Return of the natives

Despite experts and locals talking about the traumatic experiences the people of Malakand Division in general and Swat in particular have gone through, one finds very little government attention being paid to this aspect of the IDPs.

Reportedly, over 2.3 million people in the region had to bear hardships of different kinds when they were forced to flee. They had to live in miserable conditions in makeshift camps or congested buildings with their hosts. And, sadly, their misery didn't end even as they returned to their homes. The women and children were coming back, having assimilated the horrors of displacement on the one hand and the devastating battle between the military and the militants on the other. For months, the young had been fed on images of blood and gore, throats being slit, bodies being hanged, and so on. They had witnessed the Green Square, in Mingora, now rechristened 'Bloody Square'.

The educated and professional lot -- lawyers, journalists, teachers, people related to industry, police officials, political party activists etc -- also took a beating.

According to reports, around 200 girl schools in the region have already been destroyed by the militants which means thousands of female students will be without education now. A teacher at a high school that was blown up by Taliban, remembers the horrors of the night: "The Taliban attackers broke into our school, shouting slogans of 'Allah O' Akbar'. They blindfolded us, tied our hands behind us and picked up all sorts of expensive goods while detonating a bomb in the building.

"Luckily, they spared us on the condition that we'd never come back to the place."

The teacher laments the fact that the careers of thousands of youngsters had been destroyed.

Doctor Mohammad Farooq Khan, a well known psychiatrist from Swat, says the people in the affected areas have returned but not without some mental conditions -- "chiefly depression and psychosis."

He tells, "The conditions are likely to aggravate because these people have been under continued stress and without proper medication."

Dr Farooq also speaks of having met cases of acute anxiety disorders. "People have been passing out on the street. The women, especially, complain of getting panic attacks. Insomnia (sleeplessness), nightmares, hopelessness and a strong sense of helplessness are the order of the day."

Dr Farooq says he identified 10 to 20 percent of people in relief camps as suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). "The patients of PTSD are haunted by unpleasant and painful memories that badly influence their sleep, mood and behaviour."

Common psychological aberrations such as anger, peevishness, fighting over petty issues, urge for vengeance and conspiracies and highly suspecting nature are some of the other ailments that have been increasingly found among these people.

Dr Farooq suggests comprehensive treatment and psychological counselling for the purpose of which "the number of psychologists should be increased five times in Swat. The schools should have in-house psychiatrists."

Ex federal minister and ANP leader Afzal Khan Lala says that the people of the region have been transported back by half a century in the march for progress. "Our children have received big psychological shocks. Their future is at stake. We need preferential support from the government and the world outside. We are entitled to special quota in jobs and development funds on long-term basis. Unless the area and its people get the required funding and support, they can't compete with the rest of the country."

It may be mentioned here that Lala himself sustained injuries in an incident when the insurgents pursued and killed the brothers of Ayub Ashari and Wajid Ali Khan, provincial ministers of ANP.
NWFP Minister for Forest and Environment, Wajid Ali Khan says ANP was on the hit-list of the insurgents. "Over 150 (ANP) activists and office-bearers were murdered in Swat. These are indeed testing times for us and the people of Swat."

Wajid says a comprehensive plan worth $2 billions has been prepared for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of the area. "Education will be given priority, vocational institutions will be opened, jobs will be provided; losses to businesses, agriculture and properties will be compensated. The world should support us in our reconstruction efforts."

Mumtazuddin, former administrator of an IDP camp in Mardan, says, "In our camp, there were cases of acute anxiety, depression, loss of sleep and other psychoses. Though they were treated, the nature of these ailments is such that they could recur any time in the future. Therefore, these patients need to be on medication for a longer time.

Sirajul Haq, former finance minister NWFP, says the province was pushed to war-like situation but was not sufficiently funded for the losses. "NWFP has incurred an estimated loss of Rs 25 trillions while agriculture in Malakand lost Rs 72 billions. The situation warrants that the province should be declared a war-affected zone."

"Unfortunately, the trauma continues as no compensation has been provided to the people as yet. Despite emergency relief, work on recovery and rehabilitation has been slow," says Aftab Alam, advocate and President, District Bar Association Swat.

