| April 28, 2003 | Monday | Safar 25, 1424 |
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LFO & Constitution’s sanctity
Heart patients: Indian offer
Holders of frozen accounts
High SPSC fee
Soiled currency notes
Medium of instruction
Revamping United Nations
Pakistan a possible target
Writing space in FIR form
Textbooks not available
CPLC: version & denial
‘WTO clouds vision for industrialization’
IT IS the government’s duty to monitor and improve the working of its institutions to let them evolve properly. Based on this principle, let us see how the government has been able to monitor the working of the new education system introduced in Punjab one year back.
Although a year’s time is not enough to judge its working, it is long enough time to have a preliminary view to rectify the shortcomings cropping up in the system. The deficiencies, lack of vision and mismanagement noticed during the year are noted below for timely action to rectify these to keep the system working:
— Biology and chemistry books for class IX are difficult and complex. Moreover, the second book of each subject was marketed in October last. Schools and students could not finish it. We should keep in mind the age group of the students while preparing syllabi. A shorter syllabus but better taught is better than longer syllabus and poorly taught. I fear this principle will not be observed during the preparation of the syllabi of class X.
— There was no choice in the papers while there was 100 per cent choice in the papers of the Federal Board. This is unfair, and must be rectified immediately so that the affected students are on an equal footing while seeking admission.
— Subjective paper of biology was on the pattern of the old system. Each question carried 10 marks. It means the paper-setter was even ignorant of the pattern of the paper. The coordinating cadre did not bother about it and allowed its printing and distribution with such a big blunder. The students were trained in the new system but were judged on the basis of the one. Someone must be made accountable in this regard.
— Examination conducting cadre (ECC) was not properly trained in the new system, which was introduced to minimize the incidence of copying and other unfair means. The behaviour of ECC was harsh. They tried to terrify innocent students of class IX by telling the police etc. This is contrary to the philosophy of the new system. They did not warrant such kind of behaviour.
— A choice of mode of instruction is offered to the students, and papers are prepared and distributed in the chosen mode of instruction. But this did not happen at many places, and Urdu- medium papers were distributed to English-medium students of biology and chemistry. They got confused and could not do these properly. They must be compensated.
Competent persons be appointed at all levels to make the system work. Also, private schools be associated with this system to ensure its success as quickly as possible.
SYED AFZAAL MAHMOOD
Lalamusa
THE differences over the LFO between the government benches and the opposition have reached an irreconcilable point. This is an established fact that the constitution of a state is the raison d’etre of its national ideology, norms, customs and traditions.
A constitution holds the sacred status of legality in a state. Thus, any attempt to seek an amendment to this august book is always subject to the approval of parliament. Any amendments to it, without the approval of parliament, cannot be taken as de facto part of the constitution.
The 1973 Constitution’s spirit has already been badly affected by the ‘LFO’ of General Ziaul Haq, having the support of the doctrine of ‘judicial activism’, which ultimately set a devastating precedence for the future of constitutionalism in Pakistan. Since law believes in customs and customs in traditions, the tradition that we have had is to alter this sacred document in accordance with the expediencies of successive military rulers.
The question is, what is the latest status of the Constitution which has been half-heartedly restored after a lapse of 41 months? The status of the National Assembly, as well as of the Senate, has become indefinable owing to the controversy over the oath taken under the LFO. Nevertheless, the main stumbling-block to effecting reconciliation between the opposition and the government benches are the issues of ultra vires of President Musharraf, the future of 58(2)b, the future of the National Security Council and the extension in the service period of the judges of the apex courts.
The government must allow the opposition to table the LFO in parliament for discussion, and the LFO must not become part of the Constitution unless approved by the two-thirds majority. Both sides should realize the gravity of the situation hovering over our national security. Any further delay to seek a solution to the prevailing crisis may trigger constitutional chaos and democratic instability, which could and would be exploited by our enemies.
S. Q. AFZAL RIZVI
Karachi
THIS refers to Mr Usman Husein Panjwani’s letter, “Heart Patients: Indian Offer” (April 19).
Mr Panjwani has wished there had been an institution like Hrudayalaya in Pakistan. Here, I would like to point out that we also have an institution in Karachi, namely the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplant (SIUT), where the kidney patients of all types (from minor illness to renal failure) are treated free of cost, with state-of-the-art equipment, without any discrimination.
