| March 31, 2002 | Sunday | Muharram 16, 1423 |
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Life-saving drugs for kids
Need to privatize KWSB
Palestinians’ reaction to injustice
Meeting the water shortage
Punjabi films
Calling AGM on a Sunday
Blood transfusion services
Living below poverty line
Dug up roads
Open invitation to Karachi jail
AN article of mine appeared on Feb 17 in which I had argued that we did not need any more provinces than the four that composed Pakistan. Two articles on this subject appeared on March 15 in which the authors said, among other things, that the intent of the All India Muslim League’s Lahore Resolution of March 23, 1940 (which said that the constituent units of Pakistan would be ‘autonomous and sovereign’) would not be fulfilled unless we had more provinces. One of the authors, S.M. Zakerya Kazmi (a former MNA), who wants 26 provinces, criticized my article on several grounds, and I should like to offer a response.
1. Mr Kazmi thinks that, in this regard, I prefer to retain the legacy of our colonial ‘masters’. Yes, I do; not only in this but also with regard to numerous other matters. I am grateful to God that He did not abandon us to the sheer and utter incompetence of Bahadur Shah Zafar and his descendants, the savagery of the Marathas, the vagaries and lawlessness of Ranjit Singh’s successors in Punjab and much of NWFP, decadence of the several Amirs in Sindh, and the arbitrariness of the tribal chiefs in Balochistan.
(2) Mr Kazmi says that I do not favour the devolution of power to the ‘grassroots’. Not true. I do favour it, and I have said so in some of my articles published in this paper. I want delegation of responsibility to the district governments to be accompanied by devolution of appropriate authority to raise revenues and other resources.
But once the current devolution plan has been implemented and becomes operational, won’t governmental authority have come close enough to the ‘grassroots’? Why does Mr Kazmi want 26 provinces? After the present government’s devolution plan is completed, what exactly will provincial governments be doing and in what way will their proximity to the people help either their performance or the people’s needs? How many peasants, or even townspeople, have any business with the provincial government? And, if bringing government close to the people is so critical, how does Mr Kazmi propose to bring the federal government and the people closer together?
(3) Mr Kazmi says that I want the government to wait until violence erupts before it breaks up the existing provinces. Once again not true. But I do want to see signs of any significant popular demand for more provinces. Does Mr Kazmi see them?
Mr Kazmi says that I am concerned that the Punjabis will be displeased if their province is broken up.
True, but I say: don’t worry about their displeasure if it can be shown how specifically Punjab’s dismemberment will help our national solidarity and integrity. It is no more than a figment of somebody’s imagination that the Lahore Resolution of 1940 envisaged the breaking up of the provinces that were to compose Pakistan.
ANWAR SYED
Professor Emeritus of Political Science, University of Massachusetts,
USA
I WOULD like to draw the attention of the health officials and the government towards a practice that can have and is having grave consequences.
Life-saving antibiotic drugs that are prepared in our country according to international standards are available in powder form. These drugs are prepared by adding some water to form an injection or syrup.
The multinational pharmaceutical companies provide the liquid/water with the injections and they are usually careful not to use the liquid/water prepared by any other company. But the case of life-saving drugs used for paediatric treatment is totally different. These are manufactured according to international standards but they do not come with any liquid, instead the consumer is asked to use boiled and cooled water for drug preparation.
The question that arises are: is the tap water in a patient’s house reliable to maintain the standard of antibiotic drugs? The water from rivers is contaminated and is a self-speaking evidence of industrial pollution. The water from wells is salty, and that from supply lines cannot be trusted because the supply and sewerage lines run parallel throughout the city. The presence of E.coli, Salmonella and Shigella in every sample of water as reported by different laboratories points towards the amalgamation of fecal material in the water supply.
Does this contaminated water retain the quality of life-saving drugs? Do minerals and salts retain the quality of syrup? Don’t the minerals present in the water change the structural formula of the medicine and affect its ability to enter and destroy the germs? Will the efficacy of drug not be affected by the change in pH? Can mineral water be used in all the syrups? Are cholera, typhoid, hepatitis, dysentery and diarrhoea not spread by contaminated water? Do you know that water containing any kind of chemical cannot be use in any syrup?
The water supplied to our homes is first passed through a process of cleaning by different chemicals. These chemicals cannot be used in the preparation of medicines. The reason for variable results of the same medicine is the use of contaminated water.
True, we cannot immediately start supplying safe water to the whole country but we can at least try to make the life-saving drugs for children save from potential hazards.
ADEEL
Karachi
WITH reference to the letter ‘KWSB’s open defiance of law’ (March 16), I may add:
West Wind States (a multi-storey residential complex in Clifton’s Block 2, along Sea Beach Road) has actually no water connection, compelling the residents to procure the so-called potable water through tankers at a cost of Rs750,000 to Rs1 million per annum.
The management committee prudently documented the fact in a hand-delivered letter as early as Sept 9, 1995, asking the KWSB to disconnect all existing and non-existent water connections, relieving the residents of the harassment of being billed but the bills continued pouring in. Having exhausted all known channels of relief from the absurdity of being billed, a constitutional petition was filed in the Sindh High Court on Dec 29, 1999.
