Bangladesh again tops corruption list!
BANGLADESH retains the international corruption title thanks primarily to the country’s ruling elite, a vicious chain of top politicians, bureaucrats and businessmen.
The five years of Awami League rule (1996-2001), presided over by Sheikh Hasina Wajed, earned the nation a bad name for the first time in 2001.
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party, headed by Begum Khaleda Zia, promised a year ago to free it from the disturbing image, if voted to power.
The party also pledged that it would set up an independent anti-corruption commission to bring the corrupt to book, as well as to prevent others from indulging themselves in the corrupt practice.
The people, the actual victim of high-level corruption, gave the BNP a massive victory in the election held in October 2001. Meanwhile, the Transparency International report, released in Dhaka late last week, shows that Bangladesh still remains the most corrupt country among 102 nations.
Clearly, the BNP-led coalition has not been able to reduce corruption at all. Rather, as newspaper reports show, the BNP men have allegedly given a fresh momentum to the dynamics of politically-sponsored financial corruption, which has kept the beleaguered nation at the very top of the list of corrupt countries. The food ministry’s purchase of tons of rotten wheat from India by corrupt means has already become a big scandal.
And as for electoral pledge regarding setting up of an independent anti-corruption commission, the ruling coalition has taken no step whatsoever.
Sources in the prime minister’s office told Dawn, after the TI report was released on Aug 28 that constituting such a commission was not on the government’s immediate agenda.
Understandably, the politicians controlling the state machinery do not want to lose their grip on the process of investigation into the allegations of corruption against them and their cronies as well.
At present, the Bureau of Anti-Corruption (BAC) needs to secure the prime minister’s approval in three phases for taking an allegedly corrupt person to court. It needs the approval of the prime minister to start an inquiry into an allegation before filing a case against the accused, and for submitting the chargesheet in a case filed earlier.
And when it comes to the allegation of corruption against Class I officers and “important personalities”, the BAC cannot make any move at all without the approval of the PM.
However, the TI report claims that the political elite, in collusion with their cronies in the business circles and the bureaucracy, are keeping the “vicious circle of poverty” intact in the poor countries by nurturing corruption.
The empirical observations in Bangladesh clearly substantiate the TI observation. The allegations of corruptions recorded, and investigated as well, even by the country’s “dependent”’ BAC, show that it is the influential politicians of governing parties, and the business circle that finance the parties when in the opposition, who are the ones involved in rampant corruption, and they perpetrate corruption in collusion with the bureaucrats.
Since the takeover of power by the BNP-led four-party alliance in October last year, the BAC has filed, following extensive investigations, more than 50 cases of high-level corruption, causing the public exchequer a loss of about Tk25,000 million, committed during the rule of the Awami League between 1996 and 2001.
The people involved in the alleged corruption are top politicians, including the former prime minister, top bureaucrats, including the former principal secretary, and top businessmen known for financing mainstream parties. Some cases have already been filed and chargesheets submitted in some of the cases.
The BAC director-general, Maj-Gen Abdul Matin, is confident about the “logical conclusion” of the corruption cases filed under his supervision.
But nobody is sure that the accused, if and when proved guilty, will eventually be punished. None is even sure that the cases will at all be disposed of before the end of the tenure of this government.
The statistics provided by the BAC shows that some 200 cases of corruption/abuse of power were recorded against some ‘VIPs, including politicians’ between 1994 and 2002. But none of them, excepting former president H. M. Ershad and his accomplices in the bureaucracy and the business circle, has so far been punished for abuse of power or involvement in financial corruption.
The last government of Sheikh Hasina filed a large number of corruption cases against the members of Begum Zia’s first government (1991-1996). As the cases were not disposed of during the tenure of Hasina, Khaleda’s government is reluctant to get the cases disposed of by the court of law.
A highly-placed source in the ministry of home affairs admitted on Aug 31 that the process of the withdrawal of 69 such cases were in progress. It was the home minister himself who was the first to get three cases of corruption/abuse of power against him withdrawn a couple of months ago.
Besides, speculation has it that some of the accused implicated in corruption cases filed after the BNP takeover last year are already out to negotiate at the political level. Many of them claim in the private discussions that they have already started receiving positive responses from the governing quarters.
