| January 19, 2002 | Saturday | Ziqa'ad 4, 1422 |
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Underground rivers of oil: a myth
Environmental pollution
Na’at sung by Shamshad Begum
Delay in crediting profit
The next crucial step
Road tax tokens
What a relief!
Trade with Afghanistan
Appointment of teachers
Pretzel story
Remembering Suhrawardy
ANOTHER uncalled-for fire and another national asset, i.e. Shaheed-i-Millat Secretariat, lost. Besides the huge economic setback, we have suffered loss of a large volume of official record housed in the Ministry of Interior and other government departments, which may be a deliberate attempt at setting back the efforts to improve the law and order situation.
The Deputy Commissioner, Islamabad, was quick to declare this an accident caused by short-circuiting. How has this government official reached this conclusion by just looking at the fire without any investigation is mind boggling indeed and seems like a usual ploy to deflect blame and buy time to cook up favourable scenarios and arguments?
For once, with a view to finding the facts and also to avoid a future recurrence of such uncalled-for accidents, we need to be serious about this incident and examine all aspects, particularly the following:
(1) Determine the exact cause of the fire. This may well be an act of sabotage in the wake of recent developments to check sectarianism and religious extremism.
(2) Following the fire in the National Assembly, a number of recommendations to revamp and improve the fire- brigade services were surely made. A probe be conducted as to why those were not acted upon.
(3) High-rise buildings all over the world are designed to ensure availability of adequate fire-fighting equipment and sprinkler systems. Is this being done in Islamabad? If not then we are inviting nothing but trouble. We must find out also as to why no statute laying down fire prevention and fighting rules has been implemented by the CDA. What is happening on this score in Lahore and Karachi?
(4) If the CDA is to allow construction of high-rise buildings then it must implement strict rules and also provide for special fire-fighting and medical evacuation facilities / services to handle such emergencies in future. Till such time these services are made available, construction of high rise buildings must be stopped.
(5) The fire in this instance, I believe, burned for hours before some of emergency service responded. The all-important question is that if we can’t handle fire in one tall building what would happen in war when more than one large / tall installation may receive simultaneous incendiary hits.
A. WAJID SALIM
Air Cdre (Retd)
Lahore
THE recent drills carried out by the Civil Defence Department in different cities of Pakistan to prepare themselves to meet any eventuality in case of an Indian attack have turned out to be futile exercises.
How the Civil Defence Department of the Capital, Islamabad, is expecting to carry out rescue operations if India attacks when they miserably failed to extinguish the single fire of Shaheed-i-Millat Secretariat and the whole 16 storey building gutted as a result.
The fire department of the capital should have been all the more alert and ever-ready as the capital houses offices of all the ministries, the President Secretariat and embassies and above all the geo-political situation around Pakistan also demands that we should be very careful and ever-ready to meet any eventuality.
Luckily no life was lost in the Shaheed-i-Millat Secretariat fire but some valuable records must have been lost as many important ministries had their offices in that building.
Likewise the loss of property must be enormous. According to some newspaper reports the fire department reached there to extinguish the fire with only one stair. This attitude of the fire department forces one to think that this vital department is not serious in performing its duties.
In the past many lives and valuables worth millions of rupees have been lost in fire incidents. How many more fires will it take for us to prepare ourselves?
ZULFIQAR ALI
Karachi
RECENTLY, some people have once again touched upon the popular concept of rivers of oil flowing underground from one country to the other, a myth that has been perpetuated in this country and elsewhere for decades by ill-informed opinion.
Some ‘oil experts’ say that the targets in Balochistan may not be close to the main underground oil flowing from the Central Asian States (CAS) via Afghanistan and Iran but the Afghan war has brought in focus many hidden facts about the possible future oil war.
Whatever the hidden facts of the possible future oil war might be, one thing is certain: the so-called ‘underground river of oil’ is not a fact, it is a myth.
