| June 26, 2002 | Wednesday | Rabi-us-Sani 14, 1423 |
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Karachi: a dying city?
‘Successful stitching’ challenged
A wrong step
Handle with respect
A lane for motorcyclists
Where are the Rs100 notes?
CDA’s additional charges
Nationalizing gold
Please stop them
Research library
Education revolution needed
KASHMIR is a disputed territory within the meaning of international law. While its future status was yet to be determined, Indian forces invaded the territory on Oct 27, 1947, and obtained temporary accession of the state from its autocratic ruler while at the same time promising the Kashmiri people as well as the United Nations that the future status of the territory would be determined by its people.
These commitments incorporated subsequently into the United Nations resolutions of Aug 13, 1948, and Jan 5, 1949, stipulate that the future status of the people of the state shall be decided through a free and fair plebiscite held under the auspices of the United Nations.
But India failed to honour its commitment regarding a plebiscite in Kashmir.
Now coming to the present-day scenario, it seems that India is once again playing the same old game — avoiding the real issue.
Indian Defence Minister George Fernandes claims that the alleged “infiltration” has almost ended. By keeping in mind that this is an Indian claim, the next possible step should be talks with Pakistan with the Kashmir issue taking up the central stage. Pakistan’s stance has been consistent that talks are the only way out of the present and past crises. President Pervez Musharraf has done his bit for peace in the region.
He crossed a number of traditional lines during his Agra visit, but unfortunately India remained chained to the status quo.
India has taken some cosmetic steps to reduce tensions in the current standoff, but is reluctant to withdraw forces stationed on borders since Dec 2001. Unfortunately or ridiculously, Indian leaders have also claimed “victory without waging a war” without realizing the fact that the forces are still facing each other and the Kashmir issue is still unresolved.
How inimical India is to any talks on the Kashmir issue can be gauged from the fact that a planned private Security Council discussion on the issue had angered India and spurred a boycott by its allies, Russia and Mauritius.
Indian diplomats have also complained that Mexico, which invited the outside speakers, had stacked the discussion to favour Pakistan’s point of view in the dispute.
The episode makes clear the Indian insincerity to peace in South Asia. Today, intervention of the international community is all the more necessary, given the consistent Indian opposition to both bilateral and multilateral options to settle the Kashmir issue.
International intervention is also urgently required to stop the Indian brutalities against the innocent Muslim people of Kashmir, who have been long denied their just right to self-determination.
REHAN ISPHAHANI
Islamabad
THE bomb blast at Karachi on June 14 has definitely shaken those politicians, professionals, intellectuals, bureaucrats, businessmen and common people, who were born here or immigrated half a century ago to this unfortunate city. It is time the media and the government listened to what they have to say or suggest.
I have a question to ask: after the end of the crisis in Afghanistan and a new government set-up there, a large number of Afghan refugees and nationals have been sent to Afghanistan from major refugee camps in the NWFP, Punjab and Balochistan and even from Peshawar, Islamabad, Lahore, Faisalabad and dozens of other cities. Then what were the major constraints on the government of Pakistan for not doing the same thing in the case of Karachi?
For the last 40 years, we have been seeing our city robbed by those who have no sympathy with it.
Plots reserved for parks were grabbed by the mafias of every sort and their sponsors, who are now everywhere, even in the vicinity of the Quaid’s mausoleum. They have made the city ugly.
Now Karachi demands the restoration of its past glory. It wants first its law and order situation tackled. We want to see its central district areas to be cleaned and all encroachments removed.
The government should provide it land (which otherwise is being encroached upon) for resettlement of displaced persons.
The government should also prioritize some of its areas to be marked as diplomatic enclaves. Help from the Defence Housing Authority may also be taken. If normality returns to this city, more foreigners would reside here. When the planners made the blueprint of Karachi 50 years back, they made a provision of such enclaves, but today, all have been forcibly grabbed by the land mafia. Now the coastal areas of Karachi are the only solution.
The present government should undertake a plan to resettle and relocate all illegal settlements away from Karachi in a planned way, just like it happened in early sixties, and instead of encouraging Afghan nationals to settle in Karachi, even from the remotest parts of Pakistan, arrangements should be made with the assistance of donor countries for their resettlement in their mother country.
KUNWAR KHALID YUNUS
Karachi
THIS is with reference to the news item ‘Successful stitching’ (June 14).
It is not possible for an amputed (chopped-off) muscle to be alive for six hours after the severing of the nerve and the blood supply totally.
An operation of two-and-a-half hours for repairing a chopped-off penile muscle is impossible.
It is absurd to declare that the operation of this sort is the first in the world. To put it politely, it is untrue.
