| 09 February 2004 | Monday | 17 Zilhaj 1424 |
Divorced women's rights
AJK TV channel
Pakistan is re-entering the international bond market, after a lapse of over five years, with a proposed float of $500 million worth of Eurobonds on February 12 in London.
The government has already launched an international road-show to promote the bonds in the financial markets of the world with visits of the Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz and the State Bank governor, Dr. Ishrat Hussain, to Singapore, Hong Kong, Abu Dhabi and Frankfurt.
The timing of the float is good as Pakistan's own economic standing in the world has improved considerably with international debt rating for the proposed bonds jumping to B (Standard& Poor's) and B2 (Moody's) while the cost of borrowing in the world markets these days has slumped to an all-time low.
The timing is ideal for another cogent reason. By the end of the current calender year Pakistan would be completing what is believed to be its last IMF programme - the three-year Poverty Reduction Growth Facility.
This would be a welcome development as the multilateral lendings come with a lot of attached conditions which, while appearing to be a panacea for all economic ills of the recipient country in theory, create practical difficulties for its economy.
So, it is always advisable to keep the multilateral assistance to the very minimum. However, no economy, not even that of the developed countries can sustain desirable growth rates for long only with their own resources.
The largest economy of the world, that of the US, is perhaps the most indebted in the world. A country cannot avoid borrowing from outside sources if it wants to achieve a certain level of sustainable growth rate.
There are two avenues from which countries borrow for their development needs. One is the multilateral agencies and the other the international commercial market. The multilateral agencies attach hard economic conditionalities to ensure that the borrower achieves a level of growth which will enable it to repay within a fixed period, while the funds obtained from the commercial market come with financial terms commensurate with the borrower's repaying capacity.
So, the conditionalities of the multilateral agencies and the financial terms of the commercial lenders both are crucially linked to the borrower's ability to repay. The bottom-line, therefore, is for the borrowing country to reform and restructure its economy in such a way that it is perceived as a low-or medium-risk country by the rating agencies.
Once this perception gains ground about a country, the cost of borrowing for that country, whether from the multilateral sources or the commercial markets, becomes decidedly less burdensome.
Pakistan has been able to achieve over the last couple of years a modicum of economic stability and its risk rating has improved a great deal in the meantime. We must make the best and most efficient use of this situation by turning to the commercial market for our foreign resource requirements.
Countries very active in the world commercial market automatically become very attractive places for foreign investors. Also, the necessary environment is created for the domestic corporate sector to borrow for its foreign currency needs from the international commercial market at reasonable rates based on the national bench mark.
Divorced women's rights
In a landmark ruling the Lahore High Court has granted relief to a divorcee mother, ordering her former husband to pay a monthly allowance for the upkeep of their three minor children living with the mother.
Noting that there was no law on the statute books to help such mothers, the ruling by Justice Fakharun Nisa said that certain lacunae in the law ought to be removed to safeguard the rights of divorced women.
She further stressed the need for parliament to amend the Family Laws Ordinance of 1961 to ensure that divorced women, particularly those with children, do not have to endure undue hardship.
The ruling makes good sense because it not only aims at helping divorced mothers but also at ensuring the upkeep of the children of divorced parents. In a society like ours where a majority of divorced women are not able to remarry because of social taboos, the ruling in question can lighten the burden of some of the unfortunate consequences of divorce, which often hapless women and their minor children are left to endure. The truth is that a vast majority of non-working divorced mothers and their children have often ended up in destitution.
The Family Laws of 1961 were a watershed in that they acknowledged the need to safeguard women's rights at a time when divorce was not as common a social and human problem as it is today. As Justice Fakharun Nisa pointed out in her ruling, equality and natural justice demand that women who are divorced without sufficient reason and left at the mercy of a male-dominated society, be given a maintenance allowance to be provided on demand by their former husbands until they choose to remarry.
The judge's ruling, urging parliament to act to fill the gaps in the existing laws so that the rights of women and children are safeguarded, merits urgent attention. Now with at least 33 per cent of the seats held by women legislators in the national and provincial assemblies, it is imperative that such legislation is made without delay or demar.
AJK TV channel
The launch of a television channel for Azad Jammu and Kashmir is a welcome development which will provide opportunities for the promotion of the region's languages, arts and culture. Christened AJK TV, the new channel has been funded by a Rs 340 million grant from the federal government and consists of one television station and the accompanying broadcast infrastructure, including seven boosters.
'Speaking at its launch, President Musharraf said that he hoped the channel would "project the Kashmir cause in an effective manner". He also said that it could prove useful in countering the "negative propaganda" coming from across the border. Most people would agree with this but the point here is that the primary aim of any television channel should be to educate and entertain its audience.
Programmes showing the richness of AJK's culture, traditions, its local crafts and economy, its scenic beauty and the immense opportunity for recreation and tourism is perhaps be the best way of projecting Azad Kashmir and its cause.
It would be a waste of the federal government's grant and of the resources of the financially hard-up AJK government if the channel is used to glorify the activities of ministers and high officials a la PTV. Also, in the context of the improvement in relations between India and Pakistan, and the need for a congenial environment between the two countries, the new channel could play a positive role. It could highlight the linguistic, ethnic and cultural heritage common to Kashmiris on both sides of the LOC.
While it is important not to forget, and to highlight, the excesses committed by the Indian security forces on the other side of the Line of Control, the point is that too much emphasis on these can be counter-productive. This new channel could play a more positive role by focusing on relevant issues such as the plight of divided families along the LoC or the importance of the planned bus service between Muzaffarabad and Srinagar.