| November 18, 2006 | Saturday | Shawwal 25, 1427 |
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Women’s rights bill
Moment of truth
Population explosion
Verdict on Saddam
Rooting out violent ideologies
Murder most foul
We need the army
Real champion
Javed Miandad
Incorrect voters’ list
Open sewer
Holidays galore
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 Eric Margolis’s article ‘Chinese loans for the US’ (Nov 12). Mr Margolis is a world renowned strategy analyst and commentator, and his pieces are read and appreciated in Pakistan and abroad.
But the viewpoint that he has taken in this piece has an equally strong opposite view. China is flooded with hot foreign money in the shape of direct foreign investment, and Chinese Central Bank is buying incoming US dollars and with that money US government Treasury Bills.
One way is to look at it is as Mr Margolis does, that China is helping keep the US economy running smoothly even with huge budget and foreign trade deficit.
The opposite view is that the US government has been able to retain and even build other countries’ confidence on US economy, which is why other central banks are buying US dollars and USD-based financial assets.
In other words, by buying US dollars, China is giving a vote of confidence to the way in which US economy is being run. Without this vote of confidence, the low US saving and high spending rates are just not sustainable.
When euro was launched, many people had said that it would snatch the ‘king currency’ status from US dollar, but so far the global confidence in US economy is holding its ground.
For the past many years economists have been warning Americans about their low saving rate and excessive spending habits because of which the
US government is running huge fiscal and foreign trade deficits.
But the whole world seems to believe that the US would somehow manage away the perceived troubles.
Secondly, the large US dollar and US treasury reserves that many Asian and European economies are piling are actually going to ensure that if US dollar were to ever start depreciating, squaring up any US interest rate rise, these countries will be worst hit, as the value of their USD-based holdings would fall. So, would these countries, China included, ever let the confidence in US economy fall?
The Bush government tried its best to wane global confidence in US dollar, but amazingly China added more than $700 billion to its reserves, India some $130 billion, Pakistan $13 billion, to name a few.
So who says Bush was able to ruin US economy, turning a US budget surplus to a huge deficit, but look what the global economies thought about US dollar and US treasuries? That one day the US dollar will lose its charm is some economists’ pipe dream.
M. ASIM MAQBOOL
Karachi
KUDOS to the government: not only is this a monumental occasion for Pakistan but this also shows that finally the people will not tolerate warped and twisted images of Islam projected by our “religious leaders.” A great weight, it seems, has been lifted from the women of Pakistan for they now don’t have to hide behind immoral clauses and be subject to ridiculous edicts. A great day indeed.
As for those who say that this is a dark day in history, shame on them. The darkest days were those when such people endorsed the fact that a woman must produce four witnesses who say she was raped and failing to do that be jailed. Dark days indeed.
FAHD FEROZ
Texas, USA
I WOULD like to congratulate the National Assembly for voting to amend the country’s Shariat laws on rape and adultery. Many congratulations to President Musharraf for this glorious achievement. He has earned the hearts of millions of poor voiceless Pakistani women.
More such laws and amendments are needed to provide the long-awaited justice to the Pakistani women. Maulana Fazlur Rehman and the likes think such an act will turn Pakistan into a free-sex zone. Such statesmen are disgraceful to the whole nation.
FAHIM KAZI
Massachusetts, USA
NO sane person could be against protection of women’s rights. After all he/she is son or daughter of a great woman. However, while Musharraf is trying to pretend to be the champion of women’s rights, let us not forget the following:
Under the new laws the rapist can be sentenced to jail for one day only as the maximum punishment for the rapist is 25 years while the minimum is not mentioned. This would allow the rich and influential to get off the hook easily and many people will be forced to take the law in hand to punish the rapist
The new laws are thus not pro-woman but against woman and her family. In Islam the rapist would be killed, period, which is much more humane to the victim and society and would put a very powerful control over potential rapists.
If the president had genuine concern for women, he would have tried to abolish prostitution and stopped the vulgar culture and programmes which lead to rape and abuse of women. Both PPP and Nawaz League displayed their hypocrisy by voting for the bill or remaining silent.
Islam is the best protector of women’s rights. There is a genuine need to bring sincere and practical laws based on Islam to protect woman at all levels throughout the country.
PROF (DR) ANWARUL HAQUE
Islamabad
THE article by Akhtar Payami entitled ‘Bangladesh’s moment of truth’ (Nov 4) was excellent.
I was struck by the two following assertions in the article identifying the differences between the parties:
“Begum Khaleda Zia claims that it was her husband who waged a war against Pakistan army and liberated the country. It is also said that General Ziaur Rahman made the first proclamation in Chittagong about the creation of Bangladesh.
“On the other hand, Sheikh Hasina is the daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman who remains the father of the Bengali nation. The policies pursued by the two ladies are poles apart.
