Islamic path to progress

PRESIDENT Pervez Musharraf has once again stressed the need for Jihad-i-Akbar against illiteracy, poverty and backwardness at the 10th meeting of the OIC’s COMSTECH ministerial standing committee.

He urged the leaders of the Muslim world to set up multi-billion dollar projects for the development of science and technology. He also advised the Muslim scholars, religious leaders and social scientists to accept the challenge of projection of Islamic teachings in right perspective to dispel the erroneous impressions about Islam and Muslims.

Our top politicians, bureaucrats, military rulers, intellectuals have been giving long sermons for the last 50 years. In addition, every government comes out with new dreams. The present one is strongly promoting IT and advocating the benefits of modern technology. Being an IT professional and having spent much of the time in the West, I fully understand the need of modern technology to be compatible with the rest of the world so that all and sundry can benefit from the modern inventions. Undoubtedly science and technology is the engine of modern development but to utilise the engine one needs a perfect and secure vehicle, a proper road to drive and then traffic laws to reach the destination after a safe and secure journey.

The Muslims as a global community and Pakistanis as an independent nation find themselves as a people with un-set priorities and confused goals. The pace of development in the Muslim world not only in technology but every field of life, is essential to be competitive with the rest of the world. Before I go further discussing what and how should Muslim Ummah proceed in general, and Pakistanis in particular, I would like to highlight where the Muslim world stands at the moment. For example:

* The Central Asian Muslim states, which got independence a as a result of the collapse of former Soviet Union, were advanced under the communist Russia. Although these states are equipped with modern technology but they are passing through painful economic and social crises.

* The Arabs are the world’s richest oil producing nations. Wealth is not a problem for them. They are economically better off but morally confused, divided, unable to liberate their fellow Arabs from the clutches of Israel, and serving western interests simply to safeguard their kingdoms, sheikhdoms and quasi-democracies. * Pakistan has highly qualified scholars, Ulema, intellectuals, scientists, professionals, diverse talent, all sorts of natural resources, nuclear capabilities, yet more than 40 million of the population lives under grinding poverty. This figure was just 23 million in 1965. Literacy rate is under 30%, and the foreign debt is mounting every hour.

* Indonesia and Bangladesh, the largest Muslim nations are also victims of poverty, corruption, conflicts, divisions and lack of cohesion.

Malaysia is probably the only Muslim country which though possessing little natural resources can be considered as economically stable, technologically advanced, highly literate, and socially secured. It is moving ahead within well-defined priorities. Looking into the reasons of its success one can see that the Malaysians brought reforms in a planned manner. The pattern they followed moved from social reform to economic, industrial and then technological development. Today, Malaysia is largely a corruption-free country with hard-working people engaged in development with self-esteem. Together they form a peaceful, patriotic and prosperous society.

With this background in mind when we go back to the issue of development in science and technology areas, we see that industrial and technological development largely depends on financial and economic stability and growth. The economic stability depends on social and political environment. Social and political stability in any society depends on the degree of social values, justice and supremacy of law and order. These are all inter-related and inter-dependent factors. Hence, the bottomline is, you cannot succeed in any sector without achieving the prerequisites and without setting your priorities for the rest of the sectors. You cannot construct a ten-storey building starting from the tenth floor to the ground level.

Science and technology, no doubt, is a great need of the time but how can you successfully run thousands of industries, millions of computers and offices with modern equipment when you cannot afford to provide 24 hours electricity to the people. How can researchers and professionals do their job when they are subjected to the unbearable suffering of almost daily load-sheddings? How can you produce a constructive skilled labour force when the people don’t have security of jobs? How can you have healthy people when the environment and health conditions are crossing the thresholds of safety?

If the West enjoys superiority over rest of the world, it did not come to it so easily. These nations had to go through various phases. Now these states have social justice, equality, honesty, supremacy of law and respect of civil rights, which are the basic principles of a civilized society. One finds that these basic principles are rooted in the teachings of Islam, which we hardly know or follow.

Any ism, ideology or system cannot provide better principles of life than Islam has provided to the Muslims. Islam is the only religion, which puts more emphasis on knowledge, literacy, social security and justice, than any other religion or ism in the world.

