29.09.2013

Mangoes round the year
Farmers in Pakistan have succeeded in increasing the shelf life of mangoes by using the hot water technology and state-of-the-art mega processing plants
By Alauddin Masood

Rejoice mango lovers. The fruit of your first choice — mango — will now be available round the year to satisfy your taste buds.

Some Pakistani growers have introduced dehydrated mango in slice and cube form for the first time in this part of the world. The pioneers displayed dried slices and cubes of the ‘king of fruits’ at a trade fair organised by the Multan Chamber of Commerce and Industry at the beginning of September, this year. The dried mangoes have the taste like the fresh fruit. According to the pioneers of this technique, 1000 kilogram of fresh mangoes yielded 288 kilogram dried slices and cubes of this fruit.

Marketing horticultural products in dried form is not a new technique. It has been practiced in this region since ancient time, but the shelf life of vegetables and fruits dried by using primitive techniques was short. Some progressive farmers in Pakistan have succeeded in increasing the shelf life of mangoes by using the hot water technology and state-of-the-art mega processing plants.

Some countries, including China, are already marketing their apricots, peaches, plums, etcetera in dried form, beautifully wrapped like expensive candies and packed in elegantly designed containers. They send packs of dried fruits as gifts to friends, within the country and abroad, on festive occasions. The diplomats of those countries use festive occasions as opportunities to introduce the fruits of their native lands to important people in the country of their posting.

Pakistan has some of the sweetest mangoes in the world. With a total production of 1.80 million tonnes, Pakistan is the sixth largest producer of mango fruit across the globe, however, its exports of the fruit are relatively low compared to the country’s actual potential. Against a target of 175,000 tonnes, Pakistan exported 160,000 tonnes of mango, earning $54.85 million in foreign exchange, till the end of August, 2013. The exporters of mango fruit are optimistic to achieve the export target set for this year. Last year, Pakistan exported 118,000 tonnes mangoes for $36 million. These figures show that though the export of this fruit is rising, it still remains less than 10 per cent of the country’s total production.

Hot water technology and processing by mechanical plants has increased the shelf life of even the fresh mangoes up to 40 days by making the pulp of the fruit free from nine bacteria elements. More shelf life of the fruit, it is believed, would help in increasing the export of Pakistani mangoes, earning more foreign exchange for the country and becoming instrumental in the expansion of its agro-based sector.

Till recently, Pakistan’s focus has remained limited to exporting mangoes to the United Kingdom and some Middle Eastern countries. In the last two years, Pakistan has discovered new markets and exported its mangoes to seven new countries, including China, Jordan, Mauritius, South Korea, Japan and Lebanon. In addition to trial shipment of mango fruit to Australia, mango shows were also organised in Malaysia and Singapore this year. As the mango season coincided with Ramazan this year, there was an increase in demand for Pakistani mangoes in Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, UAE and the Central Asian Republics.

With a little effort, the experts believe, the country can appear as one of the leading mango exporting country on the globe. The major constraint to the expansion of market for Pakistani mangoes had been related to the country’s inability to supply competitively priced high quality mangoes in a significant and consistent manner, in keeping with the international standards and demands of the supermarket chains.

Eyeing to increase its exports of mangoes to 250,000 tonnes over the next two to three years, the country has geared efforts to adopting international standards, including hot-water technology, stringent quality control measures during several stages of production, processing, packing and export. At present, Pakistani farmers are processing mangoes in Multan, using a pair of giant-sized processing plants. As far as hot water technology is concerned, these plants have two to three times more capacity to process mangoes than any such plant in use anywhere in the world. One of these plants has the capacity to process 15 tonnes mangoes per hour and the second 10 tonnes per hour. The third big plant in Mexico possesses the capacity to process 4.5 tonnes mangoes per hour.

The flesh of mango is peach-like and juicy. It is rich in sugar and acid. The mango fruit has best flavour if allowed to ripen on the tree. When ripe, the fruit is entirely pale green or yellow marked with red. The quality of the fruit is based on taste and scarcity of fiber. Pakistan is the house of some fine varieties of mangoes, which are known for their good aroma, excellent taste and almost total absence of fiber content.

Among over 150 varieties of mango fruit produced in Pakistan, the choicest varieties are: Samar Bahisht (Paradise’s fruit), Fajree, Chaunsa, Super Langra, Shan-e-Khuda (God’s magnificence), Anwar Ratol, Lahoti, Ratool, Sindhri, Alfanso, Dusehri, Roosi Dulhan (Russian bride), Lab-e-Mashooq (Darling’s Lips), Lab-e-Habshi (Negroe’s Lips), Shaheed-e-Zam Zam and Tota Pari. Some other varieties include: Kala Pahar (black mountain), Gulab-e-Khas (special rose), Saleh Bhai, Al-Khausa, Neelum, Baigan Phelli, Seroli and Batasha. Amongst these, Chaunsa and Sindhri have great potential for hitting the US and EU supermarkets.

In the entire South Asia Sub-Continent, people relish mangoes and nostalgically refer to it as the ‘king of fruits.’ In fact, the fondness for mangoes in the South Asia is deep-rooted, and as old as the history of human civilization. No section or community, including the royalty, the elite, the intellectuals, the men of letters, is immune from craving for this highly nutritious fruit. One and all relish the mangoes. It also finds mention in the Punjabi, Sindhi and Hindi folklore.

The rich folk hold mangoes as a good dessert; while it constitutes an integral part of the diet of the villagers during the summer and monsoon seasons in Pakistan. People who go out for picnics during the monsoon season never forget to carry some mangoes with them. On such occasions, the youth also hold mango-eating contests. In short, in Pakistan, as in many other regions of the world, people greatly relish the fruit and its products.

Mangoes not only sweeten the economy and dining table in a variety of ways, they also provide jobs to millions of people from farms to export houses. From the early stages till it ripens, mango is processed into pickles (Achar, Chatney and Murabba), jams, jellies, nectars, juice, syrups and mango pudding and it involves millions of people, including growers, transporters, retailers, vendors, juice and ice-cream makers and exporters, throughout Pakistan. Taste-wise, it is one of the best fruits, which provides dozens of tastes and attracts people of all ages.

Rich in a variety of phytochemicals and nutrients that qualify mango as a super fruit of high health value, till recently mango has mainly been used as a fresh fruit. It is high in prebiotic dietary fiber, vitamin C, polyphenols, and provitamin carotenoids. The antioxidant vitamins A, C and E comprise 25 per cent, 76 per cent and 9.0 per cent respectively of the Dietary Reference Intake in a 165-gram serving.

New research studies have shown that polyphenols chemical found in mango can help cure some forms of cancers, including colon, chest, lungs, bone-marrow and prostrate. According to Dr S. Tailcoat and her husband, mango pulp, juice, peel and seed can create resistance against cancer. These research findings are likely to result in increasing the demand for mango fruits manifold.

The writer is a freelance columnist based at Islamabad.alauddinmasood@gmail.com

29.09.2013

Revenue degeneration
The FBR’s Year Book 2012-2013 proves beyond any doubt the
inefficiency of the revenue collection agency of the state
By Huzaima Bukhari & Dr. Ikramul Haq

The Year Book 2012-13, released by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on September 23, 2013, admits miserable performance during fiscal year 2012-13 — it collected Rs1939 billion against the original target of Rs2381 billion and even could not meet the three times revised budget of Rs2007. The shortfall of Rs442 billion pushed fiscal deficit to 8.8 per cent of GDP forcing the government to resort to further regressive taxes and begging before International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other lenders.

The collection was merely Rs57 billion more than what was collected in 2011-12 — this 3 per cent growth should be read as minus 6 per cent as average inflation rate during 2012-13 was 9 per cent.

