| September 18, 2008 | Thursday | Ramazan 17, 1429 |
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Pakistani Taliban
Civilians must lead
Reduced water
Doing without the IMF
Experience at passport office
Some measures for saving fuel
Please stop spreading garbage
Petrol prices
Dwindling victoria carts
Hunza Valley’s culture
Student visa for UK
Bad advice
Power bomb
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
OP-ed columnists are indiscriminately echoing the government’s call to Pakistanis to take ownership of the ‘war on terror’. But what exactly is this ‘war on terror?’
Recently Henry Kissinger opined that the ‘war on terror’ is a misnomer because according to him terror is a method, not a political movement. In his view the West is instead engaged in a war against ‘radical Islam’.
When asked to clarify the term ‘radical’, he replied “that which is not secular.”
Kissinger who is revered as a guru by Bush, Cheney, Rice and the other neocons refuses to acknowledge the concept of a moderate Muslim which is even otherwise strange because it was his consulting firm that coined the term ‘enlightened moderation’ for the Pakistan government — in return for a huge fee!
In the current state of thinking that prevails in an Islamophobic West such a categorisation of Islam would result in branding as radical all the millions of moderate Muslims worldwide who offer congregational prayers regularly and who in compliance with Islamic injunctions abstain from alcohol, among other things.
Since the majority of the world’s Muslims is not secular in the sense envisaged by the West, it, therefore, follows that the war on terror is in reality a war on Islam and the world’s Muslims.
When countries such as Afghanistan and Pakistan pledge to continue the ‘war on terror’, are they in fact locking themselves in combat with the region’s fellow Muslims perceived as not being ‘secular’?
More importantly, how committed is the West itself to this war considering that its most ardent advocates — Bush, Cheney, Rice — have already passed into the political twilight zone?
Simon Jenkins writing in the Guardian asks whether ‘the war on terror’ has ‘become an exercise in cynicism’. He believes it has, having been relegated in the West to being ‘a backdrop to domestic politics’. However, for Pakistan the meddling by US and Nato forces in the Pakistan -Afghan border area is fraught with danger. As Jenkins notes: “The current use of drones to bomb Pakistan’s territory, usually on faulty or devious intelligence, is raising whole tribes to fury. It now risks driving an unstable Islamabad regime back into covert, if not overt, support for the Taliban, as in the 1990s. Is this really the intention of Washington and London?”
With friends like the US and the UK who needs enemies?
ASAD SIDDIQI
Lahore
THE Taliban movement started in Afghanistan due to US and Nato occupation and its aim has been to drive these foreign forces out of their homeland. Taliban have been attacking foreign troops and their supply convoys in Afghanistan, and have been quite successful.
Later on a new breed of Taliban known as Pakistani Taliban emerged. Their main target has been Pakistani forces due to our friendly attitude towards the US and allies. These Pakistani Taliban in Fata, Peshawar, Kohat and Swat have successfully carried out high-profile attacks on Pakistani forces and local infrastructure.
They have been able to hit some high-profile targets such as Naval Staff College, CIA, Lahore, Army mess in Rawalpindi, PAF Kamra, PAF Sargodha, POF Wah, etc. They are regularly attacking Army conveys in the NWFP and occasionally kidnapping Chinese working in Pakistan. In short, they are well organised and successful.
It is also reported that US and Nato forces in Afghanistan get 70 per cent of their supplies through Pakistan. Items ranging from drinking water to crated helicopters are offloaded from ships at Karachi airport and then transported in trucks via Peshawar and Quetta to the Afghan border. These trucks move in small conveys without any escort. Some of Nato supplies also come via the Russian route but after the Georgian conflict, Nato has emphasised the need to secure Pakistani route.
Our Pakistani Taliban, who are fighting due to the government’s pro-US policies and have been so successful in attacking Pakistani targets, have never harmed these Nato convoys.
There have been some isolated incidents but no major disruption of Nato supplies.
The question arises why these Taliban who are not sparing their own countrymen are so kind to Nato forces. Are they pursuing an agenda of some foreign forces in our country? If so, then the government should openly name such countries.
It should also be noted that every bomb attack in India is linked to Pakistan but Indian activities in Pakistan are hardly exposed, either by the government or by the media. If these Pakistani Taliban are linked to some other countries, they should be exposed so that the world should know that our allies in war on terror are party to terrorism in our own country.
