IT was his first and the last pilgrimage. He stood engulfed by a sea of the faithful. More than a hundred thousand ears were cocked to what he was going to utter. The message came sharp and loud and clear: “The sanctity of human life, honour and property is as inviolable as is the sanctity of the holy city of God, the city of Makkah, and the holy month of Haj. None is to be held responsible for the crime committed by the other. Don’t, after me, revert to infidelity by slitting the throats of one another.”

The first-ever declaration, couched in most piercing words, equating the sanctity of human life, honour and property with that of the holiest of the holy in Islam, laid down for the first time in the history of mankind, the foundation stone of a just, humane, judicious, and virtuous society, an Islamic society. The Prophet of Islam had in unequivocal words enunciated that the killer of an innocent soul, was throwing himself out of the fold of Islam by committing an act of infidelity. A society could claim to be Islamic only when it preserves the sanctity of human life, honour and property, otherwise not.

Any venture which may expose the life, honour and property of the members of society to the ravages of armed conflicts and thereby disturb its internal peace and security or let the difference of opinion or conflict of interest develop into blood feuds whether among individuals, groups or sections is very strongly condemned by the holy Prophet. He declared: “Whosoever commits armed aggression against us does not belong to us.” The words are unambiguous. The message is unmistakably clear and unambiguous. The Founder of Islam refuses to accept the claim of an aggressor standing in arms against Muslim society to be a member of the Muslim community.

Islamic society is raised strictly upon moral principles which if contravened threaten the very justification of its existence. The mutual relationships of the individuals and the groups within an Islamic society have to be guided and channelled by moral considerations. They have to be conducted with perfect confidence that one would get his due and would not be deceived, beguiled or cheated. The Prophet (pbuh) attached so much importance to this peculiarity of the Islamic society that he asserted “Whoever defrauds us does not belong to us” meaning thereby that a swindler, a cheat, by playing fraud on a member of the society severs his relationship with the Muslim community though he may still claim to be a part of it.

Generation gap poses some serious problems to the basic texture of a society. The older ones, the more advanced in age who had been breathing in a different atmosphere and whose mores and habits, modes of thinking and patterns of behaviour had been conditioned and framed by certain circumstances obtaining at a particular time, may not find themselves very comfortable to and in perfect agreement with the new, the upcoming generation.

On the other hand, the new generation, despite being in total conformity with their elders with regard to ultimate objectives of life and immutable religious and moral values may find itself, due to irresistible natural social and political forces of change and adjustment, at logger heads with the older generation. This may cause, a swelling cleavage of interests, a widening gap of behavioural patterns and an ever-increasing schism between the two integral parts of society.

This development if not checked at the opportune time may virtually let loose the forces of social disintegration. The situation if allowed to worsen is bound to develop in colossal mutual disrespect, veiled hatred, intolerance and an altogether effacement, from society, of the sentiments of love, compassion and mercy.

The Prophet, seems to have been very alive to the devastative prospects and ravages of the extreme forms of generation gap. He declared in most forceful words: “Those who are not filled with compassion for our younger ones, and also those who do not pay respect to our elders, do not belong to us.” Be he an elder or a younger one, he is debarred by the Prophet, from being qualified as a Muslim, as a believer, by his indulgence in the counter productive and nefarious activity of destabilizing the Islamic society.

The corner-stone of an Islamic society is mutual love and consideration for each other. The significance of these two, as the force cementing the components of an Islamic society, is highlighted by the Prophet in these words: “None of you could claim to be a believer unless he desires the same for his Muslim brother that which he would have desired for himself, had he been in the same situation as his Muslim brother is.” The conditionality attached to a person’s claim of being acceptable as a believer in the eyes of the Founder of Islam, is his unconditional love and consideration for other members of the Islamic society.

Man’s earliest social contact after birth begins with his mother, father and other blood relations. He has no choice whatsoever in selecting his blood relatives. They are divinely ordained and man has to respect and honour this choice for the rest of his life. These relationships form the genesis of family. A morally healthy family is the nucleus of a morally oriented society. The Prophet has immaculately elaborated the mutual rights, duties and responsibilities of the parents, children and other family members and relatives.

