| 25 December 2004 | Saturday | 12 Ziqa'ad 1425 |
A bumper cotton crop
Environmental pollution
Evenbefore the proposed conference on the Middle East could be organized, Israel has sabotaged it. In Israel to work for such a conference, British Prime Minister Tony Blair was told by his host, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, that Israel welcomed the conference but would not attend it.
In contrast, Mr Mahmoud Abbas, who is likely to win the Palestinian presidential election scheduled for Jan 9, promised to attend the moot. The aim behind the conference, likely to be held in March in London, is not to come up with new proposals for a Middle East settlement but to revive the peace process.
In his meeting with the Palestinian leadership, Mr Blair emphasized the need for stopping "terrorism" but made no mention of the continued settlement activity on Israel's part. This prompted Mr Abbas to tell his guest that Israel must stop building settlements planned for the West Bank.
That Israel has no intention of quitting the West Bank emerged clearly during Mr Blair's visit. The British prime minister did not pointedly ask Mr Sharon to withdraw from the West Bank after the Gaza disengagement plan was over.
Instead, he supported Mr Sharon's Gaza disengagement plan but said he hoped it would not be the "last word", implying that the Israeli prime minister will have second thoughts on his decision not to quit the West Bank even after withdrawing from the Gaza Strip.
Mr Sharon's stance runs counter to the aim of the London conference, whose purpose is to revive the roadmap on which no progress was made because of Israeli obduracy and intransigence.
The foremost factor is Mr Sharon's refusal to have a dialogue with the Palestinian Authority. Instead, he went on to destroy Yasser Arafat's headquarters and turned him into a prisoner in his Ramallah complex.
This was in addition to the cold-blooded manner in which he spilled Palestinian blood. This included the massacre at Jenin and the targeted killing of Hamas founder Sheikh Yassin and his successor, Abdel Aziz Rentissi.
If the London conference is to meet and succeed, all will depend on how the US conducts itself. The Bush administration has given a carte blanche to the Sharon government. With America's tacit connivance, Mr Sharon tore up the roadmap.
He has continued the settlement activity, even though the roadmap provides for a complete halt to it. He has also vowed to retain some parts of the West Bank - a violation of the roadmap, since it calls for a total withdrawal of Israel from occupied territories and the emergence of a Palestinian state by 2005.
Earlier this year, President George Bush himself did untold harm to the peace process by saying 2005 was an unrealistic deadline for the creation of a Palestinian state.
He had also shunned all contact with Mr Arafat. Now that Yasser Arafat is no more on the scene, America must prove its bona fides by pressuring Mr Sharon into beginning peace negotiations with the Palestinian Authority and also by getting in touch with its president to be elected next month.
A direct American approach to the Palestinian Authority would signal to Israel America's commitment to a revival of the roadmap so that talks could begin in earnest for a just and durable peace settlement in the Middle East.
A bumper cotton crop
Indications that this year's cotton crop will exceed 14 million bales is quite encouraging. This is good news for the Pakistan economy since over 60 per cent of the country's exports comprise cotton and cotton products.
Given that the end of the Multi-Fibre Agreement (MFA) takes place in January 2005 and that under the new trading regime all quotas will be done away with, a bumper cotton crop gives Pakistani exporters an edge in the world market.
They will not have to worry about the soaring cotton prices as was witnessed last year following a bad crop as a result of pest attack. At the same time, to gain a strong foothold in the market that will be opening up in 2005, exporters have to compete not only in terms of price but quality as well.
It is in this area that a lot more needs to be done. The plan to boost production to 15 million bales on a durable basis by 2010 can only be achieved if more attention is paid to problems such as water scarcity and pest attack, which are the two main factors affecting the overall cotton output over the past couple of years.
One hopes that the massive investment in the textile industry over the past couple of years will now translate into higher quality and quantity of exports. The government needs to come up with a policy to promote the production of value-added products instead of the export of raw cotton.
For this to happen, however, there should be a mechanism in place under which a fair return is ensured for the farmer whose only incentive in exporting raw cotton is that there is a marked difference between the price of cotton that is exported and that which is sold in the local market.
Any restriction on the return on raw cotton will act as a disincentive to the grower. A fair return would help keep production levels on the higher side and encourage the farmer to work towards maintaining these levels. These are issues that need to be tackled in the coming months.
Environmental pollution
Speaking at an Islamabad seminar the other day, Federal Minister for Environment Tahir Iqbal said that no project would be given the green light before an environmental impact assessment (EIA) was carried out. The country's environment rules clearly state the kind of projects that require EIAs to be carried out prior to their execution.
If it is found that a certain development project is not environmentally sound or needs modifications, the necessary changes can be made before it is launched, thus ensuring that threats to the environment are minimized and development activity is not allowed to damage ecosystems or endanger human health.
Unfortunately, unlike in many developed countries where strong public opinion and the enforcement of stringent rules have helped maintain a balance between natural surroundings and development, this has not been the case in Pakistan, and environmental laws have been flouted with impunity.
Poorly planned projects, especially in congested urban areas like Karachi, have led to a situation where man and nature both continue to suffer from the ill effects of development.
Not only are whole ecosystems - and with them the sensitive chain of plant, animal and marine life - being destroyed, there is human suffering as well as damage to habitat as a result of large-scale pollution.
The government has admitted that it needs more people to carry out the task of implementing EIAs countrywide. This it must ensure if further damage caused by development projects is to be avoided.
More than that, efforts have to be made, both at the grassroots and governmental levels, to mobilize public opinion against the effects of indiscriminate and rampant development. It goes without saying that no legislation can be effected in letter and spirit if there is not enough public awareness.