| August 13, 2006 | Sunday | Rajab 17, 1427 |
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Bomb scare at Heathrow
Court action against police
A bad experience
US values and culture
‘Islamic fascists’
Dug-up roads
Security for army officer
Human trafficking
Offensive defensive
Living conditions
Readers are requested to restrict their comments to a maximum of 400 words. We reserve the right to edit letters for reasons of clarity and space. Letters, including those by e-mail, should carry the complete postal address of the sender. The views expressed in these columns do not necessarily reflect the views of the newspaper.—Editor
THE world yet again is witnessing another brutal act of aggression, but this time by Israel. It has been several weeks since the non-stop bombardment on Lebanese territory by Israeli forces, which has killed more than 550 innocent people.
Worse is the fact that Israel is being openly supported by America (which ironically calls itself the saviour of freedom). The US government is constantly supplying weapons to Israel, which not only proves their support to Israel’s act of aggression but also the crystal clear intentions of the US government to re-draw the map of the Middle East and to wipe out any resisting force coming its way. For this very purpose Israel has always given its full support to the US and will continue to do so because they both carry the same goal, which is to have power over the Middle East.
Is it justified? Can anyone or any government justify US support to the Israeli government in killing civilians in such great numbers each day? The US government wants to wipe out terrorism. But who are the terrorists, ‘innocent civilians’? The death of women and children the other night has been quoted as “the bloodiest single attack during Israel’s 19-year-old war on Hezbollah.”
Was this not an act of terror? Why does the US government keep allowing this terror to continue when it actually has the power to stop such aggression? Rather it wants Hezbollah to surrender. What one fails to understand is that when an act of terror happened on the US territory, i.e., when the World Trade Centre was destroyed (which killed many innocent and unarmed civilians), the US government hit back on the culprits on the basis of ‘revenge’. Now if this was justified, then so are the attempts of the Lebanese to protect their government, their people, their territory and, most importantly, their freedom.
All human beings have the right to protect themselves as well as their rights. And if a force denies them their own basic fundamental rights, then naturally they will rebel. If these words are true in their meaning, then Israel is not at all justified in its attack on Lebanon. This act of aggression by Israel is, more than anything else denying innocent civilians the right to live and this must stop. The United Nation Security Council must intervene and act powerfully because each day wasted is taking lives of innocent men, women and children.
I urge all to stand up to this unjust and brutal act of aggression by Israel.
MEHVEEN ZAHEER
Karachi
THIS is in reference to Dr Omar T. Atiq’s article ‘Why we visited Israel’ (Encounter, July 29).As chairman of the American Muslim Peace Initiative (AMPI), the writer led a group of Pakistani-American doctors on a visit to Israel.
Dr Atiq writes: “We wanted to have first-hand information about the region, its people and the conflict”. Doctors, I presume, are educated people. Have these educated people not read history? Do they not read and watch the news every day? Did they have to travel to the Middle East to learn that Israel has been occupying Palestine since 1948? Do they not know that the Palestinians are fighting for the liberation of their country? Do they not know that the Israelis are fighting to keep the occupied lands? Even the common uneducated man in Pakistan knows these things without visiting Israel.
In the writer’s own words, what his group found was that “Palestinians were living under miserable conditions and the Israelis felt insecure”. Don’t these educated people know that anyone occupying someone else’s homes would naturally feel insecure?
Furthermore, the request that the AMPI made to the US, EU, OIC and the UN is purely a fool’s fantasy. The last three cannot do anything. Only the US counts. The AMPI wants the US to “help achieve an immediate ceasefire, release of political prisoners, repatriation of displaced persons, reconstruction of the destroyed infrastructure and a permanent negotiated solution”.
Have these doctors ever heard about Bush and Condi? Even a fool knows what is going on and what is going to happen. We don’t have to be in America and visit Israel to know all this. I feel it was a waste of time, energy and money. Their money could have been better spent on the education of some Palestinian orphans.
SALMAN PERVAIZ
Peshawar
I WAS approached by Dr Jon Duckworth, my colleague in the University of Tennessee at Memphis, who said to me that “on behalf of one American, myself, I would like to convey my gratitude to Pakistan for helping to abort the planned attacks on US airliners travelling from the UK to the US which would have resulted in a terrible loss of innocent lives”.
I would like to convey these sentiments to my beloved homeland Pakistan. Indeed it would have been disastrous if innocent lives were lost because of the criminal acts of a few. Perhaps it is time to remind all the world leaders, yet again, that without a just resolution to the world’s problems - particularly the Middle East issue - the world will continue to see such acts of desperation and terror.
NADEEM ZAFAR, MD
Memphis, USA
I WOULD like to congratulate Pakistani intelligence for having caught a Briton linked to Al Qaeda who was allegedly involved in the plot to commit mass murder in the United Kingdom. Well done, Pakistan.