Also, Pakistani Taliban would lose sympathies of their ignorant followers.
SULEMAN RAMDAY
Kuwait
YOU talk of a civilian voice (‘Civilians must lead’, Sept 13). Yet, in the same space you have noted that the civilian voice got stuck in its throat when pointed questions were put by the media at the press conference.
Drone attacks are already routine. The physical intrusion on Sept 3 as well was not the first. The first is said to have occurred in 2006. But this one was more blatant and more dastardly.
Soldiers of the world’s greatest power are shamelessly killing women and children as they did in Iraq and in their sleep, too. This is the state of a country that boasts nuclear power. Shame!
Mr Karzai is Nur Mohammad Taraki, Hafizullah Amin, Babrak Karmal and Najibullah, all rolled into one. They were Soviet puppets; he is America’s stooge.
He is as much anti-Pakistan as they. By inviting him to his inaugural and appearing with him at the press conference, Mr Zardari did several things. First, he underscored the close relations that Benazir Bhutto had forged with him during their meeting in the US.
Remember, Mr Karzai was the first to telephone her after the Oct 18 suicide attack in Karachi. Remember also Ms Bhutto’s statement that Mr Karzai had passed on to her the names of people who would wish to eliminate her.
Second, Mr Zardari wished to send a reassuring message (of gratitude?) to the US that he would fully cooperate with Mr Karzai and fulfil Ms Bhutto’s promise of allowing US troops to operate inside Pakistan.
Accordingly, instead of going to China as was early publicised, he has gone to the UK. This may be seen in the context of Gordon Brown’s full support for the US policy of aggressive raids inside Pakistan, and his declaration that he would speak with Mr Zardari on this issue.
Ironically, the prime minister, after a lot of mumbling, has said that there is no question of retaliation.
In case of incursions we would take up the issue diplomatically and try to convince the aggressors about the impropriety of their action. So, who will convince whom at the 10 Downing Street meeting between Prime Minister Brown and President Zardari?
Civilian must lead, but what if they are foreign puppets? The president is dumb. The prime minister lacks courage.
S.G. JILANEE
Karachi
I WAS rather shocked to read about India blocking the Chenab river unilaterally (Sept 15). It seems like Pakistan is being made a target of political victimisation of international players. On western border we are facing the wrath of a superpower gone mad.
We kept hearing reports of India being involved in destabilisation of Balochistan and the NWFP but neither the current nor the previous government of Pakistan had the courage to publicly raise this issue.
On the other hand, whenever there is a blast in India, a connection with the ISI is somehow always found by the Indian administration and the media denying the fact that it can be a result of what they are doing in Kashmir.
Now with the increase in raids by the US inside Pakistani territory, I suggest it’s time our government took some bold decisions. First of all, we must clearly list down our interests on which we cannot compromise.
These interests should be communicated to the international community. If they are violated, then our government must take a stand. If the US is killing our civilians in their so-called pursuit of Taliban, we should start with stopping logistic support to it in Afghanistan. It never was Pakistan’s war anyway.
In case of India stopping our water, we should raise this at every international forum including the World Bank. We should also highlight India’s role in destabilisation of Balochistan and the NWFP along with the violation of human rights in Kashmir.
Taking a stand on principles is the responsibility of a democratically-elected government in order to prove itself different from a dictatorial regime.
AHSAN MANSOOR
Islamabad
DR Pervez Tahir (or PT as he is known) brings good news in his article entitled ‘Doing without the IMF’ (Sept 10).
He informs us that Pakistan will not be going to the IMF but will develop its own programme of economic reform. I believe the president said the same thing recently.
I am delighted to hear this news. I am sure all of us can agree that this initiative was long overdue. However, at the expense of being the black spot in the lentils, let me offer a few words of caution.
The programme we put together has to be ambitious, well-thought-out with clear priorities and objectives. It should challenge us.
It cannot promise a doubling of wages, full employment, subsidies, low interest rates, lower petrol, gas and electricity prices, lower food prices, lower taxes, an exchange rate of Rs55 to the dollar, lots of new employment-intensive ‘development’ projects, and all the other tempting ‘awam dost’ features.
Such a programme will have no credibility, will not fly with any donor agency which will have to support it with money, and will only bring disappointment because it will be unimplementable.
Pakistan has no option but to cut its domestic and external deficits which have become too large, so that we can finance them without resorting to unconventional means.
Interest rates need to be kept high until inflation starts to come down.
