| March 10, 2007 | Saturday | Safar 20, 1428 |
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Islam and the West
No alliance with Taliban
PCB in a nutshell
Musharraf’s tough talk
Hunting season
Secularism is not against Islam
Illegal construction
A tale of two nazims
Album sales
Radiation danger
Zille Huma’s murder
Milk price
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 government claims to have reached a milestone by signing an agreement on the Gwadar Port with a fake company.
No expression of interest was published in newspapers for awarding the operations of the Gwadar Port to a suitable bidder, if there are any.
The whole process seems to have been carried out hurriedly. Just after the agreement was signed, a 40-year tax holiday was announced, giving a huge favour to the bidder.
The concessions-holding company seems to be one of the companies that were purposely formulated to get the contract; even it couldn’t get time to develop its website.
Had this offer been announced earlier, much higher bids could have been quoted. This shows a clear partiality and lack of transparency for the whole process. This company is not available in the subsidiaries of the Singapore port authority. We seem to have another ‘Steel Mill’ in the offing.
The minister for ports quite confidently and bluntly said that the government of Pakistan will be the sole beneficiary of this project, while even peanuts will not be offered to the province of Balochistan.
The government claims to support increased provincial autonomy but all tits rhetoric seems to have been false. A concurrent list has been pending for the last 23 years and it will remain pending for years until all the resources of the smaller provinces are speedily depleted.
We seem to have a federation of a unique type, where assets are sold to multinationals for peanuts and smaller provinces are losing authority to rule themselves. I request the authorities to issue the complete details of the project.
I request the Supreme Court of Pakistan to intervene and stop such widespread exploitation of resources of smaller units.
Otherwise, the claims of the nationalists may gain widespread popularity and they may appear to be right about their reservations on mega projects.
TARIQ AHMED
Karachi
TANVIR Ahmad Khan’s scholarly article (March 5) is very pertinent to us today. He has rightly mentioned that the dark era prior to the enlightenment in the West was the result of the taboo on Greek learning there at that time. Yet, I believe that although Muslim historians and commentators did translate ancient Greek texts into Arabic, they did not imbibe its nature because the nature of Islam is diametrically opposed to Greek thought.
The important question now is: what is the way forward for Muslim states? In my view, they should imbibe the Hellenic tradition whole-heartedly.
This seems a suitable way out for the redemption of our societies. It would also bridge the gulf between Islam and the West. Whether this would ultimately be possible at all is a difficult question to answer at this juncture. The facilitating factors may be the blurring of boundaries in today’s world where millions of Muslim men and women live in the West.
On its part, the West has greatly influenced the Islamic world through technology, industry, communications and scientific, juridical and political ideas.
I have elsewhere written that it is to the pristine influence of Greek thought that the gigantic structure of western civilisation owes its splendour and attainments.
And, it is to the split and fissures created in that structure by the Judeo-Christian tradition that western destructiveness and violence is due. Gudrun Kramer has written a balanced analysis in Der Spiegel, which was reprinted in a local newspaper on Jan 26 and 27.
She describes the strengths and weaknesses of both Islam and the West and maintains that in any comparison with Europe -– whether during the Christian-dominated Middle Ages, the Reformation, or the era of totalitarianism — Islam emerges as the clear moral victor.
At the same time, she argues that the present situation is different where intolerance in Muslim societies is a bone of contention because the West has come to regard freedom of religion as well as artistic and intellectual freedom as the core basis of any modern society.
It may, however, be remembered that intolerant fundamentalism is also a factor in the extremist Christian elements in the United States as well as in some segments of Israel and India.
AMIN JAN NAIM
Islamabad
YOUR editorial entitled ‘Warning to Pakistan’ (Feb 28) attempts to link support for the Taliban with the domestic political policy of President Musharraf. We reject this as conjecture based on incorrect information.
President Musharraf is known for his moderate disposition and has time and again rejected extremism and fundamentalism. Measures such as representation and empowerment of women and unprecedented freedom of the press bear testimony to his liberal policies.
There is no alliance with pro-Taliban forces in parliament. The ruling coalition government, led by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, represents moderate political forces.
The North Waziristan agreement is part of a policy of pursing a comprehensive approach based on military, economic and political measures.
The 2,500km Pakistan-Afghan border is difficult to monitor and control. Pakistan has taken resolute action to address the cross-border insurgency and the terrorist threat from Al Qaeda.
We have made several proposals for checking cross-border movement, including return of Afghan refugees, selective mining and fencing of the Pakistan-Afghan border.
We’ve also requested equipment for strengthening monitoring of both sides of the border.
These proposals unfortunately have not been accepted by the quarters concerned. Defeating Al Qaeda requires foremost that our assessment be acknowledged firmly in sound empirical judgment and not blinded by conjecture.
