| May 14, 2007 | Monday | Rabi-us-Sani 26, 1428 |
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A cause for concern
Preventing thalassaemia
Browbeating the press & parties
Honeymooners
Bring them back
BBC Dictionary
Mr Bhandara’s bill
Death penalty
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
BALOCHISTAN, the poorest and most backward province, is a hunting ground for professional land looters and bandits. In the last seven years of military rule, the province’s land wealth has been looted, and allotted to military officers, civil bureaucrats and aliens with the help of unfaithful provincial ministers.
Balochistan suffers from poverty, a federal debt of Rs19 billion, massive shortage of school teachers, lack of basic health system, safe drinking water, electricity, institutional infrastructure, unemployment and many other ills can be cured through proper auctioning of land wealth and utilising resources on education, and heath sector, employing new teachers and establishing human resource centres. However, the central government and military rulers have promoted unprecedented mega corruption and mismanagement in the province.
According to an estimate Rs12 billion’s worth of land has been illegally allotted by district co-ordination officers on the instruction of various government functionaries.
The question is whether any serious action has been taken on the Supreme Court’s orders regarding massive land embezzlement in Gwadar. Rulers are continuing to loot wealth and are not willing to cancel all allotments made in the last seven years. Nor are they ready to encourage a transparent system to auction or acquire land on market rates.
According to the order by a divisional bench of the Supreme Court on October 21, 2006: “The land quota, whether industrial or residential, allocated to civil, military, judicial and politicians and other dignitaries in Gwadar be cancelled. It said that the Balochistan government was not the ‘competent authority’ to allot land quotas.
The bench also directed that the allocation of 50 plots to serving and retired members of the judicial system in Sanghar Housing Scheme Phase-V, Gwadar, be cancelled.
“All allotments, mutations, alienations and transfers made in favour of any private party after the first hearing of a petition on October 5 were declared to have “no legal effect”, and the bench directed that their copies be sent to the Supreme Court registrar in Islamabad for their legality and authenticity to be assessed.
“The bench also restricted the chief minister, revenue minister and the Balochistan Board of Revenue from allotting land in Gwadar in violation of the statutory Land Lease Policy.
It ordered that the Balochistan government form a policy for the allotment and disposal of state land in Gwadar, and said that the policy should be used transparently.
“The bench ordered the Board of Revenue senior member to point out all illegal allotments over the last five years in Gwadar. “A complete record of all the allotments over the last five years should be given to the Supreme Court registrar in Islamabad,” said the bench.
The bench has asked the Balochistan law secretary to explain how 4,100 acres of land were allotted to Mir Nazar Kalmati and his family through a notification issued by Capt Fariduddin Ahmedzai, the principal secretary to the Balochistan chief minister.
“The bench has also asked for details of allotments, sales, disposals and exchange of industrial plots in Gwadar to determine how allotments were made. Details of sums received in this regard will also be sent to the Supreme Court registrar within four weeks.
“It directed the Board of Revenue member to provide the names of EDOs (revenue), tehsildars, naib tehsildars and patwaris who were posted to Gwadar over the last five years.”
But nothing has been heard regarding implementation of such serious allegations and recommendations by the superior court.
ASAD AMIN BALOCH
Gwadar
THIS is with reference to your editorial “Taliban's ban on music” (May 9). Indeed Dawn has depicted a true picture of the prevailing scenario in Pakistan.
The attempt to impose the ridiculous and backward precepts of religious fanaticism is under way in many areas of Pakistan , whether it is preventing barbers from shaving beards in Fata, or telling people in Swat not to inoculate their children because that would be giving in to ‘US-Jewish conspiracy to make Muslims sterile’.
Incidents of destroying barbers’ shops, bomb blasts in girls school and threatening people not to send their girls to school in Darra Adamkhel just 30 kilometres from Peshawar and harassing female schoolteachers in Kohat to quit their jobs in schools in Darra Adamkhel are increasing day by day.
