Crippling disease
HOW unfortunate that just a day after the year’s second nationwide polio campaign began, a third case was reported from Bannu, KP. In fact, all three cases in 2023 have surfaced from Bannu’s Ghaura Baka Khel. Polio is endemic in seven districts of southern KP, with no case reported from outside the territory since January 2021. Why has this region been left behind? Although progress has been made this year in driving the numbers down — there were 20 cases in 2022 — every child affected is one child too many. So what are the authorities missing? Health Minister Dr Nadeem Jan says that in recent testing, of 34 samples, “90pc were imported from Afghanistan”. This points to the need for coordinated efforts to ensure polio eradication in both nations. It won’t do to simply point fingers externally.
We must introspect. Why does the eradication of this crippling disease remain an elusive dream? Are there sociocultural barriers specific to the region that are obstacles to vaccine administration? Some view vaccination to be a Western plot to ‘sterilise’ people. And vaccine hesitation shot up after 2011 when the US Central Intelligence Agency, with a fake hepatitis vaccination programme, sought to gather intel on Osama bin Laden. A Sindh government bill proposes jailing or fining parents not getting their children inoculated, but many disagree with punishing people. There are other things to consider as well. Are health workers able to access all areas or do pockets go unattended? It must be factored in that these workers are routinely attacked, with TTP militants even sending suicide bombers to deter them. Eradicating polio remains a colossal task, but it is a fight we cannot afford to lose. The stakes are high, and the cost of inaction even higher. It’s time for a multipronged strategy that addresses both internal challenges and cross-border complications. Only then can we hope to fulfil the dream of a polio-free Pakistan.
Published in Dawn, October 7th, 2023
Vexing taxes
RECENT World Bank report update on Pakistan’s development challenges has sparked considerable consternation after it emerged that the financial institution wants Pakistan to consider, among other things, increasing the tax burden on more income categories, including those previously exempted from paying taxes. To wit, the lender has said that income taxes should also be imposed on people earning less than Rs50,000 a month (the current exemption limit) and that people making less than Rs500,000 should be taxed at higher rates. In a more equitably taxed economy, the suggestion would perhaps not have triggered the kind of outrage it has; after all, everyone has to chip in if the economy is to be rescued from the dire straits it is in. However, keeping in mind Pakistani authorities’ historic unwillingness to broaden the tax net, it is understandable why inflation-weary taxpayers are angry at the prospect of being squeezed further during a time when balancing their own household budgets has become a highly stressful task. The general expectation is — and not unrealistically so — that the axe will fall on the salaried classes again because the state will not go after tax cheats.
Due to the Federal Board of Revenue’s overreliance on indirect and withholding taxes to meet the government’s revenue targets, poor and middle-income Pakistanis end up paying a significantly larger proportion of their earnings in taxes than wealthier citizens do. Meanwhile, runaway inflation — which taxes incomes by reducing purchasing power — has also disproportionately impacted these income categories. With such a regressive taxation system in vogue, the first priority for tax authorities should be to take away the massive incentives, concessions and exemptions granted to various sectors of the economy and ensure that undertaxed segments are fairly taxed first. Agriculture, retail, real estate, sole proprietorship and non-salaried individuals’ earnings cannot remain untaxed or undertaxed while those employed in the formal sector are being squeezed harder and harder. Limiting government expenditures is the other side of this coin, and a list of related measures has been outlined in the World Bank report. Till Pakistan’s taxation system is fixed, the government should leave honest taxpayers alone. They have suffered enough.
Published in Dawn, October 7th, 2023
National shame
THE blight of enforced disappearances has become almost normalised in our society, with hardly any voice being raised against the unlawful detention of citizens.
It seems that people have come to terms with the fact that individuals go ‘missing’ in Pakistan and if they’re lucky, will miraculously turn up one day. However, if the victims are not so lucky, families will be called to collect a body bag.
One faint ray of hope has been the judiciary’s perusal of this troubling phenomenon. In a recent hearing of the Islamabad High Court, where nearly a dozen petitions related to missing persons were being heard, the IHC chief justice said that the court felt “embarrassed” that the issue was still lingering.
The bench observed that enforced disappearances stigmatised the image of Pakistan, and brought the country into disrepute. It is hard to disagree.
At one time, the issue of enforced disappearances was primarily a problem in Pakistan’s peripheries. Mostly, it was Baloch separatists or their sympathisers, Sindhi nationalists, suspected religious militants or MQM cadres who went ‘missing’. Rights activists and journalists were also whisked away if their work rubbed the powers that be the wrong way.
But in the aftermath of the May 9 events, the scope, and brazenness, of this deplorable practice has expanded greatly, with even members of well-connected families not spared.
We have witnessed the bizarre spectacle of people being freed by courts hauled away again by ‘unidentified’ elements numerous times.
The fact is that in the current scenario, unabashed disrespect for the law and due process has gone beyond just disappearing people; powerful, unaccountable actors have become so emboldened that they now feel confident enough to ‘punish’ citizens despite what the courts and the Constitution say about honouring fundamental rights. No civilised society can allow such a mockery of the law to take place.
During the aforesaid IHC hearing, the bench asked the attorney general to bring up the issue of missing persons with the caretaker prime minister.
With due respect to their lordships, this issue requires all power wielders in Pakistan to take a strong stand against enforced disappearances, and indeed all violations of the constitutional order.
Where the missing persons’ question is specifically concerned, the chief justice of Pakistan, who has been a high-profile advocate of this issue, can ask unelected forces where they stand on this and the steady erosion of fundamental rights.
Moreover, little can be expected from the caretakers; only an elected government can forcefully raise these issues, and bring these deplorable practices to an end.
But perhaps most importantly, it is the power elite that can initiate change. Is the state comfortable with the fact that Pakistan is seen as a lawless land, where people disappear and are arbitrarily punished?
Published in Dawn, October 7th, 2023