| February 11, 2008 | Monday | Safar 03, 1429 |
To send a letter to the Editor
Click here
Waziristan, other concerns
Shaukat Aziz’s failings
Role of caretakers
Suicide bombers
Drawing lessons from India?
Effective monitoring system
PML-Q admits mistakes
Why turn to outsiders?
Shimon Peres
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
CHIEF of Army Staff Gen Ashfaq Parvaiz Kayani has declared to distance the army from the upcoming general election, saying it would not be involved in any way in the election process. In a letter written to the officers, Gen Kayani said the role of armed forces had already been defined in the country’s laws and Constitution and, therefore, the army will not play any role in the country’s politics.
The move came less than two weeks after the Army Chief directed all officers, including commanders of key formations, to refrain from meeting politicians and indulging in politics. A military spokesman said that, in accordance with the Constitution, the conduct of elections “is the sole responsibility of the Election Commission, and the army will not be involved in the election process”.
However, the spokesman said the army will be available for maintaining law and order as per requirement of the government for the forthcoming election, along with other law-enforcement agencies.
This is in any case a healthy development on the part of the military. The realisation has remained that they had nothing to do with politics. A soldier is mandated to perform his professional duties with utmost dedication and commitment. The prime role of the armed forces is to carry out the professional duties without indulging in the political affairs of the country.
The COAS rightly said that the officers should not call any politician to GHQ and should avoid any direct or indirect interaction with the leaders. His move to call back all officers holding civilian posts, either serving or retired, is a welcome decision by all means.
Gen Kayani, who was appointed Army chief in November after President Pervez Musharraf doffed the military uniform, is widely perceived as a strategist who is apolitical. While chairing his first meeting of the Corps Commanders last month, Gen Kayani said “the will of the people and their support is decisive.” He also said the “harmonisation of socio-political, administrative and military strategies” would usher in an environment of peace and stability in the long term.
IMAN NIAZI
Mianwali
Under this policy, several general officers may revert to the Army and a decision on it will be taken on a case-to-case basis. There is already much resentment against army officers occupying key portfolios in civil institutions. While it is true that those serving in the civil institutions have brought back credibility to these institutions, Gen Kayani’s decision shows the bold steps he has taken.
Moreover, he has said monitoring of the election will lie with the Election Commission. The Pakistan Army has always lived up to the country’s expectations, ensuring solidarity as well as maintaining law and order. I welcome the decision made by Gen Kayani and it should be appreciated by our civil society.
DAWOOD SHAKIL
Rawalpindi
It would bring new hopes to civil society and leave for them an open space to fill the gap and prove that they are capable enough to be relied upon.
With this announcement, Gen Kayani has also displayed the commitment and dedication to his profession. It is a bold decision and also indicated the acceptance that politics is not a soldier’s job.
KANWAL ABID
Rawalpindi
THIS refers to the letters, ‘Turning swords into ploughshares’, by Rahimullah Wazir and, ‘Gathering of rudiments’, by Hashmat A. Khawaja, of Feb 6.
It was heart-breaking to read Mr Wazir’s rejoinder to M.K. Naqvi’s note (Jan 28). The former obviously has, like other patriotic Pakistanis, been intensely pained by the tragic events of the two Waziristans. I can hardly add anything to the clarity brought to the issue by our brother from the embattled area except making a few comments.
First, I think Mr Naqvi has been very unfeeling in his criticism of the Mehsuds while ignoring the excesses of the government in furthering America’s war on terror on Pakistani soil. He has also split hairs by lambasting Baitullah Mehsud’s reference to Waziristan as ‘our area.’
Some 40 years back we used to have a gatekeeper – a very faithful and devoted young man who became like a family member – from Bajaur (in Fata) who would refer to his trips outside his area as “I (or we) went to Pakistan.” Thus, there is nothing unusual if people from the tribal territory refer to it as ‘our area’ because it has always been a fairly autonomous region, as acknowledged even by Mr Jinnah.
Second, he has insinuated the Taliban of receiving money, arms, training, etc., “from secret agencies like RAW, Mossad, KGB, KHAD and a host of others.” I wonder how the CIA and MI6 have escaped his paranoia. The ordinary residents and even Taliban of Waziristan and the rest of the embattled areas are our Pakistani brothers and we must not slander them so mindlessly, otherwise it can become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Third, my heart goes out to Mr Wazir and I earnestly call upon the government to address the complaints aired by him. It is a monumental tragedy that those who had kept our northern borders secure and helped in liberating a part of Kashmir in 1947 are now being bombed out. If the government doesn’t quickly take a U-turn away from subservience to the US, it may hurt the country.
Now as to Mr Khawaja’s attack on the former service chiefs, saying that their call to President Musharraf to quit office, restore the judges, democracy and the rest, it shows he is out of touch with reality or guilty of malice and prejudice himself. Folks over 50 would remember that people like Asghar Khan and Nur Khan had worked for restoring democracy in the country.
