| June 9, 2003 | Monday | Rabi-us-Sani 8, 1424 |
To send a letter to the Editor
Click here
Trade between Pakistan and India
Showbiz stars and smoking
Wrangling over LFO
Arabic or Islamic language?
Advance NIPA training
Surname in NIC
A new book, same title
Pre-emptive action & regime change
Cricket team’s performance
Islam and the veil
Political succession in Islam
Emergency facilities at CHK
TABASSUM JAFRI Jamshoro
I have read ‘IMF Conditionalities and leftists’ which appeared in EBR Dawn (June 2-9).
I am surprised that a senior scholar for whom I have great respect and who has been rightly lamenting the absence of serious social science research in Pakistan has chosen to ignore the first principle of scholarship i.e. verification of facts.
If Mr Akbar Zaidi had cared to look at the SBP website where all my speeches and articles are posted on the same day or day after they are delivered he would not have come to the conclusions he has drawn in his article.
Let me first clarify that I am myself a severe critic of the IMF conditionalities and have written and spoken on this subject extensively before the IMF and international audiences. My address at the IMF-Commonwealth Secretariat seminar held at London on July 23-24, 2001 on ‘Conditionality and Ownership’ and a case study, ‘Pakistan and the IMF’ presented at the Berlin workshop on July 1-2, 2002 will provide ample testimony to the views I hold on the IMF conditionality. Both these papers are available on the SBP web page.
Secondly, I have worked with Joe Stiglitz who was my Chief Economist and he has acknowledged that in his book, ‘Globalisation and its Discontents’.
In my paper, ‘What does Continuity of Reforms mean?’, circulated to parliamentarians at the workshop held on May 27, 2003 I divided the critics of the continuity of reforms in two categories. I said that, “a group of left-oriented writers identify these reforms with the conditionalities prescribed by the IFIs.... To them, every thing supported by the IFIs is black, conspiratorial, self-serving (to pay themselves back) and against the poor and downtrodden masses of developing countries. There are no grey areas of nuances or shifting paradigms as far as they are concerned. If we tell them that Pakistan intends to pay these institutions ahead of schedule they will find some other excuse to blame.
There is second group of serious-minded nationalistic foriented writers who believe that the reforms implemented during the last three years were harsh, onerous and adversely affected the poor and the middle class. To them, continuation of reforms is synonymous with the continuation of past hardships and erosion of purchasing power by the ordinary Pakistani during the last three years. Their criticism is more valid and needs to be addressed adequately.”I always believed that Mr Akbar Zaidi fell in the second category of serious-minded critics whose views should be given due weightage.
Nowhere in the above address I have dubbed the critics of IFIs as leftists. I wish Mr Akbar Zaidi had verified the statement attributed to me by Dawn’s Correspondent in Islamabad.
Ishrat Husain
Governor, SBP,
Karachi
TRADE between India and Pakistan has recently become a hot topic in the media. The discussion, however, is only revolving around non-economic considerations, particularly the Kashmir issue. This over-emphasis on political sensitivities has unfortunately totally clouded the real issue.
Global trade has never been, and will never be, based on simple comparative economic advantage between the trading countries. If this were true, the developed economics like the US and the EU would not place trade restrictions like quotas countervailing duties import bans, etc., on the exports of other countries. For over hundreds of years, colonial powers would not have made concerted efforts to reduce other countries to mere trading nations exporting their valuable raw materials and ignoring their industrial and manufacturing base build-up. India-Pakistan trade needs to be viewed in this perspective.
Over the past couple of decades, India has developed a very strong manufacturing and industrial base. Notwithstanding the WTO regime, it has been heavily subsidizing its local industry and by some estimates, each year the Indian government doles out about $60 billion in direct and indirect subsidies. This is about equal to Pakistan’s entire gross domestic product (GDP). Indian manufacturing industry has an unnatural advantage and free trade between the two countries will lead to the total destruction of Pakistan’s already weak manufacturing sector.
Let us take just one example of the automobile industry in the two countries. A Suzuki 800cc car retails for about Rs300,000 in Pakistan. In India the price is about Indian Rs210,000 or about Pakistani Rs260,000. This 15 per cent difference is common to all car brands and cannot be attributed to either super-profits or inefficiency of the Pakistani car manufacturers. It is the result of the subsidies available to the Indian manufacturers and to some extent their economies of scale.
