| May 18, 2002 | Saturday | Rabi-ul-Awwal 5, 1423 |
Urdu script’s superiority
The MQM chief on television
Giving journalese a literary touch
Bush mindset on Israel, Palestine issue
Why inquiry into suicide bombing is vital
ALMOST 250 days have passed since the devolution plan was introduced by the Musharraf government after taking over the affairs of the country. But the political pundits and senior citizens of the district are complaining that the new system has not won the hearts of the masses, as, according to them, they are still not reaping any fruits of the new system.
URDU script is so well entrenched now it is no more a burning issue even with those who favoured its replacement by the Roman alphabet. The weakening of the Roman case in recent years owes much to the development of Urdu software but, if seen in the larger perspective, one can say, it had never been strong enough to deal with the national resilience in favour of the nastaliq which even the introduction of Arabic type could not effectively dislodge. The people of South Asia are rather unique in this respect, Muslims particularly, whom two centuries of British rule could not westernize to any meaningful level.
YASSER Arafat, Chairman of Palestinian Authority in an interview following Israel’s withdrawal from Ramallah compound releasing him from confinement, asked the US President George Bush to keep his father’s commitment made at the Madrid conference in October 1991.
THE city is again being pushed into the same phase of bullet, blast and blood that has, during the last 17 years, left thousands of families in a state of endless mourning. More importantly, in a situation where it is almost impossible for the widows and the old to ensure two square meals for their families daily.
Nevertheless, the general feeling of a cross-section of society and even political opponents of the district government was that district Nazim Zahid Nazir, one of the youngest representatives of the system, would move fast and provide relief to the people from oppressive problems and take care of the poor condition of roads, sewerage, environmental pollution, health institutions and corruption and inefficiency.
The Nazim claims that the new system has brought a silent revolution in the district and is rendering commendable services to the people.
These assertions were made by him during a chat with mediamen the other day in which he came out with details of development projects and other works being carried out in the district. He claimed that a comprehensive plan had been chalked out for converting Faisalabad into a model district under the devolution plan. Huge funds were being spent on the provision of civic amenities and basic infrastructure.
He said the district council of Faisalabad was one of the biggest in the country having 289 union councils with a population of 5.14 million and an area of 5,856 square kilometres. Faisalabad, having six tehsil councils — Samundri, Tandlianwala, Jaranwala, Chak Jhumra, Saddar and City — was also being given special importance by the planners of the devolution system.
In view of the vast area and huge population, the revenue generation resources of the district departments are inadequate for expediting the pace of development and fully providing the infrastructure according to the laid down standard, he admitted.
He said the district had large link and village roads — 3,540 kilometre long — requiring round-the-clock repair and maintenance and huge expenses, which was not an ordinary job. However, efforts were being made to make them motorable and beneficial to the road-users. Skeptical observers, however, take these remarks as a bashful and muffled expression of apology and subdued zeal.
The roads under the Highway Department and the Tehsil Municipal Administration require maintenance, upgradation and reconstruction to accommodate the increasing volume of traffic.
The Nazim said the Faisalabad district was the first in the country in which citizens development boards had been set up in 260 union councils out of 289, while development schemes in 90 councils had already been started.
He said during the current financial year, a number of development programmes had been started by the district government and its six tehsil councils with an amount of Rs1.5 billion. Schemes worth Rs1 billion were in the pipeline.
He said post-graduate classes would be started in the Muslim College for Women for which the building of the City Muslim High School has been acquired. He said post-graduate girl students were facing many difficulties because of the extraordinary pressure of enrolment in the Government College, Madina Town.
He said the devolution process under the new system was still in the transition period. However, efforts were being made to provide fruits of the revolution to the people. He said the major task of condensing 35 departments into 12 had been completed, and that the pace of the development would be accelerated at all costs.
The Nazim said dualization of the Faisalabad-Sheikhupura Road would commence in August, 2002. The task had been assigned to the Frontier Works Organization. The road-strip up to Shahkot would be completed within one year, while the whole project would be completed in three years.
