If Pakistan had built some large dams in the wasted 10 years of Musharraf era, today, the impact of floods would have been on a much reduced scale.
These floods are an eye opener for those myopic politicians, who can’t see beyond their noses. Today, Pakistan is economically standing, even behind the stage of 14th August 1947, where foreign exchange reserves are USD 15 billions against loans of about USD 60 billions.
We always crib that dictators had no vision and they did nothing for the long term benefit of Pakistan.
Now we must turn this crisis into an opportunity, by planning for at least 100 years ahead. The Prime Minister must immediately activate the parliament along with all the out-of-parliament forces, to jointly sit and agree on a 100 years growth and development vision for Pakistan. This vision should be divided into 20 five years plans on which all the politicians should agree.
This planning will give a clear direction to the nation and also save the time and energy of the incumbent and ensuing political governments in useless debates of which dam or project is in the national interest, or against it.
It must also be remembered that changing environmental conditions, are going to be the biggest challenge in near future, for countries like Pakistan. And let there be no mistake that areas spared by floods this time may always be safe. The future environmental calamities may even be on a much larger scale, engulfing more than one nation. What recently happened in Leh (IHK), should be an eye opener for the entire SAARC countries.
So any future planning must also be in coordination with and take care of the interests of the neighboring nations, because no single country has the capacity to survive the adversities of the nature, alone.
SYED NAYYARUD DIN AHMAD
Lahore