| May 14, 2003 | Wednesday | Rabi-ul-Awwal 11, 1424 |
To send a letter to the Editor
Click here
CIA’s map of Kashmir
The textbook muddle
Equivalence certificate
Sars & Ojha sanatorium
Killing of tenant on Okara farms
A moment at NICVD
Profit on NSS
Remembering M. E. Z. Ghazali
Sheltered workshop
Talks offer
What does Ogra regulate?
A GLASS curtain has descended on Iraq, giving way to a new “political greenhouse’... for the controlled-room democracy, a place that might serve as a nursery for the whole Middle East. Under the benign Western sun, liberally-hostile vested interests are warming up, while the traditionally conservative autocracy finds itself trapped within the glass walls. The phenomenon caused by the enlightened radiation is... the White House effect.
Change is the order of the day, if it was not the need of the hour. The world looks a different place.
Alarm bells are being heard, Arab leaders wake up to realize a weed culture is about to infiltrate. Willy-nilly, they might try, on their own, to espouse republicanism with a dissembling democracy rather sticking to a kingdom of royal monarchy. They cannot afford to resist force, but an indigenous change does look expedient.
Divided nations are at the greatest peril, these are with diverse ethnic groups, multiple minority classes, and contrasting religious sects. All the fragile fragments within such entity will be vying to raise an unnecessary hue and cry, even if slightly nudged by the state authorities, hoping that any clamour for help might meet an instant action from the cradle of newfound civilized world.
‘Desperate terrorism’ gets a new lease of life, swearing afresh death and destruction. Suicidal missions are again in the danger of turning nobler... for them cause is there... liberation, as long as the curse... subjugation. Hearts and minds have never been the occupied territories. We know as the sense of loss brews, hate ferments, and inevitably violence ensues. Intifada gets inflamed.
Media is not unhurt. Specially, the Sahafization of Arab journalism is a nasty trend. Blatant lies are raining down to quench the public thirst for sensational slush, while the honest coverage seems to be spitting venom. Cross-cultural skepticism is being aired to ditch the inter-faith dialogue. Tele-warfare is causing an intellectual strangulation among the viewers.
War on Iraq makes Israel feel liberated again. The foundations of the ‘country of creation’ have been further fortified by exiling the regimented clergy from Baghdad.
The US awe continued to spiral up with all its dignity, but the electric treatment meted out to a vulnerable nation, and the massive military muscle shown to an emaciated army did not exemplify a good moral behaviour within the ambit of international law.
The UN is jittered, not only by the shock waves sent from the Capitol Hill, but also by the subduction of truth on the floor of the Security Council. The credibility of the UN is wafer-thin at the moment, with no signs of image redemption in the near future. A debacle in defending the defenceless from the imposed belligerency has played havoc with the world body. Loss of peace has left us with despair, is there any hope to mend a broken world? Justice. Reconstruction or reform does not suffice alone.
KHALID HASAN KHAN
Karachi
ACCORDING to a news report (May 5), citing an Indian defence analyst, the CIA’s new map of Kashmir describes the region east of the LoC as “Indian State of Jammu and Kashmir”, while the western region is designated as “Pakistan-controlled areas of Kashmir”.
The fact that in the past the US has treated the whole of Kashmir state as disputed and that the new map would have undergone rigorous inter-agency examination in the US system and after approval at the highest levels now depicts the official position of the American government, and makes this a serious development.
If true, this move is obviously designed to put pressure on Pakistan by making its retention even of Azad Kashmir sound illegal while implicitly showing the Indian occupation of Kashmir as full, final and non-negotiable. Therefore, if in the end Pakistan is allowed to retain its part of Kashmir and accept the LoC as the international border with India, it would be made to look like a great favour to this country. Such an outcome would be totally unacceptable to the Kashmiris and the Pakistanis and could only lead to trouble.
The way things appear to be going, one of these days, a CIA map may even reverse the partition of India and show Pakistan as part of it, thereby solving every outstanding problem between the two neighbours!
