| 27 May 2004 | Thursday | 07 Rabi-us-Saani 1425 |
Blasts in Sindh
Doctors for rural areas
Maulana Fazlur Rahman's "appointment" as leader of the opposition in the National Assembly on Tuesday underlines the way politics works in Pakistan. One extraordinary feature of the announcement is its timing: it comes more than a year and a half after Mr Zafarullah Khan Jamali was elected leader of the house in November 2002.
Also a contender for the prime minister's slot, Maulana Fazlur Rahman had received 87 votes as against Mr Jamali's 172. The maulana has been named leader of the opposition on the basis of that arithmetic, even though the MMA, to which he belongs, has fewer seats than the PPPP, whose Makhdoom Amin Fahim hoped to lead the opposition.
The PPPP's candidate for prime minister, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, had got 70 votes. Mr Fahim wasn't wide off the mark when he said a leader of the opposition must enjoy the backing of all those not on the treasury benches.
Maulana Fazlur Rahman's appointment seems to complete the breach between the MMA and the ARD. We have the spectacle of the leader of the opposition himself facing opposition.
As head of the opposition, the MMA leader now also becomes a member of the National Security Council that institutionalizes a dominant political role for the military.
But on this score, the MMA secretary-general should have no complaint, for the NSC in its present form exists because of the 17th Amendment which came into being after protracted negotiations between the military-led government and the MMA.
Mr Fahim has been provided with an opportunity to claim that the maulana's appointment as opposition leader was part of the deal over the 17th Amendment - constituting a "mullah-Musharraf alliance", as he put it, or a loyal opposition, as some others would like to call it.
In the present dispensation, the MMA commands a strong position. It is in power in two provinces, while it has donned the role of opposition at the national level.
In the latter capacity, it has given the government some headaches by opposing President Pervez Musharraf retaining the office of army chief as well. However, its insistence that the president give up his uniform is in contrast to the tacit approval which parties now forming part of the MMA had given to Gen Ziaul Haq precisely on this score.
However, it is in the realm of foreign policy that the MMA is more vocal in its criticism of the government for its policy on the US-led war on terror.
As leader of the opposition, one hopes, Maulana Fazlur Rahman will take his job seriously and not fritter away the opposition's energies in fruitless confrontations and ritual walkouts.
The opposition has a valuable role to play in making the government accountable for its actions, and Maulana Fazlur Rahman will be closely watched to see how effectively he performs this role.
He should also seek to revive the committee system and turn the committees into instruments for vetting all legislation, but it is important that he does not view national issues from the narrow and often fogged prism of the MMA.
He will have to take the entire opposition with him and seek to accommodate the concerns of the ARD parties. How he will manage this is unclear. It's one of the gifts of the hodge-podge of a democratic system that we are trying to craft that even the position of leader of the opposition is sought to be manipulated. The truth is again underlined - that there is no halfway house in democracy.
Blasts in Sindh
Yesterday's car bomb attacks killing one person and injuring several people outside the Pakistan-American Cultural Centre in Karachi follow two other blasts on Tuesday: one at the Karachi Port Trust and the other at a Sui Southern Gas Company installation in upper Sindh.
The KPT bombing claimed two lives besides injuring two others, while the blast at the SSGC installation blew up the pipeline, cutting off gas supply to parts of Sindh.
The three separate incidents in two days have come on the heels of President Musharraf talking tough on eradicating fanaticism from the country and the Karachi police arresting on Monday six militants belonging to a banned organization after recovering a large number of explosives from them.
The targets of the latest attacks are located in what are considered to be high security areas, with the KPT and the SSGC pipeline also being vital strategic installations. The bombings belie the Sindh governor's claim he made in a TV interview last Sunday that the law and order situation in the province was "excellent".
Karachi has seen a number of violent incidents occurring this month alone. A suicide bombing attack on a city mosque on May 7 claimed 22 lives; violence following by-elections on May 12 killed 11 people; subsequent protests by aggrieved parties as well as other acts of lawlessness have seen vehicles and petrol pumps torched, roads blocked and public and private property destroyed.
Add to these the latest attacks and one wonders what to make of the official utterances on the subject. Instead of denying the reality, the government would do well to address the challenge of insecurity that is assuming alarming proportions.
It is hard to see how the country's image abroad can be improved and foreign investment attracted when our own citizens do not feel secure going about their daily life and remain apprehensive about what's going to happen next. It is time all talk about eradicating militancy and terrorism from society was matched with action by the government.
Doctors for rural areas
The decision by the Punjab government to give doctors increased monetary and other benefits for working in the rural areas needs to be welcomed. If properly implemented, the scheme could help stem the rampant tendency among doctors employed in government service to avoid working in small towns and in the countryside.
Under the proposal, those who opt to serve outside urban areas will be entitled to a higher salary than usual and will be provided official accommodation. It is not just doctors from, say, Lahore or Rawalpindi who, given a choice, would like to practise in a city, even doctors who have grown up and had their early and college education in rural areas prefer working in a city.
It would be safe to say that by and large this has to do with money. Those who practise in urban areas believe that they can charge higher fees, and since health awareness is relatively high, a steady stream of patients is more or less guaranteed.
Perhaps some in the medical community need to realize that there is more to life than money and that they became doctors not necessarily to strike it rich but to abide by the Hippocratic Oath.
Lest one be accused of sounding idealistic, it needs to be said that the government in any case has tried to deal with the economic issue by offering higher salaries.
However, the belief that working in a city might mean more patients could very well be incorrect given the fact that almost two-thirds of Punjab's population lives in the rural areas.
It is quite likely that the demand for medical care and treatment would be higher in rural areas given the fact that the quality and provision of basic health services there are far from adequate.
There is an overwhelming need, in not just Punjab but in other provinces as well, for doctors to serve in rural areas. Hopefully, other provinces will follow Punjab's lead in this.