| July 20, 2006 | Thursday | Jumadi-ul-Sani 23, 1427 |
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Revisiting nuclear tests
Bangladesh looking up
Repealing Hudood laws
DHA and housing scheme
Iran may enter the fray
Air crash at Multan
Violating dignity
Return to Pakistan
Injustice to religion
What is normality?
MR Shahid Javed Burki has written a rebuttal (July 18 and 19) to the findings of a survey on Pakistan recently published in the Economist. The underlying idea of Mr Burki’s rebuttal is to ensure that the findings of the survey do not mislead the investors and financiers about the reality in Pakistan. While Mr Burki’s idea to present Pakistan’s positive image to the investors’ community is praiseworthy, some of his assertions need to be contested.
First, investors, whether foreign or local, will not be influenced by the findings of the survey alone. They will make their own risk analyses before making any decision. For us in Pakistan, however, these findings are important since they provide us an opportunity to objectively reflect on our internal situation. We should not suffer from a ‘frog in the well’ syndrome whereby we deceive ourselves into thinking that everything is fine in Pakistan, while analysts tell us that something is fundamentally wrong with our economy and polity. We should listen to what others have to say about us and then decide whether we need to make changes.
Mr Burki has always lauded the economic performance of military regimes in Pakistan. He has praised Gen Ayub’s economic miracle and Gen Zia’s economic strategy. Now he is praising Gen Musharraf’s achievements in the economic field. Yet to his credit, he is questioning the economic strategy of the present regime.
The seeds of East Pakistan’s separation were sown during Ayub’s economic miracle since his economic policies produced interpersonal and interregional economic and income disparities without concurrently implementing political reforms. Zia’s economic policies were also instrumental in creating income and economic disparities at individual and regional levels. Even today, Mr Burki admits, that the government’s claim regarding reduction in poverty is questionable.
In fact, Mr Burki’s analysis suffers from a fundamental flaw. It is based on a development paradigm according to which politics ought to be separated from economics. Military regimes in our country adopted this model only to discover that it was a faulty model. Unfortunately all military regimes refused to acknowledge that economic performance divorced from a stable political structure would have disastrous consequences.
Mr Burki contradicts himself when he says that “if Musharraf were to fail, he will fail not because of his unwillingness to lay the foundations for a durable political structure…the reason for the failure would be on the economic front” (July 19). But then towards the end of the article he talks about the development of institutions, including the election commission.
A free and independent election commission is needed not because of economic development, but for allowing a political process that will ensure credible elections. Also, to think of an independent judiciary in a one-man-rule situation is unimaginable. By demanding independence for institutions such as the State Bank of Pakistan and the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan, Mr Burki is dreaming of the impossible. If anything, his rebuttal validates the findings of the survey rather than rebut them.
DR ZAFAR IQBAL QURESHI
Lahore
THIS has reference to the two letters ‘Revisiting nuclear tests’ (June 30) in response to my letter (June 28).
May I state for information of the writer from Sweden that leasing a base to a particular country under special circumstances is not the same thing as taking over entire responsibility of defence of the country which has provided the base. Pakistan was never provided the type of protection in the form of nuclear umbrella which Russians provided to India during 1971. No country allows any person to visit all its sensitive installations in a clandestine way.
The point about the economic advantages which accrued to Germany and Japan when their defence was taken over by the US and the Allies are hard facts which can be proved in any court of law. The usage of the word ‘distortion’ by Mr Zaheer is unfair and shows his inability to grasp the theme of my letter. I stated that the world continues to be governed by the principle of ‘might is right’. The weaker nations are justified to take appropriate defensive measures irrespective of the cost. The situation in Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine should be an eye-opener to those who have no knowledge about World War II.
The recent example of bombardment of Lebanon and impotence of all world bodies to halt hostilities is another grim reminder of the fact that to ensure your freedom, cost is immaterial.
I wrote that letter as a senior citizen of the state who was quite grown up when World War II was still going on and witnessed traumatic events of 1947, 1965 and 1971. It was not to justify the military spending which will always depend on the geo- political situation of any country and its determination to live as a free and sovereign state.
I wish to thank Mr Surinder Puri for his views that we should now concentrate on the economic development. However I don’t agree with him on two points.
First, the circumstances for the creation of Pakistan and emergence of Bangladesh were not identical. Second, the sanctity of an international frontier and of an unrecognised boundary is not similar.
BRIG (r) KHALID HASSAN MAHMOOD
Karachi
THIS is with reference to Mr Kuldip Nayar’s article ‘Bangladesh looking up’ (July 15).
I compliment Mr Nayar for complimenting Bangladesh on establishing democracy and also maintaining the thrust of growth and development.
We had thought the former East Pakistan to be a dead, necrotic and non-functioning part of our body politic and so discarded it. Now that it is pulsating with life we are happy.
Who does not remember Richie Benaud, the former Australian cricket captain, while commenting in India-Pakistan cricket match at Dhaka, saying: “How amazing that the match is being played in a third country and the whole crowd is backing one side, meaning Pakistan”.