He said a comprehensive plan had been evolved for providing furniture, fixture and other infrastructure to schools by spending Rs45 million. Likewise, a primary school in each union council would be upgraded up to middle level.
He said doctors on contract had been recruited at a lumpsum salary of Rs12,000 per month in 169 basic health units of the district. In the past, all such BHUs had become a burden on the government due to the absence of doctors and various other reasons. Now the Nazims and councillors of union councils would check the attendance and performance of doctors and paramedical staff of these units, he said.
The district Nazim said over 2,000 teachers were being recruited in the district to meet the shortage of teachers.
He said out of 11 major roads of the city, nine had been completed according to international standards. Work on two roads — Narwala and Millat roads — was in progress and would be completed within the stipulated period. Likewise, all roads leading to the Service Road would be constructed soon for the convenience of the people.
He said the local industrialists and philanthropists had been motivated for donating generously for the provision of basic amenities. The Government College, Faisalabad, would also be upgraded to university level, and new faculties of information technology, physics and textile designing would be set up for providing modern education to students.
He said an athletic ground would also be set up at the Dhobi Ghat Park in which provisions would also be made for physical training and gymnastics of international standard.
Answering a question about setting up a bench of the High Court in Faisalabad, he said it was a longstanding and genuine demand for which all efforts would be made.
He said a swift centre had already been set up in Faisalabad for issuing computerized identity cards. Similarly, a passport office would also be set up for providing passports through one-window operation.
He said a complete peace and harmony prevailed in the district during Muharram. With introduction of police reforms, crime would register a significant decrease, he hoped.
Although the Nazim painted a rosy picture of uplift works in the district, one wonders whether he had gone through his “functions” as envisaged in the Punjab Local Government Ordinance, 2001, which, inter alia, says the Nazim shall be responsible to provide vision for the district-wide development, leadership and direction for efficient functioning of the district government; develop with the assistance of the district administration strategies and timeframe for accomplishment of the relevant goals approved by the district council; perform functions relating to law and order in the district; ensure implementation of the functions decentralized to the district government; oversee formulation and execution of the annual development plan, delivery of services and functioning of the district government.
One hopes that the Nazim will come out with direct welfare-oriented projects for the people who are still living in a miserable condition owing to the decades-old infrastructure of civic amenities like water supply and drainage. People are still craving for sweet water, but are being forced to drink contaminated and injurious subsoil water.
Justice S.A. Rahman in his excellent essay, Iqbal aur Urdu, which has appeared in the latest issue of Muqtadera’s Akhbar-i-Urdu, has recounted a discussion Maulvi Abdul Haque had at Allama Iqbal’s house where he with Maulana Zafar Ali Khan and Chaudhry Mohammad Hussain had been invited to meals. The Allama wanted them to issue a declaration that “we will never give up on the Urdu script”. All present supported the idea but the Allama had a feeling the Maulvi was somewhat noncommittal. It was suspected he might favour the deonagri script in parleys he was having with the Congress leadership at that time. Maulvi Abdul Haque explained that he did not wish to be accused of negativism by issuing such a statement at the outset of this debate. Soon thereafter, at the annual meeting of the Akhal Sahitya Parishad at Nagpur, of which he was a member, the differences came to the open when Gandhiji asserted: “I cannot forsake Hindi. Urdu is the religious language of the Muslims. It is written in the Quranic alphabet; it was promoted by Muslim kings. You may keep it. Its upto you.” To that Maulvi Sahib replied: “If you can’t leave Hindi, why should we leave Urdu. We will Insha Allah keep it alive and develop it to excellence.” When this discussion came to the knowledge of the Allama he was totally convinced of Maulvi Abdul Haque’s strategy to expose the rejectionist mind of the Congress. According to the Baba-i-Urdu the Allama wanted Urdu to become a language of world stature, not just of the subcontinent. And that too in its own script in which it had germinated and flowered, not any imported alphabet.
