As paid for by the Pakistani tax payer..

Society Pakistan & World Affairs
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Some gems on how public money is being wasted nowadays on all expense paid for trips:

Shaukat Aziz was catapulted in as prime minister on August 28 2004. Wasting little time, he took off on September 6 with 47 friendly free-loaders to perform the obligatory Umrah at state expense – unacceptable of course to the Almighty and earning none of them a step up the rungs of the ladder to paradise.
This trip cost the exchequer Rs11.6 million. He returned with his companions from Saudi Arabia and four days later flew off again with 39 co-travellers to Tajikistan, which cost us a mere Rs 7.1 million.
And so his travels around the world continued. In 2004, during his four months in office, his free trip bills cost the exchequer Rs 82.15 million. On one trip to Beijing he managed to squeeze in an entourage of 81 (beating Musharraf hands down, as the largest lot of free loaders he could manage was 70 on the book-launching spree).
Two press reports had it last week that though the details of the prime ministerial jaunts for 2005-2006 have not yet been totted up, it is estimated that over the year he spent some Rs 900 million on his jet-setting activities.

p.s: The article ends with a gem from the real PM’s book about his high opinion of the Chaudhry of Gujrat:

After all, as the General writes of the Chaudhrys in The Book, in 2002 when he started politicking in earnest, these “good men” (sic.) “demonstrated complete commitment to my cause and tremendous grassroots political skills.”

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Re: As paid for by the Pakistani tax payer..

Yeah... This crap goes on all the time... Fortunately, not many Pakistanis pay taxes, but still rather disturbing, considering that money could be much better spent.

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thats one of the reasons people avoid paying taxes.... such looters of public wealth would have taken 200+ free-loaders had there more people paying taxes.

The Real Show - MEERA SPECIAL
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Re: As paid for by the Pakistani tax payer..

But then on the other hand, Pakistanis still take things for granted… The motor way and other highways, the basic civil service etc… Pakistanis complain and grumble about services which they never really paid for…
We expect everything from the state without paying a dime for it.

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^ thats true too, its a vicious circle.

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Well, if all Pakistanis started paying some taxes, even a if a quarter of that amount were used honestly would make a huge difference. I have always wished that even the Gao level, people started paying a village tax of as little as 50 rupees per month… This could make a big difference in villages with a nominal population.. Just my idea though, who listen to me anyways…:frowning:

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The main collection of taxes is by indirect taxation - excise, octroi,import Duty etc.

Think about it, petrol alone would bring in taxes worth billions - so YOU do pay for their overseas trips.

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So.. how do you know that this was funded by tax-payer's money, and not the officials' own personal wealth?

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Another article on the subject

Sample this. Between 1999 and 2004, the foreign trips, sometimes called junkets by irreverent hacks, were fairly low, about one a week if one remembers correctly. However, from whatever records that have been made available – some trips are not accounted for at all, in the five years leading to 2004, the president and his three PMs made about 61 foreign visits to over a 100 countries costing the exchequer a cool billion Quaids. As enlightenment spread its heavenly glow, in just 2005, these trips soared costing in one year what had been collectively spent over five.

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Wow! We have tax payers in Pakistan... amaJing....

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keywords :slight_smile:

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You make it sound as thought the pakistani taxpayer got nothing out of these trips, or that the only person needed to go abroad is the Prime Ministger on his own.

Firstly, on the trip to Saudi Arabia, you make it sound as though Pakistan's taxpayers funded Shaukat Aziz's personal Umrah and he took 40 cronies with him. You completely failed to mention that the main purpose of this trip was the top-to-top government meetings Mr Aziz held with the government of Saudi Arabia - for a series of high-level meeting with one of Pakistan's 3 biggest allies, a retenue of 40 politicians and support personel such as secretaries and advisors is quite normal. During such meetings, many aspects of governmental, economic, and military co-operation get discussed.

The Umrah was a minor aspect of the trip... you make it sound like the focus.

As for going to China, this was a trip to see Pakistan's single most important ally. An even larger retenue is needed in such cases because there are many, many more issues to discuss, more decisions to be made, more people to be met.

