Registration and monitoring

WITH the promulgation of the Societies Registration (Second Amendment) Ordinance, 2005, one hopes that the process of registration of the madressahs will be undertaken in right earnest and the deadline of Dec 31 will be met. In view of the initial resistance from the Ittehad Tanzeemat Madaris Deeniah (ITMD), the government had failed to get the madressahs registered in August when the ordinance was first promulgated. How the process will go this time will have to be seen, because this task will basically be done by the provinces, and it is not clear if all of them have issued the ordinances needed to provide the necessary legal framework. It is, however, a matter of satisfaction that the main organization grouping five registering bodies of the madressahs has reached an agreement with the government on this score.

Registration is a simple process, so we have been told. The form to be filled only requires some broad information about a madressah. The obligations presented for these institutions are seemingly quite simple, too. They are expected to send in their annual performance report and an audit report to the registrar of societies. How this procedure is complied with and how effective is the regulation will have to be seen and stressed over a period of time. It is plain that no madressah will record in its annual report the details of the hate material it has taught its students — that is, if it continues to do so. Similarly, the auditor’s report will have to be professionally done not only to ensure that no irregularities have taken place but also to give important information such as the source of donations and how they were spent. For this, it is important that the registrar insist on a comprehensive report and this should be followed up with close monitoring and inspections. That is how schools — both private and public — registered with the directorates of education were monitored and regulated at one time. The inspection system of the education departments appears to have all but collapsed. It is time it was revived not just for the schools but was introduced for the madressahs as well. It is important to set up an effective inspection and monitoring system to check whether the madressahs are sticking to the prescribed norms and parameters of teaching or not.

After 9/11 and more recently the London bombings, a number of foreign diplomats have periodically been visiting various madressahs to know about their functioning and the scope of their curricula. Most of these visitors have given a positive assessment and have expressed satisfaction at what they have seen. It would be in the interest of these madressahs if they become open institutions giving easy access to anyone who wants to visit them and study their functioning and academic performance. The idea is not so much to control the madressahs as to regulate them. They have agreed to broaden the scope of their curricula which should be welcomed. A madressah board on the lines of those that existed in pre-partition India and even present-day Bangladesh could not only hold a continuing dialogue with the madressahs on what should be taught to the students but also on the teaching methods to be followed. It is a positive development that the madressahs have agreed to use computers as tools of learning. But to make optimum use of them, the madressahs must transform themselves into modern institutions of learning with their focus on religion.

Dealing with trauma

A REPORT in Saturday’s Dawn focussed on how many young female teachers in Balakot are still traumatized two months after the earthquake, making the need for emotional counselling even more pressing. Among those who were interviewed, some had lost their fathers and become primary breadwinners and caretakers of their families overnight. Others had lost every male member in their families and for days did not get aid, unable to get past the male mobs scrambling for it. It is not so much the physical pains that are worrying as much as the emotional ones as the majority of them are constantly reliving the trauma of the fateful day of Oct 8. Evidently, these women, like scores of others in quake-hit areas, are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The World Health Organization estimates that between three to four per cent of the victims are at risk of suffering severe mental disorders, while 15 per cent of them could be afflicted with mild disorders. Put in numbers, this works out to between 150,000 to 600,000 people. Now that the focus has shifted to rehabilitation, efforts need to be made to give them emotional counselling so that they can learn to cope with their problems and are better equipped to move on with their lives. This will prove difficult as there is a shortage of psychiatrists in the country.

The Pakistan Mental Health Association, which is training volunteers on basic counselling skills, has been sending teams to some of the quake-hit areas but recognizes that more needs to be done. It has made an appeal for more volunteers whom they will train. It believes that since neighbourhoods and communities have been wiped out, and an entire support system has vanished, victims simply need people to talk to. Sharing experiences is a necessary part of alleviating trauma, for which good listening skills are essential. Those enlisting in the National Volunteers Movement should be given this training to help at least those with mild mental disorders. It would be a tragedy if the numbers of those with severe disorders grows because help was unable to reach them in time.

