| July 17, 2002 | Wednesday | Jamadi-ul-Awwal 6, 1423 |
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PTCL’s sense of justice
New drug policy
Presidential form of governance
Closing the supplies department
Pakistan embassy in Australia
Living for a thousand years
Pandora’s box
Road tax payment
Power thefts
Why this extravagance?
Zero sum game
Mangrove park along Mai Kolachi
THIS is with reference to Lt-Col Muhammad Aslam Warriach’s letter (July 10) which makes interesting reading, especially when the writer says that “some of them (political parties) have even decided to challenge it in the Supreme Court because it debars about 95 per cent of our population from contesting elections and is, therefore, violative of their fundamental rights. Very funny! Now if any university requires the services of a professor and invites applications from PhD degree holders in the relevant field, somebody would challenge the same as it debars more than 99 per cent of our population from applying for the job.
Is it not ridiculous that even the qualification for a peon is prescribed but interestingly, there is no qualification at all for legislators who are assigned the onerous task and enormous responsibility of law-making? In the larger interest of the nation, I propose that at least 50 per cent seats of the legislatures should be reserved for retired judges, senior advocates, retired university professors, retired diplomats, and retired senior military and civil servants. However, some foolproof and transparent method should be adopted for their induction as legislators.
Moreover, their credentials, integrity, honesty and patriotism must be thoroughly checked. Such persons should not have any lust for power, avarice for wealth and greed for foreign currency accounts. I am sure that we can find so many people from among these categories who believe in simple living and high thinking like justice AR Cornelius and Sardar Abdul Rab Nishtar.
PROF ATTAUL HAQ SUBHANI
Faisalabad
PLEASE accept my congratulations for an extremely meaningful editorial ‘Senseless eligibility bar’ (July 13) on the Supreme Court’s judgement upholding the graduation condition.
You are right in pointing out that in any modern democracy, any person who is eligible to cast a vote also has the right to stand for election unless he has been convicted for a serious crime. In the present British cabinet headed by Tony Blair, they have a blind person as a minister who got elected through the normal election process.
I whole-heartedly support your views that any law that snatches away the right to contest election from 98 per cent of the population cannot possibly be a good law.
K.A. WAHID BUTT
Lahore
I SHARE the disappointment felt by Mr Sohail Matin, (July 2). He has pointed out the enormous funds being wasted by the PTCL on advertisements in offering several facilities and incentives to attract new clients.
In fact, all such moves are no better than a spider’s web and once anyone becomes a victim of such offers, may it be change of name only or shifting of the telephone from one premises to another or installation of a new telephone, the company fully displays its habitual attitude of clerical obscurantism in dealing with the new customer who is completely baffled in meeting various demands of the clerks before reaching the ‘Demand Note’ stage.
Any contact at officer level is not possible as the divisional engineer is always busy in a meeting and has little time to meet the applicants.
The existing practice of the PTCL in dealing with a telephone subscriber who unfortunately fails to pay his monthly bill on the due date because of some unavoidable circumstances is that the company not only blocks his telephone from making any outside calls but also deprives other subscribers of their right to access the number.
The company can punish the defaulting number as it deems fit but has no justification in debarring other subscribers from exercising their right of access to any other number as they are not in default and have fully paid their dues, including the abnormal line rent, and cannot in any way be treated as partners in crime in the matter.
Justice demands that only the outgoing calls of the offender be blocked but there is no justification in completely excommunicating him from the rest of the community.
I suggest that instead of spending enormous funds on advertisements, the company should think of reducing various charges such as line rent, local call charges, sales tax and the funny wealth tax, in order to bring the telephone within the reach of the common man; as this has now become the need of every household and is not limited to a few wealthy people alone.
The company is also well advised to publish a booklet for its subscribers on the proper use of the telephone, its operational procedures and the contractual obligations of the subscribers.
This will undoubtedly improve its working and create a sense of decency among the subscribers.
BASHIR AHMED QURESHI
Lahore
THE last few weeks have seen a lot of articles in the press on the new drug policy that is being formulated. The main direction these articles have taken is towards one of the points of the draft — ‘the deregulation of prices’.
Prices being a very sensitive issue are being highlighted the most. Everybody seems to have forgotten or ignored the other important issues.
Issues like drug registration, import and export, regulatory environment, marketing and advertising, professional boards, good manufacturing practices, good clinical practices, patents and trademarks, biotechnology, investment and local manufacture, veterinary pharmaceuticals, traditional medicines and of course the national advisory board.
It is requested that if at all someone it trying to help the poor patients with regards to the above and drafting a comprehensive policy, the authorities should see the draft as a whole and not get carried away by anything.
