Category Archives: Human Rights

To go nuclear or not is the question

Archive Edition, Defence and Disarmament, Development and Poverty, Economy, Education, Foreign Policy of Pakistan, Health, Human Rights, International Politics, Nuclear weapons, Social Issues, War and Peace

By Zubeida Mustafa

THE suspension of American aid to Pakistan has produced one positive result. It has for the first time brought into the open the nuclear debate in this country.

Given the categorical linkage Washington instituted between the flow of economic assistance to Pakistan and nuclear non-prolif eration, Islamabad never encouraged a public discussion on the atom bomb.

To use Stephen Cohen’s term, a policy of ‘designed ambiguity’ was adopted. In other words, the capacity and the will of the government to go nuclear are deliberately kept ambivalent. Continue reading To go nuclear or not is the question →

Make women’s work visible!

Archive Edition, Development and Poverty, Economy, Human Rights, Justice, Labour, Social Issues, Women

By Zubeida Mustafa

Women have traditionally been the invisible factor in national development in Pakistan as in other Third World countries. That is because the contribution they make to the economy has predominantly, been in the form of unpaid labour that has never been counted.

It is time the women’s role in development was quantified. What better time there is for it than now. The census can easily be used to probe into the gender issue.

India is doing it with the help of UNIFEM. We can emulate them. The idea should be to draw information on the unpaid work done by women in farms and family enterprises. Continue reading Make women’s work visible! →

Rethinking in the social sciences

Archive Edition, Children and Youth, Economy, Education, Human Rights, Labour, Women

By Zubeida Mustafa

One positive result of the growth of consciousness of the women’s role in society has been that some rethinking is now taking place in the social sciences.

Economics, the most male-oriented of disciplines, specially finds itself outpaced by the changes in the status of women. While previously economists never took gender into account in formulating yardsticks and definitions to measure and explain various concepts and computing statistics, they are now being forced to take note of women’s contribution to economic and social activity. Continue reading Rethinking in the social sciences →

I was determined to live — and live normally

Archive Edition, Health, Human Rights, Organ Trade and Donation, Organ Transplant, SIUT, Social Issues, Women

By Zubeida Mustafa

Dr Rukhsana Parveen is a Senior House Officer in the Nawabshah Civil Hospital. Her job in the 73- bed medical ward is considerably demanding entailing as it does six hours of morning duty every day and four emergency duties a week — twice in the afternoon and twice at night.

For 27-year-old Rukhsana, her work as a physician is most satisfying. She speaks enthusiastically about her profession, narrating animatedly her experiences with her patients. She is proud of her achievements: in the last few weeks she has cured six patients suffering, from the deadly disease Hepatitis-B. Continue reading I was determined to live — and live normally →

Helpful donors come to the rescue

Archive Edition, Health, Human Rights, Organ Trade and Donation, Organ Transplant, SIUT, Social Issues

By Zubeida Mustafa

When ‘ the first kidney transplant operation was performed at the Civil Hospital, Karachi, on November 20, 1985, few expected it to be more than a rare surgical feat accomplished once in a blue moon. After all, the obstacles to be surmounted were several, the most significant being financial constraints. Could a hospital in the public sector with a limited budget, sustain a programme which cost Rs 140,000 to provide postoperative care and drugs to one patient for one year?

40-10-03-1989-AThere were other limiting factors as well. Even though the availability of surgical skill could be taken for granted, without an infrastructure of specialised nursing, extensive dialysis services and laboratory facilities, kidney transplant surgery could not be made routine. At that time arrangements did not even exist in the country for tissue matching, the first prerequisite for a transplant operation, and blood samples had to be sent abroad for this purpose.

Then there was the question of social acceptance of an idea that was quite radical for a society where life and death have a religious sanctity about them and are not. to be tampered with. Would donors be readily available and how would the people react to the concept of cadaveric donation, which has to be the ultimate endeavour of a transplant programme. Continue reading Helpful donors come to the rescue →