| April 14, 2003 | Monday | Safar 11, 1424 |
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Devolution plan’s credibility
Removal of CPLC chief
Education assessment in Punjab
Loss of students’ time
Practitioners of black magic
Depths of depravity
Kashmor incident
War or invasion?
India’s pre-emption threat
‘Pukhtunkhwa not acceptable’
Property tax relief
Promotions and Sindh education dept
Like all his predecessors, the Punjab chief minister has announced distribution of 100,000 acres of government land to the landless tenants. Up to 12 acres would be given to 10,000 landless tenants in the first phase of the scheme. The selection of the landless peasants in the respective areas and maintaining transparency in the distribution process are the main tasks to be implemented.
The revenue authorities and the chief minister agree that if there are no deserving landless peasants in a given area, then the land will be given to the deserving peasants belonging to the nearest areas. The chief minister of Sindh has also made a similar statement. This very policy and approach to the distribution of land is likely to cloud the transparency of the whole process.
It will not be difficult for the chief minister and the revenue authorities to find the deserving peasants if they were to go through the records of 48,000 rural agricultural cooperative societies registered under Cooperative Act of 1925. Under the law, owners of less than 12.5 acres were eligible for loans for purchase of agricultural inputs and billions of rupees were dispensed to them. These societies collapsed because none of the members ever owned any agricultural land. Their bogus land records were prepared with the help of the revenue authorities.
The government felt no shame as it went on naming these bogus one-man societies as beneficiaries, to the detriment of the real peasants. It is evident from the records of the cooperatives that landless peasants were arrested for the recovery of the loans which they never took.
According to the Cooperative Act of 1925, Section 59-D, standing crops of the defaulters can be forcefully reaped on drum beat and sold in open market. Even then landless peasants were arrested for recovery and several of them died in prison. This was possible because of the blindness of the justice system.
The Cooperative Act clearly states: “If at any stage it is found that a society was bogus and the borrowers found ungenuine resulting default, such money will be recovered from the government functionaries concerned; besides, strict legal action will also be taken against them.” But no action was ever taken against the government functionaries responsible for the registration of bogus societies, and a violation of the rights of some 3.5 million genuine growers throughout Pakistan took place.
Now when the chief ministers of Punjab and Sindh are going to do a noble job, they should first find out who the real defaulters were on the earlier occasions, and bring them to justice. The defaulters on agricultural loans owe the public exchequer many times more than the actual price of the land the government intends to distribute.
MIAN AFTAB AHMED
Karachi
ACCORDING to a report in your publication, the National Reconstruction Bureau invited this week at Bhurban 150 representatives of electronic and print media for a seminar on ‘Media and Governance’. Some of the journalists, according to your reporter, questioned the credibility, viability and the evolution of President Musharraf’s devolution plan.
Ever since the devolution plan began, the national print media has been critical of its effectiveness and usefulness. Unfortunately, the plan has not been given adequate time to prove its credibility.
No one can deny the fact that a large number of local government departments are not only inefficient but also corrupt from top to bottom. The officers of these departments do everything possible to fail the devolution plan by not cooperating with the elected councils and by feeding fictitious and imaginary information to the print media.
There is no doubt that all elected members to the various councils are not honest and efficient as they have their roots in the old political system. But there are a number of young, educated new members who are honest, dedicated and selfless, and wish to serve the public with devotion.
My recent contact with the naib Nazim of Union Council 10, Clifton, was an eye-opener. The image about devolution plan, which the media has built, was washed away. The water supply at my house was stopped for about a week. Every house in my neighbourhood was receiving a fair share continuously. I contacted the water board with a written complaint and subsequently approached their personnel a number of times. No positive response was coming from them except excuses and promises.
In desperation, I approached the naib Nazim, who was very kind and understanding. He promised that the water board plumber would reach my house the next day and do the needful. To my pleasant surprise, the next day not only the plumber but also the supervisor arrived in the morning and repaired the supply line to my satisfaction.
This incident is just an example to show that the new system is working to serve the public. Thank you, Mr President, for the devolution plan.
SULTAN GULAMANI
Karachi
THIS is with reference to Mr Hashim Samdani’s letter (April 6). I fully agree with him that considering the good work done by Mr Jameel Yusuf as the CPLC chief, he should have been asked to leave with dignity even if it was decided to remove him for whatever reasons.
However, I do not agree with Mr Samdani’s contention that he should have been asked to stay on and train some of his colleagues for the job. Mr Jameel Yusuf served the organization for almost 13 years and it is hard to presume that a man of his stature would not have passed on his experience to his colleagues.
The whole organization is a team of individuals who are serving without expecting much in return. In fact, it is the team work of all these selfless individuals who are devoting their time to a noble cause and contributing equally, for which the CPLC chief is given the credit.
