| 21 December 2004 | Tuesday | 08 Ziqa'ad 1425 |
Two-nation theory
Predicting polio eradication
'The lessons of 1971'
A suggestion on Kashmir
'Towards a more secure world'
Muslim charities
Religion column
Cheaper cancer medicines
Poor public facilities
Boosting trade with China
Pakistan high commission
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Pakistan's listless performance against the Aussies in Perth is a function of several variables, none more important than the lack of an inspirational leader. Inzamam is an introverted person who is simply not able to motivate his players to play at their peak.
He is desperately trying to alter the natural Pakistani psyche which is to play for the fun of the game, be relaxed, be boisterous on the field and pump each other up. During his tenure, players with some flair have gradually been removed from the team, including Rashid Latif, Moin Khan and Azhar Mahmood.
And to compound matters, his own performance has plummeted with a back that is appearing to have gone bad chronically. He should be advised to call it a day without further ado.
Youhana has the charisma to lead the team, something which will also quieten the rumours of bigotry within the team. It is time for Pakistan to march ahead to the tune of the times - celebrate diversity that has enriched our societies for centuries.
And if no one has noticed, modern bowlers who are proving to be successful are those who are at least six feet tall in order to extract bounce from benign pitches - without putting in the immense effort that breaks down the body as in the case of Shoaib and Sami.
Fast bowling has changed much like basketball changed in the 70s. I remember guards playing in the National Basketball Association who were five feet tall, Now it is virtually impossible to get to that level unless you are 6.5 feet and over.
McGrath, Kasprowicz, Gillespie, Harmison, Hoggard, Flintoff, Hall are examples of the new generation - most of them would be rendered harmless on benign pitches (barring Harmison) because of their lack of pace - but pitches in Australia and South Africa are anything but.
Effective pace bowling is a function not just of speed but of bounce. A proper index would combine these two variables in a way that meteorologists combine temperature and wind to yield an effective temperature.
Pakistan should start nurturing tall pacemen - along the lines of Shabbir and Fazle Akbar. And bring in nutritionists, body trainers and physios that would guarantee that these people would not break down after the initial investment has been made.
MOHAMMED BALUCH
Dhahran, Saudi Arabia
(II)
The first Test between Pakistan and Australia ended in disgrace for the visitors. Pakistani batting touched rock bottom in one of the most unprofessional exhibitions of batting in modern-day cricket.
The team looked in disarray as Inzamamul Haq's batting brigade fell like a house of cards in both innings. The team was more of a flock of unskilled, below par part-timers terribly lacking in cohesion and trying to occupy crease without any purpose.
Yousuf, Younus and Inzamam couldn't live up to their reputation. Other than Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Sami there was no depth in our bowling department as well. Now there is no point in crying over spilt milk; instead, we have to pull up our socks and prove that the Pakistani team has the capacity to bounce back.
Some of the positive things to be taken into the second Test are certainly the commitment of Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammed Sami. If determination prevails the team can still do what many can't think of.
YASAR LODI
Karachi
Two-nation theory
The two-nation theory can be traced back to the 11th century to Al-beiruni's account: "The Hindus and the Muslims belong to two different religious philosophies, social customs and literature.
They neither inter-marry nor inter-dine together and they belong to two different civilizations, which are based on conflicting ideas and conceptions. Their aspects on life and of life are different.
It is quite clear that Hindu and Muslims derive their inspirations from different sources of history. They have different epics, their heroes are different, and they have different episodes. Very often the hero of one is the foe of the other, and likewise, their victories and defeats overlap."
After 1857 the British added to the discontent of Muslims by favouring Hindus in education, administration and other spheres and by tilting against the Muslims culturally, economically and politically.
With the tools of learning and power acquired from the British, the Hindus transformed themselves. Their numbers were so great that Muslims could not even hope to maintain normal relations with them.
The only way for India's Muslims to resist the malevolent treatment by the British and the larger Hindu community was to become educated to a high standard. They had to have an equal status to have access to skills, positions and power.
In 1930 Allama Iqbal said: "I would like to see the Punjab, the North-West Frontier Province, Sindh and Balochistan amalgamated into a single state. Self-government within the British empire, or without the British empire, the formation of a consolidated North-western Indian Muslim state appears to me to be the final destiny of the Muslims, at least of North-West India."
The Quaid-i-Azam argued that without some restraint on majority power, Muslims would always be outvoted. He further said: "A thousand years of close contact, nationalities which are as divergent today as ever cannot at any time be expected to transform themselves into one nation.
India's Muslims needed a homeland for their protection and to fulfil their cultural and civilizational destiny." The idea of a special status for Indian Muslims thus developed into a separate and independent state for Muslims.
FAQIR AHMED PARACHA
Peshawar
Predicting polio eradication
In June 2002 the then health minister predicted that polio would be eradicated by the end of the year. In July the press reported that three new cases of polio had been detected in Sindh.
In April this year, the health minister made a similar claim for December 2004. But the very next month five new polio cases were reportedly detected in Sindh. In November eight new polio cases were reported in Punjab and the Frontier.
