Vol. 10, No. 6 November — December 2003
Contents
Day one
Opening Plenary
State, Violence and Migration
Mass Media and the National Press
Governance and Decentralization
Democracy in Pakistan
Education and Identity
Ir/relevance of Social Sciences in
South Asia
Globalization and WTO: Post
Ministerial Debriefing Session
Education and Medium of Instruction
Ir/relevance of Social Sciences in
South Asia
Peace and Security in Nuclearized South
Asia
Day Two
National Environmental Quality
Standards (NEQS): Implementation in Pakistan for Industrial Pollution Control
Peace and Security in Nuclearized
South Asia
Farmers Rights Program: Impact of
Globalization on Lives and Livelihoods of the HKH Communities
National Environmental Quality
Standards (NEQS): Implementation in South Asia Region for Industrial Pollution
Control
Alternative Realities: The Voice and
Role of Fiction Writers
Labor Policy in South Asia
Resource Rights and Sustainable
Livelihoods
Child Labor and Informal Economy:
Issues and Solutions
Population, Health and Poverty
Natural Resource Management
Women Workers and the Changing Labor
Market
Population, Environment and
Development
Day Three
Women, Security and Peace
Trade and Sustainable Development
Civil Society and Advocacy
Refugees Issues
Food Security
Role of Media in Advocating
Population
Forced Migration and Human
Trafficking
Gender (In) Justice
Energy Pricing in a Privatized and
Deregulated
Concluding Plenary
Governance essential for obtaining
sustainable development, stresses RING
Book Launch: Sustainable Development
and Southern Realities Past and Future in South Asia
The purpose of the SDPI Research & News Bulletin is
to communicate to the development community, private sector, government
agencies and concerned citizens, SDPI’s research and other activities in the
area of sustainable development. It also provides information on major national
and international events and issues relating to the environment and
development.
The SDPI
Research & News Bulletin is published bi-monthly by the Sustainable
Development Policy Institute: PO Box 2342; #3, UN Boulevard, Diplomatic Enclave
1, G-5, Islamabad.
Tel: ++(92-51) 2270674-6,
2277146, 2278136
Fax: ++(92-51) 2278135
e-mail: Editor@sdpi.org
Editor: Amal
Masud
Sustainable
Development: Bridging the Research/Policy Gaps in Southern Contexts
Concept of the Conference
This
Conference sought to problematize knowledge production processes/research in
relation to policies in the South. As there are gaps between policy and
research at multiple levels, it raised questions such as: who are the knowledge
producers, who raises the demands for knowledge production, what are the sites
of knowledge production, who uses such knowledge, who benefits from new
knowledge, what are the lessons learnt, and how can we bridge these gaps.
Specifically,
the Conference focused on the problematique of knowledge production about
southern contexts in the South. It explored policy/research gaps in two
directions and found that in some places policy needs to be fed by better
research while in others, policy needs to take better account of existing solid
research. It focused on the ways and means for translating this knowledge into
effective policy initiatives, locally, nationally, regionally and
internationally, by identifying the multiple gaps between research and policies
in different sectors.
The Conference
sought to bring together theorists, researchers, creative thinkers, writers,
activists, policy makers, academicians to debate bridging the real and imagined
gaps. How can the research we produce in third world contexts be translated
into effective policy for sustainable development (SD)? Is SD only a question
of reorienting the research/policy connections? Or, is it about claiming and
putting value into the fragmented and disparate work that speaks to and about
the third world?
These questions
were tackled at several inter-related levels: in purely third world contexts;
in terms of the relationship with first world institutions; and, within and
between third world contexts.
The conference
addressed three themes.
1. Concepts and approaches: How can
concrete situations be addressed in a transdisciplinary manner? How can
specialized research be translated into effective policy measures?
2. Contexts and issues: Can specific
contexts and issues be related to general trends and patterns? Can these trends
and patterns identify the existing gaps?
3. Findings and
recommendations: What are the lessons learnt and how can the policy/research
gaps be bridged?
The Conference
was multi and transdisciplinary and opened up new ways of seeing, which may
help in leading to effective strategies for over-coming the gaps we presently
face in policy making.
The Conference
investigated critical policy issues ranging from the status of social sciences
to issues of migration and urbanization, food security, employment, governance,
gender, violence, poverty, the WTO regime and trade, renewable energy, and
conflict. It highlighted the cross-cutting linkages between such diverse themes
and the increasingly complex demands upon the policy arena to respond to these
issues quickly and effectively.
Opening plenary
The Executive Director of SDPI, Dr. Saba Gul Khattak,
welcomed the participants, especially guests from abroad who had come despite
visa unpredictability and long routes to reach Islamabad. She acknowledged the
SDPI Board of Governors for its support and expressed her gratefulness to the
Federal Minister of Finance, Mr Shaukat Aziz, for agreeing to be the chief
guest. She provided a brief introduction to SDPI and its’ establishment in 1992
on the recommendation of the Pakistan National Conservation Strategy, also
called Pakistan’s Agenda 21. She outlined SDPI’s mission, mandate and function
to be a center of excellence on Sustainable Development in Pakistan in order to
disseminate research findings through conferences, public lectures and
seminars. This conference, was therefore in line with one of SDPI’s primary
objectives, that is, to introduce SDPI research to a larger audience for debate
and discussion, and also build linkages between civil society and
government--not only within Pakistan but across the region as well.
Introducing the main theme of the conference, Dr. Saba
Khattak, talked about the need to build bridges between research and policy so
the latter may be responsive to peoples needs and realities in the third world.
She said that while there can be multiple contexts to these realities, we need to privilege the contexts that affect the
vast majority of people most, over ones that affect a tiny miniscule who have
accumulated enormous power—the power of capital: economic, social, political,
moral and ideological. She then raised the issue of socially relevant research
by asking what kind of research should we be producing and the kind of
institutions that we should be building in order to make such research
possible. Paying tribute to the late Hamza Alavi, she stressed the need for
more relevant and cutting edge research on the third world, and the need to
analyze not only high policy, but also issues pertaining to the marginalized.
Launching the SDC 2002 Anthology, “Sustainable Development
and Southern Realities: Past and Future in South Asia”, she honored the late
Omar Asghar Khan for his outstanding contributions to sustainable development
and civil society in Pakistan. Giving details about the two main sections
of the book that address development issues from a Southern perspective, the
Executive Director informed that the collection of essays, ranging from serious
academic writings to think pieces and transcribed presentations, was not a
standard practice. But that it was important to include voices even if they did
not strictly adhere to a predetermined code for such work.
Mr. Shams ul Mulk, Chairman, SDPI’s Board of Governors and
former chairman WAPDA, provided the historical overview of the sustainable
development conferences, elaborating on the past five conferences. He stressed
the need to remember that there were some issues and areas where ‘failure is
not an option and trying to answer questions such as how the bridges with
policy could be effectively laid down without compromising on research, and the
kind of research that should be produced, were important.’
The
Minister for Finance, Mr. Shaukat Aziz, stated that a two-pronged strategy was
needed that aimed at achieving a high growth rate and specifically targeted the
poor for sustainable development. He said that the real challenge for Pakistan
was the population explosion that leads all policies to fail. “We need to
evolve recommendations as to how to bridge the gap between policies and
research for sustainable development”. He appreciated the presence of
individuals, researchers and academicians coming together from all over the
world to share ideas, thoughts and views in order to learn from each other. He
elaborated how healthy macro economic changes had occurred over the past four
years leading to greater economic sovereignty, arresting fiscal deficits and
attacking the balance of payments. He also said that this Conference was an
event that would help build linkages between various countries to combat the
issues of poverty, war and conflict.
n Report by Sarah Siddiq
Concurrent Session A-1
State Violence and Migration
Indo-Pak Partition Community and Violence
Chandrika
Parmar
Centre
for the Study of Developing Societies, India
Chandrika Parmar began her presentation with the tentative
proposition that Partition memories did not have the power and drama of the Holocaust
nor the commemorative acts of the mothers of the Argentinean struggle. She felt
that there was none of the obsession about the centrality of the witness one
saw in the Holocaust or the over powering need to archive and document as in
the case of Argentina or even to confess as in the Truth and Reconciliation
Commissions in South Africa.
Classifying the narratives of Partition into four types,
official, unofficial, collective and individual, she shared various stories of
Partition and discussed how it was not the inevitability of Partition that
memory captured, but rather the tantalizing nature of the other possibility-
‘what if’. She despaired that governments had always presented Partition as a
logical sequence of historical decisions and had never gone beyond them to the
whole array of other contingencies. ‘Scars heal’, she said, ‘but memories have
to be lived again and again condemning the survivor to perpetual re-enactment.’
The narratives of Partition, she felt, had acquired a
stark, linear character, given how the states themselves seemed to be the soul
monuments and documenters to and of Partition. According to her, the need to
fill in the gaps was imperative, since if stories lay in silence the State
appropriates and standardizes them and it takes in-depth, time-consuming
research to break those formularized stories.
She felt that the third generation
wiped the nuances of the first generation narratives, leaving only the stark
violence of Partition without the nostalgia and the warmth. Chandrika reasoned
that it was the sense of imagined loss that drove them to interweave their
stories with the State discourse of Partition, hence, provoking violence.
She stressed the need to look at the gendered view, role,
and definition of Partition since women talked of both the harrowing and the
empowering, of the violence and the freedom of this period. In conclusion she
said that owing to the playful, subversive and ever-changing nature of
Partition, its memories were not just about recollection but also about
rebuilding.
Ahmed Salim
Sustainable
Development Policy Institute (SDPI), Pakistan
Ahmad Salim
explained how in the province of Sindh, the overall harmony of communal
relations and the valuable economic service rendered by the different
communities, held out a prospect of undisturbed continuity of the status quo
since regional attachment was considered more important than communal
consciousness. He shared how even during the British attack, the Hindu community
joined hands with the ruling Muslims and offered stern resistance. His paper
brought out the fact that as far as religious harmony in Sindh was concerned,
Hindus and Muslims had co-existed in relative harmony for decades. He discussed
that although communal rifts started in Sindh under the influence of the 1947
partition, communal harmony still remained undamaged. His paper clearly
attributed this lack of violence to the overarching Sindhi identity that
transcended Hindu-Muslim differences, a shared language, script and literature, a deep-rooted
syncretic tradition with shared pirs and saints and even a similarity in food
and dress. Added to this was the economic cement of a feudal society, where
Hindus were well off, owned land and controlled business. He ascribed the
violence that occurred later to the arrival of Muslims from outside, that is,
from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar etc., the refugee mass, desire to grab Hindu
property, and organized media propaganda launched by Muslim leaders to shatter
the balance of inter-communal harmony.
He gave indepth views about the separation of Karachi from
Sindh and its handing-over to the federal government as a great setback to the
political and economic infrastructure of Sindh, particularly, as the benefits
of the process of establishment of new industries did not trickle down to the
Sindhi people.
He shared excerpts of verses and, stories indicating how
the 1947 partition issues had remained favorite themes for Sindhi creative
writers and poets in India and Pakistan. Main literary trends pertaining to
partition problems revolved around the attainment of freedom along with
communal holocaust, the migration of Hindus from Sindh, their plight in
resettlement camps, and their socioeconomic and various other problems of rehabilitation.
He accentuated how the Sindhi writers
rarely portrayed grim pictures of communal riots and disturbances; and instead
tried to establish communal harmony by portraying inter-communal marriages and
sweet relations among Sindhis residing in India and Pakistan.
He went on to share the reasons for the loss of Karachi
(one unit, language question, riots of 1972 etc.) and how after losing Karachi,
Sindh lost its socio-cultural identity, within the next six or seven years. He
lamented that Partition had proved to back a double-edged sword- since those
who left as well as those who stayed felt the pain of separation. He posed the
important question of exploring the reasons why Sindh, which was very
communally peaceful and united, had suffered such great economic, cultural
& social losses.
Rukhsana Qamber, Pakistan
Rukhsana Qamber talked on recalling and recuperating of
the South Asian Partition. Her study examined some of the implications of displacement
across State frontiers for the people of Pakistan. She also reflected on how
very few inquire into the real motives for movement across political frontiers.
She explored the enormous space created by displacement that caused the persons
involved to formulate complex identities, and identified two categories of
displaced persons: refugees (political and economic) and immigrants, (guest
workers-people who are predetermined to live in another State). Her paper
through songs and narratives looked at the official version of partition
events. The government tried to propagate that Hindus were repressing Muslim
society, did not want to grant autonomy to the Muslims, wreaked terrible
violence on them and forced the Muslims to flee India who suffered intolerable
atrocities en route to refuge in Pakistan. The government attempted to provide
a common basis to the newly formed State. She shared how this theme is repeated
vociferously during most public gatherings, including Friday sermons. Voices
critical of this monolithic view were heard mainly in the field of literature,
for instance, in Sadaat Hasan Manto’s Toba Tek Singh. She explored the 1947
experience from the perspective of people who took a calculated decision to
become Pakistani at that juncture. Questions were asked, was displacement a
studied choice for such people; what were the push and pull factors for
displacement in general; could the 1947 experience be viewed in the context of
general and timeless reasons for the urge to move across political borders,
were persons displaced to Pakistan free agents in choosing their national
identity; what were their primary motives to move or to remain in present-day
Pakistan; did religious and political considerations play a major role in their
decision making process.
She found that at the individual level, some of the main
reasons why a person decided to across political frontiers were to improve
oneself financially to construct new identities, possess liberty/the right to
work with dignity and to travel, integrate, and return home etc.
The narratives, of two sisters, Asghari Sultan and
Khurshid Begam, were based on several interviews guided by questions like age
and marital status in 1947, what decision they took then and why, eyewitness
accounts of Partitions, political, religious, language, ethnicity and class
affiliations. She discussed the concept of the Mohajirs and hijrat.
She concluded that in 1947, people
left for greener pastures across State borders and that people remained and
continue to remain where they are as a studied choice or simply because the
great upheaval/movement did not affect them. Affiliations changed, identities
permuted, and new identities sprang forth both at the individual and group
levels. It was discussed how the new generations continue to move across
borders, both political and of identity and posited that every Pakistani has
been affected by the displacement process, if not personally, certainly through
close family members.
Comments
Imtiaz Ahmed from Bangladesh, shared that we in the
subcontinent are still living in Partition, given the way boundaries, fences
and lines are still drawn and one still needs to report to police stations and
take longer routes into one another’s countries despite being situated next to
each other. He reiterated, and the audience, agreed that once violence gets
into a society, it stays, since the state, individual and community internalize
it. Giving the case of Bangladesh, he
discussed how each consecutive era had replaced the older memories of
Partition, 1947 being replaced by 1971 and so on. The real tragedy was that in
all the papers it was the third generation that ended up feeling the brunt of
this recollection of Partition with negative,
often violent consequences. He discussed how it was in our region that the new
and creative ways of killing had been introduced and practiced, giving the case
of Tamil Tigers, suicide bombings, etc., and that being failed states we in
South Asia consider it high priority to demoralize each other, regardless of
whether one party is involved or not. He stressed the need to rethink
nationality.
Commenting on Ahmad Salim’s paper he said that
universalizing the Hindu-Muslim Partition was a trap and agreed that most
Partition stories indicate that violence erupted due to the influx of the
refugees, but also warned that other hidden reasons could also be existing
under the surface and need to be investigated. He stressed the desire to move
beyond economic existentialism.
Commenting on Rukhasana’s paper he said that concepts
haunt our memories as well and it is difficult to pinpoint which concepts we
need to discard and which we need to preserve, since most terminologies have
deep historical backgrounds. He warned that believing in concepts can be
dangerous since they are usually politically loaded.
The audience felt that since there was little patience in
our people to listen, there existed a lull and silence about Partition. Most
people, Rukhsana, clarified had migrated under compulsion and not by choice. It
was agreed that Partition memories had gone through intense rebuilding and
reconstruction by the first and third generations and there was an urgent need
to document and preserve them. It was encouraging to note that such an effort
was now being made. One participant shared that that we open a Pandora’s box
whenever we talk of state, violence and Migration especially in the context of
Partition. It was discussed that since Partition was a historical event, it
should not be confused with the word migration. The important link between
migration in the context of violence was established and the panelists agreed
that given the sensitive situation in the camps about what one could and could
not talk about, a lot of things were blocked out. Chandrika explained that
lapses in memory happen because individuals have played out their memories in
their heads countless times. Questions like placing Partition, now also
referred to as mass migration in the context of globalization, differences
between hijrat and contemporary migration were posed.
It was concluded that every memory did not need to be
documented; some silences need to be maintained. The need for South Asians to
adopt their own methodology and terminology was stressed, since Partition has
become a loaded term, e.g. now it is always the loss of Bangladesh and not the
Partition of Bangladesh which is commemorated. If at all, the Indians talk of
the Partition as “dismemberment of the subcontinent.”
n Report by Sarah Siddiq
Concurrent
Session B-1
Mass
Media and the National Press
Corporate Media and the
Ethnic Press: The Case of the Urdu Press in New York post 9/11
Rehan Ansari
Independent Press Association, New York
Rehan Ansari began his presentation with a quote from
Saraye Reader, an organization dealing in interdisciplinary research and
practice program on the city and media, based in New Delhi. He was of the view
that as there has been a series of crises occurring in post 9/11 scenarios, there
also was a crisis in the media covering these events. He highlighted the fact
that the attacks on the civil liberties of the Pakistani Immigrants in New York
by the US law enforcement authorities in post September 11 scenario, was not
reported by the US corporate media but was well taken up by the Urdu Press.
Ansari quoted various headlines from seven Urdu weeklies following stories of
FBI/INS raids on Pakistani immigrants, detentions, deportation and the effect
of the Special Registration law and the Patriot Law.
Ayesha Haroon
The Nation, Pakistan
Ayesha Haroon explored the link between media, policy and
advocacy. She highlighted the fact that of the many pressures faced by the
developing countries including stretching limited resources over widest number
of people in the shortest possible time, media as a tool of information and
advocacy takes an important role. Strategic use of mass media, according to
her, could solve many problems. Talking about the State owned and privately
owned television, she was of the view that there is no direct link between
ownership and pluralism in content. Since private advertisers are primarily
interested in reaching urban audience with disposable incomes hence, she said,
only the public media is expected to keep in mind the needs of the rural
audience.
Freedom of Information: the Right to Know
Shafqat Munir
Journalists for Democracy and Human Rights, Pakistan
Shafqat Munir said that the two significant components,
the freedom of information and the right to know, could be achieved through
free Press, independent judiciary and functional democracy. During his
presentation, he referred to various articles under the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights. He highlighted the fact that it was the media’s mandate to
protect the right to know but in reality there is no such tradition. The
government, before signing the international agreement, never generates any
public debate Shafqat was of the view that the media and government, which are
considered as adversaries with different functions, must respect each others
role
Freedom of Information in
South Asia: A Comparative Perspective on Civil Society Initiative
Mukhtar Ahmad Ali, Pakistan
The access to information held by government and corporate
bodies is crucial for freedom of information and for the development of
information-endowed societies and economies. According to him South Asian
countries perform poorly in terms of freedom of information. Ali compared
Freedom of Information laws of India and Pakistan, which according to him
shared many common features. They include a lot of exemptions, exclude private
sector from their purview and are weak in providing implementation mechanisms.
In addition, neither India nor Pakistan has repealed the official Secrets Act
1923 to allow greater freedom of information. Old attitudes persist and power
bureaucracies are hugely resistant to change. The constituency for reform is
still small and must grow and become more proactive, to achieve more
substantial and effective outcomes.
Comments
Mehdi Hassan summed up the session in the following words:
the media is supposed to play the role of a watch dog and a mirror for
democracy. Democracy means accountability and transparency which are not
possible if the media is not playing its role. Referring to Rehan Ansari’s
paper he said that what was missing from the Urdu papers in New York was
information. They fail to inform people
that it was the United States and General Zia-ul-Haq who started this menace.
The whole world is reaping what they had sown in 1977. The press in Pakistan is
overwhelmingly politicized and social issues are generally ignored. Some 87
percent of our newspapers are statements of various leaders, parties and
organizations. Thus is not new to people thus they fail in their task of
informing people. Referring to the paper on freedom of information, he was of
the opinion that there were many issues, which were completely ignored. For
instance who was responsible for Ojhri Camp disaster, what happened to the
airplane of General Zia that killed 32 high military and civil officers.
According to Mehdi Hassan, agreements signed between the government are shared
later with the public. Instead their conditional ties must be shared with
people before such agreements are made. The reason behind this was the lack of
democratic structures in our society.