SHAFQAT JALIL
Pakistan mission to the UN New York
YOUR editorial ‘Selection Fiasco’ (March 3) summarises PCB’s Quixotic wisdom in a nutshell. PCB chief Nasim Ashraf said at a recent press briefing that Asif had a lingering elbow injury for more than six months.
Please remember that ‘straws show how the wind blows’. In the recently-concluded South African tour, our extremely talented strike bowler Mohammad Asif was made to bowl more than 150 overs in about a month’s time in spite of his injury and the fact that the World Cup was only a short while away.
Out of these 150 overs, 126 overs were bowled in only three Test matches which were played back to back with hardly a span of three days in between them. This should have raised quite a number of eyebrows. A false tale often betrays itself. In the presence of an injury he was totally squeezed and drained till the last drop of energy was lost.
Who is responsible for this? Have a look at the history of cricket and see how often you find fully fit fast bowlers bowling 14 overs at a stretch - let alone an injured one. Can this be taken to be a remedy worse than the disease itself? Or there is a second choice: that the doping scandal is true and the wise and know-all PCB selectors knew that there was to be no World Cup for Asif.
The editorial goes on to say that “the PCB has yet again made Pakistan the laughing-stock of the cricketing world”. Without going into details, I would just add that outside the cricketing world we are not any better.
Aesop, the famous fable writer, has left a message for the PCB elite. A crow was jealous of the raven - since the latter is considered a bird of good omen and its flight is noted to predict the good or evil course of future events.
Seeing some travellers approaching, the crow flew up, and perching itself on one of the branches, cawed as loudly as it could. One of the travellers said to his companions: “It is only the caw of a crow and her cry is no omen”.
The moral of the story is that those who assume a character which does not belong to them, only make themselves look ridiculous.
NASIR KHAN
Kuwait
YOU ask in your editorial ‘Musharraf’s tough talk’ (March 2)): “Will President Pervez Musharraf live up to the warning he gave to foreign militants on Wednesday?”
Well, why not? All it requires is the will and a little tail-twisting by the ‘Uncle’. The proof is there. Two days ago Cheney delivers a ‘tough message’, and Mulla Omar’s deputy is arrested. A little more of it and perhaps Omar, Zawahiri and even Osama may be forthcoming, who knows?
But our president did not say where the foreign militants should go. If they are not offered an alternative sanctuary like squatters who are removed from state lands, they can only stay where they are.
The best that President Musharraf can, and should, do is shift the entire Pakistani population from Fata and northern areas to Balochistan and Sindh as the Soviet Union did with the Chechens. America should provide the funds. The aliens thus isolated can then be cashed for American greenbacks.
Postscript: Interesting how Bush sends a tough message to President Musharraf, and the latter relays it to the foreign militants, like the sergeant kicking the soldier and the soldier kicking his dog!
S.G. Jilanee
Karachi
THE quail hunter is on a world safari aboard the silver bullet (a 40-foot container converted into a mobile bunker). He saw swans, kangaroos, houbara bustards, markhors and Arabian oryx.
The representatives of the US and the UK are playing hopscotch on hot embers, while the Third World is enveloped in a pall of uncertainty. The present world theatre of intimidation and arrogance of the mighty has already cost us two wars and millions of coffins.
We can only pray for sanity to prevail to usher a new world order blossoming with peace and harmony.
RAFI ADAMJEE
Karachi
THIS has reference to Mr Mansoor Alam’s article ‘Secularism is not against Islam’ (Feb 10), making a dispassionate effort to establish that neither secularism is anti-Islamic nor is democracy incompatible with its ethos, and Mr S. Qadri’s rejoinder ‘Secularism vs Islam’ (Feb 16) rejecting his thesis.
Mr Qadri while refuting the opinion has cited from A History of God, written by renowned Orientalist Karen Armstrong, an incident when Caliph Hazrat Umar declined the offer of prayer at the church of resurrection at Jerusalem.
I would like to mention here that Syed Amir Ali on pages 39 and 40 of his book, A Short History of the Saracens, has also quoted the same episode, stating that the righteous caliph after declining the offer of Sophronius the Patriarch, prayed on the steps of the Church of Constantine.
In the same book at chapter nine (Enlightenment), Ms Armstrong has only discussed the West’s embarkation on process of technicalisation, stating that “the process of westernisation had begun and with it the cult of secularism that claimed independence of God” and not the ‘godless cult’ as Mr Qadri has implied.
In order to prove secularism against Islam, Mr Qadri has also mentioned a western woman proselyte who, finding the illusory freedom of secular life, embraced Islam, abandoning ‘liberty’ and ‘independence’.
In fact, it is misuse and consequential evils of unbridled freedom of the West, a product of 20th Century humanism, which gave rise to dejection of people and, as a consequence, conversion to Islam.
The report of the Economist, CNN and the BBC accepting Islam as the fastest growing religion of the world is an evidence supporting Mr Alam’s viewpoint that it was because of secularism that despite the Church’s continued resistance preaching of Islam today has penetrated deep into the West.
