| January 4, 2003 | Saturday | Shawwal 30, 1423 |
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Doctors’ strike
World Cup squad
MR Kofi Annan’s statement that there is no justification for an attack on Iraq until the UN inspectors have completed their report is based on common sense. In an interview with the Israeli army radio, the UN secretary-general said the UN inspectors’ report was due on January 27. Till then, he said, there was no “basis” for any punitive action against Iraq, especially because the United Nations’ Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission had been carrying out its job “in an unimpeded manner.” This way, Mr Annan acknowledged that Baghdad was abiding by the provisions of the Security Council’s Resolution 1441. The inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency are also doing their job without any hindrance. Both teams did not rest even on New Year’s day and remained busy. They now intend to begin aerial reconnaissance, and so far Baghdad has created no obstructions in their way. So “thorough” is the job being performed by the inspectors at suspected sites that they are searching even briefcases and examining women staff members’ telephone notebooks.
Inspectors are supposed to be neutral. They are from two international organizations, and are not in the pay of any country. They have been commissioned by the UN and the IAEA to do their job honestly and impartially and report back to the Security Council. However, the first batch of inspectors belonging to the United Nations Special Commission were far from neutral. It has now been confirmed that they were spying for the CIA. Even the American media has acknowledged this awkward fact about Unscom. Baghdad had, therefore, no option but to expel them in 1998. Since then, the American line has been that the Saddam regime has been secretly developing WMDs — in spite of the crippling sanctions that bar Iraq from importing even such items as pencils and ping-pong balls. It, therefore, wanted the inspectors to go back. However, Baghdad disappointed Washington in October by announcing that it was ready to let the inspectors in. America felt cheated and in that mood rejected Baghdad’s offer to accept the inspectors back as a “ploy,” asking the Security Council to sanction military action against Iraq. Thanks to China, Russia and France, the UN council did not oblige, but Resolution 1441, passed on November 8, was unduly intrusive and gave enhanced powers to the newly created Unmovic. Baghdad accepted even this resolution and submitted a 12,000-page declaration within the stipulated 30 days. This too was a great disappointment to the US. All that Washington wants is that the UN should find Baghdad guilty of a “material breach” of the resolution and authorize it to invade Iraq.
The UN chief has done well to make his position on the issue known. Of late, the UN has often tended to give an impression as if it is doing the American bidding. Its lack of initiative to lower tensions in the Middle East and South Asia are a pointer. By his latest statement, however, Mr Kofi Annan has scuttled the Bush administration’s argument for military action against Iraq even without waiting for Unmovic to complete its job. All sane elements in the world want the Iraqi issue to be settled by peaceful means. Some of America’s own allies, especially Germany and France, are against the use of military force. By stepping up the war hysteria and pre-empting all peace moves, Washington is giving an impression as if inspections are merely a formality, and that all it really wants is Iraq’s destruction.
THE strike by doctors at Karachi’s Jinnah Post-Graduate Medical Centre has caused untold miseries to thousands of patients since it began on Wednesday. Large numbers of sick and injured patients have been turned away from the casualty ward of what is one of Karachi’s most overburdened public sector hospitals. Many patients, some of them in a serious condition, had travelled long distances to reach the hospital and were visibly distraught at finding no one to attend to them. It was indeed a sorry spectacle to see members of a profession that should be dedicated solely to the welfare of those in distress resorting to conventional trade union methods as a form of protest.
The post-graduate doctors had taken this extreme step to protest against an undue delay in the payment of a stipend to them, along with arrears, which they argue is their due. They maintain that Sindh is the only province where such a stipend is not paid to post-graduate doctors. For their part, the authorities claim that the strike will soon be over and the doctors will return to work. They maintain that the action was unnecessary because orders had already been passed to release the funds, which will take about a month to be disbursed among the doctors. However, the question the authorities must answer is why they allowed a relatively minor matter to develop into a full-blown crisis. The administration should have been aware of the mood of the doctors and moved swiftly to pay the stipend, if indeed it was their due. It is often administrators’ insensitivity to problems that leads to such situations. The doctors too should have thought twice before going on strike, knowing that their action could cause widespread suffering, including loss of life, among uncared-for patients. Surely, the doctors could have adopted other, less drastic, forms of protest to draw attention to their grievances. If a strike had to be called, it should have been of a token nature and of a short duration each day.
PAKISTAN’s World Cup squad, just named, will be seen by and large as a well-balanced outfit. In fact, except for a variation here and there, the selectors had little choice in the matter. Predicting how the team will perform has been made difficult because of the recent dismal showing against Australia and South Africa. The question of fitness creates its own uncertainties. Azhar Mahmood, Abdul Razzaq, Inzamamul Haq and Shoaib Akhtar will need watching. Cricket all the year round has become a demanding game in both physical and mental terms. The organized warfare in the media and sledging on the field test the nerves of players as much as their prowess and technique. Familiar and easy wickets in Pakistan created an early confidence that was later exposed in different conditions as totally deceptive. The team’s agony on the bouncy tracks in South Africa where our star batsmen slumped and stumbled emphasize the importance of specialized training and coaching in the weeks before the World Cup.
With the increasing requirements of professionalism and commercialism, the calibre and character of participants in an extremely tense atmosphere cannot be measured within conventional parameters. That is why many teams, notwithstanding their skills, are made to go through carefully designed psychological tests. Our openers and middle-order batsmen particularly need this sort of all-round exposure to encounter emerging challenges. While seasoned veterans were expected to deliver in all circumstances, new entrants need strong backing on and off the field. The responsibility of the skipper and seniors assumes greater importance as the builders of a well-knit team; unfortunately, this is not always forthcoming. If Pakistan wish to avoid being hit all over the place, they will have to develop greater mental toughness and play more intelligently.