The Express Tribune Editorial 12 September 2019

Inflated milk price

 

For governments in Pakistan, things doable have become undoable. During Muharram this year, milk became dearer than petrol and diesel. In Karachi and other places of Sindh, the price of milk had gone up as high as Rs140 a litre. At the same time, petrol was selling at Rs113 a litre and diesel at Rs91 a litre. On the occasion of Muharram, the demand for milk increases. Taking advantage of this, unscrupulous milk sellers increase the price of milk. It becomes a case of strike the iron before it is cold. Whether it is Muharram or Ramazan traders have no qualms about increasing prices. Usually, the authorities turn a blind eye to profiteering. We do not know whether politicians protect the interests of milk sellers in the legislatures.
At present in Karachi, the official price of milk has been fixed at Rs94 a litre but shopkeepers are selling it at Rs110. Retailers say since they purchase milk at a high price from wholesalers and dairy farmers, they sell it at a high price. Dairy farmers and wholesalers maintain that prices of their inputs have increased, so they sell milk at a high price. They say the government has not allowed them any increase in milk price since long. Dr Khatu Mal Jeevan, a Special Assistant to the Sindh CM, has called a meeting on Sept 13 at the Karachi commissioner’s office to review the matter. Along with the commissioner, all deputy commissioners, additional inspectors general of police, DIGs, SSPs, representatives of dairy farmers and other stakeholders would be present at the meeting
We hope the meeting will arrive at a decision that will make milk available to the common people at an affordable price. Recent experience, however, shows that meetings are indispensable when you do not want to do anything. Pakistan is the sixth-largest producer of milk in the world, so there is no reason why milk and its products should not be available at affordable prices to all strata of society.

 
 

International rebuke for India

 

The world community “must not remain indifferent to the tragedy that is unfolding before our eyes” in Indian Occupied Kashmir, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said on Tuesday during the 42nd session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva. In what may be a callout of India’s economic allies turning a blind eye to the brutality of the Indian regime in the occupied state, the FM added, “We must not let political, commercial, and parochial considerations cloud and impair our thoughts and action.”
Decisive action, Qureshi insisted, was needed to address the warning signs of a “looming human catastrophe”. He also called on the human rights council to take a few immediate steps, including urging India to immediately stop the use of pellet guns; end the bloodshed; lift the curfew; reverse the clampdown and communications blackout; restore fundamental freedoms and liberties; release political prisoners; stop targeting human rights defenders; and fulfil its obligations under the UNSC resolutions and international law. He also called on the council to take steps to bring to justice the perpetrators of human rights violations of Kashmiris through an inquiry commission, as recommended by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. On Wednesday, Pakistan submitted a statement on behalf of 50 countries, expressing concern over the illegal annexation of occupied Kashmir by India. The statement included all of the points from his earlier speech. The Foreign Office also issued a statement thanking the 50 countries which signed the statement. Also, after a meeting with Qureshi, UN Human Rights Council President Coly Seck reportedly expressed concern over the abuse of human rights and said the entire world was cautiously watching the situation.
The Indian media has, meanwhile, caught on to a misspeak by Qureshi during an interaction with reporters on Tuesday, where he accidentally referred to the disputed region as “the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir”, rather than ‘IOK’ or ‘Indian Occupied Kashmir’, which are the terms Pakistan officially uses. Fortunately, if this is the best that India and the Modi media can come up with after an international rebuke, it’s still a win for Pakistan.

 
 

Cricket drought

 

That a proper restoration of international sports, particularly cricket, in Pakistan may not happen anytime soon is there for all to see. It’s disappointing indeed for cricket lovers in Pakistan that as many as 10 top Sri Lankan cricketers — including T20 skipper Lasith Malinga and former captains Angelo Mathews and Thisara Perera — have refused to visit Pakistan even for a tour spanning only 15 days, citing security reasons. If at all, a second-string Sri Lankan team will visit Pakistan from September 25 for 3 ODIs and 3 T20Is scheduled to be held in Karachi between September 27 and October 9.
It does not make an easy choice on whether we should respect the decision of the Sri Lankan players to opt against visiting an ‘unsafe’ country on the advice of their families or lash out at them for failing to display sportsmanship by aiding a friendly neighbouring country in its efforts for cricket revival on its home soil. There are also reports of the Indian hand at work. Even though the Sri Lankan government has denied that their players have been browbeaten by the IPL controllers into opting out of the Pakistan tour, the politicisation of cricket cannot be ruled out altogether, for greater global gains.
Pakistan’s efforts to do away with the drought of international cricket, meanwhile, continue by fits and starts. Pakistan has not hosted a high-profile team for a full-length tour ever since the 2009 terrorist attack in Lahore on the Sri Lankan team. In May 2015, Zimbabwe became the first team to play an international fixture in Pakistan. The Zimbabwean side was given state guest-level security during the tour that features two T20Is and three ODIs. Then in October 2017, the Sri Lankan team had come down to Lahore for a day to play a lone T20I match while the ICC World Eleven and the West Indies have also played short T20 series in Pakistan in the last two years.

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