Village Situation - Case study of NooPur Shah Islamabad

Less than a kilometer from the sprawling residential complex of Pakistan’s prime minister, villagers have to scrabble for firewood in the dirt if they want a cooked meal.

Noor Pur Shahan is typical of many villages in the country, where supplies of cooking gas, clean water, electricity, classrooms, and also hope for the future, are hard to come by.

Improving government services for millions of increasingly frustrated Pakistanis is critical for bringing economic and political stability to a country the United States sees as an indispensable ally in its global war on militancy.

Many say the current system of governance only benefits Pakistan’s political elite and the wealthy. And it’s one that drives disaffected young men to join Muslim militant groups violently opposed to the government, analysts say.

The administration of President Asif Ali Zardari, like many before it, is accused of being too corrupt and inept to ease widespread hardship. It denies the allegations.

But in Noor Pur Shahan, where goats roam on winding roads beneath lush mountains about 8 km northeast of the capital, these denials ring hollow.

“The government only looks after the rich people,” said Mohammad Aleem, an elderly man with a long white beard, as he clutched his cane.

Conditions are unlikely to improve anytime soon. The cash-strapped government slashed development spending after summer floods caused nearly $10 billion in damages.

Securing reconstruction funds may not be possible unless Pakistan persuades Western donors spending will be transparent and accounted for.

The International Monetary Fund, which has kept the economy afloat since 2008, wants Pakistan to implement politically sensitive economic reforms such as imposing new taxes and eliminating electricity subsidies.

WHERE IS THE AID?

Washington has pumped billions of dollars into Pakistan since the country joined the U.S. war on militancy after the September 11 attacks on the United States.

Little seems to have trickled down to the poor.

In the center of Noor Pur Shahan is a water purification plant inaugurated in 1963 by former Pakistani military leader Ayub Khan. The water largely flows to government offices in Islamabad. That means most residents are deprived of clean supplies.

Mukhtiar Hussain, a worker at the plant for 32 years, says villagers break pipes to steal water for their homes. “Things have gone from bad to worse,” he said.

Critics accuse the government of neglecting education as well, and warn that social ills will deepen.

At Noor Pur Shahan’s state-funded boys secondary school, over 1,000 students are taught in 12 classrooms.

“There are only 20 computers and one teacher for computer studies,” said principal Iqbal Khan Niazi. The facility has not had clean water for three years. There are no playgrounds.

Umair Akhtar, 18, a villager, believes the army, which has ruled Pakistan for more than half of its history, would do a better job running nuclear-armed Pakistan than civilian governments, even though that would hurt the country’s democratic credentials.

He applied for a job in the CDA but says he has “no money to bribe people.”

Pakistan’s government may be too preoccupied with a host of problems to notice the plight of people like him.

It faces stubborn Taliban insurgents who continue to carry out bombings despite army offensives, a possible showdown with the powerful Supreme Court, and relentless US pressure to help stabilise war-ravaged Afghanistan.

For some Pakistanis, God alone is the answer.

“We want to instil the fear of God in the students and want then to follow the life of the holy Prophet Mohammad. That is the answer to all problems,” said Niazi, the village’s school principal.

Children Protection

In a society where children are perhaps the most vulnerable of all sections of the population, any effort for their protection is welcome. In this context, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly has taken a progressive step by passing the Child Protection Bill 2010 in September.
The bill is designed to provide care and protection to children “at risk” through the establishment of a child protection court as well as a provincial commission along with other associated mechanisms. A proposed amendment sponsored by the MMA calling for the age limit of children to be lowered from 18 to 15 was rejected and perhaps rightfully so, as according to international norms adulthood is deemed to begin at age 18.
The KP government has taken a bold initiative considering the fact that both the centre and the provinces have been extremely tardy when it comes to legislation designed to protect children’s rights. Laws have been written up but have been gathering dust for years, either waiting to be taken up in the federal and provincial legislatures or their passage has been blocked on procedural grounds. Hopefully Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s move will prompt the provinces and Islamabad to enact similar laws.
Yet, to truly end exploitation and give the children of Pakistan access to education, health, nutrition and a safe and secure environment, laws must be implemented. There are lots of good laws on the books. It is their implementation which is lacking and which is key to achieving the aims for which they were framed.
Also, some experts are of the opinion that the Child Protection Bill 2010 is a little vague when it comes to describing children “at risk” as well as the assessment procedure that would allow the authorities to determine which children are at risk. These concerns can possibly be addressed in future amendments.

