Unite Pakistan

FEDERAL PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION COMPETITIVE EXAMINATION FOR RECRUITMENT TO POSTS IN BPS-17 UNDER THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, 2013 ENGLISH ( Pr écis and Composition) TIME ALLOWED: (PART-I MCQs) 30 MINUTES .................. MAX. MARKS:20 (PART-II) 2 HOURS & 30 MINUTES...MAX.MARKS:80 PART I - COMPULSORY Q.1 Choose the word that is near most similar in meaning to the Capitalized words. (1 Mark each) (20) 1. BRISTLE: a) Regulate b) Flare up c) Frail d) Exhilarate e) None of These 2. DELUGE a). Immerse b) Rescue c) Drown d) Overflow e) None of These 3. TIRADE a) Argument b) Procession c) Angry Speech d) Torture e) None of These 4. QUASI a) Secret b) Improper c) Seeming d) Whole e) None of These 5. VILIFY a) To Prove b) Boast c) Defraud d) Defame e) None of These 6. RIGMAROLE a) Unnecessary b) Disorder c) Confused Talk d) Game e) None of These 7. DEIGN a) Condescend b) Pretend c) Disparage d) Refuse e) None of These 8....

Resolving the energy crisis When it comes to the energy sector reforms, the Nawaz Administration appears to be making relatively sensible choices. What makes the administration’s plan particularly impressive is that it seeks to balance what is politically possible with what is technically and financially necessary. So, for instance, the government is seeking to pay off the energy sector’s circular debt in one go in order to significantly reduce power cuts and win the public’s confidence before tackling the harder bits of the problem, like raising tariffs and forcing electricity thieves to pay their bills. We also admire the government’s commitment to reduce the weighted average cost of producing electricity for the national grid by moving towards cheaper fuel sources. We worry, however, that some of these moves are being made without a more thorough analysis of the future costs. Take, for instance, the government’s agreement with the independent power producers (...

  Bucks stopped For years – and not just for the life of the last government – there has been what can only be described as a culture of impunity when it came to state institutions paying their dues. Thus virtually every state owned entity, from PIA to the Pakistan Steel Mills to the Pakistan Railways to provincial governments and large corporations and the power generation and distribution sector as well, were defaulters on taxes and utility bills. This was equally reflected down to the micro level where individual but powerful households failed to pay their dues, but expected the services to continue despite never being paid for. Over time the nation became massively indebted to itself. This, eventually becomes completely unsustainable and the PML-N government inherited the governance of the country at a point at which its self-indebtedness became an existential threat – and it cannot evade the consequences. The government is twisting to and fro in the tran...

Humanity required: Stay on executions THIS is a country with serious law and order problems in several areas. While many remedies can be explored, the least acceptable is that implied in a complaint made by the Sindh High Court Bar Association in a petition against the targeted killings of lawyers and others in Karachi: that capital punishment is not being meted out to prisoners on death row, which, in the petitioner`s view, sends out the message that those responsible for heinous crimes go unpunished. This newspaper opposes capital punishment, not just for being a cruel and degrading punishment but also because it is only in a few cases that guilt is proved beyond a shadow of doubt. Most countries have removed this punishment from the law books. The strong pro-death penalty lobby in Pakistan, though, has meant that we have not done so, even though the country is amongst the states with the highest number of prisoners on death row. A middle ground of sorts wa...

Attack on judge’s convoy The law and order situation in the country’s financial hub continues to deteriorate with yet another bomb blast rocking Karachi on the morning of June 26. The convoy of the Sindh High Court Justice Baqar Maqbool was the target of the explosion that took place in the Burns Road area of the city. The bomb was planted on a motorbike that was parked near a mosque, which exploded as the convoy passed by, killing 12 people and injuring 14 others. Thankfully, Justice Maqbool, who is currently performing duties as the acting chief justice of the Sindh High Court, escaped only with injuries. The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan have accepted responsibility for the attack, stating that Justice Maqbool was targeted for his “anti-Taliban and anti-mujahideen decisions”. Our law-enforcement agencies have clearly failed to fulfil their responsibility of ensuring peace in Karachi. The obvious weaknesses in the law-enforcement apparatus — which not only fails ...

