| 10 June 2004 | Thursday | 21 Rabi-us-Saani 1425 |
Sectarianism: intelligence failure
Re-demarcating provinces
Official apathy
'Romancing Trotsky'
Monopoly of car assemblers?
Economy report
Nathiagali violation
Phasing out mini-buses
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It is estimated that there are some 3.5 million Pakistanis working abroad. Most of these do not fall in the category of overseas Pakistanis in the true sense, as they have opted for citizenship/nationality of countries other than Pakistan.
The only Pakistani citizens who rightly deserve to be called overseas Pakistanis are those who are employed or engaged in business abroad on business visa/work-permits and have been officially remitting hard-earned foreign exchange back home.
After making this distinction, I would like to draw your attention to the privileges granted for the import of goods under the baggage and transfer of residence schemes. I suggest that the existing facilities/privileges be withdrawn forthwith in the coming budget and replaced by alternative schemes.
My suggestion is that all overseas Pakistani workers or otherwise (with Pakistani origin but holders of foreign citizenship) should open a foreign exchange account in Pakistan with a minimum average balance of $1,000 throughout the year and for a minimum period of two years for entitlement to visa and baggage items and $10,000 for import of car, new and/or used under the gift, baggage or transfer of residence (TR) schemes.
Foreign exchange accounts of overseas Pakistanis should bear special rate of interest a little higher than available abroad. The same could be in the form of bond. A person who can save $10,000 can also afford to purchase and maintain a car.
The commercial import of car is not allowed and at present all cars, used or new, are being imported under the baggage/gift/TR schemes. The import of cars in this manner is causing a huge loss to the government because it's the car dealers who finance such imports.
An alternative could be that dollar account holders, with a minimum average balance of $10,000 as explained above, could sell their rights in the open market and the dealers could import vehicles against LCs and not through advance payments so that 100 per cent foreign exchange may not leave Pakistan till receipt of goods and the dealers be netted in income-tax.
Also, if used / reconditioned car import is allowed, it should be subject to normal rate of custom duty and other taxes without any depreciation, like in India.
The car imported must be registered in the name of the consignee within one week of its release from customs. There is no valid reason for a car to be left unregistered. After all the government has given this import facility for personal use.
KHWAJA WALI NIZAMI
Karachi
(2)
With the national budget in sight government thinking about providing relief to the salaried class by revising upward the limit of taxable income, as reported in the press, is a welcome idea.
It is a hard fact that prices of kitchen items have gone up steeply over the year. Moreover, a detailed article published in Dawn (May 31) clearly shows that a person with a family of six needs a minimum income of Rs12,000 a month to be able to live. The fact is that salaried people do not have any extra source of revenue beyond their fixed monthly package. Hence their miseries.
It is hoped that the per annum taxable income of the salaried class will be revised to Rs180,000 if the government wants to give relief to them.
RIZWAN S. MERCHANT
Karachi
Sectarianism: intelligence failure
The recent tragic incidents of sectarian violence in Karachi like the bomb explosions at the Hyderi and Ali Raza mosques and the assassination of Maulana Shamzai show the failure of our intelligence agencies.
There is a difference in the working and operation of law- enforcement and intelligence agencies. Intelligence agencies are required to predict and pre-empt undercurrents and activities of anti-state and lawless elements and bring it to the notice of the administration and law-enforcement agencies to make arrangements to cope with any untoward situation. But apparently this is not happening at all at Karachi or anywhere else in the country.
There is something wrong somewhere. The intelligence agencies cannot work properly without the active participation of the people. They have their sources among them and these persons move freely in public, collecting intelligence.
Perhaps intelligence agencies have lost such sources and they might have been hired or won over by the terrorists for better material benefits or intelligence agencies have become inactive and lethargic because they are not accountable to anyone.
Anyhow intelligence agencies require immediate reorganization, reorientation and innovative training to cope with the changing trends and scope of terrorism, especially after the 9/11 incident.
The intelligence network seems to be incapable of breaking the strong network of terrorists. Drastic measures and concerted efforts by all the intelligence agencies, both military and civil, are required to curb the menace of sectarian violence in the country, particularly in Karachi.
The heads of law- enforcement and intelligence agencies should be called by the president and they be given short and long-term targets to eradicate all kinds of terrorism from the country. They may also be told in plain terms that any failure on the part of the agencies will be viewed very seriously.
In a democratically-elected government, party workers have their roots and clout in various segments of society. They are the people who live in kutchi abadis, mohallahs, as well as in posh areas, and have close liaison with the people around them.
Both the ruling and opposition parties should mobilize their workers at the grassroots' level and instruct them to attend daily prayers in local mosques, visit madressahs and not miss any religious and social gatherings in their respective areas of operation.
Party leaders, in the larger national interest, should do all this in collaboration with the administration. Needless to say, the Pakistan People's Party, the MQM and the Jamaat-i-Islami can produce encouraging results, especially in Karachi, and in the country in general as their workers have roots in the people.
The government will have to create a general atmosphere of confidence and congeniality so that workers of all parties may work together to achieve positive results.
