Education: skewed priorities

ACCORDING to the World Bank, Pakistan’s spending on public sector education is only 2.3 per cent of the GDP and this is much lower than the South Asian average of 3.6 per cent and the low-income countries’ average of 3.4 per cent. This disturbing information does not come out of the blue. Given the dismal state of education in Pakistan which is now casting a dark shadow over every sector of life, it is generally known that education has not received the priority it deserves. Had this not been the case, the government would not have shifted its responsibility of educating the citizens of this country to the private sector. Having done that, the policymakers have managed to ease the heavy financial burden that education, especially universal primary education, would have devolved on it if education remained entirely in the public sector.

Another anomaly in this figure is that primary education in Pakistan is not receiving as much as it should if the aim is to build a strong educational base. A very large proportion of the education budget is taken away by the higher education sector which the present government’s policy seems to favour. The allocation for the Higher Education Commission has been enhanced from Rs 500 million in 1999-2000 to Rs 22 billion this year. This amounts to more than 15 per cent of the total spending on education. It is a positive development that the government is trying to raise the standards of the universities to world level. But will it help spending such a huge amount on about 200,000 students who study at the universities compared to the 25 million children who go to school and the 20 million who do not if the goal of universal primary education is to be achieved? It seems the government has not got its priorities right and tends to draw up its policies according to the expediencies of the moment. Can the high standards at the universities be sustained if students who come there have not been taught the basics of the subjects they have studied at school and college? Students with a poor grounding will only lower the standards of the universities.

This lopsided approach is creating a major problem by stratifying society horizontally and even vertically. Given the government’s apathy towards its own primary and secondary schools, only private schools are in a position to offer education of a good quality. But these schools are too costly for the children of the poor, who have no option but to go to government institutions — that is, if they go to school at all. We now have a society which has schools for the poor and schools for the rich. The former have appalling standards while the schools for the rich are as good as the best institutions in Europe and America. Inevitably, the children of the poor who study in poor schools cannot get decent jobs and are doomed for life. Thus, poverty and ignorance are perpetuated, making it impossible for the poor to get out of the vicious cycle. It is time the government treated good education as the birthright of every child. This is possible only if a large number of schools imparting education of a high standard are opened in the public sector. It is also essential that the funds budgeted for education are distributed equitably over different sectors of the system.

Openness & accountability

A BASIC principle that governs public affairs in a democratic country is openness. Most democratic countries have what is popularly called “the sunshine law”, which assumes that those who govern are answerable to the people for their actions, because the people vote for them, and it is out of their taxes that government functionaries get their salaries and perks. This principle does not apply to government institutions alone; all parliamentary bodies, too, must operate in a way that is transparent so that deviations from the norms are made known to the people through the media. In America, in the wake of the Watergate scandal, Congress passed the Freedom of Information Act in 1974, which gives the public and the media the right to scrutinise the government’s records. Denial of citizens’ access to records is a violation of the act. Against this background, it is astonishing to learn that members of the Public Accounts Committee have questioned the right of journalists to cover its proceedings.

On Friday, a PAC member pleaded that the committee’s meetings should be held in camera and said: “We must not allow journalists in our meetings or (to) report our discussions and decisions.” To this PAC Chairman Malik Allahyar added: “We must discuss the issue(s) internally and also our own powers and jurisdiction”. This insistence on confidentiality of public accounts by those who happen to be parliamentarians goes against the norms of transparent governance. After all, the job of the committee is to scrutinise government accounts, discover discrepancies, fix responsibility and take corrective action. Sometimes, the anomalies and violations of rules may be unintentional and technical; sometimes, they may constitute improprieties. Therefore, to insist that PAC proceedings must be secret amounts to saying that the bungling and scams that come to its notice should remain hidden from the public. Surprisingly, a committee member seemed to speak against in-camera proceedings when he disputed the sugar mill owners’ claim that PAC had no right to inquire into the sugar crisis. He said the sugar cartel had imported 40,000 tons of raw sugar duty-free and was avoiding sales tax payment. To insist that PAC proceedings should be confidential is to scuttle the committee’s raison d’etre.

