Daily Times

The plight, passion, and promise of Pakistan cricket presently seems to be rather in the doldrums. Three of its aces have been imprisoned in London and suspicion surrounds even some of its other lacklustre international events. While the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) braces the tremendous burden of reincarnation, the fans would be missing the tides and tempest of emotions, torrents of wishes and prayers and the oodles of advice and strategies proffered and poured by the anchors and experts on the eve of Pak-India engagements. Cricket has certainly become a craze in Pakistan. Even the kids can be seen swinging their makeshift bats and balls in the narrow sleazy lanes, dusty roads, confined corners and in remote rural hamlets. The craze, however, swirls to a new storm whenever India is involved. Perplexing restless passions and prayers invariably grip a larger lot of population, particularly the hawkish hats. Fretting, perhaps, over the futility to have gained almost nothing despite the blood and billions drained during various battles, they suddenly seem to be seized by a strange syndrome to ‘salvage it all’ on the playing fields. Looking realistically, a victory in cricket, even being the world champion, would not change much for the country or cure the festering problems faced by it. Yet given the sudden rush of passions, energy and the verve to vanquish India at the playing fields, there is an evident need to keep up the flame and turn this zeal to other more concrete and productive encounters of some new games and bouts. The pundits and planners thus can transplant the cricket craze into some fresh, fantastic and fruitful Pak-India fixtures that would undoubtedly become far more scintillating and rewarding than the cumulative bilge brought by cricket, cannon batteries, barrage of bombardments, aerial dogfights, enigmatic infiltrations and the treks and trajectories of front and backdoor diplomacies.

They can, for instance, simulate and transform the traditional wild hunting furies, maddening rugby and boxing rounds and grand prix rallies into an exhilarating race to hunt, hit and hector the disease, destitution and poverty that plague the millions in their lands. India certainly has managed a lot better in this game yet it still has to go a long way to feed its hungry as about 42 percent of its children are still malnourished, 36 percent of the masses face food deficiency while more than half of them are forced to spend over two-thirds of their entire income on it. Both face a tough, steep and sinuous path to provide proper public healthcare. Yet 85 percent access to health services in India is still quite tempting to Pakistan grinding at 55 percent. So is its relatively lower infant mortality rate (81) against 89 in it. The contest for competitive cost and quality of medicine and clinical care, courting tourism in health services and evolving as a world ace in pharmaceutical exports would be equally rewarding. This can be extended to a race to revamp the general hospitality and tourism, burnishing the beauty and splendour of the historic sites and wonders that interweave their long shared past. This would also spur their scores in growth, employment and poverty reduction and inspire new innings in education, expertise, and innovative resource mobilisation and management.

India has long beckoned Pakistan to follow it in these fields. It invested relatively more in education and developed some really world class institutions for business, electronics, avionics, genetics and health sciences. The Indian School of Business, for instance, stands among the top 12 world business institutions. Indian Institutes of Information Technology and Management similarly are also famous for their stellar facilities. Pakistan has only a solitary university included in the top 376 while in natural sciences barely three universities appear in the top 300 global gild. Higher investment also increased her adult (65 percent), male (75 percent) and female (53 percent) literacy rates leaving Pakistan to trail at a mere 60 percent in adult and an appalling 40 percent in female population. The gap in higher education, research and training is also quite wide with India producing about 5,000 PhDs per year. The excellence imparted it a software exports edge in 199i and whopping annual exports earning of about $ 18.4 billion, a per capita GDP notch at about $ 1,250 billion and a direct foreign investment flow of $ 4.6 billion. Pakistan with a current GDP of mere $ 174 billion can, likewise vie for equitable scores in other technologies, trade, agriculture, industrial and exports sectors. Industry essentially entails energy as an integral input that can further revive our moribund manufacturing and reduce the blackouts and fuel shortages.

The energy consumption is, in fact an important indicator of the industrial potential and progress. The per capita energy consumption in China, for example, is over 56 BTU compared to a meagre 14.2 in Pakistan. Yet we are unable to meet even these skimpy needs. India’s generation capacity helped it join the emerging global industrial giants like China, South Korea and Brazil and even proffer some cheaper electricity to us. Its steel production, yet another scale of industrial strength, also surged to an annual output of about 47 million tonnes making it the seventh largest world player in the field. In contrast to our principal steel facilities, being perennially plagued by plummeting production and rocketing costs, Tata has emerged as the seventh largest world producer. Mittal has similarly moved to the top of the world steel czars. Even Bollywood bewitched the world with its beauty, style and fashion, raked in billions and blazed new trails. Beyond this fantasy realm, the races to combat corruption and foster fairness can spawn new marathons to improve the conduct, efficiency and transparency of the police, judiciary, revenue and utility services. The equestrian annual Ascots can be similarly simulated to sweep the spikes and hurdles impeding the preeminence of the people and prioritisation of their needs and problems. The Pakistan Army can demonstrate a new deference to the constitution and the elected leadership and the judiciary some more calm and restraint in jostling for political power and media mileage. Both countries also have to tame some really intractable and incendiary forces of dissent and fundamentalism. But for quite some time, Pakistan, unfortunately, has been far more rocked, ripped and ruined by them.

For success in this challenge and in all other matches, the writers and the intellectuals would also have to move towards newer matches to miff militancy, intolerance, and refute the unrealistic ruinous notions nattering the monopoly, spread and supremacy of any selected faith and inspire all inclusive plural societies pulsating with peace and creativity. Their aura and ambience would eventually elicit a new surge for skiing towards a shared South Asian community.

The writer is an academic and freelance columnist. He can be reached at habibpbu@yahoo.com