| February 26, 2002 | Tuesday | Zilhaj 13, 1422 |
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A pen cannot die
Ban on private practice
Reserved seats for women
Lessons from Egyptian tragedy
Conservation of natural gas
Bias in Western media
Beloved
BBC
Iqbal on Haj
Role of libraries
Zoo ban
School management committees
IN order to impart information technology to college students in Sindh, it was decided by the local college directorate to introduce IT as a new compulsory subject from the academic year 2001-2002. To finance the scheme an amount of Rs 1,000 was paid by every student as computer fee, irrespective of the faculty, along with admission fee at the beginning of the academic year.
But due to lack of planning and proper home work, the IT introduction scheme could not be implemented and money paid by the students i.e. Rs 1,000 appears to have been spent (rather lost) only on purchase of computers and other accessories which would not be workable any more in forthcoming years. The most important factor appears to be lack of IT resource persons and environment required for work stations.
The training process was started for college teachers but as nobody can become an expert overnight, especially without sufficient practice, expected results were not achieved. Furthermore they were not given any chance to demonstrate their skills and outsiders were deputed to take IT classes.
What is happening in the colleges is that persons are being appointed at predetermined rates, i.e. Rs 150 or so per lecture (to be paid by the colleges concerned from their own funds and the provincial government or the directorate is not responsible whereas the resource persons are being appointed by the directorate). These privileged people come to the colleges in their leisure time, gather the students at one place, and deliver lectures without any practical work.
Due to non-availability of computers, at most of the colleges, students do not show real interest in the subject. Since most of the colleges are without computers it would continue to be an unfulfilled dream to impart IT to the young generation. It is also not understood as to why the services of lecturers who were given computer training are not being utilised by the local directorate.
Realizing the fact that the college students will not be fully prepared for the examination, the local college management has decided that no computer exams would be held this year 2001-2002 when millions of rupees have already been spent on this so-called project (so-called in the sense that without doing home work they took millions of rupees from the students in the name of computer fee).
Now everybody is minting money through coaching centres, including IT centres, but the government is a silent spectator. Many teachers are not interested in teaching at schools / colleges, instead they ask the students to come at the coaching centre. The government has not yet introduced any system to improve the educational standard of state-run schools, especially up to the secondary level. Only lip service cannot work unless the proper home work is done.
KH. TAJAMMUL HUSSAIN
Karachi
DANIEL Pearl is dead.
Ruthlessly and gruesomely murdered in cold blood in captivity, his final epitaph on videotape was received by those who till yesterday, boasted of having solved the case and assured everyone of his recovery in a matter of hours.
Whoever the authors and whatever may be the circumstances of this most irresponsible and macabre act of inhumanity, Pearl’s executors can never be at peace with their body and soul. Time and again, this fact has been proven right. Dostoevsky’s “Crime and Punishment” is a most revealing drama of torment and pain for a crime committed. But if Daniel Pearl is dead today, can his executors escape the wrath of Nature tomorrow? Or, can the shame, torment, and agony of having committed this heinous and barbaric act spare them from perpetual mental unrest? Certainly not!
A journalist may be dead, but journalism lives forever. Pearl’s work and words will always be quoted, written and re-written — this all known too well.
Pearl’s courage will always sparkle like a pearl. In the past five decades, investigative journalism has influenced and awakened public opinion to a great extent, all over the word. Committed journalists like him have unearthed falsification of facts and scams, which have helped dump iron clad characters and myths in the dustbin of history.
The late journalist’s yet to be born child will not be able to see his / her daddy. The child will have to be contented with daddy’s photographs in the family album. But it will be Daniel Pearl’s work and writings, which will make his posterity, feel proud. This what human life is all about - working for the good of all life on earth, the guest for truth and the struggle against evil, the quest for truth and the struggle against evil. It reminds one of a speech of the former US President Richard M. Nixon, in which he said: “Let us begin by committing ourselves to truth - to see it like it is and to tell it like it is to find the truth, to speak the truth, and live with the truth.”
Daniel Pearl’s blood, therefore, has left a perpetual dark stain on the Land of the Pure, as well as body politic of Pakistan in its rich tradition.
KHALID DURRANI
Karachi
I AM constrained to write these lines after watching a debate on PTV (Feb 11) about the latest ordinance banning attended by doctors, duly participated in by the Punjab health minister. Prof Dr Mehmood Ahmed with his team and Dr Yasmin Rashid representing the Pakistan Medical Association.
The debate soon turned into a monologue as the good health minister hardly allowed any contrary view to be presented before the viewers.
It is our national pasttime to indulge in new experiments instead of improving upon the existing system. We have thus wasted 55 years, moving in circles without finding a solution to our many problems. The ordinance promulgated ostensibly at the behest of the health minister (as proudly claimed by him in the discussion) will have far-reaching consequences for the health service in the province. The government has come out with a plan to compete with the private hospitals, by attracting rich patients to pay more with the aim of providing better service to the poor.
