Faulty BISP Beneficiaries Analysis. Use of Proxies in Data Analytics

Faulty assumptions of BISP research led to faulty conclusions:

We must need to question the faulty research assumptions of BISP Benazir Support Program Research Study that is being promoted on social media without requisite critical analysis. Over 8lac people have been identified that are being classified as "rich"  without the necessary and rigorous research methodology and analysis. The research has used some raw data plucked from random sources without rigorous analysis, validation and triangulation of the data. 

The use of data analytics,  however,  is a good beginning and like all tools need to be used with care and proper training. This is a good case study of faulty research assumptions for MPhil/PhD researchers that often lead to faulty conclusions:. 

بے نظیر پروگرام ریسرچ مفروضہ-1:

کیا NADRA کے ایگزیکٹو سنٹرز سے cnic بنوانے والے سارے امیر لوگ ہوتے ہیں؟ کیا آپ نے وہاں مزدور نہیں دیکھے؟ کیا غرہب، بیمار اور بوڑھے لوگ لمبی خواری سے بچنے کیلئے ایگزیکٹو سنٹرز نہیں جاتے؟ 

بے نظیر پروگرام ریسرچ مفروضہ-2:

کیابیرون ملک سفر کرنے والے غریب مزدور نہیں ہوتے؟ کیا واپس آنے والے سارے مزدور امیر ہو جاتے ہیں؟ کیا آپ نے ان کے استحصال کی دلخراش کہانیاں نہیں سنیں! جن سے وہاں بیگار میں سالوں کام کروایا گیا؟  میں کئی لوگوں سے ملا ہوں جو کئ سال بعد واپس آئے ہیں یا واپس بھیج دئیے گئے ہیں، اور اب اپنی ذندگی دوبارہ شروع کر رہے ہیں- کچھ ساز و سامان انہوں نے اچھے وقتوں میں خرید لیا مگر بدلے ہوئے حالات میں کرائے کی ٹیکسی چلا رہے ہیں-

بے نظیر پروگرام ریسرچ مفروضہ-3:

کیا ہر موٹر سائیکل خریدنے والا امیر ہوتا ہے؟ کیا موٹر سائیکل خریدنے والے مزدور یا فوڈ ڈلیوری والے نہیں ہوتے؟ کیا موٹر سائیکل 2ہزار روپے مہینہ قسط پر نہیں ملتی تھی؟ کئ لوگوں سے ملا ہوں جنہوں نے کسی طرح موٹر سائیکل خرید لی ہے اور اب اس کے زریعے معاش تلاش کر رہے ہیں- آج کل موٹر سائیکل ٹھیلے کی جگہ بن گئ ہے-

Do you think that all Food panda/Bykea riders are rich? Do you think all taxi-drivers/rickshaw drivers are rich? Do you know what is the daily rent that a yellow cab driver pays to the owner of the yellow cab/rickshaw? Do you think the Uber driver who drives professionally is rich? Many of them may have brought the car/bike on installments. 

There can be similar critique of other parameters selected in this study:

The collected data is known as proxy data. Please ask any econometric and social science researcher how this data needs to be qualified with other demographic data before it could be gainfully used to pluck out those unworthy of government support. 

This measure indicates also that it is deriving Sadistic Pleasure from stopping the paltry amount of 1500-2000 rupees being disbursed to over 8lac people. Just see the ridiculousness and shameful irony:

بے نظیر انکم پروگرام سے ملنے والی دو ہزار روپے ماہانہ کی "خطیر" رقم پر "عیاشی" کرنے والے لاکھوں  لوگوں کا ناطقہ بند کر کے حکومت اب بیرونی قرضوں پر لات مارے گی، موج اڑائے گی

What a shameful sadism. 

Dr Irfan Hyder

What Economic and Political Circumstances Led to Secession of East Pakistan

 [To understand the context of this post, please read At What Cost! Why Compute Economic Costs of Faulty Political Decisions]

Pakistani Decision Makers should have their Skin in the Game

[To understand the context of this post, please read At What Cost! Why Compute Economic Costs of Faulty Political Decisions]

A Jog Down the Memory Lane

A Jog down the memory lane

Yesterday I took a stroll down the fields on the farm in Tumair. Moving from the small cozy cottage on the east side of the farm land towards the north-west corner where the work was in progress to build a water reservoir. This is barani land, where people have been growing crops such as corn and wheat for ages. These crops only require the seasonal rain pattern. As the farm lodgings begin to take shape we are still groping for a water solution. Without water, landscaping and growing of the plants we want is difficult. Although, rain in Islamabad is plentiful, the water needs to be stored in reservoirs. [2007-04-28]

How I learned the Craft of Book Binding

I learned book binding جلد بندی from my relative Ehtisham Haider Chacha (منّو چچا) . I went with him to Raja Bazar, Rawalpindi  in 1975-76 when I was in 8th class and living in Islamabad. He helped me buy the needle, thick thread, and glossy paper sheet, scissors,  etc. He then taught me how to prepare home made glue (میدہ کی لئی ), make holes in the book, thread the book with needle, attach thick card from used  hard binding of copies,  tie it to the thread, cut it, put the spine cloth, glue it and paste the glossy paper. I used this skill to bind hundreds of books in my home collection. I still have a few of those bound books with me. Unfortunately I could not get the opportunity to graduate to the finer art of جزو بندی which is a more involved craft requiring sewing with fine thread different parts (جزو)  of the book.

