Focus on food

THE UN-sponsored Rome summit on the global food crisis has called for the reduction of trade barriers and the scrapping of food export bans to stop the spread of hunger that threatens nearly one billion people. The billions that are being spent by rich countries on farm subsidies as well as the diversion of food crops for making biofuel also came under severe criticism. The price of major edible commodities has doubled over the last couple of years, with rice, corn and wheat at record highs. This has provoked protests and riots in some developing countries where people are spending more than half their income on food. The World Bank and aid agencies have estimated that soaring food prices could push as many as 100m more people into hunger. About 850m are already hungry. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has estimated the ‘global price tag’ to overcome the food crisis would be $15-20bn a year and that food supply had to rise 50 per cent by the year 2030 to meet the escalating demand. While offering more than 300,000 tonnes of imported rice held by Japan, Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda urged fellow leaders to release excess stocks of food to ease shortages in poorer countries. Surprisingly, no one at this summit mentioned the role of the handful of multinational grain distributors that control almost the entire world food market and hike up prices by adding their own monopolistic component.

For years reformers have advocated freer food trade on the grounds that the rich world’s subsidies depress prices and hurt rural areas in poor countries, where three-quarters of the world’s indigent live. But now, high food prices are being blamed for hurting the poor. This seeming incongruity in the two positions is now being used by the spin doctors of the rich world to argue that since subsidies keep food prices depressed, it would be disastrous to remove them at this juncture when world food prices are skyrocketing. Their solution: remove all barriers against the import of these subsidised foods from rich countries and hunger will vanish. Nothing could be more absurd. All trade barriers against food imports should certainly come down. But along with this, farm subsidies in rich countries should also go. This would establish a free trade regime for food in the true sense of the term and enable the predominantly rural countries to compete with the rich in the world food markets, thereby facilitating the transfer of resources from the rich consuming countries to poor producer countries. And meanwhile, the UN should set up a commission to probe the shenanigans of the multinational grain traders who are known to have consigned many food-producing poor countries to perpetual poverty by buying cheap and selling at exorbitant margins.

Kicking the carbon habit

CHANGE is required and can be achieved at every level: individual, community, corporate and state. There can be no ‘business as usual’ if the peril of human-induced climate change is to be averted and the direction in which the planet is headed reversed. While greater responsibility naturally rests with big business and governments, we can all make a contribution to reducing our individual and collective carbon footprints. ‘Kick the Habit!’ was the theme of this year’s World Environment Day, which was celebrated yesterday under the aegis of the United Nations. The emphasis was on promoting low-carbon economies and lifestyles that can help reduce emissions of the greenhouse gases that cause global warming and climate change. Among the measures highlighted by the UN Environment Programme were “improved energy efficiency, alternative energy sources, forest conservation and eco-friendly consumption”. Again, these are areas where individuals, companies and countries can all do their bit. It is still not too late to save lives and livelihoods, and protect flora and fauna, by controlling carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions.

The extent may vary but we are all guilty of wasting power whose generation through conventional means other than hydro tends to be emission-heavy. Televisions and computers are left turned on in Pakistani homes and offices when no one is watching or using them, and lights, fans and even air conditioners guzzle power in empty rooms. We persist with incandescent light bulbs instead of turning to energy-savers, and add to emissions by driving to shops located just down the road to make small purchases. Large companies that can easily afford the switch still use CRT monitors instead of energy-efficient LCD screens. Executives fly to routine meetings in other cities when web or video conferencing would suffice. Then there is the staggering waste at the government level of which much has already been written. It beggars belief that measures which will not only protect the environment but also save money at every level, and help overcome the energy shortfall to boot, are not yet standard practice. Our priorities seem skewed sometimes. Renewable energy is clearly the way forward and some strides have been made in that direction in recent years. So what does the government do? It decides to sack most of the employees at the Alternative Energy Development Board. If inefficiency is indeed the reason for retrenchment, the positions must be filled by qualified personnel. On no account should the AEDB be left understaffed.

Lawyers’ response

THOSE who wrote the draft of the Eighteenth Amendment constitution bill ought to take note of its criticism by the Sindh High Court Bar Association. In a resolution passed on Wednesday, the SHCBA’s managing committee raised objections to the proposed amendments to such vital articles as those concerning the trial on charges of high treason of those who violate the constitution as well as the judges who validate these actions. The changes in Article 6 and the insertion of Article 177-A, amending Article 177, have been, in the SHCBA’s opinion “devised to legitimise all the unconstitutional and mala fide acts and decisions” of President Pervez Musharraf and were therefore “not acceptable”. The SHCBA, therefore, dismissed the entire Eighteenth Amendment draft as “a measure calculated to maintain the status quo and delay the reinstatement of the deposed judges”.

