The New Nation - Internet Edition

Poverty and its eradication

IN spite of substantial economic growth of the country during the last decade and some laudable initiatives to help the poor, a large section of population still face acute poverty and hunger. According to an estimate, about 36 million people still live below the poverty line. Bangladesh has set a target of achieving millennium development goals where eradication of poverty and hunger has been placed as the topmost aim.

Along with the creation of employment opportunities through increased investment in production and services sectors the government has introduced some laudable measures like emergency relief operations, vulnerable group feeding, old age support, stipend for girl students, food for education and works, special works programmes in Monga-stricken areas. But poverty alleviation is too difficult a target to be achieved unless overall economic development of the country reaches a certain level.

A clear understanding of the dynamics of poverty is indispensable to eradicate it from the society. A study on 1,800 households over a period of eight to fourteen years revealed some new findings as to how some households came out of poverty and why some of them remained trapped in it. It was found that improvement in poor people's livelihood tends to occur gradually while it declines abruptly. Families extremely vulnerable to unexpected shocks like illness, payment of dowry, wedding expenses and, most importantly, floods suddenly slide down to the poverty line. Legal dispute is another strong cause of poverty for rural people. Eradication of poverty cannot be accomplished by the government alone. The whole society, particularly its affluent sections, should come forward in the fight against poverty. A society cannot be peaceful if millions of people remain trapped in poverty.

Proposed national shrimp policy

ACCORDING to the draft 'National Shrimp Policy 2008', the government is going to brand shrimp 'a cent per cent' foreign exchange earning good, besides encouraging public initiatives and private investment in shrimp cultivation, processing and export. The proposed national policy is to 'expedite shrimp farming through developed technology sustainable in the local socioeconomic, cultural and environmental conditions. As reported by media recently, recommendations made already by exporters' associations and individuals would be in the shrimp policy. Planned farming of shrimp it is said would increase per-hectare production and income two to three times as broadly indicated by officials concerned.

Bangladesh is trying to build a hygienically safe, economically viable, environmentally sustainable and socially responsible shrimp industry as stated by the Bangladesh Shrimp and Fish Foundation at a meeting organised by the Global Works Foundation in Washington recently. All the required steps either have already been taken or are in the process of implementation. The national policy would serve as guideline. The Fisheries and Livestock Ministry has recently completed evaluation of the shrimp industry in order to make it viable as an export sector.

At present, 2.17 lakh hectares of land and about 1.5 crore people are engaged in shrimp farming. The proposed policy soon after completing all the required processes should come into effect. The draft shrimp policy has also proposed introducing practical education on shrimp farming in science textbooks at primary and secondary schools while steps are to be taken to create opportunities of higher education on the subject at local and international levels. In view of the growing demand for shrimp in the global market, the government and other stakeholders are serious now to take steps to make the shrimp industry compliant with national and international labour norms and standards.

Advanced intelligence needed to counter terrorism

Abu Zafar Mahmood

Bangladesh is promised in fighting against terrorism and also earned the goodwill of winning on this danger without any compromise. In this respect Bangladesh needs to develop it's intelligence services to go forward winning larger war. Are we ready to accept Bangladesh to face and fight stronger enemy of any terror form in future?

That's to be answered first.

Does Bangladesh need such capabilities? Answer should be limited primarily within two words; Yes or No.My answer is-Yes. Bangladesh must have capabilities of facing enemy & international intelligence activities at home and abroad for the security of its interests with no exception.

Is it a duty of the government of the Republic to detect the connection of foreign intelligence network of any form in power exercising corners including the political party, trade union, association etc that have the capacities to provoke and mobilise the public unrest in one hand and organise public opinion infavour of strengthening Bangladesh on the other hand? My answer; yes, it is the duty of the government.