He adds that the resilient legal fraternity -- both judges and lawyers -- decided to revamp the legal system in Malakand in the wake of the hazards for the future of the country. "But our problems have not been addressed. There are cracks in our office buildings. The judges face housing problems. We asked the government for help and, in February this year, a sum of Rs 3.5million was sanctioned for repair work in district courts. That, however, is yet to be released."
The journalist community has also suffered. A Swat-based journalist tells TNS that the breaking news phenomenon had aggravated their woes. Several journalists have been killed while covering rallies and programmes in the region. "The media organisations want the latest news at any cost. The security forces have their own demands while the militants are also unhappy with us. We are virtually caught between the devil and the deep blue sea."

A government official says that around 83 percent of the total 1,800 Swat police officials quit when Taliban unleashed a reign of terror against them. "The situation now looks encouraging as the old guard has rejoined while new inductions are being made."

People related to the entertainment industry had to wind up their projects after 2007. CD shops and music centres were shut down and female dancers in Mingora were forced to leave the place.
According to the journalist, 25 percent of the entertainment industry people have returned to Swat. "Most of the poor people have returned. But unless the MPAs, MNAs and the influential people from the area return to the area, the public morale is likely to remain low."

Writing on the wall

The Khori Garden tragedy of Sept 14 in Karachi brought to the forefront many core weaknesses in the existing distribution mechanisms. Common people are in dire straits in the country. Why else would hundreds of poor women have flocked to the deadly disaster site to collect ration supplies the very next day?

Thus anarchy and disorder erupts whenever acts of spot subsidies and benevolence are launched by the government as well as philanthropists, suggesting that institutionalised options to acquire the basics of life have totally collapsed.

It is disappointing to note that no lessons have been learned from the retrospect to effectively deal with the gravity of the situation. In a scenario where tenets of market economy are ruthlessly imposed in all the sectors, the concurrently rising number of poor is viewed as a potential threat.

Ever since the mid 1980s, Pakistan has been shackled under the infamous economic policy frameworks imposed by the international donor agencies -- mainly IMF and World Bank. This benchmark sadly coincided with the much-needed political change which led to the creation of a democratic government after 11 years of an autocratic regime of the 1980s. The era of Structural Adjustment Programmes was ushered into the nation's history with a whole range of clandestine stakeholders, men in khaki being most prominent. Times that followed displayed the lost struggles of at least four democratic governments to implement their manifestoes across the tightening nooses of donor prescriptions. Much to the pleasure of the donor community, an unmeditated coup in 1999 removed the democratic government to install a complying brand of regime which continued to faithfully bow to market pressures, even sacrificing peoples' wellbeing.

Relying on the robustness of high liquidity, a selfish consumer class was made to evolve that extended commoditisation of social goods to new heights. Domestic economy was dominated by nascent trading and laissez faire transactions without any regulatory checks and institutional compliance. As a result, powerful cartels, interest groups and lower chains of middlemen evolved that consolidated these arrangements. A stage is now reached where the country's finance minister has shown his inability to tame the wild sugar barons.

Consequently, poor masses are finding it most difficult to make both ends meet. The cost of arranging water, fuel, transportation/commuting and healthcare is more than half of the total household income for majority of inhabitants in the country. This compulsory expenditure deprives poor from developing any productive assets for incremental improvement in living standards. A rising multitude of households comprising destitutes and dependents is another cause of concern. At least half of the victims in the Khori Garden tragedy belonged to this category.

Investment to develop a viable infrastructure to uplift the condition of poor is essential. Conservative estimates show that about 48 percent of the population is without access to safe drinking water while 63 percent is not connected to any sewerage system. A sizable produce in agricultural areas perish on the way due to absence or dilapidated conditions of farm to market roads. In cities, more than three-fourth of the employment is generated in the domain of informal sector. Attempts are normally made to allocate finances for various development schemes prepared in the infrastructure sector. However, the lion's share normally goes to mega projects. Despite the fact that such projects hardly benefit poor, these incur high capital costs and have burgeoning operation and maintenance overlays. They are also assigned higher priorities. Preference given by donors/federal government, risk of losing overheads in kick backs and lobbying efforts by large-scale contractors are few reasons for choosing mega projects.

Poor people need small scale initiatives. Development of water stand posts, secondary sewers to connect household/lane level sewers, secondary roads to inter-connect localities and basic power supply are some small scale projects that can improve living conditions and help eradicate poverty by increasing peoples' productive capacity.

