| August 23, 2002 | Friday | Jamadi-us-Saani 13,1423 |
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Judicial independence
Uncontrolled Internet rates
Expressway much needed
A most welcome visitor
Life-saving drugs and GST
Military govts and economic growth
Wapda’s version
UK visa
Abu Nidal’s Character
Indian blitz: it’s wake-up time
Public Relations Officer, Wapda,
IT was surprising to read that two Pakistani citizens residing in the US but desiring to contest elections in Pakistan have challenged Section 14 of the Pakistan Citizenship Act on the ground that it is discriminatory because it allows Pakistanis to have dual citizenship with the UK, its colonies and other countries notified by the government but does not allow this in respect of the US.
I was even more surprised that the Pakistanis who have acquired the citizenship of a foreign state and also live abroad, not being satisfied with dual citizenship facilities, now want to contest elections in Pakistan and become members of the parliament.
While they are entitled to the benefits and facilities related to the dual citizenship, they must realize that having acquired the citizenship of a foreign state, they are debarred from contesting, being chosen and from being members of parliament in Pakistan.
This is a constitutional provision contained in article 63 which has obviously been overlooked by a large number of people. This was recently pointed out by Mr Liaquat Merchant in his letter (Aug 14).
Pakistanis want to be governed by their own citizens. The very idea that Pakistanis residing in foreign countries with foreign citizenship wish to hold positions in Pakistan is a clear attempt to continue the policy of foreign influence over Pakistani national affairs. This came to an end in 1947.
Pakistan must have its own citizens in the parliament and the government. Those who are debarred by the Constitution from contesting elections and being chosen as members of the parliament by virtue of having acquired a foreign citizenship, have no place in Pakistan’s national affairs whether it be as a member of the parliament or a minister or as a public functionary at any level.
Pakistan has enough talent in political, legal, financial and other fields and it doesn’t need imported legislators, ministers and public functionaries.
Dual nationality holders may also be citizens of Pakistan by virtue of the amendment made in 1972 by the Bhutto government but their loyalties will be divided.
If their loyalties are with Pakistan only, they should give up their foreign citizenship and come back to Pakistan. They cannot have the best of both worlds. They cannot be eligible for membership of two parliaments or ministers in two governments. This is why the Constitution debars such persons from being elected, chosen or being member of parliament in Pakistan.
Let them be content with the facilities that flow from dual citizenships whatever they may be and we will continue to hold such Pakistanis in high regard and respect as equal citizens of state subject to the Constitution of Pakistan.
A. S. PINGAR
Karachi
THIS is with reference to Mr Roedad Khan’s article ‘Myth of judicial independence’ (Aug 19).
The retired bureaucrat is worthy of praise for having courage to take up the most important issue that has affected the people of Pakistan.
His concluding paragraph has a question: “What would have happened, had the supreme court decision been different on that fateful day of 21st March, 1955?”
Had the judgment been in favour of Maulvi Tamizuddin Khan, (in other words in favour of the people of Pakistan) then:
a. Pakistan would have a federal, democratic and parliamentary Constitution as early as at the end of 1955.
b. There would have been no Martial Law in 1958.
c. Karachi would have remained a federally-administrated area with securities and funds available to it as a federal capital and might have been jewel of Asia instead of Singapore, Hong Kong or Dubai.
d. East Pakistan would never have been alienated. Pakistan would have remained a unique federation having its place in Middle East as well as in South East Asia.
e. Parliament would have remained sovereign and judiciary the ultimate protector of the people and the Constitution.
f. Yahya Khan, Ziaul Haq and Gen Musharraf could never have come into power.
g. People at home and abroad would have faith in the independence of our judiciary, and there would have been no question about the flight of capital and talent from Pakistan. Instead there would have been an influx of talent and foreign investment in Pakistan due to its unique geographical situation — near southeast Asia and the Middle East.
h. Pakistan would have been much ahead of Korea, China, India and other Asian ‘tigers’ in all aspects.
Knowledgeable people like Mr Roedad Khan must now suggest a martial plan about the future role of the judiciary and other state-owned institutions for the betterment of the people.
SAJID SALIM
Rawalpindi
I WANT to draw the attention of the Ministry of Information and Communication to the policy makers of the ISPAK, which controls the Internet service providers (ISPs) and has reportedly decided that no ISP would charge less than Rs15 per hour.
The ISPs continue to offer attractive packages to lure Internet users. They provide their services at reasonable rates, usually less than Rs15 per hour, but increase the charges at the time of the renewal of account using the pretext of the ‘ISPAK policy’.
My case is an example. A few months back I was informed, only at the time of my account renewal, that the charges have been increased. I switched over to the cheaper package but one month later, the ISP raised the charges under this scheme also and without intimating its customers.