Hydrocarbons occur in different geological basins which behave as independent entities, and not gigantic underground rivers, and the oil and gas generation / migration remains restricted to each, having its own typical characteristics. A look at the world oil and gas map would show that Iran’s fields are present in the extreme west of the country along the border with Iraq and in the Persian Gulf to as southeast as the Strait of Hormuz. A big earth fracture runs east and parallel to Iran’s oilfields separating the Iranian Balochistan further east, where the geology is completely different from the oil bearing rocks of Iran.
Iranian Balochistan represents a different geological basin where no oil has so far been found. The east-west trending Balochistan basin is a very large entity that extends into Pakistan as far east as the Chaman Transform fault and the Axial Belt. Balochistan Basin represents a complex geology where the oil targets are yet to be located.
Similarly all the hydrocarbon fields of Afghanistan (mainly gas) are located in the north along its border with CAS. A complex northwest-southeast running Hindukush mountain range divides Afghanistan into three broad geological entities: i) a basin to the north which has geological affinity to the CAS, ii) the Hindukush mountain range where the basement rocks also outcrop and iii) the basin in south which has a geological affinity to Pakistan. Unfortunately, both of the areas in Afghanistan and Iran, adjacent to Pakistan have so far not proved to be hydrocarbon bearing.
Irrespective of the above geological explanation, the physical laws would also not allow the flow of any underground ‘river’ of oil.
NUSRAT K. SIDDIQUI
Karachi
THIS refers to a meeting of government officials and people of different walks of life on pollution, held under the presidentship of the Governor on Jan 14.
It is surprising that the only subjects discussed were black plastic bags and sea pollution. In fact, Karachi faces air, water, land and noise pollution. Air pollution includes garbage burning on the city’s main roads and plying of smoke-emitting vehicles also contribute to noise pollution.
Out of Karachi’s approximately 1.3 million vehicles, half of them (smoke-emitting rickshaws, buses, trucks, tankers, taxis, etc) are responsible for noise as well as air pollution. Noise pollution can cause ulcer, hypertension, even heart attack, while air pollution may render a permanent injury to the respiratory system, besides hurting the lung tissues. It may also damage plant life and buildings.
In the case of water pollution, there are also other things to consider, apart from chemical waste draining into the sea. For one thing, the Karachiites are fortunate. The source of their drinking water is far away from the city, but in some areas the water table is so high, that most of the leaking water pipelines (now over 40 years old), which had 30 years shelf life, are submerged in polluted ground water and other liquid effluents.
In the case of land pollution which is mostly generated by the kutchi abadis, the main role is played by open sewers and cesspits. If the things are not changed in the near future, then within a decade Karachi’s present 40% slums and more illegal encroachments may turn the metropolis of projected 20 million into the world’s largest ghetto.
I would suggest that expert opinion on air and noise pollution and more on land and water pollution, including that of the Karachi University professors and thinktanks on the subject of pollution, should also be invited by the Governor for briefings in the subsequent meeting, due next month.
KUNWAR KHALID YUNUS
Karachi
I have been reading with great interest about Master Madan in Dawn having grown up listening to his two famous Ghazals and knowing them by heart. We admired him as a child prodigy. Our admiration was tinged with sadness, as he had died so young. My father, Sajjad Sarwar Niazi, who was stationed at Delhi in All India Radio in the pre-partition days, happened, as far as I recall, to have recorded these two “ghazals”.
As for the Na’at Aya hai bullawa mujhay Darbar-e-Nabi sai, the words and the composition were my father’s and he had it sung by Shamshad Begum. She also sang his Ek bar phir kaho zara and a few other songs now lost to posterity.
I requested Khwaja Najm-ul-Hassan of the PTV World to revive this Na’at for the present generation and he earned my undying gratitude for eventually tracing out a cassette in Rawalpindi which had Shamshad’s original Na’at. Ms Nayyara Noor did justice to the Na’at and Mr Arshad Mahmood arranged it most commendably.
