| 07 July 2004 | Wednesday | 18 Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1425 |
Doctors for the US
Ensuring better healthcare
Relief for pensioners
PR and smoking
Withdrawal of ST exemption from cottonseed
'All change and no change'
Banned groups
UK visa seeker's ordeal
War crimes
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In a parliamentary democracy, replacement of the leader of the house, i.e. the prime minister, on the initiative of the ruling party members is considered a part of normal political process; genuine is the operative word, though.
In December 1991, British prime minister Margaret Thatcher was in Paris, representing her country at a meeting of EU leaders. Back at home, a group within her parliamentary caucus decided that it was time for her to relinquish power (she had been in power for many years and the party's need to bring in a new face could be understood).
This group held an internal caucus ballot to challenge her leadership. Although a majority of those who participated in this ballot voted to retain her, the result clearly indicated an erosion of her parliamentary support.
The 'iron lady' dashed back to London and tendered her resignation to the Queen. The Queen, of course, was as impartial in this entire episode as any head of state in a 'genuine' parliamentary system could be.
Apart from uttering a few customary words of praise for the outgoing prime minister, the Queen didn't feel the need to shed any light on this sudden change of the occupant of the 10 Downing Street.
Contrast this episode with the recent resignation of Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali from the office of prime minister of Pakistan. Theoretically, this resignation was an internal party phenomenon, too.
However, Mr Jamali had been in office for only 18 or so months and had been doing as good a job as any prime minister with curtailed powers could. Therefore, his party's sudden change of heart suggests that an extra-party force, and a very strong one, was at work.
No one in the PML has clearly explained the main reason behind this change. Why did Mr Jamali who hours before tendering his resignation had said that he had no plan to resign suddenly felt the need to 'nominate' his successor?
The Pakistan Muslim League has made the office of the prime minister a laughing stock. If it wanted Mr Shaukat Aziz (who did not meet the legal pre-requisites of the job) to be Mr Jamali's replacement, it should have waited until he fulfilled these requirements, before proceeding with the change.
Why such hurry to oust Mr Jamali that an intervening prime minister needed to be installed? A prime minister is not just an ordinary officer of the state. Theoretically, he/she is the fountainhead of leadership for the nation's administrative machinery.
How could Mr Jamali's party remove him, bring in a replacement for a few weeks until the eventual replacement is readied, and expect that the state machinery will continue to function unaffected? This is a step of extreme irresponsibility.
If Mr Jamali was so incapable that he could not do the job for another few weeks, then why did his party make him prime minister just 18 months earlier? Is this not a dereliction of duty on the part of the PML? This clearly indicates how irrelevant and inconsequential the office of the prime minister has become. It does not bode well for democracy in Pakistan.
Amid the speculation over this abrupt development, one fact has gone completely unmentioned. For the first time the occupant of one of the country's top jobs had come from Balochistan. His inability to complete his term of office has added to the loss of the concept of due process by suddenly removing a small province from centre-stage.
On the one hand, Pakistan's political parties are so helpless before the dictatorial behaviour of their leaders that they will refuse to jettison their leaders even after they have been convicted by a court, or have sent goons to attack the Supreme Court and, on the other, the PML suddenly became so charged up with activism that it thought nothing of pulling the rug from under the feet of its leader who months earlier was installed as the country's chief executive and had done nothing to deserve an unethical and a conspiratorial jilting.
Despite Mr Jamali's civility and the PML's claims of his ouster being an internal party process, the logic clearly suggests that his departure was triggered by the same forces whose objective has always been to ensure that no prime minister in Pakistan should get a concrete chance to leave his/her mark on history.
This indicates a contempt for the people of Pakistan, whose main elected representative is their prime minister.
SIDDIQUE MALIK
Louisville, KY., USA
Doctors for the US
Of the total 1,133 J-1 visas for physicians approved by the Education Council for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG) in 2003, Pakistan remained on top, securing 154 visas with India closely behind with 142. But only 33 per cent of Pakistanis were able to join their residencies on time as opposed to 60 per cent of Indians and 80 per cent overall.
Of 154 Pakistani physicians seeking J-1 visas for first-year residency positions in 2003, only 40 arrived on time, 12 were one to 14 days late, 24 came within 30 days, and 42 were more than a month late.
Data from the ECFMG suggests that no other country had 42 residents who were more than a month late. The remaining 36 could not arrive in the US and, therefore, their residency contracts were cancelled.
It is apparent that the change in the political climate has been particularly punitive for physicians from Pakistan. This year again, the Association of Pakistani Physicians of North America (APPNA) has been contacted by numerous physicians who have been denied entry into the United States.
Some of these physicians are trying to come to the US in order to take the clinical skills assessment test. Others were denied US visas after successfully securing residencies here after having completed an exhaustive process of taking the required exams and interviews.
According to our data, a number of physicians who were denied visas in the past few months were said to have 'immigrant intent'. This is farcical since the J-1 visa system has inherent protection to prevent such 'intents'.
