Sikander Brohi
Sikander Brohi is a research and development professional with overall working experience of 15 years. Starting his career in print media with key focus on development and research oriented reporting; Sikander Brohi soon joined SZABIST as researcher and initiated research work. After having completed a number of research projects, Sikander Brohi entered in the field of community development as Pakistan Program Coordinator, Sustainable Program for the Rehabilitation of Indus Delta Eco-region [SPRIDER], European Commission funded Project funded project implemented in three countries –i-e Spain, France and Pakistan. In Pakistan, Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum was the partner organization in the project.
Sikander Brohi jointly with some like minded people formed Participatory Development initiatives (PDI) in 2005 and since then his is working as its Executive Director. Under the leadership of Sikander Brohi, Participatory Development Initiatives (PDI) grew from a small organizations to one of the leading national organization having so far implemented more than sixty national, provincial and community level projects.
Sikander Brohi besides managing the program and administrative affairs of the organization has been playing leadership role in the implementation of all the sixty projects successfully in Sindh and Balochistan provinces of Pakistan. These projects range from DRR to climate change, education, sustainable development, land rights, natural resource management, humanitarian response, governance, accountability, budget advocacy, water management and scores of other themes. Sikander Brohi has been continuing his research activities and has conducted a number of research studies.
Sikander Brohi jointly with some like minded people formed Participatory Development initiatives (PDI) in 2005 and since then his is working as its Executive Director. Under the leadership of Sikander Brohi, Participatory Development Initiatives (PDI) grew from a small organizations to one of the leading national organization having so far implemented more than sixty national, provincial and community level projects.
Sikander Brohi besides managing the program and administrative affairs of the organization has been playing leadership role in the implementation of all the sixty projects successfully in Sindh and Balochistan provinces of Pakistan. These projects range from DRR to climate change, education, sustainable development, land rights, natural resource management, humanitarian response, governance, accountability, budget advocacy, water management and scores of other themes. Sikander Brohi has been continuing his research activities and has conducted a number of research studies.
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The overall objective of the study was to analyze the current situation of the small farmers and difficulties they face in accessing credit; particularly women headed and managed households in project areas of district Dadu, Sanghar and Musakheal. The specific objectives were:
• To review the existing agriculture credit in Pakistan and its importance in the growth of agriculture sector (Credit Policy review and Role of Agriculture Credit Advisory committee etc)
• To review and analyze the agricultural credit policies in Pakistan and its impact on small farmers
• State bank role in agricultural credit and how has been improved so far in Pakistan
• To review and assess agriculture credit schemes of different banks /institutes in Sindh and Baluchistan
• To study problems/issues related to agriculture credit schemes in Pakistan specifically in Sindh and Baluchistan
• To suggest solutions /reforms for improving the agriculture credit system and mechanism in Pakistan
The first article "Economy of Water Shortages in Sindh" analysis the situation of worst ever water shortage which occurred in Sindh from April to August 1999. The article identifies the basic causes of water shortages as well as suggests policy recommendations.
The article on " Environmental Impact of LBOD and RBOD projects " was actually prepared on the invitation of Social Policy Development Institution (SDPI) Islamabad, which was presented in “Citizens’ Conference on the Politics of Water: Perspectives and Policies" organized by SDPI on June-30 July-1 1999 At Islamabad. This article analysis the environmental impact of both the above-mentioned drainage- projects, effecting the socio-economic lifestyle of human population as well as fertility of the lands of the respective areas.
The two other research articles i-e "Flow and flaw" and "Missing link", were prepared on the invitation of prestigious English paper Daily 'The News Karachi' for its Special Sunday Edition. A lot of gratitude, in this connection, goes to The News Sunday Edition Incharge Mr. Shahzeb Jilani. He not only presented the idea of bringing out special edition on the drainage crisis of Pakistan with special reference to Sindh but also worked along with me in giving final shape to one of these articles. These articles carry the details on the concerns of Sindh on the implementation of NDP as well as the lack of community participation in the on-going drainage projects.
