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Bush’s original sin Uncertainty in Dhaka |
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Maths minus tears Students fully deserve respite AFTER so many suicides and cases of examination-related stress, the CBSE seems to be waking up to the fact that the students are a harassed lot. Study, instead of being a process of learning, has become a bugbear. That is but natural when you are not only saddled with an overload of things to learn, but are also judged for what you did during a whole year in a matter of three hours. As the examination date draws near, most students turn into nervous wrecks.
Dead weight of the RSS
Vignettes of a fire
Don’t lose Afghanistan, again Somalia’s latest catastrophe Inside Pakistan
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Bush’s original sin UNDER fire from Democrats in Congress and public opinion outside of it, US President George W. Bush has unveiled his new Iraq policy, which falls short of admitting that his earlier policy was a colossal failure. The closest he came to admitting the unmitigated disaster that the US policy on Iraq has been is when he said, “where mistakes have been made, the responsibility lies with me”. Nearly four years since the US attacked Iraq in the guise of looking for “weapons of mass destruction”, which Saddam Hussein was alleged to have been stockpiling, the situation in the country has gone from bad to worse. Saddam — once considered a friend of the US — might have been a tyrant but when he held the reins of power in Baghdad, there was at least a modicum of unity and order in that country. In contrast, chaos prevails in today’s Iraq, virtually administered by the US. It can even lead to the rise of another dictator. The decision to send 20,000 more US troops to Baghdad, in addition to the 1,32,000 already deployed there, is more a reflection of the US helplessness than its resolve to fortify its position. As it is, the requirement is of the order of 50,000 soldiers but to send such a large number in a war that has already claimed 3,000 American lives is to court disaster on the popularity ratings in the US. These troops will hardly make any difference to Iraq where civil war-like conditions prevail. Caught in a Catch-22 type situation, the US can neither withdraw nor go ahead and finish whatever task it had chosen for itself. His strongest ally in the war, Mr Tony Blair, who is under pressure to withdraw the British forces from Basra, has already committed himself to halving the troops’ strength in a few weeks. Sooner than later, the US will be alone in tackling the situation in Iraq, which is of its own making. Right from the day Mr Bush found a ruse to attack Iraq, he has been hurtling from one blunder to another, the latest being the hanging of Saddam. The video pictures of the hanging show the total lack of a sense of justice in the way he was dealt with. Yet, if the Arab street has remained, by and large, peaceful, it is only because of the Shia-Sunni factor that came into play in his killing. Neither the Iraqis in power in Baghdad nor their American backers are in a position to ensure public order. And by getting sucked deeper and deeper into Iraq, Mr Bush has only been compounding his original sin of ruthlessly invading a sovereign nation. |
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Uncertainty in Dhaka THE respite from the prolonged spell of disruptive strikes and violence delivered by the declaration of emergency in Bangladesh is still weighed with uncertainty about the elections. The sooner President Iajuddin Ahmed, who proclaimed a state of emergency on January 11, enables notification of a time table for the postponed elections, the better it would be for restoring political normality. Doubtless, Bangladesh has been in turmoil: The opposition parties led by Sheikh Hasina Wajed’s Awami League organised massive protests accusing President Ahmed’s caretaker government of allowing the elections — scheduled for January 22 — to be rigged in favour of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) headed by Begum Khaleda Zia; the BNP pitched in to foil the bid for postponement of elections; and, the caretaker government, accused of bias that precluded free and fair elections, had lost legitimacy and credibility. In the event, along with postponement of elections, resignations of President Ahmed as chief of the caretaker government and all but one member of the advisory council should be welcome. Yet, if they are not being fully endorsed as positive developments in the prevalent climate of uncertainty and confrontation, it is because of a deep distrust of the President’s intentions. The distrust is reinforced by the restrictions, and the crackdown, on media and political activities. News that is critical of the government and of political activities has been banned, and security forces are “pursuing” opposition leaders. These are reminiscent of the Emergency in India and not indicative of a democratic turn, necessarily. This is cause for not just distrust but also suspicion of whether President Ahmed’s emergency is actuated by an urge to hold free and free elections in a peaceful political atmosphere; or, calculated to outmanoeuvre the opposition to end its campaign against him. The swearing-in of a new caretaker government and notification of new dates for the postponed parliamentary elections would be the first tests for President Ahmed about whether he intends to take democracy forward or snuff it out. These two actions will have to be followed by lifting the media restrictions, calling off political raids by the army and agreeing to revision of voter lists. Until these happen, the uncertainty can only add to the tensions and fuel the conflict further with ominous consequences. |
