| November 9, 2001 | Friday | Shaba’an 22, 1422 |
To send a letter to the Editor
Click here
The task of Nazims
Passport renewals
Consumer protection
Power breakdowns
Entry tests
PhD programme
Of miniatures and murals
Accountability: court’s verdict
Taliban and TV
Government negligence & illegal buildings
OVER zealous Muslims all over the world are out in support of Osama bin Laden. The support is baffling because it is hard to recall anything constructive that Osama bin Laden did for the Muslims in general or for his beloved Afghans, in particular. His main contribution was to spearhead the US-sponsored war against the Soviet Union fought on Afghan soil and, in the process, completely destroyed the social, physical, and institutional infrastructure of that country.
The long civil war that followed saw revengeful executions of men and women, old and young, perfectly legal or “jaaiz” according to the convoluted but emphatically religious logic of the Afghan war lords. It made inhumanity a way of life for the Afghans. The faithful, who have not lost their sanity, now wonder whether the Afghans believe in the same Islam that the faithful practice elsewhere.
The cause that Osama bin Laden ardently supports is revenge — something that is both ignoble and self-destructive. It befits the infidels, surely not the Muslims. In Islam, there is no room for it. Those who have read it (and surely that would include the learned bin Laden) the last sermon of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) emphasizes, in no uncertain terms, that revenge is ignoble, and must be shunned as the basest of all human instincts because it breeds hatred that destroys all creative human faculties. All his life, the Holy Prophet (PBUH) set examples of compassion and refrained from taking revenge even from those who shed the blood of his nearest and dearest relatives. How then can this forbidden act become sacred now? Are we to believe that contemporary Islam (Afghan brand) overrides the principles given by a person no less than the Holy Prophet of Islam?
The essence of Islam’s divine message is spreading peace and prosperity among the widest spectrum of the Lord’s creation. That also explains why the Lord chose trade as the profession of his most beloved Prophet. As a businessman of unparalleled managerial qualities, the Holy Prophet (PBUH) showed to all mankind that engaging in an enterprise was the best course for a human being, especially a Muslim, to adopt because it served as the channel for fulfilling the divine will - spreading prosperity far and wide. Where is that spirit now, or is it no longer applicable to the Muslims?
Are the Jehadis really trying to fulfil the divine will? These self-styled crusaders don’t realize that a decisive victory over the adversary can be won only on the economic battlefield. Instead of brandishing guns, they should pick up their tools, and wage an economic war. What they are doing now is utterly self-destructive.
It will impoverish the Muslims as one Muslim country economy after the other will collapse under the weight of the economic depression made worse by the on-going Afghan war.
A.B. SHAHID
Karachi
IT HAS been noticed that most of the participants in a recent meeting of District Nazims at Islamabad were quite energetic, enthusiastic and willing to do something for the their respective areas.
They are required to be shown the right path so that they should start moving in the right direction for performing good work. They are public representatives and any step against the wishes of the people will go against them in winning the next term. Therefore, they will have to select the right priorities to come up to the expectations of their voters. They should make all efforts to maintain law and order while not victimizing their political opponents.
More attention be paid to the problems of the young educated lot, as a capable person in the dead corner is more frustrated. Due respect be paid to the rights of the opposition because by losing one election they have not become irrelevant. The Nazims should welcome criticism and try to win the hearts of the masses with their good work, honesty and strength of character. When the general public will be at ease in their respective jobs and spheres, the law and order problem will be automatically solved.
Only selfless, principled, devoted to the cause / goal, fittest, God-fearing and righteous people will survive because these Nazims are very closely being watched by their own people who are living with them in the same area. First of all they should declare their assets following in the footsteps of the President.
What are these people anxious to control the district police if they do not have to boss around, victimize their opponents and show their own people that they have become something special? They should remove all the bottlenecks between the administration and the public. Let their peons and personal assistants be not forced to tell lies time and again that the Sahib is busy in the meeting. Preferably, self-attending telephone calls will be very useful for being approachable to everyone. They should receive everyone with open heart and mind, and be polite and helpful.
