| July 20, 2008 | Sunday | Rajab 16, 1429 |
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Weeping Queen of Quetta
Meals without deals
Fighting terrorism
Woman prisoner at Bagram
Need for independent judiciary
Outlook for the people
Government performance
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
JIRGA is a dreaded institution for women and the weak. If someone weak is trapped into its draconian net, justice is undone. The actors are the sardars/chieftains presiding over the fate the poor men and women.
Sindh is notorious for this. Every second day a daughter/son or a sister/brother or a mother/father falls victim to the whims of the so-called justice dispenser called notables/sardars, including DCOs, DPOs and DIGs who settle disputes among the feuding tribes.
This is the best way out to provide relief to the guilty and the strong who are involved in killing, plunder, rape, and other heinous crimes. An extraordinary way to pat the back of the criminals by providing them legal cover for killings and wrongdoings against the weak in their areas, though the Sindh High Court banned jirgas in 2004.
The price for providing this cover-up is some hundred thousand for murder. In some instances, minor girls are offered as a penalty for each murder and injury case. For causing an injury to a person, the fine is Rs20,000 to Rs50,000.
But mostly the number of killings on either side is counted and if found equal, the matter stands neutralised. If it is not found equal, money is only paid for the extra murder. The same is the case as regards the injured. The formula is similarly applied to cases relating to theft and killing of cattle. A person’s life, dignity and honour rest on the price the jirga lord will fix. The are crimes galore, committed in the name of tribal enmity. These are also being registered by the police but then no one can arrest the offender or the absconder. The police are helpless. Criminals freely roam but nobody can touch them as area DSPs/TPOs, SHOs and other police officials are posted under the blessings of the ‘bhotar’ of the area (the word commonly used for sardars and waderas of Sindh’s interior) who is an all-powerful figure on the jirga committee. He is the executioner and he is the judge simultaneously.
It is incomprehensible why ‘bhotars and sardars’ do so instead of devising strategies to improve the law and order situation by establishing the writ of the state. The writ of law can only be established if postings of police officers are based purely on merit and are requirement-based.
Political influence in these postings as well as in decision-making must be discouraged by giving free legal hand to the officers posted. Officers also should be held accountable for their failure to carry out their duties and for misusing their authority.
It is necessary that all cases of crime are registered, properly investigated and sent to courts of law. Criminals should be invariably arrested and put behind bars.
Efforts are also required to equip the district police with proper training and equipment to cope with the situation. Joint operations by the police and other law-enforcers should be conducted to cleanse the area of heavy and light weapons. It is also essential to ensure that no further transportation of arms and ammunition to these areas is made.
All non-functional schools in these areas should be reopened while new ones are constructed there. Similarly, basic health units already existing and lying closed should be reopened and new ones be also established.
Roads, if already constructed, should be repaired and new ones be built leading to and from these areas to provide access to law enforcers.
A law should be enacted to dismiss any police officer, or a government official or a political party leader found helping a jirga and sue them in a court of law.
This is the only way to bring peace and prosperity to the areas that now fall under the influence of the dreaded and regressive jirga system. This of course requires a sincere effort, proper planning and political will to end for good the evil and corrupting influence of the powerful ‘bhotars’.
For this, we need to seek help from civil
society, politicians, NGOs, human rights activists and all patriotic individuals to send packing off the centuries’-old cruel system of jirga.
HUMERA ALWANI
MPA,Thatta
THIS is apropos of your report, ‘Weeping Queen of Quetta’ (July 16), and the writer’s observations regarding my thoughts on the movie.
The writer’s contention that I ‘walked in late and missed most of the film’ is sadly not correct. Having been detained at a prior commitment, I arrived approximately five minutes into the film, and not wanting to disturb the viewers took a side seat from where I watched 45 minutes of a 50-minute docu-drama. Enough, I believe, to justify having an opinion on what was shown.
Another factual error that has been made by your writer is the claim that I have lived in Quetta. I wish next time I am contacted before one of your writers would like to print information about me. It will save this paper from printing incorrect statements. Moreover, one needs not live in Quetta to feel the plight of the land.
The Weeping Queen seemed to lay all of Quetta’s ills at the door of ‘treacherous’ individuals which, combined with shots of gun-wielding Baloch, very clearly pointed fingers. The film conveniently forgot all outside influences which contributed towards making Balochistan what it is today.
