|
10-3-2010
Afghan troops & cops training
Reports are that Indian military
experts, under an agreement reached recently, have started
imparting training to the Afghan National Army (ANA) and Afghan
National Police (ANP) and groups of Afghan forces personnel have
already been sent to India for the same purpose. In the recently
concluded London Conference lobbies were made to convince the
world community that the Afghan forces personnel must be trained
by India to which Pakistan objected.
The Karzai government’s
relations with India and in return the increasing Indian influence in
Afghanistan is not only the
cause of concern for Pakistan but also for the international
community. In his pre-Afghan strategy report, Gen McCrystal had
clearly pointed to the troubles created by the expanded role of
India in Afghanistan which is causing hindrance to the smooth
functioning of Nato and ISAF. My point in this regard is if
Pakistan is given the role of imparting training to Afghan
forces personnel, that would serve the purpose of bringing peace
in the region. Because engaging Indians serves to Karzai’s
anti-Pakistan stance and Indian designs against Pakistan, which
has already prolonged and complicated the GWOT and in fact has
resulted in the scheduled withdrawal of allied troops. The
question is if growing Indian involvement in Afghanistan is
agreed upon, then there seems no ray of hope in resolving the
already messed up situation. Rather it would further aggravate
as Pakistan would lose in words of Pakistan’s chief of army
staff Gen Kayani’s words its strategic interests which would be
threatened with Indian presence. Indians-trained Afghans cannot
be expected to do any good for regional peace, rather they would
prove to be Col Prohit’s like who used the Indian army and
military intelligence cover to blow up Samjhota express and
killed Pakistani passengers.
Secondly Indians have no role in
quelling terrorism. Nor have they experience of fighting
terrorism head-on. On the other hand the Pakistan military has
proved its professionalism in the battlefield. Take Swat and
South Waziristan operations as example. A similar spirit of
Pakistan military if infused in the Afghan forces personnel can
do wonders within days, weeks or months to fight the menace out
of this region. It is on the world conscience whether to give
India this role to further fuel this fire, or assign the task to
Pakistan to clear the mess as early as possible.
Eschmall Sardar,
Peshawar.
Newsweek’s LeT projection
Newsweek in its March 8 issue
has published a title story on Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and linked
it with al-Qaeda, warning that it might conduct devastating
attack – not in Mumbai, but in Manhattan or Miami. This is
followed by bombing in a Kabul guest house for which an earlier
claim of responsibility by Afghan Taliban was intriguingly
diverted to LeT like that of Mumbai incident of hotels Maharaja
and Oberoi. This smacks of conspiracy theories against Pakistan
and its government not taking action against the LeT head Hafiz
Saeed and its activities.
Linking LeT with al-Qaeda hardly
bears any logic because al-Qaeda is involved in attacks across
Pakistan and Afghanistan and is doing the TTP but LeT though
happened to be a militant organisation primarily formed to fight
for freedom in Indian held Kashmir has nowhere engaged in
subversive activities, either in Pakistan or in Afghanistan and
the claims of its involvement in Mumbai attacks or elsewhere in
India have not been established as yet. What has come out of the
latest investigations, the Indians have unearthed local links
and patrons responsible of Mumbai mayhem and for the Samjhota
express bombing the Indian army Colonel Prohit and company’s
involvement has been proved. In Pakistan the LeT seems to be
dysfunctional, neither it conducts any public engagements nor
its brandishes weapons like other organisations had been doing.
Above all, the government of Pakistan has already banned this
organisation twice and particularly after the Mumbai incident,
its activities are being closely monitored.
The fact that the LeT has only a
role responsible for the wellbeing of the families of shuhada-e-Kashmir,
it had remained focused on rehabilitation work in
post-earthquake Azad Kashmir and looking after the displaced
persons from Swat. The charge that it was patronised by ISI
tantamounts to claiming that the ISI has links with al-Qaeda
whereas the recent arrest of Quetta Shura top members and the
March 7 arrest of al-Qaeda spokesman Adam Yahiye Gadahn from
Karachi speaks of Pakistan government’s seriousness in handling
the anti-terror war with which the world, especially the US are
satisfied. Pakistan has by force eliminated the Taliban in Swat,
South Waziristan, Bajaur and elsewhere, has taken heavily on the
members of Quetta Shura and the campaign is going on. It seems
the world leaders now conspire to push Pakistan towards acting
against the LeT which is already banned and is not seemingly
involved in acts of terror. LeT’s work has been IHK-specific and
the hallabaloo shows Indian desire to convince America for
forcing Islamabad to act against it – to get their desired
results sabotaging the Kashmir freedom movement.
Abu Hasan,
Azad Kashmir.
Not releasing CSF
The defence and diplomatic
circles in Pakistan must be questioning the logic of being used
by the world powers under a mere ceremonial status of non-NATO
ally in the global war against terror. Despite its relentless
efforts and successful operations against the terrorists,
Pakistan is subjected to the mounting pressure of ‘do more’,
whereas the allied countries on their part have done not enough
to play their role in fulfilling the defence needs of Pakistan
as are required under the agreement.
Pakistan must be seemingly
annoyed over the non-reimbursement of its outstanding bills
worth more than 2 billion dollars due to be paid out of the
Coalition Support Fund (CSF) under the agreement as major
Non-NATO ally, which they have kept pending for one pretext or
the other, since last one and a half years.
The Coalition Support Fund is
not part of any aid; it is the reimbursement of Pakistan’s
expenditures in support of US operations in Afghanistan. The
bill has already been forwarded to US administration, which has
not been paid for reasons unknown.
Pakistan has so far received
only $450 million in the first half of year 2009; that too as
reimbursement of pending bills of year 2008. The remaining one
and a half years bill worth more than 2 billion dollars is still
awaited. The authorities in Pakistan express their dismay as to
why such an attitude is meted out while the burden of war
expenditures is huge in addition to the loss of life in wake of
continued suicide bombings, terror attacks and military’s
engagement in the operations.
Pakistan has suffered the most
since it has joined the global war against terror as a front
line ally. Pakistan was declared major Non-NATO ally and a
drumbeat to support Pakistan in a big way was heard all over the
world. The hype of $10 billion aid to Pakistan is used to mount
pressure on Pakistan. While it has suffered the most in terms of
human and property losses, and economic and infrastructural
damages, its expenditures in the WOT have exceeded $70 billion
during the last 9 years. This US$10 billion assistance was far
less than its $653 billion aid for Iraq and $172 billion for
Afghanistan since 9/11.
Pakistan has deployed more than
120,000 soldiers on its western borders and using all types of
equipment like jet aircraft, helicopters, tanks, guns and
vehicles. The expenditures on this ongoing WOT is colossal as
the President mentioned in the Friends of Pakistan meeting held
in Tokyo last year that “Pakistan has spent more $34 billion on
WOT. Besides that Pakistan is looking after the millions of
Afghan refugees who have not yet returned to their country
because of the non-cooperation of world community.
Almost 56% of the US aid ($5.64
billion) has gone to the Coalition Support Funds. The 18% ($1/81
billion) has been spent on the security assistance, 16% ($1.62
billion) to the budgetary allocations. This money was supposed
to provide macroeconomic stability and to free up funds for
social spending. The remaining nine percent had been given for
development and humanitarian assistance.
As per Congressional Research
Service (CRS) report released in July 2008, the total funding
for GWOT (2001-2009) was $859 billion: $653 billion for
Operation Iraqi Freedom, $172 billion for Operation Enduring
Freedom in Afghanistan – with a peanut amount of other
counterterrorism operations, including Pakistan, $20 billion for
enhanced security of bases and $05 billion unallocated.
A GHAFFAR,
Islamabad.
9-3-2010
PML-N’s good governance?
I watched Live with Talat with
interest on a private TV channel. He raised the issue of land
mafia in a very powerful way. This is a very important issue in
Punjab. Particularly government lands attract these land grabbers and local
politicians are either involved directly or provide the needed
shelter.
But I am writing to you to share
even a more interesting probably...shahkar...of good governance
in Punjab where PML-N is in power third time, two terms of "Khadim
e Punjab" and one term of Nawaz Sharif. Khadim e Punjab is considered to be a good administrator also.
For the last 30 years, there are
more than 40,000 farmers in Sheikhupura district who have been
deprived of their share of irrigation water by some big
landlords with support from the irrigation department. Farmers
approached and knocked at every door including the department
and Khadim e Punjab but no one listened to them. There canals
tell the whole story. Anyone can see that these canals didn't
see water for a long time. Grasses and plants growing inside
these canals provide the needed evidence.
The Shahkar part of the story is
that these farmers are still paying water rates. Few villages
got "justice" from the court where court provided them the
relief that they should not pay for the irrigation water. But
court failed to see that depriving them of their right to water
was a criminal act and who was responsible for that?
A rough calculation shows that
farmers have suffered a loss equivalent to Rs4 billion in terms
of the Abiana they paid, tubewell water they were forced to buy
in the absence of canal water and loss of their crops.
What a good governance!
Dr. Shahid Zia,
On email.
IIU blast victims
I want to draw the attention of
Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gillani to the issue of
compensation for International Islamic University (IIU) blast
victims.
The IIUI was hit by twin bomb
blasts on October 20, 2009 due to which some students and an
employee lost their lives while about 40 students and employees
were injured severely.
The government after so many
requests from the university, students, teachers, employees,
parents of students, media and civil society had announced
compensation of Rs0.3 million each for deceased persons and
Rs0.1 million each for injured persons. This announcement by Mr.
Rehman Malik, Minister of Interior had been widely welcomed. The
scars of the incident have still not healed and memories of the
horrific blasts are still fresh in the minds of the victims and
their families. Not only victims but their whole families have
suffered due to the attacks. The parents of the victims have
been demanding the amount from the university officials and the
university had sent many reminders to the Interior Ministry as
well to pay the compensation to the victims but the procedural
delays on part of the ministry caused hurdles in the release of
the amount. Now the ministry has asked the university officials
to wait as the summary has been sent to the prime minister for
approval.
We hope Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani
will honour the promise of Mr Rehman Malik and will release the
said compensation at the earliest.
SYED ASHRAF,
On email.
Int’l Women’s Day
The world community observed the
International Women’s Day (IWD) yesterday, on March 8 — a day
when women are recognised for their achievements without regards
to divisions — national, ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic
or political. It is an occasion for looking back on past
struggles and accomplishments, and more importantly, for looking
ahead to the untapped potential and opportunities that await
future generations of women. Organisations, governments and
women’s groups around the world chose different themes each year
that reflect global and local gender issues. The UN theme for
this year is ‘Equal rights, equal opportunities: Progress for
all.’
Beginning at the turn of the
20th century, women began to enter the paid workforce in
countries that were becoming industrially developed. They could
only work certain jobs in such fields as textiles, manufacturing
and domestic services. All of these areas had terrible working
conditions and the lowest wages.
In 1903, the Women’s Trade Union
League was formed in the United States by women trade unionists
and professional women who considered themselves liberals. The
intent was not only to continue the campaign for women’s right
to vote, but to organise them in an effort to improve their
welfare in the political and economic arenas.
The first Women’s Day was
initiated on the last Sunday in February of 1908, when women who
considered themselves socialists held large demonstrations aimed
at calling attention to women’s voting rights and welfare.
Recognition of International Women’s Day and the causes it
supports continued to grow throughout the 19th century. Its
celebration date, in those countries that recognise it, is March
8.
Over the years, United Nations
action for the advancement of women has taken four clear
directions: promotion of legal measures; mobilisation of public
opinion and international action; training and research,
including the compilation of gender desegregated statistics; and
direct assistance to disadvantaged groups.
Tormented and subjugated
throughout all times and ages, women have fought their way
through exploitation, harassment, and have managed to secure
their rights in the public domain. In spite of continuing
exploitation and injustice against women both in the domestic
and work sector today, several milestones have been achieved in
terms of education, freedom of choice and liberty, equality etc.
With growing literacy and financial independence women feel more
empowered today to assert their right to a life of dignity and
self worth.
M Hussain Khan,
On email.
Punjab govt affairs
A lot is being said and heard
for the last two years about the “good governance” of
Khadim-e-Aaala Punjab. The other day an adviser to the Khadim-e-Alaa went to
Bahawalpur when his protocol
made a women widow and a child “yateem”. A columnist rightly
commented that the Khadim-e-Aala on this act of his adviser’s
good governance will send a cheque now from his fund to the
widow and add a new feather of good governance in his cap.
The Khadim-e-Aala last year
created an online complaint cell in his office with much
fanfare. A labourer from abroad sent a complaint by airmail to
the cell. The complaint cell refused to accept it with the
direction that the same be sent “online” if any action was
required.
Last month I went to Lahore.
Outside the railway station I tasted the taste of the good
governance. I waved to a rickshaw at the barricades of the
railway station but it did not stop despite being empty. Two
minutes later a person approached me saying he was the rickshaw
driver I signalled. He had stopped the rickshaw about 30 yards
away in a wrong direction. When I boarded the vehicle the driver
informed me that policemen charged Rs20 per rickshaw.
So much for the good governance.
Javed,
Karachi.
India’s challenge
During his recent Indian visit,
the Pakistani foreign secretary wisely took the opportunity to
warn India that “New war doctrines, a tremendous boost to
defence spending and the induction of new sophisticated weapons
systems, are prejudicial to regional security and stability.”
However, the world also needs to realise that Indian defence
policy and mammoth military spending, do not add up to peaceful
objectives and betray the ambitions of a regional hegemon, which
is determined to waste the wealth of its poor majority not on
their welfare but towards browbeating its smaller neighbours.
Meanwhile, New Delhi is also forging close strategic ties with
Washington and Riyadh, two of Islamabad’s vital allies,
apparently at Pakistan’s expense.
It seems that in the absence of
a clear threat or provocation from any neighbouring state,
Indian coercive diplomatic posturing, aggressive doctrinal
orientation and large scale conventional and strategic military
muscle flexing will force Pakistan to depart from its policy of
‘minimum credible deterrence’ towards developing a robust second
strike capability, in the form of an elaborate triad of nuclear
delivery systems, to foreclose all Indian conventional and
strategic options. Moreover, Islamabad should use the forums of
UN and SCO to consolidate its diplomatic position over
Afghanistan. Pakistan desires a peaceful neighbourhood but if
India understands only the language of power politics, then so
be it. In the interest of regional peace and security, Pakistan
must and will make it understand just that.
Syed Muhammad Ali,
On email.
8-3-2010
Baizai irrigation channel
The NWFP chief minister, Mr.
Amir Haider Khan Hoti performed ground-breaking ceremony of the
mega project of Baizai Irrigation Channel costing Rs1800 million
to irrigate 25,000 acres of Barani land of Mardan and Malakand
districts on March 5, at Ghundo near Katlang, Mardan.
It will be recalled that East
Baizai area of Mardan comprising Kohi Bermol, Pipal, Ghazi Baba,
Mian Khan, Sangahoo, Babuzai, Shamozai and Matta villages lack
irrigation water facilities and are totally dependant on rain
for agriculture. These villages comprise about 21,000 acres of
barren land which were included in Malakand III Project. Baizai
Irrigation Channel is proposed to irrigate lands of these
villages.
It is pertinent to mention here
that underground water table has dropped down to an alarming
level. Besides, there is also an acute shortage of drinking
water in the area.
The completion of this vital
project would help in reclaiming thousands acres of barren land
in Mardan District and Malakand Agency which would be a
significant step towards self-sufficiency in agriculture sector.
It is also hoped that it will bring green revolution in the area
and will play an active role in the country’s economy.
The people of East Baizai area
of District Mardan are highly grateful to Mr. Amir Haider Khan
Hoti for giving a practical shape to the long-standing demand of
the people of the area, besides announcing the following
projects of vital importance for the area:
Establishment of Tehsil at
Katlang;
Mega project of the construction
of Expressway connecting Swabi, Mardan and Malakand;
Establishment of girls college
at Katlang;
Speeding-up construction of
Mardan- Buner road via Katlang.
Muhammad Adil Khan,
Mardan.
Mullen’s recipe
As reported in the press (March
7), in an address to the US Army Command and General Staff
College, in the US, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Committee, Adm. Mike Mullen said that in the fight against
religious extremists, the use of military force should be the
first and not the last option. He, however, added that the use
of military force should not be the only tool. He said that
America has been at war continuously over the last nine years
against a syndicate of Muslim extremists, led by al-Qaeda and
supported by a host of both state and non-state actors and
believes that the Pak-Afghan border area will play a key role in
the larger war against terrorism. He also conceded that
America’s foreign policy was still too dominated by the military.
Mullen’s definitive opinion of
the use of force as the first option is not surprising coming
from a man who has learnt and done nothing except firing guns,
killing people and waging wars which, in his case, were not
against formidable adversaries but against weaklings and
irregulars who were no match for the US might. Obviously, to
shine in his chosen career and to keep gainfully employed, he
has to ‘invent’ new wars where there is none available. The
earlier US invasion of Afghanistan was to avenge the 9/11 which
itself was a retribution for the US mistreatment of Arabs and
undue patronage of Israel. The criminal and brutal US invasion
of Iraq was unjust and totally unnecessary which introduced and
established al-Qaeda in Iraq where it had no presence.
Therefore, by its own unjust acts, the
US intentionally creates hostile environment in different regions for the
benefit of its armament industry and businesses like Blackwater
and other lobbies and this way, it returns them the favours
received earlier by Americans state officials by way of campaign
contributions etc.
The US soldiers are just a curse
on earth and they cause widespread destruction and loss of human
lives wherever they go. They messed up Iraq thoroughly and these
vultures have now descended on our region. With this in mind, it
is very worrying to hear from the mercenary that Pak-Afghan
border will play a key role in the larger war against terrorism.
It is unfortunate that the US foreign policy is dominated by the
military, and the war-mongering soldiers hold the US government
hostage and for this unfortunate situation, Muslims have to pay
dearly.
S.R. HASHMI,
Karachi.
Interpolation in land records
The maintaining properties
record accurately is the most important prerequisite for
peaceful and prosperous existence of any society and the one
relevant to agricultural land occupies even more significance.
Unfortunately two years ago, at
the time of Benazir Bhutto’s assassination almost all government
establishments including taluka revenue offices where records of
agricultural properties are kept were set on fire. Thereafter
taking advantage of confusion lot of tempering is being done in
records which are available in different offices by the
unscrupulous officials for earning few bucks. So much so the
even deh and taluka maps have not been spared.
As a result of tempering records
and deh maps innumerable disputes have cropped up in the rural
areas which forced the parties to either go in protracted
litigation or settling quarrels through use of arms.
I therefore request the revenue
authorities to intervene and ensure that old deh maps and taluka
maps pertaining especially to recently divided districts such as
Dadu etc are kept secured from the hands violators of legal
proprietorship.
Ali Ahmed Qureshi,
Dadu.
6-3-2010
Misuse use of govt schools
I am stunned to learn that the
“Bachat Bazaars” are now even organised in the precincts of
government school buildings. This is not case of some remote
area of province, but it is happening right in the middle of
metropolis; its capital and under the very nose of ministry of
education.
As per details reported in a
local daily Sunday bazaar is being held regularly in a
government school building Jamshed Quarters in which on
different timings of the day primary and secondary schools of
both genders are functioning.
Running bachat bazaar is not an
insignificant activity. It requires three uninterrupted days;
one day before the bazaar when shops are established and
material is brought from remote places and stored, and third day
when entire setup can be wound up as bazaar functions late in
the night.
Thus for three consecutive days
not only school buildings are misused by bazaar shopkeepers and
customers who visit the place in thousands, causing serious
damage to public property, but education of hundreds of students
enrolled in these schools suffer irreparably.
The idea of establishing
educational institutions is to impart education to our children.
However the most unfortunate fact is that those running the
affairs have transformed these institutions into money-making
instruments.
I make an appeal to the chief
minister and minster of education Sindh to look into the affairs
and ensure that no further misuse of school building is allowed
and also take appropriate action against those education
department officials who have allowed precincts of a school to
be as Sunday bazaar.
Shafqat Qazi,
Hyderabad.
Talks with
India
As reported in The Statesman
(March 2), while addressing the Majlis-al-Shura (Saudi
Consultative Council) in Riyadh, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh said “We seek cooperative relations with Pakistan. Our
objective is a permanent peace because we recognise that we are
bound together by a shared future. If there is cooperation
between India and Pakistan, vast opportunities will open up for
trade, travel and development that will create prosperity in
both countries and in South Asia as a whole. But to realise this vision
Pakistan must act decisively
against terrorism. If Pakistan cooperates with India, there is
no problem that we cannot solve and we can walk the extra mile
to open a new chapter in relations between our two countries.”
While it is indeed true that
cooperation will be to the advantage of both countries, Manmohan
Singh’s harping on the tune of terrorism has gone on far too
long and ought to stop now. His effort to paint himself and his
country as angels and Pakistan nothing but a devil, makes his
offer more like a point-scoring exercise than an honest and
genuine desire for peace. He does not even have to go an
extra-mile. It would be good enough if he just stayed in
position instead of backtracking, which his government does all
the time. It was India that discontinued the peace process and
even now, restricted the present round to no more than a
photo-session rather than a meaningful dialogue.
The Mumbai attack was no doubt a
tragedy that did not have to happen. It was a detestable act
perpetrated by extremists of which there is no dearth on either
side of the border. An operation like Mumbai could not have been
carried out with local help and even Indian leaders are
admitting that fact now. Pakistani courts are dealing with the
case which will take its course and cannot just hang them all
merely because India wants that. Also, while India is
mourning few hundred dead, it is totally unmindful of thousands
of innocent people in Indian-held Kashmiris who lost their
lives, honour, home and hearth due to Indian state repression.
How can India hope to have peace and tranquility while it is
itself committing worst form of atrocities which have given rise
to the creation of numerous freedom fighter groups within India
whom India prefers to call terrorists, to hide its own crimes
there. While Pakistani forces are fighting extremism valiantly
and have suffered thousands of casualties, what has India done,
except to kill the innocents and to protect its murderers
through state legislature which has enacted black laws to enable
its law-enforcement agencies to get away with murder.
As for extremists and
trouble-makers, India had enough on state and private levels. We all know that it was a Hindu
extremist and fanatic who assassinated Mahatama Gandhi. How much
India respects the rights
and feelings of its nationals was demonstrated quite clearly by
Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi’s assault on Sikh holy
shrines which infuriated her Sikh bodyguard so much that he just
shot her dead. I remember seeing on television her son, Indian
prime minister Rajiv Gandhi stagger on being hit by a Sri Lankan
soldier who formed part of a contingent that was offering him
‘guard-of-honour’. Obviously, the Sri Lankan soldier did not
like Indian meddling in Sri Lankan affairs that ultimately cost
him his life. India also physically attacked former
East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), which it had no business doing.
Even now, from Afghanistan, it is helping insurgency in our
Balochistan province. Also, despite court orders, centuries-old
Babri Mosque in India was demolished by Hindu fanatics and
extremists, with not even the minutest of efforts by Indian
authorities to save it or to bring the culprits to justice.
Every now and then, there are attacks on Muslims in India,
sometimes with the connivance of state officials, as was the
case in Gujarat, but he culprits get off scot-free.
A state, which has so much blood
on its hands and refuses to give the right of self-determination
to majority Muslims in the Indian-held
Kashmir, for which it gave a firm
commitment to the United Nations, can hardly claim ‘innocence’,
and be justified in pointing fingers at Pakistan, which it does
basically to hide its own crimes.
Recently the Indian army chief
boasted that India can sort out both Pakistan and China, and
that is more like the true Indian design. India’s huge increase
in its arms procurement and its buildup as a major power in the
region, can hardly be for peaceful purposes. Pakistan is
striving to maintain a minimum deterrent, for defensive purposes
only and there is no way it can, or will, attack India. China is
the only match for India with which it fought a brief war, in
which India suffered humiliating defeat. If China wanted, it
could have occupied Indian territory but it did not, which shows
that China has no territorial ambitions and no offensive designs
towards India. India’s huge expansion in all
sorts of defensive and offensive armament and setting up of
bases near Chinese and Pakistani borders, can only be a cause
for concern among its neighbours, large and small.
I think the recent Indian move
to hold junior-level talks with Pakistan was nothing more than
an exercise in diplomacy and an insignificant move on which no
one should build high hopes. It should also not be seen as a
great success of our foreign policy which forced Indians to come
to the conference table because it produced no results; neither
did it turn out to be a gateway to meaningful future talks.
S.R.H. Hashmi,
Karachi.
US dependent on
China’s largesse
Unlike Rome and Britain, that
faced catastrophic military crisis before collapsing
economically, the United States is dwarfed economically by
China’s industrial might. By the middle of 2007, China achieved
several historical milestones: it displaced Canada as the
biggest exporter of goods to America; it displaced America as
Japan’s biggest trading partner; it displaced Japan as
Australia’s biggest trading partner and it displaced America as
the European Union’s biggest trading partner. All this happened
at a time when the United States has been facing a financial
meltdown and massive budget and trade deficits.
Although the United States runs
trade deficits with all major economies, its trade deficits
vis-à-vis China are massive. By the end of 2007, China exported
a staggering $321 billion worth of goods to the United States
while America exported a paltry $65 billion worth of good to
China, leaving a massive $256 billion trade surplus in China’s
favour. In fact, China is now bankrolling the US budget
deficits. As former US Vice President Al Gore said during the
2008 Democratic Convention at Denver: ‘We need to borrow from
China in order to buy oil from Saudi Arabia. In fact, America
must borrow from China in order to buy manufactured goods from
China.
Another casualty of financial
meltdown in the wake of sub-prime mortgage crisis if the
collapse of American consumer confidence. With most Americans
facing a mountain of debts after indulging in unaffordable
mortgage, they can no longer act as an engine of growth and
collapse of consumer confidence has become the biggest obstacle
to any economic recovery.
