Pakistan can earn good by exporting milk and its products .

Pakistan is the 4th largest milk producer but we lose million of litter per year just because of lack of knowledge technology .

 The genetics of the herds in Pakistan require a survey. This should have been done much earlier? 
It is ironic but that in 1937 the first cattle show was attended by the Viceroy and the steps taken to harmonized genetics with carrying capacity of land. The Dhanni came to the rain-fed areas. The buffalo in the more irrigated areas. The buffalo is now going to the northern areas, where it will compete with human consumption systems. The fodder for animal will vie with the wheat for humans. More efficient animals are now available and need to be brought into the production systems of this world. When will we do this? What delay us? Your guess is a good as mine when it comes to explaining human inertia.

Livestock specialists are to understand the linkage between trade and aid. If Pakistan is to prosper then such goods as are possible to be produced here by our farmers there should be adequate arrangements for them to have confidence. If this production system is to survive then merely attacking the symptoms will not help. The cause(s) need to be tackled. Again it is so easy for the rich to bargain with outside commercial forces and so easy to reduce to ashes to work of your own already trampled farmer community. The edible oil industry is a case in point. The more one studies it the more serious are the issues that need to be resolved. No one likes competition for oneself. They all like if for others or where they can benefit. So that is how the game is to be played. And there should be no doubt in any minds that the competitive abilities once developed lead a country to ever higher pedestal. This can be turned around. The trick lies in imagination and imaginative involvement. The exponential experience must come to grips with one's judgement. That is difficult given our culture. Bureaucracy has to be reasonable.

The problem of Pakistan has been strong bureaucracy in the past, it is now a weak one. Neither is an answer. The bureaucracy has to be reasonable one. Capable of taking decisions. Insidious and conceit never do. A non-descript decision-maker is a disaster for he comes to the job without any convictions. And therefore has much in him of negativeness. What is to be done. Much. Nutrition of the animals is dependent on the new interventions. Mort grass for supplementation where fodder is not available. One has to recognise. Taki Izono a naturalised. American for this intervention. The intervention in Balochistan of a Halophyte-Salicomia. Someone needs to explain why only 150 acres were cultivated when there was planning permission of 10000 acres. The silliness of things. The criminality of it all. Resolve the paradox yourself.

In genetics I have already talked of more efficient animals. These are possible. The person who introduced teddy goats in Pakistan needs to be acclaimed. We have had no intervention thereafter. It is about time this is done. A team from International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) will be here shortly. Their help can be sought. But there is still much to be learnt from the world and what they have done. Management practices have already been touched in great deal. Suffice it to say that the latest trends have not come to the livestock sector. Institutional obsolescence is visible. Both have to be modified to a great extent. The matter calls for not aping what is visible in this or that part of the world but developing a system which is the common heritage of the specificity's of our country. In management there are number of generic interventions that are possible.

Demand management can have a very valuable and positive impact on our poverty implications. No amount of poverty alleviation can be done by external sources. The roots of poverty lie in our own system. Poverty is man made and if we are serious in its alleviation then there has to be a response which has to take into consideration questions of equity. Not much work has been done on this score. Not much is likely to be done in the future. There is just not enough awareness of the social deprivations of the downtrodden amongst our intellectual class. The intellectuals themselves are on the run. Still we must make do with what we have and evolve a methodology for achieving what we set out to achieve. More profound things will evolve in the course of times.

A quick look at distortions must also be made. Just as this sector is fighting against unjust distortions, this sector must not seek distortions for its sector. Rather it should seek to find its own level in the economy. That will make it more self reliant. The economic effect of any undue benefit is always inefficiency. This can be seen from the cotton sector, to give just one example. Improvements can only come about by being. Are we to live from crises to crises in our food security endeavours? The answer lies in the attitude we bring to bear on our activities. It may be possible to live in a fools paradise but an optimistic fool cannot survive for long. Sooner or later the chickens come home to most? Sooner than later. Is lament in order. Or shall something be done. If you chose to do something then the option is to give not only a direction but speed to that vector. Only thus can be target group come up.

