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DAWN WIRE SERVICE
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Week Ending : 03 August, 1995 Issue : 01/30
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The DAWN Wire Service (DWS) is a free weekly news-service from
Pakistan's largest English language newspaper, the daily DAWN. DWS
offers news, analysis and features of particular interest to the
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Extracts from DWS can be used provided that this entire header is
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(c) Pakistan Herald Publications (Pvt.) Ltd., Pakistan - 1995
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CONTENTS
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MQM
..........Govt offers favour to MQM for peace
..........Govt unaware of MQM's decision
..........MQM not to attend
..........MQM boycotts talks
..........Govt agrees to MQM's name demand
Karachi
..........Six MQM men gunned down
..........13 die as violence re-erupts in city
..........July ends with 279 deaths as four more die in violence
..........Six gunned down in city violence
..........Top MQM activists, 4 others killed
..........US declares Karachi dangerous zone
..........PM asks Babar to check violence threat in Karachi
Women seats in Parliament
..........Restoration of women's seats
..........Women seats restored
Flood
..........Death toll in NWFP 118
..........Floodwater enters Wazirabad, Sialkot
..........Super flood passes thru Sindh barrages
..........Another deluge in Punjab predicted
Govt-IMF negotiation
..........Crisis talks fail to woo IMF officials
..........Pakistan told to follow IMF plan
..........Government clarifies stand on Fund
US rules out sanctions against Pakistan
3 Americans sent to jail in narcotics case
OIC working on plan to send arms to Bosnia: Ghabid
Govt failed to enforce law on child labour, tribunal told
Rabbani regrets Pakistan's silence over his proposals
Kashmir issue hurdle in SAARC way
Internet service for computer users
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US loses textile quota case against Pakistan Shaheen Sehbai
WB, Japan advise against Chashma Ihtashamul Haque
US officials to study joint ventures
Prospects of 2nd credit rating agency uncertain
Cancellation of contract of 2 Swiss firms demanded
1% surcharge on all imports
Bill to amend Forex Act cleared
Stock Exchange : Rally on optimism over Govt-MQM parleys Mohammad Aslam
Taiwan imposed anti-dumping duty on Pakistan yarn
The Business & Financial Week
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Give and take, yes, but also a sense of urgency editorial column
Women in Parliament editorial column
What it takes to break the stalemate editorial column
Child labour in Pakistan : Hoodwinking will not help Dr Zareen Fatima Naqvi
Money Ardeshir Cowasjee
The Singapore solution Mazdak
Genesis of the crisis Mushtaq Ahmad
Islamabad Diary : Back to the promised land Ayaz Amir
A tale of three cities I.A. Rehman
A challenge for Pakistan Anjum Niaz
Cutting off your nose to spite your face Tahir Mirza
Gap between the poor & poorer Kunwar Idris
Whose Pakistan are we living in? M. Ziauddin
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Akram and Mushtaq in the Counties
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950730
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Govt offers favour to MQM for peace
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*From Ihtashamul Haque
ISLAMABAD, July 29: Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister N.D.Khan said
here today that the government was ready to offer a favour to MQM in
order to help solve the burning Karachi issue.
"We will be proposing quid pro quo to MQM in our scheduled meeting on
Monday (July 31), which means that Rangers will be slowly withdrawn from
Karachi and, in return, we would expect them to dissociate from
terrorism," he elaborated.
Replying to a question, the law minister said without conceding anything
there could not be the resolution of the problem. "We would be assuring
our MQM friends in the next meeting that the on-going operation in
Karachi could be slowed down provided they should also give us some
undertaking that the incidents of violence and terrorism would also not
be supported."
He also pointed out that the MQM team would have to furnish
clarifications on certain points without which there could not be any
hope for the success of the talks. "Are we not justified in asking the
MQM to tell us as to why Altaf Hussain called the Two-Nations theory a
'butt of jokes'. Moreover, is it some thing not serious to seek
clarification of the MQM Leader's statement.
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950731
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Govt unaware of MQM's decision
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Bureau Report
ISLAMABAD, July 30: The government will hold talks with the MQM with an
open mind to reach to a negotiated settlement of the Karachi crisis,
Federal Law Minister, N.D. Khan said on Sunday.
"We are sure of achieving a negotiated settlement," he told Dawn.
However, the MQM has not made any announcement so far whether or not its
team would be attending the Monday's round of talks. After the last
round, held in Karachi, MQM chief negotiator Ajmal Dehlavi had said the
talks had been deadlocked.
The government side, however insisted that there were just "a few
difficulties" which would be removed before the next round of talks.
Mr. Khan said on Sunday that the government would be taking part in the
talks in the spirit of "give and take" so that peace could be restored
in Karachi. But he made it clear that there would be no bargain on
principles. "The most important thing is to save the people from killing
and look after their properties. Whosoever is found involved in violence
will be definitely taken to task."
Indirectly referring to MQM demand for calling off the operation in
Karachi, Mr Khan claimed that "no operation" was being conducted in
Karachi except for a defensive patrolling by the law enforcement
agencies to maintain law and order. "The rangers and the police are
bound to take action whenever it is required."
The law minister reiterated that the government believed in give and
take and not in offering any favours to the MQM. "When you have to
achieve a political settlement of an issue you go for give and take
which does not necessarily mean that you are offering any favours to
anyone," he added.
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950731
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MQM not to attend
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By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, July 30: Mohajir Qaumi Movement chief negotiator Ajmal Dehlavi
said on Sunday that the MQM negotiating team would not participate in
the fifth round of talks scheduled for Monday in Islamabad.
Talking to Dawn late at night, he said: "The deadlock is very much
there. The government has done nothing to break it. It will be an
exercise in futility to dash to the federal capital."
Mr Dehlavi said no one had contacted them since Monday last, the day the
deadlock cropped up.
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950801
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MQM boycotts talks
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*From Nasir Malick
ISLAMABDAD, July 31: The government-MQM-talks to restore peace to
Karachi reached an impasse after MQM negotiators boycotted the fifth
round scheduled to be held at the Parliament House on Monday.
Although apparently there is a deadlock, still the two sides have kept
their doors open. "It is unfortunate they boycotted, but we are
available for talks," Mr Khan told reporters in the committee room after
a long wait.
The MQM's chief negotiator, Ajmal Dehlavi said, "The deadlock is very
much there he said. "There will be no talks today but we will wait for
another two or three days and if the government does not come up with a
positive response in the next few days the MQM leadership will take a
final decision about the future of the talks."
The MQM side had demanded implementation of its four proposals for
restoring normality to Karachi. The demands included withdrawal of
rangers, restoration of mobile telephones and pagers, calling the MQM by
its real name instead of "Altaf group" and an end to provocative
statements about the MQM leadership.
Mr Dehlavi said if the conditions were not acceptable to the government,
his party would reconsider the prospects of the talks as also restarting
a weekly two-day protest strike in Karachi which the MQM had called off
as a goodwill gesture. The government meanwhile also awaits
clarification on Altaf Hussains' interview and the MQM's threat to
revert to violence in case the talks failed.
Mr Khan said the MQM would have received the response to the
clarifications it had sought at today's meeting. He said the issues on
which the government had sought clarifications related to the state and
not the government. "They were supposed to bring clarifications at
today's meeting and we were to submit answers to the clarifications they
had sought from us." He said the government had already informed the
MQM during the last round that it would start calling the MQM by its
original name provided the MQM brings along clarifications.
He said the MQM's action was incomprehensible for him but this was not
the end. He said the government was committed to a negotiated settlement
of the Karachi issue.
The law minister said the government had told the MQM that the talks on
the main demands from the two sides would start once peace was restored
and the killing of innocent people stopped. But Mr Dehlavi said there
was no point in continuing the talks when the government did not even
recognise the MQM by its real name. He, however did not rule out the
possibility of rescheduling the talks.
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950803
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Govt agrees to MQM's name demand
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*From Nasir Malick
ISLAMABAD, Aug. 2: The government has agreed to call the Mohajir Qaumi
Movement (MQM) by its real name instead of "Altaf group" and has sent
Zuhair Akram Nadeem to Karachi to contact the MQM's chief negotiator,
Ajmal Dehlavi, to bring him back to the negotiation table, an official
source told Dawn.
The decision was taken at a meeting of the three-member government team
which is holding talking with the MQM.
"We have sent Zuhair Akram with the mandate to bring back the MQM on the
negotiation table by assuring them that the government will call them
with their real party name provided they bring the clarifications sought
by the government," an official source said. "He has also been
authorised to fix the venue, date and time for the next round of talks,"
the source said. The source said the decision to send Zuhair was taken
at the meeting of the negotiating team.
The MQM boycotted the fifth round of talks accusing the government of
raising non-issues and demanding to call the party with its real name.
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950728
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Six MQM men gunned down
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By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, July 27; Six MQM workers and supporters were gunned down
outside their homes in Asif Colony on Thursday night. Also on Thursday,
the police arrested one of the most wanted alleged criminals who was
allegedly involved in the KMC supermarket killings in Liaquatabad.
Meanwhile, three "most wanted" MQM activists, including Rehan alias
Kana, were arrested by the police during a snap checking of vehicles in
Sindhi Muslim Co-operative Housing Society.
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950730
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13 die as violence re-erupts in city
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By Our Staff Report
KARACHI, July 29: Thirteen people including an 18-month-old boy were
killed as terrorists struck at several places in the city on Saturday
raising the month's death toll to 272. Among the dead were a brother of
a councillor, a son of a Muslim Leaguer, a government employee, a ranger
and two MQM workers.
With fresh killings on Saturday after a relative peaceful Friday, the
toll during the last seven month's rose to an all time high of 1,207.
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950801
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July ends with 279 deaths as four more die in violence
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By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, July 31: Four people, including two activists of rival MQM
groups, were killed in the city on Monday, raising the month's death
toll to 279.
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950802
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Six gunned down in city violence
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By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI Aug. 1: Three MQM men and a policeman were among the six young
people who fell victim to on-going terrorism and gang war in the city on
Tuesday.
Three MQM men, who had allegedly killed their gang leader four days back
over some monetary dispute, were kidnapped and killed by the members of
their own gang as a punishment, the fourth who survived the execution
told the police.
Sources in the police claimed that these men, all residents of Orangi,
had a dispute with their group leader over the distribution of
protection money. On July 28, the four allegedly kidnapped the leader
near his Orangi home and dropped his bullet-riddled body in the same
area a couple of hours later.
In retaliation, the other gang members, infuriated over the act-
kidnapped the four, kept them in captivity for a day, asked them to
board a stolen vehicle and then sprayed them with bullets.
All but one of the victims died, who related this story to the police
and is presently placed under custody. The police claimed all the gang
members were 'habitual criminals' and wanted in several cases of
murders, robberies and extortion.
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950803
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Top MQM activists, 4 others killed
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By Our Staff Reporter
Aug. 2, Farooq Dada 25, whom the government described as one of the top
MQM terrorists and a brain behind city terrorism, died, along with his
three companions in an alleged encounter in Model Colony near the Quaid-
i-Azam International Airport on Wednesday morning.
MQM chief Altaf Hussain owned all the four, condoled and sympathised
with the bereaved families and asked his supporters to have patience and
to remain united.
Later when the police searched the boot of the car, they found 12 AK47
rifles, a tripod machine-gun, a rocket launcher, a rocket and thousands
of bullets.
Like other police encounters, this one also became controversial as the
Karachi police did not issue any official handout till late Wednesday
night, while the Airport police, headed by SHO Anwar Ahmed Khan, a close
associate of the late police officer Bahadur Ali, gave a different
version.
In the morning, they said, the four had come to attack a PIA aircraft.
Later in the day, police claimed that they picketed the Model Colony
road after information that Dada and his friends would pass through.
Farooq Dada's friends claimed that the four had been trapped and
murdered in cold blood. One of his neighbours claimed that they had been
in custody since Monday.
The government claimed that Dada was also involved in the murder of an
army Captain and six policemen of Baldia police station.
Their death sparked off violence in parts of the city and forced the
closure of Gulbahar, Nazimabad, Malir, and Baldia Town.
A number of witnesses some of whom contacted by Dawn, claimed that
rangers and police resorted to indiscriminate firing and did not even
spare women.
The bodies were kept at the Airport police station for 10 hours. At 4:30
they were brought to Jinnah Post-graduate Medical Centre for autopsy.
Two hours later they were shifted to Edhi Home at Sohrab Goth. Relatives
were asked to collect no-objection from the police on Thursday afternoon
to take possession of the bodies.
Elsewhere in the city, four people, including constable fell victim to
violence.
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950728
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US declares Karachi dangerous zone
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*From Our Staff Correspondent
WASHINGTON, July 27: The United States has declared Karachi a dangerous
zone and asked all its officials and citizens not to travel or even
transit, through that international city, according to a State
Department announcement.
"The State Department has now designated the Karachi consulate as an
"employees only" post. No US government family members may reside in the
Karachi consulate district," the announcement said.
It said: "As security conditions in Karachi have deteriorated, the US
State Department has ordered that official personnel arriving in
Pakistan not transit Karachi enroute to other posts in Pakistan. All
official US government personnel scheduled to arrive in Pakistan must
re-route their schedules to avoid transiting Karachi."
It said: "The violence in Karachi continues at a high level with
strikes, bus burnings, car bombings, RPG attacks and random gunfire
disrupting the normal functioning of the city. The MQM Altaf group has
called for rolling strike days each weekend. Additional strike calls
could be issued at any time resulting in further violence.
"In addition, the March 8 attackers on a US consulate vehicle that
killed two foreign service employees and wounded a third have not yet
been identified.
"Immediately following the March 8 attack, the United States Department
of State ordered the departure of all US government school-age
dependants resident in the Karachi consulate district and authorised the
departure of other family members.
"Should transit of Karachi be unavoidable because of late notice and
inability to charge travel plans, every effort must be made to schedule
connections to avoid leaving the airport (i.e., not to stay overnight in
Karachi). Travellers should allow sufficient connecting time (3 hours or
more) to take into account the frequent flight delays. Official
travellers must notify the US consulate of all such travel plans. In an
emergency, travellers should remain at the airport and contact the US
consulate-general for information."
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950801
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PM asks Babar to check violence threat in Karachi
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Bureau Report
ISLAMABAD, July 31: Prime Minister Bhutto on Monday presided over a
meeting to discuss MQM's boycott of the talks and to draw a fresh
strategy, an official source said.
N.D.Khan had told reporters earlier that he would discuss today's
development with the Prime Minister to draw a new strategy.
The source said that it was decided that the MQM would be approached
through other channels to convince them to resume the talks in the
national interest. "May be the chief minister or the law minister or
some other person approach the MQM leadership in their personal capacity
to bring them to negotiating table," he said.
The chief minister of Sindh reportedly briefed the meeting about the law
and order situation in Karachi and said that the activities of
terrorists have been contained to a great extent. He lauded the
services of the police and rangers in controlling the situation and
called them "unsung heroes" of the country.
The interior minister, Gen. Babar, the source said, was directed by the
Prime Minister to proceed to Karachi along with the chief minister to
personally supervise the law and order situation and to take appropriate
measures to forestall any renewed threat of violence in the provincial
metropolis.
The Prime Minister reportedly told the meeting that the government would
like to continue the talks with an open mind and give concessions to the
MQM provided they help in restoring peace to the violence-hit city.
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950729
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Restoration of women seats : Opposition invited to work out modalities
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Bureau Report
ISLAMABAD, July 28: The Minister of State for Law, Senator Raza Rabbani,
on Friday invited the opposition parties to come and sit on a table to
work out modalities for the restoration of women seats in elected
institutions.
Apart from restoration of seats in the National and provincial
assemblies the government also wanted to give representation to women in
the Senate, the indirectly elected upper house of parliament, he told a
Press conference.
Mr. Rabbani also expressed the government's willingness to negotiate any
constitutional reforms package, including the abrogation of the Eighth
Amendment in the Constitution. "The constitutional 14 amendment bill of
women seats can become a stepping stone to move towards a consensus on
the other amendments," he said.
