| July 28, 2006 | Friday | Rajab 1, 1427 |
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What makes us invincible?
All the president’s men
Lessons from Lords
Thoughts on 7/7 London blasts
News with a view
How tolerant are we?
Import everything
Obituaries’ section
THIS is in response to Bashir Mirza’s letter ‘Embracing Israel’ (July 25). I would like to let Mr Mirza know that Pakistan’s security is not at stake. Please rest assured that Pakistan is a nuclear- weapon state. We have to wake up to the reality that we possess one of the strongest, well-equipped and battle-tested armed forces, backed by a formidable arsenal of strategic nuclear ballistic missiles.
We are the Muslim world’s only nuclear state. It’s time we shed the timid and insecure syndrome that has marred us as a nation since we came into being. Today the position of Pakistan in the Muslim world is pivotal. When we say something, nations listen carefully.
Take North Korea for example. They fired a number of ballistic missiles (with nuclear capability but no nuclear warheads) into the Sea of Japan. The US being the world’s sole superpower failed to take any steps, diplomatic or military, in order to condemn this dangerous act that was actually a show of defiance against the western writ. It was a slap in the face of the United States’ autocratic and self-centred policies. But the primary reason no one dared to do anything was that North Korea is a nuclear state just like Pakistan.
The only difference between them and us is that they know their potential and they know how to use their strength. North Korea knew exactly what to do and when to do it. Please keep in mind that countries like the US, Israel and India can only dare to act against the countries that are less powerful than they are.
Similarly, the reason that no solid steps were taken by the US against Iran is that they were intimidated by Iran’s position as a global oil power and they knew that Iran’s leadership is capable of acutely disturbing the oil supply and thereby making things worse for them and the rest of the western world. Pakistan does not have to be in Israel’s good books to survive. Let me assure you that had Lebanon possessed nuclear weapons, Israel couldn’t have even thought of attacking it.
AKBER MOIZ
Karachi
THIS refers to the letter by Bashir Mirza. It is interesting to note that on the one hand the writer is “shocked at the brutality of Israeli attacks against Lebanon” and on the other he is advising Pakistan to have good relations with the ‘brutal Israelis’.
I do not believe in concept of Ummah, however, I do believe in the sanctity of human life and property. By bombing the civilian population and infrastructure of Lebanon, Israel is violating fundamental human rights and international laws. The barbaric bombing has killed over 400 civilians and displaced around half a million people so far .
It is appalling that the United Nations and the OIC are doing nothing to stop the aggression of Israel, while people like Bashir Mirza are advocating the need for good relations with a country like Israel for the sake of self-preservation. I would like Mr Mirza to clarify why he thinks Jordan will help us in case of any attack on Pakistan. How can Jordan help us when it was unable to defend itself from Israel in previous wars and even lost the West Bank to it? This is the time to condemn the killing of innocent civilians in Lebanon, rather than making irrational demands about taking the side of an aggressor.
A CONCERNED HUMAN
Karachi
ON July 17 I came back to Pakistan from Beirut, Lebanon. I have experienced and shared horrifying moments with the Lebanese people. There was a shortage of food and milk for children and they cry the whole night for the milk. Nobody there has slept properly for the last one week.
All the bridges, main roads, seaports and airport runways have been destroyed. Its pity what Israel is doing to the Lebanese people, who are very friendly and fun-loving. Lebanon is a beautiful country and I request people all over the world to play their role and put pressure on Israel to end this brutality. It will take years to rebuild Lebanon again, but Lebanese people did it before and they can do it again.
Please pray for the Lebanese people because they have high regard for Pakistani people and they are expecting us to help them out.
I also request the Pakistani authorities to take concrete steps and evacuate Pakistani people from Lebanon as soon as possible. My personal experience with the Pakistan embassy in Beirut was terrible. When I called them for help, they said to me: “ Yaar hum aap ki kiya madad karien, hum to khud phans gaey hain. Agar aap Syria ke raastey khud koshish ker ke nikal saktey hain to nikal jain, agey aap ki marzi”.
I managed to go to Syria and from there I came to Pakistan. Please make sure that no other Pakistani gets this type of treatment from our own embassy. They didn’t help me when I needed them.
FARHAN ZAFAR
Karachi
THIS is with reference to the news item ‘Defence being made invincible: Musharraf’ (July 4). I would like to ask some questions.
Will the invincibility of our defence ensure that every citizen is able to get a meal three times a day? Will the invincibility of the defence ensure that prices of essential commodities will not increase at regular intervals? Will the invincibility of the defence expedite the judicial process in the country? Will the invincibility of the defence eliminate corruption prevalent in society?
Will the invincibility of the defence ensure the release of thousands of bonded labour all over the country? Will the invincibility of the defence eliminate the jirga system? Will the invincibility of the defence eradicate the evil of honour killing, rape and domestic violence? Will the invincibility of the defence ensure that discriminatory laws such as the Hudood Ordinance will be repealed?
Will the invincibility of the defence ensure that there will be no street crimes? Will the invincibility of the defence ensure that no patient will die on his way to hospital because of traffic jams caused by VIP movement?