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Maths minus tears AFTER so many suicides and cases of examination-related stress, the CBSE seems to be waking up to the fact that the students are a harassed lot. Study, instead of being a process of learning, has become a bugbear. That is but natural when you are not only saddled with an overload of things to learn, but are also judged for what you did during a whole year in a matter of three hours. As the examination date draws near, most students turn into nervous wrecks. Mathematics has been particularly nightmarish for some and has forced many to quit studies. To address the problem, the CBSE has decided to introduce a practical component in the mathematics paper for Class X students. While the theory paper will comprise 80 marks, 20 marks will be for internal assessment. This will, hopefully, lessen the tendency to learn by rote. The same practical approach has also been followed in some other subjects. Earlier, the science paper used to have 75 marks for theory and 25 for practicals. Now this paper will have only 60 marks for theory and 40 for practicals. The CBSE had earlier introduced an internal assessment component in the social sciences paper was well. These steps, coupled with last year’s decision to grant additional 15 minutes as cool-off time to read the question paper, will make life easier for stressed-out examinees. The success of the scheme will depend on how honestly the internal assessment is made. Some of the schools have the propensity to deliberately increase the marks of their students in practicals, so that they can get a good division. This tendency is self-defeating. The CBSE will have to keep a hawk’s eye on this problem. A strict check on the schools at the pain of derecognition can ensure compliance. Many reforms being introduced in the schools are good. They should not be allowed to be polluted by blinkered practices. |
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It doesn't matter who my father was; it matters who I remember he was.
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Dead weight of the RSS THERE were two defining moments during the BJP’s recent national executive meeting in Lucknow. One was a particularly virulent anti-Muslim outburst by former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Kalyan Singh, and the other was the release of a video cassette showing in slow horror the killing of a cow. In his speech, Kalyan Singh had little hesitation in exposing the party’s ugly anti-minority face with a gusto which suggested a clear purpose. At the personal level, it must have been to buttress his own claim to be the chief ministerial candidate by taking a line which could not but please the RSS. Now that the RSS has dropped all pretences of being a cultural organisation and is taking a close interest in guiding the BJP along the path of Hindutva, any contender for coveted posts in the party and government has to keep the predilections of the bosses in Nagpur in mind. Kalyan Singh’s tirades were obviously intended to achieve this objective. At the same time, the BJP itself may have chosen this essentially provincial leader of the Hindi belt to peddle a view which the somewhat more sophisticated New Delhi-based saffron politicos may find socially, if not politically, embarrassing to espouse. But there was possibly another reason for Kalyan Singh’s vehemence. After all, he had walked out of the BJP not long ago to form his own outfit and had also lashed out at Atal Bihari Vajpayee and other leaders in intemperate language. He has since mended his ways and has been allowed to return to the party. What better way, therefore, to express his gratitude than by castigating India’s Internal Enemies No. 1, as identified by Golwalkar. Mincing no words, he articulated what every Sangh parivar activist firmly believes but is unable to say too often lest they fall foul of the law in a secular society — that virtually all Muslims are a threat to the nation. “Let us not be shy”, he said, “of saying that all terrorists — those who attacked the Akshardham temple, the Raghunath mandir and Parliament — were Muslims. Not one Hindu gave shelter to any of these terrorists who had come from Pakistan. Who did they come and stay with ? Where do they find shelter ?” Answering his own rhetorical questions, Kalyan Singh announced with aplomb “Muslims” to a cheering audience. The none-too-subtle hint about the presence of a traitorous faith column in