Accords with China

The seven agreements signed between Pakistan and China in Beijing on Wednesday should serve to bring the two countries even closer. The accords are in addition to the general framework agreement relating to the utilization of $500 million buyers' credit meant for Chinese companies setting up projects in Pakistan.

This should help boost Chinese investment which at present stands at four billion dollars in Pakistan. As Foreign Secretary Riaz Khokhar put it, the agreements would take the existing economic relationship between the two countries to "a higher level".

The seven new agreements come a year after the two countries signed seven agreements during President Pervez Musharraf's visit to China last year. During that visit, the two countries also adopted "a roadmap" designed to define their relationship in all spheres and pledged to fight what President Hu Jintao called "three forces" - ethnic separatism, extremism and terrorism.

Already, China is involved in the construction of some mega projects in Pakistan. These include the Gwadar port - with the first phase already completed - the Saindak copper mines, and a number of other energy projects, including the Chashma II nuclear power plant.

All these economic agreements highlight the warmth and close understanding that has defined their relationship since Prime Ministers Mohammad Ali Bogra and Zhou En-lai formed a personal equation at Bandung in 1955.

This was followed by the signing of an agreement defining the border between China and areas whose defence was in Pakistan's hands. Subsequently, all governments in the two countries continued to adhere to a policy of close political and economic cooperation.

Among the earliest landmark agreements were the construction of the Karakoram Highway and the aviation accord, under which PIA became the first airlines in the world to operate a service to and from China.

Since then their "all-weather friendship" has reached a stage where it is truly called "higher than the Karakorams and deeper than the Arabian Sea". Since 1978-79, things in China have changed dramatically.

The "open door" policy and the reforms launched by Deng Xiaoping have turned China into one of the world's strongest economic powers. At the current parity rate, its 1.3 trillion-dollar economy is second only to America's.

Chinese products have flooded the world, it has made a breakthrough in science and technology, and has become the third country in the world to send a man into space. As its friend and neighbour Pakistan has a lot to learn from China.

The Chinese people have a high work ethic, and seem to have realized that the acquisition of modern technology and the development of human resources are the key to a country's economic progress.

The astonishing progress one sees in China has been possible because the Chinese leadership has followed pragmatic policies instead of adhering rigidly to dogma. More important, it has been able to focus the people's attention on economic progress and ensure their participation in the development process. Pakistan should emulate China in these fields.

While discussing China-Pakistan relations, one cannot but note the two tragic incidents in which our Chinese guests were targeted by criminals. Three Chinese engineers were killed in Gwadar in May and another Chinese engineer was murdered by fanatics in the NWFP.

Yet, Beijing declared categorically that such incidents would make no difference to its cooperation with Pakistan. One expects Pakistan to provide maximum security to its Chinese guests and bring justice to those who have committed these heinous acts.

The challenge ahead

Commerce minister Humayun Akhtar Khan has assured exporters that the quota crisis arising from a US embargo on fast running categories has finally been resolved. The US authorities have also made some allowances in this regard.

To blame for this crisis is the Export Promotion Bureau, which had not been properly reconciling the utilization of quota over the past couple of years. As a consequence, the Americans imposed an embargo on a number of categories of Pakistani exports last month.

This mistake has cost the country dearly. Estimates indicate that exports worth $50 million would suffer as a result of the mix-up. In addition, the government has said that it would be spending over Rs500 million to ensure that goods are speedily shipped under the quota regime before the end of the year.

While these steps should be appreciated, one wonders what should be done to make the EPB more responsive to the exigencies of exporters. Given that the EPB collects millions of rupees under the Export Development Fund from exporters besides receiving funding from the federal government, there is no dearth of resources that the organization can complain of.

The problem lies with the competence of the staff employed to run the bureau despite the fact that over the past couple of years, the chief executives of the EPB have all been taken from the private sector.

Given that the prime minister has announced plans to boost Pakistan exports in the coming three to five years to about $20 billion, it is important for the EPB to get its house in order.

A bigger challenge around the corner is the commencement of the quota-free regime for exports from January 2005. In this, the question that needs to be asked is how prepared the country is for the new situation.

For Pakistan to hold its own in competitive world market, it has not only to understand how these changes will affect its textile exports in terms of quality and price. This will be an issue that the EPB should take up at once.

A correct step

The government is reported to be ready to go ahead with its decision to delete the religion column from the new machine-readable passports. The interior minister told a news conference the other day that there was no reason for soliciting information from applicants because all such details had already been recorded at the time when they had applied for computerized national ID cards.

Since a CNIC is a prerequisite for receiving the new passports, it makes little sense to ask people again about their religion. The minister also explained that many other Muslim countries, including Saudi Arabia, did not have such a column on their passports.

As expected, the religious right, led by the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, has come out against this deletion and threatened a countrywide agitation. The NWFP chief minister has also joined the fray, demanding that the interior ministry reverse its decision.

The MMA's chief concern seems to be that such decisions are part of a policy to 'secularize' Pakistani society. It is also said that this might allow Pakistani Qadianis to travel to Saudi Arabia for pilgrimage.

The same kind of bigotry is evident in the religious right's vociferous criticism of the government's decision to allow the Aga Khan University to establish its own private examination board.

The fact of the matter is that the decision in based on common sense and established practice. No country asks its citizens to declare their religion when applying for a travel document.

It should not be a state's business to quiz its citizens about their religious persuasion in relation the travel documents. Such information in relevant only for sociological or demographic purposes.