| April 4, 2002 | Thursday | Muharram 20, 1423 |
Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window)
Import of reconditioned cars
Gang rape by police
WITH mutual pledges to wipe out terrorism and deny sanctuaries to terrorists hostile to either country, President Pervez Musharraf and Chairman Hamid Karzai have taken one more step forward toward consolidating friendship between the two countries. As the first head of state to visit Afghanistan after the end of the war, President Musharraf made it clear that his sole aim in visiting Kabul was to help Chairman Karzai “all the way in what he wants.” On his part, the head of the interim Afghan administration correctly said that Pakistan as Afghanistan’s brother and neighbour had always stood by his country “in difficult times.” That the two should have paid attention to terrorism is an indication of the importance of the issue to them. Inherent in the mutual pledge is an acknowledgement of the havoc that terrorists operating from their countries have wrought on the world in general and the region in particular.
Except for a brief period, Pakistan’s relations with Afghanistan have always been far from happy. Pakistan cannot forget that Afghanistan was the only country that voted against its UN membership, and that Kabul never failed to press its irredentist designs against Pakistan. Kabul also became a willing tool in the hands of Moscow and New Delhi and spoiled relations with Pakistan by harping on the Pakhtoonistan stunt and stirring up trouble in Pakistan’s tribal areas. With the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, a new chapter in their relationship began when Pakistan served as conduit for America’s overt and covert aid to the mujahideen in their anti-Soviet jihad. Unfortunately, the success of the jihad led to new complications between the two countries.
While Pakistan welcomed Afghanistan’s liberation, it made the fundamental error of getting involved deeply in the rivalry among different guerrilla factions. In the nineties especially, elements in the ISI operated independent of the elected governments and ran their own Afghan policy. The desire apparently was less to end the fratricide and more to control Afghanistan. The absurdity of Pakistan’s policy became obvious when the regime that Islamabad backed imposed on its people a highly obscurantist version of Islam. The Taliban not only tyrannized their people, their misguided zeal to export their version of Islam isolated them from the world.
All that is mercifully behind us. In opening a new chapter in their relations, both Islamabad and Kabul must avoid mistakes of the past. They have so much in common — and not only “rivers and mountains.” By living together in harmony, Pakistan and Afghanistan can be a source of peace and development in the region. For a small population, Afghanistan has vast natural resources, which need to be exploited. Pakistan has already contributed $100 million as its share towards Afghanistan’s reconstruction. One hopes that the stages towards the establishment of a final settlement as envisaged in the Bonn declaration will be crossed according to the time-table, and Afghanistan will enter a new era of peace and prosperity. Given goodwill on both sides, the discussions held in Kabul should lead to the evolution of common policies on such issues as transit trade, the return of Afghan refugees, the start of air flights and the war on poppy cultivation and heroin smuggling. It is in this spirit that the two countries should proceed and work for peace and prosperity for their peoples who share indissoluble bonds of religion and culture.
THE government has warned car manufacturers that if they fail to double production by May 10, it will be constrained to allow the import of reconditioned cars. The threat follows the reported manipulation of the car market by the manufacturers to keep prices high by creating artificial shortages in the face of increased demand. The situation is said to have caused the premium on cars to go up from Rs.10,000 to Rs.150,000 per unit. However, the most intriguing part of the whole affair is the mysterious jump in the demand for cars against the backdrop of the current economic recession. The government would do better to first find out the reasons for this inexplicable rise in the demand for cars. One reason which comes to mind is perhaps the introduction of attractive car loan schemes by banks. Another could be the sudden increase in home remittances in the post-9/11 scenario. If these are the real reasons for the sharp rise in the demand for cars then perhaps the car makers are doing the right thing by not increasing production to meet this seemingly transitory demand. There are already reports of increasing defaults in the car loan repayments.
If things go back to normal in the international financial markets in the coming months then perhaps even the 9/11-related money would start going back to safer havens. The argument against a doubling of car production should not be mistaken for an argument against the import of reconditioned cars. In fact, a country in Pakistan’s state of economy should never have indulged in the luxury of local manufacture of four wheelers. Even after 25 years of strenuous efforts in this regard we are still doing only minimum deletion. It would, instead, make good economic sense if reconditioned cars are allowed to be imported so that the car manufacturers behave, and the government itself sees to it that the share of the locally manufactured parts is gradually increased to make the cars truly Pakistani manufactured.
THE gang rape of two sisters by a group of policemen in Karachi’s Ramaswami area goes to show why people have an extremely negative perception of the police. The refusal, later, by the SHO of the police station concerned also blows to bits the Sindh police’s much publicized policy of ensuring that FIRs be registered quickly and, if possible, at the complainant’s doorstep. The violent street protest by residents of the area, though regrettable, is understandable. The shocking gang rape also serves to highlight the fact that the well-meaning words and policies of senior police officers do not matter much to low-ranking police personnel, who mostly work in the field and interact with the public. Their criminality is in sharp contrast to the remarks of the inspector general of Sindh, who had recently said that his force had been directed to ensure that FIRs are registered without any hindrance. Assuming that the allegations against the suspects are proven, it would be fair to say that characters like that do not deserve to be members of any civilized community, let alone of a police force.
The law will now take its course, and hopefully the culprits given the punishment they deserve. The latter issue is important, because if the suspects are not subjected to the full force of the law, a wrong message will be sent to other would-be criminals in the police force, who will then feel free to act with impunity. The provincial government also has a responsibility beyond the specifics of this case in that it must clearly direct all SHOs in the province that any excuse in not registering an FIR will not be tolerated. Senior police officials should be worried that the last thing a force with an already battered public image needs is this kind of scandal. However, there might be some redemption on offer, that is if they handle the case well and also use it to purge the police of criminal elements, regardless of the rank.