The ‘unsettling’ factor
THE exit of the Labour Party from the Likud-led ruling coalition has not only plunged Israel into a political crisis but also drawn attention to the contentious issue of Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories. The Labour Party withdrew its support for Ariel Sharon’s coalition government following its objection to the large sums of money earmarked for the settlements in the country’s new budget. The acrimony over the issue led to the resignation of the three Labour ministers, including party leader Benyamin Ben-Eliezer and foreign minister Shimon Peres. Ariel Sharon has now been forced to seek support from the extreme right-wing and religious groups to help his government stay in power. The Palestinians, meanwhile, are bracing themselves for an even more hardline dispensation in Tel Aviv, making the prospects for peace more remote. The Jewish settlements are perhaps the single most divisive issue in the tangled Middle East situation. They stand out as a stark symbol of Israel’s illegal occupation of Arab land and its colonialist policies towards the Palestinian people. The continuous expansion of settlements on land occupied during the 1967 war constitutes a blatant violation of international law. Despite a number of UN Security Council resolutions calling for an end to illegal construction, Tel Aviv continues to defy world opinion and pursue its policy of “creeping annexation” through the settlements.
Today, some 200,000 Jewish settlers live in about 130 conurbations across the West Bank and Gaza Strip, constituting perhaps the single largest obstacle to peace in the Middle East. The expanding settlements, originally designed to provide security to Israel and change the realities on the ground in Israel’s favour, have made life miserable for Palestinians in their own areas. In the bargain, the Israelis have ended up with a security problem of their own making, requiring them to deploy a sizable strength of soldiers to protect the illegal settlements located deep within heavily populated Palestinian areas. A system akin to apartheid now operates in these areas. While the settlers get state subsidized housing, schools, hospitals, water supplies and security, large sections of the Palestinians have been reduced to a ghetto-like existence under a continuous state of siege. Many roads are now exclusively designated for settlers, who have special number plates that grant them immunity from the constant harassment and security checks that the Palestinians have to endure. No wonder, the original inhabitants of these areas feel extremely bitter that those who stole their land in violation of international law are accorded special privileges.
The vast sums of money Israel spends on constructing and expanding the settlements and providing them with infrastructure and security have also alienated many Israelis, who are currently distressed by the effects of a prolonged economic recession. A recent poll revealed that four out of five Israelis are prepared to see the settlements dismantled as part of a peace accord with the Palestinians. In that sense, the Labour Party seems to have picked the right issue to publicly sever ties with Ariel Sharon’s government, which encouraged and bankrolled settlement activity with renewed vigour. The US has so far maintained a studied silence over recent developments in Israel, but is clearly perturbed at the prospect of renewed strife in the area upsetting its plans for Iraq. The Israelis must be made to realize a simple truth: that there will be no peace until there is a just solution of the Palestine issue. The illegal Jewish settlements are only the ugliest reminder of this deep historic injustice to an entire people.
Wapda’s indictment
THE auditor-general’s report pointing out a misappropriation of Rs 4.56 billion in Wapda during 1999-2000 only confirms the general impression of rampant corruption in that power utility. Up to Rs 3.30 billion were involved in 18 cases of financial impropriety alone. Hundreds of millions were lost through other irregularities, ranging from overpayment and accounting errors to misclassification of tariff, non-production of records and plain misuse and theft. These factors, besides adding to Wapda’s chronic financial sickness, contribute to the high cost of electricity, the impact of which ultimately has to be borne by the power consumers. Financial discipline in the circumstances ought to have been a major priority of Wapda’s army-led management. However, long used to covering its deficits through federal grants and recurrent increases in electricity rates, it felt not the least concerned to spruce up accounting standards and plug loopholes that make embezzlement possible.
The report has made a particular reference to the system of internal auditing used to carry out an independent review of consumer accounts maintained at the offices of executive engineers. Many financial irregularities pointed out by way of illustration speak of non-implementation of internal control resulting in overpayment and non-recoveries. The stress laid on this particular aspect is pertinent since the very object of internal audit — which itself costs Wapda a great deal of money — is to reduce chances of financial irregularities.
Corruption and lax financial management constitute a deep-rooted problem which should be resolutely tackled in the interest of both Wapda and the consumers. The latter have to suffer much because of frequent hikes in power rates and poor maintenance resulting in breakdowns, recurrent tripping and excessive billing. Wapda clearly has to stanch haemorrhaging of its scarce resources by putting effective checks in place.
A matter of safe disposal
THE presence of 2,000 tons of highly toxic pesticides stored all over the country in conditions that pose a grave threat to the lives of the surrounding populations is quite troubling. The director of the NWFP’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Wednesday told journalists that expired pesticides with high levels of toxicity — many of which have been banned worldwide because of the serious risk they pose to human health — were imported by the ministry of agriculture about four decades ago. To be sprayed on crops, they were stored in the godowns of the plant protection wing. However, over the years, because of their toxic and corrosive nature and since many were stored in liquid form, they began to leak out into the surrounding environment and caused severe contamination. According to the EPA, around 288 warehouses all over the country store such pesticides, and these include many situated in congested areas. For example, one such storage area is in Karachi’s Malir where a large quantity of pesticides is lying in the open, posing a major health hazard.
The inability of successive governments to take any kind of meaningful action to check such contamination is scandalous. If any work has been done in this regard, it is only thanks to funding from foreign donors. One wonders why the authorities cannot find the indigenous resources that will take care of a matter which could play havoc with the lives of thousands of people, many of whom might not even know the full effects of being exposed to toxic pesticides. That the director of a provincial EPA has pointed this out is good, but it also goes to show that the very bodies whose job it is to control pollution and prevent contamination of the environment are hardly in a position to carry out their assigned tasks. One hopes that the new government will look into the question of safe and effective disposal of pesticides as a matter of priority.