As opposed to anaemic growth of
the American economy, the Chinese economy has resumed its
stellar growth after a brief slowdown. In fact, the Chinese
economy has replaced America as the engine of growth for the
world. The quick jaunt from deep recession by Germany and France
can be attributed, in good part, to fairly strong demand in
China. French exports to China rose by 14.2 percent in the
second quarter of 2009. By all accounts, China is providing a
shot in the arm for the struggling world economy. The driving
force behind the rapid recovery has been the Chinese
government’s stimulus package worth 4 trillion Yuan (about $600
billion).
With heavily dependent on the
Chinese largesse, the United States is now reduced to the role
of the only military power capable of projecting power.
Undoubtedly, the military remains the United States’ strongest
card; in fact, it is the only card. Today, the United States
wields the most formidable military apparatus. But how long a
military power, suffering from seemingly insurmountable economic
problems, can hold to its unique status as the world’s only
superpower?
Mahmood Elahi,
Canada.
4-3-2010
Rapid reaction force
The Statesman reported on March
2 that the US Congress has been requested to allocate $22.9
million to form a Quick Reaction Force, comprising specially
trained Pakistani personnel, who would be deployed at the US
Embassy in Islamabad and its Consulate in Karachi. The US will
deploy 25 additional special protective specialists and four
diplomatic security agents at its missions in Pakistan. To
complement this, the Obama administration has also sent to the
lawmakers a plan for $50 million “Comprehensive Communications
Strategy”, to sort of counter extremist views (I suppose
anti-Americanism) and create America-friendly environment here
for which purpose a “Rapid Response Team” will be set up.
The Quick Reaction Force will
primarily be responsible for providing a tactical and medical
emergency response capability at the compounds but in addition,
could also be called upon to provide support to high-level
visits or attend to security incidents affecting US personnel
outside the compounds.
The last bit i.e. providing
services outside the compounds could be most undesirable because
this could undermine our own law-enforcement agencies. Worse
still, and as is most likely, these would be vastly expanded and
the personnel used to carry out subversive activities within the
country. We know in Iraq the police had once arrested a team of
British special services group personnel red-handed and locked
them up in a police station but the British Army raided the
premises and got them freed. Coming to our region with the
useful experience gained in Iraq, this US-British nexus could
wreak havoc in our cities.
In our country, unfortunately
there are divisions on sectarian and ethnic grounds, which could
easily be exploited by these skilful operators who could start
riots here. For example, by blasting a Sunni mosque and later
targeting a Shia Imambargah, they could start Shia-Sunni riots
in Pakistan and could use the ethnic divide in Karachi, using it
the same way. We saw at the time of Ashura blasts in Karachi
that due to shortage of equipment, staff, or whatever, our law
enforcement agencies do not have adequate capacity to deal with
such emergencies. The killing and riots in Faisalabad also
present another disturbing picture. The tribal areas are in a
state of turmoil and the situation in Balochistan is very grave
indeed. In these circumstances, giving a free hand to Americans
and their likes would be suicidal.
Recent statement from the
American embassy that the US wants hassle-free visas for
Americans and wants no interference from our law-enforcement
agencies in their work, is perhaps meant to clear the way for
the covert action and ‘irregular wars’ about which Robert Gates
gave a presentation towards the end of Bush rule.
Iraq should be an eye-opener for us. We have seen that despite the sacrifices
made our forces and the spectacular success achieved by them,
American leaders still express doubts about their commitment and
intentions. Lately, they have also been saying that
Pakistan has become more
important for them than Afghanistan. Obviously, Afghanistan was
only means to an end and their real target is nuclear-armed
Pakistan which they are trying
their best to destabilise and dismember, preferably on a low
budget. If Obama can do that, he would guarantee a second term
for himself in the White House.
Due to the ongoing operations,
Pakistan is facing serious financial problems and needs urgent
help but at this critical juncture, the US has chosen to hold
back Coalition Support Funds which have now piled up to a figure
of around $2 billion. Amounts pledged under the Friends of
Democratic Pakistan Forum have also remained unpaid. This can
only mean that the US and other Western leaders want the
situation in Pakistan to deteriorate as much as possible because
that would make their disruptive and subversive activities much
easier.
Enough is enough and it is
surely time to take bold steps. For a start, the useless
‘dignitaries’ from US and elsewhere who descend on Islamabad
alone, in small groups or by plane-loads, almost on weekly
basis, should be discouraged because they have been unable,
unwilling or both, to help in alleviating Pakistan’s problems
and come here only to open their big mouths and make
unreasonable demands, and on occasions, throw in derogatory
remarks as a bonus. While claiming to be our friends, they are
anything but that and are in fact our worst enemies. There is
absolutely no reason why we have to suffer their company on a
regular basis.
Secondly, the government has to
put its foot down and stop American attempts to create state
within a state in order to wage ‘irregular wars’ from within
while also pushing saboteurs from across the border. As it is,
the masses have enough problems and cannot really take any more.
I hope the message gets across.
S.R.H. Hashmi,
Karachi.
Request to VC of AIOU
Through your paper I would like
to request the Vice Chancellor (VC) and Head of Department of
Mass Communication, Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU), to
review the eligibility criterion for the admission to MSc Mass
Communication. Subject of Journalism in Bachelor is a
prerequisite for admission to Master’s. There are thousands of
candidates who do not have the Journalism as a subject in
Bachelor but they have the Master’s degree in different subjects
and experience of years and years in the field of media. Due to
this condition they are unable to take admission to MSc Mass
Communication in spite of Master’s degree and experience in the
relevant field.
Furthermore, it is a hard fact
that many students who apply for this course are doing job
somewhere in the media organisations all over the country. Due
to lack of time they prefer AIOU for improving their
qualification. But due to this condition they are unable to meet
the condition. So this matter should be reviewed.
Zahid Rashid,
On email.
Civilians death in
Helmand
offensive
As the US-led joint military
operation “Moshtarak” takes a horrible turn and the blood of
innocent civilians continues to be shed incessantly in the town
of Marjhah, situated in Helmand province of
Afghanistan, many questions arise regarding the eventual fate of the already
devastated Afghanistan.
General Stanley McChrystal seems
very confident and optimistic about the operation ‘Moshtarak’
that focuses on maximum protection of civilians and growth of
Afghan governance. The
US has assumed this operation in accordance with the wishes of Afghan
people but whether they will succeed in overtaking
Helmand—the strong-hold of Taliban and will they be able to protect civilians
alongside? The answer seems a clear no.
The civilian death toll
continues to rise. President Karzai is filled with consternation
about that. His appeal for the halt in air strikes by the US
forces has been rejected by Washington. His appeal came out when
a recent air strike killed as many as 130 civilians. Given the
US incapability of fighting on ground, it is heavily relying on
air strikes. If the air strikes continue in the same manner then
the civilian deaths are inevitable. Their death graph will
continue to rise. This is in utter violation of Geneva
Convention that forcibly asks for the protection of civilians
from all sorts of raids in case of war. I fail to understand why
no such laws are binding upon Super Powers?
The US and NATO forces are
facing extreme difficulty in carrying out ground fighting given
the tough ground realities, complicated topology and limited
capability of US troops in coping with such adversaries. The
Taliban favor classic guerrilla-style hit-and-run attacks which
put them at an edge over the US led forces. For this reason,
they have been inflicting heavy causalities upon the US and NATO
forces. This has rightly perturbed General Petraeus since the
recent start of Marjah operation. Taliban have time and war
tactic that has made them formidable. Once again Helmand province is proving a hard target for the
US led forces. They have
admitted of ‘determined resistance’ from the Taliban.
The consequences will be severe
if US intends to march further towards Qandahar—another stronghold of Taliban. Many expect that US will march onward. If
this is the case, then it will unleash more violence and
civilian deaths. Asia Times Online quoted Taliban spokesman Qari
Yousuf Ahmedi stating that a faction of the Taliban known as the
Khalid bin Waleed group have entered
Qandahar to carry out suicide attacks on strategic positions in the city.
Given the Afghanistan's
strategic location, great rival powers have tended to view the
control of Afghanistan by a major opponent as unacceptable. The
truth is that US has failed to absorb the fateful events of
history. The Russians tried their best to establish their rule
in this area but failed to do so. If viewed from the lens of
history, the British attempts in the early nineteenth century
that aimed at dominating our tribal area failed desperately
despite several reinforcements and heavy artillery. The US is
not reading the writing on the wall. There are loud voices from
within US that ‘War on Terror’ is simply lost war. A victory
from Afghanistan is undoubtedly impossible for Uncle Sam.
Badar ul Islam,
On email.
3-3-2010
Shutterdown in Chitral
Through the courtesy of your
esteemed paper, I would like to invite the attention of higher
authorities towards the shutterdown in Chitral town for the last
four days to press for public demand to provide electricity to
the 8000 consumers of PESCO in the town. This is highly
deplorable that during the last four days higher authorities and
public representatives have paid no attention to the shutterdown.
Trade union and drivers’ union have joined hand against the
power cut.
It is pertinent to note that the
problem of power breakdown is 10 years old. It was during the
district government of Maghfirat Shah that the problem to the
peak and the nazim did nothing for the town of 70,000
population. In July 2008, the incumbent MNA Shahzada Mohiuddin
had promised to the people at Chew bridge to solve the problem
of power breakdown in Chitral within two months, but he did not
solve the problem after the lapse of two years. Provincial
Minister Salim Khan did nothing despite his promises and
posters. This is wrong to say that the problem was created by
snowfall. As a matter of fact, the problem was there even before
the snowfall. This problem is not linked with national grid.
Chitral town has its own hydel power-house and four diesel power
generators. The power breakdown is not because of power
shortage, it is just because of mismanagement. Therefore 70,000
population of the town is supporting the shutterdown. The only
way to call of the shutterdown is rehabilitation of old
machinery in the power-house and providing diesel for running
the generators. Had there been a will, this problem would have
been solved two years back.
Bashir Hussain Azad,
Chitral.
Suicide attack in Karak
The suicide attack on a police
station in Karak, the first ever in the district history, is not
a good omen It is feared that from now onward Karak - the most
peaceful area of Pashtunkhwa so far - may also be a target of
terrorists. This is naturally a matter of great concern for the
people of district Karak, most of whom are well educated and are
moderate in their outlook.
District Karak is known as the
land of soldiers as, many thousands of its people are serving
all over the country, in armed forces or in FC and police while
numerous of them have sacrificed their lives for the sake of the
country in the ongoing war against terrorism.
It is fairly supposed that the
suicidal attack in Karak will be taken seriously by the
government and all possible arrangements will be made so that no
such incident is repeated in the district.
A J Khattak,
Peshawar.
Reformation
The ill-timed military show in
which India has boasted its airforce capabilities by blatantly
demonstrating war exercises during which mock enemy hideouts
were hit and targeted with rockets and bombs engulfing the
entire desert of Pokhran in a huge dust nebula. This mighty
display of air power signifies India’s deep-rooted need to
establish supremacy over Pakistan and reveals its true war-centred
psyche. The hope that people of both the countries were
harbouring of the re-emergence of a friendly atmosphere between
the rival countries was shattered.
Pakistan, at this point, needs
to wake up to the realisation that no foreign force can be
relied upon for improving the current state of chaos that has
swallowed the country. Neither India nor the international
community is interested in Pakistan’s stability. Therefore,
reformation has to start from within the nation when measures
will be taken to educate the people of Pakistan and thrusting
upon them on basis of merit and talent the responsibility of
safeguarding and propelling frontwards all national affairs.
Investments have to be made in the human resource sector that
would ensure tangible result in every sector instead of
statistical figures that are no more than apparitions that haunt
the nation and hinders its ascend.
Lubna Umar,
Islamabad.
2-3-2010
Hassle-free visas for Americans
The report about visas for
Americans appearing in newspapers of February 27 makes a sad
reading indeed. After showing a bit of courage initially and
resisting the excessive and unreasonable demands from the US,
our officials seem to have fallen back into the familiar pattern
of abject surrender. Most of the requested visas have already
been issued and the remaining ones, relating mostly to Office of
Defence Representative for Pakistan, are being processed.
Against this surrender, Pakistan received $349 million out of
the total coalition support fund and arrears which stood at $2.6
billion.
Mind you, this is not a grant or
aid but is reimbursement of the expenses which have already been
incurred by Pakistan in support of war on
terror. Knowing full well that by applying pressure, they can
get anything out of our seemingly spineless officials, Americans
are reported to have set the bar even higher for payment of the
balance of Coalition Support Funds. Perhaps the Americans have
realised that the trick is not to pay but just to keep dangling
dollars before our eyes and that way, they can get almost
anything out of us.
Obviously, Americans are pleased
which is demonstrated also by the arrogant statement made by US
Ambassador Anne Patterson who said “We look forward to creation
of a visa mechanism that will enable US officials to do their
jobs without interference.” She went on to say “Prime Minister
Gilani’s offer to work with the United States to establish a
transparent process on visas that will enable us to undertake
full range of activities….is a positive development.”
The Americans also complain that
some are given single-entry visa for a month whereas others get
multiple-entry visas for a year. Obviously, due to the
sensitivity of the issue, government is justified in issuing
visas according to requirements and if some one is coming here
only once for a special purpose, there is no point in giving him
multiple-visit visas but the Americans do not like this and they
want him to have unlimited right of entry. They also object to
snap-checking by our officials of US personnel found travelling
in sensitive locations in dubious circumstances and detest
‘interference’ by our law-enforcement agencies.
Even the irregulars in Iraq gave
tough time to Americans and their accomplices and Afghans are
resisting occupation as much as they can but we, a nuclear
country, with large, formidable armed forces, and being
indispensable in the war on terror, are giving the Americans a
walk-over, and going out of our way to help invaders in our own
undoing.
Due to opposition at home,
Americans and their accomplices cannot fight a long-drawn-out
war in our region but they would love to dismember us through
covert action and irregular wars that Robert Gates talked about
towards the end of the Bush rule, and for which we seem to be
providing the American all the facilities.
There is not much time; so wake
up, enter into a military pact with China and stop these
crusaders in their tracks. With help from China, Iran and other
Muslim countries, we can also solve our energy and economic
problems and be sure that we are with friends, and not with the
pack of wolves in sheep’s clothing that we mistakenly take as
friends and seem to be proud to associate with.
While all this is going on,
members in a provincial assembly, and now even in the National
Assembly, are busy having heated discussions about how many
wives a member could, or should, have. This is really the limit.
The oft-repeated statement that the government will complete
five years is beginning to sound like a threat now.
S.R.H. Hashmi,
Karachi.
Sherani shorn of basic amenities
Sherani in Balochistan is shorn
of all basic amenities of life. Sherani comprises of seven union
councils and covers about 5000 sq kilometres of area but
presents a look of a ruined place.
People come from Sherani to Zhob
civil hospital for treatment. Because there are no health
facilities. More than 10 children died of measles within one
month. Two children died in Killi Pasta Sherani area due to
measles on 24 February. But health department has failed to
overcome this fatal disease. EDO health Dr. Fazal Din Sherani
does not even accept this death toll of children due to measles.
Although Secretary Health
Balochistan Jalal Mandokhail allocated Rs1 million to health
department for the prevention of measles, unfortunately, no
action was taken in this regard.
During polio campaign teams do
not reach their targeted areas. They merely get their TA and DA.
There is no checks on them.
Several mothers and newborns die
every month due to causes related to pregnancy and childbirth.
Because there is no gynecologist in the entire area.
People of the area demand of the
provincial government to take practical steps vis-à-vis deputing
doctors, fluent supply of medicines and provision of clinical
equipment.
Rafiullah Mandokhail,
Zhob.
1-3-2010
Britain’s belated apology
As reported in the press
(Feb.25) British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, apologised to
about 40 people who had flown to London to receive the
‘unconditional and deserved’ apology. They were survivors of a
total of about 150,00 children between the ages of 3 and 14,
some in institutions in Britain, who were sent to Australia,
Canada and other former colonies, between 1920 and 1960, with
the promise of a ‘new start’. To add another twist, very many of
the children in British institutions were told that their
parents were dead, while parents were given little information
about where their children were going. Unfortunately, for most
of the children, the new start meant ending up in foster homes,
orphanages and religious institutions where they were abused
physically and sexually.
Gordon Brown, with perhaps an
eye on the forthcoming election, made quite a speech, throwing
in passionate words here and there, like robbing them of their
childhood, and consequences of rejection. A six million pound
fund has also been established for the former child migrants.
Reading the above, one would
think that Brown really felt ashamed over these atrocities but
that would be a misplaced impression because if he really cared
about human suffering, he would not have participated in the
atrocities committed on Iraqis where, as Tony Blair’s Finance
man, he organised funds for the invasion. Tony Blair says he has
no regret over Iraq and the same seems to be the case with Brown
because if he had even a speck of conscience about him, he would
not have been so enthusiastic about Afghan invasion for which he
announced more troops even before Barack Obama did so. A few
million innocent Iraqis lost their life, limb, home and hearth,
hundreds of thousands of children made orphans, and women made
widows, out of sheer callousness by Tony Blair as an active
partner of George Bush, and for no just reason. Yet these
gentlemen Blair and Brown, have no regrets, not even a word of
sympathy for millions who suffered, and are still suffering, in
Iraq. I give credit to British public who at least chased Blair
out of office. I hope the present inquiry leads to criminal
prosecution of Tony Blair and his accomplices.
S.R.H. Hashmi,
Karachi.
Pollutors of water
Recently Sindh Government has
forced the Provincial Environment Protection Agency (PEPA) to
withdraw proceedings it had initiated against 100 industrial
polluters.
Fact is that during the last
sixty years’ bad governance most of the people who have achieved
prominence in any field, unfortunately, are those whose major
concern revolves around their selfish and vested interests. The
people who empathise and feel some pain for the good of country
are either sidelined are shunted out in the process.
The discharge of untreated
industrial waste in the river, canals and ocean has destroyed
the ecology and has also caused many deadly diseases, now
spreading fast in the country. The industrial entrepreneurs who
are party to this heinous crime are therefore not only liable to
action under environmental laws but they need to be prosecuted
under the Pakistan Penal Code for destroying the health of
people.
The withdrawal of proceedings
against 100 industrial units located in and around Karachi
initiated by SEPA for polluting the water course and sea,
discharging industrial waste and affluences is therefore most
reprehensible act.
Those who have been voted to
reach the assemblies are obligated to look after the interests
of public at large on not the interest of privileged few, the
desecrators of our natural resources.
The provincial government is
therefore requested that instated of siding with these white
collar criminals in their unlawful and unethical activities
should strengthen the SEPA so that environmental degradation can
be stemmed.
I also propose that provincial
Environmental Protection Agencies and their federal counterpart
should be run by environmental experts of integrity, who are
undeterred by political pressure. Although in present political
setup it is like asking for the moon but there is no short cut
to it.
Qazi Saleem,
Old Hala.
Suggestions to pacify FATA
Our men and material are being
sacrificed for the American war of aggression, turned skillfully
into an internal terrorism for us. Our clever and treacherous
‘friend’ (real enemy) does not remain contented with the ongoing
miseries and problems it created for us in the shape of
Talibanisation and terrorism. She is going with her drone
attacks unabatedly killing scores of our innocent tribesmen on
the pretext of chasing al-Qaeda and Taliban. The Americans are
trying to befool the world with such childish preumtions.
American drones have so far killed a total of 2040 tribal
Pakistanis out of which only 15 were said to have links with al-Qaeda,
according to Hameed Gul and Mushahid Hussain Sayyed.
We must understand that mere
slogans or military action cannot prove to be a remedy to the
worsening situation and peace cannot be reestablished through
these means. Let us think of some useful remedial proposals and
think over them seriously for implementation in our own national
interest. Here I offer a few suggestions which are very simple
and easy in implementation but very much vital to our purpose.
1) FATA should be given the
status of a separate province so that it can live like an
independent entity like the other federating units. Alternately
it should be merged with the province of the NWFP.
2) The cruel law of the FCR
should be replaced with the promulgation of Sharia law with all
required infrastructure in place. The people have already a
sincere inclination and desire for the said change and they will
be definitely happy with the Sharia law.
3) The rehabilitation and
reconstruction work should be immediately started with the
assistance of the Pak Army and the Frontier Constabulary so that
the destroyed infrastructure is reestablished at the earliest.
This is important for the economic activity as well as for the
restoration of the public confidence in the statecraft.
4) All the religious seminaries
should be registered and they should be given the status of
public schools. The students, both male and female, should be
given generous facilities and free education and training
opportunities.
5) For the maintenance of law
and order in this area, the services of the local retired army
personnel and FC be utilised and no deployment of the army from
the outside should be done here for the said purpose.
6) To effectively control any
interference of the alien elements, special courses and
trainings should be arranged for the local government officers
for capacity building in that particular field.
7) Those elements responsible
for the deterioration of the peaceful environment of the area
should be exposed and such anti-state elements should be dealt
with an iron hands indiscriminately.
8) The United Nations and the
friendly Islamic countries should be approached for assistance
for the rebuilding of the area and work should be initiated
without delay.
9) Cultivation of opium poppy
should be seriously discouraged and the drug traffickers should
be checked and the routes used for smuggling of drugs should be
vigorously monitored. The farmers of the area should be given
free inputs in the shape of improved seed and fertilizer and
plant protection equipment and chemicals. They should also be
given interest-free loans to be returned on easy instalments.
This arrangement will provide the locals with alternative means
of livelihood in lieu of the abandoning of poppy cultivation.
10) All the unregistered and
non-customs-paid vehicles in these and adjacent districts
particularly those of the Malakand Division, be regularised so
that the locals can use these vehicles for means of transport in
the whole of the country.
Muhammad Fheem,
Timergara.
27-2-2010
India unsafe for sports events
The 19th edition of Commonwealth
Games is scheduled to be held in New Delhi, India between 3 October and 14
October. The games will be the largest multi-sport event
conducted to date in New Delhi and India generally, which has
previously hosted the Asian Games in 1951 and 1982. But this is
2010, an era of terrorism in which terrorists find such a huge
event as the biggest opportunity to create terror. Like Pakistan
has TTP, India also has terrorist outfits like Shiv Sena, RSS
etc. They can try to disrupt the event as they have already
threatened IPL organisers not to take Pakistani cricketers.
Rajasthan co-owner Shalpa Shetty
has revealed that threats were made against her team and any
subsequent Pakistan cricketer picked by her franchise. Preity
Zinta, co-owner of Kings XI Punjab, reportedly said. "We would
have loved to have the T20 world champions in our teams to bring
real joy to the extravaganza but what can we do if we have
certain threats about not [only] our own safety but the safety
of the Pakistani players too, with no official quarter assuring
us of foolproof security of players during the tournament?"
This must be remembered that
after Mumbai attacks, Pakistani artists were threatened by Hindu
extremists and Shev Sena leader Bal Thakery, who said that they
would not allow Pakistani artistes to perform on Indian soil.
Would they allow Pakistani players to perform in the Hockey
World Cup 2010 which is going to be held in India? Although
Delhi police announced it will deploy 17,000 security forces for
the event, yet major hockey playing nations are still concerned.
There are reports that Australia and New Zealand are
reconsidering participation.
The Asia Times Online website
published a message reportedly from guerrilla commander Ilyas
Kashmiri, whose Kashmir-based 313 Brigade is an operational arm
of al-Qaeda. The message warns of potential attacks on the
Hockey World Cup, the Indian Premier League cricket tournament
and the Commonwealth Games in Delhi.
In such uncertain circumstances,
would it be appropriate for India to host such mega event as
Commonwealth games and Hockey World Cup? And would players take
the risk to go to India?
Shehla Zafar,
Rawalpindi.
Sachin, the history maker
Now that Sachin Tendulkar has
created history by firing the first double century in one-day
internationals, Sachin is a blazing star studded on the sky of
Cricket Empire. The 36-year-old star was in indomitable form as
he bludgeoned 25 fours and 3 sixes in a stunning 200 off 147
balls. I can't conceive! Sachin has passed the previous best of
194, set by two other glowing stars: Saeed Anwar in 1997 and
Charles Coventry last year.
Tendulkar, whose previous best
one-day knock was the 186 not out he scored against New Zealand
in 1999, is already the leading run-scorer in Test and ODI
crickets. The greatest batsman in the world today, Sachin has
the cricketing world at his feet. The adoration he commands the
world over is unsurpassed, perhaps since the days of Don Bradman.
He is perhaps the most complete batsman since Vivian Richards.
Masood Alam Khan,
On email.
Messing up with
China
China is emerging and the US is in
relative decline. But whether China will be the global power of
the future remains to be seen. Remember what we said about Japan
20 years ago and see what is happening now with Toyota. I think
the US is playing a silly game by challenging China which in the
end could cost them dearly. Dialogue instead of bullying is the
weapon of the future and Europe knows this best and that's why in the end the EU will prevail.
UMAR MUSTAFA,
Peshawar.
25-2-2010
US Consulate in City
According to a statement issued
by the United States embassy (Feb 24)
the Consulate in Peshawar has been upgraded to Consulate General
status.
The upgradation supposedly
‘demonstrates’ the growing ‘cooperation’ and people-to-people
relations between the United States and Pakistan and has
ostensibly come about to administer and monitor the five-year,
$150 million-a-year Fata development aid, nearly half of which
could be used up as cost of disbursement. The consulate will
also be responsible for planning and managing about $1 billion
new assistance planned for NWFP, especially for Malakand
division and Peshawar city.
Considering the recent blast,
and the resultant casualties including Americans, near the
Girls’ School renovated with American assistance, we cannot be
sure how much actual improvement the aid will bring to the
region but one thing is certain: it will enable the Americans to
spread their wings and get firmly entrenched, to implement their
nefarious agenda for the region. So, despite all resistance to
allow more boots on the ground, the Americans have succeeded
after all.
S.R.H. Hashmi,
Karachi.
Humiliation of the poor
According to the teachings of
Islam the most significant aspect of charity is that while
dispensing, self-respect of the needy is to be preserved. There
are two forms of charity in Islam—obligatory and voluntary,
called zakat and sadaqa respectively. Zakat is one of the five
pillars of Islam, It signifies “to thrive,” “to be wholesome,”
“to be pure” means purification. Giving up of a portion of the
wealth one may possess in excess of what is needed for
sustenance, is to “purify” or legalise it so that the remainder
may lawfully be used by the alms-giver.
