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DAWN WIRE SERVICE
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Week Ending : 13 July, 1995 Issue : 01/27
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The DAWN Wire Service (DWS) is a free weekly news-service from
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CONTENTS
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MQM
..........Demand for separate province if talks fail
..........MQM's 18-point charter of demands
..........Fresh demands voiced
..........Govt, MQM open talks on hopeful note
..........MQM puts, off two-day weekly protest
..........Beg praises MQM, flays elite class
Karachi
..........Korangi families flees as rangers, MQM men fight
..........Ex-councillor's death sparks off new clashes
..........Strike extended for 2 days
..........Ex-councillor dies in custody
..........11 shot dead in city violence
..........10 gunned down in city
..........City limping back to 11 normality
..........16 killed in city violence
..........Violence claims 11 lives
USA
..........US president seek formal approval on refund issue
..........US finds no proof of missile sale
PPP has no plan to oust Wattoo
Nawaz says he follows principles
Kabul again points a finger at Pakistan
Drug baron arrested in Quetta
Red-tapism may cost renowned ' artist's life
--------------------------------------
Recovery as political climate eases
Power rates raised by up to 21.5pc from today
Exports through third countries : Pakistan, textile talks begin
+++The Businesss & Financial Week
----------------------------------------
The clanging chains By Ardeshir Cowasjee
If the talks must succeed
'The prefix and the fix' A letter from Lahori
Wattoo at his wit's end Lahore diary
Wattoo in awful trouble From M. Ziauddin
Domino effect of corruption By Kunwar Idris
Can they ride the crest? By M.B. Naqvi
Power plant site shifted By A Correspondent
An Outpouring of talent By Muneeza Shamsie
Punjab electoral trends remain unchanged By Tahir Mirza
Jatoi prefers in-house change to fresh poll
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Politicians discredited in Pakistan, says Imran
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Demand for separate province if talks fail: Ajmal
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By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, July 10: The head of the MQM negotiation team, Ajmal Dehlavi,
said here on Monday that should the government-MQM talks fail, his party
would be forced to demand a separate province. However, "the MQM is
hopeful about the success of the talks", he added.
Speaking to a group of journalists at his office, the editor turned-
politician said he and other members of the team Tariq Javed, Qazi
Khalid, Shoaib Bokhari and Sheikh Liaquat Hussain were leaving for
Islamabad on Tuesday morning to hold "unconditional" talks with the
official team there.
The MQM delegation, he said, would initiate talks on its 18-point
charter which it had put forth a year ago. "Acceptance of these 18 basic
demands is the only permanent solution to the present crisis," he
declared.
Mr Dehlavi said: "The MQM is firm on its agenda. Not a point less, not a
point more will be acceptable to it. It will not bargain on the basic
agenda."
To a question, he said: "The give and take formula does not apply on
basic rights. Even if one point is left, the talks will be considered a
failure. However, priorities can be fixed which point should be
discussed first and which one later."
If an agreement were reached, he said, the formation of a time table and
constitution of a joint committee would be required to implement the
demands phase-wise within a fixed period.
He said the demand for a separate province would ultimately end on the
division of Sindh. "The division of Sindh will be inevitable as the new
province will be carved out from the present province of Sindh," he
added.
Mr Dehlvi said withdrawal of cases against the MQM leaders and workers
was the part of the agenda, but to have a share in the power in Sindh
government was not their demand.
"A commission comprising judges of the Supreme Court and High Court
should review cases against the MQM leaders and workers. And it will be
acceptable to the party," he added.
MQM chief Altaf Hussain, he claimed, called-off a day's mourning to pave
the way for the success of bilateral talks.
To a question he said: "If the ongoing operation against the MQM is not
stopped, its decision to observe twice-a-week strike will continue. If
it accepts MQM's six-point demands for which it had decided to observe
the strike, the party will rescind its decision."
Mr Dehlvi favoured a bilateral truce between the government and the MQM
for the success of the talks.
To a question Mr Dehlvi said: "One must not forget or ignore the fact
that the international media has swept away all geographical frontiers.
The world media is highlighting our problems at global level. Moreover,
religious and political parties have been exerting pressure on the
government to solve the problem through the dialogues, thereby providing
the opposition an opportunity to voice their grievances on equal basis.
In cases of the political parties of the past, their entire struggles
went partly unnoticed, at least on international level."
He went on to say "the 'powermafia' has realised the fact that the MQM,
which had undergone a severe three-year-long operation, could not be
crushed or eliminated.
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950712
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MQM's 18-point charter of demands
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By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, July 11: The 18-point charter of demands, which forms the basis
of Mohajir Qaumi Movement's entry into negotiations with a government
team in Islamabad on Tuesday, was submitted to the provincial government
last year.
The text of the demands, as released to the Press on June 4 1994, is as
follows:
1:-Operation Clean-Up directed against Mohajirs be discontinued
forthwith. All military and paramilitary-forces be withdrawn from
civilian areas.
2: Mohajir representation in the national and provincial assemblies and
Senate is well below their actual population. To ensure proportionate
representation of Mohajirs, the overdue census be conducted under an
impartial authority. The electoral boundaries in Sindh province be also
revised.
3: Mohajirs constitute about 50 per cent of Sindh's population but their
share in' the federal and provincial services is negligible. The urban
quota in federal and provincial services needs to be enhanced from '7.6
per cent to 9.5 per cent and from 40 per cent to 50 per cent
respectively on the strength of the population. The factual position is
that the representation of Mohajirs in federal and provincial services
is only one per cent and 15 per cent respectively. To meet this
deficiency of 8.5 per cent at federal level and 35 per cent on
provincial level, special recruitment for induction of Mohajirs be made
on emergency basis and due share of Mohajirs in the services be
maintained.
4: The spirit of democracy demands that all sections of population are
represented in the government. Therefore the position of the governor
and chief minister of Sindh be shared in rotation by Mohajirs and
Sindhis.
5: The urban areas of Sindh should receive proportionate share of the
federal and provincial funds for development.
6: All arbitrary administrative actions taken to suppress and subjugate
Mohajirs during the last two years be reversed. This particularly refers
to bifurcation of Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, creation of Malir
District and of Lyari Development Authority.
7: The repatriation of stranded Pakistanis from Bangladesh to Pakistan
be carried out without further delay.
8: Karachi Metropolitan Corporation, Hyderabad Municipal Corporation and
other municipal bodies be made autonomous to govern their affairs
freely. Similarly till elections for local bodies are held the
arbitrarily superseded elected local bodies be restored forthwith.
9: All employees arbitrarily sacked or removed from federal and
provincial and semi-government services since June 1992 and those sacked
>from Pakistan Steel be reinstated.
10: During the last two years thousands of MQM workers, leaders and
elected representative were killed, kidnapped, arrested, tortured and
maimed. Their properties were looted or burnt under State patronage.
Suitable compensation be given to all those who suffered.
11: Billions of rupees extorted by the personnel of the law enforcement
agencies, particularly FIT (field investigation team-an intelligence
wing of the army) and police as bribes from innocent Mohajirs, be
recovered and returned to the victims. During raids household, valuables
and jewellery were looted by the personnel of the law enforcement
agencies. The culprits involved be taken to task through inquiry by an
independent commission and losses be indemnified.
12: Large number of Mohajirs were murdered in the custody of Army, other
law enforcement agencies and by their sponsored terrorist group Haqiqi.
The latest example of Mohajir genocide is the cold blooded murder of
five young men in Sukkur by the law enforcement agencies. Commission of
Supreme Court and High Court judges be constituted to investigate these
heinous crimes with the power to punish the culprits.
13: All cases instituted or reopened against MQM leaders, members of
Senate and assemblies, workers and sympathisers are false, fabricated
and politically motivated. These cases be withdrawn unconditionally.
14: Representation of Mohajirs in Sindh Police is negligible- therefore,
recruitment of Mohajirs in Sindh Police be made on emergency basis to
make it proportionate according to their population ratio.
15: Educational institutions of interior of Sindh have been made
inaccessible for Mohajir students due to violence and armed attacks in
those campuses. At the same time Mohajir students are being denied
admission in professional educational institutions in the urban areas
mainly because of fake domicile and permanent residence certificates.
Theses malpractices need to be stopped.
16: Massacre of Mohajirs has continued from time to time in Sindh, the
southern province of Pakistan. Thousands of Mohajir men, women and
children have been killed and injured, while women treated degradingly.
Large number of houses have been looted and set ablaze. A level
commission of Supreme Court and High Court judges be constituted to
identify those responsible for massacre so that culprits may be
punished.
17: MQM leaders, elected members and workers who are in various jails of
Sindh, are in fact political prisoners and should be given "B" class as
envisaged by Jail Manual.
18: Constitutional and democratic rights of MQM freely participating in
the political activities are being usurped due to high-handedness and
machination of the government and the law enforcement agencies. Central
office of MQM known as "Nine-Zero" has been raided over fifty times
during the ongoing operation clean-up, properties and equipments worth
over 30 million rupees have been looted and . destroyed. All
telephone/fax/mobile phones of MQM central office have been disconnected
by the government. Political victimisation be stopped against MQM,
undeclared ban be lifted, MQM be allowed to participate fully and freely
in the political activities, its telephone lines be restored and full
compensation be paid for loss of properties and equipments.
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950712
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Fresh demands voiced
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Bureau Report
ISLAMABAD, July 11: In an eleventh-hour addition to its 18 point
charter, the MQM has demanded that Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur,
Mirpurkhas, Nawabshah and "other urban centres of Sindh" be declared
"affected areas", and given a host of fiscal concessions.
The fresh set of demands is classified as an 'addendum to demand-5 of
the charter'. According to sources close to the MQM negotiating team,
among other things, the MQM has demanded that banks be directed to
disburse an additional credit of Rs 20 billion over the next few years
to the existing industrial and commercial establishments in the urban
areas of Sindh to provide relief from the "chronic working capital
shortage", and that all existing loans and credits to these
establishments be rescheduled. In addition, a 50 per cent concession in
interest and mark-up charges be allowed.
In the preamble to these demands, it has been argued that since the
urban areas of Sindh have been economically ruined because of the
ongoing law and order problems, they merit a special treatment from the
government.
The fresh demands are listed below in their original order: (a) Rebate
of 50 per cent on central excise and sales tax/capacity tax over the
next few years. (b) Import of all capital goods (machinery and
equipment) free of import duty and sales tax for the next five years.
(c) A 50 per cent concession in income tax and turnover tax/withholding
tax on all incomes made during 199495. (d) A 50 per cent rebate on
energy (electricity & gas) charges for two years for industrial and
commercial establishments. (e) All urban areas be exempted from the
recovery of urban immovable property tax for two years on buildings
constructed on plots of 500 yards or below, flats up to 1500 square feet
and commercial shops up to 1500 square feet. (f) Recovery of
professional tax be waived for five years.
According to the sources, the MQM may also demand the payment of
compensation to the families of the "victims" of the army's Operation
Clean-up in Karachi.
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950712
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Govt, MQM open talks on hopeful note
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FromNasir Malick
ISLAMABAD, July 11: A first round of government-MQM talks started here
on Tuesday evening, with both sides agreeing to meet again on Thursday
afternoon when they will exchange demands.
"The beginning of talks in itself is a sign of satisfaction," Ajmal
Dehlavi, who led a five member MQM team at the talks, told reporters
after the meeting which was held at Parliament House and tight security
and lasted two-and-a-half hours.
An official told Dawn that the one-day gap in the talks was agreed on
the request of the government side, which wanted to go through the MQM
demands threadbare and do some homework.
A joint one-page statement, written in Urdu, was issued at the end of
the talks and apparently it was agreed that no side would talk to the
reporters.
Mr Khan refused to discuss anything with the reporters. "We will abide
by our commitment," he told reporters after the meeting." Our point of
view has been given in the text of the joint statement," he said. "The
only thing I can say is that it is a good beginning ", he added.
Asked whether the official team was in a position to take decisions
independently, Mr Dehlavi said it had been nominated by the government
and must have been authorised to take decisions.
Questioned whether he could foresee any positive outcome of the talks,
Mr Dehlavi said it was not an easy task to come to an agreement in one
day. "It is not possible to make big decisions in one day when the
differences are so serious," he said. "If the government shows the same
spirit which it displayed today, then I am hopeful we will reach some
conclusion."
He said the beginning of talks was itself a healthy sign. "The beginning
of talks will be a sign of satisfaction for the people all over the
country because they want peace", he added.
The MQM leader said the talks had started without any pre-conditions.
"However, talks are always held on some demands, which later convert
into conditionalities."
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950713
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MQM puts, off two-day weekly protest
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FromAthar Ali
LONDON, July 12: A weekly two-day protest, called by the MQM, which
virtually left Karachi and parts of urban Sindh paralysed, has been
postponed on the advice of the party Coordinating committee.
MQM leader Altaf Hussain, before the talks between the government and
his party began in Islamabad on Tuesday, had called off the extended
protest this week on Monday as "a gesture of goodwill". He has now given
approval from London to the coordinating committee's proposal, as a
further sign of goodwill from the MQM side. He said he would expect the
government to reciprocate by stopping arrests, raids, firings and ending
siege of Mohajir localities.
Mr Hussain said that, as in the past, the MQM had made an offer and
expected that the government would curb the activities of the PPP die-
hards, Haqiqi "terrorists", rangers and the police and stop them from
attacking Mohajir homes. He said: "It is a well-known fact that the MQM
has
been subjected to the worst type of political vendetta. Its elected
members in the Senate and the National Assembly, as well as elderly
members of the coordinating committee have been involved in false cases
and imprisoned. The government should now put an end to the torturing of
MQM workers in jails and investigating centres run by the official
agencies."
The MQM leader said that those who had "disappeared" should be recovered
and all those arrested should be brought to court, including Ms Rais
Fatima who had been missing for over a month, so that real issues could
be resolved through negotiations instead of the use of state machinery
and force.
Mr Hussain expressed full sympathy with the people and his own party
workers who had suffered, and said he shared their grief. He urged them
to have patience and remain firm. "With integrity and dedication, one
has to carry on the struggle but its success depends only on God's will
as he is the final arbiter and helps those who are in need of justice."
Mr Hussain said the problems of Mohajirs were today being understood the
world over. "To participate in talks is a way of securing their genuine
rights and it should not be construed as an abandonment of those rights.
The MQM will never give up its struggle for legitimate rights of the
Mohajirs."
The MQM, he stressed, did not believe in the politics of violence and
terrorism. He advised his workers to keep their struggle peaceful and
within the law, and added that the government must also respect the law.
Mr Hussain appealed to all freedom-loving people to realise that
whenever a state made indiscriminate use of its power and unleashed
oppression, instead of agreeing to legitimate rights of people, the
latter resorted to protest.
He referred to the 1992 army operation and said that the MQM had been
made a target and hundreds of its workers killed or kidnapped. He
consistently appealed to party workers not to resort to terrorism or
resistance.
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950713
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Beg praises MQM, flays elite class
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FromOur Staff Correspondent
WASHINGTON, July 12: Former Pakistan army chief, Gen Mirza Aslam Beg, on
Tuesday praised the MQM as a "solid political entity' before a
prestigious Washington think-tank, in what was interpreted as his bid to
present himself as an alternative to self-exiled MQM leader Altaf
Hussain.
Gen Beg appeared before the Stimson Centre at the Carnegie Endowment at
a gathering which included for mer US ambassador to Pakistan Robert
Oakley, well-known journalists Selig Harrison and Paula Newberg, several
congressmen and diplomats mainly from Indian Chinese and Pakistan
embassies and mediamen.