Dr Amjad Saqib and Akhuwat Foundation. By Danish Umer

The mission of  Boltakarachi is to  highlight positive side of Pakistan . roda1969@yahoo.com

In this article we will try to discuss the great achievements of  Dr Amjad Saqib (Sitara-a-Pakistan)  and its brain child Akhuwat Foundation.

Dr Amjad Saqib is founder of Akhuwat, first ever interest free microfinance programme. This programme operates from mosques and churches and has opened new vistas in the domain of social mobilization and poverty alleviation. This is the largest individual based lending programme in the country and is referred to in many international universities as a unique and innovative model in microfinance. He is Akhuwat’s Executive Director and main driving force since its inception in year 2001. Keeping in view his management experience and volunteer services for poverty alleviation, he has been requested by the Government of the Punjab to lead two of its flagship programmes i.e. Punjab Educational Endowment Fund and Punjab Welfare Trust for the Disabled. President of Pakistan, on account of his contributions for poverty
alleviation, has awarded him "Sitara-a-Pakistan" in 2010.

Akhuwat Foundation......Giving Interest free Micro Loans

VISION

A poverty free society built on the principles of compassion and equity.

MISSION

To alleviate poverty by empowering socially and economically marginalized families through interest free microfinance and by harnessing entrepreneurial potential, capacity building and social guidance.

OBJECTIVES

* To provide interest free microfinance services to poor families enabling them to become self reliant.
* To promote qard-e-hasana as a viable model and a broad-based solution for poverty alleviation.
* To provide social guidance, capacity building and entrepreneurial training.
* To institutionalize the spirit of brotherhood, compassion, and volunteerism.
* To transform Akhuwat borrowers into donors.
* To make Akhuwat a sustainable, growth-oriented and replicable organization.

STRENGTH

* Experience of more than nine years.
* Trained workforce of more than 200 employees.
* Equipped with fully developed policies, processes and systems.
* Support of more than 700 local donors.
* Registered with Government of the Punjab and Pakistan Center for Philanthropy (PCP).
* Registered with Pakistan Microfinance Network (PMN).
* Enviable growth in last eight years.
* Loan Recovery rate of 99.85%.
* No discrimination on the basis of religion, political affiliation, caste, colour or ethnicity.
* No interest, profit or loan processing fee is charged from the borrower.
* Presence in 22 cities and towns in Pakistan.

HISTORY

Akhuwat was established in 2001 with the objective of providing interest free micro credit to the poor so as to enhance their standard of living. The organization started with a first loan of Rs. 10,000 which was given to a widow. This brave lady did not believe in charity hence she asked for qarz e hasna. She purchased two sewing machines and started a small boutique in her house. She worked so hard that in six months she returned the loan. During this period she also ran her house and married one of her daughters. That was the beginning of what later became a movement.

Akhuwat is dedicated to improving the lives of the poor; those who are financially abused, abandoned and disregarded by society. As a registered non-governmental organization, Akhuwat provides the poor with interest-free loans so that they may acquire a livelihood and the skills and support they need to reach their full potential. To this end, Akhuwat raises its funds from Civil Society. It does not depend on international funding; instead it uses the spirit of volunteerism and the tradition of giving, a cardinal principle of all religions.

Akhuwat derives inspiration from the Muslim spirit of muakhaat or brotherhood. The earliest example of muakhaat was first displayed by the citizens of Madina at the dawn of Islam, when they shared their wealth with the immigrants or muhajirin of Mecca. Akhuwat’s philosophy is based on the principle of Qarze-e-Hasna, helping someone in need with interest-free loans, which is favored over charity. From a first loan of Rs. 10,000, Akhuwat’s total disbursement has now increased to Rs. 760 million in just over nine years. Akhuwat’s greatest success is that it has been instrumental in helping more than 67,000 families move from being dependent on others to being self-sufficient. The success stories of these people bring hope to those still in need of help.

