|
| February 11, 2008 | Monday | Safar 03, 1429 |
Karachi burns bright
Lahore’s bifurcated laws
Questions of piety and propriety
OTHER VOICES - North American Press
AMAZING things are happening in Pakistan. We have a caretaker governmental set-up to supervise ‘free, fair and transparent’ elections but it has nothing free, fair and transparent about itself. Its composition raises many questions of propriety, if not legitimacy.
WITH the kind of power crisis the country has been facing for some time now in the wake of rising fuel prices in the international market, one would have imagined that the government would be working actively on finding both conventional and alternative means of forestalling a potential calamity that may well be our fate in the years ahead. As experience has shown, however, not everything in the country works as it should. A case in point is that of the rather unsung death of a pilot project to try out E10 gasoline that has 10 per cent blending of ethanol. The project was launched with the usual fanfare about a year-and-a-half ago, but it soon met a fate that is not a rarity in Pakistan. Seen against that backdrop, a report published by this newspaper earlier last week about the rising quantum of ethanol export, mostly to European destinations, carries negative implications and disquieting dimensions.
The efficacy of ethanol-blended fuels around the globe is something that is no more an issue of debate anywhere; its acceptance is universal. As things stand today, ethanol blends account for more than 35 per cent of all automotive fuels sold in the United States. Besides, the E10 blend has been approved for use by every major automobile manufacturer in the developed world. The blend has also been found to be compatible with the existing service station infrastructure which means there is no additional cost on the maintenance front for consumers. The world, in fact, is now moving ahead with the idea of using ethanol as a full-scale alternative fuel. The E85 blend — 85 per cent ethanol mixed with just 15 per cent of regular gasoline — is the first step in that direction. Currently, it can only be used in flexible fuel vehicles which number over five million in the US alone and the manufacturers are known to have committed themselves to increasing production to two million a year by 2010.
With the world taking major strides in that direction, it is surprising that Pakistan is content with exporting ethanol instead of making the most of this opportunity through value addition and coordination between ethanol producers and oil-marketing companies. The argument by certain lobbies that the price differential between regular gasoline and ethanol blends is not exotic enough to promote the product also needs to be seen in a realistic perspective. For the consumers it may be a matter of a rupee or two per litre, but for the national economy it is a matter of billions in view of possible reduction in the annual oil import bill. A bigger question for those sceptical of the marketing viability of ethanol blends is: how does the West find it feasible despite importing ethanol from abroad, while we find it an economically deficient proposition even when we have it in abundance at home? The issue certainly deserves a serious rethink.
THE metropolis has clearly become too hot to handle in more than one way. The latest incidents of three factories being devoured by a lethal inferno, causing damages to the tune of millions of rupees, has taken the number of fire breakouts to reportedly over 200 major and minor cases in 2008. Temperatures ran high last year as well with incidents of fire running into hundreds. Karachi’s commercial hubs and various residential blocks have gone up in smoke too often, raising much alarm and many questions. The city’s major fires include the blaze at Radio Pakistan where 14 studios were gutted, the PNSC building went up in flames twice in a span of six months, the electronics market and CTC shopping mall in Clifton, with countless cases of arson. So far, both major and minor flames have spun little more than conjecture — reasons range from faults at the KESC’s end, wiring defects leading to short circuiting and generator faults to downright arson. Unofficial statistics establish electrical short circuits as a common culprit, sparking more than 65 per cent of the fires. The situation cannot be different in other urban centres where the infrastructure is just as frail and hazardous. However, the number of reported incidents is lower given that the spread of other cities hardly compares with the magnitude of Karachi.
Despite staggering losses, from immense monetary damages to human casualties including firemen, ‘investigations’ have thrown up precious little in the way of identifying the triggers or providing justice to survivors and families of victims. This is mainly due to the absence of a health and safety body that can establish stringent regulations to prevent fires as well as supervise inquiries into such tragedies. Instead of bringing miscreants to book, arson is being used as an ambiguous apology to ward off or appease various forces. In cases of electrical faults, the concerned authorities have failed to haul up shopkeepers and residents who amplify the power burden with illegal connections. The frequency and intensity of damage makes the dearth of an exercise that instills and manages the issue of safety in a largely oblivious society more than pathetic. Unless there are clearly defined consequences for perpetrators, which can only emerge out of conclusive investigations, Karachi will continue to be under fire.