the country was clearly aimed at enthusing the core Hindutva vote bank comprising communal-minded Hindus. The same purpose is also expected to be served by the video cassette on the killing of a cow, which will undoubtedly be widely shown in the run-up to the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections. These propaganda ploys recall the efforts of Sadhvi Rithambara in spreading communal poison in the heyday of the Ramjanmabhoomi agitation in the nineties. A decade later, and especially after the temple issue had been put on the back burner by the BJP, the unabashed minority-bashing in Lucknow was perhaps only to be expected after the RSS ensured that L.K.Advani would be replaced as the BJP president by the more pliant Rajnath Singh. Like Kalyan Singh, the new BJP chief is another uncharismatic provincial leader who is keen to please the RSS. After his installation as the president, Rajnath Singh promptly sang the tunes expected of him by the RSS by calling for the bombardment of the terrorist bases in Pakistan “after informing the international community”. He must have also expected that the hawkish line taken at Lucknow will convince the RSS that it has chosen the right man. To some extent, this surmise is not wrong considering that the VHP’s fiery campaigner, Pravin Togadiya, lauded Rajnath Singh for the Lucknow pronouncements on the Ayodhya temple. Even then, all may not be well within the saffron parivar. For a start, the pahle aap (you first) courtesies extended by Advani and Vajpayee to each other on the question of who would be prime minister showed that age hadn’t withered their ambitions. Nor of those like Rajnath Singh, who likened himself to a bridegroom ready to take the baraat (wedding procession) to Delhi. And, not to be left behind, Murli Manohar Joshi told whoever cared to listen that there was no dearth of talent in the party, implying that he was prepared to take on the responsibility of leading the country. What must be disconcerting for the RSS is that for all its efforts to marginalise Vajpayee and Advani, including K.S. Sudarshan’s television interview asking them to fade away into the sunset, the two remain the top contenders for the prize post. It is another matter that the chances of the BJP or the NDA attaining power in Delhi in 2009 are remote. What is more, even if the NDA does manage to confound its detractors, its leaders like Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar have already made it clear that they will accept no one else but Vajpayee, who is their “undisputed leader”. It is hard to believe that there will be any takers in the NDA for Rajnath Singh and Joshi. If Vajpayee is unwilling, then it can only be Advani. But it isn’t only these two war horses who are seemingly defying the attempts of the RSS to mould the BJP in its own intensely sectarian image. To everyone’s surprise, Narendra Modi, too, has lately been showing signs of moderation with the result that he has fallen out with Togadiya. For a start, the VHP has been angered by the reopening of the cases relating to the Gujarat riots of 2002, exposing its cadres to legal hassles. But if this was unavoidable because of the Supreme Court’s directives, what must have caused dismay and astonishment among the saffron activists is the Modi government’s decision to ban the observance of Golwalkar’s centenary in the Christian-dominated Dangs area on December 25. It has to be remembered that Modi became one of the heroes of the hardliners after the riots, which were hailed by the VHP as an awakening of the Hindus. Moditva was, therefore, to become the new distinguishing feature of Hindutva. For the RSS, nothing could be more desirable. And, yet, at Lucknow, while Kalyan Singh was delivering his shrill invectives against the minorities, Modi stuck to the theme of development in his speech. What is obvious is that the chief minister’s apparent desire to spread his wings beyond Gujarat has made him realise the virtues of moderation. He has also understood that development cannot take place in conditions of continuing tension and strife between communities. The belief, therefore, that the Lucknow meeting marked a return to undiluted Hindutva may not be correct. The Rajnath Singh-Kalyan Singh line on building the temple and opposing minority appeasement was meant mainly to enthuse the cadres prior to the Uttar Pradesh elections. It was also aimed at keeping the RSS in good humour. But that is only half the story. The old problem of the BJP of trying to establish a political presence in a multicultural country has not only remained, but may have even been exacerbated by the failure of the RSS to appreciate the fact that the espousal of religious fundamentalism — whether Hindu or Muslim — will not win votes. Vajpayee was the first to understand this, followed by Advani after the party’s advent to power at the centre. Now, others including probably Modi are realising this stark reality. Besides, these leaders know that Muslim-baiting will drive away the allies to botch the NDA’s chances of gaining power. Unless the BJP rids itself of the dead weight of the RSS, it has no
future.