This is apparently America’s way of “rewarding” a country that has been its most “allied ally”. In the past, its foremost partner against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and now a leading ally in the war against terrorism. It is time for our rulers to review their policy of blind obedience and loyalty to the US. They must also call for an explanation of this unjustifiable change in the American stand and have it reversed.
Besides that, we must consult our friends and see if taking the Kashmir issue to the UN Security Council would not be a better option than entering into “trilateral” negotiations with India, which, if the past 55 years are anything to go by, won’t lead us anywhere.
A peaceful and negotiated settlement of problems is always preferable but Pakistan’s earnest desire and ceaseless wait for India to give up its obduracy and behave reasonably has given it nothing but the wood of its cross. India occupied Kashmir and Junagadh in 1947, severed East Pakistan from us in 1971, went nuclear in I974 and overran Siachen in l984. And the irony is that the current US government map does not even show Siachen as a part of Azad Kashmir.
ZAHOOR AHSAN
Karachi
THE textbook muddle is a regular annual feature. Those who are responsible for this have ‘personal reasons’ but no concern for the future of our children.
The chairperson of the Punjab Textbook Board proudly declared in a TV discussion recently that this year the Board had made a profit of Rs180 million. What a shame!
Half of this money could have been used to improve the quality of the books and their binding. No one seems to bother about this. Moreover, the Textbook Board could have provided some relief to the parents who have many school-going children by reducing the prices of the textbooks.
The chairperson asserted repeatedly that all books had been made available to the market through their dealers, but he did not have the courage to admit that they were withholding their sale for ulterior motives. They were in league with the publishers of guides and test-papers. The textbooks are released after the publishers and their benefactors have lined their pockets by forcing students to buy their product. No wonder that teachers now use guides instead of original textbooks in the classrooms. Who has the will and courage to grapple with this mafia?
There has been yet another bungling by the ‘Big Brother’ Board. They have published English Reader for class IX which is the worst specimen of a textbook ever produced by it for secondary classes. The lessons in the book are short, purposeless and without properly planned exercises. A couple of lessons deal only with the filling up of money order and telegraph forms but with no exercises at all.
The book comprises 120 pages with 22 lessons, whereas the previous book had 182 pages and 28 lessons. It is a cruel joke, to say the least. We will be a laughing stock when this so-called textbook reaches Pakistani schools abroad. What is intriguing is the fact that the book does not seem to have been approved by the relevant authority of the federal ministry of education, a legal requirement to be followed by all textbook boards. As such, it is an unauthorized publication.
SYED TABAY ABBAS
Rawalpindi
THIS is with reference to the letter concerning the equivalence certificate (April 15). The factual position is as under:
Ms Ishbah Aqueel, daughter of Aqueel Ahmad, passed GCE O’level in eight subjects from the University of Oxford and Cambridge, which is considered equivalent to SSC/matric in Pakistan. In order to convert the grades of British qualification into Pakistani marks, the IBCC considers five subjects as follows:
1. English, 2. Physics, 3. Chemistry, 4. Biology or Mathematics (one with higher grade), 5. one subject with overall best grade (which could be any of the subjects studied other than subjects as Sr. No. 1 to 4 and including the compulsory subjects).
The marks they obtained by the applicant are:
Subject Grade Marks
English (E) 45
Physics (D) 55
Chemistry (C) 65
Math (C) 65
Urdu (C) 65
Total: 295
Her marks 295 out of 500 are then converted equivalent SSC of 850, thereby granting her 502/850 marks.
The objection of Mr Aqueel Ahmad regarding non-consideration of the subject of Biology is baseless and without proper knowledge of the conversion formula. If the subject of Biology was taken by the IBCC for conversion of grades, the percentage would have been further reduced as the candidate obtained Grade-D in the subject of Biology. The IBCC has considered the subject of Mathematics with Grade C (higher than D in Biology).
