Opinion Maker

GOVERNANCE, ELECTION PROCESS, FINANCIAL, TAXATION, EDUCATION, HEALTH-CARE & NATIONAL RETIREMENT PLAN

By Tariq J Qureshi

RE-VISITING GOVERNANCE:

Let’s face it, the incompetence in governance by all mix of politicians in Government and Opposition roles have shown their true worth. They have been in power for 3 years and have plundered the nation, as clearly seen through multiple scandals under investigation.  Both the rulers and opposition are staging multiple acts of drama, while the real intend is to hang on to power between them.  Over that when Government issues statements like “Wait for next elections”, means they are totally insensitive to peoples opinion and worst have started acting like kings and not public servants.  People, we as public elected individuals who become masters and migrate to the club of untouchables to roaming around in bullet proof cars amongst the very people who choose them to legislate…not rule. 

So Ladies and Gentlemen, what options do we, the people have in Pakistan to remove these incompetent people?  The answer is NONE.

The only option out of this stalemate is nationwide street agitation. Once that crosses a threshold, Military comes in to takeover and all politicians thereafter become political martyrs.

So, we have the wrong political system, and today we are going through the worst form of governance in 64 years and worst…we have no recourse. Incompetent people with no management experience have risen to the top in so called “leadership” slots.  Pakistan’s existing system of “indirect” election of top tier management as President, Prime Minister, Chief Minister, Governor and Senators has failed. The system has put self-centered integrity-less lords in corridors of power as MNA and MPA’s, who turn around and ‘elect’ political mafia dons as super big bosses.   

The only way out is to change the system. All public offices including President, PM, Governor, CM, MNA, Senators and MPA should be elected by people through direct vote.

The new proposed system will not only elect, but also de-elect all levels of elected public servants  if they fail in performance.

       I.            DIRECT ELECTION FOR ALL PUBLIC OFFICES

The proposal is to elect President, PM, CM, Governors and Senators through direct vote of public similar to the way we do for MNA’s and MPA’s. The proposal also lays out the mechanism to recall entire government or individuals anytime during the term if public feels the non-performance as we see today.

a.       This proposal will terminate governments, individual representatives and all elected representatives without abrupt interventions like martial-law or street agitations through a public vote of  ‘no-confidence’ through a referendum.

b.      The referendum will be moved either by 10% of all registered voters of the constituency or 15% of the total vote received by candidate in last elections, whichever is lower.

c.       This referendum can be launched by any citizen or citizen organization by collecting signatures of required number of people through Signatures and ID card Numbers on paper send to election commission or

d.      Through electronic/cellular voting system being proposed to make election balloting process easy, cost effective and easy to use at any time when public desires. 

e.      Elections will be considered constitutional only when 50% of all registered voters in the constituency have voted for all contesting candidates. Present system has failed as less than 30% voters participate in process, and 70% majority is forced out of the system.  

f.        For President and Prime Minister Position the entire nation will be constituency. For Governor and Chief Minister the province will be constituency.  Constituency for Senators will be defined just like MNA and MPA constituencies.

g.       President and Governor- will be regulators of Prime Minister and Chief Ministers and will not be affiliated with any party.   Candidates for these positions will resign from party office on election or will be disqualified if they don’t, and will only take oath after election commission has received their resignation from party for following 10 years.  

h.      For all positions, a clear winner will have to have 50% of casted votes. If not, the top two candidates will re-contest to achieve desired majority. (e.g.  In worst case the winning candidate will have approval of 25% from ALL registered voters).  

i.         Members of National & Provincial Assembly will be primarily Legislators. Senators will be watch-dogs on National Assembly legislations and will also be elected by direct vote of public. 

j.        President, Governor, Prime Minister and Chief Minister candidates will be required to have minimal of 20 years of hands-on documented experience in Business, Government and Non-Governmental professions or be a former legislator with 10 years professional experience & 10 years as MNA, MPA, Senator, President, Prime Minister, Governor or Chief Minister. In other words there will be no third term in same position.

k.       MNA, MPA and Senator will qualify only if they have minimal of 10 years of hands-on documented professional experience in Business, Government and Non-Governmental professions.

