| 21 December 2004 | Tuesday | 08 Ziqa'ad 1425 |
Tapping overseas jobs
Rout at Perth
Sunday's devastating blasts in Iraq serve to focus the world's attention on the trauma that the Arab country is living through. The explosions - one in Najaf, the other in Karbala - killed at least 62 people, leaving 130 injured.
Given the high number of the injured, the final death count is likely to go up. This is not the first time that bomb attacks in the two holy cities have caused such havoc. The worst violence of this sort occurred on March 2 when a series of blasts in Karbala and a Shia mosque in Baghdad left 223 people killed.
This time, coinciding with the carnage in the two cities on Sunday was the murder in Baghdad of three people working for the election machinery. They were dragged out of their car and shot.
Who shot them is not clear, but it is obvious that a large number of people in Iraq are opposed to elections - scheduled for January 30 - under the present unrepresentative Iraqi set-up headed by President Yawar al-Ghazi and Prime Minister Iyad Alawi.
If Iraq is to have peaceful, credible elections, it is obvious that they must be held under UN auspices. Since they are to be supervised by the present US-installed government, there is little possibility that the world or the Iraqi people will consider those polls fair.
The anger which the Iraqis have for the present interim set-up is evident from the way it has failed to create a post-Saddam security apparatus. The new Iraqi army takes orders from the Americans, and was part of the bloodbath in Fallujah in November.
This has added to the hatred which the people have for people working for the Alawi government. A greater indication of the people's hostility towards the regime is the series of attacks on police training and recruitment centres.
So far over 1,000 policemen and recruits have been killed or injured in attacks targeted at training and recruitment centres. It is becoming clearer, however, that the Shias, who form a majority in Iraq, will like the election process to go ahead. Mercifully, the Shia leadership has vowed not to react.
If the Shias retaliate in a similar manner in the Sunni triangle, this could ignite a civil war and thus scuttle the chances of elections. This is not in their interest. As al-Sadr has said, a civil war would be "hell".
Elections have also been welcomed by the Kurdish north. The big question is whether the law and order situation will improve to a point where orderly elections can be held, and those elections will be considered transparent by the world at large.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has complained that the world body has not been associated with post-war Iraq in a meaningful way. If next month's elections to the transitional assembly are held under the present political regime, then they will lack credibility.
A government that comes into being as a result of these polls can hardly command the respect necessary for a regime that wants to re-build Iraq with the help of its people.
The only way out is to involve the world body in the electoral process, with the UN peacekeeping force supervising the vote. This alone can ensure peaceful and credible elections and pave the way for the US-led coalition forces to withdraw.
Tapping overseas jobs
The assurance given by the labour and overseas Pakistanis minister that job cuts in Saudi Arabia will not affect Pakistanis working in the kingdom comes as a whiff of fresh air.
The minister said this after exchanging views with his Saudi counterpart during a four-day fact-finding trip to Riyadh. The Saudi government has embarked on a programme to minimize new jobs going to foreigners so as to accommodate Saudi nationals.
There are some 1.2 million Pakistanis in Saudi Arabia who form the largest group among a total of 7.4 million overseas Pakistanis. Their collective earnings in the kingdom are in millions of dollars, a large chunk of which is remitted to their families in Pakistan on a monthly basis, thus constituting a major source of foreign exchange.
To keep the upward trend going - 126,000 Pakistanis last year as against 28,000 in 1999 - in the hiring of Pakistani labour and professionals by the Saudis, the government has also offered to set up Pakistani universities' campuses in the kingdom.
The Saudis are reportedly open to the suggestion, and have also requested Pakistan to set up technical training institutes in their country to impart professional training to the Saudi youth.
It is such overseas employment opportunities that need to be tapped in other affluent Muslim countries too to find more jobs for trained as well as untrained Pakistanis. A number of growing Muslim economies in the Middle East need a steady stream of foreign workers.
The opening up of the Libyan job market since the lifting of the economic sanctions imposed on that country presents a good opportunity that needs to be explored. Earlier last year, Malaysia too had agreed to hire nearly 400,000 Pakistanis for expanding job opportunities there.
The ministries concerned need to follow up on that offer to ensure that those jobs are not lost to others because of bureaucratic delays and lapses on our end. Our own economy, tragically, is unable to offer more jobs, and till the economy recovers, employment opportunities overseas must be explored and exploited.
Rout at Perth
The 491-run defeat inflicted by the Australians on Pakistan at Perth represents a new low for the national cricket team. It is the worst run loss since England's by 425 runs to the West Indies at Old Trafford in 1976.
It comes at a time when the team's management, the coaching staff and the Pakistan Cricket Board itself have come under intense scrutiny on various counts, especially from members of a Senate committee and the media.
Pakistan's team has often been described as being very talented but mercurial in its performance. Ups and downs are part of competitive sport but there has to be some limit, and the variation between bad and good performance should not be such that it defies reason.
The virtual capitulation by the Pakistani batsmen in the second innings on Sunday will have left most people puzzled because it happened without an iota of resistance. As is the case even with heavy defeats, some lessons need to be learnt.
But as has been pointed out, the batsmen knew that they had to resist certain kinds of deliveries and not play rash shots. But that is exactly what they did in both the innings.
The pitch at Perth is one of the fastest in the world and, given that most Pakistani batsmen are not particularly comfortable against fast swinging deliveries, it was expected that the likes of McGrath, Kasprowicz and Gillespie, with home advantage, would prove to be formidable.
The Pakistan team lacked everything that the Australians had in abundance. The world champions have dominated cricket in recent years with their talent and technique, but what perhaps makes them stand head and shoulder above the rest is their tenacity and strength. Mental toughness cannot be taught but comes through experience, solid leadership and a strong desire to succeed.