| August 11, 2002 | Sunday | Jamadi-us-Saani 1, 1423 |
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Standards in medical studies
Base of our country
People’s will is supreme
Date growers’ plight
Discrimination?
Parliament
Who should own the fault?
Currency notes
Hostile police
Inefficiency causes loss
Anti-Islamic websites
Performance at Commonwealth games
I ENDORSE the views expressed in Sohaib Umar’s letter ‘The verdict on Riba’. However, there are no two opinions on abolishing interest or Riba from our system but to do this at one stroke is neither feasible nor practicable.
In my opinion, the economy can easily get rid of interest or Riba if it is applied in phases.
The development banking sector has the necessary potential to adopt the interest free system. As a matter of fact, it is the most suitable field for application of interest-free financing, which doesn’t allow any industrial unit to become sick.
The existence of sick units is the result in interest-bearing financing which make the bank’s management least concerned about identifying the real problems and analyzing them for a solution.
In view of such an attitude, the project becomes sick either in implementation or operational stage.
In order to understand the situation, the present procedure of loan sanction, disbursement and the follow-up for recovery is analyzed as under:
An industrial project is set up with finances from two principal sources: sponsors who put their hard-earned money in the form of equity and the development bank which advances money in the form of loan. Before the sanction of loan, the development banks appraises the project and prepares the feasibility report, which covers all important aspects viz. economic, marketing, finance, engineering and management. The feasibility report also deals in detail the production and selling of products. As a consequence the repayment of instalments and interest is tied up to profitability of the project.
However, it is highly surprising to note that once the disbursement of loan is made, the attitude of the bank changes to that of a money lender. It simply confines itself to the recovery aspect forgetting the commitments on repayment appearing in the feasibility report.
At the most the bank allows re-scheduling or re-structuring the overdue liability in the name of revival of the unit or facility for the sponsors, yet it contains condition of down payments from sick unit even if it is lying closed for decades. Thus the so-called re-scheduling or re-structuring proposals or revival packages are nothing but recovery tactics in disguise.
If interest or Riba is removed from the development banking sector, the loans will have to be sanctioned and advanced as interest-free finance and the bank’s management will have to be represented on the borrower company’s directorate to the extent of its financing so as to take part in important affairs of the company which will enable the bank to exercise effective monitoring, resulting in the implementation and smooth operation of the project.
It is my belief as an old experienced development banker that not only would all the projects financed by a development bank would be in production strengthening the economy of Pakistan but would also provide a good model to other sectors of the economy to adopt Riba free system.
M SIRAJUL HASSAN
Karachi
THIS is with reference to an article ‘Uniform standards in medical education’ (Aug 4).
The suggestions made in the later part of the article seem to be unacceptable on the basis of practical feasibility. The writer has proposed that all medical graduates should be put to a licensing examination system in order to introduce uniform standards in medical education.
Here the author has conveniently ignored some basic aspects of training, which include lab work, techniques on dealing with a variety of patients, acquisition of theoretical and practical knowledge under the supervision of an experienced faculty and, most importantly, character building. All this is achieved only in a conducive atmosphere in purpose-built institutions with good administration.
If all these basic requirements for a good doctor are not catered to, the best option for anyone to become a doctor would be through attending the Allama Iqbal Open University and other distant learning courses. Here, the students will also be spared the discomfort of even getting admission to a medical college.
The writer and others with a similar frame of mind should realize that private sector should not attempt at equalizing with the public sector anywhere because it gives rise to such uncouth arrangements as suggested in the article.
However, private medical institutions should concentrate on setting higher standards of education. Proper check and balance by the PDMC is mandatory to ensure quality education but it should be free of all prejudices.
DR SHOAIB TAUHEED
Islamabad
NAELA Hasan, in her letter (Aug 7) says that western democracy was developed in a colonial context, with the system providing unlimited scope for trial and error. We cannot afford such a luxury. Our British rulers left us in 1947 to do what we considered best for our needs for the future.
The Indians continued to run their governments based on the western style of democracy with minor changes suited to their requirements without any difficulty.
Today, India is known as the largest democracy in the world. After the sad demise of the Quaid-i-Azam, and Liaquat Ali Khan, the government of the day opted to make Pakistan an Islamic democratic republic by incorporating the ‘Objectives Resolution’ as an integral part of our Constitution.
There being no other example in the world of this type of arrangement, each and every government went astray leading to novel experiments which failed due to lack of firm foundations coupled with the whimsical frame of mind of our rulers.
The turmoil is not over yet, because the country is being governed by a general who has proclaimed himself as the country’s president through a debatable referendum and who is out to plough through the existing Constitution which was acceptable to all the federating units.
Time alone will tell whether we will ever occupy a respectable place in the comity of nations.
