| March 26, 2003 | Wednesday | Muharram 22, 1424 |
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All Hindus support Hindutva
PTCL’s apathy
Balance in relationships
Fate of IBA students
Maisoon: a brother’s tribute
Age limit for CSS
Education in Pakistan
Why borrow loans now?
Sindh Coal Authority
Kashmir or economic ties?
In defence of police
Need for Al Jazeerah in English
AT the “million-man march” held in Lahore on March 23 against the US attack on Iraq, it was demanded by some of the leaders present on the occasion that Pakistan must express its nuclear capability in support of the Iraqi people and the American aggression against Baghdad.
Since a debate has been going on for a long time that after finishing off with the regime of Saddam Hussein, the next target of the US aggression will be Pakistan. Many reasons are given to prove the contention why Pakistan will be the next target.
That Pakistan is the only Muslim country which has nuclear weapons and high-tech missiles and where Islamic extremist groups have been quite active. The Zionist lobby has been quite fearful of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal because it may be one way or the other used against Israel.
In the post-9/11 period, Pakistan faced an overt US pressure to either join the war against terrorism or face consequences. Knowing that defying the US would mean the unleashing of destruction process for Pakistan, the regime of President Gen Pervez Musharraf took a U-turn on Afghanistan by ending support to the Taliban regime and by providing all necessary help to Washington track down Al Qaeda elements. He also pledged, in his speech in January 2002, to take measures to stop terrorist activities in the Indian-held Kashmir.
Now when the US-led war against Iraq is on, serious thought should be given to securing Pakistan from any future critical situation. Thus, three precautions must be taken. First, it must not be depicted by our leaders that Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal is meant to fight someone else’s war.
Second, the so-called Jihadi and militant groups in Pakistan must be restrained, because Pakistan has neither the capability nor the internal strength to meet the Iraq-type situation.
Third, Pakistan need not express sympathy with the Saddam regime because Baghdad has never supported Pakistan’s policy on Kashmir and has rather caused miseries to its own people, as well as to neighbouring states.
If these policies are adopted, we will not face an Iraq-like situation or a US attack.
PROF (DR) MOONIS AHMAR
Karachi
THIS is with reference to the editorial titled “Friends, not Masters”, written recently.
Although I appreciate a relatively soft stand that the leader writer seems to have adopted with respect to India, I cannot help but point out a very glaring misconception that he has (hopefully ignorantly) conveyed in the following excerpt from the editorial: “Not all Indians are supporters of Hindutva, and it is doubtful if sane minds in that country consider rabid communalism and the persecution of the Muslim minority as something that is in India’s long-term interests.”
As an Indian, I would like to point out that most Hindus in India do support Hindutva. It is the bloodshed in the name of Hindutva that we discard in no uncertain terms.
I hope you can appreciate the difference between the two. Hindutva is not symbolized in the mindless actions of some of its self-appointed custodians, just like Islam isn’t either.
The writer would do well by being a little more careful in what he wants to say. It is much more than just a semantic error.
MIRA BELLS
Via email
I RECEIVED the telephone bill for November 2002 for our telephone number 5858127, which showed extra charges of Rs747 for internet usage in some previous months, without specifying which ones.
Since I knew the regular pattern of my internet usage and its billing patterns, I went to the office of the senior accounts officer in Model Town to have the bill corrected. He admitted that it was due to a technical computer fault on the part of their staff and assured me that the matter would soon be settled. He deferred the disputed amount, saying they would finally decide the matter in a few days.
The next month the same amount again appeared in our bill. I again went to that officer and he again deferred the amount saying that they were about to make a decision regarding those extra charges. Now this thing has been going on for the last four months, without any relief to me.
Will the PTCL high-ups do the needful, as well as make the errant employees answerable?
CAPT (R) KHAWAR WARRAICH
Lahore
DR Mahjabeen Islam’s article, “Balance in relationships” (March 21), would have been more deserving of its title had she actually made the effort to present and analyse the dynamics and problems of different family relationships. Instead, she takes that old stereotype of the evil wife who casts a spell on her mindless husband and successfully alienates him from his mother, and proceeds to pad out her article with it. Very little mention is made of that other important person, the father, and there are no sibling relationships mentioned at all.
In my experience, a daughter or a son may equally be estranged from their father for many reasons, but that doesn’t fit into the above- mentioned scenario and is, therefore, not discussed. Giving one example of an insecure wife that she has known personally, the writer states: “There are many wives that are culpable in this arena. In order to maintain a stranglehold on the husband, the in-laws are painted the darkest shade of black.”
Excellent. I really shouldn’t argue with such certainty. But what should mothers do with these sons, these ‘fried-brained morons’ as Dr Islam has called them? These men of no independent thought processes? Disown them at birth? Not let them marry ever and nip the evil in the bud? I believe in respecting one’s parents and siblings. But relationships are much more complex than Dr Islam has made them out to be. What she calls “ludicrous illogic” on the part of the insecure wife might have some underlying reasons but Dr Islam is not really concerned with them.
