| May 22, 2002 | Wednesday | Rabi-ul-Awwal 8,1423 |
To send a letter to the Editor
Click here
Self-obsessed US policies
Poison from tanneries
Salinity hitting crops
Time to move on
Hastily utilized funds
Seductive upliftment schemes
The top priority
The top priority
FBI report
Dentistry syllabus
Something rotten in society?
Our country
THERE appear to be a number of misconceptions, in both the press and political circles in India, about what a future war with Pakistan might entail. These include the mistaken belief that a military action against Pakistan will somehow remain limited and is the proper solution for difficulties in Kashmir and elsewhere.
Perhaps, most dangerous are the assumptions about the likely use and effects of nuclear weapons in the ensuing conflict. Nuclear weapons are strategic assets. It must be assumed that Pakistan knows this and will use them in that context. It also knows that for optimum effect it must strike hard at the earliest opportunity. To get an idea of what may be involved, a ground burst over the Bhakra dam will cause a 20-mile wide wall of water from its two lakes to rush down the Sutlej valley carrying with it the cities of Ludhiana and Ferozepur and everything in between.
This includes roads, railway lines as well as the irrigation systems of East Punjab, Hariana and Rajasthan. All areas north of the river will be cut off from the rest of India for an indefinite period. In that event, the fate of troops in East Punjab and held Kashmir is anyone’s guess. There will be widespread famine and disease that will take the lives of scores of millions.
This is just from one or two bombs. The havoc that will be wrought by 50 or 60 of them exploding all over India simultaneously is unimaginable. The fact that Pakistan will, in all probability, suffer a similar fate, will not mitigate the catastrophic tragedy inflicted upon India in any way.
All this for what purpose — to teach Pakistan a lesson? This may be a reasonable objective for Israel when dealing with unarmed Palestinians but the situation in the subcontinent is wholly different. Any war must have an attainable objective. You do not go to war simply because the remaining options are not so appealing and certainly not without realistically evaluating every possible outcome of the proposed adventure.
Even as a game of brinkmanship it is hazardous for it is not easy to predict how far you may go before triggering an unwanted response.
There is also the need to be wary of any source that encourages bellicosity and belligerence. More than one outside party stands to gain if the two nuclear powers in the subcontinent were to destroy each other. There is still time to stand back and re-assess the situation in a more dispassionate and realistic light.
One can only hope and pray that misplaced chauvinism will not blind the men in power to the extreme risks that are involved and better sense will prevail before they decide to cross the Rubicon to provoke a cataclysmic Armageddon.
K. HUSSAN ZIA
Broassard, Quebec,
Canada
THE World Bank very recently released a report on the impact of western agricultural subsidies on the world’s most desperately poor countries. It cited the example of the African nation of Burkina Faso, where most of the rural population, which grows cotton, scrapes by on less than the equivalent of US$1 a day.
According to the World Bank study, if world cotton prices had not been depressed by US agricultural subsidies, the number of people living in poverty in Burkina Faso could have been halved within six years. The same could easily have been said about Pakistan, where millions of rural poor grow cotton.
A week ago President Bush enacted the new US Farm bill which will channel an increased amount of some US$20 billion per annum directly into the pockets of US cotton, sugarcane, wheat and maize growers. Ironically, these cash handouts are not there to support hard-up US farming families. Instead, nearly 30 per cent of this money will go to the richest 10 per cent of the farms, which are mainly agro-industrial enterprises.
The true intent of this new bill, it would appear, is to pave the way for a Republican Party success in the rural electorates for this year’s Congressional elections. By signing this new bill, President Bush has revealed his moral hypocrisy. He has made it abundantly clear that domestic politics is of much greater relevance to him than acting justly with the world’s poor.
While the international price of cotton remains around 35 cents per pound, the US growers, receiving 52 to 74 cents per pound for their cotton, would overproduce as usual and thereby yet again, flood the international market with their crop. This constant oversupply of under-priced agricultural produce shaped by these government subsidies, has created economic devastation for the poor in the developing countries.
The resentment expressed by the ‘have-nots’ against the ‘haves’, as seen in the dancing crowds in Greece, Malaysia and Russia, among other places, after the Sept 11 incident, will not easily disappear. If the world’s poor, such as the cotton growers of Burkina Faso, continue to suffer grim impoverishment as a direct result of these callously self-centred US polices then it is not difficult to imagine them dancing with glee at some future American calamity.
It is a pity that George Bush and his men are simply incapable of coming eye to eye with this reality.
SHAHRYAR MAZARI
Karachi
THIS is with reference to your editorial, ‘Poison from tanneries’ (May 6).
The situation was precisely the same as stated in the editorial, till about a year ago. However, the environmental degradation in Kasur has since been checked and the stagnant pools have been completely dried up. According to project authorities, about 400 acres of land previously under poisonous water, has now been reclaimed.
A treatment plant has been operational since September last year, neutralizing the effluent emanating from 237 tanneries. It is Asia’s biggest and the world’s second largest tannery effluent treatment plant which has helped in recovering precious land and in the reduction of health hazards.
