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Old Monday, January 30, 2012
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Amendment bill


THE recent tabling of a constitutional amendment bill in the National Assembly proposing the creation of more provinces in the country has caused consternation among some nationalist groups. On Saturday, several areas in Sindh observed a shutdown strike as Sindhi nationalists rallied against the bill submitted by the MQM. To be fair to the latter, it has tried to dispel the impression that its move to amend certain articles of the constitution to accommodate new provinces poses a threat to Sindh’s boundaries. At a large rally in Sukkur last week, MQM leaders stressed that dividing Sindh would be an unforgivable act and referred to the “sacrifices made by the people” of the province. Given that the PPP which is the majority party in the province has not opposed the bill, there is little reason to suspect the intentions of those calling for constitutional amendments that could redefine provincial boundaries.

At the same time, it would be unfair to totally ignore the concerns of the bill’s detractors, even though they are heavily outnumbered in the Sindh Assembly. After all, there has been distrust in the past between the Sindhi and Mohajir communities, which had at times flared into violence. But they too must realise that political realities are such that opposing a bill on the grounds of misguided suspicion is hardly fair to other communities in the country where the creation of more provinces could, in fact, have a positive effect on governance and addressing their needs. A debate, though, is always healthy, and we hope that opposing parties listen to and understand the concerns of each other, while putting across their own in a manner that does not stir ethnic and political tensions.

Specifically, the MQM has called for amending Articles 1, 51, 106 and 239, which includes the insertion of ‘Hazara’ and ‘Southern Punjab in the first three articles mentioned. However, it is the proposed removal of Clause 4 of Article 239 – which says that provincial boundaries cannot be altered unless approved by a two-thirds majority of the assembly of the province in question – that has resulted in misgivings. This is seen by detractors as a blow to the guarantee of provincial autonomy – even if the proposed elimination is presumably to effect the changes in the earlier articles. It is now up to parliament to debate and approve or reject the bill. Given the sensitive nature of the bill, it is imperative that the long-term vision for the country is given priority over narrow political gains and that the majority consensus in the provincial assemblies concerned is taken into consideration.

Unspent flood funds


WHILE Pakistan has endured two back-to-back years of intense flooding, mismanagement continues to mark rehabilitation efforts at both the state and private levels. As reported in this paper on Saturday, a lack of coordination between the government and NGOs in rain-affected parts of Jamshoro district in Sindh has resulted in the duplication of relief projects. Apparently, NGOs did not share their plans with the state, which is why several organisations have been working on identical projects. The report adds that the state’s response in relief efforts has also been far from satisfactory. In a similar vein, the Sindh minister for Zakat and Ushr told the provincial assembly during question hour recently that over Rs3.6bn meant for the reconstruction of houses for victims of the 2010 floods remained unspent. He told the House that “modalities for the construction of houses” were still being worked out, despite the fact that it has been a year and a half since floodwaters first raged through Sindh. In this regard, the Sindh chief minister reportedly told flood victims to “be patient”. Patience is indeed a virtue, yet failure to build the houses despite the passage of such a lengthy period of time and the availability of funds is enough to try anyone’s patience.

This attitude of the state is not new as several months after 2010′s floods initially struck, there were millions of dollars reportedly lying unused in the prime minister’s fund. We complain – and perhaps rightly so – when the world fails to loosen its purse strings for us in times of trouble. Yet when funds are clearly available we fail to put them to good use mainly due to the haphazard manner in which the state conducts its affairs. Along with the state, NGOs should declare the amount of funds that have been raised for the flood victims in 2010 and 2011, as well as details of where and how these funds have been spent. Ultimately, much better coordination needs to exist between the state and the private sector immediately after a disaster has taken place as well as in the long run to ensure transparency and effective rehabilitation of victims.

Rally fever

T’S supposed to be the same polity and electorate that the politicians are competing over, but the different parts of the political spectrum appear to be occupying different worlds at the moment. In Davos, Prime Minister Gilani confirmed what has seemed apparent ever since the parliamentary resolution in support of the government was passed by a thumping majority earlier this month: early polls are off the table. Over in the PML-N corner, reality also seems to be sinking in as party insiders have begun to move away from the get-Zardari campaign that was supposed to help trigger early polls. But elsewhere, it’s a rally a week, if not two, for some political parties, old, new and in-between.

What does this rally fever mean? When the government’s parliamentary position looked uncertain, they may have made sense, from a position of self-interest, in that the rallies by opposition parties helped build pressure on the government and could have possibly helped triggered fresh polls. But in the present circumstances where the government appears to be secure and the main parliamentary opposition sedate, rally fever may just end up causing electoral burnout even before the starting bell for the campaign cycle is heard. Perhaps some of the parties may want to think of conserving their energy for the short but intense race to the finish that Pakistani elections have been historically instead of plodding along marathon-style when the end is nowhere in sight. There’s plenty to do between now and the election: coming up with solutions for Pakistan’s long-standing economic, security and political problems; developing a realistic health and education policy; figuring out how Pakistan can take positive advantage of its regional position instead of always fending off threats, real and perceived. Just give the country a break from all the rallying. There’ll be plenty of time for that later.

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  #642  
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SBP report card

MAKING a comment on the state of Pakistan`s economy these days is like stating the obvious. This is exactly what the State Bank has done in its first quarterly report on the performance of the country`s economy for the current fiscal: the economy is showing signs of some improvement, but the risks remain. What are those signs of `improvement`? The December inflation has receded to 9.75 per cent year-on-year. Tax revenues have grown by 27 per cent in the first half of the fiscal from a year ago. The budget deficit has declined to 2.6 per cent of GDP during the same period from 2.9 per cent.

And what are the `risks` to the economy? Price inflation is projected to resurge on spiking energy prices. The tax revenue target of Rs1.95tr still looks daunting because of the government`s failure to implement the reform agenda. The budget deficit could swell beyond six per cent of GDP at the end of the year if the government fails to realise the uncertain Coalition Support Fund dues from the US and the remaining privatisation proceeds of the PTCL from its Gulf buyer. The failure to raise the projected funds of $700m from the sale of 3G telecom licences could also increase the size of the deficit. Even the government move to settle a part of the circular debt (Rs160bn) outside the budget through the debt-swap facility will not help bring down the deficit. The non-realisation of these financial inflows will also jeopardise the current account deficit, which has already expanded to $2.15bn or 1.8 per cent of GDP from a surplus of $8m last year. Large-scale manufacturing posted a negative growth of 0.54 per cent in November, slowing to 1.56 per cent in the first five months of the fiscal on growing energy shortages. And so on.

