Image and reality

NO one has done more to defame the system of religious instruction in Pakistan and strengthen the anti-madressah lobby in the world than the two Lal Masjid brothers. Since 9/11, madressahs in Pakistan have become the focus of world attention, even though nothing has been proved conclusively that the pilots and the brains behind the 9/11 catastrophe ever had any connection with madressahs in this country. As the history of madressahs in South Asia shows, these institutions — barring some exceptions — traditionally had nothing to do with politics or violence. At a higher level, the madressahs have produced some of the subcontinent’s outstanding scholars of Islam; at a lower level, they have provided not only education but lodging and boarding to children from low-income groups. The idea was to produce imams and muezzins and those who could be of service to the community and perform religious rites at births, deaths, weddings, etc, besides giving religious lessons to children. The curriculum was traditional, and that was one reason why as time passed the madressahs came to be identified solely with religious education, and a clear difference appeared between secular education and what was, and continues to be, taught in the madressahs. Stagnation, thus, became the madressahs’ lot but they were by no means a threat to society or the established order.

Come the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the situation changed radically. Many madressahs in the country became centres of indoctrination, training and recruitment for the jihad against the Soviet Union, and money and arms came from the US. As the years rolled by, the anti-Soviet resistance groups became part of Pakistan’s political and social scene, with some religious parties developing a vested interest in the operation. The result was that even after the Soviets had withdrawn from Afghanistan, the mujahideen fought among themselves, and jihadi organisations based in Pakistan became party to the ensuing civil war. The Taliban triumphed, because they had turned madressahs in Pakistan into a recruiting ground for their militia. Yet it would be wrong to say that today all madressahs in Pakistan are run by Taliban supporters. The vast majority of madressahs still concern themselves with traditional education and shun politics.

The excesses committed by brothers Abdul Aziz and Abdul Rasheed Ghazi have helped the anti-madressah lobby in the West malign Pakistan. Such is their record of blackmailing, kidnapping and hostage-taking that even the religious parties and most madressahs have refused to show any sympathy for them. The world at large does not care whether or not the Lal Masjid brigade was isolated from the religious parties and groups in Pakistan; what the millions the world over have seen on the TV screen is a madressah in action. The two brothers will no doubt be tried and handed out justice, but there is no doubt that they have done incalculable harm not only to all madressahs but also to Pakistan and Islam itself. The lesson the government must learn is that no other madressah or a nucleus of that type should again be allowed to grow to a point where it can flaunt its power, gather a militia, turn a mosque into a fortress, use religion as licence to defy the government and the state and threaten the established order.

Protecting the vulnerable

CASH and food handouts go a long way in easing the plight of disaster victims. They also provide a measure of short-term relief to the poorest of the poor who may not know where their next meal is coming from. However, such assistance contributes little to the cause of poverty alleviation, for the simple reason that it is not sustainable. It is beyond the means of a developing country to keep even a fraction of the population permanently on the dole. Even if it were possible, aid of this nature cannot break the cycle of poverty that consumes generation after generation in a country like Pakistan. Indeed, an argument can be made that unending reliance on the state and the generosity of others could, conceivably, perpetuate poverty instead of breaking its shackles. The answer, clearly, lies in socio-economic policies aimed at employment generation and the provision of basic skills to unskilled workers. As the ancient Chinese said: Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.

The government’s draft national Social Protection Strategy, currently being vetted and expected to be approved shortly, aims at protecting the vulnerable from destitution, food insecurity and social exclusion. It is encouraging that the SPS is not limited to the zakat and food aid programmes that have largely failed to deliver. Instead, it focuses on vocational training and the development of basic skills, public works projects based on low-wage employment (roads and housing schemes come to mind), a revised child labour plan and investment in health, nutrition and education. These efforts are to be supplemented by aid channelled through the existing zakat and food support programmes — safety nets that can assist the chronically poor in coping with poverty and help rehabilitate families and individuals hit by seasonal shocks and natural calamities. The question is: how much progress can be made without addressing the key issue of land reforms? Feudalism and rural poverty are intrinsically linked, and it is difficult to see how the vulnerable can ever be protected without dismantling the feudal system once and for all.

