Pakistan became a signatory to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) multilateral treaty in April 2008. It commits its signatories to work toward the granting of economic, social, and cultural rights (ESCR) to the Non-Self-Governing and Trust Territories and individuals, including labour rights and the right to health, the right to education, and the right to an adequate standard of living. As of 2014, the Covenant had 162 parties.
Keeping in view the serious national issues with international implications for Pakistan (polio and high incidence of Thalassemia in FATA/KP, extreme poverty and malnourishment in general) one can legitimately ask as to whether the civilian and military ruling elites at all feel bound by the ICESR?
The pressing case in point is FATA; it has thus far been synonymous with terrorism, militancy and lawlessness. In his March 27, 2008 speech at the West Point Academy in Washington, President Barack Obama called it “the most dangerous place” and cautioned that if another 9/11 happened, that could also originate in FATA. Obama said so because US experts had also made him believe that Al Qaeda had turned FATA into its headquarters, and thus began the special attention on that region through the intensified unmanned aviation vehicles’(the drones) campaign - an understanding already worked out during the Islamabad visit of former CIA chief Michael Hayden and former deputy secretary of defense John C Negroponte in January 2008. Others have dubbed FATA as the “epicenter of global terrorism.”
[quote]46 of the 59 Polio cases reported in 2014 were in FATA [/quote]
Now, another feature marks out the troubled region; it now leads the rest of the country in the prevalence of polio virus; 46 of the 59 cases in 2014 were reported out of FATA, and 41 of them from Waziristan alone, a whopping 90 percent – making it as the incubator and the exporter of the deadly virus. No surprise that this invited global condemnation in the form of a travel advisory that the World Health Organization issued on Pakistan in early May.
The WHO warned on May 5 that the crippling disease had re-emerged as a public health emergency, with the virus currently affecting 10 countries worldwide and endemic in three including Pakistan beside Syria and Cameron.
The ministries of foreign affairs – as usual played down the warning, saying it does not amount to “restrictions.”
“These are recommendations that come under IHR regulations,” the spokesperson Ms Tanim Aslam told the ministry’s weekly briefing, adding that the WHO has only put out an alert to pressure countries.
The health ministry also announced setting up mandatory polio immunisation points at its international airports in response to recommendations by the WHO .
The Minister of State for National Health Services, Regulation and Coordination Saira Afzal Tarar also expressed reservations regarding the decision by the WHO. Ms Tarar hinted at the possibility of appealing the WHO warning, saying polio cases had increased because of poor law and order and because of distrust of vaccine campaigns that has come about after the Dr Shakeel Afridi case.
But the major question staring us all in the face is whether expression reservations helps Pakistan and its citizens against growing global concerns on fundamental issues that are largely related to a small piece of territory measuring about 27,200 square kilometers called FATA? Shockingly, this region accounts for nearly 65 per cent of the cases reported in 2014 thus far.
Hafiz Gul Bahadur and other TTP proponents had barred health officials from conducting polio vaccination campaigns through pamphlets. Should one consider civilian and military officials complicit in the anti-polio campaigns led by non-state actors?
Official denials notwithstanding, this region is usually considered a bastion of Hafiz Gul Bahadur and Maulvi Sadiq Noor - both considered allies of the military and the civil administration. Both are also social shelter for TTP renegades as well as closely allied with the Haqqanis, who have been at the heart of US-Pakistan discord for almost a decade now.
The malaise is rooted in the constitutional status (Article 246/247), and its perpetuation we owe to the forces of status quo who believe in a patch-work response to challenges that require instant massive surgery. Parliamentarians need to step forward and demand aloud the right to legislate on the future of FATA.
The obvious answer to social and security problems originating in FATA with consequences for entire Pakistan clearly lies in the abolition of the status rather than courting arguments by proponents of the status quo and thereby denying fundamental rights to FATA.
Imagine the consequences that the neglect of a region - still ruled by the British colonial-era Frontier Crimes Regulation - entail for the entire country; globally abhorred as the abettor of Al Qaeda-linked terrorist outfits, regionally feared for the impact of its hobnobbing with militant groups as foreign policy instruments, and nationally looked at as an “alien land that hosts smugglers, murderers, terrorists.”
Also visualize the and international implications of Ms Tarar’s admission that “it is difficult to hold polio campaigns in Fata due to terrorism in the area.”
Such statements under Musharraf prompted the American CIA to introduce the drones to Waziristan. A similar position by the sitting minister could –potentially – invite international intervention in a region that the government admits is beyond its control!
The president, under the clause 6 of the article 247 can change the status of FATA after consultation with FATA stakeholders, and critics often ask as to if the president can issue a decree such as the controversial National Reconciliation Ordinance 2007, why can’t the president do the same on FATA?
If Afghan President Karzai could hold a grand jirga comprising thousands to get an endorsement of a constitution authored by French experts, why can’t the Pakistani president do the same through a carefully prepared FATA peoples’ jirga?
Under the Article 12 of the UN Covenant (ICESCR) the right to health is an inclusive right extending not only to timely and appropriate health care but also to the underlying determinants of health, such as access to safe and potable water and adequate sanitation, an adequate supply of safe food, nutrition and housing, healthy occupational and environmental conditions. It requires parties to take specific steps to improve the health of their citizens, including reducing infant mortality and improving child health, improving environmental and workplace health, preventing, controlling and treating epidemic diseases, and creating conditions to ensure equal and timely access to medical services for all.
Are the government and the bureaucracy aware of the risks accompanying this dire neglect? Do they possess the vision and the capacity to stand up to pressing issues that are increasingly pushing Pakistanis into isolation and turning them into focus of attention for the wrong reasons?
Why can’t the military establishment force Gul Bahadur and the Haqqanis into thinking about the dire consequence of their medieval conduct for Pakistan?
