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Lebensraum?

The fear of domination by an alien religion motivated the Muslims of British India to make their demand for a separate homeland. The Quaid, a professed supporter of Hindu-Muslim amity at the beginning of his political career, became instead the ultimate architect of Pakistan. Millions and millions of people left their hearth and home, to vote with their feet the choice of their hearts and mind. Countless sacrifices were given en route. MOHAJIR became a real word in the new state of Pakistan, in the absence of any other identity it may not have become a nationality by itself but must be the closest description there is to it.

While religion was the prime reason for this great migration, no one can deny that the fear of continuing economic subjugation by a preponderant majority having an unshakable stranglehold on commerce was what drove the millions into safer sanctuaries. Four decades later, the economic conditions may have improved on pro-rata basis, in comparison to the sons of the soil, the great mass of migrant people and their descendants perceive their economic lot as alarmingly bad. To a great extent this is because of the concentration of the migrant population in the urban areas of the province of Sindh, as job opportunities have diminished and the numbers in competition for the slots available multiplied, an inversely proportional surge has caused frustration to increase to the point that the silent population has finally found a voice in an increasingly militant crescendo. Karachi, in effect, is the MOHAJIR’S last stand in all senses of the word and it behoves all sane men to take mature notice of this.

Needless to say, ethnicity has proliferated as a root cause of the present-day troubles, drawing innocents into the vortex of an unforgiving fire, snow-balling into a multitude of other flash-points, focussed on the port city of Karachi, spiralling into a Catch-22 effect that has deep and diverse effect on the economic pillars of the nation. For Pakistan, an economic midnight is not an illusion any more, in an increasingly insecure security environment capital has sought refuge in safer havens. While emotions rather than logic seem to guide most of our political propositions, cold rational thought must be the basis of all present and future political decisions, almost all of them with economic bias directed to alleviating the sorry lot of our poverty stricken masses.

Our young and dynamic leaders on both sides of the political spectrum must reach out and make bold, decisive actions in their war against want, dovetailing various problems into all encompassing solutions, measured not for immediate effect but against long-term multi-faceted benefits meant to cover a broad expanse of our population. On no account must actions be necessitated by pandering to short-term political gain. In Karachi, our political and economic problems have come head-to-head in an emotion-charged atmosphere ripe for exploitation in any direction. This is a situation where we cannot wait for “Rule by Committee” but authoritative decisive far-reaching changes have to be made immediately. Karachi’s problems are acute, over-population, lack of housing, water, electricity and other service facilities meant to maintain adequate support for average quality of Third World life, compounded by acute shortages of medical, educational and recreational facilities. With new industries not coming onto the anvil and old industries grinding to a halt for various reasons, the already scarce job market is under great pressure. Add to this mix, the advent of drugs and guns over the past few years, force-multiplied by the Afghan war and then throw in the ethnic problem to bedevil the whole mixture. Why everything has not fallen apart, God alone knows! It has been no mean feat on the part of successive administrations to keep Karachi going, this juggling act cannot go on forever.

Pakistan has a vast coastline and only one port, Port Qasim is simply an adjunct of Karachi. In order to create more living room within Pakistan, we must create more cities, concentrating on building more ports of Pakistan, developing the vast potential of Baluchistan Province lying mostly unexplored at this time. These new port cities will not only relieve the burden on Karachi but by being in almost population-less areas, would mean planned industrial and urban areas, a well-laid infrastructure for development, all this would create more jobs, mushrooming into an economic upturn unprecedented in Pakistan save for the early boom years or in the 60s.

The first and foremost requirement is to inter-link these new proposed cities by superb all-weather highways and a railroad, constructing a new national grid of communications on the west bank of the Indus. Some highways are already under construction but their scope needs greater ambition because a coastal highway, laid properly will add to inter-city commerce along the coastal belt on an East-West axis as well as into the hinterland on a North-South basis. The highways planned should be broad and futuristic, with small towns catered for en route or even townships planned at nodal points. Right from the outset there is a need for a high speed rail link, preferably the most modern ones in the advanced design trial stage in the First World. A number of ultra-modern trains using semi-conductors being developed by Japan, W. Germany and France are already in the trial stage and we can opt for any one of the choices, being new and still in the experimental stage, the vendor country may give us some real concessions on credit and cost.

The second immediate requirement is to establish power stations that will generate enough electricity for large populations and industries well into the twenty-first century. These plants should have multi-purpose boilers capable of being fired by coal, gas, oil or even Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF), etc. On a basis of reverse osmosis the heat generated should be used for large desalination plants for obtaining potable water. The example of Pat Feeder Canal can be used to establish canals parallel to the coastline. We have the necessary ingredients to create a vast greenbelt in this world of diminishing food reserves and increasing populations, any effort in this direction cannot be over-emphasized.

Each city planned must be futuristic in concept, with industries and urban satellite towns well laid out with well-organised civic services and facilities. Entrepreneurs must be encouraged to open up industries in these new cities by providing them interest-free credit, land, buildings, communication facilities, electricity, water, gas and other utilities/facilities. A low minimum flat tax should be levied after the mandatory tax holiday period expires. Educational institutions and medical facilities can be dovetailed within the Master Plan in such a manner that it caters for population increases well into the middle of the 21st Century. Emphasis must be made on the most modern communications arrangement available in this age of high-tech. The port cities must incorporate the latest technology available for the loading/unloading of vessels, with good highways and high-speed rail facilities, the cargo pressure on Karachi for/from up-country will also definitely ease up.

What would these modern port cities do for Pakistan? Above all, there would be a much-needed transmigration of personnel into these cities as jobs become available across a wide spectrum of the employment scene, blue-collar and white collar jobs. There would be a mix of people from all the provinces flowing into these cities, particularly from our MOHAJIR brethren, easing the present focus of all migratory burden on Karachi. The vast hinterland of Baluchistan Province, under-populated and hitherto underdeveloped, would open up for economic progress. The dependence on Karachi as Pakistan’s only port conglomerate would cease, giving us strategic depth, much needed now because of India’s vast blue-navy potential and its ability to blockade Karachi port at will.

Someone may well ask, where would we get the huge investments necessary? One believes that the friends of Pakistan would be that much interested in our welfare that they would very much encourage such grandiose but purposeful schemes, both morally and materially. One daresays that if a proper Presentation is made they may invest in such schemes as pilot projects, role-model solutions for the deteriorating state in innumerable impoverished Third World countries faced with the same population saturation problem in key urban cities. By the use of imaginative incentives, one may well see private capital being invested by Multi-nationals, who may take advantage of our comparatively cheap labour to locate their industries in these modern townships/cities. With a proper mix of private and public sector initiatives in the matter of production, these new port cities, which should be designated as FREE PORTS, may well be the economic sustenance of Pakistan in the 21st century. For Baluchistan Province these ports will become a tremendous source of revenue.

Above all, we must ensure that everything remains a one-window operation, whether it be the need of a private individual wishing to build a home or an industrialist planning to put up a manufacturing plant. With stifling bureaucratic controls these cities will die an unnatural death even before they really start living. We must encourage free enterprise and then endeavour to keep it really free.

At this time, Ms Benazir’s international credibility is a thing of consequence. Her appeal to the international community will carry weight, her charisma useful economically for Pakistan within and without the country. One is sure that she is serious about solving the economic problems of the country, that is her only mandate from the poor masses of her nation. While the infra-structure of all our social and community seriously need to be refurbished, the future is in the lands that remain uninhabited along our vast coastline.

LEBENSRAUM may have been a bad word in the context of the Second World War but our ambitions are not expansionist but confined to our own country. We must dream up our own version of LEBENSRAUM.

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