Loss of forestland
EVEN though there is no shortage of examples, the casual attitude with which matters of long-term importance are decided by those at the helm of administration in Pakistan comes as a shock every time. Concern for sustainability and the outlook for the future are thrown to the winds, with political expediency and optics dictating the outcome more often than not. Consider the decision taken last week by the Sindh government to allot 9,000 acres of forestland to the Pakistan Army. That the move relates to a 14-yearold application and the fact that it came at a time when the PPP, which is in power in the province, was at loggerheads with the military establishment, indicates that it was less the welfare of fallen soldiers’ families — who the army says will be the beneficiaries — and more the political climate that proved the motivating factor. The application had formally been forwarded to the Sindh government in 2001, seeking 35,521 acres in the forest lands in Garhi Yasin in Shikarpur district; this is in line with the army’s policy to allot land to the heirs of fallen soldiers, especially in Punjab.
While the policy may be commendable, and the government ought to consider formulating a similar scheme for members of the police force which is at the forefront of combating urban terrorism, the issue here is of allocating forestland — and that too in a province that is already significantly denuded of trees. In terms of Sindh, the bulk of its forest cover — by some estimates, as much as 90pc — is already gone. The last thing the government ought to be doing is giving over thousands of the acres remaining. True, land-use policy requires that the leaseholder can use no more than 80pc of the total holding for agricultural purposes, but even if this rule is adhered to — and that’s a big if, given how things work in Pakistan — it translates to the forest in this area being stripped down to a mere shadow of its current size. Instead of sacrificing the forests, the provincial and federal administrations need to be urgently focusing on addressing the issue of deforestation, which is occurring at an alarming rate across the country. There are already several predictions, based on hard science, that this is amongst the countries most at risk as a result of climate change and global warming. It behoves the policymakers to start preparing immediately.
Published in Dawn, June 24th, 2015
http://www.dawn.com/newspaper/editorial
crimes in Gaza
IT was known for long that both Israel and Hamas had committed crimes against humanity during the Israeli blitz on Gaza last year, but, according to the UN human rights body, some of the actions fell within the category of war crimes. Releasing its report in Geneva on Monday, the UN Human Rights Commission said it had been able to gather “substantial information” that showed both Israel and Palestinian militant groups committed “serious violations” of international humanitarian and human rights laws, some of them constituting war crimes. While Palestinian groups, especially Hamas, fired rockets on civilian targets, the Israeli war machine poured artillery and tank fire on a whole range of civilian targets in Gaza, including apartment buildings, UN-run schools, mosques and shopping plazas. Nevertheless, it would show a gross lack of sense of proportion if Israel and Hamas were bracketed together in the conduct of war. The civilian casualty toll, the firepower used and their effect on the victims give a fair indication of the extent of violations committed by the two sides. Hamas, according to thereport, fired 4,881 rockets and 1,753 mortars, while the Israeli armed forces used 50,000 artillery and tank shells besides conducting 6,000 air strikes. No wonder, civilian casualties should be what they were: 2,200 Palestinians, including 550 children, dead, with Israel’s loss being six civilians out of a total of 73 people killed.
It is, however, the after-effects of the war that deserve to be noted, for the UN report warned that the consequences of fighting “in Gaza”, not in Israel, would “impact generations to come”. Obviously, the Hamas rockets would not cause the same havoc which Israel’s 50-day blitz did on Gaza’s infrastructure together with the devastating impact this had on the Palestinian people’s everyday life. Gaza remains occupied territory, because Israel controls its air, land and sea exits despite the much-heralded “disengagement” by the Ariel Sharon government. For that reason, the occupier and the occupied cannot be placed on an equal footing in moral terms.
Published in Dawn, June 24th, 2015
http://www.dawn.com/newspaper/editorial
Political inertia in heat crisis
EVERYBODY wants to blame someone else — nobody wants to take any responsibility. The chief minister of Sindh showed up in the provincial assembly yesterday only to demonstrate that he was totally unaware of what has been happening in the provincial capital during the days he was away. Once the peak of the heatwave, that has caused more than 700 deaths in Karachi alone, appeared to have passed, the chief minister issued instructions to close “offices, schools and colleges”. Never mind that it is summer holidays and schools and colleges are already shut. He blamed K-Electric, the city’s power company, and its private management for failing to ensure the supply of uninterrupted power during the heatwave, accusing its private management of acting like businessmen, but said nothing about the dismal state of power supply in Sukkur and Larkana, the cities he had just come from, wherepower riots have been taking place for days and electricity supply is in the hands of state-owned corporations.
But Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah is not alone in issuing bizarre instructions and engaging in a blind blame game in the midst of a crisis. As power load-shedding in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa also reached unbearable proportions, Chief Minister Pervez Khattak stood in his own provincial assembly and threatened to burn down the offices of Pesco, the state-owned power utility that serves the province. He did not say how that act would help alleviate load-shedding in the province. Meanwhile, Minister of State for Water and Power Abid Sher Ali threatened to take K-Electric from its private management if it did not improve its performance, and blamed the deaths in Karachi’s heatwave on the power utility. He is apparently unaware that the power to take such a step does not belong to him or to his ministry. Nor did he explain how the performance of his own ministry, which had promised zero load-shedding for domestic consumers during Ramazan, was any better.
All three gentlemen are major figures in our political galaxy, but their words sound like those of angry little men addled up in the heat of the moment — all thoroughly worked up but bereft of any ideas. Perhaps it would have been better for the Sindh chief minister to cut short his visit to Larkana and return to Karachi to organise relief camps for victims of heatstroke, even if it meant using the party machinery to run and staff them, as has happened on numerous occasions in the past, rather than resort to absurd instructions and a blame game. Where are thegovernment relief camps in the affected localities? Or those run by political parties, or even by medical students? Where is the campaign to spread public awareness about the early symptoms of a heatstroke? All that these irresponsible statements demonstrate is the tremendous disconnect between the political leadership and the people they purport to lead. Published in Dawn, June 24th, 2015
http://www.dawn.com/newspaper/editorial