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Warning 1 : This article is LONG.
Warning 2 : This article is VERY Long. Have a cup of tea handy.
Warning 3 : Those looking for rosy pictures will be disappointed 🙂

My dear friends

Let me start by thanking each and every one of you who voted for me. Although I had no contender, but to me getting those 46 votes is an indication that my performance or lack of it will be judged by every one of them. I will try my best to come up to the your expectations. I also want to thank all the party presidents who proposed me for this position unanimously.

In the past few months that I have been active on IRC, I have observed that while every president did his/her best to improve the state of affairs in ePakistan, somehow we as a nation have not been able to perform as well as we could have. Even though we have very motivated members, comprising of both rl and non-rl pakistanis, we could not develop the synergy that is essential for a thriving nation. Without going into the reasons of lack of performance, I want to propose how I hope to bring about a change.

The cornerstone of my manifesto is setting up of masurable and specific targets for the coming month. I believe that once the aim is defined in clear and unambiguous terms, it is easier to make progress and measure the performance.

Population

I firmly believe that having a high population is paramount for the development of any country in erepublik. It directly affects the economic activity which in turn improves the individual and national wealth. It is also reflected in the military might of a country. And most importantly, high population means more interaction amongst citizens, which improves the gameplay in form of more active politics, and more economic activity.

If you read our history, Pakistan was one of the strongest nations of the world in beta and early V1 of eRepublik. At one time, the 'Holy Empire' spanned most of Asia and we were respected and feared all across the globe. Among other reasons high population was the most important factor.

Increasing the population will therefore be my first priority. I have already shared my idea with some of the senior members of our society and now I want to include every ePakistani in that plan.

The idea is very simple and the target is very much achievable.

Each of us brings in five citizens in coming month

Most of my fellow countrymen are students. Reaching out to your classmates and colleagues shouldn't be too difficult. Besides, most of us have played this game for more than few weeks and if we are still around, it means every one of us has found something enjoyable in this game. I urge you to share it with others. Talk about it with your friends and I am pretty sure, target of five-members is doable. Even if three out of those five stay, our population could easily be double of what it is now. Realistically, I aim for atleast 50 more active members [Target 1]

Military Strength

The second aspect that I want to concentrate on is streamlining our military. As you might have noticed, we already have two Military Units; the Pakistan Army and the Special Service Group (SSG). These units have been established to achieve a number of objectives. I will talk about them in a separate article. For now I will just say this much that one of the objectives is to encourage all citizens to participate actively in the military aspect of the game. Increasing strength and rank are the only ways to reinforce our military strength.

[Target 2] By the end of my term, I hope to have a streamlined military structure where each member has an opportunity to fully enjoy the military aspect of eRepublik. This process will have three aspects. First, forming a 'code of conduct' for members of both military units. Secondly, to devise a process by which all members of our community can join these units. Thirdly, to develop a commune system through which members of both military units contribute towards the economic development of Pakistan.

Economic Activity

Economically, Pakistan trails way behind other nations. The way I see it, there are two reasons. First is the lack of population and second, too frequent changes in the economic module. While we cannot do much about the latter, the increase in population will be very beneficial for rekindling economic development.

I will not venture into setting specific targets in this area because of the uncertainty in economic module, but I would say this much, that your government will do the best that can be done under the circumstances.

Foreign Relations

Pakistan is not an official member of any of the global alliances. I intend to stick to this stance. Having said that, I would continue to strengthen our ties with all our neighbors and our traditional friends who have always come to our help in time of need.

Specifically, I would like to improve our relations with China and continue to build on the trust we have developed over past few months with India.

NE Bonus and Training Wars

For past some time, there has been a lot of concern amongst the senior citizens on lack of NE bonus. The concern is valid and needs to be addressed. However, as anyone who knows something about TWs would agree, training wars are prone to get out of hand pretty quickly, which is why they have to be orchestrated very carefully. Even then, at times, the benefit they bring is nullified by the effort spent in keeping a TW on schedule.

I am already working on finding a solution to this problem and I hope I will have an answer before midterm [Target 3].

