Armed justice initiates a culture of fear: DATELINE DHAKA

IF THE state’s principal information officer (PIO)’s recent comments on custodial deaths in the ongoing army-led anti-crime drive in Bangladesh is a reflection of the prime minister’s observation on the issue, the surviving members of the victims’ family would hardly see the perpetrators of the extra-judicial killings tried in the courts of law, at least under the present regime.

The PIO, a journalist-turned-public servant, appointed by the government of Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, has flatly denied the fact that at least 24 people have died of torture in the military custody in the on-going army-led anti-crime drive across the country that began in the early hours of Oct 27. “We have never admitted that there was death in army custody in the ongoing joint drive against crime,” Khandaker Monirul Alam, the PIO, told the press on Nov 18.

Asked why the army has then formed inquiry committees following reports of custodial deaths, he said: “The army forms a committee after every incident (of alleged custodial death) to see whether there is any negligence on the part of the troops. If anybody is found guilty, he will be tried under military law.”

He also revealed that the government had “no plan to try the offenders of civil and human rights” under the civil law. The stance is clearly inconsistence with democratic principles that call for bringing the perpetrators of civil and human rights to justice.

However, the PIO, like most partisan political appointees in the subcontinent, only proved insensitive to the truism that an unpleasant truth can hardly be buried, and its social and political implications avoided, by not admitting the truth. The present case is not an exception, because it is already a common knowledge that at least 24 people have died during or after interrogation by the army.

The government’s propaganda machinery has still been trying to make the people believe that some of the deaths were caused by heart failure, some died in accidents in their bid to escape military camps and so on. But many people, alongside the bereaved family members of the victims, are discussing military efforts to manipulate the post-mortem reports.

Even if the PIO is technically correct in claiming that all the 24 people, aged between 24 and 72, died in the hospitals — not in the military camps — there is no scope to disprove the fact that they were the victims of, to use a phrase of Michel Foucault, “the excesses of armed justice”. And torture in custody, let alone torturing to death, is a grave infringement of fundamental human rights, while those involved in the torture are liable to criminal justice.

The Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, to which Bangladesh is a signatory, says: “Each state party shall ensure that all acts of torture are offences under its criminal law. The same shall apply to an attempt to commit torture and to an act by any person, which constitutes complicity or participation in torture.”

Again, the Convention defines torture as: “.... any act which causes severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession ....”

Under Article 3 of the Convention, “an order from a superior officer or a public authority may not be invoked as a jurisdiction of torture”. And under the instrument’s Article 4, the state of Bangladesh is obliged to “take effective measures to prevent torture and other crucial, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment from being practised within its jurisdiction”.

The Convention also does not allow any state to “permit or tolerate torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Exceptional circumstances such as war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency may not be invoked as a justification for torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.” Clearly, containing the deteriorating law and order situation is not a justification for arbitrary arrest and / or torturing in the police / military custody.

The same PIO argued a couple of weeks ago that 24 people would have been killed every day by the armed criminals had 24 people were not taken to task by the army. The PIO’s kind of enthusiasts fail to understand that democracy assigns the executive wing of the state to provide adequate protection to the citizens from the extra-judicial killings by the armed criminals, but it does not permit the executive to kill people, even the criminals, without trial by the judiciary.

They also refuse to realize that he could himself be a victim of such extra-judicial killing in a lawlessness presided by the army, in case he fails to orally convince the militarymen in the street that he is an ardent supporter of the Operation Clean Heart.

The army has reportedly started departmental investigation into the allegations of murders in the military custody. It could be important for the army to take disciplinary actions against those responsible for “committing excesses”. But the principles of democracy, or rule of law for that matter, have nothing to do with any investigation into allegations of murders conducted by those who are reportedly a party to the crime. Besides, the military has nothing do with the criminal justice system in a democracy. What is, therefore, important in this case is to order judicial investigations into the allegations of custodial deaths and ensuring punishments to those involved, directly or indirectly, with these extra- judicial killings.

However, Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, who has called out the army to contain the law and order situation, has not yet said anything as to what would her administration do about those responsible for the custodial deaths. But her political counterpart and the leader of the opposition in parliament, Sheikh Hasina, has. She has already observed that the prime minister would be sued as “offender for order” for the deaths in custody during the ongoing army-led anti-crime operation.

“Every day people are being killed in the army’s custody, but the government is claiming that there has been no custodial death. This is simply a bluff to the nation,” she told journalists on Nov 22. “Cases will be filed for each death, and the prime minister will be held responsible for all the deaths,” she added.

None has gone to the court against the army’s excesses so far. Besides, one has to wait to see whether Hasina, former prime minister and president of the opposition Awami League, eventually sticks to her announcement of suing the PM or / and the armymen responsible, directly or indirectly, for the custodial deaths. But, by all indications, the relatives of some of the victims will: they are waiting, as far as rumours go, for the army to return to the barracks. If it so happens, there would be many — individuals and organizations, national and international — to back the complainants.

But the fact that the victims’ family members are to go to the civil courts for bringing the offenders of human rights to justice only after the military is withdrawn clearly hints at another phenomenon: the armed justice, now delivered by Khaleda’s elected government in the name of arresting criminals, has initiated a culture of fear in society, which only resembles a political situation controlled by a military regime. Legal or illegal, this is not healthy for a sound growth of democratic polity in any country.

MMA flies high: VIEW FROM GALLERY

IF IT WALKS like a duck and it quacks like a duck, be sure it is a duck, goes the English saying. There are so many new faces in the newly-elected provincial assembly that for those of us who watch the proceedings from the gallery above, it has become nigh impossible to find out the identity of the members and their party affiliations.

Broadly speaking, there are two sets of members— the bearded and the beardless on the men side, and veiled and non-veiled on the women side. But then there are so many of the bearded members that it too has become a problem of sorts to find out the party affiliation of the honourable members of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA).

The mind boggled. The penny dropped on Wednesday. A careful look at the composition of the House and their supporters in the Visitors’ Gallery gives out a clear party distinction. Those affiliated with the JUI wear turbans. The Jamaat-i-Islami members wear white caps. The lone Sipah-i-Sahaba member in the House distinguishes himself by wearing a Sindhi cap as do his supporters in the gallery.

So it did not take long to find out that they were actually the Jamaat-i-Islami MPAs from Malakand who were pitted against each others. Mohammad Amin,  a Jamaat MPA from Swat, couldn’t wait to agitate against the shifting of the Board of Intermediate & Secondary Education from Swat to Chakdara in Dir. Though the day was reserved for the election of the speaker and deputy speaker, he didn’t care hoots. He condemned the decision and staged a walk out, along with a few of his party MPAs from Swat including two women members.

This prompted another JI MPA from Lower Dir, Muzaffar Said, and he rosed to defend the government’s decision and praised Governor Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah for relocating the BISE offices to Chakdara. He argued that Chakdara was centrally-located and easily accessible to people of all the districts of Malakand division. Therefore, he said, opposition to the relocation of the BISE offices was unjustified and uncalled for.

Clearly, this was embarrassing for the MMA in general and for the Jamaat-i-Islami in particular. It appeared that the MPAs of the six-party religious alliance had not debated the issue in their parliamentary party meeting before coming to the House.

Former speaker and PPP MPA from Mardan was in no mood to let the proceedings go smoothly. Before the presiding officer, Hidayatullah Khan Chamkani, could call for vote to elect the new speaker, Abdul Akbar rose on a point of order to question the validity of the proceedings. He had a valid point. Article 127 of the Constitution and the clauses contained in Article 53 relating to the provincial assembly has not been restored and remains suspended and, therefore, the election of the speaker and deputy speaker could not be held.

Sensing the danger contained in Abdul Akbar’s argument, Jamaat-i-Islami MPA, Bakht Jihan, who was MMA’s candidate for the office of the speaker jumped from his seat to accuse the PPP MPA of wasting the precious time of the House. On not being allowed to speak any further, an angry Abdul Akbar walked out of the House, followed closely by his party’s MPAs. “The whole proceeding is illegal and unconstitutional”, he declared before walking out in protest.