Accusing all these honourable veterans of ‘eating the country’ is a misrepresentation.
A.G. CHAUDHRY
Karachi
ACCORDING to the BBC (Feb 1), former prime minister Shaukat Aziz has said that some ministers had provided him wrong data about wheat production in Pakistan last year, as a result of which he had allowed it to be exported. He revealed that the then Punjab chief minister, Pervaiz Elahi, had written a letter to him opposing the move, warning that this would cause a big problem.
Mr Aziz conceded that had he listened to the chief minister’s advice, the wheat crisis would not have occurred.
This raises several questions. First, why did the premier not cross check with some other sources about the veracity of his ministers’ data, knowing such things do happen in Pakistan? The ultimate responsibility for this lapse only falls on him, but now he is sitting comfortably in Britain, while the poor Pakistanis have been running from pillar to post to buy bagfuls of flour.
Second, now that Pervaiz Elahi has openly held him responsible for the wheat crisis, Mr Shaukat may be trying either to appease him or wishing to get Mr Elahi off the hook, so as not to spoil the latter’s chances of becoming the future prime minister, by taking the blame upon himself.
Third, if Mr Aziz is so gullible, isn’t possible that he may have prepared the summary against the chief justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, which he then forwarded to Mr Musharraf last year, merely on the basis of hearsay, without ascertaining the truthfulness of the allegations?
The foregoing suggest he may not have been taking his job very seriously. The final responsibility for everything lies with President Musharraf, but he was probably too preoccupied with prolonging his rule to take notice, or saw nothing wrong in Mr Aziz’s actions.
And, who should be blamed for the sugar crisis before that, or the power shortage that could easily have been averted by using local coal for generation?
QAMAR
Karachi
THIS is apropos of Anita Ghulam Ali’s letter, ‘A tall order’ (Feb 3), wherein she has rightly questioned the caretaker government’s claim to establish English-medium schools in each district of Sindh while, on the other hand, development funds have been slashed substantially.
I would like to add here that it is not within the domain of the caretaker establishment, which is set up for an interim period, to run the day-to-day affairs of the country to take decisions of having long-term impacts. For instance, restructuring the Sindh Public Service Commission (SPSC) and appointing new chairman and other members for a term of five years is the job of a regular constitutional government and not of the caretaker one.
The decision such as employing chairman, a person domiciled in other province, which is done for the first time in the history of the Commission, is also highly objectionable and brazen abuse to the intelligence of entire Sindh which is definitely not short of highly talented people to head an organisation such as the SPSC.
BADAR JATOI
Canada
I WAS astonished by the number of young suicide bombers being brain-washed and persuaded to willingly die and kill innocent persons, until I remembered reading about ‘mind control’ experiments conducted with LSD by the American CIA in the 70s on foreign students in the US, despite a ban on such experiments by the US Congress.
Could it be possible that some agency (foreign or local) is using the same LSD in raising an army of ‘believers’ willing to kill and be killed. Will someone check it out?
LSD is a hallucinatory drug whose users have vivid dreams and whose after-effects require treatment to overcome the same and which can otherwise take years to wear off.
S. SULTAN ANWER
Karachi
THIS is apropos of a channel show. The guests figure out eminently in showbiz and political fields. The issue under fire was prominent discrepancies between Indian and Pakistani cultures. I was startled at the manner the guests tried to glorify Indian norms in an attempt to depreciate Pakistani mindset and culture.
The trivial issues hinted at to strike a comparison between the two societies were illiteracy, traffic congestion and national pride.
As regards literacy, India is mired in similar if not greater crisis in this area of development as we are. The. latest population census (1991) showed the literacy rate of India to be about 52 per cent. The literacy statistics of Pakistan stood at 49.9 per cent.
The guests might have been swept off their feet by a recent claim made by the Indian government showing its literacy rate to be at 62.2 per cent. It seems to be a very impressive development indeed but this surge has been decried by eminent Indian statisticians and demographers as unrealistic and inflated.
Eminent statistician and educationist Soma Wadhwa, in her article, ‘When numbers lie’, reveals that a report published by Unicef in 1991 relating to literacy in India goes as far as declaring India to be the most illiterate country of the world . She also questions the validity of the census on various counts. First , the survey, according to her, was not tailored to assess literacy rate in its truest shape as the figures were culled from data collected on “non-directory trading establishment and own trading enterprise in the 53rd round of National Sample Survey.
Second, she expresses her malcontent at the strategy adopted by the surveyors to measure literacy. In a very casual manner, sample representatives are just asked if they are literate or not and the replies whether true or false are included in the big list without ascertaining the validity of the claims by conducting even the simplest tests. Moreover, the increasing numbers of dropouts or reversion to illiteracy cases are never considered.
