Cost of IMF’s bailouts

 EDITORIAL

 PRINT 2024-05-03

EDITORIAL: It is instructive that statements like former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi’s latest nugget, that going back to the IMF for another bailout programme reflects the “government’s failure”, though not fundamentally wrong, raises two immediate questions.

One, did he let the government know as much when his own party was in power; considering that he rose to the highest office in the country in that very administration?

Most Pakistanis have asked if any of the borrowed money was ever “utilised to generate revenue”, like he did at the Asma Jahangir Conference in Lahore the other day. And the only time they have got honest answers is when politicians like Abbasi are no longer in power and do a complete U-turn on their earlier positions about the need for Fund bailouts. So, an out-of-power leader rubbishing another IMF programme is only a continuation of a well-established trend.

And two, considering that the former prime minister is part of the lot that is not only not in power but also no longer in their old parties, what’s to stop people from wondering if he isn’t just one more of the many pawns being positioned on the chessboard at a time when the country’s biggest political party is being hounded, the government was formed after a clearly disputed election, and new parties are springing up here and there.

There’s no denying that Pakistan has singularly failed to benefit from its many bailout programmes. Abbasi would know that better than most Pakistanis because he was in government when a number of them were signed and then abandoned half-way.

And the economy suffered not so much because the Fund’s structural adjustment was harsh, but because it was never properly implemented. That explains why the opposition always criticises these programmes and the government always wants them (along with blaming previous administrations for all the failures), and so we go round in cycles.

It’s also true that the country urgently, desperately needs an EFF (Extended Fund Facility) as soon as possible; both to generate fiscal space and, more importantly, to avoid default. Because, let there be no mistake, the only thing that will keep our debt repayment schedule rolling over is an active IMF programme. Otherwise, about $30 billion due next year, and many more in the following two years, will have to be paid.

And since we do not have nearly the reserves required for repayment, the tumble into default will begin, there will be a loss of confidence and rejection of Pakistan in international markets, and the economy will implode.

The only way to tackle this and all such problems is to let the people have a representative government that can take difficult decisions necessary to relieve them of long-term, unending economic trauma.

That would bring the multiple benefits of seating people’s elected leaders in parliament, give legitimacy to the government, and reduce unnecessary noise by politicians used to changing their tune to suit the moment.

It would also give everybody a lot more confidence in the government’s ability to negotiate and implement future IMF programmes.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024

PAKISTAN

Active privatisation list: Six additional public sector entities added

SELL YOUR HOUSE SO YOU CAN RENT

Recorder Report Published May 3, 2024  

ISLAMABAD: The federal government, on Thursday, added six additional public sector entities in active privatisation list to curtail annual losses as well as generate revenue.

The six new suggestions for the privatisation list include Postal Life Insurance Company Limited (PLICL), Zarai Taraqiati Bank Ltd, Utility Stores Corporation (USC), Jamshoro Power Company Limited (GENCO-I), Lakhra Power Generation Company Limited (GENCO-IV), and Hazara Electric Supply Company (HAZECO).

The 218th meeting of the Privatisation Commission Board, was held Thursday under the chairmanship of the Federal Minister for Privatisation, Investment and Communication, Abdul Aleem Khan gave the approval.

SOEs privatisation: PPP for exploring public-private partnerships

The board considered the recommendations of all federal ministries for the Privatisation Programme 2024-29 and discussed in detail the various issues associated with the privatisation programme. A total of 21 entities have been recommended by the ministries for inclusion in the privatisation list, out of which, 15 entities are already in the active list.

The board gave further approval for extension of the date for submission of interests for the divestment of Pakistan International Airlines Corporation Limited (PIACL). The board also considered the recommendations of all the ministries of the Federal Government for the Privatisation Programme (2024-29) and approved their submission to the Cabinet Committee on Privatisation (CCoP) with its observations. Approval was also given to the proposed amendments in PC (Hiring of Financial Adviser), Regulations, 2018.

The board accorded approval for extension in the date for submission of interests on the request of interested parties. Ten entities have already shown their interest for the acquisition of the PIACL shares. The invitation for expression of interest in acquiring the majority stakes in PIACL was advertised both locally and internationally on 2nd and 3rd April 2024.

The board observed that the ministries had described many SOEs as strategic and essential but the decision in this regard can only be taken by the CCoSOE. The board directed that the ministries shall place their recommendations before the CCoSOE and the entities not deemed strategic or essential may then be placed on privatisation list.

The board approved the proposed amendment in the PC (Hiring of Financial Adviser), Regulations, 2018, to enable the Privatisation Commission to prequalify financial advisors so that the time required for appointment of financial advisors for transactions can be reduced.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024

 

Cockfights still rule the roost in India’s forest villages

By

 AFP

The swing of a talon and a flurry of feathers leaves a rooster motionless, a cockfight bout viewed as cruel by many but which binds disparate Indian forest communities together.