The issue of RL and non-RL Pakistanis

In past this issue has caused some distress among our citizens. Those who know me understand my position on the matter, but I want to take this opportunity to state it in very unequivocal terms that anyone who wears the green flag in his/her profile and is sincere to the cause of Pakistan, is one of us. There will be no discrimination whatsoever whether one is RL or non-RL Pakistani.

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The Government

We all have heard the phrase “Government of the people, by the people, for the people”. I intend to put it into practice. Although there will be government officials who, from their experience, will be head of departments, but any citizen who wants to join any of the departments is strongly encouraged.

I have put forward my manifesto in front of everyone for the same reason that I want everyone to be a part of it. It will be a collective effort, and under the supervision of head of departments/ministers, I hope all junior members will not only be able to enjoy the experience but it will also prepare them for more responsibilities in future.

Following the lead from the idea of having clear and unambiguous aims, I am putting down tentative responsibilities of each member of the government. They are open to changes, but I would request that each government official should try to form goals for his/her department under the broad idea that I have given above, and work within those goals. I would appreciate if selected government departments concentrate in their areas of responsibility and at the end of this term, we can sit together and see where we performed well and where we could do better.

The positions I have in mind are following :

Minister of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) : Responsible for all matters pertaining to foreign affairs. I suggest following ambassadorial positions.

Ambassador to China
Ambassador to ONE/NWO
Ambassador to Eden/Terra
Ambassador to India

Minister of Defense (MoD): Responsible for managing SSG/Pakistan Army. This would include

(a) Managing output of the communes
(b) Finalizing induction process of the citizens in these units
(c) Formation of structure and code-of-conduct for both units.
(d) Interaction with MoDs for finding daily fight opportunities for SSG

He will have following assistants :

'Director Supplies' who will be responsible for keeping track of output of communes. He will advise Commander SSG/Pakistan Army on assignment of members in different communes. He will be giving away weapons/food to the MU members for training/fights and help them rank up fast. He will also coordinate with MoSA to give a part of food production for the newbies.

'Director Training' who will find daily fight opportunities for members of SSG/Pak Army.

'Commander SSG' and 'Commander Pakistan Army' who will issue orders to unit members. They will be under MoD for peacetime management of members of each military unit and under General of the Army for wartime duties.

General of the Army : Responsible for conduct of battles, handling supplies and orchestrating individual battle rounds. He/she would be assisted by two or three other citizens who are located in different RL timezones so that battles can be managed round the clock.

Minister of Economics (MoE): Responsible for improving economic activity in our marketplace. He/she would handle taxation and money market. He will also handle all matters pertaining to State Bank of ePakistan. I would request congressmembers to contact him first for any change in taxation proposal.

Minister of Social Affairs (MoSA): Responsible for guiding the new citizens and educating them in the game mechanics. He will have two assistants :

'Director Health' who will be responsible for helping newbies keeping high health. He will coordinate with MoD for food from the communes to be distributed amongst the new citizens.

'Director Education' who will write articles and answer individual queries of the citizens regarding game mechanics.

Minister for Population (MoP) : He will plan and execute the BabyBoom project. This will include designing posters, posting them at various places and handling marketing. He will also keep track of how many new citizens have been inducted by each member and arrange competitions relevant to increase in population.

I have given just the gist of charter of duties of individual government departments. I will share further details once I have willingness from people.

The main idea is to modularize the government in a way that every post is not just a ceremonial appointment but it has clear jurisdiction and responsibilities and everyone knows what he/she needs to do and where they fit in. Initially pone member may hold two posts of similar nature. Subsequently he/she may induct more assistants.

On the face of it, all of it seems pretty ambitious. It probably is. But the only reason I decided to put in so much planning and organization in this idea is because I have faith in my fellow countrymen. Each and every person that I have interacted with in #epakistan (on IRC) wants to bring about a change in the state of affairs. Whether this plan works or not depends solely on the participation and cooperation of each one of us.

In the end, I will just say

“It's time for us to change
It's up to you & me
Either we make history
or we become history”

Regards and best wishes

MaveriQ