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By Najam Sethi, Mail Today, 16/09/2011
The recent floods in Sindh ravaged the lands and lives of five million people, 250 lost their lives and standing crops over four million acres was destroyed. In these tough times, Pakistan seems rudderless and hapless
The recent floods in Sindh have ravaged the lands and lives of five million people. At least 250 people have lost their lives.
Standing crops over four million acres have been lost. Yet the government and media have only now begun to pay some attention to the devastation.
They were both obsessed with the utterings of Zulfikar Mirza and Altaf Hussain which have not made an iota of a difference to the wretched lives of the hapless and innocent citizens of Karachi who live in the ghettos and are routinely killed in the turf wars between proliferating gangs of terrorists, criminals and mafias.
In Punjab, dengue fever has hospitalised over 4000, a majority of them from the city of Lahore, despite Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif's "much flaunted development" efforts and largesse. What do these two "developments" have in common? Two facts stand out. The floods in Sindh could have been better managed if a little bit of care had been taken over the year to strengthen dykes and embankments and rehearse evacuation and relief measures. After all, this calamity is a recurring tragedy that reflects on the criminal negligence of successive governments to manage the water resources of the country on which the national economy is based. Much the same can be said about the recurrence of Dengue fever on an increasing scale every year in the Punjab.
There is money for Yellow Cabs but not for epidemic or disease eradication, public sanitation and health programs. It seems as if governments are no longer capable of initiating preventive measures to alleviate poverty and health and only half-interested in curative steps for the sake of appeasing the media.
By way of contrast, when the recent hurricane Irene threatened to sweep the east coast of the United States, the state governments not only gave a minute by minute update on the path and speed of the storm to the people in its path but also helped evacuate hundreds of thousands of citizens to safer ground in a matter of days.
It has also become commonplace for Pakistani governments in their usual distress to "reach out" to the international community for help. But increasingly the world is tiring of this Pakistani routine.
One reason is that it sees Pakistani governments as venal, corrupt, callous and blundering and cannot bring itself to show much sympathy.
The other is the increasing indifference of rich Pakistanis to the abject misery of their poorer fellow citizens. If charity begins at home, there is less and less sign of it for the right causes in Pakistan.
It is an international scandal that we have money enough for atomic bombs and F- 16s to fight imagined and manufactured enemies but none for dams, reservoirs, hospitals and schools for the rising pool of the poor and unemployed, sick and hungry, displaced and homeless.
The irony in the situation should also not be missed.
PAKISTAN'S great all-weather friends China and Saudi Arabia are the stingiest by way of donations to tide us over our recurring misfortunes while the allies we love to hate like the United States are always more willing to come to our help in times of need. The national tragedy is compounded by the realisation that things are fated to deteriorate.
Each national institution or party is pulling in different directions. The Zardari regime has sacrificed good governance at the altar of political wheelingdealing for survival. The opposition has not articulated a coherent strategy for national socio-political cohesion or economic revival - indeed it is opposing the introduction of a more rational revenue collection system and abolition of subsidies to inefficient state corporations.
The judiciary is obsessed with constitutional matters as if these are a panacea for the lack of justice that has crippled the judicial system and provokes a desperate yearning for the swift Islamic methodology of the Taliban.
The business community has stopped investing in Pakistan and is pulling its money out and acquiring nationalities and residences in foreign countries. And the military is waging its bets on defying the international community in quest of its preferred solution of renewed civil war and disintegration in Afghanistan.
In desperation, some Pakistanis hanker for a military intervention to put things right. This is a cyclical thing. Every ten years we tire of our corrupt civilians and urge the generals to intervene and sort out the mess. But a decade of military rule opens up old societal wounds and creates new political fissures, triggering the impulse to send the military back to the barracks. The situation is particularly gridlocked today. The free media and independent judiciary will not brook any direct military takeover.
Neither of the two mainstream political parties is also likely to lend a helping hand as in the past. And the great benefactor of every military regime, the United States, seems particularly piqued and alienated from it these days.
It seems as if Pakistan is hurtling into a inexorable vortex. Its historical resilience is being severely tested. It needs a wise and courageous reformer to redeem its promise. But none is in sight. Those selfproclaimed messiahs like Imran Khan are full of sound and fury "signifying nothing" while the others are "ghissa pitta cartouches" lacking credibility or inspiration.
