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Enough of drama
Indo-Pak visa regime |
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Murder most foul
Palestine's victory at UN
Smoked salmon and brown bread
How spurious drug trade is booming
Window on Pakistan
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Enough of drama
Now
that the government has secured the vote in favour of its decision to allow 51 per cent foreign direct investment in multi-brand retail, the BJP must do a rethink on what purpose it has achieved by indulging in politicking and wasting the two Houses’ time on an executive decision which did not require any parliamentary approval in the first place. The party definitely needs a more mature leadership which upholds the nation’s interest above that of the party. It did not allow Parliament to conduct its business last December and then crippled its functioning in the monsoon session over “Coalgate”, which it has just forgotten to spend its entire energy now on a policy issue the party itself had pushed when in power. By insisting on a debate with a vote, the BJP had hoped to embarrass the UPA government. Now the egg is on its face. The debate did not throw any fresh light on the merits or demerits of allowing foreign supermarkets in the country. Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj alleged that foreign food giants used imported potatoes, a charge that was immediately rebutted. Left leaders carry a dated ideological baggage and refuse to learn anything from their misplaced opposition to reforms, India joining the WTO and the signing of the nuclear treaty with the US. The Trinamool Congress was snubbed on day one after its no-confidence move found no takers. It is trying to appease the leftovers of the Left. The UPA has been bailed out of a possible embarrassing situation by Mulayam Singh Yadav and Mayawati. Both will extract their pound of flesh. The Centre has already cleared a plot of prime land in Mumbai for a memorial to Ambedkar. Mayawati wants reservations for Dalits in promotions and Mulayam Singh demands more funds for Uttar Pradesh as quid pro quo. The political drama has left a feeling of disgust at the way politics is played at the highest level. Now that it is all over, here is a chance for parliamentarians to redeem themselves: Get down to lawmaking. Too many important Bills have been pending for long.
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Indo-Pak visa regime
India
and Pakistan put their seal of approval on a new and liberalised visa regime on September 8, but its benefits could not reach the people due to the delay in its operationalisation. The anxious wait for the implementation of the much-appreciated visa policy may come to an end in the coming few days. Pakistan’s Interior Minister Rehman Malik is expected to be in India on December 14 when the two sides may finally implement the new visa agreement. The earlier this is done, the better. People, especially businessmen, want it to be brought into effect as soon as possible. Those associated with trade and industry found the old visa regime regressive in nature. It was a major hindrance in promoting trade between the two countries. The most attractive feature of the new visa policy is a provision for issuing a business visa. The business visa will be of two categories, one allowing multiple entries and the other for four entries to five places. This may make it easier to double, as targeted, the Indo-Pak bilateral trade to over $5 billion in a year from the present $2.56 billion. The second biggest beneficiaries will be those above 65 years of age. In fact, they are the people more interested in visiting each other’s country as frequently as possible because of historical, religious and other reasons. The new regime allows senior citizens to be issued visas for two years with the facility of multiple entries. Visitors in the 65-plus category will also have the advantage of getting visas on arrival at the Wagah-Attari border. India and Pakistan, the two key members of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), should now concentrate on the next step: for a SAARC visa, on the lines of the Schengen visa issued by members of the European Union. A SAARC visa holder can be allowed to visit any SAARC country. Such a visa regime, besides boosting trade in the region, may create conditions for economic integration of the SAARC countries, leading to people having a greater stake in economic growth. This can work as a weapon to eliminate terrorism root and branch.
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Murder most foul
A
father who protested his daughter’s harassment was murdered. He was attacked twice. First he received a bullet injury. Subsequently, as reports tell us, when the assailant ran out of ammunition, he got some more, came back to the scene of the crime, and fired again, this time fatally killing a uniformed, serving assistant sub-inspector of the Punjab Police. The incident happened during broad daylight. A young girl saw her father being killed right before her eyes, bystanders saw the firing and its tragic result. But the police failed to respond in time, even though there was a police station nearby. Knee-jerk reactions have followed. The Amritsar district unit of the Shiromani Akali Dal expelled the prime accused, its general secretary, from the party. The Station House Officer of Chheharta was suspended. The assailants were eventually arrested. All this, however, is not enough. This incident is one of a series where the lawless behaviour on the part of the privileged people has been seen all too often. There have been a number of incidents in which members of the ruling party as well as their supporters have taken the law into their own hands. Weapons have been used in this incident, as also in the past. While it is not clear if they are licensed or unlicensed this time, questions about the process through which gun licences are granted are already being raised, especially following a shootout in Delhi in which guns with licences issued in Punjab were used. The effectiveness of policing in Punjab is also under a cloud and such incidents reinforce the perception that those with political or financial clout enjoy impunity, at the cost of law-abiding citizens of the state. The Deputy Chief Minister of the state, who also holds the charge of the Home Department, will have to take effective steps to restore the confidence of the people of the state, which has been severely shaken by incidents like the latest one.
