I DREAM OF A PAKISTAN
Dr. Javaid R. Laghari
Chairperson
Higher Education Commission
Pakistan
Pakistan has tremendous resources. These can be depicted through a
collection of images from Pakistan, pictures
which speaks a thousand
words.
We have a beautiful coastline, 650 miles of unexplored, virgin territory.
Some of the images of the Pakistan coastline can be visualized in figure-1.
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We have beautiful deserts. The 9th largest sub-tropical desert in the world
and the only fertile desert in the world, Tharparkar, with an area of 5,000 sq
miles has almost 365 days of sunshine. The Fort of Rainkot is almost as
large as the Great Wall of China, with the second largest wall in the world.
The Cholistan desert, also known as Rohi, has its own magnificent
Derawan Fort. The grandeur of the Pakistan deserts, and its forts, can be
seen in figure-2.
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Pakistan has roughly 2000 miles of rivers, River Indus being the largest of
them all that flows the entire total length of the country. We also have along
with this river one of the largest irrigation systems of the world. Pakistan is
an agro-rich country. Our agriculture, which is the backbone of our
economy, is dependent on River Indus. And the civilization, the languages
that we speak, the history that we have, is all dependent on Indus. The
word Indus, the word India, which was the sub-continent, comes from the
word Indu, Indu and Sindu were the two old civilizations. We technically are
one of the oldest civilization in this part of the world. Some images of the
mighty river Indus and its tributaries flowing through the heartland of
Pakistan can be seen in figure-3.
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The Mangroves in Pakistan, the 6th largest in the world, are 300,000 acres,
and one of the richest eco-system that we have. Shrimps, fishes, folklore,
an area of land that is yet untapped, unexploited, just like our desert, just
like the coastline that we have. The beauty of these mangroves can be
seen in figure-4.
Biodiversity is another important strength that we have. From the coast,
which is at sea level, to peaks as high as 28,000 feet, from the rivers, to the
mangroves, to the deserts, we have over 6000 different species of plants,
of herbal plants, of vegetation, of forests, and of species and animal life!
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The herbal industry itself today is a $ 60 billion industry, a resource that we
have not fully tapped into, that we have not yet exploited. Various images
of the biodiversity found in Pakistan can be seen in figure-5.
We have great mountains, amongst the most beautiful in the world. We
have the majestic K-2, second highest peak in the world, over 28,000 feet
tall, which is the most difficult mountain in the world to climb, more difficult
than Mount Everest. We have four peaks out of the world’s fourteen that
are over 24,000 feet, all in the region of the three largest mountain ranges
of the world, the Himalayas, the Karakorums, and the Hindu Kush. We
have one of the most beautiful and highest glaciers in the world, which are
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the source of our rivers, our agriculture, our economy. The beauty of the
mountains in Pakistan much surpass the few images shown in figure-6.
Pakistan is also rich in natural resources. We have Saidaik copper mines,
and Reko Deq, the 5th largest gold deposits in the world, which are still not
explored or mined. This gold and copper is worth over $ 1.2 trillion. Then
we have rare earths that are worth more than $500 billion. That is the type
of potential that we have just in these two resource rich areas. Ours is a
country that is rich in mines and natural resources, a potential area that we
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have not yet exploited into and explored. Some of the mines in Pakistan
from these resource-rich areas can be seen in figure-7.
We think we are energy deficient. Pakistan is actually an energy rich
country! Just look at Hydel, which brings one of the largest contributions to
electric power. We still have potential to generate more than 40,000 MW by
hydro alone, that’s twice as much as we currently have in the country, by
putting up dams, small and large, and through run-of-the-river dams. We
also have coal, 175 billion tons of unmined lignite, which are the largest
coal deposits in the world, technically called the Saudi Arabia of coal, which
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are worth over $25 trillion: This coal can generate enough energy, about
100,000 MW for 300 years! That is the potential that we have in coal. Coal
that can also be converted into gas, coal that can be converted into diesel,
and coal that can be burned directly to produce electric power.
Pakistan has no gas shortage. Despite the depleting gas at Sui, and at
Qadirpur, we still have potential of over 30 trillion cubic feet of natural gas,
which is trapped in Shale Rock. Most of the Canadian gas is in Shale Rock,
which is known as tight gas. This is a resource that has not been exploited,
that has not been explored. We would rather import gas from Central Asia,
from Iran, just like we like to import our furnace oil and our gasoline product
from outside rather than make it locally. There is technology available to
extract this gas viably if there is a will to do so!