In his ‘Foreword’ to the report, Tariq Bajwa, new Chairman of the FBR, while noting with concern that original as well as revised targets were missed by a wide margin, solicited comments of the public on the dismal performance of the FBR. This is a positive move and a healthy sign — in earlier reports, self-criticism and quest for improvement were totally missing.

The latest report of the FBR does not mention why the ex-chairman and many others received ‘honourariums’ (six months’ salaries) for their pathetic performance. There is a consensus that over the period of time, the FBR has become an institution wrought with corruption and inefficiency. The frequent occurrences of mega scams — fake refunds, tailored amnesty schemes, flying invoices, under invoicing, excessive payments of export rebates, just to mention a few — have increased manifold confirming the existence of a strong mafia.

The fiasco in fiscal year 2012-13 started with the political posting of Ali Arshad Hakeem as the FBR Chairman on July 11, 2012 under the direct command of former president Asif Ali Zardari. Though it was declared unlawful by Islamabad High Court, but by that time, he succeeded in destroying the collection strategy for 2012-13. On assumption of charge, he made some tall claims of surpassing the revenue target of Rs2381 billion by using “extraordinary managerial skills”, “innovative IT tools” and “amnesty schemes”. All these proved to be just self-praise as revenues nose-dived during his tenure. Fake refunds of billions of rupees were issued under his chairmanship.

The same scenario continued under the caretaker setup. Genuine refunds were blocked unlawfully and fake were issued causing loss to exchequer. The Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO) categorically warned the FBR to be “careful and do not resort to blockade of refunds.” But they did not heed his advice as usual. It should be remembered that in 2011, the FTO took suo moto notice [complaint number 982/2011] of figure fudging by the FBR through unlawful “borrowing of funds” in July 2011 by the Large Taxpayer Units (LTUs) from some companies to show higher collection but no action was taken against the officer involved in this crime despite the matter went to Public Accounts Committee. This undesirable act continues even today — the FBR’s officialdom thinks “nobody can touch us as rulers being tax evaders are in our pockets”.

There is no effective check of the government or the parliament over the FBR. In India, every year a comprehensive report is prepared by the Public Accounts Committee of the Parliament where the performance of tax machinery is critically examined and suggestions for betterment are made — latest report is available at http://www.itatonline.org/info/index...ssment-orders/.

Time and again, different chairmen of the FBR admitted before the Standing Committee of Parliament on Finance that tax reforms, funded by foreign donors since 2004, have failed to yield desired results. At the end of the five-year Tax Administration Reforms Programme (TARP), extended for another year, there was unprecedented decline in tax-to-GDP ratio — from 12.5 per cent in 2002-2003 to 8.2 per cent in 2010-11. This was one of the lowest in the world — confirming apathy of the ruling classes who, instead of paying due taxes, thrive on the national resources meant for the welfare of the weaker segments of society.

Even the new FBR Chairman is not ready to admit that Pakistan’s real revenue potential is much higher than lowly targets fixed in the budgets every year

The FBR’s Year Book 2012-13 shows that major burden of collecting taxes is shifted on withholding agents, who are performing the essential state function without any reimbursement of cost — they incur exorbitant expenses for performing this onerous task by employing people and providing them necessary infrastructure.

The FBR has conceded in Year Book 2012-13 that 80 per cent of taxes are being collected by the withholding agents. The corporate houses in general and banks in particular have virtually been converted into ‘FBR Collection Houses’. Withholding agents incur substantial cost for complying with tax collection provisions on behalf of the government (man-hours, infrastructure use and stationery, just to mention a few) and then face penal actions for alleged non-withholding of taxes. Corrupt officials are making lots of money encouraging unscrupulous elements not to deposit the withheld tax in the government treasury and instead, share the same with them.

The FBR’s book contains the same lies that its bosses keep on repeating in public and before Standing Committees of Parliament that “our tax base is narrow”. They claim that only those who file returns are taxpayers. In fact, millions are paying income tax at source. The total number of income taxpayers alone is over 50 million — there are active 50 million mobile users who pay 15 per cent income tax both on postpaid and prepaid connections, though number of return filers by business people is less than 500,000. Had the FBR allotted National Tax Numbers (NTNs) and issued notices to mobile users paying Rs60,000 or above as annual bill, it could have proudly said to have registered taxpayers of at least 15 million. Our tax base in not narrow, number of tax filers are pathetically low for which entire blame rests with the FBR.

If the new chairman is really serious in revamping the FBR and tapping the real tax potential of Pakistan, he must consider the fact admitted in Year Book 2012-13 that there was 31 per cent decline in 2012-13 in tax collected by the FBR officials — this alone reflects their own efforts compared to tax coming through withholding regime (59 per cent) and voluntary payments (33 per cent).

Out of total collection of income tax at Rs739.7 billion, the collection on demand was Rs89 billion — only 12 per cent of total collection, whereas in 2011-12 it was Rs130 billion or 17.6 per cent of total collection. It proves beyond any doubt the inefficiency and ineffectiveness of the FBR as revenue collection agency of the state.

The writers, tax lawyers, are Adjunct Faculty at Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS)

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"Nay! man is evidence against himself. Though he puts forth his excuses." Holy Qur'an (75:14-15)

29.09.2013

Live and let live
Islam is a most tolerant religion which some self-proclaimed interpreters and agents of ‘God’ have distorted, playing havoc with the society
Dr Syed Hussain Shaheed Soherwordi

Islam, a religion of peace, is followed by a section of people who do not believe in a pluralistic society. They aim to convert all other religions into their group. Why can’t they accept another person with different ideas and beliefs?

Where is religious pluralism — the outcome of an attempt to provide a basis in theology for tolerance of other religions and sects. 9/11 affected every aspect of our life. It has turned us intolerant even of the harmless communities of our society — the Christians. But Quran says: “Let there be no compulsion in religion” Surah Baqrah, Ayat 256). Why do we coerce people in the name of religion?

All Saints Church of Peshawar was blown by two suicide bombers of Jandola group, a broken fraction of the TTP, also considered as the Punjabi Taliban, headed by Asmatullah Muawaya. They don’t want to negotiate with the government of Pakistan. The attack took place at a time when the country’s army and political parties were in the process of conducting peace talks with Taliban militants.

When non-Muslim citizens live under Islamic sovereignty, they enjoy a special status and are known along with other minorities as ahl adh dhimma or dhimmis. Dhimma is an Arabic word, which means safety, security, and contract. Hence, they are called dhimmis because they have agreed to a contract by Allah, His Messenger, and the Muslim community, which grants them security.

Ibn Ishaq in his seerat (biography of the Prophet) states: “When the delegation of Najrani Christians came to the Prophet at Madinah, they entered his mosque in the afternoon to meet him. It was their prayer time, so they began to perform their prayer in the mosque. Some Muslims were about to prevent them from doing so, but the Prophet, upon whom be peace, said, “Let them pray.” So they faced eastward and performed their prayer.

In addition to the covenant made by the Prophet with the Christians of Najran, which placed them under the protection of Allah and his Prophet and provided for the safeguard of their wealth, religion, and churches, the one made by Umar ibn Al Khattab with the citizens of Iliya (Jersusalem) stated: “This is the protection which the servant of Allah, Umar ibn Al Khattab, the commander of the faithful extends to them (non-Muslims): the safeguarding of their lives, property, churches, crosses, and of their entire community. Their churches are not to be occupied, demolished, or damaged, nor are their crosses or anything belonging to them be touched. They will not be forced to abandon their religion, nor will they be harmed. None of the Jews will live with them in Illiya (Jersusalem).” (Tarikh At-Tabari, Volume 3, p. 609)

Our Prophet (peace be upon him) said that security of the minorities is the primary responsibility of the Muslim state.

When the Bamiyan’s Buddah statues were bombed, I wondered why. Who were they harming? It’s not Islam which is intolerant but few people who do not accommodate others; who try to coerce against the spirit of Islam.

