Saturday, February 5, 2022
Converting the PM House into a university is just another scam in the making
HUNDREDS of mediocre, dysfunctional universities are littered across Pakistan. Now another one is on its way. To be located at the Prime Minister House on Islamabad’s Constitution Avenue, it has been named PUEET (Pak University of Engineering & Emerging Technologies). Costing Rs34.730 billion — of which Rs23.54bn has been approved — this exceeds by eight to 10 times the price of an average public university. Heavy hype surrounds PUEET. The official planning document called PC-1 says it’s a “Dream University” with “Centres of Excellence” in hi-tech fields — artificial intelligence, machine learning, microelectronics, aerospace, cybersecurity, biotech, etc. Its international faculty will make it “stand among the top research universities of the world while catering to the advanced technology needs of the country”. Wait! Haven’t we been there before, time and time again? For a full 20 years, Dr Atta-ur-Rahman — the project’s architect — has been promising the moon to simple-minded national leaders. His other projects have flopped, wasting vast sums of public money. Before Pakistan next approaches IMF for the usual dole, we need to recall his unfulfilled pledges. Let’s begin with Dr Rahman’s three scientific institutes (HEJ, TWCST, PCMMDR). These have operated for decades and, between them, annually consume over Rs1bn. Tasked with drug discovery and applied chemistry, their official website and downloadable annual reports boast many thousand research papers. But, tellingly, there’s no mention of the discovery of a single drug or the invention of any industrial process. Converting the PM House into a university is unworkable, wildly extravagant, and must be stopped.
To ensure that their true performance remains firmly hidden, a letter dated Feb 4, 2021, from the Prime Minister’s Office de-authorised HEC from investigating any institution under “supervision by Dr Atta-ur-Rahman”. No cover-up could be more blatant. It suggests lawlessness at the highest level. Unsurprisingly, as per the Corruption Perceptions Index of Transparency International, Pakistan lost 16 points in 2021 and dropped to 140 out of 180 countries.
Next, recall the $4.3bn HEC project under Dr Rahman in 2005 for making nine engineering universities in collaboration with France, Sweden, Italy, and Austria. Half their faculty was to be European. Many buildings — now abandoned — were constructed, and many billions spent. But, 17 years later, there’s zilch to show. Well, almost. Something called the Pak-Austria Fachhochschule (German for polytechnic) was made in Haripur. But notwithstanding the huge bombast and fanfare, a visit to the polytechnic’s website shows no foreign faculty has come from Austria or elsewhere. It’s just a plain, average place.Buying equipment has been very important to Dr Rahman. Older readers may recall the intense 2005 public dispute between him and Prof Riazuddin (d.2013) who was Pakistan’s finest scientist after Abdus Salam. I too was part of the debate. This concerned purchasing a Pelletron nuclear accelerator for Quaid-e-Azam University (QAU). Then worth Rs400 million, a special building had to be constructed for it.
Being nuclear physicists, Riazuddin and I knew that buying this machine would be a terrible waste. We lost the battle but time proved us right. That machine has been junked. It produced no results of significance. Sadly, the same story is to be repeated at PUEET which will import billions worth of scientific equipment. Meanwhile tons of instruments lie unused in universities and institutes.
Smooth talk is not enough. Three critical questions must be answered before wasting yet more billions.
First, why make a research university inside buildings designed to be residential? Built by Gen Ziaul Haq in the 1980s, the prime minister’s residence was also to be a secure guest house for important visitors. PM Khan’s theatrics against lavishness — including selling the PM House’s buffalos — drives PUEET. But, although politically attractive, it violates common sense. Red Zone security during VIP movements frequently puts the area off limits. Classes will be cancelled on many a day.
Second, why not use the existing infrastructure of other universities in Islamabad? For example Nust is an army-controlled university tasked to develop technologies. It was gifted an entire sector of Islamabad’s choicest land of which it uses just a fraction. Rather than start from zero, surely it makes sense to pool together limited national resources with Nust. Or, just two miles away from the PM House is QAU. Engineering departments can be created there as well.
Third, and most crucial, where will PUEET get its super high-quality faculty from? Even large salaries could not attract high-performing foreigners from advanced countries to Pakistan. Instead, only second-raters from Eastern Europe and Central Asia come here for any length of time. As for Pakistanis: just a few are capable of teaching advanced technologies or high science. Everyone knows that existing institutions pretentiously named ‘Centre of Excellence’ are far from excellent. All lack proper faculty.
To see how these questions were addressed, I scoured the approved PC-1 but found no mention. Apart from sections on civil works, this planning document is a joke. To call it an advertising brochure would be better. Old memes stolen from the internet about “knowledge economy” and “technology incubators” are parroted here. There are lists of equipment — massively overpriced — but no mention of specific uses. Pelletron redux! Approving such shoddy plans exposes the doubtful integrity and poor judgement of our technical committees and law makers.
To move ahead, we must first admit that the present situation of Pakistan’s science and science education is dire. University teaching is generally so poor that, with just a few exceptions, Pakistani students sent abroad on full PhD scholarships fail to survive academically in better quality US, British or Chinese universities. Hence the overwhelming majority seeks admission into lower-grade universities. Like their professors back home, to get ahead they have opted for slippery ways rather than work hard to remove their academic deficiencies.
