| August 5, 2005 | Friday | Jumadi-us-Sani 28, 1426 |
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Tackling inflation
Uttering platitudes
‘Creating employment’
Political English terminology
‘Beach safety’
‘Imperatives of fair polls’
‘Sinful’ TV sets
Lahore police
Punish them
Lowest bidders
A RECENT claim by the PEW Global Attitudes Project, crediting Osama Bin Laden with the sympathies of 50 per cent of Pakistanis, although obviously inflated, is nonetheless disturbing. For, never in recent history has an act attributed to an Islamic state or organization led to such disastrous consequences for the Islamic world as 9/11 did. The September 11 attacks provided the perfect opening for the implementation of the US neo-con policies in a unipolar world. The list of victims directly affected included Afghanistan, Iraq (with Iran, Syria and others in the sights), genuine freedom movements including Palestine and Kashmir, resistance movements including Hezbollah and Muslim expatriate communities abroad. But for the state of mind created by 9/11, the US administration could never have rallied American public opinion to a pre-emptive, unilateral invasion of Iraq, with far-reaching consequences for the Islamic world and for others.
The spectre of “Islamic terrorism” raised by 9/11 resolved the dilemma of the US administration which was in the market for a credible enemy to justify their $400 billion defence budget (and the interests of their military-industrial complex) in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War. With a helping hand from Osama bin Laden, the threat of the “evil empire” (Reagan) was replaced by the threat from the “evil ideology” (Blair).
That for all civilized human beings the indiscriminate murder of 9/11 was horrific goes without saying. But even from the point of view of the organisers of these attacks, was it not clear that any damage inflicted on US interests would be dwarfed by the intensity of the backlash on the part of the strongest military power in history and by the possible fallout on Islamic global interests in a unipolar world?.
Among the worst victims of the fallout from 9/11 were freedom movements including Palestine and Kashmir which were unjustly and illegally bracketed with terrorist movements. While the US declaration of war on “Islamic militancy” acted as a damper on the hopes of the Kashmiri resistance, the post 9/11 scenario led in due course to unprecedented, defence and nuclear accords between the US and India.
In the words of reputed strategic analyst, George Friedman, “Indian-US collaboration began intensely, shortly after 9/11. Part of it consisted of a mutual interest in manipulating Pakistan and part of it has broader implications. As the US began to view the Islamic world as an unreliable and threatening entity, it started to see India in the same light as Israel. India was a potentially powerful ally that in spite of or because of its hostility to the Islamic world, could be extremely useful… The 9/11 attacks created a reality which the Bush-Manmohan Singh summit confirmed.” (Geo-political Intelligence).
Nothing in the above review is intended to downplay the widespread concern in the Islamic world at the long-standing exploitation and oppression of Muslim peoples and at the way the West has capitalized on 9/11 to achieve its strategic objectives.
It is time that the gaping vacuum in the Islamic world which has given rise to non-state actors, which continue to damage Islamic interests, is filled by bringing into peaceful play the separate and combined diplomatic, economic and political leverage of the OIC member states, many of whom are of vital importance for the West in crucial regions.
Much has already been suggested by many including this correspondent on the mobilization of political will and commonality of security interests in furtherance of an effective OIC role and on the promotion of national consensus and internal unity in Pakistan. Over and above all there is the urgent need for the West to apply, in relation to the Islamic world, the same precepts of international justice and legality which have long been accepted as the foundations of a civilized world order.
MAHDI MASUD
Karachi
IT seems the government is neither interested in tackling the problem of inflation nor is in taking any concrete steps/measures to curb inflation, which is at present being observed in double digits making the fixed income earners poorer than before and pushing more countrymen below the poverty line.
My assumption is based on the following facts which are being ignored at all levels of the ministry of finance and the State Bank of Pakistan as they are well aware of it but why they could not take a firm stand on it is not understandable.
The first and foremost reason for increase in inflation is issuance of currency notes which are being issued every year in abundance since the financial year 2000-2001 till to date, that is 2004-2005, but we had never seen in these years any reduction in money supply.
It is to be noted that whenever any remittance is received either in the shape of workers working abroad and/or loans, aids and grants if any granted / disbursed and received from the World Bank, the ADB, the IMF, any other world institutions, multilateral donors and countries, the State Bank does not take a minute for issuance of currency notes against these receipts whereas contraction of note issue does not take place when any foreign payments are made either in case of principal, debt- servicing, dividends, air and sea freight and other invisible accounts.
As you are well aware, during the financial year 2004-2005 our country had witnessed a negative balance of payments amounting to three billion dollars, equivalent to Rs1,800 billion, that had gone out of the country but no contraction took place in the money supply. Instead, the opposite happened.
So, it can be assumed and predicted that the inflation rate will increase by at least two or more points by December if this trend of increasing the money supply continued by our central bank. It is, therefore, requested that the finance ministry and the central bank should to come forward and clarify the position by sparing some time.
