DIGITAL PAKISTAN
The first step towards a “Digital Pakistan” is the establishment of goals for the next five years, the next ten years and the next generation.
Past US presidents established the goal to build a network of roads, railroads, and a goal to reach the moon. Other presidents established goals to place all documents on the internet.
If we do not have a vision we will never be able to get there. A Digital Pakistan is the vision of the next decade and beyond. Each successive generation can and must establish a vision and then work hard to achieve it.
This is one version of the “Digital Pakistan” that is the right of the next generation.
NEEDS OF THE PAKISTANI NATION
Without a lot of ceremony, here is a list of requirements of the Pakistani nation:
1. For our role in the proxy wars of the past century Pakistanis deserve the following. Here a bill to be handed over to “the powers to be”.
2. We want Bullet Trains running from the Karakorum’s and beyond to Gwader and beyond.
3. We want a modern train system and underground railways for our cities.
4. We want Water and sewage lines in our major cities and our towns and villages.
5. We want 1000 proper schools for our children and we want $100 million
6. 2500 brand new world class hospitals. $ 1 Billion million.
7. Compare to the USA: (Total Number of all U.S. registered hospitals: 5759
8. Total staffed beds in all U.S. registered hospitals: 955,768
9. Teach Urdu, English, Farsi, Arabic and Chinese in all schools. Also optional languages Punjabi, Kashmiri, Pahari, Hindkoh, Saraki, Pushto, Baluchi, Brahvi, Sindhi, Darri, Potohari. $ 50 million
10. We want 500 modern libraries spread all over the country. Build a library larger than the one in Alexandria. $250 million compare to 117,378 libraries in the USA
11. We want a Motorway system to link all cities of Pakistan, North and South, East and West. $10 billion
12. We need 10 new major airports linked by High Speed Trains. $10 Billion
13. We want 50 million “$100 computers” for Pakistanis in Urdu and all local languages. $100 million
14. We want “kachi abadis” to disappear from our cities. We want to see skyscraper and government housing for all the poor who can be used for labor to build the building. $ 5 Billion
15. We want 100 power plants to eliminate the shortage of electricity in the country.$ 500 million
16. We want 5 major dams and 100 minor dams to prevent the acute water shortage in the country. $ 500 million
17. We want 100 ships for the Pakistan National Shipping Corporation so that Pakistan can become a major sea faring nation able to handle the trade. $ 5 Billion
18. We have to quadruple the yield for our Cotton, Milk and Wheat production benchmarked against the USA, Australia and Canada. $1 Billion
19. Get ship load of Sri Lankan teachers to eliminate illiteracy in Pakistan. $ 10 million
20. Get boatloads of Malaysian manufacturers to setup electronic manufacturing in Pakistan
21. Get train loads of Koreans to build 10 new planned cities in Pakistan. $ 10 Billion
22. Get a plane load of the Swiss to build world class ski resorts and amusement parks and develop our archeological sites as wonders of the world. $ 2 Billion
23. Get busloads of Chinese to build industrial parks in Pakistan. $ 10 Billion
24. We want to reclaim millions of acres of desert in Baluchsitan for our future generations. $ 3 Billion
25. And Oh! Yes Northern Areas are part and parcel of Pakistan not to be bartered away to anyone. Don’t even think of giving up Kashmir!
26. Does this list look expensive? Not really. The cost of all this is in the league of $38 Billion that was offered to Turkey for transit rights into Iraq, which the Turkish parliament turned down. Even if it double or triple that amount, we deserve it.
27. Pakistan’s largest Park Ayub National Park is today a moth eaten park. General Ayub Khan stole half of it for golf. Other military orfficers and others took portions of the park and build their homes. The park needs to be restored to its original boundries and all illegal construction needs to be demolished. Vast areas in Balauchistan, the Norhtern Areas, Punajb and Sindh need to be designated as Pakistan National Parks on the lines of the US National Parks. No construction would be allowed on the large national parks.
