Blast in Quetta

Once again an act of terrorism has rocked Quetta and claimed innocent lives. Even though the target of attack on Friday was an army vehicle, the majority of the 11 killed and 30 injured were civilians. The last major act of terrorism in Balochistan's capital was on March 2 last. It killed 45 people and left 160 injured. That attack was, however, of a sectarian nature, unlike the one on Friday for which an unknown group, the "Balochistan Liberation Army", has claimed responsibility.

Ignoring bomb blasts and murders by sectarian fanatics, Balochistan has of late witnessed quite a few acts of 'nationalist' terrorism. These have included the murder of two Chinese engineers in Gwadar, frequent acts of sabotage of gas pipelines, and the attack on Wapda personnel laying transmission lines. Seen in the perspective of all that has been happening in the country, Friday's explosion should act as a spur for the government to do some stocktaking about what is going on in Balochistan.

Balochistan is the country's most backward province. The literacy rate is shockingly low, and there is hardly any industry. No wonder, poverty is rampant. It is rich in minerals, but, barring gas, no major effort has been made to exploit its mineral resources. Oil is believed to be there, but exploration has not been undertaken because of the law and order situation. The political scene is dominated by tribal chiefs, who have little interest in their people's welfare.

Their main concerns revolve round maintaining their hold over their fiefdoms with the help of well-armed militias. Often, they are at odds among themselves, for one hears of regular clashes among tribes. This only serves to block the province's economic development and militates against the emergence of a middle class that could have a stake in the progress and prosperity of the Baloch people.

There are several issues which are agitating the minds of those Baloch leaders who are genuinely interested in the betterment of their people. These include the shrinkage of provincial autonomy as guaranteed by the Constitution, the proliferation of military bases beyond the number necessary for security, lack of jobs for Baloch youth, the low rate of royalty on gas, and the way some of the mega-projects are being executed and managed.

The Baloch leadership wants the Constitution to be honoured, payments on royalty enhanced, and the military bases reduced, for they see them as designed less for national security and more as a check on political dissent. As for Gwadar, the Saindak copper project and the coastal highway, the Baloch are justified in demanding that the first preference for jobs should go to the local people.

It is obvious that these problems can be solved politically through a dialogue between the government and the Baloch leadership. Acts of terrorism - like the murder of the Chinese engineers and Friday's blast - only hurt Balochistan's interests. Those doing these dastardly acts are no friends of the Baloch people; by killing their own people they serve to divert everybody's attention away from the real issue of Balochistan's grinding poverty.

The government must ponder the reason why some misguided elements resort to desperate methods. The principal responsibility for all this is that of the government. While terrorists must be contained, the government must move with speed to remove the Baloch people's grievances, develop a consensus with the opposition, and undertake all mega projects in a way that satisfies the Baloch people and ensures their involvement.

Bridging power gap

The government's decision to invite investors to set up three thermal power units in the country is a step in the right direction. All three units will be dual-fired - using both oil and gas to produce a total capacity of 1,400 megawatts (MW) for supply to Balochistan and Punjab. The proposed power stations will play an important role in bridging the gap between growing demand for, and limited supply of power as industrial and commercial demand continues to grow.

It is estimated that Pakistan will be facing an overall power shortage of 2,000 MW by next year. Unless quickly removed, this power gap may seriously affect the country's growing industrial and commercial sectors. This is the principal reason why Pakistan needs to increase its power generation capacity. One hopes that the government also looks at other sources of fuel to generate power, like the plan to set up a power plant in Thar using the area's coal reserves.

With the commissioning of the Ghazi Barotha power project, hydroelectric power will account for a bigger share in the overall power production. Pakistan needs to exploit cheap sources of power so that tariffs can be kept within reasonable limits.

However, producing enough power to meet the country's growing demand is just overcoming one problem. The larger issue that needs to be addressed is improving the performance of both Wapda and the KESC. Both these utilities have long been hamstrung by heavy line losses, which are then passed on to the consumers, and also by weak financial management.

Most of these losses arise from power theft as well as from an old and inefficient distribution grid. Power breakdowns continue to be frequent while little has been done to check power theft or make defaulters pay. These are issues that need to be addressed for otherwise there are fears that generating extra power will not have the desired impact on the economy.

Peshawar's growth travails

The initiative taken by a number of concerned citizens in Peshawar to save the city's cultural heritage and to press the government for its sustained development needs to be emulated elsewhere too. A body called the 'Save Peshawar Campaign' has been set up, comprising opinion makers, senior journalists, newspaper editors and owners, who have chosen to be the voice of the public in the face of the city and provincial governments' apathy towards the metropolis.

Peshawar has seen a phenomenal but haphazard development over the past two decades. Much of this chaotic growth is owed to the influx of Afghan refugees, more than a million of whom have now made the city their home, outnumbering the original residents.

The demographics have changed so drastically that today Pashto and Darri have become the two lingua francas, delegating Hindko, the language once largely spoken by Peshawar residents, to third place. More important, the city's aging and inadequate infrastructure is now bursting at the seams because of the government's failure to expand and upgrade it.

While shabbily planned satellite towns without proper physical and social infrastructure have come up around Peshawar, the city's historical buildings have also suffered considerably because of overcrowded conditions all around. Traffic jams, precarious construction going on in and around the old city and the cantonment, lack of sanitation and pollution have become facts of life today in this city of two million.

It is believed that nearly half the resident population comprises unregistered Afghans, but the government has done little more than wishing them away, hoping conditions in their country to stabilize gradually. This is the wrong approach. Regardless of when the Afghans, and how many of them, will return to their country, the government and civic agencies must work on expanding the existing infrastructure and improving civic services and amenities. The NWFP capital needs a proper development plan in place of the present chaos.