The holy Prophet (may Allah’s
peace and blessings be upon him) said that “one of the seven
types of people who are given shade on the Day of Judgment are
those who give charity so secretly that their left hand does not
know what his right hand has given (nobody knows how much he has
given in charity).” It is therefore desirable that charity
should be given without any display as it will establish that
intention of giver is solely for Allah’s pleasure and not self
projection besides it will keep privacy of beneficiary
unscathed.
However a picture of Chief
Minister Sindh’s advisor on religious affairs appeared in a
national daily whereby he was shown handing over cheques of
Zakat to the deserving people at Nawabshah. Distributing Zakat
in full glare of media reflects nothing but self-importance of
the giver and mortification of recipients which is against the
very sprit of charity.
The photo sessions on Zakat-giving
occasion, as a result, create erroneous impression, as if it is
being paid by the person distributing cheques; besides it
demeans self-esteem of the deserving severely. The Zakat or
charity is a religious duty, it is therefore desirable that the
same should be distributed discreetly without publishing
photographs of the giver and the needy recipients in the media.
Qazi Bashir,
Old Hala.
Excess of everything is extremism
If the excess of everything is
extremism then softening is no exception. We were either denying
their due rights or we gave the former East Pakistanis a free
hand to elect a betrayer to betray. We are either begging
Indians just for talks or we are out to fight against them
without any preparation. We are either keeping our eyes shut
towards the waves after waves entry of the aliens of assortment
in our country or we are initiating extradition move against
them like we are joking. We are either writing off in trillions
to the robbers or we are out to put poor peasants behind bars
for petty amounts. We are either attempting to balloon the rude
DMG officers extremely or we punctured them with the crude
nazims.
Can’t our state confine the
hundreds of thousands illegal immigrants (viz the Afghans,
Chechens, Uzbeks, Tajiks, Bhutanese, Burmese, Bengalese, Arabs,
Iranians, Hindus, Nepalese, Indonesians, Africans and others of
mixture) to camps for the time being if cannot throw them back
to their native states?
Is our state weaker than the
state of Oman, who trashed tens of thousands Pakistanis, who were in search of a
living?
Can’t our state merge the
terrible tribal areas and form the former as a fifth province of
the country, so as to liberate the majority of the subject from
the clutches of Masters?
Can’t our state abolish the
blood-sucking feudalism, so as to liberate the souls of our
cultivators from landlords?
Can’t our state multiply the
unmanageable four mammoth provinces into twenty-two manageable
provinces?
Can’t our state give deadline to
the SHOs of the respective police stations to arrest all the
proclaimed offenders, who are involved in all kinds of illegal
activities by default?
Can’t our state declare outlawed
the mushroom growth of outfits of the separatists, extremists,
regionalists and sectarianists?
Can’t our state restore and
reform the district management group for the purpose of
administration and remove the makeshift local government system
from the administration and entrust them with functions of local
nature viz drainage, sewerage and repair works etc?
Can’t we act in time and weather
we will always react simply at wrong times in wrong direction
with wrong strategies?
Aftab Alam Advocate,
Swat.
We need a change and soon
Pakistan is going through a very
critical stage right now. We are faced with terrorism,
inflation, poor economy, and a very inept government with a poor
vision of the situation. The US has produced a monster in our
country with the help of our late General Zia and our friendly
Muslim countries, which is still very much alive and kicking.
Our forces are fighting gallantly, unfortunately on our soil
with some of our misguided people, with some successes, but it
is not over yet.
Neither our present government
nor the incumbent elected representatives are capable of
correcting this situation. The military is doing a good job of
fighting the terrorists with a lot of sacrifices, but this alone
is not going to solve the problem, therefore we have to do
something to challenge this problem and solve it intelligently.
We have to bring, a real change in this country.
I therefore appeal the civil
society, media, judiciary, and those groups who are really
patriotic, to form a committee, to search for 15 to 20
intellectuals in the country, who are retired and may be from
any walk of life, with no self interest, honest, and have love
for this country, to come to Islamabad, and elect a chairman,
and form a think tank in the form of a supreme council, to sort
out our problems, make a plan and solve them.
They should have the backing of
the military, but no direct intervention. The judiciary should
give them authority to implement the plan, honestly and
diligently. They should have the power of 58-2-B. And make sure,
that the parliament runs the country well and efficiently.
I have a few suggestions, but,
it is up to them to implement. The supreme council should have
the backing of the judiciary, civil society, and the nation as a
whole, to put the country on the right path.
This think tank, should
immediately form a universal education curriculum tailored to
the requirements of Pakistani children, modern, scientific, may
include religious knowledge or whatever may be necessary, but
one syllabus for all and should be on par with the advanced
world.
Education must be compulsory
till grade ten or twelve for all children within the boundaries
of this country, irrespective of FATA, PATA, Northern Areas,
Azad Kashmir, and settled area. After that the student can go to
any field that he or she likes. This is the right of every
citizen as a basic human right.
The second important item is to
control the population growth with effective means, no matter
how they do it but it is a must, and we should see the results.
The third is to change the
system of the government. From this old imperial, to a modern,
lean, and efficient system that can deliver. There are a lot of
examples in the world that we can choose from.
They may divide the country into
smaller units that can be easily managed by a good and honest
administrator, and possibly a modified local body system,
elected on non-party basis. The elected people will be loyal to
the people of that place rather than to the party. It is alright
if the central government is on party basis.
They should have full powers to
explore the potentials of that area, and develop so that they
have no grievances later.
Fourthly, to suspend all the
four provincial assemblies; in a small country like ours, we
don't need five legislative assemblies, it is a waste of huge
amount of money and duplication of services, and any logical,
selfless, and patriotic person will agree with me. We are all
Pakistani and that is enough.
Fifthly to put up a barbed wire
fence along the Durand line and on the border with Iran with
multiple exits so that the divided families can visit each other
without any trouble, visa can be issued on the entry points, but
there should be no one without proper documentation in either
country. The political disputes can be sorted out later and
fixed. But now this is a security issue, and we do not want our
land to be used for subversive activities in the neighbouring
countries and vice versa. Afghanistan should take care of
itself. There should be no narcotic trade or other smuggling and
no antisocial activities across the line. We want complete peace
and harmony. No exploitation in the name of religion. We need
economic development very badly, and it is not possible without
peace. We should clear our land from the miscreants completely,
whatever it may take, negotiations or force. We want peace.
We should aim for a time when an
ordinary citizen enters a public office with a problem, that he
or she is received with respect, and his or her problem is
solved immediately without the hassle of agents and bribes, or
if a stranger, ask someone for help in any corner of the
country, that he or she is helped without being cheated or
robbed. This is the least a common citizen would like to see,
which is impossible under the present circumstances. This is our
problem, which leads to a loss of basic human rights and trust
in our country, it leads to unrest and corruption.
I am afraid, this may take
twenty to twenty five years for us to achieve, and it is only
possible, when the new generations of educated Pakistanis, that
are grown in a clean and honest atmosphere like this, and take
the power in their own hands. It is a lot of sacrifice but we
have no choice, until then the think tank can run the government
through the elected parliament.
Dr Habibullah Khan,
Swat.
24-2-2010
The Mingora tragedy
The Mingora Press Club ceremony
in memory of slain journalist Musa Khankhel held by the Swat
Press Club, PFUJ and KhUJ, was cut short as a curfew was imposed
in the city. According to security sources, intelligence
agencies had reported the entry of a suicide bomber into the
city who was likely to target the huge congregation of
journalists at the press club. So far there has been pretty
little reason not to believe the agencies as all their previous
accounts had proved accurate, and had our and nobody else’s
benefit in mind when orders of curfew were issued.
As falsely represented, the army
is not against the freedom of media, in fact it has always
served as a driving force behind it and had enabled it to
flourish so much that, in the words of Orwell, it has become
‘more equal than others’. Furthermore, it has been observed that
the army seems to be cooperating fairly well with local
journalists.
Maj. Mushtaq Khan, an army
spokesman and head of the army media centre in Swat, told
reporters that “we believe the media role in the post-Taliban
Swat is very important to inform the masses about what the
government is doing to restore peace. There are no restrictions
on media now in Swat and we believe partnership with media is
very important for the success of the operation.”
The media, government and the
army have to preach altruism to create a harmony with each other
and start to work in collaboration so that this feeling of
mistrust should diminish and give rise to a united nation.
Umar Khankhel,
Mingora.
A
limit to ‘do more’
There is a limit to everything
and this principle should equally apply to the “do more”
loquacity of the American envoys visiting Islamabad every now
and then to keep their pressure continued for the war we have
owned on America’s behalf. One is at a loss to understand
whether they are our friends or masters. How much we have to go
along with the faulty and gratuitous policies of America in this
region? American war of aggression has now been rendered as
ours, due to the follies of the past dictator and continuity of
the same at the hands of the democratically elected rulers.
A few days back when Mr. James
L. Jones and McChrystal were again reminding us for ‘do more’ we
were mourning the Shahadat of our high ranking military
officers, martyred at the hands of the insurgents in the tribal
areas, where on both sides Pakistanis and Muslims are being
killed for the so-called American war on terrorism. Mind that
Holbrooke is our regular visitor since he commands the strategic
authority for both Pakistan and Afghanistan. Americans have gone
blind to the sacrifices of our military officers, jawans and
innocent public for their war.
There should be a limit to our
going through this dark and blind tunnel of blood and fire. This
is the basic question to be pondered by those who matter at
home. The root cause of the whole turmoil is the illegal
presence and occupation of Afghanistan on the ruses of Osama
hiding in those rugged mountains. If you could not dig out Osama
through a full decade operation, spraying the soil of
Afghanistan with the deadliest bombs and powder, what is the
justification of your camping there, where you have been killing
hundred of thousands of innocent people, who never harmed you?
It is time for you to wind up and go home. Don’t make it a point
of egoism. You have been clearly defeated in your war of
aggression in Afghanistan by those Afghan fighters who are
justifiably fighting their war against the aggressor to liberate
their holy soil.
Many sensible Americans,
political and otherwise have been reminding the American
administration of the bewilderment of this war and it must be
seen in the mirror of history lest the story of Vietnam is
repeated. Leave this region, peace and tranquility will
automatically just step in and prevail. Let us bet on it!
Muhammad Faheem,
Timergara.
Dying forests of Sindh
As per news appearing in a
national daily the province of Sindh is being
deprived of its already scant forests. It is reported that in
order to capture large tracts of virgin land the influential
people of the area have recently slaughtered entire trees
existed on ninety thousand acres of government forest land in
Hala and Saeedabad. The have not only developed roads for
accessibility to the area but have installed tube-wells and
brought electricity to irrigate the illegally taken lands.
Certainly such a devious design
could not have been implemented without the connivance and
collaboration of forest officials. Now the lands evacuated by
the wily grabbers unlawfully are being put to cultivation. Some
of the culprits have the temerity even to sale out same
government lands to third parties.
The continued obliteration of
forests has reduced the green cover substantially affecting the
ecology of Sindh adversely. This ruthless act has also
influenced the large number of local people for whom forests
were bread and butter. They depended on woodland not for only
grazing of their cattle herds but used to sale many
forest-products in the market to earn livelihood.
Unfortunately Sindh has been
stripped of this great natural resource and for this mindless
act of butchery I hold every provincial government in power
since 1947 responsible. These governments despite exhaustive
reports about slaughter of trees appearing in the media from
time to tome have kept discreet silence.
Now most of the forest lands are
possessed by either by “big guns” sitting in the treasury
benches of parliaments; national as well as provincial
assemblies or those who have powerful feudal bureaucratic power
on their back.
Before woodland is totally
obliterated from the province the chief minister and provincial
minster for Forest and livestock have to act decisively. Not
only illegally occupied lands need to evacuated from the
unscrupulous land grabbers and reforestation started forthwith
but criminal proceedings should also be initiated against the
officials of forest department with whose connivance Sindh have
lost its green cover.
M. A. Qureshi,
Hyderabad.
Collaboration with Chinese
According to reports appearing
in the press (Feb.23), as a followup of Punjab chief minister’s visit to China,
a seven-member Chinese delegation is in Punjab, headed by Yan Li, who is also chairman of Chinese industrial group,
Asia International Development Limited. The group is planning to
build a state-of-the-art industrial city along with an
industrial estate of 100,000 acres, with hospitals and other
welfare facilities. The group is prepared to invest up to $50
billion over the next ten years, starting with an investment of
five to seven billion dollars in the first year. All they want
Punjab government to provide is a congenial atmosphere, which is only
reasonable.
China is a country which has huge foreign exchange reserves amounting to over
$1,400 billion and is constantly looking for, and does invest,
in suitable projects all over the globe, including
Pakistan.
Now if these parties can invest
up to $50 billion in a provincial project, I am sure they would
be willing to invest much more than that in federal or federally
guaranteed projects. Our government should, therefore, seek
investments from China instead of just looking up to the
Americans or Europeans and getting back insults, rather than
investments.
We had the famous “No more blank
cheques” snub from President Obama, as if the US was actually
giving us blank cheques. The fact is that even the arrears of
Coalition Support Funds (which is basically a reimbursement of
the expenses already incurred by us) have piled up to $2
billion, against which they have offered to pay just $349
million soon, with no indication as to when the rest will be
cleared. As for amounts pledged under Friends of Democratic
Pakistan forum, these still remain just ‘pledges’ with no sign
of redemption.
Encouraged by our subservient
attitude, even the American Ambassador Anne Patterson, while
speaking recently at the National Defence University, took
liberty with us and said “American taxpayers will not forever
pay for Pakistan’s economic and social development. Neither will
Japanese or German or British taxpayers.”
Instead of begging these
unworthy partners of ours and getting only insults in return, we
could be better off enhancing our collaboration with Chinese in
economic, military and other fields. Also, our interests match
perfectly with those of the Chinese which is not the case with
Americans and Europeans,who, 'encouraged' by their Iraq
'success', are hear only to break up Pakistan and to neutralise
our nuclear assets.
S.R.H. Hashmi,
Karachi.
23-2-2010
UK visa discrimination
I submitted my passport No. NQ
4103311 for UK visa to the Gerry’s visa application center in
G-9 Islamabad. I needed a UK visa to attend a joint programme of
the Environmental Change Institute of the Oxford
University and Leadership in Environment and Development International in October.
My passport is missing since then. I sent an email to the
Abu Dhabi contact of the UK High
Commission (AbuDhabi.DutyECO@fco.gov.uk) in December and they
confirmed through email on December 20th that my passport is
being processed and I will get it back soon. Nothing however
received at my end and I again sent an inquiry to the UK High
Commission Abu Dhabi in January. In return I got email from Mr.
John Galbraith, Entry Clearance Officer, Abu Dhabi Regional Hub,
UK Border Agency International Group, British Embassy Abu Dhabi
confirming that my passport is lost in the process.
This easily said sentenced has
multiple adverse impacts and sides. This indicates to a loophole
in the system of UK Border Agency, this indicates to
discriminatory treatment with Pakistanis, this indicates to
depriving Pakistanis from opportunities of international
significance. Although, I am not sure that how much the
discriminators will respond to this letter, yet am sure that
there is little interest at the UKBA and UK High Commissions and
UK Embassies to search lost or STOLEN passports like mine, yet I
am making an effort to spread the word against it, as my
passport has a valid US visa and can be used for any purpose.
There is a rumour that UK Border
Agency has employed Indians in Abu Dhabi for processing of
passports and they are stealing passports of Pakistanis that
have value, have valid visas and their stealing can deprive
Pakistanis like me from attending international meetings and can
deprive us from representing Pakistan at International fora.
I would, though not making a
case for myself, appeal the Prime Minister of Pakistan, the
President of Pakistan, the Foreign Minister, the Ambassador of
Pakistan to United Kingdom to intervene and take up the
situation with the UK Border Agency that why there is this
discrimination with Pakistan and Pakistanis?
Ahmad Khan,
akhan@wwf.org
Defeating sugar mafia
No one from the political elite
has come forward even as a mill owner to rescue the poor people
queuing up at utility and grocery stores to provide them with
the sugar from their own sugar mills. They just pose as they
never owned the sugar mills whose very product is under
spotlight. They rather chose to keep mum about their ownership
and let their coffer swell with unjust, cruel and inappropriate
profits made by sugar sale at exorbitant prices. In this way, by
the collaborated efforts of millers and traders, billions of
rupees have already been siphoned off the pockets of the people
of this already impoverished nation.
The statements of the Minister
of Sugar (Mian Manzoor Ahmed Wattoo) if collected all shall give
an impression that there is no problem of sugar at all in the
country. Even if we take into account the statements of all
government officials and politicians, there seems no sugar
crisis. Alas, despite all their statements and verbal vomits,
the situation on ground is totally in the contrast of what they
say. And what this all means is that they simply befool the
people.
Another necessary and utmost
requirement of the hour is to break the cartels developed in
different industries and it must be carried out under the aegis
of Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP).
It is a pity that we could not
become so far a good consumer in the sense that we as a nation
run in haste and start buying more and more the scarce items at
much higher prices. This frenzy benefits the manufacturers and
the black marketers. Whereas the right course of action for the
people at large would be that they abandon or discontinue for
some time the use of scarce and expensive commodities to make
the profiteers learn a lesson. When their goods are left lying
rotten at stores and factories, they would surely seek the ways
to attract again the buyers and the best way surely is to
decrease the prices of their respective commodities. The good
consumer behaviour then shall pay the consumers by easing them.
This is the ideal condition and I wonder if we achieve it
sooner.
RAZIQ HUSSAIN,
On email.
Musharraf must return
According to press reports,
General (retired) Pervez Musharraf told a think tank in London
that he is prepared to do anything for Pakistan. If he really
wants to do something for Pakistan, then I request him to return
and serve the country for the rest of his life. Pakistan needs
an Ataturk to translate the vision of Quaid-e-Azam into reality.
Present politicians have, again, failed miserably to protect the
integrity of Pakistan and in solving the problems faced by the
people. As they are only interested in protecting their personal
interests, the people of Pakistan are fed up. I urge the
generous retired general not to waste time abroad. He should
come back, face his opposition and, if left undefeated, he
should re-enter the political battlefield.
S T HUSSAIN,
On e-mail.
State and education
According to, Diogenes Laertius,
"The foundation of every state is the education of its youth."
But unfortunately, case of Pakistan is unique in itself. United
Nations Development Programme Report, 2009, ranked Pakistan 160
out of 177 with 49.9 literacy rate. Cuba, Estonia and Latvia,
tiny European states are the top countries in literacy ranking
of the world. India is graded as 147. After these heart-fiery
facts, we still did not realise our mistakes.
Our deteriorating education
system has radicalised many young people while failing to equip
them with the skills necessary for a modern economy. There is
two much gap between public and private sector in term of
quality of education. Even in public sector there are no checks
and balances, or evaluation system of teachers. Writers and
analysts should shed light and give recommendations to
policymakers for educational uplift.
RASHIDA AHMED,
Rawalpindi.
Younis’ brash behaviour
It was sad and shocking to see
former skipper of our cricket team, Younis Khan, beating up a
fan during a Karachi Champions League match on Thursday. Younis
was leading Malir Gymkhana in the match when some spectators ran
onto the ground and by slipping on the wet outfield accidentally
tumbled with Younis Khan onto the ground.
This angered Younis so much that
he immediately left the field and went into the dressing room.
He took the fan into the dressing room with him and later beat
him up. He should be fined heavily and should also be banned for
at least five matches. He must also apologise to the fan.
MUBASHIR MAHMOOD,
Karachi.
DMG is the linchpin
Apropos of the letter ‘DMG: an
obsolete instrument of government’ (Feb 18), I have certain
reservations.
The civil service in the United
Kingdom is regarded as a strong and respectable institution.
Of this civil service the
administrative class is the most important, as it has an
excellent record of efficiency to its credit.
The ministers generally rely
very much on this class in day-to-day administration. These
administrators are recruited on the basis of their ability and
qualification for the said post.
It is the same in Pakistan that
the respected Federal Public Service Commission selects
candidates for the DMG and other groups through a long procedure
in which there is no room for favouritism.
The duties of a DMG officer are
to carry out the policies of the government on a daily basis.
They are policy implementers. These seasoned policy executors
have a vast experience in their respective fields.
They are perfectly neutral
because they have experience in carrying out the policies under
different governments.
The replacement of the private
sector with DMG officers will create pressure groups in the
administration which will try to influence policymaking rather
than policy execution.
Every private sector has its own
manifesto which it wants to carry out.
The private sector has always
indulged in money-making.
It also relies on the overall
economy of the country. Compared to the US and the UK, Pakistan
certainly has a weak economy. As such, public-private sector
cooperation in the policy execution is not possible.
Work efficiency of DMG officers
is hindered by non-continuation of government policies. Members
of Provincial and National Assemblies are elected at the
grassroots level and are, hence, bound to go to the people to
know their problems and formulate policies accordingly.
This would not only benefit the
public but would also reinforce the interaction between the
ruler and the ruled, instead of relying on the local body system
or the private sector.
UMAR MAHBOOB,
Lahore.
21-2-2010
Squandering public money
A report appeared in the media
that Federal Board of Revenue has let its official off in Rs140m
tax refund fraud case is most disgusting. According to details,
the Federal Board of Revenue has exonerated a senior sales tax
official who was found involved in illegal payment of refund to
the tune of Rs140m to a party not entitled to it.
The fraud was detected by
auditors and was brought to the notice of the Public Accounts
Committee of the National Assembly.
It was discovered that two
companies were allowed illegal refunds during the period of
May-July 2005 and 2006.
After detection the matter went
to the Peshawar High Court. On the court’s order the delinquent
official was suspended and departmental inquiry was initiated
against him.
The inquiry established the
official guilty of crime and the report was submitted to the
higher-ups.
However, at the instance of the
finance ministry, the official, against whom culpability was
established, was cleared of all charges and reinstated
honourably. Although when the news was broken, the PAC, taking
the matter seriously, has required the FBR authorities to
explain why a corrupt official against whom charges of
misdemeanour were proved was reinstated, yet the official is
with clean chit and is back to his seat of assignment.
Another unfortunate aspect of
this case is that Rs140 million hard-earned public money, given
to some unlawful parties cannot be recovered now.
This is definitely not a
solitary instance where the exchequer lost a huge amount on
account of corrupt practices by officials.
There may be many such cases
which could not be brought to the notice of PAC because of
collaboration at the lower level.
The irony is that instead of
making efforts to eradicate corruption, our state institutions
are helping the dishonest to misappropriate public money with
impunity.
I am afraid that if appropriate
punitive action is not taken against the corrupt official and
other functionaries of the FBR and the ministry of finance with
whose palpable complicity such a ‘grand scheme’ was devised,
people of Pakistan will lose faith in the entire state
administration.
Thus keeping in view the
involvement of higher authorities and the amount of massive
corruption, I invite the attention of the Chief Justice of the
Supreme Court of Pakistan to initiate suo motu action in this
case.
S. Ansari,
Hyderabad.
Thank you, Hoti
While addressing a
representative jirga of the elites of Katlang area of district
Mardan at the Chief Minister's House,
Peshawar on Feb 19, Chief
Minister Amir Haider Khan Hoti announced the following to
address the long-standing demands of the people of Katlang area
of district Mardan.
i) Establishment of tehsil at
Katlang;
ii) Mega project of the
construction of expressway connecting Swabi, Mardan and Malakand;
iii) Mega project of Baizai
Irrigation Channel at a cost of Rs1800 million to irrigate 25000
acres of Barani land of Mardan and Malakand districts; and
iv) Establishment of girls
college at Katlang.
The people of Katlang area are
indebted to the chief minister for addressing the long-standing
demands of the area. This will not only give the chief minister
an immense political mileage in the area, but will also remove
the sense of deprivation among the people of the area.
Muhammad Adil Khan,
Mardan.
Disciplining our sportsmen
The Senate Committee on Sports
has recommended imposing a ban for five years on Shahid Afridi
from playing international cricket as he was found guilty of
ball-tampering during the last one day match against Australia
in Perth.
In the past our bowlers have
remained the target of western media for ball-tampering and we
resisted the accusation for we believe they were jealous of our
reverse swing. But such incidents as this show that they were
correct.
The poor explanation given by
Afridi was that since the team was losing the matches
continuously, he tried to lead them to win through this way.
This statement is unacceptable and based on deception.
As Afridi has huge experience of
playing international cricket, it is hard to believe that he was
unaware that 17 different cameras watched him on the ground.
Winning or losing is a part of
game, but playing fairly and with full zeal does not disappoint
the crowd even if the team loses. Players are regarded as true
ambassadors of a country, for diplomats are not as much known
and popular as are cricketers worldwide.
We have examples of Azharuddin
and Ajay Jedaja, two renowned Indian cricket stars, who have
lost their career due to discipline violation.
Unfortunately, in our country it
has become a common practice to get away with discipline
violation if some superstar or big gun is involved.
Pakistan is a country full of
talent. The only problem is finding the right talent, proper
grooming and training. Imran Khan, Wasim Akram and Javaid
Miandad are some of the legends this country has produced.
Pakistan gave them all a name,
reputation, respect and, of course, money. It is players’ prime
obligation to uphold its name and not disgrace it.
I think the Senate Committee’s
recommendations should be carried forward for stiff action.
However, the PCB should also take into consideration as to why
such embarrassing events keep occurring repeatedly. Maybe, the
PCB should not focus solely on cultivating the talents of the
cricketers, but should also try to nurture an exemplary
sportsman spirit, moral ethics and discipline, a must for any
player.
Discipline is something that
should not be compromised as the Father of the Nation has taught
us to uphold ‘Unity, Faith and Discipline’.
AAMIR IQBAL,
Islamabad.
20-2-2010
Desecrating NUML?
