| July 30, 2008 | Wednesday | Rajab 26, 1429 |
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Development of Thar coal
Devolution plan that failed
The new information bill
Apartheid, war and bribery
The ‘spoilers’ in Muslim League (N)
Solving Transport problem
The Island of lost maps
Seeds of peace in a foreign land
Pensioners’ plea to HBL
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
Further to Dawn’s editorial on July 24 and M. Ziauddin’s Dateline London “Power-Point version of Isaf’s successes” on July 22. The US gives Pakistan’s Anti-Narcotics Force funds, coupled with diplomatic pressures, to stop drug trafficking in the country, but when it comes to Isaf and the Karzai government, criminal negligence is observed on their part.
Poppy cultivation in Afghanistan has increased and its income is being utilised by terrorists to buy weapons. Poppy cultivation is increasing in 28 of the country’s 32 provinces.
Today, between 90 and 95 per cent of the world’s supply of opium comes from Afghanistan.
President Karzai laid out a National Drug Control Strategy for Afghanistan in 2005, based on four key priorities: (a) disrupting the drug trade by targeting traffickers and their backers; (b) strengthening and diversifying legal rural livelihood; (c) reducing the demand for illicit drugs and treatment of problems of drug users; (d) developing state institutions at the central and provincial levels.
But these efforts failed to control poppy cultivation. Recent survey conducted jointly by the Afghan Ministry of Counter - Narcotics and the UN Office on Drugs and Crimes in January 2006, predicted an upsurge in the poppy cultivation area for the year 2006.
The survey shows an increasing trend in the poppy cultivation in 13 provinces, especially Helmand, Ghor, Uruzgan, Zabul, Nangarhar, Leghman and Badakshan.
Thus opium serves as “the main engine of economic growth” in Afghanistan. While it has declared war against poppy cultivation and drug trafficking, there is little on the ground to suggest that practical steps have been taken to set off this menace.
Ironically, both Nato and EU officials recently refused to lead a hands - on role in fighting the narco problem. One reality is that Isaf has only some 52,000 troops on the ground: the Helmand province is home to a significant proportion of Isaf troops and yet still cultivates some 50 per cent of the opium produced in Afghanistan.
The provinces ‘controlled’ by Isaf, and the nexus between the drug mafia and the Taliban - Al Qaeda is evidenced by the amount of money which the Taliban are paying to defectors from the Afghan security forces and other officials, as well as in the purchase of weapons for their own use.
Indeed, the Taliban - Al Qaeda ability to generate income and control derives not just from trafficking in narcotics on their own account, but also on their ability to charge ‘transit fees’ and to demand payments for protection.
The whole process of poppy cultivation, transportation, processing, and the like is more than merely a Taliban - Al Qaeda event; it is pervasive through much of Afghan society, and divides the population from both Isaf and national governance.
It is not surprising, therefore, that some 60 to 70 per cent of the Afghan parliament is occupied by former mujahidin, former Communists, drug barons, and warlords, who not only control both houses of parliament but, as a result, prevent the establishment of the central government’s writ across the country.
It is clearly not in the interests of most of the lawmakers that the national government should exercise law and order across the land, and, meanwhile, President Karzai is hardly in a position to marginalise these lawmakers.
Undoubtedly, the drug menace of Afghanistan got massive encouragement from the Americans themselves. After the overthrow of the Taliban regime the Americans allowed the warlords to re - establish their hold in many parts of Afghanistan.
Soon these warlords began to cultivate opium as it fetched a lot of money. Americans initially turned a blind eye to it as they needed the support of these warlords to strengthen their installed Karazai regime and to keep the Taliban at bay. Now whether the US is interested in fighting terrorism or eradicating terrorism. The fighting is proportionate to the justification of extending stay in the area and putting Afghanistan and its neighbours in constant danger of instability whereas the elimination of the sources of the Taliban’s funding is directly related to Pakistan’s efforts of eliminating Al Qaeda - Taliban threat, once and for all.
BRIG ( r) TARIQ ZUBAIR TOOR
Rawalpidni
RECENTLY many reports have appeared in your esteemed paper regarding development of Thar coal, the most recent being , ‘Federal govt’s control on Sindh coal body opposed’ (July 27).
I recall that it was in early 1990 that US Aid had initiated the study on the extent of the reserves of Thar coal and the viability of mining this coal.
The huge deposit of Thar coal, albeit of low BTU, warranted open pit mining. But in mining this coalfield many problems were foreseen.
