| November 07, 2007 | Wednesday | Shawwal 25, 1428 |
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Lesson for Philippines?
Privatisation of utilities
Turkish approach
The French connection
Extremism on the go
Oil in troubled waters
Reforming NAB
Motorway construction
Lincoln
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
ALTHOUGH I am about 15,000 miles away from Pakistan at the moment, I express my solidarity with all fellow citizens who are victims of the ongoing attack on basic freedoms.
I hence disapprove of the violation of the Constitution, the assault on all major institutions of political and civil society.
I applaud the courage and the struggle of citizens and leaders who uphold the supremacy of law, respect for judicial norms and for fundamental rights. I abhor the ban on access to private TV channels and all other restrictions on freedom of expression.
While it is true that Pakistan is facing unprecedented violence from indoctrinated, irrational fanatics, the actions being taken in the name of a cure are worse than the disease. At this time all those who believe in the Quaid’s vision of a progressive Pakistan must together face and eventually overcome this attempt to derail our beloved country for the sake of individual and group interests.
JAVED JABBAR
Los Angeles, USA
IT is astonishing how the judges have been blamed for letting the terrorists go and cited as one of the reasons for imposition of martial law. But now the government itself has freed 25 terrorists in exchange for 200 soldiers. Why?
And how unfortunate it is that a government that gives in when confronted by the Taliban does not feel remorse while brutalising unarmed lawyers, media people and other personalities of civil society And by the way, there was also a mention of Lal Masjid’s re-opening as another example of SC letting go terrorists. But the two judges who gave the orders for Lal Masjid to be re-opened are among the four Supreme Court judges who have taken the oath on the PCO. Strange in a pathetic sort of way though.
NAEEM RASHID
Lahore
THE recent action taken by the executive speaks volumes, as after 60 years of independence we have failed to determine the form of governance for our homeland.
To get rid of the problems faced by our rulers from the judiciary, it would be more appropriate to abandon the judiciary as an institution and install army courts for dispensing speedy justice as deemed fit by the rulers.
This will be at least an honest recognition of stark reality across the board.
I. A. SIDDIQUI
Karachi
AYAZ Amir has all along been informing us about the great valour of some of our apex court judges. Starting with Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Rana Bhagwandas, Javed Iqbal, Mian Shakirullah Jan, Nasirul Mulk, Raja Fayyaz, Ghulam Rabbani, Khalilur Rehman Ramday, and all those judges of high courts who have not taken the oath under the PCO.
The Pakistani nation salutes them, the names of these great men would be written in golden words in the dark judicial history of Pakistan.
MUHAMMAD FAISAL KHOKHAR
London, UK
PRESIDENT Gen Musharraf had rightly stated in his book: ‘Our past experience had amply demonstrated that martial law damages not only military but also civilian institutions, because the army gets superimposed on civil institutions.”
It would be worth our while to know how and why he believes that his martial law is better than the previous ones for the state and the army.
Fans and critics will agree that he gave Pakistan many of its firsts. But it is abundantly clear that he has done all he could and it’s time for a change. Very few of Pakistan’s leaders have left office with grace. Within the next few weeks, Gen Musharraf has the only chance of leaving gracefully. It’s best for him, the country, and the army.
HASNAIN KHAN
Alberta, Canada
WHILE our leaders may not have much else to teach anyone, yet they do appear to have taught something to another Asian country with a long record of corruption and corrupt leaders: the Philippines.
According to recent news, the sitting Filipino president, Gloria Arroyo, whose turbulent six-year rule seemed to be slipping out of her hands over allegations of corruption, has now pardoned her predecessor, Joseph Estrada, who is 70.
The gentleman had been jailed for life on charges of stealing tens of millions of dollars from the nation’s coffers (Oct 26).
The pardon has been granted under a policy of releasing prisoners who had reached 70 years of age.
It appears that ‘national reconciliation’ over there has been restricted to the elderly. Significantly, the Roman Catholic Church, which was instrumental in bringing down the corrupt dictator Ferdinand Marcos, who was fully backed by Washington and whose wife Imelda was reputed to have gone into exile to the US with thousands of pairs of her shoes, has also denounced the Arroyo government.
The church has spoken of its ‘moral bankruptcy’ but has stopped short of calling for her resignation (Oct 22).
One feels sorry why the lower and middle classes of countries like Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and the Philippines, to name a few, have to bear the brunt of their politicians’ lust for money and power.
Joseph Addison had beautifully summed up the phenomenon of buying others:
“A man who is furnished with arguments from the mint, will convince his antagonist much sooner than one who draws them from reason and philosophy.
Gold is a wonderful clearer of the understanding; it dissipates every doubt and scruple in an instant, accommodates itself to the meanest capacities; silences the loud and clamorous and cringes over the most obstinate and inflexible….”
However, we can draw solace from another saying: “The universe is not rich enough to buy the vote of an honest man.” The trouble is, very few of the public representatives are honest enough.