That the biggest casualty of the
recent NUML controversy is the credibility and prestige of this
modern institute of learning, one should keep in mind that
already the education sector has been treated as a third
priority. That we have always invited army to come into frays
and clear messes, be it political, law & order or financial
bungling, leads us to believe that the civil administration is
neither capable nor sincere. That NUML, primarily established by
the Pakistan military to meet the requirement of language
training of the Armed Forces, was handed over to civil
authorities under the Allama Iqbal Open University during the
period 1974-1976, the deteriorated standards and “performance
far from satisfactory” necessitated the issuance of presidential
order handing over the command back to the army.
The fact remains that out of 500
faculty members, only 20 are from the armed forces, most of them
retired but duly qualified personnel, and out of 8,000 students
only 200 students are from the military. This is also a fact
that the Director General, Dr Kamran Jahangir, who has to be a
qualified Brigadier of the Army Education Corps, under the law,
is a civilian. The propaganda that this prestigious institute is
under the military dominance stands uncalled for and aims at
giving blows to its prestige and the primary objective of its
establishment. One needs to analyse its performance during the
last two decades and block attempts to desecrate it.
F Z Khan,
Islamabad.
Muslims’ best friend: Obama
As reported in the press (Feb.
14) following on his first impassioned speech to Muslims around
the world made from Egypt, US President Barack Obama has now
come up with a video address from Qatar, being the second in his
‘Fooling Muslims’ series. The speech is in line with Obama’s
policy for Muslims which is ‘promise much, do little, preferably
nothing’ Accordingly, he gave a formidable list of trivial and
insignificant steps as detailed in the following paragraph, that
he will take / has taken, and which, in his view, will bring
unlimited progress and prosperity to Muslims but, in practical
terms, will be of little benefit to them.
“A number of important agencies
and departments have worked together to implement a number of
programmes in the areas of education, entrepreneurship, health,
and science and technology. The US has also expanded exchange
programmes and online opportunities, forged a global recovery
effort to create jobs in all regions of the world, launched a
Global Technology and Innovation Fund to invest in technological
development in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia, worked with
Saudi officials to address H1N1 to prepare for Hajj, and
partnered with the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC)
to eradicate polio, says a web announcement.
Further ‘concrete’ steps include
engaging Muslim communities around the country and appointment
of a Special Envoy to the OIC.”
The actual performance is that
on meeting resistance from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu, Obama shamelessly gave up his former ‘firm’ demand
for settlement freeze in the illegally occupied territories and
neither he, nor any of his officials is talking about it now.
Roadmap for peace and Maryland conference are all forgotten.
Obama is asking Palestinians to enter into meaningless talks
with Israel without any pre-conditions, just to fool the world
into believing that the peace process is still on and he is
trying to solve Muslims’ problems.
To keep up the aggression
against Muslims and in order to make up for the dwindling Muslim
fatalities in Iraq, Obama has geared up war efforts in
Afghanistan, which he calls ‘good’ war and for which he has
already announced extra resources and thousands of additional
troops.
American courts are also doing
their bit. Blackwater security guards who killed 17 innocent
Iraqis have been acquitted. Further, Pakistani Dr. Aafia
Siddiqui has been convicted of attempted murder of American
soldiers none of whom got killed or injured and the prosecution
failed to prove its case; with the benefit of doubt given to the
prosecution and not to the accused which is the norm in the rest
of the world.
I think we just have to take
President Obama’s word for it and accept that Muslims never had
a better American friend than him, and that is final.
S.R.H. Hashmi,
Karachi.
Make do with scare water
This is apropos of the PPP’s
stance on the Indus River System Authority providing water to
Chashma link canal for irrigation in south
Punjab.
Without realising that it has a
formidable vote bank in south
Punjab, the PPP directed the
nominee of the central government to vote with the Sindh nominee
to deny the much-needed water for irrigation, though this right
of Punjab to use the allocated share is in accordance with the accord.
The Chashma link canal was built
according to the Indus Basin Water Treaty to irrigate crops and
was not meant to serve as a recreation spot.
While the PPP has been
expressing sympathies for south
Punjab, it considered it
appropriate to starve its people by denying their share of
water, the lifeline for agriculture and irrigation.
Major political parties that
claim the right to rule the federation through a democratic
process must also develop the vision to accommodate the legal
rights of all federating units, and leave it to their provincial
party heads to represent their individual rights.
May I remind Sindh that even
during Musharraf’s dictatorial rule it was Punjab that voluntarily gave up a large part of its water share when there was
a drought there.
As the demand for water in south
Punjab falls within the agreed allocated share of the province,
there was no need for this opposition.
At the end of the day the Irsa
representatives of three other provinces voted to accede to the
legitimate demand of south Punjab, while Sindh and the nominee
of the centre voted against it.
Moreover, the legitimate water
requirements of Azad Kashmir must be met because the Mangla
reservoir is located there. Water in this reservoir is composed
of water that originates from Azad Kashmir and there is a
sovereign guarantee given by the Pakistan government to cater to
requirements of Azad Kashmir.
It is hoped that all federating
units would develop a culture to accommodate each other. Today
Pakistan faces a water crisis of immense dimension because of
useless politicking, with the net result that India has built
large reservoirs on its side.
Agreed that Sindh has been
facing an acute shortage of water, but so have all other
federating units of Punjab, Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and our
independent and autonomous Azad Kashmir.
Water shortages have to be
shared by all federating units, instead of politicising the
issue. As the country faces an acute shortage of major crops,
there is a need to cater to minimal water requirements of
high-yield areas in the country to minimise the overall impact.
The PPP government needs to
adopt the vision of its founder Zulfikar Ali Bhutto who rules
the hearts and minds of the people even after his death.
SYED JAWAID HUSSAIN,
Multan.
19-2-2010
CJ’s meeting with PM
As the nation waited eagerly for
the promised good news the airwaves emanating from all TV
channels in Pakistan from 3:30pm onwards were abuzz with the
news and views on the CJP meeting with the PM. Apart from the
clippings showing the PM cordially receiving the CJP and the two
exchanging pleasantries, the TV anchors remained animatedly
engaged in obtaining the views and comments of the legal experts
and other analysts on the propriety and outcome of the meeting.
Amongst the commentators a clear
divide was visible. Some praised the meeting as a good omen for
the future of democracy in the country, while others considered
it unprecedented, potentially unproductive and against the norm.
However, what really surprised me was the level of the
discussions and comments of some of the analysts who were just
hollow and shallow.
Imagine the ignorance of one
so-called senior advocate who pompously narrated the story of
the first CJP Mr. Justice Sir, Abdul Rashid declining to meet
with the then PM Nawabzada Liaqat Ali Khan, and – lo and behold
– according to the heavyweight advocate – “the Registrar of the
Chief justice conveyed to the MILITARY SECRETARY of Nawabzada
Liaqat Ali Khan that since there were a number of cases against
the government pending before the superior court he could not
meet with him.
First of all, for his
information the prime ministers then did not use to have
military secretaries. This regalia was brought by ZAB who while
stepping down from the Presidency brought all the protocol
baggage of the President – the ADCs, the Military Secretary, the
National Anthem et al with him to the Prime Minister’s House.
Secondly, there were not a
‘number of cases’ before the Federal Court of Pakistan – as was
the Supreme Courts of Pakistan known then - but only one case
that of the dismissal of the NWFP government by the Governor
General Muhammad Ali Jinnah.
Thirdly, the PM Liaqat Ali Khan
had not asked for some specific meeting with the CJP but had
invited him to an official dinner that he (Liaqat Ali Khan) was
to host in the Governor’s House Lahore. The CJP didn’t want to
take a chance by attending the dinner lest he was seen
exchanging the greetings and pleasantries with the PM, which was
bound to happen. So much for the knowledge of the judicial
history of Pakistan of one of the most knowledgeable advocates
of ours!
Now a word about the
gate-crashing by the PM. Such an unannounced, unexpected and
uninvited presence of the Chief Executive of the country would
have been a pleasant surprise for anyone and an equally
magnanimous and modest gesture on his part on any other occasion
but not this one. The formal dinner was being hosted by the CJP
to bid farewell to Mr. Justice Khalil ur Rehman Ramday on his
retirement. As such Justice Ramday was the Chief Guest or the
Guest of Honour for the evening. No one superior in status to
him should have been, therefore, here as that would tantamount
to lessening his importance.
But I suppose these are the
finesses of protocol not known to many.
Col. Riaz Jafri (Retd),
Rawalpindi.
Judicial crisis: Now & then
In 2007 the matter of judicial
reference against the chief justice by the then president Pervez
Musharraf led to a crisis which in turn caused many changes. The
creation and intensification of that crisis was mainly caused
because of a dictatorial mindset.
This time again a controversy
emerged between the government and the judiciary which was
feared to be leading to a crisis however it has been amicably
resolved due to the democratic mindset. That is the difference
between a dictator and a democrat.
A J Khattak,
Peshawar.
India’s water aggression
India’s strategic felony of water strangulation is more dangerous than any
other challenges being faced by
Pakistan. Pakistan is an
agrarian economy. Seventy percent of its population is directly
related to agriculture despite massive rural to urban movements.
Another 10 to 15 percents are linked with agriculture through
farm support businesses.
Shortage of water will therefore
directly affect the 80 to 85 percent population of Pakistan.
There will be only two choices left; one to solve the issue on
permanent basis and second to send 50 to 60 million people for
new job huntings across oceans, as the reduced agrarian economy
will only be able to support its half the population.
Presently Pakistan has the
world’s largest canal command system (if the trend of diverting
water continues, soon it will be India). It is the sixth largest
milk producer in the world, a country with second largest rice
surplus, fifth in fresh fruit production, third largest date
producing country and fourth largest range land from Balochistan
to Durand line. It is amongst first 10 countries of the world in
almost all major crops and food items. Pakistan has never been a
water-scarce country. It is endowed with five major rivers, 30
to 40 miles apart, thereby creating the most fertile lands in
between. It is at the confluence of two weather systems, Monsoon
in summer and westerly winds in winter, both have an overlapping
area up to Potohar region. Central and southern
Punjab along few districts of
Sindh is the granary of Pakistan where surplus grain and food
crops are produced. The agrarian surplus is then distributed in
the whole country and also exported at premium cost.
The Chenab is the main river which feeds this agricultural heart land.
India is very systematically
diverting the water of this river. Chenab has nine tributaries
on its left bank and 12 tributaries on its right bank. One after
the other India has almost diverted the water from all the
tributaries. Chenab has one of the most well-defined catchment
areas with available places for suitable heads to build dams.
Unfortunately as all of these fell in Indian territory India is
exploiting the situation with impunity.
It is not only that Baglihar dam
is made over the Chenab, there are around 10 mega projects which
are either completed or nearing completion. The hydrographic
record of Chenab shows that even during four years of drought the flow remained over
40,000 cusecs. Today at Marala the head start, it is not more
than 5,000 cusecs.
This water aggression is not a
meaningless or benign activity; it is very much symbolising the
unfolding of aggressive design to strangulate the complete
economy of Pakistan. According to estimates this water
aggression is turning one crore acres of prime agriculture land
into desert-like territory. Not only agriculture, the complete
backbone of cottage industry at Sialkot, Gujrat, Gujranwala and
Faisalabad depends upon the pristine water of Chenab river.
India is even making water storage facilities on river
Jhelum, there are also news that mighty
Indus will also be facing this aggression soon, as the river meandering
territory inside India is going through lot of activities. The enmity does not stop here,
India has made Salma dam
in Afghanistan not due to some sympathetic impulse towards
Afghan people but to reduce the flow of river Kabul in Pakistan.
Water is no more an
administrative or an agrarian issue. It is a food security
issue, which is an important constituent of national security
policy. The diversion of water of our rivers is a paramount
security issue, anyone not showing empathy should not later on
blame Pakistan for initiating water adventures as it is the
water from vales which flows in the jugular of Pakistan and its
people will not only defend every inch rather they will vouch
for every drop which nature has blissfully endowed.
The application of Indus Basin
Treaty is not relevant at this moment, India is trying to
redefine the treaty on the grounds that lower riparian (Pakistan) since has not built
any storage so upper riparian (India) has right to utilise.
Sending of a team to access the shortfall of water flow in
Pakistan is also a gimmick to pacify people for time being.
Perhaps now is time that Pakistanis should say to big brother
that enough is enough.
Abid Latif Sindhu,
On email.
18-2-2010
Bravo, prime minister
The surprise arrival of prime
minister at Chief Justice’s dinner is worthy of high praise. It
speaks of the prime minister’s greatness and nobility and shows
that he can go beyond his self for the national interests. Many,
many cheers for the gentle prime minister.
A J Khattak,
Peshawar.
Dist management group
With changing paradigms of
public administration the tool of district management as a
vehicle of delivering public and social policies is almost
obsolete.
Pakistan has to come out of the
conventional delivery mechanism by resorting to ideas advanced
by the new public management, whereby public policies are
delivered with the joint venture of public and private
enterprises as experienced in the United States and the United
Kingdom under the administration of Ronald Reagan and Margaret
Thatcher, respectively, in the early 1980s.
The coalition of public and
private enterprises was put into operation by two means. First
through full-fledged privatisation with complete transfer of
assets to the private sector, while the other mode was through
contracting whereby the state retained the assets.
However, services, especially
pertaining to social welfare such as education and health, were
contracted out to market forces.
Such contract arrangements have
made it possible to present a clear dichotomy between
policymaking and policy execution; hence diminishing the effect
of politicisation of government machinery.
It is labelled as ‘re-inventing
government’ that helped in reducing the size of conventional
bureaucracy and increasing efficiency and productivity by taping
the enormous potential of the private sector.
Ironically, we still want to
stick to the outdated bureaucratic system, wherein the DMG is
much out of context in terms of public services.
I, therefore, vehemently oppose
the revival of DMG, and advocate the paradigm shift in
administrative system by gradual introduction of market forces
into delivery and implementation mechanism through contractual
arrangements.
It is time we got rid of the
outdated DMG and a huge volume of bureaucracy which turns out to
be a white elephant as it clung to the power structure to
maximise self-extension at the cost of poor people, and,
unfortunately, which considers itself far from any
accountability.
What they want is pomp and
pageantry, which is not possible now in these changing times of
globalisation.
Gone are the days when the DMG
were perched on ivory towers. Now they have to listen to tunes
of change, precipitated by the powerful media and judicial
activism.
SAJJAD H. CHANNAR,
On email.
Gillani’s threat to judiciary
This is with reference the
recent immature outbursts of our political elite, whom neither
time has reformed, nor age made a little more sobre. The world
has changed with a virtual revolution in information technology.
News is easily accessible to the people today, the media having
punched so many holes in the secretive lives of the rulers that
nothing is a secret from the public. In Pakistan, though, the
ruling political elite still lives in the past when they ruled
like kings and the king could do no wrong. Musharraf sent the
judiciary, lock, stock and barrel, home with the stroke of a pen
for he considered the constitution an instrument of his
executive powers. Our elected PM today stood up in the National
Assembly in the emulation of that dictator to say that he had
restored the judiciary through an executive action that needed
to be endorsed by the Parliament. And in true dictatorial
traditions, he also indicated that the judiciary can be sent
packing home yet again through (yet another) executive order.
So what has changed? Dare one
ask the elected PM, or does he consider himself to be the
Viceroy of the President, who in turn might equate himself with
the Monarch of the Raj, that how did the executive action of the
dictator, with an approval of the Parliament, acquired such a
legitimacy even though his act was in violation of the
constitution? If so, this constitution is a unique document that
can be used whichever way required to rule the ordinary
subjects, but the elected monarch and his Viceroy are beyond its
jurisdiction. Is the superior judiciary so fragile even in a
democratic environment?
HANIF BALOCH,
Quetta.
PTV v private channels
All private channels try to
cover the angst the nation is going through but if you ever go
to the state-owned PTV, you would get an eerie feeling of all
calm and quiet—with appreciations of the federal government
thrown in for good measure. There is some music too to complete
the picture PTV is portraying about a welfare state (somewhere
we don’t know) where people are happy as a lark with not a care
in the world. The private channels, though, continue to portray
the picture of an oppressive state with incompetent rulers that
are pushing their people to the bog of crises getting ever more
serious, making life for the ordinary citizen ever more
difficult to live. Something has to be done to either stop PTV
from painting the rosy picture or stop the private channels from
showing what a hell we live in.
KHALID MUSTAFA,
Islamabad.
Conspicuous by absence
Aitzaz Ahsan of whom the New
York Times wrote “A lawyer who restored Pakistan Chief Justice”
is missing from the scene when the president and his handpicked
legal advisers have fomented a constitutional imbroglio in the
country. Similar is the case of Ali Ahmad Kurd. Both lawyers
were in the vanguard of movement for restoration of judiciary.
Did the restoration movement catapult Aitzaz into shoes larger
than his size in which he found himself too uncomfortable and
had to bail himself out? Whatever the reasons, he has
compromised his standing by not raising a voice against the
presidential move to place judges of choice in various
positions.
Aitzaz has undoubtedly fumbled.
Perhaps the glory he gained by successful restoration movement
was too big for him to live with and real Aitzaz had to come out
by shedding the superficial veneer. If he thinks he cannot go
against the party line, he must bear in mind the party has seen
its last hurrah. From here onward the party will disintegrate.
It reminds of late Mao’s wife
who after her husband’s death had gathered three of her closest
cronies about her and the group gained notoriety of being called
“the evil group of four.” The President too has his inner circle
of three who have their own motives but his own stakes, such as
the Swiss cases of money laundering, are indeed much higher. One
feels sorry for Aitzaz but he himself is to blame for shooting
himself in the foot.
DR. A. P. SANGDIL,
Oslo.
VIP movement
Sometime back, a VVIP came to
live on Khayaban-e-Shaheen, Karachi. Overnight, a couple of
speed-breakers miraculously appeared on both sides of the road,
which (along with three police mobiles, one of them jutting
halfway into the opposite side of the main road) result in
traffic jams throughout the day. As if this weren't enough, cars
of visitors are always parked on the main road, which leads to
more tension for drivers.
But this is not all. Even the
drivers of the VVIP and his guests think they're above the law
(like the VVIP himself). One of them almost crashed his car into
mine as he drove through a red light at a speed normally
associated with aircraft taking off. I escaped death by inches.
I know the VVIP has no time to read newspapers, but if someone
who's close to him does, perhaps he or she can tell him that
traffic rules still exist in this country and are meant to be
obeyed.
Shakir Lakhani,
Karachi.
17-2-2010
Painting victims of aggression as evil
Around 1,777 think-tanks based
in America and almost an equal number of think-tanks based in
western countries are busy in policymaking or influencing
policymaking, justifying invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan,
painting dark picture of Pakistan and its nuclear programme.
It seems that the respective
intelligence agencies have assigned them special tasks to use
their pens to spew out poison for further stoking fires of chaos
and anarchy, use their write-ups on dictated themes to distort
facts, spread disinformation, create uncertainty and keep the
pot of war on terror boiling. They portray the aggressors as
virtuous free of any faults, and they paint the victims of
aggression as evil.
But ironically enough, no one,
especially the so-called think-tanks understand that the biggest
casualty of their projected theme-points is the American
reputation itself. Instead of teaching or advocating peace,
harmony and goodwill, they have brought the civilisations at
collision course and turned the world into a battlefield. Where
would this trend of jingoism, hatred and destruction bring the
people of globe to, no one knows. Aren’t the world leaders,
superpowers and especially the intelligentsia responsible for
all this fuss?
Stop it, please.
Alya Alvi,
Rawalpindi.
Assault on judiciary
By following the steps of
General Musharraf President Zardari has revealed himself as a
civilian dictator by appointing Justice Saqib Nisar as a judge
of the Supreme Court.
Appointment of judges of the
high court and their elevation to the Supreme Court is already
dealt with by the constitution and particularly in Al-Jihad
Trust case. The issue of the consultation of the chief justice
has to be given due heed as his advice is binding on the
president. Moreover such issues tend to create bad blood between
different institutions or pillars of the state. I hope that
government would look into the matter and would adopt the best
possible way.
Nasir Kamal Yousafzai,
Mardan.
Judges and judges
The present ongoing debate on
the appointment of the judges of the higher courts has at least
left me with a consternation beyond my comprehension. What is
all this fuss in the matter of choosing between the judges? Are
the judges going to be partisan in dispensing justice? Would
they favour one or the other against the rules, law or the
constitution? I hate to read in the papers the adage of Jiyala
being used for some of the judges. Does the partisan affiliation
take precedence over the competence, integrity and character of
a judge? For God’s sake do not degrade the judges. Or, is it all
a part of the diversionary tactics to take people’s mind off the
NRO issue which was being hotly debated only a few days back but
no more? Or, still horrendous, is it an effort to have the
judges of one’s choice when the NRO cases come for hearing
before them?
Col. Riaz Jafri (Retd),
Rawalpindi.
US envoy’s remarks
As reported in the press
(Feb.16), speaking at the National Defence University, US
ambassador Anne Patterson said “The Prime Minister announced
earlier this week that Pakistan will begin to redress this
matter (economic problems) next year, but this is a matter of
great national urgency,” and drew armed forces into it as well
by asserting “As professionals interested in the security of
this nation, I hope you would look closely at this matter.”
Also, referring most probably to
our frequent requests to the US and international donors to
speed up aid to defray partly the damage done to our economy
through our association with the war on terror (which the
President estimated at $35 billion), she had this to say “The
ultimate solution to Pakistan’s current and future economic
challenges does not reside with the US or with the international
donor community, it rests with you, the people of Pakistan.” She
went on to say “American taxpayers will not forever pay for
Pakistan’s economic and social development. Neither will
Japanese or German or British taxpayers.”
This is another major slur after
the earlier ‘no blank cheques’ remark made by President Barack
Obama.
The ambassador seems to think
that these are the US taxpayers plus others who are sustaining
us whereas the fact is that our association, specially with the
US, has done us more harm than good, and far from bringing us
incremental benefits, it has not even covered our losses.
It is indeed true that masses
are in urgent need of relief and this matter cannot really be
deferred. However, the ambassador should avoid trying to create
an impression that Pakistanis interest is dearest to her heart
whereas the fact is that her country’s policy now, and in the
past, has been of Muslim-animosity, as demonstrated clearly by
its actions in relation to the Arab-Israeli issue, Iraq,
Afghanistan, Pakistan and other Muslim countries.
As for her concern for American
taxpayers’ money, she should advise her own government not to
squander it on cruel, murderous and unproductive misadventures
like unjust Iraq invasion. It would have relieved the American
taxpayers of nearly a trillion US dollars of their hard-earned
money and in exchange, presented them over 4,300 healthy
Americans turned into corpses plus thousands of others maimed
and suffering mental trauma. So, it is the American government
which is doing the greatest disservice to its own people apart
from messing around the globe by creating new conflict zones.
Last but not least, there is
something definitely wrong with allowing an ambassador to take
swipe at our government at will, and get away with it.
Unfortunately, we ourselves invite ridicule and contempt by
placing even the junior foreign, specially American officials,
on a pedestal from where they can only look down upon us.
S.R.H. Hashmi,
Karachi.
Discipline motorcyclists
In spite of the fact that
traffic wardens have been positioned in Lahore for quite some
time now, their presence has not had a positive impact on
disciplining motorcyclists who continue to change lanes at will.
These motorcyclists do not stop
before driving over to a bigger road and overtake cars from the
left.
When a car gives an indicator to
turn left or right, motorcyclists would still overtake from both
sides, putting their own lives at risk.
Finding the traffic signal red
at an intersection, they look for small openings between cars
standing in different lanes and through zigzag movements try to
position themselves ahead of everyone.
It is time traffic police in
major cities, particularly Lahore, fixed lanes for motorcyclists
and carried out spot-checking for violations mentioned in this
letter.
The traffic police also need to
be more strict and stringent while awarding driving licences to
motorcyclists, and their driving test must include
familiarisation and understanding of traffic rules.
Making motorcyclists wear crash
helmets alone will not make them abide by traffic rules.
RASHID IQBAL,
Lahore.
16-2-2010
Judges’ issue: Govt stance
As John Naisbitt narrates that
“Strategic planning is worthless - unless there is first a
strategic vision.” General Kayani has no doubt given new vision
regarding Afghanistan by defining Pakistan’s strategic depth
pertaining to the neighbouring country that instead war-torn and
civil war entangled Afghanistan a peaceful, prospering, stable
and friendly neighbour favours Pakistan. It depicts the true
spirit of strategic vision flourished in General Kayani’s mind
and nullifies the ambiguous concept of the strategic depth being
defined for years and years by some of the traditional brains
who believe the Afghan nation is only meant for fighting, be it
with the occupant forces or among their own groups.
According to a famous quote, in
business, as in war (and I suppose in politics as well), attack
is sometimes the best method of defence. However, like all
strategies, this one also has some limitations i.e. before going
on the offensive, the party has got to prepare well and to have
some minimum strength to carry it through, otherwise it will
falter, and will get bruised, and that would be the minimum
consequence.
In case of inadequacy all round,
a better option would be to stay in the bunker and take the line
of least resistance which would at least maximise the chances of
survival, whatever they are.
S.R.H. Hashmi,
Karachi.
A
hasty decision
The federal minister for
privatisation declared before the media that the government had
decided to privatise 23 state-owned organisations including
Utility Stores Corporation within the next few months. He added
that this time while handing over administrative management to
successful bidders holding 26 percent shares the strategic
control would continue to rest with the government.
The basic idea of privatisation
was that the state should confine itself to regulation only and
the operation and ownership of industrial enterprises and
utilities should be left to the private sector. Although
according to Alexander Gerschenkron, a distinguished economist,
those states which started late in the race of development, the
public sector has to play a vital role in accelerating the
economic growth as private sector of developing countries is
shy, inexperienced and not equipped to embark on rapid
industrialisation.
However despite clear caution
privatisation of public sector corporations started in Pakistan
during the Zia regime in 1985 but pace was accelerated during
1991-1994 and post-2001 period.
According to latest analyses,
out of 83 privatised corporations up to October 15, 2002 only 22
fared better, 44 were doing at the same level and remaining 34
were found even worse than the pre-privatised period.
