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Call
to contribute Out
in the open Beefed
up The
relevant forum The
hall and the pall
thalassameia Test for
blood disorder before marriage can save a couple from worries later By
Muhammad Imran
Thalassameia
is an inherited blood disorder in which there is an abnormality in one or
more globin genes. Thalassameia is caused by variant or missing genes that
affect how the body makes haemoglobin. Haemoglobin is the protein in red
blood cells that carries oxygen. People with thalassameia make less
haemoglobin and fewer circulating red blood cells than normal, which results
in mild or severe anaemia. In Pakistan, every year 4500 thalassameia patients
are added to the previous number. Thalassameia
patients become anaemic between the ages of three to eighteen months. They
become pale and have sleep and eating disorders. Thalassameia patients can
end up living miserable life and the disease can prove fatal. Dr. Ali
Akbar, an MBBS, who is working with Fatimid Foundation, says if parents
observe the above mentioned signs in your child, they must get a CPC
(complete blood count) done on him, in which HB (haemoglobin), MVC (mean
corpuscular volume), and electrophoresis are important. "Thalassameia is
divided into three groups in which thalassameia major is the most
dangerous," he says. "Thalassameia minor patients do not need to go
through blood transfusion in their life. But in case a minor patient marries
another, there are 25 per cent chances of their children being thalassameia
major and 50 per cent chances they will be thalasseamia minor . "People
should go for a CPC before marriage. A couple of minor carrier must not
marry. If one is carrier of minor then the child could be a minor carrier,
not a major one. If that is not done, post-marriage they must go for 'chorionic
villi' sampling test between the tenth and twelfth week of every pregnancy.
The test must be conducted by an expert doctor. If the syringe is not
injected properly to take the sample it can have serious effects on the
child. We have taken fatwa from religious scholars on abortion. If major
thalassameia is identified then parents must go for abortion."
A major
thalassameia patient in general needs blood transfusion every fifteen to
twenty days. Due to multiple blood transfusions the body is overburdened with
iron which needs to be removed. Otherwise the patient faces the danger of a
heart attack, spleen or liver failure. Chelation — removal of excess iron
from the body — is done through two methods: Oral chelation in which
tablets and capsules are given to the patient; and second through injection,
which is too costly. The
second treatment is the transplantation of bone marrow. Bone marrow
transplantation takes Rs 1.6 to Rs 1.8 million in Pakistan, which is too
costly. The success ratio is 80 per cent, say experts. After a successful
transplantation, the patient no more requires blood transfusions. Several
centres for thalassameia patients are working in Lahore. Fatimid Foundation
has a centre in Lahore as well as in Karachi, Peshawar and Multan.
Thalassameia Society of Pakistan, Sundas Foundation, Children Hospital
Lahore, Punjab blood transfusion in Mental Hospital and Hilal-e-Ahmar are
working for thalasseamia patients in Lahore. Thalassameia
patients can survive as long as proper blood transfusion and proper iron
chelation is done. It must be below 1000ng/dl.The patient must have tests as
per advice of the doctors. "We
take blood after testing the donor for hepatitis A; B, C and HIV" says
Dr Ali Akbar. "We treat all patients for free. The largest blood
donations come from colleges, universities and factory workers." The
number of thalassameia patients is increasing rapidly due to lack of
awareness among people. The NGOs and other private foundations which are
working for funding to thalasseamia centres, cut off 50 per cent funding this
year due to the earthquake in October. The
administrator of Fatimid Foundation, Dr Anwar Iqbal says, people can save
lives by donating funds and blood. He says the government must establish bone
marrow transplantation centres in Punjab. Dr Sarah
Iqbal, in charge of Ganga Ram thalassameia centre, says "we face problem
in getting blood in the month of Ramzan and colleges are closed for summer
vacations." Prof.
Jawairia Mannan of Ganga Ram Hospital says "we often have difficulty in
arranging blood for a patient who has negative blood group."
"Everybody must donate blood after four month without any fear to save
these angels," she says in
reference to the 10,000 children who are suffering from thalassameia in
Lahore. Dr
Jawairia says cousin's marriage is the biggest cause _ 70 per cent to 80 per
cent cases — of this disease. "We hold awareness workshops which
people must attend," she says. Dr Samdani of Children Hospital says a bone marrow transplantation centre will soon be established in the hospital. Work has already started on it. Hundreds of children will get bone marrow transplantation at this centre and it will also facilitate in diagnosing thalassameia infected children.