So where do we go from here? While economic growth is still expected to pick up and go up to around four per cent this year from 2.4 per cent last year, the solution to the country`s macroeconomic problems essentially lies in taking tough decisions and implementing the fiscal and governance reform agenda. Tax coverage and revenues will have to be significantly increased, loss-making public-sector businesses will have to be restructured and sold, wasteful spending on general subsidies will have to be removed, the power and gas sector will have to be revamped and the government`s own expenditure reduced. Unless we take these actions growth will remain anaemic and the economy will not be out of the woods, despite showing periodic signs of improvement.

Taliban talks

REPORTS emerging from the opaque world of the Afghan Taliban reconciliation talks indicate that the Karzai government may be opening up its own bilateral avenue for negotiations, possibly with Pakistan`s support. While the Americans and the Taliban are in discussions in Qatar, the Afghan administration has reportedly been unhappy about its level of involvement in that process. Afghan officials have now told the media that a separate set of talks will be launched in Saudi Arabia, this time directly by the Karzai government. If these reports do turn out to be true, that is a worrying sign about the peace process. First, there is, of course, the question of how successful the process can be if it is a fragmented one conducted by various interlocutors and if the Afghan and US governments are not seeing eye to eye. Second, negotiations should be conducted from a position of as much strength as possible, and a divided front will only be interpreted as a sign of weakness by the Taliban. The development also calls into question the mantra of an `Afghan-led` and `Afghan-owned` process, a line that both the US and Pakistan, among other nations involved, have been promoting. American officials still insist that this is the ultimate goal, positioning the Qatar talks as simply laying the groundwork. But the opening up of a separate channel through Saudi Arabia only indicates that the Karzai government is deeply uncomfortable with the Qatar process.

Meanwhile, the recent kidnapping by the Taliban of a member of the High Peace Council in eastern Afghanistan demonstrates that the other side, too, is either fragmented on the talks issue or is far from trusting the peace process. While the decision to participate in the Qatar talks was reportedly made by the Taliban governing council, it is unclear how supportive various commanders in the field are. Alternatively, the group is still going to play hardball — including targeting officials involved in talks — until it begins to benefit from the reconciliation process. Either way, between lack of consensus on the US-Afghan side and unclear intentions on the Taliban side, it looks like the effort will continue to be an uphill struggle for some time.

Disaster preparedness

THAT around 30 of the 62 seismometers in Pakistan are not transmitting data in real time to the national seismic activity monitoring network speaks volumes for the level of official apathy where disaster preparedness is concerned. The reason for this, as reported in this newspaper, is shocking: the meters are offline because the Met office has been unable to pay their monthly connectivity cost, ranging from Rs2,000 to Rs5,000. Collecting and analysing accurate data is an essential part of disaster preparedness, but the relevant authorities here don`t seem to think so. In general, our attitude towards preparing for and managing disasters is ad hoc and shambolic. This is quite troubling considering the fact that various parts of Pakistan are prone to seismic activity. For example, major earthquakes struck Balochistan in 2008 and 2011, while it has been reported that six minor quakes were recorded in Karachi in 2010, along with a few recent tremors. The devastation caused by the 2005 quake in northern Pakistan has still not been forgotten.

While it is true that after the 2005 quake there has been greater awareness about disaster management both in the public and private spheres, there is much room for improvement. For example, while masons have been trained in different parts of the country — through UN help — to build safer structures, building codes, especially in cities, are routinely flouted and structures not conforming to safety standards approved. Also, earthquake drills in schools and workplaces are almost non-existent, though experts say that considering our seismically active neighbourhood such drills should be routine. It is better to be prepared now in order to minimise damage rather than grapple with the consequences of being unprepared when disaster does strike. For a start, the disconnected seismometers should be brought online immediately.

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Dated: 1st Feb 2012

Drugs that kill


WHAT had started out as a case of negligence on the part of a few individuals assigned to select and supply drugs to the Punjab Institute of Cardiology in Lahore has turned into a tragic exposé of malaise that implicates more than one administration and government in the country. The situation reads like a dark saga of a system that most knew to be ailing but which parties with vested interests had still wanted to perpetuate. Now, with the rising death toll of PIC patients, apparently from the use of contaminated drugs, the search for a new system has been given greater impetus by a flurry of news reports. Doctors have voiced a very reasonable demand about replacing bureaucrats with experts as drug monitors. There are calls for completing devolution from the centre to the province under the 18th Amendment. The Punjab and federal governments have been held guilty of adding to the panic, with a somewhat uncertain media groping in the dark as it comes up with one horrifying story after another. In part, this has been the outcome of a general lack of information among the sources the media taps.

As patients are scared away from public-sector hospitals, pharmacies from all over Pakistan are reporting a huge switch from locally produced medicines to more costly — and reliable — foreign substitutes. The people fear that the supply of medicines may not have been limited to the PIC and they can hardly be faulted for thinking so given the absence of a clear and timely explanation based on the frank sharing of facts. For instance, a certain percentage of the revenues earned by pharmaceutical companies is supposed to be spent on research and quality control. There is no discussion on how much is collected under this head and how much of the amount is spent, especially when Pakistan continues to be dependent on laboratories abroad for tests on medicines. This requires more than a simple explanation.

Other aspects too must be given consideration. Of these, the completion of the devolution scheme tops the list, although the argument that the country cannot do without a centralised body to monitor drugs is a valid one. At the moment, no one is
sure about the validity of the Drugs Act of 1976 or about the Drug Control Authority as it existed under federal control.
Building alternative watchdogs is something the squabbling provincial legislators would be better off spending their energies on. There is plenty to do and plenty to say to make the current debate more meaningful than it has been so far.
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Syrian Gridlock


A NEGOTIATED settlement to the Syrian crisis seems unlikely, especially because both President Bashar Al Assad and the mainstream opposition have rejected talks. Since the uprising began in March last, China and Russia have blocked all attempts by the other UN Security Council members to have a resolution passed against the Syrian regime. On Sunday, Russia again opposed the ‘existing’ text of the resolution, as US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the UN must act to end Mr Assad’s “violent and brutal attacks” on the demonstrators. The situation has now become grimmer: the Arab League has suspended the activities of its observer mission, 80 people were killed on Sunday alone, and the Assad regime seems in no mood to end the crackdown which, according to reports, has so far led to 5,500 deaths.

