| October 18, 2006 | Wednesday | Ramazan 24, 1427 |
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Muslim conquest of Spain
Yet another cricket controversy
One step forward, two back
Nobel Peace prize
Musharraf’s moderation
Divide and rule
Bookmark
Was it like this?
Loss of face at Kargil
Safe and sound
Price control
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
THIS is with reference to the letters appearing on the appointment of military VC and the issue of academic freedom as raised by Dr Manzoor Ali Isran of Shah Latif University.
The debate on military VC and academic freedom usually overlooks certain conditions which lead to authoritarian or military VCs.
The situation at Karachi is ripe for the appointment of a military vice- chancellor. Apart from the political nature of the appointment, the major reason is that in recent months the incumbent administration has been pushing the World Bank higher education reforms on the instructions of the Higher Education Commission (HEC).
The HEC is inculcating a culture of fear, nepotism and corruption.
A growing number of senior professors in various universities, including Karachi University, have realised in the last three years that in order to move into higher echelons and gain various administrative posts, awards, research grants and travel grants they have to appear as approvers of HEC policies.
The piece-meal nature of HEC policies are themselves creating an environment of corruption, nepotism, misappropriation and mismanagement — an environment suitable for hard-nosed military VCs to step in.
Those universities where these policies are resisted by students or staff are not spared and despite PhD rhetoric the HEC itself approves the name of a military brigadier as reported in Dawn (Oct 7).
Indeed military VCs should not be accepted in any varsity as they are bound to mutilate institutions, but assuming that a civilian should be preferred solely because they are not military is yet another fallacy. Universities’ vice-chancellors should be elected and answerable to the community they serve.
This was certainly not the objective of the student/ teacher resistance which was otherwise quite formidable against two former VCs of the KU, namely Abdul Wahab and Zafar Saify. But then academic freedom is not something that can be gained by state-decrees and pronouncements.
History shows freedom has to be won by a consistent struggle and recent history shows that in order to retain it, teachers and students all over Pakistan have to come up with an alternative to the World Bank-led reforms.
DR RIAZ AHMED
Department of Applied Chemistry, University of Karachi
IN his letter (Oct 2), Mr Khalid Chaudhry states that “there was a genuine justification for Muslims to conquer Spain”.
These justifications being that “the rulers had indulged in luxury, corruption and immoralities, while ignoring the masses and oppressing them”. Another justification given in his letter was that “a military officer laid his hands on a female courtier”.
If, according to the writer’s criteria, corruption, ignoring the masses and rape are enough reason to occupy a country, then he may agree that these days it is Pakistan which is in dire ‘need’ to be conquered.
He also illustrates a sugar-coated version of how the Muslims conquered Spain by pure altruism and how happy everyone was during that period.
He could also mention that under the Muslim rule there were Christian revolts as well as numerous internal fights among the Muslims themselves, some of them caused by the discriminatory treatment that Arab Muslims dispensed to their co-religionists from Syrian or North African origin.
Another interesting fact was that drinking wine was not very uncommon for Muslims even if it was not permitted. What I reveal is well documented in history books from the Muslims’ own sources. History, in general, and the Muslim period of my land, in particular, is rich and complex.
Mr Khalid Chaudhry also supports that the idea of the conquest of Spain was altruistic by suggesting that the Muslims found Europe “remarkably unattractive” where “the climate was terrible”.
Certainly this cannot be applied to Spain, where the lands of Granada, Cordoba, Valencia or Toledo became so dear to the conquerors.
Finally, I would like to express that, as most Spanish people, I find absolutely ludicrous Mr Aznar’s suggestion to ask for an apology for what Muslims did in the past (just as for the Romans or the Visigoths). But just as ridiculous is having to give thanks to Muslims for conquering Spain, especially on the grounds laid out by Mr Khalid Chaudhry. It is our history: let’s just learn from it.
ROCIO MUNUERA-LOPEZ
Surrey, UK
I HAVE been walking around all day feeling like someone has punched me in the gut and I am finding it extremely hard to recover from it. Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif have failed their drug tests.
The two cricketers are going to find it very difficult to come back from this if they are handed a two-year ban like it has been suggested in the media.
Asif was the next big thing. Shoaib, having reformed his ways, was trying to keep fit and let his on-field performances do the talking. I’m just wondering that if a fan feels like his insides have been pulled out, what must the team be going through. At the moment I honestly don’t have any expectations regarding the match against Sri Lanka.
I do hope that our team and our country will come out of this one unscathed, and that somehow the careers of these two premier fast bowlers will not be destroyed prematurely.
The PCB seems to have acted in a bit of haste by sending the two players home before the second sample was released, but this was probably to avoid any embarrassment. This will be another big test to see how the PCB handles an explosive situation with a freshman at the helm.
Something needs to be done. I hope that the board is taking all measures to ensure that we find out the truth behind this latest crisis. But what is it about the Pakistan team that draws it to one controversy after another? Like many others, just I want this issue to go away.
