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ANALYSIS: Buy land — they’re not
making it anymore
—Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur
Instead of using the begged $ 2 billion to create another repressive and trigger-happy force, a better option would be giving these million acres to
landless peasants and use this money to help them
Mark Twain, American humourist (1835-1910), rightly said: “buy land — they’re not making it anymore”. The Gulf State rulers heed his advice while our
nincompoops and jesters who pass off as rulers (civilian and military), politicians and bureaucrats either have not heard about it or are ignoring it
because their loyalties lie with their pockets. They care not a whit for the people as they retire to farmhouses here or mansions abroad with all the looted
money, leaving us to suffer the consequences.
Shah Mehmood Qureshi recently said that Pakistan would press ahead with plans to lease or sell farmland to foreign investors. He said, “Many people
misunderstood these deals, and we are now trying to explain to them that the land we want to sell is not land that belongs to anyone or even has any
existing agriculture activity.” It should be noted that the UN has expressed serious concern over all such deals.
The original Pakistani offer of “one million acres of farmland, protected by a special security force, for lease or sale to countries seeking to secure their
food supplies” was given by Waqar Ahmed Khan, the Federal Minister for Investment on April 29, 2009. He said, “Pakistan’s government is now in talks
with Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and other Arab states.” He added that parliament would provide investors with legislative cover to protect them from
changes in government.
More significantly he added, “It (the ministry) will also hire a new security force of 100,000 men to be split among the country’s provinces to help stabilise
the investment environment” and “this will cost us about $ 2 billion to pay the salaries and train these people who will be from local towns and
provinces”. This sum he said they were seeking from donors. Still more loans for a still newer force is a sure recipe for an unmitigated disaster. This is
extraordinary economics!
This envisaged policy has annoyed the Baloch and Sindhi people because of the implications it carries. They expect to be victims due to the geographic
and demographic realities. Sindh is 140,914 square kilometres with a population of 216 individuals per square kilometre and very fertile, while
Balochistan is 347,190 square kilometres with a population of only 18.9 individuals per square kilometre. These factors make them prime candidates
for implementation of this policy of making a quick buck for the rulers and at the same time undermining their existing economic, social and
demographic balance.
NWFP is 74,521 square kilometres with a population density of 238.1 individuals per square kilometre. In the prevailing situation no investor, regardless
of the profits involved, will risk his neck there. Punjab is 205,345 square kilometres with a population density of 358.5 individuals per square kilometre.
Moreover, its agriculture minister confirmed that 600,000 acres offered in Cholistan were rejected due to brackish water.
In Military Inc.: Inside Pakistan’s Military Economy, Dr Ayesha Siddiqa says, “The military was given 10 percent of the approximately nine million acres of
land reclaimed due to the construction of the Kotri, Guddu and Ghulam Mohammad barrages in Sindh. The government also gave land to some senior
civil bureaucrats, who were the military regime’s partners. After the military’s takeover in October 1958, more land was allotted to army officers in the
Guddu Barrage area.”
What is even more important, however, is the fact that the land allotted to military officers was developed with US aid. Reportedly, the then finance
minister of Punjab, Nawab Iftikhar Hussain Mamdot, justified the use of foreign aid for land development because the money was meant for the army. It
was done under the Alienation of Land Act, which specifically stipulated an allocation of 10 percent of colonised land to the armed forces. The land
development clause was incorporated later in a new law, the Colonisation of Land Act, 1912.
Reports indicate that the Gulf States have acquired more than 150,000 hectares of land in Balochistan near Mirani Dam to begin mechanised farming.
The UAE was on a buying spree even before the policy announcement. This is not a conjecture because the Balochistan government decided to block
direct deals between the UAE-based private investors and farmers. The then Balochistan Chief Secretary Nasir Khosa had said, “We are seeing more
and more UAE investors coming to this region looking to buy farms directly from the local farmer, which is not legal because it has to be approved by a
government body.”
The buying however has continued with front men. The Windar Dam and other small dam projects, though ostensibly for the welfare of the local people,
are part of the strategy to bring about demographic changes, as a fixed percentage of reclaimed land is allotted to the armed forces and to entice Gulf
State Emirs to buy land; who come annually on hunting sprees to eliminate the already endangered Houbara Bustard.