Children at risk

In the event of a disaster, groups that are already disadvantaged, such as women and children, become even more vulnerable to abuse and exploitation. In the post-flood situation, apart from the victims’ immediate needs such as shelter, food and medical attention, the protection of children is also a major concern.
According to Unicef, out of the 20 million or so people affected by the floods, over half are children. A report by the agency on the floods’ effect on children says that “children have been or are at risk of being separated from their families, they are at risk of abuse … and have witnessed death and destruction”. There are also reports that boys from flood-affected families are being lured into prostitution in some parts.
In the aftermath of natural calamities worldwide we have witnessed elements taking advantage of children. After the January earthquake in Haiti some American missionaries were convicted of illegally transporting a busload of Haitian children into the Dominican Republic without any paperwork. In Pakistan, after the 2005 earthquake the adoption of children was banned to prevent the risk of child abductions. Though people may be well-intentioned in wanting to take children away from the scene of tragedy, it doesn’t justify ignoring due process. In the current scenario the trafficking and abuse of children cannot be ignored as the state grapples with the post-flood situation. In present conditions, protecting the welfare and rights of minors is more important than ever as the chances of their exploitation are far greater considering that the whole social structure in many parts of the country has collapsed. Vigilance is key in this regard.
The state and society — especially rights organisations — must play a proactive role in ensuring the safety of children so that they are kept from harm. It is also important that a child protection law is passed and implemented at the federal level. Presently, such a law only exists in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It is essential that the federal government passes a law that can protect children from all forms of abuse both in times of crises and otherwise.

22 Drone Attacks in September

The U.S. government increased the number of missile attacks this month against militant guerrilla groups in northwest Pakistan to the most this year, according to researchers who monitor the campaign.
The U.S. so far has launched 22 missile strikes in September, almost a third of this year’s total of 76, according to a count maintained by the Washington-based New America Foundation. The policy research group counted four such attacks in August and five in July.
All of this month’s reported strikes -- which typically are fired from remotely piloted Predator or Reaper aircraft -- have hit Pakistan’s Waziristan region, a Taliban stronghold that borders Afghanistan, the foundation said.
Nineteen of the missile raids have hit North Waziristan, a district dominated by the Taliban factions of Afghan commander Jalaluddin Haqqani and Pakistani guerrilla leader Hafiz Gul Bahadur. Al-Qaeda’s operational chief for Pakistan and Afghanistan, Sheik Fateh, was killed this month by a drone strike, Agence France-Press said yesterday, citing unidentified Pakistani security officials.
“The last time there was a flurry of strikes comparable to this was in January, following the suicide attack on a CIA base in Khost, Afghanistan, in late December 2009,” said Katherine Tiedemann, a research fellow at the New America Foundation. “There were 12 strikes reported that month.”
There may be several reasons for increased attacks, said Alan Kronstadt, a Pakistan analyst with the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service.
“There’s been a need seen to keep pressure on the Haqqani group,” Kronstadt said in an interview.
After floods that ravaged much of Pakistan, the U.S. also “wanted to send a message there would be no relaxing for them in whatever interim there is” before counterterrorism operations on the ground resume, Kronstadt said.
This month’s spike in missile attacks is part of a yearlong escalation. The U.S. has fired more than 75 missiles into Pakistan so far this year, up from 53 in 2009, according to the New America Foundation’s count.

