Nobel Peace Prize for Shirin Ebadi

THIS refers to the recent award of the Nobel Peace Prize to Iranian human rights activist and lawyer Shirin Ebadi. I believe this award is a legitimate reward for the struggles of millions of brave Iranian women against the dictates of clerical oligarchy ruling Iran since 1979.

However, I have some concerns with regard to the timing of the award of this Nobel prize, and that too to an Iranian. Past precedents show that the Noble Peace Prize is a highly politicized affair. It has often been used in the past to reflect a pre-conceived bias against states or social systems perceived as hostile to western free-market fundamentalism or in favour of those who seek to have the same agenda as western governments vis-a-vis recalcitrant Third World states.

In the 1980s the Nobel literature and peace prizes were repeatedly awarded to so-called Soviet ‘dissidents’ who openly campaigned against the communist system, at a time when western hostility to the many achievements of the socialist system was at its peak. Among them were third-rate novelists like Boris Pasternak, monarchists like Alexander Solzhenitsyn (a great favourite of Henry Kissinger) and Andrei Sakharov. Meanwhile, other Third World intellectuals who had braved the prisons of dictators and plunderers were conveniently ignored for the realization of the West’s exclusionary agenda of combating communism. These include outstanding novelists and poets like Faiz, Ngugi wa Thiongo, Pramoedya Ananta Toer, Nazim Hikmet, Mahmud Darwish, Abdelrahman Munif, Adonis, Ken Saro-wiwa and the recently departed Edward Said.

Similarly, the Nobel Literature Prize awarded to British novelist V.S. Naipaul, coming on the heels of the September 11 tragedy in New York, was in bad taste, given Naipaul’s antipathy towards Islam and Muslim culture in general. The award to Ms Ebadi just continues that very consistent trend of rewarding individuals perceived as crusaders for one of the West’s self-anointed ghosts — in this case getting rid of the mullahcracy in Iran.

The Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Shirin Ebadi in no way takes away from the achievements of Iran’s women in their struggles, first against the deposed Shah and then against the clerics. But it does cloud the intricacies and class contradictions of Iranian society in that it does not recognize that Ms Ebadi, after all, seeks to return Iran to the same system which exploded in 1979 to give us the Islamic Revolution — a free-market, albeit secular, society where women and minorities would be elevated and religion would be a personal affair but where a minority would still rule over a vastly poor majority (read her statement after the award of the Nobel Peace Prize). The real contradiction in Iran right now is not only between US imperialism and the rulers in Iran (the two have collaborated freely in the past) but more importantly between the Iranian working classes and the clerics, who are die-hard supporters of capitalism and use anti- imperialist rhetoric to justify their policies.

RAZA NAEEM

Lahore

Road accidents & carjackings

RECKLESS driving has claimed thousands of lives and carjackings have caused losses of billions of rupees for the victims over the past decade in the country, particularly in Karachi. Unfortunately, both crimes remain unchecked.

Reports are published in the press and read by the relevant authorities like daily temperature charts and accepted as part of normal life. Nowhere in the civilized world you will find such crimes going unnoticed and the government seemingly doing not enough to check them.

One wonders why the military-guided/backed government which is so determined to fight terrorism the world over cannot control such crimes.

Solution: deaths by reckless driving should be treated as acts of terrorism and should be referred to anti-terrorism courts, and those found guilty be punished as early as possible. Moreover, our legislators must make laws to deal with these crimes that occur purely because of negligence on the part of police and in the absence of effective laws.

Carjackings and thefts of other vehicles are another regular business. It appears that government functionaries at various levels are involved in this and as such no action is forthcoming from the government side to eradicate this criminal activity. This paper once published the names of 491 people in this regard but no action has been taken so far.

The police chiefs of the four provinces can work out a system to stop this crime. The simplest step will be to find out where hijacked and stolen vehicles are sold, besides sealing highways and setting up checkposts at all outlets from major cities.

A SUFFERER

Karachi

Karachi’s literacy centre

KARACHI’S Bahadur Yar Jung Club-turned-marriage hall has a new feather in its cap — that of bulldozing a much-needed literacy centre.

Mahbubia Literacy Centre, imparting free education to children of kutchi abadis, is not there anymore. The managing committee of the club took four hours to destroy 14 years of hard work which had brought these children from the streets to within the boundaries of a classroom. This was done in the night between Sept 22 and Sept 23.

The centre’s furniture, educational equipment, books and desks were all thrown out in the open. All this despite a stay order granted by a civil court.

The centre was working with the permission of the previous managing committee. This committee was superseded by the registrar of cooperative societies after an audit disclosed mismanagement of the club’s funds. Administrators were appointed to look after the affairs of the club. The literacy centre, however, continued to function even when the Rangers took over the club. For some years now the club had been reduced to a marriage hall and ceased to function as a civic centre.