The Syrian National Council and the Syrian National Coordinating Committee for Democratic Change have both rejected talks.
While the former said President Assad’s resignation was a precondition for any negotiated transition to democracy, the latter asserted that talks were “inconceivable” because of “growing violence and killings”. Mr Assad has also rejected the Arab League plan, which calls upon him to hand over power to his deputy. This marks the Syrian strongman’s total regional and international isolation. It remains to be seen whether Moscow or Beijing will veto a new West-moved resolution. But even if the UNSC does manage to pass a strong resolution slapping sanctions on Syria, it is unlikely to lead to a regime change in Damascus. Apparently, Mr Assad still commands the loyalty of a majority of the armed forces, as indicated by the execution last week of Col Hussein Harmush, who defected to the protesters’ side and founded the rebel group. A UNSC resolution on paper will have little effect on the Baathist regime, no matter how strong the sanctions. The kind of defections that took place in the Libyan armed forces is not yet visible in Syria, and that only means that, barring some unexpected development, the Syrian people will continue to suffer at the hands of a regime they never voted to power.
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Blasphemy laws


THE list of those charged or accused under the country’s questionable blasphemy laws — that too on the flimsiest of pretexts — is far too long. Soofi Mohammad Ishaq, sentenced to death by a judge in Jhelum on Monday in a blasphemy case, is another addition to this unenviable list. As reported, Mr Ishaq, a cleric settled in the US, returned to Talagang, Punjab in 2009. The custodian of a shrine, he received a rousing reception from his followers. However, some people apparently felt that his disciples were overzealous in their adulation and considered ‘bowing’ before the cleric ‘blasphemous’. At this point, we cannot but wonder whether the accusation of blasphemy was driven by ulterior motives, as is usually the case.

Reportedly, the man who made the complaint against Mr Ishaq was unhappy with the fact that he had been granted custodianship of the shrine. The background of this case is suspect. What is also cause for concern is that the judge who first heard the case in Chakwal felt he could not announce the verdict due to ‘security risks’, hence the case was transferred to Jhelum. The matter must be thoroughly probed.

Along with their misuse as a weapon against minorities, the blasphemy laws are used by Muslims against Muslims to settle personal scores or grab property. With growing polarisation in society, accusations of blasphemy are also being made to persecute followers of ‘rival’ schools of thought within Islam. Criticism of these laws, even mere talk of reforming them let alone their repeal, invites emotional responses, violence or even death. Not only do we oppose the death penalty, we also feel that laws such as these — which are open to abuse and have brought much opprobrium to Pakistan domestically as well as internationally — at the least need to have iron-clad legal provisos that prevent their misuse.

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Dated: 2nd Feb 2012

Obama on drones


PRESIDENT Obama’s public acknowledgment of drone strikes on Pakistani territory may have lifted the official veil on the ‘covert’ programme, but it was hardly a revelation. It has, however, put the Pakistani administration in an embarrassing position. While in response the Pakistan Foreign Office has called the strikes “unlawful, counterproductive and hence unacceptable”, the fact is that Mr Obama’s claim has only further exposed a glaring instance of doublespeak on the part of successive Pakistani governments and military leaderships that have supported drone strikes in private conversations with the US and taken no military or diplomatic action against them despite opposing them publicly.
Deployed in a cooperative framework drones can be an important weapon of war, but by trying to have it both ways — benefiting from the elimination of militants and at the same time pandering to anti-US sentiments — Pakistan has unnecessarily politicised the option. The same goes for the US, which has not developed more transparent rules of engagement for the operation of drones.

Unofficial reports emerging from both Pakistan and America have indicated that in Salala’s wake the two countries are looking for a more transpar-ent, clear-cut relationship going forward. In that context, President Obama’s acknowledgment of drone strikes is an opportunity. As parliament devises a new framework for the Pakistan-US relationship, it has a chance to come clean before the nation on the issue. But there is reason for doubting that this will happen. For one, the government has painted itself into a corner with the policy of tacit appro-val and public denial that it borrowed from the Musharraf administration. And differing opinions among lawmakers on the drone problem will not make consensus easy. But if the administration is able to negotiate with the US greater Pakistani involvement in the programme, it could make a case to the public and find a way out of its dubious position. The alternative is further loss of goodwill as Pakistan continues to bluster in public but does nothing to stop drone strikes even after the American president has stated he will continue them.

There are questions that America should answer about the precautions taken to avoid civilian casualties, how targets are defined, and the legitimacy of drone strikes under international law. This is especially important given that the remoteness of the territory under attack makes it near-impossible to determine how many non-combatants have died. But if the Pakistani government is convinced enough of the benefits of drone strikes to let them continue, now is the time to find a way to legitimise them in the eyes of the Pakistani public.
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Karachi Violence


IT is difficult to say what exactly is behind the latest upsurge in violence in Karachi, specifically the resumption of ‘targeted killings’. Victims have been gunned down not only due to their religious and political affiliations, but also, seemingly, because of their profession. On Tuesday, two people were killed when assailants stormed a cellphone franchise in North Nazimabad. Two other cellphone businesses in nearby areas were targeted in similar fashion in the recent past. It appears the attackers were not interested in looting the premises but in spreading terror. The police claim the Taliban were involved in past attacks on cellphone franchises, but it is not clear why the militants would target this particular business.
Extortion has been suggested as one possible motive. Meanwhile, a doctor was gunned down also on Tuesday as he drove to his clinic. The possibility of sectarian motives has been suggested by the police. Another doctor, associated with an imambargah, was shot in front of his house a few days ago, while lawyers from the Shia community have also been killed. In the early hours of Tuesday, the wife, daughter and driver of a Balochistan MPA were also murdered in a drive-by shooting in the city while a number of political workers have been gunned down.

