Children of a lesser God

The investigating committee found 50 babies on 12 beds with 18 being oxygen-dependent

To be born and not bred is perhaps the biggest tragedy being human can entail. What we have seen happening in Thar, Karachi, Sargodha and Vehari is the horrible realisation that, as a society, we have gone back hundreds of years when newborn babies were buried alive due to the inhumanity of humans. Newborns dying of malnutrition and maltreatment, four-year-olds being raped, eight-year-olds being held for money and so it goes. This of course is only what is reported and highlighted by the media; what must be happening in reality where the media is not present or where the wrongdoers are too practiced and powerful to let these facts spill out, is a horrible reality most of us would rather not ponder over.

Despite consistent denials by each government that things have reached a shameful level as far as saving and protecting our children is concerned, facts speak louder than words. A report by Save the Children, ‘Ending newborn deaths’, said that in 2012 Pakistan had the highest rate of first day deaths and stillbirths in the world at 40.7 per 1,000 births, followed by Nigeria (32.7), Sierra Leone (30.8), Somalia (29.7), Guinea-Bissau (29.4) and Afghanistan (29). Maternal mortality rates have also been worsening in the country as even within South Asia, mothers in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have a better chance of surviving than in Pakistan.

Factors responsible for this shameful rating are multifold. Poverty and illiteracy are root causes of this waster of human lives. Most mothers are undernourished due to poor nutrition and non-existent healthcare by the government. The ratio of people below the poverty line has increased considerably. Almost 60 percent of Pakistanis live on less than a dollar a day income that makes it very difficult for them to afford even two meals a day. In a country like ours, where the government consistently complains of not having enough resources to save these precious lives, it becomes imperative to focus on making mother-child health a priority in the given resources. Thar may be a case of chronic famine, though even that is debatable, but what happened in Sargodha is a case of the clinical apathy of the government. The Supreme Court (SC) had to call for an inquiry as government actions seemed more for media consumption than some serious actions. To add insult to injury, the government admitted flaws in healthcare facilities but also blamed the poor health of mothers as a major cause of the deaths of these children. A response absolutely identical to the one given by Qaim Ali Shah, chief minister of Sindh, on why children were dying every day in hospitals in Thar.

The inquiry report showed chilling details of the facilities in DHQ Sargodha. There were seven oxygen outlets in the neo-natal ward that were connected to the central oxygen supply system. Each supply was used for multiple babies through tubes being connected to them in a totally unsafe and unprofessional manner. Imagine treating oxygen supply like a cable television being provided to multiple televisions from one source. This horrific example of the unavailability and abuse of life saving devices in our hospitals is evidence of the statement that if you are poor and sick, death may be a better alternative to being treated given the way hospitals treat you in times of personal misery. The investigating committee found 50 babies on 12 beds with 18 being oxygen-dependent. For those 50 unfortunate babies, only six baby warmers were available with zero ventilators in the hospital.

The government response is to suspend the medical superintendent and form a committee to investigate and rectify the situation. But how is the medical superintendent responsible for a government that allocates less than one percent to the health budget? Countries that become developed spend six percent of their budget on health and ensure access to all health facilities to their public on a standard and accountable basis.

It is true that Pakistan is facing multiple resources challenges and that for years the debt cycle has eaten up all our reserves and very little can be spared for a number of underdeveloped areas. But that is the test of nations that are trying to come into the comity of nations. Prioritisation is an important task when there are scarce resources and multiple ends. The question is: when all tested and tried models in the world prove that human development is the basis for sustainable economic development, why do governments consistently fail to give this area importance? The classic example for preferring to make a 30 km lane for a metro bus at a cost of Rs 50 billion rather than upgrading facilities in 100 hospitals and thereby saving thousands of lives is what confounds the mind and aches the heart.

