EID-UL-FITR this year comes in the wake of widespread devastation caused by earthquake which ravaged Azad Kashmir and adjoining region of Frontier Province only 26 days ago. There are some pockets in the earthquake zone where survivors are still awaiting outside relief. Thousands of bodies of men, women and children continue to lie buried under debris of the collapsed houses and other structures which could not be pulled out because the first priority is to save the lives of millions who are facing death due to hunger, disease and exposure. As the cold winter of the Himalayas is around the corner, the relief agencies are rushing supplies particularly tents to the homeless survivors. Massive relief airlift operation is underway. According to official sources over 73,000 have perished, some 25,000 incapacitated for life and over fifty thousand mostly with serious injuries are receiving medical aid in make-shift centres by the Pakistan Army, foreign Governments and NGOs in the devastated areas and civil and military hospitals in Peshawar, Abbottabad, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore, etc. This is indeed a monumental tragedy the kind of which the world has not witnessed for several decades.
The Government of Pakistan and the masses are not celebrating Eid in the traditional fashion. Even during Ramazan, no Iftar parties were organized. The Press and electronic media continue to mourn the havoc. Heart-rending tales are being told by the survivors. Thousands and thousands of volunteers from NGOs, private groups, individuals, over one lakh soldiers of the Pakistan Army, doctors, engineers and health workers from Pakistan and outside are busy working day and night to mitigate sufferings of the millions rendered homeless by the terrible earth tremors which have left a deep mark on psyche of the nation. No one seems to be making preparations for any festivities. There are no fashion shows or concerts organized by clubs and hotels. The nation is in a state of shock and grief. One’s heart bleeds at the thought of the acute pain being felt by tens of thousands of persons who have lost their dear and near ones and all they had collected during their life. Thousands of orphans and widows are faced with an uncertain future.
It is gratifying to note that our leaders also have a deep sense of loss. President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz are spending Eid day with the survivors. Federal and Provincial Ministers will also be with victims in far-flung areas. People from all walks of life in major cities are visiting quake victims in the hospitals and relief camps. College girls are seen applying Mehndi on the palms of injured girls receiving treatment in the hospitals. School girls are seen washing the hair of little girls under treatment in the hospitals. NGO’s personnel and Pakistani relief workers attended a marriage ceremony in a camp near Balakot. Every one is trying to cheer up the victims. While the best way to celebrate Eid is to thank Almighty for having enabled us to keep fat during the holy month and to seek His forgiveness, high and low, rich and poor, educated or illiterate, old, young and children from all segments of the society must share a few moments with the victims in the hospitals and relief camps. Those who can afford can distribute sweets and Eidi amongst the homeless. Eid should be used as a grant opportunity to convey to earthquake survivors that the entire nation is with them and stand by the unfortunate people in this hour of great national tragedy. The Day After should be better than Yesterday.

Trouble in Paris

President Chirac was quite right to warn yesterday that France faced a dangerous situation after a sixth night of rioting in Parisian suburbs largely inhabited by immigrants. Mercifully, no one has been killed in the disturbances but cars and buildings have been gutted and the already fragile relations between the police and the people have been further damaged. Many different threads have come together to produce this knot of community tension. The immediate cause of the first riot, the electrocution of two North African youths allegedly fleeing police, unleashed wider grievances among immigrants who feel themselves disadvantaged and ignored by the French state. Poor schooling, bad housing and a lack of jobs create alienated youths and gang cultures where violence is never far from the surface.
Nevertheless, such difficult social circumstances are not unique to immigrant communities in Paris. Local leaders and the young people themselves must bear some responsibility for their hopeless lives. Certainly nothing can justify their going on destructive rampages. That said, the French authorities seem to have inflamed rather than calmed tempers. The use of the CRS anti-riot police has clearly worsened the troubles. This force has been deployed because Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy is playing the “zero tolerance” card on public disorder. His pronouncements have been hardly less severe. He has called the rioters “scum.” Unfortunately this approach also hits at perfectly law-abiding immigrants within the capital’s grumbling suburbs and thus only adds another general sense of grievance.
Another important thread in this complex knot is the rivalry between Sarkozy and his prime minister, Dominique de Villepin, to win their UMP party’s backing to try to succeed Chirac as president in 2007. Sarkozy appears prepared to go out on a limb to be tough with the rioters while Villepin, who postponed a Canadian trip because of the disturbances, seems to be trying to be more emollient. When it comes to immigration issues, however, all centre-right politicians are aware of the still potent far-right National Front. So far the most notable manifestation of this process has been the ban on Muslim headscarves in schools. Therefore more than a simple restoration of calm and order to these Parisian suburbs is at stake here. If Sarkozy’s hard-line solution works he will have won a victory over the prime minister. If it does not, the charismatic politician may be politically damaged. All the while, both politicians and others within the ruling UMP will be looking nervously over their shoulders at the National Front. On the face of it, these are not obviously the best grounds on which to sort out the tensions that have caused these suburbs to explode which at best may merely be swept under the carpet. Worse, what has happened in Paris could equally well occur among other immigrant communities. Lawlessness should not be tolerated in any civilized society, but equally neither should the social deprivations that bring it about.

—Arab News