Beg wanted to launch himself before the American thinkers and policy-
makers as the man who could get the country out of the present morass
and he said it in simple words," a diplomat commented after his 100-
minute session.
Informed sources said Gen Beg had tried to meet some state department
and White House officials but he had not been successful.
Gen Beg said Pakistan was a hostage to two people-Benazir Bhutto and
Nawaz Sharif-and both represented the elite which had grabbed power and
kept it in their own hands for the last 48 years.
"These jagirdars, feudals, zamindars, elite bureaucrats dominate the
scene. They are more loyal to forces outside Pakistan," the former army
chief alleged.
This elite, he said, also included the bureaucracy who had become a
partner with these politicians against whom the people have great
disenchantment.
The United States, he said, must learn to deal with the people of
Pakistan and not just the elite only.
This remark, read with his praise for the MQM leadership, was
immediately seen as a suggestion to the US authorities to talk directly
to the MQM, or those who could take over the MQM if Altaf Hussain was
removed from the picture.
"Pakistan has a lack of political culture, lack of tolerance and Benazir
Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif cannot disengage themselves. This has to be
changed through an evolutionary process and not through a revolution,"
the retreat COAS said.
Gen Beg, however, discounted the idea that the Pakistan army may, or
should, intervene and said the tradition that he had laid down in 1988
was being followed by the army leadership.
"The army has no appetite for power. They are no more interested,
although a very strong interest group had developed with those people
who thrive around martial law administrators," he said.
He said it was a sign of political maturity in the army and "they have
told the government and the people that the mess was created by the
politicians and they should clear it."
He was closely questioned about Pakistan's nuclear programme and the
issue of M-11 missiles from Pakistan. The general said he had signed the
deal for M-11 missiles with China but according to his information these
missiles had not come to Pakistan so far.
He said the indigenous missile programme that he had initiated would
have provided Pakistan with the same capability as M-11 Chinese
missiles, if that programme had continued. He could not say whether or
not the Hatf missiles 1, 2 and 3 were being produced by Pakistan.
He said Pakistan and India must adhere to the cote of conduct they had
agreed to and utilise the hotline that had been established to avoid any
misunderstandings. This code of conduct was not followed during the
Brasstacks Exercise which led to mobilisation of forces on both sides,
he remarked.
Describing Kashmir as the core issue and the only issue between India
and Pakistan, Gen Beg said the war in Kashmir was a liberation struggle
which would reach its logical end.
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950707
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Korangi families flees as rangers, MQM men fight
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By Ghulam Hasnain
KARACHI, July 6: Hundreds of families abandoned their Korangi houses as
12 more people fell victim on the second day of gunbattles between
rangers and the MQM militants on Thursday.
Elsewhere in the city four people were killed raising the six days'
death toll to 64.
"Several unidentified corpses are Iying in the streets. For the last
four days the bodies of two teenagers have been rotting near my
residence. Crows and hens are eating the flesh. No one, either from the
police or the Edhi Trust, has yet come to remove the 'dead. They seem to
be outsiders who fell victim during the heavy shooting," said Iqbal
Khan, 45, of Korangi.
Eyewitnesses confirmed the reports that a number of bodies had been
Iying in the streets for the last three days. "No one is going near the
bodies. Some who dared were wounded in sniping," said a Korangi
resident.
Till the time this report was filed 12 bodies were brought to the Jinnah
Postgraduate Medical Centre for autopsy. Reports pouring in at Edhi and
the police control revealed several more bodies were still lying in the
streets of Korangi.
Hundreds of rangers and the personnel of Frontier Constabulary resumed
their operation in the morning and exchanged heavy fire with MQM
activists.
Dozens of police sharp shooters, most of whom were summoned from Sukkur,
took positions on the rooftops and key themselves busy with the
militants during the day.
"For the last three days we don't hate any electricity. The bullets also
damaged many overhead watertanks. We are unable to go out owing to heavy
shooting," said Iqbal Khan.
In the morning, the youths set on fire three mini buses and put three
police armoured cars out of commission by shooting at them with Rifle-5
bullets, powerful to pierce through steel-plated vehicles.
The rangers also acquired armoured carriers from the army to raid parts
of Korangi which are still beyond the control of police as the MQM
militants are using mounted machine-guns.
"We cannot enter parts of Korangi as the MQM activists are using mounted
machine-guns against us.
We are expected to raid these areas early Friday morning," said an
official.
"There are at least 200 armed MQM militants fighting in the area. At
least 50 of them are the most hardline party workers. We have surrounded
the entire area. Now there is no chance for them to escape," said Sub-
Inspector Mohammad Iqbal of Korangi police station.
Neighbours, however, claimed that some activists of Haqiqi are also
fighting, alongwith rangers and police, to take over the control of
Nasir Colony and other strongholds of MQM.
Some residents alleged that the rangers had launched the operation in
the MQM strongholds in Korangi to hand these areas over to Haqiqi
workers.
A number of Korangi residents claimed that hundreds of men, women and
children had abandoned their houses and left the area by using narrow
lanes leading to the Korangi industrial area, which is comparatively
peaceful and open.
"People started leaving their houses with whatever belongings they could
carry in their hands. People are afraid of heavy sniping. In our
neighbourhood, there were at least three to four people who died in
their houses when hit by bullets," said Junaid Alam Qadri.
"The body of one of the neighbours who was hit by bullets atop the roof
of his house on Wednesday was shifted to the hospital after 24 hours
today. My brother personally shifted the body of Shakil Nizamuddin, 18.
The body was left at Edhi Centre as the father of the boy w4rking in
Qatar had not yet reached Karachi," he said.
Neighbours claimed that the police sharpshooters are firing at every
moving object. "We have been made hostage in our own houses. We don't
know what to do. There is no electricity. MQM terrorists are fighting
with the rangers and police," said a neighbour.
In parts of Korangi where the rangers managed to enter, the police
acquired the help of residents to fill up the trenches dug by the MQM
activists.
"But the intermittent shooting sabotaged the filling work. People are
afraid to come out of their houses," said a police officer.
Till early Friday morning, the gunbattle was continuing in Korangi with
reports that the MQM militants are also using anti-tank rockets against
rangers and police.
The bodies which were brought to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre
on Thursday were identified as those of Shakil, 18, Mohammad Akhtar, 26,
Nazir Ahmed 26, Wali Mohammad 20, and seven unidentified.
At least 12 people, including two children, were wounded in the Korangi
shooting on Thursday. All of them were admitted to JPMC.
In Malir City, a father was killed and his two young sons were wounded
when they were attacked by unidentified men. The victim was identified
as Allah Noor, 45. His wounded sons were identified as Jumma Khan and
Mihu Khan.
An unidentified body was found wrapped in a sack in Saeedabad.
A 50-year-old man was killed in the Eidgah area. Police found his body
near the shrine of Alam Shah Bokhari in the evening.
An eight-year-old boy who was wounded in Korangi on Wednesday died in
the hospital on Thursday.
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950708
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Ex-councillor's death sparks off new clashes
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By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, July 7: The death of a former councillor of the MQM in police
custody sparked off fresh violence m the city on Friday.
Mohammad Aslam Sabzwari, 40, who was wanted by the government in over 45
cases of murder and arson and carried head money of Rs 1.5 million, was
arrested rangers and police on Thursday afternoon.
His body, with severe marks of torture was brought to the Jinnah
Postgraduate Medical Centre at 9 am on Friday where Dr Ayaz Ali carried
out the autopsy.
Soon after the post-mortem examination, government officials took the
control of the body and did not inform the finally. The MQM came to know
about the incident from the newsmen late in the afternoon.
The MQM criticised the extrajudicial killing of Sabzwari of Nazimabad
and decided to observe Sunday and Monday as mourning days. It asked the
government to immediately arrest those responsible for his murder.
Otherwise, it said, it would announce its new strategy on Monday.
Police, however, claimed that when they had arrested Aslam Sabzwari on
Thursday night, he "already bore the torture marks." "At 4 in the
morning he had a heart attack and died on his way to hospital," said a
police officer.
The news of his murder sparked off violence in parts of District Central
on Friday. Witnesses reported heavy shooting in the air and clashes
between rangers and armed youths in Nazimabad, Paposhnagar and the
surrounding areas.
Elsewhere in the city six people fell victim to, sniping and targeted
attacks.
Korangi where the rangers oyeration entered the third day on Friday
remained largely calm with intermittent shooting in the air.
Witnesses claimed that scores of families abandoned their houses on
Friday fearing maltreatment by the rangers during house-to-house search.
Major parts of Korangi remained without power and water on Friday.
Meanwhile a spokesman for the ISPR claimed that the army did not provide
any armoured personnel carriers to rangers to carry out operation in
Korangi and said the rangers were using their own APCs in the area.
Abu Tahir, 30, believed to be an illegal Bangali immigrant; was
kidnapped and later his body was thrown in a playground in the
jurisdiction of Pak Colony police station.
Head Constable Ikhlak Ahmed said the victim was shot in the head and
back. His body was found in an Eidgah in Modern Colony in the afternoon.
Safdar, 30, was shot dead in Rasheedabad Area of Baldia. In the same
locality, protesters also set ablaze a taxi.
An unidentified 35-year-old man was tortured and killed in Mominabad
area of Orangi. The victim, whose hands were tied, was wearing a dark
brown shirt and a pair of trousers and had a full beard.
Police said the victim was subjected to severe torture.
Mukhtar Ahmed was killed in Orangi, and Mohammad Khalid, 21, who was
wounded in Baloch Goth of Orangi on June 26, died in hospital on Friday.
An unidentified 25-year-old man was shot dead in the jurisdiction of
Alflah police station.
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950708
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Strike extended for 2 days
-------------------------------------------------------------------
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, July 7: The Mohajir Qaumi Movement Coordination Committee
announced here on Friday-the first day of its twice-a week protest
strike-to continue its strike on Sunday and Monday to denounce the
alleged killing in police custody of Aslam Sabzwari, a former KMC
councillor.
According to a written text, MQM deputy parliamentary leader Shoaib
Bokhari made this announcement at a hurriedly called Press conference at
Nine-Zero on Friday night. He was flanked by the members of the MQM
Coordination Committee and the negotiation team.
He said Mr Sabzwari, who was I elected KMC councillor (ward 181) on MQM
ticket in 1987, was picked up by police near the Registration Office ins
North Nazimabad on Thursday noon.
Belying the police version, Mr Bokhari said the late councillor had
never been a heart patient, and he did not suffer any heart attack in
the past. Instead he was tortured to death. "His body had several marks
of torture."
"Soon after the beginning of June 1992 operation against the MQM,
Sabzwari and other party workers went into hiding to evade arrest. Later
authorities also placed head money on him," Mr Bokhari added.
After scores of attacks at his residence, Mr Sabzwari's family shifted
to some unknown place, but then, too, the police arrested his younger
apolitical brother Rashid Sabzwari, presently languishing in Khairpur
prison, Mr Bokhari said.
"Soon after his arrest I rang up the special cell at Chief Minister's
House on phone 134, but as the minister-on-duty, Zafar Keghari, was with
the chief minister, I could not talk to him," he said.
Mr Bokhari said he briefed Abdul Aleem, the private secretary to Sindh
chief minister, and then talked to Khusro Pervaiz, the deputy
commissioner, Central, and he confirmed the arrest.
"Besides informing the editors of two evening dailies, I faxed a letter
to President Sardar Farooq Ahmad Leghari informing him about Sabzwari's
arrest. Then I sent a cable to the Chief Justice of Sindh High Court,"
Mr Bokhari added.
He alleged that after killing him in custody the police took his body to
the Jinnah Post-Graduate Centre and declared that Mr Sabzwari had died
of a heart attack.
Mr Bokhari demanded of the government to arrest the killers of Mr
Sabzwari and to pay Rs 1,500,000 to his family.
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950708
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Ex-councillor dies in custody
-------------------------------------------------------------------
KARACHI, July 7: 4-year-old activist of Mohajir Qaumi Movement, Aslam
Sabzwari, wanted by the army; rangers and police since the beginning of
operation clean-up in the city on June 19, 1992, died in police custody,
16 hours after his arrest on Friday.
An MQM leader Shoaib Bokhari, who saw the body of Aslam Sabzwari told
Dawn that the right eye-ball of the deceased was miss ing while his left
hand was drilled and blood was oozing from his ears, nose and mouth due
to internal injuries. "We have with us his photographs showing he had
been tortured to death", he said.
Aslam Sabzwari, 40, an ex-councillor of the MQM, was arrested by some
plain-clothed personnel of law-enforcement agencies at 12:30 pm outside
the National Registration Office in Nazimabad on Thursday.
Soon after the incident, the MQM contacted the police and the local
administration and sent a telex to the President to express the fear
that Sabzwari would be killed during interrogation.
At 3:30 pm, the DC (Central) Khusro Parvez confirmed that Mr Sabzwari
was arrested by the police and assured the MQM that he would not be
killed in custody.
On Friday morning the officials of Karachi administration brought
Sabzwari's body at Jinnah Post Graduate Medical Centre where his post-
mortem was conducted in a hurry. The officials told the body with them
soon after the post-mortem.
The city administration did not inform the family of the victim or his
party about the death of the former councillor till late in the
afternoon, The MQM only came to know about Sabzwari's death through
newsmen who rang up Azizabad to know the political affiliation of the
victim.
Doctors confirmed that Mr Sabzwari died of severe torture.
But the District Central Police claimed that When they arrested Sabzwari
on Thursday night, his body had marks of torture.
Police claimed they arrested Sabzwari when he was crossing a road in
Liaquatabad on Thursday night.
"When we arrested him, he told us that he has been released after 24
hours of torture by some unidentified men. He was taken to the Gulberg
police station where he named his captors. A separate case has been
registered in this regard. As his case was being registered, he had an
heart attack. He was taken to the hospital. But he died on his way,"
said a police handout.
Sources said soon after the arrest on Thursday afternoon, the former
councillor was taken to the Special Investigation Cell of District
Central in Federal B Area.
The ex-councillor who was wanted by the Sindh government in over 45
cases of murder and arson and who: carried a head money of Rs 1.5
million was interrogated by SIC chief Inspector Haji Muhammad Anwar and
other officers of various law-enforcement agencies He was the third MQM
activist who died in custody during the last two weeks.
Earlier, its Lines Area worker Mohammad Saqib, who was arrested by the
rangers in June was found dead on July 2 with unidentified men handed
his body to the Edhi Centre.
Another MQM activist, Umer Ahmed, arrested by the police in Al Falah
area, died when he mysteriously fell down from the third floor of an
under-construction building.
Police later claimed that the victim took a police party headed by DSP
Chaudhary Latif to the said building saying that some of his companions
were hiding there.
"When police reached there, the suspect fled and jumped to death", said
a police officer.
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950709
-------------------------------------------------------------------
11 shot dead in city violence
-------------------------------------------------------------------
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, July 8: A young woman factory worker, two MQM activists and a
ranger were among the 11 people who fell victim to violence on Saturday,
raising the eight-day death toll to 82.
The second day of the weekly MQM protest accept the city paralysed with
its major markets, shops and commercial centres closed.
The protest hampered industrial activities, port operations and kept
attendance in private offices thin.
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950710
-------------------------------------------------------------------
10 gunned down in city
-------------------------------------------------------------------
By Ghulam Hasnain
KARACHI, July 9: Fear kept the city shut for the third consecutive day
on Sunday as 10 more people, including a teenaged girl, fell victim to
violence raising the month's death toll to 92.