"Stealing the Irrigation Water of Sindh" is a document on the main socio-economic problems of Sindh and the injustice being meted out to Sindh and its people in various spheres of life. This article was prepared on the request of SANA to be presented in its annual meeting as a complete document of resolutions on Sindh.
"The Children of lesser god" and "How to improve Agriculture in the Coastal Districts of Sindh" are based on my study visit of the cyclone -hit area of Badin and Thatta. These articles discuss post -cyclone the plight of human population as well as their main livelihoods in the cyclone hit areas and carry a number of suggestions.
Besides, people’s participation in such decision making also directly and indirectly encourages the common people to monitor the implementation on such decisions when they have feeling of ownership of such an important process. This reduces the chances of the mismanagement at the implementation level of any decision, project or program meant for the betterment of the common people.
In Pakistan, despite the fact that the economic policies including budgets largely affect the common people; they have been largely excluded from the policy and budget making process. This situation is having negative impact on the lives and livelihoods of the common people.
Budget analysis and budget advocacy are now widely regarded as a central component of a growing arsenal of approaches developed by civil society organizations for fostering government accountability. Independent budget analysis has a number of parallels with existing practices fostered by civil society organizations that are designed to expand societal deliberation in public policy formulation.
Books by Sikander Brohi
the mother language of Brahui Khans of Kalat state,
unfortunately, Brahui language has always remained in
the disadvantageous position. Brahui Khans had adopted
Persian as their court language, with all their
correspondence and record maintained in this language,
leaving little space for their mother language to groom in
the Brahui state. The nationalist movement in Balochistan
initiated during the Indian partition days picked Balochi
language as the key element of Baloch nationalist identity
at the expense of Brahui language, which further cornered
this indigenous language. After the creation of Pakistan as
the British Balochistan and the Brahui state of Kalat
became part of the country and were merged into one
provincial identity i.e. Balochistan, once again Brahui lost
its opportunity of being recognized as one of the
provincial languages of Pakistan.
Unfortunately, the deliberate efforts of cornering and
marginalizing Brahui language did not stop there and are
still continuing in the face of political confrontation
between advocates of two strong narratives i.e. The state-sponsored narrative is that Pakistan is one nation Urdu
being its only national language, while according to the
provincial nationalists narrative provinces are historical
nations and the main language of each province should be
considered as the national language of Pakistan. The other
regional languages being spoken in all the provinces of
Pakistan including Brahui bear the brunt of this political
confrontation as their voice is completely muted in the face
of this confrontation.
Such confrontation reaches its heights during the holding of the national census in Pakistan. In all the
Pakistani provinces, the provincial nationalist forces
launch rigorous campaigns, pleading with the speakers of
other regional languages to enter the name of the main
provincial language in the column of ‘language’ in the
census form in place of their mother language as to ensure
the majority position of the main provincial languages
against the other languages being spoken in the provinces.
The final counting of the speakers of different languages in
Pakistan on the basis of such manipulated census results
shows the number of speakers of Brahui and other
indigenous languages as very negligible to the extent
meriting no government / official support for the uplift
and progress of such ‘minority languages’. While on the
contrary the language censuses carried out by the
Britishers in 1911 had shown Brahui language as the
majority language of Balochistan.
Such political moves have brought Brahui language
to the condition where it has been declared as one of the
threatened languages of Pakistan by UNESCO. However,
in the face of such challenges, there are many signs of
rejoicing. With the passage of time, there has been growing
feeling among the Brahui speaking people especially its
youth and educated people that both the official and
nationalist forces are not doing justice with Brahui
language and it is now the responsibility of the speakers of
the language to promote their endangered mother
language. The number of youth writers is growing who
prefer to read and write in their mother language. We can
see a growing web of literary organizations throughout
Balochistan working for the promotion of Brahui language.
Organizing Brahui literary seminars and conferences have
become one of the frequently occurring literary activities,
scholars have started working on Brahui dictionary and
books are being published on different genres of Brahui
language and literature. This has also had ripple effects in Sindh Province also where quite a large number of Brahui
community lives. In Sindh province also literary
organizations for Brahui language are emerging and
Brahui writers are coming on the forefront to create
literature in their mother language.
