Global Economic and Political Analysis from GG NET
Ways of neoliberalismFrontlineNeoliberalism is commonly preceived as referring only to the realm of the economy. But the pursuit of neoliberal measures in the realm of the economy also requires an appropriate restructuring of the polity.
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Japanese investment bank Nomura has said, India’s external sector is in a precarious state after data earlier in the day showed a trade deficit of $19.3 billion in November, underpinning the vulnerability of the rupee.
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Hong Kong’s new poverty line is just the first stepSouth China Morning PostThe move recognises that poverty is an issue: the soaring property prices, rising inflation, the narrow range of jobs available and the increasing impossibility of climbing…
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Global News Blog / IPS
Ashfaq Yusufzai
PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Sep 26 (IPS) – Over thirty thousand children in the remote Tirah area of the Khyber Agency, part of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) in Northern Pakistan, have waited four years for protection from polio, a viral disease that is sometimes referred to as ‘infantile paralysis’ due to its crippling effects on children.A massive government and civil society effort through the month of September finally began to reverse the trend that had kept the children of Tirah, along with hundreds of thousands in the greater FATA area, under the shadow of polio.
Up until this year, children in all seven FATA agencies have been the worst victims of the Taliban’s ban on the oral polio vaccination (OPV), which the organisation claims was a ploy by the United States to render the recipients impotent and infertile, thus strangling the growth of the Muslim population.
On Jun. 20 the outlawed Tehreek Taliban Pakistan (TTP) banned vaccinations in North Waziristan, putting 161,000 at risk of contracting the preventable childhood disease.
A week later, the TTP in the adjacent South Waziristan province imposed a ban on numerous vaccinations that rendered 157,000 children vulnerable to eight preventable childhood ailments – polio, measles, diphtheria, hepatitis, meningitis, pertussis, influenza and pneumonia.
“Anyone found involved in vaccination-related activities was dealt with sternly,” TTP Spokesman Ihsanullah Ihsan said a statement, adding that the responsibility rested with those who advocated for any kind of vaccination.
Not even professional health workers were spared if they were found to be in violation of the ban.
“Due to the Taliban’s barbarism, such as beheading soldiers and local residents on charge of spying, stoning alleged ‘sinners’ (such as adulterers) to death and targeted assassinations, the Taliban have spread their message about the vaccinations loud and clear,” explained FATA Director of Health, Dr Fawad Khan.
Khan said that more than 6000 FATA health workers had been directed to stay away from vaccine-related work.
Earlier this month officials mounted an offensive against the ban. The government enlisted a local NGO, the National Research and Development Foundation, and religious scholars to hold talks with the outlawed jihadist outfit Ansar ul Islam (AI) to negotiate the terms of a vaccination programme.
The NGO began facilitating the vaccination on Sept. 4, an upbeat Dr. Aftab Akbar Durrani, social sector secretary of the FATA, told IPS.
He added that AI’s cooperation had enabled 95 percent of the children in the Tirah area to receive the vaccination.
“It is a major breakthrough, as many (previous) efforts to vaccinate children in the Taliban-controlled areas had failed,” officials told the English-language Dawn newspaper, crediting the organisation with protecting 32,641 children from polio.
Officials added that 11,626 children also received the vaccine against measles, while another 3,889 newborns and month-old infants were vaccinated against five other ailments between Sept. 4 and 6.
“Ansar ul Islam and religious leaders attached to the group understand that the poliovirus can cause lifelong disability so they are ready to support the initiative,” according to officials. Only four families refused to vaccinate their children, but efforts are currently underway to convince them otherwise.
“Ansar ul Islam played a vital role in countering community refusals,” officials told IPS
Fifty percent of children In Bara, a town in Khyber Agency, had not received the oral polio vaccine (OPV) since October 2009, owing to an ongoing operation against militants in the area.
Officials developed a new strategy to reach the inaccessible children in FATA, which included working in “collaboration with scouts (who) carried out door-to-door visit with the help of local vaccinators”.
Durrani told Dawn that aggressive efforts were underway to ensure immunisation of all 900,000 target children in FATA.
“We are administering OPV to the displaced children of Waziristan in the adjacent districts of Bannu, Tank and Dera Ismail Khan where they live in rented houses or with their relatives,” he said.
He said that more than 25,000 displaced children from Orakzai Agency had been vaccinated in the nearby Hangu district, while 50,000 children In Jalozai had also received the OPV.
“Displacement has been proving a blessing in disguise for the displaced children, who are getting protection against eight vaccine-preventable ailments through immunisation,” Durrani said.
A three-part campaign throughout September saw the immunisation of 600,000 children in FATA while 300,000 were still inaccessible.
All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2012.
This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.
Global News Blog / IPS
Zofeen Ebrahim
KARACHI, Sep 24 (IPS) – The cost of doing business in Pakistan’s southern port city of Karachi is steep. Surviving the climate of impunity now requires more than bags of protection money – it also calls for a stoutness of heart.“Kidnapping for ransom and extortion have become the norm here, not an exception,” a 50-year-old factory owner in Karachi told IPS. He considers himself lucky that he pays a “protection” bribe of 50,000 rupees (528 dollars) every month when others around him are forced to pay much more.
The extortionists, locally called the ‘bhatta mafia’, are often young men between 18 and 30 years old, wielding state of the art ammunition. They have the support of four major political parties – the ruling Pakistan People’s Party, the Awami National Party, the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) and the Haqiqi.
