|
|
|
|
 |
 |
  |
roles This is how we
do it negligence The
boy side of the picture For
women, exclusively
roles The road to hell is
paved with good intentions, they say. Pakistan has certainly been on this
road for a while now although the country seems to have been driving at
breakneck speed these past few months, in a hurry to get somewhere without
really making sure where it is likely to end up. The problem, then, is that
everybody has good intentions in Pakistan. The governing alliance wants
itself and the parliament to complete their 5-year tenures to strengthen
democracy but not without good governance. The disparate opposition wants to
serve the country as an alternative dispensation but without wanting to allow
the voters to throw out the government if they don’t like it. Then there is the military.
To strengthen ‘national security’, it rather weakens the national polity
through hegemonic control of foreign and security policies, which by
implication means influencing — to a debilitating extent — other policies
also, thereby robbing the elected forces of the right to implement their
national mandate and therefore to be fairly judged. The judiciary is also in on
the act of good intentions with a vengeance. It has taken off the blinkers
that necessitate good old impartial justice and has opted to become both a
party and to choose sides by exercising the self-accorded doctrine of hurried
and flurried justice. If there is little good governance then there should be
a lot of ‘good justice’ (as opposed to plain justice), seems to be the
motto for it. The media, of course, is
hell bent with its good intentions. Armed with the freedom of expression
guaranteed in Article 19 of the constitution, it is free to express anything
— even predict what will happen tomorrow (never mind that after four years
its insistent prediction that the government is on its last legs refuses to
stand accomplished). If the line between fact and opinion blurs in the
process, it’s all with good intent since it is the watchdog of public
interest, which it can wantonly confuse with national interest as defined by
the Establishment, which in turn does it in public interest….. Evolution on steroids The bottomline is that
it’s all about bottomlines. The political evolution that is playing out on
steroids in Pakistan the past few months may have turned into a farce but if
one is inclined to bend down and closely examine outcomes (evolving results)
rather than just inputs (‘good intention’ acts), there may be more to see
and celebrate than meets the untrained eye. Consider: the army chief
and his sidekick top spook for the first time have had to come to the
parliament to explain why they couldn’t detect or respond in time or
adequately to the American raid in the northern heart of Pakistan to take out
the world’s most wanted man. Never mind the military manipulated the media
into focusing on America’s methodology instead of rightful objective. And
never mind the whole kit and caboodle presented by way of explanation, the
mere symbolism of explaining itself to the parliament was a first. Yes, the
army and the intelligence apparatus still sneers at the mere suggestion of
summons by parliamentary committees to make its officials available for
briefings, it still needed to drive to the Constitution Avenue to explain the
biggest khaki slip-up since Dhaka, Siachen and Kargil. Yes, the Parliamentary
Committee on National Security still had to go to the GHQ on the memo issue
after the khakis refused to come to the parliament, it is the Senate, the
symbol of the Federation of Pakistan, that has finally decided who is more
serving of the invocation of Article 6 dealing with treason: former army
chief and dictator Pervez Musharraf. Not elected representatives and national
leaders like Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Wali Khan, Akbar Bugti, Benazir Bhutto and
Nawaz Sharif who have all been painted as rebels, security risks and threats
to national security enough to oust, jail, exile, bomb, hang or kill. The
unanimous Senate resolution is no mere symbolism — it actually for the
first time lays the benchmark for treason: an intentional assault of the
constitution and coup d ‘etat. Trapped in entrapment The military itself got
snared in its own trap: first by manipulating the parliament into shielding
it in the name of national consensus against explaining itself to the world
community over the failure to detect and hand over the world’s most wanted
man. Then involving the parliament into “reviewing” (read: tactical
defiance of Washington) the relationship with the US over the Nato attacks on
the border. Now, if, as and when the political forces grow stronger, they
will use the parliamentary muscle to reshape foreign and security policies.
By not being strong enough to browbeat the Americans into yet another hostile
act of so-called policy defiance and involving the parliament to lend it a
fig leaf, the Establishment has to its detriment inadvertently legitimised
future policy changes by the political forces. After its ever
ready-inclination to suo moto-ize justice (no wonder everyone and their
uncles and aunts want the apex court to take suo moto action instead of going
through the trouble of filing for justice) and aggressive accountability of
government wrongdoings, real or imagined, the judiciary too has gone from
being exposed as being selective in its justice to itself become a
respondent-of-sorts to calls for justice on the other side of the political
divide. From wanting the president to beg for immunity to charging the prime
minister with contempt to facilitating an American citizen by putting one of
the country’s finest envoy on ECL and accepting him guilty until proven
innocent — the court has raised eyebrows on who is getting compulsory
‘justice’: the government, the government, the government. Justice on NRO? Only the
president should answer for it, not the current army chief who as former ISI
chief finalised the deal on behalf of General Musharraf with Benazir Bhutto.
