| June 8, 2002 | Saturday | Rabi-ul-Awwal 26,1423 |
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India-Pakistan standoff
The way of our liberals
Who is the OIC with?
Chattering about war
Conversation with Desai
Increase in railway fares
Literary yardstick
Four years for graduation?
Origins of terrorism
War against obscenity
Left-handed student’s plea
Property owners’ ordeal
Supreme injustice
THE 35th annual meeting of the Asian Development Bank concluded recently in Shanghai. I had the opportunity to attend the record-breaking meeting of over 3,000 delegates, on behalf of my bank. President Zhang Zemin, while inaugurating the conference, called for greater regional cooperation.
Against this backdrop, a seminar under the aegis of ADB titled ‘Asian 2015’ was organized. The speakers included our Finance Minister, Mr Shaukat Aziz, and the Indian Finance Minister, Mr Yashwant Sinha.
Mr Shaukat Aziz analyzed the problems that currently beset Pakistan’s economy. He drew comparisons with the progress achieved by East Asia and the lack of corresponding growth in South Asia due to political instability and a basic lack of foresight. In response to a question from the floor, he remarked that for an economic turnaround to take place with any meaningful results that will be devoid of any negative social implications, the following three essentials will have to be ensured: good governance, improvement in transparency, and active public participation.
Like at any forum where there is presence of Pakistani and Indian ministers on the dais, the question of Kashmir invariably crops up. A Pakistani from the floor asked Mr Yashwant Sinha as to why India always turns its back on Pakistan’s offer for unconditional talks. Mr Sinha replied that “at this forum no bilateral issue should be raised”. Finance Minister Aziz was quick to respond and said the possibility of any economic cooperation in the region was dependent on the resolution of the core issue. “Just to remove doubts, if any, the core issue is Kashmir”, he declared. Undoubtedly China will be the region’s engine of growth. Pakistan must exploit to its economic advantage the close friendship it enjoys with that great country.
Our finance minister closed his speech with the following words: “As we approach 2015, it is clear that the opportunities to make this century the Asian century is a realistic road to travel on. But we have to cross many rivers, we have to face many challenges — the challenges of governance, structural reforms, dispute resolution, and alleviating deprivation. I am confident that we can overcome these challenges and build a future of Asia that we can all be proud of.”
SIRAJUDDIN AZIZ
Karachi
THE armies of India and Pakistan face each other across the LoC and international borders stretching over 2,000 kms. The two sides have faced each other before.
Except for 1971, which for various socio-political reasons, resulted in the separation of East Pakistan, all others have resulted in a stalemate. Not because either side lacked courage or numbers but because superpowers firmly put their foot down.
Small countries like Pakistan and middling ones like India can always be bullied by their powerful friends into accepting a ceasefire when it serves their grand designs. As Indira Gandhi discovered in 1971 when Nixon told her to keep her hands off West Pakistan.
On the ground today the armies of the two countries are nearly balanced.
The Indian army though larger in number has several divisions tied down on internal security duties in Assam and Kashmir. It will, therefore, be difficult to achieve a 3 to 1 superiority required for attack. Both have large numbers of tanks but the tankable territory is limited due to the terrain which is waterlogged in the Punjab and fairly difficult in the desert. India has more missiles while Pakistan has more accurate ones.
In the air, Pakistan has only a hundred frontline planes and of these only 39 are really state of the art F16s, the rest are Mirage Vs, Mirage IIIs, F7s and F6s. Even so they will probably be able to hold their own and provide adequate cover for armour.
But in the navy we face a difficult situation. India may use its aircraft-carriers this time.
But India would be going to war with a large part of its army both immobilized and disheartened because of the debilitating operations in Siachin and because of civil unrest in Kashmir and Assam where they perform low intensity warfare duties. Pakistan would be going to war with its western border with Afghanistan unsecured.
The present Afghan regime is at best neutral whilst thousands of Taliban and Al Qaeda operatives are on the loose in Afghanistan and Pakistan’s sensitive tribal belt. Besides the tribesmen, always more conscious of their special status, have not taken kindly to the presence of US troops in their hills.
ALI ABBAS
Karachi
I read every day almost all the important Indian newspapers, from the Times of India to the Hindustan Times, but so far I have not found even one of the Indian journalists bashing his government over its foreign policy, the way our ‘liberal minded’ journalists do. They do write against their government on national issues but when it comes to Pakistan, everybody is united behind their government’s policies. This is what happens in all civilized, self-respecting nations.