Monumental neglect

LAHORE’S Mughal monuments are fast losing their glitter, not only to a natural decaying process but also to the alarmingly high noise and air pollution levels in the metropolis. To a large extent, at fault are the city district government and the provincial archaeology department because of the sheer apathy that they reserve for national heritage. Years have gone by with promises made by the authorities concerned to relocate the general bus stand from Badami Bagh — opposite to the Lahore Fort and the Badshahi Masjid — which, conservationists have warned, is responsible for damaging the two monuments. It is not just the excessive air pollution caused by vehicular emissions; noise pollution, too, has taken its terrible toll. Vibrations caused by traffic noise have been responsible for the peeling off of faience and painted tile work, particularly on the northern wall of the Lahore Fort. The damage caused to the mirror-fitted ceiling of the Shish Mahal, the jewel of the fort, and now being repaired at an exorbitant cost, could have been avoided if the authorities had shifted the bus stand out of the city.

One must also note with equal regret the lack of interest and effort on the part of the Punjab archaeology department, which was only too eager to get the custodianship of Lahore’s national monuments from the centre. But, after taking control of the buildings, the department has done little besides collecting the spoils in the form of the gate money generated by these monuments. If it were not for a restraint order passed by a court, the department had planned renting out the fort premises for functions to the government and to private parties. The Shalamar Gardens, located four miles east of the fort, are undergoing a similar erosion as a consequence of noise and air pollution, thanks, again, to the lack of proper traffic engineering in their vicinity.

Issue of farm subsidies

AS the year draws to a close, the European Union faces trouble on at least three key fronts. EU governments are embroiled in an increasingly acrimonious row over a new 2007-2013 budget, and hopes that EU leaders will be able to clinch a deal on the new spending plan at their summit on December 15-16 are receding very fast.

EU negotiators attending a ministerial meeting of World Trade Organization (WTO) members in Hong Kong on December 13-18 are braced for attacks from the United States and developing countries over EU farm policies. If the WTO meeting fails to secure agreement on further cutbacks in farm tariffs and export subsidies, EU negotiators know they will be blamed for the debacle.

And following strains caused by differences over the Iraq war, EU relations with Washington have once again been thrown into turmoil over allegations that the CIA ran secret jails for terrorist suspects in several European countries.

Winning agreement on a new EU budget is the biggest challenge facing the 25 governments. But prospects for a quick agreement are getting grimmer by the day. Recent proposals by British Prime Minister Tony Blair to break the budget deadlock have been criticized by the European Commission. Blair has suggested cutting the proposed EU budget by shaving 10 per cent from aid for new members and by accepting a trimmed British budget rebate currently worth almost five billion euros a year. However, leaders from all EU newcomers have said they are unwilling to accept any reduction in aid funds.

Attempts last June to reach a deal on the budget collapsed when the UK rejected pressure to give up the rebate without a major reform of farm spending. France, which receives a lion’s share of EU farm aid, refused any change in the bloc’s agriculture policies.

Blair has said that he expects his proposals to run into opposition while Germany’s new foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, said he was “fairly confident” that the British proposal would provide a basis for consensus by the middle of the month. But Polish Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz appeared to pin his hopes on Germany, the largest contributor to the EU’s funds, to block Blair.

Leaders of the Baltic states have also lined up to attack the proposals. Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip said that in the EU, rich countries had to help the poor, and he called on the UK leader to show “solidarity” with smaller nations.

Latvian Prime Minister Aigars Kalvitis said none of the 10 new EU member states would accept a deal that harmed countries which needed support for their development. Lithuania’s Algirdas Brazauskas said the British proposal would cost his country 600 million euros.

Leaders of nine of the 10 countries which joined the EU in May last year have signed a letter to Blair which states: “We will not be prepared to accept reductions in allocations for the new member states.” Apparently, the only eastern European country which has not signed the letter is Slovakia, to which the UK has reportedly promised extra funds for decommissioning nuclear power stations.

The UK proposal will be discussed by EU foreign ministers on December 7, and by heads of state and government at a summit in Brussels on December 15 and 16.

Britain insists on keeping its rebate as long as farm subsidies remain in place. The EU’s farm subsidy programme consumes 40 per cent of the 25-nation bloc’s budget, and Blair has said it harms developing countries by preventing their farmers from competing in Europe.

Criticizing Britain’s plan to cut subsidies to poorer eastern Europeans to save money for richer western European states, the European Commission has said Blair must not take money from the poor to pay for the rich.

The EU also faces being termed the spoiler in world trade talks opening in Hong Kong on December 13. Officials in Brussels admit that EU trade negotiators will face a tough ride at the WTO negotiations which are likely to be dominated by increasingly strident demands for a further slashing of EU farm trade barriers.

The stakes for Hong Kong are especially high because failure to agree to further cuts in farm subsidies and tariffs would block efforts to reach a global WTO trade pact by the end of next year.