Contempt of court? Only the elected ‘dishonest’ prime minister who
restored the judges must be hauled before the court, not the army chief and
self-appointed president who sacked the judges and took them in custody en
mass. Protection of office tenure? Only the army chief, who was among the
five generals who sought the chief justice’s forced resignation in the
summer of 2007, and ISI chief, who is actually retired and on contract,
should have them, not the president and prime minister and the cabinet and
the parliament who have been given the tenures by constitution and the
parliament. Justice, even if reluctant,
for all And yet, if NAB is being
forced to reopen cases against Zardari for alleged corruption that date back
donkey’s years, which are yet to be proved and against which he has served
9 years in jail already, why not against the top opposition and military
leaders against whom open-and-shut cases exist where big fat money was
distributed to stop a political party from storming back to power with
people’s backing? After all these years seeking to deliver justice against
the PPP (dismissal of its two governments at military prodding were upheld
and its founder hanged), the Supreme Court has finally been forced to be more
even-handed and order a probe into distributing money among opposition
politicians — the most prominent among them being Nawaz Sharif — as
admitted by a former ISI chief and army chief who did it. The apex court has
also done another first: ordered a sitting ISI chief to appear in court and
explain the killing of three suspected militants in the custody of the
organisation he is in charge of. Symbolic? Sure — but deeply significant. The political forces
themselves have set precedents, intently or inadvertently, that matter a
great deal. The PPP has finally learnt to resist and prevail (through tact,
guile, flexibility and even bluster) when in power also (and that too without
a Bhutto at the helm) as opposed to when being out in the opposition. Nawaz
Sharif and his party — despite the maturity of the first three years of
this parliament’s life — have learnt that they can’t be both in the
opposition (at the national level) and in government (in Punjab) and that
they got, once again, manipulated by the Establishment into taking a potshot
at the PPP while in reality their blows landed on the parliament and
democracy. The MQM learnt that they
can be functional friends with only one party at a time — the ruling party
or the unruly Establishment — not both. The ANP learnt that there is safety
in numbers and restraint and the religious parties learnt that their politics
has potency not through the ballet box but through the Establishment only.
The parliament, in general, learnt that political fights must be fought on
the floor of the house, not the court or else you let others decide about
you. Losing the fear The last several months
were also when the principal political players lost the fear of the
Establishment. In the past, the military reacted decisively in its interest
— and against the public’s — for much less. All they could do this time
was shoot fiery press releases and poisonous plants in the media, instead of
taking over in a huff (it doesn’t mean they did not want to, though!) In
fact this time they even gave in writing that they would not be staging a
coup! If this is not a sweet sign of the times then what else is? The absolute bottomlines,
then? The military, judiciary and media are the new Establishment now while
the parliament and mother democracy remain the primary targets to subjugate.
The PPP still remains the party to beat and, at this point in time, any
opposition electoral alliance can only be an oddball at best. The office of the
president, which surrendered its unnatural powers to the parliament, is no
longer part of the traditional troika of terror tyrannising the polity to
sabotage the people’s mandate. No wonder the president managed to save the
system despite the onslaught. By their very survival of the last four years
of undeserving blows the principal political forces are being strengthened.
Even the judiciary is showing signs that its righteous rage notwithstanding,
it’s not its job to run the country — or tell representative forces how
to — but to deliver blindly evenhanded justice that is seen to be done. The
big trouble spots remain the military and media. Hopefully they will also get
there, eventually.
This
is how we do it Punjabis have been
called many things, some vaguely complimentary others openly derogatory. They
are a sport in that they espouse and bend their back to live up to them all.