How
user-friendly are the stylish bus stops that we see around? By Ather
Naqvi
This is
not the only bus stop in the city without a shade. Many roads in Lahore
including Multan road, Egerton road, Davis road, Fatima Jinnah road, Queen's
road, to name a few, do not have proper bus stops. The commuters complain of
lack of facilities at a bus stop. "We have extreme weather. Whether it's
summer or winter, temperatures are high especially in the afternoons. We must
have bus stops that are designed keeping our weather conditions in
view," says Tanvir Bukhari who regularly commutes on public transport. "While
we don't have proper bus stops, the few covered ones that we have are in a
very bad shape," says Iman Ahmed, another commuter. "In my view the
district government should build bus stops with shade that are not totally
covered. They should be kept usable by getting rid of addicts and vagabonds
that occupy these bus stops. We should have water coolers at bus stops so
that people don't have to drink substandard soft drinks available at many bus
stops." So what
makes an ideal bus stop? Architect Amjad Mukhtar lists certain factors that
need to be kept in view while designing a bus stop. "A bus stop needs to
be designed in such a way that protects a person from sun and rain."
Sardar
Muhammad Humayun Khan, joint secretary Road Users Association of Pakistan,
Punjab chapter, says the situation can be improved partly by making proper
bus stops and partly by increasing the number of buses on various routes in
the city. "Ideally a bus on a route should follow another after duration
of three to four minutes. What happens is that there are routes which have
ten minutes to half-an-hour duration between two buses on the same route.
This makes the situation worse for a commuter who has to stand and wait at a
shadeless bus stop." While
the responsibility of building and maintaining bus stops was earlier taken
care of by government departments like Town Engineering and Planning Agency (TEPA),
it has now shifted to the district government after the promulgation of
devolution plan. "Bus stops are not our responsibility now. It's the job
of the district government which has the resources to make new bus stops or
repair old ones," informs Asrar Saeed, deputy director, engineering TEPA. Maintaining
bus stops does not seem to be on the priority list of the district
government. District government officials claim they are doing all they can
to maintain the bus stops in the available resources. "I am writing to
the district government officials such as the EDO revenue to take action in
this regard. We are also planning to ensure some facilities at the bus stops
such as electric water coolers etc," says Rafique Jatoi, District
Officer Public Facility.
As long as
importers keep supplying Indian meat only to bulk buyers, there would be no
relief to local consumers By Ahsan
Zia
A random
survey suggests that local beef with bone is being sold at the rate of Rs
120-150 per kilogram, while boneless Indian meat is being sold at Rs 150-160.
One reason the prices have remained unaffected in the local market may be
that up until now, except for some shops of meat merchants in Lahore, Indian
meat is being supplied directly to hotels and caterers only. Thus bringing no
relief to local consumers. In a bid
to address the expected concerns among the Pakistani consumers, Indian
government claims to have set up a board authorised by Muslims to certify
that the meat is halal (in accordance with the Islamic tenets) before being
exported to Pakistan. It was
in March this year that the government first allowed duty and tax-free import
of essential commodities, including red meat from the neighbouring country.
Since then meat import from India has crossed the 28,000 tonnes mark. Now that
the government is planning to establish special storage-cum-selling outlets
of Indian red meat in Lahore, some of the butchers term the Indian meat
unhygienic and substandard. They are of the view that local red meat,
especially beef, is of much better quality than Indian meat. Since
the meat is unavailable to the people directly, the government's claims that
Indian meat might help reduce the prices of the commodity in Pakistan are
doubtful. Shaukat,
a butcher, who runs a meat shop in Gowalmandi area, says imported meat will
never be able to attract general consumers as they like and prefer to eat
fresh meat rather than frozen meat. "I am sure people will come to know
and see the difference themselves as soon as the first consignment of frozen
Indian meat reaches the proposed government outlets." He says nobody can
check whether it is halal or not. It is
also believed that that shortage of red meat in the local market is
artificial and is all due to influential merchants involved in smuggling
local meat in bulk to Afghanistan, Iran and UAE, where it's rather expensive.
"Had
the government put an effective check on smuggling of red meat to these
countries, there would have been no need to import meat from India,"
says Ahsaan alias Kaloo, Chief Executive Ahsaan Livestock and Meat Company.
