| 19 January 2005 | Wednesday | 08 Zilhaj 1425 |
Pentagon's scapegoat?
Relocating bus terminals
There will be a sigh of relief over the federal government's decision against a military crackdown in the Sui area. At two high-level meetings on Monday, one presided over by the prime minister, the other by the president, an overwhelming majority of those attending spoke against a crackdown.
At the same time, the federal government has pledged in no uncertain terms to safeguard the gas installations in Sui, Pirkoh and Loti. The decision comes in the wake of the request by the Balochistan government for help in protecting the gas plant and pipelines attacked earlier this month.
The two Islamabad meetings also pledged to find a political solution to the trouble in the Sui area. Consequently, the parliamentary committee headed by Mr Mushahid Hussain has been authorized to continue its work and remain engaged with the Baloch leadership.
The government made it plain that it would protect the gas installations at all costs. There are reports also of security agencies questioning those suspected to be involved in the rocket attacks on the Sui plant. Obviously, there is no contradiction between a political approach and safeguarding vital installations.
Those involved in acts of terrorism in the Sui area must be brought to justice, no matter how influential. The gas plants at Sui are a vital part of the economic infrastructure that keeps the wheels of industry moving.
These plants also supply gas to millions of domestic consumers and keep the kitchen fire burning. Any sabotage of these vital installations is an act of terrorism and constitutes a crime against the state and the people of Pakistan. The government is, thus, duty bound to unmask those who are exploiting the grievances of the Baloch people for their own narrow end.
But the problem in Sui has to be seen against the larger picture obtaining in Balochistan. Its people have many grievances. These include the denial of provincial autonomy as guaranteed by the Constitution, the province's economic backwardness and the changes in Balochistan's demography in the wake of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
While every sane Baloch would welcome the mega projects now under way, the Baloch people also wonder whether they will get the full benefits accruing from these projects.
About Gwadar, some Baloch leaders fear that the manpower needed for its development could come from outside the province, and that would only aggravate the problem. The government should not only assure the Balochs of a just share in the economic and employment benefits being thrown open by new development projects but also see to it that the promise is fully fulfilled.
The nation has endured a great deal because of the absence of a democratic system. Balochistan has no doubt suffered, but the fate of the people elsewhere in the country is no better.
Poverty is widespread, the literacy rate is poor, industrialization is not picking up, foreign and local investment is low, and the law and order situation throughout the country is abysmal.
For a solution of these problems, the entire political leadership, irrespective of their provincial origins, needs to take up these issues jointly as a challenge. The Baloch leaders too will serve Balochistan's cause better if they come out of their grooves and take their case to the people of Pakistan.
Then they will find perhaps that they have more supporters in the other provinces than they think. It is also worthwhile for the government to contact some senior, non-controversial political figure to help defuse the situation in Balochistan.
Pentagon's scapegoat?
The 10-year sentence handed down by a US military court to army reservist Charles Graner Jr. for abusing and torturing Iraqi detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad, one hopes, will not be the end of the story.
In fact, ever since the prisoner abuse scandal surfaced last year, the focus of the charges and prosecution have been on Abu Ghraib's military guards, most of whom serve the US military in low-level positions.
Notwithstanding the fact that pictures of the abuse seemed to suggest that some of the perpetrators of the torture actually seemed to be enjoying what they were doing, all the soldiers accused of prisoner abuse took the plea that they were merely following orders of superior officers.
Also, from what Mr Graner said at his own trial and what the other soldiers accused of torture and abuse have said so far in their defence, the question seems to be not of superior officers overlooking or tacitly condoning what was going on at Abu Ghraib but rather of actively encouraging torture as an integral part of the interrogation process.
So, what needs to be investigated further is whether such abuse had the sanction of top decision-makers in the US government. Accusations by rights groups that the torture at Abu Ghraib was part of a broader policy of dealing with detainees anywhere and had parallels in Afghan jails and Camp X-Ray in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, need to be probed.
Unfortunately, recent developments in America tend to lend credence to the view that this issue might be shoved under the carpet with Mr Graner's conviction.
The expected confirmation as attorney-general of Alberto Gonzales, who as a lawyer for the White House publicly called the Geneva Conventions "obsolete" and "quaint" and who had a key role in the formulation of a US Justice Department memo which sought to allow the president to authorize torture as part of the interrogation process, does not leave much hope for those who rightly insist that the level of official complicity and/or approval of the Abu Ghraib torture must be investigated. Until then it would not be wrong to think that Mr Graner is the Pentagon's scapegoat.
Relocating bus terminals
The death of three transport workers in Karachi on Monday as a result of an explosion that occurred when a bus was being repaired needs to be thoroughly investigated. The accident occurred at an illegal bus terminus located in the centre of a densely populated residential area.
Police say that the casualties would have been much higher if the incident had occurred during the rush hour when hundreds of schoolchildren pass through the area. The accident brings into focus the mushrooming of illegal bus terminals in the city and the government's inability to remove them.
While the city government has started work on building new terminals for inter-city buses which are located on the outskirts of the city, the bigger challenge would be to make these transporters move to the new locations.
At present, large buses are seen entering the heart of the city where illegal bus terminals have been set up. Huge tracts of government and private land have been encroached upon for this purpose.
Residents who live in these areas complain of noise, pollution and the presence of unsavoury characters. It is believed that the terminals are operated with the connivance of the area police.
These buses are also a source of pollution and cause congestion on city roads. The rash driving of buses has resulted in several accidents in the past. It is time the government took notice of the bus terminals and shut them down.
The authorities have been saying that terminal points of inter-city buses will be located on the outskirts of the city. Only when this happens will we see an end to this nuisance which continues to grow.