Food connoisseurs? They’re killing themselves of over eating lethally spicy
and greasy dishes others have shunned decades ago. Sense of humour? They
laughed off the dengue epidemic this last summer. Lahore, the beating heart
of Pakistan? They are getting free medicines to keep their hearts pumping
blood through their fat-choked arteries. The latest badge Punjabis
are striving to pin on their flabby chests is that of being efficient
managers. Led by the Chief Servant of the province, they are creating crisis
after crisis to show off their crisis management skills. First they drained
the budget on subsidising roti; then fought a valiant battle against
mosquitoes — and lost — then screwed up the examination results of all
the education boards in the province, in the name of digital revolution; and
more recently had three young women killed and five critically injured while
providing entertainment to the students of a Lahore college. They are now grappling with
the fallout of tainted medicines distributed by a government-run hospital for
heart patients that have killed dozens of them. The Punjab chapter of PPP is
baying for the blood of the Chief Servant, the PTI is instigating Lahore High
Court to take suo moto notice against the provincial government, and the
opposition PML-Q is creating a ruckus in the assembly. But unfazed by all the
hullaballoo, the government in Lahore is calmly going about what it says it
does best — crisis management. First things first: let’s withdraw the
suspected medicines from thousands of patients. Oh, but they are spread all
over the province, can’t we put a mushtari hoshiar baash notice in the
papers? Who reads papers dummy, they are all illiterate. Go and physically
visit each patient and retrieve the medicine. Yes sir. It’s at this stage that
the illiteracy of medical staff hits the management. The discharged
patients’ records are incomplete — especially the addresses. So we have
the emergency teams ready to move, but no address to go to. What do we do
now? Oh well, lets do some legislation then, call the assembly to session. Out of a total of 360 plus
members, 63 show up in the morning, and by the end of play only 23 remain.
Still, some women MPAs belonging to PML-Q, hardened by neighbourhood battles
fought with innovative allegations and high-pitched curses outside their
homes, bring up the subject and turn the assembly into their familiar
mohallahs. The treasury members relish a chance to hurl counter allegations
and abuses. The business of tainted medicines thus taken care of, the House
moves on to other, more pressing issues. The first item on the
agenda is girls, who MPAs note with alarm, make up 70 per cent of open merit
enrolments in medical colleges. They graduate as doctors not to practice
medicine but just to improve their chances of landing a rich groom. They are
wasting the opportunity for other deserving students, says the male member.
And what about the male doctors who leave the country to serve others,
retorts the female member. In the end both agree to a draw, just like the
mohallah disputes. Then an opposition member
demands a ban on all concerts in the educational institutions, terming them
unethical — the concerts, not the schools. The law minister says, hang on,
not all concerts are unethical. So a compromise is reached and the resolution
is passed with the addition of the word ‘objectionable’. What and who is
objectionable is of course left for the law minister to decide on case to
case basis. The other concerns shown in
the assembly include screening of Indian films, issuance of blue passport for
MPAs, thefts of dead bodies from the graveyards, and lack of waiting rooms in
government-run hospitals for attendants of patients. Oh, and the opposition
showered praise on the Speaker for helping release the so-called development
funds for their constituencies. In the collective wisdom of
Punjab’s elected deputies therefore, the best way to deal with people dying
of reaction to certain medicines is: to increase the number of male doctors,
have more waiting rooms in the hospitals, ban concerts at medical colleges,
and build security walls around graveyards. And if all this doesn’t work
— indeed life and death is in the hands of Allah — then wait for the next
crisis and tuck your shalwar up to manage it, earnestly and efficiently. masudalam@yahoo.com negligence When Bilqis Bibi,
75, started vomiting and bleeding from nose and mouth a few weeks ago, her
family took her to a nearby hospital in Arifwala, district Pakpattan, for a
medical checkup. The doctors there were unable to diagnose or treat her
illness. She was referred to the Jinnah Hospital in Lahore, where the doctors
told her family that her body was reacting to the cardiac drugs she was on. “My mother has been a
heart patient for more than a year and she has been getting treatment and
free drugs from the Punjab Institute of Cardiology,” says Bilqis Bibi’s
daughter Samina, adding, her mother is still admitted to the hospital and
recovering slowly. Similarly, when Allah Rakha,
88, started showing the same symptoms a week ago, doctors at the Sahara
Hospital in Narowal referred him to a hospital in Lahore. Many wards of the Jinnah
Hospital, like other tertiary care hospitals in Lahore, are bursting with
patients suffering cardiac drug reactions — thus exposing the criminal
negligence and apathy of the public healthcare system in Punjab. According to the official
data collected on Jan 26, 2011, over one hundred persons have died due to
faulty heart drugs. Many of these patients died after non-stop bleeding from
mouth and nose. Scores of the free drugs
beneficiaries from the ‘reputed’ Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC),
mostly belonging to poor or lower-middle class, are suffering from this
situation. “We are investigating the medical history of a large number of
patients thronging the hospital showing similar symptoms,” Dr Javed Akram,
Chief Executive of Jinnah Hospital, tells TNS. Dr Akram, who has been head
of various important committees on health issue, says when the cases started
getting complicated the doctors started prescribing bone marrow tests to some
of the patients — which confirmed the patients’ systems were reacting to
certain medicines. Further, he says, the medicines have been sent to
laboratories in France and Britain for testing — and “there are
possibilities that a certain batch of medicine was adulterated,” he
suspects. The deaths led to the
formation of inquiry committees, commissions and issuance of financial grants
to the victims. It also triggered a political tussle between the Punjab
ruling PML-N and the Pakistan People’s Party — mudslinging over poor
governance, corruption, and the failure of the healthcare system, which was
devolved under the 18th Amendment. “The affected persons
have become victims of the devolution plan under the 18th Amendment because
there were no rules at the provincial level to check such batches of
drugs,” Dr Akram views. The provincial government, which is yet to take any
action against the hospital administration, is content with announcing
inquires and financial grants to the victims. “There are many reasons
behind this tragedy,” Dr Mir Ajmal Hamid, Health Policy Advisor, tells TNS.
