| 01 April 2004 | Thursday | 10 Safar 1425 |
Terrorism in Uzbekistan
Karachi's water woes
The second quarterly report of the State Bank of Pakistan for the current fiscal year is a mixture of glad tidings and painful messages. The economy during the year is projected to grow at around 5.5 to 5.8 per cent. This, indeed, is a welcome development.
However, when the economy moves out of stagnation, it usually pushes up prices. That is perhaps one reason for the upward movement in the rate of inflation these days. But as the SBP report points out, it is also partly due to hoarding and black marketing.
It is possible that the low cost of credit may have tempted unscrupulous elements to invest in such practices for profit. This is perhaps the reason for the unusual jump in the prices of food items, cement and cars.
But even more depressing is the fact that the overall rate of employment growth remains painfully slow. This is particularly affecting the poorer sections. With prices going up and the job opportunities remaining stagnant, life becomes difficult for even the middle classes.
The SBP report believes that with the economy still performing below the six per cent long-term growth trajectory, the likelihood of immediate relief on the employment front is very bleak.
Long years of neglect of physical and social infrastructure have impaired the economy's ability to attain a sustainable annual growth rate of six per cent. Unless we do something about our poor physical and social infrastructure, we hardly have a chance to attain a growth rate of six per cent.
What is urgently needed, therefore, is the back-up of a critical mass of educated and skilled manpower plus an adequate number of roads, bridges, ports, airports and communication links to make economic growth sustainable.
However, the continued preoccupation of the government with budgetary deficits seems to have nullified the gains the country has made from all the other reforms. It seems as if we are willingly allowing the low level of our physical and social infrastructure to choke the growth potential of the economy and also keep employment generation at a low level.
What is needed is massive investment from all three sectors - the public, the private and the foreign - to push the investment rate beyond 21-22 per cent to be able to grow at six to seven per cent over the medium term which will enable us to reduce those living below the poverty line from the present 33 per cent to an acceptable 10-15 per cent.
But as experience has shown, our private sector has never behaved as responsibly as one might expect. It has always been a rent seeker. Even today a section of the private sector is seen to be indulging in black marketing and hoarding. This is what is called the callous face of the market economy.
Foreign investors will not come to Pakistan in any significant number unless we offer them the required level of trained, skilled and educated manpower and the needed communications and transport facilities.
All this calls for a massive increase in the public sector spending on development and expansion. The urgent need is to loosen the leash on public expenditure while at the same time curbing the unscrupulous from bringing a bad name to the market economy.
Terrorism in Uzbekistan
The strength of extremist elements in Uzbekistan must surprise everybody. Two days of bombings and fighting have left nearly 40 people dead in Tashkent and Bukhara. Surprisingly, the government has blamed not the banned Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) but Hizbut Tahreer for the suicide bombings.
In his television speech, President Islam Karimov said the preparations for the attacks had taken six months and that money for the acts came from outside. Another government spokesman said the acts of terror were "atypical" for Uzbekistan and had been "imported from abroad."
The IMU might have been banned, but there is no evidence that it has lost its power to strike. The arrest of several Uzbek militants, including IMU leader Tahir Yaldashev, in South Waziristan shows the strength of Uzbek terrorist groups.
The IMU leader had been sentenced to death by the Karimov government and fled the country. Now Tashkent wants Islamabad to extradite all Uzbek militants who had been arrested during the Wana operations.
While terrorism deserves to be rooted out, one notes with regret that the absence of political freedom in Uzbekistan has helped rather than hurt terrorism. International media paints a bleak picture of rights' abuses and suppression of all dissent.
In fact, world human rights groups and diplomats based in Tashkent have noted the government's tendency to use the fight aga-inst terrorism to arrest and torture political opponents.
Recently, a 63-year-old woman was sentenced to six years of hard labour because she publicized the case of her son, who had been tortured to death. Pictures of the tortured body led a British hospital to confirm that he had been immersed in boiling water.
Unfortunately, America looks the other way, because it wants to make its military presence in Uzbekistan permanent. This has only served to strengthen Mr Karimov's brutal suppression of all political opponents, even if they have nothing to do with terrorism. Observers of the Uzbek scene say the lack of human rights and democratic freedom is only helping the IMU and driving all democratic opposition underground.
Karachi's water woes
The report that the pace of work on the K-3 project - which on completion should provide the city with an additional 100MGD of water - has been affected because of funding delays is likely to further erode the confidence of consumers in the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board.
The board has so far done little to address the current water crisis that has intensified as evidenced by the number of pipelines bursting in several localities. The resulting water leakage and delays in repair work have given the residents of these areas much cause for concern.
To add to their woes, there have been several interruptions in the supply from sources whose yield of this precious commodity is already lower than capacity. According to the KWSB, the city should get at least 640MGD whereas at present it receives only 540MGD.
It will be some time before plans - such as the K-3 project - to plug this gap can be implemented. Even then, by the KWSB's own admission, the demand may not be met entirely as the city's population is growing at an alarming rate and water needs continue to increase.
Debt-ridden as it is, the KWSB must rev up efforts to recover dues from consumers who have either not been billed or who have not paid water charges. A considerable portion of this income can then be spent on revamping the supply network to ensure minimum wastage - currently 30 per cent - and a fairer share of water for all localities that otherwise must undergo the consequences of a faulty distribution system.
Drastic measures are also required to curb theft and to regularize illegal connections that are partially responsible for the shortage of supply to paying consumers. Needless to say, it would help immensely if there were a greater degree of cooperation between the KESC and the KWSB as frequent power breakdowns at pumping stations disrupt supply and cause hardships for millions in the city.