Under the supervision of Dr Adibul Hasan Rizvi, this institution is rendering great service to the poor and low-income people of this country. The institution is now being acknowledged internationally.
I think that Mr Panjwani, somehow, overlooked this great achievement.
S. RAHAT ALI
Karachi
THE troubles of those whose foreign currency accounts were frozen continue. The president had apologized for this devastating action, but first interest payments were stopped about three years ago, and now at least Mashreq Bank wants to make profits from encasement certificates (which the CBR requires).
According to a printed leaflet provided by the bank, for each encashment certificate for every transaction which is over two years old, the fee to be paid to Mashreq Bank will be Rs1,000. Thus for every withdrawal from frozen accounts this amount will be charged by this bank.
Say $100 is withdrawn at Rs45 per dollar (the exchange rate when the accounts were frozen) the bank paid Rs4,500 to the account holder. Now they want Rs1,000 for each such withdrawal certificate. For someone with, say, $20,000 frozen, this bank will change between Rs40,000 and 50,000 for encashment certificates.
Will the president, or the governor of the State Bank, issue a notification that, as a special measure for people unduly punished by the freezing of their accounts, free encashment certificates should be provided.
MANZUR UL HAQ QURESHI
Lahore
THIS is to draw the attention of the governor, the chief minister and the chief secretary of Sindh to the application form fee of Rs500 for each post advertised under consolidated advertisement No. 2/2003, which has appeared in a Sindhi newspaper on April 20.
The fee is much heavier than the FPSC fee which is Rs200. It is not clear why the Sindh Public Service Commission is charging Rs500 from the poor candidates who go from door to door in search of employment. Many unemployed people have committed suicide as there have been no jobs in the interior of Sindh for the last 10 years because of the ban on employment. Those who had means, as well as right connections, got their wards/ supporters employed, ban or no ban.
Now, will the high-ups in the government consider reducing the high fee of Rs500 to Rs200, making it at par with the FPSC fee, so that poor candidates may also appear in the test of the SPSC.
Another problem, which is hurting the interests of the school-cadre gazetted officers of grades 18 and 19 in Sindh, us that many of them are in Karachi waiting for their posting orders in the education department. In some cases, the officers have already waited for over a year. On the contrary, the non-gazetted officers who have been given the charge against the posts of grades 18 and 19 are enjoying full benefits at the cost of the former.
In Sanghar, nine out of 11 school-cadre gazetted posts are lying vacant. Many such posts of grade 18 are lying vacant in the interior of Sindh. This is having a negative impact on school education in the interior. There is very little education in state-run schools in town. Many higher secondary schools and high schools are functioning without teachers. In many secondary schools it is the junior teachers who are teaching students of classes XI and XII.
Things can improve greatly if the Sindh education department issues orders for immediate posting of school-cadre officers in grades 18 and 19.
ABDUL HAQUE SOOMRO
Sanghar
THIS is with reference to the letter written by Mr R. R. Alvi on the above subject (April 15).
The State Bank of Pakistan, as a matter of formality, has instructed all the banks several times not to issue soiled currency notes to the public and to deposit them with the SBP. Let me tell your readers that, during my banking service of over 40 years, I have had bitter experience of non-cooperation of SBP officials who refused to accept the worn out currency notes on one pretext or the other. Sometimes, however, they accepted reduced quantities of such currency notes.
The commercial banks themselves are very much fed up with the unhygienic currency notes. They, under the circumstances, have no alternative but to re-issue these and also, as a result, face unpleasant situations and displeasure of customers/members of the public.
Unless the SBP officials are willing to extend full cooperation to commercial banks in this regard, it is not possible to get rid of the menace of soiled currency notes which are, no doubt, a highly potential source of many diseases.
AMJAD HASSAN
Lahore
THIS refers to Ms Sonia’s letter (April 18) in which she says that English cannot be used as a medium to teach 60 per cent of the uneducated.
I do not agree with her because the learning of a language depends on social atmosphere where that language is spoken. A language, primarily, starts by listening to it in a social atmosphere. The next step relates to speaking, reading and writing.
In Pakistan, unfortunately, it is the reverse. But we can apply the right process if our educated speak English while they are in the midst of our uneducated. This will help the latter to pick up words and pronunciation. After some time this practice will make them quite familiar with the different skills of English. By this time the 60 per cent ratio would have been reduced to some extent. Gaining little by little this way, English can one day be employed as medium of instruction for all of us.