Infrastructure development is no doubt an important part of developing a country. However, road networks cannot contribute to a knowledge economy the way an educated and healthy workforce can. Never in human history has a nation progressed with a road network if its human network is undernourished, ailing, neglected, illiterate and unexposed. If this evidence is so convincing why do we find politicians failing to pay attention to priorities that really are the foundation of any development? The answer is obvious. Politicians in countries like Pakistan are rooted in a culture where the mindset of quick bucks and quick show works. Building roads are mega projects that allow fat commissions, kickbacks, and are also easy show and tell tangible proof for an unexposed public that does not fully understand the true meaning of development. In comparison to infrastructure development, human development will take years to show the difference to a population that has gone through better education and health standards and by that time the next election will already be over. Also, the feudal background of a typical politician is afraid of an educated mind that may question and demand changes that will disturb the years of political power hoarding that these politicians have practiced.

However, such imbalance in societies is the root cause of unrest and extremism. With a media that is now hungry for breaking news, and the digital revolution of mobile technology, reaching the lowest cadres with information is now more possible. Thus the time for politicians to hide behind fancy roads and feudal hierarchies is running out. Either they straighten their priorities and invest in human capital or the suppressed human race will retaliate in ways that will eventually make government in name only.

The writer is an analyst and columnist and can be reached at andleeb.abbas1@gmail.com

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Assets that are Liabilities

The poor little rich leaders. That is what one would say looking at the list published of assets by ECP of most of our parliamentarians. You see people who live like kings showing assets of paupers with many of them not even possessing a vehicle for transportation. The asset declaration itself is a good step in transparency but doesnot serve the purpose. The real objective is to find out what the real worth of our parliamentarians is; what are their sources of income; and whether they are paying their due share of tax. This time as well asset declaration exercise has been done routinely with question marks on most declarations, but every time no action on incorrect declaration is taken to ensure that the purpose of transparency and truth are fully achieved.

Taking the first objective, that is to find out the real financial worth of the parliamentarians, the declaration of assets so far seems far from the true picture. Some declarations are in variance with their own earlier submissions. Prime minister Nawaz Sharif is a glaring example. At the time of his filing of nomination papers in May he declared that he had assets worth Rs 261.6 million, while the latest list published by ECP shows his asset worth Rs 1.7 billion. This almost Rs 1.5 billion increase in his wealth within six months in government raises quite a few questions. If it is an error, like the one pointed out in the case of Imran khan, why has the clarification not come to explain it, as was done by PTI? If it is not an error and his assets have become almost 600% more in 6 months, that itself is scandalous. How is it possible that the whole economy has gone down, foreign investment has decreased, reserves have hit a new low, people are dying due to lack of employment, purchasing power, electricity, gas etc and the Prime minister records a massive increase in his income. Unfortunately that has been the case for so many years where while the country’s net worth has gone down the net worth of the leaders has multiplied. Similarly the non -declaration of total assets is also a reflection of this culture of treating legislation with scant respect. Take the case of Pervez Rashid who according to these reports has no family house, no car, no property and only Rs 250,300 in bank. Afrasiab Khattak similarly has no assets at all and just Rs 15,947 in cash. Babar Awan declares his assets but the original value is readable while the present value of the same assets is all faded and unreadable.

The task is not over just by declaring “whatever they want to declare”. The task is that there should be an asset verification process and then any discrepancy to be taken to task. There is a law in ECP that misreporting can result in disqualification, but the problem is how will people appointed by those people who themselves are the culprits ever have the courage to do so; and that is what makes these declarations so futile. The recent example is the head of NAB being investigated for corruption being cleared of the charge by his own juniors. Similarly almost half the parliamentarians are non tax payers and many donot have an NTN number. This report was published last year also and this year also with a lot of debate on media but no action at all. Regardless of which party the evader belongs, regardless of which rank and position he or she is, evasion and non filing is a crime and should be penalized ruthlessly and relentlessly. This is the prime reason why people are not willing to pay tax, aside from the fact that they see their tax money funding promotion campaigns of the politicians and their family. With this government’s clear focus on encouraging tax evasion by giving a no question asked blanket for black money, it is evident that the .75 million people who pay tax will be facing crushing burden in the coming years and looking at ways of how not to pay tax.

