SDPI Research and News Bulletin

SDPI Seminars

Implementation of Tobacco Ordinance in Pakistan: A Missed Opportunity
May 4

Ineffective implementation and lack of political will to curb the tobacco menace in Pakistan has led to an unregulated environment despite anti-smoking laws, said Dr Ehsan Latif, from the Network for Consumer Protection.
Dr Latif said that even after the passage of two years, no mechanism was available for an ordinary citizen to register complaint against violations of the ordinance. The lack of implementation mechanism, he said, would result in non-observance of the ordinance. He said the government took no concrete steps to apprise citizens of various provisions of the ordinance and thus people, including the “authorized persons” under the ordinance, are unaware of their rights and duties.
Sattar Chaudhry, consultant at the Ministry of Health, elaborated the main features of the ordinance, including no smoking in public places, no sale to under 18 and no sale in educational institutions. Appreciating the efforts of the Ministry of Health in implementing the ordinance, he emphasized for educating masses through electronic and print media.
Rashid Mushtaq, a public representative, said poverty and public indifference are the greatest hurdles in the way of implementing laws. He said a campaign could be more effective if the public is educated about the bad effects of smoking.

Privatized Basic Services – in Service of Human Development in Pakistan?
May 9

Experts called for a cautious approach to opening up services sector under the WTO’s General Agreement on Trade and Services (GATS), especially in the basic services areas like water, food security, health and education. They feared that the liberalization of basic services would create inequalities in Pakistan.
Mustafa Talpur, of ActionAid Pakistan, in his presentation “Impact of GATS on food security and water”, opposed opening up the agriculture, health, education, and water sectors. He said the multilateral agreements under GATs, adopted in 1994, have negative implications on the livelihood of the developing countries’ people. He said although the trade liberalization opens new areas, there should be flexibilities for all countries to liberalize trade according to their needs and demands.
Talpur said the arrival of foreign companies with sophisticated equipment would outdo the locals and their means and methods for livelihood. He said during wheat harvesting in some districts of Sindh, families work together in fields and after two or three months go home “food secured.” But they would be ousted from this circle if a company comes with its equipment for harvesting. He feared that small farmer would suffer most when the agriculture sector is liberalized.
Mazhar Siraj, from the Consumer Protection Commission of Pakistan, discussed the impact of GATS on health and education. He also opposed the opening of the health and education sectors to GATS, saying it would only bring inequality. He said the privatization of health and education in Pakistan is already affecting the consumers’ access to them.
Siraj said Pakistan’s private education sector was earning 22 billion rupees a year. In the health sector, he said, privatization is increasing medication and registration costs. With the liberalization of these services, he said the shift would be from “consumer” to “customer”. In other words, poor would be excluded.
He said in 1980s when the government was regulating the medicines prices, they went up by 30 percent, but in 1990s when the drug prices were deregulated, the increase was 87 percent. He said opening the two sectors would be a negation of Millennium Development Goals, and feared a collapse of health and education services in the public sector.
Asad Hayaudin, from the Ministry of Commerce’s WTO cell, agreed that a cautious approach is needed to GATS, but added that the agreement provides a number of opportunities. He said GATS’ conditions also provide room for safeguarding the country’s interests. He said that GATS is not development unfriendly.
After the speakers’ contributions, the debate focused on the opportunities the liberalization would bring and how to protect the poor from its negative effects. The participants said consumers are not included in the government’s consultation process. One of the participants termed the consultation process among ministries as useless.
Though it was felt that the structure of Pakistan’s basic services is in shambles, making a case for arrival of efficient service providers, it was pointed out that they would come at a price, and not everyone in Pakistan would be able to afford them.

