| 17 April 2004 | Saturday | 26 Safar 1425 |
A dauntless crusader
Punjab's initiative
The government's decision to focus on the housing industry and its promise to provide incentives to this sector is encouraging. Housing and construction is a labour intensive industry that has the potential of easing the acute unemployment problem in the country as well as narrowing the large gap in the housing sector.
This is in line with the concern expressed by the State Bank in its annual report, saying that the biggest challenge before the country's economic managers is to create as many jobs as possible in the short run. The SBP report had linked the issue of job creation with that of poverty, which has risen in Pakistan from 20 per cent to 33 per cent of the population over the past decade.
For the housing sector to take off, however, the government needs to address the issues pointed out by various stakeholders. In his meeting on Thursday with representatives of the housing and construction industry, President Musharraf assured them of the various incentives to be provided in the forthcoming budget.
These incentives need to be backed up with housing-friendly policies and actions. As a first step, the practice of land grabbing that is so common in urban areas needs to be checked. Equally important is the need to introduce uniform building laws.
Another problem facing the industry is the long delay in securing utility services for housing schemes and the numerous NOCs that need to be obtained before ownership can be legally transferred.
A one-window operation can be put in place to deal with all these problems. Another prickly issue is the high transfer fee levied every time a property changes hands. This needs to be looked into.
All this, however, will prove of no avail if the government does not take notice of the phenomenal rise in the prices of steel and cement in the local market in the past few months. So far, cement and steel producers have shown no inclination to reduce their prices despite sizable tax relief in this year's budget. Equally important are problems associated with housing finance.
Financial institutions will have to support large-scale housing projects on terms that are reasonable. At the same time, traditional housing finance organizations, like the HBFC, should lower their rates of interest for housing.
Special attention also needs to be paid to improving land records. Some banks are reluctant to lend money to house builders in certain localities owing to difficulties in verifying land documents.
Another area of growing concern is the development of satellite towns. To ease congestion in our major cities like Karachi and Lahore, the city master plans should envisage the construction of satellite towns where a cheaper and more attractive housing alternative is made available.
This will ease the pressure on the basic civic services and facilities such as transport, power and water and help check the problem of overcrowding. Local governments and municipal bodies need to launch low-cost housing schemes for middle and lower middle class people.
It cannot be overemphasized that all these issues should be given serious thought for a comprehensive and effective housing policy to be implemented in the future.
A dauntless crusader
Is there a person more courageous than President Yasser Arafat? Virtually abandoned by his Muslim and Arab "brothers", the Palestinian leader has remained faithful to the mission of his life - the creation of a sovereign state for the Palestinian people on their ancestral soil, no matter what the odds.
On Thursday, he reaffirmed his commitment to the mission when he said that he would continue to fight for the freedom of his people. This came within 24 hours of America's reversal of decades of policy on the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Speaking after meeting Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Wednesday, President George Bush said Israel could retain "some" Palestinian land. This policy shift torpedoed previous American administrations' declared policy which believed in the pullout of Israeli forces from the occupied territories.
What surprised the world was that President Bush undermined the roadmap which he himself had unveiled last April. Normally, anyone else in Mr Arafat's place would have despaired and perhaps given up. But, speaking on television, the Palestinian leader said he would "never give up" his goal of achieving a sovereign Palestinian state with Al Quds as its capital.
At present, President Arafat is virtually under arrest in his Ramallah headquarters. His life is under threat, because Mr Sharon said just the other day that murdering him could be an option.
He has no armed forces, while his adversary has the Middle East's strongest fighting forces, besides unlimited financial and military support from the US. Yet Mr Arafat pursues his mission with the courage and zeal of a crusader.
His main asset in this unequal contest is his people, for it is their tenacity and sacrifices that have kept the Palestinian issue alive. Israel and its supporters feel frustrated because despite all the financial and military might, it has failed to subdue the Palestinian people.
If there is any guarantee of the ultimate triumph of truth and justice in the Middle East, it is the Palestinian people and their leader's undying faith in the justness of their cause and their resolve to continue to struggle till victory.
Punjab's initiative
The Punjab government's Education Structural Reform Programme, introduced recently, and aimed at achieving 100 per cent literacy in the province over a certain period of time is a step in the right direction.
The programme is initially being implemented in 15 of the province's most backward districts that have a below average literacy rate. If all goes as planned, the provincial government says it will expand the programme to cover the entire province.
The plan provides for free textbooks up to the primary level, with the facility to be gradually raised to the secondary level over a five-year period. An outstanding feature of the programme is to offer stipends of Rs200 per month to girl students who wish to continue their studies beyond the primary level.
To ensure against possible fraud and corruption, the stipend money is to be dispatched through money orders and not disbursed by the education department. The incentive is likely to help bridge the gender gap which at present is very wide while literacy rates remain poor for both sexes: just under 50 per cent for boys as against a mere 32 percent for girls.
For the programme's successful implementation, however, it will be advisable to put in place an efficient monitoring system to measure its progress through the initial stages.
There is no gainsaying the fact that the situation in the other three provinces is no better. The reality is that in the backward and remote districts of Sindh, Balochistan and the Frontier, literacy rates are lower and the gender gap is wider.
A similar programme that was initiated in Sindh some time ago proved futile because of resistance from vested interests and reports of corruption within the education department. Punjab can learn a lesson from this and avoid the pitfalls that stalled the programme in Sindh. A successful implementation of Punjab's own programme can then become an example for other provinces to follow.