The special edition of Akhbar-i-Urdu devoted to software research has a number of very interesting and informative articles on the subject of Urdu script and related matters. Prof Mohammad Saleem’s on the comprehensiveness of the Urdu script will be very educative for those who suffer from inadequacy feelings and nurture the illusion that romanization of Urdu would widen its acceptability in the west which to them is the litmus test for all things good. Others want to do it to fulfil a long simmering desire to deprive people of what to them has been a natural means of communication and creative expression. But, as a class, members of the higher bureaucracy who have been obstructing Urdu’s entry in government offices, are to gain the most from it. They have no logic for their adamance except that probably they don’t like the look of it, or that writing from right to left is too laborious or maybe too risky like keeping to the right on the road. Why they do not appreciate the freedom Urdu would give them from having to draft and redraft the same stupid four line para that would still say nothing in the final approved version is beyond understanding. At times it appears English is being used in government offices to keep the state and society in perpetual confusion.
Prof Saleem has established the superiority of the Urdu script to Arabic, Persian, Hindi and English or Roman scripts by comparing the respective ranges of sounds they can phonetecize. Though a derivative of Arabic, Urdu’s range is far wider than its original’s. You cannot write Pakistan in Arabic. In Persian we have no hard R, D or T. Urdu is an Aryan language born in India but its script is an advanced form of the Semite-Arabic more capable than the Hindi nagric script. Not only does the nagric script lack a number of local sounds of Aryan origin, it does not have such widely used sounds as F or Z. Only now the use of dots has been introduced to enable the pronunciation of common words like film instead of the written ‘philum’. It is still deficient in several compound and mixed sounds as well as having no facility of rest, all of its characters being on the forward move.
Roman script in comparison is not only deficient but also defective and shallow. It has no individual character for as many as 17 distinct Urdu alphabets, which are expressed through odd combinations, and even then you cannot distinguish Is-haq from Ishaq or even pronounce Khan correctly. It suffers from the dubiousity of having more than one consonant for the same sound: ‘g’ in germ, ‘d’ in soldier and ‘j’ in jute; ‘t’ in Christian, ‘tch’ in match; ‘z’ in zeal and ‘s’ in has; ‘g’ in mirage and ‘s’ in pleasure; ‘t’ in motion, ‘c’ in oceon, ‘s’ in sure, ‘sh’ in she, ‘ss’ in mission ‘ch’ in machine; ‘f’ in foot, ‘ph’ in prophet, ‘gh’ in enough and ‘ff’ in off; ‘ch’ in Christ, ‘q’ in quick, ‘k’ in kill, ‘c’ in cat; ‘v’ in very and ‘w’ in wet; ‘u’ in use, ‘a’ in real, ‘y’ in you and ‘ia’ in racial; ‘u’ in urge, ‘e’ in earn, ‘a’ in art and ‘o’ in out. Then the same character has different sounds: ‘c’ in cat and ‘c’ in capacity; ‘d’ in soldier and dog; ‘g’ in get and gel; ‘h’ in hat and honour, ‘s’ in pleasure, sir and sure etc. Vowels and their combinations present enormous confusion. A has four, e five, i two, o, u and y three sounds each. There is a profusion of unsounded additions and silent characters.
These irregularities and anomalies of the Roman script are not confined to English use only. In French, German, Italian, Spanish and Scandinavian languages the use of the Roman script cannot be brought under any single or multiple rule.
The comprehensiveness, beauty and economy of the Urdu script in comparison needs no elaboration. Instead of lining up characters to form words the Urdu script condenses them into new individual structures that say more in less space. The movement of the script has inspired countless calligraphists to give vent to their creative energies turning writing into an art.
The software research edition’s major portion comprises technical articles on Urdu computerization issues from vowel insertion grammar, contextual shape analysis of nastaliq, phonological analysis of nicknames and nicknaming patterns in Urdu —- two very interesting studies—- to synthesis of oral and nasal vowels and syllabification rules in Punjabi. These would be Greek to most lay people. But it is amazing and also encouraging to see the great work language engineers are doing at the Muqtadera and its affiliate bodies.