K A WAHID BUTT
Lahore
IT is widely believed that the world came closer to a nuclear exchange during the recent standoff between India and Pakistan than at any time since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis.
As that fateful episode from 1962 often serves as a benchmark while gauging the gravity of military crisis of far-reaching global repercussions, it would be highly appropriate to have some acquaintance with the subject matter.
For that purpose, an American movie ‘Thirteen Days’ featuring the Cuban missile crises can be recommended as a convenient shortcut for laymen. The film not only depicts the momentous chain of events in an impressive manner, but also offers some frightening glimpses of the standard military frame of mind as well.
One can also aptly correlate its conclusions to our own debacles/dilemmas, right from the Operation Gibraltar, the East Pakistan tragedy and the Kargil adventure down to the ongoing (vital) discussion in the print media about the role of the armed forces in the political configuration of Pakistan.
Every patriotic Pakistani wants the armed forces to be strong, capable of delivering formidable punishment to any aggressor.
Strong enough to defend the motherland but not stronger than the state itself.
Unconstitutional infringements and ad-hoc measures might work for a while but can never be a panacea for deep-rooted ills.
Far greater service to this unfortunate nation will be to allow socio-political institutions flourish without any external meddling.
No institution should be allowed to flout the will of people and promote its own ‘patriotic’ agenda under the pretext of ‘supreme national interests’ or ‘defending the country’s geographical as well as ideological frontiers’ at any cost.
ABRAR AKBAR
Stockholm, Sweden
THOUSANDS of farmers in the barrage area of Khairpur district are engaged in growing and selling dates. This is the only source of their income.
The harvesting season is in full swing but the middleman (who buys the produce from the grower) is offering a very low price. Last year, it was bought for Rs1,200 per maund but this time they are offering only Rs200 for a maund. This amount does not even meet the expenditure of growing and processing the dates.
The pretext of the middleman is that the exports to India have been suspended and that country is the sole buyer of our dates. This is a lame excuse. For the Middle Eastern countries like Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia are not exporting their dates to India to meet its needs.
They sell them to the European countries for use on the occasion of Christmas. They must also be exporting their dates to the United States.
The government is requested to find other markets for exporting dates such as the countries of Central Asia which are Muslim and need dates on a number of occasions. Our dates can also be exported to Malaysia and Indonesia. The growers earnestly hope that their problem will be solved.
LUTF-UL-ALLAH PHULPOTO
Khairpur
IT was a matter of great pleasure to read government ads in the newspapers for the posts of VCs of the newly-established Lahore College for Women University, Government College University and the Education University specifying eligibility criteria including international research publications and resource mobilization experience.
May I ask the governor of the Punjab whether the incumbent VCs of the Punjab, Veterinary and Engineering Universities were also selected through open ads and met the criteria which have been prescribed for the new VCs?
If not, why should their posts be not advertized for selecting better people which will, at the same time, meet the ends of transparency and fairness?
M HANIF CHAUDHRY
Lahore
IN a parliamentary system of government, parliament does not perform only legislative functions, it also keeps a close eye on the working and performance of the federal government and thus puts all necessary checks and balances in place.
Neither can parliament be absolved of this role, nor can the president be allowed to usurp it.
MIAN M RAFI MUGHAL
Gujranwala
INTERNET works through the cooperation of its three components — the main server, a PTCL phone line and the individual’s PC. For it to function properly, all the three components must be working well. The farther the PC is from the main server, the weaker becomes the Internet signal.
Paknet recently decreased its tariff, a highly commendable step, but its fallout has been that bargain-hunters have now flooded its user’s ranks, overburdening its resources.
The result is that those who live in Multan where the main server is situated, get a first class connectivity but the ones in Muzaffargarh, 30kms away, get their connections broken every few minutes, raising their telephone bills.
When we in Muzaffargarh complain to the Multan Paknet authorities, their typical answer is that either there is a fault in our PC or in the telephone lines, but when we complain to our local PTCL authorities they put the blame again on us or on Paknet authorities.
Thus we are in a fix while our telephone bills are mounting.
The minister for science and technology, Dr Ataur Rehman, is requested to solve our problem because it is only he who can do it. The best solution would be to declare the Paknet telephone line toll-free while the users should be charged a percentage of the cost of actual Paknet usage time towards their telephone bills.
ZAHID KAMAL
Muzaffargarh
THE finance minister and the Governor of State Bank never tire of telling us what a wonderful job they are doing in their respective spheres. Let me put my small grievance before them though I am afraid it would fall on deaf ears.
Have they ever stepped out of their ivory towers since taking office and have they found time for shopping as ordinary citizens?
If they have, then how come they have failed to notice the disgustingly ugly state of our currency notes.
