DAWN - Editorial; December 25, 2006

Published December 25, 2006

Microcredit and poverty

THE prime minister has set a goal of one million households to be reached by microcredit institutions by the end of 2007. Considering that at present Pakistan’s microfinance programme covers 800,000 families, the goal is not very ambitious. Although microcredit has emerged as the buzzword in the literature on poverty alleviation, Pakistan, which is a late entrant in this field, has yet to put up an impressive performance. Compared to other Third World countries, the number of active borrowers in Pakistan as a percentage of the population is very low — just 0.30 per cent when in Bangladesh the ratio is 9.50. Even Sri Lanka and Indonesia have a better showing at 1.97 and 1.43 per cent. Hence one would not question Mr Shaukat Aziz’s point of view that there is need to expand the outreach. If microfinancing is to make a dent in the poverty level in the country it will have to be expanded and quite fast.

Why has the microcredit programme in the country not made the progress one had expected of it? The government has taken encouraging initiatives for formalising the infrastructure for generating funds and service provision. As such, we have now moved on from the traditional reliance on NGOs and a handful of banks for the provision of small loans to low-income creditors. Thus the Microfinance Institutions Ordinance 2001 and subsequent laws have provided the legal framework for the licensing, regulation and supervision of the establishment and operation of such banks. The diversity of microcredit providers — six microfinance banks, 25 NGOs, five or so rural support programmes and about five commercial financial institutions are also giving small loans — ensures a greater outreach. The government initially set up four funds totalling Rs4.2 billion to get the scheme going. Moreover, where properly operated, a microfinance institution has proved to be a paying concern as the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh has proved.

That the microcredit sector could do much more is now quite clear. It is not just the limited outreach that reflects adversely on it. There is not sufficient public knowledge of the recovery rates, so one cannot be sure about the performance of these institutions. The Khushhali Bank, the largest microcredit provider with a loan portfolio of Rs1.9 billion and 227,172 active borrowers, had to write off loans worth Rs83 million in December 2005. Whether this is a normal trend is not known. But there are other data available that do not promise rapid growth. For instance, gender targeting is skewed in favour of men — in Khushhali Bank only one-third of borrowers are women — and the loans are not diversified, being preponderantly deployed in the agricultural and livestock sectors. What seems to be missing is a strategy that takes the human factor into account. For instance, it is known that women

are better borrowers, as Dr Mohammad Yunus, the founder of the Grameen Bank, has proved, but we have neglected the female clients. There is also the need for better evaluation and assessment of projects and active financial guidance by the creditor to the borrower who may not be able to maximise the benefit from the loan on account of lack of education and ignorance of market conditions. The fact is that this calls for an independent study of the microfinance sector from the point of view of the borrowers — their problems and limitations. This is important if we really want microfinance to lift our people out of poverty.

Terror tactics in tribal areas

RECENT news from the NWFP’s tribal areas only confirms what is already public knowledge but it makes for disturbing reading all the same. According to the United Nations’ Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN), many families living in and around Darra Adamkhel in Frontier Region Kohat are too scared to send their girls to school in the wake of renewed threats from pro-Taliban militants. These include the recent bombing of a girls’ high school and a similar attack on an under-construction degree college. Warning notices have been affixed on the gates of area schools, while parents, teachers and support staff have been threatened with dire consequences if any attempt is made to educate girls. Sadly, the terror tactics are having the desired effect as even parents who want to educate their daughters are now reluctant to do so. In Bajaur Agency, pamphlets are being circulated warning parents not to send their girls to school. Similar intimidation is being reported from some ‘settled’ areas that come under the administrative control of the NWFP government.

All this is happening in a province where the official adult female literacy rate is a paltry 26 per cent, according to the Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement Survey 2004-05. Far worse is the situation in the tribal areas, where the 1998 census turned up an adult female literacy rate of only three per cent. Progress, if any, made since 1998 is now under clear and imminent threat from the medieval ideology of retrograde militants and clerics. Mindsets clearly need to be changed but it is hard to envisage how this can be done in areas where even security forces fear to tread, let alone well-meaning NGOs and rights activists who are currently being hounded out of the NWFP as a whole. Enlightenment can only come through education, socio-economic uplift and the resulting access to different schools of thought. This cannot be achieved without bringing the tribal areas into the mainstream of national laws and values. In the so-called settled areas, it is the duty of the NWFP government to ensure the security of teachers and students. The ruling MMA claims it is in favour of women’s education. It is time its actions matched its words.