The parents are promised the reward of Paradise for proper care, moral upbringing and purposeful education, especially of the female children. Conversely, the children have been told in plain words to note that the most grievous sin after Shirk (Belief in more than one god) is recalcitrance of parents. They are required to maintain the attitude of love, respect and kindliness toward their parents, especially when they become old, frail and infirm in mind and body. The Prophet, when asked as to which one of the two, the father or the mother, was more entitled to one’s care and consideration, replied “the mother, the mother, the mother, and then your father.”

Regarding other relatives the Prophet has instructed to preserve genealogical details of the family to enable one to be in the full know about the nature and extent of relationship. He stressed to fulfil one’s moral, social and financial responsibilities towards the relatives to the extent that he is under moral compulsion to carry out these obligations even if they are not reciprocated by his relatives. Describing the resultant blessings and benedictions of maintaining cordial relations with the relatives he exhorted “Whoever loves to enjoy long life coupled with an increase in prosperity he should maintain and nurture good relations with his relatives.”

Neighbours play an important role in the daily life of a man. They have an intimate relationship with each other’s private and public life. They share each other’s sorrows and happy moments. They cannot be sidetracked or ignored. An ideal society has to nurture sincerity, sense of proportion, propriety and balance among the neighbours to maintain and develop an atmosphere of love, fellow feeling, friendliness and understanding.

The Prophet recognized the crucial role of the institution of neighbourhood in the establishment, preservation and continuity of a healthy society. Thrice he swore that a man cannot be said to be a believer unless his neighbour feels secure from him. He also declared that a person who had filled his belly while his neighbour had to sleep hungry could not claim to be a believer. A person who professes to believe in Allah and the Day of Judgment had to be, according to the Messenger of Allah, generous and respectful towards his neighbours.

He said that one had to be very mindful about the fulfilment of one’s duties towards the neighbours as the archangel Gabriel did so much stress the rights of the neighbours that he thought perhaps the neighbour was going to be allotted a share in one’s inheritance. Moreover the Prophet made it crystal clear that a person to qualify as a neighbour need not be a Muslim. He may be a relative, a Muslim, a non-Muslim, even a stranger who keeps regular company only for a short while. The Prophet so emphasized the importance of maintaining considerate and sympathetic relations with the neighbours as to instruct that one must direct his children not to throw the skins and remnants of the fruits in such a way that they are noticed by the poorer neighbours’ children who may feel depressed by a sense of deprivation and inferiority complex.

Living among others, especially when some of them may not hold identical views or follow different social customs and practices, is always difficult and poses serious problems. It needs much of patience, profound sense of proportion, love for humanity and a deep regard for others’ views and sensitivities coupled with a strong commitment to truth.

Nevertheless, not infrequently the sentiments may take the better of reason, the tempers may be frayed, the nerves may become strained resulting in a severance of relations and bad blood among the individuals, family members or groups.

The greatest humanitarian service under these circumstances would be to remove misunderstandings, eliminate causes of friction, eradicate roots of tension and strive to heal up the wounds inflicted. The Prophet (pbuh) enunciated: “That which has precedence over, and is more preferable to fasting, praying and alms-giving is the removal of enmity between the parties and restoration of mutual good relations.”

THE Prophet (peace be on him) has been presented in the Qur’an as the best model for the believers. The Qur’an reminds us time and again that the Prophet is not only the communicator of Divine guidance to humanity, but he alone is the perfect model for following this guidance (33:21). This is because abstract guidance without any concrete example is not sufficient for human beings.

Since Allah knows His creatures best, he did not leave human beings to themselves. He explained to them the right way to felicity here and bliss hereafter. And further, He set for them a concrete historical and human example to pursue the straight path to success. This was done as soon as human existence on earth was inaugurated with the advent of Adam (AS), our ancestor and father of all humanity.