Imtiaz Gul is the Executive Director of the independent Centre for Research and Security Studies
Email: imtiaz@crss.pk
Keeping in view the serious national issues with international implications for Pakistan (polio and high incidence of Thalassemia in FATA/KP, extreme poverty and malnourishment in general) one can legitimately ask as to whether the civilian and military ruling elites at all feel bound by the ICESR?
The pressing case in point is FATA; it has thus far been synonymous with terrorism, militancy and lawlessness. In his March 27, 2008 speech at the West Point Academy in Washington, President Barack Obama called it “the most dangerous place” and cautioned that if another 9/11 happened, that could also originate in FATA. Obama said so because US experts had also made him believe that Al Qaeda had turned FATA into its headquarters, and thus began the special attention on that region through the intensified unmanned aviation vehicles’(the drones) campaign - an understanding already worked out during the Islamabad visit of former CIA chief Michael Hayden and former deputy secretary of defense John C Negroponte in January 2008. Others have dubbed FATA as the “epicenter of global terrorism.”
[quote]46 of the 59 Polio cases reported in 2014 were in FATA [/quote]
Now, another feature marks out the troubled region; it now leads the rest of the country in the prevalence of polio virus; 46 of the 59 cases in 2014 were reported out of FATA, and 41 of them from Waziristan alone, a whopping 90 percent – making it as the incubator and the exporter of the deadly virus. No surprise that this invited global condemnation in the form of a travel advisory that the World Health Organization issued on Pakistan in early May.
The WHO warned on May 5 that the crippling disease had re-emerged as a public health emergency, with the virus currently affecting 10 countries worldwide and endemic in three including Pakistan beside Syria and Cameron.
The ministries of foreign affairs – as usual played down the warning, saying it does not amount to “restrictions.”
“These are recommendations that come under IHR regulations,” the spokesperson Ms Tanim Aslam told the ministry’s weekly briefing, adding that the WHO has only put out an alert to pressure countries.
The health ministry also announced setting up mandatory polio immunisation points at its international airports in response to recommendations by the WHO .
The Minister of State for National Health Services, Regulation and Coordination Saira Afzal Tarar also expressed reservations regarding the decision by the WHO. Ms Tarar hinted at the possibility of appealing the WHO warning, saying polio cases had increased because of poor law and order and because of distrust of vaccine campaigns that has come about after the Dr Shakeel Afridi case.
But the major question staring us all in the face is whether expression reservations helps Pakistan and its citizens against growing global concerns on fundamental issues that are largely related to a small piece of territory measuring about 27,200 square kilometers called FATA? Shockingly, this region accounts for nearly 65 per cent of the cases reported in 2014 thus far.
Hafiz Gul Bahadur and other TTP proponents had barred health officials from conducting polio vaccination campaigns through pamphlets. Should one consider civilian and military officials complicit in the anti-polio campaigns led by non-state actors?
Official denials notwithstanding, this region is usually considered a bastion of Hafiz Gul Bahadur and Maulvi Sadiq Noor - both considered allies of the military and the civil administration. Both are also social shelter for TTP renegades as well as closely allied with the Haqqanis, who have been at the heart of US-Pakistan discord for almost a decade now.
The malaise is rooted in the constitutional status (Article 246/247), and its perpetuation we owe to the forces of status quo who believe in a patch-work response to challenges that require instant massive surgery. Parliamentarians need to step forward and demand aloud the right to legislate on the future of FATA.
The obvious answer to social and security problems originating in FATA with consequences for entire Pakistan clearly lies in the abolition of the status rather than courting arguments by proponents of the status quo and thereby denying fundamental rights to FATA.
Imagine the consequences that the neglect of a region - still ruled by the British colonial-era Frontier Crimes Regulation - entail for the entire country; globally abhorred as the abettor of Al Qaeda-linked terrorist outfits, regionally feared for the impact of its hobnobbing with militant groups as foreign policy instruments, and nationally looked at as an “alien land that hosts smugglers, murderers, terrorists.”
Also visualize the and international implications of Ms Tarar’s admission that “it is difficult to hold polio campaigns in Fata due to terrorism in the area.”
Such statements under Musharraf prompted the American CIA to introduce the drones to Waziristan. A similar position by the sitting minister could –potentially – invite international intervention in a region that the government admits is beyond its control!
The president, under the clause 6 of the article 247 can change the status of FATA after consultation with FATA stakeholders, and critics often ask as to if the president can issue a decree such as the controversial National Reconciliation Ordinance 2007, why can’t the president do the same on FATA?
If Afghan President Karzai could hold a grand jirga comprising thousands to get an endorsement of a constitution authored by French experts, why can’t the Pakistani president do the same through a carefully prepared FATA peoples’ jirga?
Under the Article 12 of the UN Covenant (ICESCR) the right to health is an inclusive right extending not only to timely and appropriate health care but also to the underlying determinants of health, such as access to safe and potable water and adequate sanitation, an adequate supply of safe food, nutrition and housing, healthy occupational and environmental conditions. It requires parties to take specific steps to improve the health of their citizens, including reducing infant mortality and improving child health, improving environmental and workplace health, preventing, controlling and treating epidemic diseases, and creating conditions to ensure equal and timely access to medical services for all.
Are the government and the bureaucracy aware of the risks accompanying this dire neglect? Do they possess the vision and the capacity to stand up to pressing issues that are increasingly pushing Pakistanis into isolation and turning them into focus of attention for the wrong reasons?
Why can’t the military establishment force Gul Bahadur and the Haqqanis into thinking about the dire consequence of their medieval conduct for Pakistan?
Imtiaz Gul is the Executive Director of the independent Centre for Research and Security Studies
Email: imtiaz@crss.pk