Governance and
Decentralization Democracy in Pakistan
Farrukh Moriani, Pakistan
Farrukh Moriani talked about the issues in devolution and
presented a case study of Sindh. While giving an overall picture of the
decentralization process, he highlighted opportunities and constraints in the
devolution plan, pointing out to some issues that impact the performance of the
local government institutions. Moriani was of the view that arguments of the
potential benefits of devolution and decentralization need to be evaluated in
the context of political and economic realities. Discussing about the
challenges before the local governments, Moriani raised about the issues of:
governance for effectively implementing the reforms in Sindh; the challenges in
social service delivery in Sindh, a low funded mandate for social services delivery
due to irregular and unpredictable fiscal transfers and the size of the
government in terms of its employee strength; the process of decentralization
with reference to local governments’ struggle for exercising residual power; a
State of uncertainty over the acceptance of the new roles and responsibilities
by the provincial government line departments despite the clear mandates of the
provincial and local governments regarding the devolved functions, and;
directing more concerted attempts towards public accountabilities and community
participation. “For the potential benefits of devolving social sector services
to accrue, the huge gaps in the capacities – technical, human and financial, at
the local government level need to be addressed and greater clarity and
commitment solicited and maintained from both the executive and the legislature
at the provincial level,” suggested Moriani.
A Benchmark Study on
Law-and-Order and the Dispensation of Justice in the Context of Power
Devolution
Foqia Sadiq Khan
Sustainable Development Policy Institute, Pakistan
Foqia Sadiq Khan presented her research findings
which show that the new institutional innovations in the context of power
devolution, such as the “Musalihat Anjuman” and Insaf Committees were not in
place and at places where they were found, people were not clear about their
role and authority. This research was conducted with an objective to establish
benchmarks for the State of service delivery in rural Pakistan with respect to
law-and-order and the dispensation of justice based on a documentation of
people’s experiences and stated perceptions and preferences and an analysis of
case studies. Another objective was to review the establishment of the judicial
(service delivery) institutional structure put into place by the military
government’s devolution of power plan, 2002. In the light of the findings of
her extensive research, Foqia concluded “that the devolution plan urgently and
effectively needs to contest the law-and-order and judicial space since the
current mistrust of the police and courts by the poor allow full play to the
feudal system of justice and perpetuates a patron-client system.” She
recommended that land reforms and other assets’ redistribution needs to be
carried out to tilt the society towards a relatively egalitarian set-up; the
institutionalization of informal dispute resolution mechanism needs to be
meaningfully implemented; the formal justice system needs to be strengthened to
provide a window of opportunity to people, particularly people who are poor
both in terms of socio-economic status and gender, and; FIR registration needs
to be streamlined.
Ali Ahmed Rind & Sajid Kazmi
Sustainable Development Policy Institute, Pakistan
Ali Ahmed Rind and Sajid Kazmi focused on Sindh and
presented a case study, “Impact of Devolution on Manchar Lake”, which
highlighted aspects of environmental degradation and food security issues for
the residents of Manchar Lake. A joint presentation by Kazmi and Rind highlighted
main features and findings of the study. They discussed about the sources of
water in Manchar Lake which are: fresh water from Hammal Lake via Main Nara
Valley Drain, hill torrents and two inundating canals from the River Indus.
They highlighted the economic value of Manchar and talked about the causes of
environmental degradation and its impacts and pointing out problems of water
salinity and the municipal waste of Shikarpur, Larkana and Dadu; perishing of
waterweeds; contaminated water consumption by the residents; water borne
diseases like typhoid, gastroenteritis, and eczema, other health related
problems like malnutrition and tuberculosis, and; shrinkage of livelihood
resulting in migration of the residents of Manchar Lake. For bridging the gap
between research and policy, the speaker recommended de-linking the MNVD;
making possible fresh water inflow from Indus; educating fishermen; introducing
micro-credit schemes in the area; abolition of (fishing) contract system;
setting up boat schools and hospitals, and; disallowing exploration
licenses.
Discussion
Arshad Bhatti said that decentralization/devolution it is
a process which has some redefined and some new structures and the purpose of
this whole process is basically better environment, more opportunities and
closer to people service delivery. Commenting on the papers he said that they
have very adequately touched three different aspects with respect to
decentralization. Discussing each paper separately, he said Foqia’s research
gave two messages- (1) People have more trust in informal mechanisms than
formal mechanisms and institutions. (2) Lawlessness is not judged on the legal
egalitarian traditional criterion but more by the social norms and practices.
He stressed the need for a follow up study of this research, which would tell
us what is the situation after two years. Commenting on Moriani’s paper, he
pointed out that it has dealt with challenges and opportunities but it has also
dealt with the constraints and has ended with a positive note. “The paper
brings out the complexities of new relationships between states and citizens at
local level by way of this devolved mechanisms and ends on a caution that
cooperation which is informed and premised on commitment, is the best
solution”, said Bhatti. He reiterated that local problems need local solutions.
He concluded by asserting that the purpose of action research is to inform
policy immediately and when policy and information are informed and reformed,
it bears two results: changed behavior about the new changed systems and
changed human practices.
Education and Identity
Ahmed Salim
Sustainable
Development Policy Institute, Pakistan
Ahmad Salim’s
paper was based on Pakistani and Bangladeshi textbooks’ portrayal of events
that led to the formation of Bangladesh.
Pakistani
textbooks either simply omit that period or foster the image of India as the
main culprit. The ambiguous and vague term, ‘political crisis’, is used to
describe the events of the period. The entire history of the treatment of East
Pakistan as a colony, State oppression, exploitation and the role of the army
is omitted. Some textbooks do try to explain it, however they shift the blame
onto India. India is portrayed as the instigator of this ‘rebellion’. Moreover
such explanations usually contain one or two lines about being vigilant and
“being ready to face the enemy by receiving military training”. Sheikh Mujib is
mentioned in derogatory terms and he is generally portrayed as a conspirator.
The
textbooks in Bangladesh, on the other hand, show the Awami League as struggling for freedom right from its inception.
They portray Pakistan’s central government as the villain. While this portrayal
is closer to truth, the fact nevertheless remains, that textbooks, in both
countries, tend to wipe out contradictions and present one-sided views.
Between the Sacred and the
Secular: History Teaching and Identity Formation in India and Pakistan
Rubina Saigol, Pakistan
Rubina Saigol argued that knowledge in India as well as
Pakistan is moving toward a hardening of communal and sectarian identities. She
cited specific examples from textbooks, in both countries, to show how the
production of knowledge was being manipulated in favour of dominant ideology. She
elaborated that history books in India as well as Pakistan have been changed by
selective deletions and additions. Contradictions and complexities are either
glossed over or completely ignored. This results in a narrative that portrays
‘us’ as good and ‘them’ as bad. As a result, the dominant classes in both these
countries have managed to train the children of the under privileged classes to
become cannon fodder willing to lay down their lives for Hinduvta or Jihad.
The Problematic of Identity
in the Educational Discourse of Pakistan: A Historical Perspective
Tahir Kamran, Pakistan
Tahir Kamran debated that both Jinnah and Iqbal were
thoroughly influenced by modern thoughts that had their base in Western
rationality. Muslim League, in general was a political party with a modern
agenda. Tradition was used to garner support from
the masses. As a result Islam came into play, and the commonality of religion
was accentuated. Jinnah and the Muslim League had used it as a means towards an
end, but this became an end in itself. Islam became the sole determinant of
Pakistani identity in textbooks as well as academic institutions. The
historical heroes that this struggle drew upon were all pro tradition such as
Shah Wali Ullah, Aurangzeb, etc. This has resulted in a situation where the
differences between Muslim tradition and modernity are overlooked, and both are
used to address the question of ideology as the basis for a singular Pakistani
identity.
Ajmal Kamal,
City Press, Pakistan
Ajmal Kamal asserted that literary texts are made
ideologically and politically “correct” for inclusion in a Pakistani textbook.
Literary texts are censored, without any indication or explanation, to make
them conform to the official outlook. He illustrated this point by presenting
three specific examples of the officially sanctioned process of revisionism.
Premchand’s story was initially included in the textbook for class XI, however
in the revision it was dropped altogether. Given the fact that he is the first
Urdu fiction writer of any consequence, the only probable reason for this
inclusion is that he was a Hindu. Khawaja Hasan Nizami’s story, “Thelay wala
Shehzada”, has had several key phrases removed from it, without any
indication of this editing. The third example he presented was that of Saadat
Hasan Manto’s “Naya Qanoon”. In this case three paragraphs have been
altogether deleted, and key phrases have been changed. For instance hiramandi
(famous red light area in Lahore, literally diamond market), has been
changed to mandi (market).
Comments
Yamima Mitha found all four papers to be fascinating. She
highlighted several aspects from each paper, including the conspiracy theory
framework that is instilled in the minds of our children through textbooks; and
the image of the ‘other’.
Discussion
Several important points were raised during the
discussion. The question of whether the educational system can incorporate the
realities of our multiple existence was raised by Wazir Ali (Pakistan). Rubina
Saigol (Pakistan) responded that once the threat perception of a dangerous
neighbor being propagated by the State was removed, the multiple differences of
culture, class, gender, etc., could be positively brought out in our
educational system. Commenting on Ahmed Salim’s paper, Tahira Abdullah
(Pakistan) added that both the states of Bangladesh and Pakistan had to face
realities, before there could be any real progress in diplomatic relations
between the two. She gave the example of the rape of 200,000 Bangladeshi women,
by the West Pakistani army, as a fact that had to be brought out in the
narratives that described 1971. Subhashini Ali (India) pointed out that
extremists in both India and Pakistan, while being terribly opposed to each
other, seemed to dislike the same people. She also floated the idea of
Pakistani and Indian students compiling a report on the biases that are present
in history textbooks. She elaborated that this could be done in the form of a
book or a report outlining the different portrayals of the same historical
incident. The Pakistani portrayal and the Indian portrayal could be given on
the same page, which would also enable a comparison. Isa Daudpota (Pakistan)
shared a fact given in Arif Hasan’s book on Karachi. In the war of 1857, quite
a few men from Sindh, principally Karachi, fought against the British. Some of
them were fired from cannon balls as a consequence. Arif Hasan notes that none
of these people are remembered through street names, in illustrations in books
or any other discourse. Not only are these men not given any recognition, but
many of us do not know the fact that they died in this terrible manner. One
reason for this could be that the names were predominantly Hindu, and the
cooperation of Hindus and Muslims in battles is downplayed by the two states.
n Report by Kiran Nazir Ahmed
Ir/relevance of Social
Sciences in South Asia
Itty Abraham
Social Sciences Research Council, USA
Itty
Abraham underlined that the history of relationship of South Asian
intellectuals with the State is very complicated. The State was recognized as
an actor of social change in the 60s and 70s, but this concept changed later
due to several reasons. The easiest data available for research is with the
State but a good social scientist takes the State as just one among many other
sources.
There
are three types of intellectuals, Itty described, i.e. State intellectuals,
State scientists (nuclear scientists) and Public intellectuals. The tragedy of
the Public intellectual is that he is powerless and that is why she/he cannot
influence any policy. He said that the question of the future is very important
for South Asia and there are many unresolved questions.
Shaheen
Sardar Ali
Professor
of Law, University of Warwick, UK
Shaheen
Sardar Ali pointed out that social science is focusing on development and
economics in South Asia. Social Science has the capacity to challenge the
status quo and give voice to the voiceless. However, social scientists have
been dis-empowered to minimize their capacity to bring change.
She
lamented that we constructed artificial States in 1947, paving way for the end
of logic and logical interrogation. In fact, independent logical thinking or Ijtehad
declined with the vanishing political power of the Muslim world in 12th
Century AD and the concept of Taqleed or the “duty to follow” was
promoted. Independent intellectuals are now afraid to speak freely and express
their ideas without fear. Our colonial legacy is still haunting due to dark
laws like Frontier Crimes Regulations (FCR) and our other laws for laws
for serve the interests of the elite.
Talat
Mahmood
Social
Science Research Center Berlin, Germany
Talat
Mahmood informed the audience that innovative activity is linked to knowledge
generating inputs through what has been known as the knowledge production
function. Most studies implicitly assumed that economic geography plays no
role. Only recently has a wave of studies emerged focusing on the extent of
knowledge spillovers within geographically spatial units. Innovative activity
measured as the number of patents issued to forms located within a city, is
linked to knowledge-producing inputs such as research and policy expenditures
by private corporations, as well as research undertaken at university
laboratories at the State level, within which the city is located.
The
important points raised were that there was no reference to the contemporary
capitalism in the papers presented by the speakers. In the process of
colonialization, the colonialist also changes with the passage of time. The
speakers did not mention the non-conducive environment for growth of social
sciences.
It was recommended that the role of social scientists be clarified. We need to bridge the gap between academicians and the social change. We also need linkage between policies and knowledge. We should also venture beyond the field of social sciences in South Asia. We must also know who is the subject of social science and what is the object of the policy and policy maker.
Globalization and WTO:
Post Ministerial Debriefing Session
Ratnakar Adhikari
South
Asia Watch on Trade, Economics & Environment, Nepal
Ratnakar Adhikari gave a comprehensive view of Nepal’s
accession to WTO. He highlighted while highlighting the reasons for which Nepal
decided to accede to WTO and the hurdles which it faced during the accession
process. He said that according to a recent UNCTAD report, Nepal has acceded on
the best terms. Many countries acceded on terms which are quite lethal for
their national economies and this he termed as WTO plus binding, i.e. not
binding under WTO rules but conditionalities put forth by the member countries,
mainly developed countries. He criticized the role of developed country members
in accession. Giving one example he said that Vanuatu has withdrawn its request
for accession to WTO only because of conditions laid down by the developed
country members.
Pradeep Mehta
Consumer Unity and Trust Society, India
Pradeep Mehta discussed Singapore issues, which according
to him are not the sole reason for the Cancun failure. He said that the
Singapore issues are actually five in number but as the first one was tabled
for negotiation during the Singapore WTO Ministerial so they called it the
Singapore issues. These issues were brought to WTO by a group of developed
member countries such as the EU, Japan, Canada, Korea and the US, which later
withdrew its membership. Since then these issues have been used by developed
countries as a bargaining chip. They often use these issues to pressurize
developing countries. However at Cancun and well before Cancun, the developing
countries made it clear that they are not interested to talk on new
issues. Rather it was time to decide
upon the existing issues. However all the Singapore issues may not be that bad,
such as trade facilitation. If a multilateral trade agreement is reached, it could
bring more benefits for the developing countries. Mehta added that even if all the countries reached a
consensus for a multilateral investment agreement, it might not ensure increase
in investment. Quoting an example he said that though India and the US have no
bilateral investment agreement, yet the US is the largest investor in India.
Tahir Hasnain
The Net Work, Pakistan
Tahir Hasnain was of the view that since the inclusion of
agriculture in the multilateral trading system, success of talks on other
issues within this multilateral trading system is heavily dependent upon
success in agriculture negotiations. He said that agriculture is the bread and
butter for a large chunk of communities living in the South. The major exports
of developing countries are agricultural goods. So if one looks upon the
agriculture negotiations, it was the bone of contention even at the time of
signing the Uruguay Round agreements. The failure of talks in Cancun proved
that trade talks could never be successful unless there is a consensus reached
on agriculture. He further added that there is a need to revamp the existing
agreement on agriculture to remove the imbalances.
Abid Suleri
Sustainable Development Policy Institute, Pakistan
Suleri said that implementation issues are longstanding on
the WTO agenda. Developed countries have never paid attention to the agenda
pushed by the developing countries. This resulted in chaos at Cancun. There
were 150 implementation issues tabled during the Geneva ministerial conference
by the developing countries but member countries failed to achieve any concrete
decision on those issues. At Doha, 100 issues were forwarded; again the result
was similar to the earlier ministerial. The developing countries in reaction to
that may not have agreed to start negotiations on any new issue at Cancun. They
referred for decision on longstanding implementation issues. He added that
during the Uruguay round, developing countries, either due to lack of
preparation, capacity, financial, human and institutional constraints could not
safeguard their rights but in Cancun the situation was quite different.
Developing countries were united for the first time and came to the ministerial
with their own agenda. However, he said, this did not please the northern
delegates which is reflected in their comments about the ministerial. While
referring to the statement made by the EU trade representative, declaring WTO
as a medieval organization Suleri said that which its really international
financial institutions are medieval organizations, so there is a need to
overhaul the whole system of these institutions.
Qasim Niaz thanked SDPI for providing an opportunity to
policy makers as well as the researchers to come closer. He also thanked
Ratnakar for answering a number of questions raised in context to Pakistan’s
decision to join WTO at a much earlier stage and its benefits.
A heated debate took place on trade negotiations their
link with human development and post ‘Peace Clause’; and flow of trade in
agriculture goods, and its impact on overall negotiations in the committee on
agriculture.
Education and Medium of
Instruction
The Language Dilemma
Shahid Siddiqui
Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Sciences & Technology,
Pakistan
Exploring the issue of national language in Pakistan,
Shahid Siddiqui stressed that the national language represents the cultural
heritage of a nation. It works as a vehicle for communication. But the question
that arises is which language should be made the national language. For that he
gave a few options: either it should be the mother tongue, or it should be the
language of the masters, as it happened in Africa or the majority language
should be made the national language. For instance in case of Pakistan Bengali
and Punjabi are both majority languages. However none of these was chosen
instead Urdu was made the national language. It is worth exploring why Urdu was
chosen when it does not qualify as majority language. Another important
question is why English was chosen as medium of instruction.
Case of Sindhi Language in Pakistan and as Medium of
Instruction
Ali Ahmed Rind
Sustainable Development Policy Institute, Pakistan
Ali
Ahmed Rind justified through historical references, that Sindhi is the oldest language in Pakistan. He also spoke on the
Urdu-Sindhi controversy and the political decisions behind it. He pointed out
that when Urdu was made the official language, the attitude towards Sindhi
became biased. They were not given jobs rather, the migrants, Urdu-speaking
people were the privileged ones.
Ahsan Wagah, Pakistan
Ahsan Wagah’s point was that the
one-language policy is wrong for a multilingual nation. He gave India’s example
where 18 languages including Sindhi are considered by the State. He stressed
that the one language policy, which was wrong, was asserted through the 1954
and 1968 Constitution.
Regional Languages and the Medium of Instruction
Wahid Baksh Buzdar, Pakistan
Wahid Baksh Buzdar explained why English and Urdu are used
as medium of instruction. But at the same time voices were raised to make
regional languages as medium of instruction. Only Sindhi could achieve that
status.
His point was that if children were taught in their first
language, their comprehension would increase. He justified his view by saying
that though English is the language of science and technology and without
adopting that language we cannot progress, yet it does not suffice because by adopting this
language, we still have not progressed.
Education and Medium of Instruction
Shafqat Tanveer Mirza
Shafqat stressed on a few points like the medium of
instruction should be the mother tongue and it should be extended to the later
stages of education. Communication, expression and the capacity to listen should
be first encouraged in the mother tongue and then the official or national
language should be considered and in the end one should consider learning any
foreign language.
Pushto as Medium of Instruction in NWFP
Sarfraz Khan
University of Peshawar, Pakistan
Sarfraz Khan said that there have been many movements to
use Pushto as the medium of instruction but it could not get any importance.
The syllabus is worthless and there are no good schools. Even the government
does not pay any attention to improve the standard of education in the schools
in NWFP. The standard of teachers is unsatisfactory. Making it a language of
instruction in other provinces is beside the point because it has only been
restricted to NWFP.
Yamima Mitha gave her comments and said while
choosing the right language as medium of instruction, a few points should be
kept in mind and that it should help in the intellectual development of the
people and in identity building. She added that whatever language it may be, we
should contemplate if we have good teachers available who can speak that
language.
She asked why were there Sindhi, Balochi and Punjabi
departments only in the institutions of the respective provinces. Why wasn’t
there any department of Punjabi in Sindh and the same for other languages.
She commented that it does not matter what language you
are using as medium of instruction but what matters is to have full command
over that language and the confidence to speak that language. Only that can
make a language to be placed at the door of power, she concluded.
According to Shahid Siddiqui, if we were so sincere and
associated to our regional languages, then ‘why didn’t we do the translation
work and if we haven’t done that there is then no point of going back to that’.
By ‘we’ he meant the policy makers.
Rind said that language should be used as tool of progress. Wagah expressed that the medium of
instruction at the primary language should be different than the one at the
higher level. Sarfraz Khan said that there were political reasons behind making
Urdu the official language. “Urdu was
made the official language to embarrass Bhutto as he wanted his language,
Sindhi, to be made the language official.”
The chairperson, Ajmal Kamal, concluded that the language
policy is a zero sum game. As we are a bilingual nation, so one has to speak
more than one language while interacting with the people in Pakistan. He
mentioned that during the British rule, English was adopted as the official
language at the higher level but at the lower administration level they used
the local language to communicate with people. This was because only through
their local language could they express themselves and issues could be
resolved.
According to him when it came to Pakistani language policy
we went a step back. As we are a diverse population so there should not have
been one language. Due to lack of clarity, no language could get rich heritage.
