| November 19, 2008 | Wednesday | Ziqa'ad 20, 1429 |
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A boon that awaits social sciences
Single currency for the Islamic world
Pakistan’s governance
Unacceptable advice
PPP and the policy of privatization
A tale of land grabbing
Nadra contract employees
Tribals’ hideouts
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
ACCORDING to a report, US President-elect Barack Obama is attaching a high priority to reassessing the US strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan and to getting the Kashmir dispute resolved (Nov 10).
His major input on what to do about Kashmir appears to come from Bruce Reidel, a former CIA official and adviser to three US presidents on South Asia and the Middle East, whom Mr Obama has appointed his adviser on Pakistan.
However, Mr Reidel’s take on the problem does not include the restoration of the Kashmiris’ right to self-determination and appears to look at Pakistan as being responsible for creating the dispute, in the first place.
This can be deduced from his unfortunate advocacy of finding a solution that satisfies India and ends Pakistan’s excuse for prolonging the dispute. Also, that Islamabad ought to be persuaded to accept India’s influence (read: hegemony) in the region.
This approach, the adviser believes, will refocus the Pakistani military on fighting militants within its borders. But, such an overemphasis on the military option is already worrying the experts on Afghan affairs.
One would like to draw Mr Obama’s attention to some important facts. First, this approach is not consistent with doing justice to a people (the Kashmiris), that Mr Obama’s mother (whom he credits for much of his inspiration) and the man whose speeches she loved, i.e. Martin Luther King., Jr., laid so much emphasis on.
Mr King had famously said: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” It is axiomatic that there can be no peace without justice. Trying to force a solution on the Kashmiris or Pakistanis will be counterproductive. A very telling fact is that some well-known Indian intellectuals and peace activists like Arundhati Roy have, following the new entirely peaceful uprising in occupied Kashmir, made strong and impassioned appeals to New Delhi to stop brutalising the Kashmiris and give them freedom.
Another crucial point is to note why there’s been unrest in occupied Kashmir for 60 years but none in its Pakistani part? Mr Obama can learn some other very important facts if he cares to assign an assistant to read books on the issue telling the Pakistani side of the story and prepare a summary for him. A recommended one is The Emergence of Pakistan by Chaudhri Muhammad Ali.
For instance, on p 310 he reveals that in 1948 both President Truman of the US and Prime Minister Atlee of Britain had appealed to India and Pakistan to accept the proposal for arbitration by the American Admiral Chester Nimitz who had been designated the Plebiscite Administrator for Kashmir by the UN Commission set up for the purpose.
Pakistan accepted but India rejected the proposal. Mr Ali says: “This pattern of behaviour was repeated on 11 subsequent occasions when eminent statesmen and mediators put forward proposals for a settlement of the Kashmir dispute – Pakistan accepted and India rejected.”
Interestingly, a report published in this newspaper on Aug 7, 1948 had said that Admiral Nimitz was “waiting at Lake Success (USA) with packed suitcases to arrange a plebiscite in the State of Jammu and Kashmir.” Sadly, that never happened because India — not Pakistan — wanted to prolong the issue, since it feared the involvement of honest brokers.
An amusing consequence of Mr Obama’s keen desire to help the dispute is the anxiety it has evidently caused to the Indians. Soon after his declaration of intent, the Indian foreign minister gave a clever statement saying that India and Pakistan should resolve this issue bilaterally, making it implicitly clear that a third party involvement was unwelcome.
Another thing is that the former Indian legislator and diplomat, Kuldip Nayyar, who is now a New Delhi-based columnist, also expressed his reservations about Mr Obama’s interest in the matter (Nov 14).
The third fact is that, according to a section of the local print media (The Financial Times, Nov 10), an Indian delegation that was going to New York to participate in a UN meeting was diverted to Washington immediately, ostensibly to provide an Indian perspective on the subject. This, in reality, is an early attempt to influence Mr Obama’s thinking.
Islamabad must take urgent notice of this and quickly dispatch some very competent people such as the former foreign secretary Tanvir Ahmed Khan and some Kashmiri representatives to inform the US leader of our side of the story.
KHALID CHAUDHRY
Karachi
IGNORING the significance of social sciences in the field of academia is bound to have near disastrous consequences for Pakistan, The Higher Education Commission recognised the miserable state of affairs and launched a number of programmes to remedy the situation. As most persons are not aware of the steps taken by the HEC, the following information will serve to correct the wrong impression that the HEC has done nothing.
