The Ultimate Losers in Pakistan!

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Re: The Ultimate Losers in Pakistan!

@Zakk

Shak: I accept railway lines have not been added over the years, however if you look at the routes which have been cancelled over the last twenty years ..the effect has been particular on NWFP..the Peshawar, Malaknd line has been closed, as had the Mianwali, bannu line and the Kohat one..in baluchistan I believe the Zhob one has been out of operation for a conseriable period of time.

Your comment on mega projects is disingenious..the people around NWFPs major Dam projects were not properly compensated for being dispossessed..till now. Giving up ones land for a mega project which benefits a third person is not something I would do..could you imagine if villages in Punjab were deprived of wheat at the expense of other provinces? Or if (despite beinga port) karachites were charged higher rates for importing than for other provinces? As such local misgivings about Gwader are understandable…

As far as revenue distribution is concerned..the population criteria is a bit of a joke. East Pakistanis often made a claim for population as being considered a criteria for resource distribution..however the same people who objected to that ..in those days now support population as being a criteria. NO federal state uses population as a criteria for distribution in the whole world..and next to none have such an unfair system as Pakistan has..( except former federations like Yugoslavia)

SB: A decreased federal trasnfer to Punjab would be a normal factor in a federation..if you look at the US or India or Canada as federal systems it’s always the poorer or small population states that receive the most from federal resource distribution.

Nothing I have said are facts which are not universally known, economicsts ranging from Kaiser Bengali, Shahid Kardar to Akbar Zaidi have written about these imbalances extensively. As far as political grievances are concerned..I accept most ethnic groups in Pakistan have had at one time or the other played negative role in Pakistans development..the fact is nobody is willing to give anyone else a fair share..however in absolute terms Baloch, Bengalis and Sindhis suffered the most as a result of pakistans creation..

Pakistan railways are in a decrepid state… The Railway obviously had to cut back on the rail serivce to meet budget restraints. If you were head of the railways, you would do the same. The routes in Punjab are more profitable then the ones in NWFP obviusoly. Yje route from Karachi to the North and to Punjab in particular where most of the industry is (and i explained why that is) is more profitable then a train route from Karachi to Quetta and Peshawar.
I agree this is insensative, but its about moeny and doing what makes sense. Pakistan Railways has been losing money for YEARS… To survive they had to cut costs.
Dams are a problem, they are a problem every where in the world. But the benefits can be many… The provnce should get more back from this damn, but this will only happen with more provincial autonomy…
And I can give you persoanl examples of a village in Punjab that was uprooted. In my own area, an entire village had its land taken away, because they wanted to build a cement factory. Women came out to protest and even they were hauled of to prison.. And this area is the Chakwal area which is the heart of the Pakistan Army. So dont give me that crap about how its only in NWFP.. PLEASE READ THIS PART OVER AND OVER…
And I already said that NFC has to be changed, and it would have been changed, but according to an article in Dawn a few months back, it was again stalled by the Sindh govt which wants economic factors to play a role… This was not the fault of the Punjab.
Its nothing prejudice or racist about any of this, its all economics.. If your such a great economist why not see thing in economic terms instead of this over emotional tirade!?!?
And I already said that things seem to be improving with the Gawadar port being built and Afghanistan improving.. .
I also forgot the Pipeline that will be running through Balochistan from Iran.. This they say will produce thousands of jobs.
And as for Gawadar… The govt has already trained some youth from that town. People were complaining that these youth had stil not gotten jobs but then the Gawadar port hadnt even been completed.