People have no command over any language. The policy makers can be blamed for
this. They always had political reasons for making any language official and as
medium of instruction.
Ir/relevance of Scial
Sciences in South Asia
Research in
Social Sciences Regarding Gender Equity – Its Impact on Policy Making Bodies
Iftikhar N.
Hasan
Fatima Jinnah Women’s University,
Pakistan
Iftikhar N.
Hasan talked about the social science research done by government-funded
institutes, the lack of focus and relevance of PhD research being conducted in
Pakistani universities and the efforts of Higher Education Commission to boost
social science research. She said that the role of social sciences research has
been quite subdued in Pakistan compared to research in basic sciences and
agriculture. Whichever research has been carried out is only marginally related
to the issue of Gender Equity. Due to lack of research funds within the
universities, researchers are forced to look for resources outside their
institutions. Many donor agencies and NGOs do give funds for research but they
also give directions to the researchers. For instance, most of the donor funds
in the 1980s were for income generating skills, while in the 1990s the
attention was on violence against women. Currently many studies are sponsored
for research on poverty alleviation or devolution of power. This may or may not
be relevant to understanding the ethos of society which is not willing to give space to women for development. Her
paper analysed research done with a gender perspective in the last 10 years,
and consider their impact on policy formulation of the government. The study
will also look into the dissemination mechanism of research studies and whether
or not the studies actually reach the end users. The time-frame of this
analysis is restricted to social sciences research studies with a gender
perspective from the year 1992 to 2002, and their impact on government
policies. The second issue relates to use of research for policy formulation.
Generally the economic data is collected and utilized by the policy makers,
mostly the bureaucrats, but there is no tradition of study of impact of these
policies on civil society from public point of view, much less on women. Gender
Studies has received lot of publicity in the media but most of this are very
limited in scope and are donor directed. There is a need to carry out basic
researches at national level to identify the factors, which are holding back
healthy growth of 50 percent of our population. Her paper looked at the
university as well as institutional research efforts in last 10 years to see
the trends and how far these are relevant to policies regarding gender.
Bridging
the Ideal and the Real in Social Sciences:
The Case for Applying Critical Discourse Analysis in Examining
Environmental Education Practices in the Development Context of Pakistan
Kelly
Teamey, UK
Despite
bringing in any new relevant understandings or different perspectives that
might better be elucidated upon knowledge production and practices within
social and development practices in Pakistan, there are simultaneous
irrelevancies that are inherent within social science research. These irrelevancies have to do with the
enormous complexities of our social world and the impossibility of being able
to comprehend or retain a grasp on anything that approaches holism. There are additional irrelevancies of being
too abstract and idealistic in viewing the social world through a social
scientific perspective. Kelley Teamey
viewed only small snapshots of social practices within some select
contexts. She discussed how social
science methods of policy and discourse analysis embedded within the
post-structuralist branch of social science can be used to study how that which
is idealized in policies is being translated into what is being practiced in
reality. Her research focused on the
ways in which the Millennium Development Goals have been translated and
mediated across different development-focused organizations to local practices
within the context of Pakistan. In
particular the ways in which these organizations (global, national and local)
have interpreted policies and conceptualized education, development, poverty,
sustainable development and environment are examined.
Physician Heal
Thyself: Social Science and Humanity Academe in Pakistan
Nighat
Saeed Khan, Lahore
Nighat
Saeed Khan, in her presentation, emphazed production of knowledge rather than
compilation of information in donor-funded reports. According to her, knowledge
production and the pursuit for learning thrives in harsh circumstances.
Knowledge producers do not need the comfortable milieu and a whole lot of
funding to produce. The drive comes from
within the way it came for people like Galileo. She lamented the fact that
there are very few academics of repute living in Pakistan or abroad. She
named Ayesha Jalal, Sara Sulehri and Dr. Dani. The fact that accomplished
social scientists like Ayesha Jalal and Sara Sulehri are not mentioned is also
deplorable. Though, the participants named Hamza Alavi as one of the leading
academics and the speaker concurred with it later. Nighat Khan also said that
writers and researchers should name each other rather than being anonymous in a
bid not to rock the boat. She strongly criticized the bureaucratization of
universities in 1970s and the fact that academics willingly chose to become
“bureaucrats” rather than choosing to remain independent academics.
Comments
S.
Akbar Zaidi, commenting on the session, was of the opinion that knowledge
should be produced for the sake of knowledge rather than being oriented to
“problem-solving.”
Discussion
The
question-answer session discussed the fact whether the real difference is
between action research and non-action research or whether it is between good
knowledge and bad knowledge. Also, one of the participants said that “knowledge
production for the sake of knowledge” comes across as an elitist idea in the
kind of stark realities that we live in. The need to strengthen public
universities that are accessible to common public was also emphasised.
Peace and Security in
Nuclearized South Asia
People’s
Perception on National Security
Haider
Nizamani, Canada
Haider
Nizamani argued that subaltern studies should focus on South Asia’s encounter
with colonialism. He said South Asia needed security studies that focus on
studying security issue from people’s perspective. Although, such work exists,
however, most of the critical security studies come from the First World. With
respect to security needs and public perception on such issues we need
specialized research and effective policy measures that incorporate such work.
This is important because if we analyze policies and postures adopted by
successive government then they have consistently failed the people of
Pakistan. Elaborating on his research, he said that the survey conducted helped
gauging in public opinions and perceptions about security issues. A conscious
effort was made to keep the ethnic identity of respondents as diverse as
possible. This was done in order to represent existent ethnic diversity in the
people of Pakistan. The polls found that 27% people surveyed thought that
biggest threat for Pakistan was from its socio-economic backwardness, whereas
24% considered India, 26% USA, and 23% considered sectarianism as biggest
threats to Pakistan's national security. Similarly, when asked about the best
way to ensure Pakistan’s security, an overwhelming 52% thought that improving
socio-economic status of poor was the key to ensure country’s security. On the
same note responding to the question of what should be the priority goals of
the Government, 45% respondents said that socio-economic well-being should top
the agenda. A significant 54% said that the Army had vested interests in
Kashmir and nuclear policies to justify their high budget. Interestingly, 65%
thought that Pakistan's nuclear weapons should be meant for Pakistan's security
and not as an export item. Concluding his presentation he said that the results
clearly oppose the government’s point of view on security issues. However,
contradictions abound in peoples and analysts assertions on security discourse.
There is a wide spread political apathy among the people of Pakistan which may
be a cause of their opinion not being reflected in State’s security policies.
He suggested that activist-scholarship needs to creatively bridge these gaps to
make the system somewhat accountable.
From
Defense to Development
Ayesha
Siddiqa
Correspondant
Jane's Defence Weekly, Pakistan
Ayesha
Siddiqa highlighted three main issues, which were be important in
establishing necessary linkages between defense and development. Firstly, the
absence of any structured work done in this area makes it difficult to
investigate the link between research and development. Thus far the existing
body of literature relies on the circumstantial evidence available to make such
linkages. The peculiar prioritization of South Asian States expenditure
(spending more on defense than on development) hints at a linkage but is not a
clear evidence of it. Moreover, the existing work develops simplistic linear
relationships using variables that need to be revised. The GDP is not a good
variable to establish a link between defense
and development. One needs to open up this debate and find new and more
suitable variables that can help define any such relationships. Secondly, one
needs to conceptualize two other factors; the peculiar prioritization of
State’s expenditure and corruption and its impact on defense-development
correlation. To conceptualize these two factors, it is important to include
other indicators like food consumption, investment in primary education etc.
This is important because defense as a percentage of GDP is not a good
indicator. Countries like India defend their high defense spending by saying
that they constitute a small portion of the total GDP. However, this is not the
case with other South Asian countries. Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka are
different because of the heavy involvement of military in internal security
matters. One can argue that a linkage between defense and development is easier
to find in countries where military plays a heavy role in governance and
policy-making. Thirdly, it is important that the impacts of poor governance on
a defense-development relationship be determined. Those who oppose channeling
money from defense to development have a strong case when they say that it is
not necessary that funds released from defense would actually be invested in
development. The correlation between the two is not so obvious and becomes
problematic in countries where bureaucracy and political system are corrupt and
suffer from inertia. Here, one needs to broaden the debate on defense and
development and what impacts defense has on development. One would like to
argue that, although there may not be a linear linkage between defense and
development however, a highly militarized system hampers development and
discourages a rational and optimal use of resources, which can only be
encouraged in a democracy. There are also some additional issues which arise
when one intends to do a comparative assessment of defense versus development
in South Asia. The lack of a uniform method of calculating defense and
development expenditure makes comparative assessment difficult.
Where is India-Pakistan’s Nuclear Race Heading?
Pervez Hoodbhoy, Pakistan
Pervez Hoodbhoy, in his paper, states that during nuclear
tests of 1998 many predictions were made by a number of people on both side of
the border. These predictions today need to be confronted with relevant
observations. It was claimed that since this would balance the equation of
power, the possession of nuclear weapons would usher South Asia into an era of
peace and friendship. However, Kargil happened only a year after the May 1998
nuclear tests and a year-long military stand off between India and Pakistan in
2001-02 rebuke such claims. South Asia has seen phase one of a nuclear arms
race, it is not entering phase two. Phase one saw the development, testing and
making of nuclear bombs. Phase two is purely a consequence of technology. As
part of phase two, we are seeing the incorporation of Anti Ballistic Missile
(ABM) ABM system into India’s defense. To function properly, the ABM system
detection mechanisms that means possession of geostationary satellites, ground
based radars, and aircrafts with radars on them. India has already started
gathering equipment for this phase two of nuclear arms race. Most recently
India has purchased four falcon aircrafts. Though, these aircrafts are not
primarily for detecting missiles, they can be modified for that purpose. It has
also acquired the Green Pine System from Israel that has the capability of
detecting incoming missiles. India has also entered into negotiations with
Israel and USA for Arrow and Patriot Systems, respectively. The implications of
this arm’s race are similar to those of USSR and USA in the time of the cold
war. The reason USSR and USA entered into an ABM treaty was this that they
understood the destabilizing effect the acquisition of ABM systems would have
on their countries. Unfortunately, such is not the case with the two South
Asian countries. The Indians have paid no heed to a report published by
American Physical Society, which rejects ABM systems by saying that they are
not technically feasible. Pakistan, to counter Indian build-up may make more
missiles and more bombs. It may also decide to keep them in a de-alerted State
so that the effects of ABM system can be countered. All this means that South Asia is entering into an extremely
vulnerable and dangerous time. Some might argue that global climate has changed
and the only way to counter US aggression is to possess WMD. This would be a
profound mistake on our part. The real problem for inhabitants of the
sub-continent is that the nuclear danger is very real and that the nuclear war
could occur without notice, or by accident, or by design in a matter of days or
hours. This only means total destruction of this region.
Comments
Itty Abraham, SSRC, Washington, USA
While commenting on the three papers presented in the
session, Itty Abraham called all three of them significant in their own regard.
He said that all three papers raise the right set of questions. Haider
Nizmani’s paper is significant because there has been for a long time an
absolute gap between the policy and security decisions that are made by those
in power and the impressions and popular understandings of what is actually
happening. The opinion polls that were done in India after her first nuclear
tests in 1974 and second in 1998 came up with same answers. The significance of
Haider’s paper is this that for the first we have a sample which represents
Pakistan both in the sense of rural-urban and ethnic differences. What one gets
here is set of results that fly on the face of everything that has been said on
this topic so far. No longer is it going to be possible for there to be this
assumed connection between the demands and needs of the people, and those
decisions makers in sitting in Islamabad and New Delhi who take the decision
for them. In both the states degree of insulation of those who take the
decision and the rest of the world is huge. Similarly, Ayesha’s paper is
significant as it raises the right type of questions if one wants to look into
the connections between defense and development. However, one must address a
basic question first which is why are we putting defense and development on the
same plate? Why are we trying to find a linkage between the two at the first
place? The percentage of GDP is a political figure, because in India it makes
Pakistan look bad. It should be percentage of the budget. Here one needs to
enter into a different debate. One needs a theory of State that links the
question of defense spending to the goal that defense spending is meant to be
articulating, namely national security and where you link development spending
to the goal that development spending in meant to be articulating, namely
development itself. One also needs a new theory of political economy of State where
defense and development are both seen as activities of the State and their
relationship to each other is not assumed to be “either” “or” or zero-sum. Pervez Hoodbhoy’s paper again is significant
because it very clearly lists out and explains the dangers of a nuclear arms
race in sub-continent. A reduction of tension in sub-continent can only happen
if strong initiatives come from Indian and Pakistani civil society. Only
pressures from Indian civil society can make India roll back its nuclear
program, and same is true for Pakistan.
Day Two
December 12, 2003
Concurrent Session A-1
National Environmental Quality
Standards (NEQS): Implementation in Pakistan for Industrial Pollution Control
Hurdles in Implementation and Achievement of NEQS in Leather Sector
Mohammad Atif, Pakistan
Mohammad Atif’s paper discussed
a case study from Pakistan whereby in Sialkot the leather sector has moved
towards meeting the agenda of NEQS. He discussed how industrialization is an
issue for Pakistan and factors like lack of awareness are playing a role in
exacerbating process. His paper urged
the need for cleaner production techniques, problems of effluence and need for
further training for effective NEQS implementation.
Past, Present and Future of NEQS
Implementation in Pakistan
Azher Uddin
National
Environmental Consulting Perfect, Pakistan
Azher Uddin
discussed the National Environmental Quality Standards (NEQS) that were first
promulgated under Pakistan Environmental Protection Ordinance 1983. He discussed how stakeholders remained in a
State of slumber on the ordinance for 10 years. However, approval of National Conservation Strategy by the
cabinet in the early 90s started the debate and enforcement of NEQS Pakistan. His paper showed that 1996 to1999 was
considered the best period of NEQS consultations, development, and
enforcement. During this period forums
like Shamslakha Committee successfully facilitated the process of
consultations. Also, effective
cooperation and coordination among stakeholders was observed during this
period. Many environment-industry
projects were also started during the same period. In 1999 the government in Pakistan changed and in 2000 the 9/11
accident occurred. These two events
derailed the process of NEQS compliance process in Pakistan. This derailing faded most of the
achievements of the mid 90s. Azher’s
paper reviewed the NEQS formulation process and provided analytical review of
the derailing process of NEQS implementation in early 2000. His paper presented a strategic framework as
way out strategies for NEQS implementation from the present sluggish
conditions.
Environmental Quality Standards
and Application in Developing Countries
Irfan S. Alrai
Pakistan Environmental
Protection Agency, Pakistan
Irfan S. Alrai discussed the
creation of Environmental Inter-Provincial Committee in 1984, and formation of
the Expert Group who submitted a draft report in 1985. His paper discussed that irregular
monitoring, non compliance assistance
programs, unprotected industry, only a few cases of ambient monitoring, lack of
sufficient capacity building of EPA’s, scarce qualified human resources, lack
of capacity to build legal cases for environmental tribunals were the main
causes of ineffective implementation of NEQS. Factors affecting compliance were
public attitude and little environmental awareness, attitude towards
profitability, lack of socio-economic opportunities and lack of disclosure
trends. Other problems discussed were
difficulties in constructing common effluent treatment plants, weak compliant
response system, transfer of technology and funds, and lack of knowledge about
success stories. The paper discussed
three possible solutions (i) the authorities can wink their eyes and leave the
situation unchanged (ii) the authorities can stop the activity that causes the
adverse impact on the environment, i.e., closure of the industries which are
not complying NEQS and (iii) the authorities can introduce such mechanisms that
will allow or facilitate meeting national environmental quality standards with
both discipline and by encouraging and facilitating the industries. Irfan
suggested a 25/75-improvement program that will support and implement SMART and
promote compliance with NEQS. Through
this pollution reduction agreements can be reached with individuals,
associations and chambers.
Comments
The past, present and future of
NEQS was summarized. Noman Qadir said that changing the law may be difficult
and time-consuming, but a balanced national ambient quality control standard
was important. He also urged the need to make NEQS more comprehensive.
Discussion
The discussion centered round
future NEQS implementation. Also, it was felt that the role of political
willingness in NEQS implementation could play an effective role. The role of
environmental risk factors were also discussed that had implications for NEQS
implementation and learning from past experiences was desirable.
Peace and Security in
Nuclearized sought Asia
Literature
and Development
Arshed
H. Bhatti
The
British Council, Pakistan
Arshed H. Bhatti looked at various descriptions of literature and defined it as ‘artistic-intellectual products that follow a creative process.’ In looking at the question of what was literature he examined key players/ actors and said that literature’s main focus was people and their lives, observations, insights of social transactions, human actions, behaviours, compassion regardless of what form, be it prose or verse, it took. He found its purpose to be ‘infotainment’, that is addition to understanding, sharing insights, influencing / forming perceptions, opinions and lifestyles.
He
explored the conceptual, virtual and actual locations and avenues where
literary products interacted, encountered, interplayed, affected and influenced
the development processes. Tracking key stages, and looking at the core actors
who played certain roles in the development processes – ranging from
theorization of development dreams to delivering and implementation of
promises, he provided a list of literary pre, by and proxy-products to identify
the potential interplay of literature and development.
His
presentation cited several commonalities between literature and development
such as the facts that both were about people, by people, for people, both
were led by a few individuals, both had an organic link and so feed into each
other and both had imagined communities or non-audiences.
His
mapping offered premises for conceptualization of areas where the supposed interplay
between literature and development could work and more importantly, it
identified gaps where, despite favorable assumption and popular biases of the
intelligentsia, this desired interaction/ interface was absent.
She
explained that popular digests were commercial ventures, and their printability
depended on how well they sell. The fact that stories presenting an alternate
view were printed demonstrated, that there was a demand for them, implying an
acceptability of alternate views. She felt that the voices of Pakistan’s urban
middle class rebels needed to be privileged and magnified since they go beyond
socially constituted ideals. In bringing forth imagined or lived experiences of
domestic violence, economic empowerment and other such issues, present a more
‘real’ grasp of the life of a Pakistani urban middle class woman.
She
presented her research methodology, and gave a brief overview of the history,
format and readership of the Urdu women digest. She then presented extracts
from stories, which reflected a questioning of existing social norms. Her aim
to present the ‘tone’ of the tales and ‘evidence’ in support of her claim that
there was an alternative ‘world view’ present in popular literature for women.
She
concluded that there was a discussion of ‘serious issues’ which was largely
ignored by the studies carried out on these digests and stressed that the next
step should be to explore why there was this discussion, why it was more
acceptable to discuss issues of violence and class as familial struggles
through stories, what were the other narratives of dissent and how were they
different or similar, what were the readers’ perceptions with regard to
narratives of dissent, as well as ‘typical’ stories of romance.
Maniza
Naqvi
Novelist,
USA
Maniza Naqvi began by explaining the creative writing
process and how she saw readers as co-authors--playing her stories back to her
and helping them thus to grow. Stories, according to her, did not reveal the
truth, but rather exposed untruths. On the importance of having a multitude of
narratives, she said that they prevented the rise and tyranny of a single
narrative hence maintaining balance, and safeguarding truth and reason.
She lamented that one of the greatest dangers facing the
world today was the dangerous revival of a singular and value laden narrative
of good and evil with its time released poison of hate, because that view
perceived the world in terms of fenced in real estate, not earth and in terms
of corporate interests, not cooperation. She condemned those story-tellers who
with their narratives of antipathy were given credence by the powerful and
branded themselves as secular, while weaving stories full of hate that
justified the existing geographical, social and economic divisions in the
world.
She warned that language was being used as a weapon with
representations of whole peoples in dangerous ways. Fiction, according to her,
was about imagination, coming from what we are, a way of rescuing our pasts in
a humane manner, to be able to shed light on and through the past into a better
future. She eloquently forwarded the point that it allowed for the formation of
identity through art, erasing ethnicities and creating empathies. ‘Humanity is
in repose, while apologists for cruelty and oppression roam free,’ she said.
Discussing how these were challenging times for the
entire world, she saw that all the difficulties imposed and tolerated by
Pakistan in the last fifty years had become the way of the entire world. She
felt that all that plagued Pakistanis, now plagued the world, that Pakistan’s many realities had become the
new world order.
She outlined her thoughts on poverty, democracy, justice,
peace and development in the context of war, occupation, trade, corporations,
development assistance and the international court of justice. Her essay
resounded that the way the world was chalked out today had a profound impact on
the ability to speak, write and be heard. South Asia, she felt, had an enormous
role to play in redefining story telling.
Muneeza said that though the world was shrinking, it was
not a global village of cooperating harmonious integrated communities and
cooperatives sharing common lands, objectives and values. It was more like a
feudal village with one powerful landlord, while the rest were landless
tenants: the mazaras
and the haris. The only way forward, in her view, was through
education, stressing that if we were interested in the defense of Pakistan,
then education was our defense.
