A fresh mandate
August 29th, 2012
With a series of hints issued by a number of PPP leaders, talk of early elections has been bubbling up again. The PML-N’s announcement on Tuesday that it has developed its own shortlist of caretaker prime ministers only added to the sense that there is movement on the issue behind the scenes. None of which is necessarily a problem, if the government and opposition parties can bring themselves to handle the transition process with some maturity and avoid taking an approach that focuses purely on the immediate politics of the moment. The government does have the right to complete a full term, which would also be a milestone for Pakistani democracy. But there is merit to calls for early elections. The ruling coalition might be sitting pretty in strictly constitutional terms with its parliamentary majority, but governance failures, corruption accusations and a general dissatisfaction with the country’s trajectory mean a legitimate case can be made for seeking a fresh mandate. With the change of chief executive there was some hope that the administration would use the time until polls to improve its governance record, but so far there are no indications that that will take place. And with the ‘Swiss letter’ and president’s dual office cases pending in the Supreme Court, early polls could become a way out for the PPP of some of the legal and political controversies that are dogging it in its last months in office.
But a smooth path to early elections will require the ruling coalition and the opposition to reach agreement on the interim set-up without descending into unnecessary obstinacy. The matter of the chief election commissioner was eventually resolved with the selection of a candidate who enjoys broad acceptance, but it only followed plenty of resistance to each other’s suggestions, accompanied by the seemingly requisite political rhetoric and allegations of bias. A similar debate around the appointment of a caretaker prime minister, no matter how tempting for both sides given the upcoming elections, will achieve nothing beyond unnecessary delays.
Equally important is for the Election Commission to be ready for polls. The electoral rolls published early this month still leave out up to 20 million Pakistanis. These lists will be frozen the day elections are announced, and it is unclear what Nadra, the ECP or political parties are doing to make sure more Pakistanis, particularly in Sindh and Balochistan, are acquiring CNICs and getting themselves registered to vote.
There is a case for early elections, but the more people they disenfranchise, the less credible they will be.
Schools of thought
August 29th, 2012
The schools we send our children to not only manifest the various desires for reform at the grass roots, they also bring to the fore divisions in society. Class divides are gaining prominence with time as schools in the private sector, which link quality with price, continue to thrive. But an ideological factor is also making its way from madressahs into ordinary schools which are either combining ‘religious’ and ‘modern’ education or are imparting the worldly brand with their own ideological emphases and according to their own interpretations. Individuals cast in this mould can hardly be expected to widen their exposure — they can only do so at the risk of being branded ‘bad’ students. This kind of rigidity in the learning process defies a basic principle of education: to develop critical thinking skills. This is why experts quoted in a news story in Dawn about the presence of religious groups in the education sector in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata sound concerned. The story reports a rapid increase in the number of not only madressahs in these areas, but also schools run by religious parties or groups seeking to capture young minds.
The acting vice chancellor of Peshawar University reiterates how important it is for the state to monitor education. His strongest words are reserved for the intervention in the sector by religious groups, some of which can be considered extremist. The cohesion in society he longs for appears to be a distant dream as the state fails to play the role of an effective regulator in crucial areas and even a ruling political party with secular credentials finds solace in creating model private-sector institutions named after its founder. There is no bar on the ANP setting up a few schools dedicated to Bacha Khan in the province, but the government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and those elsewhere in Pakistan must also earnestly recognise the importance of regulating education. This shying away from basic responsibility entails huge costs and painful lessons. The reform exercise must begin now and it must begin with some kind of standardisation of the syllabus.
Dengue season
August 29th, 2012
The onset of monsoon rains in many parts of the country has brought back memories of the havoc wreaked last year by the dengue mosquito.
While the potentially deadly dengue virus infected a number of people across Pakistan, Lahore was affected particularly badly. In preparation for what this year may bring, federal government organisations, including cantonment boards and Pakistan Railways, were asked on Monday to launch anti-dengue campaigns in their jurisdictions across Rawalpindi Division, buttressing the efforts of the Punjab government in this regard. At a meeting attended by health officials as well as the district coordination officers of the four districts of Rawalpindi Division, it was announced that Sept 2 would be observed as anti-dengue day in the province and that seminars and walks would be held to create awareness. Meanwhile, the Community Safety, Information and Training Wing of Rescue 1122, Rawalpindi, has also started similar awareness raising seminars.
These are laudable steps that need to be replicated in other parts of the country. Efforts in different cities and areas are currently more piecemeal than coordinated, with the odd seminar or fumigation drive being carried out. A concerted push to minimise the risk of another dengue outbreak would involve close collaboration on the provincial and district levels, as well as with city administrations and municipal departments. This must be done if we are to prevent hospitals from being flooded, as they have been in earlier seasons, with dengue patients.
A mass awareness raising campaign through radio and television would be invaluable, putting out information such as that the dengue mosquito breeds in fresh, not stagnant, water. Clean-up of cities and towns should be undertaken in any case, but people also need hard information that could help them avoid providing the disease-carrying mosquito breeding space in their homes, such as in uncovered pails of water.