Akhuwat started its operations in Lahore and to date has fifteen branches in this city. It has also expanded to Rawalpindi and Faisalabad in collaboration with the Chambers of Commerce and Industry and philanthropists of these two cities. Besides these big cities it has opened branches in other cities like Bahawalpur, Multan, Gujrat, Dera Ghazi Khan and Karachi. Akhuwat has also expanded its programme in small cities and towns like Kot Mitan (Rajhanpur), Miani, Kot Momin (Sarghoda), Chiniot, Dijkot, Samundari, Lodhran, Jehanian, Duniyapur, Nain Sukh, Chunian, Changa Manga (Kasur), Choti Zaireen (Dera Ghazi Khan), Bahawalpur, Sheikhupura and Khairpur(Sindh). Few more branches are under process in Sahiwal, Rahim Yar Khan, Bahawalnagar, Peshawar, Mardan and Farooqabad. Akhuwat’s model is also a part of curriculum at University of Southern New Hampshire USA and Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS). All this has been made possible because of the tireless efforts made by our dedicated staff. Akhuwat sincerely appreciates and is grateful to hundreds of individuals and families who have donated money, time and skills to this cause. We would like to introduce Akhuwat to a wider audience like development professionals microfinance experts, international donors, media, religious Scholars and above all the Philanthropists and community at large. As some one said, “Akhuwat is a fine example of civil society at its best”. The objective is to present this fine example to others. Together we all can make a big difference. You all have shared not only your time and resources, but also your compassion. It is because of your generous support that Akhuwat is, and will continue to be, an inspirational place - a haven, where hope for the future blossoms.

GUIDING PRINCIPLES OF AKHUWAT

Interest Free Micro Credit: Akhuwat provides the economically poor with interest free loans so that they may acquire a self-sustaining livelihood. It also provides the skills and support they need to actualize their full potential and abilities.

Akhuwat’s fee structure

Interest: zero

Profit: zero

Loan Processing Fee: zero

Reliance on philanthropy: Since its inception Akhuwat has solely relied upon the philanthropists in extending its services to the community. However, in order to fulfill the increased credit needs of its ever-increasing clientele it is now willing to work with the international donors as well.

Spirit of Volunteerism: The spirit of volunteerism that Akhuwat’s management and its team members exhibit is indicative of the success Akhuwat achieved within a short span of time.

Family loans: Family loan is the most common type of loan that Akhuwat offers to its clients for setting up or expanding a business. Income from this business is jointly shared by the whole family. The loans given by Akhuwat are co-signed by male and female head of the family. Akhuwat believes in strengthening family unit as some studies show that separate loans to male and female in a family may result in tensions in the family and hence may cause disintegration of this important institution.

Linkages with mosque and church: An important and novel idea associated with individual loans is the use of the local mosque/church infrastructure as the center for loan disbursement and as an avenue for community participation.

Combination of individual and group lending program: Diversification of loan portfolio by offering different loan products has helped to increase the outreach of the organization.

Credit plus approach: Akhuwat has employed a credit plus approach by introducing the idea of social guidance for its credit beneficiaries. The purpose of this approach is to help borrowers flourish their small enterprises so that they can lead socially healthier lives than before.


