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the-south-asian.com April 2004 |
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April 2004 Wildlife
Paragpur
- India's 1st
Corporate Talk
Books Lehngas - a limited collection Books Between
Heaven and Hell
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Letter from Pakistan By Buk Mai Arts & Culture: Malika Pukhraj , the great ghazal singer [ for a biography review see http://www.the-south-asian.com/Oct2003/Malka_pukhraj_Song_sung_true.htm> ] passed away on Febrauary 4 , 2004 at the age of 90 +, at her home in Lahore after a bout of ill-health. On January 31 the sub-continent
lost singer-actress Suraiya and the classical violin czar - Pandit V G Jog.
For Jog , at the "Music Without Boundaries" show at the Homi
Bhabha Auditorium on January 31, flutist Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia and
members of rock band Jethro Tull joined the entire auditorium in observing
silence. We join in remembering all these great artists in Omar Khayaam’s
words.
That Youth's sweet-scented Manuscript should close! The Nightingale that in the Branches sang, Ah, whence, and whither flown again, who knows! ………..." [Omar Khayyam - A.D. 1044-1123 ]
Russian Bolshoi Ballet in Lahore : As the Sun swung from its winter orbits in the Tropic of Cancer into its spring / summer orbits towards the Tropic of Capricorn [ Henry Miller novels?], the fever of Basant /Kite-Flying had Lahore citizens in a frenzy of celebration. This celebration reached a climax of sorts with the famous Bolshoi theater group performance at the Alhamra arts center. Initially the tickets were priced at Rs 5000, but this was later reduced to Rs. 2000 to entice the culture vultures. The Russian ambassador, whose wife also exhibited her paintings at Alhamra, was behind this cultural event.
Celebrating PIA’s Boeing 777 with Jagjit & Chitra Singh at Mohatta Palace.
In celebration of PIA’s newly acquired Boeing 777, Jagjit Singh sang at the Karachi charity concert at Mohatta Palace , Karachi on Febrauary 29 . There werer 1300 people attending mostly by invitation from PIA . Said Jagjit : "At the Mohatta Palace PIA show, we managed to raise 5.7 million [ 57 lakhs ] rupees along with $17,000, of which I donated $5,000." A board of trustees for aged, unwell, will manage the money and under- privileged musicians, singers. Jagjit thinks that it will cross the 10 million [1 crore] rupees, with his forthcoming performance at Kinnaird College in Lahore in March 2004. Chitra did not perform. Tina Sani sang some ghazals of friendship to warm up the evening Mehfil. Second in line was Farida Khanum, who made a rare appearance and sang " Aaj Janney ki Zid na Karo……" ["Do not insist on leaving today …." ] ; Jagjit sang some film songs and then had the females audiences screaming with his rendition of "Kurti Malmal di….." [Kurti–shirt of muslin …… "]; it is said that PIA Chairman also joined in pumping up the evening with a Bhangra dance. Reports from the audience indicate that the audiences at Karachi and Lahore need to improve & learn better concert -audience manners. This includes shutting off their mobile phones and not gossiping with each other when the singer is in the middle of their songs. General Merriment @ All Pakistan Music Conference at Hindu Gymkhana in Karachi .
About a week earlier , The President of Pakistan General Musharraf, had come to open the All Pakistan Music Conference at the stunning Hindu Gymkhana building. Tina Sani, Ustad Bashir Khan [ Tabla], Ustad Raees Khan [ sitar], and many others performed during the Valentine week. A stipend of Rs 5000 per month will be given to poor and ailing artists. Basant & Bo Kata in Lahore : This time the affair Basant was celebrated in a far more controlled manner. The Lahore city management team banned the use of wire for kite flying. In addition nylon nets were put over the major city electric power transformers to catch vagrant, and free floating kites could be seen colllecting on these nets. The old city havelis were rented out at good prices –see pictures at Cuckoo’s Café in the old city. Lahore once again was able to make itself a Basant [ Kite-Flying ] tourist center , with extra flights from the Gulf and Middle-East.
Business & Industry : Car Prices. The much discussed car price gouging being carried on by the 3 major car companies [ Toyota–Indus Motors, Atlas Honda, and Suzuki- Pakistan Suzuki Motor Company, and Dewan Farooq –Hyundai, Mitsubishi & BMW cars] finally reached another milestone. This time the Government is threatening to open up reconditioned car imports. The black market in cars [ underhand premiums of Rs 1 Lakh for the Toyotas, Hondas and Suzukis ] is flourishing and this piece of news of allowing car imports has resulted in the drop of this premium by as much as 60% accorded to sources in Karachi.
