| December 3, 2001 | Monday | Ramazan 17, 1422 |
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Autarky in wheat production
Combating the heroin epidemic
Discrimination against Muslims
Murder in cold blood
Afghan transit trade
Importance of education
Performance of Wapda
Too many beggars
Promotion of quackery
Benazir on Kashmir
Dwindling water resources
Disregard of merit
Use of chewing-gum
Mass transit projects
TO BOOST remittances by legal channel, Pakistan has recently introduced a scheme under which an Overseas Pakistani (OP) sending $2400 a year would get $700 concession in customs and the one remitting $10,000 annually a concession of $1200. However, I think, the scheme was drafted in haste without looking at its different aspects, some of which are:
a. The scheme is effective 1st September 2001 but what about remittances made during June/July 2001. Would those amounts be included in remittances or not?
b. I brought $800 on 1st August 2001 in cash and hold dollar issuance receipt from the registered exchange company of Bahrain. Would this be included in my Pass Book?.
c. The majority of OPs belong to middle income bracket and on an average, travels once in 3 or 4 years. If an OP complete his target/category for the year 2001, again in 2002 and again in 2003, would all of his three cards/categories be valid for three 3 consecutive years or not, i e 3 separate concessions entitled categories.
d. If the card is not utilised during one year’s period, can it be carried forward with next year’s remittances category to reach for the next higher category? Suppose a person sends $2500, gets a card in 2001 but he does not travel and his card expires. In the year 2002-2003 he sends $7500, can he ask for year 2001 credit $2500 to be added and for issuance of the Gold Card for D10,000?.
e. My wife also remits money to her children on ‘eids’, and for ‘zakat’, purposes, and her monthly instalments of ‘committee’. If she reaches the target of $2400, will she be entitled to get a card in her own name and while travelling to Pakistan separately, would she, as a legal remitter, get Silver Card/customs concessions?.
f. The procedure designed for issuance of card appears to have been designed by OPF/CBR/ bureaucrats who perhaps have no knowledge about the circumstances under which most of the Ops are working abroad. As far as Bahrain is concerned it is a very small Island and there is no problem for people like me. But for countries like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, England which are very large countries, it is very hard and time-consuming to collect such cards from respective Pakistani embassies.
g. The customs concession is given but it is not clarified on which items.
h. Ops remit money according to their home requirements. The bigger chunk of their savings, they take along with them when they themselves travel to Pakistan. In the case of 95 per cent of labour class, they the target/category of $2400 only a few days before they proceed on their earned leave. In such cases there is no time left for a labourer to submit application for a Silver card which may take a month whereas his leave is to start within 7 to 10 days. What OPF says about such cases? considered
j. In the OPF brochure jacket defining ‘remittances” it says: ‘payment in cash in Rupees’. Will this‘cash’ rupee deposit be included for achieving the target category?
‘Hundi’ cannot be eliminated through such schemes and the Ops, under such defective schemes, will continue to send their remittances through ‘hundis’. The need of the hour is to restore the confidence of these ex-patriates.
MUHAMMED JAVED,
Bahrain.
THE ARTICLE on the above subject in EBR (19-25, 2001) is very informative. The learned writer has tried to make some useful suggestions for the farming community and field experts alike for attaining/retaining autarky in our wheat production. Some of the suggestions, are well-known, but are not adopted. The finding that the yields start declining after November 20, at the rate of 20 kg per day is interesting.
The suggestion that we must bring a change in our dietic pattern is appealing. Our population is increasing faster than the means of food production, and wheat is the staple and an all-season food.
Coarse food grains like ‘bajra’, ‘jowar’, maize’ and gram have not gained much prominence in our daily diet, except in the rural areas, although these food grains are in no way less nutritious than any other cereal.
There are countries in the world, where even oat and barley are eaten by human beings. Efforts should, therefore, be made to step up the production and consumption of these grains, to reduce the pressure on wheat. But these food grains need to be cheaper than wheat.
Likewise, rice consumption also needs increasing in order to reduce the pressure on wheat. New ways and means should be discovered to popularise the use of ‘bajra’, ‘jowar’, ‘maize’ and ‘gram’ in our daily dietic pattern both, in rural and urban areas.
M. SHAFIQUE AHMED,
Karachi.
DR Ikramul Haq has analyzed heroin addiction in Pakistan (Nov 27). The following salient points emerge from his article:
Heroin addiction figures in the region are simply alarming; 3.5 million in Pakistan; 22 million in India; three million in Iran; and 13 million in China.