Wastefulness does not help

AT A time when Karachi is facing an acute power and water shortage, people should be encouraged to revert to the ways of their ancestors who considered extravagance a sin. This should be adopted as a motto, at least until the civic utilities can take steps to ease the crisis. The shortfall in power generation and water supply means that there is not enough of these utilities to go around. In that case if the consumers are advised to use less of these, much of the misery will be alleviated. It is simply a question of responding realistically to a situation of low availability. What needs to be checked is the wasteful manner of use of water and power. If the Shops Act is enforced and commercial institutions close at sunset quite a bit of electricity will be saved. The city government will have to develop a system to report malfunctioning of streetlights which at times go berserk and refuse to get switched off the whole day long. At the individual level too people will have to learn to be parsimonious. It will help us tide over the present crisis.

Of course, in the long run a change in habits and behaviour will be beneficial for everyone even when there is no crisis. It is now an established fact that man has wasted natural resources to such an extent that they may face problems given the rapidly growing world population. In fact, many of the crises we face today can be traced back to our wastefulness. Today Pakistan is short of water, electricity, forested areas, and many other resources because we never tried to conserve them and use them discreetly. A beginning can still be made by teaching children to value the amenities they enjoy and the gifts that nature has bestowed on them.

Basic steps to remove Baloch grievances

IT is worth questioning why the situation in Balochistan has reached a point where an armed confrontation is taking place between the federation and the tribal leadership. Why is it that almost all important local chiefs are voicing their disillusionment over government policies? What can be done to resolve the legitimate grievances of the Baloch and to incorporate the provincial leadership in the national mainstream? To understand this, one must appreciate some ground realities.

Balochistan is economically the most backward province of Pakistan. Traditionally, the population has remained engaged in nomadic pastoralism and subsistence agriculture. Sixty years after independence, there has been no significant socio-economic change in the province. The British colonisers did almost nothing for the welfare of the people. Their primary interest in Balochistan was to pre-empt and block a possible advance of the Russians to warm waters and to ensure the unobstructed movement of the British army from Balochistan to the border with Afghanistan. To that end, the British built roads and laid rail tracks through mountainous terrains and established garrisons. The British government entered into a treaty with the Khanate of Kalat, which guaranteed protection and free passage to the British army.

The British government not only recognised the tribal and sardari system, but also strengthened it as a matter of policy. However, it came down with a heavy hand if the authority of the empire was defied as in the case of the Bugtis when their banditry became unbearable.

The maintenance of law and order and crime control was the collective responsibility of the tribes. The apprehension of criminals was the responsibility of the tribal “levy” and the dispensation of justice was through the jirga. In case of the tribe’s failure to produce the criminals, communal retribution was inflicted on the tribe.

The abrupt dismissal of Sardar Attaullah Mengal’s cabinet by Prime Minister Bhutto in 1973 was perhaps the watershed in determining future political trends. It was for the first time that the Baloch had their own government. But it was not allowed to function. Sardar Mengal, Mir Ghaus Bakhsh Bizenjo, Khudai Noor and some other prominent Baloch leaders were arrested and detained in Punjab. Nawab Akbar Bugti was appointed governor and, purportedly at the behest of the Shah of Iran, an army operation was launched against the Mengal and Marri tribes, inflicting immense misery on them. The seeds of disillusionment against the federation were thus sown and resentment against Punjab and the Pakistan army started to build up.

General Ziaul Haq brought military operations to an end and freed the detained Baloch leaders. During his rule, development activity picked up. The construction of roads and small dams and the expansion of power transmission lines and grid stations were some significant achievements. This gave a big boost to agriculture.

However, the major beneficiaries were the Pakhtoon pockets barring some Baloch areas like Mastung, Kalat and Khuzdar. General Rahimuddin, the governor of the province for most of this period, was an able administrator. However, his style of governance was rather authoritarian. Unlike other provinces, he chose not to have a cabinet and there was no participation of political or tribal leadership in the affairs of the province. This promoted a feeling of alienation.

The Soviet occupation of Afghanistan and the subsequent armed resistance by the Mujahideen left an indelible mark on Baloch society as a million Afghan refugees were provided shelter in the province.

Nawab Khair Bukhsh Marri led thousands of his tribesmen to Afghanistan in support of the occupying Russian army. This was a great blunder. After the retreat of the Soviets, the Marris were put to great hazard. President Ghulam Ishaq Khan arranged a safe passage for the nawab and his tribe.