The Sindhis expect an equally raw deal. Kijani Energy Canada has already bought large tracts of land, 200,000 acres in Thar for Jatropha cultivation. The
Tharis have protested against the violation of their centuries-old livestock grazing rights, claiming they are being deprived of a primary source of
livelihood due to restrictions.
The Baloch and Sindhis are gravely concerned because this policy will have incalculably adverse social, demographic and economic consequences for
them. A million acres equals 4,046.872,6267 square kilometres. Interestingly, Luxembourg’s size is only 2,586 square kilometres. The landscape in
Balochistan and Sindh is dotted with villages even in the remotest areas and perchance if these come within the ambit of leased land, then their fate is
sealed. The avaricious and soulless corporate landowners tolerate no obstacles, human or historical, to their plans. Wherever these agro-settlements
are created, the locals will suffer immeasurably.
Extreme discontent over chronic water shortage already exists. Where will the excess water for a million acres come from? Diversion of already scarce
water will make local farmers’ subsistence even more tenuous, create more hatred and lead to serious social unrest and upheaval. Sindh and
Balochistan are lower riparians and resent the IRSA rulings favouring Punjab. Aquifer exploitation will lead to other severe environmental problems. The
perennial fertiliser and electricity shortages will certainly be exacerbated. These new agro-settlements will only compound all the existing problems.
Those oases of prosperity, protected by legislation and armed goons, will be out of bounds to the local population for all means and purposes. Their
rights over the ‘commons’ for cattle grazing and their ‘freedom to roam’ or “Allemensraetten” as it is known in Scandinavia, will be grossly violated. This
will have devastating economic and social effects on the lives of people. These agro-villes will if left to increase uninhibitedly, which certainly will be the
case, make Sindh and Balochistan the new West Bank with Gulf State agro-settlements mimicking the Israeli settlements.
He who pays the piper calls the tune so the $ 2 billion priced 100,000 strong security force in all likelihood will be answerable to the investors. In the
case of conflict between the locals and the investors, I wonder how much force they will be allowed to employ to guarantee the safety and satisfaction of
the investors. The fate of muzairin at army farms is well known.
Equally important is the question whose laws and conventions will prevail in the settlements: the investor countries or the host? These settlements for
all means and purposes will be autonomous states within the state, further undermining and fragmenting its already waning authority. These
autonomous areas with their security force will have all the advantages and none of the obligations and thereby create an even deeper split between the
people and the rulers.
Instead of using the begged $ 2 billion to create another repressive and trigger-happy force, a better option would be giving these million acres to
landless peasants and use this money to help them. They could produce enough to fulfil the needs of the investor countries without the rights of people
being bartered away.
But then it would be expecting too much of a government that is willingly forfeiting rights over a commodity whose production stopped billions of years
ago and is being progressively lost to degradation and urbanisation. Selling something as precious as land for returning favours and making a quick
buck is not only bad economics but also a fail-safe method for creating social and economic turmoil of immeasurable proportions and ensuring that the
anticipated failed state scenario becomes a grim reality.
Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur has an association with the Baloch rights movement going back to the early 1970s. He can be contacted at mmatalpur@gmail.
com
http://dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010\02\07\story_7-2-2010_pg3_4
making it anymore
—Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur
Instead of using the begged $ 2 billion to create another repressive and trigger-happy force, a better option would be giving these million acres to
landless peasants and use this money to help them
Mark Twain, American humourist (1835-1910), rightly said: “buy land — they’re not making it anymore”. The Gulf State rulers heed his advice while our
nincompoops and jesters who pass off as rulers (civilian and military), politicians and bureaucrats either have not heard about it or are ignoring it
because their loyalties lie with their pockets. They care not a whit for the people as they retire to farmhouses here or mansions abroad with all the looted
money, leaving us to suffer the consequences.
Shah Mehmood Qureshi recently said that Pakistan would press ahead with plans to lease or sell farmland to foreign investors. He said, “Many people
misunderstood these deals, and we are now trying to explain to them that the land we want to sell is not land that belongs to anyone or even has any
existing agriculture activity.” It should be noted that the UN has expressed serious concern over all such deals.