Chamkani announced the candidates running for the office of the speaker that included MMA’s Bakht Jihan and an ANP MPA from Kohat, Qalb-i-Abass Hassan, as a joint opposition nominee. There were no surprises. The MMA candidate won hands down, polling 81 votes as against the joint nominee of the ANP, PML-Q and the PPP-S who polled 39 votes. The five PML-N MPAs led by Anwar Kamal Marwat, Tehrik-i-Insaf MPA Mian Nisar Gul from Karak, Sawabi Qaumi Mahaz MPA Dr Mohammad Salim and five independent MPAs voted for the MMA candidate. That would have made 80 votes. The tri-partite opposition had obviously lost one vote to the MMA. Who was the hidden defector? Nobody had any clue.

Likewise, Ikramullah Shahid, the MMA candidate from Mardan, was elected as deputy speaker, receiving 81 votes. Opposition’s candidate, PML-Q MPA Nighat Orakzai, who was elected on reserved seats, trailed behind with 37 votes. There were two blank votes.

Going by the results of the Wednesday voting, it is now a forgone conclusion that the MMA nominee for chief minister slot, Akram Khan Durrani, will be able to command a respectable and comfortable majority in the House of 124.

But this is not the end of it. The punchline came when the clock struck 1pm. An MMA MPA, Hafiz Akhtar Ali, rose from his seat, while the vote counting for the office of the speaker was continue, and began calling for prayers. The azaan was heard in the lobbies. Thus, probably, he became the first MPA to call for prayers while the House was still in session.

Now a word or two for the former speaker, Hidayatullah Khan Chamkani. As is the tradition, some MPAs who had remained members while he was the speaker, paid tribute to his impartiality and sagacity in running the House amicably in some tensed moments. Had it not for him, any other presiding officer would have found it difficult to cope with the constitutional questions raised by Abdul Akbar Khan.

The new speaker, Hidayat Jihan Khan, is also a veteran of two past assemblies. He will have to control his tempers to run the assembly as smoothly as his predecessor and refrain from exhibiting the kind of temper he did while countering Abdul Akbar Khan’s argument.

Water misuse aggravates waterlogging: DATELINE FAISALABAD

WATER has been most injudiciously used in Pakistan over the years resulting in alarming depletion of this precious resource. But this stark reality is generally neither acknowledged nor appreciated by the government as well as the urban and rural consumer. Its misuse has created a host of problems beside aggravating the menace of waterlogging and salinity.

This was observed during an orientation-cum-training course on “Saline Agriculture Farmers Participatory Development Project” held under the aegis of the Nuclear Institute for Agriculture and Biology the other day.

A number of scientists and agricultural experts said Pakistan was one of the few countries which primarily survived on an agrarian economy. They, however, regretted that due to a variety of reasons, the farming community could not fully benefit from the enormous potential of crop varieties and the production technology developed by our agricultural scientists.

They admitted that the farming community lacked the resources, although they had the awareness of the potential of modern agricultural technology. It was unfortunate that one of the most viable and cheap methods for achieving the maximum yield was the cooperatives system under which groups of farmers could use tractors, threshers and other implements on rotation besides levelling their land and using fertilizers, pesticides and certified seeds. Had the farming community adopted the cooperative system, they could have better utilized the canal water instead of wasting the same by flooding the field, which caused waterlogging and salinity.

Cooperative farming could not make a headway because of the ‘typical intolerance culture’ prevalent in the rural society, which was the main impediment in the growth of agriculture in the country.

Eminent agricultural scientists came out with the idea of using the wasteline under the “Saline agriculture farmers participatory development project”.

The Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission member for biosciences, Dr Kausar Abdulllah Malik, said a gigantic project for increasing the profitability of saline land with the ultimate objective to root out poverty had been evolved, costing Rs50 billion. He said this proposed project had been submitted to various donor agencies, including the International Atomic Energy Agency, UNDP, WB and ADB. Their response was very sympathetic and encouraging. The government would give full support to this mega project. “However, to win foreign funding for it, we are totally banking on the success of SAFPDP,” he said.