Will the invincibility of the defence ensure that there will be no loadshedding in the country? Will the invincibility of the defence ensure that the citizens of Pakistan will get free medical facilities?
Will the invincibility of the defence bring down the value of real estate so that a common can built a house on it? Will the invincibility of the defence ensure that people are not tortured in jails? Will the invincibility of the defence ensure that there will be no religious intolerance in the country?
Will the invincibility of the defence ensure equal distribution of wealth in the country? Will the invincibility of the defence ensure that stock market is not manipulated by a few investors? Will the invincibility of the defence ensure that public institutions are not sold in the name of privatization at throwaway prices?
Will the invincibility of the defence ensure that no trees will be cut down in the name of development? Will the invincibility of the defence eliminate illiteracy in the country? Will the invincibility of the defence bring in foreign investment? Will the invincibility of the defence boost industrial and agricultural sectors in the country?
Will the invincibility of the defence remove the discontent amongst the provinces? Will the invincibility of the defence ensure that no military leader will throw out a democratic government and dictate his whims? Will the invincibility of the defence ensure free and fair elections? Will the invincibility of the defence help project the image of this country as a moderate, enlightened and civilised country?
If the answer to the above questions is in the negative, we have no need of such invincibility.
ANIL KHAN LUNI
Lahore
POWER is pathologically insatiable. It is a kind of neurosis. The neurotic, however, is not a mad man since he knows where his interest lies and how best to serve it.
The ‘letter’, rather a sort of a Platonic statement by some eminent people carried by the national media (including your own esteemed paper) on July 23, is the case in point.
I’d call it Platonic for its pedantic overtone marked by a sort of a synthetic idealism sans pragmatism in Pakistan’s long and quietly accepted undemocratic tradition and history.
It needs to be realised, without being necessarily accepted, that a bad habit dies hard and a chronic addiction may well be past the cure.
As a citizen and military pensioner, I would like to congratulate the signatories on their staff level initiative and wish them the very best of luck and success.
However, I can’t help having a creeping feeling of disbelief (call it distrust if you like) about the credibility/authenticity of the authors and the soundness of their gratuitous advice to Gen Musharraf — most of whom served him loyally as his ministers , ambassadors and top mandarins.
This would be specially true of the generals appending their signatures. All of them reported to him, as indeed they should have as their army chief and supported his policies.
Although retired, they stay in enjoyment of the perks and privileges available for the holders of a three-star slot.
At least one of them, to the best of my knowledge, still holds an official/ semi-official position as a senior member of an important national commission.
Another, in his day a time, closest to Genl Musharraf, has left him heaving under the burden of a restructured and untested sub-administrative system.
The timing of the release of the letter is significant. Could that be sort of a red herring to distract the people and deviate their attention from a predominantly political movement to an essentially bureaucratic manifesto and the eminent people who alone could translate into reality?
Could that be, by a long what, with the blessings of the establishment? In the prevailing atmosphere of collective disbelief and distrust even words spoken or written in good faith arouse a great deal of scepticism about their intent and the inspiration behind those.
Should not the authors stand up and be counted for their services to the Musharraf regime officially and their personal equation with him beyond loyalty as a citizen?
If the idea is only to take some PR advantage, they should either deny it or keep a discreet silence.
BRIG (retd) A.R.SIDDIQI
Karachi
EVEN though Pakistan managed to save the first Test match at Lords, some glaring omissions have clearly exposed the working of the Pakistan Cricket Board.
Despite having the services of a regular coach in Bob Woolmer, another full-time bowling coach Waqar Younus and a part-time fielding coach Jonty Rodes, the performance of our cricket team was far below the standard of a Test match.
Too many drop catches, frequent misfielding, wides and no-balls were hallmarks of our players.
About physical fitness the least said the better. Had it not been an extraordinary effort by Muhammad Yousuf and to some extent good batting by skipper Inzamam, the English cricket team would have bundled us out well before the penultimate day of the Test match.
Now the question arises what is the use of so many coaches who have been hired at exorbitant fees and perks? It seems that in our case too many cooks are spoiling the broth. In fact, one fails to know the contribution of these coaches towards the betterment of the Pakistan cricket team.
Today the biggest problem of our cricket team is that we do not have a reliable opening pair. For this particular problem our selectors should also be held responsible for not finding good openers even in one decade.
Further, why not the PCB make Bob Woolmer to see our entire domestic season so that he may spot the talent early and groom it for the future?
One is afraid the PCB will suffer even more until it is not run by some technical personnel instead of being managed by a non-technical former diplomat.
RAFAT MAHMOOD ANSARI
Islamabad
OVER a year ago on July 7 London witnessed four bombing attacks — three on underground stations and one on the bus system. Death toll was 52 and injured were over 200.
As usual, I tuned in the BBC Urdu programme of Sairbeen on the bombing anniversary and heard church bells ringing with everybody paying homage, by observing a two-minute silence at noon, to those who had perished.
I recall that very date and time a year back when in the middle of the broadcast a BBC news reader said: “We have just known that there were some serious accidents on London underground system...”
