Power and responsibility

Sindh government needs to display the kind of responsibility required to take care of important resources.

In a republic, the public has a reasonable expectation that those entrusted with political power will exercise it with a degree of responsibility. The Sindh government appears to be quite blatant in its desire to have power without so far taking the associated responsibility for its actions. The latest example of this attitude is the demand that provinces be given the right to joint ownership of oil and natural gas resources. While the demand in itself is a valid one, especially given the changes that have taken place in the Constitution due to the Eighteenth Amendment, the Sindh government, given its track record does not really seem to have the credibility to make that demand. This is the province in which the Thar Coalfields were discovered in the early 1990s. For two decades, not only has Sindh not developed the fields on its own, it has not allowed anyone else to do so either. Its joint venture with a private entity to develop coal-fired power plants in Thar was stalled for several years because the provincial government refused to live up to its end of the bargain and build the transportation infrastructure necessary for construction to begin.

There is a legitimate case to be made for the provinces to be given more control over natural resources. Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhunkhwa, in particular, would benefit a great deal from such a change. So would Sindh, and to a lesser extent Punjab. But at the same time, it must be noted that Sindh has squeezed as many concessions as possible from the federal government and given little in return. The Sindh government needs to mend its ways and display the kind of responsibility required to take care of important resources. It appears that Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah is still stuck in the old ways of seeking more and more rights for his provincial government, perhaps not realising that he has already won much of the battle. His job is not to be the warrior for provincial rights anymore. Now he must show that he can be a statesman as well.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 26^th, 2013.

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