Spending needs to be restrained, starting with defence spending, and tax collections must improve.
If all this means some sacrifice to growth, that is unfortunately the price we will have to pay for waiting so long to set our economic house in order.
DR MEEKAL AZIZ AHMED
Virginia, USA
I WOULD like to draw the attention of the government authority concerned to the unnecessary hassle created about the issuance of passport to me at the passport office at Saddar, Karachi.
I went there with all necessary documents, including domicile, CNIC, matriculation certificate, Intermediate certificate, bachelor’s degree, old passport (manual), parents’ computerised passport copies, parents’ CNIC, etc., hoping to submit an application for passport.
These documents, to my knowledge, should be enough to establish me as a valid and legal citizen of Pakistan and hence 100 per cent qualify me to obtain a passport of my homeland. But yet my application was rejected and I was asked to show any legal document of 1971 or older of my parents.
I ask the authorities concerned why I need to submit such an old document to prove myself as a bona fide citizen of this country. Isn’t it my birthright? or rather do I have any right in this country? I would like to ask them to publish an official list of documents that are necessary to get a Pakistani passport so as to save an innocent citizen from the menace of corruption in this department.
I request the authority concerned to place checks on these incidents and establish an effective complain centre so that our problems can be reduced, if not eliminated.
ANNOYED CITIZEN
Karachi
THIS is apropos of the letter, ‘Reduce speed to save fuel’ (Sept 13). It is not understandable as to how fuel can be saved if the speed is reduced while there is no control over the mindless number of vehicles being used .
It is okay that with reduced speed accidents can be checked or minimised, but what about the great number of old and rickety vehicles stuck on congested roads and thereby consuming enormous gasoline, as well as polluting the atmosphere to the peril of the health of the people nearby and also spreading far and wide.
Gradually new kinds of diseases will surface and spread to overconcentrated and over-populated urban areas, particularly in big cities like Karachi, Hyderabad, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Peshawar and Multan.
It is also all right that the reduced speed will increase the life of a vehicle as there will be less strain on the engine and parts of the vehicle but again there will be no difference in the use of fuel which will be consumed in case of use of increased number of vehicles.
However, Some fuel saving can be achieved by adopting the following measures:
— The number of vehicles should be reduced by restricting sale of new vehicles on easy loans provided by banks.
— No private car should be allowed to run on the roads of big cities. It should be made compulsory to travel by big vehicles like buses, wagons, coaches, vans, minibuses and long transport.
— City governments should arrange for large buses like trailers to run on city roads frequently so that people can get seat and travel from one place to another without loss of time.
— No businessman or shopkeeper should be allowed to ply his vehicles at his business spot on main roads, rather he should reach his business place and send back home his vehicle.
— Out of cities, all long vehicles, trucks, trailers run at the maximum speed of 60 to 80km an hour but small private vehicles, i.e. cars etc, run at the speed of more than 100km, but with high speed they save fuel. However, they should not be allowed to run above 110km.
— An underground train system may be started as soon as possible.
— A transport system using overhead bridge may also be started in the country in line with the system introduced in the Philippines.
— All offices may arrange big vehicles for their employees at all points of the city to pick them up for office duties in the morning and carry them back home in the evening.
— For students, all colleges, schools and universities may arrange big vehicles to pick their students from every corner of the city.
— The tram system may be reintroduced in Karachi and planned for other big towns and cities.
In this way much gain can be made and heavy losses can be avoided as far as gasoline is concerned.
DR ALI AKBAR DHAKAN
Chairman, Sindh Development
Foundation Karachi
THE other day I was coming home after picking up my daughter from school, and thud came out a bag full of garbage from the car in front of us. “Why do these people throw garbage on the road, Ammah?” Came the spontaneous inquiry from my daughter, and all I could do was wearily reply: “I don’t know, my dear, I really don’t! And it’s the truth too: Why?”
You go to a public place or a park and the littered garbage would tell the story. You cross a children’s park on a Monday, and all you can see are food leftover and plastic paper bags littered all over the place, telling the story of happily ignorant families’ weekend outing.
Why are we ignorant of such fundamental, such basic values? At one extreme of the globe, people are fined for littering, and in this other extreme people are fined for asking why do you litter?
And we are the followers of a religion which tells that cleanliness is Godliness. It’s a plea to all: please stop garbage-ing on environment and, above all, tell our children to stop this practice, as they are the ones who are going to take over and must be told their responsibilities.
