| April 25, 2003 | Friday | Safar 22, 1424 |
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Trading in electricity
A new name for NWFP
Ayub MC students’ appeal
What US has achieved from war
‘Stolen car’
KU: violence and Rangers’ role
Babri Masjid
Attesting officers
Pharma industry
SARS’s threat
Lead-free gasoline
THIS refers to the editorial headlined ‘A way out of the crisis’ (April 21). I would like to disagree with the ‘outline’ suggested by your esteemed paper to resolve the LFO controversy for two reasons. First, the one-sided nature of the proposals. Secondly, the implied assumption that the LFO is not part of the Constitution.
The proposed compromise formula advanced by you contains whatever the opposition is demanding, i.e. the president give a timeframe to put off his uniform, the dissolution power curtailed to removal of government, and rethinking the need and wisdom of the National Security Council.
Without going into the merits or the demerits of the debate for and against the Legal Framework Order, I just want to point out the reality as it exists. For all practical purposes, the operating Constitution of the country is as it stands after amendments under the LFO. Technically and legally speaking, the LFO is part of the Constitution unless decreed otherwise by the competent authority — parliament or the Supreme Court.
As far as illegitimacy of controversial amendments is concerned, non-controversial ones are too illegitimate on the same grounds — amended by a single person through an extra-constitutional measure. So, if there is no parliament and no elections. Where do the parliamentarians stand? The opposition’s slogan ‘No LFO No’ remains a political issue.
It is disappointing to note that you have overlooked this point. It is one thing to like or dislike the LFO, but it is quite another that whether it exists or not. The opposition has understandably created this confusion as a tactic of its political strategy.
SHAHID ANWAR
Toba Tek Singh
The capsule of the LFO has already been swallowed and assimilated as a whole by all those who contested Election 2002 — and now the LFO is running as blood in the entire vascular system of the whole prevalent setup, whether one is from the treasury benches or from the opposition. And, subsequently, all the winners in the election have taken the oath under the Constitution when the LFO was an integral part thereto, long before the election — from the date of promulgation of the LFO.
Irrespective of the fact whether or not the LFO was corporally incorporated in the copy of the Constitution, they took their oath thereunder. Subsequently, the MMA contested for the slots of PM, speaker and deputy speaker and took ministries in the Balochistan government, established their government in the NWFP, contested Senate election and did all and everything and has been doing all and everything, thus far under
the Constitution the LFO has been made part and parcel thereto.
Speaking strictly legally and constitutionally, the LFO can now only be annulled either by a competent court or be repealed by parliament through an amendment to the Constitution. Short of that, there is no shortcut.
But the MMA must be mindful that, if by any stretch of imagination the LFO is made to go, they themselves would be the first casualty and, therefore, their instant move is suicidal for them and disastrous for the economy.
AFTAB ALAM KHANKHEL
Swat
ACCORDING to reports in the press the consumers would have a right to buy electricity from any of Wapda’s distribution companies (Discos) while Discos would be free to buy power from any of the generation companies. It is also envisaged that NTDC (National Transmission and Dispatch Co.) would charge a special tariff for this trade. This does not hold good, specially in our setup.
These ideas come from power policies introduced in the US in the 1990s. Even there the changes haven’t proved all-success and there is mixed reaction to the so-called reforms. It should be borne in mind that electricity cannot be traded like other consumable commodities such as wheat, sugar and oil.
We should resist the concepts which have not been tested fully. First of all, these new concepts are still at experimental stage in the US and elsewhere, and the results are mixed. Secondly, these ideas are not suitable for the local conditions and peculiar layout of the eclectic power system. Thirdly, we are unlikely to absorb the resulting financial shocks of restructuring and deregulation due to our already fragile economy.
Also, it is not practicable for a consumer in Lesco to buy electricity from Qesco, Fesco or Iesco. And how can Pesco buy power from a generation company in the south? How is NTDC going to regulate and ensure such a dispatch? Besides, there are scores of other technical and administrative complications which apparently are not being comprehended by the policymakers. Can the people entrusted with restructuring and deregulation come forward and explain the above?
It is desirable to hold nationwide seminars, inviting experts in the field, to discuss the involved issues before the authorities decide new power policies. Let us not jump into the dark. Let things precipitate and become transparent. At the moment things stand blurred. The policymakers need to learn how a power system works.
ENGR RIAZ AHMED BHUTTA
Lahore
THIS is with reference to Mr Asaf Ali Shah’s letter (April 18) about renaming the NWFP.
I do not want to go into this question but only want to set the record straight regarding the population figures quoted in Prof Soofi’s article (April 5) and in the letters by Mr Khalil (April 14) and Mr Asaf Ali Shah (April 18).