Recently, the Taliban have also been demanding a slice of the Karachi extortion pie.
The bhatta epidemic started about three years ago, according to Anjum Nisar, former president of the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industries.
Nisar told IPS that the problem was initially concentrated in a few of Karachi’s industrialised zones like Korangi and SITE, but has now engulfed the whole city including shopping areas and marketplaces and become “quite uncontrollable”.
Not only factory owners and big industrialists but also small shopkeepers are at the mercy of blackmailers.
There are three or four ways employed to extort money, shopkeepers located in the city’s wholesale market for automobile spare parts told IPS. The fear factor is so intense that most were even afraid to speak, let alone identify themselves on the record.
“It starts with one phone call where they demand a ridiculous amount. Then they give you information about where your kids study and their regular haunts. If you resist, you will either get shots fired on your shutters or a brand new bullet sent to you along with a note saying, “this will be used either on one of your employees or even you”,” explained one of the shopkeepers on condition of anonymity. Those gathered around nodded in silent agreement.
“Because you know these threats are real, you negotiate and come to a mutually agreed amount,” a white-haired store owner on Tariq Road, one of the most popular market places in Karachi and home to over 2,000 shops, multi-storey plazas, showrooms and offices, told IPS.
“(The bribers) have got guts, they even leave messages on your cell phone; if you go to the police to trace the number, the latter usually tell you to pay up,” he added incredulously.
“And it’s not just the police, who are under-resourced anyway; even ministers or members of parliament, many of whom are known to us on a personal level, tell us it is best to settle,” interrupted his neighbour, adding that the “extortion epidemic” is now beyond anyone’s control.
Shopkeepers at the Plaza, the biggest auto spare parts marketplace in the city, say they pay anywhere from 5,000 to 10,000 rupees (roughly 50 to 100 dollars) annually to each gang. There are over half a dozen gangs, all of whom operate under the umbrella of some political party or another.
“There are also random telephone calls ordering us to whip up anywhere between 200,000 to 500,000 rupees (2,000 to 5,000 dollars) within a few days’ notice,” a business owner at the Plaza told IPS.
Several others told IPS the mafia has devised a myriad ways to extort money.
“They kidnap you, make you call your family from your phone and ask them to arrange for a certain sum of money in two hours. These are speedy kidnappings and you are released within a few hours,” said a bearded man who appeared to be in his late fifties.
He refused to be identified, saying it was too dangerous. “These young men are very clever and may just come to me with this article asking why I dared to speak,” he explained.
“Our young men have found an easy way of making money,” added his friend, also requesting anonymity. “I’d say a few are educated, but what they earn (through this racket) is more than a fresh business graduate could earn in a month. And the kick they get out of holding a TT (semi-automatic) pistol, using filthy language and scaring the daylights out of people gives them a certain power they wallow in.”
According to Nisar, massive unemployment could be a factor. “About three million people entering the job market each year are unable to find employment,” he said.
“As a result these young job seekers turn to illegal ways of making easy money.”
National impact
Karachi, a sprawling city of 18 million, is the country’s economic hub, accounting for 95 percent of Pakistan’s foreign trade and contributing 30 percent of national industrial production.
“Pakistan is losing between 1.3 and two percent of gross domestic product (GDP) annually due to the energy crises and an ineffective law and order apparatus,” said Nisar, citing financial ministry statistics.
“A tax base of less than 9.5 percent, coupled with the highest interest rate for the private sector in the region (roughly 13 to 14 percent), has ruined the investment climate completely,” he lamented.
Now, extortionists are sapping the city’s economic potential even further. Compared to the economic performances of other countries in the region, the impact of lawlessness on Pakistan’s economy is startling.
“In 2002 Vietnam’s exports totalled two billion dollars; by 2012 that had increased to 80 billion dollars. South Korea was way behind us in 1965 and they used our economic model. Look at them now — their exports have reached 550 billion dollars. India’s exports are worth 300 billion dollars. We’re so well endowed both with natural as well as human resources and yet our exports amount to less than 24 billion dollars,” Nisar pointed out.
He said the cost of doing business in Karachi was much higher than doing it in other cities in the region. “We pay through our noses for private security for our factories and families – the 30,000 police deployed in the streets are just not enough to manage the city’s 18 million residents. In addition, the insurance rates have also gone up.”
The former president of Pakistan’s Automobile and Spare Parts Importers and Dealers Association, 53-year old Arshad Islam, has one solution on his mind: “Make Karachi weapon-free and these gun-toting young men will come to their senses.”
He also suggested the imposition of a night curfew. “This will act as a deterrent, as many lootings take place in the night,” he told IPS.
Until those measures are implemented, “we have demanded that the government give us licences to keep weapons,” Nisar said.
At a recent meeting called by the chief minister of the Sindh province, Syed Qaim Ali Shah, the inspector general of police and officials of intelligence agencies briefed local politicians and businessmen on the law and order situation and claimed they were not even equipped to trace the phone calls made by blackmailers.
But residents and victims of the wave of extortion are not convinced.
“I cannot believe the government machinery cannot deal with this plague, which is going on right under their noses. If our intelligence agencies can dig up and hand over hard-core militants, surely these criminals, who are very visible, can be easily caught?” a shopkeeper on Tariq Road exclaimed.
All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2012.
This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.
