| January 29, 2002 | Tuesday | Ziqa’ad 14, 1422 |
The sick health sector
Misuse of loudspeaker
The imposing Wazir Khan mosque
Adding insult to injury
AN estimate puts the number of historic mosques in Lahore at a little over 60. These were built either by the rulers or their ministers or courtiers during the 800-year-long Muslim rule in the sub-continent. Some of these, like the Wazir Khan mosque, have won international fame for their resplendent beauty and architectural splendour. These mosques form a part of the magnificent cultural and historic heritage of Pakistan.
THE alleged indifference on the part of the federal government towards the long due appointment of judges in the Azad Jammu and Kashmir High Court is worrying for the people of the state, as it is multiplying their problems. Simultaneously, it provides an opportunity to many to question the federal government’s interest in the pending affairs of Azad Kashmir.
Appointment in the Supreme Court and the High Court of Azad Kashmir is a matter within the competence of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir Council. Practically it is in the competence of the federal government because the chief executive of Pakistan is the chairman and the federal minister for Kashmir and Northern Areas affairs is minister-in-charge of the AJK Council.
According to the AJK interim constitution, the appointment of a judge in the Supreme Court is made by the AJK president on the advice of the (chairman) of the AJK Council and after consultation with the chief justice of Azad Kashmir. And if a judge is to be appointed in the High Court, the HC chief justice is also consulted.
As a matter of practice, the AJK president sends a panel of some names, after consultation with the two chief justices, to the AJK Council chairman for his advice for appointment against vacant post(s). After the advice from Islamabad is received in Muzaffarabad, the president directs it to the law department for issuance of the appointment notification. In October 2000, the post of a judge fell vacant in the High Court following the retirement of Justice Mohammad Siddique Farooqi.
The then AJK president, Sardar Mohammad Ibrahim Khan, reportedly sent a panel to the Council chairman within a month for his advice for appointment against the vacant post. It was believed that the chairman would recommend a name from that panel at the earliest so that the post could be filled for the convenience of the public. But that did not happen for reasons best known to the Council secretariat, until another post became vacant in the High Court on May 4, 2001, with the elevation of the then CJ, Justice Khwaja Mohammad Saeed, to the Supreme Court. Eight months have elapsed since then, there is no progress regarding the much-needed appointments in the HC.
Here, it would be appropriate to mention that there was more or less a similar occurrence in the Supreme Court. Perhaps this may help the readers to know how much “importance” the AJK Council — for all practical purposes the federal government — attaches to the AJK affairs. On Nov 28, 2000, Justice Basharat Ahmed Sheikh of the Supreme Court retired. The interim constitution of Azad Kashmir says: “There shall be a Supreme Court comprising a chief justice and two judges.”
In view of this constitutional provision, the successor of Mr Sheikh should have been nominated much earlier and taken the oath on the very day of his retirement (Nov 28). But the constitution was overlooked, rather violated. The AJK Supreme Court remained incomplete until the elevation of Justice Saeed, because during that period there was only one judge in the apex court other than the CJ. One finds it difficult to reject the viewpoint that the Supreme Court did not exist in Azad Kashmir from Nov 28 to May 4.
Anyhow, let’s go back to the High Court affair. According to powers vested by the constitution, the AJK legislative assembly under Courts and Laws Code has provided that there shall be a chief justice and three or more judges in the High Court. But, currently there are only three judges in the HC — Chief Justice Syed Manzoor Hussain Gillani, Justice Chaudhry Mohammad Taj and Justice Reaz Akhtar Chaudhry. Being human beings the judges can also fall ill or have personal engagements that require them to go on leave. For example, Justice Taj has recently obtained leave for performance of Haj, leaving behind only two judges to perform the functions. The absence of Justice Taj has resulted in dissolution of a bench hearing appeals against the Ehtesab Court decisions.
The AJK Ehtesab Act puts a time bar whereby the High Court is bound to dispose of appeals within 30 days. The Ehtesab Court in Mirpur has announced judgments in several cases in recent days. The appeals against these decisions are to be heard by the High Court, where one judge has obtained leave and the other has declined to sit on the bench owing to personal reasons. In this situation, the hearings could not be held and those convicted by the Ehtesab Court would have to remain behind the bar for failure of the executive to complete the court.