Without adhering to the basic tenets of Islam we cannot bring an end to intolerance, extremism and backwardness. It is very unfortunate that the followers of Islam are unwilling to practise the golden principles of Islam in their individual life or in the affairs of the state.

History tells us that the Muslims ruled much of the world with pride and dignity when they followed the golden rules of Islam and didn’t feel ashamed to follow Islam. Today, we are facing numerous problems as an individual or as a nation despite the fact that Allah has blessed us with all sorts of natural resources, talent and above all a complete code of life in the shape of the holy Quran.

The rulers of a few Muslim countries did implement Islamic system but “a selective version” of Islam, which suited them for sustaining their rule. Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Middle East, Iran, Turkey are the examples of “selective” application of Islam. In fact, Islam gives us complete way of life and it must be implemented in its true form.

The selective Islam cannot bail us out from the ever-mounting problems that we face. Instead it creates more confusion and we would keep searching the lost destiny until we follow the straight path.

In Pakistan, General Pervez Musharraf wants to make Pakistan a role-model for the Muslim World. This has also been the dream of the past rulers. But none could succeed in realising this dream. Islam is a complete system covering activities ranging from our day-to-day business to state affairs. How can one run a system within a system? In Pakistan, we are running various systems within a system — feudalism, bureaucracy, military dictatorship, quota system, English laws, Islamic Laws, Jirga system. No one wants to talk about cleaning our society from these diseases but everyone does want to talk about making Pakistan an Asian tiger, fortress of Islam, a role-model for Muslim world and so on.

Being a Muslim the only way to solve our problems and also to achieve progress is to revive our true faith in Islam, to reduce our dependence on the West. We should concentrate our efforts on implementing the complete code of Islam in every walk of life, and in all spheres of social life.

The writer is a Sydney-based freelance journalist and a political analyst.

Celebrating Eid-ul-Azha

A LIGHT citywide drizzle heralded Eid-ul-Azha in Karachi last week. This city was not the only one that received rain that day yet it exposed the fragility of power supply in the city as well as the war readiness of our sanitation teams in the wake of ankle-deep puddles and overflowing sewers all across the city.

Some miscreants also tried to sabotage the extraordinary effort of the town administrations for the sanitation and offal removal from the city streets. The miscreants’ worst attack came in the form of washing offal in the Hub canal. The administration was quick to calm the rising tempers admitting a pungent stink and bad taste yet pointing out that the flowing water remains kosher for drinking.

Undoubtedly there would be oodles of people interested in seeing “devolution” the most awed success of the present government fail, praised not only by several Western governments but also by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. Such elements were quick to condemn charging a so-called illegal cess of Rs50 - Rs100 by some of the town administrations for entry of sacrificial animals into their limits without Sindh local government approvals.

Amid intermittent electricity failures, occasional mixtures of rain and sewage and a rather high number of localized dacoities and the overall performance of the local bodies must have made the Reconstruction Bureau real proud.

Such performance could not have come without a price. The City Government must have advanced those substantial sums to each of the eighteen towns for post Eid-ul-Azha clean-up to be adjusted from their measly development budgets.

Such emergency expenditures always add to the woes of already depleted finances of the municipal bodies in our country. Most Karachiites appreciate the large paralyzing holes in the kitty of the devolved Local Government’s impeding overall development work in Karachi.

Last month the sixteen-storey interior ministry abode in Islamabad went up in flames while the administration and the residents watched helplessly. None of the CDA fire tenders could dose the descending fire above 3rd floor. Finally someone decided to import the powerful water jetting fire tender stationed at Islamabad International not realizing that they were called risking and downgrading airports own firefighting capability.

But the pumps on that vehicle needed a large and continuous water supply and in absence of high-pressure water hydrants there was little use for it away from the airport. At the end there was nothing left except ashes of files and fixtures? Most of the readers may have rightly guessed that afterwards a whole lot of people attended many meetings to draw ‘Plan of Action’ to meet a similar disaster in future. Needless to say that till filing of this report the only result may have been a substantial increase in consumption of biscuits and tea in Islamabad.

