Opinion

Is President Musharraf “A Prometheus Bound”?
By Mohammad Ashraf Chaudhry
Pittsburg, CA

In Greek mythology Prometheus is a Titan who steals fire from heaven for the sake of mankind and is nailed to a mountain, where an eagle tears out his liver during the day which grows again by night till he is saved by the same god, Zeus, whom he had tricked, and who had chained him there. President Musharraf’s present predicament is analogous to that of Prometheus’. He stands accused of attempting to steal water by constructing a controversial dam at Kalabagh.
The hawkish opposition like the eagle in the story appears singularly united in gnawing upon his liver day and night. His torment is perennial as it is bound to last as long as he remains chained to the seat of power, and to the issue of water. The howlish uproar on the issue of the construction of this dam at Kalabagh seemingly appears just a pretext. The real grievance that surfaces from underneath is of stealing power from the politicians, and as they contend, not for the well being of the people of Pakistan, but for his personal aggrandizement. He had tricked the Zeus of the country, the Constitution, and now the Constitution alone has the power to rescue him from this malaise.
Mr. Shahid Javed Burki in his article “The Moment has Arrived” had predicted, “The way President Pervez Musharraf handles the events in October and November will shape not only the future of his presidency, it will define Pakistan’s future”. What he had in mind at the time of writing that article was the handling of the October 8 earthquake. Some 85 days later the facts prove that the civil and the army, combined with the endless support they received from the public, did amazingly better than most governments under such circumstances and with such paucity of resources. President Musharraf’s policy after the 9/11 tragedy, and his personal image abroad, did line up the donors in Islamabad, moving them to pledge more than the government had anticipated. Imagine an isolated Pakistan, fighting India on one side and a hostile Afghanistan on the other side and the sole super power supervising its total destruction, and the October 8 earthquake hitting Pakistan. A few in the opposition are willing to objectively appreciate this great political feat in foreign affairs. Pakistan did fairly well and remained un-dented even though the earthquake disaster became compounded due to the internal political unrest and due to the hike in oil-prices.
Stephen Cohen, in his well-quoted book, “The Idea of Pakistan”, titles page 253 as “Musharraf the Economist”, and positively acknowledges that “President Musharraf likes to remind his listeners that he has made economic reform his number one domestic priority, and that he has become something of an expert through his intense involvement in economic policymaking”. Did he just talk or he did actually deliver in this field? Mr. Shahid Javed Burki gives the answer. “In fact, the situation Pakistan faced then was grimmer than was the case in October 1958, March 1969, and July 1977. On these three previous occasions the military leader of the day claimed that he was stepping forward to save Pakistan from collapse, or disaster, or some other unpleasant fate. But history viewed from heightened hindsight provides little justification for these interventions”. The “THEN”, in the above lines refers to October 12, 1999, the day General Musharraf removed the democratically elected PM. The country was not in a virtual but in a real state of economic bankruptcy. The economic bankruptcy, however, does not justify a military take-over, and on this count, President Musharraf can never be condoned, but like Prometheus’ crime of stealing, many a good thing has accrued to Pakistan as a result of this takeover and he has befittingly been regarded as the best thing that ever happened to Pakistan. The politicians in opposition, however, after this date, appear to have willingly chosen to blindfold themselves to any facts and figures that may leave any positive reflections on his governance.
In 2004-2005, Pakistan showed a real growth of 8.3% and 7.8% and brought the poverty line to 22%. Except for foreign investment, Pakistan displayed a remarkable sustained growth and progress in all sectors. If today China and India are counted as foreign direct investment – FDI - magnets (taking nearly one out of every four global FDI dollars last year, compared to only one in 10 in 2000), (Far Eastern Economic Review of October 2005), and Pakistan failing only in this sector, it has been more so due to the political un-rest and false propaganda against the government than a consequence of his or Shaukat Aziz’s wrong economic policies. Of the 148 billion dollars that flowed into Asia in FDI sector in the year 2004, $46 billion more than the year before, India and China alone gulped 45% of that, while Pakistan, on the contrary, remained embroiled in a war over President Musharraf’s uniform, in its fight against extremism, in its sectarian violence, in its efforts to include or exclude the Muslim column in passports, in its efforts to register the madrassas, and in acts of terrorism committed against the civilian installations by the nationalists in Baluchistan, in rushing aid to the earthquake victims, and now on water which it willingly lets to flow into the Arabian sea. Hunger, thirst, disease, unemployment are the natural consequences of famine caused by lack of water. Depression, despondency and suicide just join as co-passengers on a journey in which such attitudes persist.
