The experts unanimously demanded the government to recognize education as a basic right of citizens through constitutional amendments and declare education as a top national priority.
Speakers while giving a broad overview of situation of education in Pakistan with a particular focus on school-based budgeting, demanded that the provision of quality education has to be recognized by the state as a fundamental right of every child, and urged the citizens to join the civil society in forcing the government to spare enough resources in the coming budget to provide opportunities to each and every child for quality education. They lamented that no governments in the history of the country have so far fulfilled this responsibility, leading to the sad situation that nearly half of the population is illiterate, and country is graded way down with the least developed countries on the scale of human development urging someone must calculate the enormous opportunity costs the society has paid so far by not investing adequately in educating its youth. Speakers underlined that our constitution must say that getting education is a fundamental right of every child, obligating the state and political governments thereby to provide opportunities for quality education to each and every child of this nation. They recognized low budgetary allocation, questionable priorities, under-utilization of allocated resources, and lack of effective mechanisms to ensure transparency and accountability in education sector as the fundamental reasons behind critical situation of education in Pakistan. On setting right priorities, they sought increased governmental focus for ending existing gender disparities in education system adding that only eight institutions were meant for girls and women out of 42 institutions in 2008-09 under the federal government’s annual development program.
Analyzing strengths and weaknesses of federal budget 2009-10, the experts forecast a tough year ahead for the people and government of Pakistan.
While giving a detailed presentation covering the sectoral aspects of budget, speakers lamented that the coalition government has prepared the budget on harsh conditionalities of international monetary fund (IMF) while slashing the subsidies to power as well as ignoring the local context of country regarding poor socio-economic conditions and worsening law and order situation. On increase of external loans during June 2008 to March 2009, said it was asserted that only IMF debt increased from $1.34 billion to $4.39 billion during this period which accounts 78% of the total debt increase adding that subsequent debt servicing will put a further strain on our budget.
Speakers said that a quick analysis of the federal budget reveals that the fiscal year ahead would be tough both for the people as well as for the Government of Pakistan.
They said that the budgeted revenue collection target of 1.37 trillion for next year seemed a bit ambitious as hike in global fuel prices, deteriorating industrial growth, declining foreign direct investment, energy crisis, full scale war in NWFP, quasi war in Balochistan, and shadows of terrorism spreading all over the country would create serious difficulties. Referring to Tokyo pledges and Kerry Logger Bill, they said that there were many “ifs and buts” were involved in the process, and the contingency plan of going to IMF for a stand by facility of 4 billion dollars would not only be dangerous for shattering economy but add to the miseries of common masses. Speakers urged that it is about time that our policy makers should understand the importance of human security, which was a prerequisite to achieve national, regional and global securities. “Compromise at individual security is not only threatening the national security but the regional and global securities as well,” concluded a speaker.
Television Audience Measurement (TAM) faces a new challenge in Pakistan as the rural audiences overtake the urban, and advertisers or communicators must not overlook this reality for effective media campaigns and advertisements. Urban-based audience measurement can be highly misleading as less than one in four TV viewers live in top 10 cities. Citing the large scale nation-wide rural and urban media survey also known as ‘Gallup Pakistan National Establishment Survey‘, speakers said that the TV audiences in Pakistan have been dramatically ruralized in the last one decade.
It was further noted that our knowledge about “Ruralization of TV audience” brings us to the basics. There was no alternative to seeking media habits from samples of over 86 million TV viewers. They may be the “ordinary Pakistanis” but their meager household budgets add up and make rural Pakistan an attractive target market. We must constantly measure their viewing habits and not restrict our measurements to just a few cities, whose audience are prominent but not the real target market for advertisers advertising mass products. Indeed for what is most advertised on televisions, was Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCGs) the rural market in money value was much larger than the top cities. Talking of satellite television, they said that it still has to make its dispersion in rural areas. But even then, out of approximately 38 million satellite TV viewers in Pakistan, only 15 million live in the top 10 cities, the remaining 23 million are located either in small cities and towns (11 million) or villages (12 million) of Pakistan.
The researchers and politicians demanded the federation to end military operation in Balochistan, adopt political discourse to resolve the Balochistan-federation conflict by giving fiscal and administrative autonomy to its federating units. Urging the federal government to take immediate and sincere confidence building measures on key critical issues, and learn from international experiences for the resolution of this deep-rooted political conflict.