Lately there have been many epidemic outbreaks all over the country. From severe skin rash epidemic across Sindh Balochistan interior to a widespread viral infection in Karachi resulting in recurring spats of fever and the latest horrifying discovery of the Congo Virus feared to be spreading across some of the hospitals in Rawalpindi and Islamabad. One only wish that the virus does not leaks out in the neighborhoods of twin cities.

In Karachi things continue to be as bad as anywhere else in the country. With an extremely wanting district health and civil defence networks that may be poorly staffed and even more poorly equipped the city may be hardly ready for Hollywood style outbreak. It is possible that some of the outbreaks like a fire or some disease, just die out on their own ashamed of our collective callousness and apathy. This does not mean that we have Congo Virus lurking among our ranks at this moment (use of word ‘ranks’ suits better in current environment). It would however not hurt to worry about epidemics of disease like AIDS, Hepatitis B, C or currently rampaging outdated Rabies.

Many claim that organized crime being committed by gangs of bandits may also be an epidemic caused by our apathy and callousness towards collective existence.

Thus car snatching or a routine stickup may hardly be something to write home about anymore.

Such cynicism may have become part of our psyche. At source adjustments of funds in the name of dues of federal government agencies, continued dishing out of lucrative infrastructure contracts to federal agencies and their subsidiaries at exorbitant prices and whimsical centrist decision are all pauperizing our city.

Different tiers of the Sindh government are now acknowledging paucity of funds across local governments in the province. Police like any other city agency lack modern means for detection and basic resources to look vigilant. The belated acknowledgement may hardly be of any consolation to the newly appointed Nazims. Loads of Karachiites that used to claim that there was no dearth of resources are privately admitting that devolution may have arrived empty handed.

This only confirms a widely held view that devolution merely remains a slogan.

A dam site that offers advantages

PRESIDENT Gen Pervez Musharraf had an opportunity recently to visit the three-gorge dam which is being built on the River Yangtze in China. He was so happy to see the gigantic dam that he said: “It’s the eighth wonder of the world executed by the Chinese engineers”.

Surprisingly, the ministry of water and power, Wapda, the ministry of agriculture, the chief of the planning commission, the provinces and Irsa (Indus River System Authority) could not inform the president that Pakistan also has an excellent three-gorge dam on the Indus at Katzarah. This was because of their failure to investigate this unique dam site.

It is about 18km downstream of Skardu and has the largest reservoir in the world with a storage capacity of up to 35maf and power generation capacity of up to 15,000MW (for location of the dam site, refer to GTS sheet No. 43 M of 1 inch = 4 miles).

It is strange that controversy about the storage of the Kalabagh dam project continued for about 28 years without searching for an alternative because there was lack of awareness about this unique and spectacular dam site at Katzarah.

This was in spite of the acute and huge shortage of water, drought, hunger, famine and death and bitter dispute between Sindh and Punjab that bothered the president very much. So much so that the absolutely essential need of water provided in the Water Accord of 1991, paras 2 and 12, amounting to (12.35 + 5) =17.35maf has not been initiated even after 11 years of the Accord by the government, though it was binding under the law to build that much storage to avoid disputes and damage to crops.

The concerned authorities never bothered to know the striking presence of the three-gorge dam and our water needs of 17.35maf — to be created under paras 2, 4, 6 and 12 of the Water Accord — plus another 6maf storage lost due to silting of Tarbela and Mangla, raising the total needs to 23.35maf, equivalent to four times the Basha dam.

This scribe made the discovery of the three-gorge dam as far back as 1962 and informed the ministries of agriculture and water & power and the FAO officials. Later on Dr Pieter Lieftnic of the World Bank pointed out this storage in 1968 in his three-volume report. Again in July 2001, a detailed printed report was sent to all concerned and to six ministries to let the president know about the discovery of this wonderful dam.

It is shocking that the Katzarah dam impounding storage in three valleys has not been brought to the notice of the president who craved for a big dam while attempting to resolve the bitter dispute because of water shortage. Probably, attempts were made to compel the president to agree to the Kalabagh dam project, rejected by Irsa on 22.10.’96 on the grounds of hydraulic deficiencies and flaws and rapid silting of its 3.5maf direct storage at Attock against a huge inflow of about 90maf.