Similarly the local Taliban militants, who now virtually control the region, are also asking people not to play or listen to music in public places in the North Waziristan area, including Miramshah.
The writ of the government has also been challenged many times in the federal capital, Islamabad, by the Lal Masjid clerics right under the nose of the government. The behaviour of the seminary students is the result of `religious education' imparted to them by obscurantist mullahs who entrusted them with the task of `purifying society from all evils and safeguard Islamic values by using stick-wielding burqa-clad girls of the seminary.
On the other hand, the criminals are now taking full advantage of this deteriorating law and order situation. The crime rate in the entire country has gone high. Incidents of robberies, house-breaking, vehicles and cellphone snatching, rape, gang-rape, murder of women in the name of honour-killing have become a daily event in the country.
Similarly, smuggling, drug trafficking, human trafficking and illegal gun trading is rising day by day in the country since the police and other law-enforcers are unable to control these crimes, creating a feeling of insecurity among the people. Lastly, when the writ of the state is eroded, every segment of society is free to do what it believes is right. This is dangerous, and this should be a cause for concern for the government as this situation, if allowed to continue, might drag the country slowly into a civil war and anarchy. It is time for our government to establish the writ of the state and control the crimes to save the country and the people from the threats lurking in the country.
SQN LDR ® S. AUSAF HUSAIN
Karachi
YOUR editorial, ‘Preventing thalassaemia’ (May 2), highlights this tragic illness which invariably, despite very expensive treatment and multiple blood transfusions, results in the loss of life at young age.
The disease is transmitted by parents to their offspring through genetic defect which involves red blood cells. As pointed out by you, the only way out is to prevent by not allowing the marriage between male and female carriers of this defect.
We know how long did it take for the cadaver transplant bill to reach the Senate and the modifications that made it superfluous.
The Thalassaemia Federation at its meeting in Lahore failed to realise that by the time a law is enacted by our snail-paced parliament, a million more children will be added to the existing population of children suffering from thalassaemia.
Making a law to have pre-marital testing of the couple is too expensive and sure to be ignored as the law about limiting the wedding meals. At the last annual symposium of the NICH, Karachi, the Child Aid Association organised a symposium on this topic and consensus was on the adoption of a plan presented by Dr Sohaib Ahmed from the Armed Forces Medical Institute, Rawalpindi.
The plan focuses on the clusters of thalassaemia patients which are present in every province and their near relations to identify the carriers and their counselling about marrying other carrier.
This plan has already been tested and found to be effective in the Rawalpindi area. It is economical as this does not need every individual of the country to have blood testing before marriage.
This can indeed be implemented by NGOs from their own resources, without any enactment of law. The Child Aid Association will be willing to cooperate in a nationwide programme
PROF NIZAMUL HASAN
President, Child Aid Association,
Karachi
THE prime minister mentioned on May 6 that the Constitution contains the provision for imposing emergency but it depends on the prevailing situation that will decide the course of action.
The threat seems to be a method employed by the government to intimidate the lawyers and political parties to stop their agitation, which was launched in the wake of the chief justice episode.
The threat is an indication to the extent which the ruling regime is prepared to tolerate the democracy agitation being the right of the people.
The government wants calm from all sides without addressing the issues; even those promised by it to be resolved instantly. It will be recalled that after the attack on the offices of Geo in Islamabad, the president had apologised and promised action against the delinquent police within a day. What happened during the all weeks following the incident is not known, with the exception that some low-ranking police officials were taken into custody while the arrested police inspector had fled but was later recaptured. It remains a mystery as to who gave the orders to carry out that attack.
And what action has been taken by the government against them. Obviously the decision for such an action could not be taken at the lower level without the blessings of the higher-up. Should the nation now believe that the case has been buried permanently?
It seems that instead of initiating appropriate action against those guilty, the authorities have started tightening the noose around the media. The closure of three channels on the May 5 is a clear example of this, though the government denies its hand in it.