He claims at least 2,000 to 2500 animals per day are being smuggled or
exported to Afghanistan and UAE these days, causing a massive shortfall of
animals and a price hike in the local markets. He says
the decision of the Economic Co-ordination Committee (ECC) of the cabinet to
remove livestock from the negative list under the Afghan Transit Trade
Agreement (ATT) a couple of years back has further aggravated the situation. Ahsaan
goes on to say that meat export in the last fiscal year stood at Rs 53
billion, mainly to the United Arab Emirates, which created a shortage in the
domestic market. "So
far we have imported 100 tonnes of meat from India," says Shaukat Khan,
one of the importers engaged in meat trade with India nowadays. "The
trade will hopefully increase in the days to come as some other importers
enter the arena making fresh deals with Indian exporters." He goes
on to say that some 8,000 cows and 25,000 goats are being slaughtered every
day across the country and countrymen consume around 250,000 kilograms of
goat meat and 800,000 kilograms of beef daily. "On
average Lahore-based importers are importing approximately 400 tonnes of meat
per month," Shaukat says. "The trade is beneficial to both traders
and consumers. We are getting good quality as Indians eat less meat than
Pakistanis. Traders import Indian red meat at Rs 75 per kg, with an
additional Rs 30 incurred by the time it reaches a middleman and a further Rs
25 when the stock arrives at the butcher's shop." The
importers are selling Indian meat both within the city and to other parts of
the country, especially cities of NWFP and Balochistan where beef consumption
is much higher. As for the quality of imported meat, Shaukat says, the meat
is of course halal and tastes better. He says
the importers have been supplying this meat mainly to hotels and caterers who
are bulk buyers. These hotels and big caterers have the required storage
capacity. "The Indian meat has not yet reached the general consumers and
shops continue to get meat by local suppliers." Importers
think the more the private sector plays its role in enhancing trade with
India the more it will be helpful in reducing prices of red meat at retail
level. Adil
Umar, another importer, says imports from India are likely to touch 50
containers a month, for we are short of supplies. "At current retail
prices for beef, the 50 container loads could sell for Rs. 175 million." Dr.
Nadeem Gillani, a city government officer, says the city administration is
working on short term, medium term and long term strategy to overcome price
hike, especially of these commodities. "Our ultimate goal is to
strengthen growth of livestock and supply of red meat so as to meet domestic
demand." "We
have decided on building specific outlets-cum-storage centres for sale of
Indian meat because we think if the Indian meat is sold directly to consumers
the current market price would come down by Rs 30 per kilogram," he
concludes.
The Punjab
government provides a sector wise review of its performance By
Shahzada Irfan Ahmed
The
forum attended by representatives of the World Bank, Asian Development Bank,
the UK's Department for International Development, civil servants,
representatives of NGOs and other sectors of the society was the third of its
kind. Prior to it, two PDFs were held in 2003 and 2005 respectively. The
forum started with the inaugural speech of Punjab CM Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi
who boasted of the government's success in providing best health and
education services to the people. He said that the government was providing
free education and books throughout the province and at the same time
focusing on training teachers and reviving school councils. He claimed that
the 20 per cent increase in the enrolment of female students across Punjab
was a consequence of the government's educational reforms.
What the
CM said in general was discussed at length over the two-day event. The
general arrangement was that the event's proceedings were divided into
different sessions — Punjab's Development Framework, Punjab's Economic
Performance: An Overview, Governance and Poverty Reduction Reforms in Punjab,
Private Sector Development in Punjab: Opportunities & Challenges and
Pro-Poor Investments in Education & Health Sectors. Every session started
with presentations given by the concerned government functionaries, followed
by a discussion/question and answer session and ending with concluding
remarks from the chair. What was worth appreciating was that the participants
had full liberty to intervene where they thought the government was trying to
hide or cover up some important information. This
spirit was seen at the highest in a special session arranged towards the end.
This session brought civil society representatives like Seema Aziz of CARE,
Roshaneh Zafar of KASHF, Zafar Iqbal Qureshi of School of Management, F.C.
College, Dr. Faisal Bari of Mehboob ul Haq Human Development Centre,
Islamabad and Dr. Amjad Saqib of Akhuwat face to face with the Punjab
government. What followed was a critical debate among these civil society
representatives and government functionaries on various aspects of the
reforms agenda followed by the latter. Giving
his input, Peter Fedon, Country Director, ADB Resident Mission, Pakistan
urged that the involvement of private sector was key to economic growth and
development in the province as demonstrated by the construction of the first
private sector sponsored airport in Sialkot and the overwhelming response to
the Sundar Industrial Estate Project. Besides, he said that it's the private
sector that is driving economic activity and creating new jobs in the
province. He also asked the Punjab government to accelerate the pace of
taxation reform particularly with respect to agricultural tax and urban
immovable property tax and give timely approval to proposals for improved
procurement and private sector development. About
the purpose of holding the forum, Planning and Development Board Chairman
Salman Ghani tells The News on Sunday that the forum provides the experts
attending the event to give suggestions that can form important foundations
for budgeting in the province. He goes on to say that the province has so far
returned $200 million in debt, and its savings are being spent on the welfare
of the people. "The aim, apart from record keeping, is also to share
these with a wider audience in Pakistan as well as with the key government
departments to invite them to track progress and, where required, chart
course corrections," he says. The
Chairman P&D says that with the PDF institution maturing fast into a
regular dialogue, "we welcome valuable feedback and would continue to
strive towards achieving the challenging goals that we have set for
ourselves."
