| March 4, 2003 | Tuesday | Zul Hijjah 30, 1423 |
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Renaming the NWFP
Foreign exchange reserves
Iraq: USA’s real motives
Osama and Indian logic
Pressure horns’ menace
Vows galore
What does ‘Pakistan first’ mean?
Stranded Pakistanis
Contaminated water
Plea to PTV
UNDP and honour killings
FORMER Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, while speaking at the 11th Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit conference on Oct 18, 1995, had said that the cold war had ended but the fight for freedom continued all over the world including in Kashmir and Bosnia. She said that the Jammu and Kashmir dispute threatened the peace and stability in the subcontinent. It was the oldest unresolved item on the agenda of the United Nations.
The then Indian Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao voiced regret at Ms Bhutto’s reference to the situation in Kashmir as an issue of self-determination. Rao told the conference: “The accession of Jammu and Kashmir to the Indian Union is an established fact in international law.” He attributed the Kashmiris’ miseries to “terrorism originating from outside.”
At the 13th Non-Aligned Movement summit conference in Kuala Lumpur recently, Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s chairmanship worried the Indians, because Kuala Lumpur believed that the causes that lead to terrorism must also be addressed.
President Pervez Musharraf speaking at the opening session said the movement must address the “root cause” of terrorism and pleaded for promoting “a universally accepted definition of terrorism.” While no cause justified terrorism, he said, NAM must not allow “anyone to manipulate the fight against terrorism or to delegitimize just struggles of peoples against illegal occupation.” Any attempt to do so must be rejected “with the contempt it deserves.”
The movement must remain, he said, “a symbol of hope for the people who, even today, struggle to realize their inalienable right of self-determination. Two supreme cases stand out — those of the oppressed peoples of Kashmir and Palestine.”
The Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee told the reporters that he rejected President Musharraf’s remarks citing Kashmir and Palestine as issues the world has failed to resolve. ”There is no comparison between Kashmir and Palestine. The people of Kashmir have given their verdict in the elections to stay with India,” he said.
It must be emphasized that Dr Mahathir Mohammad, one of America’s strongest critics on Iraq, believes that the NAM must raise its voice for peace and against war, especially because non-intervention is a principle of the Non-Aligned Movement.
NAM’s core principles include opposition to “all forms of foreign aggression, occupation, domination, interference or hegemony as well as against great power and bloc politics,” as was rightly stated by the Malaysian Foreign Minister Sayed Hamid Albar.
PROF DR P. NASIR
Gujrat, Punjab
THIS is with reference to a letter which appeared in Dawn on February 27 under the title of “Renaming the Province” by G.M. Hasan.
I would differ with the opinion expressed in the letter, which said that there was no special need for renaming the NWFP. Of course, anything would suffice as a name for this province, including NWFP, but many people want a name with a little more meaning than just describing its geography. What sort of a name is NWFP? It only states that there is a province in the northwest frontier region of Pakistan. I think the debate is not about re-naming the province but about naming it.
Why should this province be singled out and forced to have such a name? If the argument is that this promotes unity in our country, then let us have some uniformity in the names of our provinces. Let us, for instance, rename Sindh as SEP (Southeastern Province), Punjab as NEFP and Balochistan as SWFP.
Of course, there are many other problems which need to be addressed, but naming this province is one of those problems, and there’s nothing wrong if this matter is finally decided once and for all. Some quarters are strongly against renaming the province as Pakhtunistan on grounds that the name has secessionist undertones, which is absolutely rubbish. If the other provinces can be named after their people and language, why should ours be singled out?
In fact, singling out one province from the other three might be a more valid reason for fuelling secessionist sentiments. It is time we took some lessons from history. Bengal was called East Pakistan, but it still broke away, which proves that seeds of secession are not sown by names alone.
Naming the province as Pakhtunistan should in no way negate the identity of the minorities that live here. We do live in a democratic country where the decision of the majority should be respected. The other three provinces do not have 100 per cent populations of Sindhi, Balochi and Punjabi-speaking people but no one objects to their names.
Let us not make an issue out of this non-issue, and just go ahead with the naming of this un-named province. This has been long overdue.
SHAFIQUE UR REHMAN
Peshawar
IT is comforting to note that after a long time our national reserves have climbed up to US $9.5 billion. The prospects that we may be able to get the IMF off our back some time soon in the future now look good. If we do not need international monetary assistance then we will no longer have to bear with the compulsions the IMF imposes on us with every tranche it releases.
If we are able to pay back our debt, we will not be regarded as a failed State, as President Musharraf put it when he took charge of the country.
It, however, brings to mind two very critical aspects of our planning. Firstly, we have recently placed an order worth $9 billion for purchasing three Augusta submarines from France. How little, then, are our national savings worth? One begins to wonder as to who formulates our defence expenditure policy.
This hard-earned money has to go back to the West in a single order placed for the purchase of three submarines. Our defence policy imperatives are always such as to make us spend millions and even billions on purchase of military hardware (each F-16 aircraft costs $20 million).