Although sectarian animosity is a clear factor, there seems to be no common thread linking the killings, other than the intent to spread terror. Though some politicians have suggested that citizens take steps for ‘self-protection’, the law-enforcement apparatus cannot be let off the hook so easily. Since it is the police, Rangers and administration that bear primary responsibility for keeping the peace, it is they who must explain why such acts of violence conti-nue unabated. ‘Targeted’ search operations have begun, but why must such measures have to wait until after the body count begins to mount? Last year it took the Supreme Court’s intervention for the authorities to take action to stop the targeted killings, which claimed hundreds of lives. What will it take this time to motivate the government into doing so — before Karachi’s violence spins out of control once again?
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A place in the museum


ONE way of keeping an issue alive is by resisting all provocations to resolve it. At least this is the successful Pakistani method of mummifying all problems, especially those which carry the ‘national importance’ tag on them. No files are ever closed here and newer ones are opened with fanfare, keeping people engaged, before they take their place in the ever-growing national museum of unsolved cases. ‘Memogate’ may be an exception; it has been declared as an archival article in a bit of a hurry. The memo has or is shown to have lost its urgent appeal even though three pillars of
the state — the army, parliament and the judiciary — had all committed themselves to unearthing the truth behind the allegations made by one individual. That individual has now chosen to not appear in a court in Pakistan, and it is as if this is sufficient reason for a general loss of interest in a matter that gained so much currency despite its rather odd origins.

‘Memogate’ is an exception to the rule, the Saleem Shahzad investigation is not. The memo is going to have a shelf by itself in the archives for the researchers to grapple with, while the Saleem Shahzad probe will be in illustrious company. The journalist who was killed after he went missing last May is going to be surrounded by national luminaries, starting with the Quaid, whose last worldly journey remains shrouded in mystery more than six decades after his death, and by the likes of Liaquat Ali Khan and Benazir Bhutto. Perhaps Saleem Shahzad would have preferred a less ceremonious burial and would have wanted to be counted among the beneficiaries of Pakistanis’ current surge for justice. But, given his high profile and the scope of the investigation, that would have been against Pakistani norms.

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Dated: Feb 3rd 2012

Contempt charges

JUST when it looked like the political skies were clearing, the NRO saga is back with a bang. Prime Minister Gilani has been summoned once more to the Supreme Court on Feb 13, this time to face charges of contempt for not implementing in totality the NRO judgment of December 2009. Uncertainty and instability have become the political currency of choice of late, but the latest crisis is perhaps both the easiest to solve and the one holding the greatest danger.

Let’s start with the solution: the government could simply write the letter to Swiss authorities to re-establish the status of the Pakistani government as a party to the Swiss cases involving President Zardari. If the government were to do so, the NRO issue would likely fade away and the government could concentrate on its agenda of holding Senate elections, getting to the budget in June and then contemplating when to hold a general election. With even the prime minister’s lawyer, Aitzaz Ahsan, claiming in previous, more candid moments that writing the Swiss letter would not materially impact Mr Zardari’s presidency, the common-sense thing for the government to do would be to oblige the court. But for a government which has long preferred to respond politically to its legal woes, whether common sense will now be listened to is an open question. If the government does decide to contest the issue in the legal domain, its options are few. Other than an intra-court appeal asking that the contempt hearing on Feb 13 be deferred or set aside, Mr Ahsan will be hard-pressed to find a loophole for the prime minister to wriggle out through. And once the contempt proceedings begin, there’s little by way of argument that can be deployed to prevent or even delay the gavel from coming crashing down on Mr Gilani’s prime ministership. With 17 justices of the SC having already declared in December 2009 that the government must write the Swiss letter, it is virtually inconceivable that any bench of the court will at this stage find the NRO judgment was flawed somehow or that it erred in its instructions.

Much as the onus has come to fall on the government for implementing the NRO judgment, the court continues to heap pressure on the government in a manner that perhaps makes a confrontation inevitable. Two years of patience when it comes to seeing the NRO judgment implemented in totality has given way to an impatience that suggests only days or weeks are now left. A judiciary perceived to be in a selective hurry does not help the cause of national political stability.
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Nato report


THE latest news about the Nato campaign in Afghanistan has only reinforced the pessimistic predictions of Afghan-war sceptics. Even as a leaked Nato report painted a picture of a resurgent Afghan Taliban, US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta said that American troops could end their combat role there as early as the middle of 2013. The report is, as Nato and American officials have pointed out, an aggregation of the subjective and therefore possibly calculated statements of detainees rather than an analysis of facts on the ground. But the sheer breadth of interrogations — 27,000 interviews of 4,000 captives — implies that the prisoners’ views are not without some basis. Together they indicate, contrary to official coalition optimism and the increased captures and killings of Taliban operatives, a force confident of victory. And this is now a war in which perception of relative strength is becoming increasingly important. As the Americans head into negotiations with the Taliban and the Afghan government tries to, what both parties are confronted with is an interlocutor convinced it has the upper hand. The planned withdrawal of foreign forces by 2014 obviously has something to do with this, and Mr Panetta’s announcement will only strengthen the Taliban’s perception that coming into power is simply a matter of time.

The report also paints a picture of increasing support for the Taliban within Afghanistan. There were the familiar allegations of Pakistani backing for the insurgent group, which will raise suspicions among the Pakistani leadership that the report was leaked to coincide with the foreign minister’s visit to Kabul. This doesn’t bode well for already strained relations with America. But more interesting are reportedly widespread accounts of Afghan civilians, government personnel and security forces seeking Taliban protection or providing support to the insurgents, viewing them as the camp that will be in power once foreign forces leave. All in all, the report describes a country whose inhabitants suspect, if not believe in, a rise in the Taliban’s fortunes, and calls into question the supposed gains made by foreign forces in Afghanistan.
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Drug results

PHARMACISTS in London have given shocking preliminary results of tests carried out on the contaminated batch of medicine — prescribed to over 120 patients who lost their lives — dispensed by Lahore’s Punjab Institute of Cardiology. Not only was the said batch of Isotab, a common drug for treating cardiovascular conditions, found laced with an anti-malarial substance, the case study of 30 patients it killed revealed that the prescribed dosage was much higher than recommended by drug authorities internationally. It was also found that the two factors combined with the adverse reaction caused by other prescribed drugs to cause the deaths. This is more than a case of consuming a contaminated medicine; in a broader sense, it casts doubts on the medical ability of doctors who prescribe certain life-saving drugs over and above their recommended dose, which can prove fatal. This is precisely what was discovered by UK pharmacists and cardiologists who examined the case studies of the PIC victims besides running laboratory tests on the drug samples.

It is a matter of grave concern, indeed a matter of life and death as proved in this case, that the contaminated medicine should have been cleared by a number of drug-testing laboratories in Pakistan; it appears our laboratories can only verify the dosage of the listed active ingredients in a medicine without being able to trace the presence of any foreign substance in a drug. Clearly, this is inadequate in a country where the presence of spurious drugs in the market is a known problem. The federal and provincial governments must upgrade their drug-testing labs to international standards, and the Punjab government must also investigate the possibility of medical malpractice that could have
resulted in overdose prescriptions. This is absolutely necessary to avoid the recurrence of any such tragedy.