While outlining his plan, the minister lamented the poor condition of government hospitals and attributed it to the doctors, who were negligent not only towards their patients but were also careless about the upkeep of hospital wards and equipment. This is so because they are absent from their place of duty during working hours and are attending their patients in private hospitals.
The minister failed to mention as to why no disciplinary action was ever taken against such delinquent doctors who, according to minister’s own admission, constitute 10 to 15 per cent of all senior doctors. Hence the black sheep of this noble profession. Why not go after them with a big stick, instead of strangling all doctors and hoping for questionable gains?
If in spite of that if the Health Department wants to run government hospitals on commercial lines (by attracting rich patients with better treatment) in competition with private hospitals, it can please itself. The results will be no different.
The rich will not be attracted to government hospitals unless they undergo a major transformation. I say it again that they are welfare institutions for which enough money should come from the government. With all their handicaps they are not doing too badly as Dr Yasmin Rashid told us on TV.
The Ganga Ram Hospital alone saw more than 400,000 outdoor patients in one year, besides performing thousands of operations free of cost. Things will look much better if the hospital administrations prove themselves up to the task.
DR ANWAR MASOOD
Lahore
This is in reference to the recent debate by some vested interest groups advocating 33-50 per cent reserved seats for women in the National Assembly. The question is why should there be reserved seats for women in the first place? What good they will do while sitting in the National Assembly?
These women won’t be representing anyone except their respective political party who will elect them - and not the women of this country! Rather the country will have to spend millions of rupees for their perks and to support their newly acquired “VVIP” status.
On top of everything, how many developed / democratic countries have reserved seats? None, as far as I know, because the members of the lower house of Parliament consists of people directly elected by the voters of the country.
We cannot progress just by reserving NA seats for special interest groups. Rather, we need people who can sincerely do their job i.e. law-making and wont indulge themselves into looting our national wealth as in the past.
JUNAID ALAM
Karachi
REFERENCE a news item in Dawn (Feb 21) in which it has been mentioned that 373 Egyptians died in a train fire in Al-Ayatt near Cairo and that it was the deadliest disaster in more than 150 years of Egyptian rail history.
Initial investigations indicated that the fire had started when a passenger tried to light a small gas stove in the running train. Egyptians usually use portable stoves to brew their own tea and coffee on train journeys.
The tragic part of the whole scenario was that though many jumped from the windows and doors of the train to escape the flames and smoke, others were trapped behind the window-grills as the train rolled on for several kilometres before coming to a final halt.
In our country, the use of grills in the trains and public buses is not unusual. The accident can serve as an eye-opener for our authorities. Instead of waiting for some accident to happen, we must take appropriate preventive measures to preclude the possibility of any such eventuality in our country.
In this regard, the following suggestions are made:
a. All types of grills may be removed immediately from all the trains and public buses, wagons, etc.
b. Any type of cooking (if at all it is resorted to) may be strictly forbidden in the trains.
The authorities concerned may decide to take necessary action in this respect.
Air Cdre (R) AZFAR A. KHAN
Rawalpindi
I agree with S. Mohsin Ali’s views expressed in his letter “Conservation of natural gas”, (Feb 21).
The energy policy needs to be revised in such a manner that emphasis must be given to renewable energy resources which Pakistan has in abundance.
Wind turbines (windmill farms) is one alternative. The capital outlay required for the 565 km pipeline is Rs 15.273 billion. In this amount, a wind farm can be put up to generate 150MW of power. Except for the minimal maintenance cost, fuel cost is zero for 20 years.
Swedish technology for the manufacture of wind turbines in Pakistan is already available.
Other alternatives are the microhydel power plants most suitable for northern areas.
COMMANDER (R) MUNIR A. VARRAICH
Sweden
THE Western print and electronic media has never been fair and even-handed in its treatment of the Muslim world and, more particularly, of the Muslim causes of international concern. These attitudes, entrenched in deep-seated prejudice and bias are, no doubt, a psychological hangover from the by-gone days of the Crusades.
A recent example of this kind of biased reporting is to be found in a British magazine’s special report on India, Pakistan and Kashmir (Jan 19-25), where historical facts have either been distorted, or glossed over in order to project India and its policies in a favourable light.
To set the record straight I sent, on January 23, a hard-hitting letter to the magazine by e-mail.
No prizes for guessing correctly whether the letter was published or not!
SALAHUDDIN K. LEGHARI
Lahore
REFERENCE Tahir Mirza’s Washington Notebook (Feb 21). “Shahid” means “witness” in both Arabic and Persian, as well as in Urdu. “Beloved” is its derivative meaning. The beloved is, or always appears, beautiful, and every beautiful person bears witness to the Divine Beauty. Hence the use of “witness” for beloved.
M. ABUL FAZL
Islamabad
I would like to refer to Mr H.N. Akhtar’s letter (Feb 20). Why does Mr Akhtar want to change the name of BBC? This is the correct name given by New Delhi, BBC stands for Bharat Broadcasting Corporation.
