Curbing Tobacco Advertisements
TOBACCO advertisements are the root cause of rising tobacco epidemic in the country. They also show how deep the relationship is between the various institutions of the government and the tobacco industry in Pakistan. No wonder our government is so silent on the issue of tobacco control in the country.

The prime minister was invited to lay the foundation stone of a park being made by Pakistan Tobacco Company in collaboration with the ministry of environment. On the one hand the government claims that it is doing a lot for the control of tobacco use in the country, yet they are accepting money from the tobacco industry to create a public park in Attock district. By such collaborations, the tobacco industry is trying to tell the public that they are doing noble things for the country. Two years ago they claimed that they had made mobile dispensaries for poor patients and planted a million trees in the country to help the environment.

Any money that comes from the tobacco industry is tainted money and should not be accepted even if it is for so-called philanthropic work. In my opinion the philanthropic efforts of the tobacco industry is very suspicious. Their objective is not only to enhance the image of the tobacco industry but also to divert the attention of the public from the serious hazards of tobacco use. Over 90 per cent cases of lung cancer and 85 per cent cases of chronic obstructive lung disease (COPD) are caused by smoking. Research in Pakistan by the Cancer Society has also shown that almost 50 per cent of all cancer cases in Pakistan can be prevented if tobacco use is minimised. Smoking is also the most important risk factor in most of the heart attacks in this country.

Through this letter may I request the government not to accept money from the tobacco industry as this money is tainted with the blood of those who have died from tobacco-related diseases? Instead it should take measures to curb the tobacco use in the country.
http://www.dawn.com/2007/04/16/letted.htm

When Crimes Go Unpunished
By Sultan Ahmed

CRIMES are more common in countries where there are extremes of poverty and affluence. And they are more frequent in places where the rich demonstrate their affluence regardless of how they make their money. The enterprising among the poor want a part of that and take to guns to get that.

Crimes are common where there is excessive unemployment and the young find it hard to find jobs. If employment is available but the wages are too low as it is in many developing countries, the enterprising young prefer to take to crime.

Crimes rise in countries where there is excessive and prolonged inflation which makes wages increasingly meaningless. What matters to a wage-earner is meaningful survival for himself and his family and not be seen as a failed man or a failed husband and father. In such circumstances, corruption thrives and then leads to crimes, the object of which is to make big money quick.

In a civilised society, large scale corruption is exposed, punished and the corrupt dispossessed, but not in countries like Pakistan. Here, the corrupt are respected and shown great regard publicly. Soon they become political leaders, as the history of some of them shows, or grow into big industrialists. Unless the corrupt and the criminal are exposed, dispossessed and punished, instead of being held in high esteem , more and more people will join the ranks of the corrupt and criminal elements.

The rewards for crime and corruption are very large in Pakistan. Look at the vast fortunes made by a gang of counterfeiters of currency including foreign notes with the help of some bank officials. They even printed very high denomination stamps for property transfer and made10 to 20 billion rupees. Will they be dispossessed of their ill-gotten wealth?

Crimes are committed in the West as well, but usually they are not committed by the police. In Pakistan many of the crimes are committed by, or in collaboration with, the police. When the security force was organised to protect the VIPS and their assets, there was demand from many quarters for guards. The government thus permitted private security guards. They were hired in large numbers, also by the banks, but soon the private security guards were seen indulging in robberies. Too often the guards were seen robbing the banks they were hired to guard.

It is now a national problem and not confined to a few people. Finding dependable security guards and trusting them is becoming difficult, so is getting hold of dependable domestic servants. The rulers say that rape takes place in the West as well. They do take place there but is not usually committed by the police and in police stations.

In fact a major problem, when a rape or other major crimes against women are committed, is getting an FIR registered. If the offender is an influential person, which they usually are in the rural areas, an FIR becomes too tough. The old Hudood law which demanded that the rape victim produce four witnesses to uphold her complaint made the task of the offenders very easy. That ordinance however is no more there.

So someone like the Chief Justice of Pakistan has to intervene from time to time in such cases through suo motu proceedings and that cannot be in too many cases. Mukhtar Mai’s case is a striking example. And now the Chief Justice himself is in trouble.

What is so alarming is the high risk one takes when not complying with the demands of the criminals. Resistance to crimes can be fatal as criminals can kill for very small gains.