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Date: 4th Feb 2012

Women's rights



THE approval of the National Commission on the Status of Women Bill 2012 is a significant addition to the country’s growing body of legislation aimed at protecting and empowering women. On Thursday, the Senate unanimously passed the bill that envisions the establishment of a commission with the mandate to examine policies, programmes and other initiatives on women’s rights and gender equality, and to make recommendations to the relevant authorities. It will review existing legislation, rules and regulations that affect the status of Pakistan’s women and suggest repeal, amendment or new legislation as required. With permission from the provincial government concerned, the committee will also have the power to inspect women’s detention centres such as jails and sub-jails.

All these constitute an improvement on the earlier National Commission on the Status of Women, which was set up under a 2000 ordinance but was considered a toothless mechanism. Women rights campaigners started advocating for increasing the commission’s power and independence a decade ago, and while the delay is regrettable, it is nevertheless encouraging that the step has finally been taken. It is hoped that the National Commission for Women will prove a more effective forum than its predecessor. Some provisions for ensuring this have already been made, such as giving it financial autonomy and a more representative composition. In contrast to the NCSW, the NCW has also been given the power to hold an inquiry if a complaint concerning the violation of women’s rights is not being pursued properly. The new law upholds the useful provisions of the earlier ordinance and adds to them.

Everything depends, now, on the constitution and operational efficiency of the commission, which should be set up promptly. There is little doubt that in many areas, discrimination against women has become institutionalised and some blue-sky thinking is required. Meanwhile, there remain on the books certain laws that are, in their current form, widely seen as having an adverse effect on the rights of women. An interested and independent commission could play a crucial role in this respect. The caveat here, though, is that the NCW – like its predecessor – does not have any implementing power and can merely make recommendations. Will the implementing wings of the state be willing to listen? That will be the litmus test for the government’s commitment to women’s rights.
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Trade concessions


THE European Union’s limited, one-time trade concessions for 75 items from Pakistan will remain a symbolic gesture of goodwill on the part of the 27-nation bloc unless the package actually graduates to the Generalised System of Preferences plus permitting duty-free access to our exports into its market. The tariff concessions, mostly for textile products, were announced unilaterally for two years to help put the country’s economy back on its feet in the aftermath of the devastating floods of 2010. The package included products constituting 27 per cent of imports worth 900 million euros from Pakistan to the EU. Its implementation was delayed because of its opposition by Bangladesh, India and Brazil. Even though the original package offered little to Pakistan as it encouraged the import of raw material and left out our main textile export, home textiles, the changes made to it in the shape of an increase in the number of items covered by tariff rate quotas to 20 from the original eight, with a view to appeasing the opposition, will further dilute its impact on our economy and exports. The quotas will be set at 20 per cent above the average of Pakistan’s exports in 2008, 2009 and 2010. This threshold in the case of the most popular textile products like women’s jeans will be crossed in just the first two months, thus attracting normal tariff for the rest of the year.


Still, the package could be used to persuade the EU and other World Trade Organisation members to give duty-free market access to our exporters in view of the huge economic losses Pakistan has suffered as a frontline state in the war on terror during the past decade. The last two years of massive flooding in large parts of the country have only aggravated the agony of the people in the face of industrial closures, falling private and public investment, rising job and export losses and soaring prices. While grants and other financial assistance from the EU and US are important, jobs will be created only if new investment is made in industry, which largely depends on our ability to increase exports to the EU and America. If the two want to help Pakistan’s economy and its people, they should stop dragging their feet on the issue of granting greater market access to its exporters.
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Political rivalry


LAST Wednesday, the federal government expressed a desire to take up the issue of the latest Difaa-i-Pakistan Council meeting with the Punjab government. This was at best a political statement for the consumption of an assorted audience – in the absence of an administrative arrangement that would oblige provinces to respond to the centre’s queries in such matters. The issue was the participation of a leader of a ‘banned’ group in the DPC rally in Multan on Jan 29. Given that eyebrows have been raised about the recently founded DPC and its politics, the presence of Malik Ishaq, the leader of the ‘banned’ and very militant Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, could not go unnoticed by the PPP-led government. The latter took the opportunity to follow up on the N League-LJ thread that goes back to the League’s public courting of prominent Lashkar members for votes in a by-election in Jhang some time ago. The highlighting of the link catered to all those who are upset with the mixing of national politics with various brands of jihadis. Equally or perhaps even more importantly, it was an opportunity for the PPP to try and hit at the PML-N’s credibility with jihad-wary international players.

This is surely not a matter of principles, for principles are as routinely flouted in Pakistani politics as bans are violated and ‘defunct tags’ worn as medals of gallantry. Basically, it has to do with how political parties here – those in power and their challengers – go about identifying and pleasing their allies in a particular situation. The current PML-N government in Punjab has generally kept its distance from the PPP-led set-up in Islamabad. Punjab has been particularly keen to show off this gap over the centre’s approach to the war against militancy. This gap will increase as the election comes closer and the manoeuvring for power intensifies.
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Date: 5th Feb 2012

Senate elections


SO it seems that the old conspiracy theory is being trotted out again. Talking to reporters in Lahore on Friday, Prime Minister Gilani claimed, “Six months ago, I had pointed out that conspiracies were being hatched to delay Senate elections. Be patient and wait for some days, all these conspiracies will be exposed.” The prime minister didn’t elaborate on these conspiracies but presumably he had his recent travails with the Supreme Court in mind. After all, ‘memogate’ has receded and the PML-N is negotiating with the government to cooperate in the passage of a constitutional amendment in parliament, leaving little else by way of crisis in the country at the moment.


Let’s examine the prime minister’s claim a bit. Six months is a lifetime in politics and back then there were murmurs that the run-up to the Senate elections would prove decisive to this government’s fortunes. At stake is a PPP near-majority in the Upper House, giving it a virtual veto over non-budgetary legislation until 2015. In addition, there is the psychological victory of being a civilian government presiding over elections to both halves of the Senate. For a government committed to constitutional milestones like the completion of tenures, the March Senate election represents a significant victory.