After the success of the national seminar on ‘Brahui
language and Literature’ organized by Participatory
Development Initiatives (PDI) in Karachi Sindh in May 2014,
it was Dr. M. Salah-ud-Din Mengal, Chairperson Brahui
Academy Pakistan, who came up with the idea of holding
an international conference on Brahui language in
Islamabad, the capital city of Pakistan. He expressed his
desire during our meeting in Quetta Balochistan and asked
me to be the focal person for this conference. We started
our journey in September 2014 by getting the website of
international Brahui conference registered, uploading all
the conference material including the call of papers on the
website. We also developed and published a very beautiful
conference brochure. With all the material set, we started
disseminating the information about the conference
nationally and globally, sending emails to the national and
global researchers, making calls, holding Skype meetings
etc.
The response we received was tremendous as a
number of international scholars showed their wiliness to
present their research work at the conference. However,
there were also hurdles and challenges i.e. most of the
foreign scholars were unable to get their travel funded due
to what they called in such a short time span. The second
equally challenging issue was how to ensure Pakistan visa
for a number of Indian scholars given the tense political
relations between both the countries. Despite such hurdles,
about half a dozen foreign scholars participated in the
conference and presented their papers. The two-day
schedule of the conference remained jam-packed with a
large number of scholarly paper presentations, which culminated at the Mushaira and Brahui musical event. The
papers at the conference were presented in English, Urdu
and Brahui languages. The book in your hand is the
collection of the papers written and presented in English
language and efforts are also being made to publish Urdu
and Brahui language papers.
Presently more than one dozen multinational oil and gas firms are engaged in the exploration and production of oil and gas in Sindh. Besides onshore oil and gas exploration, for the first time Pakistan government has also issued licenses to the multinational companies for off-shore oil and gas exploration in the coastal waters of Indus Delta.
However, the operations of the multinational oil and gas companies, are negatively contributing towards the degradation of livelihoods and the environment of the local areas. It is mainly because the multinational firms are largely ignoring the standards of Corporate Social Responsibility, OECD [The Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development] Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, the Articles of Petroleum Concession Agreements [PCA] and other laws and rules.
There are also flaws in the legal framework which further exacerbate negative impacts of the oil exploration on the community livelihoods and environment. For example, there are flaws in Petroleum Concession Agreement [PCA] signed between the Government and the Multinational oil and gas companies. Besides, the environmental laws governing the oil and gas exploration activities are also flawed and do not cover many areas and activities of the multinational companies.
However, the major problem in this connection is the lack of implementation on even those flawed existing laws and rules. It is mainly due to the lack of monitoring framework. For example, there is no proper framework for monitoring the implementation on PCA. Similarly, the implementation of the environmental laws is also not properly monitored by the Federal and Provincial Environmental Protection Agencies mainly due to lack of expertise, resources and political will.
It is first time in Pakistan that a non governmental organization Participatory Development Initiatives [PDI] with the support of Oxfam GB has launched a campaign for community mobilization and networking on CSR with regard to oil and gas companies in Sindh. Under this campaign local communities are being made aware of the legal framework governing the exploration of oil and gas in Pakistan. They are made aware of the responsibilities of oil and gas companies towards the local communities as well as local environment and biodiversity during the phases of oil and gas exploration and production. The campaign is also playing key role in creating awareness among the civil society organizations and media about the possible negative impacts of oil and gas exploration and production.
The publication in your hand is the part of that campaign. This publication has been brought as a result of a community based research conducted by PDI team in five districts of Sindh i.e. Thatta, Badin, Tando Allahyar, Hyderabad and Badin. The publication has three important parts. Part one discusses and analyses the policies and laws in vogue in Pakistan governing the activities related to oil and gas exploration and production, while part two discusses scale of implementation on the legal framework. In the end, there are suggestions for improving the legal framework and implementation mechanisms.