Dr Kausar said the PAEC had evolved a reliable technology for the economical use of saline lands. In this connection, two model saline research centres — one near Lahore and another near Pacca Anna — had demonstrated the efficacy of this technology.

“This technology is also exported to other countries having similar agro-climatic conditions and facing the same threat of salinity. However, in Pakistan this technology remained restricted to the government farms only,” he said.

Elaborating the objectives of SAFPDP, he said these were mitigating salinity-associated poverty in rural areas in addition to improving the quality for enhancing the aesthetic value of wasteland. It would reverse environmental degradation in addition to the training and capacity building in the communities to ensure gender equity for the realization of the objectives of this project.

“SAFPDP has been launched in collaboration with the National Rural Support Programme to take this technology to the end-users,” he said. The NGO would give lectures and methodologies to the field staff specially recruited for this project that would ensure direct involvement of farmers in it.

He said two sites in Punjab and one each in Sindh, Balochistan and NWFP had been selected for this purpose. The sites selected were salt affected, had brackish underground water and habitation around them. The salinity had not only decreased the productivity of the soil, but farmers depending on it had also been facing the brunt of poverty for the last many years, he said.

He said these sites had 5,000-8,000 acres of saline land with at least five to 10 villages. There would be 10 persons for each site, including site facilitators, agronomists/soil scientist, social mobilizer and field assistants who would have direct links with the farmers. This team would start disseminating PAEC saline agriculture technologies to farmers, for the successful implementation of the action plan of the project, new practices, new thinking and new forms of community engagement would be required.

He said other technologies developed by different research organizations like pest control, water conservation, variety selection etc. would also be made available for the welfare and uplift of the farming community. “This project is meant for small farmers, and the government has funded it from its own resource and we have to spend each and every penny of it wisely and judiciously. Social baseline surveys defining site analyzers, education, land holdings, income and health situation have already been completed and documented which will be benchmark and help for assessing the improvement in mid-term review of this project,” he said.

Earlier, NIAB director Dr Mohsin Iqbal explained the contribution of NIAB in developing new biological technology to use salt-affected lands, instead of employing costly mechanical technologies for the rehabilitation of saline lands. He said the problems of salinity and waterlogging surfaced when the irrigation system with its distribution network was introduced in the country. Seepage from canals and wasteful use of water gave rise to high water table with the concomitant deposition of salts on the surface due to transpiration. About 14 million acres were affected by salinity to varying degrees.

He said many expert missions were invited who proposed different solutions to the problem. The solutions included mainly the engineering approaches such as construction of waterlogged drains, installation of tubewells to lower water table, laying of sub-surface tile drains, etc. These approaches, however, did not find favour with the end-users because of high cost, operational problems and non-applicability on larger areas.

“A biological approach was developed to utilize the saline wastelands with minimum of inputs by the resource-impoverished farmers. The approach involved screening and selection of highly salt tolerant plant species and varieties. The biomass obtained could be used as fuel, timber, fodder, green manure, etc.,” Dr Mohsin said.

He said during early 80s, a biosaline research station comprising 150 acres of saline land was acquired near Lahore. The success at this station was heartening, and NIAB decided to demonstrate the technology on a larger scale. For this purpose, 1,000 acres of high saline sodic land was acquired in 1992 in Pacca Anna, 35km from Faisalabad on Gojra Road. The underground water here was also highly brackish. During the last eight years, 100 salt tolerant tree species, such as eucalyptus, tamaracks, acacia; grass species such as kallar grass, sporobolus; and plant species such as barley, rapeseed and wheat had been successfully grown using brackish water. The results had clearly demonstrated that it was possible to economically utilize the wastelands.

He said in 1997, IAEA got interested in this biosaline approach and a five-year inter-regional project on utlization of saline wastelands and brackish water was approved as a model project involving 10 countries of Middle East and the region. A project proposal was prepared on extending various techniques developed by PAEC scientists to make saline lands reusable in all the provinces at a cost of Rs178 million. PAEC had identified initially 25,000 acres of saline lands for implementation of the project with the involvement of farmers themselves.

