Pakistan's most critical issue

Ask a common Pakistani about the most critical issue of Pakistan, an astonishing 90% would give a single word answer, Zardari. A problem that alas has no end in sight, Zardari will be replaced by his likes from the dirty pool of Pakistani Politics, most hope for Imran Khan, a new face with new hope.

The most critical issue of Pakistan is not Zardari or our politicians in general, they are just a part of a bigger problem, that is fresh water. Fresh Water which produces Pakistan's 40% electricity, provides for agriculture which in turns provides 90%+ food & fiber, most raw materials for our industries (in the shape of cotton etc) and most essentially, the water we need to drink. In very accurate phrase, Pakistan won't survive without water.

Is something happening to water?

A lot is happening and a few times the media has also highlighted the issue but things get jumbled in between the many happenings in the country, from Veena Malik to Tahir-ul-Qadri, to the escalation on the borders. The armed forces are too busy protecting the borders and the politicians & bureaucrats busy playing "Zardari Zardari". The whole issue is the violation of the Indus water treaty.

The water from the Indus basin is distributed into two streams, western & eastern. The Western stream comprises of three rivers Indus, Jhelum & Chenab on which Pakistan has exclusive rights, while India has more or less exclusive rights over Eastern stream. As India need for water grew they built dams & diverted rivers on the western stream of Indus basin (violation of Indus Water treaty), which brings India in control of the Indus Basin waters, Pakistan’s primary source of freshwater source.

On top of it the supply from Indus has reduced considerably in the last decade, coupled with the use of water by India thins the supply of water to Pakistan.

What is Pakistan doing about it?

 

Chairman Pakistan Indus Water Commission, Jamat Ali Shah, the person responsible for not highlighting the issue when the dam was being constructed succeeded in escaping to Canada last year, despite his name being in the 'Exit control List'. The Government is in general not that interested to tackle the issue, they are too busy protecting their behinds. The armed forces are too focused on not getting them involved in politics.

That leaves Social societies & Individuals. A handful of people are protesting and highlighting the issue but nothing actionable is being done. On the positive side, Pakistan Business Council is taking action on the issue, what they can & cannot do is a question we all want answers for. Anatol Lieven in his book Pakistan: A hard Country highlighted water, as being the only issue that is threatening the existence of Pakistan. Majid Nizami Editor in Chief of The Nation daily newspaper advised Pakistanis to get themselves ready for war with India on water issue.

A war with India can be considered an extreme scenario but the questions we all should ask is

Can we survive without Indus?

Waiting Lines

Waiting lines seem to be the destiny of the common man these days. Just got my car refueled after waiting half an hour (good day indeed) in the gas line. Reaching home in a good mood, queried my wife about the Montessori admission form that she was supposed to pick up between 9 & 12 in the morning (according to the website and the call I made). The actual process was quite different, she learned. For the admission form to be collected, you first need to get a token that is available between 8 to 9am and there would be only 50 tokens issued each day for 3 days. Needless to say, people start forming a line early in the morning, I plan to go at 7am tomorrow.

Bit frustrated on the life we are living, my calendar reminded of the doctor's appointment I needed to make at LNH. The hospital's operator informed that the Doctor's OPD hours are between 9am & 12pm, though he will come around 10-10:30am and will only see the first 50 patients, on first come first served basis.

What is happening to Pakistan, are institutions so stupid that they don't know how to manage waiting lines, or do they believe that they themselves are the king of all heaven & earth. There is no value of a common man's time, we are just so worthless & minute in the eyes of institutions that they don't see this as a problem.There are thousand of ways to reduce long queues, but nobody is thinking on these lines. Or all this drama is actually a show of strength, an advertisement, to show how eager people are to get associated with us.

"How else would people know the value of the institution unless there is a long queue for it"

As for the nation to stand against this cruelty, as per a friend "our national animal should be a Buffalo, It keeps producing milk without objecting to the atrocities inflicted on it"