| October 31, 2006 | Tuesday | Shawwal 7, 1427 |
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Profit on savings
Hot seat
Forgiveness better than revenge
Of moon and madness
Cowasjee’s police escort
President’s interviews
Punjab University
Cure for dengue?
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
IN the Line of Fire by President Pervez Musharraf is gripping reading. One feels proud that a Pakistani has hit the top of the bestseller lists; at the same time it was greatly saddening to peruse the vivid accounts of the attacks on him.
In the prologue, he writes: When (on Dec 25, 2003) she (his wife Sehba) saw the first car roll in on its rims — spewing smoke, filled with holes, and plastered with human flesh — she started screaming. She screamed and screamed... uncontrollably and hysterically.
Also appreciable is how he tried to keep his mother from finding out on Dec 14 that he had been subjected to a terrorist attack.
However, one’s sympathies were stirred for Dr A. Q. Khan as well because President Musharraf has gone out of his way to defame him. In the chapter, ‘Nuclear Proliferation’, the hero comes out as a criminal, without a single good quality. He has also asserted that Dr Khan had brought the drawings of the centrifuges with him when he returned to Pakistan to set up the uranium enrichment programme.
The president’s defence of the acquisition of nuclear capability by us, explaining how India broke Pakistan up in 1971 and then conducted an atomic explosion in 1974, is commendable: “We needed to defend ourselves against the Indian threat .... The world and its powers relentlessly pressured us to desist, without similarly pressuring India ... I always considered it unjust.”
Let’s now consider the views and actions of Dr Khan reported in some American publications. Beforehand, it may be pointed out that ever after the West started accusing him of having stolen the centrifuge drawings from his Dutch employers URENCO, Islamabad kept denying it. What was the need for Gen Musharraf to undercut that, when even Holland had not pressed these charges after an initial trial? India and Israel keep acquiring things clandestinely but nobody acknowledges this.
The New York Times, in an article on Jan 4, 2004 had said: “Dr Khan, a fervent nationalist, has condemned the system that limits legal nuclear knowledge to the five major powers, or that has ignored Israel’s nuclear weapon while focusing on the fear of an Islamic bomb. ‘All western countries,’ he was once quoted as saying, ‘are not only the enemies of Pakistan but in fact of Islam’.”
Further, that even before Pakistan’s first test in 1998, Dr Khan and his team began publishing papers in global scientific literature on how to make and test its uranium centrifuges. He also clarified his motive in print in 1987 that he sought to pierce the clouds of West’s secrecy. Papers in ’87-’88 had even detailed how to produce the more efficient centrifuges (G2/ P2).
Obviously, it wasn’t money but ideology driving him to help other Muslim countries to develop the capability and to end the western stranglehold. That the West couldn’t accept it is another matter. Moreover, after the Indian test of 1974, he was very alarmed and wrote to prime minister Z. A. Bhutto, offering to help Pakistan start its own nuclear programme. His exemplary patriotism made him return home, in spite of having a good job and a Dutch wife.
In its cover story, “The man who sold the bomb”, the Time magazine of Feb 14, 2005 revealed that Dr Khan “donated $30 million to various Pakistani charities... and paid for the university education of (his staff members’) children.” It also noted that after the successful nuclear tests in 1998 he became more religious. A Libyan source disclosed that he claimed he was selling nuclear technology because, “We Muslims have to be strong and equal to any other country and, therefore, I want to help some countries be strong.”
His ex-colleagues told Time that following the US attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq, he slammed the West and its operations against the Muslim countries. This is indeed the stance of most of the world’s Muslims. The chastisement of America at the recent NAM summit and UN General Assembly by even non-Muslim countries vindicates Dr A. Q. Khan’s viewpoint. President Musharraf should be more mindful of the feelings of Pakistanis, who see Dr Khan as their saviour.
IMPARTIAL
Karachi
I HAD addressed you a letter (Feb 8) on the subject under reference. I appreciate the government’s response, although it was minimal and far from the expectations of four million subscribers to the NSS representing 30 million urban people living in all the cities of Pakistan.
