An ode to Shaukat Aziz

Society Pakistan & World Affairs
1

This should explain why there are power cuts, and why people should expect nice and warm coming summer.

http://thenews.jang.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=90999

An ode to Shaukat Aziz
Hit and run

Monday, January 14, 2008
Shakir Husain

Since about Oct 12, 2007, the news in the country and internationally hasn’t really allowed us to pay homage to a great patriot who gave us NINE years of his life and has recently left with a heavy heart for greener pastures. I speak of Shaukat Aziz, who has recently left for London and then will be attending the World Economic Summit at Davos in his “personal” capacity. Shaukat Aziz needs no introduction to the people of Pakistan, who have so much to thank him for, for his extended tour in Pakistan as finance minister and then prime minister. Mr Aziz came, he banked, and now has cashed his chips to move on, leaving his illustrious career as a politician to perhaps serve the people of another wretched country. I really don’t know what the people of Tharparkar and Attock will do without their beloved leader.

I think Shaukat Aziz is one of the most misunderstood “politicians” in the history of Pakistan. The middle class and the English-speaking minority really liked him because he wore nice suits and spoke such wonderful English, which automatically made people think that he was going to do good things for the nation. Unfortunately, what most people didn’t realise is that he was a private banker and not an economist. His job for two decades had been to help people stash away ill-gotten money in places where other people couldn’t find it, and not formulate fiscal policy to help a developing nation grow.

During the fiscal reign of Shaukat the First, the average Pakistanis saw access to unprecedented levels of cheap credit which can be compared to the United States where people bought houses in unprecedented numbers due to access to cheap credit. Being a banker, Shaukat Aziz rallied to the cause of his fellow bankers, liberalised the banking sector, and ensured that banking spreads were among the highest in the world. Needless to say, over the past eight years banks have been more profitable than they had ever been. And who got screwed in the process? The average depositor, of course. Thank you, Shaukat Aziz.

Since 1999, when Shaukat Aziz became a member of Musharraf’s “dream” team and took over as finance minister till the day he left office as prime minister, not one megawatt of electricity was added to the national grid. Yet, because of Shaukat Aziz’s policies of providing cheap credit to one and all, he can be credited with selling more consumer electronics than any advertising campaign. But if we weren’t generating more power, how was the average Pakistani supposed to run his fancy new air-conditioner and deep-freezer? Today’s power crisis, which is affecting both the consumer and the industrial user, can squarely be blamed on Shaukat Aziz’s flawed economic policies. Yes men like Dr Salman Shah who played Robin to Shaukat’s Batman should be ashamed of themselves for not speaking out when they could have. Maybe if this lot had spent less time jetting around the globe and running their self-promotional PR exercises, and focused on their jobs we wouldn’t find ourselves in the mess we are in today.

Shaukat Aziz and his economic dream team can also be squarely held responsible for the disastrous food insecurity Pakistanis are facing today. There is an atta crisis in the land today and prices have spiralled out of control because Mr Aziz decided to allow the export of wheat as a political favour a little before he took off for London. According to news reports, a rice crisis is also in the pipeline. While Mr Aziz was more partial to scones, he should have known that his trickledown effect hadn’t quite brought his constituents to the same culinary level as him.

Our alternate energy policy is also one of the most backward in the region. Permissions to set up wind farms have been doled out to cronies and political allies like party favours. For instance, the former foreign minister’s son has been given the green light to set up a wind farm in Sindh in record time, while others had to wait with applications in hand till some secretary found time to meet them. While our neighbours are generating electricity from wind and solar sources, our grid relies on expensive oil and gas sources. Sweetheart deals all around for everyone. Sad, but we can thank the dream team.

The fallout from some of the flawed policies of the last ten years will be felt in the coming years in the form of spiralling inflation, high interest rates, higher utility bills, and more; but they’re not because of ineptitude or lack of resources, rather of picking the wrong guy for the job. Hiring a private banker to do the job of a policy economist is like getting a plumber to fix your car’s engine. I do believe in divine justice and Shaukat Aziz was vying for Citibank’s top job and was lobbying hard for it, yet the board, instead, picked an Indian with an impeccable reputation. Mr Aziz is currently at Davos in his “personal” capacity, no doubt looking for a plum opportunity. While I personally don’t hold a grudge against him, I would urge him not to return to his home constituency of Tharparkar or Attock anytime soon.