Apart from such appeals, there are hundreds of pending criminal and civil cases, and it goes without saying that unless the new judges are appointed these will remain unheard and unattended. As they say, justice delayed is justice denied. If I am not mistaken Sir Winston Churchill had said during the World War II that if the courts in the United Kingdom were dispensing justice, Britain would not lose the war. Are we not creating a situation where dispensation of justice is gradually being made impossible and that too when we too face the threat of a war from across the Line of Control?
How can the courts dispense justice if they are understaffed? Of late, rumours have been rife that the federal government is contemplating reducing the size of the superior judiciary in Azad Kashmir. One wonders whether the delay in appointment of the judges in the High Court has something to do with this alleged contemplation. Governments often profess they want to deliver good governance to the masses. One can only suggest that they should practise what they preach. The institutions should be strengthened and in this regard whosoever is in power should set examples.
Incomplete judiciary in Azad Kashmir is only adding to the miseries of the people of the state who move to the court for urgent redress and remedy. The authority to complete the judiciary is vested in the federal government, which, regrettably, seems oblivious to the agony of the litigants in Azad Kashmir. Does this not support the plea that this authority should lie with the AJK government? The local press has also raised this issue many a time, but, ironically, its call too seem to be falling on deaf ears in Islamabad.
In the end it may be pointed out that late last year some judges of the provincial high courts were elevated to the Supreme Court of Pakistan although the posts were to fall vacant in the second week of January. It would have been judicious had a similar practice been adopted regarding the vacant posts in the superior judiciary in Azad Kashmir.
ACCORDING to a report in Dawn last week, the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences has submitted an urgent request to the health ministry for a one-time grant to pay a Rs100 million debt: Rs65 million in utility arrears and Rs35 million in medicines and drugs. One of the two main civilian public hospitals in the capital, PIMS has been grappling with the problem of occasional electricity and water supply cut-off on account of non-payment of bills, while its patients have had to buy their own life-saving medicines. This condition of the country’s premier public medical institution is an unfortunate reflection of the attention the government is actually paying to the public healthcare system, despite official statements to the contrary.
Healthcare service is much, much more than immunizing and vaccinating the population against diseases such as polio and measles. This forms only a small part of the minimum preventive health services that any government ought to provide. Some other important diseases are being overlooked, chief among them is hepatitis which has witnessed an alarming increase in recent years in the country. The incident is frightening where a group of about 30 students from a university in Islamabad went to donate blood for a sick relative of one of their friends and the majority were tested positive for hepatitis.
In addition to preventive health services that cover all major illnesses, modern-day health care entails provision of a whole range of essential clinical and curative services like MRI, CT scan, various types of treatment for diseases like cancer and diabetes. Many of these are not available at our public hospitals either because they don’t have the machinery or because the equipment is out of order.
Moreover, public laboratories are generally not properly equipped, maintained and administered, and their results are unreliable. Medicines, specially life-saving drugs, are also usually not available, and problems concerning cleanliness are clearly evident. But perhaps worse of all is the fact that a hospital like PIMS should be running at times even without basic utilities of water and electricity because these are cut off on account of non-payment of bills. It is little wonder that many people are increasingly looking towards the private sector for their health needs, even though this is expensive and beyond their means.
The public health service is even worse in rural areas. Here there exists on paper an impressive network of Basic Health Units, Rural Health Centres and district hospitals. But their functioning leaves a lot to be desired. Non-availability of doctors, inadequate technical equipment and support systems, and shortage of medicines all work to drive consumers of health services in rural areas to private doctors and hospitals in urban centres, which they cannot afford.
No doubt, part of the problem in the public health sector is misappropriation and wastage of funds as a result of corrupt practices and poor management. But this is no less a problem in any other ministry or department in the country and, besides, this has provided a handy excuse for the failure of governments to pay enough attention to the public health sector.
The root of the problems in the public health sector is the extremely low budgetary allocations for this sector. According to a World Bank report, World Development Indicators 1999, low-income countries generally spend less on health than do middle- and high-income countries, but Pakistan’s public health expenditure is one of the lowest at 0.8 per cent of GDP (1990-1997).
The report, which was for public health expenditure from 1990-97, revealed that most of the G-8 countries’ public health expenditure is at least 5 per cent of GDP (Germany 8.1 per cent; France 7.7 per cent; United States 6.6 per cent; Canada 6.3 per cent; United Kingdom and Japan 5.7 per cent).
Saudi Arabia is 6.4 per cent, UAE 2.0 per cent and Egypt 1.7 per cent. Even other South Asian countries’ health expenditure like Sri Lanka’s 1.4 per cent, Nepal’s and Bangladesh’s 1.2 per cent are higher than Pakistan’s (India’s public health expenditure is just as bad as Pakistan’s: 0.7 per cent).
