| December 3, 2002 | Tuesday | Ramazan 27,1423 |
To send a letter to the Editor
Click here
Some suggestions for Nadra
Improving quality of education
Hijacking of vehicles in Karachi
Combating pollution
Nobel peace prize for Nawabzada
Is this a war on terror?
Rawalpindi’s civic needs
Frozen Muslim charity assets
Will Jamali be above average?
Large buses in Karachi
Economy: govt claim challenged
Sanctions against Pakistan
On the 22nd United Nations International Day of the Disabled today, we, the 1.3 million disabled men, women and children of Pakistan (as per WHO), take this opportunity to congratulate the newly-elected members of the National Assembly and provincial assemblies and draw their attention to the most disadvantaged section of the people, who have been struggling for many decades to attain their rightful place in society.
Unfortunately, not much has been done to ameliorate their conditions because their problems have not topped the priority list of any government, be it civilian or military. Moreover, the disabled people have not been able to forge themselves into a strong pressure group to influence successive governments’ policies in their favour.
As a result, there is not a single disabled man or a woman at the decision-making level in the country today. Also, there is not a single person with disability at the local bodies’ level. Nor any disabled person has been elected to either the National Assembly or provincial assemblies.
The question is as to whether there is no disabled graduate man or woman who could take part in the governance of the country.
There are several visually-impaired and physically-disabled young people who are teaching in various colleges and at the university level in the country.
The media is the most powerful medium for creating awareness and, thereby, bringing about a social change. It is, however, the responsibility of the government to make an effective use of the media to highlight the issues of the disabled.
While successive governments have done a remarkable job in preventing various kinds of disability through vaccination programmes, they have failed to bring about a change in the public attitude towards the disabled.
We do not see any man or a woman with disability on the electronic media in discussions and talk shows, etc. This sorry state of affairs reinforces the misperception that the disabled are not informed and do not have any opinion on any issue.
Their inclusion in such programmes would not only enrich the quality of programmes but also have a positive impact on the viewers about their abilities, making their integration in the mainstream possible.
With the new democratic government in place, we, the invisible 1.30 million disabled persons of this country, hope that we will receive a better deal than what we have been receiving so far.
FATIMA MANSURI
Chairperson,
Disabled People’s International, Pakistan,
Karachi
I HAVE recently passed through the experience of getting my own and my wife’s computerized identity cards for a second time. The earlier ones had to be returned owing to some anomalies in the address and other details.
Each of the first cards had more than one error and, even after correction, some of these have remained in the recently-issued identity cards. I have decided to keep the cards now as I do not wish to wait for them for a few more months, and feel that it is a waste of scarce national wealth to give the whole process another try; as there exists no guarantee that a third time issue of these cards will be free of all errors.
I agree that it is a monumental task to computerize the national database in a country where no complete records of population ever existed and where it is perhaps the easiest in the world to get oneself declared a bona fide citizen. Keeping my experience in view, I, however wish to suggest the following to Nadra for incorporation in their system/procedure to save valuable resources and minimize wastage of identity cards, which have to be re-issued in case of any error:
(i) After feeding the acquired data into the system, it is advisable to send a printout of the fed data to the concerned individual, on plain paper, on his/her present address for verification and correction of any errors or omissions. A timeframe may be attached and the concerned person asked to respond within, say one month, after which the given information would be considered correct and the computerized identity card issued.
(ii) This process may be repeated in cases where errors and omissions remain after one correction till the data fed into the system corresponds to actual information.
(iii) The individuals asking for corrections may be asked to write the errors or omissions only, or in cases where the forms are refilled, to fill the incorrect address or information in red ink to highlight the errors to be corrected and to facilitate Nadra in incorporating the necessary details in an error-free manner.
(iv) Lastly, there should be some reward system in Nadra for the staff members who work efficiently and feed the data into the system correctly, or produce error-free identity cards that do not need to be corrected and recorrected.
DR MEHDI RAZA
Karachi
WE are all aware that teachers, students and doctors have been going on strikes and taking out processions for the last one year in every province against the recommendations of the higher education commission.
A report of the task force on the improvement of higher education in Pakistan was circulated by the ministry of education in January this year. It was debated in the institutions of higher learning regarding its positive and negative impacts. It seems that no compromise has been reached yet.
I would suggest that the elected government form a high-level committee, consisting of senior professors, so that a comprehensive policy may be adopted to the satisfaction of all concerned. Stepwise reforms are easy to implement but not the drastic ones. We cannot afford to have strikes and agitations. We should help the government in bringing about reforms in the education sector suited to our environment.
I am concerned about the drastic changes recommended by the commission by incorporating a board of governors of only 15 members, to be appointed by the governor, to run a public-sector university.
