| August 20, 2002 | Tuesday | Jamadi-us-Saani 10, 1423 |
To send a letter to the Editor
Click here
Fairness of polls doubted
NSC’s important role
Politicians’ qualification
Of corrupt leadership
Libraries and membership
PTV World
Arrest of 300 armed criminals
Making real progress
Graduation degree
John Adams’ prayer
Islamabad on Aug 14
Liberal democracy
Importers’ appeal
In search of a leader
I REFER to Mr Kuldip Nayar’s article (Aug 10) captioned ‘The trial of Mountbatten’. He claims that Mr Jinnah had suggested Sir Cyril Radcliffe’s name to Mountbatten as Chairman of the Boundary Commission for the Partition of Bengal, the Punjab and Assam (Sylhet) needs elucidation.
More historical material, which surfaced in the British archives in the 1990s (after Wolpert’s 1984 book Jinnah of Pakistan) indicates that it was Lord Listowel, the British Secretary of State for India, who had proposed Radcliffe’s name to Mountbatten for the Arbitral Tribunal (or Commission) to deal with the boundary matters stemming from the June 3, 1947 Partition Plan for the Subcontinent.
Subsequently, the proposal was transformed into the setting up of two boundary commissions with Radcliffe as Chairman and his nomination was accepted by both Mr Jinnah and Mr Nehru.
Two British journalists-cum-historians, Anthony Read and David Fisher, in their well-researched book on the 1947 partition of India, The Proudest Day, (Jonathan Cape, London-1947, p.482) said: “In the end, Sir Cyril Radcliffe, Listowel’s rejected nominee for the Arbitral Tribunal was accepted as a compromise candidate and at Jinnah’s suggestion he was appointed Chairman of both commissions...”
There is now ample evidence to suggest that Viceroy Mountbatten, violating his oath of impartiality, put undue pressure on Radcliffe to alter his Punjab Boundary Award so as to give India the Muslim-majority areas of Zira, Ferozepur and Gurdaspur to please Nehru who had promised to make Mountbatten Bharat’s first Governor-General.
Andrew Roberts, a British historian, has exposed this sordid episode in his book, Eminent Churchillians (Phoenix, London-1995, Pp.55 to 136).
Supportive of it is the testimony of the Commission’s Secretary, Beaumont. In 1948-49, the then Pakistan Foreign Minister, Sir Zafrullah Khan, spoke of his territorial gerrymandering in the partition of the Punjab because of Mountbatten’s pressure on Radcliffe (on Nehru’s behest).
Mountbatten’s gift of Gurdaspur to India under the Radcliffe Award is the root cause of the 54-year-old Kashmir dispute which has made India and Pakistan congenital enemies, vitiating their ability to give their teeming millions a better life.
QUTUBUDDIN AZIZ
Karachi
COUNTDOWN has begun for the general elections in the country and all the government quarters are holding out the assurance that they would be free and fair. The political parties, often ditched and manipulated by the military rulers, are still wary of these promises.
If we go by the statements of Gen Musharraf and his colleagues, we may reach the conclusion that the army itself has become a party. The state-owned media constantly carries statements against politicians in general and Benazir Bhutto in particular.
We would like to draw peoples’ attention to a recent meeting between the head of the Jamaat-i-Islami and Gen Musharraf (Aug 13) where the General has urged the JI leader to join hands with the pro-Musharraf forces to block the PPP’s return to power.
The PPP has taken a strong notice of this meeting and the Chairperson, Benazir Bhutto, has duly informed the Chief Election Commissioner about the remarks.
Ms Bhutto has protested that such kind of ‘personal lobbying’ violates the solemn commitment made by the General before the Supreme Court of Pakistan to hold fair elections.
“It is also undemocratic and counter to a level playing field for all political forces. Here is a person who is using the Presidency and state powers, including the full might of the Pakistan Army, against a defenceless lady whose sole goal is to see Quaid-i-Azam’s Pakistan as a federal, democratic country with equal opportunity and support for the poverty stricken people.
“The General is becoming a political party when as army chief he is obliged to keep away from politics. The involvement of the army chief in an election campaign against the country’s most popular party is wrong for the professionalism and image of the armed forces.”
We have also received information that extensive arrangements have been made to arrest Benazir Bhutto on her arrival. The security apparatus has been put on alert and all the airports give the look of being either under siege or ready for some sort of commando action.
The PPP has requested the CEC to take note of statements and ask the military regime to refrain from becoming a party in the forthcoming elections.
FAUZIA WAHAB
Central Coordinator,
Human Rights Cell, PPP
REFERENCE your leader of Aug 14 “..... making the president all too powerful, and the prime minister and his elected colleagues subordinate to the military-dominated NSC — a non-elected body.”
The three service chiefs plus one chief of JSC plus four elected chief ministers, chaired by an elected president, will make NSC an elected members-dominated body. True, for the first five years, the president will be a serving military person but this is only one-term arrangement — a necessity in my view for making the ongoing structural and institutional changes to take root after due deliberations, discussions and consensus in the elected parliament, cabinet and the NSC.
