| June 06, 2007 | Wednesday | Jamadi-ul-Awwal 20, 1428 |
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Slave trade abolition
Unnecessary information
Points to ponder
Manora Island
Women’s emancipation
Commanders’ conference
Apostasy law
Kalabagh Dam
Mediacrats
Pensioners’ plea
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
MR M. P. Bhandara in his rejoinder, ‘Remembering Ayub Khan’ (June 3), has begun with an adage that “every hero from the time of Alexander the Great can be shown to be flawed”. Vice versa, so is the case of a villain. Nevertheless, Ayub Khan, a self-styled field marshal, in the first place does not fall within the category of a ‘hero’ as he, against the very wishes of the Father of the Nation, introduced army into politics and depoliticised civil society, perpetually.
It was he who condemned the statesmen on trumped-up charges under the dreaded EBDO and kept freedom of expression chained, and made ‘politics’ an eternal anathema of society. I, however, agree with Mr Bhandara’s criterion of judging a ruler, i.e., his respect for basic human rights and forgiveness when at the apogee of power and, the other, institutions which will last longer. I think on both these counts the late president had failed for the reason that during his reign the human rights were trampled more often than not. The institutions, such as Basic Democracy, which he contrived in order to perpetuate his hold, after his sojourn evaporated as fast as they were created.
The institution which survived him, however, is the military-bureaucracy axis with innate hatred for politicians and the proverbial 22 tycoons, the real beneficiaries of his so-called economic prosperity which now have mushroomed into thousands.
Equating operation in Balochistan and persecuting anti-One Unit campaigners to thana culture is sheer injustice to those who stood up against the tyranny, although Mr Bhandara has admitted One Unit as a bad idea.
As regards political persecutions and assassinations, etc, I would request Mr Bhandara to go through the history of oppressive actions, especially against the communists and his detractors as has been ably discussed by Mr Sajad Haider in his article, ‘Ayub’s diaries in perspective’ (June 3) .
Furthermore, in this age of knowledge explosion declaring that “our society has yet to evolve to a meaningful understanding of human rights and civility’ is to abuse our intelligence. It is great injustice to censure civil society for these ills instead of blaming the real culprit, the elite class.
It was not Ayub Khan but Gen Azam Khan who is still remembered in Bangladesh for his benevolent rule. On the contrary, Ayub sacked him because he considered the latter’s popularity a threat to his power. The relatively peaceful times (admitted by Mr Bhandara) were but for the fact that institutions inherited by the country were still intact and delivering goods; especially the judiciary where judges like Justice M. R Kiayani were heading the courts. Besides, the businessman had not entered into politics and the corruptions had not become pervasive as yet.
Mr Bhandara should know that Islam by its very meaning is a religion of moderation; therefore, claiming that Ayub Khan attempted to introduce it will be great injustice to its ethos.
As regards Mr Gohar Ayub’s response (May 27) to my letter, I would accept it as a natural and instant retort from a son in the defence of his father. However, Gohar Ayub has failed to justify the military operation in Balochistan; much less awarding the sentence to the late Akbar Bugti, whose trial and sentence were prima facie coram non judice. Therefore, remitting his sentence, which is undisputedly a mala fide act per se, was not a favour to him in any manner. Similarly, inducting any minister from the Baloch tribe into the cabinet was their natural right and no favour at all.
Mr Gohar Ayub has also failed to explain the human rights violations made by his father, including his collaboration with Maj-Gen Iskander Mirza in toppling the civilian government, while remaining in de facto command for a long time, damaging perennially the cause of democracy in Pakistan.
All controversies had not developed but for the untimely article of Mr M.P. Bhandara’s, particularly at the time when the nation is struggling for a great cause. I wish Mr Gohar Ayub one day become a democratically-elected president of the country, unlike his revered father.
MANSOOR UL HAQUE SOLANGI
Karachi
ENSLAVING human beings is no more in practice. But, there was time when today's civilised nations virtually captured millions of black Africans from their homelands and treated them like worthless creatures. During those days Karachi port had seen intense activity as ships carrying slaves had to transit here because of its geographical location. It is said that a small section of people, living in present-day Lyari, have African origin as some of slaves may have settled here.
On March 27, a ceremony was held to commemorate the bicentenary of the Act of Parliament that abolished the slave trade in Westminster Abbey, at London.
The Queen, Prince Philip, Prime Minister and Mrs Tony Blair were there, as were Leader of the Opposition David Cameron, Leader of the Liberal Democrats Sir Menzies Campbell, many high commissioners and ambassadors and representatives of the major faiths.
The extract of an interesting narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano (1745-1797), or Gustavus V. Assa, the African, was read out. The extract reproduced below provides an in-depth feeling of the Africans who were crammed inhumanly into ships and hauled across the Atlantic.
"I was not long suffered to indulge my grief; I was soon put down under the decks, and there I received such a salutation in my nostrils as I had never experienced in my life: so that with the loathsomeness of the stench and crying together, I became so sick and low that I was not able to eat, nor had I the least desire to taste anything.
