| January 14, 2007 | Sunday | Zilhaj 23, 1427 |
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More troops mean more casualties
Celebrating Karachi
Rising prices
Refugee camps or no-go areas?
Twilight of tolerance
Monster vehicles
‘Natural’ disasters
Environmental pollution
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
ACCORDING to a news report, China is planning to build two pipelines for transporting oil to its province of Yunnan and southwest China at large (Jan 6). This step is being taken in order to bypass the Strait of Malacca, which is viewed as a strategic choke-point where some hostile power could cut off its oil shipments.
This new oil route comes as China’s demand for energy sources increases, with its annual oil imports estimated to be 140 million tonnes annually and rising.
Nearly 70 per cent of these imports are shipped through Malacca Straits that has already reached capacity levels.
One of these routes will be along the Mekong river while a deal has already been inked with Burma last April to build an oil pipeline linking Burma’s deep-water port of Sittwe to Yunnan’s capital Kunming. The planned pipeline has reportedly alarmed Burmese human rights and environmental groups because of the human rights violations and environmental damage it is likely to cause. There also are concerns in Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia regarding the pollution that may be caused by oil spills because 60 million people live along Mekong’s banks from Burma southward, who depend on it for food, water and transport.
It would be pertinent to point out that nearly six years ago, in my article, ’Gas pipelines to China and India’ (Encounter, April 28, 2001), I had already cautioned our Chinese friends about the dangers inherent in shipping their oil from Middle Eastern sources via the Malacca Strait. This would stem from the dominant US naval presence in the Gulf and right up to the choke point in the narrow strait as also India’s ongoing naval build-up with American political and military support.
It was suggested that China consider laying oil and gas pipelines from the Middle East via Pakistan. Unfortunately, the leadership in Pakistan took no notice of this farsighted idea at the time and did not follow it up, otherwise it could easily earn one billion or more dollars annually as royalty for us and also secure the energy supplies of our great friend China. It was only some five years later that President Musharraf also started giving statements to the effect.
Islamabad should now take up this proposal at the highest level with Beijing, while pointing out the greater advantages to China in using Pakistan as a route, since that would be much shorter and preclude the problems being faced by its two projects in Southeast Asia. China may be worried about the security situation in Balochistan, so, if necessary, an offshore pipeline can be laid from the Gulf right up to Karachi, which would take care of this aspect.
In the long run at least, this off-shore segment of the conduit should still be cheaper for Beijing than shipping all the supplies to the Bay of Bengal or South China Sea for onward transmission along Burma and Thailand, etc.
KHALID CHAUDHRY
Karachi
US President George W. Bush twice fooled the American people: once by going to war on the pretext to dismantle Iraq’s non-existent weapons of mass destruction and Saddam’s unproven links with Al Qaeda and, secondly, by declaring mission accomplished after the fall of Baghdad. Now he is again trying to fool the American people by asserting that sending of more troops will ensure the American victory.
After more than 3,000 American and countless Iraqi casualties, the American people are unlikely to believe Bush again. They know that instead of bringing democracy, the US occupation of Iraq has only widened the Shia-Sunni sectarian divide, and by allowing Al Maliki government to hang Saddam Hussein after a largely show trial, the Bush administration has lost the trust of Iraq’s once-dominant Sunni minority.
Now a game of deception seems to be going on. Iraq’s Shiite Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki is trying to fool Bush into believing that he can protect the Sunnis by reining in the Shiite militias who are, in fact, his major backers. US President George Bush is trying to fool the American people into believing that Maliki, with additional US troops, will be able to stop the Shiite militias from killing the Sunnis. The most likely outcome of the arrival of 20,000 more US troops will be more American and Iraqi casualties.
