| March 11, 2002 | Monday | Zilhaj 26, 1422 |
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Postponement of Matric exams
Women’s project
Issuance of TFCs
Computer labs in colleges
Commuted pension
Thal canal project
Ban on Indian channels
No priesthood in Islam
Quaid-i-Azam Academy
Vocational training
Provident Fund
Need for more provinces
THIS refers to the editorial “Doctors and the ban” (March 4). It is essential that we look at any “reforms” in the health sector in proper prospective. There is a chequered history of health reforms. Successive governments have tried their hands at health reforms but the exercise has proved to be expensive, counterproductive and disastrous. It has created a credibility gap between the government and the people.
The generic scheme was introduced in 1973 without discussion, proper preparation and planning. It was withdrawn in 1976.
There are more than 100 new facilities only in one province ready to be commissioned without recurrent expenses budget. Now we are told that they are a failure and under new “reforms” are to be sold, privatized or leased or used for other functions. Who takes responsibility for these expensive disasters?
If the government is serious then any reforms have to be seen in the context of improving healthcare of the population especially health cover for forty seven million people who are living below the poverty line in the country, according to a study conducted by the Asian Development Bank. The report says 31 per cent of the population lived on one dollar a day.
The move to ban private practice and introduce institutional private practice in public hospital is not only irrational but is going to do great harm to the poor population who get some relief from these public institutions. It will create a divide in the public institutions between those patients who can pay and those who cannot. Only those who can pay will get the “attention and resources” from these institutions which have been developed with the investment of taxpayers’ money.
The problem of specialists who will find it difficult to meet their needs with the existing pay scale cannot be minimized. The institution is likely to lose the services of senior specialists and teachers as has been the case in Punjab.
We should not condone the conduct of some consultants neglecting their duties in the public sector hospitals. The answer to this is better governance of these institutions with strict enforcement of service rules.
If the government is serious it should enforce the much needed structural reforms in the health sector, namely better governance, expansion of health facilities and efficient utilization of existing funds and generation of alternative sources of funding. Exploring areas of health insurance and tax on items like cigarette and soft drinks need to be considered.
The health minister of Sindh, who has taken a positive stand on the issue, should take a lead in meaningful health reforms in the province.
DR BADAR SIDDIQI
Karachi
I WAS shocked to learn on my arrival at my school that the Matric examination of regular students has been postponed and that now it would be held from March 29 instead of March 6. Have the Chairman of the BSE and the controlling authorities, considered the implication of their decision on the schools who were generous enough to offer their buildings to be used as examination centres?
We had concluded our internal final exams by Feb 21. The school was closed for our students so that the building could be made available for the Board examination. We had planned to begin our new session on April 1. Obviously, with this postponement of the Matric examination, the schools cannot hold their classes from that date.
Consequently, thousands of students of all such schools will be sitting at home for almost two months. What a waste of academic time!
ZIA HALAI
Principal, V.M. Public School
Karachi
THE government has launched a Women’s Political Participation and Gender Sensitive Poverty Reduction Strategy Project in collaboration with the General Equality Umbrella Project of the UN Development Programme and the UN Office of Personnel Service.
The aim is to foster solidarity, cooperation and consensus and among women from different local councils, by addressing each other’s needs and complementing their respective strengths.
The project will last two years and it will involve women councillors from 103 District Councils, 333 Tehsil Councils and 6,022 Union Councils. It will use a novel approach, in which women learn from each other through “mentoring and nurturing”, based on the principle of “women learning from women”.
SHAHNAZ ANDLEEB
Rawalpindi
I AM writing with reference to Mr Tajammal Hussein’s letter published titled “Issuance of TFCs” (March 3). As a lawyer who has been involved in a number of recent TFC issues, I would like to clear up certain misconceptions that Mr Hussein appears to have about TFCs.
First of all, TFCs are not as recent a phenomenon as Mr Hussein thinks. They have been around for some time now, and the power to issue TFCs has been given to companies by section 120 of the Companies Ordinance, 1984 and not by the “liberal” authorities.
Secondly, a large portion of most TFC issues is subscribed to by institutional investors such as banks, DFIs and leasing companies. Only a small portion is offered to the public investors. TFCs are in vogue today as alternative means of financing because they offer numerous benefits to both companies and financial institutions. Primarily, financial institutions find that they can sell down their participation in a TFC issue much easily than in conventional modes of finance. This has led to a booming secondary market for this particular type of instrument.
Thirdly, each TFC issue is fully secured to protect the rights and interests of the investors. A security trustee is appointed, who holds the security on trust for the TFC Holders, and in case of default by the company, the security trustee can take steps to enforce the security.