The HEC’s Committee on Development of Social Sciences and Humanities is working towards promotion of the social sciences sector in its universities. So far 267 scholarships have been awarded for doctoral studies in social sciences, art, humanities arid business education. Indeed scholarships to countries such as the USA, Australia, New Zealand and other English-speaking countries have a large component of social science scholarships. Apart from that, 30 per cent of scholarships are reserved for these disciplines.
Through its institutional development programme, 13 departments have been strengthened through provision of equipment, construction of seminar rooms, networking and database creation, funds for organising conferences and grants to conduct research. So far 24 research proposals have been funded, while over 25 international and national linkages have been supported. There is ample opportunity available for those interested in the field but so far the demand by universities has been low.
Those who interest themselves in this area must realise the importance of conference and research publications. Encouragement and funds are both available to help universities to involve themselves in such activities. One recent example is the international conference on ‘Literature and National Consciousness’ organised by the department of Urdu, Shah Abdul Latif University, Khairpur.
Another recent event is the ‘Interdisciplinary International Conference on Media and Social Change’ organised by Faculty of Arts, University of Karachi, held on Nov 5-6. The HEC’s Monograph and Textbook Writing Scheme has so far published five books in social sciences and five in arts and humanities while another six are under print.
For the first time in Pakistan local journals too have not been overlooked in the process, and 49 journals in various categories have been approved. Only a few addresses of the online journals are included for those who keenly follow the progress of social sciences : two HEC-recognised journals from NUML, Islamabad, http.//numl.edu.pk/ urdu index.html; one HEC-recognised journal from SALU, Khairpur http://solu.edu.pk /research/publication/journals/urdu/a1mas; two HEC-recognised journals from GCU, Lahore, http//gcu.edu.pk/StatJourVol.htm#2007 and http://gcu.edu.pk/ Soc&CIinPsy.Jour.htm
The HEC has tried to provide all the opportunities that are available to researchers the world over and interest as well as the pace for research is beginning to pick up.
What is required more than anything else is greater commitment and vigour on the part of researchers.
AYESHA IKRAM
Deputy Director (Publications)
Higher Education Commission
Islamabad
THIS is apropos of Ujala Ahsan’s letter, ‘Single currency for the Islamic world’ (Oct 29). In this regard the thing to remember is that union is strength.
We know that just after the devastating economic, social and political effects of World War II, the wise European leaders found it beneficial that the world may be controlled through their political influence and power in the shape of an international institution called the United Nations Organisation.
Thus they hold veto powers to control the world in accordance with their wisdom and discretion for their own benefits. After they created such an international political organisation, they then thought of economic control over the world by uniting all countries of Europe so that they should gather resources of all other countries and utilise them for their own benefit.
In this way, they united and created the European Union for controlling all the monetary and fiscal matters through an European central bank and European Currency Unit (ECU). The last deadline for introducing euro was fixed for Jan 1, 2002 and it is now in operation. In this way, all the European countries have formed a strong and united economy bloc against all developing and backward countries.
It is now our national duty to be more vigilant and foresighted to plan and frame such economic policies in all sectors of economy, particularly trade, banking, finance, budgeting, monetary, fiscal, industrial and agriculture, so that we should be more competitive and capable of facing all economic issues and problems.
It is, therefore, suggested that since dollar, yen and pound sterling have been the strongest currencies at the moment because of their strong economic and financial positions, it is pertinent to compete with these currencies as had the European bloc planned to unite themselves and introduced a united currency, i.e. euro, so that this currency should appear as the fourth strong currency in the world and dominate in the comity of nations and prove to be useful economic fortress for Europe.
In the light of such prudent and inventive ideas of non-Muslims, we, the Muslims, throughout the world should also be prepared to unite together and introduce a new economic bloc to be named as ‘Salamat United Nations’' (SUN) with a central bank as ‘Salamat Central Bank’ (SCB) and 'Salamat Currency Unit’ (SCU) as already suggested in my book titled Secrets of Economic Prosperity.
DR ALI AKBAR M. DHAKAN
Chairman, Sindh Development Foundation
Karachi
IN his column, `The multiplying zeros’ (Nov 16), Ardeshire Cowasjee has revealed two recent instances where our leaders have apparently used public money for private purposes. The first pertains to the wedding of our Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani’s son, when the President House was converted into what he calls a `shaadi bagh’ with all the paraphernalia that goes with the place.