How to Donate

You can donate to Akhuwat by sending a cheque payable to Akhuwat on our official address given on the website or you can directly deposit your donations in the account details given below:

Pakistan

Account Title: Akhuwat

Account Number: 0222-03600000070

Name of Beneficiary Bank: Meezan Bank Limited

Meezan Bank Swift Code: MEZNPKKAXXX

Bank's Address: 6-2/C-1, College Road, Township, Lahore, Pakistan

Bank's Tel: 092 042 3515 7184-86


UK

Following are the bank account details:

Account Title: Akhuwat UK Trust (cheques should be written under this name)

Account Number: 42010410

Bank Name: HSBC Bank

Branch Sort Code: 40-35-20

Bank's Address: 3A Queen's Road, Town Centre, Nuneaton CV115JL

 

Combating poverty through skill-based education

There are several factors contributing to poverty in Pakistan but I will focus on the need for human development through skill-based education. Although it is very difficult to quantify the impact of education on GDP or other economic aggregates but there is a clear relationship between poverty and education. Educated people can earn more and are less likely to be marginalised in society. 

Currently, Pakistan is facing challenges on multiple fronts and one of the biggest challenges affecting the large proportions of the population is poverty. According to economic survey of Pakistan in 2008-2009, 36 per cent people in Pakistan lived below the poverty line. Any person who earns less than $1 per day is said to be below the poverty line. 

The lack of human development, among the other factors, is a major cause for the protracted poverty in rural and urban areas. Low literacy rate and skill level are the inherent problems with employment in Pakistan. The literacy rate in Pakistan in roughly 55 per cent with 43 per cent females and 68 per cent males considered literate. The quality and relevance of education in Pakistan is also a point to ponder. Pakistan is ranked 116th in higher education and 113th in the labour market efficiency. In 2007-08 Pakistan had a labour force of 52 million with a female force of 10 million with a total of 49 million employed. A total 45 per cent of labour force is employed in the agriculture sector and 55 per cent in the non-agriculture sector. 

Now turn to the other side of the picture. The unemployed labour force in 2007-2008 was 2.69 million and there is no reason to believe that it may have declined during 2009 as the global economic recession and internal law and order situation of Pakistan has made things even worse. It is clearly evident from statistics that the youth from 10-30 years is facing the highest unemployment which is more than seven per cent in comparison with the overall unemployment rate of 5.2 per cent. 

The situation is very alarming as youth can be the most productive segment of any nation and wider unemployment among youth is not only hampering the economic growth of the country but also forcing them to consider other means of employment like joining some banned organisation or becoming a part of some anti-social network. There is a significant number of youth which is underemployed, underpaid, working under unacceptable arrangements and trapped in low-paid jobs without any prospects for career advancements.

Education plays a major role in the economic and social development of any country. It gives the people awareness to defend their rights, respect rule of law, gain valuable skills to improve their living standard and spend life positively for their own well being and that of society in a broader context. The lack of quality education is the biggest cause for the underdevelopment of the human capital in Pakistan. This problem with the quality of education is not only with the curricula but with the instruction also. 

Pakistan has compulsory education for the duration of only five years which is 169th in the world. It has the highest primary school dropouts in the world. The government spending on education is one of the lowest in the world. Currently it spends 2.1 per cent of its GDP on education which has declined significantly in the last seven years. This expenditure is very low keeping in view the current level of education in the country and the importance of education.

Another cause of concern is the relevance of education with the labour force requirements of the industry. It seems that no attention has been paid to this phenomenon yet. Pakistan’s educational system is conventional and inherited from the British colonial rule which puts no emphasis on skill-based education. 

Due to this reason both the industry and the youth suffer. Industry cannot find the required skilled manpower and educated people cannot find the jobs as they do not have the required skills needed in the industry. The mainstream education system of Pakistan is divided into six levels which are primary (up to class five), middle (class six to eight), high (class nine to 10), higher secondary (class 11 to 12), degree colleges (class 13 to 14) and universities from masters onward to doctorate level. 

Vocational and technical education and training can be regarded as a solution to the economic problems of countries like Pakistan. If we divert our secondary level curriculum towards technical and more specialised education then many of our educational problems can be solved. 

