Articles and letters may be edited for the purposes of clarity and space. They are published in good faith with a view to enlightening all the stakeholders. However, the contents of these writings may not necessarily match the views of the newspaper.
War at
the door
The recent US air strike on the convoy of Iranian Revolutionary Guard general Qasem Suleimani which left him dead has brought the middle east at the verge of another bloodiest war after two world wars and the cold war in 20th century. The attack has been carried out by the US by accusing that he had been involved to deteriorate the situation in the region as well as killing and harming the Americans through proxies meanwhile pro-Iranian claim that he has played a great role in defeating the ISIS in Iraq and Syria. After his killing thousands of Irani people have took to the streets and it has intensified tensions in Iraq as well. The American actions has been condemned by many international powers like Russia for adding fuel to the already tense situation in the region. Iranian supreme leader Ayotullah Ali Khomeini and some pro-Shia militant groups warned to avenge the killing of the general as he was considered great figure in Iran after the supreme leader.
Pakistan which has strategically a great position in the region will have the direct impact of tensions between Iran and US as the neighbouring country of Iran and US ally. So far Pakistan has shown no reaction on the boiling tension between two nuclear powers of the world.
Hence Pakistan with its closest ally China and other major powers must step in to play a mediatory role to avoid a catastrophic situations in the region which will surely result in a large-scale implications for a long-term.
IQRA QADIR
Singanisar Balochistan
Economy vital for sovereignty and security
In a recent NYT article, renowned Pakistani origin economist Atif Mian, highlighted what ails national economy and enormity of threats it poses to state sovereignty and future of over 200 million. He states that our economy has crashed almost 13 times in the last 60 years, surviving on IMF bailout etc with no plans by successive governments, including present, to address root causes. Pakistan today is poorest in the region with GDP only 3.3%, insufficient to keep pace with population growth. The Federal Government is bankrupt because last year total interest on debt and pension etc exceeded net revenues.
Beneficiaries of status quo are biggest obstacle to change, who prevail with immense clout, thereby posing threat to survival as independent sovereign state. The moneyed elite favor unfair business practices, tax evasion and their preferential access to power, followed by religious extremism and their patronage by powerful successive uniformed and civil governments, creating an environment for violence and intolerance.
Pakistan has become a nation of consumers with under 15% of its output invested in productivity generated projects. The idle activity of investment in real estate where value of land increases because of urban population demands, making it beyond access for much needed infrastructure. It has also become a parking lot for black economy and a much more attractive profit venture for individual investors than investing in industrial growth which generates employment and boosts tax revenues. He suggests land tax as sole remedy to boost investment.
Choice of water intensive crops like sugar cane on nearly 2.5 million acres makes no economic sense in a country facing acute water shortage and suggests rationalizing agriculture towards more efficient choices. Subsidies in his opinion should be confined only to performance-based industries which boost exports.
MALIK T ALI
Lahore
Para 66
Dispensing justice in accordance with the law is the primary duty of the justice system. Courts and tribunals are set up to decide matters and serve justice as per procedure prescribed by law. Recently, a special court awarded death sentence to the (former) President Gen (R) Pervez Musharraf. In paragraph 66 of the verdict, law enforcement agencies have been directed to apprehend Musharraf to ensure that the punishment is inflicted as per law and if he is found dead, his corpse should be dragged to D-Chowk, Islamabad and be hanged there for three days.
This is an inhuman act and a human rights violation. There is no provision in law for such a cruel act. According to Section 368 of the Criminal Procedure Code 1898, when any person is sentenced to death, the sentence should be to hang him till death. It can be interpreted that no unlawful act should be performed with the body.
According to Section 370 of the Criminal Procedure Code 1898, in any case in which the accused is convicted of an offence, a copy of the judgement should be given to him at the time of pronouncing the judgement. However, Musharraf in a video message has said he was not informed about the verdict and came to know about it through news reports. Considering the law, the decision against Musharraf is to some extent extrajudicial.
