GST and life-saving drugs

I refer to the recent news items in Dawn about the levy of GST on medicines and the widespread public protests over it. As the elderly segment of the population especially those with low incomes will be worse hit by it, the Pakistan Senior Citizens’ Association demands complete withdrawal of GST on all medicines whose sale in Pakistan is approved by the Federal Health Ministry.

The lollipop of exempting only life-saving medicines or antibiotics from the levy of GST will offer little relief to the seriously-ill patients. A diabetic living on insulin injections also needs certain high-potency, multi-vitamins for survival. An asthma patient needs both life-saving medicines and inhalers. A heart patient uses life-saving cardiac medicines and also certain aspirin preparations which may not be life-saving to the Federal Health Ministry.

Therefore, in a poor country like Pakistan wherein medicare facilities are limited and the prices of most medicines are higher than those in India, GST should not be levied on medicines. A government which expresses its faith in poverty alleviation and gets aid for it from the World Bank should not tax the ill and the disabled, for enriching its coffers.

Many allopathic doctors are in the habit of prescribing costly medicines for their patients, shunning cheaper ones made by Pakistan-owned pharmaceutical companies.

The dialysis facility provided for poor patients in certain government hospitals under the Nawaz Sharif government has been scrapped; a three-times-a-week dialysis regimen costs Rs3,600. The package of benefits and reliefs (including medical) for senior citizens announced on October 1, 1999, by the then prime minister of Pakistan is in limbo. President Musharraf will brighten his prospects of winning the proposed referendum if he announces a package of relief measures for the poor, the sick, the disabled and the senior citizens (including withdrawal of GST on all medicines).

QUTUBUDDIN AZIZ

Karachi

Jurisdiction of taxes

IT has been rightly stated in Dawn’s editorial that the centre should give up a number of taxes now being defined as federal taxes and hand them over to the provinces (April 5).

In this connection it is relevant to point out that the sales tax used to be a provincial tax before partition. At the time of independence, it was taken over by the central government for a couple of years to supplement its fiscal resources, as at that time it did not have adequate income to run the administration of the newly born country. But this tax has not so far been returned to the provinces. In India it still remains a provincial tax.

In all fairness, besides sales tax, certain other taxes like central excise duty should also be assigned to the provincial government in order to provide them adequate resources to run their affairs. Political autonomy is meaningless without adequate fiscal autonomy.

R.R. ALVI

Lahore

Explaining the Quran

THIS is with reference to the letter ‘Explaining the Quran’ (April 1). I can only comment on alcohol consumption, being a medical personal. The major cause of road accidents and violence in the West is alcoholism.

When taken in small amounts, alcohol has a blood concentration of 50-100 mg per cent. At this stage there is a false feeling of well-being (euphoria) and some excitement. The action, speech and emotions are less restrained due to a lowering of inhibition of the higher centres of the brain. There is an increased confidence in himself and the person develops carelessness of consequences of whatever might happen and also lack of self control. He may become aggressive too.

Under such a condition, the person loses his normal restraint, becomes talkative and, if he is on an important government position, may divulge state secrets which he would never do when in his senses. He might also behave and talk in an obscene manner.

Alcohol is not essential for health like carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins and minerals. An the other hand, it is responsible for so many evils. It is, therefore, rightly prohibited in Islam. I would advise people belonging to any religion to completely abstain from alcohol.

DR IRSHAD AHMED SETHI

Karachi

Power generation

I remember once asking my learned teacher at the Institute of Business Administration (IBA), why no government paid attention to generating electricity from coal even when they knew that it was very cheap. To my great surprise and disgust, he replied: “A lot of time is needed to make these coal reserves usable for power generation. Since it is a long-term project, no government is interested in it, as that particular government might not be around at that time to claim the credit and reap its benefits”.

I could not agree more with the president when he says that he is trying to address the root causes that take time and a lot of effort. But this is the need of the hour. I don’t care about the so-called democracy or about which party wins. All I want now for Pakistan is someone who puts it on the path of real progress and prosperity, whether that person is in a uniform or in a sherwani.

SAIMA AHMED

Karachi

Partial police policies

UNDER normal police procedures if the suspect is not available, the standard operating procedure takes away the household member without any consideration as to age, infirmity and imposed indignity on the other family members. They argue that the accused is being hidden by the family members. They use extreme coercive measures not only to try and extract information, which is largely not available, but also to take money for releasing innocent people.

In another show of wanton brutality by the police, the recent incident in Ramaswami only brings to surface the type of people who serve this department and the total apathy shown by the high-ups, in spite of all the rhetoric.

Why has the father of the absconder, Inspector Malik Shabbir Awan, a serving police officer, not been exposed to the same treatment as is meted out to the population at large?