A little girl was shot in Old Karachi last week for not parting with the gold chain she was wearing around her neck to an armed young thug. She might not have hesitated if her father was not with her. Many women including those who wear Burqa have been fired at for refusing to part with their mobile phones. The phone may fetch 1000-2000 rupees in the second hand market and yet they kill when the victim is reluctant.

When the number of cell phones snatched is around a hundred a day and many of them are not reported, they cannot be described by our rulers as street crimes common in the West. In New York a criminal mugs if he can’t get any money out of his victim, but does not shoot or kill him. So such criminals in Pakistan have to be dealt with seriously. Their ranks will swell and soon they will turn to gold snatching if women continue to come out wearing gold ornaments. It is because of the corruption in the ranks of the police that people fear the police more than the criminals. And unless one is influential, one doesn’t feel like filing a report with the police and becoming a victim of their excesses too. So the number of reported crimes to the police is far less than the actual. In fact when a complainant reaches the police station, the police prefer to record the complaint on a white paper instead of filing an FIR and if the case is successfully tackled then enter it in the official records. That keeps the police records of the crimes committed around the police station far less than the actual.

Worse than the serving cops are some who have retired or who are sacked for corruption. Some of them have joined hands with the criminals and act as a go-between with the police when they commit crimes or after that. Some of them have been exposed. The retired cop can be more deadly than the serving one when he takes to crime or promotes corruption as an intermediary. All the ingredients of an ideal crime culture are present in Pakistan, including plenty of guns of all kinds, thanks to the Afghan war 20 years ago. The automatic weapons are available in large numbers and are used too freely. These weapons are of help to the criminals instead of a small party of policemen.

Added to that is a large-scale trade in narcotics which flows through the country. Violence is part of the deadly trade as very large amounts are involved. Most of the narcotics come from Afghanistan and some from the tribal areas.

The courts are clogged by thousands of cases for long as each case makes very small headway. The courts cannot make rapid progress unless the police file the proper complaints and produce the right witnesses in time and not those who swear falsely. The police’s role in crime cases is very crucial. Finally, there is the execution of the decree of the courts which again needs police support. Foreign investors find enforcing the decrees issued by courts an uphill task and want distinct remedies.

The city government proposes to set up a community police to solve some of the problems. Initially it will enforce municipal laws in the 178 union councils of the city. Later, it can be made to enlist citizens’ support to cooperate in combating crimes.

The community in each union council should now cooperate to check the criminals in the area. So let the community police have a larger function eventually than merely the municipal one which is essential now. What is obvious is instead of leaving it to the government to tackle the criminals, the community should join hands and assert itself to combat the criminals and reform the police, not in theory but in practice. The people must prevail now.

http://www.dawn.com/2007/04/19/ed.htm#9

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Yasser Chattha

What Hurts is the Rich-poor Divide

By Zubeida MustafaPOVERTY, an area of profound concern for economists in the Third World, has acquired enormous political connotations. It has come to be used as the yardstick to measure the performance of a government. It is therefore not surprising that policymakers make exaggerated claims about poverty reduction.

The Musharraf government is no exception. Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz insists that the ratio of those living below the poverty line in Pakistan has come down in five years from 34.46 per cent in 2000-01 to 23.9 per cent in 2004-05.

Yet we have the critics lamenting the high cost of living. According to them, incomes have not risen proportionately. Hence the common man is in dire straits as he struggles to make two ends meet.

Who is correct? It really depends on one’s perception. When seen through the eyes of an economist, the picture of poverty is quite different – even rosy – from how an anthropologist sees it. The economist studies poverty through statistics which are by their very nature biased in favour of the formal sector. Anthropologists, on the other hand, view poverty as a relative phenomenon in a contextualised way against the backdrop of the distribution of wealth in society.

Obviously the anthropologist’s is the more realistic and human approach since bare statistics miss out the human dimension. This was most graphically and conclusively pointed out by Prof Jan Breman of the Amsterdam School of Social Science Research in a talk arranged by PILER in Karachi. The author of several books on labour, peasants and workers in the Third World, Prof Breman has seen poverty from close quarters as a social scientist.

Having carried out field research in Gujarat (India) and Java (Indonesia) over a period of 45 years, he certainly is in a better position to assess the pangs of hunger and the pain of disease suffered by the poor than the economists sitting before their computers in their ivory towers.

The topic of Prof Breman’s thought provoking lecture summed up his underlying thesis. He spoke on “Wishing away poverty, or the poor?” One key figure missing from the audience that evening was Mr Shaukat Aziz, who is the current architect of Pakistan’s economic policy. He would have benefited immensely from the lecture.

