Democracy and army

THE military government’s checks and balances in the form of constitutional amendments, which it claims would bring in real democracy, may give the military a permanent role in governance.

But what is real democracy? At present, it means any democratic set-up sans the two former prime ministers — Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif.

In his early days at the helm of affairs when Musharraf called the democracy after 1985 ‘sham’, he forgot, or perhaps ignored, the fact that that a period of democracy was given by another military ruler — the late Ziaul Haq. And the man he replaced at the top was Zia’s protege.

Similarly, when Ziaul Haq used to bemoan the politicians’ alleged misrule, he also ignored the fact that the first PPP government was formed in a dismembered country after elections held under a military government.

The complaint that criticizing the army has become a ‘saleable product’ may be justified to some extent, but when the military has directly ruled Pakistan for more than half of its existence, it should be ready for criticism. If this criticism is taken as unpatriotic, it will only make matters worse for everyone — people, politicians and the army.

Today when the Musharraf government points towards high foreign reserves, remittances and higher exports, it fails to note that all this has not trickled down to the people. Poverty is on the rise.

This also takes us to politicians as rulers. Their days in power have also been marked by compromises and corruption. But what politicians did not get is the continued rule.

The army as an institution is a vital and integral part of the country, but it is not the whole of it. And ruling Pakistan is not one of its duties. This is not a criticism, but a sort of reminder that we all seem to forget.

DAUD MALIK

Rawalpindi

Political posters

ELECTIONS are only a week away and politicians are in the spotlight. Each of them is promising a better future, a future where everyone has all the basic things, cleaner air, cleaner water, healthy food, healthcare and education.

But it is surprising that he fails to comply with the simplest law of a better world — cleanliness. His posters, banners, painted slogans and the like litter the streets of an already overcrowded bazaar. And they will be left to flap in the breeze, clog the drains and continue to litter the streets.

The painted slogans decorate the walls in a way that is extremely painful to the eye.

These matters may seem to be of little importance when greater issues are at hand, but it is at the grass-roots level that one should start working from. The stronger the foundation, the more shockproof the building would be.

SANA REHMAN

Karachi

Iranian exhibition

ON Sept 30, I came to know through a friend that an Iranian exhibition was going on at the Expo Centre, Gulshan-i-Iqbal, for the last five days. I was surprised because I had neither seen an advertisement in any of the newspapers nor a banner at the main shopping centres announcing it. When I visited the exhibition, there were hardly any visitors, though last year the place used to be full.

When I visited the fair on the following day, a sizable crowd was present. I was told that the Iranians who had set up stalls there, had pooled their resources and had got inserted an advertisement in some of newspapers that day.

I learn that it was for the Ministry of Commerce, the organizers of the fair, to advertise it, but they failed to do so. It is a pity that despite all the rhetoric by high officials, nothing is ever done in a proper manner.

AYESHA MAHMUD

Karachi

Blasphemy law essential

THERE have been many incidents where people punished the blasphemy accused by themselves. This should never have happened. However, such a situation arises when authorities don’t take a serious view of the most sensitive issue of sacrilege by someone publicly.

Muslims are extremely sensitive about the honour of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) and care for it more than their own lives because it is the basis of their faith. Even the Quaid-i-Azam, who was also a great constitutional lawyer, had defended an accused who had killed a blasphemer. However, there are some NGOs which claim to represent human rights, but factually they maintain no contacts with the common people. Their spokespersons have neither been raised nor educated in local conditions.

One such spokesperson has reportedly pledged to take the case of a blasphemer to the higher courts where, according to him, the blasphemy accused are generally released (Dawn July 1). In the month of August, the Supreme Court had released a blasphemer earlier convicted by a lower court.

The law of the land should be invoked as per the historic perspective, tradition, culture and aspirations of the people. The blasphemy law is very much in accordance with these conditions.

The opponents argue that the blasphemy law is being and prone to be abused. Would somebody point out which law of this country is not being abused and many of them in broad daylight? Should all the laws be abrogated on the basis of this fact?

As far as the freedom of expression is concerned, why is the blasphemy law still on the statute book of even England — mother of all democracies — though the beneficiaries of the law are only adherents to the faith of the ruling class.

Why don’t the exponents of human rights and freedom of speech start their protest campaign in that great democracy instead of an Islamic country?

We need peace and harmony in our beloved country and for this purpose the law of blasphemy is essential.

DR ABDUR RAZZAQ SIKENDAR,

Chancellor, Jamia Islamia, Binnori Town,

Karachi

Hyderabad airport

HYDERABAD is the fifth largest city of Pakistan and the second largest city of Sindh. It is also an important centre of trade and industry. But its airport has been closed down by the Civil Aviation Authority.