It is once again assured that the proper equivalence certificate issued to Ms Ishbah Aqueel is correct and according to the approved existing conversion formula, detailed as above. For further clarification Mr Aqueel Ahmad may contact/visit the IBCC office in Islamabad.
MUHAMMAD IQBAL
Education officer,Ministry of Education,
Islamabad
I AM not a doctor, but my first reaction to the selection of the Ojha sanatorium as a quarantine centre for Sars was: if I had Sars symptoms, I would hide them rather than expose myself to the dangers of being a patient in a TB sanatorium.
I have at some other hospitals seen the lack of precautions taken to segregate crockery, cutlery and napkins of the patients with non-infectious diseases and infectious diseases. Most of our people are a lazy and indifferent lot, and really could not care less (I do not know if this applies to the Ojha sanatorium).
I assume that our TB patients are already weak and therefore have a very low immunity level. Why expose them to the horrible prospect of contracting Sars? It would appear that we still do not know for sure how infectious this disease is.
From what I have read in newspapers, our controls at entry points are inadequate. Why don’t our health authorities do something useful? I would hate to have Pakistan on the Sars map, as it would devastate us.
If I have the wrong angle on this as a layman, I would welcome correction.
ARDESHIR JEHANGIR VICCAJI
Karachi
THE news item in your issue of May 12 titled “Tenant shot dead on Okara farms” has woken me up once again to the injustice and tyranny being carried out on the poor tenants of the Okara farms.
How many more innocent lives are going to be lost before this tug of war between the oppressors and the oppressed is finally resolved in a civilized manner? Where are the justices of the Supreme Court of Pakistan and of the high courts?
The question that I would like to ask the ruling elite is, on what moral grounds are we complaining about the Indian atrocities in Kashmir when we commit the same on our own people?
Through this letter I would also like to appeal to all the political parties that while they continue their struggle on the LFO, please also include this issue of the Okara farms as an agenda item of the contentious issues that need to be resolved.
NAZIM F. HAJI
Karachi
As I finished my exams at the Regent Plaza, I decided to pay a visit to my sister at the NICVD who was on house job at that moment. Since I was told by her a day before that there is no cafeteria in the hospital, I decided to have a juice and some chips from a shop outside. By the time I reached the main entrance of the hospital, I had consumed all the chips and juice. So I thought to throw the packets away in some dustbin. After an exhaustive search, it was an abortive mission to find a dustbin. Thus, I decided to ask the guard at the gate for a dustbin. To my amusement, he replied there are no dustbins. When asked what to do about the empty packets, he simply said: “Throw them away into any corner.”
The NICVD is a big hospital but without any dustbins or a cafeteria . How are the doctors who are at house job the whole night supposed to eat? The male doctors can take a break and eat something from outside. But what about the women doctors who wouldn’t take the risk of going out alone or with a couple of friends in the middle of the night?
SHAMYL KHAN
Karachi
YOUR worthy newspaper richly deserves the blessings of helpless widows like me for helping us convey our distress to the establishment. About two months back, the State Bank governor said in an interview that the home-fires for lakhs of families would extinguish if the national savings schemes were discontinued. How can he then have the heart to advise the government to discourage the NSS?
AYESHA AHMED
Karachi
FORMER Test cricketer M. E. Z. Ghazali died in Karachi on April 26. He was 79. A right-handed batsman and off-spin bowler, he played Test cricket for Pakistan in the mid-1950s. He also managed the Pakistan cricket team that toured Australia in 1971-72. I am one of the lucky ones who got his autograph.
Fazal Mahmood, Imtiaz Ahmad, Wazir Mohammad, Hanif Mohammad, Zulfiqar Ahmad and Shuja-ul-Hasan are among his contemporaries and, by the grace of God, they are all alive. But it is a pity that none of them wrote a piece to pay tribute to their former fellow-cricketer.
When you write an article on the death of your contemporary, it serves at least two purposes: first, you show your love and respect for your former colleague; second, you highlight his professional traits and also mention some of your personal experiences that you alone shared with him. Something like this really makes an interesting reading for the admirer of the game.