The scene is not very rosy on this side of the picture as well and we need to put in a tremendous amount of effort and resources to match our pace with the developed world but please have a heart. If we have to follow someone’s example at all, let it be worth it.
About our traffic congestion or poor road sense of our driving lot, it is in no way grosser an issue than is confronted by Indians every day. Traffic jams or blockades are a familiar phenomenon, corruption in traffic police is rife there as well, accidents occur at a greater pace and the resultant casualties are in sizable numbers.
The third issue under fire was national pride. I wonder how could a person bent on belittling his norms and culture in an attempt to exalt another nation talk so confidently of national pride? Here I might sound bigoted to some but in my view India is the breeding ground of western culture and civilisation in South Asia.
The western inclination is evident in their educational trends, attires, attitudes and the much-coveted Indian media. The Bollywood movies are relentlessly trying to forge a strong bondage with the West by trumpeting affairs and inter-marriages between westerners and Indian girls.
Most of Bollywood movies are shot either in America or in European states. The Indian territory is considered too shoddy to be considered worth hosting prestigious national events like filmfare awards. So where really is the national pride?
Our country if not better is not worse than India by any means. If at all we have to quote and follow examples, then why not to follow upright and self-reliant nations like China, Malaysia or Iran?
We also need to shake off this sense of inferiority and self-pity and restore pride in ourselves, our capacities and our standing as a nation.
WAJIHA SHAHID
Quetta Cantt
AGRICULTURE is the backbone of the national economy. Despite all the tall claims in the past, self-sufficiency in foodgrains has not been sustained due to lack of proper planning as well as effective monitoring system.
President Musharraf quite rightly has taken strong exception to the food shortage in an agricultural country like Pakistan while presiding over a meeting of the federal food committee in Islamabad the other day.
The president has directed the quarters concerned that there should be an effective monitoring mechanism to check shortage of wheat and other commodities in the country in future and further it should be ensured that no such recurrence occurs again. It is rather strange that while there was enough of wheat and flour available for domestic consumption, artificial shortage was created by the vested interests who fleeced public left and right and minted huge profits.
The president has attributed the shortage to the lack of proper management in this regard which has exposed the weaknesses of the system and called for immediate review of the availability of various commodities and evolving of a comprehensive strategy to ensure smooth supply of such items.
It cannot be justified in any manner that essential food items’ shortage occurs every now and then in an agrarian country and there is no effective monitoring system to ensure smooth supplies of the same at reasonable prices to the people. If at all a monitoring system is present, why is it not functioning properly and effectively?
MASROOR AHMAD
Lahore
I WAS surprised and shocked to read the above in Dawn on Feb 3. I would like our leaders to please note the following:
— If a doctor commits a mistake, the patient dies, buried and his kith and kin forget him after a few days; if an engineer does a mistake, the building may collapse killing many persons and after sometimes it becomes a forgotten story.
But if a leader, particularly a ruler, commits a mistake, the whole nation goes down the drain and this goes in history and is never forgotten.
PROF ISHTIAQ AHMED KHAN
Karachi
THIS is apropos of your editorial, ‘Why turn to outsiders?’ (Jan 30 ) wherein you have not appreciated the government and the politicians of Pakistan for seeking foreign help in our domestic political affairs (Jan 30).
Of all the politicians you have particularly mentioned Imran Khan for making public statements during his recent visit to the US that highlighted the flawed political and economic policies of the Musharraf government. At the very outset let me make it clear that Mr Khan was invited by the Pakistan American Society to sensitise Pakistanis and Americans to the current political turmoil in Pakistan. As a matter of fact during the last few months the circumstances have been changing at such a high speed that situation has assumed dangerous proportions in this country.
In a country where the president and the chief justice are locked in an eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation, no one can afford to sit back and watch. In a situation like this the responsibility of political leaders becomes even more than of anyone else’s.
About the heroic struggle of lawyers and the great role played by the media, Imran Khan is on record having admitted that these pillars of state have unquestionably outdone all political parties in their effort to uphold the rule of law. To wrest away anyone’s initiative can never be in Imran Khan’s scheme of things.
So far as the postponement of the election is concerned, Mr Khan is quite clear and has also urged others not to legitimise the rule of Pervez Musharraf by taking part in the election which cannot be free and fair under the illegal and unconstitutional government of Mr Musharraf.
Mr Khan’s top priority is to support the reinstatement of the deposed judges, demand for an independent election commission and lifting of all curbs on the media, these being the basics for democracy.
OMER CHEEMA
Information Secretary Pakistan
Tehreek-e-Insaf Islamabad
THIS is apropos of M. K. Naqvi’s letter, ‘Kissenger: a friend of Pakistan’ (Feb 4), in which he wrote by mistake that the current president of Israel is Mumbai-born Israeli. The fact is that Mr Shimon Peres was born in Poland.
MUHAMMAD BAKHSH BHUTTO
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.