MUHAMMAD SIDDIQUE SULEMAN
Karachi
IF uttering platitudes was an Olympic competition, Pakistan would always win the gold. In his July 21 address to the nation, President Musharraf repeated some the choicest of them. ‘Enlightened moderation,’ happily endorsed by leaders of that great arbiter of all things Islamic, the OIC, attachment to the Ummah, resolute fight against terrorism, etc. Like his predecessors, not a word about the sickness that afflicts Pakistan and has reduced our wonderful country to irrelevance abroad and gathering confusion at home.
The assassination of prime minister Liaquat Ali Khan, the dismissal of the Nazimuddin government and the abrogation of the 1956 constitution are our signposts to the destruction of democracy and the Pakistan concept.
The post-1958 period in Pakistan was characterized by an alternation between naked military rule and ‘guided democracy’. Z.A. Bhutto was a product of the Ayub years and Nawaz Sharif a creation of Ziaul Haq. For both, democracy was a fig-leaf to conceal highly authoritarian regimes in which corruption flourished and institutions decayed.
In its periods of greatness, Muslim rule on the continents of Asia, Africa and Europe was guided by the noble Islamic ideals of justice, tolerance, compassion, fear of God, pursuit of knowledge and equality of all citizens in the eyes of the state. These were also the ideals that inspired the leaders of the Pakistan Movement. Establishment of a religious state was never an option.
The slogan that Pakistan was achieved in the name of Islam was invented by Ziaul Haq. It was joyfully embraced by leaders of the confessional parties, many of whom had either opposed Pakistan or played a minor political role.
We seem to have reached a watershed. Unless we return to our founding principles, stability will elude us, sectarian strife will increase, and Pakistan will become even more ungovernable than it is today.
BIRJIS HASAN KHAN
Karachi
THIS is with reference to your editorial “Creating employment” (August 1). A growing population means increasing pressure on essential resources, tightening environmental constraints and widespread poverty. The widening gap between the rich and the poor is creating extreme inequalities in access to, and control of, resources, including knowledge and opportunity.
So, other than fretting over the deteriorating quality of employment in different sectors, there is nothing that the government can do to impact the fortunes of over 90 per cent of job seekers in urban Pakistan.
All modern economies demonstrate that education is the first step to build the capacity which people can then use. We cannot solve one problem at a time and worry about the next one some time later. We have to tackle a series of problems together. And we have to look at the economy as a system. Once we start thinking in terms of systems, we discover that things are much more complicated. We have to do several things together in a coherent strategy. And education is the key to tackling many of the problems. But education by itself is not enough. So, all these problems have to be looked at as a package.
The way to go is to build the capacity of the poor and “common man”, also in all those parts of the country which are not involved significantly in these wonderful things. This would empower and give people the chance to select what they want to do in order to guide their own lives and not be victims of change. This means a re-orientation in thinking.
UMER MUMTAZ
Rawalpindi
We had been under the impression that we know English, but since 2000 we are not clear about certain terminologies, such as:
a. aggression, occupation, liberation
b. freedom fighters, insurgents
c. Muslims, extremists, moderates
d. POW, enemy combatants
e. terrorism, state terrorism
In Saudi Arabia, certain terms like “Rafiq” and “Khawja” are used. Both terms are used for friends. If you call a Saudi or Yemeni “Khawja”, he is happy but if you call him “Rafiq” he is unhappy and may severe connections with you. He will use the term “Rafiq” for you and expect you not to feel bad. How does this work?
As one understood earlier, every military man is a specialist in killing and demolition according to his profession, wears a uniform and survives on the taxes of the taxpayer.
These terms are not clear and sometimes while watching and reading the news one feels as if the devil is quoting the Bible. It would be better if somebody throws light on these terms so that there is better understanding of these words.
SYED ZAMAN
Via email
THIS is with reference to your editorial ‘Beach safety’ (July 27) and a report by Mr S. Raza (July 23) on the same subject. The only way to minimize loss of valuable lives on the beaches is disseminating information on beach safety and a sustained awareness campaign, specially during the monsoon season.
The monsoon season in our part of the world is from May 15 to Sept 15, with its peak being in June and July when the sea is very rough. The behaviour of the sea, however, is predictable and one can know exactly what the tide would be at a particular time and place.
The strongest of tides are known as spring tides. They occur when the earth, the sun and the moon are in line which is during the full moon and the new moon. The height in a spring tide is the maximum. In 24 hours there are two high tides and two low tides.
Dawn, in its Metropolitan section, publishes tide timings every day, where the time and height are mentioned. For example, if at 9am at low water the height is 0.6 metre, then after six hours at 3pm the height reaches its maximum, i.e., 2.6 metres, then the range for the six-hour period would be two metres. Then from the highest position the water slowly recedes and after six hours at 9pm it becomes 0.1 metre, then during this period the range becomes 2.5 metres. This six-hourly process continues.
