Mehmood Ul Hassan Khan
UAE Project to Assist Pakistan (UAEPAP) was initiated in January 2011 upon the directives of H.H. Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan the President of UAE. It was started with the coordination of Armed Forces of Pakistan. It was initialy started with the worth up to US$100 million for the reconstruction of infrastructure damaged by devastating floods and natural calamities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Bajaur and South Waziristan districts of the tribal belt. A nobel cause was behind these projects of socio-economic uplift to provide better life to the local people by creating jobs. The said projects focused education, public health, roads, bridges and supply of water treatment plants and social networks. It executes development assistance projects that offer sustainability and and continuous benefits to beneficiaries in the long run.
UAEPAP Mission
Its mission objectives include, but are not limited to, providing assistance to the people of Pakistan by developing poverty elimination programs, upgrading the educational system/environment, upgrading medical services and the community health environment and helping to create job opportunities for Pakistani nationals in order to eliminate unemployment and improve the economic conditions.
Salient Features
Spirit of Solidarity UAE PAP adopted an all-out development plan to carry out vital projects to serve the Pakistani people.
Different Fields Details
Infrastrctureal Develpoment To build, maintain and restore schools, colleges and academic institutions while helping to upgrade the educational infrastructure and prepare students to earn academic credentials and obtain training experience.
Health Care Fcailities To build, renovate, maintain and refurbish hospitals, clinics and medical institutes to extend badly needed modern medical care to Pakistani families in order to alleviate their suffering and protect them against diseases and epidemics.
Water Supply Chains To build water treatment and purification plants, extend delivery networks to provide remote towns and villages with potable water and eliminate the problem of undrinkable water.
Humanitarian Assistance To deploy humanitarian assistance to the poor, orphans, needy and homeless, provide food and healthcare to help them overcome their ordeal.
Infrastrctureal Develpoment
In the modern economics, infrastrctures tend to play pivot role in the socio-economic develpoment of any country. It speeds up the process of economic develpoment. It encourage foreign direct investmnets. It enhances the drive of industralization. It creates new jobs and reduce distances. Last but not the least, it changes physical geograpgical chracteristics. UAEPAP in the country is the prime example of it. It has multiplier socio-economic benefits.
Dh1 billion worth UAE’s Economic and Humanitarian Aid Projects
According to UAEPAP figures the UAE’s economic and humanitarian aid projects in Pakistan have now topped Dh1 billion in the last three years. In the first two phases of the Project to Assist Pakistan, US$300 million has been distributed in the areas of health care, education, road projects, water supply and other humanitarian assistance.
These diversified but integrated projects were started in the different parts of the Swat Valley and north-western areas of the country where horrible floods wrecked infrastructure, leaving behind the debris of destroyed bridges. UAE PAP Road and Bridge Projects consists of 4 mega projects with cost of US$121.580 million.
Four road and bridge projects worth $121.58 million have been implemented, including the reconstruction of two flood-wrecked bridges over the Swat River and building two new roads in southern and northern Waziristan. A major infrastructure project is the reconstruction of the Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan Bridge that was built 40 years ago. It was destroyed by floods, leaving many villagers cut off.
Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan Bridge
It is termed as the most important bridge in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, a main artery for residents and a vital link to the provincial highway. The bridge, 330 metres long, 10 metres wide and six metres high, has a capacity of more than 5,000 vehicles a day and serves about 70,000 commuters. It represents an architectural icon and a tourist destination with its unique design that resembles Abu Dhabi’s Al Maqta’ Bridge and its historic fort.
State-of-the-art Bridge
It is the state-of-the-art bridge which has anti-erosion mechanism protects it from rust and humidity. It reinforced concrete bases support the bridge, which was supplied with a solar powered lighting system. Management and operation facilities were built, and a pedestrian lane was also added. The project cost is $12.46 million. It is considered the largest and most modern development project in the country. The bridge, 448 metres long, 10.7 metres wide and seven metres high, can accommodate 4,000 vehicles a day and serves two million commuters in an area of 1,235 square kilometres.
Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan Road
The 50km long and 9m wide Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan Road has five bridges, 105 sewers, side protection walls and 16.8km-long cement beams. The total cost of the road amounted to $38.01 million. It is one of the most important infrastructure projects in the South Waziristan. It is a strategic project stretching from the city of Wana to Angor Adda. The 50-kilometers road, with its 5 over passing bridges, is of strategic importance for transportation between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The Makeen-Miranshah Road is a modern development project that links Makeen in the north of South Waziristan with Miranshah in the northern Federally Administered Tribal Area, and serves the residents of three towns and 20 villages.