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950730
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Women seats restored
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*From Ahmad Hasan Alvi
ISLAMABAD, July 29: Three main political parties of the country on
Saturday agreed to revive the reserved seats for women in parliament as
well as in the four provincial assemblies, breaking a seven year-old
deadlock over the issue.
Representatives of the PPP, the PML and the ANP signed the agreement at
the concluding session of a workshop organised by the Auarat Foundation
here in Islamabad.
The organisers said the agreement called for a minimum of 20 seats for
women in the 217-member National Assembly and nine in the 87-member
Senate (Upper House). It provides for a five percent quota in each of
the provincial assemblies.
The three-party consensus will ensure support of a two-thirds majority
in parliament when a constitutional bill on the subject is introduced.
The women in Pakistan, constituting about half of the country's 130
million population, had a parliamentary quota until October 1988 when a
constitutional provision allowing this lapsed.
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950728
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Death toll in NWFP flood tops 118
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*From A.S. Yousufi
PESHAWAR, July 27: The death toll in the current torrential rains and
floods rose 118 on Thursday. It was 95 on Wednesday. In Sindh and
Balochistan, too, the situation worsened with a number of breaches
occurring in flood protective embankments and vast areas coming under
water.
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950729
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Army evacuates victims : Floodwater enters Wazirabad, Sialkot
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*From Mahmood Zaman
LAHORE, July 28: Flood-water entered the cities of Sialkot and Wazirabad
on Friday inundating villages of Sialkot, Wazirabad, Nankana Sahib. Pind
Dadan Khan, Chiniot, Shakaragarh, Narowal, Chak Arnru, Gujar Khan and
Rawat.
About 42 people were killed and hundreds of others marooned in the
countrywide floods. The worst hit regions were central and north-eastern
parts of Punjab where 30 were reported to have died.
About 150 villages were inundated in Sialkot, Gujrat, Jhelum,
Rawalpindi, Shiekhupura, and Jhang districts.
Meanwhile, the Flood Forecasting and Warning Bureau (FFWB) said the
Chenab and Jhelum were flowing in very high flood while the Ravi
received a gushing water current from Madhopur in India.
Bureau director Abdul Majeed told reporters on Friday that the flood
situation would improve in coming days. According to him, the present
monsoon pressure over the area had moved towards north-east and was fast
fizzling out over the region.
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950803
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Super flood passes through Sindh barrage
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*From Our Correspondents
SUKKUR Aug. 2: The water levels at Guddu and Sukkur barrages continued
to rise on Wednesday and in the overlong had reached a discharge of
950,000 cusecs-record high of the present season.
According to irrigation officials, the super flood would pass through
the two barrages on Thursday and Friday, and a straits vigilance is
being kept round the clock to avert any situation. The department has
chalked out a contingency plan to save the two barrages in case of more
rise in water level.
According to latest position one million cusecs water was discharging
from Guddu and Sukkur barrages on Wednesday evening. However, at
Mithankot some decrease in the water level was recorded, while on other
places the position remained unchanged.
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950803
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Another deluge in Punjab predicted
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Bureau Report
LAHORE, Aug. 2: The National Flood Forecasting Bureau on Wednesday
predicted another high flood in the Chenab at Marala during the next 24
hours.
An official of the NFFB told reporters at a briefing that, the current
spell of rains had been generated by accentuation of a seasonal low and
the activation of easterly and south-westerly currents.
The official said the Indus at Guddu was in exceptionally high flood
with a discharge of 952,127 cusecs which would reach 980,000 cusecs. The
river was in very high flood at Sukkur (879,575 cusecs) and will be in
exceptionally high flood (900,000 to 950,000 cusecs) during the next 24
hours.
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950728
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Crisis talks fail to woo IMF officials
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*From Shaheen Sehbai
WASHINGTON, July 27: Two days of top level talks between senior IMF
executives and a powerful Pakistan delegation headed by Prime Minister
Benazir Bhutto's special assistant apparently failed to break the
deadlock here on Thursday, Pakistan delegation sources said.
Special assistant Shahid Hassan Khan, Mohammad Yaqub Governor of the
state Bank and secretary finance Javed Talat, who met IMF officials for
what were billed as "crisis talks", failed to convince the Fund bosses
to release the 300 million dollar tranche, suspended by the Fund after
the June budget.
"There is no chance of resumption of the IMF Programme unless Pakistan
was prepared to follow the agenda set by the IMF," the sources said.
Experts say Pakistan was not just losing the 300 million dollar tranche,
but the entire one billion dollar programme that was to follow in the
next two years.
Pakistani sources said Shahid Hassan Khan and the others two top
economic managers from Pakistan had explained the circumstances in which
Pakistan was unable to meet the targets set by the Fund.
Pakistan sources say under the suspended programme, Pakistan has already
received about 500 million dollars out of the total of 1.5 billion
dollars but the rest was now gone.
They also, however, said the Fund would continue the discussions with
the government and a delegation would go to Islamabad in August while
the talking process would continue in September when the Fund holds its
annual meeting.
"Article IV consultations, which is a standard IMF practice with all
member countries, will continue with Pakistan with the Fund reviewing
the economy and holding general discussions," these sources said.
The Wednesday and Thursday talks are said to have proceeded in a cordial
atmosphere, but the IMF was said to be "very polite but firm" on the
resumption of its programme. The IMF officials even pointed to the
Karachi situation in undertones, insiders said.
The outcome of the talks would depend on what the objectors of the
mission were publicly announced, according to an analyst.
"If the purpose was to explain the position and continue the dialogue,
then the mission would be called a success. But if anyone was expecting
that the talks would result in release of the Fund money, without
meeting the IMF targets, he would be disappointed."
These analysts are, however, of the view that by refusing to pursue the
IMF programme, the Benazir Bhutto government had confirmed to the world
that she was politically weak and vulnerable could not afford tough
measures that would have rushed Pakistan further on the path of long and
durable macro-economic adjustments that could turn Pakistan into an
Asian tiger. "The government has chosen to pursue immediate-term petty,
partisan, political gains at the cost of Pakistan's long term economic
interests," they say.
The argument that Pakistan had built up big foreign exchange reserves,
almost 2.2 billion dollars, is also rejected by these analysts as they
cite the example of Turkey and Mexico where larger reserves evaporated
within weeks following adverse political developments.
"We don't know what is the trigger point in Pakistan which could send
these reserves, which include private dollar accounts, scrambling out of
Pakistan," one analyst, critical of the government policy, said.
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950729
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Release of funds : Pakistan told to follow IMF plan
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*From Our Staff Correspondent
WASHINGTON, July 28: The high level Pakistan delegation which held two
days of top level talks with IMF here on Thursday conceded that there
was no chance of IMF funds coming to Pakistan until Islamabad was really
to put the disrupted process back on the rails.
Speaking at a news conference after meeting the IMF Managing Director
Michael Camdesseus, delegation leader Shahid Hasan Khan said Pakistan
and IMF had agreed to start a monitoring programme in August, when an
IMF team visits Islamabad, which will keep the Fund in the picture about
Pakistan's economic situation.
"We will try to maintain financial discipline as if the, now suspended,
SAP was going on," Khan said in what was seen as a definite indication
that Pakistan had no intention of getting the derailed process back on
the track.
Analysts interpreted his remarks as an admission that the two days of
talks had produced no change of mood at the IMF headquarters which was
insisting that if Pakistan needed the money, it had to adhere to the
terms listed by the Fund.
"Our talks in August will be not just under Article IV but beyond that
which will give indications to others that we were having consultations
on more than routine matters," Khan said. But under questioning by
newsmen he conceded that Pakistan did not need IMF funds, at least for
the current financial year.
"For the first two quarters we will see how the revenue collection goes
and we would keep the IMF with us so they could also walk through the
process," Khan said.
He said the difficulties faced in the last fiscal year to meet the
targets set by IMF on budget deficit and import tariffs would help the
Government to formulate its responses this year.
"We will set new benchmarks with the IMF in August but we are clear that
no money would be forthcoming until we ask them to begin the structural
adjustment programme all over again," Shahid Hasan Khan said.
"We need their support, not their money," Khan said, informing newsmen
that Pakistan's foreign exchange reserves were over two billion dollars
after making some heavy disbursements recently.
Asked about the down-grading of Pakistan's debt risk rating by Moody's,
Khan said they had actually corrected their assessment because
originally they had listed Pakistan one grade higher than we should have
been. "But I agree that the Moody decision could have an adverse impact
on investments in Pakistan."
Shahid Hasan Khan was unable to explain clearly as to why Pakistan
decided suddenly not to meet the IMF targets when assurances and
commitments had been made at the highest level and as late as in April,
during Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's visit to Washington.
"We found at the end of May that if we adhered to the IMF targets, we
would have to raise an additional 55 billion rupees in taxes. It was a
political as well as a psychological problem," he added, "I can say
categorically that we are not deviating from the programme but only
slowing down the pace."
He said one problem was in raising the Sales Tax as machines could not
be put into place. "In the next three months the new sales tax
collection machinery would be fundamental," he said.
Shahid Hasan Khan said the World Bank had agreed to provide guarantees
for railway projects Pakistan which was a major break through.
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950729
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Government clarifies stand on Fund
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bureau Report
ISLAMABAD, July 28: An official spokesman has clarified the government's
position with regard to what he said the "misleading impression" created
by Mr. Shaheen Sehbai, in a despatch from Washington which appeared in
daily Dawn of 28 July 1995," about the objectives and outcome of the
talks held by the Pakistani delegation with members of the IMF on 26-27
July 1995."
According to the spokesman the purpose of the visit was set out even
before the Pakistan delegation left Islamabad in a statement by the
government which said:
"The visit is taking place in the backdrop of the new Federal Budget
1995-96. In view of certain economic and political developments
occurring since April 1995, the government had to make some adjustments
in the speed of its economic reform programme. Paucity of time did not
allow the Government to discuss these changes with the Fund. Thus the
primary aim of the visit is to inform the Fund the background conditions
that led to the present formulation of the Federal Budget 1995-96.
"The government is not seeking any financial support from the Fund.
However, there is no change in Government's commitment to continue with
the economic reform programme that was formulated in consultation with
the Fund.
"It seems Mr Sehbai was unaware of the background of discussions. As
indicated in the press release, Pakistan had neither demanded the said
tranche nor was it a point of discussion with the Fund authorities.
"The government's record of adopting measures which are economically
sound but politically unpopular and difficult is unmatched in this
country's recent economic history. For two years it has adopted all the
measures, like granting autonomy to SBP, imposition of agriculture
wealth tax, expansion of sales tax, rationalisation of tariffs etc.
prescribed in a programme which is basically negotiated by the Interim
government of Moin Qureshi, which had no political compulsion.
"The government has now consciously decided to slow down the speed of
adjustments, as it was evident from the experience of two farce that the
real issue was from to expand their tax efforts but to effect the
structural changes in the administrative machinery required for
efficient tax collection.
Yet, one cannot be oblivious of the progress achieved in restoring
country's macroeconomics framework. The budget deficit in the last two
decades has averaged 7 per cent. And more particularly, starting with a
persistent deficit of about 8 per cent in the proceeding three years,
the government has been able to firmly reduce the deficit below 6 per
cent (5.8 per cent in 1993-94 and 5.6 per cent in 1994-95); if the
results of last six months is any indication of revenue potential, then
there is no doubt that we already have on ground significant taxes which
would allow IMF to achieve the deficit target of 5 percent and do even
better.
"There is no reversal of any of the policies of adjustments and reforms.
The slow-down in the speed of adjustment was required to consolidate the
measure adopted its the last two years which include unprecedented
broadening of sales tax (273 new items added), reduction in the number
of slabs (reduced to less than 10) and consolidation of para tariffs
(Iqra Flood relief etc.) and reduction in maximum traffic rates.
"There is no let up in the attraction of foreign investors in Pakistan.
Recently, three private sector power projects have achieved financial
close. The CEPA Corporation of Mr. Gordon Wu, is sending a team in the
first week of August to finalise agreements for its power project in
Sindh.
"The resource position in the country has never been as good as it has
been in the last two years. There is no fear of any out-flow of foreign
currency deposits from Pakistan, as these are held in largely by
residents and non-residents Pakistanis. The deposits held by the foreign
banks, which are not very large, are also safe as Pakistan's interest
rates are competitive. More than anything else, it was an improvement in
the country's trade account, primarily due to good export performance,
that had a positive impact on reserves. Thus to speculate that Pakistan
may face a Turkey or Mexico type of crisis, is not only far fetched but
serves no interest of the country."
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950730
-------------------------------------------------------------------
US rules out sanctions against Pakistan
-------------------------------------------------------------------
*From Shaheen Sehbai
WASHINGTON, July 29: US Secretary of State Warren Cristopher
categorically stated on Friday that Washington had no evidence against
China and Pakistan to justify imposition of sanctions for MTCR
violations.
"We are concerned about proliferation issues, and we are certainly
concerned about it as they relate to South Asia. We monitor it very
carefully and very closely. At the present time, although there is a
fairly large body of evidence, we do not think there is evidence there
that would justify the imposition of sanctions. But I want to assure all
that we feel an obligation to keep this matter carefully under review
and to follow and comply with the law in this regard," the Secretary of
State said in response to a question.
His comments, coming from the top most foreign policy official of the
Clinton Administration, appeared to throw cold water on Senator Larry
Pressler and other anti-Pakistan hawks like him who want to block
legislation in Congress to dilute sanctions against Islamabad under the
Pressler Amendment.
These hawks have been beating Islamabad and Beijing with the M-11
missiles stick and the presence of some crates at Sargodha Airport is
repeatedly cited as evidence that the M-ll's had reached Pakistan.
But observers said the statement by Warren Cristopher, just days before
the crucial Senate vote to resume supply of arms and equipment to
Pakistan, was a major setback for the Indian lobby trying to kick up a
storm on the Hill over the Clinton Administration's package to ease
Pressler sanctions.
On the strategy of the United States for Asia Pacific region, Warren
Cristopher said the United States was pursuing a four-part strategy to
ensure a peaceful and prosperous Asia-Pacific for the 21st century.
He explained that the first part of this strategy was to "maintain and
invigorate our core alliances with Japan, Korea, Australia, the
Philippines, and Thailand. "Secondly, we're actively pursuing a policy
of engagement with the other leading countries in the region, including-
and, perhaps, especially including-our former Cold War adversaries.
"Thirdly, we're building a regional architecture that will sustain
economic growth, promote integration, and assure stability over the
longer term. "And, fourthly, we're supporting democracy and human
rights, which serves our ideals as well as our interests.
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950728
-------------------------------------------------------------------
3 Americans sent to jail in narcotics case
-------------------------------------------------------------------
By Bhagwandas
KARACHI, July 27: The Special Judge (Customs and Taxation) sent three
American suspects- two women and a man-and their Pakistani supplier to
the central prison here on Thursday for their alleged involvement in
drug smuggling.
Instead of being booked under the recently promulgated ordinance which
carries death penalty for drug trafficking, the suspects have been
booked under Section 2 (s) of the Customs Act 1969, which carries a
maximum penalty of 14 years.
The Americans-Christopher Rollins Kelly, Carrie Leigh Dempsey, and Jody
Lynn Robledo - were caught by the Customs with 12 kilograms of off-white
heroin powder at the Quaid-i-Azam International Airport while leaving
for New York.
On the information provided by the Americans their Pakistani supplier,
Khalid Yousuf Malik (alias Abdul Mateen) of Gujranwala, was arrested in
Lahore by the Customs.
Khalid Malik, who owns a Sialkot-based import-export firm -M/s
Continental Associates- is an ex-convict in a drug smuggling operation
and had been jailed in the US earlier as well.
Four other Americans have also been arrested by the Drug Enforcement
Administration (DEA), New York, on the information provided by the
arrested Americans here.
