| April 6, 2002 | Saturday | Muharram 22, 1423 |
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Army’s laudable offer
An expedient move
PRESIDENT Bush has said now what he should have much earlier when the Israelis began their reoccupation of Ramallah and besieged Yasser Arafat’s headquarters last month. In a White House speech on Thursday, Mr Bush asked Israel to pull out of the Palestinian towns because “the storms of violence” could not go on. “Enough is enough,” he said. One wonders why the American president waited so long to call for something obvious — the need for Israel to withdraw from areas that were under the full control of the Palestinian Authority. Israel had no business to be there in the first place, because its troops had withdrawn from Areas A long ago as part of the implementation of the Oslo accords. On March 10, Israeli helicopter fire destroyed Mr Arafat’s headquarters in Ramallah, and on the 11th, troops and tanks occupied the town. This led to an escalation of violence.
All along this period, President Bush had refused to condemn Israel; instead, he had chosen to hold Mr Arafat responsible for the heightened violence and asked him to rein in his militants. Now, possibly as a reaction to increasing world criticism of America’s blatantly pro-Israeli policy, Mr Bush has finally had the guts to say something that may not go well with the strong Jewish lobby in the US. The president asked Israel to stop incursions into Palestinian towns and to spare innocent Palestinians daily humiliations, ease closures and allow Palestinians to go back to work. Still, Mr Bush did not miss the opportunity to criticize the Palestinian president, and instead of blaming Ariel Sharon for besieging Mr Arafat in his home-headquarters, the president held the latter responsible for “the situation in which he finds himself.” More regrettably, he said something absurd when he accused Mr Arafat of betraying the hopes of his people.
Actually, if there is a man who has betrayed the hopes of both Palestinians and Israelis, it is Mr Sharon. It was his ill-advised visit to the Islamic holy sites in September 2000 that triggered the violence that has so far taken more than 1,500, mostly Arab, lives. More important, since assuming the office of prime minister, Mr Sharon has refused to hold talks with Mr Arafat. This was in sharp contrast to what his predecessors did. Even though Mr Netanyahu and Mr Barak had derailed the peace process, they at least had kept talking to Mr Arafat. Mr Sharon, however, does not believe in talks in principle and believes in force. However, the way the Palestinians are fighting the Israelis back in this one-sided conflict should make Mr Sharon realize that the Palestinians are the last people on earth to surrender.
Now Colin Powell is to go to the Middle East to effect a ceasefire. One hopes Mr Sharon will cooperate with the US secretary of state. The first and foremost step Israel needs to take is to withdraw from the Palestinian towns it has reoccupied. Next, it must stop the construction and expansion of the Jewish settlements — something that Mr Bush had the good sense to call for.The Israeli withdrawal will itself lead to a de-escalation of the violence and may eventually pave the way for a lasting ceasefire. It is only when a ceasefire is in place that one can hope for a revival of the peace process.
ONE must welcome the army’s decision to build a park, out of its own resources, at the site of the old Sabzi Mandi. For one thing, with the army now involved in the development of the site — a prime piece of land potentially worth billions — the land mafia will perhaps be kept at bay. In addition to that, the quality of the project will be ensured and hopefully it will be built in a reasonable period of time. It needs to be remembered that there was hardly any smooth sailing for those wishing to see something good come out of the eyesore the old Sabzi Mandi was. The market, consisting of improvised shops and stores, was moved almost a year ago to the Super Highway — a decade behind schedule — and in its place a park was to be built. However, this was followed by months of bureaucratic dilly-dallying and official indecision. In fact, sometimes it appeared that the project would be consigned — like so many development plans for Karachi — to the dustbin.
Unlike Lahore or Islamabad, Karachi does not have too much natural greenery. That is one reason why it needed man-made efforts to make the city green by giving it as many parks, playing fields and open spaces as possible. Unfortunately, city fathers have not only failed in these efforts, they have been unable or unwilling — for reasons too well known to be reiterated here — to protect such parks as the city was fortunate to have. Some parts of the city, especially those that come under the Clifton Cantonment Board and the Defence Housing Authority, have seen the development of some excellent new parks, but these have benefited only those who live in certain affluent areas. Much of the rest of the city has no green space at all. Plots set aside for development as parks have been encroached upon, in some cases even by mosques or madrassahs. The decision to start construction is gratifying in the sense that a big green spot will come up in a congested area which lacks any worthwhile park. For this newspaper, especially, the decision comes as a befitting finale to a campaign it launched and ceaselessly pursued for saving the land from being turned into a concrete jungle by real estate sharks. The occasion can also be the launching pad for a renewed campaign by Karachi’s elected government to reclaim from the land mafia all plots of land that were originally set aside for parks.
WITH a referendum so close, the government, no wonder, should have decided to put off the proposed levy of 15 per cent GST on cooking oil and ghee, the essential kitchen items. Indications are that the government has not abandoned this tax on the housewives’ cooking medium; it remains very much on the agenda and will possibly be imposed when the time is conducive. An ordinance to this effect is said to have already been drafted and would have been promulgated by the end of March under the IMF conditionalities if the referendum had not been under consideration. This has been confirmed by the chairman of the CBR, who said that all essential goods which have remained exempt so far will come within the purview of the GST, although there is no time-frame for the completion of this exercise. Drugs and medicines have already been taxed, and the next item in line is electricity. All these items are said to have been specifically agreed upon under the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility programme with the IMF.
The rationale for the widest possible coverage of products under the GST is supposed to be the need for documenting the economy, more than 60 per cent of which has remained in the informal sector. This need is widely recognized, but what irritates the people and creates resentment is the rate of the levy, which is exorbitant. During the nineties, poverty in Pakistan deepened and in the last three years by all indicators pauperization has accelerated. During this period, the economy’s growth rate has been less than the population growth. In addition, the government’s so-called policies of “rightsizing” have rendered hundreds of thousands of people jobless in the public and private sectors. It is an irony that measures that depress the economy’s growth and aggravate poverty are being taken in the name of poverty alleviation.