But what about the terrorism within Pakistan? Motor vehicles are being snatched at gun-point while many innocent people are killed on the streets of Pakistan every day. Who are the terrorists that open fire in a crowded place and then vanish into thin air? The British people took a sigh of relief as a plot against them has been unfolded before it could take some shape. Meanwhile, the people of Pakistan, especially Karachiites, have no hope of such relief. Where is Pakistani intelligence when it comes to protecting its own people? It is sad to see that as Pakistan puts smiles on the faces of British and American people, its own people are suffering. I wish we could eradicate the filth out of our country. I wish our authorities were as efficient in catching local culprits as they are in catching international terrorists.
Dr M. SHOAIB H. SIDDIQUI
Leeds, UK
THE recent plot involving planes, as unearthed by UK and Pakistani intelligence officials, seems to be a ploy to divert the attention of the public from Lebanon where Israel is allowed to carry out air raids in a bid to terrorise innocent residents so that they will rise against Hezbollah.
If Osama bin Laden acknowledges the London plot, then it is clear that the Al Qaeda network is a sister operation of the CIA as it only comes to life when the CIA directs them to take action. It is surprising that the authorities managed to catch the culprits so quickly, unless full details of the operation were disclosed to authorities by Al Qaeda.
While the world is pondering over the alleged terrorists in London and Islamabad, Israel continues to fly more planes over Beirut.
AYAZ AHMAD
Rawalpindi
IT is heartening to see the Supreme Court of Pakistan taking actions against high-ranking police officers who are allegedly involved in extra-judicial killing of an innocent worker, Rasool Bux Brohi. Extra-judicial killing has been a norm for the police in the interior of Sindh and they always get away with it.
This time the Supreme Court did not let it go unnoticed and took action against the culprits. I salute these judges for such action. There is still a possibility that the police can get away with it by pressuring the victim family to get into some kind of arrangements, or by trying to find some loopholes in the law. The police indulge in extra-judicial killing for many reasons and one of them is head money and others include saving the skin of those police officers and influential persons who are party to these criminal acts. If a criminal is caught alive (that is usually the case and they are killed afterwards) and the case goes to court, it will unmask many so-called respected faces.
Having said this, it must be appreciated that there are some honest police officers who are working day in and day out for the betterment of society.
Many alleged criminals want to shun their criminal life and want to be tried under due process of law, but they do not surrender because if they do, the police would kill them. Being a friend of an honest police officer, I have seen people coming to surrender to this officer because he is known for his honesty and respect of law and they knew they would be tried under due process of law and won’t be killed extra-judicially.
I feel proud of our courts when I see such things happening and people who are considered above the law are taken to task. This really gives me a ray of hope that we are moving towards a just society and unfortunately, this movement has not been initiated by rulers but by our respected judges.
SHAKEEL NIZAMANI
Stephenville, NL,
Canada
I AM leaving for the US next month for undergraduate education at Princeton University. I have never failed an examination — never, that is, until recently. The Clifton drivers’ licence issuing authority office is one of the most corrupt and disorganised departments I have ever witnessed.
I found a sub-officer, I was assigned to, filling out the answers to the test for a young man himself. He signed and stamped it and sent him off with a reassuring smile.
On the other hand, he failed me even despite all correct answers. When I pointed out that he was mistaken in marking me wrong, showing him the reference booklet, he was angry and quick to point out his 27 years’ experience (and the fact that I was not even 27 years old).
When I told him it was all simply a matter of right and wrong, he got angry and told me that with that sort of attitude I would never get a licence.
On the next table another officer, made an offer to my sister: ‘Pay me a thousand rupees and I’ll give you your licence immediately.’ Later an ‘agent’ outside the office told us that no one is meant to get a licence unless they pay extra or come through high-level contacts.
No matter how many times I take that test I will always fail. By choosing the right path, however, I have passed a test far more subtle and far more exalted.
I am patriotic and plan to return to serve Pakistan after my education abroad. But incidents like these shake my resolve.
WAQAS JAWAID
Karachi
APROPOS of the rejoinder by ‘Another Pakistani’ (Aug 4), I won’t be cynical or subjective but admit to the correctness of some of the correspondent’s arguments. However, we must consider the great disparity in the prevalence in America and Pakistan of the problems noted in my letter of July 17. Some examples follow:
- Alcohol-related accidents are the leading cause of death among young people aged 15-24 in the US. These are almost non- existent here.
- The figures for rapes on American campuses show that in 90 per cent of the cases either the rapist or the victim or both had been drinking.
- As far as drugs are concerned, heroin was virtually unknown over here until the early 1980s. Likewise, other drugs weren’t so common. The Cold War clash between the West and the erstwhile Soviet Union in Afghanistan produced what I would call the “weapons of social destruction” (WSD) like guns and drugs, which proliferated in the region. But, the major consumers and the markets of these drugs are still in the West.
- An American psychiatrist has been honest enough to acknowledge: “The United States has been the most chemically (i.e., intoxicants’) dependent country in the history of the world.” Furthermore, a British politician lamented recently about UK: “We’re living in a country where drug abuse has been allowed to eat away like a cancer at the heart of our society. Drug and methadone dependency have reached epidemic proportions...” (Dawn, The Review, June 15-21). There could hardly be a greater indictment than this, yet we have Pakistanis who are resolutely defending these countries and making their problems look trivial.