The military, by virtue of its absence from the film, is mercifully exonerated, as is the rampant scarcity of basic human rights and amenities. Such portrayal is agreeable only if being shown for pure entertainment purposes, but surely not ‘as a historical document’ which the producer said his film was.
The problems of Balochistan (and its capital city Quetta) go deeper than unplanned highrises, the ever present smog, and deforestation. There are bitter truths behind the ‘gun-totting’ men, burning tyres, and bombed buildings. There is the sad reality of stark deprivation; deprivation of basic amenities, fundamental rights, and the gradual but sure erosion of sense of belonging, fuelled by merciless military operations. Assassinations of Baloch leaders like Nawab Akbar Bugti can never be forgotten by the people of that brave land.
Taking these facts into account doesn’t make a film political, it merely makes it factual. We must have the courage to speak up for our country when it needs. At the end of the docu-drama, I did indeed commend the producer on his efforts, which I surely do appreciate, along with the histrionics of Ms Bakhtiar, who did justice to her role.
However, I continue to believe that without going back to the root cause, one cannot attempt to understand the present plight of the land.
SHAZIA MARRI
Karachi
WITH reference to your editorial, ‘Meals without deals’ (July 12), let me say that we, generally, believe in ‘sawab’ (reward) and not salvation. There had been a PTV drama, ‘Zero Hour’, in which a bureaucrat had been told he would expire on a certain day.
He started treating the staff with amazing leniency and began feeding the poor. When the day passed off and he did not die, he switched to his original type and began to act as he had been prior to the zero hour.
How many people had suffered and what is their plight following the crash of the stock exchange is within the knowledge of those who know how to act and manipulate. If they had some soft feeling for the hungry, they might not have made hundreds of investors hungry by emptying their pockets to fill theirs.
It is a simple truth that one’s gain is the loss of the other. Feeding meals is an exercise to cover up the pricking consciousness and to present a positive picture to the people to make believe ‘we are not involved’.
The editorial, ‘A matter of life’ (July 11), had carried a pertinent question of price hiking related to the life-saving drugs. Since there is no government at present in the country, the drug manufacturers are also considering themselves to be the part and parcel of some unknown power making them demi-gods to make or break our lives. Could it be possible in some country other than Pakistan?
GHEEWALA
Karachi
I remember an interview given by Mr Pervez Musharraf, some years back, in which he was trying to educate the western media about terrorism and its eradication.
He said, “You must understand that for stopping terrorism you have to negotiate and understand the problems that are causing terrorism. You cannot kill the terrorist and expect that terrorism will be eradicated.”
The military operations in our tribal areas and the press briefings that our leaders are making, say: “We will reduce their houses to rubble and fight till the last”. The recent bomb explosions solicited similar remarks. How much the western media must be rejoicing!
Please stop this nonsense. How can you expect someone to present you with flowers when you destroy his house and kill his family?
Take heed of it. The tribes are our brethren. They fear and they love, they learn and they listen, they fight as we fight.I Pray to God, Almighty to grant us the true path.
CONCERNED PAKISTANI
Via e-mail
IT had been harrowing to read the story narrated by Yvonne Ridley at the press conference in Islamabad recently (July 7). In it she revealed that a Pakistani woman prisoner was being held at the Bagram detention centre being run by the American forces in Afghanistan, whose screams had been heard by various prisoners during the past four years.
Now, an American military officer has come out with a statement that they do not have any women prisoners over there (July 12). However, some knowledgeable sources have been quoted in the July 12 report as saying that the prisoner could be Aafia Siddiqui, who had been picked up by Pakistani intelligence agencies and handed over to US authorities for interrogation. But, neither the US official nor the ICRC office in Kabul has responded to queries that could help identify the inmate. I would like to recall some details of Dr Aafia Siddiqui’s case based on two reports in Dawn (May 28 and June 3, 2004). First, she was an award-winning student of the prestigious American university MIT where she had studied for 10 years, got her PhD and was carrying out research in cognitive behavioural science to help children with learning disabilities.
Second, the Pakistani intelligence agencies had interrogated her but failed to find any link with Al Qaeda, following an American request.
Third, before that, in the US she was accused of making anti-US speeches and ‘preaching jihad’ and was declared a ‘dangerous terrorist’ by the FBI.
Fourth, according to her family, Dr Aafia Siddiqui was kidnapped in Karachi along with her three young children around March 2004.