Speaking about Gujarat – and that is equally true about Pakistan – Prof Breman pointed out that he found a little improvement in some aspects of the living conditions of the agricultural labour when he returned 25 years later to the village he had studied earlier. The village now had a school and a health centre. Housing had changed and quite a few people were living in concrete houses. But the economic and social gap between the rich and the poor had increased. The poor felt they could not get any poorer. He used the term “pauperisation” to describe the state of the poorest of the poor when a person loses control over his life and lives in a stupor since he has no choices to exercise.

This is what is happening to the poor in Pakistan whose number is growing, Statistics do not tell the true story and can be deceptive. The fact is that the absolute number of poor is on the rise.

Today there are nearly 40 million people – on the basis of official percentages – who can be described as pauperised. In 1990, there were 29 million absolute poor as stated in government documents. What is worse is that the gap between the rich and the poor – the bane of poverty – is also growing and this is reflected in official statistics.

The State Bank Report 2005-06 tells us that the income inequality as presented by the Gini coefficient and the ratio of the highest 20 per cent to the lowest 20 per cent has widened during 2001-05. The Gini coefficient has gone up from 0.2752 to 02976 in the corresponding

period. The ratio of the richest and the poorest has increased from 3.76 to 4.15.

What should be a cause for serious concern is that the social impact of poverty and deprivation on the poor is extremely degrading. They rob the poor of their self esteem. When concurrent with poverty is the growing gap between the haves and the have nots, one has the perfect recipe for discontent, anger and alienation born of an acute sense of injustice.

The worst part is that the poor lose the will for collective action since they feel helpless and unable to change the situation. That also explains why they cannot register their anger and discontent in spite of their massive numbers.

It has been established by studies conducted by sociologists that a community where poverty is equally distributed tends to be more socially adjusted and in better physical health than a community that is cumulatively wealthy but with its wealth unequally divided.

Hence Dr Breman is more perturbed by the unequal distribution of wealth and the existing disparities rather than the fact of poverty itself. Besides when the cake is large and the slices are relatively equal in size even the smallest slice is not too small and can be filling enough to keep a person quite satisfied. He pointed out that there were people in his own country who were poorer than others but because their basic needs are met and the gulf between the rich and the poor is not so wide, the low income classes are not as badly off as the economically disadvantaged in Pakistan.

The millennium development goal calls for the halving of poverty by the year 2015. But such statistical targets, even if they are achieved, will not improve the lot of the poorest of the poor. The issue that really needs to be addressed primarily is that of the disparity of wealth between the various sections of society.

When the poor live alongside the rich – see the shanty towns that creep up to the boundary walls of the palaces of the rich in our cities – the psycho-social, economic and political repercussions of this phenomenon are devastating, more so when the rich are used to ostentatious living and flaunting their wealth.
http://www.dawn.com/2007/04/25/op.htm#2

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Yasser Chattha

Tackling Rural Poverty


THERE can be no easy solution to a problem that has been so long in the making and is so deeply entrenched in society. According to a World Bank report on rural growth and poverty reduction, people in rural areas comprise nearly 80 per cent of Pakistan’s poor. Even though the poverty rate as a percentage of the rural population may have declined in recent years, the number of rural poor has actually increased and, going by the World Bank’s calculations, now stands at 35 million. The same is true of the country as a whole. While the poverty rate as determined by the WB declined from 33.3 per cent in 2001 to 28.3 per cent in 2004-5, a burgeoning population meant that the number of those living below the poverty line grew in this five-year period. Indeed, the total number of the poor in Pakistan shows an increase even if one were to accept the government’s questionable poverty rates — 23.9 per cent in 2005, or an implausible 10.56 percentage points less than the 34.46 per cent estimate for 2001.

Agricultural growth alone cannot lift the rural population out of poverty, says the WB report. While investment in irrigation and livestock can help improve the lot of small farmers, the majority of the rural poor do not eke out a living from agriculture. As such, besides the provision by the state of basic public services, there is a pressing need to galvanise the non-agricultural rural economy in order to accelerate job creation. In this connection, lack of infrastructure is a major impediment to industrial investment. Setting up agriculture-related industrial units — ginning and threshing mills, fertiliser plants, canning factories, dairy product plants — is one option in farming areas, but the private sector will not find it viable without sound communication facilities, good roads and access to gas and electricity. This is a question that the government will have to address first and foremost if it is to make any headway in attracting investors to deprived areas. Strong incentives in the form of generous tax holidays will help expedite the process, especially in areas with no agricultural base and where it will be particularly difficult to convince large-scale manufacturers to set up business.

