Government jobs

Shahryar Khan Baseer

Government jobs in Pakistan are almost always filled with candidates affiliated with the ruling party. Most of these newly hired personnel are incompetent and since most of them pay heavy bribes to the ruling government for these posts, they end up being very corrupt workers. These are the people who have made our government offices ineffective and these are the people who practice corruption and illegal activities in the society. Hiring of ineffective people through bribes and “Safarish” on public posts must be stopped and all posts must be filled through FPSC.—Peshawar

Musharraf’s claim

Anwar Jalal

In his latest interview to TV channels (Express News) the other day (Sept 13) besides other things Musharraf claimed that he did not want to overthrow Nawaz Sharif government but was compelled to do so. Here one wonder that either it were really some national security circumstances which compelled, as claimed by him, or it were just personal reasons? Regarding national situation probably no impartial person will dispute that there exist such circumstances which could be considered as threatening or worst where intervention by army under Pervez Musharraf was need of the hour. The government of Nawaz Sharif was having 2/3 majority in Parliament not facing any law & order situation, economic crisis or mass agitation against it. Nor there were some external threats to the country.

So the reason or pretext of national situation does not sound valid. His intervention and overthrowing the democratic government of Nawaz Sharif was exclusively on personal grounds. Pervez Musharraf is on record having stated on different occasions that had Nawaz Sharif not removed him from his post he (Nawaz Sharif) still would have been Prime Minister. This view he has even stated in his book “In the line of fire”.It clearly show that Pervez Musharraf act of over throwing the elected government of Nawaz Sharif was wholly on personal reasons. Now it is up to the people of Pakistan and also the judiciary to decide that either overthrowing of a democratic government for personal reasons can be justified and secondly if such act should not be taken seriously for the greater interests of justice and democracy? —Peshawar

Population and terrorism

Gulsher Panhwer

In Pakistan’s context, factors responsible for unrestrained population growth which are also responsible for thwarting governments every attempt for slashing it, include illiteracy, religious factor, desire for male child etc. had the Pakistan’s successive governments took the warning of the experts seriously, including one from late Mahbob-u-lhaq, who in 80s, compared the high growth of population with the ticking Bomb that could explode any time, the situations would not have been as dismal as it is today.

Government of Pakistan, without further loss of time should treat the menace of population explosion as seriously as the threat of terrorism. First it should activate dormant population department. Government should also mobilize and motivate religious scholars, majority of whom are either unaware about the research in other Muslim states, where family planning methods are being declared as the need of the hour, or they indulge in double standards. With noble exception majority of religious scholars in the country advocate family planning during official seminars and fiercely oppose it during their interaction with public.

Education and employment opportunities especially for females are most affective weapon against the population raise. It has been proved that the boys and girls who avail higher education and seek jobs have very small number of children after their mirages. Even those couples whose one spouse is employed at the lower scale jobs also bear, in majority cases not more than two or three children. This trend is self restraint and need based, not the result of any efforts of Ministry/ department of population welfare, as those on job or during study avoid marriage despite intense pressure from their parents and understand that it would be extremely difficult for them take care of their children. It is impossible to decrease the population drastically in short runs.

To cope with the large number of people government must invest in human development by establishing quality educational and technical/ vocational institutions. After absorbing required number in national job market government can plan exporting the skilled and unskilled human resource to western countries where there is acute shortage of skilled manpower due their aging population. Thus implementing the above mention and other strategies government can convert the large number of unemployed workforce from liability to assets and would be able to control uneven population growth in future, be better placed to control the hydra headed problems of terrorism extremism and income imbalances etc. what is needed is firm resolve and sincerity on the part of the government and society at large. —Via email

Article misses objectivity

Ehsan Mehmood Khan

In July 2009, Dr Larry P Goodson in an article “Pakistan – the Most Dangerous Place in the World” written for the Strategic Studies Institute of the US Army War College cited five reasons to support his thesis: First, that Pakistan is a nuclear country with at least 60 warheads and a history as a known proliferator; Second, Pakistan has become the epicentre of Islamist extremism; Third, Pakistan is a teeming Third World country of substantial poverty and underdevelopment, beset by moribund socioeconomic institutions; Fourth, Pakistan’s hopelessly ineffective government has little chance of fixing its domestic problems; and Fifth, some 80 percent of supplies for the US-led military coalition in Afghanistan flows through or over Pakistani territory, which also serves as a base of operations for some of the anti-coalition fighters. Remaining of the Goodson’s article is full of usual rhetoric on poverty, politico-institutional problems and extremism in Pakistan. He also fulfils the obligation of referring to the size of Pakistan’s armed forces and its military budget, not unlike other constituents of the Western intelligentsia.

Larry Goodson misses a number of points. In first place, the article smells subjectivity rather than objectivity. If possession of nuclear weapons was to do anything with a state to be dangerous, then Russia with nearly 13,000 nuclear warheads would have been the most dangerous country in the world and USA with 9,400 warheads would have been the next in line. By the standards of Goodson , Israel would have been much more dangerous than Pakistan with (estimated) 80 warheads, some over 10 warheads after each million of its 7.3 million inhabitants. Possession of nukes does not make a country dangerous; it creates room for a nuclear weapons state to play a definitive role in the comity of nations thereby making it globally responsible and accountable. Insofar as the extremism oratory is concerned, Pakistan has nothing iconic in this regard. Extremism is a global issue while terrorism is a trans-national phenomenon.

Those involved in it maintain that they are countering the USA’s anti-Muslim policies. One would tend to suggest Goodson and the likes that, instead of maligning Pakistan or any other country of lodging extremism or terrorism, they should respond to the line of reasoning maintained by the militant elements with regard to the US policies! To remind, a number of US policy makers and men of opinion have consented that the problems facing Pakistan today are produce of the erstwhile US policies especially the way it engaged with Pakistan in the course of Soviet war on Afghanistan, the manner it disengaged from it thereafter and its current forays into Afghanistan.

The third point that Goodson has made is that of poverty and underdevelopment in Pakistan. Nothing new to the planet earth! Today, better part of Asia and most of the Sub-Saharan countries have yet to come up to the development benchmarks, though fewer, achieved by Pakistan. Are they all dangerous?—Washington DC, US

Simply intriguing

Marya Mufti

After Brig Imtiaz’s (R) intriguing disclosures on Jinnahpur, one can smell the rat in opening yet another useless debate on ‘bloody civilians’ issue that seems aiming to distort the well restored image of the armed forces. Probably some of us are deliberately dragging the institution into meddling-in role which it has quite astutely called off ever since Gen. Kayani took over as COAS. Not only he called back military personnel from governmental posts, stopped the military brass from meeting politicians, ordered agencies not to stage-maneuver the general elections, etc – the sacrifices of jawans and officers and successes achieved under his command in the war against terror have greatly helped in restoring the image of our military that had gone down during the last many years.

The term ‘bloody civilians’ is being misquoted without checking its historical background, which in the post-colonial times exists nowhere because inside the military uniform is very much an equally concerned citizen and a patriotic Pakistani vis a vis the rest of the nation that is at war against terror from within and without. The toll, sweat and blood offered by our jawans and officers and the huge cost borne by the nation is ample proof of it. Such a debate at this point of time is simply intriguing. —Lahore

Quetta

Muzaffarabad

Online Edition