Asad

[Rauf Klasra @KlasraRauf]

برسوں پہلے ایک ٹی وی کے چینل کے کولیگ کا چینل سے پھڈا ہوا تو وہ ناراض ہو کر چھوڑ گئے۔چینل والے ان کے پاس گئے پہلے سے ڈبل تنخواہ کی آفر کی تو بھی انکار کیا۔کہنے لگے پہلے 175,000 تنخواہ تھی تو بھی مشروب مغرب پیتا تھا،آپ ڈبل کر دیں تو بھی پینا وہی مشروب ہی ہے۔
آپ بھی جتنی سول سروس ریفامز لے آئیں آپ کی تعلیم یافتہ عوام نے افسر لگ کر کرنی کرپشن ہی ہے اور بقول ہمارے پیارے خواجہ آصف صاحب خریدنی انہوں نے پرتگال جائیدادیں ہی ہیں۔😎

@betterpakistan @CMShehbaz @KhawajaMAsif

[Nadeem Haque @nadeemhaque]

The only country in the world where there is no parking regime and lifters pick up cars without a law to back them up.

How is legal to lift a car? Where is the law? Do people know which zones and when are covered by lifters? Is it random and on the will of the DC?

[Nadeem Haque @nadeemhaque]

Pakistan’s problem is not “lazy banks.” It is a bank-dominated system that was never designed to fund growth.
Nadeem ul Haque in @BrecorderNews:
• Banks hold over 80% of financial-sector assets
• About 62% of bank assets sit in government securities; only ~22% goes to private lending
• Stock-market participation is under 0.5% of the population
• Market cap is under 10% of GDP — and falling
• Corporate debt is under 3% of the debt market
• Lending-deposit spread: 7.82 points vs India’s 2.71
• Mutual funds, FX, and money markets were folded into bank balance sheets instead of competing with them
• Payments rails and guarantees still push money through the same pipe
• Growth economies fund risk. Pakistan funds the sovereign first, then collateral, then ideas last
The test is simple: can a saver invest outside a bank deposit? Can government debt trade in a real market? Can a startup get equity, not just a loan against land?
Until then, this is a cartel supervised for safety — not a market built for growth.
https://t.co/eSxtHH322Y
#PakistanEconomy #Banks #SBP #CapitalMarkets #Growth

[Nadeem Haque @nadeemhaque]

@grok has the government published research or a white paper before any reform such as a constitutional amendment or setting up a new agency or a making a major change in law or regulation.

[Nadeem Haque @nadeemhaque]

Govt “reform” vs what actually needs to change
•The exam: CSS stays. Youth still waste years on a test that measures almost nothing useful. A GRE + ISSB/psychometrics would do the job. Govt keeps the exam, adds Urdu papers and a longer viva. Same gate, extra ritual.
•Perks: Untouched. Housing, cars, servants, clubs, subsidized land stay. Kill them: cash pay, clean budget, clearer incentives, and release the prime downtown real estate the state has captured for officer colonies. Govt offers a sliver of honoraria and a Rs5m lump sum. The perk economy continues.
•Secretary Raj: Untouched. A handful of secretaries remain Principal Accounting Officers and sit on every board. They keep the money, the files, and the patronage. Agency heads stay junior. Real change: end PAO monopoly, give operational heads budget and accountability, get secretaries off boards.
•Top jobs: Some BS-20+ posts opened on 5-year contracts. Below that the closed CSS/PAS pipeline remains. Generalists still outrank specialists. Unified pay scales stay.
•Control: Transfers as reward and punishment continue. No fixed tenure, no internal market. Posting power stays with the same circle.
•Structure: 11 new cadres and fewer secretariat tiers look like movement. Federal officers can still run local government. No separate services by level. Centralisation with new labels.
Bottom line: the package adds cadres, army-style boards, and a few contracts at the top. It does not kill the exam theatre, does not end perks, and does not break secretary Raj. The machine that captures budget, land, and careers stays intact.
2/2

[Nadeem Haque @nadeemhaque]

Yet another sad attempt at reform or keeping the status quo.

The committee had no outsider, only secretaries and ministers.