First, there was considerable overburden to be removed before the coal could be extracted and brought to the surface. Second, immediately below the first layer of coal was a body of saline water. In this connection two subsidiary problems were foreseen:
(a) Where do we dispose of the huge quantities of saline water without its environmental effect on the nearby land and the sea.
( b) The saline water is under tremendous pressure and, therefore, difficult to handle.
The foremost issue is the economics of mining Thar coal, i.e. what would it cost to mine a ton of coal. At what price the owners of power stations will be willing to purchase the coal to generate electricity so that the price of a megawatt is compatible with the price of electricity being offered at present to the distribution companies.
I am sure all these basic issues have been tackled by now, although newspapers have not yet reported on the results of the final study.
If the Sindh government feels so strongly about owning, managing and operating Thar coal mines, then the federal government should relent and allow Sindh to own and operate the mines.
The Sindh government may have a Thar Coal Mining Authority, and a representative of the federal government may be opted to attend all the Authority meetings as a member.
A foreign mining company operating the mines on the basis of sharing the profits is not favoured. Rather it would be better to appoint international mining experts who could guide the Authority about the detailed mining plans and the technical aspects of extracting coal so that it is directly fed to the power stations, preferably to be located on the mine - head.
S.R.POONEGAR
Former federal secretary,
Ministry of Water & Power
Karachi
THE major problem in the ‘devoulation’plan designed by Lt-Gen( r) Tanvir Hussain Naqvi for Pervez Musharraf is that now the police are answerable directly to the home minister who is a politician and take sideswhenever there is something wrong.
In the old system of governance, the police were under the deputy commissioner of the distrcit. His other powers were of district magistrate and collctor of land revenue.
What happened in February 2006 in Lahore, May 12, 2007 in Karachi and on the death of Benzair Bhutto on Dec 27, 2007 and the riots in Sindh for full three days following Ms Bhutto’s assassination? In all the above cases, nobody knew who is responsible for law and order as nazim is not controlling the police, and political home minister is not trained to control law and order. How can a home minister control a province? Just take the example of Punjab. It has 36 districts with an area of 205,549 square kilometres. Sitting in Lahore,will he be able to take care of all more than 100 million people of the province?
In my student days I, along with my college fellows, many times protested on The Mall in Lahore. Along with the police, there used to be an Illaqa (area) magistrate whose function was to control the mob. First, by negotiation and then ordering the protestors on the megaphone to disperse. If the mob did not disperse, then he will say on the megaphone: “I, such and magistrate, order the police to tear - gas the mob.”
Even then, if there was some problem,the magistrate would order the police to open fire on the legs of the protesters.
The new nazim system has totally collapsed and we should revert to the old system of DC’s .These men were trained for this job and did not have any political party affiliations. While the nazims belong to political parties and inclined to favour.
In his recent interview, the architect of “democracy at grassroots’ level”, Lt - Gen ( r) Tanvir Hussain Naqvi,has admitted that his devolution plan is not fit for Pakistan.
”Key mary qatal kay bad us nay jafa say tooba Hai us zood paishema ka paisheman hona”
INAYAT ULLAH SHEIKH
Karachi
THIS is apropos of Zahid Abdullah’s article, ‘The new information bill’ (July 25). The article is a good guide as regards reference to overriding clauses. Sometimes such clauses may be found in conflicting laws, e.g. in the freedom of information law as well as in the law restricting the freedom of information.
The issue arises as to which overrides which. According to the principles of interpretations of statutes, the law later in time prevails over the earlier one whereas a special law overrides the general law.
It is possible that the Freedom of Information Law, despite being later in time, is declared a general law whereas an earlier law is held by a court to be a special law, in which case the earlier law will prevail.
However, when a law is specifically mentioned in the Freedom of Information Act stating clearly the extent to which it is overridden, then there will be little room for interpretation.
SANA ULLAH GONDAL
Karachi
APROPOS of Javed Naqvi’s column, ‘Apartheid, war and bribery’ (July 24), I would like to bring the following facts to the notice of your readers.
Mr Naqvi only tangentially refers to Ms Mayawati’s brand of politics. He makes Mayawati look like a prescient politician who is thinking of her constituents. The truth is that she has been the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, the largest state in India, three times. Yet UP remains one of the worst administered and backward, if not the most backward, states in India. While she may be protesting about corruption that was evident in the Lok Sabha during the US nuclear deal debate, she herself is seeped in corruption and, in fact, has charges filed against her as recently as last month.
Worst of all is the vendetta politics which has become emblematic of her style of politics. She has relentlessly shut down commercial enterprises in UP that were started under previous regimes, to the detriment of the people of UP.