On top of that all, the BAC has started receiving ‘advice’ from the influential ruling party quarters not to implicate in the corruption cases the businessmen having track records of financing the components of the BNP when it was out in the cold.
And as for allegedly corrupt bureaucrats, many have already rallied round the influential ministers of the Khaleda’s cabinet.
With no efforts and effective mechanism in sight, it is very difficult to hope that Bangladesh would vacate the pinnacle of corruption in the near future by means of combating the crimes.
But who knows, the vicious politicians-businessmen-bureaucrats circle of some other Third World nation might surpass Bangladesh in corrupt practice.
Tipu Sultan, Mujaddid & Urdu
KARACHI: Quite a revealing disclosure has been made in the work initiated at the instance of Maulana Abul Hasan Ali Mian, a scion of the family of Syed Ahmed Shaheed of Rae Baraily that Tipu Sultan, a great hero of our war of independence was a fervent devotee of Syed Ahmed Shaheed who died fighting the Sikh army at Balakot in 1831 in what is known as the first organized movement for a Muslim homeland in the north-western part of the Subcontinent.
Notwithstanding some historians’ contention that the Tehrik-i-Jehad proved to be more beneficial to the British than to the Tehrik-i-Jehad itself, there is no doubt that the British India couldn’t be a Darul Harb in the sense in which the Sikh-occupied territory of the Pakhtunkhwah was simply because of the fact that the Muslims could not practise Islam freely in the north-west India during the Sikh Raj, and even the Azan was banned.
The British had never gone against their Muslim subjects to such an extent in their area of control and according to the Muslim jurists, India was not a Darul Harbat that time but a Darul Sulah and the Jehad could not be waged against the alien government where the state of Darul Sulah prevails. This was the contention of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan and is supported by Maulana Maudoodi as well in his book, Sood (Interest).
A research paper, published in a research journal Al-Haq, recently claims that Tipu Sultan and his father, Hyder Ali, were the Muridsof Shah Abu Saeed and Shah Abul Lais, who were the maternal grandfather and maternal uncle of Syed Ahmed Shaheed and Tipu’s entire family, headed by his Begum, had undergone Bayt on Syed Ahmed Shaheed in Calcutta before proceeding to Umrah in 1822. Tipu and his father were also the great devotees of Ahl-i-Bait but his mystic order was Mujaddiya, named after Mujaddid Alif Sani. For all those interested in the history of Urdu literature, the very name of Fort William College arouses in them the feeling of anguish over the fact that the Fort William College was founded in 1199 to commemorate the “joy of triumph” over Tipu Sultan.
The revelations have come from the study of Syed Hyder Ali Tonki who made a thorough investigation of the Wellesley Papers and hence the claim of Tipu Sultan being under the Bayt of Syed Ahmed Shaheed’s maternal uncle, Shah Abul Lais. The research proves beyond any doubt that the first book of military training in the Subcontinent reflected Hazrat Mujaddid Alif Sani’s teachings.
The book entitled Fatehnamaproves that Tipu Sultan posed a real threat to the British. He was organizing his armed services, including the Navy, on modern lines and was achieving a modicum of modernization of his armed forces in the hope that Napoleon Bonaparte would eventually land in India after his Egyptian campaign.
The students of Urdu literature are fully aware that the Sultanate of Mysore, before it was passed onto Hyder Ali on the Raja of Mysore’s death leaving no heir to rule over the state, had some Urdu poets composing Urdu ghazalsand masnavis right from the Bahamni period. The Bahamni Sultanate, upon disintegration, had been divided in five principalities and Mysore formed part of Bijanagar.
Syed Hyder Ali Tonki’s research, as it makes use of the Wellesley Papers to establish Tipu Sultan’s connection with Syed Ahmed Shaheed’s movement, offers many a tertiary surprise.
In fact, this research is more astounding than the facts made available in Naseeruddin Hashmi’s book Mysore Mein Urdu. Even the Urdu book of rules and regulations prescribed for the Tipu’s army may be one of the reasons of founding Fort William College. Didn’t it work to undermine the importance of Urdu as it was equally relished by Hindus and Muslims alike and the seeds sown at Fort William College went a long way to prove that the level of controversy which Bhartendu Harish Chandar, formerly an Urdu writer, fuelled to stir up the Hindus to go for Devnagri if they wanted to attain economic freedom. The inscription of the Fort William College which has to do with the fall of Tipu Sultan, proves that it was the policy of the colonial masters to divide the common language on the line of script — Persian / Arabic and Devnagri.