See the sewing of one of the binding that is exposed of this book

Where to Download Books for Free and Legally

45 places you can download tens of thousands books, plays and other literary texts completely legally for free

BY PROFESSORWUJanuary 10, 2017

Dismissals of Civilian Prime Ministers in Pakistan by DoN Doctrine of Necessity Godfathers

[To understand the context of this post, please read At What Cost! Why Compute Economic Costs of Faulty Political Decisions]
Doctrine of Necessity (DoN) sword had been used to repeatedly dismiss civilian prime ministers of Pakistan prematurely, since 1950s. The DoN godfathers have played the role of 1st umpire, 2nd umpire and 3rd umpire interchangeably in ensuring that the civilian prime ministers are never able to complete their terms peacefully. These dismissals have now been documented in several places such as History of Judiciary of Pakistan and also in books by several generals.  
The objective of neocolonialism is to keep the third world countries perpetually in ICU so that they are never able to challenge their hegemony and remain a pliant consumer of their produce. None of the third world countries especially the Muslim Countries have been able to establish strong democratic credentials that can help them serve their people. Today's Pakistan is now totally subservient to IMF/World Bank and their tool FATF and once again in the service of its neocolonialism masters.

Judiciary (J), Bureaucracy (B), Establishment(E) taking turns as 1st, 2nd , 3rd Umpire for keeping Pakistan perpetually in ICU.

References (Being Updated): 

• How Corruption is being Eliminated in Pakistan since 1950s: Corruption as a Ruse to Maintain Status Quo
• Costs of Justice Munir's Disastrous Doctrine of Necessity
• Suharwardi, II Chundrigar, Feroze Khan Noon: See Bilal Ghauri Pakistan's Army Chief #03: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9byMis05iHE 
• DoN godfathers Political Engineering of the SC Bench to Obtain Doctrine of Necessity Judgement in 1954-55
• [1] Hamid Khan, A History of Judiciary of Pakistan, Oxford University Pakistan, 2016, pp. 34-35.
  [2] Hamid Khan quotes Qudratullah Shahab's book Shahabnama
  [3] Hamid Khan quotes his own personal interaction with Justice AR Cornelius
• Why Bhutto is Alive: Political Engineering of SC and HC bench and decisions
• ZA Bhutto: See: Bilal Ghauri Pakistan's Army Chief #08 https://www.vhd.wiki/video-tarazoo/thK9xxrXa14
• Benazir Bhutto-1: Bilal Ghauri Pakistan's Army Chief #09 Gen Aslam Baig
• Nawaz Sharif-1:  Bilal Ghauri Pakistan's Army Chief #11 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhXiwjOuxbc
• Benazir Bhutto-2: Bilal Ghauri Pakistan's Army Chief #13 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EL7tHtYzh38
• Nawaz Sharif-2: Bilal Ghauri Pakistan's Army Chief #19 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFV8r0Zhe-4
• Yousuf Raza Gilani: Bilal Ghauri Pakistan's Army Chief #21 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3PDEHP5nxg
• Nawaz Sharif-3: 
• Doctrine of Necessity from CJ Munir to Judge Khosa: Role of Judiciary in the Service of Neocolonialism
• Role of Sharifuddin Pirzada in Promulgating Martial Laws for Every Dictator of Pakistan
• 
  

Year	Dismissed PMs	1st Umpire	2nd Umpire	3rd Umpire

How to Build Confidence in Children: Climbing the Trees and Getting out of a Hole

This must be around 1965-66. I am around 4-5 playing in my next door neighbor's house with my friend Umair, and somehow I had managed to climb up a large shahtoot (mulbery) tree in their courtyard. I could still feel my exhilaration that I felt as I went up and up from one branch to another. We have not yet started going to school and it was morning time before noon. Umair's mother was in the kitchen. Other siblings have gone to school....

We were living in 57/2 Wavell Lines, right in front of the Chaklala Railway Station. This was where I was born in 1962 and spent my early years. These were old British era barracks which were used as temporary accommodations for government servants waiting for the new construction in Islamabad. My father was in government service and had moved in to this Chaklala barrack home from Karachi, when the capital had shifted to Islamabad in 1960-61. Each barrack block had been converted into three separate units for family accommodations with three rooms each, with a veranda, kitchen and bathroom. There were only trees and empty ground between the railway station and the barracks where we were. Now this area has all been encroached.

