| November 24, 2003 | Monday | Ramazan 28, 1424 |
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Investment prospects
Outlawing karo-kari
PRESIDENT Pervez Musharraf has called for a proactive public-private sector partnership for sustained development of children. He expressed his concern for the plight of the younger generation while speaking at a function held to observe universal children’s day last week. This gesture will be widely appreciated, given the fact that ours is a society which does not recognize the importance of children for the future of the country. The status of children testifies to this callousness. The prime minister’s adviser on women’s development left no doubt about how badly we have failed the younger generation. According to her, 38 per cent of our children never go to school, over three million end up as child workers and 11 per cent are disabled. These are only a few problems that have blighted the lives of our young ones.
While urging the private sector to step forward and extend a helping hand, the president’s focus appeared to be on family planning. While it is true that the rapidly growing population of the country and the large family size make it difficult for any programme for child uplift to be effective in the long term, there are other aspects of the matter which also need to be addressed. Population planning will render the future task of policy-makers easier but it does not absolve them of the responsibility of providing for the needs of the children who have already been born.
Which are the most neglected areas in children’s lives in Pakistan? The problems are interrelated but essentially the need is to provide them education and health care while bringing about a reduction in the incidence of child labour. If these goals are sought to be achieved within a wider framework of socio-economic development and poverty alleviation, the population growth rate will also come down. It has been established by demographers that education is the best and most effective means of population control. Hence what is basically needed is a holistic approach to child development which will ensure that improvement in one sector will bring about a corresponding betterment in another. For instance, enrolling children in school helps reduce their presence in the labour market.
While a policy which is focused on child development is highly desirable, the government should also work for a child-centred approach in policy-making and development planning. Not only should the policy-makers and administrators be sensitized to the needs of the child, rules should also be drawn up to ensure that every project which is undertaken addresses the needs of children. In this way the private sector can also be involved in a programme of child development. For instance, every industry or commercial concern of a stipulated size should be required to provide for the schooling of its workers’ children. Town planners must ensure parks and playgrounds in every plan. A paediatrics department in every hospital and clinic should also be compulsory if child health is not to be neglected. Organizations can be encouraged to promote sports and other leisure-time activities for children. It is not that a massive children’s fund is needed to finance costly projects if the lot of the child has to be improved. Greater awareness of the child’s needs and the facilities to address them effectively should help transform the situation.
BILL GATES, the chairman of Microsoft Corporation and the world’s richest man, had a telephone conversation with the president on Friday in which he expressed interest in investing in Pakistan. The president welcomed this and told Mr Gates that Pakistan’s IT professionals were among the best in the world. While this may be the case, the government needs to do much more to attract foreign investment into the country. Figures released last week show that foreign investment has dropped by 63 per cent in the period from July to October this year compared to the corresponding period last year. This is cause for concern. A closer examination of the trend shows that foreign investors complain that they are deterred by the unsatisfactory law and order situation in the country as by its political instability. While the government has been serious about its commitment to fight terrorism, much more needs to be done to control crime, which has been spiralling over the past few years. Despite streamlining and strengthening various crime control agencies, there is very little to show for all this. Armed robberies, thefts, kidnapping, assaults and petty crime have all marked a visible increase. In addition, politically motivated violence as well as acts of terrorism have also dented the country’s image in the eyes of foreign investors. To add to this is the inefficiency of the intelligence agencies in following up on specific cases of crime and violence, so that many perpetrators remain at large — to strike again. Then there is the issue of continuity of laws, rules and policies regarding business and commerce.
The government needs to ensure that policies that relate to foreign investment are not changed frequently as this weakens the confidence of both foreign and domestic investors. A major deterring factor is the prevailing political uncertainty centred around the government and opposition stand-off over the controversial Legal Framework Order (LFO). In such a climate of uncertainty, tension and insecurity, foreign capitalists can hardly be expected to make any long-term commitment to invest in Pakistan, however great the potential. Knowing all this, it is important for the government to make resolute efforts to bring the LFO stalemate to an early end. Equally vital is the need to improve the law and order situation and to reign in elements and groups that indulge in political, sectarian and other forms of violence and terror.
SEVERAL seminars have been held of late on karo-kari. Participants have unanimously, and rightly, come to the conclusion that the government needs to urgently change the existing law to make honour killing a capital offence. Recently the Sindh High Court was also approached by a citizen seeking judicial intervention in outlawing honour killing. In addition, the National and Sindh assemblies have seen the issue discussed, though not with any degree of keenness or vigour. In fact, in the National Assembly, the issue was admitted for debate only after the member who wanted to speak on the subject threatened to walk out if disallowed. For its part, the Sindh legislature has formed a committee to formulate recommendations to the government to change the existing law so that anyone who kills in the name of his or his family’s honour is charged for premeditated murder.
Under the current law, a person who kills another person can get away with a light sentence if he can prove that he acted under “grave provocation”. It is this provision that allows most of those who commit acts of karo-kari to get away without being charged for murder. Hopefully, the government will modify the existing law so that it makes no distinction between premeditated murder and the killing in protection of so-called family honour. Those who justify karo-kari, as a provincial minister in Sindh has done in a recent interview to an English-language magazine, by saying it is part of tribal custom, need to realize that tradition or not, killing is a horrendous crime and must be dealt with as such. Those who say that centuries-old practices like karo-kari cannot be eliminated with simple legislation are also not entirely wrong but then the fight to outlaw such crimes will get a significant boost if the law at least is on one’s side. To save precious lives, the federal government must act sooner than later to amend the relevant law to make honour killing a capital offence.