Allah continued to remind humanity, through his prophets and messengers, of the purpose of their creation, throughout history. Before the end of time, He consummated His Guidance by sending His best Prophet and invested him with the ultimate guidance for all space-time conditions and climes.

It is not an accident of history that in the periods following the demise of the Prophet no significant development has taken place in the world of religion. Nothing new and original has come to the notice of humanity since 632 A.D., that could give a new religious orientation to human life.

All religions that exist today — regarded as major religions of the world by all the scholars — predate the Prophet’s era. Change of focus, stress and emphases did take place in different religious traditions. But no major change has occurred in the basic religious orientation of any segment of humanity. Hence the doctrine of the finality of the prophethood after Muhammad (peace be on him) is fully substantiated by the very fact of human history.

No other religion after the Prophet’s era could provide a complete and harmonious pattern of human life covering the entire gamut of human existential reality. It is only the claim of the Qur’an — un-challenged and un-matched by any religion to this day — that in the Prophet’s living pattern there was the best model of moral perfection for all human individuals and groups in all space-time situations.

What exactly is so unique in the sunnah of the last Prophet that makes it the model par excellence? There are indeed many features in the Prophet’s life that are singular and outstanding.

These features have been elaborated in the vast compendia of ahadith so meticulously preserved by the doctors of hadith in strict conformity with the highest standards of historical examination.

In fact, Muslim scholars had been the first to develop a full-fledged science of hadith to collect, sift, analyze, examine and authenticate the whole record of Prophet’s eventful life spread over 23 years of his active and fruitful mission. These scholars should be rightly credited, therefore, with evolving a methodology of biographical research that is without parallel to this moment in any other culture.

To cover, therefore, all those prominent characteristics of the sunnah that make it unique in the arena of religions and cultures, the space available here is not sufficient.

In fact writers and biographers, historians and scholars, both Muslim and non-Muslim had been striving since ages to highlight the various dimensions of this greatest phenomenon of history, namely, the sunnah, but it continues to provide new inspiration and light to the seekers of knowledge and wisdom and guidance.

With the onward progress of human thought, the relevance of the Prophet’s sunnah to the contemporary man is becoming more and more conspicuous and convincing. Every subsequent study brings forth fresh fragrance from this interminable fountainhead of knowledge and wisdom.

It is, therefore, necessary to confine oneself to some particular aspect of this vast and varied field of human endeavour that has been dedicated to highlight the Prophet’s sunnah.

The most striking facet of the sunnah, which is also perhaps the most important factor of its immortality in history is this human dimension. We find other religions turning their back on human nature and its demands. In fact a great many teachers of religion tried to invent a cult of spirituality out of this neglect of the natural human condition and its legitimate demands. The obvious result of this was a rapid decline in the centrality of religion as a potent force in human society.

The teaching and practice of Prophet Muhammad took a positive, healthy, constructive and respectful attitude to human nature and all its innocent urges and native ambitions. What the current systems of law so boastfully regard as ‘human rights’, were prescribed as ‘solemn obligations’ by the Prophet. This means that it is not merely our right to protect our life, honour, freedom, possessions and achievements, but rather it is our sacred obligation to protect and promote what essentially is a Divine bounty.

That is why the Prophet said: “he who is killed while defending his honour and property is a martyr”. All legitimate efforts to preserve and protect one’s self-esteem and valid possessions have thus been granted a sanctity. The wage-earner has been hailed as beloved of Allah by the Prophet in another famous hadith.

The demands of human nature had been considered so sacred by the Prophet that these sometimes have precedence over the pure ritual acts of worship. The sick have licence to postpone fasting.

They are allowed to pray while sitting, laying in bed or even by the movement of the gaze when the condition is critical. If it is time for a meal and one is hungry, he should first eat and then pray. If one is praying and the time of the prayer is running out, and there is some human being crying for help for survival, the command of the Prophet’s Shariah is that he should leave his prayer and save the human life.

In fact, the Qur’an expressly gives permission to utter disbelief should this be required of a believer under duress (see 16:106).