Front side of Wavell Lines Barracks 50 years later in 2011.
These barracks were torn down in 2017-18

Covey's First Habit Advice to Proponents of Corruption Eradication First

Stephen Covey's first habit advice to anti-corruption proponents:
First habit of highly successful people states that focusing on circle of concern is counter productive. Instead focusing on your circle of Influence will cause it to expand, and this expansion will eventually take care of your concerns. "Process Efficiency" is in your circle of Influence and "corruption" is in your circle of Concern.

Incompetence and inefficiency is the Mother of Corruption and is the fundamental problem of third world countries

Had corruption been the cause of our problems, then IK's "clean" govt's anti-corruption drive should have been showing better results. IK's "clean" govt has falsified the hypothesis that Pakistan's plight is because of corruption! It is the inefficiency and incompetence, stupids! Incompetence, not corruption, is responsible for our woes and problem.

[To understand the context of this post, please read At What Cost! Why Compute Economic Costs of Faulty Political Decisions]

Be Sensitive While Paying for Pizza (expensive meal) through a Domestic Worker

Did you order pizza (or an expensive meal) and asked your doorman (ملازم،چوکیدار) to pay the bill which ran into thousands (typically Rs 3000 or even much more) to the home-delivery rider? Did you realize that you sent a message to your چوکیدار that you are willing to spend one-half or one-third the amount of his 30 days day-night salary on a single-time meal? This door man's salary is subsistence for his 4-6 member family surviving somewhere in the interior.

Strategic Issues for Universities in Pakistan

During a strategic management meeting on last Sunday (29th September, 2019), a leading industrial group chairman gave the following advice to the higher management of the universities:

The future outlook is bleak. Don't expect any investment or industrialization during the next 3 years. We are in the process of investing about Rs 4 billion in an industrial venture in collaboration with a foreign concern in Malaysia. The cost of investment rose from Rs 4 Billion to Rs 7 billion driving out all our projections of the feasibility. Forget about any FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) coming in. The unemployment is going to increase and the jobs available for graduates is going to decrease substantially. Hence the only option is to focus on entrepreneurship.

Javier Poncela-Professor from Malaga Spain who Taught us Selfless International Collaboration

Very sad. It was very sad to learn that Dr. Javier Poncela, a Professor at the University of Malaga, Spain had passed away. Dr Poncela was a well known personality in the electrical engineering departments of the universities of Sindh. He became a popular academician in Pakistani community and was routinely invited for the conferences in Pakistan and he too invited and hosted several professors and students in conferences in Spain. He supervised numerous PhD and MS Pakistani students in Pakistan and at Spain. He had played a pivotal role in many European Union Projects in Pakistan including Erasmus Mundus.

Only an Idiot does not take a U-Turn- Proud to be the Prime Minister of U-Turns

"I am proud to be the Prime Minister of U-Turns. Only an idiot does not take a U-Turn."
He has the audacity, impertinence and insensitivity to say this in Moharram when everyone takes inspiration from Hazrat Hussain who sacrificed his life and every thing but did not take the U-Turn offered by Yazid.

IK is the person who said "only an idiot does not take a U-Turn" during Moharram. By saying this he eulogozed Gen Niazi and slandered the sacrifices of Major Raja Aziz Bhatti, Maj Tufail, Rashid Minhas and other shaheeds who did not take a U-Turn and gave their lives. He slandered Hazrat Imam Husain's sacrifice too.

(Irfan Hyder Sep 16, 2019, 7:55 PM)

References:

• https://www.dawn.com/news/1446168
• https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2019/7/26/imran-khans-first-year-in-office-u-turns-and-oppression
• An Endless Debate: https://www.dawn.com/news/1448355
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFG_B--U3_E&t=48s
• https://www.globalvillagespace.com/pm-khan-under-fire-on-social-media-for-his-u-turn-statement/

Ghotki Rampage and Crowds Clamoring for the Head of 5000

Ghotki rampage occurs when government supporters encourage harassment and lawlessness. What do u expect from PTI juveniles who promote street killing of thousands on suspicion without trial, due process of law! During the run up to elections and till a few months ago. The pumped up juvenile brigade of the لونڈے، لپاڑے were vociferously promoting hanging and shooting of 5000 on mere suspicion of corruption without due process of law and without trial or charge or verdict from the courts. This has developed the mentality of rioting, vandalism, violence that we saw in the crowds on rampage in Ghotki. In this post I am talking about the mentality of street violence promoted by the likes of loud mouthed Faisal Vawda, Murad Saeed and others including our prime minister IK.

Supported by such frenzied and pumped up brigade, NAB went on a rampage incarcerating and imprisoning hundreds without trial, without charge, without due process of law, without considering constitutional rights of article 10A. They have shackled professors, not sparing even vice chancellors, some have even died in custody without trial.

