| July 14, 2002 | Sunday | Jamadi-ul-Awwal 3, 1423 |
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Malaysia under Mahathir
The walled garden of truth
Two sets of road laws
Judges in Balochistan
Exposing champions of democracy
Radcliffe Award
Shocking statement
Army construction
Dentists and taxes
NAB’s credibility at stake
Plots against VIPs
MVT confusion
Snow leopards
The disaster of Hasan-Aulia
THE biggest flaw in our system of governance has not been identified and dealt with. It is that the elected representatives i.e. senators/ MNAs/ MPAs become executives/ ministers and thereby run riot with this country. This creates a great imbalance in the main components of the system of governance.
The legislators, who are also, unfortunately, in many cases, lacking in sufficient appropriate grooming, education and training, become the ministers also.
Nay, in many cases, the primary purpose of being elected is to become ministers and thereby loot the country. The absence of proper checks and balances, leads to wide spread corruption and the breakdown of administration.
The system of working is blighted by nepotism and cronyism. We have suffered very heavily as a result. This needs to be stopped if we are to survive and progress. The needs of the modern world have made it necessary that experts, with lots of experience and knowledge of each ministry, should be ministers.
The great strength of the American president is that he has the best technocrats as his ministers, and America is now the top country of the world.
In the presidential and congressional form of government the members of the legislature, senators or congressmen are not allowed to become ministers.
Nor can they hold any civil/ public office. We must impose this restriction. If they want to become ministers then they must quit the legislature. This one amendment alone will tremendously improve our governance, and is a must for our future prosperity.
COL SYED AMJAD MUKHTAR SHAH
Karachi
MALAYSIA under Mahathir has been a rare example of governance in a Muslim state, a vision of Islam which is secular and tolerant, and is reminiscent of the values that Islam really stands for in modern times.
It is true that Mahathir has made Malaysia a modern, progressive nation-state, and he came at a time when Malaysia’s fragile balance of Malay and Chinese populations was on the verge of explosion.
But it is valuable also to remind ourselves that Mahathir used that most rare of rallying cries that now seems all but lost in the Muslim world today. He warned against fundamentalism. Purists will argue that while this was done for opportunistic reasons, but the subsequent history of Malaysia shows that however opportunistic it was, the programme worked. That programme was necessary in Malaysia at that time in order to preserve the ethnic unity of Malaysia, and to preserve the vital economic lifeline which the Chinese community provided to Malaysia’s socio-economic life.
Mahathir has been accused of strangling opposition at home by repeatedly abusing the notorious Law of Security. But he never usurped power in a military coup, nor did he ever deliver the state in ransom to a bunch of fanatics.
I think that the presence of a Mahathir Muhammad in the Muslim world has ensured that contrary to the beliefs of vainglorious orientalists like Bernard Lewis and V.S. Naipaul, our religion is very much compatible with ideals of democracy and enlightenment.
RAZA NAEEM
Lahore
MR Roedad Khan’s article, ‘Why this march of folly?’ (Dawn, July 8) makes good reading.
To make it more holistic I may add that the army in politics has come about on more than one occasion after the civil administration had winked at it. The camel having entered the tent will behave as a camel should. We are all responsible for the mess.
Fixed views and logic based on a faulty foundation has resulted in a number of statements sown by Gen Naqvi which will reap the whirlwind. Originally, the DCO was to be given only staff or support functions to ensure coordination (it cannot be done by fiat). The DCO will now end up by being the deputy commissioner, omnipotent more so because we must never experiment at the front line.
The new district administration is akin to introducing an untried new weapon system. Common sense dictates the need for introducing the necessary change at a digestible rate. The standard way would have been to go in for a few model districts (urban and rural) and worked them out like an educational order. Any modifications would not upset the applecart in a big way. Unfortunately, that was never to be.
The powers that matter need to quickly introspect involving the uninvolved to retrieve what appears to be going off at a tangent.
One symptom is that in Punjab Rs1,000 crores lapsed only last year. An honest reply to this will keep us away from the garden path.
And this needs to be done, otherwise as Hakim Sanai (The Walled Garden of Truth) says: “When you are still fragmented lacking certainty — what difference does it make what your decisions are?”
Such a situation must be avoided.
MASOOD HASAN
Lahore
ON Friday morning around 8:50 pm, I was heading back from the governor’s secretariat towards Clifton Bridge when a machine gun toting Pakistan Rangers jawan signalled me to pull over my car. The loaded gun and not so civilian perceptive jawan combination convinced me to pull over.
I was asked to open the car trunk since he could not figure out how to, but without bothering to request or inform, the jawans opened the car doors and started dismantling the non-permanent and removable see-through sunscreens. I told them that these were removable screens and painstakingly explained the difference between the two types to no avail.
