| 24 April 2005 | Sunday | 14 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1426 |
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Samiul Haq episode
Another cover-up
THE Asian Development Bank has asked the government to curb rising inflation by rigorously pursuing prudent macroeconomic policies. In its latest economic update on Pakistan, the bank has expressed its apprehension that rising inflation could undermine the stability of the exchange rate, distort the incentive structure that is in place and eventually stall growth. Earlier in the month, figures released by the federal bureau of statistics showed that inflation in March 2005 rose by 10.25 per cent over March 2004. Similarly, in the nine-month period of July-March 2004-05, it increased to over nine per cent compared to the corresponding period of the previous fiscal year. The ADB said in its update that with sound macroeconomic fundamentals and a pick-up in investments, the medium term prospects of the economy looked bright. However, one of the main causes for concern is inflation, which has started to rise and threatens to preclude some of the short-term economic gains that can be achieved.
This hike in price affects fixed income groups and those living on daily wages the hardest. It is said that inflation has been on the rise mainly because the economy is growing faster than projected and that banks, flush with excess liquidity, are advancing huge loans to the private sector at lower than the inflation rate. Part of the money borrowed from banks is finding its way into speculative activity, which, in turn, is driving up prices, as we have seen in the real estate sector. In response, the State Bank of Pakistan has decided to raise lending rates. It hopes that the resultant squeeze in credit will lower inflation. So far, it has withdrawn Rs. 5.5 billion from the inter-bank market and hopes to continue this exercise to decrease liquidity in a bid to check inflation. This may not necessarily happen unless other factors are also taken care of.
While one can understand that in a free market, there is very little the government can do to determine at what price things are sold in the market, the problem is that the government is not doing enough in terms of checking irregularities and promoting consumer resistance. Hoarding and profiteering are common features but the government seems to lack the will to take action against wrongdoers. Prices of essentials like bread, meat and milk continue to register unrealistic increases and the government seems helpless in trying to control profiteering. One wonders what happened to the proposal to set up a consumer council in Sindh on the lines of the CPLC. Such a body can help regulate market rates. The government can also give some relief to the common citizen by reducing the number of levies that are imposed on the sale of, say, petroleum products. Another area that needs attention is where monopolistic tendencies are pursued by vested interests in certain sectors. In many instances, the forming of cartels, as in the cement, pharmaceutical and vehicle sectors for example, has caused prices to soar. The true test of government intentions to check inflation comes from its commitment to back the rise in lending rates with a number of supplementary measures. Unless this is done, the inflation control exercise embarked on by the government will be a futile one.
THE events surrounding Senator Maulana Samiul Haq’s treatment at the Brussels airport and the embarrassment caused to Pakistan raise a question or two about Islamabad’s responsibility in all this. The party he belongs to and his personal credentials reflect a certain attitude to life and politics that is controversial and evokes intense reaction from among friends and foes alike. These facts should have been taken into consideration before the maulana was taken on the delegation headed for the European Union’s capital. His, and Pakistan’s, humiliation now is total. He was held up at the airport for one and a half hours, even though he had a valid visa, and when finally allowed to leave the airport he was given 24 hours to get out of Belgium. The European Parliament then refused to meet him. If Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz had not intervened, maybe the senator’s predicament would have been worse. Later, Islamabad summoned the EU, Belgian and Dutch ambassadors to the foreign office and took “strong exception” to their treatment of the JUI senator. Mercifully, the Dutch ambassador reportedly agreed with the foreign office that the EU attitude was unjustified.
Maulana Sami is an elected senator and is on the upper house’s committee on foreign affairs. During the American attack on Afghanistan in October-November 2001, Maulana Sami was chairman of the “Defa-i-Pakistan wa Afghanistan (Defence of Pakistan and Afghanistan) Council”. That war was opposed by many political parties and groups in Pakistan, but not for reasons that Maulana Samiul Haq had in mind. Secular and liberal elements also opposed it and criticized Pakistan’s support to the American-led war. The EU missions here knew all this, and yet the maulana got a visa. It was thus astonishing that an elected leader having a proper visa was confined to the airport, let off after 90 minutes and told to leave the country in 24 hours. Given that a close relationship has developed between Pakistan and the EU in the post-9/11 period, the incident may soon be forgotten. But the government should draw an appropriate lesson for the future. Maulana Sami’s inclusion in the delegation was a mistake which should have been avoided in the first place.
ACCORDING to reports in the US press, a final report by the US army’s inspector-general has cleared senior officers, including the head of US forces in Iraq, of any wrongdoing or blame for the abuse of prisoners. The report is said to be a definitive one, which means that despite the presence of initial reports which put partial blame for the torture of prisoners at jails like Abu Ghraib outside Baghdad on senior commanders, the Pentagon is finally closing the chapter on the prisoner abuse scandal. One of these reports was authored by a two-star general of the US military and had spoken of “failures at the highest levels”. The report also said that Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, then commander of US forces in Iraq, and his deputy “failed to ensure proper staff oversight of detention and interrogation operations” and “reacted inadequately” to warnings that abuse was occurring at the detention centres.
Add to this the stand taken by one brigadier charged with prisoner abuse that they were all acting under orders or with the tacit approval of senior commanders, and the final US army report seems to be an eyewash. Most individuals with a sense of right and wrong will wonder how whole units of the US army could engage in such abuses for such a long time and manage to hide all of this from their senior commanders. Also, the tendency of the Bush administration for advocating the use of extra-legal methods of torture in interrogating prisoners in its war against terror is well-documented and it only seems logical that what happened at prisons like Abu Ghraib was the “fruit”, so to speak, of such misguided and immoral policies. The right thing would have been for the Pentagon to set up an independent inquiry so that those behind the shameful torture scandal could be held accountable.