Jerry's Take: Bringing about a Change - Jarrar Shah

Pakistan has been in the grips of a severe heat wave. This always happens this time of the year. All of us are eagerly awaiting the arrival of the first monsoon rains. This year has been more difficult than usual because of the excessive load shedding (power outages). Here are some interesting facts about the electricity situation in the country. The total capacity of electricity in this country is 19,754MW (economic survey of Pakistan 2008-2009). the current production of electricity in this country is roughly 11,000MW. The demand in this country given the atrocious weather conditions is at its yearly peak which is 15,000 MW. Do the math folks. Should this equation result in load shedding? We are utilising 55% of our total installed capacity of power generation. so whats going on here? in a nutshell, poor governance. The government is not paying the utility companies who cant pay the producers who in turn cant pay the oil and gas companies. Our energy sector is trapped in circular debt. Here's the kicker. In the next two years roughly 10,000MW are going to be coming online in our energy grid. that's good news right? Well ill leave that judgement up to you. the overwhelming majority of power producing units coming up are going to be thermal based i.e running on gas or oil. We already aren't being able to pay our existing thermal units so how are we going to pay these new companies. Well one thing the government could do and is doing is increase the bills it sends us. Once that's done how our industries will compete globally is something beyond me. The effect on domestic inflation wont be nice either. Also what would happen if international oil prices start rocketing towards the $150/barrel mark? Another thing that could happen is that due to the shutting down of various industrial units our consumption could come down so we wont have to run all those expensive thermal units. What would happen to all those jobless youth is something we will worry about when we cross that bridge or i guess in our case not worry at all. Why?

Lately there's been some noise about the water issue. This issue is only going to get worse with time. Our capacity to store water on the Indus is limited and our population growth is not. We have politicised the issue of dams to the detriment of us all. The much awaited monsoon season is all set to hit us. The bulk of that rainfall will be wasted. Why? Because we don't have any dam downstream of Tarbela dam to catch and store that rain water. A lot of the snow that melts each year cant be stored because we only have Tarbela dam on the Indus and no dam upstream of it. We talk incessantly of being an agrarian economy yet over the past so many decades we have made the topic of dams politically taboo in this country. Why?

Apart from the obvious benefits of storing water when its in excess during the summers and monsoon, building dams will also generate thousands of jobs for unskilled workers during construction and later on during construction of new canals etc. The most obvious benefit that will be derived though is on the energy front. We will be providing our consumers and our industry alike with the cheapest source of renewable energy thus leading to massive industrialisation and job creation in this country. We have the capacity to generate 55,000MW of cheap electricity from the river Indus but unfortunately we are not the least bit interested in pursuing this option. Why?

Politics as usual can not go on in this country anymore. Our challenges are too huge and our people have been taken for granted for far too long for this to continue. We must individually and collectively start doing our part in bringing about a change.

One such group of individuals have made a collective called Pakistan Rising that intends to play a part no matter how small in bringing about this change. This group of individuals came together a couple of months back after reports of the Taliban extremists entering Buner. They helped organize a letter campaign and protest rally against extremism in Lahore, Islamabad and Karachi. They are also facilitating 400 IDP families at three locations in NWFP and 60 IDP families in Lahore. They have raised and distributed goods worth Rs3.5million in one month for these IDP families. In addition they have held two further protests and vigils one of which was done simultaneously in Lahore and Islamabad with the Lahore event being held at the site of the suicide bombing of the rescue 15 building 3 days after the bombing. Pakistan Rising has also created an awareness campaign in Lahore regarding the menace of extremism and about the need for unity amongst Pakistanis. They need your help though. They need volunteers, members and financial contribution. These are all people who care passionately about this country and have decided to do their part. The plan of Pakistan Rising is simple. They want to create awareness amongst the people of Pakistan so that people can mobilise effectively to pressurize the government of the day. They want to promote unity amongst the provinces and peoples of this land. They want all of you to join them in this endeavor. If others are doing the same thing already then collaboration and coordination would be something that could be done.

For greater details on how to contribute please check out their facebook page or go to

www.pakistanrising.com.pk

the website is still being polished and updated but it should be up and running within a weeks time. Im also a full fledged member of this collective, so if someone needs information from me id be only too happy to oblige.

Pakistan Hamesha Zindabad.