The questions raised by UK parliament in providing aid to Pakistan are logical and valid. They are saying why should they provide their own tax payer money to leaders who donot pay taxes while piling up assets like Surrey Palace and Park Lane residences in UK. This may seem routine but it is this evil of the politicians keeping their assets abroad that will always make them indifferent to the country as most of their financial stakes are stowed overseas. All previous governments who made a mess of Pakistan, be it PMLN, PPP or Musharraf, all had great escapes to Jeddah, Dubai and UK. They wait in luxury for the time when they can come back through deals with the power brokers to once again ravage the country with their fake promises and fake policies. Such leaders are the real liabilities that erode the political and economic assets of the country.

The writer is an analyst and columnist, PTI member and can be reached at andleeb.abbas1@gmail.com; Twitter: @AndleebAbbas

 

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The Master and the Servant

Even the court of law is forced to comment on the government style as the old colonial British system of “it is for the master to order and the servant to obey”. The recent unceremonious dismissals of the head of NADRA and PEMRA has irked all who believe in the rule of law. While the court is focusing on the process, the government is focusing on the person. That itself is the telling difference in those who believe in systems and those who believe in positions; those who believe in force  and those who believe in empowerment; those who believe in merit and those who believe in power. It is this diametrically opposing thought processes that is making a mockery of hire and fire practices seen by the government in their six months reign.

 

The normal definition of corruption is understood as illegal financial gains. Unfortunately, the unmeritorious appointments of people are never given its due status in mega corruption scams. If we combine the losses accumulated in public sector enterprises due to wrong appointments, this amounts to Rs 500 billion. If these are not mega scams then what is. PML N government had rightly criticized Zardari government of nepotism and cronyism in appointing all major heads of institutions. They had also promised that they in turn will make all appointments  on merit and in a transparent way. However what has happened is absolutely to the contrary. The commission that was supposed to be doing this recruitment exercise has faded in the past and people are being hired and fired at the will and behest of the “masters”. The first sign of this was the appointment of Shujaat Azeem, as an advisor to PM for PIA. His merit was that firstly he was the brother of Tariq Azeem aside from providing 6 star Jet chauffeuring duty to the PM during the election campaign. That his company Royal Air Services was a contractor for PIA was just a happy “coincidence” and not a conflict of interest. Despite hue and cry by all he continued his “flying” advice to the PM till the Supreme Court took a Suo Moto and his flight was offloaded.

Since then it has been a tragedy of errors. NAB head, Chaudhry Qamar uz Zaman has been a controversy from the beginning and has been sent on long leave to get off the media radar. The government takes the word “Government servant” literally. So all whose positions are tied to the government’s whims and fancies are just a stroke away from being or not being in their jobs any more. The famous case of Tariq Malik’s removal where he was told by Rana Sanaullah “do what we say or”…is continuing in this agonizing serial episode of autocratic democracy. Chaudhry Nisar has gone to great pains in emphasizing that since Tariq Malik’s termination letter was delivered at 1.30 am in the morning he was not removed at night but at dawn. Such is the paucity of defence.

The political fiefdoms are not only busy wielding their power on “servants” but preparing their heirs to the throne as well. If Maryam Nawaz becomes the Chairperson of the Youth business Scheme, Hamza Sharif is spearheading the Youth Business festival. Not to be outdone, Bilawal and Bakhtawar lead the Sindh Cultural Festival. Each scheme is going to be using billions of rupees of public money. What are the qualifications and merit of these people heading these programs? The explanation given by relevant authorities is that these programs are their “brainchild”. In reality the only qualification is that each one of them is the child of the rulers, and as was the case in kingdoms, only the sons of the masters can be the future masters.

Lip service democracy will always flounder. People will lose faith over a democracy that claims to be for the people and by the people but practices for the powerful by the power brokers; a democracy that makes claims of decentralization of power but hoards power at the highest level; a democracy that promises rule of law but exercises rule of the ruler. The irony is that they claim to be doing all this to “save democracy”. The struggle for this country is for freedom from such mindsets that preach democracy and practice autocracy.  Without this change, it will be more of the same.

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