------------------------------------------------------------------- DAWN WIRE SERVICE ------------------------------------------------------------------- Week Ending : 9 December 2000 Issue : 06/47 -------------------------------------------------------------------
Contents | National News | Business & Economy | Editorials & Features | Sports
The DAWN Wire Service (DWS) is a free weekly news-service from
Pakistan's largest English language newspaper, the daily DAWN. DWS
offers news, analysis and features of particular interest to the
Pakistani Community on the Internet.
Extracts, not exceeding 50 lines, can be used provided that this
entire header is included at the beginning of each extract.
We encourage comments & suggestions. We can be reached at:
e-mail dws-owner@dawn.com
WWW http://dawn.com/
fax +92(21) 568-3188 & 568-3801
mail DAWN Group of Newspapers
Haroon House, Karachi 74200, Pakistan
Please send all Editorials and Letters to the Editor at
letters@dawn.com
(c) Pakistan Herald Publications (Pvt.) Ltd., Pakistan - 2000
DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS
CONTENTS =================================================================== NATIONAL NEWS + Proposals on Kashmir will lead to settlement: FM + India will have to hold talks: Lone + Shaukat to brief CE on additional taxation + New Delhi rejects tripartite parleys + Strategy finalized to improve law and order + Respect for civil rights has deteriorated in Pakistan: HRW + Display of arms: Political, religious activists warned + Polls may be 'most thinly' contested + Pakistan slams UN sanctions on Taliban + Pakistan urged not to delay CTBT signing + SC rejects pleas of 92 govt officials + Condition of Nawaz stable, say doctors + Dinosaur fossils found in Balochistan --------------------------------- BUSINESS & ECONOMY + IMF to check govt accounts + Refund of F-16 payment: US offers $30 million compensation + State Bank of Pakistan to liberalize forex regime + Finance ministry told to curb 'negative attitude' + Current deficit up to $616m in July-Sept + US court tells Pakistan to pay shipping firm + SBP injects Rs10.3bn: IMF target deepens liquidity crisis + EU commits 7.8m euros for drought victims + Paid-up capital for banks raised + Steps taken to restore investors' confidence + CE wants privatization expedited + Cabinet to consider oil price hike + NAB may retain 30% recovered money + Punjab opposes export of wheat flour to CARs + 10% custom duty on LPG waived --------------------------------------- EDITORIALS & FEATURES + 'The frog croaks....' Ardeshir Cowasjee + There is no Kashmir solution Ayaz Amir + Straws in the wind Irfan Husain ----------- SPORTS + Pakistan lose their grip on the third test
=================================================================== DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS =================================================================== NATIONAL NEWS 20001209 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Proposals on Kashmir will lead to settlement: FM ------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW DELHI, Dec 8: Pakistan Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar has urged India to come up with ideas to resolve the Kashmir issue if the formulation put forth by Pakistan is not acceptable to it. In an interview with Indian daily The Hindu in Islamabad, carried by the paper today, Mr Sattar expressed disappointment with the reaction of the Indian government on the formulation made by Pakistan for a dialogue on Kashmir in its Dec 2 statement. "My disappointment with the Indian statement (Dec 6) is that it does not engage in exploration of any openings. It simply shuts the door on the ideas and openings we sought to inject in the Dec 2 statement," foreign minister said. Mr Sattar appreciated the ceasefire decision of the Indian prime minister, and said Pakistan responded to it positively as it firmly believed that the good decision needed to be sustained and strengthened. "Our proposals would launch India and Pakistan on a course of permanent settlement of the Kashmir issue." Maintaining that Pakistan was disappointed but not despondent over the Indian response, Abdul Sattar said the continuing stalemate is very easy to resolve. Asked if Pakistan is prepared to address the Indian concerns on "infiltration" from across the border and continuing violence in Kashmir, Mr Sattar denied the charge. He quoted the statement of Indian Home Minister, L K Advani to the effect that Hizbul Mujahedeen consists of indigenous Kashmiris. The Hizb is acknowledged to be the main group of freedom fighters. He said Pakistan finds the latest statement by the Indian Ministry of External Affairs in contradiction with the July statement. "What one can recommend to an objective observer is a look at the graveyards in Kashmir. There are scores of them. The graveyards with tombstones contain the names of those (along the names of their fathers) who have perished in the last 11 years. These are all indigenous Kashmiris." Therefore, the foreign minister said, the emphasis on movement across the LoC appears diversionary. Secondly, he added, India makes the allegations but apparently does not want to subject them to investigation and impartial determination. >From Pakistan side, the government has offered activation of the United Nations Military Observers Group. They can monitor the LoC and report any violations that are alleged to occur. Let there be a mechanism for an impartial probe into the allegations, he added. "So we believe that the allegations levelled by India against Pakistan seem to be an evasive tactic designed to prevent forward movement towards a settlement of the issue. "According to reports of those engaged in the Kashmir struggle, 75,000 people have perished in the last 11 years. Reports quoting Indian officials say 30,000 people have died. Whichever way you look at it, it is a horrible evidence of violence," he said. He said Pakistan believes people of goodwill all over the world do no approve of killings of other human beings because they seek the realisation of their fundamental rights and implementation of pledges that have been made by India, Pakistan and the United Nations Security Council. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS 20001208 ------------------------------------------------------------------- India will have to hold talks: Lone ------------------------------------------------------------------- Intikhab Hanif LAHORE, Dec 7: "India will have to come to the negotiating table as this is a writing on the wall. But if it doesn't, we will not bow before it as we have no other options but to move forward with our struggle." This was stated by the visiting All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) leader, Khwaja Abdul Ghani Lone, during an interview with Dawn on Thursday. Mr Lone who had come to Pakistan to attend the marriage of his son would return home by road on Friday. Sitting in his hotel room, Mr Lone appeared grim while narrating the atrocities being perpetrated by Indian forces on the Kashmiris. "They implicated me in a bomb case when I was in nineth class. I spent major part of my life in jails and escaped many attempts on my life whenever freed. There is no end to the suppression but the Kashmiris would not bow to Indian pressure. They will not rest until the liberation of their homeland," Mr Lone, who is a lawyer by profession, said. He criticized the Indian prime minister for outrightly rejecting Pakistan's offer for tripartite talks for the resolution of Kashmir issue. He said New Delhi would have to come to the negotiating table because this was the desire of world powers which could not afford a conflict between the two nuclear states (Pakistan and India). India was taking a very hard stand on the Kashmir dispute at present because it considered that it had won world sympathies over the Kargil episode. "We would like India to allow the APHC to establish a contact between it and Pakistan so that we may be able to break the deadlock," Mr Lone said, adding "there has to be some beginning." He said Kashmiris were not going to submit to Indian pressure tactics. "Everything we have is at stake. The Indian occupation of our homeland has caused us 75,000 lives. Our daughters and sisters are being raped and molested as part of India's war strategy. Over 5,000 Kashmiri youngmen have been killed in custody and an equal number of them are missing." Mr Lone said more than 15,000 houses of Kashmiri had been blasted or burnt and property worth billions of rupees destroyed. "While braving all the atrocities we are left with no other option but to go forward. We know that we have the possibility of getting broken down under the Indian armed offensive. But we will prefer to be destroyed rather than how to India, he said. "Kashmiris consider themselves as stateless people. They live in India but have never accepted its constitution or shown allegiance to the Indian state," he said. Mr Lone said: "The Kashmir struggle was the only political movement in the world which has a legitimate background and backing of the UN resolutions. The people of Kashmir were the main subject of the resolutions which also granted them the right to determine their future. He said the Indian prime minister's offer for ceasefire during Ramazan came as a ray of hope. But now they (India) had outrightly rejected the tripartite talks. The core issue was needed to be settled between all the parties concerned, that is, India, Pakistan and Kashmiris. Mr Lone said the APHC was asking for the tripartite talks because it wanted resolution of the dispute for all times to come, which was not possible through dialogue only between two parties. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS 20001204 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Shaukat to brief CE on additional taxation ------------------------------------------------------------------- Correspondent ISLAMABAD, Dec 3: Chief Executive Gen Pervez Musharraf will be briefed here on Monday by Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz on steps to be taken for additional taxation in view of the failure in improving tax revenues during the first five months of the current financial year. The additional taxation measures have been demanded by the International Monetary Fund in case the revenues do not improve substantially. The finance minister was directed here on Sunday by the CE to conduct the briefing on an emergency basis, which would also be attended by the chairman of the Central Board of Revenue, Riaz Hussain Naqvi. The CE asked for details on steps to be taken in view of the commitments made last week with the IMF by Pakistan to take "take additional measures if revenues fall short of expectations," as IMF Managing Director IMF Horst Kohler said in a statement issued on Nov 29. According to sources in the finance ministry and the CBR, the CE asked for a detailed explanation on causes of lump in revenue receipts in July-November period, during which the CBR collected only Rs136 billion against a target of Rs150 billion. If additional measures were to be devised, it would be administrative measures as no taxable area stands untaxed in Pakistan, though tax amounts failed to come as per estimates, said the sources. Without listing these administrative measures, the sources pointed out that these might relate to the outcome of the tax survey. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS 20001206 ------------------------------------------------------------------- New Delhi rejects tripartite parleys ------------------------------------------------------------------- Jawed Naqvi NEW DELHI, Dec 5: India on Tuesday rejected a widely-backed proposal for talks over Kashmir, involving Mujahideen and Pakistan, but said it was prepared to meet the two separately provided key conditions were fulfilled. However, the Indian External Affairs Ministry said in a statement that New Delhi was committed to an early resumption of a 'composite' dialogue with Pakistan within the ambit of the Simla Agreement and the Lahore Declaration. The statement was originally scheduled to be read out by External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh in the parliament on Monday, but the parliament was adjourned and the statement was put off till Tuesday. However, the Congress party-led opposition did not allow parliament to function on Tuesday too, demanding instead the resignation of Home Minister Lal Krishan Advani and two other ministers charged in the Babri Masjid demolition case. Wednesday marks the eighth year of the mosque's demolition by a Hindu mob. Following India's official reaction to the tripartite talks proposal, leaders of Kashmir's All Parties Hurriyat Conference went into a huddle in New Delhi to prepare for a response. They included Hurriyat chairman Prof Abdul Ghani Bhat and spiritual leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq. However, Syed Shah Gilani, a senior leader who chose to stay away from the discussions spoke to Dawn from Srinagar. "The Hurriyat constitution is very clear," he said. "We either solve the problem of Kashmir under the UN aegis or hold tripartite talks. There is no third alternative. If neither of this happens the talk of Indian ceasefire is meaningless." Gilani's Jamaat-i- Islami is considered to be close to Hizbul Mujahideen which has given a cautious reaction to India's ceasefire offer. Asked why he had not joined the talks in Delhi, Gilani said: "To do what? What's the point?" Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on November 19 announced that Indian security forces would not initiate operations against freedom fighters in Kashmir during Ramazan. He had also expressed a hope that along the Line of Control (LOC), separating troops from both countries, infiltration would cease. Pakistan said on Sunday it would not mind if India holds talks directly with Mujahideen so long as it also includes it in a tripartite dialogue "immediately after Ramazan". On December 2, Pakistani Foreign Secretary Inamul Haq told a news conference that Pakistani armed forces deployed along the LoC in Kashmir will observe maximum restraint. The Indian High Commissioner in Islamabad was subsequently invited to the Pakistan Foreign Office and handed over a copy of the statement. The Indian reaction on Tuesday said: "The Government of Pakistan has also clarified that 'there is nothing new but there are new ways of saying things', and that there was not any 'basic shift in the policies of Pakistan'. We, too, do not find anything substantially different in Pakistan's announcement from what they have earlier been saying." It said Indian security had "always exercised utmost restraint in the face of persistent provocation and violations of the LoC, they will continue to do so. Attempts, however, to misuse this phase and push terrorists will be robustly met. The government wishes to reiterate that there is no role of any kind for any third party here. "The government hopes that this statement of Pakistan is the precursor of a meaningful change in its attitude," the Indian statement said. "We expect Pakistan to address our concerns and also those of the international community about cross-border terrorism, infiltration into India, and aiding and abetment of violence. We note that Pakistan is reaffirming its commitment to 'earlier agreements'. That is why a clear reaffirmation of and adherence to the Simla Agreement, and the Lahore Declaration would only be logical. "A dialogue, too, has been proposed. India, as the initiator of dialogue remains committed to an early resumption of the composite dialogue process between the two countries. "It is our hope that with all the initiatives for restoration of peace and normalcy taken by Prime Minister A B Vajpayee, Pakistan would now be persuaded to cease promotion of cross-border terrorism so as to create an environment suitable for resumption of the composite dialogue." It said government has always conveyed its readiness to have talks with all parties and groups in Jammu & Kashmir, including also the militants. The government's desire in this regard is reiterated. The modalities of these talks, will be decided by the government of India. It is abundantly clear that there is, in this, no room for what are termed as 'tripartite talks'. "The government is committed to the peace process and will remain steadfast in that approach. Upon conclusion of the month of Ramazan the government will review the situation and then announce its further course of action." DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS 20001209 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Strategy finalized to improve law and order ------------------------------------------------------------------- Bureau Report ISLAMABAD, Dec 8: A two-day corps commanders conference was informed here on Friday that the interior ministry has finalized a comprehensive strategy to deal with the law and order situation by implementing police reforms in the country. The conference, which was presided over by Chief Executive Gen Pervez Musharraf, also reviewed the prevailing geo-strategic environment in the region, the situation along the borders and the Line of Control. According to sources, the conference held a detailed discussion on the interior ministry's new strategy to improve the law and order situation, implementation of police reforms, monitoring the influx of Afghan refugees and deweaponization of society. Briefing the participants, Interior Minister Lt-Gen Moinuddin Haider (retd) said a strong move was needed to get hold of those who were involved in subversion and terrorism. He said it was regrettable that a Shia leader in NWFP, Anwar Akhuzada, was killed and a former Punjab Assembly MPA, Syed Zakir Hussain, was seriously injured by terrorists in Rawalpindi the other day. Sources said the chief executive expressed the hope that the ministry and the National Reconstruction Bureau (NRB) would soon overcome their differences over police reforms so that it could be effectively implemented. Mr Haider told the meeting that while some religious elements were involved in subversion, political elements and culprits from across the border were also involved in creating law and order problems for the government. He said the latest Afghan influx was a matter of concern for the government. He, however, said that active support of the United Nations should be sought to deal with this issue. He said his ministry was keeping a vigilant eye on those coming from Afghanistan to ensure that nobody causes any law and order problem, specially in the NWFP. Sources said the chief executive also took the corps commanders into confidence about the government's initiative to resolve the Kashmir dispute. He said Pakistan wanted peace in the region and that was why he did not raise any objection over a proposed meeting between the Indian government and the All Parties Hurriyat Conference. The chief executive said Pakistan has made an offer of peace with all its sincerity and the troops would continue to exercise restraint on the line of control. However, sources said, he pointed out that now India should respond positively so that the outstanding issue of Kashmir could be settled and normal relations between the two countries established. