| September 2, 2005 | Friday | Rajab 27, 1426 |
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The ‘soft state’
Patriata reserve forest
Quaid and Islamic history
Mercy plea for prisoners
Maudoodi and Pakistan
Karachi incident
Telecards
Oil vs CNG
External exams
Madressahs
THIS is with reference to the news item ‘UN reforms: group to settle disputes’ (Aug 28). According to the details of the conversation of the UN General Assembly’s president, Mr Jean Ping, with journalists in New York, the “core group” representing all regions and groups at the UN, including Pakistan, would start negotiations so as to finalize a document by Sept 2. The text would then be submitted to the 191-member states on Sept 6 for approval.
Some of the key issues that the UN intends to discuss in its annual session scheduled to be held leter this month are terrorism, disarmament and non-proliferation, a new human rights council to replace the existing Human Rights Commission, a new peace building commission to help resolve conflicts, restructuring the UN management, protecting people against genocide, actions to fight poverty and promote development.
No occasion could be more suitable and appropriate to thoroughly discuss the problems and challenges faced by the world than the 60th anniversary of the United Nations. The annual session of the General Assembly is the right forum to bring into the limelight the urgent need to reform not only the organizational side of the United Nations but to play a leadership role in dealing with the issues faced by weak and small states.
Unfortunately, after the end of the Cold War at the superpower level, the role of the UN in preventing aggression, unilateralism, coercion and other acts of domination has remained fragile. The events in Afghanistan and Iraq prove how ineffective the UN is to prevent unilateral action in the name of the war against terrorism. Unresolved conflicts like Kashmir and Palestine also account for the failure of the UN in ensuring justice and ending illegal occupation of territories.
The UN’s moment of truth has arrived because never before in the post-1945 world has there been so much of apathy and indifference to the threats made by the US to deal with issues which require a political rather than a military solution.
It is yet to be seen how the permanent members of the UN Security Council, different organizations representing various regions and political interests in the annual session of the General Assembly will take a position on the document which the president of the assembly has referred to. If there is no consensus among the members of the core group of the UN on the matters of reform, dispute resolution, dealing with economic, social and environmental matters before the holding of UN summit on Sept 14-16, the proposed exercise will end up in failure.
In the past also, several efforts were made to remove structural and other weaknesses of the UN. In 1992, the then secretary-general of the UN, Mr Boutros Ghali, introduced an“agenda of reforms” which was meant to cope with the challenges of the post-Cold War era. But, even 13 years later, one can see stagnation and status quo as far as the organizational and practical aspects of the UN are concerned. The credibility of the UN depends on its success in ensuring just settlement of disputes, implementation of its resolutions and improving its overall performance.
PROF (Dr) MOONIS AHMAR
Karachi
IN Pakistan, as in many other Third World countries, while a thin minority has gained unprecedented affluence, the number of those under the blanket cover of “absolute poverty” has registered an alarming increase. The problem is no longer one of efficient economic management, i.e., one of policies aimed at re- distribution through conventional means. It has become a complex socio-cultural and psychological syndrome that has thrown the state system into disarray and posed questions regarding the legitimacy of authority. ‘The invisible hand’ has failed the poor and manipulations of economic mechanisms have proved to be inadequate strategies.
In regard to the causes of poverty, a host of different and conflicting answers are given:
The people are lacking in sufficient energy and ambition. The country has inadequate natural resources. The economic system is unjust. Development priorities are faulty. There is insufficient saving and investment. Project implementation capability is weak. Property, profit or the reward of toil are not secure. Education is inadequate. There is a shortage of technical, scientific managerial talent. There is a legacy of colonial exploitation. There is rampant political and bureaucratic corruption. There is dominance of the polity by the feudals. Poverty is a painful thing.
There is no one obvious answer. It is because so many explanations have a little truth that so many are offered. There is, however, one aspect of poverty alleviation, highlighted by the Swedish Nobel Prize winner, the late Prof. Gunnar Myrdal, which has not been given due attention in many Third World countries including Pakistan.
Prof Myrdal has shown that the competence of the government of a poor country is itself a part of the equilibrium of poverty. Rich countries have the financial resources to govern effectively. They are not subject to the desperate political pressures of the impoverished. They can make mistakes, for they have a margin for error.
The governments of poor countries are far more vulnerable. They do not have resources, human or material to sustain a strong, effective public administration. In consequence, in Myrdal’s famous phrase, there is an intimate association between poverty and the ‘soft state’. And nowhere is the softness more inhibiting than in dealing with problems of resource mobilization and population growth.
For mounting an effective attack on poverty, it is therefore imperative to cure this debilitating softness by appropriate administrative reforms.
AFTAB AHMAD KHAN
Karachi
THIS refers to the report ‘Changed New Murree plan to make news too” (Dawn, Aug 20). The government of Punjab in its profound wisdom plans to cut coniferous trees about a million-and-a-half centuries’ old together with about 15 million saplings and seedlings, destroying in the process the habitat of myriads of living organisms associated with vegetation and soil in order to build a “tourist city of international standard”. Which civilized country would tolerate such a blatant outrage?