I, however, tend to agree with Mr Qadri that unlike the West there is no separation between religion and state functions and also that an Islamic state does not mean a government of ‘ordained priests’.
Mr Alam is correct that like western democracy the expression ‘secular’ is also misinterpreted in this part of the world due to adoption of local lexicons giving erroneous connotations.
I would like to add here that in mediaeval time the word ‘secular’ was used for the ecclesiastic not bound by monastic rules.
As per the Oxford English Dictionary, a secular priest or a secular clergy of a church is one whose functions were confined to a local department of the choir or a secular abbot: a priest not a monk who had the title and the part of revenues but not the functions of an abbot.
In Latin, speculum denotes secular generation, age, and ‘the world’ as opposed to church.
Thus in order to clear the confusion and appreciate the exact import of any foreign term, it is always desirable to find out the origin of the required expression through dictionary of that language.
MANZOOR H. KURESHI
Karachi
WE, the residents of a four-storeyed building located on plot No 21, Hard Davis Road, Garden West, Karachi, request the higher authorities that illegal construction on this building be stopped forthwith.
It may noted that in 1999 the KBCA had stopped construction of the above-mentioned building on the grounds that substandard material was being used by the builders. However, after some time the builders were able to build a four-storeyed apartment with the connivance of the said authority.
Now on this building, another floor is being constructed, using low-grade material. This is dangerous for the apartment’s residents, as well as for those living in other houses around it.
The relevant authorities should take appropriate action in this regard to stop the ongoing construction. We also appeal to the chief justice of Pakistan to help us out of our predicament.
RESIDENTS
Karachi
ACCORDING to media reports, it seems that Mustafa Kamal, the nazim of Karachi, is very effectively using the alignment of his party and President Musharraf to make Karachi a better place, at least in terms of infrastructure.
In contrast, the nazim of Lahore, Mian Amir, is using the patronage of the PML-Q leadership to forward the ambiguous ideology of ‘enlightened moderation’ with marathons and Basant festivities.
In due course, when the Musharraf regime will be no more, Karachi will have more tangible things to show from the present era than Lahore.
This contrast of performance between the two nazims speaks volumes about the fact that the MQM is availing itself of an opportunity as a political party, while the PML-Q is a manifestation of the political opportunism of a few with no long-term political objectives.
H. BASHIR
United Kingdom
THIS has reference to Mr Umer Sheikh’s letter ‘EMI Pakistan’ (March 1).
I agree with the fact that the Sajid and Zeeshan album is not available in many places even after so many months of its release, and that isn’t too good.
I am a fan from Lahore and I had to get my copy of the album through a friend who was visiting Karachi recently.
My other friends looked for the album for months and months before they eventually downloaded it.
It’s not a very good thing to keep people like us waiting for so long. I hope Mr Umer Sheikh is reading this and is hopefully going to do something about it too.
A PAKISTANI
Lahore
THERE is no doubt that the 21st century is the century of communication which has converted the world into a global village. Today telecommunications services are fast-paced and in no time messages can be transmitted and received throughout the world.
Pakistan has also made rapid progress in the communication sector with a number of mobile companies operating in the country, which is a good thing because these companies bring with them not only investments but jobs too. But then there is a dark side of the picture also.
As one moves around the city, one can see mobile towers and boosters almost everywhere. These towers can be seen located on school buildings, hospitals and houses. Some of them are situated in densely-populated areas.
Some of these towers do not meet the international standards in terms of their height. Some of them are low which is unacceptable because in case of any leakages in these towers, there is a likelihood of radiation spread that will be quite hazardous for the public and can lead to a cancerous disease.
I would like the government to take a strong step in this regard and lay down a clear code for all mobile companies to follow.
HAMDAN SIDDIQUI
Karachi
THE cold-blooded murder of Zille Huma in Gujranwala on Feb 20 at the hands of a religious fanatic is not only an unfortunate event but casts long and ominous shadows. Is it perhaps a case of déjà vu from when our first prime minister was killed on Oct 16, 1951?
Then the entire country was shaken, but alas the death of a woman MPA has gone largely unwept by the masses, especially the more educated women in our country.
Ms Huma was not an ordinary woman. She not only was an elected member of the Punjab Assembly, but also a provincial minister. The death of a woman minister needs to be given due recognition by the people, as well as by the government, if leadership by women is to be preserved in our country in the coming generations.
BRIG (r) A.Q. ANJUM
Rawalpindi
‘MILK retail price Rs28 per litre: SHC’ (Dawn Metropolitan, March 7). My milk supplier, however, has sent me the bill for the month of February in which he has charged me Rs32 per litre.
Will the honourable Sindh High Court please tell me where and to whom should I go and lodge my complaint? All retail milk sellers in Karachi’s Garden West area are still selling milk at Rs32 per litre despite the price fixation. Is there anyone to address the predicament of the common man?
M. RAFIQIUE ZAKARIA
Karachi
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