| May 11, 2003 | Sunday | Rabi-ul-Awwal 8, 1424 |
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Media coverage of Sars
Anti-beggary legislation
Restoring democracy
Sugarcane rates in Sindh
Replacement of power meters
MMA’s version of Islam
Politics of exclusion
‘View from Margalla’
ME: a roadmap to nowhere
THE recent signs of thaw in India-Pakistan relations, along with the news about resumption of negotiations with the LTTE and the Maoists by the governments of Sri Lanka and Nepal, are welcome developments. History suggests that achieving peace in the region is likely to be a long struggle with many ups and downs.
If and when the parties to all South Asian conflicts sign on the dotted line to end them, there will be many civil society, human rights and development issues to be tackled.
To keep the process of peace and development moving towards its eventual goals, the leaders and the concerned organizations will need not only the good wishes, but also active help from the peace, harmony, and human rights activists and organizations.
It is a moment of great opportunity for all of us who aspire for peace, tolerance and prosperity of South Asia. We have to prove that we can do more than engage in wishful thinking, or a few anti-war protests. We have to determine and demonstrate how committed we really are to peace and just development in South Asia. How much of our personal resources, including skills, money, time and energy, can we invest in this process?
Let us make a commitment to devote at least one hour a week to do something positive toward this end. We can use the time to organize talks, discussions, civic dialogues, rallies, human chains, candle vigils, petition drives, and/or write newspaper letters in support of peace and harmony in South Asia. If someone cannot spare time, he/she can donate one hour’s wages to a South Asian peace and harmony organization of his/her choice.
Those who cannot afford to spare either the time or the money can make a commitment to smile at, shake hands with, or hug another South Asian, preferably someone from a nationality, religion, or ethnicity different from their own. At the very least, they can sign ACHA Declaration of Commitment (or something similar) and put it up at their desk at work or school, and/or on the refrigerator at their home.
The Association for Communal Harmony in Asia plans to organize a civic dialogue on “India-Pakistan-Kashmir” in October-November, at Portland State University, in Portland Oregon, US.
PRITAM K. ROHILA
Executive Director, ACHA,
(via email)
WE belong to a generation which opened its eyes to see the holocaust of partition. The memories of childhood are so terrible and haunting that they have left indelible impact on our personality.
The ruthless killing of the people in the two neighbouring countries was the result of the short-sightedness and vested interests of the politicians on both sides.
God has provided us with an opportunity to live like a civilized people as envisioned by the Father of the Nation and Mahatama Gandhi. Hopefully this time the hawks will not be allowed to sabotage the process of peace.
MUHAMMAD KHALIL
Lahore
WHEN a few decades back the news of AIDS surfaced in the international media, the media pundits in the East started highlighting their own version of the dreadful disease which was based upon little or no scientific evidence.
This scenario no doubt caused alarm and harassment in the eastern nations most of whom are still living under the shadow of ignorance, hunger and disease. Some of the critics went a step further in explaining the AIDS phenomenon and opined that AIDS was merely a western phenomenon as debauchery and depravity were rife in those countries and most of the Asians were safe because of their cultural norms and strict moral codes.
But science has witnessed another side of the picture and soon afterwards, the virus spread dramatically in the sex capitals of the East, including Bangkok, Manila and Bombay. Now the global community is faced with another health issue in the form of the Sars virus which, according to certain media reports, has originated in the East and, owing to fast air travel, has now crossed the boundaries of the world, providing an opportunity to the critics in the West to blame some eastern nations for their inability to contain the spread of the virus.
In the case of Sars, instead of making serious scientific attempts to curb the menace, the scientific community is engaged in a row over the origin of the virus and in blaming some countries and international organizations like WHO for their callous attitude in dealing with the Sars cases about a year back.
In the global fight against Sars, the people should not pay heed to the sensational media coverage about the spread of the virus, although we certainly know that the fear originates from the fact that this is a novel disease and many aspects of this epidemic are still mysterious. Sars has till now killed about 350 people worldwide but the people have reacted to it with a level of fear that is not commensurate with the size of the problem.
The simple scientific fact is that Sars, caused by a relative of the common cold virus, is preventable and curable. It has infected about 6,000 people in nearly 30 countries and has a mortality rate of about six per cent. While comparing Sars with AIDS we should understand that AIDS kills virtually everyone it infects without treatment and there is no cure and no vaccine. In contrast, scientific studies have proved that 94 per cent of Sars patients recover.
So far, in our country no case of Sars has been reported and the authorities in the ministry of health have formulated a strategy to face any challenge. A crisis centre has been established in the National Institute of Health, Islamabad.
Our media should adopt a more cautious approach to avoid the spread of fear as it spreads faster than the virus.
DR HASAN FAISAL
Rawalpindi
ACCORDING to reports published in the press recently, Punjab Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi has “directed the police to capture crippled children found begging”. He has also given indications of moving a bill in the provincial assembly to combat the increasing menace of begging. This is a welcome realization on the part of the government to adopt suitable measures for combating mendicancy in the province.
