When the spirit is willing…

Patriotic fervour alone will not get us massive funds required for Diamer-Bhasha dam

Patriotic fervour alone will not get us across the finish line of the overambitious but not entirely unreachable goal of raising the massive funds required for the construction of Diamer-Bhasha dam. Time and other less bankable factors are clearly not on the side of the initiative.

Although the current rate of inflows from the Pakistani expatriate community based overseas has been encouraging, the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf reckons it may take a good year or so to collect the financing needs of the proposed dam. Given the dire condition of the country’s water resources, one wonders whether the fund-rising effort will be rendered less effective as a consequence.

Naysayers have cast serious doubts about the generosity of expatriates in America and elsewhere and their increasingly restricted ability to donate to the fund because their affluence was exaggerated. This may be so but it has rarely stopped their charitable activities. Philanthropy is effortless for a lot of Pakistanis and over the decades our compatriots have shone in the area — brighter than the nationals of many other richer countries. So wealth is not a benchmark for charity-giving. Giving is more to do with the size of the heart than the size of one’s purse. Pakistanis should pride themselves on their philanthropic habits. Ignoring this trait would be really tragic particularly at this critical juncture in Pakistan’s history. Sadly our charity-giving habit was squandered in the past by venal politicians who misused previously collected funds, eroding public trust in such initiatives.

Similarly, those afraid of the inadequateness of the funds so raised need only to take into account what has been attempted and not what has been achieved. This is the way that nations should read their balance sheets. Arranging $2bn for the dam project is a tough challenge but there is no reason to believe Pakistanis cannot surmount this challenge. One thing is certain: The PTI should not rely on self-financing efforts alone. More viable funding options must be found. So long as the effort is fired up by national resolve, nothing can hold back the dream.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 11^th, 2018.

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