09-10-2020

FrIdAy, oCToBer 9, 2020
4
The cost of confrontation
Acting Editor & Publisher : Jobaer Alam
e-mail: editor@thebangladeshtoday.com
Friday, October 9, 2020
Bangladesh’s breakthrough in
producing Covid-19 vaccine
It should make every Bangladeshi's heart bulge
with pride on knowing that a company of
Bangladeshi origin is on the threshold of
successfully making and marketing a vaccine
against Covid - 19. Earlier this company was
reported for being among the top five or six most
formidable countries in the world in terms of all
round capabilities which were in the race to find a
corona virus vaccine. That a developing country
like Bangladesh could dare to be included in this
race was a surprise. But it also puts Bangladesh in
the limelight as a country with a very well
developed pharmaceutical industry to be able to
take on such a venture.
Already, another Bangladesh company is
exporting an important Corona virus treatment
medicine to USA and some other countries.
Companies from Bangladesh are also playing a role
in making and selling to other countries masks,
personal protective equipment (PPP) and even
ventilators. Now, the news of an effective Corona
vaccine from Bangladesh should make us all very
proud of our country in respect of finding solutions
to top most global problems.
Claiming that they have got very promising
results from pre-clinical trials on rabbits and mice
of the coronavirus vaccine styled 'BNCOVID'
developed by it, Bangladesh's Globe Biotech Ltd
recently disclosed they want to bring it to the
market by January next if they are allowed to
launch the first phase of human trials very soon.
Globe Biotech said they have completed all the
necessary preparations for making their vaccine
initiative a success, but they said everything now
depends on the government's cooperation in
helping to complete the required processes."We
hope the government will stand beside us and
assist us in every necessary area. If we all can make
collective efforts, we hope, we'll be able to start
giving our vaccine to people across Bangladesh by
January next,", Chairman of Globe Biotech, told a
press conference at a city hotel recently.
He said pre-clinical trials suggest that their
vaccine is as promising as the other leading corona
vaccine candidates in the world. "If we can now
make united efforts, we can export the vaccine to all
over the world alongside meeting the local
demand,"he said.
Needless to say, this is a huge opportunity for
Bangladesh. The entire population of the world
would need to be vaccinated. In this situation, if
Bangladesh can win a small part of the global
market for corona vaccine, this would yield a
magnificent amount for the country in foreign
currencies. Thus, it should be the patriotic duty of
all to help out to clear all stages in marketing the
Bangladesh produced vaccine. It must not be
allowed to be just another endeavor fizzled out by
bureaucratic procrastination and vested interests
of foreign and local groups.
Stating that the government has set aside Tk
10,000 crore for the corona vaccine, the Chairman
of Global Biotech said said they will be able to earn
many times over this amount if only the
government extends the necessary support to
them."Developing a vaccine is a daunting task. But
our team worked hard and made an impossible job
possible. We've built a cent percent foundation for
the vaccine as we're now at the stage of conducting
phase-1 and phase-2 clinical trials," he observed.
He urged the government and the regulatory
body, including DGDA, to allow them to conduct
the clinical trials of the vaccine as soon as possible.
"We believe our vaccine will turn out to be one of
the effective vaccines in the world and we'll be able
to save many lives. But we need government
patronage to make it possible." The Chairmanof
Globe Biotech also said: "Importing coronavirus
vaccines from abroad is surely going to be very
expensive, whenever that happens. We can't yet say
what the exact price of our solution will be. But it
would surely be much cheaper in a comparative
sense."
IS it possible to pursue economic
stability while at the same time
imparting massive volatility to the
theatre of politics? The simple answer is
yes, but at tremendous cost to the country
and especially the poor.
The present government now has to
tackle this double challenge. They are
engaged in talks with the IMF for
resumption of the programme, which is
already delayed since it was supposed to
have restarted by September. At the heart
of these talks are two critical plans the
government has to present. The first is a
revenue plan to convince the Fund that they
have a credible road map on how to curb
the fiscal deficit that for the second year in
a row has come in above eight per cent of
GDP, a manifestly unsustainable position.