The second aspect is even more worrisome. There are simply no jobs for the youth, to whom we are transferring the heavy burden of our international debts. I pity our new generation when I see no new economic activity in the country, no new investment. There is a ban on government jobs because we need to increase the national reserves. Overseas job windows are also being shut on us.
I would like to ask if there is an honest way left for millions of our qualified young people to make a decent living. Should we not invest our national reserves in creating job opportunities for them? Not doing so, and diverting that money to defence expenditure will only take us nearer to being a under developed state. It is also a way to becoming a terrorist state.
Mismanagement, detrimental policies and poor planning on the part of our leaders leaves us with absolutely no hope.
ARIF QAMAR KHAN
Islamabad
THE US says that it wants to liberate the suppressed people of Iraq by terminating Saddam Hussein’s tyranny and bringing democracy to the Iraqi people. Furthermore, it wants to destroy weapons of mass destruction and bring stability to the region. This is all fair enough.
But then the US also says that Saddam Hussein has links with Islamic fundamentalists, the Al Qaeda network, and that he supports the Palestinian Jihadi groups. Saddam and Islam? and Jihad?
The fact is that Saddam Hussein was known for his secular ideology, his anti-Iran and later pro-Arab republican stances, which made him popular with the Arab masses. This somewhat diluted his earlier image of being a pro-western and hence pro-Israeli Arab leader.
So the matter is not as straight as the US is trying to make out. It would have been more realistic and morally acceptable to the world at large if the US had stated its case for what it really is: that a friend of a friend is a friend and
an enemy of a friend is an enemy.
So whoever threatens the existence of Israel would expose itself to the wrath of America, which might include an armed invasion.
Most of the developed and the developing world would have readily extended their support to the only superpower if its stand had not been so morally crooked. The resentment shown by millions of people all over the world is the result of this moral confusion the US has created by concealing the real truth behind its Iraq policy.
PROF GHAYUR AYUB
Islamabad
CAPITALIZING on the 9/11 events and the sentiment against terrorism, Indian External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha, on the US counselling for a dialogue with Pakistan, retorted that he was waiting for Mr Bush to open a dialogue with Osama bin Laden (The Statesman, Feb 16).
There is no parallel as the groups struggling for freedom in Kashmir are only acting locally, even though India has endeavoured to implicate these groups with terrorist activities in their capital cities and on certain civilian targets without any evidence.
As a matter of fact, in the infamous massacre of 36 Sikhs at Chattisinghpura in occupied Kashmir in March 2000 on the eve of US president Clinton’s visit, the Indian security forces gunned down five boys in Panchal, claiming them to be the killers. On the protest of the relatives, their bodies were exhumed on April 6 and 7 for investigations, and then their blood samples were tampered with, which would have proved they were not the killers. The conduct of the investigations with cover-up and evidences suggested that RAW themselves carried out the killings to implicate Muslim militants.
In an interview with Outlook India (Feb 24), the minister stated that Pakistan’s nuclear weapons “are already in the wrong hands”. I would leave it to the National Command Authority for any comments on this one.
RAFI AHMED
Karachi
PUBLIC transport has become a major source of noise pollution in Karachi, causing a serious health hazard.
Buses, mini-buses, water tankers and trucks unnecessarily use pressure horns, driving other motorists and commuters crazy. Besides causing tension, this type of noise pollution is injurious to people’s hearing. Schoolchildren are at greater risk of being exposed to the noise pollution.
You may phone the police, the environment protection people or the CPLC, nobody has a clue to this problem; hence its unabated continuation.
Will the authorities concerned wake up and do the needful so as to save Karachiites from this torture?
PROF EJAZ MIAN
Karachi
IF all the ‘vows’ of our politicians had been fulfilled, Pakistan would be an Asian giant today.
Now Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali vows to end corruption, but what about the so many ploys he has allegedly used to come to power, such as offering ministries to turncoats, canvassing for his own party in the by-election at state expenditure and ordering purchase of duty-free limousines.
Like charity, corruption, too, begins at home, doesn’t it?
KHURSHID ANWER
Lahore
WHAT does the slogan “Pakistan first” mean? Does it simply mean that we as Pakistanis should put the interests of Pakistan first and foremost? No. Behind this cleverly coined slogan there is a hidden meaning, which implies that we should be selfish, self-centred and opportunist.
Pakistan was not made for a nation that wanted to be free; it was made for Muslims who wanted to practise Islam freely. Islam is the adhesive that binds Pakistan together, and if we formulate slogans which are against the essence of Islam then it will jeopardize the existence of Pakistan itself.
We, as Muslims, are required to feel the same pain and agony felt by any other Muslim anywhere in the world who is being oppressed and subjugated. The recent protests in Europe and around the world in support of Iraq should be an eye-opener for the government, which seems to think that feeling for our Muslim brothers and sisters in distress is not in our national interest.
