Articles by Lawrence Lifschultz

as "quite often any benefits derived from careful assessments are lost at the stage of appeal". Reflecting this apprehension, the trend of reform in other states has been to eliminate or contain the role of the councillors in the valuation process. The Bengal Municipal Act (BM Act) which the present amendments seek to emulate specifically excludes the commissioner of the ward from which an objection petition is filed from hearing such objection. The BM Act also authorises the setting up of a Municipal Assessment Tribunal with the stipulation that its members "shall be appointed by the state government from among persons other than any commissioner or officer or other employee of a municipality recommended by the commissioner of a municipality". The constitution of the Review Commit- tee under the CVB Act so far was no doubt somewhat inconsistent with the spirit of the provision of the BM Act relating to the constitution of ARCs and the Municipal Assessment Tribunal. As pointed out in the NIPFP study referred to earlier, hearing of appeals by a body which does the original valuation was patently wrong. Total exclusion of popular representatives from the valuation process was also not quite justified. But that did not call for bringing the councillors into the process of determining the assessments case by case and diluting the character of a body which ought to be above politics.

Lawrence Lifschultz The March 5 decision to attack Jalalabad was a joint Pakistani-American decision. Did the choices that now present themselves as realistic alternatives not exist last February and March? Or was it necessary that thousands more should die before such alternatives could be considered viable? It is unfortunate that Benazir Bhutto signed on to 'stay the course' with an American policy which was flawed, confused, and improbable in its conception.


Afghanistan: Edging Closer Lawrence Lifschultz GENEVA: The seventh round of the Geneva 'proximity' talks adjourned on May 23 after three weeks of what negotiators termed a 'marathon effort' to conclude an agreement. The talks will resume on July 30 after the Pakistan and Afghan delegations have consulted their respective governments and allies. Speaking to journalists at the end of the session, Diego Cordovez, the UN mediator who has presided over the negotiations for more than four years, said that unlike the past where he had been criticised for undue optimism, he was now authorised to say unequivocally that both parties to the negotiations believed "substantial and significant'' progress towards concluding an agreement had been made. He said, "The document is almost complete. The wording of only two paragraphs remain outstanding,'' The May session was designed to hammer out a settlement of Afghanistan's civil war, which among other elements would lead to a withdrawal of Soviet forces. Most of the three-week session concerned the precise textual development of what is known as the 'fourth and final instrument'. The text of the first three instruments, relating to the principles of non-interference, the declaration of international guarantees, and the basis for the voluntary return of refugees were settled during the negotiations last year, The fourth instrument contains crucial provisions which will link the terms of withdrawal with simultaneous enforcement of non-interference across international borders. There are nine sections to the fourth instrument. The textual wording of seven parts has been settled by the two sides. Although the UN negotiator, Cordovez, and the respective delegations from Pakistan and Afghanistan, refused to discuss the unsettled elements, an Asian diplomatic source in Geneva in touch with the proceedings identified the final two as concerning the procedure for verifying the settlement once it is underway, and the actual time-frame in which Soviet forces will be withdrawn.

Ataullah Mengal's 'Declaration of Independence' Lawrence Lifschultz The plight of small nations or nationalities situated in crucially strategic regions on the borderline bet- ween two great systems has ever been one of tragedy, threat of extermination, and an all-too-familiar manipulation of local aspirations towards self-determination by more powerful and cynical regimes. Baluchistan, Pakistan's largest province, presents a modern version of the classical dilemma of a small nation under siege. The dilemma is further aggravated by the developments preceding and since the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan.

Bangladesh: Anatomy of a Coup Lawrence Lifschultz Kai Bird When, on the night of August 14, 1975, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was killed alongwith a large numbers of members of his family and friends, it was put out that the assassins had acted on their own, with no larger political objective than of ridding the country of a tyrant. Unspecific talk about 'foreign involvement' in the assassination or, more explicitly, of CIA involvement, was, on the basis of evidence available then, rightly dismissed as specious propaganda.