The question is if the media succumbs to the intimidation of the government at this juncture, the nation will perpetually be deprived of its right to freedom of information. For the electronic media, there is less fear of authoritarian pressure as they can shift their operations outside the country and the people can watch the programmes through satellite/decoders.
The serious problems will, however, surround the print media as it has to work within the country. So it will have to demonstrate more courage to preserve the freedom it has achieved through the sustained efforts over the last six decades.
GHULAM MUHAMMAD
Karachi
ONE agrees absolutely with Ms Marie's rejoinder, ‘Honeymooners’, to M.P. Bhandara's beautiful article, ‘Is the honeymoon with India over?’ that Pakistan must concentrate on building its institutions (May 4).
However, one can't support some of her other observations, such as making it appear that Nehru did want to live up to his ‘noises’ made about resolving the Kashmir dispute but was impeded by Indian parliament's reticence.
She seems unaware of many facts. These include Nehru's role in using viceroy Lord Mountbatten to pressure the Maharaja of Kashmir to join India. Another intrigue was to get the Muslim majority area of Gurdaspur included in India, rather than Pakistan, which provided the only land access from India to the valley. Yet other realities were that country's occupation of Hyderabad state, Junagadh, Manavadar – all in 1947 – and Goa in 1962, under Nehru's watch. Because of the Goa invasion, the Americans had nicknamed the then Indian defence minister Krishna Menon as ‘Goa Constrictor’.
In his Kashmiri enterprise Nehru, who was a Kashmiri Pandit and made no secret of his longing to possess the territory, had the full blessings of leaders like Gandhi and Sardar Patel. They were so important as founding fathers of India that had they wanted to honour the UN resolutions, the parliament would have gone along with them. Even Bertrand Russell, who considered himself a ‘lifetime’ friend of India and had also worked for its independence, became so disillusioned by 1962 that he accused that country of having double standards when it came to issues like Kashmir and Nagaland.
Even if it were assumed that it was really the lawmakers who had kept the Kashmirs from getting their right to self-determination, what good is a democracy or a parliament that displays few or no principles? It's been said: "Better be poisoned in one's blood, than to be poisoned in one's principles."
Of what use is a democracy that becomes a government of bullies aided by most of its intelligentsia, including the media persons? In these days of realpolitik, most states pay no attention to upholding principles, but, look at the mess the US, the UK and Israel have caused in Iraq and Palestine; Russia in Chechnya and India in Kashmir.
Our principles determine our actions and these, in turn, lead us to happiness or misery. Therefore, absolute care ought to be taken in forming our principles. As far as the lady's advice regarding delinking the Kashmir issue from religion is concerned, it is unfortunate that the post-9/11 world is viewing the Kashmiris' struggle for freedom as another terrorist problem.
However, ignoring or distorting reality won't make the problems vanish. The world must be realistic in noting how this problem has lingered since 1947 and, as would be evident from recent "50 Years Ago Today" columns of this newspaper, the US, Britain, France and most other countries had been very vocal in supporting the UNSC directives to India and Pakistan to hold a free and fair plebiscite there. These were readily accepted by Pakistan, but always rejected by India. Even the Sri Lankan premier had taunted Nehru for this.
What legal or moral grounds did India’s leaders or the legislature have to challenge the universal wish of the international community (except for the USSR – due to its Cold War era support for New Delhi) of giving the Kashmiris their rights? Their unprincipled and selfish stand finally forced the Kashmiris to take up arms after a painful wait of 42 years. India’s obduracy, covetousness and desire for hegemony have promoted militancy in many parts of South Asia and, above all, turned the region into a nuclear flashpoint.
Ms Marie’s Hindu Kashmiri friends, with whom one sympathises, should try to make New Delhi understand the folly of hanging on to the Kashmir by force. They must also realise that the militancy in Nagaland and other north-eastern states proves people will ultimately take up arms if their rights are denied long enough.