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Life is 10 per cent what you make it, and 90 per cent how you take it. — Irving Berlin
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Palestine's victory at UN LAST week, after Israel's brazen occupation of it for 45 years, Palestine won a victory at the United Nations General Assembly that was not just famous but spectacular. No fewer than 138 countries voted for upgrading its status to “non-member state” as against a measly nine, led by the United States, which voted against. The New York Times' headline said it all when it declared: “UN Assembly snubs US and Israel; Palestine gets non-member status.” It was a “triumph for Palestinian diplomacy and a sharp rebuke to the US and Israel”, the paper added. No less importantly, except for Canada, no major country sided with America, its supporters being such nations as Palau, Panama and Micronesia. Even Britain that obediently follows the US could not do so this time around and abstained, as did Germany because of its abominable sin of the Holocaust in the days of the Third Reich. For the rest large European countries — France, Spain, Italy and Switzerland — voted in support of the much-suppressed and oppressed Palestine. This split between the US and its European allies over the Palestine issue is a welcome sign. Moreover, it was not lost on anyone that the world body conferred statehood on Palestine on the 65th anniversary of the day on which the UNGA had voted for the partition of the former British mandate of Palestine into two states — one Jewish and the other Arab. Israel had celebrated the earlier decision as its “birth certificate”. No wonder, addressing the assembly's member-nations, President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestine Authority said: “The General Assembly is called upon today to issue a birth certificate of the reality of the state of Palestine.” The international community, having decided to confer the new status on Palestine, has a duty to start the process of gradually promoting the two-state formula of which an internal part is foolproof security for Israel along the 1967 borders. But, alas, this is easier said than can be done. Israel's most arrogant and intransigent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has already acted to make any kind of agreement with Palestine virtually impossible. He has, of course, “rejected” the General Assembly resolution. He has also announced a plan to build 3,000 Jewish settlement homes in the West Bank, and, viciously, in East Jerusalem that, according to the template of the two-state formula, is to be a joint capital of both Israel and Palestine. The plan is to build Jewish settlements in this sensitive and controversial area called El. This would almost certainly sound the “death knell” for the two-state solution. For, it would disrupt all connections between the Palestinian cities like Ramallah and Bethlehem with Palestinian neighbourhoods of East Jerusalem. Hagit Orfan, an Israeli who runs “Settlement Watch project of Peace Now”, has called the El housing scheme a “deal breaker”. Yet the US President is making no effort to restrain Israel; in sharp contrast, Britain and France have reacted so strongly as to threaten to withdraw their embassies from Tel Aviv. India should also speak up; it need not be mealy-mouthed. Mr Netanyahu's reprehensible policies are no surprise because everyone knows his nature that enables him also to override sane voices in his own country and government, and perhaps win the election due next month. What is startling, however, is President Barack Obama's submissive endorsement of anything the Israeli Prime Minister wishes to do. This becomes all the more puzzling because before his re-election last month Mr Netanyahu did all he could to ensure Mr Obama's defeat. In the words of former National Security Adviser Brezezinski, “Netanyahu humiliated the US President on American soil” and yet was applauded by both Houses of the Congress. To be sure, the Jewish lobby in the US is very strong. But Mr Obama got no less than 72 per cent Jewish votes and, in any case, he has no re-election to seek. Surprisingly, he seems not to be paying any attention to his once crucial objective of “reaching out” to the Muslim world. The Arab upheaval during the last two years may have obscured the Palestinian issue, but it is likely to be up front again. Of course, the Arab countries have to accept their share of blame for the present plight of Palestine. They pay it only lip-service and seldom keep their promise to help it financially. But now that Israel has withheld the $ 120, 000 a month taxes it collects on behalf of Palestine, the Arab responsibility has become all the greater. Let them put their money where their mouth is. A big worry of both Israel and the US is that Palestine may use its new status to try to join the International Court of Justice and thus press it to investigate the illegalities of Israeli occupation, building of settlements on Palestinian land and other activities. Sadly, America has threatened the UN with the stoppage of American funds to it, just as it stopped funding the UNESCO when it admitted Palestine as a member. This is strange championing of peace, justice and democracy. Mr Abbas and other leaders of the Palestinians also have their task cut out for them. To end the long and bitter division between Fateh in the West Bank and Hamas in Gaza has got to be their top priority. Ironically, it was Israel that, by its savage eight-day invasion of Gaza — resulting in 166 deaths, including of women and children, as against only six killed in Israel — gave the Palestinians an opportunity to reunify. This needs to be done at the earliest. Delay would be disastrous. The other thing the Palestinians have got to accept is that there can be no two states without Israel's secure existence side by side. It is pointless, therefore, to talk about “wiping Israel off the map” or “throwing the Israelis into the sea”. For their part, Israeli leaders, other than Mr Netanyahu, would do well to heed his predecessor, Yehud Olmert, who told CNN's Christina Amanpour only the other day that he was “very close” to an agreement with Mr Abbas on the two-nation settlement, that this is the only solution for the vexed dispute, and that the time is on “Palestine's side, not
Israel's”.
