| July 13, 2003 | Sunday | Jumadi-ul-Awwal 12, 1424 |
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Iraq war covering up lies
BD’s telecom bureaucracy
Women’s education and the budget
Nadra’s performance
BBC hailed
‘Purani Numaish’
Advice to India
Independence
Karachi: past and present
Recognition of Israel
Need for a rock-solid foundation
IT is one’s observation that the all too often sectarian killings and subsequent farcical resting of blame on across the border terrorist agenda by our country’s leaders have started to register in people’s minds as inevitable, routine episodes in our country’s life. As part of the persecuted 15 per cent minority, I, along with scores of like-minded, have come to accept my fate in Pakistan as politically and morally disowned by successive governments. However, one must still question President Pervez Musharraf’s usual pledge of brining the perpetrators of such heinous crimes to justice.
If that were the case, how could the head of a fundamentalist organization, with a proven record of assiduously hunting down and eliminating an ethnic minority, win a seat in the country’s National Assembly while serving time in prison? That, too, during the general’s crusade of establishing “real and sustained democracy”.
Now, one may not understand the dynamics of politics and nation-building as well as the military (as the general’s thinking and actions apparently reflect), but most enlightened people have long held the view that prevention is better than most cure, even political correctness. Is it not true that by allowing these elements a greater share of the pie will only serve to increase their appetite? Surely, any sane government would look to punish and shun them instead of directly or indirectly facilitating their absurd cause.
To cut a long story short, the questions are simple. How long will the centre shirk taking the bull by the horns? How long will they continue to wash their hands off the real issue, resorting to one silly stance and then another, ridiculously tossing the blame around? Since nobody wants to be rudely awakened in the middle of the night to be shot in the head in front of the family’s womenfolk, or killed outside one’s residence, or on the way back from the workplace by misguided mullas on self-proclaimed jihadi missions, I appeal to the government to channel their energies in the right directions and provide people, specially the innocent, with their most basic right, security of life.
“There is no bigger blasphemy than injustice.”—Ingersoll
SYED SHAHAB RAZA JAFRY
Lahore
IT is unfortunate that we as followers of Islam tolerate differentiation in our following of Islam. Islam does not allow it. There just cannot be different sects and fiqhs. The only solution to sectarianism is to ban all sects and declare all real mosques to be community property. No differentiation should be tolerated among the followers of Allah’s religion.
THIS is the second or the third sectarian incident in Quetta where Shias are a separate tribe, namely the Hazaras who are probably imports from Afghanistan. Creating, implementing and protecting sects is the problem and that is where the real solution lies. When problems are created, they have to be solved practically, not theoretically.
IKRAM UL HAQ
Rawalpindi
IT is interesting to note how the language is being continuously altered to cover up the lies and deception of this disgraceful war. Occupation has become “liberation”. Murders of innocent civilians are described as “shootings”. Free elections in Iraq has been frozen under the pretext of bringing “stability” which translates into how quickly the Iraqis would submit to an American puppet.
Similarly, “reconstruction” of Iraq means to “award” the lucrative contracts to the US multinationals by the US administration. Justification for the war has now become an issue of regime change as opposed to finding WMD. Bush has now announced that he will find the weapons of mass destruction “programmes”. Oh, really! So now it is not about finding WMD but about discovering the “programmes”. What does a “programme” entail now? Perhaps a building with some empty shells, coupled with “evidences” presented from the Iraqi National Congress.
Evidences may also include the “findings” of the “neutral” Anglo-Saxon (US, UK, Australia) inspection team, led by the US weapons inspectors. Perhaps, the “programmes” might also include the inner thoughts of Saddam Hussein, and pages of documents. Documents were presented as “proof” prior to the war disregarding everything else. Which are still being waved as “proof” even though the “Al-Lies” are unable to locate the alleged weapons physically on the land that they have total control over!
What about the recent confession about the forged document related to the alleged purchase of uranium from Niger? What about the student PhD thesis that was used to construct the evidences? What about Tony Blair’s 45 minutes? Or was that a misinterpretation and, perhaps, it should have been 45 hours or days!
How is justice supposed to prevail in the world where weaker nations can be brutalized on the basis of lies, forgeries, deception and PhD thesis, whilst the real criminals have no accountability.
YAMIN ZAKARIA
London, UK
AS an expatriate Bengali, the article by Nurul Kabir in the July 10 issue has caught my attention. In his missive against de-nationalization, the writer says: “On the same day, the Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board discussed the issue of disinvesting the establishment, which is, incidentally, one of the biggest contributors to the government coffers.”
What Mr Kabir fails to point out is that the Bangladesh state telephone monopoly, which he seemingly defends, has presided over a system which has no parallel in the world. The last year’s reports by the UNDP, the International Telecom Union and the Consumer Association of Bangladesh paint a consistent picture of a country with the lowest teledensity in the globe and a state telecom bureaucracy which is in the stranglehold of mafia-type unions.