The country is being ruled by CJPs since 1950s who have been godfathers of Doctrine of Necessity (DoN) another name of "might is right". Our current CJP and his "Conjoined twin" ex CJP Saqib Nisar as well as CJP Iftikhar Chaudhry and several others were DoN PCO godfathers. They legalized breaking of law and constitution by dictators at the altar of "might is right" DoN Doctrine which states "Necessity makes lawful that which is unlawful"! The most illustrious of CJP’s was Justice Munir who became the original DoN godfather in 1954-55 judgment.



Irfan Hyder updated his status.Sep 17, 2019, 5:10 AM

Work In Process

Examples of How Children Fail

In "How Children Fail", the acclaimed author John Holt describes how children stop using their mind, and fail. It is quite evident from the example pic below that the child was using his mind. Unfortunately, the teacher was grading "mindlessly" from the key that he had. This example is not an isolated case. There are scores of examples in the book and of various subjects where this occurs. With these kinds of wrong answers to wrongly phrased/formatted questions, the child learns that it is dangerous to use his mind. It is much better to be solving the problems "mindlessly" to get good grades, instead of "mindful application" which can often result in wrong answers. There are just too many students' papers to check by the teacher, and too many questions in each paper to give space to the teacher to drill down into the thinking of each child for each answer to see whether the logic in child's mind was correct or not. Too many failures like this and child stops thinking, and starts resorting to mindless application of formulae which also results in random grades. The child realizes that whether I use my mind or not, my grades are random. It is dangerous to use my mind, the child concludes. This is "How Children Fail" and we see so many people around us proudly proclaiming "I hate maths".

Historical Metaphors and Our Personality

عصائے کلیمی، رسم شبیری، جادو سامری، رسم سلمان و اویس قرنی، در خیبر، کار خلیلی، بحر ظلمات میں گھوڑے، لیلی' بھی ہم نشیں، پیچ و تاب رازی، غزنوی کی تڑپ، زلف ایاز، طرابلس کے شہید، سوز و ساز رومی، لالہ صحرائی، عطار ہو رومی ہو رازی ہو غزالی ہو، مدار قوت حیدری، وہ غازی وہ تیرے پراسرار بندے، قتل حسین، مرگ یزید، بدر و حنین، آب رود گنگا، حور و قصور، آتش نمرود، ساقی کوثر، .........
Aah!
Can you feel the resonance of these metaphors in your heart?
Those who forget history, are forgotten by history!

Psychology of Sweeping Generalizations:

Sweeping generalizations are typically false. None, All, Never, Ever are words that indicate tendency for over simplification. Example, all politicians are crooks, all men are untrustworthy, all women are weak, all scots are miserly, etc. For most such assertions especially relating to people and social sciences, it is often easy to find an exception that will negate the assertion. This in psychology is also known as "global thinking" that is considered to be a major determinant of depressive behaviors. 

کیا سب چور ہیں

اگر آپ کو ہر انسان غلط لگ رہا ہے تو پھر یہ دیکھیں کہ کہیں آپ تو غلط نہیں

This is a basic principle. A person who is a habitual liar can not conceive of any one except being liar. 

جھوٹے کو سب جھوٹے لگتے ہیں، دھوکہ باز کو سب دھوکہ باز لگتے ہیں، وعدہ خلاف کو سب لوگ uTurn کرتے ہوئے نظر آتے ہیں, اور چور کو ساری عوام چور نظر آتی ہے

This is often the problem with sweeping generalizations. If someone claims that "everyone" is corrupt then:

1. "Everyone' also includes him, and the person making the claim must by definition also be corrupt, that is the person admits to him being corrupt. 
2. By the same token, we can also be sure that he knows well his father, mother, uncles, brothers, sisters, and other close relatives, and therefore this "everyone" also includes these close relatives and hence, we can be sure that he is calling all of them corrupt. 
3. Not only that but the sweeping generalization also indicates the person's psychological state where his mind is corrupted to an extent that he can't find even a single person in the whole country (200million+) who is not corrupt! The latter is a more problematic psychological state. 
4. I for one know for sure at least hundred people in my contacts who I can vouch for that they are not corrupt. I can actually present such people as a counter example and submit them to any type of scrutiny. 
5. I am also sure that there are some very authentic people in this group who have a much larger contact circle and they can present thousands about whom the corrupt title can not be ascribed. 

Case Study of Economic Hitmen of 2018 Pakistan

[To understand the context of this post, please read At What Cost! Why Compute Economic Costs of Faulty Political Decisions]

DoN (Doctrine of Necessity) Godfather Saqib Nisar along with NAB and IMF led IK government as Economic Hitmen: Their witch hunt of greatly respected Dr Saeed Akhtar PKLIC, Dr Ismail Shah PTA, Dr Umar Saif PITB, Engr Imran Shaikh PSO and others represent very carefully selected targets to create a mass disillusionment of leading professionals in public and private sector with the objective of stultifying the fundamentals of infrastructure growth and maturity.