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950731
-------------------------------------------------------------------
OIC working on plan to send arms to Bosnia: Ghabid
-------------------------------------------------------------------
A Bureau Report
ISLAMABAD, July 30: The secretary-general of the OIC, Hamid al Ghabid,
said on Sunday that the OIC was "working on the logistics of supplying
heavy weapons to the Bosnian Muslims."
Talking to journalists informally, he said that at its recent meeting in
Geneva the OIC member-countries were of the unanimous opinion that the
United Nations had completely failed to protect the so-called safe
enclaves and had "left the Muslim children and people at the mercy of
the marauding Serbs."
Terming the unilateral arms embargo against the Bosnian government
"illegal", he said the proposal of supplying weapons to the Muslim
forces was "under study." He said the OIC member-states were also
contemplating the possibility of beefing up their existing forces in
Bosnia. At present these contingents were a part of the UNPROFOR, but
"they would be strengthened to provide a real and better defence to the
beleaguered Bosnian Muslims."
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950801
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Govt failed to enforce law on child labour, tribunal told
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Bureau Report
LAHORE, July 31: The government has failed to set up any machinery to
enforce the laws against child and bonded labour, the inquiry commission
investigating the murder of BLLF activist Iqbal Masih was informed on
Monday.
The commission comprising Justice Khalid Paul Khwaja of the Lahore High
Court concluded its proceedings on Monday after arguments by Advocate
Faiz Mohammad Bhatti on behalf or Inayat Bibi, Iqbal Masih's mother.
Twenty seven witnesses were examined but the probe was inhibited by the
impending trial, which might have been prejudiced by any detailed
scrutiny of evidence. The high-level judicial probe was instituted to
identify the killers of the carpet weaver and to determine whether it
was a murder by a provoked individual, as claimed by police, or
assassination by conspirators or the 'carpet mafia' as alleged by the
BLLF.
Concluding the proceedings on Monday, the judge read out a letter
addressed by the Swedish Bonded Labour Liberation Front from Stockholm
to the Chief Justice of the Lahore High Court complaining against the
inadequacy of the inquiry. It specifically pointed out that the lawyers
were allowed to ask only three questions while cross-examining the
witnesses and that the issue of Iqbal Masih's age was not given the
importance it deserved.
Justice Khwaja said it was he who summoned the witnesses otherwise no
one was coming forth to assist the inquiry. The BLLF and the Carpet
Manufacturers and Exporters Association did not join in the probe.
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950801
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Rabbani regrets Pakistan's silence over his proposals
-------------------------------------------------------------------
*From Anjum Niaz
KABUL, July 31: Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani on Monday regretted
Pakistan's silence on his proposal for establishing a joint commission
to resolve bilateral misgivings that were marring relations between the
two "brotherly" countries.
"Last March, at the ECO summit, I suggested to Prime Minister Benazir
Bhutto to set up a joint-commission which would explore and examine in
detail the problems cropping up between us and Islamabad," President
Rabbani told a select group of Islamabad-based journalists here at
Gulkhana Presidential Palace.
In a rare interview with the newsmen, the Afghan President also deplored
Pakistan's move to invite Sardar Wali, the son-in-law and nephew of
former King Zahir Shah. "It is the same man who says he will collect a
laskhar and attack Kabul. How can your country support such a person?"
questioned Mr Rabbani, who refuses to step down despite the expiry of
his term last December.
President Rabbani said he was looking forward to the visit of foreign
minister Sardar Assef Ahmed Ali starting this Thursday. However, it
appears Pakistan's latest peace initiative for Afghanistan has run into
trouble even before it's beginning with the arrival of foreign minister
Sardar Assef Ahmed Ali in Kabul as not only President Rabbani, but his
Prime Minister Ahmed Shah Ahmedzai and foreign minister Najibullah
Lafrie do not favour the idea of Sardar Assef travelling to Mazar-i-
Sharif, Herat and Kandahar from Kabul.
"We warmly welcome the foreign minister to Kabul. Let us first hold
discussions on issues of mutual concern. We will then decide whether
there is a need for him to go to other parts of Afghanistan," Mr Rabbani
said. Sardar Assef has announced his plans to meet Rabbani's foe,
General Dostum in Mazar-i-Sharif and the Taliban in Kandahar.
Earlier, Prime Minister Ahmadzai told Dawn that Pakistan and Uzbekistan
were the two countries interfering in the internal affairs of
Afghanistan. "Uzbekistan is supporting General Dostum, while Pakistan is
supporting Gulbadin Hikmatyar." In an emotional tone, the American-
educated engineer who belongs to Prof. Siyaf's Ithad-i-Islami said:
"Pakistan supported us during the jehad, but we never expected our
brothers to support the opposition which is destroying our country," he
said.
According to him, there was a conspiracy against the Islamic state of
Afghanistan and Islam. "Our enemies do not want Islam to prosper in
Afghanistan", he added. At the newly renovated room in the Foreign
Office, which only three months ago had been destroyed by shelling from
Hikmatyar's forces, Afghan foreign minister Lafrie, while responding to
Dawn's question about Indian interference and Pakistan's allegations
that New Delhi was supplying military aid to Kabul, said: "While we are
a sovereign country and nobody has any right to object to our friendship
with other countries, I still want to make it very clear that
Afghanistan has not received any assistance from India."
Decrying "negative propaganda appearing in Pakistani Press", the Afghan
foreign minister took pains to explain: "Except for us buying 50 tons of
tea from India, we have not got anything else from there."
Later, when this correspondent asked President Rabbani regarding his new
peace proposal submitted to Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Iran recently,
the serious-looking Rabbani went to great details explaining its
mechanics and the reasons for its success. About the UN peace plan being
pushed by Ambassador Mahmood Mestiri, President Rabbani said:
"Mr Mestiri has no formula to offer. In such an event, the UN should
adopt our plan."
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950802
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Kashmir issue hurdle in SAARC way
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Bureau Report
ISLAMABAD, Aug. 1: Sri Lanka's Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar said
on Tuesday that the Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan was
preventing SAARC from realizing its full potential as a regional
economic power bloc.
Speaking at a press briefing, the minister urged both India and Pakistan
to "put aside the Kashmir issue for the moment and let SAARC grow".
Appearing extremely careful in replying to questions relating to Kashmir
and the ongoing violations of human rights by Indian forces he said that
he did not want to give any "judgmental opinion" on Kashmir. Reiterating
Sri Lanka's official stance he said that the Kashmir dispute should be
resolved according to the terms of the Simla Agreement.
Answering a question he said that the time to "formally raise" bilateral
contentious issues in SAARC had yet not come. Pointing out to the SAARC
charter which specifically ruled out the raising of such issues he felt
that doing so at this stage "would only prove counter productive as both
India and Pakistan have adopted very rigid stances for the present". He,
however, opined that a lot could be achieved meanwhile by the holding of
"flexible discussions on thorny issues in an informal manner, like
discussions in the Council of Ministers".
He added that, The whole world is changing and if is only a matter of
time before India and Pakistan are also touched by the wave and then
that would be the time to change the SAARC charter to include discussion
of bilateral disputes. That would also be the time when SAARC will
witness a real boom and emerge as a formidable economic force of the
world".
He also cited the emergence of the SEPTA trade agreement as a
significant achievement of SAARC. So far five member countries have
already signed the agreement while the remaining three, India, Pakistan
and Bangladesh have signaled their intent to sign on the dotted line
before the coming tenth anniversary of SAARC.
Answering another question on the recent Serb actions in Bosnia, he
said: "We abhor the unspeakable cruelty being inflicted on the Muslims
by the Serbs in Bosnia". To another query he replied that although his
government had not adopted any formal position on the subject but he
felt that there was no moral justification for the continued unilateral
arms embargo against the Bosnian Muslims. "The Muslims must be allowed
to buy arms and defend themselves", he said.
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950802
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Internet service for computer users
-------------------------------------------------------------------
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, Aug. 1: A local company has started on-line Internet services
for computer users in Pakistan which is the first venture of on-line
internet link by any company here.
Mr. Arif Iftikhar, Country Manager, Digicom Pakistan said that computer
users could now connect to the Internet through Digicom's head office in
Karachi and the Company was offering on-line e-mail as well as other on-
line Internet services to computer users.
Explaining the present of-line e-mail available in Pakistan, he said
that it was a store and forward mechanism and a user's message has to
wait for hours on the service provider's computer before it is sent to a
user on the Internet, causing unnecessary delays.
The service is operational in Lahore, Islamabad, Peshawar and Faisalabad
and efforts were under way to bring on-line services to these cities in
the near future. Tariffs will be discounted at the PTC rates for users.
===================================================================
===================================================================
950728
-------------------------------------------------------------------
US loses textile quota case against Pakistan
-------------------------------------------------------------------
*From Shaheen Sehbai
WASHINGTON, July 27: The United States has lost its textile quota cases
against three countries in the Textile Monitoring Body of the World
Trade Organisation (WTO), clearing the way for Pakistan to file a
similar case against Pakistani quota cuts by the US.
Thailand, Costa Rica and Honduras have won their case against similar
quota cuts in Geneva-decisions which the US Commerce Department
officials were waiting for to decide whether to cut Pakistani quotas.
"We now hope that the US would desist from cutting Pakistani quotas, but
if they do, we have to immediately go to the TMB," a spokesman for
Pakistani exporters said in Washington on Thursday.
The US side had indicated that a decision about the quota cuts would be
taken in two weeks time, apparently after the decision in cases filed by
Thailand and other two countries was available.
Talks between Pakistan and the United States had failed to break the
impasse two weeks back as the US side indicated that it may go ahead to
cut 45 percent of Pakistan's bed linen quota for circumvention of third
country laws.
The US negotiators had refused to accept evidence produced by Pakistan
that the product exported to the US through Bangladesh had not
originated in Pakistan.
Pakistani officials had claimed that evidence showing that Pakistan did
not export cotton to Bangladesh and the grey cloth which was exported to
Bangladesh was a man-made fibre which did not fall into the category for
which the circumvention laws had been invoked had been disregarded by
the US.
Experts now say the US will have to produce evidence in the TMB that
Pakistan was actually responsible for exporting the raw material for
products that were exported by Bangladesh.
"We will produce all the evidence but the US side could not substantiate
their claim that 700,000 pieces of bed sheets were actually made in
Pakistan and exported through Bangladesh," the official said.
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950731
-------------------------------------------------------------------
WB, Japan advise against Chashma
-------------------------------------------------------------------
*From Ihtashamul Haque
ISLAMABAD, July 29: The World Bank and the Overseas Economic Co-
operation Fund of Japan have told Pakistan that the viability of the
Chashma Nuclear Power Project has changed owing to initiation of new
power projects in the public sector and the Ghazi Brotha project.
According to the Review Mission, "the Chashma Nuclear Project is not
part of the least cost solution for meeting Pakistan's electricity
requirements. Moreover the prospective demand environment for this
project has changed with the success in attracting new private power
investments and the initiation of the Ghazi Brotha project, raising
doubts about its commercial viability, even on sunk-cost basis (about
one-third of the estimated total project cost will have been expanded by
the end of 1994-1995). There are also environmental and safety concerns
which need to be taken into account. And Pakistan has been advised that
the Chashma 1,and 2 projects, costing Rs.30.5 billion should not be
considered as high priority investment. "The two small Chashma projects
are also not considered high priority investments and therefore should
not be included in the Core Programme".
The recommendations of the World Bank and the OECF of Japan's Review
Mission sources added, seems to supplement the view often expressed by
the advocates of the Pakistan's nuclear programme that the enthusiastic
response of the American investors as evident in the signing of large
Memorandum of Understanding (MoU's) was in fact designed to derail
Pakistan's nuclear programme.
The 1995-96 PSDP for WAPDA includes Rs.4.8 billion for the Chashma
Nuclear Project, Rs.20 million for exploration of uranium, Rs.25 million
for the Reshun Hydro project and Rs.3 billion for rural electrification
The Review Mission also recommended that instead of pouring huge amount
of funds into Chashma Nuclear Project the government should provide
Rs.2.5 billion (including Rs.1900 million in foreign currency) for rural
electrification during the current financial year.
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950731
-------------------------------------------------------------------
US officials to study joint ventures
-------------------------------------------------------------------
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, July 30: Key officials of Duff & Phelps Credit Rating Company
of the US are scheduled to visit Pakistan early next month to explore
the possibilities of launching a joint venture private credit rating
company.
Currency Pakistan Credit Rating Agency (PACRA) is the lone credit rating
firm operating in the country and if the Duff & Phelps form a joint
credit rating agency here it would be the second one in the country.
According to Vital Information Service (VIS)-a corporate research firm-
they are also likely to be a partner in the proposed joint venture
credit rating agency.
"Duff and Phelps Credit Rating Company is recognised world-wide as a
major credit rating agency providing sovereign and corporate credit
rating services," a VIS Press release said on Sunday.
"D & P has been attracted by VIS which has made worthwhile research
efforts for the capital markets of Pakistan," the release said adding
that apart from VIS some other leading financial institutions were also
likely to be equity holders in the D & P proposed joint venture in
Pakistan.
The financial and capital markets of the country are likely to get a
fillip with the formation of another credit rating agency as it would
make available locally the facilities for rating the sovereign risk in
addition to a wide horizon of corporate debt risks.
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950801
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Prospects of 2nd credit rating agency uncertain
-------------------------------------------------------------------
By Mohiuddin Aazim
KARACHI, July 31: While the US-based credit rating agency Duff & Phelps
looks for a joint venture in the field of credit rating in Pakistan,
uncertainty hangs over whether the market regulators would allow a
second rating agency coming in within less than one year of the
launching of the first rating agency.
"We do not really need a second credit rating agency in the near
future," said a Corporate Law Authority (CLA) official when asked
whether the CLA intended to allow another credit rating firm after
Pakistan Credit Rating Agency (PACRA).
"Let the first rating agency reach its break-even point...let the volume
of rating work grow to the extent where a second rating agency come in,"
he remarked.
PACRA Managing Director Javed Masud told Dawn his company was not averse
to the idea of the country having a second rating agency. "We would not
be wary about any competitor coming in," he said when approached by
telephone in Lahore.
Established in October last year, PACRA is currently the only credit
rating agency in the country and has so far rated four debt instruments
and two corporate entities.
"From the issuers viewpoint, it is certainly better to have more than
one credit rating agency," he said but hastened to add: "The pattern set
by many an Asian countries shows that the premier rating agencies have
been allowed sufficient time to reach their break-even point before the
doors were opened for others."
"India which is a far bigger economy than ours took three years to allow
a second rating agency come in," he claimed adding the first rating
agency in India was set up in 1988 and the second one in 1991. "Besides
such countries as Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia all more powerful
economies than ours-still have one rating agency each."
He said PACRA started rating exercises in February this year and had
carried out three ratings during the last six months and added that at
least 40 ratings a year would mean that the agency had reached its
break-even point. "Presently we have seven analysts each one of whom is
capable of carrying out ten ratings a year that puts PACRA rating
capacity at 70 ratings per year." The debt instruments so far rated by
PACRA include those of Packages Ltd., Sui Southern Gas Ltd., Nishat Tek
and LTV Modaraba.
Vital Information Service (VIS) Managing Director Faheem Ahmed said VIS
had established initial contacts with the CLA to convince them of the
necessity of having a second rating agency and added, "the D&P
delegation would meet CLA officials during their visit in the first week
of August and make presentations about their credit rating work."
VIS has been instrumental for the last many months to set up a joint
venture credit rating agency in collaboration of D&P and leading local
financial institutions.
Sources in VIS said the Asian Development Bank, Muslim Commercial Bank
and the Karachi Stock Exchange have agreed in principle to form a joint
venture credit rating firm in league with the D&P and VIS.
He said with the SBP having asked the Non-banking Financial Institutions
to go under mandatory credit rating "there is enough work to do which a
single credit rating agency may take a long time to clear. Besides, a
second credit rating agency would check monopolistic trend and create a
competitive environment in the field of credit rating."
He said although an understanding existed between D&P and VIP about a
possible joint venture no formal agreement has been reached at.
