| November 19, 2002 | Tuesday | Ramazan 13, 1423 |
To send a letter to the Editor
Click here
Straw admits guilt
Rights of returning prisoners
Menace of quackery
Women’s contribution
Violence against women
Restoration of commuted pension
House job doctors’ working hours
Charged parking
Issue of weekly holiday
Shops blocking footpaths
Universities Ordinance
As power tussle continues
THIS is with reference to the news item, “Bengalis living in Pakistan before 1971 to get citizenship” (Nov 13).
The report says: “A high-powered committee constituted by the federal government has proposed to grant Pakistan citizenship to all those Bengalis living in Pakistan before December 16, l971.” There are roughly one million Bengalis living in Pakistan, particularly in its biggest city of Karachi, and are primarily involved in fishing industry, tannery and other small type of work.
Two divergent opinions exist on the issue of Bengalis living in Pakistan. First, a majority of the Bengali population lived in this country even before 1971. They are legally Pakistanis and have all legitimate rights as citizens of Pakistan. Therefore, they should not give proof of their stay in the then West Pakistan.
Second, out of one million Bengalis living in Pakistan, a majority of them are aliens and have been illegally living in this country and should be either deported to Bangladesh or be issued alien registration cards.
In the recent general election, too, the issue of citizenship for Bengalis was raised and a number of political and human rights organizations supported the stand of the Bengalis. These organizations said the Bengalis, who had been living in Pakistan before December 1971, were as much Pakistanis as are others.
If seen from a historical and ideological point of view, the government cannot equate Bengalis living in Pakistan with Afghans, Iranians or Indians because they were Pakistanis till 1971 and their contribution to the Pakistan Movement cannot be denied. It is suggested that, instead of harassing the Bengali population and putting them at the mercy of the special branch of police or the home department for the issuance of alien registration cards or citizenship certificates, they should be properly treated.
Taking punitive actions against the Pakistani Bengalis will also have a negative impact on Bangladesh-Pakistan relations, which have taken an upward trend after the visit of President Pervez Musharraf to Dhaka.
It will be according to the standards of fairness and justice that the government implement the commitment made by President Musharraf during his meeting with the Stranded Pakistanis General Repatriation Committee (SPGRC) in Dhaka on July 31 that these stranded Pakistanis (Biharis) will be brought back to Pakistan at an appropriate time.
In the context of bettering Bangladesh-Pakistan relations, it is suggested that all issues which tend to create unpleasantness between the two countries are resolved through negotiations without further delay.
PROF MOONIS AHMAR
Karachi
JACK Straw, UK foreign secretary, is the only British leader to accept the guilt of his nation with regard to some of the major issues causing trouble in the Middle East and in South Asia. He is indeed an honest and honourable person, so rarely found these days.
He has admitted that “some quite serious mistakes” were committed by the British government during the partition of India. He was obviously referring to what we are now facing in Kashmir.
He also spoke of Britain’s “less than glorious role” that resulted in the re-destruction of Afghanistan by the United States and the UK, after it had been ravaged by the Soviet invasion.
As to the conflict that has been going on between Israel and the Palestinians for 55 years, Mr Straw says: “The Balfour Declaration and the contradictory assurances which were being given to Palestinians in private at the same time as they were being given to Israelis — again, an interesting history for us, but not an honourable one.”
Britain invaded Iraq during the World War I and, subsequently, administered it until 1932 under a mandate from the League of Nations. The odd lines for Iraqi borders, which at that time included Kuwait, were also drawn by them.
Thus it was Britain that sowed the seeds of conflicts in India, Iraq and Palestine, though it had been shown the green light by other Western countries.
The nexus of evil, adding fuel to the three burning spots in the world —Kashmir, Afghanistan and the Middle East — has actually been constituted by the United Kingdom, India, Israel and the US.
QUTBUDDIN
Karachi
THERE was a photograph of Haji Mohammad Siddiq in Dawn (Oct 30). The gentleman had been incarcerated in the US military prison in Guatanamo Bay. PTV news had also covered the event, showing him returning home after being released from the US prison.
I have seen similar photographs in Dawn of young men returning to Pakistan after being deported by the US authorities, and it was obvious that they were trying to hide their faces from photographers.
I would like to request the Pakistani print and electronic media to avoid carrying photographs and videos of such individuals. I am sure their experiences with the US authorities have not been pleasant. Please do not torment them further.
Protecting the privacy of such individuals is very important, who must feel very humiliated at being deported or to have been kept in captivity. In the case of young people, they have to start from scratch after being sent home. It is likely that such photographs may jeopardize the chances of a young man getting a decent job and establishing social contacts.
Anjum Niaz, in one of her weekly articles, ‘Scene and Heard’, in Sunday Magazine, mentioned the efforts of various organizations in the US to protect the rights of the people being deported or kept in captivity in connection with the 9/11 attacks in the US. This includes the protection of their identity. On the other hand, Pakistani authorities have hardly done anything for such people. The least we can do for them now is to give them a decent chance to rebuild their lives here.