This practice continues off and on leaving no option for the users but to pay the increased rates.
It looks like each time we go to refresh the Internet account, we are faced with a new ISP policy which involves nothing but an increase in internet account charges.
If so much stress is being laid upon the information technology development in Pakistan, then why are the frequent users of Internet being taxed heavily with such money-ripping policies.
I request the concerned authorities to formulate a customer-friendly policy and ensure its implementation as well as adherence by all the ISPs which have been doing nothing but extorting the Internet users.
UMME TAMEEM QAZI
Karachi
IT is strange that some people have been opposing Karachi’s Lyari Expressway project when development work, specially related to transport, health and industry, is essential for the country.
In Shanghai, the financial centre of China, special consideration has been given to transport.
Projects like Lyari Expressway were completed long time ago and the city has an elevated highway system to provide non-stop traffic. Many flyovers and subways have been completed to facilitate public transport.
Settlements have been moved from the riverside to a more developed area to provide a clean environment to the citizens.
Factories are being shifted from the riverside to the commercial area and contamination of water in rivers is being controlled.
Projects like Lyari Expressway, Northern Bypass and KCR can help us to overcome Karachi’s traffic problem and reduce pollution.
At the same time, I would appeal to the government to solve the problems of the people affected by the Lyari Expressway project.
W. REHMAN
Shanghai, China
INVITING Arundhati Roy was perhaps the best thing that has happened for a long time between India and Pakistan. She is not one of those who simply protest for the sake of protest.
She writes and speaks about matters important to the people of South-East Asia. She has always been politically interested but it was only when her book The God of small things was published and received the Bookers Prize, that the world began to take notice of this intelligent and soft-spoken Indian.
With a degree in architecture, she relates the art of fiction with that of planning spaces, for her it was “like designing an intricately balanced structure, when it’s finished, it’s finished”.
She claims she never rewrites, simply rearranges passages that she has written prolifically, a single line of the novel being written when she was five.
Now she writes on matters of social relevance, with religious and racial prejudices in mind, in ways that people of various races and religions see reason. From the nuclear proliferation in South Asia to numerous damming projects and subsequent displacement of villagers, from The Gujarat massacre to the hypocritical Operation infinite justice and then Enduring Freedom, her tone is soft and her ideas rational and thought-provoking.
Arundhati spoke in the seminar to rouse the listeners to realize how dangerous and senseless was the constant exchange of threats between the two neighbouring countries.
More than anything it was her stress on speaking up to be heard on matters that touch everyone.
Lecturing in the major cities of Islamabad, Karachi, and Lahore, she received an overwhelming response and was touched by how well people responded to the talk that was rationalistic rather than nationalistic.
She even went to the Sadequain Show at Mohatta Palace and was all praise for what she saw. And the listeners were all praise for how she revitalized their perceptions.
SABEEN IDRIS
Karachi
THIS refers to the letter ‘Life-saving drugs: price and GST (Aug 18). I also think that the government is using GST as the latest weapon for population control.
We have come to know about the list of life-saving drugs exempted from GST through salespersons of different pharmaceutical companies.
These companies are using GST exemption as leverage for the promotion of their products. It is surprising that some drugs included in this list are not life-saving at all. In some cases, one drug of a certain class is included in the list and amazingly another drug with the same action and function is excluded. It seems that this list is a venture of some smart bureaucrats who have very intelligently killed two birds with one stone by making the list of life-saving drugs both for the patients and the pharma companies.
To do away with all these controversies and prevent chemists from luring the patients, I suggest the following:
If possible, do away with GST on all medicines and put extra levies on items of luxury, cigarettes etc.
If IMF is persistent, then apply 5 per cent GST on all medicines (across the board) which would remove all disparities, would be affordable and generate much more revenue as compared to the existing debatable life-saving exemptions.
If we want to stick to the exemption for life-saving drugs only, then discard all the existing lists and assign the job of making the list to some unbiased medical experts of the country.
DR HASAN THARANI
Karachi
IN the third and concluding part of his article on globalization and Pakistan, Mr Shahid Javed Burki asserts that institution building in Pakistan got stalled due to the inefficiency of the politicians.
He also quotes the World Development Report 2001 of the World Bank that “...building institutions takes time.”
The fact is that since 1985 no elected government has been allowed to complete its term. The military governments, on the other hand, have had long stints in power. While admitting that the record of the military governments in institution building has been poor, Mr Burki provides an excuse for the military governments by contending that “the military has no mechanism for gauging what people want.” If this is the case then what about the election of President Ayub and the referendums of President Zia and President Musharraf? Were not these practices mechanisms for gauging the public mood?
The writer blames political governments for slow economic growth.
During the last decade, these governments had to evolve economic policies under enormous constraints.
