Rallying in shrinking Cholistan.
By: Tarique Khan Javed
President, Overseas Pakistani Investors Forum.

Part of Thar Desert that extents into Punjab is known as Cholistan. It extends in the north east upto Fort Abbas near Bhawalpur, to the north west up to Derawar Fort and to the South in areas near Sadiqabad. Like rest of Thar in Sindh it is a desolate part of the country with a small population and limited economic activity.
Thanks to the extending water canals a vast area of desert is now blooming with green fields and households. Cultivation of pulses have reached near the historic Derewar Fort.
Derewar and Abbas Forts in erstwhile Bhawalpur State guarded the desert extending into Indian Rajasthan.

The race:
Derewar Fort was the venue of the latest 4 wheel drive rally. This was  12th such annual  Rally  first started in 1995. The event held on 9 and 10th March 2007 was a well attended affair.

It attracted some 80 vehicles divided in three categories:
A = 3500 cc and above
B =  2500cc and above
C =  1000 cc and above.

The race track extended 160 KM and the race was held twice on 9th and 10th thus the total length of the race was 320 KM . The time taken to complete the length was calculated by computer and the total of two days time decided the winning order.
The prestigious A category race was won by the Team of Mohammed Ashraf and Feroz Ahmed who completed the length in 4 hours and 11 minutes followed by  Nadir
Magsi Team who completed the course in 4 hours and 15 minutes.

Cholistan becoming smaller:
Cholistan is shrinking as water canals reach its desert and are turning them into irrigated lands. Visitors who first visited the area  for Rallying in 1995 are pleasantly surprised at the defeat  and withdrawal of desert in this area. This is a welcome omen for rest of the deserted areas like Thar in Sindh. If water management can be improved one can see that in time all of Thar in Sindh will become green agriculture land. This may be followed by greening of Thal desert in Punjab and irrigation of upper plain lands from  Dera Ghazi Khan to Kashmoor.

Need for drip irrigation:
Pakistan needs to adopt rapidly, some elements of drip irrigation system as perfected by Israel and being widely used in Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar and Kuwait. The system involves counting each drop of water and allow just the needed amount of water, not one drop more no one drop less.
This will lead to huge saving of water which will enable us to irrigate a very large additional land. This will entail lot of investment which was not possible in the past, however now with better economic condition some of it can be done now and more in future as the economy further develops.
Pakistan can become a dominant economic power of the world, if we adopt liberal economic policies allowing substantial investments by Multinational Cos. Such investments can help us transform our deserts into green fields surging our agriculture production which in turn will support industrial growth. With right policies Pakistan can support a population of 300 million.