The wonder of wonders is that Omer Kureishi, a veteran journalist and a cricket commentator, must have known Ghazali very well. But it is very sad to see that just like many others he, too, ignored the death of a Pakistani cricketer.
The point to remember is that we should not forget our acquaintances today, so that we may not be forgotten tomorrow.
RAFAT MAHMOOD ANSARI
Islamabad
As a parent of a special child in the United Kingdom, I had to search for special schools in Karachi and have found out Ujala school for special children which is run by the parents themselves under the banner of Parents Voice Association.
I came to learn that they have a very good plan to make a sheltered hostel for such children and for which they have been allocated land by the Defence Officers Society for such a project. However, owing to red tape, this project is in doldrums.
I would appeal to the Defence Housing Authority to do the needful urgently enabling the parents to start the construction of a most important project that Pakistan can have. This will help the parents of Pakistani origin to utilize this facility.
MOHAMMED SIDDICK
London, UK
IN a surprise move, India has extended a hand of friendship. It appears very encouraging and commendable. It must be appreciated. But why at this juncture? It must be pondered over by our high-ups.
Couldn’t it be connected in any way to the fact that Pakistan has just assumed the presidency of the UNSC?
SYED FAROOQ
Rawalpindi
THIS refers to the news item headlined “Consumers oppose rise in gas prices” (May 10) by Bahzad Alam Khan.
Gas tariffs have to be based on the loan agreement executed by the SSGCL with the ADB, and the SSGCL’s obligations are secured by a Guarantee Agreement between the government and the ADB, whereby the government has, inter alia, guaranteed that the gas tariffs will be set at a level that, after reimbursement of all operating expenses, enables the SSGCL to earn an annual return of 17 per cent on the net fixed assets in operation.
Eighty per cent of the SSGCL’s operating expenses are said to represent the cost of gas purchases. The well-head prices of such gas, except in the case of purchases ex-Sui, are determined with reference to the border price of fuel oil and the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra), or for that matter, the ministry of petroleum & natural resources has no control whatsoever over well-head prices. Therefore, one can understand the bafflement of the intervenors at the public hearing convened by Ogra to debate the SSGCL’s request for a tariff increase. “What the entire debate was about” is a most pertinent question for the Chairman Ogra.
Another large chunk of the SSGCL’s operating costs, about five per cent, is accounted for by depreciation. The rates of depreciation are specified in the ADB loan agreement, which requires the write-off of the transmission, compression and distribution assets (constituting 90 per cent of the SSGCL’s fixed assets) between nine and 16 years, whereas the internationally accepted estimated useful lives of such assets are 50 years.
The ADB insists on accelerated depreciation so that the period of write-off coincides ostensibly with the period of the remaining lives of gas reserves dedicated to the SSGCL, but in reality the depreciation rates are set to coincide with the repayment period of the ADB’s outstanding loans. Anyhow, these depreciation rates impose an undue burden on the utility and contribute directly to higher gas prices.
The depreciation rates should be revised because they lead not only to higher prices but also to inter-generational income transfers; the assets continue to be used even after they are fully written-off, and during this extended period future generations will not be burdened with any depreciation charges at all in respect of these assets.
Moreover, if the remaining life of the dedicated gas reserves is only eight years, as presumed by the ADB for determining depreciation rates, any further gas supply expansion projects should theoretically not be economically justifiable. But it appears that Ogra is helpless in obtaining a relaxation in the depreciation rates from the ADB.
The establishment of Ogra without private ownership and management of the utilities, and the overriding writ of the multilateral lending agencies is an anachronism. If Ogra cannot exercise any independence in tariff-setting, how does it justify its continued existence?
ASAD SIDDIQI
Lahore
You can also send letters to the Editor
Just send your message to the following address:
Make sure you include your full name, postal address, e-mail address, and in the case of Pakistan your day-time telephone number.