UNLIKE Indus Vision, the ARY television channel has managed to come up with some pretty interesting programming. It has a couple of shows on current affairs and the politics of the day that are broadcast daily and which draw a wide audience. Most of their current affair shows — unlike in the case of Indus Vision — are quite interactive with viewers able to call in and ask questions from invited guests or panelists.
Thursday night’s live call-in show had the chief of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, Altaf Husain, as the guest. The programme turned out to be quite interesting, not least because of the theatrical and decidedly peculiar manner in which Mr Husain spoke to the camera and answered the many questions that were asked of him. Some places in the show seemed downright comical, not because they were intended to be but because of the nature of either the question or the response.
For example, an elderly-sounding man called and in a Sindhi accent asked the MQM chief how he could respond to stories in the past which said that his likeness could be found in the leaves of certain plants. Mr Husain responded by saying that these reports had come to his notice — a long time ago when he was living in Pakistan — after he had returned to Karachi after visiting Saudi Arabia for Umra. He said that when he reached his home he found certain plants outside his door and that his face could be seen on some of the leaves. He said that probably the Nazimabad unit in charge had done this and he was sternly told to take this plant away and not indulge in such antics anymore. He further added that people called him ‘pir’ but that he never called himself that. Balke mein tau logon ko yeh kehta hoon kay mujhe bhai kahein ... bhai kahein ... bhai kahein.
In response to a caller from the Middle East who asked him for his comments on the extortion that came with the rise of the MQM in Karachi, Mr Husain looked into the camera (which quite often panned to give a close up of his face showing his somewhat exaggerated facial responses and mannerisms quite clearly) and said that those who ask for bhatta never get votes and those who get votes from the electorate never have to ask for bhatta. That said, though, there seems to be enough anecdotal evidence to suggest that there might have been some truth to what the caller was saying.
As usual, the MQM chief went on a long diatribe against the role played by the ISI in Pakistani politics and how the agency had allegedly given money in the past to politicians, including some in the MQM, to change their loyalties, Mr Husain said that the ISI was still pursuing this policy — suggesting perhaps that the party and the government might have had some falling out over the April 30 referendum and the murders of former MQM legislators Dr Nishat Mallick and Mustafa Kamal Rizvi. To this, the interviewer. PJ Mir, asked the MQM chief whether he expected any more members of his party to change their loyalties and the latter replied that this remained to be seen.
The MQM chief was also asked about the nature of his party and asked questions that called for his comments on why, if it purported to appeal to the middle classes, did it focus only on immigrants from India, who call themselves Mohajirs. Mr Husain gave a detailed account of how the party rose from what was mainly a student organization, the All Pakistan Mohajir Students Organization, to become the country’s third-largest party in parliament. He then said that the party had always worked for establishing a national platform and that this happened when after much opposition from the Establishment and the intelligence agencies the name ‘Mohajir’ in MQM was replaced by ‘Muttahida.’ How much even the Muttahida Qaumi Movement caters to people from all ethnic backgrounds is left to the judgment of readers.
The MQM chief, for his part, though repeatedly — much like a zakir or a qawwal or even a preacher — went on and on to appeal to the camera that his party wanted the middle classes to come forward and work for a strong united and progressive Pakistan. At the same time, he also said, in response to a question that the MQM was open to working with “those generals in the army and officers in the ISI who wanted to work to save Pakistan.” And in a dig at former prime ministers Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto (the former, he said, was allowed to leave by “the generals” mainly because he was a Punjabi and that he took 101 suitcases), Mr Husain said that at least he didn’t leave the country because of any secret deals. However, he seemed to be giving the impression that his own party’s coordination forced him, much against his will, to leave the country and go into exile. Again, it is a moot point whether the committee has the authority, among other things, to overrule the party chief. — Omar R Quraishi
IT is always interesting to attend the launching ceremony of a book which though not of a high literary value is one which people are eager to read.
Mansur Malik is an old timer in the field of journalism. Starting with the daily Kohistan, he switched over to the daily Mashriq and was later sent over to London to produce the same newspaper from there. He stayed on in Britain after the closure of the Mashriq and started producing an Urdu monthly by the name of Shafaq. It became quite popular among the Urdu readers settled abroad.