The Prophet once said that at times when he is leading the prayer, he intends to recite Qur’an longer, but when he hears a child crying for his mother (who has joined the prayer behind the Prophet), he shortens the prayer to relieve the child and his mother from anxiety. Thus relieving an ordinary human anxiety takes precedence over the highest religious activity, namely, prayer behind the Prophet.

These are but few examples from the vast treasure of knowledge and guidance available in the collections of hadith. These provide an evidence of the fact that due consideration for the natural demands of human life is the uppermost in the prescriptions of the Prophet’s sunnah. Naturally enough, if human nature and its requirements are a creation of Allah — as they obviously are — then it does not befit the mercy and clemency of Allah to ask us to neglect it or offend it.

We are taught in the Prophet’s sunnah that we should maintain a harmonious balance between the demands of our animality and spirituality.

For we have been created as humans. We need not pretend to be angels which we can never become.

All we are required to strive for is to maintain a balance between our celestial and terrestrial pulls and pushes. This inner tension is part of human nature. It could only be relieved by striking an equilibrium and balance, between the two forces. Achieving this balance has been indeed the real challenge for mankind in all times and climes. To meet this challenge, we have no other means available save emulating the model par excellence of the Prophet (peace be on him).

Otherwise, we should be tilted to one side of life and neglect the other. This tilt will disturb the inner harmony and rhythm of life.

It is quite easy to unilaterally pursue one aim in life and forget all other obligations. This unilateral attitude might also yield some timely gain or momentary benefit. But this disturbance of the balance — whether in favour of animality or spirituality — will destroy the prospects of total and holistic human perfection for which ample abilities have been granted to us. We should, therefore, strive to understand the unique model of the sunnah and try to inculcate its perennial values in our lives. Only then we would be truly realizing our ideal in life: felicity here and bliss hereafter.

FOR an excellent example of good leadership in peace and war one must turn to the life of the holy Prophet (PBUH) and see his achievements during his lifetime and those of his companions thereafter.

The holy Prophet was born in Makkah in the year 570 AD. The divine call came when he was 40 years old in the year 610 AD. The Prophet’s wife Hazrat Khadeja was first convert to Islam. For the next twelve years up to 622 AD while he was at Makkah, he spread the message of God and the people embraced Islam as they believed in him and his message.

At the age of 52 in the year 622 AD, the holy Prophet migrated to Medina, about 400 km to the north of Makkah, along with his followers. For the next ten years he set up the first Muslim state in the world, governed, administered and led by him under the new and emerging laws of Islam.

Two years after migration to Medina in 624, the first battle of Islam was fought against the Makkans at Badr about 80 miles east of Medina towards the coast where 300 Muslims were pitched against 1000 unbelievers of Makkah. It was a crucial battle and the very existence of Islam itself was at stake. Before taking a final decision the holy Prophet always consulted his companions. In this case the Muslims wanted to return to Medina and fight there, but the holy Prophet wished to stand and fight at Badr and his desire prevailed. It was the correct decision from the tactical and political point of view.

The Makkans had over three to one superiority in numbers which is considered adequate for a breakthrough. But the holy Prophet gave his followers two tactical advantages, the choice of ground and time of attack. He selected hard ground for his force and forced the Makkans to attack through soft sand with the sun in their eyes. The Makkans were utterly defeated at Badr and forced to retreat. It is the considered view of historians, both Muslims and Christians that the battle of Badr was won by the Muslims with Allah’s blessings and owing to the personal leadership of the holy Prophet. He was able to galvanize his small force and motivate them with his personal courage and conviction to attain victory.

A year later in 625 a force of about 3,000 Makkans arrived near Medina to defeat the Muslims. This time the holy Prophet wished to fight around the city itself but accepted the advice of the assembled elders to have the battle outside Medina. He led a force of about 1000 Muslims and the battle took place near the hill of Uhad. Losses were heavy on both sides and Khalid bin Walid with his cavalry nearly turned the tide for the Makkans at a crucial stage. The holy Prophet though wounded was able to successfully exhort his followers to hold fast compelling the Makkan force to withdraw.