At stake, then, from the PPP’s point of view is a victory that the forces arrayed against it, real and perceived, will not countenance. ‘Memogate’ and the rash of political rallies in the country suggested that there was a real attempt to unseat the government. However, with only weeks left until the Senate elections, the political temperature was seen as subsiding and the government was exuding a renewed sense of confidence. Then came the SC and its threat to charge and convict the prime minister for contempt of court. But is this necessarily part of a grand conspiracy against the PPP or the result of an ill-advised government strategy of responding politically to the president’s legal problems? Even at this stage, the PPP has
simply not presented a cogent legal reason for why the NRO judgment of December 2009 cannot be implemented in its totality. As for the Swiss letter, legal experts here are near unanimous in their opinion that it will not have immediate consequences for the president. Not everything must necessarily be a conspiracy; if the government writes the letter that the SC has demanded it will probably be able to get on with its political agenda.
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Stalled reforms


DESPITE the fact that madressah reforms have been on the national agenda for a number of years, it is clear that on the state level these are going nowhere. As reported in this newspaper, the federal interior minister recently told a cabinet meeting he was ‘holding talks’ with the relevant quarters regarding the establishment of a madressah regulatory authority. Rehman Malik claimed it was difficult getting different schools of thought on a single platform in this respect. The minister had initially been tasked in November 2009 with setting up the authority. Over two years have passed but there has been no progress on this front. What is more, a spokesperson for the Ittehad-i-Tanzeemat Madaris, an umbrella body that groups together five different madressah boards, has contested Mr Malik’s claims, saying that the state has made no effort to set up the authority.

In this regard, one important argument is that de-radicalisation should not be limited to madressahs, but should be a societal endeavour, considering we have become a highly intolerant society. For example, it is said the curriculum taught in public schools is perhaps more effective in breeding intolerance than what seminaries teach. Also, it is fair to say that a significant number of college and university students in this country share the narrow worldview of their more radical madressah counterparts. It is also wrong to assume all madressahs preach violence. Yet the fact remains that some seminaries are indeed teaching their students extremist ideologies. Hence it is essential that madressahs be regulated, especially where the
curriculum is concerned.

As we have stated before, madressah reform is a subject the interior ministry is incapable of handling. It is an educational matter, not one of law enforcement, hence educationists should be at the forefront of the reform initiative. Since education has been devolved, the respective provincial education departments should be handling madressah reform, with the federal government maintaining a supervisory role to ensure uniformity. Making sure the state knows how many madressahs exist and what they are teaching seems like an entirely achievable endeavour — if the state has the
political will, of course.
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An unfortunate incidence


IT is unfortunate that some Palestinians should have expressed their anger the way they did. On Thursday, Ban Ki-moon was pelted with shoes, stones and sand as he crossed into the Gaza Strip. Those who demonstrated against the UN secretary general were angry over Mr Ban’s refusal to meet the relatives of Palestinian prisoners in Israel — estimated at 5,000. Their hurt was the greater, because Mr Ban had met the family of Gilad Shalit, the lone Israeli soldier held by Hamas and released last October. The demonstrators accused Mr Ban of a ‘bias’ in favour of Israel. Once in Khan Yunis, the UN chief criticised “people from Gaza” for firing rockets into Israel, while asking Tel Aviv to ease its blockade of the Mediterranean strip. Throughout his tenure as secretary general, Mr Ban has tried to maintain what he would consider a ‘balance’ in his criticism of the two sides. While he urges the Palestinian side to resume talks, he has often criticised Israel for its settlement policy.

It is ‘safe’ for Mr Ban to follow this policy, because America, too, disapproves of Israel’s settlement policy publicly. Beyond words, however, successive American administrations since Jimmy Carter’s days have done nothing practical to make Israel behave. President Barack Obama was condemnatory of Israel’s settlements policy in his 2009 speech to the Muslim world but has repeatedly surrendered to the Israel lobby’s pressures. Mr Ban’s refusal to meet prisoners’ relatives is less of an offence committed by default by the world body, considering the more serious issues it has on its conscience, like the failure to get two of its crucial resolutions — 242 and 338 which call upon Israel to vacate the occupied territories — implemented. The two-state solution is a good myth, and the UN chief is as helpless as President Obama.
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Respite for Assad

COMING a day after the massacre by the security forces at Homs, the second Russian-Chinese veto on Saturday seems to have made a diplomatic solution to the Syrian crisis difficult. The Arab League plan is in tatters, the possibility of a fresh P-5 consensus appears remote, and President Bashar Al Assad seems determined to stay on, no matter what the cost in terms of blood. Friday’s massacre in Homs has been described as the worst of the ‘Arab Spring’.
Even though the absence of foreign journalists has made an assessment of the extent of carnage difficult, whatever has emerged confirms that the Syrian army used mortar bombs and artillery on a city called “the heart of the revolution”.
People’s homes turned into debris or were set ablaze, and there were bodies everywhere. According to Syrian opposition sources, 260 people were killed, with burials taking place at night to avoid sniper firing. The UN had stopped counting the dead after the figure crossed 4,500 in January. But neutral observers say nearly 7,000 people have been killed, while the government claims that 2,000 soldiers have died in clashes with “armed gangs and terrorists” since the trouble began last March.

Russia and China have come under international criticism for vetoing the resolution, which contained elements of the original Arab League plan and had been watered down to accommodate Russian objections. The resolution, voted for by 13 nations, including Pakistan, had been worked out after intense negotiations. It avoided threats of sanctions and arms embargo, much less military intervention, and did not include that part of the AL plan which called upon President Assad to hand over power to his deputy to organise a fresh election. Nevertheless, the motion condemned the government for human rights violations, “arbitrary executions”, enforced disappearances and the persecution of protesters and media persons. As a sop to Russia and China it appealed to “all parties in Syria, including armed groups” to cease violence and reprisals.

It is true western delegates tried to accommodate Russian and Chinese views, but Saturday’s failure at the UN is now likely to lead to a diplomatic impasse. While the western governments showed haste in tabling the resolution, Moscow and Beijing were obviously guided less by what is going on in Syria and more by economic and strategic interests in the region. At the same time, one cannot but note the contradiction in the western attitudes. While in Libya, the US and Nato managed a military intervention to oust a dictator, they sat idle while foreign forces moved into Bahrain to save the regime and crush a popular uprising.

