| May 3, 2003 | Saturday | Safar 30, 1424 |
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Police Act: some shortcomings
PCB hierarchy & Majid Khan
The other view
Peanuts for old pensioners
LFO phobia
NAB’s credibility
Websites
Inordinate delay
Caution against SARS
Swiss banking
THIS refers to the article by Anwar Syed, “Iraq as it was then” (April 20).
The author defines pre-1958 Iraq as “quasi-democratic”, an unwarranted appellation. Before the republican coup in 1958, led by nationalist military officers, Iraq was ruled by a corrupt monarchy dominated by the regent, Nuri al-Said.
When the British decided to piece together the modern nation-state of Iraq and “free” it in 1932, the people were not even asked whether they wanted a republic or a monarch. In the sham election that followed, King Faisal, the Hashemite monarch, was imposed on them. The Iraqi governments which followed could not be called democratic and reflected the politics of the Arab world in general before Nasser’s rise in 1952.
Mr Syed wonders why the 1958 nationalist coup occurred in an Iraq which was doing ‘reasonably well’. A modest answer is: the rise of Arab nationalism in the 1950s, which saw the ouster of corrupt monarchies in Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Libya and Yemen and the rise of a more ‘nationalist’ King Faisal in Saudi Arabia, had to do with the loss of Palestine to Zionist forces in 1948.
This catastrophe was largely seen as the handiwork of corrupt, unpopular royals who enjoyed more support in the West than in Arab people’s hearts. Also, there was a deep sense of failure in the armies of these Arab countries at having failed to avert the creation of Israel. Nasser’s revolution was thus a catalyst for not only the coup in Iraq led by Abdel Karim Kassem, but also the one led by Muammar Gaddafi in Libya in 1969.
It is also worthwhile looking at what happened after the military consolidated itself in post-1958 Iraq. Despite its bonapartist credentials, Kassem’s regime has been the most popular Iraqi regime to date for the facts that it broke the back of the landowners who, as Mr Syed documents, owned about 60 per cent of the land; nationalized oil; rejected as nonsense the Baath-sponsored Arab nationalism which promoted Sunni Arab exclusivity at the cost of Kurdish and Shia resentment, which is now threatening the very social fabric of Iraq.
Moreover, Kassem’s regime remains the only one which was courageous enough to proclaim that there were two nations in Iraq: Arabs and Kurds. Also, Kassem kept the state structure rigidly secular which meant that religion was not allowed to tamper with state affairs.
It is for these reasons that the CIA decided to recruit the Baath for its ‘most favourite coup’ in 1963 to topple Kassem. Again in the 1980s the CIA helped Saddam to power and subsequently through his adventures in Iran and Kuwait, leading up to the present situation there.
It’s true that Pakistan, like Iraq, has remained under military rule for most of its history. But Mr Syed misses a point: in Iraq the military, despite its ruthlessness, has remained fiercely dedicated to Iraqi interests rather than imperialist interests.
Pakistan has never had even military rulers of Kassem’s ilk. Every ruler has allied himself with the landowners instead of providing land to the tenants; the few resources Pakistan possesses have been loaned out to predominantly imperialist interests, or in protecting its military-bureaucratic elite to carve up a huge standing army.
Iraq’s history a lesson for us, i.e. national dignity cannot be sustained by the mere possession of nuclear weapons or by explicit pandering to imperialist interests. We must get rid of this military behemoth and ensure democratic participation of multifarious nationalities and religious denominations in the political structure, albeit in a secular one.
Only then shall our rulers free themselves of the need to look to Washington’s consent rather than the Pakistani people for genuine support. Only then can we sleep peacefully in the knowledge that tomorrow Pervez Musharraf will not be relegated to a footnote of history like Iraq’s Saddam Hussein.
RAZA NAEEM
Lahore
NOTWITHSTANDING the good intentions of the government in changing the Police Act, practical shortcomings are emerging which need to be highlighted so that the Police Act can be improved.
Recently, one of our community-run security systems captured a dacoit during an encounter with a gang attempting a dacoity in Seaview Township. The captured dacoit was handed over to the police and we expected that, with a separate investigation unit under the new set-up, better results would ensure.
However, this episode revealed some functional deficiencies which need to be rectified.
i) Since the SHO is no longer responsible for investigation, he simply hands over the case to the investigation personnel who are not provided any facilities and transport, which previously were arranged by the SHO, because it was his responsibility. Thus the investigation policemen depend on friends etc. for provision of transport, which handicaps them in many ways.
ii) Investigation policemen are very few, with no logistics support whereas for investigation allied facilities are very important.
iii) The SP (investigation) is separate and sits far away and the area SP or the TPO is not directly responsible. Thus, communication between the two and the public concerned has broken down further. In the past, area associations and committees had greater liaison with police officers, but this is decreasing now. After capturing a criminal and handing him over to the police through our own efforts, it becomes difficult to prosecute and convict the dacoit.
iv) More cases will now be thrown out by court because there is no contact between the SP (investigation) and local residents in preparing evidence. Without cooperation of local residents, crime will increase, as is happening nowadays.
v) The removal of the DC has removed the check over the police and given them a free hand, which is not desirable. The DC had the powers of a magistrate which the Nazims do not have and neither are the police answerable to them.
vi) With the political government in the saddle, VIP duties by policemen are producing harmful effects on their performance. The police had more responsive to the public before the present government came into being.
