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Back to SYL again Tussle with IIMs Saving the vultures |
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Pakistan’s N-escapades
Strange signals
Pak-Iran nuke link dates back to 1984 FROM PAKISTAN
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Back to SYL again THE
water dispute between Punjab and Haryana has defied a solution for too long. Off and on the issue keeps cropping up with politicians and water experts of both states restating their known positions. After lying dormant for 17 years, the Eradi Tribunal has reasserted its identity. The Punjab Chief Minister has been quick to point out its irrelevance on the ground that over the years the water flow in the Punjab rivers has got reduced drastically from 24.38 MAF to 17.17 MAF. But he has muddied the waters by asking for another tribunal under Section 4(1) of the Inter-State Water Dispute Act to look into the issue. Will both parties accept it and its verdict? The Haryana case got a boost when the Supreme Court in its judgement in January, 2002, directed the Punjab Government to complete the construction of the SYL canal within a year, failing which the Centre should finish the work. Haryana’s political parties are as much united on getting the canal completed as Punjab’s are on opposing its construction, thus negating the Supreme Court judgement. Punjab’s case is that it has no surplus water to offer and, if water is diverted to Haryana, some 16 lakh acres in Bathinda, Mansa and Muktsar districts would become infertile. Besides, Haryana will get additional water with the linking of the Yamuna and Sharda rivers following an agreement with Nepal. There is another school of thought which insists on a political solution. That is also easier said than done. As Chief Ministers, both Mr Parkash Singh Badal and Mr Om Prakash Chautala could not sort out the issue despite being on back-slapping terms. The major political parties’ units in the two states do not agree on a single solution. Capt Amarinder Singh called an all-party meeting recently, but the SAD and the BJP stayed away, calling it an election gimmick. The issue has been politically exploited from time to time by various parties. With the elections round the corner, the present is hardly the opportune time to discuss, leave alone settle, this highly volatile and emotionally charged issue. Political leaders in both Punjab and Haryana need to exercise retaint and avoid raising public passions by raking up the dispute in public. They should instead apply their mind in finding a solution to the problem. |
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Tussle with IIMs THE
simmering discontent among the professors and students of the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) on the peremptory reduction of tuition fee by the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development is not entirely unexpected. What has given a curious twist to the ongoing controversy is Professor U.R. Rao’s statement that his committee, while studying the status of technical education in India, hadn’t looked at the IIMs/IITs but only focussed on those institutions coming under the purview of the All-India Council of Technical Education. This is contrary to the HRD Ministry’s claim that the decision on IIM fee cut was based on the recommendation of the U.R. Rao Committee. The IIMs fear adverse consequences of fee reduction on the quality and standard of teaching being imparted at present. They claim that it costs a lot of money for the IIMs to attract experienced and qualified faculty, create good infrastructure and upgrade technology. It is perhaps because of their consistent endeavour to maintain world class standards that the global community today
acknowledges the IIMs as global brands. There is nothing wrong on the part of Union HRD Minister Dr Murli Manohar Joshi in spreading the net of management education wider. But the IIMs fear that this would increase governmental interference in their day-to-day functioning, dilute their character and eventually erode their autonomy. Subsidisation of higher education by the government per se is not bad. But the private sector also needs to come forward to fund the IIMs on a larger scale. Its present involvement in this regard is almost negligible, though the IIM products basically join the corporate sector after completing their course. Consequently, instead of funding the education of those aspiring to become business managers in the private sector, the HRD Ministry could well focus its attention on improving the primary school and vocational education. Most primary schools in the countryside don’t have buildings, teachers or blackboards. Why can’t the government step up spending on primary education across the country and provide greater access to education to the people who cannot send their children even to school? |
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Saving the vultures THE
compulsive do-gooders, according to latest reports, have decided to unfold a grand plan on February 16 for saving the reviled vulture from becoming as dead as a dodo. Good luck to them and their mission. But the planet earth now needs a do-gooder who will save the human race from the predatory attacks of vultures who have shed their wings and put on the robes of human respectability. They first came dressed as politicians but have now found other equally effective disguises for preying on human insecurities. Recently a Colombo housewife wrote a letter to a local newspaper warning "all women whatever their ages may be" about opening their door to vultures who advertise themselves as the ultimate "dream man". They do not always come dressed as grooms. In Punjab they have had the audacity to hire the services of phoney dads and relatives from Canada for making desi grooms fulfil their dream of marrying "NRI brides"! The human vultures have also reaped a rich harvest of easy money by selling all sections of the gullible youths a life of opulence and luxury in a "phoren" land. Human vultures detest people who want to do honest business and lead a straight life. They make sure that God never stays in his heaven and all is seldom right with the world. Across the globe the uniform they wear for maintaining law and order gives them the right to behave like carrion. In India they use their power to extract the "hafta" from even that rarest of rare species called a completely law abiding citizen. Vultures usually pick their carcasses in packs. The human vultures have shown a tendency to try new ways to satisfy their lust. And the compulsive do-gooders have other preoccupations to worry about the future of the human race. Thought for the day Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers.
