Unite Pakistan

Vaccines’ wastage THE difficulties faced by the country in vaccinating every single child against polio are widely known and place a formidable question mark over the health of new generations. Less talked about, though, is the fact that the deficiencies of the health sector in terms of protecting children against preventable diseases are myriad, and so deeply entrenched as to make a change of course appear difficult. If at one end of the spectrum there is the problem of the slowdown in the rates of routine immunisation, at the other are the glaring gaps in supply, storage and oversight, which may cumulatively negate what little success the country does manage to achieve in this area. The latter point was underscored by the news that came to light a few days ago that a large consignment of the pentavalent vaccine, worth some $1.3m, that was being stored on the premises of the National Health Services Ministry had spoiled because the required temperature had not been maint...

Tougher days: ahead IMF loan THE government and the market are jubilant over the ‘successful conclusion’ of a new loan of $5.3bn from the IMF. And why not? The loan will ease pressure on diminishing foreign exchange stocks and relieve the government of worries of how to repay over the next 12 months what the country already owes to the Fund. But is it really a ‘step forward’ for the new government, which had promised voters so much? Although the announcement of the agreement on the loan hides more than it reveals, from whatever has so far been divulged it is clear the people should brace themselves for greater hardship. When Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said a “better tomorrow dawns only when the requisite pains are borne today”, he was signalling towards a tougher future for the people in whose name the loans are secured and who must repay these generosities with sacrifices. The help from the IMF is necessary not only to repay its existing debt but also to obtain bu...

Realisation dawns: PTI’s call for anti-terrorism plan AS the sprawling militancy and terrorism complex continues to rain down violence across Pakistan, a slight shift in political perceptions was witnessed on Sunday when PTI chief Imran Khan called for a joint civil-military strategy to fight terrorism. Until now, Mr Khan has talked more about drones and talks with the TTP than about the threat that militancy poses to the stability and security of Pakistan. But with the PTI’s government in KP rocked by a series of attacks in the province and violence in other parts of the country continuing unabated — in addition to Peshawar, Quetta and North Waziristan also suffered serious attacks on Sunday — there is perhaps the beginnings of a realisation within the PTI that the internal threat is real and serious and can only be countered by a firm resolve and coherent plan. So while Mr Khan did repeat on Sunday his standard trope of a ‘political settlement’, he appeared to ac...

Need for restraint: Altaf Hussain`s speech IT was, in the end, the briefest of resignations, and very much in keeping with previous such episodes. But there was also something new about Altaf Hussain`s early morning speech and quick change of heart yesterday. For the first time, the MQM supremo acknowledged that the London police consider him a suspect in the Imran Farooq murder investigation. Mr Hussain also confirmed that British authorities recently raided his home in London and confiscated unspecified material. While railing against an international conspiracy against his person, Mr Hussain pledged to cooperate with British authorities and defend himself in a trial, if he is eventually charged in relation to Mr Farooq`s murder in September 2010. This is a good sign: the MQM boss, while denying any involvement, has indicated his willingness to respect the judicial process. The protracted telephonic back-and-forth between Mr Hussain and MQM activists and support...

Humanity required: Stay on executions THIS is a country with serious law and order problems in several areas. While many remedies can be explored, the least acceptable is that implied in a complaint made by the Sindh High Court Bar Association in a petition against the targeted killings of lawyers and others in Karachi: that capital punishment is not being meted out to prisoners on death row, which, in the petitioner`s view, sends out the message that those responsible for heinous crimes go unpunished. This newspaper opposes capital punishment, not just for being a cruel and degrading punishment but also because it is only in a few cases that guilt is proved beyond a shadow of doubt. Most countries have removed this punishment from the law books. The strong pro-death penalty lobby in Pakistan, though, has meant that we have not done so, even though the country is amongst the states with the highest number of prisoners on death row. A middle ground of sorts wa...

More steps needed: Tackling circular debt DAYS before the curtain is due to drop on one of the most profligate fiscal years of our history, the newly inducted government is ready to utilise a jaw-dropping Rs326bn to retire a large chunk of the circular debt. The amount will add another percentage and a half to the country’s fiscal deficit, expressed as a proportion of GDP. Once completed, this will be the largest single retirement of the circular debt ever attempted, with at least two other examples from the past of similar efforts to douse the problem in a single move. In both cases, the circular debt resurfaced within six months. Debate has continued over the structural reasons behind why the debt is proving so stubbornly resilient to eradicate. One view says the tariff itself is flawed, where the cost of generation averages out to Rs14 per unit (due mainly to our reliance on pricey oil imports) but the cost at which the unit is sold averages to Rs9. Another v...

A shameful move: Swiss saga again EVEN the end isn’t the end, it appears. The long-running Swiss cases/letter saga that seemingly had finally come to a close last November has been revived in the most astonishing manner. Attorney General Muneer Malik informed the Supreme Court on Wednesday that the law ministry had written a second, secret letter to the Swiss in November; a second letter that directly contradicted the purpose of the first, court-mandated letter. What is most egregious here is the manner in which the law ministry appears to have been used by President Zardari as his personal law firm. As the primary target of the Swiss proceedings, Mr Zardari has the right to defend himself and put forward his own interpretation of the relevant laws. But if that is what the president wanted to achieve, he should have hired Swiss representatives in his personal capacity to lobby or appeal to the Swiss authorities regarding his point of view — and not used state reso...