In Pakistan, the addiction has hit all sections of the society. According to a leading psychiatrist, heroin addiction is spreading like some kind of guerrilla movement. It hasn’t made a frontal attack yet but the deeper one goes into the problem the more one realizes how entrenched it is in the country.
In 2000, a few thousand addicts reportedly came for treatment each to major government hospitals in Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar, Rawalpindi/ Islamabad, of which a large number were refused admission by the respective hospitals because of the shortage of beds. This is only the tip of the iceberg. The researchers estimate only one out of 40 addicts come for treatment. The treatment process is time-consuming and expensive and unfortunately the facilities for treating addicts in the country are woefully inadequate.
Government efforts to combat heroin addiction have been continuing with the assistance and advice from the local and international donors. However, as the menace is fast gaining ground, in order to remedy the situation, it is suggested that the efforts may be redoubled. Actions in the following three areas may also help:
a. Help eliminate cultivation of poppy and preparation of opium (for producing heroin) by providing alternate job/income opportunities to the farmers. Other cash crops may have to be introduced, supported by financial incentives and training of the farmers. Cottage industry may have to be introduced in certain areas.
b. Increase hospital beds and other facilities for proper rehabilitation of heroin addicts. More funding may have to be allocated along with the provision of trained medical personnel including psychiatrists. Wastage or misappropriation of allocated funds may also be eliminated. Private business, industry and international agencies are urged to substantially increase their support for the purpose.
c. Create mass awareness about the dangers of the use of heroin (as well as other similar psychoactive agents) and the sad impact on the addict and his family. Such a campaign can be carred out through newspapers, magazines and television. Experts may also be invited to the educational institutions and factories to deliver lectures and to hold discussions on the ill- effects of heroin and other such products.
The parents and other family members can play a big role in minimizing spread of heroin addiction by keeping a careful watch over the habits and the company of their wards.
The employer need to realize that heroin addiction is a serious illness. It needs treatment like any other illness for which medical facilities are provided to the employees as part of service benefits. The employees may be subjected to periodical medical check-up and screening. This may help to discover addiction in the early stages that may be easier and inexpensive to cure.
Termination may be considered only as a last resort, when all else has failed. Families of the unfortunate addicts have to be saved from the ill effects of heroin addiction.
MUHAMMAD BASHIR CHAUDHRY
Karachi
THIS is with reference to a report, “Pakistanis in US not being discriminated against” (Nov 24).
I am a 27-year-old US-born American of Pakistani origin, residing in the US. I was amazed to read this report. The fact is quite the opposite of what has been reported.
Whenever Muslims travel by air they are subjected to interrogation and lengthy search. In fact many Muslims have chosen to drive now rather than face the humiliation at the airports.
Whenever we go to the stores or to other public places, we are looked upon differently. I myself have been harassed on six different occasions, as have been many of my friends. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, the number of job related harassments of Muslims has tripled in the month of October this year as compared to October of 2000.
The tragic events of September 11 have brought out all the prejudices in Americans that had remained hidden all along. I can see a long hard road ahead of us.
DR YOUSEF M. KHAN
Columbus, USA
A NORTHERN Alliance warlord says: “We tried our best to persuade them to surrender but they refused and we were forced to attack them. They were then captured and stood in a line, all 160 of them, and five or six of our fighters used light machineguns on them”.
Whether or not the Taliban, including many Pakistanis, had refused to surrender, once they were captured they became prisoners of war. To line them up when they had been subdued and disarmed could only be called murder in cold blood. US military personnel who had been filming the fighting tried to stop the executions without success.
This scene must have been enacted in Afghanistan, God knows how many times. Are these the people whom the civilized world and its lackeys are brinigng into power? God help us all!
KHURSHID ANWER
Lahore
NOW that negotiations are going on for the future political set-up in Afghanistan, the business community feels that Pakistan must give due importance to matters related to the economy while establishing relations with the new government in Kabul.
We must not involve ourselves too much in Afghan affairs as the results of such an involvement during the last 20 years have affected the socio-economic aspects of our society very adversely. It is suggested that our borders with Afghanistan should be sealed. This would be beneficial in two ways.
First, it would prevent the entry of undesirable persons from Afghanistan who have in the past aggravated the law and order situation in this country. Secondly, it would stop the smuggling of goods which was going on in the past on a large scale.
The Afghan transit trade proved counterproductive in the past. Most goods imported into Afghanistan were smuggled into Pakistan depriving the Pakistan government of billions of rupees in duties and crippling our consumer goods and electronic industries.
