| May 8, 2003 | Thursday | Rabi-ul-Awwal 5, 1424 |
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Fatal negligence
National parks in Kaghan
PRIME MINISTER Zafarullah Khan Jamali’s six-point formula for peace and normalization between India and Pakistan marks a step forward in that direction. In his speech to the Indian parliament last week, Mr Vajpayee offered restoring full diplomatic relations downgraded since December 2001, besides resumption of air links between the two countries. He, however, stopped short of repeating his offer of talks which he had made in his Srinagar speech of April 18, this time making the possibility of a dialogue conditional on Pakistan stopping “cross-border terrorism.” At his Tuesday press conference, Mr Jamali repeated his talks offer besides proposing a six-point normalization package. These proposals include not only two of Mr Vajpayee’s points — those relating to restoration of full diplomatic relations and air links — but also some of his own. These include early restoration of rail and road links as well. Besides concurring with the Indian proposal for full restoration of diplomatic ties and air links, Mr Jamali has also proposed resumption of sporting ties, ordered the release of all Indian fishermen in Pakistani prisons and placed 78 additional items on the trade list of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation. While doing so, he has termed these moves confidence-building measures and offered unconditional talks to India. He has also repeated his offer to go to New Delhi if the Indian prime minister was facing “some difficulties” about visiting Islamabad.
The ball is now in India’s court. The initial Indian reaction carried by a foreign agency is negative — though incomplete and tentative in nature and content. The agency has not named any Indian official but merely quotes official sources as saying that Mr Jamali’s proposals were “inadequate.” Obviously, one must wait until the Vajpayee government has fully studied the Jamali proposals and conveyed its reaction officially. Nevertheless, anyone interested in seeing a process of normalization of stalemated relations between Pakistan and India should have no difficulty in seeing the value and relevance of the Jamali offer. On the whole, his proposals constitute a quantum jump over the Indian proposals. The initiative for a breakthrough was no doubt taken by Mr Vajpayee when, in his Srinagar speech, he offered talks to Pakistan. However, soon thereafter he changed his stance, insisting that no talks with Pakistan could take place unless Islamabad stopped “cross-border terrorism.” In other words, the Indian side would like to confine normalization to a resumption of air links and full diplomatic ties but without the two sides moving forward to address the problems and differences afflicting their relations.
It is difficult to see how the two countries could normalize their relations without having a purposeful dialogue on all issues, including Kashmir. Mr Jamali’s position is, thus, realistic when he offers a series of confidence-building measures and a dialogue to pick up the threads left off at Agra. Because the talks at Agra were scuttled by the hawks in Mr Vajpayee’s cabinet, Mr Jamali’s anxiety about the future of his proposals is understandable when he says that he hopes that the hardliners would not again sabotage the new peace moves. Indeed, what is at stake is not the Nobel peace prize but the future of the one billion-plus people of the two countries. The two governments owe it to their people to make South Asia a region of peace instead of a zone of perpetual tension and anxiety. Mr Jamali’s proposals are a positive step in the direction of achieving this goal. One hopes India will reciprocate Pakistan’s proposals in the spirit in which they have been made.
THE death of a mother of eight children at Karachi’s Civil Hospital after undergoing a regular surgical procedure should awaken the relevant authorities on the problem as well as the tragic consequences of professional negligence at many government hospitals. The woman in question died from internal infection after three operations were performed on her in quick succession. The first procedure was carried out to remove her gall bladder, the second to remove the used swabs carelessly left in her abdomen in the course of the first operation, and the third one to treat the deadly infection caused by those swabs. The contention by the surgeon in charge that it was the assisting paramedical staff’s duty to remove the swabs in question is no explanation for what followed, eventually costing the patient her life. This case calls for a thorough inquiry into the matter so as to bring to book all those found negligent in their duties.
Negligence of this nature that can cause undue pain and suffering to patients and even lead to deaths at the hands of careless, or incompetent surgeons or paramedics amounts to playing with the lives and health of patients. Government hospitals are the only places where the less affluent sections of society go to seek relief and cure because they cannot afford expensive medical treatment at most of the private hospitals and clinics. The Civil Hospital, Karachi, like other big public hospitals in major cities, attracts patients from far-flung rural areas too. They need to be treated more humanely and with the care and attention that they need and deserve. This, unfortunately, is not always the case.
THE NWFP government’s decision to declare two spectacularly picturesque lakes in the Kaghan Valley as national parks will be welcomed by all those dismayed by the rapid degradation of the country’s mountainous north. The Saiful Malook and Lalusar lakes are some of the most scenic spots in the country which attract thousands of tourists to their shores every year. As a result, the pristine beauty of the area has been marred by the litter and pollution such mass tourism brings in its wake. One hopes that environmental conditions in the vicinity of the lakes will rapidly improve now that they form part of the country’s chain of national parks. The law prohibits hunting, shooting, trapping of animals, logging, prospecting and mining in areas declared national parks. This is meant to preserve the area’s natural beauty and protect the myriad forms of wildlife found in their vicinity. However, simply declaring an area a national park does not automatically translate into its conservation. It is important to follow up the move by taking concrete measures to enforce the laws that govern national parks.
It is also important that initiatives are taken to involve the local population at every level in such conservation efforts. In certain cases, decisions to declare areas as national parks were taken in haste without consulting the local population. A bevy of forest officials and guards suddenly descended on certain designated areas where they began to question and harass villagers going about their daily chores. In some cases, this thoughtless and insensitive approach provoked an angry backlash against the concept of a national park. In one significant instance, locals deliberately cut down trees, burnt forests and wantonly wiped out the area’s wildlife in protest against its designation as a national park. One hopes such mistakes will not be repeated again. It is obvious that if people are given a stake in conservation, they will soon see a connection between a clean environment and the number of tourists attracted to their area. What is most important is that the plan to conserve the Kaghan lakes does not remain on paper alone but is properly implemented through a participatory approach.