The World Bank also stresses the need for social mobilisation to empower the rural poor, giving villages and communities a voice that can be heard by the private sector and enabling them to have a greater role in the development process. This will be a daunting challenge in a country where even the educated urban middle classes are largely voiceless and enjoy little say in either official policymaking or the conduct of the private sector. At the same time, it is difficult to see how significant progress can be made in some parts of the country, particularly Sindh and southern Punjab, without the land reforms that have eluded the country since its inception. Accepting the reality of feudalism is akin to perpetuating poverty.

Still, what can realistically be done must be done forthwith. Without urgent action, the misery and the numbers of the rural poor will continue to grow, as will the drift to the towns and cities. This understandable escape from poverty creates a whole new set of social and logistical problems in urban areas that are already reeling under the weight of overpopulation. It is time to stem the tide.
http://www.dawn.com/2007/04/25/ed.htm#1

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Yasser Chattha

Madness on the Road


Road accidents taking precious lives have become a common feature.

These grisly incidents occur more often than not either through overspeeding or violation of traffic regulations, i.e., plying unfit vehicles or bringing heavy traffic such as dumpers in daytime on the roads despite a ban by the city government.

Overspeeding is mostly on account of untrained and unlicensed drivers.

Besides, the cleaners or helpers of vehicles, who are undistinguishable because of lack of specific badge or uniform, are allowed to hold steering. Such drivers are security hazards.

The antediluvian vehicles plied on the road are mostly out of shape and unfit because of lack of proper maintenance. For instance, in Karachi alone more than 80 per cent buses and mini-buses, owned privately, are, on the face of it, eligible for junkyards but are seen plying, emitting toxic fumes etc.

Road safety in the country, in general, and in big cities like Karachi, in particular, has been worsening day by day. When an incident is reported in the media, a message is passed on to the world about the apathy of our law enforcers and society as a whole because even a single fatality deprives a family of not only a near and dear one but in most cases a bread winner, thus destroying it emotionally and economically.

In order to make our roads secure for travel, it is proposed that the following measures should be adopted:

a. A uniform code should be established for the driver, allowing him a badge number, and his record, with fingerprints, be preserved so that in case of negligence he can be recognised and disqualified from driving.

b. Licences should be issued after proper tests and verification of record of the applicants. In case any licence is issued in violation of rules, the issuing authorities should be held responsible.

c. A vehicle plying on the road should be allowed only if it carries fitness certificate, duly displayed on the rear screen.

d. Vehicles plying on highways should immediately be asked to provide rear door etc. Besides, TV sets be removed as the music creates obstruction in driving.

e. The officer-in-charge of the area should be held responsible in case an accident occurs in his jurisdiction.

f. Owners of unfit vehicles should also be held accountable and in case of any accident be held responsible for financially compensating the bereaved family.

g. All heavy traffic should immediately be banned from 7am to 10pm and compliance enforced strictly. For any violation, the administration-in-charge of the area should be held responsible.


http://www.dawn.com/2007/04/26/letted.htm#6

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Yasser Chattha

For Speedy Justice


This lack of space leads to a situation where petty offenders have to share cells with hardened convicts because there is no room for them in separate barracks. Moreover, their lengthy trial exposes them to corrupt influences inside the prison complex, which far from being a centre for reforming the inmates is more like a venue for crime and violence of all sorts.

Lack of legal counsel, the non-availability of police escorts and vehicles to go to court and the absence of judicial officials from duty are responsible for many detainees spending more time in jail awaiting trial than if they were convicted. The current judicial crisis has aggravated matters as many prisoners have not been produced before court because their protesting lawyers often do not turn up. The situation is not likely to improve unless, acting on the recommendations of various jail reform commissions over the years, comprehensive measures are taken to expedite the trial of prisoners. Apart from having on hand the requisite number of vehicles to transport the detainees to court and back, magistrates should be appointed to hold trials at the prison premises so that at least the cases of petty offenders are decided quickly. Expanding jail premises is also important, but it is the speedy disposal of cases that will help most in reducing the backlog.
http://www.dawn.com/2007/04/28/ed.htm#3

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Yasser Chattha

A System of Non-justice


THE heartrending photograph of two distressed sisters carried by Dawn the other day speaks volumes for the mediaeval mindset that prevails in the country’s rural hinterland — in this case in a village in Sindh. The girls’ father, Buland Ali Buzdar, who was embroiled in a water dispute, was accused of having an illicit affair with another man’s wife. He was ordered by a jirga to give as compensation his two minor daughters in marriage to a man who was also handed over the land that he was cultivating. Buland Ali’s supporters want the courts to take suo motu notice of the matter and to instruct the police to register an FIR against those who declared him a “karo”. One can only hope that judicial intervention will provide protection to Buland Ali and his daughters from the wadera elements whose ruling is in contravention of the law, especially because jirgas are banned.