Malik has now come up with a book entitled Shahana Ruswaiyan. As is evident from the title, it is about the scandals involving royalty, particularly British royalty. It was this book which was launched in the Lahore Press Club the other day with Bedar Sarmadi, editor of the daily Front in the forefront of the ceremony. He introduced the author and said that Mansur Malik had chosen an interesting topic for his maiden attempt. He said that the topic was always in the minds of the people but they could not get to the depth of it because most of the intimate facts of such happenings never came to light. He gave credit to the author for digging up details of all the hush hush activities of the British royalty.
Zafar Ali Raja, the advocate and poet, was to speak on the occasion but he could only send his written opinion about the book which was read out by Saleha Khatoon. According to him, the book was a blend of journalistic and literary writing which lent a distinctive colour to the contents. He particularly appreciated the way the author had unravelled the psychology of the fairer sex.
Another speaker that evening was Nasir Bashir. He felt that the book was highly readable and in the process went on to urge the author to write a similar book about the high ups in his own country. That could go to unravel the mystery of the break-up of the country in 1971.
Amjad Tufail, the newly elected secretary of the Halqa-i-Arbab-i-Zauq, who came next to the rostrum, spoke extensively on the love affair of King Edward VIII and Mrs Simpson for which he gave up the throne. However, I failed to understand what he was trying to prove by that.
PTV’s senior producer, Iftikhar Majaz, was also there that evening to give his views. He started with condemning book launching ceremonies where the author himself paid the expenses to get some publicity. He expressed happiness that the ceremony he was attending was different. He said that the author had dealt with the subject in a sober manner, avoided making any base comments and deserved credit for remaining within reasonable limits.
In his presidential remarks, Prof Gilani Kamran was all praise for Mansur Malik. He said the word ‘scandal’ was rather hurting but the author had done well to use ruswaiyan in the title to render it almost harmless. He also gave full marks to the author for touching a difficult subject yet remaining within the limits of decency and propriety.
IN keeping with the Year of Iqbal-2000, the Pakistan Academy of Letters has been arranging functions in its offices all over the country. In the same connection, one was hosted by the Lahore office as well. Presided over by novelist and short story writer Dr Attiya Syed, the meeting was addressed by the noted literary critic, Dr Salim Akhtar, and the educationist, Dr Muhammad Rafiq.
Initiating the proceedings, the local director of the academy, Kazy Javed, threw light on Iqbal’s intellectual contributions and the two-nation theory as a solution to the Hindu-Muslim tangle. Dr Salim Akhtar, however, dealt with the subject in a philosophical manner. He said that the Allama had the desire to see model men prevail in the world so that they could create a model world.
Dr Muhammad Rafiq said that the thoughts of Allama Iqbal had a profound effect on him during his formative years.
Summing up, Dr Attiya Syed said that there was no doubt that Allama Iqbal had chalked out a path for us to follow and there should be no deviation from it. She said that his message was not only for the Muslims but for all mankind.
THE monthly meeting of the Adab Serai was held at the residence of its chairperson, Shahnaz Muzzammil, who has returned from her visit to England. She recalled the pleasant time she had there and the functions she had attended. She also gave a brief review of some of the books which have been published recently. These included the new novel by Saeed Sheikh, Eik aur Darya, and the travelogue of Spain by Dr Rafiuddin Hashmi. This was followed by the usual round of poetic recitals. — ASHFAQUE NAQVI
In his speech to Madrid conference which resonates even today, the then President George H. Bush said: “Peace will only come as the result of direct negotiations, compromise, give-and-take. Peace cannot be imposed from the outside by the United States or anyone else. While we will continue to do every thing possible to help the parties overcome obstacles, peace must come from within. We come here to Madrid as realists. We do not expect peace to be negotiated in a day, or a week, or a month, or even a year. It will take time; indeed, it should take time — time for parties so long at war to learn to talk to one another, to listen to one another. Time to heal old wounds and build trust. In this quest, time need not be the enemy of progress. What we envision is a process of direct negotiations proceeding along two tracks, one between Israel and the Arab states; the other between Israel and the Palestinians. Negotiations are to be conducted on the basis of UN Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338. The real work will not happen here in the plenary session, but in direct bilateral negotiations.”
