| March 30, 2003 | Sunday | Muharram 26, 1424 |
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Hamdard and WHO directory
Teaching in English
Curtain call, General
A noble gesture
Student unions
Support for Hindutva
Why US won’t attack Pakistan
TB resurgence
Whither Muslim world?
Internet cafes
Menace of preemptive war
IN a recent speech that was telecast throughout the nation, the president unveiled a rather ambitious development programme. Harbours, highways, power plants, coal mining, bridges, tunnels, railway lines, dams, airports and similar things figured in this short-term plan.
It is good to hear the government thinking about development activities instead of non-development expenditure and politics — for a change. However, if the government repeats the past mistakes in this regard, there may not be much to celebrate at the end of the day.
The key mistake that has been made in past development plans is the rigid limitation of local participation. The net contribution of Pakistani professionals seems to have been preparation of tender documents, evaluation of tenders, award of contracts to foreign firms, and administration of these contracts. Very few government jobs have been awarded to the country’s own manpower, trained or untrained.
Such an approach has a serious defect, i.e. the government loses a significant opportunity to counter unemployment, with our engineers, scientists and even unskilled labour forced to stagnate or look to other countries for utilizing their potential. This creates a myriad social problems.
Also, this prevents Pakistan from experiencing true self-reliance and the incredible confidence that would come from making commodities using our own manpower. We remain dependent on a ‘transfer of technology’ from other countries without ascertaining whether the technology we need is really impossible to produce indigenously.
It is time the government learnt from others and safeguarded the interests of its own citizens. For instance, in the US a person has to explain that he is not displacing an American by taking a job. Saudi Arabia is already gearing to reduce its dependence on imported labour and personnel. The same is true of other countries in the Middle East, where Pakistanis have traditionally sought employment.
Policies must ensure maximum local participation in project activities — be they engineering design, fabrication and construction or management. If foreign labour is to be used, a case should have to be made for it. In short, the total sidelining of our professionals must end once for all.
ARIF QAMAR KHAN
Islamabad
THE Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) recognized the Hamdard medical graduates of the year 2002 through their letter No. PF.97-F-2002(Hamdard)/142 dated July 16, 2002. Subsequently, the PMDC extended the recognition of the medical college again on Dec 16, 2002 through their letter No. PF-97-F-2002 (Hamdard) MBBS/1453; this will cover the students passing in July 2003. My son is also part of this batch.
However, the PMDC has not notified WHO about the college’s recognition. As a result, the HCM&D graduates of the year 2002 and those who will be passing in 2003 are currently ineligible to apply for post-graduation training programmes in the US, UK and elsewhere.
I cannot understand the reason behind the hesitancy of the PMDC in notifying WHO for inclusion of 2002 and 2003 graduates in the directory of medical schools. What is the fault of the students? And what should we, the parents, do who paid heavy fees to the Hamdard University?
It is terrible to see that our children may not be able to go abroad for post-graduation training. It seems that Hamdard’s main concern is new admissions because this is the source of its earning.
This is what Hamdard Uniersity has done; they convinced the PMDC to allow them new admissions but they are unable to ensure a safe future for the already enrolled students.
ATHAR TAHSEEN
Karachi
THIS is in response to the letters that are appearing under this heading. I don’t know why people are so much in love with English. I am doing my PhD in electrical engineering at the USC in California. Except for listening to the lecture in English, we, the Pakistani and Indian students, communicate ideas and understand all concepts in Urdu (Hindi) or Punjabi.
Of course, we were taught English from class six. But I am quite comfortable with English. I don’t know what is the language of science. The engineering books published in the USA quickly get translated into Hebrew, Japanese, Chinese, French, etc.
The basic knowledge, the understanding of the world and ideas can be best provided in one’s own language. It is a good idea to give further education after primary in Urdu. Maybe we are hypocrites or suffer from an inferiority complex. I would request the government to take the necessary steps and make Urdu the official language of Pakistan.
Other languages regional languages, besides English, can also be made official. If anyone has doubts in this regards, please come to Los Angeles and check the public offices here. Everything has to be published in English as well as Spanish.
RIAZ NASEER
Los Angeles, USA
WILL someone explain to the millions of cricket-mad Pakistanis how it is that a man like Tauqir Zia, who has offered us little more than inept leadership, casual planning and brazen nepotism, continues to remain the top cricket official in Pakistan?
We, the cricket fans, have been there from the beginning. We were there when Kardar led the team on to Feroz Shah Kotla at Delhi on Oct 16, 1952. We were there when Fazal Mahmood had Hutton caught for nought as he took 12 for 99 at the Oval in 1954. We were there when Hanif Mohammed stood at the wicket for forever and a day to make 337 at Bridgetown in 1958. We were there when Zaheer Abbas stroked those magnificent cover drives on his way to 274 at Edgbaston in 1971.
We were there when Imran Khan tore his shirtsleeve taking 12 for 165 at Sydney in 1977. We were there when Javed Miandad hit a six to set the cricket world alight at Sharjah in 1986. And we were right there when Wasim Akram bowled that leg-cutter under the lights at Melbourne to seal the fate of the 1992 World Cup final.