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS 20001209 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Respect for civil rights has deteriorated in Pakistan: HRW ------------------------------------------------------------------- Masood Haider NEW YORK, Dec 8: In its annual report the Human Rights Watch on Thursday charged that "respect for civil and political rights deteriorated in Pakistan significantly in the year following the bloodless military coup, on October 12, 1999, that deposed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in Pakistan. The HRW report 2001, released simultaneously from Washington and New York, however, acknowledged that "General Pervez Musharraf's administration began to address some long-standing justice issues- notably, through the adoption of Pakistan's first federal juvenile justice law and the establishment of a commission on the status of women-" Nevertheless the report points out that Musharraf government "also greatly augmented executive powers and curtailed the independence of the judiciary. It moved to neutralize political parties through the application of broadly defined laws governing terrorism, sedition, and public order, and through the establishment of a powerful extra-constitutional "accountability" bureau. Opposition party members were subjected to prolonged detention without charge. Sectarian violence and attacks on religious minorities continued and, despite renewed attention to the issue, the government failed to provide meaningful recourse for women victims of domestic abuse and sexual violence. The report says: "On May 12, a reconstituted Supreme Court issued a verdict rejecting petitions challenging the coup's legality. The court set a deadline of three years for the holding of national and provincial elections, but reserved authority to review the continuation of the Proclamation of Emergency, leaving the door open to future extensions of military rule." Commenting on the working of the National Accountability Bureau, the HRW report said: "The new government's principal vehicle for detaining former officials and party leaders, however, was the National Accountability Ordinance, a law ostensibly created to bring corrupt officials to account. The ordinance confers sweeping powers of arrest, investigation, and prosecution in a single institution, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), and permits detainees to be held for up to ninety days without being brought before a court. The law was later amended to facilitate conviction by shifting the burden of proof during trial from the prosecution to the defence." DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS 20001209 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Display of arms: Political, religious activists warned ------------------------------------------------------------------- Bureau Report ISLAMABAD, Dec 8: Minister for Interior Moinuddin Haider said here on Friday that the government has taken a very serious notice of arms display by the political and religious workers. "The Punjab government has arrested three persons in Lahore who were involved in arms display near Muslim League house recently and two others involved in it are also being arrested", he further stated. Talking to Dawn he said that arms display by the religious and political workers will not be allowed. "We have decided to control the display of arms and we will take strict action against those who are involved in it". The interior minister regretted that influential citizens were maintaining their own security staff outside their houses by providing them guns and other sophisticated arms. "And these people very daringly display their arms which is in fact a crime", he said adding that the government has started taking action against such people. The practice, he said, has been more visible in Karachi. Either they should hire private security guards or stop allowing their people in plain clothes to have arms with them outside their houses, he added. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS 20001209 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Polls may be 'most thinly' contested ------------------------------------------------------------------- Faraz Hashmi ISLAMABAD, Dec 8: The forthcoming local bodies elections which will be held in the 18 districts of the country, are going to be the most thinly contested ever, according to figures released by the Election Commission of Pakistan. According to the EC figures only 42,466 candidates have filed their nomination papers for 20,117 seats of the 956 union councils. A press release issued by the commission said that 42,466 candidates filed their nomination papers with the returning officers - till the midnight of December 7 - the last date for filing the papers. On an average only two candidates will be contesting for a union council seat in every district. Till December 6, the Election Commission had reportedly received only 20,000 nomination papers. The "last minute rush" of candidates for filing the nomination papers has caught the political analysts by surprise as almost 50 per cent of the candidates filed their papers on the last date. Whatever the case, the "last minute rush" has saved the government from a severe embarrassment. In Balochistan, where a total of 1,407 seats in 66 union councils of three districts are at stake, only 1,528 people have filed their nomination papers. This means that more than 85 per cent of the candidates will be elected unopposed. There may be a few cases where there is not even a single candidate available. The highest number of nomination papers per seat have been filed in Punjab where 28,120 candidates have filed their papers for 11,550 seats of the 550 union councils. In Sindh, the contest for 4,305 seats of the 205 union councils is going to be even less than one-to-one as only 7,599 candidates are contesting the election. It appears that quite a sizable number of seats will fall without any contest. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS 20001209 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Pakistan slams UN sanctions on Taliban ------------------------------------------------------------------- ISLAMABAD, Dec 8: Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar on Friday criticized plans to tighten economic and arms sanctions against Afghanistan. A draft resolution before the UN Security Council was unprecedented in seeking to tighten the embargo on the Taliban, but exempt their opponents in the Northern Alliance, BBC reported. "I have never come across sanctions from the Security Council which are so one-sided, which seem to be a prescription for fuelling the strife," BBC quoted him to have said this. The draft resolution would broaden sanctions imposed last year after the Taliban refused to hand over Osama bin Laden for trial on the alleged terrorist charges. Sattar said Pakistan favoured a total arms embargo against all parties in Afghanistan, and a peaceful resolution to the ongoing conflict between the Taliban and their opponents. "Is that any way to promote peace, the supply of arms to a group that has very little territory under its control," he questioned. He said, the proposed sanctions would undermine efforts by UN envoy Francesc Vendrell to bring both parties in Afghanistan to the negotiating table. The proposed sanctions would tighten the existing air embargo and freeze on Taliban assets abroad. Afghan government said this week that Osama bin Laden was a guest in their country, and that bowing to pressure to hand him over was against their "national and religious dignity." The US holds Osama bin Laden responsible for alleged involvement in bomb attacks against two of its embassies in East Africa in 1998.- APP DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS 20001205 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Pakistan urged not to delay CTBT signing ------------------------------------------------------------------- Bureau Report ISLAMABAD, Dec 4: Pakistan is once again being advised by G-7 countries "not" to delay the signing of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) to obtain their assistance and to ensure timely release of the remaining three tranches totalling 404 million dollar in the next 10 months from the IMF's standby facility. Diplomatic sources said that Pakistan, which has in principle, decided to sign the CTBT was only spoiling its case by delaying the issue due to which the country continues to suffer international sanctions. They said that the United States had done a big favour by asking its representative to abstain from the IMF board of directors meeting in Washington on Wednesday (Nov 29) which approved 596- million-dollar standby facility for Pakistan. The participation of the US representative in the Fund board meeting would have meant a negative decision. Official sources said that the government has already stopped its own decision on the CTBT with that of India. They said that the present government was "inclined" to sign the CTBT but has certain constraints that were forcing it to delay the inevitable. Pakistan's nuclear scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan has said more than once that signing of the CTBT would not make Pakistan vulnerable against India and that Pakistan's deterrent capability will not be affected. Sources, fear that the politicians may try to exploit the issue once the government decides to sign the treaty. The government, on the other hand, was being told that agreement with IMF could turn out to be single tranche affair if the government did not take a firm decision on the matter before it was time for the release of the second IMF tranche. A senior government official said he did not know if there were any political conditionalities attached to the standby facility. He said that Japan had offered to increase its assistance to Pakistan by enhancing the annual 500-million-dollar assistance provided Pakistan was ready to sign the CTBT. Diplomatic sources said that G-7 countries did not want to see Pakistan default on its foreign debt as that would have caused a collapse of its economy and that was why the G-7 had put together a new bailout package of a shorter duration allowing Islamabad enough time to meet the political conditions as it put its economy in order. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS 20001207 ------------------------------------------------------------------- SC rejects pleas of 92 govt officials ------------------------------------------------------------------- Rafaqat Ali ISLAMABAD, Dec 6: The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed over 90 appeals against the Federal Service Tribunal decision of upholding the termination of 92 assistant directors, deputy directors and inspectors of Intelligence Bureau who were inducted during the PPP government in 1997 but were dismissed by the next government. The SC bench observed that respondent department had the requisite authority to terminate the services of an employees who was on probation or on officiating basis, without issuing a show-cause notice. The Federal Service Tribunal, in its common judgment, had upheld the government decision of sacking these officials. However, the SC has directed the government to pay the sacked employees 14 days' salary. The bench consisted of Chief Justice Irshad Hasan Khan, Justice Chaudhry Arif and Justice Qazi Farooq. The court held that the competent authority had the powers to terminate the service of a civil servant, if appointed on probation or officiating basis, against a temporary or permanent post at any time and it (the authority) may do so for any reason relevant to exigencies of service. The court held that in such cases, no show-notice was required. "A probationer has no vested right to continue in service. Therefore, the question of violation of any principle does not arise except in case of mala fide." The court observed that the observation of the Tribunal that these appointments were made on political basis, was vague. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS 20001208 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Condition of Nawaz stable, say doctors ------------------------------------------------------------------- ISLAMABAD, Dec 7: The government on Thursday dispatched a team of specialist doctors to examine Nawaz Sharif, taking into consideration the state of his health as reported in the press and on the appeal of his family. According to a government spokesman, the team has carried out detailed check-up and described Nawaz Sharif's condition as stable. The spokesman added that his family was granted extended time to visit him and they were assured that Nawaz Sharif would be given the best possible medical treatment as recommended by the team of specialists. -APP DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS 20001203 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Dinosaur fossils found in Balochistan ------------------------------------------------------------------- Saleem Shahid QUETTA, Dec 2: Pakistan discovered its first dinosaur fossils in the Barkhan district of Balochistan during mapping and biostratigraphic research, Abdul Latif, Director Planning Geological Survey of Pakistan (GSP) told newsmen here on Saturday. He said that earlier, most of these discoveries had been made in parts of North and South America and recently in China and Mongolia. Dinosaurs were giant reptiles, the largest being seven metres in height and 14 metres in length. They were the dominant land animals during most of the Mesozoic era but become extinct towards its close. In the case of GSP's discovery, the dinosaur fossils are of locomotory limbs. These have been recovered from top of the Pab formation of Maastrichtian (late Cretaceous) age, which represents a period of seven million years ranging from 72 to 65 million years in the geological time scale. The GSP's discovery attains special significance as the dinosaur fossil horizon in Pakistan is close to the period of dinosaurs extinction which is stalemated at 65 million years ago, latif said. The director planning geological survey of Pakistan further said that the discovery has been made in the upper part of the Pab formation. This new fossil discovery will shed new light on the paleoenvironment and depositional history of the Pab Formation particularly with reference to interpreting the fluctuating land- sea levels during the Cretaceous period and the supply of organic material to the sediments which eventually become the source for oil and gas, Latif said.