ANTI-SEMITE: Immediately following the 1991 Madrid conference on Middle-East wherein senior Bush laid down his vision of a Middle-East peace process, he asked the Israeli government to stop building settlements in the West Bank as a condition to set the process rolling. When Israel balked at his suggestion, Bush then threatened to stop almost 10 million dollars a day that the Jewish nation gets from the United States for the aid was being used to build such settlements in the occupied West bank.
As a consequence the Likud government of Israeli Prime Minister Izhak Shamir launched a propaganda war against Bush with some in Israeli parliament calling him “anti-Semite.”
While on one hand the Israeli government apologized for such remarks from the members of the government in the Israeli parliament, Israeli lobby in Washington kept the pressure on.
As it came to pass, Bush, who after the 1991 Gulf war victory enjoyed 91 per cent approval ratings was looking at the 1992 elections in which he was sure to win. But in Washington, the Republican party knew that Bush’s demand on Israel could cost him the November election which he eventually lost to Bill Clinton, the Governor of Arkansas.
Although one of the big reason given for Bush’s defeat was the struggling economy, yet the role of the heavily Jewish-dominated media to get Bush played a role. “For Bush it was like the kiss of death”, remarked one analyst.
Nevertheless peace process set in motion at Madrid went on. The Israeli and Palestinian leaders met secretly in Oslo to work out a peace deal which resulted in 1993 peace agreement and the famous handshake at the White House between the Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat.
The peace process died with the killing of Rabin at the hands of an Israeli rightwing activist and the ascension of extreme rightwing Likud government led by Benjamin Netanyahu.
Although President Bill Clinton in the last days of his presidency tried to get a peace process rolling with intense negotiations between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Arafat in Washington and Wye, where it was said that they were “so close” to a deal it was not to be.
The rightwing in Israel became a dominant force and scuttled the deal with the defeat of Barak government and victory for the extremist leader Ariel Sharon.
So when George W. Bush, the son, calls Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon a “man of peace”: when his army had destroyed the refugee camp at Jenin and refused to allow a UN fact-finding mission to determine the accusations of a genocide, it should not come as a surprise to any one.
The junior Bush and his party knows all too well what will happen if he goes against the pro-Israel sentiment which exists on Capitol Hill.
Congress’s position, expressed in May 2 resolutions supporting Israel’s military incursions, is adamant. Both houses rebuffed the Bush administration’s request that some anti-Palestinian language be softened, and the Senate resolution passed 94 to 2; the House resolution, 352 to 21.
But then the sentiments expressed on Capitol Hill in total and unequivocal support of the Jewish nations do not reflect the sentiments of the American people in general over the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
Andrew Kohut, Director at PEW Research Center, while writing about the divide between the position held by the US Congress and the American public opinion says while many Americans think Yasser Arafat is responsible for the crisis in the Middle East, “yet two-thirds of Americans think Israel should negotiate with him. And Ariel Sharon has only limited support from Americans — just 21 per cent have a favourable view of him, and only 32 per cent see him as someone committed to peace in the Middle East. Despite the abhorrence of Palestinian tactics and the public’s pro-Israeli stance, polls have found steady support for an independent Palestinian State. In fact, the ABC/Washington Post survey found support for American recognition of a Palestinian State jumping to 68 per cent in late April from 55 per cent last fall.”
But that has not deterred more entrenched Israeli lobbyists in the American press led by William Safire of the New York Times who gets daily briefings from the Israeli Prime Minister asking Bush to dump Yasser Arafat and go whole hog with the position taken by Ariel Sharon.
With November election approaching when several US Senate and Congressional seats are up for grabs and the control of the Senate and the House of Representatives in jeopardy, Bush cannot afford to annoy the powerful Jewish lobby at the Capitol Hill. So if it takes calling Ariel Sharon “A man of peace”, so be it.
