Approval of 23 mega projects

A MEETING of Ecnec, chaired by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, has approved 14 new development projects costing Rs 69 billion and nine revised schemes involving an expenditure of Rs 47.5 billion in agriculture, energy, science and technology, water, transport environment, higher education and culture sectors. The Prime Minister has informed the Ecnec meeting that a record number of uplift schemes, with special emphasis on energy sector, have been approved during the last three years, a booklet on which is also being published for distribution. He argued that the frequency of Ecnec meetings, held over the past three years, testified to the government’s resolve to cut down delays in approval of the uplift projects, which he claimed had resulted in speedier development activities in the country. At a press briefing later, the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, Dr Akram Shaikh informed media representatives that 45 projects were approved at the last Ecnec session, while the number of uplift schemes approved in just two months ie September and October stood at 68. He disclosed that as many as 632 projects worth Rs 2.36 trillion had been approved in the last eight years, including 394 in infrastructure sector and 200 in social and other sectors. Meanwhile, in a crucial move the government is planning to enhance nuclear energy’s share in the overall energy mix by increasing production of nuclear energy to 8,800 megawatts. In this connection, Ecnec has approved two projects, ie Chemical Processing Plant (CPP) and Nuclear Fuel Enrichment Plant (NFEP). Other uplift schemes approved in the energy sector include oil and gas exploration in Balochistan and the Chashma hydropower project. Ecnec has also approved a social sector uplift project which aims at providing higher education opportunities to students of backward regions like Balochistan and Fata, with the offer of 2,000 scholarships at school, college and university levels. Sixty percent of the scholarships will be for Balochistan and 40 percent will be for Fata. In addition, 10 new engineering universities, with one at Islamabad, will also be set up in the country. As the Prime Minister declared at the Ecnec meeting, the present government has indeed approved a record number of uplift schemes, particularly in the infrastructure sector.
Approval of as many as 68 mega projects in just two months would constitute a record of sorts. However, what is more important is their timely execution, in which we have woefully lagged behind. In August this year the Central Development Working Party (CDWP) had approved 38 projects worth Rs 72.1 billion, with a foreign exchange component of Rs 17.1 billion. (Twenty-one of these projects had to be referred to Ecnec for approval, as the cost of each was more than Rs 500 million). Again, in May this year CDWP had approved 39 projects, including 26 in the infrastructure sector, valued at Rs 8.5 billion, six in social sector at a cost of Rs 1.4 billion, and seven in science and technology and other sectors, costing Rs 1.8 billion. These are some of the recent projects that have been approved by the government. Incidentally, a related feature of project execution in the country has been the hefty cost overruns sustained from time to time, largely because of delayed implementation. For instance, in August last year, the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission had announced blanket cost overruns of eight projects amounting to Rs 21 billion. A major cause of delayed execution of projects in the country is said to have been late release of funds. Timely release of funds is of critical importance for scheduled and smooth completion of projects. Yet another factor that has often vitiated project execution has been the lack of uniform pace of implementation, with the fag end of the year often witnessing breakneck speed, which has invariably resulted in substandard construction.

NATO in Afghanistan

Though NATO has agreed this week to send more military personnel to Afghanistan for the all-important task of training Afghan Army and police to take responsibility for security, there is no getting away from the hard truth that there is still inadequate commitment of military resources to help with the fighting against Taleban and Al-Qaeda elements in the south, particularly Helmand province. Nine nations including France and Germany, both of which already have troops in quiet areas, offered to send training personnel. But both these countries along with others such as Italy and Spain committed to the UN-mandated International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) have limited their involvement to avoid participation in much of the fighting. The Americans who, apart from their own 7,000 troops in ISAF, have around the same number involved in an isolated action along the Pakistan border, had been pressing for other NATO countries to do their “fair share” in operations against the Taleban. The problem is that those states, including Canada, the Netherlands and the UK which have been playing a high-profile role in the conflict, have increasingly restless publics back home. There is, for instance, considerable pressure in Holland for the Dutch contingent to be withdrawn. Part of the problem is that some NATO countries see this as Washington’s war and are reluctant to be drawn into a conflict which has, as yet, still weak echoes of the US disaster in Iraq. It is easy to understand their fears but Afghanistan is not Iraq. For a start, the majority of Afghans welcome the international assistance which was called for by the democratically elected administration of Hamid Karzai.
This is not, however, to say that there can ever be a military solution to the Taleban insurgency. The British in the 19th century, the Russians in the 20th and the Taleban itself at the start of this century all learned to their high cost that a determined guerrilla enemy can never be defeated in detail. The only reason that foreign troops are on Afghan soil is to aid and protect the country while it is rebuilt. By deploying sufficient military force to contain Taleban fighters, the opportunity can also be created for the start of dialogue with them. For, in the end, it is only by dialogue that the conflict will be ended. The fact that the Taleban have been able to gain in strength and daring, so that now the suicide bomber has come to the capital Kabul, has been because NATO has insufficient military resources to limit their activities to their mountain strongholds. Without stability, many of the promised infrastructural projects in the south of the country cannot get under way. That means that large part of the tens of millions of dollars that countries pledged at Bonn in December 2001 when the interim government was agreed, cannot be called upon. Without all that aid and then further generous subventions, all Afghans face an uncertain future. The current instability in Pashtun areas must not be an excuse not to pay up.

—Arab News