Unproven remedies

UNPROVEN remedies are widespread in Pakistan. Many people, regardless of their socio-economic or educational background, try a number of unproven remedies at an economic cost of several million rupees annually.

Why? Perhaps because “the quack sells hope”. Many diseases are still largely chronic and incurable. Many of our conventional therapies are not really very acceptable. Also, we probably have overestimated our ability to alleviate our patients’ suffering. The notion that there may be cheap, safe, simple and potentially effective alternatives is one that is seductive.

It has been argued that expenditure on unproven remedies diverts scarce health care resources from more appropriate areas. It seems doubtful, however, that patients would be likely to invest in the traditional health care budget even if they were dissuaded from using unproven remedies.

Quackery offends and angers many of us. We have been rigorously trained in science. We often have little sympathy for patients who question our wisdom and appear so foolish as to seek alternatives to our recommendations. We may have underestimated their dissatisfaction with long waits, short visits, brusque answers, inadequate explanations, frequent drug side-effects, persistent symptoms and high charges. A serious worry is that patients seeking alternative remedies will inappropriately neglect their illness.

The greatest danger is that some alternative remedies are not innocuous but, in fact, they may be harmful. Yet, despite our impressive scientific advances, we must admit the limits of our understandings of different chronic diseases and the experimentation of our therapies.

We, as physicians, pride ourselves on our intellectual curiosity and honesty, and we recognize that novel ideas and insights may emanate from unsuspected sources. Indeed, the study of certain unconventional therapies such as diet, nutrition and exercise, has been enlightening.

But all these need government interest and intervention. The health of a nation is very important and should be important for everyone. Anyone with the notorious design of just earning money by playing with the lives and health of innocent people should be dealt with an iron hand.

DR ABID RAUF ORAKZAI

Karachi

Immigration problems in Pakistan

On my recent visit to Pakistan one of the first questions everybody asked of me was: how were Pakistanis being treated in the United States after the imposition of recent immigration restrictions on them? During my 17 years in the US as a Pakistani national, I was never harassed or discriminated against by any American or immigration for that matter owing to my country of origin.

Ironically, the only country whose immigration has ever harassed me is the country whose passport I still hold, i.e. Pakistan. This visit proved to be no exception.

On my way out of Pakistan, the immigration officer at the Karachi airport checkpoint was not in the best of moods. I patiently waited for my turn, and finally got there after waiting for about 20 minutes. As he stamped my passport, he told me that the lamination on my passport photo had become loose, and that I should get it fixed soon. I muttered that when I received my passport from the Pakistani Consulate in Los Angeles, that was the state of the passport, and I will get it fixed.

As I got to the second immigration checkpoint, the officer there asked me the same question and I gave him the same answer. I was told that I would not be able to leave the country on this passport. Another one went to fetch a superior officer to get further direction. I tried to remain calm and showed them other identification cards to prove my identity, including my green card, which did not impress them much.

The superior officer, who had meanwhile arrived, asked to see my old passport, which miraculously I happened to have in my carry-on. After asking me a few questions, he told me to proceed. But one of the other officers said that I needed to fill out the immigration paperwork again. As I handed them the paperwork, he reminded me one more time to get my passport in order as immigration in America was very “tough”.

As the plane took off from Karachi airport, I breathed a sigh of relief. After 36 hours of air travel, I finally arrived in front of the dreaded American immigration officer at Washington DC airport. When did I leave the United States to go to Pakistan was his only question, which he asked without caring much for my answer.

However, after having reached our home in California, I had more time to reflect on the differences between America and Pakistan.

DR IMRAN HASHIM

California, USA

The Islamabad cocoon

I WAS quite pleased to read Kuldip Nayar’s article, ‘The Islamabad cocoon’, in Jan 10 edition of Dawn.

I have been living in Islamabad for the past two years. As I have had the good fortune of living in a number of capitals because of my father’s diplomatic profession, I think Islamabad is too much of an artificial city to have any real character.

Mr Nayar rightly calls it a city “devoid of soul”. However, I would not say that is true of all the capitals as a rule. True, capitals become overbearing, authoritarian units as they host political, bureaucratic and often military seats of power, but they are often true capitals of culture and heritage (London, Athens, Cairo, Beijing, New Delhi, etc.).

Islamabad, however, is singularly unique in its artificiality and its self-imposed isolation from the rest of the country. Being a young city that was planned rather than having mushroomed and grown over years, Islamabad has managed to reflect none of our country’s essential cultural or ethnic fabric. In fact, it seems to solely cater to diplomats and bureaucrats — a pity indeed. In no other capital have I witnessed such unbalanced privileges that diplomats enjoy here.

Moreover, there is no community feeling in Islamabad; people are rigidly reserved and rather arrogant. I hope this is a false impression but it is a persistent feeling.

Islamabad is a city that provides no entertainment; cinema houses or cafes — features that one specially misses after one has lived in vibrant capitals. The opening of the Food Street in Islamabad was indeed a good step taken by the authorities. If our local government were to continue in providing such initiatives, individual entrepreneurs might be able to introduce a decent/wholesome cinema or a cafe culture in our capital.