The second plan is on the circular debt that
has crossed Rs2 trillion and is mounting
faster than it ever has before (though the
government argues that in recent months
the acceleration is due to disrupted
recoveries on account of Covid-19
lockdowns).
It is in this context that the government
has appointed Waqar Masud as special
assistant to the prime minister on revenue.
A Q-block veteran and an old associate of
Hafeez Shaikh (with whom he will be
working), the appointment is a clear
indication that the government is reaching
out for assistance on building its revenue
plan in the context of the IMF talks. On the
circular debt side we were told that
Shahzad Qasim, the former SAPM on
power, was in the advanced stages of
drawing up a plan until news arrived that
he had been replaced by Tabish Gauhar,
former chairman of K-Electric and senior
member of the Abraaj Capital team that
oversaw the management takeover of the
power utility back in 2009.
It is not clear what this handover of
charge means for the ongoing efforts to
draw up a circular debt curtailment plan,
but if Gauhar decides to turn the clock back
and chalk out his own road map rather than
continue with what Qasim was already
working with, it could prolong the talks. We
will have to wait to see.
At the same time as these talks, and the
efforts to draw up the plans necessary to
satisfy the Fund, are continuing, a massive
confrontation seems to be brewing between
the government and the opposition parties,
especially after the registration of sedition
cases against the leadership of the
opposition. The government would have us
believe that it has nothing to do with the
registration of these cases, that they have
been registered by a private individual in
his private capacity. Then it transpires that
the individual in question is supposedly a
worker of the ruling party and numerous
images start circulating of him shaking
hands and smiling broadly with various
party leaders, especially Chaudhry Sarwar,
the present governor Punjab. Then
surprisingly the name of one of the people
mentioned in the FIR - Prime Minister of
KHurrAm HusAIN
syed TAlAT HussAIN
Azad Jammu and Kashmir Raja
Muhammad Farooq - is struck off at the
behest of the Punjab government, but the
rest of the names are left in place.
Even as efforts are being made to draw up
the plans necessary to satisfy the IMF, a
massive political storm is brewing.
So the government had nothing to do
with filing these FIRs accusing two former
prime ministers of the country of 'sedition'
based on logic so specious that only a
handful of people in the country can claim
to understand it? And it is a sheer
coincidence, is it, that these FIRs are
registered two days after the prime minister
himself accuses Nawaz Sharif of "playing
India's game" and his own people are all
over the airwaves advancing the idea that
Sharif is a tool in the hands of the country's
enemies?
As if this was not enough, the other big
party from the opposition - the PPP - has
had fresh 'corruption' references filed
against its leadership, including former
prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and the
former president Asif Zardari. The timing is
unlikely to be a coincidence, as these
developments come right after the
formation of the anti-government Pakistan
Democratic Movement alliance - the name
has close resonance to the Movement for
the Restoration of Democracy in the early
1980s.
So the order of battle is falling in place
between the government and the
opposition, with each side escalating
matters towards a confrontation.
Meanwhile, the government's own people
are preparing to sit across the table from
the IMF team and present credible plans
for how they intend to raise more revenues,
cut spending, raise recoveries in the power
sector, adjust fuel prices to reflect global
market realities, and arrest what looks like
accelerating inflation. At the same time, as
the confrontation with the opposition
(should it come to that) will be taking off,
the government may well be signing off
onto another adjustment programme,
though perhaps not as harsh as the one it
had to implement in its first year
considering foreign exchange reserves are
not in as dire a position today as they were
back in August 2018.
Some in the top echelons of the
leadership apparently understand this.
Reports in the media suggest that in the
cabinet meeting held on Tuesday, some
ministers raised concerns about the
brewing confrontation while at the same
time underlining rising inflation as a
critical problem. In the days to come they
will be adding rising tax burden, interest
rates, currency depreciation, fuel and
power price hikes to this list as well. We
will see how much of an appetite for
confrontation remains once the
economic realities begin to assert
themselves, one more time.