The result of our antiquated forest management, which discourages the participation of the local communities in the management of reserve forests and denies them any significant benefit, is obvious: the people around Patriata are silent spectators to the impending ecological disaster which will soon engulf them through the courtesy of their own elected government. They will be doomed to breathe poisonous motor exhaust fumes instead of the oxygen-laden fresh air manufactured by the millions of trees and their associated vegetation in the Patriata forest.
I do not know how the minister of forests, the secretary of forests and the chief conservator of forests agreed to this proposal. How did the Punjab government approve it?
Even more surprising is the complete silence of the IUCN, the WWF, as well as other environmentally conscious groups and individuals in this country.
As for the National Assembly committee on the environment, rather than being contented for “having played its due role” by “recommending changes” in the New Murree plan — changes which the Punjab government is not bound to abide by — it should make its dissent loud and clear in the National Assembly. Environment is a concurrent subject, and the National Assembly, the prime minister and the president can play their roles in averting an irredeemable national loss.
G.M. KHATTAK
Peshawar
IN TWO separate discussions on TV, most recently on August 20, Maulana Dr Israr Ahmed emphatically stated that the Quaid-i-Azam wanted Pakistan to be a state on the lines of the Khilafat-i-Rashida (R.A.) and cited the Quaid’s conversation with Dr Riaz Ali Shah, one of his two doctors who were in attendance during his last days as his source. The conversation was recorded and published, he said, by Dr Shah in his book or article “Quaid-i-Azam’s Last Days”.
I have looked everywhere and found only one article, in Urdu, by Dr Shah which was published in Mah-i-Nau of September 1948 and reproduced in the magazine of September — December 1976. I have this article before me but I cannot find any such quotation. Nor is it to be found in the book “With the Quaid-i-Azam during his last days” by Col Ilahi Baksh, who was the second doctor in attendance, which is also before me. The only reference to early Islamic history made by the Quaid-i-Azam is to the personality and days of the Holy Prophet (P.B.U.H.), this reference occurs more than once.
Only two exceptional occasions can be recalled. The Jinnah-Gandhi talks in Bombay in September 1944 which the Quaid-i-Azam suspended for one day “because it fell on the 21st Ramazan which is observed by all Muslims” (it is the day of Hazrat Ali’s martyrdom) and, second, when in a Muslim League working committee meeting, he mentioned the ‘Panjtan-i-Pak’ I cannot recall the exact context, otherwise he most carefully avoided any reference which could lead to religious controversy.
S. IRTIZA HUSAIN
Karachi
THERE is a great clamour in India for the release of Sarabjit Singh who, it is being claimed, is not guilty of carrying out bomb blasts in Pakistan as an agent of RAW. Meanwhile, the United Jihad Council of Kashmir has called upon the Pakistan government to seek clemency for Mohammad Afzal Guru who has been given the death sentence by India’s Supreme Court for his alleged role in the attack on the Indian parliament in December 2001 (Aug 29).
Many leading human rights activists in India themselves have already expressed serious doubts about the case made out against Mr. Guru. For instance, Ms. Nirmala Deshpande, the well-known activist, has rejected the way the confessions of Afzal and his cousin Shaukat Guru were obtained by the special cell. She said this had blown “a gaping hole in the conspiracy story concocted by the special cell... faithfully reproduced by the media again and again even during the trial (Aug. 12).”
Before that, Afzal’s wife had also said her husband made a confessional statement before the media under pressure from the police who had threatened to harm the family (Aug. 5). Thus, Mr. Guru’s case is far stronger than that of Sarabjit Singh.
In view of the foregoing, it will only be fair if Islamabad accedes to the Kashmiri group’s request and asks for the gentleman to be pardoned, regardless of whether a decision is taken to free Mr. Singh or not. It may be noted that widespread protests and shutdowns have been held in occupied Kashmir in response to their leaders’ appeals in support of Mr. Afzal Guru. Also, we should not be held back from the mercy plea by thinking that the accused is an Indian national because Kashmir is disputed territory and his citizenship is not decided finally.
ABDUL ALEEM
Karachi
IT is strange that events of some 60 years ago should be the subject of hot discussion today, often to the relative exclusion of events that have taken place since. I refer here to the discussion on Maulana Maudoodi and the Pakistan Movement, which has once again appeared in these columns and had earlier figured in President Musharraf’s speeches in connection with the local body elections. While it is for the Jamaat-i-Islami to join these discussions or ignore them, I would like to offer the following comments.
I was in Hyderabad state, in India, and very young when these events were actually taking place in the late 1940s. But here is what I recollect.
At the height of the Pakistan Movement, the Jamaat was not a factor on the political scene, having been created only in 1941 in a small village in Pathankot, Punjab, to which Maulana Maudoodi had shifted some years back from Hyderabad state. At the time its members numbered no more than a few hundred, scattered all over India and, therefore, not capable of launching any movement.
However, Maulana Maudoodi’s writings were creating quite a stir at both the political and religious levels. At the centre of controversy was his three-part book Mussalman aur Maujooda Siasi Kashmakash. The present debate arises from different people using different parts of the book to support their arguments.
