| May 12, 2005 | Thursday | Rabi-us-Sani 3, 1426 |
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Evolving NFC consensus
Attacks on women
SINCE independence Pakistan’s foreign policy and its cultural orientation have been focussed on the Middle East. While this was, in a sense, natural because of its geographical location and the roots of its culture and civilization, this approach overlooked other areas of equal economic and geopolitical importance. South-east Asia is a world unto itself, characterized as it is by ethnic and cultural diversity. It has the world’s most populous Muslim country — Indonesia — besides oil-rich Brunei and the economic miracle that is Malaysia. Other South-east Asian countries that have posted remarkable economic progress are Singapore and Thailand. One of their major achievements has been the success of the Association of South-east Asian Nations. Despite its cultural plurality, this 10-nation bloc is an example in regional cooperation and development. All these countries are rich in natural resources — oil, rubber, tin, agriculture, forestry, fisheries and tourism — and have used these resources to industrialize themselves. An equally greater success — in fact, the one that really counts — is the development of their human resources, with an educated population enjoying a relatively high standard of living. The overall result is that the Asean region today is an economic powerhouse and one of the major trading partners of the US, Europe, China and Japan.
Of late, Pakistan has been paying considerable attention to South-east Asia. Asean leaders have been visiting this country, while the just-concluded four-nation visit by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz should be seen as part of Islamabad’s efforts to strengthen ties with the Asean nations. Pakistan wants to become Asean’s dialogue partner. This should have materialized much earlier, but India, which already enjoys this status, has been opposing Pakistan’s move. Its fear is that Islamabad could raise bilateral issues, including Kashmir, at the forum. However, given the current normalization process underway in South Asia, one should expect New Delhi to change its earlier stand. It is significant that Malaysia and Thailand have already pledged to support Pakistan on this count. During his tour of Indonesia last month, President Pervez Musharraf received Jakarta’s support also on the issue.
Economically, Pakistan stands to gain a lot from closer cooperation with Asean. During Mr Shaukat Aziz’s visit, “early harvest” agreements, which constitute a prelude to the signing of free trade areas, were firmed up. The bilateral agreements signed included an MoU with Brunei for setting up a joint investment company, besides Malaysia’s decision to employ 100,000 Pakistani workers. Asean is a big market, and Pakistan will have to make serious efforts to exploit its potential. At present, our exports are limited in scope, and that is the reason why the balance of trade is not in Pakistan’s favour. During his visit, the prime minister offered defence-related items, including Al-Khalid tanks, the training aircraft Mishhak and the J-17 fighter-aircraft, to Malaysia and Thailand. But Asean is not a high-defence spending area, and Pakistan would do well to focus on other items. Some Asean countries have offered to invest in engineering, bio-technology, food processing, real estate and construction, but Pakistan’s domestic scene does not seem to encourage potential investors. Islamabad needs to improve the economic infrastructure, provide more facilities to foreign investors improve law and order if it wants foreign investment to come in a big way.
WITH just a few weeks to go before the federal budget is due to be announced, no agreement has been reached on a new National Finance Commission award for distribution of federal resources. The provinces are in a deadlock over what should be the criteria for sharing the revenues. While Punjab has lately said that it will give up its demand for population to be the sole criterion, Sindh insists on revenue collection as part of a multiple criteria. The main point of contention remains how much weight each factor should be given. If no agreement is reached, the government has said that it will distribute resources under the old formula in the forthcoming budget. One way to reach a final agreement would be to consider the possibility of shortening the tenure of the award or opening it to short-term revisions. This may make it possible for the provinces to come to a final agreement on the basis of the experience gained during the interim period.
Another challenge before the NFC now is to come to an understanding on the vertical distribution of resources (between the centre and the provinces). On this, despite the view expressed earlier by the president that there should be a 50:50 distribution formula, the finance ministry has stuck to its original position of offering 47 per cent to the provinces. It is here that the centre should show flexibility and realism, since additional funds for the provinces, particularly for development, would be a good thing. Any agreement on the distribution of revenues should take into account two important points. First, distribution of federal resources should consider poverty, backwardness, unemployment and the development level of provinces. Secondly, more emphasis should be placed on proper utilization of funds. One cannot forget the fact that billions of rupees in funds meant for development are allowed to lapse for lack of planning and bureaucratic red tape. These problems need to be eliminated. Also, along with more resources, provinces should also assume greater responsibility for the proper utilization of these.
IF THE recent attacks on women in Wah Cantonment are anything to go by, it seems that with each passing day, women in Pakistan have fewer reasons to feel secure in their own country. In the past week, an unknown group of men, said to be students of a madressah attacked six women at different places, using blades and sharp objects as weapons, because they want “women to remain indoors”. These attacks - the first of which was carried out on a 14-year-old girl followed by another attack on a schoolteacher who mercifully remained unhurt - have created widespread panic among students so that attendance in schools has seen a significant drop. The perpetrators of these crimes have accomplished their aims of keeping the women indoors. Who will be bold enough to stand up and reprimand these so-called guardians of morality who think nothing of using violence to achieve their aims?
For its part, the administration has beefed up security in all public places. One hopes that some semblance of normality will return. One can understand if such attacks on women had occurred in a rural backwater. But Wah Cantonment, like many of the cantonments in the country, is a modern area less than an hour’s ride from Islamabad. So a crime of this nature taking place there is as puzzling as it is cause for concern. It only adds to the sense of unease and helplessness, particularly among women, at the rise in crimes against them. It doesn’t help that religious or political parties do not openly condemn such crimes or that women themselves feel that they cannot seek relief from the judicial system. Until and unless the government takes serious note of the rise of such incidents and provides women with a real sense of protection and safety, women will continue to be victimized and society will become increasingly apathetic to such horrors.