Two years later in 627 AD the Makkans made yet another attempt to defeat and destroy the Muslims in Medina. This time the attacking force was 10,000 strong, “probably the biggest force ever seen in Arabia”. The holy Prophet could muster no more than 3,000 able bodied Muslims for the defence of Medina, but he had a large ditch dug under his supervision around the vulnerable areas of the city. This was a revolutionary idea at the time. These defences were able to halt the enemy advance, punish his attempts to cross and eventually forced the Makkans to withdraw with considerable losses.

These three battles fought by the early Muslims under the leadership of the holy Prophet in adverse military conditions were to establish the supremacy of the new religion in the area. After these battles the Quresh of Makkah realized that they could not eliminate the Muslims and the Messenger of God by force of arms. Although these battles were comparatively on a smaller scale fought in the obscurity of the desert yet they were to have a profound effect on the world stage in the years to come, and changed for ever the course of history.

In March 628 the treaty of Hudaibiya was signed which showed the holy Prophet as a statesman who could achieve his objective without resort to arms. To realize a dream the holy Prophet wished to perform Umra and left Medina with about 1600 followers. When the Quresh heard of his journey they deployed 200 horsemen to prevent his advance. The holy Prophet bypassed the horsemen by taking a difficult route through the hills and reached Hudaibiya on the edge of the sacred territory of Makkah, about 8 miles from the city.

The main points of the treaty stipulated that there would be peace between the two sides for 10 years. The Muslims would not perform Umra that year but could return the following year and stay in Makkah for three days, when the Makkans would leave the city for that period. The treaty had great strategic significance for the Muslims. It was drawn on the basis of equality and the Muslims returned to Makkah the following year in their own right.

In September 628 the holy Prophet marched to Kheibar, an oasis 75 miles north of Medina, leading 1400 followers including 200 horsemen. Kheibar was an action against the Jews and consisted of a series of battles, where some fortified positions had to be reduced. This was the first occasion when the Muslims came across fixed defences. After subduing Kheibar the holy Prophet took Wadi al Qura, a smaller oasis nearby, also inhabited by Jews.

In January 630 the holy Prophet occupied Makkah along with 10,000 followers. It was a “peaceful capture of Makkah.” Having taken Makkah “the supreme triumph of the Apostle’s career,” the circle was complete. In February the holy Prophet defeated the tribe of Hawazin east of Makkah at Hunain with 12,000 men. In spite of numerical superiority there was panic in the Muslim ranks when the enemy attacked unexpectedly from both flanks. The situation was saved and gradually stabilized by the holy Prophet’s personal intervention and his call to arms till the Hawazin were defeated and forced to flee.

In September 630 the holy Prophet led an expedition to the Byzantine frontier to the north as it was reported that a large garrison of Byzantine troops had gathered at Tebook. According to Martin Lings, the holy Prophet led an army of 30,000 men including 10,000 horsemen. At Tebook he signed an agreement with the local Christian and Jewish leaders under which they were afforded protection and in return they agreed to pay pool tax. This was the pattern followed later in all cases.

It is a great achievement when we consider that from only two Muslims in 610 AD when the divine call came, a large number of people had accepted Islam, before the migration to Medina in 622. In the next 10 years before his death the holy Prophet was able to take Makkah and Taif to the south and expand northwards into present-day Jordan and push back the outposts of the once mighty Byzantine Empire. A large portion of western Arabia had converted to Islam.

It is astonishing to note that by 732 AD, a 100 years after the holy Prophet’s death his followers had defeated and overrun two mighty empires, Byzantine to the north and west and the Persian Empire to the east. They had taken the whole of North Africa, crossed the Mediterranean, taken Spain and crossed the Pyrenees into France. By 850 AD the Muslim Empire extended from the Atlantic to the frontiers of China. As Sir John Glubb writes, “The Muslims conquered the greater part of the known civilized world, if we exclude China. The Arab expansion, from a tangle of mutually hostile nomadic tribes in a remote desert to the world’s greatest empire, is one of the most astonishing and dramatic incidents in world history.”

