A year of disaster

As Iraq solemnly marks today the first anniversary of its invasion by the US-led coalition forces, some stark realities confront those who brought about this disaster.

A year on, fewer people can justify the Anglo-American decision to wage war on Iraq or the country's continued occupation. As the Spanish election has shown, support for unilateral action outside the ambit of the United Nations is crumbling even in countries whose governments actively supported the war.

Iraq today is a stunning paradox of our times. The success of the US-led invasion and occupation has been followed by chaos and confusion: Iraq today is without socio-political stability, economic recovery is nowhere in sight, and the interim governing council inspires no confidence among the people.

The justification cited for the war - Saddam Hussein's alleged possession of weapons of mass destruction - has collapsed with a speed matching the collapse of the Baathist regime.

No stockpiles of WMDs have been discovered. That has scuttled the moral basis of the war, and the doctoring of intelligence dossiers and lying have brought disgrace on the Bush and Blair governments.

It was believed that the Iraqis would greet the coalition forces as liberators; instead, not a day passes without the coalition forces or those seen as collaborating with them being targeted, with the attacks in Baghdad and Basra being only the latest reminders of the mayhem let loose on the country.

The claim that Saddam Hussein had links with Al Qaeda has also rung hollow, and indeed intelligence reports suggest that post-occupation conditions have actually led to Al Qaeda establishing a presence in Iraq.

Iraq under occupation has proved to be a fiercely divided nation, with the Shia majority now demanding its long overdue political say in the running of the country.

Despite this month's preliminary agreement on a provisional constitution, Iraqis are nowhere close to agreeing on the formulation of a provisional government that will take charge from the US-led interim administration on July 1.

Policing by and large remains in the hands of private militias, and that gives the Iraqis little sense of security. The near-complete breakdown of law and order has forestalled all plans of reconstruction.

While members of the interim administration have sought safety behind heavily-guarded walls of old presidential palaces, occupation forces are having to rely on pre-emptive strikes to fend for themselves, killing and wounding civilians in the process.

What is more worrying is that policymakers in Washington, whose brainchild this war was, continue to take a myopic view of reality. Every time there is a report of a violent attack in Iraq, you hear one-liners that suggest that the situation is improving. Following Wednesday's bombing, the White House spokesman said: "Democracy is taking root in Iraq."

It is this approach of evading reality that has made Iraq the disaster it is today. American failures in Iraq should drive the point home to US policymakers that the only way to make amends now is to adopt a multilateral approach to the crisis and hand Iraq over to fully-authorized UN supervision.

The world has become a more dangerous place in the past year, and terrorism has found devious new ways to strike. Unless the international community exerts itself more forcefully to convince America that violence cannot be tackled by more violence but by looking for political solutions, we will continue to live in unstable times. As the outstanding commentator on the Middle East, Robert Fisk, has said, "the only people who feel safer are those who prefer not to think for themselves."

Human smuggling

By Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri's admission, the smuggling of Pakistanis to Europe via Iran and Turkey has reached "alarming proportions". In a reply during the question hour in the National Assembly on Wednesday, the minister referred to the death of 28 Pakistanis at the hands of Iranian border guards in several incidents last year and said that a protest had been lodged with Tehran. Despite the promulgation of an ordinance in 2002 to curb human smuggling, illegal emigration has been rising. Often Pakistanis, especially from low-income groups, throw away their life's savings and use extremely dangerous methods to reach greener pastures in Europe.

In another tragic episode last year in Greece, 23 Pakistanis travelling in a ship drowned while trying to escape the Greek border police. Senior government officials, notably the interior minister, have claimed time and again, that strict measures are being taken but to little avail.

Such empty promises only serve to further damage our credibility and lead many to question the country's commitment to stamping out the emigration racket.

The route to Europe via Iran and Turkey is quite a popular one with human traffickers and has in fact even featured in some recent award-winning documentaries on the subject.

The terrain on the Pakistan-Iran border is quite inhospitable, and it is unlikely that the movement of so many people, even in containers, could happen without some measure of official connivance or facilitation.

Pakistan might have lodged an official protest with Iran over the excessive use of force by the latter's border guards, but we should also put our own house in order. Nobody would be tempted to leave Pakistan illegally if our own socio-economic conditions were better, if poverty were not so rampant, and if ordinary Pakistanis thought that they had a reasonable chance of earning a decent living at home.

Till that happens, however, the government needs to crack down on those who run this emigration racket and make money out of poor people's misery. Personnel in the law-enforcement agencies, especially the border authorities, patronizing such elements need to be weeded out and punished.

Allowing car imports

Local carmakers met Federal Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz recently and asked him to reverse last month's decision allowing the import of reconditioned cars. They are of the view that such a move will undo all their achievements in this sector over the past few years.

While this may be a valid point, one cannot ignore the interests of the consumer who seems to have suffered needlessly despite the impressive production figures posted by the automobile sector over the past year.

Part of the problem is the high price of vehicles in the market even when compared with countries where a similar tariff structure is in place for the import of automobile components. To add to this is the issue of paying a premium for the prompt delivery of vehicles, not because demand exceeds supply but because car producers and the government have been unable to check the entry of speculators in the market who book cars in advance, creating an artificial demand which in turn jacks up prices.

Then there is the issue of quality control, which some carmakers seem to have cast aside. One testament to this is the presence of an unusually high number of new or near-new vehicles being brought to workshops for repair.

The permission to import reconditioned cars will undoubtably push down local car prices, allowing car buyers welcome breathing space. At the same time, there are fears that this will affect local car production and put thousands of people employed in vendor industries out of jobs.

Regardless of whether such an import is allowed or not, the government needs to reconsider the protection it gives to Pakistani automobile makers. There should also be more scrutiny of the prices at which some of the components are brought in from parent companies abroad.

These are issues that need more attention at this stage; otherwise the government will not serve the cause of the car buyer in Pakistan, in whose name this exercise is being carried out.