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950801
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Cancellation of contract of 2 Swiss firms demanded
-------------------------------------------------------------------
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, July 31: Mr S.M. Muneer, President, Federation Pakistan
Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) has urged the Government to
immediately cancel the pre-shipment inspection contract with the two
Swiss companies because the excessive over-valuation being done by them
was badly damaging the country's economy. Muneer cautioned that if the
over-valuation issue was not resolved at the earliest, he would be left
with no choice but to call All .Pakistan Businessmen Convention.
He said that both the Pre-shipment Inspection Companies have created
such a situation where all types of goods imported through regular
channels have become costlier and those smuggled into the country are
cheaper.
S.M. Muneer alleged that the working of both the PSI companies is 'anti-
Pakistan,' because they are causing severe damage to the interest of the
country. Due to over-valuation by the PSI companies, the cost of all
kinds of imported industrial goods, including raw materials have gone up
by 40 to 100 percent resulting in higher production cost, he added.
He said under such a situation the Pakistani manufacturers could not
compete in the world markets as their products have become costlier and
if the two PSI companies are allowed to operate the country's exports
would fall drastically.
The FPCCI chief said that initially the working of the PSI companies was
satisfactory but lately somehow they started declaring everyone in this
country to be 'dishonest' and invariably loaded each invoice from 40 to
100 percent in their Clean Report of Finding (CRF).
He alleged that the valuation of imported goods by PSI companies was so
high that even the supplier of goods in foreign countries were
perturbed, adding that USA and South Korean Chamber has lodged their
concern with the FPCCI in this regard.
He said that liaison offices of PSI companies in Karachi and Lahore do
not respond to the requests for reconsideration of the excessive
valuation given in the CRF.
He suggested that Pakistan should have its own valuation system and felt
that there was no dearth of skill and knowledge in the country to
implement it. He extended FPCCI's and other trade bodies full
cooperation to the government on the issue.
Muneer said on the instruction of CBR, the FPCCI last week extended an
invitation for a meeting to both PSI companies-Cotecna and SGS- to sort
out the problems being faced by the business community because of their
valuation system. He said that instead of accepting the invitation both
demanded a list of participants and the proposed agenda. Commenting on
the importance of the meeting he said, that apart from a member of
Customs, representative bodies of multinationals like Overseas Chambers
of Commerce and Industry and US Businessmen Council would also be
attending.
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950801
-------------------------------------------------------------------
1% surcharge on all imports
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Bureau Report
ISLAMABAD, July 31: The federal cabinet has imposed one per cent flood
relief surcharge on all imported items which are subject to sales tax
for six months to meet relief and rehabilitation requirements of the
flood-affected people in the country the surcharge will be withdrawn
after six months. No figure was put forward to the amount the
government was expecting to get from this surcharge.
The cabinet also decided to open sub-branches of the Prime Minister's
relief fund in all the four provinces. The fund has already over Rs 500
million in it and with further donations from the well-to-do, the
cabinet hoped the requirements of relief and rehabilitation would be
sufficiently augmented. To raise additional resources, the cabinet
decided that special stamps and coupons would be issued to involve the
general public.
Information Secretary, Mohammad Akram said the ministers, members of the
National Assembly and Senators would contribute their one month's pay
towards the fund while the government employees would contribute towards
the fund according to their grades.
Asked whether the government would accept foreign aid for the flood-
affected people, the information secretary said: "Humanitarian
assistance from foreign countries wil1 be welcomed."
The cabinet also constituted a committee, headed by deputy chairman of
planning commission, to review and oversee the relief operations and for
formulating and implementing infrastructure restoration and
rehabilitation projects.
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950801
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Bill to amend Forex Act cleared
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Bureau Report
ISLAMABAD, July 31: The federal cabinet on Monday approved a draft bill
to amend the Foreign Exchange (Prevention of Payments) Act 1972, to
delete clauses which were repugnant to Quran and Sunnah.
These clauses have been deleted on the recommendations of Council of
Islamic Ideology (Cll).
The clauses proposed to be deleted through the draft bill empowered the
government to withhold from the declared amount portions due from the
repatriator to any person or authority who had claims against him. The
proposed amendment wil1 s also take away from the government the power
to instruct the adjudicating officer to grant priority to any particular
claim in case there were more than one claimant.
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950729
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stock Exchange : Rally on optimism over Govt-MQM parleys
------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Mohammad Aslam
STOCKS staged broad rallies during the preceding week on heavy covering
purchases spurred by optimism about the success of one-going peace talks
despite some snags and a market talk of an agreement between the
government and the Mohajir Qaumi Movement (MQM) to restore normality in
the city.
The Karachi Stock Exchange index of share prices showed a hefty rise of
about 68 points at 1,723.80, consolidating well above the psychological
barrier of 1,700, which could well be the launching pad for the onward
run-up. at the last weekend it was quoted at 1,656.46.
Thus, an air of optimism prevailed all around the rings and those who
could precisely peep into the future were active buyers at the current
levels in bank, energy and cement shares and might not be losers.
But leading investors were not inclined to jump to conclusions about the
peace talks and decided to keep to the sidelines until Monday, although
they covered positions on the safe areas.
Floor brokers said technically the market is ripe for a grand rebound
and what it needs now is peaceful atmosphere, without killings.
Institutional traders were active but on selected counters and until
there was general shortcovering at the current lower levels any
technical rally might be inconclusive, they maintained.
Bulk of the support, therefore, again remained centred around the
current favourites under the lead of Faysal Bank, which proved to be the
most active scrip,
"The index could gain though progressively about another 300 points in
due course provided there is a peace agreement," most floor brokers
believe.
"The market might witness a new buying euphoria at the current lows
after the deal," some others said. Analysts said the market has other
positive corporate stimulants on which it could rely but its current
demand is elimination of violence and peace.
The market advance was led by the bank shares, leasing among them
showing broad rallies on heavy covering purchases at the current lows.
Askari, al Towfeek, Crescent Bank Citicorp, Bank of Punjab, Atlas Bank,
Bears Stearns and some others being among the top gainers.
ICP, SEMF and LTV Modaraba were among the leading gainers in the
modaraba section, while Askari and Union Leasing led by the advance in
the leasing group.
Much of the activity in the insurance sector was confined to ALICO which
after a weak start managed to finish partly recovered but off the best
level of well over Rs. 50.
But other insurance shares fell under the leading of Adamjee Silver Star
and Union Insurance, although Raja Insurance rose.
Textile shares were again neglected, on news of problem on the export
front owing to falling yarn prices and so did sugar shares despite
reports of substantial export business.
Heavy buying in Dewan Salman, which rose appreciably featured the
trading in the synthetics where all other active also rose amid active
deals.
After a weak start cement scrips came in for active support and rose in
general, major gainers among them being Cherat, Dandot, D.G. Khan, Fecto
and Pakland Cement.
Energy shares showed two-way movement on reported rolling of position
from one counters to the other Mari Gas, National Refinery, Nishat Tek
and some other rose but Shell Pakistan fell.
Hub-Power among them remained centre of activity moving either-way and
so did auto shares barring Honda atlas, which rose followed by news of
good production results for the last year.
All the transport shares were actively traded under the lead of PTC
vouchers followed actively by PIAC, PNSC and Tri-Star shipping on
various positive news.
Chemicals, however, did not follow the market's general line of action
as some leading among them. remained under pressure under the lead of
Wellcome Pakistan, Pakgum, Ciba-Geigy, and Reckitt and Colman.
Parke-Davis, ICI Pakistan, Engro Chemicals, Searle and some other rose.
Other big gainers were led by Security Safe Deposit company after the
news of management change and a right issue, Lever Brothers, Universal
Leather, Cherat Paper, Saif Textiles 4th ICP and Hino Pak Motors, which
showed good gains at the fag-end of the week on heavy covering
purchases.
Volume soared to 58 million shares from the previous week's 39.249
million shares owing to heavy short-covering in most of the current
favourites at the current lows.
Faysal Bank led the list of most active, accounting for well over 18
million shares followed by PTC shares, which was relegated to the
secondary position. Hub-Power, Askari Bank Dewan Salman and Dhan Fibre
followed.
LTV Modaraba burst into activity over the week after several months
relative quietness on strong buying followed by PIAC, Lucky Cement,
Maple Leaf Cement, Bankers Equity after the news of its privatisation
and so did Sui Northern.
Other actively traded shares were led by Bank of Punjab, Genertech,
KESC, Century Paper, and Pakistan Synthetics.
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950803
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Taiwan imposes anti-dumping duty on Pakistani yarn
-------------------------------------------------------------------
By Parvaiz Ishfaq Rana
KARACHI, Aug. 2: After completing investigations initiated against
spinners and exporters about 9 months back, the Taiwanese government in
its final decision has proposed imposition of anti-dumping tariff of
5.60% on Pakistani yarn.
According to reports reaching here, on completing findings based on the
questionnaire issued to 13 spinning mills late last year, Ministry of
Finance, Government of Taiwan has proposed punitive duties in the range
of 1.4 to 5.60 percent on these mills.
The decision conveyed to the legal advisors of the All-Pakistan Textile
Mills Association (APTMA), in Taipei and transmitted to Karachi on Aug.
1, 1995, further stated that Ministry of Finance and Ministry of
Economic Affairs, have also proposed to slap a maximum anti-dumping duty
of 5.60 percent on all the other Pakistani manufacturers and exporters
of cotton and cotton mixed yarn of metric count 14 - 52 (English count 8
to 31).
Before these punitive duties are made effective, the Ministry of
Economic Affair, Government of Taiwan will give another opportunity on
Aug. 15, 1995, to both the sides i.e. Taiwan Textile Industry
Association (TTIA) and the Pakistan manufacturers and exporters
represented by APTMA, to give view points in their defence.
After hearing both the sides, according to Taiwanese laws approval of
the Custom Duty Committee would also be needed to bring the anti-
dumping duties into effect.
The Pakistani spinning mills have been penalised with the following
duties: Shahpur (1.43%), Ramzan (1.63%), Din (4.50%), AlAzhar (3.25%),
Gulistan (1.24%), Gulshan (nil), Ghazi (5.60%), Kohinoor- (2.90%),
Mahmood (4.77%), Arain (5.60%), Crescent (5.60%) and Fateh (5.60%).
The dumping duty sought by the TTIA was of the order of 50% and the
period under investigation was from May 1, 1994 to Oct. 31, 1994. The
annual export of all types of yarn to Taiwan during 1994 was about $ 145
million.
The proposed punitive duties of the Taiwanese government coinciding with
the Japanese decision to go ahead with the anti-dumping duties on yarn
imports from Pakistan from Aug. 4, send shock waves in the textile
circles who strongly believe that this could prove a fatal blow to the
crisis-ridden industry.
The industry circles are highly critical of the manner the government
handled the Japanese issue of anti-dumping and are of the opinion that
had the matter taken up at higher political level, there would have been
no punitive duty.
Requesting anonymity a spinner said: 'The government seems to have no
time to look into the problems faced by the country's manufacturing
sector which contributes over 60% in revenue to the rational exchequer
but it was always ready to assist landlords and feudals who hardly pay 1
percent in taxes.'
Having no diplomatic relations with Taiwan, he said, Pakistan does not
have a chance to take up the issue at international forums such as WTO
which was possible in the Japanese case.
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950729
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Business & Financial Week
------------------------------------------------------------------------
~The International Finance Corporation (IFC) will provide $40 million to
three leasing Modarbas for enhancing their lending capability.
~The government's target of $ 531,65 from earnings from tourist may not
materialise owing to the volatile law and order situation, in addition
to the closing of the Chamman and Torkham borders, according to sources
of the Ministry of Tourism.
~The federal government has allowed exporters to obtain guarantee of
Rs.1 million for pre-shipment financing from the Export Credit Guarantee
Scheme of the Pakistan Insurance Corporation.
~A special programme has been chalked out for the modernisation of
surgical units at Sialkot. This was recently stated by a source of the
Export Promotion Bureau of Pakistan.
~The Middle East Trade Fair 1996 is to be held at the Dubai World Trade
Centre next year from February 25 to march 2.
~The Punjab Labour and Manpower Secretary, Mohammad Khalil Bhatti has
said that poverty was the main cause of child labour and economic
inequality adding that factors like burgeoning population, lack of
educational facilities and ignorance had further aggravated the problem.
~Banana production in Sindh rose by 108.57 percent, from 27,783 tonnes
in 1993 to 49,605 tonnes in 1994, a development which officials
attribute to better crop management.
~Cotton growers experts, and traders are certain that thus far, the
recent rains have had a very beneficial effect on the cotton crop. A
joint survey of around 100 sick textile mills is being carried out by
the governmental agencies and Aptma to ascertain the correct and factual
position as regards the plants physical condition and the machinery.
~Recovery from community and social services in the Punjab is almost
one-eighth of what the government spends on them, according to official
sources.
~The government has just borrowed Rs 9.365 billion from banking
institutions, mostly government-run banks.
~The government has decided to import pulses worth $10 million on
account of an impending shortfall of 1000,000 reliable sources said
recently.
~Malik Abdul Rehman Khar, Punjab Minister and Chairman Punjab Small
Industries Corporation, said recently that 16 new industrial estates
would be establishes under a phased programme at the district level to
promote industrial growth.
~The Oil and Gas Development Corporation (OGDC) has worked out a Rs 8
billion investment programme for 1995-96 including Rs 3.7 billion in
foreign exchange.
~Labour Minister Ghulam Akbar Lasi said recently that remittances from
Pakistanis working overseas reached $ 1.5 billion last year as against
$1.3 billion a year earlier.
~Local manufacturers of paper and board have increased prices by Rs
3,000 per tonne, justifying the step on grounds of the "recent surge in
gas and electricity tariffs".
~The privatisation of the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines may be delayed by
six months to a year because of massive political appointments made
during the last nine months.
~Beijing recently debunked a compromise bill on China passed by the
House of Representatives as "Gross interference", demanding Washington
to take concrete measures to prevent the passage of the bill in the
Senate.
~Russia and Libya recently signed trade and technical co-operation
accords recently worth $1.5 billion, including Russia's help for Libya's
embargo-hit industry.
____________________________________________________________
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===================================================================
===================================================================
950728
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Give and take, yes, but also a sense of urgency
-------------------------------------------------------------------
*From the editorial column
THE Prime Minister is right when, in referring to the talks with the
MQM, she says that in politics dialogue means a bit of give-and-take.
She is also right in trying to dispel the impression of any deadlock in
the talks which are now to be held once again on the 31st of this month.
Indeed, there is nothing very strange if in negotiations over something
as admittedly complicated as the situation in Karachi, one side or both
seek clarifications of the other's negotiating stance. It is equally
true, however, that dialogue should not mean stonewalling, playing for
time or seeking to find out the meaning of relatively unimportant
things. The present hiatus in the talks would not have amounted to
anything if there was not already a gulf of mistrust between the two
sides-the government and the MQM. Given the existence of such a gulf,
the first prerequisite for anything to come out of the current talks is
the creation of a climate of trust and understanding, an objective which
will scarcely be advanced if there are any more breakdowns and if Mr
N.D. Khan and Mr Ajmal Dehlvi, representing respectively the government
and the MQM in the talks, once again enter into a semantic debate over
the meaning of the words 'deadlock' and 'difficulties'. The situation in
Karachi is too serious to be treated in a cavalier fashion. Both sides
must, therefore, show a greater sense of responsibility than they have
hitherto been able to do. They also must show a greater sense of urgency
because negotiations cannot be dragged on forever unless, of course, no
one is interested in a solution.
As far as creating a better climate is concerned, it would also help if,
somehow, the interior minister, General Nasirullah Babar, could be
persuaded to desist from some of the statements he is so fond of making.
Whether his obiter dicta do any conceivable good is extremely doubtful.
But that they raise suspicious thoughts in minds already predisposed to
think the worst of the government's intentions is fairly certain.
General Babar would be doing the nation a favour if he could control his
utterances about the situation in Karachi at least until the duration of
the talks.
