| October 22, 2007 | Monday | Shawwal 9, 1428 |
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Need to review the situation
The axis of evil
Eid Mubarak to you…
Slow-paced work
Whose fault was it?
Dysfunctional SPSC
Karachi traffic nightmare
Positive change
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
IN his letter, ‘Fallout of chaos” (Oct 11), Col ( r) George L. Singleton has written from the US: “The Pakhtuns in the NWFP are taking full advantage of the chaos, murder and terrorism, created and perpetrated by the Taliban and Al Qaeda, to seek to advance their religiously-driven goal of a separate nation of Pakhtuns they would cobble out of parts of today’s Pakistan and Afghanistan, ignoring the Durand Line…”
He then goes on to suggest that martial law, imposed nationwide, if necessary, would show the terrorists that they are about to be put out of business permanently. His analysis is flawed and the proposed solution not only shocking but counterproductive.
First, let’s examine the flaws in his conclusion. The Pakhtunistan issue wasn’t a product of religious fervour but of secular and nationalistic thinking, encouraged above all by India and its Afghan collaborators right from 1947.
Besides, the religious-minded in the NWFP (or anywhere in the country) are all for Pakistan and aren’t trying to capitalise on the chaos created by the militants. But, one must admit that Musharraf’s aggressive approach is alienating the Pathans regardless of their ideology.
It is the Taliban and other fundamentalists who are desirous of enforcing their very strict version of Islam not just on the province but all over Pakistan and Afghanistan.
As far as the religious extremism and militancy are concerned, they in themselves are the result primarily of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the consequent jihad initiated and supported by the US and other western powers. After Washington had not only avenged its defeat in Vietnam but got the much greater and unexpected bonus of the USSR’s demise, it just walked away from the region without bothering to help clear up the mess.
This has been acknowledged and regretted in the last couple of years only by several American leaders and officials despite the repeated reminders to this effect by the politicians, intellectuals and writers of the two countries.
When the US ran foul of its self-created jihadis like Osama bin Laden and the newly-formed Taliban whom it had been supporting for the first three to four years, it went after them militarily. Thus began the new jihad and all the related problems.
However, I have never seen Col Singleton ever acknowledge in the many letters he’s written in last several years that the trouble precipitated by the expansionism of the USSR and the realpolitik, strategic aims and greed for petroleum resources of the US – recall Alan Greenspan’s and other people’s observation that the Iraq war is about oil. Both the superpowers caused an almighty mess, suffering and militancy here.
The Americans are now pushing for democracy in Myanmar but dictatorsip/martial law in Pakistan because it would bring up pro-western leadership there and retain the one here, which shows their selfishness.
Regarding the writer’s advice of imposing martial law, it is just another sway of fulfilling the Bush administration’s desire of prolonging Musharraf’s stay.
But, the thing invisible to Mr Singleton from 10,000 miles away is that we are fed up with the despotism which, given the concentration of all powers in the general’s hands, was effectively like martial law. It should have been apparent to him from the president’s lowest popularity rating of 38 per cent.
Dr Marvin Weinbaum, a veteran South Asian scholar, testified before the US House Armed Services Committee that the US pressure on Musharraf to do more has intensified opposition within the frontier region and eroded his political support within the country (Dawn, Oct. 11).
M. Y. KHAN
Karachi
THE fighting in Waziristan has intensified and with it is rising the fear of another East Pakistan-like debacle in the shape of ‘North’ Pakistan emerging. A few statements in the Oct 10 issue of Dawn should make it crystal clear who is to be blamed for that.
The former army chief, Gen Mirza Aslam Beg, has alleged that President Musharraf is responsible for the killings in North Waziristan and that the casualties of the military personnel are much higher than being admitted officially.
He warned that the army would not be able to defeat the people who could not be defeated in the past even by the US, Russia and troops of other countries.
He further stated that at present the Mirali cantonment was under tremendous pressure and the troops were not willing to fight. In his assessment, the re-election of Gen Musharraf would escalate the fighting going on in tribal areas.
The former COAS proposed that the government should accept defeat at the hands of the militants, withdraw troops from the tribal areas and hold talks with the tribesmen to restore peace to the area.
To this one may add that a member of the peace jirga interviewed by the BBC also clearly said that the army could not win against the Taliban and that only 30 militants had repulsed the attack by nearly 300 of our troops (Oct 9).
An eyewitness lamented that many of his nephews and nieces had perished in the aerial attack and doctors or medical help was inaccessible. He broke down at the end of the conversation -- I also felt like crying.
– Speaking before the Institute of Strategic Studies in London, former ISI chief Lt-Gen Asad Durrani said the army should never have gone against the tribes in the tribal areas and now he thought it had become a no-win situation.
– Federal Interior Minister Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao said that negotiations are the only way to deal with the Taliban, both in Afghanistan and in Pakistan. He said the Pakhtuns could never be subdued through the use of force and stressed that Islamabad had no option but to start negotiations with the Taliban.