AYESHA KHAN
Islamabad
I READ Dr Sher Shah’s article on the above subject (Nov 13) with interest. I would like to add to readers’ knowledge some side-effects of the so-called sex tonics on the nervous system.
Over the last several months I have come across four patients with illnesses related to the use of such tonics. One case pertained to a 35-year-old shopkeeper from Liaquatabad. Married for six years, he has three children. Lately, he felt some decline in his sexual prowess and, guided by advertisements carried by posters and signboards littered all over the city, he bought capsules of a certain brand and took them daily.
After four days, he developed some difficulty in walking, and three days before visiting the neurology OPD at Civil Hospital, Karachi, he had become so weak that he could not himself go to the toilet.
When I examined him, I found that, besides feeling severe weakness in limbs, he had lost all tendon reflexes. He had all the signs of suffering from acute neuropathy — a serious condition resulting from damage to the peripheral nerves.
A nerve study confirmed this to be severe axonal neuropathy. He soon became wheelchair-bound. This was most probably a toxic neuropathy because of heavy metal ingestion. This condition leaves permanent damage and cannot be cured.
I urge the concerned authorities, particularly the health department, to ban the publicity and sale of these extremely harmful chemicals in the name of curing ‘sexual weaknesses’. The Pakistan Medical and Dental Council should also highlight this issue.
DR SARWAR JAMIL SIDDIQUI
Karachi
IN many parts of the world, including Pakistan and India, women have made commendable contribution towards promoting all professions, be it journalism, medicine or political affairs.
When Indira Gandhi was prime minister, I wrote in an Indian newspaper that when there were approximately 300 million women in India at that time, why it was not provided that half the Lok Sabha seats would be for women
In our own case, Benazir Bhutto was the first Muslim woman prime minister. How sad that Benazir did not provide half the seats in parliament for women.
When Margaret Thatcher was prime minister in England, I wrote in the British press that how it is that the first-ever parliamentary democracy did not provide half the seats in parliament for women.
As a seafarer, I sailed into the port of Auckland in New Zealand and came to know of an island off the coast where a Maori girl, Hurea Matenga, used to live.
I was told how Matenga swam in the rough seas to save the lives of seven sailors whose ship had grounded on the rocky-coast. When Matenga was informed that one wounded sailor was still on the upper deck, she made her way to the deck and managed to rescue the last of the seamen.
Laila Khalid hijacked an American airliner and made it land on the coast of Palestine, as she wanted to draw world attention to the freedom struggle of Palestinians.
During the British rule, Kalpana Dutt of the famous Chittagong armoury case, and six of her companion freedom-fighters surrounded the armoury, collected all the weapons and ammunition and managed to put it in the coaches of a local train bound for Sandwip Island.
Kalpana Dutt came to know that there was a ‘quisling’ who had informed the British about the arms and ammunition on the train. She succeeded in leaving the train with the other freedom fighters.
M.J. SAYEED
Karachi
ON Nov 12, the women development ministry announced 20 crisis centres to assist women in distress in Pakistan. This represents the latest attempt by the government to address the serious problem of violence against women.
However, this is a matter of great concern that this strategy only mimics the failed measures adopted in the West to end this menace. Such crisis centres really do not stand a chance.
The solution to the problem of violence against women will not be found in adopting the Western “freedoms” or aping Western programmes. The real solution lies in following the teachings of Islam which binds man and woman to fulfil the rights and duties due to each other.
DR ABDUL WAJID
Lahore
THE decision made by the government to restore the amount commuted by a retired employee from his pension is indeed commendable. This decision reveals that the government is fully aware of the difficulties of pensioners.
However, the present decision does not help those retired persons whose restoration of the commuted part had become due during the period in which this facility had been kept withdrawn. This would require the withdrawal of the earlier decision of stopping of commutation from the date of its issue, or by effecting the present decision from the date of issue of the previous decision.
Accordingly, the federal ministry of finance is requested to issue a formal notification covering the above mentioned period as well. That would help those who stand deprived of the benefits of this decision.
MUREED HUSSAIN BUTT
Lahore
THIS refers to the letters appearing in these columns about the working hours of house job doctors.
For a few years, a concern has been growing the world over about the fatigue factor among doctors. It has been apprehended that a tough duty schedule affects their performance, leading to poor patient care.
New England Journal of Medicine, in its Oct 17 issue, has carried a special article and an editorial on this subject. The article concludes that medical professionals, specially residents (house doctors), in the US are working far beyond the limits that society finds acceptable in other sectors. The journal says that this practice is incompatible with safe and high quality health-care systems.
There is a need to strike a balance between doctors’ fatigue and adequate training and care for patients.
Dr ARSHAD AHMED
Karachi
IF one goes to Tariq Road and parks the car even for 15 minutes, one has to pay Rs10. If one moves next to Bahadurabad, one is again charged Rs10, though it is the same road. The excuse is that it is a different contractor.
A huge amount must have been collected through parking fees during the last two years, but nothing has been done yet either to develop proper parking spaces or to improve the miserable conditions of roads. Will the authorities concerned let us know as to where the money goes?
MRS S. A. RAZZAK
Karachi
YET another non-issue of weekly holiday is being thrown up in the name of religion. The Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal would like to revert to Friday as the weekend.
Weekly holiday surfaced as an issue when the first PPP government switched to Friday as a weekly holiday in 1977 in an attempt to appease the nine agitating “stars” of the then PNA movement.
The idea was not to become any holier but it was a political gimmick. The working community suffered enormously since then as we worked out of the synchronization with the rest of the world.
Consequently, another elected government had the Sunday weekend restored. And, we did not become less holy by this change. Moral or religious life is hardly a function of the day you choose to end or start your week with.
We ought to be living and practising Muslims rather than merely preaching ones, with emphasis only on preaching the rituals mostly in utter disregard of the true spirit and essence of religion.
The clergy ought to lead more by personal examples and good deeds than by mere speech and diktat!
Dr MAHNAZ FATIMA
Karachi
FOR a long time I have been observing that most shopkeepers place their goods outside their shops on footpaths. This causes much inconvenience to passers-by.
Footpaths are meant for pedestrians to walk and not for the display of items for sale. This blockage is illegal. I suggest that the city government should take notice of this, and fine such shopkeepers heavily.
KAZI MOEED ALI
Lahore
THIS refers to a news report about the Federal Universities Ordinance (Dawn, Nov 15).
I would like to clarify an error that could lead to serious misunderstandings. The Federal Universities Ordinance, promulgated, does not apply at this time to any university.
The ordinance states: “The provisions of this Ordinance shall come into force with respect to the universities listed in the schedule to the Ordinance on such dates as may be specified by the government through notifications in the official gazette.”
Thus, for this ordinance to apply to any university, a separate notification will have to be issued. No such notification has been issued yet.
DR S. SOHAIL H. NAQVI
Member, Human Resource Development Ministry of Science and Technology, Division,
Islamabad
IT SEEMS that our politicians have not realized that the issues at stake are far graver than the tussle for power or the spoils of victory at the hustings.
It would be understating the facts were I to declare that the politicos making headlines currently are not exactly colossi. Barring none they all have a past, which does not inspire confidence in their leadership.
Having learnt no lessons from their incarceration at the hands of the military, they are doomed to repeat mistakes, which have brought our nation to this sorry pass. Incapable of thinking beyond their rapacious wants or insatiable greed, they are bartering away as gambling chips those very institutions which can build our nation.
Pakistan today is placed on a ticking bomb of a rapidly multiplying population, a diminishing social sector and a widening gulf between disproportionate living standards. This is a sure recipe for anarchy. Whereas a small section of the population, which includes the ruling class, lives like Grand Pashas, the majority struggle hard to survive.
The nation’s wealth, which should have improved educational facilities, health services, housing and basic utilities, was instead salted away or spent on mindless consumption.
Imagine how an acting president and a caretaker prime minister inaugurated their terms of duty by ordering duty-free Mercedes limousines. It did not even cross their minds to lend their names to something more meaningful.
A great tumandar when elected president hijacks a PIA Boeing for 20 days. An international junket, with a planeload of friends en route shopping and sightseeing, is all billed to the national carrier. Our twice elected ‘Daughter of the East’ and her spouse considered Pakistan a private fiefdom. Every national project tendered put monetary commissions into unnamed foreign accounts. At last count the Swiss government has not only sealed their portfolios but also holds them in violation of banking laws.
Another self-exiled PM forgot Pakistan was a struggling republic and not an oil-rich sheikhdom. He also foolishly forgot his humble beginnings and took on the airs of a monarch.
While we are taking this shameful roll call, it would be only fair to recall that generals, air marshals, and admirals have also taken to the good life with unbridled enthusiasm. While they conveniently blame the politicians, their own contribution to our hapless state is by no means less significant.
More then 50 years of being on our own and we have not been able to chart a course to provide meaning to our existence, we pursue only the mindless quest for wealth at the cost of nationhood. At the advent of this Ramazan, a poor student who could not afford his higher studies managed to purchase a string of rope for three rupees and hanged himself rather than be a further burden on his poor parents.
If this does not put the fear of God into our hearts and those who are today squabbling for power do not care to reform themselves, our country is doomed to descend into an abyss where evil will triumph regardless of who wears the mantle of power.
JAVED KHAN
Haripur Hazara
You can also send letters to the Editor
Just send your message to the following address:
Make sure you include your full name, postal address, e-mail address, and in the case of Pakistan your day-time telephone number.