SPO Media Watch

War euphoria

2011-09-30T05:17:00.001-07:00

Source: The News
Date: September 30, 2011

War euphoria by Harris Khalique

The televangelists, holy entertainers and the know-it-all jugglers of news and views are having a field day in Pakistan. What else would sell better than the war rhetoric in the living rooms of the middleclass urban and semi-urban populations? That is where the ratings for programmes and talk shows are gathered from. These are the people who use the fast-moving consumer goods, more or less the only manufacturing left in the country, and enjoy the different packages offered by cell phone companies. The commercials of these products make it possible for the private television channels to continue programming.

Therefore, profit-making has to be quick, sharp and maximum. The programming has to suit the palate of the most conservative political class in Pakistan. Sorry. Not conservative, confused and conservative. Mainstream electronic media is not capable of – or not interested at all in – bringing both knowledge and sanity to its audience by apprising them of the challenges Pakistan will face if there is an abrupt severance of relationship between the two allies in the war on terror. Therefore, for a change, the country we wish to fight and destroy this time around is not India but the United States of America.

When those running different institutions of the state of Pakistan are undoubtedly upset with the Americans, they want de-escalation in tensions, continuation of a constructive dialogue and a negotiated settlement. The corps commanders had no choice but to show restraint when they met and so did the prime minister and his cabinet members. The All Parties' Conference is underway at the time of writing this piece and it is an important initiative in terms of taking all political forces on board.

The prime minister in his opening remarks mentioned the willingness of the government to engage with the Americans and resolve any outstanding issues, although he was firm and forceful at the same time. This is because those running the affairs of the state, whatever their competence level may be, fully realise where the country stands in these difficult times, economically, politically and militarily.

But our media is playing a dangerous game by whipping up emotions of an already confused and conservative populace. Showing war footage from 1965 and 1971, playing war anthems, even if that happened once or twice, and airing provocative programmes where war-mongers are invited to speak or are taken on the phone as experts is strengthening a particular mindset. This mindset is suicidal, bigoted and jingoistic. It has landed us into trouble in the past, brought embarrassment internationally in the present and making us implode as a country and society in not too distant future.

Let us be honest to ourselves. Even progressive Americans cannot hold a brief for the foreign policy pursued by the Americans since the Second World War, leave alone someone coming from the third world. But in the case of Pakistan, who decided to side with the Americans and why since the times of Seato and Cento in Gen Ayub's era? Who decided to make Pakistan into the frontline state in America's war against the Soviets under Gen Zia? Who decided to become the closest non-Nato ally of the Americans under Gen Musharraf? Who has created the reliance on American military aid, the need for American development aid and dependence on international financial institutions dominated by the Americans? Who do we trade with the most? Why do half of us wish our children to study in the US and the rest wish to emigrate themselves? What's gone wrong now then? I rest my case.

The writer is an Islamabad-based poet and author. Email: harris. khalique@gmail.com

Link: http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=70109&Cat=9

Costs of Poor Planning By Naseer Memon

2011-09-22T21:49:00.000-07:00

Costs of Poor Planning

By Naseer Memon

Daily Dawn-22nd Sept 2011

Link: http://www.dawn.com/2011/09/22/costs-of-poor-planning.html

THE Planning Commission issued a startling analytical review of the public-sector development portfolio some time ago. The document is a testament to the systematic institutional decay witnessed in the planning of public-sector development.

The country’s annual budget is normally defined by the ‘three Ds’: defence, debt servicing and development. Ideally, there needs to be a balance between these expenditures but in Pakistan, the first two are sacred while the third is routinely compromised on account of a paucity of funds. During the 2010-11 period, the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) was fixed at Rs280bn. Subsequently, the foreseen revenue shortfall curtailed it by Rs100bn.

The report acknowledges the burgeoning PSDP development deficit and reveals that the current throw-forward has reached the staggering sum of Rs3.1tr with over 1,800 crawling projects. Logically, it would require Rs600bn a year over the next five years if even an elusive moratorium on new projects is applied. If the current size of the federal PSDP is taken as a benchmark, the time lag would be 15 years — not accounting for project delays and increased costs.

PSDP projects are normally comprised of four mains sectors: infrastructure (energy, railroads, ports, roads, etc), social development (education, health, water, etc), balanced development (special programmes for less developed areas) and production (agriculture, industry and minerals, etc). The current throw-forward pertains predominantly to projects concerning infrastructure: some 409 projects are buried under a crippling future estimate of Rs2.4tr against the paltry allocation of Rs135bn under the previous PSDP. This is followed by the social sector with 1,227 projects costing Rs850bn having a throw-forward of Rs0.58tr.

Within projects related to infrastructure, almost half of the throw-forward is dedicated to the power and energy sectors. A throw-forward analysis in the social sector shows health as a major victim, with an estimated 25 per cent share in the deficit.

Education and higher education are the other major victims.

Ironically, the social sector is a vehicle to achieve key human development targets under the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The social sector has more than 1,200 projects in its portfolio, which accounts for one-fifth of the overall throw-forward.

The analysis identifies five key reasons for the debilitating throw-forward. It includes the approval of provincial projects without due consideration, frequent cuts in the PSDP due to resource crunches, weak feasibilities, cost overrun and ignoring public-private partnerships. Yet this report is nothing but a confession of sins, lacking any avenue of atonement. While the document brings valuable facts to light, it skirts around the institutional reasons for this state of affairs.

The Planning Commission is charged with the stewardship of the planning process, the sanctity of which it is mandated to safeguard. Poor appraisal processes that succumb to political pressures, the haemorrhaging of professional and qualified human resources and indecent haste in the project approval process have plagued the public-sector planning process. This has become particularly evident in recent years: the volume of throw-forward doubled within the last five years. Politicians alone could not have done this without the collusion of the planning wizards.

Regardless, the situation does not reflect well on a dispensation which has yet to demonstrate better sense in delivering development benefits to the citizens. In its good years, project appraisal would take two months. The length of this process has, by now, shrunk to a few hours with hardly any critical appraisal taking place.

The Planning Commission lacks the professional will and competence to shield the planning process from the demands made by the project’s proponents. Governments announce and inaugurate projects to gain political mileage while higher-level government offices do not understand the value of and intricacies involved in the development process. With a view to gaining popularity and securing their vote bank, they make generous announcements and often gloss over procedural imperatives.

The role of the Planning Commission is to protect the planning process; yet this is flagrantly compromised to appease the people at the helm of affairs. The Central Development Working Party has itself vitiated planning prerequisites by approving projects without the mandatory scrutiny. Equity in benefits determines the political economy of development; this is very often simply ignored. Certain favoured constituencies receive huge amounts of funding without justification, which eventually puts society under heavy strain.

Likewise, processing the PC-1 without a proper PC-2 is common. The PC-2 is a prequel to PC-1 that has to establish the feasibility of any project. A glaring example of this is the Mangla dam-raising project. The resettlement aspect was ignored at the planning stage. Now that the structure is complete, the project is dogged by the resettlement issue since the costs have doubled from the initial estimates.

Had there been a rigorous appraisal process in place, such anomalies could have been avoided.

The report depicting unsustainable throw-forward was issued in March. Yet in its previous quarterly meeting, the executive committee of the National Economic Council approved of new projects worth Rs300bn. If this remains the trend, it may approve projects costing more than a trillion rupees each year, further fattening the mammoth throw-forward.

Both politicians and planners must demonstrate some sanity to align development with the greater goal of sustainability.

Thrusting more projects on the slim purse of public-sector development will render the whole ineffective. The sector has already touched rock bottom and can ill afford further erosion.

(The writer is the chief executive of Strengthening Participatory Organisation. nmemon@spopk.org)

The poetics of Avicenna by Aziz Ali Dad

2011-08-07T23:48:00.000-07:00

The following article “The poetics of Avicenna” by Aziz Ali Dad, source “Friday Times, August 05-11, 2011

Avicenna (Abdallah Ibn Sina) lived in a period in the history of Islamic societies which witnessed efflorescence of philosophy and translations of Greco-Roman and Indian texts into Arabic. It was common among the scholars of the day to study Greek philosophy. Being a part of the cultural and intellectual ambience, Avicenna was also actively engaged with philosophical, scientific and literary debates of his time. His was the age when Muslim philosophers were studying Greek masterpieces, an indispensable component of their scholarship. Among the Greek writers they studied, Aristotle (384-322 BC) held a special position, and Arab philosophers presented their understanding of the ideas of Aristotle in the form of summaries and commentaries. As part of this tradition, Avicenna presented his views and understanding of Aristotle's Poetics in his own Commentary.

For his Commentary Avicenna relied on Arabic translations of Poetics. One of the main features of Arabic translations of Poetics is that Arabs used the Syriac translations as their source. Those translations were based on the Greek version of Poetics. The Arabic translation by Abu Bishr Matta contained deficiencies in syntax, nomenclatures, understanding and transliteration, and Avicenna used this translation to write his Commentary. In addition, he used the translation of Abu Bishr's student Yahya ibn Adi and al-Farabi. F. C Peter in his book Aristotle and the Arabs describes Yahya ibn Adi as the leader of the Peripatetic School of Baghdad of which Avicenna's Aristelianism was a direct product. While using these translations, Avicenna imbibed the shortcomings, misconceptions and fallacies of Poetics. It can be deduced that the sources of Avicenna were twice removed from the real source.

InPoetics, Aristotle discussed different genres of Greek poetry and the art of poetry in general. Later on Neo-Platonist philosophers erected an elaborate schema of classification of his works. This resulted in a classification of all the sciences. The classification or division of the works of Aristotle was called the 'context theory'. This classification was the work of philosophers such as Porphyry (234-304 AD) and Alexander of Aphrodisia. In this classification, Poetics came under the category of Logic. Alexander of Aphrodisias is considered as one of the proponents of the scheme of the context theory. He places Poetics in the lowest position in the hierarchy of the classification of Aristotelian logic. These ideas about the status of Poetry were products of Neo-Platonists who attributed different concepts to Aristotle that were not actually an integral part of his works.

When the Arabs conquered Alexandria and Syria, they came into contact with Neo-Platonist philosophers. Muslim philosophers were very impressed by the philosophical vigor of Greeks and appropriated it to explore and explicate different dimensions of life, religion, society and science. Avicenna came into contact with the classification of Neo-Platonists through Abu-Sahl al-Masihi who was a distinguished physician and his companion. By making Neo-Platonist classification his base, Abu-Shal presented the order of sciences that ought to be studied. According to an account given by Abu-Sahl, Aristotle incorporates Poetics in the category of the Logic, which holds the eighth position preceded by Rhetoric and Sophistics.

For more details: http://www.thefridaytimes.com/beta2/tft/article.php?issue=20110805&page=26

"Crisis of poverty of thought" by Aziz Ali Dad

2011-07-22T02:09:00.000-07:00

The following article “Crisis of poverty of thought” by Aziz Ali Dad, source “View Point, July 22, 2011”.

In Pakistan our souls have been constantly fed on the emotions through the medium of poetry. It has permeated so much in our psyche that we view the order of things through the spectacles of emotions Over reliance on poetic medium has become an integral part of our thinking processes as our perception of history and other events is informed by it

“What does a philosopher demand of himself first and last? To overcome his time in himself, to become ‘timeless’.-- Friedrich Nietzsche

Historically, Indo-Gangetic region proved to be a fertile ground for the genre of poetry. Great mystics, preachers, reformers and founders of religion in India expressed their ideas in poetry. Even where sacred texts are written in prose, poetry became an efficacious medium to disseminate religious teachings and injunctions to the masses. The genre of poetry reached its zenith during the Mughal period as we see eminent poet cum “thinkers” indulging in mushahiras in the courts of the Mughal kings, princes and patricians. Dominance of poetry during the period of decline signify deeper crisis in the society. Poetry’s dominance over intellectual and cultural life of subcontinent resulted in poverty in the realm of philosophy.

Though there are some thinkers who can be treated as philosophers in loose term, their number is miniscule in terms of influence on overall thinking paradigm of south Asia as compared to poets. During the colonial period we witnessed emergence of individuals who started to engage philosophically with existential issues and intellectual challenges of the time. They represented their intellectual insights through the medium of prose. Despite their periodic forays into philosophy in prose, poetry still remained a dominant medium of the intelligentsia. Even Allama Iqbal resorted to poetry for the propagation of his ideas. This situation compels us to raise question about relationship between poetry and poverty of philosophy/thought.

In the 1960 Marshal McLuhan wrote a crisp but illuminating book ‘Medium is the Message’. The main argument of his book is that medium not only determines our message but also changes our way of thinking by bringing about changes in the way we perceive the world. Although, he brings examples from mediums introduced by technology, we can extend his argument to the genres employed in literature and different disciplines to convey the message.

For more details: http://www.viewpointonline.net/crisis-of-poverty-of-thought.html

What’s happening in Balochistan? by Salman Abid

2011-07-10T23:53:00.001-07:00

Source: The News International
Date: July 10, 2011

The province will remain another world unless we treat it as our very own

By Salman Abid

How can the Balochistan issue be resolved? The answer to this question is difficult because democratic forces seem to have little decision-making powers in the province. The undemocratic forces wield major power in the region and, at the moment, no political solution seems near in the future. The political government took some positive steps but the results are not that good. The trust deficit between the state and the Baloch has widened.

The trust deficit is not only between the political forces and federal government, including military institutions, but also between local intelligentsia - human rights activist, academics, media personnel, and poet, etc - and the deprived communities.

The federal government announced a few packages for Balochistan, including the National Finance commission (NFC) award. But the issues and concerns of the Baloch people, critics believe, cannot be resolved by offering different packages given without consulting different stakeholders in the province.

For example, the missing people is an issue of the Baloch people that remains unresolved. The majority of Balochistan's political parties and workers, including human rights groups, blame the security agencies for the whole situation. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has also issued a fact-finding mission report on the province titled, Balochistan - Blinkered slide into chaos". It has given a list of missing people and those that were killed in the province on the basis of different reasons.

For example, the report says 140 bodies of missing persons were found in Balochistan during July 2010 to May 2011. 143 people were missing till May 29, 2011, 18 people were targeted in 2011 and 5 people were killed in 2011.

The serious cause of concern is that not only political workers but human rights activists, poet, professors, students, lawyers', social workers, and journalists are also missing or have been found dead. The province's nationalist parties give even higher numbers of missing people.

The political government, state agencies, and security forces are accountable to highlight and present the true picture of Balochistan before the nation. Are the government and security agencies doing their utmost to find out missing people? If the security agencies have complaints against certain people they should be brought before the court.

Actually, we should admit that the people of Balochistan, especially the marginalised groups, have been facing serious social, political and economic disparities in the region due to lack of attention from the government. The basic infrastructure of institutions in the province is very poor, especially in education, health, and transportation sectors besides concerns about natural resources' control. Balochistan people also have serious reservations on the issue of governance.

The people of Balochistan believe decisions about the province are being taken in Islamabad and GHQ. The provincial political government is powerless and has no right to take any political decision for the local people. A majority of the elected people admit the failure of resolving issues due to inadequate administrative and political powers.

For more details: http://www.jang.com.pk/thenews/jul2011-weekly/nos-10-07-2011/pol1.htm#4

Philanthropy or agenda?by Aziz Ali Dad

2011-04-27T23:18:00.000-07:00

The following article “Philanthropy or agenda?” by Aziz Ali Dad, source “The News, April 28, 2011”.

The controversy about the authenticity of projects undertaken by Greg Mortenson through his Central Asian Institute (CAI) in northern Afghanistan and Gilgit-Baltistan and the financial irregularities in CAI has created a furore in the international media. In the ensuing debate arguments of his votaries and detractors have focused only on Mortenson’s personality. Indeed, the controversy surrounding his philanthropic initiatives is a manifestation of global philanthropy and its discontents, which are a product of broader power relations and of the economic structure of the world dominated by a neo-liberal political and economic regime.

Mortenson’s book Three Cups of Tea is a New York Times bestseller. The author is accused of fabricating “some of the most dramatic and inspiring stories” in Three Cups of Tea and committing irregularities in the finances of the CAI. The impression he gives in the book is that he brought civilisation to the region of Gilgit-Baltistan to ward off the pernicious effects of Taliban ideology through education. Interestingly, the region, especially Baltistan, where he claimed to have set up schools, does not even have Taliban supporters, let alone the Taliban themselves.

Mortenson gives the impression that nobody had worked in this field before in the areas where he operated, and that he remained undeterred despite all odds and threats. That is why his representation of the region reeks of condescension. Amidst illiteracy and darkness the protagonist appears to be an emissary of civilisation who is bringing light to the dark spots of the earth. Philanthropic activities appear to be humanitarian, but there is a colonial mindset behind them. Mortenson reminds you of Western scholars who provided moral justification for their countries’ interventions in foreign countries during the colonial period.

There is no denying the fact that philanthropic interventions through soft initiatives can be used to defeat the scourge of terrorism, violence, ignorance and extremism. Unfortunately, the “soft” component of the counterterrorism strategy has become embedded within disaster capitalism. That is why initiatives of the soft component in development attract development professionals in droves to reap the benefits from reconstruction project in the aftermath of a war or disaster. No one can object to the opening of girls’ schools, but the question is: why it is always necessary to declare an area of intervention as being a land of obscurantism and ignorance, where the society is necessarily uncivilised? It is to provide a justification for the wiping out of all vestiges of the indigenous system and turning the society into a clean slate so that a neo-liberal economic script can be written with philanthropy used as an excuse.

