| 04 October 2004 | Monday | 18 Shaban 1425 |
PM's action plan
Action against smoky vehicles
The attack on Samarra by US and Allawi regime forces marks a new and destructive strategy by the occupation to subdue the Iraqi resistance. Over 100 people were killed in the attack on the historic city.
The US military says militants or guerillas were its target; hospital sources say at least 11 women and five children were among the dead. There was street fighting and bombing from the air, and the toll among innocent civilian must be higher.
The US had stopped at the last minute from attacking Sadr City when Moqtada Al Sadr had the town under control: one can only imagine the carnage that would have followed if an offensive had actually been launched.
Restraint now has apparently been abandoned, and the objective is to 'secure' cities where the American writ still does not run, to prepare for the election scheduled for January.
Fallujah and Ramadi are said to be next on the hit list. If the official version that Samarra was so far in nationalist control is true, it only proves the strength of the Iraqi resistance. Trying to overcome it through sheer force, without making any move to lift the occupation, holds out the frightening prospect of more bloodshed in Iraq.
In the last month alone, an estimated 700 civilians were killed in almost daily eruptions of fighting and action by US troops. Since the US intervention last year, 2,029 civilians were killed up to Sept 12, according to the Iraq Body Count project.
Iraqi citizens are dying in bombings and attacks carried out by Iraqis themselves with the aim of destabilizing the present artificial set-up; Iraqis are also dying in military operations by the US-led forces.
Cities and towns have become killing fields, and the country has become a hotbed of terrorism. This is what the Anglo-US decision to invade Iraq has done -- an invasion carried out in utter disregard of international law and on premises proved false.
Yet no one talks of how and when the illegal occupation of Iraq and its resources will be ended. If there was some expectation that the Democratic challenger to President George Bush, John Kerry, would suggest a way out, that has been belied, particularly in the first of the debates between the two contenders.
Both more or less upheld the right of preemptive strike, which is at the root of the misery and suffering inflicted on Iraq. This right is based on military power and the willingness to exercise it without regard to law, the will of the international community or the likely consequences. That way leads to chaos, as we now witness in Iraq.
Blindness in equal measure also underlies the refusal to see a link between, on one hand, the war on terror, the alienation of the Muslim world, the turmoil in Iraq and Afghanistan and Israel, on the other.
It is Israel that is the incubus which has given birth to the growing sense of injustice, deprivation and seething anger in the Middle East. This oppressor state too continues to attack innocent civilians and extracts a daily price of Palestinians killed and maimed, villages and orchards destroyed and houses bulldozed.
It is a blot on the civilized world, and yet it continues to enjoy the full backing of the US and the West. When world leaders idly talk of addressing the 'basic causes' of the current crisis, they should also look at Israel's policies and its refusal to promote a just peace. America's 'right to preemptive strike' and Israel's 'right to defend itself' are adding up to one big wrong that has thrown the world into turmoil.
PM's action plan
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz is about to unveil a five-point action plan aimed at ensuring that the country's economic progress embraces all sections of society. The plan will focus on checking unemployment, inflation and public sector inefficiencies while improving the law and order situation as well as ensuring speedy justice.
While the programme seems in its outline to be comprehensive in the number of issues it covers, it may prove a tall order for the government. Unless the motive behind it is sincere and the will to succeed is unfailing.
The plan applies to areas in which the government has been unable to deliver in the past and naturally there are questions about its ability to do so now. The first challenge is inflation.
In the past year, prices of essential commodities have registered a rise of 14 per cent which is the steepest in the past five years. This rise in prices must be checked. In this, the government would have to balance inflation with economic growth.
Curbing liquidity can have an adverse impact on overall economic growth. This in turn will restrict employment generation, an area where the government has so far failed to live up to expectations.
The much talked about boom in the housing sector has not happened, largely because of short-sighted government policies which have allowed speculators to push up housing and construction costs beyond the reach of the common man. Now is the time to work on a plan to rectify this situation.
The three other areas where the patience of the public is running out is on the prevalence of corruption in dealings with government functionaries, the deterioration in law and order with crime and terrorism both taking their toll and the inability of the common man to secure quick and cheap justice.
The prime minister must work on a strategy to get the intended results in these areas. Unless such a strategy is in place, no amount of high-sounding plans and proposals will be able to solve the problems that face the common citizen in Pakistan today.
Action against smoky vehicles
This is not the first time that Karachi is witnessing a campaign, initiated by the environmental authorities, against noisy and smoke-emitting vehicles. Sporadic attempts at curbing this menace have been made in the past, and in other cities as well.
However, these have had little impact as the resolutions made in this direction by the government have generally proved short-lived and have had little lasting effect. The result is that the health, both mental and physical, of ordinary citizens continues to suffer as a consequence of the deafening sounds of racing buses and other vehicles with faulty silencers and the noxious fumes emitted by their defective exhausts.
With no let-up in traffic congestion - the number of vehicles in the city seems to multiply every year - and with the prevalent careless attitude towards the environment, it appears that it will take many sustained campaigns before a palpable difference can be made.
Part of the problem is that traffic officials fail to apply the rules when it comes to certifying vehicle fitness. For a small sum of money, they are prepared to look the other way as buses and commercial vehicles belching black smoke and emitting ear-splitting noises screech past.
Why, in the first place, were owners of the vehicles issued fitness certificates remains a mystery. This state of affairs should not be allowed to persist. Both environmental officers and the traffic police must be serious in their efforts to check pollution by either impounding smoke emitting vehicles or making their owners pay a fine.
Considering that they are most at risk, members of the public, too, should be encouraged to come forward and report errant vehicles to the police so that action can be taken. It is imperative that stringent steps against polluters be taken now, before matters get out of hand.