The systematic killing of doctors belonging to a particular sect was going on fairly unabated, with people gradually becoming immune to it and the city security machine proving its usual ineffectiveness, rather helplessness, after every such incident.
But the pre-referendum shooting of two former Muttahida lawmakers and the post-referendum maiden suicide bombing which targeted French navy personnel have established beyond any doubt that, God forbid, worse days are ahead. What other conclusion can be drawn with the introduction of this latest and extreme form of terrorism in Karachi?
In recent times, we have seen the suicide attacks in the United States on Sept 11, in India by Kashmiris and Tamil Tigers, in Sri Lanka again by Tamils and in Israel by the Palestinians. But, understandably, behind all those self-killing assaults, there has been a cause.
On the one hand, the Palestinians, Kashmiris and Tamils have been fighting, for decades, the iron-clad armies that have occupied their respective motherlands. On the other, radical Muslims, fed up with American double-standards, seem to have run out of patience when they tried to hit back at Uncle Sam’s Achilles’ Heel. One may disagree with the legitimacy of any of those causes, but the fact remains that in all cases, the cause has proved to be so steely that its respective followers have deemed it fit to sacrifice their lives repeatedly in order to go a step forward in their struggle to achieve their objectives.
However, the sixty-four thousand dollar question is what was the cause of those who planned the execution with such precision with one of their men still on the driver’s seat? Is it that we are about to find out that an Al Qaeda-Taliban lot has regrouped to launch its guerrilla warfare against the international anti- terrorism coalition, with Pakistan being its most important member? For the government, this incident is serious enough to review its counter-terrorism strategy. But in all fairness, the suicide attack as well as the bombing of the International Church in Islamabad sometime back must not leave the concerned officials surprised.
After President Pervez Musharraf had offered a cooperative hand to the United States in its campaign of annihilating Al Qaeda-Taliban in the garb of so-called war on terror, the Pakistan government would prove unwise if it had expected that there would be no reaction to its policy.
Or is it the handiwork of some foreign elements? After all, Islamabad and Delhi have been at odds since the Dec 13, 2001, attack on the Indian Parliament. First, there has been diplomatic tension with both high commissioners going back to their home capitals, then followed a ban on overflights, suspension of Samjhota Express and finally, the massing of thousands of troops on the borders.
The possibility of ruling out Indian involvement appears to be increasingly hard after Delhi has, in its own right, seen an Islamabad connection with the Dec 13 attack, and demanded the custody of some 20 men who it says can be tried for their involvement in the parliament assault and many other acts of crime.
Moreover, it should be kept in mind that the French were working on Agosta submarines which, upon completion, may be a cause for concern for the Indian navy. So, Pakistan can well keep this possibility as one of the areas that need to be combed in search of the perpetrators of the suicide bombing. And with an Indo-Pakistan history replete with suspicion, allegations and counter-allegations, it should not come as a surprise. Rather, there should be a sort of painful satisfaction if the Indian involvement is proved and Islamabad can say to Delhi “we know this is what you were up to.”
But what if no link of the Al Qaeda-Taliban or India comes up? Obviously, in that case, we have to come to the conclusion that government policies, ever-rising price-hike and rate of utilities, deteriorating law and order situation, increasing joblessness as well as political differences have angered certain elements so much that they are now even ready to kill themselves.
If that is the case, then we have entered a very, very dangerous phase of our history indeed. Because to take one’s own life — not on the spur of the moment but as a well-thought-out plan — is a decision that needs a cause strong enough to leave its followers in a mental state in which they think that taking their own lives will highlight their dissent.
It is, therefore, required of the powers that be to look into all aspects of this suicide bombing with great care and seriousness. If it is proved that the explosion has been chosen by some of our countrymen to express their anger and opposition, then sincere efforts must be made to redress their grievances and to forestall those elements from committing such acts which are apparently aimed at spreading chaos and anarchy in the city, nay, the whole country.