| June 24, 2007 | Sunday | Jamadi-us-Sani 08, 1428 |
To send a letter to the Editor
Click here
Import of cars
Who should go to the magic well?
Tolerance needed
American writer’s views
Pakistanis prosper?
Residents’ appeal
An honourable way out
Plight of DHA residents
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
THIS is with reference to the articles, ‘Grave setback for Palestine’ by Tanvir Ahmad Khan (June 18) and ‘Violence in Gaza’ by Karma Nabulsi, as well as to your editorial, ‘Palestinian trauma’(both June 19). They reflect the dismay felt by Muslims everywhere over the recent fratricidal events in Palestine. Mr Khan had predicted right after the Makkah Accord that Israel and its western supporters would try to undermine the unity government of the two Palestinian factions to keep Hamas from retaining its popularity and influence.
Mr Nabulsi, while tracing the factors leading to the present situation, has exposed the perfidy of the US by quoting the UN envoy for the Middle East peace process, Alvaro de Soto. In his confidential report submitted brfore his resigning in sheer frustration, the envoy wrote:
“The US clearly pushed for a confrontation between Fatah and Hamas, so much so that, a week before Makkah Accord, the US envoy declared twice at an envoys’ meeting in Washington how much ‘I like this violence’, referring to the near-civil war that was erupting in Gaza in which civilians were being regularly killed and injured."
Soon after Hamas won the elections and assumed power in 2006, Israel had stopped payment of taxes collected on behalf of the Palestinian Authority to the new government in order to strangulate it financially. So much so that it could not pay salaries to its employees for many months and even the hospitals ran out of medicines and money. Now, it has ended the supply of fuel to Gaza, except for its main power station, due to which hospitals and businesses have come to a standstill.
Instead of mere hand-wringing or wishing a foreign power will help resolve Palestine’s difficulties, the time has come for all Muslims to dispassionately review the lessons learned and formulate a new strategy.
Obviously, the Arabs haven't been able to do anything concrete for the Palestinians since 1948. Despite jointly fighting a war with the Zionist state in 1967 and then in 1973, they only ended up losing Arab territories. The biggest stumblingblocks at present are:
1) Unwillingness of most Arab and Muslim rulers to annoy the US and Europe by adopting a defiant approach towards them and Israel. They fear that without western support they couldn't remain in power in their respective countries.
2) Distrust between Iran, Syria, Hezbollah and Hamas on the one side and the remaining Arab countries on the other. This has prevented the latter from rescuing the democratically-elected Hamas, manifesting the will of the Palestinian people, who were fed up with the policies of President Mahmoud Abbas and the prevalent corruption.
The only way out is for the pro-American Arab rulers to respect the wishes of the Arab Street and adopt a bold stand towards the tormentors of Palestine. This will entail some major risks, including intrigues by the West to weaken or replace them, as also military and economic ones. However, if the 57 Muslim countries band together, the hostile-forces can be successfully resisted. The way Iraqi resistance humbled the superpower and tiny Hezbollah gave Israel a bloody nose, should greatly boost our confidence.
As far as fear of Iranian influence is concerned, there is something both sides need to understand. Iran's ambitions to export its revolution or to greatly enhance its dominance in the region will be counter-productive, even if it can go nuclear. Instead of alienating the neighbours, it must look for their support in its confrontation with the West. The people in any country will not accept proxy governments or an unequal relationship.
The Arabs, too, should not be overly concerned about a besieged Iran’s efforts to win over Hamas or the Lebanese. Moreover, providing help to Hamas at this critical stage will win their hearts permanently. By working jointly everybody stands to gain, despite some short losses. The Ummah's first action must be to impose oil and other embargoes on Tel Aviv, regardless of the threats Washington and others may hurl. Also, they must be wary of those Muslim leaders whose outward allegiance is to Palestine but inwardly to the US and Israel. The dagger driven through the Islamic world's heart can best be removed and the organ healed by all the fingers working together lovingly and carefully.
