Drainage scheme failed due to lack of commitment

Pakistani youngsters play in a drainage channel after heavy rain fall in Islamabad, Pakistan.

The Asian Development Bank has said the National Drainage Programme could not be implemented because of a lack of commitment on the part of the federal and provincial governments.
The agricultural development project was estimated to cost $185 million, a larger chunk of which was to be provided by the ADB and World Bank.

The project was taken up in 1998. However, only $31.14 million was spent and only three of its 28 components could be completed.Seven components of the project were partially completed and the remaining 18 were not undertaken, says a report of the ADB’s Operations Evaluation Department.

The bank has presented a bleak picture of the drainage programme, which is part of the government’s 25-year drainage investment envisaged in 1993 under the Drainage System Environmental Assessment.

The ADB and World Bank were to provide loans for the project and the government and some institutional investors were to share the cost.

The report blames insufficient commitment of the Water and Power Development Authority and the provincial irrigation and drainage authorities to carry out reforms in their own organisations for the failure of the project.

It points out that in the NWFP and Sindh, some of the maintenance and rehabilitation works had not been sustainable, and drains reverted to their pre-works conditions by the time of completion of the project. The reluctance of the implementing agencies to comply with land acquisition and resettlement framework agreed to as part of the project designs was one of the hurdles.

The report has also termed ADB’s own performance ‘unsatisfactory’. It observed that although the bank sent 12 special loan administration missions, six loan review missions and a mid-term review mission, the project implementation ‘failed to improve’.

In Balochistan, the project’s component included (a) rehabilitation of about 20km of sub-drains and construction of new on-farm drainage facilities for about 2,000 hectares, (b) modernisation of the management of the Pat Feeder canal system, (c) rehabilitation of selected distribution canals, and (d) performance contracts for about 300km of drains. Pilot initiatives for decentralisation of system management were also included.

In the NWFP, the sub-component comprised (a) the transfer of about 220 shallow tube-wells (STWs) in fresh groundwater areas, rehabilitation of about 300 km of sub-drains and construction of new on-farm drainage facilities for about 2,500 hectares, (b) modernisation of the management of NWFP’s major canal systems and rehabilitation of selected distribution canals, and (c) performance contracts for about 1,700km of drains and about 60 STWs, as well as pilot initiatives for decentralisation of system management.

In Sindh, the only component involved was rehabilitation and improvement of about 400km of sub-drains, transfer of about 1,300 STWs in fresh groundwater areas, replacement of STWs in saline groundwater areas, and construction of new on-farm drainage facilities for about 2,500 hectares.

New restrictions on Bajaur IDPs returning home

Under the new terms and conditions personnel of the Frontier Corps, Levies and local elders would ensure to hoist white flags on houses which had been registered and flags would be removed from those houses which had not been registered.