Having said this, I still believe that Islamabad has an inherent quiet charm to it. It is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful capitals in the world. Having become so accustomed to the slow rhythm of ‘Isloo’, one often feels strangely misplaced if one finds oneself amidst the hustle and bustle of Karachi or Lahore, for example.

Mr Nayar’s commentary on our capital was essentially a political one and one must not overlook that. The utter dissimilarity of our capital with the rest of our country is deeply reflective of disunity and disparity in Pakistan. Idyllic charm of Margalla Hills aside, we need a capital that is representative of our country — one that is the centre of our politics and culture.

FARZANA RASHEED

Islamabad

Jamali and MMA

PRIME Minister Jamali has asked the Muslims to follow Islam as much as they can, yet he asked them to abstain from following Islam in their political affairs. On Jan 12, he said, “We say prayers five times a day and do our best to follow the teachings of Islam... We should have a policy of balance with regard to worldly and religious matters.”

However, Islam came to organize all of the man’s affairs, including “worldly” matters. Obeying Allah is not limited to the home and the masjid but extends to economy, governance, education, foreign policy and so on.

It is a fact that the Muslims were successful in the “worldly” matters when Islam was implemented comprehensively. For centuries, the Caliphate was the centre of learning for the entire world. The Caliphate not only protected the lives and property of the Muslims, it was also a safe haven for the non-Muslims.

Now, just as the Muslims flourished under the Caliphate, the destruction of the Caliphate heralded their decline. By excluding Islam from the “worldly” matters, a “colonialist politics” was introduced. It is high time that all parties started working for Islam’s unique political system — the Caliphate.

DR ABDUL WAJID

Lahore

Cars or CT scans?

THIS refers to an editorial in your daily of Jan 17 regarding the lack of CT scan machines.

The absence of CT scan machines in Lahore hospitals or their being non-functional is not a new story. I don’t understand why this newspaper talks about such trivial issues at a time when the government, in true national spirit, has decided to buy new cars for its ministers.

How can such things like CT scans (which can measure the difference between life and death for patients with head injuries) be considered important? The ministers want new cars because they think that, with new cars, they will be able to work more efficiently.

It seems Pakistan has finally found the answer to the question as to how poverty can be reduced in the country. New cars for all the ministers. What a brilliant idea! Although when they zoom past you with all traffic being held up for them, it is very difficult to even judge what car they were in.

The citizens of Pakistan demand that the newspapers that tell the truth be shut down and more patriotic newspapers be allowed to flourish. It would be a good idea for the government to read ‘1984’ by George Orwell and then formulate their policies.

We do not need any scanners or the likes. What we need is the new BMW 3 series for all our ministers. The Indians will be jealous of us. What do they know about progress? They have only their Marutis and ‘sharutis’. That’s all.

RAJA SOHAIL ABBAS

Maryland, USA

Fractured roads in Lahore

THE most appropriate time to judge the status of Lahore is between 7am and 8am, when there is no rush of people and there is no parking of cars all along main roads in the city. After that, the real face of roads is hidden and attention is riveted upon a flood of cars and we are impressed by the dignity of the city.

Go in the morning and adjudicate where your heart -throb really stands. On Dec 31 I reached the Lahore High Court building at 7.30am. There was silence and no traffic, except only a few souls busy cleaning the rubbish along roads. The footpath from the high court to Alfalah was broken at several places, with ditches deep enough to hurt your feet.

Whose duty it is to repair and maintain Shara-i-Quaid -i-Azam? Not only footpaths along this road are dumpy but roads and space in front of shops are highly inflicted with cracks. The Alfalah building stands in need of renovation and face-lifting.

In front of Plaza Cinema the entire footpath is broken and several pieces of cemented plates missing. Seeing this scene of the most important road broken and fractured, I felt a great revulsion. This is the state of The Mall. What could be the state of other roads, streets and footpaths can be well imagined.

Which authority is responsible for maintaining shapely roads? Whoever it is should lose no time in renovating and repairing them before everything collapses.

SULTAN AHMED CHAUDHRY

Lahore

Export of garments

Pakistan has been blessed with abundant natural resources, which have remained unutilized to date because of a lack of imagination.

Look at India and China. The whole world handles them with kid gloves and courts them because they have a huge market economy. The developed countries, at least till Sept 11, encouraged illegal immigrants. Why? Because they lacked the manpower (owing to low population growth rate) to run their industries and business. Why can’t we use our large population to become an economic power like India?

We have 140 million people, who need food, clothes, houses, etc. Through a few initial steps, we can change our destiny. Let’s take the example of our garment industry. Exporters sell their finished products to developed countries at throw-away prices because of a fierce competition with other exporting countries. The same products are sold in Western markets at premium prices but are not available in our local market. The same merchandise is brought back to us through smuggling or as gifts from our dear ones, bought at exorbitant prices abroad.