Imported Indian cars will literally drive the four local car manufacturers out of business together with the over 100 downstream vendors/suppliers. Tens of thousands of people will be laid off and billions of rupees in tax and other revenue collection will be lost. These losses will hardly be offset by the extra duty collection of the government on the imports.
It is no wonder that the Indian government and the Indian business community are so keen on trade with Pakistan. The official trade between the two countries is currently about $200 million, but Amit Mitra, secretary-general of the federation of Indian chambers of commerce and industry, predicts that the figure could rise to as much as $4 billion annually. The fact of the matter is that Pakistan would be buying a host of high value-added items from India like cars, medicines, chemicals, steel and machinery, while it would export low value -added items and raw material like dried fruits, spices, salt, sugar, etc.
The argument of cheaper goods available to the consumers is not valid. The high value-added products would sell for slightly less than their Pakistani counterparts, but the market for these products is only a very small upper class while the rest of the nation would suffer as we totally destroy our manufacturing and industry base.
From economic viewpoint, the most beneficial commercial ties between the two countries should revolve around joint ventures in infrastructure development and manufacturing concerns. This is the only win-win situation.
RAUF B. KADRI
Karachi
ON the occasion of World No-Tobacco Day (May 31), the World Health Organization decided to focus on the theme “Tobacco-Free Films. Tobacco-Free Fashion. Action!”. It is a call for showbiz personalities to stop promoting the use of tobacco which kills nearly five million people every year worldwide.
In Pakistan, many superstars of film, TV and music industries have been directly or indirectly supporting the spread of tobacco in the younger generation. Many teenagers see these stars as their role models, so when they see stars smoking on and off the screen, they get the message that using tobacco is cool, pleasurable, fashionable and an acceptable act in society.
Our pop stars can also be frequently seen performing in musical concerts sponsored by the tobacco industry. Last year, a famous TV actor’s posters were seen all over the country showing him smoking a particular cigarette brand.
The tobacco industry has a long history of using famous film and TV actors in promoting this powerful addictive substance. According to Who documents, in 1983 Sylvester Stallone was paid $500,000 to use a particular tobacco brand in his famous films. The hero who played as James Bond in the film Licence to Kill was paid $350,000 by a tobacco company in order to promote its particular brand.
Last year, famous Pakistani film actresses participated in a lucky draw shown on the PTV, in which a Mercedes car was given to the winner of a tobacco user. Research has shown how devastating the impact of famous stars smoking on the film is on the youths who eventually take to smoking. For example, one study showed that non-smoking teens whose favourable stars smoke on the screen are 16 times more likely to develop positive attitude towards smoking.
I urge the showbiz stars of Pakistan to stop being used by the tobacco industry. Instead, they should play their role in educating the youth about the serious health risk associated with smoking.
DR JAVAID A. KHAN
Karachi
DESPITE the lapse of nine months since the government formation, the opposition parties are still embroiled in the LFO issue. They have shut their eyes to the issues directly linked with the betterment of the people and country.
This act on their part at behest of a politician who has been outrightly rejected by the people amounts to bulldozing the mandate of the people. The undesired and uncalled-for attitude adopted by them will exacerbate the constitutional crisis, which will have serious consequences for the country. Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain has rightly warned that once the system collapses, it will be hard for all to put it in place again.
As regards the holding of two offices by President Gen Pervez Musharraf, the president’s assurance of not keeping the two offices with him for an indefinite period should be considered seriously by our respectable opposition leaders.
The delay in resolving the problems of the people is fast eroding the confidence of the voters who sent them to the National Assembly to rid them of their multifarious problems. I urge our MNAs sitting on the opposition benches to realize their moral obligations and concentrate on the problems of their voters with the objective of mitigating their distress.
ABBAS ALI
Karachi
THE recommendation of the NWFP Assembly to declare Urdu as official language is not understandable. Urdu is basically composed of a conglomeration of languages originating in India and elsewhere and is not in any way connected with the different nationalities living in Pakistan or, for that matter, with Islam.
Urdu as the national language does not have a very good history either. It is said that one of the reasons leading to the separation of East Pakistan was the imposition of Urdu on the people of East Pakistan. If at the time of partition Arabic would have been declared as our national language, we would have been much better off.