For his part, Nawab Akbar Bugti strongly believes that he should have a greater say in the exploitation of Balochistan’s mineral resources and a share in the revenues generated from this. At the same time, he doesn’t tolerate any ingress in his domain from within or without. During the heyday of the PPP rule, some local landlords of the Khalpar branch of the Bugti tribe became politically active against the nawab and achieved some significant successes. In retaliation, Bugti employed ruthless force against his opponents. A number of people from both sides were killed. Because of the weakness of the government, this situation could not be controlled and a large number of the Nawab’s opponents fled their homes.

In 1993, when the People’s Party came into power for the second time, the interior minister, General Naseerullah Babar, brought the Khalpars back to Dera Bugti and provided them with financial succour and protection. After the fall of the PPP government, they lost the much-needed support and had to leave their homes again. Recently, the present government has again settled them around Sui and is using them as a counterfoil against Bugti.

Because of the foregoing experiences, most tribal heavyweights are unhappy with the federation and are defying its writ through acts of subversion. Notwithstanding their personal grievances, their ethno-nationalistic agenda cannot be brushed aside as it has emerged from their marginality and has strong emotive overtones, particularly among the Baloch youth.

Successive federal governments never made any serious effort to uplift Balochistan. The distribution of federal revenues on the basis of population has generally remained the guiding principle in the NFC awards. The socio-economic backwardness of the province, uneven population distribution, high cost of development, limited avenues of employment, inadequate representation in bureaucracy, the disruption of the democratic process and the lesser weightage of Balochistan in the National Assembly have remained issues throughout.

It is important to formulate a comprehensive long-term policy for this province. The following are some suggestions:

a) The government of Balochistan should be allowed greater autonomy to run its own affairs. The federation should only ensure that the provincial government is adhering to the parameters of the Constitution.

b) The concurrent list should be reviewed and the intervention of the federation in subjects which are within the purview of the provinces precluded.

c) While allocating federal revenues to the provinces through the NFC award, population should not be the sole criterion. Economic backwardness and other circumstances must be kept in view.

d) The formula for grant of royalty and development surcharge on gas should be drawn up afresh as the existing one is highly inequitable.

e) While undertaking mega projects from federal funding, the provincial leadership must be consulted and their sensitivities given due consideration. It should be seen if such projects will create jobs for the local population.

f) The Gwadar port project and the construction of the coastal highway are of great importance for Balochistan and Pakistan. However, there are some legitimate apprehensions. Since managers and skilled workers are not available locally, the requisite workforce will, perforce, be engaged from other places. Further, the manner in which entrepreneurs from Karachi are acquiring land in Gwadar and establishing housing colonies, it is bound to affect demographic patterns and the political dispensation. Domicile certificates must not be granted to such outsiders, nor should they be registered in the electoral rolls as was done in the case of the Afghan refugees, thus impinging on the rights of the local populace.

g) Balochistan is rich in mineral resources. These resources vest in the federation as per the Constitution. The province is grossly deficient in other economic resources like cultivable land, irrigation water, industrial infrastructure and commerce. The people of Balochistan consider mineral resources, particularly natural gas, as invaluable assets. It is a harsh reality that until 1984, Sui gas was not provided to the people of this province.

h) There are indications that in the Marri areas of Kohlu and Kahan as also in Loralai and Barkhan there are rich oil resources. The Bugti areas are rich in natural gas. Chaghai is known for vast deposits of iron ore. All these are economically underdeveloped tracts. There is need to have a new dispensation to ensure that a substantial part of revenues generated from such resources is expended for the development and economic uplift of these areas.

i) Prolonged periods of military rule have resulted in excessive interference of the armed forces in civilian affairs. The bulk of the armed forces personnel are drawn from Punjab. Thus, whenever there is resentment against the army, bitterness crops up against Punjab. It is important to minimise such an interface.

j) Last but not the least, it is imperative to develop a new progressive leadership through a sustained political process in order to attenuate the hold of the obscurantist and anachronistic tribal leadership.

One cannot doubt the might and capability of the federation to take on the local warlords. Yet the important question is whether this constitutes the correct course to bring to an end to the stand-off between the local chiefs and the federal government. There is need to establish a meaningful dialogue. A strong-handed approach may normalise the situation in the short term but will delay the goal of long-term stability.

The writer is a former chief secretary of Balochistan.