Palestine: new hope?

The weekend deployment of over 3,000 police by the Palestinian Authority along Gaza's border with Israel presents a new hope for cessation of hostilities between the two sides.

The police have been deployed to prevent rocket attacks by Palestinian militants against neighbouring Israeli villages. Israel has praised the latest move by President Mahmoud Abbas, with its deputy prime minister calling it "really impressive".

Meanwhile, Mr Abbas has been holding consultations with Islamic radical groups in Gaza, urging them to cease attacks against Israeli targets so that the stalled peace process can be restarted. Since the beginning of the intra-Palestine dialogue in Gaza last Wednesday, there has been a lull in hostilities from both sides - the longest so far in months since the second Intifada began in September 2000.

The US and Israel had ostracized Yasser Arafat and broken off all contact with him. They see Mr Abbas as someone they are willing to talk peace with. His decision now to start a dialogue with hard-line Islamists such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad to forge a united Palestinian stance before restarting peace negotiations with Israel should be seen as an effort to initiate a healing process.

There are indications from Gaza that the militants respect the mandate given to Mr Abbas by the Palestinian people and that Hamas is considering the idea of accepting a Palestinian state comprising the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, with Al Quds as its capital.

This is a significant step on the part of the militants who have long seen the destruction of Israel as the only means to reclaim a Palestinian state. The challenge before Mr Abbas is now to build on this, bring Hamas and other radical organizations into the mainstream of politics and persuade them to opt for the political process rather than pursue a violent struggle.

Israel will have to give up its own policy of state terrorism. Tel Aviv's decision to ease restrictions on Palestinians entering Israel proper from Gaza following last Friday's police deployment by the Palestinian Authority is a good beginning. Ending occupation of the Palestinian territories by pulling out Israeli troops from there would be the next logical step forward.

A lot of water has passed under the bridge since the beginning of the second Intifada. Palestinians have lost some 4,000 lives - a majority of them unarmed civilians - including a number of radical leaders who have been target-killed by Israel.

The Israeli death toll has reached the 1,000 mark, with tit-for-tat attacks continuing from both sides. But the biggest casualty of it all has been the peace process, with President George Bush acting on behalf of the so-called Quartet comprising the US, EU, UN and Russia, first launching a roadmap to peace plan in April 2003 and then reneging on it.

Mr Abbas has now vowed to jumpstart the process but he cannot do that alone. A viable Palestinian state will have to be at peace both with itself and with Israel. While he is expected to set about taking care of that at his end, Israel and the US will have to do much more. As Israel's patron, the onus of building on this new hope for peace rests squarely on the US.

Incentives for ship-breakers

The decision by the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the federal cabinet to reduce duties on the ship-breaking industry is a welcome move. Ship-breakers, however, point out that despite the cut in duties, these remain one of the highest in the world.

As an industry, ship-breaking has suffered for several years now because of excessive taxes and duties imposed by the government. At one point, it was said that the high tariffs were part of the agenda of a political government that had vested interests in steel production.

However, with the change of government, tariffs have not come down. This does not make sense since international steel prices have been at a record high for the past two years or so.

For its part, the ship-breaking industry has been a source of raw material for steel products although the volume of its input has been quite low if seen in a larger context.

One of the reasons for the low volumes has been the fact that Pakistani ship-breakers are unable to compete with their counterparts in Bangladesh, China and India where duties are much lower and more industry-friendly.

Aside from providing an alternative supply for the steel industry, the country's main ship-breaking yard at Gadani is also a centre of economic activity in an otherwise impoverished area in Balochistan.

The industry provides jobs as well as economic activity to the area people and needs to be supported. There are few such ship-breaking yards that exist in the world today and Pakistan should take advantage of the expertise that it has in the field by giving incentives to the Gadani ship-breakers.

For this to happen import tariffs for ships must be kept at competitive rates, and the government should work at brining in new technology so that the industry as a whole becomes more productive in the years to come.

Dwindling migratory birds

It is once again the time of year that bird-watchers in the country treasure most. Flocks of migratory fowl are winging their way south from the colder climes of Siberia and Central Asia to nest in Pakistan's wetlands during the winter season.

Taking the "Indus flyway" route, the birds will descend in areas where there is sufficient water and food to allow them to live comfortably until March when they will head back.

Pakistan is a signatory to the Ramsar Convention and internationally obligated to protect its wetlands, thereby preserving the natural habitat of its flora and fauna. Sadly, there are signs of dwindling in the number of migratory waterfowl arriving in the country.

For example, figures for migratory fowl in Sindh's major wetlands showed approximately 275,000 birds in 2002. This plunged to about 113,500 in 2003, registering more than a 50 per cent drop.

There are several factors responsible for this fall in numbers. Besides the heavy pollution of our waterways caused by industrial and other waste, greed and mismanagement have combined to effect a sharp drop in the water level of lakes - prime nesting grounds - as in the case of Manchhar and Haleji lakes in Sindh.

Silting, saline discharge and eutrophication - overgrowth of vegetation on the surface of the water - have also discouraged the once regular feathered visitors from landing here as has over fishing that has deprived them of their feed.

Obviously, stringent measures are needed to bring the situation under control and to restore the wintering grounds to their former glory so that the birds are once again attracted to their old habitats.

However, this is easier said than done, and would need more than mere commitments on paper. It would need an acceptance of the fact that conservation is integral to the environmental, and by extension the economic well being of a country, and as such it deserves a far higher priority than is accorded to it. The protection of the natural habitats, and thus of the birds, would be a direct corollary of this realization.