Now the danger for beach-goers is at low waters, i.e., when the tide is receding and not, as wrongly assumed, at high water, i.e. when the tide is rising or flooding. In the example given above, at 9am the height was 0.6 metre and it started flooding till it reached its full height of 2.6 metres at 3pm. During the six-hour period of flooding, the water rushes towards the shore, so everything that is thrown in the sea is thrown back towards the land. Conversely, from 3pm water starts receding till 9pm. During this period everything is being devoured into the sea. Therefore, this period is more dangerous. Thus it is always safer to go into the water during the flooding period rather than the ebbing period.
Now coming to the particular incident where eight people drowned, this sad occurrence took place on a full moon, i.e., 14/15 day of the lunar month. It was a spring tide in a monsoon season. At the time of drowning in the early hours, it was low water and the tide was receding at a very high rate. The range of the tide between the high and low tide was 3.2 metres, which is considered lethal for swimming as normally in a non- monsoon season the range averages between one to 1.5 metres. Had the deceased known about this tidal phenomenon, they could have avoided going to the beach on that particular day and time.
l hope that all those who read this letter will keep these facts in mind when next organizing a picnic to the beach and also pass this information on to their friends and acquaintances.
FAROOQ DAWOOD
Karachi
I REFER to Mr Anwar Syed’s article ‘Imperatives of fair polls’ (Dawn, July 31). Mr Syed states that none of our elections other than of 1970 were believed to have been free and fair and that Yahya Khan and his associates did not rig that election.
The fact is that when Yahya Khan realized that Shaikh Mujibur Rahman in East Pakistan and Z. A. Bhutto in West Pakistan may sweep elections, he used the services of Intelligence director N. A. Rizvi in East Pakistan and that of Maj-Gen Omar in the West to manoeuvre support for Maulana Abdul Hameed Khan Bhashani and Khan Abdul Qayyum Khan to weaken the Awami League and the PPP,
by providing them financial support. Unfortunately, the results did not come to Yahya’s expectations and the country broke.
I agree with Mr Syed’s opinion that “election in Pakistan will not be fair and honest until the government of the day is willing to forgo intervention to influence their outcome and the chips fall where they might.”
Mr Syed observes that Gen Musharraf has no personal interest in the results of local elections and being the creator of the LG system, he would be interested in its success. However, “the ruling party’s ministers and legislators will want to steer these elections so as to enable their likely supporters win and ask the general to let them do the needful” by looking the other way.
CHAGHTAI MIRZA EIJAZUDDIN
Karachi
ACCORDING to a press report, some people in Peshawar set ablaze 25 television sets following an announcement on the radio by an influential local cleric that watching TV was not allowed in Islam as it is a sin. He declared jihad against TV as “it spread vulgarity and obscenity”. Men congregated in a park after Friday prayers and piled up their TV sets, doused them with fuel and set them on fire.
One would like to ask the cleric why he only looked at one side of the picture — that TV spreads vulgarity and obscenity. Doesn’t he know that watching TV is a strong source of disseminating education among the illiterate people as TV updates one on business and commerce, local and international news and other events?
The local cleric is requested not to push back the people into darkness but declare jihad against illiteracy and poverty as nowadays people are living in a global village and not in the caves. Probably the local cleric may also declare that the use of computer is also a sinful act and may issue another decree.
SYED A. MATEEN
Karachi
ON July 28, I visited Lahore’s Quaid-i-Azam library. My car was parked in the parking lot of Jinnah Bagh, parallel to the Mall. After spending about an hour in the library when I came out I saw a police mobile standing near my car and a policeman doing something with the front tyre on the driver’s side. I approached the mobile in which a young officer was sitting beside the driver. I asked him if I could be of any help. He replied in the negative and avoided eye contact. Then I observed the same policeman, who was earlier fiddling with my car, holding a pointed rod in his hand and puncturing almost every car in the parking lot.
When I reached my car I was dismayed to see the front tyre flat. Later I asked the library’s guards why the police would do such a thing. He confided that girls and boys sit together in cars parked there and perhaps the police thought that my car was also parked for the same purpose, which is why they punctured the tyre as punishment.
The Punjab chief minister and the authorities concerned are requested to look into the matter. If people sitting in those cars were going against the law, they should be taken into custody and cases should be registered against them. If not then such fanatic police officers should be bridled so that they do not tarnish the moderate face of this country through such acts.
SHAHZEB KHAN
Lahore
A SECTION of the press carried pictures and news has some naked children protesting for a cause on behalf of an NGO. This is child abuse and flagrant violation of human rights.
No action has been taken against those responsible and it seems people in authority are not really bothered because it does not affect them directly. Unfortunately in Pakistan our rulers define what an issue is and what is not on the basis of their personal interests. The problems of the common citizens are not the problems of the elite who simply consider them non-issues.
The weaker segments of our society, especially women and children, are suffering owing to lack of interest on the part of lawmakers who are busy in protecting personal interests while ignoring all the problems that don’t affect them directly. SHAKEEL NIZAMANI
Ontario, Canada
LOWEST bidders win government contracts the world over. But it is also seen in many Third World countries for a century now that the lowest bidders also win the governments. At least the quality of life of people in such countries suggests this.
Z.A. KAZMI
Karachi
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