Off to grand start

FOLLOWING Friday’s spectacular Olympics-style opening ceremony, World Cup 2003 begins in earnest from today with home team South Africa taking on the West Indies in Johannesburg. The excitement across the cricketing world is palpable. Apart from the crowds that will throng stadiums in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya to watch the 54 matches spread across the next six weeks, millions of cricket enthusiasts the world over will be glued to the extravaganza on their television screens. With 14 teams vying for cricket’s most coveted cup, the first World Cup to be held in Africa promises to be a truly spectacular event. Apart from cricket’s traditional nine teams, the tournament also includes outfits like Bangladesh, Kenya, Namibia and Canada, who are hoping to emerge as giant killers or at least pull off an upset like Bangladesh did in 1999 against Pakistan and Kenya against the West Indies in 1996. All eyes, however, will remain on the big teams, with Australia being the hot favourite to win for a third time. The talented South Africans, meanwhile, have home advantage going for them and are desperate to bury the label of being a team that chokes on big occasions. South Africa will also seek to rewrite history by becoming the first home team to win the World Cup.

As for Pakistan, it is as impossible to predict how this most unpredictable of teams will fare. Formidable on paper but often inconsistent in performance, Waqar Younis’s boys will have millions cheering them on back home expecting a miracle. India too have a formidable batting line-up on paper but have had a series of setbacks lately to haunt them. The team, backed by the most extensive marketing juggernaut, will have to overcome their poor record away from home to have any hopes of winning. The explosive Sri Lankans, underrated Kiwis, a more determined England and a West Indies team fighting to rebuild itself to its former strength are other contenders for glory, with Zimbabwe hoping not to prove mere pushovers. While the event promises to be exciting, there are still worries that politics might yet intervene to queer the pitch for the grand tournament. The main factor clouding the success of the event is the decision by the England team to pull out of its match in Zimbabwe. The British government has urged the team to boycott its match in Harare to protest against what it views as President Robert Mugabe’s repressive and dictatorial policies. England’s last-ditch plea to shift the Zimbabwe match to South Africa has now been rejected and the team has a difficult choice ahead. England must choose either to forfeit its match in Harare and lose precious points or swallow its pride and play regardless of the political considerations. Australia and New Zealand too are watching the Zimbabwe situation carefully and could well follow England’s lead. New Zealand, meanwhile, has refused to play in Nairobi because of security fears following the bomb blast in Mombasa last November. The organizers, as well as cricket fans worldwide, are hoping that politics does not end up sabotaging a tournament that brings joy and excitement to millions. As one of the organizers aptly put it, the administrators and politicians must now take a backseat and let the cricket speak for itself. The show must be allowed to go on and cricket’s most prestigious event must not be allowed to become hostage to the whims and propensities of a handful of politicians.

Abuse of blasphemy law

THE misuse of the controversial blasphemy law has claimed yet another victim. On Thursday, a man accused of blasphemy was gunned down in broad daylight in Lahore after he was released on bail by the High Court. Mushtaq Zafar and two of his friends had been accused of blasphemy following complaints that the men had ‘created a new religion’. The son of the accused denies this and claims that his father was framed by drug dealers in their neighbourhood. Because Mushtaq was opposed to the selling of narcotics in the area, the dealers whipped up a frenzy and involved local religious leaders who accused him of committing blasphemy. Mushtaq was eventually arrested and formally charged.

This is not the first incident of its kind. A number of people accused of the crime have been killed by fanatics in jail or after being released on bail or being acquitted. Last year, a man acquitted of the crime was lynched at his home in Jaranwala by a mob incited by a maulvi. Even judges who had released persons wrongly charged with blasphemy have not been spared. Clearly, the law as it stands today is open to all kinds of abuse. In fact, simply being accused of blasphemy can in many cases mean a death warrant. Taking notice of these complaints, President Musharraf had announced in 2001 that the law would be amended to make it less liable to abuse. It was decided that no blasphemy case would be registered until it was first investigated by a senior magistrate. Sadly, this move was fiercely resisted by the religious parties and groups and the amendment was hastily shelved. As a result, the law continues to be abused to settle all kinds of personal scores. Given the current political climate in the country, it is difficult to see the government finding the will to adopt a principled and bold position on the issue. Meanwhile, dozens of innocent people will continue to become ensnared by this law and pay for it with their lives.

A burning issue

THE need for a proper, well-equipped burns unit in the federal capital has long been recognized, with various non-governmental organizations and women’s rights activists lobbying strenuously for its establishment. The federal minister of state for health has also added his voice to those demanding such a facility in Islamabad. The minister recently stated that the government was well aware of the frequent incidents of women being burnt by stove blasts and the grave situation being faced by these burn victims in the absence of a burn trauma unit in the capital. More important, the minister revealed that the government was considering various proposals for establishing such a unit in one of the two major hospitals in Islamabad.

Promises have been made in the past to set up a professionally equipped burns unit in Islamabad, but none of these have materialized. Women rights’ activist claim that the project has not been given the priority it should have been because the victims are mostly from lower income groups. The establishment of such a unit could mean the difference between life and death for the nearly 300 burn victims who are annually admitted to the four major hospitals in Islamabad and Rawalpindi. A recent study showed that 74 per cent of these victims die simply because the hospitals they were admitted to are not adequately equipped to handle such cases, which require specialized care and environmental conditions. The existing small burns ward in Islamabad’s Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences does not meet the minimum requirements of a professional burns centre. And the nearest properly equipped burns units in the area are in the military hospitals at Wah and Kharian, which have a limited capacity. Hopefully, the government’s decision to establish a burns unit in the capital will materialize this time.