This has created difficulties for those intending to travel to other cities by air. The only option left for them is to go to Karachi by rail or by road, and then take the required flight from there. This not only involves a higher expenditure but it also takes more time.

I request the CAA to open the airport and operate at least two flights a week for Lahore and Islamabad, via Multan and Faisalabad. I would appreciate if the CAA or the PIA would clarify their position.

KHAIRUDDIN MEMON

Hyderabad

AIOU cards

I AM a BA (third semester) student of Allama Iqbal Open University. I want to point out that every school, college and university as well as other registered educational organization provide identity cards to its students. However, the AIOU provides no such card.

Students have to prove their identity on various occasions and different places and it is their right to obtain one from the institution which they belong to. The AIOU is the biggest and recognized university of the country but I wonder if it owns its own students.

MEHMOOD KHAN

Karachi

Privatization of ICP

THE Investment Corporation of Pakistan was established in February 1966 through an ordinance. It played a pivotal role by contributing investors’ portfolio and mutual funds’ portfolio towards strengthening activity in the capital market.

According to the ICP annual report, the mutual fund profits rose by 44 per cent, amounting to Rs199.969 million, as the overall profit increased from Rs451.570 million in 2001 to Rs651.539 million in 2002.

The profit earned by all the mutual funds together stood at approximately 20 per cent against the total capitalization as compared to 14 per cent in the corresponding year. Whereas out of the 11 private sector mutual funds listed on the stock exchange, only four had so far declared dividends in the range of 10 to 20 per cent, showing an excellent performance of ICP over the other mutual funds.

Recently the Cabinet Committee on Privatization has approved the privatization of the ICP Fund, Lot-A, by receiving the highest bid of Rs175.7 million. The government intends to offer ICP Fund, Lot-B, also by mid-October.

One cannot understand why the government is in a harry to dispose of an establishment that has been earning considerable profits.

Priority in privatization should be given to those establishments which have become a burden to the national economy by causing it unbearable losses every year.

Secondly, during the whole process the ICP privatization, the government has never bothered to disclose the future of the ICP employees once the process is over. It is a matter of about 270 employees’ jobs whose efforts have been evident from the annual report of the ICP.

The government should settle all things simultaneously with the privatisation process in order to keep the ICP team mentally peaceful and avoid loss of time by putting it off till the new management takes over.

The government should also provide the same formula that it applied in the case of Mehran Bank whose qualified personnel were given jobs in the National Bank.

MUHAMMAD ASLAM

Karachi

A wrong analogy

THE Indian junior Home Minister, I.D Swami and Bal Thackeray of the Shiv Sena, only displayed their irresponsible attitude and immature thinking when they publicly said that war with Pakistan was a viable option (Sept 26). Don’t they realize that war should never be among the first few options, as it has the tendency to escalate and snowball into a veritable hell on earth.

As far as their thoughts on “limited strikes” across the LoC are concerned, I would like to remind them that Pakistan is not Palestine nor are they Israel. Any attempt for intrusion into our side would result in a broken Indian nose both, militarily and politically.

YOUSUF SAJJAD

Karachi

Cable TV

THE Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA), which controls cable operators, has suspended the services of those operators in Karachi who have violated the prescribed regulations.

No subscriber has any objection to this order. But it is certainly not advisable to deprive a large section of the population of this city from keeping themselves abreast of news and information and that, too, during a critical period in the history of Pakistan.

It is, therefore, suggested that such violators of regulations might be punished in some other form, such as the imposition of fines, but the entire cable service should not be suspended. They may be allowed to continue showing the PTV and other Pakistani channels along with the BBC, CNN and Ten Sports.

NEWS THIRSTY

Karachi

Jinnah’s viceregal role

AS an old Aligarian who took an active part in the Pakistan Movement, I was pained to read some of the views being expressed on the Quaid-i-Azam’s so called viceregal role.

It was the Quaids’ iron will expressed through his imperious manner that snatched Pakistan from the unwilling hands of the Indian Congress leaders and their stooge Lord Mountbatten.

No Muslim leader in his senses would have allowed Mountbatten to continue presiding over Pakistan’s fate post-partition. As for the Jinnah-Liaquat equation, the question to ask is: what was the pre-partition relationship between the two?

Over the long years, it had developed into one as between an unquestioned leader and his loyal first lieutenant. That the same relationship continued after the creation of Pakistan (still under the 1935 Act) should have come as no surprise to anyone — legal expert or historian.

I do think that enough has appeared in these columns. Any further postmortem of this subject, which can only serve to distort history and confuse the minds of our younger generation, should be stopped.

S. ASIF MAJEED

Karachi

Request to Karachi orchestras

OCTOBER 10 is the birthday of Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter, who was murdered in Karachi last January.