• Dr Saeed Akhtar was hit because of his leadership in health sector, his great respect in medical professionals and his deep links in the philanthropic expatriate resourceful community of doctors in USA and West. See Targeting of PKLI. His treatment resulted in scores of qualified doctors and surgeons who had come from  USA to return back. Contrast this destruction of Lahore institute with Sindh Government's Gambat Institute's success where hundreds of transplants are being done. 
• Dr Ismail Shah was selected as a target to cripple and stultify the technical bureaucracy and highly qualified professionals in private sector working in telecommunications sector. This was done in a coordinated planned manner as seen from the various cases initiated on a single day as reported in  August 2018 Dawn  report.
• Dr Umar Saif was selected as a target based on his excellent e-Government initiatives in public infrastructure for e-stamps, e-property registrations, e-monitoring of public education schools, teachers as well as public health and hospitals and e-tracking of medicines supply chain, dengue control dashboard connected with all government hospitals providing instantaneous figures, etc. Each such initiative was instrumental in providing efficiency in government and improving service delivery, and was being acquired and implemented in other provinces. He had to step down unceremoniously as his vision for increasing software exports and increasing government efficiency had to be stifled. 
• Engr Imran Shaikh was selected because of his great respect in engineering sector and his commendable achievements. His humiliation at the hands of DoN PCO Judge Saqib Nisar was a perfect hit to demoralize the energy sector professionals who tirelessly worked to overcome the severe energy shortages of 20 hours load shedding in 2013 to energy surplus in 2018

• Economic hit on CPEC
• Opening salvo against CPEC was made by Razak Dawood immediately after the assumption of IK's government which laid the foundation of slowing down the entire economy. 
• Despite his denials even in August 2020 CPEC has grinded down to a virtual standstill as per his unguarded comments as reported in FT. 
• CPEC is now mired in neocolonialism and Pakistan-US relations arm twisting . This may very well be the reason for "mujhe kiyon nikala".
• Economic hit on infrastructure of roads, motorways, Metropolitan mass transit......
• IK stated policy on infrastructure and roads was to invest on human development. He could not understand why investment on infrastructure is necessary. He inflicted the damage to economy by stopping or slowing all infrastructure projects. Too little too late, it is now belatedly in 2021 that IK had been finally convinced by Shaukat Tareen to restart Sukkur-Hyderabad motor way and three other motorways. 
• NAB's witch hunt of Multan Metro immediately after IK's government was installed eventually came to end dismally when China came down hard on Pakistan absolving the management of the project from any wrong doing. This was a huge embarrassment for the NAB effort. This witch hunt was instrumental in slowing down the CPEC project and creating a negative energy. 
• NAB witchhunt against the performing bureaucrats. Targeted the bureaucrats who were instrumental in completing development projects in record time. Threatening of FBR officers. Threatening of bureaucrats. Massive transfers of bureaucracy. 
• Economic hit on large scale manufacturing through the narrative of castigating and destroying the base of 80% revenues.....
• Economic hit on infrastructure of micro and small enterprises of shanty shops, hawkers, پتھارے,....
• Economic hit on infrastructure of philanthropic social service in the absence and abdication of government social services such as......
• Promise to commit suicide but not go to IMF. Asad Umar in deep neogotiations. Replaced. Development of a culture of urgency as if the world is falling down. Crescendo of voices and pressures to sign the deal. Imported from World Bank, Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh who was the minister during Musharraf and finance minister in Zardari tenure. Import of Dr Raza Baqir from IMF who had devastated Egypt Economy measure by measure. Fired Younish Dhaga Finance Secretary who wanted to do hard negotiations with the IMF. Signing of the ignominous contract. Autonomy to SBP. Security of tenure of SBP governor.Immunity of SBP Governor from any future litigations. Petrol price to be equal to $rate. Massive devaluation. (Had never caused increase in exports, had always increased the costs of input, electricity, gas). Restriction on government to borrow from sbp. Only to borrow from the commercial banks. Reduction of development expenditure. 

*PTI Government Completes 200 Days*:

1- More than 400 development projects have been shut down.

2- Gas tariffs have increased 143%"...

3- Electrify tariffs for domestic users increased by 300%

4- Decrease of USD 1.75 billion in foreign reserves.

5- New taxes worth PKR 178.00 billion imposed in mini budget.

6- Internal and external debt volume increased by PKR 2,000.00 billion.

7- Inflation gone up to 8.2% -- almost more then double from last year.

8- Policy rate gone up to 10.25% from 5.75% last year.

9- Tax revenue growth worst in 20 years.

10- GDP growth in a fast decline with large scale manufacturing in negative, agriculture growth almost stagnant.

11- Fiscal deficit widens significantly compared to last year. Expenditure also significantly goes up.

12- Circular debt gone up from 1.1 tr to 1.6 tr --fastest increase in our history.