Of course we were also there when Pakistan crashed out of the World Cup 2003 with its worst showing ever, and we felt the searing pain and anguish that only a devotee can feel. After the team returned home, we licked our wounds and waited patiently for things to change. But nothing changed. Tauqir Zia, the man behind the comical blundering of Pakistan cricket in recent times, said he had no plans to resign (read let a better man take over).
Not only that, he went ahead and selected his own son into the national side bound for Sharjah. Granted that Javed Miandad has been brought back as coach, but that is the only sensible gesture in what is otherwise an avalanche of madness.
Abraham Lincoln once said, “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all the time.” We, the fans, are no longer going to be fooled.
We are still here and we’re not going to go away. We will not rest until the leadership of Pakistan cricket is in good and capable hands, and we all now know that those hands don’t belong to Tauqir Zia. He has held the reins for three years and look what he has left us with: a team that has lost its self-belief, a generous pool of talent laid to waste, an administrative culture where nepotism and sycophancy have flourished, and a nation that can no longer look forward to its staple enjoyment, cricket.
A good leader can make a good outfit great, and a bad leader can run a great outfit into the ground. So move over, General, it’s your curtain call. Let Pakistan cricket breathe again.
SAAD SHAFQAT
Karachi
THANK you for the editorial acknowledgement (‘A noble gesture’, March 25) of Dr Devi Shetty’s kind offer to treat, free of charge, poor Pakistani children suffering from complicated cardiac problems.
Your editorial coverage is particularly important as only negative reports of interactions between the two neighbouring countries generally form bulk of the news. Dr Shetty has perhaps provided the foundation on which the bonds of mutual trust and friendship can be based afresh.
Based on personal experience, I know of the strong desire on both sides of the India-Pakistan border to live peacefully and as friends, notwithstanding the differences and issues between the two countries. Human suffering on both sides is a much bigger issue and its elimination could serve as a common goal for the people in the two countries.
Dr Shetty’s offer is thus very timely and should be befittingly reciprocated by Pakistan. This flicker of hope may help both sides to serve humanity by minimizing their mutual suffering. Let us keep this flame alight.
ARIF HUMANYUN
Vancouver, WA, USA
IN the 1980s the military dictator who called himself “mard-i-momin, mard-i-haq” banned all political activities in the educational institutions of Pakistan. The outcome of this was that the student unions, the true representatives of the students, were abolished.
This in effect rendered their positive aspects ineffective. But the politics did not stop on campuses. It continued albeit in an unofficial form. What Zia did by abolishing student unions was that he effectively ended their academic and extracurricular activities while putting no check on the political parties’ hold on the erstwhile unions.
The student unions were official and legal; they were elected bodies voted into power by the students. Thus they cared about the problems faced by the students. It will not be far from the truth that by banning student unions, Zia did more harm than good (just like he did in every other matter).
If the benefits of the student unions are weighed against their harmful aspects, the logical conclusion drawn would be to revive the unions on campuses.
FAHAD KHAN
Karachi
Mira Bells in her letter, “All Hindus support Hindutva” (March 26), contradicted one of your editorial writers’ idea that most Hindus do not support Hindutva. Well, Mira Bells can speak for herself, but most of the Hindus cannot care less about this sterile debate about Hindutva.
Hindutva is something that is being debated in India in recent years only, obviously with BJP’s performance in the national elections. It is common knowledge that the BJP came into power because of its leadership’s ability to attract the attention of the huge middle class in India.
Congress lost its attraction because of serious lack of vision amongst its new leadership. There is almost a vacuum of philosophy in Congress’s strategy and the BJP is taking full advantage of it. The other alternatives (Communists and their allies) are at best only local solutions like in Kerala and West Bengal.
This political background has provided a fertile base for BJP’s progress in India, and not the popular theory that its in power because of the sudden affinity of the masses to Hindutva. If that is so, you would not see BJP MPs getting elected in Muslim-dominated constituencies beating their Congress rivals.
People may then rightly ask about some of the BJP leadership’s rhetoric about Hindutva at the time of elections. Obviously some of them do it in a desperate attempt to get votes, like any political party anywhere in the world. It happens more when they have failed to deliver on real issues such as economy and law and order.
But does Hindutva really work? Apart from Narendra Modi’s example in Gujarat, the Hindutva card has always proved to be BJP’s achilles heel. It is when they talk about free market, economy and infrastructure, people sit back and note. Hindutva hardly works, and more often acts as a pure recipe for election disaster. But then how many times you see politicians doing the right thing?
DR DEBKANT JENA
Via email
There has been a recent discussion as to whether the US will make Pakistan its next target. People are worried that the US will declare Pakistan as part of the axis of evil and try and attack it partly because we have nuclear weapons and partly because we supported the Taliban regime until its fall last year.
While there might be some merit in the above argument, there are many reasons why the US will not attack Pakistan:
First, if the US decided to attack Pakistan, it would first have to ensure that the nuclear weapons have been disabled and would under no circumstances be used against its friendly countries in the region, i.e. India.
