Killer NGOs
By Fauzia Qureshi

THE living standard of the poor in Pakistan has steadily declined over the years. This was confirmed by the UNDP’s human development report for the year 2004.

Infact, the report places Pakistan among the world’s ten countries with lowest level of development. Almost all the infectious disease control programmes aided by WHO (World Health Organisation) like polio, malaria and tuberculosis have failed to deliver. Why? Pakistan ranks eight in child mortality. Why? There are 80,000 asthma patients alone in just Islamabad and the number seems to be increasing every year. What is the Government doing to provide quality health? What is the role of NGO’s? Can an ordinary citizen afford the basic medicines provided by the Multi National Companies?

It is very unfortunate that in Pakistan infectious diseases remain insurmountable. Maternal mortality rate ranges between 300 and 700 per 100,000 live births. The infant mortality rate has reached 82 per 1,000 live birth, which is the second highest rate in South Asia. The growth of more than 50 per cent of Pakistani children is mentally or physically stunted. What is the Government doing about these alarming figures?

Why do heart diseases eliminate the most productive segment of our population in its prime? Why are epidemics of tuberculosis, malaria and hepatitis escalating? If the Government has failed to check infectious diseases like malaria, hepatitis, and tuberculosis then how can effective steps be taken to check spread of Aids and HIV?

A recent study has shown that more than 12 million people are infected with hepatitis C, which means eight to ten per cent of our total population. Around five million Pakistanis are carriers of hepatitis B. These numbers may still not be correct as there must be innumerable people in the rural areas who never get to see the light of the urban areas let alone know what hit them.

Not surprisingly, there are more than 100,000 patients of Aids. Which again, isn’t the correct figure as many never see the hospital and if they do, they run away as soon as they are detected of the ‘killer’ disease. Many of the patients who become aware of the disaster never seem to mention it to their near and dear ones.

With the result that the silent killer seems to be spreading like fire. About 250,000 new cases of tuberculosis are found every year in Pakistan and more than 60,000 die annually. What a shame that one mother dies after every twenty minutes in Pakistan. Seventy per cent of all pregnant women have iron deficiency, anaemia and twenty-five per cent of all births (1.2 million) weigh less than 2.5 kilograms at birth. The number of children under the age of five who die every year amount to 565,000.

For every 1,000 children born in Pakistan, 100 children never live to see their fifth birthday. About eighty children die in the first year of life, forty-five die in the first month of life, while thirty die within the first week of life. Recently, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has announced an enhancement of budgetary allocations in the health sector by 40 per cent. Also, Rs 2.5 billion for hepatitis control programme would soon be approved as attention was being given to poverty alleviation, immunization, polio control, tuberculosis, disease prevention and HIV/Aids. What needs to be asked is are these steps sufficient to improve the health sector?

If they are, then why is the living standard of an ordinary Pakistani declining every year? Some of the reasons cited for failure of WHO infectious disease control programmes are scarcity of skilled manpower, technical hindrances in supplying medicines, absence of vigilance on the use of funds and difficulty in accessibility to far-flung areas. The Government-run hospitals are overstretched and their working standard is getting worse. The basic health units and rural health centres are neglected which are to provide primary healthcare. There is then an imbalance in doctor-patient ratio.

Doctors show reluctance to serve in rural and remote areas. Majority of the people suffer from polluted water and contaminated food. Islamabad, the Capital lacks adequate system for waste management with the result that air is being polluted. The Capital Development Authority(CDA), is announcing new residential and commercial sectors with each passing day without taking into consideration whether they will be able to meet water requirements or not.

Every year asthma patients are on the rise especially in Islamabad. It has also been learnt that people who use steroid inhalers, a common treatment for asthma, may be increasing their odds of developing cataracts, a potentially serious eye problem. The new findings are reported in the British Journal of Ophthalmology. Any exposure to inhaled steroids raised the risk of cataract by 58%, lead author Dr Liam Smeeth, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in London, and colleges note. When the Government is asked to cut down trees of Paper Mulberry which are the basic cause of rising asthma cases in the capital, the NGO’s hop in to talk about environmental pollution.

The fact is that the NGO’s serve the purpose of promoting, protecting and perpetuating the geo-strategic and economic interests of the funding governments. The aid giving countries of the West in order to keep the Third World and developing countries under their thumb have been using the NGO’s as a façade. In reality the interests of the NGO’s and the funding governments are one and the same.

The NGO’s never raise issues in the interests of the targeted State unless and until it suits the funding government. The Western countries are more concerned about implementation of their agenda than to safeguard the interests of the local population. The so-called world’s human rights organizations in their reports highlight human rights abuses in Third World countries.

Have they ever suggested any practical measures? Have they ever compelled their governments to adopt policies beneficial to the affected State? Have they ever pointed out the root causes of rights violation? Did any NGO talk about the recent incidence in Gaza where the Palestinian farmers’ sheep died due to the mixing of a toxic substance in the soil by the Israelis? Never. Why isn’t anything done about the US abuse of human rights at Guantanamo Bay? It is because the champions of democracy and human rights are more concerned about their economic interests than justice being done and the NGO’s are busy paving the way for them.

The truth is that the Pakistan government has failed to eliminate basic diseases like polio, malaria and tuberculosis. Polio cases are still found in our country in spite of multiple campaigns. Ironically, we have been running a tuberculosis program for the last one-and-a-half decade without achieving any significant outcome.

What to talk about the rise of asthma, hepatitis and Aids? The NGO’s are there just to further the interest of the aid giving country. Why should an ordinary citizen be deprived of the basic health medicine cause of the exuberant price? All those NGO’s which operate against Pakistans national interest must be tried and punished for promoting their own interests and that of the respective governments at the cost of our citizens.●

© 2005 Fauzia Qureshi