| December 6, 2001 | Thursday | Ramazan 20, 1422 |
To send a letter to the Editor
Click here
A sweeping remark
War in Afghanistan
Official residence
District governments
Why Chomsky?
Acts of terrorism
Crash of flight 587
Erich Fried’s poems
Reduction in fares
Bypass road for Muzaffargarh
Entry test
Garbage disposal
Importance of lab accreditation
THIS is in response to “My Lai: a response” (Dec 3) by Kenton Keith, spokesman for the Coalition Information Service, Islamabad.
I have noticed the sudden fondness these days for the phrase “No independent confirmation”. May I point out that there is no independent confirmation for the accusation that Osama or Al Qaeda are involved in the events of Sept 11, but the US is killing the poorest and most defenceless people of Afghanistan, who had nothing to do with the events.
Regarding the events at Qala-i-Jangi, if anybody expects the world to believe that the surrendering Taliban had not been searched and disarmed despite the fact that one of them had used a grenade in a suicidal attack only a couple of days earlier, does he mean to say that the Delta force, SAS, CIA and the Northern Alliance take prisoners without search? This is an insult to human intelligence.
Why is it that the coalition forces are refusing to have an inquiry conducted in the whole affair by an international organization? Why was it necessary to bomb the fort from the air? Why couldn’t the allied forces and Northern Alliance troops lay siege to the fort?
Reports about charred trees suggest that Daisy Cutters might have been used. One should be aware of the effects of such a weapon within enclosed spaces like a fort. All this tends to suggest that no attempts were made to recapture the POWs, alive in any case.
The Nazis did not have Daisy Cutters so they relied on old-fashioned furnaces in dealing with the prisoners. In the Nazi camps nothing belonging the prisoners was allowed to go to waste. Valuables like gold teeth, clothes, and shoes were taken away, even calcium from the bones of the dead was extracted.
It is reported that the NA troops are not only helping themselves to the shoes and clothes of the prisoners but are also pulling out gold teeth from the mouths of the dead. And yet a comparison to the Nazis is being resented!
ASHIR AZEEM
Karachi
COLUMNIST Kunwar Idris makes a sweeping statement: “Barring ETA (an acronym for Basque homeland and freedom movement in Spain, that started a violent campaign 31 years ago) of Basque country, all rebellious or terrorist movements have their origin in Muslim societies” ( Nov 25).
Such a sweeping statement to incriminate Muslims in acts of terrorism is not justified. The Maoist Sendero Luminoso; Shining Path guerillas of Peru; Tupac Amaru, named after the last Inca king in Argentina; Sandinistas of Nicaragua; Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionaria Colombiana, FARC of Colombia; United Revolucionaria Nacional Guatemalteca, URNG, of Guatemala; Italy’s Red Brigade; the Japanese Red Army; the Baader-Minhoff gang of Germany and LTTE in Sri Lanka, are by no means linked to Muslim societies.
This seems to be an uncalled-for substantiation of President Bush’s remark saying: “Terrorists would have no place to hide and could not hide behind Islam.” In fact, terrorists are hiding behind Zionism and in the US itself.
PROF (DR) P. NASIR
Gujrat
THE US war on Afghanistan is nurturing fresh hatreds, says eminent writer Gore Vidal. You don’t declare war on Sicily because the Mafia is based there and Sicily is not prepared to deport it. Gore Vidal has listed numerous strikes which the US has made on other countries, calling this a ‘perpetual war for perpetual peace.’ The US action against Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaeda network could have been taken without going to war with Afghanistan. He feels that the US has ulterior motives (oil, perhaps) in this part of the world.
Couldn’t the alliance partners also have said that they were with the US as far Osama and his terrorist network was concerned, but not for the attack on Afghanistan? They didn’t, because they were not partners but only camp followers. The Pakistan government admitted that it had not questioned the evidence presented to it, but had no qualms about saying ‘yes sir, yes sir, three bagsful’, taking even Colin Powell by surprise. “A major political breakthrough,” he beamed. By this action, the Pakistan government sealed the fate of the poor Afghan men, women and children.
Yet, Gen Musharraf is pleased to tell us that his ‘principled’ stand has been vindicated.
KHURSHID ANWER
Lahore
A GOVERNMENT servant is allowed to keep his official residence for only two months after retirement. During such a short period, he cannot manage to get his pension papers prepared and is thus made homeless without any source of income or any means of building a house of his own.
The government is requested to allow its employees to keep their official residence for two years after retirement. This will prevent them from becoming corrupt during their active service.
ARSHAD JAVAID
Muzaffargarh
THE radical changes made by the present regime in district government could leave a stamp on administrative history like that of Raja Todar Mal’s revenue collection system or, equally, go the way of the proverbial premature initiatives of Muhammad bin Tughlaq. While only history will pronounce on that, the fact that the die has now been cast it would, in the national interest, be only part of wisdom to contribute towards its success in whatever way possible.
If the Nazims will deal with all citizens even-handedly, and will conscientiously hold themselves accountable then, without further ado, they should be set the task of and helped with the institutionalization of an authority / accountability matrix. A meaningful framework for this could be:
The announcement by the Nazims of a five-year, well publicized, governance plan spanning five financial years with an attendant detailed annual action plan, to be announced annually, covering the period ending with the completion of a full financial year.
These plans must reflect in measurable terms the concerned Nazim’s manifesto on the basis of which he or she was elected. The subjects covered must include. Improvement in governance, crime control, population planning, education, poverty alleviation, infrastructure development, water management, quality of life improvement and industrial growth.
Wherever possible the Nazim himself should address the electorate at least once every six months to apprise them of progress.