Again, the health minister claimed in November that polio would be eradicated by the end of the current year. Early this month newspapers reported that substandard vaccines had been given during anti-polio drives.
In response, the minister said the vaccines which were rejected and declared substandard by the World Health Organization (WHO) could be found in a huge quantity in NIH storerooms. He also announced that so far only 38 cases of polio had been reported in 2004.
After attending a seminar on the subject held recently at the Health Services Academy, a participant labelled the outcome of the polio drives by the health ministry as unsatisfactory, alleging that UN, World Bank and other international agencies' representatives were taken to 'fixed centres' in Islamabad, and everything was projected as 'goody goody'.
In contrast, according to him, a German polio expert visiting Pakistan gave a totally different picture. His findings were alarming, since they showed that more than 20 per cent of eligible children had been overlooked in the vaccination drives.
The question is: where should the buck stop for this gross mismanagement? Only the prime minister can decide this when he scrutinizes the three-month 'achievement report' of the health ministry.
PROF GHAYUR AHMED
London, UK
'The lessons of 1971'
Mr Masud Mufti has opened his heart in the closing paragraph of his article "The lessons of 1971" (Dec 17) when he says: "The only way to get rid of the system is to bypass this 57 years' old cooperative arrangement by persuading and organizing the masses to select new leadership from their own ranks. They should themselves bring in democracy, which their rulers have been denying them."
It is a fascinating and revolutionary idea but the daunting question is: who will bell the cat and how? As they say if wishes were horses, beggars would ride.
Who can know better than Mr Mufti himself that vested interests comprising the three most relentless, voracious and powerful segments, namely, the feudals, the army and the clergy, will collectively fight to frustrate any attempt of the masses to undo the status quo.
The media is the most crucial and effective tool to influence the masses and galvanize them into a revolutionary struggle. The role of the local and global media is also not unknown nor are its objectives hidden. They mutilate facts to help those in power. The American presidential election provided more than enough evidence of this.
Is it not wishful thinking to expect that Dec 16 alone can create such realization while no storm has been raised to identify those responsible for the tragedy even after a lapse of 33 years?
M. SALEEM CHAUDHRY
Karachi
A suggestion on Kashmir
Prof Arun Khanna (Dec 8) has claimed that the 2002 elections in Jammu and Kashmir were fair. He says US ambassador to India Robert Black will also witnessed the elections.
To term the elections fair is a big delusion. The independent and impartial international media was not allowed to enter occupied Kashmir during these elections; only Mr Black will may have been present there.
After these elections, the international media reported that only 5-10 per cent of voters cast their votes and that too when they were forcibly brought to polling stations.
Mr Black will was so much tilted in favour of India throughout his term that his statements used to give the impression that he was not an American ambassador but the foreign minister of India.
If India feels that the Kashmiris residing in occupied Kashmir wish to stay with India, it should let the matter be decided through a plebiscite under United Nations auspices according to the UN resolutions accepted by both India and Pakistan, as is being demanded by Pakistan.
GHULAM MUHAMMAD
Karachi
'Towards a more secure world'
Thiis refers to the article "Towards a more secure world" by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan (Dawn, Dec 5). The recommendations drafted by a 16-member panel constituted by Mr Annan seem highly myopic and polarized because they have failed to bridge the gap between the powerful states' weapon of preemption-cum-state terrorism and the poor nations' right of legitimate resistance-cum-armed struggle.
Since the very adoption of the UN Resolution 1373 on Sept 28, 2001, for fighting international terrorism, the international forum has been constantly facing the task of defining terrorism.
The post-9/11 era has seen that UN resolutions on terrorism serve as mere window dressing for unilateralism. It is unfortunate that instead of discouraging the dictates of political chauvinism, the UN role seems to have been of promoting it in the world.
Can it be refuted that the totalitarian doctrine of preemption used by America against the Iraqi people is totally immoral and ultar vires?
Certainly, any use of force should be consistent with international law governing the use of force, that is, it should discriminate between military and civilian targets and be proportionate to the challenge.
If retaliatory action fails to abide by these guidelines, it will be undoubtedly seen as replicating the fundamental evil of terrorism. It will be seen as violence directed against those who are innocent and against civilian society (this is what happened in Afghanistan and Iraq).
Ernesto Garzon, the Spanish judge once based in The Hague, has reportedly said: "State terrorism is a political system whose rule of recognition permits and/or imposes a clandestine, unpredictable, and diffuse application, even regarding clearly innocent people, of coercive means prohibited by the proclaimed judicial ordinance.
State terrorism obstructs or annuls judicial activity and transforms the government into an active agent in the struggle for power." One of the challenges before the UN will be to avoid seeming to exempt state violence from moral and legal limitations while insisting that such limitations apply to the violence of terrorists. Such a double standard will damage efforts to draw a credible distinction between the criminality of an attack and the legitimacy of retaliation.