— Lord Tennyson |
Pakistan’s N-escapades “I have chosen to appear before you to offer my deepest regrets and unqualified apologies to a traumatised nation. It pains me to realise in retrospect that my entire lifetime achievements of providing foolproof national security to my country have been placed in serious jeopardy on account of my activities. I wish to clarify that there was never any kind of authorisation for these activities by the Government”. Thus spoke the “Father of the Islamic Bomb”, Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, in a nationally televised address on the State-run Pakistan Television. Interestingly, Dr Khan, who is known to be a skilful orator in Urdu, chose to speak in English — a language that less than 2 per cent of his countrymen understand. Dr Khan’s “confession” was obviously directed at persuading the world community that the Pakistan military was a knight in shining armour that had played no role in his proliferation escapades. Responding to the “confession” with a Presidential pardon, General Musharraf described Dr Khan as “my hero,” adding: “I revere him for his contribution to making the defence of the country impregnable”. Seeking to reassure his shaken countrymen, General Musharraf swore that there would be no compromise on the country’s missile and nuclear programmes. He vowed to test the Shaheen-2 missile with a 2000-kilometre range within a month. (He conveniently forgot to mention that the Shaheen-2 was a missile designed and supplied by China). Clearly rattled by implicit threats of sanctions because of Pakistan’s reckless proliferation of nuclear weapons technologies and designs, and by accusations of the involvement of his predecessors like General Aslam Beg, Gen Abdul Waheed and Gen Jehangir Karamat and his own personal involvement in such transfers, General Musharraf warned the Pakistani media to be “responsible” in its comments. He said that if the government or Army were implicated “the UN Security Council will immediately impose sanctions against us; next we will be asked to sign the NPT and CTBT and roll back; then we will be declared a rogue state and finally our vital interests would come under imminent physical danger”. While there is no doubt that the nuclear transfers to Iran and North Korea were effected with the approval of the Pakistan Army, one cannot positively assert that there was high-level Army clearance for the deals with Libya — a development that will further embarrass China. The design data provided by Dr Khan to Libya was that of a Chinese nuclear warhead. Dr Khan is also known to have offered assistance to the Saddam Hussein regime to develop nuclear weapons. But, all these revelations on Pakistan’s clandestine nuclear transfers are only the tip of an iceberg. A former Saudi diplomat, Mr Mohammed Khilewi, revealed in 1994 that Pakistan had cooperated with his country on nuclear transfers. Eyebrows were thereafter raised when Saudi Arabian Defence Minister Prince Sultan was granted access in 1999 to Dr Khan’s nuclear and missile complex in Kahuta — access that had been denied in the past even to Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. This was followed by a visit to Saudi Arabia later the same year by Dr A.Q. Khan. There is also evidence of Pakistani scientists like Sultan Bashiruddin Mehmood meeting and sharing information on nuclear-related matters in Kandahar with Osama bin Laden. Then there are instances of Pakistani scientists with suspected Al-Qaeda connections disappearing from the backwoods of Myanmar. The confessions of Dr A.Q. Khan have also shattered Pakistani illusions about Islamic solidarity within the so-called Muslim Ummah. When push came to shove, Pakistan’s Islamic brethren had no hesitation in exposing its role in clandestinely transferring nuclear knowhow. The Iraqis gave UN inspectors the details of “offers” for assistance from Dr Khan. Iran and Libya did likewise. The Libyans even acknowledged that they had paid the “Father of the Islamic Bomb” around $ 50 million for the design of a nuclear warhead. An embittered Musharraf exclaimed: “Have you seen them (Muslim countries) who could not face any pressure and told others everything before telling us? We should not live in idealism”. This was a clear attack on the assertions of persons like Gen Aslam Beg and Gen Hamid Gul who continuously speak about Islamic countries uniting in adopting a posture of “strategic defiance” of the United States. New Delhi has wisely refrained from being critical about Pakistan’s nuclear transgressions. Criticism from India will only lead to others claiming that we are exploiting Pakistan’s difficulties. The Americans, the IAEA and the EU will pursue this issue further. I had occasion to speak to a few visiting American friends who had held high offices in the United States recently. They appeared concerned about the directions that events in Pakistan are taking and feared that nuclear weapons and technology could end up in the hands of extremist Islamist elements. India and the United States share a common interest in ensuring that Pakistan proceeds in the direction of modernity and economic progress. Regional economic integration and interdependence could be important factors in catalysing such a directional change. The Americans have to be persuaded that their policies of giving the Pakistan military a feeling that