We do hope that the publication would prove a great support in understanding the legal framework as well as the implementation mechanisms of the oil and gas exploration and production in Pakistan. The book would go a long way in creating awareness among the common masses, civil society activists, campaigners as well as media about pro community and pro environment oil and gas exploration and production activities to ensure sustainable development of the oil and gas producing areas and the country in general.
livelihood resources downstream Kotri Barrage especially in the
naturally rich ecosystem of Indus Delta is one of the many such
stories of the cost, which Pakistani communities have been
paying as a result of unsustainable development. Commissioning
of dams, barrages and other major infrastructures upstream on
Indus River, without giving due consideration to their impact on
the lower riparian, has accelerated the process of degradation
downstream Kotri Barrage especially in Indus Delta.
As a consequence, degradation of land, agriculture, livestock
fisheries and other livelihood resources of millions of population
downstream Kotri Barrage has been increasing day by day.
About 1.2 million acres of land have been degraded with
seawater intrusion. Katcha forests, agriculture crops and
orchards downstream Kotri Barrage have almost vanished and
mangrove forests- the breeding grounds for fisheries have
drastically reduced in acreage. This has resulted in poverty and
even migration of population from the region.
Coupled with such degradation the governmental policies
have also remained un-favorable to this constituency of the
victims of so-called, development, as there has been general
apathy towards reducing the scale of degradation as well as
rehabilitation of the biodiversity, livelihood resources and the
communities of the area. Overall the cries of the perished and
dis-empowered communities of the area have remained un-heard amidst the on-going controversies on the use and misuse of water
resources of the country.
52l8ll[, being a responsible educational and research
institution of Pakistan felt it necessary to make the voice of these
impoverished Pakistani communities with their sorrows heard.
As such Jl?l8ll7 Center for Lrformation & Research decided to
highlight the issue at national level through a research seminar
"Indus Flows Downstream Kotri Barrage: Need or wastage?,,
which was organized at Lahore on July 10, 2003. The objectives
of the seminar were to highlight the impact of reduction in Indus
flows downstream Kotri Banage on livelihood resources,
environment and biodiversity of coastaU deltaic region, to
sensitize various stakeholders including policy makers, civil
society actors, etc. on the issue and to bring various stakeholders
especially provincial and federal policy makers on one platform
to develop consensus about the need and importance of Indus
water flow downstream Kotri Barrage.
The report of the seminar is in your hands. It is hoped that
this research report would prove to be a valuable addition in the
research on environmental biodiversity and livelihood resources
downstream Kotri Barrage, and also a great help to the policy
makers to avert further degradation of Indus Delta.
l?I8lJ7 owes a geat deal of gratitude to the experts/
researchers for their contributions, which are the part of this
report. We are especially thankful to Mr. ANG Abbasi and Mr.
M.H Askari for reviewing the final draft of the report.
Sindh province produces 56.36% and 70.1% of the oil and gas production of Pakistan respectively. However, the oil and gas companies working in the province are largely violating the international and national laws, rules and regulations including Corporate Social Responsibilities [CSR], Petroleum Concession Agreement [PCA], Petroleum Exploration and Production Policy 2007, Pakistan Environmental Protection Act 1997 and other laws.
As a result, the local communities are deprived of social and community development programs, non technical and technical jobs as well as technical trainings. Besides, the local governments are deprived of 12.5 percent royalty, production bonus, while local environment and livelihood resources including land and water resources of the local communities are largely degraded by the oil and gas companies.
The multinational oil and gas companies are also not properly implementing the environmental management plans prepared for the oil and gas exploration areas to minimize the environmental risks. Lack of proper monitoring of the activities of oil and gas companies by the federal as well as the provincial Sindh government and lack of local public participation in the decision making process are some of the key causes of violation of the laws and rules by the oil and gas firms.