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Vignettes of a fire DECEMBER 29, 1996. Inevitably my mind goes back to this date 10 years ago when my house was gutted by a fire and throws up vignettes of the event. Among the salvaged objects was the inexplicable presence of dozens of framed photographs, tied up in a curtain. Sustained enquiry revealed that it was Gyasudin, the carpenter, who had saved them. “I knew I could only go in once so I asked myself: What was it that was irreplaceable? “I ignored the paintings, the antique furniture, carpets and artifacts because they could all, to a greater or lesser degree, be replaced. The photographs could not. I tore down a curtain, swept them all into it and ran from the house”. A friend, visiting the ruined house, saw, in the garage, two chowkidars trying to piece together shards of blue and white porcelain. “You cannot put broken pots together,” he chided. “It is not broken pots we seek to mend, but our Sahib’s broken memories.” Our temporary accommodation was freezing cold and we spent a lot of time in the sun. As a result we were sunburnt. A relative, coming to condole the loss, took one look at us and exclaimed: “How terrible the fire must have been-you have all become so dark.” Ashish and Jessie, two favourite former pupils, brought me a huge bottle of scotch. “You too,” I said and showed them the cupboard full of alcohol. “I know I am an alcoholic but you don’t all have to rub it in. No one has brought a cardigan, woolen socks, a blanket or a quilt.” “Look at it this way, sir” Ashish said. “There is prohibition in Haryana. Look at all the people who love you so tremendously they have risked arrest by smuggling this alcohol to you.” My cousin from the village came to see me. We hadn’t met for 35 years and it was an awkward meeting. I did not dare ask after his father because I did not know if he was still alive. The next morning, he held out a stout, old staff to me. “This is your grandfather’s staff. Bapu said that you must have lost all relics of your father and your grandfather. He said to give this to you so that wherever you go, your grandfather’s spirit will go with you.” What have I learnt from all this? I learnt at 55 what Anne Frank had learnt at 14 — that in spite of everything, people are essentially good at heart. I learnt that the most liberating act in life is the act of letting go. I learnt that I did not need a house to be at home in the
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Don’t lose Afghanistan, again
IN about three years from now, in 2009, when the next Presidential elections are due in Afghanistan, America’s ally in South Asia Hamid Karzai may still make it for another term. But it is not very certain whether the 33, 000-odd, NATO-led forces today fighting for the country’s security and stability will decide to stick it out that long. And that’s the time Afghanistan’s troubles could really begin to pile up. With no Afghan National army worth the name in place, a possible relook at US military involvement in Kabul with a new American President, and a changed configuration in Congress and the Senate a near certainty, the over three decades of strife and instability could prolong beyond any Afghan well-wisher’s dreams. A diluted American military presence in Afghanistan – due to its prolonged presence in Iraq – the rise of the Taliban, Pakistan’s disinclination to check their depredations along the Durand Line, and the growing influence of quite a few Afghan warlords whose very existence and power base depends on the poppy and heroin trade across the porous borders of their provinces, could pose serious challenges to the Kabul government. Only a political solution as opposed to a military one, and one clearly acceptable to the Tajiks, Uzbeks, Hazaras and the majority Pashtuns, could put the country back on its feet. Outside support can keep a government in place but not in perpetuity, and Afghanistan has to learn eventually to manage its affairs with Pakistan independently. After the Americans pull out, would Pakistan overtly or covertly desist from siding with the Taliban? More importantly, will the Afghan warlords along the border go along with the Taliban in trying to overthrow a legally constituted government in Kabul with a dispensation more close to Pakistan? This is what happened in the nineties when the rebel Mujahadeen and the Taliban had cruelly ousted the late President Najibullah. Hamid Karzai must straighten out the Afghan economy in the next two years, get some of the warring tribal chiefs on his side, who are ready to take on the Taliban in their territories, get at least a 5 lakh strong National Army, well-trained (not by the Americans or their allies who do not understand training and fighting wars in Asia) and fully equipped to fight a non-conventional war. He must ensure essential agrarian reforms in the countryside so that the farmer is weaned away from the narcotic-smuggling, gun-running economy on to crops and dairy farming produce. The other aspect that few analysts care to understand, is that with neither Pakistan nor Afghanistan prepared to formally accept the Durand Line as their border, just as China does not recognise the Mc Mahon Line in our north east, durable peace will be evasive as a complete border resolution is always a pre-requisite to a long term solution. The Afghans need a strong Army to look after their eastern and southern borders, even if one were to assume that all the Islamic CIS were to remain non-hostile to its southern neighbour. The spill over of Islamic radicalism from the CIS can never be ruled out in the future. My experience of the refugee exodus from Afghanistan after