Rs 1.5bn spent on Musharraf’s foreign visits in 5 years, NA told

Society Pakistan & World Affairs
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Re: Rs 1.5bn spent on Musharraf’s foreign visits in 5 years, NA told


which I believe was taken from the same DETAILS as it is mentioned JUST after USA and UK trip.

PS: you should go back to post 13 & 17 and edit accordingly.

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Re: Rs 1.5bn spent on Musharraf’s foreign visits in 5 years, NA told

What a lie! ... still when Musharraf took over, Pakistan was bankrupt with no reserve to show, increasing foreign and local debt (Rs 300 billion plus 13 billion dollars in 1988 to 1700 billion rupees and 38 billion dollars in 1999), stagnant economy (languishing at around 3 percent growth a year), high inflation (over 12 percent on average during 1988-1999), devaluing currency (from Rs 17 per dollar in 1988 to Rs 54 in 1999), stagnant (rather declining) stock market and so on. Today Pakistan is a different country.

It is really surprising that dictator robbed the country still reserve increased from less than 1 billion dollar to over 16 billion dollars, tax collection that was stagnant increased from Rs 308 billion (1999) to around Rs 1000 billion today, Economy that was 62 billion dollars in 1999 (and again was actually stagnant) increased to 160 billion dollars today, Rupee became stable (it actually first time in Pakistani history appreciated from Rs 64 in 2002 to at one time Rs 57 per dollar in open market), stock market that was less than 1200 went up and up to 14500 today, foreign trade went up from 7.6 billion dollars (almost stagnant) to almost 18 billion dollars today, total debt that was 72 billion dollars (local Rs debt plus external dollar debt) and with interest would have been over 150 billion dollars today is now only 80 billion dollars (local Rs debt plus external dollar debts), economy that was growing at 3 percent is today growing at over 7 percent ... what a change even if lies that dictator was robbing the country was true :)

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Re: Rs 1.5bn spent on Musharraf’s foreign visits in 5 years, NA told

I don’t know how it happened (post 17) :konfused: anyhow its corrected.

Lets say 227million is wrong figure, but Musharraf did go to US for the ceremony, do you believe he went to New York at his personal expense?

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Re: Rs 1.5bn spent on Musharraf’s foreign visits in 5 years, NA told

thanks.

for answer, refer to post # 14

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Re: Rs 1.5bn spent on Musharraf’s foreign visits in 5 years, NA told

Mashallah. Only Rs 1.5bn. That is a great return on investment or the unprecedented foreign investment Pakistan has received.

God Bless President Musharaf for keeping the costs so low, yet bring in so much business to Pakistan. Long may he continue. :k:

Timepass
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Re: Rs 1.5bn spent on Musharraf’s foreign visits in 5 years, NA told

well do look at the benefits of his tours before just blaming him on everything.

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Re: Rs 1.5bn spent on Musharraf’s foreign visits in 5 years, NA told

INSIGHT: Clip their wings! —Ejaz Haider

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/images/2008/04/26/20080426_ed01.jpg

While it is important to debate issues, it is equally, if not more, important to set the parameters of the debate right

We are told that General (retd) Pervez Musharraf spent Rs1.5 billion on foreign trips in the last eight years. Predictably there is some consternation over this sum because any amount on the expenditure side involving the exchequer that touches the one billion mark and is presented without reference to other factors is likely to evoke negative emotions.

There is yet another factor, the current political fad, or call it temptation, to add another villainy to Mr Musharraf’s long list of villainies. But it would be wrong to do so not because Mr Musharraf is sacred but because it is important to debate such issues and, for that reason alone, we need to set the parameters of the debate right.

That tv channels are discussing this issue is good; that most are debating it wrongly is bad.

First, this money has been spent over eight years; second, it comes to just over USD23 million (at the rate of 1 USD = 64.67 PKR); third, it means nothing to quote expenditure without reference to any earning — or even to quote anything as standalone.

The question to ask then is: Can we determine that the cost of Mr Musharraf’s foreign jaunts resulted in any benefit for Pakistan?

We can set the benchmarks for those benefits: have the foreign exchange reserves increased; has FDI increased; has there been more spending in the development sector and so on.

When Mr Musharraf took over, forex reserves stood at USD800 million; today they are upwards of USD16 billion. The debate should focus on whether there is at least a correlation, if not a causal linkage, between this and Mr Musharraf’s foreign visits.

The same can be applied to FDI, which has gone up from being in the millions in 2001 to over USD6 billion in 2007. As for spending in the development sector, budget documents and State Bank reports can be relied on. One may also want to study the correlation or a causal linkage between more fiscal space and an expansionary monetary policy and Mr Musharraf’s jaunts.

The result may be in the negative — i.e. we may determine that his winging had nothing to do with anything that Pakistan got on the basis of some of the benchmarks we have noted above or any others that could be worked out. Or, conversely, it may be found that his visits did contribute something and that that something did exceed the expenditure of USD 23 million by many hundred or thousand millions in terms of direct and indirect benefits.

So, while debate we must such issues, especially expenditures involving public funds, it is equally, if not more, important to put things in a perspective. For instance it would be downright ridiculous to say that Mr Musharraf was being extravagant while one bag of flour has gone beyond the reach of the common man. But that is exactly how some of us choose to debate an issue, mixing up categories to the point of becoming absurd.

There is also need, if we are on this issue, to compare Mr Musharraf’s jaunts with what happened during the nineties. This can be done in two ways: one, by comparing expenditures in absolute terms (since neither prime minister stayed in the saddle for eight years we could take the figure for what they actually spent and use the average to add up to eight years); two, we could use the same benchmarks and compare the cost with the benefits.

I say this because during Ms Benazir Bhutto’s second tenure (1993-96), at an early stage I wrote a piece for* The Frontier Post *captioned “On board the prime minister’s plane”. There were two prompts for the write-up. Bagehot had written in *The Economist *about then British prime minister John Major’s foreign travels and Ms Bhutto had decided to go on an international whistle-stop.

Bagehot was of the view that given the stature of the United Kingdom, it was unlikely that Mr Major would achieve much from flying around; that he was better off staying at home. Taking a cue from him I wondered if Pakistan ever had such standing for Ms Bhutto to either emulate Lord Palmerston or work the personal chemistry to the advantage of Pakistan.

I agreed with Bagehot that today’s fresh breath is invariably tomorrow’s halitosis and therefore leaders of middle-sized powers should be very careful in determining what benefits could be had by making personal appearances in foreign capitals.

This essentially proves two things: one, both categories of leaders in Pakistan, heroes as well as today’s villains, have been jetting around; two, we need to figure out whether doing so is much use.

I have a sneaking suspicion, though. If we indeed sat down to working this out, Mr Musharraf may just come out comparatively better than the others. Here’s why. Sometimes, this kind of thing works better when circumstances place a country in the belly of the beast. And that’s where Pakistan has been residing since September 11, 2001.

So maybe, just maybe, Mr Musharraf did invest wisely. But no one need take my hunch for it. Back-of-the-envelope arithmetic takes just that, a used envelope.

*Ejaz Haider is Op-Ed Editor of Daily Times and Consulting Editor of *The Friday Times. *He can be reached at *[email protected]

Translating urdu proverbs into english