This study was in fact conducted following the large scale community complains against the multi-national oil and gas firms in Sindh province. Following were the key objectives of the study:
• To review the legal framework governing the issues related to community welfare and environmental protection during oil and gas exploration and production in Pakistan
• To identify the key flaws in the legal framework as well as the mechanisms of implementation and monitoring of those laws and rules
• To examine the status of implementation and issues in the implementation on the legal framework specially in the oil and gas producing areas
• Prepare policy suggestions for further improving the legal framework, implementation and monitoring mechanisms
The study depends on both the primary as well as secondary sources of information. The local communities of the project area, civil society activists, officials and the key informants were the important primary source of information. For that purpose focus group discussions were organized in five districts i.e. Thatta, Badin, Hyderabad, Tando Allahyar and Dadu Districts. The discussions were held with the communities, civil society organizations, and other district level stakeholders.
The secondary data collected and reviewed included the policy documents as well as the documents of legal framework. The secondary data was enriched through key informant interviews. Those interviewed included community leaders, local CBO activists and office bearers, district government officials, officials of different provincial and federal government departments as well as experts
Efforts have been made to prepare the publication in a way that the common people as well as civil society organizations and other stakeholders should benefit from the publication.
The overall objective of the study was to analyze the current situation of the small farmers and difficulties they face in accessing credit; particularly women headed and managed households in project areas of district Dadu, Sanghar and Musakheal. The specific objectives were:
• To review the existing agriculture credit in Pakistan and its importance in the growth of agriculture sector (Credit Policy review and Role of Agriculture Credit Advisory committee etc)
• To review and analyze the agricultural credit policies in Pakistan and its impact on small farmers
• State bank role in agricultural credit and how has been improved so far in Pakistan
• To review and assess agriculture credit schemes of different banks /institutes in Sindh and Baluchistan
• To study problems/issues related to agriculture credit schemes in Pakistan specifically in Sindh and Baluchistan
• To suggest solutions /reforms for improving the agriculture credit system and mechanism in Pakistan
The first article "Economy of Water Shortages in Sindh" analysis the situation of worst ever water shortage which occurred in Sindh from April to August 1999. The article identifies the basic causes of water shortages as well as suggests policy recommendations.
The article on " Environmental Impact of LBOD and RBOD projects " was actually prepared on the invitation of Social Policy Development Institution (SDPI) Islamabad, which was presented in “Citizens’ Conference on the Politics of Water: Perspectives and Policies" organized by SDPI on June-30 July-1 1999 At Islamabad. This article analysis the environmental impact of both the above-mentioned drainage- projects, effecting the socio-economic lifestyle of human population as well as fertility of the lands of the respective areas.
The two other research articles i-e "Flow and flaw" and "Missing link", were prepared on the invitation of prestigious English paper Daily 'The News Karachi' for its Special Sunday Edition. A lot of gratitude, in this connection, goes to The News Sunday Edition Incharge Mr. Shahzeb Jilani. He not only presented the idea of bringing out special edition on the drainage crisis of Pakistan with special reference to Sindh but also worked along with me in giving final shape to one of these articles. These articles carry the details on the concerns of Sindh on the implementation of NDP as well as the lack of community participation in the on-going drainage projects.
"Stealing the Irrigation Water of Sindh" is a document on the main socio-economic problems of Sindh and the injustice being meted out to Sindh and its people in various spheres of life. This article was prepared on the request of SANA to be presented in its annual meeting as a complete document of resolutions on Sindh.
"The Children of lesser god" and "How to improve Agriculture in the Coastal Districts of Sindh" are based on my study visit of the cyclone -hit area of Badin and Thatta. These articles discuss post -cyclone the plight of human population as well as their main livelihoods in the cyclone hit areas and carry a number of suggestions.
Besides, people’s participation in such decision making also directly and indirectly encourages the common people to monitor the implementation on such decisions when they have feeling of ownership of such an important process. This reduces the chances of the mismanagement at the implementation level of any decision, project or program meant for the betterment of the common people.
In Pakistan, despite the fact that the economic policies including budgets largely affect the common people; they have been largely excluded from the policy and budget making process. This situation is having negative impact on the lives and livelihoods of the common people.