SMOKING sheesha is the latest craze among the hip young crowd in Lahore. Cafes which offer sheesha are the latest ‘in’ thing and draw a big clientele because of the novelty of their ware. Youngsters can be spotted hanging around these places, cooling their heels by inhaling the tobacco-laced smoke through fancy sheeshas. But, according to a newspaper report, Lahore’s Defence Housing Authority has told cafes in its jurisdiction not to serve sheesha because medical authorities have declared it to be injurious to health. In some cases it is being used to consume addictive drugs. While many parents will feel relieved after the imposition of the ban, it still leaves some important questions unanswered. Do we have definitive medical evidence suggesting that smoking sheesha is a health hazard? Do cafes need official permission for serving sheesha? Why is it still being allowed to be served in other parts of Lahore?
If the government already has the evidence about the harmful effect of sheesha, it should waste no time in issuing health warnings to sheesha smokers as it does in the case of cigarette smokers. If otherwise, it will serve all and sundry well to initiate a medical probe into the effects of sheesha and make its findings public. Given the widespread use of sheesha in the Arab countries and some nations surrounding the Mediterranean, it is very likely that Pakistan will not be required to carry out a probe on its own. But before we embark on a probe on our own or get one done from abroad, a sensible course of action is to adopt the same official stance on the practice throughout all parts of the country. It defies logic and common sense to ban sheesha in one city and allow it in another. Even more bizarre is the situation when it is not allowed in one part of a particular city but has no bar in other parts of the same city. If sheesha is bad, it must be so for everyone around. It does not make any sense at all why the administration outside Defence Housing Authority in Lahore should not ban it.
Most of its ministers, if not all, are known to be dual, and in some cases triple, office-holders. Hopefully, they must have taken leave on full average pay from their permanent jobs during the few weeks of their caretaking secondment.
The most conspicuous oddity, however, is the one regarding our caretaker prime minister who besides being known for his ‘piety’, is also the sitting chairman of the Senate, a position to which he was nominated by his former ruling party, the Q-League which he has not quit. In terms of the Constitution, he could only officiate ad interim for the president whenever he by reason of his absence from Pakistan or for any other cause is unable to perform his functions.
The Senate chairman cannot occupy any other constitutional office; much less the office of the caretaker prime minister who is expected to be non-partisan and independent to ensure the free, fair and transparent conduct of elections. In any case, the office of the caretaker prime minister is a position of profit in the service of Pakistan, and cannot be entrusted to an elected member and a sitting chairman of the Senate.
Only legal and constitutional experts can throw light on the legitimacy of sitting astride at the same time in two public offices, but morally and ethically to the common man, it makes no sense whatsoever. It lacks both piety and propriety. The caretaker prime minister now retains all the privileges and perquisites as chairman of the Senate while enjoying whatever comes to him as bonus in his present capacity as appointed caretaker prime minister.
What makes this anomaly even worse is that this is not the only case of its nature. Until recently, we had a dual office-holder president. He went ahead with his highly controversial re-election while still in uniform as army chief from the same assemblies that had elected him for his last term and were themselves completing their tenure. He then sacked the entire Supreme Court fearing an adverse ruling on his eligibility issue. The questions of systemic legitimacy continue to haunt the political heights on Constitution Avenue.
Meanwhile, the caretaker cabinet is busy running the show as effectively as they are allowed to. In fact, they have no powers except those to deliver the desired results in the coming elections. Since they have nothing to do in their offices, most of them are roaming aimlessly both at home and overseas. The prime minister accompanied by a high-ranking delegation has just returned from Yemen after a ‘very successful’ goodwill visit during which he exchanged views with his Yemeni hosts on regional and global issues.
To be fair to the caretaker prime minister, he must have gone to Yemen only to refresh his old contacts there and to persuade them of Pakistan’s hospitable environment for foreign investments. After a two-day stay in Yemen, he and his entourage availed themselves of the opportunity to take a side trip to Saudi Arabia where besides meeting the executives of a couple of business groups working in Pakistan to make the whole journey look official, he and his delegation performed umrah and went to Masjid-i-Nabvi.
All this was at state expense. Even their umrah robes to be worn in the House of Allah were provided at state expense. A pilgrimage of this nature is by itself spiritual slyness. You can’t play tricks with Almighty Allah. This surely was an abuse of authority and faith. But one thing is clear. Not a single penny of foreign investment, not an ounce of foreign goodwill and not an iota of Allah’s blessings will come to our poor country from countless foreign visits and umrah junkets at state expense.
Instead of taking care of his own people’s pressing daily bread and butter needs at home, he found time to travel to Yemen and explore how he could resolve the Middle East issue. It is not clear what prompted him to get involved in Middle Eastern inter-state diplomacy and that too with his counterparts in Yemen, a country where he once served as general manager of the International Bank of Yemen.