BUSINESS & ECONOMY DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS 20001204 ------------------------------------------------------------------- IMF to check govt accounts ------------------------------------------------------------------- M. Ziauddin ISLAMABAD, Dec 3: Pakistan is obliged to get the accounts of all its income and expenditure scrutinized periodically and closely by the IMF staff over the next 10 months, according to documents relating to the standby loan approved by the Fund executive board on Nov 29. These documents, which were released in Washington on Friday by the IMF, envisage the government to keep the Fund informed about the pace of reforms it has promised to undertake in its letter of intent (LoI) sent to the IMF on Nov 4. The documents include details of the economic developments in 1999- 2000, the macro-economic objectives and policies for 2000-1, the medium-term outlook, structural reforms, trade liberalization, governance and transparency, financing issues and programme monitoring. Under the technical memorandum of understanding, Pakistan is obliged to abide by a six-point conditionality, which includes the qualitative performance criteria, structural performance criteria, structural benchmarks, financing programme and monetary mechanism. The structural reforms encompass fiscal sector, public sector enterprizes, privatization, financial sector, including national savings schemes, export finance scheme, transition of Islamic financial system, foreign currency deposits and recapitalization of State Bank. The documents reveal that during the current year alone the government would add about $3 billion to the country's short-term private sector debt, including two loans of $145 million for public sector enterprizes for 300 days, $413 million from Islamic Development Bank, besides a $50 million loan for two years and another $80 million for a six-month roll over from the same bank, a roll over of $500 million from the Bank of China as well as $250 million of roll over from Kuwait and $150 million of roll over from the UAE. The documents disclose that Pakistan needs $4 billion of exceptional financing under the new Fund arrangement to remain current on its external debt. The documents quote the government, saying that following the overrun relative to the target for defence spending last year, adequate expenditure control mechanisms have been put in place to ensure that the defence budget remains within the agreed limit. This has been done, according to the GoP, after consultation with the relevant departments who will liaise closely with the defence ministry on regular basis, and the progressive monthly expenditure will be monitored closely. The outcome of this exercise, the GoP promised, will be reported on a quarterly basis to the fiscal monitoring committee of the finance ministry. In addition any virements (transfers of allocations across line items) will not be permitted without the finance ministry approval. Under the structural benchmarks criteria, the GoP is obliged to enact an anti-dumping law by end of December, "that would lead to the withdrawal of the differential excises applied to domestically produced and imported goods as an anti-dumping measure." The fiscal transparency condition obliges the GoP to establish basic reconciliation process in all provinces. Programme financing has been defined in the documents to include balance of payments support loans, including adjustment loans from multilateral creditors other than the Fund, balance of payments support from bilateral creditors, and rescheduling and arrears on medium- and long-term public and publicly guaranteed debt. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS 20001207 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Refund of F-16 payment: US offers $30 million compensation ------------------------------------------------------------------- By Hassan Akhtar ISLAMABAD Dec 6: The United States has informed Pakistan that it would endeavour to provide compensatory assistance worth $30 million in the form of goods and benefits after the end of fiscal 2000, according to a foreign ministry press release, issued here on Wednesday. The additional assistance being offered by the US administration is by way of compensation in the context of the cash payment and commodity shipments received by Pakistan in the settlement of the dispute over the refund of $467 million paid in advance for the F- 16 aircraft deal, negotiated in 1998, which failed because of the US ban. The US President, Bill Clinton, had however recognized the justification of Pakistan's demand for a refund of the amount paid by it in advance for the non-delivery of military aircraft. The US paid $327 million in cash and the balance $140 was to be provided in "goods and benefits in fiscal 1999 and 2000. The press release stated: The dispute over the refund of $467 million which Pakistan had paid in advance for the purchase of F-16 aircraft was settled by negotiations in the 1998 pursuant to agreement of December 18, 1998 - the US paid $327 million in cash. The remaining $140 million was to be provided in "goods and benefits" in fiscal 1999 and 2000. "During the year ending September 30, 1999, the US provided 300,000 tons of wheat under section 416 (b) of US law and 100,000 tons of wheat under PL-480. the price charged for 100,000 tons of wheat under PL-480 was reduced from $13 million to about $8 million, allowing for the confessional element in PL-480. The total cost, including freight for wheat under 416(b) amounted to about $60 million. That amount was debited by the US to the F-16 settlement account. "Before the end of fiscal 2000, the US proposed utilization of $80 million. The government of Pakistan decided to procure soybean and soya oil against this amount. An agreement to this effect was signed on September 1, 2000. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS 20001207 ------------------------------------------------------------------- State Bank of Pakistan to liberalize forex regime ------------------------------------------------------------------- Jawaid Bokhari KARACHI, Dec 6: The State Bank will begin to liberalize the foreign exchange regime in second half of current fiscal, that may bring some volatility in the exchange rate and may lead to countervailing measures, a tight monetary policy despite a weak economic growth, to stabilize the rupee. As it is, the government has lowered its target of economic growth for this fiscal to 4.5 per cent from 4.8 per cent last year with simultaneous estimated rise in inflation rate from 3.6 per cent to six per cent. The strategy for economic growth would take a back seat in the face of IMF-induced pursuit of illusive fiscal and exchange rate stability. Among the items on agenda stated in the Letter of Intent (LoI) submitted by Pakistan to the IMF, is a pledge to withdraw the requirement that inter-bank forex deals should be backed by approved commercial transactions, a mechanism devised to check speculation. If the deals are not linked to transactions of goods and services, currency experts say the banks can take their own positions, and along with them, traders could indulge in unfettered forward trading and hedge against future risks. With the demand for forex picking up, the rupee exchange rate would come under pressure from a rising dollar. The dollar, appreciating at the annual rate of 10 to 12 per cent, against the rupee, offers an attractive avenue for investment. The liberalization would create an environment for faster growth of dollarization. The confidence of rupee as a reserve currency would be further shaken. With the free float of the rupee and the State Bank interventions minimized or disappearing to check speculative trading, Pakistan cannot remain totally immune from the global currency trading pattern. Bulk of the daily global foreign exchange trading, whose turn-over is estimated at $2trillion, is not backed by commercial transactions of goods and services. In June 1999, authorized forex dealers were prohibited from buying and selling foreign exchange by the State Bank from/to other authorized dealers unless purchase/sale were backed by permissible transaction. Earlier, three banks took up positions that was categorized as "irresponsible behaviour". The moral suasion did not work with them though the rest of the banks did not apparently give any cause for complaint to the State Bank, apparently equipped with not a very strong monitoring system. To check speculative buying, the State Bank also issued a circular that if purchases were proved to be speculative, the losses would be borne by the buyer, but he would not be entitled to profits. Importers took the plea that they were not responsible if no shipment was made by the supplier and profits rightly belonged to them, says a banker. In case the IMF conditionality is accepted, he anticipates that profits and loss would go to the buyer. Sources said the time to withdraw the requirement of approved commercial transactions for concluding foreign deals would have to be market- dependent. The environment has to be conducive. The LoI does not set a deadline. With a low forex reserves and current level of capital inflows, such a decision would prove a disaster. And without a market-driven exchange rate, large scale funding from IMF is ruled out. This was made clear in a recent speech by the US ambassador at a seminar organized by the Management Association of Pakistan in Karachi, recently. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS 20001209 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Finance ministry told to curb 'negative attitude' ------------------------------------------------------------------- Ikram Hoti ISLAMABAD, Dec 8: The Chief Executive's Secretariat has directed the Ministry of Finance to take urgent measures and eliminate unwarranted fears of accountability in the financial sector's bureaucracy, whose "negative attitude" was undermining the government's economic agenda. In their appraisal of the performance of the financial sector's bureaucracy with regard to the government's economic revival plan, experts engaged by the CE's Secretariat have presented a report on the banking sector and the Central Board of Revenue. The report has been referred to the finance ministry. The experts have pointed out that the banks and DFIs are purposely misinterpreting the government's policy on loan defaulters. "They are bent upon closing down industry. They are causing the existing projects to sink. Industrial loans are being withheld except to a handful of people." The experts have stressed the need for a report on new findings by banks and DFIs, in order to determine the extent to which the financial institutions are supporting the new projects in the country. In a few cases where funding has been provided, it is almost totally for a few select groups, the experts point out. "DFIs particularly have nearly totally stopped funding projects and are only concentrating on recoveries of loans by using all possible means," the report indicates, adding that bankers are reluctant in approving new loans as there is an element of fear attached to the implementation of new policies by the military government (for the industrial and taxation areas). "There is a serious hesitation in the minds of many bankers with regard to the blame and responsibility for the stuck-up loans. Most bankers fear that they would be held personally responsible for issuing such loans. The FIA and NAB threats loom large. This has caused a very negative attitude in their dealing with regard to new funding and recovery of existing loans," the report says. The recent assurances by the CE to the bankers on these issues have not produced positive results, the experts suggest. "To a great extent, this hesitation among the bankers is justifiable at the lower levels, as in some banks the senior management is telling the junior officers and relationship managers, that it would be their responsibility (if they issue new loans and the same get stuck)". The "Textile Vision 2000" faces a threat from these attitudes of bankers, the report warns. The "Vision" objectives will not be achieved with such an approach. "This policy document seeks to get Pakistan's textile sector ready for the post quota barrier era. Under the new scenario,if a project was intended to be rehabilitated through threats and coercion, the exercise would indeed be fruitless and the gains of would be temporary in nature. The policy of getting a project which could not pay back loans earlier, is now being asked by the bankers to pay huge down payments, with the balance payable in a very short period, often with no capital support." Under the policy of loan repayment, "one project is allowed a rescheduling and restructuring for 12 years, while another is asked to repay within 10 days, or other such impractical conditions are imposed, in open discrimination", it points out. The report says that the new income tax laws made by the Central Board of Revenue officials, have put about 96 per cent of the tax payers in direct contact with the assessing officers resulting in direct dealing - a major cause of bribe. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS 20001209 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Current deficit up to $616m in July-Sept ------------------------------------------------------------------- Mohiuddin Aazim KARACHI, Dec 8: Pakistan's current account deficit went up to $616 million in the first quarter of this fiscal year from $468 million a year ago. Sources close to ministry of finance say the current account deficit expanded primarily due to a negative trade and services deficit. Pakistan registered a negative trade balance of $476 million in July-September this year. In the same period it also recorded a net outflow of $850 million in payments of services including shipping bills and interest payment on official debts. But the country earned $710 million in current transfers that kept the current account deficit at minus $616 million. Sources say the current transfers rose mainly due to $366 million worth of home remittances. In July-September 1999, the trade balance stood at minus $466 million and services recorded a net outflow of $658 million. In the same period the country had earned $656 million in current transfers that kept the current account deficit at minus $468 million. The current transfers also included $215 million worth of home remittances. The increase of $151 million in remittances in July-September 2000 over the same period last year seems impressive but much of this increase is because of Hajj remittances and one-time payment to those Pakistanis, who were affected by Kuwait-Iraq war of 1990s by the Kuwait government. Separate figures for the two heads are not available but sources say more than $100 million of home remittances are from these sources. Despite that home remittances show a sizable increase in July- September this year, which is indicative of some improvement in the banking system. The $710 million net current transfers in July-September 2000 also include $227 million worth of foreign exchange purchased by the State Bank from the open market. In the same period of 1999 the SBP had purchased $240 million from the open market. Bankers say the SBP refrained from purchasing more from the open market despite a compelling need just to keep the rupee stable. The rupee started sliding after the SBP had removed an unofficial cap on the exchange rates on July 20. Financial analysts say Pakistan can enhance worker remittances significantly by offering real incentives to overseas Pakistanis. They say a sharp increase in home remittances can be helpful in managing the balance of payments of the country and reducing its dependence on international financial institutions. They say increased home remittances would also enable the SBP to stop buying dollars from the open market, thereby removing distortions in its exchange rates structure that has invited criticism by the international financial institutions (IFIs) in the recent past. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS 20001208 ------------------------------------------------------------------- US court tells Pakistan to pay shipping firm ------------------------------------------------------------------- Correspondent ISLAMABAD, Dec 7: A Washington DC court has ordered the Pakistan government to immediately pay over a quarter of a million dollars to a US shipping company otherwise all its accounts and assets in US would be seized within days. The US District Court in Washington awarded the verdict against the agriculture ministry of Pakistan on Dec 4, in a case filed by the shipping company after Benazir Bhutto's government, in October 1995, made the payment to the wrong company and refused to pay the genuine party. According to a copy of district judge Royce Lamberth's judgment, faxed to Dawn by Pakistan embassy sources, Pakistan has been ordered to pay US$ 268,000 plus interest to Ned Chartering,which acted as a broker for shipment of 98,000tons of wheat from Turkey to Pakistan, purchased in early 1993. The judgment reveals that Pakistan made the payment to the wrong party "on the basis of a good faith assumption..." which the judge called as "flawed". Ned Chartering acted as broker for Horsebridge Enterprises which was awarded the shipping contract. Ninety per cent of the payments were correctly made until early 1994 when the new Benazir government had just settled in and Dr Maleeha Lodhi was appointed ambassador to Washington. Then for the remaining 10 per cent, totalling US$ 268,000, a dispute arose and the government refused to pay Ned Chartering and paid the amount to Horsebridge Enterprises in October 1995. Ned Chartering went to court against Pakistan. According to documents faxed to Dawn the judgment against Pakistan has left little ground for Islamabad to further contest the case without actually putting the entire money in a bond. In a SOS sent on Dec 6 by Farrukh Qayyum, minister of trade in the Pakistan embassy to Islamabad, a copy of which was also faxed to Dawn, directions were sought "in a day or two, as this issue is time critical." "In case steps are not taken to avoid garnishing/attachment of the government's property/the ministry of food and agriculture's account in the National Bank of Pakistan, Washington DC, will be attached and the bank will be directed to the adjudicated amount," the trade minister warned Islamabad on Wednesday. The Pakistani official was told by his attorney in Washington that even if an application was to be filed for a stay of attachment of property, or an appeal against the judgment was made, a bond equal to the adjudicated amount had to be posted. The attorney warned Pakistani officials that there were only two days to contest the judgment, out of which one day has already gone. Under the US federal rules of civil procedure the judgment is automatically stayed for 10 business days but unless a bond was posted and a stay order obtained, the assets and propertyof Pakistan will be seized beginning Dec 18, the attorney informed the officials. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS 20001208 ------------------------------------------------------------------- SBP injects Rs10.3bn: IMF target deepens liquidity crisis ------------------------------------------------------------------- Mohiuddin Aazim KARACHI, Dec 7: Money market remains tight as monetary targets tagged with the $596 million IMF loan make it difficult for the State Bank to ease off an ongoing liquidity crunch. But if the SBP is able to get some leeway from the IMF for which efforts are under way then it may contain the liquidity crisis to some extent. The SBP injected Rs 10.30 billion in the inter-bank market on Thursday but the injection had a little impact on the short term lending rates. Bankers said banks were so much short of liquidity that SBP received no bids for outright or repo sale of treasury bills at its open market operation. But it attracted Rs 15.67 billion worth of offers for purchase of treasury bills of two weeks to maturity: SBP accepted offers worth Rs 10.3 billion at 11 per cent and rejected the rest. Bankers said the modest injection helped banks to square their daily positions and no major discounting from SBP was reported. "But it had a little impact on lending rates structure," said head of a foreign bank's treasury. He said overnight repo rates opened at 12.95 per cent and fell to 11.0-11.5 per cent on news of the OMO. "But the rate shot up again to 12.50 per cent towards the end of the day." The inter-bank money market has been short of liquidity for a couple of months as an expansionary monetary policy was replaced by a tight policy in late September. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS 20001208 ------------------------------------------------------------------- EU commits 7.8m euros for drought victims ------------------------------------------------------------------- Correspondent ISLAMABAD, Dec 7: The European Union has committed 7.8 million euro (about Rs380 million) new humanitarian aid to the victims of drought in Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan. The new programme follows an earlier grant of 5.5 million euro, said a statement issued here on Thursday by the EU's office for humanitarian aid. Through the new programme the victims of the worst drought would be alleviated in 30 years in the region, it said. The drought situation has worsened and spread since July this year. This has led to significant population displacements and Echo deemed it urgent to devote additional resources to stabilize communities in their area of origin, inter alia to limit the number of displaced persons, including refugees. Echo's aid will enable victims to survive the harsh winter months until the next harvest. In Afghanistan the already difficult living conditions have worsened and the lack of food and drinking water, coupled with poor hygiene and population displacements, have increased the risk of epidemics and starvation. In Pakistan the worst affected areas are in Balochistan and Sindh - also the poorest regions where 95 per cent of the population lives below the poverty line. The affected area in Iran (Sistan/ Balochistan) is also the poorest province in the country and has a major proportion of Afghan refugees. The activities to be undertaken include aid for internally displaced persons fleeing the drought with provision of tents and emergency kits. Furthermore, the Echo's assistance will respond to food insecurity by food distribution, food for work and increasing the availability of seeds. Activities for supplying drinking water will also be funded. The present humanitarian aid grant is supplementary to the Echo's annual aid programme in Afghanistan. The Echo has, since the beginning of this year, committed 17.3 million euro (approx Rs850 million) for humanitarian purposes in the region. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS 20001207 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Paid-up capital for banks raised ------------------------------------------------------------------- Reporter KARACHI, Dec 6: The State Bank (SBP) has raised the required minimum paid-up capital of banks from Rs500 million to Rs1 billion and has asked them to raise their paid-up capital to the required level by January 1, 2003. An SBP circular (BSD 31) issued to all banks on Wednesday said banks are required to enhance their paid-up capital - net of losses - to Rs750 million on January 1, 2002 and to Rs1 billion on January 1, 2003. The circular says the minimum paid-up capital has been raised to facilitate the banks and financial institutions to strengthen their competitive ability, both domestically and internationally. It says the decision will help banks become more cost effective by upgrading their technology and eliminating avoidable expenses. The circular says the upward revision in paid-up capital will build up the equity structure of the banks to the levels, where the interests of depositors are adequately protected. It says the move will encourage the economies of scale and economies of scope. The SBP was empowered to determine the minimum paid-up capital of banks by a Presidential Ordinance issued in September, this year. Bankers say the upward revision in the minimum paid-up capital requirements will particularly force a couple of small domestic private banks to either close down or merge themselves with other banks. Following is the remaining text of the SBP circular: (a) No banking company shall be permitted to undertake a full range of financial services unless and until it has a minimum paid-up capital, net of losses, of one billion rupees on or after 1st January 2003. (b) A banking company not meeting the minimum capital requirement as set hereinabove shall stand de-scheduled and converted into a non-scheduled bank with effect from the dates as determined below: (i) On 1st January 2002, if it does not have a minimum paid-up capital, net of losses, of Rs750 million. (ii) On 1st January 2003, if it does not have a minimum paid-up capital, net of losses, of Rs1 billion. (c) Where a banking company so de-scheduled is short in meeting, the minimum capital requirement of Rs1 billion by more than 25 per cent such non-scheduled bank (NSB) shall not be eligible for collecting deposits from the individuals including partnerships/sole proprietors, or provide any financial services to individuals including sole proprietors. Such NSBs shall only be permitted to operate in inter-bank market, make investments in government securities, and finance import/export business within such limits as may be specified by the State Bank on case to case basis. (d) Where a banking company, so de-scheduled is short in meeting the minimum capital requirements of Rs1 billion by not more than 25 per cent, the State Bank on a request made to it in this behalf may allow the banking company to continue accepting deposits from their corporate/institutional depositors only upto the limit of total deposits mobilized by it as on December 31, 2000 or total outstanding deposits as on November 30, 2000, whichever is lower and provide such other support financial services as may be specifically allowed by the State Bank. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS 20001206 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Steps taken to restore investors' confidence ------------------------------------------------------------------- Correspondent ISLAMABAD, Dec 5: The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) said on Tuesday that various measures adopted to prevent market violations and introduction of automation in bourses would go a long way in restoring investor-confidence and would also help capital market play a positive role in economic development. The basic role of SECP as a regulator, it said in a statement, was to endeavour in bringing about a level playing field among market participants and to help ensure protection to investors. The commission explained its position in the context of long- persistent bearish trends in stock market and steps taken to deal with the situation. It made clear that SECP does not intend to influence the trends either way. Since the May crisis in stock market, the commission had been adopting various measures to keep the market under watch, it recalled. Then in June, managements of stock exchanges agreed to bring about improvements in the working. The steps were implemented, but partially, it noted. In view of certain developments that could have adversely affected the integrity of stock market, the commission was obliged to take a proactive stance. A number of directives were issued to prevent the precipitation of any untoward situation, it added. These measures constitute the initial phase of a series of steps the commission intends to take in order to strengthen the country's stock market and to improve the process of price discovery. