| January 17, 2003 | Friday | Ziqa'ad 13, 1423 |
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Squabbling over peace
In disrepair
WITH the holding of by-elections on Wednesday, the process of transfer of power has moved one step forward. A lot remains yet to be done, however. The biggest anomaly is that parliament is still not complete. By delaying elections to the Senate, the government has in a sense violated the Supreme Court’s verdict of May 13, 2000, requiring election to the Senate and the national and provincial assemblies to be held by October 12, 2002, and power transferred. The Senate election is now to be held on February 27. This means that parliament will not be complete until the end of February — more than four months after the elections to the national and provincial assemblies. This is a big anomaly.
Marred by violence, the by-elections have given one more National Assembly seat to the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, with the PML(Q) having retained all seats except one. Surprisingly, the PPP has not won a single seat, while in Sindh it boycotted the poll alleging widespread rigging. Nevertheless, the PPP still remains the number two party in the National Assembly. In the Senate it is likely to get 20 seats, giving it a strong parliamentary presence. The party to watch, however, is the MMA. Having done better in last year’s election than anyone had expected, the six-party alliance is likely to act with a great deal of confidence and tenacity in pursuit of its particular political and legislative agenda.
Since Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali secured his vote of confidence on December 30, the National Assembly has not met again. The MMA has been demanding a session, though it wants the assembly to focus on its anti-American stance. Specially, it wants the NA to discuss the “hot pursuit” controversy and the registration of certain categories of Pakistanis in America with the Immigration and Naturalization Services. There are lots of other pressing issues, of course, that the assembly and the Jamali government need to attend to urgently. The foremost of these are economic. The improvement in the economy since 9/11 is basically statistical. Foreign exchange reserves might have gone up, and the debts have been rescheduled, but there is no change in the quality of life for the average citizen. The slight relief to the people in electricity rates has been offset by two increases in oil prices within a month. Invariably, the rise in oil prices affects transport charges and, thus, adds to the prices of many consumer items.
Agriculture remains stagnant, and there is no investment in industry, hence no new jobs. Poverty remains pervasive, and ad-hocism governs economic planning. In addition, there are crippling conditionalities governing macro-economic planning. What is missing is a long-term economic strategy that should focus on the common man’s hardships and give him relief. Other areas that need the government’s attention are education, health services, the law and order situation, and the worsening quality of urban life. There has been a phenomenal rise in the urban population, but utility and civic services such as electricity, water, sewerage and transport have not kept pace with the rising demographic pressures. They need to be streamlined as part of an overall national economic development process, and there is no better forum for discussing its broad outlines than parliament. We also need to develop the institution of parliamentary committees, which have a vital watch-dog role to play in a democratic dispensation. In well-established democracies, their working testifies to civilian control over national affairs — something that continues to elude us.
SRI Lanka’s problems of governance have often been disproportionate to the size of the tiny island. The last two decades have seen the bloodiest of civil wars between the majority Sinhalese-led government and the rebel Liberation Tigers of the Tamil Elaam (LTTE) forces controlling the northern and certain western Tamil-majority territories. At last tally, violence between the two sides had claimed over 60,000 lives over a period of 19 years, until there emerged a ray of hope last September when Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe signed a Norwegian-brokered peace deal with the LTTE rebels. Subsequent rounds of talks between the two sides have held good promise of more progress as violence has all but ceased. But the peace deal has not gone down well with the all-powerful President Chandrika Kumaratunga whose party had lost the last parliamentary election to its rival party headed by Mr Wickremesinghe.
Curtly enough, Mrs Kumaratunga has now threatened to use her constitutional powers to dismiss the prime minister and dissolve his year-old government, accusing him of offering the LTTE ‘too much’ in the peace bargain. It would be sad for Sri Lanka, and its image abroad, if the president were to make good her threat. Mrs Kumaratunga’s seemingly tough posture towards the LTTE serves little purpose other than realpolitik at this crucial juncture considering that when she was prime minister in 1999, she herself had offered a similar peace package to the LTTE. The latter had rejected her plan after which her government fell but, as luck would have it, she managed to find her way into the presidency. When she turned on her political rivals, she lost control of parliament in the last election. Thus, the only timely advice one can give Mrs Kumaratunga is to caution her against derailing the current peace plan and pushing her country back into violence. If that should happen, it would lead to more suffering and very likely end in her losing the coveted presidency too.
THE non-functioning of CT scan machines in some public hospitals of Lahore is a sad commentary on the state of government health facilities. MRI equipment is also not available, shifting the load for these vital tests on to the already overburdened Children’s Hospital. Well-to-do patients can of course turn to expensive private hospitals, but the less privileged ones suffer. Even if doctors are available for consultation, treatment cannot be started until proper diagnosis is made. Mercifully, the Lahore General Hospital, which deals with serious head injury cases, has lately been provided with a new CT scanner. However, equipment at other public hospitals is often found to be old and worn out, needing urgent repairs or replacement. Had arrangements been made for keeping them in working order, patients would have been spared the trauma of running from place to place for vital tests. Without CT scanners and MRI machines, an important diagnostic function of these hospitals remains paralyzed.
The problem is rooted in our neglect of public health-care facilities. Costly equipment has been allowed to rust for lack of care and maintenance. Autonomy, involving an increase in the cost of treatment, was granted to many public hospitals in the hope that it would help improve their financial and administrative management. It was supposed to be a system of responsibility and accountability. But if even diagnostic tests cannot be carried out, there will be questions whether the new system is achieving its objectives. Resources of public hospitals need to be enhanced to meet increased demand, but it is not so much a shortage of funds as mismanagement, corruption and lack of supervision that cripple medical care in the country.