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Smoked salmon and brown bread Come and have dinner tonight – I’ve got a treat for you. I’ve been able to lay my hands on some smoked salmon,” he said in his typical peppy manner. I don’t think I really enjoyed it, but I could not possibly tell him that and as a result I had to eat smoked salmon and toasted brown bread at least once a week and soon acquired a taste for it. He taught me this and he taught me much else. I learnt that red wine must be drunk at room temperature. He thanked everyone who did something for him– waiters in restaurants, porters at railway stations, clerks at booking offices, domestic help, etc. I learnt to say ‘Thank you’. When a driver delivered a parcel from a friend he not only tipped him but also gave him some of the contents. When visiting, he took a gift, no matter how small. After our weekends in Dharampur he always made me stop at Timber Trail and treated me to a very delicious (and very expensive!) meal. Whenever someone gave him a gift, he looked for an opportunity to give something back. Within my limited means, I learnt a measure of generosity. He paid for the school education of two children; he contributed to established charities like CRY and HELPAGE. Nearer home he helped people who could not afford medical aid for their afflictions. From him I learnt the warmth that charity brings. He bought a bottle of wine with a German name and asked if it had been manufactured in Germany. He was told that yes, it was made in Germany. But when he got home he found, written in microscopic letters on the edge of the label, the legend: “Manufactured in India under licence from...” He went back to the store but they refused to entertain his complaint. He wrote to the German manufacturers and got not only a note of apology but also a crate of wine. They would ensure that the Indian manufacturers carried the legend more prominently. If service in a restaurant was tardy he would rap continuously on his glass with his spoon till the manager hurried over to our table. If anyone around him behaved rudely or in a way that showed a lack of concern for others he did not hesitate to pull them up. He taught me not to permit myself to be treated like a doormat. Above everything, he taught me to laugh – to laugh at myself, at the imperfections of the world and at the vicissitudes of life. People who knew me said that they had never before heard me laugh so much and so whole-heartedly. With his notorious temper and with my notorious inability to hold onto friends the inevitable happened, we fell apart. I miss Norman very much. Even with him gone from my life I try to live by all that he taught me and yes, I still greatly enjoy smoked salmon with toasted
brown bread.
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How spurious drug trade is booming In
the last week of November a number of persons died after ingesting a cough syrup marketed under the label Tyno in Lahore's low-income Shahdara area.
The thrust of the media coverage rested on the narrative of habitual addicts overdosing on otherwise medicinally safe syrup. This shunts blame on to the victims without focusing on the underlying issue of substandard and spurious medicines. How was it that the age of those who died ranged from 15 to 45 years? Were they all addicts who had made a pact to die within a week of each other? It cannot be right that all of them were addicts; they would after all have presumably been taking overdoses of the syrup for some time, so why should they all succumb within a week? There must have been something wrong with the medicine, but we are no wiser as to what ingredient caused so many deaths. The twin issues of unsafe drugs and poor regulation/ enforcement are intimately bound up with drugs-related deaths. The tragedy at the Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC), which claimed more than 200 lives last year, is instructive in this regard. The furore over the Tyno tragedy will also die down soon. In both cases, from the way things appear, no lessons have been learnt. Yet both instances have underscored serious issues with the existing policy and legislative framework on drugs' registration, safety and the menace of spurious medicine. In some regions, such as Latin America, Asia and Africa, estimates of the availability of spurious medicines range from 10 to 30 per cent according to a report produced by the International Medical Products Anti-Counterfeiting Taskforce in 2006. In 2010, the Centre for Medicine in the Public Interest, a US-based non-profit organisation, estimated the worldwide volume of counterfeit drugs' trade at $75 billion. Like other developing countries, Pakistan also suffers from this scourge in a big way. While estimates vary regarding the extent of the problem in Pakistan, Interior Minister Rehman Malik put the percentage of spurious drugs being sold at between 40 and 45 per cent of the total. Mr Malik's frank admission, though later withdrawn, hints at the magnitude of the problem. Counterfeit or spurious medicine is an imitation of a genuine medical product. Apart from resembling genuine drugs by artful packaging, counterfeit medicines contain either less than required active ingredients or altogether substandard ingredients, both with serious health consequences. Spurious or substandard medicines often fail to cure the patient or achieve the result desired (in these cases, consumers switch to other medicines without the counterfeit nature of the drug being exposed); second, they can cause unexpected adverse reaction which can be fatal; third, they can kill the patient, something that is often put down to negligence on the part of doctors. This brings us to why the problem exists in Pakistan and how it has grown. Again, many reasons can be adduced. These range from lax regulatory and enforcement mechanisms to the lack of punitive deterrents, the absence of health literacy and inadequate laboratory testing facilities. Although there are many legislative