NAEEM JAVED
Lahore
SOIL salinity is one of the serious problems of agriculture in Pakistan. Out of 76.60 million hectors of geographic area of Pakistan, 14.79 million hectors are irrigated of which 5.70 million hectors are salt affected.
The latest figure for the extent of salt-affected soil in Pakistan is 6.3 million hectors which includes about 2.4 million hectors in Punjab, 2.1 million hectors in Sindh, 0.05 million hectors in the NWFP and about 1.3 million hectors in Balochistan.
It has been estimated that salinity limits crop production on 20 million hectors of the world’s irrigated land and for a country like Pakistan, having 80 per cent of its population completely dependent on agriculture, it is a major hurdle in the way of its developmental projects.
The use of saline irrigation water, low soil permeability, inadequate drainage conditions, high water table and poor irrigation management also contribute to soil salinity.
More and more area, therefore, is becoming saline, sodic and saline-sodic due to indiscriminate use of poor quality ground water for irriga-tion.
In Pakistan, waterlogging and salinity threaten irrigated agriculture. Out of 16.2 million hectors of land under irrigation, more than 40,000 of land becomes unable for crop production each year.
Survival and growth of plants are affected adversely in saline sodic soils owing to unfavourable soil physical conditions and severe nutritional disorders.
PROF MAZHAR HUSSAIN
Toba Tek Singh
THIS has reference to a letter ‘Time to move on’ by ‘Pakistani’ (May 16). Putting myself in the president’s position I have the following comments on the suggestions put forward by the writer:
(a) Accept the reality: after the chief election commissioner’s announcement, who is a retired CJ of the apex court, I accepted the ‘reality’ that 98 per cent voters had reposed their confidence in me. It is now for ‘Pakistani’ and his ilk to accept the reality.
(b) Distinguish between friends and foes: as a result of the most memorable success of the referendum, I have vowed to treat friends and foes alike.
(c) Have all the referendum banners removed immediately from all the cities of Pakistan: neither did I ask anyone for such publicity nor will I order their removal. The idiots who put these up should remove them.
(d) Stop talking about the referendum and the mandate: since my objective to secure a five-year term as president has been justly achieved, I am no fool to dig old graves.
(e) Concentrate on delivering (law and order, religious intolerance, traffic, etc.) rather than making promises: my job as president is to issue orders and instructions to the heads of the concerned institutions in the country. How they cook the broth is not my concern.
(f) Expose the names of loan defaulters (irrespective of their status) before the elections, even if they are trying to scratch my back: I always encourage cronies to scratch my back; little do they know that I wear a scratch-proof jacket.
(g) Gain people’s confidence and let them not believe that I am not different from what we had in the past: I always keep the people guessing. The people will only realize after I have completed my tenure that I was no different from my predecessors. It is not difficult to rule those who lack the courage to mention their name when writing letters to the editor.
K.A. WAHID BUTT
Lahore
HERE and there, some streets of Faisal Town Block-A, Lahore, were dug up earlier this month in patches and some pipes and cable were laid in them. These pipes and cables are not connected with each other, nor is there any such connection among the selected streets.
It is not known whether this monumental work has been done by the PTCL, Wapda, Wasa or any other agency. June 30 is approaching fast when all the bills for such public works have to be paid, the project shown to be completed and funds fully utilized.
There must have been a project for Faisal Town, which will be completed on paper and the town will be deprived of such a project even in future. It is remarkable that this malpractice is taking place in the presence of councillors, Naib Nazims and Nazims in broad daylight.
A RESIDENT
Lahore
I LIVE in a small place like the other 75 per cent of the Pakistani demographic scatter, and am sick and tired of the high sounding and seductive economic uplift schemes which I feel will take quite some time to mature. These look quite good on paper while hanging on seductive charts.
I will give here what is currently the position on the ground since the demolition of the old system of local government:
(a) No development work — not even a single new brick can be found in my union council.
(b) The approach road to the place is full of potholes and broken berms.
(c) The lesser we talk of sanitation the better. Sanitation just does not exist.
(d) Potable water which is only a stone’s throw from the place is not expected here for another decade or so.
(e) Hours and hours of unscheduled power breakdowns.
As an example of efficient governance I have no hesitation in citing my personal predicament and it took me over a year or so of constant writing and telephoning before one bulb for the street light in front of my house could be changed. (It stopped glowing the very next night).
The rural poor, the old and handicapped — who cannot work and who need massive social security and immediate succour have little to gain from grandiose schemes and planning which decorates papers and conference halls only. It we cannot do small things, I am afraid, we will not be able to do big things.
EAS Bokhari
Lalamusa
I REQUEST the President to do something to eradicate unemployment. I am myself an unemployed person and I know how disturbed such a person, particularly a young man, feels about it.
Even though I have completed my graduation, I do not know how to make a reasonable earning and feel very uncertain and insecure about my future. Many other persons also feel the same way. I think this is the issue that must be given the top priority and addressed before everything else.