The setting up of an institutionalized evaluation committee of independent, well qualified persons to critique and evaluate performance in consultation with the Nazim will facilitate him or her in the achievement of pre-determined goals given in the plans.
M.J. AS’AD
Karachi
IN KARACHI people paid Rs750 per head to listen to Prof Chomsky and hundreds went to his lecture in Lahore and Islamabad. The MIT professor said that America was the greatest terrorist and that it had no moral authority to invade Afghanistan and everyone applauded when he said this. The so-called ‘silent majority’ was the principal audience at all these lectures.
Our religious parties and people like Qazi Hussain Ahmed have been saying exactly these things but the same silent majority condemns them. Chomsky, on the other hand, is given awards while our political leaders are detained.
Why cannot we shed our 54-year-old attitude of looking at western intellectuals with awe. For a change, why can’t we have our own views and opinions on matters, events and concerns of national interest.
KHALID QURAISHI
Karachi
THE FOREIGN ministers of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council have urged Israel to withdraw its military forces from Palestinian territory. Aerial Sharon refuses.
The European Union and the US urge India to begin negotiations with Pakistan over the disputed territory of Kashmir in accordance with the wishes of its people. The Indian prime minister refuses.
The peoples of Palestine and Kashmir continue to be humiliated and murdered. Are these not acts of “terrorism” ?
PROF (DR) M. ASLAM PIRACHA
Islamabad
THE manner in which the US has hushed up the crash of American Airlines Flight-587 within three minutes of its takeoff from the JFK international airport, New York, is quite mysterious. To prevent the news of investigations trickling through, a strict curfew appears to have been imposed on the media.
With repeated disasters striking the US aviation industry, the authorities have become pretty smart in arriving at instant conclusions, right or wrong.
Within minutes of the catastrophe that struck the World Trade Center, the blame was put on Osama bin Laden. Similarly, while the residential borough of Queen’s where the A-300 was burning, the authorities declared that the accident occurred because of mechanical failure, downplaying terrorism as a possible cause of the crash.
Emphasis continued to be laid on a “mechanical fault” despite the fact that eyewitnesses had seen the plane convulse in midair, flinging away its tail and engines and crashing into the Rockway Peninsula in Queen’s with smoke bellowing from the body.
One really fails to understand how did a jetliner with a solid safety record maintained by the nation’s biggest airline and flown in perfect weather by two experienced pilots break into pieces in less than three minutes after takeoff.
The cause of the crash still being a mystery, the data from the flight’s black boxes show that the aircraft shook after hitting another plane.
The act of terrorism having been ruled out, the investigators believe the pilot lost control after the jet twice hit the turbulence from a Japan Airlines (JAL) aircraft flying on the same course.
It may, however, be noted that flight-587 took off about two minutes after the JAL flight, the paths of the two planes were 1.21 kilometres apart and the JAL plane flew 400-1,000 feet higher than the plane that crashed.
Although the finding needs to be examined by the experts, it does not appeal to common sense. There is so much of air traffic around the big international airports of the world that if a plane can crash on account of turbulence created by another plane, there would be a crash every day.
RAFI NASIM
Lahore
ASHFAQUE Naqvi in his write-up, “Going to Germany and staying there” (Dec 1), has made some flattering remarks about my literary pursuits and especially about my translations of Erich Fried’s poems.
It was stated that Fried’s work has not been translated into English. This same remark was made by Gilani Kamran in his column in another English daily (Nov 8). But I am sure that at least a part of Erich Fried’s work must have been translated into English.
Erich Fried lived in London for the most part of his life. There he had ample opportunities of getting his poems translated into English.
Ashfaque Naqvi has mentioned cursorily that Siddiqa Begum quite sometime back, had published in her monthly “Adab-i-Latif”, Peter Bichsel’s German short stories. In fact, it was in the March 2001 issue of the said magazine that a complete book of Peter Bichsel was published as a special number.
This book was also translated by me and its first edition was published in 1995 by the Punjab Book Depot, Lahore.
There are also some other minor factual errors in Ashfaque Naqvi’s column which may be corrected or left as they are, as they don’t really matter much.
Dr MUNIR D. AHMED
Kummerfeld, Germany
I WOULD like to draw the attention of the concerned authorities towards the fact that fares of public transport have not been reduced though petroleum prices have fallen twice or thrice recently.
The price of high speed diesel has been reduced by around Rs 3 per litre. But the transporters are charging the same fares as they were charging previously.
I hope that the relevant authority will take the necessary step without further loss of time.
WAQAS BAIG
Lahore
THE importance of building a bypass road around Muzaffargarh has always been downplayed by the local district administration due entirely to certain ulterior motives. It has been estimated that the massive flow of heavy traffic passing right through the city centre not only kills scores of wayfarers every year, but it also generates ‘funds’ for the local officials in the form of illegal “monthlies”. No officer would want the bypass to be constructed here and, therefore, they have always dissuaded the provincial governments from taking this step.
The previous governor of Punjab, during his visit to Muzaffargarh had for himself seen the necessity for such a road and had ordered for its immediate construction but the project was shelved by the local administration as usual. The new governor is expected to visit Muzaffargarh very soon and he is requested to take pity on the people of this city by making available funds for the bypass project.
SHAHID JAVAID
Muzaffargarh
AFTER two years of hard work, the students still have to go through the tough and expensive exercise of an entry test. This situation raises the question if the intermediate or A’level certificates have any value?
Because of these aptitude tests sometimes the more intelligent students fail and undeserving students get through. There are also many students who cannot afford the heavy entry test fees and also the fees charged by the coaching centres preparing for these tests.
I request that either this test may be withdrawn or it should be made transparent, as well as affordable.
SALMAN KHAN
Karachi