Imbalances in income and wealth

FROM the statements of the president, the prime minister and other federal ministers, it is evident that the present government has an ambitious agenda designed to put the economy on the path of high growth with accent on accelerated industrialization fuelled by attractive fiscal concessions for the private sector.

The government has also announced increases in wages, salaries and pensions whose annual financial burden on the budgets of the federal and provincial governments is quite significant. In addition, increased agricultural support prices to provide incentives to farmers for higher output have been announced.

All this is desirable if we can mobilize the required resources without recourse to excessive inflation. However, I am afraid in our present economic predicament characterized by baffling internal and external resource constraints, it is not possible to achieve all these admirable objectives articulated by the government even if we make the heroic assumption of a quantum jump in efficiency and eradication of corruption from all aspects of our national life.

The political compulsions leading to the inclusion of all good things in the economic agenda are understandable. For sound development in a resource-constrained economy, however, some things are more important than others. The first task of the government and its planners is to identify these.

At the present time the central concern of the government and the planners should be on avoidance of unsustainable fiscal and external account deficits, population control, energy development and functional literacy.

In regard to maintenance of price stability (an issue to which the government, quite rightly attaches great importance) an effective integrated approach is not discernible as yet. After the recent increases in wages, salaries and pensions and raising of the minimum public sector wage to Rs3,000 a month, a considerable increase in inflationary pressures is a distinct possibility.

Inflationary impulses will be further stimulated by various tax concessions for quickening the tempo of industrialization and by the promised enhancement of agricultural support prices.

It has to be appreciated by the government as well as by the public that prices and money incomes are inextricably inter- linked. For example, an increase in the price of wheat would enhance the money income of its farmers having marketable surplus but impose an added burden on the rest of the community.

Similarly, an increase in salaries and wages of government employees may enhance their nominal income but it would be a higher price for the government which it may recover by recourse to extra taxes, additional borrowing or deficit financing.

In our case in view of the fact that there is not much scope for slashing public expenditure, the basic strategy for dealing effectively with inflation is taxation.

There should be no hesitation over the seeming paradox that taxation increases prices at a time when price increases are the problem. This is the initial effect. The further and more important impact is to mop up purchasing power and bring demand into balance with supply.

The fact that people are bidding up the prices is an indication that they can afford to pay the taxes that restrain them from doing such bidding.

I realize that new or higher taxes are never politically popular, especially in a low-income country like Pakistan.

These, however, are definitely to be preferred to the ravages of endemic inflation. Economic liberalism in the absence of a broad-based and equity-oriented taxation system would worsen the existing imbalances in income and wealth and could have destabilizing socio-political consequences.

AFTAB AHMAD KHAN
Karachi

A democratic Pakistan

MRS Nasreen Jalil’s letter, ‘A democratic Pakistan’ (Aug 3) and the rejoinder by the Jamaat-i-Islami (Aug 9) show a very interesting development in Pakistan. It is perhaps for the first time that people are being asked openly and candidly to make a choice between moderate and enlightened Islam and orthodox and literalist Islam. I suggest that this debate should be allowed to continue for some time, allowing people on both sides of the fence to express and explain their points of view, enabling the people to make their final choice.

The JI’s claim that Maulana Maudoodi did not oppose Pakistan is an attempt to re-write history. So much written material is available on the subject that no such whitewash is possible. Ayesha Jalal in her masterly book, The Sole Spokesman, has described the Maulana as an outspoken opponent of Pakistan. The Maulana himself had denounced the Muslim League and its Pakistan scheme as published in Tarjumanul Quran (Pathankot, 1942. Vol Ill).

He wrote: “As a Muslim, I have no interest in the establishment of their rule in those areas of India where Muslims are in a majority. So those who think that if the Muslim majority areas are liberated from the control of the Hindu majority and a democratic system is set up there, then it would be establishment of the Kingdom of God, they are wrong. Actually, what will be achieved will only be the ‘kafirana’ government of Muslims. It will be NaPakistan ...”

Let people decide whether the Maulana supported or opposed Pakistan. It is encouraging to note that the JI now wishes to build a state according to the specific needs of the time and that the Taliban are not their role model. But, then, this claim is frustrated and nullified by their support for the Hasba bill.

They cannot have the cake and eat it too. Let us not forget that a member of the MMA group had at one time proudly claimed that at least nine members of the Taliban cabinet were those who had studied in his madressah.

Besides, what is this Hasba bill anyway? Is it in different from the Taliban’s obscurantist interpretation of Islam? The JI/MMA cannot ride on two horses simultaneously. They should not shift the goalposts so often to match different moods of the people.

Finally, a word about the preaching in our mosques. No Muslim can ever object to sermons based on the Holy Quran and the Traditions, but the difficulty arises when prayer leaders start promoting their own sectarian and political views, deriding all opponents, many of whom are a hapless captive audience.