Islam replaced earlier religions in the very beginning. However, its practice in Pakistan and in the subcontinent in general is different than in the Arab world. Spiritual as well as publically conformist, most Pakistanis are influenced by Sufism and integrate local paraphernalia such as visiting the shrines of saints, devotional songs and dancing. Pakistan is generally composed of a society that is tolerant and pluralistic, believing in religious harmony. Extremists, on the other hand, take a different view: they believe the accommodation of other religions as a dangerous deviation from Islam.

“If you want to understand inclusiveness and tolerance in Islam, you have to turn to spiritualism which will lead to the core of tolerance,” says Sidra Aziz Alizai, a researcher in Peshawar.

Taliban are using Islam as a means to influence the people in Pakistan. Pakistanis’ anger at the Taliban is counterbalanced by anger at the US policies in Afghanistan and Pakistan, especially drone attacks on Pakistan’s tribal belt and Iraq. They believe that the US is following a distinct anti-Muslim policy. The question is why should the Pakistani Christians bear the brunt of the US wrong policies?

These extremist elements, organised in the 80s, stepped into war with lofty assurances that “their version of ideology is the solution”. They did not lack for listeners or, within a few years, for dollars provided by the US administration. Petrodollar spawned funding for the most radical Muslims.

Their ‘great expectation’ has been that a return to strict Islam would provide the strength for a final victory over the US. A strict Islam has gained momentum after the Taliban customised religious vocabulary and visuals for political ends. In Peshawar University, people jokingly say that in paradise, wine will be alcohol-free.

It’s high time to preach legitimate co-existence. We committed serious crime against our people by keeping them illiterate and promoting intolerance.

Islam can be observed in ways that complement pluralism rather than suffocate those practicing other religions. Live and let live must be the slogan of the time. No one has the authority to act on Allah’s behalf, that too will tantamount to blasphemy.

The author teaches at the Department of International Relations, University of Peshawar). syedshaheed@hotmail.co.uk

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"Nay! man is evidence against himself. Though he puts forth his excuses." Holy Qur'an (75:14-15)

29.09.2013

Offload and take off Deterred by IMF-driven
sell-off plan, stakeholders are suggesting alternative
solutions to PIA’s woes
By Shahzada Irfan Ahmed

The government of Pakistan has decided to privatise 26 per cent shares of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) under a deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The Fund set up certain conditions for release of loan to Pakistan and privatisation of loss-making State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) was one of them.

The government believes it is the only way to take the national flag carrier out of the crisis and save the billions it has been doling out to the ailing organisation. Critics of this proposed plan claim the decision has been taken in haste just to satisfy the IMF.

For example, they state it is quite evident from so many examples that privatisation in Pakistan never produced desired results. There are issues in this decision of selling 26 per cent shares with management control as nobody is clear whether the subsidiaries of the airline would also be given under the control of the new management or not. The government has not provided any roadmap in this regard as how just a management control can save the airline from deep-rooted issues responsible for its downfall.

Some of these issues include political appointments, corruption, inefficient technicians, outdated and isolated engineering base, maintenance issues, depleting routes, non-airworthy aircraft, imprudent contracts, declining service standards, lack of reliability and punctuality, pilferage and theft, lack of quality manpower, training and job rotation, ageing fleet, overstaffing and high loans resulting in high finance cost etc.

The question that arises here is whether it will be possible for the government to find a buyer in the presence of all these ills? In case there is a buyer, will it be possible for the government to fetch a good price is another question?

Looking at the past experiences of privatisation deals, one finds the desired results could never be achieved. To the contrary, these have resulted in downsizing, increasing costs, creating mistrust among employees, suffering to the customer and no remedy to affectees. There are fears the same will happen in case of PIA privatisation.

Suhail Baloch, convener Joint Action Committee of PIA Employees (JACPIAE), complains employees have never been consulted both by the airline management and the governments regarding how they can help improve the airline. Instead, privatisation of PIA is always posed as panacea for all the ills this airline is suffering from by dint of corruption, non-professional high officials, political interference etc., he adds.

His point is that unfortunately the employees are mostly blamed for the ills of PIA whereas, in his opinion, it is the top hierarchy which rots and has been appointed on the basis cronyism and nepotism. All the previous governments considered PIA as their personal property by appointing their friends and relatives for their political gains.

So, if privatisation is not viable then what is the solution to the crisis?

Suhail, who is also president of Pakistan Airline Pilots Association (PALPA), tries to answer these questions saying the government should implement the orders of the Supreme Court of Pakistan by appointing honest and capable chairman and managing director on merit; constituting a judicial commission under a serving judge of the apex court to investigate the airline’s downfall and holding the responsible accountable; and making the grounded fleet airworthy.

The proposed plan is being seen with skepticism for one major reason — the dubious handling of aviation matters by the PML-N government. First the government appointed a Canadian national as the aviation advisor despite having no commercial airline industry experience and then Shahid Khaqan Abbasi was included in the Aviation Committee despite the fact that he owns AirBlue and has direct conflict of interest with PIA. There was more to come; the government then promoted a matriculate pilot to the post of Deputy Managing Director (DMD) in the airline.

Regardless of the fact that the said privatisation is workable or not, there is no doubt the announcement has rung alarm bells among the PIA staff. In a bid to convince the rulers that they can themselves bring the airlines out of crisis, they are coming with different solutions every other day.

One such official says PIA has never worked on how to increase its routes; in fact the network is shrinking with the passage of time. The poor marketing is responsible for that as they did not even go for code-sharing with other airlines, he adds.

The official, who does not want to be named, says the management did not try to expand the fleet. The optimum number of aircraft in proportion with the current route network should be 40 to 50 (both wide body and narrow body), but PIA’s fleet comprises 34-38 (official quotes vary) aircraft. Out of these, only 20 are operational while the rest are not airworthy at the moment. The reason, he says, is financial crunch due to which the management is not able to buy spare parts and has cannibalised these 14 or so aircraft to keep other 20 or so airworthy.

Though the airline faces a loss of Rs3 billion a month, the official believes over-staffing is not a big issue but fuel cost is as salaries constitute almost 21 per cent of the total revenue which internationally is around 35 per cent. This is despite the fact that the employee-to-aircraft ratio in PIA is around 500 against the internationally desirable ratio of 100.

Currently, the fleet on average is 26 years old, which is why PIA is losing up to 55 per cent of its budget on fuel against the international standard of 35-45 per cent, says the official, adding: “Rest is corruption and inefficiency which eats up huge revenues.”

As for overstaffing, PIA is running many departments which other airlines have outsourced, so employee base is not an issue as long as they are not burdening the balance sheet.

Aviation expert Shakil Aftab Kashmirwala tells TNS that downsizing or retrenchment is not an option for PIA while domestic, regional and international competitors keep expanding in all directions that are 100 per cent owned by their states.

While supporting the government decision to privatise PIA, he thinks this is not the right time as currently PIA is in such a bad shape that the government would get nothing for its privatisation as the losses are huge. He said the human resource in the airline would deliver, if the management is in right hands.

Kashmirwala, who has 28 years of airline industry experience and happens to be the only Pakistani having successfully served as a CEO of a foreign national flag carrier Eretrian Airlines, says the main objective should be to increase airline’s revenue per kilometre and cutting down costs wherever possible. Simultaneously, he says, more revenue streams will have to be re-established by reviving ground handling unit, catering, duty free sales, engineering & maintenance, training school and hotels to make it a profitable airline.