Oh, she does acknowledge at the end that “this is not to say that parents are always just so docile and sweet”. Good to know there might be two sides to this issue after all. But Dr Islam’s one-line solution to this is that one should seek professional counselling and “perhaps the parents could be counselled as well”.
What if they don’t want to? Bit more to think about here than “maa ki dua, jaanat ki hawa’.
ZARA FATEH QIZILBASH
Lahore
I AM the mother of a student of BCS studying at the IBA, Sukkur. At the time of admission we were assured that the institute was affiliated with the IBA, Karachi, and that this claim of affiliation was printed in the admission form and all related documents.
But now the management of the IBA, Sukkur, has informed us informally that it is no more affiliated to the IBA, Karachi. What is expected now is that the students of BCS and MCS will get the degree of the Shah Abdul Latif University, Khairpur. If this was to be done, then why were we assured that the institute was affiliated to the IBA, Karachi? That assurance led me and the parents of other students to pay heavy fees for the education of our children.
If our grievance are not redressed, the future of our children, as well as of IBA, Sukkur, would be jeopardized. At least those students who were admitted to the Sukkur IBA with the assurance should be given the degree of the Karachi IBA.
The Sindh governor, provincial education minister, the Sukkur DCO, the chairman of the board of governors and the directors of the IBA, Sukkur and Karachi, are requested to look into this matter and do the needful to redress our grievances.
ZAIB-UN-NISA
Sukkur
BEING the eldest brother in deep grief I was really moved to receive the following email from Yasmin Quraishi, who had known her for 25 years:
“Maisoon was undoubtedly one of the most ‘sabir’ persons I have ever known and her great desire not to trouble anyone was foremost. She always used to see the best in people and keep her faith no matter what the circumstances. All her dreams involved around helping others. Starting a girl school in Thatta, football club in Lyari, shelter for battered women, etc. I was lucky to have a friend like her and you a sister like her.”
When I sent Maisoon sponsorship forms to come to Canada for her treatment she put them aside saying she could do more by staying in Pakistan and would never abandon those who were relying so much on her.
In fact, despite her doctor advising her not to travel long distances, as she may aggravate her illness, she used to go to Landhi Jail in the heat of the day to see to those prisoners who were there for ages because their files were just rotting as they did not have the funds or contacts to ensure their cases were heard in the courts.
She was more concerned that her illness was causing anxiety to others. When I phoned her just 10 days before her death to say I was coming over to see her, she told me it was not necessary and she was fine but just weak. Perhaps she wanted to avoid the pain I would have felt seeing her so frail and slowly slipping away.
I would request Dawn to find someone else to follow up the cases she has left incomplete and help see some of her dreams come true. To all the readers and her colleagues in Dawn, I shall indeed be ever grateful if you would offer Fateha for her. She really was an angel who has found her home.
MUHAMMAD AMIN HAJI ABDUL HUSSEIN
Ontario, Canada
THE unpopular reforms in the procedures for appearing for the CSS exams made by the military government, specially the reduction in the age limit from 30 to 28, are a bad omen for candidates of the poor and backward areas of the country.
Such candidates are already deprived the basic education facilities, and now as some of them try to break through by availing education facilities in cities far away from their homes, new hurdles are being erected in their way.
This decision only serves the vested interests of the elite and will inflict irreversible losses on the already deprived classes of society. I request the prime minister and the elected members of parliament to review this decision and offer some breathing space to candidates belonging to the underdeveloped areas of the country.
NISAR A. BROHI
Nawabshah
EDUCATION makes a significant impact on employment, earning, productivity, health and control over population growth.
The literacy rate in Pakistan was 13.2 per cent in 1951, 18.4 per cent in 1961, 21.7 per cent in 1972, 26.2 per cent in 1981, 38 per cent in 1996, and about 48 per cent in 2002.
The number of illiterate in Pakistan has continued to grow from three million at the time of partition to 20 million by the early ‘80s, and 49 million by 1996 to about 51 million in 2002.
The key factor behind this poor performance is low spending on education.
The government spends only 2.6 per cent of the GDP on education, which is one of the lowest among third world countries.
What should be done to reform our education policy? Firstly, politically motivated recruitment of teachers, promotions and appointment at the primary to higher levels, use of strong-arm tactics and large scale cheating in examinations and political role of students have got to go.
Secondly, the government should ensure quality curriculum and instruction. Thirdly, our new generation should be equipped with the skills that are needed in the country if it has to develop along modern lines.
Last but not least, research at higher levels should be promoted and teachers who want to do their MPhils and PhDs should be allowed the right to a leave without erecting hindrances or deducting their salaries. For all this spending on education should be increased to at least five per cent the GDP.
