| December 1, 2003 | Monday | Shawwal 6, 1424 |
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Power tariff blues
Liver transplant
PRESIDENT George W. Bush’s secret Thanksgiving Day visit to Baghdad and his upbeat message to the American soldiers serving there contrasted sharply with the reality on the ground. Referring to the US occupation troops, Mr Bush said that the American people would appreciate his “showing sympathy to these kids,” who were fighting to “rebuild (Iraq) based on human dignity and freedom.” For the parents of the two Iraqi girls aged 12 and 15, who were shot dead by these gun-totting “kids” the same day as they went picking firewood in a field lying beyond the secure environs of the US base at Baghdad airport, nothing could be further from the truth. Grand Ayatullah al-Sistani of Najaf gave vent to many Iraqis’ feeling when he asked Jalal Talabani, the head of the American-nominated Iraqi Governing Council, to tell the US to immediately hold elections and hand over power to elected representatives of Iraqi people. This he did only hours before Mr Talabani was to meet President Bush. The Ayatullah’s call met with an instant approval from a breakaway Baghdad-based hardline faction of the Iraqi Shia religious establishment. These events, coupled with the Sunni-majority central Iraq becoming increasingly hostile to the occupation forces, leave little cause for comfort for Mr Bush.
Indeed, the US-led coalition forces’ failures in Iraq far outweigh their success in pacifying that country eight months after its occupation by them. The supposed stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction which the Iraqi regime was accused of hiding from UN weapons inspectors, and which the US-led coalition said formed the basis for the invasion of Iraq, have not been found. The economic woes of the Iraqi people have worsened since the war began, with nearly two million households now left with no means of supporting themselves. The country’s industrial and economic infrastructure, water and power supplies and essential services lie in a shambles, with no real efforts being made to restore these to their pre-war levels of operation. As for progress towards democracy, the recently unveiled American plan of holding election by June next on the basis of representation through caucuses of Iraqi notables — while an American-led administration continues to exercise real authority — falls short of the Iraqi people’s expectations. Iraqis today are a terribly aggrieved and frustrated people.
The American argument that Iraq is not ready for a transfer of power to an elected government unless a fresh census is held and electoral rolls are put in place is not the whole truth if one takes into account the counter-argument given by Grand Ayatullah Sistani. The latter said on Thursday that electoral rolls could be made from the ration lists prepared by the UN, which are pretty much accurate. This should be heeded by the US-led interim administration for one reason, if for no other, because it provides the coalition forces a face saving and an exit strategy as proposed under the American plan. And if electoral rolls are to be based on UN-prepared ration lists, then it is only fair that the UN should be the legal authority overseeing the conduct of election. Lastly, the US should know that this kind of dispensation will be more acceptable to the Iraqis as well as the world at large.
THE chairman of task force on power tariff, Mirza Hamid Hassan, has claimed that power rates could be drastically slashed if the proposal his task force has developed is acceptable to the government. One tends to agree with this view. For example, the total government taxes charged from power consumers amount to 71 paisa per unit, of which 30 paisa is mitigated by the government through subsidy. The removal of sales tax, withholding tax and electricity duty can, therefore, bring down the tariff by 41 paisa per unit. Indeed, the economic logic of taxing inputs for an essential item and thereby penalizing the consumers is not at all fair. Again, the government charges from Wapda as much as 22 per cent in interest for the loans it has re-lent to the utility as against an interest rate of two to four per cent payable by it on these loans.
This huge burden on Wapda could be reduced either by rationalizing interest rates by the government on the re-lent loans or by repaying the loans from resources borrowed by Wapda at today’s market rates which are no more than two to four per cent. This would help effect a reduction of another 41 paisa per unit. Similarly, if the other proposals of the task force, like reduction in losses, an increase in recoveries and restructuring of the fuel prices, are accepted, perhaps Wapda would then be in a position to reduce the tariff by as much as two to three rupees per unit. This would drastically change for the better the investment scenario in Pakistan for the local as well as foreign investors. Power being the most essential input in almost every economic activity, its local cost principally determines the domestic rate of inflation. Over the last several years, because of bad planning and rampant inefficiency and corruption in Wapda and KESC, the cost of industrial products has kept rising, reaching levels which have rendered our exports uncompetitive in world markets. It is time, therefore, that the government tackled the issue urgently and in all seriousness so that our economy is in a position to face the challenges of globalization with success.
HISTORY has been made by a team of doctors at the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation (SIUT) who successfully carried out the first liver transplantation ever in Pakistan on Tuesday. In the presence of a team of surgeons from Kings College, London, an SIUT team headed by Dr Adibul Hassan Rizvi carried out the nine-hour operation in which a part of a six-month-old boy’s liver was transplanted. It is understood that a similar operation in the United States would cost approximately $250,000 had the patient gone there for treatment. Tuesday’s operation brings hope to the several thousand in Pakistan who suffer from similar symptoms and need a liver transplant but cannot afford to do so because of the expenses involved in getting a transplant. But this dream can only be realized if enough donors are available for the purpose. Till now, it is usually near relations who are organ donors, and this limits the scope of the benefit considerably since tissues have to be matched before the actual transplanting procedure can be carried out. This situation can change, however, if the number of organ donors increases.
For Pakistanis to fully benefit from the expertise being gained at the SIUT, the long delayed law on cadaver organ donation needs to be enacted. This law, which will recognize brain stem death as fit case for obtaining the needed organs and legally allow removal of organs from a brain-dead person, has been pending before the legislature for approval for the past seven years. As things stand, chronic liver disease is a major health problem in Pakistan owing to a rise in Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C cases. According to estimates given at a recent medical symposium, about four per cent of the population is suffering from Hepatitis B and a similar number from Hepatitis C, which is reason enough to take the issue up urgently.