| 25 January 2005 | Tuesday | 14 Zilhaj 1425 |
Provincial autonomy
Maid's death
Going by what President George Bush said about the mistakes he made during his first term, the world would be justified in hoping that Mr Bush will have a more sensible second term.
The first term was characterized by a unilateralist, gung-ho foreign policy even before 9/11. The national missile shield initiative, the virtual abrogation of the 1972 anti-ballistic missile treaty, and the chauvinism displayed in policies towards the Kyoto protocol, the international crime court and the land mines issue predated 9/11.
The savage attacks in New York and Washington added to this streak of unilateralism which found expression in a war on terror that often seemed to digress from its original aim.
Justifiably, its aim was to save the US from the scourge of terrorism. However, as it unfolded itself, this war gave an impression as if it was a "crusade" against all Muslim peoples.
As Edward Said aptly remarked, the Bush administration seemed to avenge the blood of innocent people killed in the World Trade Centre by shedding the blood of innocent people in Afghanistan.
The worst part of this war on terror was the brazen-faced way in which it served Israeli interests. All through the four years, the Bush administration followed a policy that aimed at perpetuating Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.
The peace process was never revived, and the US-led roadmap was allowed to be scuttled by Mr Ariel Sharon. Washington also looked the other way while Mr Sharon reoccupied parts of the West Bank and Gaza and in that process undertook another massacre - that at Jenin. Not once did any Bush official rap Mr Sharon for blowing up Palestinian houses and for continuing to build new settlements.
The greatest manifestation of Israel's hold on American foreign policy makers was to be seen in the war on Iraq. Since its inception, one of Israel's major foreign policy aims has been to destabilize every Arab country in its neighbourhood.
Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction, but it had to be destroyed because Israel wanted this. The fraud surrounding the WMDs is now part of history. Intelligence was doctored to prove that Iraq had WMDs, and consequently it was invaded in the false hope that the victors would be welcomed as liberators.
Today, more than one and a half years after the end of the war, the US is hopelessly bogged down in Iraq. The insurgency shows no signs of abating, and it is doubtful if the elections scheduled for Jan 30 would give Iraq peace and stability.
Now, as Mr Bush's second term begins, there are voices in Washington and Tel Aviv warning of attacks on Iran. Vice-President Dick Cheney is among those who have said that Tel Aviv could attack Iran's nuclear installations.
Side by side, hawks have also been demanding attacks on Syria. It is quite possible that the US may itself not attack either Syria or Iran, but the world will rightly see an Israeli blitz as having America's full support.
This will hardly be the way to win Muslim hearts and minds. As Mr Bush himself said the other day, some of his policies had strengthened rather than weakened Muslim extremism.
Let us hope Washington will learn from its mistakes of the last four years and the second-term will see a more positive and genial policy towards the Arab-Islamic world.
Provincial autonomy
The recommendations made by the parliamentary sub-committee on Balochistan led by the Pakistan Muslim League president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain call for careful examination.
The 15-20 per cent increase proposed in Balochistan's gas royalty and 20-30 per cent in resource allocation for development purposes in the province should be welcomed. But the suggestion that the Constitution may also be amended to give greater autonomy to Balochistan is a puzzling one.
Instead, there is a need to ensure that provincial autonomy, as enshrined in the Constitution with regard to relevant areas, is implemented in all the four provinces.
This government, like the ones before it that came to power under direct tutelage of the military, has already done more than its bit of tampering with the Constitution to suit its political exigencies.
Any more tampering with an explicit aim to appease one province while leaving the rest aside will not have much stabilizing effect on the country as a whole. Making such an exception for Balochistan, ostensibly to appease the nationalist opinion there, at a time when the ruling PML heads a coalition government in the province will be seen by many for what it really is: the establishment's lack of confidence in its own hand-picked government.
Balochistan's needs for development have long been ignored by successive governments. The political/nationalist storm brewing there, as seen earlier in Gwadar and now in Sui, has taken a long time in cooking.
The government cannot pretend to have been caught unawares of the developing crisis there. If indeed lack of provincial autonomy is now being seen as a contributing factor to the situation in Balochistan, what will stop Sindh and the Frontier from following suit? This may be an uncharitable thought, but the provinces do feel the stranglehold of the federation when it comes to development planning and making their own decisions.
The excessively long concurrent list of powers must be pruned, with the four provinces given the maximum administrative and financial autonomy as promised by the Constitution. Only this, and an equitable sharing of financial and water resources among the provinces can ensure a more stable Pakistan.
Maid's death
While there has been a certain amount of mystery linked to the rape, burning and now the death of a young housemaid in Karachi, her statement has been legally approved and should form the basis of any judicial inquiry that might be held into the matter.
The maid, Asiya, who had 98 per cent burns on her body when she was brought to hospital, had accused her employers' son of subjecting her to rape over a period of two months.
When she repulsed his advances in the last instance, he threatened to kill her and sent three masked men to her quarters where they set her on fire. Asiya's version will supersede a previous, apparently distorted, account of events that made the incident look as a case of attempted suicide and implicated a fellow servant.
Strangely enough, this kind of actions, echoing the practices of feudal lords in the rural hinterland, have become part of an urban society whose attitude towards those in a disadvantageous position, often has tyrannical aspects - even among the middle-class.
There are a number of housemaids and other domestic servants who are suffering in much the same way as Asiya did but who have no one to turn to for help. This is not surprising considering that both the government and the intellectuals, whose duty it is to guide public opinion and attitude take a backseat in such matters, while the police, notorious for corruption, prefers to line its own pockets by taking money from the guilty to cover up their crimes.
One can depend only on a handful of human rights organizations to raise a collective voice against the increasing number of crimes of this sort. It is to be hoped that they do so in Asiya's case so that a fair investigation is carried out and the guilty awarded exemplary punishment.