| February 2, 2003 | Sunday | Ziqa’ad 29, 1423 |
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Before they return
A widow’s tale of horror
THERE is now no greater argument against war than the one coming from the chief of the UN arms inspectors. Hans Blix has already declared that the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission found no “smoking gun” in Iraq. This he said first in the interim report and later in the final report to the Security Council on January 27. On Friday, in an interview with The New York Times, Mr Blix demolished all arguments that Washington had been marshalling to justify war, saying that it was wrong to suggest that Baghdad was moving weapons material from one place to another or was concealing it to avoid detection. On the whole, he said, his team had found nothing that could justify an attack on Iraq. As for Iraq’s links with terrorism, Mr Blix said his commission found no hard evidence to suggest that Baghdad had ties with Al Qaeda or any other terrorist organization. Incidentally, in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, Washington never claimed that there was a link between the Baathist regime and Osama bin Laden.
Evidently, the presumed link between Iraq and Al Qaeda being harped on these days is an afterthought meant to present Iraq as an unmitigated evil in the eyes of the world and justify punishing action against it. The charge, now repudiated by Blix, thus scuttles another basis for unleashing death and destruction on the people of Iraq. Unfortunately, the very day that the Blix interview appeared in print, Mr Bush said that he would fight any attempts to delay action against Iraq. Repeating his “weeks not months” warning, he used the familiar adjectives against President Saddam Hussein and alleged that he was not disarming. More regrettably, after talks with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, he showed no inclination to hide his indifference if not contempt for the UN. A second resolution on Iraq, he said, was welcome, but not direly needed. One wonders what grounds Mr Bush and Mr Blair have now for inflicting more misery on the Iraqi people. The United Nations has very often taken its cue from big powers. But, during the cold war, the US-Soviet rivalry had at least given it a certain balance, and no power bloc could use the UN as a cover for advancing its geopolitical interests. However, since the end of the cold war, the US has used the UN whenever needed and treated it with indifference or ignored it altogether at other times, so that the world body has ceased to be a forum where nations of the world could ventilate their grievances and hope for justice. However, even this weak and tame body now seems unwilling to oblige the US on Iraq. The chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohammad ElBaradei, has also given Iraq a clean bill of health.
Mr Bush and Mr Blair are now isolated on the Iraqi issue. All they can do is to manipulate support from “new Europe”, which in the face of Franco-German opposition to war is of little value. Nato is divided, Russia and China are opposed to the war, so are the regional states, besides all peace-loving people of the world. America can ignore the wishes of the world’s majority at its own peril.
THE growing threats of detention, deportation and harassment by the US Immigration and Naturalization Services’ is making thousands of Pakistanis living in America look for safer havens where they can pursue their lives with dignity and honour. Some 3,000 such highly qualified expatriates have already filed for immigration to Canada, while many others are checking out possibilities in other countries. The bulk of the less affluent working class immigrants, however, is most likely to return home and seek employment in Pakistan. One is reminded of the mass exodus of Pakistanis from Kuwait after the 1991 Gulf War. They returned home economically devastated but were unable to find many opportunities here. As a result, whatever little savings and assets they had brought with them to Pakistan were squandered. This was mainly because the ministry concerned and the Overseas Pakistanis Foundation had not prepared the groundwork that would enable the economy to absorb the war-affected expatriates.
It is estimated that some 80,000 Pakistanis will be affected by the on-going INS registration process and new immigration regulations in the US. The government has recently stated that it would offer investment incentives to the highly qualified Pakistanis in this group of expatriates so that they could bring their expertise and capital to Pakistan instead of moving away elsewhere. The need now is to translate these thoughts into a concrete and workable policy. This should be done on an urgent basis so as to convince the affected Pakistanis of the viability of returning home to pursue a decent and prosperous life in this country. This requires a well thought-out plan offering investment opportunities to the affluent and qualified expatriates and gainful employment opportunities to the less fortunate. A failure to do so would expose the government to the charge of apathy and indifference to the expectations and well-being of the affected expatriate Pakistanis.
ONCE again, a common citizen, and a poor widow at that, has had to knock on the doors of the highest authorities in the country to plead for justice. The story is the usual tale of abuse of authority by local influentials, the inability or refusal of the local police to take any action against the perpetrators, and the complete helplessness of the victims. As the widow from Pind Mehri village, in Hasan Abdal tehsil, of Attock district, related in Rawalpindi a few days ago, her married daughter was first criminally assaulted, and subsequently killed when she resisted the perpetrators’ attempt to attack her a second time. Also killed in the attack was the victim’s seven-year old son and five-year old daughter. Only her five-month old baby was spared. As if this was not enough, the police then arrested the victim’s husband, who worked in the fields of the perpetrators. But then he too was killed and his mutilated body was found many days later. The widow claims that the police have not registered an FIR against the accused and that the postmortem reports of her murdered family members have been doctored by the hospital authorities.
Clearly, the much-talked about police reforms have not had much of an effect, at least in this case. Had this widow, like many other victims of injustice, been able to seek some form of redress through normal police and judicial procedures, she would not have been forced to plead her case to the president, prime minister, the Chief Justice of Pakistan and the chief minister of Punjab. The concerned authorities should direct the local functionaries to arrest the perpetrators and bring them to justice. For the sake of many others like this widow, it is also essential to sensitize the country’s legal system, particularly the local police department to display a stronger sense of commitment to justice and to a greater awareness of the rights of those being victimized.