Sindh Situation
To revive the Sindh economy, pragmatic and bold initiatives must commence with Karachi which is not only the prime city of Sindh but that of Pakistan, being its only port. Karachi remained economically buoyant during the 70s because of a construction boom fuelled primarily by expatriate funds from the Middle East. While the money for housing is still there, the lack of water and power have rendered housing starts to virtually nothing. Consequently, a large percentage of the traditional labour force is unemployed, the residual effects spiralling upwards and cutting into white collar jobs. The net result has been an economic downturn of enormous proportion that has degenerated into (1) ethnic strife as the population has increased but the economic cake has become smaller (2) deterioration of law and order as the jobless have turned to crime and (3) consequently residual political factors breeding a general state of anarchy. This has been further accentuated by the machinations of RAW, (the terror arm of India), drugs and arms proliferation, activities of armed militants of various political parties, dacoits from the interior seeking kidnap victims from richer urban areas rather than their traditional rural hunting grounds, etc. To complicate the economic scene, entire industries have shifted northwards to safer havens, deepening the unemployment crisis.
The prime factor compounding this situation is the presence of anything between 750,000 — 1 million illegal Bangladeshi immigrants (an increase of 1000% since 1980) that have wholesale taken away a large percentage of blue collar jobs in industries while completely dominating the domestic employment sector. Industrialists all over the world prefer illegal immigrants because they can get away paying much less than the minimum wages, giving no facilities whatsoever and as they cannot form unions or protest, be free from that “problem”.
Industrialists in Karachi have “unofficial” police protection in local Police Station arrangements not only to look the other way but also have political “dissenters” deported without causing any ripples. While one is sympathetic towards the humanitarian aspects of the Bangladeshi illegal immigrants, particularly their long, tortuous journey to Pakistan, by their taking over critical jobs they have contributed immensely to the anarchy in Karachi. Their free movement across India in large numbers on such an organised basis is suspect and has been encouraged by RAW in trying to destabilize Pakistan. One may well ask how did they succeed when the stranded Pakistanis failed? It would be well-nigh impossible to attempt to repatriate all illegal immigrants, particularly those engaged as workers in industry without causing those industries to close down because of the lack of alternate cheap labour. However, the people of Pakistan must get some premium for the use of illegal immigrants by our captains of industry. First of all, these illegal immigrants must be immediately registered and given some sort of an identification which confirms their Alien status. A monthly tax of Rs. 250 or Rs. 3000 per year should be deducted at source from their pay packets, the concerned industrialist making up the difference if they are not paid the minimum wage. They are using the civic facilities of Karachi as well as depriving genuine Pakistani’s employment, the fund of about Rs 3 billion collected annually could be used to modernize/renovate the dilapidated socio-economic structure of Karachi and provide training for higher skills for the Pakistanis thus deprived of employment. Side by side with due registration which should be made mandatory for the industrialists (and household owners employing the illegal immigrants as domestic servants), further illegal immigration must be stopped. There is no use in creating jobs if it is going to be taken up by non-Pakistanis.
The first priority for Karachi is water in supersession of all other requirements. A city of 9 million people needs potable water primarily for drinking and hygiene purposes. The lack of water has resulted in housing starts coming to almost a complete halt. While there are many schemes in the works about bringing water from the Indus, it is high time that we worked actively for a chain of Desalination Plants along the coastal belt, with main emphasis being in Karachi at the outset, with one such 5-10 MGD plant each at Port Qasim, Korangi, DHA and Hawkesbay, giving us between 30-40 MGD of water. With these commensurately expensive but “tactically” sited Desalination Plants, there will be a boost to construction in adjacent areas, thus breaking the job logjam. Since these areas are at the tail-end of the water tapline, there will be less loss of transient water as well as freeing some water for the centre of the city which also needs high-rise office and apartment buildings.
Alongside the requirement of water, the next priority is power. The 1200 MW Hub Scheme, likely to come onstream in the next 6-7 years, should give a big boost. However it would be appropriate to combine Power with Water Desalination Plants, this would provide interim and badly needed power. To combat systematic power pilferage running into billions of rupees annually, a more effective inspection organisation within KESC has to be created other than the power to industry being lost to consumers, the extra revenues meant for development work is also lost at the same time. The nett result is that our power distribution lines are in shambles and mostly corroded. By designating residential and industrial sectors along the coastal belt for being served by private sector electricity, both the efficiency and revenue collection will increase.
