| February 5, 2002 | Tuesday | Ziqa’ad 21, 1422 |
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An explanation is due
Excesses in prisons
American journalist’s kidnapping
Injustice to pensioners
Delhi’s policy: an Indian view
School funds
Sindhi books on environment
Washington and Riyadh relations
Wastage of drinking water
Smoke-emitting vehicles
Denial
Carjacking on the increase
Hospital’s negligence
A STUDY conducted by the Asian Development Bank last year made interesting revelations on the worsening situation of poverty in the country.
It revealed that in Ayub Khan’s development decade, the high growth of the economy in the 1960s was associated with decline in poverty in only urban areas. In rural areas, in fact, the poverty situation worsened. In the 1970s, the poverty situation improved all around. In the 1980s, the poverty level was maintained. However in the 1990s, the poverty levels started increasing persistently.
It may be interesting to note that whereas in the year 1988, the incidence of poverty stood at 18% of the population, it is now understood to have reached the level of almost 50%. The number of people living in poverty has risen by a much larger multiple than before, since 1988. Pakistan’s population was slightly less than 100 million in 1988 and therefore the number of poor people at that time was only 18 million.
If the number of people now living below the poverty line has already reached or is reaching the figure of 75 million, the situation can only be considered very serious.
Three thousand cases of death by suicide have been reported during the year 2001 on account of poverty. Driven by despair, poverty can also act as a breeding ground for violence, terror and other anti-social activities. It is also largely responsible for early deaths particularly of children and young mothers, malnutrition and for increase in the incidence of disability.
Rather than blame one or the other for this dismal state of affairs, we have to pull ourselves together and get out of this situation before it goes out of control. With increases in costs of transportation, housing, food items and medicine and fewer opportunities of employment, poverty is assuming daunting dimensions and is posing a big challenge, which may need to be tackled on war footing.
Big challenges need extraordinary measures. It is suggested however that before embarking on new measures, the nation should be called upon to effect a change in its attitudes and imbibe the spirit of service. We have to realize that those who have achieved economic progress, did so by dint of sheer hard work and by making payment of taxes, abiding by the law and by adopting schemes for looking after the needy, the disabled, the elderly and the unemployed.
We have inherited “cooperative movement” from the British. Over the years its working has deteriorated. If it can be revamped completely, it can prove to be very helpful for the small entrepreneurs and small farmers.
Small industries corporations have also been established in all the provinces for the promotion of small and cottage industries. These organizations may also have to be reinvigorated. Given the motivation, these can help in setting up training centres and preparing portfolios of investment schemes. The doors of other commercial banks should also be opened for small enterprises.
It should not be difficult to develop homegrown measures for overcoming the big challenge of poverty.
MOHAMMED ANWAR KHAN
Karachi
IT was very disturbing to read a news item in Dawn (Jan 14) regarding the unauthorized flights of US helicopters over the Uch gas fields near Dera Murad Jamali. As if this were not enough, the report also mentioned the discovery of two dead eagles with bugging devices apparently belonging to the same US forces.
The matter was rightly reported to the Ministry of Petroleum by the OGDC staff but surprisingly, the Ministry of Interior is silent over the issue. I want to ask our self-respecting leaders whether any explanation was sought from the American authorities about this incident and what was their reply.
Is it fair to bug a state by the US authorities when the very same state has so loyally lined itself behind them in the so-called war against terror? But then at least I understand that now that our utility is over, the US does not need our help any more and there is no word like sincerity in international diplomacy.
I just wanted to tell fellow-readers that when one gives in to pressures, the pressure goes on increasing.
OMAR MALIK
Lahore
“A JAIL is a state within a state where the jailer is the ruler. “These are the words of the Human Rights Network, Sindh. Criminals are put behind bars to reform them but police and jail authorities play a heinous role to turn minor offenders into jailbirds. The suppressed atmosphere in prisons renders an accused a criminal which he/she is not by nature.
Jail abuses are diverse, deep rooted and chronic in Pakistan. Prison guards become touts of influential criminals and promote crime in jails. Prisoners are commonly vulnerable to the violence and corruption-ridden culture of our jails.
If someone commits a crime, he is sent to jail but where can one be punished for the crimes committed within the prison?
From all this one thing is clear. The prisoners mainly complain of maltreatment by the jail authorities and the most urgently needed change doesn’t depend on funds but on attitude.
Good behaviour does not cost a penny. The process of reformation can be started with love, sympathy and clemency with due respect and dignity to the human beings. It may lessen the prisoners’ suffering to some extent.
