| March 10, 2002 | Sunday | Zilhaj 25, 1422 |
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Police commissionerate scheme
Taxes on private clinics
Indo-Pakistan talks
Postponement of Matric exams
Electricity meter
Example of austerity
Sky-rocketing prices
Many cases of measles
Import of coal
Disillusionment with BJP
Gujrat riots
Indecent ad
FCPS examination
Promoting inter-faith ties
THE letter titled “Windmill farms” (March 5) reflects the fact that while “renewable energy resources” were being tapped after 1974’s oil crisis, the energy policy-makers in Pakistan did not keep themselves abreast of the latest developments.
In April-September 1999, wind turbines (600 kwh) (windmill farms) from Sweden and Denmark were offered to Port Qasim, Lasbella Industrial Estate Development Authority, Sindh Alkalis Ltd, KESC and to Balochistan government for Gwadar and the coastal areas. There was much enthusiasm from the technical staff but hesitancy from the local financial institutions and local banks to invest in new technologies. Technocrats and financiers have to cooperate to make any technological progress.
The energy policy of the government needs to be revised keeping in focus the supreme national interests. The national interests are best served if the annual import of fuel oil for power generation is reduced to a minimum; power plants are small and scattered and are safe in times of war; and natural gas conserved for petrochemical industry.
This is only possible if the abundant “renewable energy resources” are tapped for power generation and technologies are developed within the country. That would require some serious thinking by energy policy-makers who must take into confidence Pakistani scientists and engineers, whether living within the country or abroad.
The Scandinavian countries have much to offer as they have developed the following technologies in the last 20 years:
Wind turbines for power generation ranging from 30kw (stand alone) hybrid system, suitable for far flung rural areas, to 2 mw windmills which can be installed on land and off shore.
Microhydel power plants for mountainous terrain. One 20-foot container houses complete power plant which can be helicopter lifted to any spot in the mountains where required.
SOLAR CELLS.
Energy forest-trees which can grow in waterlogged and saline land. The annual harvest of those trees provide the raw material for making substitute fuel oil (SFO) for thermal power plants.
Pakistan’s terrain is such — high mountains in the north, plains and a long coastline — that all these technologies should be of interest to our energy policy-makers.
The technologies involved are not so complicated as it might seem. Pakistan has the industrial infrastructure to manufacture not only wind turbines (windmills) but also the small hydel plants and the harvesters and machinery to produce furnace fuel oil within the country. The financial layout required to develop these technologies is affordable, both by the government and the private sector. The per unit (kwh) production cost from all these technologies ranges between 80 and 90 paisas (today’s prices). There is no fuel costs (for 20 years). Price increase will take place only for maintenance and administration.
However, we need the will to undertake this very important work in the national interest of Pakistan. Because without cheap power available, Pakistan cannot progress in any sector — industry, agriculture or IT.
COMMANDER (R) MUNIR A. VARRAICH
Sweden
A FEW months ago, the Interior Ministry had a plan to introduce the Police Commissionerate Scheme in the major cities of our country. A similar system has been working well for years in Bangladesh and in India.
But somehow under pressure from the Bureau of National Reconstruction, the District Nazim Scheme supervened and is now in place.
A Bengali friend of mine who retired in the seventies made the comment “schoke ga mahin” (it won’t work) and I entirely agree with him, because in the current context, two contrary principles of administration are working concurrently, i.e., power without responsibility versus power commensurate with responsibility.
The Interior Minister has just said that while the Nazims will have no say in the “functional working of the police department but the police will be responsible to the Nazims to the extent of maintaining law and order.”
Since law and order covers 90 per cent of police responsibility, who has the “power without responsibility”?
The Minister added the coup de grace by saying “— if there was rioting or any other law and order problem judicial magistrates would be there to guide the police.”
This makes a complete hash of the principle of “power commensurate with responsibility.”
Such a lack of confidence in the controlling ability of the higher echelons of the police force is lamentable.
To crown it all we have the absurd spectacle of officers wearing cross swords on their shoulders being called “District Police Officer”.
How much more can you degrade the police service of Pakistan — moribund as it already is?
S. ASIF MAJEED
Karachi
UNDER colonial rule, while the people were deprived of their right of sovereignty, the occupiers cleverly permitted local bodies elections.
This was to use them as fronts to extort oppressive taxes from the lowest tiers of the population. Consequently, the Indo-Pakistani population did remain poor till their departure. Similar methods seem to be in use today also.
For example, the Jatoi (Muzaffargarh) tehsil council has just announced the imposition of about 200 new taxes affecting every individual. Most ironically, private hospitals and clinics have been placed under the head of trades and ordered to pay Rs 5,000 annually.
