Kashmir: new approach needed

MR Touqir Hussain has made some timely and important suggestions about the Kashmir issue (Aug 25). It is time we modified our insistence on making it the ‘core issue’. How long can we keep on calling for implementation of a UN resolution passed over half a century ago?

Even our staunch ally, the US, has only recently said it had in the past indeed supported the old UN resolution but could not insist on its implementation now. It had been overtaken by both time and events.

The obvious implication was that Pakistan and India could work out an entente cordiale, independent of the Kashmir issue.

While it is idle and impossible to suggest that we forget the thousands of Kashmiris who have died in the “intifada” in Kashmir, it would be wise to remember that in dealing with a more powerful adversary discretion is the better part of valour. President Gen pervez Musharraf has rightly said that being the more powerful of the two, it is India which should show its magnanimity. Why not give them a lever to show it?

Of course, the idea of putting Kashmir on the back-burner is nothing new. In the early sixties, when I was serving in the Azad Kashmir government, I had been encouraged by the then president of A. K. to suggest to the ministry of Kashmir affairs that Pakistan might even settle the Kashmir problem by supporting the demand for an independent Kashmir. India was “soft” on the idea at the time. I can recall discussing my note with the Kashmir affairs secretary (a senior ex-ICS officer) who said that the very idea would be unacceptable to the military leadership, because a continuance of the Kashmir imbroglio was “bread and butter” for the army itself.

A lot of water has flowed down the Jhelum river since then, but has that sine qua non changed in any significant manner? Hopefully it has, and sufficiently enough to permit serious thought being given to flexibility in our principled stand on the Kashmir issue.

In the context of current world affairs and the geopolitical compulsions now impinging on our borders, I am sure that President Gen Pervez Musharraf and his top brass might also be thinking on, if not identical, then perhaps on similar lines.

S. ASIF MAJEED

Karachi

Closure of Frere Hall book bazaar

THIS refers to the two news stories published on Aug 25, titled “Frere Hall book bazaar closed at request by US consul” and “Plot for city library lying vacant for 12 years”. It is shocking to know that one of the few places where Karachiites can go and get decent and cheap books have been closed at the request of the US consul.

The US diplomats do not have much presence left in Karachi, and as the US has been funding its propaganda machines all over the world about fanaticism, it should realize that fanaticism comes with illiteracy. If they want students and young minds to get hold of books and not weapons, they have to help by not taking away the best form of education from us. They can start from Karachi which has seen many transitions in the past. People have suffered at the hands of regionalists and religious fanatics.

They can start by funding the city library in the heart of the city, as this project has not seen the light yet because of lack of fund. Also, the American consulate once housed an American centre with a good library, which has not been accessible to Karachiites for a long time now. It will be a nice gesture by the US government to help the city by funding its central library.

It’s a fact that the US government had spent billions of dollars funding fanatics for weapons here during the Afghanistan war in the ‘80s in the name of Jihad. It is time they spent a few millions for education in this part of the world.

If the US consul cannot even help the people of Karachi in this regard, then he can just call the governor or the chief minister of Sindh to take steps for moving the book bazaar to an appropriate place rather closing it down, or he should ask them to move it to the vacant plot of the city library.

WAJAHAT MEHDI

Detroit, MI

Pakistan’s Afghan policy

AFTER 9/11 Pakistan’s foreign policy towards Afghanistan has taken a U-turn. Although Pakistan is a frontline state in the so-called war against terrorism led by the US, it has to face some troubles also. While Islamabad is trying to better its relations with Kabul, the key warlords are still against it. India has opened four of its consulates along the Pakistan border in Afghanistan. Certainly, these consulates will work against the sovereignty of our country.

Since the Russian invasion in Afghanistan, Pakistan has been suffering equally as the Afghan people. It is suffering because of the burden of the Afghan refugees, weapon culture that developed in the wake of the refugee influx, and rise in sectarianism. and a long vulnerable border with anti-Pakistan emotions.

During the war Pakistan helped the Afghan fighters. When the war ended, it was perhaps a wrong strategy for Islamabad to back the 60 per cent Afghans and their well-wishers and ignore the 40 per cent Uzbeks, Tajiks and others. Now we are vulnerable to the 40 per cent ignored minority, and consequently facing troubles.

It would be good for both Pakistan and Afghanistan to come closer and immediately resolve border and refugee issues. Pakistan can play a remarkable role in Afghanistan’s reconstruction. Islamabad has taken some good steps to improve relations with Kabul. At the meeting between Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz and Afghan Minister Ashraf Ghani, it was decided that Pakistan would reduce duty on Afghan exports.

It would also open two branches of its banks in Afghanistan. Upgradation of Torkham-Jalalabad Road was also included in the agreement. Pakistan will give assistance to Afghanistan to improve its customs administration and take another six items off the list of items that Afghanistan traders were prohibited from importing through Pakistan.