The matter of calling the MQM the Altaf Group rather than by its proper
name (understandably a sticking point with the MQM) is also something
which defies belief. The MQM is the MQM, otherwise there would have been
little sense in the government talking to it. Besides, if the MQM was
just a group and not a mass organisation which has Karachi in its
thrall, the country's largest city would not have been facing its
present crisis. It is worth no one's dignity to make this point an
issue. There is another matter which we would also like to touch, albeit
somewhat gingerly. As long as the talks continue and there is some hope,
however tenuous, of something coming from them, there might be wisdom in
going slow with the mopping-up operations being conducted by the
security forces in various parts of Karachi.
Admittedly, the maintenance of law and order is a permanent
responsibility in which there can be no breaks for any reason. But
considering the poor law and order record in Karachi not only over the
last several months but the last several years, there ashould be no harm
in laying the heavy stick aside if doing so should help improve the
climate in which the talks are being conducted. Above all, however, it
is the Prime Minister as chief executive of the country who must provide
the impetus for the talks to succeed. It is for her to ensure that the
talks do not again get bogged down in semantics and that the larger
objective-bringing peace to Karachi-remains before the two sides when
they sit again across the negotiating table.
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950731
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Women in Parliament
-------------------------------------------------------------------
*From the editorial column
THE agreement in Islamabad between three major political parties to
revive the reserved seats for women in parliament will be widely
welcomed. Of course, it will have to be seen whether the accord is
honoured by the top leadership of each party and if endorsed, how
promptly and smoothly the process of amending the Constitution is
instituted. The Aurat Foundation, an NGO working for the welfare of
women, did a good job in bringing the major parties which together
command a two-thirds majority in the National Assembly on a common
platform on this issue. The move could not have been more timely. Ever
since the constitutional provision for reserved seats for women in the
National Assembly lapsed in 1990, Pakistan's women have been denied
their share of representation in the legislature. Unfortunately, the
factors which prompted the authors of the 1973 Constitution to provide
for reserved seats for women have not changed and women have yet to
enter the national mainstream in a big way. Although they are now
joining various professions in larger numbers than before, they are
still relatively unrepresented in politics, the election of a woman
prime minister notwithstanding. This has negative implications for women
in all sectors of life because their point of view often fails to get
any attention at the decision making levels.
Admittedly, the representation of women in parliament world-wide is
generally low. Of course, in the Scandinavian countries where women
enjoy a high status they hold 42 per cent of the total seats (as in
Sweden). But at the other end of the spectrum are Muslim states like
Kuwait and the U.A.E which do not allow women to vote, let alone seek
election. The conference of women parliamentarians from Muslim countries
which is opening in Islamabad on Tuesday will perhaps deliberate on this
sorry fact. But Pakistan's case is in a way more deplorable because it
is probably the only country where the number of women MPs has declined.
It fell from 24 in 1988 to a negligible four today. The ratio is the
second lowest in South Asia, after Bhutan which has no female
legislator.
One does not really have to argue the case for greater representation of
women in parliament because the need for this is widely acknowledged. In
fact, all major political parties in the country both in the government
and in the opposition-had promised in their election manifestos to
restore the reserved seats. Their failure to do so until now underscores
their propensity to capitalise on the issue for political purposes. Each
has been seeking a quid pro quo for agreeing to a package of
constitutional amendments which would include the women's seats
question. Now that they have agreed to separate this issue from the
package, one can hope that the matter will not be delayed much further.
Since this question has been thrown open to debate, new ideas have come
up for consideration from women activists, constitutional experts and
politicians. Some have questioned the wisdom of a system in which the
women MPs were elected indirectly. It was believed to have robbed them
of their independence as they owed their elections to male legislators.
Others have suggested direct election of female MPs by women voters,
which could prove as outlandish an idea as that of minority MPs being
elected by the voters of their own community. Rather than experimenting
with some fanciful ideas, it has been wisely decided to revive the old
arrangement with the addition of nine reserved seats for women in the
Senate which did not exist before.
The objective should be to induct a larger number of women in politics
and law-making so that the input of their ideas, views and concerns
enriches the parliamentary process. Women should also be enabled to
enter local bodies by reserving seats for them in those institutions;
their impact would be greater at that level. Political parties should
also be encouraged (maybe required under an amendment in the Political
Parties Act) to field more women candidates in elections on general
seats than they do at present. The ANP in South Africa promised to have
50 per cent women on its list of candidates in the 1994 elections. As a
result, 25 per cent of MPs in South Africa today are women without
having any seats reserved for them. Until more women enter the political
mainstream, reserved seats for them will remain a prime necessity as
well as a vital nudge in that direction. Now that an agreement has been
reached on the issue, the government should make haste with the
necessary preparation for moving the Parliament on the question of
restoration of women's seats.
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950802
-------------------------------------------------------------------
What it takes to break the stalemate
-------------------------------------------------------------------
*From the editorial column
EVEN if wisdom does not grow on trees, and even if it be not given to
everyone to eat its fruits, the plea that we would make in the context
of the current impasse in the talks between the government and the ;MQM
is not for anything, extraordinary but for ordinary, everyday wisdom.
Why did the MQM side fail to show up for the talks on the 31st in
Islamabad? For reasons that sound shockingly pedestrian if set against
the enormity of what is at stake in the continued turmoil in Karachi. In
asking the government that it should be called by its proper name the
MQM is not demanding any strategic concession. How right is Mr. Amjad
Dehlavi when he says that if the government was so interested in holding
talks' with the Altaf Group,: then it should hunt out this animal
wherever it could be found. And to think that while Karachi cries out
for some relief from the anguish and pain from which it suffers, what
was supposed to have been the current round of talks has floundered on
the rocks of this semantic absurdity.
No one should compromise on principles but then in politics as much as
in everyday life one should be able to see the difference between a
principle and a mountain which has been raised out of a molehill. What
strains belief furthermore is the government's disdainful attitude
towards both the spirit of the talks and towards the MQM in that even
when MQM spokesmen were proclaiming from the housetops that their side
would not appear for the talks unless the issue of its name was settled,
the government still felt not under the slightest compulsion to contact
the MQM. This is no way to conduct any talks. If we may say so, this is
also no way to conduct the business of the state. Either the government
is serious about the current talks, in which case it should don the
mantle of maturity and realism. 'Or it is playing for time, in which
case there is no point in going on with what would then amount to a
charade.
This is not to say that the MQM is floating on a sea of purity. It too
has blinkers on its eyes, something which can be gauged from the
sweeping and uncompromising nature of some of its demands. But in this
dialogue of the deaf and the blind it is the government which has by
far the greater responsibility to see that matters are settled with the
MQM and a modicum of peace is brought back to a virtually embattled
city. This is not a small objective and it will not be gained by a
small-minded approach. Even if the MQM is guilty of allowing a spirit
of maximalism to color its approach to the talks, it is for the
government, as the embodiment of the state and the Pakistani people, to
soften the rough edges of the MQM's demands, so that a crisis whose
shadows are looming over the entire country is thereby resolved. But
this it will only succeed in doing if with wisdom (admittedly a
commodity in short supply) it is able to add a measure of generosity.
In this connection, there is no point in disguising the harsh reality
that a recourse to the stick as a means of pacifying the MQM has come to
a sticky end. All the more reason therefore, for the government to be
committed to the success of the talks with the MQM because no
alternatives are on offer. Even now it is not too late to pick up the
threads of this tattered dialogue provided the government makes a
distinction between strategy and tactics. No one will blame it if it is
firm as regards the first. But regarding the second it should be
infinitely flexible.
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950728
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Child labour: Hoodwinking will not help
-------------------------------------------------------------------
By Dr Zareen Fatima Naqvi
RECENTLY the government made a rather ridiculous announcement on the
issue of child and bonded labour in Pakistan. According to the official
sources reported in the newspapers on July 23, 1995: "The menace of
child labour or bonded labour no more exists in Pakistan. Pakistan
stands distinct in implementing recommendations of ILO to the extent
much more than several developed countries. The propaganda against
Pakistan is aimed at hampering the country's efforts to boost exports,
particularly from the cottage industry like hand-woven carpets."
In explaining the recent child labour controversy in the carpet
industry, the government sources said: "The carpet industry in the
country has now been working totally free of child labour. The carpet
manufacturers have themselves decided not to hire child labour in carpet
manufacturing since they have realised that skilled labour alone can
help them compete in the international markets." In explaining the
motives for the negative propaganda on child labour, the official said
that. "In order to divert attention of world opinion from gross
violations of human rights in held Kashmir, anti-Pakistan lobbies are
trying to confound to spoil efforts of the government of Pakistan at
international forums in highlighting the situation in held Kashmir."
To say that child labour and bonded labour has been eliminated in
Pakistan is totally wrong. This is a typical reaction from Islamabad
i.e. to deny the problem and call it Indian propaganda. The governments
officials should do better than make such ridiculous and wrong
statements. Instead they should come up with a sensible and serious
strategy to deal with this important and humanitarian issue in Pakistan.
According to estimates, there are approximately 10 million child workers
in Pakistan (source: The Child and the State in India and Pakistan, OUP
1995). One does not have to look far to find examples of children
working in workshops, shops, restaurants and as domestic servants in
houses. Children work in industries like, engineering, metallurgy,
dyeing and weaving, cement, match-making, fireworks and explosives,
soap-making, and also in predominately export-oriented industries such
as carpets, garments, leather, sports goods etc., Many of these children
work in extremely hazardous occupations, for long hours for a fraction
of adult wages. The use of child labour is mainly in the unregistered
and the informal sector. In the registered units in manufacturing and
services sectors, there may be better compliance with child labour laws,
but there are serious anomalies in the laws themselves. There is not
even standardisation in the definition of a child worker where the age
of a child is defined between 12 and 18 years. To state that Pakistan
complies with ILO recommendations in child labour, as quoted by the
official source, may at best be true for a very small segment of the
workforce in the large-scale manufacturing and services sectors.
There may be some truth that anti-Pakistan forces have used the child
labour issue to malign Pakistan in the international arena. This was
especially true in the Iqbal Masih murder case, where the Bonded Labour
Liberation Front (BLLF) accused the carpet industry for the murder,
whereas independent inquiry by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan
and other government sources found the claim to be unfounded. The Indian
carpet industry and NGOs raised the issue of child labour abuse in
Pakistan in relation to this case. But it is the Western media, labour
groups, NGOs and governments which have taken up this issue at a much
serious level than the "propaganda" from across the border. The
cancellation of carpet and sports goods export orders for alleged child
labour abuse have come from the US, Germany, Australia, the UK, etc.,
The recent removal of "guest of honour" status at the Comptoir Suisse
fair has come from Switzerland. It is not India but our major trading
partners who will hit us where it hurts most on this issue.
To think that the issue of child and bonded labour would go away in the
near future is just myopic and wishful thinking by our government. If
"the US government and international opinion makers had expressed their
satisfaction over Pakistan's record with regard to bonded labour" this
year, it does not mean that this issue will not reappear in the future.
There are powerful reasons for this thorny issue to remain on the
horizon. The changing global economic scenario is generating strong
pressures for all countries to maintain or gain competitiveness in
international markets. The slow economic growth and unemployment in the
US and European Union countries has led to demand for protectionist
polices, particularly from strong labour unions and industries that
compete with developing countries' exports.
On the other hand, the latest round of GATT agreements and establishment
of World Trade Organisation (WTO) is likely to change the rules of the
game in world trade. Whereas the dominance of the North in world trade
has been somewhat diluted by agreements such as the phased removal of
MFA, better market access and trade in services, and so on, at the same
time, agreements on intellectual property rights, phytosanitary and
environmental standards, anti-dumping, etc. have given the developed
countries the card to practise more covert forms of trade discrimination
against their rivals in the South. Although child labour laws are not
part of the GATT/WTO agreements now, it is quite likely that they may
become part of international trade agreements in the future. It is also
possible that in reaction to the perceived losses in traditional areas
of dominance in world trade, the developed countries, and even
developing countries with good record on child labour, may discriminate
against our exports in the future. These are just a few external reasons
why this issue has to be dealt with sensibly and expeditiously.
It is unfortunate that we now have to deal with child labour problems in
reaction to Western trade and media pressures. Ideally, we should have
taken up this issue because child and bonded labour is a denial of
rights of children. It impairs their health and growth. It denies
children access to education and limits their horizons. It not only
harms the child but has serious negative consequences for society as a
whole.
What should be a good strategy to deal with the problem of child labour?
Firstly, in order to grasp the extent of the problem we need to get some
hard statistics on the existence of child and bonded labour in Pakistan.
To my knowledge, a few localised surveys have been conducted by NGOs but
no national survey has been undertaken.
One reason why the Indian carpet industry was able to exploit the Iqbal
Masih case to its advantage was because they are way ahead of us in
combating this issue.
The Indian journal Margin (October/ December, 1994), recently reported
the results of a survey conducted in the carpet belt of Uttar Pradesh
with the collaboration of the carpet industry and government. The survey
found almost no decline in the incidence of child labour in the carpet
industry, but it did find increase in literacy levels of the child
workers, reduction in average working hours and an increase in average
age. This has been attributed to the implementation of sensible
government regulation regarding child labour. The Indian carpet
producers seem to have realised that unless these measures are taken,
they will suffer losses.
Compared to our competitors, the Pakistani carpet industry seems to be
clueless on many aspects of child and bonded employment in their own
industry. The recent measures which have been initiated to deal with
child labour in Pakistan-7 years rigorous imprisonment for hiring
children, vigilance committees, public awareness campaigns and
invitation to foreign NGO's to court hearings of Iqbal Masih case-seem
too ineffectual compared to those of our competitors.
It has to be realised that child labour is a symptom of poverty. In many
reported surveys of children in developing countries, a sizeable
percentage state that their incomes are critical for their family.
The moralistic element in the Western reaction to child labour has to be
dealt with squarely. Reading the history of child labour in many
developed countries, one finds that it was not eliminated overnight. As
relative wealth of nations increased or their expansionist role became
important, Western countries started viewing children as investments or
assets and notions of compulsory education and elimination of child
labour became acceptable. In several countries, religious groups adopted
the goal of compulsory education as a means to salvation. For example,
the idea that deluder Satan kept people from learning the Scriptures led
to the passing of the Old Deluder Satan Law in Massachusetts in 1647.
While one has to counter the moral high ground from which the Western
pressure groups often approach the child labour issue, one has to
generate domestic awareness and get on with taking action on this front.
Denying the problem or hoodwinking it will not help at all.
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950728
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Money
-------------------------------------------------------------------
By Ardeshir Cowasjee
SCOTLAND, land of Sir Walter Scott, land of highlands and lowlands, is a
beautiful country inhabited by Scotsmen who more than appreciate the
value of money. Once upon a time Scotsmen built very fine ships, and
they still distil very fine whisky.
I lived in Scotland for some time whilst our good ship, 'Ohrmazd', was
being built in Burntisland on the Firth of Forth, and I learnt a lot
from the dour Scots. Whenever I ended an argument with my shipbuilders
by telling the managing director, Howard Johnson, that money, money,
money was all he talked about all the time, that money was not every
thing in life, his answer would be, "Ay lad, money may not be everything
but it runs a very close second to whatever comes first."
Apart from money being an item of necessity, it is also an extremely
sensitive commodity, and it can fly away with the greatest of ease as it
recently did from Mexico. It always seeks safety, and those lending or
investing naturally wish to remain assured of the credibility and
solvency of the borrower. As an illustration of its sensitivity, I quote
from The Times of July 22: "Many strange events move stock markets-but
few stranger than a moustache. When Poland's charismatic President Lech
Walesa returned from holiday earner this month, his exuberant facial
trademark had gone. "Nervous aides aware of how fickle the investment
community can be-they move funds in and out of countries on far flimsier
pretexts-warned him of the dire consequences. Poland has to compete
against rivals such as the Czech Republic and Hungary to attract inward
investment, and much of it comes from the UK.
