KARACHI: Check on misuse of Red Cross emblem urged
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, May 10: Speakers at a workshop on Saturday urged the government to make amendments to the laws to check the rampant misuse of the emblem of the Red Crescent and Red Cross.
They were speaking at the workshop on the “use and misuse of the Red Cross and the Red Crescent Emblem,” organized jointly by the Pakistan Red Crescent Society, International Committee of the Red Cross and the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
They paid rich tributes to the Swiss Henry Dunant who laid the foundation of the Red Cross in 1863.
Sindh chief minister’s financial adviser, Aftab A. Shaikh, representing Sindh governor Ishratul Ibad, suggested that the Red Crescent and the Red Cross move the courts against those people and organizations who were misusing their emblem.
He said that as every commercial organization protected its trade mark and moved the courts against its violators, the Pakistan Red Crescent Society, which is a statutory body and was constituted by an act of parliament, could also do the same.
Referring to what an earlier speaker had said, he said that since the president of the country was the chief of the Pakistan Red Crescent Society, the society could urge him to make the punishments for the violation even more stringent. He added that the violation could be made a penal offence which should be cognizable and non-compoundable.
He said If the courts were moved against a few violators and it resulted in convictions, nobody would ever dare misuse the emblem again.
Earlier, other speakers said that in accordance with Geneva Conventions the emblem of the Red Cross - Red Crescent was a distinct international emblem safeguarding victims in wartimes and other calamities.
They pointed out that strict laws had been enforced in almost all the countries for this essential purpose — the use and ownership of the emblem exclusively by the Red Cross - Red Crescent Societies only.
They said that in Pakistan also, two enactments — the Geneva Conventions Implementation Acts of 1936 and 1963 — strictly prohibited the use of that emblem by any other body, or for any other purpose, whatsoever.
They said that despite this universal acceptance, it was observed that the emblem was widely misused being displayed at almost all the health and medical establishments, practitioners, private ambulances, pharmaceutical companies and their outlets and even by quacks, which was causing considerable hindrance and posing problems to the Pakistan Red Crescent Society — the sole authorized party to use and display the emblem.
Representatives of the Pakistan Red Crescent Society, highlighting its activities said it was a member of the worldwide organiztaion operating in over 179 countries and territories.
They said that the organization with its 1,000 staff members, 20,000 members and over 50,000 volunteers was operating in 66 districts in the country and over 200,000 people benefited from its over 160 outlets throughout the country annually.
They said that nearly 14,000 patients were seen at the organization’s various eye-camps and 700 cataract operations were carried out annually.
They said that relief goods and food packets of Rs62 million were distributed among the drought victims in Balochistan and Sindh between 2000 and 2001.
Jamila Ibrahim of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Karl Mattli of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Brig (retd) M. Fazil Moeen, Maj Gen (retd) M. Bashir Khan, Yasin Malik, Shamiem Kazmi and others spoke at the function conducted by Kanwer Waseem.