Ask any telephone subscriber in Bangladesh and you will hear of heart-rending stories of corruption, intimidation, and an outright lack of customer service in the Bangladesh Telephone and Telegraph Board. It is a narky exaggeration to say that after the proverbial police and customs departments, the T & T Board is the most corrupt and inefficient in Bangladesh. The fact that it is a big contributor to the national exchequer is only testament to its jealously protected monopoly.
It is sad that the World Bank had to intervene to help rid Bangladeshis of the mafia-bureaucracy called the T & T Board. It is far more unfortunate that your columnists are defending that bureaucracy on the flimsy grounds of anti-globalization rhetoric.
ESAM SOHAIL
Wichita, KS, USA
WE, the members of the association of gazetted officers, school education department, Sindh, congratulate ministers Sardar Ahmed and Irfanullah Khan Marwat who made efforts to get funds sanctioned for women’s education in the rural areas of Sindh.
We would request them and the minister for planning and development to provide finances to the DDOs in the Sanghar district education department in July, 2003. The district accounts officer, Sanghar, be asked to honour the bills of the women’s offices / schools / institutions within three days after the receipt of the bills in his office as delay in passing the bills will encourage corruption. Efforts should be made to get the promotion posting notification of women school- cadre officers issued with effect from May 30, 2003, from grades 17 to 18 which have been pending since March 23, 2003. The SNE of teaching and non-teaching staff be sanctioned for the promotion of women’s education in the rural areas where the students have sought admission to classes XI-XII in large numbers.
Among those are government girls higher secondary school, Jhol and Sinjhoro. They may be upgraded to higher secondary schools. The post of the principal (BS-18) of the Government Girls Higher Secondary School, Shahpurchaker, be continued for the year 2003-2004 as this was sanctioned in 1996-97 but has not been continued as yet. The compound wall of the Government Girls Higher Secondary School, Shahpurchakar, be repaired immediately as it had collapsed three years ago.
The academic and administrative block for the above three schools be sanctioned from ADP 2003-2004. The provision for the purchase of science equipment and other expenditure per year be kept in the budget for women’s schools, and local purchases of stationery be allowed as it is very expensive to buy the same from the Karachi stationery office.
MRS MUMTAZ DAHRI
]Shahpurchaker
THIS is with reference to your timely editorial titled “Lost in Nadra’s warren” (July 5).
It seems that Nadra started its job in a haphazard fashion, creating a lot of problems for the poor public and is now issuing unnecessary and unwarranted statements from time to time eulogizing its own performance.
It has once again started warning the public that the old NICs will expire on Dec 31, 2003. It has become customary with Nadra high-ups to issue statements, creating panic and uneasiness among the people without taking steps to improve its working.
The public is not concerned with how many cards have been issued by Nadra but would definitely like to know how many correct CNICs have been actually delivered and after how many days/months/years after the actual submission of the application forms.
In my own case my CNIC
(#42000-0475331-1) was issued to me after over 20 months, and it does not mention the name of my flat, which is very important. When I approached the Nadra provincial headquarters at MACHS, Karachi, about the mistake, I was asked to visit the Awami Markaz where I was told to deposit a fee of Rs60 for the necessary correction. How is that Nadra for no fault of mine asked me to pay Rs60 for the correction?
ABDUL HAKIM
Karachi
HATS off to the BBC for telecasting a documentary in its correspondent programme on Mardechai Vanuna — the man who blew the whistle on Israeli secret nuclear weapon bomb factory in 1986. Vanuna is an Arab Jew. He has been in a Israeli jail for last 17 years and his sentence will be over in 2004.
Whether he will be finally released or killed by those who lured him to Italy 17 years ago through a honey trap and kidnapped him, one does not know. But the world should campaign for him. Guess, who is fighting for him? Many Israeli Jews and an old American couple, who have adopted him as their son. I was moved by the timing of the re-telecast of the documentary and more by the unintentional subplot of the documentary.
The unintentional message was that religion and nationality should not be used for profiling people as good and bad. There are many good Jews who fight against their fundamentalist government for the right causes. And then there are good Christians like the correspondent Olenka Frenkel (maybe she is above religions), who did this story.
Humanitarianism is indeed larger than religious and national prejudices. It is a message we have to spread in a society where religious bigots are fighting violently against modernity and humanitarianism.
BABAR AYAZ
Karachi
A BUS stand adjacent to the Quaid’s Mazaar in Karachi is popularly known as ‘Purani Numaish’.
I do not think Karachiites remember as to where and when that “Numaish” (exhibition) was held near the place, but being close to the mausoleum of Quaid-i-Azam there can’t be two opinions to call this bus stand as “Quaid’s Mazaar”.
I hope the readers of your newspaper will agree to this suggestion and will exhort the Nazim-i-Aala to rename the bus stand.
ENGR NIZAM QURAISHI
Karachi
ONE cannot bring oneself to believe when one hears about most unbelievable things happening in India. For instance, it is not in any other part of the world except India where the poor are renting out their infants to professional beggars and thus earning money to make both ends meet.