“This situation points finger at the post-18th Amendment scenario and the
apathy of the present healthcare system and corruption. It requires a
thorough and honest probe, so that elements responsible for such crises are
taken to task.” Dr Hamid says, after the
18th Amendment, provinces were not able to make new arrangements and were
following the same old systems at their level, which possibly, led to this
situation — “Faulty batches started coming in when there were no checks
and balances.” He adds, “It seems that
there is no drug regulatory authority at the federal or provincial level now
and pharmaceutical companies are free to make extra bucks through different
means. There are also reports in the press that many pharmaceutical companies
are working without licenses in the provinces. The government needs to check
whether corruption is involved in the drug supplying and purchasing
procedures.” “Those responsible for
the crisis must be punished,” demands Samina, daughter of Bilqis Bibi, who
is looking after the victim in a ward of the Jinnah Hospital round the clock
for the past few days. “This is sheer criminal negligence and now the
government will have to take it head on rather than hushing it up,” she
adds. vaqargillani@gmail.com
The
boy side of the picture “Bachelors know
more about women than married men; if they didn’t they would be married
too:” H. L. Mencken. I would have wholeheartedly
agreed with the quote, but unfortunately the path to marriage is much more
complicated than that. I have been living abroad in the US and after deciding
that being a bachelor and paying the price for loneliness isn’t the best
option, I started considering getting married. Now you would think coming
from the US, I probably could have easily found someone easily on my own. But
the truth is that I couldn’t and had to choose the arranged-marriage route.
The reason for doing so was
that my luck ran out in courting and I figured that the old time-tested
method was safe and had greater potential of finding a suitable match — at
least that is what the general perception is. I, therefore, got after my
parents and pushed them to start contacting people which they did and the
process that followed afterwards was mind-draining. We lined up a number of
contacts (girls) we got from family, friends and strangers. Unfortunately, I
learned that very few people genuinely wanted to help while others made
excuses because they did not want to be part of this risky venture or simply
had vested interests. We made phone calls and set up meetings with the
families of girls and I am sure most of you have done it and are wondering
why am I explaining a process you already know. The truth is that this very
process is painfully flawed and here is what I experienced: Girls are not
what they used to be; times have changed they prefer to engage in social
interaction with boys they are looking at and experience more in life before
getting tied down. Couple this with the custom of arranged-marriage in our
society in a family-sponsored courtship with unlimited parental interference
from both sides and obviously the results are usually dreadful. Another major issue is
caused by a girl’s trigger-happy parents. These over-enthusiastic parents
like to shoot their daughters into the marriage market without communicating
with them. It becomes an issue for the boy because when an interest develops
it’s mistaken for an interest shown by the girl. In reality what is
happening is the parents are pushing it and the girl unable to communicate
simply plays along and it is the worst way to lead someone on. I would appeal
to girls to take up the fight with their parents and stop ruining a poor
stranger’s life. When I chose arranged
marriage, I thought I would meet the girl a couple of times before giving the
nod and then would relax and let my parents handle the rest. I was terribly
mistaken because my parents put the responsibility on my shoulders for
striking an understanding with the girl in the first place before they could
play their role in taking the matter any further. What kind of a mess I was
in! Had I wanted to go through the arduous process of running after the girl
for winning her heart, I would have definitely gone for a love marriage in
the US. The Pakistani style cocktail of courtship and arranged marriage is
sure to give a prolonged hangover. Then there is a certain
class of families who are only interested in flashing their foreign passports
or in knowing what immigration potential the boy has. I was asked in every
meeting what my visa status was and now I believe I have gained more
expertise and experience than immigration lawyers in answering questions
related to it. Last but not the least is
for girls who play hard to get. All I can say is that sensible boys do not
have patience to play mind games and waste time with immaturity that only
looks cute when you are in school. If girls want to respond positively, then
giving equal respect and communicating sensibly is the key.