Apart from the foregoing arguments, a very thought-provoking article, ‘The flames of insurgency’, by Brig ( r) Javed Hussain had made a number of points, including (a) the local people’s sympathies are not with our army in the affected areas due to which it is having difficulty in collecting intelligence (Sept 27). As a result, when 18 SSG commandos landed on a hilltop in Waziristan, they were either killed or captured.
After the army crackdown in East Pakistan in March 1971, the Bengali soldiers of the army had deserted to join the Mukti Bahini resistance force. In the tribal areas, a number of desertions by paramilitary soldiers are reported to have taken place. He hoped and prayed that the Pathan soldiers, who constitute nearly 30 per cent of the army’s rank and file, remain unaffected.
All of this goes to show the gravity of the situation and, hence, the need to review the situation.
ADIL
Karachi
AN article in the US Armed Forces Journal, titled, ‘Blood Borders’, written by Ralph Peter, suggests that there is need to break the very structure of the existing states of the Middle East, including Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan, and create a Greater Middle East. Ralph Peters suggests that Pakistan’s NWF tribes would be reunited with their Afghan brothers – Pakistan, an unnatural state would also lose its Baloch territories to free Balochistan, thus creating a Greater West Asia!
One can see very logical connection in the US-led Nato forces action along Pakistan-Afghanistan borders and at the same time forcing Pakistan to intensify military action in the North/South Waziristan, on the pretext of chasing Taliban and Al Qaeda elements.
The US intentions are to create dissent and polarisation within Pakistan as well as between the countries of the region, so that total anarchy may prevail in the region, paving the way for the restructuring.
This viewpoint gained strength from the severe US criticism of unilateral agreement between the federal government and the tribals in Miramshah on Sept 5, 2006.
Indians, after being declared as strategic partners of the US, have started chanting ‘Pidram Sultan bood’! A group of pro-US Indian analysts believe that the Balochistan crisis has opened new possibilities for India to establish its domination in the region. Indians think that Balochistan has become a soft spot in Pakistan’s ‘under-belly’.
A second Indian group sees an actual deeper game plan in Balochistan that the US has been playing an important covert role, consisting in quietly encouraging Baloch separatists to give the province a semi-autonomous profile. Such profile would help the US build a bridge between Balochistan and West and Central Asia, and gain influence in the two regions with their huge natural resources.
An additional US motive might be to open another potential front against Iran, besides blocking IPI gas pipeline project. The same Indian analysts believe that Washington has covertly supplied arms to Baloch militias, isn’t it a stab in the back of an ally?
The UK for its part has given sanctuary to so-called Balochistan Liberation Army, somewhere in Britain. Its outgoing prime minister Blair persuaded Gen Musharraf to stop his support to the Taliban and stop calling freedom struggle in Kashmir, but call it ‘indigenous struggle’. So we saw the infamous U-turn on the Taliban and slowing down of composite dialogue between Pakistan and India.
The world has to realise the extreme dangers posed to the world peace by this ‘real axis of evil’, the sooner the better.
ABID MAHMUD ANSARI
Islamabad
THE letter by Mr Z. A. Kazmi regarding the demolition of a goth in Karachi just a week before Eid was very touching. He has ended it by sarcastically wishing ‘Eid Mubarak to the stony-hearted bosses’ who ordered it (Oct 12).
This immediately brought home to me the severe suffering to which the residents of some parts of Waziristan, especially Mirali, have been subjected to through F-16s, and helicopter gunships sent by Musharraf during the month of fasting and only days before the festival.
It also reminded me how children and adults had died last spring by having their throats cut by kite strings when Musharraf and the Punjab CM had decided to celebrate Basant in violation of the Supreme Court orders against kite-flying.
As my heart weeps for the Pakistanis, whether soldiers or civilians, who are dying just because America wants its so-called war on terror to be fought in Muslim lands, I note that ‘Eid Mubarak’ has been turned on its head. It has now become reversed, to read ‘Die Karabum’, which sounds very much like, ‘die (from a) car bomb’.
That is how the current atmosphere has become in Pakistan, Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Palestine, Kashmir, Chechnya and Somalia. Happy ‘War on Terror’ to the US, Nato and their puppets and ‘Die Karabum’ to their victims.
JAVED Q.
Karachi
APROPOS of construction work on service road being carried out between Karimabad and Aisha Manzil (Superhighway), we register a complaint and express deep dissatisfaction at the overall pace of work and method of pursuing it.
Most days no visible work is carried out where most of the time machinery seems to lie idle on the roadside where the company concerned has set up a camp, signifying that the company personnel are either not interested or are incompetent to plan and carry out project work tasks.
Similarly, the company’s approach towards project completion is itself a painful experience for the residents of this area. It shows that the company’s skill in carrying out public project is abhorrent and under-rated. It has been more than five months that the initial excavations of service road was carried out and till this day very little has been achieved. All being done is that diggers excavate five to six feet deep holes and after a few weeks truckload of soil is dumped back into these. This process I have witnessed several times at the very same location.
Below are a few of the problems we are facing on a daily basis:
1. Entry/exit from homes: This mismanagement has left us in a hazardous situation where on several occasions our vehicles/cars dangerously got trapped in the loose gravels and soil, while parking in or out of our home. Please note that I had to pay about Rs50,000 for car repair and maintenance just because of the company’s negligence and lack of concern. There is virtually no way in and out of our house.
