Afghan poll and beyond

It is a matter of relief that Afghanistan's first-ever, and therefore, historic presidential election held on Saturday passed off largely peacefully. There were no reports of widespread disruption or intimidation by the remnants of the Taliban or the feuding warlords holding sway in the provinces, as threatened by these quarters.

This is despite the fact that a boycott call was issued on Saturday morning by 15 of President Hamid Karzai's 17 rivals contesting the poll. The main contention was the quality of the 'indelible' ink provided to mark voters' thumbs to avoid multiple voting.

But the vast majority of 10.5 million registered voters turned out to vote in spite of the boycott call, which forced many of Mr Karzai's challengers to withdraw the call before the polling ended - after the election management body promised an inquiry into reports of alleged rigging.

The UN, which jointly managed the election with Afghan officials, and a number of independent European observers have declared the poll "fairly democratic". The latter have also expressed satisfaction over the fact that a large number of women also turned out to vote across the country.

This is all good news for the war-ravaged country which has had no history of democratic institutions nor an electoral process. Given Afghanistan's lack of roads, a modern communication network, difficult mountainous terrain and inclement weather in parts of the country, the results of the election are not expected to be made known for another two weeks; but President Hamid Karzai remains the favourite.

The Afghan people's enthusiastic participation in Saturday's election, braving threats of disruption and bad weather, seems to have been an important factor in defeating the designs of those who had threatened violence on the poll day.

But public support alone will not be enough to establish the writ of an elected president beyond the capital, Kabul. Even if Mr Karzai returns to the office with a popular vote, he will need all the logistical, administrative and financial help pledged to Afghanistan by the international community to start tackling the many challenges facing his country.

Fist of all, the overall security situation around Afghanistan remains a major concern. The remnants of the Taliban and the warring tribal chiefs - with many of the latter running drug cartels - will have to be either convinced or forced to disarm and obey the law.

On the other hand, the elected president will also have to mend fences with his political rivals, many of whom will continue to be supported by their respective ethnic constituencies.

The planned parliamentary elections to be held in April or May next year are going to be a major democratic exercise for which calm and security must prevail all around. The enormous task of the ravaged country's reconstruction and rehabilitation of millions of displaced Afghans will also have to be begun in earnest sooner than later.

None of these challenging tasks before the elected president can wait for too long to be started. Kabul needs unequivocal backing of the international community, particularly the US, UN, EU and Japan, who have time and again pledged such support but have provided much less in actual terms so far. In this regard, increasing the strength and scope of the Nato-backed International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan can be a good beginning.

Consumer resistance

The Sindh government's decision to set up a consumer rights council was long over due. Mercifully, the council will not be an all bureaucratic affair; instead, it will also have housewives and representatives drawn from NGOs and civic bodies.

Their presence on the council will ensure that it will hear the views of those directly hit by the more baneful aspects of market mechanism, which often serves to fatten the producers and sellers at the expense of the consumers.

The council's focus will be on checking and discouraging the manipulation of prices by unfair means. This is a better way of keeping tabs on prices than the ritual notification of prices fixed by the government.

In any case, as experience shows, the government's price control strategies exist only on paper. Manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers sabotage government policy by hoarding consumer goods, creating official shortages and raising prices.

Eliminating these practices and making the consumers party to a war on profiteering could thus produce results and lead to action against the corrupt among businessmen. Unfortunately, consumer resistance is totally absent in Pakistan.

People continue to buy items at high prices because of lack of guidance. In advanced countries, consumer awareness with regard to their rights plays a major part in keeping prices under check. In many cases, consumers boycott certain items if they are told that these items are not worth their money or are fake or below standards.

In the case of Pakistan, the issue is compounded by the sale of edible items which are adulterated. For instance, many brands of so-called mineral water are available in the market, but the people do not know which ones meet the health standards.

This is also true of many varieties of cooking oil, spices, powdered milk, tea bags and that of which mostly children are victims - 'gutka supari'. In the absence of a consumer resistance tradition, manufacturers and sellers of these items mint money while exposing the consumers to health hazards. One hopes that the proposed council will succeed where the food department has failed.

Waiting for the law

Friday's protest rally in Islamabad, in which hundreds of men and women, led by human rights lawyer Asma Jehangir, participated, should come as a clear warning to the government that there could be trouble on the streets unless it moves fast to enact effective legislation against "honour" killings.

The protesters, who included parliamentarians, activists and other members of civil society, demanded action on a law banning the reprehensible practice within six months, failing which they threatened to renew their protests.

With a parliamentary committee having finally endorsed a long-pending bill - on which Ms Jehangir has expressed serious reservations - there are signs that such a law might indeed come into force, unless, of course, further procrastination relegates the matter to the back-burner once again.

For the sake of the countless men and women across the country, confronted with the spectre of a grisly death at the hands of those seeking to uphold a horrid tribal or feudal tradition, one hopes that this will not be the case.

Hundreds of cases of honour killings are reported each year, and there are fears that the actual toll is far higher than what official figures indicate, as many cases of this form of cold-blooded murder are not registered with the law enforcement authorities.

The law, as it stands now, is lenient towards the culprits, for whom the motive of "honour" masks deeper social ills such as property disputes and personal vendetta linked to a tribal and feudal societal structure.

There should be no more allowances for the perpetrators of these brutal crimes, and honour killing must be viewed as an act of premeditated murder, nothing less. This, along with regular efforts to mobilize public opinion against such reprehensible practices, is the only way to break the stranglehold of the archaic traditions and barbaric customs that currently hold sway in large parts of the country.