For more details: http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=43936&Cat=9

Unthought thoughts by Aziz Ali Dad

2011-04-04T01:16:00.000-07:00

The following article “Unthought thoughts” by Aziz Ali Dad, source “The News, April 3, 2011”.

Killing on personal whims reveals the violent mentality that lurks beneath the calm veneer of silent majority in the Pakistani society.

The elevation of Salmaan Taseer’s assassin to the status of a hero and justification of the murder by a vast section of society show a mindset that is totally out of sync with modern times. When a society relapses into primitive state of nature, it paves the way for its own demise. Moreover, it clearly shows the descent of our society into an anarchic state where the only rule is the law of jungle.

In the state of nature, individual will remains dominant and the collective will does not emerge. In such a state, in the words of Thomas Hobbes, “man is a wolf on a fellow man, a state of war of everyone against everyone.” To end the uncertainty and insecurity of life in the state of nature, humankind entered into a social contract, in which the individual surrendered its will to form a collective will. The collective will played a pivotal role in the emergence of society, culture, state, religion, law, industry and vocations of different kinds.

With the advent of modernity, nature of the state underwent drastic changes. Through rationalisation of institutions and other spheres of life, the state was able to hold the monopoly on violence by empowering only one organisation to commit violent acts legitimately.

This idea is basically a manifestation of the collective will that enables people to progress and make life secure from the dangers of allowing the individual will and devolution of violence to its citizenry.

A study of the Pakistani society clearly shows the signs of withering away of rationality and disintegration of society. It is a society where the individual will dominates the collective will and the state fails to hold its monopoly on violence.

Salmaan Taseer’s murder is symptomatic of an obscurantist mind that is bent on removing the last vestiges of modernity to create more space for a golden past that never existed. Taseer’s assassination has clearly opened the deeper fissures within our society. Also, it has revealed the violent mentality that lurks beneath the calm veneer of silent majority.

Qadri’s elevation to the status of a hero clearly manifests a clash between tradition and modernity, because it is against the basic principles of modernity to decide about the fate of a person on a personal whim. Only institutions of the state are entitled to decide about the crime of a person and award punishment. If everyone is given a license to kill, the civil war in Pakistan is well nigh.

Those who are celebrating Qadri as a hero are not only eroding the fabric of society by turning it into a state akin to the life of nature. It is impossible to keep the edifice of state, religion, culture and values intact when the very foundation of the society is destroyed.

The clergy in Pakistan failed to understand the dialectics of modernity. Instead of tackling modernity on its own turf, the priest, in a bad faith, tries to cast our minds in medieval mould. This has created a cognitive dissonance or gap, for we are trying to make sense of the modern order of things with a paradigm that was evolved in response to centuries old issues.

Late professor Mohammed Arkoun of Sorbonne University termed this gap ‘unthought’ in Islamic thought. According to Arkoun the unthought in Islamic thought has been accumulating since the 16th century. He finds the causes of contemporary semantic disorder of thought in Islamic societies and its failure ‘to contribute to the great open debate on a world scale’ in the lacuna created by unthoughts.

This intellectual lacuna can be filled only by acquainting ourselves with modern discourses of social sciences and humanities. It will enable us to avoid anachronism in our worldview and objective realities on the one hand, and help us to deal with some of the intractable issues of our society with relevant sociological imagination.

Modernity demands rationalisation of different spheres of life and progressive vision of religion, but our priestly class has organised itself around issues that are always divisive and mostly violent. Their myopic version of religion reduces the status of God into hangman. The managers of the sacred have turned sacred institutions into an instrument of their political agenda. The priests are misfit to assume the charge of defining an entity like God.

On the other hand, religious discourse has remained ‘unthought’ for liberal/secular intelligentsia. As modernity is ‘unthought’ to religious class, religious discourse has remained unthought for seculars.

For more details: http://www.jang.com.pk/thenews/apr2011-weekly/nos-03-04-2011/dia.htm#4

Where do we stand? by Salman Abid

2011-04-03T23:15:00.000-07:00

The following article “Where do we stand? by Salman Abid, source “The News, April 3, 2011”.

According to dictionary, sovereignty is “the supreme, absolute, and uncontrollable power by which an independent state is governed and from which all specific political powers are derived; the intentional independence of a state, combined with the right and power of regulating its internal affairs without foreign interference.” Sovereignty and democracy are, of course, inter-linked.

The talk of the town these days among the political intelligentsia is the task of strengthening democracy in Pakistan. In comparison with other systems of government, democracy is proved to be the best system of governance the world over.

Throughout the world, democratic forces have distinguished between true democracy in comparison with the so-called controlled democracy at the hands of non-democratic forces.

The situation of developing countries like Pakistan is the lingering threat from external forces. Somehow superpowers have successfully managed to streamline their power-based interests and, in some cases, stopped the real democratic process.

It would not be an over-simplification to say that international power players, US at the top of them, always managed the kind of democratic model in the third world that aimed to serve foreign agenda.

It is interesting to note how local and international establishments went against the norms of democracy. Pakistan, it is said, happens to be the real test case of clash between democratic and undemocratic forces.

We need to have supremacy of the parliament and the rule of law. Democracy is based on the concept of popular sovereignty. Representative democracies allow transfer of the exercise of sovereignty from the people to the parliament.

There is an impression that the international power brokers are aligned with Pakistan’s military institutions and accept their role in country’s politics. And how does that translate into action? General Pervez Musharraf’s is a case in point. He went Scott free, enjoying free passage.

According to one analysis, international power players have become completely engaged in decision-making process. Can we hope to see the democratic set-up getting strength and stability, at least in economic terms? The bitter reality for the common man is that the World Bank and IMF are dictating the finance ministry.

The fault lies with us not with the others. We are internally weak since day one and our institutions have failed. True, Pakistan’s democratic process is still in transitional mode but it would be about time to re-evaluate our political roadmap and put it on the right track.

For more details: http://www.jang.com.pk/thenews/apr2011-weekly/nos-03-04-2011/pol1.htm#7

Domaaki: A Vanishing Voice by Aziz Ali Dad

2011-03-31T22:45:00.000-07:00

The following article “Domaaki: A Vanishing Voice” by Aziz Ali Dad, source “Friday Times, April 1-7, 2011”.

Follows the life and times of an important mother tongue of Pakistan.

On 21 February, 1952, the students of Dhaka University and political activists defied a ban on public rallies to protest against the Pakistani state’s attempt to impose Urdu as the sole national language of Pakistan. Police resorted to firing, which resulted in the killing of four students. That was the first sacrifice of a people for their mother language in modern times, and in 1999 the General Conference of UNESCO proclaimed February 21 as International Mother Language Day. Now this day is celebrated as International Mother Language Day across the world.

The phenomenon of linguicide is very modern. The events that unfolded during the Bengali Language Movement and their ramifications on the Pakistani polity were manifestations of modernity and its discontents. This is not to deny the occurrence of language death in the past; but with the advent of modernity, the pace of language extinction has accelerated.

In the post-Enlightenment period the world has not witnessed the creation of any new language. Only Esperanto, an artificial language, was created, but it failed to take root because it did not have organic links with a society or culture. Daniel Nettle and Suzanne Romaine in their book ‘Vanishing Voices: The Extinction of the World’s Languages’ declared the United States alone as a graveyard for hundreds of languages. And yet it is a country that is the epitome of progress and modernity!
One of the moribund languages in Pakistan is Domaaki of Hunza. According to Georg Buddruss, Domaaki “originally belonged to the so-called ‘Central Group’ of Indo-Aryan languages somewhere south of Kashmir”. Previously this language was spoken by Doms (Domaaki speakers) inhabiting different regions of Gilgit-Baltistan. Now the speakers of this language reside in Mominabad (erstwhile Bayrishal) village in Hunza. Domaaki people worked as musicians and blacksmiths for centuries. (Even today, many musicians in the Punjab are referred to as “dom” or “doom”.) They are the repositories of indigenous music, engineering and crafts, but they have been treated as pariahs in our caste society. Politically, there was a complete disconnect between the traditional power structure and the Domaaki speaker. Even the Mir of Hunza prohibited them from speaking the Brushashki language. Doms are the only group of people that is not allowed to marry with other social groups. This has resulted in the painful isolation of Doms from the mainstream of society.

The advent of modernity has proved conducive for Doms to break the shackles of professions that have stunted their social mobility for centuries. Now they have succeeded to bring about a positive change in their economic lot and social status by making progress in other fields of life. Therefore, it can be said that modernity provided a deprived community with the opportunity of upward mobility. But modernity, in order to move along (or ‘progress’), must rupture tradition by bringing forth contradictions that persist beneath an apparent veneer of continuity.

The dilemma faced by Domaaki speakers is that if they rely on the traditional structure of society they have to remain vulnerable to the exploitation of society. On the other hand, modernity deprives Domaaki speakers of their identity, but at least it gives them human dignity and freedom, which are things they have long been denied. That is why many of them prefer to live with honor sans identity in modern structures, rather than living in a tradition that has kept them in disdain for centuries.

American linguist John McWhorter has captured an inherent dilemma in the dialectics of continuity and change and its impact on local languages in these words: ‘At the end of the day, language death is, ironically, a symptom of people coming together. Globalization means hitherto isolated peoples migrating and sharing space.... The alternative, it would seem, is indigenous groups left to live in isolationcomplete with the maltreatment of women and lack of access to modern medicine and technology typical of such societies.’

For more details: http://www.thefridaytimes.com/01042011/page20.shtml

NCSW proposes severe punishments for acid crimes

2011-03-20T22:35:00.000-07:00

Source: Associated Press of Pakistan

Date: 21 March, 2011

ISLAMABAD, Mar 20 (APP): National Commission on Status of Women (NCSW) has finalized the draft for legislation on acid crime and its prevention, proposing severe punishment for the perpetrators and rehabilitation of acid burn victims on the expenses of the state. Talking to APP, an official of NCSW on Sunday said that the punishment of crime should be according to the intensity of the burn injury.

NCSW has also proposed to set up a rehabilitation board comprising lawyers, doctors and civil society members for providing every possible assistance to the victims of acid crimes.

The bill submitted by Ministry of Women Development (MoWD) and Acid Survivor Foundation (ASF) for review, has been divided into two parts to separately deal with ‘Acid Crimes’ and ‘Acid Prevention.’

‘Acid Crimes Bill’ advocates severe punishment for the perpetrators while ‘Acid Prevention Bill’ is drafted for controlling the distribution of acid and evolving a mechanism to criminalize its unlawful sale.

According to the law, the hospitals treating acid burn victims will be responsible to report the matter to the police, the official informed.
However, the state will be responsible to bear the expenses of health facilities including, therapy, treatment and surgeries and also the legal expenses during the trial which can be recovered from the convict after decision of the case.

Some legislation carry ‘Qisas’ and ‘Diyat’ element to settle the matter.

The legal, gender experts, members of civil society and lawyers who reviewed the bill have termed the acid crime as crime against state and proposed removing of the clause of forgiveness from the legislation, the official informed.

Earlier, two private members bill have been presented in the Parliament by Fakhar-un-Nisa and Marvi Memon while this legislation will be tabled soon as government bill.

For more details: http://ftpapp.app.com.pk/en_/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=134254&Itemid=2

Pakistan spends 7 times more on arms than on schools

2011-03-01T21:48:00.000-08:00

Source: Dawn

Date: March 2, 2011

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan, with one of the world`s largest out-of-school population, about 7.3 million, spends over seven times as much on arms as on primary schools, says a report of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco).

The discrepancy between primary education and military expenditure is so large that just one-fifth of Pakistan`s military spending would be sufficient to finance the universal primary education, asserts the `Education for All (EFA) Global Monitoring Report 2011` published on Tuesday.

It said that diversion of national resources to the military and loss of government revenue meant that armed conflict shifted the responsibility for education financing from government to households. The report called on national governments and donors to urgently review the potential for converting unproductive spending on weapons into productive investment in schools.

The 1999-2008 period which was marked by high economic growth, real growth in education spending was higher than the rates of economic growth. The total public expenditure on education as percentage of GNP was 2.9 per cent in 2008, compared to 2.6 per cent in 1999.

The report says that the impact of armed conflict on education has been widely neglected. This hidden crisis is reinforcing poverty, undermining economic growth and holding back the progress of nations. In Pakistan, some 600,000 children in three districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were reported in 2009 to have missed one year or more of school because of conflict and displacement.

Insurgent groups in KPK and Fata have attacked girls` primary and secondary schools. The report says that motives for attacking education infrastructure vary. Schools may be seen as embodying state authority and, therefore, a legitimate target, especially when insurgent groups oppose, as in Afghanistan, the type of education promoted by governments. The use of schools by armed forces can lead to their being targeted by anti-state groups and abandoned by communities.

Link for more details : http://www.dawn.com/2011/03/02/pakistan-spends-7-times-more-on-arms-than-on-schools.html

51% of Pakistanis deprived of basic education, health: UN Report

2011-02-22T21:55:00.000-08:00

Source: Express Tribune

Date: February 23, 2011

United Nations: Human Development Report 2010

ISLAMABAD: Over half of Pakistanis are deprived of basic education and health facilities and live below a respectable standard of living, reveals a United Nations report.

According to the United Nations Human Development Report 2010, launched on Tuesday, as many as 51 per cent of the population is living in multidimensional poverty and 54 per cent is suffering from intense deprivation. Another 11.8 per cent of the population is at the risk of multidimensional poverty.

The statistics have been measured by the Multidimensional Poverty Index which includes indicators of health, education, sanitation and living standards.

The UN has also described Pakistan as a country facing major civil war and one with a bad, if not the worst, human rights violations record.

Pakistan’s overall ranking in terms of the Human Development Index (HDI) fell by two notches and stood at 125 among 169 nations. Earlier, Pakistan’s position was 123. This means that Pakistan is now just two notches from a group of nations with low human development. Life expectancy in Pakistan at the time of birth is now 67.2 years, which is 15 years less than Norway, the top human development country.

Of the deprived population, about three out of ten people are suffering from lack of health facilities, five out of ten lack access to education and at least four out of ten have abysmal standards of living.

The report did not include any number on account of national poverty line because the Pakistan Peoples Party-led government, under political compulsion, has not endorsed the latest poverty figures of 17.2 per cent. This figure is based on a survey done in 2007-08, while the Panel of Economists, stationed in the Planning Commission, has estimated up to 40 per cent poverty in Pakistan.

In the category of sustainability and vulnerability, four per cent of Pakistanis are living in degraded land, one of 10 people do not have access to water and nearly six out of 10 live without proper sanitation facilities.

For more details: http://tribune.com.pk/story/122530/human-development-report-2010-51-of-pakistanis-deprived-of-basic-education-health/

Who will listen to the plight of the Wakhis?

2011-02-15T00:46:00.000-08:00

Dear All,

The following article “” by “Mr. Aziz Ali Dad ”, source “Express Tribune- February 14, 2011”.

One of the dilemmas faced by postcolonial states is that they inherited the idea of nation states from their masters and they try to impose it on their heterogeneous societies. To establish its identity, it is indispensible for the nation state to delineate its geographical boundaries. Redrawing of boundaries between new nation states has resulted in curtailing of interaction between members of the same culture. However, some nation states have been able to co-opt such communities within the political structure through administrative measures, political concessions and pluralism.

In Pakistani context, the Wakhi people (Xhik in local parlance) in Gilgit-Baltistan represent a case of communities whose cultural kin are divided between Pakistan, China, Afghanistan and Tajikistan. The Wakhis in Pakistan inhabit the border areas of Brughal (Chitral), Shiqamal (Ishkoman) and Gojal, but a majority of their population is concentrated in Tehsil Gojal of Hunza district.

The Wakhis of Gojal are facing enormous challenges in the shape of scarcity of food, fuel, medicine and relief — all of which is due to the creation of an artificial lake (now called Attabad Lake) by a massive landslide over a year ago. The lake has isolated them and dealt a severe blow to the local economy by cutting off access to the Karakoram Highway. Although, the government of Pakistan tried to reach some pockets, its efforts were thwarted by mismanagement within the local administration. In short, the artificial lake still blocks access to the rest of the country for the people of Gojal. The tehsil hasharsh weather, and this can be judged from the fact that Attabad Lake is now frozen.

Being part of a community on the periphery, the Wakhis may feel that are being pushed to the wall and look towards their brethrens across the borders in future. In this process, culture can play a crucial role in bonding the divided Wakhis and produce centripetal sentiments. The more the government ignores their miseries, the more centrifugal tendencies may generate. Coupled with this, concrete measures from neighbouring polities may tilt local sympathies in their favour. Keeping the local populace dependent on China for a long time is not in the interests of Pakistan.

In order to circumvent undesirable outcomes of marginalisation, our government needs to take measures on war footing to alleviate their suffering. The Wakhis of Gojal are struggling to save their valley from a catastrophe. Local people cannot change the functioning of nature, nor do they question it, but they are raising questions about the lackadaisical response from the government towards their plight.

The Wakhi people are already disconnected with the rest of the country physically, but ideologically they are still loyal to the state. If these people continue to suffer marginalisation by the state, the physical distance may pave way for ideological alienation. Only by addressing the genuine grievances of these people can the state contain its citizens within its geographical boundaries and win their hearts and minds.

Link: http://tribune.com.pk/story/118262/who-will-listen-to-the-plight-of-the-wakhis/

Article of Mr. Naseer Memon in Dawn-The cost of security

2011-02-14T21:41:00.000-08:00

Dear All,

The following article “The cost of security” by “Mr. Naseer Memon”, source “Daily Dawn- February 15, 2011”.