Bangladesh government opened up a separate Intellegence bureau in Dhaka City in the police department in August 2008 that might be one of the reform programs of the present policy makers. It's area of activities specified in the political field. The bureau will collect the information on political activities of the country. The decision shows that Military intelligence or the Army is far from politics. The accusations on Army to interfere on politics will carry no attractions anymore. This proven again the attitude of professionalism of Bangladesh Army that they are not interested in politics at all except their profession and helped to wash out all doubts of Army interference in politics. It enlightens the image of Bangladesh Army.

We might continue debating on it. Here might get peoples also whose opinion in favor of abolishing Bangladesh military and not to spend finance for military matters. Bangladesh is so weak that cannot afford expanses of feeding the military. Indian Army is so strongest that might grab Bangladesh anytime even in presence of Bangladesh Army. It is never possible of fighting against Indian Army. So it is unwise and unworthy to maintain Army in Bangladesh -as some says.

Bangladesh Students Union(BSU) and Bangladesh Student League (BSL) including all pro-socialism, pro-Communism Student branches of political parties always have been campaigning in School, College and University Campuses since 1972 with the slogans, "Senabahinir Budget rokho-Seekkha khatey Budget Barao,"etc etc. These organisations were controlled by Indian Intelligence Research and Analyses wing-RAW through the Youths and Student leaders those were trained by RAW officers in India during the Bangladesh liberation war in 1971.

We were the students in '70s. We also were trained the leadership training in Dehradun Military academy in India and campaigned on it following our Central and national political leaders after liberation. Our leaders like other party leaders patronised student followers to form arms cadres arming the courageous and dedicated brilliant students. So politicians turned the educational campus into musclemen recruiting camps, drug distributing place, smuggling materials carrying agents and pimps contact centers. Thus gradually the youth muscle cadres were formed under the command of Ex-Student leaders. In this situation the educational atmosphere totally collapsed in Bangladesh and the students became frustrated on their future and day by day started becoming the burdens of their family against their intentions.

Political leaders did not care to grow and train intelligence agencies for getting clues of anti- country activities inside the country and did not feel of establishing intelligence in abroad of looking after the interests of the country. Political government focused their activities on the magic of political speech of accusations to the rival party. They were engaged of cashing the credits of encountering political party forces through their party muscles and fulfilling the assignments of the foreign intelligence guardians. Politics became the source of becoming rich persons through unchallenged corrupt ways.

In the meantime the founder president Bongo Bondhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Liberation wartime and Founder Prime Minister Tajuddin Ahmed and other politicians were assassinated.Lots of war heroes were assassinated including another President and sector Commander Major General Ziaur Rahman Bir Uttam.Is it possible without the knowledge of RAW any power can make it happened?

Who divided Bangladeshis into pieces and engaged them fighting and killing each other for these long long years and pushed Bangladesh in the door of Civilwar? Why "Mujibbad" is no more the slogan of Mujib followers? Why "Scientific socialism" is no more the slogan of JSD? Who are RAW trained leaders behind these all killings and Sabotage against destroying a generation of wealth? Who will compensate the loss of millions valuable lives of freedom fighters and brilliant students who were killed for supporting and following these political magic?

Why all the times all governments of the Republic were unstable and the crime and corruptions went together with politics? Who will compensate for the frustrations of the dedicated politicians and party nominations for elections were sold to corrupt peoples and used the elections as the festivals of the corrupts and anti-Bangladesh agents?

Definitely all political peoples can't be accused for crime. Most of the politicians are reasonable. They like to find democratization in the country. But majority politicians are true democrats to the public and loyal slaves of their party leaders in Bangladesh .

For this double standard habit and expertise our politicians scare to come under the real systems of fare answering to the peoples. They can not accept that nation know the real picture of them. Some senior politicians shown unhappiness and criticized against the open up of the police intelligence team after the politicians. But the real dedicated politicians who love to sacrifice for peoples and confident on themselves don't care for the intelligence or whatever. The politicians who don't depend on corrupt sources of income, are not in Anti-Bangladesh payroll, have no cause of worriness. They silently welcome the Intelligence as they will be benefited through this step. The politicians support or oppose any agenda when it is helpful to them personally.

