| June 5, 2005 | Sunday | Rabi-us-Sani 27, 1426 |
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Right decision
Jam Saqi’s harassment
THE trilateral meeting of the foreign ministers of Russia, China and India in the eastern port city of Vladivostok on Thursday marks the emergence of a new grouping in Asia. This process of regional alignments is not something unusual. Two major groups already exist, having been created in the closing years of the 20th century. There is the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA) which brings together 16 states, including the three which were present at Vladivostok. Then there is the Shanghai-Six which has in its fold Russia and China, apart from four Central Asian states. The trilateral moot involving Russia, China and India has its significance even though it is still an informal one, but it will be institutionalized in due course like the others.
The Vladivostok-3 account for 40 per cent of the world’s population and 20 per cent of the global GDP. Besides, China and India are fast growing economies. Having met thrice since 2002, the three are conscious of their size, population and economic power and the conference on Thursday was their first ‘stand-alone’ meeting which issued a communiqué expressing their common aspirations. Although each of the participants has emphasized individually that their’s is not a power bloc directed against any other or a group of states and is just a forum to discuss issues of common concern, it is plain that their coming together is not simply a meeting to discuss the weather. The communiqué underlines the meeting of minds on several scores, such as, their determination to combat terrorism, to work for UN reforms, to step up economic cooperation, and to enhance direct business-to-business contacts. With their focus on economic goals, Russia, China and India can be expected to soon emerge as a powerful economic grouping which counts for much in a world where economic power is increasingly emerging as a key factor of strength and influence. Once it begins to make its impact felt in South-East Asia in terms of economic power — and this it is bound to do sooner than later — the trilateral grouping will also acquire considerable political clout.
The political and strategic side of this development should not be overlooked. Thus, the three foreign ministers also discussed the “democratization of international relations”, the comprehensive reform of the UN and maintaining international security and stability. These are issues beyond pure economics and have far-reaching implications for world politics. In a system which is now dominated by a superpower, that is the United States, if three major powers join hands on major issues, they will serve as a countervailing force to American unilateralism and restore a healthy balance in the international system which is missing at the moment. This is a positive development which also has implications for countries bordering China, Russia and India, such as Pakistan. With excellent relations with China, no outstanding conflicts with Russia and in the process of mending fences with India, Islamabad should find it in its interest that the three big powers in its vicinity have begun to see eye to eye on crucial issues of world politics. At present, Pakistan’s biggest worries are the fight against terrorism and American pressure that hardly gives Islamabad any leeway. In this context, the emergence of the Vladivostok-3 should prove to be a blessing as well as a balancing factor.
FINALLY, the government has decided to defer the privatization of the Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd. The June 10 bidding is off, and the workers have ended their strike, with their union claiming victory. They point out that not only has privatization been put off indefinitely, the management has also accepted some of their demands, including a raise in salaries. It is unfortunate that union demands and privatization should have got tangled up. A decision to privatize any public sector organization should be based on solid economic grounds, the workers’ attitude notwithstanding. In the case of the PTCL, as pointed out by this newspaper in its Thursday’s editorial, the privatization move was flawed because the PTCL was one of the few public sector utilities that were doing well. In the first nine months of this financial year, it earned a profit of Rs 21.3 billion.
With the PTCL sale at a standstill, it is time the government got its privatization policy right. We need more factories and more investment for modernizing and expanding the economic infrastructure. But privatization by itself does not create new capacities. The sale of a public sector concern does not necessarily create new jobs or contribute to economic growth; it merely rids the government of a liability (in the case of the PTCL, ironically, an earning asset). Besides, the ill-considered attempt to privatize the PTCL and the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation shows that the government had not done its homework properly. It also reflects the failure of the authorities to take into account expert opinion and to consult the workers. Due interaction with the latter might have averted the standoff that eventually ensued. Both episodes establish the need for a less hurried approach to decision-making involving crucial national assets and large workforces. The lessons learnt in the case of the PTCL and KESC should caution the government while considering privatizing such giants as Wapda, Pakistan Railways and Pakistan Steel.
SINDH chief minister Dr Arbab Rahim’s statement on Saturday that human rights organizations have no business to be prying into his government’s actions is as strange as it is worrisome. Dr Rahim was reacting to last month’s incident in Khetlari, his native village, where Jam Saqi and his colleagues from the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) had gone on a fact-finding mission regarding two cases. For daring to look into certain happenings in Khetlari, Mr Saqi was arrested and later released, his home raided by 20 police officers and on Saturday at 2 a.m., his home was again the target of a raid but this time his wife was picked up on charges of kidnapping. Whether some wrongdoing is going on in Khetlari or the chief minister has some personal score to settle with Mr Saqi, nothing justifies this kind of high-handed action.
Dr Rahim should be reminded that the HRCP has been investigating complaints of excesses and persecutions everywhere for many years now. Without its watchdog role (and of some other NGOs), we would not know of many instances of injustice taking place in the country. Where remedial action is called for — which, of course, is the responsibility of the government agencies — their role is helpful rather than obstructive. In the present case, one is forced to ask what is happening in Khetlari that has irked the chief minister to act the way he has done. The HRCP or Mr Saqi — who Dr Rahim is publicly ridiculing and threatening to prosecute — have every right to conduct their own investigations and ascertain the truth. Any attempt at dissuading them from this will only increase the suspicion that the provincial government has something to hide.