Welcome to Naseer Memon's Corner

The federal government has once again shown interest in starting mega-projects along the Sindh coastline. Federal Minister for Maritime Affairs Muhammad Junaid Anwar Chaudhry has announced an ambitious plan to transform the Ziarat Hasan Shah Island into a premier eco-tourism and lifestyle destination.

The plan envisages to make the island a flagship destination for eco-tourism, sports tourism and lifestyle 

On April 17, the Punjab government announced a major support package for farmers.

The announcement followed protest demonstrations by farmers in the Punjab and Sindh. Voices against new canals in Indus River system and development of new command areas for corporate farming have transcended the provincial boundaries. Several political parties have started organising protests in support of the farming community.

Land is a primary resource for growing grains. Rapid degradation of land mass worldwide is a looming threat to food security. According to United Nations Environment Programme about 70 percent of dry land used for agriculture worldwide has been degraded. Desertification and land degradation have afflicted almost 30 percent of land area of the world and one-sixth of the world’s population. The impact is more severe in Asia—home to almost 60 percent of global

CONFLICT over the waters of the Indus is more than a century old.

British-era documents provide evidence that Sindh — when it was governed by Bombay — protested against the waters’ upstream diversion through a series of projects in the Punjab. The Bombay administration always viewed upstream diversion as detrimental to Sindh’s share, and argued against the construction of the Thal and Haveli canals in the 1920s.

A RECENTLY released report of the World Bank, “Securing Sindh’s future: challenges ahead” has revealed startling facts about the state of governance and socio-economic well-being in the province, particularly in the rural areas. The document is littered with hard facts of under-development in the province.

The overall governance seems to be the key factor responsible for socio-economic degradation. A province which has been contributing enormously to the national economy is suffering from negative growth in almost every sector.

The thick budget documents often go untouched by most of the parliamentarians on either side of the aisles. Ritualistic narratives and perfunctory comments are liberally exchanged often without trying to decipher the complex digits cooked up by seasoned bureaucrats. Almost every year certain customary phrases are used e.g. tax free budget, pro-people budget, pro-poor budget and anti-people budget.

Media avidly covers all the contentious comments and cacophony unleashed during the post-budget discussions. The post-

The federal government steamrollered all the dissent in the parliament and embarked upon another contentious piece of legislation with the connivance of pseudo opposition party PPP. Bereft of any sign of altruism, the PML-N government fortified anti-Punjab sentiment by imposing Gas Infrastructure Development Cess (GIDC) against the will of smaller provinces.

The chief ministers of Sindh and KP provinces have already deprecated the cess which is aimed at benefitting Punjab at the expense of other provinces. The controversial law was earlier levied by the PPP government in 2011 by enacting the 

Unemployment in rural areas is the most daunting challenge being faced by the new Sindh government. The rural areas are fast losing their agriculture-based employment potential due to persistent shortage of water and land degradation. Almost 14 million people in rural Sindh directly depend on agriculture as their major source of livelihood.

However, this source of livelihood and employment is under severe pressure due to variety of reasons. Drought, faulty water distribution mechanism, poor management of water resources, land degradation, lack of research and inept market