it is a long-term strategic partner in military terms, has only led to internal destabilisation and the emergence of the jihadi culture within Pakistan. Pakistan is strategically located between India and other SAARC members on the one hand and Iran and Central Asia on the other. It can serve as a bridge for energy flows if it replaces jihad and terrorism as instruments of State policy with an interest in collective economic prosperity. Does General Musharraf have the strategic vision to change course and join India and others in a quest for progress and prosperity, or is he going to remain glued to old clichés that low-intensity conflict with India will continue to be waged and used as a tool for Pakistani ambitions on Kashmir? There seems to be some optimism in India on this score after the Islamabad Summit. But his statements on February 5 indicating that there had been no change in his thinking about the so-called “freedom struggle” in Kashmir are a source of concern. We will get a clearer picture about his real thinking only after the Himalayan snows melt in July. In the meantime, one can only hope that he does not get the feeling that American forbearance on Pakistan’s nuclear transgressions is a licence for him to resume his jihad across the Line of Control at a time of his choosing. |
Strange signals ONCE
I dreamt I saw a few foreigners in western attire in a jubilant mood. Next morning when I unfolded The Tribune, exactly this picture appeared on Page 1, the caption stating that devotees of Baha faith were celebrating their religious day. Wasn’t it strange? Years ago, I often dreamt that my husband, children and I are just throwing our baggage in our car and travelling at midnight in great haste. Obviously it meant an emergency. For many days I felt uneasy fearing news of someone seriously ill or God forbid, sad tidings. After a month or so, my family and I went to Delhi, reaching there late in the evening. After dinner we got a phone call from Shimla informing us that children’s school admission tests were to be held next morning at 9 a.m. So we rushed back to Shimla travelling at midnight exactly as I had seen in my oft-repeated dream! Unfortunately, all dreams do not end happily. One such dream was perhaps the strangest one I saw. I vividly recall waking up with a start at 4 a.m. on a Monday. I had pictured my cousin with her two infant daughters in a sad and pensive mood, standing before a photo of her husband, wearing a floral garland around his neck. Obviously he was no more. I became very perplexed. I had not met my cousin for years. How could I ring up any relative to enquire about his welfare, leave alone death? Impossible. They would think me crazy. On Thursday I was informed that this young pilot had been killed in a plane crash near Jamnagar. But I had dreamt of this tragedy three days before his death. The dream shook me. My maternal grandfather penned his hand-written autobiography of 75 pages and 111 paragraphs in 1950s describing his experiences in France during World War I, his job, etc. Years ago, I read it and returned it to my mother. Recently as I wished to keep a copy of it, I borrowed it from her. And what followed is really amazing. As I typed it on my computer, I discovered that certain descriptions and events, of which I had full knowledge, were not written in the autobiography! All these years I had thought that they were mentioned in the book. No one had told me about them either. My grandparents’ house in Rawalpindi was of grey colour and had a platform in front, my great-grandmother’s bier was well-decorated as per her wishes, my uncle was named Manohar whereas everyone wanted him to be called Mubaraq Singh etc., are a few of unwritten and untold events that took place in undivided India, several years before my birth. Sometimes fragrance creeps into my life too. Years ago, sweet smells akin to champa/chameli, would waft around me. But no such plant grew in my vicinity. Soon Daddy was posted to Trivandrum. Certain plants having this scent grew in Pangode House, our residence there. Do coming events cast even their scents before? Undeniably, our life is pre-destined. I wonder, is our mind like a wireless sometimes catching signals of coming events? Perhaps our mind glimpses them in dreams or visions. Therefore, is it possible that if we intensely desire to know our future, we should just delve deep into our mind’s recesses to get the answer? Seek and ye shall find it in the world of your dreams (if you remember them). For, they hold the key to your destiny, the biggest mystery to be unraveled by
mankind! |
Pak-Iran nuke link dates back to 1984