But our liberal-proud easy-chair journalists have nothing else to do but to ridicule their own government. Pity on them.
M. MIRZA
Saudi Arabia
THE statement of the general secretary of the Organization of Islamic Countries makes an interesting reading. He carefully places India and Pakistan at the same level. Not a single word of support for a brotherly Muslim country, Pakistan. No reference made to the sufferings of Kashmiri and Indian Muslims.
Obviously, the OIC general secretary does not want to give the impression of siding with Pakistan, to ward off any possible disenchantment of the Hindu friends even though they have been killing and raping thousands of Muslim men and women in Gujarat and Kashmir.
What kind of an Islamic organization is the OIC?
M. MOHSIN
Florida, USA
A journalist recently wrote: “The incessant chatter of using nuclear weapons as an option of last resort is a sign of self-defeatism for it implies that we are about to lose a conventional war.” What these chattering people on either side of the border do not know is what a nuclear holocaust means. Ask Japanese people, and their experience would put the fear of Allah in all of us.
The more we talk of war the more we get closer to war. May Allah give us wisdom.
F. ALI
Karachi
IN his article, ‘Conversation with Morarji Desai’ (June 3), Mr Roedad Khan has condemned the martial law regimes of Pakistan in a strong language.
The fact is that Mr Roedad Khan served as a loyal civil servant three chief martial law administrators: Field Marshal Ayub Khan, Gen Yahya Khan and Gen Ziaul Haq. Why did he not have the courage to say then, what he says now?
F.U. AHMAD
Karachi
EFFECTIVE June 1, railway fares have been raised by approximately 10 per cent on the pretext of increase in POL prices. Would some one in the Railways explain?
What is the percentage of fuel cost out of the total expenditures of Railways?
When were the fares on transportation of men and goods of the armed forces last revised?
Why has massive induction of ex-army men at market salaries been made when the Railways is already under heavy human resource burden?
Why has the Lahore station been upgraded and modernized when we see nothing of that sort at Karachi?
Some more harsh measures taken recently by the Pakistan Railways are:
Punitive increase in the cancellation charges (30 per cent if cancelled 15 days prior to travel, 50 per cent in case cancelled between 24 and 72 hours, 75 per cent in case less than 24 hours and no refund if train has departed). This is against 5 to 10 per cent cancellation charges in the past. Moreover, how ludicrous it is that the Railway authorities force travellers to plan a railway trip 15 days in advance in this age of information technology.
Levy of Rs5 per vehicle crossing the bridge on the River Indus at Kotri. Is there any such tax in any other province of Pakistan?
Levy of Rs5 on every vehicle entering Karachi Cantt railway station. Is there any accountability of such levies and the proceeds therefrom?
A CONCERNED CITIZEN
Karachi
IN his weekly column ‘Lahore Literary Scene’ that appeared on June 1, Ashfaque Naqvi has disclosed his age, 77.
Perhaps that explains his outrage at the homo-erotic poetry of the Chicago-based Pakistani, Iftikhar Nasim, who is said to be openly gay.
If Mr Naqvi found his book so distasteful, why did he mention it at all in the first place? By doing so he has brought him to the attention of many readers like myself who would otherwise never have heard of him.
However, this raises more fundamental issues, such as whether literature and art should be judged on the basis of form or content. Iqbal Hussain, the painter, would certainly favour the former. And quite rightly so. Otherwise so many works of art and literature would be consigned to the dustbin.
The reason they are not is because the literary and artistic merit of such work transcends their propagandistic or obscene content.
It would have been more useful if Mr Naqvi had told us how Nasim’s poetry could be measured by this yardstick.
ASAD SIDDIQI
Lahore
NORMALLY, a person remains unproductive since his or her birth till the completion of education or attainment of some kind of skills.
It is only after that that a person is able to contribute something to the family kitty and also to the economy of the country. Since the life expectancy in Pakistan is shorter than that in developed countries, a Pakistani usually remains productive for a
shorter period as compared to a citizen of a developed country.
However, there is a proposal under consideration that would result in increasing the duration of graduation studies in this country from the present two years to four years.
Assuming that there are only 10 million Pakistani students undergoing graduation, there would be a loss of 20 million years to the country’s human resources.
