous John F.

Kennedy quote states, “ask not what the country can do for you, but ask what you can do for your country.”

By Mrs. Naureen Ibrahim

Clean Islamabad ProjectKHANNAPUL ISLAMABAD -TRAFFIC JAMS

Traffic jam has become a persistent problem at KHANNAPUL

in Islamabad, particularly due to the single lane bridge andgenerally due to encroachments on the bridge and along its

sides. The motorists have complaints about the

establishment of illegal transport stands and fruit / vegetable

stalls on both sides of the bridge. When the traffic over thebridge is jammed, the motorists start going the wrong way,

causing the traffic jams at Missile Chowk signal at the

Islamabad Expressway. This results in causing hindrances to

the flow of traffic going towards Airport and Rawat.

ITP has conducted a couple of surveys under supervision of SP(Traffic) to identify various points in the area where traffic flow

is not smooth and traffic jams are quite usual. However, no

concrete steps have been taken so far to overcome the traffic

problems. There is an urgent need to build a new 2 way bridgeor flyover to enable smooth traffic flow across the bridge.

The traffic turning towards Airport and Rawat fromKHANNAPUL needs to be disciplined in a way that it does

not disturb the flow of traffic towards the Airport and Rawat

on the Islamabad Expressway. The illegal transport standsacross the two sides of the bridge should be demolished.

Also, the encroachments shall stay away from the main road

and the cooperation of venders in this regard would play a

vital role for smooth traffic flow.

By: Hafeez Ahmad

With the on-going scrutiny of finger prints by NADRA for general elections, it has

become obvious that the public mandate was stolen. This will result in loss of

public confidence in the electoral system of Pakistan. This alone is the biggest

blow possible to democracy. However it’s a relief that at least NADRA is playing itsrole in bringing transparency to the electoral process or exposing the lack thereof.

All the constituencies that have had their votes verified by NADRA, have proven

major discrepancies so it’s a national issue rather than a regional or provincial issue.

It seems the only Government body that is interested in transparency with regards

to elections in Pakistan is NADRA. Meanwhile, the only political party interested in

transparency seems to be PTI. KP Assembly has been debating biometric local

body elections for the past couple of weeks. It seems that the only hope for

transparency in future elections is the initiative of KP Government to hold first ever

biometric local body elections in Pakistan. This would serve as a successful model

for future general elections as well.

RIGGING IN

ELECTION AND ECPBy Sulaiman Malik

of 2007 and was amazed with the green pastures of

the city. During my run in I-8, I would change pathsto discover the dense forestry, spread all over the

surroundings. Some mornings were really hot, but

most were very pleasant in the summer, particularlyafter rain or during rain when a sweet smell was

prevalent. I hiked the trail in Islamabad leading up

high in the Margalla hills and enjoyed the work out.

Compared to Phoenix hikes, Islamabad Mountainsare softer and greener and certainly very much

worthwhile to hike, like the Phoenix Mountains that

I used to hike frequently as well. The view from the

top of the hike in Phoenix from the squaw peakmountain is breathtaking, and although I did not go

all the way up to the top in Islamabad, I am sure that

completing a hike and enjoying the final view inIslamabad would be as rewarding as it used to be in

Phoenix. Another difference I observed was that

traffic was a bit more orderly in Islamabad compared

to the chaos in Karachi. I could always find a parkingspot in the blue area where I frequently dined and in

Karachi it was certainly a pain in the neck to find a

parking space. I could even walk after having dinner

in blue area and felt safer in the city. Whenever, Itravelled from Karachi back to Islamabad, I could

breathe better because of so much less pollution in

Islamabad. Many people spoke of a lack of life andactivity in Islamabad which I found untrue. Jinnah

Super was always humming with life in the evenings

and although shops closed earlier in Islamabad, I did

not mind as I like to go to bed early anyways. All inall, I liked Islamabad to the point of buying an

accommodation here which was not very cheap.



Insaf Ki Awaz

Documents

Transcript of Insaf Ki Awaz