Is it because the police suddenly fear that they in their turn will be done unto what is done unto others?

AYESHA MAHMUD

Karachi

Balochistan’s development

THIS refers to the article ‘The Baloch grievances and reality’ by Sajid Mansoor Qaisarani (March 30).

I would like to ask him how many Baloch ambassadors, Baloch generals or Baloch chairmen of corporations/banks do we have? He wants us to enter into business and own textile mills, sugar mills and factories.

There should be a good infrastructure (water, good communication and electricity) which Balochistan lacks. How much share do we have in power-sharing and decision-making?

The mega projects which the writer has alluded to can never take off as the required amount of funds have not been released. If these were completed after a decade or so, they would hardly contribute anything towards the socio-economic uplift of the Mekran region, as this region is not linked with any national centre of economic and commercial activity of the country.

There was a network of air links through the six airports of the region, but that also has been severed because of the logistic and strategic requirements of the American forces. The Americans are no doubt paying US$100 million to the government of Pakistan as rent for using these aerial and amphibian facilities situated on the Baloch soil but Balochistan is not getting a single penny from this huge amount.

ABDUL SAMAD BALOCH

London, UK

President’s speech

IT is the need of the hour to take steps which would bring happiness and prosperity to the common citizen of Pakistan. The preceding democratic governments had done little despite their ‘heavy’ mandates, and now the time has come to solve the real problems of the downtrodden people of the country.

ZULFIQAR ALI

Karachi

Tobacco ads

EACH year, an estimated three million people die worldwide of tobacco-related diseases. This fact makes it necessary for the tobacco industry to find new smokers.

As a result of the advertisement campaigns launched by the tobacco companies for this purpose, the vast majority of fresh recruits to smoking in developing countries like Pakistan, are children and teenagers.

While there are undoubtedly multiple reasons why young people choose to smoke, one of the main reasons is that marketing schemes of the major tobacco companies target the youth only.

Though the companies maintain that they advertise only to influence the brand preferences of current smokers, the widespread use of healthy sporting activities like skydiving, fishing, rock-climbing and white water rafting by young and smart western men and women, leaves little doubt that the younger people are the primary target of these marketing campaigns.

It is felt that there is a need for creating awareness among the children and the youth about the hazardous effects of smoking.

And this effort must be supported by legislation, disallowing advertising in support of smoking.

MURAD MOOSA KHAN

Karachi

PTV policies

THIS is with reference to a joint statement by Dr Mubashir Hasan, Dr Mehdi Hasan and PTV Lahore Centre’s ex-GM, Shahid Mahmood Nadim (Dawn, April 3) who have strongly criticized PTV programmes. Almost all of them have blamed the PTV Lahore Centre’s GM who is also an executive producer of Khawateen Time.

No doubt, Moniza Hashmi’s mental calibre is not the same as that of her father, Faiz Ahmad Faiz, but she is trying her best to promote women’s problems in her daily one-hour show.

When the pace and tempo of PTV is compared with foreign channels, I would submit that PTV is an official channel and its programmes should not be compared with the latter. Anyhow, as far as the PTV programmes’ policy is concerned, it should be immediately revised by the government.

HUMA AWAIS

Lahore

One-man show

THE novel doctrine of the separation of powers authored and advocated by President Gen Musharraf, envisaging a system of checks and balance between the president, the prime minister and the chief of army staff, is being applauded by its apologists and strongly assailed by its critics.

May I venture to ask, sir, a question in this regard: how can a balance of power be maintained between these three power brokers when the powers of the president and that of the chief of army staff, as in the case of General Musharraf himself, will be resting in one man?

It will be a one-man show — pure and simple. A man will be the master of everything on whose shoulders will rest more power and less balance.

MUSTAFA MAHESAR

Karachi

Rekindled controversy

THE recent police raids on some theatres in Lahore have once again rekindled the ‘fundamentalism vs liberalism’ controversy.

Actually both the terms have been misinterpreted and misused, if not exploited by the vested interests. Neither does fundamentalism mean bigotry of the narrow-minded, misguided self-proclaimed custodians of religion, nor is liberalism a total rejection of self-restraint.

Entertainment is definitely needed for the healthy and balanced growth of the human personality. With pride I can say that we have seen highly entertaining plays at the Alhamra Art Council, Lahore. Also hilarious comedy programmes have been telecast by PTV. Recently, a long serial was shown by PTV World, Family Front, which was highly entertaining.

Advocates of fundamentalism take the stand that Islam does not allow for entertainment. They are biased and ignorant. Any activity that has a sublimating effect on the human mind is permissible in Islam. For example, the Holy Prophet appointed Hazrat Bilal (RA) to call the ‘aazan’ because of his melodious voice.