She discussed the possibility of a different world- where
the terms of engagement, that affect all our lives, would be in a framework of
cooperation, not conflict, a world- where the discussion on issues that affect
us all, would not be embedded in bombastic nationalism or hopeless religiosity,
nor dismissive, disingenuous, reductionist, self-serving and bullying
statements backed by military might for the sole purpose of profiteering,
extraction of minerals, oil, arms sales, nor occupation and invasion, nor the
destruction of the environment, and threats of endless war. A world, where the
discourse would be centered on a viewpoint of earth instead of real estate,
cooperation instead of coercion, and cooperatives instead of corporations.
Comments
and Discussion
Kiran Ahmad’s paper led to many interesting questions. In
answer to queries, she explained that the authors of the ‘alternative stories’
were not anonymous writers, rather some of them had actually been writing for
the digests for decades, having acquired the status of near and dear aunts,
with whom the readers could share intimate details of their lives and problems.
Refuting the argument that such stories led the reader into a fantasy like life
whereby they were unable to cope with reality, she stressed that on the contrary
such ‘alternative stories’ provided a cathartic effect and a new way of
thinking and acting to the women.
It was
discussed that the tragedy of women’s lives was that they were too subservient
to take action, but in cases where they do or did try to take action it merely
rebounds on them bringing them further down.
Uzma
Aslam Khan from Lahore felt that it was important to understand what we meant
by literature and move beyond its bookish definitions. She said that if one
wrote with an agenda in mind, for example if a writer wrote with the explicit
purpose of reformation or if it was meant to advocate or preach a cause, then
according to her, it could not be called literature, it could be propaganda but
not literature. Muneeza Shamsi, on the other hand explained that literature was
about form, structure and character. Maniza Naqvi felt that anything that
brought inspiration ought to be called literature. This debate led to another
thought provoking question: When is one called a writer, is it when one writes
a novel or book or is it when one’s first piece is published?
With
regards to the question of freedom and the writer’s responsibility to the
reader much was argued and debated. It was concluded that whenever one tried to
police thought, one was always bound to run into huge problems. Art, it was
felt, would always try to bang its head against the wall and push the envelope.
The panellists agreed that in most cases it was the reader who decides and who
the author trusts to make the right call at the right time about the right
word.
n Report by Sarah Siddiq
Concurrent Session C-1
Farmers Rights Program: Impact of Globalization on Lives and Livelihoods of the HKH Communities
Gopichand Sedhain, Nepal
Sedhain presented a case study of Nepal in which he
described that the country is agro-based as more than three quarters of its
population is comprised of farmers and more than one quarter of the GDP comes
from the agriculture sector. The liberalization of agricultural policies in
Nepal started in the 80s and there was a drastic reduction in the input and
irrigation development subsidies. Therefore, presently the country is free from
direct government subsidies. Similarly there is drastic reduction in tariff
rates and abolition of import quota in the trade liberalization program.
The research showed that most of Nepal’s trade of
agriculture products is with India and it has been witnessed that there is no
economic growth in the country though the exports and imports have increased
between the two countries due to the 1996 Trade Treaty. Because of this
increase there is an increase in unemployment. But unfortunately the indicators
show that there is no increase in FDI in the country since the 1980s.
Resultantly, there is decrease in agriculture prices, shift in the cropping
pattern because of low rates, and feminization of agriculture as men are moving
towards the cities for employment.
Case Study from Sri Lanka
Avanthi Weerasinghe, Sri Lanka
Avanthi discussed the impact of improved
varieties in the context of the Draft Plant Variety Protection Law of Sri
Lanka. The objective of the study was that how the Draft Bill on Plant Breeders
Rights of 2001 affects the traditional varieties, newly developed varieties and
farming practices including seed saving and exchange.
Research finding showed that the
traditional varieties were abandoned in the Green Revolution as it brought high
yielding varieties, which take shorter maturity period as compared to the
traditional varieties. But now there is emerging trend to protect the
traditional varieties as they have more medicinal and nutrient value and these
are resistant to flood and are environment friendly as well. The draft bill,
which has been based on UPOV 1991, provides undue favors to the breeders while
it ignores the rights of the poor small farmers and their rights on the genetic
resources. Even a single change in the characteristic of one variety with the
other provides the breeder the right to get the patent on the variety. On the
other hand it bars the farmer from storing the seed without the permission of
the breeder.
Therefore, Avanthi opined, there should
be some limitations on the breeders rights and the farmers rights should be
given more importance as they are the custodians of the germ plasma since
thousands of years. The farmers’ right to save, use and exchange seed has to be
ensured in the draft bill.
Qasim Shah
Sustainable Development Policy Institute, Pakistan
Discussing the Agreement on Agriculture, Theory- Practice
and options in the Mountains context, Qasim Shah said that in theory the AoA
provides a special and differential treatment to the developing countries. It
discourages the trade distorting subsidies and allows the non-trade distorting
subsidies to member countries. But in practice the North is using these
allowable subsidies in such a high amount that it is in fact distorting the
trade. Developing countries on the other hand are unable to provide the
Aggregate Measurement Support (AMS) to the poor farmers because of weak
financial conditions. This is resulting in unfair trade in the area of
agriculture the world over.
Qasim felt that there is a dire need to declare the HKH
region and the farming communities of the mountainous areas as Least Developed
Areas (LDAs).The reason, Qasim opined, was because the economic indicators of
the area clearly show that the farmers living in this area have the same
standard of living as those of Least Developed Countries (LDCs) of WTO which
have more flexibilities.
Intellectual Property Rights and
Access to Seed: A Case Study of Himalayan Region in India
Urmila Joshi, Nepal
Urmila Joshi read out a paper written by Mita Dutta of
India who could not make it to the conference. The paper said that the farmers’
situation in India is the same as that in other parts of South Asia. But
fortunately India in its legislation has adopted Plants Breeders and Farmers
Rights Act that provides great support to the farmers. Though there is
tremendous pressure on India to sign UPOV from the North it is to be seen how
things move towards that side.
Comment
Abid Suleri from SDPI said that the commonality between
all the presenters is that they all agree the WTO provides you some
flexibility. But it is the rich countries
of the North who have adequate share in the International Financial
Institutions (IFIs) through which these countries pressurize the governments of
the South to sign the loans according to the dictated policies. He said that
the role of IFIs should be evaluated, sensitized and need to be linked with the
policies of WTO. The rich countries are policing the South through the
instrument of IFI in WTO.
Discussion
One participant discussed that there was some sort of
weakness at the end of the other South Asian countries as they did not follow
the Indian model of legislation in which the farmers rights are protected in
the plant breeders rights. But all the South Asian countries went for the UPOV
1991 model and developed their PBR Act which gives more support to the
breeders. The result is that the Indian government is now under tremendous
pressure to sign the UPOV.
n Report by Roshan Malik
Concurrent Session A-2
National Environment Quality Standards (NEQS):
Implementation in South Asian Region for Industrial Pollution Control
Regulating Industrial Pollution Control Through Effective
Collaboration of Policy Makers, Universities, Research and Development
Organisations and Industry.
Mahmood A. Khwaja
Sustainable Development Policy Institute, Pakistan
Mahmood A. Khwaja discussed the Pakistan Environmental Protection Council (PEPC) meetings that were held in August 1998 and Febraury 2001 and that supported and approved “Self-Monitoring and Reporting /Smart Program for Industry in Pakistan.”
Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (PAK-EPA)
notified on July 19, 2001. “National Environmental Quality Standards(NEQS)
self-monitoring and reporting by industry rules 2001. Dr. Khwaja’s paper
discussed that under this Program, industries in Pakistan were made responsible
for (i) systematically monitoring their environmental performance (industrial
emissions) and (ii) reporting of the data to EPAs. He explained the functioning of SMART Program takes into account
resources and interests of both the industry and EPAs, saves EPAs considerable
expenses, time and efforts and involves industry in evaluation of environmental
performance, leading to pollution control measures. Dr. Khwaja suggested that representation of Universities and R
& D Institutions on NEQS Implementation Committee could play a leading role
in NEQS implementation.
Estimating
Sectoral and Geographical Industrial Pollution Inventories in India:
Implications for Using Effluent charge versus Regulation
Rita
Pandey
National
Institute of Public Finance and Policy, India
Rita
Pandey’s paper explored implications for using effluent charge versus
regulations by estimating pollution inventories in India. The author presented the evidence that
economic instruments for industrial pollution such as effluent and emission
charges turn out to be cheaper as compared to command and control (CAC)
measures.
Rita
pointed out that as different industries emit different environmental
pollutions, information about geographical location of industries is very
important for effective intervention.
Proper information can be used to design cost effective strategies for
industrial pollution control. She
identified critical industrial sectors for immediate attention of regulators.
In India, States of Maharashatra, Gujrat, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh,
Madhya Pradesh and Orissa contribute mostly to toxic, metal and water pollution. In India, iron and steel industry is the
largest water, metal and toxic substance polluter and cement industry is the
biggest air polluter. Pulp/ paper and
aluminum industries rank second respectively for their contribution to water
pollution load.
Rita’s
paper explored implications for using effluent
charge versus regulations by estimating pollution inventories in India. She presented the evidence that economic
instruments for industrial pollution such as effluent and emission charges turn
out to be cheaper as compared to command and control (CAC) measures. Rita
showed that in India, iron and steel industry is the largest water, metal and
toxic substance polluter and cement industry is the biggest air polluter. Pulp/ paper and aluminum industries rank
second respectively for their contribution to water pollution load.
Compliance Monitoring of Industrial Effluent Standards in
Nepal
Ram
Charitra Sah
Forum for Protection of
Public Interest, Nepal
Ram C. Sah’s
paper suggested ways in which air, water and soil pollution arising out of
industrial areas can be improved following compliance monitoring study and
practical problems of existing environmental rules and regulations. He
suggested that (i) adequate steps should be taken to fully comply of the
government standard to prevent air, water and soil pollution, (ii) all required
anti-pollution measures should be installed to comply the effluent and emission
standards prescribed by the concerned government agencies, (iii) and that the
remaining industries should bring under the generic standard. Ram Sah showed that in the Environment
Protection Act 1996 and Environmental Protection Regulation 1997, there is no
clear statement to carryout the Initial Environmental Examination (IEE) and/or
Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) while expanding the capacity of the
production and reporting any pollution prone industries after certain period of
closedown, and relocating such industries except its requirement only when new
establishment any industries. These provide great loopholes to the
opportunistic irresponsible to the environment conservation.
Environmental Protection and Pollution Control in
Industrial Development as a Requirement for Sustainable Development in
Developing Countries: Evidence from Bangladesh.
Saiful Islam
University of Rajshahi, Bangladesh
Saiful Islam focused on environmental
protection and pollution control necessary to counter unwanted and unforeseen
consequences of industrial development in Bangladesh. His paper discussed the consequences
of industrial development is industrial pollution, that have become a major
problem in Bangladesh. Industrial wastes cause air and water pollution
problems, which have significant impacts on human health and ecosystems.
Correspondingly, protection of environment and control of pollution have been a
requirement for promoting sustainable development in Bangladesh. He found that
the main factors affecting the implementation of industrial effluent standards
are inadequate regulatory framework, limited institutional capacity, and lack
of trained personnel. These institutional weaknesses have allowed industry to
continue practices with no interest in environmental protection or pollution
control. Secondary data on Bangladesh and Pakistan were presented that showed
that the levels of effluents from textile and leather production far exceeded
the recommended standards. His paper
suggested that the ultimate solution of industrial pollution problems lies in
the transformation of materialistic outlook of human society into a naturalist
humanistic society.
Comments
Issues like NEQS implementation and factors that affect
implementation were discussed. A cross-country comparison was presented and the
need to learn from success stories was urged.
Discussion
Mahmood A. Khwaja clarified the problems associated with
SMART- One Software. He explained that SMART-One was based on the earlier NEQS
which were consequently revised and updated in SMART –Two version. There were
no technical problems associated with SMART-One as evident from the feedback of
the industrialists in the six months pilot phase and demonstration program on
SMART-One. For earliest implementation
of SMART program, Dr. Khwaja proposed the creation of SMART Cooperation Centers
(SCC) with cooperation and partnership among the Government, universities,
R&D institutions and industry through minutes of understanding among
Ministry of Education, Higher Education Commission, Ministry of Science and
Technology and the Ministry of Environment.
Rita pointed out problems associated with common
treatment plants and alternative common level treatment plants. She said cleaner production is not a
solution to every thing and other alternatives should be explored.
Concurrent Session B-2
Alternative Realities: The Voice and Role of Fiction Writers
Does
Fiction Matter?
Uzma
Aslam Khan, Pakistan
Uzma
A. Khan began by questioning Pakistan’s Anti-Fiction Law. It was both ironic
and tragic that this law did not allow
‘fiction’ to be imported from our neighboring country India, whereas ‘fiction’
could be imported from other countries. In other words, she informed the
audience that non-fiction could be imported from India, including books on
history, geography, politics and physics. But reading a story was considered
more risky than learning how to make an atomic bomb. She lamented that despite
both Pakistan and India were taking significant steps to behave more maturely
with each other. Yet Pakistani and Indian authors, booksellers and publishers
were unable to benefit from the ease of tensions between the two countries.
She
raised profound questions regarding the lack of importance and respect for
written storytelling in both English and Urdu by many people in our country.
She also shared her frustrations at being labeled with stereotypical clichés
like ‘Muslim’, ‘Eastern’ or ‘Oriental’ or even ‘Woman’, ‘Asian’ outside the
country, preferring of course to be described only as a writer, without
religious, ethnic or gender prefixes.
Like
Maniaz Naqvi, she too felt that we were living in an age of more divisive
cultural and political fences than ever before, where people were increasingly
being defined by flags, icons and appearances. Through the machinery of
marketing, political and cultural fences, even ethnic codes, were being
enforced, instead of eradicated.
She suggested that the availability, marketing, and worth of
fiction - both in the East and the West- had blind spots that needed to be
recognized before they could be removed. In conclusion, she left the audience
with the question of whether in Pakistan ‘culture’ mattered, since here
according to her the freedom and power to turn conventions upside down, and
openly and intensely embrace life were tragically undervalued.
Connecting
North and South: The South Asian English Novel
Muneeza
Shamsie, Pakistan
Muneeza
Shamsie looked at the South Asian English Novel and traced its history from
1901 to date, starting with the autobiographical ‘Travels of Sake Dean Mahomet’
before the time of the British Raj. She discussed how in the last two
decades, English novels by writers of South Asian origin had dazzled the
literary world and their enormous success had provided South Asia with a
powerful voice linking North and South, their exploration of language, history
and text creating new literary paradigms for the English novel.
She
shared how the South Asian English novel came into its own in the early twentieth century, when novelists
such as Mulk Raj Anand, RK Narayan, Raja Rao, Ahmed Ali and GV Desani, were
determined to forge their own voice in English, to provide a different view to
British writers like Kipling and Forster. Literary narratives, she said, had
influenced the perceptions of empire, nationhood and the individuals throughout
history, with Khushwant Singh’s ‘Train to Pakistan’ being the first Partition
novel by a South Asian English writer, to be published in 1956 and VS Naipaul
winning the Noble Prize for Literature, the first South Asian writer to do so
in 2001. She discussed how in the newly independent countries of South Asia,
there raged a huge debate about the validity of South Asians using English as a
creative vehicle, because it had been the language of the colonial power.
Through
her paper, Muneeza introduced and illuminated the audience to the writings and
works of such diverse and multi-faceted South Asian authors from Hanif Kureishi
and Bharati Mukherjee, Zulfikar Ghose, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Anita Desai,
Nayantara Sahgal, Bapsi Sidhwa, Arundati Roy, Sara Suleri, Bharati Mukherjee,
Vikram Seth, Amitav Ghosh, Rohinton Mistry, Michael
Ondaatje, Romesh Gunesekara, Adib Khan, Kamila’s Shamsie, Zeeba Sadiq,
Musharraf Farooqi, Sorayya Y. Khan, to Nadeem Aslam, Uzma Aslam Khan,
Maniza Naqvi and Tariq Ali.
Her
paper showed that the narratives of English literature had come a long way over
the last century and in today’s global language, South Asian English writers
had opened out windows for a wider, Anglophone audience, into a myriad of
cultures and complexities.
The questions of what could
or could not be categorized as literature, the difference between popular
fiction and literature were discussed. Uzma stressed that there existed only
two kinds of books--good and bad, beyond these she saw no other distinctions.
Muneeza Shamsie felt that there existed a very thin line separating literature
from other works.
The audience discussed the
global domination of English and felt that it was destroying not only national,
but also indigenous, vernacular languages and steps to promote literature in
local dialects should be taken. The issue of ‘translability’ or translating
Pakistani authors writing in English was also felt to be key element in
promoting the culture of writing and reading, but the panellists agreed that
here translators were neither very skilled nor committed and were expensive.
The problem of censorship laws, once a work was translated into Urdu, was also
debated. The irony was that though English was the least read and understood,
it was felt to have far greater cross cultural mobility than most South Asian
languages.
The panellists and the audience appreciated the fact that in
a conference with sustainable development and social scientists as the main
thrust, novelists and writers had been brought together. The need and
commitment to hold a literary festival of South Asian writers was also shared.
n
Report by Sarah Siddiq
Concurrent Session C-2
Karamat
Ali
Pakistan
Institute of Labour Education & Research,
Karachi
Karamat’s talk examined the historical context of labor
policy in South Asia and he took the timeline from Structural Adjustment
Policies prescribed by the World Bank and the IMF to the removal of rights by
government policies to favor industrial peace in Pakistan and other parts of
South Asia. While labor unions have
been undermined in industrial sectors of Pakistan, there has also been a lack
of extension of any sort of rights to workers within the agricultural sector,
such as bonded labor, sharecroppers and wage workers. Military governments as well as democratic ones have not contributed
to the elevation of and/or promotion of unions in Pakistan. The trend can be blamed on factors including
a large absentee landlord class, capitalism and capture of land, failure of
land reforms, government desire to eradicate rural village culture and a
general lack of sympathy or value for unions.
Karamat concluded by stating that a way forward needs to be built upon
recommendations from the 2002 tripartite consultation which includes
unionization of all government workers and an extension of all basic laws to
the agricultural sector.
Awaited Role of Labor Policy and its
Impact on Women Workers: An Agenda for Dialogue in Bangladesh
Shirin Naher, Bangladesh
Shirin’s presentation outlined the history of women’s
labor rights in Bangladesh, through a series of laws that repressed rights to
demand wage increases, strikes and lockouts and the right to associate and form
unions. Another issue that has
curtailed women’s labor rights has been the separation of women’s rights from
labor rights. When benefits surfaced
such as micro credit programs, SAPs, as in the case of Pakistan, off set gains
through the curtailing of women. There
has also been a gap between policies and program and to what degree they have helped
Bengali women’s workers. SMEs have
created jobs but rights are weak, especially in export driven industries. In order to move forward, there is a need
for partnerships between NGOs, private sector, public sector and industry
associations. Other needs include
skills development, social safety nets, addressing of informal sector issues,
extension to agriculture and an elevation of efforts at the grass roots
level.
Shirin Akhter
Karmojibi
Nari, Bangladesh
Shirin’s presentation argued primarily that in order for
labor policy to be effective, increased knowledge implementation and
commitments by government are required.
Focal points of gender issues need to be throughout government agencies
and nationalized industries. Capitalism
has been chosen as a way forward by the State and has contributed to the
collapse of socialism. In order for
women’s labor rights to develop,
integrated policies are required across sectors with the involvement of both
researcher and policy maker. A way
forward will only be defined by a unified stakeholder response where
bureaucracy and employers are sensitized and influenced with regard to labor
rights and policy.
Halina’s
discussion and comments focused on the market based definitions of CSR and
where how firms in various sectors are going above and beyond to capture market
access in niche markets. CSR at the
market level is thus driven by risk, reputation, NGO pressure, investor
confidence and consumer pressure. CSR
is composed of codes of conduct as well as certification. Absolute baselines are drawn from ILO
standards as well as UNEP, eventually, regarding environmental standards or ISO
based management standards. CSR has
shown to work well with good civil governance and the costs of implementing are
illustrated through capacity building between Northern vendors and Southern
suppliers. CSR can’t provide all of the
answers to social and environmental linkages and concerns with trade and the
market, but it can be a starting point for niche successes.
Discussions
began with the Chair’s remarks that the government would be following up on the
tripartite consultations and how to best implement the recommendations. Historically, the chair defended the
government’s past positions as being mindful of the need to keep a sense of
industrial peace within the country.
Agriculture was not included due to a lack of precedent and the
challenge of incorporating policies to apply to such a fragmented and
widespread group of workers. Discussion
continued to touch on the infrastructure that exists in some nations,
specifically Bangladesh where officers exist to monitor labor issues, but they
don’t inspect. Laws are there, but are
not implemented as they are considered undesirable by the lawmakers and
implementers as it poses a conflict of interest. Studies from India also mentioned that labor union members were
not involved in the Gujrat Riots, but the children of unemployed workers
were. Also, there is a massive entry of
wives into the sex trade and a pulling of girls from schools to feed the trade
as there is unemployment within many households.