Surely Pakistani currency notes are the most tattered in this civilized world.
If you cannot even circulate smart and clean currency notes, how could you attend to more demanding chores of your office?
ANWAR KHAN
Lahore
I OFTEN have to raise my voice in favour of defenceless birds and animals by displaying scribbled posters on The Mall near the Lahore High Court.
But I feel that I cannot continue doing so any longer in a hostile environment created by the police posted in that area.
On behalf of defenceless birds and animals, I ask: when will their rights be secured by law?
HAKEEM S A SHAH WALI
Lahore
AFTER the announcement regarding the setting up of a swift centre at Abbott Road, Lahore, by the federal interior minister, I submitted NIC forms of my family members along with prescribed charges (Rs180 per person) on July 6 and 11 with an assurance by the official in charge that all cards would be delivered at my residence within 12 days at the latest.
After the expiry of the stipulated period, I went to the swift centre to collect my family cards. I was informed to wait for a few days due to technical faults in software.
I again went to the centre after two weeks because I needed the cards urgently to go abroad, but I was told that no record was available to verify the status of the required NICs.
Ultimately, I was advised by a junior employee to get the necessary information from another centre, at Sarwar Road, Cantt. So, I went there and contacted the public relations desk where I was informed to contact a captain who had been given this job.
When I approached the captain, who had no knowledge about the procedure for issuing the NICs, he advised me to wait further till the receipt of the next consignment from Islamabad.
It may be pertinent to mention here that not a single person in the swift centres had any idea how to prepare an urgent NIC since the number of people were complaining about the delivery of the cards which were earlier submitted along with the heavy revised fee by Nadra.
Now more than one month has gone by but the cards which were to be delivered at my residence within 12 days have not yet been received and it is not known how long will they take to issue the cards.
Because of this inefficiency on the part of Nadra, I suffered losses.
I lost my money paid to the Nadra as ‘urgent fee’ and I could not take my family abroad for which I had got an opportunity from a multinational firm. Who is responsible for this loss?
JAVAID AKBAR
Lahore
THIS is with reference to Jamila Aziz’s letter, ‘Websites against Islam’ (July 26).
It seems that she got an e-mail alert massage cautioning about an anti-Islamic site, visited that website in curiosity and wrote a letter in disgust.
She, like some others, does not realize that she actually helped the sponsors of that site. After the publication of her letter, the traffic at the said site must have increased immensely. Thus, she helped the devil that she wanted to kill.
As one of my friends puts it: “To draw people towards a site is the most difficult of things.” So, the best way for us to fight anti-Islamic websites is to ignore them and let them die a natural death.
S A M SHAH
Karachi
AFTER the conclusion of every international sports competition, I have been looking at the medals table ever since my college days (1950s) to find out as to where Pakistan stands.
It is most disappointing to observe that whereas other small and little known countries of the world have been winning more medals, Pakistan has been going down the ladder.
I remember that in the 1950s and the 1960s, Pakistan’s performance had been excellent in all sports events, especially in athletics and hockey. We remained almost at par with India in winning medals.
In the Commonwealth games, we were among the top three or four in the medals table. But this year, our performance appeared most dismal, standing at 19th and winning only one gold medal whereas India stood third with 32 gold medals. There must be something wrong somewhere.
We have more facilities, better coaches and sports organizations and a longer list of players for selection now than before.
A 15-year-old Bangladeshi has won a gold medal in shooting but we failed to score a second gold medal. To say the least, we lost miserably to even an un-rated team in hockey.
In the field of athletics, we always used to bag eight to 10 gold medals through Khaliq, Raziq, Iqbal, Mubarak Shah, Jallal Khan and Nawaz Khan.
I am sure we can produce better sportsmen than what we have now, if we take games seriously and put more responsible people having authority.
MOHAMMAD AZHAR KHWAJA
Lahore
IT was a good editorial (Aug 6) on Haider Ali’s success in boxing ‘Gold at Manchester’. The sports pages carried the final medals table where we were 19th down the list.
Australia, England and India were the top three medal winners respectively. The 15 countries immediately above Pakistan had won a total of 417 medals against Pakistan’s seven.
But if you added their population figure together it is not too far from our total population of 140 million.
The list includes tiny states like Nauru (no disrespect to these fine sporting people). We in Pakistan have a federal ministry of sports along with separate boards of control for a large number of sports. I repeat the same for the provinces. It is a pity so little has been achieved by so many for so many.
What went wrong? Can someone please explain the causes of our overall dismal display at the Commonwealth games?
Please do not talk of paucity of funds. Cameroon, Nauru, Kenya, Jamaica etc. do not have a fraction of the resources that our country is blessed with.
ANWAR KHAN
Lahore
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