Lt Col (R) JAVED IQBAL
Chishtian
IN his letter (Oct 13), an Overseas Pakistanis stated that the Pakistan Consulate in UAE was refusing renewal of passports unless one produced his foreign exchange remittances receipt. In return, Press Councillor, Pakistan Embassy in Abu Dhabi, through his letter (Oct 22) stated that remittance through Hundi is illegal and the State Bank of Pakistan makes it mandatory to remit money through legal channels.
The Press Councillor says the UAE central bank has issued fresh instructions to discourage illegal money transactions. The fact is, the UAE central bank has cautioned regarding money laundering and in this connection has prescribed all transactions over and above dirhams 2000 to be monitored and reported.
According to the councillor, a separate counter has been opened at the embassy to facilitate home remittances. No embassy can engage itself in remittances. Embassies are not financial institutions. The counters have been opened only to verify one’s remittances under the newly introduced scheme.
No law of Pakistan requires and overseas Pakistani (OP) to produce remittance receipt for renewal of passport. Such a rule if it exists, is prescribed and introduced by the embassy itself which is not competent to introduce such rules which, in fact, would open a new door to ‘corruption’.
SAJ
Karachi
THIS is with reference to the letter, Focus on quality, by Air Cdre (R) Azfar A. Khan ( Oct 26). Due to the lack of consumer protection laws and the lack of enforcement of existing food and drug laws, citizens are being exploited and cheated. They are also being served with substandard and spurious food, beverages and medicines. In fact, Pakistan has become a dumping ground for semi-expired food items and medicines.
Consumer Protection Council (CPC) of the Helpline Trust has been trying to introduce consumer protection laws, consumer courts and create consumer awareness, for the last several years through seminars and debates. A draft of such a law has also been presented to past and present federal and provincial governments.
A recent survey by CPC reveals that almost 60 per cent of cooking oil, banaspati and bottled water manufacturers in Karachi are unregistered, do not have a valid licence from PSQCA, display its monogram illegally and do not conform to the PSI standards. Consequently, these products could be harmful to human health.
Based on the results of some samples, CPC has filed a writ in the Sindh High Court against the District Executive Officer, City Government, Karachi, and the Food Inspector, City Government.
CPC is also planning to launch an aggressive campaign to introduce good manufacturing practice. In this connection.
Citizens who wish to assist and help us in our efforts, may contact the CPC at Tel. No. 5889830.
CONSUMER PROTECTION COUNCIL-THT
Karachi
THIS is with reference to a letter titled ‘Power breakdowns’(Nov 4) from Engr Riaz Ahmad Bhutta, Lahore.
The correspondent’s claim that scheduled and unscheduled power interruptions have increased is not correct. The occurrence has rather decreased except for the momentary trippings due to the menace of kite flying with metallic wires which is beyond the control of the department. However, alive to its impact on consumers, the WAPDA and civil management are taking measures to bring things under control. Pre-announced/scheduled interruption for maintenance and repair work of the supply system in the consumers’ interest shall be appreciated as a development work.
The correspondent has observed that the price of electricity is continuously increasing on one pretext or the other. The case is not so. The revision in electricity tariff, as allowed by the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA), has taken place only twice i.e. in March and October 2001. This increase was the result of the 137 per cent hike in furnace oil and 104 per cent raise in gas prices over the electricity tariff base prices of the oil, Rs 5500 per metric ton and gas, Rs 89 per MCFT of May 1999, to offset the exorbitant additional impact on power generation .
Against more than double raise in fuel prices, increase in electricity tariff is a marginal 5 per cent. Rest of the billions of rupees additional impact under this head, is being borne by the WAPDA.
The correspondent is of the view that ongoing power sector restructuring process is likely to worsen the things whereas the fact of the matter is that sincere efforts are being made, as the track record shows, which has so far proved successful. It is not necessary that if a certain measure has failed in one country it would fail elsewhere also.