“I now wished for the last friend, death, to relieve me; but soon, to my grief, two of the white men offered me eatables, and on my refusing to eat, one of them held me fast by the hands and tied my feet, while the other flogged me severely. I had never experienced anything of this kind before, and although, not being used to the water, I naturally feared that element the first time I saw it, yet nevertheless could I have got over the nettings I would have jumped over the side, but I could not; and, besides, the crew used to watch us very closely who were not chained down to the decks, lest we should leap into the water."
The best known abolitionist of slavery in England was William Wilberforce, an evangelical Christian and a member of parliament. He lived a hedonistic life in his early years, spent £9,000 to win his election as MP for Hull at the age of 21.
His great-great-great-granddaughter read an extract from a speech he made in the House of Commons on May 12, 1789. However, most significant words of his speech were: "We are all guilty". That was certainly true in the England of 1789 when the representatives used to feel pangs of conscience and were bold enough to publicly admit mistakes.
Should we hope that some day the British parliamentarian would acknowledge the blunders their country has made in subsequent centuries, especially allying them in "war against terror".
SIKANDAR ALI SHAH
Karachi
DR Nimy (letter, June 1), though correct in her own right, has, however, made blunders that have hurt her and will cost others. While we all sympathise with her cause, she should never have released the information about her visa control # in a letter in which she also criticises the US war on terror and Pakistan’s lack of any gain, according to a lawyer who deals with immigration cases, and has subsequently ruined her chances of applying elsewhere abroad as you cannot publicise information like that without being overlooked in this day and age and not being sought of as a threat.
She should never have revealed her identity as her fingerprints, photographs, etc, now exist in a database. Second, she has linked Pakistani doctors and the US war on terror. They are two unrelated entities and visa control officers at their discretion deny people entry or exit depending on circumstances.
Pakistani doctors being denied entry based on the war on terror is not warranted because Indian, Arab and others have also been denied entry. It is tantamount to saying you are a Muslim and will be denied.
I would encourage people to write their problems, but not to reveal their identity. APPNA is doing their best about what they can through the efforts of their committees. It’s time we learnt to balance our oratory and written skills for the pen can be mightier than the sword but its strokes can deliver far more devastating blows to self and others.
DR AISHA SHAIKH
Mississauga, Canada
RIGHT-winger Nicolas Sarkozy, the new French president, scored an emphatic victory in the recent French presidential elections (May 7 ).
Produced below is an extract from a write-up appearing in Dawn (May 22) under the headline, ‘A broad church’:
“Nicolas Sarkozy produced a bigger surprise when nominating his first government. Everyone thought that the president was going to appoint his friends. What he did was to bag four socialists, a centrist and two loyalists of the former president Jacques Chirac. Seven of the 15 ministers are women, …
“But the real catch was Bernard Kouchner, one of the most popular politicians in France and now its foreign minister. Not only had Mr Kouchner campaigned and voted for Ms Segolene Noyal in both rounds of presidential elections, he had accused his current boss of being the Silvio Berlusconi of France”.
Points to ponder:
a. Everyone thought that the president was going to appoint his friends, but he appointed from other parties also — four socialists, a centrist and two loyalists of former president Jacques Chirac.
b. His government has 15 ministers only.
c. Mr Sarkozy inducted into his government Mr Kouchner from the opposition camp and made him foreign minister.
This is foreseen to create an open, inclusive government where ideas and talent mattered more than ideology.
Hope in Pakistan the legislature emerging out of election-2007 shall ponder over these points.
ABDUL SAMAD KHAN
Karachi
SETTING up recreational facilities at the Manora Island seems to be a part of the programme for enlightened moderation. The island houses harbour defence facilities in addition to coastal defence batteries, the Manora lighthouse, the Manora signal centre, the gunnery fire control system and guns for practical firings, small arms firing range, indoor firing range, in addition to the Naval academy and sailors boot-camp training establishment.
No wonder, a field marshal wanted to make the Navy a water unit of the Pakistan Army and now a general wants to establish recreational facilities. The Navy must have the courage to say a ‘big no’ for any such proposal or be ready to face the music like the chief justice of Pakistan.
M. SHARIF
Rawalpindi
IN the prehistory period, we are told, women had a special place in their families and tribes. They held special position such as having equal financial rights.
However, afterwards when society evolved into so-called civilisations that brought the concept of property and inheritance to the fore of human relationships, since then women lost their place in their family as a human being and instead of being allowed to enjoy equal rights with men, including the share in land/property, they were treated as a property of man.
All over the world women struggled to get their rights and achieved their right to vote in the very recent past in countries such as the US and Britain.
In Third World countries, specially in the Arab world, women still remain deprived of their basic rights, specially those of vote and inheritance.
In our own country women have been deprived of almost all rights, including their share in property. The land reforms of Ayub Khan , Z. A. Bhutto, Ziaul Haq and Nawaz Sharif eras did not emancipate women financially or gave them the right to own land. And if some women-friendly points are/were included in the statute book and reforms then, still these points are not being implemented.
Although the 1973 Constitution guarantees equal rights to women, including that of inheriting property/ land, men exercise influence and power to have monopoly.
Moreover, our religion also guarantees the inheritance rights to women but this too is not implemented.
