| May 31, 2005 | Tuesday | Rabi-us-Sani 22, 1426 |
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Killing in South Waziristan
Menace of smoking
ON two consecutive days, President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz called for reforming and reorganizing the Organization of Islamic Conference with a view to making it more responsive to the challenges facing the Muslim world. Both emphasized the need for the OIC to focus on the task of the Muslim world’s socio-economic development. The prime minister was perhaps more specific when he told the OIC’s Commission of Eminent Persons that the organization should concentrate on poverty reduction and work for the development of the Muslim world’s human resources. One would like to recall the president’s speech to a seerat conference in 2001 in which he lamented the Muslim world’s socio-economic backwardness. Giving statistics, the president had said the entire Muslim world’s GDP came to a mere $1,200 to $1,300 billion, as against Japan’s $5,500 billion, while Germany’s was nearly twice that of the OIC figure. In other words, Japan’s GDP was four and a half times that of the OIC GDP, even though the Muslim world accounts for one-fourth of the world’s population and has 70 per cent of its energy resources. On the educational front, the president wanted his audience to ask why all that the Muslim world could boast of were 500 Ph.Ds, while Britain and India alone produced 3,000 and 5,000 Ph.Ds each year.
The challenges the Muslim world faces today are enormous. The 9/11 tragedy has been used by some powers to advance their national interests and sow the seeds of anarchy and fragmentation in the Muslim world. The issues of Palestine, Kashmir and Chechnya remain unsolved because of the utter economic, military and technological backwardness of Muslims. Iraq is under occupation — civilian casualties number 100,000 — while Iran could face an attack anytime. The problem isn’t merely one of socio-economic backwardness; a greater factor is the internal make-up of Muslim states and societies. Most Muslim countries are ruled by military dictators, civilian autocrats or monarchs, who are afraid of their own people. Lack of democratic dissent means that ways of rectifying wrongs do not exist, except by violence. A greater misfortune is the control which the clergy has come to acquire over most Muslim societies. All spirit of inquiry is frowned upon, and anything modern is looked down upon as western and therefore anathema to Muslims.
There is no short-cut to the Muslim ummah’s emancipation. It is time we relied less on slogans and more on solid hard work and adopted a realistic attitude towards the world. At least two countries — Malaysia and Turkey — have shown how quiet and steady work pays dividends. In spite of its gargantuan problems, Pakistan has achieved a measure of progress. But most other Muslim countries are simply nowhere on the road to modernization. Muslim leaders and intellectuals must work to spread education, acquire science and technology, shun extremism and try to live in peace and harmony with the rest of the world. Lack of democratic governance has done enormous harm to the Muslim world. It is only when the Muslim peoples are free that there can be true interaction among them and a solid foundation laid for unity and progress. The reorganization and rejuvenation of the OIC that we desire can only be accomplished when Muslims can rid themselves both of unrepresentative and oppressive temporal authority and a stultifying clergy.
THE brutal assassination on Sunday of Faridullah Khan, former federal minister, senator and a key government ally in the tribal areas, is a rude reminder that all is not well in South Waziristan. Mr Khan, a tribal leader, was credited with opening up the previously inaccessible Shakai valley for the army in their hunt for foreign militants hiding there since the fall of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. Only a day earlier, Mr Khan was present in Shakai at a media briefing with the GOC, Wana, who stated that the area was now rid of foreign militants. His assassination proves that the region is still a hotbed of terrorist activities. Scores of innocent civilians and military men have lost their lives in bloody encounters between the army and the militants which began over a year ago. Mr Khan was not the first to be “punished” by suspected militants for siding with the government. Other pro-government tribal leaders have also been targeted, particularly for negotiating peace deals with the military and spreading the message that foreign militants must not be given refuge. The suspected militants may have succeeded in sending a grim warning to those who want to side with the government but the authorities should redouble their efforts to track down those responsible for acts of violence.
The government has to find a long-term solution that benefits the largely ignored people of this region who need to be integrated into the mainstream. The Shakai agreement of April last year, which offered amnesty to foreign militants if they came forward, has proved to be short-lived. The challenge to law and order has to be resolutely met, but to win its own war on terror, the government must first strengthen its relationship with tribesmen on the basis of mutual trust. Development projects in the rugged area are a step in the right direction, but far more needs to be done so that people feel that the government is keen to improve the quality of their lives and make the political system in the region more participatory.
THE dangers of tobacco consumption are so well-known that it would be pointless to reiterate that the use of this carcinogenic substance is the largest preventable cause of death in a country where 54 per cent of men and eight per cent of women are tobacco consumers. What is in need of more urgent attention is that passive smoking is on the increase as a result of the failure of the government to implement the ban on smoking in public places, and that young people are increasingly being drawn into the tobacco trap. Hence, on the occasion of World No Tobacco Day today, Pakistan is deserving of a nought on its progress card despite the fact that it recently ratified the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.
Unfortunately, the government itself is confused on the issue. On the one hand, it has plans to boost tobacco production in the country, and on the other, it has recognized the dangers of smoking to public health with its legislation banning the practice in public places and buying of cigarettes by youngsters. But that it has made only half-hearted attempts to enforce this is evident from the manner in which it has allowed smokers to pollute public places, including workplaces and educational institutions, without a care for the health of non-smokers. It has also failed to enforce the ban on the sale of cigarettes to those under 18 years, and it is not uncommon to see schoolchildren smoking. With no role models before them — public figures have no qualms about smoking in the open — and taken in by the advertised glamour of the smoker’s world, their impressionable minds are unable to perceive the adverse health consequences to themselves and to others around them. The government will have to make a more meaningful effort if it is serious about restricting tobacco use in the country.