SoapBox: The 3 P-Bombs of Pakistan - Zahid Husain

In the late 80’s I was attending a seminar being held at the Avari Hotel in Lahore, where a lady from an NGO was talking about the money being spent on our nuclear program, and contrasted it against the 3 bombs we already possessed!

This comment really drew everyone’s attention, and we were all ears to learn about these three mysterious weapons we actually had in our arsenal, and till now, had no inkling of!!! A break for tea was announced, and the room was suddenly abuzz with spontaneous discussion to find out if anyone knew of the 3 bombs the lady was alluding to! We couldn’t get the tea down fast enough for the speaker to resume her talk and relieve us all of our intellectual tension and misery!

Slowly she began to draw our attention to the largest section of our Population, the poor, undernourished, uneducated, unemployed and marginalized folks all over Pakistan; those were the days of an authoritarian ruler who had just religion on his mind, so much so that the impact, even today, we are suffering the effects all over our Motherland, and steadily we continue to multiply!

Thanks to that same bigot who began the journey down the road of religious confusion, we note with horror how we have multiplied our numbers when every resource is stretched to the limit as a result! Family planning was made to take a back seat in an agenda that furthered the cause of his time!

In recent years I was party to a nikah ceremony being held at a mosque in a seminary. The sermon before the ceremony lasted by contrast, for 45 minutes! While the nikah, took 10 minutes! The sermon included the subject of procreation, the message was very loud and clear! Go forth and multiply, we need the numbers if we are to win the global conflict!

In recent years I was party to a nikah ceremony being held at a mosque in a seminary, (I refuse to use the M word because it conjures up all sorts of images! And believe me the attitudes and demeanor displayed there was distasteful). The sermon before the ceremony lasted by contrast, for 45 minutes! While the nikah, took 10 minutes!

The sermon included the subject of procreation, the message was very loud and clear! Go forth and multiply, we need the numbers if we are to win the global conflict! OMG! I thought, we are headed for oblivion! Today you see the effects of such preaching on our streets, under bridges, in kutchi abadis, in rural and urban seminaries, everywhere they can possibly seek respite from all the ills that plague their wretched existences.

Having successfully projected a picture of this segment of society, she then, began telling us of how we all were actually choking the Motherland to death, simply by not having set up an effective way to dispose of our waste and garbage! How we all worked to make sure that our homes were clean and spotless, without casting a thought to what happens when the cleaner walks away with the day’s waste and garbage. How it all ends up at the street corner or is just dumped over the wall, or outside the front door for a phantom collector to clear!
Planned waste management was still in its infancy and the afghan kids had yet to take up this lucrative livelihood, of making money from rummaging thru our waste and garbage.

Till recent years, they never addressed the final fate of the heaps that have now become landfills despite which we continue to suffocate and choke the atmosphere, with the smoke of the heaps of burning garbage, the naalees, the nalluhs and the canals of our Motherland!! Only recently private enterprise has got involved in setting up projects to address the challenge, while making a pretty penny for their pocket, challo, I condone that, as they are beginning to scratch the surface of the pollution challenge. She then drew our attention to the smoke belching out of vehicles on our roads, 20 years down the road; we have yet to resolve this challenge of Pollution!

Look around you, everywhere there are the deprived, lesser people of this Motherland, but we all continue to elect those who continue to loot and plunder, heartlessly, our beloved Motherland, including most of them in today’s Management Team.

Finally the lady drew our attention to the crisis of the economically challenged.
In a previous article I had mentioned the US Aid program that directly converted us into a Nation of beggars! Ever since, we have adopted our nick name of Kashkoleistan! And despite all the money that has found it way into the coffers and pockets of the Motherland there is no change in the living standards of the majority of the population! Look around you, everywhere there are the deprived, lesser people of this Motherland, but we all continue to elect those who continue to loot and plunder, heartlessly, our beloved Motherland, including most of them in today’s Management Team.

The poor are still relegated to their permanent existence without any hope of seeing any ray of hope in their lifetimes! Poverty will reign supreme!

To be fair though, the numerous, genuine institutions and NGOs who are bravely attempting to support and provide for them while provincial and federal governments continue their mere lip service of their good intentions and responsibilities.

There you have them! What you ask? The 3 P-Bombs of Pakistan of course! With lit fuses, slowly burning away until they finally explode!

POPULATION, POLLUTION AND POVERTY!