| March 16, 2002 | Saturday | Muharram 1, 1423 |
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Mugabe wins again
Fungus-infected red chillies
AS THE doctors in Karachi continue their protest against the targeted killings of their colleagues, the failure of the government to be moved into action is shocking. It is not just the medical community which is under attack. Others, mainly Shias, have also been felled by the terrorists’ bullets. Though Karachi has been worst affected, the scourge of sectarian violence has affected the entire country. Thirty-two people have been killed in sectarian incidents in the country since the beginning of the year, of whom seven were doctors. What comes as a matter of shock and dismay is the weak response of the government to a ghastly situation that can erupt into a grave crisis. Its half-hearted statements condemning the killings do not reflect serious official concern. This also confirms the insensitivity of the military government to the sentiments and security needs of the people.
The distressing message conveyed by the govern-ment’s inaction is that it is unable or, worse still, unwilling to act. Since these killings are believed to be carried out by members of radical and militant religious parties which supposedly stand banned, one wonders if the action taken against them was only in the context of Afghanistan under American pressure. President Musharraf’s speech of Jan 12 won him accolades from all over the world because no one in his right senses would support murder in the name of religion. It is time the president followed his speech up by adopting a strong public stance on the sectarian killings. The danger is that an ostrich-like policy will backfire in the long run.
One also begins to doubt the good faith of the government in the matter, specially now that it has been indicated that several militants rounded up during the crackdown are to be released, while the publications of many of these banned organizations continue to flood the market. If the government is serious about taking action against terrorist organizations, it should spell out a strategy of cracking down on the killers. There is also need to provide protection to the vulnerable groups such as the doctors and the Shia community. Only a modern, scientific approach to intelligence gathering will help eliminate the killers — a task in which the plethora of agencies that exist have failed miserably. Simply arresting the hired killers serves little purpose when the evil brains operating the sectarian networks and the flow of funds to them are not touched. One even begins to wonder if these sectarian militants have infiltrated the intelligence agencies. The need of the hour is a political will to clean up the Augean stables so that this important task can be taken in hand on an emergency footing.
It is also time civil society stood up to be counted. An overwhelming majority of the people of Pakistan do not subscribe to intolerant and narrow sectarian views. They respect one another’s religious beliefs and want to live in peace. With Muharram beginning today, it is all the more reason for public opinion leaders to mobilize the forces of harmony to sideline and marginalize the extremists.
The moderate religious opinion, which believes in sectarian harmony and mercifully holds sway in the community, should now assert itself.
OBSERVERS from three African nations — South Africa, Nigeria and Namibia — have given a clean chit to the Zimbabwean election, which swung President Robert Mugabe back to victory for the fifth time since 1980. Backed by the West, the opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, who polled 41.9 per cent of the votes to Mr Mugabe’s 56.2 per cent, rejected the result as rigged. Representing the Commonwealth nations, the three African countries’ unanimous nod of approval to Mr Mugabe’s win comes as a rude shock to Britain and the EU, which have pushed for tightening the noose around him. The EU had called back its observer mission in a huff a week before the election, accusing Harare of harassing its members. Angered by the imposition of sanctions by the EU, Britain and the US against himself and 19 of his close associates, President Mugabe has been on a collision course with what he calls whiteman’s tyranny.
Having led Zimbabwe to freedom from the British colonial rule in 1980, Mr Mugabe has refused to shed the mantle of his nation’s saviour, and has portrayed his political opponents as proxies for the former colonial power. The row with Britain came to a head two years ago when mobs of Zimbabweans, under army protection, annexed and ransacked hundreds of white-owned farms. Hailing them as veterans of the war of independence, Mr Mugabe justified the action against the rich white minority, which accounts for less than one per cent in a population of 11 million. Mr Mugabe has ruled his country with an iron hand for 22 years, allowing no room for dissent. Yet, given the three African nations’ unanimous verdict of legitimacy on his win, he again seems to be riding a wave of national euphoria. The vagaries of colonialism continue to haunt Zimbabwe’s present and cast a shadow on its future, leaving a popularly elected dictator in charge of his country’s destiny.
IT is a matter of grave concern that an imported food item which is substandard in quality and unfit for human consumption should have found its way into the market after being cleared and released by the Customs department. According to a Dawn report, laboratory tests on two consignments of red chillies weighing 500 tons that were imported from India have been found to contain several types of fungi, including aspergillus flavus, which is known to produce a toxin that is a potential cancer-causing agent. While these two consignments have already managed to pass through customs, more consignments of the red chillies from India are apparently waiting for clearance at the port of entry.
The complacency with which the relevant authorities have been dealing with the issue of quality of edibles, especially imported edibles, should be seriously looked into. This is not the first time that hazardous food items have been cleared and allowed entry into the market. The government had better get its act together on this issue and put in place a fool-proof system whereby all food items imported into the country should be properly tested and passed by a competent quality-control outfit before they are allowed past the Customs department. The import trade rules set by the ministry of commerce clearly disallow the import of any food item that is unfit for human consumption or that which has outlived its shelf life. If any substandard item gets through, all those responsible for this, from the unscrupulous traders to the colluding bureaucrats in the Customs department, should be held accountable. As far as the red chillies from India are concerned, the effort should now be directed at recalling the two consignments and destroying them. It is the responsibility of the authorities to ensure that these fungus-infected red chillies do not end up on the shelves for unsuspecting consumers packaged as red chilly powder.