Care for the mentally ill

IS the cause of justice truly served when a mentally ill woman is locked up in a Lahore jail for slitting the throat of her 11-day-old son? Undoubtedly a heinous crime like that deserves the strictest punishment, but no parent can kill her newborn child without being mentally deranged. Years ago her family recognised her condition and admitted her to a psychiatric facility in Lahore. But when they felt she was faring better, they married her off. One will never fully know whether her doctors had advised the family against her marriage or not but society generally believes marriage is a cure for many ills. Her relations with her husband were strained in the past three months and she was living with her parents when the incident occurred. No one will know what possessed her to murder her own child. One hopes the judiciary will take into consideration her mental health condition and that she can be given the medical attention she clearly needs.

This tragic woman isn’t alone in needing help. It is estimated that around 30 per cent of the population suffers from psychiatric/psychosomatic disorders but there are few institutions that can cater to such problems. There are said to be a measly 5,000 beds for the mentally ill in the country, of which 40 per cent are in private hospitals. These are virtually inaccessible to the poor who are unable to grasp the complexities of mental health disorders. Shamed by the stigma, they prefer to send such cases to quacks or shrines for ‘treatment’. Then there are the doctors who overzealously prescribe drugs and spend little time counselling their patients. They need to be re-educated on the importance of counselling patients and their families. Meanwhile, the health authorities must initiate awareness campaigns so that society can overcome any shame associated with mental illnesses.

The Quaid’s unrealised vision

By Shamshad Ahmad


THE Quaid-i-Azam did not live long to personally steer Pakistan to be what he thought and aspired will be “one of the greatest nations of the world.” A full generation’s life-time is now behind us as an independent nation.

Many of us who belong to the first generation that saw and experienced the formative phase of Pakistan and its creation as a dream of its founding fathers, are indeed discomfited at the thought of what the Quaid-i-Azam had envisioned this country to be and where we actually stand today as a nation and as a state.

Within the first year of our independence which woefully happened to be the last of his life, the Quaid-i-Azam had presciently foreseen the coming events. He was disillusioned with the scarcity of calibre and character in the country’s political hierarchy which was no more than a bunch of self-serving, feudalist and opportunistic politicians who were to manage the newly independent Pakistan. Political ineptitude was writ large on the country’s horizon. The Quaid’s worries were not unwarranted.

Less than a month before his death, the Quaid addressed his last message to the nation on August 14, 1948, in which he reminded his people: “the foundations of your state have been laid and it is now for you to build and build as quickly and as well as you can.” On his own part, to quote Richard Symons, “in accomplishing the task he had taken upon on the morrow of Pakistan’s birth, Jinnah had worked himself to death, but had contributed more than any other man to Pakistan’s survival.” Indeed, he died by his devotion to Pakistan.

How many of us would remember or know that the Father of the Nation, Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah spent the last hours of his life on that fateful day of September 11, 1947, lying helplessly in an ill-fated army ambulance which broke down because of “engine trouble” at a lonely stretch of the road while bringing him from the Mauripur Air Force base to Karachi? Earlier on arrival from Quetta, no one from the government except his military secretary, Colonel Knowles, was present at the airport to receive him.

In her book, ‘My Brother,’ Mohtarma Fatima Jinnah recalled those agonising moments: “Nearby stood hundreds of huts belonging to the refugees, who went about their business, not knowing that their Quaid, who had given them a homeland, was in their midst, lying helpless. Cars honked their way past, buses and trucks rumbled by, and we stood there immobilised in an ambulance that refused to move an inch... We waited for over one hour, and no hour in my life has been so long and full of anguish.”

Does this painful recollection give us any food for thought or lead us to a feeling of regret and remorse? The answer lies in the barefaced contempt that we as a nation have shown to the Quaid’s vision of a “strong, stable and democratic” Pakistan and his ideals of peace, equality, tolerance, rule of law and human rights. Indeed, the Quaid’s vision of Pakistan remains unfulfilled. Fiftynine years after our independence, where do we stand as a nation and as a member of the comity of nations? Are we living in “a democratic and progressive” Pakistan as envisioned by its founders? Can we genuinely claim to be “upholders” of fundamental values of freedom, democracy and human dignity?

Have we been able to make Pakistan “a bastion of inner strength, political stability, economic self-reliance, social cohesion and national unity” that our leaders, over the years, have been show-casing to their people as their destiny?

Unfortunately, it is not in our nature to look into our souls and hearts. Self-righteous as we always are, we do not want to be reminded of our failures or shortcomings. Both as rulers and the ruled, we are totally averse to being regretful or repentant over our omissions and commissions. We don’t take anything to heart. Look, how shamelessly we swallowed in the tragedy of 1971, the worst that could happen to any country or a nation. We did not make it an “issue of our core” for we had other “core issues.” In any case, we are adept in giving up even on our core issues.