Death by Water: Whose Fault is it
May 16

The alarming situation of water contamination in Pakistan demands immediate formulation of a national drinking water policy to save people from death and diseases. The speakers regretted that after 58 years, Pakistan still lacks a water policy. It was revealed that Sindh is facing a crisis of contamination because all underground water resources have been polluted.
The speakers criticized the government for coming up with figures that portray a rosy picture of availability of improved quality water, claiming that the availability was up to 88 percent. It was pointed out that a recent study puts the water availability at 30 percent.
They suggested that communities with the help of civil society should file cases in the relevant courts against those responsible for loss of human lives because of water contamination.
Dr Ehsan Latif, of The Network for Consumer Protection, said bad governance and mismanagement of water supply are major reasons for contamination. He said the much-needed national water policy should be linked with sanitation, reflecting equitable distribution of drinking water approach.
Ghulam Mustafa Talpur, of ActionAid Pakistan, said drinking water is a human right and it should be respected, protected and fulfilled without any discrimination. He said there is no focal government department to look after the policy issues related to drinking water.
Dr Zulfiqar Rahujo, president Health and Education Society, Larkana, said 15 people died in a small village of Shahdadkot district because of drinking polluted water of Hammal Lake. “Releasing Right Bank Outfall Drain’s (RBOD) effluents into the fresh water lake is the main cause of killings in the area,” he said.
Sajida Rahujo, a community representative from Shahdadkot, told the seminar that people, including women and children, are consuming polluted drinking water.
The participants suggested that donors must be approached to obtain financing for public interest litigation for drinking water. They opposed the idea of installing filtration plants in the heavily populated areas as an immediate remedy. They said prioritizing drinking water, earmarking finances and taking holistic approach is the only solution for human development and achieving Millennium Development Goals as a whole.

Pre-Budget Seminar
May 30

Budget-making process in Pakistan is done in isolation,
excluding people, as the government uses the façade of rhetoric and fudged figures to hide its economic failures.
Independent economic experts said that a “pro-poor” budget is not possible in the current economic scenario because it suffers from structural dependency, leading to a reduced role of the state. They also regretted that the agriculture sector is collapsing due to inept policies, with small farmers giving up agriculture in large numbers.
Dr Abid Qayum Suleri, of SDPI, said it is unfortunate that two-thirds of the total budget is un-debatable at any forum. He said all the annual budgets are a repetition of previous ones.
Dr Nawaz Hakro, from the Quaid-e-Azam University, said Pakistan is following a neo-liberal model of economy, excluding real stakeholders. Terming the budget-making process a “traditional” exercise in isolation, which lacks coordination with no public participation, he said it is strange that a country claiming eight percent growth rate has no let up in unemployment rate, and the inflation rate has entered double digit.
Dr Hakro doubted the veracity of the government figures, saying under the Pakistan Integrated Household Survey, poverty, in fact, is 38 percent, but the figure was not made public. Similarly, he said the per capita income is given 520 dollars, but it is between 400 to 450 dollars.
He said the sectors of automobiles, manufacturing, property, consumer financing and leasing have registered growth, but agriculture has declined, which is worrisome.
He said that defence and debt-servicing consume most of the budget, adding that Pakistan is facing a huge budget deficit crisis. He blamed the monetary policy for unreal increase in property prices, having negative effect on the poor.
He observed that the poor fail to get much out of the budget, as taxes affect them directly and indirectly. He added that what the poor are getting in terms of basic services, like health and education, is declining in real terms. He said subsidies have been shifted to profit-oriented public organizations like Wapda, while food subsidies have been withdrawn.
Asim Sajjad, from LUMS, said growth rates under military governments have remained good because of geo-political reasons. After 9/11, he said, Pakistan’s economy has seen a phenomenal turnabout, receiving unprecedented loans, grants and aid.
He said pro-poor budget is not possible under the current circumstances because it is structurally dependent, adding that in the keenness to attract foreign investment, Pakistan lacks “capital control.” He said the countries like Mexico, Argentina and Bolivia suffered because they did not have capital control, and once the investors took out the money, their economies collapsed.