Owing to the cutback on profits from 15 per cent to eight 8 per cent in the last four years, when inflation during the same period has been registered in the double digits yearly as per all the authentic reports covered by the print media, the result is that “since the year 2003 the outflow from the NSS scheme has been to the tune of Rs129 billion mainly because the rates of NSS certificate were reduced (Dawn report, Oct 3).”
The IMF has noticed this sharp downfall in private savings. The six-member IMF mission led by Miguel Savastano, division chief of the Middle East and Central Asia, held discussions with the authorities in the federal government and the State Bank of Pakistan for over a period of a fortnight in early September.
According to the reports published in the leading newspapers of the country, the IMF cautioned Pakistan about higher external current account deficit and has asked the authorities to enhance public savings for fiscal consolidation and to create right environment to encourage investment and increase productivity.
The IMF noted that the fiscal policy had an important role to play in bringing down the external current account deficit and addressing the external vulnerabilities.
The IMF at the conclusion of its Article IV consultation with the Pakistan government recently, in its bottom line, stressed with full force its message in these words: “It thus recommended a path of further fiscal consolidation through higher public savings”.
It is now abundantly clear that it is in the enlightened self-interest of the country, as well as of the four million average middle-class savers facing enormous economic hardship, that the prime minister should give a serious thought to restoring the original slab of 15 per cent profit to counteract at least halfway the ever-increasing inflation.
SAEED AHMED
Karachi
THIS is with reference to Dr Nighat Parveen Ali’s letter ‘Hot seat’(Oct 3). The writer from the US claimed to have a feeling of getting breath of fresh air after watching Gen Musharraf in the popular ‘Daily Show’ hosted by Jon Stewart.
As she proclaimed that the leaders in the past had not been able to speak English with confidence, but Gen Musharraf was one who jousted confidently everything in English in a ‘Daily Show’.
According to her, in the past we had had leaders who could not talk and were arrogant know-alls with their adenoidal Anglo-Indian accents. I think the writer is simply ignorant of the facts of Pakistan’s most prolific genius and all-time great and first elected prime minister Zulifikar Ali Bhutto who was not only admired as the most intelligent leader of the Third World country but was also admired by Henry Kissinger, the then former foreign minister of the US.
He enjoyed unparalleled status in the world of politics, owing to his sheer brilliance, quick wit full with natural talent, overall goodwill and a sense of hundred year’s political history of world politics. His style of working as a president and prime minister of Pakistan was simply amazing.
He possessed a photographic memory of every major and minor happening of the world affairs. He was basically a Sindhi-speaking chap from Larkana, but studied in Oxford and did his bachelor in political science from the US and later became barrister-at-law from Lincoln’s Inn, most prestigious court of Inn’s in England.
He wrote more than 11 books in his life-time and interestingly all were written in English language, including his last book from his death cell If I am assassinated. It is one of his famous books.
His overall charismatic poster and unmatched stature in the political history of Pakistan after Mohammad Ali Jinnah has still not filled the vacuum in the political spectrum of our country. His attitude was very friendly with his countrymen and his overseas world leader friends.
It was Z.A. Bhutto who played his anchor role to bring China close to the US. He was the man who gave the gift of nuclear technology to the first Muslim country in the world (Pakistan).
I still remember the words of former president of the US who said to Mr Bhutto that “if you were an American, you would have been in my cabinet.”
But the witty Bhutto replied: “Sorry sir, had I been an American, I would certainly have been in your place.” This was the confidence of the all-time great political leader.
I hope Dr Ali should first study Bhutto’s political life and events and then judge who knows more English?
QAZI NAZIM NAEEM
Hyderabad
THIS is with reference to Zubeida Mustafa’s article ‘We can do without the death rows’ (Oct 25). While the writer has a good point that the death penalty does little to deter future crime, the writer confuses the enormity of the crime, or alleged crime, in the two cases cited in the story.
In India, the death penalty would not even be an option in Mirza Tahir Hussain’s case because Hussain did not intend to commit the murder.