M.Y.KHAN
Karachi
THE policy changes proposed on July 15, which aimed at reducing the capping of import of old and used cars to three years from the previous five, are sure to have a great impact on the future of Pakistan's local auto industry.
Even though automobile makers accepted this news with open arms, we should be a bit more wary of what prospects it brings, as we need to consider its real long-term ramifications. The most immediate is how it affects the consumer's perception: while the average car buyer may initially believe that imported cars contain some advantage over locally-assembled cars, the truth is that both are manufactured according to similar specifications.
On top of that, even if one does buy an imported car , finding replacement parts for the internationally-assembled automobile will be difficult as only minor spare parts can be found in Pakistan.
From another perspective, buying imported cars depletes Pakistan's knowledge-based development as we will be deprived of an attractive and burgeoning sector. It additionally has many immediate effects on our job climate, severely adding to the unemployment ( 0.3 million new job opportunities were lost in July 2005 alone) and costing our nation significant revenue (the auto industry is an important contributor to the GDP).
The responsibility to make the right decision is in the government's hands as well, and by reconfiguring recent policies such as that recently proposed by the Engineering Development Board, which recommended a reduction in the customs duty on imports of completely knock-down units (CKD) to 10 per cent (which is a vast reduction from the current level of 25 per cent), the local industry could be aided.
Similarly, another policy that locally-manufactured cars would be subject to a five per cent withholding tax should be reconsidered as well, as the additional upfront costs of purchasing local cars may deter potential customers.
Ultimately, as we outsource to other countries, we serve to really deprive ourselves. Considering that all signs indicate that Pakistan has a productive future in store, thinking that Pakistan's industry is not up to the same quality as those of the other countries aptly demonstrates the problems in our cultural identity.
Embracing products made within our own borders will give Pakistan the respect it deserves. As the automobile industry has been with Pakistan since soon after its inception, we owe it to the industry to keep it growing by taking pride in our own sector and buying locally-manufactured cars.
REYAN ALI
Karachi
WHILE going through Paulo Coelho’s book ‘Veronica decides to die’, I came across a short story which I would like to share.
“Once a powerful wizard, who wanted to destroy an entire kingdom, placed a magic potion in the well from which all the inhabitants drank. Whoever drank that water would go mad.
“The following morning, the whole population drank from the well and they all went mad, apart from the king and his family, who had a well set aside for them alone, and which the magician had not managed to poison.
“The king was worried and tried to control the population by issuing a series of edicts governing security and public health. The policemen and the inspectors had also drunk the poisoned water and they thought the king’s decisions were absurd and resolved to take no notice of them.
“When the inhabitants of the kingdom heard these decrees, they became convinced that the king had gone mad and was now giving nonsensical orders. They marched to the castle and called for his abdication.
“In despair, the king prepared to step down from the throne, but the queen stopped him, saying: ‘Let us go and drink from the communal well. Then we will be the same as them.’ And that was what they did: the king and queen drank the water of madness and immediately began talking nonsense.
“Their subjects repented at once: now that the king was displaying such wisdom, why not allow him to continue ruling the country?
“The country continued to live in peace, although its inhabitants behaved very differently from those of its neighbours. And the king was able to govern until the end of his days.”
How relevant to us under the circumstances. The question is, who of the two should go to the magic well, the rulers or we the poor subjects?
JAVAID HASAN
Karachi
For the past few months, I have followed the media coverage of the case of Mr and Mrs Shumail Raj. Being a physician, I know that our Creator made us into males and females but He also made a few ‘in the middle’.
This basically means that a baby is born with physical evidence of one sex and hence treated as such all through childhood. At adolescence, the true genetic make up starts doing its job to differentiate the adult gender characteristics.
Those who are ‘in the middle’ start developing features of the opposite of what they were born with. This creates an immense physical, emotional, psychological and social confusion. On finding this natural abnormality, doctors advise certain measures one of which is to decide what gender identity they want to continue for the rest of their life.
Once this difficult reality is faced and a decision made, generally a removal of the organs (sex correction operation) is done to bring a person as close to normal as possible.
