Anecdotal truths

Hopefully, no non-economic, self-destructive reason would be allowed to come in the way of Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline

It is a time-worn anecdote, highly viral in the 1960s and ’70s: a confused deputy commissioner asked the visiting Chaudhry from a town in the district, who had offered to fund a school in a neighbouring town, “What is the matter, Chaudhry sahab? Yesterday, the Chaudhry from the town you want to set up a school in had come and offered to fund a school in your town. What is cooking?” Quick came the famously celebrated response, “Nothing is cooking DC sahab. It is only tit for tat. He wants to sow the seeds of rebellion in my town; I want to pay him back in his own coin.”

I am not sure if this anecdote is based on some element of truth. But looking at the current state of education in Pakistan, especially at the grass roots, it becomes almost impossible to dismiss it as an outright fiction.

During the mid-1970s when Balochistan was up in arms, we had turned the entire province into a closed cantonment. When those opposed to this policy demanded the use of socioeconomic development rather than strong-arm tactics, a shut-up call came, followed by the military campaign that was launched specifically to eliminate those who we suspected were working for the Soviet Union, and also to smoke out potential Soviet agents. You see, Moscow was desperately longing for our warm waters. But the most ridiculous argument against taking up road projects in Balochistan to link up the small population of the largest province of the country living in scattered settlements separated by great distances was: using these roads as landing strips, the Soviets would airlift their troops to Balochistan and occupy it! I do not know whether the quote had come from some responsible non-civilian official or was just made up by the raconteur, but one look at the current state of social and physical infrastructure in Balochistan would make one believe the worst.

A preliminary agreement for the Pakistan-Iran gas pipeline was signed in 1995. In 1999, India also joined in. The US had publicly started backing the project by 2001. In 2009, India withdrew from the project over security issues. It had actually lost interest in the so-called peace pipeline in 2005 when the US imposed harsher sanctions against Iran, suspecting it of launching a nuclear weapons programme.

On trying to find the reasons why the project could not be launched during the period when the US was openly supporting it, one came across a number of anecdotal explanations, including the one that alleged that it was Pakistan itself that had kept dragging its feet. Again, the reason quoted for Pakistan’s reluctance was extremely ridiculous. In our supreme ‘national interest’, we had decided to deny our ‘enemy number one’ the gas its economy had badly needed, even if it meant: 1) forgoing the $600 million annual fee India would be paying us for the transport of gas through Pakistan; 2) giving up the control we would have on the tap, with a turn of which Islamabad could cut off the supply in retaliation for any future hostile act by New Delhi against Pakistan’s strategic interests; and 3) doing without much-needed gas whose domestic reserves were depleting fast. Forgoing all this just to stop the Indian economy from taking off! Even so, the Indian economy still took off while ours on the other hand has nosedived thanks to an acute shortage of energy.

Again, I cannot vouch for the veracity of this anecdote. But I remember the keenness of Iran towards Pakistan, including the project in the agenda for the Agra summit held in July 2001. The then Iranian ambassador to Pakistan was seen anxiously trying to find out if General Musharraf was taking his petroleum minister to India. He did not and the subject was not even broached at the failed summit. Hopefully, the harsher sanctions against Iran will be lifted soon. When that happens, hopefully, no non-economic, self-destructive reason would be allowed to come in the way, in the shape of strategic objections under external pressure, presumably from the Middle East, to force us to abandon the project.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 25^th,  2015.

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