It is suggested that Afghan Transit Trade (ATT) should be, in the future, conducted strictly according to terms and conditions laid down by Pakistan and it must be ensured that these goods do not return to Pakistan. The best way would be that Pakistan should collect import duties on international tariff rates and hand over the amount to the Afghan government.
Food and medicines may be allowed to go duty free. To prevent any deviation from the ATT rules, strict laws should be introduced against the smugglers.
The bilateral agreements should be endorsed by the UN.
Unless the above steps are taken, Pakistan’s economy would continue to be eroded on account of smuggling from Afghanistan.
S.M.A. RIZVI
Karachi
KAISER Bengali has some interesting things to say (Nov 28) about the future of Islamic nations. I fully concur that education is a key factor in national development.
Therefore, I hope that Pakistan will take a hard look at the current situation with regard to the madrassahs and seek to correct the horrifically biased and wholly insufficient “education” Pakistani children are presumably still receiving therein. By way of background, I (an American) lived in Karachi from 1962-1967 and graduated from the Karachi American School. I will say that the Pakistani students who attended were the brightest and most serious students in the school, and I know from recent contacts with many that they have gone on to be quite successful in life.
I am not advocating for the school, but for the youth of Pakistan who have bright minds and the capacity for hard work and the ability to, in the future, lead their country to become a stable, prosperous and important member of the global community.
September 11 changed the world and I think we must all adopt a “wait and see” attitude about others around the world, because I see great changes in the thinking, focus, spirituality and a sense of a global community. This is a time of unlimited opportunity for every human being and every nation to look inward and outward in new ways.
ROXANA RUSSELL
Arkansas, US
THE army is the biggest defaulter, for non-payment of its dues to the Wapda and the KESC, yet it was entrusted by the last Muslim League government to recover money from other defaulters. Consequently, only small defaulters are pressurized to cough up the dues whereas the “big fish” are still enjoying free power supply.
It is amazing that if one’s actual power consumption is say Rs 600, then the bill is about six times this figure. On top of that, unreliable power supply is the norm, frequent announced and unannounced loadshedding are common and voltage fluctuations damage expensive electrical appliances. Only the middle classes pay their bills. The very rich and well connected consumers, along with the very poor ones, steal electricity and get away with it.
The line losses are said to be in the range of 30 to 35 per cent, against an internationally accepted 2 to 5 per cent. Frequent and unjustifiable hikes are breaking the back of the consumers, encouraging more thefts.
DR JAMAL NASIR MEMON
Karachi
RECENTLY, the number of beggars in our town has increased manifold. Besides grown up men and women, they also include young boys and girls.
The beggars are found at places frequented most by the people such as bus stands, markets, post offices, railway stations and mosques. It has become impossible to move about at these places, peacefully.
Child lifters, in the guise of beggars, are also on the lookout. Two or three cases of this kind have occurred recently, and the culprits have been caught red handed.
Female beggars enter the houses quietly without calling out for alms at the door.
They act as informers to the burglars.
Prompt action is required on the part of the government to check this evil.
AISHA JAGIRANI
Karachi
TWO programmes being aired on FM 100 for quite some time now have guest speakers who call themselves ‘doctors’. I am surprised at the medical community who has not yet protested and also at the programme director for allowing these programmes to be aired without checking the authenticity of these so-called doctors.
In the programme ‘ Chinese Hospital’ the gentleman is advising a ‘single injection’ for the ‘cure’ of three entirely different conditions like piles, fistula and tumour in the rectum and that too for four thousand rupees!
The sclerotherapy injection (costing to be given a hundred rupee or so) is meant for first degree haemorrhoids to be given by surgeons at specified points inside the anal canal. When given in the wrong place it is extremely painful and can cause complications.
Such injections have no place in the treatment of fistulae. Giving such an injection in malignant tumours or ‘rasoly’ is criminal.
These so-called doctors are also claiming a 100 per cent cure rate for backache with acupuncture and herbal medicines. I think it is time that we should close down our neurosurgery and orthopaedic departments!
In the other programme, another ‘doctor’ from some ‘world famous’ Hakimi or homeopathic clinic is advising females with breast lumps not to go to the doctors because they ‘cut out the breast’. He is claiming 100 per cent cure of breast cancer with his medicines.
There is no such thing as 100 per cent cure rates. Such self-propagation in medicine is considered unethical and looked down upon by the medical profession.
The relevant authorities must take notice of this and also act to save the general public from being mislead.
DR S.A. YOUSAF
Rawalpindi
ONCE again Benazir Bhutto has shown her true colours by toeing the Indian line.