We must also acknowledge that no one is indispensable and, as such, must not close the doors on the new blood that perhaps might be a better substitute for the outgoing chief.
W. WASIM AHMED
Karachi
PEOPLE in Karachi now move freely without any fear of being kidnapped for ransom. This is because of the efforts of Jameel Yusuf, who has recently been removed as CPLC chief.
He is a man of courage who has devoted his life to maintain peace of this city. It is a pity that he has been removed unceremoniously from the CPLC under a conspiracy by vested quarters, but no one has raised voice against this shameful action yet.
REHAN ZAHUR
Karachi
I READ with interest the news item on Punjab’s education assessment system (April 7). This system of internal assessment was introduced at the primary and secondary levels in Punjab. Under the banner of reforms in the examination system, the old examination system was replaced with a continuous assessment of students by the teachers and head teachers.
We, in Sindh, discussed these reforms in all seriousness at different levels, but could not reach a consensus. A majority of our senior educationists were not in favour of this system, since it offered no checks and balances.
The greatest objection was to the automatic promotion from a lower class to a higher one. If an understanding is given to the students that everyone will be promoted, will they continue their studies?
It may increase enrolment but the quality would at stake. The Directorate of Research & Assessment of Education Department, Government of Sindh, under a project of Quality Assurance Cell (QAC), developed test batteries for classes I to VIII. Under this project the three districts of Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas and Khairpur were selected and assessment was carried out on a pilot basis. The report of this study is still awaited, which will put some light on grey spots of our schooling system.
Nevertheless, we did not see any reason for replacing the annual examination system. The aim of our project under the QAC is to study the weaknesses of teaching in our schools and to improve the same through extensive teacher training programmes.
DR MEHBOOB ALI SHAIKH
Director-General, PITE, Sindh,
Nawabshah
MY daughter is a student at the Ayub Medical College, Abbotabad. As an extremely tormented mother, I would like to bring our suffering to the notice of the higher authorities concerned.
The Ayub Medical College has added one extra year to the regular MBBS course without actually advertising it. In fact, it has done it in a way that it inflicts injury on the students and their parents.
After the completion of the normal five years of MBBS studies, the students are sent home to return after full one year to be allowed to appear for their final MBBS examinations.
The students do not know how to spend 12 long months sitting idle at home, and they forget all that they have studied at college. The tragic loss of one precious year of their lives is truly unbearable for them and their parents.
I appeal to the president, the prime minister and the education minister to help us. The administration of the Ayub Medical College, Abbotabad, must be directed to stop this cruelty.
The final year students should take their final MBBS examinations at the end of their fifth year of studies. No college should be allowed to play havoc with the lives of the students by forcing them to lose one year for nothing.
MRS NEELOFER QURESHI
Swabi
A LITTLE while ago the Punjab government led a crackdown on those who practise black magic (aamils) and fleece innocent people by making false promises and claims.
But it seems that society is once again facing this evil practice on a large scale, which is obvious from the fact that many signboards of these aamils and fortune-tellers have reappeared. Even some newspapers and magazines carry their ads.
The government should move fast and put a ban on such ads, and also punish law-breakers.
A. M. ALVI
Lahore
RECENTLY I lost a lifetime colleague and friend who died after a short illness. His three sons came just in time for the last rites; one from Scotland and two from the US.
When the body was being moved from the house (Defence Housing Authority, Phase V) to the waiting transport some hundred metres down the road, there was that inevitable eagerness among the mourners to carry the coffin on one’s shoulder. During this jostling, three persons had the side pockets of their kurtas picked.
One victim was the son of the deceased and the other his son-in-law. The son had arrived from the US a few hours earlier. He lost his wallet that contained his credit cards, the green card, cash and some other essential papers.
A while later a telephone call was received to say that some of these things were lying on the road outside the Sultan mosque, where funeral prayers were held. Needless to say, the credit cards, the green card and cash were not to be found on the road.
I had not been aware of this modus operandi of such apparently literate thieves, who can stoop to any depths in pursuit of their designs. I was told this had not been the first time.
MASRUR AHMAD
Karachi
I EXPRESS my great concern over the killings of 15 people and those who have been injured by a band of 25 armed men in Kashmor recently. It is a sorry state of affairs that no one from the police department came to the rescue of the people.
The government has failed to maintain law and order. The bloodletting in Kashmor speaks volume for the debility of the law-enforcement agencies in arresting the culprits.
People who criticize the jirga system should come forward to solve the problems of the masses. Only a jirga system can solve this problem. The incident was a blatant terrorist attack that the authorities failed to avert.
