Letters to the Editor (June 2018)

The End of JCPOA

Basically, Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), widely known as the Iran Nuclear Deal, was signed and ratified between the P5+1 and Iran in 2015. The main purpose of the deal was to limit the size of stockpile of enriched uranium which is used to make nuclear weapons. Interestingly, the deal was named a peaceful agreement by most of the analysts and historians.

But, recently, on 8th May, US President Donald Trump announced his country’s withdrawal from the Obama-era deal with Iran for, he complained, Iran has failed to stop developing ballistic missiles. Announcing the controversial decision, he called the deal “decaying and rotten” and claimed it to be “an embarrassment” to him. Annoyingly, Tehran would again face economic sanctions imposed by Washington and its allies.

The world has time and again depicted the US as untrustworthy, unpredictable and policy-destroyer. Germany, Russia, France, China and the UK, who were signatories to the deal, along with the USA, are disappointed with the decision.

Truly, after Trump’s decision, it seems that America does not fulfil its promises and commitments.

Wajahat Abro (Shikarpur)

The United Nations

The United Nations, according to its official website, is a global organization that brings together its member states to confront common challenges, manage shared responsibilities and exercise collective action. Established as a substitute to the ineffective League of Nations after the World War II, it has been tasked to create and maintain international order.

However, to the contrary, by pursuing its dynamics and current course of actions, it seems like it is more a mechanism and an institution created by the “Allied Big Four,” or as Franklin D. Roosevelt would call it the “Four Policemen” – especially the United States and the West – to “create and maintain [an] international order” confirming to their own motives, aspirations, and the one they deem favourable with respect to their “national interests.”

Similarly, an obvious manifestation of the above-stated fact lies in the ownership of the “power of veto” held by the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. Ironically, over the course of history, many de rigueur moves brought by other member states in UNSC have been vetoed by one or another “permanent member” simply because they did not comply with the latter’s policies or national interests.

Coming to the present day, the blocking of a Pakistani move, which sought to add Umer Khorasani – leader of Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (JuA) – a faction of the banned TTP – to a UN sanctions committee list by the US is self-evident of all such manoeuvres and self-serving, unilateral actions taken by the “Four Policemen” under the umbrella of UN. Militant organizations like JuA and their patrons are of grave threat to Pakistan and the region. Obviously, the US’s motive behind this move is clear: to boost up pressure and coerce this country to synchronise its actions and policies with those of the US in Afghanistan and beyond.

Hence, choking bids and efforts, which are of vital value to the national peace and security of other member nations, is, by no stretch of imagination, a “shared responsibility,” and hampering them for their own self-serving national interests neither “promotes[s] international cooperation” nor does it help to “maintain [a peaceful] international order.”

The United Nations ought not to be exploited by its founders at the expense of the security, stability and peace of other member states; it must upheld the aims it was destined to achieve.

Khanzada Changez (Peshawar)

We and Our Devastation

Designing is a deliberate process with intent. We design to make things easier for use. Our intentional design is flawed because we ourselves are inherently flawed. We desire to see the stars, and not the darkness. We don’t see the things we are looking for. And we don’t know how to look for the things we don’t know. We assume that our demise will be led by war, overpopulation, climate change, flood, etc., but we always forget that the downfall occurs due to one’s own deeds. Humans are born with inherited tendency to blame others for all their sufferings, yet they themselves are responsible for their condition. No one accepts the fact that he is wrong, rather he comes up with ideas to change the world. He ignores the fact that to change the world one must take initial step by oneself. We are responsible for what we are and what we wish ourselves to be. We have the power to make ourselves. If what we are now is the result of our past actions, it surely follows that what we wish to be in future is effected by our actions in the present. A person thinks that how an individual can determine the progress of a nation but he forgets that “many small drops make a river.” We are high on our ego. We are suffering from self-delusion and self-delusion always leads to confusion. We are all playing into the hands of wicked means we are doing actions that are selfish.

We all should agree to the fact that humanity is designer of its own demise and we all are masters of our own destiny. But now “Let the past dead burry it’s dead.” Let us all focus on our present and future by correcting the flaws in our own nature.

Ismaiel Paracha

Ghost Teachers in Sindh

Teachers are considered role models for students who play an indispensable role in progress of the country by imparting high-quality education to the young generation. The education system of Sindh is deteriorating bit by bit and it is nastiest to see the condition of absenteeism in teachers who are not serious to perform their duties. Sadly, teacher absenteeism in Sindh is causing numerous difficulties for the students. If the teachers are not responsible and sincere enough to perform their duties, they are playing with the future of their students. The federal and provincial governments must pay attention to the issue.

Adnan Dost (Karachi)