A grave confrontation

AS India and Pakistan face each other in a grave confrontation, the mainstream US media continues to be largely inattentive to, and uninformed about, the serious situation in the subcontinent.

As 1.4 million Indian and Pakistani troops and nuclear arsenals are on high alert, as leaders and generals play political games over divided Kashmir, as Pakistan conducts its third missile test in three days, the sun sets on the Pacific Ocean. South Asians in the United States remain terrified that India and Pakistan stand on the verge of a dangerous war over Kashmir.

The Indian central government, dominated by Hindu nationalists, continues to prioritize sectarian and non-secular agendas. India pledges that it will go to war with Pakistan unless Islamic separatists stop their attacks on Indian Kashmir. India continues to insist that the situation in Kashmir, in which thousands have died, is entirely the responsibility of Pakistan and Muslim separatist groups. India’s persistent refusal to address the Kashmir issue might well leave the fate of the Kashmiris in the hands of Islamic fundamentalists. India is yet to take responsibility for its systematic violation of the rights and lives of Kashmiris, while Pakistan continues to use terrorism as state policy.

In addition, in the recent carnage of Muslim minorities in Gujarat in February and March this year, the saffronized central and state government demonstrated an abysmal display of militant Hindu dominance. The police and government in Gujarat perpetrated violence against Muslims in the State. Police mistreatment in India of ‘lower’ caste and class peoples, minority religious groups, women, tribals, intellectuals, activists, political groups and others bear evidence to the unstable and insecure conditions in which non-dominant and disenfranchised communities in India continue to live. All that is sacred in the Constitution, all that our ancestors struggled for, all that remains of the memory of M.K. Gandhi, is being desecrated.

In the midst of this, the majority of the Hindu Indian business community in the US maintains a complicitious silence, refusing to accept the vicious consequences of Hindu nationalism. They continue to actively fund fundamentalist Hindu organizations that are registered as charities in the US, ostensibly working to promote and protect Indian heritage and culture. Such organizations utilize funds raised in the name of ‘culture’ to foment social division, intolerance and brutalization of minorities in India.

Groups across the US, such as the Coalition Against Communalism and other progressive organizations, meet and struggle to build a political culture where Hindu xenophobia can be confronted.

Hinduism, unlike Islam, has a benevolent image in the West/North as a religion of peace. Hinduism in the West is often held and peddled as an abstract textual entity, vacant of the radical inequities that make up its cultural and historical reality. Hardline Hindu organizations maintain that Hindu culture and Hindus in India are being marginalized, that there is an Islamist plan for the genocide of Hindus, and that Hindu fundamentalism is a fiction conjured by the secular left.

As an Indian I struggle against the failures of India’s democracy, and I am horrified at who we have become as a nation and as a people. I ask myself how India might commit to a secular and democratic society that addresses its injustices and entrenched oppressions. Violence in the name of religion has to stop and as a nation India must accord full and executable rights to minority groups.

We must defy Hindu nationalism and its systematic use of violence against minorities. We must insist on examining the present political climate in which relations between India and Pakistan continue to deteriorate, and the crimes committed by both states in the name of freedom.

We must not support the fabric of resistance connected to the use of terror on the part of states and groups. We must take responsibility for the unjust histories through which our nations were conceived. It will require extraordinary courage and commitment of us all.

ANGANA CHATTERJI

Professor, Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology California Institute of Integral Studies San Francisco, US

Origins of terrorism

A STUDY of recent history reveals that the US, now the torchbearer of the so-called civilized world and the pioneer of the war against terrorism, is itself a patronizer of terrorism, especially state terrorism.

Two glaring examples of this are Israel and India. Israel is fully supported by the US in the crimes perpetrated against the Palestinian Muslims. If the humiliated Palestinians react against Israeli brutalities, it is labelled as terrorism. But Israeli barbarism is justified as being in ‘retaliation to terrorism’.

In the current South Asian scenario, the US has never condemned India for the escalation of the tension on the international borders and for Indian state terrorism in occupied Kashmir.

The US pressure has always been on Pakistan, whether it was the Kargil crisis, the nuclear tests or the tension on the borders started by India.

In the recent past, it was the US which provoked the religious sentiments of Afghans against the Soviet Union. The Afghans were instigated, trained and supported with sophisticated weapons to fight against the Soviet Union. And now the same Afghan jihadis are labelled by the US as religious fanatics and terrorists.

The Sept 11 incident was a direct consequence of the unfair policies followed by the US in the Middle East and elsewhere.

At present, the same policy has been extended to South Asia as well, where India seems to be playing a role similar to that of Israel. The result can only be more of terrorism.