Threatening telephone calls and staff shortage kept industries, banks
and financial institutions, public and private offices, major markets
and shopping centres closed.
Even the Karachi Stock Exchange was forced to keep share trading
suspended in view of the volatile law and order situation and the
government's inability to restore public confidence.
The prevailing uncertainty and chaos played havoc with the trade and
industry, and businessmen on Sunday called for immediate action to
arrest the fast-deteriorating situation.
"It is severely affecting the economy. Political settlement is a must.
Day by day, suffering of the common man is increasing. People at the
helm of affairs should immediately check the law and order situation.
Without Karachi, you cannot even run the industries in other parts of
the country," said business leader Tariq Saeed.
"The government should immediately overcome the crisis. If the present
situation continues, al1 the city industrial units will turn into sick
units," said industrialist Haroon Rashid.
Starving vendors risked their lives to sell fruit, vegetables and other
goods at various street corners and intersections on Sunday. Some
shopkeepers also did business with half-opened shutters.
But the worst affected ate still tens of thousands of daily wage-earners
whose miseries have been compounded by continued closure.
Two local PPP leaders were killed and five others wounded in the
afternoon when unidentified men sprayed a crowded estate agent's of fice
in New Karachi with bullets.
Malik Yousuf, 25, general secretary, PPP, ward No. 136, and excouncillor
Aslam Shah, who was also the member of the Zakat committee, died on the
spot.
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950711
-------------------------------------------------------------------
City limping back to normality
-------------------------------------------------------------------
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI July, 10: After a day closure, the city started returning to
normality on Monday, with no major incident reported. Shops and markets
were open, work resumed in offices and industries and traffic plied
smoothly.
In the troubled localities Nazimabad, Korangi, Orangi, Baldia and Malir-
also remained peaceful. There were, however, scattered incidents of
violence in which six people were killed.
In Paposhnagar, from where the funeral procession of former MQM
councillor Mohammad Aslam Sabzwari was brought out, shops and markets
remained closed. Hundreds of MQM supporters turned up to pay homage to
the man allegedly killed in police custody.
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950712
-------------------------------------------------------------------
16 killed in city violence
-------------------------------------------------------------------
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHE, July 11: Violence in the city on Tuesday claimed 16 more lives
raising the death toll to 114 in 11 days which is a record since 1992.
Among the dead were three Mohajir Qaumi Movement workers, two policemen,
a People's Party activist, a doctor and a woman.
The death of 16 people in the wake of the government-MQM talks in
Islamabad on Tuesday evening caught the police off-guard who had
expected a calm day.
These killings, police sources claimed, gave an impression that there
were several hit squads simultaneously operating in the city. Most of
the people were killed in areas where rangers recently completed their
operations against "terrorists and anti-state elements".
Dr Sarfaraz Ali Shah, 35, an ENT consultant at the Abbasi Shaheed
Hospital, was gunned down in Nazimabad No 7 near Karachi Laboratory.
The armed men, police claimed, were waiting or the doctor when his car
was ambushed.
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950713
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Violence claims 11 lives
-------------------------------------------------------------------
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, July 12: Eleven people, including a police officer, were killed
in different incidents of violence in the city on Wednesday. A suspect
died in custody, which led to the suspension of four policemen.
Violence erupted in Al-Falah area of Malir in the afternoon, after two
kidnapped brothers were found dead in an abandoned car.
Heavy contingents of police backed by armoured personnel carriers were
rushed to the affected area to stop rival Sindhi end Baloch neighbours
>from shooting at each other.
Abdul Qayyum and Abdul Hamid both residents of Siddiq Goth, a Sindhi
neighbourhood, used to visit the shrine of Gharib Shah in nearby
Hansabad area, despite warning to them not to visit the locality by the
local Baloch neighbourhood.
In Wednesday, they were kidnapped and killed. Their bullet-riddled
bodies were found in an abandoned white Charade car (V-9611).
The incident sparked ethnic tension between Balochs and Sindhis of the
locality. A house-to-house search was conducted by the police for the
arrest of killers.
The troubled localisation of Korangi witnessed another round of a
gunbattle between armed youths and members of law enforcement agencies.
Police raided some parts of Korangi with the help of armoured personnel
carrier, exchanged heavy shooting with the militants but were unable to
make any arrests.
The policemen who were suspended were identified as Sub-Inspector Sadiq,
Head-Constable Shaharyar and constables Bakhzada and Imam Bux. They were
suspended on charges of negligence, inefficiency and dereliction from
duty. An inquiry was also ordered against them.
A 32-year-old police officer was gunned down in Site police station area
in the afternoon. ASI Alam Khan who was posted at the Mauripur police
station was going on his motorcycle to the office of DSP Baldia when he
was intercepted and killed.
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950707
-------------------------------------------------------------------
US president seek formal approval on refund issue
-------------------------------------------------------------------
FromShaheen Sehbai
WASHINGTON, July 6: The Clinton Administration appears ready to seek
congressional approval next week to refund the entire money Pakistan
paid for the F-16 fighters as well as deliver the other equipment worth
about 700 million dollars.
Diplomatic sources said a marathon legislative battle was expected on
the floor of the Senate as President Clinton makes his promised move to
undo the wrong done to Pakistan by the Pressler Amendment.
The President has apparently decided that Pakistan should be refunded
658 million dollars-the full cost it paid for the F-16 fighter planes.
But sources say this will not be possible without seeking Congress
appropriation as the planes could be sold to a third country but the
price expected was not yet known and Clinton fears it may not be what
Pakistan had paid.
So to make up the balance, Congress has to be approached for approval
and the process begins next week in the Senate where amendments by
Senator Doug Bereuter and Benjamin Gillman are pending approval.
The key part of Clinton's decision is to deliver the other equipment
Pakistan paid for-spare parts, missiles, helicopter night vision
technology, radars-and it is to block this part of his decision that the
anti-Pakistan lobbyists would make their concerted efforts.
"These decisions practically mean that the United States was trying to
bypass the Pressler sanctions and remove a major irritant from the
relations between Islamabad and Washington," diplomatic sources say.
The encouraging sign for Pakistan is the bipartisan approach taken by
the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the Bereuter Amendment which
was adopted by 16 to 2 votes. These two negative voters-Senators
Sarbanes and Biden-are likely to be major opponents besides Larry
Pressler himself, when the matter comes up on the Senate floor sometimes
next week.
Pressler has already filed his ammunition by releasing his
correspondence with President Clinton and placing on record his answers
to all the arguments that are given for lifting the sanctions.
Senator Hank Brown, in a retaliatory move, has placed the text of the
joint news conference by President Clinton and Prime Minister Benazir
Bhutto on April 11, in the Senate Congressional record. He is expected
to lead the Pakistani case.
The process to be followed to get the Congressional approval involves
consultations with main Senate leaders, both Republican and Democrat,
and formulation of language that could easily sail through the full
House.
"Everybody agrees that Pakistan should not get the planes. That is
final. So Pakistan has to be refunded the money. Clinton says the entire
money should be returned while others are not sure where it would come
from, although part of it would come from sale of the planes to a third
country," an expert said.
"Disagreement would come when the Administration asks the senators to
permit the return of the new equipment Pakistan has paid for, as many
think that Pakistan must be doing more on the non-proliferation front to
qualify for a waiver of the Pressler sanctions," he said.
Once the Senate passes an agreed version of what was to be done,
consolations would be held with the leaders of the House of
Representatives to reach the final consensus.
Pakistani sources say while the battle through the Congress to get
Pressler sanctions eased would be tough and challenging, there was
likelihood that Pakistan may after all achieve a break through in the
next two weeks.
The threat of a Presidential veto of the main Foreign Assistance Bill
which incorporates these amendments in favour of Pakistan is also very
serious and if that happens Pakistan would have been caught in the cross
fire of domestic American politics.
But Pakistani sources say once a bipartisan accord was reached on
relations with Pakistan, even if the main Bill was vetoed, the portion
concerning Pakistan may be passed by both the Houses as a separate Bill.
"Incidentally easing sanctions against Pakistan is the only issue in
domestic U.S. politics on which the two main parties agree," a senior
Pakistani diplomat said.
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950707
-------------------------------------------------------------------
US finds no proof of missile sale
-------------------------------------------------------------------
FromOur Staff Correspondent
WASHINGTON, July 6: The State Department stated categorically on
Wednesday that concrete, straight forward, direct and factual evidence
had not yet been made available to the United States regarding sale of
M-11 missiles by China to Pakistan.
Spokesman Nick Burns said at the regular briefing that the US government
had not determined, based on the information available, whether or not
the reported action by China constituted a violation of either US
sanctions law or of China's international commitments under the MTCR.
"It is a very serious accusation that has been made. And therefore there
needs to be a very serious and concrete factual evidence produced to
substantiate those claims," Mr Burns said.
The Washington Post had reported two days back that Pakistan had
received 30 M-11 missiles but, as evidence, only the presence of some
crates at Sargodha air base was cited. Pakistan diplomats scoffed at the
story, saying: "Now we will-have to ban crates from our air bases as
well."
Mr Burns said if the US determined that concrete,. factual information
was present, then we will act accordingly. But we have not yet made that
determination."
Asked if there was a problem over definition of missiles, Mr Burns said
the problem was the difference between circumstantial evidence and
concrete, straightforward, direct, factual evidence.
"What China is being accused of in the newspapers and by some unnamed
government officials is quite serious. It would lead to the imposition,
if the administration chose to go that route, of sanctions that would be
quite serious; therefore we are taking it quite seriously, but we are
also taking it responsibly," he said.
"We are looking into the charges, and we have not yet developed
information that would lead us to talk the kind of action that was
predicted in the Washington Post."
Pakistan sources say the spate of anti-Pakistan stories in the US media
is probably linked to the moves in the US Congress to ease Pressler
sanctions against Pakistan and restore the economic aid and part of the
military equipment that Pakistan has paid for.
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950708
-------------------------------------------------------------------
PPP has no plan to oust Wattoo
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Bureau Report
LAHORE, July 7: The PPP declared here on Friday that removal of Mr
Manzoor Wattoo as the Punjab chief minister was not its target and it
only wanted implementation of the power-sharing formula.
"We don't want to remove anybody. We want power sharing", Punjab
President of the PPP Malik Mushtaq Awan said while talking briefly to a
group of reporters at the residence of Local Government Minister Syed
Nazim Husain Shah.
Mr Awan, accompanied by Senior Minister Makhdoom Altaf Ahmed, had held
extensive talks on the subject with Governor Raja Saroop Khan and Chief
Minister Manzoor Wattoo at the Governor's House on Thursday night.
The statement comes after Governor Saroop Khan said in an interview that
no change would be made in the existing set-up an Manzoor Wattoo would
continue a the chief minister. He had also said that there were some
misunder standings between the coalition partners which would be
resolved The governor also made it clear the no fundamental change in
the power-sharing formula was under consideration and it would only b
"refined".
Said Mr Awan: "We have already settled some issues and the rest are also
being discussed".
Shortly- after Mr Awan, local government minister Nazim Shah said Mr
Wattoo was only the "captain" of the team in the Punjab and not the
leader of the PPP ministers and MPAs. "He (Wattoo) is not our leader. He
is our partner and should act like a partner", said the local government
minister who has always made the chief minister target of his criticism.
The PPP, the minister said, wanted to keep the coalition going on but
much depended on the attitude of the chief minister.
Asked whether the PPP wanted to make Mr Wattoo a powerless chief
minister, Syed Nazi Shah replied in the negative. He said had it been
so, the PPP would not have withdrawn departments of $GAD&I and Home from
its former principal adviser Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat and handed them
over to Mr Wattoo, Now, he said, Mr Wattoo should; also teciprocate in
the same way.
The chief minister should keep in mind that a captain could not play
without his team and he has to take the team along, the minister said.
He said he was not challenging the chief minister but telling the latter
that he should work in accordance with the rules.
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950710
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Nawaz says he follows principles
-------------------------------------------------------------------
FromM. Ziauddin
ISLAMABAD, July 9: Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has claimed in a
newspaper article re-asked on Sunday under his name that as leader of
the opposition he has remained loyal to the state, adhered to democracy
and the Constitution, practised principled politics and opposed the
government on policy issues.
The article 'My role as the leader of the opposition', meant to be
published in the national dailies on Monday, compares his attitude as
leader of the opposition with that of Ms Bhutto when she was in
opposition, and alleges that the opposition of 1990-93 had "devoted most
of its attention to maligning the government in distant capitals of the
world". Eire further claims that he has never allowed opposition to the
government to spill over to a point "where it could even be construed as
less than absolute loyalty to the state".
"No asylum-seeking, flag-burning Jiyalas no hunger strikes in front of
Pakistan's foreign mission no interviews with foreign news media
undermining the country's nuclear programme," pronounces the article
which reads like the usual Press release of the PML media centre,
largely punctuated with oft-repeated allegations and accusations against
Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and partly a cliche-ridden self-praise of
the PML chief.
Stating that his opposition has been most vociferous and forceful
whenever the government had deviated from the established norms of
democratic practices, the leader of the opposition listed briefly what
in his opinion were those deviations:
"Politicising the state institutions and superior judiciary,
marginalising the national parliament and disregard for the rulings of
the speaker National Assembly and chairman Senate were issues of such
grave importance that the opposition had no option but resort to popular
mobilisation."
He said the tone and tenor of the opposition changed only after the
"unconstitutional dismissal" of the NWFP government through a
presidential proclamation, which was again " changed only hours before
it was due to lapse " without presenting it before parliament " and
sacking of the speaker of the NWFP Assembly without any legal authority
or constitutional provision."
Recalling the events leading up to his resignation in August 1993, he
said: "When it came to choosing between power and principle, we had no
difficulty in opting for the principles. Politics of principles had to
start somewhere some day. We are proud to have initiated it."
On the other hand, "when their (PPP's) government is sacked it is
'treasonable and a 'coupe d'etat".
When the same thing is done on their behalf to others it is an epitome
of sound democratic practice. A court decision in their favour is a
legal victory, one that goes against them is attributable to 'chamak'
and such a court is a 'kangaroo court'. A government is democratic if
they are in power even if their speaker, deputy speaker, all the
provincial governors, chief minister Punjab, half of the federal cabinet
and umpteen powerful advisers are borrowed from the regime that they are
supposed to have struggled against so valiantly."
He said the PML had been quite clear in its mind about its role as the
opposition: "We recognise the government's right to govern, even this
government."
But "we do not recognise the government's 'right to disobey the
Constitution, subvert national institutions and damage democracy. Nor
can we allow a government to endanger the vital interests and security
of the country."
He expresses satisfaction "upon what we may have managed to achieve in
the past 20 months". "No longer does this government go to distant
capitals of the world and talk against the country's nuclear programme,
the prime minister no longer talks of helping India and so on," he adds.
According to him he has forced the prime minister to change tack and
instead of shoring up support for herself as anti-nuclear exponent and
appeaser to our historic adversaries, "she has taken to championing the
cause of anti-fundamentalism."
However, he hastens to add that "the newest blunder (championing the
cause of anti-fundamentalism) will isolate us totally and completely".
Listing his and his party's woes in opposition, he asks: "Did we suffer
because of our defiance and agitation?" And answers the question
himself: "May be, may be not!"