l.         All candidates will declare their, family, children, spouse and parents assets including foreign bank accounts, foreign properties, companies and moveable assets. If any hidden accounts are found during the term in office, they will be removed from the office and banned for life from all publically elected offices.  

m.    All returning candidates will submit their assets and justify the increase in assets from last term.

n.      No candidate will hold the same political office for more than 2 terms, and will be eligible to contest for any other political position but the one held in last 2 elections or 10 years earlier during his life time.

o.      No elected representative (MNA, MPA) will vote for or against a bill till he has received the consensus from his constituency on the issue through electronic votes. Electronic votes will be send by public through cell phone or automatic voting machines proposed in this paper.

p.      All elected candidates including the President, PM, Governor, CM, MNA, MPA, Senator, Federal & Provincial government will be forced to seek vote of confidence if at any time during the term, 10% voters of their constituency or 15% of votes received in last elections launch a vote of no-confidence to Election Commission through a signed collective statement or electronic petition showing distrust.

q.      The no-confidence petition process will be an on-line process, managed by the electronic voting system being proposed. This will make the process transparent and as easy as making a phone call to stream line our balloting processes at no additional cost.

II.            ELECTRONIC BALLOTING TO REPLACE MANUAL BALLOTING

Present manual balloting method has failed. Not only is the execution cost of election process high but the corruptive practices of incumbent & opposition candidates  and election staff,  has made election process a sham through vote stuffing, fake votes and denial of voting rights by different means including denial of physical presence at voting booths.

                                I.            Electronic voting process will be designed and implemented in 90-180 days. The system will be used and re-used by public to cast votes for elections, re-elections, by-elections, impeachments, referendums, opinion-polls for bills and no-confidence process.

                              II.            Voters will cast votes from privacy of their homes and offices from anywhere in Pakistan without the need of physical presence in their constituency or voting booth.  

                            III.            The following three electronic methods will be used in tandem:

a.       Cellular Voting System- Cellular numbers are pre-certified by NADRA even today, and are linked to National ID cards. A SMS or WAP application will be used to vote for candidates, bills, and proposals launched by government and public from time to time. (Pakistan today has 103 Million registered phones compared to much lesser number of registered voters).

b.      Electronic Voting machines with ID card readers (like ATM Machines) will be permanently installed at post offices, police stations, libraries and public offices and will be connected through wireless networks.

c.       Internet:  Pre-registered email addresses linked to voters will be used from personal computers to vote. It can be further enhanced by email address, password & camera based recognition system (Similar method as used by banking systems).

                            IV.            All above devices will be permanently linked into Election Commission through internet and cellular connectivity. Election system will have an on-line 24×7 connection to NADRA for verifying new voters ID automatically.  

                              V.            The electronic balloting system will cut the cost of elections by 50-80% the first time, and will become a permanent system for mid-term, by-elections, referendums and public polls to eliminate the public frustrations that are totally ignored by successive governments since 1947.

                            VI.            Introduction of electronic balloting will eliminate Election Day holidays, or need of physical presence in constituency. It will eliminate the need of deploying police, Army or other infrastructures normally deployed specifically for election monitoring.

                          VII.            Elections for ALL positions will be held on same day, with repeat elections for the very next day in case winning candidate has failed to secure the ‘true’ majority vote of the constituency.  

1.  FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SIZE- 12 MINISTERIES

The government infrastructure has been forced to expand due to political compromises by different governments since 1971. Worst is that ministries were broken down to accommodate political allies and not to increase efficiency.  What is needed is efficiency is government operations and not additional provinces as each additional province will increase cost of governance and set up one more layer of potential corruption.

Existing manual governance has not only destroyed governance but has increased the financial burden to a stage of disaster today. To curb future blackmails the following measures need to be incorporated in future running of government and the size of government will not be altered without  2/3^rd vote of entire public.

                                I.            Federal Government   will have no more than 12 Ministries.

                              II.            Each Minister will be either a professional from within the elected representatives and if none is approved by assembly then a non-elected professional will be proposed and approved by assembly. 

                            III.            Each Minister for the position will be proposed by the Prime Minister, and will have to be approved by the National Assembly with simple majority. His professional credentials will be open to public.