The government claims to support poor by opening up some avenues to muster relief. Funds from Zakat, Baitul Maal, marriage assistance and health support programmes are claimed to be accessible to poor. Several new programmes have been launched to facilitate income support, loans and even land supply to common people. The expected outcome of these initiatives shall not be able to scale up to the actual demand of the sector. As the macro scale policies do not support the pro-poor strategies, specialised programmes only become confined to political drumbeats. Poor targeting, insignificant coverage and lack of proper monitoring gives rise to a limited coverage and impact of such programmes. It is erroneously assumed that by doling out money, poverty can be stemmed.

If the present regime is willing to prove its representative status, few fundamental steps need to be taken without delay. One, an open debate about the overall causes and effects of poverty must be launched. All cross sections of the society should be allowed to contribute to it. Two, findings and recommendations of various research studies must be scientifically reviewed and assessed by a relevant institution, such as the Planning Commission. Three, based on these inputs, a working paper on the issues related to poverty and means to holistically address them may be floated at the elected fora, including local councils, provincial assemblies and parliament. On the basis of the national consensus evolved for addressing poverty, negotiations and dialogue must be made with all interest groups, including donors. Four, policy instruments that affect the livelihoods of people must be immediately checked and revisited. This also accounts for providing protectionist cover for few sectors of enterprises that are in the state of infancy. Five, direct assistance must be only targeted to those who are economically incapable in all respects. All others must be provided with catalytical assistance to help acquire a compatible earning opportunity. Once economically capable, the society can address almost all other issues. And six, infrastructure development must be based on the up-scaling of various pilot projects that now have a successful existence in this country and are being replicated on self help.

It must be remembered that nations have experienced revolutions that ignored the writing on the walls on such grave counts.

The real story

Given the scale of the power shortage in Pakistan and the unending fiasco of loadshedding, it is quite astonishing that so few people have a real sense of what the problem truly is. Admittedly there is no singular explanation but by the same token the narrative is quite familiar, tired even.
It starts with the emergence of what is now called 'neo-liberalism' in the western capitalist countries following the coming to power of Margaret Thatcher in Britain and Ronald Reagan in the United States. Thatcher in particular was an astute conservative ideologue fully committed to an overhaul of the welfare state that was the pillar of liberal capitalism for almost half a century following the Great Depression. Thus began a comprehensive rollback of working-class power within Britain and the rest of Europe. Trade unions were systematically undermined and privatisation of state utilities, most notably commanding heights such as railways and telecommunications, began in earnest.

A similar process was unfolding in the United States, but the implications were less profound because neither was labour ever as powerful in the US as it was in Europe, nor did the American state own as substantial a proportion of assets as its European counterparts. Reagan's more important role was to deploy the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank in the third world to ensure that a rollback of the state was carried out in a manner similar, nay, more ruthless, to what was taking place within the western countries.

It is important to bear in mind that the global consensus until the late 1970s was not that public utilities should be privatised and that supply and demand of these utilities should be dictated by the principles of so-called 'free market competition', but instead that the state shoulder responsible for universal provision of utilities at affordable prices. The 'golden age' of 20th century capitalism was indeed between 1945 and 1975 when the interventionist state was anything but an aberration in orthodox policy circles.

Third world countries such as ours were all of a sudden given lectures about the unsustainability of deficit spending (even while western country governments' deficits soared), the inefficiency of state-owned enterprises, and the fact that the 'free market' was a panacea to all ills. In fact the third world was suffocated by external debt and the exponential rise in oil prices in the period immediately preceding the imposition of neo-liberal policies and this was the context in which the 'structural adjustment' nightmare unfolded. Rather than reflecting an objective analysis of the economic structure of third world societies, the 'rollback' of the state was an explicitly ideological project which benefited from the collapse of the Soviet bloc in the late 1980s.

So, for example, while it is true that the Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) and the Karachi Electricity Supply Company (KESC) suffered from various allocative and distributive inefficiencies, their performance in the late 1980s was not so much worse than in previous decades to warrant privatisation per se. Externally determined neo-liberal policies (supported by a healthy dose of Pakistani hangers-on who were earning cash as 'expert' consultants) were therefore transformed into a neo-liberal 'consensus'.

From here on the story is relatively uncomplicated. The World Bank proclaimed that the public sector had neither the capacity nor the operational know-how to be able to meet growing demand for power and that therefore corporatisation and eventual privatisation of WAPDA and KESC was required. Meanwhile new power generation would be the responsibility of private power producers to whom unbelievable incentives would be offered including exemption from taxation and tariff rates which may as well have been called government subsidies. Pakistan was clearly a world-leader in this regard as a 2001 World Bank report noted: 'Although the international development community had come to realize that the role of the public sector needed to be redefined and reduced, no other low-income country had made private investments a cornerstone of its energy policy'.