TASSADUQ SHIAR
Darya Khan, Bhakkar
MAJOR General Rashid Qureshi, the spokesman for President Pervez Musharraf, speaking on PTV, confirmed my apprehension that the abduction of Wall Street Journal’s correspondent, Daniel Pearl, in Karachi is the latest feat of the Indian intelligence agency, RAW.
The journalist has been kidnapped primarily to lead the US-led alliance to believe that Musharraf has failed to nab the terrorist organizations within the country.
According to a report, the abductors have demanded freedom of the Pakistanis imprisoned in Cuba, release of the former Afghan ambassador to Pakistan, Abdul Salam Zaeef, together with F-16 fighter jets purchased by Pakistan in the 1980s.
An earlier effort to malign Pakistan failed miserably when Christina Lamb, a British journalist, was discovered trying to get a PIA ticket from Quetta to Islamabad in the name of Osama bin Laden.
Had Christina Lamb succeeded, Pakistan would have been disgraced in the eyes of the world for having helped Osama in fleeing from Afghanistan.
LT COL SYED AHMED (RETD)
Karachi
GOVERNMENT pensioners who got their pensions commuted before the promulgation of the revised pension rules, 2001, were given an understanding that their surrendered amount of pension (40-50 per cent) would be restored after they had fully paid back that amount by monthly deductions from their pensions.
But now all of a sudden, this restoration has been withdrawn under the revised rules meaning thereby that they have permanently lost half of their pensions. What other injustice could there be at the hands of the government which has shocked its pensioners who spent a lifetime in its service?
The revised pension rules should be applied, as announced, to the pensioners who retired on or after January 1, 2002.
AGHA MUHAMMAD ALI
Lahore
THIS refers to Khalid Mahmud Arif’s article “India’s blinkered vision” (Jan 31).
India did not separate Bangladesh from Pakistan. Pakistan accomplished this on its own.
The democratic election conducted in East and West Pakistan gave a majority to Mujibur Rahman but the politicians in West Pakistan could not live with it.
If India had territorial design and empire-building inclinations, why did India withdraw from Bangladesh within three months of its establishment? Till this day, India has not interfered in the affairs of Bangladesh. India has disputes with Bangladesh, but it is being discussed in a bilateral manner.
By the way, I am not least bit affected personally by the Muslim rule of India. I was born and raised in the South Indian state of Kerala. My state has the oldest Muslim population of India and they were not converted by force. The Muslims in my state embraced Islam through people-to-people contacts with Arab traders. They converted to Islam on their own free will.
Kerala has a very high literacy rate in the world. Education and awareness is the primary reason for not having communal violence. Kerala has the largest Christian population in all of India.
We don’t fight against each other either. Today, the Chief Minister of Kerala is a well-respected Christian, Mr A.K Anthony.
He is respected not because of his religious faith but because of his honesty, forthrightness and leadership.
PALL RAMANATHAN
Atlanta, GA, USA
MOST private schools in Karachi arrange Eid Milan parties for students and teachers every year. All the students are asked to bring along eatables, patties, chips, fruits etc., as well as cold drinks from their homes and the same is enjoyed by the teachers and the other staff as well. Moreover, recreation trips are also arranged and the students are forced to contribute a considerable amount for the expenses incurred.
The question I would like to put to the school administrators is, where are the school’s own funds and where are these utilized? If they cannot afford a small annual party out of their own huge funds, why is it necessary to hold it by overburdening the parents of the students?
SYED ABRAR HUSSAINI
Karachi
DURING a workshop on ‘Environmental orientation and education’ on Jan 30, at the Institute of Sindhology, Jamshoro, the IUCN Pakistan and the British Council launched an environmental education book in Sindhi. It was claimed that the book, ‘Acho t’a mahol khan sikhoon’, (Let us learn from environment), a Sindhi version of the book in Urdu ‘Aao to mahol say seekhayn’ and ‘Joy of learning’ in English, is the first one of its kind in Sindhi.
This claim was made in the presence of the Minister of Environment and Agriculture and the Secretary, Department of Environment, Sindh, whereas the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency had published an environmental education guidebook titled ‘Asan jo mahol’ (Our environment) in Sindhi long back in 1997. That was a Sindhi version of an English publication of the Worldwide Wildlife Fund.
There is another book on the subject in Sindhi, ‘Maholiyati gadlaan’ (Environmental pollution), written by Engr. Abdul Malik Memon in 1995. To my knowledge, that was the first book on the environment in Sindhi.
MUKESH MATHRANI
Jamshoro
IN his article, ‘Washington-Riyadh chill intensifies’ (Jan 26), Jim Lobe quoted Charles W. Freeman, a former US ambassador to Saudi Arabia, thus: “For the first time since 1973, we actually have a situation in which the United States is so unpopular among the (Saudi) public that the royal family now thinks its security is best served by publicly distancing itself from the United States”.