In this seemingly endless sectarian bloodletting in Iraq, it may be interesting to take a look how Mahatma Gandhi brought an end to Hindu-Muslim bloodletting before India’s independence from Britain in 1947. The issue was partition of India into two states on the basis of two-nation theory — India and Pakistan. The Hindus were adamantly opposed to the partition of what they called ‘Mother India’ and the Muslims were equally determined to achieve Pakistan. The result was a communal bloodbath in which thousands perished. The British had a large Indian army at its disposal, but it was deeply divided on Hindu, Muslim and Sikh religious lines. As such, the British were (correctly) wary of using these troops to stop the communal violence.
Mahatma Gandhi, who led India in the non-violent struggle for independence, stopped the Hindu-Muslim bloodbath by reluctantly agreeing to the partition and by going on a hunger strike-to-death unless the killings stopped. This had an electrifying effect on both Hindus and Muslims and the killings stopped. So, in this bloody sectarian conflict, Iraq doesn’t need more American troops, but its own Gandhi who can reach out across the sectarian divide and bring real peace. Is it possible for Bush or Maliki to adopt the path of peace to end the bloodletting in Iraq? The world is waiting.
MAHMOOD ELAHI
Ottawa, Canada
IT is heartening to learn that we — the proud citizens of Karachi — are finally celebrating and honouring its heritage as ‘The (Lost) City of Lights’ after having being ruthlessly ignored for a number of priceless decades is now being celebrated for its proud history. According to the city government’s estimates on population, Karachi today is home to approximately 15 million inhabitants compared to just over a million back in the 1960s.
In actual terms it is now a megacity (second only to Mumbai among the world’s largest cities in terms of population as per some independent sources), with an average of 50,000 people migrating to the city every month from other regions of the country.
These figures, though common with other cities seen as major economic centres in major developing countries, are quite disturbing if one takes into consideration Karachi’s bleak state of affairs with respect to its overall infrastructure. Critical indicators of progress, such as law and order, water and sewerage, traffic, electricity, crime, public safety and healthcare, basic education, environment and population planning, when compared to other megacities reflect a disturbing picture of Karachi.
Apparently, the role of most of its affluent citizens in actively pursuing change is not significant and the ever-widening economic gap between them and the masses reflects hardly any sign of change. While we are gearing up to celebrate our heritage and history (mainly contributed by our pre-partition settlers rather than post), I hope that our future generations are able to celebrate their memories of present-day Karachi with the same verve, rapture and determination.
K.A. SHAH
Karachi
NO amount of checks can stop the unprecedented increase in prices of essentials in the presence of reckless levy of taxes since October 1999. The misfortune is that the CBR chairman is quite boastful of these collections of taxes at various stages of business transactions, resulting in unprecedented increase in revenue, as if he is ignorant of consequences.
These taxes are now being further expanded on the pretext of improving tax-to-GDP ratio, minus social security, to meet fast increasing requirements of non-essentials and luxurious lifestyle of the ruling elite of this debt-ridden poor country.
For example, serving brigadiers were seen cycling to GHQ during the 1960s and only a few senior officers holding key appointments were provided official cars and that for official duties, while Pakistan was not under foreign debt burden.
Now that the country is groaning under increasing foreign debt burden, including $320 million to improve judicial system and $65 million for foreign training (pleasure trips) of bureaucrats, luxury cars with drivers, fuel and free maintenance are provided for private use of senior military officers undergoing study courses at the National Defence College at a walking distance from the official residential area.
No one in authority seems to be concerned about squeezing people, struggling for mere survival, to cater for wasteful expenditure on non-essentials and luxurious lifestyle of the ruling elite.
I wish the worthy media can launch a campaign for austerity to save the nation from the French Revolution-type situation.
RAJA M. AFZAL KHAN
Gujar Khan
THIS refers to the news report titled “Police need Afghans’ permission to enter their camps” (Metropolitan, Jan 11). I was astonished to read in this report that even policemen do not dare enter Afghan refugee camps without the Afghan tribal lords’ permission. It seems Afghan refugee camps in Karachi have become no-go areas where criminals can hide themselves without fear of being caught as police, according to the report, can only patrol these camps on some specific days.