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS 20001205 ------------------------------------------------------------------- CE wants privatization expedited ------------------------------------------------------------------- Bureau Report ISLAMABAD, Dec 4: Chief Executive Gen Pervez Musharraf presided over a high-level meeting here on Monday on privatization and stressed the need to accelerate the process of disinvestment in the state sector. The chief executive said that the government considers privatization as an important element for debt retirement and poverty reduction and it is committed to carrying out the process compromising on national interests. The minister for privatization Altaf M. Saleem told Dawn, that the managing directors of Pakistan State Oil (PSO), Oil and Gas Development Corporation Limited (OGDCL), Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL), and Saudi Pak Fertilizer Company also attended. They informed the meeting about their companies' position with a view to privatize them as early as possible. Answering a question he said that a decision has been taken for the privatized commercial banks to be 'corporatized' and certain percentage of their shares be sold through the stock market. He added that the purpose was to offer shares of the state sector companies to the people. A certain percentage of their shares will be offloaded in the country's stock exchanges. To another question he said that the meeting also approved a detailed disinvestment plan of the privatisation commission. He said a timetable has been fixed for the programme and that a number of new transactions including Saud Pak fertilizer will be completed in January and February 2001. The minister expressed the hope that the government would not have to face any litigation or any other problem in disinvesting the public enterprizes. He explicitly said that the public sector units would not be sold at throwaway prices and that transparency would be ensured in every deal. To a question he said the privatization of nationalized commercial banks and the Pakistan Telecommunications Company Limited (PTCL) were very much part of the new privatization plan and that things hadstarted moving in the right direction. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS 20001205 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Cabinet to consider oil price hike ------------------------------------------------------------------- Ihtashamul Haque ISLAMABAD, Dec 4: The federal cabinet is meeting here on Wednesday to consider an eight to 10 per cent increase in the petroleum prices. Official sources said here on Monday that the petroleum ministry had put up a summary to the cabinet division for getting the approval of the increase in oil prices. The increase, the sources said, had been proposed keeping in view the higher international prices, which did not stabilize during the last three months. According to an earlier decision the government was to conduct a quarterly review of the oil prices and implement them from 15th of this month. However, due to Ramazan, the cabinet will only consider the issue and any approval for increasing the oil prices will be made most probably in the second week of January next. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS 20001205 ------------------------------------------------------------------- NAB may retain 30% recovered money ------------------------------------------------------------------- Bureau Report ISLAMABAD, Dec 4: The government is considering promulgating an ordinance which would allow the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to retain up to 30 per cent of the recovered money in its accounts for rewarding "efficient" officers and modernizing the bureau by purchasing sophisticated espionage equipment. According to official sources, the law ministry has finalized a draft, which would be placed before the cabinet for approval. The ministry had earlier opposed moves for change in the rules allowing the NAB to retain a certain percentage of the recovered money in its accounts on the ground that it was not possible without the advice of the chief executive and the approval of the president and the auditor-general. The ministry, however, has been instructed by the Chief Executive Secretariat to draft the law as required by the bureau. The draft provides that in case the NAB recovered stuck up bank loans, it would be entitled to keep three per cent of the recovered money in its kitty, and in cases of tax evasion in which the record was not complete and NAB officials had to work hard to recover money, the accountability bureau would be empowered to keep 10 per cent of the recovered money. In case the bureau was able to recover any amount from those loanees who had succeeded in getting their loans written off on false pretexts, the bureau would be entitled to 20 per cent of the recovered amount. The draft legislation also provides that in case where officers of the government, in collusion with contractors and others, were able to siphon off the money and the NAB managed to detect and recover the money, it would lay claim to 25 per cent of the recovered money. In cases in which loans were extended but the records were missing and bureau officials managed to find out the fraud, the NAB would be entitled to keep 30 per cent of the recovered amount. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS 20001205 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Punjab opposes export of wheat flour to CARs ------------------------------------------------------------------- Correspondent ISLAMABAD, Dec 4: Punjab has asked the federal government to review its decision to allow export of atta, maida and bran to Afghanistan and Central Asia states through private parties, fearing it will lead to shortage of these commodities in the province. Official sources said here on Monday that the provincial government had expressed its inability to carry out the ECC decision taken last week and asked the Centre to immediately revise it as it had been taken without taking the provincial government into confidence. It has also demanded of the Centre to stop private exporters from buying flour from the open market of the province. The sources said the gravity of the situation could be judged from the fact that the Punjab food secretary, Junaid Iqbal, arrived Islamabad on Monday to convey the provincial government's concern and convince the federal authorities to reverse the ECC decision. The sources said that the provincial food secretary had a series of meetings with the agriculture ministry officials and expressed his surprise over the decision. The sources added that Mr Iqbal told the federal government that it was really interested in exporting the surplus wheat, then it should be made compulsory for all the private exporters to buy wheat only from Punjab food department and Passco. "They should not be allowed to buy these commodities from the open market", the sources quoted the provincial food secretary as saying to the federal government officials. Mr Iqbal was of the view that the federal government must have some administrative control over export of such commodities. Earlier, the ECC, which met on November 27, had decided to allow the private sector to import wheat to Afghanistan and other Central Asian countries. Initially one million tons of wheat could be exported through public and private sectors and the situation would be reviewed when 750,000 tons were actually lifted. In order to speed up the process of export of atta, maida and bran, the ECC also decided that their transaction could be made in dollar or in Pak rupee. The sources said the agriculture ministry had also supported the Punjab government's demand and had asked the cabinet division to review the ECC decision. The ministry said the provincial government's apprehension was genuine as permission to private sector to buy wheat and flour from the open market would lead to its rapid disappearance from the market. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS 20001204 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 10% custom duty on LPG waived ------------------------------------------------------------------- Correspondent ISLAMABAD, Dec 3: The government has decided to exempt the import of Liquefied Petroleum Gas from 10 per cent customs duty, said a press release issued here on Sunday. The companies importing LPG would also pay corporate tax to the government and in addition additional revenues would also be earmarked by the government in the form of general sales tax. It was expected that the volume of LPG import would rise to 70,000 tons per year. The total financial impact of exemption of 10 per cent customs duty was estimated at Rs33.07m per year and the government would earn revenue to the tune of Rs174m on GST alone which would not only offset the loss of revenue on account of customs duty waiver but would also generate additional revenue of Rs88.26m, the press release added. With the policy of deregulation of LPG prices, the import of LPG would ensure abundant availability of LPG for domestic fuel to replace kerosene, wood and natural gas in areas where gas supply was technically or economically not viable.Back to the top
EDITORIALS & FEATURES DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS 20001203 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 'The frog croaks....' ------------------------------------------------------------------- Ardeshir Cowasjee ALLAH be praised! As can be evinced from the letters and columns printed in this newspaper of record, founded by the Founder of the country, culminating in Irfan Husain's column of December 2, some have awoken. "Islam and its idealism have taught us democracy. It has taught equality of man, justice and fair play to everybody. We are the inheritors of these glorious traditions and are fully alive to our responsibilities and obligations as framers of the future constitution of Pakistan. In any case, Pakistan is not going to be a theocratic state - to be ruled by priests with a divine mission. We have many non-Muslims - Hindus, Christians and Parsis - but they are all Pakistanis. They will enjoy the same rights and privileges as any other citizens and will play their rightful part in the affairs of Pakistan." I did not say this. It was said by Mohammad Ali Jinnah, creator of Pakistan, in February 1948. Unfortunately he died before the Constitution could be framed. "Intolerance and bigotry and dogmatism are the bitterest enemies of religion upon earth. They make religion a tyrant, a persecutor, a veritable daeva, the demoniac perversion of angelic religion. The frog croaks that his well is the whole world and the bigot boasts that his is the only inspired and perfect religion. The truth and the whole truth is exclusively garnered in his religion, he avers. His religion is the crown and culmination of all religions, his religion is ordained to be the universal religion of mankind and salvation is possible only through his religion, he adds. "All bigotry is blind and stupid and savage. Sectarian bigotry is as bad as inter-religious bigotry. Bigotry stifles reason and the bigot, in his frenzy, is out to force all to believe what he believes. All religions come from one and the only God, who makes himself known by many a name." I did not say this. It was said by Shams-ul-Ulema Dastur Dr Maneckji Nusserwanji Dhalla, the high priest of the Parsis, in the first half of the 20th century. He was no ordinary preacher, he was a learned man with a PhD from Columbia University which he was awarded in 1909. "Distance makes mountains out of mere protuberances. Two centuries make an immortal giant out of very human flesh and blood. Nevertheless, in remembering and honouring the death of a great Englishman, we would do well to revive some of the very English Johnsonian Virtues that are a bit starved in our present national life. Where there is fanaticism, for Johnson's sake, let us have broadminded common sense. Where there are the caring industries, let us have compassion. When we are sure we are right, let us remember that even Whigs and Scots are human. Where we are bad- tempered and blinkered, let us remember Johnson, and not take ourselves seriously. When we are introspective and insular Little Englanders, let us copy Johnson's vision of all mortals from China to Peru, including slaves and West Indians, as equal children of God. Let us clear our minds of cant, and rant. Let us cultivate our sense of humour, and recognize that most of our sublunary schemes and preoccupations and bees in our bonnets are very laughable things." I did not say this. It was written by the Editor of The Times (London) on December 13, 1984, the 200th anniversary of the death of Dr Samuel Johnson, under the heading 'An English Saint Remembered.' "....the people are the real recipients of power. This naturally eliminates any danger of the establishment of a theocracy... In technical sense theocracy has come to mean a government by ordained priests who wield authority as being specially appointed by those who claim to derive their rights from their sacerdotal position. I cannot over-emphasize the fact that such an idea is absolutely