Hard-line political parties in Pakistan often claim that as long as NATO supplies are not resumed, there will be no attacks by militants in the country. As a matter of fact NATO supplies remain suspended for the last five months yet we witnessed another suicide blast on May 4 in the Bajur tribal agency killing at least 30 people and injuring many more.
It’s a crystal clear situation wherein we don’t have many options to deal with the issue of terrorism in the country. We need to either surrender, withdraw and hand over the tribal areas to these groups to govern as they like or take decisive action to eliminate and disarm these militants in order to establish the state’s writ. If we don’t want foreign troops on our ground, drone attacks shall continue with minimum collateral damages. Pakistan must keep pushing Americans to keep them on board while selecting and eliminating the targets.
It’s only the Pakistani Army that can do the job with tactical support from its allies. Let’s hope that a good sense prevails. Otherwise, the coming times are not very bright — as the Pakistani defense minister put it quite bluntly: Pakistan may face sanctions if it doesn’t agree to resume the NATO supplies, militants will keep attacking the army and civilian targets to have more space in tribal areas for their proposed emirate, while hard-line political parties will keep singing songs of sovereignty. The choice is in our hands.
Masood Khan
Jubail
French president
In the recently concluded French presidential elections, the victory of Francois Hollande over Nicolas Sarkozy hasn't surprised the world as throughout the campaigning, Hollande was leading in most opinion polls. Also, the high voter turn-out (81 percent) has immensely helped Hollande to win this crucial election, which is not only important for the history of France but also for the entire European Union (EU). It is believed that Sarkozy’s policies and lifestyle had greatly annoyed the French people, who wanted a more sober presidency. During his campaigns in the last presidential elections, Sarkozy had promised reforms to get France out of the economic crisis. However, he hardly lived up to his promises. One of the important outcomes of this election is that after 17 years, French voters selected a socialist president to control their country. The French presidential elections have always been keenly watched by political observers world over as France is the second most important economy of the EU, a permanent member of the UN Security Council and an important nation with good economic ties with the GCC countries and India. Hollande is expected to take all appropriate measures to improve the economic conditions of France and regain some prestige to the country.
Ramesh G. Jethwani
Banagalore, India
Relief for drought victims
The UN World Food Program’s Famine Early Warning Systems, which accurately predicted the 2011 drought in the Horn of Africa, again warns that 20 million people across West Africa are still at risk of a food crisis. Things can be worse between August and December. Dry weather, lack of rains, poor harvests, lack of food and increased food prices are making the situation from bad to worse for poor people. The Sahel region of Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger are the most affected. Somalia and Kenya are also greatly affected from recent droughts. About 400,000 people have already migrated from Somalia to Kenya and are now living in camps without any necessities of lives. Due to the continuous fighting between the government and Al-Shabab rebels, aid agencies are not able to reach and provide help to drought-affected people, especially in Somalia. Women and children are the worst affected and every one child out of five is facing the risk of malnutrition and death. Some have to walk about 400 kilometers for food and water. Unfortunately, countries can spend millions of dollars against unseen enemies in different parts of the world but cannot provide relief to the starving human beings.
Khawaja Umer Farooq
Jeddah
Letters to the Editor: Pakistan: Tough times ahead