After the floods

THE destruction caused by the floods in Balochistan has not abated, with the death toll on Thursday reaching 134 while 170 persons are still missing. Over two million people are in severe distress and their relief and rehabilitation needs are of paramount importance. An unimaginable number remain cut off from areas like Jaffarabad and Jhal Magsi, with the latter submerged under water and road links destroyed. Thousands have been rescued but many still need help. As such, all aid and assistance must be expedited. Meanwhile, a new danger has cropped up in the form of several diseases which must be contained before more lives are lost. Cases of gastroenteritis, malaria, skin diseases and even snakebite (56 cases reported in Jaffarabad) are on the rise and call for urgent attention. Sindh too saw an alarming rise in gastroenteritis cases right after the floods but the health authorities took quick action and dispatched mobile units with necessary medicines and did what they could to ensure that hospitals were equipped to deal with the large number of patients being admitted for the disease.

But Balochistan is a far poorer province, victim to years of neglect, where basic health facilities are lacking. In this dire situation it is severely ill-equipped to deal with the situation. The federal government must make sure that Balochistan gets all it needs — beyond the Rs200 million aid package it announced late last month, especially since more destruction has been wrought since. Medical teams must be dispatched to the affected areas and camps set up so that people can get the necessary medical treatment. There must be no delay in this as it will be tragic if lives are lost because of the authorities’ inefficiency or indifference. The people’s welfare and rehabilitation must be the top priority at this stage.

The worsening energy crisis

TONIGHT, when you turn on your flat panel television to watch your favourite programme, take a closer look. You will be looking at a most promising solution to energy problems, especially for poorer countries in Asia and Africa for whom affordable energy is becoming increasingly inaccessible.

The fulfilment of this promise is round the corner. In less than five years, technological breakthrough in material sciences along with new economics of energy are making solar power the big solution to future energy problems.

This technology was developed in the 1970s, soon after the first oil shocks hit the world. But as oil prices fell quickly again, the technology was put to reverse use in the television and computer industries to generate profits for its sponsors. Now as Asian economies continue to rise on the back of their successful industrial revolution, the economics of energy has been fuelling a renaissance in the technologies of energy. This is making it possible for solar power to be competitive with oil-based power within five years and cheaper by half within a decade.

Take a look at your flat panel TV screen again. The bright light which displays colourful images on that screen is produced when electricity is passed through special conductive material which converts electricity into light. The semiconductors do the reverse job too, i.e. absorb sunlight to produce usable electricity.

That part was known. Barriers existed because semiconductors were expensive silicon crystals or amorphous silicon. The good news is that barriers are being removed by the manufacture of cheap, electrically conductive plastics and other organic materials. This makes market penetration by solar power cheap and easy. And it is now set to take over a big share of the world energy market from its competitors — conventional as well as other alternate sources of energy.

Apart from cost effectiveness, these new products enjoy hitherto unknown flexibility, because they can be used in film rolls to be stuck or spread across or as liquids to be coated over any surface or size. Already this breakthrough in material sciences has earned one brilliant scientist the Nobel Prize and products are also entering the commercial market.

Several companies in Germany, Japan and the US are now scrambling to sponsor and own different pieces of this technology in order to ride on the wave of future profits. Although wind power (as an alternate source) currently generates more power worldwide, this technological breakthrough in material sciences has changed the dynamics, so much so that most knowledgeable energy experts believe that solar power is poised to outstrip wind power and provide “20 per cent of all the incremental energy needed worldwide by 2040.”

Solar power also has other advantages which extend its competitive edge over other sources, including alternates. It is a silent technology which does not involve the construction of huge turbines that tower over the landscape and intrude into the skyline, and its flexibility is unmatched by others.

But the most unparalleled advantage of solar energy is that it provides an infinite source of clean and virtually free energy. Look at its magnitude: every minute the sun pounds the surface of the earth with more energy than the entire world consumes in one whole year! Now slowly but surely, man is finding it technologically and economically feasible to access this unlimited source of energy for its ever-growing needs.

This is a special boon for the poor sun-baked regions of Asia and Africa, although, sadly, even their rich public and private organisations like the Arab League, the OIC and other foundations have had very little to do with the development or sponsorship of this breakthrough, despite the fact that their people would be the biggest beneficiaries.