COUNTRIES like Libya and Iran have only recently blown the whistle on the clandestine supermarket that Pakistan is for nuclear proliferation. But the Iranian route of this proliferation came to international notice two decades back. The first reports of the Pakistan-Iran link in nuclear field date back to 1984 when an Iranian delegation headed by the then Director, Nuclear Technology Centre, Isfahan, Dr Gnadi Mohammad Mragih, a reprocessing expert, visited Pakistan. Iran sought the assistance of Dr A Q Khan to assess the damage caused to the 1300 MW twin unit of the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) constructed with assistance of Siemens. The plant was damaged due to aerial attacks by Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war. Dr Khan visited Iran several times in 1986 for this purpose. Later in the late 1980s, pursuant to contacts between the Head of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran (AEOI) and the Chairman, Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC), six Iranian nuclear scientists were trained at Pakistani nuclear facilities in 1987 and 31 others in 1988. The Iranians were provided training in spent fuel reprocessing and key aspects of weaponisation, according to information available here. Several Iranian engineers/experts were thereafter reported to be based at the Centre for Nuclear Studies (CNS), now known as the Pakistan Institute of Engineering and Applied Science (PIEAS). In early January 1991 three Iranian teams visited Pakistan to finalise a broad agreement of co-operation in nuclear matters. The agreement was finally signed during March, 1991. An AEOI delegation visited Pakistan shortly thereafter, probably April 1991, to identify specific areas of co-operation. Some Pakistani scientists also visited the Nuclear Technology Centre (NTC) in Isfahan during the second week of August 1991 to pursue this matter. The Pakistan Chief of Army Staff visited Iran in November 1991 during which a secret agreement was concluded to create a joint military commission with a specific provision for the transfer of uranium enrichment technology to Iran. Iran was also assured help to operationalise a nuclear research reactor for the production of plutonium. This had been preceded by a visit in February 1991 by the then Speaker of the Majlis, Hojjat Ol-Islam Mehdi Karrubbi, during which 50 million dollars were deposited in Pakistani banks as a revolving fund to aid special defence and nuclear projects. Some Pakistani scientists were reported to have been working at the Nuclear Research Centre (NRC) being developed by Iran at Qazvin, near Moallem Kalleiah, about 150 km west of Tehran in the Elburz mountain range in the late 1980s/early 1990s. Dr A Q Khan also secretly visited the centre on several occasions during this period. Iran also tried to hire the services of a Pakistani Laser specialist, Dr Qamar Munir, who was working in a Pakistan government-run research laboratory. In 1992 reports indicated US officials suspected Pakistan was transferring the centrifuge design to Iran. Two Pakistani experts were reported to have visited Iran in May 1992 to hold discussions on possible co-operation in the field of uranium enrichment. Iran had approached Pakistan’s former Chief of Army Staff, Mirza Aslam Beg, offering to pay a large sum to acquire nuclear weapons technology. Reports indicated that Iran had offered 3.2 billion US dollars. Although, US officials could not come up with any evidence that Pakistan officially shared enrichment knowhow or the centrifuge design with Iran, analysts were of the view that Pakistani “semi-official parties or private individuals” had supplied such knowhow to Iran. Of all the dignitaries who visited Pakistan following its nuclear tests in May 1998, only the Iranian Foreign Minister was reportedly taken to the nuclear test site. In early 2000 Pakistan was said to have been providing technical assistance to Iran in a secret nuclear project being undertaken on the outskirts of Tehran. By April 2000, about 30 nuclear experts of Pakistan were working on this project. These Pakistani experts working in Iran faced some problems in 2001 and sought assistance from the Shanghai Nuclear Engineering and Research Institute, China. About 18 Pakistan nuclear scientists/engineers reached Tehran on February 26, 2003 to replace the experts already working. In 2002 reports appeared in the media that Iran was engaged in secret nuclear projects at Natanz and Arak. Pakistan nuclear experts were reported to have assisted Iranian scientists in these centres. It has now been established that the secret projects were related to uranium enrichment and plutonium production reactor respectively. Ever since the IAEA found the secret nuclear facility at Natanz in February 2003, reports of the Pakistan-Iran link in nuclear field floated in the international media. The presence of enriched uranium in environmental samples collected at the site and discovery of centrifuges based on Urenco’s SNOR design implicated Dr A Q Khan, the then Project Director, A Q Khan Research Laboratories, of having transferred the centrifuge enrichment technology to Iran. Pakistan, while refuting these reports, was categorical that Dr Khan never set his foot on Iranian territory. Dr Khan has been documented to have been in Iran in January and May, 1995, and visited the Iranian nuclear research centres in Tehran, Isfahan and Karaj, in addition to those in the 80s and early 90s. There is also documentary evidence regarding his presence at the 5th World Seminar on Heat Treatment and Surface Engineering held at the Tehran Nuclear Research Centre in 1995 and in Isfahan from September 27-30, 1999, to participate in a regional conference on magnetic and super conducting materials. A report captioned “Iran Closes in on Ability to Build a Nuclear Bomb”, based on a three-month investigation by The Times, London, also published in the Los Angeles Times (August 4, 2003), gave a detailed account of Pakistan assistance to Iran in its nuclear weapon programme. The report quoted Ali Akbar Omid Mehr, who was in charge of Pakistani