May God have mercy on Pakistan as well as on the Philippines and may He grant the courage and the will to those who have the power to influence things to exercise it and throw out the parasites that are sucking the citizens’ blood and trampling upon their rights.
I. SIDDIQUE
Karachi
THIS is apropos of the report (Aug 22) in which MNA Maulana Abdul Akbar Chitrali has criticised the privatisation of Pakistan Telecommunication Company and has urged the government to cancel this.
Privatisation of utilities, especially in an underdeveloped country such as ours, is always inadvisable. There are no strong infrastructures within such countries to ensure the checks and balances needed to protect the interests of the population as a whole.
After all, privatisation is entirely about profit, this usually means rising prices in almost every sector and, therefore, is unable to benefit the average person unless such checks balances exist.
The KESC is a case in point. The transfer of this utility into private hands has proved disastrous. Long hours of power cuts, rising costs – the worst services the public has had to endure in living memory. Moreover, apparently the KESC has been sold to people outside of the country and, therefore, not obliged to endure the hours of misery and discomfort that most of us are compelled to put up with.
It is indeed sad to find that the customer services offices supplied by the telecommunication department for many years to the public are now to be closed. These services supplied a vital need to the average persons, many of whom do not own and cannot afford mobile phones. Why should these services be curtailed at all?
Our esteemed rulers, living as they do in a comfortable world of their own, understandably would not be remotely aware of such hardships.
C. ABBASI
Islamabad
TURKEY has adopted a very bold and no-nonsense approach in dealing with the incursion of Kurdish insurgents into its territory from their safe havens in Iraq. Addressing a large crowd of Turks protesting against the terrorists’ raids, who were demanding action against them, Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan assured them that “the moment an operation is needed, we will take that step. We don’t need to ask anyone’s permission,” which statement on Oct 28 seems implicitly aimed at the US.
He also took a swipe at western countries for not cracking down on the PKK (the Kurdish party) and said that merely calling it a terrorist group, as the US and European Union do, wasn’t enough. “We want action, and if you can’t show action, you fail the sincerity test,” he said. “Those who overlook terrorism are in cooperation with terrorism,” he told a conference earlier.
My hats off to him. The brave Turkish PM has effectively told the West what the US had said after 9/11: You are either with us or against us! Mr Erdogan has been able to do this because he is genuinely popular amongst his compatriots, who voted his party in with a heavy mandate. He can, therefore, afford to look the western powers in the eye and say what needs to be said, without having nuclear weapons or even oil.
It is time our leaders, politicians, generals and bureaucrats followed the current Turkish government’s approach, if they really want Pakistanis to live honourably and independently in the world.
M. SHAFI
Karachi
IT was shocking to read (Dawn, Oct 31) that 16 Europeans, including nine French nationals, have been charged in Chad over the alleged abduction and attempted airlifting of 103 African children to France. Apparently, the operation was being conducted with the alleged connivance of French government officials.
I hope it is the first and not one of a series of such moves, with the earlier ones having remained undetected.
The operation looks quite ugly even assuming that it was not for purposes as sinister as those claimed by the Chadian president. More so when we consider the fact that the country involved is one of a group which takes great pride in their ‘values’
No doubt an attempt will be made to hush up the matter so as not to malign the ‘good name’ of the country involved but I hope conscientious people who are everywhere will insist on a deep probe to bring the culprits to justice.
S.R.H. HASHMI
Karachi
EXTREMISM is rapidly spreading its tentacles in the settled parts of Pakistan. D. I. Khan, Quetta, Rawalpindi and Swat are the examples following the Lal Masjid showdown in Islamabad in July this year.
The suicide attacks in Dargai, Rawalpindi and Tarbela send a clear message by the terrorists that they can hit anyone, whenever and wherever they want to. Of course, the hands of outsiders exploiting the situation cannot be ruled out, but the major share of the current grim situation is most of our own making.
Political uncertainty in the country and our shortsighted foreign policy seem to be the main culprit.
As for the foreign policy, before our famous U-turn on pro-Taliban policy, every government recognised and backed the Taliban in Afghanistan despite the latter’s myopic policies at home. After the CIA- Saudi Arab-funded jihad against the Soviets in Afghanistan has ended, the military dictatorship of the time used jihadis as its foreign policy objectives: waging a proxy war in Kashmir etc. Even after the end of the dictatorship the so-called democratic governments carried on fostering what they call now extremists.
Due to jihadis’ close affinity with the ubiquitous presence of ‘political madressahs’ across the country, they unleashed terror in the face of sectarianism, killing thousands of innocent people.
Had we not been a part of American war against the Soviets in Afghanistan, as did India, ours would have been a safer place to live in today, I think. The majority of the people of this country is moderate and condemns mediaeval customs of marginalising women such as karo-kari and vani. They backed the government’s courageous step of amending the erroneous Hasba bill through legislature. Moreover, they despised the attempt of the firebrand mullahs of Lal Masjid to enforce their version of Sharia laws.
They hate watching their country being devoured by Talibanisation. But they also resent the government’s dead-beat response to these lively threats posed by religious nuts.