It was mentioned in the bulletin that the same were caused by voltage shoot-up. During the programme the version was changed to say that they were bomb blasts, of which one occurred on a bus.
At the end of the programme, Prime Minister Tony Blair came on the air from G-8 summit taking place in Gleneagle and said: “Islam is not the religion of violence but peace”.
We do not understand why he chose to mention Islam at the very first briefing, knowing that no religion, what to say of Islam, preaches violence and terrorism. Only the next day the British media gave some Muslim names as suspects, without waiting for the result of investigation.
It was revealed later that a senior officer of the British foreign office had warned that Mr Blair’s policy of supporting the US ‘blindly’ in attacking Afghanistan and Iraq was causing anger among the Muslim youths of Great Britain, and caused damage in London or elsewhere like the one of 9/11 in the US.
When the finger was pointed at the UK’s Muslim youth, President Gen Musharraf rebutted and asked the KU government to put its own house in order and stop blaming Pakistan or any other Muslim country.
Surprisingly, both Prime Minister Blair and President Bush declared that such blasts and counter-attacks by coalition forces in Afghanistan and Iraq had nothing to do with the train disaster in Spain and 7/7 London blasts.
President Bush takes pride in exporting western type of democracy to the Arab and Muslim world. We do not know what do Mr Bush and Mr Blair mean by democracy? It’s on record that unprecedented demonstrations that had rocked major cities of the West against the two who had joined together to attack Iraq had no impact on them. Is there no way in their system to ascertain ‘yes’ or ‘no’ on matters of importance in which a quarter million people were likely to perish. President Bush should have gone for referendum for ‘yes’ or ‘no’ before attacking Iraq.
The reasons for the attack, in fact, were: (1) the multinational and American companies making arms and ammunition want the world in turmoil, 2) US oil barons (to which President Bush’s family belongs) wanted to have full control over Arab oil and (3) the American Zionist lobby of hate Arab Muslims.
History teaches us that every rise has its fall. In modern times we have witnessed the rise and fall of the British empire and very recently of the USSR. Both the US and the UK must take a cue from history.
S.M. ZAKERYA KAZMI
Karachi
IT was interesting to note how two leading news giants reported the same incident. The death of the UN observers in an Israeli bomb attack was reported on CNN’s website as: Air strike ‘kills UN observers’ (quotation marks by CNN), while BBC reported the same incident as: Israeli air strike kills UN observers. Regardless of the puppet on a string role played by Tony Blair, we can take some solace in the fact that the BBC is not following the lead of the most unprincipled prime minister in modern British history.
CNN, of course, ought to be deeply ashamed for ridiculing the deaths of the UN observers and having its readers wonder if the poor souls did indeed die and if so, create doubts about the fact that an Israeli bomb was indeed the instrument of their murder. The BBC needs to realise that it must stay more than just an ocean away from CNN if it wishes to have continued respect for its reporting.
WASIF M. KHAN
Lahore
THE media in some countries is providing extremely biased information in the Israel-Lebanese conflict. One such example is Fox News. This channel is only giving the Israeli side of the picture and depicting images of rocket attacks carried out by Hezbollah. However, the Lebanese side of the conflict is completely being overlooked with no account of the death of innocent civilians in Lebanon, a third of whom are children.
Such news channels should know that the viewers cannot be fooled with such propaganda. They should try to present a more unbiased outlook on the conflict instead of using the news as a means of creating propaganda.
SAMEEN ZAFAR
Lahore
THIS refers to the letter ‘How tolerant are we?’ regarding our treatment of Pakistani Jews.
May I invite your kind attention to a letter which appeared in Dawn on August 12, 2003 titled “Lady in distress” by Kunwar Khalid Yunus.
He wrote of the treatment meted out to Ms Rachael Joseph, an elderly lady of Jewish origin, who was living in Karachi in miserable conditions and deprived of her property etc. I wonder what ever became of her?
ALBERT J. GODIN
Rawalpindi
THIS has reference to Mahwish Fatima Naqvi’s letter (July 24). I fully endorse her views and add to the list provided by her.
The following items were also imported duty-free during the financial year 2005-06: wheat, fertilisers, sugar, onion, tomatoes, potatoes, garlic and ginger.
To bridge the yawning trade deficit of $12.0 billion (the projected deficit was $4.6 billion), the imports of consumables should be curtailed and indigenous production should be increased by giving liberal incentives. The economy of the country cannot stabilise if such a high negative trade balance persists due to flawed macro-economic policies.
Increasing exports in a highly competitive international market is a difficult task as the cost of production of indigenous goods is increasing due to high electricity tariffs. Pakistan had exportable surplus of wheat, fertilisers, sugar, cement, etc., in previous years. What went wrong after we imported a prime minister?
MAHAM QASIM
Lahore
YOU are doing a great job by putting Dawn on Internet, especially for Pakistanis like myself who are living far away from their country. I don’t understand why you have no section on ‘Obituaries’ Please include it. It will enable us to send timely condolences to friends and loved ones.
RASHID SHEIKH
Nottingham, UK
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