| 18 March 2004 | Thursday | 26 Muharram 1425 |
Delay in Sindh projects
Managing hospital waste
Stories related to the media by three of the five Britons recently released from Guantanamo Bay speak of shocking physical and mental torture inflicted on inmates by the prison camp's staff and intelligence personnel.
The three Britons have been rescued by the British foreign office, which provided documentary evidence of their innocence to their American captors after they had spent more than two years in Guantanamo Bay.
According to the details revealed by the three young men in their 20s, inmates at the prison are kept in chains, often subjected to solitary confinement, mentally and physically tortured and interrogated at gunpoint.
The revelation that Britain's MI5 and special forces have been part of the interrogation process right from the beginning, both in Afghanistan and in Cuba, will have come as a shock to all those who believed that only the US was violating prisoners' rights.
Indeed, more shocking still are the prospects of the fate awaiting the remaining 600-plus Guantanamo Bay inmates, whose cases are not being pursued by their respective countries and who are about to stand closed-door military trials by the US army.
Termed "illegal combatants" by the US, the Guantanamo Bay inmates have been denied the status of prisoners of war and refused treatment guaranteed under the Geneva Conventions on PoWs.
From the accounts given by a few inmates who have so far been released, it is quite possible that a large number of detainees may be innocent men who were simply found at the wrong place at the wrong time.
The stories related by a number of freed Pakistani and Afghan detainees corroborate the accounts of prison conditions given by their British counterparts.
The US has refused to allow rights groups the privilege of witnessing the forthcoming military trials, with the US Supreme Court having ruled that it had no jurisdiction over Guantanamo Bay as the facility was not based on American soil.
For all practical purposes, this means that the US (and Britain) are free to treat and process the cases of the ill-fated prisoners as they choose. Rights groups say that denial of PoW status to these prisoners shows the mala fide intention of the Americans with regard to the detainees' eventual fate.
If trials go ahead under the present dispensation, it is feared the process will only intensify anti-West feelings in the Muslim world and strengthen the resolve of those misguided few who have chosen to tread the path of terrorism.
The problem will be even more confounding for those Muslim governments that have chosen to be America's partners in the war on terror. The absence of a transparent mechanism to bring the real, and not suspected, terrorists to justice could therefore be quite damning for America as well as its allies.
While countries whose nationals are being held at Guantanamo Bay must use their influence with the US to ensure that their citizens get fair trials, the UN and the world at large should also voice their concern over the absence of transparency in this process.
Terrorism cannot be condoned in any form and for whatever reason. But America's treatment of the Guantanamo Bay prisoners must not be allowed to become an excuse for others to flout human rights, torture and persecute innocent people and de-legitimize genuine freedom struggles or democratic movements elsewhere in the world.
Delay in Sindh projects
The report that five ongoing federally-funded mega-projects in Sindh may be further delayed if money from Islamabad is not released according to the schedule should be taken seriously.
The projects in question are the Lyari Expressway resettlement, K-III water supply, Right Bank Out fall Drain-II, revamping and rehabilitation of the irrigation and drainage system, and the lining of distributors and minors. Ironically, these very plans were declared "fast-track projects" by President Pervez Musharraf himself a few months back.
Given that the funds have already been allocated for these projects, one wonders why there is such delay in the release of the money by the centre. This is an issue that needs to be sorted out by the quarters concerned at the earliest because these projects seek to address some of Sindh's most pressing problems in both rural and urban areas.
Such delays, which are not uncommon in public sector projects, have widespread implications. For example, the scheme to improve the supply of potable water to Karachi has already been considerably delayed.
Approved in 2000, the scheme was allocated funds but these were then withdrawn, with the result that a project that would have plugged about 20 per cent of the city's water leakage never saw the light of day.
Two of the five mega-projects belong to Karachi; the rest concern Sindh's rural areas, where these projects generate jobs. There are also a number of important infrastructure projects that are being undertaken in Karachi.
All these are part of a larger picture the city planners are trying to put together. The delay in key projects, like the five that may be affected if federal funding does not come in time, will be a setback to the larger plans.
In this connection, it is important to understand why these delays take place in the first place. Is it simply procedural issues that need to be rectified or lack of political will at the top that stops the funding from coming through? It is here that the planners and bureaucrats at the federal and provincial levels have to address the problem. Taken together, the five projects cost Rs 48.38 billion. Their on-time completion is essential for giving a boost to Sindh's economy.
Managing hospital waste
The decision by the city government and Sindh environment authorities to crack down on health outfits in Karachi that continue to flout regulations related to the safe disposal of hazardous waste is a step in the right direction.
The proper management of medical waste has never been a priority with the city's numerous clinics and hospitals. Many hospitals and clinics dump syringes, blood bags, swabs, even body parts in open grounds.
Besides being a source of infection, this dangerous litter enables scavengers - mostly Afghan refugee children - to retrieve items that can be repackaged and resold.
In doing so, they expose themselves and the general public to the risk of contracting dangerous diseases like Hepatitis C and AIDS, which are on the rise. Often cases, unscrupulous hospital staff sell off used syringes, catheters and other contaminated medical equipment without the least compunction.
While there is a range of options available for destroying medical waste, incineration appears to be the most widely recommended. However, it is an expensive procedure and few hospitals possess incinerators - and not all of which are functional - to eliminate a portion of the 9.5 tons of hospital waste that health units in Karachi produce each day.
But incinerators, while destroying dangerous pathogens, may be deficient in emission control, resulting in noxious fumes that can cause a variety of ailments - especially if an incinerator is located in a congested locality.
Considering the health and environmental hazards posed by the current unscientific mode of hospital waste disposal, the city government must act swiftly to check matters.
In consultation with experts, it should explore viable alternatives to incineration while devising a system to monitor the smooth functioning of incinerators to keep hazardous emissions to a minimum.
It is equally important to educate medical practitioners in sanitary methods of waste disposal - such as separating risky material from non-infectious waste - and to punish those found guilty of selling contaminated medical equipment.