                            IV.            Each Ministry will have 4-8 Divisions that have commonalities in administration or functionalities. For continuity, and professional management it will be headed by professional – Grade 22 career officer, with each division headed by career Grade 21 officer.  Details of ministries are stated here under:

                              V.            Ministry of Federal Management (6 Divisions):  Establishment, Cabinet, Provincial Coordination, IJ&K, Federally Administered territories & NADRA.  

                            VI.            Ministry of Commerce, Production and National Assets: (6 Divisions):  Commerce, Industries and Production, Housing & Works, Textiles,  Natural Assets developments- Mines, Oil & Gas & Privatization divisions.

                          VII.            Ministry of Defense: (8 Divisions) Defense Administration, Defense production, ISI, Army, Air-Force, Navy, Air-defense, Levies & Rangers.

                        VIII.            Finance: (5 Divisions) – Financial Management, Budgeting, Revenue, Stats, Planning & Development & Financial Monitoring.

                            IX.            Foreign Affairs: (5 Divisions) Center Management, Americas, Asia, Europe, MENA.

                              X.            Ministry of Human Development- (5 Divisions) Education, Sports, Religion, Minorities and Overseas Pakistanis.

                            XI.            Ministry of Interior-(6 Divisions): Interior, IB, FIA, Federal & Provincial Police, Narcotics, and Federal Highway & Railway Police.

                          XII.            Ministry of Law, Justice, Parliamentary affairs & NAB. (4 Divisions).

                        XIII.            Ministry of Health, Medical Education Infrastructures & Hospitals. ( 6 Divisions) One for each province, FDA, Regulatory body.

                        XIV.            Ministry of Public Services: (7 Divisions): Postal, Ports, Transport, Shipping, Railways, Federal Roads, and Airlines.

                          XV.            Ministry of Water, Power, Drainage, Canals and Alternate energies. (5 Divisions).

                        XVI.            Ministry of Communication, IT, Information & Broadcasting, PTA & PEMRA.  (5 Divisions).

In order to create specialization and professionalism in each ministry, establishment will have to create professional paths for ALL government employees in each ministry to create professionals and experts in their fields instead of generalists as exists today.

2.  PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENTS SIZE- 7 MINISTERIES

The Provincial Government will have no more than 7 Ministries, and will coordinate with Federation equivalent Ministries for execution of works at provincial levels:  

                                I.            Ministry of Provisional Management- 4 Divisions:  Establishment, Cabinet, Provincial Coordination.  

                              II.            Ministry of Commerce, Production and Provincial Assets-  6 Divisions:  Commerce, Industries and Production, Housing & Works, Textiles,  Natural Assets- Mines, Power, Gas & Privatization divisions.

                            III.            Finance- 5 Divisions- Financial, Budgeting, Revenue, Stats, Planning & Development & Monitoring.

                            IV.            Ministry of Human Development- (5 Divisions) Education, Sports, Religion, Minorities

                              V.            Ministry of Law, Justice, and Parliamentary affairs. (3 Divisions).

                            VI.            Ministry of Health and Health Infrastructures & Hospitals. ( 2 Divisions) FDA, Regulatory body including Registration of Doctors and other Healthcare professionals.

                          VII.            Ministry of Water, Power, Agriculture, Drainage, Canals and Alternate energies. (6 Divisions).

3.  GOVERNANCE (FEDERAL & PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT)

Governance will only improve when Prime Minister and Chief Minister will choose professional team to head each Ministry and be responsible for their performance. Political considerations will have to be sacrificed by political parties for national interest.

To ensure optimal levels of governance, transparency and accuracy in decision making will need a common hands-on information system. To ensure this the following steps are needed:

                    I.            All Federal & Provincial Governments day-to-day operations will be made paperless with emails and automated processes will be followed. (E-Government).   

                  II.            All inter & intra-correspondence between federal and provincial government offices will be through the closed internet system.

                III.            Electronic filing system with electronic approvals by 3 levels of direct approval system. All approving authorities will be answerable to ‘Public Accounting Office” for 10 years.

                IV.            All existing processes will be revised and manual or over-regulated processes will be eliminated.

                  V.            All records will be maintained in redundant Data Centers in 8 locations accessed through computers by relevant people for G2G- Government to Government, G2B-Government to Business and G2C-Government to Citizen Operations.

                VI.            Three Data centers for Federal records and 2 for Provincial records with backup at federal data centers will be created.