Furthermore, the US government has to issue a waiver for the J-1 visa holder to transition into an immigration visa; these individuals then are allowed to serve in underprivileged areas and fulfil an important public health need.
Most other J-1 visa holders have returned to Pakistan after their specified period of training and are gainfully employed in Pakistan and other countries. We would like to emphasize that these extensive visa denials on a large scale without any checks and balances will have long-term adverse effects on healthcare systems both in the United States and in Pakistan.
Immediate and effective mechanisms need to be put in place to resolve this crisis, and changes in the system need to be made to prevent such developments in the future.
DR FAISAL H. CHEEMA & DR TAHSEEN
Young Physicians Taskforce, APPNA, appnataskforce@yahoo .com
Ensuring better healthcare
This refers to the letter by Professor Hasan Aziz on the above subject (June 26). Private-Public partnership seems to have become the buzzword in many facets of governance. The Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC), Karachi, is undoubtedly a beneficiary of such partnership.
When things became insufferable in this institution due to lack of funds, pilferage, bad management and poor work ethics, some concerned citizens of Karachi came to our rescue.
Much of the JPMC has now been transformed through their donations and skills. While these individuals were able to recognize themselves in the shape of various NGOs, the government sector has been dragging its feet about how exactly this flimsy partnership should function in the long term. This is causing a lot of heartburn to both parties.
It is time all stakeholders were represented at a consultative body to be constituted by the federal ministry of health. This committee could recommend guidelines for making this partnership sustainable and effective.
It could formulate rules of business for planning and executing development projects and could clarify issues of administrative control, definition of ownership, management and maintenance of donor-sponsored projects, financial discipline and audit.
As the JPMC seems to be the pioneer of this kind of development in the health sector, this committee should comprise previous directors who carefully initiated and nurtured this partnership during their respective tenures.
It should also include representatives of major NGOs working in the JPMC, the health ministry and the public. Doing all this we must also not lose sight of our collective objective, i.e., providing quality healthcare to patients who attend government health facilities.
In the garb donor -sponsored development, what we must not do is pave the way for slow privatization of government-run health facilities. Above all, we must all get together to guard the interest of the patients.
PROF TASNIM AHSAN
Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center, Karachi
Relief for pensioners
Please permit me to protest against the views expressed in your editorial "Relief for pensioners" on June 27. The finance minister has granted a relief of 15 per cent to serving staff, eight per cent to pensioners who retired after June 1994, and 16 per cent to pensioners who retired before July 1994.
Pensioners all over the country, irrespective of the date of their retirement, have been clamouring in favour of the principle of equal indexation. I have personally stressed the significance of this principle in the superior courts where I have been appearing as a pensioners' spokesman.
Nowhere in the world is any discrimination made between serving staff and pensioners in the matter of dearness relief. The recognized principle is to maintain the real worth of the salaries, as well as of pensions.
Except for the late Dr Mahbubul Haq, not a single finance minister has done justice to pensioners in this regard. This is the root cause of disparity between the pensions drawn by old and new pensioners.
The new order will widen the disparity. Not a single pensioner, old or new, has welcomed this discrimination. The relief of 16 per cent for older pensioners looks like a benevolent measure.
The finance minister has recognized that there is a disparity between old and new pensioners which needs correction. But despite our appeals to him, he has ignored the really old pensioners who retired before May 1977, a large majority of whom are living below the poverty line.
A 16 per cent increase for them is a joke. In this Islamic state, the principle is: the older the pensioner, the poorer he is, whereas in the entire civilized world, it is: the older the pensioner, the more privileges he gets.
I.A. SHARWANI
Rawalpindi
PR and smoking
I recently travelled to Lahore by the Karakoram Express. I was shocked to see a big advertisement by a tobacco company at the main entrance to the Karachi Cantonment Station, welcoming passengers.
Inside the station, all platform boards had tobacco advertisements. Even the nameplates of the station master and other railway officials had a tobacco ad on them. Seeing so much cooperation between a tobacco company and the Pakistan Railways I was not surprised to see that there was nobody to check smoking even in the airconditioned coaches of the train.
Police officers travelling on the train were also freely smoking. We have an ordinance which bans smoking on public transport, but it was sad to see that the government-run Pakistan Railways is itself violating this law.
PROFESSOR JAVAID KHAN
Karachi
Withdrawal of ST exemption from cottonseed
The government withdrew the sales tax exemption on cottonseed and crude vegetable oil in the budget. Oil millers will have to pay a 15 per cent sales tax on the purchase of cottonseed from the ginners.
The oil millers will then charge a 15 per cent sales tax from the vegetable oil and ghee plants on the sale of crude cottonseed oil. The input tax paid by the oil millers would be adjusted or refunded according the sales tax refund rules.
The process of paying sales tax by the oil millers and then filing for a refund will be a big mess. First, the poor oil millers will have to get registered with the sales tax department.
As most of them do not know English, they will have to engage lawyers and pay them for filling the forms. And then no matter how easy the refund rules are, the oil millers will again have to pay hefty fees to the lawyers or bribes to the CBR employees to get refunds.
