| October 29, 2002 | Tuesday | Sha’aban 22,1423 |
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Failure of education system
Incentives for cricket team
France’s ‘tilt’ towards Israel
Lawmakers’ important responsibility
Traffic congestion in Karachi
Pathetic condition of Jinnah Hostel
It’s time Muslims stopped complaining
Imported goods
The ‘king’s party’
Denial of a convenience
Trojan horse?
Pitfalls of ‘selected’ democracy
THIS is with reference to the letters “Seafarers agony at foreign ports” (Oct 8 & 13) and Ardeshir Cowasjee’s article “At the bottom of the sea” (Oct 27).
Milton said: “They also serve who only stand and wait.” But there are some who truly serve, suffer and wait. It is a fact that Pakistan’s ailing economy has always been leaning on the gratitude and patriotism of overseas workers. There is a class among these overseas workers which really work on the high seas. They rock and roll in their steel cabins away from humanity for months at a stretch without solid earth under their feet. There is no coming home at the end of the day, at end of the week or at end of the month. Even the voice communication with their loved ones is not certain. They come back after six to nine months to a shy welcome of their own children, with sheepish query in the innocent eyes, ‘Mom, who is this stranger?’
But they collectively bring bagloads of foreign exchange to their country. Theirs is a solo effort. When they look at their colleagues from other nationalities and countries, they find that this solo effort in the case of other nations is recognized and patronized by their governments. It is given the status of an industry and is supported at home through a national policy and abroad through diplomatic channels.
Apparently in Pakistan there is no shipping policy. The national shipping services industry over the years has been corroded and allowed to sink into a deep sea through the absence of a viable strategy and lack of direction. This pitiable state of affair forces seafarers to seek employment with other carriers.
Through their hard labour and efforts, Pakistanis had made a place for themselves in this field, but the 9/11 dealt a severe blow to their endeavours. This is very sad that, while Pakistan is playing a very crucial role in the ongoing international war against terror, its nationals are meted out the treatment given to terrorists. The international shipping industry tends to shy away from engaging Pakistanis and is more comfortable with filling the vacancies with other nationals.
Being a seafarer myself, I have been facing a lot of hardships to get things going. I urge President Gen Pervez Musharraf and the minister for communications to reactivate the national shipping industry. I also call upon them to convince the world community, specially the Western countries, through media and personal visits that the Pakistanis are a peace-loving nation, and skilled Pakistanis could be an asset for the companies engaged in shipping.
SALMAN RAJPUT
Karachi
OUR governments have, from time to time, commissioned studies for improving education. However, when simple things like a timetable for holding annual examinations is not implemented, how on earth can we dream of universalizing education in this country?
Our company is paying for the education of one of our workers enabling him to get a technical diploma at SITE Polytechnic. We have been giving him paid time off work and have also sponsored his fees. The three-year diploma course was completed in June 2002, but the date for his final examination has not been announced yet by the Sindh Board of Technical Education.
In the meantime, he still has to attend classes, causing great inconvenience to both his employers and to himself. I know from experience that once an examination is eventually held, the result takes ages to be announced and a diploma is often awarded in more than a year.
How can the government hope to get the industry involved in its efforts to improve employment prospects when it itself shows little concern for the practicalities of vocational training? The United Kingdom’s polytechnic system has enabled hundreds of thousands of workers to acquire excellent education whilst doing their jobs.
Surely, the purpose of education is to pass an examination at the end of it. Why then this delay in what is the most basic objective? And this delay happens every year and is ignored every year by the secretaries and ministers for education. In this way, a three-year diploma takes about four to five years to complete. The waste of time and opportunity is nothing short of being criminal on part of our education department.
If the authorities concerned cannot solve the issues of bureaucratic inefficiency and red tape at this level, there is no point in chalking out long-term plans for improvement. They will all fail for lack of proper implementation.
F. MOWJEE
Karachi
DESPITE having the largest number of record holders, the Pakistani cricket team is so unpredictable that no one can tell for sure whether our cricket team will hit the high point or the low point of the game in its next match. This is due to a combination of factors, such as bad management, PCB’s inability to take timely action and the injecting of politics into the game.
To improve the standard of the game, I would suggest incentives based on performance. A player scoring up to 99 runs should be paid Rs 100 per run, while a player scores a century he also earns a bonus and for the remaining runs he scores after the completion of his century he should be paid Rs 100 per run.
Similarly, a bowler should get Rs 2,000 per wicket, and if he is able to capture 5 wickets in an innings he should be entitled to a bonus and paid Rs 4,000 per wicket. He should be paid Rs 2,000 per wicket for his additional wickets after the completion of his 5 wicket haul.
