| 12 February 2004 | Thursday | 20 Zilhaj 1424 |
Is beautification helping?
AN economic bloc to the east of Pakistan and another to the west of it are to be strengthened and made far more active. Both have been feeble organizations, and Pakistan is a member of both the SAARC of seven nations in the east and ECO of ten Muslim states in the west and north of it.
In a period in which trading blocs are being sponsored feverishly by the rich West as well as Asian states, strengthening the trading blocs in our region has become imperative, more so when we face the unprecedented challenges of globalization and the radical initiatives of the World Trade Organisation.
But if SAARC despite its frequent meetings has not achieved much because of political deterrents, last week's meeting of the finance ministers of ECO in Islamabad was the first one in 13 years although it is called the Economic Cooperation Organization, which means frequent meetings of the finance and economic affairs ministers. The reasons for such slackness could well be that not much was expected out of such meetings earlier and the member states did not have the financial resources to give effect to their possible ambitious agenda.
The history of ECO as it transformed itself from one organization to another has been a disappointing one. It came up initially as the Baghdad Pact with a military dimension but following the exit of Iraq after the assassination of King Faisal and a military coup, it became the modest Regional Cooperation for Development (RCD) with Pakistan, Iran and Turkey as its members.
It continued crawling with small achievements to speak of until the Soviet Union collapsed and its Muslim republics became free. When six of them joined the RCD with Afghanistan in tow it became the Economic Cooperation Organization of ten states.
It was then expected to become far more active because of the vast natural resources of the new republics. But that expectation did not come to pass because of political uncertainties in Central Asia plus the war in Afghanistan. Hence the pious or ambitious resolutions passed by the ECO summits or council of ministers led to no positive results.
For that matter there is the far larger Organization of Islamic Conference with its political and economic dimensions and 50 members. And it is backed by the Islamic Development Bank to promote economic cooperation among Muslim states, beginning with trade.
But the OIC, as stressed by President Musharraf at its last summit in Malaysia, could not achieve much nor the IDB render more than modest assistance for trading among Muslim states. Its development and promotion role has been very small.
Inaugurating a five-day conference on "science in Islamic Polity in the 21st Century" Mr Farooq Leghari as president of Pakistan in 1995 had said the Muslim population of the world was one-fifth of the total, but its contribution to the world GNP was only five per cent.
That means that if we exclude oil from that the net contribution of the Muslim world is too small. And that has not changed in the last 10 years. So the same theme was taken up forcefully by President Musharraf at the Malaysian summit but with no great positive results.
Now if the ECO leaders are ready to promote development in their region, the Asian Development Bank is ready to finance the road construction and inter-state highways.
It is also ready to fund installation of a large gas network between gas producing countries like Turkmenistan and gas needy countries like Afghanistan, Pakistan and even India.
The World Bank is ready to help develop a large power grid in the region to accelerate the development of the beneficiary countries. Indications for financial assistance are coming from these organizations but the initiatives to use it have to come from the regional states themselves by overcoming their suspicions and vague fears.
The finance ministers have decided to set up a trade and development bank with an initial capital of 60 million SDRs with its headquarters in Istanbul, Turkey.
Initial contributions to the fund will be made by Turkey and Pakistan while other states have been requested to make their own contributions. But the initial amount is very small, even for a starter.
If the Islamic Development Bank with a fund of 5.1 billion dollars could not achieve much or make its presence felt in the Muslim world the ECO Bank with its initial capital of 60 million SDRs could achieve very little.
In fact, the proposal to set up an ECO bank is not new. In 1992, the then secretary general of the ECO Shamshad Ahmad had said that a decision to set up a bank had been taken by the ECO summit.
The details of the bank were to be discussed by the foreign ministers of member countries meeting in Islamabad. Twelve years later the decision has only been reaffirmed by the ECO finance ministers who may have to hold another conference to receive pledges of contribution from member states.
The ECO finance ministers have also decided to set up an ECO reinsurance company and have called for contributions from member states. This, too, is a reiteration of an old decision.
One significant decision taken by the ministers is for an annual meeting of the finance ministers of ECO countries. They will also meet on the sidelines of the World Bank and IMF annual meetings and at other international forums whenever they can.
What is obvious is that unlike in the past, the finance ministers of ECO countries will be very active and try to further their cooperation in every way possible.
Even more active may be the governors of Central Banks of those countries who will discuss the problems of banking and monetary management in their countries, globalization, fiscal management and privatization.
They will share their experience and expertise in such areas in these complex times in the fiscal and financial areas. Such exchanges can be extremely useful, particularly to the Central Asian states and Afghanistan.
An experts group has been assigned to prepare the feasibility study of the ECO Bank, and it has to complete the study by the first of July this year. The ministers have also decided to set up a high level experts group of the ministries of finance and economic affairs to suggest a framework for cooperation in economic management in international financial institutions and global capital markets.
The group will also suggest measures for promotion of cooperation in banking, investment, transit trade, tax policy and administration, stock exchanges and developing a data base of ECO member states on key economic and social indicators. They will also try to coordinate their approach to international economic issues affecting the developing countries.
There was some talk of a common currency which can be the ultimate goal. There has been talks of a common currency for the SAARC region in Islamabad as well, which the Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee supports and so does his foreign minister Sinha. But a common currency comes as the ultimate goal or as mark of the climax of the cooperation among the member states.
