| November 16, 2008 | Sunday | Ziqa'ad 17, 1429 |
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Inter-faith dialogue
PCB, no excuse now
Bhasha dam: do not waste $12.6 billion
IMF conditions
Indus Treaty
Karachi Stock Exchange
KPT fountain
Desalination
Steps needed for welfare of expectant mothers
Former president Musharraf, after eight years of failed governance, had announced construction of the dam to hide his economic failure. He announced construction of the dam so that his name could be written in history that ‘a ruler gave Pakistan a dam’.
Readers are requested to restrict their comments to a maximum of 400 words. We reserve the right to edit letters for reasons of clarity and space. Letters, including those by e-mail, should carry the complete postal address of the sender. The views expressed in these columns do not necessarily reflect the views of the newspaper.—Editor
THIS refers to the news report, “SBP’s ability to regulate exchange firms questioned” (Nov 11). The reporter has proved yet once again how brilliant one can be in raising very pertinent questions.
The SBP really has a lot of explanation to do for the flight of billions of dollars from Pakistan. One fails to understand the mechanism these unscrupulous exchange companies can adopt that evades the SBP’s monitoring.
If some citizen wants to purchase a property in the UAE, he will have to either give a cheque or pay order for the rupee component in favour of the exchange company. This is the first step in the process, and the SBP can easily ask all banks to report such transfers in the accounts of exchange companies, unless the exchange companies are taking only cash and putting it in a bank locker, or hiding it somewhere else.
The exchange companies will get scores of such deposits in their bank accounts. For $10bn to fly out of Pakistan, the exchange companies’ rupee bank accounts will swell to over Rs800bn.
It would be absurd for the SBP to say that it still would not come to know what is going on, unless it closes its eyes. If this is happening, then I must also admire the exchange companies for taking this large exposure on Pakistan rupees.
Simultaneously, the prices of the assets in Pakistan (especially real estate) that are being sold by these overseas investing Pakistanis will have a free fall, because there will be too many sellers and too few buyers. A Rs800bn is just too big an amount to be raised from the sale of real estate. I am not sure if this is happening, but Dawn’s reporters can easily tell us. As per my information, real estate prices have fallen some 30 per cent, but there is very thin trading. What other assets are being sold then?
Then the exchange companies have to buy US dollars to sell to these Pakistanis investing abroad. One major source for the exchange companies are the foreign currencies sold by returning and vacationing expatriate Pakistanis.
The estimated figure of this foreign currency (hard cash) purchase by exchange companies is $2bn per annum.
Is this supposed to be reported to the SBP, or not?
Normally, this hard cash foreign currency is exported by the exchange companies (adding to Pakistan’s foreign reserves), after getting the SBP’s approval, to Dubai. Is there a drop in this amount? The SBP knows well.
Another source for the exchange companies is purchasing foreign currency (hard cash or funds) from banks, which is again in full SBP knowledge. There is a third source too, and that is purchasing foreign currency funds from the Pakistani exporters outside Pakistan.
In this case, there will be a massive rise in the foreign currency export receivables of Pakistan.
When I analyse the whole situation, it seems to me that either the SBP is not doing its rupee-parity defending job properly, or the whole flight of capital theory is a figment of our imagination.
Ten billion dollars is a huge amount in terms of rupees, and for flight of this capital to happen would mean that there is a spree of real or financial assets sale and that the SBP is utterly incompetent.
Given the level of the SBP’s competence as well as the real trading of real and financial assets, my take would be that the flight of capital is not more than $2bn. Our economy is simply not large enough to support a flight of greater amount from the country.
I suggest that Dawn’s business editorial team should compile an investigative report, utilising the banking and finance professionals from the private sector.
In the end, I must also condole the huge losses of Pakistanis who invested in UAE properties. My comforting comment to these aggrieved Pakistanis is that this is the price one pays for being disloyal to Pakistan.
FUZAIL ZUBAID AHMAD
Saudi Arabia
THIS is apropos of the news report, ‘Muslims, Christians vow to jointly combat terror’ (Nov 7) regarding inter-faith dialogue, organised by the Vatican and attended by 58 religious leaders and scholars of two religions, wherein they have vowed to combat violence and terrorism carried out in the name of God.
History tells us that though many wars have been fought in the name of religion, their basic cause has been political. The fact remains that apart from certain theological differences of academic nature, there has been no major dispute amongst major religions.
An objective study of history reveals that even the crusades were result of political ambitions and motivations of certain individuals and had nothing to do with religions.