Such is their hatred of research that they would not include a single person who has researched the system. Someone like me who has several documents in the civil service is too difficult for them to swallow.

In the West there would be commissions of people like me or serious researchers to write a serious report on this subject for the cabinet or parliament to consider.

Here it is only arrogant ministers who do not want a professional civil service but mere lackeys to report to them.

Judge for yourself.

[Nadeem Haque @nadeemhaque]

Ahsan Iqbal’s “sweeping” civil service reform — a damp squib
•Fourth-time Planning Minister, self-styled mega-reformer, years of travel and consultant spend. First real package: rearrange the furniture.
•Exam: tweak CSS, add Urdu papers and a longer viva. Youth still burn years on a test that measures little. A GRE + ISSB/psychometrics would have been enough. They kept the gate.
•“Professionals”: 11 new cadres so specialists can serve the PAS, not replace it. Generalists still sit on top.
•Control: secretary Raj intact. Same people remain Principal Accounting Officers and board members. No agency autonomy, no end to posting-and-transfer politics.
•Perks: housing, cars, servants, clubs, subsidized land untouched. Ending them would clean the budget, pay cash, and free captured downtown real estate. They left the perk economy standing.
•Process: no independent commission, no serious outside experts. Ego wanted a no-change reform. Bureaucracy stays political, closed, and centrally run.
•Result: some contracts at BS-20+, honoraria, a lump-sum pension line, shorter courses. The exam theatre, perk machine, and secretary monopoly survive. That is not reform. That is conservation.

[Nadeem Haque @nadeemhaque]

Pakistan is sitting on mountains of dead capital — unused public land that could fund growth instead of more begging.
• Govt departments hold property worth trillions that cannot be used for wealth creation
• G-6/1 Islamabad: 86 acres of single-storey official houses; 6 high-rises would free 77 acres and raise Rs 52.2 bn
• 5 GORs in Lahore (~4,000 acres): 35 mixed-use towers could bring $17.5 bn investment and 350k–500k construction jobs
• Governor houses occupy tax-free city-centre land at huge budget cost
• Restrictions on high-rises and complex property rules kill millions of transactions
• Railway land in major cities is another locked asset waiting to be commercialised
Unlock the land. Monetise it. Stop treating prime city space as a perk.

[Nadeem Haque @nadeemhaque]

Unable to build rule of law, our politicians, judges & bureaucrats invent VIP privileges for themselves—then dream up Orpheus-like flyovers, signal-free corridors and jingling fancy buses. A simple bus lane, no expensive concrete, would have been enough. The concrete is what added to our debt.
• Perks, not pay, run the state: cars, houses, utilities, security. VIP culture on the public tab.
https://t.co/xnVWWLQOAK
• Flyovers and signal-free corridors serve cars, not people. Ban the concrete unless it helps walkers. Dedicated bus lanes + GPS + tickets beat another monument.
https://t.co/rld45kAC8S
• They write rules that protect their rents. No one is “at fault,” so the file—and the debt—never stops.
https://t.co/a61iGiXeNe
https://t.co/57ftDJPHNa

[Nadeem Haque @nadeemhaque]

Provinces debate pretends that it is about decentralization. Media gurus are yelling for more provinces .

They miss the real centralizer: PAS sits inside every “autonomous” board, university, regulator, SOE and donor vehicle — then still acts as Principal Accounting Officer.
No market, campus or public company runs without them. Boards become rubber stamps. Losses: $20bn. Citizens pay. Secretariat stays unaccountable.

OECD rule is clear: independent directors must have no relationship with the state. No serving civil servants. Pakistan does the opposite — secretaries, additional secretaries and retired PAS officers sit as directors, chairs and “government nominees.”
The 2023 SOE Act didn’t break this. The Board Nominations Committee still includes the minister + relevant secretary + Finance Secretary. Shortlists are managed. PM Office has the last word.

DISCO example: 2024 Board Nominations Committee (headed by Power Minister) recommended removal of directors across all 10 companies. PM approved. Cabinet Committee reconstituted the boards.
That’s not corporate governance. That’s administrative command through board-shuffling.

Same pattern in universities. Syndicates packed with Education, Finance, Establishment secretaries + MNAs. Money, land, appointments and discipline stay under secretariat control dressed in academic robes.