India is renowned for its fanatical cricket obsession but in the central state of Chhattisgarh, cockfighting draws the crowds.

“Earlier there was no other entertainment and it helped us meet people from other villages,” Raju, whose skill in raising fighting fowl has made him something of a local celebrity, told AFP.

“Even with all the changes around us today, the sport is still very popular,” the 32-year-old added.

The forests of Bastar district are home to numerous tribal communities living in scattered villages.

India has pumped millions of dollars into infrastructure development, and new roads and mobile phone towers have brought the forest’s inhabitants somewhat closer to the outside world.

Rugged terrain and the tyranny of distance in remote Bastar district still lend few occasions for these villages to interact with each other.

But when a cockfight is on the calendar, hundreds of men will walk far across rivers, through dense bushland and over hills to get a ringside view.

“I do nothing but organise fights, raise roosters and place bets,” Bhagat, 35, of Katekalyan village told AFP. 

– ‘Fame and respect’ –

Last month was Katekalyan’s turn to host a bout, with men from out of town ringing the fence of the dirt enclosure where roosters spar.

Most cockfights are over in the blink of an eye, with the pre-game pageantry accounting for most of the action. 

Bhagat and a rival rooster owner first hold their bird’s beak to beak to gauge whether they have the necessary hostility to battle.

Both men then use twine to fix sharp blades to the claws of their charges as the crowd shouts out their small wagers on the outcome.

Along with much of the rest of the world, cockfighting is banned in numerous Indian states on animal cruelty grounds.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India calls cockfighting “barbaric”, and campaigns to shut it down for good.

But the men living in Bastar’s forests see it as an integral part of their community fabric.

Roosters that survive multiple bouts are lauded alongside their owners.

Raju said the most enduring fighters were locally remembered with the same reverence that the rest of India holds for cricketing greats like former captain Sachin Tendulkar. 

“Like you have a field for cricket, this is our field,” he said. 

“And the winners get fame and respect, just like Sachin did by scoring all his runs.”

Bhagat said it always grieved him when one of his animals died in combat.

“When we lose a rooster in the fight, our hearts are in pain for a few days,” he said. 

“But then we get drunk, and then there will be peace.”

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Beasts of burden - Antagonism and Practical History | libcom.org

Beasts of burden - Antagonism and Practical History. An attempt to rethink the separation between animal liberationist and communist politics. (Published ...

 

Thai police raid illegal bitcoin mining operation

By

 AFP

Thai police have raided a massive illegal bitcoin mining operation in the country, seizing almost $2 million worth of equipment, officers said Friday.

Huge amounts of electricity are needed to power the vast computer farms that mine for cryptocurrency such as bitcoin, leading to heavy criticism of its impact on the climate.

Police on Wednesday swooped on a disused ice factory in western Samut Sakhon city after being tipped off about suspiciously high electricity usage.

“We found up to 690 (bitcoin-mining) units,” Samut Sakhon City Police chief Pichetpong Changkaikhon told AFP, worth an estimated $1.9 million (69 million baht).

Other seized items included an electrical transformer, laptops and aluminium cables. 

A Myanmar national was arrested on site with police still investigating a number of figures, including the factory owner and property leaseholder.

Pichetpong said there had been other raids targeting bitcoin mining in the city, but nothing on this scale in one location.

“There were other places raided too for illegal bitcoin mining but we found only 40 to 50 bitcoin mining units,” he said. 

Last week, officers from the Technology Crime Suppression Division raided two locations -– part of a Chinese temple in Ratchaburi and a warehouse in Samut Songkhram — where 187 and 465 bitcoin mining machines were seized respectively, worth an estimated $5 million.

Illegal bitcoin mining is on the rise in Thailand but requires huge amounts of electricity, with police often tipped off to the activity by massive power surges.

‘Fuel for water’: Heatwave piles misery on Myanmar displaced

By

 AFP

Zay Yar Tun fills his truck with water for delivery to refugees in the parched hills of war-ravaged eastern Myanmar, where a heatwave is adding to the misery of life in displacement camps.

Under a roof of plastic sheets in one of the camps in Kayah state, Augusta waits for the 10 gallons that must cover her family’s drinking, cooking and washing needs for the next three days.

More than 123,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in Kayah by the conflict unleashed by the military’s 2021 coup, according to the United Nations.

Now, a heatwave that has sent the mercury in Myanmar to 48 degrees Celsius (118 Fahrenheit) in some places has added to uncertainties of life in the camps.

