| April 27, 2003 | Sunday | Safar 24, 1424 |
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Bank profits
Fares’ revision
Babri Masjid: truth and deception
The LFO logjam
‘Scared of peace’
Pakistan not the next target
PTV and regional languages
Equivalence certificate
Yankee culture for Iraq?
Heart patients: Indian offer
Pakistani workers for Malaysia
WE in Pakistan welcome and earnestly hope that Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee’s offer to hold talks with Pakistan to resolve all outstanding disputes, including the core issue of Kashmir, is a sincere and genuine offer and is not the usual ploy to lead the parties concerned down the garden path once again.
Mr Vajpayee’s offer should be viewed against the backdrop of the first visit of this kind in some 12 years by an Indian prime minister to Kashmir where his objective was obviously to keep the Kashmiris warm about the policy of his government and to send “positive” signals to his overseas audience, specially the US. This is in the context and the purpose of the forthcoming visit of Richard Armitage and Christina Rocca to the subcontinent to prod both India and Pakistan to a conference table and undertake a serious process of dialogue to address all the outstanding issues between the two countries.
Undoubtedly, both India and Pakistan are under considerable pressure from the international community to resolve their disputes peacefully as the world is getting increasingly fed up and frustrated with the perpetual state of confrontation between the nuclear armed hostile neighbours and their utter inability to discuss across the table and settle disputes bilaterally.
One wishes that the euphoria and expectations that Mr Vajpayee’s offer for talks has raised were not misplaced and mere red herrings, hence this requires a dispassionate and incisive analysis. What is of concern is that soon after the conclusion of his Kashmir visit last week, Mr Vajpayee, at his press conference, insisted that there was no change in India’s policy for holding talks with Pakistan and reiterated that the condition to renounce and stop the so-called cross-border terrorism into India by Pakistan remains a pre-requisite for this process to begin.
Needless to say, this rigid stance is a non-starter. Let us hope that these utterances are merely for the appeasement of the hardliners in India and that behind the scene there are genuine, positive and concrete efforts being undertaken by both Pakistan and India to sincerely resolve all the disputes peacefully on the basis of give-and-take in a reasonable and agreed time-frame.
To move forward and to take Mr Vajpayee on his offer for talks is also a test for the astuteness and skills of the Pakistan political leadership and managers of our foreign policy.
M. S. HASAN
Islamabad
BANKS are declaring enormous profits, particularly after-tax profits, going up to over 3,500 per cent over the same period last year. For a reason known only to the finance minister (perhaps because he himself is a career banker), the income tax on banks was reduced in the last budget.
Would the finance minister consider putting up income tax on banks still allowing them enormous profits and with the revenue earned drop or drastically reduce the tax on savings? Also what is the rationale for granting special rates by National Savings Centres for retired government officers only?
This facility should be offered to all senior citizens who are above the government’s retirement age. Big business is getting all the breaks, what about the common man? Will he only get lip service?
AZHAR AHMAD
Lahore
IN contravention of the directives of the Sindh transport minister issued last Friday for reduction of fares of public transport, vide news report (April 19), there are so many coach operators who are reluctant to reduce their fares and, consequently, scuffles ensue between them and the commuters in almost every trip.
The transport secretary feels to have performed his job by making an announcement in the press without caring to see whether his instructions are being followed in letter and in spirit. The transporters continue to recover higher fares under the plea that the relevant order has not been handed to them. On the contrary, they do not wait for the order from competent authority and start charging higher fares the moment fuel prices are adjusted upward.
ABDUL RAUF
Karachi
WITH reference to the letter on the Babri Masjid, published a few days back, I agree with the writer that Emperor Babur founded a rather liberal dynasty in Delhi, which lasted some four hundred years. This would not have been possible without Muslim liberalism and Hindu tolerance.
My father was SDM of the Nawabganj tehsil which lies on the right bank of the river Ghagra. Ajodhya, where the Babri Masjid was built, lies on the other bank opposite to Nawabganj. Both are connected to each other by a bridge of boats. In 1946-47, I was a student of matric and went with my father to visit the Babri Masjid. My father was asked by the Muslim DC, G. A. Madani (ICS), to try to settle the dispute between the Hindus and the Muslims.
I found the mosque semi-deserted, a huge structure covered with algae. This was because when the Oudh ruler founded Faizabad a couple of miles away from Ajodhya, most of the Muslims moved to the new city.
The Indian Gazetteer published by the British in 1906, in the section on Ajodhya, mentions that the mosque was built at the command of Babur, at the site of the ruins of an ancient temple. Babur was very liberal and he did not destroy any existing temple to construct the mosque.
The town of Ajodhya is densely populated with temples like the city of Varanasi. My father was told by the Hindu mahants (priests) that there was an ancient Hanuman temple there, because the monkey-god had taken a leap from the Himalayas bringing a peak with him because he had forgotten the name of the herb; he had landed at the corner of the courtyard of the compound of the mosque, about 100 miles away.
The area abounds with monkeys and I found Hanuman mandirs in the form of small stones at almost every village well in the region.