It is an irony that while the government is planning to close down some Afghan refugee camps in Islamabad and Peshawar, and another two camps in Balochistan will also be closed down by March 2007, Afghan camps in Karachi are left as safe havens for drug dealers, smugglers and dacoits.
The federal interior minister should also set a deadline for the closure of all Afghan refugee camps in Karachi like he has set one for the closure of Afghan camps in Balochistan. The Krarchi city government and the Sindh government should also take up this issue with the federal government immediately since any further delay will provide an opportunity for the Afghans to leave the camps and settle in residential areas of the city. There is also an urgent need to launch an operation clean-up in and around Al-Asif Square on the Super Highway where majority of the flats are illegally occupied by Afghan refugees.
ATIF ABBAS
Karachi
APROPOS of Manzoor H. Kuraishi's letter 'Twilight of tolerance' (Dec 15), I should like to put my viewpoint so that readers get a correct perspective of the facts mentioned in his letter.
It is fruitless to blame Muslim rulers, especially the Mughals, for what has happened in India when we compare it with the Raj. Mughals are being targeted by Indian historians because if Babar had not defeated Ibrahim Lodhi in the battle of Panipat, the Hindus would have grabbed power at Dehli because Ibrahim Lodhi was heavily dependant on Hindu military assistance.
Victory of Babar extended the Muslim rule in India for another 300 years. That is the reason Hindu historians are so hostile to Mughals and recently hostility to Babar was manifested when the Babri mosque was destroyed. Ahmad Shah Abdali is similarly targeted because of defeat suffered by Marhattas at his hands in the third battle of Panipat because of which Muslim rulers sustained for another 100 years in India.
Mr Kuraishi should know that Aurangzeb spent 20 years in Deccan during Shah Jehan's time and not when he himself was the king.
The period of turmoil and of thugs, to which Mr Kuraishi refers, has been wrongly depicted as the Mughal period. Thugs mustered strength during the time of Lord William Banting, who did take corrective steps against them. From 1770 to 1849, Lahore, Multan and the NWFP were under Sikh rule and Bengal, Bihar and part of Orrisa were under the East India Company, even before the ouster of Emperor Bahadar Shah Zafar in 1857.
In south India, the social and political fabric was destroyed by rivalries between the English, French, Dutch and the Portuguese and the British game in using Nizam and Marhattas against Sultan Tipu and using Sikhs and Muslim landlords of Punjab against freedom-fighters in battle for independence in 1857. To blame Mughal or Muslim rulers for anarchy during this period is wrong.
Mr Kuraishi talks of anarchy after Aurangzeb. Has similar anarchy not existed in England in battles between England and Scotland and in America between Northern and Southern states?
As for British military superiority, it was effectively dumped by Hyder Ali in India and by Afghans in historic Afghan wars. If British were militarily superior, how could they be defeated by Afghans? I am sure if some Muslim countries withdraw support to Nato and ISAF forces, they will meet the fate of Afghan wars of the 19th century.
As regards disappearance of 25,000 persons at the hands of thugs is not worth comparing to 600,000 killed in Iraq only (medical journal Lancet), thousands in Afghanistan and millions in North, Central and South Americas.
I did not write Al Beruni was Indian. I mentioned he accompanied Sultan Mahmud. Khawarzim is part of Central Asia and not situated in Europe. The idea to mention Al Beruni was that there were centres of higher learning in Muslim countries about 200-300 years before Oxford or Cambridge were established in Britain.
While Galileo and Copernicus were being ostracized by church in Europe because of their new concepts of knowledge and Marco Polo was tortured because he told Venetians that new territories exist and stars are seen in a different location in sky in China, Spain under the Muslim rule was the centre of knowledge. Al Azhar University in Egypt was established about 500 years before any university in Europe was established.