What if the same high quality garments were sold in the local markets at the same rate of profit that the exporter eventually gets, minus the middleman’s commissions, freight, etc. We will then be able to buy the best quality made-in Pakistan clothes at an affordable price.

This would not only create employment opportunities for our jobless population, but would also boost the local construction industry and allied fields. With regular jobs, people would be able to spend more, and the government would collect more taxes.

I would appeal to our industrialists to rise to the occasion and help build a better and stronger Pakistan by adopting this simple formula.

DR JAMAL NASIR MEMON

Karachi

Farmers’ appeal

THE farmers of Lundi Pitafi, Mauza Muzaffargarh, have suffered a triple blow on account of Tarbela Dam, Ghazi Ghat Bridge and the ADBP. Since British times, ours has been designated as ‘Kutcha’ area but the summer inundations, on which our agriculture traditionally depended, have been stopped by Tarbela Dam.

Ghazi Ghat Bridge on the Indus has narrowed the river steam, making it very swift, eroding much of the river-edge on which our lands lie.

Consequently, most of our lands, which we pledged to the ADBP, have been washed away, rendering us penniless. ADBP officials exploited our difficulties and huge money was charged for readjusting our defaulted loans time after time, as a result of which, for example, an original loan of Rs500,000 has snowballed to Rs1.5 million.

We request the president and the prime minister to come to our rescue by ordering compensation for the loss of our lands.

SHAHID IKRAM

Muzaffargarh

Foreign language courses

THE University of Karachi has offered admissions in German, French, Italian, Japanese, Persian, Bengali, Arabic, Sindhi, Spanish and Turkish language courses, and for this the university has engaged highly qualified and experienced teachers for the certificate courses with the condition that only those holding a bachelor’s degree can apply.

Similar language courses are also conducted at the Alliance Francaise de Karachi, the Goethe Institute, the Japanese Cultural Centre, the British Council, the Pakistan American Cultural Centre and the Berlitz Language Centre, but none of these institutes has imposed on candidates the condition of holding a bachelor’s degree.

For security reasons the Alliance Francaise de Karachi, the Goethe Institut and the British Council have closed their operations indefinitely, and officials of the University of Karachi have taken the initiative to offer similar foreign language courses at the university campus. But once the closed language centres reopen, the university will lose the strength of its foreign language students.

I wonder how the university can compete with those institutes which offer similar language courses without the pre-condition of holding a bachelor’s degree. The university vice-chancellor is requested to look into the matter and withdraw this condition so that anyone whether he/she is an undergraduate or a graduate student is able to benefit from these language courses.

SYED A. MATEEN

Karachi

Tobacco firm’s claim

A tobacco company has boasted about reaching out to millions of lives through its social initiatives, which include mobile dispensaries that treat over 3,000 patients for free every month.

Would the company’s authorities be kind enough to provide us with the statistics about the number of patients it and other tobacco companies produce every month?

NASREEN ASHFAQUE AHMAD

Karachi

Containing American fundamentalism

RECENTLY Tony Blair presented George W. Bush with a bust of Winston Churchill. The memento carries a direct message.

One wonders, however, whether in deference to the receiver’s known limitations, the offering carried an explanatory note. One that clearly explained that Churchill was the first to order a chemical attack on Iraq back in 1921 and then successfully managed to convince the world that mustard gas had excellent moral effects on the Iraqi people.

Churchill and Bush have a lot in common anyway — both being believers in the great healing touch of imperialism. The core of American fundamentalism is business interest. Cloaked in patriotism and the doctrine of spreading democracy throughout the world, American fundamentalism seeks the unfettered spread of its economic interests throughout the globe.

American fundamentalism is currently targeting our region. Unchallenged by any external rival and unchecked after the 9/11 incidents by effective internal opposition, American fundamentalism is keen to fully exploit what in the corridors of the White House is being gloatingly referred to as the “opportunity of an era”.

For the rest of us in the region these are troubled times. The present thrust of American fundamentalism is control of oil. Afghanistan has been secured by handing it over to Khalilzadeh and Karzai, both former consultants of American oil companies. Iraq, with its Nahr Omar and West Qurna oilfields holding some of the richest reserves in the world, is under attack. Iran’s name is on the evil-list. And Pakistan — an unreliable entity with some nuclear capability — is being given a bad name before the noose is tightened.

At the state level the policy of nearly all Muslim countries, with the notable exceptions of Malaysia and Iran, has been one of total capitulation and appeasement towards the US. In Pakistan the policy of appeasement has meant loss of national pride, violation of citizen’s rights, regional isolation, economic dependence and serious long-term consequences for security, polity and society.

Appeasement and terrorism, both are dangerous courses to adopt in these troubled times. The Muslim world’s popular and whole-hearted participation in a world peace movement of all regions, religions and races is a dream that must now be realized. We must realize this dream lest another interminable nightmare of imperialist fundamentalism engulfs us once and for all.

JAMIL OMAR

Coordinator, Yakjehti Committee,

(Via email)