We also have the potential to generate electricity through Windmills. The
South of Pakistan, Sindh, has huge potential, a wind belt, which can easily
generate over 50,000 MW using windmills. India today is generating over
13,000 MW using wind, almost three-fourth of the total in Pakistan, with
plans to double it within 5 years. China produces 44,000 MW, three times
our total power production of Pakistan, and there are many more examples,
including US with 40,000 MW, Germany 27,000 MW, and Spain 20,000
MW.
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Then there is the huge potential of solar energy. In Tharparkar, and in
Cholistan, we have 365 days of sunshine. Solar energy earlier on was not
feasible, but in the last 4 years, the price of solar panel has gone down by
less than 50 percent. Today solar electric power is more feasible than by
gas and oil. As a result, it is the fastest growing sector in recent years,
almost doubling from 22 GW in 2009 to over 40 GW in 2010. A country like
Germany, which hardly sees any days of sunshine, is generating over
23,000 MW using solar. India plans to generate over 20,000 MW by 2020,
which again is the total electricity we are currently generating all over
Pakistan today! The energy potential of Pakistan is depicted in figure-8.
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Let us now look at the some of the developed countries. If we look at South
Korea, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, a large number of European
countries, none of these countries have the type of natural resources that
we do: The rivers, the coastline, the natural resources, the sun, the deserts,
the biodiversity, the energy. When we compare what we have versus what
they have, we find that those without the natural resources are the most
developed, while we with all the natural resources are amongst the least
developed and the poorest country in the world. Why is that? We will soon
find out.
Now in addition to our natural resources, Pakistan offers yet another great
potential, its geographical location at the crossroads of history!. The history
of this region, the strategic location, is that we are at the crossroad of
Central Asia, South Asia, and West Asia. Civilizations have passed through
it, and have continued to do. We offer the shortest route from Central Asia
to the warm waters of Arabian Sea. From the East to the West, we have an
extremely strategic location. We have prospered because of the silk route
in the past, and if we capitalize on this even today, we can continue to
prosper because of our strategic location. The historical trading routes
through Pakistan is shown in figure 9.
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As a result of the Silk Route, we have a very strong civilization, like the
Indus valley civilization, which was built up along the rivers. We have a
history that goes back 7000 BCE at Mehrgarh, one of the most important
Neolithic sites in archaeology. Everybody knows of Mohenjo-Daro and the
Indus Valley civilization, which is about 2600 BCE, and the Gandhara
civilization, dating from 1st millennium BC to the 11th century AD, where we
have the oldest University in the world at Taxila. This is the land where
Alexander passed, but could go no further, and was forced to return back
West via Balochistan. Then, of course, the recent history that we have,
post-Islamic, an extremely rich heritage that this country has, the Moghals
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for example. We are indeed a proud nation. Some of the rich heritage can
be seen in figure-10.
However, the biggest strength that we have is, because of our location,
because of our heritage, is our demography. The diversity that we have in
our people, peoples from all walks of life. The biggest strength that we have
is our demography, the 6th largest nation in the world, 180 million strong! It
is yet another natural resource, exactly like all the natural resources we
have talked about, untapped, unexploited, just like coal, just like gas, just
like the wind. Half the population is below 18 years of age, which is an
extremely important and abundant raw material that we have, one that is
not available in the Western world, which has an aging population. This
asset is not in the developed world, it is not in US, Europe, and elsewhere.
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This is the real resource of our country, our people! The variety can be
seen in figure-11.
And because of that, we have strong human capital. As a result, we have
had great scientists like Dr. Abdus Salam, the Nobel Laureate, great
philanthropists like Abdul Sattar Edhi, great poets like Allama Iqbal, and
great sportsman like Imran Khan. And the list goes on and on from history
out to the present time. Some of the living legends of Pakistan can be seen
in figure-12.
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And beyond this, when we talk about the youth, we have had great youth
potential, like Arfa Karim, the computing genius, who passed away at an
early age, and Ali Moeen Nawazish, the world record holder in CIE A
levels. We have great youth potential living in this country, as is depicted in
figure-13.