It is incomprehensible when a great majority of the people of a country are leading a deplorable life and that country is busy in squandering money in making nuclear weapons. It is still not too late for India to reciprocate the friendly feelings of Pakistan and try to find a peaceful solution to the problems between the two countries.
Instead of making investment in its armoury, India should invest in its poor people and make their lot better. After all, human lives are far more precious than the deadly weapons.
RAFAT MAHMOOD ANSARI
Islamabad
THE Americans started celebrating their independence day every year, after defeating the Britons on July 4. After the recent Iraqi-war experience, is it not the time that the Britons seek independence from the US for its foreign strategic policies?
Z. A. KAZI
Karachi
IN recent times, Karachi has been called both the city of lights and the roughest city in Asia. We as Karachiites take umbrage at any adverse comment levelled against the city, however well deserved it may be. But today Karachi has been turned into one big dump of garbage and plastic bags.
Plastic bags litter the street corners, wind up round lamp posts and, worse still, mounds of soggy filthy plastic bags are choking the beautiful mangroves lining the Karachi creek at Boating Basin. Once a thriving mangrove forest, where you could catch crabs and small fish, with a mongoose or two darting away, the marsh was an excellent example of a thriving ecosystem. Its biodiversity included cranes, sea-gulls, and sea-hens — all this is now nearly gone, the way the rest of old Karachi has disappeared. What we have left is a coastline completely covered by the unending minefields of ugly blue and black plastic bags.
As citizens not only do we not contribute to conservation, but we also sully and pollute the waters by urinating in it, and by dumping, and burning mounds of garbage in the mangrove area, effectively killing the mangroves. This is done despite a ban on garbage burning in the area.
The city of Karachi suffers from years of neglect and there seems to be a deliberate attempt to ruin it. I yearn for the Karachi of my childhood, where there a was mangrove swamp as far as the eyes could see where the evil of plastic was unknown, where people were generous in their charity to the city, and where the citizens could walk without fear.
This brash, boorish, and ugly city, bears no resemblance to the Karachi of the past, which was truly a city of lights — and we have only ourselves to blame.
A. R. REHMAN
Hyderabad
I THINK we all need to think about recognition of Israel in terms of our interests, the interest of Pakistan. Currently, India and Israel are working on various projects in different fields, including defence.
The issues that appear to be prominent are: i) what Israel’s point of view would be on the issue of Kashmir, ii) what we will buy and import from Israel, and iii) what Israel will buy and import from us.
In case we do not recognize Israel, what kind of relationship India and Israel will make and how adversely it will affect us.
Most importantly, what would be the reaction to our action to recognize Israel by Saudi Arabia or will we consult them before we do so?
As Pakistan has, despite its shortcomings and problems, an elected parliament, to me it seems that this issue should be debated in parliament.
MOHAMMED CHORWADIA
Chicago, Ill, USA
THE issue of the NWFP Assembly may have been portrayed as an extinction-level event of the GoP by the PPP, the PML(N) or whatever other three-letter parties that have to add brackets to stand out in the rat race. Furthermore, the grilling of Mr Danyal Aziz of the NRB on ‘Mujahid Online‘ may have been necessary but was it worth it? Did some member of the audience really derive the much-sought-after pleasure in crushing a movement that has taken Pakistan 50 years to “move”?
Look around. You see roads being repaired, bridges being constructed, new buses on new routes, the losing government companies becoming profitable, electricity breakdowns becoming less frequent, the police being much more courteous, exhibitions taking place, people hanging out longer into the night, new TV channels starting up, stock market rising. If this isn’t what you call change, God help us.
Politicians will say what they have been programmed to say this. Leave them in their own backyard and move on. There is no point in banging your head against the wall. In five years the world would have advanced 20 years. Man would be landing on Mars. Biotechnologists would be cloning whatever they can find with a DNA inside. General Motors would be rolling out its first hydrogen fuel cell vehicle. Space tourism would be as common as a trip to Hawaii. We keep complaining about how bad the new government is like an old phonogram record from the WWII era.
Today we live in a specialized world. Whoever has gone the extra mile has delivered more than what was asked of him and has learned whatever there was to learn during the way, stands a far greater chance of survival than the person who has lingered on for 30 years hoping for status quo so he can retire in peace. Take any field, be it banking, IT, education, agriculture, medicine or government. There is only room for specialists at the top. The rest only serve as auxiliary power.
So, Mr Danyal Aziz, don’t get frustrated when you are clobbered with a volley of questions in front of a million audience on TV. You know what you want to say. It just doesn’t come out right. You are not alone in this uphill task. All of us face exactly the same situation in every field every day in Pakistan. Try to bring change and you are run aground. Try to throw garbage in the bin and you are frowned upon as if you had antennas coming out of your head.
Illiteracy has been forced upon our people. Intellectuals have tried to bring change and have also succeeded to a certain degree but a lot more needs to be done for a lot longer period than that which was initially planned. There will be cyclones and there will be earthquakes. We just need to ensure a rock-solid foundation able to weather the forces threatening us. The sooner we complete our new home, the safer will be our future generations.
AHMER N. JAKARTAWALA
Karachi
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