The Geneva Declaration on Terrorism says: "As repeatedly recognized by the United Nations General Assembly, peoples who are fighting against colonial domination and alien occupation and against racist regimes in the exercise of their right of self-determination have the right to use force to accomplish their objectives within the framework of international humanitarian law. Such lawful uses of force must not be confused with acts of international terrorism."
Historically, various UN resolutions have reaffirmed the legitimacy of the struggle for liberation from colonial domination and alien subjection, "by all available means including armed struggle".
The fact remains that by any governed standard of morality and legality, the issue of legitimate resistance - the imperialists' bete noire - cannot be overlooked by confusing it with terrorism.
Hence Islamabad's stand on a recently adopted UNSC resolution 1556 that it cannot agree to exclude the right of 'legitimate resistance' from the resolution draft is fully justified.
The future of the 'global peace and security' can only be saved if the poor peoples' rights of enfranchisement and freedom are duly honoured and protected by powerful states, the policies of 'state terrorism' sponsored and practised by both Israel and India are immediately stopped and, more significantly, the tactical and xenophobic use of the instrument of preemption is completely banned.
S. Q. AFZAL RIZVI
Karachi
Muslim charities
I was surprised and shocked to read that an honourable judge in San Francisco (USA) has passed a judgment against three Muslim charities and Mohammad Salab, an alleged fund-raiser for the Palestinian group Hamas, who have been ordered to pay $156 million to the parents of an American teenager, David Boim, who was shot dead at a bus stop in Jerusalem in 1996.
In response to the denial by the defendants of having any ties with Hamas and their arguments that there was no evidence to show that the money they sent to charities on the West Bank was tied to Boim's killing, Judge Arlander Keys said Boim's parents didn't need to show that link.
With civil liberties drastically curtailed and with judges like Arlander Keys, the Americans should soon be catching up with the level and kind of justice found in many developing countries, including ours.
NAZIM F. HAJI
Karachi
Religion column
I congratulate the government for deleting the religion column from passports. Since 9/11 Pakistanis expatriates and those who are willing to go abroad for studies or jobs have been facing difficulties and discrimination at foreign airports, especially in Europe and the US, because of the religion clause.
The deletion of the religion column was necessary and will not affect our religion at all in anyway; in fact, it will make life easy for all Pakistani Muslims living abroad, especially in the West. I appeal to all religious leaders to realize this fact and not to make it a political or religious issue.
DR A.A.LAGHARI
Beaumont Wood, Ireland
Cheaper cancer medicines
I support Mr Imran Khan's efforts to ensure the availability of cheaper cancer medicines in Pakistan. Many cancers need long-term therapy and medicines produced by western companies are exorbitantly expensive, precluding optimal care and thus affecting cure rates and survival.
India is manufacturing many such cheaper medicines which can either be imported from India or produced in Pakistan under licence from Indian companies. The availability of effective but cheaper chemotherapy will greatly promote clinical efforts against cancer in Pakistan.
NADEEM ZAFAR
Memphis, USA
Poor public facilities
On the night of Dec 18 I took my friend, a foreigner, to the Commercial Market in Rawalpindi's Satellite Town. I was ashamed when I took my friend to a public toilet managed by the tehsil municipal administration. There was no lighting except for a kerosene lamp.
Besides, the toilet was in a very bad shape and unusable. Is this how we intend to promote tourism in our country and our image abroad?
AHMAD SAEED
Islamabad
Boosting trade with China
This refers to your editorial "Boosting Pak-China trade" (Dec 19). It seems the Pakistan government does not want to learn any lesson in international relations.
It has allowed its local industry to close shop while China is allowed an increase of 91.9 per cent in its exports to Pakistan. In a country where manufacturing jobs are already scarce, more skilled workers will be forced to work as petty workers in big Chinese goods warehouses.
You have proposed that China use Pakistan as a production base, but you have not cited any positive reason for China to snatch manufacturing jobs from its own hungry millions. Pakistan may not have many things other than rice and fruits of interest to China, but it does have many things exportable to its eastern neighbour, India.
However, the 'national interest' does not allow profit to be made by selling goods to an "enemy" because an imbalance of 140 per cent with China is bearable, but with India it is treachery.
I wish all success to the Pakistani economy, but with such economists, the future may not have any good news.
P. RASTOGI
Toronto, ON., Canada
Pakistan high commission
I recently visited the Pakistan high commission in London for a personal matter. The following were my observations:
- The high commission website had not been updated for many months.
- Forms could be downloaded from the website, but I was later disappointed to see forms were actually pictures opening in a word format giving poor quality views/prints.
- There were no postal services for simple things such as passport renewal and addition of child's name on the mother's passport despite a exorbitant fee for these services.
- The seating, lighting and the overall look of the high commission was poor. Dark green-coloured slippery tiles, dirty walls and complete disorganization were evident as soon as I entered the premises.
I suggest the following:
1. There ought to be a help line number to answer all visa and passport inquiries.
2. An updated and simple-to-use website would be very helpful.
3. Postal services for things like passport renewals and Nadra cards will be much appreciated.
DR DANIEL MUKHTAR
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