How to make Pakistan a better country? Recently, a renowned Pakistani journalist Javed Chaudhry, referred a meeting with an ambassador of an Eastern European country. The journalist had a detailed discussion with the ambassador and he narrated the details here.
“A few days ago, I met the ambassador of an Eastern European country, this country is growing rapidly, foreign investors are investing billions of dollars there, tourism is also on the rise.
Three million tourists arrive in the capital every year and spend two billion dollars there, universities are also coming in the international ranking and agriculture and technology are also developing and all this change has come in a few years.
During my meeting, the ambassador revealed, “This is my second posting in Pakistan, I was posted here even during General Musharraf’s tenure, I asked him, what difference did you feel between the two periods?
His answer was very interesting, he said that General Musharraf took us four ambassadors to Gwadar, the general smoked the cigar there and said, “Excellency you see this place, we are building another Dubai here, when you come for the second time, there will be a forest of high-rise buildings, trains will be running, casinos, bars, hotels and massage parlors will be from your countries. Flights would be coming here every day, we believed them, Pakistan really seemed to be taking off at that time.
We thought Pakistan would really go a long way in 10 years, but I was re-posted here after 18 years and I agreed to go to Gwadar a few months ago, so this area was where I left it, there was no change, the same old five-star hotel and that too was closed, the city’s roads were narrow and small and I got the high of General Pervez Musharraf somewhere. Rise buildings, five-star hotels and massage parlors could not be found, the city had gone back 10-20 years.
I was sorry to see this and I thought that if we had this place, we would have earned a hundred billion dollars from it by now, the ambassador said, you people have immense financial potential, you have a 650-mile long coastal line, get out of Karachi and travel along the sea to the border of Iran, the whole area is paradise, you also have deserts. There are also civilizations like Mohenjodaro, Harappa and Taxila, there are also 30 highest peaks in the world, only K2 can earn you two to four billion dollars annually.
Gilgit-Baltistan can bear all your expenses, you just start free trade between Gilgit and Kashgar, Baltistan’s fruit and dry fruit go to China and cloth and silk come from there, you open trade with Afghanistan and Iran, I wonder why you do not go to Central Asia?
In Central Asia, gas and petrol are running out of water, the world’s most expensive mineral water comes out of your mountains, the whole of Balochistan is full of minerals, millions of acres of land in your Punjab are still barren, why don’t you cultivate it?
And I am surprised that you also have the resources of the population, we Europeans are forced to import from plumbers and electricians to doctors and engineers, while you are 250 million, why don’t you make your people useful, you are a nuclear power on the one hand and on the other hand you have not been able to meet electricity and gas till date, what should we understand?”
He went on speaking and I became ashamed, everything he said was right and 100 percent true, Pakistan is undoubtedly a terrible case study of failure, nature gave us a glorious country but we all destroyed it together, so today there is nothing left in the country except frustration. If we bring it, we will stand on our feet in 10-20 years, but for that we have to make some big decisions, for example, we should make the entire belt of Gwadar international.
Let us give this area to foreign companies, let 20 new cities be built from Karachi to Iran border and these cities should have international status in every respect, like Dubai, they also have mosques and five-star hotels and malls, their rules are also different and they are visa-free, people from any corner of the world can come and stay in these cities for fifteen days. Whether the currency is dollar, euro and pound, you can take the example of Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt in this regard.
Egypt is a more Islamic country than us, but Sharm-ul-Sheikh is completely Dubai, there are resorts along the coast and these resorts are filled with tourists from the world, there are so many tourists in a month as many tourists do not come to our country for the whole year. Just like you can give international status, make them eligible for international flights and make them visa free, The Aga Khan Foundation has changed Hunza and Skardu.
You also give Gilgit to Aga Khan Foundation and give it the authority to change the area, it will change the area, Chitral is the most beautiful area in the world, you also give it international status, complete the roads and give free lands to the international chains of hotels, this area will also change. Make jeep tracks up to the base camp and make K2 Summit visa free and chargeless, the whole area will change.
I still don’t understand why we have closed Azad Kashmir to international tourists, if people with white skin can go to Jammu and Srinagar, why don’t we open Azad Kashmir for tourists? You open it too, it will also bring capital, why don’t we make the country easier for Buddhist, Sikh and Hindu pilgrims?
You also give visa-free entry to the pilgrims, set a fee of $1,000, deposit a thousand dollars at the pilgrim airport or border and get a visa for a month, if you want to stamp the passport like Israel, then it is fine, otherwise you give them a paper visa, the government can also give them a SIM to track them, they can only use this SIM in the country. They will be in the eyes of the government.
I still wonder why millions of acres of our land are barren. Why don’t we distribute these lands among agricultural university students? Students should graduate and take 50 acres of land, but the government should reserve different areas for different crops like America and Europe, only sugarcane should be cultivated in some areas, wheat in some, cotton in some and rice and pulses in some and roses, mustard and fruits in some, agricultural graduates can grow only these crops in these areas and make their products.
Why don’t we create different districts for products in the same way? China has divided the whole country into products, there is furniture being made in one district, carpets in the second, tiles in the third, lights in the fourth, motorcycles in the fifth, cars in the sixth, bicycles in the seventh and noodles in the eighth, only one thing is made in a district of China and due to this raw material is also cheap, workers have also been trending and buyers are also humiliated all over the country. It avoids happening, why don’t we do that too? Let us divide the country into different districts in terms of product.
There should be training institutes for only this product in this district, there are factories and outlets and there is tax collection, this policy will also improve both skills and production, we have not been able to create political stability in the country till date, even today the Prime Minister, President and Army Chief do not know when the next elections will be held. Will? Why don’t we solve this problem at once?
Why this decision is not made, elections in the country will be held only after five years and will be held on time, during this time the assemblies will not be broken, the governments will undoubtedly change every day, it will also bring political stability in the country.
Why don’t we take this decision once, the road will not be closed at any cost in the country, whether it is election or religious, all roads will remain open and if anyone tries to block the road, he will be imprisoned for the rest of his life.
And my last request is that we can’t even go with the current bureaucratic system, our office system is negative and slow, if you have to take a paper from an office, then your whole life is spent in offices but paper is not available, we have to end this system too.
The government should build a smart office, it may increase the government fees, but the work should be completed in just one day, the people do not have to come to the office for the second time, this country will be able to run again, otherwise we will be killed on the way and we will not be able to say that we were better than Afghanistan because Afghanistan is also getting better than us now. Standing up.