While it is possible that industries like tanneries cause pollution, how do private clinics harm the people?
MEHMOOD AHMAD
Muzaffargarh
I AM at a loss to understand why Pakistan and India with so much in common are unable to look at their situation from a practical point of view. Real politics of today is to find solutions to the prevailing poverty and ignorance and promote the wellbeing of their huge populations and prepare the strategy for a better future.
Extremists do not represent the majorities in both countries. So, Pakistanis and Indians should set up a think tank to work out a strategy for joint social and economic development. I think Pakistanis have an able man in Gen Musharraf and I think Vajpayee in India is not a bigot and what is needed is the will and initiative from these two to keep the past behind and get together to talk real politics rather than the emotions of the few.
V.G SHENOI
UK
THE Board of Secondary Education, Karachi, recently postponed the Matric examination to March 29.
Reportedly this has been done on account of the “acute shortage of staff to cope with the onerous examination work, as a result of which the admit cards could not be prepared on time.”
According to the grapevine it is also on account of the infighting between the chairman and the controller of examination of BSEK during the past several months, besides rampant corruption at all levels in the Board.
The newspaper on the same day (March 6) also carried an advertising supplement of eight pages on private Universities in Pakistan, which have been granted charters by the government in recent years. The point to be made here is that while private universities are patronised why does the government indulge in witch hunting of private schools?
Furthermore, why is no measure taken to set up a duly recognised private board of examination in competition with the government owned board.
This could result in qualitative improvement in syllabus, examination system and an overall improvement in the standard of school education.
Surprisingly, teachers and head-teachers who are quite incapable of running state run schools effectively are vested with the responsibility of laying down procedures and scheme of studies and asked to monitor the innocuous system they have designed. Corruption and nepotism in the field of education will mean that our socio-economic-politico system will continue to perpetuate for many generations in the future.
There is, therefore, an urgent need to reform the education system and place it in the hands of persons of proven ability and unflinching integrity. Reforms at school level are far more important than reforms in the political and economic fields, or higher education for that matter.
The government of the day should pay heed to this SOS, or repent for generations to come.
ANWAR ABBAS
Karachi
AFTER declaring my electricity meter defective just because it was too old, Wapda inflicted upon me a bill for January. The estimated amount was nearly 60 per cent higher than that I have been paying for the last four months.
For the justification of this arbitrary, whimsical increase they told me that the formula (one out of the various which they use to fleece the people) to determine a bill against a defective (or defective-declared) meter, was the average of the last 11 months.
But logically, to ascertain an estimated bill, consumption must be divided into two periods — one for summer (March to October) when fans, ACs, etc., are used, and the day is also longer and the second for winter (November to February) when no such appliances are used.
MUHAMMAD ZUBAIR
Lahore
THIS refer to Ayaz Amir’s column, “How many generals can a country afford?” (March 1). In this connection I may refer to Lord Wavell’s “Viceroy’s Journal”. After leaving office in March 1947 when he arrived back home he did not own any house there.
In his diary of 14th October 1947, Wavell writes, “Q’s strenuous flat or house-hunting has not been very successful and we are still homeless.” On Dec 7 he writes, “The flat in Kingston is finally taken, but we are neither of us at all enthusiastic about it. We shall be cramped in it and we don’t really like London, but anyway it is some place of our own at last.”
We as a poor debt-ridden country need to learn from such examples of austerity.
FEROZ SHAH GILANI
Karachi
THE common man is facing a very difficult situation. He is so heavily taxed that he is being squeezed to the last ounce of his blood. The utility bills alone are becoming unbearable.
To say that the prices of these utilities are still cheaper compared with the world market makes no sense because the salaries and other emoluments in the western countries are too high to compare with ours.
To add insult to injury comes the statement of the secretary petroleum, that those who cannot pay their bills should not use gas.
This statement reflects a heart which is completely devoid of any sympathy for the poor. Is this the way to alleviate poverty?
How can these high-ups whose salaries alone run into six figures, apart from free electricity, free gas, free telephones and free water supply, realize the suferings of the poor?
If the government pays no heed then the people will talke to the streets.
Empty stomachs are the greatest threat to the stability of any government - be it a civil or military.
This is a word of warning. Let the government pay heed before it is too late.
MUHAMMAD ISHAQUE SOOFI
Rabwah
IN Sialkot, fever, bad throat and flu have assumed epidemic proportions.
Apart from this, there are many cases of measles. This means there is some problem with the vaccines. Monitoring agencies should take up this problem seriously before it is too late.