SAADULLAH
Islamabad
Escalation in the ME
The start of New Year has further escalated the tension in the Middle East due to US air raid that has targeted and brutally killed the Iranian forces senior commander General Qassem Sulemani in Iraq near Iraq international airport. He was the key figure and instrumental in operations against rebels and IS fighters in Iraq and other Middle Eastern countries. Recently, the Revolutionary Guard, which he headed, was designated as a terrorist organisation by the US. And now he has been assassinated in a drone attack.
It has significantly raised the chances for direct military conflict between 40-year old arch rivals: the US and Iran, as the latter and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah issued warnings of taking revenge from the US. China, UK and other countries have advised both parties to show maximum restraint and prevent any likelihood of situation which may lead to a war.
Meanwhile, Iran would certainly take retaliatory measures to harm US interests in Iraq and other states in the Middle East by activating further proxies against the US. In the US case it seems that Trump Administration is seeking for war with Iran. Therefore, US has been exerting pressure building tactics against Iran on every front, which has deteriorated the entire economic structure of Iran by completely crippling it.
On the other hand, the US was trying earlier to decrease its military presence in Iraq but after this assassination it is likely to send more troops to Iraq in order to support its military bases and camps. At present, world is suffering from many devastating wars and severe human rights violations across different regions. Particularly, the Middle East region has seen prolonged wars and its people have suffered a lot of miseries. Therefore, other P5 states should intervene in this situation to save the region from another catastrophe.
ASHFAQUE ALI KHOSO
Jamshoro
Smart Moskea APP
An App has been created by the students of Riphah International University by the name of “Smart Moskea”.
The Moskea is a Maltese language word for Mosque. It’s a mobile application which runs on both android as well as iPhone with the aim to help people in finding near mosque and its prayers’ timings.
By using this App, the user’s phone automatically transfers on silent mode when he enters the mosque and if anyone calls him then the call will cut out automatically and a redirect message sent to the caller.
Another interesting feature of this App is peoples can get alerts when an event occurs in their hometown mosques like death announcement, missing person announcement, mosque fund announcement, Friday topic announcement etc.
This App gives the user a chatting forum where peoples can ask their questions directly to Imam Sahib. I hope this App will help people to don’t miss their prayers and as well people will to get notified and connect with their hometown.
ZEESHAN SHABBIR
Rawalpindi
Soleimani’s killing
I would rather call this decision of US President Donald Trump to kill Qasim Soleimani pretty much a ‘political opportunism’ than ‘foolish’, because US presidential elections are not too far. Ahead of the November US presidential elections, Trump, who is already impeached by the House of Representatives, gets to demonstrate his strength in the face of successive failures of his foreign policy initiatives.
However, his political opportunism will not only have dire consequences in the Middle East, but the ramifications and repercussions of ‘something gigantic in the form of WW3’ may engulf the entire planet as Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Hasan Rouhani had vowed ‘retaliation’.
While some European allies of US are justifying this act of terrorism—which is a grave violation of the territorial sovereignty of Iraq—saying that the assassinated head of Quds Force was responsible for undertaking operations throughout the Middle East, they should not be myopic of the history of US terrorism against Iran: In 1953, US overthrew a democratically-elected Prime Minister Mossaddegh; supported Saddam Hussein in the Iran-Iraq war, shot down Iranian Airliner Flight 655 in 1988, breached the JCPOA agreement by a unilateral withdrawal and crippled economy with sanctions in the form of ‘maximum pressure campaign’, beleaguered Iran with dozens of military bases and now assassination of the second most-influential personality of Iran.
While a dangerous escalation layer is most likely to be followed in the wake of this incident, the major world powers are swiftly needed to intervene and render their struggle to de-escalate the situation and diffuse the soaring tension to prevent an unimaginable conflagration.
ZAHID ALI ZOHRI
Gilgit-Baltistan
