Nadeem Haque

Director SIA. Formerly VC PIDE+ Deputy Chairman Planning Commission IMF. Designed/created RASTA social science research funding network. Researcher author

[Nadeem Haque @nadeemhaque]

6 governments later illegal gated estate (GOR) in Lahore remains in place killing my property rights. Who should I appeal to DMG, judges, CM are all beneficiaries of the gated estate and they refuse to review it. Have been in court for 15 years. This is Pakistan.

[Nadeem Haque @nadeemhaque]

@ZahidGishkori Please explain how and when things changed!

[Nadeem Haque @nadeemhaque]

@KhawajaMAsif @MansorQaisar Then people who built M2 are at fault. Wasted our time and wasted huge amount of dollars buying fuel.

There should be an inquiry.

[Nadeem Haque @nadeemhaque]

Yes dynasties and nepotism thy name is pakistan.

[Farhad Jarral @FarhadJarralPK]

وفاقی وزیر منصوبہ بندی احسن اقبال صاحب کی ہمشیرہ ہیں۔

[🇸🇦Abdulsalam Saleh @abdulslam2017]

🚨 A Glimmer of Hope Between New Delhi and Islamabad... The Region Needs Bridges, Not Walls

India has informed Pakistan of its willingness to reactivate the “Indus Waters Treaty” and allow the rivers to flow naturally, in exchange for Pakistan opening its airspace to Indian aircraft without restrictions.

Pakistan has not yet responded, but the mere fact that this proposal has been put on the table is a positive sign. I hope peace will prevail between the two countries. The region needs bridges, not walls. This is the right path. 🇮🇳🇵🇰🦅

[Nadeem Haque @nadeemhaque]

Nations are forged by honoring their true heroes—and heroes are everywhere, quietly performing the small, essential acts that hold society together.
A country that elevates its heroes into ministers, then hands power and privilege to their families, is a country that has already lost its way. When every road, building, and institution must bear the name of a politician—paid for by the very taxpayers they serve—it becomes a sad little club, not a nation.
True leaders understand this: the real heroes are the ordinary people—the Din Mohammeds, the Bashir weathermen, the Hashim Khans, the Arshad Nadeems, the Aslam Azhars, the Bano qudsias, the asma Jahangirs, the Shoaib Hashmis, the Qavis, and countless others like them.

These are the ones who deserve celebration, recognition, and respect. Not the ministers, politicians, and judges who chase the limelight, build monuments to themselves, and mistake their positions for greatness.

A nation that confuses the spotlight with power alone is a nation in decline. Real progress begins when we stop worshipping the powerful and start honoring those who actually build, serve, and inspire.

@CMShehbaz @HamidMirPAK @Kamran_Yousaf @KhawajaMAsif

[Yasser Latif Hamdani @theRealYLH]

Interesting story about Din Muhammad. When he won the medal, the organisers didn’t have a Pakistan flag. They tried to use the Indian flag instead. He refused. He finally received his medal at the Pakistani Embassy.

[Nadeem Haque @nadeemhaque]

A Typical DMG Career: The Quiet Ladder

Young Ahmed clears the CSS exam and enters the Civil Services Academy in Lahore. For two years he lives inside a pressure cooker of lectures, drills, and endless networking. His batch quickly forms tight “tribes” — lifelong alliances that will decide postings, favours and promotions for decades. This tribe or family will stay in power for the next 30+ years

After the academy he spends three hard years in the field as Assistant Commissioner: revenue courts, law-and-order crises, angry crowds and politicians. The district teaches him how Pakistan actually runs.

By his mid-thirties the system rewards the sharp ones. Eighty percent of ambitious officers secure scholarships to Harvard, Oxford, LSE or similar. Ahmed returns with a foreign degree, polished English and a valuable international contact book. He is now fully westernized and indirectly wired to take debt and follow western consultants

Back home he hunts “project” postings. Many move to donor-funded programmes — World Bank, ADB, FCDO, USAID — either on deputation or full secondment. The salary is better, the work cleaner, the reports international. No matter if more debt is required. Not his problem. Besides the consultants give him clean advice that he learnt at Harvard etc

By now he has also secured a spacious GOR house in Lahore that, with the right connections, he will not vacate for the next thirty or forty years.

