| August 13, 2005 | Saturday | Rajab 7, 1426 |
Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window)
Testing Babur
Barring women from polls
PRESIDENT Pervez Musharraf has called on educationists, scientists and scholars to help him in the task of eradicating extremism from the country. The president’s intentions are indeed laudable and he deserves support in the challenging task he has undertaken. One may, however, differ with him in his analysis of the problem and the strategy to be adopted. The position taken by President Musharraf is that poverty and illiteracy have driven many people into extremism. The implication is that by eradicating poverty and spreading education, the people can be made enlightened and moderate. But the fact is that it is wrong to blame the poverty-stricken masses for the ills which have made Pakistani people prone to violence and extremism. Neither can one attribute terrorism to the low literacy level in the country.
The increase in extremism, an offshoot of which is violence, is basically the result of the irrational mindset that is being promoted and practised in Pakistan. It is done in subtle ways in every walk of life with the government itself setting the pace for it, knowingly and unknowingly, in the transformation process. Given the state of our politics, leaders have tended to link religion with politics in a bid to gain popular support and power. This trend began in 1949 when the Objectives Resolution was adopted by the Constituent Assembly. This was contrary to the precepts and principles of the Quaid-i-Azam who had never envisioned Pakistan as a theocratic state. The trend was carried forward by Ziaul Haq who badly needed a power base and found religion a convenient tool for his brand of politics. All this has gradually changed the country’s social, political and cultural climate, making large sections of the people prone to believing in schisms, divisiveness, hate and even violence in the name of religion.
What we have today is a scenario in which Islam is the governing factor in politics, policy-making, economics, education, as well as human relationships. Since the basic principles which underpin any religion — tolerance, humanism, charity, truth and justice — have been wilfully ignored, the national psyche has been moulded with heavy doses of retrogressive ideas and notions. It is this approach that basically needs to be changed. It is simplistic to believe that once the people are lifted out of poverty and given education, this frame of mind will change. Indeed, if the direction is not changed, we will end up having a society of well-fed and well-educated extremists. After all, the perpetrators of terrorism in New York, Madrid, Bali, Istanbul and London and many other places were all fairly affluent and highly educated men. What needs to be understood is that one factor which leads to anger in people is a profound sense of grievance which comes in a situation when justice is denied and people are subjected to persecution. In the international context, it has been pointed out that the denial of human and national rights to the Palestinians has created resentment among Arabs and other Muslims. This is absolutely correct. But injustices at home spawned by the inequitable distribution of wealth also give rise to discontent and extremism. It is this inequality rather than poverty which leads to violence and needs to be addressed.
PAKISTAN tested its first cruise missile on Thursday, joining a small group of countries capable of producing such projectiles. One of the editors of the authoritative Jane’s Defence Weekly has said the development of a cruise missile provides Pakistan’s arsenal with a significant boost. The missile, named Babur, is said to have been totally indigenously manufactured, and all those associated with the project — the scientists and engineers — have reason to feel proud of their achievement. We had come close to getting a taste of the weapon when the US in 1998 had fired several Tomahawk cruise missiles at Taliban-ruled Afghanistan to destroy Osama bin Laden’s hideouts. A factory in Sudan believed to be used by bin Laden was also simultaneously hit. Pakistan was not informed in advance, but the US, worried that Pakistan might believe that the missiles had come from India, had sent a senior military man to Islamabad, who met Pakistani officials at the precise time of the launch and informed them of what had happened. That US operation was not particularly successful in achieving its objectives — bin Laden was not in the places hit and the Sudanese factory turned out to have been simply making pharmaceuticals, and at least one missile was reported to have crashed in Pakistani territory.
India has also previously tested a similar weapon. Islamabad says it had no need to give prior information to New Delhi of the Babur test firing because cruise missiles are not covered in the recently formalized agreement (August 6) on notifying proposed missile tests by each side. This may be the technically correct position, but in view of the improving climate of goodwill, it might be a good idea to have all missiles included in the agreement. This will lessen suspicion and avoid bad blood. In fact, as we have repeatedly said, both Pakistan and India should seriously engage in seeing how we can move towards an arms restraint and reduction regime that includes nuclear as well as conventional arms and seeks to freeze the missiles race.
THE news from the NWFP on the participation of women in the upcoming local bodies elections is mixed. On the one hand, the number of vacant women’s seats has fallen considerably from last year. On the other, pockets of the province still remain in the clutches of regressive tradition, as exemplified by the 20 vacant women’s seats in 10 union councils of the Swabi district. No women candidates have filed their nomination papers there, partly because of pressure exerted by a deeply conservative local leadership that is vehemently opposed to their participation in the polls. Preceding years have witnessed similar opposition to women candidates and voters in local body polls, and there have been instances of national political parties, some of them bitter rivals, agreeing to keep women out of the elections. This year, thanks to a 2004 Peshawar High Court ruling that termed the ban on women’s participation in the polls as unconstitutional, greater political awareness, and the election commissioner’s warning of stern action against those preventing women from taking part, the situation appears somewhat better.
However, even if the pressure exerted by the local leadership is put aside, many women would still be reluctant to either vote or contest as candidates in the NWFP where a patriarchal system has kept them out of the mainstream. This can be seen in practically every sector of social life — be it health or education — where women are conspicuous by their absence. While it is good that the illegal disenfranchisement of women is being noticed by the relevant institutions and authorities, what is needed is a larger effort to give women greater access to education and employment and, by extension, to give more public responsibilities to them. This would give them a chance to be heard and make a useful contribution to society.