EDITORIAL : THE DAWN, PAKISTAN

 

Afghan refugees

THREE decades after they began to seek sanctuary here from violent conflict, large numbers of Afghans remain on this side of the Durand Line. About 1.7 million registered refugees live in Pakistan today, and the government estimates that another million are unregistered. Many have low incomes and live in poor conditions in refugee villages and urban slums. At the same time, the burden on Pakistani hospitals, schools and housing, especially in struggling Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, cannot be ignored. The province has become reliant on foreign aid to maintain the infrastructure in rural areas where the concentration of refugees is high, and cities around the country have shouldered the burden on their own. Deforestation has resulted from the need to make room, and some camps are reported to have sheltered militants from Afghanistan. Both refugees and locals have suffered while no permanent solution has been found.
The good news is that there does seem to be a plan in place: as per an agreement between the government and UNHCR, registration cards have been renewed until the end of 2012. Meanwhile, refugees will be encouraged to return voluntarily in return for incentive payments and facilitation by UNHCR on the other side. Around 150,000 will be able to extend their stay — businessmen and students through visas and female heads of households by beginning a naturalisation process. Attempts will also be made to identify unregistered Afghans and encourage their return. At first glance, then, the plan seems to be a comprehensive one addressing the needs and contributions of various subgroups within the refugee population.

The success of the scheme, however, remains highly dependent on the willingness of Afghans to return. The American invasion of Afghanistan led to a flood of voluntary returns — 3.6 million since 2002 — clearly indicating that Afghans are not averse to going home if incentives exist. But providing those incentives is up to the Afghan government, which has largely taken a back seat in the development of a repatriation strategy. While UNHCR and the Pakistan government have joined forces to look after, register and repatriate refugees, the Afghans’ own government has done little to welcome them back. Nor should we wait, as the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa information minister suggested on Thursday, for the restoration of peace in Afghanistan. While the country is still at war, there are relatively calm pockets where refugees could be resettled. The current administration there also enjoys billions of dollars in aid and on-the-ground support from the international community. While Pakistan will not, and should not, force refugees to leave, their own government must also make efforts to bring them
back home.

Eau de colonialism

WAS it a slip of the tongue, a ‘semi-jocular aside’ (BBC) or a case of a British prime minister awkwardly coming clean about the world’s worst-kept secret? Whatever the truth, it seems modern-day fans of colonialism in Britain are up in arms against their prime minister, David Cameron, who dared suggest Britain’s colonial past was “responsible” for “so many of the world’s problems”. Mr Cameron’s comment came in response to a Pakistani student’s question about the role the UK could play in the settlement of the Kashmir dispute. Condemnation in Britain has been swift. The venerable Daily Telegraph deplored Mr Cameron’s statement, arguing that the prime minister “should not run down his own country”. But even tabloids with a more liberal bent have laid into the hapless Mr Cameron. The Daily Mirror haughtily suggested, “It is not the job of the British prime minister to go abroad and do Britain down.” The famous British stiff upper lip seems to be quivering with indignation.
Some of the outrage is almost comical. Writing on the BBC website, Nick Lloyd, a lecturer at King’s College London, has claimed, “The British Empire in India, known as the Raj, was the greatest experiment in paternalistic imperial government in history. By the time the British left India in 1947 they had given the subcontinent a number of priceless assets, including the English language ….” It would be hard to make up such stuff. Then again, perhaps we here in Pakistan should be grateful for the priceless gift of English because we can also read Seamus Milne of The Guardian: “[M]any of the world’s most intractable conflicts are in former British colonies or protectorates: from the West Bank and Gaza, Iraq, Kurdistan, Yemen and Somalia to Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Cyprus and Sudan — with the reflex imperial resort to partition a recurrent theme.” The things we learn thanks to the English language! Of course, it would be absurd to pretend that 64 years into this country’s creation, our most intractable problems are completely the fault of outside powers. But outraged Britons ought to remember that a little reflection and confession doesn’t do much harm.

Long, hot summer

WITH the mercury rising nationwide and demand for power increasing, the country is beginning to feel the pinch of loadshedding. The situation in Lahore was quite grim on Thursday as, according to this newspaper, a 40 per cent reduction in power generation caused Pepco to carry out eight to 10 hours of loadshedding in urban areas, while rural areas had to put up with 12 to 14 hours of power cuts. Though officially the shortfall was said to be over 3,500MW, observers say the actual supply-demand gap was over 5,000MW. Pepco says it is carrying out the cuts due to shortages of both furnace oil and gas, while the hydel contribution to the power grid has also come down due to reduced releases from Tarbela. Several power plants also remain out of operation. The situation in Karachi is not much better as the KESC has said residents of the metropolis could face up to 13 hours of power cuts due to short gas supply.

The menace of loadshedding has a decimating effect on industrial production while such prolonged outages in stifling heat amount to inflicting psychological torture on the people. Having to labour without power for over half the day is not a welcome prospect. We must ask what the government’s planning regarding the power crisis is. It’s safe to say there’s barely any. The writing has been on the wall for a while, but what practical steps has the state taken to combat growing shortages? For example, has there been a serious national initiative to try and explore the feasibility of alternative fuels or secure energy supplies from nations with surpluses? Perhaps only on paper. The truth is, there are no quick-fix solutions to loadshedding of such magnitude. Unless there is a miracle and the nation’s power plants start generating non-stop electricity, the people must be prepared for an uncomfortably long and hot summer.