We need sensible policies

In March 2001, as federal minister of science and technology, I approached then-president Musharraf with three proposals. The first was to extend the continental shelf of Pakistan from its limits of 200 nautical miles to 350 nautical miles after carrying out a detailed survey of the coastal waters and filing an application with the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (UNCLOS).

This would provide the country with an additional 240,000 sq km area of territory with all the rich oil, gas, mineral and fishery resources present in our oceans. The second project was to place a satellite in space at 38 degrees east. Pakistan had 5 slots allocated in space but had lost four of them due to the lethargy of previous governments.

This was important strategically since if we lost this last slot, it could be legally occupied by India or another country with the implications of spying over our territories and Pakistan would lose this opportunity forever.

The third proposal was to drastically change the mobile telephony system so that the calling person paid the charges and not the call-receiving person. There was reluctance by most people at the time to own mobile phones as calls were very expensive and one had to pay for receiving calls. To reduce call rates I also proposed to president Musharraf that we should launch a PTCL subsidiary Ufone which will create market competition and result in rate reductions. President Musharraf enthusiastically gave me the go-ahead to initiate all these projects, which I did with a sense of urgency, holding weekly progress meetings to ensure that matters remained on track.

A feasibility study for the extension of our continental shelf to 350 km beyond our shores was accordingly initiated through the Ministry of Planning. The project was formally approved in 2005, detailed surveys were carried out and a formal application was filed with the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (UNCLOS) in 2009.

To cut a long story short, the UN granted the extension of the territorial boundary of Pakistan in March 2015. This opened up a huge untapped treasure of oil, gas and mineral wealth for the country. There has been a recent report that after a three-year survey in collaboration with a friendly country, there has been a discovery of huge deposits of oil and gas in our offshore waters, and it is claimed to be the fourth largest oil and gas reserves in the world. If confirmed it could change the destiny of Pakistan.

On the space front, a satellite was procured and placed in space well before the deadline of February 2002. Named PakSat 1, it resulted in the slot at 38 degrees East being officially allocated to Pakistan, a huge strategic asset. On the mobile telephone front, the rules were changed, so that the call-receiving party did not pay any charges and the CPP (Calling Party Pays) regime was introduced. U Fone was launched with lower mobile telephone rates creating market competition.

These measures led to explosive growth in mobile telephony and created hundreds of thousands of new earning opportunities as carpenters, electricians, plumbers and others could work from home without the need for hiring shops.

From about 0.31 million mobile phones in the year 2000, we crossed the 100 million mark within the first decade of the current century and now have about 193 million subscribers – a huge success story showing the huge impact of successful policies. Mr Salman Ansari, a telecommunications expert, played a critically important role in this mobile phone revolution as adviser to the Ministry of Science and Technology. Kudos to him.

The examples presented above illustrate the impact that sensible national policies can have on the national economy. It is therefore vitally important to have a strong national policy-making organisation that can guide various ministries on the optimum paths forward. Unfortunately, there are alarming reports regarding the Pakistan Council for Science and Technology (PCST) (PCST) – the only public sector science and innovation policy-making organisation.

The PCST has performed valuable functions in the past, preparing the national blueprint for our transition to a technology-driven knowledge economy under the very able guidance of Dr S T K Naim and later Prof Anwar Gilani. The PCST needs to be strengthened so that it can carry out regular ‘foresight’ exercises and provide guidance on policy matters to each Ministry. Minister Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui needs to stand up and fight against all elements that wish to close down the PCST.

Similar issues are being faced by another important national body, the Higher Education Commission. There are plans afoot to destroy this organisation, fragment it into pieces and hand the pieces over to the provinces. An attempt to do this was made back in 2010, but I went to the Supreme Court and pleaded that HEC must remain a strong Federal institution.

The Supreme Court decided in my favour and ordered on April 12, 2011 that higher education is a federal subject, that it is fully protected under the 18th Amendment to the constitution, and that its status cannot be changed. The Supreme Court ruled that the 18th Amendment through the 4th Schedule (Article 70(4) Federal Legislative Lists Part-I and Part-II) completely protects the current powers and functions of the HEC, and mandates higher education and research to be federal subjects.

The damage done to the higher education sector by our Ministry of Finance during the last decade is criminal, to say the least. Public-sector university budgets have been deliberately frozen at Rs66 billion for the last six years by the Ministry of Finance while rates of electricity, rupee devaluation, salary increases, and other expenditures have risen by over 300 per cent with the result that universities are dying a slow death and the research environment has been completely disrupted. Most universities have been transformed into low-level colleges, littered with outdated infrastructure and equipment.

Destroy education and you destroy a nation. Higher education, science, and technology are directly connected with national security. They are far more important than the expensive tanks, fighter aircraft and submarines that we purchase from abroad as they create within us the ability to manufacture and export high-technology goods, including defence equipment.

Take that capability away and we become sitting ducks for our enemies to engulf and eliminate. The government will be paying about Rs2,100 billion during the current fiscal year to the independent power producers (IPPs) for capacity payments in this financial year but alas it cannot pay the additional Rs100 billion needed annually to uplift our universities.

Shame on us! This requires urgent intervention before the damage is irreversible.

The writer is a former federal minister, Unesco science laureate and founding chairperson of the Higher Education Commission (HEC). He can be reached at: ibne_sina@hotmail.com