There are
structural problems and issues in the systems of governance in South Asia,
which offered main resistance against sustainable growth and development in the
region.
The speakers at the concluding day of 14th Sustainable Development Conference
(SDC) here on Thursday stressed for opening up of the minds and doors for
discussions of controversial issues to promote better livelihood within the
countries of South Asia.
Dr Nadeem-ul-Haque, Deputy Chairman Planning Commission, the guest speaker at
the concluding ceremony of the three-day Conference titled ‘Re-defining
Paradigms of Sustainable Development in South Asia’ organised by Sustainable
Development Policy Institute (SDPI) stressed for collaboration among
academicians and researchers in order to determine the future course of action
for the country.
“We need practical and creative research agenda to save this country and ensure
its sustainable development,” Dr Nadeem-ul-Haque said, “The most unfortunate
thing is that majority of research in social sector and economy is being
conducted by consultants of donor agencies.” He also launched SDPI’s web
television, Sustainable Development Television (SDTV), which is first of its
kind initiative in Pakistan and meant to focus the issues and aspects of
sustainable development in Pakistan with a people-centred approach.
Meanwhile, speaking as a keynote speaker at the ceremony, Shahid Kardar, former
Governor State Bank of Pakistan said structural flaws were affecting the
sustainability and causing economic imbalance.
“All issues faced by the country are backed by structural problems,” Kardar
said adding, “Pakistan has one of lowest tax collection rate, while the
subsidies are high on many things like fertilizers and the state owned entities
like PIA and Railways were causing huge losses daily.”
He said it was difficult to manage these issues and the country was moving
deeper into debts continuously. “If the provinces cannot tax the agriculture
sector. than why is the federal government subsidizing fertilizer, it should be
done by the provinces,” he said, adding similarly the electricity consumers of Lahore
are bound to pay the line loss incurred by HESCO as people of Sindh were not
paying bills. “Let them plug the loss and be sustainable.”
Former Governor State Bank said that to get out of financial quagmire, Pakistan
needed strong decisions to tax all those who are eligible for it, and all the
players including the government, private sector and civil society has to
change lifestyle. “Than only we can ask the masses to render sacrifices,”
Kardar said.
In the session on ‘Governance challenges’ the panelists were largely of the
view governance is a broader concept than the outdated idea of merely a
“Government,” and is achieved through fostering interaction between the three
pillars of societal structures namely state, civil society, and private sector
or market. They said the role of civil society to observe government actions
and induce positive developmental actions is a very critical aspect of the
overall development process.
Daniyal Aziz, Governance Institutes Network International, Kaiser Bengali,
Member National Finance Commission, Dr G Shabbir Cheema of East-West Centre,
USA, Dr Urs Geiser, University of Zurich, Switzerland, Tulasi Sharan Sigdel,
Nepal administrative Staff College, Jawalakhel, Nepal and Janaka Hemathilaka,
Practical Action, Sri Lanka spoke at the occasion. In the session on “Costs of
economic non-cooperation to consumers in South Asia’ Bipul Chatterjee of CUTS
International India shared glimpses from a research study conduced in
collaboration with SDPI. He said both Pakistani and Indian consumers would gain
hugely from cross border trade liberalization. Shafqat Munir of SDPI
highlighted a wide disconnect between traded policy formulation and consumers
resulting into imbalances in favour of business interests.
In panel “Climate change: Readapting forest management in South Asia”, the
experts identified issue of land ownership in forest covered areas as the key
reason for forest degradation leading to unemployment and livelihood problems
for local communities and food insecurity and poverty elevation globally. They
highlighted the need of revision of sectoral policies, participatory and
integrated forest management. Dr Parkas Taiwari from India, Dr Bashir Wani and
Dr Sultan Rome from Swat expressed their expert opinions.
In the session ‘Regional cooperation for water governance, it was said that all
South Asian countries immediately should sign the ESPOO convention. They said
Siachen glaciers should immediately be declared as peace-park without any
conditions or prerequisites and particularly without any ground demarcating on
the ice. Syed Imtiaz Gillani, VC UET, Peshawar concluded there is an instant
need to execute the decisions of the International Court of Justice regarding
implementation of trans-boundary impact assessment. They said there is an
immediate need to rehabilitate degraded watershed in Kashmir for sustainable
flow in the rivers so that paradigms of sustainable development in South Asia
can be redefined and added our future is dependent on this and India has to
open Indian-held Kashmir for Pakistanis to strengthen the peoples-to-peoples
contact. staff report
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