The road, which is 72km long and 9m wide, builds by cutting one of the most difficult mountainous areas. It crosses over 10 bridges, each 10.4 metres wide. The bridge, which has 172 sewers, side protection walls, and 26.2 km long cement beams, cost $60.6 million.
Today, the inhabitants of South Waziristan find life more convenient and are able to travel easily and enjoy the exquisite scenery along Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan Road which provides them with a new artery for life and modern culture.
UAEPAP: A Comfort Zone
UAEPAP makes a comfort zone in the wake of the conflicting conidtions. It brings some delight to all the people living under the constant threat of terrorism and natural calamity. It is people-friendly and anti-poverty measure which has been one of the main pillars of the UAE foreign policy’s global humanitarian assistance drive. President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan is a pioneer in humanitarian work around the globe.
UAEPAP: A Model of Change
UAEPAP is the UAE model of change. It is totally deviated from the “warm glow” theory and “perfect altruism”. It is based on pure humanity and different humanitarian assistance programs. It extendeds spirits of copperation, cordination and givings of the underprivileged communities and struggling people with harsh geography, conflicts, and natural calamities in the country . It is now paying its dividends. Moreover, UAEPAP is not a conditional aid or wait for a return. It is a unique model of foreign assistance based purely on humanity, sacrifice, generosity and above all cooperation.
UAEPAP: Turning Tears into Smiles
The government of the UAE under the visionary leadership of his President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan has been rigorously engaged in many diversified programs of humanitarian assistance in the different parts of the world and “the UAE’s project to assist Pakistan” (UAE-PAP) is one of the prime examples. It has been gigantic effort “turning tears into smiles”.
Main Pillar of the UAE Foreign Policy
It has been one of the salient features of UAE foreign policy since 1971. The leaders of UAE always stood first to lessen the sufferings of the struggling people by sending teams and relief goods in the country. According to UAE Foreign Aid Report 2010 out of a total Dh 310.7m disbursed to Pakistan in 2010, Dh 258.4m was spent on humanitarian assistance, with the largest tranche Dh 211.4m coming from the UAE Government.”.
Tools for Sustainable Development
Till now, more than 100 projects worth millions of dollars focusing on major areas of social development including health, education, water and infrastructure have been completed which are significantly contributing to the development of these sectors in these areas.
UAE-PAP Development Plans
According to a report of the UAEPAP, the program includes the building and equipping of 53 state-of-the-art educational projects, 43 schools and 10 colleges. It has worked along a comprehensive redevelopment plans that take into account the harsh geography and the rough weather conditions of the region.
Education
Education is the only way for achieving a sustainable economic development. It is first giant step towards glory and stability. It is an effective tool against intolerance, poverty and ignorance. It is anti-prejudice, discrimination and of course terrorism.
Educational development has been one of the main pillars of the UAE foreign policy. 60 educational projects that included schools, institutes and academic technical colleges for male and female students in remote areas worth US$41.5 million (Dh152m) are being launched in Pakistan. The UAE is supporting the sponsorship of 53 projects in the first phase to aid 30,000 students.
Phase-I Details
Educational Facilities/Installations 43 primary and secondary schools and 10 technical colleges were built
Phase-II It builds and upgrades three colleges and four new women’s rehabilitation centres with cost US$14.4m
Beacon of Hope and Inspiration
These projects are being built in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, South Waziristan and Bajaur, where students had lost their schools. The aim is to build, maintain and restore schools, colleges and academic institutions and help students to earn academic units and obtain training.
Network of Model Schools
Most recently UAEPAP completed its first model school in South Waziristan at a cost of US$500,000 (Dh1.83 million). About 150 students will be taught in the two-storey school in Wana. South Waziristan was chosen because of the lack of education and other basic infrastructure, such as roads and transport, the management said.
The UAEPAP inaugurated another new preparatory school in Kalam village, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, for further supporting of educational development in the province. It is hoped that the newly established Haryati School will serve 225 male and female students from prep to primary levels. The multi-purpose school building consists of eight class rooms, a computer lab and administration bloc.
Optimal Utility
Under the plan carried out by the UAE to upgrade primary, higher and academic education in Pakistan, newly built schools, colleges and institutes were equipped with the latest educational aids and academic and computer labs to enable students to learn modern science on the latest equipment from primary up to higher-studies stages. Workshops equipped with practical and technical training equipment and all the requirements for diploma-level students were also provided.
Schools built in those regions represent a huge contribution by the UAE. The generous humanitarian initiatives of His Highness Sheikh Khalifa played an active role in the academic and cultural rehabilitation and upgrading of the individual – a role these educational institutions will pursue and extend to a new generation of the Pakistani people – one adequately capable of meeting future challenges.