foreign to Islam. Islam does not recognize either priesthood or any sacerdotal authority; and, therefore, the question of a theocracy simply does not arise in Islam. If there are any who still use the word theocracy in the same breath as the polity of Pakistan, they are either labouring under a grave misapprehension or indulging in mischievous propaganda....... "Therefore, there should be no misconception in the mind of any sect which may be a minority in Pakistan about the intentions of the state. The state will seek to create an Islamic society free from dissensions, but this does not mean that it would curb the freedom of any section of the Muslims in the matter of their beliefs. No sects, whether the majority or a minority, will be permitted to dictate to the others, in their own internal matters and sectional beliefs, all sects shall be given the fullest possible latitude and freedom. Actually we hope the various sects will act in accordance with the desire of the Prophet who said that the differences of opinion amongst his followers are a blessing. It is for us to make our differences a source of strength to Islam and to Pakistan and not to exploit them for our own interests which will weaken both Pakistan and Islam....... "We believe that so shackles can be put on thought, and, therefore, we do not intend to hinder any person from the expression of his views."I did not say this. It was said by our first prime minister, Liaquat Ali Khan, who was shot dead in 1951 by heathens. Liaquat said these words on March 7, 1949, the first day of the fifth session of the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan, soon after the passing by the House of the Objectives Resolution, in his address to the President, the Honourable Mr Tamizuddin Khan. The seventh paragraph of the Objectives Resolution reads: "Wherein adequate provisions shall be made for the minorities freely to profess and practise their religions and develop their cultures...." This country was born in 1947 as the Dominion of Pakistan. On March 23, 1956, the first of our constitutions was promulgated and the Dominion became the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. On October 27, 1958, the country was taken over by General Ayub Khan, the first of our Ataturks. He promulgated his constitution on March 1, 1962, as the Constitution of the Republic of Pakistan. To appease the religious elements, to try to win popularity, and with the 1964, by the First Amendment Act to his constitution Ayub Khan brought back the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. When he departed from the national scene, his Constitution went with him. Our next Constitution came on August 14, 1973. When this Constitution was amended by General Zia-ul-Haq in 1985, Article 2-A made the Objectives Resolution a substantive part of the Constitution and it was reproduced in the Annex. Mischievously, in the sentence "Wherein adequate provisions shall be made for the minorities freely to profess and practise their religion......" the word 'freely' was omitted. Now we move to the Supreme Court, the Islamic Republic's citadel of justice, which in 1997 was so shamelessly stormed by Nawaz Sharif, his aiders and abettors, for which Nawaz remains unpunished. When the present building in which the Supreme Court sits was inaugurated plaques were affixed to the walls of the entrance hall on which were engraved in English and in Urdu the text of the Objectives Resolution. In the English version, the word 'freely' was again mischievously omitted although it was contained in the Urdu version. In 1993, I made a vain attempt to get through to Chief Justice Afzal Zullah and impress upon him that the English version of the Resolution should be corrected. Then came Chief Justice Dr Nasim Hasan Shah, pronouncer of 'historical' judgments, who said he would do his best to set things right. Nothing happened. He was followed by Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah who settled the issue by having both plaques, English and Urdu, removed from the halls. No successive Chief Justice of Pakistan has seen to it that the plaques, with the corrected English version, be re-affixed. Now I am appealing to General Pervez Musharraf, our second Ataturk, to do what he can to amend the Annexture to the Constitution and to have the plaques put back in the hallowed halls. This I suggest he does whilst my friend, the Jadoogar of Jeddah, Syed Sharifuddin Pirzada, is with him to advise him. Sharifuddin is super-competent. He is adept at righting wrongs, or, when necessary, wronging rights. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS 20001208 ------------------------------------------------------------------- There is no Kashmir solution ------------------------------------------------------------------- Ayaz Amir WHAT thunderbolt must strike us from the heavens to realize that a Kashmir solution that can satisfy our concerns or preconceptions does not exist. At least not in the realm of possibility. Of course we can have a Camp David or something like the Oslo Accords on Kashmir. But then let us remember that these agreements brought not the peace of the brave but of the faint-hearted to the Middle East - the pusillanimity all lying on the Arab side. It is wrong also to say that at Camp David Egypt offered peace and got back the Sinai in return. Not only did it offer peace. It also, perforce, had to offer castration. Egyptian castration lies at the heart of the Camp David agreement. The kind of Kashmir solution that we want can come about only if India returns to the anarchy of the post-Mughal period when there was no central authority and the Mughal empire had broken up into different pieces. Only when such conditions are recreated, only if India follows the Gorbachev path of self-destruction, can we get the Kashmir solution we want. What after all do we want from Kashmir? That India should vacate the Vale and that the Vale, the heaven-on-earth of so much song, should fall to the lot of Pakistan. This will not happen till the mountains move. (I almost said till Birnam Wood doth come to Dunsinane but then thought better of it because in an age where education has become synonymous with computers the slightest allusion to literature risks charges of obscurity. So the mountains it shall have to be.) Or are we still prey to the illusion that there is an armed solution to the on- going saga of Kashmir? What about a negotiated solution then? Alas, there is none which can even remotely satisfy us. If we get not the Vale, and if India does not agree to a plebiscite, what, from our point of view, is the point of talking? If India does not budge on these two points it follows (with a logic writ in iron) that any negotiations on Kashmir will ultimately boil down to Pakistan offering unilateral concessions: no support to the Kashmiri freedom struggle, thus giving India a free hand to deal with the Kashmiri freedom struggle on its own terms. This precisely is the dilemma we face: that neither arms nor talks hold the promise, or even the illusion, of a solution. But a dilemma washed with Kashmiri blood and buttressed with subcontinental foolishness, Kashmir being the third great example of modern subcontinental folly, the other two being (1) the events leading up to the partition of India and (2) the birth of Bangladesh. Who forced partition? Contrary to the myths surrounding that seminal event, not Jinnah or the Muslim League. If anyone amongst the great Indian leaders had a modern or secular outlook it was Jinnah, leagues ahead in this regard of the confused and half-baked socialist in Nehru. What Jinnah and the Muslims wanted were safeguards so that their interests (material interests) should not be trampled underfoot by the Hindu majority. From 1920 onwards the history of Indian politics attests to the inability or the unwillingness of the Congress under Gandhi's leadership to address these Muslim concerns. Furthermore, it was Gandhi not Jinnah who couched politics in religious terms. So who was the fundamentalist between them? Certainly not Jinnah who never spoke the language of Muslim revivalism, that not being a problem in his mind. It was Gandhi who after Vivekananda was the great avatar of Hindu revivalism. To his everlasting credit he thereby was able to reach down to the Hindu masses and make a mass party of the Congress. But he refused to see, till it was too late, that there was also a communal problem in India. This, and not the narrow-mindedness which Indian writers ascribe to the Muslim League, was the basis of partition. Anyone having doubts on this score can do worse than read Azad's 'India Wins Freedom'. Azad indeed, looking at the reaction of Nehru and Patel to the Cabinet Mission Plan (which envisaged a united or confederal India), calls Patel the father of partition. The second great folly was ours in East Pakistan. Bangladesh was not born because of Shaikh Mujibur Rahman, the East Pakistan Rifles, the Mukti Bahini or even the Indian army. It was born out of the stupidity and arrogance of West Pakistan. The third great subcontinental folly is being enacted by India in Kashmir. India had fifty years to win over the Kashmiris. But it failed even to satisfy Shaikh Abdullah whose sympathies lay with India not Pakistan. From 1972 to 1989 Pakistan just forgot about Kashmir. Firstly, because it had the loss of East Pakistan to come to terms with. Secondly, because Zia was embroiled in Afghanistan. Were not 18 years long enough to woo the Kashmiris and bind them to Mother India? They would have been if Indian policy had been driven by statesmanship rather than by a search for petty and short-term advantages. Scapegoats and bogeys are comforting things because they are alibis for failure. How easy to pin the blame for everything on the ISI. But the unrest in Kashmir was never the ISI's creation. It arose out of the same smallness of spirit, in degree if not in scope, which the Congress leadership displayed in the run-up to 1947. In more ways than one, the subcontinent remains a slave to its past. But none of this history resolves the Pakistani dilemma over Kashmir: to fight or to talk? Fighting will get us nowhere and talking, given the facts, can only lead to another castration, this time of Pakistan, at American hands. What then to do? The first necessity is to liberate the Kashmiri resistance from the clutches of fundamentalism. If the Kashmiris in the Valley want to fight for their liberation we have a moral duty to help them, not just with the empty rhetoric of diplomacy but with arms and materiel. Of this duty we are not absolved even by the risk of international censure or lectures read to us by mid-ranking functionaries of the State Department. But if the Kashmiris want to talk to India that should be their sovereign decision without anyone in Pakistan getting upset by such a development. In short, it is not for us to tell the Kashmiris what to do or how to go about their struggle. That should be for them to decide. We tried directing and remote-controlling the Afghan jihad. Look what a mess we made of it. We have no business replicating the same experience in Kashmir. But if we are to ensure that the Kashmiri resistance does not go the way of the Afghan 'jehad' - fragmented, increasingly ineffective and prone to internecine warfare - we will have to liberate ourselves from the insidious appeal of holy warriorism. Because of our Afghan involvement there are too many confused souls in our intelligence establishment who believe that an Islamic empire is out there waiting to be created. They forget that while faith was an important factor in Afghanistan, so too were Stinger missiles and Saudi and American dollars. In this context, it is hard to figure out which is the more dangerous or mentally- contricting: the Hamid Gul or the Jamaat-i-Islami schools of thought? Both have to be eradicated if anything like sanity and good sense are to be restored to our higher decision-making. But an all-important caveat: reining in the demons of fundamentalism should not mean succumbing to the dictates and prejudices of the State Department. It should not mean abandoning our stand on Kashmir or following the American agenda in Afghanistan. For Kashmir's sake we should not imperil our own security. Or put upon ourselves a burden we cannot carry. But neither should we abandon our principled stand. It is important to grasp the distinction between being rash and consistent. We must do the right thing because that is in our interests and because common sense so dictates. Not simply to appease distant godfathers. In any case, concessions made by the weak are never put down to wisdom. Always to necessity. Let us by all means get off the high horse of messianism in Kashmir and Afghanistan. But let us beware also of thoughtless concessions. We won't get thirty pieces of silver for them. But above all let us hasten to put our internal house in order. Only when steadiness and a sense of purpose reside there can steadfastness and a measure of wisdom enter our foreign crusades. If not, we will keep being rigid where we should bend. And be weak and compliant where we need to stand tall. WHAT thunderbolt must strike us from the heavens to realize that a Kashmir solution that can satisfy our concerns or preconceptions does not exist. At least not in the realm of possibility. Of course we can have a Camp David or something like the Oslo Accords on Kashmir. But then let us remember that these agreements brought not the peace of the brave but of the faint-hearted to the Middle East - the pusillanimity all lying on the Arab side. It is wrong also to say that at Camp David Egypt offered peace and got back the Sinai in return. Not only did it offer peace. It also, perforce, had