Is Pakistan a democracy?

MOST US newspapers did not cover the end-game of Pakistan's aggression against India, which tells the compelling story of Pakistan's misadventure and lies. It is crystal clear that the Pakistan army entered Indian side and it lied about it. It agreed to withdraw after international isolation, and accepted so many bodies of army men. There are PoWs in Indian jails.

Just one day after Pakistan announced withdrawal, terrorists killed 25 people in India, but Pakistani newspapers reported it as "Indian army killed 25 people in Kashmir". Otherwise the fate of the editor would be the same as that of Dr Maleeha Lodhi of The News, belonging to the country's largest Jang group of publications. Or like that of the editor of the Peshawar-based Frontier Post, who is in police custody on charges of drug trafficking. Or like outspoken journalist Najam Sethi, Editor of The Friday Times, who was released after 25 days in custody on June 3 after the government was forced to withdraw sedition charges against him. But Sethi is now faced with illegal tax notices against his establishment.

Now Pakistan is a country with "Anti-Defection Bill by the Sharif government, 1997" which prevents people from speaking or voting against any government-sponsored legislation. What a democracy! Mr Sharif has to get the support of Mr Clinton and Mr Blair to ask "his" army to withdraw for the fear that he might be overthrown by the army, which has ruled the country for almost half the period since Independence.

Pakistan's propaganda is that India is not implementing the UN resolution. The resolution clearly stated that Pakistan's army should vacate occupied Kashmir first (PART II, A.1) and give the administration to the local authorities under UN surveillance (PART II A.3).

When the "UN informs India of the above actions" only then should India "begin" reducing its forces (PART III B.1). Still it can "maintain minimum strength" for law and order requirements. The resolution became out of date after 24 years of Pakistani "inaction", and it was superseded by the Simla Agreement of 1972. Now Pakistan makes foul cry about it.

DILLIP K BEHERA
Bloomington (USA)
(Received in response to the Internet edition.)

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Milk rackets

Isn't it repugnant that despite the fact that many spurious milk rackets were unearthed in various parts of northern India over the last year or so, merchants of death have remained free to indulge in their satanic desire to build empires on ill-begotten wealth ("Even milk kills now", editorial, Aug 5). Surely, things have spilled beyond the pail when these rascals have no qualms in killing innocent children with spurious toxic milk.

Obviously, the authorities do not act sternly enough and the punishment also is neither swift nor probably sufficiently discouraging. That is why these "milk sheikhs" keep churning spurious toxic milk. In between, it was with adulterated oil and even spurious life-saving drugs that they sought their unsuspecting victims. The law-abiding common man is very often at the receiving end of all such acts of greed committed by unscrupulous elements. And the sad thing is that the existing laws either prove ineffective as deterrents or they are not at all effectively implemented.

Unless the demons involved in such heinous crimes are exorcised with draconian punishment they will continue to kill innocent people for their own gain. Shouldn't such heinous acts be termed and treated as wilful, planned, cold-blooded mass-murders, and accorded the punishment and contempt they deserve? In fact, there should be public trial of people who build their empires on death. They deserve nothing less than death penalty for their sins against innocent members of society. I am sure a handful of such trials will deter the rest of the mean people from ever contemplating such appalling atrocities.

VIVEK KHANNA
Panchkula

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Relmajra project

“Dam helps increase farm land” (August 8) shows that your correspondent has covered the Relmajra project extensively. Yet he has missed out some important fact which I would like to add as the officer in charge of the project.

The Punjab government had to spend about Rs 6 lakh annually to tackle the menace of soil erosion before the Relmajra project was taken up. Earlier, rain in the area resulted in a heavy accumulation of silt and sand on the national highway due to extensive soil erosion. Sand is retained in the catchment area itself now after the construction of the dam, thereby saving government funds.

The groundwater recharge in the area has also augmented. The pipeline mentioned in the feature is an underground one and the water through it flows due to gravity, thereby conserving energy as well.

Another interesting aspect that has been documented is the return of wildlife. Earlier, denudation resulted in the flight of fauna from the area. But after the dam bestowed the hills with greenery, the animals and birds which had left the barren hills have returned.

YOGENDRA AGNIHOTRI
Chandigarh

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Need for overbridge

Deplorable road conditions and frequent stoppage of traffic on the Ambala-Chandigarh road in the absence of an overbridge at the Bhankarpur level crossing have added to the woes of daily commuters.

The road near the crossing has gone from bad to worse as big cracks and potholes have appeared on the surface and require urgent repairs.

An overbridge on the railway crossing was sanctioned about five years ago but work could not be started because of one or the other reason.

The ever-increasing number of trains on the Ambala-Chandigarh track has increased the hardship of road users. Thousands of vehicles ply on the Ambala-Chandigarh road every day. Long queues of vehicles can be seen near the crossing. It takes a long time to get the vehicles cleared. Remedial steps to streamline the movement of traffic need to be initiated at the earliest.

DINESH KUMAR SHARMA
Dera Bassi

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Meditation in nutshell

Bhagat Nam Dev was once rebuked by his friend, Bhagat Tarlochan, for being engrossed most of the time in his profession at the cost of prayers. “Prayer is the work of tongue and the heart,” Bhagat Nam Dev replied, “while the hands and the feet are free to earn ones bread and to serve others.”

“Hands to work and the heart to God” is the essence of meditation.

BRIG HARDIT SINGH (retd)
Chandigarh