The focus on agriculture is not popular in Brussels. EU trade chief Peter Mandelson and European farm commissioner Mariann Fischer-Boel admit to being frustrated over demands for better access to European agriculture markets are centre stage at the WTO. They insist that attacks on EU farm trade concessions being made by the US, Australia and leading developing nations are unjustified. Both are struggling — so far unsuccessfully — to turn world attention away from European farm policies to EU insistence that countries like Brazil, Mexico, India and Pakistan start opening up their own markets for industrial goods and services.

EU officials argue that while the bloc’s common agriculture policy used to be marked by high import tariffs, vast aid schemes for farmers and export subsidies, the once-infamous CAP — criticized for being protectionist and creating huge EU surpluses which were then dumped on world markets — is now totally transformed. As a result of the overhaul, the EU has put in an offer at the WTO for further farm trade concessions which is “ambitious and bold,” said Fischer-Boel.

The EU’s pre-Hong Kong farm package covers concessions in all three “pillars” under discussion in the WTO’s current negotiations known as the Doha round. The 25-nation bloc has said it is ready to reduce trade-distorting subsidies to European farmers by 70 per cent and cut its average farm tariffs from 23 per cent to 12 per cent. EU export subsidies, meanwhile, will be phased out although no deadline for their elimination has been fixed.

However, the US, which has said it will cut key agricultural subsidies by 60 per cent before 2010 and slash trade tariffs by up to 90 per cent, is demanding that the EU do more. Australian Trade Minister Mark Vaile has warned that the EU’s failure to make a “meaningful” offer on access to European markets had brought the Doha round to the brink of collapse. Developing countries are the toughest critics of the EU package.

Brazil’s Foreign Minister Celso Amorim, who heads the so-called Group of 20 (G20) developing countries, has been especially critical of the EU concessions, saying the bloc must slash farm import tariffs by 54 per cent to satisfy poorer nations’ demands for better access to European markets. Mandelson has responded by warning that the EU will not make any further farm offers at the Hong Kong meeting. The EU trade chief has also accused Brazil, one of the world’s highly competitive farm exporters, of using its clout in the WTO to promote national self-interest.

If Hong Kong is to succeed, negotiations must move beyond agriculture to reciprocal cuts in tariffs in industrial goods and freer trade in services, Mandelson insists. Both Mandelson and Fischer-Boel are stuck between a rock and a hard place. While the US and developing nations lambast the EU for not doing enough in agriculture, France, which receives the lion’s share of European farm subsidies, has warned that it will veto any deal struck in Hong Kong if it means additional sacrifices for European farmers.

Governments in Europe have also been wrong-footed by allegations that they have collaborated with the CIA in housing secret prisons or allowing planes carrying people detained by the US to set down on European territory.

The EU has a “moral duty” to investigate and act on claims of secret CIA prisons on European soil, European Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini said recently, warning that he will invoke the EU treaty to punish any EU country — or nation seeking entry into the EU — which is found to have allowed secret CIA prisons.

“We have a political, legal and moral duty to seek the truth about these secret CIA prison allegations,” he told journalists, adding: “If there were evidence of a member state, or candidate, allowing or having allowed on its territory camps or prisons or something not in compliance with international human rights standards, we would have the ability to declare a serious violation of the EU treaty.”

Claims of European involvement in clandestine CIA operations to transport or hold terrorist suspects have rocked transatlantic relations — and sucked in half the EU’s member states. Romania and Poland have been forced to issue strong denials of CIA interrogation centres on their territories for suspects illegally held under European human rights law. But Human Rights Watch insists there is flight evidence pointing to CIA activity on former Soviet bases in Poland and Romania.

The issue is set to overshadow a December 8 Nato visit to Brussels by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. EU officials say that Rice has pledged to “provide a prompt and detailed response” to the allegations, including reports of covert flight operations in airports in countries such as the UK, Portugal, Ireland, Germany, Spain, Hungary, Cyprus and the Netherlands.

Up to 210 CIA flights are said to have landed in the UK since 9/11. The Scottish airport of Glasgow Prestwick is reported to have hosted up to 75 CIA aircraft. Frattini notes that, unlike with prisons, the EU has no powers to intervene in national arrangements for the overflight of US planes.

The charges are a further blow to transatlantic relations and hopes for mending fences between Europe and America following opposition to the Iraq war by France, Belgium and Germany. Claims that at least six CIA planes had touched down at Frankfurt’s Rhein-Main air base are embarrassing for German chancellor Angela Merkel who wants to repair relations with the US.