There is an immediate need to create jobs away from Karachi, though in the immediate vicinity or nearabouts. Port Qasim must be developed as a full-fledged Free Trade Zone but real estate speculators must be kept away like the plague. The old city of Thatta must be developed as a model metropolitan city but care must be taken that ethnic Sindhis have first right to residential, commercial and industrial schemes. They must also be given due access to financing for industrial and commercial ventures. The coastal road from Karachi to Gwadar will ensure that Ormara, Pasni, Gwadar and numerous locations en route can be developed as Free Trade Zone localities with adjacent port facilities. The emphasis must be to create employment opportunities away from Karachi and to take care that illegal immigrants do not frustrate the scheme to provide jobs to genuine Pakistanis.
Economic initiatives cannot be successful unless we commensurately tackle the sorry state of Karachi’s civic infrastructure, such as telecommunications, sewerage, transportation, medical care, education, police services, etc. Both Karachi and Hyderabad need to be divided into manageable districts of about 1 million population, each with a Mayor looking after municipal functions. To coordinate the cities’ function, each city, having several Mayors, needs an overall Supremo Lieutenant Governor. There should be a direct relationship between taxation and spending so that the people are satisfied that what they contribute to the public exchequer is seen as development in their own localities with respect to public facilities.
Unless the Land Reform Laws are implemented in letter and spirit, the economy of the rural areas will remain mortgaged to the avarice of Waderas whose lifestyle is quite a world apart from their impoverished tenants, who work the land but are burdened by the burgeoning loans they have to take from landowners and moneylenders year after year at exorbitant interest to eke out a livelihood. To whatever political party they owe their allegiance and despite vociferous claims, most of these landowners are neither democratic nor nationalist. These landowners have ensured that the civil administration is totally subservient to their needs and have thus frustrated any reforms. Since they get elected as the “representatives” of the people, they ensure that such laws as are inimical to their vested interests are never framed, most of the ills bedevilling Sindh Society can be traced to them. This may be true for all Provinces, in Sindh the coercion that these elite class exerts for the vested interests are much more pronounced and borders on outright crime.
In the rural areas it is extremely necessary to have adjacent industrial estates to every big town and city i.e. Free Trade Zones (FTZs) next to towns like Badin, Nawabshah, Dadu, Mirpurkhas, Shikarpur, Jacobabad, Khairpur, etc with trade and financial incentives given to encourage investment. Sindh has a very high proportion of both educated and uneducated jobless youth, as much as we must accommodate the urban area unemployed, we must not forget to give the ethnic Sindhi economic opportunity at his/her doorstep in the rural areas. By reversing the human traffic from the cities to the rural areas and encouraging agri-based industries with adequate incentives, the whole economic situation will be changed positively. Adequate and pragmatic legislation must ensure that the ethnic Sindhi benefits from the economic largesse by being a functioning part of every potential business. The ethnic Sindhi must be forcibly integrated into the economic mainstream of Pakistan, it is only when he has ownership stakes will he (or she) become a contributing rather than a reluctant citizen of Pakistan.
The masses expected that among other things the Army would solve their socio-economic problems beginning with water and electricity. If the lack was not so serious, one would consider this mass aspiration to be funny. It is not the Army’s job to provide socio-economic or civic facilities, it is the duty of the political and civil administration. To a great extent the Army has created conditions suited to economic development by improving the law and order environment, but this will deteriorate as soon as the Army pulls out unless political compromise is reached between the warring parties and factions. Immediate and positive dialogue is necessary. Only death and devastation are the alternatives to dialogue and compromise. Our political leaders must eschew personal egos and interests, taking their cue from the continuing horror of Eastern Europe. It is also upto the masses to correctly choose their leaders, those who will really lead them to prosperity, not those who will lead them to destruction because they lack the foresight to overcome their personal aggrandisement and profit-motivation.
Economic initiatives are necessary, the Army can (and has) provided the basic environment but cannot go beyond that stage. That is the domain of political leadership who are now on short notice to show their real mettle or remove themselves from the path of progress and prosperity of the people of Sindh in particular and that of Pakistan in general.
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