Three pathologies:
•Accountability without authority (boards blamed, secretaries unaccountable)
•Rubber-stamp boards that cannot set strategy or fire CEOs
•Fiscal exposure without fiscal cost to the bureaucracy
70% of SOEs lose money. Taxpayers fund the gap.

Reform that actually matters:
End ex-officio secretary seats.
Genuine independent directors, not recycled officials.
Professional ownership entity (Temasek model) separate from line ministries.
Either give boards real power or hold PAOs publicly responsible for the losses.
Until then, provincial “autonomy” debates are theatre. The grip isn’t political meddling. It’s architecture.
Read: https://t.co/ABXPqAZMpv

[Nadeem Haque @nadeemhaque]

The entire decentralization debate has not mentioned the colonial civil service — PAS — once.
Nor the judicial system that hands judges arbitrary authority.

Provinces fight over funds and “autonomy” while PAS sits inside every so-called autonomous board, university, regulator, SOE and donor vehicle, then still acts as Principal Accounting Officer. No institution runs without them. Boards become rubber stamps. $20bn in SOE losses. Citizens pay. Secretariat stays unaccountable.

Same architecture in the courts: wide, poorly checked discretion sitting on top of the same command culture. Stays and adjournments at will. Arbitrary decisions overturned on a daily basis. A lifetime in court.

Political theatre about devolution leaves both untouched.

Boards without independent directors are controlled by government. Pakistan puts secretaries on the boards. The 2023 SOE Act left the Board Nominations Committee in the hands of minister + secretary + Finance Secretary.

DISCO boards get reconstituted from the Power Division and PM Office.

University syndicates are packed with Education, Finance and Establishment secretaries.
Accountability without authority. Rubber-stamp boards. Fiscal exposure with no cost to the bureaucracy.

Until the debate names PAS and the arbitrary judicial power that protects the same design, “decentralization” is just a slogan. The grip isn’t political meddling. It’s colonial architecture that never left the boardroom — or the bench.
https://t.co/ABXPqAZMpv

[Nadeem Haque @nadeemhaque]

We’re hurtling toward more provinces because a media owner said so and some VIP dinners landed well.
Journalists are ecstatic. Media is ecstatic. Politicians love the attention.
Once again we’re racing toward another fiscal disaster — like the road projects and energy wastage that piled up debt while we lost the plot. New governors, cabinets, secretariats, police commands. Fresh patronage. Same centre, smaller nameplates.
We as a people hate thought, research and detail. So we skip the papers that actually consider the alternative: real local government.
• Nigeria didn’t decentralise by multiplying states. It moved the centre to 36 capitals while cities stayed branch offices. The lesson is elections, money, staffing and land at the local level — not more assemblies. https://t.co/G0r93c3iwp
• Cities make the wealth. Provinces, by themselves, don’t. Ten cities already generate ~95% of federal tax; Karachi alone is close to a quarter of GDP. Split Punjab tomorrow and Faisalabad still won’t run its own land market. The unit that matters is the city, without PAS treating it as a junior district. https://t.co/FWg1Ui4V5B
Whimsy is easy. A well-researched case for cities that can actually govern themselves is harder — and that’s the work we keep refusing.

[Rubab @rubabbx]

He flew his bomber to Agra.

Deep inside India. One of its most heavily defended air bases.

His aircraft was hit by anti-aircraft fire on the way.

He struck his target anyway. Brought his crew home. And went back the next night.

Wing Commander Nazir Bill Latif. Rawalpindi 1927. Christian officer of the Pakistan Air Force. Royal Air Force College Cranwell graduate.

On the nights of September 6, 7 and 8, 1965 he led B-57 bomber formations against India's heavily fortified air bases. Ambala. Adampur. Pathankot. Sirsa. Srinagar. Jodhpur. Agra.

Agra was so deep inside, Indian command did not anticipate that tactical bombers would attempt such deep-penetration strikes so far from the border, so no strict air-raid alerts and night blackout protocols were not kept at wartime readiness

Hit by anti-aircraft fire on two missions. Agra being one of them. He Flew home both times. Took his formations with him.

Sitara-e-Jurat 1965. For exceptional flying skill and valour in bombing operations against the enemy.