In the end, he again makes the oft-repeated claim: "In the past 20
months that I have led the opposition and two years since I became
leader of my party, Pakistan Muslim League has gone from strength to
strength. More people voted for Muslim League in 1993 than any other
party, including the ruling party.
PML is stronger today than it was in October 1993. Despite 20 months of
a frontal assault by a Bhutto oligarchy, the opposition is more united
than ever in the chequered history of democracy of our motherland.
"Leadership in any walk of life, in any society and all through history,
has been about one's ability to inspire confidence in the steadfastness
in the face of opposition. I am thankful to Allah Almighty and grateful
to my colleagues that we have not been found wanting on any of the
above," concludes Mian Nawaz Sharif.
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950707
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Kabul again points a finger at Pakistan
-------------------------------------------------------------------
FromAnjum Niaz
ISLAMABAD, July 6: The war of words between Pakistan and Afghanistan
continued unabated on Thursday as diplomatic sources here summarily
dismissed MQM leader Altaf Hussain's plea to Afghan President Rabbani
for help in resolving the Karachi crisis, while Afghan officials here
blamed Islamabad for sabotaging their efforts to reconcile warring
factions within Afghanistan by endorsing the return of the former king,
Zahir Shah, to Kabul.
"We don't need to react to a letter reportedly sent to President Rabbani
by Altaf Hussain. We are told similar letters from the MQM leader have
gone out to other capitals of the world, a senior foreign office
official told Dawn when asked to respond.
Meanwhile, the Afghan political adviser, Engineer Abdul Rahim, till
recently the Afghan charged affairs in Washington, confirmed to this
correspondent the receipt of Mr Hussain's letter by President Rabbani:
"We don't know the contents of the letter and the nature of help being
sought by Mr Hussain from our President to help end bloodshed in
Karachi." He said his country wielded enough influence here to mediate
between the Pakistan government and the MQM : "but we will only do so if
Islamabad invites our help," he made it clear.
The senior Afghan diplomat was blunt in comprising Pakistan's "negative"
role to the "positive" role by India and Afghan affairs: "The Indian
Charged d'Affaires in Kabul has made an offer to us which is too good to
be turned down," he said, stating that Indian had offered to
"reconstruct" war-raged Kabul, while Pakistan was covertly helping the
opposition leader Hikmatyar to destroy Kabul through an expected rocket
attack: "In such an event who would you choose, India or Pakistan?".
Surprised about Pakistan's knee-jerk reaction to India supplying weapons
to Kabul, Abdul Rahim asked: "What kind of security threat is Pakistan
fearing? It should tell us. What is wrong if we buy military equipment
from Delhi and Moscow-they are not long-range weapons meant for
Pakistan."
He again voiced surprise and regret at Foreign n Minister Sardar Assef's
statements to the Press concerning his forthcoming visit to Kabul where
he intended to take up the issue of interference from India and Russia
with President Rabbani.
"Sardar Assef cancelled his visit to Kabul last month when we advised
him to avoid visiting places (Mazar Sharif, Herat, Jalalabad and
Kandahar) other than Kabul," said Mr Rahim. "Now, we hear through the
Press that he has rescheduled his visit to Afghanistan on July 16," he
said, indicating a lapse of protocol on Pakistan's part, since Kabul had
not been consulted. "We will not allow anyone to undermine Kabul's
central authority through negative activities, nor will we be dictated
to."
Unhappy with the present "attitude" of Islamabad towards Kabul and its
efforts to dislodge Rabbani, Abdul Rahim wondered why and at whose
behest was Pakistan bent upon "destroying" brotherly relations with its
neighbour Afghanistan: "why is Islamabad allowing to become a base or a
conduit for a foreign power when the cold war has ended. By behaving in
this manner, it would be losing the opportunity to befriend
Afghanistan," warned the diplomat.
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950709
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Drug baron arrested in Quetta
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FromOur Staff Correspondent
QUETTA, July 8: The police arrested a former MPA and proclaimed offender
in a drug trafficking case, Mir Asim Murad alias Gallu, with seven other
armed men, here on Saturday.
Asim Kurd was declared a proclaimed offender by the Balochistan High
Court in a narcotic smuggling case registered by the Pakistan Narcotic
Control Board (PNCB) in 1991, SSP Abid Notkani told reporters at a Press
conference.
He said Mir Kurd was also involved in a shootout between drug smugglers
and the Frontier Corps in the Baghchia Gul Mohammad area of District
Chagai near the Pak-Afghan border in 1991, in which five FC men were
killed and another six were kidnapped and taken to Afghanistan.
The SSP said according to reports available to the police, Asim Kurd
was allegedly running the drug business and in 1992 he was chased by
a PNCB team in Quetta but he took refuge in the house of a provincial
minister who refused to hand him over to the authorities, saying that
it was against the local tradition to hand over a guest to his
opponents.
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950710
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Red-tapism may cost renowned artist's life
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FromNasir Malick
ISLAMABAD, July 9: The federal health ministry's red-tapism and its new
policy of allowing only parliamentarians to get themselves treated
abroad may cost a great artist, Ghulam Rasul, his life.
Ghulam Rasul, popularly known as GR, who is a holder of the president's
pride of performance award, is suffering from a serious heart ailment
for the last four years and doctors at one of the country's most
prestigious hospitals, the Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology (AFIC),
have recommended surgery, saying his treatment here would be very risky.
Ghulam Rasul suffered a massive heart attack in April 1994 and remained
under treatment of Dr Shahbaz Ahmad Kurashi, consultant cardiologist of
the Federal Government Services Hospital, Islamabad, for about two
months.
His case for treatment abroad, as recommended by renowned cardiologists,
was sent by the ministry of culture to the prime minister's special
adviser on health, Shahnaz Wazir Ali. However, the ministry of health
informed the artist that "due to lack of funds" he could not be sent
abroad and that he be treated at home. But the AFIC declared that his
treatment here was risky and suggested treatment abroad. Accordingly,
arrangements were made for his treatment at Cromwell Hospital in London
and he was asked by the medical specialists of Cromwell to reach London
by July 5 as his surgery had been fixed for July 9 at London Independent
Hospital as a special case, considering his serious condition.
However, the bureaucrats at the health ministry are of the view that
only the parliamentarians are eligible for treatment abroad. In their
new policy, the health ministry had included the government servants
also but not as a matter of right. "As a rule medical treatment abroad
will be admissible to parliamentarians only (excluding their family
members).
As a special case, government servants will also be allowed such medical
treatment abroad for very serious cases with the prior approval of the
prime minister on a case-to-case basis," the new policy of the health
ministry says. What can be a more serious case when the top consultants
of civil and armed forces say that Ghulam Rasul's case is not only
serious but his treatment in Pakistan is risky.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Recovery as political climate eases
-------------------------------------------------------------------
AFTER initial weakness, stocks recovered after trade mid-week as
proposed peace talks with the MQM and a good trade policy for the next
year boosted market but it has still to go along way to be back on the
rails.
However, hopes were raised that together with export incentives
successful talks with the MQM could pave a way for sustained recovery in
the sessions to come. Some investors were sceptical about the developing
situation and fear the peace might not be around.
The market showed smart rallies on all the blue chip counters but the
absence of genuine investors and some of the leading investors showed
there are doubts in most minds about the peace in the city and it might
not be an easy task to secure it in the backdrop lack of faith among the
contenders of power.
However some of the bargain hunters and speculators were active and lent
strong tactical support apparently in a bid to push prices up and then
to bail themselves out from the current impasse.
Most analysts believe the two pronged official push, propose talks with
the MQM and an exceptionally good trade policy should have restored the
investor confidence but the killings in the city and the continued
'operation clean up' in some of the localities of the city were
considered bearish factors as they could paved the way for a retaliation
by the terrorists.
After heavy early pruning, the KSE 100-share (1,610.05) price index
finally managed to finish slightly better around as compared to 1,611.70
last week. At one stage it was quoted as low as 1,565.86 on early heavy
selling.
Floor brokers said the initial reaction of the market to the new trade
policy was fairly encouraging as it will boost industrial production and
investment but the buying euphoria on selected counters lacked the
aggressiveness associated with a bull market owing mainly to tense city
situation.
They said the market might take some more days backed, of course, by
positive peace initiatives, to fully adjust itself to the changed
economic scenario but one thing appeared certain that it could be a long
journey for it to be back on the rails.
However, the near-term outlook might not be that bad as investors have
reasons to buy at the current lows, although on short-tern basis.,
dealers said.
There is a near-consensus among all that the new trade policy could
provide the much-needed push to the market if followed judiciously, they
maintained.
They said industrial shares, which are chief beneficiaries of the new
policy could well be bone of contention after the peace returns to the
city as their attractively lower levels could attract any amount of
covering purchases and new buying.
The opening was a bit hesitant as investors could not immediately fathom
how the market will react to MQM's willingness to sit across the table
and sort out things with the officials on their demands and defuse city
tension.
But the much-needed lead was provided by some leading brokerage houses,
which made in an extensive buying on selected counters, apparently
setting ball rolling and shrewd one among the investors judiciously
followed it.
The news provided the much needed push and morale booster to the ailing
market as it was yearning for peace after having been ruthlessly routed
by the huge loss of human lives over the last six month, floor brokers
said.
"The talks might or might not succeed but they provide the much-needed
breather to the market, which responding bullishly the news", they
added.
Analysts said the spontaneous bullish reaction of the market to a peace
feeler demonstrated in more than one ways that there was nothing
fundamentally wrong with the underlying sentiment.
"Essentially, it is now a hostage city and until the strong terrorist
hold an it is not broken, any rally could falter halfway", they added.
Floor brokers said although the situation is still fraught with high
risks but hoped investors will be back in the rings during the next few
sessions as resumption of talks reflected some basic change in the
perceptions of the contenders of power.
"There might be some reservations about the outcome of talks among the
top leaders on both sides of the great political divide but there are
reasons to believe that both have sensed what could continued
confrontations will mean if pressed further", they maintained.
"And if there is a consensus between them to restore peace in the city,
the trading pattern will tell a different story during the next few
weeks", analysts said.
But, a formidable section of leading investors was still in two minds
about the changed scenario as far as peace in the city was concerned and
kept to the sidelines apparently awaiting further
developments.
"We will await the outcome of proposed talks before resuming covering
operations as we have no capacity no sustain further losses", leading
among them said.
The market advance was led by the bank shares, which came in for active
short-covering at the lower levels and recovered partially under the
lead of MCB, Soneri, Bank Al-Habib, Bears Stearns, and some others. But
they have to go a long way to recoup heavy losses.
ICP mutual find offered mixed reaction, falling and rising fractionally
but some of the leading modaraba rose appreciably on active support
followed by news of corporate announcements and so were leasing shares
under the lead of Orix Leasing.
American Life was heavily traded on strong buying at the current lower
levels but Adamjee Insurance remained under pressure after being ex-
dividend and ex-bonus.
Textile shares fell fractionally across a broad front in the absence of
strong-demand but synthetic shares rose after early weakness, major
gainers among them being Dewan Salman and Pakistan Synthetics.
Energy and cement shares despite being highly attractive for future
investment at the current levels failed to attract active buying and
ended mixed but leading among them rose.
Chemical and pharmaceutical shares played on both sides of the fence
amid active rolling of positions from some of the MNCs to the local blue
chips. BOC Pakistan, Bawany Air, Engro Chemicals, Otsuka Pakistan and
some other rose, while Glaxo Hoechst Pakistan and Pak Gum fell and so
did Lever Brothers and some other pivotals on other counters.
Trading volume rose to 34 million shares from the previous week's 23.150
million shares, bulk of which went to the credit of PTC vouchers, which
were heavily traded each session.
Hub Power followed them as it remained in strong demand all through the
week on predictions that it was profitable to buy it at the are current
level for long-term investment.
Other actively traded shares were led Faysal Bank, Dewan Salman, LTV
Modaraba, Dahn Fibre, Indus Motors, Pak-Suzuki Motors, Punjab, Askari
Bank, and several others.
Among the newly listed shares, American Life was most active, which
proved it self the second active scrip of the week on heavy covering
purchases. It accounted for over four million shares during the week
followed by PTC shares.-Muhammad Aslam.
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950709
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Power rates raised by up to 21.5pc from today
-------------------------------------------------------------------
FromOur Special Correspondent
LAHORE, July 8: WAPDA announced an increase of 14.5 per cent in
electricity rates from Sunday which includes a 10 to 21.5 per cent
increase for domestic users who constitute an overwhelming majority of
its 8.8 million consumers throughout the country, excluding Karachi.
The announcement was made at Press conference by WAPDA chairman Shamsul
Mulk here on Saturday. He said the tariff for Industrial consumers had
been increased by 10.5 per cent, commercial 13.5 per cent, agricultural
19 per cent, and bulk supply and others 15 per cent.
He said while revising the power tariff, due protection had been given
to the lowest slab of consumers in the domestic sector who consumer up
to 50 units. Their rate had been Increased by 10 per cent from 86 paisa
to 95 paisa per unit, i.e. an increase of nine paisa. This slab
constitutes over 3.2 million consumers, one-third of the total WAPDA
consumers and their bill would increase by only Rs 1.50 per month, the
WAPDA chairman said.
However, the most hard-hit would he the average domestic consumers using
more than 50 units per month. The rate in this case has been increased
by 23 paisa per unit from 106 paisa to 129 paisa per unit, showing a
rise of 21.5 per cent. This means that on an average the electricity
bill of people in this large category would increase by over one fifth.
Similarly, the tariff for industrial consumers has been increased by 32
paisa from 298 paisa to 330 paisa; commercial by 64 paisa from 477 to
541 paisa, agricultural by 21 paisa from 110 to 131 paisa and bulk
supply consumers like housing colonies, etc., for 40 paisa from 264 to
304 paisa, and all other consumers by 50 paisa from 322 to 382 paisa per
unit.
The average increase was calculated at 28 paisa per unit from 196 to 224
paisa per unit. This means that the WAPDA revenue from the sale of
electricity would also increase by about 15 per cent provided there is
no revenue leakage and there was full recovery of electricity dues.
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950712
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Exports through third countries : Pakistan, textile talks begin
-------------------------------------------------------------------
FromShaheen Sehbai
WASHINGTON:1, July 11: Official negotiators from the United States and
Pakistan began two days of textile talks in Washington on Tuesday to
sort out the controversial issue of Pakistani exports through third
countries.
"We are going into the talks with an open mind but if they do not listen
to us this time, we will have to seek other remedies like going to the
Textile Monitoring Board of the World Trade Organisation (WTO)," one of
the Pakistani officials told Dawn.
There would be several issues including a number of customs problems,
but the main question would be of circumvention of third country laws,
specially in the bed linen categories, the official said.
The talks, being held at the United States - Trade Representative's
office, are also being monitored by private sector textile exporters who
have a direct stake in their outcome, besides the two-member team of
senior officials including Commerce Minister negotiator Naseem Qureshi
and Quota Management official Nayyar Bari.
The last round of these talks was held in March when the US negotiators
promised to provide Pakistan documentary evidence that bedwear products
originating from Pakistan had been shipped to the United States through
Bangladesh to bypass quota restrictions.
The US laws governing circumvention through third countries penalise the
country of origin of products and several times the US authorities
deduct the quotas while not being able to prove that the shipments
actually originated from the penalised country.
The bedwear quota for Pakistan was cut by 50 percent in 1992 on the same
grounds and Pakistan filed a complaint in the Trade Surveillance Board
at Geneva, the forum where all such trade disputes under GATT were
resolved.