I am surprised that none of these gentlemen has based their figures on reliably published data. According to the 1998 Provincial Census Report of the NWFP published by the Population Census Organization, Government of Pakistan, the following figures have been reported for the NWFP:
(i) Pushto-speaking population 73.9 per cent (74 per cent rural and 73.5 per cent urban), (ii) Seraiki-speaking population 3.9 per cent, (iii) Punjabi-speaking population one per cent, (iv) Urdu-speaking 0.8 per cent and (v) other languages 20.4 per cent.
As far as Fata is concerned, the figure of Pushto-speaking population is 99 per cent (not quoted from the Census Report, 1998). Since Fata and the NWFP areas constitute one geographical unit, the average Pushto-speaking population of this unit is 86.45 per cent. On the national level, Pushto stands at number two (15.42 per cent) and Punjabi leads the languages in the country at 44.15 per cent, according to the 1998 Census Report of Pakistan.
MUHAMMAD AZAM KHAN
Peshawar
WE, the students of MBBS final year of the Ayub Medical College, Abbottabad, appeal to the higher authorities concerned to rescue us from our predicament. We completed our final year studies last December but the college administration is not giving us any timetable for our final professional examinations.
It has become a routine with the college that students are forced to go home for a full one year before they are allowed to take their final MBBS examinations. We are sitting at home and wasting our one precious academic year. Whatever we have learnt in our final year seems to be slipping out of our memory. Our parents too are undergoing the agony of watching their children suffer at the hands of those who are mismanaging education.
The Ayub Medical College administration should, therefore, be told by the higher authorities to allow us to take our final MBBS examinations without any further delay.
SALEEM SHAH & OTHERS
Abbottabad
AGGRESSION pays, and naked aggression pays handsomely. That may sound like the moral of America’s occupation of Iraq after a faster-than-anticipated military triumph that threatens to herald a more muscular US foreign policy.
That moral may be reinforced by the way the Bush administration has sought to rapidly turn Iraq into a profit hub for US construction, energy and other firms. But, as Washington wallows in the victory, the longer-term costs of the triumph are not on the minds of the neo- conservatives who shaped the White House strategy against Iraq and whose influence in policy is such that Mr Bush now speaks their language.
This triumph in an asymmetrical fight against a nation with no defences against the constant bombardment from above could end up proving very costly to the US. For one, the military triumph remains incomplete, with no senior Iraqi leader captured. Few can miss the parallel with Afghanistan, where the war still rages more than 16 months after the Taliban leaders disappeared. The way the southernmost Iraqi towns held out in the first ten days of the war and then Baghdad and other cities falling without a fight suggests that the Americans may have reached a deal with Iraqi military commanders after their initial setbacks. The Taliban regime, for example, was toppled by the CIA’s cash, which bought over key Afghan warlords.
For another, attaining a political victory by creating a restructured, democratic, stable Iraq as a model in the Arab world is likely to prove far more difficult than
the ouster of the Saddam Hussein regime. That goal may turn out to be as elusive as the mission to establish a central authority in Kabul whose writ runs across Afghanistan, or even the basics of a functioning government.
But whatever happens in Iraq, America now faces much broader challenges. How does it salvage its international image? How does it make American values respectable again in the world? In the name of national security, the Bush administration has made Americans more insecure at home and abroad. And for short-term gain, it has risked long-term US interests.
RAHIM PANJWANI
Karachi
COWASJEE’S article headlined “Causa Sine qua non” (April 20) and the clarification by an MNA and a senior minister (April 23), if read in juxtaposition, make Cowasjee’s article defamatory per se, being libel, printed, published, in permanent form and circulated, whereby the persons so alleged of a criminal offence are likely to be ridiculed, hated and put in contempt, looked down in esteem by fellow citizens, publication whereof like nature if allowed to be printed, under the garb of absolute or even qualified privileges or in public interest, unless authenticity or the truth is ascertained, in advance, a breach of citizens’ privilege and dignity committed and may cause damage.
However, at times Cowasjee’s satire based on information, investigation, despite official secrecy, makes highly interesting reading, unless either ignored, or taken lightly.
HABIB-UR-RAHMAN
Karachi
I WISH to draw your attention to the letter entitled “KU: violence & Rangers’ role” (April 24), by ‘a concerned student’.
The focus of the letter is quite misleading and an embellishment of a minor matter. As a matter of fact, on April 19, there was some tension in almost all the colleges and universities of Karachi, following some incident at one of the universities. The tension triggered by this incident had an effect on most of the institutions of higher education in the city.
As for the University of Karachi, there was some tension between two groups of students, who were getting outraged. But with the timely intervention by the university administration through a dialogue between the student groups and with the help of the law-enforcement agencies, the situation was brought under control and the tension was diffused. The presence of law-enforcement agencies proved their effectiveness to clam down the situation.
The classes were called off on April 22 and 23, with a view to finalizing arrangements for the examinations starting on May 7 at the university campus.
The reason for the tension is linked to certain exterior factors which are not related to the university of Karachi. A clash was successfully avoided by the administration and, hence, there is no question of any mismanagement at the campus.