CAPT KAMAL ABBASI
Karachi
FOR several years now, it has been customary for Pakistanis travelling abroad for some other purpose to make a detour to perform Umra.
They might like to know what Iqbal, who is more talked about than read, felt about what they do. His nephew, the late Ijaz Ahmed, in his biography of the poet ‘Mazloom Iqbal’, published in 1985, narrates a conversation between Iqbal and his brother Ata Muhammad, who had asked him why he had not taken advantage of being in Palestine in 1931 for a Moatmir Alam-e-Islami conference to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Prophet’s tomb (may peace be upon him).
Iqbal replied that to begin with, he considered himself unworthy of that privilege, but since he had gone abroad (for the Roundtable Conference in London) at the expense of the British government, he felt that it would not be right to undertake the pilgrimage.
“I felt that if I am to present myself at the last resting place of that exalted being, I should only do so at my own expense and only when I have left home with no purpose other than the pilgrimage. I did not feel that it would be right to take advantage of my journey elsewhere to fulfil a purely religious wish. Were God to enable me one day, I have long intended to perform Haj and present myself at the tomb of the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him)”.
It is, therefore, clear that anyone who “throws in” an Umra with a foreign visit undertaken for an entirely different purpose violates the spirit of true devotion.
KHALID HASAN
Washington DC,
US
LIBRARIES play an important role in the spread of knowledge, particularly among the students.
It is appreciable that in Sindh, the provincial education department has managed to have libraries attached to many middle, high, higher secondary schools and colleges and a sizable amount is spent on the purchase of books every year.
However, librarians working in these libraries do not, at present, have a proper system for promotion. The deserving among them should be granted a suitable grade at the Taluka and the district levels.
A. HAQUE SOOMRO
Sanghar
IN the Metropolitan section, I read a little article (Feb 20) about women being banned from the zoo during Eid. I was surprised to learn that this has been the practice for the past one decade.
The reason given for this ban was ‘unmanageable crowds’. I think we are all well aware that these ‘crowds’ consist solely of men. Doesn’t it make sense then to ban the men?
MARYLOU ANDREW
Karachi
THE present government has shown a high level of commitment to the improvement of educational standards in the country. It was to this effect that in January 2000, an education advisory board was constituted at the national level to look at various sub-sectors of education. The mandate of the board was to develop an action plan for implementing the 1998-2010 education policy.
In 1994, the Education Department, Government of Sindh, established a system of PTA (Parent Teacher Association). The purpose was to involve parents and teachers for the welfare and uplift of schools. Under this programme, the Bureau of Curriculum and Extension Wing, Sindh (BCEW) imparted training to about 50,854 PTA members (consisting of selected community members and school staff; headmasters, senior school teachers).
The aims & objectives of the training were:
To help in maintaining discipline and peaceful / pleasant academic atmosphere;
To help in solving the problems faced by students / teachers / community;
To improve curricular and extra-curricular performance of schools;
To enhance parent’s awareness of their responsibilities/ personal interest towards their sons / daughters / wards;
To enhance and improve the physical and educational aids facilities in the institutions;
To oversee the utilization of funds (local and government, both);
To generate funds for curricular and co-curricular activities and upkeep of institutions;
To coordinate with governmental and non-governmental agencies for all matters concerning with institution development.
The Government of Sindh notified on August 13, 2001 the formation of School Management Committees (SMCs) in place of PTAs. The purpose is to give participatory look to the functioning of educational institutions where communities as the primary stakeholders play an active role in management. Social development is an important component of overall development paradigm. Its objectives cannot be achieved by the government or society alone. Social service delivery in education depends on active partnership between the government and the civil society.
The aim of SMCs is to ensure participation of community in managing schools and to monitor the sustainability of the inputs. According to the 1998 census, our adult literacy rate is 45 per cent.
The increase in literacy rate is part of an overall project of modernization. It is also directly related to humanitarianism which include aspirations about peace, women rights, human rights, equality, child labour, freedom and liberty. This body will improve the teaching process by ensuring the presence of teachers and taught in the schools, increase in the enrolment, decrease in dropouts and an improvement of physical facilities. It is to be noted down that about 50 per cent children, enrolled in primary schools, drop out before completing grade five due to various reasons.
The Bureau of Curriculum and Extension Wing Sindh, Jamshoro is providing training to all stakeholders i.e. teachers, parents and community members about their role in the SMCs. The Education Department, Government of Sindh is spending millions of public money on this training programme. The main objective of the SMCs training is the orientation of supervisory and key staff of the elementary schools with the formation of SMCs in schools and improvement of elementary school system through the participation of SMCs. Now it is up to the participants to carry out the message and implement it in letter and in spirit.
DR MEHBOOB ALI SHAIKH
Provincial Coordinator, BCEW
Jamshoro
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