Basic issue unresolved

DESPERATE for some form of international legitimacy for the Anglo-US troops in Iraq, the United States has got a unanimous UN mandate from the Security Council. The approval of the 15-member Council came after another acrimonious diplomatic wrangle over the issue. The resolution authorizing a UN force will still be seen as a mere symbolic approval of the US position. No fresh promises for more troops or funds have been forthcoming, and no firm timetable has been set for transfer of power to the elected representatives of the Iraqi people. The support given by France and Germany is at best grudging: both have since expressed their reluctance to make any military or financial commitments. Syria, the only Arab member on the Security Council at the moment, went along with the resolution. But, ironically, at about the same time that it did so, Congress was voting to slap sanctions on Damascus. Little, therefore, appears to have changed.

America would never have gone back to the UN if things had been going its way in Iraq under occupation. The situation there continues to be unnerving. Opposition to the presence of US troops is intensifying in Iraq, and for the US the cost of occupation in terms of both money and lives lost is growing. US pressure on individual countries to share some of the military burden has failed, except in the case of Turkey, with almost all saying they would not participate in “peace-keeping” without UN authorization and that they would not want to be seen as part of the occupation force. It was only after its stick-and-carrot approach to several countries failed that the US reluctantly turned again to the UN. The resolution now adopted by the Security Council authorizes “a multinational force under unified command to take all necessary measures to contribute to the maintenance of security and stability in Iraq, including for the purpose of ensuring necessary conditions for the implementation of a timetable and programme for drafting a new constitution and for the holding of democratic elections.” The European powers were insisting on a firm deadline for this to take place, but ultimately the Council accepted December 15 as the date for the governing council to produce a timetable. The crucial question of who will command the multinational force was sidelined: the US has no immediate intention of giving up its lead role.

The problem for the international community is that while it condemns the US invasion of Iraq and all that it has meant for that hapless country, it also recognizes that the people of Iraq cannot be left alone to cope with the mess created by the Americans. The Iraqis need genuine friends and sympathizers to undo the damage inflicted by the occupiers. Each country will now have to decide whether the UN resolution provides a reasonable basis as well as an opportunity to help the Iraqi people. Pakistan, which at one time seemed unusually keen to participate in peacekeeping duties in Iraq, is reported to have said after the resolution that it would like to see a “a separate and distinct identity” for the proposed multinational force. This is a position that is likely to be adopted by most and the resolution falls short of that. America will eventually have to agree to hand over command of a multinational force to a more neutral authority or country. That may be the only way to create conditions where a UN force does not meet with the same hostility that the US-presence does at the moment.

Islamabad housing scams

THE National Accountability Bureau has done well to initiate an inquiry into the affairs of 12 Islamabad-based cooperative housing societies which apparently do not have the Capital Development Authority’s approval to sell plots. The NAB action comes on the heels of the CDA’s failure to check the emergence of fake housing societies and a growing number of complaints by people who have lost money by investing in these societies. The CDA is the competent authority for approving or disapproving any new development project, including housing societies, within the federal capital’s territory. One fails to understand how a whole lot of housing societies, which were not approved by the CDA, were allowed to advertise their projects in the local print and electronic media, collecting huge sums of money from the people for plots that existed only on their fake maps.

Land scams are nothing new in this country, particularly in Islamabad where land prices are generally on the higher side and the relevant authorities are slow to react. Here one is reminded of the 1996 Islamabad New City housing scheme scam when acres upon acres of land were sold to the public under the auspices of the CDA and the National Housing Authority but no development ever took place. When the public outcry mounted, it was discovered that the CDA itself had never approved of the scheme. Luckily, the CDA was prevailed upon to refund the money to the investors, but those who had invested in the scheme though the housing ministry have yet to get their money refunded. The NAB would do well to also investigate the affairs of the Islamabad Capital Territory Cooperative Department, which is supposed to be the CDA’s watchdog over development schemes in the federal capital. Meanwhile, no advertisement or sale of plots should be allowed before the CDA has issued a certificate of approval to a new housing scheme.

Not above the law

THE punishment meted out to four Lahore police officials on Thursday because a constable had stopped the family car of a major-general that was in violation of a ban on tinted glasses is shocking. The constable was booked and handcuffed and then taken to the corps headquarters. The incident makes a mockery of elementary principles of law and justice. The police constable had only done his duty by stopping the car and questioning the driver. Instead of appreciating the good job done by the policeman in question, the higher military authorities rallied to the support of the erring officer and punished the policeman and his superior officers, including the area SHO, ASP and SP. The speed and manner in which the military retaliated contrasts sharply with the way government reacts when acts of injustice against civilians take place.

To punish police officials for upholding the law is not only unfair, it also conveys a very unsettling impression of the military personnel’s respect for the law of the land. In the given case if anyone should have been reprimanded, it should have been the major-general whose car had tinted glasses prohibited by law. The military’s reaction to the incident makes it seem as if some sections in this country are more equal than others. To make amends for unfortunate happening, the army high command would do well to reprimand the military official concerned, and apologize to the police officials for the over-zealous reponse of its staff.