In these circumstances the best scenario is that a person takes a certain gender identity and lives the rest of the life as such. There can be no family or marital life for such a person unless they are lucky to find a partner who is willing to sacrifice a normal life, able to understand the predicament and possibly adopt children. This is their only chance for a normal life.
It seems this is exactly what Shumail Raj was trying to do. What better chance does this man have of leading any normal life than with a childhood friend who is willing to accept his very private and personal predicament? In a bid to get out of a forced marriage elsewhere, this girl cousin ties the knot with him as independent understanding adults.
They should be now left alone to lead their private lives but our society has decided to make life more miserable for them and label them as sinners. Why can’t these people see Mr Nawazish Ali on television and the fashionable male ladies at every traffic signal of Karachi as sinners? Why hasn’t our media made any effort to find the facts of the couple’s dilemma?
This is just one case. Our daily lives are full of such cases where injustices are created by our society, supported by the media and blamed on the government. Let us reflect on such happenings. Maybe we can change for the better.
DR ZAINAB WAQAR
Karachi
ACCORDING to a report (June 15), Jewish American writer Arthur Herman has written a rejoinder to Benazir Bhutto's article in the Wall Street Journal in which he has presented some assessments about Benazir Bhutto and Pakistan, many of which are faulty.
Some of his observations include: (a) If Benazir Bhutto returns to power, it "would certainly trigger a return to anarchy and open the door to a Taliban-style fundamentalist coup." (b) He ridiculed Ms Bhutto's assertion that "more than two-thirds of Pakistanis are distinctly moderate" in their religious views. (c) That Ms Bhutto proved to be one of the most incompetent leaders in the history of South Asia and during her chaotic rule in the mid-1990s, scores of people were being murdered in the streets of Karachi every day.
(d) Mr Herman also noted: "The current hatred for Gen Musharraf has little to do with the nature of his government. His real crime is that he is a Muhajir...." Therefore, "pushing for his fall has little to do with a return to democracy." (e) President Musharraf has not only been a good ally for America, he has also been good for Pakistan," and "compared with the Maliki government in Iraq, (his governments) record is impressive, especially in fostering a safe, relatively open and secular Pakistan."
These are being answered serially. (a) It is not that merely Benazir's return to power will cause anarchy but the fact that she is likely to be used by Washington as a substitute for Musharraf. This would cause her to follow the tireless American policies of doing more in its war on terror and of secularising Pakistan – she will be more than happy to oblige the US – which would cause anarchy.
(b) If the majority of Pakistanis had not been moderate, then secularists or moderates like Benazir Bhutto, Nawaz Sharif, Imran Khan and the CJP Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry would not have been the most popular leaders/persons, respectively, over here, according to a recent American assessment.
(c) I do have a poor opinion of Ms Bhutto's leadership because, in spite of having the necessary intelligence, she is extremely ambitious, lacks principles and is insincere. However, the killings in Karachi were not because of her but due to the policies of the MOM – which is proved by their not occurring anywhere else – a sample of which was again seen on May 12.
(d) Parochialism has been a problem in this country but it certainly isn't as severe as made out by the writer, and the Pakistanis have proved this on numerous occasions.
Thus, the people of Punjab were mainly responsible for bringing the Sindhi-speaking Z.A. Bhutto and, later on, his daughter to power. Bhutto then made Punjabi general-Ziaul Haq the COAS who, in turn, appointed Urdu-speaking Gen Aslam Beg as his successor. Also, it was Punjabi prime minister Nawaz Sharif who had elevated the muhajir Musharraf as the army chief. Likewise, people are supporting Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry all over Pakistan regardless of their ethnicity or political affiliations. As long as Gen Musharraf was perceived to be working sincerely, most citizens backed him.
His ethnicity only came into the picture after his close relationship with the MQM became hard to ignore, particularly after his unquestioned support to the MOM following the bloodletting in Karachi that is universally seen as having been in support of Musharraf. The demand for his resignation is all about freedom and democracy and even many muhajir lawyers are among its vanguard.
