Foreign militants

As the Wana operation continues, Gen Pervez Musharraf has said that about 600 foreign militants are still holed up in South Waziristan. This is a high figure, even though it has not been clarified whether the hunted men include any of the top Al Qaeda or Taliban fighters.

Their presence clearly underlines the stakes involved in the operation in terms of Pakistan's own internal security. The cost of failure would also spur accusations abroad that Islamabad is not doing enought to crack down on the Taliban and Al Qaeda remnants who persist in creating trouble for Afghanistan's interim administration. They also add to the reputation of the tribbal areas as a sanctuary for all kinds of undesirable and extremist elements.

The problem began some 25 years ago when Pakistan became part of the US-led holy war against the Soviet Union, and the CIA provided overt and covert aid to the mujahideen to enable America to get even with Russia for its own humiliation in Vietnam.

Led by Gen Ziaul Haq, Pakistan played second fiddle to the US and served as a sanctuary and a training and recruitment ground for the fighters. Those who joined this US-led war were not only Afghans and Pakistani tribesmen but also zealots from other Muslim countries.

While some were indeed motivated by religious considerations, many had less than holy reasons for their involvement in it. When the Soviets finally departed, many of the foreign fighters chose to stay on in Afghanistan and took part in the ensuing civil war that practically decimated the country and brought the Taliban to power.

They flourished in Taliban's Afghanistan, which turned itself into a haven for terrorists, leading ultimately to 9/11. While the US attack on Afghanistan in October 2001 brought about a radical change and ousted the Taliban, many Al Qaeda workers, including foreign militants, found shelter in Pakistan's tribal areas where they enjoy a certain undeniable level of sympathy among sections of the local population.

Rooting them out is seen as providing the rationale for the government's operation which has now been going on for almost a month.

The government has asked local tribesmen in South Waziristan to raise a force themselves to pressure those hiding foreign elements to give them up. It has also given a guarantee that any foreigner who surrenders will not be handed over to any foreign country.

However, Islamabad should realize that the local tribes need more than mere exhortations, even if they come from the president, to change age-old habits. There has to be something in it for the tribesmen other than being told that they must now integrate with the rest of the world so that Pakistan's image can improve.

The region is extremely backward. Tribal attitudes have prevented the spread of education - and, ironically, without education and exposure, tribal attitudes will not change.

Tackling this paradox must be the government's priority as it establishes its writ in the region. This must be accompanied by a crash development programme aimed at improving the socio-economic condition of the people.

A package worth Rs7 billion was announced some time back but the funds have yet to be released. Priority should be given to releasing the money and to planning more development projects. The state must be seen as a benefactor and not a hostile and intruding entity, as it has been viewed since colonial times. The Wana operation may have to be assertive, but it must also proceed with the region's sensitivities taken into account.

War's toll

Mr George Bush's Iraq adventure has taken the toll of one of his most ardent European supporters. Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar's Popular Party has been beaten in general elections by the Socialist Party, which had campaigned on an anti-war platform and won 43 per cent of the vote.

Its leader, the prime minister-elect, Mr Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, has immediately said Spain would withdraw its troops from Iraq if the UN does not take over from the coalition by the end of June, when the US is due to transfer power to a caretaker government.

The elections came in the wake of the tragic and horrifying bomb attacks in Madrid that claimed the lives of 200 innocent citizens and which are blamed on Al Qaeda. There was some speculation that this act of terrorism would strengthen Mr Aznar's position in the polls. But the exact opposite happened.

The Spanish public was already against Madrid's active involvement with the US and Britain in Iraq, and Mr Aznar had dragged his country into the war in the face of widespread domestic opposition.

The voters must have reasoned that they had been sucked into the vortex of terrorism because of Mr Aznar's alliance with Messers George Bush and Tony Blair and cast their ballots accordingly, marking a resurgence of the socialists after eight years of right-wing Popular Party rule.

The Spanish election result has come just three days before the end of the first year marking the beginning of the US attack on Iraq on March 19 last year, and should help concentrate minds on the war and its consequences.

Mr Zapatero has said in his post-victory comments that you cannot bomb a people just in case they pose a perceived threat and you cannot organize a war "on the basis of lies". The illegality of the war has provided the kiss of death to Mr Aznar. Who's next? Mr Blair? Mr Bush himself?

New pesticide rules

The directive by the Punjab agriculture department asking relevant officials to fully implement the new pesticide rules is a welcome move. For long a tussle within the department has caused delays in the implementation of these rules.

It is hoped that enforcing them will improve both the quality and the variety of pesticides available in the market. Over-pricing, adulteration and the availability of counterfeit products have always been a concern for buyers in Pakistan.

At a time of greater demand - like during the pest attack last year - some unscrupulous dealers tend to hoard sought-after pesticides only to sell them in black. All these problems need to be looked into by the government, because at stake are important crops like cotton on which the country's economy depends.

In the absence of a defined pesticides policy, the government would do well to consider proposals that have come out of the work done by the Agricultural Pesticides Technical Advisory Committee.

To check misuse, the committee recommended that importers and local producers of pesticides pack the products under their respective labels and warranty before giving them to distributors and dealers. In this way, farmers will be assured of the quality of the product that has been bought.

Another area to which the government needs to devote some attention is the developing of pesticides that are non-toxic and more suited to our environment, like the ones developed from the neem tree.

In conclusion, it can be said that while a mechanism should exist to ensure that the right pesticide gets to the farmer in a proper time frame, the government also should work on developing alternatives to imported pesticides. This is imperative because spraying the crops with toxic chemicals is not a long-term solution to the problem.