PRESIDENT General Pervez Musharraf may wear an army uniform and hat of any hue or colour, he may cover the entire breadth of his valiant chest with as many medals as did those colourful marshals of the Soviet Union — Zhukov, Timoshenko and Voroshilov — it matters not a whit to the poor, the homeless, the deprived, the hungry, the thirsty, the ill and ailing of our overpopulated country.
What his government must provide is governance, and good governance at that, the foremost requirement of which is the enforcement of law and order. The initial needs of the people, the vast millions, are potable water, two square meals a day, roofs over their heads, education, and health care to tend their bodies and their minds.
A study made five years ago by the Pakistan Association for Mental Health (PAMH) had it that: “Every other house in Karachi has one or more persons taking tranquillizers. Every fifth house has a psychosomatic/psychiatric problem disturbing family members/the neighbourhood or society in general. Every tenth house has a psychiatric patient needing medical attention (depression, psychosis, psychosomatic disorders, obsession, mental retardation, epilepsy and drug dependence). In Pakistan there are 1.2 crore people who are mentally disturbed. In Karachi there are 12 lakh people suffering from emotional, intellectual and/or social adjustment disorders. Among them at least three lakh are those who need psychiatric/psychological attention. They are likely to become a permanent burden on society if not taken care of.”
In line with the population explosion, the figure of 1.2 crore should by now have risen to at least 1.8 crore — 18 million mentally disturbed out of the generally disturbed 160 million.
Of immediate interest is the fact that General Musharraf has just discovered — on September 29 when he so informed a “select gathering” of the Pakistani community in Rome — that his and our national hero, the inestimable procreator of the bomb, Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, needs to be subjected to “a psychological study” to determine what made him indulge in his lucrative and large-scale international nuclear proliferation, which the general still insists he did for his own personal reasons. This is an excellent idea, and for sure the leading specialists of the nation will all spring into action and undertake the task for free — all in the greater national glory.
In the context in which I write, the “core issue” is the population expansion of 10 births per minute and with it the consequential increase in sickness of mind and body. No government of this country, however prosperous and efficient, at this rate can ever have the resources necessary to treat the sick in body and mind. Individual donors, trusts, foundations and others will have to help out and the effort must be a joint one between private and public. There can be no discussion on this point.
Going by the old adages that brain is superior to brawn and that a healthy mind promotes a healthy body, let us accept that sickness of mind takes precedence over that of the body. The PAMH, with little equipment and a lot of public funding, was organized and set up the Institute of Behavioral Sciences. Land was acquired, buildings were built, and the hospital was equipped.
Then, one fine day, National Hero Abdul Qadeer Khan, who had collected some money for the institute, and his close supporters marched in and took physical possession of the IBS. He filed a suit in the Sindh High Court (1232/02) against the PAMH, which, being sub judice, must remain free from comment. But the people must know that this institute, worth some Rs.250 million which is capable of curing in one year some 15,000 ailing and affected minds, has been more or less completely inoperative for the last two years and some of its equipment, worth around Rs.10 million, is simply rotting.
Now we move on to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre. The working environment is poor, with inadequate human, financial and technological resources, poor work ethics, pilferage of drugs, major thievery in construction and purchase of equipment, etc. The old political slogan of “free treatment for all” has no substance.
The current federal health budget has a provision of 10 paisa per person per day, which is laughable. And this allocation will prove to be even more ludicrous with the ever increasing cost of health care.
At the JPMC the following projects have been completed (and are now running) without any financial contribution from the government, Rs.216.25 having been donated by the private sector: the department of neurology, the department of medicine, emergency theatres, the department of gynaecology and obstetrics, the epilepsy centre, the Najmuddin Auditorium (for these projects due credit and thanks must be given to that considerate healer Professor Emeritus Hasan Aziz, chairman of the JPMC’s Donors’ Advisory Committee), the department of urology, the department of opthalmology, the department of chest diseases, the department of oncology, the department of nephrology, the department of radiology, and a blood bank.
Work on and supply of the following have been suspended or stopped, money is not flowing in, as the donors are awaiting the signing of Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs): furnishing and equipment for the National Epilepsy Centre, furnishing and equipment for the JPMC auditorium, construction of an antenatal ward, restructuring of the gynaecology and obstetrics outpatients department, the ophthalmology outpatients department, a new building and equipment for radiology, and a new building for the oncology department. These projects are worth Rs.176.5 million and have been held up because of the lethargy and “couldn’t care less” attitude of the government departments concerned.
One NGO (Accident and Emergency Foundation) has refunded two million rupees to the donor (Pakistan State Oil) as the money remained unutilized.
The donors want their money to be well spent. They do not wish it to be robbed or frittered away. They are not asking for anything extraordinary.
Will General Musharraf please meet Dr Haroon Ahmad, maker and organizer of the Institute of Behavioural Sciences, and his team and sort out Qadeer Khan and his obduracy? Will his prime minister, Mr Shaukat Aziz, please meet Professor Hasan Aziz and his team and prod the health ministry into action? Money, whether private or public, must be treated with due respect.