The writer is an entrepreneur and business consultant. Email: shakir@gmail. com

2

Re: An ode to Shaukat Aziz

Good analysis. :k: This explains a lot, regarding heavy load shedding as ever in this country. Another looting force to edge off.
Thanks for sharing Shamraz.

**Daydreaming**
3

Re: An ode to Shaukat Aziz

http://nation.com.pk/daily/jan-2008/14/columns1.php

Miracle that was!

DR FAISAL BARI
The public does not have access to atta, gas, petrol, diesel, electricity and water, or they have to pay an arm and a leg to get these. Unemployment remains high, law and order has deteriorated to a point that killings and bombings seem an everyday occurrence now, and political uncertainty, especially after the assassination of Ms Bhutto, could not be higher. Growth rate is slowing down, and it is not just the critics who are saying that. World Bank, ADB, IMF and others, who have been all praise for government economic policies over the last few years, are also revising growth estimates downwards currently, and even the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has said that growth and inflation targets are unlikely to be met this year.
The government, in the form of ministry of finance, is still adamant that ‘all is well’. But the real issues run a lot deeper and what we are seeing right now is just the tip of the iceberg. Growth rate is slowing down, but this is not a result of just the recent political tensions and uncertainties, it is largely the result of slowdown in industries that were giving us reasonable growth till last year or so.
Banking has slowed down and is facing a problem of non-performing loans on the consumer side now, leasing has slowed down and consumer products industry, including automobiles, has slowed down considerably as well. Tight monetary policy will probably mean that the slow down will not be reversed soon. Industries that were supposed to be going through major investment and BMR activity, especially textiles, have not picked up still, and agricultural production has not been spectacular. So where is the growth going to come from?
But there are even larger issues facing us, and some of these are going to make the life of the incoming government very difficult. The government has been trying to keep the economy stable by postponing a lot of adjustments that should have been affected months ago. The higher cost of oil has not been passed on to the people, neither has the higher cost of electricity been passed on to the public.
What happens when these costs are passed on: the new government will look bad, and will democracy be blamed for things that this non-representative government is leaving behind? Similarly, SBP has been avoiding devaluations against the dollar, even though, effectively, against a basket of world currencies, rupee has been devaluing. But when the rupee-dollar rate is altered, we are again going to see the representative government being blamed.
Devaluation is bound to happen. The trade gap remains quite large and significant, and though aid/loan flows continue, and probably so will remittance flows, but the foreign investment flows might not be as large as last year. If that happens, there will be pressure on the rupee for devaluation. Even with the reserves of 12-15 billion dollars that we have, and even if we decide to drawdown some part of the reserves, the exchange rate will alter. Another pressure on the exchange rate will come from the differentials in inflation. Pakistani inflation rates are higher than those faced by most of the developed countries, including the US, right now. In the medium run exchange rate will need to adjust to allow for the higher price rises in Pakistan. So, a devaluation is likely to happen, the real question is just about the timing.
Around 2000 or so Paris Club and some other lenders had rescheduled a large chunk of Pakistan’s debts. And Pakistan was also given a grace period of five years or so in which it was allowed the grace of deferring payments of principal amounts. This grace period should be ending, for a lot of loans, in 2008.
If that is the case, and if we have to pay instalments on principal amounts to the tune of say $1 billion or so a year, this is going to place significant burden on the foreign account of the country, and it will imply further pressure on the exchange rate and our reserves. We have also been issuing foreign currency bonds in international markets (Euro bonds and Sukooqs and so on). The initial ones of these will be maturing soon and this will also imply payments of $500 million or so a year. The job of the minister of finance is not going to be an enviable one in the next government.
The government has also been borrowing quite heavily internally as well. Though the State Bank has warned the government about this a number of times, it has chosen not to do anything about it beyond warnings. If our fiscal deficit and domestic debt spirals, which it has to an extent, this is recipe for higher inflation in future periods. Again, this will be another gift of the current and past government to the future government.
So what happened to the economic miracle that Pervez Musharraf and Shaukat Aziz had supposedly engineered? The growth did occur, there were large inflows into Pakistan as well, investment did happen in certain sectors and some of these sectors did post large growth rates, and incomes of certain classes of people and in certain geographic belts did increase significantly. The question is really how could the miracle evaporate so quickly and in so drastic a manner?
There has been a lot of discussion of how the government, over the last eight odd years, has been presenting too rosy a picture of the economy. They have, allegedly, been doctoring data and even reporting selected and more favourable data items. So, the growth and income increase story might actually be an exaggerated one. When the new government comes in, and they have had time to check the numbers, only then will we know the true story here.
Irrespective of the above, it is a fact that the growth of the past eight odd years, based on foreign inflows, growth in some sectors like automobiles, allied light engineering, telecommunications, information technology, consumer durables, banking and leasing and some other sectors, was not an economy wide phenomena. And it did not happen in sectors that had significant linkages with the rest of the economy. Agriculture continues to contribute a quarter of our GDP and almost one half of all jobs in the economy. But there was no breakthrough of any kind in agriculture.
In fact, with water becoming a more binding constraint with every passing year, things have become even tighter for farmers. In addition, removal of subsidies from inputs, and confused policies regarding the role of government in output markets has further exacerbated problems. So, agriculture could not really benefit from the growth over the last few years, and this, in turn, implies that almost half of Pakistan’s population and most of the rural population did not benefit from the growth spurt.
Similarly, though there was some growth in service sector jobs (banking, telecommunications and information technology); most of the job growth took place in skilled labour market jobs. Most of Pakistani labour is unskilled. So, where the skilled labour markets tightened a lot and professionals reaped the benefits of rapidly increasing salaries in some sectors, most of the labourers of the country did not benefit. The growth that took place was also geographically limited as well.
Big cities and more urban areas of the Punjab, NWFP and Sindh were the main beneficiaries of the growth. Rural areas, interior of Sindh, south of Punjab, and Balochistan did not benefit a whole lot. And since the growing sectors did not have strong linkages to the economies in these regions, trickle down did not happen and sustainability could also not be attained.
As inflows become smaller, loans become due, inflationary pressures hit the fan while the political situation continues to remain murky; we can predict hard times for the economy and for the people. The incoming government will have to face the music and it will not be a pleasant period. Irrespective of the rhetoric of the last eight years, the last government has really bequeathed a house of cards to the incoming government and to the people of Pakistan.
They chose to ignore doing basic and fundamental reforms. Instead they chose to inflate the economy through borrowed money and borrowed glory. Sadly, it is the people of Pakistan who will have to, yet again, pay the price for the indiscretions of the last government.
E-mail: [email protected]