The plan proceeded apace in the early 1990s culminating in independent power producers (IPPs) becoming operational by the middle of the decade. Needless to say the attempts to dismantle the massive bureaucratic structures that were WAPDA and KESC were resisted at numerous levels (and not necessarily for the right reasons, of which there were plenty), but corporatisation was not halted. KESC was eventually privatised in 2005. Four years after its sale, and two decades since neo-liberal sensibilities came to guide policy in the power sector, we have an unmitigated disaster on our hands.

The current trials and tribulations have numerous immediate causes. Demand exceeds supply of electricity (although the shortfall would be much less acute if the existing public power generation plants that are sitting idle were made operational), some IPPs are not producing as much as they could (ostensibly because they are still owed buckets of money by the government), and oil prices on the international market have been extremely variable in recent times.

However, these short-run problems do not explain the larger mess we find ourselves in. So, for example, if the power policies throughout the 1990s had not granted such incredible concessions to the IPPs, including the guarantee of inflated prices, the government would not necessarily be struggling to pay them off at this particular juncture. Then there was the mindless extension of consumer credit throughout the Musharraf tenure without requisite public investment in power infrastructure, something that a corporatised WAPDA on a leash was simply incapable of conceiving, let alone doing.

More generally, the neo-liberal recipe of subsidizing the private sector regardless of the social cost has proven to be catastrophic in Pakistan, and indeed around the world.

The global financial crisis has created a parallel legitimacy crisis for neo-liberal capitalism. Yet the third world remains a laboratory in which failed experiments are being rehashed without any accountability of the IFIs that champion these experiments.

Neo-liberalisation in practice is in fact much more destructive than neo-liberalism in theory. The 'free market' rhetoric betrays a ground reality in which bending of rules, distortions of various kinds, and plain banditry are commonplace. It is about time that a powerful intellectual movement emerges within countries such as ours to challenge the neo-liberal 'consensus'. There is no need for us to premise this challenge with the proclamation that the public sector should remain as is. In fact our argument is that the public sector should be genuinely made public rather than the preserve of an obsolete bureaucracy. Privatisation is not the answer because it subjugates the public to the whims of private profiteers. If we do not resuscitate the paradigm of the public monopoly the present power crisis will simply give way to another one of greater intensity. And that will be our lot, forever and after.

Pukhtoonkhwa or Referendum

The issue of the renaming of NWFP as Pukhtoonkhwa has reared its head yet again and, as usual, the people who claim to be national leaders -- especially Nawaz Sharif -- are opposing this, calling for a referendum and ignoring the fact that the matter is already under consideration in the constitutional committee. Veritably, by opposing the Pukhtoons, they want to prove their jingoistic nationalism.

This 'trend', if we may call it so, has caught on big-time and most politicians like to denounce every act of Pukhtoons in order to prove themselves as national leaders. Even the religious rituals of Pukhtoons are not recognised such as Ramzan and Eid moon sightings.

As for 'Pukhtoonkhwa', the name has been referred to by historians like Herodotus and James Darmstadt in their valuable works. It has been an issue since the independence of India and was passed on from generation to generation after Pakistan came into existence.

Pakistan consisted of Sindh, Punjab, Bahawalpur, East Pakistan, Provinces, Chief Commissioners province, State of Kalat and some other states and remained as such until 1954 when all these merged into West Pakistan on the principles of parity with the East Pakistan in the name of one unit. Majority of political parties not only opposed the one unit but also fought against this. Later, the unit was dissolved and General Yahya Khan, the then chief martial law administrator, restored the provinces in 1969. East Pakistan and Sindh were restored to their original position while the province of Punjab was expanded by merging the whole of Bahawalpur province (Saraiki province) with it. The Saraikis, thus, lost their province and identity. Besides, the two districts of NWFP -- Attock and Mianwali -- were disintegrated and merged into Punjab. The purpose was, obviously, to afford supremacy to Punjab over other provinces. Today, Punjab is not only the largest province of the country, it also enjoys all sorts of privileges while the rest can only complain and begrudge the exploitation and the injustices.