No hope for Pakistan : Najam Sethi: India Today
http://news.in.msn.com/national/article.aspx?cp-documentid=5442473&page=4
The recent floods in Sindh ravaged the lands and lives of five million people, 250 lost their lives and standing crops over four million acres was destroyed. In these tough times, Pakistan seems rudderless and hapless
The recent floods in Sindh have ravaged the lands and lives of five million people. At least 250 people have lost their lives.
Standing crops over four million acres have been lost. Yet the government and media have only now begun to pay some attention to the devastation.
They were both obsessed with the utterings of Zulfikar Mirza and Altaf Hussain which have not made an iota of a difference to the wretched lives of the hapless and innocent citizens of Karachi who live in the ghettos and are routinely killed in the turf wars between proliferating gangs of terrorists, criminals and mafias.
In Punjab, dengue fever has hospitalised over 4000, a majority of them from the city of Lahore, despite Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif's "much flaunted development" efforts and largesse. What do these two "developments" have in common? Two facts stand out. The floods in Sindh could have been better managed if a little bit of care had been taken over the year to strengthen dykes and embankments and rehearse evacuation and relief measures. After all, this calamity is a recurring tragedy that reflects on the criminal negligence of successive governments to manage the water resources of the country on which the national economy is based. Much the same can be said about the recurrence of Dengue fever on an increasing scale every year in the Punjab.
There is money for Yellow Cabs but not for epidemic or disease eradication, public sanitation and health programs. It seems as if governments are no longer capable of initiating preventive measures to alleviate poverty and health and only half-interested in curative steps for the sake of appeasing the media.
By way of contrast, when the recent hurricane Irene threatened to sweep the east coast of the United States, the state governments not only gave a minute by minute update on the path and speed of the storm to the people in its path but also helped evacuate hundreds of thousands of citizens to safer ground in a matter of days.
It has also become commonplace for Pakistani governments in their usual distress to "reach out" to the international community for help. But increasingly the world is tiring of this Pakistani routine.
One reason is that it sees Pakistani governments as venal, corrupt, callous and blundering and cannot bring itself to show much sympathy.
The other is the increasing indifference of rich Pakistanis to the abject misery of their poorer fellow citizens. If charity begins at home, there is less and less sign of it for the right causes in Pakistan.
It is an international scandal that we have money enough for atomic bombs and F- 16s to fight imagined and manufactured enemies but none for dams, reservoirs, hospitals and schools for the rising pool of the poor and unemployed, sick and hungry, displaced and homeless.
The irony in the situation should also not be missed.
PAKISTAN'S great all-weather friends China and Saudi Arabia are the stingiest by way of donations to tide us over our recurring misfortunes while the allies we love to hate like the United States are always more willing to come to our help in times of need. The national tragedy is compounded by the realisation that things are fated to deteriorate.
Each national institution or party is pulling in different directions. The Zardari regime has sacrificed good governance at the altar of political wheelingdealing for survival. The opposition has not articulated a coherent strategy for national socio-political cohesion or economic revival - indeed it is opposing the introduction of a more rational revenue collection system and abolition of subsidies to inefficient state corporations.
The judiciary is obsessed with constitutional matters as if these are a panacea for the lack of justice that has crippled the judicial system and provokes a desperate yearning for the swift Islamic methodology of the Taliban.
The business community has stopped investing in Pakistan and is pulling its money out and acquiring nationalities and residences in foreign countries. And the military is waging its bets on defying the international community in quest of its preferred solution of renewed civil war and disintegration in Afghanistan.
In desperation, some Pakistanis hanker for a military intervention to put things right. This is a cyclical thing. Every ten years we tire of our corrupt civilians and urge the generals to intervene and sort out the mess. But a decade of military rule opens up old societal wounds and creates new political fissures, triggering the impulse to send the military back to the barracks. The situation is particularly gridlocked today. The free media and independent judiciary will not brook any direct military takeover.
Neither of the two mainstream political parties is also likely to lend a helping hand as in the past. And the great benefactor of every military regime, the United States, seems particularly piqued and alienated from it these days.
It seems as if Pakistan is hurtling into a inexorable vortex. Its historical resilience is being severely tested. It needs a wise and courageous reformer to redeem its promise. But none is in sight. Those selfproclaimed messiahs like Imran Khan are full of sound and fury "signifying nothing" while the others are "ghissa pitta cartouches" lacking credibility or inspiration.
No hope for Pakistan : Najam Sethi: India Today
http://news.in.msn.com/national/article.aspx?cp-documentid=5442473&page=4