He said the NIAB also carried out work on other agricultural and biological problems confronting agriculture. In the area of crop improvement, a total of 20 crop varieties, including four of cotton, two of rice, four of chickpea, nine of mungbean and one of lentil had been developed. These varieties were high yielding, disease and pest resistant and had other improved quality characters. They had provided a cumulative additional income of over Rs50 billion to the farmers.

He claimed a number of new promising mutants of these varieties were at advanced stages of testing. Work on plant nutrition had been instrumental in significant increases in crop yields. In the area of animal biology, vaccines had been prepared against haemorrhagic septicemia disease of cattle and newcastle disease of poultry, and multinutrient feed blocks for livestock had been prepared and commercialized. They had improved the health, nutrition and reproductive cycle of buffaloes and cattle. Work on development and propagation of seedless kinnoo and agrochemical dynamics was also in progress.

Is there any need for University of Health Sciences?

IN AN article published in Dawn on Nov 11, Punjab Health Minister Dr.Mahmood Ahmed Chaudhry has vainly tried to defend his brainchild, the newly established University of Health Sciences. This write-up appears to be in reply to my criticism of an open forum in the presence of the Punjab governor regarding the need for a medical university. This speech has since been widely published. Before analyzing the arguments of the minister, it is necessary that one should have a glimpse of the writer’s antecedents.

Mahmood Ahmed Chaudhry graduated from the Nishtar Medical College, Multan, in 1958 and proceeded to England where he did his FRCS in 1971. The FRCS examination is the starting point in training for surgery. He returned to Pakistan and was selected assistant professor and posted at the Nishtar Medical College. Soon after his appointment as assistant professor of surgery in 1973, he left for England where he established a business in garments and also did some odd surgical jobs. He remained absent from duty for more than seven years without authority. However after his arrival, with the connivance of a powerful bureaucrat, he was able to get his absence from duty regularized in relaxation of all rules. He was reprieved, given a premium of seniority and promoted professor of surgery. From the Punjab Health Service, he went on deputation to the federal government and was posted at the Shaikh Zayed Hospital. His first victim there was Gen.Mohyuddin whom he got out after a stormy confrontation. The next incumbent, Gen Najeeb met a similar fate at his hands, as he also had to leave his job due to his intrigues. He served as chairman, Shaikh Zayed Hospital, till his retirement in 1996. He never served any institution of the health department of Punjab but retired honourably as professor of surgery of medical colleges in the Punjab along with pension and other benefits. After his retirement, he got himself an extension. This period he spent partly as Director, PIMS, and finally retired in 1999. He then became Minister of Health in the Punjab.

Dr.Mahmood Ahmed Chaudhry has certain qualities in common with the ‘elite’ of a degenerate society that is ours. He is a good conversationist and possesses a vocabulary of phrases, words and verses, which he uses intelligently to “capture his prey” who is usually an unguarded and less educated but a powerful person from the ruling class; a general or a politician. He excels in the art of jobbery and flattery and specializes in entertaining people by his charm and otherwise. He is obedient to his superiors but can be harsh and even abusive to his juniors and colleagues. He has masterminded intrigues against his colleagues, particularly those whom he calls his friends.

From the description above it follows that Mahmood Ahmed Chaudhry is professor by designation only because, throughout his career he has been involved very little with actual undergraduate or postgraduate teaching or research. This Professor strangely has no students or any one who claims to be his pupil. He has no research publication. Dr.Chaudhry possesses excellent qualities in the social domain but has no experience of academic matters. He has never been involved with curriculum development, teaching programmes, student activities and the examination process of which now he poses to be an expert. His evaluation of the teaching programme and the curriculum in the article referred to above, therefore, has to be viewed in the light of this character sketch.