the Soviet invasion in 1979, as also the flow of refugees from North to South Vietnam in the 1960s, points to the futility and sheer absurdity of erecting fences and laying down minefield barriers along borders that are not well defined or recognised by both the parties. Any fencing along the Durand line by Pakistan could lead to serious clashes with Afghanistan, as also the local tribal chiefs in the region. Mining the borders with anti-personnel mines will again lead to heavy civilian casualties on both sides. The illegal Afghan refugees who have been residing in Pakistan ever since the late 1970s will need to return to their homes, and the Karzai government’s top priority should be to make conditions conducive back home so that the refugees are encouraged to return. No country can put the burden of their refugees on another country for too long, and the Afghan reconstruction programme must cater for their permanent rehabilitation. A migrant population is always a high security risk. The increasing insurgency in southern Afghanistan, the diminishing hold of the Kabul government outside the capital, interdiction and ambushes on the national highways and the policy clashes over the drug trade between the western military commanders and the Karzai government have slackened down the reconstruction and relief measures within the country. The US will have to pull out of Afghanistan one day, and India must impress upon the Bush administration that the vacuum that they leave behind will be difficult to fill on the spur of the moment, and that India has to have a more meaningful role than what it is presently executing in Afghanistan. |
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Somalia’s latest catastrophe
WASHINGTON'S
idea was so simple. The men who planned the 1998 US embassy bombings in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam were said to be hiding in Somalia. So help the neighbouring Ethiopians to invade, crush the nascent Islamic government, kill the al-Qa’ida operatives and install a government. Two problems solved in one: avenge the embassy bombings and the deaths of the American soldiers in the 1993 Black Hawk Down incident. Secondly, bring government, peace and stability to Somalia, lawless since 1991. “Somalia’s first piece of potentially good news in two devastating decades,” wrote one columnist. The realities of Somalia were ignored. The rise of the Union of Islamic Courts was the result of America’s previous attempt to get the alleged al-Qa’ida operatives responsible for the embassy bombings. Early last year the CIA paid local warlords to get them. This united Somalis as nothing else has for decades. In their fury at American support for the hated warlords, they rose and drove out the warlords. After years of bloodshed and oppression at the hands of warring politicians, religion unsurprisingly provided the unifying bonds of solidarity, values and a common cause. For a while, southern Somalia had something it had not enjoyed for decades: security. Somali businessmen, fed up with having their goods stolen or “taxed” by warlords, backed the Courts with money. Business boomed across the country. As one Somali friend said: “We could walk down the street using a mobile phone without fear of it being stolen, we could go to the market without fear of attack or rape, people respected each other.” The Courts were a popular uprising, the first viable movement to cut across clan rivalry and unite Somalis since 1991. Personal freedoms were an issue, however. Fundamentalists – influenced by Saudi Wahabists, whose Islam is at odds with Somalia’s more tolerant Sufi tradition – tried to enforce Sharia law and codes of behaviour and dress. The Americans and British claim fundamentalists represented the leadership of the Courts. This is nonsense. Somalis, renowned for their strong-willed individualism would have sorted this out for themselves. If there is one lesson from Somalia since independence in 1960, it is that Somalis will be governed only by consent. No one tells them what they can or cannot watch on TV. The militants in the Courts made further mistakes. Some of the leaders called for the reunification of Somalia – threatening Somaliland, the self-governing north which declared its independence in 1991 and now has a democratic government. They also called for the reunification of Somalis which would mean invading Djibouti, northern Kenya and much of eastern Ethiopia. Some of the fundamentalist leaders protected the three men - none of them Somali – who are accused by Washington of masterminding the embassy bombings. And they gave refuge to dissident Ethiopian movements. Militant fighters charged westwards to Baidoa where the would-be Somali government was holed up in a tiny enclave. This gave the Ethiopians a pretext to attack. A Christian mountain empire but surrounded by Muslims who also make up half its population, Ethiopia has always feared its Muslim neighbours. Ethiopia blamed rebellion at home on Islamic fundamentalism. Its interests matched the American idea so on Christmas Eve the Ethiopian army marched eastwards. The Islamic fighters armed with AK47s and rocket launchers were no match for the Ethiopian tanks, gunships and bombers. The Courts militias soon fled. Just as it looked as if the last remnant would be captured, American AC 130s poured fire from the sky killing large numbers of people. Why did they kill rather than capture? Why the Americans, when the Ethiopians seemed to be doing the job so well? Perhaps politically, on the eve of President Bush’s statement on Iraq, the Americans needed to show the world they could still hit and kill. The Ethiopians are trying to install the internationally accepted government. But anyone who has watched Somalia over the years will see how Ethiopia has undermined or destroyed every other attempt to establish a national government. A weak, divided Somalia suits the Ethiopians if they cannot have a strong but Ethiopian-controlled government. The Americans have now admitted that the “Most Wanted Terrorists”, were not killed in the attack, though it insists that those dead included allies of the fighters. And what of Somalia? Somalis will not forget this catastrophe. Once again, America may have created the very thing it thought it was destroying. By arrangement with
