IN 1979-80, while I was studying at the International Institute for Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC) in the Netherlands, my professor once said that the next century would be the century of mergers, and that anti-monopolisation laws of the United States and others would miserably fail. Things, however, could not wait till the turn of the century, and much started happening much earlier.

Capitalism, which breeds greed, was in full swing. The old and the new business giants acted like black holes and sucked in the smaller ‘planets’. In the wake of the Covid pandemic, the time has now come for them to ‘suck out’ for their own survival; and they are doing this.

Here, the narration is mainly with reference to the global energy requirements and what Pakistan, or any country for that matter, should do for survival. The energy demand, which depends largely on hydrocarbons, is not going anywhere, for now.

The plethora of smaller entities in the advanced and other countries have abundant unemployed but qualified hands to hire, and to increase their output to meet the demand. Two adages — ‘the best helping hand one can find is at the end of his/her own arm’ and ‘East or West, home is the best’ — have never been truer than now. Also true is another maxim; ‘a bird in hand is better than two in the bush’.

The proposed Covid-led world order, often called ‘the new normal’, tells us that much, and we would be better off listening to it and acting accordingly.

In the prevailing atmosphere, Pakistan needs to look within not ‘without’. The foreign direct investment (FDI) is like a mirage. Keep trying, but the indigenous resources are what need more attention. Whatever meagre or enormous or potentially enormous resources we have should be extensively exploited.

Besides, the national human resource has proved its true merit and mettle abroad, but has remained the most neglected commodity that the country has.

Nusrat K. Siddiqui
Arizona, USA

Published in Dawn, February 10th, 2022