| July 22, 2002 | Monday | Jamadi-ul-Awwal 11,1423 |
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Common man’s woes
GST and middle class
Forgotten national heroes
Jobs in UAE
FPSC website
Who should be a minister?
Immigration to Canada
West Wharf Road
One-sided cooperation!
A great leap forward
Telephone waiting
Eradicating Karo-kari
The cook and the PM
Suspension of public services
THE constitutional reform package envisages enormous power for political parties. But political parties seem to have no time to appreciate that part of the proposed reform.
Once the party leadership can swallow the bitter pill of democracy in party structure, they will start seeing the benefits of the proposed reform. Or perhaps new leadership will have to emerge, for the current undemocratic structures have perpetuated political dynasties.
That President Musharraf is struggling to bring in true party-based democracy should be clear from his assertion that he would want to see the opposition leader sitting on the National Security Council.
In the same light should be seen the proposed measures against floor-crossing. While the proposed amendment to Article 63A seeks to ensure that defections remains barred, it also ensures that party leaders may only initiate proceedings for disqualification of a member culpable of defection. It is only fair that to take a decision in such a matter should rest with the election commission, not party leaders.
For defection clauses should not license party autocrats to purge and prune and cleanse parties of voices of dissent. Dissent is the essence of democracy.
The election commission will be required to decide the matter within 30 days. If the election commission decides that the member did defect he will cease to be member of the house. However, the aggrieved party will have resort to a court of appeal. If this is not democratic, one may well ask, what is?
Equally radical are the provisions of the new Political Parties Order, 2002. The Chief Election Commissioner did well to announce that parties failing to comply with its provisions would be denied participation in the October polls. The law requires parties to file with the EC a copy of their constitution and a statement of their accounts audited by a chartered accountant. Also compulsory is holding party elections and filing results of the elections.
Regarding the proposals relating to Senate election, the idea is to replace the existing indirect election with a direct election though proportional representation based on open party lists. This arrangement will help enhance the institutional esteem of the Senate, and empower the upper house of the parliament. It will vest enormous authority in party leadership, allowing them to nominate senators.
Pakistan has faced decades of political turmoil. This must end. And the constitutional reform is the only viable option to end such travesty of democracy.
ROBINA TAREEN
Karachi
THE common man is least interested in constitutional amendments. He is more worried about electricity, telephone and gas bills, which consume almost 60 to 80 per cent of his earnings.
The remaining is left for food, health and school fees, which is not enough. People want to earn more for the sake of pure survival. They want jobs, peace and security.
No one is interested in elections. The election is not our requirement, it is the need of western powers or the power-hungry politicians who have their own agenda and motives. It is not a priority for the general public, which is sick and tired of this repeated drama.
In one of his referendum speeches, the President asked for strength from the public of Pakistan. We gave it to him. Now it’s his turn to pay us back. Will he give us a commitment that the new government and establishment will go by his agenda and poverty would be eliminated in the next five years? If yes, then he should declare that the rates of utility bills would be reduced and good education and health facilities at low cost would be provided to the people in the next 5-10 years.
Ordinary people are not aware as to when, how, and who got the loans from the IMF and World Bank. Where are these spent? What are the terms and conditions of these loans? Who makes the feasibility for recovery of these loans? Who sees that the work is implemented properly and the loan is paid off as per the plan? Has someone even been put behind bars for not properly implementing and not replenishing the loan in time or is the burden simply passed on to the public by increasing the rates of utility bills?
People fail to understand how the departments like Wapda, gas, telephone, railways, PIA etc can run at a loss. In every country these departments have profits. Has somebody worked on how to make these departments more efficient and profitable?
There is no justification for increasing the prices of utilities. The common man has already suffered a lot.
S. QAISER RAZA
Peshawar
I FEEL it is my moral and ethical duty to draw the attention of the authorities concerned regarding the impact of GST on medicines.
Being a doctor, it is very painful for me to see patients’ sufferings prolonged on account of their inability to meet their treatment costs, more related to drug compliance, just because of high costs.
The poor middle class people, who constitute the majority of our population, are the worst sufferers. They cannot, at times, extend their treatment protocols to the desired extent and, therefore, have to suffer miserably.
DR SOHAIL AHMAD KHAN
Karachi
AS the month of September is approaching, we do remember two distinguished soldiers of the Pakistan army — Lt-Gen Akhtar Husain Malik and Lt-Gen Abdul Ali Malik.
