Pakistan’s interests first

THIS refers to a statement by a leader of a politico-religious party offering 4,000 volunteers to fight in case America attacks Iraq.

The same party, with other religious outfits, sent thousands of jihadis, including boys as young as 14, to Afghanistan. Most of them lost their lives in support of the Taliban. They fought against whom? Not ‘kafirs’ (infidels) but the Northern Alliance — as good Muslims as the Taliban.

Only last winter, 10,000 men of the NWFP crossed over to Afghanistan against government appeals and in violation of the law. Equipped with rifles, they went to defeat Americans who were dropping cluster bombs. And the Taliban, while fleeing, left those volunteers in the lurch in Kabul and elsewhere. Many of them died while fighting and later by suffocation in containers en route to a jail in Afghanistan. Most are in private prisons of Afghan warlords who demand up to Rs700,000 for releasing a prisoner.

Why should we count ourselves as protectors of Muslim countries? How many of them have ever come to our defence or even lend diplomatic support against India on Kashmir? And, for that matter, what are the credentials of Saddam Hussain as a Muslim? Before the Gulf war, the word Islam was all but banned in Iraq. The slogan was pan-Arabism.

I was amazed during the Gulf war to see one morning a portrait of Saddam offering prayers splashed across front pages of our newspapers. Then it was Kalima inscription on the Iraqi flag.

Where was Saddam Hussein’s Islam when, in 1990, he ran over Muslim Kuwait and was poised to occupy Saudi Arabia — the custodian of Islam’s holiest places of Makkah and Madina?

An where was his Islam when he attacked Iran in 1980? In eight years, besides colossal destruction and misery, some quarter million, mostly young people, were killed, maimed and imprisoned. Who won? Israel!

I lived in Egypt those days on a UN assignment. Begin, Israeli prime minister, in reply to a correspondent’s question, as to what he thought of Iran-Iraq war, said that “they are fighting our — Israel’s war.”

Let us behave as responsible people. We are faced with our own serious problems which will not be solved by either “jihad” for others or wishes alone.

Let us strengthen our economy first. For this we need to give our youth education and training in science and technology, instead of offering them as gun fodder for others’ wars.

ENGR B. A. MALIK

Lahore

Jinnah’s vision of Pakistan

THE objective behind the creation of Pakistan was that the subcontinent’s Muslims and non-Muslims would live in their respective majority areas according to their cultures and civilizations but allowing the minorities full freedom in all spheres of life.

M. A. Jinnah wanted Pakistan to be a democratic country and Muslims following the injunctions of the Quran and Sunnah truly and not blindly as dictated by clerics. This is evident from his inaugural speech in the Constituent Assembly on August 11, 1947.

But Gen Ziaul Haq encouraged ethnicity and sectarianism in the name of Islamization. Then former prime minister Nawaz Sharif wooed religious parties to acquire majority of his ruling party in the Senate in March 2000 to ensure enactment of Shariat Bill. Had he succeeded in his plans, fundamentalists living on both sides of the Durand Line would have persuaded him to declare himself ‘Amirul Momineen’.

Now religious parties are trying to introduce ‘Talibanic’ Islam in Pakistan.

S. A. HAIRAT

Karachi

What made me terror suspect?

I HAVE been living in Florida, USA, since September 2001 and working for a pharmaceutical company.

On Dec 19 at 6am I was sleeping at home when there was a knock on the door. I opened the door and in walked three INS agents. They told me that I had violated the terms of my visa by failing to appear before the INS for registration.

The INS agents swiftly handcuffed me and took me to their office where I was handcuffed again to a chair and subjected to intense interrogation. Later, the handcuffs were removed but I was allowed to go home after five hours.

After going through this first trauma of my life, when I consulted an immigration lawyer I was told that from what was publicized in the media the registration requirement applied to men only.

I might add that, following a short vacation in the UK, when I re-entered the USA on Oct 6, 2002, the immigration officer at the airport did not inform me of any registration requirements.

I am a British passport holder but I am also a Pakistani by descent. My parents live in Pakistan and by a stroke of bad luck my last visa for the US was issued at Islamabad while I was visiting Pakistan. Is this fact responsible for the humiliation I had to endure?

SABA ZAHEER

Florida, USA

Plight of Umra pilgrims

THIS refers to the letters appearing in these columns in the last couple of months about the plight of Pakistani Umra pilgrims.

I, with my wife and son, went for Umra through a travel agency on Aug 12.

At Jeddah airport, a Saudi travel agent took our passports and return tickets and made us wait in a Makkah-bound bus for five hours. The driver and the cleaner of the bus misbehaved with us and other passengers.

The bus reached Makkah at 6am and we were dumped in a hotel about four kilometres from the Haram Sharif. I could not stay in that hotel because it was very dirty and had only one toilet for three families. With the help of one of my friends in Makkah, I arranged a better and respectable accommodation on my own expense.