28. Development of Horticulture: Pakistan has the means to develop the production of roses and other horticultural materials that can be exported in frozen format to countries in Europe and the US. The flower market is a multi-billion Dollar market and needs to be expoited.
29. PTV needs to be revamped so that it can provide information and entertainment to the Middle East, Africa and Europe. If Al Jazeera and Press TV can do it, so can Pakistan.
30. Pakistan needs to actively participate in Clinical Research Trials which is a multi-billion Dollar industry.
LET US FOCUS ONLY ON EDUCATION FOR STARTERS:
1) Malaysia focused on primary schools, and Ghana focused on Higher education. For the first 20 years after independence Malaysia did not build any universities at all. Malaysia built primary and secondary schools. The results have shown phenomenal growth for education in Malaysia and dismal results in Ghana.
2) Sri Lanka a country ridden with an ongoing civil war as well as penury stricken population and poverty laden infrastructure was able to life the country out of illiteracy and today has the highest literacy rates in Asia as well one of the highest literacy rates in the world.
3) Abdus Sattar Edhi lives in a corrupt society where the government in unable and unwilling to provide social benefits to its population. Abdus Sattar Edhi runs a fleet of more than 500 ambulances, helicopters and planes. He also has orphanages, women’s shelters, and provides death and burial services to the poor in all urban centers of Pakistan. He is scrupulously honest. He has received many international awards and boasted that his personal account has more than $85 million. Edhi sleeps in his office and wears the clothes donated by the family of a dead person for 10 days
His organization needs to be duplicated.
4) Bangladesh after the trauma of 1971 asked all of its graduates to devote 1 year of their lives. They would only receive a degree if they made sure that two illiterate people would become literate. Paksitan should force all intermediate to educate 5 people and all graduates to educate and make literate 10 people before they can get degrees. NADRA should ensure that there is no duplication of people and there is no fraud.
5) Cuba is one of the most sanctioned countries in the world. It also has one of the best and most comprehensive medical systems in the world. All Cubans are educated and have good medical attention. Hundreds of Cuban volunteers stayed in Pakistan in the earthquake. Cuba and Pakistan established diplomatic relations and Cuba offered 1000 fully paid scholarships to Pakistanis. This system has to be institutionalized and Pakistan needs to learn from Cuba.
6) Karachi has one of the highest literacy in the nation. All Karachi schools run in double shifts and have been running on double shifts for more than 40 years. The Muhajirs have almost a 100% literacy rate. All Pakistani government schools must run on double shifts.
7) Bangladesh developed the Grameen Bank. A lot of this has been discussed on this low cost lending system, but the fact remains that this is the “Committee system” used by urban and rural housewives for generations. Grameen offers small loans, mainly to women. Grameen boasts a non-existent default rate because the five or ten members in the “committee” depend on the person to return the loan. This has improved the conditions of the poorest.
Turkey has used the capitalist system to eliminate “katchi abadis”, by developing partnerships with the public and private sectors. All the residents of a “katchi abadi” are registered. This list is frozen. Some elected representatives are chosen to work with the government for regularization of the land. The land is used as collateral to get a load to build a new village which includes
a) a school
b) a hospital
c) a shopping mall
d) a mosque
e) and a high rise building which provides basic amnesties to all the residents. The “katchi abadi” residents cannot sell the land or the building. This goes into a trust. The shops generate funds for the community and a certain number of apartments are sold to the general public and rented to the general public to generate funds for the building. All “katchi abadi” residents thus get decent housing, eyesores are eliminated from the cities, and the venture is commercially feasible.
9) A list needs to be generated of all government run schools. These need to be mapped. All ghost schools need to be listed and identified in a database posted on the internet.
10) Every district has to be identified where schools do not exist.
11) A central Education Emergency Center (EEC)* office needs to be established in every district to create lists of all illiterate persons in the district. The EEC office also lists all children in the district, especially the mother of girls in a database. * Need to think of a good name IN URDU & LOCAL LANGUAGES FOR THE EEC.