              VII.            All moveable and immoveable, urban and rural property records will be digitized and computerized within 12 months and made available for Government-to-Citizen (G2C) use.

            VIII.            All property transactions will be recorded with video recording of administrator, seller, buyer and witnesses at prices decided, and used as official record for taxation of assets. This record will be used for calculation of annual taxes on property eliminating dual pricing systems to escape taxes.  No ba-nami property ownership will be allowed.

                IX.            All rural lands of Pakistan will be digitized and all transactions will be computerized. All ground measurements will be conducted using GPS to have 100% accuracy with digitized records. The same record will be used for assessment of private & nation owned lands, forests, desert, farmlands to effectively plan development for housing, industrial, agriculture, crop management, roads, airports, railways & other public use infrastructures needed for development. 

                  X.            All Business – Industrial production, Agricultural and Commercial establishments will have a business ID and Tax number and business records will be computerized to access the production capacity, business and other activities nationally and internationally.

                XI.            All businesses with less than 10 employees will be treated as single owner businesses; however the owners will follow the same process for salaries and contributions dispersal as regulated businesses do.

              XII.            Individual business from small stores to hawkers will be treated as VSB- Very small businesses and subject to personal tax. A minimal taxable income will be decided every 4 years.

            XIII.            Records from New Birth to Death will be maintained by NADRA and will be used as the central database for national planning, education, and infrastructure development.

            XIV.            For population management, all Hospital & Healthcare centers will report birth and death to NADRA offices for issuance of birth and death certificates. In case of home-births, children will be taken to healthcare facility and on presentation of parents ID cards will be issued a birth certificate. This will streamline the population growth statistics. Likewise death certificate will be issued by hospitals only.

              XV.            Fixed and mobile property transactions, driver’s license, business licensing, passport and other documentation needed by citizens will be transacted through centralized G2C applications. All renewals will be on computer and will be renewable from any place in Pakistan.

            XVI.            Every record will have a professional column to assess the manpower capability of the country.

4.  FINANCIAL PLANNING (Finance Ministry)

Pakistan’s financial health has deteriorated over the years as all successive governments have learned to live beyond actual means.

Our budgeting exercise is more of a wish-list then a realistic plan of how nation will operate financially. We have blamed the defense establishment time after time as a way of passing the blame, without finding ways of sharing resources for military, government, industrial and commercial use as it happens around the world.

To eliminate all future issues following steps will have to be enforced:

                    I.            Balanced Budget will be the only option accepted by Prime Minister and Federal Cabinet.

                  II.            The Finance Ministry will plan & produce the balanced budget based on actual revenue collection of last year. Additional taxes will be only levied if government can justify either market expansions or new revenues are presented with a business case. Such revenue expansion will be treated as ‘pilot project’ for first 12 months, and will be reviewed for accuracy and future planning.

                III.            New revenue generation will ONLY be allowed if planners can show market expansion. No new revenue will be acceptable from increasing existing tax rates.

                IV.            Finance Ministry thru provinces will develop 100% accurate records of all fixed and moveable assets, businesses and agricultural assets that will be used before budget creation to have 100% visibility of revenues and costs.

                  V.            Finance department will create the revenue plan first, instead of standard practice of producing the budget first and imposing taxes to meet the revenue requirements.

                VI.            The size of government will never be allowed to increase without public consensus of 2/3^rd majority. Finance Ministry will be duty bound not to allow funds for expansion of government size, unless it is approved by the national assembly.

              VII.             All projects proposed in developmental and social sectors will be presented with revenue, costs, sources of funding, and loan retirement plans.

            VIII.            Federal government and Provincial government will create a 100% true manpower plan to show the need of every position and how it will contribute to management of government.

                IX.             All Government servants will have similar salaries, health & retirement benefits as private sector employees with no official houses, cars or other benefits. This will curb corruptive practices.

                  X.            Entire working population of Pakistan in Government, non-government & self-employed sectors will be termed as employees from here on in this proposal.

                XI.            All technical and support arms of defense establishments will  be used as resource pool to  reduce labor cost & overheads in development projects considering their expertise in  transportation (NLC), construction (FWO), logistics and other development projects like  dams & power houses (Corp of Engineers), port and national highway construction (FWO), grain storage silo construction (FWO), residential colonies construction planning and managements (DHA). 