History also tells us that if wars have been fought between the followers of different religions, they have also been fought by the followers of same religion! The wars amongst European nations, professing same religion as well as ‘Jang-I-Jumul’ fought between Bibi Ayesha and Hazrat Ali and the one fought between Iran and Iraq could be cited in this respect.
Another lesson from history is that in most of the conflicts, the role of religious leaders has been that of supporters in advancing the political ambitions and agendas of their respective rulers in exchange of certain privileges.
Looking at the present wave of terrorism, which perhaps prompted holding this inter-faith dialogue, we come to the conclusion that it also is political in nature and is being fought by some very powerful players on the earth for their political gains. We come to conclusion that terrorism has nothing to do with religions.
In this terror war, the most important tool used has been promotion of ‘ignorance.’ Most of the children in the terror-prone Muslim world have been denied the opportunity to education in the belief that a properly educated person would hardly fall prey to mindless propagations and be ready to be used as a terrorist or a suicide bomber. Then, the minority that finds way to schools has been systematically denied the right type of education that could promote objectivity and broadmindedness.
Recently, during a visit to Class VII in a school, I was astonished when the students told me that Sudan was located in Europe and Germany was located in Australia! Shocked, when I asked for the textbook of the subject Social Studies, I found that there were nine chapters in the book: (1) Pakistan in the Muslim World (2) The Contemporary Muslim World (3) The Muslim World and Colonialism (4) Muslim Awakening (5) Struggle for Pakistan 1937-1947 (6) Land and People of the Muslim World (7) Resources of Muslim World (8) Trade in Muslim World and (9) Civic Life in Pakistan.
The contents of these chapters were more confusing and one could hardly blame the students for their ignorance. This over emphasis on Islam and Muslims and total ignorance about the world that exists around us have helped a great deal the masterminds of terrorism to use these innocent young people as fodder in shape of suicide bombers and terrorists to achieve their political targets.
Perhaps the best places to fight the war on terror are the pages of the textbooks and the classroom and not the Vatican City.
DR MUHAMMAD ALI SHAIKH
Former Principal, Sindh
Madressatul Islam
Karachi
AFTER reading your editorial, ‘The same old story at the PCB’, I find myself agreeing with your viewpoint about the present setup and working of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).
You have rightly summed up your write-up about the management of the PCB, stating that they have all been around for a long time and have returned to the scene only wearing different hats.
Right from the days of its founding, after A.H. Kardar, this is the second instance when the PCB is being headed and managed solely by former test cricketers of Pakistan. Conversely, during the days
of Tauqir Zia, Shaharyar Mohammad Khan, Dr Nasim Ashraf and the likes, one has been hearing a lot of hue and cry that cricket in Pakistan cannot flourish under a non-technical chairman who has no cricketing background of his own.
For every defeat and failure of our cricket team, some former test cricketers and critics of the game held responsible not the selectors, captain, or the then coach of the team but the non-technical chairman of the PCB and explicitly demanded for a former test cricketer to head the highest cricket body in Pakistan.
In the same breath these critics also never welcomed the idea of a foreign coach and criticised the chairman of the PCB for not employing a local coach for the Pakistan cricket team.
But now the PCB is being governed — its chairman and its coach included — by former test cricketers of Pakistan, who have a vast cricketing experience behind them.
One hopes the PCB now has no room left for any excuse to defend any poor show put up by our cricket team in future.
RAFAT MAHMOOD ANSARI
Islamabad
The fact is that Pakistan’s economy cannot afford to offer financial resources for construction of the dam. The country is on the verge of default on its foreign liabilities, inflation running high at 25 per cent, cities and villages forced to live without power.
Why waste such a huge amount of financial resources on power generation that too yields results after eight years. For generation of power the government should issue licences to the private sector, which is already generating more than 30 per cent of the existing power requirement in country.
In today’s world power generation is not a big issue, let the private sector play its role. If Tapal Tea and Gul Ahmad Textile can have small power plants, why can’t provincial governments start generating their own power?. The economic opportunity cost of the dam would be huge. If the government spends less than 20 per cent over the next eight years on promoting education, giving health, skill development training to young Pakistanis, opening up more public sector medical colleges, the young lot of Pakistan could go abroad and pay back the country billions of dollars in remittances.
Let us not forget that from 1981 to 2006 overseas Pakistanis contributed $62 billion to the GNP, and this amount is higher than what the country received in aid, assistance and loans from financial institutions and governments in the given period.
In the past dams were constructed with the help of the World Bank, this time around there is no hope that the ADB and the WB will provide this assistance to Pakistan, whose economy is already locked into an inherent imbalance causing unending deficits.