We know and everybody know as Serajul Alam Khan, respectable political thinker once told me in New York at his residence in Elmhurst in an answer of a question," If there is no corruption then who will donate us for running our political campaign?" He was sincere in saying the truth, I will comment. But he did not hide in hiding the dream of the whole nation.

Bangladesh is no more a traditional easy going simple society. It is being changed in inside and is influenced by the global process in every moments. Lot of foreign nationals is becoming the part of Bangladesh society and Bangladesh politics. Immigration systems are contributing new elements of inquiries in our country also. The marriage of foreign nationals of different believes and religions with Bangladeshis and diversified trades and businesses contribute of bringing the unknown characters in Bangladesh too. Who can give you surety who is not a foreign intelligence member.

This is the age of terrorism. The global powers identified terrorism as the prior target to fight. United Nations have been fighting against terrorism of so many kinds across the world.

Bangladesh needs it's safety. India and other neighbors have been suffering from extremism and terrorism in their politics.Afganistan and Pakistan are already fighting against terrorism and facing troubles in growing economically. They are large countries. But Bangladesh with its small size and huge possibilities of growing super power in future with geopolitical specialties needs more cautious on fighting against terrorism and anti-Bangladesh and anti-Islamic sector of provocations that for keeping it under pressures.

On the other hand the new cold war between Russia and America already jump up hot recently. The military situation of the world is going out of control day by day .The situation of Kashmir also riotic. Indian Prime Minister Calls for Fight against terrorism in their Independence day on August 15th.The seven sisters political situation is going worst day by day at closer to Bangladesh Border.

The example of Bush administration in Iraq and Afghanistan is been repeated by Russia in it's bordering Country Georgia and South Ossetia. Russia and America already face to face on nuclear defense in Poland and Czech Republic . New messages are on the way. In the meantime Bangladesh has reasonable arguments to be more alert for Bay of Bengal and Indian moves in the Indian Ocean .

Under these circumstances, the eyes and ears of the Country must be kept open all-time. The Intelligence is the such tools of a nation .So, separately the Intelligence agency on politics by the Dhaka police department is a right step of the government.

We appreciate the separation in Intelligence functions as well as police department for stepping something difference then it's pasts and introducing new avenue in profession. It might help Bangladesh for taking pro-active measures in security and fighting terrorism.

End of Musharraf Era

Asif Haroon Raja

On 18 August President Musharraf abdicated his second seat also with wet eyes. Removal of his second skin was really painful for him but he had to ultimately vacate his chair of COAS with a heavy heart in November last under pressure exerted by lawyers movement. He had however hoped to retain president's seat for the next five years on the basis of having won controversial presidential election on 6 October and then getting it validated through PCO Supreme Court and rubber stamp national assembly few days before the expiry of its five-year tenure. He had assured his King's Party and the MQM that he would ensure their return to power in the next elections. His patron in Washington who had scripted the new game plan of power sharing with BB had also lent him his full support. His declaration of emergency on 3 November, sacking of 60 judges of superior court and removal of uniform failed to quell the tide generated by lawyers, civil society, and political parties. On the contrary demand for restoration of deposed judges kept mounting and his popularity graph continued to dip with every passing day.

BB's murder on 27 December added to his woes and he as well as Choudhry brothers were seen with suspicious eyes. King's Party was named as Qatal League by the PPP. He had placed all his hopes in the 18 February elections under the hope that he will be able to once again rig election results as he had done in 2002. However, the army under new chief Gen Kayani refused to play his game and got distanced from politics. As a consequence, polls results went heavily in favour of PPP and PML-N. PML-Q including some of its leading stars was demolished. Having failed in his plan to put his dream team in power, he then began to hatch conspiracies to sap the coalition of PPP-PML-N. He and his toadies had given a three-month life span to the ruling coalition. Somehow, the leading coalition partners continued to sail together despite Zardari's ambivalence which caused frustration to the team of conspirators.