The cases of Karachi Electricity
Supply Corporation (KESC) and the Pakistan Telecom Corporation
Ltd (PTCL) (a profitable organisation) privatised after 2002 are
the worst examples. Not only services of these two utilities
have deteriorated but the objective of bringing foreign
investment could also not be achieved. The conditions of
privatised banks is no better as in order to show better
performance, they, apart from throwing out thousands of their
lower staff by “rightsizing” and lowering interest on deposits
and increasing interest on loans; mostly consumer loans, have
contributed nothing significant for the economic activity of the
country.
The purchasers, by paying
amounts much less than even the cost of land companies own, have
added nothing to the development and enhancement of the
utilities except their executives now enjoy fabulous financial
benefits and pre-requisites. The privatised units such as cement
industry have also formed cartels to exploit the consumers.
On the other hand, the
government as a regulator has failed miserably to discharge its
responsibility to ensure implementation of terms and conditions
of the privatisation agreements in letter and spirit.
The fate of Pakistan Steel Mills
could not have been different, had the Apex Court not intervened
timely.
Privatisation is a complex
exercise with multifaceted implications. Therefore the
government, before offering the remaining family silver to
private sector, must keep before it the performance of those
companies which have already been privatised so that public
interests can be safeguarded. Especially in the case of public
utilities great care must be adopted so that the case of KESC is
not repeated. As for Utility Stores Corporation which provides
relief to the general public against the monopoly of sugar and
flour cartels it is better not to privatise.
Altaf Ahmed,
Hyderabad.
Independent judiciary
It is naive to say that it
doesn't matter who is sitting where as the judges are to deliver
justice. If that was the case then we shouldn't have any problem
with Dogar courts. CJ intervenes because the people sitting in
the power corridors are afraid of the new independent judiciary
and are trying to interfere/act that can compel the CJ/team to
go for a compromise. We are in a now-and-never situation and we
have no other option but to support the adlia and make this
change happen. No one but the middle class supports this change.
It is not in favour of feudals or capitalists who are in power
to have independent judiciary.
According to the constitution,
President appoints judges of SC in consultation with CJ and
President will have to consult CJ, whether he likes it or NOT.
Shahid,
On email.
SMS rip-off
Not a day passes when one
doesn’t receive an SMS enticing the naïve to take part in lotos
and lotteries of all sorts. Early this morning I received one
such SMS reading “It is the Winning Times. Write JK (most
probably Jazz Khazana or some thing of the sorts) and send it to
5555. It will entitle you to win the 50,000 of the day. Charges
Rs8 plus Sales Tax plus SMS charges”. Each mobile phone company
has tens of millions of their SIM holders and according to a
rough estimate 20 to 25 percent people take part in such scams.
One can imagine the daily windfall for the mobile companies
after dolling out the pittance of Rs50,000! Is it not a fit case
for a suo motu action?
Col. Riaz Jafri (Retd),
Rawalpindi.
Parasitic MPs
An analysis of parliamentary
activity during the recently concluded session released by the
Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) reveals that a mere 46
percent (115) of MNAs bothered to turn up for business, leaving
223 who drew a range of allowances despite being absent.
According to the statistics, every sitting of parliament started
late by an average of 28 minutes, managed to be in session for a
total of 50 hours and one minute spread over 15 sessions, thus
giving an average of about three hours and 20 minutes per
session.
Martin Luther King, Jr, the
pivotal leader of the American civil rights movement once said,
“The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the
bad people but the silence over that by the good people.” The
question to ask is, for how long will our people suffer in
silence paying their hard-earned money to feed these parasites
who are good for nothing?
DR IRFAN ZAFAR,
Islamabad.
15-2-2010
Presidential order & SC verdict
The Presidency is bent upon
committing blunders. Instead of pacifying the ongoing clash
between the Supreme Court and government, the Presidency is
exacerbating the crisis. This became evident when President Asif
Ali Zardari issued orders stating the appointment of Justice
Khwaja Sharif as judge of Supreme Court and Justice Saqib Nisar
as the acting Chief Justice of Lahore High Court without
consulting the Chief Justice of Pakistan, Iftikhar Muhammad
Chaudhry. This was in blatant violation of the Constitution of
Pakistan.
According to Article 177, the
President is bound to consult the Chief Justice of Pakistan
prior to the appointment of other judges. Despite the fact that
Article 177 clearly and unambiguously lays down the procedure
for the appointment of judges, the Presidency did the wrong and
joined the path of conflict. At this time, I must say, the
Presidency is posing a threat to democracy. True democracy
prevails when all the pillars of state work in complete harmony.
The way Ch Iftikhar himself took
notice of this illegal appointment and formed a three-member
bench to delve into this matter is commendable. Further, his
expediency in announcing the decision and suspending the orders
of President is laudable. More appreciable is the audacity shown
by the illegally appointed judges when they refused to take
their oaths. The government needs to realise that the judiciary
is awake and active in all its senses. Gone are the days when
the judges would be appointed in the darkness of night without
letting anyone know.
I wonder where our prime
minister has disappeared. On the floor of house, he eloquently
speaks that the government respects judiciary and that all the
decisions of Supreme Court will be implemented in ‘letter and
spirit’. The deafening silence from prime minister speaks of the
presidential form of government where the Parliament and prime
minister do nothing but nod their head in consent of the
President.
Badar ul Islam,
Islamabad.
SC-government face-off
Seniority in Aljehad case is not
mandatory, as per constitution, without CJ’s nod nothing can
happen on judges’ appointments. Government is crippling
judiciary by not appointing judges in high courts or by going in
full-blown confrontation to be able to gain ground for jiyala
judges appointments in high courts. Government hampering
restored judiciary's resolve to dispense justice to the masses
by hatching such calculated moves. Such confrontation is bound
to give an impression that SC can take unbiased decision on PPP
in general and on the President in particular.
ALI IMRAN RIZVI,
On email.
Support Supreme Court
We have to support the decisions
of our Supreme Court. We should not wait for the Army to
interfere in it because it is not the job of Army to involve in
politics, it is the job of institutions and establishment with
the citizens to give a shoulder to support the right way for the
benefit of the country.
Faisal Munir,
On email.
Let Intekhab Alam continue
Intekhab Alam is an experienced
coach and doesn’t seem to be a problematic man either for the
team or for the PCB. He is a lucky coach, because under him
Pakistan won 1992 World Cup; played final of 1999 World Cup; and
last year became champion of twenty20.
It will be unfair to make
Intekhab Alam a scape-goat for the humiliating defeats against
Australia. Everybody knows the reasons for nine successive
defeats at the hand of inexperienced Australians. Our team
lacked self-confidence and also unity, which are keys to
success.
Najeebullah,
Swat.
A
novel idea for ME peace?
After recovering from his
injury: nose and two teeth broken by an inconsiderate assailant,
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, during an official
visit to Israel earlier this month, promised to turn into
reality a proposal which keeps resurfacing every now and then,
and this is to make Israel a member of the European Union
(February 7).
What surprised me most was the
suggestion that such an eventuality will work out to the benefit
of the Palestinians because membership of the European Union,
will preclude Israel from continuing its inhuman, ruthless,
murderous and discriminatory policies towards Palestinians apart
from forcing it to withdraw from the occupied territories, etc.
It was further suggested that in view of the windfall that it
will bring to the Palestinians, the Arab world should welcome
and encourage such a move instead of opposing it.
It is outlandish even to think
that the European Union and the US who created Israel and who
aided and abetted in making Israel the monster that it has
become now; and Israel itself, would agree to anything that
would have the effect of forcing Israel to relax its murderous
hold on the illegally occupied territory.
The attitude of the European
Union members towards Muslims can well be gauged by the fact
that despite its best efforts, Turkey has not been able to join
the EU. As against that, there have been moves, at least by some
EU members to bring Israel into the fold, despite the fact that
it is too far apart, geographically and otherwise.
There are other instances. Only
recently, under international law provisions, a British court
issued an arrest warrant against former Israeli foreign minister
Tzipi Livni and hastily withdrew it when Livni cancelled the
visit. On that occasion, British Foreign Secretary David
Miliband promised to change the British law so as not to put
Israeli war criminals to any inconvenience. The attitude of
Germany and France, the other major powers of the EU, is much
the same.
Also, the former Israeli prime
minister Ariel Sharon, during one of his fits of anger,
destroyed even the facilities for Palestinian refugees which
were built with EU funding. EU sent a delegation to Middle East
to assess the damage, lodge a protest against the inhuman act
and perhaps to claim compensation for the damage. Ariel Sharon
refused even to meet the delegation which returned
unceremoniously. It was thought the EU will impose some sort of
mild sanctions against Israel, or will at least issue a strong
condemnation but all that the delegation head had to say was “we
do not want our relations with Israel to get any worse than what
they already are” and that was the end of it. Such accommodating
and helpful friends are unlikely even to try to force Israel to
adopt a reasonable and human approach, like vacating the
territory under its illegal occupation and adopt a humane
approach towards Palestinians.
Moreover, Israeli government,
headed by hawk Benjamin Netanyahu, has become more hawkish
lately, with even the supposedly peace-loving Nobel laureate
Shimon Peres becoming as aggressive as the rest, and he received
a censure from the Turkish prime minister over Gaza massacre
sometime back. Also, the Israeli parliament, which is usually a
coalition between different parties, mostly hardliners, is
unlikely to approve any arrangement that would amount to
yielding on any point when they know that the Western leaders do
extend them unqualified support on all matters, irrespective of
the legality or morality of the issue.
Israel enjoys unflinching support also from its main benefactor, the
US. We remember how the US
President Barack Obama saw fit to abandon his firm demand of
settlement freeze rather than displease Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu.
It is quite obvious that if the
EU offers membership to Israel, it will make it a special case
and will give a few years to Israel to make the required
changes, claiming that the bitterness and problems created over
several decades cannot be solved in a jiffy. After the expiry of
the time, it will give Israel another extension, and so on.
Every few years, the West comes
up with ploys to fool the Palestinians . We had the Roadmap, the
Maryland Conference and now this proposal for Israel’s entry
into the European Union, to solve the Palestinian issue. The
joke has really gone too far.
Anyone sympathetic to
Palestinians’ cause should oppose moves to make Israel an EU
member, or even offering of any relaxation in the trading terms
between Israel and EU, while Israel’s criminal and murderous
conduct continues.
S.R.H. Hashmi,
Karachi.
Fighting water shortage
A water shortage is what the
agricultural Punjab does not need. With a reduced water supply
not only Punjab but the entire population will be affected as it could damage the wheat
crop which has already been sowed. A need arises for the leaders
to show maturity and political wisdom in solving what IRSA was
supposed to, but could not manage due to pressure from various
directions.
Due to insufficient rainfall and
absence of large-scale storage reservoirs precious water,
instead of being properly utilised is wasted away. The
inefficiency of IRSA leads to a denial to supply water to Punjab
and a feeling of deprivation to Sindh, hurling accusations at
Punjab of ‘water theft’. Representatives of both Punjab and Sindh remained locked in argument during the IRSA meeting the other
day resulted in a delay on the matters at hand. The concerned
government officials have to grow up and start dealing with the
issues amicably working towards fulfilling the objectives rather
than throwing tantrums. Nations are not run by aid alone, but
proper planning, implementation and constant monitoring is
required.
A sensible approach from both
the central and provincial leaders was observed by the unanimous
approval of the new NFC Award. A clear indicator that democracy,
if taken seriously, can very easily work by rendering all
anti-state elements that are continuously at play in all
affairs, ineffective. The central government behaved generously
by slashing its share from the revenue pool from 10 to 1
percent, accompanied by an accommodating approach by the
provinces.
Such initiatives may take some
effort, but are far from impossible. Another show of flexibility
and sense of fair play by provincial and the central government
is called for towards the resolution of the inter-provincial
water dispute, by viewing it completely objectively, keeping the
best interest of the state in mind instead of a biased and
‘provincialistic’ approach. Only after this inter-provincial
issue is solved, can we pave our way towards a composite growth
and deal with all measures taken by
India to choke all water supplies of
Pakistan with full force. The Indus Water Treaty is being
violated and Pakistan is especially concerned
about dams and barrages being built by
India, which could affect the flow of river water across the border.
Therefore, a shift in focus is required so that
Pakistan should have water at
all.
Lubna Umar,
Islamabad.
14-2-2010
Commercialisation of education
Since 1983 about 239
schools/colleges which were takeover during Zulfiqar Ali
Bhutto’s government, have been privatised in Sindh.
Unfortunately more than half of the school/college buildings
have been converted into commercial plazas.
On the eve of Independence there
was only one institute for higher education, i.e. the University
of Punjab. In next 30 years many private and public schools and institutes for
higher education mushroomed in
Pakistan. In September 1972 all
private educational institutions were nationalised under MLR
118.
One of the aims of the
nationalisation policy was to provide better service conditions
to the teachers as some unscrupulous private school and college
owners exploited and maltreated their teaching staff. They were
underpaid, forced to sign receipts for higher payments than they
actually received and in some cases are known to have been
publicly abused.
The aim of improving service
conditions was achieved by nationalisation. The teachers'
salaries went up and they gained state protection against
exploitation and maltreatment. Ironically security of service
was used by a large number of teachers for personal advantage
rather than to further the cause of education. It brought in its
wake the curse of absenteeism, the tuition syndrome and trade
unionism of the worst kind to put pressure on the government. To
earn extra money, some teachers opened private tuition centres
for the same students they were supposed to teach in colleges
and schools.
This threat was obviously not
visualised by the planners. The exiting government machinery
working on the pattern of pre-partition system was not only
inefficient but was not adequate to cope with this gigantic
problem. This affected quality of education adversely. To face
the deteriorating standards as well as shortage of institutions
the Ziaul Haq regime, during early eighties allowed private
sector to established colleges and schools. Moreover instead of
paying attention to bring improvement in the existing public
sector process was started to return the nationalised schools
and colleges to their previous owners.
The authorities while restoring
the nationalised institutions to their owners should have
obtained guaranty before handing over, that the restored
properties will not be used other than education as envisaged in
the original scheme. The authorities however either out of sheer
ineptness or connivance disregarded this fact, apparently to
facilitate the owners for the reason that the buildings of
schools and colleges were situated on the prime locations of the
metropolis where land value has increased manifold. Thus
unscrupulous owners were assisted by the education department to
sell properties meant for educational purposes, to the builders’
mafias to build commercial plazas.
Not only education has suffered
adversely but precious plots of land earmarked for education in
the heart of city have been lost permanently. There are still
many nationalised schools in the process of privatisation. I
request the Chief Minster and Minister for Education Sindh to
take appropriate measures so that only those educational
institutions are restored to their original owners who make a
commitment in writing to continue with imparting education and
not sell the landed property to gain profit. Furthermore action
against those who are found connived with earlier privatisation
deals should also be initiated as the right earnest.
Seerat Manzoor,
Karachi.
Hakimullah Mehsud
Its a real pity that so many are
concerned with whether the mass murderer is dead or alive, as if
it does matter. He is as good as dead, for that is the plight of
all who choose the path of violence, death follows them and
eventually defeats them. No mass murderer does ever get away,
that is one lesson of history many ignore to their own peril.
I find it odd also that so many
mix the Afghan Taliban with the indigenous homegrown ones. They
may look alike but certainly have different objectives. The
Afghans are supposedly fighting for their freedom against
foreign occupation and the Pakistan Taliban are trying to ape
them and trying to take over our country. That is why failure is
the future of Pakistan Taliban and whereas the Afghan Taliban
have won the war and are about to see the foreign forces leave
much earlier than they thought, for they are going to fight till
ever and we all know foreign forces no matter how massive they
maybe, do get sick of it and do want to go back home, especially
in a no-win situation as is in Afghanistan.
I wonder how the Afghan Taliban
will deal with the situation post-western occupation. What will
the effect be on the poor Indians who have wasted so much cash
and resources which they should have actually be spending to
clean up their own country but in order to prick us and not help
the poor Afghans, as even the roads they have made are meant to
give them alternate routes for bringing in stuff from Iran
rather than Pakistan, without understanding the semantics
involved.
SHAHID,
On email.
PTV
licence fee
I was taken a back after reading
the letter of Mr Ali Akbar, controller public relation PTV, in a
section of the press where he tried to convince the reader that
PTV Licence fee is legal and viewer pay it happily.
Being a resident of Azad Kashmir
I would like to draw the attention of honourable office that PTV
signals are almost inaccessible throughout Azad Kashmir except
Muzaffarabad city. Almost 5 percent residents of the area
watched the PTV, rest rely on the Indian channels because Indian
channels signals are easily catchable there. But it is very sad
that PTV authorities charged licence fee through utility bills.
Mr Ali Akbar bluntly argue that
this fee is charged in many EU countries, but honorable officer
did not pay any attention towards the programmes which PTV is
telecasting. Hardly any reasonable programmer one can watches on
PTV in a week. How one can compare EU channels and their
programmes with PTV? Furthermore I am dead sure that Mr Ali
Akbar and his family hardly watch PTV.
Zahid Rashid,
Azad Kashmir.
India’s water terrorism
Since the 9/11 tragedy,
international community has been taking war against terrorism
seriously, while there are also other forms of bloodless wars,
being waged in the world and the same are like terrorism. In
these terms, India has been practising water terrorism against
Pakistan.
In a bid to solace Islamabad’s
concerns, while speaking in diplomatic language, Indus Water
Commissioner of India G. Ranganathan who recently visited
Pakistan revealed, “India had been affected as much as Pakistan
due to water shortage in the Indus”. He denied, saying: “Indian
decision to build dams on rivers has led to water shortage in
Pakistan”, while rejecting Islamabad’s concerns regarding
water-theft by New Delhi including violation of the Indus Water
Treaty, assuring his counterpart, Indus Water Commissioner of
Pakistan, Syed Jamaat Ali Shah that all issues, relating to
water between Pakistan and India would be resolved through
dialogue.
Now that India has decided to
start resumption of secretary level talks with Pakistan paying a
greater attention on terrorism instead of equally addressing all
the issues of the composite dialogue, therefore, Islamabad must
talk about Indian water terrorism as a major focus of agenda in
the ongoing and future dialogue.
Sajjad Shaukat,
On email.
Indo-Pak parleys
Probably it is due to Gen.
Kiyani’s recent candid assertion to the NATO commanders that his
prime concern was defence of Pakistan’s eastern borders (against
India) rather than fighting the war of terror on the western
front, that has prompted the international community in
pressurising India to resume talks with Pakistan. Pakistan must,
therefore, view the Indian offer in its correct perspective and
not fall a prey to it.
We certainly want better
relations with India but not at the cost of Kashmir
and water. India would try to talk as usual all about the sun
and the moon but not of Kashmir and water, exasperating and
frustrating Pakistan to the extent of quitting the talks.
No one today is more shrewd than
ZAB in the foreign diplomacy, but even he could not make Swaran
Singh utter a single word on Kashmir in his 22 days long parleys
in Murree in May/June 1965. At the end of the unsuccessful
marathon Swaran Singh triumphantly confided to the pressmen that
his sole aim was to gain time which he had done. So did Shastri
to Ayub Khan at Tashkent, and made him walk away
from the talks just out of frustration as Shastri wouldn’t talk
about Kashmir. Kosygin sensing the abrupt deadlock asked Ayub if
he was a chess player. Ayub, sort of nonplussed by such a
question, said, “no, why?”. “Because it is his (Shastri’s) move
and that you must sit at the table till he moved”, was Kosygin’s
cool reply. Ayub resumed his seat but was mercifully relieved
when Shastri left to meet his Maker. Gandhi kept on talking for
hours on end on cabbage to a bewildered Mountbatten, who had
invited him for the first time for a serious discussion on the
future of India.
Indians are past masters in the
art of frustrating others during parleys and talks, and we must,
therefore, make it quite clear to them that we want to talk but
about Kashmir and water or else thank you for the offer.
Col. Riaz Jafri (Retd),
Rawalpindi.
13-2-2010
Indo-US nuke deal
This deal was in total violation
of the NPT. America is big supporter of the NPT, while India is
not signing the treaty. The US had refused to grant both
Pakistan and India the status of de jure nuclear weapon states
following their nuclear tests in May 1998.
Despite being our ally, the US
refused to sign a similar deal with Pakistan, saying “our energy
dialogue with Pakistan is going to be different from our energy
discussion with India.” It is also saying that this deal was
more beneficial for India. The big criticism of the Indian opposition on this deal is that the
US sole objective of deal
was to cap Indian’s nuclear weapon programme. US wanted to keep
its influence on the South Asian region.
Although India-US deal on
civilian nuclear cooperation is a bilateral matter between the
two countries, yet it has serious global and regional
implications. The deal poses a potential threat to international
non-proliferation regime under NPT. It can trigger a nuclear
arms race in the region, mostly involving Pakistan, because
India is its adversary country. It can adversely affect the
movement of already slow peace process between Pakistan and
India. If the peace process stalled it can have overspilling
effect, affecting Pakistan’s relation with Afghanistan.
The strategic stability in South
Asia is most likely to be disturbed as a result of Indo-US
nuclear deal because deal would enable India to acquire
additional nuclear material to feed its military nuclear
facilities. The deal contains an assurance from the United
States for a continued and uninterrupted supply of nuclear fuel.
This will enable India to divert its uranium reserves to the
exclusive use for making more and improved nuclear weapons. The
Indo-US deal therefore would continue to draw critisim on
strategic stability in South Asia and universal non-proliferation regime.
Rukhsana Bibi,
On email.
Brown eating bananas
According to a press report
(February 9) as part of his preparations for the upcoming
campaign trail, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is eating up
to nine bananas a day, fully convinced that it will give him
“radiance”.
It is a sad reflection on the
prevailing state of affairs that he has to rely on poor bananas,
instead of his party’s performance, in his attempt to win the
elections due within months. However, it is not surprising,
considering the ‘esteem’ in which the British public presently
hold the Labour party and the manner in which they chased the
former prime minister Tony Blair, out of office. Gordon Brown,
being a member of that government, shares the blame.
Additionally, even before disengaging fully from the unpopular
Iraq war, that cost Blair his job, Brown went full-throttle into
the Afghan war. Also, in order to maintain the master-poodle
relationship with the US, Brown was prompt in announcing 500
additional troops for Afghanistan, while US president dithered
over the issue of more soldiers. However, his plan of indulging
into the luxury of warfare, and running it on an ‘economy’
budget, is giving him less of a success and more of casualties
and blame. The soldiers are up in arms because their genuine
needs for security and other equipment like helicopters etc are
not being met, which exposes them to greater risks, while the
public is angry over the squandering of scarce resources on
unnecessary, unwinable and cruel Afghan war. The result is that
his party is in no better position than it was at the time he
took over.
No wonder he is eating bananas,
and hoping for the best.
S.R.H. Hashmi,
Karachi.
We are our own enemies
Some people think that Pakistan
is in trouble because of its geo-political position. It may be
partly right but this is not the root of the problem. The
problem lies within our country.
It is our attitude which is our
biggest enemy. Can anybody tell us why there is hige amount of
brain drain in Pakistan and why is it happenning? From day one
of its independence Pakistan has been encircled by
people of least vision. It ran well in the beginning because of
characterful, visionful, dedicated, motivated and honest
bureaucracy migrated from Indian Civil Service (ICS) to
Pakistan. Some military people like General Azam also earned
good name.
There was a time in Pakistan
when people used to hate their corrupt neighbours but with the
passage of time the miscreant shocked the gentle and honest
people by insulting them and hence established the reign of
terror, dishonesty, financial corruption and satanic traditions.
Earning money is not a bad thing to do but doing it through
illegal ways is the worst thing on Earth. What is our criteria
these day? We do not evaluate a person because of his/her love
for keeping and maintaining good values alive but we judge
people by the house he keeps, his mobile set and his spendings
etc.
We are cutting the same branch
of the tree on which we sit and we are not aware of the
consequences. We have come to know the blockade of our rivers
water right now. Where were we when the inaugurating brick of
dams in India on our rivers were put? Now we are crying. The
statement of General Zia ul Haq still reminds me of his
statement when he expressed his opinion on the annexture of
Siachen by India that grass do not grow in it.
In civilised countries whenever
somebody buys a car or a new house, people from government come
and ask to show one’s source of income to buy these things.
Our priorities have been changed
now. We do not know what to condemn because our new generation
have opened their eyes in the environments where everything is
fair in love, earnings, ethics, creed and war. There is no
accounting at any level.
Now tell me honestly who is our
enemy?
RIZWAN ZAMIR,
Lahore.
12-2-2010
Well done, PPP
On Wednesday, Mr. Kaira
disclosed before the pressmen in the PM Secretariat that his
government is considering to bring 3 years budget this June
instead of one year as usual. Kaira’s explanations or reasons
might be no matter what but this would be a very smart move by
the People’s Party to rip off the exchequer in one shot. Who
knows, whether, they would complete remaining term of 3 years so
why not to gulp this country in one stroke?
No leader has mercy on this
country and plundering it from every corner by both hands.
SHAFIQ KHAN,
Canada.
Peace in
Pakistan
I think the news of death of
Hakimullah Mahsud and elimination of Taliban may be a good news
for the people who believe in civil society. I will also be
happy that our neighbouring nation is gradually getting free
from the terror of so-called jehadi forces. But as the
representatives of intellectual community, we also should
emphasise to find out the reason behind the insurgence of forces
like Taliban and al-Qaeda who misguide the youth and divert
their strength towards destruction. I wish peace will be
restored in Pakistan as soon as possible.
Hari Govind Vishwakarma,
India.
Need for dams
Dwindling water supply has been
the order of the day of Sindh province, causing many to make
assumptions regarding the economy of this poverty-stricken,
agrarian province.
The meagre water supply has
already resulted in the lost of million of acres of land to the
barren desert and has rendered many jobless.
It is high time for the
authorities concerned to take realistic measures and implement
it well, without even a tinge of corruption hampering the
solutions to this vital problem.
