| August 20, 2003 | Wednesday | Jumadi-us-Sani 21, 1424 |
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Roots of democracy
Security at airports
Looking for justice
Benazir’s conviction
Oil spill and officials’ attitude
Gentlemen do not abuse
Frisking of women
Condition of Karachi roads
Two-nation theory
Highway blues
THROUGH your esteemed daily I would like to draw the attention of both the president and the prime minister to a very important issue of national interest. I have come to know that provincial governments are trying to effect some modifications in fishing limits, enforced by the federal government in 2001, under pressure from the vested interest.
In this regard I would like to emphasize that in the last 25 years no deep-sea fishing policy was formulated to serve the national interest. All policies of the past had loopholes which encouraged corruption. Incidents of poaching with the connivance of officials were common. I being a pioneer and founder of this industry always protested against these wrong policies.
Then in 2001 a better deep-sea fishing policy was announced. Under this policy, Zone-I for local fishermen, Zone-II for medium-sized vessels and Zone-III for large vessels were created. It was planned by the federal government that a 27,000-ton fish catch target per year would be achieved through 20 medium-sized trawlers. For this, letters of intent were given to 20 companies for three years to operate their trawlers beyond 12 miles.
Unfortunately, only 15 trawlers could operate and fish catch was limited to only 5,000 tons and 100 per cent foreign exchange of which came to our national exchequer, in comparison to local fishermen’s estimated catch of half a million tons. As such deep-sea fishing trawler’s catch was only one per cent of the local fishermen’s catch. Here it should also be noted that while 100 per cent catch of deep-sea trawlers is exported, only 17 per cent catch of local fishermen’s is exported, consisting of six per cent frozen and 11 per cent dry fish.
Now I have come to know that provincial governments’ fisheries ministers, misled by the false propaganda, are pressuring the federal government that the deep-sea medium-sized trawlers are allowed only to operate beyond 25 miles, which is wrong. Under international law, the territory up to 12 miles is a provincial subject and beyond that it is a federal subject. As such, the provincial governments have no jurisdiction over the area beyond 12 miles.
Under the 2001 policy, 20 trawlers came to operate and the major role was played by the Shanghai Fisheries General Corporation (Group) owned by the Chinese government. Unfortunately, the last year’s catch was not satisfactory and this company had to spend two million dollars as operational cost.
Medium-sized vessels for Zone-II beyond 12 miles cannot trawl beyond the depth of 100 meters. Surprisingly, these trawlers were called to operate beyond 12 miles and now they are going to be pressured to operate beyond 25 miles, which is unjust rather shameful and no one in future will come to operate beyond this fishing limit. This sudden change in the policy will also send very bad signals to foreign investors who will think twice before investing in our country, specially our great Chinese friends who are at present the biggest investors in Pakistan.
President Gen Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali are requested to immediately intervene and stop this unnecessary shift in the deep-sea fishing limits which will be harmful for our country.
K. MURAD BEY
Karachi
I WOULD like to add a few words to what Mr Ghulam Kibria said in his letter about democracy (Aug 8).
In the days long gone by, it was in the college unions that young men were trained in the art of election activity. The college unions held annual elections for which proper campaigns were organized, manifestos prepared and circulated, and those aspiring to be elected worked hard to convince the electorate about their plans for bringing about improvements in various activities of their respective colleges/universities.
On graduating from their Alma Mater, the young men who had been office-bearers in the unions had considerably matured and received the right orientation of the basic elements of politics. It was then that those having the required faculties entered the municipal/national politics.
This was the point where they had to make up their minds about joining one or the other political organization. Here again they had to undergo the same process as explained by Mr Ghulam Kibria, i.e. attaining first the party membership, working to promote the party ideals and prove their mettle and acumen to their seniors to be considered to fight an intra-party election. It was here that the seed of a political career was sown and flourished with the passage of time, as much as the person displayed his capability in the political arena.
It is now up to the authorities concerned to see how much is being done to prepare the ground for the upcoming generation to run the affairs of this country as seasoned politicians. One quality that rules supreme in politics is the ability to speak well, clearly and forcefully to convince an audience. The foundation of such eloquence was also laid in the declamation contests held in the educational institutions.
WAJAHATULLAH KHAN
Karachi
IT has been observed that most government organizations chalk out policies and procedures to be strictly followed by their staffs and are considered to be of paramount importance, but with the passage of time these plans are abandoned owing to laxity on the part of the staff responsible for their implementation.
One such procedure was the check conducted by the security staff on all types of vehicles entering the parking lot of the airports with the help of a detecting device which used to be available with the security guard deputed at the gate. This practice has been conspicuous by its absence for a long time.
We will all agree that most bad incidents happen owing to laxity on the part of the security staff who take it for granted that such incidents would not happen as they have not happened for a long time. Being inconsistent with the policies and procedures could become disastrous at times.
An example of dereliction of duty in the recent past is the attack on an imambargah in Quetta by terrorists during prayer time. The attack became possible just because the security guard himself joined the prayers blithely disregarding his basic responsibility of guarding the place. The result was that many innocent lives were lost.