Incentive should also be offered to a fielder — a single catch should earn him Rs1,000, second catch should fetch Rs2,000 and for a third catch he should be given Rs5,000. For a run out, a fielder should get Rs2,000. Similarly, a wicket keeper should get Rs1,000 per catch or stumping and five such cases would earn him Rs10,000. He should be paid Rs1,000 per catch after he earns the bonus.
ASAD RIZVI
Karachi
IN his article, “Tilt towards Israel raises concern” (Oct 18), Paul Michaud states that the signing of a deal with an Israeli company by the French ministry of defence has earned skepticism on the part of the pro-Arab French policy-makers. He further writes that this contract is among the many interactions between France and Israel in numerous fields, causing an aura of repugnance and a fear of the abandonment of France’s long-standing pro-Arab policy.
If one takes a glance over history, one would find France’s Middle East policy to be hardly pro-Arab. It was France which had provided Israel with superb military equipment in the 1948 war after which Israel had emerged as an independent state.
Throughout the 1956 war, Israel was given by France under de Gaulle all types of military assistance. Towards the end of de Gaulle’s term in office, oil begun to be exploited as a tool in the Middle East conflict and, therefore, he had taken a decision to place an arms embargo on Israel on June 2, 1967. This was a move aimed at appeasing the Arabs in return for their valuable oil.
After de Gaulle’s exit, President Pompidou, too, followed this policy to appease the Arabs for the sake of oil. But even after this so-called embargo, France did supply military hardware to Israel secretly or through some other country. Supply of missile boats via Cherbourg is one example while that of Mirage planes through Norway is another.
What is interesting to note is that the Arab nations pumping their valuable oil into the French economy never received even a fraction of the quantity of military hardware that was given free to Israel.
So, the military ties between France and Israel, open or clandestine, date a very long way back and can hardly be branded as a ‘tilt’ or as a new development.
TAIMUR MALIK
Multan
RESPONSIBILITY to strengthen democracy in the country lies in the hands of the newly-elected members of the assemblies. If our representatives want democracy to
flourish, then all of them must work in the interest of the country.
Pakistan has already suffered a lot. Gen Musharraf has fulfilled his promise of holding a general election. He did not impose martial law on Oct 12, 1999, but provided another chance to the elected representatives to strengthen democracy in the country by holding the general election on Oct 10, 2002.
The legislators have been elected to serve the people. Transfer of power from the military government to the elected representatives should not be misused.
All political parties should resolve their personal grievances in the best interest of the country as their cooperation will strengthen Pakistan.
Our politicians should join hands with the army in order to strengthen the country. Let us all keep one thing in our mind; it is our army jawans who remain awake in the night at international borders when we are fast asleep.
SYED A. MATEEN
Karachi
BECAUSE of rapid urbanization, high population growth and wrong planning, traffic congestion has become a major problem in Karachi. Frequent traffic jams are the order of the day and create great hardships for motorists and commuters who are highly agitated when they get home quite late.
To make things worse, traffic officials, instead of checking violations of traffic rules and regulations that have become a routine, themselves take bribe from violators.
Similarly, in DHA Phase 8, a number of policemen on motorbikes fleece motorists. People without complete documents and national identity cards are forced to sit at checkposts for quite some time before they are allowed to proceed towards their destination on payment of certain amount.
In order to solve the problem of traffic congestion, I suggest that (a) only low terrain vehicles, such as cars, pickups and motorbikes, should be allowed to ply on busy roads, including Abdullah Haroon Road, Club Road, Karsaz Road and Zamzama Street; (b) there should be only one authority to issue route permits; (c) all types of public transport that are caught violating the traffic rules should immediately have their route permits cancelled; (d) lanes for small and big vehicles should be marked on every main road so that the flow of traffic remains smooth and (e) the traffic police force should be properly trained.
KHURRAM KHAN
Karachi
Rivaz Hostel of the Islamia College, Railway Road, Lahore, renamed as Jinnah Hostel, was recently shown by Dawn to be in a state of utter disrepair. I stayed in this hostel for four years for my graduation. It was an ideal place for board and lodging.
At the ground adjacent, the Quaid-i-Azam addressed a public meeting which Allama Mashriqi tried to disrupt but was badly mauled by the public. It was mostly the residents of this hostel who toured Punjab to overthrow Khizar Hayat Tiwana’s ministry in Punjab.
The place is of historical importance and must be put in order as soon as possible.
SULTAN A. CHOWDHRY
Lahore
SINCE Israel is a blue-eyed baby of the United States, it is blatantly committing the heinous crime of genocide of innocent Palestinians, and the US is turning a blind eye to its atrocities. President Bush, the UN and all the big powers are bending over backward to condone Israel’s barbarities. The US considers Israel its most valued friend.