He says in the short term fleet would have to be made airworthy with upgradations of seats, lavatories, cabin and galleys. Catering, ground handling services, passenger services will have to be improved. Above all, it’s the quality of service which will make the difference. The airline should realise it is high time that people should be able to book/purchase tickets, pre-assign seats, select meals, purchase ground transport, hotel rooms etc. through website.

shahzada.irfan@gmail.com

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"Nay! man is evidence against himself. Though he puts forth his excuses." Holy Qur'an (75:14-15)

29.09.2013

Despite all the barbarity
An insight into Pakistan’s history to look at both the contributions of Christians as well their persecution at the hands of the majority
By Tahir Kamran

Christians, according to th 1998 census, constitute 1.59 per cent of Pakistan’s population, making them the second largest religious minority. This rather meagre number of Christians in Pakistan has worked to their disadvantage. Any Christian who has the means to do so has already moved out of Pakistan. Those who fall in the lowest strata, lacking this recourse, are condemned to live an uncertain life. At any moment a bolt may fall from the blue and a Shantinagar-like incident may unleash terror, resulting in the death of many.

Pakistani soil appears to have become accustomed to sucking the blood of hapless Christians in order to sustain itself.

Thus, when 81 Christians were blown up in a Peshawar Church last week, one felt a sense of déjà-vu of what happened in Sangla Hill, Kasur, Bahawalpur, Murree and Gojra in the past. Churches were set ablaze, houses ravaged and properties of the Christians destroyed. The miscreants could not be identified, charges were not pressed, and perpetrators went free.

This inaction encouraged a repeat of the ‘heroics’, which was done with impunity. One may argue, as does Shaun Gregory, that the Muslim majority and non-Muslim minorities are two components of the Pakistani polity with different rights as well as obligations — the status of the people in the minorities is markedly different from those hailing from the majority.

To counter that widely-held impression, Pakistani State and society will both have to initiate a process whereby the minorities are integrated well as a part of its citizenry.

The works of Francis Nadeem, Joshua Fazal Din, Peter Jacob, Michael Nazir Ali and Patrick Sookhdeo provide an insight into Pakistan’s history which has been largely ignored. It, therefore, seems necessary to highlight the contributions of the Christian community for which we have to peep into the past.

Punjab’s Christians first espoused the All-India Muslim League’s political struggle in 1928 when Christian leader L. Ellia Ram boycotted the All-Parties Conference called by Moti Lal Nehru, as did the League. The Lahore Resolution of March 1940 became a benchmark of the cordiality that Christians extended towards the Muslim League.

According to Chaudhry Chandu Lal, thousands of Christians participated in the Muslim League’s annual meeting. Unlike Christians in Bombay, Goa and Madras, those in the Punjab lent unequivocal support to the cause of the Muslim League. Important among such Christian leaders were S.P. Singha, C.E. Gibbon, R.A. Gomes, S.S. Albert, Fazal Ilahi, Alfred Prashad, F.E. Chaudhry and Raj Kumari Amrit Kaur.

In the elections of 1945-46, three Christians were elected to the Punjab Legislative Assembly who subsequently voted for Pakistan. Father J. Saldanha considered this if not ‘decisive’, at least ‘a small sincere contribution’ on the part of the Christians. Their leaders recorded their statements before the Punjab Boundary Commission and requested that “the Christian population may be counted as part of Pakistan”.

Just after partition, on Aug 17, 1947, a church in Karachi held a thanksgiving service for the creation of Pakistan in which, Christian sources assert, Quaid-i-Azam also participated.

At the outset, Pakistan faced severe dislocation arising from partition. 7.5 million refugees came to Pakistan. Majority of them were consigned to refugee camps in Lahore and other points where food and shelter were inadequate. The monsoon had also set in, giving rise to epidemics. Many contracted cholera. In dire circumstances, Christians came to their help. In 1947, about 70 to 75 per cent of the paramedical staff in the hospitals was Christians. They looked after the ailing and injured refugees.

While shedding light on the contribution of the Christians in helping out migrants, Victor Azriah says, “Its classical example stays alive in our history when the Hostel of F.C. College, which was closed at that time, had been converted into full-fledged hospital known as United Christian Hospital.” Furthermore, Christian educational institutions provided shelter to many refugees in the wake of mass migration in 1947.

In 1951, the provincial elections for the Punjab Assembly were held, and the Christians were well-represented. The faction of the Muslim League that won the elections included three Christian members of the provincial assembly — B.L. Rallia Ram, Fazl Illahi and S.P. Singha. Chaudhry Chandu Lal was elected Deputy Speaker.

Despite the nascent process of marginalisation of the Christian minority, their influence was still palpable. When in 1952, seven Christians were burnt alive in Matta village, the accused was prosecuted and justice was dispensed. But, it was not to last long enough. Things gradually started to change. The recent incident in Pashawar was ‘the unkindest cut of all’.

Ayub Khan’s era was marred with the first atrocity against the Christian minority. The gory incident took place in Martinabad village in Sheikhupura District, when blasphemous remarks were found chalked out on a school’s boundary wall. As a consequence, the Muslims of the neighbouring 14 villages raided the Christian villages Youngsonabad and Martinabad. Christians of the area tried to plead their innocence, but their requests fell on deaf ears. An attack was launched, but under the command of Youngsonabad’s Chaudhry Diljit Lal, it was successfully thwarted. Eventually the tension was dispelled by police from Nankana Sahib.

It was consequent to Ziaul Haq’s policy of Islamisation, hinged on such exclusionary measures like Blasphemy Law (in 1982 and 1986), that subsequently put the Christian community in jeopardy. That law gave a plausible pretext to the religious zealots to deploy it against Christians and other minority groups. The number of incidents of collective violence against Christians was witnessed in utter disregard to the legal process during the last 20 years or so.

The Shantinagar tragedy in the Khanewal district provides an illustration of excesses against Christians. In April 1997, in the Tibba Colony, there was an unsubstantiated claim that a Quran was burnt. Thirteen churches and 1,500 houses were burnt down as a result. Furthermore, in November 2005 in Sangla Hill, District Sheikhupura, Yousaf Masih was accused of burning pages of the Holy Quran and more violence ensued: three churches, a convent, a girl’s hostel, a school and a priest’s home were set ablaze by a mob of between 1,000 and 2,000. The pattern persisted: in Chungi Amar Sadhu, Lahore, Yunus Masih was charged with blasphemy in September 2005. He was beaten by a gang with billiards cues. In 2009, in Bahmniwala village, nearly 110 Christian families (about 700 people) were forced to leave their homes by a gang alleging that Christians showed disrespect towards the Prophet. Houses of eight Christians were set ablaze. In Gojra, nine Christians were killed and their houses ransacked.

Despite all this barbarity, there is hardly any plan or policy being devised by the State to ensure safety of the minorities, what to talk of their integration into Pakistani society irrespective of any discrimination.

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"Nay! man is evidence against himself. Though he puts forth his excuses." Holy Qur'an (75:14-15)

06.10.2013

Politics of relief
And the questions we ignore — that there is an uprising in Balochistan, that the historic marginalisation of this far-flung province is responsible for the devastating consequences of the
earthquake, and that the Baloch associate the security forces with daily harassment, disappearances and torture who they think cannot pretend to be neutral aid distributors overnight
By Mahvish Ahmad

After a 7.7-magnitude earthquake hit southern Balochistan last week, flattening entire villages, killing hundreds, and rendering thousands homeless, politics has been treated as a topic best left untouched. Ask the politicians and journalists, governments and state institutions seeing and engaging with Balochistan, and they will tell you that politics obfuscates. For them, bringing the p-word into the equation is both irrelevant and dangerous. Irrelevant, they say, since earthquakes are natural: an inevitable act of God or nature that no one could have avoided. And dangerous, they add, because any talk of politics can hamper urgent humanitarian relief.

For them, the Balochistan Liberation Front (BLF) attacks on army and government convoys carrying food, medicine, and tents, is a clear-cut example of the dark consequences of politics on emergency help.

Here is the problem: Refusing to talk about politics does not make it go away. We might successfully cleanse our conversations of it, but we cannot excise politics from Balochistan, its devastating earthquake, or the relief that it so urgently needs.

