sept/14/2008
Defending sovereignty
COAS Ashfaq Parvez Kayani's reiteration of the determination to defend Pakistan's territorial integrity would hopefully provide some reassurance to those in Pakistan who have been baffled and shaken by five attacks by the US forces within the last 10 days. That the statement, like an earlier one, had the endorsement of the corps commanders conference is all the more satisfactory. According to Gen Kayani all elements of national power under the new government will safeguard the territorial integrity of Pakistan with the full support and backing of the people.
To ensure the backing of the people there has to be a policy on dealing with militancy and foreign attacks based on national consensus which the government has so far failed to evolve. It is widely recognized that those burning girls' schools, attacking government installations or killing innocent people by launching suicide attacks are somehow to be stopped. It is also realised that no outside force should be permitted to violate Pakistan's territory. It remains however to be spelt out clearly and definitively how the two issues are to be tackled. Soon after it took over the ruling coalition vowed to deal with militancy through a multi-pronged policy but soon left the task to army. As things stand every party in the coalition has its own views regarding how to tackle militancy and respond to the US attacks, with MQM on one extreme and the JUI-F on the other. Under the conditions the political leadership has to play a decisive role by taking all stakeholders on board and resolving their differences. Once a policy has been formulated the government has to ensure that no organ of the state or government functionary deviates from it. As things stand the coalition administration seems to have run short of options. Governor Owais Ghani complains that the allied forces and Taliban are both working on an anti-Pakistan agenda. While asserting that it is only Pakistan's right to take action against militants on its territory, PM Gilani says helplessly the country can't go to war. One expects the government to provide answers to challenges instead of throwing up arms in despair.
And now a word for Washington. Despite wishes by many Pakistanis to maintain friendly ties with the US, which is beneficial for both sides, there is a rising tide of public opposition to America's aggressive policies which no elected government can afford to ignore. While the country may not have vast petroleum resources like Venezuela, its people possess, like those in Bolivia and Honduras, an equally vital resource i.e., dignity and self-respect. Unless Washington pays due respect to Pakistan's sovereignty, it may not be long before they force their government to take a direction many countries in South America and other parts of the world are opting for.
No to IMF
AN International Monetary Fund team has reached Pakistan and is set to begin 10 days of consultations, which started formally on Friday with a series of meetings. The IMF has been to Pakistan before, under the first Benazir government, and has been invited again to help in the turnaround of Pakistan's economy. The Fund is notorious for its interference and its refusal to allow a country following one of its programmes to follow not merely its national interests, but sound economics. The government has turned to the IMF, after the World Bank and the friendly countries have refused it budgetary support in the form of loans. The Bank has turned down a request for a loan of $500 million, which has left Pakistan the option of turning to the IMF. The IMF's record in Pakistan was not exceptional, but its interfering ways and economic incompetence have been noted in all those parts of the world to which it has extended a programme. The IMF has been anti-growth and anti-employment historically, and there is no reason to suppose it has changed. It imposes such harsh conditions for its loans that the contracting nation is permanently crushed, and its programmes are further reinforced by the World Bank an other international lending agencies, which insist on adherence to Fund conditions as the prime conditionality of their loans. As it is, even though Pakistan is no longer in an IMF loan programme, it is still receiving IMF advice on such matters as tax revenue administration, macroeconomic policy and macroeconomic indicators. Going onto a programme will mean following this advice to the letter.
The IMF men are in town at a particularly bad time. The Federal Bureau of Statistics has announced that inflation had reached a new high, measured year-on-year, and was 25.33 percent in August, compared to 6.45 percent the year before. That year, which was the last fiscal, Pakistan witnessed one of its worst years for inflation, because of the tremendous rise in the prices of food and oil. While oil prices internationally are apparently stabilizing at around $100 a barrel, still punitive but stable, commodity prices have not yet steadied, with wheat reaching Rs 2500 per 100 kg in Karachi. This inflation is more than likely to spook the government, what with the foreign exchange reserves being drawn down to very old levels, and make it liable to the blandishments of the IMF, and accept its programme, which will be designed to subject it to the wishes of its Western masters. It will not be designed to extract Pakistan from its current crisis, but to keep it there, and dependent on the IMF.
Testing times in prison
IT is commonplace to see inmates in Pakistan serving extra-terms despite having completed their imprisonments merely because of non-payment of monetary fine. According to a report published in Nawa-i-Waqt a prisoner was kept behind bars for 50 years over his failure to pay Rs 20,000 in fine. Shocked by his story, a lawyer paid the sum and secured his release.
The case of this poor man rotting away in jail for half a century is just the tip of the iceberg and clearly indicates the weaknesses prevailing in our judicial system. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has freed 36 prisoners languishing in Adiala jail after paying their fine earlier this year. This is surely a welcome step but indeed a lot more needs to be done to reform our legal system. According to a report hundreds of inmates are still pining away in jails around the country who should have been out but it is a pity that their inability to pay the compensation money is keeping them in. There is also need to ensure the provision of better facilities to the inmates. Separate lock-ups for women and juvenile offenders, reining in errant jail authorities, providing health and recreation facilities, eliminating overcrowded conditions, setting up libraries, permission to sit for exams are just some of the things that could go a long way in the reformation of jails.
There is urgent need to address the problem. In the NWFP, the issue needs to be taken up on a priority basis as the number of convicts serving extra sentence over their failure to pay the fine is quite large. The people's pleas to do something about the system changing it with something more effective seem to be falling on deaf ears. On the one hand, access to justice is beyond the reach of the common man and, on the other, it takes too much time (4 years at an average) for a case to be resolved. The government should ensure that dispensation of inexpensive and speedy justice is made available to all and sundry.
source:
http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-ne...ng-sovereignty