“Last year, we got water from a spring nearby,” Augusta told AFP. 

“But now we can’t get water from that place as there is no water left there.

“We have to be frugal… If we don’t shower today, maybe tomorrow we can wash our hands and faces.”

The scarcity means she and her children are often unable to wash properly or clean their clothes in the baking heat.

“The children are itching and they seem dirty, and we also don’t have clean clothes for them,” she said.

– A swelling camp –

A dozen or so camp residents queue up at the truck for water rations that will have to last them three or four days.

Children carry the containers home in baskets on their backs or via trolleys as hot wind whips up dust from the dirt road. 

“When there were only residents living in this place, there was enough water,” said Zay Yar Tun, of the charity Clean Yangon.

“But after the displaced people fled here, the population is too much for the amount of water we can get here.”

Donations keep Zay Yar Tun’s team and its two trucks running, and they make two deliveries to the camp each week.

Finding the streams or springs to fill up their truck can be dangerous in Kayah, which has emerged as one of the hotspots of resistance to military rule.

The military regularly calls in air and artillery strikes on its opponents and landmines are a constant danger.

Transporting cargo to the camps is difficult too.

The fuel the team needs to run their trucks and pumps is expensive because of military restrictions on importing fuel into Kayah, Zay Yar Tun said.

“The price of fuel is very expensive, and it seems like we are exchanging fuel to get water,” he said.

– ‘Borrowing water’ –

Families like Augusta’s are forced to make similar calculations as they try to get through the heat. 

“If we are going to take a bath in the creek, we have to go far away from the camp,” she said. 

“It’s not a walkable distance under this temperature.” 

“If we go by motorcycle, it’s not worth it because of the cost of fuel. If we save money for fuel, we may as well use it to buy water.”

Respite in the form of the rainy season may be some way off yet.

Myanmar’s weather office has forecast that the monsoon, which usually begins around May, is likely to arrive late this year, state media reported this week.

Until then, water will be priceless in the camp, said Augusta.

“Sometimes we say to each other: ‘I haven’t got any water left, have you got any? Please could you give me some?'” she said.

“Our life has come to this, where we have to borrow water.”

 

Dam collapses in southern Brazil as death toll from flooding rises to 29

An official in said Rio Grande do Sul was dealing with 'the biggest weather disaster our state has ever faced'

By Taz Ali

Senior world reporter

May 3, 2024 

A state of emergency has been declared in the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, where days of torrential rain has triggered landslides, flooding and the collapse of a hydroelectric dam, forcing more than 10,000 people from their homes.

At least 29 people have died and 60 are missing, with flooding so severe in some areas that entire communities have been completely cut off.

A dam at a hydroelectric plant burst on Thursday, leaving more than 300,000 people without electricity, according to the state’s main utility company.

Electricity and water cuts were reported across the state, with numerous incidents of flooded roads, landslides and collapsed bridges as water levels of rivers and streams rose sharply.

People walk in a flooded area in Encantado (Photo: Diego Vara/Reuters)

A team of firefighters work at a flooded street in Sao Sebastiao do Cai (Photo: Anselmo Cunha/AFP via Getty Images)

State governor Eduardo Leite said Rio Grande do Sul was dealing with “the biggest weather disaster our state has ever faced”.

Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva visited the affected areas on Thursday to meet with local authorities.

A flooded area in Capela de Santana (Photo: Carlos Fabal/AFP via Getty Images)

A supermarket affected by heavy rains in Sinimbu (PhotoL Anselmo Cunha/AFP via Getty Images)

Flooded areas in Encantado city (Photo: Gustavo Ghisleni/AFP via Getty Images)

“Everything that is within reach of our government will be done to attend to the needs of the people who are being affected by these rains,” he wrote on X.

The downpour began on Monday and was expected to last through Friday. Some areas saw more than six inches of rain in 24 hours, according to Brazil’s national institute of meteorology (Inmet).

It comes after Brazil had a record number of natural disasters in 2023, with 1,161 events including landslides and burst river banks.

Emergency workers rescue people in a flooded street in Sao Sebastiao do Cai (Photo: Anselmo Cunha/AFP via Getty Images)

The death toll from a severe storm in Rio Grande do Sul has risen to 29 (Photo: Anselmo Cunha/AFP via Getty Images)

A flooded street in Encantado (Photo: Gustavo Ghisleni/AFP via Getty Images)

More than 50 people were killed in the south-eastern Sao Paulo state last year after massive downpours caused flooding and landslides.

Weather across South America is affected by the climate phenomenon El Niño, which warms surface waters in the Equatorial Pacific region. In Brazil, El Niño has historically caused droughts in the north and intense rainfall in the south.

Additional reporting by agencies