The position of Balochistan has been somewhat different. The Pukhtoons there were subjected to great injustices. In the British era, the Baloch and the Pukhtoons were separate nations and had their own territories and land. The Baloch had their own land, identity and resources within the states of Kalat, whereas the Pukhtoons had their own administrative division in the Chief Commissioners province, named as such by the British. By abolishing one unit, the Chief Commissioners province (of Pukhtoons) was merged in Balochistan, the newly established province. The Pukhtoons were, thus, deprived of their identity, land and resources. Such injustices have frequently been highlighted by the Pukhtoons and need sincere consideration.

Nawaz Sharif and others are opposing the renaming of Pukhtoonkhwa without any insight into the historical, social and political background. They just want to satisfy their few friends and (local) political partners. Their main argument is: there are non-Pushto speaking people also in the province. Indeed, there are, especially in the Hazara Division, and they are the ones who are against the name 'Pukhtoonkhwa'. The PML-N has little majority there and its provincial president also comes from Hazara. But even in Hazara Division, in district Mansehra, there are Pushto speaking people who are about the size of the non-Pushto speakers. In the districts of Abbottabad and Haripur, the Pukhtoons have a clear majority. The main tribes of Hazara division such as the Jadoons, the Tareens, the Tanolis and the Sadozais are Pukhtoons by origin and they speak both Pushto and Hindko languages and share similar customs and traditions. They not only admit but also flaunt their sense of pride on being Afghans by origin.

Democratically, too, the Pukhtoons have the right to rename their province as they like. Statistics reveal that there are 68 percent Pushto-speaking (Pukhtoons) natives, 18 percent Hindko-speaking, 8 percent Saraiki-speaking and 2 percent Urdu- and Punjabi-speaking. The representatives of the people in the provincial assembly -- JI, JUI (F), PPP and ANP -- recently passed a resolution on the issue of renaming of NWFP as Pukhtoonkhwa. Interestingly, JUI proposed the name 'Afghania'.

Unfortunately, the resolution could not solve the problem because it needed approval from the National Assembly by a two-third majority and, in the Lower House, there was no such majority of Pukhtoon nationalist parties nor are they expected to have it in the future. Other nations like Sindhi, Saraikis and Balochs are also not likely to take on the 'might' of the mainstream political parties that continue to play 'national' politics at the expense of the other nations. It is for this reason that the Pukhtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party (PMAP) has demanded a new constitution for the country, because the Constitution of 1973 has no provisions to solve these issues. In fact, it is used as a 'legal' tool to exploit the smaller provinces and nations. While the newly formed Pakistan struggled as an independent state, there was no room for 'non-issues' like this. In 1928, Chaudhry Rahmat Ali coined the name 'Pakistan' as an abbreviation for P(unjab)A(Afghania -- for all Pukhtoons including those in NWFP and the then Chief Commissioners Province and, presently, Balochistan)K(Kashmir)S(Sindh)TAN(Balochistan) in his famous book, Now or Never. This name was, later, officially adopted. Is this fair that all the provinces were represented in the name except NWFP? If it had been named 'Afghania' at that time, there would be no issue today. These are few facts which support the renaming of NWFP as Pukhtoonkhwa. And, it is the majority's right which has never been granted.

In Punjab, too, there is a majority of Saraiki-speaking, Pushto-speaking and other non-Punjabi speakers. Why not ask their opinion? Do they like to live in a state named as Punjab? Likewise for Sindh.

It is a fact that the opinion of these people has never been sought and referendum never been conducted. Recently, Northern Areas were rechristened as Gilgit-Baltistan. Was any referendum conducted for this? Does the government not know the Kashmiris had clear reservations on this?
Referendum as a concept has a much-hated history attached to it in Pakistan. We have seen the referendums on General Zia ul Haq, Farooq Ahmed Leghari and General Pervez Musharraf. Yet, if the political leaders place so much trust on referendums why are they against the idea when it comes to renaming of NWFP?

Pakistan at ‘extreme food security risk’

According to a Food Security Risk Index ranking of 148 nations, Pakistan is placed at 11th and India at 25th.

Most of sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia are facing extreme or high risk of food shortages, according to a Food Security Risk Index ranking of 148 nations.

Pakistan, ranked 11th on the index, is at ‘extreme risk’, while Bangladesh and India are both at ‘high risk’, ranked 20th and 25th.

The United States is least at risk followed by France, Canada, Germany and the Czech Republic, according to the study by Maplecroft, a Britain-based firm that provides risk intelligence for businesses.