MUSHARAF ZAHOOR

Islamabad

President’s assurance

THE president while addressing 40 parliamentarians of the ruling coalition on Aug 18 declared that although he was not satisfied with the performance of parliament, the assemblies and the government will complete their normal tenure. This timely declaration by the president will create a sense of satisfaction among the democracy-loving people and clouds of uncertainty regarding dissolution of the assemblies would dilute.

It is pertinent to note that parliamentary democracy requires rule by the majority party, with proper accommodation of the opposition. Examples are abundant when ruling parties with very thin majority could succeed in completing their normal tenure very effectively. The president has taken a bold step to call the session of the National Assembly which will continue for three months without any break. The government, during this period, should do proper legislation.

If the opposition feels it appropriate to abstain, forget them. Every citizen, including the opposition, must realize that issues like the LOF, uniform and NSC can be resolved only if the system is allowed to sustain and work.

S. ALI NASIR RIZVI

Lahore

Dr Kelly’s death & Iraq

THE cause of the death of Dr David Kelly has been made public now through the courtesy of Lord Hutton’s inquiry committee’s efforts and is the subject of the world media.

It has been proved beyond any shadow of doubt that there was no cause or justification for launching an attack on Iraq by any outside forces, and the death of Dr Kelly has been the result of British government’s illegal moral pressure on him, and 10 Downing Street acted in a most questionable manner to prepare false dossiers to convey a frantic attempt to justify action against Saddam Hussein in their infamous “45 minutes warning” which turned Iraq upside down.

It has already been summarised that Mr Tony Blair’s government is heading towards a fall and President George W. Bush is surely not going to get his second term in the White House. But in the mean time hundreds and thousands of Iraqis would have been killed.

The world conscience is simply a mute spectator of the scene and is only concerned about the death of Dr Kelly and American and British soldiers killed in ambushes in Iraq in retaliation of their high-handedness against the local innocent population. This is a deplorable part of modern human rights and history.

The Hutton Committee probing the death of Dr Kelly has made the classified documents public now, and that goes to amply prove that military action in Iraq is nothing but a stunt and a case of blue murder to seize oil wealth of Iraq on the part of the superpower, aided by the coalition partners, who are now fully exposed and have no legitimate right to occupy Iraq any further. They should, hence, vacate Iraq immediately, if world peace has any meaning for them.

ALI ASHRAF KHAN

Karachi

India-Pakistan relations

I BELIEVE that your esteemed Internet edition could act as a catalyst to the current mood in Indo-Pakistan people-to-people interaction. Can you please explore the possibility of creating a platform on your Internet edition where readers from both countries could list themselves giving their individual email addresses and interests in corresponding with like-minded individuals from their counterparts?

The Dawn Internet edition has a wide readership among the literates in India, and I also notice as an ardent reader myself that international readers across the globe are continuously contributing their views which are expressed so freely in your daily editions. Why not really usher a new Dawn in the peace efforts in this troubled subcontinent?

MANOJ DESHPANDE

Mumbai, India

Sale of government securities

I AM much disappointed to hear from my Standard Chartered Bank manager that I cannot purchase special savings certificates or any government securities through them. I have been residing in the UAE for the past 31 years and I am employee of the UAE government.

I closely study the finest procedures of other countries, for example Canada, the UK and US. They have social security scheme, and various other investment schemes for their residents.

Our government has raised the unproductive expenses instead of decreasing them, which are a burden on the government exchequer. On the other hand, the government has been constantly cutting down the profits/interest on the people’s hard-earned savings. It is indeed very regrettable for us as a nation that instead of poverty alleviation you are forcing people into poverty.

The salaries of the government employees are revised to make up for the inflation, but for the people employed in the private sector, they only have their savings to rely on and they try to invest in schemes like these for savings, which in turn generate some profit for them. If these are also taxed, reduced and subject to such conditions, then people will start looking elsewhere for investment.

I would request the government to allow all private banks to sell the national savings certificates. It will not only make it easier for the people to buy the certificates but it also increase their sale.

AFTAB AKHTER ALVI

UAE

Why ban entertainment?

THIS has reference to the letter “Why ban entertainment” by Dr Hamida Khuhro (Aug 7), wherein she has mentioned that “once again it has been decreed that Indian entertainment channels are not to be shown by the cable operators”.

I would like to bring it to the writer’s knowledge that we, the unlucky people of Islamabad and Rawalpindi, have not seen a glimpse of Indian channels since December 2001. Ironically, we got the cable connection exclusively for Indian channels, but the only choice made available to us was local and some foreign channels.

Now we are sick and tired of watching these channels and request the government to lift the ban on Indian channels which are being watched globally. Channels like Sony, Zee TV and Star Plus are family channels. Therefore, I do not see any reason for banning them, specially when Pakistan and India are trying to improve their relations.