The story of the tussle over the
water share between the provinces is as old as the country
itself, but the recent NFC Award has brought hope in the bleak
environment that the leaders would now be more attentive to this
problem, and, hopefully, would reach some common consensus.
However, the equitable and the
just distribution of water resource can not solely solve the
province’s problems; much more has to be done.
First and foremost, there is a
dire need to create awareness among the general public of water
conservation techniques. Unfortunately, our academic education
does not practically address our problems; therefore, water
conservation campaigns should be launched with the help of NGOs
in academic institutes, for increased awareness.
WAPDA and other related agencies
like ISRA should be well paid and its officers should be
provided with deserved facilities to make them less prone to the
bribery for past findings have shown that corruption has been
the main obstacle in the attainment of assigned goals.
The government should
financially help farmers in planting sprinklers as this would
reduce water loss to a great extent.
Though, planting sprinklers is
cost consuming, the benefiting advantages would be helpful to
the country’s economy in the long term.
Time does not stop and this
critical time requires the urgent attention of the government
towards the construction of small and large dams.
Construction programmes
regarding dams should be processed at the earliest and required
measures should be taken to conserve the maximum possible water.
MARIA SHAIKH,
Karachi.
Onus on
Punjab
govt
The recent attack on Awami
Muslim League (AML) Chairman Sheikh Rashid Ahmed is very
shocking and sad. I do not understand why proper security was
not provided to him. There is a security threat in our country
but there is a lack of security itself!
Law enforcement agencies always
say that they cannot stop or catch culprits of suicide bombings.
Can they catch those who have only fired with guns?
The Punjab government, which is very fond of boasting about the good governance in
the province, must now prove its capabilities by catching the
culprits.
MUBASHIR MAHMOOD,
Karachi.
India’s talk offer
What softened Indians for table
talks surprises none. It is her national interest which our
rulers serve by ignoring our vital national interests; be it
Kashmir, Kalabagh Dam, Baglihar Dam etc. It appears we
approached International Arbitration Commission only to concede
legitimacy to illegal construction of Baglihar Dam (due to our
sheer negligence of duty), agreeing to minor design changes
recommended by arbitrator. Same thing would happen due to the
corrupt, ignorant, incompetent government who would likely
concede favourably to Indian desired needs with our lead man
Jamaat Ali Shah who blundered already by his tall claim of
strictly following the articles of Indian Basin Treaty Accord.
That is how national interests have been compromised and
damaged.
Will opposition, PML-N, PML-Q,
TIP, JIP, jurists, civil society rise to the occasion and
protect national interests? They must decimate the anti-nation,
anti-poor coalition-cartel which has devastated Pakistan in last
two years for unlimited power and wealth, self-centred myopic
interest. Karachi is the current example which looks a duel
between the dons to getting bigger chunk of the city and in the
process destroy Pakistan.
A M ALI,
Sahiwal.
Karachi bleeds again
Karachi is again bleeding.
Another religious procession has been subjected to brutal
bombing 40 days after an inhuman attack on the Ashura
procession. The helpless public is again witnessing the same
course of lip service that has become a ritual no one bothers
about. Condemnation by political and religious leaders who find
such incidents an opportunity to appear in the print and
electronic media; cash compensation being offered for the dead
and injured; inquiries being ordered as the interior minister,
chief minister and prime minister race against one another to
take credit for demanding one; scores of agencies get involved
in investigations while working at cross purposes, etc.
Such inquiries continue on paper
till the next mayhem but no one will ever look into the real
issues — the lack of political and security resolve to dismantle
the terrorists’ ideological factories, which are churning out
brainwashed zombies who know nothing but to kill and maim. Why
have the intelligence agencies failed to penetrate terrorist
groups and why are the bomb detection and disposal squads not
properly equipped?
Life will carry on in Karachi
and nothing will change. Investigation reports will gather dust,
police will continue to be understaffed with no moral
responsibility and accountability, political parties will
continue to blame each other for institutional failures. This
will continue till the terrorists choose and decide to hit
another soft target to kill innocents. What a waste of life and
humanity in Pakistan!
MUHAMMED JAMIL ATHER,
Karachi.
Need for greater caution
Two top US intelligence
officials, Lieutenant-General Ronald Burgess and Dennis Blair,
are reported to have said that the Pakistani nuclear arsenal is
safe but vulnerable.
These reports are both a cause
for concern and alarm. Washington seems to be more concerned
about Pakistan’s nuclear assets than Islamabad itself. The
reports are alarming because if Pakistan’s nuclear weapons were
to fall into the hands of Taliban and al-Qaeda-backed militants,
what would happen next?
US apprehensions and fears about our nuclear assets is a continuity of
Washington asking
Islamabad to do more and more in the war on terror, irrespective
of the heavy price being paid by Pakistan. US officials keep
pouring out such reports to further their agenda of capturing
our nuclear arsenal themselves.
One hopes that the higher
authorities concerned are well aware of the hidden threats that
are being hurled at Pakistan in the garb of such reports. At the
same time, the security of serving and retired nuclear
scientists should also be further tightened.
It is no secret that both the US
and the UK are still after our nuclear assets as well as
prominent nuclear scientist, Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan. His ongoing
activities, reported in the media from time to time, are
exposing him to hostile elements. I urge vigilance and caution.
MRS TANVIR ZAHID,
Lahore.
Nawaz’s advice to Zardari
In a recent press statement, Mr
Nawaz Sharif said that had he been Zardari, he would have gone
to the court and faced charges in order to get himself cleared,
irrespective of the immunity granted to a president under the
Constitution of Pakistan.
Very well said, but when it came
to Mr Sharif appealing in the Supreme Court against his
conviction by the Sindh High Court in the ‘plane hijacking’
case, he preferred to sign an agreement of 10 years’ self-exile.
Along with his whole family, domestic and kitchen staff, Mr
Sharif stayed in Saroor
Palace, Jeddah, instead of staying in
Pakistan and fighting his conviction. What a contrast of action
and words!
ANWAR KHALIL SHEIKH,
On email.
A
bankrupt superpower
China represents the most advanced business-oriented country in the world with
so much to win while the
US represents the most muscle-oriented one with so much to lose.
The duel between the two is forever. But the observer must
realise that the US is practically a bankrupt superpower, it
lives on a quicksand that will someday swallow everything. My
advice to the warlords of the US is to prepare for reality. To
live within its real size and not according to how long it can
fool the world.
Taniya Haider,
On e-mail.
11-2-2010
Jazz Ghanta package
The offer seems quite illusory;
only the half truth has been told to customers; nowhere do they
mention the offer is not unlimited rather it encompasses only
100 minutes in a day, why? The total cost for first time user
will shoot up to Rs59 as s/he will have to pay additional Rs30
to reach to the package prior to subscribing to bucket. The
total cost thus goes up to Rs59 not including FED. There is a
wide gap between the announced tariff and actual cost customer
will end up paying. Why is it that the offer places a 100-minute
barrier in a given day? Robust businesses require lengthy calls?
Can this package be a solution? Certainly not! How many
customers know that un-utilised minutes will cease to exist
immediately after 24 hours thus raising the overall call
charges? Is it ethical on part of the operator to hide certain
facts and twist logic?
Those who think the offer is
ultimate solution to all problems should think twice. The offer
is valid for net calls only. What about rest of the numbers
outside Jazz? Subscribers availing the package will also lose
the opportunity of availing other packages of the same operator
once they OPT FOR Ghanta package. Keeping in mind the
aforementioned issues circling the package, I think it’s not
worth it! Why pay Rs900 (excluding FED) for Jazz numbers only
since it will be a part time solution, not the real one!
Zoha Muneed,
Islamabad.
Anti-Americanism in
Pakistan
In an interview broadcast by Fox
news on February 8, the US Defence Secretary Robert Gates
concluded that anti-Americanism was a real problem for the US
(February 10). Further, while paying glowing tributes to
Pakistani army, he said “If you had told me 18 months or two
years ago that the Pakistani army would be operating in South
Waziristan, that they would have gone in the Bajaur Agency, that
they had gone into Swat, I would have thought that would have
been a miracle.”
While the tribute is very
flattering indeed, and is an acknowledgement of the potential of
our armed forces that we are very proud of, it gives a clear
indication that despite his advancement in years, his life-time
spent with the army and his long association with, and
involvement in our region, he has not really learnt much and is
a very poor judge of the capabilities of the people he closely
associates with. Not very flattering for him, I would say.
Also, while acknowledging his
problem i.e. anti-Americanism in Pakistan, and narrating the
reasons for it, he tells only part of the story. He fails to
mention the near-permanent anti-Muslim stance of his country as
demonstrated clearly in relation to Arab-Israeli issue, Iraq,
Syria, Iran, etc to name a few. What is worse is that now, the
US does not move alone but takes the whole crusader army with
it, which is only too pleased to oblige. Also, in pursuance of
its China-containment policy, the US is accelerating arms race
and friction in our region. Expressing apprehensions about our
nuclear assets falling into the hands of terrorists has now
become a permanent feature of the US foreign policy and through
this, it turns world opinion against us by playing on their
fears, Iraq-style, thereby paving the way for ‘irregular wars’
on our soil, for which saboteurs seems to be coming to Pakistan
in large numbers, in the guise of diplomatic, support staff and
whatever.
With this sort of record, Robert
Gates wants us to accept the Americans as our reliable friends,
for now and for future, and in various sectors like politics,
economy and so on. He is some optimist.
S.R.H. Hashmi,
Karachi.
Prize Bond Scheme
Government of Pakistan started
National Prize Bond scheme in order to borrow money from public
at cheaper rate and give cash prizes in lucky draws. These lucky
draws are held in major cities about 24 times annually.
Prize bonds are available in
denomination of Rs200, Rs750, Rs1500, Rs7500, Rs15000 and
Rs40,000. Highest prize for Rs200 bond is Rs750,000 and for
Rs40,000 bond, highest prize money is Rs75 million. Every year
70600 Pakistanis get Rs1.6 billion prize money after tax
deduction for their investment. Government of Pakistan
borrows/earn billions of rupees but give just peanut prize
money.
Four Rs75 million prize winners
every year remain hidden from the eyes of general public and
media. Their testimonies in advertisements can boost further
investment by other people. How much they reinvest in bonds?
This is a good question for economic and finance students and
professionals.
Ministry of Finance must broaden
the total base of prize winners from 70600 to 2 million in a
population of 170 million. Some people say that bonds are best
way to launder black money into white legal money. That is why
bumper prize holders sell their bonds to businesspersons in
Karachi at higher rates. In a market economy like America, every
activity must be documented and informed to stakeholders in
Pakistan. New director general
of National Savings, Altaf Sheikh also wants and welcomes
healthy competition from private sector but decision lies with
Ministry of Finance.
Government of Pakistan, an
anti-consumer government does not allow local financial
institutions to issue prize bonds on the pretext that these may
loot savings of small investors. Several times financial
institutions listed in stock exchanges e.g. Kanani & Kalia asked
government to allow them to alleviate poverty and increase
employment through new prize bond schemes.
Fair competition is the key to
sustainable development. Given dilapidated economic conditions
of the country, Planning Commission and Ministry of Finance must
allow strong-rated financial institutions to launch prize bond
schemes in Pakistan.
Sajed Imtiaz Sheik,
On email.
9-2-2010
Larger-than-life Ajmal Khattak
The demise of Ajmal Khattak is
really a shocking news. That great Khattak, embodiment of
patriotism, commitment, sincerity, loyalty, courage honesty,
humbleness, unwieldiness (in short epitome of true Pashtunwali)
spent his whole life fighting and struggling for the cause of
his motherland (Pakhtunkhwa) and its sons’ (Pakhtuns) rights and
progress as well for, all downtrodden of the whole land. Death
is a fact which every one has too face some day. However some
people live in such enviable way that even after death they do
live. Great Khushal Khan Khattak, forefather of Ajmal Khattak,
has said in a verse:
“Fortunate are (only) those who
are remembered (with good words) in the world as none will be
here in this mortal world for ever.' The great Ajmal Khattak
will be definitely one of those few auspicious souls. The
revolutionary poet-cum-politician had devoted his politics and
poetry for a lofty cause which he had set for himself even when
he was yet a small kid of 14 years or so and remained loyal to
it till the last. No impediment or dictatorial pressure (exile,
imprisonment, physical torture, different allegations and
propaganda), cowed him nor any worldly greed or material offers
bought him.
Monetarily though a poor fellow
and remained so till last breath, however he never ever desired
wealth nor he longed for official posts during all long
political career as he was much higher than such petty matters
and there lies the greatness of that modest but worthy dweller
of a simple mudhouse of Akora Khattak.
A J Khattak,
Peshawar.
‘Cry babies’ of media
The screaming headlines of
certain Pakistani newspapers and prophecies by some participants
of TV talk shows suggest that President Asif Ali Zardari must
quit the president house - dead or alive.
Such demands are outrageous as
President Zardari has not done anything for which he should be
kicked out of the office before completing his term. On the
contrary, Zardari is the only president in the history of
Pakistan who has demonstrated an extreme level of tolerance in
the face of a brutal character assignation campaign that is full
of smear and slander. Orchestrated by discredited politicians
and a section of the media the campaign seems to have no limits.
Regardless of what military,
clergy and some in the media think of President Zardari, it is a
fact that since assuming the office of the president, 15 months
ago, Zardari has promoted reconciliation and forgiveness in a
divided society where political disagreements amount to bloody
feuds. Zardari was victimised for 11 years by his political
opponents such as former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who
initiated false cases against Zardari, however, the President
has not sent no one to prison because s/he disagreed with the
President or criticised him.
Zardari is the only president
who was elected with a clear majority in the National Assembly,
Senate and in all the provincial assemblies. He represents the
federation legally, really and truly. He is the first president
who agreed to give NWFP a name. There was no horse-trading in
the Senate elections, a routine in the Pakistani politics since
1985. From Gilgit-Baltistan to Baluchistan and from the signing
of the NFC Award to the elimination of the Kalabagh Dam project,
all signs indicate that at last the process of bridge building
has started in Pakistan and winds of reconciliation can blow in
this country. But some do not feel comfortable; perhaps peace
and stability is not in their interest. Perhaps this is the
reason that the ever-smiling, humble and modest Mr. Zardari is
presented as a monster, an evil person who has no moral right to
be the President of Pakistan.
If Mr. Zardari was a 'bad guy',
as the 'cry babies' want us to believe, Ms Bhutto's children
would have avoided him. Instead, after the tragic death of Ms
Bhutto, all the three children are even closer to their father.
They use every opportunity to appear in public with Mr. Zardari
to show how much they love and respect him. If Bilawal, Asifa
and (name to be added) had a slight doubt about the love and
dedication of Mr. Zardari towards their mother they would never
gather around him. But the 'cry babies' on TV and the likes of
them in the print media of Pakistan cannot see the true love
between a father and his children.
May be we should not blame the
'cry babies' for their hateful behaviour. Perhaps these men in
suits, who appear on our television screens as commentators and
intellectuals, are victims of religious and ethnic hatred that
has destroyed peace and harmony in Pakistan since the unlawful
removal of the prime minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in 1977.
Shiraz Paracha,
On email.
Question for civilians
A few days ago a retired colonel
died when his motorbike was hit accidentally by the car of chief
secretary Punjab. The incident drew a lot of hue and cry in the
media.
Now a professor of NUML has been
arrogantly hit and beaten by a retired egoistic brigadier
because the former dared to disagree with the latter’s view.
However shockingly the same
media has taken it lightly. Why?
Habib-ul Haq,
Peshawar.
Future course for Karzai
Since the London’s Afghanistan
conference of January 28, India, including its media, has
expressed deep concern and anxieties about the pernicious
fallout of to-be-started so-called reintegration and
reconciliation programme of the Taliban but as ever India has
been advancing suggestions without risking any worthwhile stakes
in Afghanistan. Hence Karzai should decide his future course of
action in the given backdrop and opt for solution as follows:
1) Though India is reminding
Karzai that he has personal stakes also of his life and honour
(because he may face a grim future like Najibullah who was
tortured and hung from a post by Taliban in 1996 after Soviets
withdrew from Afghanistan) but being a well-meaning person and a
man of integrity Karzai must have made or should make the human
rights (especially of women) friendly Afghanistan the real
motivation for remaining in power for time to come. Because
human rights have found place in Afghanistan after removal of
Taliban from government in 2001 (as is reported that out of 7
million children currently attending schools in Afghanistan, 40
percent are girls and there has been a fair degree of women
empowerment since 2001 in Afghanistan) and these human rights
are bound to be the first casualty with Taliban returning to
power or influence, in any form, in Afghanistan.
2) Though given the most
difficult situation Karzai finds himself in, it is easy said
than done, fortunately it is neither impossible nor infeasible
if Karzai keeps three things in mind:
i) Mullah Omar reportedly said
that – “They think that Mujahideen have taken up arms to gain
money or grab power or were compelled to turn to arms. This is
baseless and futile”. Th e Taliban can be combated successfully
only by noble missionary zeal on the part of Karzai in the
interest of human rights (especially of women) of the people of
Afghanistan.
ii) In contemporary uni-polar
globalised world USA is a different country than what it used to
be before the dismemberment of USSR. Hence USA can reasonably be
trusted to be genuinely interested in promoting human rights and
peace across the world. But USA with a population of merely 300
millions (even with allies who also have lesser population) has
limitation of manpower. Therefore Karzai should give up his
unnecessary reticence and call a spade a spade in constraining
Government of India (even by talking over the head of Government
of India to Indian people who overwhelmingly want, even through
massive military assistance, the promotion of human rights and
peace in Afghanistan) to provide massive military assistance to
UN forces through USA and allies in Afghanistan in the interest
of human rights and peace in Afghanistan.
iii) With India’s massive
military assistance (which is bound to have tremendous
implications on Kashmir problem between India and Pakistan)
Karzai’s Afghanistan (itself a member of SAARC) has any chance
of success only if Karzai is guided and enthused by the vision
of “Federation of Secular Democratic SAARC countries” (FSDSAARC),
as an alternative political model for this region.
3) As for the noble missionary
zeal for the human rights, it can be invoked and sustained only
if Karzai develops a genuine political party which will have
commitment to rule of law and human rights. Karzai should not
forget that Musharraf, despite best of his intentions, failed in
Pakistan for the simple reason that he failed to develop his own
genuine political party for ensuring, with missionary zeal, the
support for his government from the overwhelming majority of the
people of Pakistan, a sine-qua-non for the success of any
democratic government. Here Karzai need not be misguided by the
example of India which does not have any genuine political party
as is evident from widespread anarchy in India where rule of law
is conspicuous by its absence.
4) Therefore in addition to
developing a genuine political party, Karzai should immediately
do the following:
i) Ask Afghanistan’s Ambassador
to India to organise seminars (with full media attendance) in
all the State capitals and major cities of India (at least 50
such seminars) for the purpose of harnessing Indian public
opinion in order to constrain Government of India to provide
said massive military assistance to UN forces (through USA and
allies) in the interest of promoting human rights and lasting
peace in Afghanistan.
ii) Ask UN (USA and allies) to
encourage UN-approved NGOs for human rights (from all over the
world and especially from SAARC region) to work all over
Afghanistan to function as a watch-dog of human rights
(especially of women) in Afghanistan.
Hem Raj Jain,
India.
8-2-2010
Selling out land to aliens
There came to the fore another
wonder of this democratically elected government, when its
foreign minister declared, “The land we want to sell is not land
that belongs to any one or even has any existing agriculture
activities.” (Statesman, Jan 28) Well done, Mr. Qureshi! It is
‘no man’s land’ if what you say is interpreted correctly. It is
nobody’s land since it is Pakistani land and obviously what you
and your government intend is, to sell out Pakistani land on
some very awkward pretensions. When are you calling its tenders
or are putting it to open auction?
The democratic government of PPP
has been toeing the disastrous policies of the dictator who has
ruined this country, selling his people, land and its air fields
to his master. This offer will be enthusiastically welcomed by
the enemies of Pakistan and most probably the ‘master’ will
offer the highest bid since they need this land for their
conceived heinous agenda in the region. They will purchase such
pieces, protect them according to their plan and then start
their activities within the premises, declaring them out of
bounds for Pakistanis, whosoever they may be.
Most probably the American
Crusaders after making the purchase deal will harbour a number
of mini Pentagons on such spots to be secured and guarded by
such dreaded agencies as the Black Water under the direct
control of the CIA.
Let us revert only to two such
events in the history and try to learn a lesson if we can. It
were the Muslim rulers of India, who had sold out or given in
‘bakhshish’ small pieces of land to the East India Company
wherefrom the colonial dominance was established and we were
subdued into complete enslavement for three centuries. Is
history repeating itself at the hands of the so-called elected
rulers, who are crying hoarse every time to be working for the
benefit of the people obviously, a statement very paradoxical
indeed.
The same paradigm in the history
is the disastrous example of the Arabs of Jerusalem, who had the
bad luck of selling their lands to the Jews migrating back into
the holy land after the end of their Diaspora, as a result of
the beneficence of the Balfour Declaration of 1917. The
consequences for the Arabs of the holy land are not a secret.
The news is a very shocking one.
It is hoped that the government
will not commit such a blunder of selling the country’s soil to
aliens. This nation has been afflicted with so many shocks at
the hands of the rulers and must not be put to any more tests or
trials. It is high time that the relevant quarters took notice
of such misdoings of the authorities and made every effort to
stop the rulers from playing havoc with the country. The
Parliament, the judiciary, the political parties, the media and
the men of pen have great responsibility to play their role in
protecting the cause of the motherland through all available
means. Such things are seemingly small but potentially they are
of disastrous consequences in the history of nations.
Muhammad Faheem,
Timergara.
Bottled water and media
As reported in the national
papers, out of 53 companies that are manufacturing and
supplying/distributing bottled mineral water in the country, 28
have been found not only unregistered and unlicensed but the
product they are selling was also found fake.
As per report, the use of
substandard water has caused widespread waterborne diseases.
Unfortunately while providing such serious information, the
papers have failed to disclose the names of those rogue
companies who in order to earn profit are playing with the
health of masses.
The media which includes
newspapers is considered to be eyes and ears of the people. By
not divulging the names of defying companies it has done no
service to the public. On the contrary they have damaged those
manufactures who are supplying genuine ‘mineral water’. Moreover
as names of these companies are not made public, therefore there
is impediment to advertise their spurious product in the print
and as well as media.
It is therefore bounden duty of
media to notify the names of all those 28 unscrupulous companies
who are supplying contaminated water so that people may not use
that specific brand.
Qazi Saleem,
Old Hala.
Motivating parents, children
We as parents and educators pull
out our hair sometimes on a weekly or monthly basis due to our
children specially the teenagers who trigger our frustration.
Our teenagers or adolescents go through their hormone change
during transition years of life from grade 7 to 9 or age 12 to
14.
Daniel Pink, 45, who was a chief
speech writer of for Al Gore when he was the US vice-president,
now lectures and writes mostly about economic transformation. He
wrote in his new book Drive, saying that we have been going the
wrong way by rewarding the children by money or shower of gifts
to motivate which is not the right way for 21st century economy
that requires more innovation or creativity.
Pink suggested by research on
behavioural science that shows that true motivation comes from
the self or the individual within and has three elements: 1.
Autonomy, 2. Mastery and 3. Purpose. Everything our children and
we learn or do in our lifetime we must know the purpose as we
face the consequences or reward or punishments. I/we experience
during summer(July-August), winter(March) and holidays in
December vacation that our children get bored but if we plan
ahead they can do tons of activities on learning extra language,
math, science, art, culture, music, drama, for instance we have
students do volunteering, work on paid jobs, join clubs,
contests, sports etc.
Our children at home and school
must be taught the character education traits with 3Rs: right,
responsibility and respect besides their 3 daily learning of
reading, writing and math.
If they do x amount of task then
they will get y amount of gifts is actually quick fix in
short-term but is spoiling them in the long term. Sometime we
hear our children get bored at home school or home during school
year weekend or vacation time. The solution to this problem is:
we must engage our children constructively with varieties of
curriculum and extra-curriculum in school or community while we
have to get them engaged and give them choices with house chores
and school home work at home.
If a student is not interested
in math or reading stories on printed or electronic materials, a
better strategy would be to figure out why he is not interested
in reading. Is it because the content is difficult or not
interesting or the student learns reading in a different way? In
order to motivate a child or an adult we as parents or educators
must consult with the individual child and find his/her ability,
need and interest and then accommodate or modify the contents by
expected curriculum to motivate and make him successful in the
long run.
Towhid Noman,
Canada.
Not the only one to blame
It seems as if everybody and his
uncle is out to get Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Ijaz
Butt’s neck after the dismal performance of our cricket team in
Australia. Chairman of the National Assembly Standing Committee
on Sports, Jamshed Dasti, has been the most vocal in asking for
Butt’s resignation. As an avid cricket fan, I was disgusted by
the way our cricket team collapsed during the recent Australian
tour. Despite this, I think it is unfair to put the entire blame
for this fiasco on Mr Butt. Other members of the PCB, the
cricket coach and the Pakistani players themselves have a lot to
answer for.
It is also quite disconcerting
to see Mr Dasti passing all sorts of judgements on the future of
cricket without having adequate knowledge about the sport. I
suggest that he stay out of this issue and let the PCB take its
own decisions. At a time when passions are running so high we
need to think with our brains and not our hearts.
ALI KHAN,
Lahore.
Heads must roll
The aftermath, as broadcast on
television channels all over the country, of the Karachi
bombings have left no doubt in my mind that we are a country at
war with ourselves. The terrorists, sectarian hate-mongers and
opportunists who take advantage of violence breed well within
us, and day in and day out we see the depth of the destruction
they can and do cause. There has to come a time to make heads
roll, and I am not talking about the kind the suicide bombers
and others prefer. We need to stop showing lenience and start
taking action.
Ruthlessness deserves
ruthlessness in return; the terrorists are now targeting schools
and hospitals — places considered relatively safe in war-like
situations. The Pakistani public has had enough!