One sincerely thanks the lady for devoting her kind attention to the issue and offering us advice. May she have much peace and happiness in her life.
KHALID CHAUDHRY
Karachi
THIS refers to the commentary, ‘Bring them back’ (May 9), which says that whatever the future holds, the United States has not ‘lost’ and cannot ‘lose’ Iraq.
No and yes. I disagree with the first notion while I concur with the second one. The US does not want to lose Iraq. History will call it a disastrous military adventure or a madventure. The idea of 'cannot lose' only came up from the writing on the wall that US has 'lost' Iraq.
Now, for a military power like the US, it is a prestige point. It has to win. How to win is a hard rock to chisel. Gen David Petraeus, the top US war commander, has already admitted -even advised the US administration - that the solution to Iraq's problems cannot be military, it's political. And to deal with the political situation is like fighting, yet again, a losing battle.
The commentary ruefully says that after achieving 'some US goals' (like ousting Saddam, holding three elections, a constitution and establishing a rudimentary democracy), the US troops, instead of trying to establish order or some semblance of it, are being used to referee the civil war. This kills not only the Shias, the Sunnis or Kurds, but also destroys any hope of political or military victory or even honourable withdrawal.
In a situation like this, the paper has wisely suggested that the US troops be brought back home and has advised a detailed strategic covert withdrawal beginning from fall this year, which may continue well into 2009.
President Bush will be no longer in office after 2008. The Congress, now dominated by Democrats, is tooth and nail against this ill-defined war. All the contestants for the next presidency say that they will bring an end to this senseless war which instead of enhancing US prestige or stature is bringing it down.
I wish the war comes to an end only this year -or if it is not possible then, by Bush's expiry of office. What good news it will be if expiry of Bush's office coincides with the end of war in Iraq!
M.K. NAQVI
Karachi
I HAVE been running from pillar to post in search of BBC Dictionary but to no avail. The Oxford University Press too does not have it. I am at a loss to understand as to why the book is not available at the OUP.
HAMDAN SIDDIQUI
Karachi
I WAS quite shocked at the casual rejection of M.P. Bhandara’s bill seeking to amend a law which would have given equal punishment for the desecration of any holy book. Equally disgusting were Mr Niazi’s comments that “this is not a secular (state) but the Islamic state of Pakistan,” and that “(Bhandara) must be careful.” And all this accompanied by cheers from the ‘guardians’ of Islam. At the same time the death penalty for apostasy law was accepted for discussion. It gives you an idea of what grand plans the bearded ones have should they ever get hold of power.
It is a shame that this amendment is considered controversial. I am not sure why our maulvis consider this amendment against the Islamic teachings. It is also sad that as a society we consider it acceptable to openly discriminate against the minorities. Islam neither allows nor teaches such discrimination.
The affirmation of such discrimination against our citizens will in the end propagate the growing religious and ethnic divide. I am not against religion, but I do believe that a state must treat its citizens equally and laws should be based on morality and not ancient religious texts.
We have much bigger problems that need to be resolved before we can spend state money on court procedures and judges which will determine if someone should be killed for leaving their religion. If there was a vision for Pakistan, I am sure that it did not include special privileges for our bearded citizenry.
S. RAZA AKHTAR
Durham, USA
THIS is in response to the letter ‘Worrying situation in Sindh’ by Mohammad Khan Sial (May 9). Recently there was a news report on the BBC that quoted Amnesty International as saying that Pakistan has more people imprisoned facing execution than any other country in the world.
In countries where the death penalty still prevails, premeditated murder is considered the worst crime and the death penalty is applied in such cases. Pakistan is obviously a strong supporter of the death penalty, yet it lets many of the victims’ families and wealthy perpetrators come to an ‘agreement’ to avoid any form of punishment for the murderer. This is clearly a double standard policy and defies logic.
SANIA SAEED
Sydney
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