The articles published in Dawn on Suraiya made delightful reading. I request you to publish one on Shamshad Begum as well during her lifetime. We owe it to her to let the people know that she originally sang this famous Na’at which has become a matter of controversy.
MS NIAZI
Islamabad
I have a PLS account with the Habib Bank Ltd in which the profit for the six months ended on December 31, 2001, has not been credited despite a lapse of two weeks. It was a practice of banks to credit the profit immediately at the end of the six months, even when all such work was done manually.
Now when computers are being used, it is really shocking to see so much delay, which only shows a negligent attitude on the part of the bank staff.
Can the bank’s management explain the reasons for not crediting the profit on the last day of December in the first place and secondly, not doing so even after the lapse of two weeks.
MEHRUN NISA
Karachi
BANNING jihadi groups is one thing. The second thing and the most crucial one is confiscating their weapons. The deweaponization was by and large a complete flop and the killings after this most trumpeted drive bear testimony to the fact that it was a total failure.
All the madaris must be rid of Taliban sympathizers. Even the so-called Afghan refugees must now be told emphatically that they have overstayed their welcome and must now return to Afghanistan to help rebuild it.
Our own political parties of all shades and colours must be made to surrender the weapons they have, forthwith. Pakistan should and must come first and the writ of the state must be established. Without any concrete and hard hitting follow up action as a sequel to General Musharraf’s speech, it would become another zero sum game.
SALIM D. DADABHOY
Karachi
I distinctly remember that during Nawaz Sharif’s period, having deposited the road tax, I was told to collect the sticker after one month. A number of visits were made to the place but to no avail.
Even under the new dispensation there is no change. I deposited the road tax at ETO Wing Karachi, Malir City branch, on Jan 14 and have been told to collect the sticker after three months.
I request the provincial government to take appropriate action against those incompetent officials who cannot even carry out such a simple job efficiently, as it brings a bad name to the government.
It would not be out of place to ask the government to give serious thought to the recommendation made by the Sindh government some time back to collect the road tax at petrol pumps.
BRIG (Retd) ZAHIR SUHRWARDY
Karachi
THE silent majority of Pakistan was made hostage by the Jihadi and some other groups. Many of their leaders were against the Pakistan Movement but after the emergence of this country, they started to exploit the common people in the name of religion.
Thank God, the people are no more “captives and hostages” of the extremist groups. We hope the President will vigorously implement what he has announced. We will thus emerge as a moderate and progressive nation in the world.
MRS TANVIR KHALID
Karachi
A new beginning of diplomatic relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan has begun (Jan 15).
Pakistan can play an important role in the reconstruction of Afghanistan and, at the same time, can facilitate the Afghan business community to normalize the local as well as international trade.
There is a need to explore trade between the two countries, and therefore, a high powered business delegation should visit Afghanistan to meet the Afghan businessmen and to determine their needs and requirements.
SYED A. MATEEN
Karachi
THE Nazim, City Government, Karachi, had on Dec 12 stopped issuing appointment letters to the teachers who had qualified for the posts through the Sindh Public Service Commission.
It is a pity that the appointment letters of teachers in all other cities/towns of Sindh were issued long ago but the same are still pending in Karachi. The Nazim is, therefore, requested to kindly expedite the matter.
HUMA FAROOQ
Karachi
THE pretzel story has been dubbed ‘hard to swallow’ by the international media - “Normally presidents just choke on their own words, but not George Bush, it had to take a lowly pretzel to bring the mightiest man in the world not only to his knees but flat out on his face”.
The concern in the media is whether Bush junior can watch TV and chew pretzels at the same time. The combination of focusing on a football game and negotiating a knotted pretzel can prove a bit difficult.
The French are pointing to the Americans’ complicated relationship with food. Though not to everyone’s taste, a pretzel is not considered a health hazard. Also relevant is the 50-gram rule — one should not try to talk (or cheer) with more than 1.75 ounces of food in one’s mouth, in other words, do not bite off more than you can chew.