A CONCERNED CITIZEN
Lahore
I AM confused. The price for petrol was raised to Rs86.6 a litre when the global crude oil price was above $140/ a barrel.
Now when the global price has gone down to about $88 a barrel, why are we still paying the same price in Pakistan?
I remember our cabinet putting the rising prices of oil on international trends but why doesn’t the same law apply when it comes to decreasing prices?
UMAR RAJA
Via email
APROPOS of the letter, ‘Dwindling victoria carts’ (Sept 8), writer Seema Khanum Pashamby lamented the disappearance of horse-drawn carts from Karachi’s marketplace. It seems Ms Pashamby was not thinking in the interest of animals when she wrote those lines.
We often tend to moan and groan at the demise of some of our traditions, but in fact not all traditions are good traditions. It is a good thing that our increased ethical values and advancement in technology are resulting in the abolishment of the exploitation and suffering of animals.
Speciesism, a prejudice against other species, is not different from racism or sexism that we abhor today. To my knowledge, no one has said it better than the great African- American feminist writer, Alice Walker, “The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for whites or women for men.”
I have every hope that today’s norm of animal exploitation will be a thing of the past just as slavery and subjugation of women no longer is considered a norm today.
SYED RIZVI
United States
I BELONG to the Hunza Valley. When I heard that a TV channel was airing a programme that “portrays the valley’s culture”, I was excited. However, on watching the programme, I was deeply hurt and very disappointed.
The programme, ‘Dulhan’, shows a ‘Khan Sahib’ in a lead villain’s role.
The irony is that there is no concept of ‘Khan Sahib’ in the valley. Anyway, the soap’s story was that the ‘Khan Sahib’ wants to make love to a girl and sets his goons after her. In reality, the valley does not have any ‘goons’ .
The valley is one of the only few parts of Pakistan that has 98 per cent literacy rate and 90 per cent of them are postgraduates. Such programmes taint the valley’s image and hurt the sentiments of its residents (Hunzukutz).
I wish to request the channel to change this part of their story or stop claiming that their programmes portray the true culture of the beautiful Hunza Valley.
JUNAID AKHLAQ HUNZAI
Karimabad, Hunza
I HAD applied for the UK student visa on Aug 27 as I could not have possibly applied any earlier because it was only a day before that I received my final result, which helped confirm that I had made my offer.
I clearly mentioned on my application that I would need my visa before Sept 15 because that’s when my classes start. The Gerry’s employees had informed me that I would receive my visa within 10 working days and would most certainly make my school deadline.
After the requisite time period had passed I tried to contact the British High Commission for an update. They were utterly unhelpful on the phone since the few times that they did pick up they would straight away transfer me to Gerry’s if I mentioned the word visa. They were equally unhelpful via email since they sent back automated messages that answered none of my questions.
In desperation I contacted my university that gave me an extension till Sept 19, after which it is likely that they will give my position in the university to another student.
I stand here at the cusp of what could very well be a big dent to my entire career. I am hoping at this time that the British High Commission is not entirely averse to my plight and that of other students like me.
I plead to them now that they would immediately send the visas of all those students whose classes have already begun. I hope that they will prioritise those visa applicants that need immediate assistance.
AN AFFECTED STUDENT
Via email
THis is apropos of the news item, ‘Bush advises Asif to ignore public opinion’ (Sept 9). Underlying this advice is the immensely problematic imperialistic mindset and the double standards of the colonial era whereby there was one rule for the colonisers and another for the colonised.
Will President Bush ever follow this advice himself? In his own country he would work towards moulding public opinion to his policy priorities, not ignore it. It would have been better if Mr Bush had advised Mr Zardari to work to persuade Pakistanis and bring them around to his (read Bush or Zardari) policies.
It appears that after failing in their attempts to win the ‘hearts and minds’ of Iraqis and Afghans, ignoring the ‘hearts and mind’ is perhaps the new direction the US administration has taken. Such blatant arrogance towards the people of a country can only push them further towards undemocratic forces who, at least on the surface, may show concern for what people think and feel.
President Zardari should not follow Mr Bush’s advice.
JAHIZ ADABI
London UK
WITH the power bomb going off with 30 per cent increase in electricity charges notified by the government, ‘the light at the end of the tunnel’ has also been switched off for the majority of our poor people.
DR IRFAN ZAFAR
Islamabad
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