Karamat
was questioned on the plight of illegally trafficked migrants in Pakistan and
how this would impact the agenda of unions during the SAARC summit. The nexus between child labor and worker
agendas needs to be part of the summit.
He responded by saying that the debate will continue on the tripartite
consultations and that there is still a need to comply with core labor
standards. The ILO was inactive during
the PIA ban of unions which the government managed to pull off.
Concerns
were raised as to TNCs not having to comply with standards not enforced
anywhere in the developing world beyond soft commitments within the Global
Compact. The Parliament is dominated by
feudal lords, so rights for workers will likely not be extended to the
agricultural sector. TNCs operating
within export processing zones have the weakest labor laws as well, which the
government has pushed forward. Plans
of action agreed to include eliminating child and bonded labor and sensitizing
government spending to reflect these concerns.
n Report by Faisal Shaheen
Concurrent Session A-3
Resource Rights and Sustainable Livelihood
The
Human Dimensions of Environmental Insecurity: Some Insights from South Asia
Adil Najam
Tufts
University, USA
Adil
Najam’s paper focused on the insecurities that result from a lack of attention
to human security around food, shelter, access to social services and conflict.
Given that South Asian levels of impoverishment are among the highest in the
world, it is impossible to treat environment and insecurity as being
separate. In cross-country analysis, a
number of trends were observed (Bangladesh – poverty most important point of
environmental vulnerability, India – SD is a new paradigm for regional
security, Nepal – environmental, societal and security vulnerabilities lead to
tensions, Pakistan – absence of SD principles leads to environmental
degradation, insecurity and conflict, Sri Lanka – Environmental security nexus
tied to cultural and institutional robustness of societies.
With
respect to cross-cutting themes which covered Energy, Land and Water;
governance, policy, institutional design and cooperation have been seen as
hurdles to environmental security. In
order to move forward, resource rights regimes and livelihoods and securities
need to be unpacked based on solid social science research.
Sustainable Livelihoods, Environmental
Security and Conflict Mitigation: A Case Study of Dir-Kohistan Forests
Shaheen Rafi Khan and Shahbaz Bokhari
Sustainable Development Policy Institute, Pakistan
Shaheen Rafi Khan’s presentation focused on resource
rights, livelihoods and human security. The absence of sustainable development
in the area has engendered social, economic and environmental vulnerabilities
and insecurities, one of its manifestations being the poverty-environment nexus
– a downward spiral of poverty and environmental degradation. However, in terms
of their impact, ill-defined resource rights have dwarfed the absence of
sustainable development, depriving communities of their natural birthright and
a potentially enormous source of wealth, namely the valley’s timber resources.
Instead, a combination of perverse incentives, legal and governance lapses have
let in the timber mafia, which has mined these resources at enormous cost both
to the communities and their natural heritage. Not unexpectedly, the ensuing
conflict is both pervasive and multi-layered – occurring among communities,
between ethnic groups, between villages, across the government-community divide
and between communities and the timber mafia.
The study area also illustrated how participatory
approaches and consensus building facilitate social cohesion and are more
sustainable. It also illustrated the transitory nature of donor projects, which
through their arbitrary ebb and flow can damage the social capital built up
through painstaking efforts (including project efforts), create credibility and
undermine future initiatives. Such adverse consequences should be factored into
project planning efforts.
Mitigating Insecurity: Experience of ERNP- Dir Kohistan
Sub Project
Mehmood Cheema
IUCN, Pakistan
Mehmood Cheema’s paper outlined project results and IUCN
activity within 3 project areas of Murree, Giriat and Dir Kohistan. Findings from projects pointed to the
success that participatory involvement, conservation efforts, social
mobilization and tri partite management had in reversing environmental
degradation. Recommendations for
mitigating insecurity included environmentally friendly infrastructure (such as
micro hydel development, 12 times cheaper than power on national grids), human
resource development and sustainable economic development.
Kimberly Vilar
IIED-AL, Argentina
Kimberly Vilar’s paper examined the role that IIED as
well as other NGOs in Latin America played both within the process of
development and as providers of research.
The questions that her presentation addressed were the manners in which
donors, users and producers interact within the development process. Challenges to increasing the role and
capacity of NGOs include increasing participation in the research process
through the end user, overcoming barriers to local interactive approaches,
showing local and national government the value of research. Action oriented research that provides
answers to short term needs can help to break through these barriers. In the examples of water and sanitation as
well as housing and habitat, it was found that policymakers and researchers
need to work closely and not in isolation in order to arrive at the best
interventions for the public.
The Potential Impact of TBT and SPS Measures on
Pakistan’s Fisheries
Fahd Ali and Shaheen Rafi Khan
Sustainable Development Policy Institute, Pakistan
Fahd Ali’s presentation outlined and explored the
sustainable livelihood’s dimensions of a concept paper that studies Pakistan’s
coastal fisher folk communities. On the
domestic side, a lack of appropriate harvesting and processing techniques is
cutting into potential margins that could be captured by small fisher folk
communities. On the international side,
stringent standards and an increase in commercial trawler activity is resulting
in an export of profits away from Pakistan’s domestic economy towards foreign
markets. At the community level, impoverishment
and increased migration to urban centers is risked should the livelihoods of
these communities be further undermined by policies favoring corporate
fisheries development.
Discussion immediately pointed to the bleak picture of
development within Adil’s presentation and success stories within Sialkot’s
soccer ball industry and other sectors were highlighted as a means of moving
forward. It was agreed upon while the
success stories exist, one needs to work towards providing opportunity and
access to resources for the poorest of the poor segments of society. The key point was how does one prompt the
rest of the country and other sectors to follow Sialkot’s example? How do we
elevate the position of UNEP in tackling resource rights and sustainable
livelihoods issues just as the ILO is tackling social conditions? An example from Africa was also highlighted
in Burundi and Rwanda where the resources and the market access points and
ownerships are controlled by the same group of people while the workers are
marginalized and have no rights.
Poverty and access to resources has driven conflict in these
regions. It was agreed that study needs
to take place that identifies who has rights over resources and market access
and what levels of law have evolved to suit those regimes. Dominators of access need to be de coupled
from development so as to eliminate monopoly ownership on access to development
opportunities.
n Report by Faisal Shaheen
Concurrent Session B-3
Child Labor and Informal Economy: Issues and Solutions
Child Labor in Pakistan: A Legal
Aspect
Tracey Rizvi,
Pakistan
In her paper,
Tracey Rizvi revealed that children who go to work are unable to attend school
because of a disability or due to poverty, among some other reasons. Tracey
emphasized that there is a direct link between poverty and illiteracy. The
small pilot projects carried out by the Government are only affecting a small number
of children, so the scope of these projects should be enlarged in collaboration
with the international agencies.
She stated that
under Pakistan’s Constitution, children below the age of 14 years are
prohibited to work in any factory or mine or engage in any other hazardous
employment. There was an effort to extend the limit to 16 years but the Bill
was not passed in the Parliament. She raised another important issue that laws
concerning child labor only affect the formal sectors of the economy while informal
sectors remain unchecked.
Tracey recommended
that a wide range of measures such as education, adult employment and
income-generation must accompany labor legislation aimed at combating child
labor. Much has to be done in order to reduce class, gender, ethnic and
regional disparities in access to education. Furthermore, cost of education
must be reduced. These costs include direct costs as well as indirect costs
such as school fees, uniforms and meals, etc. These measures, if implemented,
can make it more attractive for parents to send their children to school rather
than sending them to work.
A Rapid Assessment of Scavengers in
Pakistan
Shahbaz Bokhari
Sustainable
Development Policy Institute, Pakistan
Shahbaz
Bokhari showed details of his study, which he conducted for the International
Labor Organization. He used instruments such as mapping, focus group
discussions and informal interviews for carrying out the study. He stated that
main reasons because of which children work, are to help family, desire to earn
money and pressure by parents.
He
recommended, through his presentation, that we have to improve social security
and zakat system, short and medium term reforms should be introduced by the
government, mass advocacy campaigns have to be carried out and overall,
involvement of government and civil society organizations should be increased.
The National
Approach to Eliminate the Worst Forms of Child Labor – The Sri Lanka Experience
Shyama
Salgado
IPEC, Sri Lanka
Shyama
Salgado said that in a survey undertaken by the government the results showed
42,000 boys and girls between the ages of 5-14 are working in different
capacities in Sri Lanka. The government is working to eliminate child labour.
Currently the age limit is 14 years but efforts are underway for increasing it
to 16 years.
She
stated that the government wants to ensure education to all and the objective
is to sustain the education for all program amongst the vulnerable communities.
It also provides vocational training to children above the age of 14 years.
Monitoring of child labour issues are ensured by the government legally as well
as through civil procedures.
Worst Forms of
Child Labor: A Situation Analysis of Six Hazardous Sectors
Saifullah
Chaudhry, Pakistan
Saifullah
Chaudhry presented a situation analysis of six hazardous sectors where children
are working. They are; Coal Mines, Glass Bangles, Tanneries, Ship Breaking and
Deep Sea Fishing, Rag Picking and Surgical instruments. Major findings are
large family size and poor monthly income (Rs.5,800 on average), children
mostly following the profession of the father and the mothers are illiterate
and majority of the child workers are full-time workers.
According
to Saifullah, poverty does not play a dominant role in a household decision to
send their children to work and in most cases, and that parents want their
children to learn the skills.
Summing
up, Saifullah said that the study indicates a pattern of similarity and some
peculiar sector specific features. National Development Programs needs to be
sensitive to child labor and education and vocational training, according to
the local market needs, should be provided.
Comments
Zulfiqar
Ali Gondal, in his comments contradicted the findings of Saifullah and said
that poverty is the dominant factor for child labor. He said that major chunk
of Pakistan’s budget is spent on debt servicing and defense spending, so very
little is left to spend on welfare and developmental works. Furthermore he
stated that the population growth rate is very high and illiteracy is
increasing as a consequence. Literacy and poverty eradication should be of
utmost importance to our government.
n
Report by M. Imran Khattak
Concurrent Session C-3
Population, Health and Poverty
Gender and Development in South Asia: New Policy and
Strategic Options
W.
G. Somaratne, Sri Lanka
W.
G. Somaratne analyzed the issues, new policy and strategic options in
mainstreaming gender and development (GAD) in South Asia. According to him the
comparative analysis of GAD issues in South Asia shows that gender inequality
retards economic growth and poverty reduction. The disparities between males
and females in sharing power and resources; gender biases in rights and
entitlements; and conventional religious taboos and myths on gender act to
hinder achieving true economic growth and reduce the well-being of men, women
and children in the region. According to the speaker understanding the gender
and development issues, formulating right policies and strategic operational
options, implementing programs through right institutional mechanisms are
necessary to improve gender equality, which is a paradigm shift in the right direction
to achieve the Millennium development goals in South Asia.
From Thinking Too Much to Extinguishing of the Heart - The
Case for Qualitative Research in Social and Health Policy Planning
Eaisha
Tareen, England
While
differentiating qualitative research from quantitative research, Eaisha Tareen
was of the view that for any kind of sustainable development, it is crucial to
lay prime importance on the perspectives and attitudes of the recipients whom
the policy is geared towards. She explained, using the domain of mental health,
how qualitative and quantitative research findings can have completely
different policy implications. She was of the view that research in the area of
mental health based on the biomedical paradigm has focused on and aimed for
objectivity and reliability. Individual’s personal accounts have generally been
devalued as “subjective” or “biased” and according to research findings these
devaluations tend to be even greater if the individuals are women and even
greater if they are believed to be mentally ill. According to Eaisha, it is
only the qualitative approach that allows access to the ‘insider’ view, of the
individual who is suffering, and facilitates exploration of the contextual
forces surrounding him. While focusing on ‘depression’ in the broad arena of
mental health, the speaker said that qualitative research, in this context,
provides people with an opportunity to express their opinions regarding issues
that concern them and allows in-depth investigation of the problem or issue
which ultimately has significance for effective policy planning. According to
her the research needs to be rooted in the cultural context of the society or
group being researched and culturally appropriate methods of investigation need
to be devised. She was of the view that both quantitative and qualitative
research can complement each other if employed to address different aspects of
the same issue.
The
Globalization of Reproductive Health: A Derivative Discourse?
Mohan
Rao
Jawaharlal Nehru University,
India
Mohan
Rao briefly surveyed the factors that shaped the emerging discourse of
reproductive health, tracing the contradictions and ambiguities that surround
this discourse arguing that RH rights represent a marriage between
multinational feminisms and international debt. According to Rao, the last two
decades of the 20th century reverberated with intense debates about
reproductive health and rights and indeed wrongs. These debates embraced
women’s rights activists, public health workers, policy makers, donors and
academics. One stream of arguments sees all reference to reproductive rights as
undermining the family and the community and is associated with the position of
the Vatican, some Islamic countries and Protestant fundamentalists increasingly
setting the agenda in the USA. Another extreme at the opposite end of the
ideological spectrum, argues that reproductive rights may perhaps represent
population control by other means. Between the two are a range of institutions
at the international level that have brought the agenda of reproductive health
and rights center stage not least among them the World Bank and the Population
Council. The International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) held
at Cairo in 1994 was the first time ever that RH rights was squarely put
forward on world agenda.
Comments
The
papers were followed with comments from discussant, Dr. Mehtab Karim from the
Aga Khan University. Regarding
Somaratne’s paper, the discussant was of the view that the paper accuses
a lot of macro level data which does not comply with the national level, which
according to him was the major weakness of the paper. According to him though
the author had discussed lot of data, he had not reached any conclusion. He
appreciated the tremendous achievement of Sri Lanka among Asian countries with
regard to reducing the population growth rate after China and Korea which has
reached zero population growth rate in terms of two children per women.
Referring to Eaisha Tareen’s paper, he appreciated the importance of
qualitative research that she has highlighted through her paper--taking example
of depression especially among women. According to him policy implications of
lack of qualitative research especially in the health sector was missing from the
paper. Referring to Mohan Rao’s paper, the discussant opined that the paper
dealt at macro level at what was happening at the international level, the role
of the international organizations and what he felt missing from the paper was
the situation at the subcontinent level, especially in India. He also
highlighted the negative impression the author has of the World Bank. According
to him there has been positive contribution from international organizations in
the development process. He contradicted the author’s assessment that family
planning has failed. According to him, it has indeed been a contributory factor
in bringing major issues together, especially the RH rights issue. The South
Asian countries have benefited from family planning programs though they still
have to take advantage from the program.
Discussion
At
the end of the session the floor was open to questions and answers and comments
from the audience. Saba Gul Khatak while commenting on the panel appreciated
Rao’s and Eaisha’s papers.
n
Report by Shereen Rehmat
Concurrent Session A-4
Natural Resource Management
Water Resources Management for
Sustainable Agricultural Productivity: Issues and Challenges
Waqar Jehangir , Pakistan
Waqar Jehangir pointed out that more than 95 percent of
available fresh water in the country is utilized in agriculture, the remaining
five percent is used for drinking, industrialization and other purposes. Yet
productivity from each drop of water is not comparable to other countries of the region such as China where through
improved seed cultivation and better water management practices, the production
has increased three-fold. He urged the need to shift from supply-driven water
distribution system to demand- driven water deliveries.
Rana Nazir Mehmood, Pakistan
Rana N. Mehmood was of the view that Pakistan lies in
arid and semi arid zones and to feed a large population it is necessary that
better water management practices should be introduced. The farmers should be
educated about these to overcome the scarcity of water for agriculture. He
presented a success story where the WWF, through farmers’ education on
agronomic practices, has saved 38 percent of the available water in the cotton
fields in Bahawalpur and Vehari districts of Punjab.
Forest Reforms in North West Frontier Province of
Pakistan: Impact of Newly Created Institutions on Livelihood Assets of Forest
Users
Babar Shahbaz, Pakistan
Babar Shahbaz gave an account of various institutional
reforms that have taken place over the years in the NWFP and their impact on
livelihood assets of the communities. He also discussed the behavioral change
that resulted from such reforms and the socio-economic impact of new reforms.
Does
Decentralization Induce Sustainable Natural Resource Management: What are the
Assumptions
Urs Geiser, Switzerland
As the topic indicates, Urs Geiser highlighted the
various approaches in use for better resource management through the
participation of the locals in planning as well as implementation. He said that
success means expectations fulfilled and the preconditions met. In this regard
the first step is to identify the expectations, the preconditions necessary to
meet the expectations and what are the conceptual and theoretical underpinnings
of the expectations. In Pakistan this hypothesis could be tested at the
grassroots level and it could give rapid results, as decentralization is a
recent phenomena, he added. One can easily assess whether decentralization has
some impact on resource management and on the participation of the poor, their
empowerment and whether the benefits trickle down to the poor.
The Evolution of Agriculture from Public Good to Private
Asset
Faisal Haq Shaheen
Sustainable Development Policy Institute, Pakistan
Talking on how agriculture has shifted from public good
to private asset, Faisal said that increased reliance on inputs, mechanization,
industrialization, market liberalization, export oriented government policies
and depressed commodity prices under the control of multinational corporations
are the factors responsible for taking away agriculture from the hands of
masses.
Commenting on the all the five papers, Ghulam Akbar said
that involving communities in the management of natural resources is a very
recent case in Pakistan, so it would take some time to judge its results. The
objective of the research should be to provide some concrete recommendations
for the policy making process. It should also pose questions to policy makers
to think upon.
Participants criticized introduction of new practices in
water management and were of the view that if Pakistan is not a water scarce
country then why are Sindh and Punjab at loggerheads and whether new practices
would be successful in Pakistan although results were promising at other
places. Commenting on the paper read by Faisal Shaheen, one participant from
Kenya said that taking away agriculture from public hands to the private
companies is a phenomenon not only in Pakistan but in many other countries. His
country is experiencing similar problem coming through donor agenda. Rapping up
the session the Chairperson, Shams ul Mulk, said that quality of information is
directly related to quality of decision. In the 20th century, poverty was the
price of ignorance, but in the 21st century; it might not be the sufficient
price.
n Report by Qasim Shah
Concurrent
Session B-4
Women
Workers and the Changing Labor Market
Ely Ercelawn
Pakistan Institute of Labour
Education & Research,
Pakistan
Focusing on a
few points, Ely said that the laborer is tied to a specific employer due to
social arrangements. For instance, a place for living is provided to the
laborer so they stick to that job which makes them bound to it even if they
want to move to some other job.
He highlighted the problems of
women when they enter the job market, especially while working under landlords.
According to him women remain excluded from advocacy despite the fact that
women are a sizable labor and that they are forced to work in the industries as
well. Also women are treated as 2nd class citizens.
Women are also excluded from
regular jobs, he continued, and during their jobs, sexual favours are asked
from them. They don’t have an open option to choose the kind of job they are
interested in, so they are restricted. So it’s kind of forced labour.
Mashuda Khatun Shefali, Bangladesh
Mashuda discussed the impacts of quota elimination on
textiles and Apparel Producing Countries. It has been decided by the WTO that
there would be free trade by 2005 and quota will be eliminated from all the
countries. She particularly emphasized on its impact on the large number of
women working in the textile, apparel and garment industries.
Some exporters, she asserted, will cut the wages and
other production costs. And due to that some countries will not be able to
compete at such reduced price levels and thus jobs may be lost. Purchasing
power will also go down. This will have poor health and education outcomes, low
standards of living and shaky safety nets. Since women make up most of the
labour force in textiles and clothing they will bear the brunt of all these
adverse effects as well as decline in their economic independence,
participation and social empowerment.
What Price Development For Women?
Gloria De Silva, Sri Lanka
Gloria basically concentrated on
the gaps that must be addressed in the mobilization of women in building
sustainable security and peace at local and national level. According to her,
women affected by violence must be part of all security and peace-building
efforts. But war and peace have been played out in a male-dominated space, with
long-term negative implications for all.
As women are the victims and
survivors of this violence and conflict so they should also take a stand on
bringing about a State of non-violence by becoming key players in building
peace and security. To make her point
clear Gloria presented Sri Lanka’s ethnic, religious, political and social
composition and background.
There are only nine women
parliamentarians out of a total of 225. Similarly there are 49 women in the
judiciary out of a total of 185. Even during women’s regime, women’s concerns
have not been given much attention.There is also a low level of gender
awareness among politicians and professional women and civil society, in spite
of the high literacy rate, access to information and mobility of Sri Lankan
women. So basically the role of political parties is central to the issue of
poor representation of women in the political arena, she concluded.