G. M. SHAIKH
Bhit Shah
I WAS impressed to see a picture of young children from Chakwal, who took out a procession and declared March 20 “Day of Demise of UN” (April 12). Apparently, the fact remains that the charter of the United Nations regarding promoting and preserving international peace has been flagrantly violated. No amount of logic of Mr Blair and tactics of Mr Bush can hide this naked truth.
Concomitantly it cannot be denied that in future if unlawful invasions are required to be prevented, then UN remains the only forum where the security of small nations can be guaranteed. The world conscience luckily, for the unfortunate residents of this planet, is not dead. It has been a redeeming feature of international diplomacy that people like Mr Chirac of France, Mr Schroeder of Germany and Mr Vladimir Putin of Russian Federation, with many million other people, came out in direct opposition to Bush-Blair axis of destruction.
Of late, what the Russian president has said at St Petersburg about revamping of the UN should be urgently considered. The following points may be of some importance:
a) All those permanent members of the United Nations which commit aggression against any state, their right to veto should be suspended for a minimum of five years.
b) Other UN members which choose to defy the UN charter should be suspended from all other UN bodies and agencies.
c) New York is not a safe place for the UN headquarters. It should be moved to France, Italy or Morocco; even St Petersburg should be acceptable.
d) As an interim measure, the UN headquarters and the Security Council should immediately be moved to Geneva in Switzerland and all other smaller agencies housed in UN buildings may be sent to New York, till alternative buildings are available at a different site.
KHALID HASSAN MAHMOOD
Karachi
THIS is with reference to the letter by Mr Iqbal from Karachi observing that the US is not likely to consider Pakistan its next target.
To an extent I agree with his statement and the historical facts that he has pointed out. However, it should not be forgotten that a superpower like the US may not need much of a reason to take on Pakistan. We need to identify areas that suggest why Pakistan could possibly be one of United States’ targets, if not the next one.
Throughout the Cold War years, the US and the USSR tried to follow quite a similar policy — the policy of promoting their own ideologies. However, ultimately it was the United States that succeeded in doing so — the result being the disintegration of the USSR and very recently the demise of Saddam’s regime. Regardless of the fact that America had other motives for attacking Iraq, one main reason was to promote its ideology, i.e. democracy.
Under the light of these facts, theoretically it becomes much more evident that Pakistan may be its next ideological experimentation ground. In my opinion, the factual reasons, looking from the perspective of the Unites States, are much more than Pakistan just being an ally of the US in times of trouble.
Pakistan is considered one of the breeding grounds for terrorists by the American public, by the American ruling elite and around the world. Thus, if the US decides to go to war against Pakistan, it may not even receive opposition from other nations, apart from a few exceptions.
Another reason is that, besides Pakistan being “allegedly” involved in “infiltration” and being a campground for terrorists, it is still a pseudo-democratic nation from the viewpoint of Americans. Pakistan is standing in the face of the US, specially with the emerging LFO situation. However, let us hope such a development never takes place.
UMAIR SHAMSI
Bloomington, Indiana, USA
THE space for writing in the FIR (First Information Report) form is not enough for the text of the report. Some time, for this lack of space the text has to be squeezed so much that it creates misunderstanding in court.
It is time the FIR form was designed to meet the international standard such as followed by the US, Britain, Germany and Canada.
The new form must have enough space for writing the report, as well as good quality paper that can last at least 75 years with waterproof ink.
NAZIM ALI HOTHI
Karachi
I WANT to draw the attention of the Punjab Textbook Board, Lahore, to the dismal situation as regards the non-availability of books to the students from classes I to X.
Almost one-and-a-half months has elapsed but most of the students are without books. They just fritter away their time in schools. I request the authorities concerned to help ensure the supply of the textbooks without any delay.
PROF M. A. SHAD
Islamabad
THIS refers to the letters written by Syed Sardar Ahmad and Kunwar Khalid Yunus printed in your newspaper on April 23.
Yunus has attempted to confuse the issue. Why could he not, or why did he not, reclaim his National Assembly identity card with which he bailed himself out of trouble when stopped by the military authorities? He says he was advised to move a privilege motion against the authorities who had stopped him. It would be interesting to know exactly which ‘privilege’ of his was breached by the incident. (The vehicle checking post at Napier Barracks has long since been shut down.)