Agriculture Negotiations and What is at Stake in WTO
June 6

Despite being an agrarian economy Pakistan has failed to protect its agricultural interests under the World Trade Organization's Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) due to confused and haphazard policies. The experts said the national budgets are less prioritized towards agriculture sector.
They said the AoA should be taken up in the parliament and the parliamentarians should take lead in forming national agriculture policy. It was also felt that the farmers are totally unaware of the WTO agreements and international standards, damaging Pakistan's exports, most of which are related to agriculture.
MNA Makhdoom Ahmed Alam Anwar, who heads the National Assembly's Standing Committee on Agriculture, said he would try to highlight the agricultural issues in the parliament, but added that agriculture should be the concern of everyone.
Roshan Malik, from ActionAid Pakistan, maintained that the rich countries have manipulated the agreement to protect their agriculture sectors, and at the same time gained access to the markets of the developing countries.
He said the rich countries have taken advantage of the three structural pillars of the AoA – market access, domestic support and export subsidies. He said the rich countries continue to give huge domestic support and export subsidies to their farmers, but demand end to them in the developing countries.
He regretted the slow response of the government to the WTO-related documents, adding that sometimes they are treated as "secret", which they are not. The lack of information hurts Pakistan's interests. He said it is high time WTO and its agreements are discussed in the parliament.
Dr Abid Suleri, of SDPI, said Pakistan's WTO policies are confused and weak, adding that though Pakistan is part of the G-20 Group led by Brazil and India, it changes its position too easily in the WTO.
He said Pakistan should be clear in its WTO policies. If it wants to stand with the developing countries, opposing the US and the EU, it should be firm and not give in to the US pressure.
He said Brazil and India, initially fierce in their opposition, come to negotiations and end with benefits for themselves. Pakistan, on the other hand, he said, is wavering between the support for the US and the alliance with the developing countries.
He said the consumer perspective is also absent in Pakistan, as market mechanism is weak, leading to huge variance in prices.
The audience agreed that national budgets are losing priority towards agriculture sector rapidly. They asked the policy-makers and legislatures to make efforts to minimize the role of middleman through legislation, and demanded urgent review of food distribution mechanism.

Post Budget Seminar
June 13

Experts lamented the parliamentarians’ lack of interest in the budget making process and their indifference to what is written in the budget document. Parliamentarians were invited, but none of them made it to the seminar.
They said the huge and complicated budget document is seldom understood in Pakistan, leaving gaps in its allocations and implementation, making rich richer and poor poorer. Allocation system is supply driven, as people are never consulted about their needs, nullifying the so-called democratic process.
They said the budget-making process is marked by absence of people's participation and non-utilization.
Dr Abid Suleri, of SDPI, said in the budget debate last year, 42 percent of the MNAs did not utter a word in the National Assembly, and in the Senate, 24 percent of senators decided to keep mum.
Dr Abid said budgets have been passed in haste in Pakistan, adding that the last budget was passed only in ten days. He said some only criticize for the sake of it, and others praise it to be in the right quarters. In most of countries, he said, budget debates take one to two months.
He said the last allocation under PSDP was under utilized by 45 percent. Dr Abid said the allocations for health, education and agriculture were less than the subsidies for Wapda, adding that according to a study by SDPI and World Food Programme on food security, 80 percent of rural Pakistan is food insecure.
He said that 65 percent indirect taxation is taking its toll on the people, though the government claimed that it has presented a tax-free budget. The prices of petrol, gas and electricity, which directly affect people, are outside the budget process, he said.
Muhammad Arshad, from The Network for Consumer Protection, said the budget lacked focus. He said for the government, a person having 742 rupees for a month is not poor. He termed the tax increase on cigarettes as insubstantial, saying that the government would never move against tobacco companies because they are source of revenue generation.
Ahmad Mukhtar, from Aaj TV, said subsidiaries, which are eating into resources, could be used to bring down poverty level. He said the subsidiaries for public sector institutions like Wapda are a major burden for Pakistan. He proposed direct subsidiaries where they are needed.
Mukhtar said figure fudging while making budget is a common practice in Pakistan. Implementation of the budget announcements is a persisting problem, he said, and added that ambitious plans are announced but never implemented.
He also hinted at conflict of interest within the government, saying that sugar prices are never controlled in Pakistan because the powerful members of the federal cabinet own sugar mills.
The participants said economic managers fudge figures to present a rosy picture of the economy. One of the participants said the provincial allocations are deliberately delayed, and that is why there is a rush of spending at the end of fiscal year.

