More of brinkmanship

IT IS increasingly clear that India is in no mood to heed fervent international appeals for restraint in its current stand-off with Pakistan. The series of tough punitive measures against Pakistan, announced on Thursday, suggests that India is bent on a dangerous course of brinkmanship. The aim seems to be to exploit the post-September 11 war against terror to force the Americans to apply pressure on Pakistan to crack down on militant groups supposed to be operating in Kashmir. India has been on the warpath since the December 13 attack on its parliament building, seeing a Pakistani hand behind the incident. It has accused Pakistan of supporting militant outfits such as the Jaish-i-Muhammad and Lashkar-i-Taiba which it claims were behind the attack. Its precipitate and pace-setting actions are aimed at putting pressure on Pakistan to root out the militants. The measures announced to the press on Thursday by Minister of External Affairs Jaswant Singh are abrupt and one-sided and follow on the heels of similarly draconian steps taken a few days earlier. The most significant is the decision to ban overflights by Pakistani planes over Indian territory — an eerie throwback to the early ‘70s when New Delhi contrived the hijacking of an Indian airliner to take a similar step in the build-up to the war in what was then the eastern wing of Pakistan. The other radical step is to cut back on the diplomatic strength of the two countries by fifty per cent and to restrict the movement of Pakistani diplomats and their families to within Delhi municipal limits.

After announcing these measures, Jaswant Singh went on to describe them as “minimal,” suggesting that more drastic steps may be in the offing. Hawks in India have been demanding even harsher measures, including the scrapping of the Indus Water Treaty between the two countries. Having refused to retaliate following earlier Indian provocations — such as the withdrawal of its High Commissioner from Islamabad — Pakistan was forced to take similar steps by banning overflights by Indian planes over its territory and cutting down by half the strength of the Indian diplomatic presence in Islamabad. There is now every likelihood that Pakistan may also call back its high commissioner from New Delhi. In that sense, at least, India has managed to drag a reluctant Pakistan onto a path that could well lead to open hostility between the two nuclear powers. In spite of all these provocations, Pakistan has made it clear that the possibility of a nuclear confrontation in the subcontinent is unthinkable, and ruled out using the nuclear option in any eventuality. The Indians, carried away by their belligerent rhetoric, have given no such assurance even for form’s sake.

While Pakistan has been exercising maximum restraint and said that negotiations are the best way to defuse the current tension, India has stated categorically that it is in no mood to talk. Every move Pakistan has made to calm things down has been met with a frosty response from the other side. The offer to cooperate in investigating the December 13 attack was dismissed outright and the action taken by Islamabad against two militant groups were brushed aside as “cosmetic”. Meanwhile, there are reports of a massive build-up of troops along the border and heavy shelling, prompting the evacuation of people from villages along the troubled frontier. While most observers still rule out the possibility of war, there are real fears in important capitals that the current tense stand-off could spiral out of control and take on a deadly logic of its own. In a tense situation such as this, it would take only a single wrong step to trigger a serious conflagration. The world community must move rapidly and more forcefully to defuse tension between Pakistan and India if it wishes to avoid the nightmare scenario of two nuclear powers going to war in an already unstable region. There is still time to pull back from the brink.

Nabbing the culprits

THE controversy surrounding the IBA-conducted admission test to Sindh’s medical colleges this year seems to be unending. The head of the governor’s investigation team now says that the Sindh government should show leniency towards the 35 students, who are likely to be barred from admission in a medical college for having used unfair means in the test. According to the findings of the investigation, the students in question were forced to bribe the IBA staffers who threatened to change their answer sheets if they did not comply. The investigation report recommends that these students may only be barred from admission in a state-run medical college and not private institutions, so as to give them some benefit of the doubt arising out of the controversy. It is surprising that the investigation report should not have identified any ‘real’ culprits, and fell short of recommending any action against those who might be responsible for the scam.

Apparently, somebody somewhere made quite a bit of money and is getting away with it. The entire episode is a sad commentary on the obvious negligence on the part of the authorities responsible for holding the admission test. Indeed, irregularities of this nature border on the criminal, as they can destroy the careers of the affected students. The parents of the students in this particular case are right in demanding that the real culprits be brought to book and a criminal investigation initiated against them. This is necessary if such malpractices are to be avoided in the future.

Trouble in Dadu

TRIBESMEN in Sindh’s Dadu district have yet again protested in front of the local offices of a UK-based oil and gas exploration company, Lasmo, asking it to hire people from the area and to provide compensation to those whose lands had been taken over for use by the firm. Leaders of this tribe have also threatened to forcibly close the wells being operated by the company in the district if these demands, especially the one relating to compensation, are not met. A further allegation against Lasmo is that its operations have polluted local water sources like wells and streams and that two people and dozens of cattle heads have died as a result of drinking contaminated water. This is not the first time that local tribesmen have raised issue with this oil exploration firm, and unless all parties concerned hammer out some sort of long-term settlement these disruptions will keep on recurring.

The two major demands seem to centre around local recruitment and compensation for use of land. It would indeed be welcome if foreign companies provide employment to local people. However, to demand jobs as a matter of right without regard to the required qualification or skills is something that cannot possibly be conceded because having unqualified people in a sensitive installation such as an oil well might affect operational efficiency and also compromise the safety factor so critically involved in an installation of this kind. As far as compensation is concerned, the tribesmen say that in the past six years of Lasmo’s operation not even one proprietor has been paid for use of his land. A right step would, therefore, be advisable to set up an independent team — with local representation — to find out just how credible this claim is and, if found correct, prompt steps taken to compensate the land owners. The pollution allegation too needs to be investigated. Here, a crucial responsibility will rest with the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency which has to play a major role in ascertaining the precise nature and extent of the contamination and suggest appropriate remedies.