| 05 May 2004 | Wednesday | 14 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1425 |
MMA and govt policies
Abuse of Iraqi prisoners
Ariel Sharon's plan
The cost of Pakistani lives
Islamic renaissance
Making jirga system ban effective
Pre-1986 pensioners
Australian wheat
Foreign troops
Gas cylinders and furnaces
Students' request
Overhead bridges
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This is with reference to Mr Altamash J. Lone's and Mr N.M. Abbasi's letters (April 30) and some other letters regarding the government decision to reduce the size of the army, as well as about the concept of deterrence.
Deterrence does not mean a game of numbers, as implied in some of the letters; it is the cumulative effect a force produces and radiates towards the enemy. It is a product of qualitative and quantitative capability of a force and its arsenal. Its level is determined by the threat perception. It is, therefore, dynamic.
The quantitative requirement of a force is now diminished by development of force multipliers, i.e., technology and lethality of weapon systems.
The main consideration for the defence planner now is to see what best defence the money available to him can buy. He obviously has to strike a balance between weapon systems and manpower.
He has to save from less important sectors of defence to add on to the more important ones. In the instant case, money has been saved from the tail to reinforce the teeth.
The other alternative would be to reinforce the teeth without cutting the tail, as implied by Mr Abbasi and Mr Lone. That would need extra money that is not available.
The extra teeth if added will need their own dedicated tail. That means requirement of even more money and the cycle will never end. The tail also has a tendency to grow and thus become lethargic. It therefore needs to be trimmed before it becomes a drag on the main body.
Evaluation of force structure is a routine process for preparing a befitting response to the emerging challenges within the available resources. It should not disturb politicians and the media and they should not make an issue out of nothing.
A military commander has a mission and he knows how best to accomplish it. He should therefore be allowed to do his job. It may be noted that the deterrence level maintained by us is the minimum required to defend the territorial integrity of Pakistan.
Mr Abbasi talks about the number of brigadiers and generals in 1965 and compares it with their present number. He has not taken into account the size of the army then and now.
Brigadiers and generals have their assigned role in the army and their number is not decided randomly. They command brigades and divisions respectively. Their number is, therefore, determined by the size of the army.
The size of the army in turn is a function of the adversary's army and its capability. If the enemy enhances its capability, the critical balance is disturbed and is required to be redressed.
This does not necessarily mean increase in numbers. Armed forces are ever vigilant to accomplish their mission and never lower their guard.
Mr Abbasi and Mr Altamash should rest assured that the defence is in safe hands and that there is no cause for any anxiety. All that is required on the military side is being done.
What is required on the civil side is the attainment of political stability, socio-economic development and national cohesion. More money is required for development that can be diverted from defence if the on-going talks between Pakistan and India succeed.
S.M.H.BOKHARI
Rawalpindi
MMA and govt policies
Reference is made to Misbah Nomani's letter (May 2) praising the decision to cut the size of the army and condemning the MMA for criticizing it and the steps to 'modernize' school curricula.
The correspondent has forgotten to appreciate that it is not the policy of the MMA to oppose government policies for the sake of opposition. The MMA questioned the cut in the army's size on the ground that in the wake of external threats and stepped up military preparations on the eastern and western borders of Pakistan, it was unwise to reduce the number of fighting forces by such a large number.
But the MMA also praised the abolition of "the colonial batman culture from the army as it was plaguing the fighting spirit of the army both at jawans and officers level". This shows our commitment to healthy democratic practices and norms adhered to by the MMA.
The MMA is of the view that instead of reducing the real workforce of the Pakistan Army, the number of generals should be slashed as their perks and salary eat up substantial amounts of the army budget.
As for the correspondent's enthusiasm about "modernization of curricula", the alliance thinks that revision of syllabi for meeting contemporary needs is desirable but the way school curricula have been subjected to revision exposes a conspiracy and bias aimed at brainwashing children to make them feel alienated from the ideology of their forefathers and to deprive them of their intellectual and moral strength.
While condemning the MMA, Misbah Nomani forgets to pay heed to the statement by the federal education minister that certain textbook boards have transgressed their mandate in printing new books and in this regard she did not rule out the role of certain hidden hands who tried to play with the future of this nation.
HAFIZ MOHAMMAD IDREES
Naib (Deputy) Ameer, JIP, and President, MMA, Punjab Chapter, Lahore
Abuse of Iraqi prisoners
This is regarding the pictures shown on television and published in newspapers showing soldiers in uniform posing with naked Iraqi prisoners. US soldiers deputed to interrogate PoWs have not received in-depth training on Geneva conventions which govern the handling of prisoners.
The 1949 Geneva conventions prohibit "outrages upon the personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment", against any detainee. Mistreatment that amounts to "torture or inhuman treatment" is a grave breach of the conventions, which is a war crime.