Sending just 3 people to such an important ally would be an insult, as well as producing less cooperation. For Shaukat Aziz to personally meet with the number of people that this 100 strong retenue will have had to meet with would have taken so much of his time that you would start complaining that he's spending too much time in China and not enough in Pakistan!

At the end of the day, we have a Prime Minister who is so dedicated to his country's taxpayers that he takes nothing from then as his own salry - he works for free. We should be thankful for that rather than trying to imagine that the services he performs for the nation are somehow self serving.

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Maddie

thank you for putting a balanced face on this hysteria :) you out this in perspective, something that was sorely lacking earlier on in the post.

Now as far as ppl not paying taxes, thats just bull**** that they dont pay because they think it will be wasted and what nots. There is plenty of wasteful govt spending in every nation, look at the criticism US govt gets. People do try to do everything they can to limit tax exposure while remaining in the confines of the law, and yes there are tax evader and tax cheats here.

In Pakistan there is a whole diff issue, ppl simply dont pay taxes, enforcement is not great but the fact that ppl dont pay shows that its not just authorities that have ben corrupt, but also the population at large.

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Some of it seems rather ridiculous in the case of Pakistan… Take for example the issue of the minister, I forget who, who insisted driving an imported luxury car.

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You missed out on it being an armour-plated luxury car. The companies that produce armour-plated vehicles (which are designed to be as heavily armoured as a light tank whilst going much faster in order to escape an attack once in progress) only base these on luxury cars. Only luxury cars come with the kind of powerful, high-capacity engines needed to move a heavily armoured vehicle quickly, and because the majority of customers for these cars require luxury.

4 attacks in Pakistan against VVIPs demonstrates the need for such vehicles, especially given that in all such cases the VVIP escaped injury.

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Point taken, but from what I remember, this particular minister already owned a luxury car, but wanted a newer one. I could be wrong, this was over a year ago…

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what u dont know is whether the new car had safety features that the previous one did not have, maybe protection against IUDs and not just guns or rockets..which would e considered important based on assassination attempts in Pakistan.

anyways teh argument that ppl dont pay their taxes because they feel it can beused incorrectly is just astounding. its justification of being crooks, I guess lack of comfort with govt also makes ppl disregard traffic signs,lights and rules, regulations against marking up private property etc too.

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Nor do you know what happened to the old car - it could very easily have been reassigned to another federal or provincial government official

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Your defense of this corrupt excess is exactly the same rationale use to defend BB/NS, and previous govt ministers when they did the same. I'm sure you were rightly condemning them when they indulged in these practices, yet you seem to excuse the corruption/excess of this govt.

A convey of dozens of people is not, as you put it 'normal'. Even Tony Blair, who does much more business, and has much more money does not travel with so many, and at such expense.

Going by your 'logic' everytime Blair travels, he 'insults' his hosts!

Aziz,the 3rd world leader should not travel like he is the President of the US, of King of some rich land!

As for Aziz working for no money....that's rather naive

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TRD

[QUOTE]
As for Aziz working for no money....that's rather naive
[/QUOTE]

I am 100% sure Aziz took nothing from the govt till he was finance minister. Even now if he does accept a PM's salary, would you care to comment how that compares to what the man in is actually worth in the int'l market!?

[QUOTE]
A convey of dozens of people is not, as you put it 'normal'. Even Tony Blair, who does much more business, and has much more money does not travel with so many, and at such expense.

Going by your 'logic' everytime Blair travels, he 'insults' his hosts!

Aziz,the 3rd world leader should not travel like he is the President of the US, of King of some rich land!

[/QUOTE]

In one line you say even Blair (PM of a rich, prosperous land) doesnt travel like that, in the next you say, Aziz shouldnt travel like the US president or king of a rich land...

BTW, the US, UK and other rich lands have decades of stability and reputation behind them. Marketing for them is not a big deal. Try selling a new brand in comparison to an old established brand, and you'd see what this means. It takes serious work to convince and create a positive air about Pakistan. And all these officials on trips dont vacation around but attend meetings and seminars throughout the stay wherever they go. They work and it's showing. during BB/NS days the groups were as large if not more, and they definitely vacationed all the time. if not, where did the work the did vanish? Why did it never show...!?