~~**PARTY**~~
~~**PARTY**~~
4

Re: An ode to Shaukat Aziz

Shakir Husain … this corrupt seems surely on pay roll of his daddy Zardari. His job, similar to most corrupt journalist job working for corrupt Pakistani newspapers, is to misguide people with lies and misinformations :slight_smile:

Why? Because Shaukat Aziz was not a private banker (as this liar claims) neither Shaukat Aziz job was to help people stash away ill-gotten wealth of corrupts (only private bankers deal with Bank private clients) but Shaukat Aziz job was in auditing and later he was given job to catch people and expose their ill-gotten wealth … and it is because of Shaukat Aziz … Shakir daddy Zardari and BB is in trouble because of their Switzerland accounts full of ill-gotten wealth.

This is the job of Shaukat Aziz … and in this job Shaukat Aziz investigated Zardari and BB accounts in Switzerland … and today Zardari is in so much trouble. [So the truth is that … Shaukat Aziz was policeman and corrupts (Zardari and BB) were choors running from this policeman … that is why Zardari and BB never used to see Shaukat Aziz eye to eye … or use to talk much against him]

Paragraph from American senate report … where 4 world most corrupts with their ill-gotten wealth were investigated by Shaukat Aziz for City Bank and (American government) so that USA banking law ‘to stop money laundering’ get changed … ‘Zardari and BB’ case was 2nd amongst 4 notorious world corrupts.