When I went to Bangladesh in 1994 to be conferred the fellowship of the Bangladesh College of Surgeons along with four other colleagues from the CPSP, it was not much of a rejoicing. In fact, we were all depressed, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis, for separating away.
Now that Bangladesh is doing well, we should rejoice. Dhaka is the birthplace of the Muslim League and, in fact, the birthplace of the Pakistan Movement.
Now that Bangladesh is looking up by establishing democracy and also by setting higher standards of social development such as IMR at 51, under-five mortality at 77, immunisation rate at 77 per cent and primary school registration at 100 per cent, we should eulogise it.
PROF. M. JALISI
Karachi
Respected columnist Ardeshir Cowasjee has praised President Musharraf’s recent laudable pronouncements regarding the Hudood Ordinance, while using the opportunity to expound his belief that Pakistan should be a secular state. His persistent efforts to bring betterment in various sectors of our society are much appreciated by many in Pakistan, including yours truly. However, I beg to differ with him in his unending effort to try to make this country a secular entity by selectively quoting the Quaid’s speeches. The basic fact remains that Pakistan was created (with the Quaid’s efforts) for accommodating the Muslims of India in an independent state. Although as Muslims of Pakistan, we have strayed much from the path of Islam and the Quaid’s stated goals, there are multiple reasons for this in form and in practice.
Politicians as well as what Mr Cowasjee perhaps rightly calls “the maulvi-mullah brigade” have the greater responsibility for this debacle. But returning to the right path is not impossible. Islam cannot be separated from Muslims for it is a complete code of life. How we implement that code into practice has been wanting. However, becoming a secular state is no solution to our problems. Salvation will only come when in unison we Muslims walk Allah’s path devotedly and sincerely. Let us not forget that His path tells us to respect all human beings. The Hudood laws in Pakistan have been misused by the corrupt and influential without shame or fear. These laws need amendments to remove the disparities that exist and punish those who violate them. That is one way to stop the corrupt from repeating their shenanigans. But perhaps this is not in line with the thinking of the enlightened moderate rulers and the Opposition in our country.
Do leaders on both sides of the aisle have the guts to bring justice, truth and sanity into our laws? If past experience is any indication, they are a lot more dedicated to empty rhetoric that brings them personal benefits. May the Divine Being guide us all.
MOHAMMED HASAN
Karachi
RECENTLY the Quetta DHA invited applications for plots in one of its housing schemes. Application forms were supplied free of charge. However, a sum of Rs5,000 was charged as processing fee which was not refundable. Was processing done on supercomputers imported from the US, one may ask?
To put salt on the wounds, the unsuccessful applicants were deprived of prompt refund. It was announced that the down payment deposited in June by the unsuccessful applicants will be refunded by the end of July. After receiving the applications, the authority announced that the refund would be made in mid-September. Also, the widows would not be charged for processing fee.
The authority may argue that the terms were announced in advance and still there was a huge demand. Obviously, despite harsh conditionalities it was still an attractive proposition. But the question is, do we allow private sector organisations seeking share capital from public to keep application money from unsuccessful applicants for an extended period?
It is mandatory to simultaneously announce the result of balloting and arrange refund. If such an arrangement can be made in case of the private sector, why cannot they introduce the same set of rules in case of the public sector such as the Defence Housing Authority.
Balloting was due on June 30. The rumour is that somebody’s (obviously a favourite) name has appeared three times in the list of successful applicants. This is the reason they have not announced the result of balloting so far.
MUHAMMAD ILYAS
Quetta
NOTHING scares Israel like the prospect of stable peace in the region around it. Peace in the region would result in pressure on it to vacate areas under its occupation beyond those given to it by world bodies under extreme pressure, chiefly by the United States.
It would also need to accept return of millions of Palestinians uprooted from their homeland and exiled. This does not fit in with Israeli plans to keep expanding its frontiers at the expense of Palestinians among whom Jews numbered no more than five per cent as late as a century ago. Israel must, therefore, keep the cauldron boiling which it has been eminently successful in doing both under Sharon and now under Olmert.
It may sound odd but in my view the landslide victory by Hamas in the Palestine elections must actually have made Israel very happy since the development enabled it to brand the government in Palestine as terrorist and to refuse to talk to it. Just as the Mumbai train bombing has enabled India to wriggle out of talks with Pakistan (which were making it increasingly uncomfortable), Israel found the Hamas’s victory a very convenient excuse to yet again stall the peace process for the umpteenth time.
Sharon had developed the strategy to perfection: provoke the downtrodden Palestinians with yet another cruel act, retaliate with tanks and cannons against stone-throwing and call a halt to peace process and the latest ‘roadmap’ citing unrest.
Hamas has already been under a self-imposed, unilateral ceasefire for 16 months now and on top of that President Abbas of Palestine has now persuaded Hamas to give indirect recognition to Israel.
These developments must have scared the wits out of the Zionist state strategists. They needed, and no doubt in a great hurry, some excuse to yet again reverse the cooling tempo.
