Sharon’s new party
FOR decades, two parties have monopolized Israeli politics — Labour and Likud. The former is supposed to be liberal with regard to Israel’s domestic politics, but there is little difference between the two when it comes to the Palestinians. The latter is a hard-line party and has been led by Mr Ariel Sharon, now prime minister, who in fact helped create it, the first Likud prime minister being the late Menachem Begin, one of Zionism’s worst terrorists during Palestine’s days under the “mandate”. Now Mr Sharon has quit the Likud and formed a party of his own — Kadima. Mr Sharon’s reason for quitting the Likud gives us an insight into the thinking of Israeli politicians. A super hardliner himself, Mr Sharon finds the Likud unwilling to share his views on the West Bank and the expansion of the Jewish settlements. Earlier this year, despite intense opposition from the settlers and from within his own party, Mr Sharon completed Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza. The world welcomed it, hoping that this would pave the way for Israel’s pullout from the West Bank, too, and for the creation of a sovereign Palestinian state. The hopes were misplaced, for Mr Sharon has his own plans about the West Bank — plans that run counter to the two-state solution, which is now America’s accepted policy for a final settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Responsible for several gruesome massacres, the worst of them being the Sabra-Chatilla slaughter in Lebanon in 1982, Mr Sharon is determined to hold on to the West Bank at all costs. His policies since he became prime minister in February 2001 have amply demonstrated his intransigence on the question of peace with the Palestinians. In September 2000, he visited the Islamic holy sites, despite being advised against it, and touched off the second intifada. Then he became prime minister the next year and chose to reoccupy parts of the West Bank, including Ramallah, which was Yasser Arafat’s headquarters. This was a clear violation of the Oslo accords. He showed his proclivity for trigger-happy politics when he ordered his tanks to destroy Arafat’s headquarters and was responsible for another act of massace, this time in Jenin. By this time, the Oslo accords — which had in any case been mauled at the Wye, Cairo and Sharm el-Sheikh summits — had become redundant. A most welcome development, meanwhile, was the unveiling of a roadmap by President George Bush. Drafted by the Quartet — the US, UN, EU and Russia — it stipulated the creation of a Palestinian state by 2005. However, on one of his visits to the White House, Mr Sharon prevailed upon President Bush to declare that, despite withdrawing troops from the West Bank, Israel would retain “some” land there. Later, Mr Bush said 2005 was an unrealistic date for a Palestinian state to emerge. The situation has since remained unchanged.
The formation of Kadima makes it clear that Mr Sharon does not consider his former colleagues in the Likud hawkish enough for his purposes. He would like to continue building Jewish settlements and incorporate more Palestinian areas within Israel by completing the separation barrier. This means that, if and when he agrees to a Palestinian state, what the Arabs will get will be isolated cantons or bantustans separated and criss-crossed by Israeli settlements and highways. Such a “state” will be a recipe for perpetual violence in the holy land. For that reason, his departure from Likud and the formation of Kadima constitute a bad omen for peace in the Middle East.
Women in politics
AT a two-day conference titled ‘Discovering the gender face of politics’ in Islamabad, various international and national speakers called for a greater need for women to play an active role in politics. While there is no denying that the government has tried to help by increasing women’s representation in local, provincial and national assemblies, ground realities show that these measures have not had any major impact. While there are more women in the assemblies, few hold any significant positions; those that do, are rarely given the prominence or media attention that male politicians enjoy. Women parliamentarians themselves speak of discrimination from their male colleagues who often sideline them, excluding them from any decision-making process on one pretext or another. According to one speaker at the conference, this is due to the fact that Pakistani male politicians use women as a tool to strengthen their political party representation in the assemblies. This is evident when women parliamentarians’ motions do not get the support of their own party, let alone coalition partners. Many women support narrow-minded views expressed by their party, ostensibly for fear of reprisal or alienation. It will take years to undo this dichotomy in attitude for which men will have to be engaged in a dialogue.
The issue goes beyond increasing the number of women in councils and assemblies. It involves educating them on matters of effective governance and teaching them how to use their strength in numbers to their advantage. In short, they will have to learn to put party loyalties aside and work together as a pressure group for change — as is done in developed nations where sexual crimes are given as much importance as oil interests. The most pressing legal issue for Pakistani women is arguably the Hudood Ordinances, on which women parliamentarians are divided. Instead of working at cross purposes, women MPAs and MNAs need to use their clout and work with their male colleagues in pushing for its repeal. As the eminent American feminist Naomi Wolf wrote: “the answer is not in softball advocacy but hardball politics” — and women need to be taught how to play the game.