Both were brothers. The former commanded the 12th Infantry Division along with AK forces in the Chamb-Jaurian sector. The latter as a brigadier commanded the 24th infantry brigade along with tank formations from the 25th Cavalry.
The two brothers were awarded the first two Hilal-i-Jurat medals.
My question to the GHQ is: why are these two distinguished soldiers blacked-out by the media programmes on the 1965 war?
HAMEEDULLAH K. MALIK
Daska
THIS is with reference to the letter ‘Jobs in UAE’ (July 2). I fully endorse the views of the writer.
A more painful truth is that India is not dominant only in the job market, its presence is overwhelming in so many other sectors where Pakistan is excluded.
No Urdu radio station plays Pakistani songs and no cinema hall shows Pakistani movies while the latest Indian movies can be seen every where in the UAE.
But, instead of asking for favours, shouldn’t we consider seriously the reasons for such an uncomfortable situation?
ASIF AKBAR
Sahiwal
I WOULD like to draw the attention of the concerned authorities to the non-availability of information pertaining to CSS and PCS examinations on the worldwide web.
Internet is available in almost all the cities of Pakistan. I wonder why the Federal Public Service Commission has not yet launched its website. Though two privately organized websites about these competitive examinations do exist on the internet, there is no official website.
I request the FPSC to launch its own website as soon as possible as it is badly needed.
OWAIS GUL BHOOTANI
Karachi
THIS is with reference to Col Syed Amjad Mukhtar Shah’s letter ‘The biggest flaw’ (July 14) in which the writer has very pertinently pointed out “that experts, with lots of experience and knowledge of each ministry, should be ministers.”
This is the need of the hour. The country suffered a lot in the past only because this very criterion was ignored.
Mostly the ministries were allocated to oblige legislators. There are instances when semi-literate people worked as ministers heading technical departments like communication and power, education, commerce etc.
Credit goes to President Ayub Khan who inducted highly qualified and experienced persons as ministers in the relevant fields. That is why during his era, the country developed industrially and economically. Once a technocrat told me that he made a few official visits to South Korea and found that each minister was highly qualified, and duly experienced in his or her field.
It is our misfortune that mediocrity rules the roost, though with exceptions. When an undeserving and incapable person of doubtful integrity holds high office like that of a minister, he would act just to please his masters and for personal gain.
For such people, the office of a minister is a means to enrich themselves and oblige their near and dear ones.
PROF ATAUL HAQ SUBHANI
Faisalabad
PERSONS migrating from Pakistan to Canada arrive here with high hopes but soon find them shattered. The job market conditions here were never attractive enough but recently the same have become worse.
About a year ago, one could get some odd job at a store, or as a watchman or as a worker in a factory.
From this, one could make about CD$1,200-1,300 per month which was barely sufficient to support a family of two members. But nowadays it is difficult to get even an odd job on a regular basis. After much running about, one hardly gets work on two or three days in a week.
I have worked in factories and the immigrants who used to work with me included PhDs, MBAs and medical doctors, some of them specialists.
Strangely enough, immigration is granted on the basis of one’s educational attainments, that is, one who holds a professional degree — like that of engineering, medicine or management — enjoys a better chance for getting an immigration.
But once the immigrant lands here, his degree becomes of no value because it is not recognized here unless one takes up some courses here and gets the necessary certificates.
There can be no doubt that Canada is really a very peaceful country. But what can you do with this peace when you do not have the proper means to support yourself financially.
The purpose of writing this letter is to tell every Pakistani intending to come to Canada to think many times before taking a final decision.
I know that many of them sell their properties and belongings to finance their immigration. But when they reach here they find themselves caught in a highly desperate situation.
MUMTAZ LASHARI
Ontario, Canada
THIS is my fourth letter on the subject but no one in the KPT is least bothered about the battered and virtually non-existent West Wharf Road, stretching between Kutiyana General Hospital and West Wharf.
The irony is that the KPT vigilance staff is busy discouraging poor vendors from selling food stuff on carts. But it seems that either they do not report the condition of the road to their higher-ups or the latter are deaf.
DR JAMAL NASIR MEMON
Karachi
THE FBI is free to arrest anyone, any time and anywhere in Pakistan, and to take him outside the country without any legal formalities. This is called co-operation between friends.
On the other hand, our minister for interior has given lists of some corrupt persons, wanted here, to the US government on different occasions. But that has been ignored and those criminals are enjoying their lives in the US with the money looted from Pakistan.