Our unending demand for higher non-skilled education can be controlled and huge expenses towards this can be contained if we divert our attention to skill-based education. But so far we have paid very little attention to this. There are only 1,522 technical and vocational training institutes including both public and private in the country. Vocational and technical training normally starts after the high school. If we compare the number of vocational and technical training institutions with conventional higher secondary institutions, we see that there are 75,821 institutions providing conventional higher secondary education against only 1,522 institutions providing skill-based vocational training. It can be inferred from these figures that only two per cent institutions are producing the manpower mostly needed by the economy and industry and the remaining 98 per cent are imparting just bookish and sometimes obsolete knowledge. 

The conventional educational system in the country is also highly biased. Rich people send their children to high-quality private institutions mostly established on modern western curricula charging high fee but the poor have no choice except to send their children to the poorly-run government schools. 

This type of quality bias even reduces the chances of youth to get jobs with their conventional education as they cannot compete with the children of elite class. Vocational and technical training can prove a remedy to this situation by diverting the poor youth from conventional education to the skill-based education. Also the high dropout rate in educational institutions can be reversed by making the curriculum more interesting and relevant to the industry. 

Another reason for poverty in Pakistan is the marginalised role of women in the economic life of society. Women constitute half of the country’s population but they are not as productive as they should be. The reason is the lack of necessary education and skills. Women often have to remain at home due to cultural or family constraints. In the rural areas, they work in fields but in the urban areas, most of them remain at home without any meaningful participation in the household’s income. If they are equipped with the skills to participate in some economic activity from home they will significantly increase the income of their households.

The government has to adopt alternatives in the educational system to reduce poverty. 

• There should be comprehensive labour force planning which should include the assessment of the requirement of each industry in the country and overseas where we can send trained labour, census of the available work force and their educational requirements. 

• The second step will be to start to transform our educational system. t cannot be done overnight but gradually. We have to end the convention of imparting general non-skilled education till the master’s level after which the graduates find no place in the job market. We should impart general education only till the high school level. After that education should be more specialised and skill-based. We should close the gap between the number of higher secondary schools and vocational and technical training institutions. This can be done by establishing new vocational training institutions instead of conventional schools and colleges especially in rural areas and city slums where most of the poor live. 

• Existing conventional institutions can also be converted to technical training centres or their curriculum can be modified to include skill-based education. By doing so we will not only provide industry with the required skilled labour force but also the young generation decent jobs. This will not put extra burden on the national economy as the resources from conventional education will be diverted to technical education. We will not be required to establish new universities as frequently as at present because the influx of the students for the university education will be significantly reduced due to most of the students going for skill-based education.

• Special attention is to be paid for skill-based education for women. These should be skills they can use from home to earn their living. 

We have to transform our education system as soon as possible to meet the needs of our industry and to provide our youth with the means to earn their livelihood decently in order to reduce poverty and frustration. Otherwise time will not wait for us.
(By Masood Ahmed )

Wiki Leaks : Julian Assange’s mission for total transparency. (by Raffi Khatchadourian)

The house on Grettisgata Street, in Reykjavik, is a century old, small and white, situated just a few streets from the North Atlantic. The shifting northerly winds can suddenly bring ice and snow to the city, even in springtime, and when they do a certain kind of silence sets in. This was the case on the morning of March 30th, when a tall Australian man named Julian Paul Assange, with gray eyes and a mop of silver-white hair, arrived to rent the place. Assange was dressed in a gray full-body snowsuit, and he had with him a small entourage. “We are journalists,” he told the owner of the house. Eyjafjallajökull had recently begun erupting, and he said, “We’re here to write about the volcano.” After the owner left, Assange quickly closed the drapes, and he made sure that they stayed closed, day and night. The house, as far as he was concerned, would now serve as a war room; people called it the Bunker. Half a dozen computers were set up in a starkly decorated, white-walled living space. Icelandic activists arrived, and they began to work, more or less at Assange’s direction, around the clock. Their focus was Project B—Assange’s code name for a thirty-eight-minute video taken from the cockpit of an Apache military helicopter in Iraq in 2007. The video depicted American soldiers killing at least eighteen people, including two Reuters journalists; it later became the subject of widespread controversy, but at this early stage it was still a closely guarded military secret.

