Where are the dynamic Pakistani revolutionaries? Transform the land!

The founding fathers of Pakistan worked hard to build institutions and create a country out of nothing. They were great men and women. The Pakistani spirit is well and alive and displayed during the last earthquake. Leaders have to galvanize the population and break the bondage of poverty.

The media is throwing soft balls at the government and focusing on minutia. An illiterate and emotional population swayed by bigots are looking at the wrong issues.

The PPP was known for its dynamic policies and revolutionaries. The founder of the PPP had a playbook al ready before he took office. One day after he was in charge of Islamabad he created an agenda for the country--labor reforms, student reforms, land reforms, pharmaceutical reforms...attempts were made to change things. Some of the attempts were failures--because the establishment of the time did not allow the announced changes to happen. However the attempt was made to reduce land holdings and bring education and electrification to the villages. Dr. Mubbashir Hasan was 3 decades ahead of his time where he announced "Generic medicines" for Pakistan and he tried for force the multinational companies to sell much cheaper generic drugs to the Pakistan population. His plan was resisted tooth and nail and eventually abandoned by General Zia ul Haq. Today American Medicare and other HMO plans force consumers to use generic drugs and allow brand names only if the generic version is not available.

Generic drugs is one such example. There were other issues that the PPP of the time wanted or tried to tackle. Women's issues, and the preservation of Pakistani boundaries, Nuclear power as well as the plans to export a huge number of Pakistanis to the Gulf. The export of Pakistani labor was a huge success, and Pakistan earns Billions of Dollars in foreign exchange which adds to the GNP of the country and allows it to build foreign exchange reserves. Of course it reduces unemployment in the country also.

The PPP of the seventies was a school of firebrand revolutionaries who tried to improve things. Today's PPP are a bunch of self-centered bureacrats that only are there to get power. For them power is the source of profits. The revolutionaries and sometimes failed. Thier industrial policy is perceived to be a colossal failure, however people forget that it was Z.A> Bhutto that was able to get Pakistan her first steel mill. Getting a steel mill was lile getting nuclear technology in the 60s. The Industrialized countries did not want to transfer the technology to Pakistan and other countries. Steel is part of the basic infrastructure of industrialization. Once the steel mill with Russian help was set up, it never ran on a profit. However profit was not the point. With the steel mill Pakistan could produce Sugar mills (now a perk for all incoming Senators and Members of National Assembly), Nuclear centrifuges, missile bodies, fuel tanks, tanks and planes. Mr. Bhutto tried to nationalize the basic industries of the country so that the financial institutions could bankroll the basic infrastructure of the country. The creativity of Agha Hasan Abidi was unleashed and this helped the government of Pakistan to build the Nuclear bomb. The patriotism of the Gokhals was syndicated in providing cover for Pakistani nuclear parts. Bhutto also created the Pakistan National Shipping corporation and bought 40 ships for the country. These ships could then be used to move sensitive Pakistani materials throughout the world without intrusive eyes examining the bill of lading. The Pakistan National Shipping Corporation is a skeleton of its former self and Pakistan loses valuable revenue by using ships of foreign flags. Most importantly the Pakistan Navy is unable to bank on Pakistan Merchant Marine ships to help them in time of war. 

The hundred day of the new PPP can be defined as lame, lackluster and dim. How was ZAB able to recruit the revolutionaries with great ideas?

Today's political leaders are dwarfs, too busy discussing ways to get and keep power.

During the past 100 days no major legislation has been passed by the National Assembly or Senate of Pakistan. There are tremendous needs. The issues discussed on GEO and ARY are not and should not be the national priorities. GEO is wrong, dead wrong. Restoration of judges will not reduce prices. A long term and ongoing reevaluation and improvement of the entire judicial system will provide justice to the common man which will help the country's institutions. GEOs message is simply political pandering for Mr. Nawaz Sharif's friend Mr. Iftikhar Chaoudhry. Mr. Hamid Mir and Mr. Ayaz Mir are opoen supporters of the Sharif brothers. Their bias is clear in Mr. Hamid Mir's commentaries in national newspapers.

1) A women's emancipation bill needs to be passed by the National Assembly that clearly defines victims in rape cases.

2) Deep and profound judicial reforms (not just a political farce-focusing on restoration of judiciary) need to be implemented. Pakistan needs 1000 small claim courts so that justice can be provided to the poor and rich in a matter or days on matters dealing with civil issues. Pakistan needs 100 new High courts so that the waiting time for plaintiffs is eliminated and "justice delayed, justice denied" is not adhered to. No one is interested in real reforms of the judiciary. Even the vice president and the president of the Tehrik e Insaaf has been unable to grasp the problems with the judiciary. The TI, a one trick pony like the PML keeps on repeating the Iftikhar Chaudhry mantra, but does not present any new idea son fixing judicial issues for the masses. We are not talking about the political basketball called "restoration of judges" which gives sanctity to those judges that signed one illegal PCO but did not sign the second one. It was politically expedient for the politicians from across the political spectrum to agree to the first PCO. Imran Khan, the PMLN, the PMLQ, the JI, the JUI all had no problems with Chaudhry Wajihudding resigning and Mr. Iftikhar Chaudhry accepting the military ruler as the legal president of Pakistan. The second illegal PCO was a huge problem for these same politicians because they did not have their hand in the "tilly."

