| June 13, 2007 | Wednesday | Jamadi-ul-Awwal 27, 1428 |
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Sacred cow
Heritage destroyed
Climate change
Communal fallout of the1857 uprising
Ataturk’s legacy
Federal budget
M-1 project
Water harvesting
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
IF China is to become the economic powerhouse it envisions, the road to its new future could run, literally, through Pakistan. Last month, they inaugurated the Gwadar Port in Pakistan, the first step in an elaborate ‘energy corridor’ that will one day ship Persian Gulf oil from Gwadar overland through Pakistan to China.
China bankrolled the $200 million port and plans to put billions more into railways, roads, and pipelines linking Gwadar to China. Pakistan hopes it will generate $60 billion a year in transit fees in 20 years' time. The deal could point to new fortunes on the horizon. But many observers wonder what price the two nations will pay for such inextricable energy ties.
Pakistan, with Chinese money, hopes to reinvent itself as one of the region's largest energy players – but it could also become a victim of the new Great Game, some observers say, crushed in the squeeze between the American and Chinese race for influence in volatile, lucrative Central Asia.
As China positions itself as Pakistan's chief patron, that could tilt Pakistan's centre of political gravity outweighing US influence without the strings of human rights, democracy, and counter-terrorism attached. “The Americans come with a great deal of ideological baggage. There's none of that with the Chinese," says Richard Russell, a professor of national security affairs at the National Defence University in Washington.
"(Pakistan's) interactions with the Chinese are not nearly as radioactive as with the US." Analysts have long fretted over a possible collision course between the US and China over energy. China is now the world's second largest consumer of oil after the US. Its consumption is expected to double by 2025, with 70 per cent coming from the Middle East.
Both giants are competing for infinite supplies. “I think most security experts are looking at this very closely because this is the closest access point China has to the Persian Gulf," says Gal Luft, executive director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security in Washington. "I don't know that this is something the US particularly likes."
Pakistan could be crucial to China's bid for regional influence. China is rapidly diversifying its sources, cutting billion dollar deals from Sudan to Iran and scoping out alternative transport routes through Burma (Myanmar), Thailand, and Bangladesh. Pakistan is likely to be among the most important routes.
Sitting at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, the Gwadar Port, which becomes fully operational next year, will provide an overland energy corridor connecting the Middle East to Xinjiang, China's future energy base. That will cut transport by 12,000 miles, shaving a month off the journey's time and 25 per cent off the fees.
Washington speculates that Gwadar could also be part of China's push to protect its growing energy system with a robust navy. For Pakistan, Gwadar is a chance to refashion itself as a global energy player -- a dream in the making for several decades. The potential is rich, given its prized location where energy demands are expected to soar.
Last April, while hosting the China-Pakistan Energy Forum in Pakistan, President Pervez Musharraf was asked as such by a visiting delegate. But to a roar of applause, he quickly deflected the question: "I do not care about pressure from major powers. If Pakistan suffers pressure from certain major powers, I believe China will come forward to help us apply pressure on the other side."
China's investment in Pakistan stands at more than $4 billion, with at least 114 projects under way, according to 2004 figures publicised by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz. Last March, China seemed to one-up the US. It announced that it would invest another $12 billion in Pakistan. There was no mention of human rights, democracy, or terrorism. The Democrat -led Congress, meanwhile, is threatening to pull funds if Mr Musharraf doesn't deliver more. The more money China dishes out, the more Pakistan is likely to gravitate toward Beijing as a countervail to US influence, given that Islamabad is increasingly pummelled to do more in the war on terrorism.
ALI WASEEM CHAUDHRY
Kharian
ONE of the slogans of Aitzaz Ahsan and his co-travellers in the current legal crisis is, “there is no sacred cow”, meaning the army. May I suggest that there is indeed one and that is our chief justice. There is plenty of empirical evidence in support of it, spread over an interval of three months, which requires no comments and no elaborations.
We in the army have many sacred cows; for instance the commanding officer of a unit.
