Category Archives: Administration

No standards set

Administration, Health, New, Social Issues

By Zubeida Mustafa

THE health sector should be of concern to all — even to those who go to the best private medical practitioners. Disease transcends borders, and strikes the rich and poor alike, though the latter are more vulnerable. Besides, health issues affect the country’s international status as was demonstrated by the polio emergency that led to the imposition of new conditions on Pakistanis embarking on foreign travel.

Hence should not the concerned citizens be involved in what can be termed the regulation of the medical system as they are reaching out in the education sector? Not just altruism or civic responsibility but also narrow self-interest should prompt the intelligentsia to take more interest in the healthcare delivery system. Continue reading No standards set →

It’s time for a metropolitan police force

Administration, Archive Edition, Law & Order

By Zubeida Mustafa

Today, crime is a game in which the police are better than the criminal. Only the MPF can control this situation.

The public’s perception of the police in Pakistan cannot be better illustrated than from this story doing the rounds a few years ago.

At an international convention of police officers, the representatives of some countries were bragging about their expertise. The head of the Scotland Yard said: “When a crime is committed, my men take barely a month to solve it and nab the criminal.” The FBI chief retorted, “Really. We are much quicker. It takes us only a fortnight.” The Soviet KGB head piped in, “Oh that is nothing. For us a week is enough.” At this point, the Pakistan delegate had the last word, “By the grace of Allah, we have no problems at all. We know about the crime even before it is committed!”

This might be only an anecdote spiced up with exaggeration. But it does speak of the phenomenon described at the criminalization of the police in Pakistan. Who doesn’t have a shocking tale to narrate about his/her experience with the custodians of the law? Continue reading It’s time for a metropolitan police force →

A scholar and a gentleman

Administration, Archive Edition, Constitution, History, Information, International Politics, Islamisation, Media, Notable Personalities

By Zubeida Mustafa

Has Pakistan been reduced to such a hopeless state that even the most creative and prolific of intellectuals have run out of ideas on how the country can be redeemed? Hopefully not. But a meeting with Professor Khalid Bin Sayeed provided no reassuring answers. It left me wondering how Pakistan will be saved from certain disaster and who will play the role of the savior. Continue reading A scholar and a gentleman →

Who is the real criminal?

Administration, Archive Edition, Balochistan, Justice, Law & Order, Social Issues

cplcBy Zubeida Mustafa

In August 1994, my car, an old Suzuki, was snatched at gun point. It was recovered the next day by the police after an encounter they claimed. This experience of my car being taken away by force and then the tedious process of obtaining it back from the custodians of the law was a traumatic one. Had the CPLC and the Deputy Commissioner (South) not intervened I might have remained deprived of my car.

The situation is no better today for the unfortunate ones who fall victim to car robbers. And there are still far too many of them. Athough the statistics released by the CPLC, which has an excellent computerise records system, show wide fluctuations in the incidence of this brand of crime. Continue reading Who is the real criminal? →

A new look at old freedom movement myths

Administration, Archive Edition, Constitution, Development and Poverty, Economy, Education, History, Notable Personalities, Politics

Hamza-Alavi-17-05-1996-1

By Zubeida Mustafa
Professor Hamza Alavi has recently been in town. The suave, soft-spoken scholar, who says he developed a social conscience and became a socialist even before he had ever heard the word, has lived abroad for over three decades in pursuit of his academic career. Now he plans returning permanently to the city of his birth. That is, if he does not change his mind at the eleventh hour as he has done before. Continue reading A new look at old freedom movement myths →