Budget analysis and budget advocacy are now widely regarded as a central component of a growing arsenal of approaches developed by civil society organizations for fostering government accountability. Independent budget analysis has a number of parallels with existing practices fostered by civil society organizations that are designed to expand societal deliberation in public policy formulation.
the mother language of Brahui Khans of Kalat state,
unfortunately, Brahui language has always remained in
the disadvantageous position. Brahui Khans had adopted
Persian as their court language, with all their
correspondence and record maintained in this language,
leaving little space for their mother language to groom in
the Brahui state. The nationalist movement in Balochistan
initiated during the Indian partition days picked Balochi
language as the key element of Baloch nationalist identity
at the expense of Brahui language, which further cornered
this indigenous language. After the creation of Pakistan as
the British Balochistan and the Brahui state of Kalat
became part of the country and were merged into one
provincial identity i.e. Balochistan, once again Brahui lost
its opportunity of being recognized as one of the
provincial languages of Pakistan.
Unfortunately, the deliberate efforts of cornering and
marginalizing Brahui language did not stop there and are
still continuing in the face of political confrontation
between advocates of two strong narratives i.e. The state-sponsored narrative is that Pakistan is one nation Urdu
being its only national language, while according to the
provincial nationalists narrative provinces are historical
nations and the main language of each province should be
considered as the national language of Pakistan. The other
regional languages being spoken in all the provinces of
Pakistan including Brahui bear the brunt of this political
confrontation as their voice is completely muted in the face
of this confrontation.
Such confrontation reaches its heights during the holding of the national census in Pakistan. In all the
Pakistani provinces, the provincial nationalist forces
launch rigorous campaigns, pleading with the speakers of
other regional languages to enter the name of the main
provincial language in the column of ‘language’ in the
census form in place of their mother language as to ensure
the majority position of the main provincial languages
against the other languages being spoken in the provinces.
The final counting of the speakers of different languages in
Pakistan on the basis of such manipulated census results
shows the number of speakers of Brahui and other
indigenous languages as very negligible to the extent
meriting no government / official support for the uplift
and progress of such ‘minority languages’. While on the
contrary the language censuses carried out by the
Britishers in 1911 had shown Brahui language as the
majority language of Balochistan.
Such political moves have brought Brahui language
to the condition where it has been declared as one of the
threatened languages of Pakistan by UNESCO. However,
in the face of such challenges, there are many signs of
rejoicing. With the passage of time, there has been growing
feeling among the Brahui speaking people especially its
youth and educated people that both the official and
nationalist forces are not doing justice with Brahui
language and it is now the responsibility of the speakers of
the language to promote their endangered mother
language. The number of youth writers is growing who
prefer to read and write in their mother language. We can
see a growing web of literary organizations throughout
Balochistan working for the promotion of Brahui language.
Organizing Brahui literary seminars and conferences have
become one of the frequently occurring literary activities,
scholars have started working on Brahui dictionary and
books are being published on different genres of Brahui
language and literature. This has also had ripple effects in Sindh Province also where quite a large number of Brahui
community lives. In Sindh province also literary
organizations for Brahui language are emerging and
Brahui writers are coming on the forefront to create
literature in their mother language.
After the success of the national seminar on ‘Brahui
language and Literature’ organized by Participatory
Development Initiatives (PDI) in Karachi Sindh in May 2014,
it was Dr. M. Salah-ud-Din Mengal, Chairperson Brahui
Academy Pakistan, who came up with the idea of holding
an international conference on Brahui language in
Islamabad, the capital city of Pakistan. He expressed his
desire during our meeting in Quetta Balochistan and asked
me to be the focal person for this conference. We started
our journey in September 2014 by getting the website of
international Brahui conference registered, uploading all
the conference material including the call of papers on the
website. We also developed and published a very beautiful
conference brochure. With all the material set, we started
disseminating the information about the conference
nationally and globally, sending emails to the national and
global researchers, making calls, holding Skype meetings
etc.