14- At the end of June, PTI govt will post the highest fiscal deficit (amount wise) in our history.

15- In spite of massive devaluation, exports increased only 2% in last 8 months. Compare that with 13% increase in last fiscal year.

16- Regarding debt increases, it’s the fastest accumulation in our history in the last 7 years

17- Unemployment is rising by the day and it is expected that by fiscal year end, 600,000 Pakistanis will have lost their jobs.

18- Stock Market considered as an the indicator of any economy has almost crashed n dead with no movement n no investment coming., comparing it to last 5 years when it was the Top Performing market of the world.

19- Most alarmingx news is that due to poor economy, MORE THAN 4 MILLION PAKISTANIS WILL GO BELOW POVERTY LINE.

Even as PTI supporters we feel embarrassed with these numbers. Gone completely out of its narrative regarding its commitment of 1 crore jobs and 50 lac housing units.....

May Allah Almighty have mercy on this nation.....!!!!

Myth of Science and Technology as Panacea for our Backwardness

The mythology that has been sold to the entire Muslim world and especially in Pakistan is that our backwardness is because of our backwardness in Science and Technology. Hence, S n T became the holy grail for progress and development. Everyone is willing to invest in Science and Technology, whether it has been Zia's government and Dr. Mahboob ul Haq's drive for S n T scholarships, or whether it is the political governments of the 90s or the Musharaff era (1999-2008) when Dr Ata ur Rahman was at the helm of S n T and HEC. Funds were lavished on S n T. The underlying assumption behind this myth was that the society would magically transform itself when we have x-thousand S n T PhDs; y-thousand professors with high impact factor; n-thousand Thompson Reuters IFJ publications and z-thousand state of the arts labs spread all over the country. After spending of hundreds of billions of tax payers money we find ourselves back to the starting point.

Covered Drains of Moenjodoro

Myth of Bigger Infrastructure Means Better Education: Quality vs Infrastructure

Myth: Bigger Infrastructure Means Better Education:

We were told that only high-quality universities should be allowed to come up. Primary criteria for high quality were the size of the campus, covered area and other brick and mortar facilities. HEC, SHEC, PHEC, CIEC and their institutional proformas are replete with questions about the size of the campus, and size of the offices for Deans, Faculty, and other officials. They ask about playgrounds, auditoriums, hostels etc. The conventional wisdom started suggesting that private sector universities starting in rented bungalows somehow will not be able to provide quality education. This argument was sold in spite of knowing about the history of many of our big universities now.

Traditions of Eid: Reflections of Past Eids and Future

This is a time to reflect on our traditions and culture of Eid. I am wondering how many of Pakistanis are still experiencing these. There are some disturbing posts on facebook and through some of my interactions that tell me that it is not only time to reflect but also to rekindle them through a sustained effort. Here I reflect on my life and learning over the last 55 years with many of these traditions

Rauf Mamoo, My war hero of 1965 War: Major (R) Shah M Ismail at Chawinda Tank Battle.

My hero of 1965 War: Major (R) Shah M Ismail at Chawinda Tank Battle.
Rauf Mamoo (as known in the family) related to us of his experience at Chawinda battlefield in the 1965 India-Pakistan war.

Major Shah M Ismail

Chairman Salim Mehmud and my Brush with SUPARCO during the 1980s

I spent 6 months in SUPARCO in 1987 before resigning and leaving for US for PhD. They were trying to design for several years a signal-filter chip that was available for a few hundred rupees in Saddar. We had nothing to do in the Computer Department where I was working. The commute time from City to Factory in Somiani was about 1.5hrs. Vans will come and pick us up early in the morning before 6. We were pretty tired and sleepy as we reach the factory at around 7am. Often the department employees would spread the packing material and sleep in the corners behind computers in the chilled computer center. The enterprising among us would sit on Autocad and design fun machine diagrams such as Space Shuttle (only its drawing, not the technical construction). The higher management was busy in making indents for purchasing materials and equipment. Their interest appeared more to be in commissions than in the usage of equipment. One could see expensive equipment lying around rotting.  Ran typically as a bureaucratic organization, the objective of the top management was not to allow people to work. So everyone was doing nothing but looking busy. Chairman was Dr Salim Mehmud, who was at the helm of affairs for around a decade. I think his mandate was neither to do any thing nor allow any one to do anything. Once in early 1980s, much before joining SUPARCO, while I was still a student of engineering and was a regular member and visitor of American Center, Dr Salim Mehmud was invited as a guest speaker at American Center Science Club. After his presentation there, I asked him a question. The question was based on science articles by Mr Azeem Quidwai in Dawn that I used to read regularly. Around that time, I had read some articles about the satellite slots allotted to Pakistan, which if not utilized, would be lost. The question that I asked was given that there is only limited space available for geostationary satellites,  why Pakistan had not occupied the 3 spaces allotted to it. Pakistan had at that time already lost some allotted space or was about to lose some. He got angry at my question, and instead of replying effectively shut me down. At that time I was too young (around 21) to understand what was in the question that irritated him so much! It was much later that I realized the question was actually pointing out his key weakness. I recall we were left with only one last space in 1999-2000. I remember Mr  Salman Ansari, Advisor to Dr Ata Ur Rahman, managed to get a dying satellite moved to this space just to fill and occupy the space up till such time a worthy satellite could be acquired and moved into that slot.