The unit itself is a sacred cow. Its honour, prestige and reputation are most jealously guarded by officers and men. You can put this to a test, if you like.
Go to a unit with a few trusted friends, at the time of tea break. Just to pull their leg, slip in a few words within the hearing of a couple of young officers: “Your unit is muck, a scum that stinks from miles”; or words to that effect. The show will instantly begin and soon cups, saucers, spoons and even chairs will be flying in the air. You and your friends would be lucky if you all get away in one piece.
The worship of sacred cows goes up the ladder to division, corps and finally the army, loved by men and officers, both serving and retired. Our army is the finest machine in the whole world.
The army is indeed a sacred cow for those who serve it and for those who have served it.
There are all the same a number of sacred cows amongst our erstwhile political organisations. I wish these political organisations were only 10 per cent as efficient, disciplined and organised as the army, there would have been then no need of calling the army to clear the muck from time to time.
Some sacred cows are at present lodged abroad, munching the fodder accumulated over several years: musing, munching and musing and awaiting for the opportune movement to fly out of their lodging and join the melee that is about to begin.
It pains a great deal to hear a popular politician like Mr Aitzaz Ahsan say on the TV to the nation and the whole world at large that Indians don’t want to fight us; it is the army that is making us fight the Indians, or words to that effect.
It may be his opinion, even though it is much weird and incompressible, yet I take that Mr Ahsan has some reasons for making such a claim. But in order to experience his visions of lovely Indians, one has to put on his pair of glasses.
By the way what I saw through my pair of field glasses on the morning of Sept 6, 1965 was something entirely different. I saw Indian soldiers alongside their tanks rushing astride GT Road in an effort to capture the bridge on BRBL Canal near Batapur and enter Lahore.
Where were you Mr Ahsan on that fateful day? Were you surprised? I suppose not because, according to your mindset, the Indians were supposedly coming to relive us or get rid of us, the burden of Pakistan army that was making Pakistanis hate Indians and fight Indians.
A piece of advice to you Mr Ahsan and your like-minded colleagues. Never get near a combat unit, unless you are accompanied by its commanding officer, least of all a commando unit. They are sure to make sacred cows out of you all.
LT COL (r) K.M. ISMAIL
Lahore
THERE are many things which make Karachi stand out amongst the cities of Pakistan. Its massive growth since 1947 is one, its cosmopolitan outlook is another. But what gives it uniqueness is that it is a new phenomenon. It does not have a history like Lahore and Multan. It is in historical terms quite fresh. It owes its existence to the British. There was no Karachi two centuries ago. Therefore, whatever history it has consists of the British period, and the British did leave lots of things.
The areas in Karachi developed during British times like Saddar, Clifton, Lines Area and Malir were full of beautiful colonial structures. They give the city grace and pride.
Karachi can be compared to Hong Kong, another British city. In the past few years, however, there has been an attack on Karachi's heritage. The Civil Lines Area (next to Marriot Hotel) used to be a living museum. All the buildings there were heritage buildings. Today, however, more than half of the Victorian-style buildings are gone and in their place stand gaudy concrete apartment blocks.
The builders in pursuit of their narrow profit motive are on a rampage. Clifton today is quickly losing its serene touch and becoming a noisy concrete jungle. I am deeply surprised why the NGOs and citizenry have not raised their voice on this assault on Karachi's heritage. Do we really want all the old buildings, many of them in very good condition, to be pulled down? What will this leave for future generation of Karachites? They will be totally unaware of the city's glorious roots.
However, all is not lost. There are still considerable structures left and they can be saved if timely action is taken. The public of Karachi and its intelligentsia must come forward to save the heritage buildings from being pulled down.
OSAMA USTAFA
Islamabad
THIS year the World Environment Day has come at a moment when climate change as a result of global warming has proved to be a horrible reality.
Environmentalists have been blamed for exaggerating the global catastrophes. Particularly on the subject of climate change they were humiliated by a strong oil and car lobby, which says that they don’t understand the science of climate.
