Cotton standardization

The news that the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock has failed to get the Cotton Standardization Ordinance 2002 enforced even after one and a half years of its promulgation is disturbing, to say the least.

Ours is largely cotton-based economy. Most of our labour is employed in the cotton-textile chain. And most of our revenues and foreign exchange earnings come from up- and downstream cotton and textile activities.

The high ranking that Pakistan had enjoyed among the cotton and textile producers in the world over the last so many years is now being challenged by many new entrants in the field and those like China which are expanding their production and improving the quality of their products.

The importing countries have in the meanwhile become very standards and gradings conscious. Even the local manufacturers of textiles now demand standardized cotton for producing world-quality goods.

These challenges are expected to become even more serious after the multi-fibre agreement comes to an end next year under the WTO accord. In view of all this, it has become imperative for Pakistan to prepare itself to face the growing challenges in the international market.

It was perhaps keeping all this in mind that the government had promulgated the Cotton Standardization Ordinance in 2002. But then the proverbial bureaucratic red-tape seems to have come in the way of its enforcement.

Also, there seems to be some kind of confusion about how intrusive the enforcement of the regulations will prove to be. The issue of bureaucratic red-tape is not something that the government cannot tackle if it applies its mind to it.

All that is needed is the right kind of initiative by the federal cabinet where every minister and his secretary are answerable for their actions and omissions and collective wisdom is practised.

A very clear directive with fixed deadlines for progress should go out from the cabinet to the relevant ministry and from there to the relevant department and then to the Pakistan Cotton Standard Institute and its officials.

Next, the issue of how intrusive the prescribed regulations are or should be is a matter which needs to be looked into by keeping the ground situation in mind.

Our cotton producers and ginners are no more the ignorant lot that had existed until about the mid-1980s. They know their cotton technology. Most of them know what it means to maintain internationally acceptable standards in their production and ginning techniques to ensure contamination-free cotton.

All that they need to be told and, of course, at regular intervals is that the days of captive markets are over and now they will have to prepare themselves to compete in the world market on the basis of standards, quality and price of cotton products.

If they fail to do that they will lose even their assured markets inside the country to imports from abroad. An entrepreneur derives his motivation from profit-and-loss margins.

The plain truth is that if he is not a good entrepreneur, he would lose his market any way, whether he is allowed a free hand or is kept under strict rules and regulations.

However, the government should make it doubly sure that the field staff entrusted with the job of monitoring the enforcement of the law do not become an impediment in the way of smooth running of the cotton-textile chain by demanding bribes for issuing standardization certificates.

Female literacy

Participants at a Unesco-sponsored workshop held in Karachi the other day underlined the gender gap that exists in education in Pakistan. According to Unesco figures, primary school enrolment for girls stands at 60 per cent as compared to 84 per cent for boys.

Regular school attendance for female students is estimated at 41 per cent while that for male students is 50 per cent. The secondary school enrolment ratio is even more discouraging: 32 and 46 per cent for females and males, respectively.

This gender gap is directly linked to the lower status of women in society and certain social norms that discourage empowerment of women. The trend is then reflected in the disparity between female and male adult literacy ratio - 28 to 58 - as well as women's participation in the formal economic sector.

The government spends woefully little (less than two per cent of the GDP) on education in general, which means that only a modest amount is earmarked to promote female literacy.

There is a dire need to change the situation around if Pakistan is to meet the millennium targets set by the Dakar education conference. The gender gap in this country is considerably wider when compared with other developing countries and even most of our immediate neighbours.

The task at hand will have to entail increased government spending on education, with an emphasis on opening girls' schools. There is need to create public awareness in order to change social attitudes towards women.

As regards the former, the government needs to ensure the accessibility of primary education for girls, especially those living in rural areas. The problems associated with transporting girls to school are widely known to be responsible for a higher dropout rate among female students.

To initiate change at the social level, the government should join hands with the non-commercial NGO sector to create wider awareness about the importance of educating the girl child.

At the legislative level, it must also pay heed to the recommendations recently made by the Commission on the Status of Women and scrap laws that show a patent gender bias and encourage prejudice against women.

Dialling confusion

The decision by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to add an extra digit to the Edhi ambulance service's 115 number seems contrary to common sense and is bound to cause confusion.

After April 30, the Edhi ambulance number will change from the current 115 to the four-digit 1150. According to the chairman of the telecom sector regulator, this is being done because other ambulance services are coming up in the country which also need emergency numbers.

While the Edhi service will get the new number, other services will be allotted numbers following 1150. The official said this was not being done to favour any particular service, adding that the Punjab government plans to soon launch an ambulance service and its number will be 1151.

The PTA claims that it is acting within the powers given to it by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (Reorganization) Act of 1996. No one disputes that, but why change emergency numbers that are now etched in public memory? If there are technical reasons, these should be explained.

After all. we still have '15' for police help, a two-digit number. Even countries far more burdened with telecommunication pressures such as the US and UK have emergency numbers like 911 and 999.

We even have flight and railway inquiries and electricity or gas service complaints with three-digit numbers.

How can the telecom regulator justify longer numbers for ambulance services and shorter ones to report a power outage or a gas leak? If new services are expected to become operational soon, they can be allotted four-digit numbers without changing the emergency number of a long-established and widely used service. Any confusion regarding medical emergency numbers may prove costly in human terms.