Our nuclear dilemma

The debriefing of, confession by, and grant of pardon to Dr A. Q. Khan is not the end of the story; it is in fact a precursor to what may come later. One needs to understand the background and intentions of some powers that are poised to serve a coup de grace to our nuclear programme.

Nuclear technology leakage or proliferation had been going on for several decades through an underground mafia without inviting the attention of the watchdogs. Several European and other countries are reportedly involved in it.

America, the UK and Russia, for instance, helped India in its nuclear programme. France helped Israel in exchange for support in the 1956 Suez war. Israel transferred nuclear technology to the white minority government of South Africa, though later it was returned when Nelson Mandela took over. India also reportedly helped Iran. None of these countries was asked any questions or probed for proliferation, why only Pakistan?

Not too long ago, when the threat of a "red" revolution disappeared with the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, George Bush Sr introduced the new world order - US supremacy over the world. Invasion of Kuwait by Iraq and its liberation by the US forces was the first test of this order.

The new world order is based on the perceptions and conceptions put forth by President Nixon and some US scholars. President Nixon suggested that the US should cash in on the new changes and establish its hegemony over the world as, after the demise of the USSR, there was left no power to challenge it. About Islamic countries, he specifically proposed to cooperate only with moderate Muslim states that helped foster and promote US interests.

The objectives of the new world order became even clearer when US National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice enumerated some of them: war against the Taliban and Al Qaeda; forcing Muslim countries to adopt the Turkish pattern, with a ban on Islamic organizations, and adoption of American culture; bringing to power democratic and moderate Islamic governments in Muslim countries; and wiping out any threat or opposition.

Pakistan, being the sole nuclear Muslim state and contiguous with Afghanistan, is a thorn in the eyes of the West, India and Israel - first because of its nuclear status and, secondly, it is thought to be teeming with extremists where the nuclear assets might go in the wrong hands and bring havoc to the world.

The disclosure by Iran and Libya about the involvement of Pakistani scientists in proliferation has provided yet another opportunity to the West to unleash its propaganda against Pakistan and prove it a rogue state. The process seems to have already started as the US demands us to sign the NPT.

President Musharraf at his press conference was very right in pointing out the dangers looming over our heads and that we need to act wisely. But does this mean we give in to the wishes of other powers and accept their dictates and pressures.

We need to learn to say "no" to unjustified pressures. This we can do only with the strength of the nation, parliament and other democratic institutions. One man's decision, or that of a select group, in such crucial matters, could be disastrous.

IFTIKHAR AHMED

Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

Concept of power in Islam

The article by Mr Ali Asghar Engineer (February 7) is not in accordance with the teachings of the Holy Quran and Sunnah. Just because the Holy Quran has not used the word police (shurtee) or Bait al Maal, no one can say that Islam is a religion which teaches only moral values and is very personal.

The writer's statements contradict what the Quran says in the verses related to zakat, jihad (chapter 9 and many other verses), Amr Bil Maroof and Nahee anil Munkar (3:104,110) system of justice (4:4/59,24:6), special punishment known as Hudood (24:2), Qisas and Diyat (2:178,17:33) and many more related to different aspects of life which cannot be performed without a proper system.

If, according to the author, there is no concrete evidence of this in the Holy Quran or Sunnah of the Prophet (peace be upon him), why did the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) sign contracts with different groups in Madinah, send messengers to different governments, prepare an army, and develop a system for the collection of zakat and jizya?

As far as use of force in religion is concerned, it is related to matters of belief and no one can really be forced to believe in anything and due to that the people living in Madinah were free to follow their own religion other than Islam.

But once a person enters a religion, he has to obey all the laws, as is the case with anyone intending to enter a country, he can enter if he wishes to do so but once entered has to respect the law of the land without exception.

The writer observes the historical fact that after the Holy Prophet (PBHU) hardly anyone could run the government on proper Islamic lines, and concludes that Islam does not support any power system. Had the Ummah followed the teachings of the Holy Prophet (PBUH), especially the message of Ghadir-i-Khum in its true spirit, the situation would have been quite different.

So, just by observing the practice and state of Ummah and concluding that Islam does not support any specific system of government is completely in contradiction with the message of the Holy Quran and Sunnat. Without proper Islamic government more than 70 per cent of Islamic laws shall stand unpractised as is the case nowadays.

SHEIKH SHABBIR H. MAISAMI

Karachi

DHA residents' problems

The fast labour turnover in domestic help in the Defence Housing Authority, Karachi, has led to a crowd of men, women and children in the area knocking at doors seeking domestic work.

The DHA should set up domestic help centres in commercial areas of all the phases where people seeking domestic work should register themselves, with their NIC numbers and references.

The domestic help centres should then issue a reference book to every registered domestic help-person, man or woman. In accordance with the government's policy of avoiding child labour, children under the age of 18 should not be registered by them.