“While Sheikh Hasina would like to have near-friendly relations with India, Begum Zia would have a confrontational attitude. The foreign policies of the two politicians may form the main planks of their election campaign.”
Our friends are in high positions in both parties. At a party in Dhaka where many from both parties were present, I inquired what if any were differences in political philosophies between the two parties. The points above were stated (in so many words) as the ‘only’ differences!
The first is a politics of ‘corpses’ with little meaning to present-day Bangladesh. Though the second is important since India is a giant that surrounds Bangladesh, it will remain a persistent divide depending upon how India treats Bangladesh.
However, the current political crisis has nothing to do with either. It is both a failure of the modern democratic process of power transfer (as seen in the US, Mexico, etc.), and arrogant, selfish, short-sighted, violence-prone, corrupt (I am running out of adjectives) mafia-like power grab for territory.
No one knows how it will come out, but the worst outcome will be reverting to another army rule.
OMAR HUDA
USA
DESPITE the tremendous efforts made by the government and NGOs, Pakistan’s population is increasing at an alarmingly rate, urban areas especially are getting more congested day by day owing to the influx of people from villages and suburbs.
Lahore is one of the cities currently experiencing this problem. This has resulted in extreme traffic congestion, especially during rush hours in the morning and the evening. A great deal of inconvenience caused by heavy traffic can be seen on the canal side road which starts from the PU Campus bridge. Daily, there is an accident which causes a severe traffic jam. Now in order to solve this problem, the government is polluting the environment by depletion of trees for extending the roads.
I need not put down the impact of having the trees removed from Lahore, as we all are well aware of this. In my opinion, this is not the right solution to the problem. The rate at which the traffic is increasing means that after a couple of years these extended roads would also not cater to the heavy traffic load. What will the government then do?
There is a need to formulate a long-term policy to effectively deal with this problem. I would like to suggest that as a part of this policy both the public and private educational institutions should be made liable by the government to provide special transport services to their students. This would reduce traffic congestion during peak hours.
Moreover, the government can also regulate the number of cars that a family can keep. Being a part of civic society, we should consider this matter seriously.
HASSAN MOHIUDDIN
Lahore
SADDAM Hussein of Iraq is being punished for decades by the most powerful democracy of the time called the United States. In 1991, US-led forces began aerial assault of Iraq to salvage Kuwait.
Iraq’s infrastructure was destroyed, followed by sanctions which resulted in sufferings to hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children.
Despite the targeted ruination of Iraq for such a long military action, the appetite of devastation did not die down.
The US kept its hunt on; this time looking for “weapons of mass destruction” in the arsenals of Iraq. None were found, yet the myth survived and Iraq was attacked by the US and its European allies.
The entire old civilisation of Babylon was destroyed. The dynasty of Saddam was eliminated, even his statues were dusted in earth at the pleasure of great conquerors. It was 2003.
On a plea of a false theory of possession of weapons of mass destruction a great civilisation was obliterated. The Kurd ruler of Iraq was taken prisoner with his every possession as hostage.
All the assets of the ill-fated country were confiscated. Saddam was humiliated at every nook and corner of his country.
History is silent about a parallel of chasing the death of a head of a state for such a long period and with such persuasion. Even, Genghis Khan, the Great Earth Shaker, did not go to that extent.
Saddam’s punishment should have ended when the country had fallen to the invaders in 2003. To hang him to death is to stretch the ends of justice rather too far.
A.Q. ANJUM
Rawalpindi
IN your editorial, ‘Fighting terorism’ (Nov-13) you sketched out a very brief account of the rise of ideology of violence in the name of religion by dint of Osama bin Laden’s terrorist organisation Al Qaeda and its infiltration in many Muslim societies, including Pakistan.
An ideology, as is understood in scholarly terms, is a system of widely shared ideas, structured beliefs, and ideals accepted as a truth by a particular group of people. The terrorist ideology propounded by Osama, you were very right in saying, has been chiselled in the minds of many Muslims, including those who grew up in the relatively secular western societies, partly because of the miserable condition of the Muslim world and partly because of the exploitation of Quranic teachings by the miscreants.
You said, to root out this ideology, which is in the interest of our own country and due to which we have already suffered a lot, instead of using force the real task should be handed over to teachers, intellectuals and ulema. As only an ideology can alter another ideology, so we would have to look whether the arguments used by militants to justify their acts as a work of God have any basis in the Holy Quran.
Obviously their assertions are vague and have no basis in Islam, but by using our madressahs and mosques where no one was there to stop them from their diabolical indoctrination they carried out their operations successfully. And for us it is by using the same means which the extremists used — the mosques and seminaries — and in addition through education terrorists could be effectively dealt with.
Now when due to them, Pakistan has become a land of infernal nuisance, stern measures have to be taken immediately to stop further bloodshed in the name of jihad. But it should be remembered violent treatment of them would only result in violent reactions. To defeat them it is important that the state and the people, especially the teachers and ulema, would have to work in unison.