Each bill is captioned ‘Retail Bill’ and, with brazen falsehood, affirms therein: Water Connection — yes; size of connection — 1/2 inch.
Deceit is further compounded when the water charge of Rs4,260 per annum for one water connection is multiplied by 68 apartments who individually receive the bill and there is a massive charge of Rs289,680 per annum instead of Rs4,260 (1998-99 rate).
An attempt has been made to promote a ‘commercial levy’ for supplies of water through supplier’s delivery equipment to the status of a duly legislated tax. The legality of an administrative notification under the umbrella of Local Bodies Act that intrudes on an established provincial or federal tax, will be questionable. It will fall on residential, commercial and industrial buildings, already heavily taxed.
Why should one wish to lavish money on the incompetent service, which, to our misfortune, KWSB has been chosen to perform. Has there been any attempt to upgrade the crumbling water transmission and delivery system, which is wasting, through colossal leakages, nearly half of the potable water resource. The same applies to maintenance, repairs and replacement of sewerage facilities.
The entire city of Karachi appears to be floating on a sea of foul sewerage. Rather than clean and make drains serviceable, the KWSB appears to be content with dumping the same in the sea and thus flouting international laws.
Out of total sewerage discharge of about 240 mgd, the KWSB was treating only 75-80 mgd through its three treatment plants.
It is time the KWSB was disbanded and water supply and sewerage management privatized.
MOHAMMAD A.B.
Karachi
ONE has to keep in mind that suicide bombers are not born; no one is genetically programmed/destined to be a terrorist. Suicide bombers are made out of insult and repression. If you don’t allow people to live honourably, you cannot stop them to at least die defiantly.
Particularly in the case of Palestinians, to some extent the unavailability of avenues for peacefully ending their ordeal (for instance, all efforts in this regard at the UN have always been frustrated by the US) and partly complete failure to secure any redressal by diplomatic means almost ensures extremism. Suicide bombing is normally an end result of sheer despair. So shouldn’t we first of all ask ourselves whether suicide bombing by Palestinian youths is an act of ‘barbarism’ or an accumulated reaction to the injustices they have been suffering for over the past half-century? Do we need to look into history books to find out whether Palestinian terrorists came first or the Israeli occupation of Palestine?
Is it oppressor/occupier that should be held accountable for instigating/provoking violence or the oppressed for protesting? Shouldn’t we rather ask whether Israel and Sharon are willing to respect the Palestinians’ right to live? Instead of squarely and exclusively blaming the Palestinians for everything, it’s time for the Israeli authorities to realize that brute force alone can never give them security.
Without taking some concrete steps to alleviate the magnitude of frustration, the intensity of rage and the scale of disillusionment that drive young Palestinians to suicide bombing, there are slim chances for viable peace in the Middle East.
WAQAR TALIB
Sargodha
THE shortage of water for agricultural purposes is now a fact. This curse will continue for years, making poor farmers poorer. There are countries that have less water than what our country has, yet they are able to manage water shortage by adopting drip system to grow crops. Tomorrow if not today, the farmers of Pakistan will have to resort to it.
The farmers have a very genuine excuse for not resorting to this productive system: the drip system pipe is costly. If the government and industrialists want to live comfortably, they should make the lives of farmers easy. Agriculture banks are not loaning enough money to the farmers. When they do it, the interest is beyond their reach to make farming with loan profitable.
Pakistan’s cotton market is no more in demand in the world because the staple is short and fetches less money than the one grown in India, China and Central Asian countries. India has now created the hybrid of green cotton, which will change the entire export perspective for the better. Pakistan has the institutes that can duplicate this hybridization. When will it be done?
BEHROZ FELFELI
Karachi
THIS is with reference to the article ‘The three Vs of Punjabi cinema — vengeance, violence and vulgarity’ by Zia Mutaher.
Film-making is a business. And, therefore, the quality of the film industry’s output depends largely on the preferences of the financier, the distributor and, of course, the viewers. It is simply a matter of demand and supply.
In Pakistan, the problem lies mostly with the makers of Urdu films. They simply do not know how to face up to the challenges of Indian Hindi cinema, the latest casualty being Zeba Bakhtiar’s Urdu film Babu. It got dumped at the box office on its very first day, even at Karachi. It appears that viewers of Urdu films are not backing up our Urdu cinema the way they should.
At the moment, whatever that is left of our movie industry is because of the Punjabi cinema. Without caring for the weather — sunny, cloudy or rainy — its supporters continue to flock around the cinema houses and that keeps the industry going. Good or bad, Punjabi movies have a style of their own.
Since commercial cinema is all about viewers’ fantasies, movie makers all over the world generally exploit sex, violence and vengeance. And Punjabi films are no exception.
If Hollywood, stars like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallon, known for movies like Terminator and Rambo, could go around destroying half the world without even getting a scratch on themselves, then what’s wrong if characters in Punjabi movies also do the same with their gandasas?