In the present context, the issue at debate is not whether the curriculum should be reviewed, or whether it should be integrated horizontally or vertically and whether we should adopt student-based autonomous learning strategies or examination-based strategies and update our system of examinations; the point debate is whether there should be a medical university or not. This question is fundamental to the whole issue. Dr.Chaudhry for personal reasons is an advocate of such a university. His few followers with no experience and international exposure may support him for personal reasons but most academics in the profession would not support such a venture. Recently, Prof.Sadiq Husain, a retired principal of the King Edward Medical College and a renowned academic who resigned as member of the board of governors of this controversial university expressed his views. My assessment of the medical university is as follows: 1. In Pakistan, we follow the Anglo-5 traditions of medicine. Medical education in Pakistan was established on the British pattern in the nineteenth century and in the British tradition, medical colleges were affiliated with general universities. Even today, there are no medical universities in Britain, the US or Western Europe and medical education is carried out in medical schools/colleges within the environments of a general university. Medicine is a developing science. There is continuous progress and medical schools cater for all changes. There is an autonomy of teaching programme to a certain extent which is permitted by the universities. However, this does not require the establishment of a medical university. Such evolutionary changes can be brought about within the existing system. Thus, the vocabulary of medical education which Dr.Mahmood Ahmed Chaudhry has recently acquired, for example, clinical skills, attitudes, behaviour, curriculum development, examination methodology (fair valid reliable and reproducible) student-teacher relationship etc, can all be followed within the individual medical schools and for that a university is not required. This is happening in all developed countries of the world. For example, there are 16 medical schools in London alone and they are all affiliated with the London University. Similarly, Oxford Cambridge, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Saint Andrews are all general universities and cater for general as well as medical education which is one area of their multifarious activities.

The question that now arises is: why are there are no medical universities in Britain or the US? The answer to the question lies in the basic concept. Medical education is not viewed as exclusively ‘specialized technical training’ but consists in part of good general education; meaning thereby that a doctor should have a good background education in the humanities to serve the community and for this he has to be trained within the environment of a general university. In response to my question as to whether the health minister who claims to be an intellectual can name a few universities in the developed countries of the world, he has answered (The Nation, November 14) that there are 174 medical universities in England, 70 in Tokyo seven in Tehran and three in Sindh. On this answer, I am amazed. I challenge Mahmood Chaudhry to name these 174 medical universities in England alone (not to speak of Scotland). I have also visited Japan on more than one occasion. I was taken to numerous hospitals but not to a specific medical university in Tokyo. Anyhow, we do not follow the educational system of Japan. The fact is that there is no medical university in Britain or anywhere in the developed world. Such institutions are created in the underdeveloped countries on personal whims of the rulers to accommodate specific persons, like in this case, Dr.Mahmood Chaudhry who is about to lose his job as health minister which he received as a windfall in the present setup.

As I had indicated in my address to the Governor, the university now having been established should continue to exist and should denote to teaching and research; perhaps also award its degree to those whom they teach and examine. They should not force or coerce other established medical colleges for affiliation and force theme to pay heavily, causing an additional burden on the students but it appears that the objective in the mind of the health minister is not teaching and research (something that he totally abhors) but collecting revenue and controlling all academic institutions in the province. According to the Ordinance, all medical colleges in the province should get affiliated with this university so that the minister, after he loses his job, continues to exercise total control on the medical profession in the province. He wants to exercise this control through examinations, entry tests, migrations, registrations and affiliations. In this way, he wants to retain his ‘nuisance value’ or the ‘killing power’ so that he can punish anyone with dissenting views.

If the sole reason for establishing a new university is the defective examination system of the Punjab University, the remedy lies in correction of that system and not in a new university. Before ‘generalization’ of the office of vice-chancellor of the University of the Punjab when I was Principal of a medical college, I was asked a question by the then VC, Prof.Zulfiqar Ali Malik; why do you want a university status for King Edward Medical College, Lahore? “The examinations are not held in time, the results are delayed, the M.D. and M.S. research protocol have to pass through a long procedure” I replied. To this to give a very simple and practical solution. There should be a full-fledged medical section in the university, a separate registrar, a separate controller of medical examinations and an examination branch, perhaps also a pro-vice chancellor in medicine. To this proposition, I had no answer but alas, he was soon replaced by an army general. He is the last academic vice-chancellor of University of the Punjab.

It is obvious that a new university is the need of our present health minister and not of the profession, or of medical education, in the country. Good luck to him. He can enjoy this prestigious assignment but he should restrict its activities to teaching and research and should not force the old established institution to get affiliated with it and lose the status which they have enjoyed for over a century.