During the last year of his life, the Quaid-i-Azam addressed almost every segment of our society, including legislators, armed forces, civil servants, educationists, students, business community, workers, lawyers, and the public, providing guidelines on every aspect of national life for building up Pakistan into a modern and democratic state, while drawing their attention to what the nation expected of them.

In his address to Pakistan’s first Constituent Assembly on August 11, 1947, the Quaid reminded the legislators of their “onerous responsibility” of framing the future constitution of Pakistan and functioning as a full and complete sovereign body like a federal legislature in any parliamentary system.

It took our politicians nine years and several governments to frame our first constitution in 1956 which was abrogated in less than three years. Since then, we have had two constitutions — one promulgated by a Field Marshal president in 1962, and the other adopted by an elected legislature of the truncated Pakistan in 1973, which has since been amended 17 times leaving very little of the original text in its essence. It is a different constitution altogether. Meanwhile, our parliament has never been able to function as a “full sovereign body” as was envisioned by the Quaid. A cycle of frequent political breakdowns and long spells of military rule disabled our institutional framework unleashing a “culture of political opportunism, corruption and ineptitude.”

Among his known qualities of intellect and character, the Quaid-i-Azam also had a unique ability to see far ahead of his times. Addressing the Officers of the Army Staff College, Quetta, on June 14, 1948, he reminded the armed forces of their constitutional responsibilities, urging them “to understand the true constitutional and legal implications of their oath of allegiance” to the country’s constitution. He warned them not to meddle in the country’s politics. But ours is a sordid tale of broken oaths and military take-overs.

From the very beginning, power struggle deprived Pakistan of stable and functional political institutions, opening the door wide for military interventions. We got possessed by a “praetorian” curse. Military professionalism is gone with the wind. Constitutions have been violated in letter and spirit with impunity. Machiavellian “doctrine of necessity,” has been “sanctified” to become our political creed. Institutional paralysis has kept the whole nation disenfranchised.

The Quaid-i-Azam had a special place in his heart for Balochistan. He not only chose to spend the last days of his life in this province but was also mindful of the injustices of the colonial period that the people of Balochistan had suffered and inherited. He pledged to them equal position and political status within the polity of Pakistan. Unfortunately, despite its abundance in the wealth of natural resources, Balochistan remains the most backward province of the country.

A deep-rooted sense of deprivation and frustration has made its people highly suspicious of the policymakers in Islamabad. There is a strong underlying resentment in Balochistan (and in other provinces also) against inequitable distribution of power and resources, exploitation of the province’s natural wealth and unabashed use of military force.

The Quaid-i-Azam also had a prophetic message for our educationists. He told them that “the future of our state will and most greatly depend upon the type of education and the way in which we bring up our children as the future citizens of Pakistan.” Unfortunately, with misplaced priorities, we never focused on developing education as a pillar of nation-building which receives only a little fraction of our national attention and resources.

The Quaid believed in religious freedom and communal and sectarian harmony. He urged the nation to shun sectarianism. We, however, had a different approach. Intolerance and fanaticism led us to violence with no parallel anywhere in the world. Pakistan became the hotbed of religious extremism and obscurantism. Sectarianism has ripped our society apart. How painful it would have been for the Quaid to see his Pakistan burning from within.

He also believed in the importance of the role of women in nation-building as equal citizens of Pakistan. But women in our country continue to be denied their basic rights and fundamental freedoms, and are targets of gruesome forms of violence. Customary gender norms remain at the root of pervasive political, legal, economic and social inequalities that perpetuate women’s lack of access to resources, education, healthcare, employment, decision-making and participation in public life.

In his August 11, 1947, address to the Constituent Assembly, the Quaid had given us a roadmap of what he believed were the biggest challenges for the country’s government and lawmakers. According to him, the foremost duty of a government was “to maintain law and order and to protect the life, property and religious beliefs of its subjects. He also warned against the “evils” of bribery, corruption, blackmarketing, nepotism and jobbery which he wanted to be eradicated with an “iron hand.”

We as a nation have not only failed to grapple with these challenges but are in fact living remorselessly with these “evils” as an “integral” part of our society. Crime and corruption are rampant and galore in both scope and scale. Aversion to the rule of law is endemic. Poor governance is our national hallmark. There is constant erosion of law and order in the country.

Our Quaid gave us three principles: Unity, Faith and Discipline. We found them of little relevance to our daily lives and have been flouting them gleefully. In fact, we don’t believe in principles. We don’t even believe in the rule of law. Alas; the Quaid-i-Azam did not get to know us well. By nature, we are a nation of leaders, not followers.

Had the Quaid lived longer, he would have only been embarrassed to see how miserably we and our successive leaders have failed to live up to his vision of Pakistan, and to protect and preserve our national unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity. Alas, on our part, we are not even ashamed of what we have done to his Pakistan.

The writer is a former foreign secretary.



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