THE British nation is bracing its self for a dangerous war in Afghanistan following the launch of another military operation in the eastern mountainous provinces of the rugged country.

After the third Afghan war less than a century ago, the British soldiers are involved in combat operations in a country about which the British nation doesn’t have very good memories of the past. The government is fully aware of the dangers ahead and ready to receive body bags.

The specially trained commandos, known as Royal Marines, are in action in Afghanistan in their first major combat role since the Falklands conflict 20 years ago. The mission, which began several days ago was kept secret and the first announcement was made on Tuesday.”

The Arbroath-based 45 Commando Unit, which has been trained in the rugged and mountainous regions of Norway, are said be extremely tough and as such they could be perfect fighters in a cold and mountainous region of the eastern provinces of Paktia and Paktika in Afghanistan. Besides combat operations, the leading coalition partners — the US and the British — will have to keep an eye on the local population of the region. The support of the local warlords and population in this operation could play a very crucial role and the intelligence provided by them can prove very effective.

About half the 1,700-strong battle group is already in the in Afghanistan, with the rest expected to be deployed over the next few weeks. The commandos are being supported by artillery, engineers and logistics troops, as well as by troop-carrying Chinook helicopters. This is the biggest overseas operation of the British forces since the Gulf War. In addition to the combat forces, there are 1,367 UK peacekeepers, with the International Security and Assistance Force (Isaf) in Kabul.

The campaign named “Operation Enduring Freedom” also involves 2,135 sailors and 795 Royal Air Force personnel. One of the difficulties facing the operation is the ability of Al Qaeda members to slip across the border to tribal areas of Pakistan, where they can re-group. But the British government seems to be satisfied with efforts made by the Pakistan authorities against any Al Qaeda elements hiding on their side of the border. The Royal Marines’ offensive comes a day after the screening of a new video of Osama bin Laden that the British foreign secretary, Jack Straw, as described as “nothing to write home about”. The footage of Osama talking to one of his colleagues was released by the Al-Jazeera Television. It was not clear when the tape was made.

THE CITY Nazim has finally started to complain of a severe shortage of funds hampering the city’s infrastructure maintenance. At present, he is out of the city allegedly leaving it to his deputy to cater for the Presidential referendum.

The urban infrastructure continues to show signs of unabated degeneration as most of the main thoroughfares as well as inner city streets present the resilient Karachiites a picture of total anarchy, seemingly, with little option except to fend for themselves and blame the traffic police for all the vagaries on the city streets.

Street anarchy may still be a global problem. But failing to check several factors like lack of a decent public transport resulting in rampant increase of private vehicles; this together with the poor condition of roads in the city may have helped us in setting new records.

Karachi had a rich history of orderly roads that were once washed by fire brigade every night, but now it seems to have lost much of its old sanity due to a rapidly proliferating roads. Unable to make his constructive mark, the job of the traffic constable has also been reduced to ripping-off motorcyclists and other drivers or to look for cover in case of a road accident.

A little over a hundred years ago, as automobiles started to conquer the globe, many cities felt an urgent need to regulate the fast growing traffic. In the beginning control markers were diverse and homemade. Drivers stuck fresh branches in the snow to indicate lanes, or used harnesses of sleigh bells to warn one another of dangers. The credit for early legal arrangements for this traffic goes to England. The automobiles were initially treated just as locomotives and trains, with one man carrying a red flag walking in front of every car. Obviously this practice was not sustainable and thus in 1903 the Motorcar Act was promulgated.

It wasn’t until 1930 that J. D. Millar, a Canadian transport engineer, dreamed up the idea of a white line separating traffic. The first line was painted on a stretch of highway near the Ontario-Quebec border. Within a few years, Millar’s white line became standard all over the world that has bloomed since into double lines, dashed lines, yellow, and white slashes on the asphalt, like elaborate choreography of common courtesy, politeness made visible in paint.

Those lines may seem designed to keep matters orderly, quell the fun, more like a civic intervention in the middle of the road. But they are responsible for more than making rules a part of the landscape. When you have thousands of individuals doing the same thing, without proper regulation it is bound to result in a catastrophic situation something that no one better than the Karachiites would understand.

All over the rest of the world these lines on the road sketch a simple social contract, neatly dividing the road into your space and mine ensuring that one follows one’s own path, rather than scratching one another or colliding head on.

While our beloved leadership dabbles with macro issues confronting the nation, the condition of many roads in the city remains pathetic, not much different from the ones behind Baqai Hospital in Nazimabad. According to the residents, the contractors have twice left crushed stones on the streets during the last two years and never returned to finish the job.