Lahore
characters By Asha'ar
Rehman Since
life requires a certain kind of aloofness from the living, there are weeks
when one has nothing to write home about. But this week has been an
exception. There is not one but two topics that deserve urgent attention and
unless something is done quickly to remedy the situation, it will most
definitely have extremely grave repercussions for our future. The
first news is about the conditions inside the examination centres in Lahore.
We have been told that in an extremely hot May, the youngsters have been
forced to take their test in halls that have no electricity. Some have been
so incensed by the joint blow delivered by the weather and the dreaded paper
setters that they have peeled off their shirts to grapple with the challenge
at hand. Our
concern is not of the moralistic but of practical kind, and the morals we
leave to the anti-nude brigade that has kept us all amused with their
diatribes in the warmest of weathers. The question that perturbs the mind of
the less prudish is as to how do the young students 'manage it' without their
shirts on? As the
joke once went around, a student sitting in the matriculation exam was asked
after a paper how many 'questions did he attempt'. He said that he could only
answer half of the mandatory number of questions because the weather only
allowed him to put on a half-sleeve shirt. Likewise the 'Sando' who went into
the exercise sleeveless was the envy of those around him not because of the
sinewy parts that he flaunted. Rather, he created an impression that he knew
all the answers and therefore didn't need any extra frills to carry him
through. Unless
some new techniques unknown to the old fashioned are in vogue, the clothing
he has on, is the best friend of an ambitious student hooked on ready
references. Invariably the shirt would harbour in its secret spaces a short
refresher course on what the student had been through and what he had missed
out on in class. These memories are a convincing proof of the examiners'
involvement in the power shutdown that threatens to turn the examination
centres into akharas full of sweaty pehelwans. It looks rather messy, but
could well turn out to be the most effective measure of ridding our exam
system of the cheaters. But then what will happen to our future if these kids
don't get through? The
second news item that casts a dark shadow over our future comes courtesy our
kind now cruel now eastern neighbour. Just when we were warming up to the
prospects of digging our teeth into the Hindustani flesh sent our way to
overcome the overcharging butchers of Lahore, it has emerged that the pall of
gloom hanging over our beloved city may be the handy work of who else but the
Indians. Someone
somewhere this side of Wagha thinks that the smoky sheet spread over Lahore
may have been formed by emissions on the Indian side. The supposition begs
research and the origins of the gloom are yet to be established. But perhaps
the basic premise is that since a Lahore which looks so disapprovingly at
two-stroke rickshaws is itself so incapable of polluting the environment, the
responsibility could lie with the cunning Indians who never let go of any
opportunity to smear us Pakistanis. But they should realise that we are not
discussing water this time round over whose course India has control. This is
about air. The next time the wind blows in the direction of Amritsar, I am
going to park my car near Wagha and let the engine run for a few hours. At Rs
56 per litre of petrol it is going to cost me, but it is going to serve the
Sikhs right.
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The
International Thalassameia Day was observed on May 8 with focus on creating
awareness and ensuring thalassameia carrier tests on prospective marriage
partners. 
In
the sweltering May afternoon, people stand at a bus stop near Shimla Pahari.
They include school children as well as an old lady. In the absence of a
shade, they must stand in the open. Others who are not ready to risk a
sunstroke have opted to stand on the other side of the road under a tree.
While they have managed to escape the merciless sun, they have to show their
skills of hurriedly crossing the busy road as soon as the bus arrives.
"We
could have expensive bus stops that have internet cafes. But it all depends
on how much a government can spend. The bus stops that we have today look
temporary. A lot more appears to have gone into making them look stylish than
making them user-friendly. I personally have no objection to bus stops being
sponsored. But that should not be done at the cost of durability and
comfort," he says. "Architects face this difficulty that there is
no one place where the bus would stop. Buses should stand in a queue and in
front of the bus stop so that people don't have to stand in the open to catch
them."
The
import of frozen red meat, including beef from India, has not had any
significant impact on the soaring prices of domestic meat or livestock. 
In
the first week of May, Lahore was host to a mega event organised by the
Punjab government. This event called Punjab Development Forum (PDF) 2006 was
held to share information on the progress of Punjab government's economic and
governance reforms agenda with the province's international partners, donors
and civil society representatives. In fact, the forum was a means to showcase
the government's ongoing policies and strategies and gather feedback from the
participants. The organisers had made it clear that all the suggestions
elicited during the event on the reforms agenda would later on be
incorporated in provincial policies.
The
other major goals of the government, according to the CM, were reconstruction
of irrigation system at the cost of billions of rupees, minimisation of
environmental pollution and introduction of an environment-friendly transport
in the province. He also apprised the participants that the government was
sincerely trying to further minimise the cost of doing business in the
province and lowering the employment rate in the province. In short, he gave
an overview of all that the government was doing to reform various sectors
with the help of its international development partners. 