Fight against terrorism

IN addition to those living in Pakistan’s conflict zones, in recent years the urban citizenry too has become uncomfortably familiar with acts of terrorism. The perpetrators seem to consider no place or occasion off limits. From public areas to places of worship, religious and political gatherings all have at some point come under attack.
Has the law-enforcement apparatus met with any success in quelling such attacks? In pockets, it does seem that the situation is improving. Consider Karachi, which has seen terrorist attacks in places frequented by the public — as delineated from law-enforcement and military installations that the terrorists claim are their main targets. Such instances include the bombing of the Ashura procession in December 2009 and that of the shrine of Abdullah Shah Ghazi in 2010. Yet, over the past year, various events and occasions that both ordinary people and the law-enforcement set-up feared would be targeted thankfully passed off without incident. Also, a number of high-profile militants have been arrested, implying that protecting the people is possible if there is sufficient will on the part of law-enforcement personnel.

While this is encouraging, it is clearly not enough. Combating the monster of terrorism requires a multi-pronged and holistic approach where different methods achieve success in concert. One area where law-enforcement efforts continue to under-perform is at the level of prosecution. Trials of suspected terrorists or militants tend to yield little because of either poor investigation or prosecution. A case in point is the 2006 Nishtar Park bombing, for which three men believed to be associated with the proscribed Lashkar-i-Jhangvi remain in custody. In the six years that have passed, the prosecution has presented merely one witness. This pattern is repeated around the country in terms of prosecution, and sends out all the wrong signals.
True, there are difficulties: hard evidence in such cases can be difficult to gather and, given the profiles of the terrorists involved, there is always the possibility of witnesses, prosecutors and judges being intimidated. If the police and prosecution could improve their performance in this regard, we would see greater success in combating terrorism.


It’s a whitewash

PAKISTANIS have a habit of finding form and fortune in the Gulf. But bar a six by Javed Miandad that got the better of India in Sharjah ages ago, perhaps no happening in the UAE has given the Pakistani nation more pleasure than the whitewash of England in the Test series that concluded yesterday. The third victory was all the more remarkable given the side’s poor first innings score — making it a rare instance in history where a team went on to win after having been bowled out for less than 100 in its first outing. It is a spectacular series win against the world’s top-ranked team especially given the scandals involving Pakistan cricket. Only cricket could have effectively answered the criticism. Pakistan are going about fixing it the right way in not-so-familiar conditions, even if it will go down in the record books as a home series.

Under Misbah-ul-Haq’s visibly democratic leadership, Pakistan outplayed England in the first Test. They checked the English upsurge in the second and dominated the third after a couple of sessions. Younis Khan was there when he was desperately needed and Azhar Ali played a marathon knock to help seal the last Test. The series confirmed Saeed Ajmal’s expertise and he found an able partner in Abdul Rehman. Not to forget Umar Gul’s contribution as a bowler and Asad Shafiq, Muhammad Hafiz and Misbah himself in the batting department. There are areas that could do with debate — the batting, fielding, the right combination in bowling to suit all seasons and surfaces and, above all, the absence of international cricket in Pakistan. But this is not the time to take up these issues in detail. Let’s celebrate before we start wondering what more could a coach be asked to deliver.

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PIA’s nosedive

SENATORS from the opposition had a busy day in the House on Monday as they grilled Defence Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar whose ministry also oversees PIA. The national flag carrier continues to be in dire straits both economically and operationally. While its airfares have skyrocketed in opposition to the trend seen elsewhere in the regional airline market, PIA’s performance falls drastically short of passengers’ expectations. Flight cancellations, inordinate delays, an ageing fleet, technical faults, a hefty debt burden, compounding losses, political appointments, overstaffing, an unprofessional management and poor service are factors that have pushed PIA to the brink. Government interference at the appointment and management levels continues to be behind many of the unfortunate facts that keep PIA from being airborne with grace.

Scandals at the airline have abounded in recent years, though not all have been politically motivated. Much of the fleet is grounded. The aircraft that fly are said to do so under precarious technical conditions, which has resulted in the embarrassing ban on all but certain types of PIA planes flying to western destinations. Other controversies such as an arrangement to contract out the provision of spare parts to a single Dubai-based firm have also led to concerns over non-transparency in such dealings. The agreement to share flight codes with Turkish Airlines, whereby PIA would give up most European and North American destinations to the said airline by terminating its West-bound flights at Istanbul, was no less controversial. All this, while the airline’s fortunes have kept diving deeper into the red, impacting on its operations.

According to the defence minister, a potent financial shot in the arm is what the doctors propose for the ailing carrier; a restructuring plan has been sent to the finance ministry while the prime minister awaits recommendations from a committee he had set up to right the wrongs at PIA. This is all very well, but these measures will only serve as palliatives and not as a permanent cure. Besides a bailout plan, the airline needs a structural overhaul, a professional management that should determine and stick to an employee-aircraft ratio, and non-interference from the government in its affairs. This means saying goodbye to political appointments, besides shedding the burden officialdom places on the day-to-day operations of the carrier through the reservation of seats and subsidised air tickets for government functionaries and other beneficiaries.
Operational losses can be overcome and profits made only by having in place a management that is well versed in modern aviation practices. There is no dearth of qualified professionals in the country; only the political will is lacking.

Factory collapse

THE caving in of a factory in Lahore on Monday represents the virtual fall of a system. Initial reports indicate that there was not much that was legal about the factory which produced veterinary drugs and that collapsed in a huge blast caused probably by a boiler explosion. Those living in the area were in litigation with the factory owner — but there is evidence to suggest that these litigants are themselves the inhabitants of a place that does not exist on the official map. The New Town, the site of Monday’s blast, is said to be an unplanned scheme, a disaster that was allowed to develop brick by brick over time. This unplanned status must have made it easier for an unmonitored factory to break the law. Unfortunately, this is the norm in Pakistan. There is nothing unusual about an industrial unit existing in the midst of a residential colony.

Inside the factory, it is doubtful if many laws were adhered to. The dead include children, indicating the involvement of child labour. It is unclear whether the large number of women employed at the factory had proper legal cover — the point being that women workers are even more vulnerable to exploitation in the country than routinely wronged male workers. The absence of labour inspectors might have played a role in the making of this tragedy. These inspectors have been held up for a whole decade now. The Pervaiz Elahi government thought they were surplus to the requirement of the times and Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif seems to be in agreement with Mr Elahi on at least this point. The Pervaiz Elahi set-up did have local government representatives who, at least in theory, could keep an eye on proceedings in their neighbourhood. Mr Sharif does not have local government councillors and the administration is remote-controlled by the chief minister. The perils of centralisation have been confirmed all too frequently for Mr Sharif to insist on holding on to his sole saviour’s brief any longer. A process of reform where responsibility is clearly defined and affixed must not await another fall.