Women Empowerment
Swat-based Women Vocational Training and Rehabilitation Centre (WVTRC) The Women Vocational Training and Rehabilitation Centre (WVTRC), the first of its kind, was set up in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa at a total cost of US$481,649. The 25,000 square feet centre was equipped with the latest specialist machines and equipment to train women in sewing, embroidery, leather ware, design and decoration. The centre also offers training courses in designing artefacts, sewing and tailoring, beauty and wax making, cooking and first aid.
The other schools include Bajaur College of Technology, Jahanzeb Post Graduate Degree College, Warsak College, Wana College, Spinkai Raghzai College and Wadudia Model School.
Technical Education
It provides new jobs and experiences to all the students. It further enhances industrialization process. It reduces poverty. It reduces gap between theory and practical.
Bajaur College of Technology (BCT) was designed to contribute to the all-round development of the individual and the community in the country. It is a valuable essential asset to improve the living conditions of the youth and open the labour market in these areas. Its mission is to train and raise the skills of high school graduates and prepare them to be effective elements in the community, capable of raising their own technical and practical skills and becoming self-dependent. It is also destined to play a leading role in boosting industrial and agricultural development to the highest level possible. Key to this development is to prepare and upgrade well-trained manpower which is capable of handling modern technology in various specialties.
Health
Health is cashable commodity. It plays an important role in the development process because unhealthy people tend to doom. It protects from diseases and epidemics. It takes cares the infants, children, women and weaker factions of the society. Heath protection has been one of the main pillars of the UAE social fiber and human resource development. UAEPAP sits at apex of health protection in the country.
Mega Health Protection Drive
UAEPAP health program consists of mega 8 projects with total cost of US$125,887,000. Eight health projects were carried out to build hospitals, health clinics and medical institutes. In the field of health, the said projects embrace the building, equipping and maintenance of 7 hospitals and clinics in Khyber-Pakhtunkhawa and South Waziristan. Two of these, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan Hospital and Sheikha Fatima bin Mubarak Hospital, are specialised maternity and paediatric hospitals to provide health-care and emergency services for women and children. Moreover, the (UAEPAP) launched the final phase of its seven valuable projects relating to healthcare in the different parts of the country i.e. Bajaur, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and South Waziristan.
Best Health Care System
According to its officials these projects would be an icon in the field of health care in these areas. The projects are constructed and completed at a cost of over US$17.1 million. The directorate of the UAEPAP is hoped that it would provide best possible available health care system/facilities to people living in war-ravaged areas of the KPK province. State-of-the-art hospital in Bajaur has now been completed while the other six healthcare centers/units/hospitals are expected to be completed during the current year 2013. The said projects include four modern hospitals, two clinics and a medical institute in Pakistani remote areas which lack the basic healthcare services.
Nobel Cause
These projects stand for a noble cause of protecting the children, women and men from the virulent diseases, seasonal infectious illness and natural catastrophes if any. It would provide them first-aid facilities, nursing, surgery, child health care along with all other diversified medications and health care facilities. Special attention is given to old-aged people and infants. Two of these four hospitals, the 100-bed Sheikh Khalifa Specialised Hospital are under construction in Saidu Sharif, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, and the 50 bed Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak Hospital in Shulam area of South Waziristan. The modern medical institute will serve two hundred male and female students. The facilities will be fully-equipped to treat patients in the poor areas.
Ambulance Helicopter Facility
Moreover, the Sheikh Khalifa Hospital will be first in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province having ambulance helicopter. Hopefully, it would enhance medical efficiency by reducing distances and crucial time limits to reach at the doors of the hospital through the facility of ambulance helicopter.
Uniquness of Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak Hospital.
The Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak Hospital in Shulam features South Waziristan’s first dialysis centre, first preventive medicine centre and first children’s immunization center. It would introduce the concept of healthy living in the people living in these areas where health consciousness is neglected. It would control the occurring of the fatal diseases relating to kidney, liver, gastro, stomach, digestive system, gut and many more.
State-of-the-art Bajaur Hostial
The 70-bed Bajaur hospital consists of a dialysis centre, an electro encephalograph (EEG) unit, two quarantine units, two operating rooms as well as wards for chest diseases, skin diseases and emergency and outpatient clinics to serve a population of 800,000 people of the underprivileged region. According to medical practitioners, the said hospital would keep the people healthy by taking care of their sinking and dysfunctional hearts. The chest diseases consisting of respiratory system disorder, minor deformities, and of course the inefficiency of the chest wall and muscular action of the intercostal muscles and diaphragm along with obstacles in proper ventilation will be checked thoroughly at the said hospital.