According to Brig-General Janis Karpinski, commander of the 800th Military Police Brigade, seven soldiers have been suspended at Abu Ghraib prison. British military officials have also confirmed that they are investigating new allegations that their soldiers abused prisoners in Iraq.
Human Rights Watch has asked the US government to investigate the superiors of the suspended soldiers to see whether they ordered or knowingly tolerated these abuses.
All this is very horrifying and has further exposed the US claim that it wants to democratize Iraq. This being the case, the Pakistan government must think twice before considering any US request to send its troops to Iraq.
SYED A. MATEEN
Karachi
(2)
The photographs shown on international TV in which Iraqi prisoners were being tortured should be a matter of concern for the United Nations and the world as a whole. Where have the human rights organizations gone? Do the US armed forces have no regard for the Geneva Conventions?
Only suspension is no punishment for those who humiliate and torture war prisoners. They should be tried by court martial in an international court.
MAJOR ANWAR PASHA(retd)
Lahore
Ariel Sharon's plan
This is with reference to the news item "Likud party rejects pullout plan" (May 3). It is quite unfortunate that elections are being held in Israel to decide the future of lands belonging to the Palestinians.
The future of the Israel-Palestine conflict should be decided by bringing both parties to the negotiating table and not by letting Ariel Sharon decide things on his own.
It is clear that Israel is considered above international law. By supporting the Sharon plan, the US is giving its approval to ethnic cleansing. I wonder what it will take for leaders of the Middle East to come out of their slumber and condemn the unfettered US support to Israel.
It is really hoped that the US introduces democracy in the Middle East so that elected leaders could express the will of the ordinary man. The rulers in the region seem to be working more for the interest of multinational companies than their own people.
If true democracy is introduced, the Arab world will turn against the US.
ANIL KHAN LUNI
Karachi
The cost of Pakistani lives
This refers to the news report "Seven Pakistanis were killed to please US: Macedonia" (May 2). While US forces wreak havoc in Fallujah to avenge the killing of four American citizens, Pakistani lives continue to be taken for granted both at home and abroad.
Perhaps the world takes its cue from the treatment meted out to Pakistanis at home in setting standards for treatment of Pakistanis abroad. At home, some are punished for marrying by choice and many (including little girls) are killed by rapists and murderers, who are never brought to justice.
Many others rot in jails for crimes they did not commit and some are charged with blasphemy. Some are shot by American bullets from across the Afghan border, while others are captured by the local tribes of Waziristan.
Is it surprising than, in view of our governments' extreme inaction and impotence regarding the above, that now people in countries like Macedonia dare plan to import people from Pakistan like sheep for slaughter?
MUBASHIR KHAN
Indianapolis, IN., USA
Islamic renaissance
Professor Rafi in his opinion piece "Islamic renaissance" (April 30) reviews all movements within Islam as diverse as Wahabism and the Aligarh Movement initiated by Sir Syed Ahmed Khan during the last 500 years.
However, except for Sir Syed's views which were revolutionary at the time and still are, a claim for the dawning of an "Islamic renaissance" can scarcely be made.
If anything, the Muslim world has receded during the last 50 years into adopting a more rigid and inflexible interpretation of religion. The challenge which the Islamic world faces and which it has not come to grips with as yet is the matter of dealing with modernity.
The breath-taking speed at which human knowledge and technology are advancing makes it incumbent upon the Muslims to reinterpret Islam without going against the fundamental tenets of the faith.
The Muslim world does need a renaissance, but, contrary to what Professor Rafi says, it has not happened as yet.
M. HAIDER
New Jersey, USA
Making jirga system ban effective
Sindh High Court Justice Rehmat Hussain Jaffery's landmark judgment of April 21 declaring the jirga system in Sindh as unlawful and illegal has received universal commendation and applause.
It will result in the dispensation of justice to thousands of people of our villages in the years to come. The judgment has placed a great responsibility on the press as also on the police which have been declared duty-bound to prevent the holding of jirga assemblies.
The country's civil administration - in this and other provinces - has in the past failed to give a good account of itself in this matter. It is, however, expedient that the government of Sindh now wakes up and comes to the help of the rural people to give them protection from the cruelty of the jirga system and its executive machinery does not shrink from the responsibility of giving effects to the high court decision.
The jirga system is part of the jagirdari set-up in which land owners have traditionally subjugated the tiller and the poor. Implementation of the court orders will mean breaking the traditions prevailing in the countryside.
It may be realized that people who have been passing horrific sentences involving executions, marrying off small girls to much older men in settlement of monetary disputes and even gang-rape of women would not be easy to handle.
These men are not likely to let slip from their hands the power they have wielded over the rural junta. They must receive the message that their days are now over and the government means business.
For this purpose, the civil administration will have to give wide publicity to the high court decision. It is proposed that the relevant portions from the text of the decision should be translated into Urdu and Sindhi and printed in suitable typography and size and displayed in all government buildings and offices, particularly those of the tehsildars and patwaris, police stations, post offices and schools.
