| 12 April 2005 | Tuesday | 02 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1426 |
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Projects in Chakwal
And now passport blues
YET again a Pakistani has been kidnapped for ransom in Iraq. A non-diplomatic member of the Pakistan embassy, Malik Mohammad Javed had gone to offer prayers in a mosque when he was kidnapped by militants in Baghdad on Sunday. He confirmed to Pakistan’s Charge d’Affaires that he had not been harmed. But given that two other Pakistanis were murdered in cold blood last July, one can only pray for his release unharmed. Last year, another Pakistani, working for a US-based Kuwaiti company, was kidnapped but later released. Ironically, those who took Javed Malik hostage belong to a group called Omar bin Khattab. One would have liked to see the name of the Second of the Pious Caliphs linked to a worthier cause, like the liberation of Palestine and Al Quds, the city he entered while his slave rode the camel and the caliph walked. That a cell calling itself Omar bin Khattab group should perpetrate such a crime is stupefying and testifies to the wave of madness that is sweeping Iraq.
Malik Javed was not working for the US-led occupation forces, nor did his country in any way approve of the war or help the occupiers in any way, much less militarily. Many other innocent people too have fallen victim to this madness. They include Margaret Hassan, a Briton who had passed decades in Iraq serving the Iraqi people and who was in no way connected with Mr Tony Blair’s war policies. Similarly, many Turkish, Egyptian and Syrian truck drivers have been kidnapped and killed — throats slit. One wonders in what way the murder of innocent people like Margaret Hassan or Pakistanis like Azad Khan and Naeem Khan furthers Iraq’s cause of liberation.
What is Iraq’s cause today? The country needs peace so that the process of post-war reconstruction could begin. Second, the occupation forces must withdraw. But this is not possible unless the political process initiated with the Jan 30 election moves forward and a government acceptable to all Iraqis comes into being. If the transitional assembly fails to elect a government by consensus, the result will be more bloodshed. America would be unwilling to withdraw in such a situation, because it would be accused of leaving Iraq in anarchy. This would negate the purported aim of America’s war, namely, to give Iraq peace and democracy.
Those killing innocent people should know that they are shedding blood but without any understandable aim. Left to themselves a majority of the Iraqi people would like to opt for a movement forward on the political front. The Shia majority and the Kurdish minority have already reached an understanding — for the first time in Iraq’s history, a Kurd is Iraq’s president. Cooperation with each other will give the Shias and the Kurds an opportunity to achieve the rights previously denied them. Some Sunnis, too, are in favour of the political process: there are 20 Sunni MPs in parliament — far below their population ratio because of partial boycott — but a Sunni has already been elected speaker. There is, thus, every possibility that the three communities could work out a modus vivendi and give Iraq much needed stability. Terrorism, however, could derail the political process, contribute to chaos and encourage secessionist elements in the Kurdish north. This would only serve to involve Turkey and Iran in the crisis and add a critical dimension to the prevailing chaos.
LAST week Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz inaugurated as many as four industrial projects in Chakwal involving an investment of over $500 million, mostly in foreign exchange. Three of these would produce cement and one paper and together they are expected to generate 50,000 jobs. Some 4,000 loaded trucks would leave Chakwal daily for other markets and mills. The economic spin-off for the country of such a major investment undertaking is certainly welcome, more so because Chakwal is the poorest among the Punjab districts. Its able-bodied people join the army or look for jobs or business opportunities elsewhere for reasons of subsistence. Besides, gas, water and power, the major services needed for improving the quality of life will now become available to the population of the district. If the sponsors of the industrial units abide by the law which requires them to spend a part of their profits on the social uplift of the surrounding areas for setting up schools and hospitals and safeguarding the environment, it will no doubt open up a new era of progress and well being for Chakwal.
Pakistan’s economic growth has always suffered from the problem of distributive injustice. Every time the country has achieved a growth rate beyond 6-7 per cent the benefits have remained restricted to a small section of the affluent, creating widespread grievances. As it is almost impossible for a growth rate of 7-8 per cent to make its ‘trickle-down’ effect reach even those who are living just above the poverty line, it is important for the government to come up with some innovative ideas to make progress towards poverty alleviation. This should of course be done without discouraging entrepreneurial initiatives and interests.
REPORTS of long queues at passport offices across the country keep coming in but the interior ministry has paid little attention to easing the situation. According to a letter published in this paper the other day, it takes three days for an applicant to reach the service window at the Lahore passport office. But once you get there, you may be turned back if the passport officer demands additional supporting documents or raises one objection or another. The situation in Karachi and other cities is not much different. Getting a machine-readable passport is the government’s and not the citizen’s requirement. Its procurement should not be such an ordeal, especially when it is also the basic right of every citizen to possess a passport for travelling abroad.
The situation obtaining at passport offices reminds one of the hiccups faced by citizens when they went to apply for their Nadra identity cards in months following the introduction of computerized NICs. Passport offices are even fewer, normally one for each district. The least the government can do is to increase the number of windows at these offices to ease the rush of applicants, among them those requiring passports on an urgent basis for medical or other reasons. What is beyond comprehension is the common complaint by applicants regarding the demand of additional supporting documents by passport officers. Wasn’t the whole purpose of having a machine readable passport to facilitate the public by transferring personal data already possessed by Nadra on to the passport? Why then these irksome hassles and demands for additional documents? If it is due to a lapse, for instance, because of the interior ministry’s failure to issue an official notification to the effect to passport offices, this needs to be corrected immediately without causing any more hardships to applicants.