| April 12, 2003 | Saturday | Safar 9, 1424 |
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Guarding against SARS
Victory at Sharjah
THE Joint Staff Assessment report put together early this month by the World Bank and IMF requires the government to improve institutional capacity to undertake reforms and to end what it calls political opposition to these reforms. It has also identified lack of continuity and exogenous shocks as obstacles to the implementation of reforms. It is not possible at present to predict how the world economy will shape in the wake of the Iraq war and how it will affect Pakistan in the short and medium term. One only hopes that the progress made on the economic front as a result of the reforms implemented so far has helped prepare the country to cope with the problems and uncertainties ahead with greater confidence and success than in the past under similar circumstances. There is also not much to worry about continuity. All the reforms are intact. In fact, the present government has owned all of them and has publicly pledged to continue them.
Important personalities associated with these reforms since these were launched, like Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz, State Bank Governor Dr. Ishrat Husain and Education Minister Zobeda Jalal, have been retained in the new government to ensure continuity. So, there should be no fear of discontinuity for lack of will or commitment on the part of the government. What, however, needs to be kept in mind while pressing on with the World Bank and IMF-prescribed reforms are the political, social and economic ground realities that exist today in the country. In fact, the problems of insufficient institutional capacity to implement a given dose of reforms at a given pace and the political opposition to them spring from these very realities and the two factors are also interlinked.
The Interim Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (I-PRSP) was prepared at a time when the country was under a military-led government which was naturally not accountable to the people in the real sense. For this reason perhaps the strategy developed then could not have measured the actual level of institutional absorption and the implementation capacities at the grassroots level. This is apparent from the largely silent political opposition to the system of local government and the level of its involvement in governance. Also, there are other issues like the downsizing of the government which only adds to the problem of unemployment in the country and the so-called cost-push increases in utility tariffs which affect low-income groups and raise the costs of exports. These and some other measures of the reform with deep and widespread economic implications need to be reviewed and their pace and dimensions more realistically set. If this is not done then there is a real danger that the strategy prepared under the non-political government would fail to achieve its objective of reducing poverty while accelerating growth. Reforms aimed at complete restructuring of the economy do involve short- and medium-term hardships all around. But so far the indigent alone seem to have borne the brunt of the reforms and restructuring under implementation over the last several years. In the last three years when these reforms were given a more decisive push more people have fallen under the poverty line. This can only stop if the burden of hardship is spread over the whole nation more equitably.
THE identification of the virus causing a serious respiratory illness, that has now spread worldwide, might be the first step in containing the deadly disease. First reported in China’s Guangdong province and in bordering Hong Kong, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome or SARS, has been reported in Asia, Europe, North America, Australia and now even South America. According to the American scientists who have managed to identify the virus, it had never affected humans before. Close in structure to the many viruses that cause the common cold, the SARS virus packs a deadlier punch and has claimed 110 lives so far out of over 3,000 people infected. Ominously, the mode of infection of this deadly disease is much like the common cold: people can become infected if they breathe in air which a patient carrying the SARS virus has sneezed.
The disease has spread all over the world, thanks to air travel, forcing many countries to take strict precautionary measures. Public health authorities here, too, need to do the same at every international airport in the country. Incoming passengers on international flights should be given information regarding the virus and anyone found having the symptoms should be thoroughly checked and, if need be, quarantined. Qualified doctors should be posted at all ports of entry to ensure that no SARS carrier comes inside the country without being detected. This is crucial since the SARS virus has no cure and the best way to prevent it from spreading would be to isolate infected persons. Unfortunately, all this is much easier said than done. For Pakistan to remain SARS-free, the ministry of health will have to adopt a serious approach to the need for detection, isolation and surveillance.
THE new-look Pakistan cricket team’s convincing victory over Zimbabwe in the final of the Sharjah Cup on Thursday came as a pleasant surprise. The infusion of new blood and the decision to change the captain, coach and selectors seem to have injected new life into the side. The team had been in the doldrums recently, plummeting to an all-time low with its lacklustre World Cup performance last month. The young side that has emerged following a big shake-up played with great panache during the Sharjah tournament and remained undefeated against rivals Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka and Kenya. It was abundantly clear that the side was enjoying their cricket and playing as an integrated team — something that had been woefully missing in the recent past. Captain Rashid Latif rallied his troops with skill and coach Javed Miandad was never too far from the action even as a spectator. As many as eight members of the team that played in the disastrous World Cup campaign in South Africa, including superstars Waqar Younis, Waseem Akram, Shoaib Akhtar, Inzamamul Haq and Saeed Anwar, were left out of the team to make way for youngsters. The new players grabbed this opportunity with great enthusiasm and managed to deliver the goods.
Young Mohammad Sami bowled his heart out with admirable discipline, and in Misbahul Haq, Mohammad Hafeez, Naveedul Hasan, Faisal Iqbal and Umar Gul Pakistan has found talented new prospects for the future. Best of all, the more experienced players, led by Yousuf Youhana, Younus Khan, Abdur Razzaq and Rashid Latif, came good at the right time. However, it would be unwise to make too many tall claims about the team on the basis of its victory in a single tournament. For one, the opposition was not too formidable, perhaps with the exception of Sri Lanka. The rebuilding of a new Pakistan side could be a long and painstaking process, but at least a good start has been made. Given the right combination of leadership, management and coaching, the present batch of young cricketers could provide the nucleus of a new Pakistani side that could well become as formidable as it was in its heyday.