Source: Dawn
Pakistan cracks down on NGos
Three years; 12 districts, some of
them the poorest in Pakistan; and 3
million lives touched. That's what
an exotically-named Citizen Engagement
for Responsive and Accountable
Governance project claims to have done in
the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province that
borders Afghanistan.
The project, funded by the European
Union and executed by a local NGO (nongovernmental
organisation), isn't the only
one operating in some of the most
neglected sectors like food, health,
education, infrastructure, justice, family
planning, labour, mining, environment,
water, and rights awareness.
According to government officials nearly
8,000 NGOs (through thousands of
programmes) across the country deliver
services that the state is unable to provide
to the deprived and the most vulnerable
among the Pakistanis. A majority of them
are local; others draw on international
funds.
Lives have to be saved, services have to
be delivered, rights have to be promoted,
and the most vulnerable have to be
protected against the vagaries of life and
circumstances. If NGOs can be a partner in
this vital endeavour, losing their helping
hand and locking horns with them would
be senseless and wasteful
But much of this is about to change as
dozens of NGOs have filed near-identical
petitions in the country's high courts
contesting what they perceive as a
draconian new legislation to bring them
under official heel and to choke their
operations. Interestingly, the contested
legislation, like the petitions against it, has
been passed by different provincial
assemblies. It has almost-similar content
exemplified by the standard name it
carries: The Charities Registration Act.
Civil society leaders smell rat in this rare
compatibility of legislative approach by
politicians who otherwise are seen locked
in an endless and dispiriting display of
partisan politics on more urgent national
concerns. They believe the state of
Pakistan is gradually snuffing out peopleempowering
initiatives that at times foster
healthy dissent, encourage communities
to speak for themselves, get organised and
demand their rights.
In their defence government officials
cite global legal requirements created by
the to-do-list of the Financial Action Task
Force (FATF), which the country must
fulfil to keep off its head the hanging sword
of sweeping sanctions and ward off the
dreadful prospect of international
isolation. FATF already has had Pakistan
on its grey list for two years for noncompliance
of several key deliverables.
Another uncharitable review can send to
the black list. That's why in all versions of
the Registration Act you get to read about
"effective provisions" for
charities'registration, administration and
regulation, "fund raising and collection
and utilisation of charitable funds for
charities and other institutions and for any
other purposes."
The world has started to take terrorism
financing and money laundering as an
In their defence government officials cite global
legal requirements created by the to-do-list of the
Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which the
country must fulfil to keep off its head the hanging
sword of sweeping sanctions and ward off
the dreadful prospect of international isolation.
international emergency, and this
architecture is hard to dodge.
However, global guidelines and
mandatory action plans to audit money
flows make a clear distinction between
legitimate charitable and service delivery
work and that which bankrolls terror or is
used for money laundering.
FATF shows sensitivity to this
distinction in its published material like
the International Standards on Combating
Money Laundering and the Financing of
Terrorism & Proliferation: The FATF
Recommendations. The document
Kerry Boyd ANdersoN
appreciates among other things the efforts
of civil society organisations, "despite the
difficulties they face, in providing essential
services, often in high-risk areas and
conflict zones."
More to the point, the charities and
NGOs that have in the past landed
Pakistan in global trouble necessarily use
religious platforms to push their agendas.
The contested legislation throws the
blanket of strict administrative rules on
every single NGO in the country requiring
them to open up their accounts, share
detailed information about their activities,
report all their work besides prohibiting
them from moving their territorial
presence or changing their areas of
operations.
More significantly, an anti-NGO
crackdown of sorts is already underway in
the country.
Dozens of International NGOs have had
their no objection certificates cancelled
forcing them to pack, strap and leave.