In 1993, the TSB, which now has turned into TMB under the WTO,
practically ruled in Pakistan's favour saying that both the US and
Pakistan should go back and renegotiate their dispute-a milder way of
telling the US that it was wrong.
Those negotiations never took place until a fresh notice was issued to
Pakistan for new circumventions in Category 361, cotton bed sheets.
Pakistani exporters say after Pakistan won its case in the TSB and
Washington refused to restore the deducted quota of 1.2 million pieces,
Islamabad should have gone to the World Trade Organisation, the new
trade body.
Exporters say the WTO forum would be much better than TSB because it
induces representation from both the developed and the developing
countries.
In January this year, the United States lifted all quotas on polyester
bed sheets-the item for which Pakistan was penalised in 1992 which was
interpreted by Pakistani officials as an admission that the item was not
hurting the US business interests.
Experts said the first day of the talks would be devoted to
preliminaries but the US position would become clear and Pakistani side
would know what line they were to take in the talks.
Officials say the Textile Negotiator for the US side, who led the talks
in the previous round, had been promoted and a new team leader would be
heading the US side.
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950708
-------------------------------------------------------------------
+++The Businesss & Financial Week
-------------------------------------------------------------------
+++THIS special assistant to the prime minister on the social sector,
Mrs Shahnaz Wazir Ali, called for preparing Pakistan's labour force for
an effective integration into the global economy.
+++THE government has asked the oil and gas marketing companies to
compulsorily install compressed natural gas stations in the major cities
of the country to provide a clean environment.
+++THE ministry of commerce has extended the validity of the Import
Policy Order, 1994, until further orders.
+++THE recent musical extravaganza following a dinner at the Prime
Minister's House has been described by a spokesman of the PML(N) as a
callous and criminal insensitivity towards the tragic situation in
Karachi.
+++PAKISTAN and the IJS have begun consultations to tattled the problem
money laundering by seizure of drug barons and, prosecution of those who
bring their money to Pakistan and "whiten" it.
+++PAKISTAN'S foreign exchange reserves registered an improvement of Rs
2,153 million, ending at Rs 75,574 million while notes in circulation
dropped to Rs 234 285 million.
+++FOR the second time in less than four years, Trans World Airlines
(TWA), declared bankruptcy, submitting m the court a pre-arranged-
arranged plan that gives a larger share of the carrier to its creditors.
+++THE Environmental Protection of the Punjab has chalked out 10 new
pollution control projects incurring a total cost of Rs 75.5 million.
+++OVER the last five months, the Pakistan Baitul Mal provided food
subsidies to-2,50,000 families.
+++THE UAE, a key OPEC oil producer, will pursue austerity measures to
tackled the budget deficit.
+++PAKISTAN and Romania are to sign a new trade and economic pact soon
to foster industrial cooperation.
+++A shipyard is being set up at Port Qasim by Tristar Shipping Lines in
collaboration with the State Ship Building Corporation of China at a
cost of $120 million.
+++THE Muslim Commercial Bank will set up its first branch at Bucharest,
Romania by year's end, MCB sources said.
+++The Lahore Tax Bar Association has condemned the imposition of 10 per
cent tax duty on professionals and demanded of the government to
withdraw it.
+++AS a spin-off to the budget, coupled with the terrible law and order
situation, those was a 4.81 per cent rise in the aggregate prices of 25
items.
+++THE Preventive Collectorate of Customs. not only achieved the tax
collection target but surpassed it.
+++CHINA is drafting a series of new world trade regulations and j plans
to come up with an anti dumping law by the end of 1995
+++PERSONAL income in the US dipped by 0.2 per cent in May and spendin8
rose 0.7 per cent, the US Commerce Department announced recently.
+++THE Chairman, SITE Association of Industry, Yakub Karim has called
upon all industrialists to observe the Employment of Children Act, 1991,
in right earnest.
+++THE Federal Anti-Corruption Committee, headed by Senator Malik Qasim
has been allowed access to the information regarding corruption cases
and default loans of the nationalised commercial banks.
+++THE National Westminster Bank, one of the United Kingdom's t premier
banks, has launched a revolutionary electronic cash system which could
have far-reaching changes in the way people pay for goods and services
worldwide.
+++THE UN has predicted that Third World economies will continue to grow
by 5 per cent through 1996.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
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The clanging chains
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By Ardeshir Cowasjee
JUNE 29, Black Thursday for Pakistan's Press. "Never in the bleak
history of Pakistan, not even under the tyrants who have ruled over us,
have six newspapers been banned by the stroke of a single pen, using the
cover of the draconian Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance 1960. This
was done by the government of the state you head, without it having
assigned any justifiable specific reason. An appeal against an order
passed under the MPO Ordinance lies only (with) the government. This is
tantamount to appealing to Nero for relief against a death sentence
handed down by Nero."
So wrote Press historian Zamir Niazi to Farooq Leghari, President of the
Islamic Republic of Pakistan, on Saturday, July 1, 1995, renouncing the
Pride of Performance award conferred upon him this year and returning
the Rs 50,000 that accompanied it.
Saturday July 2, 1995, from a news item in The Nation: "On a question
about the ban on Karachi eveningers (Federal Commerce Minister Chaudhry
Ahmed Mukhtar) said that in view of circumstances and the role played by
these eveningers the ban was justified and added that if such a ban had
to be imposed on the whole of the Press, including morning newspapers,
to save the country, it would be imposed."
On Monday, July 3, the Pressmen of Pakistan announced their decision to
stop their presses on July 5. There would be no newspapers on Thursday
July 6. A Dawn headline read: "Nation-wide newspaper strike on
Wednesday." A retrogressive move. The people of Pakistan are tired of
strikes.
As it is, nine-tenths of the country does not work on a working day. The
Pressmen should have unanimously decided that all the papers of Pakistan
distributed that Thursday would have heavily black- bordered front pages
on which would be printed a jointly agreed identical editorial, and
identical reports on how the Press has been mauled by the various
governments we have suffered since the birth of our country. This would
not have been a difficult task. Excerpts could have been taken from
Zamir's trilogy, The Press in Chains, The Press Under Siege, and The Web
of Censorship, the three books for which he was given his presidential
award.
On Monday, July 3, having established that the freedom of the Press in
Pakistan had been wilfully and arbitrarily infringed upon by the
government, the powerful and extremely well represented Committee for
the Protection of Journalists, based in New York, faxed Benazir and
Leghari expressing its concern at the action which "reflects a broader
deterioration of Press freedom in Pakistan..." and urging them to lift
the ban on the six newspapers.
It took just the passage of minutes to inform the whole wide world
exactly how on June 29 the freedom of the Press had been wildly and
harshly struck at by the government of Pakistan in its unwarranted
stupidity.
On Thursday, July 4, American Independence Day, under a fullpage eight
column wide banner headline, the influential Washington Post informed
the people of America and "gave a detailed analysis of how Benazir
Bhutto was going for the media, highlighting the closure of six Karachi
dailies last week and quoting journalists and media analysts
extensively." (Dawn, July 5).
The case of Bux Ali Jamali, journalist of Nawabshah, who was dragged out
of his house at midnight a couple of months ago, charged with
drunkenness and imprisoned for nine days before he could get bail was
highlighted. Why? Says the Washington Post, "...he was singled out
because he was writing stories critical of development (parks, playing
fields, open spaces, a library being desecrated and commercial
structures being built thereon) in the home town of Bhutto's husband,
Asif Zardari."
Also detailed was the recent arrest in Lahore of journalist Zafaryab
Ahmed, charged with sedition and now held without bail for reporting
extensively on child labour issues and on the murder of young Iqbal
Masih.
Making a mockery of our government and its leader, the Washington Post
highlighted the case of Kamran Khan who has been taken to court by
Benazir for his story on her meeting with Douglas Hurd earlier this
year. Kamran reported that Benazir had requested that the British "expel
a leading Pakistani dissident, Altaf Hussain. The head of a political
organisation called the Mohajir Qaumi Movement, Hussain has 175 charges
pending against him in Pakistan and has been sentenced in absentia to 70
years in prison." Benazir denied this, filed a lawsuit against Kamran,
and now, lo and behold, we and the world have read that she has sent out
a red alert to Interpol asking for the arrest and extradition of Altaf
Hussain, a proclaimed offender convicted by a court in June 1994" (Dawn,
June 30).
The government retracted. The ban was lifted on the night of Tuesday
July 4. Why do our governments take such unconstitutional actions that
cannot be justified even by warped minds?
The banning of newspapers in Pakistan goes back to the earliest days, to
1949 when for the most wrong and wicked reasons the entire Press ganged
up to manipulate the closure of that old and respected and historical
publication of Lahore, Kipling's Civil & Military Gazette.
The C&MG had blundered. It had published a story sent in by its New
Delhi correspondent about a compromise formula on Kashmir being
discussed between Pakistan and India. The next day the government denied
it. The following day, F.W. Bustin, the English editor of the C&MG,
printed an apology and sacked the correspondent concerned. After all
this, the rest of the Pakistani Press decided to explode. Sixteen
Pakistani editors combined, wrote and published in their 16 daily
newspapers the same editorial on the same day. It was grandly headed
"Treason", and it demanded that the Governor of Punjab immediately
suspend the C&MG. The paper was closed for six months. It never
recovered. It died.
The other significant banning was in 1972, when Bhutto banned three
papers in quick succession.
It all started at a meeting at the Lahore University campus: "Hussain
Naqi, the journalist, who was a good friend and sympathiser, got up from
the audience and asked Bhutto why he had chosen to become the Chief
Martial Law Administrator.
" Bhutto shouted him down saying. 'For so long you have accepted CMLAs.
What about a civilian CMLA for a change'?" (Scorecard, Khalid Hasan).
That did it. The declaration (permission to print) of Naqi's weekly
Punjab Punch was cancelled. A month later the declarations of Mujibur
Rahman Shami's Zindagi, and Altaf Hasan Quraishi's Urdu Digest were
cancelled for having also displeased the first ever civilian CMLA. The
Punjab Punch was never revived.
Then came Zia who in March 1982, as reported by Hurriyat, gave a gentle
warning: "I could close down all the newspapers, say, for a period of
five years, and nobody would be in a position to raise any voice against
it. If they try to organise a meeting or a procession, I will send them
to jail." Zia, during his time, banned a score or so of our newspapers,
but never six in one go.
When Benazir talks of freedom of the Press, she merely means: 'You are
free, free to write what you like as long as you don't write anything
about the wrong done by me, my family, my friends or my cronies, by my
sacred cows, or my government.'
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950707
-------------------------------------------------------------------
If the talks must succeed
-------------------------------------------------------------------
IN view of Law Minister N.D. Khan's statement explaining the delay in
the start of the PPP-MQM dialogue on the Karachi situation, there should
be no misgivings about the reasons for the short postponement. Air
travel between London and Karachi/Islamabad can get snagged frequently
for reasons beyond anybody's control and no particular significance
should, therefore, be seen in the late arrival of Mr Ajmal Dehlavi, the
leader of the MQM delegation. Since the Prime Minister is herself not
directly involved in the dialogue, her short absence from Islamabad
because of her official visit to Malaysia should not be seen as a reason
for the government to delay the commencement of the talks. She would be
back while the talks are under way and that is what really matters, as
the outcome of the talks would determine the fate of Karachi. All
sections of the people, regardless of their political affiliations, must
recognise that a positive outcome is of prime importance to the nation.
Nothing can be more cynical than a partisan perception of the Karachi
situation and of the immense suffering of the people directly affected
by it.
The government's decision to lift the ban on six Karachi eveningers has
removed a major irritant and, to an extent, has been helpful in easing
the tensions on the eve of the talks. The MQM can be expected to
reciprocate by suspending its protest strikes on Fridays and Saturdays
which in any case are a source of much suffering and hardship for the
people in general. The MQM does not need to prove its popular standing
over and over again by means of strikes; that question is generally
taken as settled. The party's representative character has been
recognised by the fact that the PPP has agreed to talk to it-and to no
other party or group - for restoring peace and stability in Karachi, as
it did a number of times in the past. Suspending the week-end strikes
will not only provide the suffering population of Karachi with a measure
of relief; it would also be seen by the authorities as a peaceable
gesture, which will doubtless contribute towards building up mutual
trust and confidence essential for the smooth progress of the talks. It
is also to be hoped that the government would confine its law
enforcement operations strictly to localities which continue to be
afflicted with violence and terrorism. It must be realised that excesses
by law enforcement agencies, similar to those which characterised large-
scale combing operations in many parts of city in the past, will
continue to generate misgivings and doubts about the government's
intentions unless they are curbed.
The fact that talks between the government and the MQM are due to begin
on the 9th promise nothing beyond a possibility that, given good sense
and flexibility on both sides, a basis might after all be found for
ending Karachi's long nightmare of violence and strife. But it is
equally true that the process of getting to that point is bound to be
extremely delicate and tortuous, knowing the many and complex issues
that are involved and the deep mistrust and animosity that continue to
plague relations between the PPP and the MQM. But the fact that the two
antagonists have at long last agreed to talk and give conciliation a try
seems to suggest that the two sides may now have a clearer realisation
of the dire political and other implications of keeping Karachi
indefinitely on the boil.
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950707
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'The prefix and the fix'
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MAY I share excerpts from an old Dawn editorial with you today? The
editorial, 'The prefix and the fix' appeared in this newspaper on Nov
28, 1967.
Excerpts:
"What a strange metamorphosis the prefix of 'ex' has brought about in Mr
Z.A. Bhutto can be seen from the extracts from his speeches and
statements published on this page today. Man has been known to be a
rational animal, a social animal. Mr Bhutto has now demonstrated that
man is also a changing, a shifty animal. He can shift his ground faster
than a fox and, unlike a leopard, can change his spots from year to
year. And when he changes, the whole world looks different to him.
What is light to him today, can become darkness for him tomorrow. What
is truth today, can become falsehood tomorrow. What is virtue today, can
become evil tomorrow..."
"The extracts... need not be repeated here but one of them is so
rhetorically worded and so characteristic of Mr Bhutto's style that we
cannot resist the temptation of repeating it. Describing President Ayub
as 'a symbol of our salvation from anarchy', Mr Z. A. Bhutto, while he
was Pakistan's minister for fuel, power and natural resources, wrote an
article in the Pakistan Annual, 1961:
"'This man of history is more than a Lincoln to us, for he has bound the
nation together by eliminating the fissiparous tendencies without
violence; more than a Lenin, because he has set the country's economy
and social objectives on a high and glorious pedestal without coercion.
He is our Ataturk, for, like the great Turkish leader, he has restored
the nation's dignity and self-respect in the community of nations, and
above al1 a Salahuddin, for, like the great Ghazi of Islam, this heir to
the same noble heritage has regained a hundred million people's pride
and confidence, the highest attribute of life, without which a people
are soulless.'"
What followed after Mr. Bhutto's resignation (some people say he was
asked to quit or, in other words, sacked) is now history. As I have
always maintained, President Ayub should not have inducted Mr Bhutto
into his cabinet. That was an error. But once having made him minister,
he should not have accepted his resignation (or sacked him). This was a
blunder. He was too young to be made jobless. Ayub Khan should have just
taken the foreign affairs portfolio from him and put him in charge of
education or agriculture or whatever. But all this is immaterial and
irrelevant now.
What was to be, had to be.