In view of the above, it is suggested that the security staff be instructed to start a check of all the vehicles entering the gate. Besides, another 100 per cent check of all the vehicles at the parking lot itself by another independent party may also be conducted so as to preclude the possibility of the existence of any detonable material underneath any vehicle. The conduct of such checks be properly supervised by the staff at odd hours.
AIR-CDRE (R) AZFAR A. KHAN
Rawalpindi
I AM a 60-year-old widow of a public servant and honest employee who retired in grade 21 and who could not build a house of his own and left behind four grown-up daughters and a son, Sibtain Ali.
Sibtain, being a progressive young man, established an underground Daniel Pearl Memorial Society along with other young and upbringing students, meetings of which used to be held in Lahore, Rawalpindi and Karachi frequently.
The aim of the Society was to preserve and protect the rights of journalists from all over the world while it was dedicated to American journalist Daniel Pearl who was killed by a group of militants in Karachi.
Sibtain went to Lahore a few months ago to attend the quarterly meeting of the Society but has not turned up till date. Only a widowed mother can feel the pangs of missing her young son. I am no more in a position to move here and there constantly as I am a retired lecturer in an IT college of Rawalpindi.
The more agonizing fact is that neither the police nor the local administration is helping me in locating my son. This has landed my entire family in a grave situation.
I tried to contact the president of the Society in Lahore who, according to his family sources, has left the country after winding up the Society’s office and getting life threats.
In the meantime a reply from a senior official of the home ministry to my query assured me that the government would deal with the terrorists and kidnappers with an “iron hand”.
Dear editor, could you please highlight my problem in these columns to help activate the “iron hand” of state machinery.
Looking for justice.
UNLUCKY MOTHER
Lahore
THIS refers to the letter “Benazir’s conviction” by Ms Fauzia Wahab of the PPP (Aug 14).
It appears that Ms Fauzia Wahab did not read the text of the Swiss judgment published in Dawn recently. The documentary evidences used in the judgment and the statement from Ms Benazir Bhutto and Mr Asif Zardari’s Swiss frontman are sufficient to establish that the two were involved in graft and money laundering.
As regards the setting aside the decision of the Lahore High Court by the Supreme Court of Pakistan, it was because of the biased attitude of the LHC judge and neither due to forged documents or innocence of the former PM and her spouse.
The Supreme Court did not exonerate them from the charge, rather it sent back the case for retrial. According to the procedures, trials cannot be held in absentia. Therefore, it is suggested that Ms Bhutto come to Pakistan so that retrial of the case may proceed. After all, when she was in power, she had been advising her political opponents to face courts.
Regarding the damage done to the national dignity due to the publicity of Ms Bhutto’s conviction by the Swiss court, it would be sufficient to say that the whole world already knew of her loot and plunder. In her second term in office, she finalized a deal for refurbished Mirage 2000 planes. However, after the revelation by the Jeans Defence magazine that the price agreed was three times higher than the market’s, Ms Bhutto was forced to annul the deal. There were many such stories circulating in the foreign press.
One hopes this conviction will go down a long way to deter present and future rulers from graft and plunder.
FAIZ AHMED
Karachi
I WOULD like to bring this to your notice that we are a small charter company who after the oil tanker disaster were approached by a local survey company to assess the Karachi coastline for damage. But we are very sorry to report that the Civil Aviation Authority did not allow us to fly over our own port for security reasons.
I was, however, shocked to see in a picture in your newspaper (Aug 16) a foreign aircraft spraying depressant over there. I would like to ask what kind of Pakistani are we? It is pity that the authorities do not even trust their own countrymen.
The CAA knew very well that all on board were Pakistanis, but we were still refused to fly over that area. If the CAA had allowed us to fly on that day, the day before the tanker actually broke apart, the surveyors could have prevented a lot of damage to our coastline.
Now the situation is so bad that we have called outsiders to come and fly over our country’s most strategic area like Karachi port and most of all over the naval installations.
Only Allah knows what else they are doing up there, besides spraying. Who knows what sort of pictures they are taking and of which area.
M. AHMED FARUQUI
Karachi
WITHOUT naming Australia, Sunil Gavaskar, the Indian cricket legend, while speaking at Colin Cowdrey Memorial lecture, expressed his disapproval of sledging in cricket. In response to it, Dennis Lillee, the great Australian fast bowler and a contemporary of Sunil Gavasker, lost no time to defend sledging as part of the game.
Most of the fast bowlers tend to unnerve a batsman by constantly hurling abuses at him. Dennis Lillee had a big mouth too. But it is not a right approach by a sportsman.
The stance of Gavasker is right when he says that sledging does not add colour to the quality of a game. Rather it makes the atmosphere tense and players start nursing grudges against each other. Perhaps this is the only area where the ICC is silent and the umpires are not empowered to check sledging which could mar an otherwise a good competition between bat and ball.