The only unsecured TFC issue, to my knowledge, was that of Packages Limited. In this particular case, special approval of the Securities and Exchange Commission was required. This approval was given because of the excellent reputation and past performance of the concerned company, and the investors were only too happy to subscribe to this TFC issue, even if it was unsecured.
BARRISTER SHEHZAD A. ELAHI
Lahore
THIS refers to the news item (March 6) regarding the constitution of a four-member committee by the City Nazim to inquire into the establishment of computer science labs in Karachi colleges.
The readers may recall that in response to my letter which had appeared on Feb 26, the District Officer Education (College) immediately responded and defended the setting up of computer labs in colleges (letter, March 1) and claimed that “as far the working of the programme (computer literacy in colleges) is concerned it is implemented very systematically”.
He also said more than 50 colleges have functional computer labs (which have now been placed under investigation). However, his claim that the privately-run institutions and computer centres are not happy that the computer literacy is being provided at a cost of about Rs 85/- per month and on the latest brand of computers does not seem to be the real case.
Notwithstanding the claims made by the DEO (Colleges), the constitution of the enquiry committee by the city administration itself is an evidence that the higher authorities have taken note of the reports published on the irregularities committed in setting up computer labs in colleges and ordered investigation.
KH. TAJAMMUL HUSSAIN
Karachi
THE government has decided to withdraw, with retrospective effect, the benefit of restoration of commuted pension, payable to retired government pensioners at a fixed date, say after about 13 years or so of retirement. It has caused great concern among the pensioners.
This decision is quite unjustified and tantamount to penalising the old pensioners who pledged 50 per cent of their pension at the time of retirement with the hope to get it back after completion of the stipulated period as per rules. Most of the affected pensioners are shortly becoming eligible for restoration of their commuted portion but due to the above harsh measure, they will be deprived of their legitimate benefit.
Besides, for the first time the announced increase has been made admissible on net pension the instead of gross pension, as was done previously whenever pension was revised upward.
Finance Minister, Shaukat Aziz, is requested to kindly review the decision which is highly unfair.
MOINUDDIN QURAISHI
Karachi
THERE cannot be a greater insult to a people than to show a total disregard to their collective intellect and voice. All the segments of the Sindhi society, including the government of Sindh, have voiced their concern about the Thal canal. Yet all protests have gone unheeded.
The Finance Minister says that the decision has been taken in the ‘national interest’.
May I venture to ask: doesn’t the interest of Sindh constitute the so-called national interest?
The Thal canal is meant to irrigate lands in the Cholistan desert but it would render fertile lands in Sindh into arid zones, as predicted by the former Sindh irrigation minister and expert, A.G.N Abbasi. These are the fears and apprehension of the people of Sindh regarding this project.
MIR BEHZAD KHAN TALPUR
Mirpur Khas
THIS is with reference to a news item in PTV Khabarnama on March 3, regarding the ban imposed on the transmission of PTV in the Indian state of Gujarat. The news item criticized the ban and said that PTV is only covering facts about the recent crisis in India and there is no element of propaganda in its news coverage.
While I totally agree with PTV in its criticism on the ban I also believe that here we need to do some soul searching as well. The government of Pakistan banned all Indian channels including entertainment channels on Dec 29. Having taken such an extreme decision much before the Indian government did, I believe we don’t have any moral standing to criticize our neighbours for banning our state-run channel in one state of their country. After all they have only partially reacted to our act.
The Indian government has only banned PTV while the other Pakistani channels such as Indus Vision, ARY etc are still allowed for transmission in India. On the other hand, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority banned all Indian channels without caring about their content.
The idea, I am sure, was to stop those channels which were carrying propaganda material against Pakistan. Now, what sort of propaganda Indian movies and song channels were carrying is at least beyond my understanding.
I strongly believe that the people of Pakistan are patriotic enough to understand the motives behind the Indian propaganda. They have been watching Indian movies for the last 50 years without causing any damage to their faith and patriotism. Entertainment and politics are entirely separate domains and should never be mixed.
I would like to humbly urge the concerned authorities to allow the transmission of Indian entertainment channels at the earliest. This would be a moral victory for us at the time when the Indian government is desperately trying to spread war hysteria in the region much for the sake of its own political gains. Our extreme actions would only help the Indian cause.
Let us show the world that we are not afraid of the dirty tricks adopted by India. Let us prove to the world that Pakistan is an open and moderate society.
This is all the more important at the time when President General Pervaiz Musharraf is projecting Pakistan as a moderate and tolerant nation and trying to remove the tag of fundamentalism. Let there be freedom of expression and let the people decide that what’s right and what’s wrong as done in all the educated, tolerant and vibrant societies.