Centre for International Private Enterprise
(CIPE) US, Internews Network, US
Pathfinder International, US Central Asia
Education Trust, US American Centre for
International Labor Solidarity (Solidarity
Centre), US World Vision, US Plan
International, UK Safeworld, UK Action
Aid, Netherland Rutgers, Danish Refugee
Council (DRC), Denmark, Foundation
Open Society Institute (FOSI),
Switzerland. The list is long.
Source: Gulf news
Natural disasters an increased threat during pandemic
The coronavirus disease (COVID-19)
pandemic and its economic impacts have
made life difficult for people around the
world. Unfortunately, natural disasters have
not stopped; in some cases, climate change is
intensifying or increasing the frequency of
such disasters. Government authorities, aid
organizations, and communities and
individuals are being forced to find ways to
cope with both disasters and the pandemic.
The US has one of the biggest COVID-19
outbreaks in the world and has experienced
multiple extreme weather events this year.
The western US, particularly California, is
experiencing some of the worst fires in the
region's history. Organizations such as the
Red Cross had time to prepare for the
combination of the pandemic and the fire
season and have taken steps to provide more
shelters that allow for social distancing, but
the pandemic still complicates people's
ability to find shelter. The fires are also
worsening air quality, creating a new
concern for people with pulmonary
It is not clear what this handover of charge
means for the ongoing efforts to draw up a
circular debt curtailment plan, but if Gauhar
decides to turn the clock back and chalk out his
own road map rather than continue with what
Qasim was already working with, it could
prolong the talks. We will have to wait to see.
conditions. And the smoke forces people to
spend more time inside, which limits
opportunities for safer outdoor forms of
exercise and socialization.
The Atlantic hurricane season is forecast to
be particularly extreme this year. Currently,
Tropical Storm Laura and Hurricane Marco
are threatening the US coast, particularly
Louisiana and Texas - two states that are
dealing with large COVID-19 outbreaks. If
both storms reach hurricane strength in the
Gulf of Mexico at the same time, it would be a
historic first. There are also concerns that
many people might not evacuate for fear of
catching the virus, while authorities are aware
that more people might lack the financial
resources to evacuate due to the economic
impacts of COVID-19, and so might need
assistance. The pandemic complicates
hurricane response in other ways, too, such as
reducing the number of disaster relief
volunteers, who often travel from other US
states. Two weeks ago, the Midwest was hit by
an unusual derecho with hurricane-force
winds. It caused widespread damage to
physical property and crops, particularly in
Iowa. The storm caused long-lasting power
outages and forced several COVID-19 testing
centers to temporarily close. The economic
impact, particularly to the agricultural sector,
comes on top of a tough year for farmers for
multiple reasons, plus the pandemic's effects.
Natural disasters continue to pose threats
in many other parts of the world, too.
Cyclone Amphan hit India and Bangladesh
in May as those countries were dealing with
a COVID-19 outbreak. While there were
some successful evacuations, the pandemic
complicated shelter provision, including
because some locations were reportedly
already in use as COVID-19 isolation centers.
Later, historically devastating monsoon
floods swamped parts of South Asia, putting
at least a quarter of Bangladesh under water.
In addition to the challenges of finding
shelter, many who lost their homes and
crops were already struggling from the
economic consequences of COVID-19,
including the loss of remittances from family
members in urban areas.
There are multiple other examples. The
Middle East experienced an unusually
strong cyclone in March while coping with
the early spread of the virus. Northern India
dealt with a severe heatwave in May, while
parts of Europe endured one this summer
that contributed to people crowding British
beaches in violation of social distancing
measures. Locust swarms in the spring and
summer in East Africa, the Middle East and
South Asia added to farmers' misery.
The pandemic complicates responses to
natural disasters; it makes it harder to move
supplies, to ensure safe shelter, and to find
volunteers to help, among other problems.
The pandemic also exacerbates the
economic effects of disasters and diminishes
the economic and psychological resources
that people have to cope with them. Natural
disasters undermine efforts to contain.
Source : Arab news