This clearly shows that a separate wing needs to be raised whose sole function should be VIP duty. Unless the police are freed from this duty, crime will continue to rise, because when the police are busy somewhere else, criminals feel free to go about their business.
AZIZ SUHARWARDY
General Secretary, DACC,
Karachi
THIS refers to the comment, “PCB’s hierarchy does not believe in accountability”, by Mohammad Yaqoob (April 27).
Here is a small correction to an otherwise well-researched article. Majid Khan was not sacked from the position of Chief Executive, Pakistan Cricket Board, in 1999. The facts are that Majid Khan’s services were loaned to the Pakistan Cricket Board for three years from his parent organization, Pakistan Television Corporation, in May 1996.
The three-year tenure ended in May 1999, while the World Cup in England was still in progress. A gentleman that he is, Majid Khan neither sought for an extension, in view of the ongoing World Cup, nor was he offered any. Consequently, Majid Khan joined back his parent organization in June 1999.
The PCB board was suspended by the then President of Pakistan in August 1999, i.e. two months after Majid Khan left the PCB. For the records, it may be known that the PCB is suspended even to date.
NAVID ZAFAR
Islamabad
FOR some time I have been reading columns by Mr Irfan Hussain who, in the recent past, advocated the following theses:
1. Pakistan has undertaken a nuclear programme which has proved counter-productive and may invoke doctrine of pre-emption by the US or India.
2. Jihadis (euphemism for proactive Islamic groups) are being bolstered by the Pakistan government for cross-border intrusion into occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
3. Iran is entering into some alleged pacts with India aimed against Pakistan.
Mr Hussain is sensationalizing delicate Pakistan and Islamic issues just to play to the gallery and to attract attention by making presumptuous and illogical statements. He should know that it was Pakistani nuclear deterrent that stopped India from attacking Pakistan during the Kargil war when the supply lines to the Indian army in Siachen were cut. Only America came to the rescue of India.
Mr Hussain, it is the nuclear deterrence which have prevented India from invading Pakistan so far after the former massed several divisions of their troops on Pakistan-India borders abortively and indiscreetly.
ABDUL SAEED KHAN GHORI
Karachi
THIS refers to the letter, “Peanuts for pensioners”, by Maj (retd) H. K. Pathan (April 26). He has logically presented the facts about the plight of the old pensioners, who are well-known to our budget planners.
Let me add that an increase in pensions was last announced in November 2001 under the formula: that 15 per cent increase in the pension of those government employees who had retired before the introduction of 1991 BPS; 10 per cent increase for those who had retired before the introduction of 1994 BPS but on or after the introduction of 1991 BPS; and five per cent increase to those who had retired on
or after the introduction of 1994 BPS and up to the date of introduction of revised scales, with effect from Dec 1, 2001 (Dawn, Nov 9, 2001).
Whatever the logic behind this formula, the fact is that the pension amount which became payable after the said increase is just a peanut for the old pensioners, and there’s a big gulf between the pension of old employees and those who are now retiring in 2003.
For example, a major or his equivalent in navy, air force or civil service, who retired before 1991 gets, generally, about Rs6,000 a month as his full pension, which includes indexations /increases given periodically in the last two decades, whereas a major or his equivalent in civil service retiring now in 2003 gets between Rs8,000 and Rs10,000 a month, depending upon his length of service. This amounts to almost a difference of Rs4,000 between the pension of old and new pensioners. Therefore, this difference should be removed.
A retired civil servant of grade 18, or his equivalent in the three services, who falls in the category of old pensioner, has thus to manage his life with a pension of Rs6,000 while he is unable to earn extra money because of the age factor. The ever rising cost of living is making life for the old pensioners miserable.
Worse still is the condition of lower and middle-class pensioners. Do our budget planners have any other formula to make life easy for all pensioners, old and new alike? Moreover, pension revision be listed as an essential agenda-item in the annual budget programme.
S. AUSAF HUSAIN
Sqn-Ldr (retd),
Karachi
“LFO namanzoor” has been the slogan of the opposition for a long time now. I wonder if they have read all the clauses and understand what it is.
It appears that members in the opposition have LFO phobia, and they just do not want it in the Constitution. Let us call it with a different name like Constitutional Amendments 2002.
The 1973 Constitution in any case is not in its original shape. The changing of the Constitution by way of amendments is a continuous process. In fact, the October 2002 election was held under this amended Constitution and all the shouting legislators contested the polls after accepting it. It is part of the Constitution and, if considered necessary, some or all of its clauses may be discussed in the National Assembly.