Rs50 bn loans written off

Pakistani banks have yet again quietly written off Rs50 billion fresh loans outstanding against their borrowers during the last two years and at the same time, Pakistan’s total borrowing from World Bank (WB), Asian Development Bank (ADB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) reached to $31billion.It has been revealed that Islamabad was now paying $3.6 billion interest alone each year on these foreign loans. Finance Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh shared the mind-boggling figure of loan written off by the Pakistani banks in the National Assembly during the question hour. In the same session, Minister of State for Economic Affairs Division Hina Rabbani Khar, however, made revelations about the total foreign loans of three lending agencies followed by annual payment of interest by the Government of Pakistan.
These two figures about the loans — one written off and other obtained from the international lending agencies — were presented in the National Assembly during the question hour by Hina Rabbani Khar.These facts tell a sorry state of affairs as how on the one hand the country was massively borrowing from the international institutions to meet its own financial gaps and on the other how their own banks were busy in writing off the massive amounts running into billions.
The Supreme Court is also seized with loan write off case of 2007 when it was reported in the media on the basis of Auditor General’s report that Pakistani banks had written off Rs60 billion. Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry had taken a suo moto notice of this story. The Supreme Court is yet to take any decision on this case since 2007 and banks continued to write off loans. One official said, “we had to differentiate between the genuine written off loans and those who were using their clouts to get those principal and marks up written off every year.”Meanwhile, in a reply to a question by Sheikh Salahuddin, the finance minister said a sum of Rs50.854 billion was written off by the banks during the last two years. Replying to another question of MNA Raja Asad, Hina Rabbani revealed that the country had borrowed $31billion till June 30, 2010 from WB, ADB and IMF and was paying $3.6 billion as interest each year. Giving the break up of loans, she said world had given $11.4 billion loan and was being paid $1.6 billion every year as interest on these loans. Pakistan took $11.58 billion from ADB and was paying $1.4 billion as interest on annual basis. $8billion have been borrowed from IMF and $445 million per year are being paid to them as interest.

225 suicides in a month

At least 225 people including 73 women committed suicide during the run of last one month.
According to Pakistan Commission for Human Rights, the most of people put an end to their lives under juggernaut of poverty and hostile circumstances. The report said at least 351 incidents of suicides and suicide attempts were reported during last one month; however, only 39 FIRs were registered against these incidents.
According to the report, at least 18 people were killed in the name of honour in Sindh, of them, Ghtoki’s eight year old Dadan is also included. The report said at least 27 people including 21 women were sexually maltreated across the country; of them, Matli’s four-year-old and Tando Muhammed Khan’s five-year girl are also included.
According to experts, the hike in suicidal incidents in the country is an alarming phenomenon thanks to the rampant non-tolerance in the society.

Discrimination in Aid Distribution

It is no secret that ethnic, sectarian and religious minorities in Pakistan face discrimination, but recent reports that this deplorable mindset is affecting flood relief efforts are deeply disturbing. On Monday, a large number of people in Hyderabad were driven to taking out a protest rally against the maltreatment of minority community flood victims. They cited two occasions when they were attacked and driven out of a relief camp.

A day before that, flood-affected families at an emergency relief camp in Thatta district complained that they were being refused aid, even by government officials, because they were Dalits. There have been numerous other reports: people being refused shelter because of their ethnicity, caste or religion, being discriminated against in the distribution of aid goods and being driven away from or forced to live on the very margins of the few camps that exist.

Discrimination on ethnic and religious grounds is deeply entrenched in Pakistan and will not change overnight. Yet that it is being used as an excuse to strip people of their rights as equal citizens even during a time of calamity is abhorrent. Whether Muslim, Hindu or Christian, high caste or low caste, the flood victims are all equally deserving of the attention of official and non-official aid channels. Resources are scarce and the desperate number in millions. Providing help across the board to the best of its abilities, irrespective of any ideology, is the first task of the state and society. Apart from the victims’ equal right to survival essentials such as shelter, potable water and food, the fact that the country was even before the floods rent along ethnic, sectarian and religious grounds must be kept in mind. Discrimination at this time will only deepen the divide and cause resentment that could unravel any possibility of future cohesiveness.