In real terms, Pakistan’s budgetary allocations for health decreased from an already low 0.8 per cent of GNP in 1996-97 to 0.7 per cent in 1998-99 and to an even lower 0.5 per cent in 1999-2000. The allocation for public health spending in 2001-2002 still remains a pathetic 0.6 per cent of the expenditure of the national budget (i.e. Rs4,839 million or Rs0.48 billion, out of the total national budget of Rs751 billion).
Compare the amount Islamabad is spending on public health with that on other things, like defence. While Pakistan ranks 34th in health per capita expenditure among the 34 world’s poorest economies, it ranks 9th among 117 market economies in terms of government’s expenditure on defence as a percentage of total expenditure. Islamabad has also just given Rs640 million (about US10 million) to the new government in Kabul as the first tranche of a US100 million aid which the government has pledged over a five-year period. This amount has been diverted from funds originally meant for rehabilitation of Afghan refugees within Pakistan. The ultimate losers are the people of Pakistan.
Every individual has the right to basic health service, and the state is responsible for providing this right, said a former provincial health minister. And rightly said as according to Article 38(a) and (d) of the Constitution of Pakistan, “the state shall secure the well-being of the people, irrespective of sex, caste, creed and race...provide basic necessities of life, such as...medical relief”. But according to the UNDP’s Human Development Report 2000, nearly 15 per cent of the total population of Pakistan has no access whatsoever to healthcare facilities. At the same time, the high infant, maternal and child mortality rates and the extremely low life expectancy rates (62 years for women and 65 years for men) are testimony to the general state of the nation’s public health service.
If the public health service itself is suffering from ill health, how can the public hospitals and clinics be expected to treat properly those who are ill? One can imagine what kind of medical care and service a hospital can dispense to the public if it does not even have the money to settle its utility bills.
DESPITE restrictions imposed by the government on the use of amplifier in mosques, loudspeakers are still being misused at places of worship.
Earlier, the government, after marathon studies and surveys conducted through various agencies, had decided to restrict the use of loudspeaker to Azan and Khutba. Law-enforcement agencies were asked by the government to implement the ban, but these could not be enforced effectively.
Police sources admit that due to weaknesses of station house officers and their staff, prayer leaders and their followers exploit the situation to use loudspeaker.
Loudspeakers playing pre-recorded cassettes are kept on for hours at a high pitch. Besides, shop owners make announcements about the sale of food articles, missing children, invitation for functions, etc. Owners of such loudspeakers reportedly charge Rs5 to Rs10 per announcement. Sometimes loudspeakers are even used for personal motives.
Local governments have reportedly been directed to take steps for clamping down on misuse of loudspeaker. However, such directives seem to be futile. Scores of Imams and Khatibs have allegedly been using aggressive language against the government over its foreign policy.
While the restrictions on the use of loudspeaker have been condemned by most religious groups, moderate elements have welcomed them. Over the years, certain mosques have been using loudspeaker to incite people against various sects. A part of the blame for sectarian violence can be attributed to the tendency of making inflammatory pronouncements from the pulpit. But many people complain about the disturbance caused to them by speeches that blare out from certain mosques day and night.
For those who are ill or studying for examination, this can be highly distracting. The government decision was welcomed by an overwhelming majority which was suffering due to the misuse of loudspeaker. However, there being hundreds of mosques in the city, how will the authorities enforce the restrictions? And does the government have the will to remain firm? The government must show that it means business and will crack down on anyone who misuses places of worship.
The Punjab Regulations and Control of Loudspeakers and Sound Amplifiers Ordinance, 1965, restrains the use of loudspeaker. However, it was never implemented in letter and spirit.
Legal experts say it is unfortunate that despite clear-cut provisions of the law, the agencies concerned never bother to discharge their duties which encourage the violators to cause a tension by using loudspeaker for various purposes without any justification. They said for the first time, the law regarding loudspeakers and amplifiers had been put into operation but still there were complaints about its non-implementation.
When contacted, the district police chief said it was a wrong notion that the police were a silent spectator to this problem. He said over two dozen cases had so far been registered against prayer leaders. Amplifiers were also removed from the mosques which were found misusing the loudspeaker.
He said all the SHOs had been directed that they should take immediate cognizance of the misuse of loudspeaker and no-one should be allowed to play with the comfort of the public and use the loudspeaker for extortion, creating a law and order problem and spreading tension and hatred, and that the violators should be arrested and booked under the law.