In order to declare a procedure to be the first in the world, it is essential to be in the knowledge of all the operations in the world, and this is done through a thorough knowledge of all the indices of the world, the annals of surgery, and corroborated by the world bodies e.g. the information cells of the World Health Organization and other world statistical bodies.
I have been reading Dawn since its first publication in Pakistan, and it has never been my observation that Dawn indulged in fantasy.
I am convinced that the publication of scientific articles without vetting by subject specialists has resulted in the publication of absurdities and fantasies.
PROF MUJIB ANSARI
Karachi
THE report that the government is considering giving the president constitutional powers to nominate a non-MNA to the post of prime minister makes for sorry reading. Such a decision goes against the parliamentary nature of the constitution.
Arbitrary and despotic amendments to constitutions have already done great damage. Of all the rulers who mangled this sacred document for their personal gain, the name of Ziaul Haq comes out on top. Our rulers should know that any such step has many more implications and ramifications than can possibly be foreseen. It seems that the national interest is being sacrificed at the altar of expediency.
The government should not even think of playing around with the basic nature of the constitution. And, it should put to public debate as soon as possible the proposed amendments that it has in mind so that citizens have a sense of what is being planned.
One hopes that the shining minds of NRB would think a thousand times before embarking upon such a course.
AMANAT ALI CHAUDHRY
Okara
RECENTLY, one read the news that a judge of a Rawalpindi court hurt himself as he wanted to see for himself if the grenade recovered from a criminal was genuine or fake. He removed the pin and the thing exploded. The judge was rushed to hospital where, fortunately, he survived.
I wish to apprise all courts that experts on weapons and explosives can be made available to them.
This is important and must be strictly followed otherwise some day someone may bring in a blind bomb to the court to be handled in similar circumstances.
A blind bomb is a ticking device which can explode any moment and demolish everything in its surroundings. In the early fifties, a young army officer of a garrison was detailed to conduct three-inch mortor fire. After the firing he very innocently picked up two blinds, brought them inside the garrison and placed them on the table of the quartermaster, a senior captain.
The captain yelled, rushed out of his office, blew the alarm and apprised everyone of the two blinds. The young officer had the courage to take the blinds outside the garrison but this time he was walking like a ghost.
He did succeed in going out of the garrison and placed the bombs in a ditch where the engineers of the unit blew them up safely.
In the present world situation, one must be extra careful — no high explosive material must be allowed inside a city, town or a village. Finally, in accidents of this nature, an inquiry becomes essential and the defaulters need to be brought to book. More than the inquiry we must lay down the ground rules, the do’s and the dont’s and someone should ensure these are strictly followed.
It has been my observation that normally these accidents occur either through sheer negligence or over-confidence. In both cases, due respect is not shown to the high explosive material.
The motto has always been: handle with great respect and utmost caution.
KHAN AFZAL AFRIDI
Abbottabad
ON Saturday, June 22, I was watching ARY television where a number of violations of traffic laws were being shown in a programme.
I was surprised to see that viewers were being told that the left lane on the roads is for motorcycles.
However, I have always been led to believe that the left-most lane is for buses and that the traffic police do not allow motorcyclists to drive on it.
Being a motorcyclist myself, I would like to ask the traffic police to reserve one lane for motorcycles.
Motorcyclists also deserve to travel on the road in safety and this will be particularly possible once there is a lane reserved for them.
M. SHAFIQUE KHAN
Karachi
I WOULD like to bring to the notice of the State Bank of Pakistan the fact that 100-rupee notes are not available in the banks or in the market. The currency notes which the banks have are badly mutilated and soiled, and are difficult to count.
Will the State Bank clarify whether they have stopped printing 100-rupee notes or have middlemen or currency speculators been hoarding them? The matter is of urgent public nature and we hope that the SBP will not only clarify the position but also make the notes available in the market.
S.M.A. RIZVI
Karachi
THIS refers to the report headlined ‘D-12 development cost — CDA ignores Ecnec for hike in charges’ (May 10). It states that the project D-12 which was started in 1988 and delayed for more than 13 years was in fact a viable project. It further states that the CDA wrongly informed the President that it was incurring a loss because of general price hike of land in the market. It further tried to circumvent the findings given by the federal ombudsman.
In this way, the CDA has flouted the directions of the ombudsman which prevented the organization from charging additional amounts from the allottees and bypassed the normal procedure of approval and rather got the authorization of the President for levying additional charges before it was approved by the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec).