and policy instruments in place in this context, they have failed to have any appreciable impact. The most notable instrument is the Drugs Act 1976. With a limited ground force of drugs inspectors, it has failed to dent the volume of the trade in spurious/ substandard drugs. The act is riddled with loopholes which have allowed tragedies to occur. The number of inspectors envisaged is patently inadequate to addressing proliferating medicines in the market. Moreover, the act has failed to deter offenders due to lengthy court processes and a lenient sentencing regime. In order to stem the occurrence of the tragedies such as those in Lahore, the following measures can go some way in starting the process: First, the Drugs Act 1976 needs to be upgraded and vigilantly enforced by increasing the inspection force and speeding up court processes, and handing out tougher punishments. Second, the recently established Drugs Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (Drap) can be made more effective and independent by bringing health watch groups on its board and reorienting the body more towards patients' and drugs' safety concerns. Third, it would be useful to set up a network of modern drug testing laboratories at all levels so that incriminating ingredients can be identified. Fourth, putting in place a proper reporting centre where spurious drugs can be reported to Drap is essential. Fifth, we need the registration and regulation of drugstores where counterfeit medicines are suspected of flourishing due to a mixture of low levels of health awareness, poverty and lax control. Then the easy availability of medicines should be curbed through prescription-only regulations to prevent fatal accidents through over-ingestion. Lastly, a system of generic medicine needs to be urgently introduced to overcome the proliferation of unsafe and expensive drugs. Both the PIC and the Tyno tragedies serve as a wakeup call. The case for bringing in tougher regulation and beefing up the current loophole-riddled legislation to keep drugs and consumers safe in the larger interest of public health has never been more
urgent. The writer is an Islamabad-based development consultant and policy analyst. —
By arrangement with Dawn, Islamabad
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Window on Pakistan There
are three kinds of people in Pakistan when it comes to dealing with India. The latest proof of this reality has been provided by the reaction to External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid's interview with a Pakistan media team, including such stalwarts as Najam Sethi and Kamran Khan. Like a seasoned observer of the Indo-Pak scenario, Khurshid expressed the view that it was "important for India and Pakistan to move ahead together to have an impact on world markets" as the "desire for peace between the two countries was strong". However, The News of the Jang group of newspapers commented on December 5, "Be that as it may, the fact remains that without any sort of progress on Kashmir…, all talk of peace between India and Pakistan and in the region as a whole may end up as a big nothing. And India — being in the position it is, and in view of its aspirations to become a greater power in the region — shoulders the greater part of responsibility." For the sake of argument, one can say that India, a mature and responsible country, no doubt, has to contribute more to the cause of establishing peace in the region. But the objective of peace can be achieved only when all the stake-holders are serious about it. They will have to make compromises and change their mindsets for a bigger cause. Once this objective is achieved, all the countries in the region, including India and Pakistan, can fully concentrate on fighting their common enemy — poverty, widely prevalent in South Asia. But there is a big section of Pakistanis who do not seem to be interested in changing their mindset. The thinking of this section is only partially reflected in the comment carried by The News. One can have a clear idea of what goes on in the minds of such Pakistanis by reading the following lines that appeared in The Nation, the most conservative English daily of Pakistan: "Unless the obvious issues, the most prominent of them being Kashmir, are resolved, there can be no friendship. Even to expect the willingness to join hands in the presence of these issues that are outstanding by every definition, is irrational. Time has surely come, but it is to settle these festering disputes." Those who think on these lines in Pakistan are different from the extremists --- the second group — only in one way: the extremists advocate the use of violence to achieve their objective. But both groups in their own way try to prevent India and Pakistan from coming closer to each other to work for the economic wellbeing of people on both sides of the Indo-Pak divide. The third group of Pakistanis consists of those whose views get reflected in liberal papers like Dawn. They belong to the expanding peace constituency. They talk of "India model of growth" to be adopted in Pakistan for tackling the people's economic problems. But this section of Pakistanis has very little support in the most powerful institution there — the army. The peace constituency may get strengthened as India and Pakistan find ways to promote bilateral trade and people-to-people contacts. But there is need to launch a concerted drive to convince those belonging to the other two groups of Pakistanis that they must learn to discard the outmoded belief reflected in an old advertisement for promoting the sale of Kashmir vanaspati, "Kashmir par
samjhauta? Kabhi nahi."
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Those deaths resulted from the ingestion of Isotab tablets dispensed by the healthcare centre to poor patients. The test undertaken in London showed that the ingredients included anti-malarial components. One year on, the inquiry report into the tragedy has yet to see the light of day and no one has been indicted.