IN a startling report, Unicef has compared the state of nutrition in post-flood Sindh with Chad and Niger. The report claims that hundreds of thousands of children are at risk due to alarming levels of malnutrition.

The malnutrition rate has been stated as standing at 23.1 per cent in northern Sindh and 21.2 per cent in the south. This has dwarfed the 15 per cent emergency threshold of the World Health Organisation and in flood-hit areas in particular, far exceeds the global average of 13.9 per cent. The report also reveals that 11.2 per cent of pregnant and lactating women suffer from malnutrition in northern Sindh and 10.2 per cent in the south.

The high rates of malnutrition may be shocking but they are not surprising. The people of Pakistan’s rural areas in general and Sindh in particular are chronic victims of malnourishment. The Unicef report has only validated earlier findings of poverty and hunger in Sindh’s rural areas. Nutrition deficiency that gives rise to child morbidity and mortality is rampant in many districts of the province. A report by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute entitled ‘Food Insecurity in Pakistan’ states that 43 per cent of Sindh’s districts are wheat-deficient. The map of such districts included four in northern Sindh and six in southern Sindh.

Meanwhile, according to a 2008 UN assessment, some 77 million Pakistanis were hungry and 44 million were underfed. Thirty eight per cent of children under the age of five and 24 per cent of the overall population were underweight. The UN placed Pakistan in the ‘alarming’ category in the Global Hunger Index. The greater proportion of these hunger-stricken masses belongs to the rural areas.

The recent floods exposed not only the ramshackle administrative machinery but also the miseries of the people living in remote areas that were abandoned by state institutions long ago. In these areas, landlords run a jirga-judiciary, schooling is an alien concept and health is a luxury that only the elite can afford. The situation was probably not too different even before the floods.

According to the 2006 Millennium Development Goals Report, no district in Sindh was among the top ten which saw a decrease in child mortality. Two districts of the province were among the bottom ten and two were among the most regressive districts under this indicator. The floods have compounded and brought into focus the miseries in these areas, for the pre-flood situation was also deplorable.

The floods cannot be thought of as the sole element responsible for malnutrition in these areas. Several other factors also played a role. In northern Sindh, tribal rivalries have ruined the local economies and livelihood resources. No one has analysed the human dimension of this orchestrated decimation of poor people in the area. Due to indiscriminate killings, people are forced to abandon agricultural activity and large swathes of land are deserted, resulting in local food shortages. According to data reported by a civil society organisation, the Indus Peoples’ Forum, some 30 tribal feuds have for years turned northern Sindh into a battleground. Abductions for ransom, highway robberies and other crimes have damaged the local economy which is mainly underpinned by agriculture. Consequently, local communities are facing a creeping disaster of poverty and dietary hardship. Widespread poverty in general has limited access to healthy diets, resulting in malnutrition. Particularly affected are women and children, who have to wait for residual crumbs in patriarchal family structures.

The political economy of hunger and poverty traces the genesis of these factors in poor governance and misplaced developmental priorities. Malnutrition is not a cause but an effect ensuing from a multitude of reasons. Human development has largely been a neglected area in our political system. Over time, our security appetite has outweighed development needs. Elusive ideological and geographical security concerns have caused this country to degenerate into a security state where the development needs of the citizenry find no place.

A recent report by the Social Policy and Development Centre, ‘Social Impact of the Security Crisis’, notes that the allocation for health and nutrition in the federal government’s public sector development program registered a marginal average annual increase of 0.4 per cent over the last five years. Meanwhile, security-related expenditure during last ten years registered an average growth of 20.6 per cent. These figures speak volumes about our misplaced priorities.

True, security is encroaching on the human development sphere across the world, and public expenditure exchequers are under unprecedented stress. The recent economic downturn and increasing commodity prices have further restricted access to food in underdeveloped societies. Ironically the countries neck-deep in the morass of poverty are often also the ones amassing arsenals to meet snowballing security challenges.

Pakistan is a shining star of this club, where human security is being sacrificed at the altar of security demands. Ever since the country became a surrogate battleground for international forces in the ’80s, developmental allocations have been declining. In the current year the country’s federal budget envisaged tax revenues in the vicinity of Rs1,600bn, which is just enough to meet the defence and debt servicing bill. This leaves vital areas of human development in the cold. Such a persistent trend of orphaned human development has perilous socio-political ramifications.

Natural catastrophes have rubbed salt into the wounds. In recent years, the country has suffered major earthquakes, cyclones and floods. Similar visitations across the globe have put further strain on international humanitarian aid. With dwindling local resources and decreasing international charity, malnutrition among women and children in a country such as Pakistan seems to be fait accompli. Only a citizen-centred decision making paradigm can address this situation and avert an impending disaster.

The writer is the chief executive of Strengthening Participatory Organisation, a non-profit organisation.

nmemon@spopk.org

link: http://www.dawn.com/2011/02/15/the-cost-of-security.html

Article of Mr. Naseer Memon in Dawn-The cost of security

2011-02-14T21:36:00.000-08:00

Dear All,

The following article “The cost of security” by “Mr. Naseer Memon”, source “Daily Dawn- February 15, 2011”.

IN a startling report, Unicef has compared the state of nutrition in post-flood Sindh with Chad and Niger. The report claims that hundreds of thousands of children are at risk due to alarming levels of malnutrition.

The malnutrition rate has been stated as standing at 23.1 per cent in northern Sindh and 21.2 per cent in the south. This has dwarfed the 15 per cent emergency threshold of the World Health Organisation and in flood-hit areas in particular, far exceeds the global average of 13.9 per cent. The report also reveals that 11.2 per cent of pregnant and lactating women suffer from malnutrition in northern Sindh and 10.2 per cent in the south.

The high rates of malnutrition may be shocking but they are not surprising. The people of Pakistan’s rural areas in general and Sindh in particular are chronic victims of malnourishment. The Unicef report has only validated earlier findings of poverty and hunger in Sindh’s rural areas. Nutrition deficiency that gives rise to child morbidity and mortality is rampant in many districts of the province. A report by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute entitled ‘Food Insecurity in Pakistan’ states that 43 per cent of Sindh’s districts are wheat-deficient. The map of such districts included four in northern Sindh and six in southern Sindh.

Meanwhile, according to a 2008 UN assessment, some 77 million Pakistanis were hungry and 44 million were underfed. Thirty eight per cent of children under the age of five and 24 per cent of the overall population were underweight. The UN placed Pakistan in the ‘alarming’ category in the Global Hunger Index. The greater proportion of these hunger-stricken masses belongs to the rural areas.

The recent floods exposed not only the ramshackle administrative machinery but also the miseries of the people living in remote areas that were abandoned by state institutions long ago. In these areas, landlords run a jirga-judiciary, schooling is an alien concept and health is a luxury that only the elite can afford. The situation was probably not too different even before the floods.

According to the 2006 Millennium Development Goals Report, no district in Sindh was among the top ten which saw a decrease in child mortality. Two districts of the province were among the bottom ten and two were among the most regressive districts under this indicator. The floods have compounded and brought into focus the miseries in these areas, for the pre-flood situation was also deplorable.

The floods cannot be thought of as the sole element responsible for malnutrition in these areas. Several other factors also played a role. In northern Sindh, tribal rivalries have ruined the local economies and livelihood resources. No one has analysed the human dimension of this orchestrated decimation of poor people in the area. Due to indiscriminate killings, people are forced to abandon agricultural activity and large swathes of land are deserted, resulting in local food shortages. According to data reported by a civil society organisation, the Indus Peoples’ Forum, some 30 tribal feuds have for years turned northern Sindh into a battleground. Abductions for ransom, highway robberies and other crimes have damaged the local economy which is mainly underpinned by agriculture. Consequently, local communities are facing a creeping disaster of poverty and dietary hardship. Widespread poverty in general has limited access to healthy diets, resulting in malnutrition. Particularly affected are women and children, who have to wait for residual crumbs in patriarchal family structures.

The political economy of hunger and poverty traces the genesis of these factors in poor governance and misplaced developmental priorities. Malnutrition is not a cause but an effect ensuing from a multitude of reasons. Human development has largely been a neglected area in our political system. Over time, our security appetite has outweighed development needs. Elusive ideological and geographical security concerns have caused this country to degenerate into a security state where the development needs of the citizenry find no place.

A recent report by the Social Policy and Development Centre, ‘Social Impact of the Security Crisis’, notes that the allocation for health and nutrition in the federal government’s public sector development program registered a marginal average annual increase of 0.4 per cent over the last five years. Meanwhile, security-related expenditure during last ten years registered an average growth of 20.6 per cent. These figures speak volumes about our misplaced priorities.

True, security is encroaching on the human development sphere across the world, and public expenditure exchequers are under unprecedented stress. The recent economic downturn and increasing commodity prices have further restricted access to food in underdeveloped societies. Ironically the countries neck-deep in the morass of poverty are often also the ones amassing arsenals to meet snowballing security challenges.

Pakistan is a shining star of this club, where human security is being sacrificed at the altar of security demands. Ever since the country became a surrogate battleground for international forces in the ’80s, developmental allocations have been declining. In the current year the country’s federal budget envisaged tax revenues in the vicinity of Rs1,600bn, which is just enough to meet the defence and debt servicing bill. This leaves vital areas of human development in the cold. Such a persistent trend of orphaned human development has perilous socio-political ramifications.

Natural catastrophes have rubbed salt into the wounds. In recent years, the country has suffered major earthquakes, cyclones and floods. Similar visitations across the globe have put further strain on international humanitarian aid. With dwindling local resources and decreasing international charity, malnutrition among women and children in a country such as Pakistan seems to be fait accompli. Only a citizen-centred decision making paradigm can address this situation and avert an impending disaster.

The writer is the chief executive of Strengthening Participatory Organisation, a non-profit organisation.

nmemon@spopk.org

link: http://www.dawn.com/2011/02/15/the-cost-of-security.html

Government urged to take steps for reducing gender gap

2011-02-14T02:03:00.000-08:00

Source: The News

Date: February 14, 2011

Civil society has called upon the government to take special measures for reducing gender gaps as are revealed in national and international reports, particularly in the area of education and health sectors.

In a statement issued on the occasion of National Women’s Day, the Centre for Peace and Development Initiatives (CPDI) has urged the legislators and policy-makers to allocate more resources and further vow the commitment to address gender disparities in key human development areas to pursue national women’s development agenda.

The statement mentions that the literacy rate of women in the country is 42 per cent and only 52 per cent of girls complete primary level education. Similarly 25 per cent girls reach the secondary level whereas only 4.2 per cent are enrolled for higher level education.

It says that primary enrolment rate for female in Khyber Pukhtoonkhwa and Baluchistan is 41 per cent and 32 per cent respectively despite government special initiatives to meet the Midterm and Millennium Development targets for 100 per cent primary enrolment till 2015.

It says that health indicators show that for 100 boys, only 88 girls are immunised. Infant mortality rate under five years is 94 per 1,000, which is highest if compared with other regional countries.

Women access to professional health services is 35 per cent and maternal mortality figures of 276 in 100,000 live births explicitly marks that women are denied to health rights. Gender related indicators are expected to further deteriorate by recent flood and poverty being arousing out of war against terrorism and internal displacement in conflict areas.

For more details: http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=31049&Cat=6&dt=2/14/2011

Government urged to take steps for reducing gender gap

2011-02-14T00:19:00.000-08:00

Source: The News

Date: February 14, 2011

It says that health indicators show that for 100 boys, only 88 girls are immunised. Infant mortality rate under five years is 94 per 1,000, which is highest if compared with other regional countries.

For more details: http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=31049&Cat=6&dt=2/14/2011

Government urged to take steps for reducing gender gap

2011-02-13T23:58:00.000-08:00

Source: The News

Date: February 14, 2011

It says that health indicators show that for 100 boys, only 88 girls are immunised. Infant mortality rate under five years is 94 per 1,000, which is highest if compared with other regional countries.

For more details: http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=31049&Cat=6&dt=2/14/2011

Government urged to take steps for reducing gender gap

2011-02-13T23:45:00.001-08:00

Source: The News

Date: February 14, 2011

In a statement issued on the occasion of National Women's Day, the Centre for Peace and Development Initiatives (CPDI) has urged the legislators and policy-makers to allocate more resources and further vow the commitment to address gender disparities in key human development areas to pursue national women's development agenda.

It says that health indicators show that for 100 boys, only 88 girls are immunised. Infant mortality rate under five years is 94 per 1,000, which is highest if compared with other regional countries.

For more details: http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=31049&Cat=6&dt=2/14/2011

Government urged to take steps for reducing gender gap

2011-02-13T23:00:00.000-08:00

Source: The News

Date: February 14, 2011

It says that health indicators show that for 100 boys, only 88 girls are immunised. Infant mortality rate under five years is 94 per 1,000, which is highest if compared with other regional countries.

For more details: http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=31049&Cat=6&dt=2/14/2011

Government urged to take steps for reducing gender gap

2011-02-13T22:27:00.000-08:00

Source: The News

Date: February 14, 2011

It says that health indicators show that for 100 boys, only 88 girls are immunised. Infant mortality rate under five years is 94 per 1,000, which is highest if compared with other regional countries.

For more details: http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=31049&Cat=6&dt=2/14/2011

Severe malnutrition persists among flood-hit children : UNICEF

2011-02-10T23:26:00.000-08:00

Source: Express Tribune

Date: February 11, 2011

Six months after the floods, one of the most urgent issues facing the affected people is the alarming levels of malnutrition among children.

A report by UNICEF ‘Children in Pakistan: Six Months After the Floods’ presented an analysis from July 2010 to January 2011 of the reach and scale of the disaster, UNICEF’s response and the growing needs that continue to alarm relief organisations.

To put the malnutrition crisis in perspective, the report presented Global Acute Malnutrition (GAM) and Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) rates in the flood-hit areas of Punjab and Sindh, released in late January 2011 by the Sindh and Punjab departments of health.

A GAM rate reveals how many children in a given population are moderately or severely malnourished, while SAM is an acute state which makes a child 10 times more likely to die before his fifth birthday compared to a healthy child.

The World Health Organization gives 15 per cent as the emergency threshold level to trigger a humanitarian crisis.

In Northern Sindh, the GAM rate is 23.1 per cent and in Southern Sindh, it is 21.2 per cent.

The SAM rate in Northern Sindh is 6.1 per cent, posing an immediate threat to the lives of 61,000 children.

In Punjab, data reveals a GAM of 14 per cent, just below the emergency level and an SAM rate of 3.6.

Survey results from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan are expected this month.

For more details: http://tribune.com.pk/story/117154/severe-malnutrition-persists-among-flood-hit-children/

Notices issued on plea for rights of street children

2011-02-08T23:32:00.000-08:00

Source: Daily Dawn

Date: February 9, 2011

KARACHI, Feb 8: The Sindh High Court on Tuesday put the provincial government, the home department, the Karachi district coordination officer and the provincial police chief on notice on a petition seeking shelter, education and basic necessities to 32,500 street children in Karachi.
A division bench comprising Justices Gulzar Ahmed and Imam Bux Baloch put off the hearing to March 1.

The petition was filed by Iqbal Kazmi, a representative of the Human Rights Commission for South Asia, who submitted in the petition that as many as 32,500 street children in the city had been forced to become sex workers, beggars or do menial jobs.

Referring to a survey conducted by his organisation, he stated that 17,000 children had trickled into the metropolis from different parts of the country.

The petitioner submitted that 2,800 children were being forced to earn their living as sex workers, while over 12,000 children were involved in begging. Besides, he said, over 11,530 children were working in different restaurants; 1,685 at different workshops and garages; and 9,860 were working at different industrial units and fish harbour.

The petitioner stated in the petition that 7,840 children were involved in crimes and their cases were pending in different trial courts, while only 17 children were presently kept at Remand Home, set up especially for underage prisoners. He submitted that the government was responsible for provision of education and shelter to the street children but unfortunately despite the presence of several laws for child safety no step was being taken to provide basic facilities to street children.

He stated that the social welfare department, which was responsible for the welfare of the children, was not performing its duties despite allocation of Rs119.450 million budget for the purpose.

For more details please click on link: http://www.dawn.com/2011/02/09/notices-issued-on-plea-for-rights-of-street-children.html

State-run girls schools lack basic facilities

2011-02-07T23:44:00.000-08:00

Source: Express Tribune

Date: February 8, 2011

ISLAMABAD: The majority of the state-run girls’ primary schools across the country lack sanitary staff and clean drinking water facilities.

This was revealed by a country-wide survey of government primary schools for girls by the Free and Fair Election Network’s (FAFEN) Education Monitor division.

The survey monitored 137 primary schools for girls in 87 districts across the country. It was revealed that sanitary workers were not present in 72 per cent of the monitored schools, while 49 per cent of the monitored schools did not provide clean drinking water facilities to children, putting them at risk of water-borne diseases.

Transparency surfaced as a major issue during the survey as 20 schools did not provide information about the sanctioned teaching posts, while 66 refused to provide information about their non-teaching staff. Information on teacher and student attendance, on the day of the FAFEN observer’s visit, was also withheld by some schools. The survey revealed that seven per cent of the total sanctioned teaching posts and 13 per cent of the sanctioned non-teaching posts in these schools were lying vacant. The highest number of unoccupied teaching and non-teaching posts were observed in Sindh, which were nine per cent and 22 per cent respectively.