How is an economy that generates $25 billion revenue and has $35 billion expenditure going to bridge the gap?
We see the present elected government is struggling to avoid default. In such a situation inviting fresh long-term liabilities is surely bad economics.
Pakistan does not need a dam, it needs more schools, health, social safety nets, food subsidies to fight hunger, not poverty.
The country needs investment to prevent diseases, to have child health centres in rural areas. It is shocking to see extremely poor people flocking at NICH. Why have successive governments failed to establish NICHs in Sukkur, Dadu, Mirpurkhas, Nawabshah and Hyderabad?
We also need to understand that climate changes are causing glaciers to melt fast. Who knows whether Bhasha will even get filled after 10 years when it is supposed to be ready. By the way do the existing dams get filled every year?
Pakistan needs to reorient its economic development policy. Independent development economists need to prioritise development requirements, not the lobbyists and bankers guided with vested interests.
MUSHTAQUE RAJPAR
Karachi
THE IMF should seek understanding from the government of Pakistan on the following issues while offering loan to it:
*Population control programme as the government is not able to look after about 40 per cent of the people, the majority of whom live in abject poverty.
*Reduction in defence spending because India will not take over Pakistan as long as it has nuclear weapons, and more important thing for Pakistan is its responsibility towards feeding its over 160 million people.
*Increase in productivity, along with maintaining quality in this regard, so that consumer goods are easily available at home.
*Reform in tax laws to make tax collection efficient and effective, making it a criminal offence if anyone does not pay the tax.
*Acceptance of the Line of Control in Kashmir (It is a political issue and may be outside the jurisdiction of the IMF).
*Imposition of currency exchange control, and making citizens to declare their foreign holdings and their repatriaton to Pakistan. Failure to do so should be made punishable as a criminal offence
*Seeking declaration and taxing foreign earnings of its citizens
*Rapidly improving the standard of social and cultural values to enhance national confidence, civic sense and national bonding.
*Undertaking such projects as may provide employment to rural labour force.
*Imposing restrictions on import of goods other than capital goods for increasing productivity.
*Making a criminal offence the sending of money abroad through hundi and hawala. Imposing a ban on dealing in foreign currency through a person etc other than an authorised dealer.
All the steps mentioned above should be implemented in the next three years.
S. A. KHAN
London
THIS refers to Manzoor Chandio’s article, ‘Renegotiate the Indus Treaty’ (Nov 11). The present water crisis in Pakistan is not the result of the Indus Waters Treaty. Had that been the case, we should have been experiencing similar water shortages for the past 40 years.
The shortage has been caused by the silting in the Mangla and Tarbela reservoirs that has reduced their storage capacity to less than half. It has severely impacted agricultural production that can no longer meet the demands for food and other staples for the ever increasing population.
The power generating capacity has also been curtailed because there is less water being discharged through the dams at certain times.
If a replacement dam had been built in time, the country would not be facing the spectre of famine nor the horrendous power shortages that are only going to intensify. Precious time was lost and a vital project was sacrificed at the alter of political expediency.
It is by no means certain that a lesson has been learnt even now.
It is ironic that the areas where the people will suffer the most as a result of this monumental blunder and dereliction of duty are where the politicians have been most active in opposing the construction of the replacement dam.
Unfortunately the price will be paid not by the politicians but by the poor and the helpless. What a misfortune.
K. H. ZIA
Lahore
THIS is regarding commotion in the Karachi Stock Exchange where nobody became somebody.
Now these rich stockbrokers are trying to fleece the government and the government is preparing to beef up these rich brokers with taxpayers’ money.
Some of these top brokers decide to chip in some of their money so that the stock exchange can make a comeback to decent index level. But how can they?
The government should take interest in renowned brokers’ massive accumulation of wealth and property. A share which was say of Rs50 went up by 500 per cent in the last five years. Who has the profits? Not small investors!
HASSAN
Karachi
ACCORDING to Dawn and other media reports, the controversial Rs32.5 million KPT fountain, claimed to be unique and the highest in Asia, is no more (at least in working condition).
A brainchild of the former president’s favourite friend and three times chairman of the KPT, the good-for-nothing high pressure jet of filthy seawater (dangerously polluted with untreated sewage) which spoiled the fresh ozone-bearing sea breeze from the vast Indian Ocean for over two years may not be missed by many.
Its demise may in fact bring a sigh of relief to the residents of the neighbourhood and the envoironmentalists in general.