[From para below:
**Mr. Aziz began making personnel changes at the private bank, including firing a longtime senior manager in Switzerland, Phillipe Holderbeke **

I am not sure but I think that ‘Phillipe Holderbeke’ is also probably involved in ‘BB and Zardari’ corruption case in Switzerland too]

Here is what was Shaukat Aziz role in city bank (part of paragraph from middle of the report):

**Senior Bank Management Oversight. **Poor audit results, ongoing regulatory reviews, and the Salinas and Zardari scandals elevated the private bank’s problems to the attention of Citibank’s senior management. The Chairman of the Audit Committee of Citibank’s Board of Directors, Robert Shapiro, an outside director who is also chief executive officer of Monsanto, told the Subcommittee staff that, during his tenure as committee chairman from 1996 until 1998, the private bank became one of a handful of issues he focused on. He said that he was troubled not only by the repeated low audit scores, but also by the private bank’s repeated failure to meet deadlines for corrective action. He said that he personally talked to Citicorp’s CEO John Reed about the need to take action. He said that Mr. Reed responded by taking a personal interest in addressing the private bank problems.

Among other actions, in May 1997, Mr. Reed replaced the head of the private bank. He selected Shaukat Aziz, a longtime Citibank executive not previously associated with the private bank. He told the Subcommittee staff that he charged Mr. Aziz with improving what Mr. Reed called the private bank’s “lousy audits.” He indicated that he also asked Mr. Aziz to review the private bank’s handling of public figures accounts, and to initiate the “fundamental review” of the private bank requested by bank regulators. In a November 1997 letter to the Board of Directors, Mr. Reed wrote the following:

“I spent a day being interviewed by the Department of Justice on the Salinas affair. As a legal issue, I continue to think that we are on very solid ground. However, I am more than ever convinced that we have to rethink and reposition the Private Banking business. … Much of our practice that used to make good sense is now a liability. We live in a world where we have to worry about ‘how someone made his/her money’ which did not used to be an issue. Much that we had done to keep Private Banking private becomes ‘wrong’ in the current environment. The business itself is very highly attractive and there is no reason why we cannot pursue it in a sound way but it will take an adjustment.” [CS7463]

That adjustment apparently has not been a smooth one and is still underway. In July 1998, Mr. Aziz presented a new private bank strategy to the Citibank Audit Committee, recommending among other measures that the bank move away from “secrecy” and instead emphasize producing good investment returns for its clients. He also recommended taking steps to change the private bank’s culture of lax internal controls. These controls were a sensitive matter throughout 1998, not only because of the Carlos Gomez fraud in January, but also because, in May 1998, ten days after Citibank had agreed to purchase Banca Confia in Mexico, that Mexican bank was indicted by the United States Justice Department for engaging in money laundering.

**After receiving approval of the Audit Committee and senior bank management of the proposed 1998 strategy, Mr. Aziz began making personnel changes at the private bank, including firing a longtime senior manager in Switzerland, Phillipe Holderbeke, and altering the private bank’s leadership team. On the issue of public figure accounts, in late 1998 and early 1999, over the objection of some longterm private bank employees, he ordered a number of longstanding public figure accounts to be closed. **

In October 1999, after accepting an appointment as finance minister of Pakistan, his home country, Mr. Aziz left the private bank. He was replaced by Todd Thomson, a former Travelers Group executive.

~ *►*~ Paindo Poems ~*◄*~
5

Re: An ode to Shaukat Aziz

Who care if he was private banker or not. The point is he screwed up pretty badly. Anyway, just want point out the contradiction in your post.

Also this:

Profile: Shaukat Aziz
By-election poster for Shaukat Aziz
Mr Aziz has no political constituency of his own, observers say
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz is a former private banker credited with recent reforms of his country’s economy.

Well regarded by global financiers, the former Citibank executive was President Pervez Musharraf’s choice for the top post.

When former Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali resigned in June, the ruling party swiftly declared that Mr Aziz, the finance minister, would take over.

He first had to secure a seat in parliament - a requirement to take up the top post - and did so in August with victory in two by-elections.

Mr Aziz replaced ailing Pakistan Muslim League leader, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, who was in temporary charge.

Currency of friendship

The urbane and smartly dressed Mr Aziz, 55, joined the government of General Musharraf shortly after the army chief’s 1999 military coup.

Under his tenure, an economy then in recession now reports growth of 6.4% a year.

Shaukat Aziz (left) and current PM, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain
Shaukat Aziz (left) with temporary PM, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain

Observers attribute this success largely to debt reduction and the securing of hundreds of millions of dollars in loans and aid in return for support in the US-led war on terror.

Analysts say his main duties as premier are to improve the day-to-day running of the federal government and see that policies are more effectively executed.