So far, there is little to show that the government is coming down with a heavy hand on those who bolster parallel legal systems like jirgas. Left to solving property matters, jirga members could have been accepted as arbiters of disputes which would have taken the overburdened courts a long time to resolve. But their role has not been limited to such disputes and they have a free hand to rule on diverse matters, often pronouncing harsh penalties on people. Strangely enough, parliamentarians, many of whom come from landed backgrounds and are thus well acquainted with the anachronistic jirga system, do not raise a collective voice against this barbaric manner of administering justice.

The shortcomings of the present judicial system are no excuse for allowing the jirga system to exist. It is illegal and must be routed out to prevent further abuse of individual rights.
http://www.dawn.com/2007/04/30/ed.htm#2

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Yasser Chattha

Abolishing the Death Penalty


PAKISTAN deserves strong censure for topping the list of countries with the largest number of convicts on death row. According to Amnesty International, more than 7,000 persons are facing the gallows while 82 — the third highest figure globally — were executed last year, a considerable increase from 2005 when 31 death sentences were carried out. It also has the dubious distinction of being the only country, apart from Iran, to have executed, in 2006, a convicted murderer who was a juvenile at the time of his crime. This was in violation of the Convention of the Rights of the Child which Pakistan ratified in 1990 and which forbids the execution of persons who have committed a crime punishable by death before they turned 18. More and more countries are either abolishing the death penalty or have stopped invoking it as they realise the futility of its application in deterring further crime and so view it as contrary to the norms of civilised society. So far 89 countries have abolished it while 29 have not carried out executions for the past 10 years. Among them are some Muslim countries.

It is unfortunate that Pakistan is not among them, especially when there are few signs that justice is even-handed in the country. Most of those who go to the gallows are poor, unable to afford proper legal assistance or the blood money demanded by the murdered victim’s family. There is excessive corruption in both police and judicial ranks which could tilt the case in favour of the richer party. Intimidation of witnesses and the extraction of forced confessions by the police are another unsavoury dimension of the judicial and investigative process. Human rights bodies have pointed out that the absence of effective forensic technology and the heavy reliance on oral evidence have also contributed to unfair trials, resulting in a grave miscarriage of justice in many cases. All moral arguments in favour of capital punishment lose their validity in the light of these facts and the truth that carrying out the death sentence is an irreversible act. Should Pakistan then continue to be in the camp of those countries that retain it?

http://www.dawn.com/2007/04/30/ed.htm#2

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Yasser Chattha

Denigrating Pakistan


THREE letters on this subject have appeared in these columns: two by ‘A Reader’ who wishes to remain shrouded in anonymity and one by Ms Qamar. The ‘Reader’ is most offended by Ardeshir Cowasjee’s remarks on population growth with reference to Prof Spencer’s annotations of “reproduced like rabbits”.

Actually in its correct Englishness the expression commonly goes as “breeding like rabbits”. Mr Cowasjee has been polite enough to tone it down and not offend people’s sensibilities.

With reference to population, the ‘Reader’ may look at a website called ‘World Population’, which provides very meaningful statistics. Its analyses show that populations in the developed world double themselves in 800 years (the slowest being Austria which would take 2,000 years), while the ‘bhooka-nangas’ of the developing world manage to double theirs in 50 to 100 years; Pakistan takes the cake and does it in 25 years.

How would one describe this exceptional performance which we Pakistanis (one-third living under the poverty line) seem to be doing with a passion. I leave the choice of suitable expression to the ‘Reader’ to fill the blanks: “breed like … … … ”.

It is universally accepted that all writers, critics and historians in their description do add their personal opinions, which at times may seem exaggerated but unless we give them this latitude, most such writings would become insipid narrations with inventories of events and tabulations.