The leader of the international war on terrorism has proved, by watching football and eating pretzels, to be completely in tune with the tastes and instincts of the people he leads. However, the pretzel mishap has led to speculation about the impact of an ailing president on the world.
Note of warning: Attila the Hun survived bloody battles only to succumb to a nosebleed on his wedding night.
KHURSHID ANWER
Lahore
I may assure Barrister Shahida Jamil (letter, December 16) that my ‘random readings’ on her late grandfather did garner the fact that Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy was the mover of the 1946 Resolution which modified the 1940 Pakistan ‘states’ resolution by envisaging a single sovereign state.
I am indebted to Dr Aftab Ahmad (Jan 1) for providing an interesting background to the passage of the 1946 resolution. In retrospect, the intervention of Abul Hashim, a forgotten figure of the Pakistan movement in Bengal, must be recognized for his perspicacity in raising a question which anticipated the dark clouds to come.
However, I was not writing a historical memoir but a personal memoir of impressions recollected after 40 years. Ms Jamil provides compelling evidence from Suhrawardy’s “unfinished memories” that he was dead set against a confederation so we might as well accept her word for that. But remember the word “confederation” was and is a dirty word in the Pakistan political lexicon. A confederalist is supposed to be just this side of a separatist: a treasonable person. The Swiss who have been a political confederation for over 400 years might see no reason in such treason!
Surely, as an astute politician, Suhrawardy would not wish to be associated with concepts which had pejorative connotations. His loyalties were anyway suspect in the Ayub Khan era. He had to read carefully. But what was his answer to the wholesale usurpation of powers by the federation? With the constitution of 1956 scrapped, elections of 1959 indefinitely postponed, representative institutions in limbo, and the focus of foreign policy shifting to a matter of primary concern to the Punjab only i.e. Kashmir, East Pakistan ruled by straps and left undefended, was it realistic to expect “any fair sharing of power?” Suhrawardy’s political base was in East Pakistan and it is a bit infantile to think that he was not thinking in terms of a new political paradigm. I think he was.
Ms Jamil ardently states that Suhrawardy was not a Bengali nationalist and “in fact he was a strong Pakistani nationalist before and after Partition”. This plea is echoed by Minister Mahmud Ali (Jan 2).
A person may have more than one loyalty at the same time. The Bengal Muslim League as well as the Quaid did not see a conflict of loyalties in April 1947 between an independent United Bengal and Pakistan. Mr Hamza Alavi provides the background to the independent Bengal move in his letter of January 5. Indeed, in retrospect, we can see an independent United Bengal as a third State in the subcontinent would have been a balancing factor between Hindustan and Pakistan. “What did Mr Jinnah think when asked the Viceroy about keeping Bengal united? Mr Jinnah replied, ‘I should be delighted. What is the use of Bengal without Calcutta? They had much better remain united and independent. I am sure they would be on friendly terms with Pakistan’” (H.V. Hodson — Great Divide P-246)
Would it behove one of Bengal’s most famous sons, and one of her greatest Chief Ministers not to be a Bengali nationalist?
Finally, let us hear Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy in his own words which are as valid today as on 6th March, 1948, when he first addressed the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan:-
“.... Sir, a person has not only loyalty, he has several loyalties to several causes which are not antagonistic to each other, and I feel, Sir, that the greatest loyalty which a person can possess, is a loyalty to humanity which transcends all parochial loyalties .... if this State is not founded on the cooperative goodwill of all the nationals, a time will come when this State will destroy itself.
“I am reminded of one of the statements made by Mahatma Gandhi that if the Indian Union eliminates Muslims from within its fold and forms a Hindu State, Hinduism will be destroyed in the Indian Union, and if Pakistan eliminates non-Muslims from within its fold and forms a Muslim State, Islam will be destroyed in Pakistan....”
M. P. BHANDARA
Rawalpindi
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