The second was about Syed Khursheed Shah, the wedding of whose son was celebrated in the power-starved Karachi by lighting up “the entire road in front of his house and the adjacent houses using ‘kunda’ connections, with all the other arrangements reportedly made at state expense (estimated cost Rs800,000).”
Then there was the example of Syed Pervez Musharraf — in his memoirs he told us he’s a Syed who had, among other things, spent some six million rupees for a hotel stay of a few days during a private visit to London earlier this year. We must also recall the PM’s promise that no ministers or officials will be allowed to use cars of more than 1600cc, but he himself and many others reportedly go around in the luxurious BMSs.
All these drive home the truth of a recent statement by the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee and leader of the opposition in the National Assembly, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, that public money gets spent as if it belonged to some other country. Another interesting fact is an anonymous finance ministry source’s statement that our allies in the West and Asia had a lack of trust in our government, therefore they pressed it to seek IMF assistance before they themselves committed anything (Nov 17).
Now, after the widespread criticism about seeking the IMF bailout package, the PM has said that it will promote good governance (Nov 17). We have seen above some examples of the kind of governance the present leaders are providing. Mr Gilani is right: we do need some outside power (or other conscientious folks from within Pakistan) to run the lives of the poverty and calamity-stricken masses who are compelled to sell their children, commit suicide or die of cold as internally displaced persons in the hellishly cold mountains.
A DAWN READER
Karachi
APROPOS of Adreshir Cowasjee’s column, ‘Zero plus zero equals zero’ (Nov 9), one feels compelled to question the wisdom of his suggestion that Federal Information Minister Sherry Rehman and her fellow women ministers — who are constantly demonstrating their commitment to women’s rights in letter and in spirit — should resign from the cabinet because a couple of controversial MNAs have been appointed as their cabinet colleagues who may not necessarily have similar views on women’s issues. The writer tells our women ministers to worry about how they will be judged by history if they don’t leave their offices in protest.
As a seasoned and experienced columnist on politics, Mr Cowasjee should know better that politics — and democratic politics at that — is an art of constant engagement until the uninitiated and unconverted also come into the fold of collective stand and action.
Given the largely populist and half-educated political base of our country, if today our educated and enlightened women ministers leave their hard-earned and toughly-negotiated space vacant to be filled by yet more ministers with less than agreeable views on women’s issues, wouldn’t history judge them more harshly? Ms Rehman and her women colleagues in the government should be highly commended for standing their ground as an accomplished and determined representatives of their gender, who are advocating and working their way literally inside out — from dealing with the complex sphere of party politics to changing the way our country treats its women.
ZAINAB ASIF
Islamabad
THIS is apropos of Dr Akhtar Hassan Khan’s article, “Privatising Qadirpur” (Nov 17).
It was this month 41 years back when Zulfikar Ali Bhutto founded the Pakistan People’s Party at Lahore in 1967. The party came into being in response to inequitable economic and social conditions resulting from the policies pursued by the then ruling military-bureaucratic-feudal nexus of power.
The new party’s programme basically revolved round the economic well-being and uplift of the underprivileged people through introduction of just and equitable economic system based on the principles of ‘Islamic Socialism.’
This caught the imagination of the teeming millions, the poor who voted ZAB into power within a few years of the inception of his independent political career.
Once in power the PPP under Z.A. Bhutto focused on ‘creation of assets’ in the national economy in order to generate employment opportunities. Accordingly, the public sector came out with mega industrial and development projects like Pakistan Steel Mills and Port Qasim that could provide employment to a vast number of people.
In addition to that, an avenue for employment was found in the developing Middle Eastern economies, where the PPP government’s proactive policies facilitated employment of Pakistani workers there.
It is estimated that during the PPP’s first stint in power the government created about 2.2 million jobs domestically and sent another about two million skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled workers abroad for the purpose of employment.
Another significant policy of the PPP at that time was that of ‘nationalisation’, under which several industrial units and other businesses were taken over by the government from private owners. That was, in essence, opposite to the process of privatisation.
The economic merits and demerits of nationalisation have been debated time and again but its human aspect, particularly the improvement in working conditions and the quality of life of the workers, has never been in controversy.
These policies and actions on the part of ZAB earned him most of the political capital and initiated the romance of the poor and underprivileged people with the party.
During the last four decades since the founding of the party, the poor people have propelled the party into power on the basis of their votes every time they have been given an opportunity to elect a party on the basis of their free will.
