History repeated itself on Sept 11

“AT 11:52 am on September 11, 1973, two Hawker Hunter fighter jets streaked across the late-winter sky over downtown Santiago, the sprawling capital halfway down Chile’s 2,000-mile Pacific coast. The jets dipped and fired a round of rockers into La Moneda Palace. As they banked gently away in tandem and returned for six more passes, windows shattered and curtains ignited in the pristine, sand-coloured colonial mansion, which had stood for 130 years as a symbol of Chilean democracy.

“The president’s head had been demolished by machine-gun fire, and his hands were covered with gunpowder. Leaning against him was a Soviet-made automatic rifle inscribed with a gift plaque: ‘To Salvador from your companion in arms. Fidel Castro.’ The military men contemplated the scene sombrely. Moments later, the radio in Pinochet’s command post crackled with a curt, triumphant message from Palacios: ‘Mission accomplished. Moneda taken. President found dead’.”

Nixon’s White House, including Henry Kissinger and CIA, were overjoyed when this palace drama was unfolding. There is ample evidence to show that Nixon’s tough action against Allende was shaped by his concerns for the interests of the big US corporations. Henry Kissinger was equally concerned because he saw Allende as being a far more serious threat than Castro.

The US had spent millions of dollars to prevent Allende’s election to the Chilean presidency. But they had not succeeded. On October 24, 1970, Salvador Allende was elected to power. He was a Marxist and had been committed to a revolutionary change. That was too much to swallow for the White House. The President of the US wanted to get rid of Allende. The CIA and Kissinger made joint efforts for a coup d’etat and they struck on Sept 11, 1973.

As they say, history repeats itself and it sure does. Exactly, 28 years later at 8:48 am a US commercial jet slammed the World Trade Centre and 50 minutes later another commercial airline’s jet hit the Pentagon building. Osama Bin Laden had, allegedly, struck the American nerve-centres at the New York city and Washington, on the same date of 11th September.

The CIA, FBI, and NYPD were silent spectators for many hours. Bush’s White House was on the run. The US President had vanished in thin air for many hours. Vice President Dick Cheney was lost in the wilderness for many days. With the fall of WTC and Pentagon buildings, American pride had been uprooted and shattered for ever.

AFZAL GHANI

Karachi

Pakistani prisoners in India

RECENTLY, India has flown from Afghanistan some 110 (some reports put the figure close to 250) prisoners of Pakistani origin to India. What for?

Obviously, this has been done to stage “acts of terrorism” in India and Kashmir from time to time, and then produce the dead bodies of a few of these prisoners with their Pakistani NIC, addresses, family photographs etc, for the world to see and believe the Indian government when it says, “See, we told you so”, and point its fingers towards Pakistan.

KHAN PURVEZ

Islamabad

Master Madan’s na’ats

THIS is with reference to Ms Nasreen Talat’s letter (Jan 7) about Master Madan’s na’ats which she remembers being played from the Dhaka radio. I am sorry to disappoint the lady but those two na’ats were sung, not by Master Madan, but by the celebrated Shamshad Begum with whose voice Ms Talat is no doubt familiar. Those recordings would date back to the early 1940s, I think.

I may add here that the well-known musicologist, Saeed Malik of Lahore, to whom I had sent a copy of the six new Master Madan numbers, unearthed by my friend M. Rafiq, has sent me the following message as to their authenticity. Saeed Malik writes: “I took the cassette to the Music Research Cell, Radio Pakistan, Lahore, on January 5 for collective listening by several persons... (The two Punjabi songs were already in the Cell’s collection.) The other four numbers were played over and over again to determine whether they were in the voice of Master Madan or not. The consensus was in favour of Master Madan.

“Besides me, those who sat in judgement on the authenticity of the cassette were Ustad Badaruzzman, head of the Music Research Cell, Ustad Ghulam Haider Khan and Sound Engineer Saeed Qureshi, who has a very finely-tuned ear and who has been associated with the Cell for over 25 years.”

KHALID HASAN

Washington DC, US

Global education required

I READ somewhere that Hamid Mir is working on Osama’s biography. I think this is very exciting, because that would let us know the other side of the picture.

Here in the US, after the Sept 11 incident we were told that Osama bin Laden was a crazy terrorist and that our president and the armed forces would “rout out terrorism and get him.”

The news media here has been very jaded and slanted against him, prompting me to look to international media for information. Since our government does not want to disclose the issues Osama is angry about, I had to visit various websites to learn about things like Osama’s background, the details of the new interim government in Afghanistan and why it won’t probably work.

Some of what I have learned makes me very sad. The 350 Taliban-Al Qaeda fighters who are being moved to Guantanamo base in Cuba as prisoners of the USA cannot get a fair trial when this country has no understanding of Jihad or what Osama is fighting for.