On the one hand, the correspondent puts the blame on WAPDA and the KESC and on the other hand, he opposes the measures for improvement without suggesting any measures for betterment.
KHURRAM ALI MEHRAN
Public Relations Officer WAPDA,
Lahore
THERE are reports that the authorities concerned are thinking about setting 70 instead of 60 per cent marks, as the minimum requirement to sit in the entry test which will deprive hundreds of students of their chance for becoming doctors besides killing the very purpose of the test.
The authorities are requested to rethink as 70 per cent is too high a limit for most candidates.
FAREEHA JABEEN
Gujranwala
THIS refers to a news item (Oct 31) in which the Registrar, NED University, has claimed that NED is the first and the only public sector University in Pakistan to have an indigenous Ph.D programme for faculty upgradation and it would be for the first time in the history of the country for any engineering student to get Ph.D degree locally under the supervision of local supervisors.
This is for the information of NED authorities and other Universities that Mehran University of Engineering and Technology (MUET), Jamshoro, has the honour of having the maximum number of teachers (15) qualified for the indigenous Ph.D programme introduced by the Government of Pakistan last year. And the indigenous Ph.D programme for faculty upgradation is already in progress at the MUET.
The second claim by the NED becomes null-and-void by the fact that MUET has already awarded two Ph.D degrees to engineering students, completed under the supervision of university supervisors. First was to Dr Hussain Bux Bhutto in 1988. He is presently working as the Chairman, Department of Engineering, Sindh Agricultural University, Tandojam. Dr Bhutto’s supervisor was Professor Muhammad Ali.
The second was awarded to a student from Iran and his supervisor was Dr Mehmood Memon, working as the Chairman, Department of Civil Engineering, QUEST, Nawabshah.
MUKESH MATHRANI
Jamshoro
FAQIR Syed Aijazuddin is one such knowledgeable critic that I find difficult to disagree with him. Speaking on the occasion of miniatures exhibition “he stressed the need for making a distinction between revival and renaissance,” as reported by Dawn (Nov 3).
Not taking away due credit from PNCA and Mohatta Palace organizers in arranging such a fine display of exhibits, one would like to “stress” the visual aesthetic need to see harmonious relationship of craft and art.
Skill and labour part, if the revival is sought of great historical glory and the grand Mughal era that climaxed in Kangra, Rajput and Punjab hill paintings, they are surely our heritage. However, the pictures of Rajput palaces used for decorating walls as murals from enlarged features and motifs from miniatures create a grotesque effect.
The ‘revival’ either in form or content seems difficult in the changed environment and patronage, particularly amidst people of parochial polity and retrogressive slogans.
A.R. NAGORI
Karachi
THE NAB Ordinance, 1999, states vide Article 11. “Where a person found guilty of an offence is sentenced to pay a fine — the fine in no case shall be less than the gain derived by the accused or any relative or associate —.”
However, an accountability court in Quetta imposed a fine of Rs 500,000 each in two cases of 19 and 20 of 2000 on the accused Muhammad Ramzan, a former DC in Balochistan in two land purchase cases of ex-minister Faiq Jamali.
The fact of the matter is that the accused DC neither derived any benefit for himself or his relative or his associate during his tenure. This was, in fact, done by his successor but the former DC was not only awarded imprisonment of two years in each case after his superannuation but also fined contrary to the provisions of the law.
The cases were appealed against in the Balochistan High Court where a default of one year’s imprisonment has been awarded in one case and one-and-a half years in the other case in lieu of non- payment of the fine. It is widely felt in Balochistan that NAB cases are decided by accountability courts under influence of the NAB authorities and justice is not seen to be done as per the provisions of law.
Due process needs to be ensured in NAB cases to restore the confidence of the people in Balochistan in the present turbulent environment in that province.