But now the recent report of International Panel on Climate Change has opened everybody’s eyes. Climate change is happening and people around the world are telling horrifying stories. Last December one of my friends called from Amsterdam and informed me in a very nervous voice that spring has come earlier and trees in Amsterdam are blooming. I told him that here in Pakistan we are having strange milder winters and harsher summers.
The UN Commission on Sustainable Development has lost its last traces of reputation by not declaring a “Global Climate Emergency”. Such agencies need to come up with a bold and unified commitment to launch a massive global campaign against greenhouse gases and pollution.
The UN secretary-general, Ban Ki Moon, showed strong commitment towards the climate change issue by meeting the EU president and Mr Gore. He said : “You are fully aware of my strong commitment to address the global warming issue and I am going to take an important role in mobilising political will in close coordination with the European Commission when I attend the G-8 summit in June,” Mr Ban told reporters following his meeting with Mr Barraso.
TANVEER ARIF
Society for Conservation & Protection of Environment
Karachi
MR Asghar Ali Engineer in his discourse ‘Communal fallout of the 1857 uprising’ (June 9) has questioned the import of 1857 uprising, saying: “……for the British it was a ‘mutiny’. Of course, there is a serious problem, too, when we call it a war of independence.” He has relied on socialist theoretician Karl Marx who called this great struggle a revolt by feudal lords and on Tara Chand, a noted scholar, to whom it was a general movement of traditional elite Muslims and Hindus.
Credence on Marx is unwarranted as the Marxism basically believes economics as primary factor determining history. It views the history of society as “the history of class struggle” in which the bourgeoisie, or the capitalist class, which replaced the feudal nobility, will inevitably be supplanted by the proletariat, or working class. The struggle of Indians against the foreign occupation indubitably was not of feudal class only but entire society took up arms against the alien yoke.
Mr Chand, while answering his own question, says: “…. war against the British was not inspired by any sentiment of nationalism, for in 1857 India was not yet politically a nation”. His admission that India was not yet a nation is for the fact that the idea of nationalism being European was introduced much later when the British crown consolidated power in the subcontinent after 1857.
In modern essence, the ‘nationalism’ as political philosophy, holding that the welfare of the nation-state is paramount, can be traced to the time of the French revolution (1789). Although philosophy of nationalism has played an essential part in supplementing the formal institutions of society, it has also contributed to excesses of militarism and imperialism, as in Europe under Napoleon I and under German Nazism: it has also inspired movements against the abuses. It remains a dominant force in the world politics despite the spread of trade and communications and the growing interdependence of nations.
In the pre-1857 era although idea of modern nation state was inconceivable being unknown, yet the movement for liberation had the same trappings of nationalism as not only feudal and nawabs, but the entire population stood up in one bloc against the abuses perpetrated by the colonisers.
At page 43 (book referred above), Tara Chand has quoted testimony of Trevelyan. It says: “High and low, rich and poor had only one idea improving their political conditions. The upper classes lived upon the prospect of regaining their former pre-eminence; and the lower upon that of having the avenues to wealth and distribution reopened to them by the reestablishment of the native government”.
Thus even to deem the uprising of 1857 as the last attempt of the mediaeval order to recover its lost status will amount to contempt of the aspirations of the masses that joined hands with leading strata to get freedom from the exploitations of foreign mercenaries.
The uprising of 1857 was not a mutiny or rebellion which by its implication is against the government whereas the East India Company Inc was a trading house that acquired only rights of ‘dewani’ to collect revenue following the battle of Buxer (1764).
The 1857 is the symbol of struggle for freedom from the usurpers who came in the garb of merchants, but taking advantage of civil disturbances and through chicaneries controlled resources of the subcontinent. The policy of ‘divide and rule’ and ‘doctrine of lapse’ etc were the main instruments they employed to achieve their nefarious designs.