It is an assembly of all graduate members, and I would urge all the protesting opposition members to behave like graduates. They should ask for discussion on the various LFO clauses which are not in the national interest. After due discussions this so-called LFO would become part of the Constitution.
MOHAMMAD AZHAR KHWAJA
Lahore
THE disclosure by Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, president of the Pakistan Muslim League (Q), regarding the involvement of former chief of the army staff Gen Mirza Aslam Beg in the make-and-break of political governments has shaken the nation and brought the institution of the army into disrepute.
As army chief, Gen Beg should have kept aloof from the body politic as required under the services rules and the Constitution.
Secondly, dishing out unaccounted funds of a bank as a bribe constitutes probably the most serious offence.
Is this not a cause of blatant misuse of authority? And should not the National Accountability Bureau, which has been trumpeting for the last three years of holding across-the-board accountability, take action in this regard?
ABDUL HAFIZ
Peshawar
THE NAB chairman has been brushing aside the demand of the nation to bring the armed forces within the ambit of its accountability drive by pleading that the armed forces have an in-built accountability system.
Now that Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, president of the PML-Q, has revealed the involvement of Gen Aslam Beg, the then chief of the army staff, in financial wrongdoings and the misuse of authority of the worst order, can NAB still justify its stand? Has this organization not been exposed before the nation?
KAMRAN KHAN
Peshawar
I WAS disappointed to read the report that the Pakistan government has started blocking “objectionable” web sites.
It is instructive to note the direct correlation between citizens’ freedom and access to the Internet.
RICHARD F. H.
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
A PLAUSIBLE explanation to the letter, ‘Plight of CSS-qualified candidates’ (Feb 2), was given on March 21 by the director-general of the Federal Public Service Commission.
Such inordinate delays cause great mental agonies to those who are affected, and should have been avoided.
HAFEEZ AKHTAR
Lahore
THE report headlined “94 per cent patients recover without treatment” (April 30) is misleading.
All the figures released by WHO are about hospitalised patients. Without hospitalisation and intensive care given to serious patients, the mortality figures would be much higher than five or six per cent. In fact, more accurate figures coming from Canada and Singapore are close to 10 per cent mortality.
The report states that, “even during the incubation period, the symptoms of SARS can be made out”. Incubation period is the time between exposure to the organism and the appearance of the first symptoms of the disease. It is essentially asymptomatic.
We will not be able to contain the virus if it enters Pakistan. We must do everything possible to prevent its entry.
Perhaps Taiwan’s example would be pertinent, which for the time being disallows or quarantines all individuals coming from the affected areas. In a critical situation like this it is better to be overcautious than undercautious.
DR VIQAR ZAMAN
Karachi
IN Dawn’s report of April 25, 2003, on the topic of “Swiss money feeding local bourses”, Mr Mohiuddin Aazim has referred to “some stock brokers” in Karachi speculating about the possibility of some investments representing “reverse flight of the ill-gotten money placed in Switzerland in the good old days”. In a welcome attempt to counterbalance this astonishing speculation, Mr Aazim has also quoted the more mature view of the former chairman of the Karachi Stock Exchange, Mr Arif Habib, stating that it is difficult to label these investments as ill-gotten money.
There are two options here: If these brokers really know about “ill-gotten money”, they should act in accordance with the rules of good governance. Needless to say that Switzerland would be grateful if our Pakistani friends could officially share relevant information. This would support our efforts to maintain the integrity and outstanding professionalism of the Swiss banking system. If these brokers don’t know, they have obviously nothing to say, particularly not to a respected medium like Dawn.
It is disappointing that the application of a popular — but not very well informed — stereotype concerning the financial services of my country was again deemed opportune in this context. This stereotype is in stark contrast to a UN expert report on “Financial Havens, Banking Secrecy and Money Laundering”. That report, the full text of which can be consulted in my office, provides a well-founded and objective analysis of 49 financial centres worldwide. While the Swiss financial centre is naturally also analysed, the efforts and concrete measures already implemented by Switzerland in the fight against illicit financial transactions are recognized and applauded in this independent expert report. As a former member of the Swiss delegation to the United Nations covering financial affairs, I have personally been present in the General Assembly when these delicate issues were elaborated and discussed in detail.
The issue of illicit funds is of a highly complex and global nature. One-dimensional thinking will not be a winning proposition in the fight against illegal transactions. Disinformation in this area is not only unfair; worse, it is counterproductive. I sincerely believe that more progress is possible if other financial centres undertake efforts comparable to those of Switzerland. Such measures can only be successful if implemented wordwide.
It is encouraging to see that the established international has realized the context: The Financial Times has repeatedly concluded that the measures taken by Switzerland over the past years in the fight against illicit financial transfers should be taken as a model for other financial centres like New York, London, and many others around the world.
An inflow of funds invested abroad back into Pakistan would certainly be a welcome development and a vote of confidence for the remarkable efforts of Pakistan’s top policymakers in creating framework conditions conducive to further economic progress. I wish your country well and thank you for your kind attention.
JULIUS F. ANDEREGG
Consul General of Switzerland, Karachi
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