HAIDER ABBAS RIZVI
MNA,
Karachi

Change in Saudi Arabia

MR SHAHID Javed Burki in his well-researched article, ‘Change in Saudi Arabia’ (Aug 16) has evaluated the future relationship of our country with Saudi Arabia in the backdrop of King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz’s recent enthronement.

While delineating on the subject, he has made an effort to mark out the impact of the 18th-century Wahabia movement on the Saudi family and its linkage with Darul Uloom Deoband. He states: “To secure this wealth, King Aziz concluded a treaty with President F.D. Roosevelt that pledged uninterrupted supply of oil to the US ....” and “at that point it did not matter to the Americans that the Saudi family had also entered in another alliance. This one was with the followers of the Wahabi sect of Islam.” He has further asserted that “Wahab drew his inspiration from Shah Waliullah’s puritanical ideology.”

At the outset I would like to point out that the Wahabi movement which was started by Muhammad bin Abdul Wahab (1703-92) embraced into its fold the great grandfather of the present Saudi family, Muhammad bin Saud (1765), the ruler of Diriyah.

Later on with the active support of his able son and heir Abdul Aziz bin Muhammad bin Saud (1755-1803) this doctrine was spread over the entire Najd, the Saudi family’s sphere of influence.

So much so that in 1806 they took over Makkah but subsequently the Ottoman caliph sent Egyptian Khedive Muhammad Ali Pasha to suppress the revolution that checked their further advance.

Thus, the Saudi family was an early follower of Wahabism — much before they entered into an agreement with the Americans in the beginning of the 20th century.

As regards his second assertion, I would like to point out that it was not Wahab but his illustrious son Muhammad bin Abdul Wahab who was the precursor of this movement.

Besides that, Shah Waliullah Dehlvi (1703-62), who is called the founder of Islamic modernism despite being a contemporary of Muhammad bin Abdul Wahab, had attempted the reintegration of the socio-economic and religio-ethical structure of Islam.

His chief merit was in the propagation of the doctrine of conciliation (tatbik) between dogmatic theology and mysticism quite opposed to the Wahabi doctrine of puritanism.

In fact, Muhammad bin Abdul Wahab was influenced by the preaching of Imam Taymiyah of the 13th century of the strict Hambli school of thought.

Madressah Rahimiyya, which was founded by Shah Abdul Rahim, the distinguished father of Shah Waliullah, not only produced a galaxy of brilliant scholars but also was a forerunner of the Darul Uloom Deoband.

ALTAMASH MANZOOR H. KURESHI
Karachi

Aid from Japan

THE present rulers have reportedly told us that they have broken the begging bowl. The nation is grateful but confused at the news that $440 million has been obtained from Japan as developmental aid, and the World Bank and other IFIs have been requested for loans amounting to $10 billion for power projects and dam construction.

Mr Paul Wolfowitz, president of the World Bank, has announced development and poverty alleviation aid of $1.5 billion and $2 billion for roads and railway infrastructure development.

The Pakistani nation only knows of growth and development in its internal and external debt liability that stands today at Rs2,018 billion and $36 billion.

Our foreign debt liability up to 1977 was $2.2 billion. This liability has increased manifold while no project of economic prosperity in the country has since been launched. Corruption has been let loose under even the World Bank umbrella, which patronized induction of highly cost-inflated IPPs in 1993 onward which has added to the miseries of the people.

Every government promises that loans will be spent only for the purpose for which they are obtained and our parliament has finally passed a fiscal responsibility and debt limitation law to establish fiscal discipline in the country.

But ever since the passing of this law, parliament appears to be docile and reluctant to get a grip on the massive financial indiscipline going on. The public accounts committee also appears to be a toothless body.

ALI ASHRAF KHAN
Karachi

(II)

THIS refers to the news report, ‘Japan pledges $440 million’ (Dawn, Aug 11).

Thank you, Japan, for having pledged this amount which surely is going to keep the ‘begging bowl liquid’.

We are told that the begging bowl is broken and we have returned one tranche to the World Bank and have freed ourselves from being a beggar. I wonder why then do we continue to beg.

MAHER ALAVI
Karachi

Mysterious disappearances

ACCORDING to the news item headlined ‘Agencies not aware of suicide sisters’ detention’ (Dawn, Aug 16), the interior ministry has told the Peshawar High Court that it knows nothing about the detention or the whereabouts of four detainees, including the two sisters, suspected of plotting suicide attacks in Karachi.

The report says a two-member bench, comprising Justice Ijazul Hassan and Justice Fazalur Rehman Khan, had earlier directed Deputy Attorney-General Salahuddin Khan to furnish written comments of the ministry with an affidavit. Mr Khan on Tuesday produced a letter, sent to him by a section officer of the ministry, stating that none of the federal agencies working under supervision of the ministry were aware of the detention of the four suspects: Arifa Baloch, her sister Saba Baloch, her husband Bilal and his mother Gul Hamdana.

The advocate appearing for the father of the detained girls, Sher Mohammad Baloch, disputed the claim of the interior ministry and contended that the news about their arrest had been published in newspapers. He pointed out that press clippings were annexed with the petition.