These remarkable achievements of the Muslims were due primarily to the outstanding leadership qualities of one man - the holy Prophet and his explicit faith in the teachings of Islam. His followers were also imbibed by the same spirit, which carried them across continents and pitched them against two mighty empires, which were swept aside as the Muslim armies marched on.

The writer is a retired Lt-General of Pakistan army.

AN illusion of prosperity prevails in the major cities of Pakistan led by Karachi despite the fact of low economic growth in a high population growth country and negligible improvement in per capita income.

The fleets of gleaming Toyota Corolla and Honda cars, the increasing snazzy restaurants, the large number of wedding dinners with their bevy of bejewelled begums and other symbols of affluence create this illusion. Adding to that is the fleet of new cars driven around by the police officers and other officials with their gun-toting guards, creating the impression we have a very rich government, too.

This visible public affluence is the handiwork of the thriving leasing finance industry which funds this illusion. While the lenders are able to make a good deal of money through this process, the buyers are able to afford them goods by paying in easy instalments as long as they can afford them. The credit card companies too, are in the same game, and the system works smoothly as long as the customers pay five per cent of the total dues unfailingly every month.

Leasing has become popular and the number of companies in this business has increased greatly, and within a short time. Now not only the three leasing companies listed with the Karachi Stock Exchange are in this business but also most other financial institutions, including banks. Interest rates for leasing have also come down following the fall in interest rates generally which has made getting things through leasing more popular. A few years ago the rate of interest was as high as 25 to 30 per cent but now it has come down to 8 to 12 per cent as advertisements for leasing of cars show.

There is heavy competition in leasing and agents have been hired to solicit business by the companies. All that is making the leaders of leasing companies protest against the jumping in of other financial institutions into the leasing industry, which now needs a capital of Rs 200 million to be registered as a company. As a result many leasing companies merged last year.

The head of a major leasing company says: “While the banks have other sources of funds what are we to do?” He says the banks have given up lending for industrial investment. Development finance institutions, too, have virtually stopped lending money for development. In such a negative environment for investment, how can the economy recover fast or grow rapidly, which is the urgent need of the times?

In the US a spokesman for the President’s office says the top priority for George Bush is “jobs, jobs, jobs.” Another spokesman says the priority is “jobs with growth — economic growth.” That kind of sense of urgency is visibly absent here despite the increasing number of unemployment-related suicides and violence against housewives by desperate unemployed men.

The US House of Representatives is also moving towards a 550 billion dollar tax cut to make the people spend more money and quicken the space of economic revival. We, on our part, are thinking of more taxes or spreading the sales tax net of 15 per cent far wider as the IMF would like us to do. Meanwhile the electricity rates have been raised by 7.37 per cent per unit for WAPDA and 13 paisa per unit for KESC despite the reluctance of Prime Minister Jamali to increase the taxes or raise the utility rates which have a multiplier effect on price.

As if all that is not enough the IMF is insisting that the interest rate on the National Savings Schemes should be brought at par with the interest rates of the Pakistan Investment Bonds which is around 5 per cent instead of a 10.5 per cent promised for a new savings scheme. In addition the IMF has been insisting the tax exemption on interest earnings on National Savings Schemes should be withdrawn so as to bring it in line with other debt instruments.

In the confusing pre-budget scenario, another report says the US government is coming up with another budget support package for Pakistan which would include substantial write-off of loans as well as additional budget support funds. Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz is reported to have sought US ambassador Nancy Powell’s assistance in the total write-off of the US loans following the billion dollars loan write-off and she had agreed to that in principle. Surely the government deserves far more assistance in return for the scores of Al Qaeda men handed over to the US including some top figures.

The government comes up with a long list of achievements in the macro economic sector beginning with the 4.5 per cent economic growth this year, the 4.3 billion rupees balance of payments surplus built up in the first nine months of this year, 10.5 billion dollars foreign exchange reserve, and the 21 per cent rise in the exports in the first nine months of this financial year. How will the masses benefit directly by that?

