Saudi-Pakistan affinity

SAUDI Arabia’s concern over the growing military ties between Israel and India seems to reflect the feeling of the entire Arab world on this grave threat to the Muslim countries and the region. Speaking at a news conference in Islamabad, the visiting Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said military ties between these two countries were a “worrying element” because they would not only lead to an arms race but enflame the entire region. The Saudi expression of concern comes in the wake of the recent one billion dollar military deal between New Delhi and Tel Aviv under which Israel will sell the Phalcon airborne radar system to India that will put Pakistan at a serious security disadvantage. The Phalcon agreement was signed in the aftermath of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s visit to India. While India recognized Israel as far back as 1992, the two countries have come closer in recent years. The reasons are obvious: both countries are ruled by extremist right-wing parties. While India is obsessed with Pakistan, Prince Faisal correctly referred to Israel’s own fixation with its security. As he put it, this small country believes its security extends in the area between “the Indus and the Atlantic Ocean.”

The Likud leader’s taste for Arab blood is legendary: Sabra-Chatilla and Jenin are his “achievements.” India, in turn, is ruled by the fundamentalist Bharatiya Janata Party. This party has been responsible for one of India’s worst anti-Muslim riots — those in Gujarat — organized by the BJP-run state government. The two countries are also in breach of the UN resolutions on Palestine and Kashmir and have refused to recognize the right to freedom of the people of these two lands. The two governments have resorted to repression and are guilty of gross human rights violations in occupied Kashmir and Palestine. Both have also defied the international community’s call to solve issues through negotiations. No wonder, Likud and the BJP share a meeting of minds and an affinity of purpose. Both India and Israel are expansionist powers with a record of aggression against their neighbours. The “worrying element” that Prince Faisal spoke of is the Indo-Israeli collusion for the purpose of placing the Middle East under a new “mandate” of the kind that the Allied powers exercised after World War I.

The end of Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdel Aziz’s two-day visit finds Pakistan and Saudi Arabia closer than ever, with Riyadh deciding to raise its development assistance to Pakistan from $65 million to $100 million. Both the crown prince and his foreign minister also upheld Pakistan’s stand on Kashmir and emphasized the need for a peaceful solution. One hopes relations between these two countries will continue to serve the cause of peace in the region. While Prince Abdullah condemned “terrorist criminals” for burdening Islam with a bad image, President Musharraf emphasized the need for upholding Islam’s “eternal values.” The Muslim world must find a practical way of getting out of what President Musharraf called the existing “morass”. How this can be done is truly a great challenge facing the Muslim world today.

Investment suitability

COMMENTS made by a visiting US delegation about the factors that affect Pakistan’s suitability as a market for investment need to be carefully looked into and necessary corrective steps taken urgently. American businessmen accompanying visiting US Assistant Trade Representative Ashley Will to Pakistan said last week that they were considering investing as much as five billion dollars in the next two to three years. However, they said they were deterred by the unsatisfactory law and order situation here as well as continuing political instability. The perception of Pakistan as an unsafe place and one that continues to be politically unstable needs to be corrected. The government needs to be more serious about tackling the deteriorating law and order situation all over the country, especially in urban areas. In addition to a rise in terrorist violence, the crime graph has also gone up. Despite the presence of several intelligence agencies and crime control outfits, the law and order situation in the country is going from bad to worse.

Armed robberies, thefts, kidnapping, assaults and petty crime have all registered a visible increase over the last several years. In addition, religious militancy in the form of sectarian attacks as well as politically motivated violence have become quite common to add to internal insecurity and tarnish the country’s image abroad. An aggravating factor in all this is the inefficiency of the law enforcement and intelligence agencies and their failure in most cases to follow up and bring the culprits to book. The contributory factor in the prevailing uncertainty and insecurity that the American delegation has spoken about is the long stand-off over the controversial Legal Framework Order (LFO). In spite of the rigidities on both sides — the government and the opposition — the issue needs to be resolved one way or another so that the prevailing climate of uncertainty surrounding the fate of the parliament is removed. The views of the visiting American businessmen on these crucial issues are largely shared in the country. It is now up to the government to work harder at addressing these problems in all seriousness, so that factors inhibiting both domestic and foreign investment are removed as soon as possible.

Study abroad scheme

THE proposal by the Higher Education Commission (HEC) to launch a scheme to send Pakistani scholars abroad for obtaining postgraduate degrees and doctorates needs to be cautiously welcomed. The move, if properly planned and executed, could do much to boost the severely stunted and underdeveloped research sector in our universities. However, the amount of financing required — well over four billion rupees — means that the scheme must be carefully thought out and implemented to ensure that the money is well spent. Under the proposal, the HEC will seek to send 950 higher education students from Pakistan to universities abroad over a four-year period beginning from 2004. Once these scholars return to Pakistan, the HEC hopes that they will help fill the current void in the research departments of most of our national universities.

The addition of several hundred Ph.Ds from well-reputed overseas universities should provide a much-needed element of organization and professionalism to Pakistani universities, not only in terms of improving the whole culture of conducting research (by improving methodologies and infusing new ideas for possible research topics) but also in improving the quality of teaching. One problem that could arise is to ensure that those sent abroad at the government’s expense do actually return to Pakistan to share their academic expertise and skills. In the past, similar programmes to sponsor Pakistanis for doctorates abroad failed to achieve their intended purpose because those who were sent overseas for study never came back. Once abroad, say in the US or the UK, the scholars realized that their skills and academic knowledge could be better respected and utilized in the thriving research cultures in the West and would be of little value in the academic wasteland of higher education in Pakistan. So it is crucial that those who are sent overseas under the HEC’s proposed scheme come back. And that will only happen if, alongside such programmes, measures are taken to tone up the overall level of teaching and instruction, raise academic standards and significantly improve the atmosphere in our universities, especially in the public sector.