The problem is that the nation somehow has had the painful experience of Pakistan origin private bankers skilled in doubling Arab money. We are suffering the worst food shortages and oil and gas outages of our history thanks to the microeconomic ingenuities of another Pakistani private banker who is fondly known among Arab princes and sheikhs what we in our country would now call ‘Double Shah’.
Coming back to the caretaker government and questions of propriety, we also have a minister who is concurrently holding two other salaried positions. He is a senior executive of a Sharjah-based company called Crescent Petroleum, and also Pakistan’s ambassador to the UAE with residence in Abu Dhabi. In terms of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations 1961, no private professional or commercial activity is permitted to any diplomatic agent.
This is also a clear case of conflict of interests and a blatant violation of diplomatic norms involving an ambassador accredited to a foreign country simultaneously engaged in another professional activity and a regular job as a contractual minister in Pakistan’s caretaker cabinet.
Apparently, this blatant violation of international law, specifically of Article 31 of the Vienna Convention forbidding any professional or commercial activity by a diplomatic agent in the receiving state outside his official functions has escaped the attention of the government of the receiving state, namely the UAE, which otherwise is one of the most law-abiding states in the world and is known for its strict observance and scrupulous application of the provisions of international law and universally agreed norms of diplomatic protocol and propriety.
What is amazing, however, is the complacency of our own Foreign Office which should have pointed out this anomaly to obviate the risk of an unpleasant diplomatic incident between two brotherly countries. If I am not mistaken, the appointment letter of every career or non-career ambassador has a clause proscribing professional and commercial activity or any job other than the representational responsibilities on behalf of the sending state.
There is too much conflict of interest involved in this case, especially when the minister is also pushing matters on the Iran-Pakistan-India transnational gas pipeline project. An ad hoc minister with limited mandate and questionable credentials has no right to get involved in substantive negotiations or finalisation of transit issues on this important project.No wonder India has refused to join in a trilateral meeting precipitously arranged in Tehran on Feb 12-13 through the personal efforts of our over-enthusiastic petroleum minister. A country which itself has a democratic and institutional decision-making system would rather wait for an elected government to be in place in Pakistan before any substantive discussions on this or any other project.
Questions of piety and propriety never arise in value-based, constitutionally-ruled democratic societies.
Final spin on the budget
The New York Times
AS a political document, President Bush’s new budget could not be timelier for Republican candidates — those aspiring to City Hall, the Capitol or all the way to the White House — who wax xenophobic about immigration and the Mexican border.
The good news is that the Democrats are now in charge of Congress, and Mr Bush’s hard-hearted calls to freeze domestic spending will be vigorously challenged. As a campaign tract, the Bush budget is a chillingly revealing read. Food aid for impoverished children? Medical research? Environmental protection? Well, my friends, hard calls for hard times. But when it comes to enforcement-heavy immigration policies, don’t spare the expenses.
The panoply of Republican talking points on immigration are attended to: three billion dollars for arresting illegal immigrants and acquiring 1,000 more beds at detention pens. More than $700 million to keep building the celebrated border fence. And $442 million to hire and equip 2,200 new border patrol agents in the name of homeland security.
The poor and the vulnerable aren’t the only ones being told to sacrifice.
A serious budget plan would attend to all these problems in proper proportions. Mr Bush’s farewell budget, however ephemeral, is another sad reminder of how little proportion and judgment there is in this White House, and how politics trumps both compassion and the nation’s security every time. — (Feb 8)
Microsoft, Google & Canada
The Toronto Star
GOOGLE’S 2004 annual report begins by stating: “If (Google) were a person, it would have started elementary school late last summer, and today it would have just about finished the first grade.”
But so precocious has this 10-year-old been from the time it took its first baby steps that it has attracted the attention of Microsoft, the biggest kid on the block…
So reminiscent of the geek’s own childhood has been the upstart’s success that Microsoft has felt compelled to fend off the youngster by seeking an alliance with another kid, this one a crude 13-year-old who is fittingly called Yahoo.
And that’s probably all the background you need to understand why Microsoft…launched a $44.6 billion bid for Yahoo...
(Google now) accounts for 62.4 per cent of all Internet searches, compared to Yahoo’s 12.8 per cent and Microsoft’s 2.9 per cent. By teaming up with Yahoo, Microsoft figures it can get a much larger piece of that pie.
Regardless of whether Microsoft or Google wins that war over advertising, it would appear that Canada will lose. With the shift in advertising dollars away from newspapers and, to a lesser extent, television, an increasing share of Canadian spending on advertising will end up in Microsoft’s and/or Google’s pockets, which are in the US, like the McGill student who started it all. — (Feb 8)