Running after that quality of life

YET another independence day has passed with the people being incessantly reminded over the electronic media on August 14 about patriotism to Pakistan. A young compere from one of the satellite channels who exhorted Pakistanis to live and work in their own country even went to the extent of chastising those who go abroad simply because they can earn a little more money over there.

The compere was equating patriotism with staying and living in Pakistan. He did not say so directly, but by his comments, he was actually labelling those who choose to work abroad to make a better life for themselves as less patriotic or even unpatriotic.

Is it fair to blame Pakistanis living abroad or those contemplating migrating abroad for wanting to do so? Is it fair to rebuke them for wanting to have a better opportunity at making a better life for themselves and their families abroad? An opportunity which they feel their country has failed to provide or offer them.

The newspapers are full of stories about the many in this country who lack opportunities to make a better life for themselves here. On August 14, an article in Dawn revealed a remote area in the country which to this day, fifty- six years after independence, has still not been electrified.

Tilling land which does not belong to them, the inhabitants here are at the mercy of landlords who demand tax whether or not there is a harvest, and take away their animals and threaten to imprison them if they do not pay up. Schooling and medical care are practically non-existent for these inhabitants. If they move into the towns or cities, they will probably end up begging on the streets, as it is the fate of many others already. A better quality of life in this country for these inhabitants in this or even the next generation seems unlikely.

So it is the situation for the thousands who are bonded to work in the brick kilns around the country. Many are just children, forced to work as slaves in order to pay off a debt or a loan. Then there are those youngsters who earn pittance slaving in motor repair shops, tea shops, etc., for long hours, very often without any day off, and suffering violence and abuse at the hands of their employers. Don’t they all have a right to opportunities that would enable them to work for a better quality of life?

It is not only the millions of uneducated youth, but hundreds of thousands of those who are educated; who are also unable to find decent employment in this country. Can we blame their parents for contemplating having a better shot at a better life elsewhere abroad?

That many Pakistanis have been pushed to risk life and imprisonment just to get the opportunity to work and start a new and hopefully better life elsewhere abroad is apparent in the number of reports about illegal immigration. On August 14, the following report appeared in an English daily: Iran returns 56 illegal immigrants. These Pakistanis had entered Iran without legal travel documents and they were apparently trying to go to Europe via Iran and Turkey.

On August 16, there was another report about 254 Pakistanis being sentenced to a one-year imprisonment in Sri Lanka for trying to leave the island illegally and travel to Europe. They were arrested on July 1 when they boarded a cargo ship.

The same day, there was a report about a Pakistani who was extradited from Thailand to face trial in Australia for smuggling illegal immigrants to Australia.

Early last month, 80 Pakistanis, who were deported from Italy, arrived back home by a chartered flight, handcuffed and accompanied by 90 Italian policemen. Most of them had apparently tried to enter Italy illegally by ferry from Libya.

Early this year, Dubai announced a general amnesty for illegal immigrants. Many illegal Pakistanis could not even pay for the one-way ticket back to their home country.

Can we blame these Pakistanis for wanting to have a better chance abroad for a better life? Is it not obvious these people feel that in spite of the many risks, they still have a better chance at attaining the American dream, the European dream or the Dubai dream than the Pakistani dream?

In this age of globalization, the movement of people, illegal and legal, is driven mainly by economic forces. Just as it is the economic forces at home which push Pakistanis to go abroad, it is the economic factor abroad that pulls them there.

The need for cheap unskilled labour in the developed countries over the past decade has led governments there to keep an eye closed on illegal immigration. So much so that in the United States, the census 2000 results indicated that there are between eight to eleven million illegal immigrants living there, with an estimated 50 per cent of US crop workers being illegal immigrants. In recent years, the demand for cheaper talent and skilled workers in the developed countries has also encouraged young professionals from developing countries like Pakistan to go over and work there.

The lesser the opportunities available in their home country, the greater is the attraction of the opportunities available abroad. For the inhabitants of the above remote village without electricity, education and medical facilities, the enslaved brick kiln worker and many others like him without a proper home, medical and educational facilities or employment opportunities, they have every right to go any place that offers them a better chance to have a better life.

The American dream, the European dream or the Dubai dream are all representations of the dream for a better quality of life. Every Pakistani who cannot find that quality of life here, because his country has not been able to provide him the opportunities that allow him to work towards that quality of life, has every right to try and find it elsewhere. It is unfair to label him as any less patriotic than his brethren living and working in Pakistan.

No to Kalabagh dam, again

AWAMI Awaz has taken up the Kalabagh dam issue in the context of the government’s announcement that a consensus will be developed on the controversial project. Punjab Governor Lt Gen Khalid Maqbool (retired) has also urged Sindh Chief Minister Ali Mohammad Mahar to launch a campaign to persuade the people of Sindh to accept the dam project.

Awami Awaz says that Punjab’s insistence on the dam coupled with the launching of another disputed water project, the greater Thal canal, has intensified the already-existing sense of deprivation in water- starved Sindh. The canal project has been twice rejected by the Sindh Assembly and the dam project has been disapproved by the assemblies of Sindh, the NWFP and Balochistan in the past. However, the Pakistan Muslim League (Q) governments in centre and Punjab are paying no heed to the sentiments of smaller provinces, the paper says.

Referring to the stand of the president on the two issues, Awami Awaz adds that when Gen Pervez Musharraf had assumed the reins of power by dissolving the government of Nawaz Sharif, one of the reasons he offered for his action was the growing sense of deprivation among the smaller provinces. He had promised to remove this feeling in his first address to the nation and he should not now come up with one-sided statements on the sensitive issue of the dam and should instead convene a national conference to resolve the dispute once and for ever.

Awami Awaz also advises the Punjab governor to meet the political leaders of Sindh to get information about the objections and apprehensions of the province on the Kalabagh and Thal projects instead of imposing his opinion on the lower-riparian province.

Kawish points out that water-borne diseases including gastroenteritis and diarrhoea have assumed epidemic proportions after the recent rains in Sindh as the death toll has risen to at least 30 and hundreds have been hospitalized. Apart from the accumulation of rain and gutter water in residential areas caused by the collapse of the drainage system, the scarcity of clean drinking water and malnutrition are also important factors behind the onset of disease.

The daily suggests that the health department should immediately send out medical teams and medicines to the calamity-hit coastal belt of the Badin and Thatta districts and the hilly area of Kachho as there is still a health emergency there. Moreover, pharmaceutical companies, medical institutions and philanthropists should also come forward to provide succour to the suffering people.

Ibrat writes that the multinational companies exploring oil and gas in Sindh have been denying the local people their right to employment in the oil/gas fields which has been provoking protests. During a recent agitation at the Mari gasfield of Deh Kharohi, Ghotki district, a woman protester was killed in police firing and the residents of Piaro Station, Dadu district, have also taken to the streets demanding their rights. The paper says that the government should bind the companies to abide by the international labour law by giving priority to local people in provision of jobs at oil and gas fields.

Sach says that crime rate has again risen in Shikarpur and Khairpur districts where eight people have been killed in two separate incidents on the same day. It attributes the incidents to the police failure to control crime and the absence of any kind of accountability of the force. It urges the provincial government to direct the district police chiefs to ensure maintenance of law and order in their areas.