The response we received was tremendous as a
number of international scholars showed their wiliness to
present their research work at the conference. However,
there were also hurdles and challenges i.e. most of the
foreign scholars were unable to get their travel funded due
to what they called in such a short time span. The second
equally challenging issue was how to ensure Pakistan visa
for a number of Indian scholars given the tense political
relations between both the countries. Despite such hurdles,
about half a dozen foreign scholars participated in the
conference and presented their papers. The two-day
schedule of the conference remained jam-packed with a
large number of scholarly paper presentations, which culminated at the Mushaira and Brahui musical event. The
papers at the conference were presented in English, Urdu
and Brahui languages. The book in your hand is the
collection of the papers written and presented in English
language and efforts are also being made to publish Urdu
and Brahui language papers.
Presently more than one dozen multinational oil and gas firms are engaged in the exploration and production of oil and gas in Sindh. Besides onshore oil and gas exploration, for the first time Pakistan government has also issued licenses to the multinational companies for off-shore oil and gas exploration in the coastal waters of Indus Delta.
However, the operations of the multinational oil and gas companies, are negatively contributing towards the degradation of livelihoods and the environment of the local areas. It is mainly because the multinational firms are largely ignoring the standards of Corporate Social Responsibility, OECD [The Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development] Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, the Articles of Petroleum Concession Agreements [PCA] and other laws and rules.
There are also flaws in the legal framework which further exacerbate negative impacts of the oil exploration on the community livelihoods and environment. For example, there are flaws in Petroleum Concession Agreement [PCA] signed between the Government and the Multinational oil and gas companies. Besides, the environmental laws governing the oil and gas exploration activities are also flawed and do not cover many areas and activities of the multinational companies.
However, the major problem in this connection is the lack of implementation on even those flawed existing laws and rules. It is mainly due to the lack of monitoring framework. For example, there is no proper framework for monitoring the implementation on PCA. Similarly, the implementation of the environmental laws is also not properly monitored by the Federal and Provincial Environmental Protection Agencies mainly due to lack of expertise, resources and political will.
It is first time in Pakistan that a non governmental organization Participatory Development Initiatives [PDI] with the support of Oxfam GB has launched a campaign for community mobilization and networking on CSR with regard to oil and gas companies in Sindh. Under this campaign local communities are being made aware of the legal framework governing the exploration of oil and gas in Pakistan. They are made aware of the responsibilities of oil and gas companies towards the local communities as well as local environment and biodiversity during the phases of oil and gas exploration and production. The campaign is also playing key role in creating awareness among the civil society organizations and media about the possible negative impacts of oil and gas exploration and production.
The publication in your hand is the part of that campaign. This publication has been brought as a result of a community based research conducted by PDI team in five districts of Sindh i.e. Thatta, Badin, Tando Allahyar, Hyderabad and Badin. The publication has three important parts. Part one discusses and analyses the policies and laws in vogue in Pakistan governing the activities related to oil and gas exploration and production, while part two discusses scale of implementation on the legal framework. In the end, there are suggestions for improving the legal framework and implementation mechanisms.
We do hope that the publication would prove a great support in understanding the legal framework as well as the implementation mechanisms of the oil and gas exploration and production in Pakistan. The book would go a long way in creating awareness among the common masses, civil society activists, campaigners as well as media about pro community and pro environment oil and gas exploration and production activities to ensure sustainable development of the oil and gas producing areas and the country in general.
livelihood resources downstream Kotri Barrage especially in the
naturally rich ecosystem of Indus Delta is one of the many such
stories of the cost, which Pakistani communities have been
paying as a result of unsustainable development. Commissioning
of dams, barrages and other major infrastructures upstream on
Indus River, without giving due consideration to their impact on
the lower riparian, has accelerated the process of degradation
downstream Kotri Barrage especially in Indus Delta.
As a consequence, degradation of land, agriculture, livestock
fisheries and other livelihood resources of millions of population
downstream Kotri Barrage has been increasing day by day.