Whatever has been done is against all norms of justice and fair play. People are fed up of delays and unnecessary hurdles. The CDA has been politicized more than one can imagine. Look at the plight of the people who bought the land in 1988 when the cost of construction was not more than Rs60 per sq-ft, which now has accelerated to more than Rs700 per sq-ft. There is no punishment for the CDA bureaucracy because in the end a spokesman would say that everything was done in the “interest of the people”. Actually, this ‘explanation’ means interest of the officers and the mafia which governs them.
The things should change now. I request the President, the Finance Minister and the Interior Minister to order immediate announcement regarding the scheme on the remaining land — D-13 and D-14 sectors — so that an old man like me and other genuine owners of land can reap the fruit during their lifetime.
SYED AMANULLAH SHAH
Karachi
GOLD should be nationalized in Pakistan under a proposed ‘gold bond(s) certificate(s) scheme’ as is already done in the US, Germany, most European countries and India.
The impact of nationalization of gold on the economy will be that foreign debts could be retired.
The social impact of the nationalization of gold will be that corruption and other social evils will be eliminated as the root cause of all of them is mostly gold.
Nationalized gold can then be sold in the international market to retire foreign debts.
SAALIM SALAM ANSARI
Karachi
INDIA is persistently refusing to solve problems with Pakistan via diplomacy, and the Indian media, especially in the USA, misses no opportunity to publish negative reports on President Musharraf.
We, the Pakistani community in the US, are facing another problem. Two Pakistani film actresses, Reema and Meera, (these are the name advertized) will perform at one of the Indian musical shows (Bollywood Awards) in New York on June 29.
This show is to reward the Indian film industry. The Indian newspapers are constantly belittling us by writing things like “when the President of Pakistan doesn’t have control over actresses, how will he control the radical elements?”
On behalf of Pakistani community in the USA, especially those living in New York, I request the Pakistan government to stop these artistes from participating in these awards.
SHAKEEL JABBAR
Long Island, New York, USA
IN the present era, carrying out research in various fields of science and technology is essential for Pakistan’s development, and can help alleviate poverty.
Hard-working scientists with foresight and vision are already working in various disciplines of science and technology.
However, they need to have proper laboratory facilities. In addition to that, they also need all the latest literature and scientific journals related to their field of research. This very essential but apparently invisible component of successful scientific research did not surface in the past due to various factors.
Then, books were cheap, scientific literature in different fields was limited, and journals and abstracts of journals were subscribed to by many organizations all over Pakistan. The Pakistan rupee was also strong and buying foreign publications was easier. Even postal charges were low.
Over time all these factors changed and we saw a dramatic increase in the number of scientific journals being published in the world.
Eventually, the flow of foreign books and journals dried up in Pakistan making research a very difficult task for local laboratories.
In order to overcome this problem, a scientific library organized on the style of the Patent Office Library in London should be built. It should house all relevant scientific literature and should have a borrowing facility.
The ministry of science and technology needs to look in to this matter urgently and formulate a plan for constructing such a library.
DR MANZUR-UL-HAQUE
Lahore
BEING a doctor from the minority community whose members are shot dead point blank regularly in this country, I would be the last person to oppose the government’s policy to rein in the madressahs, which are supposed to breed these criminals.
But now that the government has got down to standardizing the curriculum in the educational institutions of the country, I would like them to take into consideration another very important and equally serious matter.
Ever since our independence 55 years ago, we’ve had at least two, if not more, parallel running educational systems. These two systems differ not only in form but also in content and the psychological training that goes with them.
There has been a long-standing debate over the medium of instruction at primary and secondary levels but nothing significant in the form of policy or reform has ever come out of it.
The elitist English medium system is meant to produce rulers, be they politicians, military men or members of the civil bureaucracy.
At the very start of their lives they are trained to show a contemptuous disregard for the common people of this country.
Even within this system there are ramifications, lines drawn between the rulers and their second in commands, the 2ICs. The Urdu medium system produces Gogol/Ghulam Abbas-style clerks or at best poverty-stricken schoolteachers and hapless professionals, the kind shot dead in Karachi every other day. The strong vested interest has ensured the continuity of this state of affairs.
We often find ourselves delivered as ripe apples into the very laps of the leadership we know are unworthy of the job. This is because the pool of brains from which we draw our leaders is a very limited and narrow-minded lot and they have kept the door of political power effectively closed to the people of the country.
They work towards the achievement of one single goal: making themselves indispensable for the country and making all others equally dispensable in the process.
We need an educational revolution in this country very soon. It is the only solution to the multitude of our social, political and economic problems. The present system, which effectively splits the nation into a caste-like hierarchy, is not compatible with a progressive Islamic state in the 21st century.
NUSRAT BOKHARI
Islamabad
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