Sharing a detailed presentation involving conflict-generating history, consistent economic exploitation of the province by federation, details of five military operations and resistance movements, myth about anti-development sardars, the story of great game, and socio-developmental, economic, political, and opportunity costs to both federation and the province, urged the federation to act sincerely and immediately to resolve this conflict before it’s too late. Speakers lamented that Balochistan was the most resource-rich province of Pakistan coupled with high potential of portal value and transit site, but it continues to suffer with exceptionally low levels of development. Citing Pakistan’s alarming financial and energy situation and its negative impact on the nation as a whole, they said Pakistan was paying tremendous costs of this conflict while there was no trust worthy conflict resolution mechanisms existed in the country adding that people of Balochistan were again ready for dialogue with solid international guarantees as happens in the case of Pakistan when foreign powers resolve Pakistan’s political, economic and others issues. The current over-centralized federation and unequal treatment to its federating units involving one’s progress and prosperity over the cost of other will undermine the future prospects of the country.
Speakers said that IDPs returning to home have some serious concern and apprehension about their rehabilitation as consistent militancy and military operations have ruined their business, destroyed their houses, orchards and crops. Major difficulties now IDPs are facing is fear of high insecurity, brutal killing by Taliban’s and leadership of Taliban has not yet been captured. They appreciated and extended his gratitude to the host families who have opened their doors and houses to the IDPs. Without their generosity, hundreds of thousands of IDPs would have suffered a lot. While highlighting the issues faced by IDPs he said that most important is to ensure safety and security of the people returning to their areas of origin and also creating humanitarian space for organizations to extend support to the people in their areas of origin. Speakers recommended and demanded that government and humanitarian agencies should ensure active participation of local civil society and people in the rehabilitation process. Special plans should be chalked out for monsoon. People returning are in significant number to all parts of Buner and Swat. District functionaries should be in place to serve these people. The government and the aid agencies should plan for the needs of the people in upcoming Ramadan and winter. It is important to ensure that the root causes of the conflict are uprooted. Universal education and secure livelihood options should be adopted toward eliminating the causes of conflict.
Pakistan is poorly endowed with forests, covering 5.2% of the total landscape with 2.1 deforestation rate annually. The forest resources are not only important for the environmental services but carry immense importance for the local population for their livelihood.
Speakers gave a brief introduction of NCCR Pakistan Research Group, which is a partner of the Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research North-South (NCCR N-S), financially supported by Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), and Swiss universities. They further elaborated that major partner in Pakistan is SDPI, Islamabad. Associated organizations are Sustainable Development Foundation (SDF), Agricultural Universities of Faisalabad and Peshawar. Main partner in Switzerland is the Development Study Group, Zurich University (DSGZ).
They discussed that the omission of (immediate) economic and non-economic incentives are among the main factors contributing the ineffectiveness of participatory forest management in NWFP. They highlighted the issues of lack of trust and communication gap among stakeholders.
They said that a compact strategy should be developed for policy-dialogues to bridge the gap among stakeholders. In this context SDPI/NCCR is planning to hold a series of forest-policy dialogues to influence the policy makers and other stakeholders for sustainable forest governance. They emphasised that there is a need to integrate natural resource management initiatives with other livelihood related interventions. A systematic periodic external evaluation system should be adopted to ensure the proper implementation of forest reforms initiatives.
An expert said that forest department plans to implant 11,000 million saplings on August 18, which is the National Forest Day. They said this would beat the Indian record of 10,500 million saplings a day. They said that the government departments cannot perform this task alone and public participation will make the job possible. They criticized the dilemmas of the forest governance, which intends to keep forest away from the people whereas community participation is a must to meet the target. Without this, they said, we cannot achieve the task.
Experts said that our system is collapsing and there is a dire need to change the system. It is only designed for lobbies and for the people who get benefits from it. They said that we have a narrow tax base. If our economy is growing by 5% then tax should be generated 5%, if it is less than that its means the tax structure is failed. Speaker of the seminar said that we exempted agricultural sector from taxation. They further highlighted that the Government of Pakistan has put this tax as a provincial subject and provinces are very effectively exploiting it, and in Pakistan agriculture is used as a tax shelter, while 60% of the tax burden is on industrial sector. While criticizing the tax structure as lopsided, they elaborated that there are two types of taxes i.e. direct and indirect, but the ratio of direct and indirect tax is in adverse state. They pointed out that 80% of our tax revenue comes from indirect tax, while two-thirds from withholding taxes. An important fact which he brought into the notice that the richest 10% people are paying 20% of the tax while poorest 10% are paying 16% of the tax, means poorest are supporting the richest.
