Daunting tasks ahead

PAKISTAN’S new prime minister, Bhutto loyalist Yousaf Raza Gilani, a former National Assembly speaker, has daunting tasks before him. He begins, however, with a strong mandate for his Pakistan People’s Party, which has wisely entered a coalition with Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League (N). Thus immediately the opportunity is there to short-circuit the bitter and damaging rivalry between these two parties, which historically has so disfigured and disrupted the country’s politics. This is a government of national unity at a time when, as never before, Pakistan’s politicians need to present a united front to terrorism. It therefore behooves Gilani to avoid a confrontation with President Pervez Musharraf at this time. Restoring the judges Musharraf fired, including Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, is an inevitable first step for the new premier. The return of the men who challenged the legitimacy of Musharraf’s presidential candidacy will be the final humiliation for the president whose own party was soundly beaten in the elections. But the country needs a working constitutional apparatus, even if it is imperfect. It is not the time to seek to drive Musharraf from office and alienate the armed forces. Gilani himself was jailed for five years by the military regime in their anti-corruption drive and probably entertains little liking for his head of state. PPP officials claim the charges were trumped up. That may be true. However, such has been the unenviable record of past governments of both the PPP and the Pakistan Muslim League that finding corrupt politicians was as easy as falling off the proverbial log.
The priority now for Gilani is to build a stable coalition administration, establish workable relations with the president and knuckle down to tackling the very real threat of terrorism and lawlessness in the north of the country. The solution is very far from being an exclusively military one. Pakistan has suffered for too long from a lack of government investment in education and health. Inefficiency, compounded by graft, has blighted both economic and social development, and these failures have fostered the anger and despair upon which hardened terrorists and religious bigots have fed. What is needed therefore is a radical reforming package that will remove the bureaucratic burdens that assail private business and, in so doing, create jobs along with infrastructural investment to fix transportation and ports. This will lay the foundation for the country to catch up with India which has surged ahead economically in recent years. Because Gilani is working with his party’s normal political rival, Nawaz Sharif, such reforms have a good chance of sticking because they will have widespread political backing. The new premier must also hold out the hand of reconciliation to the frontier tribes, who have long been left to their own devices or bribed to allow the likes of the national oil company to operate in their areas. They must be engaged in the making of a new and prosperous Pakistan and they need to see early evidence that such is happening, rather than the traditional payola and incompetence of their country’s politics.




Nuclear energy

DISPLAYING characteristic speed in translating vision into reality, the UAE Cabinet has already okayed a memorandum for the Emirates’ potential development of civilian nuclear energy. By allocating Dh375 million to oversee the programme’s implementation according to IAEA guidelines, the UAE takes the first step in the wider GCC initiative of leveraging nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. The step is yet another example of the UAE emerging as one of the world’s most forward-looking countries. Having first built on its natural endowments and appropriately drawn on its comparative advantage, the government went for successful economic diversification, all the time raising the profile of the grouping. With the economy growing and record number of nationalities finding it fruitful to partake in the UAE’s economic and social miracle in the heart of the desert, the government’s nuclear energy card reflects profound future planning in a conventional energy environment that presents reason for considerable concern just beyond the near future. Oil and gas are running into road blocks that threaten to slow down rising economies, which is why development of alternate sources of energy have been high on the agenda of most capitals concerned about keeping up their impressive growth figures. While the most environment friendly methods remain in the realm of the future, nuclear energy emerges as the safest and most viable bet, which is why it was only natural for the UAE to tap into its resource base sooner rather than later.
Of course, the nuclear option presents considerable demands in terms of waste management, as rightly debated by those concerned. Therefore, the most meticulous follow up of IAEA prescribed procedures will be necessary to ensure safety. Going by the UAE’s track record, all parties concerned are expressing understandable trust in the Emirates’ ability to meet the demands involved. Significantly, the UAE’s turning to nuclear energy will also set a much-needed example of sticking to rules and reaping benefits, a straight forward equation that is having trouble being employed elsewhere, becoming cause for unnecessary tension that is spilling over into other sectors, causing unwarranted political and financial worry in already trying times. It is for a good reason that the UAE has emerged from a desert transit to the most sought after business and tourist hub of the world in a matter of mere decades. The leaders’ commitment and vision have been rightly met with trust from all parties that seek to engage with this desert paradise. Like numerous other initiatives, the nuclear energy is also no doubt going to be followed by more impressive decision-making, taking the UAE farther on the road of enviable social, financial and political development.

—Khaleej Times