I still believe that the University Act of 1974, passed by the assembly, be implemented with the desired modifications. Let our elected graduates play a vital role in improving the quality of education at all levels, including that of higher education. I request the prime minister to consider these suggestions and direct the education minister to do the needful.
PROF (DR) AKHLAQ AHMED
Karachi
ACCORDING to a news report (Nov 21), 25 vehicles a day on average are either hijacked or stolen in one month in Karachi. Only in four days from Nov 17 to Nov 20, 127 vehicles were hijacked or stolen: an average of more than 31 vehicles a day!
According to the statistics, compiled by the ACLC, in October 777 vehicles — 234 cars and 543 motorcycles — were either hijacked or stolen in Karachi. The recovery rate for cars stood only at 51.29 per cent and for motorcycles at 30.51 per cent.
It is said that police officials, with unsatisfactory performance, were deputed in the ACLC. The intermittent transfers and posting of officials in the cell was also one of the factors for the ill-equipped cell’s poor performance. The ACLC staff members had failed due to the shortage of personnel, absence of coordination by the district police and the lack of interest by the police hierarchy.
We hope the newly-appointed city police chief, Asad Ashraf Malik, will review the situation and take steps for curbing the crime of vehicle hijacking and theft.
NOOR UL ISLAM KHAN
Karachi
ENVIRONMENTAL pollution in all forms, specially air and noise, is a major contributor to stress-related diseases in urban areas.
According to reports, about four million people develop hearing problems worldwide every year through noise pollution alone.
Public buses, minibuses and privately-owned diesel-run vehicles are a major cause of air pollution. Auto-rickshaws plying on Karachi roads are mainly contributing to noise pollution in the city.
Then ignorance of traffic rules results in excessive honking, which has affected urban society’s mood. Smile has become a rarity in our daily lives. The main cause of irate moods and intolerance may well be increasing mainly due to the increasing pollution, rather than anything else.
With the new representatives in the provincial assemblies, one hopes that this core issue will be addressed on a priority basis. I would suggest that all auto-rickshaws be gradually replaced with four-wheel taxis to be procured on easy instalments, the traffic police be instructed to severely reprimand those driving smoke-emitting vehicles, all kinds of horns be removed from vehicles and an exclusive traffic awareness programme be initiated to educate the public. Also, a well-thought-out government campaign to motivate the people to grow more and more trees would be worth considering.
I am sure if the pollution problem is addressed sincerely, we will witness a happy change in our society.
ARSHAD KHAN
Karachi
NAWABZADA Nasrullah Khan is a torch-bearer of democracy in our military-ridden country. He has struggled throughout his life against all dictators.
A country where politics is identified with violence, corruption and conspiracies, Mr Khan tried to give it a good name.
He earned nothing from politics but miseries for the sake of democracy, which our nation almost forgot soon after the death of Qauid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah.
Will anyone on the Nobel peace committee consider our veteran politician for a Nobel peace prize?
Will Jimmy Carter, who received the prize recently, tell the prize distributors that there is in Pakistan a man who strives for the political rights of the people and for the restoration of democracy?
M. TAHIR GURCHANI
Islamabad
THE US and the UK are bent on attacking Iraq. They expect Saddam Hussein to implement the UN resolutions when other countries are very conveniently allowed to ignore them just because the US is on their side. This is a mockery of justice and only shows that might is right.
Suppression of innocent people by the powerful gives birth to ‘terrorists’. They are in reality freedom-fighters. The US’s ‘war on terrorism’ is a war against liberty, peace and justice. It is a war of the rich against the poor. A war of the developed against the developing, mostly Muslim, countries. Osama would not have reacted if the US had stayed out of his Saudi Arabia.
The Israelis, Indians and Russians, backed by the heavily armed US and the UK, are trying to deprive the people of Iraq, Palestine, Kashmir and Chechnya of their land and natural resources.
The United Nations is being forced to take sides with the bullies because they hold its purse strings. Once the UN is made a non-entity by taking sides with the rich and powerful, the world will have no neutral peacemaker. There will then follow a war without an end.
DR ZARINA KHAN
Islamabad
RAWALPINDI is one of the big cities of the country and also the headquarters of the armed forces of Pakistan.
At the same time, it is the social, economic and commercial hub of the vast Potohar area and the adjoining
Azad Kashmir, Northern Areas and Hazara. Yet it has not received the importance it deserves.
The following are a few requirements of this city towards which the concerned authorities should pay attention: (i) a university, with the authority to conduct examinations — this would reduce the burden of the Punjab University, (ii) a technical college, (iii) a bypass or a ring road, (iv) a large and modern housing scheme, (v) a comprehensive water supply scheme and (vi) a proper sports complex to promote games other than cricket.
SAEED JAVID MALIK
Rawalpindi
RECENTLY, US Congress has passed a legislation that will make available frozen American Muslim charity assets to victims of terrorism, lawyers and special interest groups.