Important issues for fast registration of new chemical entities (NCIs), generics and their bioequivalence reports, safety studies for three years to ensure that these are not harmful, and others, should also remain at the top and reviewed.
Pricing comparison with countries of the region is not at all feasible as you cannot just see the figures and ignore all other factors such as the total market production and provision of raw material, labour cost and, above all, sustained and lasting drug policy.
The ministry of health is trying to keep all of this under its belt and by doing so ignor-ing the more important issues like regulation (chemists, safety, advertisement etc), because they do not have the time, resources and money for them.
The important thing is that the patients should benefit from the support of the government/ authorities.
If the ministry of health has no time to regulate the more important issues besides the price, then it should be magnanimous enough to forego some controls and give it to the ministry which can do a better job.
All of this would ultimately benefit the patients and that is what we should all be working for.
A PRACTISING DOCTOR
Islamabad
IN pursuance of the Objectives Resolution, whichever constitution we have had including the one adopted unanimously in 1973, the preamble states that “no law can be repugnant to Quran and Sunnah”, implying thereby that the genius of Pakistan is inclined towards the Islamic concept of governance.
And that concept is based on having a khalifa and a majlis-i-shoora to advise him.
Today, the form of government closest to this is the presidential form. Moreover, this will obviate the need to have a prime minister besides the president. Thus, one of the two ‘tigers’ in the same jungle would be removed.
It has been proposed to have direct elections for the senate as well. That brings it at par with the national assembly. This duplication would only result in additional financial burden for nothing.
It is, therefore, felt that the senate should be done away with altogether.
As for the National Security Council, it should be headed by the Chief Justice of Pakistan and should have the Chief of the Army Staff and the Chief Election Commissioner as its members.
This presupposes that the judiciary and the election commission would be absolutely independent. The National Security Council, thus formed, should have the suo moto power to de-seat the president. Such an arrangement will circumvent the rigmarole of impeachment.
A.M. SAYIED
Karachi
IT has been learnt that the federal Ministry of Industries and Production is closing down the department of supplies which was created by the Pakistan government in the 1950s for centralized bulk purchases.
The procedures followed by the supplies department ensured fair price and specified quality.
The purchases were made through open tenders and the quality was checked by the inspection wing. After the closure of the department of supplies, all indenters will make purchases directly.
It is quite likely that the same item would be purchased by different indenters at different rates and on different terms and conditions, depending entirely on the mutual understanding of the indenter and the supplier.
It is feared that the closure of the supplies department and direct purchases by every government department would lead to huge irregularities and, therefore, huge losses of the taxpayers’ money. It is, therefore, requested that the concerned higher authorities should look into the matter immediately.
A WORRIED CITIZEN
Karachi
ON a recent visit to Australia, I booked a tour by bus and went from Sydney to Canberra.
While passing through the streets of Canberra, the guide pointed out to the foreign missions of different countries in an area where the Australian government has provided land to foreign embassies for the construction of their buildings at their own cost.
We saw the embassies of many countries including the high commissions of India and Bangladesh. When we passed by a vacant plot, the guide said with some ridicule that some day Pakistan might build its embassy on it. The land had been earmarked for Pakistan for decades but the Pakistan government never had the money to carry out the construction.
Could somebody explain why Pakistan cannot afford an embassy in Canberra in that locality now, when a large number of Pakistanis are either living there or visit as tourists?
SYED ANZAR
Medan, Indonesia
IN a recent article in Dawn it was stated that Attaturk entered Izmir (driving out the invading Greeks) on September 9, 1922. The day is still celebrated as the Turkish independence day. There was only one chant heard in Turkey:
Yesha! Yasha! bin yesha! Mustafa Kemal Pasha
(A thousand years of life to Mustafa Kemal Pasha).
Attaturk did not live for a thousand years. He died when only 57. Every clock in the palace has been stopped at five minutes past nine, the moment when he died. But Attaturk may have saved Turkey for the next thousand years.
This is how a nation’s real benefactor lives for a thousand years, even though dying young and not by scheming to perpetuate himself in power by devious means.
May Allah grant our rulers some grace, some foresight and may their ambition be earth-bound and not sky-high, so that history may remember them with kindness.
AMANULLAH KHAN
Lahore
THE President has thrown open the debate on constitutional amendments. Let’s us take the composition of the National Security Council (NSC).
President: Gen Musharraf
National Security Council president: Gen Musharraf
Army Chief: Gen Musharraf
Services chiefs: appointed by Gen Musharraf
Governors: appointed by Gen Musharraf
Prime Minister: nominated by Gen Musharraf
Do I have to say any more?