The political administration in Bajaur has imposed new restrictions on the returning internally displaced persons (IDPs) barring them from occupying their own houses.
Such restrictions were unheard of in the tribal region before, even under the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR), considered a black law.
The glimpses of new realities for the tribesmen came in the light of certain decisions taken by the Army-Civil Jirga, which are in complete violation of fundamental human rights and the constitution, and could discourage the IDPs to go back to their homes. ‘The houses currently held by security forces or those in the firing range or near security forces’ pickets will not be allowed for dwelling by its residents,’ a source in the Army-Civil Jirga said.
Over 200,000 displaced tribesmen can’t return to their homes without accepting decisions of the jirga. Each family will fill security form and will be verified by the respective elders of a tribe and political administration before returning to his/her home.
The IDPs, living in Kacha Garhi relief camp in Peshawar, criticised the decision of the jirga, saying that on the one hand their houses were destroyed on the pretext of operation against the Taliban while on the other hand they were not being allowed to return to their areas to reconstruct their adobes.
Fazl Rabi, a resident of Tang Khatta who is currently living in a relief camp, said that like him thousands of IDPs could not go back to their ancestral villages by imposing such ‘inhuman’ decisions.
‘Earlier security forces destroyed our houses, schools, mosques and other infrastructure and now they stop us from returning to the debris,’ he said and added that the entire infrastructure had been bombed in Lowi Sam and those houses which remained safe in the operation had been occupied by the troops.
Official sources in Khar told that over 2,000 houses had been completely destroyed in Lowi Sam, Tang Khatta, Rashakai and other areas during the operation Sher Dill launched in August last. Large number of houses had been partially damaged and administration was assessing damages. Over 4,000 houses were destroyed in South Waziristan during the military operation in January 2008.
Tribesmen who want to return to their homes in the conflict-hit areas of Bajaur are bound mentioning details about their families in the form including religion, tribes and photograph of the family’s head.
These conditions imposed on the displaced people of Bajaur returning to their respective areas got no relevance with the laws of the country and even the 100-year old colonial era FCR, which does not provide any such authority to the state agencies.
Surprisingly the authorities have enforced these ruthless conditions on the affected people of Bajaur when the PPP and ANP have been running coalition governments at the centre and the Frontier province. Both parties have not only guaranteed drastic amendments in the FCR in their election manifesto but also promised restoration of political rights to the people of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata).
Three sections of the FCR – 21, 22 and 23 – are considered more oppressive and barbaric but even they don’t restrict a peaceful and law abiding tribal family from going back to its adobe.
Section 21 deals with collective responsibility of a tribe and section 22 calls for territorial responsibility of tribesmen which empowers the tribal administration to impose fine on the entire population of a village when there appears to be good reason to believe that the inhabitants of the village had connived at, or in any way abetted, the commission of an offence, or failed to render all assistance in their power to discover the offender or to effect their arrest.
Under the new terms and conditions personnel of the Frontier Corps, Levies and local elders would ensure to hoist white flags on houses which had been registered and flags would be removed from those houses which had not been registered.
Local people are allowed to keep weapons and they will stand ready whenever army requires their assistance. Residents and elders of the villages will not open fire and if any extraordinary situation happens in the area they (residents) should counter it and inform the army.
Date for convening a jirga will be fixed by the army, FC and political administration after consultation and the political tehsildar of the area will be responsible to be in touch with the local elders and keep them abreast regarding date and venue of the jirga.
Presence of the army, FC and members of the political administration is mandatory in the jirga. It will be organised and protected by the army. The FC and Levies personnel could search people at the notified places besides allotment of house numbers after registration.
Residents of the respective villages, under the plan, could live in their homes independently after registering themselves.

A country’s soul

A victim of bombing in Swat

Those already clued in require no reminders. Thursday’s bomb blast in Dera Ghazi Khan confirms that violence justified by a warped sense of religiosity is eating away at the very soul of Pakistan. At least 30 people died and several others were injured when a Shia congregation came under attack, possibly from a suicide bomber, as night fell in D.G. Khan. Pause, if you will, and take some time to consider where we stand.
Pakistan was not like this a few decades ago. True, sectarian trouble used to flare up from time to time, but the scale of the conflict simply cannot be compared to the mayhem that is now on display. We have amongst us not just one but several generations of brainwashed young men who believe that the path to heaven is lined with death and destruction. Kill Shias and your place in paradise is promised, they believe, murder Sunnis and God will greet you with a kindly eye. Meanwhile, many influenced by orthodox ideology are convinced that theirs is the true interpretation of Islam and that killing Sufi pilgrims will book them a place in heaven. All this has happened in Pakistan in recent years and will no doubt continue to take place until we wake up and shout and demand that this madness must end.
Where are the religio-political parties when schools are bombed or burned down in Swat and the tribal areas? If they don’t condemn suicide bombings, should we assume that their interests are linked to those of the Tehrik-i-Taliban? What we get is the same old prattle to the effect that Muslims couldn’t possibly be behind such heinous crimes. Nothing could make less sense and it is important that we stop living in a state of denial. Wake up and smell the reality. What we have in this country is Muslims killing Muslims, and a society that is becoming increasingly intolerant of difference. The manner in which different sects of Islam interpret the holy word ought to be a source of discourse, not conflict.
We blame the West and America for all our ills but don’t for a moment stop to think how we are destroying ourselves. Hatred oozes out of our pores, we are quick to brand as an infidel anyone who takes a broad-minded view. Many amongst us feel that those who think differently are worthy of death. We have only ourselves to blame for our misfortunes.