              XII.            DHA can be used as the authority to manage ALL housing schemes in Pakistan to ensure timely development and delivery of residential works, and housing society establishment at provincial levels will be eliminated.  All Housing societies will become sub-contractors to Housing Authority. This will eliminate all land scams and illegal housing schemes.

            XIII.            All development of social projects like water, sanitation and waste management have to be financially planned as cost plus projects to show how revenue will be generated for implementation and upkeep in following years.

            XIV.            All viable projects should be transparently visible for public scrutiny on internet so that people are aware of how their taxes are used.

XV.All taxation enhancements will be implemented only thru consensus of public through a yes/No vote through the cellphones, voting machines and computers as exercised in national voting mechanism.

5.  NATIONAL RETIREMENT PLAN

One key source of corruption from top to bottom in Pakistan is related to ‘uncertainty’ in future.

The Roti-Kapra & Makan slogan of 1968 failed to deliver the assurance of future well- being & certainty.  The concept of ‘Pakki -Nokri” desired by working classes in nothing but the sought assurance that a pension amount will be delivered in old age after 25-30 years of working. 

Entrepreneurship has been creatively discouraged by imposition of specific laws that is misused by implementation officers and clerks for personal gains. All these laws will have to be withdrawn as they have failed to serve any purpose.  

Some work was done by creating EOBI. It will be merged into the National Retirement Plan that will be expanded to all working classes and self-employed.

We propose a uniform national retirement plan for all working classes amongst Government, non-government and self- employed, hereafter referred to as ‘employees’ in this plan. The following proposal is being made:

                    I.            A national retirement fund will be created for all employees that will deliver an apartment, health-care and predefined pension at 70% of last salary drawn for balance of life after retirement at age 60 with 30 years of work.    

                  II.            All employees will contribute predetermined amount ranging between 10-15% of their salary pre-tax into this ‘Retirement Plan”.  Employees not meeting the criteria will be delivered pension on a pre-planned basis at the time of entering into the retirement system.

                III.            The said retirement Plan amounts will NOT be treated as government revenue and will not be shown in government budgets, but will be managed by non-political professionals.

                IV.            The said collection of funds will be used for development of Housing & Health Care infrastructure, to generate Retirement income for all enrolled employees.

                  V.            All employees will select a residential flat in cities and rural areas of their choice and it will be made available at predefined prices stated on day-1, and re-priced as developments progresses.

                VI.            These residences will be joint ownership of each worker and retirement fund, till all mortgages have been retired.

              VII.            The said property will be given out as rentals to employees at fixed rentals cost and rentals collected will be settled against mortgage owed. Once property has been paid off the employees will become full owners.   

            VIII.            In case of death, before retirement the spouse will receive the apartment, pension and health coverage for rest of life.

                IX.            In case of employees death the title will pass to spouse & children and it will be treated as a non-sale transaction and there will be no tax charged.

                  X.            For health benefit during the career and on retirement, all employees and families will co-pay one flat charge per visit to doctors. After retirement all healthcare and hospitalization will be free of cost.

These measures are necessary to create a stable working environment for all classes of people, as exercised in defense forces. This will curb the incentive of corruptive practices which stem due to uncertainty in future. 

6.  NATIONAL APARTMENT PLAN

                    I.            Three classes of apartments will be constructed from the ‘Retirement fund” collections as stated above.

                  II.            Each apartment will be  built from the retirement plan fund in cooperation with private sector in selected areas of cities and rural areas, and will be available to all classes of people as  700, 1500, 2500  square foot apartments.

                III.            No separate schemes will be launched for privileged classes as plot schemes. Plots of all sizes will not be considered as part of retirement plan.

                IV.            Each apartment complex will have 3000 apartments with mixed floor sizes to create an integrated society of 10,000 residents.

                  V.            Each complex will have a shopping area, community rental halls, restaurants and other stores for resident’s requirements.

                VI.            Each community complex will have a school from class 1-12 housed in a 4 storey building.

              VII.             Each complex will have a healthcare unit for delivering basic health care to residents.  

            VIII.            Each residential complex will have its own power distribution, water and waste disposable plant.

7.  NATIONAL TAXATION INFRASTRUCTURE

Due to inconsistent taxation polices of government, the public has lost faith and taxation evasion has become a national character. Along with this public has failed to see any improvement in social infrastructures and feel totally unjustified in paying their contributions.

