Cases of ‘disappearance’

HRCP chairperson Asma Jahangir has drawn attention to a very serious problem that has emerged of late in Pakistan. It is the disappearance of people which is being reported from different parts of the country. Ms Jahangir has pointed out that an unspecified number of students have disappeared from Balochistan and Gilgit. There have also been reports of unexplained ‘disappearances’ which have not led to the recovery of the victims for several months — even years in some cases. Previously, disappearances were mostly cases of kidnapping for ransom. Some cases had political enmity or personal vendetta as the motive behind the crime. Generally the victim was traceable and was also recovered, except when he had been killed or was in police custody. The situation has taken a very serious turn now because there are far too many cases where the victims’ whereabouts cannot be ascertained, causing intense mental agony to the family.

Who are these people who have disappeared? In the absence of any records, one can only guess. Many are those who are picked up by the agencies or the police. Although they should be aware of the fundamental right of freedom of all citizens and the legal processes that need to be followed if a person is required for investigation or interrogation, the authorities wilfully violate these and act arbitrarily. They pick up persons unlawfully and do not disclose their whereabouts even when a court intervenes on a habeas corpus petition. The war against terror that the government has been waging has also provided the authorities with a the pretext to pick up ‘suspects’ who, it seems, immediately lose the fundamental rights they enjoy under the Constitution. Equally bad is the emergence of a new trend. People in a position of power in social and economic life are acting blatantly to deprive anybody they deem necessary of his personal freedom. Take the case of the ten members of Munno Bheel’s family, who were bonded labourers and disappeared in 1998, two years after their release had been obtained by the HRCP. They are suspected of having been picked up by the landlord who had bonded them. But the police have not yet been able to trace the family in spite of orders of a court. Another section of power wielders in our society today are the religious bigots and their madressahs. Numerous cases have been reported of non-Muslim, especially Hindu, girls being kidnapped and converted to Islam by religious leaders. They are then lost to their families since the madressahs where they are held never allow access to these girls.

It is strange that this new phenomenon is hardly being taken note of. The police are not proving to be very helpful either since they are not too willing to even register FIRs, leave aside actually work to recover a person. In one case a Hindu woman who was accused of blasphemy is reported to have embraced Islam in jail at the hands of the chief justice of a high court trying her case. It is time the government took serious note of these disappearances and got the police and the judiciary to put their acts together to recover the victims. The government should also ensure that the agencies do not violate the law themselves. The HRCP could start a cell to keep records of disappeared persons in order to publicize the details and generate pressure on the authorities to act.

Concern over child labour

TWO months after the earthquake, concern is being expressed about the future of children in the affected areas. Unicef is rightly worried that child labour is likely to increase in this scenario. While child labour is a scourge all over the country, with an estimated ten million children employed in some kind of work that is often hazardous to their health, the situation in the quake-hit areas is particularly worrisome. These areas had the highest enrolment rate of school-going children. But since school buildings have all but been destroyed, and many children have lost their parents in the disaster, the chances that they will have to seek employment to be able to survive are high. It is for this reason that Unicef and other child care organizations are asking the government to step in and ensure that children are not left to fend for themselves. Only a few schools have opened in quake-hit areas which means that many children have nothing else to do but to look for jobs. It is doubly tragic that first an entire generation was lost in certain quake-hit areas and those who survived will now lose whatever is left of the future they once had. This makes it even more imperative for the government to speed up its efforts to reopen the schools. Not only will going to school help children regain a semblance of normality, it will also help them pick up the thread of their schooling again.

The longer the government takes to address children’s needs, the greater are the chances that innocent lives will be lost to the curse of child labour. In its compensation packages to families affected by the earthquake, the government should consider offering some kind of premium on education so that families are not forced to send their children to work and have one burden less on their shoulders. Another option is to create work opportunities of the right kind for children after school hours. The ILO met some success in this regard in the football-making industry in Sialkot where child labour was reduced by 95 per cent. The government can take similar initiatives and work with Unicef to safeguard children’s future through proper planning and implementation.

Measles outbreak

THE news of an outbreak of measles in a camp for survivors of the Oct 8 earthquake was only to be expected considering the inadequate preparations made to protect the homeless against the cold and diseases that inevitably arise from poor immunity and exposure to chilly conditions. Pneumonia cases are already on the rise, and it is feared that measles, a highly communicable disease, will also spread fast, affecting mostly children, especially those who have not been vaccinated against it. It is also likely that with measles will follow dangerous complications like pneumonia. Attempts at providing vaccination to the maximum number of children in the wake of the quake have not been altogether successful, as many survivors have migrated to areas where aid is available and where weather conditions are less severe.