I do agree with him there is more respect for human life in the West, but not for the Muslims (and other coloured people) as we have seen so clearly in Palestine, Afghanistan, Iraq and Lebanon. However, this is by no means scarce in Pakistan as evidenced by the citizens’ response to last October’s earthquake and the concern for the victims of natural disasters or wars in many parts of the world. Maulana Edhi is currently in Lebanon to provide succour to the devastated people and help bury their dead.
Mr Kofi Annan and other visitors had praised us during visits after the temblor. To give one example of tsunami relief work, a Pakistan navy ship saved the lives of hundreds of victims of many nationalities in December 2004 around the Maldives, which it was the first to reach before even being requested to do so. These had included 30 French citizens, including the cabinet secretary of a ministry. Upon his return to France, the gentleman “praised the high degree of professionalism and the generosity of the Pakistan navy”. As a result, the French government bestowed a coveted award (Knight of the Order of Merit) on two of our naval officers (Dawn, The Review, July 13-19).
The overpopulation and poverty in most countries of Asia, Africa and South America, not just in Pakistan, have discounted the worth of life somewhat. Nevertheless, we must not abandon the values imparted by the Holy Prophet (PBUH) and reflected in his sayings such as: “Feed the hungry and visit the sick, and free the captive, if he be unjustly confined. Assist any person oppressed whether Muslim or non-Muslim.”
Considering the American way of life ill-suited for the Muslims doesn’t mean one hates the Americans. There are many good people amongst them or one wouldn’t have made memorable friendships.
A PAKISTANI
Karachi
I AM not Muslim, but I am deeply ashamed and outraged by the recent terminology used by President Bush. He has repeatedly used the term ‘Islamic fascists’ to characterise Arabs and Muslims who resist U.S policies in their homelands.
This description is unfounded and untrue. It is exactly the type of language that Bush said in July that he regretted using in the past. It is exactly this type of irresponsible rhetoric that inflames hatred for our people abroad. It is this terminology that places in jeopardy the many, many ordinary Muslims who are US citizens, or who live here and contribute to the mosaic of our society.
Shame on this irresponsible rhetoric and shame on anyone who espouses it. It is fundamental in our Constitution and in our way of life that we accept religious differences and that we do not have any established, government-sponsored religion. When will we awaken from this nightmare and be true to our founding principles?
RUTH A. GIBSON
Akron, Ohio
THE first downpour in the city created a havoc for road users. Every dug-up portion sank after rain. Only one road from Mukka Chowk to Gulshan-i-Iqbal through Yasinabad had six vehicles plunged into two to three feet deep backfilled trenches. How this can happen? It is time the relevant departments should be taken to task.
The method of backfilling of excavated roads is very clearly specified in any of the tenders, whether issued by the city government or others.
The backfilling is always supposed to be done in layers and compacted with watering. The contractors normally charge these items likewise.
We have seen everywhere in the case of roads that this is not followed. A tractor is hired to backfill the dug-up space. A heap of mud is made and the rest is left for the road users to do.
It may be a matter of least importance for the city government but those affected has to pass through extreme mental torture along with financial involvement just because of the negligence of a few sitting at places where they don’t deserve to be.
DILAWAR HUSAIN
Karachi
I WAS working in the Combined Military Hospital, Palandri, Azad Jammu Kashmir. It was some time in 1950 that General Gracey, Commander-in-Cheif of the Pakistan Army, along with General Ayub, who was to take over from him, came there.
They came in one jeep; there was no one else with them. They had lunch with us, which was rather good.
General Gracey took out a bottle of antacid from his bag, drank a portion of it saying he had to do something to down the heavy food.
They walked around the tented hospital and left in the same jeep without any guards.
DR G.N. BAJWA
Lahore
THIS refers to the letter by Mr Abdul Samad from Karachi (July 31). Let me assure him on behalf of the director-general, FIA, that the question of demanding money from deportees does not arise. The 78 deportees recently brought from Spain are mostly from central Punjab who had left for Guinea and then from there were transported to Spain through agents/facilitators based both in Pakistan and in Guinea.
The FIA has identified these human smugglers and is in the process of arresting the culprits and prosecuting them. We would like to inform the citizens of Pakistan that deportation of Pakistanis from Europe on account of illegal migration has reduced by more than 50 per cent during the current year. This is due to firm immigration control and sustained action against human trafficking.
TARIQ KHOSA
Adl DG, FIA
Islamabad
THIS refers to Krip Punja’s letter (Aug 1). He Writes:”Let us not forget where the Kargil infiltrators came from.”
The answer is simple if Mr Punja can reply to this question: Where did the Siachin infiltrators come from in 1984? The difference being that they are still there but the Kargil heroes were forced to withdraw under US pressure.
SAFIR A. SIDDIQUI
Karachi
THIS refers to the story on Dawn front page entitled ‘Endangered Leo bound for Bronx” (Aug 8).
The deteriorating living conditions in the city of Karachi, including rain playing havoc with our lives, daily traffic jams and massive power breakdowns, one can only envy the snow leopard who will now enjoy state of the art facilities at Bronx Zoo. Best of luck to you Leo and please pray for us.
AAMIR SIDDIQUI
Karachi
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