SANA
Sialkot
IT has been reported in the press that the government has permitted import of coal from foreign countries at a rate three times higher than those prevailing in the country.
Coal is an indigenous product and it is being used in power generation and cement industries. It is economical and happens to be available in abundance in various parts of the country.
Besides the mine workers, many others depend directly or indirectly on the coal trade. Import of coal would not only adversely affect our balance of payments but would also create hardships for the workers. It would, therefore, be better to give up the idea of import of coal and explore the possibilities to harness the untapped reserves of coal in our own country.
ABDUL HAQUE
Hyderabad
THIS is a follow-up on Mahir Ali’s article (March 6) . I would like to mention that though some radical elements like the VHP have become more audible and are contributing to the rise in communal tensions, there are many Hindus in India who are secular and who are totally against any measure that would contribute to the communalization of their society.
After the Gujrat tragedy, something I am deeply ashamed of, there are many of us who are clamouring for a ban on the VHP and its minions.
People in India voted for the BJP, because they thought it would be a change from decades of Congress rule, even though they were wary of the Party’s communal agenda. Currently, there are many who are quite disillusioned with the BJP’s rule, and are particularly unhappy at the rise in communal tension in some regions.
Though it may seem wistful and unrealistic, I also share Mr Ali’s thoughts on what it may have been if the three nations were one, or at least, if they had formed a commonwealth, quite like the European Union.
RAM KRISHNAMURTHY
Princeton, USA
AS a person of Hindu parentage living in the US, I am greatly shocked by the riots in Gujrat. In spite of the train incident, there is no justification for burning innocents. I deeply apologize to every Muslim in India and the world over for this terrible evil perpetuated on them.
If we Hindus and Muslims stand up, challenge and apologize for each evil perpetuated on each other, may be there is hope that God in His infinite mercy, would rescue us from our own stupidity.
SHOBHAN PAUL
Malibu, USA
THIS is with reference to the letter, “Indecent advertisement” (March 6) from Muhammad Salman Shaukat. I agree with him and thank him for taking up such an important issue. This is the right time to discourage such slogans.
ABDUL SUBHAN DAUDPOTA
Windsor, Canada
FCPS Part I examination was recently held under the auspices of the College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan (CPSP). In this examination, there were eight questions which did not fit into the format adopted.
From last year, the CPSP changed the format of the test from “True / False” type to “Choose the correct answer” type. The eight questions under reference were such that all of their possible answers given in the question paper could be correct.
Asking such a question under this format was ridiculous. Moreover, the computer that will check the paper, will accept only one option fed to it, as the correct answer. Therefore, any candidate who has chosen an option other than the one fed into the computer, would get his answer as wrong and would lose marks, although his answer would be correct.
It is appalling that an institution which is considered to be an elite, training institute of postgraduate medical education in Pakistan, should have committed such a mistake.
AFFECTED MEDICAL GRADUATE
Lahore
I AM a Pakistani student in America. I was born and raised in Karachi. Amazingly I never got to know any Hindus in my city. However, I and my classmates at NED University were surprised to find that one of our lab instructors was a Hindu. He was fairly popular with the students and some of us would crowd around him sometimes as he told us some of his anecdotes.
I also came to know that there were a number of Hindu students from the interior of Sindh but I still didn’t try to befriend them.
When I was a tutor in Karachi, I taught a Hindu high school student. So my interactions with Pakistani Hindus were few and far between.
But I know how proud I felt of Anil Dalpat being from Karachi. He was a fine wicketkeeper and I believe he started the trend in Pakistan of high quality wicket keeping coupled with resilient batting in crisis situations. I was also aware of a man called Naveen Parwani, probably a member of the Karachi Club, playing world class snooker. My father also happens to be a member of Karachi Club. Then there is Danish Kaneria. Brilliant leg spinner who can blossom if nurtured.
It is my misfortune that I could never befriend a Pakistani Hindu during all those years I lived in Pakistan. I feel no prejudice against Hindus.
I feel they have a different culture but at the same time they share the same history with us. And there is no reason why Hindus and Muslims can’t live peacefully and harmoniously with no ill-feelings towards each other. Keeping our respective faiths and ideals, yet promoting the love of humankind and good morals.
We can be partners in a bright future of our country. We can support each other in our activities morally, if not financially. One religion does not threaten, in any way, the other religion. Instead of amalgamating all religions and cultures into one “khichri”, as some secularists in India have been attempting fruitlessly for over half a century, we can take pride in our diversity. After all, what’s wrong with being different so long as we respect each other?
AHMED ARSALAN
Birmingham, AL, USA
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