DR ZAINAB RIZVI
Lahore
Re-demarcating provinces
The president, the cabinet and parliament must coolly and dispassionately consider Nawab Muhammad Akbar Bugti's demand for re-demarcation of the provinces of Pakistan in order to foster a feeling of brotherhood and equality among all the constituent units of the federation.
That the existing provinces were created by the British government of India to meet their administrative needs is a historical truth. Sarhand and Multan were historical provinces.
These were merged with Punjab. Similarly, in India the united provinces of Agra and Oudh (UP) and the Bengal, Madras and Bombay presidencies were created by merging the then historical British provinces. The government of India has wisely recreated provinces to fulfil the aspirations of its people.
A perceptive historian would come to the conclusion that the basic cause of the separation of East Pakistan was its preponderant population which was bigger than the collective population of all the provinces of West Pakistan. The fear of living in perpetual minority led Punjab to mobilize its political and administrative forces against BPC report.
As if by poetic justice, Punjab faces a similar situation. Its population is bigger than the collective population of the rest of the country. This factor reinforced by its preponderance in the military and civil bureaucracy is a source of alienation for the smaller provinces. The stalemate in the distribution of financial resources and river waters is offshoots of this single factor.
The obvious solution lies in re-demarcation of the provinces in such a manner that would provide psychological satisfaction to people in all parts of Pakistan. The following suggestions are offered in good faith:
a) Hazara and Rawalpindi divisions may form a new province.
b) Multan, Dera Ghazi Khan and Bahawalpur divisions may form a separate province.
c) Karachi may be declared as the second capital where economic ministries may be located.
d) Chitral may form part of the Northern Areas, which may be designated as the Gilgit-Baltistan province.
e) The NWFP may be renamed Pakhtunistan.
SYED AFZAAL HUSAIN ZAIDI
Islamabad
Official apathy
I do not know if I should feel proud or ashamed to be called a Lahorite. Quite a few incidents have occurred since the beginning of this year that have prompted me to say this.
I have been living in a mohalla located near Lalazar Park (originally named "Amritasari mohalla") in Mughalpura for almost 19 years now and in those years I never saw grabage accumulate or waste water block the passage in our locality.
But all this changed after the induction of the new elected councillors a couple of years ago. Every campaign they undertook created chaos in our locality. During the poll campaign, our councillor had promised to build a proper road but it seemed even then to be more of a political promise than a practical one.
Then came the laying of the sewerage line. There was already a sewerage line in our area but the new line was joined with another originating from somewhere else. This has turned our beautiful clean roads into mud-covered pathways and during the rains, they look like a pond, which is a very comfortable place for mosquitoes.
During the laying of the sewerage line, access to our homes was blocked. And the other day, I saw Wasa workers open up manholes and unblock the clogged sewerage line, throwing the waste out in front of our homes.
What surprised me was the apathy of my neighbours who just kept standing there, silently watching Wasa people litter the road with waste in front of their houses. I was even more surprised to see a few children playing in the waste.
I called the Wasa complaint centre. The man there was quite polite. He told me that that the waste would be removed by the MCL. So I called up the MCL office. The man there told me that MCL could remove it the "day after tomorrow" and if I wanted it to be removed today I should ask Wasa people.
Then I visited the councillor's office but he was not there. He was not to be found at his home, where he had left his mobile phone. At long last I gave up.
Umar Hafeez Butt
Lahore
'Romancing Trotsky'
This refers to 'Romancing Trotsky' by Mushir Anwar in his Literary Round-up section (June 9).I think the writer is unduly generous to Leon Trotsky, and probably this is the reason why he chose to write about this 'maverick revolutionary' in a literary column rather than a political or current affairs column.
Leon Trotsky is a controversial figure in Marxist-Leninist hagiography, not for his role in the Bolshevik Revolution, but for what he subsequently did in Leninist Russia to rapidly win the disfavour of the Bolshevik Party.
The 'differences' talked about in the column between Lenin and Trotsky were not mere personal or intellectual differences which could be papered over after Lenin's untimely death, but real political and ideological differences, which were to determine the fate of the infant Bolshevik state.
Trotsky's lack of an activist background led him to falsely believe that the Russian Revolution could only be brought about by industrial workers and not by peasants; he in fact expressly showed disdain for the Russian peasants, and doubted and rejected their revolutionary character, not an uncommon refrain amongst today's bourgeois intellectuals.
This was his infamous theory of 'Permanent Revolution' which really was a counter-revolutionary theory and subsequent events in China, Vietnam, Stalinist Russia were to prove his theory permanently wrong.
His theory had nothing to do with the realities of the modern Third World, where the majority of people are still involved in agriculture rather than employed in factories. Trotsky's theories and his role in the Brest-Litovsk Treaty with Germany ensured that he rapidly slid down in the Communist Party.
In fact, owing to the minority of his followers, he and his theories could never gain enough support in the Politburo for him to be anointed Lenin's successor. When Trotsky was democratically expelled from the Bolshevik Party, he started slandering Stalin and it was owing to this hateful propaganda - and not personal enmity as Trotskyites love to wail - that there was no choice but to expel him from the Soviet Union.