The three-gorge dam site is located near Katzarah, on the downstream of the confluence of the three rivers, i.e. the Indus River, Shiok River and Shigar River. It will have a lifespan of about 1,000 years because of very low siltation and the best capacity-inflow ratio on the Indus for a storage dam.

All concerned are accountable for not searching and proposing the three-gorge dam as a solution to shortage of water, water dispute and a primary step to start implementing paras 2, 4, 6, 12 and 14(e) of the Water Accord that is rendered ineffective. They are unable to break status quo and prefer to live with the problems.

The 35maf huge storage created at the Katzarah dam site is six times larger than the Kalabagh’s direct and indirect storage having a total capacity of (2.6 + 3.5) = 6.1maf with a very short life-span or of the Basha dam storage with a capacity of 5.7maf and a lifespan of 80 years. The costs of all these dams are nearly the same.

The revolutionary aspect of the three-gorge dam at Katzarah, besides storage, is its huge irrigation network covering the four provinces that would serve as a true poverty alleviation project and a key to prosperity. At the same time the triple-valley storage created by the Katzarah dam would serve as a “carry-over” dam to store water and safeguard against shortage of water and drought, hunger, famine and death.

It will serve as an “inter-seasonal” dam and regulate the highly erratic flow of the Indus during summer and winter. It will also ensure an all-time water need of the Indus basin irrigation system. It will control floods, regulate flow of the Indus River as provided in the preamble of Irsa Act, help implement the Water Accord, specially its paras 2, 4, 6, 12 and 14 (e), and firm up supplies to the Ghazi Barotha Power Channel (GBPC) as the Indus flow goes down as low as 10,000 cusecs in winter against the water requirements of 60,000 cusses for GBPC.

All above, the Katzarah dam is the only means to meet the fast depleting needs of “replacement storage” lost due to silting of the Tarbela and the Mangla. The World Bank and India are responsible, under the essence of the Indus Basin Treaty, for sharing the cost of a new dam for replacing the lost storage as India got perennial flow whereas Pakistan, in return, got depleting and short-lived storage.

One of the most vital functions of the Katzarah dam would be to serve as a large-scale “development dam” to bring prosperity by irrigating the desert and semi-desert regions in Pakistan on the right side of the Indus, covering up to 10 million acres of barren and desolate lands in the four provinces. This is something remarkable.

Katzarah storage can efficiently be used for irrigation through a combination of gravity flow, sprinkler irrigation and drip irrigation methods. As part of the project, a new barrage would be constructed on the Indus downstream of the Chashma barrage.

On the right side an “All-Pakistan Grand Canal” is proposed to take off, running in the four provinces. This Grand Canal would provide water to the higher areas of D.I. Khan and Punjab by lifting water and cover the entire Kachi plain of Balochistan, upper Sindh by gravity flow and provide irrigation water to the Thar desert and the Cholistan desert across the Indus.

For further irrigation and afforestation, water can be lifted from the Grand Canal for the higher areas in the four provinces. Moreover, water can be provided to the Thal Canal on the left bank of the Indus. In short, it will greatly improve the entire environment and climatic conditions of the desert and desolate regions of Pakistan that have so far been unimaginable.

It is really a human development project to engage large population in construction work and land development for irrigated agriculture that can help as an anti-poverty and anti-terrorism instrument as great means of living would be available for jobless and idle class of people from Skardu to Thar. Poverty is a curse and the biggest threat to society, as well as to human rights and human development.

A tendency is developed by charlatans to exaggerate opposition to storage dams on flimsy grounds. They lack knowledge to weigh the dire needs of water for irrigated agriculture and the colossal and multiple economic advantages that will accrue vis-a-vis negligible disadvantages.

In the case of the Katzarah dam, the negligible disadvantages are that only about 40,000 people would be dislocated and rehabilitated against China’s 1.2 million people for a similar dam. Only a few kilometres of the Karakoram highway will need realignment and Skardu airfield would be shifted somewhere between Gilgit and Skardu.

On the contrary, the prosperity and great advantages are multiple and limitless. The project would make Pakistan an economic giant, a strong and prosperous country contributing to global economy and an entity to be reckoned.

The writer is a former chairman of Irsa