TARIQ KHAN,
Lahore.
7-2-2010
Mercenary army
As reported in a section of the
press (February 1) Liam Fox, the shadow Defence Secretary of
Great Britain, now turned into little England, wants an overhaul
of 60-year NATO alliance to ensure that all members of the group
contribute to their collective war-effort, either by putting
their soldiers on the chopping block or by coughing up money to
foot the bill for the costs involved. He was very unhappy over
the present situation in Afghanistan and said “Our forces are
taking a disproportionate share of casualties and our taxpayers
are also taking a disproportionate financial burden,” “Some
countries neither want to fight nor fund.” He suggested that
members such as Germany with few troops on the front line should
be forced to make cash payments to the states bearing the brunt
of the fighting. He did not clarify whether this facility would
be available to those outside the alliance so that they could
hire the British army to fight their dirty wars.
I know losing the large empire
has been a great shock to the British and not being fully
reconciled to the idea of little Britain, some of the British
leaders want to regain the past grandeur, at least on a mini
scale. Not being in a position to capture large territories,
they are quite willing to make do with small military outposts
in distant lands where they could fly Union Jack, and make
unannounced visits to address their troops, feeling great that
they are ‘controlling’ the world.
It would seem reasonable to
suggest that if the British want to take up such costly hobbies,
they better put up the money. Alternatively, if they cannot
afford such luxuries, they better stay at home and save all
their money, as well as their soldiers. It is no good trying to
force others to pay for their costly and brutal misadventures.
S.R.H. Hashmi,
Karachi.
NA-123
Mian Nawaz Sharif has decided
not to contest NA-123 by polls next month and instead nominated
Pervez Malik as the MLN candidate for what is believed to be his
taken-for-granted seat in Lahore. Parvez Malik has been chosen
ostensibly for his being a sincere party worker who stood by the
Sharifs through thick and thin. However, intriguingly his one
brother Malik Qayyum, the former attorney general, was an ardent
aide of president Pervez Musharraf - a sworn enemy of MNS, and
his other sister – Yasmeen Rehman – is a twice elected MNA from
the Pakistan People’s Party - the arch rivals of the PML-N.
Why is MNS himself not
contesting the polls, everyone is looking askance. Is it some
lurking fear of losing the contest? An ego problem of being in
the parliament and not the leader of the house and the PM of the
country? Or, most importantly the self-signed and undertake 10
year ban on taking part in politics? The last reason is
strengthened further by the fact that MNS soon relinquished the
PML-N command in favour of his brother and thus – legally
speaking - became a non-entity within the party.
Whatever the reason it is
certainly a sad scheme of affairs for our national politics
where every thing just revolves around the glory and gain of a
personality with no consideration for the national cause. He
should have been in the assembly to play his effective role as
the Leader of Opposition for ensuring good governance.
Col. Riaz Jafri (Retd),
Rawalpindi.
In support of a good step
Sindh Education Minister Pir
Mazharul Haque has claimed in one of his statements that
thousands of schools stood closed before the formation of the
PPP government.
He said his government reopened
1,400 of them while 700 schools were closed due to absence of
any population in the said areas.
The opening of the 1,400 schools
is a big achievement, but what about the plight and quality of
instruction in the schools that are functional?
Prolonged absence of the
majority of teachers, the grotesque practice by some education
officers to promote absenteeism and, of course, political
interference at the local level have been reasons in the way of
making the educational system non-functional at 23 districts of
Sindh.
I would only speak about Dadu,
the home district of the education minister, as a sample case.
A large number of schools in
rural areas, especially in Kachho, have remained closed while
hundreds of children waste their precious time by loitering in
streets.
More than half of the entire
teaching staff never set their foot in their respective schools
for years. The monitoring staff and leaders of teachers’ unions
have provided a safety valve for the majority of the absentee
teachers.
Some time back the DCO took a
bold action against such elements. Within days all absentee
teachers reached their respective schools and there were
noticeable positive changes in the educational structure. He had
formed monitoring committees and warned the bad elements in the
system to either rectify their nefarious practices or face
strict action.
But the DCO’s noble efforts were
jeopardised presumably by vested interests. He was transferred.
Education, land and other mafias
had allegedly come into full action to get rid of this sincere
officer. Fortunately, the people of Dadu district made a strong
public protest against his transfer and finally the DCO was
brought back.
We hope that in future too the
politically influential but dishonest elements would be
discouraged by our elected representatives to allow the DCO to
clean the mess in education and other fields.
GULSHER PANHWER,
Dadu.
Laptop warriors
The laptop warriors, who have
been predicting the end of the government by harping on the
mantra of clash of institutions for the last many months, must
have been disappointed with the recent statements of the
honourable Chief Justice of Pakistan and the prime minister.
Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry made it clear in one of his
observations that the judiciary was working for strengthening
democracy in the country. Likewise, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza
Gilani also made a significant statement in the National
Assembly that the government would implement the National
Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) verdict in letter and spirit
after the contentious points have been clarified. Both the
highest office holders of the land representing the judiciary
and the democratic government have made it clear through their
utterances that there is no chance of a clash among the
institutions of the state.
I believe that it is by
remaining within the constitutional domain that the democratic
order can be strengthened and this is exactly what has been
said, much to the dismay of the laptop warriors.
SONIA ZAFAR,
Lahore.
PPP-MQM patchup
The PPP and MQM have agreed to
remain in coalition. This is a good sign for democracy and also
for the city of Karachi. But what about those 40 people who died
in the clashes that took place in this city? Will the police
catch the culprits or will it, again, forgive these political
target killings?
I hope that the politics played
by the law enforcement agencies will completely be wiped out so
that the police can catch any culprit whether he belongs to a
political party or not.
MUBASHIR MAHMOOD,
Karachi.
4-2-2010
Reasons of successive defeats
Once again our cricket team had
a tough time in Australia. But we shouldn’t criticise them much
for their successive defeats, because our team had always a
tough time on Australian tour, whether it was under the
captaincy of Waseem Akram or other great players.
Why our team is so helpless? I
feel there are only three reasons. First of all, our players
lack self-confidence and therefore succumb to pressure very
easily.
The second reason of our failure
is having three bowling coaches and no batting coach; and
ironically neither our bowlers can defend a decent total nor it
can bowl out Australians on low score.
The last reason is crystal clear
to every fan of cricket that there has been a struggle going on
among some players for getting captaincy and they include,
Shoaib Malik, Shahid Afridi, Kamran Akmal, Yousuf and finally
the ex-captain Younas Khan. I think by making many captains, we
have gone back to the last decade, when we had 10 or 12 captains
in the team after Imran Khan.
The patron of PCB must interfere
right now, because World Cup 2011 is not far away. We don’t want
to have an early exit again in the coming world cup. For the
betterment of our team, the incumbent chairman of PCB should be
sent home and some youngsters should be put in the one-day team
from the under-19 team.
Najeebullah,
Swat.
PCB affairs
Javed Miandad has denied the
startling disclosure made by the PCB chairman that he is paid 10
million a month, saying that he gets just about half of this
amount from the PCB. Wow, just about 5 million - only! Keeping
that kind of money in mind one wonders what the chairman, the
directors, the selectors, the managers and the coaches would be
getting. What kind of money they and the players are literally
playing with and to what results?
Can someone tell me, when was it
last that they won a Test, even with the shameful ball tempering
by Afridi? Down with the PCB and such racketeering cricket and
the cricketers.
Col. Riaz Jafri (Retd),
Rawalpindi.
PPP’s populist move
The Benazir Employees Stock
Option Scheme (BESOS) is already under implementation in a
number of state-owned entities. These include high
profit-yielding companies like PPL, OGDC, PSO, SSGCL, etc.
Free distribution of 12 percent
government shareholdings among thousands of employees of
state-owned companies has generated a tremendous goodwill and
favourable sentiments for the ruling party.
Financial benefits have been
extended to all and sundry by the scheme. Each one has won a
lottery out of the blue.
In some cases, retiring
employees of a company have qualified to receive a windfall
payment of close to eight million rupees under BESOS, in
addition to getting the terminal benefits admissible under the
rules.
Others, who are serving, have
earned hefty dividends and will get the lump-sum value of their
shares at the market rate, whatever it be, at the time of their
respective superannuation or on quitting the job.
The payouts will, of course,
depend on the length of service on a case to case basis.
The PPP government has shown a
lot of ingenuity in bringing out BESOS in a manner that has
enticed employees en bloc. Everyone has a stake in the cake. Eat
and let others also eat is the order of the day.
The scheme is so overwhelmingly
lucrative that not one employee has risen above his personal
interest to even question the probity of the dicey endowment.
The PPP has earned enormous political mileage at the cost of
public money.
Their vote bank has increased
while the public investment has shrunk.
The opposition in the National
Assembly/Senate is apparently keeping silent over the unlawful
distribution of government shares. They do not wish to swim
against the public-pleasing tide and harm their popularity.
Expediencies have, therefore,
swept away the principles of healthy opposition. Even the
Security Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) which is the
regulatory authority for such issues has turned a blind eye to
the whole affair.
The scheme is also damaging in
the sense that many good employees of those companies whose
share value is high on the stock exchange right now are likely
to take early retirement or even quit their jobs for encashing
their shares in haste.
Such employees will prefer to
collect the bounty and then look for a job elsewhere.
Despite all intended goodness of
the scheme, it is just not understandable as to how public
shareholdings can be dispensed whimsically by the prime minister
and his cabinet.
Even the National
Assembly/Senate has no locus standi to promulgate a law
favouring such dispensation as will be seen against the spirit
of the Constitution.
The initiative now rests with
the Supreme Court for taking suo motu action in declaring the
BESOS against national interest before it is too late and
profit-making companies are milked and messed with, in meeting a
political agenda.
HAROON R. SIDDIQI,
Karachi.
4-2-2010
US woing Taliban
President Obama’s new policy is
paving way for national reconciliation in Afghanistan. That
simply means reconciliation with Taliban. In American corridors
of power nowadays discussions of involvement of Taliban in
Afghan government, are taking place.
America is not working for bringing peace to the region but rather it is trapped
in its own war on terror. That’s why before escaping or
pretending to escape from Afghanistan America is struggling hard
to accommodate Taliban in
Afghanistan. Regarding war on
terror regional powers had encircled America and Pakistan was so
successful in eliminating Taliban from its territory that soon
American plans were going to be disclosed but all of a sudden
America changed its policy and announced its new Afghan policy,
thus war on terror got a new face “Reconciliation”.
In this way America has saved
its assets “Taliban” from elimination at the hands of
Pakistan and regional players.
On UN platform Russia has discarded this new American policy and
that’s why it did not take part in London Conference. Question
arises: if America is really sincere in peace process, why she
is searching for moderate Taliban in third and fourth ranked
leadership of Taliban? If she is serious in negotiations, why
Mullah Omer and Central Shura of Taliban are not part of it?
Because they can certainly influence all hues of Taliban.
FARMAN NAWAZ,
On email.
Karachi killings
After a long wait, we had
democracy but two years down the lane, people are beginning to
get disillusioned because it does not seem to have brought them
any tangible benefits. Actually, their problems seem to be
multiplying by the day. Obviously, many of the problems were
inherited by the present government and solving them would take
time, but there is a general feeling that government is not
taking the situations as seriously as it should. A perception is
developing, not entirely without justification, that the
government is busy, almost full time, in warding off various
threats to itself and on its own preservation, continuation and
promotion. Sometime back, there was the attempt to destabilise
PML (N) government in Punjab and now the focus seems to
have shifted to the City District Government of Karachi.
At the time of Ashura bomb blast
and Bolton Market arson, there did not seem to be any plan to
deal effectively with the criminals who seemed to be free to do
what they liked. The most unfortunate thing about it is that
with the renovation of some markets and distribution of
compensation cheques, the chapter seems to have been closed. The
trial of the accused continues but no major lessons seem to have
been learned.
We now have targeted and random
killings in Karachi but again, the matter is being used by
different sections for point-scoring, and coordination seems to
be non-existent as ever.
Surely, we need some cool-minded
and level-headed persons to look after the law and order
situation of the province and specially Karachi, which happens
to be the largest city, and commercial hub of the country. It is
no good giving just an emotional outburst in response to every
tragedy and consider that one has discharged his duty to the
city, to province and to the country.
S.R.H. Hashmi,
Karachi.
Training Afghan soldiers
Reports are that Indian military
experts, under an agreement reached recently, have started
imparting training to the Afghan National Army (ANA) and Afghan
National Police (ANP) and groups of Afghan forces personnel have
already been sent to India for the same purpose. In the recently
concluded London Conference lobbies were made to convince the
world community that the Afghan forces personnel must be trained
by India to which Pakistan objected.
The Karzai government’s
relations with India and in return the increasing Indian influence in
Afghanistan is not only the
cause of concern for Pakistan but also for the international
community. In his pre-Afghan strategy report, Gen McCrystal had
clearly pointed to the troubles created by the expanded role of
India in Afghanistan which is causing hindrance to the smooth
functioning of Nato and ISAF.
My point in this regard is if
Pakistan is given the role of imparting training to Afghan
forces personnel, that would serve the purpose of bringing peace
in the region. Because engaging Indians serves to Karzai’s
anti-Pakistan stance and Indian designs against Pakistan, which
has already prolonged and complicated the GWOT and in fact has
resulted in the scheduled withdrawal of allied troops. The
question is: if growing Indian involvement in Afghanistan is
agreed upon, then there seems no ray of hope in resolving the
already messed up situation. Rather it would further aggravate
as Pakistan would lose in words of Gen Kayani its strategic
interests which would be threatened with Indian presence.
Indian-trained Afghans cannot be
expected to do any good for regional peace, rather they would
prove to be Col Prohit’s like who used the Indian army and
military intelligence cover to blow up Samjhota express and
killed Pakistani passengers.
Secondly Indians have no role in
quelling terrorism. Nor have they experience of fighting
terrorism head-on. On the other hand the Pakistan military has
proved its professionalism in the battlefield. Take Swat and
South Waziristan operations as example. A similar spirit of
Pakistan military if infused in the Afghan forces personnel can
do wonders within days, weeks or months to fight the menace out
of this region. It is on the world conscience whether to give
India this role to further fuel this fire, or assign the task to
Pakistan to clear the mess as early as possible.
Eschmall Sardar,
Peshawar.
You are not alone
Balochistan, no doubt, one of
the most resourceful and rich regions of Pakistan has not seen,
like the rest of the country, the advancement that it should
have. In fact, it is sad to accept that we have not since
independence adopted the path towards prosperity.
The entire Balochistan region,
constituting roughly 40-43% of the landmass with only around 7%
of the total population, is largely owned by a few feudal clans
who exert complete control over the local communities. The
entire province remains under colonisation of not any external
force, but under the landlords themselves, who find any progress
of subjects as a threat to their supremacy. Multiple attempts of
various NGOs and private organisations at educating and
enlightening youth have been opposed and dismissed by the
noncooperation of the local leaders thus putting the population
at risk.
Boasting three Arabian seaports,
the mouthwatering strategic location of Balochistan increases
its own vulnerability by inviting interest from the outside
world. According to Robert Wirsing, a US Army think-tank, the
big game revolves around pipelines. Gwadar is the absolute key
as it is the centre of the Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline and the
US-backed Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India pipeline.
Also, after the 9/11 America had used airbases in Balochistan
for logistical support during its invasion of Afghanistan.
Russia, too, had planned to access the ‘warm waters’ of the
Arabian Sea through Balochistan and is also supporting movements
of ‘independent Balochistan’ and ‘independent Pakhtunistan’ to
advance its geo-strategic interests.
In this backdrop it becomes
inevitably essential to safeguard the sovereignty of the country
first, to establish an identity as a true Pakistani only. To
invest more in defence becomes unavoidable as it’s the only
means to sustain and counter massive external involvements. A
country at war needs courage and heroism from its youth, not
self pity and egocentrism.
Lubna Umar,
Islamabad.
Violence in port city
During last few weeks over 50
people - mostly political activists of different parties - have
been killed by unknown snipers and law enforcement agencies hves
failed either to control the situation or to arrest the
culprits.
Leaders at middle and lower
levels of major political parties accuse each other and the
fifth columnists watch gleefully.
The immature political outbursts
of the ministers in Sindh are indirectly facilitating the enemy
plans for engulfing Karachi in ethnic riots. But the good thing
is the tolerant and reconciliatory policies of top leadership in
the ruling alliance.
Enemies of Pakistan besides the
drug, land and other mafias have, it appears, planted their
agents in almost all the political parties. These elements
mastermind terrorist attacks deceiving politicians who want to
use them for bashing their opponents.
Land and drug mafia hide
disguised behind the protection of corrupt law enforcement
personnel as well as politicians.
The ministers of Government of
Sindh show political immaturity when caught breaking laws of
their own government, be it the case of ban on tinted glasses
for motor vehicles or possession of unlicensed guns by their
sons.
There also appears to be influx
of terrorists in Karachi escaping from FATA as
military action is in progress. In Karachi they deceive law
enforcement and politicians on the basis of ethnic and religious
considerations.
Stern action must be taken
without consideration to political expediencies if someone is
caught indulged in criminal acts and terrorism instead of stupid
excuses that the policy of political reconciliation is
preventing action against terrorists and criminals.
Arif N. Khan,
On email.
Peace in
Middle East
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu said recently that Israel must have a presence in the
West Bank even after a peace agreement is achieved, dealing a
fresh blow to the visiting US Middle East envoy's effort to
restart peace talks.
To settle the problem of
Jerusalem and bring peace to the Mid-East - at least for a
little while - it will take a miracle. There'll never be true
peace. In the meanwhile, there's more turmoil to come in the
region, sad to say. It's by man's inhumanity to man, by lust and
greed and pride, the same things that have always caused wars.
I'm afraid the poor Palestinians
are going to suffer a while longer, along with many other
refugees around the world.
ANUM KHAN,
Peshawar.
2-2-2010
Blair in the dock
What is going in Britain under
the label of Chilcot inquiry into Iraq war is really a charade.
Don’t expect any justice to the victimised Iraqis from this
drama. Don’t expect the conspiracy behind the war to be exposed.
All that the questions and answers have done is to show to the
whole world that former British prime minister Tony Blair is
living in a fantasy world of his own — one far removed from the
realities of the Third World. Some of Blair’s hallucinations
about British role in the present world are mind-boggling.
Blair’s testimony made it clear
that even though Saddam Hussein or Iraq had nothing to do with
the 9/11 attacks, the Western powers thought the entire Muslim
world deserved a collective punishment. That in effect was the
motive behind the “war on terror”.
Blair said that he had the total
security of the West in mind when he sided with Bush to pound
Iraq. He had no regrets for the terrible human tragedies
resulting from the overwhelming aerial bombing. To take out
Saddam and his two sons, the US and UK killed over 200,000 in
direct bombings. And that too after all the countries, including
France and Russia that can be counted as major stakeholders in
the Western world’s overall security, had given advance and
persistent indication that they would not side with the US and
UK in waging the war on Iraq.
In his six-hour testimony, he
seems to have been influenced by the Jewish neocon strategies in
the use of power and the need to secure the Western world (read
Israel), while US employs its armed power to take over weak and
indefensible nations with abundant oil resources. This may
translate into real (as opposed to perceived) security threats
to the West later.
Blair’s testimony shows the
consequences of the armed attacks in the form of death and
destruction for the victims of aggression was of no concern to
him, the champion of “humanitarian” interventions. Any way the
US, UK and Israel have reached the limits of the efficacy of
their armed might that has now opened a Pandora’s box.
To the unconcealed glee of
Israel and its neocon supporters in the US political
establishment and media, Blair now wants a replay of the Iraqi
horror in Iran. He again and again brought up Iran in his
testimony.
He is oblivious of the fact that
in Afghanistan, a poor
Third World nation the US and
NATO forces have completely destroyed, they are now suing for
peace — so disdainfully rejected by Taleban. Their prime target,
al-Qaeda, has now resorted to a “hide and seek” game. And no one
should be surprised if they too pick up from Blair and Bush and
launch their own collective punishment strategies.
Ghulam Muhammed,
India.
Blaming Uncle Sam
This is in response to Aijaz
Zaka Syed’s article, “Uncle Sam on subcontinent” (Jan. 29) I
don’t understand why people on the subcontinent, especially
Muslims (or people with Muslim names) are so very negative about
the United States. When India and Pakistan have an advantage to
take on their relationships with the US, they are very quick
and, may I add, very quiet about it. You don’t criticise the aid
Pakistan continues to receive. You are not against India
continuing to get more outsourcing business from the US either.
Please try to be more balanced,
if not truthful about the United States. If Pakistanis and
Indians want a better subcontinent, they should help make the
lives of Afghans better rather than issue veiled threats about
the Taliban.
Irfan Syed,
On email.
Clinton and Obama
I am writing with reference to
the Op-Ed: ‘Loss in Massachusetts: ominous sign for Obama?’ by
Dr Habib Siddiqui (January 29).
Most people are making a lot
about US President Barack Obama’s losing the Senate seat vacated
by the demise of Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy without ever
mentioning that former president Bill Clinton also lost Congress
in 1994 and yet he was re-elected in 1996 with a wider margin.
In the 1994 mid-term elections,
President Clinton saw his Democrats lose both Houses of Congress
in what was called the ‘Republican Revolution.’ Critics blamed
that Clinton’s loss was the result of his abandoning tax-cutting
centrist platform as a ‘New Democrat.’ Once in office, Clinton
announced a huge tax increase and embarked on a national
healthcare plan. As a result, most thought he will be another
Jimmy Carter and will go down as a single-term president.
And yet, Clinton was re-elected
in a landslide in 1996 and his Republican opponent Senator Bob
Dole, running on a tax-cutting agenda, went down in total
defeat. Clinton did raise taxes on
wealthy Americans (people earning more than $250,000 a year) to
stem a runaway budget deficit left behind by earlier Republican
administrations. Clinton’s tax-hike on the rich, denounced by
right-wing Republicans as ‘a passport to recession,’ balanced
the budget, produced a surplus, lowered the long-term interest
rate and triggered the longest economic boom in recent history.
His successor George W Bush squandered the surplus by his
staggering $1.67 trillion tax cut, producing a massive $400
billion deficit.
Like Clinton, President Barack
Obama faces an enormous budget deficit left behind by Bush. But
he must follow in the footsteps of Clinton and raised taxes on
the wealthy to balance the budget. This will reduce the deficit
and need to borrow from China. In fact, Obama is moving in that
direction.
But like Clinton in 1994, Obama
is facing his critics who are blinded by a temporary setback.
They fail to realise that Obama is showing his steel to tame the
bankers who bankrupted America’s financial institutions through
their greed and incompetence. The Obama administration launched
a modest regulatory reform initiative in the summer of 2009,
proposing new consumer protections and some measures to
strengthen financial stability. But the banks are fighting the
measures at every step.
It is no surprise that the banks
have tried to resist reform. The existing business model allows
them to take the upside when they win and hand over the downside
to taxpayers when they lose. This encourages excessive risk at
the expense of consumers. Obama is showing courage to take on
the bankers and their cronies in the government. But Obama
administration must go further. First, capital requirements by
banks should be tripled not just in the US but across G20, so
that banks hold at 25 percent of assets in core capital. Second,
if banks are ‘too big to fail,’ they must be divided into
smaller units.
President Obama is right to get
tough with the six largest banks — including JP Morgan Chase,
Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and Bank of America that now have
assets worth more than 60 percent of the GDP. Such concentration
of wealth in so few hands is a prescription for disaster. Obama
is rightly trying to reduce their size and power.
Obama’s achievements are more
real than apparent. His bailout of financial institutions saved
them from total collapse. His stimulus package stopped the Great
Recession from turning into the Great Depression. In foreign
policy, he has improved America’s image dramatically. He has
started to withdraw from Iraq. Afghanistan remains a difficult
issue. But the situation is improving and Obama hopes to bring
back US troops in 2011. He deserves to be congratulated for
doing so much in such a short period. Clinton lost Congress in
1994 and bounced back in 1996 to win in a landslide. Obama is
likely to replicate his performance in the next presidential
race.
Mahmood Elahi,
Canada
Revival of DMG
Revival of the district
management group with some amendments can bring about much
change in good governance of the country.
However, it should be taken into
consideration that parliamentarians have to play a vital role in
this regard.
Parliamentarians are already
elected at the grassroots level and are bound to go to the
people and make policies according to their requirements. The
role of the bureaucracy is to implement policies of the
government. DMG officers are seasoned policy implementers and
more competent and trained for this job.
The revival of DMG would mean
that government policies would aim at people’s benefit, without
any political tinge. This will create trust between people and
lawmakers. The tussle of power that we witnessed after the
devolution plan can be stopped, leading to effective delivery of
the system.
UMAR MAHBOOB,
On email.
1-2-2010
Fissile matterial cut-off treaty
It is quite obvious that unable
to make significant progress or rather any progress, on real
issues, US President Barack Obama, with his popularity rating
falling, is keen to clinch some deals which he could present as
great achievements and thus regain the lost ground. Unable to
solve issues like Arab-Israeli peace, where his lack of courage
prevents him from taking a firm position with Israel, which is
necessary to secure a deal there, he has decided to take the
line of least resistance, so as not to upset the all-powerful
Israeli lobbies.
Now, Obama is pressurising
Pakistan not to block
international talks on the production of new nuclear bomb
material, since the talks can proceed only if all parties,
including Pakistan, agree to it. Earlier, believing Obama’s
‘honest’ intentions for world peace, Pakistan had agreed for the
talks that remained stalled for 12 years, to resume but with
clearer picture of Obama emerging later, Pakistan is rightly
blocking these talks because curbing future bomb-making capacity
without any move on the existing stockpile, will put Pakistan at
a disadvantage with India which has much larger nuclear arsenal
and whom the US and other countries are offering preferential
deals.
If the US is really worried
about nuclear hazard, all it has to do is to make a start by
cutting down on its own stockpile which is sufficient to destroy
the entire world many times over. We know the US is the only
country that actually used atomic bombs, dropping it on cities,
on civilian population, not once but twice. It also has to
institute proper safeguards for its nuclear arsenal. We had a
case where a US pilot flew right across America, not knowing
about the presence of nuclear material in the back of the plane.