There might be a strong urge to just “get things done”, but anyone with that urge needs to be careful that they do not just stumble around in the dark like well-meaning, clumsy giants trying to “do some good”. They will end up breaking everything they run into, because they were either ignorant of the situation on the ground, or too lazy to bother to understand the politics of the place they are getting involved in.

There is an uprising in Balochistan. Those engaged with the Balochistan question can disagree on the scale of the separatist movement, but few can deny that it is a significant force in the province’s politics. This uprising is rooted in a very real disenchantment with the powers that rule Pakistan. And it has gained traction because of the enormous presence of the security forces. According to an Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) press release, there are currently 1000 soldiers from the Frontier Corps (FC) and Pakistan Army stationed in southern Balochistan alone; 700 before the earthquake hit last week, when the army deployed troops to the region from Karachi and Quetta. Another 1000 troops are stationed in Quetta according to a source within the FC, and many more can be found across the province, including Dera Bugti and Kohlu, the homes of the notorious Bugti and Marri sardars. The massive presence of soldiers across Balochistan indicates that even our state institutions recognise the presence of rebellion and discontent with the governments in Islamabad and Quetta.

If the earthquake had taken place in, for example, Balochistan’s northern Pakhtun belt, the politics that we needed to consider might have looked very different. The fact of the matter, however, is that it did not take place in northern Balochistan, but in the province’s southern belt, known for its remittance-fueled, urbanised towns and BLF-sympathetic middle-class Baloch. The epicenter of the earthquake, Awaran district, is also the birthplace of the current Baloch uprising’s most popular militant leader: BLF commander and doctor-turned-guerilla fighter Dr Allah Nazar.

The historic marginalisation of this far-flung province has fueled the support for the BLF, and is one of the driving factors behind the devastating consequences of the earthquake. While those who are opposed to bringing politics into the conversation will claim that earthquakes are God- or nature-given, others who closely analyse and work with natural disasters know that the poor are always disproportionately affected.

The decision by governments in Islamabad and Quetta to finance major development projects aimed at supporting Pakistan’s aspirations for economic growth at best, and filling the pockets of politicians at worst, has meant that those parts of the province where people go about their daily lives do not have infrastructure ready to withstand the threat of earthquakes. There is a reason that earthquake-prone Japan sees nothing near the devastation that we see in Pakistan — they have decided to invest in buildings that will keep their people safe.

To say that politics is irrelevant in understanding last week’s Balochistan earthquake is disingenuous, if not an outright lie.

Relief is no different. Just like earthquakes, relief takes place in a political context. Independent reports in BBC Urdu, which has provided some of the best coverage of the earthquake over the past week, verify that many Baloch in the disaster-hit areas associate security forces with daily harassment, disappearances, torture, and the notorious kill-and-dump policies where families discover the corpses of their sons bored through with holes. The security forces have also been known for launching operations in this region, many of them ignored by the mainstream press in the rest of the country. For example, in late December last year, the FC launched an operation in Awaran district’s Mashky, the home of Dr Nazar. At least 20 people, including women and children were killed in the operation, and the FC established at least 12 new checkpoints in this far-flung part of the country. To pretend that the army can transform itself into a neutral aid distributor overnight is a farce.

Acknowledging that the army is a political player in Balochistan, even after a devastating earthquake, is not the same as condoning BLF attacks on their relief convoys. One’s position on the Balochistan question is unrelated to the importance of acknowledging the tense political context in which the earthquake has taken place, and in which relief is now being distributed. There are some, like politicians in Quetta and Islamabad, who argue that the BLF is just as much a source of fear in southern Balochistan as the army, if not more, and that the militant group and others allied to them have been part of attacks on Punjabis and innocent government officials. Such a position does not change the facts on the ground: that politics matters, and that anyone truly interested in seeing relief effectively delivered and distributed in Balochistan will have to integrate them into their planning.

A relief that is politically aware, rather than politically ignorant or blind, might ensure that the thousands who are affected by the earthquake will finally receive the aid that they so urgently need. Malik Siraj Akbar, the editor of the banned online magazine, The Baloch Hal, has recommended a ceasefire between the separatists and the army, and the involvement of international humanitarian organisations.

Dr Abdul Malik, the chief minister of the provincial government in Balochistan, and Dr Allah Nazar, have both called for the involvement of international humanitarian organisations. These organisations, from Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), know that the contexts within which they work are tense, and their policy of neutrality comes not from a denial of the political, but from an acknowledgement of politics.

Interestingly, it is some of the most unpopular actors, i.e. the federal government and the security forces, that have been less than enthusiastic about international aid workers. When the earthquake first hit Balochistan, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said that it would not be putting out a call for international help. The army has likewise said that it is concerned about whether it will be able to provide security for aid workers. Some have said that federal and security force tentativeness around aid workers is a September 11, post-Dr Shakil Afridi phenomenon, where they are afraid that foreign governments will use the opportunity to send spies into Balochistan — an indication that even aid can be political.

But separatists and their sympathisers disagree, arguing that the government and the army want to keep humanitarian agencies out because they are afraid that their human rights abuses in the province will be exposed.

It is still unclear whether international humanitarian agencies will be allowed into interior Balochistan. Either way, the politics of the earthquake and the relief that surrounds it reveals a larger truth: In the end, few attempt to paint a full picture of what is going on in Balochistan. Sometimes it is because they are stopped from doing so. Access remains difficult for local and foreign journalists, and those that have tried, have been attacked: for example the offices of the Balochi newspaper, Daily Tawar, ransacked a few months ago.

But other times, it is because we naively assume that the state version of what is going on in Balochistan is more correct than what we hear from the Baloch themselves. And because we fail to understand the larger politics of the events in Balochistan. Missing persons cannot be understood without deeper knowledge of the uprising. Attacks on development projects and Chinese engineers cannot be comprehended without knowledge of the historic socio-economic marginalisation of the province. And, earthquake and relief cannot be understood without a sense of the political dynamics at play in Balochistan. Questioning dominant state narratives, and having an understanding of the politics at play is not equal to taking a pro- or anti-Pakistan position, or a pro- or anti-Baloch insurgency position. It does, however, ensure that we do not grapple around in the dark, and that we become far more aware of what exactly it is that we’re dealing with.

Mahvish Ahmad is a journalist and lecturer living in Islamabad. She is also the co-founder of Tanqeed | a magazine of politics and culture (www.tanqeed.org).

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"Nay! man is evidence against himself. Though he puts forth his excuses." Holy Qur'an (75:14-15)

06.10.2013

Sites of innovation
How does the Left in Pakistan — II address the woman — and the NGO-question?
By Sarah Humayun

Though ‘class struggle’ is made out to be the prime vector of progressivism in Marxist historiography, it has never been free of its own ‘contradictions’ (to use a choice Marxist term of art). To pick out one issue that is being articulated with increasing urgency: the ‘woman’ question. The problem is not new. “Working class resistance was constituted in the past by defending its own forms of oppressions (against women or apprentices) against the regulation of the state or of the capitalist market. The feminist movement is advancing resistance today by not fearing to “divide workers”,” writes Jacques Ranciére.

This remark finds an echo in the experience of women’s struggles who have not found an ally in the left or have felt the organised left to be an irrelevance if not a hindrance. This 2011 article from Guardian (http://www.theguardian.com/commentis...e-subservience) shows a woman Labour councillor reminding the anti-market and pro-community Blue Labour that “liberal rights and the role of the state has done a lot to help women — and many other groups for that matter — break out of community bonds that have often been oppressive, unaccountable and male dominated”. Many women in the UK might have a problem endorsing the romantic nostalgia for ‘working-class culture’, for the community-and-union dominated ‘traditional’ leftism that has been much in evidence in the UK, not least among academics.