My father almost laughed and asked the mahant where the peak was now; he told the mahant that the epic of Ramayana was written in pre-historic time, but that the mosque was a real one.
Akbar, being related to the Hindus, allowed a very small door at one end of the main wall for use by the Hindus. However, the Hindu extremists do not realize that in December 1992 they destroyed a relic of liberalism of the India of Gandhi and Nehru, which would have been a major tourist attraction.
My father applied a lock to both main and small gates of the mosque in early 1947 but he was followed by a Hindu DC of Gonda, Nair, who gave the RSS the idea of the Ramjanam Bhoomi, and this has cost several thousand Muslim and Hindu lives, quite meaninglessly.
AHMED ZAFAR FAROOQI
Karachi
THE proponents of the Legal Framework Order are going to great lengths in condemning its opponents for not paying enough attention to the challenge of ameliorating the lot of the common man. Such censure speaks volume of the mindset that exists in various segments of our society, a society that has never been allowed to experience real democracy.
As and when a civil setup functioned in the country, its power to exercise its authority was severely truncated while someone else wielded the real power. Parliament has remained a symbol of irrelevance, a body allowed dissertation only on issues like wasteful expenditure on marriages rather than debates on the defence budget or foreign policy.
With the sword of Damocles hanging over their heads and the parliamentarians never sure when they would be sent packing, obviously they thus reprioritized their objectives giving overwhelming preference to personal interests and throwing public/national concerns behind. In the absence of any credible public institution, the culture has proliferated over the years.
Since the exercise of subverting, stalling and reinventing democracy along with manipulation, tailoring and stitching of politicians continues to be repeated so very often, the same assembly of representatives or their likes reappear, though in a different form. This time they have resurfaced holding graduation transcripts in their hands thanks indeed to the establishment.
No gainsaying that this set, as in the past, has neither the will nor the capacity to deliver. So long as two parallel governments continue to function ad nauseum in Pakistan with individuals rather than institutions gaining strength, subjects of Pakistan will not prosper, nor will they be able to rid themselves of selfish politicians.
This is an abiding lesson that each proponent of the LFO must comprehend before asking for the moon, i.e. representatives focusing on improving life of the common man in Pakistan.
UMAR AZAM KHAN
Lahore
THE article “Scared of peace” (April 23) by Dr Mubashir Hasan is an accurate description of the state of affairs prevailing in this blighted subcontinent since the departure of the colonial rulers. Here the masses (90 per cent population) eke out an existence ranging from humdrum to extremely miserable, while the ruling elite (less than 10 per cent), comprising officers of civil and military services, their clients the politicos and the supporting feudal and business classes, live more opulently and regally than the Mughal kings and potentates of yesteryear.
Dr Mubashir is a seasoned economist and a brave campaigner who is not afraid to call a spade a spade. The authoritarian system is responsible for the myriad ills the subcontinent suffers from. We all know this and have known this for many years.
The question is: how to jettison such a well-entrenched and rigorously-controlled set-up and who will do it? The people (80 per cent illiterate, poor and powerless) are only dimly aware of being wronged
and deprived by a powerful national-wealth-sucking machine. For them their misfortunes and sorrows are due to God’s will, as they are assured by their rulers ad religious gurus.
Perhaps, one day some Bush or some Rumsfeld will descend on this hapless subcontinent to put things right, unless we come to our senses and voluntarily eliminate injustice, inequality and misery from our countries or at least minimize them.
SYED MAHBOOB AHMED
Karachi
I HAVE read with great amusement the logic of Mr Zafar Iqbal in his letter entitled “Pakistan not the next target” (April 21).
He cites the lists of the acts of loyalty performed by Pakistan in the past and says that, since Pakistan has from its very inception been the ‘kasa bardaar’ of America, the latter would not make Pakistan the second target of its attack.
Perhaps he has not heard of Disraeli, when in reply to a question of a member of Parliament who wanted to know whether the English people should regard France (with whom the English were at peace at one moment and at war the next) as a friend or as a foe, he said: “The honourable member should know that England has no eternal enemies and England has no eternal friends. It only has eternal interests.”
So, acts of loyalty in the past notwithstanding, America will target or will not target Pakistan as American interests dictate at a given moment.
Who does not know the fate of the “Yaar-i-wafadaar-i-sultanat-i-Bartania” whose dominion was left to its own fate when India launched its so-called police action against it. Its past loyalties were such that Mahirul Qadri said in his poem on Tipu:
Wo tow ye kahiye ke apnai hi paraaie ho gaaei
Mitgaya tha warna sateh Hind se Naqsh-i-Farang
So, to hell with the string of the past loyalties. It is the ‘present’ which matters.
JUSTICE (R) SALAHUDDIN MIRZA
Karachi
I DO not understand the policy of Pakistan Television as far as the regional languages are concerned. PTV is a government-owned channel and it is a major medium of telecast in Urdu and some programmes are telecast in English at national circuit. Provincial languages have been allocated time for provincial circuit.
