S Rahman -- Thursday, August 16, 2012 -- Source
August is the month of Pakistan’s independence. This August, the nation is lucky enough to see independence once again and this independence is not the traditional one but independence from inaction, courtesy the iron resolve of PPP-led government that is now fully determined to do away with all the crises and chaos including the Balochistan problem.
Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf in particular is to be credited for these endeavours that he and his team are undertaking with full speed and devotion, trying every solution to end the crises of sorts without taking respite for a single moment.
And, as is known to everyone in the country, the driving force behind is President Asif Ali Zardari, whose indefatigable spirit enables more and more solutions to even the difficult-most problems. In this area that is political troubleshooting, the president has surpassed many seasoned politicians and statesmen.
The soft- and -successful- handling of issues like that of constitutional amendments, NFC Award and consensus Chief Election Commissioner owe a lot to his farsightedness and more so to his policy of reconciliation. Even in the case of Balochistan, President Zardari did not hesitate for a while in seeking pardon from the angry Baloch brethren although he was not responsible for the grievances of Baloch people. Now, once again, PPP regime has taken up this challenge quite vigorously and the government is serious about assuaging the resentments of even the most offended Baloch leaders including those staying abroad and hurling anti-Pakistan threats from there. Interior Minister Rehman Malik is also on record having offered amnesty and travel arrangements with honour and comfort to the angry Baloch leaders placed outside the country.
The cabinet committee on Balochistan, headed by Syed Naveed Qamar and which also includes Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira has been assigned the task of finding more and more solutions and, above all, on ascertaining the reasons as to why the resentments are still high despite many an effort undertaken by the government to resolve the Baloch’s problems. Focus is on taking all the stakeholders on board. Yes, they mean to take all of them on board, even those who have raised slogans (and movements) of an independent Balochistan. This is in itself a commendable effort. Yet more commendable is the realistic approach of members of the Balochistan cabinet committee, which has no complexes and no false hopes. Its mission is achieving the target of a peaceful and prosperous Balochistan through sustained efforts. These members are on record, having admitted that the problem requires more and more discussions and action plans on a war-footing. So, it brings us to the conclusion that the government is not going to relax for a moment on the Balochistan issue.
People are also happy that full attention is now being given to energy crisis and revitalization of bigger utilities like Steel Mills, Railways, PIA and Discos (electricity distribution companies) etc etc.
The other day, after the federal cabinet announced a highly substantial bailout package for Pakistan Steel Mills, the Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf went all along to the Steel Mills to the utmost satisfaction of hard-working and devoted workers and engineers of the Mills. He is the second elected PM to have paid a visit there, after former PM Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Shaheed. And there and then, he made announcements, in addition to the cabinet’s already announced bailout package. On the spot, the PM announced Rs2 billion as immediate relief in salaries and other necessary payments to be followed by another one billion indexing the latter chunk with better performance.
Stress is on performance and on action with faith and hope. And in order to instil this faith and hope, the prime minister, is always moving places to be present on the spot and encourage the working class besides sharing their views and resolving their problems without any lengthy or cumbersome rigmaroles.
A similar endeavour brought more solace to the people. It was PM’s visit to Thar Coal project where serious work is in full swing under the supervision of one of our enlightened most scientists Dr Samar Mubarakmand. The project has a number of sites. The site being looked after by our national scientist can generate both the electricity and gas and according to some estimates, even generation of 10,000MW electric power is possible in foreseeable future.
Water supply arrangements, airport, roads, buildings and equipment installation have been done with the seriousness of purpose. Not only that, work on wind power projects is also going on at good pace.
The other day, Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, who also has quite an insight into water and power systems (as he has been the Minister-incharge), went to Neelum Jhelum hydro project site. That project is also going to bring lot of relief with the generation of 900 plus megawatts of electricity. Mangla Dam upraising also promises lot of prospects so is the case with other medium scale hydel projects like Kurram Tungi Dam.
The government has also done good diplomacy and managed 280 million dollars from US for meeting energy crisis. Apart from that the solar power projects are now in the pipeline. One such project is now likely to be installed with the capacity of more than 300 megawatts. Agreement with foreign collaborators has already been signed. And as a goodwill gesture towards Balochistan, the government has selected a site inside that province to launch that solar power project.
That day is not far away when the nation would be rid of energy crises of such a huge scale and when the nation would also be rid of anti-democracy conspiracies the like of which we have been experiencing before the unanimously appointed CEC and unanimously adopted constitutional amendments.