What is the situation today? Let me speak for myself. I have been
flooded with letters from Karachi ever since I wrote my last piece
(Karachi needs a King, June 30). They are all full of agony, anguish and
anxiety. I have limited space at my disposal and, therefore, can do no
more than share excerpts from a couple of the letters that I have
received this past week. The most moving is the one signed by 'A
Karachiite.' He says (translated from the original Urdu):
"I write to you from the terror-stricken city of Karachi where,
according to the prime minister, a mini-insurgency is on. Law
enforcement agencies have been carrying out an operation here for the
last three years but it is proving counter-productive. People are dying
every day. Some deaths are reported (by the Press) while many are not.
(Political) quacks in the country regard the law-enforcing agencies as
the panacea for all ailments. Every problem in Karachi is being sought
to be resolved through the bullet.
"My wife is not keeping any too well but for every ailment she suffers
from, her physician prescribes a pain-killer. I asked him for how long
would he continue to prescribe pills for her. The doctor replied, 'I can
only suggest pills if she has a headache or a frozen shoulder or pain in
the ankles.' I told him he could also consider physiotherapy. As with my
wife's doctor, our government, too, has only one remedy for all ills-the
goli.
"Columnists belonging to the Punjab are making useful suggestions to
this stubborn government on resolving the Karachi issue. The trouble is
that columnists in your province write beautiful pieces sitting in their
offices but when they come to Karachi, they stay in posh localities.
This is exactly what the man representing a famous foreign radio network
did the other day. He visited several localities except the one worst
affected by violence - Orangi which has a population of 1.8 million.
Water, power and telephone connections have been cut off and the place
is in a stage of siege. Eyewitnesses have seen the brutalisation of
young men and small children.
"We have tried to contact ministers and advisers but in vain. When we
called at newspaper offices, we were told that they would publish their
own reports. Evening papers were banned because they were publishing
pictures of the violence in the city. Now we hear that morning papers
are also likely to be told to go slow on photographs.
"A grand operation is reportedly on the anvil. Ethnic riots are being
engineered. As I was saying, newsmen in the Punjab do not know the real
facts about Karachi. Or perhaps they suffer from regional prejudices. I
cite here the case of Mr 'H'. When Operation Clean-up. started, he began
to write a column a day, reserving most of his venom for the MQM. When
his newspaper asked him to go to Karachi to see things for himself, he
confined himself to meeting two leaders of a faction of the MQM and
wrote in their praise. He ignored the other group altogether.
"Now Mr 'H' has, with some mental reservations, asked the government to
present the evidence it has (against the MQM) on TV. The manner in which
this 'evidence' is being shown on television will put the Nazi
propaganda technique to shame. But truth will be out one day.
"I am an ordinary citizen of Karachi. There has been no electricity for
the last three days. When I tried to sleep on the rooftop, I heard
gunfire. I tried yoga to find peace. I tried deep relaxation but I
couldn't sleep wouldn't come. Where is the remedy? It has to be the
goli, today, tomorrow or the day after." Mr Adam Kakaj writes to say
(regretfully excerpted):
"... It seems that the government is in no mood to give up and the
people of Karachi should prepare for the following eventualities:
"Complete ban on all newspapers and periodicals.
Maridatory loadshedding at least three times a day.
A ban on the dish antenna so that the people don't have access to
foreign TV networks.
A dawn-to-dusk curfew in Karachi.
Compulsory checking of the identity of all Karachities.
Suspension of all development projects in the city.
Continued imprisonment of elected representatives.
I really am story, Mr Kakaj, but I will make up for today's excisions
soon.
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950708
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Wattoo at his wit's end
-------------------------------------------------------------------
IS Chief Minister Manzoor Wattoo staying on In going? Mr Wattoo is
probably now as confused as anyone else, and with the intrigues going on
all around him, not least within his own PML (J), quite at his wit's
end.
The one thing that has emerged clearly from the welter of rumour and
counter-moor over the past week is that there is now a perception on all
sides that Mr Wattoo has grown too big for his boots and needs to be cut
to size. If he remains chief minister, he will surely have to be more
accountable to both his cabinet and the governor. So far he has acted in
defiance of the wishes of many of his colleagues, and has been totally
unmoved even by such criticism as repeatedly voiced by the late governor
Chaudhry Altaf Hussain-- and an issue which is now the subject matter of
a writ in the High Court-that he had no business under the Constitution
to appoint any advisers. There has also been a strong stench of
corruption and graft emanating from the provincial administration, and
here, too, Mr Wattoo has failed to respond to public anxieties.
Governor Saroop Khan has, meanwhile, turned out to be a mysterious
behind-the-scenes figure, enjoying, it is said, a specific mandate from
the Centre on how the Punjab crisis is to be tackled.
What the mandan precisely is no one is saying. But every politician is
making a bee-line to the Governor's House. If in all this the position
of the governor to intervene and interfere is strengthened at the cost
of the office of the chief minister, then that will be d decided setback
to the concept of democratic governance in a parliamentary system, and
Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto had better be careful on this score.
And what a tamasha PPP workers organised for the return to health and
Lahore (from Islamabad) of Local Bodies Minister Nazim Hussain Shah The
Mall was plastered with his pictures and welcoming slogans on Thursday,
and it almost appeared as if he had been sent by Islamabad as Mr
Wattoo's replacement Who paid for the show?
A MORE ferocious, and certainly more interesting, battle than between Mr
Wattoo and his opponents erupted last week between Madame Nur Jahan and
Tahira Syed. It began over an interview given by the younger singer to
an Urdu newspaper in which she was reported to have said that it was
difficult to listen to Nur Jahan for a third time, and singers praised
her only because the studios were her "stronghold'
Nur Jahan, ever sensitive to criticism, called a news conference and
made some extremely personal remarks about Tahira Syed. She regretted
that "Tahira Syed has gone mad in the fullness of youth" and challenged
her to sing the famous thumri from the film Koel (Dil ka diya jalaya
...) and see who sang it better. At the news conference, Madame was
surrounded by musicians and music-makers who all made their displeasure
known over Tahira Syed's remarks, and a supportive call was received
even from Mehdi Hasan during the Press conference.
The next day, Tahira Syed faxed a statement to newspapers, saying that
during her interview she was asked to name the singer she most liked,
and she had said Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. Upon this the interviewer asked,
"Why not Madame Nur Jahan?" and she had said that after all, her
favourite singer would be one whom she liked to listen to again and
again. She also said that she had made no comments on Madame Nur Jahan's
art or her stature and had only mentioned her personal preference to
which she had a right, because there was democracy even in the arts.
Tahira Syed's interview was conducted by writer Dr Ajmal Niazi, and now
perhaps he should publish a transcript so that her remarks can be judged
in the correct perspective. Even in her clarification, Tahira Syed
sounds a little over-confident for her age and experience as a singer,
but by responding to her alleged remarks in what can only be described
as vitriolic fashion, Madame could hardly have endeared herself to her
fans.
Anyway, the controversy provided some relief in an otherwise grim week,
and one saw some nice pictures of Madame Nur Jahan (even nicer of
daughter Zilley Huma) and Tahira Syed. The Wattoo mug shot was becoming
a little tiresome.
THE election for the secretary's post of the Halqa Arbab-i-Zauq is now
old news. But a colleague who attended the voting said he was pleasantly
surprised to see the number of Halqa veterans gathered for the election
in the Tea House, which is short of space even otherwise, and on that
day
it literally overflowed on to the pavements outside.
The veterans (even Munir Niazi had deigned to come up for the voting)
were seen greeting one another most effusively as if they were meeting
after a long time, and this prompted the colleague to wonder whether
interaction between writers and poets has dwindled over the years or at
least that they are no longer meeting as often as they should. This is
probably due as much to old age as to the growing complexity of life in
Lahore, with an acute transport problem.
Although the contest for secretary-ship was keen-- reportedly between
the Ahmed Nadeem Qasimi and Wazir Agha groups- the atmosphere was
friendly and boisterous. Mr Ejaz Rizvi won over Mr Ashfaque Rashid.
On Wednesday, the death occurred of an old-time Halqa activist, Amjad
Altaf, who was chairman of the Punjab University's Department of Urdu.
Mr Amjad Altaf, who had been both joint secretary and secretary of the
Halqa, will be remembered as a writer and poet. A collection of short
stories, Katchey Dhagey, was published a long time ago, and a collection
of ghazals was said to have been in preparation at the time of his
death.
Some writers recalled that Mr Amjad Altaf had allowed himself to be used
by the Zia regime to split the Halqa. But fortunately the split did not
last long.
MERIT and merit only, it is said again and again in relation to
recruitments to the federal and provincial departments. But someone
known to a journalist had applied against a vacancy advertised by WAPDA
some time ago. He was neither called for an interview nor given a
written test. A couple of weeks ago, he received an appointment letter.
Interestingly, it was for a job other than the one he had applied for.
He is not complaining, but what happened to merit? And who got the job
he had applied for?
IN the second half of June the PML had announced that it would give
"Mujahid-i-Jamhooriat" awards to those party workers who it said had
suffered at the hands of the PPP government. The awards were to have
been distributed personally by Mian Nawaz Sharif on July 5, the day
martial law was imposed in 1977. However, July 5 came and passed, and no
awards. No explanation from the party.
Was the announcement a "hoax" and the leader to whom it was attributed
wanted only to tell the people that the PML was still a premarital law
party? But, then, why wasn't he contradicted? -OBSERVER.
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950709
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Wattoo in awful trouble
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FromM. Ziauddin
ISLAMABAD: Mian Manzoor Ahmed Khan Wattoo, the chief minister of Punjab
has landed himself in awful trouble. He seems to have annoyed the Punjab
PPP to a man. And his own partymen in the province appear to have had
enough of his solo flights of fancy. The opposition PML would like to
see him break away from the PDF coalition simply for its perceived
domino effect on the governments in the NWFP and the centre, rather than
to help him back in the saddle.
Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto seems to have written him off. It now
appears to be up to Hamid Nasir Chattha, chief of the PML (J) to find a
suitable replacement if he can. The prime minister does not seem to be
averse to retaining Mr Wattoo as the chief minister if he agrees to give
up the S&GAD and home ministry. But she has left the decision entirely
to Mr Chattha.
With or without Mr Wattoo, the PML (J) is likely to retain the top
provincial post but with reduced administrative and financial powers,
reflecting the true political strength of each coalition partner.
Mr Wattoo perhaps thought he could continue to take advantage of a
seemingly besieged prime minister. He has been known to have flouted on
a number of occasions orders personally conveyed to him by the prime
minister herself. That is probably why she has refused to see him any
more. He also perhaps forgot to remember that he was dealing with a
politician who has had the unique distinction of winning three elections
(I still think the 1990 elections were stolen from her) in a row in five
years and making governments twice in the same period. You can't handle
such a person by being clever by half.
As unearned political power went to his head, he also perhaps failed to
see that his bargaining power would endure only as long as he remained
within the PDF coalition. Out of it, he has nowhere to go because the
PML which stands to gain the most if he withdraws from the coalition
with his PML (J) members, would never countenance offering him the chief
ministership once he was back at the mercy of its votes. It would prefer
an election rather than help him return to power in the province. Such
is its distrust of him.
In his delusions he has even been dreaming of becoming prime minister
through some kind of constitutionally bizarre in-house change. It was
simply pathetic to see him stuttering around totally oblivious of the
fact that only some 20 months back the PML members of the Punjab
assembly, almost to a man, changed allegiance twice in a matter of two
months, once to elect him as the chief minister after Mian Nawaz Sharif
was dismissed by the then President Ghulam Ishaq Khan and the second
time to ditch him for Pervaiz Elahi when Nawaz was restored by the
Supreme Court. He was saved by the skin of his teeth thanks to a
daredevil action by the late Chaudhry Altaf Hussain and because the
'establishment' was not cooperating with the then restored federal
government of Nawaz Sharif.
As long as the late Chaudhry Altaf was around to guide him and lend
finesse to his antics for power, he looked credible and even formidable.
With Altaf gone, Wattoo's feet of clay are too evident.
He could not even see that PML (J) members being PML (J) members were
vulnerable to winds blowing out of Islamabad. If shove came to push, the
numbers would certainly be on the side of federal government, unless of
course, the 'establishment' sided with the chief minister as it did in
1993. But this is 1995.
Seemingly the prime minister desires that the PDF coalition should last
till the end of her present term. It was in this spirit perhaps that she
kept on tolerating Mr Wattoo even at the cost of alienating her own
partymen.
In the initial period she was certainly dependent on him to deliver the
numbers which enabled her to make the government in Punjab. During this
period, she wooed Mr Wattoo to the complete exclusion of all, including
her own favourite PPP stalwarts from Punjab. She even withdrew Faisal
Saleh Hayar from the province to appease him.
The PML would like very much to see the end of the PDF coalition. From
their position, they see their chances of coming back to power in Punjab
and the NWFP brightening with the collapse of the PDF in Punjab. The
logical corollary of this in their opinion would be mid-term elections
at the national level which they are confident they would sweep.
Therefore, they are doing everything to fuel the Punjab fires. They are
sending emissaries to Wattoo and messages to other PML (J) members of
the provincial assembly promising all kinds of things from chief
ministership to lucrative portfolios.
The federal government on its part is not sitting idle either. Being in
a position to offer more than promises, it has a clear advantage over
the opposition. The PML (J) members of the provincial assembly know that
if they walk out of the coalition trailing Mr Wattoo they would actually
be walking out of power and into political wilderness because as a
consequence either the PML will form the government in Punjab which,
like in 1988, would be in perpetual confrontation with the centre, or an
election would be called with a caretaker chief minister of federal
government's choice conducting them.
So, it is not like October, November 1993 when Ms Bhutto needed the
numbers to form the government in Punjab and Mr Wattoo had these numbers
and needed to be wooed and was wooed.
It is July of 1995. Those very numbers which Mr Wattoo delivered to Ms
Bhutto then are now spoiling to play the Lota once again and do a Wattoo
on Wattoo himself.
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950708
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Domino effect of corruption
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By Kunwar Idris
KARACHI: Corruption has grown uninterrupted since independence. Whatever
the regime, it is one graph which has never dipped. It now subjugates
all careers in politics and public service. The exceptions are odd and
doubtful. Ironically, it is pilloried and practised at the same time.
Combined with a malignant form of indoctrination, corruption has reduced
the society to a moral carcass. That is a legacy of General Zia's era of
hypocrisy. The businesses and professions are no less mired in it, but
the chief culprits remain the public officials, whether elected or
appointed.
In the growth of corruption there have been certain watersheds. The
first and most important was when the new rich challenged the political
power of the landed aristocracy without its values. The Nawab of
Kalabagh used his feudal status to deny his peasantry equal status but
as governor made sure that they got a deputy commissioner, a police
superintendent and even an SHO whose competence may be but integrity was
not doubted. Thus the poor got justice and sympathy from the very source
that held them in serfdom.
One could see guilt writ large on the Nawab's face when he hesitantly
tried to tell the district officials in the l965 election campaign to
use their influence to beat back Ms Jinnah's challenge to Ayub Khan. The
honesty and impartiality in politics and public service then took a deep
plunge.
Whatever the gain to the country's defence or economy, the common man
since then has been increasingly subjected to exactions by the robbers,
blackmailers and officials alike. No kin of the Nawab was ever seen near
a government office. The brother of his successor constantly hovered
around the mineral office in Lahore which I then headed. As another
illustration, one could look at the addition to the assets of Liaquat
Ali Khan and Suhrawardy when they were in power and in more recent times
to that of the martyred Zia-ul-Haq and tormented Sharif families.