A few years later he angles for an overseas slot: Commercial or Economic Counsellor in an embassy, or a position at the WTO or some other such agency.

After three to five rewarding years abroad he returns as Joint or Additional Secretary. With luck he reaches full Secretary rank, controlling large budgets and key policies.

In these golden years he quietly but aggressively cultivates donor representatives. Conferences, study tours and quiet dinners build the bridge.

When retirement arrives — or even early retirement — consulting contracts, advisory roles and well-paid door-opener positions appear. Donors need exactly these men: insiders who know every file, every approval route and every decision-maker.

What should we expect? A highly internationalised bureaucracy whose career incentives are shaped as much by foreign aid ecosystems as by national interest.

Who do they ultimately serve? The Government of Pakistan on paper; the revolving door of donors and multilateral organisations in practice.

Conflict of interest? Significant and largely unaddressed.

This is why experts like Stefan Dercon remain in high demand. For a few hundred million pounds over the years, Britain and other donors have built deep influence inside Pakistan’s elite bureaucracy. The system is not “owned,” but it is skilfully rented.

[Nadeem Haque @nadeemhaque]

Golf in Pakistan: Most subsidized “sport” — zero competitive edge
51+ official courses (claims up to 200, many military/govt on prime public land).

Membership? PKR 3M+ for Defence Raya — but peanuts for the gatekeeper elite (judges, bureaucrats, army brass & rent-seekers).

Colonial hangover deal-making clubs only. Youngsters banned. No real competition. No champions ever.

Just elite networking on taxpayer-subsidized land.

Embarrassing waste.

[RAShahzaddk @RShahzaddk]

مطلب ان کو چھ مہینے کی ایکسٹرا تنخواہ مفت میں دے دی کیا ان کی کارکردگی سے قرضے اتر گئے یا خزانہ بہت بھر گیا کہ یوں بانٹنے لگ گے ہیں ؟
عجیب ڈرامہ ہے ججوں نے اپنی تنخواہیں بڑھا لیں وزیروں نے اپنی چھ سو فیصد بڑھا لی تھیں پھر ججوں نے عدالتی عملے کی تنخواہ بھی بڑھا دی
جب عام سرکاری ملزمان یا پینشنر کی بات آ جائے کہتے خزانہ میں پیسہ نہی ہے

[Nadeem Haque @nadeemhaque]

Ask us in the poor countries and we will tell you please keep USAID CLOSED.

USAID operated as a taxpayer-funded grift machine for Beltway bandits. It functioned as a polished pipeline that sucked billions from American pockets and funneled them primarily to DC-area contractors, consultants, and connected cronies. Data shows that in FY2022, nearly nine out of every ten USAID dollars went to international contracting partners—mostly U.S.-based firms—while just one in ten reached frontline local groups in recipient countries.2010 The top 10 contractors often captured over 50% of contract dollars, with firms retaining the vast majority after overhead.10
Little reached the intended poor. Audits and reports repeatedly highlighted high administrative costs, subcontracting layers, and cases where funds supported luxurious consultant lifestyles or failed projects rather than sustainable outcomes. A five-year inspector general review found contractors failed to deliver results in nearly half of examined cases.20
It was corrupt by design in key ways. The agency existed to serve an insular ecosystem of implementers who profited from endless contracts. Bribery scandals, such as one involving over $550 million in steered contracts, underscored vulnerabilities.0
The darkest aspect involved covert activities. USAID sometimes served as cover for U.S. intelligence-linked efforts, including the 2010s ZunZuneo “Cuban Twitter” program to destabilize the regime, funding opposition in Venezuela, and historical overlaps with CIA operations during Cold War regime changes.4741 Paired with broader U.S. interventions, such aid often propped up dependencies, distorted economies, and failed to build self-reliance—critics argue it perpetuated poverty cycles rather than ending them, despite some genuine health and humanitarian successes.
In short, foreign aid of this model frequently prioritized U.S. strategic interests and domestic contractors over transformative results for the destitute.

