CITY NOTES
Some nasty and mean-minded people out there, who’ve been saying that it’s perfectly all right to sling Ali Wazir in durance vile for daring to say things against the Army in a speech in Waziristan, but not to take any action against Imran Khan for his accusations that the ‘neutrals’ were animals for not supporting the right, which is him. As far as I know, Ali Wazir doesn’t want the Army on his side. Imran does.
Perhaps both can learn from Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman, who has for some time suffered because of the accusation that he was behind the brutal murder of Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi in 2019 in Saudi Arabia’s Istanbul consulate. True, Imran Khan had him visit Pakistan at a time when he was persona non grata in most countries. Even Imran, according to a highly unreliable source, baulked at the invitation to dinner at the Saudi Embassy.
Far from being persona non grata, the Crown Prince has hosted the US President, Joe Biden, who campaigned on a platform which demanded the MBS be punished for the murder. As if that wasn’t enough, MBS went on an official visit to Turkey where he was received by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The visit was to the capital, Ankara, and did not include an Istanbul leg, where an inspection of the consulate by the Crown Prince would have almost automatically been on the schedule.
That should give Imran hope. I mean, if there is life for MBS after the Khashoggi murder, then why not life for Imran after dismissal by conspiracy. And if the USA can forgive MBS to the extent of having Biden go visit, why can’t it it learn to live with Imran again? As for the reasons why it overthrew him, he can leave the Shehbaz government to take the steps it wants, and the USA let him come back. Through those who he can call neutral, though Ali Wazir wouldn’t know what hit him if he had the temerity to do so.
I wonder why this Friday there was no rise in petrol prices. Instead Finance Minister Miftah Ismail imposed a one-time tax on company profits. Well, let’s hope this one-time stayed one-time. Previous one-time measures din’t stay one-time. Like the income tax, which had been introduced as a wartime measure to help the UK finance World War-I.
Well, it’s still around. And then there was of the fiduciary issue of £14 million to help finance the Napoleonic War. A fiduciary issue meant that the Bank of England would print banknotes that weren’t backed by gold. Well, now all money consists of fiduciary issues, because none of the money is backed by anything, except government securities.
The banknote contains a promise to pay by the Governor of the State Bank of Pakistan. The bearer is promised the money ‘on demand’. But no one makes the demand. Once upon a time, under the Raj, you could demand and would be paid silver rupees, each coin of a certain weight and purity. Now, if you presented the promise to pay, once the derisive laughter had subsided, you would be given government securities for the amount on the note. In short, more paper. So a measure introduced partially to finance a war, has now swept out gold and replaced it with fiat.
Imran might be interested to know that the replacement of gold by fiat currencies has made it possible for the USA to exert dominance over the world.
You see, the US dollar has replaced gold. Countries now use gold to buy dollars. The other countries have to kick and bite, fight and strive, and sell goods abroad, to afford to buy goods from abroad. Like us. The USA? It just prints more dollars.
So what’s happened is that any country running up a surplus has got piles and piles of dollars. Which is just paper. Well, China instead has bought US government securities, over $1 trillion worth. That means China has sent over goods to the USA, and in return it has got paper. And it has a handicap in the trade war the USA started, because if the dollar grows weak, the value of that paper mountain, goes down.
Meanwhile, the UK’s PM, Boris Johnson, is showing he’s learned a thing or two from Imran. Boris Johnson has not only been convicted of violating covid-19 revelations, but has led his party to two by-election defeats. But is he giving up? Not at all. He is refusing to give in to any Malawian conspiracy. But he hasn’t bothered to offer the explanation the PTI is already giving for its performance in the coming Punjab by-elections: rigging.
