| September 4, 2003 | Thursday | Rajab 6, 1424 |
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More mayhem
Manipulating prices
THE funeral procession of Ayatollah Mohammad Baqer al Hakim covered the final stretch between Kufah and Najaf on Tuesday, and the ayatollah was laid to rest amidst a sea of mourners in the city in which he was assassinated last Friday. It would be naive to think that the passions let loose by his murder will now fade away. The ayatollah was meant to play a key role in Iraq’s revival from the chaos created by the country’s occupation after a war that devastated its political, economic and social infrastructure. It is significant that while much of the outpouring of anger during the funeral may have been directed against Saddam Hussein, whose supporters are believed by many Iraqis to have been behind Baqer al Hakim’s murder, anti-American feeling was also palpable. The ayatollah was seen as a moderate; many of those willing to collaborate with the occupation might now withdraw from an active role in the current situation. The majority Shias of Iraq are already split along political lines, with another of their prominent leaders, Muqtada al Sadr, antagonistic to the occupation — an element that may exacerbate the existing ethnic and sectarian cleavages.
Indeed, the problems for the Americans and their allies seem to be mounting. The solutions devised by them so far have proved ineffective, if not counter-productive, and Iraq remains in turmoil. The governing council earlier set up by the occupation authorities has signally failed to win the trust of the Iraqis or establish its credentials in the eyes of the rest of the world. It has now named a 25-memebr “cabinet”, which, it is claimed, represents all sections of the population. But each minister will be supervised by a coalition assigned adviser, and most of the advisers happen to be American. They will work under another American, Paul Bremer, the virtual viceroy of Iraq. In these circumstances, it is hardly likely that the cabinet will be able to either help in controlling the inflammable security situation or provide a direction to reconstruction efforts. A pro-government Egyptian paper has described the members of the cabinet as “fugitives who have come from behind the spears of occupation” and as people “who lived and founded opposition groups (in exile) in cabarets and nightclubs”. This sentiment is probably widely shared by many of Iraq’s other neighbours.
Thus, wherever one turns in search of solace for Iraq’s travails, it is the fact of the country’s occupation that emerges as the main stumbling block. Since the war that preceded the occupation did not have international backing and was considered as unjustified by several of America’s own key allies, the occupation is seen to suffer from the same defects. No nation appears to be particularly keen to bail out the Americans and the British from the mess they have got themselves into, at least not while the US refuses to abandon its tight control of Iraq. Failing to obtain troops from friendly countries for peacekeeping duties without an international cover, the US has now grudgingly turned to the United Nations to assemble a multinational force. But it insists that the force will still be under its own commander. It has also, meanwhile, made sure that most of the lucrative contracts for rebuilding Iraq should go to American firms. Unless the US is willing to surrender its overlordship of Iraqi affairs, there will be little hope of any worthwhile progress towards restoring Iraq to anywhere near a semblance of normalcy. The dilemma for the US is that if it withdraws now, wouldn’t there be greater questioning within America of why it had gone into Iraq in the first place?
TUESDAY’S cold-bloodied and shocking murder of eight people in Karachi, including two MQM workers, again exposes the city’s fragile law and order environment. The deaths occurred during two separate incidents, one after the other: the first in Liaquatabad in which the two party workers were killed and the second in Azizabad, which targeted their families. The slain workers were reportedly out on parole, which gives the incidents the colour of an inter-party feud, fuelling speculation that a rival faction may be involved in a score-settling exercise. But the areas where the attacks took place are known strongholds of the Muttahida and it is hard to see why their rivals would be foolhardy enough to choose to strike there. Yet, speculation aside, the fact remains that the killings were targeted strikes in broad daylight at busy public places and the killers escaped. This should be the real cause of worry for law-enforcement agencies.
Sectarian murders and political turf wars have gone on unabated and unpunished in Karachi for a long time. Intelligence agencies and the police should not be allowed any longer to hide behind trite explanations that such incidents of violence are isolated crimes or part of a sustained plot by foreign mercenaries to plunge the city into turmoil. The sheer fact that hitmen can strike anyone at any time with complete impunity in this concrete jungle calls for putting in action a serious crime-control plan. The country’s largest city and economic nerve centre cannot be left at the mercy of killers regardless of the question of whether they are politically motivated or ordinary criminals.
THE decision by Federal Industries and Production Minister Liaquat Jatoi to set up a task force to look at reducing prices and delivery times of locally produced automobiles is a step in the right direction. Market surveys indicate that the prices of locally made cars have reached an all-time high. Buyers can be expected in some cases to wait for over a year to take delivery of their cars for which they have paid in full. The other option for them is to pay a premium to dealers for earlier deliveries.
A strong element of manipulation for profiteering is patent in this situation and needs to be rectified. To say that demand has outstripped supply will be misreading the state of affairs in the car industry. The crux of the matter is the entry of profiteers into the market who are not genuine buyers but book cars in advance and sell them at inflated rates on delivery. They seem to have created an artificial demand. It is believed that these interlopers are in cahoots with the dealers, the car makers and the relevant government ministry, without whose cooperation this arrangement would not be possible. The minister needs to take a serious view of this. His earlier direction that vehicles purchased from car makers should be kept in the name of the original buyer for at least six months has been ignored. It is now up to him to ensure that the proposed task force is taken more seriously. As an alternative, the government can consider allowing the import of cars to bring down the artificial hike in prices. This has been done in other sectors as it is the government’s duty to protect the interests of the consumer.