I was slightly taken aback recently when I approached the check-out at a Dubai branch of a British retailing chain. There, sitting behind the till, all smiles and efficiency, was a UAE lady.

So, what was so remarkable? Simply the fact that it is rare to encounter UAE citizens — men or women — on the other side of the counter in our everyday shopping life here in the Emirates.

When you go into a shop in Pakistan, you would be mighty surprised if the person serving you was anything other than a Pakistani, but it’s a completely opposite situation in Dubai. Indians and Filipinos tend to have the majority of front-line jobs in the retail trade and only very recently have UAE citizens — Emiratis — begun to make any appearance, which, at present, remains minimal.

It is, however, not just a phenomenon of the retail trade. Emiratis make up around 15 per cent of the UAE population with around 140 other nationalities accounting for the remainder — the majority being Indians, Pakistanis, Iranians and people from other Arab countries. But in Dubai’s private sector as a whole, less than one per cent of the employees are Emiratis.

The government appreciates it has a major problem. Because of the imbalance in population there has been official encouragement — including financial inducements — for Emiratis to produce big families and this has resulted in a young population. At the same time, the government has poured money into the education system, and suddenly there is a glut of educated youngsters looking for jobs.

Traditionally, most have found employment in government ministries or the military, or with quasi-government organizations like the oil companies or the telecommunications company, but there’s a limit on how far those outfits can be used as job-creation schemes. Not surprisingly, therefore, attention turned to the private sector.

The banks and insurance companies were given quotas and the private sector in general was told that it could not employ a foreigner for any post if a qualified Emirati was available, but this rule has never been implemented. In none of the cases has the target been reached.

As an example, the insurance sector was supposed to have 20 per cent of jobs filled by locals by the end of this year. With 46 companies employing 3,400 people, it has achieved just 5.3 per cent. Eight companies do not employ a single national.

Tanmia, a government body that has been set up to help locals find jobs, report that the UAE is probably the only country in the world where foreigners dominate the private sector, both as employers and employees.

It said that for nationals to become active participants in the private sector, effort is necessary by both parties and this requires a fundamental change in attitudes, conditions and environment within the private sector, as well as among UAE nationals seeking employment.

The problem is certainly two-sided. Nationals think working for government organizations is easier, with more security and shorter hours, than the private sector. And there is certainly a perception that they will not be helped to advance working among foreigners in a private organization.

There is probably more than a grain of truth in this. Not so long back I was talking to an Indian who had held a middle management post at one of the UAE’s airports for more than 10 years and had been given an Emirati understudy. “I don’t want to tell him too much, otherwise he will be able to do my job,” he confided in me in a conspiratorial tone.

From the employers’ point of view, the perception is that locals expect too much, too soon, want special conditions and don’t stay around for long, so it is easier to employ a foreigner for whom not so many allowances have to be made.

All these problems were highlighted this week at a careers exhibition held in Dubai which was opened by the Dubai Crown Prince Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, who called for greater partnership between public and private sectors for creating more employment opportunities for national graduates.

After banking and insurance, other sectors that are being targeted for employing locals include tourism and hospitality, information technology, media communications and technical careers in the power and energy sectors. It is now generally accepted that the foreign workforce will be relied upon for many generations to come to fill more menial roles.

According to officials at the fair, a ‘carrot’ approach of persuading employers that it was their duty to take Emiratis has not been working and it could be time for legislation to be introduced which would force them to do so. They could, for instance, find it impossible to take on any new employees unless they are locals.

But at the same time, Dubai is doing everything it can to attract new business and is loathe to introduce any rules that would dissuade companies, especially multinationals, from setting up here.

There is obviously a social problem in the making. No government can afford to have large numbers of educated youngsters feeling disaffected because they have no work. They might not want some of the jobs that are on offer, but they certainly do not like to be out of work and see the dominance of foreigners in the workplace. It is a situation which would provoke unrest in just about any country and the authorities are doing all they can to deal with it before it becomes a major issue here.

So with this background, you can probably appreciate my surprise at seeing the Emirati lady behind the cash till. She was breaking new ground and if more followed her lead, the local employment problem could soon be solved.

In the meantime, I do not think anybody need fear that the UAE job market is going to get any smaller. With the speed the country is developing there will be many jobs available to foreigners for many years to come.

IT is rather hard to imagine that we would reach a point in time when there would be a row over water hydrants between the Rangers and the City District Government Karachi.

Tanker mafia is a virtually an established reality. But why there was a row over hydrants? What they were quarrelling about, wondered citizens when they saw the recent news reports. Would not the water shortage get worse, citizens feared, and understandably so.