Election by itself is not democracy and if Gen Musharraf succeeds in his mission of inculcating the true democratic values in the elected parliamentarians, it will be an achievement to be written in golden letters and the next president and parliament may do away with the requirement of the NSC altogether as an institution of checks and balances.
On the other hand, if he fails it will be another five years of a military dictator’s rule and perhaps Pakistan will become truly a failed state.
Let us help him in achieving his promised goal. The fear of most of us is that left to themselves, the elected members will again make Pakistan their personal property.
EJAZ AHMAD
Karachi
THIS refers to Shahid Javed Burki’s article ‘Will the politicians change’? (Aug 16). My view is ‘never’ because our politicians, unfortunately, never read history and so there is no question of taking any lessons from it.
I don’t think they even read newspapers. Our politics is all about personal glory, greed and unbridled power. The politicians want being looked ‘good and mighty’ while appearing before the uneducated and down-trodden masses.
President Musharraf’s half-hearted reforms are not enough. In addition to introducing graduation condition, he should have barred people with a bad reputation from contesting elections. The aspirants having business and properties abroad should also be banned.
The maximum number of ministers should not exceed 10 and their salaries should be equal to that of a minister in Bangladesh.
They should be disqualified if they interfere in recruitment process or judicial affairs. The ministers should pass some sort of qualification examination.
A permanent judicial commission should be in place to implement a proper system of accountability before these guys could stage a come back with a vengeance against poor masses.
ANWAR HASNAT
Dublin, USA
SYED Iftikhar Hussain Gilani, senior vice-president of the Pakistan Muslim League (QA), has said (Aug 9) that the government’s efforts to introduce real democracy will fail if what he called the ‘corrupt leadership’ of the Pakistan People’s Party and the Pakistan Muslim League (N) are allowed to return to the country and participate in the October elections.
It is my duty to inform the new lot of voters, who have just turned 18 plus and might not be knowing the true ‘credentials’ of Mr Gilani, federal law minister in the first Benazir government (1988-90), as they were just six-plus then.
Mr Gilani had deposited a huge sum of Rs2.7 million of his ministry in his personal account. However, when a reference was moved against him by the caretaker government of Mr Jatoi, he returned the money and joined the new government of Mian Nawaz Sharif to get the reference shelved.
Later on, he again joined the PPP and became Attorney General of Pakistan. After the fall of the second Benazir government, he joined the ruing PML (N) and now PML (QA). So, one must be mentally prepared if tomorrow Mr Gilani reverts to PPP or PML (N), subject to its chances of coming to power.
HAFEEZ AKHTAR
Lahore
IN his letter (Aug 7) Mr Kamran Ali has lamented that no one is allowed to enter a library without a membership card.
He has quoted his personal experience of his recent visit to the Quaid-i-Azam Library, Lahore, where even newspapers were not available without a memberships’ card.
He should be aware of the fact that the doctrine of necessity has been recognized as a reason for doing unusual things.
If entry to the libraries were allowed to all and sundry without membership cards, all the books, magazines and newspapers would have been open to pilferage under the doctrine of necessity.
There is, therefore, need for employing detectives in the libraries for keeping a watch on the visitors who hold membership cards including those with bogus ones.
KA WAHID BUTT
Lahore
THE new style of PTV World and specially the presentation of ‘News at Ten’ is a welcome change. However, in the new format, the temperature in Srinagar has been discarded from its weather report. This should be reinserted.
I further suggest that since a very large number of TV channels is being viewed in various parts of the world through satellites, it seems appropriate to display the name of Pakistan in the channel’s title.
FAYYAZ MUDDASSIR
MUBEEN
Jubail, Saudi Arabia
THE arrest of about 300 dacoits and proclaimed offenders and the recovery of a huge cache of arms and ammunition by the police in Gujrat district during a short period of 45 days is welcome news.
The presence of hundreds of underground criminals with large quantities of arms has been a matter of great concern for the government. The ordinary citizen have been living in constant fear.
It is suggested that the Punjab government should order similar campaigns in other districts so that the people can live in peace.
In order to encourage other police officers, the government should give awards to the Gujrat police. One cannot arrest the dacoits without risking one’s own life as these criminals are always well-armed with sophisticated weapons.
MUSHTAQ AHMAD
Lahore
THIS refers, to S.A. Abidi’s article ‘A day of reflection’ (Aug 11). The emergence of Pakistan was undoubtedly a great event of the 20th century. We are citizens of a great Muslim country.
Now I refer to M.Y. Khan’s article “Shattered dreams” (Aug 11) which laments that “Pakistani youngsters are in disarray and see no bright future for themselves in this country or abroad.
Undoubtedly, no nation can dream of progress when its youngsters roam the streets with their degrees in hand. The poor in the rural areas are humiliated by the feudals. Inflation and unemployment are destroying the middle class. People are being killed in the name of religion.