Closed schools

REPORTS from across the country point once again to the dismal state of primary education in rural Pakistan. Fifty girls’ primary schools in rural Peshawar have no teachers to speak of. Meanwhile, according to a survey carried out by this paper, at least 30 girls’ and boys’ schools have been inoperative, some for many years, in just two union councils of Dadu. Both NGOs and government officials admit this is a problem in villages across the district. In what has now become a familiar story, abandoned school buildings were found being used as cattle pens and guest houses. Locals said they were waiting for teachers to be posted or to start showing up for duty.

What makes the reports even more alarming is that officials at the highest levels seem to be fully aware of these issues. There also appear to be plans and instructions in place for resolving them that are simply not being implemented by the provincial education departments. The situation outside Peshawar exists despite a ‘rationalisation policy’ — instituted over a year ago — that was meant to redistribute teachers; schools in Peshawar’s urban areas have more teachers than they need, in part because higher rent allowances and greater security in urban areas have encouraged teachers to apply for transfers away from their rural postings. Even that plan would have resulted in a ratio of just one teacher for every 40 students, but has not been executed. In Dadu, district-level bureaucrats claim the problem had been acknowledged by the provincial chief minister and education secretary and that instructions had been issued to lower-level officers to reopen schools and stop payments to absentee teachers. However, even as officials continue to pay lip service to the cause, the children of rural Pakistani have little but empty school buildings to look forward to.

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Crafting new ties


NOTWITHSTANDING the hard-line positions adopted by some lawmakers and sections of the media on both sides, subtle messages seem to convey a positive mood in Islamabad and Washington. Being the aggrieved party, Pakistan has maintained a rigid stance and expressed its anger in more ways than one. The hurt to Pakistan came in rapid succession — the Raymond Davis shooting, the SEALs at Abbottabad and, to top it all, the Salala strike. The subsequent moves by the government were designed as much to express its justifiable anger over superpower recklessness as to placate angry public opinion. The Nato supply line cut-off, the boycott of the Bonn moot, the Shamsi base closure and the ‘no’ to the Marc Grossman visit were actions whose severity were noted by America, which at least on the Salala killings expressed regret, while insisting that commanders on both sides had made technical mistakes that led to the death of 24 Pakistani soldiers. Since then, behind the apparent impasse, the two sides have never really sat idle.

For Pakistan, the issue revolves round developing “new rules of engagement” as the prime minister repeated so categorically at Davos. This new relationship can be mutually fruitful, lasting and free from misunderstandings and perceived hurts if the two countries realise that there are limits to cooperation, especially because they do not — and are unlikely to — see eye to eye on the ambitions of some regional powers. Whether the two sides are able to evolve a new, comprehensive but pragmatic relationship constitutes a challenge to their diplomacy. That the two countries need each other is a realisation that seems to restrain governments in Islamabad and Washington. The other day, US-made F-16s arrived in Pakistan. For a nation which has not forgotten America’s decision to hold back both the money and the planes Pakis-tan had paid for, the latest American decision should be considered a gesture. At the same time, the New York Times has reported that the American administration is likely to apologise to Pakistan over the Salala carnage.

If true, Islamabad has to respond positively and realise that a strategic relationship with America is in the nation’s interests, no matter what position extremist parties adopt. One religious leader has said the resumption of Nato supplies will be ‘treason’, while another has threatened to besiege parliament. While these visceral outbursts may have the general election in mind, the government must not lose sight of Pakistan’s desperate economic condition, its long-term interests in a unipolar world and the new dangers lurking in its neighbourhood in Southwest Asia.

Rudderless sector

IN Sri Lanka, they’re called ‘floor patients’, and in Pakistan, it’s a common sight: forlorn groups of patients and their attendants who have set up camp outside large public-sector hospitals. Ironically, the better a health facility’s reputation, the more it is likely to find itself overloaded. In Pakistan, there is the additional problem that many such people have been forced to travel long distances from their homes because of the dearth of healthcare facilities where they live. For patients whose complaint requires regular visits to doctors, this means that they are marooned in an alien city with access to none of their accustomed infrastructure and no accommodation. A case in point is the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplant in Karachi, which offers the most up-to-date treatment and facilities free of cost. The hospital receives thousands of patients from all over the province, many of whose lives depend on regular procedures such as dialysis. Lacking the resources to travel back and forth, or to get accommodation in the city, dozens of patients and their attendants have no choice but to set up makeshift camps outside the facility and fend for themselves as best as they can.

With SIUT’s finances — raised mainly through the private sector — already stretched very thin, the institute can do little to help.
The predicament of such people is doubly saddening because there are a number of vacant public and private buildings in the area; the SIUT management can only hope that the owners and administrators of these venues might one day find it in their hearts to open them up to patients at nominal rents. But given that across the country there are more patients than healthcare facili-ties, it is time the state turned its attention to the wider problem. The fragile healthcare network needs to be propped up urgently, for the demands made on it by a growing population will only increase. In the healthcare sector, the state has been steadily abdicating its responsibilities to the private sector. This trajectory must be altered, for access to healthcare is too important and basic a right to be left rudderless.

Ajmal’s bowling action

TO an extent it could be argued that Saeed Ajmal, possibly the best spinner in the world, has himself contributed to stirring up a fresh controversy over his bowling action. In an interview with a British media organisation, he claimed that the International Cricket Council had allowed him permission to bend his arm by approximately 23 degrees, which is clearly well beyond the permissible limit. It was later clarified by the Pakistan Cricket Board that Ajmal, man of the series in the recent Test cricket whitewash of world number one England, was referring to upper-arm ‘induction’ and not the degree of ‘elbow extension’. The International Cricket Council, which cleared Ajmal’s action in 2009, backed the PCB’s stance saying that the off-spinner’s elbow extension was found to be within the 15-degree limit. At first glance it seems to largely be a case of misconnection across language barriers. A bubbly and exuberant character both on and off the field, Ajmal has never hesitated in speaking to the press with a smile. But in this case a section of the British media pounced on his somewhat confused statement with undisguised glee.

Former England fast bowler Bob Willis was the first to reopen the debate over Ajmal’s action and he is obviously entitled to his views. But he, along with other critics, should give Ajmal the benefit of doubt considering the communication barrier. In fact, they would be well advised to look into the reasons behind the failure of the English team that suffered one of its most humiliating defeats against Pakistan. Otherwise, the debate over Ajmal’s bowling action would come across as a case of sour grapes. Winning and losing is part of the game of cricket and the result ought to be accepted in the right spirit.

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