China built Three Gorges Dam using 1,200 million tons of concrete in 2006 which generates 22,000 MW of power and supplies irrigation water to 30 percent crops of China and saving tens of thousands of lives from flood damage. This is the result of so-called central planning while we have been worshipping democracy which has not yielded a single hydro-electric dam in four decades. Our democracy has resulted in bickering between provinces not only in the case of KBD but also in the case of Economic Corridor sponsored by China. Since the breakup of West Pakistan into four provinces by late Gen Yahya Khan, there has been no end of inter-provincial disharmony that has doomed any big project due to a lack of unity in Pakistan.
The pre-historic forces of provincial and tribal prejudice and bigotry have been lot loose by govt in a policy of divide and rule which has wrecked the three principles of ‘Unity, Faith and Discipline’ coined by the founder of Pakistan Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Mini quaids have been created on provincial basis which remain at loggerheads with each other defying any decision on national projects. We should learn a lesson from China that undiluted democracy is not fit for Pakistan. Some central binding force is needed to cement ties between people as they can’t be left to wander like a flock of sheep and herd of cattle to fall in pitfalls.
DR MUHAMMAD YAQOOB BBHATTI
Lahore
