Militancy in urban areas
PRIME Minister Nawaz Sharif has vowed to take the fight against militants to cities and villages across the country, pledging to stamp out terrorism wherever it exists. In clear and unequivocal words, Mr Sharif has not only accepted that urban Pakistan has a significant militant problem, his statement is a vast improvement on the old formulation that whatever the terrorist and militant presence in urban Pakistan, it is a function of individuals and small splinter groups, and not a systematic, organised presence across the provinces. Yet, there is much more clarity that the government needs to bring to the issue publicly. In condemning specific atrocities and vowing that those responsible will not be allowed to repeat their crimes, the prime minister left out a significant part of the explanation: identifying the groups involved.
Without identities revealed, groups named, organisations described and methods exposed, the prime minister’s vow will amount to little more than a seemingly firm but in reality nebulous promise to stamp out terrorism wherever it is found.
Terrorism has a face. It has an identity. The militant groups that organise in the cities have physical networks and infrastructure. It is not just nameless men killed in alleged encounters with the police, as happened in the Sohrab Goth area of Karachi again this week. If terrorism is to be defeated, it has to first be identified. Names have to be named, networks have to be publicly declared and the full spectrum of extremism and militancy laid bare. But none of that has occurred so far. Why, for example, does the government not state which groups are active in Punjab, name the leadership, explain the connection between extremist religious centres and terrorist recruiting, and, more to the point, make clear the measures the state is taking to progressively shut down the terrorist and militant organisations that have been identified? The same applies to the other provinces. Is the federal government able to do more than simply talk about cooperating with the province in counterterrorism efforts? As ever, few details were given by the prime minister.
Perhaps the most troubling aspect of the state’s, particularly the political government’s, approach to counterterrorism is to co-opt certain sections of the police and civilian-run intelligence to fight a dirty, clandestine war against unnamed terrorists. All that the public is ever told is that militants and terrorists are killed in encounters where independent witnesses are nearly never present. But that has not and cannot prove to be a successful strategy -let alone a remotely ethical or legal one because it is simply about cracking down on visible sides of militancy, not the roots that help grow new cells, more fighters and fresh ideologues. The prime minister needed to speak firmly and a worried nation needed to hear of the government’s resolve. But what is the plan?
Drug pricing
AFTER more than a year of delaying the matter, the government is finally gearing up to pass a drug pricing policy.
Currently, drug prices, which continue to be administered by the government, are being adjusted under ad hoc mechanisms since the last price adjustment was done in 2001. This is an extremely sensitive matter in a country where proper healthcare and medicines are already beyond the reach for a large segment of the population. Adding to the complications are the concerns of the drug manufacturers, who feel they have been pushed against the wall by a 13-year-long delay in the revision of drug prices while their production costs escalate rapidly. According to pharma industry representatives, three large multinational manufacturers have already left the market since 2008, with the latest exit in the last few months. The pharma industry had been ramping up its push for a pricing policy since last year, and finally managed to obtain a directive from the Sindh High Court giving the government the deadline of Dec 29 to produce a comprehensive policy.
As the deadline looms, wheels have finally begun to turn. A series of meetings of the policy board, tasked with producing the policy, have been held and input sought from industry stakeholders. Three separate pricing mechanisms are being debated. They are cost plus pricing, average pricing, and reference pricing. Industry favours reference pricing that would peg the prices of drugs to a basket of prices from other countries of a comparable socioeconomic bracket. Average pricing makes little sense since it does not factor in quality differences between the same medicines in different price ranges. Cost plus pricing is already proving too difficult for the government to administer in other areas, notably power and gas. It has serious transparency issues, and opens the door to graft. Reference pricing would see prices rise across the board, something the government is very nervous about. It is important to keep the interests of the poor in mind when dealing with drug prices, and it is also important to ensure whatever pricing methodology is ultimately agreed on carries an automatic adjustment mechanism in it to ensure transparency and reduce the potential for allegations of graft. The government has wasted too much time on this important issue. It is time to bring closure to it and produce a drug pricing policy that does not cause a flight of investment while safeguarding the right of access to quality medications for the poor.
Forced conversions
WHEN Narendra Modi won the elections last year, many wondered whether he would act to dispel the impression created in part by his own association with organisations that actively propagate Hindutva that India`s constitutionally mandated secular character was under threat. Unfortunately, to date his government has done little to check the rise of aggressive Hindu nationalism. In one of the most recent examples of this, multiple reports have emerged of `forcible conversions` of Christians and Muslims to Hinduism, achieved apparently through methods ranging from offers of free food and education to outright threats of violence.
These conversion ceremonies, perversely called `homecomings` in an allusion to the `original` nature of Hinduism, have taken place at the hands of hard-line Hindu groups that are allied with the ruling BJP and that, along with corporate India, played a key role in its electoral success. The prime minister, meanwhile, has observed a deafening silence on the issue. On Monday, however, his reticence precipitated a storm of criticism in the Indian parliament from opposition lawmakers demanding he take a stand against the growing incidence of these conversions.
Tainted as he was by the horrific Gujarat riots that occurred on his watch as chief minister of the province in 2002, despite having been cleared of culpability by a Supreme Court investigation, Mr Modi’s election to the highest office in the land was viewed nervously by the minorities. As prime minister of the world’s largest democracy, it behooves Mr Modi to alleviate these fears aggravated by the strident patronage of `cultural revivalism` by some quarters. So far, his hands-off approach has sent the resurgent right into overdrive, rewriting school textbooks and calling for the Bhagwad Gita to be declared the national holy book. The conversions are the latest, most ominous portent of a deepening sense of alienation among minorities in the country. A chauvinist incarnation of Hinduism is on the march. India need only look across the border to see the devastation that can result when religion becomes the business of the state.