The first part was highly critical of the way the Pakistan Movement was shaping up. Maulana Maudoodi did not oppose the concept of an Islamic state since this had always been the objective of his endeavours, but was highly sceptical of whether the Muslim League could establish a truly Islamic state. At a personal level, followers of the Jamaat voted for Pakistan when the occasion arose (in the NWFP, for example), but at the party level, the Jamaat had its own agenda and did not participate in the Pakistan Movement. It is this part of the book that is cited by those who accuse the Jamaat of opposing Pakistan.
Part two of the book was a potent argument against the one-nation theory, which was the ideology of the Congress Party and by that token provided decisive, though indirect, ideological support to the Pakistan Movement and attracted the wrath of the Jamiatul Ulema-i-Hind, which was allied with the Congress.
The Muslim League of the day (which found in this part of the book a more potent argument against the one-nation theory than it could muster itself) published it in bulk and distributed it far and wide across the whole of India and got a substantial ideological boost to its cause thereby. It is this part of the book which is referred to by those who point to Maulana Maudoodi’s positive (though indirect) contribution to the cause of Pakistan.
In part three of the book, Maulana Maudoodi outlined his own agenda on which the Jamaat presumably bases its activities.
Also, in the period immediately following the creation of Pakistan, there appeared to be no sign of any bad blood between the government of Pakistan and Maulana Maudoodi. During this period, while the Quaid-i-Azam was still alive and active and Karachi was the capital of the country, Maulana Maudoodi was invited to present an exposition of the concept of an Islamic state over Radio Pakistan. Accordingly, the Maulana gave a series of five lectures. These were published together and reprinted several times and are available under the title Islam ka Nizam-i-Hayat.
WAJID NAEEMUDDIN
Karachi
Could someone in the government please enlighten the hapless citizens of the Islamic Republic as to the current status of the inquiry (if one was in fact conducted) on the incident at Karachi airport some weeks ago in which the son of the federal law and parliamentary affairs minister physically assaulted a passenger who had chastised the ASF guards on duty that they should not have allowed the minister’s son into the departures lounge without the legally required security check?
If, as is expected, there is no such inquiry, and the case is closed, would the the hapless citizens of the Islamic Republic be fair in assuming that the law minister does not believe in extending the law of the land to his own son?
USMAN HAFEEZ
Karachi
IN reference to Tayaba Khan’s letter (Aug 2), these days there is much activity in the telecom sector, a lot of investment is being made in this sector and the telecom sector in Pakistan is certainly booming. It is a pity though that these large telecom entities don’t live up to the promises they make at the launch ceremonies.
I mean the slogans of these telecom companies make them look so consumer-oriented, unfortunately, barring a few, most are out to fool us. These days calling cards have become so popular and are really so convenient, that is until they provide the calling time stated on the card. It happened to me so many times that a card ran out of balance much before I expected. This caused me one day to actually use a stopwatch to calculate the time the card lasted while calling a friend abroad. I was astounded by the result, which was nearly half the calling time the card guaranteed.
I will not name the company which retails the particular card. All I would like is that a investigation by the relevant authorities be carried out so as to ascertain the parties behind this practice. After all, the consumer is entitled to get his money’s worth.
HABIBUR REHMAN
Via email
AFTER a month of election relief, petroleum prices have been raised. Thankfully, we are blessed with an alternative in the form of natural gas. At present there are reportedly 150,000 vehicles running on CNG and the number is rising by the day as owners of cars become convinced that this will not damage their engines.
The government should encourage this trend by maintaining the prices of CNG, since this is produced domestically and saves considerable foreign exchange.
RAFI ADAMJEE
Karachi
THIS refers to Mr Shahzad Noor Ali’s letter ‘Karachi University’s external exams’ (Aug 25), requesting the university authorities to provide students with basic facilities at the time of examinations of external students.
I would like to inform all those concerned that we are in the process of, among other things, restructuring our administration, removing the bottlenecks, enhancing academic standards, developing website and providing online facilities to student.
The examination arrangements for external students are bemer gradually improved. We are replacing old chairs with new ones with writing support for the next external students’ examination.
A fire that occurred at our telephone exchange and IT room recently has delayed the updating of the university website. It will soon be updated on a daily basis. Quality too will improve as cheating and the use of other unfair means at the campus has been checked.
SARWAR NASIM
Media adviser to VC, University of Karachi
THIS has reference to the government’s decision about promulgation of an act to get all madressahs registered within a certain time-frame and providing them with the chance to come under the umbrella of the country’s educational set-up.
It is a step in the right direction, though it may not please some religious elements. Streamlining of the madressah network should help to harmonize their syllabus with modern/scientific trends. These graduates will also feel more dignified in terms of earning a livelihood.
It would also help to counter allegations of fund generation from abroad and check the influx of foreign elements allegedly involved in anti-state activities. In this way the nation would be in a position to tackle the propaganda against Pakistan.
S. SHAH
Faisalabad
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