Budget goes through It is nowhere close to being a perfect budget, but at least Finance Minister Ishaq Dar can take credit for sticking to his guns and pushing through even the most unpopular bits of the finance bill through the National Assembly. We do not agree with everything that is in the budget, but we do believe that it is important for a government to stick to its convictions, particularly about the tough choices that the country needs to make. With that said, we do have some reservations about the manner in which the increase in the general sales tax was imposed. It is entirely appropriate for the new finance minister to propose such a measure for debate in Parliament, and we are glad that the Supreme Court made him do so, rather than relying on a colonial-era law that allowed him to bypass the elected representatives of the people. However, imposing a tax retroactively from June 13 rather than July 1 is clearly unconstitutional. The government cannot ...

Fast track Promises made on the campaign trail have an ephemeral quality about them and often fade away from political memory once power is attained. Unusually, but providentially, the promises – some of them – that the PML-N made about getting on top of the problems in the power sector are being fulfilled with quite remarkable speed. The country has yet to see any relief from the chronic loadshedding that is making life a misery for millions, but it is at least possible to see the process by which power will once again come down the wires. The country was promised a retirement of circular debt within 60 days. But, a significant portion of it will have been retired by this time next week and the rest, hopefully, by the middle of July or thereabouts – well within the 60-day target. Circular debt is a man-made monster, and has its birth in poor management and weak political appointments to jobs that required detailed technical skill sets and top-flight management ab...

More steps needed: Tackling circular debt DAYS before the curtain is due to drop on one of the most profligate fiscal years of our history, the newly inducted government is ready to utilise a jaw-dropping Rs326bn to retire a large chunk of the circular debt. The amount will add another percentage and a half to the country’s fiscal deficit, expressed as a proportion of GDP. Once completed, this will be the largest single retirement of the circular debt ever attempted, with at least two other examples from the past of similar efforts to douse the problem in a single move. In both cases, the circular debt resurfaced within six months. Debate has continued over the structural reasons behind why the debt is proving so stubbornly resilient to eradicate. One view says the tariff itself is flawed, where the cost of generation averages out to Rs14 per unit (due mainly to our reliance on pricey oil imports) but the cost at which the unit is sold averages to Rs9. Another v...

  Reviving backdoor diplomacy The Pakistani government has decided to revive backdoor diplomacy channels with India. The earlier such attempts under the Musharraf regime were on the right track. The parleys between presidential aide Tariq Aziz and veteran Indian diplomat SK Lambah led to the evolution of the famed four-point formula as a workable option to resolve the Kashmir dispute. These efforts came to a standstill due to political instability in Pakistan and eventual exit of General (retd) Pervez Musharraf in 2008. Given the troubled history of Indo-Pakistan relations and the existence of slow-moving bureaucratic machinery, backdoor diplomacy is a feasible route to be adopted. If this back channel diplomacy does materialise, then the Sharif government’s move should be welcomed. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is committed to securing peace and boosting trade with India. However, he faces a formidable baggage of history and the national security paradigm th...

  Secrets and lies Transparency, honesty and accountability have never loomed large in the national political life of Pakistan. While the law of averages compels an understanding that there must be politicians as straight as the proverbial ruler, they remain a shy and rarely-seen species. The latest revelations in the Swiss letter saga do nothing to dispel the above perception. Conspiracy theories abound but rarely have substance. However, the revelation that a letter was written to the Swiss authorities, in secret and running counter to an earlier letter to them at the behest of the Supreme Court, really does have more than a whiff of conspiracy about it. Three leading figures of the last government – former law minister Farooq Naek, former prime minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf and the former federal law secretary Yasmin Abbasey – conspired together to deceive the judiciary and by extension the rest of the population. They were seeking to prevent the Swiss gove...

