| November 10, 2003 | Monday | Ramazan 14, 1424 |
Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window)
Settling scores on TV
Hasty and improper
THE State Bank’s annual report for 2002-03 has said that the biggest challenge before the country’s economic managers is to create as many jobs as possible in the short term. The report has linked the issue of job creation with that of poverty, which has risen in Pakistan from 20 per cent to 33 per cent of the population over the past decade. The report warns that given the carryover of the past, the current geopolitical and security situation, a non-supportive external economic environment and weak institutional capacity, it will be unrealistic to expect a sharp fall in poverty levels in the short term. The plain fact is that poverty cannot be eradicated unless its root causes, such as shortage of investible human capital, are addressed adequately. A multi-pronged approach is what is needed to come to grips with the problem.
The foremost requirement is a substantial increase in investment in human capital, particularly in health and education, as a long-term strategy to transform it into an economic strength for the country. The SBP report says that given the improvement in governance, policy stability and correction of microeconomic imbalances, low level of private investment continues to be a cause for concern, stressing that foreign investment can only improve if there is an increase in domestic private investment. Here it suggests that the most promising areas for job creation by the private sector are construction and housing, small and medium enterprises and rural development. While these are all valid points, they cannot be considered in isolation. For example, greater private sector investment can take place only if concrete steps are taken to improve the law and order situation as well as check problems like smuggling. In the case of the housing and construction industry, the government has to work towards bringing down the prices of construction materials. In the past few months, prices of cement and steel have registered an increase despite incentives announced in the budget for both these items. The government needs to break the cartels that have been formed in these two sectors so that a lowering of prices can acts as a stimulus for construction activity.
A change of direction is also called for in the housing industry. At this stage, the emphasis is on the launch of elitist housing projects at a time when the need is to institute and encourage projects meant for middle income groups’ housing needs. As for development and expansion of infrastructure, which too has good potential for employment generation, the problem here is that many of the major projects are awarded in full or in part to the Frontier Works Organization of the armed forces, so that the private sector is virtually shut out and their employment generating potential remains restricted. Finally, a mention must be made of the contradictions between the country’s needs in the immediate context and the international final institutions’ prescriptions in the context of poverty alleviation and public spending. On the one hand, the IMF and the World Bank expect Pakistan to do much for the alleviation of poverty, whose one manifestation is a high rate of unemployment, and are ready to fund such efforts, and on the other, they insist on downsizing and rapid privatization of public sector enterprises along with deeps cuts in public spending. These are problems and obstacles that need to be taken up and sorted out if any progress is to be made towards easing the problem of poverty and unemployment.
PAKISTAN cricket coach Javed Miandad’s revelation on Friday that he was not consulted by the selectors before they finalized the team to play the one-day home series against New Zealand later this month seems to suggest that all is not well with the management of the national cricket team. The former batting maestro’s admission that he read about the final team only in the press also confirms the widely-held perception among many that the coach and the chairman of the board of selectors, former test opener Aamir Sohail, have differences with regard to team selection. Clearly, this is not an ideal state of affairs since an understanding between the coach and selectors is important. As is the practice all over the cricketing world, while the latter have the final say on the team, it is inconceivable that a team should be selected without any advice from the coach. Differences between the coach and the selectors need to be sorted out, preferably with the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) taking the lead.
There is also another aspect to this on-going tussle between the coach and the chief selector. The latter doubles up as a television commentator and in recent matches has been accused of using this platform to openly criticize the decisions of the team coach. The conduct is wholly unbecoming. If problems do exist, the right approach is for the parties concerned to talk to each other and sort them out discreetly away from public view. In principle, the PCB should not be allowing its employees to work as cricket commentators — something that the board’s chief executive, Rameez Raja, also does. But then, Mr Raja has been doing this for quite some time and is a much superior commentator than the chief selector, who is not only abrasive, but often goes overboard in his criticism, especially of Pakistani players. Such words of criticism might seem all right from a neutral commentator — Geoffrey Boycott’s unrelenting criticism of the Indian cricket team is one example — but they assume greater significance when coming from someone who happens to be the chief selector. Mr Sohail needs to sort out his differences with Mr Miandad and make a choice between his job of chief selector and TV commentator.
THE prompt arrest of a college teacher by the Islamabad police for allegedly inflicting corporal punishment on a student and the subsequent decision by a court to send the teacher for 14 days in judicial remand raises questions about the conduct and jurisdiction of the Capital’s law-enforcement authorities. Ordinary citizens should be forgiven for thinking that the police moved so quickly in this only because the boy said to have been punished is the son of a federal minister of state. The boy was among several students apparently rapped on the hands with a ruler for “poor performance”.
Corporal punishment is wrong and in banned in several countries as well as many schools here. But was this a police case? The police should not have been involved in the matter at all, let alone arrest the teacher and seek a judicial remand. The complainant should have approached the principal of the college to take disciplinary action against the teacher, and if the former refused, the complainant should then have approached the directorate of education. The incident would not have come this far had the police told the complainant at the outset that this was a case for the college’s disciplinary committee. The police are known to refuse to register complaints where the injury inflicted is much more serious, for example, in cases of domestic violence. To act with such alacrity because a minister was involved again underlines how the police are susceptible to pressure from the powerful.