| August 22, 2002 | Thursday | Jamadi-us-Saani 12,1423 |
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Turbid and hazardous
Camp X-ray detainees
THE satisfaction expressed by the visiting IMF review mission at the successful implementation of the first year’s agenda of the bilaterally agreed three-year PRGF programme ensures that it would be satisfactorily completed. This raises hopes that the present accord with the IMF will be the last in the periodically negotiated series of programmes since 1988. At a Press Conference in Islamabad on Tuesday, the Fund officials noted that during the year a marked improvement had become visible in some of the fundamentals of the economy. Inflation has declined to three per cent; exports have risen, foreign remittances have taken a quantum jump and foreign exchange reserves have crossed the seven billion-dollar mark. Improvement in most of these areas may be attributed to external factors flowing from the 9/11 events. However, certain areas still remain weak: GDP growth is unsatisfactory, investment is much below the target, revenues are low and the fiscal deficit remains high. The figures for the first month of the current fiscal year, however, show that the economy was on the right track and various targets for the year would be achieved and their reconsideration may not be called for.
The mission officials have expressed the view that accountability in public sector enterprises, especially Wapda and the KESC, is weak and needs to be strengthened. The two utilities, which have been under army management for the last four years, have not been able to reduce huge financial losses. To remain afloat, they continue to depend heavily on budgetary support and frequent increases in power tariff, thereby raising the cost of production, which in turn affects exports and the economy’s recovery by constraining aggregate demand. Their efficiency cannot be improved without thorough restructuring and strict accountability with the efficacy of which the IMF seems to have serious doubts. Another area of weakness is the social sector where the delivery system continues to be flawed for lack of efficiency and resources. Funds for this sector cannot be adequately provided unless defence expenditure is reduced. Regional tension and massing of troops on the border must have eaten up part of the relief obtained through debt rescheduling. A prolonged and dangerous security environment in the region has made economic recovery and an improvement in social indicators doubly difficult because it scares away foreign investment, essential for achieving a turnaround in the economy.
The IMF seems to have some doubts about the continuity of the reforms beyond the October election and the induction of a democratic government. Mr Paul Chabrier, adviser to the IMF managing director, expressed these misgivings in these words: “If Pakistan does not stay on course, the fruits of reforms so far achieved will evaporate.” Such doubts are not well founded because there are no basic differences between the government and the political parties on the primacy of reforms. The IMF must, however, prepare itself to make certain realistic adjustments, for a democratic government cannot be expected to go along with drastic downsizing of state enterprises and other institutions or frequent increases in power tariff. The rigours of these measures will have to coincide with growth and job creation. If these considerations are kept in view, there should not be any major slowdown in the on-going reform process.
A RECENT study conducted by researchers at Karachi university confirms what most people in the city had always suspected: the water being supplied to households by the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board is highly contaminated and unfit for human consumption. Scientists at the university collected samples from different localities across the city and found that most of the water was faecally polluted and contained a high percentage of potential human pathogens. The samples were tested for their e coli count, which is the most reliable test to determine the level of faecal pollution. The results suggest that citizens are at risk from a number of serious illnesses as a result of poor water quality. Confirming these fears, hospitals have reported an increase in the incidence of intestinal disorders, including large numbers of diarrhoea cases among children. There are also fears that cases of hepatitis and other serious ailments could soon register a rise. Doctors have recommended that all water must be boiled for prolonged periods or effectively filtered before it is consumed.
While water that seems perfectly clear to the naked eye can also be highly contaminated, the high level of turbidity witnessed in recent weeks has added to the alarm about the quality of the city’s water supply. According to researchers, this turbidity is a common feature during the monsoon months. They claim that it could have been caused by the water supply being contaminated by leaking sewage from the increasingly rusty and damaged sewerage lines. The KWSB’s role in all this has been particularly disgraceful. Not only has it shed all responsibility for the quality of water it provides to citizens, it has also failed to maintain the crumbling sewerage system effectively. If the utility is unable to perform these fundamental tasks, the least it could do was to launch a public information campaign to tell people of the precautions to be observed to minimize the health risks of drinking turbid water.
THE remark by a spokesman for the foreign ministry that Islamabad intends to take up the issue of 58 Pakistanis still detained by America at Camp X-ray in Cuba’s Guantanamo Bay holds some hope for the families of these prisoners. It has been almost nine months since the first batches of these prisoners were transported by the Americans from Afghanistan, including some from Pakistan, to the detention centre. Since then, they have been repeatedly denied their right to access a lawyer or to be put through the due process of law. Washington has justified their continued detention by labelling them “enemy combatants”. US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, on more than one occasion in the past, has asserted that these detainees fall outside the purview of the Geneva Convention and hence cannot be provided the rights normally admissible to prisoners of war.
It was only after much criticism, both domestically and from its European and other allies, that America allowed observers of the Red Cross inside the camp. A few weeks ago, it also allowed a team of five Pakistani intelligence officials to visit the camp and meet the detained Pakistanis. What came out of that visit is not known but it is likely that the Pakistani delegation had gone to Camp X-ray to ascertain whether any of the 58 men are actually Al Qaeda terrorists. At any rate, holding persons suspected of terrorist links in indefinite detention and not allowing them access to legal aid, is contrary to the most cardinal of judicial principles: the right to a fair trial. Islamabad needs to impress on Washington that it surely cannot detain these people indefinitely without proving their guilt before a normal court of law. It simply cannot be the judge, jury and executioner all at the same time in these cases.