| 15 July 2004 | Thursday | 26 Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1425 |
Terrorism: a common enemy
Eradicating polio
Prime Minister Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain has said that practical steps need to be taken to resolve people's problems through the local government system. Talking to a lawyer's convention in Islamabad, he said that the local government system in place could deliver to the people if development funds were utilized in a transparent and efficient manner.
Speaking in the same vein a day earlier, Chaudhry Shujaat had propounded the idea of giving development funds to party cadres instead of members of parliament. Such a proposal will only make matters worse by virtually obliterating the line of distinction between the government and the ruling party.
The problem with the local government is not just the judicious spending of development funds. While this may be a major concern, local government officials say that they face problems in carrying out their work as they are often prevented from doing so by the very same officials who are supposed to help them.
At a seminar in Karachi on Tuesday, local government representatives were quite vocal about the reasons for their inability to deliver good governance. A number of them told the seminar that the local government system currently in place was largely unworkable and was accentuated tensions between various tiers of the government, thereby making the centre's writ seem more dubious.
The local government representatives were of the view that their inability to deliver and solve problems of the people had led to acrimony and pessimism, with many questioning the whole process of devolution of power.
While pro-government nazims are able to execute plans and projects, thanks to cooperation from the government and the bureaucracy, those who are opposed to the government are given short shrift.
Their powers are curtailed and they face problems in their interactions with government officials, policemen and other key administrative personnel. It may be recalled that the Musharraf government launched the present local government system in 2000 under its political devolution plan.
Under this system, local governments were elected on a non-party basis with district and sub-district governments installed in 101 districts, including four cities. The present devolution plan promised substantial autonomy to elected local officials and, more notably, made an elected official the overall head of the district administration, reversing a century-old system that had subordinated elected representatives to bureaucrats.
Devolution, in fact, has proved to be a thin cover for further centralization of powers down to the lower levels of government. Despite the rhetoric from Islamabad of empowerment, local governments have only nominal powers.
The point is that devolution from the centre directly to the local levels negates the normal concept of decentralization, which requires powers to be transferred to the four provinces in the first instance and from there further downwards.
There are those who argue that the new local governments were instituted to create a pliant political class that will be supportive of the military's dominant role in politics and try to neutralize its traditional civilian adversaries.
Despite the many contradictions and anomalies affecting its working, the devolution plan continues to be viewed by Islamabad as a key instrument of good governance. But if Pakistan's political history is any pointer, the question of devolution cannot be addressed in isolation from the more fundamental issue of provincial autonomy.
Terrorism: a common enemy
The warm sentiments expressed by visiting Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah in Islamabad on Tuesday mirror those that Pakistan has always had for its north-western neighbour.
Mr Abdullah said that the two neighbours must work together to eliminate terrorism and to help realize the immense economic potential of the region. He said that President Musharraf's vision of 'enlightened moderation' could ensure the prosperity of the region as well as Muslims in general.
Referring to the Afghan president's planned July 26 visit to Pakistan, the foreign minister was equally positive, saying it would consolidate and build upon good neighbourly relations.
Later, at a joint press conference with Mr Kasuri, the two leaders were fully in agreement on issues pertaining to bilateral relations and on how to tackle the scourge of terrorism.
What is surprising is that only a day earlier, while meeting Pakistan's interior minister in Kabul, Mr Abdullah had accused Islamabad of sponsoring terrorism in his country - a charge that Pakistan readily dismissed.
There is no denying the fact that this kind of ambivalent behaviour has time and again resulted in creating misunderstandings between Kabul and Islamabad since the fall of the Taliban regime.
In the latter's waning months it was common knowledge that many terrorists wanted in Pakistan for sectarian killings and acts of sabotage had sought safe shelter across the border.
But realizing the porous nature of the Durand Line, Pakistan never accused Kabul of collusion with criminals wanted here. The present Afghan government should also take the ground reality into account and desist from making sweeping accusations against Pakistan.
The approach adopted by Mr Abdullah in Islamabad is the right one for solving all such bilateral problems. Terrorism is a common concern and Pakistan has suffered more, and for much longer now, from its menacing effects than our north-western neighbour.
Consequently, Islamabad has done more in practical terms, both at the regional and global levels, to root out terrorism than any other country. The way forward is not through needlessly hurling blame but to work together to contain and eliminate the common menace.
Eradicating polio
It is indeed alarming that 19 cases of polio since January should have been reported in a country committed to eradicating the crippling disease by the end of this year.
While, thanks to regular immunization campaigns and anti-polio drives aimed at raising awareness, Pakistan has made headway in drastically reducing the incidence of the disease, pockets of prevalence can still be identified as poliovirus reservoirs.
For the most part, these are located in remote areas that are not easily accessible to teams charged with administering the polio vaccine to children, and where tradition and suspicion of modern medicine keep parents from cooperating with the visiting health staff.
Sometimes, even if the vaccine has been administered, there are factors that lower its efficacy such as cold chain problems, including failure to maintain the necessary storage temperature for the medicine to remain potent, or other illnesses in children neutralizing the effect of the vaccine.
All this makes it necessary to tackle the disease on a war footing and to do all it takes to vaccinate every child in the country against polio, including those living in far-flung areas.
While new cases of polio might discourage health teams, many of whom have to contend with problems of staff fatigue, there must be no let-up in the effort to get the job done. The routine inclusion of women health workers in the team is needed to allay the misgivings of conservative households.
It is also necessary to relay the importance of the polio vaccine to the political representatives and elders of an area so that the locals are more readily convinced of the importance of vaccination.
Greater coordination is also required between the World Health Organization and the provincial health departments to combat the disease, as poor synchronization of efforts between the two has been cited as one of the obstacles in the way of polio eradication in the country.