The more I learn, the sadder I become because of the legitimacy of his fight. I would like amnesty for Osama while, on the other hand, a promise from him to stop the terrorist acts. But that would require massive education globally.

The proposed biography should include a detailed profile into Osama’s feelings and how they have shaped his life and actions.

I am also doing my own research and would be happy to share what I find.

GINA ANGELL

Hicksville, NY, US

PIA passengers’ problems

SOMETIME ago, the PIA changed its computer system and installed what was very loudly claimed to be the cure of all evil versions. The public silently suffered during the changeover and hoped for better service once the dealing staff became conversant with the new version.

However, recent experience has shown that the new system has merely added to the woes of those who, like me, are condemned to travel by PIA on short notice.

The new system will automatically cancel the next sector(s) if one dares to fly by an earlier flight and not by the originally confirmed one. This facility of taking chance on an earlier flight (it is a professional hazard which frequently-flying lawyers like me cannot avoid) has existed since long.

Those familiar with the shrinking schedules of PIA can well imagine the agony of someone with a confirmed seat being informed by the briefing staff at the last moment that since he took an earlier flight three days ago, his return confirmed booking stood cancelled.

Another equally ugly feature of the new system is that if one happens to be in possession of a return ticket, both sectors confirmed, he cannot cancel the first sector while retaining his confirmed status on the second sector.

This means that if for any reason one changes his travel plans for the first sector, and travels by another airline as no seat is available for such earlier travel by PIA, his return sector status will automatically be cancelled.

On his way back, he will find himself at the mercy of the briefing staff and will be able to travel only if a seat is available for him as a chance passenger.

There is no point in pointing out such deficiencies or instances of poor planning to anyone in the PIA. Various combinations viz armed forces personnel, businessmen, bureaucrats and technocrats have been tried as chief executives in this set-up but without any visible reduction in the pain level of PIA travel for the general public.

BALAL A. KHWAJA

Karachi

Shakespeare on Afghanistan

ALAS poor country,

Almost afraid to know itself. It can not

Be call’d our mother, but our grave; where nothing

But who knows nothing, is once seen to smile

Where sighs and groans, and shrieks that rent the air

Are made, not mark’d: where violent sorrow seems

A modern ecstasy: the dead man’s knell,

Is there scarce ask’d for who, and good men’s lives

Expire before the flowers in their caps,

Dying, or ere they sicken.

(Mackbeth IV.3)

MUHAMMAD KHAN SANGI

Jamshoro

Tolerating western duplicity

TONY Blair was at a loss to answer the question that while he was now expressing complete satisfaction with the actions being taken by the Pakistan government about the jihadi elements, only a day earlier in India, he had said that Pakistan needed to do more in this direction.

Mr Blair replied at great length without being able to explain away the duplicity of the international community in dealing with Pakistan and India.

They need to come out from behind the smoke screen of expediency and stop playing both ends against the middle.

It is for Pakistan to pin them down to come clean on the issue of Kashmir and stop harping that only talks between India and Pakistan can settle this issue.

No amount of talks will ever yield any results, given the diametrically opposed views of the two countries on this subject.

The Sri Lankan president, Chandrika Kumaratunga, who brought the two leaders together briefly in a mini-mini-summit, would make an excellent mediator.

KHURSHID ANWER

Lahore

Kharadar-West Wharf Road

THE Kharadar-West Wharf road is in a complete shambles. In spite of being used daily by thousands of vehicles, mostly heavy ones, and being very important for the import-export activity, it is one of the worst roads in Pakistan. The agency responsible for maintaining this road should be taken to task by the President of Pakistan and the Governor of Sindh.

Moreover, the illegal parking of heavy vehicles on both sides of the road creates major traffic jams and causes loss of hundreds of working hours every day. The useless and corrupt traffic police has obviously turned a blind eye to all this.

I have heard that the IG Police, Sindh, is a very honest and thoroughly professional person. Let us see if we can get a reaction from him in this regard.

JAMAL NASIR MEMON

Karachi

Iraq to be attacked?

THE US President, Mr Bush, had assured the world community that no attacks would be made on any Arab country, following the strikes against

Al Qaeda networks in Afghanistan.

But it is really astonishing to find out that a plan is underway to attack Iraq under the pretext of that country not allowing the UN Inspectors to inspect what they believe to be the sites where Iraq has allegedly resumed work on weapons.

Should we Muslims consider this US intention as an act against terrorism or a measure to protect their blue-eyed baby, Israel?

MAHA EMAD

Kuwait

Unfair book fairs

RECENTLY, I visited the 16th Lahore Book Fair at Alhamara on The Mall.

The Book Fair is organized annually by the Pakistan Publishers and Booksellers Association.

