| 27 April 2005 | Wednesday | 17 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1426 |
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Pauperizing Palestinians
A barbaric punishment
AT a meeting of the Pakistan Development Forum (formerly known as the Aid-to-Pakistan Consortium) held in Islamabad on Monday, the government’s attention was drawn to the twin problems of rising inflation and poverty in the country. Speakers at the meeting found fault with the government’s assertion that high growth rates would themselves take care of poverty. They also expressed fears that inflation could cancel economic gains if left unchecked. In this regard, a senior World Bank official said that Pakistan faced three challenges in the short term that needed immediate attention. These include bringing infrastructure up to 21st century standards to support a modern and efficient economy, creating a conducive business environment to match the needs of the modern world and generating more jobs by focusing on labour-intensive sectors of the economy. The benefits accruing from taking on these challenges would filter down to the people in the lower income brackets. This is where the impact of both inflation and poverty are being felt most.
In terms of infrastructure development, more attention has to be paid to availability of reliable and affordable water and power supply. While the power sector has seen sizable private investment in the past couple of years, erratic supply and expensive options of private generators deter investors. At the same time, more investment is required in the water sector, particularly in irrigation as well as water supply and sewage disposal. Industrial progress depends on cheap and adequate utilities and in this regard Pakistan has a lot more to do. Better infrastructure also means building more roads, bridges and canals, as these are vital for economic development as well as job creation.
Investment in infrastructure has to be backed up with efforts to improve the business environment. Deterioration in law and order, especially in urban areas, has to be reversed with better policing. In addition to a rise in terrorist activity, the crime graph has also gone up in the past couple of years. Despite increased funding for prevention and control of crime, there is very little to show for it. Armed robberies, thefts, kidnapping, assaults and petty crime have all marked a visible increase. To raise business confidence, Pakistan has to be seen as a safe place for investment. The other issues that have to be addressed include reducing bureaucratic red-tapism, winding down trade protectionism, rationalizing the tax regime and fighting corruption, especially at the lower levels of government. All this will help create a better business environment in the country which in turn will bring in much needed investment.
Finally, the issue of job creation needs to be tackled in right earnest. The country may have a huge human resource base but there is a shortage of skilled manpower. More investment has to be made in skill development. At the same time, labour-intensive industries have to be promoted so that more people, both skilled and unskilled, can find work. Easy credit for lower income groups must also be made available so that people can start their own small-scale business to earn a living and ease the pressure on the job market. The government’s task now should be to follow up on these challenges and produce results. The real beneficiaries of all this would be the people of Pakistan, especially those from lower income groups who also need to experience the benefits of the economic turnaround that the country has made.
IT is shocking to hear from Amnesty International that the Israeli government is doing nothing to check the poisoning of Palestinians’ livestock in occupied West Bank. A large number of sheep and cows have died because they were poisoned by Jewish settlers. The poisoning was done in the form of toxic chemicals spread over farms and fields that are still owned by Palestinians in the Hebron area. The result is that Palestinian farmers have been forced to quarantine their livestock. They have also been deprived of meat, milk and cheese, which are the principal source of their livelihood. Despite being aware of the poisoning by the Jewish settlers, the Israeli government has done nothing to disinfect the area and make the fields safe for sheep and cows to graze. According to Amnesty, this practice has been going on for years and is well known to the Israeli authorities in the area.
Ever since Jewish settlers began grabbing land in Palestine following the Balfour declaration in 1917, uprooting the Palestinians has been one of their major policy goals. This policy became official after Israel came into being in 1948 and focussed on attacking the sources of the Palestinians’ livelihood. For that reasons, Israeli authorities do not allow Palestinian farmers to dig wells, and all water management schemes ensure the diversion of water to Jewish settlements. Another principal target has been the Palestinians’ olive and citrus trees. By a modest standard, Israel has felled more than 200,000 olive and citrus trees owned by Palestinians in the West Bank. These policies constitute a violation of international law and turn those responsible for these diabolical acts into war criminals. Side by side, Jewish settlements activity continues in violation of the April 2003 roadmap. The roadmap visualized a halt to settlements activity and a disbandment of those built in and after 2001, when the hard-line Prime Minister Ariel Sharon came to power. The aim behind all these policies is to make the Palestinians leave their ancestral homes so that the dream of a Greater Israel is realized. Given the powerlessness of the Arab world and the strength of the forces backing Israel, there is little possibility of such policies being reversed in the near future.
THE stoning to death of a 29-year-old woman charged with adultery in the Urgu district of northeast Afghanistan is shocking beyond belief. The woman was allegedly dragged out of her house and stoned to death whereas the man she is reported to have committed adultery with was given 100 lashes. That this barbaric decree was passed by a district court is even more incredible. One hopes that the Afghan government’s claim that the matter will be investigated and the criminals punished is a serious one. This incident — the second of its kind since the fall of the Taliban — shows that despite America’s much touted promise to alleviate the plight of Afghan women, their situation remains grim. Nearly 90 per cent of women in Afghanistan are illiterate; the country has the highest maternal mortality rate in the world; while 40 per cent are said to have voted in the first democratic elections, they remain largely unaware of their rights and many are languishing in jails charged with zina-related crimes. There is certainly some respite under Mr Hamid Karzai’s government. The country has a separate ministry for women’s affairs and there is also a female governor for the first time in the country’s history but the signs of change are few and far between.
One understands that adultery is forbidden but Islam sets very specific conditions when it comes to ascertaining whether the crime has been committed. One is familiar with how arbitrarily the Taliban issued decrees against women and given that this particular sentence was issued by a judge, one can’t help but question the court’s decision. In rebuilding his country, Mr Karzai’s focus must be on changing attitudes, so that women’s real issues are seriously tackled.