Mr Herman’s real reason for defending the general is the same as that of Bush and the other neocons, who see him as the most powerful and useful man to do their bidding. He has certainly been very good for the US but not for Pakistan and his stay in power is causing hatred for what was until recently a highly respected organisation.
M. ALI
Karachi
I WAS saddened to see a photograph of people sleeping in the streets, (Metropolitan, June 11) somewhere in Karachi, because there was no electricity.
Neighbourhood after neighbourhood suffers in turn with these torturous power outages.
The biggest sufferers are the children and the other half of the nation, as usual, the females, as they cannot sleep in the streets.
The irony is that just a few days earlier I saw a half-page advertisement, (Dawn, June 2) with the title of 'Pakistanis prosper', sponsored by the government.
As usual, it was an exercise in self-deceit and lies, which we the Pakistanis are accustomed to.
Both the guardians of our country, with their shining smiles, were waiving to the people. Perhaps they were saluting the public for sleeping in the streets, in exchange for allowing them to stay in power.
Each summer was worse than the previous but this time around the people of Karachi have been humiliated as never before, and that is when Pakistan has 'prospered' the most in 60 years. Why doesn't the prosperity trickle down to the common man?
The truth of the matter, as we all know, is that the 'prosperity' per se is only meant for a fraction of the country's real population who are deceiving the majority with these dubious statistics. Lord have mercy on the real people of Pakistan.
DANISH AZAR ZUBY
Karachi
WE, the residents of Union Council-4, Liaquatabad Town, Karachi, appeal to Town Nazim Osama Qadri that the remaining kutcha streets should be carpeted so that our houses and the nearby graveyard are not damaged in the ensuing monsoon rains.
Carpeting of the various lanes of C-1 Area has turned our locality into a low-lying area, with the result that overflowing sewage water inundates the remaining kutcha lanes. Owing to this, the residents are facing great difficulties.
We hope the town nazim would look into the matter before monsoon sets in and does the irreparable damage.
M. SHADAB BUTT & OTHERS
Karachi
AFTER referendum in 2002, people had expectations that President Musharraf would come closer to his genuine supporters and keep at bay the self-serving elements. But this did not happen. The president has faltered. Acting in haste, he sent, on the advice of his self-serving friends, an unnecessary reference against the chief justice of Pakistan. This proved disastrous for him and he still has not recovered from the effects of this mistake.
As if one mistake was not enough, the president committed yet another by imposing curbs on the media. All such issues could have been settled amicably. Although he had admitted that a sort of conspiracy was being hatched against him, he fell in the trap and still remains victim of such conspiracies. Now he has the following options before him:
(i) Hold a free and fair election like Gen Yahya did and (ii) hand over power to the political party which wins.
This way he can make his exit graceful and peaceful, and save whatever he has done for this country.
K. MURAD BEY
Karachi
THE residents of Khayaban- i-Hafiz are mentally stressed due to the plans of the DHA administration to build a flyover right over the residential area. The residents living there were not consulted and the flyover is being made unilaterally without taking into account the interest of the community.
It is quite obvious that building such a flyover will lead to accumulation of rainwater, become a safe haven for drug addicts and most importantly cause environmental and noise pollution.
The flyover construction has already begun and a pillar has already been constructed on Gizri and another hole has been dug on Khyaban-i-Hafiz, iron bars have been placed around it without any light to identify it, thus posing a serious hazard for moving traffic. A few days back a motorcyclist was killed as he was not able to see it.
A joint application has been given by the affected residents about three weeks ago but the administrator has not found time to invite them to discuss the issue with the community living there.
In view of the above, may we request the DHA administrator and the corps comander to give us an appointment so that we can explain our plight.
AFFECTED RESIDENTS
Karachi
You can also send letters to the Editor
Just send your message to the following address: letters@dawn.com
Make sure you include your full name, postal address, e-mail address, and in the case of Pakistan your day-time telephone number.