Camel jockeys: unending abuse
THE arrival in Lahore on Thursday of the latest batch of 64 children who were employed as camel jockeys in the UAE comes as a stark reminder once again of the human smuggling racket that has resisted all attempts at curbing it. Most of the children — over 200 — who have been repatriated with the help of the UAE government since June hail from the impoverished southern Punjab districts. True, the Gulf states have long outlawed the use of children under the age of 16 as camel jockeys, but many influential people hiring these children from poor countries continue to flout the ban. Back home, unscrupulous elements that reportedly ‘buy’ the children off their poor parents, too, are part of the problem. The role of the immigration authorities at the airports, through which the children are smuggled out, also needs to be probed so as to bring the officials involved to book.
The Punjab government’s Child Protection and Welfare Bureau has collated enough data from the children who have been repatriated so far to unmask the culprits involved in the racket at various stages. According to the bureau’s findings, poverty alone is not the only factor that leads parents to sell their four-year-old boys to human smugglers; many have been found to barter off their young ones for luxury consumer goods, with colour televisions and CD players topping the list of the items ‘exchanged’ for their offspring. This is outright criminal, but none of such wicked parents has been brought to justice so far. While there is a need to sensitize such parents’ minds about the cruelty their action subjects their own children to, the government must also keep reminding its counterparts in the Gulf states to do more to curb child smuggling and the ultimate abuse that it involves.
The post-earthquake challenges
THE devastating earthquake of October 8 was sudden and colossal. Several thousand homes were flattened and a generation of school children was instantly buried under the debris of schools. Almost all government buildings, hospitals, colleges, universities, telecommunication network, power lines, and water pipes were razed within a span of a few minutes across Azad Kashmir and parts of the NWFP.
More importantly, the earthquake blocked rescuers from reaching the affected zone.
The rescue and relief activity in the beginning was haphazard. In Islamabad, at the site of the Margalla Towers, the initially deployed teams were ill-prepared to organize rescue action. The process was slow, confusing and inadequate, reflecting on the absence of an emergency management plan or strategy.
If such a disaster were to strike urban centres such as Karachi, Quetta and Lahore, the nation would be totally paralysed. The quake has abundantly exposed the lack of preparedness at the national level to promptly respond to any natural or manmade crisis.
This makes it necessary for us to undertake zero-based budgeting. Each and every item of expenditure, including defence, must be analysed and justified in the wake of the October 8 catastrophe that has created new needs related to the rescue, relief, reconstruction and rehabilitation of millions of people.
At the same time, the gradually eroding tax/GDP ratio should be rectified and tax evasion must be stopped. A group of financial and economic experts from the public and private sectors should be assembled to identify new sources of revenues that are likely to put least pressure on the already stressed economic base of the country. In spite of a sizable aid pledge at the recent donor conference in Islamabad, the road ahead is steep and slippery.
The first and foremost challenge is to provide shelter and heating to everybody before the Himalayan winter sets in. The UN emergency relief coordinator, John Egeland, has been frank in his warning against the looming winter onslaught. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has urged the world to launch extraordinary efforts to cope with the catastrophe in South Asia. Even if sufficient numbers of tents of the right quality are acquired, inadequate heating could still lead to a health crisis, especially in view of the poor sanitation facilities in the quake-hit areas.
Escaping the killer mountains has to be the highest priority. Even though flying a helicopter costs $11,000 per hour, evacuating people from high mountains to the warmer plains is absolutely crucial. As observed by the UN coordinator, “It is now or never, we will not have a second chance”.
With helicopters from the US, Nato and the Red Cross, reaching inaccessible places is still feasible and must be done on a war footing. Let us not forget that six out of the nine districts affected by the earthquake are in “the most food insecure” parts of Pakistan. People in these areas were poor to begin with and the earthquake has made them poorer and more vulnerable. The use of the Pakistani army in emergency operations was necessary and, on balance, they have performed well. However, for future rehabilitation and reconstruction, most tasks should be undertaken by the civil administration.
What is needed today is zero tolerance for corruption. The accountant-general of Pakistan should promptly formulate and put in place a “speedy financial strategy” to manage the quick transfer of foreign donations, the prompt release of financial resources and computer-based uses of funds with clear monitoring and evaluation processes. He should immediately be given resources to establish a directorate for earthquake-related accounts with sufficient, qualified staff and a computer system to perform the required functions efficiently.