When Dr Ishrat Husain appeared at a recent TV programme the telephone callers asked the same question again and again and they were not convinced that it will benefit them. Previous top officials had made the same kind of promises or projections over the years but nothing much came out in reality. The credibility gap is wide and real in a country where there can be many a slip between the cup and the lip. Dr Husain spokes of the need for having to meet the demands of a very large population of which about 40 per cent of the people are living below the poverty line. This aspect of our problem has not been brought to the notice of the general public sufficiently, and not has bold and positive measures taken to check the population explosion. We are far behind India, Iran and Bangladesh in this regard. In Iran, there has been far more success than our combination of the military men, mullah and timid or indifferent bureaucrats, who do not have an audacious family planning programme.

Meanwhile, Karachi continues to be in the grip of a lasting power crisis, in addition to its eternal water crisis. And yet finance minister Shaukat Aziz says the government has to provide Rs 51 billion this year to WAPDA and KESC to bridge their budgetary gap. The WAPDA chief has a long list of complaints against the government or the political system, and says that if six conditions are met he could reduce the power rate by Rs 1.10 per unit. But the system is so complex that after four years of army management the theft and loss rate of KESC is still 50 per cent and tends to rise above that at times. And yet the power rates have been raised in a manner that does not satisfy the WAPDA or KESC which has a higher rise in its rates, while the domestic consumers feel unhappy.

Meanwhile the three day meeting of the Pakistan Development Forum in Islamabad has been a useful session where the donors and their experts could express their opinions on the factors holding up the progress of the economy and the possible remedies. Even Shaukat Aziz had a sad story to tell his audience there. He listed the five obstacles to private sector investment and most of them were of the government-making. They include the high cost of inputs, 20 agencies conducting inspection, legal impediments, image problem and tax system. Even during his three years in office he had tried to remove or reduce the obstacles but has not been successful. And so he unburdened his sorrow before the Pakistan Forum.

Now Liaquat Jatoi, minister for industries, is talking of one desk operation for setting up of industries, particularly for foreign investors. And that is to be set up at the PIDC Office. But that is good only so far as setting up a new company is concerned. What happens thereafter in respect of taxes, the legal systems and the 20 inspections which are vehicles for corruption as well?

And the image problem of the country is a real once. It is folly to argue, as some do assertively, that the image is all right but only the projection is wrong and good advertising should take care of that.

It is indeed welcome that to make up for the shortfall in private sector investment the government is raising the public sector development outlay to Rs 160 billion from the Rs 134 billion targeted for this year. This is a substantial rise, though far from adequate. It is necessary that all the money should be spent in 2003-04 and not far less, as usually happens and the money should be well spent.

The poverty reduction allocation in the next budget has been raised to Rs 185 billion next year from Rs 161 billion. There is plenty of scope for waste and misuse in this area and that should be avoided so that the poor could benefit from that.

The ministers for commerce, industry and investment have been talking of creating adequate infrastructure, special economic Zones and road network to promote investment, particularly foreign investment. In addition, housing which needs five million new units, is to be given a big boost. All that should help create a large number of jobs, particularly when housing supports about 40 industries.

Delegates to the PDF time and again urged the need for good governance. And that begins with rule of law, and law and order promised to the investors means nothing as that relates to the ability of a victim to get an FIR filed immediately after a crime is committed and quick justice instead of cases dragging for long.

Evidently action is needed on too many fronts simultaneously. But the system, as the finance minister’s speech shows, is impervious to change. There is too much sloth or the vested interests are too strong. That will not do in the age of globalization and of swift changes. We have to be ready for quick changes as they are demanded or if they can prove fruitful.

Good governance is a comprehensive term and takes a great deal of sustained inputs. And those inputs have to be political, economic, social and cultural which means creating an environment of tolerance. If instead the government adopts a sectoral approach the results will be very partial and too slow in coming.