| May 5, 2005 | Thursday | Rabi-ul-Awwal 25, 1426 |
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Attack on journalists
Unending power failure
THE task of preventing the spread of nuclear weapons and ensuring N-disarmament has fallen victim to big-power chauvinism. It is assumed, for instance, that weapons of mass destruction are safer in the hands of the recognized powers — the so-called P-5 — than in the hands of the unrecognized club (Pakistan and India — Israel’s position being one of what is called “strategic ambiguity”). History shows that it is a recognized nuclear power that dropped nuclear bombs on a non-white country. Subsequently, the two nuclear superpowers brought the world to the brink of a nuclear holocaust over the Cuban missile crisis in 1962. In many other crises also — Berlin and Hungary — the use of nuclear weapons was never beyond the realm of possibility. Even in normal times, N-armed bombers of America’s Strategic Air Command were in the air round the clock, while Soviet N-tipped missiles mounted on rail tracks moved back and forth, ready to respond. There have also been accidents involving nuclear submarines. The recognized powers have also been toying with the idea of making low-yield, tactical nuclear weapons. At present, the US is believed to be developing nuclear bunker-buster bombs. These are harrowing concepts and make one wonder whether the recognized powers’ commitment to a nuclear-free world is genuine.
The thrust of the non-proliferation drive has been in the form of pressuring the non-recognized nuclear states to freeze the production of fissionable material, if not to scrap the weapons already in their possession. This pressure has taken the form of sanctions on Pakistan, India and some others — North Korea and Iran — to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. A more advisable, indeed logical, course would have been to include unrecognized powers in nuclear disarmament talks so as to achieve the objective of a “universal” disarmament. Earlier this week, the White House and State Department spokesmen asked Pakistan and India to have “a full relationship” with the rest of the world on this issue. By a full relationship they meant that Islamabad and New Delhi should sign the NPT, including the special protocol that gives the monitoring agency the right to inspect nuclear facilities of the signatories.
The NPT is anachronistic. Created in 1968, the treaty expected all nations to sign it, but allowed the P-5 to have nuclear weapons. Since then a sea change has occurred in the world’s economic and geopolitical power-pattern. China, Pakistan and India have successfully demonstrated their nuclear capability, and Iran and North Korea are not far behind. Israel, too, possesses a nuclear arsenal — estimated at a minimum of 200 weapons — but it is under no pressure from its patrons to adhere to the NPT or give up its stock of WMDs. Against this background, one must welcome the International Atomic Energy Agency’s stand that Pakistan, India and Israel should be included in nuclear disarmament talks. Speaking at the IAEA’s review conference in New York on Monday, Director-General Mohammad ElBaradei said N-disarmament could succeed only if it were universal. Dr ElBaradei had said this on earlier occasions, too, but this is for the first time that he has made his views known to a high-level global conference. This is the right approach. There can be no universal N-disarmament without involving the two South Asian powers and Israel. Ridding the world of WMDs should be the aim, rather than perpetuating the nuclear monopoly of a few.
IT IS ironic that the administration should have chosen World Press Freedom Day to attack journalists. This is what happened in Islamabad and Lahore on Tuesday when journalists’ rallies were disrupted and participants roughed up and detained. There appeared to be no provocation for the police’s ham-handed and clumsy action. In Islamabad, the journalists had only wanted to present a memorandum at the residence of the prime minister near Parliament House. Did the unarmed marchers constitute a serious security threat to the prime minister or parliament so that the police felt obliged to use violence to silence them and detain them for several hours? Or was this a crude way of sending a message to the press that whatever freedom it enjoys is possible only at the government’s pleasure? The journalists could have been easily allowed to proceed to the PM’s house to hand over the memorandum. If security was a problem, the police could have accompanied the marchers, who in any case formed only a small group. This is the procedure normally employed for rallies organized by the country’s religious parties and could have been replicated.
Most agree that the press in Pakistan is comparatively free. This has perhaps less to do with any conscious relaxation of official controls and is due more to the transformation in the media scene, nationally and internationally. But if the perception is that the tolerance threshold is higher than before, why blow it in one fell swoop? The mishandling of the marching journalists will only serve to reinforce the concerns raised in reports on the state of press freedom in Pakistan by media watchdogs such as Reporters Sans Frontieres, Human Rights Watch, the International Committee for the Protection of Journalists and our own newspaper organizations. If these bodies say that the press in Pakistan remains subject to harassment and curbs by the government and that journalists are exposed to threats, then Tuesday’s police action can only make these observations that much more credible. It is unlikely that the police acted without orders from higher authorities. The government must investigate the episode thoroughly and ensure that those responsible are taken to task. All told, it was a sad day for press freedom on Tuesday.
THE working of the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation has once again come under fire as the city continues to experience frequent power breakdowns. A substantial rise in power consumption, which usually happens with the onset of summer, causes the system to break down every year. Hapless residents have to suffer frequent power outages, voltage fluctuations and low voltage problems as a consequence. There has been very little improvement in the working of the KESC over the past few years despite the induction of an army-led management. Line losses stand at 40 per cent, when the internationally accepted level is below 10 per cent. The rise in power consumption in Karachi also needs to be taken into account. If line losses, particularly theft, are brought down, the KESC will have much more power at its disposal to bridge the gap between demand and supply. As things stand, power rates in Pakistan are among the highest in the region. Lower tariffs are needed for industrial units to make Pakistan’s exports competitive in world markets.
Another controversy that has surfaced is the confusion surrounding the sale of the utility. While a Saudi company clinched the deal in February, the payment of Rs20.24 billion has still not been made. In other instances where there has been a similar delay, the government has called in the next highest bidder but in this case it seems to be giving the buyer more time. This is puzzling and has added to uncertainty at the KESC where most major decisions have been put on hold until the change in management takes place. The uncertainty surrounding the ownership and management of the utility has to be removed soon so that the KESC can concentrate on the job at hand — that is to improve supply and services to its consumers.