[Aimal Wali Khan @AimalWali]

Dear Uncle,

Why is every major development project in Pakistan obsessively focused on Punjab? The new M-13 Kharian-Rawalpindi Motorway and billions poured into Punjab’s infrastructure, while Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan continue to struggle with basic connectivity, crumbling roads, and economic neglect.

In any functional country, resources are collected from the more developed regions and deliberately invested in the peripheries so that backward areas can catch up and the entire nation grows together. In Pakistan, it is the exact opposite: Punjab, which is already relatively better off, is being further pampered and modernized at the direct expense of the smaller, struggling provinces.

You can never achieve lasting security and peace through force or rhetoric alone. Without economic justice and balanced development, the sense of deprivation will only deepen.

[Shamsul Islam Khan @shamsulislamkha]

@nadeemhaque Unending story from Pakistan to Pakistan Colony, Railway Colony WAPDA colony to Babos Sarkari housing. GoP can earn Rs5 trillion non tax income if it leases out land for 40years to private sector housing and small industrial units upto 1 acre verticle construction. Rebuild ISB

[Rula Jebreal @rulajebreal]

L’Onu trova prove inconfutabili dell’uccisione e della tortura intenzionale e sistematica di bambini da parte di Israele! E’ Genocidio.

“La Commissione ha trovato prove inconfutabili relative all’uccisione deliberata e mirata di bambini palestinesi, all’uso della tortura e abusi , trattamenti inumani e degradanti, compreso il ricorso alla violenza sessuale, stupri contro i bambini palestinesi.
Più di 20,000 bambini sono stati deliberatamente sterminati e più di 44.000 sono rimasti feriti”.

L’ONU conferma che Israele sta commettendo un #GENOCIDIO contro i bambini palestinesi.
Nessun attacco contro Israele giustifica l’omicidio di massa dei bambini e il ricorso alla tortura e alla violenza sessuale/ stupri nei loro confronti.
I leader mondiali devono denunciare, e prevenire questi crimini: Israele andrebbe sanzionata, biscottata e punita per il crimine di prendere di mira i bambini palestinesi.

[Asad Ali Shah @Asad_Ashah]

Every year, billions are reported.
Every year, almost nothing changes.

The latest AGP report again highlights irregularities running into hundreds of billions of rupees — including Rs117.8 billion in unrealised super tax, along with major observations relating to DISCOs, Railways and other public entities.

But this is not the real story.

The real story is also not that Pakistan’s accountability system is good at finding problems.

It is that even the problems it does find — often only the tip of the iceberg — are rarely fixed.

Our Public Accounts Committees spend years discussing thousands of audit paras, while the same observations reappear year after year.

Audit has become an annual ritual rather than a catalyst for better governance, stronger internal controls and prevention of repeated lapses.

In my earlier article, “Auditing the Auditors,” I argued that the purpose of a Supreme Audit Institution is not merely to detect irregularities.

It is to improve internal control and governance, strengthen financial reporting, and ensure accountability.

That requires Parliament — through the Public Accounts Committee, its principal accountability forum — to focus less on individual audit objections and more on:

• systemic weaknesses behind repeated audit paras
• implementation of audit recommendations
• accountability of Principal Accounting Officers for repeat failures
• measurable improvement in public financial management
• timely completion of audited financial statements and their submission to Parliament for rigorous review

Until Pakistan shifts from counting audit observations to measuring governance improvement, audit reports will keep documenting the same weaknesses — year after year.

