| January 27, 2003 | Monday | Ziqa’ad 23,1423 |
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The forgotten detainees
Desalination project
THE undignified wrangling within the Sindh government is a perfect illustration of the perils of coalition politics in the particular context that has emerged from the October 10 elections. The latest row rocking the fragile coalition in Sindh was triggered when the chief minister notified — and then promptly denotified — Imtiaz Sheikh as his adviser. Mr Sheikh is an important member of the National Alliance, a key component of the Sindh coalition and widely viewed as an ambitious figure. The move caused a furore within the NA and is threatening the fragile coalition in Sindh. The ruling coalition has a strength of 98 in a house of 168 members. If the NA, with its 16 members, decides to pull out, the government of Ali Mohammad Mahar will lose its majority and could be toppled. While it is unlikely that the NA will take such a precipitate step, the incident underlines the fragility of the government. The Mahar government has already had to face problems over the allocation of ministries, with certain aspirants refusing to accept their allotted portfolios and making a grab for the preferred ones. The government is also heavily dependent for its survival on the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, which commands 41 seats in the provincial assembly. Never the most stable of coalition partners, the MQM managed to push through its controversial choice of governor despite deep misgivings about his credentials.
The fragile nature of the coalition, in which the chief minister’s PML (Q) has only 18 seats, will clearly open it up to all forms of blackmail and pressure and divert it from its task of governing a perennially troubled and problem-ridden province. At the heart of the current instability in Sindh is the way in which the people’s verdict was practically nullified. The PPP, which emerged as the largest party by far with 62 seats, was deemed unacceptable as a contender for power and forced to sit in the opposition through all kinds of machinations. The troubles of the coalition in Sindh are also reflected in the state of things at the centre. The ruling PML (Q) has the slenderest of majorities, which could evaporate if any of the motley groups backing it walks out. Prime minister Zafarullah Jamali owes his elevation to the top slot to defectors from the PPP, without whose support the government would not have been able to cobble together even a slender majority. This is evident from the plum posts allotted to the defectors who obviously struck a hard bargain before switching sides. In this atmosphere of political wrangling and uncertainty, the government appears to be in a state of paralysis and drift. The prime minister has yet to address the nation or take any major policy initiative. It is disconcerting that the National Assembly has not yet met since the swearing-in ceremony and the Senate polls have not been held even though more than hundred days have passed since the October 10 polls. Despite all these problems,it is essential that the governments at the centre and in the provinces stick to the task of taking the democratic process forward in what is a crucial transition from military rule to democracy. The government, despite all the current unseemly wranglings and jockeying for positions, must find the will to move ahead with its task of giving the country a semblance of good governance and stability despite the odds stacked against it. Given the daunting scale of its problems at every level, the country simply cannot afford another prolonged bout of political instability
HUNDREDS, if not thousands, of mostly Muslim and Arab immigrants to the US continue to be incarcerated thanks to the overzealousness of that country’s Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). According to reports, the vast majority of these people, who were arrested after the events of September 11, do not even show up on official records maintained by the US Justice Department. The authorities continue to mislead everyone by claiming that only six people arrested following the World Trade Centre attacks are still under detention. The reason for this deception is that the American authorities seem to be using a very narrow definition for what constitutes a detainee and hence are able to exclude the overwhelming majority of those in jail from official statistics. The issue does not relate to the repercussions following the much-criticized registration programme for male citizens of 25 mostly Muslim countries. Rather, it reflects the paranoia and overreaction that characterized the response to the events of September 11 and which ruined the lives of even many legal immigrants.
Included among these hundreds of detainees is a Pakistani professional. A holder of a valid green card, he was picked up 10 months ago while taking photographs of a mountain range. The suspicion of anyone with a Middle Eastern appearance is so strong that the man was accused of poisoning a city’s water supply system simply because he was found taking pictures in the vicinity. The FBI cleared the man but he remained in jail, pending deportation, because the INS found that he had helped some illegal Pakistani immigrants find jobs. While no one condones the breaking of the laws of a country, the point is that many American citizens would also be found guilty of committing the same crime if they were investigated. It is time Washington realized that some of its policies blatantly discriminate against people from specific ethnic backgrounds. The kind of alienation such policies create only adds to the mistrust between the government and those communities which already feel singled out for harsh treatment.
IN a welcome development, the Karachi Port Trust has signed a deal with the United States Trade and Development Agency to install a desalination plant in Karachi with a capacity to produce 25 million gallons of potable water a day. The KPT will provide the 100-acre plot for the plant while the USTDA will partially fund it. Once completed, the plant will take care of the needs of nearly one million Karachi residents who currently suffer a shortfall of some 150 million gallons of water every day. Bringing in $60 million in the form of foreign investment, with the promise of a transfer of desalination technology from the US, the project will hopefully encourage the private sector to come forward and invest in other ventures of this nature. The government, for its part, has announced a policy of granting licences on a ‘build, operate and transfer’ basis to interested parties.
Work on a USTDA-funded comprehensive feasibility study for the desalination plant is expected to be completed within six months, and the plant could be constructed in the following 18 months or so. It is imperative that the foreign agencies fulfil their part of the financial and technical responsibilities with regard to this important project. The government must also adhere to its commitments if the project is to become a reality. In the past, Karachi has had many an infrastructure-related feasibility report commissioned, completed, reviewed and then shelved betraying a lack of will on the part of the authorities concerned to see a given project through to its logical end. In the past, a lack of financial resources was often cited as the excuse for not pursuing development plans. The most recent case in point is the revival of the Karachi Circular Railway. One hopes that the desalination plant does not fall victim to the authorities’ customary neglect, and will be completed as planned.