For
women, exclusively In a far away rural
part of rural Balochistan, a Pakistani woman falls a victim of honour
killing. In an urban city of Punjab, at the same time, a husband beats his
wife mercilessly till she bleeds and is bruised, but she does not complain to
the law-enforcing agencies, and her family members advise her to observe
patience. In the north, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a province which guards the
chastity of its women fiercely, a daughter is sold to a much older man by her
father at the hands of poverty. And in a far-flung village of Sindh, a
village celebrates the marriage of one of its female residents to the
Qur’an. This is the 21st century. And this is Pakistan. But at the same time, in the 21st century Pakistan, a glimmer of hope shines through. Years of advocacy and pressure at the hands of activists sees remarkable leaps of success in the form of legislations and resolutions being passed or processed on subjects like harassment at work place, anti-women practices, domestic violence and honour killings. Increased awareness has resulted in the Pakistani woman waking up to a realization of her rights, albeit not in totality. Today, a small but growing number of violated Pakistani women are known to stand up and speak up for their rights, supported by their knowledge of women-friendly laws and legislations. And another huge step in the right direction is a very recent development that is being lauded by human rights’ activists as a salient pro-women move. This is January 2012. And the National Assembly of Pakistan has unanimously passed a Bill to create a potent and influential National Commission on the Status of Women. Years of struggle by women’s committees, consultations, relentless advocacy and some 22 consensus amendments later, the Bill now has to also be passed by the Senate in order to become a law. The Bill’s prelude mentions the main goals of what the government calls the fulfillment of its promises — promotion of social, economic, political and legal rights of women. The potential for this to be a milestone to uplift the status of women of Pakistan lies in the fact that this commission promises to be an administratively and financially independent body, having the powers of a civil court. The parliament would have a major role in its constitution. “In the past, we also had commissions that promised uplifting of the status of Pakistani women, but those were not independent. Issues like red-tapism made sure that the commissions did not have actual freedom, neither financial nor administrative,” says Mahnaz Rahman of Aurat Foundation. “What is promising is that this commission will be representing the ruling party, the opposition, the judiciary — everyone.” In the past, the hands of the commissions were tied for all practical purposes, unless the government allowed them autonomy. With this Bill, the upcoming commission would hopefully be more effective. Advocacy can have quicker results. Experts say that in the past, laws were formed but would almost always have lacunas that made them ineffectual. Now, the laws formulated in the future, under the umbrella of the Commission’s efforts, would be formulated with all practicalities considered. “An example of that would be that although laws are there to protect women, they could often not be implemented correctly because the investigative reports and the procedure to make those reports were faulty,” says Anis Haroon, Chairperson of National Commission on Status of Women. With the Commission that would be formed, as a result of this Bill, would take steps that could change all of that. The victim could actually get justice. The perpetrator of the crime could actually get punished. The system could actually change. The Bill suggests many salient functions the commission would be performing. These would include re-examining current policy and programmes for gender equality, women’s empowerment, political participation, representation. Laws regarding the status and rights of women — and their implementation would be examined. Fresh legislations aimed at elimination of discrimination against women and assuring gender equality would be formed. The Commission would also be interacting with non-government organisations, both local and foreign, mobilising funding that goes into causes pertaining to upliftment of women, and sponsoring research on related matters. Inspection of jails and inquiries into complaints of women being wronged will also come under the job description of the Commission. All provinces and parts of Pakistan, as well as the minorities, would be represented in the form of members. The ministries of law, finance, foreign affairs, interior and the ministry concerned with women’s rights would also be represented. With so many stakeholders, the Commission promises to be effectual and democratic in its working. The struggle of a caucus of those women of Pakistan, who aimed to end discrimination, violence and injustice against Pakistani women, began with the inception of Pakistan. Fatima Jinnah, Begum Rana Laiquat Ali Khan, Shaista Ikramullah and Benazir Bhutto spearheaded these struggles, just to name a few. “I have to say that the present government has been one of the most women-friendly governments. Many headways have been made. Many women-friendly legislations have seen approval under the present regime. This will be another feather in their cap,” feels Rehman. The 1973 Constitution recognized the equal status of women by affirming in Article 25 that: 1) All citizens are equal before the law and are entitled to equal protection of law; 2) There shall be no discrimination on the basis of sex alone; 3) Nothing in this Article shall prevent the State from making any special provision for the protection of women and children. “Miracles cannot happen overnight. But a very healthy, positive process has begun with this Bill being passed. It will take us a long way,” says a hopeful Anis Haroon. The women of Pakistan who constitute half of its population, dream of that hope being realized.
|
|
