| December 9, 2003 | Tuesday | Shawwal 14, 1424 |
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Recurring wheat crisis
Leave the hospital alone
The positive tone in which Mr Hamid Karzai has spoken about his country’s relations with Pakistan is refreshingly different from the accusatory remarks he made in some of his recent public utterances. Mr Karzai’s views this time are friendly, even warm. He referred to the differences between Pakistan and Afghanistan as those between two brothers and said the aim was to remove these misunderstandings and sort out problems. The most welcoming part of his statement, while talking to senior Pakistani journalists in Kabul on Sunday, concerned the Taliban. He said he had merely referred to the presence of some Taliban leaders in Pakistan without in any way accusing Islamabad of harbouring them. About the presence of Mullah Omar in Quetta, he said he had quoted a foreign report without ascertaining its veracity. Many Taliban leaders, he said, were staying in Pakistan the way “we were there in the past.” This was Mr Karzai’s reference to the four million Afghans who had sought refuge in Pakistan during the Soviet occupation. He himself was one of them.
No two countries are intertwined the way Pakistan and Afghanistan are. Their long common border is mountainous and porous. Even in the best of times, it is not possible to check the movement of goods and people across the border. People on both sides share ties of common language and culture, and profit economically from formal and informal trade. Being landlocked, Afghanistan is dependent on Pakistan for trade and essential supplies like food and fuel. However, in the kind of chaotic situation existing at present, Taliban or other militants would not find it difficult to move both ways and avoid detection. Their activities pose a threat as much to Pakistan as to Afghanistan. It is, thus, in our common interest to cooperate in rooting out the remnants of terrorist cells. Islamabad’s main grievance is that if the two sides come across any problems in this operation, they should sort this out quietly without going public with grievances. One hopes that the Afghan president’s press talk marks a departure from the past pattern and that in the future both sides would make attempts to remove misunderstandings through greater coordination.
Another point in Mr Karzai’s press talk concerns his country’s relations with India. Mr Karzai acknowledges that Pakistan had helped Afghanistan for no less than 20 years during the anti-Soviet struggle. India had not helped Afghanistan to that extent, so “how could India... influence us?” He has a point, and there is no doubt Islamabad cannot be touchy about Afghanistan’s relations with another country. However, given the prickly nature of Indo-Pakistan relations, Kabul should understand some of Islamabad’s sensitivities. Pakistan, for instance, cannot forget that for decades New Delhi encouraged and helped Kabul in pursuing the Pushtoonistan bogey. A replay of that may not work under the changed circumstances, but Islamabad cannot be unmindful of any such a possibility.
With a rapprochement now under way between Pakistan and India, one hopes both Islamabad and New Delhi would help Afghanistan in its reconstruction instead of turning that country into a hotbed of intrigue and espionage. Pakistan would do well to note that India is helping the Afghan people by building schools, roads and hospitals. Pakistan should do the same. Islamabad has already pledged $100 million to Kabul in aid, and part of the money has been paid. It should realize that Pakistan can have greater influence with Kabul and earn the people’s gratitude if it is seen as playing a greater role in rebuilding Afghanistan.
THE Sindh assembly has noted with concern the looming wheat crisis in the province, which has forced flour prices up by as high as 20 per cent in some parts. In reply, the government has said that this is an artificial crisis that is being caused by low production and hoarding of wheat stocks. The provincial food minister has blamed the price hike on flour mills which have not lifted stocks according to their agreement with the government. The official point of view is that in October 2003 a quota of 108,000 tons was fixed for flour mills but they lifted only 90,000 tons. The flour mills have their own story to tell. The All Pakistan Flour Mills Association says that the present wheat stocks with the government can meet only 15 days’ requirement of the province. It also says that most of the wheat on offer through the government is of inferior quality and needs to be blended with good quality wheat which is not freely available.
Whatever the truth, the bottom line is that the price of flour has started rising in the local market — from Rs10 per kilo to Rs14 and is expected to go up further by next week. Given this state of affairs, one wonders why the wheat situation in the province is mismanaged in such a way that the common man has to suffer as a consequence. Flour mill owners say that they did warn of the impending situation months in advance. It is time the government tried to clear up this confusion about stocks and supplies. If it claims that there are enough stocks and that these are being hoarded, then strict action should be taken against those responsible. The immediate tasks is to release sufficient stocks in the market to bring down and stabilize prices.
A REPORT from Faisalabad suggests that the district government is eyeing the city’s veterinary hospital for possible conversion into a shopping plaza. First it was Peshawar, where the cantonment board is bent on demolishing a 140-year-old temple and now it is the district government in Faisalabad which sees nothing wrong with closing down a veterinary hospital and selling the plot for building a shopping plaza there. It seems that those in charge of civic and other bodies in the country are less concerned about providing the needed amenities and services to the people and are often more interested in making money by selling amenity plots and so on. In this particular case, the Faisalabad Tehsil Municipal Administration is taking a thoroughly wrong step in trying to close down a veterinary hospital that has been providing care and immunization services to the livestock in the surrounding area.
The premises house the offices of several livestock-related bodies and also the local chapter of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. The hospital complex is situated in a central part of the city, and plays an important role in the treatment of farm animals. To move it to another location, which is what the municipal managers plan to do, would not be advisable. The new location would not be as central and convenient for farmers as the existing one, thus restricting the purpose of the facility to serve as wide a farmland area as desirable. In any case, the officials concern in Faisalabad have no business even considering the conversion of an animals hospital into a commercial plaza. Unfortunately, as long as elected officials remain apathetic to their public responsibilities and indifferent to basic issues such as education, health and so on, we will continue to suffer from wayward moves and propensities such as the present one. The provincial government would do well to take notice of the matter and ask the authorities in Faisalabad to abandon the idea of demolishing the veterinary hospital.