World Bank to provide $2 billion this year

The World Bank will provide Pakistan $2 billion this year for poverty alleviation and development programmes, an official said.
‘The Bank Group plans to provide up to $2 billion in credits during this fiscal year to support economic growth and the government’s poverty-focussed programmes,’ World Bank country director Yusupha Crookes said.
‘These projects will support the immediate challenges in education, health, safety nets and community-led development, while laying the foundation for investment in infrastructure to foster long-term growth and job creation.As the macroeconomic situation improves, additional … financing will also become available.’
According to a statement issued , World Bank Group managing director Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said at the conclusion of her visit that Pakistan was moving in the right direction and its reform programme would lay the foundation for inclusive and sustainable growth.
Acknowledging the government’s efforts to correct macroeconomic imbalances, particularly in light of global financial crisis, she praised launching of a safety net programme, the Benazir Income Support Programme and emphasised the need to focus on long-term development agenda.
‘The World Bank is committed to supporting Pakistan in line with its vision for equitable progress and rapid development. We are committed to working with the government during this difficult time, protecting the most vulnerable groups and carrying out critical reforms that will set the basis for higher, inclusive and sustainable economic growth,’ she said.
Okonjo-Iweala during her visit held meetings with President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and the government’s economic team to discuss the macroeconomic situation and infrastructure development, expansion of power production, social protection, and education, particularly for girls.
She participated in roundtable discussions on infrastructure, NWFP, and implementation challenges.
During discussions with the representatives of the private sector, she noted the importance of public-private partnerships and using the infrastructure gap as an opportunity to build regional linkages.
With civil society and community leaders from the NWFP, the Bank’s official expressed sympathy with those who were struggling to cope with an increasingly difficult situation and emphasised the need for improving conditions.
She appreciated the government’s stabilisation programme and signalled the Bank Group’s strong support to the economic team.
She cautioned that the global economic situation posed challenges and the government would need to maintain its strong reform programme, saying that revenue mobilisation would be ‘key to underpinning growth’.
She said that the long-term vision was important and continued investment in infrastructure, expanding the export base, enhanced regional cooperation, agriculture development and results-based education development would be critical for realising growth and poverty reduction.

Headmaster flees ‘living hell’

As a man, Ali said he would have been happy to face death,

but that he had to keep his wife and children from danger.