MUHAMMAD WASEEM ELAHI
Gujranwala
I REQUEST the President to do something to eradicate unemployment. I am myself an unemployed person and I know how disturbed such a person, particularly a young man, feels about it.
Even though I have completed my graduation, I do not know how to make a reasonable earning and feel very uncertain and insecure about my future. Many other persons also feel the same way. I think this is the issue that must be given the top priority and addressed before everything else.
MUHAMMAD WASEEM ELAHI
Gujranwala
A REPORT published in the Washington Post of May 16 says: “President Bush and his top advisers were informed by the FBI early last August that terrorists associated with Osama bin Laden had discussed the possibility of hijacking aeroplanes in America.”
Since the President has admitted this, now he has to explain to the American nation and the world at large, as to what steps he had taken to protect the lives and properties of the American people in such an eventuality?
It appears that President Bush seized this opportunity to wipe out his adversaries. Afghanistan was attacked so that America could get a strong foothold in that country, with which it had failed to reach an agreement over the laying of oil pipeline during the Taliban government.
Since the cat is out of the bag now, Mr Bush should face a trial for war crimes along with Sharon of Israel.
ALI ASHRAF KHAN
Karachi
THIS is with reference to the letter by Dr Z. Ahmed regarding FCPS-1 dentistry syllabus (May 16). Candidates appearing in FCPS-1 dentistry are examined in the basic medical sciences to which he is opposed.
I want to remind him that medicine and surgery are multi-disciplinary sciences. All disciplines are interdependent on each other. Even at the undergraduate level basic medical sciences, general medicine and surgery are taught to the students.
A general dental practitioner has to use antibiotics, anaesthetics, sometimes sedatives and so many other medicines, which may affect the human body.
Patients with cardiac diseases, impaired renal function, osteoporosis, haemophilia, leukemia etc, come to the dental practitioner who has to provide services to them in such a manner that no complications arise in their other problems.
FCPS is the examination to induct a physician or dentist into a special field. Does not Dr Ahmed feel that a specialist should know more than the general practitioner or does he want to take us back to the age of barber surgeons and dentists?
DR KHALID MANSOOR
Former President, Pakistan Dental Association, Karachi
THIS is with reference to my article, ‘There is something rotten in society’ (May 18).
The article was published with several amendments, the rationale of which escapes me.
Although originally titled, ‘There is something rotten in the state’ by obvious analogy with the state of affairs in Hamlet’s Denmark, it was inexplicably published under the abovenoted commonplace caption. The characterization of Musharraf’s handlers telling him about his ‘heavy mandate’, parallelled ironically by Nawaz Sharif’s heavy mandate, was muted to ‘his handlers telling him about his popularity’.
The pointed reference to the ‘out of favour political parties (some supported by a vote bank)’ was shortened to ‘out-of-favour political parties’.
The comprehensive account of the current stance of the religio-political elements as ‘each brandishing its own version of the ideal Islam, but expediently banded together at this juncture for self preservation, muttering seditious threats for perceived transgressions of the government from the righteous path whilst gleefully watching the pendulum swing their way as more and more erstwhile jihadis are released from custody’, was restricted prosaically to ‘each brandishing its own version of Islam’.
The passage providing, ‘if pursuant to the 15th constitutional amendment Nawaz Sharif had attained the status of Amir-ul-Momineen, with his dreaded Abbaji hovering in the background and the even more dreaded intelligence agencies orchestrating the affairs of state to the tune of the twin menaces of Al-Qaeda and the Taliban’, was syntactically flawed by excising the phrase ‘with his dreaded Abbaji hovering in the background’.
Another error in syntax was caused by limiting the phrase ‘counterbalancing moves between liberalism and fundamentalism’ to ‘counterbalancing moves between liberalism’.
Quite apart from alterations to style, syntax and nuances, the greatest damage was done by omitting the final paragraph — the raison d’etre of the piece — which concluded with the following guidelines:
‘Addressing these problems calls for ingenuity, dedication, courage, and if necessary, the political wisdom to confer with other relevant players on the scene for defining a common agenda to tackle the law and order issues. The practical implications for implementing such as agenda will undoubtedly require time, professional analysis, funding, training, foreign expertise and technology, retirement of redundant elements, striking down militant objectors and mobilization of resources in the manner and style of a major national project, which is what it is. There will clearly be risks in the undertaking, but the risk factor is inherent in all enterprises. Moreover, pursuant to the acts of violence listed above, today, it is the security of the state that is greatly at risk. So the question arises: will Musharraf redeem himself by rising to the occasion and biting the bullet?’
IRSHAD ABDUL KADIR
Karachi
“I THINK our country sinks beneath the yoke; it weeps, it bleeds; and each new day a gash is added to her wounds.” — Shakespeare in Macbeth
MUSTAFA MAHESAR
Karachi
You can also send letters to the Editor
Just send your message to the following address:
Make sure you include your full name, postal address, e-mail address, and in the case of Pakistan your day-time telephone number.