2. Health hazard: Exposed mud and sand has left us in serious health problems. Every day we are forced to inhale poisonous and toxic dust being drifted into our homes. This has left us and our children exposed to various respiratory problems. Our aged and already sick family members are deeply disturbed because of this mess.
3. Safety and security: The company work has exposed our properties in such a way that bandits easily enter and exit our properties and homes. Also, ditches have become safe places for drug addicts and pushers. There have been incidents like an unfortunate murder of one of our neighbours, intrusion into our home, robberies during the project cycle. Never has there been such a security risk as now.
4. Utilities: Work has severely disrupted and often disconnected utilities like telephone, electricity, water, sewerage. It took the PTCL more than five months to trace and repair a damaged underground cable connected to our phones.
5. Traffic flow on the main road: Workers and employees are so ignorant and rude that they have installed a cement mixer machine between lanes #2 and #3 of the main Superhighway. This results in traffic flowing through a one-lane bottleneck forcing a heavy backlog. This has also resulted in numerous accidents because there is unmanaged construction material lying all over throughout the stretch of the road. I hold the company solely responsible for every loss of life and damage to public property.
6. Recent heavy rains caused massive flooding of the ditches the contractor’s firm has dug up. The level of water rose so high that it became impossible to tell level of the road in all that muddy water.
The company may be benefiting substantially in financial terms from the contract but at the expense of public life and property. Its actions are seriously undermining the good intentions of the city and the Sindh government.
I appeal to the company’s management to give us speedy relief and respite from this extremely difficult situation.
MOHAMMAD ALI KHAN
Karachi
THE government will have us believe that the carnage on Oct 18 is because Ms Bhutto refused to delay her homecoming but how would things have been different had she returned say a month later? Would the government have identified militants and then rounded them up before she returned?
Granted Ms Bhutto and the PPP could have handled the day’s events differently. She could have greeted crowds at the airport and then used a helicopter to go to the Quaid’s Mazaar.
But this would not have reduced the threat to her life, not to mention thousands of others who were waiting for her at the mazaar.
The threat to Ms Bhutto’s life was apparent well in advance. She even made a request to import special bullet vehicles in this regard but was assured of her safety by the government.
Why were jamming devices not included in the security measures?
They are known to be an effective deterrent to such attacks yet they were not included; we must know why before blaming any one person or party.
SAIMA ZAFAR
Karachi
THERE was a time when the Sindh Public Service Commission was an emblem of dignity and prestige. Now it has been turned into a dead horse to be run. When a person had completed his degree, his ultimate option was to appear in SPSC for competitive examinations.
Nowadays, the SPSC, which had been a dignified institution, has deteriorated because of its performance.
It has advertised many posts, but has not still made any appointments due to unknown reasons.
I too have suffered a lot due to inconsistent policy of the SPSC. Once I travelled from Islamabad to Hyderabad by train, without getting any seat booked.
I spent the whole day and night on the floor of the train in order to appear in mukhtiarkar examination.
Surprisingly the examination was postponed just one day before and I had already reached Hyderabad.
I request the authorities to take remedial action against inconsistencies while making a policy and carrying it out.
QAMAR ZAMAN BHUTTO
Islamabad
THE Supreme Court’s suo motu notice is being openly flouted by the mafia of long trailers etc, specially in the wholesale Timber Market, Jodia Bazaar, Kharadar, Shah Waliullah Road and so forth. This reflects poorly on the intentions of the Karachi traffic police who look the other way when such violations are taking place.
Their only interest is to bargain with the violators and settle the violation without challan. From the intersection of Teen Hatti to Juna Market on Nishter Road, there is not one policeman to control the traffic and the only way traffic running between Nishter Road, Pilgrim Road, Siddique Wahab Road, in which most of the timber shops are located, and Jameela Street, which was inaugurated 15 years back by he Traffic Engineering Bureau, presents a scene of chaos.
Vehicles haphazardly creep in all directions and mostly vertical to the road to unload their timber into the godown, they block all the traffic on both sides. On being confronted, the drivers become violent and even resort to physical abuse. It is imperative that the decision of the Supreme Court must be implemented in letter and in spirit.
Illegal double parking of long vehicles is another nuisance. In the decades of 50s to 80s there used to be bus stops on all roads and stopping elsewhere used to be an offence. Now a passenger can get on and get down from a bus anywhere on the road.
The solution to the problem is simple. The DIG (traffic) should go round the city and see for himself the chaos created by his subordinates, and then take on-the-spot decisions.
DR IRSHAD A. SETHI
Karachi
I recently visited the passport department at Awami Markaz in Karachi for my passport renewal. However, while some documentation was pending and I needed to make an urgent renewal, the staff waited for my missing document for almost 45 minutes after closing office hours to clear the formalities. And out of genuine help. There was no bribe involved.
The whole process which I had been dreading was done smoothly because the staff cooperated. I am happy to know we have such good people working in the government department who are often belittled without much thought. I hope we find such young, energetic and logical people in all public-oriented government departments.
R. ANJARWALA
Karachi
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