In 1971 as Air Commodore he commanded PAF Base Masroor and played a decisive role in the Khokhrapar-Chor sector. Sitara-e-Jurat again.

Before the wars he set world records. In 1958 as part of PAF Falcons 16 F-86 Sabres performed a formation loop at Masroor. World record. In 1964 he led a bomber formation loop. Another world record.

He pioneered PAF's first supersonic aerobatic team. The Rattlers. He helped establish the Combat Commanders School.

He died in Islamabad on June 30, 2011. At 83.

Two wars. Two Sitara-e-Jurat. Two world records. One Pakistan.

Air Commodore Nazir Bill Latif.

Pakistan Zindabad. 🇵🇰

[Omar Ayub Khan @OmarAyubKhan]

Major General Asif Nawaz (later General Asif Nawaz COAS) and Gohar Ayub Khan (later Speaker National Assembly & Federal Minister) standing together in Peshawar in 1984.
Both of them studied together in Srinagar before partition, then in Rawalpindi, joined the Army, both were selected for Sandhurst Military Academy, joined 5 Punjab Serdils. Both served as Adjudants of 5 Punjab Sherdils. Fought against India.
Lifelong friends and brothers. May Allah Almighty grant both their souls the highest place in Jannat ul Firdous.
General Asif Nawaz was Khadija Shah sahiba's grandfather. She and I have both been convicted in 9th May cases on false, trumped-up charges.
@PTIofficial

[Nadeem Haque @nadeemhaque]

As usual we will enact more Irvine’s without thinking things through

No study

No research

No debate.

Later we will regret it and develop a further silly initiative without thought it debate.

[Shahid Mehmood @ShahidMohmand79]

The GIDC, another jagga tax and a gift of $ Dar and Sharif's, was instituted despite opposition from Sindh, KP and Baluchistan. The IPPs are another of the gifts of this economic Draculae family. And mind you, denizens of Punjab suffer too under these kinds of extractions

[Asad Ali Shah @Asad_Ashah]

While on the KE board, I had flagged that Thar Coal was the more economical option — indigenous fuel, no forex exposure, no dependence on an interim RLNG arrangement without long-term security. That view did not prevail. The outcome speaks for itself.

Own generation without secured fuel is not energy planning. It is cost-plus engineering with the consumer as residual risk-bearer.

[Nadeem Haque @nadeemhaque]

PAS claims these are not important. Leave their vip lifestyle alone. Judges support them because they live like that too. So do all services even academics now have houses in universities made from public funds. Generals learnt the gage abd are better at it now. Source of much jealousy on user if PAS

[Nadeem Haque @nadeemhaque]

All bureaucrats would like to gloss over this fact that they have locked away a huge amount of our wealth for their personal pleasure

[Nadeem Haque @nadeemhaque]

Pakistan spends billions on flyovers, underpasses and “signal-free corridors” while most of the developed world is moving the other way.
•Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi keep adding grade-separated junctions to eliminate signals. Official lists already show 40+ flyovers in Karachi plus many underpasses; Punjab is pouring tens of billions of rupees into new ones in Rawalpindi and Lahore.
•These projects are expensive, politically visible, and sold as congestion solutions. Studies and local reporting repeatedly show they often fail to deliver lasting relief, increase speeds and crash severity, and starve pedestrians and public transport of space and funding.
•Meanwhile Western cities spent the last 20–30 years learning the opposite lesson. San Francisco tore down the Embarcadero Freeway. Portland replaced Harbor Drive with a park. Milwaukee, Rochester and others converted inner-city freeways into boulevards. Birmingham is now studying removal of the Hockley Flyover. Seoul famously replaced an elevated highway with a restored river.
•Europe never built many urban flyovers to begin with and now favors compact junctions, roundabouts, transit priority and traffic calming. New multi-level stacks at ordinary city intersections are rare.
•The pattern is induced demand + community severance + high maintenance + poor pedestrian outcomes. Money that could go to buses, BRT, sidewalks or cheaper roundabouts instead buys more concrete that many cities now regret.
The rest of the world is not pretending flyovers are a 21st-century urban solution. Pakistan is still treating them as one.