I wonder what the real priorities of India-Pakistan are, which take pride in equipping themselves with nuclear weapons
JUBAIL, SAUDI ARABIA: After Nawaz Sharif’s recent meeting with Narendra Modi, hardliners on both sides of the border started their hate campaign to discredit the peace initiative between the two arch-rival countries. I just wonder what our politicians’ real priorities are and who the forces are that influence their minds.
Last week, Nawaz Sharif was very rightly questioning in a seminar, why Pakistan, a nuclear state, is facing power outages of six to eight hours on a daily basis. In Pakistan, the general public is on the streets demanding power and gas for their industries, offices and homes. Pakistan wastes tens of MAF (million acre feet per year) of water annually. Lack of trust between provinces with regard to the building of new dams leads to the government choosing the expensive thermal power generation option.
The same goes for India. Narendra Modi pledged “Toilets first, Temples later” during his election campaign. India is another nuclear state, wherein half-a-billion people, about 48 per cent of the population, have no access to basic sanitation and defecate in open. In villages, 65 per cent of the people have to defecate in open fields, and the same goes for slums and shanty towns around the major cities. An increased number of reported/ unreported sexual assault cases have been blamed on the vulnerability of women and girls when they go to public toilets or open fields.
I wonder what the real priorities of these two states are, which take pride in equipping themselves to the teeth with nuclear weapons and missiles. Who will choose between stockpiles of nuclear weapons and improved law and order, economic growth, basic sanitation and clean water for the general public?
Sadly, the decision and policy-makers have no clue what it is to spend a summer day without electricity, or to walk to an open field to defecate.
Masood Khan
Published in The Express Tribune, June 10th, 2014.
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