The formula is simple: no water: no life. Bill Gates announces in India that “the only thing that limits us in India is the speed at which we can recruit.” He said so while announcing plans to invest $1.7 billion over the next four years. Intel, a few days earlier, a giant chipmaker, had unveiled plans to invest more than $1 billion over five years, and in October Cisco systems, the world’s largest maker of the routers and switches that direct Internet traffic, had announced its own plans to invest $1.1 billion in India, writes the Economist of Dec. 17, 2005. The competition with India now is not on the number of nukes we possess; but on how credible and conducive we are for the foreign investment. Opportunity is knocking at our door too, as it did at India’s. Are we willing to open the door for it with a welcome smile? Or we are going to shoe it off, the choice is ours.
Fight the water problem now, and sort it out once for all, or let it lie on the back-shelf for another 15 years, like it was done by all the previous governments, and our children will sort it out. Of course, the issue is more complicated than it appears on the surface. It is safe for any government to treat it like untouchables, and avoid dealing with it under such catch-phrases, as national consensus, not at the expense of the federation, not by ignoring the feelings of other provinces etc. The country always needed somebody with President Musharraf’s credentials and convictions to take up this unpleasant issue. Politicians being fickle-minded and vote-bank-conscious would never dare to risk their entire political career on such an issue as this one, and they never did.
Construction of big dams had always been controversial. The big Aswan Dam (1970) in Egypt; the Sardar Sarovar Dam in Narmada Valley in India, the Mangla and Tarbela Dams of Pakistan, and the Three Gorges Dam of China, to name only a few, have all faced, and those that are under construction are still facing, tremendous opposition. Dam construction involves population displacement on a large scale. Communities living down-stream naturally begin to nurse new apprehensions perennially. Natural environments also undergo a big change. The World Commission on Dams, WCD, established in 1998, provides ample evidence that large dams often fail to produce as much electricity, provide as much water, or control as much flood damage as their supporters original predict. This observation is general in nature and is not Kalabagh Dam-specific. The same WCD, however, also acknowledges that dams make an important contribution to human development, and benefits derived from them have often been considerable.
THE CLICHES: The construction of Kalabagh Dam had been a very serious matter that always warranted an insightful discussion from the highest forums. Unfortunately, this did not happen, and now the whole matter has been reduced to mere clichés, to some catchphrases that are used by the politicians on both sides of the aisle, each using the issue like a ping-pong ball. Some of these stock-phrases are:
1. It is a brain-child of WAPDA and of the Islamabad establishment,
2. It is an instance of the,”raj-hut”, stubbornness of the General,
3. It is not Kalabagh Dam, it is a Punjab dam,
4. It is a ploy used by the General to set the provinces against each other,
5. It is an effective tool to brush aside criticism on the army for its poor performance,
6. It is that seasonal fever which afflicts the rulers from time to time,
7. It is not going to make us fight among ourselves; we will fight the generals,
8. Why Kalabagh dam, why not Bahsha dam or many other dams!
9. Choose the dam or choose Pakistan,
10. Give us a security like, “one canal from this dam should mean an Independent Sindh”
11. It is a calculated effort by the Punjab to starve Sindh and Sarhad,
12. Opposition to the dam means being anti-Pakistan.
13. One resolution made Pakistan, why can’t three resolutions against the dam stop its construction,
14. In 55 years history of Pakistan, this is the biggest controversy,
15. After the debacle of East Pakistan, and Bhutto’s hanging, this is the third most important issue,
16. “Consensus or no consensus, the dam will be constructed”
17. “Either we prostrate before Musharraf, or we hold him by the collar. Being the grandson of Pacha Khan, it is the second option that remains open to me”
18. Have the dam now, or you will have Pakistan turned into an Ethopia in 15-20 years.
These clichés have come from a galaxy of luminaries, a majority of whom stand eclipsed these days. The dam issue rekindles new hopes for them to regain the lost glory. Some of the authors of these statements are: PPP’s Qaim Ali Shah, ANP’s Asfandyar Wali Khan; BNP’s Sardar Akhtar Mangal. Rasul Bakh Palejo of the Awami Movement, Sind Progressive party’s Dr. Qadir Magsi, Sind National Front’s Mumtaz Ali Bhutto, Dawn’s Ayaz Amir, Government’s Sheikh Rashid, and the President himself.