ADNAN KHALID MAHMOOD
Virginia, USA
IN response to my article ‘One step forward, two back’ (Oct 12), letter-writer Asaf Ali Shah (Oct 14) contends that I have misquoted the Hudood laws on the punishments for rape and adultery. I stand by what I wrote. Indeed, following normal academic practice, I had put under quotation marks all the text that had been taken directly from the Hudood legislation, whose official version may be found at: http://www.pakistani.org/pakistan/legislation/zia_po_1979/ord7_1979.html
It is evident from examining the above document that the rules of evidence for rape and adultery are exactly the same, although they are totally different crimes.
I do not think that Mr Shah can plausibly deny that women who have been raped have often been charged with adultery under the Hudood laws. He may recall the famous 1983 case of Safia Bibi, the 13-year-old blind girl who was charged with adultery after she was raped by her employer and his son.
The rapists were acquitted, while the girl suffered in torment for many years before being released from jail.
This was only the first example of the hideous cruelty of the Hudood laws.
There have been thousands more over the last quarter century. Barbaric punishments such as stoning to death and public lashings have no place in a civilised society. Those who defend such punishments do not belong to this century. Pakistan must get rid of the Hudood laws without delay.
PERVEZ HOODBHOY
Quaid-i-Azam University Islamabad
THE Nobel Peace Prize for 2006 has been awarded into two equal parts to Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank for their efforts to create economic and social development right from the grass-roots’ level.
Muhammad Yunus set up a new kind of bank in Bangladesh in 1976 to lend to the neediest, particularly women, enabling them to start small businesses without collateral. He pioneered micro-credit, a system copied in more than 100 nations from the US to Uganda.
While deciding the Nobel Peace prize the committee concluded that “lasting peace cannot be achieved unless large population groups find ways in which to break out of poverty. Micro-credit is one such means. Development from below also serves to advance democracy and human rights.
Muhammad Yunus has shown himself to be a leader who has managed to translate visions into practical action for the benefit of millions of people, not only in Bangladesh, but also in many other countries. Loans to poor people without any financial security had appeared to be an impossible idea.
From modest beginnings three decades ago, Yunus has, first and foremost through Grameen Bank, developed micro-credit into an ever more important instrument in the struggle against poverty.
Grameen Bank has been a source of ideas and models for the many institutions in the field of micro-credit that have sprung up around the world. Every single individual on earth has both the potential and the right to live a decent life. Across cultures and civilisations, Prof Yunus and Grameen Bank have shown that even the poorest of the poor can work to bring about their own development.
Micro-credit has proved to be an important liberating force in societies where women in particular have to struggle against repressive social and economic conditions. Economic growth and political democracy cannot achieve their full potential unless the female half of humanity participates on an equal footing with the male.
Prof Yunus’s long-term vision is to eliminate poverty in the world. That vision cannot be realised by means of micro-credit alone. But Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank have shown that, in the continuing efforts to achieve it, micro-credit must play a major part.
Grameen Bank has reversed conventional banking practice by removing the need for collateral and created a banking system based on mutual trust, accountability, participation and creativity. At Grameen Bank, credit is a cost-effective weapon to fight poverty and it serves as a catalyst in the overall development of socio-economic conditions of the poor who have been kept outside the banking orbit on the ground that they are poor and hence not bankable.
Prof Yunus, the founder of Grameen Bank and its managing director, reasoned that if financial resources can be made available to the poor people on terms and conditions that are appropriate and reasonable, “these millions of small people with their millions of small pursuits can add up to create the biggest development wonder.”
As of May, it has 6.61 million borrowers, 97 per cent of whom are women. With 2,226 branches, Grameen Bank provides services in 71,371 villages, covering more than 100 per cent of the total villages in Bangladesh. Grameen Bank’s positive impact on its poor and formerly poor borrowers has been documented in many independent studies carried out by external agencies, including the World Bank, the International Food Research Policy Institute and the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies .
SYED A. MATEEN
Karachi
GENERAL Musharraf has called for every Pakistani to embrace ‘moderation’. As the head of state and Chief of the Army Staff, it is Gen Musharraf’s responsibility to lead the nation toward the moderation with actions and deeds. It is a fact that the majority of Pakistanis are tolerant and have been giving their verdict in favour of liberal moderate political parties. It is only during Gen Musharraf’s rule that religious parties have achieved unprecedented political success and managed to enter mainstream politics.
Gen Musharraf claimed in his book that he created the PML (Q) on the advice of his friends. If he has now converted to the cause of moderation, he should patronise the liberal political parties. He has to get rid of all the laws that promote extremism and exploit the religious feelings of people. He has to regulate and reform the madressahs where extremism is incubated and establish a uniform system of education.