He said Rescue-15 had been asked to immediately act on any complaint pertaining to the misuse of loudspeaker. He said it was the duty of citizens to keep the police informed about the misuse of loudspeaker, and if any complaint was brought into his notice about the indifferent attitude of the area police, he would take action.
The Wazir Khan mosque is situated in a thickly populated but culturally-vibrant locality in the heart of the Walled City. It stands out as one of the two most spacious mosques in Lahore, the other being the Badshahi Masjid. The builder of this mosque was the Chiniot-born Hakim Aleemuddin Ansari, who is known in history as Nawab Wazir Khan, a title bestowed on him by Emperor Shahjehan.
A scholar of Persian literature and a philosopher, Ansari was a tabib (physician) by profession. Known for his learning, hard work and proficiency in his vocation, he soon attracted the attention of the Mughal Emperor, who appointed him governor of the Punjab with the title of Nawab Wazir Khan. Having a strong interest in public welfare projects, the Hakim sponsored construction of several hamams (baths), bazaars, palaces, gardens and shops, most of which have now been consigned to the dustbin of history. However, there still exist a few edifices which remind us of his contributions to the architectural splendour of the city. The Nawab has also been credited with the founding of Wazirabad town, which is now known as a producer of cutlery and surgical instruments.
The most remarkable among his contributions to Mughal architecture was the Wazir Khan mosque, which reflects a blend of Persian and Indian styles of architecture. Its foundation stone was laid by the Nawab in AD 1634 close to the tomb of Syed Muhammad Ishaq bin Shehryar, better known as Hazrat Meeran Baadshah, who came to live in Lahore during the reign of King Feroze Tughalaq and died in this city in AD 1384. In his will, he desired that his grave should not be entombed with bricks but about 250 yeas after his demise, it was turned into a two-tier mausoleum, which rested at the centre of the courtyard near the ablution pond. The construction of the mosque was completed in 1635.
Built with bricks and tiles, the mosque was put up on a rectangular site plan, the sides of which measured 280 and 160 feet. The plinth level was a storey higher than the ground. The facade of the main entrance of this imposing structure from the eastern side is laid with glazed tiles, which are bedecked with numerous inscriptions of the Kalima right up to its ceiling in Kashikari. Entering the mosque from its main gate, one has not only to climb several steps but also pass through a covered area.
One of the striking features of the mosque is its four high minarets, which were erected on the four corners of its courtyard. Visitors, interested in having a good look of the Walled City and beyond, can reach the top using stairs built within these minarets. The floor of the mosque, right from its main entrance to the back wall, is paved creatively with eye-catching symmetrical designs made of bricks. The material used for its construction was the same that one finds in the Mughal monuments, be they mausoleums of kings, baradaris of the princes or the spacious gardens built during the 300-year Mughal rule.
So beautiful and attractive is the design of the brick and tile panelling of Wazir Khan’s Mosque and such enduring the building material used in its construction that erosion over the 350 years has not caused any serious damage to it.
Compartmentalized into five sections with a spacious courtyard in the centre, the mosque has attracted international attention for its exquisite use of inlaid pottery decorations in the wall panelling. Students of design from the National College of Arts are often seen studying Kashikari with which the walls of this edifice are bedecked.
In his annual report for the year 1889-90, JL Kipling, the then principal of the Mayo School of Arts, had this to say about this famous mosque: “This beautiful mosque is the best school for the students of paintings. ... Regrettably, however, it is not being looked after properly. Evidently, people are not taking much interest in its architectural design and inscriptions, which is why some of these are slowly being obliterated. If the current indifference persists for some more time, these priceless specimen of design will be gradually pushed into historical oblivion.”
The management of the mosque, according to the will of its builder, Nawab Wazir Khan, was vested in its mutawallis, who traced their lineage to the Nawab. The will of the builder of the mosque, as quoted both by Nur Ahmad Chishti and Syed Muhammad Latif in their books, revealed that all shops built alongside the walls of the mosque, and all the houses and shops built up to the Delhi Gate, were personal properties of the Nawab. He desired that the income generated from the rentals of these properties be used for the proper maintenance of the mosque. Currently, only those shops, which are situated beneath the mosque, are the property of this historic mosque. The possession and ownership of all other properties have slipped into the hands of many individuals. Not only that. Alongside its southern wall, houses were built in the last two centuries, which have obscured the sight of the mosque from more than one side.