MUJAHID SALIM FAROOQI
Peshawar
ACCORDING to the tenets of Islam, there is no place for priesthood. In an interview given recently by President Pervez Musharraf, he has rightly said: “There is no room for clergy in Islam”.
In his famous book “The spirit of Islam”, Justice Ameer Ali writes that Islam “recognizes no caste of priesthood, allows no monopoly of spiritual knowledge or special holiness to intervene between man and his God. Each soul rises to its Creator without the intervention of priest or hierophant. No sacrifice, no ceremonial invented by vested interests, is needed to bring the anxious heart nearer to its Comforter. Each human being is his own priest ....”.
So it is the duty of all no matter to which class, creed or colour they belong to support President Musharraf in making Pakistan a progressive Islamic state.
AHMED F. JIVANJEE
Karachi
ATTENTION is invited to the highly unsatisfactory state of affairs prevailing at the Quaid-i-Azam Academy, Karachi, which looks after the research work related to the life and achievements of Quaid-i-Azam and also arranges for its publication.
To fill up the vacant position of the Academy’s Director, the concerned ministry placed advertisements on Dec 21, 2000, and again on January 27, 2001. In both ads, the maximum age limit was not mentioned.
The interviews were held on March 26, 2001, but till date the appointment has not been made.
For some time, the directorship of the Academy was assigned to a lecturer of Urdu and subsequently to an archaeologist. The absence of a regular Director since 1993, has resulted in the neglect of the work related to the Pakistan movement.
I hope that the Ministry of Culture, under the jurisdiction of which the Academy is placed, would look into the matter and expedite the appointment of a Director on the basis of merit alone.
DR SAYYID A.S. PIRZADA
Rawalpindi
AFTER the announcements made by the President, it is expected that some changes will be brought in the madressah syllabi introducing natural sciences, computers and English.
But I feel that students of these madressahs could be made more useful to the society if some sort of vocational training is also introduced. That would turn them into skilled workers able to earn their livelihood in a respectable manner.
ZIA AHMED
Multan
PROVIDENT Fund is composed of the amounts deducted from the salaries of the employees and, therefore, whenever anyone requires some money from it, it must be paid to him at once. But a large number of employees of the KDA who have applied for loans or advances from their GPF, have been suffering the agony of an endless wait for the last several months.
An employee draws money from the GPF only when there is a dire need for it. Keeping the payment pending for a long time might, therefore, result in some irreparable loss to the employee. However, the Finance Department of the KDA pays no heed to any argument or request.
The City Nazim, the Director General KDA and others concerned, are requested to look into the matter sympathetically and solve the problem.
EMPLOYEES OF KDA
Karachi
THIS refers to the R.R. Alvi’s letter (March 5) which is in fact a reply to my letter “Proposals for more provinces” (Feb 23). I have not quoted only the examples of Algeria, Afghanistan, Iran, Nepal and Malaysia, but also mentioned that there are 70 countries which have a large number of provinces. Specifically I had mentioned Nigeria.
Nigeria having population and area size similar to Pakistan has 19 provinces, while at the time of its independence, Nigeria had only three provinces.
Most of the 70 countries referred to have federal set-up and their provinces are full-fledged constitutional and political units having elected governments responsible to elected legislatures. India has increased the number of its provinces and benefited a lot. So the creation of more provinces in Pakistan is the need of the hour.
The suggestion to override the restriction(s) contained in Article-239(4) of the 1973 Constitution by binding the candidates for parliament, not to oppose the constitutional bill altering the boundaries of provinces is an alternate suggestion.
I had proposed that the restriction(s) contained under Article 239(4) of the Constitution can be override by declaring these provinces as “sub-provinces” or “federating states” and/or “units” headed by the Lieutenant Governor and/or an alternate declaration can be sought along with nomination forms by the candidates which will not be thrown out by the superior courts, as presumed by Mr R.R. Alvi, if such declaration which will be in the larger national interest shall be given special protection under the provisional constitutional order (PCO) which has been validated by the Supreme Court of Pakistan in the Zafar Ali Shah case. The extra-constitutional steps taken by the present regime has been acknowledged by the Supreme Court of Pakistan and judges of the superior courts have taken oath in pursuance of the proclamation of emergency dated October 14, 1999 and PCO No.1 of 1999.
The scrutiny by the superior courts of such provision will be a positive step and it can be presumed that the superior courts in the larger national interest will not knock down this provision in view of the maxim “id quod alias non est licitum necessitas licitum facit” (‘that which otherwise is not lawful, necessity makes lawful’) as at present the consent of the people is not possible to be taken in respect of the creation of more provinces.
SAALIM SALAM ANSARI
Karachi
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