Besides that, a poor father wanting to educate his children at least to the level of graduation will be under enhanced financial pressure because he will have to bear the cost of another two years’ education for each of them.
If the object is to improve the standard of education then the proper way is to revise the courses of study and not the number of years. I am sure our serious and talented students can accept the challenge of attaining a higher level of education in these very two years.
I appeal to the authorities concerned not to waste the nation’s human resources.
MANSOOR AHMED KHAN
Karachi
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
THIS is with reference to Dr. Mumtaz Lakhani’s ordeal (“Surviving a fall into a manhole”, June 5). While sympathizing with her, I don’t agree that the area Nazim should be taken to court.
Shortly after they were elected, all Karachi Nazims got together and passed a resolution calling for an end to what they termed “obscenity in newspapers”. Apparently our Nazims don’t attach much importance to open manholes, decrepit roads, smoke-emitting buses, water mixed with sewage and all the other myriad problems that we unfortunate residents of Karachi have to endure.
So it’s useless to file a lawsuit against the authorities. Our courts are not known for speedy disposal of cases anyway.
SHAKIR LAKHANI
Karachi
BEING a left hander myself, I totally agree with the article “Left hander’s plea” on June 5. We are not provided seats
with a writing surface on the left side and this in turn decrease our writing speed and quality.
It is also quite uncomfortable to be left-handed and write
on a seat with a surface for right-handed people and hence students like me cannot
perform to our potential in exams.
I appeal to the authorities to make available left-handed seats to all those students who might need them. They should also be given an equal opportunity to do well at exam time.
NAMRITA PARDEEP
Hyderabad
AT the time of approval of his building plan in Defence/ Clifton area the owner of the property is required to pay the following charges to the Cantonment Board, Clifton: building plan fee; transfer tax; sewerage connection fee; and debris clearance fee.
The property owner is required to pay the following charges also at a later date: house tax and conservancy tax; water charges; completion plan approval; and water connection fee.
Strangely enough, these last four payments are required to be made to Cantonment Board, Clifton, separately in four different visits. In so doing, the poor property owner has to shuttle between Defence Housing Authority and Clifton Cantonment Board offices at least four times, if lucky enough. The distance between the two is around five kilometre.
ENGR NIZAM QURAISHI
Karachi
On May 15, the Supreme Court granted bail to certain police officers accused of the murder of my father, Ashiq Hussain Jatoi, who was killed along with Mir Murtaza Bhutto and six others.
None of the applicants — the accused police officers — had surrendered themselves into the custody of the court, a prerequisite before such an appeal could even be entertained in the Supreme Court. Yet, not only did the honourable justices hear the appeal they, without giving a fair chance to the prosecution to challenge the plea, granted the petitioners bail.
Furthermore, the main arguments regarding this appeal were heard by one bench and the decision was delivered by another, despite the fact that the first bench had said that they would hear the remainder of the case. All this after putting off this hearing for a year. In fact, the Sindh High Court had declared them absconders in a strongly-worded judgment, that had also denied them bail.
Some of these absconders have been given posts like deputy director FIA, SSP of Thatta and SHOs of various police stations, so clearly there is little concern about the legality of their appointments since they all have been accused of murder. Supreme injustice indeed.
In another dramatic twist in this trial, one of the main accused Zeeshan Kazmi was ‘allowed’ to escape from a high security court room situated inside the compound of a court complex in Karachi. All that the well-armed security personnel managed to lay their hands on was his shirt. And now the same absconder has been seen in the company of serving policemen. All this seems so surreal that one starts seeing humour in this situation. Who does the establishment think they are fooling?
Whatever the outcome of this trial, and six long years down the road, I really do wonder how much longer it will take. The moral of the story here is simply this: feel free to violate the law because the criminal justice system here literally lets you get away with murder. Who cares about the loss of life, the blatant disregard of law by those wearing police uniform, or what the families — who have lost these people forever — feel, or even the precedent such decisions set.
Who cares? Certainly not those who have taken oaths to protect the people and uphold norms of justice and fairness. I always clung on to hope and optimism during this trial. It was too blatant a crime for those involved to get away with so easily. And I always believed that truth and justice would triumph. How naive I was. For those who wonder what it takes for patriotic people to want to leave this country, ask me, I know. I feel a sense of resentment about my father and us simply being born here.
SABEEN JATOI
Karachi
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