When the court inquired as to whether the press reports had any legal status, the deputy attorney-general said that in the Benazir Bhutto assembly dissolution case, reported in SCMR 1998, the apex court had ruled that if a news report had not been contradicted, it should be accepted as correct.

Such incidents of mysterious disappearance are frequent in the country where the police or an intelligence agency simply arrest anyone without mentioning any charge, keep them in illegal detention and do not register any case against them subsequently and do not present them in court of law. When the family of an arrested person approaches a court of law, provincial and federal law-enforcement agencies deny having any connection with the mysterious detention of the person.

Dr Aafia Siddiqui, a PhD in neurological sciences from MIT, also disappeared in similar circumstances while she was headed for a railway station in Karachi with her three children, then seven, five, and six months’ old. All calls by her family and humanitarian groups for her to be produced in court have been ignored.

Recently, a statement by the mother of Maulana Hidayatullah Khan Saddokhani, the imam of Mosque Siddiq-i-Akbar, Block # 3, Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Karachi, appeared in a section of the press. He said that it had been a year since her son disappeared in mysterious circumstances and his family is still clueless about his detention. She said they had filed an appeal in the Sindh High Court against the illegal detention of the maulana but all law- enforcement agencies, including the FIA and the ISI, denied having any connection with the maulana’s detention.

All these people appear to be victims of the state’s apathy. They are human beings and have equal rights as stated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted and proclaimed by UN General Assembly resolution 217 A (III) of Dec 10, 1948 which, inter alia, states that everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person and all are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. No one can be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile and everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.

It is clear that the secret detention of people is a clear violation of fundamental human rights. If these people are guilty of any illegal activity they should be presented in a court of law so that the court can decide about their fate.

ZEESHAN UL RUB JAFFRI
Via email

Mountaineer’s rescue

THE real life drama on the Nanga Parbat ended on a happy note. The precious life of the Slovenian mountaineer Tomaz Humar was saved.

The army team that planned the rescue operation and the valiant, well-skilled pilots who picked up the mountaineer from an extremely difficult point on the mountain need to be acknowledged.

What is really commendable is the fact that despite two failed attempts the rescuers did not give up hope and courage. Eventually it was on the third attempt that the mountaineer was picked up from the killer mountain.

It would be in the fitness of things if the government of Pakistan considers decorating those involved in the rescue with medals for bravery.

RAFAT MAHMOOD ANSARI
Islamabad

Gaza pullout and Kashmir

BEGINNING from the midnight of Aug 14 and 15, the eviction of settlers from Gaza is the second important Israeli pullout from occupied Arab territories — the first being from Egypt’s Sinai desert. Palestinians should be congratulated for receiving back a bit of their cherished land after 38 years. Israel too should be congratulated for its far-sighted diplomacy.

Now all big powers within the UN, and even outside it, should press India — the best friend of Israel after the US — to pull out of Kashmir which was occupied by it 58 years ago.

The ruse of Kashmir’s maharaja signing an accession to India is old story and everybody knows how accession was wrenched from the Kashmiri leader; he might have been a maharaja but he was not a representative of the people he ruled.

S.M. KAZIM NAQVI
Karachi

Yemen president

YOUR attention is drawn to the news article published in your issue of August 15, under the caption “Yemen: a change, but to what?” by Nabil Sultan, in which he has stated that the President Ali Abdullah Saleh took power in a military coup. This is not correct.

Ali Abdullah Saleh was elected president by the People’s Council (the Shoora Council) in 1978 and did not come to power by a military coup as stated. And he has been re-elected thrice since then. Direct elections have become the general norm in Yemeni political life.

The Republic of Yemen since its emergence by re-unification of its two parts on May 22, 1990, in which the president had played the leading role, has adopted a multi-party system with two houses of parliament, the House of Representative and the Shoora Council.

The term of the president is seven years and the last presidential elections were held in 1999, while the term of parliament is six years. The last parliamentary elections were held in April 2003.

ABDUL ELAH MOHAMED HAJAR
Ambassador, Republic of Yemen
Islamabad

Research on Abbasi clans

I BELONG to the Abbasi family of the former Bahawalpur state and have undertaken research on the Abbasi age of Bahawalpur. I am conducting research on the Abbasi clans in Sindh, Murree, AJK and India. The object is to trace the clan since the arrival of Sultan Ahmad Abbasi II from Egypt to Kech Mekran (Balochistan) and later in Sindh between AD 1366 and 1370.

I seek guidance and help from scholars for the project.

DR RAHIM YAR ABBASI
44 Nazimuddin Road, F-7/4
Islamabad

Baghdad pact

THIS refers to Gen Mirza Aslam Beg’s article, ‘Responding to Indo-US defence pact’ (Aug 11). The writer states that “after the military takeover by Ayub Khan, Pakistan joined the Baghdad pact”.

In the interest of historical truth, it may be mentioned that Pakistan entered the Baghdad Pact much earlier, in 1955.

R.R.ALVI
Lahore