TIME AND AGAIN it has been stated at the highest level that quake survivors shall continue to need relief for quite sometime and that it will take five to ten years before they are rehabilitated. President Pervez Musharraf has ordered immediate release of Rs. One billion each to NWFP Government and Azad Kashmir for utilisation on reconstruction of houses in hilly areas. This will nevertheless suffice for a fraction of the enormous task ahead. Of course, new towns have been planned where modern technologies will be employed in the construction of earthquake-prone houses and buildings for the victims of major towns such as Muzaffarabad, Bagh, Balakot, etc. Till then, the survivors from these areas shall be obliged to live in tent cities. The entire nation for the first time since the war with India in 1965 demonstrated total unity and solidarity with the millions who were hit by the catastrophe on October 8. The Government officials, NGOs, volunteers, doctors and paramedics, transporters, traders, industrialists students, and all segments of the society and above all our troops rushed to the aid of the victims. Food items, clothes, blankets, medicines, tents, etc valued at billions of rupees were collected across the country at tens of thousands of relief centres and transported to the grief-stricken, homeless survivors in the quake-devastated zone. Relief goods continue to be collected all over the nation by various groups, individual parties, NGOs and Government agencies. Similar assistance is pouring in from abroad. While thousands of survivors in most difficult terrain and villages whose access was blocked by landslides still await relief supplies, by and large the entire region is now covered by relief efforts being coordinated by the untiring men of the Pakistan Army.
As the days roll by, there is a natural tendency amongst those concerned with relief efforts to slow down. However, it has to be remembered that the enormity of the tragedy calls for uninterrupted aid to the survivors. The Government alone cannot face the challenge posed by massive and widespread destruction. The international community has shown some generosity but rehabilitation of the millions displaced by the monumental tragedy requires much more in terms of funds and relief goods. Our initial estimate of Rs. 5 billion required for reconstruction and rehabilitation appears to be on the very low side as extent of devastation is gradually being brought to the attention of relief teams. Additionally, we need many more billions to continue to feed millions of the homeless who will take quite sometime to stand on their feet. This means that resources on a continuing basis have to be generated. The nation has given tremendous sacrifices in this hour of acute pain and grief but more sacrifices are required on a continuing basis by the people of Pakistan.
The Daily Mail feels that generation of resources on a continuing basis could be done through an immediate levy on electricity and gas bills as also on airlines tickets. Likewise, Central Board of Revenue may levy a nominal relief tax on all imports and exports. It is proposed that 2% may be charged on all electricity and gas bills and on airline tickets. For low-income groups an additional burden of 2% may be a little harsh but by exercising austerity the consumers can affect savings and the proposed additional payments may be in the ultimate analysis mean no burden on consumers of limited means. In any case, as members of a proud nation, every individual should and can make this sacrifice by ensuring generation of additional resources on a sustainable basis for the survivors.

Contrived fury

It was certainly undiplomatic of Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to call for Israel to be “wiped off the map” at a conference on Zionism in Tehran. But the wave of Western fury, with countries such as Canada, France, the UK and Spain hauling in the Iranian ambassador and protesting, looks contrived. Is this the same France that four years ago ignored the comments of its then ambassador in London, Daniel Bernard, who called Israel “that shitty little country”? Is this the same UK that likewise turned a deaf ear? Nor is it the first time an Iranian leader has used such language. Four years ago, former President Hashemi Rafsanjani, regarded by the West as a moderate, called for the nuclear annihilation of Israel. The West did not blink an eye. Ever since the 1979 revolution, Iran has been consistently and vehemently anti-Israel. The rest of the world has known it and lived with it. It lived with the knowledge because it also knew that Iran was not in a position to wipe Israel off the map and that the words were mere rhetoric from those who wanted to give their people something other than their failures to think about. The rest of the world too has been happy to live with the knowledge that most Muslims and Arabs would prefer that Israel did not exist. But it does exist. It is a question of accepting reality.
So why the apparent anger at something known? And why is it that only the West is making a fuss? This response has far more to do with Western fears about Iran’s nuclear intentions than with its views about Israel. Washington, which does not have diplomatic relations with Tehran and so could not haul in the ambassador to protest, let the cat out of the bag when it said that the comment showed it was right to be concerned about Iran’s nuclear program.
Yet that is a worrying leap of logic. It suggests that the US and the West imagine that a nuclear Iran would bomb Israel. If they do, it is frightening, given what happened with Iraq and the myth of weapons of mass destruction there. Without a breakthrough on the Iran nuclear issue, it makes an attack on its nuclear facilities a strong likelihood. Is the ground being prepared for Israelis doing it, acting on Washington’s behalf — a carbon copy of what happened in 1981 when Israel destroyed the Osirak nuclear plant near Baghdad? That cannot be ruled out. Last February President Bush said that the US would back an Israeli attack on Iran if the latter tried to make nuclear bombs and the former felt threatened. And now we have President Ahmadinejad being as provocative as he can, using words that are loaded: To wipe a country off the map involves something fairly spectacular. This, of course, is Ahmadinejad the radical speaking, Ahmadinejad the politician who perhaps wants to divert attention from his government’s failure so far to deliver on his promises to Iran’s poor. That is where he needs to concentrate his energies and his passion. The danger is that with such rhetoric he gives his nation’s enemies the chance to act.

—Arab News