The Right
Priority
By Dr Farhana Mohamed
Khan
South Pasadena, California
After three months of firming statistics, the
magnitude of the October 8, 2005 trembler in the
Northern Pakistan and Azad Kashmir can be compared
with the Tsunami devastation of December 26, 2004.
While Tsunami killed about 250 thousand people
and rendered half a million homeless, Pakistani
catastrophe caused at least 80 thousand fatalities,
almost same numbers were injured, and 3.3 million
people were left homeless.
One needs to remember that Tsunami was spread
(though unevenly) across 13 countries, and the
world poured over $80 billion in the region to
back the “build back better” slogan
of Tsunami-affected areas. Compare this to about
$5.6 billion pledged to Pakistan for reconstruction
and rehabilitation during the last November donor
conference in Islamabad – not to mention
that 60% of this comes from long-term soft loans
and reallocation of existing loans (a further
burden on the future generations).
The US gave $0.8 billion towards Tsunami and has
finally pledged over $0.5 billion to Pakistan.
The American aid is the highest so far from a
single donor and has not been matched by any other
country including relatively affluent Muslim bloc
(though some Muslim countries have shown significant
generosity).
The purpose to provide this data was to highlight
the extent of devastation in Pakistan and relatively
paltry support pledged from the international
community. However, there has been one silver
lining as a result of this colossal disaster:
unprecedented demonstration of unity and outpouring
of material and personal support by almost all
Pakistanis - including military personnel. This
patriotic fervor was something which could have
been capitalized upon by the Pakistani leaders
for inculcating self-help and self-sufficiency
for critical Pakistani projects – be they
a reconstruction venture or r any future development.
This disaster provided an “opportunity”
for Pakistanis to look inwards for self-sufficiency,
and for the government to follow fiscally responsible
monetary policies.
Unfortunately, instead of taking advantage of
this rare national unity there was rehashing of
construction of Kalabagh Dam project by the government
at the worst timing imaginable. There is no doubt
that Pakistan badly needs reservoirs to hold about
30 millions acre feet of water as the big dams
(Tarbela and Mangla) are catching silt and are
insufficient to meet the current, and especially
future, demand of water for the mainly water-dependent
agricultural economy.
The Kalabagh Dam project is nothing new, it has
been on the backburner for over 20 years. Meantime,
there were technical feasibility reports (including
one from IRSA in 1996) and strong political consensus
by the three smaller provinces against the construction
of the dam. The smaller provinces consider that
the dam will greatly benefit Punjab at the cost
of Sindh and result in urban flooding in the Frontier
province. The project was revived and shelved
by several past governments because of lack of
political consensus. Therefore before reopening
the Pandora’s box, it would have been prudent
for the government to investigate the feasibility
of alternate dam sites along the Indus River –
there was sufficient time for this even for the
present regime.
Not only did General Musharraf rehash the issue,
he greatly aggravated the provincial acrimony
by his tough talk. For instance, during his December
visit to Karachi, he made it clear that he was
not seeking complete consensus and that in his
mind the construction (of Kalabagh Dam) was a
timely decision. To make matters worse he also
remarked that the future governments would be
toppled by Punjab if it tried to derail the project.
Ironically, while he was making these remarks
he was flanked by his allies, Governor and Chief
Minister of Sindh, who had openly opposed the
construction of the dam.
Another incident, which has imperiled the harmony
and camaraderie brought about by the October 8
earthquake, was undertaking of (yet another) military
action in Baluchistan. To be fair, the trigger
this time was an attempted rocket attack on General
Musharraf during his recent trip to Kohlu. Of
course, this attempt to attack the head of the
state needs to be strongly condemned even if one
does not agree with his policies. The perpetrators
need to be caught and punished but the onslaught
of unrestrained military action on the region’s
population is more of an example of military aggression
than focused action against the criminals. One
should understand that festering anger in smaller
provinces of Pakistan is due to decades of deprivation
and exploitation and it needs to be handled with
empathetic political process.
Instead of taking a high-brow arrogant approach
to tackle the dam or miscreant issues, Pakistani
government needs to resort to arduous political
dialogue in the parliament to resolve these critical
issues. Nothing can supersede Pakistan’s
solidarity and unity. In addition, it would have
been prudent to prioritize national issues and
then tackle them after thorough research and consensus.
This procedure would not have derailed national
harmony when Pakistan needs it most to overcome
the worst disaster of its history.
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