to offer castration. Egyptian castration lies at the heart of the Camp David agreement. The kind of Kashmir solution that we want can come about only if India returns to the anarchy of the post-Mughal period when there was no central authority and the Mughal empire had broken up into different pieces. Only when such conditions are recreated, only if India follows the Gorbachev path of self-destruction, can we get the Kashmir solution we want. What after all do we want from Kashmir? That India should vacate the Vale and that the Vale, the heaven-on-earth of so much song, should fall to the lot of Pakistan. This will not happen till the mountains move. (I almost said till Birnam Wood doth come to Dunsinane but then thought better of it because in an age where education has become synonymous with computers the slightest allusion to literature risks charges of obscurity. So the mountains it shall have to be.) Or are we still prey to the illusion that there is an armed solution to the on- going saga of Kashmir? What about a negotiated solution then? Alas, there is none which can even remotely satisfy us. If we get not the Vale, and if India does not agree to a plebiscite, what, from our point of view, is the point of talking? If India does not budge on these two points it follows (with a logic writ in iron) that any negotiations on Kashmir will ultimately boil down to Pakistan offering unilateral concessions: no support to the Kashmiri freedom struggle, thus giving India a free hand to deal with the Kashmiri freedom struggle on its own terms. This precisely is the dilemma we face: that neither arms nor talks hold the promise, or even the illusion, of a solution. But a dilemma washed with Kashmiri blood and buttressed with subcontinental foolishness, Kashmir being the third great example of modern subcontinental folly, the other two being (1) the events leading up to the partition of India and (2) the birth of Bangladesh. Who forced partition? Contrary to the myths surrounding that seminal event, not Jinnah or the Muslim League. If anyone amongst the great Indian leaders had a modern or secular outlook it was Jinnah, leagues ahead in this regard of the confused and half-baked socialist in Nehru. What Jinnah and the Muslims wanted were safeguards so that their interests (material interests) should not be trampled underfoot by the Hindu majority. From 1920 onwards the history of Indian politics attests to the inability or the unwillingness of the Congress under Gandhi's leadership to address these Muslim concerns. Furthermore, it was Gandhi not Jinnah who couched politics in religious terms. So who was the fundamentalist between them? Certainly not Jinnah who never spoke the language of Muslim revivalism, that not being a problem in his mind. It was Gandhi who after Vivekananda was the great avatar of Hindu revivalism. To his everlasting credit he thereby was able to reach down to the Hindu masses and make a mass party of the Congress. But he refused to see, till it was too late, that there was also a communal problem in India. This, and not the narrow-mindedness which Indian writers ascribe to the Muslim League, was the basis of partition. Anyone having doubts on this score can do worse than read Azad's 'India Wins Freedom'. Azad indeed, looking at the reaction of Nehru and Patel to the Cabinet Mission Plan (which envisaged a united or confederal India), calls Patel the father of partition. The second great folly was ours in East Pakistan. Bangladesh was not born because of Shaikh Mujibur Rahman, the East Pakistan Rifles, the Mukti Bahini or even the Indian army. It was born out of the stupidity and arrogance of West Pakistan. The third great subcontinental folly is being enacted by India in Kashmir. India had fifty years to win over the Kashmiris. But it failed even to satisfy Shaikh Abdullah whose sympathies lay with India not Pakistan. From 1972 to 1989 Pakistan just forgot about Kashmir. Firstly, because it had the loss of East Pakistan to come to terms with. Secondly, because Zia was embroiled in Afghanistan. Were not 18 years long enough to woo the Kashmiris and bind them to Mother India? They would have been if Indian policy had been driven by statesmanship rather than by a search for petty and short-term advantages. Scapegoats and bogeys are comforting things because they are alibis for failure. How easy to pin the blame for everything on the ISI. But the unrest in Kashmir was never the ISI's creation. It arose out of the same smallness of spirit, in degree if not in scope, which the Congress leadership displayed in the run-up to 1947. In more ways than one, the subcontinent remains a slave to its past. But none of this history resolves the Pakistani dilemma over Kashmir: to fight or to talk? Fighting will get us nowhere and talking, given the facts, can only lead to another castration, this time of Pakistan, at American hands. What then to do? The first necessity is to liberate the Kashmiri resistance from the clutches of fundamentalism. If the Kashmiris in the Valley want to fight for their liberation we have a moral duty to help them, not just with the empty rhetoric of diplomacy but with arms and materiel. Of this duty we are not absolved even by the risk of international censure or lectures read to us by mid-ranking functionaries of the State Department. But if the Kashmiris want to talk to India that should be their sovereign decision without anyone in Pakistan getting upset by such a development. In short, it is not for us to tell the Kashmiris what to do or how to go about their struggle. That should be for them to decide. We tried directing and remote-controlling the Afghan jihad. Look what a mess we made of it. We have no business replicating the same experience in Kashmir. But if we are to ensure that the Kashmiri resistance does not go the way of the Afghan 'jehad' - fragmented, increasingly ineffective and prone to internecine warfare - we will have to liberate ourselves from the insidious appeal of holy warriorism. Because of our Afghan involvement there are too many confused souls in our intelligence establishment who believe that an Islamic empire is out there waiting to be created. They forget that while faith was an important factor in Afghanistan, so too were Stinger missiles and Saudi and American dollars. In this context, it is hard to figure out which is the more dangerous or mentally- contricting: the Hamid Gul or the Jamaat-i-Islami schools of thought? Both have to be eradicated if anything like sanity and good sense are to be restored to our higher decision-making. But an all-important caveat: reining in the demons of fundamentalism should not mean succumbing to the dictates and prejudices of the State Department. It should not mean abandoning our stand on Kashmir or following the American agenda in Afghanistan. For Kashmir's sake we should not imperil our own security. Or put upon ourselves a burden we cannot carry. But neither should we abandon our principled stand. It is important to grasp the distinction between being rash and consistent. We must do the right thing because that is in our interests and because common sense so dictates. Not simply to appease distant godfathers. In any case, concessions made by the weak are never put down to wisdom. Always to necessity. Let us by all means get off the high horse of messianism in Kashmir and Afghanistan. But let us beware also of thoughtless concessions. We won't get thirty pieces of silver for them. But above all let us hasten to put our internal house in order. Only when steadiness and a sense of purpose reside there can steadfastness and a measure of wisdom enter our foreign crusades. If not, we will keep being rigid where we should bend. And be weak and compliant where we need to stand tall. WHAT thunderbolt must strike us from the heavens to realize that a Kashmir solution that can satisfy our concerns or preconceptions does not exist. At least not in the realm of possibility. Of course we can have a Camp David or something like the Oslo Accords on Kashmir. But then let us remember that these agreements brought not the peace of the brave but of the faint-hearted to the Middle East - the pusillanimity all lying on the Arab side. It is wrong also to say that at Camp David Egypt offered peace and got back the Sinai in return. Not only did it offer peace. It also, perforce, had to offer castration. Egyptian castration lies at the heart of the Camp David agreement. The kind of Kashmir solution that we want can come about only if India returns to the anarchy of the post-Mughal period when there was no central authority and the Mughal empire had broken up into different pieces. Only when such conditions are recreated, only if India follows the Gorbachev path of self-destruction, can we get the Kashmir solution we want. What after all do we want from Kashmir? That India should vacate the Vale and that the Vale, the heaven-on-earth of so much song, should fall to the lot of Pakistan. This will not happen till the mountains move. (I almost said till Birnam Wood doth come to Dunsinane but then thought better of it because in an age where education has become synonymous with computers the slightest allusion to literature risks charges of obscurity. So the mountains it shall have to be.) Or are we still prey to the illusion that there is an armed solution to the on- going saga of Kashmir? What about a negotiated solution then? Alas, there is none which can even remotely satisfy us. If we get not the Vale, and if India does not agree to a plebiscite, what, from our point of view, is the point of talking? If India does not budge on these two points it follows (with a logic writ in iron) that any negotiations on Kashmir will ultimately boil down to Pakistan offering unilateral concessions: no support to the Kashmiri freedom struggle, thus giving India a free hand to deal with the Kashmiri freedom struggle on its own terms. This precisely is the dilemma we face: that neither arms nor talks hold the promise, or even the illusion, of a solution. But a dilemma washed with Kashmiri blood and buttressed with subcontinental foolishness, Kashmir being the third great example of modern subcontinental folly, the other two being (1) the events leading up to the partition of India and (2) the birth of Bangladesh. Who forced partition? Contrary to the myths surrounding that seminal event, not Jinnah or the Muslim League. If anyone amongst the great Indian leaders had a modern or secular outlook it was Jinnah, leagues ahead in this regard of the confused and half-baked socialist in Nehru. What Jinnah and the Muslims wanted were safeguards so that their interests (material interests) should not be trampled underfoot by the Hindu majority. From 1920 onwards the history of Indian politics attests to the inability or the unwillingness of the Congress under Gandhi's leadership to address these Muslim concerns. Furthermore, it was Gandhi not Jinnah who couched politics in religious terms. So who was the fundamentalist between them? Certainly not Jinnah who never spoke the language of Muslim revivalism, that not being a problem in his mind. It was Gandhi who after Vivekananda was the great avatar of Hindu revivalism. To his everlasting credit he thereby was able to reach down to the Hindu masses and make a mass party of the Congress. But he refused to see, till it was too late, that there was also a communal problem in India. This, and not the narrow-mindedness which Indian writers ascribe to the Muslim League, was the basis of partition. Anyone having doubts on this score can do worse than read Azad's 'India Wins Freedom'. Azad indeed, looking at the reaction of Nehru and Patel to the Cabinet Mission Plan (which envisaged a united or confederal India), calls Patel the father of partition. The second great folly was ours in East Pakistan. Bangladesh was not born because of Shaikh Mujibur Rahman, the East Pakistan Rifles, the Mukti Bahini or even the Indian army. It was born out of the stupidity and arrogance of West Pakistan. The third great subcontinental folly is being enacted by India in Kashmir. India had fifty years to win over the Kashmiris. But it failed even to satisfy Shaikh Abdullah whose sympathies lay with India not Pakistan. From 1972 to 1989 Pakistan just forgot about Kashmir. Firstly, because it had the loss of East Pakistan to come to terms with. Secondly, because Zia was embroiled in Afghanistan. Were not 18 years long enough to woo the Kashmiris and bind them to Mother India? They would have been if Indian policy had been driven by statesmanship rather than by a search for petty and short-term advantages. Scapegoats and bogeys are comforting things because they are alibis for failure. How easy to pin the blame for everything on the ISI. But the unrest in Kashmir was never the ISI's creation. It arose out of the same smallness of spirit, in degree if not in scope, which the Congress leadership displayed in the run-up to 1947. In more ways than one, the subcontinent remains a slave to its past. But none of this history resolves the Pakistani dilemma over Kashmir: to fight or to talk? Fighting will get us nowhere and talking, given the facts, can only lead to another castration, this time of Pakistan, at American hands. What then to do? The first necessity is to liberate the Kashmiri resistance from the clutches of fundamentalism. If the Kashmiris in the Valley want to fight for their liberation we have a moral duty to help them, not just with the empty rhetoric of diplomacy but with arms and materiel. Of this duty we are not absolved even by the risk of international censure or lectures read to us by mid-ranking functionaries of the State Department. But if the Kashmiris want to talk to India that should be their sovereign