Or like the portion of Nishtar Road between Teen Hatti bridge and Lasbella bridge now the city government’s responsibility, many roads lie unmotorable for more than two and a half years.

For approximately the same period the west- bound track of Ibn Sina Road between Liaquatabad and Nazimabad Chowrangi also lie abandoned bringing untold miseries to the commuters.

The upcountry traffic generated at the port or industrial areas of SITE, Shershah and Hub, however, has no option but to divert through Nazimabad to Nagan Chowrangi on to Sohrab Goth adding to the disorder in the municipal traffic, especially during rush hours.

The at-grade roads for the Liaquat flyover also remain in the same dilapidated condition. While the NLC seems to have finally decided to expedite after a lapse of more than four years work over Hawkesbay Road, but the abandoned stretch near the factories has been haunting motorists for a long time.

There seems to be a positive change in Defence Housing Authority. The DHA is not only involved in massive resurfacing of its roads but it is also marking lanes and installing reflectors for nighttime driving safety. The Frontier Works Organization has completely re-carpeted one side of the Sunset Boulevard for traffic plying from Korangi Road to Clifton in less than two months.

Unfortunately it remains a different and sad story for the rest of the city. Without re-carpeting, there can be no lane marking, etc. No one seems to have time to plan for such trivialities.

However, those pavement markings, lane lines, crosswalks and stop-bars at intersections are not just placed on a roadway at someone’s whim but are actually designed according to numerous rules, regulations and guidelines established over the years for the safety of pedestrians and vehicular traffic.

In addition to the proper use of pavement markings, roadway designers also ensure that similar regulations and guidelines are observed for the installation of traffic signs for drivers’ safety, guidance, information and regulation.

A Karachiite visiting Lahore during these days can hardly hide his feeling of awe for extensive road markings, presence of traffic signs, construction of pavements, etc.

The trophy for overall management of urban infrastructure and traffic must go to Lahore. A medal may not be out of order for the DHA in Karachi.

It may be easy to criticize Karachiites for the prevailing road anarchy, but the city authorities could hardly escape the lion’s share of responsibility. Maintenance of urban infrastructure of a vast metropolis like Karachi may not be cheap.

While the NWFP, Balochistan and Punjab may be entitled to royalty on hydroelectric power, natural gas and much more. Karachi may also have a right to a small portion of massive incomes from its ports, industry and the hub of economic activity for the nation that it is.

GOD has created the universe and everything in the universe is governed by physical laws. No object in nature deviates from its path or gives up its function or task assigned to it by the Almighty.

In other words everything is a Muslim in the sense that it has submitted itself to the will of God willingly and unwillingly. “Whoever in the heavens and the earth is submissive to God and obedient (to Him) by choice or constraint...” (3:83)

The stars and the planets exactly obey and are faithful to the laws of nature. The plants and trees abide by physical laws. The insects, birds and higher animals work by instinct and intuition but lack reason and higher intellect. They have not been given freedom of choice and free will for which they will have to be answerable to their Creator. Besides, there is a class of angels who are invisible and are incapable of doing anything evil. They are by nature docile and obedient.

Of all the Creation, man is the only creature who has been given the freedom of choice and free will. And who has also been endowed with faculties of reasoning and intellect. He is capable of doing good and evil. He can obey and disobey God. He can choose to submit. “By the soul and Him that moulded it and inspired it with (knowledge) sin and piety.” (91:7-8)

God has also gifted him with conscience and moral sense that help him to make distinction between right and wrong. And his conscience pricks him when he commits a sin. Surah ash-Shams says: “He who nourishes it will surely be successful and he who neglects it will be disappointed.” (91:9-10)

Man has been allotted a fixed period of life on this planet and during his sojourn on this earth he is being tested and judged by God Almighty. He is on probation and trial. He will be accountable to Him for his good and had deeds and for which he will be rewarded or punished.

For this purpose God sent a large number of Prophets and Messengers from time to time to guide humankind. He sent His Warner to every community on this earth. The Qur’an declares: “We have sent Messenger to every community.” (16:36) “And there never was a people without a Warner having lived among them.” (35:24)

By sending His apostles and Messengers for man’s guidance God has left no room or justification for man to make excuses or any pretext on the Day of Judgment that he has not received any Divine Guidance. God has given him complete freedom to make choice between good and evil. The path of virtue and the path of evil are quite distinct and open. He is free to make a choice which path he wants to tread. The Qur’an has declared it in Surah al-Baqarah: “There is no coercion in matters of faith, distinct is the way of guidance now from error.” (2:256)

There is as such no compulsion in acceptance or profession of Islam on non-believers. Coercion in any form or denomination does not exist at all in Islamic teachings. It is in the Divine scheme that a man should be given absolute freedom to think and act freely. God does not snatch this freedom from man at any moment in his lifetime and neither the prophet is allowed to do so. The Prophet has not been assigned the task of coercing people into believing what is revealed to him. He is simply to convey the message to mankind.