Experts said that the taxation system in Pakistan has always been highly regressive and anti-poor. They further elaborated that no government has ever been willing to enforce direct tax on the rich, and therefore revenues are always generated by indirectly taxing the poor. They said that in any case the vast majority of productive activity in the economy takes place informally and the government does not have adequate statistics or information.
The rapid increase of mobile phone penetration in Pakistan during the past decade is insufficient to enable rural women’s access to telecommunication. Rather than availability of network coverage and mobile phones alone, socio-cultural factors need to be considered to ensure that the potential of information and telecommunication technologies (ICTs) reach female users in rural areas and contribute to their empowerment. Speakers emphasized that the government should not neglect ‘old’ ICTs such as radio and TV in its efforts to harness the potential of ICTs for greater gender equality. According to her research results, these technologies are more accessible for female users, e.g. in terms of the permission required for their use and the necessary language skills. Expert presented their views in a seminar on “ICTs for women’s empowerment – learning from best practices”. They provided examples from Pakistan and around the globe of how ICTs have contributed to women’s empowerment in areas as diverse as business promotion, education as well as water and sanitation. Speakers concluded the meeting by emphasizing ICTs’ huge potential to transform the economy throughout the world. They said that women as half of the population cannot be neglected in the country’s progress. They see the Universal Service Fund used by the Government to extend ICT services to rural areas as an effective tool to reach out to women also.
Carbon emission due to anthropogenic activities is adversely affecting all aspects of life ranging from food security, water, energy, economic growth, trade, weather, public health, urbanization and agriculture. Experts informed that 15 per cent of world population accounted for half of CO2 emissions and the stabilization cost for this emission from 2009 to 2030 was estimated to be 1.6 per cent of the GDP, which was less than two-thirds of the global military spending. Speakers emphasized that “Multilateral negotiations on climate change would be as political as technical in nature.” They stressed that the government should not only start broader consultation to devise Pakistan’s strategy for Copenhagen but should also take parliament into confidence. Speakers said that it is the duty of developed world to provide not only the technical solution but also financial support for the messy situation in pursuit of blind economic growth. Experts further elaborated that equity in climate change is about eliminating all climate change differences so that everyone has the same opportunities. They highlighted the importance of civil society networks around climate change and said through track-two diplomacy procedure civil society organizations may help bridge the gaps among governments of developing countries.
The importance of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to economic development has been recognized widely during the last decade. The so-called digital divide challenges the development promises made by the significant growth of ICTs. The ‘digital divide’ refers to the drastic differences in levels of ICT access between different population groups. A significant but largely unrecognized aspect of the digital divide is the gap in access to and use of ICTs between women and men, girls and boys. The experts elaborated that the hurdles faced by women and girls include negative perceptions of their technological skills. A large majority of respondents strongly agreed with the statement that ‘Men have a natural advantage in the use of technologies’. Sadly, female respondents have an even more negative perception of their own technological abilities than have male interviewees. Apart from the low regard of women’s skill to use technologies, some ICTs themselves have a bad image. While several interviewees see some TV channels as promoting vulgarity, mobile phones are regarded as dangerous in girls’ hands, in particular. They highlighted that cultural norms may also represent an obstacle in the Government’s efforts to provide affordable access to ICTs to the rural population through telecommunication centers. They said that apart from the (e-) literacy issues involved in making telecommunication, computers and internet useful for women and girls in rural areas, they usually cannot move freely outside the home.
Speakers of the seminar rejected the self-governance order issued by the Federal Government as “an eyewash” others considered it “a step forward” in attaining the longstanding demand of the two million people of the strategically important region for self-rule. They stressed on the need for giving a true democratic system to the people of Northern Areas by giving all powers to their elected representatives and officials, nominated or appointed by them, such as the Government of Azad Kashmir. They pointed out that Gilgit-Baltistan was a disputed territory and not part of Pakistan. They observed that the package would increase the sense of deprivation prevailing among the people of the region. Speakers criticized Kashmiri leadership from both sides of the Line of Control for declaring Gilgit-Baltistan as part of the Himalayan state and opposing any democratic and constitutional rights for the people of the region. They pointed out that though Gilgit-Baltistan being a disputed region has a link with the Kashmir issue, yet historically, culturally and geographically, Gilgit-Baltistan had never been part of Kashmir. Describing the package as ‘old wine in a new bottle’, they demanded an independent and constitutionally protected governance system for the region.
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