If people on the far end of the globe can come out raising slogans against their own governments, against injustice and in support of the innocent, why is it that we should forego our responsibilities as Muslims? Just because it might hurt the interests of some of our so-called friends?
It is high time our leaders stopped being oblivious of the current situation that is staring Muslims in the face. We should not only reject but also condemn any resolution in support of a military action against Iraq. This is the last chance for our nation and for our leaders to earn back our lost dignity and pride.
SYED SALMAN ALI
Karachi
THROUGH these columns, I wish to invite the attention of our politicians and columnists to the plight of stranded Pakistanis in Bangladesh. These Pakistanis have been living in pathetic conditions in camps in the hope that some day their fellow countrymen will come to their rescue.
Recently, they have been dislodged from their camps, thereby adding to their hardship. They have fought side by side the Pakistan army in 1971 to consolidate and save the integrity of Pakistan. More than 30 years have passed, but we have not done anything to accommodate these stranded Pakistanis who seem to have been abandoned for good.
I request Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali to take the necessary measures on an urgent basis to end this national tragedy. We are here living in peace and are reaping all benefits of independence, but unfortunately we have almost forgotten this chapter of our history.
The question is, if we can accommodate millions of Burmese, Iranians and Afghans, why are we reluctant to bring these Pakistanis back?
IMTIAZ HUSSAIN
Karachi
IT is extremely distressing to know that, while the world media are busy debating the turns of events in the US-Iraq conflict, our government is busy helping the US fight complex issues like terrorism. All this, while citizens of this unfortunate country are deprived of even the bare necessities of life such as clean drinking water.
Karachi, the biggest metropolis of Pakistan, has long suffered scarcity of water. Over the years, Karachiites have grown used to boiling and filtering water to make it fit for drinking but recently even these two mechanisms are not helping as the water being supplied is mixed with sewage water.
The area in reference here is part of the most highly planned and well-managed residential and commercial areas of Karachi, i.e. DHA, Phase V. The people here have been facing this problem for two years and their complaints just fall on deaf ears.
The irony touches its peak when our government, so devoted to the service of its citizens, spends thousands of rupees on educating people about the importance of hygiene and the need to get vaccinated against deadly diseases like hepatitis and cholera, gastroenteritis and typhoid, but fails to provide something as basic as clean drinking water. One wonders that if the state of one of the most privileged housing societies in the country is such then how do those living in katchi abadies survive.
DR MUHAMMAD AZHAR MUGHAL
Karachi
IT is good that PTV has introduced the Prime Time channel for overseas Pakistanis. Here in the United States, almost all Pakistanis enjoy this facility which keeps them in touch with their country of origin, specially through the 9pm Khabarnama.
However, the TV channel does telecast business and stock market news in the US. We miss this important news segment, for we want to keep ourselves abreast of business-related developments with a view to investing our capital in Pakistan, particularly in the stock market. I request PTV to consider this aspect and telecast business and stock market news in the Khabarnama.
SULTAN HASHMI
New Jersey, USA
THE undersigned organizations are deeply disappointed by the response given by the UNDP representative to the open letter by Ms Faryal Gauhar. Several rights organizations have already registered their concern with the UNDP and the Planning Commission, Government of Pakistan, over the inclusion of Sarwar Khan Mohmand in the meeting organized by both these agencies in Islamabad on Feb 6.
Samia Sarwar’s murder put the spotlight on the practice of honour killing in Pakistan. International and national human rights forums, including human rights mechanisms of the United Nations, have voiced their condemnation and concern over this practice.
There is strong and credible evidence that high officials of the then government influenced the investigation in Samia’s case and protected the accused, including her father, who were suspected of ordering the killing. The collusion of the family became evident when members of her family saved Samia’s uncle (who was charged with murder by a court) from prosecution, taking advantage of a controversial law that allows compounding of the offence of murder by the heirs of the victim.
This has resulted in impunity in cases involving honour killings, which are usually committed with the complicity of the family of the victim.
It is deplorable that someone so closely associated with the commission of a heinous crime in the name of “honour” should hold a position of influence in any organization in Pakistan. By inviting such an organization to any event, the Government of Pakistan only exposes its disregard for women’s right to life and dignity, and its indifference towards the promotion of respect for women’s rights as a value in Pakistan.
It is even more shocking that the UNDP, an organ of the United Nations system, should concur with the inclusion of such persons in their programmes. Those organizing the events on behalf of the UNDP should have a level of awareness that precludes such eventualities.
The UNDP’s resident representative should neither be dismissive of the indignation expressed by Faryal Gauhar nor attempt to absolve his agency from the responsibility for such a serious oversight.
We, the undersigned, strongly protest against this lapse on the part of the UNDP, and expect an assurance from the UNDP and the government of Pakistan, that any individual or organization represented by a person directly associated with, or supporting violence against women, will be excluded from all their activities.
WOMEN’S ACTION FORUM, SHIRKATGAH, HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION OF PAKISTAN, SIMORGH and AGHS LEGAL AID CELL
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