It has to be remembered that Pakistan is the largest society in the world where people provide Zakat and money is God’s way to charities, which have shown visible results to public. Whether it is Edhi or any other charity, people have paid amounts voluntarily.

This means if the government really shows tangible use of people’s money, the people will pay. Also if taxes are rational and low, people will have no pain in paying. Corruption is the biggest enemy of all collections. We have seen all revenue collection staff from clerks to ITO’s twisting tax-payers arms to enrich themselves and their superiors as a mafia.

In order to encourage public, a static tax structure is the need of the hour.  The following simple and uniform method of taxation is being proposed.

a.     PERSONAL TAXATION:

                                                   i.      All working class employees included self-employed will pay a tax of 2.5% on income, less the amount paid for retirement fund, children education and medical co-pay. This will eliminate double and triple taxation system.

                                                 ii.      All moveable and non-moveable property, including saving accounts, cars and other assets not in business use will be taxed at a standard rate of 2.5% per annum.

                                                iii.      The purchase price of all fixed assets will be treated as the value of asset for taxation purposes.

                                               iv.      All moveable property will be assessed as new at time of purchase and its recorded value will be used for future tax assessment. In other words if a property was bought in 1970 and is personal residence it will be taxed at recorded value. If it is sold at 500 times the 1970 value, the new value will be used for 2.5% tax.

                                                 v.      Once a property changes hand the new value will be recorded, and subject to 2.5% tax rate at new value.

b.    BUSINESS TAXATION INFRASTRUCTURE:

                                                   i.      All registered businesses irrespective of activity in production, trade, agriculture, whole sale or distribution will be levied a flat rate of 20% on net annual income.

                                                 ii.      Sales Tax of 2.5% will be collected at whole-sale level for all products produced in the country.  

                                                iii.      All inputs without receipts will be considered to include 2.5% tax paid by the buyers.

                                               iv.      All non-raw material expenses in production cycle will treated at cost. Manpower input and benefits will be treated as expenses.

                                                 v.      All equipment, machinery, computer and other assets used in operations will be depreciated at flat rate of 25%/year in four years irrespective of number of shifts the equipment is used on. All equipment will be depreciated over 4 years or the term of the loan on which it is acquired.

                                               vi.      All new industrial production businesses will be exempted from annual 20% tax for a period of 4 years. However their output (sales) will be subject to sales tax of 2.5% as stated above.

c.     IMPORT TAXATION:

                                                   i.      All raw materials not produced in the country, and imported under import license will have an import duty of 10%.  

                                                 ii.      All industries importing new and second hand machinery for self-use or resale in industrial, agricultural and business use will have an import duty of 10% at value of new item or international price of similar products from different manufacturers.

                                                iii.      All imports allowed through import license for goods already manufactured in the country will have an import duty of 50% of C&F value.

                                               iv.      All personal use vehicles, public transport and agriculture use vehicle and machinery not manufactured in country and imported in knock down condition for assembly in Pakistan will have a flat duty of 10%.

                                                 v.      No item already manufactured in Pakistan will be imported.

                                               vi.      New and used Items already manufactured in Pakistan but allowed under special permission for import will pay duty of 100% as if it was a new item.

                                              vii.      Government, defense and other allied users will pay one uniform rate of duty for all items imported. 

8.  EDUCATION SYSTEM

One education system will be used from Class 1-12 for all Private, Government, Madrassa and Masjid schools. No foreign system will be allowed to function in the country.

                    I.            All existing systems will be phased out within 3 years and schools will not be allowed to take new students in these systems.

                  II.            A 3-semester/year system will be introduced, and each semester will be for 14 weeks with 2/3 weeks of vacation.

                III.            All education till Class-12 will cost parents flat 3% of their salary per child, and educational till 12^th class will be compulsory. 

                IV.            Education at all university levels and professional colleges will cost parents flat 5% of their salary per child.

                  V.            No class shall be larger than 50 students, and schools and universities will run 3 shifts of 4 Hours each to accommodate all students applying for admission. No students will be denied admission if they meet the entrance criteria of the institutions.