The original Pakistani offer of “one million acres of farmland, protected by a special security force, for lease or sale to countries seeking to secure their
food supplies” was given by Waqar Ahmed Khan, the Federal Minister for Investment on April 29, 2009. He said, “Pakistan’s government is now in talks
with Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and other Arab states.” He added that parliament would provide investors with legislative cover to protect them from
changes in government.
More significantly he added, “It (the ministry) will also hire a new security force of 100,000 men to be split among the country’s provinces to help stabilise
the investment environment” and “this will cost us about $ 2 billion to pay the salaries and train these people who will be from local towns and
provinces”. This sum he said they were seeking from donors. Still more loans for a still newer force is a sure recipe for an unmitigated disaster. This is
extraordinary economics!
This envisaged policy has annoyed the Baloch and Sindhi people because of the implications it carries. They expect to be victims due to the geographic
and demographic realities. Sindh is 140,914 square kilometres with a population of 216 individuals per square kilometre and very fertile, while
Balochistan is 347,190 square kilometres with a population of only 18.9 individuals per square kilometre. These factors make them prime candidates
for implementation of this policy of making a quick buck for the rulers and at the same time undermining their existing economic, social and
demographic balance.
NWFP is 74,521 square kilometres with a population density of 238.1 individuals per square kilometre. In the prevailing situation no investor, regardless
of the profits involved, will risk his neck there. Punjab is 205,345 square kilometres with a population density of 358.5 individuals per square kilometre.
Moreover, its agriculture minister confirmed that 600,000 acres offered in Cholistan were rejected due to brackish water.
In Military Inc.: Inside Pakistan’s Military Economy, Dr Ayesha Siddiqa says, “The military was given 10 percent of the approximately nine million acres of
land reclaimed due to the construction of the Kotri, Guddu and Ghulam Mohammad barrages in Sindh. The government also gave land to some senior
civil bureaucrats, who were the military regime’s partners. After the military’s takeover in October 1958, more land was allotted to army officers in the
Guddu Barrage area.”
What is even more important, however, is the fact that the land allotted to military officers was developed with US aid. Reportedly, the then finance
minister of Punjab, Nawab Iftikhar Hussain Mamdot, justified the use of foreign aid for land development because the money was meant for the army. It
was done under the Alienation of Land Act, which specifically stipulated an allocation of 10 percent of colonised land to the armed forces. The land
development clause was incorporated later in a new law, the Colonisation of Land Act, 1912.
Reports indicate that the Gulf States have acquired more than 150,000 hectares of land in Balochistan near Mirani Dam to begin mechanised farming.
The UAE was on a buying spree even before the policy announcement. This is not a conjecture because the Balochistan government decided to block
direct deals between the UAE-based private investors and farmers. The then Balochistan Chief Secretary Nasir Khosa had said, “We are seeing more
and more UAE investors coming to this region looking to buy farms directly from the local farmer, which is not legal because it has to be approved by a
government body.”
The buying however has continued with front men. The Windar Dam and other small dam projects, though ostensibly for the welfare of the local people,
are part of the strategy to bring about demographic changes, as a fixed percentage of reclaimed land is allotted to the armed forces and to entice Gulf
State Emirs to buy land; who come annually on hunting sprees to eliminate the already endangered Houbara Bustard.
The Sindhis expect an equally raw deal. Kijani Energy Canada has already bought large tracts of land, 200,000 acres in Thar for Jatropha cultivation. The
Tharis have protested against the violation of their centuries-old livestock grazing rights, claiming they are being deprived of a primary source of
livelihood due to restrictions.
The Baloch and Sindhis are gravely concerned because this policy will have incalculably adverse social, demographic and economic consequences for
them. A million acres equals 4,046.872,6267 square kilometres. Interestingly, Luxembourg’s size is only 2,586 square kilometres. The landscape in
Balochistan and Sindh is dotted with villages even in the remotest areas and perchance if these come within the ambit of leased land, then their fate is
sealed. The avaricious and soulless corporate landowners tolerate no obstacles, human or historical, to their plans. Wherever these agro-settlements
are created, the locals will suffer immeasurably.