Mr Aziz, who is married with three children, was born and brought up in the southern city of Karachi, Pakistan’s commercial capital.

He joined Citibank in 1969 after a degree in business administration from the Institute of Business Administration, Karachi and progressed to a senior post with the bank in New York at the height of a 30-year career in global finance.

Mr Aziz may be the choice of a section of Pakistan’s rulers, who hope he will win friends in the international financial institutions.

But he has no political constituency of his own in Pakistan, observers say.

Locals in one of the by-election seats picked for him were reported to have scratched their heads and asked who he was when they heard the name of their candidate.

He is evidently better known to elements seeking to undermine the president’s administration.

It was while campaigning for the by-elections that he survived an apparent assassination attempt on 30 July in Punjab province.

His driver and eight others died in the suicide bomb attack.

Sing a Song according 2 Ur Mood !!!!!
6

Re: An ode to Shaukat Aziz

**:hmmm:**You mean … it does not matter that the writer (Shakir) of the article is wriring BS or not? Just because you want to read his BS and accept it, quote his lies to further spread lies … and that is fine with you and when it is pointed out to you .. this is what you have to say, is that … ‘it does not matter’?

As for screwing up the economy … again that is spreading lies, misinformation, and propaganda … just what journalist like Shakir does. If you do not know the fact than why comment? and if you know, why not quote the state of economy when Shaukat Aziz took over and compare that with present economy?

I have already done that many time and if you want to, I can do that again.

Now you are trying to spread misinformation about my post too … as you want to show contradiction in my post when there is none … :slight_smile: Here you quoted my post to show contradiction.

Brother, have you read my post and understood it or I have to explain that too … but if I do, many would say that I write long post … and if I do not, it seems that people intentionally try to misunderstand my post :wink:

Well, here is it … if you had read my post, you would not have asked:

The corrupt liar wiriter Shakir wrote that … Shaukat Aziz was private banker … read his article (I pointed out in my last post too).

But shaukat Aziz was not private banker (read the extrct of senate report). He was sent to private bank as head of Private bank for particular job on especial assignment (that was in May 1997 … and he stayed there until he left for Pakistan in Oct 1999 … for 19 months). His job in private bank was not as Private banker but to head Private bank and imprive Private bank’s lausy audits. Also to review Private bank’s handling of public figures accounts … to initiate fundamental review of the privare bank (as what American government bank regulators asked the bank).

From Senate report (I posted):

Among other actions, in May 1997, Mr. Reed replaced the head of the private bank. He selected Shaukat Aziz, a longtime Citibank executive not previously associated with the private bank. He told the Subcommittee staff that he charged Mr. Aziz with improving what Mr. Reed called the private bank’s “lousy audits.” He indicated that he also asked Mr. Aziz to review the private bank’s handling of public figures accounts, and to initiate the “fundamental review” of the private bank requested by bank regulators. In a November 1997 letter to the Board of Directors, Mr. Reed wrote the following:

So, when he left Private bank … he did not left as private banker … but from what especial assignment he was given in private bank.

As for economy of Pakistan … let see if he made it or destroyed it: This is what happened to the economy of Pakistan … judge yourself.

GDP growth of Pakistan over different periods (in dollars):

Pakistan economy in 1958 was $ 3.6 billions
Pakistan economy in 1969 was $ 9.7 billions
GDP Increase of $ 6.1 billions in 11 years (1958-69) of Ayub Khan was @ 9.4 percent per year.

Pakistan economy in 1972 was $11.4 billions
Pakistan economy in 1977 was $15.8 billions
GDP Increase of $ 4.4 billions in 5 years of ZA Bhutto rule was @ 6.7 percent per year.

Pakistan economy in 1977 was $15.8 billions
Pakistan economy in 1988 was $40 billions
GDP Increase of $ 24.2 billions in 11 years of Zia rule was @ 8.8 percent per year.

Pakistan economy in 1988 was $40 billions
Pakistan economy in 1999 was $62.2 billions
GDP Increase of $ 22.2 billions in 11 years of corrupts duo (BB and NS) rule was @ 4.1 percent per year.

Pakistan economy in 1999 was $62.2 billions
Pakistan economy in 2007 was $146.3 billions
****GDP Increase of $ 84.1 billions in 8 years of Musharraf rule was @ 11.3 percent per year. … What a thumping economical growth ****

[Is that what you call … screwing the economy of Pakistan when it was the highest ever economical growth period in Pakistan history?]