"A clearly relieved aide told Weekend Money yesterday, 'The official
version we are giving out is that the President inadvertently cut his
moustache very short when he was on holiday. But now he has agreed to
grow it again and it is progressing well.'..."
This speaks volumes for the necessity and benefits of 'damage control'.
Where were our damage control mechanics when the deputy speaker of the
Punjab Assembly informed the Press the other day that were Benazir and
Chattha to appoint a donkey as chief minister it would have his support?
Benazir and Chattha undoubtedly smirked with self satisfaction at this
declaration and the deputy must now be hoping to be rewarded for his
loyalty by being promoted to speaker. However, such a remarks is not
likely to enhance the stating of our government in the eyes of any
foreign banker or investor.
Another case in point: on July 8 in Kuala Lumpur our Prime Minister told
the international Press that the turmoil in Karachi would have no effect
upon the rush of foreign investors bent on investing in Pakistan, and
that "Karachi unrest won't hurt Pakistan." Three days later, on July 11,
this news item appeared in the American Press:
"Moody's Investors Service has lowered the foreign currency debt rating
of Pakistan to B1 from Ba3. As a consequence, the rating on the Republic
of Pakistan's $150 million Eurobond issue due December 1999 has been
downgraded from Ba3 to B1.
"Moody's said that recent economic policy slippages suggest a lack of
commitment to the reform process agreed with the International Monetary
Fund and other official creditors which may weaken anticipated financial
support. In addition, continued unrest in Karachi, the country's
financial centre, represents an impediment to political stability as
well as economic activity and exports. The violent confrontation in
Karachi is also likely to have long-term negative implications for the
potential foreign investment that is crucially important for the
development of the country's infrastructure."
The fact that the Bond issue was not fully subscribed when floated at
the end of 1994 and that the underwriters had to act as the undertakers
did weigh with Moody's.
This investor's service rating is highly regarded in the wealthy world
from which all us unfortunate poor seek dole. It rates country risks,
banks, companies and individuals. The categories of rating are finely
tuned, each category having its own gradation. The long-term foreign
currency debt rating is bifurcated in two, the investment grade and the
speculative grade. The investment grade starts at Aaa which has the top
rating of (1) and it goes all the way down to Baa3 rated at (10). The
speculative grade starts with Bal at (11) and descends to C at (19).
A reading of Moody's detailed rating definitions may enlighten our
financial men (many of whom may not even have heard of Moody's):
Aaa: Bonds which are rated Aaa are judged to be of the best quality.
They carry the smallest degree of investment risk and are generally
referred to as "gilt-edged." Interest payments are protected by a large
or by an exceptionally stable margin and principal is secure. While the
various protective elements are likely to change, such changes as can be
visualised are most unlikely to impair the fundamentally strong position
of such issues.
Aal to Aa3: Bonds which are rated Aa are judged to be of high quality by
all standards. Together with the Aaa group they comprise what are
generally known as high-grade bonds. They are rated lower than the best
bonds because margins of protection may not be as large as in Aaa
securities or fluctuation of protective elements may be of greater
amputated or there may be other elements present which make the long
term risk appear somewhat larger than the Aaa securities.
A1 to A3: Bonds which are rated A possess many favourable investment
attributes and are to be considered as upper-medium-grade obligations.
Factors giving security to principal and interest are considered
adequate, but elements may be present which suggest a susceptibility to
impairment some tune in the future.
Baal to Baa3: Bonds which are rated Baa are considered as medium-grade
obligations (i.e. they are neither highly protected nor poorly secured).
Interest payments and principal security appear adequate for the present
but certain protective elements may be lacking or may be
characteristically unreliable over any great length of time. Such bonds
lack outstanding investment characteristics and in fact have speculative
characteristics as well.
Bal to Ba3: Bonds which are rated Ba are judged to have speculative
elements; their future cannot be considered as well-assured. Often the
protection of interest and principal payments may be very moderate and
thereby not well safeguarded during both good and bad times over the
future. Uncertainty of position characterises bonds of this class.
B1 to B3: Bonds which are rated B generally lack characteristics of the
desirable investment. Assurance of interest and principal payments or of
maintenance of other terms of the contract over any long period of time
may be small.
Caa, Ca, C: Poor standing, poorer standing, extremely poor prospect.
At the end of last year, Pakistan was rated at Ba3 (13) in the lower
speculative grade. It has now been downgraded to B1(14). In simple terms
this means that money, each dollar, will now cost us more. There is very
little water under our keel. In comparison, the other half of our once
whole, India, still remains rated at Baa3 (10), in the higher investment
grade.
Unbelievably, we do not have a fully dedicated finance minister. Our
minister for tourism, sports and culture, for the environment, for
communications, for health, is our prime minister. Additionally, though
completely innocent of state finance, she heads the finance ministry and
is aided and abetted by a nodding minister of state and a handful of
advisers specially chosen for their ability to acquiesce.
The sycophants must realise that the economy cannot be sustained by mere
propaganda and by those billions of dollars worth of non-performing
promises, the MoU's. They should remember the shameful part played not
so very long ago by their brothers- in-crime in neighbouring brotherly
Iran.
The oleaginous well-heeled grovellers of Iran first persuaded King
Mohammad Raza Pahlevi (installed upon his throne by the Western powers),
that he was not only a king but the King of Kings, the Shahinshah. Not
satisfied, they convinced him that he was the Emperor of the Iranian
Empire, the Aryameher. It did not stop there. They further convinced him
that he was the spiritual heir of Cyrus, the great Achaemenian. Spurred
on, the born-to- rule Shah, his family and cronies enriched themselves
at the expense of the kingdom and its impoverished people. Not one
transaction could be completed without them all claiming their huge
cuts. Vast amounts of money were stolen, squandered, and whisked away.
By divine right, the country was plundered and raped.
When finally 'The Shadow of God on Earth' fell and died, out of the
1,648,000 square kilometres over which he had ruled his body was not
accorded even two square metres of land in which to rest.
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950729
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Singapore solution
------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Mazdak
IN ancient times, a messenger who had the misfortune to bring bad news
to the king was often killed. Since this role has now fallen to the
media, it is journalists who face the sovereign's wrath for reporting
ill tidings.
After Zia's stranglehold on the Press was loosened on his death,
Pakistan's print media has made remarkable progress. Indeed, we can
boast of some of the liveliest and freest publications in the Muslim
world. Benazir Bhutto can claim much of the credit for this as her first
government removed a number of restraints, including newsprint quotas,
the system of Press advice, overt bribery through government advertising
and the demeaning necessity for journalists to obtain No Objection
Certificates from the information ministry before they could travel
abroad.
The requirements for starting a new publication were also simplified,
and many journals that appear today owe their existence to that period
of glasnost. Although many in the PPP partly blame the Press for their
government's untimely removal, in retrospect, it merely gave the
Establishment one more excuse to carry out a decision that had already
been taken. But during her time in the opposition, the print media
served Benazir Bhutto well, as sympathetic journalists supported her and
her party, countering the barrage of propaganda churned out by a captive
radio and TV, as well as by Nawaz Sharif's paid hacks.
This time around, however, the liberal instinct is clearly missing in
the government's attitude towards the Press. Journalists are kept at
arm's length, and the emphasis is on media management and spin control
rather than on openness and easy access. Poor governance and rumours of
corruption have dogged this administration since its earliest days;
indeed, this is true of all recent governments in Pakistan.
For whatever reason, the PDF government regards the liberal Press as an
adversary. For their part, independent journalists have continued doing
their job which is to expose and comment on corruption and inefficiency
in high places. However, government media managers have never understood
that this adversarial role is central to the working of a free Press in
a democracy. For this, our information ministry functionaries can be
excused because their resentment and dislike are shared by their
counterparts across the world, although they are often better concealed.
In Malaysia and Singapore-two countries with very tightly controlled
democracies-the local Press functions under severe restrictions. And
when the foreign media step out of line, the governments try and control
them through a variety of methods. For instance, The Economist of London
was banned for months in Singapore a year or so ago for its critical
reporting; it has been allowed to return after a compromise was worked
out whereby the weekly has agreed to publish the government's point of
view where it disagrees with a report or comment printed in the
magazine. Malaysia threatened to stop doing business with British firms
after the government was accused of corruption in the media in England.
This ban was lifted after members of the British government appeased the
Malays.
Insofar as legal action is taken against publications that deliberately
distort the truth, the government is well within its rights. But a clear
distinction needs to be drawn between straight reporting and political
comment: the former purports to present the facts whereas the latter
expresses an independent view on the situation as it is perceived by a
columnist. Without claiming a licence to distort the truth, I would
suggest that the world over, columnists express their opinions-often
jaundiced and occasionally biased- to make a point without necessarily
wishing to harass or hurt.
One reason the government has chosen to sue publications in foreign
courts is the perception that our libel laws are deficient and our legal
system dilatory. Indeed, I know of nobody who has sued a newspaper
successfully in Pakistan. There is a clear need to strengthen
legislation relating to defamation and character-assassination, and to
speed up the legal process. Alternatively-or in parallel-a Press Council
comprising editors, publishers and journalists can act as a kind of
media ombudsman attending to complaints of distortion and libel.
Hearings could be held in a specific time-frame, and if it is
established that an individual or an institution has been unjustly
defamed by a publication, a full apology would be printed. Short of
naming an anonymous source, the onus of proving that it was justified in
running an article or a news item that caused offence would rest with
the editor. This provision would encourage journalists to exercise due
care about facts before rushing to print. The matter of contempt of
court has caused much controversy because this is such a poorly defined
legal area. Some judges have been more sensitive of any breach of their
dignity than others, so the entire issue has become subjective, varying
in interpretation from one bench to another. This has caused
considerable confusion among reporters and columnists because one report
or column can get away with implicit criticism of a judge or judgement
while another causes the editor and publisher to be hauled up before an
offended bench. Clearly, some guidelines need to be laid down so the
Press knows where it stands. However, it must be added that our higher
judiciary should keep in mind that by and large judges in other
democracies very seldom take shelter behind, contempt laws, permitting
their conduct and judgements to be freely discussed and criticised in
the media.
The public's need to know must outweigh considerations of privacy and
dignity within the bounds of decency and national security. This is the
essence of a democratic dispensation, and without it, the Press cannot
play its role of a watchdog. It is not always easy to strike a balance,
but we have the example of other democracies before us. The important
thing to remember is that irrespective of which government is in power,
a free Press will be in an adversarial relationship with it. This is the
name of the game, and frankly, it makes for a livelier Press. Apart from
these mundane considerations, the public has certain expectations from
the government of the day which-in a developing country like Pakistan -
cannot be met.
Even in the unlikely event of our getting a clean and efficient
government, the gap between unmet needs and scarce resources will
continue to yawn, thus ensuring the presence of a hard core of
discontent. In addition, journalists tend to be an irreverent lot who
delight in deflating pompous public figures and in digging out dirt in
high places. Thus, those in power will always feel that a section of the
Press is "out to get them." This paranoia results is knee-jerk reactions
like the ones we have been witnessing recently. But politicians would do
well to remember that the very Press they try to muzzle when they are in
power gives them space and sympathy when they are in the opposition,
ignored or reviled by the government-controlled electronic media.
In short, for Pakistan, the Singapore solution is no solution.
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950730
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Genesis of the crisis
-------------------------------------------------------------------
By Mushtaq Ahmad
THE nerve-racking violence that has wrecked the peace and tranquillity
of Karachi over the past six months, and in the process virtually
paralysed the economic life of the entire country, is an unprecedented
phenomenon. The death toll is sufficiently large and the injuries far
too many to permit a lesser description than bloodbath. The plight of
the population could not be allowed to continue any longer without
causing widespread consternation and chaos.
A New Yorker is proud of his city and so is a Parisian of Paris and a
Londoner of London. But the citizens of Karachi, or for that matter of
Pakistan, have to hang their heads in shame for the tragic happenings,
which have made life in the metropolis a nightmarish experience. the
city of breezes for which a bright future was forecast by the Quaid has
almost relapsed into a state of anarchy, reminiscent of the state of
nature before its progression into civil society when the war of each
against all had ceased.
We cannot boast of getting ready to enter the twenty-first century with
a Kalashnikov culture. In the age of new technology which has wrought
miracles in the world of science, the progress mankind can achieve in a
short span was unheard of in the centuries we have left behind. To keep
pace with the march of time, Pakistan cannot afford to waste its
energies on debating outworn concepts and fighting over lost causes.
What we have witnessed was the very definition of barbarism, we claim to
have banished from this earth, fourteen hundred years ago. Ours was a
message of peace and not a battle cry for mutual destruction.
Lord Bryce after visiting the subcontinent in the old colonial days had
observed that from the time he landed on its shores till the time of his
departure, wherever he went he smelt nothing but gun powder. Perhaps
more lives have perished from the gun powder in the countless bullets
that have been fired than in an equivalent period of time in civil
society by both sides. The air of the city is still thick with its
deadly poison. How far will be crucial dialogue between the parties will
fulfill the hopes of a return to normality is too early to predict.
Neither of the parties to the conflict should, therefore, aim at
protracting the negotiations for extracting the maximum advantage out of
the bargain. Power is the immediate end of all politics, but its
ultimate end is the well-being of the masses which alone justifies the
existence of the state.
Exploiting popular grievances is its very essence. The PPP knows it
better than any other organisation, since it rose to power on the crest
of mass discontent both in the Ayub era and the Zia period. To the fact
of dictatorial suffocation and the denial of basic rights to the
population, Mr Z.A. Bhutto and Ms Benazir Bhutto had owed their
electoral victories. Implicit in their triumph was the popular
expectation of relief from tyranny and remedy of the ills from which the
people have perpetually suffered. No party has either the monopoly of
patriotism or political wisdom to hold the key to the solution of
problems that beset society. If it had, parliamentary government would
be a meaningless exercise in governance. Besides, no party, however
inspiring its manifesto and programme, can honour its commitments to the
electorate if it makes compromises with entrenched vested interests to
perpetuate its stay in power. With the support of these elements the so-
called government of the people soon tends to degenerate into a
government of a coterie or a class.
Both the father and the daughter were unable to perceive before their
assumption of power the difficulties they were certain to encounter
during their tenure. Such is the geographical distribution of electoral
power in Pakistan that every government at the Centre is more concerned
with nursing the most populous province at the cost of the smaller
provinces, not equally blessed with natural and manpower resources.
Karachi in particular was more neglected-not the city as such but a
large segment of its population, barring the affluent class living in
luxury, while the rest wallow in the mire of squalor and poverty. True,
it is not the heartland of the country, but it injects the life blood
into the veins of the hinterland. On it the people as a whole had a
rightful claim. The denial of that claim was a crime against the state
and society. The government had a moral responsibility to organise the
country's productive mechanism and distributive machinery on the
principle of equitable sharing so that no class or community suffered
from a sense of deprivation.
Politically Karachi was a No-Man's Land which had rich raw material for
a new and young leadership to exploit. The Mohajir Qaumi Movement led by
Altaf Hussain, though highly localised, was not without its impact on
national politics, which, too, was not free from provincial mores and
motivations. The strength of the mainstream was itself sapped by many
diversions and deviations.
Leaders of several major parties, though parochial in outlook, made a
pretence of being national in attitude when in power and out of power
did not form part of national politics. Whatever its bias, the MQM did
not have a national base. Its localised orientation, however, did not
prevent it from operating on the national plane through alliances with
other parties, not excluding the PPP, and including the IJI of which the
Nawaz Muslim League now professes to be the successor. Like the other
organisations, the MQM also played politics to gain its political
objectives although it was not a class party in terms of leadership and
following. Its real strength came from the refugees living in 'kacchi
abadis' to whose problems of rehabilitation Bhutto's socialism had
offered no solution.
Following in his footsteps Benazir was also preoccupied with Punjab.
There, she had a formidable challenge to face from Nawaz Sharif who had
the province firmly under control by dint of his overwhelming majority
in the provincial legislature. Pitted against the Centre, he was
determined to use it as a lever to dislodge its occupant.
