Winter season has at last set in yet the lingering power load
shedding persists and continues in an unabated manner. This is one
of the many “gifts” to the masses by their democratically and
popularly elected civilian government of President Asif Ali Zardari
and Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani. Eversince the PPP led
coalition regime came into power about one and half years, it has
been blaming the previous government of PML (QA)for the crisis. One
is reminded of the fact that the concept of the IPPs during the PPP
government of prime minister Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto. But it has now
failed to tackle the IPPs to ensure uninterrupted power supply to
the people whereas the former government of President General Pervez
Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz had some how handled the
IPPs affairs effectively. No doubt, there was also power load
shedding but mainly in summer months and that too for smaller
durations by and large. People at large are just rightly wondering
that if the previous regime could manage to keep the IPPs under its
thumb then why the present government has not been able to do so and
ensure regular power supply to the domestic, commercial and
industrial consumers all over the country despite being the
“innovator” of the IPPs in Pakistan. Instead of opting for the
construction of the multi-purpose Kalabagh Dam, which could ensure
power and water supplies, the present government has introduced yet
another novel idea of the Rental Power Plants (RPPs). One just
shudders to think about what would happen when the RPPs are in place
after the IPPs.—Lahore
Khosa’s imbroglio
Dr A P Sangdil
A shifty lawyer is difficult to pin down with arguments however
rational; he will come out to defend himself with frivolous
diatribe. When petitioner Hamid Maghfoor alleged Attorney General
Latif Khosa had taken Rs3 million from him to fix his case in the
court of a favourable judge, Mr Khosa, instead of contesting the
allegation, blamed the CJP for having orchestrated his removal.
Mr Khosa lamented that the CJP should have called him in his chamber
to discuss the matter instead of treating him a common accused.
Frankly, I’ve nothing against Khosa; in fact I’ve loved his
histrionics at different stages of the movement for restoration of
judiciary when I often wondered on which side of the divide he was.
Was he for the restoration of suspended judges or was he a thorn in
their side; Khosa didn’t let anyone know clearly.
Finally he is in dumps. He met the president to pour out his
grievances instead of meeting the prime minister who deposed him.
Khosa also asserted that he was rich in his own right and charged
hundred thousand for a case. Fine. Does he mean the rich have no
desire to be richer and richest? PM has appointed him an adviser of
sorts, which actually means falling from grace. I feel sorry for
Khosa’s short inning but that’s life. —Oslo, Norway
Every Kashmiri a terrorist?
Deeba Malik
For over six decades, India has tried every tactic in its kitty to
woo Kashmiris, but, in vain. Kashmiris continue to hate India. Only
a Kashmiri knows how painful, it is, to live under the shadow of
Indian bayonets. At every footstep, they are humiliated. At the
check-posts in congested localities and in commercial markets, every
Kashmiri is treated as a terrorist. The khaki do not even respect
modesty of women while carrying out bodily searches. The personnel
at the check-posts often usurp precious belongings of people.
In remote villages, women are routinely molested. The ashamed
village-women do not report the incident. No penal action is taken
against armed forces even if some women dare to register an FIR
against the army. On May 30, 2009 dead bodies of 17-year-old Aasiya
and her pregnant sister-in-law, the 22-year-old Neelofar, were
recovered from the Rambiar stream (Srinagar). Despite lapse of about
five months, no progress has been made to nab the offenders. The
reports by Jan inquiry commission and the CBI tried to devolve
suspicion away from the army.
Recently, the army personnel manhandled several state-government
officers, including a magistrate, who removed army encroachments on
civilian land. When released from army custody, the magistrate filed
an FIR with police. The police submitted evidence before the chief
judicial magistrate in Leh. The magistrate issued a non-bailable
warrant against three army officers, including a major general, for
manhandling civilian officials who were returning from Pangong Lake
after demolishing the illegal structure erected by the army.
Kashmiris are humiliated not only within various parts of the
occupied state, but also in Indian states. They are denied
accommodation in hotels and rest houses. The Bangalore police
harassed two Kashmiri cricketers, Merajuddin and Pervez, by
illegally keeping them in custody. The police let loose sniffer dogs
on the cricketers’ bags so as ‘to smell traces of RDX’. The factual
position is that the bags contained their clothes along with Quran.
They belonged to J&K Cricket Association. The Association has
demanded an apology from the Board of Cricket Control in India.
Kashmiri leaders, including Mehbooba Mufti and Farooq Abdullah have
condemned the incident She said thousands of people, including
students and travelers, were denied passports and accommodation in
their own land and the rest of country merely on suspicion. Every
Kashmiri is treated as a terrorist. There has been no let - up in
momentum of demonstrations demanding action against offenders
concerning the molested-women case. The Kashmiris want the AFSPA to
be repealed. This act grants blanket immunity to armed forces to
carry on their reign of terror.