To usurp the land that should belong to women, cases of karo-kari and marriage with the Quran and other anti-women practices are being adopted to further traumatise the women with the single wicked motive to appropriate their share of land.
Another aspect is that usually the intra-family marriages and polygamy give birth to many health problems and other complicated social problems and the ultimate sufferers of these outdated and reprehensive customs are women.
In our society a woman works like machine from dawn to dusk (working in fields, nurturing an army of children, rearing animals, and performing household chores) but neither she does get any recognition for her work nor does she get share out of her earnings. The present government policy to give spaces in parliament and at local government level and the much-trumpeted Women Protection Act have not ameliorated the plight of the women at large. There is need to change our patriarchal mindset , and as long as this is not done, there is little hope of women’s emancipation
GULSHER PANHWER
Dadu
THIS is about the recent news clipping which says that “corps commanders’ conference reaffirms full support to government policies”. I am saddened to read this news clipping in two ways:
a. These corps commanders are not the elected representatives of the people of Pakistan. A large section of the public see army interference in all civil matters (and more specifically senior army officials’ intervention) as a reason for frustration. It is sad to see the audacity of these corps commanders in how they comment about the economy, country etc.
The underlying current is very much that everything is okay because 'they' say so and the government will stay because 'they' have given the blessing — who cares what the ordinary people think. In a civil society the corps commanders should refrain from giving such impressions and stick to discussing army matters.
b. The fact that Dawn gives these comments enough importance to put them in a good position in Dawn saddens me. One effective way to give more importance to the opinion of ordinary people is often to ignore such comments from the 'military high command' and focus more on what the ordinary people think and say.
HAROON RASHID
Surrey, UK Norway
THOSE who have introduced the apostasy law in the National Assembly are doing no service to either Pakistan or to Islam. To pass such a law in the 21st century would not only be a blatant flouting of the UN Charter which Pakistan has signed, but a brutal announcement that we Pakistanis wish to be counted among the most narrow-minded and intolerant nations in the world.
The Holy Quran says: “La Ikra fid deen” (there is no compulsion in religion) but the apostasy law says the exact opposite. Our Ulema proudly boast that they are converting thousands of people every year to Islam in the developed nations of the West, to say nothing of Africa and other Third World nations.
This testifies to the broad- mindedness of these people who don’t mind if someone gives up Christianity or Buddhism or Hinduism or whatever, due to his convictions and becomes a Muslim. If we claim the right to convert people to Islam, we cannot deny them the right to switch over to any other religion if that’s what their mind accepts or prefers. I mean this is plain common sense, and only a mind clouded by the fumes of fanaticism can think otherwise.
It seems to me that the cases of people alleged to have been executed in the Prophet’s days for apostasy were not just simple apostates but turn-coats who took up arms against the Muslims, or committed other hostile acts. Hence they were executed, not for apostasy but for treason and waging war against the Islamic state. But would you like to execute a man who changes his religion from Islam to say Christianity, but continues to live peacefully in society, honestly performing his duties, and not agitating against the religion of Islam or the Islamic state?
I would appeal to the MMA leaders who have introduced the apostasy bill in the National Assembly to withdraw it because it will only bring a bad name to the people of Pakistan.
ZAFAR ULLAH POSHNI
Karachi
AHMED Khan Bhatti's rejoinder, ‘Decision on Kalabagh Dam’ (April 29), to Aziz Narejo's letter (April 16) is a total disappointment. His assertion that in the absence of the construction of the Kalabagh dam the farmers of Sindh are suffering from shortage of water; and that there is a small lobby in that province working against the dam construction and that Sindh needs it more than any other province speaks either of his ignorance or a deliberate attempt at misleading the people.
The shortage of water in Sindh is due to non-execution of the '1991 water accord' by the Indus River System Authority in letter and in spirit, so much so that the president’s intervention also was wholly ignored. As for the ‘small lobby’ against the dam is concerned, I welcome Mr Khan to visit the province and see for himself the sentiments of the people of the province about the building of this dam so that his misconception can be dispelled once for all.
The disagreement of A.G.N. Abassi over the construction of the Kalabagh dam is thus logically understandable as he has kept all factors in view before giving his remarks. Thus the Kalabagh dam is neither technically a viable project nor is it in the larger interest of the federation, least of all in the interest of the province of Sindh.
DR ALI AKBAR M. DHAKAN
Sindh Economic Development Foundation
Karachi
PAKISTAN has been very fortunate to have highly capable and talented people at the helm of affairs. There were bureaucrats who came up from the civil services. Then came the technocrats, who rose from among the government departments. Now we have other types of talented people.
We have the ‘armycrats’, who have risen from the ranks and assumed talent. There are the ‘politicrats’ who think they have the ability because they have been elected. There are also the ‘fundocrats’ who have been blessed with ability to raise funds. And, finally, the ‘mediacrats’ who believe they are the most capable leaders.
The good fortune goes on.
AMIN MUKATY
Karachi
PENSIONERS are being neglected as their pension has not been raised to enable them to make both ends meet. They are living in a pitiable condition, having no other source of income. The government should increase the pension substantially in the coming budget.
NIAZ AHMED DAHAR
Khairpur
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