‘The woman question’ is one of the sites of innovation for those interested in rethinking the left, of taking it beyond the era of base and superstructure, of progress on the back of the planned socialist economy and nationalist struggles for liberation. I found almost all of my interlocutors were thinking along these lines. “The woman is the most political being in Pakistan,” said one in an interesting if enigmatic formulation. Although all but one of the lefties I met were men, they are open, even keen, to acknowledge that the left had a woman problem, that this was not restricted to representation in the party but extended to social and personal relationships in evidence in left circles. In conversation, it seemed that there was a great desire to do something about the ‘woman question’ as well as some uncertainty as to what, specifically, an activism of the left might do here, whether they would go beyond or work with women’s rights advocates and feminist activists.

But were the women comrades comfortable working with the men; did class differences compounded by gender sometimes get in the way of comradely sociability? This question was met with some unease, a pause to weigh up words and thoughts. It is difficult, someone said. Another made a remark about choosing places carefully; another, about the need to maintain gender presentations in order to keep functioning working relationships.

The stories I was told about field activism were predominantly stories about men; men having arguments late into the night, hiding from the police, coming together to play cricket or to drink in what seemed to be cherished times of camaraderie. An office that I visited was a welcoming space, but it was full of men. Personally, the people I met were at ease with mixed-gender groups, counted many women as friends and a few women as colleagues. But the few that were mentioned in connection with party work seemed also to be upper-class academics.

Knowing all the reasons why women can be absent or less visible, often by choice, I’m not sure what weight to place on this. How is the difficult terrain of personal interaction affected by affiliating oneself with a school of thought explicitly committed to equality? Does this mean enfolding the question of gender in class, conceived as the rubric under which difference and elimination of difference is thought? Does taking account of class differences present in the party offer a way out? Or does the ‘woman question’ need another type of articulation, and what might that be, given the commitment to universalist thinking in the left?

Thinking about women and thinking about class may never be a seamless fit, nor will the designation of a class as the subject of emancipatory politics and capital as the object of resistance open out paths to taking account of the diverse ways in which the ‘woman question’ has been addressed. In the intellectual resources open to the left (as well as to other political tendencies) the ‘woman question’ will pose repeated threats of splits and divisions — of the vote, of a homosexual culture i.e. culture of one sex (as Luce Irigaray puts it), of the family and of society.

It will be interesting to see how the left addresses this question, if it ever does, under the sign of ‘merger’. But it should also be emphasised that the principles of justice and equality that left parties everywhere have subscribed to have given greater space for women historically to articulate their concerns (even if they’re labelled ‘marginal’) and to organise resistance. Small differences of political opportunity and intellectual space are important and should always remain firmly in view.

In Pakistan, the debate about women and the left has an added twist. It is sometimes pointed out that in recent history women have done better under the anti-politics, rhetorically liberal dictatorship of General Musharraf. The provision of 33 per cent seats in local bodies, the dilution of the Hudood ordinances, the promotion of education and media and culture (which arguably helps women to claim more public space) were all achieved under conditions when politics, or electoral politics, were in abeyance. This contention deserves detailed and nuanced debate.

But what is emphasised through this type of argument, I think, is that the promotion of socially progressive causes does not need a socially progressive politics that searches out new possibilities of thought and action. It can be done, for example, through personal enlightenment (presumably gained by buying an expensive education), through an investment in social stability and existing norms of citizenship. And by sticking to economic and social formulae that have been shown to work elsewhere.

This type of thinking informs much commentary in the nominally-liberal media. The point being made is that ‘causes’ do better without ‘politics’, do better in conditions where they succeed through an implicit social consensus and a firm government, the ‘writ of the state’. The onus is on citizens to reach consensus and abide by the norms of government and the laws of the state.

NGOs have been linked to projects of citizen empowerment that seek to circumvent political processes by working on projects that bring in both assumptions and funding form ‘elsewhere’ — this is commonly criticised by those on the political right. When it comes to the left, the criticisms are more complicated. Often in terms of field practice and the projected strategic effects of mobilising for this or that issue, they are virtually indistinguishable from the left. As some activists note, in the field they are often identified as NGO-people; and they often give support to NGOs and rights-based campaigns, who have more money to spend and bigger networks to tap for mobilising.

In addition, one would hazard to guess, not a few working in NGOs would self-identify as leftists. In spite of all this, I heard some strong criticisms of NGOs from one activist in particular: NGOs prevent leaders from emerging from within movements, ‘organically’, by creating and identifying key individuals through whom they choose to work and to channel funds. They make these leaders less accountable to movements. They dissolve relationships of solidarity that might otherwise exist, and inhibit internal democracy. They systematically discriminate against working-class knowledge.

Others were more cautious, putting down the antagonism between the left and NGOs to a struggle for identity and ‘intolerance of small differences’. A student activist was not dismissive of the service-delivery aspect of NGO work. He emphasised that ‘urban centres needs social services’ and the left should not overlook this in its work. He disagreed with some people who ‘confuse this with NGO work and refuse to see it as revolutionary’.

But he was still at pains to dispel suggestions that the left received NGO funding. The politics/issues distinction, however, was still in his mind: NGOs work on political issues but not on politics.

Has the effect of NGO-work been non- or anti-political; or is the anti-political a possibility present in any programme of politics? This, again, is a subject that needs a more-than-cursory treatment, and there must be many useful discussions on this subject that I haven’t read. But one can perhaps note that both the civil-society-before-politics argument and the politics of progressive-change-through-solidarity-and-antagonism argument are narrow enough in their own way. Both are tainted with purism and demand certain types of essentialised political subjects before they can get under way. Absence of ‘organic struggles of resistance’ do not necessarily indicate an absence of politics. Nor does the absence of ‘citizens’ as posited by liberal thought mean a dead end for projects that seek to mobilise civil society.

This may suggest a way of looking at another concern often voiced about the left, and no less about NGOs: that they are intellectuals and academics, remote from political reality. Probably many of them are what they are accused of being. But is not clear to me what kind of discomfort is signified by accusation of intellectual/academic: discomfort with smugness, purism, authoritarianism and policing of ideological deviance, which many intellectuals are prone to? Or a discomfort with the always-looking-elsewhere — to other thinkers, places, intellectual traditions and sources — which is a trait of any politics but particularly of left politics?

This ‘otherness’ and foreignness can also exist in what we claim as our own reality. It can appear to offer itself, for instance, as a ‘sufi’ or working-class tradition, or in a sub-nationalist movement that erupts with the promise of a different perception of political reality. But there is always a risk here that the ‘otherness’ is not pure, that a tradition or struggle that claims to be an alternative bears in it layers and possibilities of the status quo.

In my view, this risk can be dispelled neither through intellectual rigour nor through impeccable praxis.

To be continued

Sarah Humayun is a writer based in Lahore. She can be reached at sarah.humayun@gmail.com

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"Nay! man is evidence against himself. Though he puts forth his excuses." Holy Qur'an (75:14-15)

06.10.2013

Federalism and decentralisation
Against the backdrop of 18th Constitutional Amendment, the
recently held UNDP conference weighs the relevance and
implications of decentralisation
By Amjad Bhatti

The 18th Constitutional Amendment passed unanimously in April 2010 has sharpened the debates on federalism in Pakistan. A number of issues have emerged in the process of implementation and transition management in last three years where a plethora of diverse argumentation have pre-dominated the political and governance discourse in the country.

Some have argued that the 18th Amendment was “too little and too late”, while others have adjudged it as “too much and too soon”. The contest on the relevance, implications and implementation of the 18th Constitutional Amendment continues till today.

It was against this backdrop that UNDP’s project on “Strengthening Participatory Federalism and Decentralization” designed an international conference on “Participatory Federalism and Decentralization: From Framework to Functionality” on 25-27 September in Islamabad. The Conference was jointly organised and co-hosted by UNDP, Inter-University Consortium on the Promotion of Social Sciences, Ministry of Inter-Provincial Coordination, the Forum of Federations, the Higher Education Commission, and the National College of Arts.

