| November 15, 2002 | Friday | Ramazan 9, 1423 |
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Campaign against politicians
Spread of nuclear weapons
Detention of Dr Amir
Shortfall in power production
Only for Ramazan?
ID cards: frustrating delays
Checkposts on highway
Is it legal?
House job doctors’ duty hours
Abolition of co-education
Erroneous report
Recovery of non-performing loans
This is with reference to Ardeshir Cowasjee’s column, “Citizen of Pakistan” (Nov 10). I personally respect the columnist for his forthright stand in favour of the oppressed.
Regrettably, this particular report contains a few significant inaccuracies, and also arrives at erroneous conclusions insofar as the Pakistan embassy’s role in the unfortunate episode is concerned. The factual position is as follows:
The embassy learnt through unofficial channels in the late afternoon on Sept 23 that a Pakistani had been detained at Cairo airport. The consular officer tasked his staff with making preliminary inquiries, and proceeded to the airport with a staff member directly.
At the airport it was discovered that, in fact, three passengers (two transit and one departing), including an elderly lady, had been detained on the suspicion that they were travelling on stolen passports.
The consular officer met the concerned immigration officials and, after two hours of discussion, checking and re-checking, it was ascertained that the Egyptian immigration officials had made a serious blunder.
The consular officer demanded that they bear the hotel expenses of the Pakistanis who had been unjustly detained. The immigration authorities flatly refused, as did Egypt Air, but they let the passengers shift to the airport hotel the same night. (The 56 hours “detention” in Mr Cowasjee’s column refers to their entire stay at Cairo, and is misleading).
The consular officer personally escorted the passengers to the airport hotel and got them settled.
At the request of the lady, the officer arranged an extra mattress, so that all three passengers could stay together in order to minimize expenses.
The officer left them in the hotel room at 0330 hours. On the same day, a senior embassy lady telephoned the lady, comforted her and conveyed her contact number to her daughter in Pakistan.
The officer returned to the airport once again at midday to make arrangements for the passengers’ return journey. Initially he was unable to firm up arrangements for their departure on Sept 25 morning owing to resistance from Egypt Air. Airline officials pleaded that it was an immigration problem and not the responsibility of Egypt Air.
We apprehended that the passengers would be forced to wait for two more days before being allowed to board the next direct Egypt Air flight to Karachi on Sept 27.
At 2200 hours, the consular officer again went to the airport for the third and last time, and after strenuous efforts succeeded in arranging the return journey via Dubai on the Egypt Air flight leaving Cairo at 0800 hours on Sept 25 morning. Thereafter, he got the passengers checked out from their hotel and personally escorted them to the departure lounge, returning to his apartment in Cairo just before dawn for the second night in a row.
While agreeing with Mr Cowasjee’s column that our citizens are often subjected to unjust and discriminatory treatment abroad, it is disturbing to read that “the Pakistan Embassy extended no cooperation, offered no help” in the recent case.
The assistance and moral support provided to the three passengers at Cairo airport was exemplary, irrespective of the fact that none of them was personally known to the consular officer.
ANWAR KEMAL
Ambassador of Pakistan to Cairo
Cairo, Egypt
EVEN though the general election is over, and the army has completed the three-year tenure, a mandate given to them by the Supreme Court of Pakistan (under the doctrine of necessity), the campaign of denigrating politicians that started three years ago continues unabated. The recent incident of postponing the inaugural National Assembly session of the newly-elected members and putting all the blame on the politician is a part of that campaign.
Those who know how government machinery functions in Pakistan were not surprised when Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, parliamentary leader of the Pakistan Muslim League (Q) also known as the king’s party, demanded the postponement of the Assembly session scheduled for Nov 8. As expected, the military regime immediately accepted this demand and postponed the session.
The fact of the matter is that the government never issued any written intimation to the National Assembly secretariat. The announcement that the first session of the National Assembly would be convened on the Nov 8 remained confined to the electronic and the print media, as no formal and written request was ever sent to the National Assembly secretariat.
The letters from the National Assembly secretariat received by the members-elect did not contain any information on the convening of the session. All what the letter addressed was a congratulatory note and contact information related to board and lodging in Islamabad.
The Legal Framework Order was issued in August this year and proposed 28 amendments to the Constitution, by which parliament would cease to be the supreme sovereign body of the country and the army-controlled National Security Council would acquire the dominant role.
All the genuine political parties, in particular the Pakistan People’s Party, have rejected the LFO. They have pledged to the nation the restoration of the 1973 Constitution and the supremacy of parliament.
FAUZIA WAHAB
Central Coordinator, Human Rights Cell, PPP
Karachi
NORTH Korea’s public confession of having nuclear weapons has once again raised concerns about further proliferation of nuclear technology in the world.