It is a known fact that the policies of the PML-Q government run counter to the general’s liberal and progressive ideas. The ruling PML-Q and its main leadership is ideologically closer to the conservative MMA than other liberal progressive political parties which are coalition partners in the government.
To save the Quaid-i-Azam’s Pakistan it is imperative that the state stop discriminating against citizens on the basis of their faith. Only Gen Musharraf has the power to do this with the backing of the army.
S. T. HUSSAIN
Lahore
THIS refers to Javed Naqvi’s column ‘Divide and rule’ (Oct 16). The principles of governing are no different, whether it is Chanakya or King Solomon.
When Mr Naqvi rages against Brahmins, I am reminded of a story about the temple built by Solomon (but started by his father David) in Jerusalem.
According to the story, it was King Solomon’s Mother Queen Bathsheba who urged King Solomon to complete the temple.
David was puzzled at this and asked her: ‘Why would we want to confine our God Who is a nomadic God, Who has been wandering with us and is happy to be under a tent since the time of Abraham?’
She replied: ‘It is not to contain our God that we build the temple but to contain the priests!’ The temple priest Nathan was instrumental in making Solomon the king over and above the objections of the rightful heir - the first born of David, Adonijah.
Priests, whether they are Brahmins or mullahs, have always been very clever people and manipulated politics. Just look at Ram Jethmalani, coincidentally a Brahmin, who is praised by Mr Naqvi. By the way, Mr Naqvi has the order wrong — it is ‘saama, daana, bhedha, danda’ (violence always being the last resort in India); also, it is ‘daan’ and not ‘daam’. ‘daana’ means charity (or bribe if you are cynical) and ‘daam’ in Hindi means ‘price or cost’ which would also work in this case.
To Mr Naqvi, “saama, daana, bhedha, danda” have been the instruments of politics long before Machiavelli discovered them and certainly before the Brits came to India. So if Chanakya codified it, it does not make him evil as your article insinuates.
It is always the way of politics and to think otherwise is to be naive.
BK Vasan
Chicago, Illinois, USA
A LOT has been written about the president’s book, which was launched by the author in the US with great fanfare.
There are other writers like R.K. Rowling and Bob Woodward who manage to write one book a year after burning a lot of midnight oil.
It is hard to imagine a person holding two important offices and deeply engrossed in the war on terror could find time to write an autobiography with vivid details and chronographs.
It has been observed that since the skeletons were moved from the cupboard to the open, critics are putting every chapter and phrase under analysis, raising a barrage of questions.
The president may consider writing another book to settle the rattling of the skeletons which could become another best-seller.
RAFI ADAMJEE
Karachi
I WAS a kid when Germany invaded France in May 1940. I have only read about it in books and often wondered what it was like, with Reinhardt and von Kleist’s tanks — part of Rundstedt’s Army Group B — standing bumper to bumper and waiting for the word go.
Most of those who actually saw or participated in that action on either side are dead. But for those like me who have only read about it, I suggest a visit to a fantastic site in Karachi.
The place is the roundabout near Islamia College roundabout on M.A. Jinnah Extension Road, with water tankers standing for their turn to make a breakthrough to the hydrant nearby.
This road has been under construction since June 2005 and is still under construction. One half of the road is closed, the other half is open to both up and down traffic. But even on this one track, you can see water tankers standing bumper to bumper – quite like what it was on the eve of invasion of France.
The visit must be after Iftar, and you will have a glimpse of what wehrmacht was like in May 1940.
JAMIL PANJWANI,
Karachi
AFTER going through the above-captioned article by Kuldip Nayar (Oct 14) and many other articles by Indians on the use of air power by India during the Kargil conflict, one gets an impression that the Indians did not use the air force due to their own reasons. But this is not the fact.
They used the air force very well and penetrated deep into Pakistani territory in the initial days of the conflict.
But after two of their aircraft were shot down by Pakistan — of which one pilot was made prisoner of war and released later on by Pakistan as a goodwill gesture - the Indian air force never dared cross the LoC during the rest of the conflict. This is the fact.
MAJ(r) MUSARRAT KHALIQUE
Karachi
I WAS bewildered to hear President Musharraf’s remark that he was not an easy target.
He was responding to a question from a journalist regarding the rockets found near the presidential house recently.
He made this remark not once, but twice with a smirk on his face.
My advice to the president would be to fear Allah, and seek His forgiveness for such blatant arrogance.
ANONYMOUS
Canada
THE other day my neighbourhood fruit vendor informed me that he was fined Rs5,000 for overcharging. He was quite honest to add that he had no intentions of bearing this cost and the same would be borne collectively by his customers.
One can recall action against meat sellers in Ramazan some two years back, which led to a permanent increase in meat prices by 50 per cent.
It shows that price control is a charade and consumers are additionally burdened by contributing to fill the pockets of price controllers in addition to hoarders.
The only mechanism to control price is through customer resistance which we are unfortunately not able to initiate.
SHARJEEL JAWAID
Karachi
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