Corridor hype

Those who scripted the PTI-PAT dharna of 2014 could not have foreseen the collateral damage it would inflict on Pakistan’s growing economic cooperation with China.
If the scriptwriters’ projection of over t200,000 protesters had come true, the Sharif order would have been paralysed and the umpire’s finger gone up. As a consequence, a technocrat prime minister would probably have welcomed the Chinese president in Islamabad.
Life never being that simple, the sit-in got prolonged and Islamabad looked like a besieged city. The umpire’s finger did not move but Xi Jinping’s Pakistan visit got postponed. The government blamed Imran and Qadri for hurting our friendship with China as well as the nation’s vital economic interests. The ambitious plan to rid the country of loadshedding with China’s help was delayed by several months.
The recent visit to Pakistan by the Chinese president was successful by all accounts. The rattling in Indian media over agreements for massive Chinese investment reinforced the sense of achievement in Pakistan. If the visit was negative in Indian perception then in subcontinental power games, it should by inference be good for Pakistan. But the visit did have a not-so-glorious aspect in so far as it was confined to the capital city.
Altaf Bhai may be mistaken in taking a dig at the federal government by claiming that the visit was not to Pakistan but only to Punjab. Is he not aware that administratively, Islamabad is no longer a part of Punjab? How could President Xi visit Punjab without over flying its lush green fields to land in the monument rich Lahore which remains the ultimate power centre of the country?
Altaf is, however, right in protesting about Karachi not being included in the itinerary. A foreign leader who has not touched down in Karachi or felt its unending reserves of vitality knows Pakistan only partially. It must be for this reason that the previous US ambassador declared Karachi his favourite city in Pakistan.
Considering that the Chinese leader only saw the federal capital territory, it is all the more difficult to comprehend the reasons for the contrived excitement over his visit. The government led the feel-good charge, ably assisted by the electronic media. The cabinet and parliament appeared to have reached a state of nirvana as the populace tried to figure out the impact that China’s $46 billion investment would have on their lives.
However, whatever good feeling Islamabad’s residents had about the visit came to an abrupt end as loadshedding returned barely an hour after Jinping had left. It was a reminder of the serious power crisis we face, which can only get worse in the coming months.
In this situation, any promise of overcoming the kilowatt deficit is welcome even if it comes gradually. And that is what the Chinese investment package should deliver – provided Pakistan can fulfil its obligations on equity participation and undertake the administrative and legal steps needed in setting up power plants by the Chinese enterprises.
The part about the Pak-China Economic Corridor – reciprocally named by the other side as China-Pakistan Economic Corridor – becoming the path of progress for half the global population is more of a rosy vision at this stage. If we only consider the time, resources and human toll that went into building the Karakoram Highway linking northern Pakistan with western China, the monumental challenge of establishing road-rail-pipeline links over a much larger area becomes clear.
Gwadar, which has been presented as our own potential Dubai or Singapore, is the weakest link of the project. It still lacks drinking water and other facilities to function as a city not to speak of a shimmering international port and free trade zone etc. Anecdotal evidence suggests that at the height of his rule, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had made an offer to the Americans to develop Gwadar as a naval base. The US having already entered into a strategic alliance with the Shah of Iran parried Bhutto’s idea.
Forty years later, there is still not enough reason to paint Gwadar as a potential El Dorado. The Chinese have undoubtedly picked the gauntlet where the Americans had been non-responsive. It makes eminent sense for a China on the path to becoming the world’s number one economy to plan communication infrastructure through a friendly Pakistan.
And yes, the corridor could serve as an alternative international trade route especially for western China but all that is based on a futuristic vision rather than the imperative of meeting immediate needs.
The plan for Chinese economic zones in Pakistan is another complex issue that needs to be debated thoroughly before entering into any international obligations. Reports of realising the economic zones or corridor links via Punjab rather than the underdeveloped areas of KP and Balochistan have stirred new controversies that are at best avoided.
In the final analysis, a highly objectionable aspect of the corridor plan is the unnecessary and unjustified hype created about it as if it is the new magic potion to overcome underdevelopment in the country. How can another power – even one as friendly as China – help us overcome our mental backwardness characterised by the proverbial ‘what’s in it for me’ syndrome?
The British built some fine institutions and infrastructure here. Over a period of two generations we succeeded in turning most of that into a vast mess. We had built our own airline which too now lies in a mess. Let the leadership think and plan on how to rectify the faults in our own way of thinking. To start with, how about not begging for fish and learning to catch it instead – as the Chinese metaphor goes.
Email: saeed.saeedk@gmail.com