First of all, the Pressler Amendment was applied to Pakistan. Then the multilateral donor agencies brought down their aid to almost a halt.
Over and above that, further sanctions were imposed on Pakistan after the nuclear tests in 1998.
In complete contrast to that, military governments have always been obliged generously by donor agencies.
RAJA ASAD KHAN
Jhelum
I WRITE in response to the report, ‘Wapda deal costs consumers dearly’ (Aug 19), alleging that Wapda has overpaid at least Rs1.863 billion during the last three years in single-phase meter purchase.
In fact, Wapda has made a handsome saving of Rs1.323 billion in purchase of 3.545 million meters during the last three years if the current purchase rate of Rs1,075 per meter is compared with the rate of meters purchased in October 1997, when the US dollar was equivalent to Rs40.63, which were Rs1,274 and Rs1,174 for magnetic and jewel-bearing meters, respectively.
During 2002-2003, 1.5 million single-phase meters are required. As such international tender has been called for a fair competition between local as well as foreign manufacturers.
No bid or tender can be approved without appropriate technical evaluation. A team of Wapda experts is evaluating all the bids to ascertain whether they meet all the technical needs of the tender or not. It is too early to conclude that the bid containing the lowest price meets all the technical requirements.
MUHAMMAD ATIF KHAN
Lahore
WITH reference to the British High Commission’s statement regarding visas for various categories of applicants, there are some which are conspicuous by their absence.
This refers to the NGOs of worldwide repute like Soroptimist International of Britain and Ireland.
I have visited Britain several times between 1953 and 1986 for educational and professional reasons but not in the past three years. I hope due consideration will be given soon for visas to delegates to professional conferences.
My husband, who has also not visited Britain in the past three years, has been there over 25 times during the past 70 years and he also cannot apply for a visa.
Something is wrong somewhere.
PROF RAFIA HASAN
Lahore
THIS is with reference to the news item ‘Abu Nidal found shot dead’ (Aug 20). Abu Nidal may have destroyed many icons of the PLO but we have got to understand that he was just no plain card-carrying outsider.
He was a Palestinian, first and foremost, and as much of that as Arafat or George Habbash or Abu Jihad or Leila Khalid or Faisal Husseini or Abu Ali Mustafa.
We have to remember that Abu Nidal was fundamentally opposed to what the PLO did at the time of Black September in 1970; it was itself allowing itself to be used as a client of first the Syrian, then the Jordanian, then the Tunisian and then the US government. Amid such an environment, a person or institution like Abu Nidal was bound to emerge, his hate bordering on cynicism.
I hope that in time, the PLO leaders develop an auto-criticism of their own strategy and where it is leading them at the moment. Unfortunately, the PLO has not sought to learn from struggles elsewhere like the Algerian struggle or the Vietnamese struggle to apply their lessons to the situation at hand.
Those who condemn Abu Nidal’s bizarre tactics should also try to understand which position he is coming from, why he chose to do what he did, and how we can learn from his mistakes. Individuals don’t take to terrorism because they take an inherent delight in it. There’s whole history behind their actions.
RAZA NAEEM
Leeds, UK
WHAT else is new on the global front? Nothing much, except for going around in circles with half-baked solutions. The average citizen in the USA is the most innocent soul, oblivious to the intricacies of diplomacy to conduct international relations.
Unlike their government, they remain totally mesmerized by the Indian rope trick, which only manages to hoodwink the naive and cheerful beings thus distracting them from the critical facts in life.
India proudly maintains the lead in gleefully mocking citizens of the world with its expertise in the art of churning out international plots of intrigues and deception.
This deadly hypnotic spell is cast on its rivals at home, the neighbouring states and with impunity on the people of the developed world.
The average US citizen may surely recollect the extent of hatred and venom that India carried against the West for over 40 years during the critical Cold War era. It sided and supported the then USSR to the hilt while claiming to uphold democratic values.
This charade continued even when the USSR invaded Afghanistan and when the West was sacrificing everything in the Afghan War 1979-89 to defeat the USSR — its only viable foe.
India has never forgiven Pakistan for assisting the West, led by the US, in all past international efforts to neutralize global threats and injustices to humankind.
It still continues to do so to distract Pakistan from being part of the international effort against terrorism.
Somehow the nauseating Indian propaganda blitz laced with deceit and sham diplomacy at world forums manages to put the civilized world in a dangerous trance.
It’s now wake up time for the world to tackle the hidden realities for ensuring peace and contentment first, before proceeding with global progress and prosperity for all.
America was once made a safe place when Red Indians were no more a threat. The world now has to be vigilant against the modern, cunning, scheming Indian who speaks with a forked tongue and waves the peace sign.
H. U. RAZA
Essex, UK
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