Monthly Archives: December 2009

How Pakistan survives?

Development and Poverty, Social Issues

By Zubeida Mustafa
Source: Dawn

WHAT keeps Pakistan afloat? Despite its seemingly precarious political existence and the gloom and doom spread by the highly politicised media, as well as the horrendous bomb blasts, the country manages to survive? For the answer switch off your television and step out to see for yourself how people cope in a country that does not provide its citizens even their basic needs. The immense reserves of resilience the people have is striking.
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Doctors with a conscience

Health, Social Issues

By Zubeida Mustafa
Source: Dawn

THERE was a time when the physician was like god to his patient. His word was gospel truth not to be flouted. No longer so. It is partly the trust deficit between them that has eroded their relationship. At the root is the commercialisation of the medical profession. Once monetary considerations determine a doctor’s decisions, the results can be disastrous. Instances of deaths due to medical negligence are legion.
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Untold story of abortion

Health, Women

By Zubeida Mustafa
Source: Dawn

ACCORDING to the Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey 2006-07, the country`s population growth rate has fallen to 1.9 per cent from a record high of 3.7 per cent per year in the 1960s.

The survey also gives the total fertility rate (the average number of children a woman would have if she went through her entire reproductive period, 15-49 years) as 4.1 which has been reduced considerably from 5.4 in 1990.
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