There is no denying the competence and sincerity of those in the SHCBA who studied the draft amendment package and came out with an opinion. Now that the differences between the PPP and the PML-N over the judges’ reinstatement are no secret it appears that the SHCBA’s stance is partisan. The point to note is that amendments to the country’s basic law deserve to be studied not from the point of view of transient political controversies but how they will stand the test of time. The PPP package contains some popular demands — like reducing the president’s powers, doing away with Article 58-2b, giving back to the prime minister the power to appoint chiefs of the armed forces and governors, and repealing the Eighth and Seventeenth Amendments. If some elements of the package betray an attempt on the PPP’s part to advance its political interests, the lawyers should identify and reject them or propose amendments. In the draft of its package, the PPP acknowledges that it is not a sacrosanct document and changes can be proposed and made in it. The SHCBA resolution, however, rejects the draft of the Eighteenth Amendment in toto. This is Pakistan’s tragedy. If generals have abrogated constitutions or mauled them, they have also found accomplices among politicians, judges and lawyers. Even now, when the sacred document is proposed to be amended, political considerations, rather than the sanctity of the constitution and the interests of future generations, seem to guide all parties, whether politicians or the legal community.

OTHER VOICES - Pushto Press

Afghan kids in the lap of repression

Shahadat, Kabul

IF the present puppet government in Afghanistan is compared to previous ones, it will be found that the present government is more dangerous than all previous ones. It is because this government has enabled all enemies of Afghan identity and religion to distort the very fabric of Afghan society.

The enemies of the Afghan identity, religion and history have adopted a two-pronged strategy to destroy the Afghans. The first strategy is to annihilate the Afghans through bombing, missiles and tanks. The second is to influence the new generation of Afghans. The latter is more dangerous as it has started annihilating the future of Afghanistan. The most fatal oppression concerning children is considered to be sexual excesses.

According to Huma Sultani, a member of the independent Human Rights Commission of Afghanistan, almost 90 occurrences of sexual excesses on Afghani children have been reported for the year 2007.

The excesses have been reported mostly from northern Afghanistan which is under the control of the Islamic Republic. The only way to get rid of this kind of repression is jihad against the enemies. — (June 3)

Bomb blast in front of Danish embassy

Wahdat, Peshawar

A BOMB blast in front of the Danish embassy in Islamabad … left eight people dead, including two policemen, and 24 wounded, seven of whom are said to be critical. The bomb blast took place at a time when embassy employees were busy working in their offices and a number of people were around for different purposes. The president and prime minister of Pakistan and the minister for foreign affairs of Denmark condemned the attack.

There had been demonstrations against the government of Denmark … in Pakistan [in 2006] after a daily in Denmark published sketches of the Holy Prophet Mohammed (PBUH). The people of Pakistan, like the Muslims of the rest of the world, had expressed their anger at the publication of the sketches through demonstrations. Even in that state of anger, nobody in Pakistan attacked the Danish embassy. How can this bomb blast now be related to the publication of the sketches published …? It seems it is either linked with the ongoing wave of terrorism in the country or some other forces want to take advantage of the issue. — (June 3)

— Selected and translated by Khadim Hussain

Belief in the next world

A THOUGHTFUL person may have watched many of his near and dear ones playing their part on the stage of life and then they are heard no more. In case that person happens to be a student of history, he/she must have also read and studied how nations and civilisations rose and fell on planet earth in the past many centuries.

A thought must have crossed his/her mind whether this revolving chain of life and death of individuals and civilisations would come to a screeching halt some day, predictable or unpredictable. Metaphysicians, as well as modern physicists, do not discount such an eventuality.

It was reported in this newspaper, a couple of years ago, that those NASA scientists who are peering the space and discovering new stars and planets from time to time, had watched, with awe and excitement, with the help of the Hubble space telescope the destruction and disintegration of a planetary system resembling our own solar system, light years away, in outer space where doomsday — Qiamat in the Islamic parlance — had struck.

