Muddle on the wheat front

The federal cabinet's decision on Wednesday to ban the export of wheat can be seen as a logical, though half-hearted, attempt to address the on-going wheat crisis. The situation has led to a rise in the prices of wheat and flour in both Sindh and the NWFP.

The reason for the price hike is the dwindling wheat stocks in these provinces and the Punjab government's decision not to allow inter-provincial wheat movement to replenish them.

Punjab says it will not allow wheat out of the province until its procurement target of 3.5 million tons is met. So far it has managed to meet half that target.

The other provinces argue that it is up to the federal government to ensure uniform supply of wheat throughout Pakistan, as the procurement price as well as the stock position are determined by Islamabad.

They say that Punjab's decision to impose restrictions on the movement of wheat is rather one-sided and arbitrary. A meeting in Islamabad to sort out this issue was held last week but it did not produce any tangible results.

In all this, the initiative of the federal government has not been as prompt and effective as warranted by the situation at hand.

The government should start by adopting stringent measures to check smuggling of wheat to Afghanistan. It is believed that approximately 2.5 million tons of wheat is smuggled into Afghanistan every year.

Hoarding and black-marketing of wheat must also be dealt with firmly to avoid a deepening of the crisis. The government has estimated that this year's wheat production stands at 17 million tons against an estimated need of 19 million tons.

The apprehension that all provinces in the country with the exception of Punjab would face a wheat shortage this year was expressed a year ago when it was estimated that the present stocks of the three provinces would be exhausted by February.

While stocks have lasted a few months longer, there is still a shortage problem to deal with. The minister for food and agriculture has, however, allayed such fears by assuring that the present stocks are enough to meet the requirements of all the provinces.

He has warned that the impression of an impeding crisis is being deliberately created by vested interests for reasons of profiteering through hoarding and black marketing.

Other officials from the same ministry, however, have told the newsmen that there are doubts being expressed about claims of carry-over stocks made by some provinces. If these claims turn out to be incorrect, the situation is likely to get worse.

It is time for the government to clear up this confusion about stocks and supplies. It is this uncertainty that often leads to panic buying and price spiralling regardless of the stock position.

What is clear is that adverse weather conditions and the decision of banning wheat export have also created fears of a lower than expected harvest this year. It is important for the government to move fast to ascertain the actual supply position and ensure the required quantity of what is to be imported to fill the gap.

This will help avoid a lot of unnecessary hassles and expenses for the government as well as hardship for the general public.

Iraqi prisoners' abuse

President George Bush's televised address to the Arab world on Wednesday, expressing his sense of shock over the abuse of prisoners at the hands of American occupation forces in Iraq does not seem to have had the intended calming effect.

This later prompted the White House to issue an official apology, with the spokesman saying that President Bush was "deeply sorry" for the conduct of a section of American forces.

In his speech, however, Mr Bush promised the Arab world a "transparent" and "open" legal process to bring errant servicemen to justice. He also conceded that it was yet to be investigated if the abuse was restricted only to a number of US servicemen in charge of Iraqi PoWs or the practice was being carried out on a systematic basis across the country.

The latter, if proved, would cause the Bush administration a big embarrassment because Arab sources and rights groups both have long alleged that abuses against Iraqi PoWs are rampant and are being practised as a matter of routine.

The evidence of such abuses appearing in the American and international media in the form of photographs and testimony by serving US personnel cannot be refuted.

It also lends further credence to allegations by rights groups of similar abuses being carried out by US marines against the detainees being held without due process of law at the Camp X-Ray facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

From the reports and evidence so far it is clear that the treatment being meted out to Arab, Afghan and other Muslim prisoners in Iraq and at Guantanamo Bay is in contravention of the Geneva Conventions on PoWs.

It is also clear that the world at large, unlike the Bush administration, makes no distinction between the Iraqi PoWs and those of the Afghan war who are dubbed as "illegal combatants" by Washington.

Arab and Muslim anger against the US over this matter is, thus, understandable. The Bush administration would do well to promptly investigate the matter and bring those responsible for abuses to book. It must also give access to rights groups' representatives to the prisons in question as is being demanded by these groups.

Containing malaria

The high incidence of malaria in the country should prod health authorities to take greater action on the WHO-initiated Roll Back Malaria (RBM) programme that aims to halve the global incidence of the disease by 2010.

Unfortunately, in Pakistan, the disease seems to have taken on a more virulent form with growing parasite resistance to traditional drugs and the increased capacity of mosquitoes to withstand insecticides.

In addition to this, there appears to be a rise in cases of a type of malaria that can attack the brain and which, if not treated immediately, may lead to death.

Several such cases have been reported in interior Sindh, and doctors have pointed out that this dangerous strain of the disease appears to be gaining prevalence over the more common variety.

As malaria is found mainly in developing countries, where a majority of patients do not have access to health care, pharmaceutical companies see little financial incentive in investing in research leading to developing effective malaria drugs.

Moreover, the complacency of civic authorities, and of residents themselves, has led to a situation in many such countries, including Pakistan, where open sewers and stagnant pools of water continue to provide mosquitoes an ideal breeding ground.

The result is a situation that threatens to get out of hand if not controlled urgently. Already, the fatality figure for malaria in Pakistan is 50,000 per year, and if the RBM initiative that calls for greater preventive measures and prompt treatment is not followed through, this figure could rise.

The authorities would do well to improve the overall health care system and sanitation in high-risk urban and rural areas to maintain the momentum the RBM initiative needs to be successful.