KAZI ABDUL SALIM
Public Relations Officer, University of Karachi,
Karachi
THIS is in response to the letter “Babri Masjid and Babur’s advice” by M. Reza Pervaiz. The Indian decision to carry out an archaeological excavation is highly welcome. It will set all doubts at rest. I do not understand when the writer says that it is possible that there would be many places of worship on that particular site.
I want to tell him that archaeological excavation is not just a process of digging around but a scientific process. The results will be scientifically analysed and there is no doubt that it can bring about the facts and not mere assumptions as made by the writer.
That Babur really destroyed the Ram temple cannot be judged by the letter sent by him to his son. The whole objective of this scientific process is to establish the truth, which is the demand of the majority of the people.
We Indians are proud of our secular state but the manipulation of history and bending of state rules to appease people of certain religion for the political gains at the hands of pseudo-secularist Indian politicians are not what the silent majority wants and is also not beneficial to Indian society as a whole.
MANDAR BHALERAO
Pune, India
COUNCILLORS and numbardars everywhere are allowed to attest documents. Usually in backward areas people only have these guys
for attestation of their documents.
But the behaviour of these numbardars and councillors is usually rude and they do not do this willingly.
If these people can be allowed to do this job, why cannot registered doctors and engineers from the PMDC and the PEC be allowed to attest documents of the people of their areas.
KHALID AHMED
Karachi
FOOD shelter and health care are the essentials for human survival. The national pharmaceutical industry is now meeting over 90 per cent of health care requirements. Moreover, its exports has increased significantly. Thus the success achieved by the local industry, despite great odds, is praiseworthy.
Since the induction of the present team of officials responsible for drugs regulatory affairs and quality assurance, a very welcome change has become evident. For the first time the ministry is attempting to form a partnership with the industry to meet the health care needs of the people.
The most effective persuaders are to show by example, encourage comparison and demonstrate through lectures and seminars so that the attitudes and culture change and when this has been achieved, for which the ministry is striving both in drug control and in quality assurance, qualitative improvement in the standards of the pharma industry will be achieved.
The pharma industry should take the constructive recommendation in the same spirit as intended. With the implementation of these standards, efficiency will increase, as will the reliance of the medical profession and the public.
Z. AHMED
Karachi
COULD the authorities concerned please shed some light on what they are doing to combat SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome)?
Pakistan cannot afford an outbreak of this virus and, being a neighbouring country of China where the virus is thought to have originated, we are in an extremely vulnerable position.
What measures have so far been taken at the airports and the transit routes between China and Pakistan?
ADIL IQBAL FARUQI
Lahore
WITH reference to Dr Hina Aamir’s letter ( April 6) and the subsequent rejoinder (April 13) by Mr Aamir Abbasi of Pak-Arab Refinery Ltd, I request Dawn to initiate a debate on this important issue through these columns.
The introduction of unleaded gasoline is indeed a welcome step. It is, however, unfortunate that the public is being kept in dark about other pollutants, such as benzene and aromatics, which are present in the gasoline.
The amount of these pollutants is much higher in unleaded gasoline. Like lead, these gasoline components also increase the octane number of gasoline. But at the same time they pose serious health hazards such as blood cancer (leukemia), respiratory problems and skin diseases.
The refineries have achieved the required octane number in unleaded gasoline only by increasing the amount of reformat, which is rich in benzene and aromatics and is blended with naphtha to produce motor gasoline. For higher RON they have to further increase the reformat. The recently-introduced 90RON gasoline by PARCO would be containing even higher levels. It might be more efficient but definitely less environment-friendly.
No doubt the higher octane gasoline is in line with the international trends. However, in other countries due attention is paid to the benzene and aromatic contents. The present levels in Pakistan are among the highest in the world. Unfortunately, there is in the country no regulatory authority which can take notice of this, as a result of which the refineries and oil-marketing companies are getting away with everything.
For the refineries their profitability is most important, irrespective of the havoc being caused to human health. Diseases like hepatitis and tuberculosis have already reached epidemic proportions. It is only a matter of time when blood cancer and respiratory diseases will compete with these. With so little being spent on the health sector, the least the government can do is to prevent the big corporations from generating profits at the cost of people’s health.
The environment ministry must enforce stringent standards for environment-friendly gasoline. It is possible to produce unleaded gasoline with less benzene and aromatics. The same is done in many countries through suitable additives or through hardware changes in the refinery.
The refineries too must show some concern. Their products are useless if they cause more harms to the population. Instead of misleading the public and taking credit for introducing unleaded and higher RON gasoline, they should improve their product as much as possible to make it truly environment-friendly.
Till such time that concern is shown by those responsible, good luck to the medical doctors and private hospitals. They should get ready for an increased number of patients.
MRS SIDDIQUI
Islamabad
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