DR M. YAQOOB BHATTI
Lahore
THE Taliban had smashed the TV sets of their people in Afghanistan as, to them, it is un-Islamic to watch TV. But now they are using the same to pronounce Jihad against the West.
Osama bin Laden, too, appears on the screen whenever he feels it appropriate to refresh his earlier call for Jihad. Mullah Zaeef, the Taliban’s ambassador to Pakistan, appears on the international TV networks regularly.
One wonders if the Taliban have changed their mind about TV or do they only consider watching TV as sinful, and not appearing on it.
SHAHID ANWAR
Toba Tek Singh
WE would like to point out some pertinent facts on illegal buildings as referred to in Syed Mateen’s (Oct 7) and M. Rafi’s (Nov 3) letters.
1. It is the statutory duty of the government, through KDA / KBCA and Cantonment Boards, to nip unauthorized construction in the bud. These authorities are fully aware of illegal buildings at the very incipient / foundation stage because their officers / inspectors patrol the various zones of the city regularly. As a test, a citizen should try to demolish a part of his house or buy some bricks and pile them up along his front boundary wall: a building control authority official will be at his doorstep the very next day to find out what is going on!
2. It is not the duty (“delayed action”) of citizens or NGOs to “keep a watch” on illegal construction and inform the government, or to file cases in courts. In the vast majority of instances, citizens / NGOs approach the judiciary only when their repeated complaints fall on deaf (in-league-with-the-builders) ears of the government. The Karachi Nazim, Naimatullah, has recognized this and promised to handle matters so that the citizens do not have to go to court.
3. As a typical example, take the illegal project “Metro Gardens” at GRE 216 Garden East. Local residents complained to KBCA on 15.5.95, 12.7.95, and 3.8.95, when deep excavations for a basement were being carried out at the plot. Ignoring these complaints, KBCA on 3.8.95 approved a G+1 floor bungalow on 1/3rd of the plot, with 15 feet and 10 feet compulsory open spaces all around. Thus, government officials approved a plan after illegal construction had started at the site.
After registering further impotent complaints, while construction was still at the ground level, local neighbours and Shehri filed a constitutional writ petition in the SHC on 16.11.95, asking the court to direct the KBCA to do its statutory duty and remove the illegal structure. The court disposed of the petition on 11.4.96 (after 5 months), ordering the KBCA to take lawful action to demolish the illegality (which was about 25% completed at that time) and simultaneously restraining the builders from further construction.
The KBCA officials did essentially nothing, and after 8 months of inactivity, the builders resumed illegal construction on 5.12.96, while getting the BOR District Registrar to issue unlawful sub-leases to fake allottees on 4.11.96.
Under citizens’ pressure, the KBCA repeatedly (and reluctantly) warned the public, in English, Urdu and Gujrati newspaper ads on 9.11.95, 18.3.96, 1.2.97, and 10.1.97, that the “Metro Gardens” project was unauthorized and that it was a criminal offence to occupy the premises. All people in the Garden East area were aware of the illegality of the project, as there were also a number of “cosmetic demolition” attempts.
The SHC, since 1996, has “sealed” the premises and issued numerous directives to KBCA, in CP 2220/95 and Suit 1158/96, to demolish the structure, and has even recently appointed the Official Assignee to assist the KBCA. If the various officials of the Government of Sindh at the highest levels can, in an elaborate noora-kushti, flout the orders of the SHC, how can ordinary citizens be expected to do anything?
4. The mushrooming of illegal buildings over the past two decades has devastated the civic infrastructure of Karachi, overloaded the amenities / utilities (electricity, water, sewerage, garbage collection, streets, playgrounds / parks, etc) and has “brought suffering” to millions of existing lawful residents of these localities.
5. Even today, illegal construction continues, despite a regular stream of complaints to the government at all levels from top to bottom.
SHEHRI
Karachi
You can also send letters to the Editor
Just send your message to the following address:
Make sure you include your full name, postal address, e-mail address, and in the case of Pakistan your day-time telephone number.