He turned a deaf ear to loud calls for his graceful exit and kept dreaming that the tide might change in his favour. His secret understanding with Zardari, levers of NRO and Article 58 (2) (b) he held, support of King's Party and MQM and assurances by his foreign mentors and surging differences between Nawaz and Zardari on judges issue kept his hopes alive. Each time a deadline was given by Nawaz to restore judges and Zardari dithered, it bolstered the spirits of beleaguered Musharraf and his cronies but soon after their spirits deflated. Unhappy with Kayani, he tried to swap him over with CJSC, but Kayani pre-empted and quickly changed the 111 Brigade Commander.

With the coming in power of PPP led government the people had hoped for a positive change. Contrary to their expectations life became more difficult because of flour shortage, load shedding, spiralling prices of daily commodities, gas, fuel and electricity. Apart from all economic indicators nose-diving, growing political instability because of PPP's doublespeak and lack of sincerity and deteriorating internal and external security situation added to the frustration and disappointment of the people. The major issue of judges remained unresolved. Amidst the rising tide of despair, Zardari who had come into the limelight after BB's death and had in a short span of time earned admiration and respectability began to lose his sense of direction.

More he dawdled on judges issue more unpopular he became. NRO became his Achilles heel which made him play tricks to buy time at the cost of his reputation and credibility. There were rumblings within the PPP itself which did not bode well for the future of the party. Both Musharraf and Zardari were termed as problems and not part of the solution.

Zardari woke up from his slumber when Musharraf began to become assertive and his aides hinted of dissolving assemblies, or imposing governor rule in Sindh, or revocation of NRO. On 7 August he and Nawaz raised the flag of impeachment. Soon after, all the four federating assemblies passed resolutions asking Musharraf to seek vote of confidence or quit.

When the noose of impeachment began to tighten around his neck and the attitude of his chief patron and the army chief became lukewarm, he realised that he should save his skin before it is too late. While putting up a brave face, he started making concerted efforts to save himself from impeachment and trial, extract indemnification of all his crimes and a safe-exit. Till the last minute in his office, he and his confidants kept bluffing that he would not resign and that he would fight it out like a good commando. Abdul Hafeez Pirzada kept feeding him that he could not be impeached and he had strong legal grounds to disprove the charges framed against him. All this time, his foreign well-wishers pressed Zardari and Nawaz not to impeach him and allow him safe exit.

Having wriggled out of the stranglehold of impeachment and trial he tendered his resignation. While delivering his farewell speech in which he vainly tried to blow his own trumpets, he must have thought how quickly happy times had ended. On 12 October 1999, when Nawaz Sharif government was deposed by a team of adventurers led by Gen Musharraf, there were rejoicing on the streets and the opposition parties had distributed sweets.

His period of glory faded away into oblivion and history repeated itself after a lapse of nine years. When Musharraf threw in his towel after digging his heels for six months, people rejoiced once again and distributed sweets and resorted to aerial firing and firecrackers to celebrate his departure. The nation never witnessed such wild jubilations on the ouster of a despot.

From among the four military dictators that had usurped power, only field Marshal Ayub Khan and Gen retired Pervez Musharraf had the pleasure of delivering farewell speeches to the nation. Former stayed in power for ten years; the latter ruled the roost for about nine years. While Ayub had said that he would not like to preside over the break up of Pakistan, which proved prophetic, Musharraf warned of dangerous times for Pakistan. Ayub handed over power to his C-in-C Gen Yahya Khan instead of the Speaker of the Assembly as provided for in the 1962 Constitution, Musharraf followed the legal path and handed over the baton to Senate Chairman. Had Gen Tariq Majid been in COAS chair, his responses could have been different. There was no demand for trial of Ayub and he lived peacefully in his Islamabad house till his death. In case of Musharraf, except for his beneficiaries, the rest sought his impeachment and trial.