I agree with Mr Asghar Ali that, after consolidation, foreign control also brought some benefits such as modern education, infrastructure and rational and scientific ideas. However, these were not introduced for the benefit of the natives but to perpetuate their rule. In this case benefits of British policies accrued to the people in the spirit that one flings a crown to a beggar with intention to break his head, and he picks it up and buys victuals with it.
Although the physical effect was good, but the intention was evil. Therefore, it is the motive that determines morality of an action which in this case was to hold on to power and not to bring progress and prosperity.
MANZOOR H. KURESHI
Karachi
AS a Turkish citizen, I admire Pakistan a lot. It is the only Muslim country in which the majority of people see Ataturk as a role model for other Muslims. Many citizens hate Ataturk because their mullahs told them that he suppressed Islam, they are wrong as Ataturk was a strong patriotic Turkish who loved his country, but his country was far behind western civilisation because of corrupt economic policies of the last Ottoman king.
The first public mention of Mustafa Kemal's programme to implement Cultural Revolution came at the Bursa speech: "A nation which does not practise science, such a nation, one must admit, has no place in the high road of civilization. But our nation with its true qualities deserves to become and will become civilised and progressive."
Mustafa Kemal capitalised on his reputation as the nation’s father to institute a variety of wide-ranging reforms transforming Turkish society from seeing itself as a group of Muslim subjects of a vast Empire into defining itself as the citizens of a modern, democratic, and secular nation-state.”
This gave confidence to the people of Turkey after the disastrous World War I made it what it is today. So my appeal to Pakistanis is that they should follow the example of Ataturk and separate religion from the state so that once again Muslims in Pakistan can enjoy what they did back in the Ottoman age.
SEVKI SUBASI
Istanbul,Turkey
THE salaries of the government employees have been increased at the rate of 15 per cent, as adopted in the federal budget 2007-08. But will the measure provide the much -needed relief to the salaried class? Certainly not. The proposed increase is obviously not proportional to the inflation registered during recent times, rather on a monthly basis. Prices of essential commodities have even registered a sharp rise just before the announcement of the budget and continue to rise constantly.
A government official comment on the situation: "The two ends just don’t meet. Whenever I feel that I am close to meeting both the ends, the budget moves the ends farther." Another says: "My problem lies in reconciling my gross expenses with my net income".
HUSSAIN SIDDIQUI
Islamabad
RECENTLY a report in your newspaper said that road construction in Islamabad is delayed because bitumen is in short supply as most of it was going toward the completion of motorway M-1 project, linking Islamabad and Peshawar.
It was also said that this is because M-1 is a project of ‘national’ importance and has, therefore, been given priority. I think that’s a very lame excuse put forward. Everyone knows that M-1 has been under construction for six years, with no end in sight.
Everyone knows that the NHA is not acting like ‘National’ Highway Authority that it actually is and is grossly ignoring the demands of the people of the NWFP that have been patiently waiting for M-1 to complete.
Not only that, the main G.T. Road from Attock to Peshawar has been a mess for the past so many years and the intermittent road construction has caused tremendous inconveniences to commuters. The contractors and other authorities involved in Islamabad road construction need to come up with a better excuse.
IMRAN WAZEER
Islamabad
IT was an interesting column by Aileen Qaiser on rain harvesting. I would like to share my experience of the same with you.
Rain harvesting in India was started by some people in Gujarat, which is prone to drought. It was not the idea of any government functionary. It was thought out by villagers who were suffering from water shortage every summer. Even today those villages that have opted for rain harvesting are not suffering from water shortages.
I stay in Chennai, Tamilnadu. We too were having problems of water shortages every summer. Four years back, the then chief minister of Tamilnadu, J. Jayalalitha, made it mandatory to have rain harvesting in each and every house. She threatened that those not following the rule will have their electricity supply disconnected.
Within a month the whole of Chennai was ready with water harvesting. For the last two years we have never had any water shortage, even during summers. We get 24 hours water every day and our lakes are still flush with water.
Please make it compulsory for the house owner in your cities to install water harvesting.
VIJAY
Chennai
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