ZULFIQAR ALI DOMKI
Jacobabad
A WAR is ‘an armed conflict between (two or more) countries’ or groups that involves killing and destruction. Note the emphasis on ‘between’. Thus to label the present state of affairs in Iraq as a ‘war’ is utterly unjustifiable.
Invasion, however, which is ‘a hostile entry of an armed force into a country’s territory’, is a more apt word for the ongoing trauma in Iraq.
It’s ironic how masterminds can wrongly use incorrect vocabulary to justify their horrendous actions.
SIDRAH NADEEM
Karachi
YOUR editorial of April 5 states that “to expect any war between them (India and Pakistan) to remain strictly restricted to conventional means and methods would be utterly naive”.
This assumption has to be false as Pakistan does not have the right to use WMDs, and neither does India. Iraq’s Saddam Hussein did not have the courage to use WMDs.
Therefore, any armed conflict between India and Pakistan will remain conventional despite the recent rhetoric of Dr A. Q. Khan or the Pakistan prime minister to give a befitting reply to any Indian pre-emptive strike. I am sure Pakistan has the common sense and the capacity to understand that the consequence of using a WMD will be self-annihilation.
I am certain that as far as any India-Pakistan war is concerned, the nuclear weapon is only a deterrent and absolutely unusable by either party.
SAM BAIDYA
Toronto, Canada
THIS is with reference to the article (April 5) by Prof (Dr) Soofi.
The worthy professor has given wrong data and statistics about the population of the NWFP. I would like to put things in the right perspective by giving the correct statistics.
As per the census of 1998, the Pukhtoons make up to 74 per cent of the total population in the settled areas of the province. Whereas 100 per cent of the people living in the tribal areas of the province are Pukhtoons. This makes the population of Pukhtoons over 85 per cent of the total population.
The remaining 15 per cent comprise people who speak about one dozen languages and dialects, of which the Hindku-speaking (a dialect similar to Punjabi) make hardly one-fourth. The worthy professor may look at these statistics and then suggest as to what name is suitable for the province.
Moreover, this matter relates to the inhabitants of the province, and people from other provinces have no right to make any suggestions in this respect.
ABDAL KHAN KHALIL
Peshawar
RETIRED government officials get relief in property tax in Karachi (March 3). This facility exists in Islamabad and some other cities.
One fails to understand why the retired people from private jobs do not get this facility.
The government employees are getting pension which we are not getting. This relief should be age-based and not for government employees only.
M. JAHANGIR
Islamabad
I REQUEST the governor, the chief minister and the education minister of Sindh to take immediate steps to arrange a special meeting of the Departmental Promotion Committee. This is necessary for the promotion of gazetted officers of the schools under the Sindh education department from grade 17 to grade 18.
A DPC meeting was held on March 25 in Karachi without informing the officers in time. The letter for meeting was issued on the same day. How is it possible for male and women officers to arrange the ACRs of their gazetted period in such a short period?
Women members of the Sindh Assembly are also requested to take up this matter with the authorities concerned in cases involving women officers, and seeking their postings closer to their residences, so that they may not be dislocated. This is one of the main reasons why women’s education has suffered so much in the interior of Sindh.
Even the lives of these officers are not secure, as in the case of Mrs Razia Begum, ADOE of the Thari Mirwah district, Khairpur. She was beaten up by her office head clerk, who was supported by ‘big’ people. Only women members can help her maintain her status. Almost all the women school officers are in trouble and they are working under immense pressure and fear.
It is requested that male staff from schools/colleges and offices be immediately removed in the light of the letter issued by the secretary, education department, (No. S.O. (A-III) MISC (300)/2001, dated 26.6.2001). There is no woman officer of school cadre in the office of the EDO Education in all districts except one at Sukkur. There should be at least one lady officer (BS 18/19) in EDO Education offices to deal with the matters of women employees.
The posts and budget of the schools were sanctioned in 1996-97 for two higher secondary schools, one male and one female, and 11 high schools and five higher secondary schools in 2000-2001, but they were not continued for 2001-2002 and 2002-2003. Hence, there is no education in the rural area schools.
Five higher secondary schools were opened in 2002-2003 in the Sanghar district with no budget and posts. Building for the middle and high school, Preetamabad, was constructed in 1994-95 but it still awaits a budget and a teaching staff. This schools has 92 students on roll from Class VI to VIII, including women students.
The former governor of Sindh had directed all the executive district officers to maintain the ACRs of their subordinates in their offices so as not to deprive them of their right to promotion. But the EDOs in Sindh have not paid any heed to this directive.
There are no officers in the EDO office to maintain the ACRs, hence many cases of promotion were deleted from the list for this reason only. The government of Sindh is requested to take immediate action in this regard.
JAN MUHAMMAD DAHRI
Shahpur Chaker
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