My article:
https://t.co/jlLo3SbxgO

#Pakistan #PublicFinance #Audit #Governance #Accountability #PAC #AGP #PFM

FBR didn’t capitalise on super tax potential, audit finds - Pakistan - https://t.co/xQQprFJ4wW https://t.co/C4zSgxE8v9

[shahid latif @shahidl10882685]

@saqibbashir156 @SanaullahDawn @SyedWiqasAhmad1 @a_siab @Matiullahjan919 @dawn_com @AsadAToor

[A Beautiful Mind @vsIMF]

Dear Pakistanis,
Read this again & again until it sinks in

IMF programs are meant to enslave you, not to improve you. How long will you fool yourselves with idiotic phrases like "economic stability" that you learned from IMF?

@nadeemhaque
@MirMAKOfficial
@ansukhera

[RT @RT_com]

IMF and World Bank operate under 'neocolonial racketeering' — Medvedev

They issue loans with humiliating conditions, forcing 'structural reforms' that make countries dependent, not efficient

Victims end up in a debt spiral with no way out, per Medvedev

https://t.co/JOJaGyknPm

[tim anderson @timand2037]

After you have heard all the Hasbara b/s about Iran, listen to some real history about the USA, Iran and freedom & the last time Washington controlled Iran.

[Nadeem Haque @nadeemhaque]

Delhi preserved the colonial bungalow state. Pakistan replicated it everywhere.
GORs, elite enclaves, gated dead zones in prime city land — all subsidised by public congestion, lost revenue & opportunity.
Time to decolonise: densify, monetise, pay transparently in cash not land.
Must-read from @nadeemhaque: https://t.co/fedVt13ifL

[Tom Elliott @tomselliott]

How many people has Elon Musk personally murdered via his work helping defund USAID? I've run the numbers.

USAID, as people outside of CNN's viewership already know, operates largely as a CIA cutout, placing assets on the ground in countries where the U.S. govt is intervening politically.

USAID was instrumental is helping seed the following revolutions/coup d'états/civil wars:

Serbia — Bulldozer Revolution (Oct. 2000)

Venezuela — coup attempt + sustained OTI funding (April 2002)

Georgia — Rose Revolution (Nov. 2003)

Ukraine — Orange Revolution (2004)

Haiti — Ouster of Aristide (Feb. 2004)

Lebanon — Cedar Revolution (2005)

Belarus — opposition funding, "Jeans Revolution" and after — attempted, failed (2006)

Honduras — Coup against Zelaya (Jun. 2009)

Cuba — ZunZuneo / "Cuban Twitter" — attempted, failed (2010–12)

Tunisia — "Arab Spring" (2011)

Egypt — "Arab Spring" (2011–12)

Ukraine — Euromaidan / Revolution of Dignity (2014)

Bolivia — anti-Morales funding; 2013 expulsion; 2019 ouster

Kyrgyzstan — Tulip Revolution (March 2005)

Without U.S. intervention, it's hard to see how any of these would have gotten off the ground. Some back-of-the-envelope math on these conflicts' bodycount:

Venezuela (2002): 19

Haiti (2004): ~300

Maidan event (2014): ~100+ killed.

Bolivia (2019): 36

Donbas war (2014–2022): 14,200–14,400 military & civilian deaths.

Ukraine full-scale war (2022–present), deaths, both sides, mil + civ: roughly 350,000–500,000 killed.

So far we're up to somewhere north of 365,000 deaths, more likely north of 500K.

What else do we have?

USAID also helped fund poppy (heroin) farmers in Afghanistan. Unfortunately I haven't seen estimates of how many have died as a result of this taxpayer funded drug dealing, but I'm assuming they're not small numbers.

USAID also worked with groups sexually abusing/trafficking children in Kenya (2021), and the Central African Republic (2013).

Much earlier, during Vietnam, USAID helped the CIA arm & feed Hmong guerrillas fighting communist forces (not the worst thing). USAID also helped the Hmong militia & other warlords smuggle opium (a far less forgivable thing).

While the final tally is hard to properly calculate, if past is predicate, in helping shutdown USAID, @elonmusk could be saving hundreds of thousands of lives, thousands of African children, & millions of people around the world susceptible to opiate addiction.

Get this man a Peace Prize, @NobelPrize