►Geedar Singhi ◄
7

Re: An ode to Shaukat Aziz

Saleem, any journalist who writes against Mush and Shauky does not automatically make zardari their daddy and corrupt. Learn to respect journalists and leave the slander aside. Its just like how you used to bring up Imran Khan's sex life everytime we someone would bring him up.

**Daydreaming**
8

Re: An ode to Shaukat Aziz

^^ Sa1eem doesn't even believe what he writes. Everybody knows Shaukat Aziz is banker, who screwed up our economy, yet he continues to argue...
BTW, the guy who write the article is not a journalist. He is a businessman.

The writer is an entrepreneur and business consultant. Email: shakir@gmail. com

~~**PARTY**~~
9

Re: An ode to Shaukat Aziz

Is it just me or does this not reconcile with this? I found a source based on the CIA World Factbook saying that Pakistan is making more electricity, including 12.4% more in 2005 than in 2004.

Year Electricity - production (kWh) Rank Percent Change Date of Information
2003 66,960,000,000 36 2001
2004 66,960,000,000 37 0.00 % 2001
2005 75,270,000,000 33 12.41 % 2003
2006 76,920,000,000 35 2.19 % 2003
2007 80,240,000,000 32 4.32 % 2004

In fact, here’s a source (which from it’s appearance, is based on older data from the CIA World Factbook) that says that in 1998 Pakistan was making 59 billion kilowatt hours of electricity. http://www.ed-u.com/pk.html . Assuming Shaukat Aziz’s influence began in 1999, this would suggest that Pakistan’s electricity production rose by 33% under Shaukat Aziz’s influence.

~~**PARTY**~~
~~**PARTY**~~
10

Re: An ode to Shaukat Aziz

With 8 hrs of load shedding daily??

These ‘stats’ don’t reflect the ground reality, where the situation has only gotten worse

11

Re: An ode to Shaukat Aziz

Apart from personal anecdotes, can you actually provide me with any statistics from organizations that publish data, which show an increase in the amount of load shedding?

I like to deal with published facts and numbers, not mere stories :)

~ *►*~ A Car - Ghareeb Ka Ameer Thread ~*◄*~
12

Re: An ode to Shaukat Aziz

^ maybe you missed the tonnes of threads on load shedding a little while ago maddy... It went as bad as 12 continous hours at one time. Just call up your relatives in Pakistan and see for yourself how bad it is.

~ *►*~ A Car - Ghareeb Ka Ameer Thread ~*◄*~
13

Re: An ode to Shaukat Aziz

I#m not so well informed about these facts on before and after but maybe we are not creating enough to satisfy every house hold.

~ *♥*~ Share Marriage Quotes - Dedicated to IS ~*♥*~
14

Re: An ode to Shaukat Aziz

We have had 8 to 10 times load shedding a day at Lahore (20-30-45 mins).
If you have relatives in Pakistan, ask them. A better proof you cannot find.

Aaj Kiss Baat Par Gussa Aaya ??????
15

Re: An ode to Shaukat Aziz

Obviously you are not wrong :slight_smile:

Electricity production … what I know, most of dams that are made during last 8 years, they added to Pakistan hydro electricity production capacity of Pakistan plus there was increase in conventional electricty generation too (especially electricity from coal) and Pakistan added some nuclear electricity capacity too.

Here is report: If you want to see how much electicity generation has increased during last 8 years … go to page 7 of 11 page report on Pakistan.

http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/Pakistan/pdf.pdf

Anyhow since it is given in graph … let me give the figures (estimated from the graph)

1989 (start of corrupt political periods after death of Zia): Pakistan total electricity generation capacity = 40 billion KWhs
Hydro = 18 billion KWhs
conventional (gas, oil, coal) = 22 billion KWhs

1999 (end of corrupt political period)= 60 billion KWhs
[Your data shows that in 1998 it was 59 billion KWhs … near enough (mine is estimate from graph for 1999) … seems there was no increase in electricity generation in 1999]
Hydro = 20 billion KWhs
conventional (gas, oil, coal) = 40 billion KWhs

2004 = 82 billion KWhs
[your reported data shows that it was 80.5 billion KWhs in 2004 or an increase of 4.32 percent on 2003 … close enough … mine is estimate from graph … my estimating error :)]
Hydro = 30 billion KWhs
conventional (gas, oil, coal) = 50 billion KWhs
Nuclear= 2

Note: It would have been higher but as you can read the report … in earlier days there was excess supply of electricity generation capacity … but fortunately since Pakistan per capita income grew very fast, consumption demand also increased fast and thus electicity today is short.