Nationwide, the average number of students per teacher came out to be 34. The highest number of student per teacher ratio was observed in Fata, where one teacher was appointed to 45 students on average. The lowest student per teacher ratio was observed in Sindh, where one teacher was expected to teach 27 students.

For more details click on link: http://tribune.com.pk/story/115528/state-run-girls-schools-lack-basic-facilities/

Flood-hit areas in Punjab Infants at risk of worst malnutrition: report

2011-02-03T22:28:00.000-08:00

Source: Daily Dawn

Date: February 04, 2011

LAHORE, Feb 3: Infants are particularly at risk of worst malnutrition in flood-affected districts of Punjab and malnourished children are likely to be from families of the poorest quintile, living in temporary or kacha houses, and those who have bank liability. This was revealed by speakers at the launching ceremony of Nutrition Survey Report on flood-affected areas of Punjab held under the auspices of the Punjab Planning and Development Department at a local club on Thursday.

According to the report, poor sanitation, unhygienic practices and lack of access to services are aggregating factors in malnutrition.

The global malnutrition rate among children under five in flood-hit areas is 13.9 per cent while the rate of acute malnutrition — associated with highest rates of morbidity is 3.5 per cent. More than 60 per cent households are living in `kacha` (houses with mud or thatched wall) while the rest is in cemented structures.

The report says efforts should be made to reduce the high rate of chronic malnutrition and to improve the knowledge of the communities about the Infant Young Child Feeding (IYCF).

Results of the survey, conducted in November 2010 by P&D`s Bureau of Statistics, in collaboration with Unicef and Action Contre la Faim Canada (ACF-Canada), were shared with stakeholders at the ceremony attended by secretaries of the social sector departments, programme managers of various PMUs, DCOs of nine districts and representatives of donor agencies and NGOs. The academia was represented by KEMU, FJMC, LUMS, LSE and Punjab University.

A blueprint of the response plan prepared by the provincial health department for the flood-affected communities was also shared in which it was pointed out that since the onset of the floods in Punjab, the government in collaboration with Unicef and the nutrition cluster had screened more than 211,000 children for malnutrition in flooded areas.

For more details: http://www.dawn.com/2011/02/04/flood-hit-areas-in-punjab-infants-at-risk-of-worst-malnutrition-report.html

Violence against women: 8,433 cases registered in Punjab in two

2011-02-02T23:29:00.000-08:00

Source: Daily Dawn

Date: February 3, 2011

ISLAMABAD, Feb 2: The Senate was informed on Wednesday that over the past two years 8,433 cases of violence against women were registered in Punjab and a total of 11,798 all over the country.

Minister of State for Interior Tasneem Qureshi said that 1,656 cases were registered in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 680 in Sindh, 333 in
Balochistan, 362 in Azad Kashmir, 272 in Islamabad and 62 in Gilgit-Baltistan since January 2009.

He said the quarters concerned had been directed to act firmly against gender-based violence and district police officers, superintendents of police and station house officers had been asked to take preventive measures.

Mr Qureshi said proper investigation was carried out in such cases and the accused were arrested under Section 173 of the Criminal Procedure Code. He said special attention should be given to prosecute the cases for timely conclusion of trial.

The minister said nine women police stations had been set up in Karachi, Larkana, Hyderabad, Islamabad, Peshawar, Lahore, Rawalpindi and Faisalabad where female police officers were dealing with cases relating to women. Complaint units have been set up at Margalla and I-9 police stations in Islamabad.

Mr Qureshi said the AJK Legislative Assembly had added Section 174-A to the Criminal Procedure Code under which a doctor could record the statement of a woman set on fire and in the event of her death the statement would be used as evidence in a court of law.

He said all accused women were being kept in women police stations under the custody of lady police officers to protect them from gender harassment and they were interrogated in the presence of female police officers.

The minister said that according to National Alien Registration Authority there were three million illegal immigrants in the country. Of them 50,000 were from African countries and 30,000 to 35,000 of them were living in Karachi and Islamabad and adjoining villages.

He said that under the provisions of Foreigners Act, 1946, illegally aliens were apprehended by local police as well as Federal Investigation Agency.

The FIA had registered cases against four Africans in 2008, two in 2009 and only one last year.

Link: http://www.dawn.com/2011/02/03/violence-against-women-8433-cases-registered-in-punjab-in-two-years.html

Pakistan floods could have been minimised: US team

2011-02-01T02:13:00.000-08:00

Source: Dawn News

Date: February 1, 2011

WASHINGTON: Last year’s disastrous floods in Pakistan could have been minimised if European weather monitors had shared their data and it had been properly processed, US researchers said Monday.

Catastrophic monsoon rains that swept through the country in July and August killed thousands, affected 20 million people, destroyed 1.7 million homes and damaged 5.4 million acres of arable land, experts have said.

“This disaster could have been minimized and even the flooding could have been minimised,” said lead author Peter Webster, a professor of earth and atmospheric science at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta.

“If we were working with Pakistan, they would have known eight to 10 days in advance that the floods were coming.”

Using data from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasting (ECMWF), Webster and colleagues found the floods could have been predicted if the data “had been processed and fed into a hydrological model, which takes terrain into account.”

Webster’s research has been accepted for publication in a future edition of the journal Geophysical Research Letters, the American Geophysical Union said in a statement.

But the London-based ECMWF, which includes 33 participating European countries, defended itself saying it “does not give out weather forecasts and weather warnings to the general public or media.”

“ECMWF provides numerical forecasts to its member and co-operating states and they are responsible to prepare forecasts for the public and advise the authorities in their own countries,” ECMWF scientist Anna Ghelli was quoted as saying by the AGU.

The AGU said the information did not reach the Pakistani people because of a “lack of a cooperating agreement between the forecasting center and Pakistan.”

“The major result of the study is that the heavy rainfall pulses throughout July and early August were predictable with a high probability six-eight days in advance,” said an early release version of the paper.

“If these forecasts had been available to the regions of northern Pakistan, government institutions and water resource managers could have anticipated rapid filling of dams, releasing water ahead of the deluges. A high probability of flooding could have been anticipated.”

Pakistan’s own meteorological agency also did not forecast the flooding, the AGU said, of the research funded by the National Science Foundation.

Webster said he spent five years working with Bangladesh on a flood-forecasting technique and helped organise a cooperating agreement between the ECMWF, the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center and the Bangladesh government.

Subsequent flood warnings have helped save lives and up to one year’s salary per farm. The entire startup cost for a similar system in Pakistan would be a few million dollars, and about 100,000 dollars per year to operate, Webster said.

Link: http://www.dawn.com/2011/02/01/pakistan-floods-could-have-been-minimised-us-team.html

Sindh faces Chad-like hunger, says Unicef

2011-01-27T01:21:00.000-08:00

Source: Dawn

Date: January 27, 2011

ISLAMABAD, Jan 26: The Sindh province, hit hard by last year`s floods, is suffering levels of malnutrition almost as critical as Chad and Niger, with hundreds of thousands of children at risk, Unicef said on Wednesday.

A survey conducted by the provincial government and the UN Children`s Fund revealed malnutrition rates of 23.1 per cent in northern Sindh and 21.2 per cent in the south.

Those rates are above the 15 per cent emergency threshold set by the World Health Organization and are on a par with some of the poorest parts of sub-Saharan Africa.

Northern Sindh also had a 6.1 per cent `severe acute` malnutrition rate and southern Sindh had 2.9 per cent, both far above the WHO thresholds. “We are looking at hundreds of thousands of children at risk,” Unicef chief of communication Kristen Elsby said.

A full report would be released on Friday by the Sindh government, she said, along with the province`s response plan.

Ms Elsby said it was unclear if the floods had caused a spike in malnutrition, but that it had revealed the extent of the problem because babies and mothers were being screened for the first time.

In Sindh and Balochistan, some 600,000 people are still living in camps, according to the World Food Programme.—Reuters

Link: http://www.dawn.com/2011/01/27/sindh-faces-chad-like-hunger-says-unicef.html

Millions of flood-hit still struggle for food

2011-01-27T00:20:00.000-08:00

Source: Dawn

Date: January 27, 2011

ISLAMABAD, Jan 26: Six months after devastating floods hit Pakistan, millions of people are still in dire need of essential items and the crisis, which is far from over, could get worse, an Oxfam report says.

The report, `Six months into the floods`, said that although the aid effort had reached millions, it had struggled to match the immense scale of human need.

"Six months on millions of people are still facing flood water, shivering in temporary shelters and struggling to find food," the report said.

Oxfam said it was currently helping nearly 1.9 million people, "one of our biggest programmes worldwide â€" but this is dwarfed by the number of people who are in need," said Neva Khan, the head of Oxfam in Pakistan.

The aid community has done a tremendous job but given the scale of this disaster relief agencies have only scratched the surface of human need, it said.

Oxfam said although Pakistan`s floods were the biggest emergency of recent times with more than 18 million people affected, the funding for the response had been woefully slow.

The UN appeal for $2 billion to rebuild Pakistan remains only 56 per cent funded.

Link: http://www.dawn.com/2011/01/27/millions-of-flood-hit-still-struggle-for-food.html

Year in focus: 2010 characterised by rights abuses

2011-01-25T23:14:00.000-08:00

Source: Express Tribune

Date: January 26, 2011

The Taliban and other religious extremists in Pakistan increased their deadly attacks against civilians and public spaces during 2010, while the government response was marred by serioushuman rights violations, Human Rights Watch said in its World Report 2011 on Monday.

The 649-page report – Human Rights Watch’s 21st annual review of human rights practices around the globe – summarizes major human rights trends in more than 90 states and territories worldwide. Suicide bombings, armed attacks, and killings by the Taliban, al Qaeda, and their affiliates targeted nearly every sector of the society, including religious minorities and journalists, resulting in hundreds of deaths, the report said.

The country’s largest cities bore the brunt of these attacks. Two attacks in late May 2010 against the Ahmadiyya community in Lahore killed nearly 100 people. On July 1, a suicide bombing at Data Darbar killed 40 people. Militant attacks targeting civilians in conflict areas amounted to war crimes, HRW said.

“The government needs to use all lawful means to hold those responsible to account,” said Ali Dayan Hasan, senior South Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch.

The government’s response to militant attacks instead has routinely violated basic rights, Human Rights Watch said. Thousands of Taliban suspects have been held in unlawful military detention without charge, many of them in two military facilities in Swat, one in the Khyber agency of the tribal areas, and at least one more in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

While the US remained Pakistan’s most significant ally and was the largest donor to the flood relief effort, Human Rights Watch documented several instances in 2010 in which US aid to Pakistan appeared to contravene the US Leahy Law. The law requires the US state department to certify that no military unit receiving US aid is involved in gross human rights abuses and, when such abuses are found, to investigate them thoroughly and properly.

Persecution and discrimination under cover of law against religious minorities and other vulnerable groups remained serious problems, Human Rights Watch said.

Aerial drone strikes by the US also escalated in 2010.

Pakistan’s media remained vocal critics of the government and experienced less interference from the elected government than in previous years, the report said. However, fearful of retaliation, the media rarely reported on human rights abuses by the military in counterterrorism operations, it added.

For more details: http://tribune.com.pk/story/109168/year-in-focus-2010-characterised-by-rights-abuses/

2010 'one of worst' years for natural disasters: UN

2011-01-24T23:29:00.000-08:00

Source: Daily Times

Date: January 25, 2011

* Disasters left 297,000 people dead

* Economic cost of 373 major disasters reached $109 billion

GENEVA: 2010 was one of the worst years on record for natural disasters over the past two decades, leaving nearly 297,000 people dead, research for the United Nations showed on Monday.

The devastating earthquake in Haiti a year ago accounted for about two thirds of the toll, killing more than 222,500 people, according to the Belgium-based Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED).

The CRED found that the summer heat wave in Russia was the second deadliest disaster of the year, leaving 55,736 people dead according to figures it compiled from insurers and media reports of official sources.

The year was “one of the worst in decades in terms of the number of people killed and in terms of economic losses,” Margareta Wahlstroem, UN special representative for disaster risk reduction, told journalists. “These figures are bad, but could be seen as benign in years to come,”

she said, pointing to the impact of unplanned growth of urban areas, environmental degradation and climate change.

The economic cost of the 373 major disasters recorded in 2010 reached $109 billion, headed by an estimated $30 billion in damage caused by the powerful earthquake that struck Chile in February. The earthquake unleashed a tsunami that swept away villages and claimed most of the 521 dead.

Summer floods and landslides in China caused an estimated $18 billion in damage, while floods in Pakistan cost $9.5 billion, according to the CRED’s annual study.

For more details: http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2011\01\25\story_25-1-2011_pg7_4

Food shortages: Creating a crisis to force global food control

2011-01-24T03:10:00.000-08:00

Source Pak Alert Press

Date: January 24, 2011

A shortage of food is being intentionally staged around the world. Apparently, if we resist the theft and seizure of food production and supply by bio-pirates and facilitated by government puppets, we will be intentionally starved into submission. Threats of the food shortage are constantly launched into “lame stream media” as a warning to the rest of us that we had better comply or face the fate of those poorer nations where millions are suffering from famine or death from lack of food.

Also see: Doomsday Seed Vault: Bill Gates, Rockefeller and the GMO giants know something we don’t

Somehow this scenario is in conflict with the PR propaganda of bio-pirates who claim their contaminated, harmful, genetically modified creations are the answer to the worlds food needs.

Claiming their Frankenfoods can somehow alleviate famine and hunger, these predators have bought and paid their way through one government after another as agricultural land is stolen, farmers displaced, and local food production is eradicated in favor of global corporate food control.

The problem is this: even with all the gmo seeds and crops, now comprising an estimated 70% of global production, and even with the constant tampering with animal dna and cloning, more of the world’s population is now suffering from a shortage of food or maybe a better description would be suffering from the withholding of food.

So where is this benefit from handing global food control over to corporate profiteers? It seems the only benefit is monetary and that is enjoyed only by corporations and governments who stuff their pockets while millions go hungry.

Looking at the data, it appears that gmo, dna tampering and cloning have decreased the global food supply to such an extent that the entire globe is now facing a food shortage.

This has to be so…..how else could we be facing a global food crisis when bio-pirates have been allowed such latitude and preferential treatment by governments’ worldwide, while promising they could end world hunger?

Where is all this abundance of food claimed by these multi-national pirate corporations that would somehow magically and mysteriously appear if only they were allowed to control all the processes? It appears evident that all the promises of increased food production from unnatural processes and unnecessary tampering with seeds, animals, poultry and even fish has no basis in fact. In fact, the only plausible reason that makes any sense as to why any of this has been allowed is profit and control. What is the use of producing 20% more corn if the nutritional value is less than half of traditional corn crops? Food isn’t just about bulk or quantity, it has to be nutritious enough to sustain us.

Factory farming, courtesy of subsidies and protection by USDA/FDA and preferential legislation by those wonderful folks in the District of Criminals, have created an environmental disaster not only for the animals but for land and water supplies. Add the recent theft of food production and supply courtesy of “Dirty Harry” Reid with his underhanded and corrupt passage of S.510 (S2751) the fake food safety bill; a bill which had nothing to do with food safety and was instead an all out assault on family farms and ranches meant to make continuing in agriculture untenable for anyone other than multi-national corporations and a bill which will force into export much of what is produced here in the US, and the stage is set for the intentional creation of a food shortage here at home. None of this is accidental.

For more details: http://www.pakalertpress.com/2011/01/24/food-shortages-creating-a-crisis-to-force-global-food-control/

State of gender inequality

2011-01-20T00:32:00.000-08:00

Source: Dawn

Date: January 20, 2011

PAKISTAN is no exception to the generally abysmal state of gender equality the world over. About 50 per cent of Pakistani girls drop out of school and our literacy rate for women is amongst the lowest in the world.

As of 2005 only 16 per cent of Pakistani women were reported as economically active while a 1996 study by the women’s division of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan showed that domestic violence takes place in about 80 per cent of Pakistani households.

Perhaps the most widely cited reason for gender inequality in the Pakistani context relates to the social custom of exalting sons above daughters. But is the difference in the treatment of sons and daughters the reason or merely a symptom of our present predicament? A meaningful answer to such a question requires an examination of not just cultural norms and traditions but the economic situation as well.

Although women’s inferior status to men exists in all strata of Pakistani society, the reasons and manifestations of the inequality differ quite substantially as we move from one socio-economic class and region to another.

While women of high-income urban families are more apt to receive higher education, they may still face restrictions in terms of labour-market opportunities.

According to the 1990-91 Pakistan Integrated Household Survey (PIHS) the female labour force participation rate in urban areas was 17 per cent.

The average literacy rate of women in Pakistan’s rural areas has been estimated at approximately one fifth of female literacy rates in urban areas, yet the PIHS indicated that the female labour force participation rate was 45 per cent in rural areas.

Looking at the economics of gender inequality, one aspect that is particularly striking is the link between gender discrimination and the traditions surrounding marriage in Pakistani society. Particularly in the case of poor families, the joy associated with the birth of a daughter is, to some extent, tempered by the substantial financial burden that it places on parents.

Despite government-issued mandates aimed at curtailing wedding expenses, nuptials remain extravagant and parents of daughters continue to face considerable costs especially due to the custom of dowry giving. The marriage of a daughter also signifies a drop in household earnings. Hence it is no surprise that poor households are loath to allocate meager resources as monetary investments in their daughters given that they are unlikely to see much return on the said investment.