During his life, Daniel Pearl used to play the violin as a hobby and was a great lover of music. As such his parents, with whom I have been in touch, say that they would appreciate if orchestras and bands from around the world would honour their son by dedicating a performance to him on his birthday. Daniel’s father also told me that a performance in Karachi will mean a great deal to him and his family, symbolically.

I am writing this letter in the hope that some musicians in Karachi might like to dedicate a performance to Daniel on his birthday. Musicians from around the world, including Canada, the US, and several countries in Asia and Europe, have already agreed to do so.

The musicians don’t have to be well-known or very good performers to participate in this event. They simply need to dedicate their performance to Daniel.

If anyone in Karachi is interested, he or she may please get in touch with me through my e-mail address, rsrahman@hotmail.com, as soon as possible. I would like to ensure that there is an adequate video coverage of the performance so that it can be forwarded to Daniel’s parents. Hopefully, it will provide some solace to them.

RANA SYED RAHMAN

Toronto, Canada

For a better tomorrow

ABOUT 300 children of private schools staged a demonstration in front of the Dawn office, Islamabad. According to the school teachers, the purpose of this rally was to impress upon the voters that a better tomorrow for the younger generation was possible only if sincere people were elected to form the next government.

No doubt, it was an innovative idea. But I would really appreciate the services of the private schools administration if a similar demonstration is staged outside the General Headquarters, Rawalpindi, reminding the Generals that a better tomorrow for the younger generation is possible only if the next democratically elected government is allowed to complete its full term, without another military coup.

DR AMJID NAZIR

California, USA

‘A shackled PM’

THIS is with reference to the article entitled ‘A shackled prime minister’ by Zafar Iqbal (Sept 27). The writer’s information on the composition of the National Security Council is not correct.

The 13-member body will include four chief ministers of the provinces and not the four governors as stated by the writer. The slip-up created a wrong premise to start with.

GHANI CHAUDHRY

Rawalpindi

Tax on NSS profits

SHEIKH Humayun Sayeed, former vice president of the FPCCI, has very rightly urged the government to classify the income from the National Savings Schemes as passive and the withholding tax deducted thereon as a final discharge of tax liability (Sept 26).

This represents the sentiments of a lot of affected people who do not have any other source of taxable income. Presently, income upto Rs 80,000 is not taxable and this much income can only be earned on an NSS investment of more than Rs 800,000. Thus, the withholding tax on this much investment becomes refundable. But knowing the working of the CBR, one can not expect fair and prompt dealing. The withholding tax should, therefore, be treated separately for smooth and efficient working of the system.

In all fairness, this tax itself is unjust and not treating the income from the NSS as passive, makes the lives of the affected people more miserable.

M. ZAFRUL HASAN

Karachi

Diplomatic enclave for Karachi

IT is an accepted fact that political and economic policies of the US government are bound to play a crucial role in Pakistan’s economy. The major beneficiaries would be the industrial cities having an exports base. Karachi, in spite of all sorts of reverses, still stands as the nucleus of the country’s economy.

It is quite surprising that a great row has been shaped by certain over-egoist officials of our federal institutions over the reopening of the US consulate in a more fool-proof and secured way, simply because they commute through that controversial part of the route at least twice on the working days, and so do their family members.

They also conveniently overlook the interest of the city and the province. Students, businessman community, professionals and other people have being suffering ever since the closure of the US visa office five/six years back.

Nowhere in the world is a city as big as one having 14-15 million population deprived by its own governments of access to some important countries’ missions to seek visa, etc.

Previously, for the Karachiites, eager to visit India to see their blood relations, the visa facility at their own city was withdrawn, thus forcing them to travel to Islamabad for the purpose, then return to Karachi and proceed to Lahore before entering India by train or bus.

It is irony that the Indian and US consulates at Karachi had been closed down for different reasons.

The bottom line is that if we really want the economy of the city and the province to grow, we will have to allocate a very special, spacious and posh area (like Islamabad’s diplomatic enclave of Ramna) to the diplomatic missions.

Under the Sindh government’s guidance, the KDA, KMC, DHA and KPT may play a joint role in this regard.

There are examples where a commercial city houses more diplomatic missions and officials than the capital city.

If this was never considered in the past, then this should be pondered upon now keeping in view Karachi’s commercial, industrial, fiscal and political characteristics and distinctions.

As far as the difference of opinion over the security and surveillance of the US consulate is concerned, it should be made clear that the Sindh government and its institutions are fully capable and competent for the job.

When the US embassy in Islamabad and its consulate in Lahore are being looked after well by the federal and provincial governments respectively, why cannot the Sindh government or Karachi’s city government do so in totality?

KUNWAR KHALID YUNUS

Karachi