If the NWFP government wants to Islamize the province, what could be a more appropriate step in this direction than to declare the language of Islam, i.e. Arabic, as official language, or still better, as the provincial language. I would suggest that the name of the Arabic language be changed to ‘Islamic language’ and be adopted by all Muslim countries as their national language.
WG-CDR (R) FARHAD ALI SHAH
Chitral
THE list of 61 officers selected for advance NIPA training published in the newspapers of May 17 and to which three more names were added on May 19 reveals that the so-called “ex-cadre officers” have almost been neglected for the NIPA training.
The public needs to know what the criteria were on the basis of which the candidates nominated by their respective ministries were selected, as the “ESTACODE” is silent on this aspect. The chapter 2, under serial 154, page 236 of the “ESTACODE” has explained the requirements for promotion to BPS-20 posts. Obviously, these rules cannot be applied as a selection criterion for NIPA.
The objective of the NIPA training is to groom those officers who are in the promotion zone. If that is the criterion, it does not look plausible to drop the eligible ex-cadre officers who have been working on grade-19 posts for over 15 or so years and whose ministries gave rare certificates that they were the only officers in their organizations eligible for promotion to BPS-20 and that the posts were lying vacant.
Most posts of ex-cadre being technical and specific to organizations concerned happen to be hundred per cent promotion-based on which no direct applicants or outside officers can be considered.
I only pray we do not deprive the competent officers of the deserving promotion and do not make them victim of discriminatory policies which, prima facie, happen to be tilted in favour of the cadre officers.
Need I say that “ex-cadre” officers do not have any career advancement opportunity beyond Grade 20 and that they can advance to the next grade only when higher posts fall vacant.
Thus the long wait for them is dreadfully slow, frustrating and agonizing.
SHEHZADO SALEEM
Islamabad
NADRA has refused to put down the surnames of applicants on their new identity cards. It simply writes the Muslim or Christian first, second even third names but no surname like Rathore, Malik, Chaudhry at the end.
It is creating difficulties for the people who want to go abroad and have got their surnames written on their passports, certificates and testimonials.
I would request the authorities concerned to advise Nadra to issue NICs with the proper names and surnames and if already issued with the above mistake, they should be replaced immediately with the corrected ones.
PROF ALTAF HUSSAIN RATHORE
Faisalabad
IT was pleasing to read the other day that a book written by Prof Afzal Tawseef has been published under the title, Guzrey They Ham Jahan Sey.
In this connection I may point out that my book under the same title was published by Azad Enterprises of Lahore in 1999 and was included in the list of the best books of the year. (Hasan Abidi, Dawn, March 3, 2000.)
It also evoked a favourable review by Prof Razi Abedi, besides a lot of publicity at the time. I, therefore, feel honoured that Prof Afzal Tawseef still felt like adopting my title for her new book.
ASHFAQUE NAQVI
Lahore
THE doctrines of pre-emptive action and regime change are not new. They are the ultimate derivatives of neo-colonialism, the philosophy which has its roots in World War II.
The economic part of neo-colonialism, usually called economic imperialism, was so dominating that it not only shattered the economy of the Moscow-led communist bloc but also created a deep sense of economic deprivation among Third World countries, specially the Muslim countries. With the disintegration of the USSR, the communist bloc and Third World countries became militarily and economically weak.
In these circumstances, the factions consisting of young generation, particularly in Muslim countries, resorted to aggressive military action to compensate for economic and other disparities. In the initial stages, the US and the West did not give any serious thought to this strong undercurrent, which was now surfacing. Instead, they continued to suppress the down-trodden countries, both economically and militarily. As a result, hatred developed against the US, and terrorism arose violently that might have gone unnoticed had the 9/11 incidents not taken place.
In fact, terrorism was the logical outcome of the wrong policies of the US against Third World countries, including most of the Muslim countries. Events like those in Afghanistan and Iraq would have not happened had the Americans not adopted negative policies after WWII.
Much blood of Muslims has been shed, and the US and the West should now realize their basic blunder and adopt a new policy of live-and-let-live by sharing their military and economic strength with the weak nations.
Contempt breeds contempt, and love begets love. Poor Muslim stations need a bit respect from the West, and the Bush-Blair company can rest assured that the same reciprocity will be extended to them and there will be no more terrorism or hatred against them.