I also approached the leader of this posse, a very mute and indifferent Major, whose only sentence was that the law does not allow it.
Nonetheless, the automaton-like jawans went on with their task of ripping the car of its sunscreens, the screens were thrown on the footpath. I told them specifically to destroy the sunscreens, as I do not want anyone else using or selling them.
While all this was going on, many dark screened GS, GP, military sedans and SP cars drove by but none was pulled over by the ever-vigilant jawans of Pakistan Rangers. I saw the same scene on the way back, minus any government cars, that were pulled over.
I guess we have two sets of road law when it comes to application: an applicable set for the civilians and exemptions for those with government and armed forces license plates.
The FBI in USA during the post-9/11 routine searches displayed consummate professionalism and exemplary politeness. Since the FBI is on board here, it would not hurt to get some lessons in dealing with public and specifically the urbanites.
DR KHAWAR MEHDI
Karachi
I WANT to draw the attention of the concerned authorities towards the shortage of judges in the Balochistan High Court.
As in other provinces, judicial work in the courts in Balochistan has always been too overwhelming to be promptly coped with by the existing strength of judges.
Besides that, as the old tribal system is gradually failing, more and more people are turning to the courts. As a result of this, thousands of cases are now pending.
The Balochistan High Court had four judges and one chief justice, before an honourable judge resigned about three months ago.
Of the remaining three judges, one was appointed as member of the election commission and, therefore, had little time for cases other than those related to referendum and, later, to delimitation issues. Thus, almost all the burden is being shared by two judges and the chief justice.
The government of Balochistan is believed to have sent its recommendations to the federal government but, though a good number of judges was appointed for the Punjab High Court a few days ago, the case for the appointment of high court judges in Balochistan has remained undecided.
This unnecessary delay in the case of Balochistan, which is causing difficulties for the people of this province, is not understandable.
SHAHAB KHAN KHOSA
Quetta
I ENJOYED Mr ABS Jafari’s detailed piece on a self-proclaimed champion of democracy, Raja Zafarul Haq of the Pakistan Muslim League (July 3). His note on the Raja is superb. He has pointed out that BBC is ignorant of his murky background regarding democracy but I beg to differ with him.
I think BBC might have ignored this aspect keeping in view the political history of Pakistan. Almost all political parties and their leaders like Nawabzada Nasarullah Khan, Air Marshal Asghar Khan, Maulana Maududi, Mufti Mahmud, Begum and Mr Wali Khan, Maulana Shah Ahmad Noorani and many others had supported Gen Zia when he promulgated martial law in 1977 and arrested Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and other leading stalwarts of the PPP.
The leaders supporting Gen Zia allowed their junior party members to join the martial law cabinet but the general proved smarter than them and kicked them out after getting ZAB’s hanging approved by the cabinet.
It is time all champions of democracy were exposed so that the old and new voters are not taken in by their doctored history.
HAFEEZ AKHTAR
Lahore
MR Herbert Christopher Beaumont, who died recently at the age of 89, made the sensational disclosure that the change in the Radcliffe Award was manoeuvred by Lord Mountbatten in favour of India.
This disclosure has been recorded by The Times, London, while announcing the death of Mr Beaumont, who was one of the many civil servants in the last days of the Raj. Mr Beaumont, who retired as a circuit judge, had asserted that under Nehru’s influence, the viceroy had put pressure on the head of the Boundaries Commission to alter the frontier in India’s favour.
Mr Beaumont had further stated that the commission’s deliberations were supposed to be secret, impartial and impervious to political persuasion but after Lord Radcliffe had drawn the line in Punjab, he was persuaded at a lunch with Mountbatten, to change his mind about the sub-districts Ferozepur and Zira.
This is an important evidence of how the Radcliffe Award was changed. History must record the truth and it is for the authorities in Pakistan to decide if, despite lapse of considerable time, a claim could be made.
MAHER H. ALAVI
Karachi
IT was shocking to read the statements of Mr Ghazi in which he considered the ‘suicide attacks’ carried out by Palestinians in accordance with the Shariah.
It is known to everyone that suicide is forbidden in Islam. Life is a great blessing of Allah and suicide is a refusal of His blessings. Would Mr Ghazi tell us how many sahaba practised suicide?
Palestine is a political issue and should be solved accordingly.
If a suicide attack is the only solution of political problems then I am afraid every political party will have to maintain a wing of depressed and immensely frustrated people to be used as suicide attack-ers.
FAIZA AMIN
Rawalpindi
THE military is constructing apartments for its staff on the land adjacent to the National Stadium. This is highly regrettable.
This land should be left open as Karachi does need open spaces to maintain an environmental balance.