Digress a little to understand the context, and perhaps it would be easier to understand. Perhaps I repeat. Hasn’t there been a controversy since the last two decades over the Kalabagh Dam, and see how bitter is the divide. Isn’t there a water issue too between India and Pakistan? Water aside, aren’t there differences over the 6th NFC award, even as the country gets ready for the federal budget on June 6? Is there not a dissent between the Sindh government and the city district government? And the gap appears to be widening as the local bodies elections come nearer.

One is at times amazed at the dissent there is in this society. Political dissent, economic dissent, sectarian divide, linguistic divide, and the list is long. Sometimes it seems that nobody agrees with anybody. Strange kind of democracy we are headed for, remarked one cynic tired of the experiments that the country has had since Independence.        As he expressed his disappointment with the lack of consensus in the country, he spoke in the same vein of the Clifton Cross where the underpass has been a subject of controversy and opinion divide. Some citizens have so tired of this doubt about the very concept of the underpass design, and the frustrations and disgust of poorly executed diversions that they have failed to look at the ultimate benefit that will come from this development project. I have heard residents of this area and those, who use the roads and streets in the locality and the adjacent network, fear the monsoons this year. They do not know what misery may await them.

Before one returns to the water theme and the day that the tussle between the Rangers and the KWSB was deepened, take into account that Kanupp blamed the KESC for the plant shutdown. A blame game is so common in this country. Institution versus institution, department versus department. Individual pitted against individual. No such concept as the abiding pursuit of higher goals .No such selflessness that this society is desperately calling for. Isn’t it time that the desperation of our times is also understood?

In the case of Kanupp plant shutdown, the reason reported was that a “predawn pilferage of power cables had taken place,” which caused the country’s first nuclear power plant to shut down. So 40 megawatts of power to an already power starved KESC was stopped.

A thought goes out to the privatization of KESC and news reports that the investors who bid highest for the KESC have backed out. Citizens wonder in the dark about what may have happened. Bear in mind that the PTCL employees are on strike as I write this column, and they have been agitating against privatization for quite some time. They have political support too. Privatization and public utilities — interesting proposition. How society eventually reacts will be keenly watched.

Returning to the tussle over hydrants from where a tanker mafia also operates, after initial reports about the row there came on Friday the announcement from the Pakistan Rangers, Sindh, which stated “since the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board could not take over the hydrants due to technical constraints, the same would remain under the control of the Rangers.”

The two hydrants being focused upon are Muslimabad hydrant and low service reservoir (LSR) located near the Civic Centre, Gulshan-i-Iqbal. It is imperative to mention here that the roads in these two areas are in very poor shape. Pathetic and shabby would be understatements. Ask the residents of these areas of how they suffer because of roads that even water tankers find a challenge to drive upon. Ironically, the tankers themselves are the cause of the lasting damage to the roads, rendering them unserviceable. This is a condition that has been prevailing since the last forty years in Muslimabad. And so is the water shortage in the city.

To place the water crisis in the long-term perspective, the water shortage has been there always, and from the look of things there are no reasons to believe that there is going to be an end to it in any foreseeable future. Indeed, there are plans, promises and in plenty. Trust me, no one believes them. And if one is to go by the scary report that has appeared in this daily on May 23 about the Kalri Lake contamination, there is reason to believe that trouble lies ahead. And mineral water bottlers are going to mint money.  

The report has highlighted the fact that 450 million gallons daily of Karachi’s total supply of 550mgd come from this polluted Kalri. We have enough deaf ears and hardened hearts in this society to know what is happening. The fact that we have reached a stage where we require Pakistan Rangers to help us manage our water supplies and distribution is symbolic enough of the fact of our governance being frictional and fragmented. It makes one wonder the extent to which we now have to depend on law enforcing agencies. They help us manage in other fields like schools, colleges, universities, hospitals, places which would expect to function normally. Even recreational activity or sports are under their security umbrella.

In the water distribution network that the Rangers supervise, a logical question comes in mind about the tanker “mafia” that why they are able to get away with their malpractices. Why there is this overcharging and black marketing of water when it is being done under the supervision of the law enforcing agencies, is another question that is frequently asked. Even during the outgoing week, while the KWSB and the Rangers were attempting in vain to settle their disputes, the tankers were making money: overcharging and black marketing without any check on them.

Now that Rangers will retain control of the water hydrants it is assuring to see that there will be special teams that will try and keep a check on the “tanker mafia”, selling water acquired cheaply, and sold at exorbitant rates. At least that is the intention, officially stated. Most of us are keeping our fingers crossed.

Some of us, citizens of this water-deficient Sindh capital, often wonder and not just in summer what kind of future lies ahead. Some of us also wonder about those who pay water taxes and get no water in the pipeline. They buy it through tankers and others who meet their daily needs by boring water wells in their neighbourhood and in their backyard.

One such person I spoke to when the Rangers were having their tug of war with the KWSB said that he had been shocked at this aspect of Karachi life. He had never imagined that such a situation could ever have arisen. He was being naďve once again.