One sees the potential, one sees the strength, one sees the resources, so
what we have done about it! How can we exploit it to our advantage? How
can we capitalize on our demography? How can we add value to our
youth? It is no rocket science. The developed countries have done it
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through educating their masses and their youth! This why they have
prospered and we have not. The evidence of this can be seen in figure-14.
This is prosperity through knowledge economy! The country out at the top
of the curve is South Korea, while Pakistan is out at the bottom. This curve
literally means the more you invest in the education, the more you invest in
higher education, the more you see the returns in the form of prosperity
through knowledge economy. South Korea has enrollment and graduation
densities which are 10 times that of Pakistan, and their GDP per capita is
10 times more. Other Muslim countries that have similarly invested in
higher education, like Malaysia and Turkey, 4 to 6 times more enrollment
densities and graduates that we currently have in Pakistan, and their GDP
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per capita are 4 to 6 times more than that of Pakistan. We fall at the very
bottom. This is clear evidence that countries have prospered through
education, through higher education, and through the creation of a
knowledge economy.
But one can go even beyond this, which is the example of value addition.
Countries that have innovation, countries that do research, countries that
have post-graduates and Ph.Ds, do even better! Examples are the
Scandinavian countries, Europe, North America. These are countries that
have really invested in value-addition to education, countries that have
done a lot of research and have bridged the gap to industrialization.
Finland, for example, has a population less than half that of Karachi, and
only one company from Finland, Nokia, has more exports than all of
Pakistan put together! That is value addition to economy through
technology and research. Countries that have the most research prosper
the most, as can be seen in figure-15.
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So what is Pakistan doing about it? Well, we have finally woken up! We are
now putting value in our higher education. We are establishing knowledge
hubs in Pakistan, like the ones shown in figure-16.
That is the right direction. Our goal is to have more and more education,
more and more higher education and graduates, and more and more
relevant research and technology in our country, which can be transferred
to the industry. We need to create more knowledge workers if we have to
prosper economically.
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What has the Higher Education Commission in Pakistan, which is the apex
body to develop higher education in the country, has done in recent years?
A lot! This can be visualized through the growth of enrollment at our
universities as seen in figure-17.
Our graduate enrollment continues to grow at a rate of 15 to 20 percent a
year. Currently, we have more than a million students enrolled at our
universities, and we continue to grow. That is the impact that we are trying
to create, and it is starting to make a difference. Things have started
changing!
We are focusing on value-addition too, through innovation and research.
With the number of Ph.Ds graduates that we are producing, we have
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reached a takeoff point in research, we have reached a takeoff point in
value addition. We had only one Ph.D. graduate in 1947, in 2002, we had
200 Ph.Ds per year. Currently in the last year, we have produced more
than 800 PhD. graduates in one year. and still counting! We now have an
exponential increase in numbers of PhDs, as can be seen in figure-18.
We are now creating new knowledge, the evidence of which is the number
of papers that are published out of Pakistan. From 800 research
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publications in 2002, to over 6200 in 2011, an 8 times increase! The growth
of research publications from Pakistan can be seen in figure-19.
Figure.19: Creating New Knowledge through Research
7000
6200
6000
4963
5000
3939
4000
3425
2836
3000
1765
2000
1000
816
948
1044
1316
0
2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
Pakistan is amongst the fastest growing country in terms of creating new
knowledge than a lot of other countries. We are taking back our share of
research from the world, which has gone up to 300 percent till 2009. This
year the number could be 500 percent that we have taken back our share.
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The share of Pakistan’s publication worldwide, which shows a three time
increase in world share, can be seen in figure-20,
We are now moving forward, and that is what our dream is, and should be
like. Our dream is prospering through knowledge economy, through value
addition, and through creating knowledge workers, we will lead our nation
towards what we call a better and prosperous Pakistan.
We are starting to become visible, we are starting to come on the horizon,
we are coming on the world scene. Couple of years back there were no
universities in Pakistan that could be identified among world’s best. Today
we have at least 2, and Inshallah in 2012, and I am sure you would see 5
universities that are above the horizon, that are visible on the world scene.
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So that is my dream. My dream is for a prosperous Pakistan through
knowledge economy, through education, through higher education, and
through research and innovation.
Based on a Lecture given at TEDx on February 4, 2012.
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