KSE-100 & Mergers with Lahore & Islamabad Exchanges : With low capitalisation compared to the rest of the world’s major exchanges, the news that KSE will be merged with the Lahore and Islamabad Stock Exchanges furthering economies of scale. In addition , the privately held Monopolist Exchanges of Pakistan at Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi are under pressure from the Asian Development Bank [ADB] to create a de-mutualized [ for-profit, shareholder owned ] exchange. The ADB has advised restructuring of all the three stock exchanges, by demutualization and integration under the $260 million Financial (Non-bank) Markets Governance Program. It has asked the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) to ensure the demutualization and the subsequent integration of the bourses. In case of non-integration, the SECP would go for creating ‘a new national market’. The Islamabad exchange seat value is around Rs12.5 million [currently 90% of the Islamabad Exchange trading is done via the KSE. LSE’s seat value, at present, is around Rs13.5 million. The KSE’s is at around Rs.37.50 million. Compounding this issue is the issue of the Electronic Stock Exchange, which has been termed as the illegitimate child of Khalid Mirza, former-Chairman SECP, who left for a World Bank job in early February 2003. The Electronic Stock Exchange is called PEX Ltd. and is owned by Jehangir Siddiqui, a broker on the KSE turned Investment Banker. An Electronic Exchange threatens the monopoly of the Karachi Stock Brokers community, with a reputation for insider trading. KSE-100 index hovers around 4850 currently.
Chicken- Out : The Poultry industry was set back by the outbreak of the Chicken Flu among the Karachi 3000 poultry farms, resulting in 3 million chickens to be destroyed. In Lahore, Chicken was selling for RS. 20 per kilo and eggs sell at Rs 20 per dozen. Tikkas are still verbotten as the flu virus does not get destroyed in 5 minutes of charcoal grilling . However people have started to eat cooked chicken which is cooked for about at least 15 minutes. Steel Magnolias Blossom : Following intense Steel demand in China , China’s demand for steel has exploded as it builds infrastructure for the Beijing Summer Olympics in 2008 and as it works to expand internal durable goods manufacturing. Chinese steel consumption rose 30% last year to reach 250 million metric tons in 2003 or one-third of the world output of rolled steel. In the meantime, the country produced 210 million metric tons of steel in 2003, up 15% from 2002. To feed their mills, Chinese producers have been scouring the world for scrap steel, causing scrap prices in the U.S., the world’s largest supplier, to rise by as much as 80% over the past year. Also because of the rising demand from China, prices for iron ore, another key ingredient in steelmaking, are up 19% on world markets. And China’s appetite for scrap and iron ore isn’t about to dissipate quickly., Steel prices in Pakistan have started to double inprice. This will affect prices in Pakistan , from Cars , Stainless Steel cutlery, Surgical Goods Industry in Sialkot , Tractors, Bicycle makers and House Construction markets. See this link for details on Chinese industrial demand for steel. http://www.forbes.com/home_europe/newswire/2003/11/27/rtr1162738.html
2 New Mobile Phone Wireless Licenses Auctions : Thirty three [ 33] Expressions of Interest [ EOI’s ] have been received from major telecom players and Pakistan industry leaders . This represents a big plus for Pakistan’s economy showing as it does the confidence that major telecom investors have in the future growth of this sector in Pakistan. It is therefore expected that the bids for the two new Mobile licenses will be in the range of US $ 300 million to about US$ 500 million each . Also the PTA , the regulatory authority in Pakistan needs to understand new technologies impacting the frequency spectrum management, namely that of software defined radio [ See references below on Steinbrecher of MIT and George Gilder and the US FCC positions on this new technology. 1.- http://www.discovery.org/articleFiles/PDFs/BroadbandOrBust.pdf ] rendering obsolete the selling of expensive frequency real-estate. 2. http://www.bbwexchange.com/news/archive/airnet101901.htm . 3. http://www.sdrforum.org/MTGS/mtg_21_nov00/pereira_11_04_00.pdf
India-Pakistan Cricket Series –March 8 . $21 Million Tickets for the above long awaited series are avaialble online via the Internet at the the site www.cricinfo.com . This site belongs to the Wisden group of publishers on cricket data . Tickets can then be picked up about 3 days before the match from outside booths at the cricket ground . This will be a very useful series for both countries having re-established cricket ties after a long absence . Pakistan Cricket Board managed to sign contracts worth US $ 21 million for this series including . All Hotels are fully booked in Lahore as of March 6, 2004.