decision without anyone in Pakistan getting upset by such a development. In short, it is not for us to tell the Kashmiris what to do or how to go about their struggle. That should be for them to decide. We tried directing and remote-controlling the Afghan jihad. Look what a mess we made of it. We have no business replicating the same experience in Kashmir. But if we are to ensure that the Kashmiri resistance does not go the way of the Afghan 'jehad' - fragmented, increasingly ineffective and prone to internecine warfare - we will have to liberate ourselves from the insidious appeal of holy warriorism. Because of our Afghan involvement there are too many confused souls in our intelligence establishment who believe that an Islamic empire is out there waiting to be created. They forget that while faith was an important factor in Afghanistan, so too were Stinger missiles and Saudi and American dollars. In this context, it is hard to figure out which is the more dangerous or mentally- contricting: the Hamid Gul or the Jamaat-i-Islami schools of thought? Both have to be eradicated if anything like sanity and good sense are to be restored to our higher decision-making. But an all-important caveat: reining in the demons of fundamentalism should not mean succumbing to the dictates and prejudices of the State Department. It should not mean abandoning our stand on Kashmir or following the American agenda in Afghanistan. For Kashmir's sake we should not imperil our own security. Or put upon ourselves a burden we cannot carry. But neither should we abandon our principled stand. It is important to grasp the distinction between being rash and consistent. We must do the right thing because that is in our interests and because common sense so dictates. Not simply to appease distant godfathers. In any case, concessions made by the weak are never put down to wisdom. Always to necessity. Let us by all means get off the high horse of messianism in Kashmir and Afghanistan. But let us beware also of thoughtless concessions. We won't get thirty pieces of silver for them. But above all let us hasten to put our internal house in order. Only when steadiness and a sense of purpose reside there can steadfastness and a measure of wisdom enter our foreign crusades. If not, we will keep being rigid where we should bend. And be weak and compliant where we need to stand tall. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS 20001209 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Straws in the wind ------------------------------------------------------------------- Irfan Husain IT'S NOT often that the window of opportunity for a settlement in Kashmir is open even a few inches. All the more reason to force it wider while we have the chance. This long-jammed window opened briefly in 1989 when Benazir Bhutto and Rajiv Gandhi met in Islamabad and came close to an understanding over the vexing Siachin Glacier. Unfortunately, India soon backed out and the following year Benazir Bhutto's government was toppled with army support. Around the same time, the decade- long Kashmiri resistance began. Ten years and 30,000 lives later, the window opened again when the prime ministers of the two countries met in Lahore to try and sort out the festering conflict that has kept relations between the two countries at flashpoint. Within weeks of this historic meeting, the Kargil misadventure was launched with disastrous consequences. One of the casualties of that ill-conceived military action was Nawaz Sharif's government. The recent announcement from New Delhi regarding a ceasefire during Ramazan was soon matched by a Pakistani decision to exercise 'maximum restraint' on the Line of Control dividing the two armies in Kashmir. There has been talk in India about extending this ceasefire after Ramazan. Predictably, suspicion has been voiced on both sides, but the fact that this initiative has been launched and reciprocated is to be welcomed, and, if possible, used as a stepping-stone to a more durable peace. One problem that has prevented the right kind of atmospherics from being created is the knee-jerk reaction to any suggestion of an amicable solution to the Kashmir crisis on both sides. A Pakistani diplomat will start intoning the UN Security Council resolutions on Kashmir in his sleep, while his Indian counterpart will launch into a long catalogue of the wrongs Pakistan has committed, and how Kashmir is 'an integral part' of India. While both viewpoints may have a certain validity, neither is very helpful in moving the debate forward. The armed forces and intelligence services on both sides have a vested interest in keeping the conflict on the boil, and neither has permitted a resolution of the conflict. However, the recent straws in the wind suggest that there is some rethinking in both capitals, and this has led to a certain amount of guarded optimism in pacifists like me who believe that this country can only come out of its slump by sorting out the Kashmir imbroglio. The dictates of both economics and geography demand that we improve ties with India. I have often suggested that India's insistence that it would only talk to an elected government missed the point that in Pakistan, it is the army that has traditionally called the shots on Kashmir. It follows that now is the best time for New Delhi to talk to Islamabad. One reason why both Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif fell foul of the army was that both of them, at one time or another, attempted to come to terms with reality and improve ties with India. But with the army in the saddle, now is the time to reach an understanding. Just as it took Nixon, a Republican, right-wing politician, to recognize Communist China, it will take a general to reach an understanding with India. Some elements in and out of the military government have voiced disappointment over India's refusal to agree to tripartite talks with the Kashmiri groups and Pakistan. The point to remember here is that the Simla Agreement calls for bilateral talks between the two countries to resolve disputes. Initially, India and Pakistan could start talks, and once some progress has been made on setting the broad outlines on how they are to proceed, separate discussions can be held with Kashmiri representatives. The fact is that the latter do not (yet) speak for a sovereign entity, and therefore should not demand to be treated as such. While Kashmir is the bone of contention, we cannot allow the tail to wag the dog, to mix a metaphor. The dispute has gone on too long and too many lives have been lost to surrender once more to posturing and pride. One possible formula that has been discussed for years calls for India to keep the parts of Jammu and Kashmir that have a Buddhist/Hindu majority; Azad Kashmir with its Muslim majority would stay with Pakistan; and the Valley would become independent. Open borders, the withdrawal of all troops and the disarmament of independent jihadi outfits would be part of the deal. This way, each of the three parties would get something and have to surrender a part of their initial demand. This is the essence of negotiating a settlement of a long-standing problem. Indians might argue that they stand to lose more than they gain. But with open borders, their tourists and traders would be able to enter the Valley at will. Another standing Indian objection is that a change in the status quo could mean an end to the Indian Union as well as the secular character of the state. Give me a break. Everybody knows that the Kashmiri problem is unique, and has no bearing on secessionist struggles in other parts of India. The separate character of Kashmir is enshrined in the Indian constitution. If we are to break free from yesterday's mantras and make a new beginning, everybody concerned needs to stop repeating tired old cliches and get real.Similarly, Pakistanis have to come to terms with the fact that violence will not win them Kashmir. We have fought two-and-a-half wars with India over the disputed territory, and now with the induction of nuclear weapons, war is no longer a sane option, if it ever was one. The current low-intensity proxy battle being waged has been devastating for the very Kashmiris whose cause we are espousing, and has gained us international condemnation to boot. The simple truth is that the current lethal stalemate is a no-win situation for all three parties to the dispute. Kashmiri jihadi groups will have to face the fact that their struggle is now counter-productive: the rest of the world is not going to lean on India to walk out of the Valley. These truths may be unpalatable to many people, but they have to be faced if we want peace in the subcontinent. Another factor that needs to be kept in mind is that many of the actors in open and backdoor negotiations have lost all credibility on both sides. Perhaps it would be better to initiate a quiet exploratory dialogue out of the limelight between a small group of individuals who hold no official positions and are respected on both sides. They could see how much flexibility there is in each other's position without having to repeat familiar, official positions. Whatever the modality the two sides choose, they must seize the moment.
SPORTS DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS 20001209 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Pakistan lose their grip on the Test ------------------------------------------------------------------- Samiul Hasan KARACHI, Dec 8: Pakistan let England off the hook in the third and final cricket Test when they failed to capitalize on their overnight position of strength to be dismissed for 405 on the second day of the third and final Test at the National Stadium here on Friday. Pakistan lost their last seven wickets for 82 runs after resuming this morning at 292 for three to surrender an opportunity of posting a mammoth first innings total and putting the tourists under psychological pressure. England, who started their reply almost half-an-hour before tea, finished the day's play at 78 for one with Michael Atherton unbeaten on a confident but attractive 43. With him was skipper Nasser Hussain on 13 who came out to bat after Imran Nazir took a blinder at gully off Waqar Younis to dismiss Marcus Trescothick. Pakistan's trademark inconsistency lingered which increased the prospects of yet another high scoring draw against the tourists. The wicket had no demons. In fact, it looked featherbed for batsmen and it was a case of poor stroke selection that led to the downfall of almost all the batsmen. Unfortunately that has been the story all through the series despite the fact that country's most successful batsman is the coach of the team. One wonders what guidance the batsmen are getting from Javed Miandad as there has been some individual brilliance in the series but no collective effort. This Test is a case in point in which Inzamam scored 142 and Youhana contributed 117 to be the only big run-getters. The discipline was missing, application and concentration were factors which appeared nonexistent watching Pakistan batters. Until these crucial points come into play in Pakistan batting, the present scenario would continue and Pakistan would win game here and there but never be in the same bracket as of Australia. England left-arm spinner Ashley Giles, who was hit out for 52 off his 15 wicketless overs on the first day, captured four cheap wickets to finish as the tourists most successful bowler with four for 94. He probably would have added more had Michael Atherton, Graham Thorpe and Marcus Trescothick not dropped catches off his bowling. Saqlain Mushtaq and Waqar Younis, who were the beneficiaries, later found their stumps uprooted by Darren Gough. The Yorkshireman was rewarded for his untiring efforts on an unsupportive track with three for 82 from 27.4 overs. Pakistan's main hopes of a big first innings total rested on the shoulders of Inzamam-ul-Haq and Yousuf Youhana who had played brilliantly last evening to finish unbeaten at 123 and 104 respectively. But both the stroke-makers fell to over-adventurous shots. Yousuf Youhana, who was first to go, hit a Giles losener back to the bowler who brought off an eye-catching one-handed reflex action catch low on his weaker arm. Two runs later, Inzamam perished to a casual drive off Craig Whites' first delivery of the day to leave Trescothick hold a good. The dismissal of the two batsmen pressed the panic button in the Pakistan camp as the batsmen came in and returned as if they were in a hurry. There seemed to be no purpose behind their batting. Moin Khan created some hunky dory in the field with his nudges, pushes and quick running between the wickets. But then he attempted a delicate push against the spin one too many and found the leading edge to be caught by Graeme Hick at mid-on. Shahid Afridi's lucky survival in this Test in a spate of failures lasted just 14 deliveries when he made a fool of himself by offering no stroke to a straight delivery from Giles and finding the red cherry shattering the furniture behind him. Afridi's dismissal was a perfect example of the lack of technique of the Pakistan batsmen who actually don't know where their off-stump is when they bat which consequently lead to their dismissals behind wickets or in leg before wickets. ------------------------------------------------------------------- You can subscribe to DWS by sending an email to <subscribe.dws@dawn.com>, with the following text in the BODY of your message: subscribe dws To unsubscribe, send an email to <unsubscribe.dws@dawn.com>, with the following in the BODY of you message: unsubscribe dws ------------------------------------------------------------------- Back to the top.
Dawn page
Webbed by Philip McEldowney
Last update:
.