However, the Pakistani officials, including the then interior minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, kept denying any knowledge of her whereabouts until about June 2004, much to her family’s consternation, only to state now that she was handed over to the US the previous year after her arrest in Karachi.
Finally, according to her American lawyer, Ms Sharp, cited in the reports, Dr Siddiqui had received job offers from a couple of prominent American universities and, being a divorcee, had travelled to the US again in late 2002 for interviews, in a bid to sustain her family. Ms Sharp further thought that her client may be in detention in Pakistan or the US.
While considering Dr Siddiqui’s case, her brilliant academic achievements, apparent concern for children with disabilities and having her own kids as young as a few months old to seven years (in 2004) need to be weighted in.
Also, the acknowledgement by American rulers, high officials, intelligence agencies and even the media of massive intelligence failures and administrative bungling as well as the discrimination and hate crimes against Muslims since 9/11, are crucial.
Hence, it is highly likely that she may have been arrested under mistaken or exaggerated charges.
Besides, Pakistan must treat all its sons and daughters with love and respect — only a Pakistani would willingly sacrifice his/her life for the rest of us, if need be — especially when they are the cream of the cream. It is only people with rare abilities who get to study at places like MIT, after spending a fortune. They are the greatest assets of any developing country.
The government ought to follow up on Aafia Siddiqui’s case to make sure she is still alive, that her children are being well looked after under Islamic guardianship and she isn’t the casualty of any FBI lapse or over-reaction.
Mr Sherpao is urged to divulge whatever he knows about her case. Just as the PPP leaders are giving due importance to how Benazir Bhutto was a woman and a mother, besides her other qualities, similarly one hopes this very bright and talented mother and her three young children will not be left to languish like stateless orphans.
If the prisoner is found to be some other Pakistani, her case should still be followed diligently.
K. CHAUDHRY
Karachi
IF the judiciary in a country is not independent, nobody can expect any justice and rule of law. For this, the appointment of judges on merit and through a system of checks and balances is of utmost importance.
Salahuddin Ahmed in his article, ‘System of judicial appointments’ (June 23), seems to have overlooked this extremely important aspect.
In England, the judges are appointed through an extremely impartial Judicial Appointments Commission of 18 persons of unimpeachable quality and integrity.
Anybody who has been a political activist cannot be appointed a member of the commission. As against this, in Pakistan the (political) executive has prerogative to appoint judges with the merit of its own liking, with tragic consequences for the country.
S. FEROZ SHAH GILLANI
Lahore
This refers to the letter by Fakhar Ahmad (July 14). There is an oft-quoted saying: “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time”.
It appears that on Feb 18 all of the voters have been fooled for the fifth time round since the end of the Zia era. And all have been fooled by the slogan of ‘Roti, kapra aur makaan’ for the fourth time round since 1970. ‘Roti’ is dearer and scarcer than it had ever been. Forget about ‘kapra aur makaan’ for all.
If all of the people are prepared to be fooled again and again and yet again, I am surprised by the comments that the democratic government would bring “relief to the poor, reduce loadshedding, contain hoarding, increase our social and economic stability and, hence, bring progress and development to Pakistan,” unless Fakhar Ahmad was joking.
RAFI AHMED
Karachi
THERE are a few positive things this government has done after coming to power, like giving freedom to the media, releasing prisoners and showing patience with the long march held in opposition to it.
However, the government has failed on several fronts . For example, it has failed to reduce the price of basic commodities and has simultaneously increased the gas and electricity tariff. Hoarders are active all over the country. Law and order situation has deteriorated.
Come Feb 18, there was a ray of hope that the PPP government would take this country on the journey to peace progress and foster political stability. Sadly after 100 days of the government coming to power, nothing has changed. In fact, immediately after getting a vote of confidence from parliament, Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gillani announced an increase in the price of wheat and all other commodities.
For long the PPP has been campaigning with a slogan of bread, clothing and shelter but it is yet to deliver on its promises. The million-dollar question that comes to mind is what strategy is the government adopting to control the situation? Gas, CNG, petrol and electricity tariffs have gone up at an alarming rate.
This means that production cost has also gone up, which does not augur well for textile and other industries. Conventional wisdom says the increase in the above-mentioned tariff should have been so phased that the econmy should have absorbed this shock.
The stock market too is not doing well.
HAMDAN SIDDIQUI
Karachi
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