| September 4, 2002 | Wednesday | Jamadi-us-Saani25,1423 |
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Fighting pollution
THE two-day meeting of the National Finance Commission which ended in Karachi last Saturday failed to finalize the long overdue award. The commission is now expected to meet in Peshawar on September 16, hopefully, to finalize the new revenue-sharing dispensation. The current year’s provincial budgets were formulated on the basis of ad hoc allocations of resources by the centre as the new award was due in 2001. The Karachi meeting is said to have resolved the sticking point of the criteria of distribution of the 37.5 per cent of federal revenues among the provinces. It also tentatively agreed to raise the ratio of the provinces’ share in the divisible pool but has not publicly announced the two decisions yet. A controversy has been raging since the first award of 1975 over population being adopted as the sole criterion for distribution of resources among the provinces. The meeting this time again is said to have decided, after heated debate, to retain the same and compensate the smaller provinces by way of grants and subventions meant to alleviate their economic and social conditions. The smaller provinces are not happy with this mode of assistance. Theirs is a case for a more equitable share in the divisible pool rather than doles and handouts as a gesture of the centre’s benevolence.
Provinces have all along held different views on what should be the criteria for distribution. Punjab being the biggest province, is satisfied with the population criterion and insists on its retention. Sindh feels much aggrieved on four counts. First, it says the federation collects a large bulk of its taxes from the province but returns only a small portion of it in revenue transfer, thus keeping it perpetually financially starved.
Second, because of its geographical location and being the economic hub of the country, Sindh receives a constant flow of migrants from the rest of the country, which puts a strain on its physical infrastructure and civic services. Unlike the three other provinces, Sindh has thus to cope with the additional problems of employment, housing, education, health care and numerous other needs of the continuous flow of new arrivals. Karachi in particular also happens to be a preferred destination of displaced people from troubled neighbouring countries such as Afghanistan. All this naturally puts a severe strain on the scarce resources of the province.
Third, connected with the internal and external population influx is the issue of the deteriorating law and order situation which inhibits domestic and foreign investment, thereby slowing down its economic progress. Fourth, there are pockets of extreme poverty and backwardness in rural Sindh. They call for accelerated efforts for development. Hence, the province feels that, apart from population, revenue generation, internal movement of population, and the level of backwardness should also form part of the criteria for revenue distribution.
Balochistan argues that, in addition to the above factors, the area of the province should also be given weightage because it takes a lot more to provide physical and social infrastructure to the sparsely dispersed population over a large area. The NWFP has a grievance about non-payment of its full share in hydro-power profits. It wants its share which was assigned to it by the Kazi Committee which is still legally valid. The indications that the centre may agree to raise the provincial share in the divisible pool from 37.5 per cent to 43-44 per cent are reassuring. The Peshawar meeting of the NFC, one hopes, will give proper thought to the criteria of distribution of revenues between the federation and the provinces and among the provinces themselves, besides considering the provinces’ demand for relief in their outstanding debt. The additional burden that devolution has placed on the provinces’ meagre finances also calls for raising of provincial shares in the federal pool.
ONE of the best things to emerge from the government’s electoral reforms so far is the inclusion of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas in the mainstream electoral process on the basis of adult franchise. Hitherto, only the Maliks exercised their limited right of franchise to elect representatives to the National Assembly on behalf of the people of the areas. The system was outdated, and left the general population in the tribal areas virtually unrepresented at the national level. The number of seats in the FATA has also been increased from eight to 12 in view of the increase in population registered in the 1998 census, even though the statistics collected through that census are not fully accurate. This is because some 50 per cent of the total women population still remains unaccounted for owing to the taboos attached to allowing access to tribal women and their particulars.
The new voters’ lists prepared by the election commission and enlisting nearly 1.3 million voters also reflects this anomaly, as it still leaves out an estimated 37 per cent of women voters, whose menfolk simply would not allow them to be counted or enrolled as voters. However, getting the tribal people to come round to accepting universal adult franchise is a major breakthrough that should lead to a gradual process of fully integrating these tribal regions with the country’s political system. Given the prevailing mindset and attitudes in tribal society, this perhaps is the only logical way forward. That said, it is important to remember that the introduction of adult franchise is only a first step, which, ultimately, must lead to fuller integration of the FATA into mainstream national socio-economic and political life.
THE Sindh environment minister’s prediction that the disposal of industrial waste and smoke emissions by factories will be reduced after the enforcement of a pollution charge and a self-monitoring system seems overly optimistic. A pollution charge is probably a good idea, and is a practice common in developed countries where it is perhaps one of the most effective ways to ensure that polluting industries pay for the costs they impose on society in terms of increased expenditure on health care and deteriorating air and water quality. The other measure suggested by the government is a system where industrial concerns are allowed to regulate themselves, and then asked to pay an amount proportional to the level of pollution their operations generate.
There are at least two major flaws in this approach. Given our general lack of morality and indifference to public good, can a company that pollutes be expected to be honest in assessing its own culpability and then also agreeing to pay a fine for it? This conflict of interest will mean that companies will have much to gain by understating the level of, say, smoke or effluent that their plants emit into the environment.
Secondly, both the measures can only be supplemental to a well-orchestrated and carefully thought-out strategy to fight increasing industrial pollution; they cannot replace what should be a comprehensive plan to fight the menace. The Sindh government should remember that there are no quick fixes to fight the menace, and that perhaps the best strategy would be if governments were themselves more vigilant in monitoring transgressions of environmental guidelines, enforced the existing laws, and took polluters to task.