Bhakkar bombing

ANOTHER day, another district, another suicide bombing. The victims, however, are always new. Every suicide bombing tears a new hole in the social fabric of Pakistan and the Bhakkar attack is no different. The senseless death of at least 22 individuals and injury to over 60 at the hands of a religious zealot has been rightly condemned in the strongest terms. The truly frightening aspect of the recent spate of suicide attacks is that there is no end in sight. Indeed, the threat only seems to be growing from a toxic brew of militancy that encompasses everything from Al Qaeda and pan-Islamist ideologues to sectarian hatemongers.

The attack on Rashid Akbar Niwani, a PML-N MNA from Bhakkar, has the hallmarks of a sectarian strike. Mr Niwani belongs to a very influential Shia political family in the district. The district nazim of Bhakkar, Hameed Akbar Niwani, is Rashid Niwani’s elder brother. In June this year, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif was elected unopposed from Bhakkar in a by-election for a seat vacated by a Niwani. In 2002, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain was elected as an MNA from Bhakkar with the Niwani family’s help. Bhakkar, however, has another, more dubious claim to fame: it is a base of the Shia militant outfit Tehrik-i-Jafria. Set up in 1979 by Allama Arif Hussain Al Hussaini, a student of Ayatollah Khomeini, the Tehrik Nifaz-i-Fiqh-i-Jafria, as it was known then, developed a vicious rivalry with the Sunni militant group Sipah-i-Sahaba. The rivalry morphed into a bitter sectarian war between the Tehrik-i-Jafria and Sipah-i-Sahaba’s more radical offshoot, the Lashkar-i-Jhangvi. Over the years, Bhakkar has witnessed many targeted killings and sectarian attacks.

The first suicide bombing in Bhakkar has occurred in the wake of two sets of developments. First, Shia families fleeing the sectarian violence in D.I. Khan have begun to settle in Bhakkar, driving up property prices in the district. Second, the Lashkar-i-Jhangvi has grown more powerful in Punjab on the back of its links with Al Qaeda and is flexing its muscles all across Pakistan. Last month, NWFP Governor Owais Ghani warned of the dangers his province faced from suicide bombers with links to militant groups in southern Punjab. Irrespective of whether investigations reveal any link between the Laskhar-i-Jhangvi and Monday’s attack in Bhakkar, the fact is a dangerous foe is stalking Pakistan today. Militancy is neither confined to one particular group nor to one particular area of the country. It is everywhere and comes in every imaginable — and sometimes unimaginable — stripe. Caught in the militants’ crosshairs, the ANP has belatedly woken up to the threat. “The time has come to clarify our national policy…. We are fighting for not only the survival of the Pakhtun nation but also of Pakistan,” an ANP leader told this paper. We could not agree more.

No freedom in Kashmir

IT is about time that New Delhi stopped treating the crisis in Kashmir as a law and order issue and began to address the many genuine grievances that Kashmiris have against Indian rule in the Valley. A two-day curfew, the arrest of key Kashmiri leaders and the deployment of thousands of soldiers and other security personnel may have put paid to plans of holding a massive freedom rally in Srinagar on Monday, but this triumph is bound to prove short-lived for the administration. So long as state repression continues and India keeps up its present troop levels in the territory, it is unlikely that the protests, which have been continuing since June, will die down. The protests were originally linked to the disputed allotment of several hectares of land for accommodating Hindu pilgrims. But these massive demonstrations have now come to reflect the general resentment that the Valley’s largely Muslim population harbours towards the Indian authorities. Equally disturbing are the communal overtones that these protests have acquired.

India must recognise that it is a popular uprising and not a Pakistan-backed insurgency that it is dealing with in Kashmir. It can no longer point the finger of blame at Islamabad. The situation today is completely different from the events of yesteryear, when the popular Kashmiri revolt of 1989 was virtually hijacked by extremists who sought to give the struggle a religious hue. India, instead of cashing in on a period of relative peace in Kashmir following Islamabad’s about-turn on certain security polices post-9/11, has done little to assuage the political and economic woes of the Kashmiris or repeal the draconian laws that govern their lives. Nor has there been feasible progress on finding a solution — along with Pakistani and Kashmiri leaders — to a festering territorial dispute.

Whether New Delhi likes it or not, the Kashmir question is becoming internationalised more than ever before. With Pakistan safely on the sidelines, the pressure is mounting on the Indian authorities to deal with issues that are leading to anger and may be a factor in India’s home-grown militancy. However, coming down with a heavy hand on the freedom of assembly and speech in Kashmir can hardly be effective. It will breed greater resentment besides making India’s democratic credentials suspect in the eyes of the world community. A well-defined political solution, acceptable to the Kashmiris, is the need of the hour if further alienation of the Valley’s inhabitants is to be prevented.

Community-based healthcare

CHILD and maternal mortality rates are an indispensable gauge of the value a country places on maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH). According to last year’s demographic and health survey, the maternal mortality rate in Pakistan is 276 per 100,000 births while the newborn, infant and under-five mortality rates are 54, 78 and 94 per 1,000 live births respectively. These rates are reflective of the inadequacy of the healthcare infrastructure in the country and lack of trained personnel. In pursuit of the Millennium Development Goals of reducing child mortality by two-thirds and maternal mortality by three-quarters and providing universal access to reproductive health by 2015, we can look for answers in the findings of recent research based on MNCH case studies in Pakistan and Uganda. Published in the British medical journal The Lancet, the study shows — quite emphatically — that community-based primary healthcare can save lives.