Muslims all over the world, instead of complaining about Zionist conspiracies and the awesome power of the Jewish bankers, media figures and lobbyists, should do something to improve their own situation.
There are roughly 13 million Jews in the entire world, four million of whom live in the tiny, 22,000 square kilometres of land that is modern Israel with no real natural resources.
In contrast, there are almost 1.25 billion Muslims who sit on 70 per cent of the world’s oil with countless other natural resources.
When history of this period is written, it will scarcely seem believable that the huge Muslim nations felt victimized by the tiny Jewish nation. If we are impoverished and oppressed, it is first and foremost our own fault.
Unfortunately, the attitude of many of our Arab friends regarding the genocide of Indian and Kashmiri Muslims is also deplorable. Without doubt, the people of Palestine and Kashmir are engaged in legitimate freedom struggles. Both have UN resolutions, which still need to be implemented by Israel and India.
S. A. KHOKHAR
Lahore
ACCORDING to a recent directive, every imported item should have its name and price in Pakistani currency written on it. This is something not possible in every case.
Goods like shampoo, body spray, cream and lotion are generally imported from Dubai. Their prices are not usually written even in the currency of the country where these are manufactured. As compared to other countries, Pakistan is a very small market for such products and, therefore, the manufacturers would not care to print the prices in the Pakistani currency even if a request is made to them to this effect.
Such directives would result only in the reduction of imports which would not only affect the government’s revenue through import duties but would make consumers suffer because of the non-availability of the imported items needed by them.
SHAFI-UR-REHMAN
Hyderabad
According to a private television channel, the secretary-general of the Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid-i-Azam) has announced the names of four ministers of the present government, including that of Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider, who have applied
to the PML-Q for a senate ticket.
I think that this news proves beyond any doubt that this faction of the PML is the “king’s party”.
TARIQUE RAFIQUE
Karachi
ONE wonders why the PTCL has started a voice message system to indicate when the number is busy. All contemporary phones recognize a busy tone and, if required, will automatically re-dial ten or so times or until the line becomes available.
This is a convenience which has now been denied to us by the PTCL. So now we have to physically re-dial each time and eventually give up.
I have also been led to believe that this is just another way for the Pakistan Telecommunication Company to make money as each time this message is activated, it completes a call and therefore we are billed.
So, on the one hand, the state-owned phone company is making money on services it has not satisfactorily provided and, on the other, it has managed to irritate its customers with this inane and redundant message which the busy tone indicated anyway.
SHUJA BAIG
Karachi
Nisar Memon, Information Minister, when asked during the recent Musharraf visit to New York about the outcome of the Oct 10 general election, told a small group, including me, “There will be a big surprise on October 11.”
He was pressed for details, but he would not give any. “Mark my words,” he kept saying instead. I suppose one knows now what he meant. Could he by any chance be an MMA Trojan horse?
KHALID HASAN
Washington
IT was shocking for me to read unpatriotic comments by many people on Mr Zamir Ajmal’s letter, “I will leave Pakistan” (Oct 18).
These people have castigated the role of the mullahs who have managed to win an unprecedented number of seats in the two provinces bordering Afghanistan and in the centre, showing the unanimity of views of big religious parties and the failure of the American decision to crush innocent Afghans in the name of terrorism. Moreover, allegations against some leaders of the MMA that they sent many misguided young people for jihad in Afghanistan are not true.
It is an open secret now that the US, during the era of Ziaul Haq, provided the latter with Russian arms and ammunition along with jihadis from the Middle East to combat the former USSR. The people of the NWFP and Balochistan knew this to be wrong and that is why they voted in favour of the MMA. Had these leaders been involved in sending the youth to Afghanistan, their parents would not have voted for the MMA.
Our main problem today has been our belief in the biased Western media that has been involved in a vicious propaganda against our moderate religious scholars and has been hoodwinking the masses by maligning the education imparted in the madaris without giving our religious scholars an opportunity to speak both domestically and internationally. Therefore, the success of the media can be gauged by reading the comments made by people who are so scared of rule by the maulanas that they prefer to migrate rather live under them.
The question arises: is it democracy that we practise or a selected version of it? We already committed the same mistake in 1971 when there was a sense of deprivation among the elected leaders of East Pakistan, resulting in its separation.
It is time the people of Pakistan learned from history and held supreme the will of the people by giving a carte blanche to those who deserve to exercise power. It goes without saying that accepting selected versions of democracy and practising it to please the international community will debilitate our sovereignty and pave the way for the exclusion of the people’s say in national affairs on the one hand and will increase dependence of our economy on the developed nations on the other. I hope that good sense will prevail to discourage steps that will jeopardize democracy and lead to national bankruptcy.
AZHAR NAZIR SULEHRI
Lahore
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