But I could observe that, for the past many months, PTV is telecasting songs of Punjabi in almost every musical programme, toeing MTV and other private satellite channel’s pattern. It is a welcome sign if the other regional languages are not deprived of their due share in the musical programmes shown on the national circuit. In fact, PTV should represent all the Pakistani languages, not of one province.
If in a musical programme some songs are telecast in Punjabi, then Balochi, Pushto, Sindhi and Seraiki songs should also be aired in the programme.
PTV should not toe the private satellite channels. Not all people living in Pakistan understand the Punjabi songs. But they can enjoy the rhythm. So, in the same way people like the rhythm of Dane ba dana, a Balochi song. I personally do not understand Punjabi but like the rhythm of some of the Punjabi songs.
If the PTV management thinks that people send letters for the Punjabi songs to be telecast on national circuit, then the question arises, will PTV telecast songs in regional languages if people make a request to it about this?
I would suggest that all the regional languages be given due time on national circuit as is given to Punjabi. This way the people living across the country would understand each other’s culture and would come closer.
NIAZ HUSSAIN
Sui
I HAVE done my O’Level from St Michael Convent School in the year 2000. Before applying for a job, an equivalence certificate is required, for which I obtained a form from BIEK, and the equivalence certificate will be issued by the ministry of education in Islamabad after viewing my original documents.
There is a huge drop in a student’s marks after these are converted to the matric standard. I wonder why O’Level students should apply for an equivalence certificate when on the back of the O’Level certificate, under the heading ‘Candidates in Pakistan’, it is clearly stated: “The percentage on the certificate are for the purpose of ‘equivalence’ with the corresponding examinations in Pakistan.”
I request the British Council to clear up this misunderstanding and hope that this is enough information to make the ministry of education realize that they should get in contact with the British Council before charging skyhigh fees for an equivalence certificate.
ALI HABIB
Karachi
THE Iraqis should pray they see the back of the Americans soonest, lest they meet the fate of the Japanese and the South Koreans — traffic jams, high divorce rates, high labour costs and whatever else that goes with Yankee culture. These two countries have become the 51st and 52nd states of America. The traditional family way of working in industry has been overtaken by the robot assembly line. Their own old worldly traditions have succumbed to the green-back and fast-food culture.
In Baghdad the ancient museums and libraries, heritage of centuries, are already no more, vandalized right under the eyes of the couldn’t-careless US servicemen. Numerous religious shrines have been damaged and will not get any succour from the ‘liberators’.
The civilization dating from the Ottomans and the Caliphates is in dire danger. The holy names of Basra and Karbala are already being pronounced differently, with vowels unheard of before. Euphrates will now just be another river like the Mississippi or the Potomac.
Iraq’s national games, pastimes and religious and cultural festivities will gradually lose their significance to be overshadowed by the baseball ovals, racing dirt tracks, bowling alleys, playboy and playmate and, God forbid, American football.
This will be the biggest challenge for an ancient people to hold on to their past glory while they struggle towards future progress. This will be their battle for Baghdad and if they lose, much more than a city will be lost.
KHURSHID ANWER
Lahore
I REFER to the letter entitled “Heart patients: Indian offer” by Dr Shetty (March 23) and another letter by Mr Panjwani (April 19).
It is indeed a generous and noble gesture to invite people from Pakistan to India for
the treatment of congenital heart defects. It highlights
the fact that although cardiac surgery has made tremendous advances in Pakistan, avenues for paediatric cardiac surgery still remain few.
I, through these lines, wish to inform the parents of such children and the doctors concerned that we at the Dow Medical College and the Civil Hospital, Karachi, are already offering a similar service free of cost. The unit is now for four-year-old children and has a trained paediatric cardiac surgeon.
Services have been provided with success already to children weighing three kilograms and above. I am sure that it is very convenient for parents to visit the Civil Hospital’s cardiac outpatient service on any Thursday morning and treat the problem locally.
DR RAHEEL HUSSAIN
Cardiothoracic Surgeon,
Civil Hospital,
Karachi
I AM referring to the news item (April 13) stating that the minister for labour, manpower and overseas Pakistanis, after returning recently from Malaysia, had said that about six million Indonesian workers were leaving Malaysia and the gap will be filled up by Pakistani workers. In the first instance, the Malaysian government has asked for 100,000 workers from Pakistan on a top priority basis. Apart from labour class, the Malaysian government has requisitioned services of hundreds of doctors and teachers.
In the prevailing era of economic distress in Pakistan, the government must not miss this opportunity and make arrangements to send the above-mentioned contingent. The private promoters should be discouraged and instead the government should entrust this task to the provincial governments which should strive hard to send the requisite number of persons to Malaysia, keeping in view the requisite merit as prescribed by the Malaysian government.
If the present job is accomplished at an early stage, the Malaysian government is likely to demand more people from Pakistan.
Hats off to the labour minister for doing this most desirable job, and he must visit other Muslim countries also to fetch more order for Pakistani labour, thus helping the country to stabilize its economy.
SYED ALI NASIR RIZVI
Lahore
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