It is not understood why he saw fit, in this matter, to involve his father-in-law, a retired customs preventive service officer who now resides peacefully in one of the leafy millionaires’ rows of Karachi’s Defence Housing Society.
No ship of mine, no ship owned by any member of my family, was sunk or scuttled at the West Wharf in Karachi Harbour. And even if it had been, why would a customs officer be called upon to investigate?
As for the conduct of his political party, the less said the better. Even Karachi’s Nazim-i-Ala Naimatullah Khan, by his own admission, stands threatened by hooligans who ‘attempt to control him’.
Now to Sindh Home Minister Sardar Ahmad. He has not denied that the Daewoo Racer was in his possession, or that he failed to keep to his promise that he would return the vehicle to be impounded.
Attached hereto, for your information and records, are photocopies of the following documents:
1) Report dated 24/4/99 concerning “suspect vehicle AAX-929 plying on fake number plates in the custody of Syed Sardar Ahmad, ex-chief secretary and advisor finance, Government of Sindh” (2 sheets).
2) FIR No. 57 dated 1/5/99 bearing the stamp reading ‘Office of the Senior Superintendent of Police, District South, Karachi’ (2 sheets).
3) Certificate signed by Syed Sardar Ahmad on a Government of Sindh letterhead which he was not entitled to use (1 sheet).
4) Dawn news report dated 29/4/99 (1 sheet).
5) News International news reports dated 29/4/99 and 5/5/99 (2 sheets).
On April 9 an agitated Sardar Ahmad told two persons (for the present unnamed) that he had received two telephone calls from London concerning the arrest of the extortionists Zaidis (not Rizvis) who had committed the crime of attempting to extort money from TCS (my column of April 13). One of these persons, a gentleman, is prepared to testify to this fact. The other, a former civil servant, has conveyed via the gentleman that if asked, he would prevaricate and support Sardar.
Should Sardar Ahmad wish to confront these two, he is cordially invited to my house for breakfast.
ARDESHIR COWASJEE
Karachi
For reasons of space we are not in a position to reproduce the three documents, whatever their relevance, and three newspaper clippings accompanying this letter.—Ed.D.
I endorse the views of Mr. Jawaid Bukhari on the above subject (April 20,2003) and earlier, of Siddique M Siddique, on the subject of the ‘WTO and Pakistan’s industry’ (April 12, 2003) in your esteemed paper about the impact of IFIs discipline generally and of the WTO particularly on Pakistan’s economy.
Briefly, the World Bank espouses setting up only those industries which are globally competitive. The IMF espouses reduction in tariff, among others and the WTO, free trade. The cumulative impact of all these IFIs thus is in favour of the developed and not the developing countries.
Unlike the developed, the developing countries suffer from optimum volumes, technology and human resource which alone ensure international competitiveness of an industry. In this respect, Pakistan is no exception. Therefore, the IFIs global discipline, in fact, is, that there will be hardly any industry in Pakistan. However, the economy is where the means of production are; otherwise it is trade.
The fact also is, that IFIs discipline has led Pakistan into a dumping ground. Everything is being dumped, under-invoiced or smuggled, not only the motorcycles and their components and parts, as your correspondents say. According, to a recent report prepared by the Institute of Business Management, Karachi, the dumping, under invoicing and smuggling takes place also in case of trucks, buses, light commercial vehicles, tractors, cars, and their components and parts also.
Construction material such as tiles and auto parts, shoes, socks, undergarments, handkerchiefs, stationery items like pens, pencils, are other examples. In most cases all such dumping is from China. Some established industries also import their products now rather than manufacture locally and just stamp their trade mark on them. As such, the local industry is generally shutting down. Therefore, as long as under-invoicing and dumping continues, Pakistan will continue to suffer.
May I also add that most countries, including India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand are checking prices and not allowing free import, under-invoicing or dumping,thus protecting their industry.The basic question is,what do we need,industry or trade?
We have not yet made up our mind on it.And this explains why investment is shy in Pakistan despite macro economic stability. It calls for a fresh look - sooner than later - towards industry. The solution evidently lies in meshing IFIs policies with local priorities ensuring the country’s economic sovereignty.
Haq and Haq Faislabad
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