UAEPAP Gigantic Health Initiative
UAEPAP initiated a gigantic health initiative to safe the countless children, women and weaker section of the society from the diseases and epidemics after the destructive floods in the country.
It provided serums and organised anti-measles and infantile paralysis campaigns in the area.
In September last year, 20,000 children were inoculated, and a plan was laid out to implement the initiative of Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces and Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, to bring the epidemic under control, prevent health hazards of floods and natural disasters and support international efforts to eliminate these diseases.
The aim was to provide inoculation against infantile paralysis to 11 million children from 2013 to 2015 at a cost of $50 million. These campaigns are expected to reach 11 towns and villages in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 13 towns and villages in the Federally Administered Tribal Area for three years.
Networks of Hospitals
The initial phase of a UAE-funded hospital in Pakistan has been completed, with work continuing on the rest of the development, which is one of the country’s largest health projects.
The Emirates Hospital is being built at a cost of Dh397 million in Islamabad and is one of many projects being undertaken in Pakistan under the directives of the President, Sheikh Khalifa. It would be a specialist hospital to treat several medical problems. On completion, it will have 1,000 beds and 16 well-equipped surgical theatres, where at least 50 moperations can be carried out each day. The hospital will aim to provide the best medical care and will be academically approved to train interns. It will also train and upgrade the skills of physicians and help them meet graduation requirements as they advance.
Provision of best medical care
The hospital will aim to provide the best medical care and will be academically approved to train interns. It will also train and upgrade the skills of physicians and help them meet graduation requirements as they advance. The Abu Dhabi Fund for Development and the Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan Foundation are paying for half of the project.
The Emirates Hospital is one of 21 development projects in Islamabad being implemented by the UAE project at a total cost of Dh676m. The projects are also supported by Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, and Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed, Minister of Presidential Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister.
The Abu Dhabi Fund for Development and the Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan Foundation are paying for half of the project.
Clean Drinking Water
Easy and smooth supply of white gold i.e. drinking water is universal right and one of the most important elements of MDGs. It is the part and parcel of a decent life and mean of survival in the far lunge areas. It is the gift of Allah Almighty which must be provided at the door steps.
UAEPAP funded water supply projects included setting up 76 water treatment and purification plants and extending potable water pipes. With the aim of providing clean water and protecting people against diseases and epidemics, about 64 drinking water supply projects have been accomplished, 44 of them in Khyber-Pakhtunkhawa and 20 in the South of Waziristan region.
Food Supply Chains
Food security is a global issue which has increased its importance in the wake of alamring levls of poverty, hunger and disease in the wolrd. Food is also another essentail element of MGDs. According to statement of the said project official/team, the food assistance, worth over $US 1.5 million was distributed among IDPs families in Jalozai Camp, which is the largest refugee camp.
It provided 63,000 baskets of food worth $3.138 million to the homeless who were hit by floods and military operations in 2012 and 2013. Fifty-five tonnes of dates were distributed to various areas and provinces. In 2012 and 2013, a total of 60,000 school bags filled with supplies and notebooks with an introduction to the UAE were distributed to the towns and villages in the Swat Valley.
Ramadan Campaign
On the eve of holy month of Ramadan 2013 to implement the directives of President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the supervisory official/team of the UAE’s project to help Pakistan in the country announced a noble initiative, distributing 2,400 tons of food stuff among 30,000 families of internally displaced people (IDPs) living in camps being victims of horrible series of floods and war against terrorism.
Concluding Remarks
Pakistan and United Arab Emirates are strategic partners. Development funds, far more than foreign military forces, can contribute to curbing extremism and establishing security in the world and UAE sponsored different projects and programs like UAEPAP are the prime examples in the world. UAEPAP is a complete package of socio-economic development. It is a strategic development program changing the lives of the poor and vulnerable people in the country. It provides qualitative life. It spreads social nets in the difficult areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Bajaur and South Waziristan districts of the tribal belt.
It reflects the kindness of the UAE, its leaders, charities, financial instutions and of course people. It upholds the love and affection of the UAE towards Pakistan and its people. It shows signs of hope, inspiration and the last but not the least, life. It displays the true picture of humanity, commitment, sacrifice and perfection. It widens the horizons of mutual cooperation in the diverse fileds of economy, human resource develpoment, education, science & technology and the last but not the least, political cooperation.
The famous Marshall Plan proved effective for the Europe’s socio-economic recovery after the fierce power display during the World War II. Same is the case with UAEPAP which is indeed a blessing for the country and especially Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Bajaur and South Waziristan districts. It effectiveness is spureme to Marshall Plan because it has nothing to do with the dirty politics and its blame game mantra. It stands for sustinaed economic develpoment and socio-economic prosperity.