The report stresses that a range of interventions are available at the primary healthcare level with the potential to counter life-threatening situations. Death and disability can be prevented through an integrated strategy based on such measures. Preventive and treatment interventions and strategies for delivery of primary healthcare have been identified. These can be administered through community support groups and health workers while others can only be delivered by linking community-based strategies with functional first-level referral facilities. The study shows that a community-based approach in under-served districts is more feasible. This would involve developing a cadre of community health workers who belong to the same social group and thus have the advantage of familiarity with local people. But a lot more will need to be done to ensure the well-being of pregnant women, infants and young children. Child-bearing women make up a significant proportion of our young population, and as such it is imperative that primary healthcare is complemented by family planning services to avoid unwanted pregnancies, easy availability of family planning products, steps to prevent the spread of infectious diseases and access to clean drinking water. If these can be implemented with honesty of purpose through a community-based approach, maternal, newborn and child health will surely improve.

OTHER VOICES - European Press

A national shame

Cyprus Mail

AN article in yesterday’s Simerini bemoaned the fact that Cyprus had no state library. Valuable documents, newspapers from the 19th century, encyclopaedias and rare books on Cyprus were gathering dust in rented different basements across Nicosia, where nobody could access them….

The paper had been alerted to the situation by a correspondent and former deputy Rina Katselli, who wrote that “a national library is one of the most-needed institutions for every state”. She made it clear that she was not just talking about a book-lending centre, which was what most people had in mind when someone brought up the issue of a national library. A state library would primarily contain documents, reference books, research publications and other written records relating to the country. The only library along these lines, but on a limited scale… is the Archbishopric’s but this is no excuse for the state not setting up its own.

It has never been a priority because there have never been many people demanding it and successive governments have rarely pursued projects that they cannot show off during elections.

A few weeks ago, the government announced the start of work on a new state theatre in the centre of Nicosia, despite the existence of at least three municipal theatres around the capital. A few yards down the road a culture centre is to be built, but there are still no plans for a national library because the bulk of the voters would not value it as they would a new road or an imposing new building. Successive governments have considered it something that can wait, as there is no political capital to be made out of it. Nobody seems to give much consideration to the fact that a national library would house all kinds of written information relating to Cyprus’ history. Everyone has an opinion about how history should be taught at schools but when it comes to giving people easy access to a broad range of historical sources, nobody cares.

A national library could also house the Archives Department, which is … poorly organised because of the lack of space and for researchers to access information it takes days if not weeks. At one point, the department had set a daily limit on the number of people who could work at its premises. This is no way to treat citizens seeking information, especially in a country which now boasts several universities and has aspirations of becoming a regional education centre.

It is high time that the establishment of a state library became part of government plans. The old Nicosia town hall and adjacent post office, situated on the city’s walls, which separate the old from the new capital, could be turned into a national library. In this way we would also be putting grand old buildings to good use in the centre of town…. The Nicosia mayor should seriously consider this option as she would be doing a great service, not only to the capital, but the entire country. — (Oct 7)

Focus shifts to jobs

WITHIN hours of the $700bn bailout of Wall Street’s financial giants clearing Congress on Friday, attention had shifted towards other stressed parts of the US economy.

The focus is now on the country’s jobs market after the Bush administration reported 150,000 job losses in September, the biggest monthly drop in five years which, if sustained, would see the US lose a million jobs this year.

Though the political crisis in Washington was overcome with the second attempt at the bailout bill being voted through by 263 to 171 votes in the House of Representatives, concern mounted quickly over the inability of the deal to cope with the wider economic weakness. In an editorial on Sunday, the New York Times called on the government to move swiftly to protect Americans threatened with foreclosure and to pass a stimulus bill. “The meltdown on Wall Street is only part of a larger meltdown and the bailout bill is only one attempt at a fix,” the paper said.

“The wheels seem to be coming off the economy right now,” Brian Sack, a forecaster with Macroeconomic Advisers, told the Los Angeles Times. “It’s hard to see how we avoid a recession, and it could prove a tough one to climb out of.” Under the broad terms of the bailout, the treasury will have up to $700bn, released in stages, to buy up toxic mortgages and other assets in order to inject confidence into the financial system.

Golden parachutes for executives seeking to profit from the collapse of their institutions will be forbidden, and the government is required to come up with a plan to ease the burden for threatened homeowners by adjusting the terms of those loans taken up by the treasury. George Bush, who has frequently tried to reassure the American public over the airwaves during the past fortnight, used his regular weekly radio broadcast to emphasise that the bailout would bolster the general economy.

But he said its impact would take time to filter through. “My administration will move as quickly as possible, but the benefits of this package will not all be felt immediately,” he said.

“The federal government will undertake this rescue plan at a careful and deliberate pace to ensure that your tax dollars are spent wisely.”

— The Guardian, London