12) The EEC Iqra (Insaf *** R*** Area) sets up adult literacy training to all the mothers and adults as well as the children.
13) The EEC establishes schools in one room homes or open air schools, and even under peepal trees or tents. Initially the EEC may use government buildings to train adults and mothers and children in the 2nd shift. As funding becomes available the schools will have an infrastructure. Where possible, the EEC schools will build its own schools
14) The EEC establishes FM radio network and a TV channel for adult education. Australian children who cannot commute to schools used to be taught via CB radios and HAM radios. Today this can and must be established via the internet.
15) Many organizations have created products for the 3rd world a) Hand cranked laptops hooked to network by peer-to-peer network b) solar ovens c) solar powered refrigerator d) cheap toilets d) biogas generators e) wind power tube wells. All of these and others have to listed, prioritized and used in the EEC centers
16) The EEC must set up votechnical centers to teach adults and children basic skills in
a) plumbing
b) woodworking/carpentry
c) electrical works
d) computer assembly
e) Improving harvesting techniques
f) Supply chain improvement and Storage improvement of vegetables and fruits
g) Identification of better seeds, and informing farmers about the better seeds to improve per hector yields
4 comments
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February 6, 2009 at 1:23 pm
Ali Zafar
Nice article! but I have 2 questions
1. How much time it will take to make Pakistan as your Dream Pakistan.
2. How and Who will generate this kind of huge amount for your dream
February 8, 2009 at 7:54 am
Moin Ansari
Mr. Zafar:
You asked two good questions. I will assume that these are not rhetorical questions and answer them on this assumption.
1) Korea in 1980 was a basket case full of shanty towns and prostitution centers. Pakistan was ahead of Korea in the 60s. They moved up and leap frogged Pakistan and today are an economic power. If the right policies are established, it will take 20 years to make Pakistan an economic Tiger. Please see our article on Vision 2020 which is a summary of How to do it”
2) We have to create a “reverse dependency” in Pakistan. This means that countries are dependent on Pakistan, rahter then us going to them to seek assistance. This “reverse dependency is summarized in PakVision 2020. Essentially this means not giving away what we have in terms of geography. For example Egypt got $38 Bilion in loans waived in exchange for a peace deal.
3) Pakistan has a strategic position. Gwader to Central Asia via rail and road would be one way to using our geography. Mexico has craeted a Mexican Riviera and pulls in $60 Billion per annum. We recommend the Mekan Riviera to pull in $60 Billion. This invovles investment but not that much.
4) Low cost solutions for healthcare are well established in Cuba which provides 100% free medical help to all her citizens and is the best country in terms of Hunger index. We have to emulate the Cuban model in health and social services. Sri Lanka has done more for less in creating a very very high (above 90%) literacy rate. For a poor coutnry in a civil war this is fantastic. We have to use shiploads of Sri Lankan teachers on how they did it.
5) We think what the World bank tells us to think. Low cost homes, hand cranked laptops, solar ovens for cooking, peer to peer networking for intenet to villages (one coputer every 50 miles or so), small dams, saving rain water, the list is long
6) Opening up Baluchistan for homesteading–free land for the landless etc etc etc are some of the measures with new thinking.
October 27, 2009 at 6:38 am
Anum Ejaz
aoa
you have shared very optimistic and positive ideas. I agree with you. The need of hour is to awake the young generation that Yes it’s our motherland and we have to save it. we have to make it. What if it has become moth-eaten. Its foundation is still existing. What we have to do is just to recognize our duties and to play our roles in making our country the next Super Power of the world.
We have to use manpower like China to make development of Pakistan certain. Nation has to come out from darkness. A leader must be there to take the people along. And leader can appear on the scene if and only if nation becomes mature enough to choose the right person.
But most of all we need to change ourselves 1st. And that is what we ought to do….
Pakistan is a resukt of millions of life sacrifices.. It can’t be demolished ever..
have faith and turn this world according to your thoughts…
February 2, 2010 at 9:24 pm
Suleman Hadi
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