The watershed most important for the bureaucracy was the Act of 1973
which permitted arbitrary induction into public service at all levels
and equally arbitrary removal of those already in it. The senior
officials could be removed without giving even a reason for it. Though
this law was introduced by Z. A. Bhutto, its best use was made by Zia-
ul-Haq by extensively re-employing his favourites beyond the age of
retirement. The favourites also got plots, loans and other benefits.
Merit became merely incidental to the career of a public servant.
The new law thus became an effective tool in destroying the rule of law
and moral fibre of the services at the same time. It bolstered Zia in
the absence of a popular mandate or constitutional legitimacy of his
rule. On the restoration of the constitutional order, a largely corrupt
public service harnessed to political and personal ends suited even the
elected governments. Today when an official or a professional gets an
important assignment the instinctive reaction of the people is to look
at his weaknesses rather than his strength. The husbands, wives, uncles
and the tribes are getting involved in concentrating circles of public
life where the distinction between the values and roles of career
officials, politicians and businessmen is getting blurred because the
common centre of all is power and acquisitions.
Among the essential pre-requisites of parliamentary system are party-
based fair elections and neutral services. Both stand abandoned. Excess
expenditure on electioneering in the 1985 non- party elections was
condoned by an autocratic decree. Extravagance and bribery since then
have become a norm. Ironically, when the elections are said to be fair
and free it only refers to non-tempering of the electoral rolls or
ballot boxes. Otherwise they are given by corrupt practices.
The perversion of the electoral process, insecurity of public service,
and arbitrary appointments, promotions, re-employment have all combined
to create an environment in which our existing anti-corruption laws and
their enforcement procedures have become wholly meaningless. The problem
now is not to trap the reader who accepts a hundred rupees for fixing a
convenient date for hearing a case but to catch the judge who gives a
perverse verdict with an eye on a million or promotion.
In a perceptual struggle for power with its latest manifestation of
terrorism, the elected representatives have no time to spare for
corruption which is a malaise far more wide- spread and sinister than
violence. Even our worthy clerics who always conjure up non-existent
problems to create ferments devote to this problem no thought or
rhetoric.
A committee or commission is in existence is in existence for almost two
years to eradicate corruption. Distressingly it has brought to light not
one instance of corruption nor has punished any one. Its only
vindication is said to lie in its head himself not being corrupt though
he might as well be with greater impunity than his colleagues in public
life. Yet another commission in existence but moribund is on
reorganisation of services headed by Justice Dorab Patel. Not long ago
Justice Shafi-ur-Rehman presided over an anti-corruption commission. His
report has not been heard of much less implemented.
Justice Patel and Rehman are known for their learning, independence, and
character. Anti-corruption chairman, Malik Qasim's politics may be
forlorn but, one hears, not his dream.
The common thread of corruption runs through politics, administration
and judiciary. The need for reorganising the three on efficient and
economical lines is also recognised. The three gentlemen joined by an
old administrator (Mr M. Azfar comes to mind for his reputation of good
old days and not for his being father of the governor of the present bad
times) should constitute a joint commission to recommend how to stop the
creeping effect of corruption before the last domino that is the State
itself falls. With their experience and probes they have already
conducted they should be able to give their recommendations within
months rather than years.
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950710
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Can they ride the crest?
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By M.B. Naqvi
They meet on Tuesday. But cari they make the encounter productive?
There is no certainty, of course On past form, they have often
negotiated. On several occasions then have even produced agreements
on specific issues. But eventually they always reverted to their
normal confrontation and hostility. One is referring to PPP and MQM.
The rivalry over control of Karachi and Hyderabad between them is far
too intense. The question is whether anything is different today in
their
perception?
All non-PPP and non-MQM observer, have been saddened by the
3xperience of these last seven years or more No doubt, both get good
marks for the initial 1988 electoral ordinance and the agreement to
work together. But for the fairly early breakdown of this alliance
with need to be blamed. Indeed on points, the MQM was wrong and
unjustified in making an agreement with PML(N) behind the hack of its
allies. An explanation was the intrusion of Gen Mirza Aslam Beg and
ISI who, on his own admission, 'delivered' MQM to 1 l1 Having noted
this, it is time to note that PPP bigwigs, despite Benazir's visit to
Altaf Hussain s home, did not treat MQM on a plane of equality; MQM
ministers were made to feel that they were not in the inner policy
making circles. For the rest both need to be ticked off for their
political greed over influence on Karachi and for intolerance of
others.
All this is unpleasant to recall but is unfortunately necessary. This
explains the subsequent years' behaviour. They have fought in a most
unbecoming manner. It is not easy to measure each side's exact
quantum of guilt in the unending confrontation that seems to have
gone on, off and on, until 1992-after which the army changed the
perspective by undertaking an Operation against the MQM. After the
army had had its fill and called it a day after it was shown to the
friend and foe that militarily suppressing the MQM activists was like
chasing one's own tail. But what the army recognised to be virtually
impossible to achieve, the PPP government has enthusiastically
undertaken to do from the end of last year.
The current operations against the MQM are being carried on by a
political and democratic government, employing only paramilitary and
police forces. And, to be sure, they are greatly assisted by the
'agencies -which is code word for the military's undercover
intelligence organisations. By all accounts it is still the saine
'agencies' that had carried on the operation are a army's aegis that
are leading the current effort.
Thereby hang a hundred tales of the violations of human rights of
Karachi citizens. This sorry tale is relevant despite the first
crack of light in this long night of Karachi troubles. Two points
make this unhappy story insistently to the point: Karachi's people,
who are the constituents and supporters of the MQM, are claimed to
have become alienated from the Pakistani establishment and the army
largely because of what the 'agencies' have done. The behaviour of
troops on Karachi streets has also not endeared the Army to
Karachiites. Secondly, through thick and thin-mostly thin during the
last three and half years- urban people of Sindh, led by Urdu-
speaking sections, have stuck to the MQM. The latter has been
returned to the municipalities and legislative assemblies with
convincing majorities. People have enthusiastically responded to all
the MQM calls whether to vote even at short notice or to boycott or
to observe strikes. The MQM's representative character and popularity
can not now be questioned.
The conclusions from recent experience are two: First, no matter how
much we criticise the MQM for a variety of faults-and this writer has
never failed to mention them-its mandate is unquestionable. PPP
leaders can deny its right to speak for Sindh's 27 per cent urban
population only at the expense of making their own claim of speaking
for nearly sixty per cent of Sindh debatable. None of them, however,
speaks from a moral high ground. There is no activity in which both
parties are not virtually equally tarred with the same brush.
The second major conclusion has been obvious since long. A protest
movement by MQM-no matter how regrettable its chosen means-cannot
simply be suppressed by administrative means or in simpler words by
more or superior state violence. The risks inherent in such an
attempt may already be coming to pass today.
The militancy by the MQM-supporting boys seems to have graduated
successively from insurgency into an urban guerilla warfare. No
government, with regular armed forces at its beck and call, knows how
to overcome an urban guerilla movement. No military victory is
available. Why? as Mao laid down, if the guerillas can swim like fish
in a sea of the people then they are undefeatable. That condition is
now available to finish agents in Karachi.
Which is why all commentators, foreign or local, most politicians and
media have been impressing upon authority that there is no military
solution of the MQM and Karachiites alienation except to talk with
them, make them partners in the democracy's great and noble
enterprise and for the rest there is to be a general forgiving and
forgetting after the MQM is given a responsible role to play in the
running of Karachi and Hyderabad. Everything therefore turns on the
two major parties, the PPP-that represents the majority in the Sindh
Assembly- and the MQM with 27 per cent representation in the same
assembly, agreeing to resolve their differences and to work together
in the interest of the people of Sindh. Otherwise, it is a senseless
war in Karachi that threatens, among other things, to be unending and
wholly fruitless. Government cannot win, as one noted.
Given the physical strength of modern state machinery, the MQM boys
too cannot win in any meaningful sense. All, including the whole of
Pakistan and the people of Sindh, are likely to lose.
The country's integrity might become one of the stakes in this
senseless war.
It was neither love of the MQM nor of the PPP that forced all to
earnestly call upon them to come together and negotiate. It was for
the sake of all higher values and everything we hold dear. It was
because of this factor that most of us first impressed upon the army
to withdraw because we realised that there could be no military
conclusion.
We have been urging upon the PPP leadership to moderate its crusade
against a 'terrorism' that enjoys such tremendous support from the
urban people of Sindh because it can not win. It is war, let me
repeat, in which all may lose. Let no one look too closely into the
mouth of the gift horse- the readiness of Benazir government as well
as the MQM to drop their oft-repeated preconditions and negotiate.
Let a new precondition be added from others, those who look from the
sidelines and are not making history themselves. It is to warn the
two sides that popular trust should not be abused.
They should negotiate in good faith and in earnest. They have jointly
to seize their moment in history. If they do, the latter may find a
way to vindicate and perpetuate both in some way or other.
If they let slip their opportunity, much travail is sure to ensue.
In the larger sweep of history both can simply be washed away onto
the deep end.
There might be no role for them in the future when perspectives might
be altogether too different.
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950710
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Power plant site shifted
-------------------------------------------------------------------
By A Correspondent
KARACHI, July 9: The Tractebel Khaleej Power Ltd is shifting its site
from Manora to Port Qasim for setting up 450 mw LPG electric power plant
after surrendering Rs 1 million to KPT given as advance for acquiring
330,000 square meters of land.
Although no explanation is being offered for shifting, environmental
activists had expressed apprehension of growing pollution and damage to
edible marine life because of electric generation plant at Manora.
However no comment has so far been made on impact of the same at Port
Qasim. Business sources however believe that the company shifted the
site because of its involvement in construction of the Terminal at Port
Qasim at the cost of Rs. 600 million. The project will provide the back-
up support and cut down cost on LPG supplies to the generation plant.
Another visible advantage to the company is the lower cost for land and
relatively softer terms on which the Port Qasim Authority have
provisionally allotted 87 acres of land at a cost of Rs 1.8 million per
acre as development charges.
A token payment of Rs 2.5 million is reported to have been made to the
Port authorities by the company.
Port Qasim Authority has agreed to grant TKPL lease for a period of 50
years for setting up a power plant after an in-house examination by PQA.
The plant is stated to be pollution-free with about 50,000 cubic meters
per day of desalinated water to shore line communities.
It transpired during several meetings between TKPL and PQA that the fuel
supply to the plant would be independent of the port facilities and
transport logistics by train, pipe or truck and that the desalination
plant would be available as by product in the second phase.
It was agreed that safety measures and specific procedure on accepted
standards would be followed by the party who would draft set of rules to
be approved by the PQA including those for pressurised LPG and LNG.
It may be mentioned that TKPL has participated in a tender floated by
PQA for establishing LPG terminal in private sector at Port Qasim at an
estimated cost of Rs 600 million.
This project envisages construction of one berth to be able to handle
LPG ships of up to 25,000 dead-weight tonnage (DWT) size in accordance
with Asian Development Bank feasibility study. The dedicated LPG
terminal will be built near the main oil terminal.
The aim of TKPL is to establish a local company with a local partner to
develop this project. Other partners in the joint venture are House of
Habib (HOH) of Pakistan and Tawoos L.L.C. of Oman.
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950711
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An Outpouring of talent
-------------------------------------------------------------------
By Muneeza Shamsie
Today there is a growing number of Pakistani novelists writing in
English. All of them live between East and West, literally and
intellectually and have endeavoured to express that in their books. The
humour and their eye for human foibles, cuts across cultures. Their
vision sometimes spans continents.
Three authors of Pakistani origin- Adam Zameenzad, Hanif Qureshi and
Nadeem Aslam-have won prestigious British awards for the best first
novel. Bapsi Sidwa, who is more widely read in Pakistan than any of the
others, has been awarded a generous three-year grant, the Lila Wallace
Reader's Digest Award in the United States. Then there is the
distinguished Zuliflkar Ghose, who has written some ten novels and tried
out different forms of experimental fiction; in Canada there is Nazneen
'Nina' Sadiq; while the well known political analyst Tariq Ali, has also
turned his pen to fiction lately and has written two novels, one is
Redemption set in Eastern Europe and the other. The Shadows of the
Pomegranate Tree in fifteenth century Spain.
The experience of all these authors, has been irrefutably shaped by the
fact that they have a Pakistani inheritance even if they live in, or
write about, far-flung lands. This point was brought home to me
particularly when I read The Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree which deals
with a subject intrinsic to the Pakistani psyche: past Muslim glories
and the reasons for Muslim decline.
Tariq Ali has chosen Spain for his setting, the country which saw both
the zenith of Muslim civilisation and its total obliteration The book
was published in 1992, which marked the 500th anniversary of the Fall of
Granada. Based on a true story, The Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree is
an enjoyable, readable book, which provides many insights into that
liberal Muslim culture and the forces of bigotry and fanaticism, which
destroyed it, in the name of Christianity. It is a story of chivalry and
honour, love and betrayal; of a doomed people, determined to stay in the
land of their birth. Tariq Ali has also used his knowledge of Pakistan's
feudal life and its complex relationships to breathe life into his main
protagonists, the landowning Al- Hudayl's clan.
While Tariq Ali's novel ends in South America, another Pakistani writer,
Zulfikar Ghose, has delved into the continent's history in his well-
known trilogy The Incredible Brazilian. Ghose, who was born in Sialkot,
is married to a Brazilian and teaches at the University of Texas. He has
often remarked that South America and Pakistan have a definite
resonance. He merely transposes his experience of one continent to
another. Most of his novels are not available here and only two have a
subcontinental setting. Zulfikar Ghose's first novel The Murder of Aziz
Khan is about a proud farmer in the Punjab, slowly destroyed by a
ruthless family of industrialists. His recent work The Triple Mirror of
Self is an infinitely more complicated, dense, magic realist tale about
migration and the chameleon-like personality of the migrant. The novel
begins in the jungles of South America; it moves back in time, to North
America Britain and undivided India.
One of its central strands is prejudice and violence, which pursue
Ghose's hero across the globe. This is a theme that Adam Zameenzad
dwells on too. Furthermore South America and its obvious parallells to
Pakistan as a Third World country is evident in Zameenzad's novei Love,
Bones and Water about a rich, neglected South American child who finds
love and humanity among the starving dwellers of a shanty town.
Adam Zameenzad spent much of his own childhood, escaping from his
father's haveli in Sindh to spend time with the villagers. He developed
an acute awareness of social injustice very early. Consequently he
writes about people living close to the earth, on the edge of life and
death; and he uses satire and wit very effectively to bring his point
across.
Adam Zameenzad taught at universities in Lahore and Karachi, before
moving to England. He won the 1987 David Higham Award for his first
novel. The Thirteenth House a surrealistic tale of poverty, despair and
fraudulent pairs, set in Karachi. He followed this up with Matt and
Henna The Whore about two children during the famine and civil war in
Africa. His fourth novel Cyrus, is gargantuan but truly dazzling work,
a funny, magical- realist tale. filled with wonderful images. Its
central theme is a man's search for dignity and justice. His main
character, Cyrus is born in India into the lowest rung of the lowest
caste. He changes his religion twice, is accused of a murder he hasn't
committed and is dogged with disaster, as he flees to East Pakistan,
on the eve of war and makes his way to an American ashram and lands up
in a British jail.
The immigrant experience in the West is central to Cyrus, Cyrus and to
the writings of several Pakistanis, particularly Hanif Kureishi who is
British-born. Although he was largely cut off from the Pakistani
community as a child, the British response to him was dictated by his
colour and the fact that he was the son of a Pakistani father. He in
turn felt the need to come to terms with his Pakistani heritage. He was
already a promising playwright at twenty-eight when he made his first
trip to Pakistan. This provided fertile ground for his vivid imagination
and his sense of the absurd.