The Bible does contain references to such an eventuality, “the day of the Lord — that cruel day of his fierce anger and fury (when) the earth will be made a wilderness…. Every star and every constellation will stop shining, the sun will be dark when it rises and the moon will give no light” (Isaiah 14:9-10). This belief in “Qiamat” is shared by other religious systems as well, e.g. “Perlaey” in the Vedas. But, whereas the doomsday is commonly understood as destruction of all matter, Quran describes it in so many ways to indicate that the doomsday will not only result in the destruction of the earth which is our abode, but complete disintegration of the universe — the earth and the skies. A quotation from Quran will show how the doomsday scenario has been described with flashes of poetic imagery:

When the sun is overthrown,
And the stars freely fall,
And the hills displaced, dispersed,

And the seas swell and rise,
And the sky is torn. (Surah 81:1-6).

In short, as Quran puts it, “on that day the earth will be changed to other than the earth and the heavens will also be changed and they will come forth to Almighty Allah.” (14:48). The Bible, as quoted above, calls it the ‘Day of the Lord’ and Quran, right in the opening Surah (Al-Fatiha), terms it as ‘yaumaddin’ (Day of Judgment).

Before the advent of Islam, the ‘ignorant’ Arabs believed that after death humans turn into birds which fly around, chattering incessantly. Like the present-day agnostics, they believed that they will live and die and be born again, as the world will last till eternity. The idea of “Qiamat” and ‘resurrection’ was anathema to them. This is what Quran alludes to in this Ayat: “And they say: there is nothing but our life of the world; we die and we live and nothing destroys us except time”. (45:24).

Naturally, they did not believe in being resurrected to give account of their acts of omissions and commission during their life in the world. This fact appears to account for the preponderance of debate on resurrection and the day of judgment in the early revelations of Quran which are called Meccan Surahs.

Such an assertion in Quran indicates evidently that, after the end of this world, a new earth and new heavens will emerge for taking account of the performance of every soul to see if it had performed its act according to the script or deviated from it, intentionally, to defy the Almighty’s writ.

Such a change, as a result of cataclysmic disruption in the planetary system to which we belong is scientifically possible, and it is on record that our planet has escaped from stellar collisions in the past. It may not escape such a collision any time in future. But, according to Quran and Bible, such a cataclysm will follow warning sounds and sirens, called Trumpet in Bible and ‘Sur’ in Quran. Perhaps, this siren or trumpet would be produced by stellar disturbances that will precede the actual disintegration of the entire solar system.

Why is the doomsday necessary? Why should the earth and skies end in a cloud of smoke one day? According to Quran, there are logical and sound reasons for this. Quran asks: “Does man think that he is to be left aimless?” (75:36). In another context, the same query has been expressed thus: “Did you deem that you have been created for nothing and that you wouldn’t be returned to your Creator?” (23:115). The second reason, it is obvious, flows from the first one.

Since Allah says He is Just and Fair in the matter of accountability — rewarding the righteous soul and punishing the evil ones — this life on this earth must end to yield place to another earth where the fruit of good and bad deeds must be tasted by every individual. It is observed by all sensible persons that many a sinner leads prosperous life on this earth whereas many a righteous person lead unhappy life because of financial straits or physical ailments. So, obviously, another world must be born and the existing one must die.

No doubt, the human society has set up a system of justice in the world to reward the law-abiding citizens and punish the wrong-doers. This very fact should convince all right thinking persons that there is need for another world to dispense justice on global scale by a Sovereign Power whose impartiality and integrity can, in no way, be compromised by human effort.

Belief in the next world (Akhirat) is an integral part of Islam as a faith, as is evident from Ayat 4 of Surah 2: “and they (Muslims) are dead sure of the Hereafter”. Not only this, the Quran says further that “This life of the world is but a pastime and a game. The home of the Hereafter — that is (actual) Life, if only they knew.” (29:64).

The present life is transient and the life after resurrection is the permanent and lasting phase where every soul will be rewarded for whatever good one has earned in one’s worldly life and similarly, taken to task for whatever evil one has done. So, if this basic faith in after-life becomes shaky, the entire superstructure of the religious system may collapse.

The flea of inanity and the ‘PPP-Q’

IN ‘A plea for sanity’ (May 28), Murtaza Razvi focused on trashing the lawyers’ movement by indicating that it lacks vision and is isolated, a movement that was being carried on “in [a] vacuum … from day one”. He also alleged that lawyers and their representatives were acting with a “tunnel vision” without any assurance of light at the end and that their one-point agenda of restoration of the judiciary was making them miss “the only window of opportunity”, that is an agreement with Mr Zardari.

One can admire the writer’s boldness in loyally advocating participation in pro-establishment mainstream Pakistani politics and the brazenness with which the PPP is promoted as the only saviour of the current imbroglio. The PPP? A party that has always jumped at the slightest opportunity to strike deals with the establishment and which may just be renamed ‘PPP-Q’ in due course!