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Inside Pakistan GENERAL Pervez Musharraf appears busy working on a strategy to strengthen the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (Q) so that it emerges victorious in the coming elections. That is why he has allowed its leaders to try to enter into a deal with either the Muslim League led by former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif or Ms Benazir Bhutto’s People’s Party of Pakistan. But preference may be given to uniting the two Leagues as that will be in the long-term interest of the party and the President of Pakistan. The development was highlighted in two articles carried in Nawa-i-Waqt on January 4. The companion pieces – one by Nawaz Raza and the other by Salman Ghani – were based on the confusing statements made recently by senior ministers over who would be the next Prime Minister, and the Dubai meeting between Ms Bhutto and PML (Q) chief Chaudhary Shujat Husain. The exchange of views between the PPP and PML (Q) leaders was held on the occasion of marriage of the daughter of Haji Abdus Sattar, the chief of Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy. According to the article by Nawaz Raza, Chaudhary Husain told Ms Bhutto that her party’s representatives in the current National Assembly could work with the PML (Q) for preparing an agenda for the coming polls. But Chaudhary Husain later on clarified that this should not be construed as a plan for a deal with the PPP, though it had been there in the air for some time. His clarification should be viewed against the backdrop of appreciative remarks by senior PML (Q) leaders while referring to the activities of Mr Nawaz Sharif’s younger brother, Mr Shahbaz Sharif, a former Chief Minister of Punjab. Chaudhary Husain cannot afford to do anything, at least at this stage, which goes against the silent drive to widen the base of his PML (Q) by forging unity with the PML (Nawaz). Salman Ghani says in his informative article that when Chaudhary Shujat Husain offered Ms Bhutto’s party to enter into a dialogue with the PML (Q) for holding fair elections, she avoided to respond openly and “wanted to know what happened to his move for unity between his party and the League led by Mr Nawaz Sharif”. Chaudhary Husain, like Ms Bhutto, did not make any revealing comment on the subject. Something interesting seems to be going on behind the scenes.
Organ sale in Rawalpindi The News carried a shocking story on January 11, highlighting human organs trade in Pakistan. Those who want to sell their body parts advertise it on the Internet and ask the buyers to visit Rawalpindi for getting the organ transplant done there by Pakistani doctors. The sellers are mostly those working in British restaurants and hotels. Quoting British newspapers, the report by Rauf Klasra says, “It has also been reported here that apart from the sale of these organs in the UK through the Internet, this facility is available in Pakistan for the rich around the world, particularly the Arabs and the Indians.” The News report, based on what has been published in some UK newspapers, had it that a Pakistan national told a British reporter that “he was willing to sell his kidney, liver, etc. Consequently, the reporter, disguised as a potential client, struck a deal with the advertiser (the Pakistani) who offered his kidney but with the condition that the operation will take place in Pakistan, where he was in contact with some doctors who conduct such operations”.
Crime wave in Lahore If you are planning a visit to Lahore, go ahead but take special care of your mobile phones, cash and jewellery. Chances are that you may be robbed of such belongings in the streets of this historic city by even those recruited to provide you protection. These robbers in uniform are members of the Muhafiz force. They have added to the woes of the Lahorites, who are already passing through difficult times because of the rising crime wave in the provincial capital. This is the reason why Lahorites are upset with the new Inspector-General’s order to have police pickets at street corners and elsewhere with a view to dealing with the disturbing crime situation. The police chief has, in fact, reversed the order of his predecessor, who had withdrawn these pickets because of their uselessness. According to Dawn, “policemen posted at the pickets often end up fleecing the motorists while criminals continue to rob the citizens with impunity.” The paper says: “There are widespread complaints against the newly recruited Muhafiz force which patrols Lahore’s roads on motorbikes in groups of two. Not too long ago a couple of these policemen were reportedly accused of having staged robberies and even of attempting rape.” As a result, the Lahorites find themselves “at the mercy of robbers and a police force that they have come to fear equally. Police pickets and street patrols by trigger-happy young recruits have failed to yield the desired results”, Dawn points out. |
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