I do not know exactly what is generation capacity in 2007 (I could find that too and I believe it would be much more than 82 billion KWhs. The thing to note is that Hydro electricity generation capacity increased substantially … a right direction. One can see that during 11 years of corrupt political (BB and NS) rule, hydro electric generation increase from around 18 billion KWhs to 20 billion KWhs … just 2 billion KWhs.

But during first 5 years of Musharraf rule … it increased from 20 billion KWhs … to 30 billion KWhs … or 10 billion KWhs. Over all electricity generation in first 5 years increaded by 22 billion KWhs … much more than 11 years of political corrupt rule when electricity production just increased by 20 billion KWhs.

In 2005 … there was another increase of 6.5 billion KWhs as production went to 88.42 BKWhs = 88.42 Trillion Whs (wikipedia source given below)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Pa…city_production

But … obviously rapid and unprecedented economy growth and very high rate of per capita income growth … energy demand is increasing very fast too.

For instance in 2005-2006 Pakistan imported $6.7 billion worth of crude oil … (I believe that in 1999 Pakistan was importing around $1 billion of crude oil or less … ).

16

Re: An ode to Shaukat Aziz

That's true. it is entirely believable that the outstanding economic growth that teh Musharraf/Aziz tag-team has delivered is so high that it's led to electricity demand rising well above the 35% increase in supply, which could lead to the load shedding that anecdotes are claimed to suggest, though there seem to be few facts to support this.

However, between us, Sa1eem, it seems that we've identified at least 2 outright lies in the original article.

1) The original article that Shamraz Khan posted says that Shaukat Aziz spent 2 decades as a private banker, whereas the truth is 2.5 years.
2) The article says that Pakistan's electricity supply did not grow at all under Shaukat Aziz, whereas it grew by 35%.

I do wonder how much of the rest of the original article in this thread consists of lies and half-truths too.

**Daydreaming**
**Daydreaming**
17

Re: An ode to Shaukat Aziz

You are absolutely right :) ... but as you know ... there is a problem.

People who believe on truth, say truth, and correct oneself if they said anything wrong. They just say it and then stop because they believe on it too and expect that all would believe it. But there is another school of thought and that is called 'propaganda school of thought' who spread lies and propaganda, as what Pakistani corrupt politicians and media does a lot, but they spread their propaganda and lies so vigrously and repeatedly that eventually it get accepted by many unsuspected Pakistanis as true and what is true get suppressed behind their lies.

It is unfortunate but true :(

18

Re: An ode to Shaukat Aziz

Yes true indeed. I bet many of the people that complain are into Kunda Baazi (electricity chors), yet complain about load shedding. Agar complain karna hai to Kunda baazo chhod do and pay for electricity, so that further development can continue.

19

Re: An ode to Shaukat Aziz

Yaar the loadshedding is quite simple to understand, we have growth that has outgrown our current infrastructure. Mushy/Shauky gave economic growth but we still need more to meet our demands. Doesn't mean they did anything wrong. They have still outpaced other governments in their growth targets if I am correct and to their credit even when this government has met with challenge after challenge that no other government met before. I do not disagree with the article saying that easy credit has led to a boom in consumer electronics and that is the primary reason for such a demand in electricity that has outpaced out current infrastructure's capacity despite the fact that it has grown.

What I don't understand though is why the Atta crisis? Anyone care to elaborate.

20

Re: An ode to Shaukat Aziz

lol since youre so fond of comparing everything to the previous regimes, are you sayig there was no kundabaazi during the NS and BB regimes? Is that why they were much better at avoiding the whole LS fiasco? :hehe:

Btw, kundas are usually used by hawkers on thelaz to light up a lightbulb, not the general population. If you are blaming these hawkers for bringing down the pakistani economy by lighting up bulbs at their thelaz, then it just shows how fragile the economy is. You need better excuses.

~~**PARTY**~~
~~**PARTY**~~