An ill-advised idea
IT IS unfortunate that President Pervez Musharraf should have chosen a foreign TV channel to let it be known that Pakistan had decided in principle to send troops to Iraq. Knowing the sensitivity of the matter, he should have discussed it first at home and better still, referred the proposal to a joint session of parliament. Confirming that at Camp David President George Bush had requested him to send troops to Iraq, President Musharraf said he would have preferred the troops to be there “under the auspices” of the UN, the Organization of Islamic Conference or the Gulf Cooperation Council. That possibility is no longer to be counted on as a justifying ground for Pakistan or any other country to make its troops available for a peacekeeping role in Iraq — as a consequence, mainly, of the unilateral mode of invasion and occupation of that country.
In the given context, sending troops to Iraq would be wrong. Already, there is little hope that any of the three organizations the president mentioned — the UN, OIC or the GCC — will take part in what can hardly be called peacekeeping. Normally, peacekeeping involves maintaining peace between two adversaries or potential belligerents. In Iraq, such a situation does not exist. Iraq is under foreign occupation. Sending troops there would mean taking part not in peacekeeping but in helping the occupying powers perpetuate their hold on the country and, in doing so, accepting the responsibility for all things right and wrong — mostly wrong — that the occupation authorities would do to advance their interests.
No country likes to be occupied. The occupiers are hated, no matter what pretext or cover they use for their presence. This is true of the Israelis in Palestine. Americans are precisely in that role today in Iraq. From a country that attacked Iraq without UN authorization, the US has turned into an occupying power. Already, there are attacks on Anglo-American troops — six British soldiers were attacked and killed on Tuesday. Government machinery in Iraq has not yet been put in place. For days and weeks Baghdad goes without electricity in the sweltering summer heat, the law and order situation is dismal, and the health and sanitation services are in a state of collapse. Obviously, the Iraqi people will blame no one but the occupation authorities for their suffering. If the present situation continues and the Iraqi anger rises, there is bound to be an increase in the number of attacks on Anglo-American forces and their perceived collaborators and mercenaries.
Already, the country is awash with guns. Those who possess them are not only civilians but also trained soldiers — hundreds of thousands of them — who became jobless after the occupying powers disbanded the Iraqi army. With plenty of guns available to them and anger and resentment goading them on, these jobless soldiers will target the Americans and those helping them at the slightest opportunity. Not only that, it is highly unlikely that in the heat of the moment the Iraqis will see much difference between American soldiers and Pakistani and such other troops that go there to carry out assigned chores. To them both will represent occupation and all that it stands for and aims at achieving. Consequently, one cannot rule out attacks by Iraqis on Pakistani soldiers as well.
Reports say that Egypt, Syria and Saudi Arabia, too, are opposed to the presence of any Muslim troops in Iraq, because Bush administration officials continue to threaten such Muslim countries as Syria and Iran. While the Americans, quite understandably, want others to join them, Islamabad should realize the negative impact Pakistani troops’ presence will have on the Iraqi and Arab people. It also has disturbing implications for Pakistan internally. It would therefore be advisable for the government not to take decision on the question in a hurry and seek a national consensus on the issue. Cooperating with the US on the war on terror is one thing; helping America perpetuate its hold on Iraq quite another.
Karachi district finances
THE City District Government Karachi’s (CDGK) surplus budget of Rs. 27.7 billion for the next fiscal year may seem to be an improvement on the outgoing year’s revised estimates of Rs. 22.28 billion but in real terms there has been no increase. This is because the defunct KWSB now stands transferred to the CDGK and renamed Water and Sanitation Department, which has its own outlay of over five billion rupees. Similarly, the Rs. 10.1 billion earmarked for development projects in the next fiscal year as against the outgoing year’s Rs. 6.3 billion, also include W&SD’s development outlay of Rs. 2.1 billion. Presenting the budget, Nazim Naimatullah Khan assured the house that the latter amount would be used to replace old water pipelines with new ones and to plug leakages. This would save the city some 100 million gallons of water per day. All in all, the coming fiscal year’s budget is a mixed bag of promises and proposals and offers little more than the outgoing year’s budget in terms of actual development projects. Mercifully, no new taxes have been imposed.
The education sector gets a total of Rs. 5.17 billion in the next fiscal year but the Nazim did not reveal how much of this sum would be spent in non-development expenditure. The CDGK has announced the abolition of school fees at the primary and secondary levels, and giving girl students stipends of Rs. 100 each at the middle school level and Rs. 200 at the matric level to encourage them to continue their studies. Both these measures entail non-development expenditures and would claim a big chunk from the surplus allocation of Rs. 2.79 billion over the outgoing year’s allocation for this sector. The CDGK has also announced plans to set up a women’s university for which it has earmarked a sum of Rs. 10 million. This, again, makes little sense in a city that already has numerous girls colleges whose capacities could have been increased if needed. The seemingly hefty allocation for education makes no mention of setting up any vocational or technical training centres, which would have been far more useful. There are, however, plans to set up computer laboratories at all schools run by the city government.
Other major allocations will go to the health sector and the 18 town and 178 union councils. The health sector gets a total — development and non-development — allocation of Rs. 1.79 billion. A good portion of this will go into filling the gap created by the abolition of OPD fees in all hospitals run by the CDGK, while Rs. 30 million will be spent on the setting up of a new cardiac institute. The town and union councils will receive a total of Rs. 4.64 billion. Out of this, Rs. 105 million will be spent on building and improving inter-town and union council roads. The CDGK plans to build three new flyovers in the city for which a total of Rs. 140 million has been earmarked. There are also plans to build 470 bus stops.
The Nazim went on to say that 6,400 privately owned new buses will begin to ply the city roads next year. This will obviously add to the existing congestion on city roads but in the absence of a mass transit system, this is the only choice to fall back on. The Nazim said the CDGK was consulting foreign investors for building a modern urban commuter train system, which would entail a further investment of Rs. 25 billion to implement and create a sizable number of new jobs. Although the Nazim means well, much will depend on how prudently and efficiently the money allocated for development, expansion and streamlining is actually spent.