Only through politics of accommodation and policies of welfare could
Benazir hope to retain an otherwise precariously held office. Wooing
members of the National Assembly by offers of ministerial bait and
official patronage was not the answer. Initially describing themselves
as independents, the MQM members were closely knit members by their
inflexible loyalty. The PPP should have in its own interest aimed at
cultivating its leadership or winning over its following by a planned
effort to redress its grievances in the matter of housing and
employment.
Reluctance to share power was her innate weakness. Benazir could not act
like her father who had a decisive mandate and the refugees in his time
were not politically organised. To make enemies of potential friends was
the surest way of eroding her power base, of which her political foes
were waiting to take advantage. That is what Nawaz Sharif did in coming
to terms with Altaf Hussain, although between them not much love is
lost. Instead of bringing the MQM into its fold, the policies of the PPP
were aimed at driving it into the arms of the Opposition.
Violence breeds more violence, of which the deprived and the
dispossessed innocents are the inevitable victims.
The Prime Minister was right in her recent assertion that the government
cannot provide jobs to all the unemployed but to deprive them of their
legitimate share in the administration must necessarily generate a
feeling of deprivation and create a condition of confrontation. While it
is the duty of the government not to permit defiance of law, it is also
its primary function to create a climate of confidence under which
defiance does not take place. Otherwise, violence will breed more
violence.
It is beyond the capacity of any government to restore peace by
resorting to force. Peace can be restored only through a policy of
conciliation. Discrimination originates from discontent and discontent
is a prelude to protest, whose ugly manifestation we have been
witnessing for quite some time. It is time to think of the
reorganisation of the outmoded social order in the country as a whole.
In Karachi, the government can cash its cheques in the voting bank, if
it starts promoting the interest of the voters who have been alienated
by the lack of interest in their welfare.
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950731
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Islamabad Diary : Back to the promised land
-------------------------------------------------------------------
By Ayaz Amir
I HAVE to express my sincerest thanks to Dr. Humayun Khan, former
ambassador and foreign secretary, who by making it possible for me to
get a grant from the Commonwealth Foundation in London, which he heads,
enabled me to spend three delightful and most useful months in Oxford as
a Reuter Fellow.
I have known Dr Humayun Khan since our time together in Moscow where he
was minister in our embassy and I a very green third secretary. But
since our relationship there was far from cosy or intense, may I, in all
modesty, attempt to reject the impression that the offer of a grant to
me was due entirely to the workings of nepotism, a national
characteristic whose pervasiveness lends so much charm to the art of
living in Pakistan.
My thanks also to the Cowasjee Trust (at the mere mention which, I am
all too aware, the judicious reader will be inclined to think of the
old-boy network again) which provided me with a grant for the purchase
of books during my stay abroad. I have indeed brought back a collection
of books - mostly some delightful editions of the Greek classics - which
should add lustre to my meagre library. To that extent I can claim to
have justified the faith put in me by the Trust. But in all honesty I
must confess that a portion of this grant, albeit a minor one, went also
into a rather sustained investigation of the arcane workings of the
flourishing brewery trade in England. Being men of the world, the
guardians of the Trust would perhaps forgive this lapse on my part, even
if it was committed against their express instructions.
And now to the task of explaining what useful bits of knowledge I might
have picked up at Oxford. There was no lesson that I as a Pakistani
found more relevant to our own national condition than that it is
possible for educated people to discuss and debate matters temperately
even if they happen to be in profound disagreement with each other. I
and my colleagues had many opportunities to listen to men distinguished
in their field who would deliver themselves of what they had to say and
then settle back calmly to listen, with the utmost attention, to our
often jejune observations or objections as if they were listening to one
of their peers. Let me give but one example in this regard.
Dr Norman Stone, Professor of Modern History at Oxford, and a man with
an international reputation, spoke at one of our seminars about the
prospects of democracy in Eastern Europe. To say simply that his talk
was dazzling is not to do full justice to it. In trying to explain to us
the characteristics of the Polish, the Hungarian and the Czech peoples
he dwelt on their past and the historic and social processes which had
made them what they were today. So revealing was the connection that he
drew between the past and the present that it was obvious even to a dull
observer that this was the way to understand any people: by bringing to
bear upon their present the weight of the past. When he finished there
arose a chorus of questions, few of them up to the level of what Dr
Stone had been saying. But throughout the one or two hours that he
attempted to answer our questions he gave the impression as if he was
imbibing fresh knowledge from us. Perhaps my observations in this regard
are adolescent in the extreme (for which the ready excuse I will offer
is that it was the first time I was at such a place as Oxford), but what
I am saying is not without relevance to our own state of affairs if we
only consider the one-sided shouting and the exchange of empty rhetoric
which passes for rational discourse in the halls and arenas of the
Islamic Republic.
Nor is this facility for rational debate confined only to the academic
world. One afternoon in the House of Commons I felt not a little
disturbed when in my mind I compared the sad shenanigans which regularly
punctuate our parliamentary life with the ability and the debating
skills on display in that chamber. On that particular occasion Michael
Heseltine had to read out a policy statement regarding a matter
pertaining to the Board of Trade (whose President he was before his
present elevation, after the recent Tory leadership contest, as deputy
prime minister). After he had finished there was a rejoinder, sharp but
friendly enough, from his opposite number on the Labour benches,
followed by questions from MPs who would stand up to make their points
only after being recognised by the Speaker. Almost all the questions
were brief and incisive and all put in the form of questions rather than
thundering statements as is so often the case in our own Assembly. Each
question would then be answered there and then by Heseltine whose
performance throughout the odd half hour that it took to wrap the matter
up was absolutely masterly.
I will say again that all this is very basic and hardly earth-shaking
stuff but coming from a different milieu and used to the noise and the
total idiocy of the political class in whose hands a blind Providence
has entrusted the Republic's affairs, I could not help being impressed.
And to think as one of the English journalists on the course with us,
Rob Shepherd, would keep insisting - that the intellectual standards
prevalent in British public life today were not what they were thirty or
forty years ago. If what I was seeing were low standards what must they
have been like in better times?
Twice a week over plentiful bottles of wine (such being the decadent
custom in that town of learning but a custom, I need hardly remind
anyone, which I as a devout person from these shores studiously avoided)
we used to have the seminars which I have already mentioned, presided
over with unfailing wit and charm by Godfrey Hodgson, distinguished
journalist and prolific author whose books are held in high regard, who
is the current Director of the Reuters Fellowship Programme. Again the
memory that remains with me of those rather hazy evenings (hazy because
even if I was sworn to follow the paths of piety, the other Fellows were
under no such constraint) is of conversation flowing easily from subject
to subject and of disagreements being expressed calmly and even
genially. If there was any misguided passion, more often than not I was
the source of it. At this point I cannot help mentioning the quiet
efficiency of Rosemary Allan, the Administrator of the Programme, who
kept everything together and for whom no detail was too small to handle.
By some of the Fellows with greater knowledge of these things than mine
I was also given to understand that Ms Allan's choice of provisions
which contributed to the festive atmosphere of our seminars was
invariably superb.
At the Oxford Union of which I became a temporary member I had the
priceless opportunity of listening for the first time in person to
Pakistan's last great hope for the future, Imran Khan, who arrived to
address the Union with the Lady Jemima and a handful of drooling
Pakistanis in tow. Dressed in a smart suit and with his height and good
looks he cut an impressive figure but what more, without upsetting his
admiring hordes, is there to say about him? There he was with his usual
routine about 'brown sahibs' and the virtues of native dress but beyond
that it was impossible for him to venture. If his minders like the
inevitable General Hamid Gul are still pinning their hopes on him, some
desperate measures on their part are called for to broaden the scope of
Imran Khan's public conversation. Still, it is a sobering thought that
he is the most talked about and photographed Pakistani in all the green
spaces of the United Kingdom. Which probably means that the modern
celebrity business is no laughing matter.
Some of the debates that I listened to at the Oxford Union, one of the
prime places where the skills of the English ruling classes are honed,
also filled me with despair. While the confidence and the ready wit of
those uppity under-graduates was something to watch I was left wondering
why none of those qualities had rubbed off on our own dazzling prime
minister whose portrait, as a former President of the Oxford Union,
adorns the walls of the debating chamber. Or perhaps they have rubbed
off only too well.
At the clever and quick retort - a quality to be found in abundance in
Oxford Union debates - Ms Bhutto remains a past mistress. But for
serious discussion or for the calm consideration of an issue which
requires even the slightest intellectual rigour (as anyone who has had
the privilege of watching her from close quarters will readily testify)
she has not the slightest ability. Apropos of which I feel like saying
that sending Pakistan's best and brightest to Oxford or Cambridge is a
waste of time and money. Forget about real learning the pursuit of which
is scarcely a Pakistani quality. All that Pakistani under-graduates are
pre-disposed to pick up at such places is an arrogance of manner for
whose acquisition, if we judge the matter calmly, there is hardly any
need to cross the seven seas, there being no shortage of home-grown
arrogance in the country. But there is another side to this matter as
well. If a list were drawn up of those favoured souls from these dark
spaces who have been to Oxford or Cambridge and who later have held
leadership positions in our land, it would become all too clear that the
sum total of their achievements, as opposed to the positive harm they
might have done, is pretty small. If the belated reformation of the
Pakistani political class is to be taken in hand (not, I fervently hope,
by the likes of Imran Khan) then sooner or later a law will have to be
passed forbidding any Oxbridge graduate (of course, excluding short-
termers like me) to have anything to do with the running of this
country.
Of course none of this is to denigrate Oxford or Cambridge which remain
great centres of learning. But the treasures to be found in them are not
for the scions of Pakistan's privilegentsia to discover. If I only add
that both President Farooq Leghari and Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto (to
say nothing of foreign minister Sardar Assef Ahmed Ali whom I meet off
and on at various parties in Islamabad) do I need to say anything more
to prove my point?
For a Pakistani these days, however, there is no escaping the sights and
sounds of the motherland, at least not for long. In my case too all that
it would take to bring me down from the ivory tower in which I had shut
myself up in Oxford was one look at the headlines of a Pakistani
newspaper. Bed news in the abstract is one thing but bad news tied
closely to our own inadequacies and to our own unique gift for short-
sightedness is something totally different.
Karachi, with whose sad affairs these headlines were full, by no means
represents an insoluble problem. But there is another way of looking at
it as well. When on my way home I arrived at Islamabad airport and put
my baggage on one of those juggernaut trolleys which decorate our
airports I was again close to despair. Is making or selecting a workable
baggage trolley so beyond the sum of our national ingenuity? When a day
later the Leh Nullah which runs through the heart of Rawalpindi again
overflowed its banks for the 40th time in the last 40 years I could not
help thinking that if the mastering of relatively simpler things is
beyond the resources of our collective wisdom, how on earth and from
where will we even begin to resolve the more complicated problems whose
insistent knocking can be heard at the several gates of our God-gifted
Republic?
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950801
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A tale of three cities
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By I. .A. Rehman
WE were sitting in Hyderabad, trying to understand how it was possible
for anyone to ignore the dignity of a fellow being-an exercise we have
not given up even after witnessing the limits of man's brutality. The
academic indulgence was interrupted when a haggard-looking boy, Karim,
walked in to seek our help in a real situation.
He had been trying for a whole month to secure the release of his elder
brother, or at least to ascertain his whereabouts. The latter's arrest
by the police had been witnessed by acquaintances but the police denied
that he was in their custody. Karim had been to each and every police
station in Hyderabad city. There was no record of any case against his
brother and his detention was denied by all station house officers.
Since it was common knowledge that persons taken into custody in
Hyderabad were often locked up in police stations in the adjoining rural
areas, Karim also went to a few police stations around the city.
Everywhere he drew a blank.
At last Karim found an SHO who admitted that his brother was being held
at a police station on the outskirts of the city. This gentleman even
volunteered to ring up the SHO concerned but after speaking to the
latter he told the hapless youth, "I am afraid you have to go and speak
to the officer concerned." Everybody knows what such negotiations mean.
Someone in the group quoted a senior police officer having once observed
that he could detain a person without producing him in a court for as
many days as the number of police stations under his control. All that
he had to do was to keep transferring the detainee from one lock-up to
another after every 23 hours or so and to keep finding new charges
against him. A more experienced colleague opined that this stratagem was
resorted to by weaker officials only. Real police officials could hold
their prey in detention for months at any police station they liked,
often in private premises.
In Karachi, a woman, Haseena, from the northern part of the city, was
not at all worried that her son, barely 20 and the sole breadearner in a
family of five, had given up his job as a taxi- driver and picked up a
gun. "He has become a Mujahid in the path of God," she calmly declared.
Haseena did not have a clear idea what her son was actually doing.
Sometimes he took the steering wheel of an automobile and transported
'Mujahideen' operating far away from Karachi, and sometimes he worked in
Karachi. She did not know who the 'Mujahideen' were and did not care to
find out. The boy often brought a gun home and had admitted to having
used it. He kept bringing in money for the family, not as regularly as
earlier but enough to keep the stove burning. The mother was faintly
aware that the boy could get killed but her faith told her that a
shaheed never died.
The tragedy Haseena fails to foresee has actually befallen Martha, who
lives in a high-crime area of Los Angeles. Her young son joined a gang
given to violence. One day, looking out of the window of her house she
noticed her son walking towards home. As he came close to the house, the
sound of gunfire was heard and the boy fell down, never to rise again,
obviously shot down by a rival gang. For days she was obsessed with the
idea of revenge. Then she gradually succeeded in sublimating her grief.
She found a kindred soul in Maria, who had given up her job when she
discovered that her daughter had joined a gang of killers, and who spent
two years on reclaiming the girl and securing her the joys of a happy
marriage, motherhood and peaceful living. Both the women became leaders
in a project called Violence Preventive Initiative.
This project is run by a community-based organisation and covers five
Los Angeles housing projects which are notorious for violence and crime.
It has been launched by a church but it has survived on local community
support. The project director sums up the initiative in a few words:
"We believe that violence is preventable. It takes a commitment by
everyone to look for positive solutions around jobs, education, media,
and recreational activities. When we all get serious about prevention
rather than incarceration, the tide will turn." The project offers the
youth, especially those who have been tempted into violence and crime,
facilities to study, to take part in sports, and to qualify for jobs.
And one can see the boys who have been cured of romance with violence.
It is not clear if we, in Pakistan, have realised that the roots of
violence in Karachi, or elsewhere, do not lie in the mind of the boy
with his finger on the trigger but in the minds of his elders. We have
state functionaries who, out of sheer cussedness, turn young persons, at
worst somewhat misguided, into criminals. We have parents and relations
who, in their misplaced zeal, condone violence committed by their wards,
and we have teachers and leaders who do not hesitate to use their
followers as gun fodder. Finally, a religion that had no church has been
monopolised by priests who issue licences to kill.
Is it impossible for the public-spirited men and women of Karachi-
academics, teachers, psychiatrists, senior citizens, businessmen, even
some level-headed clerics-to set up a few centres for offering the
therapy of love and hope to the young ones who have been pushed into the
alleys of hate and violence?
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950802
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A challenge for Pakistan
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*From Anjum Niaz
KABUL: Master strategist Burhanuddin Rabbani has struck again. In a
pre-emptive move, he has presented Pakistan with his own formula for
peace. He has also challenged Islamabad to provide proof of Kabul's
cosying up with New Delhi. With the ball now in his court, Foreign
Minister Sardar Assef will be on the defensive instead of the offensive
when he arrives in Kabul on Thursday. The cold war being fought through
the media between Kabul and Islamabad can only end with Assef
acknowledging Rabbani as the rightful leader of Afghanistan and
canceling his onward journey to Mazar-i-Sharif and Kandahar for meetings
with Dostum and Taliban.
Hiding behind UN ambassador Mestiri's plan, OIC initiative, Saudi Prince
Turki Al-Faisal's formula or accusing Kabul of receiving military aid
from India won't do. Plans now are history, accusations now sound
hollow. Because they have been overtaken by realities on the ground.
