Side-effect

Poverty sucks. We as a nation are still not fully aware of the apocalypse coming our way. A country the size of Pakistan cannot survive with dignity or ensure long-term prosperity for its citizens if it does not have a manufacturing sector. Building a transit economy, through levying taxes and maintenance charges on gas and oil pipelines or road and rail trade routes, cannot sustain the sixth largest population in the world. Ali Shan, a young scholar at Mahbub-ul-Haq Human Development Centre, after reading my last week's column on agriculture insisted that the argument about grappling with poverty in Pakistan won't be complete without speaking about industry. Besides, the long years spent in engineering school make me assert the importance of a solid engineering base.

Pakistan has grown technologically poorer in the past few decades. Information Technology--IT--is not the mother of all technologies and computer usage or digitization of various functions as an end in itself. Besides, what have we really achieved in IT anyway? As consumers, we may be using high-tech communication and entertainment gadgetry but we are unable to produce a penny worth of a clasp that could be used in a modern machine.

So where do we start or restart? In practical terms, there are certain areas where the possibility of development is limited due to skill, R&D and infrastructure constraints. However, there are other areas where investment is not only unavoidable but feasible if we want to have our own manufacturing base. Mechanical engineering is one area where Pakistan can quickly enhance its capacity due to an existing tradition of mechanical production, foundries, forges and assembling plants. There is a need to develop alloy manufacturing to supplement steel production in the country. Electrical engineering is the other area which we can develop and the capacity for power generation as well as effective transmission and distribution can be increased. Electrical equipment and appliances can still be manufactured in Pakistan. There is a tradition that we can capitalize on but it is fading away with the closure of electrical industry. This needs to be revived by bringing in new manufacturing techniques. The third area which would be relatively easy for Pakistan to develop is based on chemical engineering. The chemical industry can serve a broad range of stakeholders from pharmaceuticals and drug manufacturers to paint and polish makers. The plastic industry can benefit hugely from a good chemical processing base.

What is considered industry by our policy makers, actually offers very limited scope in long-term industrial development, i.e. cement, leather, sugar production and vehicle assembly. These are important but none can survive the onslaught of the global market because no significant value addition to our agricultural produce and industrial products is possible without a good engineering base.

The textile industry is one area where we have existing potential but short-sighted policy regulations. Ideally, not even a single cotton bail should be exported and anything cotton-based should be shipped out of the country in the form of cloth, refined cloth and superior garments. To attract international capital, we should be offering the combination of a huge market hungry for consumption of things they have little seen before and an enormous potential in people to produce goods of quality and value. What we are doing currently is portraying Pakistanis only as consumers and not as producers. Therefore, we see the mushrooming of large international departmental stores and biscuit manufacturing.

Lastly, two important linkages for industrial growth in addition to agriculture are mining and power generation. Mining and metallurgy need to be organized on scientific lines and systematically linked with our mechanical industry. A practical energy programme, which includes generation of electric power through all possible means, tapping into energy resources including oil, gas, coal wind and sun, needs to be developed, implemented and sustained. From small-scale power production units to large-scale generation and transmission facilities, all options must be exploited. This is all possible but who among powers that be is serious and capable enough to think long term?



The writer is an Islamabad-based poet and rights campaigner. Email: harris@spopk.org