Saturday, February 20, 2016

Stereotypes & Security

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Open The Door & Let Me Win!

February is normally that time of year when the themes on everybody's mind are pleasant in nature, such as Chinese New Year, Valentine's Day, spring, etc. Even people in simple, cash-strapped Pakistan are thinking romantic thoughts & admiring the new leaves as they sprout on the trees.

But this year, the theme that has ruled so far, is the concept of "security". The debate about the various definitions of safety are everywhere: Talk show hosts shrilly discuss the concept, hoping that if viewers feel they might go deaf listening to the ear-piercingly loud declarations, the message may be rendered more credible; the Finance Minister firmly states that there will be no job security unless he is allowed the option to freely fire thousands of PIA employees; the debate on the legality of Military Courts revolves around whether it is "okay" to strip some citizens of their basic human rights in order to protect the same human rights of other citizens. The list is both endless & overwhelming.

While only an experienced lawyer would even think of attempting to resolve all these security debates with a single concise statement, the rest of us would also like to get a grip on what would be the "safest" thing we could do with our time & resources. In my opinion, the answer is that security is a highly individual concept because it embodies the filling of the gaps that we can't naturally manage with our own physiological assets, whether the requirement is food, clothing, shelter, transport, information or any other human need. So, when it comes to choosing a "secure" location, the answer for each of us is the location that best enables us to pursue our professions & discharge our responsibilities smoothly & successfully.

Here's an illustration: If the project is carried out while adhering strictly to the letter & spirit of the original plan, the 2 Pakistani Provinces that stand to get the most noticeable financial boost from the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) are Khyber Pakhtunkhwa & Balochistan. Punjab & Sindh will gain as well, but not as much as the afore-mentioned Provinces. This is clearly evident to all parties who have access to an accurate list of projects - by the way, a genuine list is harder to compile from public gossip than it looks; for instance it was recently revealed that certain unnamed parties were apparently trying to inaccurately classify the Punjab Orange Line project as part of CPEC!

Anyway, back to the point I was going to make. Many people wonder why a financial professional would choose Peshawar over apparently more "modern" locations like, for example, Rawalpindi. The statistically-correct answer is the fact that Rawalpindi is nowhere near as organized & sedate as it was before the turn of the Century, as cases such as the Defense Housing Authority ponzi scheme, the Adiala Road land fraud, the Gulistan Colony Rapist Trio & the 54 Ghost Teachers could attest. But, as US law enforcement professionals can tell you from experience, crimes can be orchestrated anywhere. The real reason Peshawar (&, in time, Haripur) is the place to be if you are betting on the future is because of the Corridor. The first people to put down business roots here & successfully associate their brands with the Province stand the best chance of getting in on the ground floor of what is expected to be the most profitable mega-project undertaken in Pakistan since 1947.

In the spirit of making the debate more interesting (& financially relevant), this week's discussion revolves around a comparison of the strengths & weaknesses of Pakistan's Provincial Capitals - in no particular order - paired off with recommendations of which lines of work is each city best suited to. Hope you like it!

Karachi

Karachi pretty much has it all: highly profitable businesses in every sector in the country, some of the finest educational institutions, excellent shopping malls & stunning tourist sites. Such a shame that so many media outlets look upon journalism as a competition of who can come up with the most shocking headlines, instead of using words for what they were meant to do: Showing readers & viewers a whole new world.

If the written & spoken word were accorded the respect it deserves, people would see that calling Karachi "crime-infested" is based on the same fallacy that persuades the ignorant that China is the world's greatest polluter. In each case, ignoring the importance of averages is what leads to such embarrassing mistakes. China is both the world's most populous country & the world's factory; that means that firstly, pollution levels are quite controllable if you calculate the numbers on the basis of the population & secondly, biting comments are more likely to be directed at a hub of commercial activity than a country that runs its economy on cash infusions from other nations. These 2 points - population numbers & commercial importance - are equally relevant to Karachi.

Lahore

Lahore has lost its way recently; instead of being the living history book & the center of knowledge that it used to be, it has gotten hopelessly mired in setbacks such as the question of the negative environmental effect of the Orange Line project, the confusing policy swings of the Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry or the latest mind-numbing details about the Lahore Literary Festival (why would people who haven't bothered to attend, want to hear about the wanderings of those who did?).

But Lahore could really hit the spot if it stepped up & started attaching due importance to its position as a seat of learning - especially in light of the fact that certain criminal parties are apparently trying to bankrupt the education sector through the murder of accomplished academics & the strategic use of bomb scares in places like the educational institutes of Rawalpindi.

Peshawar

"It's close to the border!"
"Criminals hide in the villages around Ring Road!!"
"The Army is far more accomplished in identifying local murderers & thieves than the cops - they are so fast, it almost seems as though they knew in advance!!!"

Peshawar gets a bad rep. The place, if left unhindered by over-enthusiastic attempts at social engineering, is a lot more peaceful & civilized than the media would have us believe. Take the border issue: Pakistan is shaped roughly like a rectangle - which means that every Provincial Capital is technically within driving distance of one border or the other. All the city needs is a few new street-lights in the residential lanes, a handful of financially-savvy English speakers & a substantially smaller number of imported vagabonds outside respectable houses (they can always pursue their recreational pastimes in the Red Light areas). Once these simple steps have been taken, Peshawar can get back to doing what it was always meant to do: become the financial hub of the western half of Pakistan.

Quetta

Quetta - & Balochistan in general - has recently become associated only with Saryab Road & Southern Command. This is sad, because such violent associations are extremely detrimental to the business of encouraging even local investment. It is fortunate that Gwadar has enough commercial potential to still render investment in Balochistan attractive to a brother nation like China. But that doesn't mean Quetta doesn't have public image issues.

While laudably sincere, the photograph of the Prime Minister perched in an Army Jeep on what looked like a woefully small seat accompanied by a celebrity entourage didn't do much to smash the stereotype. The first thing that needs to be done is that the locals need to be made a part of Balochistan's economic resurgence; this would be best done by encouraging the rich & skilled Balochis (most of whom have left the Province, but are generally based a stone's throw away in Karachi) to come back & put down roots. The trigger-happy tend to be more restrained around the influential than the defenseless.

Conclusion

These suggestions are just meant to be the seed for a debate that would encourage the implementation of new ways to market the assets of our country both within its borders & beyond. There can be no progress or peace in the presence of stagnation. I hope that thinking along these lines will not only prove helpful in solving Pakistani economic challenges but the economic challenges of other Asian Developing World nations as well.

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