Every Messenger of God has said after delivering the message: “We have no responsibility except to convey (the message).” The Prophet is addressed at many places in the Qur’an that his task is to remind: “Remind them; your duty is only to warn them. You are no task master set up over them.” (88:21-22) At another place God addressed the Prophet. “This is a reminder, so let anyone who wishes to adopt a way to his Lord.” (80:21-22)

Allah directly addresses the Prophet: “You cannot guide whom you love. But it is Allah who guides.” (28:56). “It is certainly for you to convey the message, the reckoning is for us to do.” (13:40)

All the prophets and messengers of Allah conveyed the divine Message in their own times to their respective communities and people. They did it with relentless struggle and incessant efforts. For example, Nuh (peace be upon him) had worked for nine hundred and fifty years to accomplish this task. While deputing him as Prophet Allah says:

“We have sent Nuh to his People” and did not say: “We have sent Nuh to non-believers”. Similarly Nuh, when addressed his people said: “O, my people”. Instead of ‘O, non-believers!”

They were not declared as non-believers right in the beginning. Likewise it took Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) 23 years to spread Dawah. He worked in the cause of Allah with patience and perseverance. At no point, during his mission Muhammad addressed or declared them as Kuffar. After the Prophet carried out his responsibility and accomplished his task assigned to him by Allah and when little scope was left for their conversion to new faith then Allah and not the Prophet declared that now there emerged two distinct communities of believers and non-believers. But before that they had been given ample time and opportunity to think and decide for themselves the course for their future. Dawah work is a very delicate task. It demands of daee (preacher) an extraordinary care, wisdom, deep sincerity and single mindedness. In no case his speech, behaviour or manner, while transmitting the message, should reflect any kind of compulsion. A Daee should never employ the device of compulsion while preaching religion.

Any such step taken in the field of Dawah is repugnant to the very spirit of Divine scheme that allows a manpower of choice and freedom. In other words any compulsion on the part of Daee or preacher almost snatches from man his freedom of choice and free will. It also renders concept of accountability meaningless and demands of justice are not met while awarding reward and punishment.

Let us for a while cast a cursory glance at the Prophet’s mission to find out how did he transmit the Message. Did he take up the sword to spread it as it is claimed by an Orientalist that he launched his campaign “with sword in one hand and the Qur’an in the other.”

At Makkah during his struggle against al-Batil (The evil) when he felt that some of his followers could no more tolerate the suppression and tyranny perpetrated by Quraish upon them, he allowed them to emigrate to Abyssina by saying:

“If you could emigrate to the land of Abyssinia you would find there a king in whose empire nobody is repressed or victimised and that country is a place of truth and peace. Stay there till God finds a way out for you.”

During this period he advised his followers to develop passive resistance against the oppressors and did not ask them to take up sword to kill or get killed. After sometime the Quraish conspired against him and he himself was forced to migrate to Madinah. He left Makkah under the cover of darkness and reached Madinah where he encountered Jews who harboured grudge and malice towards the Prophet and bore hostility to nascent Muslim community. Now there were two enemies: The Qurish of Makkah and the Jews of Madinah. The Prophet could not afford to fight with both of them. He made a peace treaty with the Jews of Madinah.

The first battle fought between believers and non-believers at Badr and the campaign of Hunyan teach us how Muslims should behave when they are victorious. They should not be arrogant and gloat over their victory.

Allah reminded them that he helped them during the battle of Badr by sending angels whom they could not see. Allah referred to it in Qur’an: “Remember when you prayed to your Lord for help, He heard you and said: “I shall send you thousand angels following behind you for your aid.” (8:9)

They should seek forgiveness from Allah for their mistakes and weaknesses which they displayed during the battle. And in the Hunyan, Allah has mentioned: “Indeed God has helped you on many Occasions even during the battle of Hunyan, when you were elated with joy at your numbers which did not prove of the least avail, so that the earth and it vast expanse became too narrow for you and you turned back and retreated.” (9:25)