In Pakistan, around 40% children are stunted while in Sindh, the figure is as high as 50%, a recent meeting of the Pakistan National Nutrition Coordination Council, presided over by Prime Minister Imran Khan, was informed. The PM was told that the Ehsaas Development Dashboard would start working from Oct 6 to collect data on the issue so that it could be tackled in a scientific manner. Speaking there, the PM said this grave issue had been ignored in the past but now it would be addressed in all seriousness because stunted growth not only affected individuals and families but was a major obstacle in the way of desired development of the nation.
In his first address to the nation after assuming the office of premiership, Khan had expressed grave concern over the prevailing high rate of stunting in the country and had said that stunting resulted from insufficient food intake and bad quality food, which affected both physical and mental growth of children. He had announced that it would be one of the top priorities of his government to address the serious issue affecting the health of the nation. So in the first phase of the Ehsaas Programme, 36 Ehsaas Development Centres had been set up in nine districts where food and cash are being provided to ensure the health of babies and mothers.
At the meeting, Dr Sania Nishtar, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Poverty Alleviation, gave a detailed briefing on the causes of stunting and how it affected physical and mental growth of children. She informed the meeting, attended by several ministers and secretaries of the relevant ministries, that in the past 10 years, a number of plans had been drawn up to meet the nutritional needs of children and women, but unfortunately they had never been implemented effectively.
Most importantly, the government needs to discourage the sentimental and unmalthusian habit of thoughtless procreation while addressing the issue of malnutrition and stunting.
Transport woes in Karachi
The recent past has seen a phenomenal rise in political lying ranging from grand lies that have caused wars and large-scale destruction to small and innocuous-looking lies but causing grave difficulties to the common people. Taking a cue from Christopher Marlowe’s line from Dr Faustus: “The face that launched a thousand ships”, around 18 months ago, the then transport minister of Sindh had announced with much ado that 1,000 new air-conditioned buses would be run soon in Karachi, and an agreement had been reached with the Daewoo transport company for the purpose.
However, during the past 12 years not a single public bus has been launched in the metropolis, according to press reports. This seems an underestimate as a Sindh government official has admitted that in the past 16 years no new bus scheme has been launched in the city. Ironically, all the new buses that had come out on the road earlier have gradually disappeared. No one knows what became of these buses and those of the defunct KTC. In 2017, Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah had okayed a plan to introduce 600 new buses for Karachi and for intercity routes. But so far nothing has come out of these promises. For the past several years, commuters have been left to fend for themselves as a result of a near-total absence of public transport in the biggest city of the country.
People have been facing a miserable situation in consequence of the official apathy and mismanagement. Commuters have to travel long distance by rickshaws that carry nine people, including the driver, sticking to one another or by bikes with one or two persons on the pillion. This is at a time when the coronavirus pandemic has not much subsided. If politicians have to give a free play to their lofty imagination, they should as well have announced sending a thousand ships into the outer space. They might promise even things that don’t exist.
Raging political tension
As the political tug of war rages on in the country, the who’s who of the PML-N have been booked for “conspiring” against the country and state institutions. A case of sedition has been registered on the complaint of a citizen, named Badar Rasheed, at Lahore’s Shahdara police station against PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif for his “inflammatory” speeches from London and dozens of other leaders — including Maryam Nawaz, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Ahsan Iqbal, Rana Sanaullah, Pervez Rashid, Marriyum Aurangzeb and Ataullah Tarar — for participating in the party’s Central Executive Committee and Central Working Committee meetings held last week.
However, in an interesting turn of events, the federal government has distanced itself from the sedition case against the three-time former prime minister and his top aides. Ruling party leaders — including PM’s Special Assistant Shahbaz Gill, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Federal Minister Fawad Chaudhry and Punjab Information Minister Fayyaz Chohan — have responded to the move in words that essentially mean that their government does not favour treason cases against politicians. Besides, Human Rights Minister Shireen Mazari is already on record having called the sedition law “a black law” which “should be done away with, lest it blight this country’s future”.
The federal government’s stance is a wise one too. History is witness to the fact that a traitor label on political opponents has rather proved counter-productive. Our politicians would do this country a great service if they keep their political fights within the confines of moral principles. Rather than trying to knit state institutions into their political narrative in a bid to confuse the public opinion, opposition leaders should have the audacity to face the corruption charges brought against them and prove their innocence in the courts. The government, on the other hand, should avoid high-handed tactics in its handling of political rivals just because it has the state machinery at its disposal.
There is need to reduce political tension in the country in the interest of the nation, and the responsibility for that lies on both sides.