Just for the information of the finance minister and other budget planners, most oil millers are small businessmen, many of them with an investment of as little as Rs0.5 million to Rs1 million.
The big ones are very few. There are some who have only one or two expellers. A 12-hour supply of cottonseed costs an oil miller Rs0.1 million (add 15 per cent more for sales tax from this coming season).
The proposed 15 per cent sales tax on cottonseed will decrease the cash flow of these small oil millers. The government removed the 15 per cent sales tax on ginned cotton in the budget.
The rationale for that given at the CBR website is: "As the sales tax collected on ginned cotton is adjusted or refunded at subsequent stages of production by the spinning sector, it is proposed to zero-rate supply of ginned cotton.
This measure will remove cash flow problems for the spinning sector, expedite payment to the ginners and growers of cotton and considerably reduce export-related refunds.
This measure will be largely revenue-neutral as ginned cotton is not a consumer item and all the tax presently paid thereon is either adjusted by or refunded to the spinning sector".
Why can't the government apply the same rationale to cottonseed? The sales tax paid by the oil millers would also be adjusted or refunded anyway like it used to be on ginned cotton.
If the government is worried about the cash flow of the richer spinners, what sin the oil millers have committed considering that they don't even come close to the spinners as far as capital invested is concerned? The rich spinners got away with the 15 per cent sales tax paid on ginned cotton to enjoy a better cash flow and the poor oil millers got stuck with a 15 per cent sales tax on their only supply.
The 15 per cent sales tax paid by the oil mills will also be revenue-neutral as the oil mills will get an adjustment or a refund. Cottonseed is also not a consumer item like ginned cotton. So why add to the oil millers' miseries if the government is not going to get any revenue anyway? Cottonseed should be exempted from the sales tax once again to make things easier for the millers.
MASOOD ARIF
Chichawatni
'All change and no change'
On the appointment of Prime Minister Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain by President Pervez Musharraf, it is being argued that democracy is lost in this country. In the article 'All change and no change' (July 1), fingers are quick to point at the president for not consulting the people.
Well, democracy doesn't necessarily work effectively in every country, especially in ours. We cannot take all the principles of politics from the first world countries and expect them to work in ours.
When was the last time democracy worked in Pakistan? I do not need to point out how our previous leaders have disappointed us - whether it was Ziaul Haq, Benazir Bhutto or Nawaz Sharif.
Since President Musharraf has assumed power, there is relative peace and economic stability. For the past three years there has been an economic growth of 4 per cent. Although the numbers are small, we are at least making some progress. I do not remember that happening under the leadership of any of the previous leaders.
For a democracy to work in a country, people need to be aware of the pros and cons of voting for a specific person. With the high illiteracy rate in Pakistan, how are the people to understand which leader will be best for the country.
Which leader will get Pakistan out of the dark ages? You can't vote for the person with the loudest voice, who makes the most promises for the future that are never carried out.
We should not be so quick to point fingers and instead try to understand with an educated mind the logic and reasoning behind these decisions.
MAHEEN SHAMSUDDIN IBRAHIM
Karachi
Banned groups
After Friday prayers a booklet was distributed in my area supposedly by an organization called 'Muhafiz-i-Asas-i-Islam'. Reading through the material it was evident that it was distributed by the banned 'Sipah-i-Sahaba'.
The booklet contained offensive statements against another sect. My question is: what is the use of banning these organizations when they are openly distributing their published material?
What is needed is a serious clampdown by the law enforcement agencies on such elements. A flow of information is needed in which all the sects can discuss their beliefs at open forums as, in fact, there is little difference of beliefs amongst us.
AIN SAEED
Karachi
UK visa seeker's ordeal
Through your esteemed newspaper I draw the attention of the British high commissioner in Pakistan to an issue of human rights. My wife, Shabnam Khan, a British national and resident of Lincoln Leach Court, Deeplish, Rochdale, UK, was admitted to a UK hospital for surgery.
On January 30, 2004, her doctor recommended that her spouse should be with her and be given appropriate visa facilities to join her in the UK. On March 12 I applied for a UK settlement visa through Reference No. 771141, UK/Islamabad (Comp No 2255902, FedEx).
On April 18 my wife through major surgery gave birth to a baby girl at the Birch Hill Hospital, Rochdale. On June 21 visa officer-2, British High Commission, Islamabad, refused a visa to me through Reference No. 771141, UK/Islamabad.
Unfortunately, he ignored my bank statement. He ignored the fact that I could take care of myself, my ailing wife and the newly-born baby girl, and being a computer/software engineer, programmer and web developer I could perform well in the UK which still needs many computer professionals.
The British high commissioner is requested to review the decision of the visa entry officer and grant me a UK visa on purely humanitarian grounds so that I may join and take care of my ailing wife and our newly-born daughter in the UK.
RIZWAN ISMAIL KHAN
Attock
War crimes
If Saddam can be tried for war crimes, let George W. Bush, Ariel Sharon and the Gujarat cheif minister face the music for the mass killing of innocent Muslims.
AFZAL RAHIM
Islamabad
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