As for Mayawati’s assertion that the US and Israel need India to carry out an attack on Iran, it is no more than self - aggrandisement for Indians to think they matter so much in international politics. I am as patriotic an Indian as any, but I don’t for a moment suffer under any illusion of the importance of India. Israel will attack Iran as and when they see fit; as they attacked Iraq in 1981 when they damaged the Osirak reactor.
The Americans completed the task in 1991. The one ally Israel needs is the US and that is all that matters. To think that the US and Israel wanted the India - US nuclear deal to go through to give them a legitimacy to attack Iran is at best delusional, and at worst it is Mayawati’s attempt to pander to misinformed Muslims in India who may have a misplaced sense of affiliation with the Iranians, just because they happen to be muslims too.
The India - US nuclear deal is no more than the energy - starved Indians trying to get some power production going. Hopefully, it will help reduce the unbearable power cuts that plague the Inidan cities today. All of the rest is just hogwash.
B.K. VASAN
Chicago, USA
According to a news item, Asif Ali Zardari wrote a letter to Nawaz Sharif complaining that Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) leaders Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, Makhdoom Javed Hashmi and Ahsan Iqbal are playing the ‘role of spoilers’. If sticking to a principled stand makes a person a ‘spoiler’, how many ‘spoilers’ do we see in the present leadership of the Pakistan People’s Party? Does it mean Asif Ali Zardari want Mian Nawaz Sharif to exclude these ‘spoilers’ as he excluded his ‘spoilers’, Makhdoom Fahim, Nahid Khan and Safdar Abbasi?
And what was that big friendly hug about when he, in one of the meetings shown on TV, squeezed Chaudhry Nisar, whispered in his ears and lifted him from the ground like an old buddy?
Was it because the warmth of Murree Declaration had not yet thawed at that time or was he squeezing out the spirit of principle from Chaudhry Nisar?
DR GHAYUR AYUB
London
The Profitable and useful life of a bus of western and Japanese origin in urban usage is five to six years, logging close to a million kilometres. Whereafter the maintenance and off-road costs start mounting, profitability starts declining and the vehicle can cover next five to six years on secondary routes. The government had inducted some brand new buses of Bulgarian, Romanian and Chinese origin, which packed up after one year’s operation on inter-city routes and were dished out to universities and other light users.
There is a strong case for enhancing our indigenous automotive capacity, which would solve our transportation problems for all times. Expansion of the local auto vender industry would create thousands of new jobs, which we sorely need. A flood of used buses would ruin our fledgling vender industry and add to the jobless pool. A 10-year-old bus is nothing but a piece of junk. Let us not waste our meagre foreign exchange on import of junk.
A. S. CHAUDHRY
Member, Pakistan Institute of Transport and Logistics
Lahore Cantt.
APROPOS of Irfan Husain’s column, ‘The Island of lost maps’ (July 26), I would like to add that from the ancient times to the modern the wise people of the world have revered books. There is a great story, perhaps exaggerated, about how the ancient library of Ale-xandria came to amass the vast number of scrolls it supposedly had before it was destroyed.
Ptolemy III, who reigned over Egypt between 246 BC and 222 BC, issued a decree that all ships and visitors coming to Alexandria had to surrender every book and scroll they had on board to the authorities. They were promised that the books would be copied and sent back.
Legend has it that most of the time the Alexandrians kept the original and sent back the duplicate. Except that the copies were so good that the owners could not make out what they had was a copy of the original they had submitted!
A READER
Via email
THIS is apropos of a news clip, ‘Seeds of peace in a foreign land’((July 21). The group coordinator from India comes from a Sindhi family. I think there is a thin minority of Sindhis living in India who left their mother land in 1947.
It is a democratic way of India that a member of the Sindhi community got a membership in a world peaces process committee. But what about those Sindhis who are living in Pakistan, will they get a membership in our national cricket team?
NIZAMUDDIN LAGHARI
Islamabad
THIS is apropos of Mahmood Ahmad Minhas’s letter, ‘NBP pension formula’ (July 23).
It is heartening to note that the managerment of the NBP, taking into account the woes of their retired employees at the hands of inflationary pressures, has revised their pension formula from 1.10 per cent to 1.25 per cent with effect from Jan1, 2004, in addition to 10 per cent special increase in the last basic pay for calculating retirement benefits from Jan1, 2007.
Retired employees of the HBL, who are sailing in the same boat, are expecting fair treatment from the management of the HBL to maintain their white-collar image.
ABDUL JABBAR
Former AVP, HBL
Karachi
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