0. Ten Sports exclusive broadcaster - $ 13.45 million (includes additional $300,000 Ten agreed to pay PCB for live video streaming rights and $150,000 for live radio broadcasting). 1. Electronic major Samsung
title sponsor - $ 4 million. 2. Hero Honda co-sponsor - $
1,491,000. 3. World Sport Nimbus In-stadia
advertising (unrestricted) and mobile telephony rights - 1,389,000 ($
1,287,000 In-stadia and $ 102,000 telephony rights for India only). 4. Madison Outdoor Media
Services (MOMS) In-stadia advertising (restricted) - $383,800. 5. Ticket, hospitality boxes and vending rights sales - $ 1 million. Boom times in Pakistan – Karachi , Lahore , Islamabad, Gwadar Real-state : Real-Estate prices have rocketed in the cities of Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad and also the new port being constructed in Gwadar. A one [I] canal [ about 500 square yards ] piece of land in Karachi in a good [ Defense] area will fetch about Rs 1,000,000. In Islamabad F8 area, the same area will cost around 2,000,000 . In Lahore in the Defense Housing suburbs area, it will cost about 1,000,000 . InGwadar , where the new port is being constructed, land is already at a premium value in the same range as any of the big cities in Pakistan. The case of the disappearing Punjab sports Minister : Mr Shahahni, the Punjab provincial sports minister , disappeared about a month ago, presumably in search of some new car model. The man was fond of automobiles. It is common practice for cars to be brought into Afghanistan via transit trade rules for a landlocked country. These cars then head for the Tribal areas of South Waziristan and other areas in the tribal belt on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Here the buyers from the rest of Pakistan can get their passions fulfilled by buying the cars of their choice. The story behind his disappearance is that he was the key to getting information on the bad folks hiding in these areas. Next another operation was launched in an area north of this one. More bad folks were taken into custody. Next President Musharaf addressed a huge collection of the bearded clergy and lectured them on the moderate peace loving values of Islam.
APRIL 2004
Culture : Mateela Film Festival [www.- Lahore was ablaze in a festival of cultural events . Among the more prominent ones were the Mateela Film Festival from 27 March – 4 April held at the Dorab Patel Auditorium[ Human Rights Commission Pakistan] near the Shakir Ali Museum [ 107 Tipu Sultan Block , New Garden Town ] sponsored by the British Council , Daily Times, the ASR /ISWR a women ‘s organization . The Films were a combination of very young amateur Pakistani Parallel Cinema /film makers, Travelling Film South Asia, Selections from the Kara Film Festival [ see Letter from Pakistan – January], and a collection of Documentaries , features, shorts . A Brilliant ecological documentary called the Elephant monologues [ director – P. Balan] showed the plight of the elephants in Kerala – being used for work and religious ceremonies . The narration was done in a booming voice in Malayalam and showed the ecological situation today where 100 species are being lost every day . The Shah Jamal Urs and the Madho Lal Hussain Urs –or the Mela Chiraghaan was also celebrated by Lahorites as part of the Spring . Indian artists Shilpa Shetty performed at the Royal Palms Golf Club [the remodeled old Lahore Railway Golf Club] , Lahore .
Sports : The South Asian Games ended with India leading the Gold tally with India - 101 Gold, Pakistan 42, Sri Lanka 15 , Nepal 6 , Bangla Desh 3 Afghanistan 1. Bhutan –1. There was a spectacular sound & light show in Islamabad stadium to flag the start of the SAF games. The cricket matches gave a tremendous boost to India- Pakistan relations, with the rich and poor commuting across Wagah or by air. Lahore saw a bobbing of Sikhs with colorful Turbans; hotels rooms were going for premium prices with only suites available at the PC Continental at Rs. 35,000 per night . Some Sardar-Jees were quite clear that the Indo-Pak fight over Kashmir was a game that the upper-walas [ruling classes] played – the people had no fight with each other. In the Lahore One-day International there were the Indian jet set- [the Dalmiyas, Godrej, Singhanias [ Raymond Synthetics] , Malyas .
Business In a recent interview [around April 7] , President General Musharaf informed a motley crowd of the Member Parliament and journalists that Hernando De Soto of Peru had been tapped for his ideas on economic development ideasand their implementation. De Soto’s basic thesis is that in order make capitalism successful, it is necessary to make to poor a part of the process of economic by giving them a title to the unit of land they require for their housing and also their agriculture livelihood. If this should happen [our feudals and landlords would be up in arms against it], then Pakistan may well get out of the obscurantist woods of Mullah Mullahs And More Mullahs [MMA party]. PTCL's new chairman is Zafar Ali Khan, former MD Engro Chemical [Fertilizer], replacing Akhter Ahmed Bajwa, who was sent on leave 3 months before the expiry of his contract.The posts of president and chief executive officer have been separated a move decided at the highest level of the Ministry of IT and Telecom. Junaid Khan, was appointed as Chief Operating Officer of the PTCL . A restructuring plan of the state-owned telecom giant is under way . The PTCL could be broken up into smaller regional units or based on the functional parts of the PTCL. Abdullah Yusuf, secretary, petroleum and natural resources, has reluctantly joined the Central Board of Revenue (CBR) as its new chairman. Pakistan has a total of 1 million taxpayers in a population of 150 million. San Fransisco’s one single district has about half a million taxpayers . KSE 100 index went up to 5300.
It is now confirmed that in early 2004, the State Bank of Pakistan tried
to halt the participation of Banks in holding equity positions in the Stock
Market . However this decision was taken back. This sort of
participation is very dangerous as Banks in the west only take positions in
the safest of all paper – namely Bonds and 30 –year Treasury Bills.
Coupled by insider trading by the dominant Memon business community, the
only advice one can give here is BUYER BEWARE. About S 4 billion worth of Capital Equipment has been imported to replace or upgrade the Textile factories in the Private sector. Meanwhile, unemployment is a word not mentioned in the corridors of power.
More Later.
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