How else does one explain the kind of devastation Israel has wrought on a whole population by effectively destroying the communication, power and medical structure of their country? Can killing of so many people and causing untold suffering to millions of civilians be called a logical strategy for obtaining the release of a single soldier? Would it not have the effect of further endangering the captive’s life and make it near impossible for his captors to release him after so many civilian deaths and so much misery inflicted on innocent non-combatant people?
I have a feeling that Israel’s real target could be Iran. The Jewish state is rapidly raising stakes and widening the theatre of operations beyond the stated and transparently false reasons and objectives. Syria is now under threat and Iran may enter the fray in one way or another if Syria is seriously attacked.
With the US and many European countries already at odds with Iran over the nuclear issue, this would give the Jewish state the mother-of-all opportunities to attack in order to at least partly destroy Iran’s nuclear infrastructure.
The US would say: “We warned you”. Europe would sigh: “How sad”! The Arab League and the OIC would pass more resolutions. Muslims around the world would burn flags and effigies and their own national assets. And that would be that. When will we wake up?
WAJID NAEEMUDDIN
Karachi
WAY back in the 1960s, a train crashed in Bihar. The railway minister, none other than Lal Bahadur Shastri, resigned immediately.
On July 10, a PIA Fokker Friendship aircraft of 1960 vintage crashed in Multan, killing 45 passengers but PIA Chairman Tariq Kirmani instead of resigning issued a statement that the remaining six Fokker aircraft would not be grounded or discarded. The technical standard of PIA can be gauged from the fact that every now and then the tyres of the wide-bodied aircraft burst on landing.
In July 1983 I was travelling with my family from Karachi to Quetta. Fifteen minutes into the air, there was panic among the crew members, the breakfast trays were withdrawn. The plane swirled, pulled and made an awkward U-turn and headed back for Karachi. Passengers were reciting verses of the Holy Book. However, we landed safely. I was the last passenger to disembark. I asked a crew member what went wrong. He said: “Thank your star, the aircraft engineers despite our protest that the aircraft was rickety and having constant problems insisted on placing the same for its flight to Quetta. Oh my God! One of the engines had caught fire, luckily the extinguisher worked.”
After two hours in the lounge, we were given a fresh aircraft to fly to Quetta. Once airborne, the captain came on the PA system “Ladies and Gentlemen, you must have realised by now the nature of emergency we encountered in the previous aircraft (the exact Urdu words were “Muamle ki sangini ko to apne bhanp lia hoga”) but now our journey will be a pleasant one. What he did not say was that “it was a near miss”.
LT-COL (r) SAFIR A. SIDDIQUI
Karachi
I DEEPLY and sincerely offer sympathies to the brigadier who was not only beaten but also his family members. I bow my head in shame that such an incident took place in which not only an aged but a highly patriotic person and his family members were mauled. The only known reason for this ghastly act was some ISI official’s son was probably hurt while playing with minors of the brigadier’s family.
The least the beaten brigadier can do is to publicly give the name and designation of the ISI official so that people know the inhuman side of this official and the least this official can do is to offer a public apology for his action. Additionally, those persons who actually performed this act should also be punished, publicly so that in future such actions is not repeated.
MAHER ALAVI
Karachi
My husband, Iqbal Shamsuddin Chagani, lived in the United States for several years. Like many millions he too was undocumented. A few months ago he was picked up by the US immigration service and presented before a judge who ordered that he be deported.
Due to his illegal status, my husband changed his residence every few months and in this process he lost his passport. The US immigration service (on behalf of my husband) applied for the issuance of a new passport so he could be sent back to his home country. All the necessary supporting documents were provided to the Pakistani authorities along with the application.
Several months have lapsed but the Pakistan consulate in Houston, Texas, and the Pakistan embassy in Washington have still not issued a new passport despite repeated reminders from the US immigration service.
My husband is in his 50s and has health problems (The immigration service does not provide medical treatments to its detainees unless they face a life-threatening problem). Will someone in the ministry of foreign affairs help us so that my husband could return to Pakistan?
YASMIN IQBAL CHAGANI
Karachi
THE murder of Allama Hassan Turabi and the subsequent rampage in Karachi gives an accurate snap shot of the state of militant fundamentalism in Pakistan. The biggest victims of Muslim bigotry are Muslims themselves, as opposing sects try to kill each other.
Whereas other religions have well-educated and respectable priests and rabbis, it is unfortunate that we are producing fire-breathing, bigoted preachers who are ill-equipped to engage with modernity in a useful fashion. Their solution to every social and political problem seems to be anger, violence and vigilantism. This is an injustice to a rational religion like Islam which puts an imperative on knowledge and tolerance.
HARIS AZIZ
Coventry, UK
I REFER to the front page of the Metropolitan section of Monday, July 17.The main headlines read ‘Steep rise in theft, snatching of vehicles’ and ‘117 people deprived of vehicles, cellphones’. Both these headlines are followed by a news item which claims ‘City back to normality’.
I guess our standards of normality are quite different from those of the rest of the world.
LAILA KHAN
Karachi
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