Food stress jumped towards the top of the global agenda after soaring commodity prices in 2007 and 2008 sparked riots in 30 countries, including many tottering on the brink of severe shortages or widespread hunger.

The World Bank estimates that food inflation during the period pushed an additional 100 million people into deep poverty, on top of a billion that were already scraping by on less than a dollar a day.

Poverty was a major source of food vulnerability, but not the only one, said the new report.

World Literacy Day: Education not on govt’s priority list

According to Pakistan Social and Living Measurement Survey for 2007-08, the overall literacy rate (age 10 years and above) is 56 per cent (69 per cent for male and 44 per cent for female). Also, the pupil-teacher ratio has increased at primary level but decreased at secondary level during the last five years.

The International Day of Literacy on Tuesday would hardly make any difference for Pakistan as here education has always been low on government’s priority.

Public expenditure on education as a percentage to GDP is lowest. The trend of investment in education in terms of GDP has been 2.50 per cent and 2.47 per cent in 2006-07 and 2007-08 respectively and it is 2.10 per cent during 2008-09.

This year, International Literacy Day puts the spotlight on the empowering role of literacy and its importance for participation, citizenship and development. ‘Literacy and Empowerment’ is also the theme for the 2009-2010 biennium of the United Nations Literacy Decade (2003-2012).

While the empowering role of literacy and its significance for development have been recognised worldwide, there are still 776 million illiterate adults in the world and 75 million children out of school whose rights and needs remain unfulfilled. Literacy, in fact, is by far the most neglected goal on the Education for All (EFA) agenda.

It is a recognized fact that the implementation of all education reforms and plan of actions for EFA involve huge financial resources which put heavy burden on countries such as Pakistan with its meager and limited resource base. It is evident that Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Poverty PRSP targets cannot be achieved if the current level of budgetary allocation as percentage of GDP is maintained.

According to Pakistan Social and Living Measurement (PSLM) Survey for 2007-08, the overall literacy rate (age 10 years and above) is 56 per cent (69 per cent for male and 44 per cent for female). When analyzed provincially, literacy rate in Punjab stood at 59 per cent followed by Sindh, 56 per cent, NWFP 49 per cent and Balochistan at 46 per cent.

Among the major thrust areas of education sector reforms is the quality of education for which various strategies have been evolved and implemented. Almost all teachers have required academic and professional qualifications. Pupil-teacher ratio has increased at primary level but decreased at secondary level during the last five years. Public expenditure on education in real terms has increased threefold, according to ‘Education for All, Mid-Decade Assessment Country report on Pakistan' submitted to Unesco.

The report says in terms of percentages, figures are not higher due to increase in the base of GDP. Public expenditure on education as percentage of GNP has been doubled.

It says the public expenditure per pupil at both primary and secondary level has registered a substantial increase as well. A nation wide Programme has been launched to address the missing facilities in schools such as drinking water, electricity, toilets and boundary walls.

It says national investment in education sector has witnessed threefold increases in absolute terms since 2001-02. With the rapidly widening of GDP base though the increase in terms of GDP contribution appears smaller but the increase in real terms is substantial.

Trafic Scence from Paksitan

Thar coal

Coal being desposited from a mine. Thar’s coal is believed to be high in moisture content, which makes it unsuitable for transport or easy use in power generation.

THE public-private partnership inked by the Sindh government to exploit Thar’s coal resources for power generation could be a watershed event in Pakistan’s painful history of power-sector woes. Poor planning over the decades has meant that whenever the country has experienced a spurt in economic growth, the power sector’s deficiencies have invariably crimped that growth. To forestall another boom-and-bust cycle now is the time to plan for the future, and Thar’s coal could hold the key to energy security in the years and decades ahead.

It is by no means a sure bet; a feasibility study will be concluded in early 2011 and depending on a positive result, the first megawatt of power from the project will flow somewhere in early 2016, if all goes according to plan. There are several technical hurdles to overcome. Thar’s coal is believed to be high in moisture content, which makes it unsuitable for transport or easy use in power generation. Then there is the issue of acquiring adequate water to run a power plant, and overcoming the inter- and intra-provincial water disputes that will inevitably ensue. And finally, any new power plant in Thar will have to be connected to the national grid at great cost and effort.