Extreme discontent over chronic water shortage already exists. Where will the excess water for a million acres come from? Diversion of already scarce
water will make local farmers’ subsistence even more tenuous, create more hatred and lead to serious social unrest and upheaval. Sindh and
Balochistan are lower riparians and resent the IRSA rulings favouring Punjab. Aquifer exploitation will lead to other severe environmental problems. The
perennial fertiliser and electricity shortages will certainly be exacerbated. These new agro-settlements will only compound all the existing problems.
Those oases of prosperity, protected by legislation and armed goons, will be out of bounds to the local population for all means and purposes. Their
rights over the ‘commons’ for cattle grazing and their ‘freedom to roam’ or “Allemensraetten” as it is known in Scandinavia, will be grossly violated. This
will have devastating economic and social effects on the lives of people. These agro-villes will if left to increase uninhibitedly, which certainly will be the
case, make Sindh and Balochistan the new West Bank with Gulf State agro-settlements mimicking the Israeli settlements.
He who pays the piper calls the tune so the $ 2 billion priced 100,000 strong security force in all likelihood will be answerable to the investors. In the
case of conflict between the locals and the investors, I wonder how much force they will be allowed to employ to guarantee the safety and satisfaction of
the investors. The fate of muzairin at army farms is well known.
Equally important is the question whose laws and conventions will prevail in the settlements: the investor countries or the host? These settlements for
all means and purposes will be autonomous states within the state, further undermining and fragmenting its already waning authority. These
autonomous areas with their security force will have all the advantages and none of the obligations and thereby create an even deeper split between the
people and the rulers.
Instead of using the begged $ 2 billion to create another repressive and trigger-happy force, a better option would be giving these million acres to
landless peasants and use this money to help them. They could produce enough to fulfil the needs of the investor countries without the rights of people
being bartered away.
But then it would be expecting too much of a government that is willingly forfeiting rights over a commodity whose production stopped billions of years
ago and is being progressively lost to degradation and urbanisation. Selling something as precious as land for returning favours and making a quick
buck is not only bad economics but also a fail-safe method for creating social and economic turmoil of immeasurable proportions and ensuring that the
anticipated failed state scenario becomes a grim reality.
Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur has an association with the Baloch rights movement going back to the early 1970s. He can be contacted at mmatalpur@gmail.
com
http://dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010\02\07\story_7-2-2010_pg3_4
Nawab Aslam Raisani,
Chief Minister (CM) Balochistan, announced last year that the provincial cabinet had unanimously decided to cancel an agreement with Tethyan Copper
and Gold Company (TCC) for exploration of copper and gold in the Reko Diq area of Chagai district and not to lease out the land to the company for
further work. He said, “Cancellation of the Reko Diq copper and gold project agreement is a step towards getting control over provincial resources in
accordance with the wishes of the people.” He added agreements undermining the rights of indigenous people would be cancelled. Toronto-based
Barrick Gold Corp and Chilean Antofagasta’s have a major share in TCC.
It turned out that he had not consulted the real masters and, ironically, the day he said that that the FC was running a ‘parallel government’ he also
disclosed that the federal government had rejected the scrapping of the Gwadar Deep Sea Port and Reko Diq project agreements; which in fact means
that his government does not really exist. However, he bravely added, “the Balochistan government would not allow any agreement that undermined the
rights of the people of Balochistan”. I wonder what ‘rights’ was he talking of because his cabinet’s unanimous decision had been rejected out of hand
without even a face-saving gesture.
The CM’s bubble of defiance and of the federal government, if any, was pricked the moment Anne Patterson, the US envoy, had said, “Multinational
corporations will not invest in a country where deals are cancelled in one hour...two major international mining companies were recently burned when
the Balochistan provincial government recently announced the cancellation of their long-negotiated contract to build a copper and gold mine in Reko
Diq.” Adding, it had cost Pakistan a loss of $ 3.5 billion investment for one of its least developed regions. After this no government here would have the
courage to stand by its cancellation decision. We indeed are sovereign.