The conference was aimed at studying different trends, levels, and indicators of institutional interplay between democracy, federalism and decentralisation at national, regional and global levels. Global and regional case studies were presented on the subjects, which provided a technical baseline to inform and facilitate the process of triangular integration between democracy, federalism and decentralisation in Pakistan.

Thirty papers were presented in the conference out of which 13 papers covered international case studies by foreign scholars while 17 papers were presented by the local academia, experts and government representatives from all four provinces. International representation comprised Ethiopia, Canada, Australia, Sri Lanka, India, Afghanistan, Indonesia, Nepal, USA, Russia and Germany.

Besides, political leadership from different parties was invited to provide participants an opportunity to understand divergent perspectives and ideological standpoints of different political dispositions in Pakistan. Prominent among them were Senator Mian Raza Rabbani, Maulana Fzalur Rehman, Mahmood Khan Achakzai, Shafqat Mehmood, Marvi Memon, Taj Haider, Danyal Aziz, Qamar Zaman Kaira and Farhatullah Babar.

Key messages of the Conference:

Pakistan being a society blessed with the richness of diversity and multiplicity reached a landmark consensus on federalism through a journey of continuous democratic struggle in last six decades.

The 18th Constitutional Amendment has set new directions for Pakistan as a federal, democratic and parliamentary state – and this has rightly been taken as a point of celebration for the proponents of federalism throughout the world.

Pakistan is in a state where it can learn and teach at the same time. It can learn in this formative phase of devolution management from the countries who have extensive experience of working within federal and decentralised frameworks of governance.

Pakistan can offer its learning to other countries as how consensus can be forged in diverse societies by relying upon the instruments of democratic decisions making. Pakistan has demonstrated its capacity to coin innovations in the structures of governance with a sense of inclusiveness, pluralism and equity.

Subsequently, the incorporation of the values of federalism, decentralisation and inclusiveness can further be facilitated by developing comprehensive institutional frameworks at different levels of the decision-making.

Streamlining of intergovernmental fiscal relations in some countries was not followed by true political decentralisation. This has led to a wider conclusion that fiscal federalism may survive without the political decentralisation only for a limited period of time.

Countries where local government systems have democratised state have also seen major innovations in governance and service delivery. Local governments increase the ability of voters to hold local decision makers accountable and it also strengthens the quality of national democratic leadership. It also broadens the bases of political leadership.

Local government systems need a substantial amount of hard power in order to exercise soft power. You can’t win with the losing hand. This is the fatal flaw in the community governance vision.

Decentralisation is also usually part of the ongoing power struggles between central and regional political leaders. Conflicts between modernising central governments and traditional regional authorities may limit the potential for positive outcomes for women.

The legislation on local government in Pakistan must ensure the compliance of Article 140 by devolving the political, fiscal and administrative authorities to the elected representatives of the local governments. The current legislations on the local government in four provinces do not reflect substantially the intent of the Article 140-A.

The 18th Constitutional Amendment was the beginning of the transfer of power from federal government to the provincial governments, now it is the turn of the provinces to keep in line with the constitutional commands and transfer powers to the lowest tiers of the governance for an effective service delivery and representative governments at the grassroots level.

Some governments implement electoral quotas that can compensate for women’s marginalisation by increasing their representation as legislators.

There have been areas of unclear relationship with federal legislation and the Election Commission of Pakistan which underpinned unclear legislation with significant gaps. There has been number of areas left for regulations to be written by civil servants.

Instead of the Rules of Business of the Federal Government, the rules of Council of Common Interests apply to the National Economic Council. In the view of 18th Constitutional Amendment, the Chairman of the Planning Commission should be appointed by the CCI on rotation basis to represent the Federation. Currently, CCI is not being involved in planning as required by the 18th Constitutional Amendment.

Introducing fiscal federalism, the 7th NFC Award has ushered a sense of autonomy in the federating units and is, therefore, a landmark achievement of a democratically elected government.

The implementation of Article 172 dealing with the joint ownership of natural resources can sufficiently bridge the economic disparities and reduce poverty with indigenous resources in Pakistan.

The Article 10-A introduced by the 18th Constitutional Amendment provides for a comprehensive review of justice system in Pakistan and it necessitates judicial reforms, cleansing the justice administration from colonial codifications hampering access to justice and fair trail.

Article 19-A of the Constitution set benchmark for the transparency and accountability by making right to information a fundamental right. The current legislations on right to information have emerged as disabler rather than enabler laws in the country.

Three nonlinear steps to march towards the course of reconciliation in Balochistan were suggested which include: (a) establishment of Balochistan Truth Commission; (b) redistributive justice as the equalisation of property and wealth ownership by direct political fiat and (c) incorporation of consociational elements into federal design.

A continuous process of dialogue and knowledge exchange between provinces would enable more informed transition management of 18th Constitutional Amendment in Pakistan.

The newly-reinvigorated institution of Council of Common Interests need to be strengthened and as commanded by the Constitution of Pakistan a separate secretariat for the CCI needs to be established which should be providing required data, information and evidence to the CCI on the subjects assigned to it through Federal Legislative List Part II.

Ministries established at the federal level on the subjects devolved to the provinces should be abolished with immediate effect as this has been taken as violation of the provincial autonomy and the demarcation of powers between centre and the provinces.

It was also noted that the reversal of 18th Constitutional Amendment with special reference to those Articles which deal with the parliamentary system of government and provincial autonomy will create political instability in Pakistan.

The conference underlined the need for creating more spaces of mutual learning between political leadership, development partners and academia to deepen the understanding of political, legislative, administrative and fiscal dimensions of federalism. The required technical knowledge base would inform the process of decision-making for a coordinated implementation of massive devolution.

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"Nay! man is evidence against himself. Though he puts forth his excuses." Holy Qur'an (75:14-15)

06.10.2013

Preventable deaths
Being well-off does not necessarily promise a long and healthy life as both poverty and affluence contribute to the causes of preventable or premature deaths
By Syed Mansoor Hussain

One of the more interesting concepts in medicine is of the ‘preventable or premature deaths’. Putting aside the effects of trauma and accidents, the two other major causes of preventable deaths are poverty and affluence.

One of the most dangerous points in a human life is birth. This is dangerous especially for the mother but also for the child. Maternal and child mortality continue to be a major problem especially in poor countries including Pakistan. However, it is interesting to note that more than a century ago, child birth was equally dangerous for the rich as well as the poor.

Even in modern medical literature, the period before delivery of a child is often referred to as ‘confinement’. That is a serious problem; women that are active until the time of delivery of a child have a better chance of going through an uneventful delivery. The well to do that are confined to bed and await the time, do worse. Child birth is hard work and those that are used to hard work do better.

There is an interesting story of an obstetrician in Vienna during the nineteenth century called Ignaz Semmelweis. He made an important observation about the occurrence of puerperal sepsis (infection during child birth that was often fatal). What Semmelweis noticed was that women who had ‘street births’ or in other words were too poor to come to a hospital had a much lower chance of getting infected than those that delivered their babies in a hospital.

What Semmelweis realised and that is a seminal observation in medical history was that women who delivered babies in the hospital were taken care of by doctors who would come down from the ‘autopsy rooms’ and deliver babies without washing their hands. As such they transmitted infection from the dead to the living. By instituting the regimen of washing hands before delivering a baby, Semmelweis was able to cut down tremendously the incidence of infection.

But then being ahead of your time is never good. Since Semmelweis could not prove why washing hands was good, he was ostracised and rejected by the physicians who thought that washing hands before delivering a baby was beneath their dignity. Germs as cause of infection was yet in the future and after being rejected, Semmelweis fell apart and eventually died in a ‘mental asylum’ after being beaten up.

Today, child birth is still fraught with danger among the poor. First, because of ‘child marriages’. When ‘children’ get pregnant they are often just not physically developed enough to go through a normal delivery. Second, during child birth medical help, including the possibility of a ‘caesarean section’, is not available. Third, the child after a prolonged labour is often not well enough and neither is the mother and without medical help both might not survive.