Let’s not go to extremes in browbeating each other for fundamentalism or liberalism. The need of the hour is to build a rational, balanced and morally upright approach towards entertainment. Obscenity and vulgarity must not be encouraged in the name of entertainment or culture.

B. NASEER

Lahore

Booking of new cars

ACCORDING to a press report (April 3), the Secretary of Industries has said that the car manufacturers have agreed to comply with three months delivery time to the customers upon a 100 per cent deposit of cash.

He also said that at the moment, around 4,000 cars have been reserved with 100 per cent cash payment.

It means that the secretary industries has permitted the car assemblers to retain and earn bank interest on over Rs3 billion (estimated average unit price is over Rs750,000 for 4,000 big and small cars).

This amount will increase if the car assemblers are permitted to compel helpless customers to deposit 100 per cent cash with delivery of cars at a later date.

The bank interest thus earned by the car assemblers will be in addition to the fabulous profit extracted from hapless customers in the absence of any effective competition because of the ban on import of reconditioned cars, and exorbitant duty and taxes on imported new cars.

The minister for commerce and Industries may like to clarify as to under which law the secretary industries has permitted the car assemblers to retain Rs3 billion of the customers’ money without immediate delivery of the cars, and which law protects this money against embezzlement similar to the Kia Pride car scam?

SHAKEEL AKHTAR

Rawalpindi

Two-way street

THIS is in response to Anshu Dewan’s letter ‘Two-way street’ (April 5). He has advised Pakistanis to try to make Pakistan a secular state.

Does Mr Dewan want to see Pakistan a secular state like India where a mosque is demolished and people insist upon constructing a temple on that site, where the Taj Mahal is vandalized just because it was built by a Muslim emperor and where tragedies like the recent Gujarat pogrom happen time and again? Sorry! If he means that, then we would prefer to remain what we are.

NOOR JAHAN

Karachi

Hot line with the IMF

THE IMF has warned the government that a reduction in tax exemptions and subsidies as well as improved tax collection would be required for future aid.

The character of our government is only that of a middle-man. So we should refer our problems directly to the IMF.

LIAQAT NASEER

Lahore

Hard talk

TIM Sebastian was recently engaged in a heated discussion with the Jewish Mayor of Al Quds. The former kept stressing the need for a political dialogue and the latter kept moaning and groaning about the suicide bombers. Neither of them seemed to realize that you could not remain in occupation of another’s territory and still expect peaceful coexistence.

Tim Sebastian was having great difficulty hiding his genuine anger at the Israeli defiance of the whole world, including the US. My prediction is that if Tim Sebastian is not careful, he will soon be replaced as the anchor person of Hard Talk by the BBC by an invisible lobby whose tentacles are spread far and wide.

K. ANWER

Lahore

Bush speaks

PRESIDENT Bush has at last spoken with reason. He has told Israel to halt further incursions into the Palestinian land and withdraw from the lands occupied recently. It is, however, doubtful if Mr Bush has taken this stand in sympathy of the Palestinians.

Probably the important factor which effected this change was that the scenario of total supremacy and of a great conquest in the Afghan venture was being overtaken and overshadowed by Sharon who had begun acting like the real boss. Another reason for this was the fact that the European Union had come out with a condemnation of the Israeli incursion.

It now remains to be seen whether Sharon pays any heed to the US call, or not.

MOHAMMAD RAFI

Karachi

Injustice to pensioners

THE increase in pension, in all fairness, should have been in a liberal ratio under the scheme implemented from Dec 1, 2001.

That is, it should have been (on average) 50 to 70 per cent, and not an increase of 5 to 10 per cent.

There is also the ‘withdrawal of the benefit of restoration of surrendered portion of pension in lieu of commutation/gratuity.’

This is gross injustice to the pensioners, who are now deprived of this long-term benefit.

If, by the grace of Almighty God, one survives the legal stipulated age of 75 years (which earlier used to be 70 years), one is denied the same in above scheme. Why this arbitrary decision?

This amount of the benefit of restoration was actually surrendered as per government rules by the pensioner for a specific and specified period of 15 years, and it was to be restored to the pensioner by the government at the expiry of the specific period of 15 years.

The government is requested to consider restoration of the surrendered value/portion of pension to those surviving 15 long years after retirement, and afford them some relief which they expected in their fading years.

In all fairness, all those having completed the stipulated age of 75 years (including the period of 15 years after retirement) as on Nov 30, 2001, or earlier, are eligible for the restoration of the value of uncommuted pension.

The Finance Department, Government of Sindh, can make changes in Sub-Rules (a) to (g), Rule-16, Part III of Office Memorandum dated 6-11-2001 for its aged pensioners.

MOHAMMAD ALI AKHOOND

Karachi