Unfortunately, health facilities in the earthquake zone were poor even before the disaster struck, and in its aftermath have been rendered virtually non-existent. International agencies and medical volunteers are working round the clock to protect as many people as they can against disease. However, once they leave, it will be back to square one for the victims — unless the government comes up with an effective health strategy, one which is not only capable of dealing adequately with the present situation but can also put in place a more permanent health strategy and structure. Moreover, other needs of the moment also have to be met. Temporary housing and proper nutrition are urgently required if chances of catching potentially fatal infections through exposure to the wintry weather and decreased immunity are to be reduced. Meanwhile, the government and international agencies must continue with efforts to persuade those living in remote hamlets to descend to more accessible areas, until at least the worst of the winter is over.

Galvanizing the Muslim countries

AN extraordinary summit of the 36-year-old Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) is being held in Makkah at the invitation of King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz to define the Ummah’s response to the multiple challenges it faces internally and externally.

At a more specific level, the summit will discuss the report of the OIC’s Commission of Eminent Persons (CEP) from 17 Muslim countries, which addresses issues of great significance such as fighting terrorism, alleviating poverty, promoting women’s education, combating corruption and mismanagement, encouraging regional economic integration and development through intra-OIC free trade agreements and forging institutional cooperation between the OIC and the Islamic Development Bank (IDB), World Bank (WB), World Trade Organization (WTO), as well as regional blocs

The discussions are likely to be held away from the media glare and would hopefully result in the adoption of a “Ten Year Reform Programme of Action” to revitalize the OIC based on the CEP deliberations over the last couple of years.

Even though the OIC is 36 years old, it is still a debating forum, lacking the capacity to play the kind of role that the leaders of the Muslim world have been urging it to play. Formed in 1969, it has held a number of summits since then but the outcomes have been nothing more than “non-binding” resolutions on Palestine and Jerusalem. Some other issues like Kashmir were only discussed on the ‘sidelines’ of the various summits.

Meanwhile, a consensus is building up in all the OIC member countries that its role should be redefined and its organizational structures revitalized. The crisis of confidence in the OIC countries cannot be allowed to aggravate any further because it would push the Ummah into more and more turbulent waters. A consensus is also emerging that in the tasks ahead the OIC and the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) need to galvanize their respective political skills and financial resources to devise effective strategies without which the Ummah would lurch from one crisis to another.

We are passing through and facing the hardest times in our history. There is a widespread perception in the Muslim countries that “Islam is under attack.” Some of the most dominant leaders of the western would are of the view that the war on terrorism is a “long-lasting ideological struggle.” The challenge for the OIC countries, therefore, is to survive and, hopefully, forge ahead and it depends substantially on the performance of their economies and the allocation of economic resources to their national security and developmental imperatives, including scientific and technological progress.

Talking of security needs, we must realize that the new weapons are so powerful and fast in speed that the protection function of time and space has shrunken to almost zero. Additionally, given the rapid rate of obsolescence in weapons system, the OIC member countries should want their defence industry to adapt its output to changes in military requirements and be self-reliant.

In the long run, say 30 to 35 years, the OIC can have economic and scientific power that could rival the very best in the world. Undoubtedly, it is an extraordinary task that would require extraordinary zeal, effort and resources. We must start establishing world class sciences and technology institutes. We have lot of catching up to do. For example, despite Pakistan being a nuclear power, the share of its scientists article in mainstream international journals is minuscule — 0.06 per cent while that of Brazil is 10 per cent and India 30 per cent.

In order to develop both a vision and plans of actions in OIC member-countries, one of the first prerequisites is to have a strong analytical capability. If we accept the need to develop robust economies then we need to focus on measures through which we can appreciably accelerate economic development, especially keeping in view the current World Trade Organization’s (WTO) new regime.

At the same time we must devise policy measures to avoid costs associated with undesirable consequences of pursuing implementation of growth-inducing measures, for a example, inflation and uneven distribution of wealth. However, it is also a fact that the benefits of development in the resource-rich OIC member countries have not gone to the populace in general, and unnecessary poverty is widespread. Future development strategies must address this issue.