AHMED BUX GHOTO

Islamabad

Quality education needed

THE present education system poses the most serious threat to our future as a nation. The marked overall decay and deterioration has led to a growing demand for institutions which could provide quality education in the tertiary sector.

It is generally said that college education is suffering because of bad management and on apparent lack of commitment by teachers. There is an urgent need to motivate teachers and make them aware of their role in society.

After the nationalization of colleges the quality of education went down the drain, mainly because of bad management. According to the Sindh Services Appointments, Promotion and Transfer Rules 1974, the government normally transfers its officers/ officials after they complete a maximum of three years of normal tenure to be served at a place.

In the case of college teachers this rule has not been followed. Lectures and professors serve at the place of their posting for an indefinite period. They remain there and dream of becoming principal of the same institution. This is administratively undesirable and is an example of bad management on the part of the education department. No transfers and continuous posting at one place are not good for teachers.

CHAGHTAI MIRZA EIJAZUDDIN

Karachi

Rumsfeld visit

IT appears another of Bush’s ultra-conservative and war-mongering confidant, Donald Rumsfeld, is headed to Pakistan and India. This is probably another attempt by the US to arm-twist President Musharraf, or demand yet another concession from Pakistan, while continuing to woo India.

What more concessions they could ask for, God knows. General Musharraf has already backed down on every point of principle, the only thing left is becoming a complete lackey of the US like Turkey. Hopefully, God will give the leaders of this country the spine to stand firm and refuse any more concessions to the US in its battle against “terror”. Let America fight its own battles.

NAHID HUSSAIN

Los Angeles, US

Agriculture uncertainty

THE rising tensions in South Asia are affecting the local agricultural produce. To make matters worse, the approaching election may also create problems in the important issue of crop pricing. Because of such uncertainties there is a serious chance that the tillers may find no incentive in cultivating cotton.

Most elections bring a fluctuation in crop prices since no one can predict for sure the policies of the next government. This results in the cultivators sometimes deciding not to grow anything that year, so to save themselves from any losses.

The government should take notice of all this and announce a support package of crop prices in advance to calm the nerves of growers, who have to deal not only with the tension with India but also the prospect of yet another general election.

QAISAR KHAN PITAFI

Muzzaffargarh

Restriction on heavy vehicles

I fully endorse the views expressed by Karachi’s Nazim, Naimatullah Khan, calling for a ban on the movement of heavy transport in the city for certain hours during the morning and evening.

This restriction should be implemented in order to have a smooth flow of traffic, especially during peak hours. All kinds of heavy traffic, including NLC vehicles, should not be allowed to enter the city during the time announced by the Nazim. These heavy vehicles create traffic chaos in the city and damage roads.

One important road in North Nazimabad in front of Hyderi Market is under construction, which was damaged some months ago mainly by the heavy traffic that passes through. This, by the way, also says something about the quality of our roads.

The good decision can only be implemented with the help of the traffic police and authorities at Toll Plaza on Super Highway.

But that depends on what happens to the usual ‘arrangement’ between transporters and the traffic police and the officials manning the toll plaza, which guarantees them safe passage during the day to and from the port.

SYED ALI JOHN

Karachi

An incompetent Indian army?

IF we believe the Indian propaganda that Pakistan is sending militants across are the Line of Control, then should we also not say that the Indian army is quite incompetent since it cannot seem to stop the infiltrators from crossing over one of the world’s most heavily fortified borders.

Five layers of defence, sophisticated electronic equipment and minefields are used by the Indian army and still these people get through.

Either the infiltration is not taking place or the Indian army is the most incompetent in the world.

Z. HAMID

Rawalpindi

Where is APPNA?

THE killing of doctors in Karachi has distressed many physicians residing in America. The Dow Graduate Association of North America is the only organization which is trying to make a difference. The Association of Pakistani Physicians of North America (APPNA) is just too busy socializing with influential people.

APPNA spent thousands of dollars to place a full page advertisement in a Lahore-based Urdu daily supporting the referendum. I do not have any problem with that but at least they could have said something about these senseless killings.

NASEEM A. SHEKHANI, MD

St. Louis, MO

US

Inaccurate figure

A report in Dawn (May 24) claimed that there are “around six million people from Azad Kashmir” in the UK. This is inaccurate. More accurate data will only be available when last year’s census results have been collated in the UK, but it is fair to say that there are around 600,000 Pakistanis (including Azad Kashmiris) in the UK.

The population of Azad Kashmir is around 9 million. That would mean that well over 50 per cent settled in the UK according to your figure which sounds impossible. Perhaps some Dawn reading member of the AJK Government can enlighten us further on the facts and figures?