KHURSHID ANWER
Lahore
WE hear a lot about the government’s efforts in making life easier for the taxpayers but one only has to visit any of the post offices these days to witness the hardships the road taxpayers have to go through to fill up the government’s coffers.
People would be seen in long queues standing in the open and exposed to the hot sweltering weather. The average waiting time can be anywhere from three to four hours. Normally, one would find only one or two persons from amongst the post office staff catering to the needs of this unfortunate lot.
At the post office in my neighbourhood, when I happened to be there, only one person (none other than the postmaster himself) was collecting the tax. On my query, he told me that they had asked for additional hands for this non-routine work but this very genuine request had not been acceded to.
The least the provincial government, which collects so much revenue from this single source, could do was to increase the number of service points to make life somewhat easier for the taxpayers. Other alternatives, like payment through banks, should also be considered. The best one is perhaps what the Sindh government is contemplating i.e. including the road tax in the fuel price.
MOHAMMAD YUSUF QURESHI
Lahore
THIS refers to Syed Shahid Husain’s article titled ‘KESC for 16 pc raise in tariff’ (Dawn, EBR, July 15-21). According to the article, KESC gives the reason for seeking the increase due to increase in oil prices. As a sweetener KESC promises that it will be able to serve its customer better.
As an old customer of KESC, I call these claims as absolute nonsense. Oil prices have actually declined. Apparently KESC bigwigs are ignorant of this fact or they would have used some other excuse. The real reason for KESC’s financial malaise is the massive power theft which takes place with KESC’s connivance. I am witness to one such theft which is taking place in the market of Al-Azam Square in Federal ‘B’ Area, Block-I.
Fabrication work takes place there everyday using compressors and welding machines. The power is being stolen from KESC power lines. One can see the ‘kunda’ with a long wire everyday. The owner of the business sets up this theft arrangement without a care in the world. Obviously he is greasing come KESC palms.
The consumers are now being asked to meet the theft shortfall. I will strongly resist such a move as I feel I am already paying too much. Talk of providing better service is rubbish.
JAVAID OSMAN
Karachi
ACCORDING to a report in the press, the President distributed cheques of Rs0.5 million each among our cricketers. This has been done at a time when many in this country cannot get even two meals a day.
Can one ask that when the players are already earning millions of dollars, why this extravagance in a country where 40 per cent of the population lives below the poverty line?
Couldn’t this huge amount be spent in other sectors like education, health and development?
ABDUL QAHAR PUKHTOON
Islamabad
THE proposed amendments in the constitution suggest that the President and the so-called establishment are going to win all heads, while the prime minister and parliament will lose all their tails.
MUSTAFA MEHESAR
Karachi
THIS is with reference to the letter by Mr Azmat Ansari (July 6) about a proposed ‘Mangrove Park’ on Mai Kolachi bypass. While paying tribute to the (late) Omar Asghar Khan for his services to the environment, he has referred to “the ban he effected on the construction work in the remnants of Mai Kolachi mangrove forest. The earth, an introduced element, had been brought there by vested interests at an exorbitant cost to push the sea backwards so that construction could take place.”
One does not see any trace of ‘Mai Kolachi mangrove forest’. The fact is that the mangroves in this area as well as along the Mauripur Road were already well on their way to destruction by a number of factors including sewerage contaminated with industrial waste long before the construction of the Mai Kolachi, or the Southern Bypass.
The encroachment by katchi abadis in the area — which is another manifestation of ‘land mafia’ — and cutting of mangrove trees further made such growth impossible.
The land that was reclaimed for Mai Kolachi belongs to the Karachi Port Trust. The Sindh government attempted to take over some of this land during the last time PPP was in power. Had they succeeded, the land would have been sold for commercial development and ended up falling into the clutches of the powerful land mafia, from whom no one could have retrieved it.
Since the 1840s or thereabouts, the developmental requirements of the port and the city have controlled the reclamation of land and construction of moles, dykes, jetties, breakwaters, roads and other port related works along and adjoining the harbour.
Without such development, we would not have had a modern port, and consequently this city of over 10 million that we have now.
Mangroves are located along nearly the whole of the Balochistan coast and their destruction in a very small, infinitesimal portion near the port is a small price to pay for meeting the developmental needs of the port, the city and its residents.
Now some starry eyed idealists want a ‘mangrove park’ to be planted in Mai Kolachi area, but there is very little chance of such growth, considering the contamination and the changed environs.
If a mangrove park is desi-red, such a park may have greater chances of success around and beyond the Sandspit area.
S.H. ZAIDI
Karachi
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