| July 12, 2003 | Saturday | Jumadi-ul-Awwal 11, 1424 |
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Karachi blast
Recruitment dilemma
IT is good news that there will after all be a South Asian summit in Islamabad next January. Scheduled for January last, the summit meeting of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation fell victim to tensions between Pakistan and India. Even though the summit was to be held months after the eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation along the Indo-Pakistan border had ended, India failed to confirm its participation. That served only to put the process of normalization between Pakistan and India on hold. Finally on Thursday the foreign secretaries of the Saarc countries meeting in Kathmandu decided that the summit would be held in Islamabad on January 4-6 next year. The decision coincided with the Pakistan high commissioner presenting his credentials to the Indian president. Then yesterday, a luxury coach carrying 45 passengers from different countries left Lahore for New Delhi to mark the resumption of the Indo-Pakistan bus service after a suspension of more than one and a half years. These developments are good news for all lovers of peace, normality and regional cooperation not only between Pakistan and India but among all other countries of South Asia.
The Saarc summit is six months away, and one looks forward to the gathering of the seven South Asian heads of state and government with hope and anticipation. However, a review of the history of Saarc leaves little room for optimism. The organization came into being at Dhaka 17 years ago, but it has very little to show by way of concrete achievements. There are plans and plans, but mostly on paper. In theory, they are quite impressive. They provide for liberalizing visa and travel restrictions, freer movement of newspapers and periodicals, greater cultural exchanges, especially at the media level, and close cooperation in the campaign against narcotics, smuggling and environmental degradation. However, there has not been much progress on these fronts worth mentioning. In sharp contrast, one can see the degree of multilateral cooperation that some other regional groupings such as the European Union and the Association of South-East Asian Nations have been able to achieve. In the Saarc region, however, it is the political differences between Pakistan and India that have blocked all progress toward inter-state cooperation.
As Saarc’s two major countries, Pakistan and India should set an example for other states in the region by removing the hurdles in the way of bilateral cooperation. Vigorous and multifaceted cooperation between Pakistan and India could then serve as an incentive for other regional states to do the same. Instead, by even refusing to talk to each other on issues of difference for long periods, Islamabad and New Delhi have done no service to themselves or to the peoples of the region. There are, of course, many disputes between Pakistan and India, but these should not have been allowed to come in the way of mutually beneficial cooperation in economic, commercial and cultural fields. In fact, fruitful regional cooperation should help Pakistan and India tackle their bilateral problems in an atmosphere of mutual trust and confidence.
If they are really earnest about it, the Saarc states have a vast field in which they can cooperate for the benefit of their peoples. Mass literacy, population planning and poverty reduction are areas where the Saarc states can benefit from each other’s experience and expertise. The volume of trade among the regional states is negligible, even though one of the aims of the organization is to integrate the regional economies to meet the challenges of globalization. In this respect, one hopes the coming Islamabad summit will approve the draft agreement being prepared for a South Asian free trade area.
THE death of two persons in a bomb explosion in a multi-storied building on Sharea Faisal in Karachi yesterday was a harsh reminder that the city’s security situation remains extremely fragile. A half-kilogram time bomb was planted near the entrance of the 10-storey office building which exploded, damaging the building’s lower floors and killing a security guard and a passerby. Fortunately, it happened quite early in the morning or else there might have been many more casualties. Senior police officials say that the motive for the attack remains unclear though they have called it an act of terrorism. The building houses the office of at least one foreign company and is itself alleged to have a controversial history. One plausible motive could be that the blast was intended as a message to the owners of the building and their close associates who are said to have close links to the international underworld.
Whatever the motive and the identity of the elements behind the attack, once again the law enforcement agencies in the city seem to have been caught napping and perplexed. This is surprising because the blast occurred at a time when the police and intelligence personnel here were supposed to have been in a state of high alert following last Friday’s suicide bombing massacre in Quetta that left 48 people dead. The explosion did not take place in some remote part of the city but in a building situated on the main arterial road that leads to Jinnah international airport. Also, the building is situated in a busy commercial area.
The law enforcement agencies, especially the police, need to review their existing security plan for the city. The effectiveness of police checkposts set up on various roads in the city needs to be re-evaluated because they have not been able to prevent acts of violence and terror in the city or even more commonplace crimes such as robberies and car-snatchings. The staff deployed at these points could be better used elsewhere, especially in patrolling. Better surveillance, coupled with good intelligence work, can perhaps prove more effective in preventing acts of terrorism. Another sorry aspect of the overall crime situation is that in most cases of terror and violence, the culprits remain uncaught and therefore unpunished — which naturally emboldens elements out to create panic and scare in society for one reason or another.
THE delay in starting the long-awaited recruitment process in Punjab is being attributed to pressure from MPAs for accommodation of their recommended candidates. This was not unexpected, given the pattern of recruitment under previous elected governments. The Punjab government, committed to the principle of merit, has understandably been put in a quandary. Ignoring the wishes and expectations of the elected members might not be easy for it, given the unstinted support extended to it by them on crucial issues confronting the government at the moment. Also with an eye to the future, disregarding the recommendations of MPAs altogether would be difficult. Elected representatives also cannot dismiss out of hand the pressure exerted on them by their constituents for helping them in the matter of employment. Moreover, job openings have been created after a number of years, and naturally there are long lines of aspirants, particularly for police jobs.
The delay in recruitment is particularly upsetting for applicants who have the required qualifications for being selected on merit in the normal course and have been waiting for jobs for long. At the same time, it is unlikely that most of those having the backing of MPAs do not meet the criteria laid down for appointment. It would be absurd to reject them simply because they have been recommended by elected representatives. What is important is that those selected for the posts lying vacant come up to the required standards and the principle of merit is not compromised at any cost. The quality of public administration which has declined over the years will suffer further if this vital point is ignored altogether.