| 19 August 2004 | Thursday | 02 Rajab 1425 |
The Najaf quagmire
High-handed
With no consensus on the Kalabagh dam, there are reports that work on the Bhasha dam could begin in 2006. Even though no official announcement has been made, President Musharraf is on record having said several times that big dams will be built.
The latest on the issue are the implications of the press talk on Tuesday by the chairman of the National Highway Authority. He referred to the infrastructure needed for building the Bhasha dam and spoke of the proposed expansion of the Karakoram Highway so as to help with the dam's construction.
These details give an indication of the government's stand on the question of another big dam on the Indus. That a consensus has not developed on the Kalabagh dam is obvious. On the contrary, large sections of opinion in the small provinces remain strongly opposed to it.
Their fear is that the Kalabagh dam will deny the small provinces, especially Sindh, their share of Indus water. In the case of the NWFP, reservations about the dam also include ecological considerations.
For these reasons, the Bhasha dam has been proposed as an alternative. However, there is nothing to suggest that those opposed to Kalabagh necessarily approve of the Bhasha dam, because in effect the latter too will do the same - affect the mighty river's flow downstream.
That Pakistan needs more electricity and water for irrigation goes without saying. The Tarbela and Mangla dams have more than served their purpose. Built in the 1960s, Tarbela has played a crucial role in power generation and brought more barren land under the plough.
However, over the years, silting has reduced its storage capacity. As time passes, silting will further reduce its utility as a reservoir. As for Mangla dam, work has begun on raising its walls so as to increase its capacity.
However, neither the "upgraded" Mangla nor the existing Tarbela would be able to meet the country's fast-expanding water and power requirements. For that reason, it needs another dam - or perhaps more small dams.
The world over, expert opinion has gone increasingly against big dams. They are found to have progressively lost their utility, interfered with ecology, and uprooted populations from traditional settlements. Experts feel small dams could do a better job.
It is time Pakistan thought on these lines. Highly technical questions are involved and these must be settled essentially on the basis of economic needs and technical feasibility. Unfortunately, the problem has been compounded by politics.
The small provinces have genuine reasons for opposing a big dam upstream. For that reason, the federal government must try to achieve a consensus before going for either of the two projects.
At the same time, all parties to the issue should see to it that it is tackled at a technical level and a case is made on the basis of hard facts - like those concerning the inflow and outflow of water, the danger or otherwise to agriculture downstream, the perceived damage to ecology and the threat to the communities to be affected by construction.
It would be a pity if this serious issue were to fall victim to politics of bias or misperception. As for the federal government, it must secure the consensus of all the provinces before launching the construction of such a large project as the Kalabagh or Bhasha dam.
The Najaf quagmire
If the failure of the Iraqi government's mission comprising eminent Shia scholars to Najaf is an indication of the fissures that exist among Iraq's majority community, it also shows that Moqtada Sadr has now raised the stakes in this war of attrition.
The national conference underway in Baghdad to choose a 100-member council, which will have a mix of legislative and executive powers over Iraq's interim government, has had to cut a sorry face following Mr Sadr's refusal to meet its delegates.
The former knows that his refusal to compromise with the US-installed interim government, which inspires little confidence among average Iraqis, will help expand his support at the popular level, leaving his detractors to fend for themselves.
The inherent threat was not lost on those who came to attend the national conference, regardless of what interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi or his American backers make of it.
Nothing will inflame the Iraqis' anger more than an all-out assault on Najaf to capture or kill the hostile cleric. Even if he accepts a truce like he did last April, cleansing Hazrat Ali's shrine of armed militiamen will be no guarantee that a popular uprising will not take place in Najaf or elsewhere as a result of the government's handling of the situation.
At the core of the problem is the lack of credibility of the interim government with the Iraqi people. This is because it comprises America's handpicked ministers who are seen to be pursuing the agenda of the occupation powers.
Moqtada Sadr has only lent a name and a face to this popular feeling of resentment among the Iraqis, many of whom have been resisting and fighting occupation forces in and around Baghdad and Mosul since the fall of the Baathist regime.
These rebellions will not die out as long as the occupation continues or those seen to be its collaborators remain at the helm. It is still not too late to hand over the task of Iraq's interim administration to the United Nations.
A non-combatant multinational peacekeeping force under UN command is more likely to see a smooth transition to a genuine democratic government than one at beck and call of occupation powers.
High-handed
It is true that cinema houses have long served as venues for both romantic and sleazy trysts. But for the police to suddenly wake up one day and raid a theatre in the full glare of publicity and pull out scores of women and men on charges of obscene behaviour is carrying things too far.
This is what happened in Karachi the other day, and one television shot of the episode showed the police literally dragging a woman by her hair. This is outrageous.
The police are not entitled to manhandle those whom they detain, and that they did so knowing that they were on camera and were being watched by senior officials, including a minister, only shows how steeled members of our force have become in their utter defiance of rules and regulations.
Was there a complaint from cinemagoers that this particular cinema house was being used by "prostitutes" to lure customers? Or did the police act on their own information? Are the police sure that those whom they detained do not include innocent couples?
Offensive behaviour in places where it is likely to be a source of nuisance for others cannot be condoned. But social evils like prostitution cannot be effectively tackled through occasional police raids, which lead not to reforms but to unnecessary harassment, often of people belonging to low-income groups, and bribe giving and taking.
The flesh trade, gambling, trafficking in drugs and similar other evils are deeply embedded criminal activities that thrive for a host of socio-economic reasons. Exploitation of women and lack of legitimate means of entertainment are two of the more obvious ones.
More care has to go into drives against such problems, which need understanding, not self-righteous grandstanding. The latter course holds out the danger of playing into the hands of obscurantists and self-styled custodians of public morality.