Lastly, under the existing circumstances I do not see that any financier would be prepared to risk even a single penny for making films based on stories written by people like Manto, Qasmi or Bapsi.
AMJAD
Rawalpindi
THIS is with reference to Mr Dilawar Hussain’s column ‘Corporate Profile — International Investment & Financial Services Limited’ (March 19). One gets the impression that by raising the question ‘Are companies authorized to summon shareholder meetings on a non-working day, holiday or Sunday?’ Mr Hussain is suggesting that the concerned listed brokerage house is violating the Company Law.
To clear any doubts that might have crept up into the minds of the shareholders, I quote the ruling contained in Section 158 of the Companies Ordinance, 1984, on this very point:
“Holding of public meeting on holiday is neither prohibited by Act nor any other law nor by Articles of the company. Such cannot be said to be mala fide but rather convenient to shareholders.” PLD. 1980 Kar. 401
I would also like to correct another error in the article. The further 12.5 million shares that are being offered to the new directors of the company are @ Rs4 per share and not Rs40 per share as reported.
MASUD A. NAQVI
Karachi
IT has been estimated that only 20 per cent of the total blood being transfused in the province of Sindh is properly screened for the three major diseases: Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C and HIV.
The incidence rates of Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C in Pakistan are one of the highest in the world and there is an immediate threat for a rapid spread of HIV in the country.
Although the Sindh Assembly had passed the Safe Blood Transfusion Act in Sept 1996, and a Blood Transfusion Authority has since been established to implement the Act, so far no progress has been made in this direction. Neither any blood banks have been registered, nor any efforts have been made for ensuring safety of blood transfusions.
The unsatisfactory functioning of the Blood Transfusion Authority has been discussed several times at the highest level in the last two years, but the health department has failed to take any action against the concerned officials for their negligence.
SYED HAIDER ABBAS ZAIDI
Karachi
MUCH has been published in the newspapers since the withdrawal of restoration of commuted portion of pension. The poor pensioners are worried because of the new pension rules by the present government with effect from Dec 1, 2001.
Furthermore, very meagre increase has been allowed to the pensioners i.e. 5 to 15 per cent, whereas the civil and defence employees have been given sufficient increase in pay scale ranging from 40 to 60 per cent.
In the past, increase in pension was allowed on gross pension including increases made from time to time. In this context, I would like to mention that the vested rights can’t be taken back and given retrospective effect.
The poor pensioners request the finance minister to look into the matter and order the restoration of commuted portion of pension considering the plight of the old pensioners living below the poverty line.
MUHAMMAD DIN
Haripur
THE deteriorating condition of roads in Karachi is largely due to lack of co-ordination between several departments such as telephone, water supply and gas.
It has often been observed that as soon as a road is constructed, it is dug up for laying telephone cables or water pipes. Wouldn’t it be better if telephone cables and water pipes were laid before the construction of roads?
There seems to be no planning at all.
ALI AHAD
Karachi
THIS is with regard to the various articles published in Dawn by Ms Maisoon Hussein regarding the Karachi Central Jail. The writer seems to have formulated her opinion on hearsay and on the statements of persons having specific experiences in the jail.
Commenting on the state of affairs inside the jail without paying a visit to the premises is one thing, and seeing the administration functioning inside the jail, with all the practical problems it faces in the line of duty, is a completely different phenomenon. In order to make her reconsider her opinion of the jails she is whole-heartedly invited to pay a visit to this jail along with her team; and, if she wishes, she can come on a surprise visit. It is hereby assured that she will be extended full cooperation and her enquiries with the prisoners will be facilitated.
As for her comparison of a jail superintendent with a college principal, I would like to say that even though a college principal, heading a small number of 1,000 to 1,500 young students with innocent minds and good intentions, faces several problems in his institution, he cannot be compared to the superintendent of a jail.
A superintendent of jail has to handle a large population of inmates (in some cases totalling to 5,000 like in the Karachi jail) involved in several heinous offences, psychologically agitated due to confinement and with spare time at their hands.
Assuredly it is a Herculean task on his part to deal all these prisoners with meagre resources and support from society, which usually sees the jail administration and the prisoner as two parties engaged in a constant state of war: the former being the oppressors and the later, the oppressed. It is a completely mistaken perspective.
On the contrary, the above referred correspondent while on her surprise visit (as invited above) will find that at least 99% of the prison population is on friendly terms with this administration, which has resolved to make the Central Prison Karachi a model jail by introducing several reforms within the confines of law for the betterment and welfare of inmates.
In a total population of approximately 5,000 prisoners, less than 1 per cent are those who are not happy with the administration. Most of such prisoners are habitual, yet resourceful offenders, having influence over the inmates as well as in the outside society and who aspire to have free and undue access to every nook and corner of the jail and a say in its affairs. These powerful inmates are the ones who are trying to distort the image of the jail administration by false propaganda.
RASHID SAEED
Superintendent, Central Prison,
Karachi
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