Assange is an international trafficker, of sorts. He and his colleagues collect documents and imagery that governments and other institutions regard as confidential and publish them on a Web site called WikiLeaks.org. Since it went online, three and a half years ago, the site has published an extensive catalogue of secret material, ranging from the Standard Operating Procedures at Camp Delta, in Guantánamo Bay, and the “Climategate” e-mails from the University of East Anglia, in England, to the contents of Sarah Palin’s private Yahoo account. The catalogue is especially remarkable because WikiLeaks is not quite an organization; it is better described as a media insurgency. It has no paid staff, no copiers, no desks, no office. Assange does not even have a home. He travels from country to country, staying with supporters, or friends of friends—as he once put it to me, “I’m living in airports these days.” He is the operation’s prime mover, and it is fair to say that WikiLeaks exists wherever he does. At the same time, hundreds of volunteers from around the world help maintain the Web site’s complicated infrastructure; many participate in small ways, and between three and five people dedicate themselves to it full time. Key members are known only by initials—M, for instance—even deep within WikiLeaks, where communications are conducted by encrypted online chat services. The secretiveness stems from the belief that a populist intelligence operation with virtually no resources, designed to publicize information that powerful institutions do not want public, will have serious adversaries.

Iceland was a natural place to develop Project B. In the past year, Assange has collaborated with politicians and activists there to draft a free-speech law of unprecedented strength, and a number of these same people had agreed to help him work on the video in total secrecy. The video was a striking artifact—an unmediated representation of the ambiguities and cruelties of modern warfare—and he hoped that its release would touch off a worldwide debate about the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. He was planning to unveil the footage before a group of reporters at the National Press Club, in Washington, on April 5th, the morning after Easter, presumably a slow news day. To accomplish this, he and the other members of the WikiLeaks community would have to analyze the raw video and edit it into a short film, build a stand-alone Web site to display it, launch a media campaign, and prepare documentation for the footage—all in less than a week’s time.

Assange also wanted to insure that, once the video was posted online, it would be impossible to remove. He told me that WikiLeaks maintains its content on more than twenty servers around the world and on hundreds of domain names. (Expenses are paid by donations, and a few independent well-wishers also run “mirror sites” in support.) Assange calls the site “an uncensorable system for untraceable mass document leaking and public analysis,” and a government or company that wanted to remove content from WikiLeaks would have to practically dismantle the Internet itself. So far, even though the site has received more than a hundred legal threats, almost no one has filed suit. Lawyers working for the British bank Northern Rock threatened court action after the site published an embarrassing memo, but they were practically reduced to begging. A Kenyan politician also vowed to sue after Assange published a confidential report alleging that President Daniel arap Moi and his allies had siphoned billions of dollars out of the country. The site’s work in Kenya earned it an award from Amnesty International.

Assange typically tells would-be litigants to go to hell. In 2008, WikiLeaks posted secret Scientology manuals, and lawyers representing the church demanded that they be removed. Assange’s response was to publish more of the Scientologists’ internal material, and to announce, “WikiLeaks will not comply with legally abusive requests from Scientology any more than WikiLeaks has complied with similar demands from Swiss banks, Russian offshore stem-cell centers, former African kleptocrats, or the Pentagon.”

In his writing online, especially on Twitter, Assange is quick to lash out at perceived enemies. By contrast, on television, where he has been appearing more frequently, he acts with uncanny sang-froid. Under the studio lights, he can seem—with his spectral white hair, pallid skin, cool eyes, and expansive forehead—like a rail-thin being who has rocketed to Earth to deliver humanity some hidden truth. This impression is magnified by his rigid demeanor and his baritone voice, which he deploys slowly, at low volume.