Dr Salim Mehmud

DoN Quixote PCO CJP Saqib Nisar who godfathered Sancho Panza Imran Khan

DoN Quixote and his Sancho Panzas tilting at the windmills.
1: DoN Quixote tilting at the windmills, through the Sancho Panza 2018-2023. Fighting the enemy of states: poor street vendors, irregular shops, all sectors of economy, auto sector, energy sector, real state sector, and the tax chor 99% of Pakistan population, lower class, middle class, rich class, politicians... .

What Should New Students of a University Must Consider: Essentials of a University Education

Why Education and Why Higher Education

• What is the Purpose of Education
• What does it mean to be well educated and what is our mission
• What is Higher Education
• What is Impact can you create
• What Impact on Society
• What Impact on Industry and Economy
• What should be your personal Impact 

5 Challenges for Designing your Professional Lives

Faculty, Parents and my dear students:

As I look at your beaming faces full of hope and aspirations and great expectations of your future after four years of university life, I first invite you to try to soak in this environment of this marvelous infrastructure at IoBM. You are sitting in the building which is name after the founder president of this institute Mr Shahjehan S Karim who left for the hereafter two years ago. This campus, which is spread over 10 acres and consists of several buildings like this one, is a concrete realization of the dream of Mr Shahjehan S Karim, who envisioned IoBM to be one of the the leading institutions, nationally and internationally, renowned for its contribution to education and society. Please note that he envisioned this around 25 years ago in 1994, after he had retired from a long illustrious service with the government! Mind you, the age of 60 is the time when most think of retiring and folding up their lives with reading or writing. SSK starting a new professional endeavor and working vigorously into his 80s should be an inspiration for all of us. If he can envision such a grand project at 60 and bring it to realization over the next 20+ years, you can also dream big and work for its realization. You have much more time and energy, you are in your youthful late teens and early 20s. You are about to embark on your professional life. You too can create a similar vision and work for its realization over the rest of your life. As I say this, I am reminded of my start, some 40 years ago at NED in early 1980. For me those last 40 years have passed within a blink of an eye. I wish my professional education would have started with a concrete inspiration like this vision. But, as Mr Shehjehan S Karim's life tells us, it is never too late. [Sep 7, 2019 Orientation for Fall 2019 Intake at IoBM]

Far From the Madding Crowd, Hardy and Me

Today I got off from the board meeting early and my flight was in the evening. I had a few hours to kill with nothing to do. I chanced upon a YouTube video snippet of Bathsheba Everdene and Sergeant Troy's sword scene of 2011 remake of Far From the Madding Crowd. I didn't like it at all, there was no mystery, no suspense and no thrill that I remember experiencing when I first watched the scene in the original 1967  British movie starring Julie Christie, Alan Bates, Peter Finch and Terrance Stamp. Knowing me, YouTube presented the Terrance Stamp interview recorded just before the remake. He had played Sergeant Troy in the 1967 BBC movie. The interview opened a flood of memories flashing across my mind of the various times of my life when i had seen the movie and the times that I have read the book. It brought to my mind my struggle to derive meanings of various scenes. My first viewing was at a time when I had limited understanding of what was happening as our exposure to the themes discussed in the book were not discussed openly in my time. The book itself dealt with these themes in a roundabout manner making it difficult for school boys to fathom. I first saw the movie around 1977. I started going through the various scenes being presented by YouTube and connecting them with my earlier stage. Terrance stamp was saying that the original 1967 team involved in the movie consisted of luminaries of British Film making and were the who-is who of the British cinema. He predicted that it would be really difficult for the remake to break the spell weaved by the original. How true was that:

Forthright and Courageous Gentleman-Col Raza Kamal at KIET

Col (r) Raza Kamal from 17 Baluch (2 Sind). A thorough gentleman and a great colleague. His commitment and dedication as Director College of Management Sciences at PAF KIET was exemplary. I had a long 10+ years association as Dean n Vice president of PAF KIET with Col Raza Kamal. It started during KIET's initial years at Korangi Creek Base Campus. I had joined in Feb 2001 after leaving IBA. This time was about six months after KIET had moved to its PAF Base campus from its city campus location on Shahrah e Faisal. The campus had been vacated by CBM. KIET got the contract with PAF after after obtaining the charter. 

Col Raza had been with KIET since its inception in a Sindhi Muslim Society Banglow in 1997. When I joined PAF KIET, he was HoD of Management Science department. HoD Computer Science department was Mr Adnan Manzoor. A few months later there was a change in higher management and Air Commodore Khalid Husain took charge as the President from Mr Adnan Arabi. 