There are quite a few cricket enthusiasts who endorse the viewpoint of Gavasker that there should be no sledging on a cricket field. After all, cricket is a game of gentlemen and gentlemen do not abuse.
RAFAT MAHMOOD ANSARI
Islamabad
THE most disgraceful episode telecast regularly on the BBC and the CNN is the sight of Muslim women being frisked and searched by na-mehram non-Muslim soldiers from the forces operating in all the occupied territories of Palestine, Afghanistan and Iraq.
Such sights provoke immense hatred and vengeance in the minds of the common Muslims. There is no need left for promoting the continuity of the fight for “liberation from the non-Muslim forces” by Osama bin Laden or Mulla Omar.
Also, the regular so-called ‘ammunition dump’ blasts in occupied cities, and killing and maiming only the male population could be nothing but confirming the verses of holy Quran. Will the conscience of the saner West rise from the ashes of Dr Kelly please and act before it is too late?
RAFI AHMED
Karachi
WE are the residents of Gulshan-i-Jamal, Rashid Minhas Road, Karachi, near the Central Ordnance Depot. There are many problems in our area but the most serious is the condition of the roads. We have approached the higher authorities of the COD, and the cantonment but no one pays any attention to it. Now the COD is building a wall and, as a result, our vehicles cannot pass through it. Even water tankers cannot enter the area and no one can shift his goods to other places, which is intensifying our problem.
There is no development work in our lane. The sewerage line was arranged by us through the contributions from every resident of (F) Block. We request the prime minister to look into our problems and sanction the construction of a road in our locality.
OMAR FAROOQ KHAN
Karachi
THIS refers to Kuldip Nayar’s article of Aug 9. I agree with his explanation of this theory which was killed the day the Congress demanded partition of Punjab and Bengal, followed by large scale evictions of minorities on both sides. After that the communalists on both sides had an upper hand.
The Indian communalists were not born yesterday. They were essentially the cause of the partition of British India, Punjab and Bengal in 1947. They are the reason why Pakistanis do not trust people like Kuldip (not the other way round). They are the ones blocking solution of Kashmir.
SHAFAAT RASOOL
Syosset, NY, USA
THE National Highway Authority (NHA) was set up basically in compliance with the pre-conditions imposed by foreign contractors /financiers as a prerequisite for their association with the Lahore-Islamabad Motorway Project. This project became an obsession for Mr Nawaz Sharif who pressured the quarters concerned into according approval without an independent technical, commercial and financial appraisal, and then rushed headlong into a totally disadvantageous contractual arrangement with Daewoo.
Matters were not helped in the Benazir Bhutto interregnum when work on the project was suspended, and for a while it appeared that it may be abandoned altogether. However, Ms Bhutto did allow resumption of the work but the delay added to the cost. The first thing that Mr Sharif did on being re-elected was to speed up completion of the project. Towards the end, Daewoo was receiving payment in US dollars for 98 per cent of its billing in rupees, converted at the fixed exchange rate of Rs24 to the dollar. At the time, the prevailing exchange rate was Rs44 to the dollar. Daewoo in turn had sub-contracted a major part of the work to local parties being paid in rupees. So, Daewoo was making huge exchange gains at the government’s expense.
Daewoo was also allowed duty-free import of construction machinery and spares with a C & F value of $24 million, on the condition that the machinery would be transferred free of cost to the NHA on completion of the project. This was duly handed over to the NHA, but has been rusting for years now. Sale of the machinery would attract payment of import duties, which are estimated to be more than what its sale in the open market would fetch. Billions of rupees were forgone in import duties a decade ago, and nothing gained in return.
As if this was not bad enough, the contract for the Islamabad- Peshawar Motorway Project was awarded to a Turkish firm, which was disbursed billions of rupees as mobilization advances. These advances were secured by bank guarantees issued by a consortium of Turkish banks. However, the NHA failed to have these counter- guaranteed by scheduled banks in Pakistan.
When the contract was prematurely terminated, the NHA was unable to enforce the bank guarantees to recover advances totalling billions of rupees, because the Turkish firm obtained a court order restraining the banks from encashment of the guarantees. There seems little likelihood of this sum being recovered.
The NHA is the biggest defaulter of foreign loans re-lent to it by the government. But the NHA is not bothered, being convinced that the government will have no option but to convert the loans into grants. The NHA is unable to share financial information with the communications minister because it is itself in the dark over the state of its affairs and the results of its operations.
The last accounts that were submitted for audit to the Auditor-General of Pakistan were in respect of the year ended June 30, 1998. Because of a serious lack of any bases for drawing up these accounts, the auditor declined to offer an opinion thereon.
The NHA is a bottomless black hole that is sucking in billions of rupees every year with no intention of ever repaying them, or showing something in return thereof. If these funds had been diverted instead to the Railways for upgradation, the money would have been better spent. However, it is unfair to blame the military administration for the prevailing rot in the NHA. This set in from day one, and the politicians are responsible for it.
ASAD SIDDIQI
Lahore
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