The number of mendicants in Lahore has increased manifold in recent years and begging has become an organized profession. The establishment of Zakat committees and the doling out of money from Zakat fund seems to have failed to check this growing menace.
The community of beggars includes children of different ages, able-bodied young men and women, and old persons, who adopt various tactics in soliciting alms. Begging is also carried on in the garb of selling religious books, combs, match-boxes and other items of mundane use.
Another category of well-dressed beggars goes from door to door in posh areas narrating their woeful plight. Exploiting the “pride” of a white-collar individual, they solicit alms to meet the needs of their families. Some beggars have adopted the profession on their own volition, either due to physical disability or for any other reason. But many of them are forced to get into the act by organized groups. Included in this category are young but kidnapped and maimed children, who are used as a ploy for begging.
Like the value of shops in different commercial areas in the city, there are also certain begging points, which too have heavy premium on them. Begging cannot prosper if people stop giving money to the mendicants. However, both at the governmental level and at the individual level, not much seems to have been done to eradicate this evil, though one often hears about the “resolve” of the government to put an end to this profession.
One can only hope that the “determination” of the chief minister to eliminate begging from the provincial metropolis and other areas of the province will result in combating this social evil.
SAEED MALIK
Lahore
IN the October 2002 election there were some serious flaws, as mentioned in various newspapers and the report of the European Union observers. The government officials’ interference was on a large scale in favour of the PML-Q. The HRCP field personnel also observed many irregularities in more than 500 polling stations.
Now the provincial assemblies, as well as the National Assembly, have been occupied by the old clans. The graduation bar and the accountability drive have failed to make any difference as influential families have made their way to the assemblies. The graduation bar hit some individuals, but failed to keep traditional feudal class away from politics. Therefore, it is quite clear that hard core feudals have not lost their grip on power.
The Representation of People’s Act, 1976, Section 12(2)(c), provides that a member is not qualified to sit in our assemblies if he obtains a loan for an amount of two million rupees or more from any bank, financial institution, cooperative society or a corporate body and he has not paid for more than one year from the due date or has got such loan written off. Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Chaudhry Pervez Elahi are involved in two such loans which have not been yet paid or which have been written off. This is recorded in the annual reports of the banks concerned for those years. This fact alone was sufficient for the disqualification of the Chaudhrys.
The poor, unsuspecting people of this country do not want democracy; they want relief from poverty, ignorance, corruption, inflation, unemployment, crime, etc. Mind you, the holding of a general election does not guarantee a smooth and untrammelled operation of democracy.
We have honest people in our country, who can bring back to Pakistan the glory that it deserves and which the Quaid-i-Azam had promised us.
S.A. KHOKHAR
Lahore
THE government of Sindh has fixed the sugarcane price in the province at Rs43 per maund. Twenty-seven sugarcane mill owners refused to accept this rate and even went to court, but their plea was rejected. Nevertheless, they have continued to pay the rates of their own choice.
To be more precise, a mill-owner of Naudero has defiantly fixed his own price at Rs36 per maund out of which he deducts Rs4 as transportation charges, leaving the grower with only Rs32. He claims that Rs36 per maund is the price approved by the minister for commerce.
Having publicly declared the sugarcane rate at Rs43 per maund, the 27 mill owners cannot be allowed to defy the government and rob the growers.
ONE WHO KNOWS
Karachi
WAPDA has come up with another dirty trick to be played on the poor consumers. This time it is going to replace all the old energy meters with the new ones.
During the last meeting of Mr Shaukat Aziz with the delegates of the IMF and the World Bank, I believe Mr Aziz must have shown his helplessness to raise the rate of power consumption because of the present democratic set-up in the country.
Obviously, the delegates may have suggested that, instead of raising the tariff directly, Wapda can switch to meters adjusted to run 25 per cent faster. This is exactly what Wapda has started doing now.
I had the opportunity to check and compare the energy meters supplied by Wapda. The ones manufactured by Syed & Co. (popularly known as “black meters”) are the most accurate — as accurate as the china make. The rest, and particularly the ones installed during the last three years, run faster by at least 15 per cent. The meter installed at my residence runs faster by almost 20 per cent.
One may naturally wonder if there is an organization such as consumers’ protection committee/union operating in the country to stop Wapda from fleecing the common man by applying new tricks. If the meters are not properly calibrated, let an independent organizations such as the instruments’ department of the engineering universities check them.
I hope our democratic leaders, particularly Mr Sherpao and Mr Jamali, take strong notice of it and stop the replacement of the old meters in the country. This is the issue which is more important than the LFO.
PROF ROEDAR AHMAD KHAN
Peshawar
ACCORDING to a recent news report, the NWFP government has made it mandatory for the schoolchildren to wear shalwar-kameez at schools. My hats off to the provincial government!
This, I believe, is in line with their pledge to “Islamize” the people of their province. Wearing shalwar-kameez, I am sure, is the “panacea” for all the problems like poverty, illiteracy, crime, economic stagnation, lack of health facilities, etc.
As if the 11-year-long
“golden era” of Gen Zia’s Islamization wasn’t enough, we have yet another government, this time at the provincial level, making us miserable with their version of Islam.