On Aug 30 we arrived at the airport at 10pm to return to Pakistan but got worried when we could not find the Saudi travel agent who took our passports and return tickets on arrival.

I looked for him for about one-and-a-half hours but without any success. I could find him when I contacted the Saudi Haj ministry on the advice of a Saudi official at the airport, but I was shocked when the travel agent told me that he had not made any reservation for our return.

The Saudi official threatened the agent to accommodate us in a good hotel at his expense till our departure to Pakistan, otherwise, he would cancel his license. We were accommodated in a Jeddah hotel.

The next day at 1pm, a Pakistani representative of the travel agent asked us to check out at 3pm. We had to sit in the lounge of the hotel for eight hours before we took a taxi and went to the airport where we came to know that we had been booked for Lahore, instead of Islamabad!

I appeal to Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Jamali to direct the authorities concerned in both Pakistan and Jeddah to make better arrangements so that pilgrims can perform Umra without any hassles.

ENGR. M. SALEEM BUTT

Islamabad

Raid on doctor’s house

THE pre-dawn swoop led by the FBI on the home of Dr Ahmad Javed Khawaja in Manawan, Lahore, deserves the strongest condemnation.

Americans have set new standards in this charade that we see enacted the world over. It is the lowest and most abhorrent form of misrepresentation and abuse of trust of every American citizen who unwittingly funds the systematic abuse of power and unbridled aggression by the US in a naked attempt to ride roughshod over the dignity and independence of any country it chooses, while sacrificing the rule of law, principle, equity and justice in pursuit of preserving an order which suits America’s interests at the expense of the rest of the world.

The illegal FBI raid on a highly respected doctor’s house highlights the double standard the US applies in every aspect of its interactions with the rest of the world.

ALI SHIRAZIE

Mississauga, Canada

THIS refers to a report (Dec 20) stating how some FBI agents illegally entered a house in Lahore and arrested eight family members. This, following the incident of Dr Amir Aziz, is a matter of grave concern.

The government claims the country to be a free nation but the question arises, which independent nation in this world allows its citizens to be whisked away by foreigners? Have we, the citizens of Pakistan, lost the right of living peacefully in our homes?

I am sure there are a number of Pakistanis who have plundered the country, fled to the United States and acquired American nationality. Is America willing to allow Pakistani officials to go and arrest those Pakistani Americans, residing over there, and take them back for investigations and trials? The answer is, no.

What will be next? America intervening and telling us that we have lost the right to rule and should become an American colony? Who knows?

M. JUNAID SIDDIQI

Karachi

Denominations on coins

DENOMINATIONS embossed on one-rupee and two-rupee coins currently in circulation are too thin to be recognized easily with normal eyesight.

This is in sharp contrast to the practice during the British period and for some time after partition when coins were embossed with prominent denominations to facilitate the user to recognize it. Elsewhere in the world, denominations are embossed on coins in bold and large digits.

While designing coins we must keep in mind people with weak eyesight, as well as foreigners, who are not very familiar with our coins.

A five-rupee coin is reportedly being launched on Thursday. I hope that this aspect will be taken care of in the design of this new coin.

I request the authorities concerned to enlarge and thicken digits showing the value of the coins.

MUHAMMAD JAMIL AFAQI

Lahore

Rising unemployment

TRY as one might, it is hard not to get pessimistic about the state of affairs prevailing in our country. Around 8,000 candidates appeared in tests for post office jobs in southern Sindh.

What one can feel but despair after reading that, although the qualifications required for these posts were matriculation and middle class, candidates having bachelor’s degrees, too, took the test. In what throes of dejection must all those graduates have been while applying for the jobs of postman, packers and stamp vendors!

Politicians promise jobs and get elected. Then they do nothing to keep their words. When will this vicious cycle stop? Will our wait for a messiah ever end?

SADIA SIDDIQUE PECHUHO

Karachi

Revival of the politics of permits

THE news that the Sindh Wildlife Management Board has not only granted 10 permits to hunt ibex but also arbitrarily increased the number of permits to 12 to accommodate those who could exert influence is a sorry commentary on the performance of the board.

Ibex would have become extinct in Europe had King Victor Emmanuel of Italy not protected the sturdy animal in the Alps. Black Buck (karo haran) would not have been found in Sindh but for the efforts of H. H. Mir Ali Murad Khan of Khairpur.

Tigers, panthers and leopards (lynx) which were found in the jungles of Rohri/Sukkur were shot so indiscriminately by British rulers in Sindh that the species have become extinct. And now we, in the name of preservation of wildlife, are hell-bent on eliminating whatever wildlife is left in the province.

Whether it is hunting of ibex or chinkara, or shooting of great bustards and partridges or even Siberian ducks, allowing hunting breeds corruption, perpetuates Waderas’ hold over half-clad, half-fed people of their areas to serve their own nefarious ends, politicizes bureaucracy and nurtures feudal thinking.

