| May 9, 2002 | Thursday | Safar 25, 1423 |
Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window)
Water and power blues
FAR from ebbing, terrorism is stalking Pakistan with impunity as a new murderous and awesome wave seems to be sweeping the country. Wednesday’s suicide-bombing massacre in Karachi alone led to the loss of at least 15 innocent lives. The new wave began late last month with the murder of two of the Muttahida’s former parliamentarians. Till now, their killers have remained uncaught and unidentified, forcing the Muttahida — regrettably, though — to give a call for a “wheel-jam” strike last Thursday. Then murders motivated by sectarian hate hit Karachi and Lahore. On Monday, an educationist, his driver and one of his aides were gunned down as they drove to their college. Then in Lahore on Tuesday, Dr Ghulam Murtaza Malik, a religious scholar, fell to an assailant’s gun. So callous are terrorists that they would not care who else gets killed. They fired not only at the professor but also at his driver, killing both on the spot. One of the two policemen who happened to be on patrol and who challenged the gunmen was also shot down. However, the worst of these macabre happenings was Wednesday’s massacre in Karachi.
One does not know what group the suicide bomber who rammed his car into the Pakistan Navy van yesterday belonged to. But he was obviously working for a group determined to make its fierce opposition to Pakistan’s role in the context of the US-led war on international terrorism widely and chillingly felt. Another motive might be to reverse a positive development lately of foreigners of all sorts — investors, parliamentarians, sailors and soldiers and occasional tourists — shedding their inhibitions and visiting this country. This was by any standards an encouraging development and seemed an acknowledgement of the bold decisions the Musharraf government had taken to crack down on terrorism. However, the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in February and the slaughter of French naval experts yesterday have sent a chilling message across the world. The message is clear: notwithstanding Islamabad’s crackdown on some extremist parties, foreigners should visit this country at their peril. Indeed, how can a country be safe for foreign visitors when it is not safe for its own people?
The blast that killed the French and Pakistani project personnel took place in the vicinity of two hotels, in one of which was also lodged the visiting New Zealand cricket team. The Kiwis had agreed to come to Pakistan after the government had assured them that it would guarantee their safety. Indeed, three one-day internationals and a Test had been played without any unpleasant incident. However, yesterday’s blast had an unnerving effect on both the visitors and the host team, which was also staying in the same hotel. The two sides, then, correctly decided to call off the tour.
The modus operandi of the latest act of terror shows that a lot of planning had gone into the ghastly deed. The terrorists had planned their move with meticulous care. They had kept tabs on the French visitors and their Pakistan Navy guests and apparently, had advance information on precisely when and where their victims would be yesterday in the course of their visiting programme. The security provided for the French and PN personnel was, on the face of it, routine. Or perhaps the authorities were lulled into a false sense of immunity stemming from the legal ban on militant parties.
Without doubt, the new wave is a challenge to the Musharraf government. It owes it to the people of Pakistan to prove by deeds and not by mere words that it is capable of rooting out terrorism. The brains behind the terrorist wave remain at large and unknown to us. Some extremist parties may have been outlawed, but their deadly activity proves that they are very much alive and capable of striking at will. That the target of the latest attack were the nationals of a western country tells a lot about those who are behind this crime. It is shocking that our intelligence agencies should have failed to keep potential suspects and groups under surveillance. Why can’t the plethora of intelligence and law enforcement agencies that are there penetrate these terrorist networks and smash them? A viral outbreak can be controlled by tackling it at the source. In the case of terrorism, too, it is the brains behind it that need exposure. Arresting some ground operatives here and there hardly helps matters. One hopes that the agreement signed with some American intelligence agencies for training Pakistani sleuths in modern investigative methods will prove of help in tracking down the criminals behind the present wave of terror.
The murder of the French personnel and the cancellation of New Zealand’s cricket series are a blow to Pakistan’s image and prestige. It would need determined efforts and single-minded devotion to the war on terror to rid Pakistan of this menace. The government should realize that terrorists are now found in every corner of the country; they are not there only in big cities or in the tribal areas but everywhere. A future strategy to deal with this curse must take into account the direness of the challenge the government faces and the political will and investigative skills that are needed to give the citizens of Pakistan the peace and security that they have not known for a long time.
IT seems that frequent power failures and water closures are the two scourges Karachiites must endure through the long summer months. The faulty and rusty distribution systems of the two utilities are one of the major reasons for this state of affairs. Take the power utility first. As the demand rises in summer, so does the load on the KESC distribution system, which is not capable of transmitting power beyond a certain limit. Power theft, which accounts for a large percentage of the total availability, is a major factor in the frequent breakdowns. Those involved in theft use power with impunity, thus increasing pressure on the old distribution system, which either trips or gives way under an increased load that is beyond its capacity. Attempts to curb such theft have met with failure in the past, ostensibly because the KESC’s linemen are a party to the criminal practice. Thus, under the circumstances, it would help the vast majority of the tariff-paying consumers if the KESC upgraded its distribution system, so as to enable it to handle the actual load without running the risks of snarls and failures.
As for the water shortage, it is believed, with some conviction, that frequent power outages play havoc with the KWSB’s pumping and distribution systems too. The existing infrastructure of the water utility is old and rusty and needs renovation and replacement. According to the KWSB’s own estimates, some 40 per cent of the water available to the city goes to waste because of leakage in its water mains. These need to be repaired and, where overdue, replaced. Summer is no natural calamity. It comes every year, and one fails to understand why the KESC and KWSB are never prepared to deal with the increase in demand during the hot months without causing endless hardships to the residents. Obviously, the answer lies in vastly improving the two utilities’ utter mismanagement and lack of public accountability.