Mr Kuraishi does not want to inform readers that apart from bridges and roads, the British introduced syphilis, gonorrhea and tobacco in the subcontinent. These menaces did not exist under the Muslim rule.
In the time of Mohammad Tughlaq, Allauddin Khilji and Sher Shah Suri news of an incident occurring in Badin or Thatta would reach Dehli within 48 hours. If Muslim rulers could make Taj Mahal etc, it is not be plausible to think that they could not make bridges in India.
To sum up, the aim of discussion should be to develop inter-faith and internecine harmony and consensus on common good which is inherent in divine religions.
PROF. (DR) EICE MUHAMMAD
Principal,
Sheikh Zayed Medical College
Rahimyar Khan
IF you want to see the ugliest scene of commercialism, please visit the posh thoroughfare from Mai Kolachi to the Korangi Road passing through the beautiful boulevard in the Defence Housing Authority (DHA). You will see here all types of giant vehicles like long overloaded trailers, containers, fuel tankers warning commuters to keep away from their inflammable cargo.
They are free to speed up, overtake and jump traffic signals. They are not bound to operate even in a row but they like to callously spread over the whole length and breadth of the road, thus, making it mandatory for the light vehicles to play cat and mouse with them and also try to save themselves from any untoward occurrence. Since no time schedule is fixed for them (as at Lahore), they are at liberty to strut and fret day and night with impunity.
For the last over two years, the traffic police have been telling every naïve inquirer that alternative route is being prepared for these monster vehicles. The traffic cops say that they can surely make the giant vehicles move in a queue provided they are so ordered by their superiors.
Otherwise, they would be running the risk of losing their job or incurring the displeasure of administration for creating any impediment for these monsters prone to wheel-jam strike. Even the highest authorities in the police and DHA seem to be helpless before the superpowers, such as, the KPT and the NLC, whose business these giants are running round-the-clock posing great risk to commuters in general and Clifton and DHA residents in particular!
MOHAMMAD ALEEM SHAIKH
Karachi
IT is questionable as to how ‘natural’ disasters really are. Many physical hazards result in fully-fledged disasters due to various man-made factors which create vulnerabilities. For example, in the case of the earthquake in Pakistan it was unsafe business structures and lack of disaster planning which led to increasing havoc and devastation.
Although earthquakes and landslides are, to an extent, the will of God, it is the lack of preventive measures undertaken by the community, civil society and the state which ultimately increases the death toll, injuries, and infrastructure damage. Hence, attributing disasters to ‘natural’ causes is a means of escaping the blame and responsibility that the state and the civil society should bear in such situations.
SARA IMTIAZ
Lahore
RECENTLY the PTV flashed a documentary showing the level of water pollution being thrown out by various industries into the rivers and drains. It showed the efforts to monitor and measure this by the agency staff at several points. It, however, emphasised the need for legislation to control the same, indicating that no such legislation exists in this respect.
It would be interesting if the EPA and legal experts could clarify whether any legislation already exists in this respect, as I had noticed way back in the 1940s that the government had imposed a hefty fine on the Tata iron and steel company in India for draining out iron oxide in the river from its sheet galvanizing plant. The company had to add a byproduct unit to crystallise iron oxide in large tanks to avoid the fine.
This clearly indicated that such a legislation did exist, even at that time, which must be available to permit the authorities to impose such fines on the erring industries, adversely affecting the health of people at large. If so, the question arises as to why the EPA has not utilised this so far, thereby allowing the environment to deteriorate so badly.
The relevant agencies and government departments at federal and provincial levels are requested to urgently look into this vital aspect and take effective measures to ensure that such industries are rectified.
If necessary, PCSIR and other research organisations may be engaged to carry out case studies of all such industries, to help them to overcome this vital problem on a high priority, giving them reasonable time to rectify their plants to become environment-friendly, as this is not only a vital health hazard but is also likely to spoil the fertility of lands, adversely affecting the national agricultural productivity, which will be a major national disaster.
S.M.H. RIZVI
Karachi
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