EDITORIAL : THE DAWN, PAKISTAN

Industrial paralysis

THOUGH the prevailing power crisis is taking a heavy toll on the entire country, Pakistan’s industrial sector is particularly feeling the heat. If corrective measures are not taken, the problem may well develop into a law and order issue. According to a report in this paper, all five of Karachi’s industrial areas are facing
losses in production and exports worth billions of rupees. Though the power crisis is quite grave nationwide — the shortfall is said to be touching 6,000 megawatts — in Karachi the situation has been aggravated by the dispute between KESC’s management and workers. The report says that, at present, nearly 75 per cent of units in the Sindh Industrial and Trading Estate remain idle at a time due to the lack of power. Even those industries with captive power plants — i.e. those that generate their own power — are suffering as workers do not get adequate rest at home because of prolonged breakdowns.

In Punjab, the situation is no different. There, the crisis is two-fold: there is a shortage of gas as well as electricity, with the
former unavailable three days of the week. In industrial cities such as Faisalabad and Sialkot, small- and medium-sized units are the hardest hit. In an atmosphere where domestic economic growth is sluggish and where foreign buyers can choose other options if Pakistani exporters consistently fail to meet targets, taking no action to resolve the power crisis will be suicidal. What are the options? Since many large industrial units already operate their own power plants, perhaps encouraging more captive power plants could be a solution. However, the electricity produced by such plants is still distributed by the utility companies; hence the state would have to deregulate distribution
so that units can sell power to each other. Yet captive power plants may not be an affordable option for small and medium industries, and the gas that would be needed to run them is also in short supply.

The other power generation option can be run-of-the-river plants. Whereas large dams are a contentious issue, these projects would probably go down easily with all stakeholders and are said to be cost-effective. Such technology is already being used in countries such as Turkey and China. Clearly, the state — including the centre and the provinces — needs to work out long- and short-term solutions to overcome the power crisis. If more units are shut, more jobs will be lost. Is the
government prepared to deal with large numbers of angry, jobless people taking to the streets? The cost of not dealing with the power crisis in an effective manner could be very high indeed.

India`s most wanted list

INDIA has been caught fighting terror with error. As its detractors teed up to hit it hard, the Indian government withdrew the list of wanted men given to Pakistan for repatriation, promising to submit a new one. The with- drawal came after two men whose names were on the list New Delhi had provided to Pakistan surfaced in Mumbai. One of them, identified as Wajhal Qamar Khan, has been living with his family in Thane district since last August. If this did not make him conspicuous enough, he had been regularly appearing in the local police station to fulfil a legal requirement. Feroze Abdul Rashid, found soon after Mr Khan`s discovery, was also lodged right under the police`s nose: inside his cell in a Mumbai jail. The Mumbai police was on the trail of — or simply hoping to run into or receive as a gift — Mr Rashid in connection with the 1993 serial blasts. Mr Khan was wanted in the Mulund blast of 2003. He had been on the run for seven years and secured bail after his arrest last year.

Pakistanis cannot help but wonder whether they find the situation too serious to be amused by it. The Indian authorities have repeatedly questioned Pakistan`s commitment and competence in rounding up suspects wanted for carrying out terror strikes in Indian territory. But the surfacing in Mumbai of two men who Delhi previously maintained were in Pakistan brings India`s own efficiency into doubt. India`s Central Bureau of Investigation says it had “forgotten” to remove Mr Rashid`s name from the list, and the department offered a similar explanation in the case of Mr Khan. The CBI accepted responsibility for the oversight, but more significantly, it has felt the need to go and recheck the list. The instance is reflective of just how easy it is to pass the buck to another country in the region`s war against terrorism. As India updates its list of wanted men, it must realise that solely blaming Pakistan for terrorism in that country is not going to solve its problems. What is needed is an admission of the indigenous terror threat.

Brutalised society

INCREASINGLY, Pakistan is becoming a fear-invoking place of unbridled rage with an ever-present possibility of descent into anarchy. It is not just that Pakistanis are, for the most part, deprived of the basic essentials that can allow a dignified life: food, health, education and opportunity. It is also true that with the country`s security situation deteriorating, Pakistanis are increasingly becoming inured to violence and horror. Our people have been bludgeoned on so many counts that this has rendered them brutal, liable to resort to any means, however terrible, to vent their rage. How else is it possible to understand the incident that took place in Chakwal on Friday when a retired army major, on finding two boys picking apricots off his tree, picked up his pistol and shot and seriously injured them? The cousins, aged eight and seven, received bullet wounds from the chest to the waist. While the police have confirmed that a case of attempted murder has been registered, the parents of the boys maintain that the retired soldier is not being arrested because of his influence in the area.

This is far from the first time that retribution of horrifying proportions has been reported. It was just last year that the Sialkot tragedy occurred, when two brothers where lynched by a mob baying for blood. Meanwhile, violence at lower yet no less condemnable levels continues in every sphere, from children being subjected to brutal corporal punishment by the very people who are meant to teach them, to domestic servants being tortured to the point of death, to the endemic abuse of women`s rights. And all this is quite apart from the crime and terrorism that Pakistanis must also contend with. In today`s Pakistan, it seems, any amount of violence can at any time be unleashed against anybody.