This law has been enacted on entirely unfounded and unsubstantiated allegations that the frozen Muslim charity funds were meant for promoting terrorism.
Worse is yet to come. I have learnt from several reputable legal sources that Congress is quietly drafting legislation that would enable the government to seize the assets of Muslims and Arabs on mere suspicion. I request all Muslims and Arabs to withdraw their deposits in the US as soon as possible.
SAMIR KHAN
Toronto, Canada
MIR Zafarullah Khan Jamali is the 20th prime minister of Pakistan in its 55 years of history. Twenty-six of these years have passed without prime ministers, leaving only 29 years for interchange of 20 prime ministers.
This means that each of the prime ministers has occupied the office of prime minister for 17 months. The pesky question is: will Mr Jamali be able to surpass that average?
ASIM ARIF
Karachi
THE overdue introduction of new large buses in Karachi is a welcome step and will be appreciated by all.
I hope the authorities would ensure that the number of seats in the women’s compartment of these buses are increased, as the number of women passengers is rising day by day. Also, travelling by men in women’s compartments must be strictly forbidden.
SYED ABRAR HUSSAINI
Karachi
THE report, published by the government on Oct 10 under the caption, ‘Three years of reforms and good governance’, claims that “external debt and foreign exchange liability stand reduced from $38 billion in 1998-99 to $36 billion in 2001-02”, thereby claiming that the military government has been successful in reducing this burden by two billion doll ars. President Gen Pervez Musharraf also proudly referred to this achievement in his address to the nation on Nov 20.
However, the fact is that this statement is factually not correct. The State Bank Annual Report 2001-02 released on Oct 28, 2002, observes that Pakistan’s external debt and liabilities in 1998-99 were $36.6 billion and not $38 billion.
The report published by the government on Oct 10 also claims that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) was instrumental in recovering bank defaults amounting to Rs80 billion. This claim, which was also made by the chairman of NAB, is again not correct.
The State Bank governor, in an article, published recently, says that, during the past three years, an amount of more than Rs40 billion has been recovered in respect of banks and DFIs. He further says that cases of wilful defaults have been referred to NAB and that NAB has helped in recovering, including rescheduling, Rs17.5 billion so far from these defaulters.
The government’s report also says that “exports stagnating at eight billion dollars from 1994-95 to 1998-99 have broken the $9 barrier for the first time in 2000-01 and continued growing during 2001-02”.
The president and Shaukat Aziz have also been claiming historic success on the export front. The correct position, however, is that Pakistan’s exports in 1993-94 were $6803 million, which recorded a historic rise of $1,300 million and stood at $8,137 million in 1994-95. In 1995-96, exports further rose to $8,707 million.
It is, however, correct that exports crossed the barrier of nine billion dollars in 2000-01 but it is not an achievement in the real sense on two counts. First, it was only $300 million more than what had already been achieved in 1995-96 and, secondly, a historic rise of $1,300 million was recorded in exports in 1993-94. In any case, it has been incorrectly mentioned in the report that exports continued growing in 2001-02, whereas exports have, in fact, recorded a fall in 2001-02 as compared to the last year’s.
All this and much more incorporated in the Oct 10 report neither justifies the claim of good governance nor does it serve any purpose. It is now time to take the nation into confidence about the actual state of economy and chalk out a new strategy for its revival.
DR SHAHID HASAN SIDDIQUI
Chairman, Research Institute of Islamic Banking & Finance,
Karachi
THE White House has alleged that Pakistan has probably bartered its nuclear know-how with the North Korean missile technology.
The US has, during the recent past, used Pakistan twice as a frontline state in Afghanistan. And now that it feels that the Taliban have been defeated and Al Qaeda has been crushed, it is looking forward to impose sanctions on Pakistan.
Fortunately, the US still needs Pakistan to strengthen the Karzai regime in Afghanistan. It is, therefore, difficult for the Americans to go, for the present, beyond giving warnings of re-imposing sanctions on Pakistan which has denied the allegations made in a New York Times report, followed up by the US government.
Last month, North Korea intimated the US about its uranium enrichment project but its authorities did not mention any help from Pakistan for this project. Why should then Pakistan be blamed for assisting the Koreans?
There are other nuclear states, specially our neighbour which is looking forward to counter and build pressure on China, a great ally of Pakistan. By helping North Korea in their nuclear programme, India might kill two birds with one stone.
It is disappointing to note that, before making accusations against Pakistan, the US did not care to assess the quantum and nature of help given by Pakistan in the war against terrorism.
Pakistan, in fact, risked its own security by switching over its forces from the eastern border along which India massed its army following the Dec 13 attack on its parliament last year. Before accusing Pakistan of anything, the US should have asked itself whether such a staunch ally can act irresponsibly.
RASHID KHAN CHAMKANI
Karachi
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.