Progress on Baglihar

The progress made by the secretary-level talks on the Baglihar dam project is heartening. Even though the joint statement issued at the end of the talks in New Delhi spoke of some "simmering" differences, the heads of the two delegations sounded optimistic.

The chief of the Pakistan delegation termed it "a win-win situation", while the Indian delegation leader said the two sides were "very close to a solution". Given the sensitive nature of the issue, the progress in the talks should be welcomed.

The Baglihar dam is a hydro-electric project being built on the Chenab river in Indian-occupied Kashmir. Any interference with the flow of the Chenab water constitutes a violation of the Indus Waters Treaty, which awarded to India the exclusive use of three eastern rivers.

Signed in 1960, the Indus Waters Treaty is a landmark agreement between India and Pakistan. It resolved a major dispute between the two countries, since the five rivers, plus the Indus, constitute a major source of irrigation for the two.

For Pakistan, especially, the three western rivers - the Indus, the Jhelum and the Chenab - are its lifeline, for they are a source of both irrigation and power generation.

Under the treaty, India can use the flow of waters of the western rivers for irrigation within the parameters allocated to it, but it cannot build dams. Now for over four decades, Pakistan and India have worked the treaty well and abided by its terms.

The Baglihar dam, however, has been a contentious issue for quite some time. It is, thus, encouraging that Islamabad and New Delhi have decided to resolve the issue in a spirit of friendship and cooperation that now informs their relationship.

If the issue is finally resolved to the satisfaction of the two sides, its impact on South Asia's geopolitical environment would be considerable. More important, since the Baglihar dam is situated in occupied Kashmir, a solution of the issue will have a positive impact on the Kashmir issue itself.

The report about progress in the Baglihar talks is timely. It comes in the wake of the accord to set up a hot line as a nuclear risk-reduction measure, besides the decision not to hold further tests.

A day later in Qingdao, China, Foreign Minister Khursheed Mehmud Kasuri and his Indian counterpart, Mr Natwar Singh, pledged to carry the peace process forward. Now the two foreign secretaries are scheduled to meet on Sunday to take up the Kashmir issue.

Given goodwill, there is no reason why the two countries should not be able to find a solution to this question. The joint statement issued in Islamabad after the Saarc summit in January last pledges the two sides to find a solution "to the satisfaction of both sides".

As Pakistan has repeatedly pointed out, Kashmir is not a territorial dispute; it is a human rights issue, for it concerns the right of the people of Kashmir to self-determination.

One hopes that the spirit in which the two sides have tackled the Baglihar issue will also be at work when the foreign secretaries take up the issue of Kashmir in a few days from now. Without a just and durable settlement of the Kashmir dispute, relations between the two countries will remain volatile and strained.

Punjab's industrial initiative

The Punjab Industrial Estate Development Company, a public limited entity, has announced plans to set up an industrial estate near Lahore and a garment city near Faisalabad - the latter being the country's textile capital.

Together, the two projects are expected to generate more than 60,000 jobs and are tipped to be ready as early as by December this year. The PIEDC plans to set up five more industrial estates elsewhere in the province besides rehabilitating the existing ones at Kot Lakhpat and Multan on a non-profit basis.

The company has been facilitated in its endeavour by the Punjab government in the form of soft loan offerings by public-sector financial institutions. One hopes that the five industrial estates it plans to set up in the near future will be in the rural hinterland rather than close to the big cities.

That will benefit a sizable number of rural people across the province and discourage migration to the cities. Indeed, if that could be the guiding spirit behind the plan, it would immensely help generate employment and reduce poverty where the two are most needed: in the economically depressed rural backwater where the majority of the people live. The plan could then be replicated in other provinces too.

It is non-profit initiatives such as this one by the Punjab government that can lead to sustainable development and capacity building at the grassroots level over the longer term.

However, the government would need to guard against the land/industrialist mafia taking undue advantage of such initiatives. It can do so by offering soft loans to relatively small investors who wish to set up small and medium-size industrial units.

It should also consider offering a tax holiday for an initial period of, say, five years as an additional incentive for small and medium-size enterprises. Also, It will be more realistic to look for such investors away from the big cities and to make the process of acquisition of industrial plots and loans a bit more decentralized than it is at present. This can be done by devolving relevant powers to financial institutions at the district level.

Dhow wreckage

The washing up of the wreckage of a dhow and its cargo on the beach at Sea View in Karachi on Tuesday brings back the fear of yet another environmental nightmare similar to the one that took place in July last year.

However, this time round, the extent of the oil spill has been much smaller while the official response to deal with the situation has been much quicker. That is, however, no reason for complacency or slothfulness in dealing with the new situation.

The authorities should ensure that the cleaning up operation is thorough and efficient and is continued until the beach is free from the effluents released by the dhow. It is also important to investigate the cause or causes of this mishap so that steps are taken to avoid similar occurrences in the future.

The question is why an abandoned dhow was left to drift in high seas eventually to be wafted ashore to pose a threat of contamination affecting the health of thousands of people living along the sea shore.

It is important that the clean-up operation, which is being conducted by different agencies, is quick and effective. Spot checks conducted by environmental agencies show that air pollution, caused by the leakage from some oil storage tankers attached to the dhow, has receded.

These need to be followed up with similar checks on the beach itself. Parts of the wreckage of the dhow are dangerously close to the shore line and adequate precautions need to be taken so that no curious beach-goers try to go too near the wreckage as this could prove hazardous.

Tuesday's incident once again illustrates the need to have a strategy in place to deal with such situations in the future.