The ‘Reader’ seems to be even more upset by the mention of philanthropy of the Zoroastrian community by Mr Cowasjee in his columns. How unfortunate. In fact, this is something which every Pakistani is very proud of. The philanthropic contributions of this miniscule community which forms less than 0.0001 per cent of Pakistan’s population are innumerable.

The contributions of the Zoroastrian and the Hindu community towards this land have been amazing and distinctly evident. Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Dyal Singh College, Dyal Singh Public Library, Spencer Eye Hospital, Sobhraj Maternity Home, Lady Dufferin Hospital, and Sir Jehangir Kothari Parade and Sir Kavasji Katrak Band Stand at Clifton are just a few from a long list.

As Pakistanis, our heads should hang in shame if we have not accorded due respect and recognition to their contributions. The two prestigious educational institutions of the country, Nadirshaw Eduljee Dinshaw University of Engineering and Technology and Dayamal Jethamal Science College have audaciously been reduced to being officially addressed as NED University of Engineering and Technology and D.J. Science College with students leaving the portals armed with professional degrees yet clueless of the benefactors.

How would the ‘Reader’ react if his engineering college in Karachi was reduced to being officially called D. Engineering College?

The last 20 years, however, has seen increasing participation of Muslim community in social work, which is extremely heartening. Being a social worker myself, who has been involved in a number of fund-generating exercises, I can testify that whilst the Zoroastrians continue to contribute at the same pace, Muslims have now started to contribute substantially.

My mind always questions as to why these communities should be doing so much of social work? It appears that, at least partly, it is linked to their belief in `after-death’ association of the ‘soul’ with this world, viz., ‘reincarnation’ among Hindus and ‘revisit of soul’ among Zoroastrians.

Maybe these two communities thus would like to leave a memorable mark on this earth for their ‘soul’ to ‘see’ on its return. The Muslims, on the contrary, believe that after death their ‘souls’ go to heavens/hell without any link with this earth. I would appreciate if someone can correct me, in case my perception is wrong.

http://www.dawn.com/2007/05/25/letted.htm#6

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Yasser Chattha

Truth bout Population Growth


THE government has been painting a rosy picture of the population scene in Pakistan. But a document prepared by some donor agencies has exploded the myth propagated by the prime minister that the population growth rate has come down to 1.8 per cent and will be further reduced to 1.3 per cent by 2020. The document obtained by this newspaper says that the population is growing at the rate of two per cent per annum. The Unicef puts it at 2.2 per cent. Not much will be gained by juggling with figures to deceive people since erroneous calculations will only result in lopsided planning. Besides, it lulls the population policymakers into a false sense of complacency with no effort being made to analyse the factors that are contributing to such a high population growth rate in Pakistan and rectify these.

There are basically two reasons which have pushed up the demographic growth rate. One is the usual story of failures in the delivery of contraceptive services. As has been the practice in other areas of the social sector, the government has been disengaging itself from the population welfare programme leaving it to the NGOs — 264 of them have been registered with the National Trust for Population Welfare — to attend to this sector. Although many of the NGOs are doing excellent work, their reach is limited. They have 479 outlets when the government has nearly 2,500 centres. Again, as is the case with the health and education departments, the performance of the family welfare centres is below par and they have failed to make the impact they were expected to make. There has been talk of an appropriate strategy for the future with special emphasis on advocacy programmes, participation of communities in service delivery, and reducing unmet need for contraceptives. All this sounds impressive, but without efficient monitoring, it is unlikely that these family welfare centres will be activated and mobilised.

There is something more that needs to be looked into. This is the issue of gender equality which is directly linked to the success of a programme seeking to regulate the family size. Surveys have now clearly established that the key factor in determining people’s choice of the number of children they want to have is not so much religious beliefs as was the case once, but their expectations from their offspring. Considering the low status of women in Pakistan, the preference for the male offspring is usually pronounced. Their birth is seen to be an insurance policy for the parents for their future and a factor of social standing for the family. Therefore, the gender of the children and the order of their birth generally determine the family size. A country, where male prejudices are strong and women constitute the neglected section of the community, cannot succeed in curbing the galloping population growth rate. Now is the time to address the male biases in our society to change the attitudes of the people. This must be done at every level — in education, through the media, through political reforms, as has been done to some extent, by empowering women economically and socially, legislating pro-women laws and making the legal system women-friendly. If undertaken in earnest, such measures can bring about changes in the national status of women and thereby have an impact on the demographic factor.
http://www.dawn.com/2007/05/25/ed.htm

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Yasser Chattha