At present there are five declared nuclear states, i.e., the US, Russia, Britain, France and China. Although India and Pakistan carried out nuclear tests in May 1998, they have not been granted the status of nuclear states yet. Thus they remain de-facto nuclear countries.
In addition to North Korea, some other states, including Israel, Brazil and South Africa, are believed to be in possession of nuclear weapons/capabi-lity, but they have not made their nuclear programmes public.
The declared nuclear powers have refused to grant India and Pakistan the status of nuclear states, anticipating that this might encourage threshold nuclear states to detonate nuclear bombs to join the club of nuclear countries.
However, this strategy seems to have failed, and its failure is clearly exposed with North Korea’s declaration that it does have nuclear weapons.
In my view, the only effective measure to check further proliferation of nuclear technology is that India and Pakistan should be granted the status of nuclear states and they, with all nuclear threshold states, should be allowed to join the club of nuclear countries. Then all the member states of the club should declare together that they would not transfer nuclear technology to any other country.
Unless such an arrangement is made, the proliferation of nuclear technology will continue unabated.
IMTIAZ ALI KALHORO
Larkana
I WRITE this to express my deep shock and anguish at the recent arrest of Dr Amir Aziz at the behest of the FBI. Dr Aziz is not only a renowned surgeon, he is also a man of principles, a devout Muslim and a sincere person devoted to serving humanity without any discriminations.
Dr Aziz has to his credit a very distinguished academic record. As a colleague of mine in Cadet College, Hasan Abdal, way back in the 1970s, he displayed exceptional qualities of leadership and academic attainment. He often risked his life while serving humanity during the Russian-Afghan war, as well as elsewhere.
Instead of recognizing and rewarding such a distinguished Pakistani, our authorities have chosen to blindly abide by the instructions of a foreign government. Our interior ministry has had the audacity to declare that they were bound to follow the dictates of the Interpol and other such bodies and might hand over this eminent doctor to some foreign authority.
May I ask him how many of our own wanted people have we been able to bring back to justice through the Interpol? Among them we have a number of politicians and senior bureaucrats who either have criminal cases against them or face charges of corruption.
Dr Aziz’s arrest and detention cast doubts on our claims to sovereignty. I join my Pakistani brethren in strong protest against it and demand his immediate and honourable release.
M. JAMIL AKHTAR KHAN
Karachi
A RECENTLY-published report, prepared by the power regulatory body of the country, has projected a shortfall of over 5,500 megawatts by 2010. This is an alarming situation and future governments will have to take some revolutionary measures to halt this widening gap between power demand and production.
The magnitude of shortfall can be judged from the fact that the Tarbela dam, the biggest power station in the country, produces only 1,700MW on average, neglecting the seasonal river flow volume deviations.
It should be remembered that Tarbela and Mangla dams are not getting any bigger or more efficient as time goes by. These facts call for some serious thinking and decision-making by top officials before it is too late.
Pakistan cannot afford more IPPs because they are already a huge burden on the country. They charge Wapda exorbitant rates for their services and, considering the fact that oil prices are prone to increase, setting up thermal power plants might not be the best solution for a poor country like ours where the people are already heavily burdened by increasing utility charges.
What plans does our power regulatory body have for the future?
SYED ARIF REHMAN
Topi
EACH year the holy month of Ramazan finds us, the Muslims, observing much discipline and strictly abiding by the timings fixed for Sehri, Iftar and Taravih prayers.
The religious leaders in their speeches should appeal to the faithful to maintain the same discipline and punctuality in their daily affairs throughout the year.
People should be told to attend their offices on the given timings as they are paid in return for the services rendered during these fixed timings.
If the daily routine is followed with the same discipline and punctuality throughout the country, we could expect a great change in our lives and hopefully, most of our problems could be solved to a great extent.
SYED ABRAR HUSSAINI
Karachi
THIS is with reference to a letter by Nadra Chairman Saleem A. Moin (Nov 11).
One fails to understand that when a photocopy of the old identity card is attached to the form for a new one, how anyone can write ‘Mrs’ for a male applicant or ‘Mr’ for a female citizen. The chairman has spoken highly of his swift centres, but the question arises: why should an applicant who has waited for one year or more after having applied for a new card and has also paid a fee of Rs35 pay another Rs180 at a swift centre?
Mr Moin writes, “We have bags full of satisfied customers’ remarks.” Has he ever cared to look into the wagons full of complaints of delays and mistakes made by applicants, lying abandoned somewhere in Pakistan?
And, lastly, when and how will the mistakes in the cards already issued be corrected? There is no procedure prescribed for this as yet. The swift centre at Karachi’s Awami Markaz says that the notification for this would probably be issued by the new prime minister.
IMTIAZ FAROOQ QURESHI
Karachi
I travel frequently between Lahore and Pakpattan in airconditioned coaches. The four-hour journey becomes intolerable due to police checking of coaches at various posts, specially at night.
To avoid this troubling process of checking, some drivers give hush money to police. For this purpose, police staff have appointed a jobber on daily wages. This person receives the hush money from the drivers and let them to go without checking.
I request the concerned authorities to direct the anti-corruption police and the superhighway police to pay surprise visits to police checkposts for the elimination of this illegal act.
RIASAT ALI DOGAR
Lahore
THE PTA has banned voice chat over Internet. This has been done to benefit only one commercial organization and that is the PTCL.
A lot of resentment has been shown against this ban in these columns, but nobody has asked that under which law the voice chatting has been banned.
I think that somebody, may be the association of ISPs, should go to court to ascertain if this kind of whimsical decision aimed at protecting the interests of a single commercial undertaking is sustainable legally.
The recent Supreme Court decision against the ban on serving meals in valima parties should act as a guide.
SASA SAYEF HUSSAIN
Islamabad
THIS is with reference to the letter “house job doctors’ duty” (Nov 7).
The respectable doctor has stated that on his fist day at the job, his professor told him all he had to do and warned him: “The only reason for not completing all this by my round’s time is that you have been buried six feet below the ground.”
Of course, a doctor should be committed, devoted and dedicated to his/her professional requirement but, after all, nothing should be at the cost of doctor’s health, otherwise, the patient will suffer.
Nobody should be overburdened, specially doctors, who have to be vigilant all the time.
Dr ABID RAUF ORAKZAI
Hangu
THIS is with reference to the letters by Asfandyar Farokh (Nov 7) and Naela Hasan (Nov 12) about co-education.
In a society like ours, where modernism means simply aping the West, co-education only adds fuel to the fire of our inherent perversions.
We are a people not attuned to anything that gives us a modicum of freedom and its corollaries.
Although warped minds will always conjure up things to get around the system, once you restrict access, the chances of abuse becomes minimal.
In spite of being educated in a Western environment, and having spent a few years in the ‘free’ West, I still endorse the abolishment of co-education.
Interaction with women comes very much lower in the list of priorities. There is much else to be done before we can think of leaping into the next millennium.
ARSALAAN AHMED SIDDIQI
Karachi
THIS is with reference to a news item, “Judgment reserved on Mansoor’s bail plea” (Nov 13).
My name, ‘Rear Admiral Jamil (retired)’, has erroneously been mentioned in the report. Obviously, I have nothing to do with the case. I have never been proposed or appointed chairman of the national shipping corporation.
Incidentally, I am the only flag officer — whether serving or retired — with the so stated name and rank in the navy; hence my anxiety. The mentioning of my name in the case, which is being followed at both the national and international levels, has also distressed me as it is likely to bring my name into disrepute.
The report was obviously based on incorrect information.
REAR ADMIRAL (RETD)
M. JAMEEL AKHTAR HI (M) TBT
Karachi
THE article, “Dealing with banks’ non-performing loans” (Oct 21-22), by the governor of State Bank, Ishrat Husain, shows the complexity of recovering the huge amount of non-performing loans from defaulters.
The club of elite defaulters has now assets of more than Rs250 billion, including the principal amount and markup. This is a huge amount from which about 22 per cent recovery has been made in three years, Rs40 billion by banks and Rs17.80 billion by NAB.
In cleaning out the balance sheet of banks and DFIs, aged-loans are being written off and concessions are being given to “circumstantial defaulters”, as against wilful defaulters. One could ask: is this according to the loan contract? If not, then why the loss of defaulting be borne by the lender (the public banks) and not the borrower? If the borrower has gone poorer and is living in abject poverty, then a humane approach could be considered. But, in addition to defaulting, if he is living in luxury, then how could he be excused?
It is understood that by law the collateral of the borrower is only liable for loan’s recovery. If this collateral is inadequate, due to bank’s inefficiency, the law should be changed to attach his other assets to the loan. We have seen ordinances being issued for critical national issues. Loan defaulting is one of these, as the money involved is that of the public.
In 1997, the defaulted amount was five per cent of the total advances/loans. But in 1999, this ratio shot up to 29 per cent, which is much above the international norm of five per cent. It would be interesting to know the measures which were being taken by the State Bank to control this ratio in course of the two-year period and to inform why it could not be controlled.
For recovery of the defaulted loans, the CIRC has been created. I would suggest that the services of engineering consultants should be availed of by the CIRC since the number of units to be dealt with are many and each unit is technically complex. Such services have been used in our neighbouring country with success and recovery was made effectively and in less time.
ENGR. A. RAHIM
Karachi
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