For more details: http://www.dawn.com/2011/01/20/state-of-gender-inequality.html

Foreign flood aid: Pakistan waits for donors to follow through on pledges

2011-01-19T02:20:00.000-08:00

Source: Express Tribune

Date: January 19, 2011

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has so far received only a third of the international pledges required to meet the essential needs of 20 million flood survivors, which was enough only for “partial success” of the most crucial relief phase which will be over by January, The Express Tribune has learnt.

In July 2010, the worst-ever floods of Pakistan’s history affected over one-tenth of the country’s population and caused losses estimated at $10.8 billion. But official statistics show that since then, a group of 79 bilateral and multilateral donors and philanthropist organisations have disbursed $475 million in cash and $185 million in kind. This is slightly over one-fifth of the donors’ total commitments of three billion dollars and one-third of the total needs at the ground. Immediately after the disaster, the United Nations had sought $2 billion for early relief and recovery phases. Officially, the relief phase will be over by the end of January.

However, after six months, thousands are still living in tents. According to the Damage and Needs Assessment report, Pakistan needs one billion dollars each for relief and early recovery phases.

An official of the economic affairs division (EAD) lamented that donors were not ready to give money through the government due to the tainted image of the political leadership.

“The flood and its aftermath is a forgotten story because neither are donors providing significant funds nor is the federal government doing enough as the Council of Common Interests had decided that the primary responsibility lies with provincial governments,” a member of the National Oversight Disaster Management Council (NODMC) said on condition of anonymity. The council was formed soon after the floods struck to trace the inflow of funds and monitor progress on projects after donors expressed reservations over transparency.

He said that so far, the council had held three meetings and according to the NODMC “nothing significant is happening on the grounds as foreign funds have been diverted toward the Watan Card scheme”.

However, Chairperson of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) Lt-Gen (retd) Nadeem Ahmed said that only 152,000 people are living in tents. “Ninety-five per cent of the affected population has returned home,” Ahmed said.

According to the NDMA, the government has met two of four targets. “The government did well in delivering food and providing health care. However, it could not provide shelter to all and extend water and sanitation services,” he said.

Ahmed said that against the UN’s appeal, Pakistan has received firm commitments which are approximately 56 per cent of the appeal.

For more details: http://tribune.com.pk/story/105945/foreign-flood-aid-pakistan-waits-for-donors-to-follow-through-on-pledges/

Philosophy at the 'End of History'

2011-01-17T01:42:00.000-08:00

The following article “Philosophy at the ‘End of History’” by Aziz Ali Dad, source “View Point - Friday, January 14, 2011”.

If philosophers jump on the bandwagon of liberalism, then they are signing on the seal of the death of their respected vocation. The world is witnessing war, poverty, terrorism, ecological degradation and social disruption because the current institutions and ideas of liberalism cannot resolve inner contradictions of global capital

“The most thought-provoking thing in our thought-provoking time is that we are still not thinking.”

Martin Heidegger Socrates defined the vocation of philosopher as shocking people of their mental habits, Plato thinks it as smashing of idols and Nietzsche described it as ‘diagnosis of the modern soul’ and its vivisection. Since everything is mutable, it is natural that institutions, values and ideas also change with the passage of time. On the contrary, our ideas, institutions and values get ossified when the society wallows in unquestionable satisfaction of its perfect order. In such a situation, the vocation of philosopher is to shock people from their amnesia about Being and subject everything to critical scrutiny. That is why Rober Zend says “Being a philosopher, I have problem for every solution.”

Conformism kills philosophical spirit. The dialectics that enables philosophy to push the boundaries of knowledge is the courage to question habits not only of society but of thinking. It is the questioning spirit of philosophers that propels history and societies forward. But this thesis faces serious challenge in our age with the proclamation of ‘The End of History’ by Francis Fukuyama. He is of the opinion that the triumph of liberal democracy over all other political systems is the end of history because there is no alternative ideology to liberalism. In the absence of an alternative ideology history cannot move forward. His pronouncement of the end of history is preceded by proclamations of death of God, author, nature and meta-narratives.

Here the question arises: what is the fate of philosophy in the end of history, in which the world has witnessed the world entering into liberal paradise? In such a situation it is difficult to shock society of its mental torpor. Fukuyama’s theory is buttressed by power of economic liberalization in which nobody is allowed to deviate; otherwise he/she will become pariah in modern system.

For more details please view link: http://www.viewpointonline.net/philosophy-at-the-end-of-history.html

The gender divide

2011-01-16T22:28:00.000-08:00

Source: Dawn

Date: January 17, 2011

GENDER is a social construct that is fluid and varies with relation to time and space. Like any other social learning that humans acquire, the notion of gender is a part of cultural knowledge. The major culture-constituent forces include the social institutions that construct, validate and perpetuate social knowledge.
The first social institution that newborns are exposed to is their family. It is the family that instils in the child’s mind the essential attributes that are associated with men and women. Categorisation on the basis of gender starts at birth, when girls and boys are labelled and associated with the colors pink and blue.

At a very early stage, girls and boys are subjected to differential treatment in the family. In South Asian countries, where a large number of people live their lives below the poverty line, for economic reasons boys are generally valued more. Similarly, because of the unfortunate custom of having to have a dowry, girls are considered a burden, particularly in families with fewer resources. Children, when they start growing, observe the environment of their family. They keenly observe the relationship between their mother and father and study social roles very closely, such as who goes out to earn money and who takes care of the home. These early observations become an important source of social knowledge and children start internalising the roles of males and females at a very young age. In families where domestic violence is common, children develop aggressive attitudes which, in some cases, remain with them for a long time.

Besides observing the relationship of their parents, children acquire social norms from their siblings. Differential treatment within the family strengthens gender stereotypes in their minds.

Parental attitudes can impact the process of gender development as the initial formation of self-image takes place in the family. It is the parents that determine roles on the basis of gender through their own example and through their treatment of their children. Similarly it’s the parents who associate different sets of expectations with their sons and daughters. In South Asian countries, most parents don’t like their daughters to talk loudly or laugh before strangers. However, such expectations in terms of behaviour are not applied to boys.

Parents are also instrumental in providing different sets of opportunities to their children. For example, in mainstream families in a South Asian country a boy faces no problems in going abroad for higher studies but parents are usually reluctant to allow their daughters the same flexibility. Parental expectations regarding attitude, dress, job, responsibility and marriage generally differ on the basis of gender.

The early lessons of gender-dictated roles are taught in families when domestic chores are divided amongst children on this basis. To pick a very common example, boys are made responsible for acting in the public domain and girls are expected to manage the home. The roles that are assigned and practiced in the family are internalised by girls and boys at a very young age. These initial constructions of the self remain with them even when they have grown up. As a result of early internalisation, a number of women choose not to change their lives by challenging the hegemony of male members of the society.

A symbolic divide on the basis of gender lies in the choice of games and toys. Masculine-typed toys and games foster ‘male’ attributes such as aggression, violence and control. Feminine-typed games and toys cultivate the characteristics of organisation, caring, sharing or cooking. The choice of these games is approved by the parents and if girls try to move into the category of boys’ toys, they tend to be discouraged. Boys usually like to play games in which they emerge as warriors, saviours and heroes. The toys commonly given to them include guns, toy planes or racing cars racing. On the other hand, girls are taught to play make-believe as a teacher or cook or baker in a toy kitchen, or apply make-up to their dolls.

Thus, the divide on the basis of gender is strengthened through social categorisation. This social categorisation leads to segregated social norms in lifestyles. For example, a disorganised boy is generally tolerated by society but a girl has to be organised and tidy otherwise she is dubbed ill-mannered and socially unacceptable.

Boys and girls are encouraged to grow in separate environments with different roles and expectations. The initial division at the familial level is strengthened further by the social institutions of schools, and the print and electronic media. All such institutions not only propose that girls and boys grow up in different cultures, they also enforce this ‘rule’. That is why there is potential for misunderstandings when they converse with one another. These potential misunderstandings owe to the ‘cultural differences’ with which they are brought up.

For more details please view the link: http://www.dawn.com/2011/01/17/the-gender-divide.html

Society without Social Sciences

2011-01-14T04:29:00.000-08:00

Source: The News

Date: January 12, 2011

Society without Social Sciences by Aziz Ali Dad

Few people realize how critical education is for discouragement of terrorism and militancy, though there is been some soul searching of late as to what is lacking in our present education system which has made Pakistani society more intolerant and violent. The liberal intelligentsia puts the onus on the religious seminaries for the present violence in our society. But this attitude ignores elements of otherwise secular education which are capable of creating a militant mentality.
Among the various institutions providing education in Pakistan are the cadet colleges………………………

For more details click the following link:

http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=25083&Cat=9

Top Islamic advisory body: CII proposed death on blasphemy law misuse

2011-01-14T03:10:00.000-08:00

Source: Express Tribune

Date: January 13, 2010

In recommendations pending before parliament, CII had recommended the death penalty for anybody misusing the law.

ISLAMABAD: Amid a snowballing controversy about the blasphemy law, The Express Tribune has learnt that the top Islamic advisory council of the country had recommended the death penalty for anybody misusing the law. It had also recommended that only the Federal Shariat Court (FSC) hear blasphemy cases.

Hardline clerics and right-wing parties are opposed to any change in the blasphemy law which rights groups say can be used to settle personal scores.

With this in mind, the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) proposed some changes to stop the misuse of the blasphemy law. “These recommendations have been pending before parliament for the past three years,” a senior official in the CII told The Express Tribune requesting anonymity.

The recommendations were made in 2001 when Dr SM Zaman was heading the CII and two top religious scholars – Mufti-e-Azam Pakistan Maulana Muhammad Rafi Usmani and Mufti Muneeb-ur-Rehman – were also its members. Religious scholars of all schools of thought and sects were represented on the council.

“The CII’s recommendations remain valid until and unless they are rejected by parliament,” added the official.

Since the FSC is made up of five regular judges and three top religious scholars (Ulema), the CII thought it was in a better position to hear blasphemy cases to ensure the law was not abused.

The council recommended capital punishment for anybody misusing the blasphemy law. “The wrongful complainant and witnesses in a blasphemy case should be handed similar punishment as a guilty person,” it says.

Islamic jurisprudence experts say that the misuse of blasphemy law is tantamount to blasphemy and therefore a person who is guilty of misuse of this law should be punished under the same law.

However, the CII strongly opposed any amendment in the blasphemy law, particularly in Section 295-C, so far as the penalties are concerned.

For more details: http://tribune.com.pk/story/103119/top-islamic-advisory-body-cii-proposed-death-on-blasphemy-law-misuse/

Global Economic Prospects 2011

2011-01-12T21:56:00.000-08:00

Source: Daily Times

Date: January 13, 2011

Most developing countries manage to steer out of crisis

WB sees steady global growth ahead

ISLAMABAD: The world economy is moving from a post-crisis bounce-back phase of recovery to slower but still solid growth this year and next — with developing countries contributing almost half of global growth, says the World Bank’s (WB) latest Global Economic Prospects (GEP) 2011.

GEP 2011 released on Wednesday stated that the WB estimates that global GDP, which expanded by 3.9% in 2010, will slow to 3.3% in 2011, before it reaches 3.6% in 2012. Developing countries are expected to grow 7% in 2010, 6% in 2011 and 6.1% in 2012. They will continue to outstrip growth in high-income countries, which is projected at 2.8% in 2010, 2.4% in 2011 and 2.7% in 2012.

In most developing countries, GDP has regained levels that would have prevailed had there been no boom-bust cycle. While steady growth is projected through 2012, the recovery in several economies in emerging Europe and Central Asia and in some high-income countries is tentative. Without corrective domestic policies, high household debt and unemployment, and weak housing and banking sectors are likely to mute the recovery.

“On the upside, strong developing-country domestic demand growth is leading the world economy, yet persistent financial sector problems in some high-income countries are still a threat to growth and require urgent policy actions,” said Justin Yifu Lin, the WB’s chief economist and senior vice president for development economics.

Net international equity and bond flows to developing countries rose sharply in 2010, rising by 42% and 30% respectively, with nine countries receiving the bulk of the increase in inflows. Foreign direct investment to developing countries rose a more modest 16% in 2010, reaching $410 billion after falling 40% in 2009. An important part of the rebound is due to rising South-South investments, particularly originating in Asia.

“The pickup in international capital flows reinforced the recovery in most developing countries,” said Hans Timmer, director of development prospects at the WB.

“However, heavy inflows to certain big middle-income economies may carry risks and threaten medium-term recovery, especially if currency values rise suddenly or if asset bubbles emerge.”

Most low-income countries saw trade gains in 2010 and, overall, their GDP rose 5.3% in 2010. This was supported by a pick-up in commodity prices, and to a lesser extent in remittances and tourism. Their prospects are projected to strengthen even more, with growth of 6.5% in both 2011 and 2012, respectively.

For more details: http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2011\01\13\story_13-1-2011_pg5_16

Over 823 women fall victim to violence in six months

2011-01-10T22:58:00.000-08:00

Source: Dawn

Date: January 11, 2011

KARACHI, Jan 10: More than 823 women fell victim to violence in 712 incidents, including custodial ones, in Sindh during the last six months â€"â€" from July to December 2010 — says a report prepared by the Aurat Foundation, a non-governmental organisation.

The report launched here on Monday says that the people`s confidence in the police had declined so much that of these over 712 incidents, FIRs of only 341 were registered. Over 320 incidents were not reported to the police, while the status of the remaining over 51 incidents regarding the registration or non-registration of FIRs was not known.

The report says that though the Sindh High Court had declared the holding of jirgas as illegal, at least 24 jirgas were held in which at least eight women were handed over from one party to the other party in the dispute to settle old enmity etc.

The report said that 119 incidents of karo-kari (honour killing) occurred in which 137 people â€"â€" 98 women and 39 men â€"â€" were killed. In at least one instance, four persons were killed in a single incident. In 34 incidents the police took 105 women into custody when male members of their family, wanted by the police, could not be traced.

Some 159 women were killed in 148 incidents owing to domestic disputes, old enmity, matrimonial disputes, and resisting robbery attempt. It said 109 women were kidnapped, while 66 women, including young girls, were sexually assaulted in 62 incidents. Of them 44 women were raped and 22 gang-raped in 43 and 19 incidents of rape and gang-rape, respectively.

The report said that 61 women committed suicide and 30 others tried to take their own lives owing to poverty and domestic disputes. As many as 99 women were injured in domestic violence. More than 420 women victims were married while 141 were unmarried while the marital status of the rest of the victims could not be ascertained, says the report the Aurat Foundation staff prepared with the help of news items published in nine newspapers â€"â€" three each published in English, Sindhi and Urdu.

speaking at the launch of the report, MPA Marvi Rashdi of the PML-F said that while new and more specific laws with stringent punishments to counter violence against women were always required, there already existed sufficient laws on the statute books but the real problem was the non-implementation of those laws. She said that since the implementation of laws was not efficient, everybody suffered, and women being the most vulnerable section of society suffered more.

She also criticised the attitude of the police owing to which people did not go to the law enforcers to get their incidents recorded, and said that even this report showed that of the 712 incidents, only 341 were reported to the police and the FIRs were registered, while the rest of these had not even been reported to the police. She demanded that police personnel be sensitised to issues relating to women.

For more details: http://www.dawn.com/2011/01/11/over-823-women-fall-victim-to-violence-in-six-months.html

Violence against children rises by 9.2%: SPARC data

2011-01-10T03:20:00.000-08:00

Source: Express Tribune

Date: January 10, 2011

KARACHI: Violence against children increased by 9.2 per cent in Sindh, according to the data collected by the Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (Sparc), an NGO working for children’s rights in Pakistan.

The figures released by the NGO show that in 2010, a total of 2,689 children were subjected to various forms of violence in just Sindh.

Sohail Abro, Sparc provincial manager, believes that the poor prosecution system in Pakistan has a major role to play in this increase. “The perpetrators never get punished and they manage to escape using the loopholes in the law,” he said. He pointed out that except for the legislation on child rights in Khyber-Pukhtunkhwa — the Child Protection and Welfare Act, 2010 — no concrete steps were taken towards children’s rights in Sindh, or the rest of the country for that matter.

These figures reflect only those incidents or cases that have been reported in newspapers and other sources of media. The actual number of cases, the NGO says, is likely to be almost two to three times higher.

At least 233 children were murdered in different crimes, including the flurry of violence caused by political and religious disturbances. Sixty-eight children were tortured by non-state actors, four were burnt to death and 12 were victims of acid attacks.

In addition to 97 cases of polio diagnosed last year, 47 children lost their lives while being treated in public health settings. Most of the deaths were caused by alleged negligence of doctors or because of a shortage of medicines.

The unmanageable traffic in the province claimed the lives of 148 children and injured 57. Added to the man-made disasters, the flood and its aftermath brought diseases such as diarrhoea, gastroenteritis, malaria and other water-borne illnesses, which claimed the lives of 127 children living in relief camps across the province. Meanwhile, according to UN estimates, 3.5 million children were at risk of water-borne diseases.

Another crime on the rise in 2010 was kidnapping — 212 children were kidnapped and most of them were subjected to brutal forms of violence during their abduction. Children from minority communities were the most vulnerable in these kidnapping for ransom cases.

For more details: http://tribune.com.pk/story/101513/violence-against-children-rises-by-9-2-sparc-data/

Shape of things to come

2011-01-09T21:39:00.000-08:00

Source: Dawn

Date: January 09, 2011

IF the murder of Salman Taseer is an omen to go by, our minorities are increasingly being left

defenceless. What now for religious freedom and human rights?