Why have the Saudi public become more allergic towards the United States since September 11, 2001? This is because the American media has been shortsightedly equating the Arab and other Muslims, including the Saudis, with Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaeda and thereby provoking at least some Americans to misbehave with them.
And why has the American media been behaving as they have been since the attacks on the twin towers of New York and Pentagon? It is because the President and his administration have failed to inform the American people that they should not equate the Muslims, particularly the Saudis, with Al Qaeda.
They should have done this because America owes an incalculable debt of gratitude to the Muslims in general and the Saudis in particular, whose oil has been helping the enormous industrial growth of their land.
JALAL AHMED
Karachi
FOR the last few days, drinking water is freely flowing all over the area in 15-A/5, Buffer Zone, with the result that all manholes on the roads, water tanks inside the residential areas and courtyards are full of water, causing great hardship to the residents of the area.
It is astonishing that precious drinking water is being allowed to go waste when other areas in Karachi are not being supplied any water for days.
Will the authorities concerned kindly look into this.
ATAUR REHMAN
Karachi
A COMMON scene witnessed on Lahore roads is the smoke vehicles including cars, motorcycles and auto-rickshaws speeding fast and polluting the air with thick poisonous emissions.
This is due to the old vehicles needing ring and piston replacements or motorcycles and rickshaws using mobiloil in petrol.
The sad thing is that the traffic policemen standing in twos or threes at crossroads act as silent spectators and take no notice of the smoking vehicles. It is seen that the police act only during certain anti-pollution weeks to haul up the offending vehicles but remain complacent for the rest of the year.
There ought to be some regulation to inspect even private vehicles for declaring them roadworthy and to impound those as are a potential threat to human health.
Policemen themselves are at great risk. They stand at crossroads and inhale toxic fumes all day long.
The traffic police authorities must impress upon the staff to be vigilant and challan the offending vehicles.
DR M. YAQOOB BHATTI
Lahore
PLEASE refer to the news item by Mr Tahir Siddiqui, on the front page of Dawn Metropolitan (Jan 23) regarding the ex-chief of BEL having previously served with Citibank. This is incorrect.
We would like to inform you that this gentleman was never in the employment of Citibank.
RUKHSANA ASGHAR
Director, Human Resources
Citibank, Karachi
CARJACKING and car hold-ups have become an everyday affair and the promise of the present government to maintain law and order is proving to be just empty words.
Although the police have set up a number of check posts, these are still too few to be effective. The police should be well equipped so that whenever there is a need, they may be able to chase and apprehend the dacoits.
The police must try to win the confidence of the citizens, many of whom presently believe them to be a part of the problem.
UZMA AMBREEN CH.
Lahore
I AM painfully drawing attention to the pathetic state of affairs that my family had to experience recently at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) in Islamabad. In the third week of October, 2001, my husband, late Khalid Latif, was diagnosed to have a brain tumour that required to be operated upon immediately.
Keeping our affordability as well as the so-called prestige of PIMS under consideration, we approached the head of the Neuro-surgery (Surgical III) ward in PIMS, on Nov 2, 2001, for consultation. After going through the medical record and physical examination of my husband, the neurosurgeon advised him to have an immediate surgery.
But despite his serious condition, my husband was admitted in the PIMS on Dec 24, 2001, and was left at the mercy of House Officers and the nursing staff.
Despite confirmations, the operation dates were repeatedly fixed and cancelled at the last moments. There would be no satisfactory reason given for the cancellation except that some emergency was to be tackled first.
Notwithstanding the seriousness of the case, the neurosurgeon seldom checked the patient himself in his irregular rounds of the ward. We found it strange that even such a serious patient was being handled by the junior doctors and nurses.
In such a state of affairs the patient developed a chest infection in the second week of Jan, 2002. This was supposed to be a serious development for a patient with brain tumour but the doctors seemed careless.
When the pulmonologist arrived he advised immediate intensive care to the patient whose condition, by then, had worsened. The tragedy was that even at that stage the neurosurgery doctors could not shift him to the surgical intensive care unit (ICU). He had to be, finally, shifted to the medical ICU on the morning of January 17, 2002. However, by that time the condition of the patient had become too serious. Despite hectic efforts by the doctors at the Medical ICU, my husband could not recover and he departed from this world on Jan 18, 2002.
I beseech the higher authorities of the Government of Pakistan, particularly the Ministry of Health, to carry out an official inquiry into this so that those responsible could be taken to task. This will, at least, save the other serious patients from undue suffering and mitigate our pain and sorrow.
MRS KHALID LATEEF
Village Dhodial, Mansehra district
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