Some more facts coming out of Mysore (Karnataka) region make a mockery of Dr Mustafa Kamal’s thesis about the Deccani Urdu. Dr Kamal thinks that the Deccani language had no connection with Urdu. The thesis is wrong. Let us have a look at the printing presses and script they were using. It was Nasakh and the language in Tipu Sultan’s times was no different from the present-day Urdu. Secondly, every book of History of Urdu literature (there are some 45 important histories as explained by Dr Gayan Chand’s monumental work on the subject Urdu Ki Adabi Tarikhain, published by Anjuman Taraqqui-i-Urdu Pakistan) is unanimous on the point that the court language of Bahamni Sultanate and its successor principalities was Persian or Urdu.
Even the War Song of Tipu Sultan was in Urdu. Composed by poet Zainul Aabideen, some of its couplets were as follows:- Mulk Hindustan Mein Deen Ka Wali Sultan Hai Gharq Jis Ke Aab-i-Khanjar Mein Faringistan Hai Kiya Hai Nishat Jah-o-Hashmat Mein Sikandar Se Tujhe Bargh-i-Qadar Ka Dara Tera Darban Hai.
How could language be called indigenous or for that matter Quli Qutb Shah’s Urdu declared Telegu or Baqar Agha’s language Tamil as Dr. Mustafa Kamal would like us to believe in his study entitled Hyderabad Mein Urdu Ki Taraqqi, Taleemi and Sarkari Zaban Ki Haisiyat Se, published in 1990.
Some important poets writing in Urdu had a tradition spanning over 300 years. For instance Tarab, a well known poet, wrote the Masnavi Fatehnama. Ishaq was another poet. The list is quite long i.e. Shah Kamaluddin, Shah Mohammad, Lala Mehtab Rai, Sabqat, Haider Ali Izzat, Qasim, Zainul Abedeen and Abid.
The above-mentioned poets have made a veritable contribution to Urdu poetry and while making their contribution, they could be proud of a tradition going back to 300 years.
Maulvi Naseeruddin Hashmi, Dr Mohammad Ali Asar, Aleem Saba Naveedi, Dr Syeda Jaffar, Dr Gayan Chand, Dr Javedah Habib and Dr Jamil Jalibi have done a lot of work on the Deccani Urdu and all of them are unanimous in their opinion that the very length of the span and some unavoidable admixture with the indigenous part, Deccan remains the first home of literary expression in Urdu.
May be some scholars want to please the nationalist elements in southern India by proving that the Deccani Urdu was the figment of imagination. They are welcome to their comfort so earned but the facts are very different. Who could prove that the war song of Tipu Sultan or the works of poets like Ghawasi, Nishati, Hashmi, Quli Qutb Shah, Maulana Baqar Agha were in Telegu, Tamil and Kannar.
Who could forget the role which Bangalore and Mysore have played in the development of Urdu. After all, even in our times, Bangalore is a living centre of Urdu. The contribution which Naya Daurzand Saughat have made to modern Urdu literature is admirable and the names of Mahmud Khawar, Samad Shaheen, Mumtaz Shirin, Mahmood Khan Mahmood Bangalori (the famous chronicler of Tipu Sultan), Abdur Razzaq, Munir, Yusuf Bangalori, Hafeez, Maulvi Abdul Haq Sabzwari and Mahmood Sharif is likely to live on.
Doesn’t the present state of Urdu in Deccan which is far better than that of the Northern India, prove that the Fort William College couldn’t be more effective in the Deccan, especially in modern day Karnataka.
Pakistan’s main worry remains batting
All I know about the sending back of Yousuf Youhana from Nairobi on disciplinary grounds is what I have read in the newspapers. If there is more to it than meets the eye, I am not privy to it. I don’t know Youhana all that well, indeed all I may have done was to shake hands with him a couple of times.