Hanif Qureshi's work is immensely popular with the British and younger
Asian Britons He won an Oscar for the screenplay of My Beautiful
Launderette. His first novel The Buddha of Suburbia won the 1990
Whitbread Award and was on the best-seller list for weeks. The story
revolves around an Asian boy who grows up in Britain. For readers who
are not involved in trendy Britain or British Asian culture. it's
sometimes difficult to relate to the novel's humour. Its great redeeming
feature is Hanif's portrayal of 'Dad', a charming, highly educated,
loveable man from Bombay, who poses as a profound oriental mystic.
Hanif's second novel Black Album came out a few weeks ago and hasn't
reached Pakistan yet. It has had very good reviews and revolves around a
clean living student from Pakistan, who undergoes a metamorphosis as he
discovers pop music and multicultural London.
Born in Pakistan, Nadeem Aslam is another talented novelist in Britain
and is still in his twenties. His book the Season of the Flain birds won
the 1994 Betty Trask Award for the best first novel and was short-listed
for the 1993 Whitbread Award in the same category.
The novel is written with sensitivity and subtlety and has some vivid
images, even if some minor details are a little unreal. Set in a small
Punjab town, it revolves around the murder of a judge, the misuse of
religion for political ends and the scandalous affair between the
District Commissioner and a Christian girl.
Curiously none of these men have portrayed Pakistan with the warmth and
affection that two Pakistani women writers, Nazneen Sadiq and Bapsi
Sidhwa, reveal in their books. Nazneen Sadiq, moved to Canada after her
marriage. Her semi-autobiographical novel Ice Bangles shows a woman's
changing priorities over twenty years, as she settles down in Canada and
comes to Pakistan for holidays in between. Familiar Karachi figures such
as Ali Imam and Razia Bhatti flit across its pages, which adds to its
charm. The book is being used for multi-cultural education in Canada but
it's a pity that it hasn't had greater visibility here.
Finally we come to Bapsi. She is in a sense unique, because she wrote
her first two novels, in total isolation while living in Lahore. She did
not move in a milieu where there was as a tradition of writing English
fiction. She did not have access to the support system-the West and its
world of writers, workshops and publishers, which was available to all
the other expatriate Pakistanis discussed here.
This makes her achievement all the more remarkable. She now lives
between Pakistan and America, but continues to identify strongly with
this country. Her novels are hugely enjoyable and wonderfully funny. She
made her name with The Crow Eaters, a hilarious tale about the
incorrigible Freddy Junglewalla and his brood, during the Raj. She
followed this up with The Bride, the harrowing tale of a city bred girl,
who is married into a Kohistan tribe.
In the sophisticated Ice-Candy Man, her best book so far, Bapsi
successfully tried out a new style of writing. She has used a child's
vision of the world, to describe Partition. What makes the book so
unusual is the fact that Lenny is confined to the wheelchair and is
paralysed; but she is quite without self- pity; instead her little
comments on the people around her and her observations are very astute.
Bapsi, who grew up in Lahore and suffered from polio as a child, now
teaches in America. Her new novel The American Brat, combines her
experiences of America and Pakistan.
The novel, which caters to American tastes, earned Bapsi a handsome
three-year-grant and centres around the misadventures of a 16-year-old
Parsi girl, Feroza who is sent to America to stay with her young uncle,
a student at MIT.
There is still an enormous amount of untapped material in Pakistan for
writers in English to draw on and, in the West there is an increasing
interest in novels about Pakistan. It's a pity that all these Pakistani
writers in English live abroad and facilities for publishing English
novels here and encouraging new writers is so limited.
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950711
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Punjab electoral trends remain unchanged
-------------------------------------------------------------------
By Tahir Mirza
LAHORE: There have been no surprises in Sunday's Toba Tek Singh by-
election. It was a seat held by the PML and the party has retained it.
The seat had fallen vacant because of the death of the previous MPA, and
thus the PML had the added advantage of a sympathy vote for its
candidate, the dead member's son. The margin of its victory is also more
or less the same as in the general election.
Thus, it would be futile to look for any trend-setting indications in
the election result. At most, it can be said that the electoral position
in the Punjab remains largely static and has not changed much since
1993. This means that the People's Party has not been able to make
inroads into the PML vote bank but has not lost its traditional support
either despite its lack- lustre performance in of fice.
Whether it might have done better if an independent candidate - who was
said to have enjoyed PML(J) backing had not divided votes would remain
in the realm of speculation. Clan and sectarian loyalties held firm.
What the by-election again showed is the unfortunate tendency of
political parties in power to rely more means for patronage and grant of
developments funds to woo voters rather than organisational work in the
field.
The PPP's efforts were reportedly concentrated on promising money for
various schemes under the Social Action Programme. The party's MNAs and
MPAs had forgotten the constituency till the elections came up, and then
some ministers made a few trips.
This has now become an established pattern, with governments relying on
their administrative resources to buy public sympathy. Corner meetings
and door-to-door canvassing are no longer accepted means of canvassing.
This should be considered particularly regrettable in the case of the
PPP which was born out of the people. It has travelled a great distance
since then, away from the people. It remains organisationally weak. A
party in power always finds it difficult to wrest a seat from the
opposition: it should be thankful if it can hold on to a seat. But the
PPP, according to reports from Toba Tek Singh, didn't even try anything
other than the administrative approach.
The PML had started shouting foul almost as soon as polling began, and
later in the day a number of charges were hurled at the PPP and the
local administration. When the results were announced, the League's
chagrin was quite clear, and it tried to put-up as brave a face on its
earlier stand by saying that its candiadate would have won with a bigger
margin if there had been no irregularities and bribing of voters. It
looks odd for the winning party to be complaining of rigging, to say the
least.
More than that, the PML's attitude reflects the belligerence that is
becoming the hallmark of its politics. It is always complaining and
attacking.
The street demonstrations organised by its workers every time Mr Nawaz
Sharif has to appear in court are becoming increasingly strident: on
Sunday, during one such demonstration, a police bus was set on fire. The
party appears to believe that agitation can be a substitute for policy.
This is a mistaken assumption for which it may have pay a heavy price
when the real crunch comes.
P.S: Has anyone thought of how Toba Tek Singh has changed over the
years? It used to be one of the politically most progressive and active
areas in the Punjab, and remembering the Kissan Conference held there in
the 70s before everything fell apart and in which Maulana Bhashani had
participated still brings back many thrilling memories. Now the region
is solidly PML. Is this in some ways a commentary on the decline of the
left in the province?
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950709
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Jatoi prefers in-house change to fresh poll
-------------------------------------------------------------------
FromMohammad Malick
ISLAMABAD, July 8: Former caretaker prime minister Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi
has said that owing to the "internal and external" circumstances it
would not be conducive for the nation to go through another exercise in
election, and added that, however, "changes from within the system could
take place, any time."
Talking to Dawn on Saturday, the NPP chief talked candidly on the
subject of political changes, both real and expected, at the Centre and
in Punjab.
Elaborating on his statement, he said the various elections held in the
past had not solved the problems of the common man, and he believed that
every subsequent election had only spewed forth a government more
corrupt than its predecessor. He said: =93Every subsequent government has=
given us more corruption, continued unemployment, higher inflation,
worse law and order situation".
The solution, he believed, lay in a "ruthless, across-the-board
accountability of anyone who has ever remained or is in power", which in
his opinion should be followed by the implementation of an equitable
system of justice.
When asked to explain why a change through an election would disrupt
everything while a similar 'change from within' would not, he said an
election would not really change the overall complexion of the political
state of affairs or the manner in which the power formulas have been
brokered.
But according to his rationale on the change from within, the changes
envisioned were within coalitions. " We have coalition governments at
the Centre and in all provinces and as long the coalitions hold, it is
well and good, but changes could come easily with the mere realignment
of political affiliations within the allies without burdening the nation
with another election", he added.
Citing his own politics as an example, he said that while he had
supported the government on various issues he had differed on many as
well. "As long we feel the government is doing the right thing, it's
okay but perhaps we may be pushed to the limit where we can't follow it
endlessly and thus part company", he said a meaningful smile.
The former premier's remarks regarding the change from within had been
sired by an earlier discourse over the Punjab situation, wherein he had
suggested that any attempt to remove the Wattoo government could have
far-reaching effects on the overall political situation of the country.
When it was pointed out that his special interest in Wattoo's survival
had surprised many because he neither belonged to the PPP or the PML-J,
nor was his party a member of the PDF alliance, Mr Jatoi replied in his
typical relaxed and methodical manner. He reasoned that the situation in
Punjab was a peculiar one because of the coalition government.
"Why else", he asked, =93did the majority PPP group give power to a group=
of just 18, only because it was the need of the hour? The experience has
lasted 20 months now. In the last government they (PPP) brought the PDA
in the Centre because the eight seats were considered vital to the
formation of the government".
He went on to argue: =93Today, many may feel that the larger group may no=
longer need the support of the smaller ones in provinces or the Centre
but I personally feel that this line of thinking would have serious
repercussions all over".
Replying to a question based upon a possible political scenario in
Punjab, he said: " Hypothetically speaking if they go for Wattoo in
Punjab, then isn't this going to evoke a sharp negative reaction in the
National Assembly? They would have a lot of explaining to do, including
to their allies, for bulldozing an ally government because,
realistically speaking, it would be one government trying to overthrow
another."
Then as if justifying his interest in the Wattoo affair, he said: "The
subsequent crises, which are bound to ensue, could lead to another
election which is not an answer to the nation's problems".
He further said: =93We=92ve gone through various periods of instability tha=
t
only resulted in the removal of political governments. The average life
of governments has been two-and-a- half years and what has the nation
got out of these elections, held after the ouster of one government or
another?"
He denied the assertion that he was harping on the politically-popular
tune of accountability because he "probably sensed" some changes in the
power structure in the near future and was now presenting himself as a
'clean alternative'. "I have persistently called for ruthless
accountability and am willing to offer myself as the starting point", he
shot back, =93Not because I want to come into power but because I want to=
see the cleansing of the whole system."
To another query, he replied he had not really thought about the
supposed intricacies in the appointment of Gen (retd) Saroop as the
governor of Punjab or whether his appointment would have a direct
bearing on the political fortunes of Manzoor Wattoo. He did, however,
make an interesting observation when his attention was drawn to the
House statement of Khwaja Asif, who had claimed that Gen Saroop, the
then DMLA of Punjab during the Zia martial law, had awarded a two-year
sentence to Farooq Leghari on anti- State activities.
He felt that both the government and Saroop himself had some explaining
to do. "Either Saroop was right then and should not have accepted to
serve the same man he himself had sentenced for anti-state activities,
and if he had condoned the wrong actions of the military rulers of the
day, then Leghari should explain the appointment of such a man to the
governor's slot".
The timing of Mr Jatoi's sudden warming-up to the Press a couple of days
earlier, where he spoke in detail on virtually every possible subject,
has roused great interest in Islamabad, particularly as it came about in
the absence of any significant political event and also only a few days
before his long foreign sojourn. Known to keep a low profile visa-vis
the Press, the change has been rather surprising forcing many to wonder
whether there was a deliberate reason behind Mr Jatoi making such a loud
announcement of his leaving the country. As put by a senior journalist:
Could it be that he wants to return later only to claim that he had
'nothing to do with the whole thing' as he was not even in the country".
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Politicians discredited in Pakistan, says Imran
-------------------------------------------------------------------
FromOur Correspondent
LONDON, July 9: Imran Khan has said if he felt that by going into
politics he would be able to help his country, he certainly would. But
at present politics in Pakistan is corrupt and as a result politicians
are completely discredited. He, therefore, feels his strength lies
outside politics.
"I have some credibility and I would like really to do social work, and
my next campaign is a mass literacy campaign in Pakistan where the rate
of illiteracy is one of the highest in the world." He added that the
country was going through the greatest crisis. But the former cricket
star kept his options open.
Imran for the first time since his marriage to Jemima appeared together
with her on British television. Jemima and Imran were interviewed by Sir
David Frost. During the interview Jemima tried to put many of the media
reports in the correct perspective. She said she has not changed her
name to Haiqa yet, as reported, but this was one of the many names that
has been under consideration since she changed to Islam. Her conversion,
she said, was her own choice though her interest in was kick-started by
Imran and then she read some books on religion to make up her mind.
They both felt surprised at the reaction there has been to their
marriage. Imran said that he cannot understand why there would have been
so much interest and speculation. "I mean, will this marriage work? As
if people knew that marriages work when they get married". Jemima said
"absolutely" in answer to a question from Sir David if she too was
astonished. She thought initially it was the East-meets-West thing. "The
stories needed to be sensationalised a bit, and general ignorance came
out in a lot of articles published. I was amazed, absolutely amazed".
Imran added that at times there was cultural arrogance that "just
because a culture was different it was perhaps inferior. A lot of
stories stem from ignorance about Islam, ignorance about the
Pakistani culture". Jemima believes that the Pakistani Press also took
advantage of the situation and played up the whole controversy. "There
has been so much talk of a Zionist plot that Imran's got himself
involved in".
For Imran, the whole thing was "politically inspired". The people as a
whole were really pleased but some of the criticism was politically
inspired, according to him. "I know for a fact from various sources that
a politicians took this opportunity to put me down as a political
opponent, rather a perceived political opponent".
About the impression conveyed by the British media of Pakistan being an
oppressed society as far as women were concerned, as if Jemima was going
to be in shackles in Lahore, she told the interviewer: "I have been to
Lahore, it is not at all as it's been depicted. It's a beautiful city,
it's got so much character". She has met Imran's family, his sisters and
seen the life. "I am absolutely convinced women are not suppressed.
There are three Muslim prime ministers who are women.
Jemima denied that she had met Imran at a night club as was reported by
the media. She met him in an ordinary, conventional way though he had
known some of her family before. "I really got to know him actually in
Pakistan, not in London", she explained with Imran adding that she came
there a couple of times. She also said that she followed up her interest
in Islam was initially sparked by Imran," I would never have converted
had I had any reservations about the religion but as it happens I was
interested to see that it was completely different to how Islam has been
represented in the media. And perhaps how it is conducted in certain
Islamic countries as well".
The biggest problem in the understanding of Islam in the West, according
to Imran, is that "what Islam is and the way Muslims behave is supposed
to be the same thing. If a Muslim commits a crime it is attributed to
Islam. In the West, somehow there are these stereotyped images of Islam
and this is of this militant Islam".
Imran said that in the West people do not have a proper understanding.
"There is a lot of ignorance and I'm afraid that ignorance breeds this
hostility".
Imran's wife of nearly two months has had many offers of work from
magazines, newspapers and television. She said she has lot of options.
"I would love to start a magazine, I'll play it by ear." she added. Then
there is Imran's hospital. The biggest reason for this hospital has been
the treatment of the poor and for that he will keep raising money. He
hoped the government will cooperate though perceiving him as a political
opponent they do not even allow him to buy television space to show
adverts.
Imran when asked about his future political objectives, said that "in
the setup that exists Pakistan, I certainly do not envisage going
into politics". If the setup changed would he change his mind? He
replied: "If I could make a difference. I have respect in Pakistan
which I think is very elusive. You can have fame but you don't
necessarily have respect. I have respect in my country and I don't
necessarily want to go into politics and to lose it".
Dawn index