Sitting on a cold floor in a mud house on the outskirts of Peshawar, Akbar Ali fights back tears about getting his five children and pregnant wife out of ‘hell’ in Pakistan’s Swat valley.
When the militants came to his village, his life as a respected local headmaster fell apart.
Today he hears that Aligrama has become a ghost village, overrun by rebels and damaged by army shelling.
The displaced say civilisation as they knew it has collapsed in the picturesque and historic valley. A lucrative tourist industry for Western and Pakistani holidaymakers after skiing and mountain hikes – decimated.
‘The lives of ordinary people in Swat get worse and worse. It’s like living in hell. There’s no trade. Nobody’s safe. Militants rule most of the area and anybody who opposes them is killed,’ he said.
‘Everything in Swat is destroyed; they are bombing schools, killing notables and targeting government employees.’
‘All women’s institutions are closed. There is no entertainment, no CD or music shops, and most hairdressers are closed,’ he added.
Ali’s nightmare began about 14 months ago when the Taliban warned him to close the girls’ section of his village school, the 41-year-old said.
‘Masked militants armed with rocket launchers, small and heavy weapons started patrolling our village.’
‘First they told us to sack the female staff at school and then ordered us to close the female section or face the consequences,’.
‘So we were forced to shut the classes where some 135 female students were getting an education. This created panic among the boys and the number of students dropped from 435 to 125,’ he said.
Six months ago, he fled Aligrama for nearby Mingora. The militants closed in again, killing teachers and bombing schools, so he left Swat in January and followed five of his brothers to Peshawar.
Local residents say 41 families from Swat are living in the village of Mosa Zai, on the outskirts of Peshawar where Ali has found refuge.
Ordinary families renting houses or staying with relatives in the city say they were caught between the security forces and the Taliban.
Local officials said last week that 20,000 people had fled Swat recently.
Witnesses talk about men, women and children walking down from the mountains in the freezing cold often with just the clothes on their backs.
‘Ten people were killed in our village and dozens more wounded in fighting in recent months,’ Ali said.
‘The Taliban killed an elected women councillor and her husband, and beheaded two others ‘spying’ for the government. Six people died in government shelling in various incidents.’
‘Every time there was fighting, there was a curfew but the victims were innocent civilians’.
‘Almost the entire village has evacuated. Only those with nowhere to go have stayed,’ he said.
People newly displaced to Peshawar told Ali the village had fallen to the militants and Taliban fighters were in control of five kilometres of road heading to the towns of Kabal to Kanju.
He said anyone who opposes the militants is liquidated.
‘Not even the police can protect us, police can’t leave the police station, they’re living like prisoners in police stations,’ he added.
Local residents say the government has lost control of most if not the entire valley. Ali said militants were demanding land tax and rents previously collected by local administration officials.
‘We cannot trust either party as both – the Taliban and the security forces – treat civilians as sub-human,’ said Ahmad Gul, another resident from Aligrama who fled to Peshawar.
As a man, Ali said he would have been happy to face death, but that he had to keep his wife and children from danger.
In Peshawar, his wife gave birth to her sixth baby, a healthy girl, and he was just happy that mother and children were safe and well.
‘We have suffered enough. Every family in Swat has buried loved ones and the death toll is still rising.’

A matter of timing

There have been a number of comments in the papers recently urging the government to move from the present "stabilization phase" to a "growth phase" to stem the loss of jobs and arrest the troubling increase in poverty as growth slows.

While the suggestion is correct in theory, timing is everything and the time is not now. The economy has hardly stabilized. After all, it has been barely two months since stabilization measures were taken in the context of the government's adjustment program financed by the IMF. No economy can be turned around so quickly and Pakistan is no exception.

To begin with, the signs of stabilization are still very tentative. Our foreign exchange reserves have stabilized but, at $ 10 billion, the situation is still fragile. Some have suggested the reserves will fall unless there are offsetting capital inflows. This is a source of concern. The allegedly tight fiscal stance and firm monetary policy appears to be having an effect on reducing internal and external imbalances by restraining aggregate demand. Inflation is coming down nicely, in large part due to the reverse price shock from falling food and oil prices. How much of a contribution macroeconomic policies are making in reducing inflation is difficult to tell. The fall in inflation thus far may be due entirely to fortuitous exogenous, non-policy related factors. Manna from heaven.

There are reports that the fiscal deficit target has thus far been exceeded, and there has been no net borrowing from the central bank, the root cause of past inflation. While it is difficult to ascertain the correct position since the data is guarded closely, if true, this is certainly good news and the authorities deserve to be commended. However, once again the FBR has fallen short of its tax revenue target which suggests that the fiscal target has been met by cutting expenditures.

There is nothing wrong with cutting expenditures. Indeed, empirical evidence from other countries show that fiscal adjustment that is based on expenditure cuts, as opposed to revenue increases has a better change of success and is more lasting. However, it all depends on what you cut.