Two wells had also been dug for drawing fresh water to fill the pond at the centre of the courtyard. Only one of these is currently in use. The other has been abandoned. The residential quarters built for the imam (prayer leader) and the khateebs (speakers) on the northern side of the main entrance to the mosque were used for a long time to support publication of Islamic literature. Later, these premises were rented out to vendors of all sorts, including the scribes who calligraphed the Holy Quran.
During the Sikh period, many citizens built their houses at the intersection known as Chowk Wazir Khan obstructing approaches to the mosque. The well and the Haveli of Raja Dina Nath were among the illegal edifices of that period. The British rulers, however, ordered the demolition of those houses, restoring the Chowk to its original plan. The vacant space was once again taken over by vendors. A makeshift cloth market replaced their shops, which was shifted to the Azam Cloth Market, built on the debris of a large cluster of houses of the Hindus, which were completely gutted during the 1947 riots in the city.
The Wazir Khan mosque, which is counted among some of the most beautiful and attractive mosques of the world, attracts countless domestic and foreign tourists.
THE outbreak of a skin disease in the hilly areas of Dadu district called Kachho and the plight of prisoners in Sindh, particularly in the Hyderabad Central Jail, have recently dominated the editorial columns of the Sindhi press. Kawish writes that hundreds of residents of at least 100 villages are infected with leishmaniasis which has sent a wave of panic in the remote area and people of the affected villages have even begun moving to safer places.
These people live on rain-fed crops and cattle herds. The continued spell of drought has badly affected both the economic activities and as a consequence the people are finding it difficult to make both ends meet. Under these circumstances, they are just unable to take the patients to hospitals in Dadu or Johi and buy the required medicines.
As such, they urgently need assistance from the government which, sadly enough, they are not receiving. The Dadu district government’s health wing says it does not have the required funds to face the catastrophe. The Sindh health secretary says he has come to know about the outbreak of the disease last Thursday only (while the people have been suffering for the last two months). The provincial health minister’s comment is even more ironical as he insisted that the disease is not fatal and that it subsides automatically after the illness period of three to four months. Is this point of view worthy of an official who is responsible for public health care in the province? His department should wake up and send special medical teams and supplies to the area to combat the epidemic on a war footing.
Tameer-i-Sindh reports the alarming rise in hepatitis B cases in Kario Ganhwar town and surrounding villages of Badin district. The acute shortage of drinking water has compelled the residents to consume polluted water accumulated in low-lying areas, which has invited the fatal disease. Due to extreme poverty, lack of health awareness and scarcity of proper facilities at government hospitals, a number of the patients have died and even whole families are suffering from hepatitis B, which is considered more dangerous than AIDS. A similar situation has also been reported from a village in the Hala taluka and other areas.
Ibrat deplores the breakdown of health services for the prisoners in the province which is obvious from the fact that at least 10 inmates have died in Hyderabad Central Jail during the last three months. And it is not only ailments the prisoners have to suffer from. Recently the complaints about the prisoners’ torture by the jail authorities have also increased to a shocking proportion. Prisons are reformation centres for criminals in the civilized world but our overcrowded jails with their inhuman conditions help to turn petty criminals into hardened ones and fill the latter with a vengeance the target of which becomes the whole of society.
Awami Awaz points out that joblessness is another factor behind the rising crime graph in Sindh and regrets that Lasmo, a multinational company exploring oil and gas in the Dadu district, is reluctant to provide jobs to the locals. It has led to a spate of protest rallies during which the National Highway was blocked near Sehwan and a number of protest leaders were arrested. If Lasmo keeps on ignoring the local’s demand for jobs and compensation for the lands used for the exploration, it can cause a serious problem which can hamper its activities in the semi-tribal area.
Koshish regrets the unbecoming attitude of the Punjab representative at Irsa’s latest meeting. When the meeting refused to consider Punjab’s demand for evolving a new formula for water distribution, Punjab’s representative adopted an aggressive attitude towards the authority’s secretary, who hails from Sindh. The representative of Punjab was insisting that the distribution of Indus water under the 1991 Accord be stopped and the so-called historical share formula be taken for this purpose. In this way Punjab is refusing to share water shortage with Sindh and other provinces.
Is this the way to forge national solidarity in these troublesome times? The agricultural economy of Sindh has already been destroyed by continued water shortage for the last couple of years. Now the scarcity of drinking water has emerged as a new crisis gripping the province from Sukkur to Karachi. Does not this tragic situation deserve a judicious approach by Punjab regarding the distribution of river water which is the lifeline of Sindh?