Last year the registrar ordered elections and the present managing committee took charge. Since then they have been pressuring the centre to vacate the premises, threatening to lock it out. Many representations were made to them but nothing worked.

The literacy centre has started functioning in the garage of a well-wisher and has made a start with 10 of the senior girls preparing for the IX and X class board examinations.

A MAHBUBIAN

Karachi

NSS and senior citizens

IN the budget speech in June 2003, widows were given protection from the shrinking rate of profit on their investment. The revised profit of 10.08 per cent will be payable to the holders of PBA (Pensioners’ Benefit Account) and BSC (Behbood savings certificates) on a monthly basis.

The logic put forth for this was the Rs20 billion savings from the reduction in profit ratios of various savings schemes.

The government may review its policy to include pensioners of private organizations or retired individuals because:

- they too in one way or another have served the national interest,

- some of the entitled pensioners are denied the benefit of not only the recent increase of 15 per cent but also such raises as announced in the past. Again, there are many who are not entitled to pensions and have reached a stage when their earning capacity has run down.

It is hoped the finance minister will come to the rescue of all concerned by making them a part of special facility recipients.

KASSIM ALI D. MEGHANI

Karachi

Unjustified parking fee

I WOULD like to draw your attention to the parking charges at the Karachi Cantonment Railway Station. In case one is going to receive somebody, he needs a car park to collect the guest/relative, and pays parking charges. When one goes to drop someone, how come he cannot cross the barrier without paying the parking fee?

When the people on duty are asked why this is so, they advise complainants to contact the relevant authorities and not to haggle with them as they say they have paid the required fee to them.

I request that not only the parking fee should be reduced to five rupees from Rs10 being charged at the moment, but also people who go to the station to drop somebody should be exempted from the fee. Moreover, a separate entrance and a drop lane should be created.

MERAJ KIDWAI

Milwaulee, USA

Tribute to Mitty Masud

KUDOS to Air Marshal Jamal A. Khan for his passionately written piece about a dying breed in the Pakistani military — a brilliant soldier with honour and integrity to match.

The air marshal’s loving tribute to Air Commodore Zafar “Mitty” Masud almost brought tears to my eyes.

As implied in the article, Masud’s refusal to follow orders may have cost the Pakistan Air Force a would-be exemplary chief, while his acceptance of a role (bombing innocent civilians) that ran contrary to his very sense

of justice would have kept up his steady rise to the top

— who knows, maybe leading him all the way to the Air House.

But then we wouldn’t have had the legendary Mitty Masud as air chief, but only a sell-out disguised in his clothes. How terribly ironic!

May God rest Masud’s soul in peace and bless Pakistan with many more leaders like him, ones who place ethical values and honesty before personal gain.

And thank you, Air Chief Marshal, for writing so beautifully and with so much heart.

ANN-E-FASAHAT

Millburn, NJ, USA

Road in bad shape

THE other day, a news item was published in your esteemed daily stating that the much-needed repair (first phase) of rain-battered roads in Karachi was almost over and the second phase was in the offing.

I would like to bring it to the attention of the authorities concerned that the road leading to Safoora Chowk from Nipa is in a very dilapidated condition. Commuters have been experiencing great hardship specially at night since not a single street-light is operative.

NADEEM MEMON

Karachi

Mourning the dead

THE UK mourned 21 dead British soldiers in a memorial service the other day attended by the Queen. All died fighting in the illegal invasion of Iraq, to colonize a UN member country.

Australia’s prime minister travelled all the way to Bali, the Indonesian island, to attend a service for the 88 Australian civilians who died in a bomb blast in the Bali dance club last year.

The BBC telecast both ceremonies, with due solemnity and grace. However, the western media is criminally silent on 37,000 Iraqi civilians who were victims of the US/UK bombings on civilian areas of Iraq. Are they lesser human beings to be so callously and disdainfully ignored?

How long will the United States, the United Kingdom and their allies insist on their skewed interpretation of their actions?

GHULAM MUHAMMED

Mumbai, India

Nasrullah’s qualities

NAWABZADA Nasrullah Khan was the last of the old guard. He went down fighting for the welfare of the people. What makes the tragedy more bitter is the thought that there is no hope of the space left by his death being filled because we have such a death of men of his calibre.

We are living in an age of small men who delight in small things. The late Nawabzada was a great champion of noble causes and a man of great daring. He was an ardent supporter of liberty and a soldier of democracy. He was not for sale, was dignified and a class apart.

Gloom and despair did not deter him. He will live in the hearts, minds and annals of people and in the history of Pakistan.

DR ARSALAN IFTIKHAR

Quetta

Acute water shortage

THERE is a severe shortage of water in Clifton’s Block 8, Karachi, because of low pressure in supply.