There are two other factors that increase maternal and child mortality. First is inappropriate nutrition for the mother, most if not all poor women going into child birth are severely deficient in terms of blood strength (anaemia) and even a moderate amount of bleeding during delivery of a child can push them into severe medical problems that they might not recover from. And if the mother is not around or is too sick, the child will also have a hard time surviving.

Once the child is born and is well at birth, there are other problems in store for the poor. The first is malnutrition. Malnutrition in the poor countries remains a major cause of early (preventable) death. But even if a child gets adequate nutrition, the fight for survival has just begun.

Overcrowding, unsanitary surroundings, inadequate access to clean drinking water, lack of education, and almost no access to primary medical care and immunisations all contribute to early deaths. Without going through all the possible diseases, let me just mention the frequent epidemics of ‘gastro’ (short for gastroenteritis) and enteric fevers (typhoid) that are almost entirely due to drinking water contaminated by human refuse or else due to food prepared by persons that don’t wash hands after a visit to the toilet. Lack of immunisation in children often leads to epidemics like the recent one of ‘measles’. Adequate ‘education’ especially of the mothers could well prevent many of these problems.

Overcrowding has an interesting history. Pulmonary Tuberculosis (TB) was the scourge for the last few centuries. TB was called the ‘white plague’; it was also often a ‘romantic’ disease that infected people of a ‘sensitive’ nature. To name two victims, first is the famous poet, John Keats, the second of course is Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan. Interestingly, even before the definitive antibiotic treatment for TB was discovered in the middle of the last century, the incidence of TB was rapidly declining and this was due to the fact that overcrowding became less common especially among the well to do and as such transmission of this disease from person to person became less common.

Here two ‘stories’ are of interest. Many of us of a ‘certain age’ were brought up on Indian movies in which one member of a ‘romantic triangle’ often died from TB thus leaving the field open for the friend and romantic rival. Also, while reading a book on the history of TB a few decades ago, I came upon a reference given by the person who discovered Streptomycin during the nineteen forties, the antibiotic that was the first definitive treatment of TB. The person who discovered Streptomycin mentions that he received a letter from a physician who asked for Streptomycin to treat a national leader in the ‘east’ but a few months later the physician sent a letter saying it was no longer needed. Was the patient Jinnah?

And now to the diseases particular to the well off. The diseases that have become the scourge of the modern world, of these two are worth mentioning. First is what we call Adult onset Diabetes (Type II Diabetes) that is almost entirely due to the increasing consumption of refined starches and sugars and the entailing obesity. The second is blockages of heart arteries leading to heart attacks.

Besides, Diabetes and obesity, the most important predisposing factor for blockages of the heart arteries is a lack of physical activity, once again the result of a life style that can only be sustained by the well off. Unfortunately, being well off does not necessarily promise a long and healthy life. In most developing and developed countries, Diabetes and heart disease are now the major causes of preventable (?) deaths especially among the emerging middle class. Interestingly, it is the newly ‘affluent’ that are much more prone to dietary excess.

That leaves two types of disease that make up the second tier of preventable or premature deaths. First is ‘cancer’, frankly if we didn’t live long enough, most of us would never develop cancers. It is for this reason that cancers don’t come in as a major cause of premature death in poor and developing countries. The other category is of diseases associated with aging. Here again you have to live long enough to develop these conditions.

The writer is former professor and Chairman Department of Cardiac Surgery, KEMU/Mayo Hospital, Lahore: smhmbbs70@yahoo.com

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"Nay! man is evidence against himself. Though he puts forth his excuses." Holy Qur'an (75:14-15)

06.10.2013

A crisis long over looked
National Nutrition Survey (NNS) 2011 suggests malnutrition plays a substantial role in Pakistan’s high child morbidity and mortality rates
By Arshad Mahmood

“Well fed people can enhance their dignity, their health and their learning capacity. Putting resources into social programs is not expenditure. It is investment”, LuizInácio Lula da Silva, former President of Brazil.

Finally, the federal government has launched the long-awaited National Nutrition Survey (NNS) 2011 in Islamabad. Findings of the NNS 2011 are depressing and clearly depicts how neglected the subject is in Pakistan. There has been no improvement in nutrition indicators for the last almost four decades and Minister Ahsan Iqbal rightly lamented the fact that the last decade following NNS 2001 has been totally lost as no tangible steps have been taken to improve the situation.

Federal Minister for Planning and Development and the Minister of State for Health Services Regulations and Coordination with the respective secretaries, representatives of the Provincial Governments and the Planning Commission of Pakistan, Donors, UN Agencies and civil society were present at the launching ceremony.

The NNS 2011 was the largest nutrition survey in the history of Pakistan conducted by the Aga Khan University’s Division of Women and Child Health, Ministry of Health and UNICEF with the financial support of AusAID and DFID. The NNS 2011 covered all provinces, Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), Gilgit Baltistan and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata). This included 1,500 enumeration bocks (EBs)/villages and 30,000 households with a 49 per cent urban and 51 per cent rural distribution.

Results from the NNS 2011 indicated little change over the last decade in terms of core maternal and childhood nutrition indicators. With regard to micronutrient deficiencies, while iodine status had improved nationally, vitamin A status has had deteriorated and there had been little or no improvement in other indicators linked to micronutrient deficiencies.

The NNS 2011 revealed that the nutritional status has not changed much over the past decade. The anthropometry of children under 5 revealed that 43.7 per cent were stunted (too short for her/his age/low height for age) in 2011 as compared to 41.6 per cent in 2001 NNS. Similarly, 15.1 per cent children were wasted (weight that is too low for her/his height) compared to 14.3 per cent in 2001. As per World Health Organization’s standards, a national average of 15 per cent or above is labelled as an “EMERGENCY”.

The NNS 2011 indicates that stunting, wasting and micronutrient deficiencies are endemic in Pakistan. These are caused by a combination of dietary deficiencies; poor maternal and child health; a high burden of morbidity; and low micronutrient content in the soil, especially iodine and zinc. Most of these micronutrients have profound effects on immunity, growth and mental development. They may underline the high burden of morbidity and mortality among women and children in Pakistan.

Malnutrition plays a substantial role in Pakistan’s high child morbidity and mortality rates. Due to its correlation with infections, malnutrition in Pakistan currently threatens maternal and child survival and an estimated 35 per cent of all under 5 deaths in the country are linked with malnutrition. It is imperative to respond to the situation if Pakistan has to be on track to achieve Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 4; about two third reduction in under 5 mortality.

More than 1.5 million children in Pakistan are currently suffering from acute malnutrition, making them susceptible to infectious diseases which may even lead to death. Long-term (chronic) malnutrition undermines both physical and mental development; nearly half of Pakistan’s children are chronically malnourished, and have their brain development and immune systems impaired, with life-long consequences.

Most of the irreversible damage due to malnutrition happens during conception and in the first 24 months of life meaning that risk begins from the day of conception to up to two years of age also referred to as the first 1000 days.

It was encouraging to listen to the Federal Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal, during the launch of the NNS 2011, who was very clear that it is time for retrospection and that the issue is not going to be resolved through routine approach and all the stakeholders should respond to the situation as an emergency.

Besides, the launch of the NNS 2011 another positive development is Pakistan’s joining of the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) initiative at the global level in April 2013. More than 40 countries have joined the SUN Movement so far, Pakistan being the largest country. The SUN is an opportunity which the government should utilise effectively and gear up to improve the situation of nutrition in the country. Key donors, UN Agencies, National and International NGOs are there to support the federal and provincial governments to scale up efforts for nutrition in a coordinated and efficient manner.

The writer is a development practitioner based in Islamabad and tweets @amahmood72

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"Nay! man is evidence against himself. Though he puts forth his excuses." Holy Qur'an (75:14-15)