Residents seeking domestic help should contact the centres and give their requirement for the kind of domestic help they require, including drivers. The centres will then send the registered unemployed domestic help to the residents for an interview. In the interest of domestic help they should also control their remuneration, less than which should not be offered by the residents.

Moreover, for security's sake the residents should not employ anyone who is not registered with a centre and who does not carry a reference book. If an employee's services are terminated due to disobedience or indiscipline the resident must make a note of this on his reference book in order to caution the next employer. This practice will ensure improvement in the attitude of the employees.

A domestic employee must always carry his reference book with him for his identification, in order to check unauthorized entry in the DHA residential area. This function should be carried out by DHA inspectors from time to time.

Cart-wheels are another nuisance which should not be permitted in residential areas. Cyclists are another hazard when they ride in files of two and three, occupying most of the road. Cycles must be removed from the DHA and residents must be advised not to buy cycles for the use of domestic employees.

M. M. KHAN

Karachi

Lahore's neglected roads

It was not after years but decades that the citizens of Lahore were bailed out of the misery and agony of commuting over broken roads. The city got a facelift after decades of neglect and at a cost that was reported at the time to be excessive for the government to handle. It took some deft financial structuring to make available resources for the huge project.

It is now very painful to see the way the roads are being wilfully destroyed by the very people who used to siphon off millions, if not billions, in kick-backs on the pretext of yearly maintenance. One just has to travel a short distance and see for oneself how these roads are being cut up at various places and left open for the elements and the traffic to play havoc.

It was the first time in my life that I had seen Fasih Road in Islamia Park beautiful and clean with an even surface all around. It stayed that way for almost three years.

It has now been cut at six places and left unrepaired for at least five months. The road along the drain that is one of the main roads for the area has been dug up twice and left open for months before patchwork was done.

Inferior quality work has started to disintegrate and even the road has developed depression at some points. I fear that it may wash off at places in due course. Soon it will again be an annual ritual for government departments to repair these roads ahead of the rainy season.

The story is repeated road after road. Temple Road and the road between the State Bank's new building and the Lahore High Court are my daily routes, and I am a witness, like thousands others, to their wilful destruction.

In our system, the common man has no voice. The press is the only hope of carrying our voice to the people who matter. Please help us by jolting their conscience and stop the rot of the beautiful Lahore.

RAZI-UR-RAHMAN

Lahore

Objectionable textbooks

Your newspaper has been publishing letters regarding objectionable textbooks in the GCE O level curriculum. I have been teaching Urdu for the past 10 years in various prestigious schools of Karachi and am quite familiar with the textbook prescribed for Urdu syllabus 'A' (Urdu as a first language).

Having taught from this book and after much discussion with my fellow teachers, I can say that most of the short stories in this book are not only objectionable but also unsuitable for inclusion in a textbook.

Although these short stories have been written by famous authors and depict a true and fair picture of society, they were never intended for younger readers and contain many symbolisms and imagery aimed at adults. The relevant authorities are requested to look into the matter.

SAEEDA AJAZ

Karachi

A Pakistani family's ordeal in US

On February 2 FBI special agent Chris Kay, State Department diplomatic security agent Denise Montgomery and Loudoun County VA police investigator Robert Leblanc paid us a visit at our residence at 21308 Hidden Pond Place, Ashburn, VA 20148, USA, to interrogate us about our letter -writing campaign in foreign newspapers.

The FBI and State Department agents were concerned about the reaction in Pakistan and other Islamic countries about our treatment by the US agencies in the last eight years. In a typical fashion to intimidate people of our kind, the FBI and State Department agents threatened us and asked inflammatory questions.

The FBI agent acknowledged that we were not terrorists and we never engaged in any seditious activities against the United States and the Americans.

We challenged the FBI agent that he should deport us if we had committed any crimes against the US. He said he would deport us to Canada, instead of Pakistan, without any proper procedure. He defended some of the state agents that had engaged in a scheme to torture us psychologically and mentally.

My husband, Muhammad Ali Baloch, expressed his willingness to take a polygraph (a lie-detector test) to prove our truthfulness and asked the FBI agent that he should have US agents Shazia Tabassum, Obaid Tabassum, Syed Nadeem Akhtar and Saadia Akhtar take polygraphs as well and determine the truth. To which agent Chris Kay had no answer.

For proof, my husband gave the FBI agent a copy of the letter written to Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali and a copy of a document that my husband had been writing titled "The Art of Human Behaviour Control/Modification, Brainwashing, and Human Rights vs. Animal Rights".

He asked that FBI agent to disprove what was written in that document and how a common man knew how innocent human beings were robbed of their dignity and tortured on a daily basis for clandestine designs. We have yet to hear from him despite leaving many phone messages.