Comments
Some of the comments and
recommendations made at the session were that women must develop their own
identity and individuality, without depending on the physical presence of the
man. Women must be ready to disturb and challenge traditional structures of
gendered thought and behavior. Women politicians must broaden their knowledge
base and understanding of political issues and concerns. Also they should
develop a sense of vision and commitment to develop the women’s wings in their
political parties to become distinct entity, not just an adjunct to the main
male-dominated party. Women’s organizations and networks can play a vital role
in bridging these gaps. Women’s groups must also be active in fostering the
concept of a collective sense of “women’s power,” which cuts across political
party affiliations, ethnicity, religion and class.
Discussion
During discussion other issues
related to women labor came under consideration. Women labor workers suffer a
lot. When they migrate to other countries for better life and earning, they
face sexual exploitation. And there is no one they can go to. No organization
to solve immigrants’ issues. They cannot even go to their own country embassy
to raise their voice against injustice. Even if they go there, they are not
supported rather exploited by their own country officials in the embassy. The
government or the embassy officers don’t take any action as they don’t want to
strain their relationships with the country where its people work as
immigrants.
There have been such atrocities
on women. Within Sri Lanka women are sold for their body parts, and the
families are offered Rs.1 million. The government is aware but it doesn’t take
any action, rather it has been covering it. Due to lack of laws for immigrants
in the South Asian region they end up in prostitution.
Everyone agreed that the ILO
should play a greater role in order to combat such issues and eliminate such
atrocities and make the labor market secure for women, especially immigrant
women. Academicians and professionals should come forward and speak out on such
issues and make the nation and world aware of it. Civil society should also do
something practical. Ely suggested that accommodation to laborers should be
provided by the government and not the employers, so that they are not bound
and can move to other jobs as well.
In the end they felt that there
should be a South Asian commission for labor rights and especially for
immigrants. There is a greater need of such a platform as there would be
increased number of immigrants in the coming years. But at the moment they
should approach the SAARC secretariat for these issues.
n Report by Iman Hasan
Concurrent Session C-4
Population, Environment and Development
Gender: Impact of Quality Education and
Early Childhood Education
Shaheen Attiqur Rehman, Pakistan
Population, environment and development are the factors
that are most critical for present developing countries. There interactions are
very important, as a careful balance between them is required for countries to
achieve sustainable growth. The session began with Shaheen Attiqur Rehman’s
paper, which focused on the importance of providing quality education. For
education Pakistan has signed three conventions, the recent one being the
‘United Nations Literacy Decade’. The report identifies the main causes of
illiteracy and highlights critical issues facing women in Pakistan, especially
the low female literacy rate. It is believed that since the majority of the
women work in the rural areas of Pakistan, investment in women’s education
would no doubt have a positive effect on the rural economy.
Shaheen emphasized the importance of the quality of
education and thus identified seven areas, which included the school management
committee, the methods of teaching and learning, management of primary
education as well as the non-formal basic education sector, for future focus. She
also suggested there is an absence of political will to improve the quality of
education in Pakistan. Furthermore, she advocated that the private schools
should be acknowledged for their good performance. Lastly she emphasized the
necessity of female education and the narrowing of the gender gap especially
for girls.
How can Pakistan reduce infant and
child mortality rates: A decomposition analysis
Shafqat Shehzad
Sustainable
Development Policy Institute, Pakistan
Shafqat
Shehzad presented her paper on infant and child mortality rates of Pakistan in
comparison with other developing countries. An econometric approach was used in
this paper; the report reiterated the importance of a key MDG; the reduction in
under five child mortality rate. The goal is also significant as this is used
as a highly significant predictor of a country’s economic performance, as
emphasized by the World Development Report 1993.
Pakistan
has an unacceptable high level of infant and child mortality; the main culprit
identified was the low female literacy rate. The two other contributing factors
were the low-income level and the lack of healthcare facilities. Although other
factors were acknowledged, lack of data availability prevented a more
conclusive finding.
The report concluded that ‘Pakistan’s mortality rate would
have been far less if Pakistan had a female primary enrolment rate equal; to
the average rate prevailing in the selected developing countries’; it is
confirmed by the empirical finding, that had this been the case, then
Pakistan’s infant mortality rate would have been 76.77 compared to 104 (per
thousand live births 1990).
Poverty-Environment Nexus in the Context
of Institutional Framework in Pakistan
Abdul Qadir Rafiq, Pakistan
The third paper was presented by Abdul Qadir Rafiq and
emphasized the importance of institutions as agents in the decision making
process for the allocation of resources within the economy. He advocated that
both the private and public sector in collaboration with the civil society
needed to address the environment and poverty issues. He also stressed that key
economic agents needed to be recognized and their participation acknowledged,
as this would encourage greater participation and provide an incentive to
address these issues.
He also identified typical institutional barriers to
environmental management, which included inadequate human capital and political
leverage to the public sector institutions as well as a lack of opportunity for
public participation in decision making in Pakistan.
Factors Associated with Increased
Suicides among Pakistani Youth: A Case Study of 366 Attempted Suicides in Sindh
Ali Abbas Qazilbash
Sustainable Development Policy Institute, Pakistan
Ali Abbas Qazilbash presented a paper on the attempted
suicide cases in the province of Sindh. Some of the key findings were as
follows: out of the 332 attempted suicides, 38% survived, 63% were the youth,
70% were men and the main method of suicide was household poison, which
accounted for 40% of the suicides.
Specifically, for Sindh, Abbas acknowledged that although
the province contributed nearly 65% to the national exchequer, there was no
reciprocation in the form of human development, and in this context no attempt
to solving problems such as suicide. It was advocated that rural Sindh has the
lowest ranking for human development nationwide.
The study highlighted the urgency for the need in
establishing an effective youth policy, which would facilitate a strong link
between the public and private sectors, which in the long run lead to the
implementation of an effective livelihood program, this is seen as the first
step in curbing this alarmingly high suicide rate.
The discussion session provided an opportunity for the
participants to suggest points for the speakers. However, the discussant
Shahnaz Wazir Ali highlighted the need for an overall integrated development
approach for economic development.
n Report by Huma Nawaz
Day
Three December 13, 2003
Concurrent
Session A-1
Women
Security and Peace
Can
Women Be Peace Builders?
Gloria De SilvaSri Lanka
Gloria
de Silva’s paper gave a broad overview of Sri Lanka’s ethnic, religious,
political and social composition and background; the contradictions that exist
regarding the status of women in Sri Lankan society, and the reasons for those
contradiction; the history of violence and conflicts in the last 25 years, the
mobilization of women around these issues of violence and conflict; and the
needs and gaps that must be addressed in mobilizing women in building
sustainable security and peace at local and national levels. Highlighting some
of the misconceptions prevalent in the region regarding the status and mindset
of Sri Lankan women, she expressed that women’s involvement in security and
peace-building is not an activity that should be confined to post-conflict
situations. “In the prevailing climate of social and political violence, both
in the private and public sphere, it has become essential that women, who are
so often the victims and survivors of violence, take a stand on bringing about
a State of non-violence by becoming key players in building peace and
security”. Gloria believes that in the efforts to build sustainable security
and peace, the empowerment of women at all levels is vital. She recommended
that women politicians must use the space they have and should broaden their
knowledge base and understanding of political issues and concerns; women
politicians must also develop a sense of vision and commitment to develop the
women’s wings in their political parties to become a distinct entity and not
just adjunct to the main male dominated party; She also pointed out that
women’s organizations and networks can play a vital role--they must not only
lobby to increase women’s representation at all levels, but must also ensure
that women entering the political arena are educated, sensitized and committed
to changing the inequalities that exist within the current structures and
processes. Women’s groups and organizations can play another important role by
educating the Sri Lankan society, especially women, about the existing
inequalities and constraints within current structures. An important recommendation
was to include violence affected women in all security and peace building
efforts.
Rita
Thapa, Nepal
Rita Thapa talked about the situation in Nepal both from the
points of view women in the Maoist cadres and women who are themselves
victims--wives of the civilian and Army Personnel. Starting the paper with
women’s social position in Nepal, Rita pointed out that growing up in a
socio-economic environment based on patriarchy has significant implications for
women in Nepal. Women’s status, including their access to resources is lesser
than that of men. This severely limits their personal, intellectual and social
potential. Consequently when a girl grows up in Nepal, she has neither the
voice and status nor the confidence to demand her rights, making her more
susceptible to abuse, violence, exploitation and negligence. In the backdrop of
the social position of Nepalese women, Rita Thapa talked about women in the
Maoist movement; women left behind to run/sustain homes and families, farms;
war widows and those displaced with or without families/men. She highlighted
their resilience, strength as well as the challenges and hardships they face.
Rita stressed on the need for a political solution and urged Nepal, its neighbors
and the world community for taking responsibility and to act to bring peace, in
order to avoid further human costs, loss and pain. “This eight- year insurgency
has done enough damage for us all to have to work tirelessly for a very long
time to come”, she reiterated.
Deconstructing
the Human Rights Discourse: Relevance for Afghan Women
Huma
Ahmad-Ghosh
Bangladesh
Freedom Foundation, Bangladesh
As
the title of the paper suggests, Huma Ahmad-Ghosh in her paper deconstructed
the Human Rights Discourse in relation to its relevance for Afghan women. She
discussed varying historical and political interpretations of human rights and
their location in the debate on development for women in Afghanistan. Huma
presented her argument by saying that while the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights document of 1948 is ideologically and physically viable, it needs to be
deconstructed when talking of women’s rights in Afghanistan because this
document was a product of a certain culture and is reflective of a western, secular,
individualistic society. Therefore, the term Universal is problematic and could
be interpreted as yet another attempt at hegemonizing cultures and peoples
different from the presumed homogenous culture of the west. “The Universal
Declaration of Human Rights and CEDAW should not be seen as ends in themselves
trying to impose rigid guidelines for all. These documents while providing
models on which to build, as drafts to incorporate national discourses, and
guidelines to ensure rights to all citizens in a nation-state, have to
incorporate a cultural specificity that along with international pressure and
resource allocation for development can provide alternative frameworks for
women’s rights”, stressed the speaker.
She
suggested that focus should be on creating an environment where women could be
empowered through education and employment, to claim political legitimacy and
to negotiate their rights in accordance to their social and cultural needs.
“Human rights are not only about securing political and economic liberty and
freedoms for the individual, but today involves the freedom to one’s culture,
religion and community. Indigenous groups, minority groups, women and Asian
societies need to incorporate collective rights into their discourse on rights for
women”, he emphasized.
Ritu
Menon, India
Ritu
Menon talked about women’s role in peace and security and divided and explained
it by using Cynthia Cockburn’s classification of gendered power relations-four
moments of armed conflict. She examined three of these moments while
talking about women’s peace activism:
1. The
period of war and repression itself; the entry of armed forces; the escalation
of communal conflict; the disruption of everyday life, and the brutalization of the body, male and female (She talked about
women’s activism on issues of rape, dowry deaths, “sati” or widow immolation
and during times of ethnic, communal, sectarian, fundamentalist and extremist
violence).
2. The period of peace making or refusing the
logic of violence.
3. The post-war or post conflict period, in
which displacement and return, rehabilitation and sometimes reconstruction and
reconciliation take place.
Comments
The Chair appreciated all four papers and said: “They
were highly informative, insightful and provocative.”
Discussion
The comments on papers by the Chair were followed by an
interesting discussion with most of the participants making comments and
suggestions to the speakers rather than posing questions. Saba Gul Khattak
suggested Huma Ahmad-Ghosh to also look at the context of patriarchy and how it
is operating at the same time along with religion or race because it has been
observed that western men actually end up promoting the same views as Muslim men
in Muslim countries which shows that the dichotomies are not very clear between
the west and the Islamic east. The other point Saba raised was with reference
to the skill training programs and suggested Huma to look at women’s economic
empowerment more critically as it seldom works because given the kind of
poverty and other constraints there are no markets for women having received
these trainings, therefore, such economic solutions seem very limiting. Shaheen
Sardar Ali suggested Huma to also look at the ‘politics of human rights’.
Responding to Shaheen’s comments, Huma talked about the relationship of the
west with the east after 9/11 and how the feminists can get caught in the
nationalist agendas. Adding to Huma’s observation that cultural relativism helps
the elite, Mohan Rao commented with reference to India and said that cultural
relativism is problematic not just for the elite- it also helps the sub
alternate patriarch.
n
Report by Kiran Habib
Concurrent Session B-1
Trade and Sustainable Development
Adil
Najam
Tufts
University, USA
Adil
began his presentation with key arguments that seek to build a case for and
probe how trade and environment are linked in the global south. His presentation continued to discuss how
various multi lateral discussions on trade and environment have not helped the
process move forward as of yet, as mandates such as the Doha development one
have been left vague, issues are new to multilateral negotiations and
implications have not been fully explored and/or understood and that parties
particularly in the south have not fully developed their positions on this
subject as well as with many others. He
argued further that a lack of proactive push in the South to explore the
linkages on this issue as with many others has simply led to trade negotiators
in the South being left out of negotiations and agenda setting and merely
reduced to playing catch up. A lack of
resources, empowerment and networking within and between government, private
sector and NGO actors has led to the current situation. A proactive push, as argued by Adil, will
likely reduce the amount of suspicion held by the South on trade and
environment related issues and result in more of an impetus towards sustainable
development.
Capacity Building for Trade and Sustainable Development:
Emerging Lessons from the Trade Knowledge Network
David
Boyer
International Institute of Sustainable Development,
Canada
David’s
presentation focused on the benefits and lessons learned from Trade Knowledge
Networks and how developing nations can learn from each others experiences in
sectors such as sustainable agriculture, standards, labeling, market access
with regard to organic products, GMOs, shrimp aquaculture and liberalization of
electricity and tourism services. He
drew from a number of countries to elaborate on the work that the TKN network
had accomplished and how in numerous situations had contributed to developing
country policy making capacity.
Regional Initiative Required to Implement the Agreements on
TBT and SPS and their Provisions
Shaheen
Rafi Khan
Sustainable
Development Policy Institute, Pakistan
South
Asian exporters are awakening to the realization that standards setting by
northern buyers will have to be proactively met if export levels are to be
maintained in the foreseeable future, given MFA and other quota program phase
outs. Shaheen’s presentation examined
the barriers that TBTs and SPS present to South Asian exports in light of
harmonization efforts within the WTO and a regional response that could address
many of exporters concerns. Issues of
quality were elaborated on and a general lack of capacity within South Asia to
embrace and become a part of accredited certification auditors and
authorities. The presentation concluded
with an argument for using the SAARC Secretariat as a platform for launching a
South Asia regional partnership for standards setting that would enable
developing nations to utilized their capacities and draw from each others
comparative advantages in standards setting.
Getting to Green: Overcoming Obstacles to Liberalizing
Environmental Goods and Services under the WTO
Annie
Dufey, Chile
Annie’s
presentation focused on the impact that the liberalization of environmental
goods (under NAMA) and services (under CTS) as relating to water, wastewater,
etc. can have on developing economies.
As the WTO doesn’t specifically define what an ESG is, controversy
arises from interpretation by northern TNCs in water, for example who wish to
access southern municipal and commercial markets. Monopolistic, anti competitive and public good related concerns
thereby must compel policy analysts within developing economies to carefully
select which of their environmental goods and services sectors that they wish
to liberalize.
Policy Interventions at the Fisher Folk and Agrarian Levels to Promote
Sustainable Development
Faisal
Haq Shaheen
Sustainable
Development Policy Institute, Pakistan
Faisal’s
presentation focused on the impact that government policies towards encouraging
corporate farming and fisheries development could have on sustainable
livelihoods and indigenous efforts to promote sustainable development and
trade. A shift towards export led
growth with a focus on short term revenue and royalty gains will likely see a
shift in resources towards large landlords and trawling companies that
currently engage in unsustainable resource management and development. Government policies that emphasize access by
poorer segments of society to domestic as well as export markets need to be
implemented so as to not only increase the distribution of wealth to poorer
segments of society but also to put an emphasis on and develop sustainably
resources that are at risk of depletion.
Trade and Investment Linkages with Corporate Social
Responsibility
Halina
Ward, UK
Halina’s
presentation on corporate social linkages elaborated on the new trend of
socially conscious firms placing an increased emphasis on social responsibility
and raising the bar not only on themselves but with their supplier
networks. Halina drew the examples of
South East Asian economies and sectors that are positioning themselves as
socially responsible suppliers so as to capture market share from larger
players such as China.
Questions
that followed the presentations focused on the capacity of a developing country
like Pakistan, with low education rates and awareness of corporate activity to
press for market niches that appeal to meeting the standards of CSR. Many market sectors are not even aware of or
capable of export capacity, leave alone identifying niches. It was agreed that more awareness needs to
take place not only at the community and public levels, but also at the firm
level. Discussions also focused on
government policy towards more corporate based activity and how this would
hinder the development of domestic economic bases and indigenous sectors. It was also agreed that more SAARC
cooperation was necessary even though signs pointing towards such cooperation
are volatile and unpredictable even in the best of times.
n
Report by Faisal Shaheen
Concurrent Session C-1
Civil Society
and Advocacy
Social
Authority and Participation of the Pakhtun Mullah in the Early 20th
Century Tribal Areas
Sana
Haroon, England
Sana
Haroon talked about different roles of the Pakhtun mullah in the early 20th
century North West Frontier tribal areas to weigh the dimensions of his
authority. She quoted examples from Khyber, Mohmand, Bajaur, Swat and
Waziristan and focused on the participation of the Pir Akhund Abdul Ghaffur or
Swati Baba’s spiritual successors in Pakhtun society. Considering the
foundations of religious authority in the frontier Tribal Areas counters a
persistent bias in the study of Pakhtun social organization that has separated
religion and ‘real’ Pakhtun culture into two separate domains.
Mullah’s
authoritative role, according to Sana, was given substance in the specific
geo-political situation of the North West Frontier Tribal Areas as a
non-administered region. In the absence of any greater encompassing legislative
or administrative systems, the mullah emerged as the most obvious and important
trans-village authority, and religion as the only uniform, stable and
accessible institution of diplomacy, policing and justice across the Tribal
Areas. Examining the components of the mullah’s authority - derived from
religious, social and political practices in the Tribal Areas - the false
separations between ‘religious’, ‘secular’ and ‘political’ authority can be
done away with and a more comprehensive picture of the civil space of the early
20th century North West Frontier Tribal Areas emerges.
By
virtue of his role as caretaker of the mosque, the greatest power the mullah
had was his ability to excommunicate members of the clan from the religious
community, on moral grounds. He would not allow a transgressor to participate
in prayers in the mosque, refuse to perform a nikah [marriage ceremony]
of such a transgressor, and insisted that anybody seen to have relations of any
sort, whether personal or even commercial, would have to endure the same fate.
Ostracism was swift and absolute, and was rarely challenged due to the threat
of further punishment. Religious
excommunication also meant that the mullah would refuse to conduct political
negotiations on behalf of the ‘wrongdoer’. In cases where entire clans were
shunned, they would have no access to the arbitration and reparations system in
effect through the mullahs. If the village was raided or attacked, the mullah
would not affect a return or compensation for property lost or damaged. In the
absence of an overarching political authority in the Tribal Areas, the mullahs
occupied a governmental ‘space’, carrying out diplomatic functions and managing
inter-group relationships on the one hand, and representing a ‘national’
interest and collective identity on the other. Mullah leadership was an
efficient, coordinated and motivated form of social and political organization
- one that was able to consolidate in the frontier Tribal Areas because
there was no other form of inter-party organization or ‘government’.
Arshed
Bhatti
The
British Council, Pakistan
Arshed
Bhatti examined the conventional notion of ‘activism’, its various meanings and
forms and how it has been deployed as means to policy advocacy and reform.
Bhatti highlighted that in recent years, Pakistan has witnessed various
expressions and articulations of activism that have worked and various others
that did not. In certain instances a concentrated activism premising on
physical gathering of activists is seen but not winning objectives and in
others it may seem diffused but not necessarily less impeccable. It is one’s
understanding that contemporary developments in information technology and
techniques have affected the modes of communication and social transactions
resulting in a more complex and more unpredictable State and its institutions –
in their roles and conduct. Therefore, there is need for more informed activism
to respond to the ensuing complexity and unpredictability.
During
the question-answer session, referring to one of the questions regarding how
one becomes a mullah, Sana said, this was a correct allegation that mullahs
were the marginalized elements who were inclined towards systems like the Piri
Mureedi networks and would become inducted in these networks because they were
marginalized or probably because they had no land. But the important thing to
understand was that the structure of these religious networks was itself known
but what is not known is that who and how poor were the ones who joined these
networks. The method of induction was simple that you simply presented yourself
to these mullahs and took “bait” and on this basis you became a mullah
and you then go and set a certain type of authority within your community.
