| August 11, 2003 | Monday | Jumadi-us-Sani 12, 1424 |
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Curse of narcotics
Body count in Iraq
THE commitment on Thursday to the city government by President Musharraf to involve other stakeholders like the KPT and the Railways in a massive infrastructure development programme for Karachi is a welcome announcement. Part of the problem has been the fact that there are over 17 stakeholders in the city but it is only the city government that is expected to service Karachi’s needs. This is unfair. General Musharraf was right when he observed that the development of Karachi’s infrastructure should be done on a massive scale and not in a piecemeal manner. Previous efforts have come to naught owing to lack of coordination among various stakeholders and their unwillingness to share the financial burden involved in carrying out the necessary repair and renovation.
The most important aspect of this plan is the 20 billion rupees that the city Nazim, Naimatullah Khan, says is needed for the overhaul. On this, President Musharraf has offered some suggestions. He has called for prudent utilization of funds, and has given the example of the army and its subsidiary organizations, which were used for several infrastructure projects at costs that were much cheaper than what was originally quoted by private firms or government contractors. President Musharraf has also suggested that billions of rupees can be generated if some 268 buildings, illegally raised in Karachi, were regularized. His logic here is that the buildings are one of the ills that cannot be undone and that the most that can be done is to regularize them at an appropriate cost to the builders, the funds so generated being used for the development of Karachi’s infrastructure. It is, of course, logical to work towards reducing the costs of infrastructural projects. But the point to ponder is whether it will be a sound practice to regularize what are essentially illegally constructed buildings for the short-term gain of raising funds. This sets a bad precedent in the long term. The whole exercise of raising additional funds for urgent tasks of repair and renovation is an issue that is yet to be addressed.
While taking a look at the staggering nature of Karachi’s problems and the increasing pressure on civic and utility agencies, one is appalled to realize that large tracts of this metropolis are beyond the control of the city government. No exact statistics are available, but if one were to take into account the localities run by the cantonment boards and the lands in possession of the armed forces, the Railways and the KPT, then one realizes that millions of people live in areas beyond the jurisdiction of the municipal authorities. This obviously militates against sound planning.
As time passes, Karachi’s problems are likely to worsen, because the population will continue to grow owing both to the natural increase and to the in-migration. This will add to the pressure on such services as education, water, power, housing, sanitation, health, etc. Yet, regretfully, there is no master plan in hand that could absorb the shocks of the future. The city obviously needs a fabulous amount of money on a regular basis if it were to meet the challenges of the future. Where this money will come from is a big question. One hopes that the stakeholders the president referred to will contribute to a solution of the city’s problems, and the federal government will come out with adequate grants to help it absorb future pressures.
ACCORDING to some foreign press reports, the commander of the American forces in Afghanistan has alleged that drug trafficking in that country is being used to finance the ongoing war against the US forces and the Karzai government. Given the past history of this region, which has over the years emerged as the major poppy grower in the world, Gen Hagenbeck’s charges carry much weight. Political turbulence and drug trafficking appear to go hand in hand in southwestern Asia, as in Latin America. Poverty is an additional factor which provides a congenial environment for drug smugglers for carrying on their trade. It is, of course, known that there is a growing demand for drugs in the markets of Europe and America.
The opium trade in Afghanistan has serious implications not just for the US but also for Pakistan. It is claimed that the heroin money is being used by the warlords to finance their military campaign against the Americans in the Helmand region. The money they earn from the narcotic trade enables them to recruit fighters. This not only impedes the political and economic reconstruction of that war-torn country but also makes it likely that the turmoil will continue. Besides, the Afghan drug trade has done incalculable harm to this country. Drug pushers and peddlers help create a market by luring the youth into heroin addiction. From zero in 1979, the number of heroin addicts in Pakistan has grown to over four million.
In the year 2000 Pakistan was declared to be poppy free. Although the government still claims this to be the case, officials of the Anti- Narcotic Force believe that large areas in the tribal belt have come under poppy cultivation, and Balochistan has also taken to this activity. While it is essential that the law enforcement agencies crack down on this illicit activity, the authorities must also formulate an economic strategy. Poppy cultivation was largely eliminated in the region when growers were offered incentives to grow other crops. It is vital that everything is done to prevent the spread of poppy cultivation.
THE exact number of American casualties suffered during the occupation of Iraq continues to be a much-debated figure. With election year for George W. Bush just around the corner and with many Americans expressing increasing concern at the almost daily attacks on their soldiers in Iraq, this issue has the potential to snowball into a major impediment to Mr Bush’s re-election. To downplay the issue, the Pentagon has devised a novel method for counting its casualties. Instead of using the beginning of the invasion as the starting point — which would seem to be a logical choice — the Pentagon uses May 1, the day when the US president declared the “end of major combat operations”. To narrow the figure even further it differentiates between those killed by “hostile fire” and those who died in non-combat situations.
As it turns out, if one were to go by the Pentagon’s cut-off date the number of American dead, as of August 8, comes to 55. This figure conveniently ignores the fact that the number of US soldiers who died because of non-combat causes like accidents since May 1 is 58. The actual number of US casualties — both in combat and in accidents — since the conflict began is much higher at 251. Even if the category of combat deaths is looked at since the war began, the figure is 166. As far as the injured and wounded are concerned, there seems to be no exact figure with official spokespersons often giving vague and highly ambiguous statements. One would hope that the American public can see through the deceptive tactics employed by the US administration to hide the fact that its adventure in Iraq is not quite running as smoothly as expected. More importantly, it is time Washington realized the potential hazards involved in such deliberate fudging of the number of its own war dead.