| 15 June 2004 | Tuesday | 26 Rabi-us-Saani 1425 |
A snub for Tony Blair
KESC and the summer heat
There is little surprise if elections in Afghanistan have been postponed for the second time. Originally scheduled to be held this month, the polls had to be postponed to September.
Now, a second postponement has become necessary for reasons that apparently are technical. As announced by the election commission, electoral constituencies must be notified three months before the general elections.
Since the commission has not yet been able to accomplish this, a postponement has become necessary. Significantly, no new date has been given. This means that unless Kabul comes up with a new schedule, many would consider the postponement to be indefinite.
The truth is that the failure to delimit the constituencies and have them notified stems basically from the law and order situation. Nothing illustrates this more than the cold-blooded murder last week of 11 Chinese workers in the relatively safe Kunduz province in the north-eastern part of the country.
The Taliban have denied any responsibility for the crime. But if their denial is accepted, then that makes the situation even more confusing; it means President Hamid Karzai's non-Taliban opponents are equally defiant and are busy destabilizing the country.
Last week, a man sent from Kabul to take over as governor of Sar-i-Pul had to return because hostile people there threw rocks at his convoy. Despite having a guard of 100 soldiers, the man had to return to Mazar-i-Sharif for safety.
This goes to show the helplessness of the Karzai regime. Militarily, the situation seems almost hopeless despite the sizable presence of US and allied troops. The Nato-led International Security Assistance Force is 6,500 strong, while the US-led multinational force numbers 20,000.
Yet they have not been able to ensure peace. Nato, especially, is in a predicament. It has promised to increase the size of its force before the Nato summit meets in Istanbul later this month.
But most member-nations seem reluctant to pledge more troops to Afghanistan because they do not see any hope of conditions becoming normal. At the same time, the Afghan national army is nowhere near a stage where it could enforce Kabul's writ throughout the country and ensure peaceful conditions for an election to be held.
To an outside observer it appears that the Karzai government and its international backers are putting more emphasis on the military means than on the political. A mix of both might prove more effective.
The Taliban are still very active and will continue to harass the Karzai government and its allies. Worse still, all warlords seem more interested in maintaining control over their fiefs than in Kabul's war on the Taliban.
Disciplining the warlords and crushing the Taliban are tasks that are clearly beyond the Karzai government's military capability. Ultimately, it must switch over to the political means. Throughout its history, Afghanistan has survived as a tribal confederacy. That is the way it can again return to normality and peace.
The Karzai regime also lacks balance, because it is dominated by the Tajiks. This has served to alienate the Pashtoons, even though Mr Karzai himself is one. Let Mr Karzai broaden and balance his cabinet, and put greater emphasis on winning over the warlords and other recalcitrant elements through prodding and persuasion. A consensus then can pave the way for a general election late this year or early next year.
A snub for Tony Blair
Britain's Iraq policy seems to account for the heavy losses the ruling Labour Party suffered in Sunday's European parliament elections as well as in local elections held three days earlier.
Labour lost 462 of its seats in the local elections and six in the European poll, with opposition parties reaping the windfall to significantly improve their standings.
In the local elections, of the 166 councils, the Tories now control 51, Labour 39 and the Liberal Democrats nine. However, in the European poll, the Tories also lost eight of their seats, with the ruling Labour getting the lowest percentage of the vote - just over 22 per cent - and the Eurosceptic United Kingdom Independence Party bagging an unprecedented 12 seats.
On the local scene, Labour now trail behind the Tories and the Liberals in their share of votes - the first time a ruling party has been relegated to third rank. Seen together, the two election results reinforce the existing gap between Mr Blair's policies and public opinion.
Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott has admitted that the Labour got the "kicking" because of their Iraq policy. However, Mr Blair was not as straightforward and promised a continuation of his policies.
This is perhaps the first time in recent years that a foreign policy issue has cast a damning shadow over local body politics in Britain. Labour's Muslim vote bank, which is a significant factor in parts of the Midlands, has also been eroded - regrettably, to the satisfaction of the racist British National Party which wrested four Bradford seats from the ruling party.
Other big cities to fall were Leeds and Newcastle, while the London mayor barely managed to survive - probably because he is a bit of an iconoclast in his party and has been firmly anti-war.
The mood in Britain should worry Mr Blair who will be contesting for a third term less than 11 months' from now. If he wins despite the present signals, it would only be because the opposition leadership is so lack-lustre.
KESC and the summer heat
The past week has been agonizing for most residents of Karachi. A spell of very hot and humid weather has been made much worse, thanks to the KESC. According to the power utility, every year around this time, the demand for electricity rises because many residents begin using airconditioners.
This, it says, increases the load on the power grid, making it trip frequently. Prolonged power outages are being reported from every part of the city and with only half of June gone, the rest of the summer looks very bleak.
The KESC says that because of the heat, peak demand has risen to 2,000 megawatts - much more than its generating capacity. The danger now is that this may lead to loadshedding, which will make matters worse for people.
Technicalities aside, the fact is that something needs to be done to make life easier for the residents. Every year, with the advent of summer, the city's power distribution system goes haywire.
A solution has to be found so that come summer and Karachi has enough electricity to cope with the increased demand. To this end, a plan has to be put in place to revamp and overhaul the transmission and distribution system.
A campaign against illegal or 'kunda' connections and power pilferers must be launched. Important elements of the grid such as transmission cables, poles and transformers need to be kept in a state where they can hold the load and not break down every now and then. Also, the number of transformers needs to be increased because many recent cases of prolonged breakdowns happened when they burnt out and took a very long time to replace.
There was talk of linking the KESC grid with Hubco (which connects with Wapda's national grid at Jamshoro) but the plan is said to have been put on hold for a couple of years. This decision needs to be reviewed.