As I understand, the purpose of this fair is to introduce leading publishers and provide students and general public with a chance to buy books at relatively lower prices than in the market.

I visited all the stalls and was astonished to see that they all lacked good books.

The leading importers and sellers of books on computers, had not put up a single book on the subject at their stall.

Upon query the salesman behaved rudely and said: “We have not enough space to put computer books on show.”

In fact, they don’t want to offer discount on computer books having a monopoly over them.

The discount was offered on outdated books in other stalls which had no attraction for readers and no extra discount was available on the latest titles.

The Pakistan Publishers and Booksellers Association should stop arranging such unfair book fairs which are of no use and waste the precious time of students and book lovers.

MUHAMMAD ARSHAD CHAUDHRY

Lahore

Tourism in Pakistan

“ON a more general note, robbery, smuggling and gun-running remain the economic backbone of Sindh, the southern hot spot that includes Karachi.

‘‘Even in times of normalcy, visitors are advised to avoid travelling to Sindh, Balochistan and the Punjab. Care should also be taken in the North-West Frontier Province.”

This is an extract from the website ‘www.lonelyplanet.com’.

All the four provinces have been described as unsafe. So the question is where in Pakistan, is it safe to go?

NAJIA WASIF

Lahore

Jihadi?

FOR sometime now, newspapers and journals have been full of reference to what they call ‘jihadi culture’, ‘jihadi outfits, ‘jihadi organizations’ and ‘jihadi groups’.

I fail to understand the use of the epithet ‘jihadi’ in connection with them.

By no stretch of the imagination have they anything to do with the noble concept of jihad.

The media would do well to call them by their true names and refer to them as ‘fasadi culture’, ‘fasadi organizations’ and ‘fasadi groups’.

MIRZA SAMAR AHMAD

Okara

Cold storage facility needed

WE, as a nation, have squandered away many opportunities and resources since our independence. It’s time that we realized our follies and make good use of what nature has given us.

During a visit to Larkana, I found out that every year there is a bumper crop of tomatoes and guavas. Since both these fruits are perishable, most of the crop is wasted in the absence of adequate cold storage facility or preservation as pulp or ketchup.

In case of tomatoes, the farmers look for an opportunity to make good money, when supply to Karachi from other cities is reduced. Each year, there is only about a month during which farmers make a good profit.

For the rest of the time, it is not even worthwhile to pluck these tomatoes.

The guava fairs slightly better than the tomatoes, as the Larkana variety is very popular all over the country.

But the loss in income suffered by the farmers and the country, in terms of lost foreign exchange, is phenomenal. The right thing to do is either to have a cold storage facility or to launch a packaging industry to save these products in other forms.

Only the government can take an initiative in this regard because private investors are either driven away by the ever deteriorating law and order situation, or by the shortage of skilled labour needed to run these facilities. The preserved fruit can then be exported or used domestically round the year.

I am certain that other regions of our country, too, have some kind of similar situation which our government can exploit for the betterment of the country and its masses.

DR JAMAL NASIR MEMON

Karachi

Hunting of endangered birds

DESPITE the government’s claim of having permitted only valid NOC recipients from the National Council of Conservation of Wildlife for export of houbaras, the permission granted recently to a Saudi prince for exporting 200 houbara bustards to his country raises several questions.

The import and export of houbaras requires permission from the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) and is granted only for scientific purposes. Whether or not such permission was obtained or inspected, is a closely guarded secret. It is also unimaginable to have an embassy in Pakistan and not route an export request through it. Interestingly, the prince approached the President of Pakistan directly. How could such a request be processed is hard to imagine.

According to reliable sources, the Saudi prince claimed breeding hundreds of houbaras in Tajikistan, a place where there is no known breeding centre. This is a feat which sophisticated breeding centres in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Morocco can’t perform. Being mountainous, Tajikistan is in no way a “range country”. The houbaras neither breed there nor migrate through it, except a few straggling birds. The Saudi prince worked through a representative based in Dera Ghazi Khan which is a government-declared haven for houbaras and ironically infested by prominent trappers.

Another concern comes up with the recent allotment of Khuzdar and Bhakkar to personages from Qatar for hunting the houbaras. These areas have been allotted almost three months after the first elaborate allotment to Arab VIPs.

Only a month ago, falconers were evicted from Rajanpur after a great hue and cry by the quarters concerned over the massacre of the houbaras there. What a paradox that highly influential Arab falconers somehow manage to acquire hunting grounds in search of aphrodisiacs that haven’t been found in these birds even by scientists.

The houbaras are being hunted mercilessly or trapped for smuggling to the Gulf states. Since Pakistan is a signatory to the Convention of Migratory Species and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna, law-enforcing authorities must implement the law strictly.

Illegal falconry is unsustainable and should be effectively prevented.

RAUF HAMEED

Lahore