This breakthrough in energy technology is now ahead of other conventional energy sources, just like cellular phone technology leapfrogged landline systems leaving these behind in a very short time. The breakthrough in solar energy technology now makes it possible for villages that had never seen electricity to directly benefit from it, just like they did in the telecommunication age with cellular technology.

Pakistan’s energy problems are a product of an antiquated and costly energy profile. Added to this are the problems generated by its organisational structures, spread across several ministries and agencies. Both these regressive features are still trying to fly against the combined logic of technology and economics.

Unlike China and India which — like Europe and US before — have been industrialising their economies on the back of cheap indigenous coal-based power that meets over 60 per cent of their needs, Pakistan uses coal for only one per cent of its power generation. No high growth rates can be sustained in an economy on the back of unaffordable and inaccessible energy.

Coal has powered industrialisation of practically every country in the world since the industrial revolution, except Pakistan and some oil-rich Gulf states. It continues to be the fuel of the future as well because of its reinvention as clean coal in power-generation and coal-based liquid fuel fit enough for jet engines among other uses.

Pakistan’s antiquated energy paradigm has already landed the country in the worst energy crisis of its history. With regular power outages lasting for hours on end, the unavailability of power has been added to the severe problems already caused by its non-affordability. The gap between demand and supply has been allowed to widen because of non-serious and biased approaches to the issue.

Energy challenges of the future cannot be met by Pakistan without cleaning the old stables of a sector involving various ministries and agencies whose turf wars have been a major cause of the country’s energy predicament. This fragmented organisational structure dating back to before even the first energy crisis hit the world is out of sync with contemporary realities. The divergent elements of this sector need to be integrated so that its divided components with divided loyalties do not function at cross purposes and provide loopholes for failures without pinning responsibilities.

In Pakistan, such an integration of the energy sector has been overdue. There should be a single ministry of energy integrating the truncated activities spread across the petroleum and natural resources and water and power ministries and other agencies.The mines and mineral paraphernalia attached to petroleum and natural resources should be sent over to the provinces where they belong. The power wing of Wapda and the power paraphernalia of the water and power ministry should be brought under this new energy ministry along with oil and gas functions.

Wapda should become the water management agency and should be affiliated with the food and agriculture ministry to which water resource management rightly belongs. Fisheries and livestock activities now centralised under that ministry should be shunted out to provinces where they are better managed, being closer to the scene.

Such a well-integrated ministry of energy would provide the right platform for Pakistan to successfully face future challenges — not only domestic challenges but also those arising from international moves on the energy chessboard.

Energy is extremely important not just for sustained growth but for survival as well. Our continued refusal to reform our several social and political predicaments is pushing the country back into the dark ages in a metaphorical sense. With the growing energy crisis, this may be taken literally as well.

The writer is a former head of Board of Investment and federal secretary.

smshah@alum.mit.edu

Paper or plastic?

TAKE a walk along the Chesapeake Bay or the Anacostia River in the US, and you are likely to see plastic bags floating in the water.

Ever since these now ubiquitous symbols of American super-consumption showed up in supermarkets and the words "paper or plastic" became a fixture in Americans' lexicon, plastic shopping bags have made their way into local waterways and, from there, into the bay, where they can harm wildlife.

Piles of them — the material takes centuries to decompose — show up in landfills, in otherwise verdant rural landscapes and on city streets. Plastic bags also take an environmental toll in the form of millions of barrels of oil expended every year to produce them.

Enter Annapolis Alderman Sam Shropshire, who has introduced a well-meaning proposal to ban retailers from distributing plastic shopping bags in Maryland's capital. Instead, retailers would be required to offer bags made of recycled paper and to sell reusable bags.

The city of Baltimore is considering a similar measure. The problem, opponents of the idea counter, is that paper bags are harmful, too: They cost more to make, they gobble up more resources to transport, and recycling them causes more pollution than recycling plastic. The argument for depriving Annapolis residents of their plastic bags is far from made.

Everyone in this debate is right about one thing: Disposable shopping bags of any type are wasteful, and the best outcome would be for customers to reuse bags instead. Annapolis’s mayor is investigating how to hand out free, reusable shopping bags to city residents, a proposal that can proceed regardless of whether other bags are banned.

A less-expensive strategy would be to encourage retailers to give discounts to customers who bring their own, reusable bags.

—The Washington Post