Many interests are at work in Balochistan. The Baloch people have primary interest. Their so-called representative, the provincial government, is as
toothless as it is ineffectual. Its resolutions and decisions are not even worth the paper they are written on. Then there are the mining multinationals, the
modern Midases, their mentor the US, then China that is milking Saindak dry and would love to do the same to four times bigger Reko Diq, and lastly the
interests of powerful and corrupt politicians and bureaucrats in Quetta and Islamabad.
A question arises why would the US Envoy be interested in the cancellation of this deal in particular? The real reason is the support for Barrick Gold, the
foremost gold mining corporation in the world, founded in 1983 by Saudi arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi. It produced 7.42 million ounces gold in 2009
and expected to increase to 7.6-8.0 million in 2010. It is as rich and influential as it is notorious. Remember Halliburton in Iraq? Moreover, the US seeks
to limit China’s role in Balochistan.
Barrick’s track record is pathetic. Credible international surveys indicate and suggest that Reko Diq is home to one of the biggest copper reserves in the
world with over “12.3 million tons of copper and 20.9 million ounces of gold”. With an estimated life span of more than 50 years and four times larger in
copper ore tonnage than Saindak, it is a modern day Midas’s dream. Allowing a mining company like Barrick Gold is like welcoming disasters of
unparalleled magnitude for the people and environment because mind boggling amounts of water and cyanide would be needed.
Marcel Claude, of environmental group Oceana, says, “Gold mining dumps 79 tonnes of waste for every 28 grams of gold, and produces 96 percent of
the world’s arsenic emissions.” So extraction of a tonne of gold produces 28,214,285.72 tonnes of waste; just imagine how much waste and arsenic
emissions would result in extracting 20.9 million ounces of gold (650 tonnes) at Reko Diq. The gold here will be more cursed for the people than it was
for Midas.
A few facts about cyanide would not be out of place here. The discoverer of cyanide Carl Wilhelm Scheele found that it could dissolve gold in 1783 but it
was not used until 1887. Though there are alternatives to cyanide, including starch and sulphur dioxide, cyanide is preferred as it readily bonds with
gold, etc. Approximately 1.4 million tonnes of hydrogen cyanide is produced annually worldwide; with approximately 13 percent, i.e. 182,000 tonnes,
being used to produce cyanide reagents for gold processing. Recent studies show that residual cyanide trapped in the gold-mine tailings may cause
persistent release of toxic metals (e.g. mercury) into the groundwater and surface water systems. Cyanide poisoning can occur through inhalation,
ingestion, and skin or eye contact. One teaspoon of a 2 percent solution can kill a person.
Though cleaner and safer methods exist but multinational mining companies, the modern day Midases, more concerned with profits, use cyanide freely
because in any case neither they nor their public are affected; the host areas are ravaged irreparably. Chagai has already had more than a fair share of
disasters. It was an unwilling victim of two nuclear explosions that turned a black coloured mountain to ashen grey.
The powerless provincial government in Balochistan, if it has a modicum of decency, should quit immediately to absolve itself of the responsibility of
exploitation and destruction of Balochistan’s resources and environment. But then the lure of power and pelf, however demeaning it is, is deemed
acceptable by those to whom self-aggrandisement is a priority. Had they shown spine and resisted the Centre on the Reko Diq issue, they would have
got a groundswell of support all around.
Considering the environmental consequences, all licenses to Reko Diq should be cancelled. In Sindh it is said that, “Gold that begets grief is better
forsaken.” The hunger for gold is seemingly insatiable. Till 2009, 161,000 tonnes of gold had been mined in human history but that failed to satiate. A
hundred more Reko Diqs will not satiate either. With gold prices at above $ 1,100, to expect the modern Midases to be compassionate to the people or
environment in their ruthless quest for gold is futile, unless of course the people take matters into their own hands.
Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur has an association with the Baloch rights movement going back to the early 1970s. He can be contacted at mmatalpur@gmail.
com
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010\03\01\story_1-3-2010_pg3_4
Analysis: Midas
by Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur
The powerless provincial government in Balochistan, if it has a modicum of decency, should quit immediately to
absolve itself of the responsibility of exploitation and destruction of Balochistan's resources and environment.
by Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur
The powerless provincial government in Balochistan, if it has a modicum of decency, should quit immediately to
absolve itself of the responsibility of exploitation and destruction of Balochistan's resources and environment.