I appeal to the press and to the relevant agencies to strongly protest against this construction. It is just about to start and, therefore, this is the right time to press them to stop it.
Are the military authorities listening?
S.K. MASOOD
Pine Bluff, USA
AN MBBS doctor has to pay a professional tax of Rs1,500 p.a. and the one with a postgraduate degree and called a ‘specialist’ is charged Rs7,000 p.a. But the income tax department, acting on its own whims, is asking a BDS (which is a bachelor’s degree and not a postgraduate degree) dental surgeon, to pay a professional tax of Rs7,000 p.a.
Several petitions have been submitted to the income tax department but the same have remained without any result. Will the higher ups look into the matter and save the dental surgeons from mental agony.
M. ARSHAD CHUDHRI
Faisalabad
THE National Accountability Bureau’s advertisement published in some leading national dailies (July 7) would not be taken seriously as long as the prevailing impression of selective accountability is not removed, particularly in the province of Punjab where widely known corrupt and filthy rich politicians, bureaucrats and retired generals have not been touched.
For example, no action has been taken against a former federal minister and a former Punjab minister who were involved in depriving widows, orphans, pensioners, and the poor of their lifetime savings. It has been so despite numerous press reports published during the last 10 years and written appeals submitted by the affected persons to the previous chairman of the NAB.
Having faith in the honesty of the new chairman of the NAB, it is my humble suggestion that he should first take action against those bureaucrats who are siding with the corrupt, keeping him in the dark, and advising him to release advertisements which fail to impress anyone.
PROF ABDUL MAJID
Lahore
THOSE accused in the recent attack on the US Consulate in Karachi have admitted to have plotted to blow up President Musharraf’s motorcade when he came here before the referendum. In the US, people have been made to believe that the plane that crashed (or was blown up) in Pennsylvania on Sept 11 was intended for the White House and President Bush.
Isn’t it surprising that plots targeting the presidents fail while others succeed, killing ordinary citizens.
MOHAMMAD ADIL
Karachi
I WOULD like to ask the motor vehicle tax collecting authorities if we should pay the motor vehicle tax as we did previously.
There is a great confusion because Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz had announced in his budget speech of 2002-2003 that motor vehicle tax would be abolished by July, 2002.
ASHAR NIZAM
Karachi
I RECENTLY read an article on snow leopards on the National Geographic site. The article says that only 7,000 of these big cats survive and this number is constantly declining. Pakistan is one of those countries where this animal is not safe.
I would like to know from the wildlife department and from the concerned ministry about the allocation of funds for this beautiful animal.
We don’t want to see our Himalayas without this rare being.
AMEER HAMZA
Karachi
ON July 9 the front page of Dawn featured a most heroic news item ‘Foreign Office condemns demolition of century-old mosque in Ahmedabad’. The Foreign Office spokesman rightly called it “a reprehensible act... aimed at depriving the Muslim minority of their fundamental right to worship.”
Such an act is indeed reprehensible, and must be condemned by all those with any value for human dignity. It would be a pleasant surprise, however, if the Pakistan government would remember that guarding the rights of the Muslim majority in their own homeland, too, is something to which they took allegiance at the birth of this nation.
The Jamia Mosque of Hasan-Aulia Basti was built in 1890. This mosque, which has stood in village Hasan-Aulia for over a century, is going to be demolished on the orders of the government of Pakistan.
On July 7, I visited Hasan-Aulia village, a low-income settlement on the banks of Lyari River, Karachi. Besides the historic Jamia Mosque, 1,300 homes, three other mosques, two clinics, 10 mazaars, and 200 shops have all been earmarked for demolition.
Ironically, land was allotted to residents of this village by our colonial rulers, the British. In 1993, homes in the basti were granted lease by the Sindh Katchi Abadi Authority. Over time residents of the village with their own agonizing efforts, secured legal electricity, water supply, and sewerage. Today the village houses an estimated population of 15,000.
Over the past six months the residents of Hasan-Aulia village have received threats from the Pakistan government regarding the demolition of their homes, as these stand in the way of the highly suspect project of Lyari Expressway.
Does the rule of law in Pakistan itself declare it legal to disgrace lives, homes, and places of worship in the name of so-called ‘development’?
And is there really no alternative than to strip people of their shelter, their dignity and of what they have called their own for more than a hundred years?
Perhaps the Foreign Office or for that matter any of the guardians of the rights of Muslims, should also remember that Muslim lives and places of worship on their own soil are just as precious as those on enemy territory.
It is easy to wage wars and condemn acts of violence and injustice.
What does not come so naturally, unfortunately, is for the Pakistan government to once in a while check its own acts of shame.
RABIA ASIF
Karachi
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