NADIA JAVED

Rawalpindi

New hope for the libraries

THIS has reference to Zubeida Mustafa’s article on the above-mentioned subject (July 23).

While appreciating the initiative taken by the Library Support Group for providing books to the libraries in low-income areas, we should not overlook the fact that mere availability of books in the libraries is not enough. What is needed is a book-reading culture. Various steps can be taken at the school level to cultivate this habit.

This brings us to the second important point. Are there enough books available in the market which children might find attractive and useful?

We are not talking of the books in English which few can afford.

An unfortunate thing is that in Urdu, which is the language of majority of the children in urban areas or, for that matter, in Sindhi and other regional languages, there are very few books available in market which may attract the children. The annual production of such books is woefully small. How many writers and poets do we have who understand the needs of modern-day children and produce books to satisfy their curiosity?

This is not a critique of LSG’s work, but just an attempt to highlight the need for producing more books for the children — not the elite ones, but those who live in kutchi abadis and low-income areas.

HIMAYUN KABIR

Karachi

Zamzama Park

THIS is with reference to the letter by Mr Akbar Khan on the above subject (Aug 6). I too go for my daily jog to this park.

A visit to this park, despite the restrictions, would prove beyond doubt that majority of the male visitors who come for walk or jogging wear shorts. Seeing is believing.

With due respect to Mr Khan, does one have to seek a fatwa to know whether shorts is a sporting attire or not. It is neither repulsive nor a form of partial nakedness to wear shorts.

It is all up in the mind and one’s eyes. Let us not behave like an ostrich.

MOHAMMAD RAZA

Karachi

Pension disparity

THIS is to request the authority concerned to end the disparity between the rates of pension of those who retired before 1986 and those who retired after that because those who retired after 1986 are in a much advantageous position.

A case for removal of this disparity has been pending in the Supreme Court for about a decade. This should also be decided at the earliest.

SIRAJ-UL-HASAN

Karachi

Good act of NWFP govt

NOWADAYS the NWFP government is being criticized and threatened by the central government, NGOs, liberals and political rivals for its Islamization policies.

It appears we are blind to reality. The NWFP government has done some good work also, compared to other provincial governments.

For example, it has unanimously increased 34 per cent allocation in the budget for education, and curtailed the monthly salary of the chief minister and his cabinet members.

The centre and other provinces can learn much from the Frontier government’s example.

NAZIM ALI HOTHI

Karachi

‘Tiger’ not ‘Lion of Mysore’

THIS refers to the letter “Tipu Sultan’s sword” (Aug 23) by M. Shafique Ahmed. Tipu Sultan has been misquoted in the letter as “Lion of Mysore”. He was popularly known as the “Tiger of Mysore”. He got this name for two reasons: the kind of resistance he offered to the English army and that he adopted tiger as his emblem.

His throne carried the head of a tiger made in gold. Many of his weapons and other artifacts used by him carried the engraving of tiger symbol on it. Arguably, he was the last Indian ruler to fall to British or the first freedom fighter of India. He came to power in 1782 succeeding his father Hyder Ali. He was a brilliant military strategist who negotiated and made alliance with the French to fight against the English. The British could never defeat him without any alliance. He fought many wars with the British — of those the 1792 war was the most emotional one. Ditched by the French and defeated by the British, he was forced to sign the March 22, 1792, treaty in which he had to part half of his kingdom to the British and also agreed to pay Rs30 million.

Frequent wars had already drained his treasury and he had given up two sons as pledge to the then Governor-General Conrnwallis who took away his sons to the company’s headquarters in Kolkata. But this could not hold him for long. He sought assistance from various parts of the world (Oman, Afghanistan, Turkey, Arabia, etc.) to fight against the British East India Company. In a short period, he could modernize his army in the western style. The British were scared about his growing strength and formed an alliance with the Nizam of Hyderabad and the Marathas of Maharashtra. His capital Seringapatam was stormed by the tripartite alliance army on May 4, 1799, (Fourth Mysore War).

Tipu Sultan was fond of weapons of which a golden decorated sword was his favourite. A British soldier tried to snatch this golden sword from the fatally wounded Tipu in the battlefield. He killed the solder with the same sword before being shot dead. Thereafter, many of his valuable possessions had been confiscated and taken to Britain. After much effort this particular sword was brought back to India after independence.

He is buried by the side of the tomb of his father Hyder Ali and mother Fatima Begum in the Gumbaz. Tipu built the Gumbaz in 1784, which attracts thousands of people every day. The palace he built — Daria Daulat — is of historic significance and declared as a national monument in India. Many of his weapons, personal belongings, paintings and other artifacts are preserved here. Endless queues of domestic and foreign visitors can be found at these places any time of the year.

It is shocking to note possessions of such heroes are put on public auction.

P. S. PRATHEEP

Mysore, India