The Oct 8 catastrophe should become a catalyst for breaking away from past corrupt practices and charting new directions. It is extremely important that the uses of funds are absolutely transparent, judicious and easily accessible to anyone interested.
While the establishment of the Earthquake Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Authority in Islamabad is an important step, its operations should be reflective of the basis of disaster management. Also, there should be two major authorities under the federal authority — one for Azad Kashmir and the other for the affected districts in the NWFP — to plan and implement rehabilitation and reconstruction projects with the full participation of the stakeholders in their respective regions.
Following rescue operations, priority should be given to quasi-permanent dwellings and facilities for education, health, water supply, electricity, telecommunications, opening up of roads, public buildings, office buildings, market places etc. At the same time, building codes have to be revised and the implementation mechanism put in place for building permanent structures capable of withstanding seismic shocks up to 9.0 on the Richter scale.
The catastrophe has clearly shown that we must have a national building code (NBC). In 1970, the ministry of works had prepared a draft NBC. But it has never been discussed and approved, and is probably buried in the National Assembly archives. Had it been implemented the magnitude of the Oct 8 tragedy would have been considerably less.
It is reported that about 100 mid- to high-rise buildings are under various stages of construction in Islamabad alone. Following the devastating earthquake, Islamabad’s risk category has been tentatively raised from zone 1 to zone 4.
How many more deaths and destruction do we need to finally complete and enforce the NBC? Persons responsible for delaying the preparation and approval of the NBC should be taken to task.
There is a general consensus that in the high-rise building sector, precisely-measured and pre-engineered steel frames should be used to construct high-rise buildings because these are light in weight and easily adaptable to earthquake resistant standards. Also, no building should be allowed to dot the city landscape unless detailed engineering drawings showing the precise location of all the proposed electrical, plumbing, gas pipelines as well as an adequate number of emergency exits are provided. A large number of multi-storied complexes are under construction all over Pakistan without conforming to the above requirements. In countries like the US and Japan, seismic activity on the scale of even 7.0 are not considered devastating as the building codes are up to date and effectively enforced.
Here, the zoning maps prepared by the meteorological department had placed Islamabad and Karachi in a category called “minor zone” reflective of approximately 4.8 Richter scale risk while the uniform building code (UBC-97) of the US places Islamabad and Karachi in zone four that requires buildings to be built to resist Richter scale shocks equivalent to 7.6-plus. The Geological Survey of Pakistan (GSP) that is supposed to update geological mapping, geo-hydrological situations, geotechnical and ontological investigations and undertake proper zoning has only rudimentary equipment to monitor earthquakes.
The GSP had previously prepared a seismic risk map of Northern Pakistan (1988), tectonics map (1982) and a seismo-tectonic map (1979), all of which are outdated now. It is extremely important that an independent GSP is created and equipped with modern technological apparatus and expert knowhow so that it performs its functions efficiently.
As recommended by an Islamabad citizens’ committee, a properly trained and fully qualified workforce of masons, plumbers, electricians, carpenters, etc, is essential to build good quality houses according to the building code. It is a huge challenge to train this workforce all over the country. However, it can be done with the help of the private sector in Pakistan and relevant institutions abroad. Their training and licensing mechanisms are to be given high priority.
In addition to the qualified workforce, rules governing the registration of consulting architects engineering firms should be rewritten to ensure that the registered firms have the requisite personnel of adequate qualification, experience, etc., for the preparation of drawings and detailed engineering plans.
Turning to the crucial task of preparing a disaster management strategy, this is a big challenge and an uphill task because almost all the building control authorities in Pakistan’s major cities have either been dormant or unmindful of irregularities and rampant violations of even the existing and less stringent building codes as well as of faulty components, including electricity, gas, and water pipelines. Despite these pathetic conditions, each major city and district has to have a focal point and a disaster management plan.
The first step in that direction will be a professionally conducted safety survey of existing buildings and structures and identification of hazardous points such as storage of gas cylinders, chemicals, fuel oil etc. At the same time, we must reactivate the near defunct civil defence department, train rescue workers and launch education and awareness campaigns. To accomplish these tasks in a satisfactory manner we can seek help from countries like Japan where disaster management plans are prepared by professionally competent experts and institutions.
Finally, we should accept Dr Arun Bapat’s proposal that India and Pakistan should launch earthquake awareness programmes and designate Oct 8 as the National Disaster Mitigation Day. Such a day is being regularly observed in Japan.
The writer is a former senior advisor to the World Bank.