As a general rule, OIC members must focus on operations and performance of the private enterprise economy through adequate incentives and a predominant public sector role in the adequate provision of, and priority to, quality education, provision of public health services, and the establishment of a social and economic infrastructure. We must not hesitate to learn from the best practices anywhere in the world (as the West did several centuries ago from the Islamic world) and adapt them to our requirements. New economic powerhouses and scientific prowess have been emerging in China, Taiwan, Korea, Australia, New Zealand etc. which could provide the training ground for the OIC’s budding scientists. If the OIC becomes seriously interested in accelerating growth performance and enhancing security, then it would call for many individuals and groups to engage in specific studies leading towards actual agendas and strategies, country-by-country, as well as collective action by them as a distinct group. It is only in a growing economy that the larger proportion of resources to the security apparatus is feasible and politically acceptable.

Let me mention just a few other important ingredients of robust growth: i) overall economic growth without efficient agricultural development and food security is not sustainable; ii) in the ruthlessly competitive new WTO regime in 2005 and beyond, the manufacturing, exports and services sectors would need to be super-efficient and competitive in terms of quality, cost and delivery mechanisms; iii) energy supply is fundamental; oil is too expensive for many OIC countries. Solar energy is an alternative that the OIC member countries cannot afford to overlook any longer; iv) human resource development is critical and in this context women’s development and utilization of female segment of our societies should be promoted by building female plazas, banks, garment factories, computer services centres etc. exclusively for women v) no child of the schoolgoing age should be out of school or left behind because of poverty; and vi) most importantly, science and technology institutions, staffed with world class, highly motivated and inspiring teachers must be promoted.

In the short-run we must initiate large-scale scholarship programmes by establishing the OIC Science and Technology Trust Fund. In the long run, the majority of scholars must be produced in indigenous institutions by expanding the science and technology infrastructure. The place to start is the best set of existing universities and research facilities in the OIC countries.

Many of the ideas can be fleshed out by adopting project/task oriented approaches under the guidance of eminent Muslim scholars. In order to promote economic development, the OIC member countries could also enter into Preferential Trade Agreements (PTA) and/or Free Trade Agreement (FTA) among themselves or with any other country that could benefit them. Here, the IDB as a premium institution has a fundamental and central role to play. The IDB’s pro-active policy and strategy-oriented approach would make substantial contributions to the achievement of many desirable goals.

The OIC needs to invest heavily both in terms of financial resources and skilled personnel in “public diplomacy” programme aimed at improving the image of Muslims in today’s world. We must spend at least 10 per cent of what we allocate for defence in OIC countries on this front. The reason is simple but compelling. The average westerner holds tainted image of Islam and the Muslims. The widespread western view is that the downfall of Muslims owes mainly to religion that teaches them to be fanatics and passive believers in fatalism. Therefore, Muslims are to be freed from outdated beliefs, backward social practices, empty rituals and need to be induced to adopt the modern ways of the West by giving them freedom and democracy. Some of these are half truths and others self-serving assertions.

We must shake off the “intellectual stagnation” into which we have fallen and fully participate in mankind’s advance towards higher social and scientific platforms. The decline of the Muslims is not due to any shortcoming in Islam but to our own failure to live up to it. Undoubtedly, we have to get rid of meaningless rituals, superstitions, fatalism wherever they have been inflicted on our social fabric and thought processes.

We can minimize hostilities between the West and Muslim countries by developing world-class scholars well-versed in the core message of Islam and highly skilled in articulating and communicating the true values of the religion in modern, effective ways through the print and electronic media, video conferences and seminars. The OIC must play an effective role in projecting Islam as a religion of peace and moderation. We must talk to groups like the European Union and convince them that terrorists who commit crimes in the name of Islam are violators of the religion’s tenets. We must assert that militants are only fringe elements in our societies and that the mainstream silent majority is both enlightened and moderate.

Additionally, we should be inviting “opinion makers” in the western world to our countries and show how hospitable an average Muslim is, thereby destroying the negative profiling and stereotyped image of muslims as terrorists.

The OIC should also be projecting the truth that since core political problems in the Muslim world like Palestine and Kashmir have been created by western countries, they also have a moral obligation to help resolve them. Once these problems are resolved to the satisfaction of the people involved, a substantial chunk of financial and human resources can be saved to boost social indicators.

fatehchaudhri@hotmail.com