IS THE DAM ISSUE LIKE MUJIB’S SIX-POINT AGENDA?
Most of the leaders who are trying to use the Kalabagh Dam issue as a springboard for providing momentum to their erstwhile known nationalist designs are only few, and their leadership is strictly local and regional. A majority of those who are in total or partial opposition to the construction of this dam now, like the (PML-N, PPP, MMA and MQM) are not as much against the dam as they are against the General. It should not be hard for the people to see their spin. The dam at Kalabagh is neither a Boston Tea Party with a George Washington and Thomas Paine in the wing; nor is it a 6-point recipe with a Mujib on the horseback, to engineer a breakaway. The worst are not the nationalists, but are those who are erecting new cults of hero-worship in the country.
The MQM’s new trends of idol-worship and its double standards of being in the government, and yet not thinking in the national interest is just despicable. The easiest way is to accuse Punjab and promote regionalism. We as students of history know how the 3% of the Urdu speaking community ruled over this country for quarter of a century by holding 21% of the major administrative jobs, which included two commander-in-chiefs of the country. Even PM Shaukat Aziz does not appear to be forthcoming on the issue of the dam. Things can never improve, and consensus can never be built by mere wishful thinking. Those who talk of the three resolutions against the dam forget that resolutions without leaders are soul-less. There is a whole catalogue of resolutions in favor of Kashmir plebiscite, and in favor of a Palestinian state. The oft-quoted Pakistan Resolution would have remained a piece of paper, like many others passed at the Mochi Chowk, had there been no Quaidi-Azam. Leaders make resolutions walk and talk.

WHAT SHOULD BE DONE?
All efforts must be made to take everybody on board. Water scarcity is not a Punjab issue; it is a national issue. President Musharraf’s effort to bring this issue to the forefront, and to present it to all sorts of discussions and opinions is a good effort as it is bound to help the people to see for themselves who genuinely thinks in the national interests. But this is just the first step.
The government’s job should be to educate people by providing them with convincing and authentic facts and figures so that they are able to sift the truth from the clichés. So far, it can be said that President Musharraf’s sincerity to the cause appears to have suffered a setback due to his blunt-ness. It is encouraging to see him lead the nation from the front, but he is also the President of the country, a politician in uniform. EVEN A STRAIGHT ARROW NEEDS A CROOKED BOW. The crooked bow stands for those politicians who are sitting on the fence of this issue with legs dangling on both the sides; they are in the government for perks, but are not willing to see the direness of this issue for fear of public retribution. It must be made clear to all that discussions on the construction of Kalabagh Dam should remain restricted to the subject. Those who try to align those to the dismemberment of Pakistan must be apprised of the consequences in a very transparent manner. The government must take all the measures that should warranty in definite and solid terms that the rights and reservations of the smaller provinces are duly safeguarded.
A review of the dam’s feasibility report should be obtained, if the need be, from such world agencies as the WCD, and as regard to the assurances to the smaller provinces, if the need be, an international agency, such as the UNO, or a panel of countries acceptable to these provinces, can be requested. A second opinion from the world experts of international repute can also be obtained, and once that is done, it must be made public in all nook and corners of the country.
Till then, the President should remain chained to the mountain of his conviction that the construction of this dam is unavoidable and is good for all the provinces of the country. Let the political vultures eat his conviction-liver during the day, for during the night, it is going to grow back again. All the torment and torture that he undergoes in this process is worth the price because it, like Prometheus’, is for the well-being of humanity, for the prosperity, and the greater good of the people of Pakistan.

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