Secondly, the government should educate and train the officials concerned in ways and means to effectively deal with the situation in the light of these orders. The police may nominate in remote villages some law-abiding and sympathetic persons to convey to it information whenever an assembly of the jirga is in the offing.
It will also have to gear up an intelligence system of its own as directed in the court decision. It is sincerely hoped that the government of Sindh will rise to the occasion.
S. ABRAR HUSSAIN
Lahore
Pre-1986 pensioners
Everyone of our generation in government or private life may not have to his credit a singular deed, but all of us struggled hard, often for long hours beyond the call of duty, single-mindedly, committedly and with faith. Those not around in the old days cannot realize how cruelly stacked things were against Pakistan.
The pensions of people of my generation, comprising optees from British India, could have been much higher in recognition of our services and because higher revised pay-scales were denied to us while India implemented them according to the interim government decision.
I beseech the president, the prime minister and the finance minister to come to our rescue and extend to pre-1986 pensioners the benefits being allowed to those who retired on or after July 1, 1986. This may be given effect to from July 1, 2004. The arrears can be left for better days.
AFFECTED
Karachi
Australian wheat
Food Minister Yar Muhammad Rind has in a cable TV channel interview defended the decision of the Pakistani authorities to reject Australian wheat. But after justifying the rejection by asserting that the wheat had contained fungi and a low gluten percentage, when presented with the fact that UAE had accepted the same wheat shipment, all he could say was: it was sold to the UAE for $178 per ton and not $228 per ton as offered to Pakistan.
If the wheat shortage which hit Karachi and most of Pakistan had happened in any other country, many heads would have rolled. But in our country, the people are left to suffer for no fault of theirs.
JAWAID SHAIKH
Chicago, Illinois, USA
Foreign troops
General Shaukat Sultan should be thanked for providing us with some diversion. In the story "Coalition troops enter Pakistani village" (Dawn, April 30), the general denied any incursion by US troops, saying that no foreign troops "will be allowed to enter Pakistani territory".
This was with regard to the statement by some local people claiming the intruders distributed leaflets within Pakistani territory in the village of Mir Sperkay, offering a reward for the capture of Professor Jalaluddin Haqqani and other Taliban leaders, besides searching vehicles and beating up some tribesmen who resisted them.
There is a catch in his denial. He said: "No foreign troops will be allowed ..." Does it mean that he is referring to the future and is not denying that foreign troops may have entered Pakistan in the past?
S.G. JILANEE
Karachi
Gas cylinders and furnaces
Mr Roland Desouza of Shehri, Karachi, (April 25) has expressed concern over Saddar's residential/ commercial buildings that house numerous goldsmith workshops having explosive gas cylinders and furnaces.
The residents of Saddar and visitors/shoppers around the area are not the only ones prone to the hazard. Citizens spread over the northern highlands, the Indus River plain and the Balochistan plateau are exposed to this danger, too.
Besides, you will find liquid petroleum gas (LPG) retail shops and grocery stores selling kerosene amidst thickly-populated residential areas. You will also find gasoline and motor oil being sold in open canisters in the interior of Sindh, Balochistan, the NWFP and Northern Areas, which can cause brutal accidents.
The government must take steps to relocate workshops that disturb public peace and pollute the environment. One should also enforce strict control on stocking and trading of dangerous goods.
LT-COL (retd) SYED AHMED TI(M),
Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
Students' request
I want to bring to the notice of the Sindh education department the discrimination being exercised in the distribution of scholarships to Tharparkar students, especially of scheduled castes, by the relevant district government authorities.
Last year, about Rs150 million were allocated for the award of scholarships to students in the district, but the funds were utilized under different heads other than scholarships. This year, some Muslim students were awarded scholarships from a Zakat fund, but no scholarship has been given to any non-Muslim students.
Students of scheduled castes are very poor and deserve special attention. In the past, they used to get scholarships but since the establishment of district governments a couple of years back, they have been neglected in this and other respects.
The governor and the chief minister of Sindh are requested to ensure that all deserving students get scholarships.
SAJNANI REEJHU MAL
Jamshoro
Overhead bridges
Most of the overhead pedestrian bridges in Karachi are made from fabricated steel which has got corroded over the years owing to the high percentage of humidity. So much so that the main bottom plates and the steps of stairs in these bridges have become weak and dangerous for pedestrians, requiring constant maintenance.
I would like to suggest that we use RCC material for well-designed bottom plates and steps with holes and rubber pads on the sides for mounting. These side structures of the bridges should be made from galvanized steel sections, to be riveted and bolted - the same way we fabricate our high-tension electric transmission poles. Thus, we will save a lot in regular painting and will also increase the life of these bridges.
SALEEM ATHAR
Karachi
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