In American jurisprudence, the case of Mirza Tahir Hussain is best described as manslaughter, which is a much lesser crime than premeditated murder. What differentiates the two is the intent behind the act.
In case of Mirza, he never sat up nights and planned to kill the taxi driver. In case of Afzal Guru, it is not only such premeditation that invoked the death penalty, but also the fact that his crime was against a nation.
It is convenient for Pakistani writers to use the phrase ‘BJP is baying for blood’ but little do they realise that the call to execute Afzal Guru is across the political landscape in India.
To say that Afzal Guru was denied justice because he did not have a good lawyer is to be blind to the enormity of the crime he committed. Whether he is guilty of every single charge against him or not is irrelevant because he is certainly not innocent of all charges, as common sense would dictate. Terrorism is a very hard crime to prove in a court of law because the laws of most countries are designed to convict individuals of crimes committed by them, not organisations with enormous resources in time, money and sophisticated munitions.
This is being borne out clearly in the absurd charade that the Saddam Hussein trial has become. To Ms Mustafa’s point, forgiveness is a better option than revenge. In case of the taxi-driver’s family, they can do that and spare Mirza Tahir Hussain. But who will come forward to forgive a traitor?
B.K. VASAN
Chicago, USA
MUCH has been written about two prisoners on death row, namely Afzal Guru in Delhi and the British nationalist here in Pakistan, Mirza Tahir Hussain. If, according to judicial procedure, the courts have ordered death plenty to both of them after learned judges found them guilty, then they should receive the pronounced punishment.
DR ALFRED CHARLES
Karachi
IN his comment on the subject (Dawn, Oct 24) Ismail Khan has suggested the options of either going along with Saudi Arabia’s decision on moon-sighting or allowing the Ruet-i-Hilal committees at the provincial level to make decision on evidence available to them. Our inability to celebrate Eid on the same day is an indication of disunity within Pakistan.
This disunity is endemic throughout the Ummah. Saudi Arabia along with the Gulf states, Afghanistan, Libya, Tunis and Sudan celebrated Eid on Monday.
Muslims in North America and the UK went along with Saudi Arabia. Indonesia, the largest Muslim country, celebrated two Eids on Monday and Tuesday.
Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Morocco, Algeria, Oman and Malaysia celebrated Eid on Tuesday. India with the largest Muslim population is also divided with Eid being celebrated on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The inability of Muslims to celebrate its most important festival together is making Muslim nations a laughingstock of the international community.
This manifestation of disharmony encourages enemies of Islam to take full advantage of our weaknesses.
Deciding the beginning of a lunar month on sighting of moon is bound to result in variation in date of sighting at different places.
Generally, all Muslim countries have agreed that in case the moon is sighted in even one place in a country it would be applicable all over the country.
Some countries have accepting sighting in Saudi Arabia as the basis for accepting the beginning of the lunar year. Why cannot we extend this principle, agree on treating Muslims living anywhere in the world as one Ummah, and decide on sighting of moon in Makkah, which is the centre point of Islam, as the starting point of all lunar months, including Ramazan and Shawaal?
This would eliminate the controversy all over the world. Let us make a beginning in Pakistan. Others might follow soon.
JAVAID MANSOOR
Karachi
THIS is with reference to the news story, ‘Universal Islamic calendar fails’ (Oct 24).
The rejection of a universal Islamic calendar by segments of Muslims is only symptomatic of a larger issue Muslims have faced since European colonialism — adopting modernity and accepting science and technology.
This rejection of everything ‘frangi’ had serious consequences. Muslim societies missed the industrial revolution of the previous centuries.
I feel grateful for the efforts of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan that I received the benefits of his efforts, even though I did not receive my education at Aligarh Muslim University. Sir Syed helped change the then Muslim mindset of rejecting modern education.
He was vilified by the then mullahs of his time. The purpose of religion is spiritual uplifting and to create a society with equality, justice, peace, compassion and harmony.
These goals of religion are not violated by accepting science and technology. In fact, they help unite Muslims of the world. The proposed universal Islamic calendar does not alter the basic tenets of Islam.