Benazir Bhutto was mindful of this fact and even under severe pressure from the World Bank and IMF she only adopted ‘conservative privatisation policies’, during the party’s second and third stint in power. The result was that only a few state enterprises, mostly running in losses, were privatised.
This fact is evident from the statement of former prime minister Shaukat Aziz, who said on Nov 12, 2007 that all the proceeds from privatisation during both Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif administrations were mere Rs57 billion, while he took pride in stating that under his government the proceeds from the privatisation had been Rs417 billion. Throughout the Musharraf rule the PPP under Benazir Bhutto stood against the policies and process of privatisation -- from that of the PTCL to the Steel Mills. It voiced the accusations of bribery and kickbacks in those deals and stood solidly with workers who constitute its natural constituency.
However, this time a perception has been built amongst the workers that the party’s policy on privatisation is deviating from its past track and has been moving towards that of its immediate predecessor in power. In politics, as they say, perceptions are stronger than realities and they have to be taken care of appropriately.
Here it should be understood very clearly that privatisation is not a simple economic policy. It has political and social implications of the highest order attached to it.
The process is perceived as anti-worker and anti-people by large segments of society. Recourse to such a policy by a party like the PPP would be suicidal for it as it would be alienating its natural constituency, the working classes.
DR MOHAMMAD ALI SHAIKH
Former director,
Centre for Information & Research, SZABIST
Karachi
THIS is apropos of Anjum Niaz’s column regarding a tale of land-grabbing by the CDA itself (Nov 9). What is sad is that the custodians of government land are themselves involved in this scam under the very nose of the rulers.
Kamaran Lashari has no doubt done excellent work in Islamabad, but his success seems to have gone to his head. That he is arrogant is a common complaint about him. In Anjum Niaz’s story, he was ‘curt’ with the residents of I-8/3 when they called upon him. His attitude is also revealed by how he ignored the cabinet division’s call for report, although that was his controlling division.
The story under discussion, where he callously took away a privately developed park (with CDA’s permission), direly needed by the community, to please his officers is not the only one of its kind. He allotted a similar green area, reportedly to a close relative, for a mini-golf course near Jinnah Super. The deposed chief justice Iftikhar Chaudary saved that piece of land despite the fact that the allottee had spent a good deal of money developing it.
Then there were newspaper reports about him burning his influence in favour of his brother in a Jalo Park, Lahore, scam. It is only fair that the land in question grabbed by the CDA officers to make ‘princely sums’ from its sale must be restored to its original state. If illegal mosques can be demolished, and the CDA has been doing so, this is surely a fit case for demolishing the illegal construction of ‘monstrosities’ on the park in I-8/3.
I beseech the chief justice of Pakistan, Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar, to take suo motu notice of this scam and order restoration of the park to its original shape.
SHAZIA BANGASH
Islamabad
The National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) was founded in 2000 to collect data of Pakistanis with biometric and other technology. The United Nations and other foreign agencies funded the government to furnish and provide state-of-the-art technologies to Nadra.
The authority has registered 68 million Pakistanis with tremendous hardworking of the employees and successfully collected data from rural areas through the mobile registration vans and other data acquisition units.
All security agencies, banks and many other departments are depending on Nadra's database, but it is regrettable to say that its 90 per cent employees are hired on a contract basis.
The employees have not got any increment in their salaries for the last four years, as announced by the government from time to time. It is very difficult to survive in such a situation, particularly when inflation is going up and up. while Nadra employees’ salary has remained frozen from the beginning.
The slain leader of the PPP, Benazir Bhutto, had announced in her party’s manifesto that the Nadra department would be directly controlled by the government of Pakistan through the ministry of interior and its employees would be regularised.
But the bureaucracy that the Shaukat Aziz government had pampered and is is still occupying seats in the administration is refusing to implement the policy of the democratic government.
The authorities have announced special timings for Nadra staff (from 9am to
9pm (12 hours without any compensation or overtime) that is not followed at any other government/ semi-government department.
The government has announced that contract employees shall be given salary, allowances and other privileges equivalent to regular employees but the same are not implemented by Nadra authorities.
Our appeal to the president is that all Nadra employees must be regularised and treated as permanent employees of the ministry of interior.
W.A. KHAN & K.S. MIRANI
Nadra Employees Welfare Association
Karachi
IT is commonly read in newspapers that air strikes in Pakistan’s tribal areas kill the extremists and the like in their hideouts.
Should we mean that their homes can also be regarded as their hideouts?
Z.A. KAZMI
Karachi
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