Bhatti, answering a question as to what was more important, the means or the
ends, said that purpose is more important as it is the embodiment of three
things, one, understanding of the process, two, good knowledge-cognizance of
the targets and finally how to achieve those. This means if you know the
process and you are well aware of the targets only then you will be deploying
the means accordingly. This means, while going for some advocacy campaign if
you know the first two parts of your purpose you will deploy the means
accordingly.
n Report by Shereen Rehmat
Concurrent Session A-2
Refugees
Issues
State and Statelessness in South Asia
Imtiaz Ahmed, Bangladesh
Imtiaz Ahmed presented the experience of the Lhotshampas of
Bhutan. His paper revolved around the theory of partisan of intellectual,
location and descent.
The
speaker pointed out that partisan of an intellectual create an
environment of power and powerlessness. When an intellectual is in power he
becomes very conservative but when he is in the opposition he becomes very
progressive and radical. Ex bureaucrats and military officers are the best
examples. When they retire from their job, they become very progressive and radical
and then they do not have any reservations and concern over Indo-Pak relations.
Location of the intellectuals is critical. If an intellectual
feels something but cannot speak then there is no fault with the intellectual.
In such cases the problem in the structure, system and promotion may be a
hindrance and lives may be miserable. This is the problem in South Asia. If one
is in Canada, for example, one can be vociferous and forceful. But the case in
South Asia is different. We should accept that location matters a lot,
he emphasized.
At
the end of his paper, Imtiaz gave three recommendations. First, ignoring the
rights of the powerless and marginalized will not only deteriorate the law and
order situation but social development also. So it should be dealt with right
away. Second, there is need to re-invent national laws to address concerns of
the concerned. Lastly there is need for cultural re-orientation that will come
through media, education and proper representation.
Comparing Afghan
Refugees and Local Population: What is to be done?
Saba
Gul Khattak
Sustainable
Development Policy Institute, Pakistan
Saba
Gul Khattak’s paper was based on a UNHCR report on Afghan refugees. She
highlighted the negative and positive impacts of Afghan refugees on local
population. Saba said that it is a practice, especially in the media, and
generally as well, to highlight only the negative impacts of refugees, such as;
the pressure on the infrastructure and how Afghan refugees’ presence has made
social service outlets crowded. They are blamed for klashinikov and drug
culture and deterioration of infrastructure and heritage. Therefore there is a
need to look into what is actually happening and what can be done.
Saba
described the different waves of Afghan refugees that started in 1980. The
first wave was of Pushtoons who had been mostly involved in agricultural
activities. The second wave came when Najeeb Ullah’s government went down. That
group mostly consisted of professionals who worked for government and other agencies.
These people had different reasons to leave the country. The third wave came
after the Taliban regime and the reasons were political and collapse of
different departments within Afghanistan.
These groups had environmental and economic reasons to leave
Afghanistan. Yet there was another wave after September 11, when the US allied
forces started bombing Afghanistan. Refugee figure touched its peak in 1992
with 3.6 million persons.
Overall,
72% of Afghans are in the most vulnerable category compared to 39% of Pakistani
population in the same areas. She said that the general perception in Pakistan
is that the Afghans have made the local population vulnerable and are
economically better due to different aid programs. She gave an example that
scarcity of water cannot be the only problem. Sometimes abundance of water may
create problems also. As in the case of one visited site that had abundance of
water but a number of cases of water borne diseases were reported. Balochistan has lots of Afghan refugees due
to scarcity of water. And in other districts more refugees were reported to
have contracted water borne diseases than the Pakistani population. Overall 72%
Pakistanis complained about the availability of water as compared to 52% Afghan
refugees. That reflects that refugees do not expect more facilities.
In
terms of education there were two problems for drop out children. The first,
poverty and second, distance from the school. The lack of access to services is
not a poverty issue but a matter of powerlessness. Many women reported that
they want to send their daughters to school but the father did not approve. So
it is the issue of powerlessness.
Health came out to be a critical issue in this research.
If health of the man in the family deteriorates and he is unable to go to work
for a few days, the household spirals down into vulnerability and poverty. They
have to take loans in order to pay for health care and are greatly in debt.
They have to go to district headquarter hospitals because basic health units
are unable to cope with this pressure.
Fragility
of livelihood is another area of concern. Wages for refugees are lower as
compared to wages of the Pakistani laborer. There was discrimination in the
wages of female refugees also. On the
other hand, Pakistani laborers feel that the Afghans have captured the labor
market and made the wages stagnant. Women were found in multiple jobs.
She
said that cultural practices are changing among the Afghans. She presented the
example of walwar (bride price) that is on the rise and males are
relying on the money obtained through this cultural practice. This is making
women de-empowered and vulnerable.
She
presented three sets of recommendations. First, banded response to the
worsening ground realities that include social security and food aid issues.
Second category is about various reform measures within the current structures
and related to natural, human and produced capital, social capital and
political capital. These would include policy measures for improvement in the
natural environment, improvement of social services and increased interventions
by local and international NGOs. And the last category relates to fundamental
structural changes, i.e. changes in the legal system and economy.
Syed
Sikandar Mehdi
University
of Karachi, Pakistan
Sikandar
Mehdi’s paper was divided into three parts. The first part examined the factors
and considerations, in extending wholesome support to the arriving Afghan
refugees by Pakistan. The second part focused on the factors and circumstances
prompting Pakistan to pursue a policy of dispossession. The concluding section
examined the prospects for Pak-Afghan relations in the light of Islamabad’s two
contrasting policies towards the Afghan refugees in Pakistan.
They
were warmly received in the beginning and were extended all the possible help.
Pakistan has strong historical religious, social, economic and cultural
relations with Afghanistan. Pakistan positively responded to forced migration
of Afghans. At that time there were no security threats and the refugees were
received with a sense of humanitarianism. After a couple of decades the
situation completely changed. There was a visible change when in 2000 the
Afghans were officially banned from entering Pakistan. Many more restrictions
followed to contain and control the Afghans. But they are still pouring in and
Pakistan is unable to control them.
The
speaker elaborated saying, ‘When we compare two policies of Pakistan, we find
that Pakistan was motivated by its political, military and strategic interests
rather than humanitarian interests alone. Militarization of Afghan policy is
due to support and encouragement of Pakistan. Jihadi culture in Afghanistan and
lately in Pakistan was a result of Pakistan’s support. It is clear that all the
Afghans will not go back. Many will stay on. Hence there is need for a fresh
policy approach towards the Afghan refugees keeping in mind that they became
refugees because we encouraged them. Secondly, Pakistan did not play its role
as a peace State during the Afghan crisis. It tried to gain benefits. Pakistan
needs to play a positive role towards the refugees. Such measures will help in
removing the impression of Pakistan as a brutal state’.
Comments
The Chairperson said that all the speakers had raised the
fundamental issue of the integration of refugees. All the questions raised were
about the policy issue. She concluded the session by expressing that the UNHCR
will work and protect refugees’ rights according to its mandate.
One
of the participants said that Pakistan does not have a refugee law to address
the fundamental rights of refugees. Saba said that none of the South-Asian
countries have signed any regional or international convention related to
refugees. The lack of policy document does not mean the Pakistan does not have
de facto informal level refugee policy. She requested SAFRON and the Refugees
High Commissioner in Pakistan to address this issue.
Answering
a question that is there any recommendation to combat walwar, Saba said
that it is a very complex situation and we have touched this issue in
recommendations. But there is need to create jobs and need to lobby in PRSP to
address the issue of refugees. Participants urged that there is need to look
into the root causes of different influxes of refugees in more detail and work
on how cultural exchange can benefit both the nations.
Food Security and its Consequences: Some Indian Experiences
Subhashini
Ali, India
Discussing
the Food Security and the policies of Globalization, Subhashini Ali said that
it has done a great harm to the poor. The policy shift in India due to
Globalization has greater impact on the livelihoods of millions of people,
particularly the womenfolk. More than 47 percent of the children are
malnourished and there are a lot of children who do not have access to food.
There used to be ration cards system in India for subsidized food for the poor,
but now the government has eliminated the ration card policy in most of the
Indian States.
Even
the prevalent ration card system, i.e. above poverty line ration card and below poverty line ration cards, so much so
that in some States there are four kinds of ration cards, which have messed up
this system and the poor are not accruing any benefits from it. Also, it has
been observed that a great number of suicides in the country are because of
hunger and poverty.
Abid Suleri
Sustainable Development Policy Institute, Pakistan
Abid Suleri said that the Food Security Analysis (FSA)
study is an attempt to bridge the policy and research gap which will help in
assessing more vulnerable areas of the country for future intervention of the
government agencies and donors to cope with the situation.
The main indicators in the study are food absorption,
availability and access. On the other hand the study will analyze the food
security at a national level, regional level and domestic level while keeping
gender perspective in mind.
Fundamentally, the study will look into the food secure
areas of the countries and will find out who is the most food insecure and why
is the area food insecure. The problem faced by the team is that there is a
lack of data of various indicators. The details available at national level
regard to the macro level not micro level. Similarly there is no ample data
available on the Northern Areas, Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Federal
Administered Tribal Areas.
The AJK is depicted as the neglected area and would be
presented as the case study in FSA, Sahib Haq said. It has a population of
3.271 million people with cultivated area 0.173 million Hectares and the growth
rate of the population is 2.3 percent.
The limitation in the region is poor planning by the
government as there is no compiled data. With the result that any planning
brings undesired results and slow development which is increasing poverty and
food insecurity in the region.
The area needs development of irrigation facilities for
the enhancement of agriculture, including the development in the agriculture
sector for value added agriculture products. The World Food Program is at the
moment assisting the Government in primary data collection on all
socio-economic factors of development.
Minnie Matthew
World Food Programme, India
The Indian study is a landmark as all the government
agencies and departments are taking the FSA as the basic study to initiate any
activity for the development. Minnie Matthew informed the audience that the
study is based on the FAO based on hungry and poor people of the world. The
study is divided into two parts: Rural Food Security Analysis and Urban Food
Security Analysis. The study focuses on three main indicators which are food
access, food absorption and food availability.
It is found that anemia is high in women and children and
there are about 200 million hungry people in the country. Minnie said that the
FSA in India was given so much importance that the Prime Minister and the
President of India attended the launching ceremony of FSA.
The participants in the discussion said that the study in
Pakistan should also include the impact of policies on the Food Security
situation in the country so that the factors responsible for the poverty should
be brought very clearly in the limelight.
Sindhi Media--Environment and Development Coverage
Naseer Memon, Pakistan
Naseer Memon in his presentation informed that the Sindhi
media is a national media, which covers all national
issues and thinking of it as a regional media, will not be doing justice. All
major Sindhi newspapers have a national level network of reporting and
circulation and they have their bureau offices and reporting sources in major
cities, including the federal capital. In Sindhi media, there are a number of
women writers and presently 11 women columnists regularly write for Sindhi
newspapers. During the last three months, 38 articles of female writers were
published. He further added that a new trend of politically vocal and
professionally sound reporting had emerged and around the mid 90s, almost all
mainstream Sindhi papers adopted that trend. Most of these newspapers use
modern technology and information sources.
He stated that Sindhi newspapers enjoy matchless
influence on masses in Sindh and they are playing a commendable role against
socio-political evils like feudal practices, tribal bloodshed, corruption and
honor killings. These newspapers provide prominent coverage to developmental
issues like Water Resources and Agriculture. He also said that some newspapers
have special pages for women and their problems and some portion is also
devoted to environment. Leading newspapers like Kawish, Ibrat and
Awami Awaz are now also available on the Internet and Kawish has
recently started a TV channel. Concluding his presentation, he said that
newspaper owners do not give due preference to environment and development
reporting and government and non-government organizations do not realize the
enormous potential of Sindhi newspapers to reach the masses and policy makers.
Structural--Functional
Role Taxonomy of Media and Sustainable Development
Asmat Ullah
Sustainable Development Policy Institute, Pakistan
Asmat Ullah stated that the consumption of media content
by the audience is contingent upon the synthesis of structural-functional
models. The structural paradigm focuses on demographic and social
characteristics of the audience while the functionalist reserves their
attention to areas like uses and gratification that stand the audience as
active recipients. They find and use the media content in support to strengthen
the existing attitudes and behaviors. The blend of structural-functional
approaches, in fact, broadens the scope of media role in formulating
considerably effective media campaigns to keep the sustainable development
process in tact. He added that systematic gathering of development media
contents and their effects on the
audience, with a due focus on new information technologies, will stand us
capable enough to formulate sustainable development campaigns.
Coverage to Communication: Disseminating Vital Messages
Zafar Ullah, Pakistan
Zafar Ullah began by saying that here in Pakistan,
developmental issues are not given much importance and hence they are buried
deep inside the newspapers and they are mostly edited without any expertise. In
order to elevate the importance of these issues, we need to understand the
audience preferences and print accordingly, he emphasized. He said that the Press
Club of Pakistan is a convenient place to convince journalists.
Stories from far-flung areas related to feuds are
included, just to add spice, but otherwise those areas do not get any
representation. In India, civil society organizations sponsor an environment
investigative journalist for a year or so and the organization finances him or
her to investigate and come up with a very good story but here in Pakistan no
such practice is observed. The NGOs use journalists just to get media coverage,
he lamented.
Comments
Syed Abdul Siraj of AIOU commented on the session and
regarded all the three presentations as admirable work. He said that we are
living in a post-modern society in which more importance is given to style than
to content so improvement in presentation of the issues is equally important.
He pointed out that the media has failed to find answer to the question of why
in a resource-rich country like Pakistan, majority of the people still live
below the poverty line. He also recommended that journalism students should be
included in training workshops along with professionals.
Another comment was that the electronic media has an
advantage over the print media because it takes a lot of time for a reader to
read all the paper, while television can show the same issue in less time and
with more lasting effect.
Discussion
A question was asked from Naseer Memon that since so much
coverage is given to social problems in Sindh, what was being done to counter
them? Naseer answered by saying that it will take some time for policy makers
and policy implementers to bring changes on the ground.
Women and Children
Trafficking in South Asia: Myth and Realities
Ishrat
Shamim, Bangladesh
In
her paper, Ishrat pointed out that millions of human beings are being
trafficked throughout the world for various reasons. They are trafficked as
migrant workers, domestic slaves,
sex-slaves, sweet shop workers, prostitutes etc. “Women are trafficked using
deception or coerce,” she observed. She believed that women and girls are more
vulnerable to trafficking due to women’s perceived suitability for work in
labour-intensive production and the growing informal sector, which is
characterized by low wages, casual employment, hazardous work conditions and
absence of bargain mechanism. She held that most legal channels of migration
offer opportunities in typically male dominated sector, and also sex-selective
immigration policies force women to look for other means and they she finds
themselves in the initially unseen trap of traffickers who lure them on better
work pledges.
The underlying causes, she said, range
from the expansion of global market forces, growing materialism perpetuated by
the media, growing unemployment and poverty. She cited that Bangladesh, Nepal
and Sri Lanka are the major countries from where human trafficking originates,
while India and Pakistan are countries of destination or transit to other
regions. Talking on preventive efforts in South Asia, she regretted that few
countries of South Asia, Pakistan among them, do not actively support the
initiatives and programmes to check trafficking. She proposed that the
government of Pakistan should increase training of low-level officers.
Similarities Between Forced Migration
and Trafficking and Portrayal of Trafficking in Women and Children.
Salma Ali, Bangladesh
Salma Ali began with the observation
that trafficked victims are generally speaking of two categories: migrants or
forced migrants. In her opinion, trafficking denotes the recruitment,
transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of threat
or use of force or other form coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception,
of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability of the giving or
receiving of payment or profits to achieve the consent of a person having
control over the other person for the purpose of any kind of exploitation. She
stressed that we should distinguish between trafficking and forced migration.
She opined that due to social stigma it is hard for trafficked victims to
readjust in society. She also pointed out that in our region, there is no
bi-lateral treaty between the sending and receiving countries.
Labour Migration and Ttrafficking of
Women: An Insight into the Socio-economic Implications.
Ayesha Aftab
Ministry of Law, Justice and Human
Rights, Pakistan
Ayesha identified poverty,
unemployment, migration, urbanization and labour migration as the underlying
causes of human trafficking. She stated that police and other law enforcement
agencies are not effective and efficient in implementing laws governing illegal
trafficking. She revealed that besides trafficking of women to Gulf countries
as sex-slaves, there is a trend of temporary marriage with Arab princes during
the hunting season. She observed that women are victimized, socially,
culturally, economically, politically and religiously. Dilating on
recommendation on policy-making levels, Ayesha
recommended that the government should rectify and implement ordinance
governing human trafficking, effectively. She also stressed upon the need of
restructuring of institutions like NADRA, FIA and CIA. “There should be good
institution collaboration among various government institutions,” she proposed.
Comments
Commenting on the three in-depth research papers, which
had aptly pointed out the gap between researches on the issue of human
trafficking, which haunts South Asia more than any other part of the globe, and
the policy at various State levels, discussant Farhat Sheikh observed that
Ishrat’s paper heavily relied on the State department’s report while abundance
of dates from the region are available on the subject. She also agreed with a
comment that no qualitative research on human trafficking has been done in any
part of the world, including South Asia.
Discussion
The floor was opened for the participants who talked
lively on the issue, sharing concern with the speakers and pointing out the
failure of implementing the laws governing the menace of human trafficking at
country and regional level. “This menace is so big and so organized that no
single country can overcome it,” one participant observed, “therefore, we need
a comprehensive treaty among the South Asian countries to tackle the issue on
war footings.”
n Report by Ali
Ahmed Rind
Concurrent Session B-3
Gender (In) Justice
Nausheen Ahmed, Pakistan
Nausheen Ahmed said that protest and activism against
Hudood laws spanned over a period of 23 years. The National Commission on the
Status of Women (CEDAW) has recommended its repeal. The only argument which is
put forth to defend the law is that they are Islamic in nature, and even here
religious scholars do not have a unified view.
Yet, the laws are still there. She argued that women activists should
disentangle themselves from the debate on whether the laws are Islamic or
unIslamic. They should instead focus on highlighting that the law is unjust,
and is aimed at limiting women’s mobility and freedom of action. She added that
a sufficiently strong case had been against Hudood laws; the next step should
be to take it forward in the proper context, rather than getting side tracked
in debates.
The Mask of Honor: Causes Behind Honor Killings in
Pakistan
Anjana Raza,. Pakistan
Anjana Raza traced the changes that honour killings have
gone through. She began by explaining the economic and social context of these
killings in the pre Islamic tribal society. She then traced the transformations
it has gone through and linked it with changes that have been occurring in the
political and legal spheres. In the pre Islamic, tribal society there were
clear defined rules that governed the determination of guilt. A woman could
only be accused by her father or her husband. The brothers and extended family
could not accuse her. Once ‘guilt’ had been established, death was not the only
recourse available. Moreover, the argument of grave and sudden provocation
could not be used in defense. As time went by, Pakistani society had to face
multiple changes, which required a renegotiating of boundaries. In the face of
changing, shifting times, women’s bodies became the ground for an assertion of
tribal identity. As a result, these localized phenomena became widespread and
even more brutal than it had been in the tribal society.
Subhashini Ali, India
Subhashini Ali argued that processes of globalization and
skewed economic development intensify inequalities and hierarchies. As a result
there is an increase in caste competition and conflict, and a loss of control.
This in turn leads to a reassertion of the control over female sexuality,
through the exercise of choice of a marriage partner. She asserted that
murders, similar to honor killings, were taking place in all communities, and
in all areas of India. All these murders had to do with caste, biradari
and even economic subgroups. To
illustrate her point she cited several cases that have occurred over the last
three years. She concluded that intervention in individual cases of such nature
had to be supplemented with social reform movements, which could be part of the
general struggle against exploitation and inequality.
Comments
Shaheen Sardar Ali expressed appreciation for the
provision of a forum by SDPI for discussion on Hudood laws. Commenting on
Nausheen Ahmed’s paper she stressed that there was a strong commonality between
honor killings and Hudood laws. Hudood laws are often used to get a favorable
sentence for honour killings. A good example is the Samia Sarwar case. Samia’s
parents had hired a man to kill her. She was murdered while she was in her
lawyer’s office. Her mother was present at the time, and was in fact
accompanying the killer. When the case went to court, her parents appeared as
her heirs. The Qisas and Diyat Ordinance allowed them to compromise. As
was expected, they forgave the murderer, whom in fact they had hired to kill
their daughter. Commenting on Subhashini Ali’s paper, she said that castes were
not necessarily religious. They are secular and material too, and are just as
airtight as a religious caste. She gave the example of several cases tried in
the Lahore High Court, where parents had killed their daughters on the pretext
that the people they had married were not ‘good enough’. In Saima Waheed’s case
Saima as well as the person she had chosen to marry were both Muslims. The only
difference was that he belonged to an economically less privileged class than
her father. Commenting on Nausheen Ahmed’s paper, Shaheen Sardar Ali added that
it had taken women activists over two decades to open a debate on a law that
has repeatedly been proved to be unjust. Yet, governments democratically
elected and otherwise have not repealed it. She concluded by posing the question of
whether we needed to rethink our advocacy in changing laws.