The shape the debate over the blasphemy laws it is taking is extremely worrying. Rather than a genuine effort to consider what is in the best interests of Pakistanis, we are seeing the emergence of an increasingly united and hostile religious bloc. The acrimonious tone adopted by opponents of reform in parliament is simply being replicated at the community level.

Protests against the possibility of amendments were staged across Pakistan on New Year’s Eve, despite the fact that just the day before the State Minister for Information Samsam Bokhari gave assurances that the government had no intention of amending the blasphemy laws. In a clear attempt by the government to appease angry opponents, Mr Bokhari stated that PPP member Sherry Rehman had acted in her personal capacity when submitting her bill proposing amendments to the blasphemy laws.

The bill seeks to scrap the mandatory death sentence for blasphemy. Although the country’s religious minorities and other sections of society have been hankering after changes to these laws for years, they continue to be met with condemnation by Islamic parties and organisations. The government, meanwhile, does not appear to be strong enough to face the rising pressure.

The PPP is the country’s largest party, and it claims to espouse liberal values. It is therefore all the more regrettable that the government has chosen to distance itself from Ms Rehman’s bill and the brave efforts made by Mr Taseer prior to his assassination.

The government appears to have already accepted defeat. This is an alarming prospect for those still clinging to a semblance of hope that this government would bring about changes for improving the lot of minorities and, indeed, all Pakistanis.

With the assassination of Mr Taseer, it seems that now there really is no hope that the laws will be amended. Their misuse will go on and minorities in particular will continue to find themselves subjected to false allegations by people who know they have an easy way to seize properties, take over businesses and settle personal scores.

Cases abound where blasphemy charges have been levelled against people without presenting any concrete evidence. I was particularly worried by a recent case because of the danger it could signal — not just for minorities but for all Pakistanis, including Muslims.

Dr Naushad Valiyani was arrested for blasphemy in December after he discarded a business card he had received from a medical representative. This medical representative’s full name, Muhammad Faizan, was printed on the card; hard as it is to believe, for this reason Mr Faizan deemed the act of throwing the card into the bin blasphemous.

How many people in Pakistan have Muhammad either as their first or last names? Every day, these people receive letters addressed to them and these
envelopes are torn up and thrown away. Are we to charge all of them with blasphemy? According to the way the laws are worded, that is exactly what they are committing.

Article 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code states that the “use of derogatory remarks etc in respect of the Holy Prophet (PBUH)” is a crime and “whoever by words, either spoken or written, or by visible representation, or by any imputation, innuendo, or insinuation, directly defiles the sacred name of the Holy
Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) shall be punished with death, or imprisonment for life and shall also be liable for a fine”. Note that the law says nothing about “will” or “intention”, paving the way for a legal climate in which an offence committed unintentionally carries the same consequence as one committed
intentionally.

Had a local cleric not got involved, Dr Valiyani may have faced execution. And if his case is a precursor of things to come, we can expect to see people
increasingly using the blasphemy laws for their own convenience: to get ahead in their business, put down rivals and even defeat political opponents and settle
government disputes.

For more details: http://www.dawn.com/2011/01/09/shape-of-things-to-come.html

Allocations for education, health sectors low: report

2011-01-07T00:38:00.000-08:00

Source: Dawn

Date: January 7, 2011

ISLAMABAD, Jan 6: Annual allocations for education and health sectors are alarmingly low, causing a serious setback to government’s efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a report published by the ministry of finance said on Thursday.

Although tracking of indicators in the education sector reflects an overall increase in gross and net enrolment rates both at pre-secondary and secondary levels, there is need to enhance budgetary allocations generally for social sectors and particularly for health and education sectors in the country, according to the report.

Education and health sectors represent core elements of the Poverty Reduction Strategy of the government, and the annual progress report of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper for fiscal year 2009-10 estimates that actual expenditure in education stood at 1.87 per cent of GDP against the projection of 1.82 for 2009-10.

Although the expenditure in education as a percentage of GDP is above the target by 0.05 per cent, improvement is badly needed. Health sector fared better than education in its ratio of actual expenditure to GDP which is .37 per cent higher than PRSP target of .43 per cent of GDP.

Law and order has appeared as the third largest sector contributing to PRSP expenditures with an increase of 2.03 per cent during the current fiscal year over the previous year.

The report says that the overall budget allocated for pro-poor sectors during 2009-10 stood at Rs1,183,771 million. Shares of different sectors in total budgetary allocations for 2009-10 depict education holding the maximum share followed by subsidies, roads, highways and bridges and agriculture. Combined these four sectors account for 61.2 per cent of the total PRSP budgetary allocation for 2009-10.

Education, though contributes the maximum during 2009-10, its share has decreased slightly over the two years. A substantial reduction in the share of subsidies in total PRSP budgetary allocations in two years has been witnessed, amounting to 14.47 per cent point. Share of Agriculture to PRSP budgetary allocations decreased over the two years – .89 percent points.

Share of roads highways and bridges increased from 7.02 per cent during 2008-09 to 11.41 per cent during the current fiscal year. Health also gained in proportional contribution to PRSP budgetary allocation, from 7.05 per cent in FY 2008-09 to 9.36 per cent in 2009-10. Social Security and welfare holds 7.44 per cent during FY 2009-10, which is 2.24 per cent higher than the previous fiscal year. A major chunk of budget for social security and welfare is contributed by Benazir Income Support Programme, nearly 80 per cent of the budget for this sector.

At the aggregate level, PRSP expenditures deviated downward by 4.77 per cent as compared to original budgetary allocations which indicate under-utilisation of budgetary allocations.

The report says that abnormal spending has been observed in Peoples’ Works Programme.

Link: http://www.dawn.com/2011/01/07/allocations-for-education-health-sectors-low-report.html

Allocations for education, health sectors low: report

2011-01-07T00:37:00.000-08:00

Source: Dawn

Date: January 7, 2011

Law and order has appeared as the third largest sector contributing to PRSP expenditures with an increase of 2.03 per cent during the current fiscal year over the previous year.

At the aggregate level, PRSP expenditures deviated downward by 4.77 per cent as compared to original budgetary allocations which indicate under-utilisation of budgetary allocations.

The report says that abnormal spending has been observed in Peoples’ Works Programme.

Link: http://www.dawn.com/2011/01/07/allocations-for-education-health-sectors-low-report.html

50pc children out of school in 4 districts

2011-01-06T03:25:00.000-08:00

Source: The Nation

Date: January 6, 2011

ISLAMABAD - In four districts of Multan, Muzaffargarh, Rahim Yar Khan and Rajanpur more than 50 per cent children of the total population of 5 to 9 years are out of school and the number of out of school children is higher for girls than boys.

This was revealed in a research report “Education Budget Analysis: Five Districts of Southern Punjab” by Oxfam GB in collaboration with Institute of Social and Policy Science (I-SAPS). The report provides detailed analysis and findings of the educational data and budget of selected districts from southern Punjab including Multan, Muzaffargarh, Rahim Yar Khan, Jhang and Rajanpur.

The report indicates missing facilities especially in girls’ schools, for instance, in Multan at primary level 20 per cent girls’ schools do not have drinking water facility and 13 per cent girls’ primary schools are without toilets.

The data indicates that in 53 per cent of the total schools in the districts do not have electricity and overall 6 per cent schools have dangerous buildings and 18 per cent of school buildings require major repairs.

For more details: http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/Regional/Islamabad/06-Jan-2011/50pc-children-out-of-school-in-4-districts

The question of leadership

2011-01-03T23:45:00.000-08:00

The following article “The question of leadership” by Salman Abid, source “The News-Sunday, January 02, 2011”.

Politicians, it seems, are not hesitant in exposing themselves one more time.

The question whether Pakistan’s leaders believe in democratic values and practices is perhaps not very difficult to answer, especially after the recent no-holds-barred fight between politicians from the PML-N and MQM, we now know quite well. The gap between leaders, workers and common people is widening by every day passing and all of them seem to be living a life in isolation.

In the backdrop of WikiLeaks, the credibility of our political and military leadership is being discussed seriously in the country and outside. Not one political and military leader has denied the stories of WikiLeaks .On the contrary, they are trying to justify their own actions. Most of the people do not have any doubt about the role of our leaders.

The information disclosed by WikiLeaks is not new because mostly people are aware of the American role in our politics. The alarming and shocking news was the role of United State’s ambassador in the political management through discussion and consultation with our government and state representatives and political and military leaders, all following diligently the guidelines form the United State. These notes actually reflect our real leadership’s character, where they stand to defend democratic norms and values.

Unfortunately, the military regimes, especially that of General Ziaul Haq and his de-politicisation agenda created negative implications for our political process. We can criticise political leaders for their strategies and actions but by no means should we challenge their political commitment for change. The larger political movements of political activists over the few decades in the country brought change and that was remarkable.

Political dynamics of the day are based on power politics. Most of leaders seem to have lost belief in mass mobilization and people’s empowerment and have developed strong linkages with the establishment forces. WikiLeaks, similarly, reflects actions of our major political and others forces.

The whole political scenario from 2006 to 2010 proves that both national and international ‘establishment forces’ as we may call them, wield real power in politics. Our political leadership’s role, some argue, is only to facilitate and accept their dictated agenda. No real resistance, it has been observed by some critics, has come from political forces against dictatorship and international interventions.

Issue-based politics and leadership role is to strengthen each other and create space to work together. But what we are doing is totally opposite as some of our leaders are just focusing on their own agenda and personal interests at the expense of national interests.

Unfortunately, in the past, our leadership has come through the backdoor and not through the political process and people’s support. Since the political parties are weak and anyone can intervene easily within their framework, the threat is not only from internal forces but also from external forces’ intervention and the intention of capturing the decision-making process of political parties.

It’s very easy to criticise the external forces and ignore the question why we are allowing them space? We should openly admit the major crises that we presently have. Since our political system is largely based on individuals, and not on political institutions, our leadership is not accountable at any stage. Our leadership knows very well where the ‘intervention’ can be utilized to getting support. When a leadership behaves in undemocratic manner then obviously it affects the whole party and its structure.

Another vital question is how our political leadership can be held accountable? If the leadership comes with public and party support then we can achieve something in a better way. The intelligentsia can play a very significant role in democratisation of the society. Here, again, the major problem is that some of our intellectuals are affiliated with some individuals and their party and do not openly criticise undemocratic attitude and behaviours due to favouritism and personal interest. This does not augur well at a time when the country faces serious crises in the shape of the war on terror, bad governance, poor economic situation, and social and economic disparities, etc. As a nation, we expect from our leadership and their agenda to be based on peoples’ needs. Unfortunately, there are some who justify the current leadership role and their actions. They insist the practice of politics and their realties are different as compared to the bookish knowledge of politics in academic discourse.

The popular leadership has played its cards well for getting into the corridors of power like MQM and JUI, with the government and state forces. At this critical juncture, we need to insist politics and their leadership should be fair, accountable, transparent, and behave according to democratic norms. These values are very important and without these we cannot strengthen the democratic leadership in the country. So, we should be able to come out of the game of power politics and challenge the current practices of leadership in the name of democracy. One thing that also needs to be realized is the role of the political workers in the country to evaluate the internal leadership crisis and then re-define their own role in politics.

The writer is a political analyst and human rights campaigner. He can be reached at salmanabidpk@gmail.com

Link: http://www.jang.com.pk/thenews/jan2011-weekly/nos-02-01-2011/pol1.htm#8

US brings students from small towns in Pakistan

2010-12-30T23:21:00.000-08:00

Source: Dawn

Date: December 31, 2010

WASHINGTON, Dec 30: As part of its efforts to improve bilateral understanding, the US has launched one of its largest ever students exchange programmes with Pakistan, a senior US official said on Thursday.

“To give a chance to Pakistani students to learn more about the US and Americans to learn more about Pakistan and Pakistanis,” said Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Alina Romanowski while explaining the motive behind the arrangement.

“The purpose is to build human bridges between our two countries and to encourage face to face communication.”

As many as 100 undergraduate students from Pakistan will spend a semester in US educational institutions this year under the Global Undergraduate Exchange Programme in Pakistan. Although they all have to return home after the semester, they will be encouraged to apply for further studies in the United States.

The US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, in coordination with a partner organisation, IREX, will host an arrival orientation for 50 of these students in Washington from Jan 3-6, 2011.

Launched in fall 2010, Global UGRAD-Pakistan provides a substantive exchange experience at a US college or university to a diverse group of 100 emerging student leaders from underrepresented sectors in Pakistan.

Responding to a question from an Indian journalist, Ms Romanowski said the students were not screened to ensure if there were `wahabis` among them or if they had `a terrorist mentality`, as the journalist had suggested. “We are not screening students for their religious orientation or affiliation.”

For more details: http://www.dawn.com/2010/12/31/us-brings-students-from-small-towns-in-pakistan.html

Women Protection Act: Top Islamic court rules against law

2010-12-29T22:12:00.000-08:00

Source: Express Tribune

Date: December 30, 2010

The government on Wednesday decided to challenge in the Supreme Court a Federal Shariat Court’s(FSC) judgment declaring some clauses of the Protection of Women Act-2006 as “violative of the Constitution.”

“We will move the Shariat Appellate Bench of the Supreme Court for the suspension of today’s ruling,” a law ministry official told The Express Tribune, requesting anonymity.

“Sections 11 and 28 of the Protection of Women Act-2006 are hereby declared ultra vires to Article 203DD of the constitution because these provisions annulled the overriding effect of the Hudood Ordinance-1979,” FSC Chief Justice Agha Rafiq Ahmed Khan, who was heading the three-member bench, said in the ruling.

Referring to its jurisdiction, the FSC verdict said that “no legislative instrument can control, regulate or amend this jurisdiction which was mandated in Chapter 3A of Part VII of the constitution of Pakistan.”

Aslam Ghumman, Shahid Orakzai, Abdul Latif Sufi and Mian Abdul Razzaq Aamir had filed identical petitions in the FSC challenging various sections of the Protection of Women Act-2006 and the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).

The judgment has sparked a constitutional debate on the FSC’s powers to rule on the constitutionality of any law.

Former president of the Supreme Court Bar Association Qazi Anwer told The Express Tribune that the Federal Shariat Court has no constitutional authority to declare any

law as against the constitution.

For more details: http://tribune.com.pk/story/93167/shariat-court-terms-women-protection-act-clauses-repugnant/

Middle class in Balochistan the suffering lot (Organized by SPO)

2010-12-29T03:49:00.000-08:00

Source: Dawn

Date: December 29, 2010

ISLAMABAD, Dec 28: Speakers have blamed the troika of militants, Sardars and government for suppressing the middle class in Balochistan.

They were speaking at the roundtable forum on ‘Peace and Human Development’ arranged by Strengthening Participatory Organisation (SPO) here on Tuesday.

The speakers, coming from all provinces, said Pakistan was utilising more resources on security paradigm than on human development.

Senator Dr Abdul Malik said Balochistan was backward because of the collusion of local politicians with the ruling class to maintain a status quo, adding that there was a need to shift the current paradigm from security state to human security to achieve Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

“The current insurgency in Balochistan is a result of deprivations of the last 63 years and the only solution lies in accepting the legitimate demands,” he added.

Director of Area Study Centre, University of Peshawar, Dr Sarfraz said terrorism in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) had a deep-rooted impact on the achievement of MDGs.“When schools are bombed, students are threatened to join seminaries and women are prohibited from getting education, it becomes impossible to achieve the targets of MDGs,” he said.

“The thought process that has traditionally been independent in KP is curtailed now, and this will harm the quality of education in seats of higher learning in the province,” Dr Sarfraz said.

Abrar Kazi presented the perspective of Sindh and said being a postcolonial state Pakistan was entangled in ideological, religious and nationalist conflict.

He said the violent conflict in Sindh was rooted in ethnicity and attributed this situation to the failure of institutions.

He told participants that tribal feuds, jirgas and ransom in the inner parts of Sindh had brought economic development to a standstill.

Former chief economist Dr Pervez Tahir said the objective of security in the country was always the state and never human security.

Shedding light on performance of MDGs vis-à-vis Pakistan’s performance, he claimed that Pakistan was far away from achieving the targets.

“In education and health, expenditure is lower now than what it was in 2001, but on defence and military expenditure had increased manifold,”Dr Tahir said.

Educationist Dr Rubina Sehgal stressed the need to look more into militancy in Punjab as it provided 50 per cent of the jihadi workforce.

Speaking on the impact of conflict/terrorism on women in Pakistan, she provided historical overview of the conflict in which civilians remained largely immune to wars.

Senator Hasil Bizenjo said: “Our politics is based on secularism but secular parties do not openly go against the Federal Shariat Court.” Military and mullah are doing whatever they like, he added.

Link: http://epaper.dawn.com/ArticleText.aspx?article=29_12_2010_153_003

Achieving Development Goals: Human Security Comes First (Organized by SPO)

2010-12-29T00:03:00.000-08:00

Source: Express Tribune

Date: December 29, 2010

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are unlikely to be achieved under the prevalent economic and security circumstances, agreed speakers at a roundtable discussion held on Tuesday.

The Round Table Forum on Peace and Human Development was arranged by Strengthening Participatory Organization (SPO). The speakers stressed the need for a paradigm shift from state-centered security to human- centered security if the MDGs are to be achieved.

