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I.A REHMAN
At the top of the lament is regret and anger at having ignored the urgency of
developing a reasonable health cover for the people, at curtailing the health
services the colonial rulers had developed, and at making access to medical care
dependent on the size of one’s pocket. This is so despite public protests against
the non-inclusion of health in the list of fundamental rights and the mention of
‘medical relief’ in the Principles of Policy only with reference to “such citizens as
are unable to earn their livelihood on account of infirmity, sickness or
unemployment”. (Article 38 (d)). And despite growing demands, year after year
and decade after decade, for raising the allocation for health from less than one
per cent.
Early this year, the National Commission for Human Rights issued a study that
called for a recognition of the people’s access to medical care as a right. Did the
custodians of power find time to even look at it? Is there any guarantee that once
the pandemic threat is over the creation of a health cover, at least for the largest
number of people possible, will be taken up in earnest? The excuse that the state
lacks resources is not wholly valid because the costs can be shared with the
people through compulsory health insurance and social security schemes.
Further, in the eyes of the faithful, the state is not fulfilling its duties assigned to
it on behalf of the delegates, ie the people. The people are represented by
parliament and not by ministers especially when they act without parliament’s
specific authorisation. But where is parliament? Those who claim to follow
religious injunctions do not accept any temporal authority whose waywardness is
pointed out daily by professional conscience keepers.
Strangely enough, some matters that should be regretted are apparently being
glossed over. A good number of doctors, nurses and paramedics have been
infected by the virus obviously because they were not given proper personal
protective equipment. No sign of regret anywhere. And certainly no sign of regret
at the filthy expletives ministers are hurling at each other and the possible
crucifixion of Dr Zafar Mirza!
A major cause of regret and embarrassment is the unacceptable conduct of a
fairly large number of people. They include ‘agents’ who have been taking a cut
from the recipients of Ehsaas cash grants, those who are overcharging helpless
patients at hospitals, and those who are selling food packets received or stolen by
them.
The failure of the state to reconstruct the social order to suit democratic
aspirations of the people and the pretences of the elite and create a nation of
citizens with equal rights and entitlements causes the greatest regret in times of
trial such as the present one.
Tailpiece: The slender hope of the government’s coming to the aid of the tottering
Fourth Estate seems to have been dashed by Shahbaz Sharif’s rash decision to
plead its cause. How can a proud and self-righteous authority listen to an
opposition leader it has been demonising day in and day out? Impossible.