3) Pakistan needs structural reforms in agriculture to raise the per hectre yields. High quality seeds, fertilizer, tractors and combine harvesters could totally revolutionize agriculture and become a export powerhouse. A lot of agricultural products are lost in the supply chain from the field to the supermarket creating food shortages and increase in prices. According to some estimates more than 50% of Pakistani agricultural goods are lost in the archaic Indus Valley era supply chain. Refrigerated cargo trucks could ship vegetables and fruits to refrigerated ships to their destinations in Europe and American. Pakistan could ship roses, and flowers kept at almost zero degree temperature and get Billions of Dollars during Valentines Day.

Just the GCC buys more than $200 billion of agricultural products from Denmark and Europe. Pakistan is the 4th largest producer of milk. It should be inundating the gulf with Pakistani milk and dairy products and halal meat form Pakistani farms.

4) Pakistan population control has to be dealt with in a big way. If the growth rate of the population is halted to reversed, Pakistan would not need less schools, fewer hospitals and the nation would consume less energy. Theoretically Pakistan could actually reduce its population if everyone adhered to the one child rule. China has done it very successfully. This is the quickest way to improve the per capita GNP and it costs nothing--only education. Pakistanis have the equipment to produce kids, they also have the technology not to.

5) If one could travel from Karachi to Pindi in 5 hours, what would this do to the economy of Pakistan? Agricultural goods could be exported instantly, and the congestion on the roads would be reduced dramatically. People could travel with ease. Cost? About $2 Billion. the ROI on this would be very short. Mr. Sharif is the only politicians who has talked about this for decades, and done nothing to make it happen. Pakistan's Rail system has to be linked up to the world. Its pathetic situation cannot be improved by simply renaming old trains and taking credit for the new ones. Pakistan has had the technology to build railway tracks. It has had this technology for 40 years. There is no excuse not to have all major cities linked dup by double tracks and built on international bot old British guages..

6) Pakistan had the technology to build roads for 4 decades. The roads should be built to all nooks and corners. Though much has been said about freeways, a lot of them are on paper only and the network should be ring roads around the entire country.

7) Baluchistan is Pakistan's largest province, and only a fraction of the province is used. All government land in the province should be opened up to settlers of Pakistani origin who have Pakistani citizenship. Top priority should be given to the Baluch. LIke the wild wild west of America, the land should be given to all those who can stake it out and promise to live on the land in the harshest conditions. Those who cannot make it must forfeit the land back to the government. Millions will pour into the province from Punjab Sindh and elsewhere and build the province. Canals will be dug, underground water found and desalination plants running on solar and wind energy will be making life in the 22nd century easier for the new settlers.

8) The army should be thrown out of the Somiani and gidiani beaches to make room for the Pakistani Riviera. The Mexicans looked at the Caribbean tourist industry and created the Mexican Riviera from scratch. Today Cancun and other areas get the Mexicans billions of tourist Dolalrs. The Somiani and Gidiani beaches offer white sand, a warm climate and hat visitrs crave most--a peek at historical places.

Mexcio has taken old dilapidated ruins from the 12 century , and rebuilt them, amalgamating fact and fiction to crate amusement parks that are traps for tourists to lose their Dollars, Yens and Deutshe Marks. Spain Spain the progenitor of the Spanish Inquisition uses the Muslim Al Hambra to seduce Germans and Brits eager to throw their money for guided tours of Islamic Spain.

Arab torusists take cruses from Dubai. These ships could dock at secure locations around Somiani beach where a plethora of Club Meds would await them to suck their dolalrs, provide them with sun, solace, massages, and swimming in the Arabian sea. Secure buses would then take them to Moenjadaro, Mehergarh and even Harappa. All these ruins will need a thorough upgrades with theme parks, water parks and rings of 5 star hotels around them. No one wants to see ruins. People want to buy the story. The story has to be created and then sold Pakistan has a good story--Buddhism, Sikhism, Hindusim, IVC, Gandghara Civilization, islamic architecture. What more could a country ask for. Mexico makes billions from small recreated pyramids that are not that old. But they have a story to sell, and they sell it well. The Jamaicans, and the Bahamans simply lay back and relax, while millions come to their island and spend money. Pakistan has the highest ski mountains, the most rugged deserts for "extreme sports", and the sun to give any tourist the best tan that they can dream of.

9) It does not take a lot of technology to build a hospital. One needs a building, equipment that is freely available in the market, and it takes a legion of good doctors of which we have a large supply of. Medical tourism would pay for itself in less than you could say "money". Pakistani hospitals and health centers could be built in exotic locations on the K2, and in the middle of the desert.

Medical tourists would come in for cardiac tune ups or weight loss programs. India is already providing these type of services to many. Pakistan can set up deals with the airlines for Orthodontic services and a summer vacation cruise. Orthodontic services in the USA cost about $5000. For half amount, "toursits" could come get their teeth done and also enjoy a summer camp experience in a secure village--living like they used to live 5000 years ago> Obese Americans would pay to lose weight in a village! One could imagine hundreds of these hospital-hotels from Karachi to Gwadar along the beaches.

What is Agha Khan hospital waiting for. He should have duplicated the Agha Khan Hospital in Karachi a hundred times by now. Baqai and Ziuddin hospitals should be hooking up with Sarena and Morvinpick to build clinics galore.

10) Pakistan offers the ethnic diversity and "virgin" able bodies for clinical trials for American, Swiss and European pharmaceutical industries. India is making Billions of Dollars on providing "clinical trials". Pakistanis could easily earn that type of money.

....to be continued