MANSOOR ALI SHAHANI
Karachi
THIS refers to a recent news item in your paper that the ADB will provide $200 million for the development of small and medium-sized enterprises in Pakistan.
Will the authorities concerned explain to us as to why we have started to borrow loans when, at present, we have considerable foreign reserves which the government always boasts about? Shall we never learn from experiences?
Why take loans which usually end up in the pockets of a few individuals while the whole nation suffers when it has to return the loans with excruciating interests on them?
The government is requested to use the foreign reserves judiciously to initiate development programmes in the country rather than to take loans.
ANIL KHAN LUNI
Karachi
I FULLY agree with Mr Rafiq Ahmed Khan’s assessment regarding the need for foreign consultants to explore and evaluate Sindh’s coal resources in the Lakhra area (March 17).
Such activities are traditionally performed by the state or federal geological surveys or universities in the USA and other countries. Once the resource is evaluated, its development could be contracted out to private sector. I think the expertise of the Geological Survey of Pakistan (GSP) should be utilized to the extent it is possible.
I had a chance to review the report prepared by the GSP regarding the coal deposits in the Thar desert.
Under the fiscal and manpower constraints, they have done an excellent job to provide a head-start for the Chinese hydrological team. due any day in Pakistan.
DR G. A. SHIRAZI
Oklahoma, USA
THIS refers to Mr Kuldip Nayar’s ‘Letter from New Delhi’ (March 13).
It goes without saying that Kashmir remains the bedrock of our foreign policy having experienced the currents and cross-currents in the course of different governments in Pakistan.
It is also a fact that relations between the two countries have not been as bad in the past as they are now.
This bad state of relations is also due to New Delhi’s obduracy and blaming Islamabad for militancy in the Indian-held Kashmir, thus bringing Kashmir on top of the bilateral agenda and not just because Islamabad insists on Kashmir being the root cause of disputes between the two countries.
Mr Nayar’s prescription to Islamabad, i.e. restoring economic and trade relations with India and keeping Kashmir for discussion later on, carries the pills of a diplomatic expediency. But in doing so he is escaping from the stark realities that restrain such developments.
I suggest that Islamabad should streamline such a diplomacy whereby the two sides may candidly evaluate the Kashmir issue based on realism, rather than on idealism and emotionalism.
S.Q. AFZAL RIZVI
Karachi
I AGREE with Dr M. Yaqoob Bhatti’s remarks (March 21) about the police. Our police need to do a better job all over Pakistan, specially in Punjab.
However, I would add that like our other proud institutions, the police will be equally efficient provided they are part of the Pakistan system. As for his idea that people would prefer a military dictator, well they already have one, though not by choice. Pakistan is a backyard or a garden they can enter anytime.
The Pakistan police, and I quote a UN study, are by far one the most ill-equipped, short of manpower and underpaid. Compared to what is put into them, they perform a lot better than some of our other institutions that take up to 80 per cent of our budget.
RAJEEL MOHSIN
Houston, Texas, USA
EVEN before the start of Gulf War II on March 20, the western media had begun its preemptive strike by launching an incessant propaganda against Saddam’s government, with the objective of moulding world public opinion in favour of the US and its allies.
The media has become a tool both for diplomacy and for war. It helps diplomacy achieve the objectives that diplomacy is making efforts for, and should diplomacy fail or if diplomatic efforts are scuttled, as the Bush administration did in the case of Iraq, the media is used to justify war, as the CNN, Fox Channel and BBC have been doing since the beginning of the war against Iraq.
It is a pity that the so-called civilized western countries have well-equipped media, including countless TV and radio channels and newspapers, to justify their uncivilized policies and goals, but the developing countries have very poor media facilities and expertise — so much so that they cannot even defend themselves against the imperialistic designs of the West, let alone winning over world public opinion.
However, Al Jazeerah did a rather satisfactory job during the US-led war on Afghanistan when it exposed what America meant when it talked about ‘collateral damage’, thereby letting the world know the other side of the story.
Al Jazeerah is also doing a good job now vis-a-vis the Anglo-American war against Iraq; it has shown what the US and British forces have been trying to hide from the world media. It has made the American and British governments admit to the resistance being put up to their forces by some Iraqi military pockets, as well as to the losses their forces have suffered, including the capture of several American soldiers.
I think Al Jazeerah will be able to do a better job if it telecasts its news bulletins in English too. I would like to suggest to the Al Jazeerah authorities to telecast news in English for at least five minutes, immediately after its regular hourly news bulletin, thus letting the world know as to what is going on in Iraq and what the US and British forces are doing in that unfortunate country, Iraq.
Should Al Jazeerah decide to do that, it will effectively enable millions of Americans and Europeans to see for themselves as to what the ground realities are and how systematically and sophisticatedly their governments brainwash them with regard to their foreign adventures.
MUHAMMAD UMER
Karachi
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