The situation is further compounded by the ongoing construction of a number of houses in the area. Powerful suction pumps installed to get extra water in this regard take away the water share of other houses.

Normally, the builders should meet their water requirements through the tanker service. The situation is critical around Shadman Homes Apartments.

The city water agency is urged to come to the rescue of the residents of this block and provide them with more water to meet their daily requirement.

SHAFIQ AHMED

Karachi

Sending troops to Iraq

THIS has reference to a recent Dawn report that Pakistan has shown a willingness to send 10,000 troops to Iraq by December to save the US forces from being pounded into the ground by the Iraqis.

Obviously, the PML-Q-led government misguided the nation about what Prime Minister Jamali had gone to do in the US just a week after Gen Musharraf’s visit. The only thing that could have made the visit possible was the US attempt to convince Pakistan to send troops to save their own soldiers from being killed.

The government will now argue that since Turkey is sending its troops, there will be no harm if Pakistan also does the same.

I think that in the long run, our country’s continuous subservience to the US will cause us more harm than good.

KHAWAJA IKRAM UL HAQ

Rawalpindi

Middle East ‘housemap’

THE Americans presented a Palestinian-Israeli peace roadmap in April this year. After pushing the peace further behind, the roadmap has been converted into a housemap by Israel to locate the houses of Hamas to kill them there by aerial bombardments. And the Americans too find this as justified.

Should or should not there be a difference between a superpower and a super-armed country?

Z. A. KAZMI

Karachi

‘Sorry for the interruption’

FOR some time PTV’s Nite Time Transmission breaks down too often and, instead of seeing programmes, the viewers constantly see a slide reading ‘Sorry for the interruption’. It is irritating and disappointing.

I suggest PTV change the title of Nite Time Transmission to ‘Sorry for the Interruption’.

RAFAT MAHMOOD ANSARI

Islamabad

Entry test

I WOULD like to draw your attention to the results of an entry test recently conducted by Punjab medical colleges. The answer key to most of the questions was set wrong resulting in the disproportionate merit of deserving students.

When contacted, the convener of the examining board refused to be helpful. This is bound to create frustration among deserving candidates.

The authorities should realize that the test was not a joke; the future of hundreds of candidates who took the test depended on it.

NASREEN MALIK

Kharian

Friends in need

KUNWAR Khalid Yunus wants us to dispatch our troops to Iraq. He should spare us the sophistry and the humbug. There is one overriding imperative which compels the government to contemplate such a step and that is economic expedience. Despite the relatively high level of foreign currency reserves, the economy, particularly public finances, is still fragile and dependent on US goodwill and its voting rights on the boards of the IFIs.

Favourable post 9/11 rescheduling terms have provided the proverbial “breathing space” to put public finances on a sounder footing, bring about necessary reforms towards “good governance”, tax administration, meaningful privatization and generally do things which the GOP has pledged but failed to deliver on.

The inability of successive governments to generate trust between provinces and citizens/state, which is vital to address fundamental issues, shows that we are not yet ready to make the decisions necessary to unlock Pakistan’s vast human and physical potential.

It is, thus, highly likely that we will be back, cap in hand, at a certain address in Washington D.C., in well-cut suits and carefully modulated tones of genteel poverty.

It is true we have deep historical, military and cultural ties with the US, but Mr Yunus makes a virtue out of a grim and disturbing necessity with the following marvellous turn of phrase, “Now when the Americans are currently involved quite deeply in some international disputes, we have a chance to repay them.”

The Americans may have saved us four times (thrice from the cowardly Indians and once from our common Frankenstein (the Taliban/Al Qaeda) but to send our troops to Iraq will not be an act of a mature friend. If America were facing destruction, as some claim we were, there may be a case.

The reality is that the US is rather more than “involved deeply in some international disputes”. Along with its British allies, it has committed a terrible crime, an illegal act of war based on lies and deceit in order to (a) to gorge on a ‘vast source of hydrocarbon-based energy, thereby further endangering our planet and (b) protect Israel. In this shameful act they have killed thousands of people.

We have more than paid the price of US “friendship” in the Afghan war in misery, past, present and, unless we change, future misery as well. It is amazing what some people will do or say to curry favour with the sole superpower. But are our troops really all that eager to go? The state is unwilling or unable to employ them to protect people being slain on streets and in mosques or from raids by tribesmen sweeping into the little hamlets of Sindh. But before we send our jawans, let them be warned that they will be entering a quagmire.

In addition to the fully justified wrath of the Iraqi people, they will also be in danger of being cut down by their American comrades who, by all accounts, need instruction in the safe conduct of firearms around both civilians and allies.

S. OMAR AHSAN

Karachi