A shameful move: Swiss saga again EVEN the end isn’t the end, it appears. The long-running Swiss cases/letter saga that seemingly had finally come to a close last November has been revived in the most astonishing manner. Attorney General Muneer Malik informed the Supreme Court on Wednesday that the law ministry had written a second, secret letter to the Swiss in November; a second letter that directly contradicted the purpose of the first, court-mandated letter. What is most egregious here is the manner in which the law ministry appears to have been used by President Zardari as his personal law firm. As the primary target of the Swiss proceedings, Mr Zardari has the right to defend himself and put forward his own interpretation of the relevant laws. But if that is what the president wanted to achieve, he should have hired Swiss representatives in his personal capacity to lobby or appeal to the Swiss authorities regarding his point of view — and not used state reso...

A judge survives The long arm of the TTP has reached out once again, this time in an attempt to kill a senior member of the Sindh judiciary. A device attached to a motorbike, and weighing perhaps 8kg, was detonated remotely as Justice Maqbool Baqar of the Sindh High Court was passing by in his car on his way to the court. The powerful blast killed nine and injured 15 others unfortunate enough to be in the area at the time. Shops were damaged. Justice Baqar survived and is said to be recovering in a private hospital in Karachi. The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan was quick to claim the crime, with its spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan saying that the TTP had attacked the judge because he delivered verdicts that did not comply with shariah laws and was taking decisions that were ‘harmful to the mujahideen.’ The judge was the subject of a precise hit that was based on good accurate intelligence and efficient construction of a remote-controlled device. There was a singular lapse...

Ominous message: SHC judge attacked THE targeting of Justice Maqbool Baqar`s convoy in Karachi on Wednesday morning is a clear message from religious militants that even a high court judge with a significant security detail is within their reach. The incident is probably the first of its kind where such a highranking jurist has been targeted. While the fact that the Sindh High Court judge survived the attack was nothing short of a miracle, a number of people mostly policemen and Rangers in his entourage died in the bomb attack that left no doubt of its intensity. Surely, the number of fatalities could have been reduced if the unfortunate men had been equipped with protective gear. Claiming responsibility for the bombing, the Pakistani Taliban have said Justice Bagar, a member of the Shia community, was targeted due to his `anti-Taliban and antiMujahideen decisions`. The judge was also believed to be on Lashkar-iJhangvi`s hit list while a TTP suspect arrested in K...

  Trial for treason We have a new “first” in our history. A former military ruler faces treason charges for acts committed during his tenure in power. The Nawaz Sharif government has brought a case for high treason, which carries a maximum penalty of death under Pakistani law, against former president General (retd) Pervez Musharraf, who ruled the country from 1999 to 2008. Aside from his illegal takeover of power in 1999, overthrowing the elected Sharif government, the emergency he declared in November 2007, suspending the superior judiciary, clamping down on the media and other basic rights have been widely interpreted as acts of treason. The Supreme Court had already said it was the government, which was required to bring a treason case against General (retd) Musharraf, who currently remains under house arrest in Islamabad. There can be no doubt the PML-N government needs to be congratulated for its courage in taking this step. It could prove vital to ou...

High treason Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has announced in the National Assembly that former military dictator Pervez Musharraf is to be tried for high treason under Article 6 of the constitution and it is now for the law to take its course. Gen Musharraf is to face charges of abrogating the constitution of Pakistan and for illegally removing the supreme judiciary to prevent it from working through the imposition of an emergency in November 2007. The ex-dictator must be rueing the day he made the ill-advised decision to return to the country prior to the elections. He quickly discovered that umpteen thousand Facebook followers did not translate into political capital or votes. His reception was at best lukewarm and with the outcome of the election so decisively in favour of the PML-N the charges he is now called to answer were virtually a foregone conclusion. He has spent much of the last two months under house arrest at his home on the outskirts of Islamabad. Bot...