There are no quick fixes to a deep problem. Substandard universities, meaningless degrees, and vacuous ‘research’ publications have exploded in numbers. Like metastasized cancers they call for drastic, painful treatment. Scams like PUEET will weaken us further. True scientific development will need basic honesty, critical thinking, good schooling and strong university undergraduate programmes. This must be our starting point.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1673415/another-scam-in-the-making
Will Beijing Heed Pakistan’s Request for Loans?
By Umair Jamal
Their friendship may be doing well rhetorically, but Islamabad’s reliance on Chinese money is creating complications for Pakistan.Prime Minister Imran Khan’s upcoming visit to China on February 3-5 will largely focus on seeking more financial help to support Pakistan’s economy. However, financial dealings between the two countries have become increasingly complicated due to Pakistan’s diminishing foreign reserves and inability to return loans taken in the past.
This suggests that the Pakistani prime minister will not get substantial funds from Beijing unless previous budgetary issues between the two countries get addressed.
The Pakistani leadership has sought to pitch the trip as an example of the support the two countries extend each other in difficult times. In an interview with Chinese journalists in Islamabad last week, Khan said that the West’s criticism of Beijing regarding the treatment of Uyghurs in Xinjiang was unfounded, as the situation on the ground doesn’t show any ill-treatment. He went on to say that the West’s criticism of China over the Uyghur issue is reflective of its selective policy, which does not call out New Delhi for its alleged human rights violations in Indian administrated Kashmir.
Meanwhile, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said that the key objective of Khan’s visit to China was to attend the Beijing Winter Olympics and express solidarity with Beijing as several countries have called for a diplomatic boycott of the Games.
In a separate statement, the Pakistani Foreign Office said that the visit will reinforce the “All Weather Strategic Cooperation Partnership” and advance the objective of building a closer China-Pakistan community.
However, beyond rhetoric and solidarity calls, the trip’s agenda shows that Pakistan’s economic and diplomatic reliance on China continues to grow.
Khan is likely to ask for $3 billion in loans from China to stabilize the country’s falling foreign reserves. Reportedly, China has already placed $11 billion with Pakistan in the form of commercial loans and foreign exchange reserves. These loans are part of Pakistan’s current official foreign exchange reserves that stand at around $16.1 billion.
Moreover, Pakistan is also expected to pitch around six priority sectors including textiles, footwear, pharmaceuticals, furniture, and agriculture for their competitiveness to attract Chinese businesses.
It is unlikely that Chinese will inject substantial financial support unless the existing budgetary issues over previous investments are resolved. For some time now, Chinese investors in Pakistan’s energy sector have repeatedly asked Islamabad to resolve issues of existing project sponsors in order to attract fresh investment. A number of these projects are stuck in a circular trap in Pakistan. For instance, some Chinese projects in Pakistan are facing problems in securing insurance of their loans back home due to Pakistan’s massive energy sector circular debt of about $14 billion. Roughly, Pakistan has to pay around $1.3 billion to Chinese power producers and so far only $280 million has been paid.
The subject will surely be on the Chinese leadership’s agenda this week. Beijing has driven a hard bargain with Islamabad when it comes to paybacks on its loans and other investments in Pakistan. In the outgoing fiscal year, Pakistan paid around $150 million in interest to China for using a $4.5 billion Chinese trade finance facility. In financial year 2019-20, Pakistan paid $120 million in interest on use of a $3 billion facility.
Another example of Chinese hard bargain policy over monetary dealings vis-à-vis Pakistan is well documented in the case of Dasu Dam Project. Last year, China demanded $38 million in compensation for the families of engineers who died in the Dasu Dam terror attack. Reportedly, Beijing made the compensation a precondition for the resumption of work on the project. To placate Beijing, Pakistan has agreed to pay $11.6 million in compensation to the 36 Chinese nationals working on the project.
Arguably, Pakistan’s existing foreign currency reserves have largely been built through borrowing. A majority of these foreign reserves are there due to Chinese loans. Pakistan’s reserves fell sharply over $1.5 billion in the first three weeks of January 2022. The reserves have fallen below the $23 billion mark mainly due to massive external debt servicing. It is important to mention here that in December 2021, Pakistan received a loan of $3 billion, which the country has already consumed.
These dealings reflect that Khan’s push to win more funds during his upcoming visit to China will not be easy. And if he manages to get more funds, it will add to the country’s debt stock and service obligations. This has been the case in the past. Last year, Pakistan took around $3 billion from China to return the same amount owed to Saudi Arabia.
At the moment, Pakistan is eyeing to revive the $6 billion loan program with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to support its foreign exchange reserves. However, at this point Pakistan’s case at the IMF remains uncertain.
Pakistan and China’s “all weather friendship” may be doing well rhetorically, but Islamabad’s all out reliance on Chinese money to manage its economic woes is not working out well.
https://thediplomat.com/2022/02/will-beijing-heed-pakistans-request-for-loans/
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