The State Department agent, Denise Montgomery, overtly threatened us that we should keep quiet as we, in his opinion, were damaging the reputation of the United States in Islamic countries.

According to the agent, our letters are harassing US diplomats and we should stop writing letters in foreign papers. He also warned us that we would be denied immigration benefits if we continued our campaign. Hence, we are not supposed to talk to the Pakistani prime minister and members of parliament.

The police officer advised us to go back to Pakistan if we did not like the US, to that we responded that we were seeking justice in a civilized society that had laws, and it was our right under the law and we should not be threatened in such ways.

Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali is requested to take up our case with the United States administration. US Ambassador Nancy Powell is also urged to take notice of this situation and rectify it.

GHAZALA ALI BALOCH

Ashburn, VA., USA

A leapfrog strategy

"A leapfrog strategy" (February 17) as envisaged by Mr Shahid Javed Burki is easier said than done.

It took India 40 years to jump-start an open market economy, though the highly appraised universities and institute of technologies of the country successfully educated and trained people in every field by infusion and diversion of government funding as a budgetary measure.

However, Indian five-year plans were the basis of the development of heavy industrialization, although the state-controlled economy on the Russian pattern lacked efficiency, and competitiveness which had to be corrected by privatization, democratization and adoption of strict business management practices.

According to Dr Hoodbhoy of Islamabad's Quaid-i-Azam University, education has been the least of the priorities among successive governments of Pakistan, and in 1999 the education budget of $40 million was equal to one F-16 plane; Pakistan was trying to obtain 60 of them.

However, if Pakistan diverts $1-2 billion a year from its defence budget for education, democratizes its institutions permanently, and establishes a secular government with strict rule of law and with no gun-culture, it will surely reap the benefits and catch up with others.

SAM BAIDYA

Toronto, Canada

Student unions

For 20 years the youth have been deprived of the opportunity to test their capabilities in fields of their choice. In the past several years men and women with potential have been lost to political institutions, civil society and social welfare. There are, however, apprehensions - not unfounded in view of "pressures" from various vested interests.

Student unions can operate and produce the desired results only if there is a covenant between the government, the political parties and the students to steer clear of one another. If there is string-pulling and one-upmanship, only the student cause will suffer.

Student unions should not mirror national politics; youths can show the way to elders the democratic way.

PROFESSOR ANITA GHULAM ALI

Karachi

Edhi's number

One is sure the public will not approve of the change the PTCL has made in the Edhi Foundation's short dial-in number from '115' to '1150' for the latter's ambulance service throughout the country.

Whatever the administrative reasons, the number '115' must be restored forthwith, or else '15' may be given to them and the emergency police should be allocated the international number '911', instead.

LT-COL (R) SYED AHMED

Mississauga, Ontario, Canada

KPT flyover: suggestions

This refers to the advertisement published in Dawn by the Karachi Port Trust on February 14, with a sketch of a flyover to be built at Hino Chowrangi on Korangi Road.

I want to highlight a serious flaw in the flyover/interchange sketch published in the ad, which can result in a bottleneck right at the second level interchange between the traffic going to Defence View from Jam Sadiq Bridge and the traffic coming from Korangi Road for onward journey to Sharae Faisal via Kalapul.

The simple and best solution to such a bottleneck, without incurring much of a cost, is to allow traffic coming from Korangi and proceeding to Sharae Faisal and vice versa to go through an underpass at level one of the project. Also, a left-side ascending ramp should be built for traffic meant to go to Defence View from Korangi, merging it beneath and to the left-side of the second level of the Jam Sadiq Bridge ramp for traffic going to Defence View and Sharae Faisal from the bridge.

I hope the sketch for the flyover is just a sketch and not the final design itself, and will be mended for a better traffic flow at this interchange.

FAROOQ ALAM SIDDIQUI

Karachi

An oft-repeated resolve

Many a time both our president and our prime minister in their speeches repeat that we are not under any external threat but face a threat from within, i.e. from extremism and terrorism, and that we must uproot them both. So the danger is quite well known and our beloved country has already suffered tremendously from these two deadly enemies of our social peace and sectarian harmony.

When the illness has been diagnosed, what remains then is the remedy and cure which cannot be in repeating the resolve again and again. It lies in accepting the challenge bravely and in dealing with the evil in a resolute and determined manner to rid the nation of this scourge.

It must be understood that the root cause of these two evils are the ordinances issued by General Ziaul Haq to prolong his rule by pleasing the right-wingers.

They were never demanded by the majority of our nation, nor were they ever a part of the manifesto of any political party. Neither were they ever debated in parliament and passed by the majority of members to be included in the Constitution. They were in fact entered in the Constitution at gun point by General Zia.

If a dictator from the army can introduce such destructive laws, why cannot another man from the same institution pay back the debt it owes to the nation by rescinding these laws?

MOHAMMAD ISHAQUE SOOFI

Rabwah