But of all the players in this present Pakistan squad, he seemed to be the one without an attitude, someone least likely to flaunt authority or throw a tantrum. He most fitted Milton’s “they also serve who only stand and wait”. Did something in him suddenly snap that turned Dr. Jekyll into Mr. Hyde? I don’t know.
But one must assume some horrendous behaviour that left the team management with no choice but to send him packing and to deprive the team of its best batsman, after Inzamam-ul-Haq. I emphasise that I know nothing beyond what has appeared in the newspaper and on the evidence of that, the team management acted harshly. The PCB chairman, Lt. Gen. Tauqir Zia has got it exactly right that the whole matter was overblown and should have been settled at a local level.
Every touring team has problems and there are varying degrees of indiscipline and varying degree of punishment available to a team management to impose on alleged offender, fines for example. Sending a player home should be the last option after other options have been exhausted and warnings ignored.
In other words, a player should be a habitual troublemaker. Youhana doesn’t fit the bill. Nor do I feel that Yawar Saeed is someone who will act on the spur of the moment. He has age and experience on his side. I must confess that I am mystified by it all. No one should challenge the authority of the captain, all the more reason why a captain should not find himself in a situation where his authority can be challenged.
Youhana wanted to skip nets because he had a shoulder injury. There is a doctor and a trainer attached to the team. Surely, these were the best people to decide on the extent of the injury.
Coming at a time when the team has a tough schedule ahead of it, it seems to be the wrong time to disturb the harmony in the team. Both the team management and the players have never had it so good. This is a player-friendly PCB and a compassionate one. The goals that the team should be scoring should be against its opponents, not against itself.
I don’t know how much this has affected the team’s performance in the triangular series but so far the performance has been far from satisfactory and against Australia, it was unbelievably bad. The team just fell apart. It was a game that was lost in the dressing-room as it was lost on the field.
Australia was sent in to bat in conditions that should have suited our pace attack. Yet Australia made 332 and bit for Shahid Afridi and Shoaib Malik, spinners, would have made more. Wides and no-balls were given away as if they were free samples and Wasim Akram was the main culprit. Inzamam had played the first match against Kenya and was hobbling about and went off and rightly was denied a runner when he came to bat. If he was unfit, he has a sore knee, he should not have been played.
With the weight of 332 runs on its back, Pakistan fiddled with the batting order and Abdul Razzaq was sent in to open the batting, not Saeed Anwar or Shahid Afridi. Someone, it seemed had pressed the panic-button.
The key to chasing a huge total is to see the new ball off and have wickets in hand. In a twinkling of an eye, the top order was gone. Imran Nazir could have stretched a back-muscle trying to reach what was a wide ball. Instead, he got an inside edge. Afridi was unlucky as the ball went of his pad to dislodge a bail and Saeed padded up to a straight ball. There being no Inzamam and indeed no Youhana, it was something of an achievement that Pakistan got past the 100 mark. It was a match that Pakistan would do well to forget.
Cricket may be a game of glorious uncertainties but not absurdities and it was a foregone conclusion, as the tournament started that the final would be between Pakistan and Australia. But before the final, Pakistan has to play against Australia. A strong showing in that match could do much to bolster Pakistan’s confidence.
At last, Shoaib Akhtar was at his awesome-best even though it was against the wrong opponent. But he has into his strides and he bowled really fast and was unsmiling, as fast bowlers should be. The decision to give him the new ball was a good one. In a way, it was a vote of confidence in him and he responded.
I think Wasim Akram should have been rested in the second match against Kenya and Mohammad Sami played in his place. Wasim should have spent the day in the nets and made to work on the wides and no-balls he had been bowling. Wasim has looked out of sorts and, perhaps, a little too intense and over focused.
But Pakistan’s main worry remains at the top order of its batting. Saeed Anwar seems to be lacking in confidence and Imran Nazir should be made to bat bare-footed so that he becomes aware that he has feet and they are supposed to be used to get at the pitch of the ball. Inzamam has a dodgy knee and there is, of course, no Youhana.
As I write this, the contract row is no nearer a solution. The ICC apparently objected even to India’s main sponsor Sahara which is a conglomerate which includes an airline. One of ICC’s sponsors is South African airlines and as far as I know Sahara is a domestic carrier and in way could it be considered as being in competition with SAA. The whole issue is becoming a farce. What happened to common sense?