Her recent statements in New Delhi are against our national interests and highly insulting to the freedom struggle of the Kashmiris.
Once again it has been proved that she can go to any extent to grab power in Pakistan and it does not matter to her even if she takes help from the Indians.
In this connection, the stand taken by President Musharraf in his various statements, some on the Indian soil itself, that Kashmir is the core issue, is highly commendable.
I hope that people of Pakistan will not be deceived by dubious politicians anymore.
M. ALAM
Abu Dhabi, UAE
A REPORT by Ahmed Fraz Khan (Dawn, Nov 4) needs to be reviewed in the light of the conditions prevailing in Pakistan. We have one of the largest integrated irrigation systems in the world.
At partition, the borders cut across this system. Just after partition, India cut off the supplies in the canal flowing from that country to Pakistan. Lengthy negotiations ensued under the auspices of the World Bank and ultimately under a Bank Award, India was allocated the entire supplies of Sutlej, Beas and Ravi in spite of the internationally recognized historic rights of Pakistan to the flows of these rivers.
Thus Pakistan was forced to replace about 24 MAF of water of the eastern from the return Western rivers, Chenab, Jhelum and Indus in which supplies, especially during Rabi, were not available. So Pakistan was forced to build large dams — Tarbela and Mangla— for its survival.
Now these dams are dying due to silting. The availability of storage in Tarbela and Mangla dams will be reduced by 4.1 MAF by 2010. So another large dam is essential. Otherwise, Pakistan will become a water-starved country. The per capita availability of water which was ample in 1951 will drop fall drastically by 2010.
So, either the water allocated to India by the World Bank must be returned to Pakistan or the Bank must take cognizance of our dwindling water resources.
CH ALTAF HUSSAIN
Lahore
THIS is in continuation of a letter titled “Infringement of seniority rule” by a well wisher from Multan (Nov 25). I think in a country where serving army generals, in addition to commanding corps are heading The Cricket Board, Hockey and Squash Federations and the retired ones with no academic background at all have been appointed vice-chancellors of the universities, this favouritism should not seem strange.
MOBEEN AFZAL
Lahore
THE reported death of a 15-year old boy recently due to chewing-gum stuck in his throat while playing cricket ought to ring an alarm bell about the growing use of chewing gum by children.
Lately, large signboards of a brand of chewing-gum have mushroomed in Lahore.
TV advertisements lure teenagers to offer chewing-gum to their friends.
All this campaign is aimed at polluting the minds of young children.
The superior courts ought to ban the advertisements of chewing-gum as life threatening as demonstrated recent-ly by the death of a young boy.
DR M. YAQOOB BHATTI
Lahore
ON the issue of mass transit project; for Karachi, there is no dearth of financiers and resources, as some major multinational corporations have been showing willingness for the last two decades.
Talking of successive governments’ unwillingness to launch the Karachi Mass Transit System (KMTS), I would recall that the MQM raised the issue in the Senate and in the National Assembly on different occasions. Four years ago, even we met the then federal finance minister, before the budget session, regarding the Karachi Mass Transport Project (KMTP) issue. His cold reply was, “You Karachiwalas have no lobby over here.”
Being the chairman of the last National Assembly’s planning and development committee, I had shown special interest and convened three meetings on the country’s mass transit system. Of these, two were held at Karachi. Experts on MMPT were also invited to brief the committee.
According to the experts, there were distinctive variances between the expenses, commuter’s load factors and the covering radius relating to Karachi and Lahore. The projected fare factor between these two cities was overwhelmingly cheaper for the former, because of its estimated over two-and-a-half million daily commuters vis-a-vis Lahore’s a few hundreds of thousands, per day. Besides, the break-even period of KMTP for the investors was short.
In spite of the lack of support for Lahore’s mass transit from some members of other provinces because it was thought to be a non-profit making venture, I, with the support of the committee, recommended that projects of Karachi and Lahore be simultaneously and immediately taken up, considering the sufferings of daily commuters of both the cities. That recommendation file must be lying somewhere in some dusty store-room of the then prime minister’s secretariat.
The present government should immediately take steps to alleviate the sufferings of commuters of both Karachi and Lahore.
There are mass transit networks in the world for cities having only two to three million population, so why can’t cities with fourteen million and six million residents not have this network. Fifteen per cent of Pakistan’s total population and over 60 per cent of country’s urban citizens reside in Karachi and Lahore.
The government should either assign the work to the interested multinationals on “built and operate” basis; or set up a powerful body to start and complete the mass transit projects for both Karachi and Lahore.
KUNWAR KHALID YUNUS
Karachi
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