| 24 March 2004 | Wednesday | 02 Safar 1425 |
Killings in Herat
TB directory
Gas seems to hold great promise for Pakistan if the country is to cut down on its oil import.
In fact, Prime Minister Mir Zafrullah Khan Jamali the other day drew attention to his government's efforts to reduce Pakistan's oil import bill which runs into $3 billion annually.
As over 70 per cent of Pakistan's oil imports are made up of furnace oil, used mainly by industries, efforts have been made to switch over various industrial units to gas.
This has produced results. Oil consumption fell by 20 per cent in the first half of the financial year 2003-04, largely because units, primarily power generation companies, made the move.
Official estimates suggest a saving of over $750 million in the coming year if the planned change-over of key sectors to gas is completed. This is good news. The momentum gained needs to be maintained.
In oil imports, diesel comprises the second largest chunk. It is used mainly by the transport industry. The government is now working on a plan to convert public transport to use Compressed Natural Gas (CNG).
This would include buses, trucks and even diesel-run train engines. The government draws strength from the success it has had in the conversion of cars to CNG over the past three years.
The increase in CNG usage has had very clear benefits. Petrol consumption dropped from 3.5 million tons in fiscal 2001-02 to 1.65 million tons in fiscal 2002-03. There are some spin-off gains also, for apart from financial savings, CNG is more environment friendly.
The major source of pollution on our roads is public transport. So we can expect a cleaner environment if this trend continues. But a word of caution here. The composition of CNG needs to be monitored to ensure that this fuel does not damage engines in the long run.
For the trend toward a greater use of CNG to persist, the government has to have its supply and distribution system in place. In this regard, mention should be made of the $ 1.4-billion gas infrastructure rehabilitation project which is expected to strengthen the distribution infrastructure to cope with the progressive increase in demand in the near future.
As for digging new wells for discovering oil and gas, exploratory companies have been doing quite well with a success ratio of about 40 per cent. The discovery of significant reserves of gas at the Sawan, Bhit and Zamzama wells in the late 90s helped push up domestic gas reserves and production figures.
This good luck has continued with seven new discoveries in 2002-03 when production increased by 7.5 per cent to 993 billion cubic feet. However, for such exploratory work to continue to produce results, the government needs to work more seriously at providing better security to companies operating in Balochistan.
This province has lots of untapped oil and gas reserves beneath its burning sands, but they can be exploited if those engaged in digging are given a sense of security. Another area of concern is the rampant smuggling of oil from Iran and Afghanistan.
If the government wants oil marketing companies to invest significantly in providing a CNG distribution infrastructure, particularly in rural areas, it needs to check smuggling, which bites into their earnings.
All these issues have to feature prominently in any plan the government has to reduce oil imports and rely more on indigenous fuel. As things stand, there is a good chance that in a couple of years the country will be in a position to source most of its fuel requirements from within, thereby making considerable savings on oil imports.
Killings in Herat
The murder of Herat governor Ismail Khan's son, Mirwais Sadiq, who was Afghanistan's minister of civil aviation, presents a stiff test for President Hamid Karzai's government.
Some 600 soldiers have been sent to Herat to establish a semblance of order and to show to the restive Afghan provinces that the central government is serious about establishing its writ beyond Kabul.
However, the deployment came not before a hundred people had died in fierce factional fighting following the minister's murder. The circumstances that led to Mirwais's death (reportedly a power struggle between him and a local military commander) indicate that the establishment of law and order in the outlying provinces remains an elusive goal for Mr Karzai's US-backed government. In fact, since the installation of his government three members of Mr Karzai's cabinet have now met a violent death.
Kabul's inability to reduce the influence of powerful regional warlords undermines its credibility before the Afghan people. The presence of local warlords, sometimes doubling as provincial governors, and their militias are a constant source of tension. Ismail Khan is one such warlord.
He has controlled Herat since well before Mr Karzai came on the scene - his being one of the few provinces that did not fall to the Taliban. However, now that another government is in place in Kabul, it was about time measures were taken to disarm and disband his private militia.
The dilemma for Mr Karzai is obvious: how to convince a powerful warlord to disband his private army given that he has allowed him to keep a firm grip on his region.
The Afghan national army is probably a lesser match in terms of experience. It now remains to be seen whether the violent aftermath, and the assassination itself, will be used by Mr Karzai to aggressively push for a disarming of all private militias and to bring the provinces under the heel of the central government. This is essential if the election planned for June is to pass off peacefully.
TB directory
The publication of a directory listing diagnostic and treatment centres for tuberculosis in Karachi is a small but important step in the fight against the contagious disease.
The directory, being issued today on the occasion of World Tuberculosis Day, is expected to facilitate medical staff in referring TB sufferers to centres located near their homes.
Bound to find favour with patients, the move would spare the patients and their families inconvenience on long distances and reduce travelling expenses. This is especially significant as the incidence of tuberculosis is high among people from low-income groups.
It has been estimated that one TB patient can infect up to 15 people each year, causing the disease to spiral out of control. According to figures provided by the World Health Organization, there are 250,000 new cases of TB in Pakistan every year - the country has the sixth highest incidence of the disease in the world - out of whom 60,000 patients die.
These facts are disturbing, given that TB is both preventable and curable. However, poor information and lack of access to centres equipped to diagnose the disease and to provide treatment under DOTS (Directly Observed Treatment Short-course) often lead patients to mistake their symptoms for some other ailment and they resort to self-medication.
Many who begin treatment tend to leave off half way through therapy, causing the bacilli to develop multi-resistant strains that cannot be eliminated through the usual cocktail of drugs. Giving the contact details of TB treatment centres will bring about greater coordination among Karachi's doctors and paramedical staff working towards the eradication of the disease.
The incidence of TB is a national phenomenon and efforts should be made to publish such directories at the district level across the country. The move will also help health authorities keep a check on all TB centres and ensure that they give quality treatment to patients.