The lawyers confronted Musharraf and his establishment when it attempted to remove the chief justice in March 2007 by force, coercion and several manipulative devices including the pretence to act under Article 209 of the constitution. The lawyers, the public and the media thwarted that attempt by exposing it and by supporting the Supreme Court to provide it with the confidence needed to stand up to Musharraf. Political parties (especially mainstream) supported it marginally and cautiously.

The lawyers’ community is representative of a wide-ranging socio-cultural spectrum of Pakistani society and within itself it adheres to democratic norms. Estimated to be 100,000 in number and spread all over the country from grassroots tehsils and subdivisions to provincial and federal metropolises, the lawyers do not belong to any one political persuasion. They are a diverse lot.

What brings them together is their profession which is dependent on the existence of an independent judiciary and the prevalence of a system of governance based on the constitution. Their bar associations and councils are professional bodies duly elected from top to bottom. They act in unison whenever there is a threat to the constitution, to the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary. This is not the first time that they have done so.

In the time of Ziaul Haq, leading lawyers suffered harassment and long terms of imprisonment for raising their voices. The political parties did not unite with the lawyers even then but taking their cue from them established their own Movement for the Restoration of Democracy (MRD) in Feb 1981. After the lawyers had held their conventions in Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar and Rawalpindi and resorted to street protests, the MRD undertook an anti-martial law campaign independently. The two movements were separate but complemented each other in working for the same objective.

Today, when the lawyers’ movement, aided by the people’s approval, the media and the real judges, has already pushed back the establishment a few steps, the political parties, especially the ‘PPP-Q’, only seem to want to enter into deals and bargains with the junta purely for personal benefits, shamelessly disregarding their commitment given in the Charter of Democracy.

Musharraf’s Nov 2007 martial law (aka emergency) which was imposed against the backdrop of the lawyers’ movement should have been a time to consolidate political forces, speed up agitation against the regime and wrap up matters effectively and finally. Nothing of the sort, however, was forthcoming from the mainstream parties, and it was again the lawyers supported by civil society and the media who agitated against the president and his coteries. The complicity of the ‘PPP-Q’ was the most glaring when the party failed to launch a movement against this group even after Ms Bhutto’s ghastly murder.

The Feb 18 elections were held under grave circumstances. The election result is now widely acknowledged to be the people’s pronouncement against Musharraf, the establishment and the emergency/martial law. While all elected representatives agreed that the Nov 3 actions were unconstitutional and that Musharraf’s continuation in power would hamper the transition to democracy, the new Assembly delayed asserting its sovereign authority to overturn the acts of Nov 3 which could have been done by restoring the judiciary to its Nov 2 position.

The drafting and development of ‘constitutional packages’ were offered as justification for the delay and even now a partial and limited restoration is being proposed — while paying lip service to the formulations in the Bhurban Declaration and the independence of the judiciary.

It is strange, indeed, in this scenario for any serious and mature commentator to propose that the lawyers, civil society and the media simply shut up and fall in line with those who have not only once again reneged on their word but are also looking for excuses to hang on to the remains of a dictatorship for their own benefit and protection.

The lawyers’ approach has been focused and to call their integrity in pursuing it ‘tunnel vision’ qualifies as either an inane and ignorant joke or cruelty or both. Lawyers have not only acted wisely but exactly according to Jinnah’s principles of unity, faith and discipline. They have kept themselves away from political manipulators and self-seekers — something that helps them stay united and strong.

It should also be pointed out, for the record, that it is wholly incorrect that the lawyers’ movement is restricted to Punjab. The huge number of people that turned out for Chief Justice Chaudhry on his visit to Peshawar on May 31 is sufficient to refute that baseless assertion.

All over the world, movements are led by trade unions under one red flag, unpolluted by political vested interests. Lawyers are doing something similar in that sense through the common bond of their profession. Their movement is neither isolated nor apolitical. It is a movement of professionals who are themselves the mainstream and their politics comprises a campaign for true democracy, not hobnobbing with the establishment. To a lot of people, there seems to be a more real and brighter light at the end of this tunnel than there is at the end of the one that the ‘PPP-Q’ wishes to drag this country through.

The long march of June 10 is well timed. If they happen, and hopefully they will, both Musharraf’s exit and the restoration of judiciary will be events that will come about as a result of the lawyers’ movement, and not because of this or that ‘constitutional package’ and the mass deception that accompanies it.