We also heard of the collision of a nuclear-armed US submarine
with another one, under sea.
Even without nuclear arms, the
US has been, and continues to be, a threat to world peace. It is
just about the only country which seems to be so fond of wars,
and has been habitually attacking countries like Korea, Vietnam,
Iraq and Afghanistan, with a spillover to Pakistan where its
drones are killing lot of innocent people along with some
militants, involving the US in violation of international law.
US fighter planes have also started bombing missions in Yemen
already. Then we heard from an American General that
preparations have already been made to bomb Iran.
So, if the US puts its own house
in order, curbs its imperial ambitions, and stops being an
international bully and mass murderer, that itself could ensure
a fair degree of peace in the world. Going a step further, if it
can muster a bit of courage and stands up to Israel, it could
help in resolving the Arab-Israel issue which is responsible for
a lot of Muslim militancy, including 9/11 and other attacks on
US interests. It could also make a useful contribution to peace
in the region by helping to get the Kashmir dispute resolved, which gave rise to a few wars between neighbours who
are nuclear-armed now. That could definitely be preferable to
what the US is doing in
the region, i.e. arming and developing India as a regional bully
in US efforts to encircle China and creating new conflicts in
the region.
Unfortunately, Barack Obama
lacks courage, foresight as well as noble intentions and to make
it worse, has lot of power which he seems to be interested in
using only as a destructive force.
S.R.H. Hashmi,
Karachi.
Licences for arms
A recent report on prohibited
bore arms licences included the name of MNA Ayaz Amir who is
also a newspaper columnist. According to the report, Mr Amir was
issued 29 such licences. Through your pages, I request Mr Amir
to comment as to why he needs so many arms to protect himself.
Sher Ali Khan,
Mardan.
Israel’s terror tactics
Israel has assassinated another Palestinian leader, this time a top Hamas
commander. This took place in
Dubai.
Israel’s secret service agency Mossad is notorious for killing Palestinian
leaders anywhere in the world. In 1977
Israel tracked down and killed
Wadia Haddad, an operative of the Popular Front for the
Liberation of Palestine in Baghdad. Haddad was a suspect in the
takeover of an Air France airplane in Entebbe,
Uganda in 1976. Haddad was hiding in the Iraqi capital after
Israel began killing
Palestinians around the world, knowing that he could be shot or
bombed as he walked the street or picked up a phone. Haddad was
cautious of his every move, avoiding travel outside Iraq, but he
had a weakness — chocolates. Aaron Klein in his book “Striking
Back” describes how sophisticated Israel was at poisoning
Haddad. Through a Palestinian working with Mossad who had gotten
close to Haddad, the agency was able to feed Haddad chocolates
brought from Belgium and spread with poison over six months.
Haddad died in March 1978
showing only symptoms of leukemia but no signs of poisoning. In
1997 Israeli agents in Jordan injected Hamas leader Khaled
Meshaal with a poison that would have killed him in 24 hours,
but the plot was discovered and Jordan forced Israel to provide
an antidote quickly enough to save Meshaal.
Israel will continue to kill anybody it considers an enemy and will get away
with it so long as it has the support of the world community
(read the US).
MohammAd Abdul Waheed,
On email.
31-1-2010
IHK: Indian duplicity
After three years, the
directionless and disappointing report of Working Group has been
submitted to the Chief Minister Omer Abdullah on 23rd December
2009. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh constituted this
multi-represented Working Group (WG) in May 2006, on
Centre-State relations. Previously Pakistan has made some
successful diplomatic efforts regarding this.
This Working Group presented
some recommendations which are absolutely directionless. The
salient features of those recommendations are as follows:
— Future of Article 370 will be
decided by the people of Jammu & Kashmir.
— National Conference demand for
'Autonomy' can be examined in the light of the 'Kashmir Accord'.
— Demand of Self Rule by
People's Democratic Party can be considered when the document is
placed on record by the PDP.
— Representation/Reservation for
Scheduled Tribe and Women in the Assembly should be on the basis
of 'the national pattern' subject to political consensus!
— No increase in number of
Assembly seats and no De-limitation Commission.
— Armed Forces Special Powers
Act be reviewed.
— Under representation of Jammu
in Legislative Assembly to continue.
— Union Territory Status for
Ladakh not recommended, will compromise unity and integrity of
State of Jammu & Kashmir be compromised.
— Dy. Chief Minister and
Ministers from Ladakh - no specific recommendation made.
Working Group recommendation
that abrogation or continuance of Article 370 should be left to
the people of state seems to be the part of the long term plan
to change the demography in Kashmir by increasing Hindu
population. Besides Working Group recommendation for the
continuity of the power of the Governor for dismissal of the
popular government constitutes a serious threat to the image of
those political leaders who are vocal in demanding autonomy and
loosening control of centre on Kashmir. The helplessness of
political leaders is evident from the fact that the main
opposition party People's Democratic Party's (PDP) demand of
Self Rule was not even considered during Working Group
proceedings as they said there is no document is placed on
record by the PDP.
The uselessness of this report
is evident from the fact that only National Conference has
welcomed it. Panun Kashmir has rejected all recommendations of
political nature and PDP has given guarded response. The most
important thing is that even members of the Working Group stands
divided.
The prevailing situation seems
to provide continuity in depriving Kashmiris of their
universally accepted rights as India is not interested to free
Kashmiris from its occupation.
India claims to be the biggest democracy of the world and propagates to be the
champion of Human rights but the ground realities are totally
different. Other than
Kashmir, there are number of separatist movements inside India
which shows the actual human rights situation in the so called
Shining India. Actually none's human rights are protected there
except high caste Hindus. As a matter of fact, people understand
the Indian duplicity on democracy and human rights while dealing
with Kashmir.
Shehla Zafar,
On email.
Chinese bases in
Pakistan
As reported in The Statesman
(January 30) China has signalled it wants to go the US way and
set up military bases in overseas locations that would possibly
include Pakistan. The obvious purpose would be to exert pressure
on India as well as counter US influence in Pakistan and
Afghanistan.
According to the report, a
Pakistani expert on China-Pakistan relationship has a different
view on the subject “The Americans had a base in the past and it
caused a political stink. I don’t think it would be politically
possible for the Pakistani government to openly allow
China to set up a military base,” he said, while requesting anonymity.
Pakistan might allow use of its
military facilities without publicly announcing it, he said.
I think the expert probably
formed this opinion because he did not compare like with like.
Everybody knows that our experience with China is not the same
as with the US. The US had only a transactional relationship
with us, in the past as well as now and it always left us in the
lurch in times of need. Our largest association with the US came
about at the time of Russian invasion of Afghanistan which gave
us three million Afghan refugees, drugs and militancy, from
which we never recovered, plus sanctions against us later.
It is said that the Russians
were lured in to Afghanistan by the US in order to avenge the
humiliations suffered by it in Vietnam. As a bait, CIA started
some suspicious activities in Afghanistan to create an
impression that the Americans want to establish bases there, and
the USSR troops just barged in. It is also said that the
Russians had no intention to over-run Pakistan to gain access to
warm waters and this was just a ploy to drag
Pakistan into the war, which we
fought for the Americans. We also know Americans’ cousins, the
British, who messed up our region for nearly two centuries and
even when forced to depart, demonstrated their animosity with
Muslims by handing over to India the Muslim-majority areas with
access to Kashmir, thus creating the Kashmir problem which has
remained a permanent bone of contention between the two
neighbours, much to their amusement. The British are part and
parcel of the American contingent.
As compared to this, our
relations with the Chinese have always been excellent with no
rift ever, and they have been most helpful to us all along.
Moreover, they also have an interest in the region and being our
friendly neighbours, are our natural allies.
America regards China as a challenge and a threat and is sort of encircling
China, by increasing its
influence and presence in the surrounding area. The US is wooing
Russia and has just announced $6.7 billion arms sales to Taiwan.
US is also helping India in nuclear and other fields. Moreover,
Israel’s influence in India is also on the rise and Israel has
declared Pakistan to be an even greater threat than Iran. So
this US-India-Israel nexus and the hunting dogs of Europe which
are available to them ‘at call and at short notice,’ do pose an
existential threat to Pakistan which would be very difficult for
Pakistan to counter alone, especially when we have too many
internal problems as well.
In these circumstances and with
such a perfect convergence of interests when China and Pakistan
could both be helpful to each other, it is only natural that
Pakistan should speed up cooperation and collaboration with
China, and should facilitate setting up Chinese military bases
in Pakistan which could extend a vital life-line to us at a time
when we are facing multiple threats. Once they have a
substantial presence here, they could also help us in
industrial, commercial and agricultural sectors and enable us to
exploit our mineral resources to the full.
No doubt some of our
dollar-loving, dollar-aligned and dollar-assisted leaders would
try to block such an arrangement as it would upset their masters
but others who hold Pakistan dearest to their heart should make
sure that this matter is pursued and concluded quickly.
S.R.H. Hashmi,
Karachi.
Col. Ikram’s death
It was a most unfortunate and
tragic incident to happen. The late Colonel’s brother sobbing
with tears on the TV accused the Chief Secretary that had he
stopped and taken his brother to a hospital probably he would
have not died. Not many may give a thought as to why did the
Secretary not stop. Was he that callous that he saw a man being
hit and yet sped away? Was he a ‘hit & run’ type of juvenile car
user? Was there some bigger emergency for him to attend to? None
of these, Sir, it was simply due to the mindset of a typical
naukri baz officer who behaves like a lion before the public and
acts like the most meek and humble lamb before his superiors.
And, the prime minister is one hell of lot superior officer. Who
cares if an ordinary man on the road is killed?, the mighty must
show up his humble presence to the mightier come what may. The
curse of this kind of sycophancy has crept into the services
also.
Col. Riaz Jafri (Retd),
Rawalpindi.
Post-NATO defeat
The disastrous failure of the
invasion in Afghanistan that has united the
country to stand against the invading forces is getting more and
more evident. 41 NATO soldiers died (not including the tens of
seriously wounded) compared to 25 in the last year, in the month
of January. With a spiralling down US economy, which is getting
worse each day, and where the unemployment rate is above 10%,
and where banks are being made to stand by borrowing trillions
of dollars, the US adventures continue, which is leading to the
demise of the empire sooner than we all expected — the writings
are on the wall — the invasion has failed and the defeat is
looming. It’s a matter of time when they would find an excuse to
run out of the country. Pakistan should now be planning full
blast to take control of the region post-NATO defeat!
SALEH,
On email.
30-1-2010
Is it a media trial?
According to the federal
minister for information the cause of discouraging foreign
investment in the country is media. This convoluted logic was
expressed by him while addressing a press conference along with
minister of railways.
The minister complained that
government believed in freedom of media but it is the media
which taking advantage of liberty is inflicting immense losses
to the state with incessant media-trials of government
departments.
As an illustration he quoted
criticism on hiring of rental power projects and losses in the
railways ministry. It appears that either minister is showing
one side of the picture deliberately or oblivious of the unfair
dealings in these sectors. In the case of rental power projects
transaction was not found transparent. Besides it was
uncontroversial that had the dues of IPPs discharged timely
their present power generation capacity was enough to cater for
the requirements of country.
The minister while condemning
the print and electronic media has perhaps failed to appreciate
that it is the fundamental role of media to have vigilant eye on
the public functionaries and keep the nation posted if any
misdemeanour is committed by them. In my opinion this is not a
‘media-trial’ but a positive criticism that ensure that public
funds are not squandered by the state functionaries.
In the case of railways, less
said is better. The minister has admitted himself that railway
requires 100 locomotives whereas 80 sick locomotives can be
brought to function with investment of Rs400 million. These sick
locomotives were purchased by previous minister Javed Ashraf few
years back from China through a shady deal. These locomotives
went inoperative within a short span of two years. Why the
present government is not approaching Chinese company, which
according to terms of agreement is bound to make them
serviceable and why they are insisting to purchase new ones?
The media being fourth pillar of
state is only fulfilling its professional commitment by
criticising the blatant corruption committed in the state owned
organisations. For instance in the case of Pakistan Steel Mills
Ltd alone media has uncovered loss to the giant state-owned
organisation to the tune of Rs30 billion. Sadly these are the
very non-professional favourites appointed by the government who
within a short span of one year have caused such a colossal loss
to the profit-making body that in order to bail it out
government had to inject a huge subsidy of Rs10 billion.
If the foreign investment is not
coming, it is not because of so-called “media trial” but it is
on account of the shenanigans of government functionaries, who
are rightly being exposed by the print as well electronic media.
Moreover another significant factor which is responsible for
discouraging foreign investment and that needs to be improved is
the law and order. The fragile law and order mainly consequence
of war on terror has forced the foreign companies and donor
agencies to hold even their regular meetings with FBR and other
federal financial institutions in
Dubai.
The people are pushed to the
wall by hyper inflation, shortages of basic consumer goods which
have eroded their capacity of even middle class to have a
respectable living. Moreover the worst power outages and
intractable law and order have made their lives extremely
miserable.
Thus if the government
concentrates more on good governance by transforming the working
of their departments transparent and public service oriented and
also bring the law and order situation under control, concluding
war on terror expeditiously and successfully there is need not
to panic the criticism of media.
S. S. Shah,
Canada.
ANP stance & Malik’s pledge
We remember when the USSR had
invaded Afghanistan, in the late Eighties the ANP’s stance was
that the Russians had been invited by the lawful Afghan
government of the time. Since then the game started with
horrendous consequences and is still going on with little signs
of coming to an end.
The same rhetoric was repeated
by one responsible ANP stalwart Mr. Bashir Ahmad Bilour as
reported in the electronic media on the evening of 22 January,
2010. The senior minister was reported as saying, “All the
foreign agencies are working in Pakistan with our permission.”
Can Mr. Bilour be asked whether the Black Water performing the
specific activities in Pakistan are also operating with their
permission as they are running the coalition governments both in
the Centre and in the province?
It has now been proved beyond
all doubts that the Black Water is actively working in Pakistan
as confirmed by a very responsible American official. In this
respect it is pertinent to note that Interior Minister Rehman
Malik, on people’s voice against the notorious agency’s presence
in Pakistan, had a few weeks back promised that he will resign
if Black Water’s presence was proved. Now when Mr. Malik is
going to fulfil his promise made so unequivocally? Also, one is
greatly surprised at the level of the information the minister
had about the Black Water by the time he was making the said
statement. Is he a right man on a right job?
Muhammad Faheem,
Timergara.
Unbridled hike in power rates
The disclosure that the
electricity consumers are being fleeced around 35 percent more
than what they were paying before the latest increase in power
tariff by six percent is revealing. For the people who are
already under pressure of sky-high prices of essential goods,
this uninformed swell which cumulatively increased their power
bills to almost 50 percent above the pre-January paid bills is
simply killing. Could authorities be so cruel that they did not
even find it appropriate to let people know the rationale behind
such a huge rise in the power bill? On the one hand, the
affluent sections of society such as stock brokers, estate
dealers and mega cartels like sugar, cement, oil companies and
textiles evade taxes and, on the other hand, the burden is
shifted on the consumers through sales tax/GST and withholding
tax.
The government is, in fact,
increasing prices of power to achieve its budgetary targets. I
should remind those sitting in
Islamabad of what Greek
philosopher Aristotle said long ago: ‘Poverty is the mother of
all crimes’. If prices continued to increase, crime will
inevitably increase. The president and the prime minister should
work sincerely on improving the worsening economic conditions of
the country. We may slide into abject poverty if the situation
is not improved. If the escalation was inevitable because of
increase in world oil prices, the government then should have
withdrawn 22 percent, which it is recovering as federal tax.
Salim Ahmed Qazi,
Old Hala.
Imran Khan and Taliban
Whether one likes it or not, the
fact remains that Imran Khan is one of the most popular
politicians in Pakistan today. His party, Tehrik-e-Insaf has
large following in the 124 districts of the country and seven
tribal areas. He has a large number of party workers and
supporters in Karachi.
What is more, Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI)
is the only mass political party in Pakistan that came into
existence and grew without the support or approval of the
military or political establishment.
Recently Imran Khan established
a cancer diagnostic centre in Karachi in addition to the Shaukat
Khanum Cancer
Hospital in Lahore where thousands of poor
and marginalised people are getting treatment. Can your readers
name any politician from Pakistan who established a primary
school or a small basic health unit? Is there any politician who
is free from corruption, embezzlement and kickbacks except Imran
Khan?
Imran Khan’s call for dialogue
with Taliban is always misinterpreted. He wants talks with those
Taliban leaders who have political demands. If such an offer of
dialogue is coming from
America to the Afghan Taliban, it is welcomed everywhere but when the same offer
is made by Imran Khan, he is considered a Taliban supporter
which is totally wrong.
If America seeks dialogue with
Taliban why can’t Imran Khan do the same thing to bring peace to
our country?
Abdullah Rahman,
On email.
Musical chairs
The prime minister used the
metaphor of musical chairs for the power the other day on the
floor of the house. Waving his hand from left to right he said
that tomorrow the opposition could sit on the right and his
party on the left in this house. Elaborating upon it further he
said that he and his party were willing to shed and share power
with the elected politicians but not with anyone else. What did
he exactly imply by saying ‘anyone else’? In the wake of present
state of near conflict and muscle wrenching between certain
organs of the state the answer shouldn’t be too difficult to
guess. One earnestly prays to Allah (SWT) that democracy is not
derailed but, if the things do not improve and the army is
ordered by the judiciary to take over or install a
Bangladesh-style government, then would it be imploring or
begging the government for shedding and sharing the power? The
only way not to let it happen is the good governance and Oh ye
men in power, for God’s sake, mend your ways and serve the
people with good governance. No one would dare cast an evil eye
on democracy in Pakistan, Insha Allah.
Col. Riaz Jafri (Retd),
Rawalpindi.
29-1-2010
Indian army land scam
Recently Indian media (both
electronic and print) has been full of stories about Sukna land
scam where due to alleged conspiracy to aid the transfer of 71
acres of tea estate adjacent to Sukna military station (to a
businessman, a real estate developer) action was taken by chief
of Army staff General Kapoor against four Generals. General
Kapoor initiated disciplinary action (court martial) against Lt
General Rath whereas administrative action against Lt. Gen.
Prakash, Lt. Gen. Halgali and Maj. Gen. Sen.
But media has been crying foul
and saying that disciplinary action should have been taken by
Gen Kapoor against Lt Gen Prakash also and Gen Kapoor is ‘soft
on his aide Lt Gen Prakash’ by ordering merely an administrative
action against Lt Gen Prakash.
Now on January 27 Defence
Minister Antony, as per media, is reported to have directed Gen
Kapoor to initiate disciplinary action against Lt Gen Prakash
after which number of retired officers of armed forces
(Generals, Admirals etc.) have appeared in media and have raised
many following important points and also the demands of basic
tenets of jurisprudence and which have serious and profound
implications:
1) Gen Kapoor in his wisdom
ordered disciplinary action against one and administrative
action against three Generals.
2) Is there any reason to
believe - that Gen Kapoor acted in a partisan manner - without
going through the reasons which Gen Kapoor might have noted down
on the case files (a) for rewarding punishment to these four
Generals and (b) for giving different punishment to different
Generals?
3) Has Minister Antony gone
through these reasons given by Gen Kapoor on case files or asked
Gen Kapoor these reasons for awarding punishments and different
punishments to these accused four Generals?
4) Has Minister Antony noted
down on file his observations and reasons for believing that Gen
Kapoor was soft on Lt Gen Prakash hence instead of
administrative action the disciplinary action should be
initiated by Gen Kapoor against Lt Gen Prakash?
5) These ascertainments are
necessary because (a) otherwise it will be construed that
Minister Antony merely played to the gallery, especially to
media and (b) it is not merely a matter of civilian supremacy
(as was in the case of Admiral Bhagwat as has been lamented by
retired Generals and Admirals on media) but an extremely serious
matter which has a potential of gravely demoralising and
disturbing the 1.3 million highly disciplined and professional
military, the premier bedrock of Indian State.
Therefore the people of India
should mobilise the President of India (the Supreme Commander of
all the Armed Forces and the Head of Indian State) in order to
ask the Prime Minister of India to furnish all the relevant
files of the offices of Defence Minister Antony and Gen Kapoor
for ascertaining whether Gen Kapoor was really soft on Lt Gen
Prakash and:
i) If yes then Gen Kapoor be
made to initiate disciplinary action against Lt Gen Prakash and
ii) If no then Minister Antony
be made to withdraw his directions to Gen Kapoor for initiating
disciplinary action against Lt Gen Prakash.
Hem Raj Jain,
India.
Coalition Support Fund
As reported in The Statesman
(January 27) Pakistan has been facing problems getting
reimbursement of the expenditure already incurred by it under
the Coalition Support Fund programme and the amount has
accumulated to a figure of $2 billion, with no sign of immediate
payment despite many reminders. American Embassy spokesman
Richard Snelshire ascribes it all to non-cooperation from
Pakistani government which is withholding visas for the US
auditors who were due here for scrutinising the list of
expenditure and the receipts, before payment.
It appears to be a lame excuse
because at least part of the claim goes back a long time and
should have been audited much earlier. Also, in case of
continuing contractual services, it is quite common to make
interim payments on account, which are adjusted later after the
claim has been vouched, verified and finalised. The Americans
could have adopted this procedure to ease Pakistan’s
difficulties but they choose not to, and that proves beyond
doubt what good friends they are. Basically, they are trying to
blackmail Pakistan and to force it to yield to their
never-ending, unreasonable demands, including visas for bringing
in hundreds of saboteurs here who could help destabilise
Pakistan, Iraq style.
This is despite American
appreciation of Pakistan’s services and
sacrifices in the war against terror and its pivotal role, and
their expressed desire to enter into long-term partnership with
it. They are quite generous and never tire of offering all help
to us but consider themselves under no obligation to meet their
commitments.
Quite recently, our Turkish
brothers, who have been most helpful all along, supplied us
helicopter spare parts for free and car-scanners recently
installed in Islamabad came from our trustworthy friends and
brothers, the Chinese while the Americans, with great
difficulty, managed to give us a few old helicopters and some
night-vision equipment.
Of late, our government is
firming up its stand against unreasonable, excessive demands
from, and illegal activities by, the Americans. That is the
right approach. Please keep it up.
S.R.H. Hashmi,
Karachi.
Learn from Sonia Gandhi
I strongly condemn
non-implementation of SC verdict on NRO as apex court in its
decision has adjudged NRO as null and void and the government
has still not accepted the decision in a true manner.
We the Pakistani nation request
the government not to back corrupt ministers and accept the
decision from heart in order to highlight soft image of Pakistan
in the entire world. Backing corrupt people is not in favour of
Pakistan as such case will lead to confrontation among
institutions which will deprive Pakistan of stability. We have
not need for corrupt politicians at the cost of destability of
Pakistan.
I appeal to the verdict-affected
ministers to remember Sonia Gandhi, former prime minister of
India, and learn a lesson from her by resigning from
premiership.
M TARIQ SWATI MANGLOR,
Swat.
US health insurance
If Barack is forcing the
Americans to debate their own society that is a good thing. The
Americans without healthcare, or health, have waited for Barack
for a very long time. Health insurance is an evil that Americans
need to get to grips with — it only works for people with money.
If it is civilised to turn one’s face away from those in need
then the Americans have got it wrong. The credit crunch made
lots of rich folk poor. Did it change their minds about reform?
Grow up America and get a heart.
Zubair,
On email.
Dismal cricket performance
While responding to a question
by a reporter, Sindh’s Sports Minister Dr Mohammad Ali Shah said
that had Bob Woolmer been alive today, he would have died out of
shame on seeing the defeat in Sydney.
I was astonished at the
response. First, he is, perhaps, ignoring the sad possibility
that Bob had died due to exactly the same reason a couple of
years back when Pakistan surrendered to Ireland in a crucial
World Cup cricket match.
But then he might also be
implying that it is shameful of us (Pakistanis) to go about our
daily lives after the Sydney debacle.
Indeed, the respectable thing
would have been a natural death from utter shame or mass suicide
in case nature chose not to intervene.
Perhaps, Dr Shah may also be
hinting that Bob being of weak nature could have been affected
by the performance our cricket team had put up in Sydney.
The brave Pakistani nation,
however, could only be put down by a dismal performance.
SHAHID SIDDIQI,
Lahore.
Karachi airport
I frequently travel abroad from
Karachi International Airport. During 26
years long years I found constant increase in airport taxes
under one label or the other; presently highest forming about
40% of the fare. During all these 26 years I have never seen
except for one disposable glass at water coolers in
international departure lounges.
Javed,
Karachi.
28-1-2010
Mass murderers hanged, some but not others
As reported in the press, Saddam
Husain’s cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid has been executed for his
crimes, including gassing an estimated 5,000 Kurds. Saddam
Hussain was hanged much earlier. So these two criminals have met
the fate they deserved and no right-thinking person would shed
many tears for them. Still, one has got to remember that Saddam
ran the country in a far better manner than his successors.
Saddam’s wrath was directed at individuals, groups and
territories that he considered a threat to his rule, but the
majority of the population in most areas of the country enjoyed
a fair degree of peace.
However, it is surprising that
other mass murderers, George Bush and Tony Blair escaped
punishment despite invading
Iraq, brutally, recklessly and on fabricated charges, dismantling its
government without putting anything in its place, thus creating
a big vacuum as a result of which the whole country got
destabilised and millions of innocent Iraqis lost life, limb,
home and hearth.
At present, there is an inquiry
going on in Britain against Tony Blair, which will hopefully
lead to criminal prosecution for which demand is rising among
the British people who earlier chased him out of office.
However, there is not even a hint of any action against George
Bush in the USA, a country of violent, cow-body origins, which
sees no need to change its behaviour pattern even after
centuries and feels free to attack countries, not bothered in
the least about what these invasions do to innocent people.
|