Speaking on the conflict in Balochistan, Senator Dr Abdul Malik said, “ The current insurgency in Balochistan is the result of deprivation of the last 63 years and the only solution is to accept legitimate demands.” He blamed the alleged collusion between militants, sardars and the government for stifling the middle class in Balochistan.

Sharing the views on terrorism and its impact on the achievement of MDGs in Khyber Pakhtunkhaw, Director Area Study Centre University of Peshawar Dr Sarfraz commented, “ When schools are bombed, students coerced to join seminars and women prohibited from getting educated, it is impossible to achieve the targets of MDGs”.

Presenting the perspective of Sindh, Abrar Kazi said, “ Being a postcolonial state, Pakistan is entangled in ideological, religious and nationalist conflicts. The violent conflict in Sindh is rooted in ethnicity”.

He attributed this situation to the failure of institutions.

Eminent educationist Dr Rubina Sehgal stressed the need to look more into militancy in Punjab. She provided a historical overview of conflicts in which most civilians remained sheltered from war, but added that this was no longer the case. She attributed the militarization of society to the military’s involvement in social affairs.

Former Chief Economist Dr Parvez Tahir observed that Pakistan’s education and health expenditure is lower than it was in 2001, while government expenditure on defence has increased manifold. He said that the work of 50 years has to be completed in five years, remaining sceptical about the achievement of MDGs.

Former minister and writer Javed Jabbar shared his observation that there are four kinds of wars: physical, psychological, ideological and anti human development. He phrased the current violence by religious militants as a war of obscurantists against human development.

Creating awareness: Lots to show for Rs285m, but not in work

2010-12-28T00:19:00.000-08:00

Source: Express Tribune

Date: December 28, 2010

ISLAMABAD: The Privatisation Commission has spent Rs285 million on its publicity campaign over the past 17 months, which is five times the size of its entire budget for the current year, The Express Tribune has learnt.

Sources within the commission said this expense had been incurred since August 2009, with the monthly average coming to Rs17.8 million.

The expenditure had been made under the pretext of an advertising campaign for the Benazir Employees Stock Option Scheme (Besos), city branding and a flood relief campaign. A part of this amount was used for Besos publicity but most of it was spent on the campaign related to floods.

Railways Minister Ghulam Ahmad Bilour aptly remarked that the money spent on publicity could have bought the Railways nine locomotives as the cost of manufacturing one engine is Rs30 million.

The money belongs to the Privatisation Fund, which is pooled by deducting two per cent of the proceeds from privatising public sector entities. This fund can only be utilised to meet expenses specific to the privatisation process. Since 1991, Pakistan has privatised 167 entities worth Rs476.5 billion.

Senior officials from the Privatisation Commission confirmed that Rs285 million had been spent but none of them was willing to speak on record due to a possible “backlash from certain quarters”. They all said that the management was in a fix over how to deal with the issue. However, one of the officials said that the Besos campaign did fall under privatisation-specific spending.

For more details: http://tribune.com.pk/story/95808/creating-awareness-lots-to-show-for-rs285m-but-not-in-work/

Anti-polio target unmet as 2010 draws to close

2010-12-26T22:54:00.000-08:00

Source: Dawn

Date: December 27, 2010

KARACHI, Dec 26: Despite tall claims made and targets set by national and provincial immunisation functionaries as well as local and foreign health managers, the spread of polio in Sindh as in other provinces of the country could not be halted even this year.

Planners of anti-polio campaigns are now pinning all their hopes on the “National Emergency Action Plan 2011”, which is being finalised on a directive of President Asif Ali Zardari.

With 136 polio cases reported in 2010, Pakistan is one of the only three Asian countries, the other two being India and Afghanistan, where polio is endemic.

However, the convenience of postponement of deadlines in the “knock out polio game” has never come as a surprise during the 16 years of polio eradication activities in the country.

The irony of the entire child inoculation during the years is that nobody — right from foreign experts to volunteer vaccinators — is ready to learn from mistakes and reach at least their own-set goals.

Mass vaccination with a “trivalent” form of the vaccine aimed at all three viral subtypes helped reduce the number of countries with endemic polio from 125 in 1988 to four in 2010.

In April 2003, country representative of the World Health Organisation Dr Azmoudeh stated that Pakistan was likely to achieve the status of a polio-free country by the end of that year.

Similar hopes were pinned on immunisation campaigns in 2005. Since then, the provincial government, international health organisations and the NGOs working in the province for the eradication of polio have been claiming that the “coming year will be a polio-free year” in Sindh. According to experts, things were achievable as the province of Sindh in no way underwent a situation of having inaccessible localities such as the strife-hit areas of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and federally administered tribal areas (Fata).

However, the year of much-awaited achievement has never come. The gravity of the situation can be understood from the fact that polio cases has increased by 117 per cent this year as compared to last year.

Polio that afflicts children mainly under five is caused by a virus that invades the nervous system and can cause total paralysis or death. The anti-polio oral vaccine works by infecting children with a benign form of polio and giving them immunity to the virulent strain.

As per official figures, this year has witnessed a six-year high number of polio cases. Of the total 26 new cases, 12 cases were reported in Ghotki, three each in Karachi and Kambar, two each in Sanghar and Khairpur, and one each in Jacobabad, Hyderabad, Kashmore and Sukkur.

The year`s first case of polio in Sindh was reported in January, following which no case was reported till the mid of August. However, with the beginning of the high-risk months (August to November), the number of polio cases started climbing almost every week. At present, the figure is just two short to equal 28 cases, which were reported in 2004.

For more details: http://www.dawn.com/2010/12/27/anti-polio-target-unmet-as-2010-draws-to-close.html

The elusive MDGs

2010-12-24T02:40:00.000-08:00

Source: Dawn

Date: December 24, 2010

How can a country achieve MDGs when its people don’t have a clue what the goals are about? There is virtually no development dialogue in Pakistan with mass participation.

THERE are two ways to make the point that the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) will not be met in Pakistan. One can offer analytical reasons in support or place a large bet on the outcome. Given that Pakistanis are currently swayed more by spot bets than appeals to reason, I am willing to wager Rs10 lakh on the MDGs remaining unmet by their designated end date of 2015.

I hope there are some who will wonder why I am willing to risk my money on this bet. To them I will present some very obvious and some not so obvious reasons for my pessimism as a Pakistani and optimism as a bettor.

The very obvious reason is easy to get out of the way. I doubt if there is anyone who believes that our governors are serious about MDGs or have time to spare for them. As usual, they have signed on to international commitments and welcome the accompanying perks knowing full well that there is to be no accountability at the end of the day. A miracle may yet transpire but I am not betting on it.

The slightly less obvious reason is that the international community is not too serious either. Those paying attention might remember that the 1980s were designated the International Decade for Water and Sanitation with similar targets and the 1990s were to culminate in Health for All by the Year 2000. Whatever happened to those goals? Instead of a post-mortem to fathom the reasons for failure, the international community simply reset the clock to 2015, conjured up another fancy title, and continued the merry globetrotting. Why would it be any different in 2015?

Then there is the fact that governments unable to solve small problems cannot be expected to solve big ones. Many years ago I heard my 10-year old son chuckling while reading the newspaper headline ‘Benazir vows to make Karachi weapon-free’. Being an activist, he wrote the prime minister a polite letter requesting she make Karachi garbage-free first. Needless to stay, Karachi was freed of neither.

It doesn’t take much to figure all this out but I wish to focus on another, less obvious and more important dimension. Take a taxi from the Secretariat complex in Islamabad and ask the driver if he knows what MDGs are about. Elaborate that you mean the Millennium Development Goals and see if anything registers.

I assure you nothing will unless you happen to run into the one taxi driver whose cousin works in the Planning Commission. He might pass on the information that something containing MDGs regularly receives extensive polishing in the office before being dispatched to New York and therefore must contain something of great importance.

This is the state of affairs right outside the halls of the Secretariat. Travel a few kilometers out of town and the incomprehension deepens into bewilderment. By the time one gets to Lehtrar, people declare you a deluded pir to be returned promptly to the confines of the Secretariat.

I know we are not an English-speaking nation so I offer the official translation to my interlocutors — Hazarsala Tarraqiati Ahdaf. The perplexed get even more perplexed. Who in the world speaks like this? Why hazarsala? What’s tarraqiati about these things? Who has ever heard of the term ‘ahdaf’?

For details: http://epaper.dawn.com/ArticleText.aspx?article=24_12_2010_007_004

Women Protection Act: Top Islamic court rules against law

2010-12-22T22:00:00.000-08:00

Source: Express Tribune

Date: December 23, 2010

“We will move the Shariat Appellate Bench of the Supreme Court for the suspension of today’s ruling,” a law ministry official told The Express Tribune, requesting anonymity.

The judgment has sparked a constitutional debate on the FSC’s powers to rule on the constitutionality of any law.

Former president of the Supreme Court Bar Association Qazi Anwer told The Express Tribune that the Federal Shariat Court has no constitutional authority to declare any law as against the constitution.

For more details: http://tribune.com.pk/story/93167/shariat-court-terms-women-protection-act-clauses-repugnant/

Economic growth can help reduce poverty

2010-12-21T04:07:00.000-08:00

Source: Daily Times

Date: December 21, 2010

ISLAMABAD: The economic growth and control of price inflation efficiently would help to mitigate the poverty and allied issues. An economist Dr Ashfaq Hasan termed poverty and growth are interlinked and poverty could never be completely eliminated, as it was a relative term. In foreign countries 6 percent to 7 percent ratio of poverty remains despite their utmost efforts to eliminate it, he said. He said the total ratio of poverty in Pakistan was 22.3 percent and it has been reduced from 34.5 percent since 2000 to 2010. In 2008 inflation increased from 5 to 6 percent, he added. He said Pakistan was about to reach 15 percent of economic growth rate but in 2008 it was reduced to 17 percent due to various reasons and now it’s difficult that we could reach the target. “`BISP and other programmes only provide help and relief to the poor peoples according to their situation but they can never create jobs for them and be the source of income for the peoples”, he added. He suggested poverty could be reduced only by economic progress and the role of private sector in this regard also worth mentioning. The responsibility of the government is to evolve policy and not to provide jobs to the citizen. The private sector is there to arrange the job opportunities for the citizens, he maintained.

Link: http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010\12\21\story_21-12-2010_pg5_16

Heavy govt borrowing causes inflation: SBP

2010-12-14T22:45:00.000-08:00

Source: Dawn

Date: December 15, 2010

KARACHI: State Bank Governor Shahid H Kardar on Monday said that heavy government borrowing in excess of R1,500 billion, against only Rs53 billion borrowed by June 2003, is a major cause of whooping inflation.

He acknowledged that the private sector had borne the brunt of required adjustment in the economy and the government has considerably crowded out the private sector both through reduced availability and price of credit.

He said that between June 2003 and June 2007 the private sector credit cumulatively grew by 162 per cent, while it increased by only 24 per cent between June 2007 and Nov 2010.

The governor pointed out that in cumulative terms, country`s economy has experienced an inflation of 66 per cent between June 2007 and Oct 2010, as against 36 per cent inflation seen during June 2003 and June 2007.

Mr Kardar said monetary policy alone could not control inflation and stressed the need of a well coordinated strategy, which must include timely response to changing macroeconomic conditions along with concerted efforts to raise productive capacity of the economy.

Addressing members of the business community at the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) the SBP governor warned that any delay in implementation of such a strategy would only make the policy trade-offs much more difficult resulting in continuing uncertainty about desirable economic outcome.

He said that the credit extended for commodity operations, including both wheat and sugar, grew by 288 per cent during the last three years compared to 33 per cent in the previous three years.

He said that the borrowings of this scale would not have been possible without an upward pressure on market interest rates.

Above all, he said that the borrowing of the government agencies for financing its wheat, urea, and sugar trading operations was Rs382 billion at just under three percentage points above KIBOR, indicating the interest rate regime that the private sector would have to face in competition with the state borrowing.

For more details: http://www.dawn.com/2010/12/14/heavy-govt-borrowing-causes-inflation-sbp.html

What is going on in economic ministries?

2010-12-09T02:46:00.000-08:00

Source: The News

Date: 9 December 2010

ISLAMABAD: Deputy Chairman Planning Commission Dr Nadeem Ul Haq is trying hard to distance himself from approving multi billion rupees development projects today (Thursday) when the Executive Committee of National Economic Council (Ecnec) is going to accord approval of new projects.
The federal government had slashed down development budget from Rs280 billion to Rs140 billion for the current fiscal year owing to financial crunch but in view of mounting pressures from all quarters including the Prime Minister Secretariat, President House and relevant ministries, the Planning Commission was forced to convene Ecnec meeting for approving around 30 projects with estimated cost of over Rs300 billion.

“We can only give advice to the government that there is no need to increase throw forward at time of financial crunch that will result into overrun of cost as well as cause delays in completion of projects,” sources close to deputy chairman Planning Commission quoted him as saying to his top aides but he seems helpless before the political leadership of the PPP government.

When contacted senior officials of the Planning Commission said the approval of projects did not mean that the throw forward was increased because it would be included into Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) list when the NEC would approve the next financial year development plan for 2011-12.

However, the sources said that the deputy chairman Planning Commission is persuading the government to bring about major changes in its development strategy by arguing that the growth strategy of last 63 years remained unable to deliver in an effective manner because Pakistan experienced boom-bust cycle in its whole growth trajectory. He had argued that the growth touched 6 to 7 per cent per annum but pulled back quickly to 3 to 4 per cent after one after another shock.

According to his model of economic growth, Pakistan’s growth strategy should be based on physical capital, human capital and productivity by bridging missing links of innovation, entrepreneurship and promoting markets. “Pakistan has focused more on hardware growth instead of software growth,” Dr Haq always stated.
With this new approach, the Planning Commission reduced the throw forward from 1905 projects with estimated cost of Rs3,057 billion to 1,421 projects with estimated cost of Rs2,509 billion. In order to avoid criticism, the authorities are not disclosing the cost of those projects, which will be approved by Ecnec today.

One of the most important projects under consideration is “Procurement of 150 Diesel Electric Engines” of the United States origin.

It is relevant to mention that the controversy surfaced on import of locomotives from China or USA in the recent past. When contacted a Planning Commission official said that the quality of US locomotives is better and Ecnec is going to consider approval to purchase of US manufactured locomotives. He said that ministry of railways has prepared a summary in this regard and they would pursue their case before the Ecnec today for getting approval.

Link: http://old.thenews.com.pk/09-12-2010/ethenews/t-2558.htm

Civic Cafe: Radio's role highlighted (Organized by SPO)

2010-12-07T01:29:00.000-08:00

Source: Express Tribune

Date: Monday, 06 Dec 2010

ISLAMABAD: Community radio broadcasts content that is popular to or focuses on the needs of a specific audience, said Syed Abid Rizvi. The writer and former Station Director of Radio Pakistan said this while delivering a lecture on community radio at Civic Café programme of the Strengthening Participatory Organisation (SPO) on Sunday.

He said that various necessities gave birth to varieties of radio, of which community radio is a new addition. “It is an alien concept for the Pakistani society, but people should not be afraid of experimenting with it as it can have a liberating effect on the community.”

He said that as any other medium for mass communication, community radio can be put to harmful use. He said that loopholes in laws should be removed and a proper regulatory mechanism needs to be in place to monitor radio broadcasts.

In absence of such a mechanism illegal radios could emerge like that of Maulana Fazlullah’s in Swat. Currently, he said, Khyber Radio is being employed to counter extremist propaganda on radio by fundamentalists.

Chief of Program SPO Zafar Zeeshan said, “Radio is one of the most significant inventions having far-reaching influence on our worldview.”

He said radio was a prologue to the communication revolution that took place in latter centuries but it is disappointing that our society could not reap the benefits of this medium of communication.

Radio in the United States, in relation to population, experienced 29 per cent growth during 1950 – 1970, said Chief Executive SPO Naseer Memon. “This expansion did not lead to division of heterogeneous communities, rather it paved way for people to converge around common issues and interests.”

In his concluding remarks Memon said that our society needs to promote freedom of though. He said that people should not resist change nor should they be afraid of experimenting with new mediums.

The lecture was attended by renowned historian Dr Mubarak Ali, members of the civil society, students and teachers.

Link: http://tribune.com.pk/story/86379/civic-cafe-radios-role-highlighted/

Good governance, media's positive role urged (Organized By SPO)

2010-12-02T22:01:00.000-08:00

Date: December 3rd, 2010.

ISLAMABAD: Speakers underlined the need for good governance along with constructive role of media and civil society to highlight disaster response issues.

They were speaking at a conference titled, “Moving from Disasters to Development,” organised by Strengthening Participatory Organisation (SPO) at a local hotel.

Naseer Memon of SPO said, “The recent devastating floods have raised many questions that need to be addressed well in time to handle natural calamities.” Pointing at governance as the biggest issue facing the government, civil society and the media, he said ways to move forward should be devised in this regard.

“We should not forget that in every disaster there is an opportunity, which we must avail,” he added.

Dr Tufail Mohammed Khan said the conference was aimed at taking stock of the situation and learning ways to control losses caused by natural disasters.

In his keynote address, independent economist Dr Pervaiz Tahir said, “It is unfortunate that we were not using our own resources and relying upon foreign aid and loans.” He stressed the need for using domestic sustainable resources to address issues caused by natural disasters. He added that media played an important role in 2005 earthquake as well as in the recent floods.

Dr Tahir said that as floods played havoc in the country, many issues of governance which needed attention were also unearthed. He said the government should first compensate the flood victims and then work for their rehabilitation and reconstruction of homes. He added that the government’s idea of making model villages is not pragmatic.

