| June 28, 2005 | Tuesday | Jumadi-ul-Awwal 20, 1426 |
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Defining women’s rights
Attack on CM’s house
THE death on Sunday of at least 14 people in a road accident near Layyah in Punjab comes as a stark reminder of the mayhem prevailing on our highways. The latest accident occurred between a speeding bus and a tractor trolley, killing nine passengers on the spot, while five more succumbed to their injuries in hospitals. The dead and the injured included women and children. Unfortunately, such accidents involving inter-city buses or even public transport operating in our cities are becoming more frequent with increasing fatality rates. Cliched as it may sound, highways particularly have become killing fields. Hardly a day passes by without a fatal road accident being reported from somewhere in the country. The Pakistan Statistical Yearbook-2004, published by the Federal Bureau of Statistics, states that the number of accidents in 2002-3 was as high as 9,377. Of these, 4,045 were categorized as fatal, claiming a total of 4,813 lives. The recorded accidents involved 10,100 vehicles. There has since been a significant increase in the number of vehicles on the roads, with independent sources estimating the incidents of fatal road collisions to be as high as 33 per 10,000 vehicles, on a national basis. For Karachi and Lahore, this figure is over 20 fatal accidents per 10,000, as compared to less than three for many big cities in developed countries.
Who, then, is to blame for this dismal state of affairs? It is customary to point the finger at the police, and for good reason: the police’s own vehicles are often seen violating traffic rules, breaking signals and speeding through congested localities. It is true that a large number of police may be untrained, corrupt and inefficient, but negligence on their part alone is not the only factor leading to the high incidence of traffic-related fatalities. A vast majority of commercial drivers and individual motorists, too, lack basic road sense, and many are guilty of callously driving un-roadworthy vehicles. Many among drivers operating trucks and inter-city buses are believed to be drug users, while many others are forced to work long hours without being allowed to take adequate rest between one trip and the next. Most of the commercial drivers are either illiterate or semi-literate, who are without any grounding in the basic laws and rules of driving on highways.
What has added to the problem is the level of indifference that exists in society at large to the loss of human life. The general acceptance of road fatalities that take place all too often without protest is shocking beyond belief. This also explains the absence of a public outcry and social pressure on the relevant authorities to do more to correct the existing situation. How many more lives must be lost and how many injuries suffered in road accidents before this kind of apathy on our part is shed? It is time the government formed a duly empowered commission comprising officials, qualified traffic engineers, planners and representative citizens to look into the causes of the havoc prevailing on our roads and highways. A national road safety strategy must be evolved and enforced. This is the only way to prepare public opinion and motivate road users to understand and observe traffic regulations. A stricter law enforcement will make sense only after these prerequisites have been met.
WHILE the MQM can give itself a pat on the back for organizing an impressive turnout at the women’s convention last Saturday in Karachi, one is not sure of how sustained its efforts towards ensuring women’s rights in the country will prove to be. Indeed, the same can be said about most other political parties claiming to support women’s rights — including the PPP, even though it has shown itself to be the most consistent in this regard since the 2002 elections. Any analysis of the reasons behind the general apathy, in fact, the regressive stance, demonstrated towards women’s issues by both the government and the political parties will be of little use unless we clear up some confusion regarding attitudes on the subject. For this, we need to define the platform from which the government and society are supposedly fighting for women’s rights. Are we attempting to rein in the demons of obscurantism by invoking the tenets of religion and culture? Or, are we fighting from a more pluralistic point of view that encompasses universal values of human rights?
There has been much shying away from these questions, as a result of which the issue of women’s rights has been given several different hues. Ignoring the obvious negative ramifications of the Hudood Ordinances, religious conservatives have touted these laws as actually protecting the status of women in the country. Similarly, upholding tribal councils as time-tested mechanisms of speedy justice, powerful feudal elements are loath to do away with this mediaeval system of dispute settlement that has seriously damaged Pakistan’s image — especially with regard to women’s rights. Meanwhile, the failure of the more liberal sections of society to put basic women’s rights, such as education and health, in a global context has been disappointing. This lack of a proper definition and context for women’s rights has left us flapping in a mire of self-doubt, and unable to think logically. Unless and until, women’s rights are put in proper context and the goal of the struggle for these defined in unequivocal terms, it will be difficult to go much beyond holding of meetings and rallies protesting against gender discrimination.
IT is unfortunate that some people in Balochistan still continue to resort to violence. There is no doubt that the Baloch people suffer from an acute sense of deprivation. But terrorism can hardly improve matters. The attack on Chief Minister Jam Mohammad Yusuf’s house in Kalat on Sunday is part of this madness. Nobody has claimed responsibility for the attack, which fortunately caused no casualty, but it deserves to be condemned because it is apparently aimed at reversing the political process now underway to find a solution to Balochistan’s grievances. Since the trouble in Sui in January, things have generally been improving. There is a marked decrease in acts of violence, and the parliamentary committee formed to look into the issue has released its recommendations. Even though some opposition parties and Baloch nationalist groups boycotted the committee’s meetings, on the whole it managed to get the cooperation of the mainstream Baloch leadership. This process must continue.
Admittedly, Balochistan has received a raw deal. In spite of being endowed with natural resources, especially gas and other minerals, it remains a very backward region. The literacy rate is low and poverty is widespread. There is hardly any middle class, and this has enabled tribal leaders to monopolize the political scene and pose themselves as the Baloch people’s representatives. The sardars have resisted reforms for fear these will liberate their people, whom they treat as no better than serfs. The solution to this lies in focussing on Balochistan’s economic development, setting up industries, building infrastructure and spreading education. The mega projects now under way must be completed with speed. Acts of sabotage will interfere with the development process, and this will hardly help the Baloch people. The present suspicion between the Baloch leadership and the federal government must be removed as effectively and as soon as possible.