FAISAL SIDDIQI
Karachi
IN his article, “Politics of exclusion” (April 27), Mr Anwar Syed has made a forceful and passionate appeal for pardoning and re-inducting former chief minister of Punjab, Mr Shahbaz Sharif, into Pakistan’s political mainstream. The professor has bracketed Mr Sharif with the Quaid-i-Azam, H. S. Suhrawardy and Sir Feroze Khan Noon where political stature, sagacity, integrity and governability are concerned.
I don’t know how the readers of Dawn will react to the professor‘s assessment of the younger Sharif, but one thing is being overlooked here. When Gen Zia took the elder brother Nawaz Sharif under his wings, the younger was virtually an unknown entity, till the latter was groomed and gradually elevated to position-two on the winner’s podium. Right? But it is alleged that the elder was simultaneously engaged in building his empire by chipping away fat chunks of national wealth and indulging in other indiscretions.
This implies that the ‘outstanding‘ and ‘incorruptible‘ younger brother was privy to the elder’s political and financial misdeeds. I am not a lawyer but does this not make Mr Shahbaz Sharif an unprotesting accomplice of his elder sibling since both brothers and their families gained, some say massively, from the alleged self-aggrandizement? It is another matter that there are a great number of such self-aggrandizers in our country.
SYED MAHBOOB AHMED
Karachi
THIS refers to the article by Onlooker (April 28) under the headline, “View from Margalla — a breakthrough in the offing?”
The para concerning me is totally incorrect. I have not been “assigned the task of producing TV programmes designed to clinch the president’s assignment with regard to the LFO. The TV programme “LFO 2002 and Pakistan constitutional history” was not a result of any instruction to me. I researched and wrote the historical position of the LFO because the national debate about the LFO seemed devoid of facts and oblivious to our own history. No other programme on the LFO is planned or is in the offing.
Although I have been associated with television for over 23 years now (albeit at a distance), I do not even know how a programme is edited. For Onlooker to suggest that the “president himself edits these programmes” appears rather ridiculous.
Lastly, no grand gala dinner in honour of the president has been organized by me at any farm-house to celebrate the success of any programme.
NAEEM BOKHARI
Islamabad
THIS refers to Dr Iffat Idris Malik’s article (May 8). He writes that the Holy Land problem long awaits resolution and peace; however, the motivation of the parties involved are very pessimistically questionable.
The writer further illustrates that the roadmap is not transparent, and rather contains many unmarked ambiguous points. They will give Israelis an opportunity to wield their clever tactics and pretexts to slow down the process.
For instance, the guidelines of the quote-unquote roadmap to peace embeds bilateral concessions, namely ending of Palestinian suicide bombing and Israeli pullout from the post-2000 settlements. This does not seem resolvable because Israel demands an impeccable end to Palestinian suicide bombing and other sort of violence, and, on the other hand, the Palestinian government does not have total control over the militant groups present in Palestine. In other words, there can never be a total halt imposed on suicide bombing for resisting the Israeli brutal occupation.
The Israeli vice-prime minister, Ehud Olmert, said in his interview with US TV journalist Mr Charlie Rose on Wednesday’s (May 7) Charlie Rose Show that Israel would never come to a peace settlement with Palestinian unless there was a complete stop on suicide bombing and other kind of violence. He further mentioned that Palestinian first should go after the militant groups, Hams and Al Fatah, and eradicate their bases. Nevertheless, he also strongly rejected that there would no way be an acceptance of the Oslo accord, nor any of the Palestinians refugees would ever be allowed to return to their homes in Israeli control; that would, in his opinion, result in two Palestinian states: one of their own and one within Israel with a majority of Palestinians.
Furthermore, the staff writer of Christian Science Monitor, Nicole Gaouette, shows (May 7) her scepticism for the newly US-tailored roadmap. She writes that “neither side believes the other is ready and willing to honour the letter and spirit of the roadmap”. Israelis blame it on Palestinians to be a constraint for this peace process.
Palestinians, on the contrary, fear Sharon’s current silence since the roadmap was presented, according to Ms Gaouette. She quotes Palestinian Labour Minister Ghassan Khalib as saying that “the Israeli government is coming from an ideology and political strategy that is completely incompatible with basic notions on which the roadmap is build”.
Any independent state has the right and privilege to enjoy its sovereignty, and it has the right to have its own military to defend its frontiers. However, in the Palestinian case, it is a “no, no”; Israeli Prime Minister Sharon bluntly said in his December 2002 speech that “any Palestinian state would be completely demilitarized and Israel would control all the entries and exits and command its airspace”.
Finally, I would say that this so-called roadmap for peace is another US tactic to please Britain because it has been sceptical of American motives towards a peaceful Middle East. The rule of thumb in any peace negotiation is that the third party must be completely neutral. Nonetheless, in the case of the Middle East, the US is completely biased and would do anything to safeguard Israeli interests. Therefore, this roadmap is going to be an effort towards a pre-envisioned and pre-conceived failure.
JAWAID HUSSAIN BALOCH
Dallas, TX, USA
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