About 1.2 million acres of land have been degraded with
seawater intrusion. Katcha forests, agriculture crops and
orchards downstream Kotri Barrage have almost vanished and
mangrove forests- the breeding grounds for fisheries have
drastically reduced in acreage. This has resulted in poverty and
even migration of population from the region.
Coupled with such degradation the governmental policies
have also remained un-favorable to this constituency of the
victims of so-called, development, as there has been general
apathy towards reducing the scale of degradation as well as
rehabilitation of the biodiversity, livelihood resources and the
communities of the area. Overall the cries of the perished and
dis-empowered communities of the area have remained un-heard amidst the on-going controversies on the use and misuse of water
resources of the country.
52l8ll[, being a responsible educational and research
institution of Pakistan felt it necessary to make the voice of these
impoverished Pakistani communities with their sorrows heard.
As such Jl?l8ll7 Center for Lrformation & Research decided to
highlight the issue at national level through a research seminar
"Indus Flows Downstream Kotri Barrage: Need or wastage?,,
which was organized at Lahore on July 10, 2003. The objectives
of the seminar were to highlight the impact of reduction in Indus
flows downstream Kotri Banage on livelihood resources,
environment and biodiversity of coastaU deltaic region, to
sensitize various stakeholders including policy makers, civil
society actors, etc. on the issue and to bring various stakeholders
especially provincial and federal policy makers on one platform
to develop consensus about the need and importance of Indus
water flow downstream Kotri Barrage.
The report of the seminar is in your hands. It is hoped that
this research report would prove to be a valuable addition in the
research on environmental biodiversity and livelihood resources
downstream Kotri Barrage, and also a great help to the policy
makers to avert further degradation of Indus Delta.
l?I8lJ7 owes a geat deal of gratitude to the experts/
researchers for their contributions, which are the part of this
report. We are especially thankful to Mr. ANG Abbasi and Mr.
M.H Askari for reviewing the final draft of the report.
Sindh province produces 56.36% and 70.1% of the oil and gas production of Pakistan respectively. However, the oil and gas companies working in the province are largely violating the international and national laws, rules and regulations including Corporate Social Responsibilities [CSR], Petroleum Concession Agreement [PCA], Petroleum Exploration and Production Policy 2007, Pakistan Environmental Protection Act 1997 and other laws.
As a result, the local communities are deprived of social and community development programs, non technical and technical jobs as well as technical trainings. Besides, the local governments are deprived of 12.5 percent royalty, production bonus, while local environment and livelihood resources including land and water resources of the local communities are largely degraded by the oil and gas companies.
The multinational oil and gas companies are also not properly implementing the environmental management plans prepared for the oil and gas exploration areas to minimize the environmental risks. Lack of proper monitoring of the activities of oil and gas companies by the federal as well as the provincial Sindh government and lack of local public participation in the decision making process are some of the key causes of violation of the laws and rules by the oil and gas firms.
This study was in fact conducted following the large scale community complains against the multi-national oil and gas firms in Sindh province. Following were the key objectives of the study:
• To review the legal framework governing the issues related to community welfare and environmental protection during oil and gas exploration and production in Pakistan
• To identify the key flaws in the legal framework as well as the mechanisms of implementation and monitoring of those laws and rules
• To examine the status of implementation and issues in the implementation on the legal framework specially in the oil and gas producing areas
• Prepare policy suggestions for further improving the legal framework, implementation and monitoring mechanisms
The study depends on both the primary as well as secondary sources of information. The local communities of the project area, civil society activists, officials and the key informants were the important primary source of information. For that purpose focus group discussions were organized in five districts i.e. Thatta, Badin, Hyderabad, Tando Allahyar and Dadu Districts. The discussions were held with the communities, civil society organizations, and other district level stakeholders.
The secondary data collected and reviewed included the policy documents as well as the documents of legal framework. The secondary data was enriched through key informant interviews. Those interviewed included community leaders, local CBO activists and office bearers, district government officials, officials of different provincial and federal government departments as well as experts
Efforts have been made to prepare the publication in a way that the common people as well as civil society organizations and other stakeholders should benefit from the publication.