SHAKEEL AHMED

Mirpur

Too many billboards

THE Jehangir Kothari Promenade is one of the few public spaces in Karachi associated with entertainment and fun for many of Karachi’s not-so-rich residents.

It is also of historical importance to the city. Instead of working on aesthetically improving and cleaning this important landmark the city administration has done the opposite.

The number of billboards around this area have increased and the place’s natural beauty has been spoilt.

If the city government wants to increase its income — and there is nothing wrong with that — it could look at alternative methods (albeit requiring harder work) rather than simply sanctioning an unlimited number of billboards.

ZULEQA JAFRI

Karachi

Death of reason

ANY intelligent person knows that the United States is simply forcing a reluctant Pakistan to move away from self-destructive jihadi policies in Afghanistan and now in Kashmir.

Pakistan should have run away from all this long ago, and for its own good. The legitimate Kashmiri movement has been hijacked by fanatics whose barbarity against women and children is not even matched by Indian police forces. The whole world recognizes that today. Should young Pakistani soldiers die for this distorted vision of Islam? It seems war hasn’t begun but reason has already died in Pakistan.

RAHUL MALHOTRA

Austin, TX

US

Sales or consumer tax?

THIS is with reference to the letter by Mr Zulfiqar Ahmed Sheikh ‘Sales tax or consumer tax” (May 17). I fully agree with him. The actual tax payer is the consumer and not the seller, then why should it be called sales tax.

But I would like to add that a gentleman taking dinner at Rs750 might not have much difficulty in paying another Rs112 as tax.

But think of the plight of a poor man suffering from a disease, who cannot afford the cost of the medicine itself, being made to pay an additional 15 per cent.

Just for example, the previous retail price of insulin injection, Humilin 70/30, was Rs395. Now the pharmaceutical company has, with the government’s permission, raised it to Rs406.54 while a General Sales Tax of Rs60.98 has also been imposed.

The retailer chemist now charges the purchaser Rs467. Thus, there has been a sudden jump of Rs72 in the price which is hard for a person of average means to afford, especially someone who uses this medicine regularly.

SYED MAZHAR HUSSAIN

Karachi

Shelter, please

I HAD the opportunity to visit a well-respected and well-known school on Queens Road the other day. The school is well known for its sporting facilities in Karachi. I saw young boys between the ages of five and thirteen playing on the ground in the scorching summer heat. I saw that there was no place, not even any trees, where they could rest in the shade after playing.

The school should build a covered structure and plant some trees so that these young students do not suffer a heat stroke in this weather.

SALMAN ALI

Karachi

Plea for Zafran Bibi

I would like to draw to your attention the gruesome punishments Zafran Bibi of Kohat is being threatened with, and the still-unresolved murder of Samia Sarwar in Lahore.

I know that things might be very different in Pakistan but my heart goes out to these innocent women. If anyone in your country has any power to help people like Zafran Bibi, please do something.

WENDY FOSTER

Santa Barbara, CA

US

Problems of OMG officers

ACCORDING to a news item, a presentation to the chief executive will be given on June 14 regarding civil service reforms and one of the items on the agenda is the ‘dispersal’ or distribution plan of officers of the office management group (OMG) to other occupational groups.

It is high time this long overdue exercise was undertaken and completed. Since its establishment as a regular occupational group under the Administrative Reforms of 1973 the OMG has suffered badly.

Initial recruitment to it was stopped twice. This happened more because of the whims of top officials rather than any carefully thought out policy.

The reasons are not hard to understand. The district management group (DMG), rising from the ashes of the defunct CSP, has been continually striving to regain its (false) sense of supremacy. It is common knowledge that after grade 20, the DMG gravitates to the secretariat and therefore comes in direct confrontation with the OMG or secretariat officers. Hence, the subtle tactics to downplay the promotion and posting prospects of an occupational group that is the product of the same competitive examination and definitely no less competent.

This fact has been proved many times in more ways than one. Many OMG officers have been appointed purely on merit as collectors and commissioners. Moreover, for the first time an OMG officer has been appointed chief secretary of a province. And the syllabus for promotion to BS 19 is exactly the same whether your an OMG or a DMG officer.

It may also be pointed out that the secretariat group, which should comprise only officers specialised in secretariat service, is composed of officers of other occupational groups as well — i.e., those who opt for it.

The proposal for distributing approximately 350 OMG officers of grades 17 and 18, preferably in the revenue services, where there is a genuine shortage of officers, is, therefore, a step in the right direction. Moreover, many OMG officers are serving in corporations and attached departments. Posting of OMG officers in the provincial service would also ensure greater harmony between the various branches of the civil service as is evident in the case of DMG officers and those from the police service of Pakistan.

CONCERNED OMG

OFFICERS

Islamabad