Discussion
Faqir Hussain opened the discussion by reflecting that
honor killings did not seem to have any particular creed or caste. He clarified
that the previous penal code allowed leniency for perpetrators of honor
killings, through the defense of sudden provocation. The Qisas and Diyat Ordinance,
however, had done away with this defense.
He argued that even when this defense was available, the Supreme Court
had consistently rejected it. This is contrary to Article 9 of the
constitution. This article protects the right to life. He asserted that there was now a consensus
among different sectors of the society that Hudood laws are unjust and have to
be repealed. It is now up to the parliament to debate and repeal these laws.
Commenting on Subhashini’s paper, a participant from
India pointed out that the Gujarat genocide was preceded by pamphleting and
rumor mongering about the abduction of women. Hindu-Muslim marriages were also
kept in check by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad. They had even stationed their
workers outside the marriage registrar’s office. He added that anti female bias
was prevalent in the subcontinent, China, and South Korea. For some reason
North Korea and the North Western parts of India are immune to it. Kiran Ahmed
(Pakistan) commented on Anjana’s paper and pointed out that it was important to
highlight voices of dissent. In the honor killing carried out in Sanghar,
mentioned in Anjana’s paper, an old lady had come forward to stop the mob. She
was suspected of colluding with the couple and had to have her head shaved off.
Anjana Raza added that the girl’s parents too had accepted the match. However,
the community wanted to punish the couple, and they carried out the
‘punishment’. In the context of Hadood ordinance, women parliamentarians had
agreed off the record, that the ordinance was unjust. However they could not
voice it, because their parties did not agree to it.
Mohammad Ayub Khan (Pakistan) raised a question about the
constitutional status of jirga and panchayat in Pakistan, and the
universal definition of honor. Shaheen Sardar Ali responded, that jirga and
panchayat do not have a legal position and are not reflected in any laws in
Pakistan. However, some kinds of its subverted forms are present in colonial
legislation. Foqia Sadiq Khan (Pakistan) disagreed with Faqir Hussain and
pointed out that the Qisas and Diyat Ordinance, allows parents to pardon
through exchange of money or otherwise. In cases of honor killings the extended
family is usually involved and the parents can be pressurized into pardoning
them. She gave the example of a case that a judge in Larkana had dealth with.
He said that a couple had come in saying they wanted to pardon the
perpetrators. However when he called aside the mother of the girl that had been
murdered, she burst into tears and revealed that she was being pressurized.
Farzana Bari (Pakistan) commented on Nausheen Ahmed’s
paper and said that that civil society in Pakistan was still in training and
had not been able to muster popular support. However the very fact that they
had been able to problematize and ‘controversialize’ Hudood laws, was a success
in itself. She said that it was necessary to highlight that Hudood laws were
unjust. However, the debate on whether they are Islamic or unIslamic should not
be given up. Otherwise the ‘arena’ of defining what is or is not Islamic is
something that will be left up to the religious clergy to define. Civil society
had to step in and assert itself in this.
n Report by Kiran Nazir Ahmed
Concurrent Session C-3
Enery Pricing in a De-regulated and Liberalized
Environment
Power Tariff Issues in Pakistan
Fahd Ali
Sustainable Development Policy Institute, Pakistan
Fahd Ali pointed out that WAPDA’s tariff/price
determination reflects less on its electricity production costs and more on its
efforts to bridge the gap in its balance of payments. Petitions filed by WAPDA
to the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) for tariff
enhancement basically aimed at making the authority meet its shortfalls
accruing mainly from mismanagement, debt obligations and distributions losses.
Since WAPDA’s tariff determination is not solely based on cost of services, it
always gives a distorted picture of WAPDA’s costs. The distortion in the prices
also arises due to the existence of cross subsidies among various sectors. For
example WAPDA’s commercial rates are higher than the domestic, industrial and
agricultural rates. Although, WAPDA’s intention behind cross subsidizing other
sectors are well meaning but cross subsidization hides the true cost of
providing the service. Any effort by the public interest organization to
calculate WPADA’s true cost of generation has shown dismal results. This has
happened because WAPDA does not share its technical and financial data with
public. The State institutions do not understand the importance of transparency
and being accountable to public for their actions. It is important that WAPDA,
and Private Power Infrastructure Board (PPIB) share their data and calculations
with public to bring transparency in their actions.
Electricity Pricing in India, Past and Present
Girish Sant, India
Giving a brief history of the power sector in India,
Girish Sant stated that policies in the last decades have failed to achieve
stated objectives. Power policies have become increasingly anti-poor and
household electrification rate has also shown a downfall in the past 10 years.
Quoting Professor Amulya Reddy, Indian power sector suffered from four crises,
capital crisis, performance crises, inequity crisis and lastly governance
crisis. To address these, the Indian government invited IPPs in 1990. Like in
Pakistan, these were invited without a competitive process, and tariffs were
decided behind closed door and through secret negotiations. This process was
changed in 1996 by institutionalizing competitive bidding process. However,
from 1992-96 various State governments in India signed 280 MoUs of 100000 MW.
Although, this capacity did not materialize into actual capacity, the number of
MoUs signed were way over than what India required at that time. Introduction
of IPPs generated considerable controversy since they were expensive and over
invoiced. Furthermore, the attempt to privatize power generation did not
address the root cause of poor performance of power sector in Pakistan. The
real issues were poor governance (management) or State utilities and
electricity boards and increasing transmission and distribution (T&D)
losses. Instead of concentrating on improving management of State electricity
boards, Government of India decided to invite IPPs. The IPPs have resulted in
higher tariffs, and enjoyed government guarantees on their investments.
Privatization with government guarantees mean nothing to general public, as
guarantees are provided at their expense. Similarly, other reforms aimed to
privatize the power sector have failed to meet the stated objectives. For
example, in Orissa, the World Bank expected that T&D losses would come down
to 20% after privatization but they have not as T&D losses are still at
their pre-privatization level. Outlining the future of power sector in Pakistan
he stated that the Electricity Act 2003 would bring in competition, unbundling
of State electricity utilities, privatization of distribution business, and
would allow large industries to purchase electricity directly from the
generators. The impacts of e-competition act is the segregation of society into
four sectors, large industry which will benefit most as their tariff would come
down tremendously, rural consumers will worst hit because tariff will rise
sharply, moreover quality of supple would go down. This would also force State
governments to shelve out subsidy to rural areas.
Energy Pricing of IPPs Projects in Pakistan
Mohammad Shabbir , Pakistan
Mohammad Shabbir elaborated the structure of power tariff
set for the IPPs by Private Power Infrastructure Board. He highlighted the
problems WAPDA was facing in paying huge amounts of money because of the
lucrative incentives promised in the 1994 power policy. He said that the
indexation of tariff with US dollar, inflation and continuous rise in fuel
prices have caused the power tariff to go up. He said that there is little hope
that power tariff would come down because IPPs would completely repay the loans
that they had taken for the investments. This, he stated, would be offset by
the rise in fuel prices and devaluation of rupee. He said that pricing
mechanism should be done keeping in mind our own socio-economic status. He also
stressed upon the need of revering the hydal –thermal balance in power
generation in favour of hydal power.
Pricing in the De-regulated Electricity Sector – The
Envisaged Market Framework in Pakistan
Hussain A. Babar , Pakistan
Stating the GoP’s motive to reform the power sector in
Pakistan, Hussain A. Babar said that inadequate service and poor financial
condition of the sector drove the reform process. The World Bank and the IMF
also contributed to it as they were interested in overall reformation and
restructuring of governance in Pakistan. The Strategic Plan of WAPDA in 1992,
set the framework for power sector reform in Pakistan, it allowed WAPDA to
undertake privatization of generation and unbundling of its distribution
business. The next stage in this reformation process was a direct order from
the Prime Minister to allow PEPCO to undertake restructuring of WAPDA. An
important process was the creation of a electricity regulator in 1997. Outlining the envisaged pricing and market
model for power sector in Pakistan, he stated that bilateral contracts with a
balancing mechanism such as a power exchange should be developed. Generators,
with contracts but not on the merit
order should be allowed to purchase energy from those on the merit order and supply
it to their counter party. Vertical integration between distribution and
generation should take place for better service delivery. NTDC with its merit
order may ensure that plant which has the least fuel cost is dispatched.
However, the success and sustainability of reforms should be backed by will to
lower tariffs, implementation of Strategic Plan in a well coordinated and
timely manner, microeconomic reforms to accompany macroeconomic reforms,
creation of a social net by properly identifying and delivering subsidies,
introduction of competitive international bidding for additions to generation
capacity and ensuring greater access to capital markets.
Comments
Manzar Qureshi, while discussing the four presentations said that the
problems highlighted were asking for development of power policy on integrated
resource planning, usage of least cost methods to find out feasible power
projects, and basing power tariff structure on socio-political structure of the
country. He also said that regulators should be made more independent, and
there should be participation from public not only in NEPRA hearings but also
in the decision making process.
n Report by Fahd Ali
Concluding Plenary
Addressing the concluding session,
former health minister, Shaheen Sardar Ali, deplored the wide gulf between
‘policy-making’ and ‘research and assessment’ in Pakistan. She gave examples of how policy-making has
faltered against government’s dutiful intentions lacking groundwork research.
She pointed out that since there was no assessment or
evaluation, there was a clear mismatch between plan on the paper and the ground
reality. She was visibly upset over how foreign donations were being squandered
away. She revealed the wastage of funds allocated for setting up 10,000 basic
health units in NWFP some 30 years ago. A survey revealed that only 22 percent
were functioning. Similarly, she
pointed out that in many rural health units, the allocations were expended in
salaries of the staff only, leaving too little for the patients. She informed
that foreign donors were pouring in millions of rupees for the anti-polio drive
that went well for a few years. After some time the success rate had fallen to
33 percent.
Shaheen sounded aggrieved over the utilization of FATA
seats in medical colleges. In all there were 119 seats but she found only three
students who came directly from FATA. The rest came from families who had moved
out of the tribal areas and were now amongst the elite living elsewhere.
Tariq Banuri, chairing the concluding session, emphasized
the need for motivating the community through interaction and the problem of
institutional culture that often tends to create an air of
anti-intellectualism. He said that institutional cultures needed to be taken
seriously since the normal universities are fraudulent and have not done much
research in public policy.
He discussed how the nature of political culture had
become weak for a number of reasons like the nature of politics –
institutionalized around feudal structures and slow parliamentary culture. He
raised some important questions of whether public policy existed and was there
any research in Pakistan?
n Report by Sarah Siddiq
Governance
essential for obtaining sustainable development, stresses RING
RING,
RAP and IIED Events
Without
addressing the all important question of governance,
no project or program whether it is funded by the European Union and its member
states or by any other institution can lead to sustainable development, and the
need to rethink poverty and its changing connotations by developing new and
simple indicators, was stressed at the conclusion of an intensive four-day
event, from 14 to 17 December, 2003, hosted by the Sustainable Development
Policy Institute (SDPI) held at Islamabad. The event included the Annual
Regional and International Networking Group (RING) meeting - a global alliance
of predominantly Southern independent research and policy organizations, during
which existing RING activities including the Adaptation to Climate Change, the
Southern Agenda on Trade and Environment, Trade and Standards and Civic
Entrepreneurship were shared with the RING members. The future emerging
initiatives including the input to UNEP GEO 4, Southern Perspectives on the
European Union’s Development Policies, Development Dimensions of the UN Global
Compact were also discussed at length. In the ten years since its inception,
the RING alliance has established a strong platform involved in a structured
program of collaborative research and policy advocacy with more than 15
countries and organizations from Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Chile, Iran,
England, Brazil, Senegal, UK, Pakistan and Canada.
The South Asian partners also came together for the
two-day European Union External Dimensions meeting to discuss the external
dimensions of the EU sustainable development strategy, and key policy
instruments and processes which shape the interaction of the EU with South Asia.
Through interactive discussions they discussed future policy debates, looked at
Sustainable Development (SD) policies within the
region and identified key issues for the region around the identified EU policy
areas including Trade, Poverty, Financing for Development and Natural Resource
Management to further
development of the SD strategy.
They
agreed that lack of money for development in South Asia was not the primary
problem, rather the immediate problem was proper, efficient use, management of
what is already there, since it was felt that increasing aid outlay without
reforming the aid industry would mean repeating the failure of the past 50
years, that is developing countries still remaining undeveloped and getting
poorer. It was felt that without the voices of the service delivery CBOs or
NGOs, constructive engagement between the three social solidarities of the
state, market and civil society would not occur, since without their input the
realities on the ground would remain in the shadows. Unitary solutions were
doomed to fail, one participant stressed. However, it was cautioned that while
the last 50 years had seen Northern aid promoting development only through
State bureaucracies, which were seen as corrupt in the 80s and 90s, the
pendulum had now swung in the opposite extreme by aid agencies bypassing
governments to reach NGOs and businesses, which were also ironically becoming
fronts for businesses and political parties, instead of catalysts for
change.
The members agreed that sustainable development was a
process and not a goal, and that SD policies should be human development
oriented and include environmental and social aspects, in addition to economic
growth, to address the needs of the extremely poor. It was emphasized that the
European Union needed to be sensitive towards the regional variations and take
on a more proactive role in the political and governance structures of each
country. Discussing Trade and Sustainable Development, the need to redefine
migration and immigration issues, link
the movement of labor with livelihood and poverty, in order to reduce the
pressure South Asian countries resources was underlined. Presenters also stated
their concerns that international conflict resolution processes need to be
included in sustainable development policies.
It was suggested that the European Union (EU) needed to
address the areas where it is currently harnessing the sustainable development
prospects of the Southern countries, namely: the impacts of the current
subsidies regime and exploring of hazardous wastes was both highlighted.
The EU can play a valuable role in the future by
intervening in international processes on issues such as trade and aid. At
national and regional levels in South Asia, the EU can also help to persuade
governments, the private sector and other donor agencies to create more space
for civil society involvement in the political process. It was proposed that
the EU should explore innovative mechanisms to support and fund those
government improvements through decentralizing its grant given by using trust
funds and other means to disburse small amounts of assistance to support
community-led processes.
The
sessions vividly brought out the need for more South-South and South-North
collaboration, aimed at improving environment and development policy
formulation processes, and increasing the regional and local impact of
organizations working on sustainable development issues.
SDPI’s Sustainable Development
Conference (SDC) series is another dimension of outreach to the general public
as well as policy makers where emphasis is placed on emerging sustainable
development issues in Pakistan. It is an important channel of policy advice where each session of the conference is
followed by a panel discussion consisting of representatives from the
government, community representatives, NGOs, and donor agencies.
First SDC
The first SDC,
titled The Green Economics Conference, was organized by SDPI in 1995.
This Conference focused on the interaction between economics and the
environment, and included research papers on trade, fiscal policy, EIAs, green
accounting, forestry, energy, industry and the urban environment.
Second SDC
The second SDC,
in 1996, addressed the broad theme of sustainable development including
pollution abatement, resource management, conservation of biodiversity, the
transfer and use of technology, trade and environment, human development and
poverty alleviation, and social capital and governance. The conference was
successful in highlighting key issues facing the country and bringing out the
latest thinking and analysis to identify solutions.
Third SDC
The theme of
the third conference was A Dialogue on Environment and Natural Resource
Conservation. The Conference, held in 1998, focused on stimulating a
dialogue on practical policy options for key environmental challenges facing
Pakistan. The two broad thematic areas of Urban Environment and Natural
Resources concentrated on urban pollution, water resource management,
deforestation and sustainable agriculture with presentations by experts from
within Pakistan and the South Asian region.
Fourth SDC
The Fourth
Sustainable Development Conference titled ‘Discourse on Human Security’ was
organised in collaboration with RCSS, ActionAid, IPRI and SNPO in 2000. It
focused on the changes and improvement in government policies and practice with
regard to human security. The conference was designed to raise awareness of
senior policy makers, key federal and provincial government officials and civil
society groups like the media and NGOs on security issues. The immediate
feedback from government, NGOs and media was extremely encouraging.
Fifth SDC
The fifth conference, held in 2002 and titled Sustainable
Development and Southern Realities: Past and Future in South Asia, critically
re-examined the conceptualization and implementation of sustainable development
in its multiple dimensions: economic, political, social, and moral. The
conference scrutinized and consolidated some of the ideas presented at the
World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, and resituated debates
in the South Asian context. The anthology of the Fifth SDC titled “Sustainable
Development and Southern Realities: Past and Future in South Asia” was
published by the City Press for the SDPI and launched on 11 December 2003 at
the inaugural of the Sixth SDC.
The overarching theme of the Sixth SDC was “Sustainable
Development: Bridging the Research/Policy Gaps in Southern Contexts”. It was
held from 11 to 13 December in Islamabad. The conference focused on the
problematique of knowledge production about southern contexts in the South. It
explored policy/research gaps in two directions: in some places policy needs to
be fed by better research while in others, policy needs to take better account
of existing solid research. It focused on the ways and means for translating
this knowledge into effective policy initiatives locally, nationally,
regionally and internationally by identifying the multiple gaps between
research and policies in different sectors.
Acknowledgements
The
Sustainable Development Policy Institute would like to acknowledge the
financial support of the following institutions for the 6th
Sustainable Development Conference: Norwegian Development Agency (NORAD); Swiss
Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC); Social Sciences Research Council
(SSRC); Heinrich Boll Foundation (HBL); Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES); The
Asia Foundation (TAF); South Asia Watch on Trade, Economics and Environment
(SAWTEE); International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED);
National Institute for Competence in Research (NCCR); the British Council; and
the Gender Equality Project (GEP) managed by the British Council and funded by
the Department for International Development (DFID).
State,
Book Launch
Sustainable Development and Southern Realities Past and
Future in South Asia
This anthology results not simply from a selected set of
SDPI conference papers but from a commitment to honor our friend and colleague,
the late Omar Asghar Khan. Omar’s outstanding contributions to sustainable
development and civil society in Pakistan are well known. We are all familiar
with his courageous, principled stands on social and environmental issues,
especially his support for the dispossessed, including the causes of labor,
shelter, women, deforestation, large dams, and education. In his own
words, “…the end for me is to see that
our socio-political structures are made more workable, made more just
economically and socially.” (personal
interview, 2000).
The idea of putting together an anthology in honor of
Omar Asghar Khan came soon after his untimely demise. Our challenge was to put
together a regional conference to debate many of the issues for which Omar had
created the space for debate and reflection through practical work at the
grassroots level and policy work at the government level. Omar continues to
live with us and through us because we share many of his ideals. While we
continue to feel the void of his presence in our everyday lives as well as at
critical junctures, Omar has not really died because his ways will continue to
provide inspiration to many who are concerned with economic and social justice.
In this regard, the SDPI Conference was a befitting
tribute and acknowledgement of Omar’s work as it explored the key questions:
Does sustainable development open up possibilities of meaningful change in
existing South Asian economic, political, and social structures? Many of the
papers assert that these realities do not always compete with each other, nor
are they contradictory. They demonstrate that despite its criticism,
sustainable development agendas have engaged everyone—policy-makers and
theorists—in all fields. This has led to the emergence of multidisciplinary
approaches in researching SD and the pursuit of multi-pronged strategies for
actualizing sustainable development. Such attempts have succeeded in some areas
and failed in others. Given this picture, can civil society in the South
negotiate the sustainable development paradigm to address the intersections of
structural violence and conflict-generated violence, even as we seek effective
initiatives to counter and survive this violence? How do we visualize
sustainable democracy in the light of our lived realities, even as we rethink
the linkages between development and trade?
This collection of essays, ranging from serious academic
writings to think pieces and transcribed presentations is not a standard
practice. However, we felt it was important to include voices even if they did
not strictly adhere to a predetermined cod for such work. Thus the book has two
major sections that address development issues from a Southern perspective.
Indeed, this is a common thread running through them.
The essays are divided into two broad themes. The first
concerns the environment sector specifically while the second focuses on broad
social policy issues emanating from within and outside the region.
Environmental issues are integral to the sustainable development agenda; as
such they cannot possibly be divorced from economics and politics. The
different subsections within this broad theme examine the environment poverty
nexus, and issues ranging from forest policy, water management to sustainable
industrial development and trade as well as the Southern concerns about
international environmental negotiations.
The second theme, captured in the second section of this
book, relates to broad social policy issues that impact the lives of people in
South Asia. This section examines the dynamics of globalization, poverty, and
their impacts on livelihoods, women, changing labor markets as well as the need
for conditions of peace and a change in the mindsets of people. Such a change
becomes critical if the violence that is part of South Asia’s everyday life and
that also has complementarities in the processes of globalization has to be
instituted. Without such changes and their complex interconnections,
sustainable development would remain a dream.
Ends