Needless to repeat that the money could be well spent at least for two well-equipped hospitals and two good schools for the needy residents of Manora, Keamari and adjacent populated islands.
The good news is that the KPT is rid of at least Rs150,000 a day spent on fuel and running expenses.
The bad news is that there is no serious inquiry into the matter as yet and, as an eyewash (even that with seawater) the authorities are considering award of another expensive contract for its revival with a foreign firm. For what good to the nation only God knows better?
If this project must be recommissioned, it must be done at the expense of those who made millions in commission, and reinstalled at a suitable location like the small lake in Hill Park from where it can be viewed over a much larger area of the city.
IJTABA ZAIDI
Karachi
THIS is apropos of M. Ozair Azam’s letter (Nov 3). I am unable to understand the first suggestion/question, i.e. why isn’t seawater used for desalination purpose, coupled with electricity production?
The desalination process consumes substantial energy and cannot help to increase power generation. The best long-term option for cheap power generation is large dams like Bhasha, Munda, Kalabagh and Akhori.
The Kalabagh dam can be constructed in the minimum period, i.e. six years.
QASIM IQBAL KHAN
Lahore
ONE out of 89 women in Pakistan dies of maternal causes, while two — thirds still deliver at home.
A maternal death occurs — while a woman is pregnant or within 42 days of the end of her pregnancy — from any cause related to the pregnancy.
Among women aged 12 to 49, complications of pregnancy and childbirth are the leading cause of death, accounting for 20 per cent of all deaths for women of childbearing age.
Women aged 25 to 29 are specially at risk for maternal death — nearly two out of five maternal deaths for this age group are from pregnancy-related causes.
Balochistan and the Sindh coastal belt have by far the highest proportion of women dying from complications of pregnancy, child-birth and puerperium (the six weeks immediately after delivery).
Still, almost 65 per cent of women deliver at home, and less than half receive any kind of post-natal care. Women living in rural areas and those who are poorer are especially unlikely to receive any care during pregnancy and childbirth.
However, only 25 per cent of pregnant women learn about warning signs of pregnancy complications, and less than half(43 per cent) take iron tablets or syrup.
Most women (80 per cent) get their blood pressure checked but less than half are weighed or have a urine or blood sample taken.
Proper medical attention and sterile conditions during delivery greatly reduce the risk of serious illness or death to the mother and baby. Only one-third of Pakistan’s births occur in health facilities—11 per cent in the public sector and 23 per cent in private sector facilities.
By contrast, two-thirds of birth occur at home. Home births are considerably more common in rural areas (74 per cent) than urban areas (43 per cent), and far more common among women with little or no education than among women with secondary higher education.
Fewer than two in five births (39 per cent of births) are assisted by a skilled provider (doctor, nurse /midwife, or lady health visitor). Half are assisted by a traditional birth attendant (dai).
A safe delivery kit is used for about one-third of home births. In 79 per cent of home deliveries, however, an unboiled thread is used to tie the umbilical cord and in 28 per cent, scissors are used to cut the cord.
One in every 11 children dies before reaching his/her fifth birthday. More that half of these deaths occur during the first month of life.
Diarrhoea and pneumonia continue to be two of the leading causes of death in children younger than five years. Children living in rural areas are at greater risk of death than those living in urban areas. Mortality rate for the under-five is 28 per cent higher in rural than urban areas.
The average childbirth gap in Pakistan is below two years. Spacing children at least 36 months apart significantly reduces the risk of infant and child deaths. Being a woman legislator I would suggest that the existing health services should be improved, emergency obstetrical care should be available to all women round the clock.
Equipping the existing basic health units and rural health centres with basic obstetrics care, ensuring availability of health professionals trained and experienced in obstetric complications may significantly reduce maternal mortality in Pakistan.
Traditional birth attendants should be trained to recognise complications and refer such cases to the professionals. Maternity homes should exist at union council level.
Literacy rate should be improved so that awareness about reproductive health and use of available health resources could be optimised.
Gender discrimination should be discouraged to make women part of decision-making. Repeated and closely-spaced pregnancies should be discouraged and contraceptive prevalence needs to be increased in culturally conservative areas.
The role of men regarding knowledge and use of contraceptive measures should be encouraged. Antenatal care is the right of every pregnant woman.
Socio-economic status of the community needs to be improved to avoid hindrance of high cost of care and poverty. Healthcare should be free for all pregnant women. NGOs should expand their services with the support of government in rural areas to upgrade reproductive health status.
HUMERA ALWANI
Member, Sindh Assembly
Thatta
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