SYED ALI NASIR RIZVI
Lahore
IN Dambulla, Sri Lanka, the New Zealanders were the better team and won the triangular series and took the cup, maybe on account of the 44 extras (13 leg-byes, 25 wides and 6 no balls) so lavishly and smilingly given away by our young quickies. This tells the story as to how watchful is our coach Miandad.
No team can have the luxury of bowling six extra overs in a 50-over match, and then the coach said: “I am very satisfied with the way they performed in general.”
M. ASAD DAR
Karachi
I READ the comment by Qazi Faez Isa on May 19 and was amused by the last paragraph where he mentions that it would be more appropriate to affix blinkers on men’s eyes to prevent them from ogling at women.
If this is enforced, the female population will really be grateful. It will also provide them with a degree of liberation and the world will be a more comfortable place to function in.
Karachi
ISLAM and the holy Quran offer a complete code of life. Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) led the people politically and religiously in every aspect, established an Islamic state, and laid down rules in the light of the dictates of the holy Quran.
It is clear that God has enshrined everything in the holy Quran which is His constitution, comprising the teachings of Islam preached and brought in practice by the Prophet. Like every other matter of life, God has certainly laid down rules and standards for rulership of a state in His holy Book and without that the holy Quran cannot be called complete.
I may refer to verse Nos. 246, 247 and 248 of Sura Al-Baqra. The summary of the above Quranic verses clearly show God laying down supremacy in knowledge and body as a rule or standard for the king or the ruler of a state by the words of a prophet of Bani Israel.
It became clear that caliphate, kingdom or rulership of a state is always delivered on the basis of knowledge and body. Even prophethood is assigned on the same divine principle of supremacy in knowledge and body. Hazrat Adam (AS), the first human being on earth, got supremacy in knowledge and body among all the creatures of God. Hazrat Dawood (AS), Hazrat Suleman (AS), Hazrat Musa (AS), Hazrat Isa (AS) and the last Prophet all were conferred caliphateship or prophethood on the divine principle of supremacy in knowledge and body.
ALTAF HUSSAIN MIRANI
Larkana
THIS refers to an article titled “Civil Hospital lacks emergency facilities for heart patients” (May 26). The public sector hospitals in Pakistan have not really been able to provide the people with the best possible health delivery system and their services are always not compatible with the demands and the needs of the people.
If the past is any witness, we know that better patient care was provided in the days of Prof Col Najeeb Khan, who was not only the principal of the Liaquat Medical College but also the administrator of the Liaquat Medical College Hospital.
The Punjab government has adopted this successful administrative approach. A principal executive officer was appointed administrator for both the medical college and the hospital during the days of Mr Shahbaz Sharif as chief minister, through an ordinance of the Punjab government. This approach was soon followed by the government of the NWFP for teaching hospitals and has been successfully working since then.
The teaching (tertiary) hospitals are always part of the medical colleges, as without this arrangement neither the training of the doctors is possible nor the benefits of the expertise of the professorial staff can reach the patients. The professorial staff, although the employees of the university/ college, also act as consultants for the hospital. Hence the question of any unit without an official in charge, or anybody volunteering for the job, does not arise. Former Liaquat Medical College, now Liaquat University of Medical & Health Sciences, and its attached hospital (Liaquat University Hospital) are no exception.
As far as the hospital admissions are concerned, the patients reporting to the hospital casualty are admitted directly to the CCU without being routed through the cardiac emergency. Those patients who report to the cardiac emergency directly are seen there and a large number of them with minor problems are allowed to go home. But those who need hospitalization are admitted to the CCU. All hospitals have separate emergency rooms (away from the CCU) to avoid inconvenience to the seriously ill hospitalized patients, as the flow of routine patients in and out of emergency room along with a number of attendants causes a lot of disturbance and inconvenience.
The Liaquat University of Medical & Health Sciences on its part has contributed immensely towards the development of the hospital. The establishment of a new gynae unit in Jamshoro, provision of equipment for surgical department, ENT and gynae worth five million rupees and allocation of Rs3.5 million for the department of cardiology are the few examples.
The government encourages public/private partnership. With this policy in mind, the department of cardiology has approached various sectors of society and government to upgrade the unit and provide the facilities for coronary angiography and surgical set-up. The chief minister of Sindh visited the CCU on February 7, and performed the inauguration of the new cardiac set-up building.
PROF ABDUL LATIF
SOOMRO
Registrar, Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences,
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.