US military sales

UNLESS there is unexpected resistance from Congress, Pakistan is likely to have some of its urgent defence needs met by the US. Specifically, these needs concern Pakistan’s depleted fleet of F-16s and a radar system to counter the Phalcon air-borne system which India is getting from Israel. This will be in addition to the items for which congressional approval is not needed. As announced by Pakistan’s defence secretary, funds for the purchases will come from two sources: out of the 341 million dollar foreign military sales programme and from half of the three-billion dollar economic and military package for Pakistan announced by President Bush at Camp David in June.

Pakistan’s F-16 fleet now stands reduced to 28 aircraft from the original 40. They were purchased in the eighties. They may not have become totally obsolete, but they are no more the most sophisticated fighter aircraft that they were then. Pakistan, thus, wants not only the existing fleet upgraded but the strength of the fleet restored to its original 40. What happened to another batch of F-16s which Pakistan had contracted to purchase and paid for in the eighties from the US is an unhappy chapter in Pakistan-American relations. The deal was finalized, but the certificate required under the Pressler amendment was never issued by the White House in the wake of the Soviet pull-out from Afghanistan. At one stage, America seemed to have gobbled up the money and the planes. In the wake of 9/11, too, Washington showed no inclination to sell F-16s to Pakistan in view perhaps of Indian sensitivity. The latest decision, too, does not visualize a direct sale from the US; instead, Washington would authorize Belgium to sell the planes

to Pakistan after congressional approval.

The sales are on a modest scale and pose no threat to any other country. Basically, they should be seen against the background of the threatening build-up of India’s offensive weapons and the danger it poses to the peace of the region. As Pakistan has repeatedly pointed out, it wanted Washington to understand its concerns that flow from an arms imbalance in conventional weapons in South Asia. As pointed out by it time and again, inferiority in conventional weapons would only increase Pakistan’s reliance on its nuclear deterrence. More unfortunately, it will have political consequences, for a serious military imbalance would rule out any progress in normalization of relations with India and strengthen New Delhi’s obduracy in the matter of talks on Kashmir and other issues of difference.

One hopes New Delhi would see the futility of having a bloated military set-up and arsenals far in excess of its legitimate defence needs. An arms race in the subcontinent is not in anyone’s interest. The huge expenses on defence could as well be used for the betterment of the people of Pakistan and India if only the two sides could make a resolve to pursue peace. The move towards normalization of relations now seems to have hit snags. Air services have not been resumed, and there is no sign yet of a dialogue between the two. One also notes with regret that a meeting between President Musharraf and Prime Minister Vajpayee could not take place on the sidelines of the current UN General Assembly session. One hopes a dialogue will begin sooner or later and hard-liners in his cabinet will not kill the process that began with Mr Vajpayee’s offer in Srinagar last April to have talks with Pakistan without any conditions attached.

Students’ predicament

ONE wonders whether to applaud or to decry the decision by the Punjab University to issue notices to six chartered universities asking them to close their 50 odd campuses situated all over the province on the grounds that they are illegal. The notices have been issued by the university on behalf of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) which has taken the view that the campuses have been set up without taking permission from the Punjab University and from the provincial government, which is required for running an educational institution. One can support this move in that there should be some check on the various educational institutions which have sprung up all over the country in large numbers and which claim affiliation with various known and unknown foreign universities and institutions. While a number of these institutions are doing a good job, there are some that are of a dubious nature and possess neither the faculty nor the standing to offer the kind of education or training they promise. In that sense, the HEC should not concentrate its efforts in Punjab alone but extend them to other parts of the country.

On the other hand, one cannot but question why it took the HEC so long to come to this decision and whether it has made any alternative arrangements for the students who will be affected by the move. Some of the universities mentioned in the HEC move are well known and established, but there are others that are of questionable standing. Thousands of students who have been affected by the closure of the 50 campuses across Punjab will rightly want to know what the HEC was doing when these institutes were announcing their courses and admissions. And now that they have been declared illegal, what arrangements will be made to have their fees refunded? It is not good enough to simply declare campuses illegal and expect students to then get admission elsewhere. The HEC should address this issue at the earliest so that the thousands of students who have been affected by its decision are not left high and dry.

Syed Hashim Raza

SYED Hashim Raza had been out of the public eye for some time because of indifferent health and the inevitable infirmities of old age. But he was always a presence in the background, a link with the past when civil servants considered commitment to the people’s welfare and to personal standards of probity as part of their guiding norms. His death removes from the scene a cultured and cultivated old-world gentleman whose wit charmed brusque political leaders and made them listen to his advice. In many ways, he represented a continuation of the ICS tradition when its officers were not mere pen-pushers but erudite and studious men who considered themselves as part of unfolding history and wrote with deep understanding and knowledge about the society in which they lived. It had fallen to the lot of Syed Hashim Raza to work order out of the post-partition administrative chaos in Karachi, then the federal capital, and he carried out his stupendous duties with great dedication and sensitivity.

He was among the few officers from the then West Pakistan who was readily welcomed in East Pakistan, where he also filled a temporary but delicate gap as governor after the summary removal of General Azam Khan and the appointment of a new incumbent. He would feel a little lonely in the vastness of Governor’s House, Dhaka, and would often send his car round to the Press Club to bring journalists who happened to be there, and then over tea and sandwiches regale them with anecdotes or bits of his poetry. In his last days, he must have felt he belonged to a different world. His death is a reminder of the steady diminution in stature of both civil servants and politicians.