But first of all they have to take the initial steps in economic cooperation, encourage trade between member states, particularly the neighbours. They have to reduce the tariff for imports from ECO countries more than as a token and ultimately strive for a free trade area. But there is little trade between Pakistan and Iran, and between Pakistan and Turkey despite their close political and cultural ties.
Among the many bottlenecks is transport. Even Pakistan and Iran have not been able to develop adequate rail and road facilities for large-scale trade between them.
Lack of adequate shipping facilities between Pakistan and Turkey stand in the way of large scale trade between them despite the declarations of their governments they want larger trade. The private sector in these countries are also not making enough effort to promote larger economic cooperation.
Hence the ECO countries instead of focusing on rhetorical declarations of larger economic cooperation between their members should sit down and identify the deterrents to larger trade between them and try to remove them one after another.
The fact that three RCD members have not been able to do that or have not tried earnestly enough to complete that task shows how challenging can be the efforts to promote larger economic cooperation between the 10 ECO states.
The governments have to acknowledge this fact and try hard to remove the roadblocks which in the case of the RCD states have been there for the last 40 years.
Now Iran is making a move to have a new grouping of eight Muslim states, including Pakistan, Egypt and Nigeria, which are larger than others who form the 50 members of the OIC. But President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt has declined to attend the first meeting in Iran for whatever reason.
The fact is the Muslim states do not need more organizations, economic, political or otherwise. They have now the OIC with the Islamic Development Bank, the Arab League, the Gulf Cooperation Council and the ECO apart from smaller or lesser bodies.
None of them is truly effective, except possibly the Gulf Cooperation Council with its political objectives. So we don't need more organizations but ought to make the existing organizations more effective and purposeful.
And now that the Arab oil money is not going to the West in a big way and oil prices have touched their peak, will the Arab oil states deposit more of their money in the Islamic Development Bank and make a contribution to the ECO Bank as initial capital?
The Arab countries are doing well by investing more in Pakistan than in the past and taking part in the privatization that is underway here. Their capital is safe here, unlike in the West where the dollar is depreciating all the time.
Is beautification helping?
The unveiling of a large aeroplane model, sponsored by a foreign airline, on one of the main roundabouts in Clifton, recently brings into question the beautification drive launched by the city government. The model, which is more commercial than aesthetically pleasing, does little to enhance the beauty of the surroundings.
One sees many instances where the supposed beautification is in fact plain and simple commercialization, where businesses are able to advertise their brands or products in the name of beautification. More appropriate would be to have a small plaque placed near the beautified piece acknowledging the help of the company sponsoring it.
We also see on our thoroughfares another form of display. Different types of discarded war gear like tanks, war planes and guns. What message is intended for the people who visit our city?
The whole concept of beautifying roundabouts, as espoused by the city government, is faulty. Some of the recently beautified roundabouts in North Nazimabad and other city areas are a cause for concern.
Surrounded in most cases by overflowing sewers and broken roads, these roundabouts are decorated in a garish manner and serve no conceivable purpose other than causing problems for motorists, as pedestrians try to negotiate traffic to enter or leave these mini-parks.
The design of these park-roundabouts must also be an outdoor designer's worst nightmare. The choice of colours for the park surrounding, as well as the coloured lights used, reminds one more of a sweetmeat seller's shop.
Another trend adopted by the city government is transplanting palm trees and cutting down eucalyptus trees. The choice of transplanting palm trees is bad: they give no shade, do little in terms of greenery and are quite fragile.
What was needed instead was to plant Neem and other native varieties that would provide character to the otherwise soul-less environment. Cutting down fully-grown eucalyptus trees also is beyond logic.
After maturing, these trees do not absorb as much water as they do when growing. In the absence of anything else, they should be allowed to remain. If planting such trees was wrong in the first place, then cutting them is doubly wrong.
Trees, of course, can never be left alone in Karachi. If the military and police do not paint them with lime, the city government does it with enamel paint.
Now, some enter prizing city administration officials have decided to light the trees up with rows of small twinkling bulbs that are hammered on to the tree trunk in the name of beautification. These attempts only shorten the tree's life span.
One wonders why there is so little imagination when it comes to making Karachi greener and cleaner. Take for example the vast amount of space that is left unattended under the number of flyovers that have been built in the city.
Why is the government waiting for encroachers to take over this land? Already, the flyover in Gulshan-i-Iqbal near the Urdu College has been illegally encroached upon by transporters, while the one on Sharae Faisal has been taken up by private car parking operators.
Why can't we have some greenery here? In a city where footpaths have been leased out to small shopkeepers in Karimabad by the administration, one wonders what would be the fate of these pieces of land under the flyovers.
Another question that one should ask is why are several parks in different parts of the city lying in such decrepit condition? Is the government waiting for them to be encroached upon? Take Clifton, for example. Several parks there are in a state of disrepair.
Why doesn't the government suggest to the several schools that operate in the locality and make millions, to adopt these parks so that the children of the school and the management ensure that they stay clean? It would be way for these schools to pay back to the community for the inconvenience they cause by operating in essentially residential areas. And also a practical lesson in good citizenship for the schoolchildren.
For a metropolis like Karachi, one would expect more imagination, sophistication and finesse when it comes to beautification. Instead, what we see is either attempts at gross commercialization or lack of imagination in the name of beautification.