| 24 July 2004 | Saturday | 06 Jamadi-us-Saani 1425 |
Not the end
9/11 panel report
The 2004-05 trade policy offers a wide range of incentives to help exporters meet the challenges of a WTO global trade order that would be in place on January 1, 2005.
It is a multi-dimensional effort focused on boosting exports through bigger volumes of sales covering a wider base, value-added goods and enhanced productivity.
Many of the measures proposed are a continuation of last year's policy, though in some cases, enhanced financial benefits have been offered. The critical test of the policy would lie in its effective implementation.
A few initial steps taken to integrate into the global production and marketing networks are significant, though the objectives are easier aimed at than achieved.
Joint ventures with foreign partners are to be supported to upgrade the capacity of export enterprises through transfer of technology and management expertise. This is to be supplemented by assistance to exporters to acquire and franchise foreign brand names which will make local products more acceptable to foreign buyers.
Bank credit is to be made available against brands. It is for the textile industry to benefit from the relocation of textile units from developed to developing countries with cheaper cost of production.
Pakistan, China and India are expected to emerge as the three major global textile producers who could attract relocated plants. With bigger markets and cheaper labour, China and India will offer tough competition in both quality and price to Pakistan.
Other segments of industry could also benefit as the relocation of projects from abroad, restricted to few industries so far, has now been extended to cover all industrial sectors.
The stipulated measures are expected to help achieve an export target of $13.7 billion, with imports projected at $16.7 billion indicating a trade deficit of some three billion dollars.
The growing deficit does not speak of a weak export performance but underlines a surge in import of machinery and plants and soaring oil costs. As 90 per cent of the import bill is on account of capital goods and industrial raw material, a liberalized import policy is intended to boost domestic production and create more trade surpluses.
A number of suppliers credit funds - $10 million each - are to be set up to facilitate development of markets in Africa, Central Asian republics and East European countries. But a persistent trade deficit may mount pressures on the rupee and interest rates with its implications for new investment.
To cut on fuel import bill, second-hand machinery for oil, gas and petroleum exploration and production is to be allowed to be imported. Oil accounts for 20-25 per cent of the total import bill.
As for edible oil, no serious efforts have been made to boost indigenous output of oil seeds to reduce growing imports of edible oil. A welcome feature of the new policy for the overseas Pakistanis is that they will now be allowed to import tractors, bulldozers, lazer land levellers and combined harvesters under the gift, baggage and TR schemes once a year.
Exports depend on production which suffers from frequent power breakdowns and exorbitant energy costs. Policies however good become meaningless unless they are effectively implemented. On the successful implementation of this policy would depend how Pakistan is to meet the WTO challenges.
Not the end
The Shaista Almani-Balakh Sher episode appears to have ended. The couple have been spirited away to Europe, and everyone will hope they will find joy and fulfilment in their new environment.
But it isn't exactly the kind of happy ending to their ordeal that many would have hoped for. The two had married against the wishes of their families: they were then hounded by relatives and persecuted by jirgas.
A court ruling in their favour did not put an end to tribal fury, and the government had to provide security for the couple. But the fear was not lifted, and they eventually had to seek shelter abroad.
Another similar case concerns Dr Mustafa Solangi and his wife Dr Amnat Solangi, who were falsely prosecuted under the Hudood laws. The case against them has just been quashed, but their right to a life free from the danger of being attacked or killed or forcibly separated is not ensured.
The state can make arrangements for the safety of such couples, but this is not how any citizen of a free country would want to live - constantly guarded by police and frightened by dark shadows.
The government does nothing to take action against those hurling threats and pursuing couples; no reports are lodged against such persons, who include notables like parliamentarians, nazims and even a chairman of a public safety commission.
Threatening the life and security of a person is a punishable offence. But since no one is proceeded against for making such threats, vicious, self-styled keepers of morality continue to defy court rulings and appeals to reason.
Only the other day, three girls aged 10, 11 and 13 of a village in Toba Tek Singh were reportedly abducted by a policeman and his accomplices and then gang-raped. Instead of initiating action against the culprits, the village panchayat sent the girls into exile for defying a ruling that bans women from venturing outside their homes without husbands, brothers or sons.
All this is happening in a system supposed to have been set on the path of "enlightened moderation". The government must exhibit greater conviction in rooting out honour killings and other retrogressive customs.
The PPPP has already submitted a bill in parliament to curb such evils; the government should either come out with a better measure of its own or support the PPPP draft, and issue a whip to that effect to its legislators and expel those who defy its instructions.
9/11 panel report
The administrations of US President George W. Bush and his predecessor, Bill Clinton, have been faulted by the final 575-page report of a bipartisan commission probing the September 11 attacks.
The 10-member panel, which took two years to finalize its report, says that over a three-year period beginning in 1998 and extending to a few weeks before the attacks, the American intelligence community missed 10 opportunities that would have perhaps helped prevent the attacks.
One particularly startling intelligence error was the FBI's failure to trace the whereabouts of two of the hijackers once they had entered the US - this despite the fact that the telephone numbers of both were listed.
The panel says that there were "failures of imagination, policy, capabilities and management" by the US government and has recommended an overhaul of intelligence services and the appointment of a 'national intelligence director' to oversee and coordinate various intelligence responsibilities and functions spread across various government departments.
It has warned that other attacks could happen but hoped that if implemented, the recommendations contained in the report would help forestall such possibilities. The commission says it had found no evidence of "operational" ties between Baghdad and Al Qaeda.
Much of what the report says about Pakistan, its change in policy following 9/11 and the sympathy that its military government had shown for the Taliban, has already been documented and commented upon.
However, it is worth reiterating here its recommendation that the US government should show a long-term commitment towards the Islamic world, especially countries like Saudi Arabia (where a relationship "beyond oil" has been stressed), Pakistan and Afghanistan.
What America should keep in mind is that success in the war against terror is more likely if these partner countries are seen not as mere client states but as genuine allies in the struggle to stamp out extremism.