Gen Yahya Khan was forced to abdicate power by Lt Gen Gul Hasan and Air Marshal Rahim. Once he resigned and handed over power to ZA Bhutto on 20 December 1971, he was placed under house arrest. He was advised by Bhutto that it was in his interest to spend the rest of his life inside his house otherwise he would not be able to save him from getting lynched by the emotionally charged people. He went through the trial conducted by Hamoodur Rehman Commission which was held in camera and the Commission held him responsible for the break up of country. The Supreme Court also declared his take over in March 1969 and declaration of martial law illegal. His wish for open trial so that he could prove himself not guilty of the charges levied against him was not ceded to by Bhutto. Musharraf on the other hand did not pickup courage to face the charges levied against him and prove his innocence in the court of law.

Nature took away Gen Ziaul Haq and his companions on 17 August 1988 in a mysterious C-130 crash near Empress Bridge Bahawalpur. It is widely suspected that foreign agencies had a definite hand in the crash of safest aircraft in the world. But for the fatal air crash, he would have continued to remain in power for some more time since he faced no political threat. Still, he had the longest inning of eleven years. He was buried at a picturesque sight near Faisal mosque Islamabad and tens of thousands of his fans both from Pakistan and Afghanistan attended his funeral. They mourned his death and considered it a great loss for Muslim world. Musharraf wished for beating Zia's record and would have broken it had he been allowed to complete his five-year tenure finishing in November 2012.

The army was demonised by our adversaries during Yahya and Musharraf tenures. The army was used by Yahya against the rebellious Bengalis led by Mujibur Rehman on 25 March 1971 to quell an Indian sponsored rebellion. Under a well orchestrated propaganda campaign the Indo-western-Jewish media painted the army as human eaters and rapists to defame it and facilitate Indian sinister plan to dismember Pakistan. Half of battle was won on the psychological plane before the military instrument was applied. Yahya had used the army to save Pakistan from splintering and had maintained an aggressive posture against Indian machinations. Once again the same band complemented by US media has brought the army in its firing line.

This time, Musharraf helped our adversaries in their evil designs by pushing the army into the cauldron of FATA at the behest of USA and making it fight against patriotic tribals who have a rich history of defending the western border against foreign threats. Gen Ziaul Haq had used them to keep the Afghan war beyond the Durand Line without any assistance from the army.

While Zia too had made lot many enemies inside and outside the country, (RAW, KHAD, KGB, Al-Zulfiqar, PPP and later on CIA), Musharraf earned the undying enmity of Al-Qaeda and religious groups. He survived seven attempts on his life and he is still being hounded by them. Since Al-Qaeda has attained a long arm that can reach almost every where in the world, other countries are reluctant to provide him shelter. His wish for leading a quiet retired life in his mansion in Chak Shehzad may not get fulfilled because of security fears.

Other than Musharraf, no other military leader became the blue-eyed of USA, UK, Israel and India. These countries have traditionally pursued anti-Pakistan policies and have all along tried to exploit our leaders to harm Pakistan. The way Musharraf went out of the way to promote US agenda and to appease India was much beyond their expectations. Except for Musharraf no other leader had dared to get closer with Israel. But for judicial crisis, he was well on his way to restore diplomatic relations with Tel Aviv. The four are the saddest on his departure and are looking forward to remain in touch with him once he settles down abroad. Having earned the repute of an American stooge and his insatiable greed to stick to power, he has faced more humiliation and disgrace than other three military rulers.

Having been left high and dry by even by his closest friends, Musharraf suffering from megalomania has been consigned to dustbin of history. His era has finally come to an abrupt end and once he leaves, there will be no farewells and no tears shed. Whatever days he spends in Pakistan would be fraught with tension and danger.

The lawyers and deposed judges in particular as well as all those who have suffered a great deal at his hands have breathed a sigh of relief. The lawyers must be feeling happy that their one and half year struggle has ultimately been crowned with success and they are hoping that the brave and upright judges would be restored promptly and honoured. Nawaz must be brimming with joy for having avenged his humiliation. Now that the chief obstacle has been put aside, the political leadership will have no more excuses to lump failures in Musharraf's kitty. It should quickly brace itself to the challenges confronting the nation.

(The writer is a retired Brig based in Rawalpindi and a defence and political analyst.)