Former Minister for Information and Broadcasting Javed Jabar stressed on the need of community media, which should only focus on issues related to public interests without depending on advertisements.

He also expressed his astonishment that Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) has not issued a single license for community media and has set the priority of a sound economic position for the applicants.

He said there is a huge gap between political and civil society and urged to fill it for development.

Talking about poverty and development, he said poverty could not be abolished without creating indigenous livelihood sources.

The former information minister underlined that Pakistani media is suffering from ‘media excess’ and there is need to organise it.

Chairing one of the sessions at the conference, Federal Minister for Labour and Manpower Syed Khursheed Shah regretted that politicians often forget their pledges. The federal minister said PPP-led government had abolished and amended all those laws allowing a ruler to prolong his/her rule over five years.

He said country and government were two different things, but regrettably political parties think of their tenure, not the country.

The minster stressed the need for continuity of system to foster and strengthen institutions and democracy in the country.

Shah said a foreign mafia was involved in weakening the country, adding that power deficit problem would have been solved if the World Bank and International Monetary Fund had provided funds.

Dr Mubarak Ali said responsibility should not be given only to the bureaucracy but also local government in development and civic services.

View the Link: http://tribune.com.pk/story/85198/good-governance-medias-positive-role-urged/

Water for all` remains a distant dream

2010-12-01T02:38:00.000-08:00

Source: Dawn

Date: December 1, 2010

ISLAMABAD, Nov 30: Despite spending over Rs7 billion, the government has so far set up only 1,173 water filtration plants out of the total 6,638 planned across the country under the Clean Drinking Water for All (CDWA) project.

According to documents, out of the installed 1,173 plants, 467 plants were not working for want of proper operation and maintenance. As the federal government is transferring the Ministry of Special Initiatives, looking after the project, to the provinces, chances of completing the project have become grim.

In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the project presents a pathetic picture as all of the 237 plants are not working. In Punjab, out of 153 installed plants, 82 are not in working condition. In Sindh, out of 353 installed plants, 75 are inoperative. However, Balochistan is maintaining a good record as 358 filtration plants are in running condition, out of the total 407 installed there. Reliable sources say during a recent meeting, provincial governments have threatened to cap the project if the federal government did not provide them funds.

“Despite availability of funds, provincial governments` complete lack of interest has failed us in moving this project of pivotal importance ahead,” Lal Mohammad Khan, federal minister for special initiatives, told Dawn. “Now, when the entire responsibility of the project is being shifted to provinces, only God knows what happens next,”

The minister said for the last two years, his ministry “tirelessly tried to woo the provinces for timely completion of the project, but they remained unmoved”. Mr Khan`s ministry is one the federal departments being shifted to provinces under the 18th amendment.

The minister said the Punjab government misspent around Rs2 billion given to it for setting up water filtration plants. “I have come to know that money was instead shifted to Sasti Roti programme. Whenever we talk to them, they only ask for more money.”

The minister said the other provincial governments only talked about money, adding nobody was interested in the project`s implementation. He regretted that because of the provinces` indifference, the installed water filtration plants were going out of order.

For more details please visit website: http://www.dawn.com/2010/12/01/water-for-all-remains-a-distant-dream.html

MDGs: a distant dream by Mr. Naseer Memon

2010-11-30T21:40:00.000-08:00

Source : Dawn

Date: December 1, 2010

THE Planning Commission of Pakistan recently released the fourth national report on progress on the Millennium Development Goals (MDG).

This document has been released after a long wait, with the last one appearing for 2006. While it is informative in terms of the dismal progress on almost all major MDG indicators, it conceals inter-provincial and intra-provincial disparities that were presented in the last report.

The period covered by the latest reports — 2006 to present — was marked by terrorist attacks, anti-terrorist operations and the displacement of several thousand people. Further, these years also saw a global recession, nose-diving foreign direct investment in the country (from $5.13bn in 2006-07 to $2.21bn in 2009-10), the GDP growth going into a tailspin (from seven per cent in 2006-07 to 2.1 per cent in 2008-09) and skyrocketing inflation (from 7.9 per cent in 2006-07 to 13.1 per cent in 2008-09). This was also a period of tumultuous political transition. Now, Pakistan is poised to miss almost all the MDG targets.

The primary MDG relates to eradicating extreme poverty and hunger. The consumer-based economic growth model of the Musharraf era was presented as the Pakistani economy`s golden period. However, it is riddled with sharply rising economic inequalities. A higher GDP growth rate during the Musharraf era created a smokescreen of wellbeing. However, there is strong evidence that economic disparities actually increased.

The Musharraf government conjured up figures to claim that poverty had declined from 34.5 per cent in 2001-02 to 22.3 per cent in 2005-06, with a too-good-to-be-true 12.3 per cent decline in just five years. These figures were disputed by the then chief economist. And even if this miracle is postulated, the recession in the subsequent years and the recent floods have pushed more people below the poverty line. Halving poverty from 26 per cent in 1990 to 13 per cent by 2015 appears next to impossible.

The second MDG was to achieve universal primary education. Pakistan has the lowest adult literacy rate in the region and is second only to Nigeria in out-of-school children. The current net enrolment rate is less than 60 per cent, which implies that the target of 100 per cent enrolment requires a more than 40 per cent points` increase by 2015. Given that during the past 10 years Pakistan barely achieved 16 per cent points, it is unrealistic to hope for target achievement. Furthermore, nearly half the enrolled students do not complete their education and achieving a survival rate of 88 per cent in the years remaining is practically impossible.

Pakistan was supposed to establish gender parity at the primary and secondary education levels by 2005. This target has already been missed. True, there has been a steady improvement; for example the proportion of 15-24 year old literate females as compared to boys has increased from 0.51 in 1990-91 to 0.78 in 2008-09. Yet achieving parity needs further serious effort. Women`s representation in legislative forums has increased tremendously, but the journey from representation to real empowerment will have to traverse rocky terrain.

The mortality rate of children under five has declined from 117 per 1,000 live births in 1990-91 to 94 per 1,000 in 2006-07, against an MDG target of 52 by 2015. The infant mortality rate declined from 102 to 75 per 1,000 live births between 1990 and 2007, against the MDG target of 65. The proportion of fully immunised children of 12 to 23 months in age also indicates a stagnant trend. It increased marginally from 75 per cent in 1990-91 to 78 per cent in 2008-09, against the target of over 90 per cent by 2015.

The number of mothers dying due to pregnancy and delivery-related complications per 100,000 live births has declined significantly from 533 in 1990-91 to 276 in 2006-07. However, the rate is still much higher than the target of 140 by 2015. Similarly, the proportion of births attended by skilled birth attendants increased from 18 per cent in 1990-91 to 41 per cent in 2008-09. Yet it remains much lower than the targeted 90 per cent by 2015. Pakistan`s current total fertility rate is 3.75 and that is to be lowered to 2.1 by 2015.

Meanwhile, several reports by independent sources suggest that Pakistan does not put in the desired efforts towards environmental sustainability. The forest cover increased marginally from 4.8 per cent of the land mass in 1990-91 to 5.02 per cent in 2008-09. The MDG target is six per cent. Conservation organisations consider even these figures exaggerated.

Pakistan has, however, surpassed the target of CNG-run vehicles from a targeted 920,000 to 2,220,000. Yet the population with sustainable access to safe drinking water is at 65 per cent against the targeted 93 per cent. The quality of this drinking water is also a moot question. Similarly, access to sanitation is enjoyed by only 63 per cent against the MDG target of 90 per cent.

Pakistan is a long way from achieving the Millennium Development Goals. More than monetary resources, what is required is the political will to prioritise human development in the country. In its current shape, Pakistan is the embodiment of a security state where human development barely attracts attention. N

An analysis of the national budgets reveals how the wellbeing of the citizens has been ignored. Pakistan`s first national budget of 1948 allocated more than 70 per cent of the total resources to defence; this lunacy was never reversed. Even in today`s world of knowledge-based societies our allocation for education and health is shamefully the lowest in the region.

The writer is the chief executive of the non-profit Strengthening Participatory Organisation. nmemon@spopk.org

Steps urged to ensure affordable health services for all

2010-11-30T01:56:00.000-08:00

Source: The News

Date: November 30, 2010

The United Nations health agency has mapped out what countries can do, including raising more funds and spending it more efficiently, to ensure that everyone who needs health care can access it despite rising costs.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) notes that governments worldwide are struggling to pay for health care, which is rising as populations get older, as more people suffer chronic diseases, and as new and more expensive treatments appear.

It says that in countries that depend heavily on people paying directly for services at the point of delivery, health bills push 100 million people into poverty each year.

In its annual World Health Report, the agency shows how all countries, rich and poor, can adjust their health financing mechanisms so more people get the health care they need. It highlights three key areas where change can happen — raising more funds for health, raising money more fairly, and spending it more efficiently.

“No one in need of health care should have to risk financial ruin as a result,” said WHO Director General Margaret Chan. “The report sets out a stepwise approach. We encourage every country to act on this and do at least one thing to improve health financing and increase health coverage over the coming year.”

WHO says that in many cases, governments can allocate more money for health. In 2000, African heads of state committed to spend 15 per cent of government funds on health, a goal that three countries — Liberia, Rwanda and Tanzania — have already achieved.

If the governments of the world’s 49 poorest countries each allocated 15 per cent of state spending to health, they could raise an additional $15 billion per year — almost doubling the funds available, notes the agency.

Countries can also generate more money for health through more efficient tax collection, says WHO, which cited as an example Indonesia, which has boosted revenue by 10 percentage points.

View the link for details: http://www.thenews.com.pk/30-11-2010/Islamabad/18022.htm

The population problem

2010-11-28T22:29:00.000-08:00

Source: Dawn

Date: November 29, 2010

THERE are two aspects to the issue of population. First, there is the provincial divide and second, population growth. The latter became excessive in the 1960s. At the time of the 1971 census, population growth was 3.6 per cent per annum.

By the time of the 1981 census, a provincial problem took over. Due to migration to Karachi, the percentage of the population in Sindh had increased as compared to Punjab and the then NWFP. Reportedly, when this information was put before the cabinet the two governors, Gen Jilani and Gen Fazle Haq, hit the roof.

President Ziaul Haq asked Dr Mahbub ul Haq to `correct` it, after which the rate of population growth became 3.1 per cent. In all likelihood, Sindh`s population had been reduced causing a reduction in the rate of growth. No census was undertaken in 1991 and the next census took place in 1997/98 when Nawaz Sharif and the PML-N were in power. That census commissioner has been quoted as saying: “I have to make sure no individual in Sindh can call himself two.” The objective was fairly clear; numbers were adjusted.

Currently, some people express fears in terms of Karachi`s population, which is estimated to be somewhere between 14 and 15 million. According to Wikipedia it is 18 million. Because of provincial problems, this is going to cause a lot of confusion. Population parity between Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh will become an issue. In Karachi, it may lead to trouble between the PPP, the ANP and the MQM.

In terms of Pakistan`s total population, there are two views. Official sources put the figure at 171 million, while the UN puts it at 185 million. The rate of growth poses an additional problem. The UN estimates that childbirth in Pakistan will increase by 28 million by 2015.

The rate of birth is extremely important because of its effect on economic growth. The retrogression analysis says that a one per cent increase in childbirth rates leads to slightly more than one per cent decrease in economic growth rate. This is happening in Pakistan. Meanwhile, economic growth also appears to play a role in reducing birth rates. The use of contraceptives rose from 11.8 per cent in 1991 to 27.6 per cent by 2001. From then to 2007, this rate rose to only 30 per cent. Something obviously went seriously wrong.

Something will have to be done to prevent the population from rising to 206 million by 2015. According to the UN, 5.589 million births per year will take place between 2010 and 2015. How many extra `birth preventions` are possible by then?

If serious success is not achieved, Pakistan will have between 25 and 28 million children under the age of five by 2015. How will they be looked after? Large family sizes are more common amongst the poor, particularly in the rural areas. The challenge is to persuade these people to aim for a better life by reducing their family sizes, and to provide them with contraceptive support.

A related issue is that of mother and child health. Ideally, pregnancies should be spaced about three years apart to protect infant and mother. Infant mortality is the first issue, and then there is the question of how many children can properly be supported on the income available to the family. There is hope that matters can be managed. Some surveys have found a 25 to 40 per cent demand or need for lower birth rates in the poorer sections of the citizenry — a demand that is going unmet. The question is, how competently can we work to help?

For more details please view the link: http://www.dawn.com/2010/11/29/the-population-problem.html

Workshop on violence against women ends (Organized by SPO)

2010-11-24T21:41:00.000-08:00

Source: The News

Date: November 25, 2010

A three-day training workshop aimed at developing networks for addressing violence against women, girls and vulnerable groups in flood affected areas concluded here on Wednesday.

Organised by Strengthening Participatory Organisations (SPO) and Sisters Trust Pakistan (STP), the workshop titled ‘Women’s Leadership Role in Flood Affected Area to End Gender Based Violence,’ provided training mainly on tools for addressing women concerns in relation to their rehabilitation and reconstruction requirements. Federal Minister for Human Rights Mumtaz Alam Gilani was the chief guest on the occasion.
These master trainers from eight different districts will now go to their indigenous area to train other women and ultimately form networks that can protect women at the time of relief or rehabilitation after any calamity.

The eight districts included Nowshera, Dera Ismail Khan, Muzzafargarh, Rajanpur, Thatta, Sukker, Naseerabad and Jafferabad. The training made part of the activities conducted on 16 days of Activism against Gender Violence. Through variety of activities, the participants were introduced to the definition and different aspects of gender based violence. They were also taught about the techniques to deal with psychosocial issues that emerge after such situation and ways to provide counselling to the victims especially women and children. Participants that originally belong to flood affected areas also shared their stories. They said that one of the major problem women faced were the provision of separate washrooms. They said that due to conservative social set up, majority of women hesitated to demand for the facility.

They pointed out social discrimination created hurdles in the way of access to aid for women headed households. They said that women networks at community level can help to point out such issues to aid workers so that all vulnerable groups can be involved in relief and rehabilitation activities.
Speaking on the occasion, Federal Minister Mumtaz Alam Gilani said that types of human rights violations are different in different parts of the country and culture friendly measures are required to deal with them accordingly.

He said that before the establishment of Ministry of Human Rights, the matters related to human rights were dealt by the Interior Ministry that is the biggest violator of human rights itself. He said that the ministry plans to commemorate human rights week that will start from December 3 and will end at the International Day on Human Rights on December 10.

Highlighting the significance of 16 days of Activism against Gender Violence, Country Director for United Nations Development Fund for Women (Unifem) Alice Shackleford said that activism should not end with the end of these days, as it is a continuing process. She said that these days are observed to depict that woman rights are the human rights.

The 16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence is an international campaign originating from the first Women’s Global Leadership Institute sponsored by the Centre for Women’s Global Leadership in 1991. Participants chose the dates, November 25, International Day on Violence against Women, and December 10, International Human Rights Day, in order to symbolically link violence against women and human rights and to emphasise that such violence is a human rights violation. This 16-day period also highlights other significant dates, including November 29, International Women Human Rights Defenders Day, December 1, World AIDS Day, and December 6, the Anniversary of the Montreal Massacre.
Sisters Trust Pakistan Executive Director Rehana Hashmi stressed for increasing the role of women and girls in relief, reconstruction and rehabilitation phase through enhanced leadership skills and protection networks. Senator from Balochistan Surrya Amirudin and First Secretary Development of Netherlands Embassy were also present on the occasion.

Link: http://www.thenews.com.pk/25-11-2010/islamabad/17175.htm

'Blasphemy law not to be repealed'

2010-11-24T02:17:00.000-08:00

Source: Express Tribune

Date: November 24, 2010

ISLAMABAD: The government will not repeal the controversial blasphemy law but may amend it to prevent abuse because scrapping the legislation could fuel militancy, a government minister said on Tuesday.

The law came under the spotlight this month after a court sentenced a Christian mother of four, Aasia Bibi, to death in a case stemming from a village dispute.

Widespread media attention on the case has led to renewed appeals by human rights groups for the repeal of the law, but Federal Minister for Minorities Shahbaz Bhatti said that would not happen.

“(Repeal) is not being considered though we are considering changing it so that misuse of the law can be stopped,” Bhatti told a news agency.

Blasphemy convictions are common although the death sentence has never been carried out. Most convictions are thrown out on appeal, but angry mobs have killed many people accused of blasphemy.

Bhatti said consultations with Islamic clerics and representatives of religious minorities on amending the law would soon be held.

He said repealing it is not being considered because that could provoke religious parties and militants who want to topple the government.

“We have to analyse what the reaction of those having intolerant attitudes will be,” Bhatti said. “At this point our aim is to stop its misuse.”

Critics say the law can be misused by people making false accusations against rivals.

Liberal and secular groups say the law discriminates against religious minorities who make up roughly four per cent of the country’s 170 million population. Most members of minorities are Christian.

Bhatti said an initial inquiry into the case of the Christian mother suggested she had not committed blasphemy but was falsely accused after a quarrel.

Bibi, the first woman sentenced to death for blasphemy, has appealed to President Asif Ali Zardari to pardon her.

“It will take few more days. We are looking into different things, not just pardon. She could get relief from the courts,” Bhatti said. Authorities are providing Bibi with security in jail and her family has also moved for safety reasons, he said.

Link: http://tribune.com.pk/story/81007/blasphemy-law-not-to-be-repealed/