Dawn Editorial 3 August 2019

Senate drama

IT was a scene from a Byzantine drama, no less. As 64 senators stood up to show support for a no-confidence resolution against Senate chairman Sadiq Sanjrani, no one, least of all the joint opposition that had submitted the motion, could have foreseen the bizarre denouement. The cheerful thumping of hands on the tables appeared to be a hearty endorsement of the opposition’s wish to dethrone Mr Sanjrani — and the numbers translated into an easy win for their candidate Senator Mir Hasil Bizenjo; only 53 votes were required to oust the chairman. But the mood abruptly changed after the results of the secret ballot were announced: Mr Sanjrani had maintained his position by a whisker — a mere three votes. That meant that 14 senators had betrayed their leadership through resorting to what was widely alleged to be deliberate sabotage, by either wasting their votes, or directly voting against the motion. The ruling party burst into loud cheers, the stunned opposition cried conspiracy. Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Shahbaz Sharif and PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari vowed to hold accountable those within their parties who had “sold their conscience” and “harmed democracy” for their personal interests. Not one for mincing his words, Mr Bizenjo squarely laid the blame for his defeat on the DG ISI, an allegation denied by the ISPR.

But was the outcome really unexpected in the context of our political history? Whatever the reasons — pressure from the powers that be, monetary inducements, a genuine distrust of their own leadership, or even ties with those across the aisle — for the opposition senators to go against their word, ‘horse-trading’ is very much part and parcel of how the game of politics is played here. And it is one that should be familiar enough to the PPP — that had earlier reposed its trust in the controversial Mr Sanjrani during his election as Senate chairman — and the PML-N. Both have played the game before.

In fact, in earlier times, when the then underdog PTI had spoken out against political horse-trading, the parties had ignored appeals to reform the system. Now, as they suffer from their own lack of foresight, they would do well to acknowledge that if casting a secret ballot is unprincipled in their books today, it should have been so earlier as well, when they benefited from it while others cried foul from the sidelines. Indeed, there is a lesson for all parties over here; one look at the current government, that is composed largely of former Musharraf and PPP loyalists, exposes a stark lack of principle and ideological conviction. While it is time to debate the logic of having a secret ballot in the first place, it perhaps more essential for party leaderships to look within and reflect on the culture of political opportunism that they have themselves nurtured. Without such introspection they can expect horse-trading to go on.

Protecting the poor

THE reality shaping up for the poor is a dire one. Inflation has hit double digits for the first time in almost six years, while the price of petrol and diesel has seen another major hike, even though international crude prices are dropping. It is common knowledge that the poor are hit hardest by inflation, and that the government must attach importance to their interests and vulnerabilities when it formulates its economic policies. For the moment, it is apparent that the march of inflation is set to continue as the impact of the recent fuel price increase will now work its way through various price levels. In fact, further fuel and power tariff hikes lie in wait in the months ahead. The government is projecting average inflation for the current fiscal year to come in at around 13pc, which means the Consumer Price Index, which hit 10.3pc in July, could rise far above this level before it begins to taper off. There is a steep and rocky hill to climb in the months ahead, and the government needs concerted focus on the most vulnerable groups in society as it charts its course forward.

Such a concerted focus is clearly absent at the moment. This was more than evident when the prime minister ordered that gas tariffs for tandoors be brought back to the level they were at before July, in an effort to bring the price of bread down again. What this action betrayed was the fact that the poor are merely an afterthought in the calculus of power that drives the government. This is not right. It has been known for many months now that the state of the economy will force the government to undertake difficult adjustments, which will necessarily fuel inflation and make interest rate hikes inevitable, thereby contributing to unemployment as well. Such stop-and-go steps are not what qualify as sound governance in these times. The commitment to social protection schemes that the government has given to the IMF is also little more than window dressing, considering the scale of the difficulties that are being hoisted upon the poor. Close to 55m Pakistanis live below the poverty line, while the programmes mentioned in the IMF agreement cover only a few million at best. Far larger thinking is required to protect this group from the ravages of the adjustment that the government has launched.

Waterborne diseases

DURING the monsoon season, although the weather turns pleasant, most people dread the approaching storm clouds as the devastation wrought on civic infrastructure — particularly in a large, congested city like Karachi — is extensive. Apart from the near-total collapse of the urban system after a few millimetres of rain, an equally worrying issue that emerges is that of vector-borne and waterborne diseases, resulting from pools of stagnant water. In particular, a debilitating bouquet of mosquito-borne diseases, such as dengue, malaria and chikungunya, pose a major threat to public health if the work of draining stagnant water and lifting garbage is not carried out by the civic authorities. The figures from the past year, for example, are not encouraging. Last year, according to the National Institute of Health in Islamabad, there were over 2,000 dengue cases in Sindh; the figure for malaria crossed 100,000. Similar is the situation with chikungunya, a painful vector-borne disease that affects the joints. While not all these infections result in death, the quality of life and the long-term health of victims is severely compromised.

Considering the forecast for more rains during the current monsoon season, civic authorities across the country need to up their game and eliminate the breeding grounds for vector-borne and waterborne diseases on a war footing. While some experts have called for raising public awareness, it is the civic authorities that need to be particularly active in draining out stagnant water in the aftermath of rains. Furthermore, spraying must be carried out to eliminate the breeding grounds of mosquitoes. Of course, the local government and waste management system in Karachi are largely dysfunctional. But this cannot be used as an excuse by the authorities concerned to sit back and do nothing. Both the Sindh government and KMC must coordinate to clean up the city in the aftermath of showers, while municipalities in other parts of Sindh, as well as in the rest of the country, must do the same to prevent the emergence of diseases.