Perhaps more than the technical problems though, politics and funding hang heavy on the Thar power project. For one, disputes between the centre and Sindh over who has the ultimate say on Thar’s coal and its use for power generation could yet scuttle the project. Additionally, there is the question about how exactly power projects in Thar will be financed. Domestic banks are wary of additional exposure to the power sector given its recent troubles, while Pakistan’s poor standing in the international financial market could render the project prohibitively expensive to finance. Clearly, we must do more to put our overall economy in order to make credit cheaper. And from an environmental and local point of view, it must be ensured that clean-coal technology is employed and that the people of the area benefit directly and fairly from the exploitation of Thar’s coal resources.

Climate Change affect on KKH?

According to scientists, the rates of warming in the Hindu Kush-Himalayan region are significantly higher than the global average. They say that ‘all aspects of human and natural life will be affected.

This mountainous area, given the general title of the ‘Hindu Kush-Himalayan region’ (HKH) includes the Tibetan plateau, where melting perma-frost is causing houses to collapse. According to some scientists, ‘The rates of warming in the HKH region are significantly higher than the global average.’ They say that ‘all aspects of human and natural life will be affected.’

Destroyed schools deepen Pakistani children's woes

Girls who fled from Pakistani tribal areas due to conflict wait at a refugee camp in Peshawar, Pakistan

The destruction of hundreds of schools during fighting between the Pakistani army and Taliban militants has left more than half a million children with little hope of education, the United Nations said on Wednesday.
The army offensive against militants in North West Frontier Province (NWFP) resulted in one of largest internal displacements in recent times. About 2.3 million people fled their homes, most after fighting intensified in April.
But as displaced families leave the shelter of camps and host communities to go home, they are finding many of their children's schools in ruins.
'The impact of the fighting has been quite dramatic on schools and students in NWFP,' Luc Chauvin, deputy representative for the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) in Pakistan, told in a telephone interview.
'Some of the girls' schools were blown up by the Taliban before the fighting, while other schools were destroyed during the active conflict,' he said.
Chauvin said about 230 schools had been 'completely flattened', while about 410 schools had been damaged with collapsed walls and roofs caused by mortar fire, rocket-propelled grenades or bombs.
The Taliban, who oppose female education, blew up girls'schools when they controlled the Swat area for about two years.
They attacked other empty schools because soldiers often used them as camps.
Chauvin said more than 4,000 other primary and secondary schools also needed to be renovated. Many had been converted into shelters to accommodate people fleeing the fighting.
'Lots of schools need to be cleaned up, repainted and refurnished after so many people have been living there and things have been stolen or furniture burnt as firewood,' he said.
Humanitarian workers, who are assessing how to help war-ravaged areas such as the Swat valley, say schools are amongst the worst-hit infrastructure.
Despite areas being declared safe, militants are still operating and have been carrying out revenge attacks by burning down more schools and attacking students.
Chauvin said a lack of schooling for more than half a million children would be a devastating blow to people desperate to get back to normal life.
'When children go to school it creates a sense of normalcy and this is what returning populations need,' said Chauvin.
'But this is impossible if the schools no longer exist.'
Aid workers say it is imperative to invest in poverty alleviation and development projects in NWFP, which has become a fertile ground for recruiting militants, but the humanitarian community in Pakistan is struggling to find funds.
The United Nations has only received three per cent of the funds required to restore basic services such as water and electricity systems, and hospitals and clinics.
Chauvin said schools were also being neglected with donors only funding 17 percent of the $23.2 million required.
'There seems to be consensus that education is key but when it comes to action, education is sometimes the forgotten child.'

Education to be allocated seven pc of GDP

After months of foot-dragging, the federal cabinet approved on Wednesday the national education policy which sets ambitious goals of raising the annual budgetary allocations for the sector to seven per cent of the GDP and increasing literacy to 85 per cent by 2015.

Grades 11 and 12 (intermediate education) will no more be part of college education but will be merged into the school system. All primary schools will be upgraded to the middle level.

The government also plans to increase enrolment in higher education from the present 4.7 per cent to 10 per cent by 2015 and to 15 per cent by 2020.

At present the allocation for the education sector is about two per cent of the GDP.

In the first week of April, a draft of the national education policy was submitted to the cabinet, but its approval was deferred for want of inputs from relevant quarters.

Inter-provincial forum of education ministers had been given a supervisory role in the new policy. It will meet on a regular basis to address provinces’ concern. Education is a provincial subject and the federal government only takes policy decisions.