Ominous message: SHC judge attacked THE targeting of Justice Maqbool Baqar`s convoy in Karachi on Wednesday morning is a clear message from religious militants that even a high court judge with a significant security detail is within their reach. The incident is probably the first of its kind where such a highranking jurist has been targeted. While the fact that the Sindh High Court judge survived the attack was nothing short of a miracle, a number of people mostly policemen and Rangers in his entourage died in the bomb attack that left no doubt of its intensity. Surely, the number of fatalities could have been reduced if the unfortunate men had been equipped with protective gear. Claiming responsibility for the bombing, the Pakistani Taliban have said Justice Bagar, a member of the Shia community, was targeted due to his `anti-Taliban and antiMujahideen decisions`. The judge was also believed to be on Lashkar-iJhangvi`s hit list while a TTP suspect arrested in K...

  The longer shadow: Musharraf`s trial SOMEHOW, when it comes to the army`s political transgressions and holding its leadership accountable for its sins against the nation, the arguments against doing so are quickly and furiously proffered. Somehow, it is never the right time, there is always something more important to be attended to first or there is encouragement to let bygones be bygones. But beyond the self-serving claims, there is a very real need for a reckoning with the past. Now, the country may finally be inching towards the ultimate reckoning: putting a military dictator on trial for his crimes against the Constitution and the people of Pakistan. Unsurprisingly, there are more questions than answers at the moment. How much pressure will the Supreme Court led by Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry put on Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif`s government to see the judges` tormentor former army chief Pervez Musharraf put on trial? How will the present army leade...

Missing cooperation: Counterterrorism efforts OUTRAGE, shock, condemnation, the requisite conspiracy-peddling and then back to business as usual, ostrich-like the same tragic pattern after every new atrocity by militants is playing out once again. For a country that is increasingly suspicious of and hostile to the outside world a reality that is very much reciprocated by the outside world the death of several foreigners hardy enough to try and visit one of Pakistan`s most spectacular tourist sites does not appear to have caused much of a convulsion, particularly given the near-daily litany of death and violence that Pakistanis themselves have had to face. In any case, for those who are increasingly prone to seeing every foreigner in Pakistan as a spy or a Blackwater agent or a Raymond Davis, the reality of what happened in Gilgit-Baltistan on Sunday may not sink in. Surely, though, the loss of already scarce tourism rupees and dollars for a region that has few oth...

Three is history: Mr Sharif returns — cautiously THE tables have turned. Mian Mohammad Nawaz Sharif is back in the prime minister’s chair and Gen Pervez Musharraf is under arrest and facing trial. Mian Sahib is the first man to be elected prime minister in the country for a third time. He is unparalleled as a Pakistani head of government ousted in a military coup and brought back by popular vote. There may be more reasons why the occasion needs to be celebrated just as it has to be marked with some solemn vows. In his speech after his election in the National Assembly by an overwhelming majority, the new prime minister made a conscious effort to build on this reputation as a politician who has undergone the course and has learnt. He solicited political consensus, his emphasis on the economy in accordance with the PML-N’s line since its victory in the May 11 elections. He spoke of merit, about economic and social mobility manifest in his promise to have a train run ...

Blood-soaked reality: Killing of foreigners EVENTUALLY, the illogic of conspiracy will have to give way to reality. Waliur Rehman, a TTP leader mind-bogglingly referred to by Imran Khan as ‘pro-peace’, was killed by an American drone, so now the TTP has killed nine foreigners in remote Gilgit-Baltistan in revenge. And instead of the focus being on how to prevent Pakistan from slipping further towards international isolation and internal instability, the question that will likely be asked most frequently, in the media, by the political class, by large chunks of civil society, is what can be done to stop drones strikes. The problem with the drone debate is not that it is unimportant but that it tends to obscure a more fundamental and important question: what to do about the TTP? And that more important and fundamental question is itself wrapped up in another set of distractions, namely whether or not to negotiate over what is not negotiable. Unhappily, the newly e...

Tough days ahead: Back to the IMF THE inevitable has to happen. When? It may happen next month, or take another couple of months. The Nawaz Sharif government has to knock at the IMF’s doors to obtain another loan to pay back in the next 12 months what is already owed to the lender. Finance Minister Ishaq Dar hinted at this eventuality several times in recent weeks. There’s no harm in taking new loans to pay off old ones, he was quoted as having said during his first briefing on the state of the economy his party has inherited from the previous government. The new loan will not raise the country’s stock of foreign exchange, which is sufficient only to pay the import bill for another three months. Nonetheless, it will stop further depletion of reserves, halt temporarily the erosion in the rupee’s buying power and in the confidence of the business community, as well as pave the way for more dollars from other global lenders for large infrastructure projects. The go...

VIP duties: Need for rethink IN Pakistan, law-enforcement personnel are largely seen as working to protect the powerful, not concerned about the security of the common citizen. Hence the interior minister`s decision to remove Rangers and Frontier Constabulary personnel from `VIP duties` is commendable. Chaudhry Nisar told a press conference on Thursday that only the president, prime minister and chief justice would be provided personnel from the aforementioned LEAs for guard duty. However, the move should also prompt an official rethink about the ramifications of using police personnel as guards for `VIPs`. No doubt some public officials and private individuals face credible threats to their lives and need extra security, as was brutally illustrated by MQM provincial lawmaker Sajid Qureshi`s murder on Friday. But it is also true that our police forces are understaffed and under-resourced. What is more, having a small army of guards in tow is seen as a status s...