| 12 July 2004 | Monday | 23 Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1425 |
Integrating Fata
KESC's poor performance
"...We in Congress would not have authorized that war ... if we knew what we know now." There cannot be a more searing indictment of the dishonesty of the case built up by the Bush administration for its war on Iraq than this statement by Senator John Rockefeller made while speaking on a report by the US Senate's intelligence committee at the weekend.
The report is based on investigations of various instances of intelligence failure prior to the decision taken to invade Iraq. The American claims about Baghdad's possession of weapons of mass destruction have long been proven wrong, and almost everyone now admits that erroneous presumptions were made to attack Iraq and dislodge Saddam Hussein.
A month ago, CIA director George Tenet had resigned. Although he had said he was going for personal reasons, it was universally believed that his exit was linked to the Congressional report released on Friday.
The importance of Senator Rockefeller's remarks lies in the fact that even the legislative authorization of the war is being questioned. It was illegal under international law; now it appears to have been without any legal basis even in the context of America's own political system.
This must be one of the costliest instances of being wise after the event, in terms of the destruction and loss of life inflicted and the spur lent to militancy and terrorism.
The Congressional report blames faulty intelligence and seems to believe that the administration was genuinely misled. It says administration officials did not attempt to coerce, influence or pressure analysts to change their judgments to suit the government's purposes.
But there is a whole body of evidence to suggest that even before 9/11, the cabal in the White House was itching for a regime change in Iraq and capturing that country as part of an agenda designed to further America's strategic and economic interests in the region and bolster Israel.
The terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon came as a godsend for implementation of the agenda - just as it appears the Iraq adventure has been a boon for Al Qaeda by aggravating militancy in the Muslim world.
It should be logical to argue that since the basis on which the US went to war was false, the government should accept the blame and be made accountable. The same debate is taking place in Britain, where Prime Minister Blair is also being accused of misleading parliament.
In America, however, this is election year, and there will be public accountability for Mr Bush and the Republicans in a couple of months. Unfortunately, the opposition in the shape of the Democrats, despite castigating Mr Bush's conduct of the war, shows little collective signs of seeking to reverse the damage.
The Democratic contender, Mr John Kerry, has been noticeably ambivalent on whether he would pull out American troops from Iraq if he becomes president. The November elections nevertheless provide an opportunity for America to make a sober reassessment of its aggressive policy in the Middle East and draw some realistic conclusions from the past year's turmoil. When superpowers make blunders, the consequences for the world are disastrous.
Integrating Fata
The allocation of over Rs7.8 billion for development projects in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas during the current fiscal year is heartening. The Annual Development Programme outlay this year, with Rs1.78 billion as a foreign component, is more than double the amount spent under the same head last year.
An additional two billion rupees will also be made available under the Public Sector Development Programme. The PSDP funding does not cover some other development projects undertaken by the Pakistan Army for which budgetary allocations are made separately, and which amounted to over one billion rupees during the fiscal year just ended.
This is all good news because the poverty level in Fata is estimated to have reached 60 per cent, almost double that of the rest of the country. The government's decision to spend 85 per cent of the total development allocations made for Fata this year on the completion of on-going projects is also a wise one.
These include the construction of 12 small dams and streamlining of other irrigation projects, building of Peshawar-Torkham expressway, upgrading of communications and strengthening of health, education and other social sectors.
Fata has a unique administrative and political structure dating back to the colonial times which allows local tribes to be largely autonomous. The continuation of this system has resulted in a number of anomalies over time, such as the law of the land not being applicable to Fata.
This has for long encouraged criminals and now terrorists to commit crime in the country and then seek shelter in the tribal areas. This simply cannot go on without causing serious problems, as the on-going military operation in South Waziristan has shown and which had to be undertaken as a last resort to flush out foreign terrorists hiding there.
While it is good that the government is paying attention to the socio-economic uplift of these remote areas, a gradual process of political and administrative integration of Fata into the national mainstream must also begin simultaneously. Because this will have to be a long-drawn process based on cooperation of the tribal elders, the sooner it is initiated the better.
KESC's poor performance
The shoddy performance of the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC) has been brought into sharper focus, this time during a meeting of the National Assembly's standing committee on water and power.
The KESC's recent decision to disconnect the power supply to the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board in a bid to recover outstanding dues was the principal focus of discussions at the meeting.
As things stand, the poor management of power supply has led to frequent power riots in the city in the past few months. By hampering the water supply as well by cutting power to the KWSB's pumping stations, the KESC has added to the woes of the heat-weary residents of the city.
The KESC chief's argument that if he did not take action against the KWSB, he would have no moral ground to take similar action against other defaulting consumers is countered by critics who say that a step that would lead to further miseries for the people should be avoided by coming to some amicable agreement between the two utilities.
The army management of the KESC since 1999 has little to show in the way of better operational performance. Despite tall claims to the contrary, it has failed to deliver on most counts.
Line losses remain high at 38 per cent, partly because of an outdated transmission and distribution system as well as rampant power theft which the KESC has failed to check.
Power failures continue to be frequent and often for long hours entailing huge commercial and industrial losses; besides causing misery to millions of domestic consumers. Despite massive injections of funds by the federal government, the KESC has failed to achieve any significant improvement in its overall performance.
An aggravating factor is the weak financial position of the KESC because of large-scale defaults of power dues by bulk consumers - and not just the KWSB. But to come out of the woods, the KESC must begin to tackle the many operational drawbacks and shortcomings that have long afflicted it and raise its performance to a higher level of reliability and efficiency commensurate with the working norms of a public utility.