The majority of the people think that the war the government is waging against the Taliban is actually America’s war. People think that the war the government is waging against the rogue elements is actually America’s war as it did in the 1980s.
The lack of sympathy with the dead and kidnapped soldiers in restive Waziristan clearly shows their resentment.
Despite such high casualty, Washington still wants us to ‘do more’. Instead of putting partial pressure on Pakistan to do more, Washington should be reminded that they have hundreds of thousands of troops in Iraq, yet the situation there has went from bad to worse. Moreover, the recent tension in Turkey after the killing and kidnapping of Turkish soldiers and civilians by the PKK rebels shows Washington’s double standard policy towards Pakistan. PKK bases are located in the Candil Mountains of northern Iraq. The question is: why do the American forces not stop the cross-border infiltration by the PKK whom the Americans and Europeans branded as terrorists? If bunches of American boys cannot stop border infiltration, then how do they expect Pakistan to do the same at the rugged Durand Line?
This should be a wake-up call for those who put ‘Pakistan first’. They should follow the notion in letter and in spirit instead of making Pakistan a US stooge in its so-called war against terror ad nauseam.
FAHIM A. MEMON
Sukkur
REFERRING to your editorial, ‘Oil in troubled waters’ (Nov 2), one might ask, is it the oil in troubled waters or is it the world economy in troubled waters because of soaring crude oil prices?
Higher oil prices are actually enriching oil-exporting countries of the Middle East as well as of Russia, Venezuela, etc., a blessing for them in the shape of expanding export earnings.
The same editorial writes: “Production in Alaska has been falling, leading to a decline in US reserves.” The fact is other way round. A correct expression would be something like this: “Declining US reserves are causing decrease in oil production in Alaska.”
You also write: “If energy becomes costlier, the cost of production will go up, adversely impacting both domestic consumers and exporters whose products could be rendered even less competitive than they are at present.”
Agreed. Should Pakistanis resign themselves to this situation? Would it not be advisable to exhort them to reduce energy consumption in their industries and houses to partly offset the effect of rising oil prices?
The problem with the perception of most of the intellectuals of Pakistan is that they accept a given situation as their nation’s destiny, feel powerless and have no motivation to struggle to bring about a change through originating and promoting creative ideas. Such helplessness comes in the wake of dependence on foreign ideas and foreign technologies.
Pakistan needs more active think tanks dedicated to bringing about thought revolution. Actions of individuals and nations are guided by the thought framework that they develop.
HUMAYUN ZAFAR
Toronto, Canada
REFERENCE a news item, (Oct 25) wherein veteran politician Air Marshal (r) Asghar Khan has at a press conference said that without first checking the role of the ISI in politics holding of elections will be a futile exercise.
I agree with this contention. However, I would further add that all serving generals in uniform and other uniformed armed forces officers in NAB who undoubtedly remain loyal to the military’s interests should also be removed from NAB and replaced by senior judges and police officers so that army generals cannot use their unlimited coercive NAB powers on politicians to influence the results of polls.
KAMAL FARSHORI
Karachi
WHILE inaugurating the M-1 Motorway, General Musharraf stated that this project was conceived in the early 1990s but due to lack of resources and sincerity the process was delayed.
In this regard I wish to set the record straight by stating that the project was started by the Nawaz Sharif government in 1997. The work progressed satisfactorily and was stipulated to be completed by Dec 30, 2002 but the contract was abruptly cancelled by the NHA in April 2001 for being behind schedule by two months, as stated by them.
To the dismay of the province of the NWFP, this project thereafter lingered on for six years, depriving the people of a modern and efficient communication system, for the sole reason that adequate funds were not provided by the federal government. It is beyond comprehension as to why the project should have been cancelled for being behind schedule for only two months.
I may also add that the original Turkish contractor also got compensation as damages from the NHA running into billions of rupees. I would, therefore, like to ask who is responsible for this debacle in terms of both money and inconvenience to the people of the NWFP.
Another example of the inefficiency of the NHA can be assessed from the ongoing rehabilitation of the GT Road project (Nowshera-Peshawar section), which has also been lingering on for the last four years with no sign of completion.
MAJ ( r ) SULTAN HUSSAIN
Peshawar
ABRAHAM Lincoln is one of the greatest, wisest and boldest of men in history. No one has done more than him for the emancipation of slaves, the dignity of man and the unity of his country. His political wisdom is surpassed only by a few. His honesty of purpose is exemplary.
To cull the insights from the sayings of great men, you need a minimum of common sense. To misquote a sage is a literary crime. To misread meanings into his text is simply foolish; childish at best, and irreverent and blasphemous at worst.
To expiate someone else’s sin in distorting what Lincoln said and as a tribute to that great man, here is another quote from him:
“Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition. Whether it be true or not, I can say for one that I have no other so great as that of being truly esteemed of my fellow men, by rendering myself worthy of their esteem. How far I shall succeed in gratifying this ambition, is yet to be developed.”
DR MAQBOOL AKHTAR
Faisalabad
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