The problems that confront Pakistan today must be solved. Only then can we make real progress.
NASIR FAROOQ
Karachi
I have been a general surgeon working in UK for more than ten years. I was pleased to read the news item (Aug 9) that two former ministers successfully achieved graduation degree from the Bahauddin Zakaria University. However, they spent Rs. 30,000 each to know their results before time.
It reminds me of three hours of one afternoon under the sun which I spent outside the Sindh Secretariat just to obtain a gate pass to see a health minister to give my application. I came to Karachi in 1991 after obtaining my fellowship from The Royal College of Surgeons.
I wanted to take a government job as a surgeon. My euphoria evaporated very soon because I did not want to take the shelter of a minister or bribe his subordinates. I cursed those poorly qualified persons who have been given the authority to decide the career of highly qualified youth of Pakistan.
I wish that those political leaders who have the unsatisfying hunger for parliamentary seats in the forthcoming election should go through all these kinds of painstaking procedures before they should be eligible for participating in any election.
DR M. HANIF SHIWANI
West Yorkshire, UK
THE second President of the United States, John Adams had prayed while entering his office that only honest men endowed with wisdom should live under its roof.
It seems John Adam’s prayer remained effective for nearly two hundred years only.
MAKHDOOM AHMAD
Karachi
THIS year for the first time in my life I got an opportunity to spend Aug 14 in Islamabad. Initially I was rather excited about the idea of being in the capital waking up to 21-gun salute, going about town to check out the festivities but later during the evening I learned that even after 55 years of independence we have not earned much freedom, at least not freedom of movement.
At around 8pm we had to leave our house to run a few errands and as soon as we turned towards the Constitution Avenue we realized that all the roads going towards the avenue were blocked. From a distance we could see the buildings of the Constitution Avenue were beautifully decorated and there were thousands of people out to see the ‘lights’, I guess the only form of entertainment available to folks here in Pakistan.
Unfortunately all the roads leading to the Avenue were blocked and there were massive traffic jams all over Islamabad.
Is not it a bit ironic that people can’t move about freely in their own capital on the day of independence?
MUHAMMED A. QAYYUM
Karachi
YOUR editorial on Aug 14 rightly states that Pakistan has no other destiny except as a liberal democracy as visualized by its founder, Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah.
We all agree that during the last 55 years democracy could have flourished by trial and error and by now would have permeated through all the institutions. Instead we got an undemocratic culture.
It appears, despite a lot of hope, the next parliament will be at the mercy of the President and this is not democracy, let alone liberal democracy. In a liberal democracy, life and liberty are paramount with everyone subject to the rule of law without exception.
Let’s hope the people of Pakistan would rise to the occasion and shape their own destiny. It will take time but surely it will come if we have compulsory liberal education with a big budget as soon as possible.
DR SHAHIDUL ISLAM
Toronto, Canada
CHEMICALS importers have been facing great difficulties due to under invoicing in many chemical items. Genuine importers are suffering big losses while importing raw material and the government is losing huge amounts in terms of duties.
It is becoming increasingly difficult for the genuine importers to survive in the market due to under invoicing. They may be forced to shut down the chemicals import business.
The government is requested to take prompt action against such unethical business practices to save the genuine importers.
MOHAMMAD NAHEED
Karachi
ISN’T it a pity that a nation of nearly 140 million has not been able to produce an honest, and a truly educated person to head the democratic setup? Nawaz Sharif and his political friends, Ghaus Ali Shah, Chaudhry Nisar, Sheikh Rashid, Ishaq Dar, Saifur Rehman, etc., have all been rated as incompetent.
Mian Sahib wanted all power to himself without knowing the art of statecraft.
The second option is Asif Zardari and Benazir Bhutto who are facing the allegations of plundering the resources of this poor country.
The question is: who should be our leader with whom we may be safe and expect tangible results in all the fields? He should be well acquainted with suffering due to the poor law and order situation, a corrupt bureaucracy, and the performance of the judiciary.
Fortunately, we have such a man who has a past full of resounding success. He is Mian Shahbaz Sharif, who is experienced, educated and able to carry his team with him.
Let him come back and contest the elections. He has the capacity to deliver. He is certainly wiser than his brother and less ambitious.
HADI IQBAL HUSSAIN
Lahore
MR Ejazul Haq has alleged that the PML-(Q) rigged polls. He is reported to have said: “I believe that the present PML-(Q) leadership has failed to deliver and has no right to lead the party any more.”
Excepting that Mr Ejaz is the son of Gen Ziaul Haq, he has no qualification other than being a half-brother of Mian Nawaz Sharif by virtue of his father’s adoption of the latter as his son.
His reported referral to the CEC about rigging in the intra-party elections shows that Ejazul Haq does not know the ABC of politics. The CEC is least concerned with what goes inside any political party.
Mr Ejazul Haq has also claimed to have earned Pir Pagara’s blessings which will lead him to success in his mission to bring all factions of the PML (nine in number) on one platform.
WAHID BUTT
Lahore
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.