| March 30, 2002 | Saturday | Muharram 15, 1423 |
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A bad telecom regulator
Admit card scandal
ISRAEL has again torpedoed peace prospects in the Middle East by rejecting the Beirut Declaration within hours of its adoption by the Arab League summit. That the summit conference — where some of the Arab world’s heavyweights were missing — was able to adopt a declaration unanimously was itself an achievement. Considering the dramatics that took place on the first day, many feared the conference would end up in a fiasco. First, Lebanese President Emille Lahoud refused to allow Yasser Arafat to make a live speech via a satellite hookup from Ramallah. The Lebanese said they had taken the decision because they feared Israeli “interference.” No wonder, the Palestinian delegation walked out, prompting Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah to ask President Lahoud to apologize to the Palestinians. The mysterious Lebanese decision also infuriated Hosni Mobarak, who refused to attend the summit. In all, half of the 22 member states were not represented by heads of state. All this had given rise to fears that the summit would not only fail to adopt the Saudi peace plan, it could end up in a demeaning show of disunity.
The proceedings of the second day came as a pleasant surprise. The Palestinians returned to the table, Iraq pledged not to invade Kuwait again, and there was a Saudi-Iraqi rapprochement when Prince Abdullah embraced Iraqi Vice President Ezzet Ibrahim. Above all, the conference succeeded in unanimously adopting the Saudi peace plan that offered peace to Tel Aviv in exchange for a complete Israeli withdrawal from all occupied Arab territories. The plan visualized the existence of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, with east Al Quds as its capital. Correctly did the declaration call for the return of the Palestinian refugees to their homeland as laid down in UN Resolution 194. This resolution, adopted in 1948, also calls for compensation to those who lost their homes when they were driven out by the Zionists and who did not wish to return.
That Israel should have so summarily rejected the plan serves once again to highlight the Zionist state’s racist character. Israel, said a foreign ministry spokesman, could not accept the Palestinians’ right to return, because that would create “two Palestinian states.” Not only that: such a move in his opinion would lead to a decimation of the Jewish state. It is amazing how Israel flouts the United Nations — and on ridiculous pretexts. The Zionist state is concerned with Israel’s Jewish character, but it would not mind destroying Palestine’s Arab-Islamic character. More important, Tel Aviv’s opposition to the return of the Palestinian refugees flies in the face of the law of return which was among the first laws passed by the Knesset. It recognized the Jews’ right to “return” to Israel wherever they may be — even for two thousands years in Holland or Ukraine. But Palestinians thrown out of their land by Hagganah and other Zionist terrorist organizations as recently as 1948 do not have the right to their soil.
The Beirut Declaration is now merely of academic interest, for Israel has rejected it. The importance of the summit lies in that it did show that, notwithstanding their differences, the Arab states are quite capable of reaching a broad degree of consensus on the Palestinian question. To the credit of the summit also went Iraq’s reconciliation with the monarchist camp, besides the unanimous opposition to a possible American strike against Iraq. The question, however, that begs an answer is: now that the Israelis have rejected the Saudi peace plan, what next — an indefinite Israeli occupation of the Arab territories with full American backing?
THE Pakistan Telecommunication Authority has not proved to be an impartial regulator of the telecom sector. It has failed to defend the rights of consumers and many examples of its inefficiencies abound. Its operation has often been deemed too bureaucratic and stifling for competitive business practices to take root in what is essentially a strategic sector. As far as effective pro-consumer regulation of the Internet industry is concerned all that the PTA has really done is to recently publish a comprehensive advertisement in newspapers detailing for public benefit the download speeds and ratings of various Internet service providers. Another instance where it has more or less abdicated its legally mandated role has been the market for pay phones. Some time back, acting on numerous complaints coming from all over the country, the government decided to crack down on unauthorized public call offices and shut most of them down. In their place, the PTA allowed licensed companies to operate pay phones on more organized lines, and with proper documentation and registration so that they could be monitored to the consumers’ benefit.
However, now as it turns out, most pay phone booths charge callers well above the legally allowed rates. Consumers are often not aware of what the exact tariff is, because the booth operators do not keep a rate list. The claim of the people running these pay phone services that the parent companies — that is, with the government licence to operate — do not require them (the booth operators) to display the charges makes no sense at all. In fact, common sense would dictate that a vendor display the rate of the good or service on offer to the public. To make matters worse, the PTA — in the words of a senior official — seems to think that its job of regulating extends only to pay phone companies that are registered with it. This does not make for a sensible regulatory approach, because the PTA’s hands-off attitude would actually encourage companies not to register, since by doing that they would escape the prying eyes of the regulator. Clearly, such bureaucratic policies must be changed if the PTA is to come even close to safeguarding the rights of telecom users.
THE latest in the series of blunders committed by the Board of Secondary Education, Karachi, is that some 1,500 students have been issued photocopies of a portion of their admission forms as admit cards. The board, of course, tried to explain it away, saying the original admit cards had been either lost or destroyed in an accident earlier this month when angry students ransacked its offices to protest their non-delivery within the stipulated time. The explanation is an admission of the board’s failure to do its job in time. Students are now worried that the staff posted at the examination centres may not let them enter the premises on the photocopied pieces of paper passing for admit cards. Needless to say, there is something seriously wrong with the way the board has conducted itself.
Unfortunately, education boards in Karachi are known to act in a way that is detrimental to students. This kind of lax attitude toward the future of secondary and higher-level students reflects the sad reality that education continues to lie low on the government’s agenda. Anomalies of this kind have now become routine occurrences. Come examination time and there are irregularities of this sort on the part of the education boards. Because no heads ever roll, board officials and the higher-ups in the education department take these irregularities in their stride. It is time the mess is cleaned up from within the house, and those responsible for delays are brought to book.