Thursday, March 06, 2014
Revival of railways
THE government plans to modernise the run-down railway tracks and almost non-existent signal system at a cost of Rs4bn with the help of China. So said Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique while speaking at a labour rally in Rawalpindi on Tuesday. Sound like a puny response to a mammoth problem? It is. Pakistan Railways is in ruins. Instead of building on the infrastructure left behind by the colonial rulers at the time of independence, successive governments have contributed their bit to its destruction. The slide has been expedited since the emergence on the scene of the National Logistics Cell (NLC), a military-run commercial transport company. The NLC snatched the entire freight business from the railways a long time ago.
But that is just a small part of the story. Decades of political interference, bureaucratic lethargy, mismanagement, corruption, theft and overstaffing have contributed more to its collapse than competition from the NLC. Its rolling stock continues to rot and other infrastructure — tracks, signals, bridges, etc — is aging and becoming unsafe for travellers because of years of neglect. Its passenger trains are suffering unsustainable losses and its freight and cargo operations have come to a halt. Only four freight and cargo trains now run between Lahore and Karachi a week. One is deployed to carry goods to and from Wagah-Attari once a week.
Successive governments have implemented different ‘rehabilitation and revival’ plans to make the railways profitable over the last several years. But none has yielded results. The present government is no exception. It also has formulated a ‘rehabilitation’ plan that envisages to spend a hefty Rs143bn for its ‘gradual revival’ by repairing existing locomotives and adding new ones to the stock, replacing the weak and aging tracks, rebuilding the bridges and installing a new signal system. (There have been no signals along the entire length of the railway track in the interior of Sindh since the riots following Benazir Bhutto’s assassination in December 2007.) Though it has taken some measures to slightly boost the company’s revenues from passenger traffic, it lacks the focus and cash required to turn it around. Indeed, it’s not an easy job to turn the railways around. Yet it isn’t impossible either and can be pulled off by leveraging its own huge wealth that is locked away in expensive properties and real estate across the country and is being used by land grabbers for profit in connivance with the railways authorities. All the policymakers need is political will to implement a credible plan to restructure the company on corporate business lines run by a professional management under the supervision of an independent board free from political and bureaucratic influence. Without reviving the railways, the dream of turning Pakistan into a regional trade hub or corridor cannot be realised.
Silent epidemic
SINCE at least the 1980s, Pakistan has been grappling with the menace of drug addiction. But a recently released report illustrates just how grim the situation actually is. According to Drug Use in Pakistan 2013, compiled by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime and Pakistan’s ministry of interior and narcotics control authorities, 4.25 million Pakistanis are “drug dependent”. While cannabis is the most commonly used drug, there are over a million opiate users in the country. What is more, the report points out that the abuse of prescription drugs is common, especially amongst women. Though we have been aware of our drug problem for several decades, this is perhaps the most comprehensive effort to portray the depth of the problem, as well as suggest its solutions. Partly geography and partly negligence are to blame for the silent epidemic of drug addiction in Pakistan. The UNODC estimates that 40pc of drugs produced in Afghanistan (heroin and charas) are routed through Pakistan; while most of this supply is meant for onward ‘export’, a significant amount finds its way onto the Pakistani street, especially in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Another issue that needs attention is that acetic anhydride, a chemical used legally in the textile industry, is also used to convert morphine into heroin and has been known to illegally be diverted to manufacture narcotics.
The data contained in the report must be used by the state to thrash out a comprehensive policy that addresses the smuggling of illicit drugs into Pakistan as well as their onward trafficking. Meanwhile, much greater effort needs to be made to rehabilitate addicts. Islamabad must take up the issue of drug smuggling with Kabul while internally, there must be greater vigilance of trafficking routes, especially in Balochistan and KP. Considering the scope of the problem, the rehabilitation infrastructure is wholly inadequate to cope with the number of drug-dependent persons. The UN report points out that treatment facilities exist for a mere 30,000 people. It adds that 76pc of opiate users wished to get clean, but lack access to centres or do not have enough funds to get help. More facilities are needed, especially in the public sphere, to help those who want to kick the habit.
Theatre for hope
SPRING is in the air and if hope is to be found, we have only to turn towards the spate of cultural festivities that have lifted moods over recent weeks. Literature and Sindhi culture have been celebrated and Tuesday saw the kick-off of the over three-week-long international theatre festival put up by Karachi’s National Academy of the Performing Arts. The feat in the process of being pulled off is no mean one, given both the fact that traditionally it was Lahore that was considered the hub of culture and performing arts activities, and the nightmarish security situation that prevails in general in the port city. Supported by the Karachi Youth Initiative, the Napa festival showcases theatre and dance work by its own students, graduates and the Napa Repertory Theatre, while audience interest has been heightened with the participation of theatre groups from Nepal, England, Germany and India. Also performing are Tehrik-e-Niswan and Ajoka Theatre, who were amongst the stalwarts that kept theatre in Pakistan going during its darkest period. Performances specifically for children are a plus point. The diversity of the work on offer is commendable, as is the spirit that appears to be establishing Karachi as a centre for culture.
There is a lesson to be learned here, one that the state has taken a long time recognising. Theatre in Pakistan, particularly in Karachi, spent decades on the fringes, kept alive only by the efforts of a few dedicated groups and individuals. The one large-scale effort that promised to put the country on the theatre world’s map, the Rafi Peer Theatre Workshop’s once annual international festival in Lahore, ceased several years ago because of both security concerns and the lack of governmental support. Napa, however, promises to be the catalyst that turns the performing arts in Karachi, hitherto considered a hobby, into a profession. This has been possible because of the support afforded to it by the state. The argument is an old one, and can easily be replicated in other spheres: if you build it, they will come.