                VI.            All students will have one standard uniform to eliminate the class system. The only option will be between shalwar-Kameez or Shirt-Pants.

              VII.            All students in Class 11-12 will have optional to receive vocational training. All X1 & X11 class students will have a compulsory small-business development class to encourage students to become self- employed entrepreneurs if they choose to do so after 12^th grade, or later.

            VIII.            All school rooms will be connected on national education Grid, and lectures with be streamed to all classes concurrently throughout the nation and seen on class TV.

                IX.            Teachers will be on hand to clarify quarries after 35 minute multimedia lecture is finishing.

                  X.            Existing Madrassas will be included in the regular education system, and imparting of existing religious education of Quran studies will constitute as 20% of total requirement.  

 

                XI.            All teachers from Class 1-12 will have a basic qualification of Bachelors in Education, or bachelors in other specialty with a semester in education studies to qualify for teaching positions. The starting salary will be equivalent of Grade-17.

              XII.            All existing teachers not meeting the basic qualification will be offered evening classes at their school through interactive media for following 3 years to bring everyone at par.

            XIII.            The same lectures will be used in colleges in day time for imparting knowledge to students to produce future teachers.

            XIV.            Books will be converted to CD’s or other storage forms so that students can use electronic books (ipads) at their homes. The entire books network for school books will be on CD and streamed to students from data centers and will follow the curriculum broadcasted in the class.

              XV.            A national plan with private sector will be launched to produce electronic books and make available to Class-1 and II initially and expanded as new entrants enter the new system.

            XVI.            The new system will start at primary level (Class 1-5) and expand as children graduate to higher classes (Class 6-8) in following 3 years.

          XVII.            The system will also start at Class IX and Class XI so that that it can be expanded to X and XII in following years.

        XVIII.            As the new system is implemented in Class 1-V, Class IX and Class XI, the students will be put through the same examination system through electronic machines. The examination system followed will be knowledge & creativity specific unlike memory and recall method used today.  Examination system will thus eliminate corruptive practices.

            XIX.            On social front the student will be exposed to creativity, and concept of student government will be introduced with no affiliation to political parties to educate the youth in democratic norms and methods.

              XX.            Planning department at Federal and Provincial level will access the industries, businesses, agricultural and general working pool requirements to tailor the education to meet the needs of following years to ensure students on leaving schools are job-ready.

            XXI.            All teachers and affiliated staff will be part of the national retirement plan.

9.  HEALTH CARE SYSTEM:

Health care has been the most neglected sector besides education. A new health care system will be created to provide total care to every citizen of Pakistan under the Health care plan.

 The healthcare system will achieve a desired ratio of 500:1 patients to doctor ratio.   Presently this ratio is 1400:1. In order to narrow this difference following 3-tier interconnected system will be implemented. This will also merge all existing health outlets and staff into new system.   

                    I.            One Primary Healthcare Unit (PHU) for every 10,000 population will be created. This will be manned 24×7 by professional staff of doctors, nurses and allied staff. 

                  II.            Out-Patient Hospital (OPH) will serve 10 PHU or one Lakh people.

                III.            Full Service Hospitals (FSH) will serve 10 OPH’s. Or 1 Million people.

                IV.            The country will have 180 FSH within 5 years to provide services to 180 Million populations.

                  V.            Existing large private hospitals will be inducted in the FSH role to meet immediate requirements.

                VI.            All three above stated health care facilities will be interconnected through Video connections to provide live consultation to patients by assigned doctors and specialists remotely to have 24×7 health care facility available to patients throughout Pakistan.

              VII.            The entire health care system will require 360,000 doctors and 3.6 Million support staff.

            VIII.            A complete budget plan will be developed to accomplish this in 1-5 year plan.

                IX.            All 180 FSH Units will be attached to medical colleges to be counted as teaching hospitals to enable medical students to get hand-on knowledge.

                  X.            Doctors in national healthcare program will receive salaries equivalent of Grade-17 in government sector to start with, and will be offered non-practice allowance.

                XI.            Other support staff will also be hired at equivalent levels in government sector.  

              XII.            All medical professionals will be covered by National retirement plan.

            XIII.            Doctors will be at liberty to leave the system to practice on their own. However dual practices will not be allowed, namely working in government hospital in day to run a private practice in evening.

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