On his visit to the valley, India’s Home Minister P. Chidambaram
promised to ‘relook into the law giving special powers to armed
forces’. He assured that the brutal AFSPA would be humanized in the
imminent session of the Indian parliament. However, it is eerie to
note that the Indian Army Chief, in an interview to a private TV
channel, NDTV, defended retention of AFSPA as a ‘shield for the
Armed forces’ in the occupied territory. He minced no words to
flatly admit: “AFSPA is needed to protect the troops legally”
[against their crimes]. The Kashmiri people call the AFSPA a
“draconian’ law as, like Draco’s code of 610 BC, it is meant to
forestall future revolts by common men. Even if the AFSPA is
trimmed, the psychological scars, it has left, may not heal. —Via
email
Terrorism
Nasrullah Baloch
The ongoing terrorism and its effects on our society are so worst
that now we are compelled to close our educational institutions.
Such emergencies do not prevail even during the war between two
countries. We as a nation must analyze this draconic situation that
why we reach at this hopeless worst condition. If we look back in
the past we will see that this terrorism is the offspring of
religious extremism which was intentionally provoked in Pakistan in
the regime of Gen Zia ul Haq and discriminative laws were framed to
harass the minorities and all leftist who were against him. I think
we could combat this worst situation by implementing the following
suggestions.
We must create religious harmony among different faiths and sects.
All those irritants who are creating hateredness among the masses on
the base of color, creed or religion must be firmly condemned and
take into account by iron hands by the Law enforcing agencies. The
national patriotism must be provoked by all means. The
discriminative laws like 295 C must be reviewed to stop the
religious discrimination among the minorities. The religious
extremist must be condemned and discouraged at all levels of the
society. At the street level, self awareness and self guard
organization at local level will be framed out which should be
helped and trained by the law enforcing agencies like police and
civil defense and these associations must have a close liaison with
the police as well.
Our media should not portray the heroitic picture of these religious
extremist and terrorist. These terrorist must have some hideouts and
there must be some black sheep in our society who are providing the
hideouts to such culprits. We must keep a close eye on these persons
and some of the religious fundamentalist organizations who are in
close link and soft corner for such jihadis. I think we are in a
state of war and its not the responsibility of government only to
defeat such brutal religious extremist, we as a nation must put our
hands together and stand firmly against these terrorist who going to
spoil our beloved country and motherland. We must defeat them and we
can do it. Inshallah—Lahore
First to condemn!
Ayesha Zee Khan
We are in a state of war…state of unruly disorganized war!
Explosions, suicide attacks, firing, rounds of bullets fired onto
army and civilian citizens of our country, and what do we do? We
just condemn or send in our sorry notes especially to famous
television channels. To top the condemnations are President, Prime
Minister and the entire entourage of politicians, party leaders; in
the country or enjoying their blissful lives abroad on party funds,
party workers etc. No one is bothered from top brass to bottom about
the loss of life the common people are suffering from. No national
address by the President or the Prime Minister has come so far in
this respect. The nation is not being taken into confidence, not
given encouragement and not given any guarantee by both the offices.
All they do is condemn enough of that now what we need are steps,
and measures taken in this respect to prevent, rather than showing
the RSVP attitude!
October 2009 has become a devastating month for Pakistan as we saw
repeated terrorist attacks in various cities. Kohat, Peshawar,
Lahore and Islamabad have become main targets of these attacks. Most
painful was the attack on Islamic International University Islamabad
clearly showing that any body and everybody is now a target from
Government agencies to defenseless citizens. The ruthless ambush
killings of Brig. Moin Haider, a brilliant officer with much to his
credit.
With the help of China we should seal the borders especially with
Afghanistan and all the rest should be beefed up with more security
arrangements. The borders should be protected with the same cameras
and technological equipment. Done on light speed under the present
circumstances. Intercity movement should be monitored. People found
without ID cards should be seriously fined and interrogated. Proper
arrangements should be made in the exit and entry points of every
city with Biometric security devices plus swapping machines
connected to NADRA’s (National Database Registration Authority)
database. A special computer program should be developed to track
the movement of individuals from one city to another.
Our police and security agencies under present circumstance should
be allowed to search any place they suspect specially in the Capital
City. The houses hired by American Embassy also create suspicion
about possible involvement in terrorist activities. Search operation
should be conducted in these houses to find the reality as no entity
should be spared now because it is a matter of national interest.
NGO’s should only be allowed to work until their agenda is clearly
demarcated by the National Security Agency. These include all from
Human Rights to Health Aids. Today’s scenario demands tougher
measures to be taken in action pronto. No mind boggling schemes will
work in this effect. We have a great responsibility towards our
nation and people of Pakistan standing united in curbing terrorism
completely.—Via email