May I request members of the board to withdraw all the permits and ban forthwith hunting of mammals and birds throughout the length and breadth of Sindh? Goldsmith was right when he said:

“No flocks, that range the valley free,

To slaughter I condemn;

Taught by that Power that pities me,

I learn to pity them”

SYED SARDAR AHMAD

Karachi

Violence against women

WHILE women in many parts of the world have made advancement in areas previously closed to them, the problem of violence against women continues unabated in almost every society.

Islam condemns all forms of violence against women. No Muslim country can become civilized unless its male population stops violence against women and treats them with respect.

The commonest form of violence against women is the one committed by husbands on their wives. Islam requires that husbands treat their wives with respect and it prohibits any form of physical or emotional abuse. The Quran also says that “spouses treat each other with love and mercy.” (30:21).

Rape, unfortunately, remains a common form of violence against women. Besides, women are often blamed for having illicit relationships. Islam views rape as a violent crime against the victim, against society and against God. A rapist commits a crime and, thus, he is morally and legally answerable. The victim is an unwilling partner in the act and should, therefore, bear no blame, nor should she be looked down upon in society.

Islam’s premise of equality between women and men necessitates that all forms of violence against women be eradicated, for so long as women suffer abuses, they cannot achieve the status of free and equal members of society.

HAIDER ALI MEMON

Hyderabad

Is this rule of law?

TO establish apparently the rule of law, MQM (Haqiqi) MPA Younus Khan was arrested by the police on the premises of the Sindh Assembly building some days back on the charge that he is wanted in some cases. The police made the arrest in contravention of the due process of law and by dishonouring the prestige of the assembly.

And under the same law, Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s Ishrat-ul-Ibad who was convicted by court and against whose name a head money was announced by the police is being considered for the slot of governor of Sindh. Is this the rule of law and ‘real’ democracy that Gen Musharraf promised to the nation?

SAEED AHMED RID

Khairpur (Mirs)

Offshore outsourcing

THIS refers to the letters, ‘Offshore outsourcing’ (Dec 15 and 19). I feel that there is no way Pakistan can ever get a reasonable share in offshore IT market.

Open any international research journal in computer science or software engineering and you will see at least one research paper written by Indian scientists. Where are Pakistani computer scientists?

One Indian company developed the first J2EE 1.3 complaint application server. Where are the Pakistani companies developing software for the world?

A. MUHAMMAD

Canada

Overloaded mobile phone network

OF late it has become impossible to call from a Ufone cellular phone any other network between 11am and 11pm on working days.

On making many complaints to the Ufone helpline, I was informed that it was due to a fault in PTCL-leased lines and that PTCL was working to rectify the fault. I was also told that there was no connecting problem between a Ufone cellular phone and another Ufone phone.

This has been Ufone authorities’ consistent reply for two weeks or so, but the question is, why should a customer restrict his calls to a particular network? The very purpose of buying a cellular phone is defeated if one cannot get through to any other phone network.

The Ufone helpline also told me that no definite timeframe could be given for rectifying the fault as the fault was at the PTCL end and not at the end of the Ufone network.

I wonder what sort of fault it is which cannot be rectified for as long as two weeks.

M. A. FEROZIE

Karachi

US imperialism in the Mideast

THIS refers to the article, ‘US strategy to redraw the Mideast map’ (Dec 11), by Eric Margolis.

The way in which Mr Margolis has delineated US imperialistic plans to carve up the Middle East suggests as if he had the personal ear of the CIA or the Pentagon on this issue.

What I want to say is that Mr Margolis is wrong if he thinks that the US is only interested in carving up the Middle East; and so are blinkered commentators who get carried away most uncritically by swaying cliches like ‘Zionist conspiracy’ or that US imperialism is specifically an enemy of the Muslims.

Imperialism in an era of emerging and vanishing nation states is immune to caste, colour, class or nationality. Its aim is merely to strive for a unified world market whether local policemen enforcing its agenda are white, brown or black, or Muslim or Christian.

This point was wisely outlined by Lenin in his famous pamphlet, Imperialism the Highest Stage of Capitalism. His premise is proved if we see how US imperialism collaborated with German imperialism to first destabilize and then destroy former Yugoslavia in 1990 and how it is now planning to destabilize the Hugo Chavez regime in Venezuela.

Venezuela is the largest supplier of crude oil to the United States, and its leader envisions an alternative development strategy which does not advocate dependence on imperialistic handouts from the US.

The economic and political conquest of the Middle East will not mean the end of US imperialistic ambitions. We are seeing an alarming enlargement of Nato in Eastern Europe where countries do not have significant resources (except for the Caucasus and Caspian basins), but they are important strategically as their inclusion in Nato will give the US a toehold encircling a rapidly advancing capitalist Russia.

It is, thus, in our interest that we should oppose, as progressive Muslims, any war against Iraq and Israeli atrocities on Palestinians. As genuine anti-imperialists, we should be concerned about the fate of all oppressed souls who will be consumed by the fire of imperialism.

RAZA NAEEM

Lahore