Secondly, Pakistan is not strategically important to the US in the long run. We are important as long as the Al-Qaeda members are found and eradicated. Whereas during the days of the Cold War, Pakistan was used as a counterbalance to both India and the USSR, both of thses countries today are friendly to the US. India is actually acting like a strategic ally of the US in the region and could be used as a counterbalance to China, if needed.
Thirdly, Pakistan has a conventional fighting force which is far superior to Iraq’s. Pakistan today has approximately 550,000 soldiers in its army, a fully functioning navy and an excellent air force — advantages that Iraq does not have.
And lastly, unlike the Iraqis on whom the US is banking for an internal revolt to overthrow Saddam, Pakistan faces no such internal crisis.
What we should be worried about today is India sneaking in one on us while the US is busy dealing with Iraq and China and working towards a resolution of the North Korean crisis.
MASOOD SHARIF
Auckland, New Zealand
YOUR editorial titled “Resurgence of TB” (March 27) provides the readers with horrific statistics about this dreadful disease in Pakistan.
While you have rightly advised the health authorities to take major initiatives to eliminate this disease at every level, both preventive as well as curative, I would like to point out that TB has a direct relationship with the socio-economic conditions prevailing in a country.
Unfortunately, in Pakistan we have this bad habit of approaching a problem with blinkered eyes, rather than thinking in the wider perspective. No amount of efforts by the health authorities would help in combating this disease unless there is a sincere effort to improve the socio-economic conditions of the people at large. The leadership in Islamabad and the provincial capitals must act in cohesion so as to improve the lot of the common man. The health authorities must perform within this framework.
NAZIM F. HAJI
Karachi
I AGREE with Mr Bengali’s apt observations in his article (March 25). We, the Muslim ummah, have taken refuge in the term ‘clash of civilization’ accusing the west in general and the US in particular of all the ills and misfortunes afflicting us today.
We do this without looking into our own frailties and weaknesses, which are the main cause of the Muslims’ pathetic condition. The US foreign policy is not determined by the religious faiths of those formulating it but by their perceptions of America’s long-term economic and strategic interests.
We need efforts by Muslim clerics and intelligentsia to stop this refrain of the clash of civilization and face the realities. Is the clash of civilization theory justified when we see that till this day huge protest processions are being held in all the western countries?
Is the clash of civilisation theory true when we see a young American girl (Rachel Corrie) let a bulldozer run her over for up holding the Palestinians’ cause of freedom, peace and justice? Now contrast this with the callous attitude of the people and governments in the Muslim world and one would realize the hollowness of the phrase.
In the presence of corrupt, dishonest and inefficient rulers that the present day Muslim world has, we do not need an enemy. All human civilization is the product of the basic human instincts and development, therefore, all civilizations share more in common traits than the number of differences that separate them.
ZUBAIR
Swabi
THE letter on March 16 about ‘Internet cafes’ by Farida Anjum really set me looking for a remedy of this problem. There should be a strict checking of the NIC of students or anyone entering the cafes to make sure that they are above 18.
RUMAISA ASLAM
Karachi
GEORGE Bush and Tony Blair have not only lowered themselves in the eyes of the world, but their arguments in defence of war have been stupid and unconvincing. How could they even imagine that their pro-war stance would be accepted by the people of the world?
The UN has been humiliated, and poor Kofi Annan looks like a ‘subdued’ man. It is very clear to the world that the US has assumed for itself a special status to destroy or to demand whatever it thinks to be right. Naturally, this is unacceptable to the rest of the world.
America is setting an example of preemptive war that can be very dangerous indeed. The late President Eisenhower, on being presented with a plan to stage preemptive war against Stalin’s Soviet Union, said, “All of us have heard this term, preemptive war, since the earliest days of Hitler. I don’t believe there is such a thing, and frankly I wouldn’t even listen to anyone seriously that came in and talked about such a thing.”
What we have today is shameful and disgusting. America is not destroying terrorism, rather it is inviting terrorism. It is not bringing democracy, because democracy cannot be brought through the barrel of guns. What the two are doing to conquer Baghdad and throw Saddam Hussein out can only make enemies. We do not see Iraqis garlanding the ‘liberators’.
There are people in this world, who no matter how powerful the conqueror is, have dignity and pride in preserving the country. The Kurds, too, have had sense not to go forward with the US troops to liberate Baghdad.
I recently received a letter from an eye-witness to the destruction in Iraq. The letter speaks of scenes at the Children’s Hospital in Basrah, as a mother watched her son die. Doctors had no medicines to ease his pain, no oxygen to help him breathe because of the sanctions on Iraq. The rate of childhood cancers has risen sharply in the last years owing to the use of depleted uranium by allied forces in the last Gulf War. While there are no medicines, hospital cupboards are full of tiny white shrouds for the children who are dying.
After destroying a country, the UK and America have the cheek to talk of ‘technicalities’. Shame on you! We hold hands with the women of Iraq, who have always been at the forefront of struggle against tyranny and against the people of Iraq, by their own leaders and by outsiders, and hope that the inhuman acts of violence they are being subjected to will soon end.
TAHIRA MAZHAR ALI
Lahore
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