If we fast for 29 or 30 days without controversy, we are still following the obligation of fasting. Spiritually, we will not be any different by accepting the universal calendar.
KHWAJA A. HASAN
Indiana State University,
USA
THIS is with reference to Wahid Uz Zamman’s letter (Oct 17) about Ardeshir Cowasjee’s huge police escort and his charitable attitude towards the president. I don’t want to comment on the latter, as that is a matter of opinion and Mr Zamman is entitled to his opinion. However, I would like to contest the former. Mr Cowasjee’s police escort and the light in which he talks about the president are two mutually exclusive things.
First, to set the record straight the police escort is not ‘huge’ (by Pakistani standards) and consists of one police van. One might argue that it is still a waste of resources and I would agree, but that brings me to my second point. While half the educated population is busy bashing the president, Mr Cowasjee concerns himself with real issues at the micro level which lead to real dangers. He has been informed by the police that because of the large amount of enemies he has made due to his outspoken writings, they cannot guarantee his safety unless a police mobile is stationed outside his house at all times and escorts him whenever he goes out.
It is the state’s responsibility to provide its citizens with security (Art. 9 of the Constitution - Right to Life), but when the only way the state can guarantee this is a police van, then one would be daft to reject life and security. What is one man’s ‘largesse’ is another man’s ‘security’. Would Mr Zamman rather have Mr Cowasjee hire private security guards to ensure his safety? What do we pay taxes for? Many people own private generators, hire private security guards and drive private transport. These are just the basics the state has failed to provide effectively.
Security, however, is the most important out of the three and the state must provide it at all costs. One would sincerely wish that the state was able to allocate precious resources more efficiently, but if that would mean endangering a man’s life, I would rather see them being used inefficiently.
IBAAD HAKIM
Karachi
I STRONGLY disapprove of the flexible approach of various interviewers who make President Musharraf accountable for little issues.
I feel that the president should please minimise his public appearances so that unnecessary criticism against him and his policies can be avoided.
SHAFQAT MAHMOOD
Lahore
THE Punjab University has always been known to nurture academic excellence and independent thought, but if a report in Time magazine (Oct 16) is to be believed, the student wing of the Jamaat-i-Islami is fast turning the Lahore campus into a breeding ground for Taliban-like obscuranticism.
According to the Time report, the Jamaat student leaders are even overriding the faculty administrators to determine such things as curriculum, syllabuses, and even degree programmes. They can even decide which professor stays and who goes.
A former professor of political science, Mr Hasan Rizvi, who was forced to leave, is quoted as saying: “Those who can afford to leave do so. Those who stayed, learned not to touch controversial subjects. The role of the university is to advance knowledge, but at the PU the quality of education is undermined because one group with a narrow, straight-jacketed view controls it.”
I still recall the days in 1947 when (we) Aligarh students had battled those of the Jamaat Tulaba-i-Islami, on the streets of Lahore, at a time when the Jamaat itself was vehemently opposed to the very creation of Pakistan, and had branded the Quaid-i-Azam as an apostate.
True, the Jamaat is now reconciled to Pakistan, but the extremist ideology of the Jamaat and its practice by its student wing can easily lead young minds up the garden path to extremist ideas that breed terrorist activity.
Existing laws prohibit political activity in educational institutions and if President Musharraf is indeed serious about his drive to thwart fundamentalism, then the Lahore campus is obviously a good place to start an “operation clean-up.”
S. ASIF MAJEED
Karachi
THIS is with the reference of the letter with the above-mentioned caption (Oct 23).
The writer has suggested papaya leaves as a cure for dengue fever. He also related the recipe with some research as well. I would like to know the reference of the research and state that any such research is considered authentic only if it is published in some ‘Index Journal’.
I don’t mean that the above-mentioned herbal treatment is harmful and should not be tried. I just wanted to raise the voice of caution and make the readers aware that until and unless the papaya treatment is scientifically proved, we should continue the present protocol available to us of allopathic treatments.
DR S. TANVEER AHMED
Karachi
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