| May 6, 2005 | Friday | Rabi-ul-Awwal 26, 1426 |
Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window)
A major breakthrough
Removing landmines
IT IS commendable that the Pakistan government has recognized the importance —even though belatedly — of involving the ulema in the population planning programme to make it more effective. The three-day international ulema conference on population and development being held in Islamabad is the first step in that direction. There are 54 ulema from 29 countries who are attending the conference and the prime minister in his inaugural address has appealed to them to adopt an enlightened and moderate view of Islam, especially on the population issue. Although some hardline Islamic scholars have not supported the use of contraception, there has been no collective or institutional resistance from the majority to family planning. Apart from the fatwas issued from various centres of Islamic learning endorsing family planning, the basic fact is that the countries where these centres are located have registered a swift decline in their population growth rates, notably, Iran, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
The role of the ulema in the population sector can have a profound impact because they are the most powerful agents of communication and can mould public opinion in the country through the mosques and their Friday sermon. Studies have shown that given the low rate of literacy in Pakistan, the reach of the mosques is very wide and the message they deliver to the congregation is a key factor in influencing popular views about vital issues. Countries where the ulema have been participating in the population programme by mobilizing support for it, such as Indonesia, the demographic growth rate has fallen remarkably. Hence it is important that a discourse should be started with the Friday prayer leaders to persuade them to actively cooperate in mobilizing support for the programme. They need to give two messages —both in line with Islamic beliefs — to their audience which should form the underpinning of the population drive. First, Islam does not oppose family planning as is widely believed now and the small family norm is the need of the hour. Secondly, the imams also need to convince their congregations that women have been accorded a dignified and equal status in Islam. This is a key factor that is generally ignored. Many parents do not limit the number children not because of any religious constraints but because they consider their family incomplete without a son or two.
For the population programme to be effective it is important that the government adopts a holistic approach to it. While the ulema play a motivating role and change the social attitudes of the people to gender equality and family size, the government will have to improve the contraceptive delivery services in the country, especially the rural areas. The large unmet need — people who want to limit their family size but cannot — low contraceptive availability point to the shortcomings in the delivery services. Fortunately the link between poverty and the high population growth rate is now being recognized. Moreover, as the prime minister pointed out, a burgeoning population obliterates the benefits of social and economic development. In reality all these aspects are interlinked. Low socio-economic development also leads to a high population growth rate. Hence the social sectors should be addressed simultaneously with a vigorous family planning campaign. A higher literacy level and low maternal and infant mortality rates also bring down the fertility rate.
THE arrest by Pakistani authorities of Abu Faraj Al Libbi, a Libyan accused of planning and financing two assassination attempts on President Pervez Musharraf, could be a major step forward in the fight against extremism and terrorism in this country as elsewhere. According to Pakistani intelligence, Al Libbi, whose capture carries a reward of Rs 20 million, is believed to be Al Qaeda’s operational commander, having risen to this position after the arrest in March 2003 of Khalid Sheikh Mohammad. He also ranks number three in the terrorist organization’s hierarchy, next only to Osama bin Laden and his deputy Ayman Al Zawahiri. The arrest is a major breakthrough not only because of his alleged role as master planner of the assassination attempts on the president but also because he was thought to be directing Al Qaeda’s sleeper cells in the US and Britain and readying members there for future acts of terrorism.
Because of his role as Al Qaeda’s operations chief and in charge of planning and execution of future terrorist acts, it is believed that Al Libbi would have been in touch with bin Laden himself. In fact, in the 1990s he is believed to have been in charge of a training camp for terrorists in Afghanistan, a role that brought him in close contact with bin Laden. Al Libbi is also believed to be in close contact with a Pakistani by the name of Amjad Farooqui, the other main accused in the assassination attempts on the president, who was himself killed in a shootout with security forces last year. Pakistan’s participation in the US-led war against terror has come at a heavy cost with hundreds of innocent lives lost in terrorist attacks and bombings inside the country but it is a decision that had to be taken if the country was to be rid of the scourge of terrorism and extremism. Al Libbi’s capture will hopefully give Pakistani security forces the vital details and clues they need to track down Al Qaeda operatives in Pakistan and thereby prevent future acts of terrorism.
IN associating landmines and all their attendant dangers with war-ravaged countries like Afghanistan and Angola, one tends to forget that the deadly contraptions may well be embedded in one’s own backyard, as they are in Fata and at several points along the Indo-Pakistan border. An NGO working in Fata has said that in the tribal areas alone there could be up to 5,000 landmine victims, although the confirmed figure so far has been 756 for Bajaur Agency and 705 for Kurram Agency. Most of the mines in these areas date back to the 1979 Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, which has one of the highest numbers of landmine victims in the world. Ironically, while Pakistan has been involved in demining operations abroad, it has been unable to tackle the problem at home. Not only is demining an expensive procedure, the mines in the inaccessible region of Fata are scattered, making their detection difficult.
Pakistan may be reluctant to sign the Mine Ban Treaty — because of perceived threats to its security from India — but this is no excuse for not doing its duty to its own citizens and protecting them from serious injury and possible death in mine-infested areas. Most landmine victims are poor and there are few treatment and rehabilitation facilities available to them. While prosthetic limbs are procurable, the cost of these is well beyond the reach of the victims, most of whom cease to be contributing members of their households and society after a mine accident. Although the rehabilitation process has acquired urgency as the number of mine victims continues to mount, the emphasis must be on ending the scourge, once and for all. The lives and limbs of those at risk can only be saved if the government refrains from laying new mines and undertakes regular operations to ensure that the existing ones do not remain.