Four months after commander Ahmad Shah Masood trounced the Taliban and
Hizb-i-Islami, the beautiful but battered city of Kabul has bounced back
to life. People are returning home to bury the past and begin anew.
Despite no electricity and a daily night curfew, the resilience of the
residents is amazing. Alongside destroyed electric poles and dangling
traffic lights, walk women wearing the daintiest of shoes, sporting the
latest hairdo with flowing black skirts, chatting and laughing as if the
worst is behind them. Men and children move with a confidence which
spells freedom from fear. Gone are the days of gunfire, rocket rain and
heavily-covered female faces.
"I can put my head on the block and say that Kabul will not be under
military threat in future," a senior western correspondent who has
covered the three year old civil war told me. "Rabbani's enemies are far
and few...They are now left licking their wounds." Flags at six
embassies are fluttering high in the sky today: "Turkish, Egyptian and
the Chinese ambassadors are due soon," says Foreign Minister Najibullah
Lafrie. The UN has been told by him to shift its offices to Kabul from
Islamabad. His own foreign office is blooming with roses and a fresh
coat of paint. It is the same office which once had an abandoned look.
Lafrie has just returned with a commitment of support from Tehran. "The
Iranian promise to allow us sea passage and free access from Bandar
Abbas will soon materialize," he tells me. Pakistan's hold on Kabul
seems to diminish with this alternative sea route.
Even Uzbekistan, which is supporting the militia of Gen. Dostum in
Mazar-i-Sharif, now wants to mend fences with Rabbani. "We want to have
friendly relations with the Russians and the Uzbeks," says Lafrie,
adding that "the Uzbek foreign minister is visiting Kabul soon."
For Pakistan's foreign minister, Lafrie has a message: "Stop interfering
in our internal affairs. If you have any complaints against us then let
us sit down and talk about them," he says. "Pakistan alleges Indian
support to Kabul. What proof has Pakistan. Let us see it." The
expressionless face of President Rabbani suddenly lights up when Dawn
asks him to spell out his new peace plan. He wants a commission to be
set up comprising university professors, academicians, high court judges
and representatives from all the provinces including the opposition.
"This grand assembly convened by the OIC and the UN will appoint members
of parliament and draft a constitution." He even wants this assembly to
decide about a "national army". Anything which can prolong his tenure as
president of Afghanistan is acceptable to him, it appears.
Prime Minister Ahmad Shah Ahmadzai also wants to see an end to war and
continuation of Rabbani. "Fighting is not the solution. Let the people
choose their leaders through a loyal jirga.
But peace can never return to Afghanistan until Pakistan and Uzbekistan
stop interfering in our affairs," he says when pressed to name the
countries allegedly interfering. "have these countries forgotten our
sacrifices for Islam. We succeeded in driving out the Russians and
saved our neighbors from the cancer of communism. We liberated
Afghanistan at the cost of our blood. Today, instead of appreciating our
efforts, they are busy supporting our enemies."
For Sardar Assef, the Afghan prime minister has this advice:"Let us
resolve our differences. Pakistan is too precious for us." But on the
other hand, India is a friend, too. "We are an independent country. What
is wrong with receiving technical assistance from India?"
But Najibullah Lafrie denies receiving any kind of assistance from
India: "It is all negative propaganda by the Pakistani press," he says.
According to him, Kabul has only "bought 50 tons of tea from India."
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950802
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Cutting off your nose to spite your face
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By Tahir Mirza
LAHORE: There are some things for which there does not appear to be any
defense. The federal government's action in forcing Justice Qurban Sadiq
Ikram to relinquish charge as special judge for offenses in respect of
banks is one such action. Judge Ikram's contractual term as special
judge - his second such stint since his retirement from the bench in
1988-- was due to expire on October 15. On Sunday, he had granted
interim bail before arrest to Mian Sharif, father of the opposition
leader, and his two nephews. The bail is due to come up for confirmation
on Wednesday.
On Sunday evening, a message was received by the judge's office from the
law division of the ministry of law and parliamentary affairs requiring
him to proceed on leave for 78 days with immediate effect, the 78-day
period coinciding with the rest of his contractual term. The judge
relinquished charge and went on leave on Monday.
The fact that the judge's contract was in effect summarily terminated on
the same day that he granted bail to Mian Sharif is so stark and speaks
for itself so tellingly that any comment is perhaps unnecessary. No
explanation had been offered all Tuesday afternoon for the abrupt
action, and the legal profession would surely construe it as an attack
on the freedom of the judiciary, and it would be right. One can only
wonder at the growing indiscretion-probably the ruling party considers
it boldness-of the government in its dealings with the opposition and in
the process, its increasing readiness to trample underfoot accepted
principles of morality and good sense. It does not seem to be at all
concerned about the damage its conduct can inflict on democratic
institutions, already weak and under constant threat from forces
inimical to any kind of political progress. There is evidence also in
such actions of a mean streak which does not behoove a government which
claims to enjoy the trust of its electorate.
The government has already been targeted for attack for some of its
judicial appointments. Some of the opposition criticism on this account
could be described as politically motivated, and the government has
repeatedly declared its trust in and respect for the judiciary. But when
a judge is asked to go on leave within hours of granting bail to an
opposition figure, the criticism can only increase and assume validity
in the eyes of even neutral observers. The shabby episode involving Mian
Sharif's arrest a few months ago still rankles as a display of totally
unnecessary politically self-defending show of vindictiveness. Following
the latest move, statements from various retired judges have started to
come in, and more will follow. It is almost as if the government is
testing the patience not only of the opposition but of its own
followers, as if it is daring people to do what they can. The People's
Party is shooting itself in the foot, and it doesn't seem to realize it.
It is giving more and more the impression of having retired from
politics, and now being only in the business of governing-and of that
too it is making a mess all round. Surely it has bigger problems to
tackle, not least Karachi and the hiatus created in negotiation with the
MQM, than to spend on transfers and postings of judges who give bail to
opposition men. This would make a mockery of accountability, to which
surely many of those in opposition should and need to be held. If the
government considered the interim bail granted to Mian Sharif as legally
untenable, it could have gone in appeal or at least waited to see what
happened when the bail came up for confirmation.
Perhaps if there hadn't been so many allegations of wrongdoing on the
part of the government itself, if it had been universally perceived as
an honest and incorruptible government, it might have been easier to get
away with such steps without too many question being asked. In the
present circumstances, with the government's reputation low, they are
simply inviting trouble. It's cutting off you nose to spite your face.
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950803
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Gap between the poor & poorer
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By Kunwar Idris
KARACHI: Beset with internal problems of all descriptions and serious
proportions, Pakistan has simultaneously to contend with successive
indictments from the human rights organisations. The charge by the
Amnesty International that Pakistan tortures prisoners and maltreats
minorities has been followed by a lengthier accusation by the American-
based Human Rights Watch Asia of widely prevalent bonded and child
labour.
Thousands of children, Asia Watch has reported, are held in virtual
slavery and sexually abused in kilns, carpet and handicraft factories.
Children are born in bondage to work to discharge the debts incurred by
their parents. The bonded farm labour is sold like chattel. The sadder
part of the indictment is that the local authority generally colludes
with the masters or, at least, ignores the plight of the slaves.
Encouraging slave or child labour, it should go unsaid, is not a state
policy. Yet it is also well known that both are rampant and the state
machinery does nothing to stop it. In the national context it is not
viewed as a problem requiring a plan for its long-term eradication. The
assertion by a government adviser (Shahnaz Wazir Ali) that slave labour,
like beggary, is no more than a mere manifestation of poverty at large
might well be the explanation for any aberration or crime in society.
Poverty can never be made a justification for the degradation of human
soul or denial of freedom to those who are born into it.
If the crime is too widespread to be punished or the consequences of
checking it would be adverse to the very people it tends to
help, the least the state can do is to pursue economic and social
programme which would prevent the poor from being caught in its dragnet.
The policies as reflected in financial allocations have been,
unfortunately, to the contrary. Adult literacy in the country even by
the most lax standards is 35 per cent. In rural areas and among women
where the child and bonded labour are most rampant it may not be even
half that. (Incidentally it is comparable to the poorest country in the
world -Mozambique which has a precept income of $90 against Pakistan's
$430.
Yet the expenditure on education which was 2.7 per cent of the total
central expenditure in 1980 fell to 1.1 per cent in 1993. 0n health, in
the same period, it fell from 1.5 per cent to 0.4 per cent, on housing
and social welfare from 4.1 to 2.8 per cent. That is not the way to
break the shackles of poverty and ignorance. Malaysia to achieve today's
80 per cent literacy, increased the expenditure on education to 20 per
cent, on health to 5.7 per cent, on housing and social welfare to 11 per
cent.
The national policy in dealing with slave labour, both as an economic
necessity, needs to be given a direction supported by financial
resources. As a crime the local authority must not connive at it much
less protest its perpetrators. At national level, the policies should
aim at reducing poverty and ignorance which give rise to this despicable
practice, rather than exacerbate both.
The government legislation and machinery at the moment is all geared to
safeguard the rights and welfare of labour employed in large industrial
and commercial establishments.
The total labour force in the country is estimated at 35.68 million. Of
that barely 1.4 million, or four per cent, is employed, in the formal
sector organised into trade unionism and thus protected by the laws
governing wages, security of service, health cover, old-age benefits,
etc.
They have at their service a host of departments, a hierarchy of courts,
a national commission and conventions of ILO. The remaining 34.2 million
are left to be driven by fate or their poverty into the slavery of a
tyrant or, rarely, a benign master.
Our concern today is not the growing gap between the rich and the poor
but also between the poor protected by the state and a far greater
number of poorer still left to fend for themselves. The debt of a rural
parent equal to the monthly wage of a protected worker in a privileged
establishment like Pakistan Steel, KPI or a nationalised bank may
condemn their child to life long servitude.
The international human nights organisations like Amnesty International
and Asia Watch may be politically motivated even biased against our
values or culture but when they speak of oppression on the poor and
outcast we should sit up and pay heed.
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950803
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Whose Pakistan are we living in?
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*From M. Ziauddin
ISLAMABAD- Every Pakistani has his own individual perception of his
country, but while articulating this perception most would seem to agree
on a common vision that they call Pakistan. Yet, going by the recent
utterances and conduct of Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, opposition
leader Nawaz Sharif and MQM chief Altaf Hussain - all three critically
relevant to today's Pakistan - it seems as if we are living in four
different Pakistans.
One of Benazir and her hard-core supporters backed by the permanent
civil and military establishment; the second of Nawaz and his staunch
loyalists; the third of Altaf and his zealots; and the fourth the
fantasy that most Pakistanis who seem to have become totally irrelevant
lately, call their country.
Benazir's Pakistan is the same old entity which the successive civil and
military rulers have been trying to force down the throat of the
'natives' through the oppressive and sick instruments of governance left
behind by the departing British colonialists. Lately these instruments
have been further reinforced by the government controlled electronic
media. In this Pakistan the government has become synonymous with the
state and those who disagree with the government become anti-state and
'ghaddars'. In fact everybody who dares point out that the king is
without clothes, is branded a traitor in this Pakistan. And ruthless
administrative measures are used in this Pakistan to resolve political
crises.
Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan is the one in which he is the chief executive or
at least the warlord of Punjab. Without him as the prime minister there
is no Pakistan and without him controlling Punjab, there is no Punjab. A
Pakistan with Benazir Bhutto as the prime minister does not exist for
him. How can a ghaddar be the prime minister of his Pakistan? He is
still living in the Pakistan of Ziaul Haq in which Benazir was a
traitor and her party was a bunch of jiyalas. In his Pakistan, Benazir's
lot is that of an outsider living in London or Paris hounded by Hameed
Guls and Imtiazs.
Altaf Hussain's Pakistan is Karachi. In his Pakistan there is no dissent
or disagreement. In his Pakistan like in the Pakistan of Nawaz, Ms
Bhutto is a ghaddar and her party a bunch of blood-thirsty-Mohajir-
bashing-Sindhi-jiaylas. Every Pakistani, including the Sindhis, have to
learn Urdu to get a job at the national level in the fantasy that is
Pakistan, but in Altaf's Urdu-speaking Pakistan there is no place for
the Sindhi language in the province of Sindh itself. Altaf's Pakistan
has stopped in the time tunnel of the 1950's when the country used to be
ruled by the Aligarians and when the Aligarian network used to work
wonders like the Government College, Lahore and Aitchison College
networks work now-a-days. Before his advent, the people of his Pakistan,
that is Karachi were badly off. Now they are worse off but his zealots
seem to believe that they are reliving the pre-partition ordeals of the
1940s and look up at Altaf as their saviour come to the rescue of their
Pakistan. All these three Pakistan's naturally are incompatible with one
another. Therefore, a three-sided war of attrition is on among them
since 1988.
The civil and military establishment has changed sides, however, to suit
its periodic convenience. In 1988 it was against Benazir and her party.
In 1990 it threw its lot completely behind Nawaz and Altaf. But in 1993
it crossed over to Benazir and the PPP. The establishment's support is
very crucial for the combatants. Without its support, the PPP could not
last for more than 20 months the first time around. With its support
Altaf could rule his Pakistan without let or hindrance for 16 long
months which ended most ignominiously when the operation clean-up was
launched against the MQM by the establishment in June 1992. Nawaz, too,
lost the battle for his Pakistan when 10 months later the establishment
suddenly withdrew its support from him.
Their mutual hatred for Benazir and the PPP provides Nawaz and Altaf is
a common enough platform to join forces against her government. But the
fundamental differences that exist between the perceptions of the
respective Pakistan of the two obviate this possibility. More so,
because as long as Benazir and her party continued to enjoy the support
of the establishment, the chances of the two succeeding even by a joint
effort to obliterate her Pakistan are too remote.
The new-found love of the establishment for Ms Bhutto is being clearly
sustained by the fact that she is articulating the perception of the
country that the former has so lovingly nursed over the last 47 years as
if it is her own vision of Pakistan.
Those who seemed puzzled over the sudden deadlock in the MQM government
talks need only to compare the remarks of N.D. Khan who wondered the
other day why MQM was taking the matter of its being called Altaf Group
so seriously when the ruling Congress in India does not mind being
called Indira Congress and Nawaz does not mind his Muslim League being
called PML (N), with that of the late COAS, Asif Nawaz, who while
justifying his support for the MQM (Haqiqi) soon after launching the
operation clean-up, wisecracked in a BBC interview that when there were
so many Muslim Leagues in the country what was so bad about having two
MQM's.
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950801
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Akram and Mushtaq in the Counties
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*From Athar Ali
LONDON, July 31: Two Pakistani cricketers, Wasim Akram and Mushtaq
Ahmed, are proving to be the best ambassadors for their country,
according The Times which says that they are both very popular with
their own county teams.
Lancashire are so impressed by Wasim that they recently entrusted him
with team captaincy against Somerset and he led them to a 10 wicket
victory, keeping their hopes for county championship alive. The success
rate for Mushtaq, who plays for Somerset, is also very high. He is the
leading wicket-taker in the county championships and is a hardworking
player. Wasim, who was removed from the captaincy of the Pakistan team,
finds it "lot more fun" playing for Lancashire. He has, however, not
given up the hope of leading his country once again. "If Pakistan wanted
me to he captain again, I would be happy to do it", he said. But he
would do so only "if the circumstances were right". "We have a lot of
world-class players but there is a lack of team spirit and you cannot
expect to win without that."
Wasim said he has enjoyed playing for Lancashire more than ever this
year because he has given higher concentration and focused his mind
totally. He has taken 52 wicket at an average of 20 runs.
Mushtaq has taken 66 wickets this season for Somerset and has been
much in the news. His county director, Bob Cottam, says that he is
inspirational and has never shirked from the task. "He never gives
in". He was deeply hurt when dropped from the Pakistan side and wants
to take at least 100 wickets to prove his mettle. Mushtaq thinks that
he will once again earn his place in the Pakistan side.
Dawn Page