affairs at Iran’s Foreign Ministry in 1989 and 1990 as saying that Dr Khan frequently visited Iran. These visits were primarily meant to iron out problems in the centrifuges and sharing critical data on weapon design for which he had been given a villa near the Caspian Sea. Besides, Pakistan military commanders offered to sell nuclear weapons technology to Iran in 1989. The report also stated that Hashemi Rafsanjani, the then President of Iran, at a reception in 1989, secretly made an appeal to Benazir Bhutto to approve the transfer of technology for nuclear weapon development on a military-to-military basis as per the Pakistan Generals’ offer. However, Benazir Bhutto was reportedly not in favour of the weapon technology transfers at least until she was ousted in 1996. The report concluded that centrifuges seen at Natanz in February 2003 by the IAEA officials were based on the Pakistani design. |
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FROM PAKISTAN ISLAMABAD: To evolve consensus on the Police Order-2002, Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali has urged the provinces to lend their support for turning the police force into an efficient and effective institution. Mr Jamali was chairing a meeting here on Tuesday, which was also attended by the Chief Ministers, the Interior Ministers, the Inspector-Generals of Police and senior federal and provincial officials. As the provinces have shown reservations on a number of provisions in the order, the meeting formed a committee to finalise the proposed amendments. The body will arrive at a consensus draft by incorporating the views of the federation and the provinces within a fortnight. Mr Jamali said the government was trying to accommodate the provinces’ proposals. The changes, he said, contemplated in the Police Order were aimed at depoliticising the police. The aim was to make the police efficient, which could serve the people with utmost dedication.
— The News International Non-sectarian
society
LAHORE: The Punjab government is implementing the seven-point agenda of President Pervez Musharraf whose results, based on qualitative changes in the socio-economic condition of the masses, have begun to show. Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervez Elahi said this in an interview with Radio Pakistan on Tuesday. Under this agenda, a priority programme had been launched across the province, and attention was being focused on the agricultural and industrial sectors, making a sectarianism-free society and taking various other social-welfare steps. He said that as the first step, the mark-up on agriculture loans was reduced from 13 per cent to 9 per cent and agriculture tax was also withdrawn for the farmers possessing a land up to 12.5 acres. This step has benefited some 99 per cent small farmers across the province, causing a rapid agricultural revolution, Mr Pervez Elahi said. Hudood Ordinance
open to debate
ISLAMABAD: President Gen Pervez Musharraf on Tuesday called for an open debate on the Hudood Ordinance, saying that the issue must be resolved through ‘Ijtihad’ and legislative institutions in collaboration with women’s institutions. In his address at the inaugural session of the third summit of the first ladies of the Regional Steering Committee of the Asia Pacific for the Advancement of Rural and Island Women, he said the discussion on the Hudood Ordinance must be open and defined in the true spirit of the Quran and Sunnah which was promulgated with good intent during the tenure of President Zia-ul-Haq. He maintained, “the question is of correct interpretation of the Quran and the Sunnah, the debate is on what the Quran and the Sunnah say.” — The Nation Rally against
Thal Canal
KARACHI: Thousands of activists of political parties with diverse views staged a huge rally here on Tuesday to register Sindh’s rejection of the Greater Thal Canal and Kalabagh Dam. Participants of the rally, which was organised by the Anti-Greater Thal Canal Committee, chanted slogans against the government, particularly against President Gen Pervez Musharraf, whom they accused of acting against the interests of Sindh and Pakistan. Thousands of people from Karachi and other parts of Sindh participated in the major anti-government rally in the city on an issue which had been agitating them for a long time. Work on the Greater Thal Canal was started a couple of years ago and it is nearing completion now. There is a perception that it is being built to irrigate lands owned by the serving and retired Army officers in Sindh. The government rejects these views.
— Dawn |
One’s body may be handsome, wife beautiful, fame excellent and varied, and wealth like unto Mount Meru; but if one’s mind be not attached to the lotus feet of the Guru (teacher), what thence, what thence, what thence and what thence? — Shri Adi
Goodness will flow through you to the rest of the world. Those who mean to do good to the world will do well to become a concentrated essence of purity and love. — Swami A.
He who associates himself with evildoers is ruined. Being fed on poison, his life goes to waste. — Guru Nanak The saints who have sacrificed their lives for the propagation of the Divine Truth, we are inspired by their steadfastness, by their resolve, their solid determination, their fearlessness. — Nirankari Baba
Hardev Singh |
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