Due to his opposition to Stalin and the strong industrialized power he made the Soviet Union, Trotsky and his writings were mercilessly used by American and British imperialists to discredit Stalin and the Soviet state, with the express willingness and collusion of Trotsky himself.
How many die-hard Trotskyites would admit this today? Also, contrary to what has been mentioned in the article, Trotsky was not assassinated by Stalin's 'agents', but by his own follower, a European Trotskyite named Frank Jacson, who got enraged when Trotsky forbade Jacson's marriage to a woman he (Jacson) liked.
These and other lies propounded by Trotskyites have been fully exposed in a brilliant book, 'Trotskyism or Leninism?' by Harpal Brar (Progressive Printers, India, 1993).
Since Trotsky's so-called 'assassination', his followers have repeatedly tried to win the leadership of popular struggles, both in the developing and in developed countries; and it goes without saying that they have failed.
Most of the struggles in the developing countries, whether North Korea, Vietnam, the Middle East, China and now in Nepal, Colombia and Peru have been historically led by orthodox Marxist-Leninists having no truck with Trotsky since his theories simply rejected the peasantry from playing a progressive revolutionary role in politics, while in actuality it this class who have always played the backbone of revolution.
The only countries where Trotskyites have succeeded in developing a following are the imperialist heartland of the modern era, the US and the UK (in the form of the Socialist Workers Party) and France or the countries of Western Europe, which were weaned after 1945 by US imperialism in the form of the Marshall Plan. And here too they are deeply divided between followers of one tendency or the other.
Where they are not leading parties, many former Trotskyites have shed their revolutionary colours and turned to blindly supporting US imperialism - the likes of Christopher Hitchens, the Orwell-loving columnist who was an early casualty of 9/11; David Horowitz, Irving Kristol and David Aaronovich, who populates the British paper Guardian. They are all former Trotskyites now doing active laundry service for US imperialism.
Even in Pakistan, the Trotskyites were never a popular force. When activists like Hassan Nasir and Major Ishaq (the founder of the Communist Mazdoor Kissan Party) were being persecuted for their beliefs by successive Pakistani dictatorships, 'comrades' such as Lal Khan and Farooq Tariq were in comfortable exile abroad, waving the banner of Trotskyism.
In short, Leon Trotsky did not have a distinguished role in post-revolutionary Russia. His political programme was utterly bankrupt, which led to his being discredited within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and later on by the majority of Third World revolutionaries, because of his counter-revolutionary beliefs and practices.
The plight of Trotskyism today merely confirms that it holds no vision for the emancipation of the working class as in the early 19th century.
RAZA NAEEM
Lahore
Monopoly of car assemblers?
It has been more than two decades since the government allowed local entrepreneurs to assemble CKD/CBU cars and market them at a price fixed by them. There was a clause about deletion with locally- produced parts - a dream yet to be fulfilled.
Back in the late '90s when the dollar started to go up the assemblers started crying and increased the prices arbitrarily. When after the new government took over and the dollar came down, they did not reduce the price.
As yet we don't have any choice but to buy their product. Recently there was a story by the assemblers going around that they have invested Rs20 billion plus and if any step taken to reduce duty on new cars or reconditioned cars would cost them heavily and also lead to unemployment.
But during the last financial year they earned billions and kept more than Rs 50 billion of public money in their coffers without interest in the name of delivering cars after 12-18 months. The losers are the people. Now let us see how car assemblers are wasting the easily-earned money.
Why should the government not stick to the agreement made with the car assemblers when giving permission to set up their units and why should they continue to extend the deadline for the deletion programme? Imports should be liberalized and healthy competition encouraged.
NASIR LATIF BUTT
Karachi
Economy report
Reference the economic review printed in your paper dated May 28. It is an excellent report on Pakistan's economy, highlighting growth and impediments due to ad hocism and bureaucratic hurdles.
As an economist I endorse the report and am amazed that a police officer was considered for commerce secretary. It appears that the writer is unaware that a police officer has been communications secretary for the last many years and even got an extension.
You need good connections in the establishment and you may see a police officer as finance secretary in the future.
DR HAMZA KHAN
Karachi
Nathiagali violation
While the whole country is being made aware of the importance of the preservation of nature, it is regrettable that in the Galiyat area (which has some of the most beautiful ranges containing all species of conifers), the controlling authorities are grossly neglecting their duty in applying their own laws made by the Galyiat Development Authority.
For instance, in Nathiagali where now the minimum requirement for building a house is on a two-kanal plot, law-breakers are forcing the authorities to sanction two houses on one kanal. This is a gross violation of the local building law but no one seems bothered about it and residents seem powerless.
It is requested that our environment minister or the NWFP government look into this malpractice on an urgent basis and stop such irregularities by influential people and save Nathiagali from becoming another Murree.
RESIDENT
Nathiagali
Phasing out mini-buses
With the induction of large buses, our city government has received tremendous appreciation from public in providing convenience, comfort and punctuality, compared to mini-buses and coaches. Now a policy should be made to phase out the latter.
SALEEM ATHAR
Karachi
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