What would this one-sided co-operation be called?
RAJA M. ASLAM KHAN
Gujar Khan
THE Supreme Court judgment on various petitions against the graduate condition for a candidate to become member of national or provincial assembly is momentous. It is going to produce better parliamentarians and pave the way for more legislation and less ordinances.
My personal experience of 1988-90 national assembly, which is regarded as a better assembly chaired by Malik Mairaj Khalid, is that it, too, could not do full justice to legislation work.
We still have colonial era laws instead of acts to suit the requirement of modern times.
The reason is that a large percentage of assembly members were either illiterate or semi-literate and not able to comprehend a bill or an ordinance, what to speak of drafting bills or framing questions.
There were members who could not even write their leave applications addressed to the speaker.
Members were mostly interested in contacting ministers in their chambers for their personal gains and, as such, at times there was lack of quorum in the house.
With the new condition of qualification for assembly members, proper legislative culture would emerge and hopefully result in the demise of feudal culture in parliament and in the country. It is a great leap forward.
S.M. ZAKERYA KAZMI
Karachi
MOST of the organizations and offices have telephone exchanges that have a waiting prompt music system.
The music bits are okay, but there is a system that has the ‘qirat’ from the Holy Quran, which is disrupted on connection of the desired line. In some cases, recorded naats are also installed, and this too is abruptly ended when the line is through. This certainly causes disrespect to both.
I think it would be most appropriate if only the music bits are used as the waiting prompts.
S.A. HUSSAINI
Karachi
EVERY month a large number of innocent girls fall prey to the custom of Karo-kari (the so-called honour killing).
This menace must be eradicated. The first step would be to create awareness among the people that is an un-Islamic act.
A law should be enacted to severely punish the culprits. The NGOs should also take up the issue in earnest to save hundreds of innocent lives.
ABDUL RAHMAN MALIK
Kandhkot, Jacobabad
DESPITE all assurances, the factual position of the new prime minister has been portrayed thus:
“In a master and servant relationship, if you give the kitchen keys to the cook, does he indeed become the ‘executive authority’ in the house?
“That authority remains with the person who can fire the cook at will.”
The parallel between the cook and the prime minister ends there, the cook is better off.
The master does not turn the driver and the chowkidar against the cook, but the cabinet and parliament can be pitted against the prime minister in the new dispensation.
Another apt observation: since the army will have a permanent presence through the device of the NSC, the claim that army intervention has been forestalled is meaningless.
Or as I once put it: “The best way to ensure that the thief does not break in again, is to allot him the guest bedroom.”
KHURSHID ANWER
Lahore
I DECIDED to a pay a visit to the British Council, where I had worked some time ago, to meet my old colleagues. I parked my car besides the council’s main gate only to see what was once a very busy and popularly visited institution now gravely deserted.
The building was surrounded by barbed wire, and armed security personnel were guarding the building that came under threat of blowing.
We had once proposed to our director to deploy armed security guards around the council. But the proposal was immediately rejected as he said: “This is an institution which is open to the general public, anybody can come here without fear, and we don’t want to welcome people especially our children with guns.”
I am sure there are thousands of professionals in this country who have attended courses or workshops and millions of students who went through their examinations or are studying abroad due to the help and guidance provided by the British Council; not forgetting the vast number of people who visited the council’s library on a regular basis.
There was a bomb blast not so long ago outside the British Council’s premises. One of my senior colleagues told me it was their payday and due to the blast all the local staff were given their salaries outside the premises. Why have some so-called religious champions plotted to destroy this institution by blowing it?
The only answer, a sane person would come up with, is that these people don’t want to see Pakistani Muslims happy, enjoying their lives and becoming successful citizens.
Our Holy Prophet Muhammad once said: “You should even go to China if you want to gain knowledge.” The Holy Prophet was aware that Chinese people were not Muslims, and even then advised his followers to go there. The message was also that other religions should be respected. Inside the British Council, mostly Muslims of this country come to seek knowledge. Would Allah ever approve of the killing of the people who are serving the people of this Muslim country?
Are these jihadis really jihadis? If they are real jihadis, why don’t they have jihad against illiteracy? They can have jihad against the corrupt politicians and bureaucrats of this country. They can have jihad against the so-called champions of Islam who didn’t send their own sons to jihad but brainwashed and persuaded others to send their loved ones to be killed.
SAYED AKIF NAQVI
Karachi
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