The state through mass media should discourage the youngsters from falling into the trap of violent ideologies, the dichotomy in our education system where madrassahs impart education in a militant mode and the modern schools engender scepticism must be eliminated, our mosques should not be allowed to become a breeding ground of sectarianism. Unless the problem is not approached in this manner, it would be very difficult for anyone to save us from the effects of such ideologies.
NAUMAN YOUNIS LODHI
Rawalpindi
THE president says they were all militant who died in the Bajur attack and were being monitored for six to seven days, even then they cannot be murdered. This accounts for extra-judicial killings as miscreants were not arrested and tried in the court of law.
What if the same style was adopted within the cities? Sir, please stop fighting an unjustified war to appease your master’s, at the expense of our blood, just look around the world, one sees war on terror as war against Muslims because only Muslims are being killed all around the globe. Only because our rulers are their slaves.
REHAN UL HAQ
Sharjah, UAE
REFERENCE letter ‘We need the army’ (Nov 12), the ‘ostrich-like’ points presented by Mr Faisal Jan are like a slap on the faces of about 150 million civilians of Pakistan who are toiling night and day to pay for the extravagant lifestyle of our uniformed people ‘in the name of security’.
As far as helping in floods and earthquakes is concerned, these people do this at a very high cost. Their take-home salaries may be low but the prices of plots in DHAs and cantonments are not.
SAIFUDDIN KAMRAN
Karachi
A FEW months back I was invited to a dinner at Karachi Club. When I was parking my car I saw somebody leaving the Club on a motorbike. To my utter astonishment, he was the ex-world amateur champion of snooker Mohammad Yousuf. I went running to meet the celebrity and in sheer excitement paid my tribute to the little master.
The man who ruled the world impressed me through his extremely humble attitude. He made me feel as if I was the world champion and he was a fan. On his departure I was stunned by his polite nature and down-to-earth attitude.
No doubt, champions live in the hearts of people. My heartiest congratulations to Mohammad Yousuf on winning the seniors event of world amateur snooker championship in Jordan.
YASAR LODI
Karachi
I AM writing in response to the news that Javed Miandad’s name was ignored from the list of players who have been invited by the PCB to one of its seminars.
It is a big shame that Miandad’s name was ignored. Whatever the PCB or Pakistan’s cricket is today, Miandad has a very big role in it and no one, including Nasim Ashraf and his staff, can write him off like that.
The typing error committed by the PCB staff (per Mr Ashraf) is like missing out the bride’s family’s name from the valima invitation list.
SAFDAR AKBARI
Waterloo, Ontario
THE number of voters in old lists of Tharpkar district was 455,105. However, in the recently prepared voter’ lists the total number of voters has been shown as 387,937 and the same fact shows that instead of increasing, the number of voters has decreased (68,000), which creates doubts about the correctness of the list.
When we asked the local election commission, the official asserted that in the old list of the district a good number of double or fake voters were enlisted, and the list prepared recently is correct.
Although fewer voters have been enlisted overall in the district, interestingly enough about 4,000 more voters have been enlisted in Mithi town and the number of voters in several other villages has been doubled. A fact that is established here is that the PPP has always won in the Mithi city.
Another fact that has emerged is that in the new voter list NA-229, Tharparkar, has 180,000 voters but in a by-election Arbab Zakaullah (MNA) had polled 194,000 votes and in another by-election (Shaukat Aziz versus Dr Mahesh Malani of the PPP) the same NA-229 had a vote count of 190,000.
In the new list the NA-229 has 180,000 voters, though during PM Saukat Aziz’s election 190,000 votes were cast.
It will be appropriate that a fresh and accurate list of voters is prepared.
CHANDER SHARMA
Tharparkar
THE city government claims it is doing all it can to rid Karachi of the aedes aegypti mosquito responsible for the dengue epidemic. How then can it explain the permanently open sewer that divides Tipu Sultan Road from the Sharea Faisal traffic signal right up to the Shahid-i-Millat intersection?
Has it not occurred to the city government that the wide and long (and completely open) sewer is attracting thousands of breeding mosquitoes? If the city government is not aware of the existence of this open sewer, then it really doesn’t know what is going on in the city it is supposed to administer, and if it does, then clearly all its claims about fighting the dengue virus are just an eyewash.
Perhaps the city government will now move to have this open sewer closed within the shortest possible time.
MARIAM ENVER ALI
Karachi
I AGREE with Kazi Adil that there should not be too many public holidays like Iqbal Day and so forth (Nov 10).
I would instead suggest that the work week be brought down to five days instead of six. Public and private companies should offer a compressed 40-hour-a-week work schedule like they have in the West.
Pakistan is facing a shortage of energy with regard to electricity and gasoline. A five-day-work week can save on both electricity and gasoline. This will encourage people to work more enthusiastically.
ADEEL AMJAD
Michigan, USA
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