MFN Status for India and its Implications
June 20

Relations between Pakistan and India have to be improved holistically before starting normal trade relations, said Shahid Bashir, joint secretary for foreign trade in the ministry of commerce.
Terming the Pakistan-India relations “accident-prone”, the secretary rejected the notion of improving relations without addressing the disputed issues. He backed a “graduated approach” to trade ties with India, and opposed “abrupt changes.”
Bashir said there has been no official change in Pakistan’s policy. For improved trade ties, he said, “some ice has to melt on the Siachen and some water has to flow under the bridges.”
Bashir also did not agree to the Indian desire to forget all disputes and start business, and discuss disputes when both the countries are prosperous. Under such a scenario, he said, the trade ties between the two countries would not be sustainable.
Going back in time, he talked about GATT, and how Pakistan and India became contracting parties to it, allowing them to go for “special arrangements” for trade. Bashir added that the trade ties between the two countries have not moved much beyond 1948. He said after the Simla pact, there was talk of resuming trade ties – which came to a halt after the 1965 war – on MFN basis.
He said Pakistan is diversifying its trade interests towards East Asia, adding that in today’s world distance seldom matters. Bashir criticized the Indian tariff system, saying it is inward looking, protective, and complicated, making imports to India difficult.
Mooed Yusuf, of SDPI, demanded more research work on the MFN status for India to counter the current confusion that surrounds the issue. He said on the one hand there has been talk of rapprochement and people-to-people contact, and on the other, the two countries are sticking to their stated positions.
He said in the case of MFN status for India, Pakistan would suffer in the short run, but with well-targeted policy initiatives new avenues could open in the long run.
The audience wanted to know the hurdles in improving trade ties with India, and how they can be done away with.

Press Freedom - a Hoax
June 27

A free and responsible media is only possible in Pakistan when the country will have an independent judiciary and an empowered parliament, experts said.
They said though today Pakistan has relatively more media space and freedom, print and electronic journalists have to assert themselves to get freedom, and do away with self-censorship. Experts concurred that media is a profit-based industry, and no more a mission it was in the pre-partition days.
It was pointed out that the struggle for press freedom is a continuous process, as no government – military or civilian – likes a free media. However, press freedom is no more a tug of war between the journalists and the government, other market and commercial forces have become part of the process in which everyone is trying to have a strong foothold in the control over media.
Mohsin Babbar, associated with The Network for Consumer Protection, blamed lack of media and professional ethics in Pakistan, adding it was the major cause of curbing media freedom. He suggested that the government, media houses, civil society and journalists' organizations should formulate media ethics to ensure media freedom.
Ziauddin, Dawn’s resident editor, said without an independent judiciary and strong parliament, press freedom is not possible in Pakistan. But he added that the press is alive to its duties, and despite all the curbs, it is reporting correctly on sensitive issues.
He said the reporting on the Okara farms crisis was "maximum" and "correct.” Ziauddin said journalists are committed to their profession, and have made immense sacrifices for press freedom.
He said with the expansion of media in Pakistan, the government would lose its coercive tactics. He said that though at present the media is free to criticize, access to information is still a grave problem for journalists. Ziauddin said the Access to Information law is more to "suppress information" than to provide it. He said investigative journalism is absent in Pakistan. He said journalism is a commercial industry and the owners have to protect their commercial interests.
Zafar Abbas, from BBC, said Pakistan today has more press freedom than the days of "blanket censorship" when the newspapers were reviewed by an official of the information ministry. However, he added the way the media is expanding in Pakistan, the government's options of blocking and controlling news are getting slimmer. He said the struggle for press freedom is a continuous process because no government likes free media. Zafar said the owners’ interests were also a hurdle in the way of press freedom.
Matiullah Jan, media analyst at Internews, an NGO, demanded more freedom for state media, saying that successive governments have used PTV and Radio Pakistan for propaganda and hiding the real news from the people. He said the state media has become a tool of "distortion and deceit", as it is only used to propagate the government policies and officials.
Matiullah said English newspapers have more freedom to write about sensitive issues than Urdu newspapers. However he criticized the newspapers policy of full-page ads, saying the ads infringe upon the rights of the readers. Matiullah feared that Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Amendment Bill, 2005 would bring in more restrictions for electronic and print media.
Mazhar Arif, head of Society for Research and Alternative Media, regretted the diminishing role of the editor's institution, adding that the owners are dictating editorial policies based on commercial interests.
He said today the more important question is the media's alliance with the state and market forces. The alliance of state, market and media, he said, has made people a non-entity. He said the print media has become advertisement-ridden.
He proposed to review the role of media anew, as the circumstances and players have changed. He said the press' relation with the people should be reviewed.
Absar Alam, deputy resident editor of The Nation, said journalists work under difficult situations, facing hurdles and harassment. He said press freedom is a hoax in Pakistan, as various pretexts are used to block the "sensitive news" and journalists who cross the lines face consequences.
Alam said the pretext of "national interest" has been used to stop journalists from reporting on the Okara farm crisis, or stopped from going to Wana during military operation against terrorists. He also talked about harassment by the intelligence agencies.
A heated question-answer session discussed the domination of the official news in the media.