It is highly unfortunate that the cut in spending is being focused on the development side. This is exactly what the government should not be doing. By limiting releases of funds to both new and on-going projects and programs, the development program is being devastated, hurting all projects across the board without any respect for priorities. This includes projects which are viable and make an important contribution to growth, namely, projects relating to physical and social expenditure and poverty alleviation. By applying such indiscriminate cuts, we are killing the proverbial goose, or one of the gooses that lays the golden egg.

Development spending is cut because it is simply easy to do. You just pass an order. The government has control over releases and can stop projects dead in their tracks. Cutting spending elsewhere, in current spending and defence spending, is harder to do. While there have been some rumors to the effect that the government is tightening up on jaunts by all and sundry and holding the line on other wasteful expenditures, defence expenditures, as usual, remain unscathed.

In brief, I would submit that we are off to a good, if tentative, start on the path of economic adjustment. The time to relax policies will come and we need to be patient until stabilization is firmly established, macroeconomic imbalances have been reduced, reserves have been built up to more comfortable levels and inflation has come down further. Once inflation falls to more acceptable levels, there will be room to cut interest rates and thereby provide a boost to the economy. This would mark the classic transition from the stabilization phase to the growth phase.

However, this will only work of fiscal policy is held tight. Loosening monetary policy through a cut in interest rates and loosening fiscal policy by expanding the deficit at the same time would be a classic case of overkill and will quickly get us into trouble again. Too abrupt and too fast an easing of policy will merely bring back inflation and widen the imbalances that we would have worked so hard to correct. We would have lost all our hard-fought gains.

Our past experience shows that we have invariably succumbed to the temptation to ease the policy stance prematurely. This is understandable because the political pressure to do so on an elected government which wants to be seen to be sensitive to the aspirations of the people is intense and becomes harder as time goes by. Patience is exhausted and adjustment fatigue sets in. The voices of prudence and caution are drowned out in the cacophony of macroeconomic populism.

Maybe we will do the right thing this time around.

Polio hiccups

The fact that the first polio case in 2009 was reported from a Punjab district earlier declared polio-free also points to possible administrative flaws in the vaccination drives.

THAT our campaign to eradicate polio continues to be an uphill task is evident by the recent confirmation of our third polio case last month. This follows a setback to our anti-polio campaign in 2008 which saw polio cases soaring nearly four times to 118 from 32 in 2007, according to WHO statistics. This record contrasts with that in 2005 when Pakistan, one of the four countries in the world where polio is still endemic, came closest to eradicating polio with only 28 reported cases, down 25 cases from 53 in 2004. This represented a commendable achievement from the year 2000 when 199 cases were reported.

Intensification of vaccination activities with measures like house-to-house vaccination, extra rounds of National Immunisation Days and the addition of Sub-National Immunisation Days appear to be responsible for the earlier downward trend. Such achievements give us reason to believe that similar success in bringing down polio cases can be duplicated and still better efforts can achieve total eradication, provided these efforts are concerted and consistent.

But polio resurgence from 2006 onwards is a worrying scenario that has raised concerns about the effectiveness of our anti-polio strategy. Last November, the ministry of health set up a new inter-ministerial oversight body for polio eradication. This week a cross-border coordination meeting with Afghanistan, another polio-endemic country, is also scheduled in Islamabad. However, effectively stemming the resurgence of polio cases would require accurate analyses of the reasons responsible for the upsurge. Some experts have blamed new unvaccinated refugees from Afghanistan for the rise in polio cases. Others have blamed ineffective vaccination drives in the camps established for the internally displaced in the NWFP from where two of the three cases in 2009 have been reported. The fact that the first polio case in 2009 was reported from a district in Punjab earlier declared polio-free and that cases from provinces other than the NWFP were reported last year may also point to possible administrative flaws in the vaccination drives. Our ability to pinpoint the exact causes of the polio resurgence and implement corrective measures will determine the outcome of our anti-polio campaign in 2009 and after.