Dynamic Role of Abstract in Guiding the Flow of Writing of a PhD Dissertation

Abstract is the first thing in a dissertation that is read, and is often the last. A dissertation is at most read by 1.6 people from end to end, including the author [1]. PhD dissertation is written to enable a researcher to find all information necessary for replicating the results and understand the thesis. Hence, the detail. However, most readers are only interested in finding out a few items about the research which are typically provided in the abstract. These include the problem statement, thesis statement, contribution, and significance. Details of what a dissertation should contain has been amply documented elsewhere. In this post, I will discuss the role of abstract in guiding the flow of PhD Dissertation during its writing stage. 

Islamabad Think Tanks Running Out of Options: Tanks without Think

[To understand the context of this post, please read At What Cost! Why Compute Economic Costs of Faulty Political Decisions]
"Think-tanks" have yet again run out of options when IK exclaimed in the joint session of parliament:
ہم کیا کریں؟ کیا انڈیا سے جنگ شروع کر دیں؟
This indicates No "think", only "tanks"! It is pathetic that there are No out-of-the-box thinkers!

Is there a severe قحط الرجال and dearth of thinkers in scores of Islamabad "think-tanks"? Do these think tanks only consist of visionless ex career bureaucrats and ex generals whose distinctive qualification is often their career promotions based on a system that only rewards obeying orders diligently? What great distinguishing accomplishments of enterprising, creative, innovative breakthrough and out-of-the-box ideas in successful execution do they have in their testimonials?


They stand blinded, listless and clueless the same way they stood after 9-11 when threatened by US, and capitulating on a single call from Assistant in State Department.

• اسلام آباد تھنک tanks میں قحط الرجال:  sycophants جن کو جنگ اور آدھ گھنٹے کے مظاہرے کے درمیان کوئی out-of-the-box اسٹریٹجی نہ سوجھی

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• PTI Think Tanks:
  معیشت میں 4 مرغیاں و 1 مرغا، کٹے سے شروع ہو کر IMF تک- اب diplomacy میں جنگ سے شروع ہو کر آدھ گھنٹہ مظاہرہ تک

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Government Spending, Keynesian Economics and Pakistan's Economic Slide in 2018-19

This issue was the beginning of the start of destruction of economy. So many apparently sane people people lost it through his charisma.
We need to take a hard look at how criticism for the sake of criticism destroyed the "development" cycle of Pakistan's economy. Development expenditure on flyovers, metros, motorways etc increases the money circulation, which increases the disposable income of people, which increases the GDP, which increases the growth, which increases the tax/revenue collection of the government, which increases the "development" expenditure. This cycle was destroyed by IK and his uncouth advisors. This is macro economics 101. Take any first level textbook of economics and turn to chapter on Government Spending and growth. Grand Tabdeeli: For the first time in decades our debt is more than our GDP. A two pronged attack on economy (1) destroy GDP, (2) increase debt by the Economic Hitmen of IMF.

Credit: Dr farrukh saleem on Twitter

From Atiq Rehman's wall:

The economy, which is growing at 7%, doubles its size in 11 years. If the economy is growing at 3% then it needs about 25 years to double, while the economy growing at 1% will double in about 50 years.

Our growth rate had reached 5.8% but thanks to Tabdeeli, we everted the growth momentum back to its natural value. We are currently being counted among the slowest countries in South Asia. If this is the case, Bangladesh's income would have doubled after 8/10 years. and we???

To say the growth in Pakistan was 3% but let's look at a few facts

1. In 2018-19, 4% of Pakistani GDP was paid to banks as interest payment. The interest paid for interest in 2019-20 accounts for 5.7% of GDP. Earlier, payments to banks were 3% of GDP in 2017-18. The addition in GDP that we see, goes to banks as interest payment. Therefore, the increase in GDP for the public is almost zero.

2. The population growth rate is about 2%. Thus the increase in per capita GDP is negative

So after seven to ten years, countries like Bangladesh will have doubled their production and Pakistan will be cited as eample of depreviation and backwardness instead of Ethiopia

Imran Khan's Criteria of Fascism and Treatment of Opposition

[To understand the context of this post, please read At What Cost! Why Compute Economic Costs of Faulty Political Decisions]
Our Honorable Prime Minister Imran Khan in the recent joint session of Parliament on Kashmir's annexation by India, reminded the MNAs and Senators about Hitler's fascism and Nazi Party. He explained fascist governments are those that "drive opposition to the wall'. IK reminder comes as Déjà vu in the situation we confront. Thank you IK for reminding Pakistanis about Nazi Party's Germany: Hitler-Modi's Fascism: 1)Imprison all opposition, 2)Total censorship, 3) Dreaded SS & Gestapo agencies, 4) Forced disappearances: