| November 26, 2002 | Tuesday | Ramazan 20, 1423 |
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Judges’ age of retirement
Demise of sovereignty
A tale of two tankers
Performance of ex-PR minister
Use of polythene bags
Menace of quackery
AKP’s victory in Turkey
Transportation of crude oil
Port Qasim?
Pakistan mission in NY
Duty of philosophers
NEWSPAPERS reported on Nov 21 that Qazi Husain Ahmad intended to raise the issue of alleged illegality in the oath taken by the president to assume his office for five years. In this connection, one may remind him of just a few points.
First: the argument that the Chief Justice of Pakistan was not competent to administer an oath for the reason that he himself had not taken the oath under the 1973 Constitution goes a long way because who would then be competent to administer the oath to the Chief Justice in case he volunteers to take a fresh one? It would be an unending chain.
Second: the oath by the President and all the MNAs under the 1973 Constitution implies “1973 Constitution as amended by the LFO”
Third: it was the “1973 Constitution as amended by the LFO” under which the whole exercise of the general election was conducted.
Fourth: it was the “1973 Constitution as amended by the LFO” that was accepted by the entire electorate of Pakistan and all the participating candidates.
Fifth: who is to decide as to whether LFO is part of the 1973 Constitution? Of course, the Supreme Court which authorized the President to make amendments. It is they (Supreme Court judges) who can decide whether the President transgressed the authority given to him.
Sixth: if the Supreme Court has itself gone beyond its own authority to empower the President to make amendments, why was a review application not moved soon after that decision which was pronounced on a petition by one of the politicians?
If (for argument’s sake) the government agrees to withdraw the LFO, would the MNAs be willing to curtail the strength of the House to the limit envisaged in the 1973 Constitution, and who among them would be willing to surrender his seat if every party is asked to proportionately curtail its strength?
SHNEY ZUBERI
Los Angeles, USA
IT IS heartening to note that the president has raised the retirement age of the judges of the Supreme Court and the four high courts by three years. Now a Supreme Court judge would retire on attaining the age of 68 and a high court judge would retire at the age of 65.
It is, however, disappointing to note that the retirement age of government employees remains 60 years.
The logic of increasing the age of retirement of the judges is supposed to be the fact that average life expectancy has increased in Pakistan due to developments in medical science and awareness of health problems.
Thus the majority of Pakistanis who retire at 60 years of age remain active and healthy far beyond 70 years. It is suggested that the retirement age of government officers, too, be increased to 65 years with the option for the employee to seek retirement at 60 years.
R. AFZAL
USA
THE United States recently executed Mir Aimal Kasi. That he was a murderer might be true, but the way he had been captured in Pakistan by the FBI was quite objectionable.
The question arises: can Pakistan arrest wanted criminals in the US without bypassing American laws? Clearly, the incident could be termed the demise of our sovereignty.
M. TAHIR GURCHANI
Islamabad
We, the students of a Karachi school, express our sorrow at the unfair execution of Mir Aimal Kasi. His execution was inhuman and should be condemned by all.
That the FBI was allowed to arrest Kasi and take him to the US without following any due process of law and in the absence of any extradition treaty between Pakistan and the US is all the more shocking. It can safely be said that Kasi was in fact kidnapped by the FBI. How many innocent Pakistanis will suffer in this manner before our conscience awakes?
SAD STUDENTS
Karachi
I FAIL to understand why the Western media has raised such a hue and cry over the spillage of 3,000 tons of oil into the sea from a tanker called Prestige. This old Greek tanker is reported to have developed some structural problem and leaked oil into the sea at a distance of 150 miles from the Spanish coast.
The media considers it a major ecological disaster whose losses could run into billions of dollars. The concerned parties — the shipowner, the shipper, the charterers and the insurance companies — would make these huge losses good.
On Aug 14 this year, an old Greek tanker called Golden Gate, which was chartered by the Pakistan National Shipping Corporation, spilled a similar amount of crude oil right into the heart of Karachi harbour and spread noxious fumes over southern Karachi. There was no hue and cry. The matter was obviously ‘handled’ very efficiently by the Pakistan authorities and the tanker was released after some formal questioning and perhaps a token fine.
Had this incident occurred in any other port in the world, the cost of ecological damage and compensation would have run into a figure at least four times that of Prestige. How much did we claim or recover?
However, after some time, I read an interview of the minister of environment, Barrister Shahida Jamil, in which she expressed great concern and anger over the fact that Pakistan did not have a pollution-combating policy. I think the Spanish authorities should hire our ‘experts’ to resolve the problem created by Prestige. They can ‘handle’ matters without even a formal policy in place.
In the meantime, the Greek junks continue to visit Pakistan ports and we await further environmental disasters.
Will the new minister of environment please stand up and sort out those who continue to treat our marine environment so callously?
CAPT A. BASIT
Karachi
AS a patriotic citizen, I was shocked to read in Dawn a news item, “Charges against Javed Ashraf being examined”.
It is fact that, during the tenure of the previous governments, the performance and financial condition of the Pakistan Railways deteriorated so badly that declaring bankruptcy, privatization and closure was imminent.
I am amazed at the audacity of Siddique-ul-Farooq who levelled such charges against former railways minister Lt-Gen Javed Ashraf Qazi.
In my view, contributions, made by people who have an unblemished past, should not be undermined.
Their efforts should be appreciated whether they belong to a military setup or some political party.
May I ask Mr Farooq as to what he is achieving by levelling unjustifiable charges against Mr Qazi under whom the Pakistan Railways got a big boost, and is now on its track?
FAROOQ UMAR
Karachi
Everyone knows the highly undesirable results of the use of polythene bags. The non-biodegradable nature of these bags hits the sewerage system which has got to be cleared frequently at a huge expenditure.
These bags emit carcinogenic gases when unwisely burnt with trash and pose serious health hazards. They are found littered in all cities and even the rural areas of the country.
I was shocked to see thousands of polythene bags at the estuary of the River Hingol in Balochistan, supposed to be an extremely unapproachable remote area.
Despite a lot of hue and cry over damage caused by polythene bags, this menace continues to play havoc with environment and the civic system. Some years back, black plastic bags were banned by the governments of Sindh and Balochistan, but they were replaced by coloured ones.
The problem became worse because black bags were produced from coloured polythene bags. Now, since black polythene bags have been banned, colour bags are not recycled and are left littered all over.
Most of the plastic bags are of the ‘single use disposable’ variety. These are extremely cheap being very thin, only 10-20 microns.
When we go to buy ordinary grocery items, vendors give us these bags free of cost and buyers throw it away after a single use. If we want to discourage the use of these bags, we have to make them costlier.
What is required is that these bags should be of a higher micron thickness so that the first receiver has to pay a price.
No vendor can afford to supply plastic bags of 100-150 micron free of charge. Once the user is made to pay for bags, he would reuse them. Such thick density bags would also be recycled and even after you throw them away, somebody would collect them for the purpose of recycling.
The government should, therefore, impose a ban on polythene bags of less than 100 micron thickness and impose taxation on the production and sale of these bags so that ‘single use disposable’ concept is abandoned.
In India, Goa has imposed a ban on less than 100 micron thick poly bags.
TANVEER ARIF
Karachi
I WANT to draw the attention of the public, particularly those suffering from some kind of ailment, towards the growing menace of ‘clinics’ being run by unqualified doctors.
The patients, misled by the promises of a magical treatment and quick recovery, approach them in large numbers. However, instead of getting recovered, they end up with more complications and, often, with an addiction to drugs.
I urge all such patients to contact qualified and registered doctors only for their treatment.
I also request the concerned authorities in the health department and the city Nazim to take a strong action against these quacks and rid the city of such ‘clinics’ as are spread all over the city.
MRS SHAHNAZ ABBASI
Karachi
AN Anatolian friend of mine once told me that Turkey would be the next Algeria. This has come true but, thankfully, in a peaceful manner.
Fortunately, decades of Western meddling in Turkey’s internal affairs have come to nothing. Perhaps the fact that the population of Turkey is more than twice that of the population of Algeria has made it possible for the will of the people to prevail, and power to be transferred to Islamists.
For its victory, the AKP should be thankful not just to the corruption and inefficiencies of the previous regimes, but also to the hypocrisy of the Europeans (Mr Giscard et al).
The common man in Turkey is so disgusted with the double standards of the European Union that the landslide victory of the AKP could be interpreted as a “We don’t give a hang about membership” message to Brussels as well as to the Turkish army generals.
NAELA HASAN
Ontario, Canada
THIS is with reference to a clarification from the petroleum ministry about the contract with the PNSC for the transportation of crude oil (Nov 12).
The strangest part of this scam is that, apart from Ardeshir Cowasjee who wrote about it in his weekly column, and a letter in this space (Nov 21), none of the so-called economic experts, the National Accountability Bureau or any NGO has protested against the scam.
We, the overseas Pakistanis, are astonished at the ease with which crooked schemes are executed successfully in our country.
The PNSC has been ‘favouring’ Pakistan by transporting crude oil for the next 10 years at AFRA (average freight rate assessment), plus 34 per cent above market rates. At least $250 million will be pocketed by unscrupulous elements, and the taxpayers will have to pay, in the bargain, a higher cost for the use of energy.
I request the incoming government to take notice of this matter and seek advice from experts in the shipping industry to assess the magnitude of the fraud and then take these tricksters to task.
KHALID MIAN
London, UK
IN our country, petroleum products are transported from Karachi to the upcountry in tankers which not only damage roads but also bring traffic to frequent halts. This mode of transportation also leads to an increase in oil prices.
One fails to understand as to why this job cannot be done by the Pakistan Railways. Why should we squander foreign exchange for keeping these tankers on roads without any rhyme or reason?
If POL products are transported by trains, a lot of money will be saved and roads will not get destroyed.
Will the ministry of petroleum take notice of this important matter?
AIR-CDRE (R) AZFAR A. KHAN
Rawalpindi
TO the best of my knowledge, Karachi’s second seaport has been named after the great Muslim general, Mohammad bin Qasim. However, the concerned authority has been referring to the same as ‘Port Qasim’ in advertisements released by it from time to time, the most recent being the one in Dawn’s edition of Nov 14.
If the practice continues, a time will come when our future generations would forget the name of the general and would be inquiring as to who Mr Qasim was.
Will the concerned authorities look into the matter?
MAJID KHAN JADOON
Karachi
I recently had to get my passport renewed from the Pakistan consulate in New York. During this process, I have noticed certain shortcomings towards which I want to draw the attention of the concerned authorities.
There is no website for the Pakistan consulate-general from where one might get necessary information like the address, telephone/fax numbers and the e-mail address of the consulate.
The facility to download prescribed forms for various purposes could also be provided on such a website. Some kind-hearted Pakistanis have provided such information on their personal websites.
The automated customer telephone service at the consulate is quite impressive. But there is one ‘human’ factor which was very annoying. I patiently followed the instructions, choosing the options, but at the end instead of reaching someone to answer my query, I heard somebody pick up the phone and hang it!
When I finally got through, I heard the voice telling me to leave my name and phone number and that I would be contacted later. Though I tried this daily for a week, no one ever called me back.
AHSEN JAFFER
Louisville, US
FOR the first time ever, Nov 21 was declared as “World Philosophy Day” by Unesco. I found this very interesting.
Increasingly in our time, universities everywhere are plagued by the growing departmentalization of knowledge. Doctors, scientists, executives and also experts of information technology have no time to venture outside the spheres of specialization in which they have been instructed and trained.
Consequently, they go through life — much like the common man — without any reflections and a general perspective of principles. I personally believe that this is not a healthy state of affairs. What is most unfortunate is that philosophy departments in universities themselves specialize in narrow channels and focus obsessively on theories of epistemology — on things that have no direct relation to the vital issues that concern human life and civilization.
At a time when our world is increasingly under threat from modern techniques of mass destruction, I believe that philosophy must assume its importance and responsibility. Professional and professorial philosophers must give up their practice of abdicating responsibility, and should provide a perspective on crucial and burning issues and enlighten public opinion.
I believe that the task of a philosopher is first to seek to see the whole of anything in order to obtain a perspective even while knowing that the total perspective is an optical and mental illusion.
Secondly, he/she, in the light of his/her own assumptions and personal values, should make attempts to assess and evaluate its importance and, thirdly, he/she should make his/her assessments plain without any fear or favour for the benefit of the public, seeking both to present his/her own perspective and convey various evaluations, made in order to arrive at conclusions.
This seems to me to be the work philosophers must seek to undertake with commitment and enthusiasm.
JAMIL D. DADABHOY
Karachi
IT is heartening to learn that Unicef has declared Nov 21 as World Philosophy Day in recognition of the discipline’s ability of reflection on the world’s most pressing problems (Nov 18).
In this age of information technology, knowledge and education have been hijacked and made subservient to the teaching of certain skills, like computer technology and business management. Philosophy and basic sciences have to suffer a coup de grace at the hands of sophists (literally ‘wise men’, an ironic title) of our age. Philosophy or ‘love of wisdom’, which entails reflection, deliberation in-depth analysis, contemplation, etc., is no more encouraged in our curricula.
Research in other basic and social sciences is considered equally nonprofitable. The boom of technology is deafening and the voice of wisdom is becoming inaudible.
Technology is the greatest challenge to humanity today. I am not suggesting that it should be suppressed, but it needs to be developed with focus on evolution of humanity, keeping in view the changing human situations and human values.
In Pakistan, education is being privatized and technological sciences are being given the be-all-and-end-all status at the behest of the IMF and the World Bank. Philosophy and basic physical and social sciences are being relegated to a lower place in the world’s new paradigm of knowledge. This paradigm shift in knowledge employment has to be checked to ensure that we do not produce only technocrats at the end of the century.
Technology is a new dogma of the century. Let us hope that this dogma does not take us too far to close all avenues of truth, and leave no room for us for reflecting on our social problems in a spirit of freedom and rationality.
DR ARIFA FARID
Karachi
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