| September 4, 2003 | Thursday | Rajab 6, 1424 |
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Sick units and CIRC
Need for night-friendly lights
Making UN effective
The problem is with our vocabulary
Oil spill of another kind
Road courtesy
Senior citizens and KESC
Sewerage
Karachi
PRIME Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali on his visit to the ‘Quaid-i-Azam House Museum (Flagstaff House)’ on May 12, 2003, had ordered that the building be renamed ‘Mohtarma Fatima Jinnah House’. Before I comment on the prime minister’s directive, it will be appropriate to bring to the fore the relevant facts which had led to the acquisition of the Flagstaff House by the government of Pakistan where, subsequently, the Quaid-i-Azam museum was set up.
The government had set up a commission of inquiry in November 1969 to ascertain which of the properties of the Quaid-i-Azam should be preserved as relics of national value. The commission was headed by Mr M. A. H. Ispahani, and Raja Sahib of Mahmudabad and Dr F.A. Khan, the then director of archaeology, were its members. At that time I was assistant director of archaeology and worked for the commission as its secretary.
The commission, apart from other things, obtained a sizable collection of articles of the Quaid-i-Azam, which were then kept at Qasr-i-Fatima (Mohatta Palace), from Mohtarma Shireen Jinnah, the sister of the Quaid. For the display of the Quaid’s relics, the commission had, in its report, submitted to the government, recommended the acquisition of the Flagstaff House. After some time the proposal was approved by the government and negotiations were held with the administrators of the estate of the Quaid-i-Azam. The deal was finalized.
According to it, the Flagstaff House was to be used for the sole purpose of establishing a Quaid-i-Azam museum therein. The sale deed was signed on behalf of the government of Pakistan by Mr Masud Nabi Noor, federal secretary for culture. Mr Mohammad Ishtiaq Khan and Sh. Khurshid Hasan, representing the federal department of archaeology, also signed the sale deed as ‘witnesses’.
The renaming of the ‘Flagstaff House’ as ‘Mohtarma Fatima Jinnah House’ viewed in the above context will not be in keeping with the provisions of the sale deed. Besides, it will be quite anomalous to name the building as ‘Mohtarma Fatima Jinnah House’ whereas for all practical purpose it will be a Quaid-i-Azam museum.
To perpetuate the memory of Mohtarma Fatima Jinnah, there are so many ways to do it. It may be re-called that the Mohatta Palace, near Clifton, was given to Mohtarma Fatima Jinnah in lieu of the Quaid-i-Azam’s bungalow at Bombay, which was bequeathed to her under the Quaid’s will. She had moved into it some time in 1964 and lived there until her death in 1967. The Mohatta Palace was re-named as ‘Qasar-i-Fatima’. I distinctly remember that in the report of the commission of inquiry, drafted by me, the late Mr M. A. H. Ispahani had changed the name of the Mohatta Palace, wherever it occurred, to ‘Qasr-i-Fatima’.
Some years back, Qasar-i-Fatima (Mohatta Palace) was also purchased by the government wherein a museum by the name of the ‘Mohatta Palace Museum’ has been established. The museum has on display some specimen of textiles and costumes and often arranges temporary exhibitions of arts and crafts. It is an irony that the building which belonged to Mohtarma Fatima Jinnah has been named ‘Mohatta Palace Museum’, which is a distortion of facts.
In order to perpetuate the memory of Mohtarma Fatima Jinnah, the building should continue to be called ‘Qasr-i-Fatima’. Besides, a permanent gallery depicting the life of the Mohtarma, through the aid of photographic enlargements, be established.
KHURSHID HASAN
Karachi
AFTER reading the letter (July 2) by Mr Gill and another (July 21) by Mr Ansari regarding the CIRC (Corporate & Industrial Restructuring Corporation), I feel compelled to write this letter for information of the authorities concerned and the general public.
We purchased “Naya Daur Motors” in auction from the Privatization Commission in 1993. In 1995 we booked 12,000 KIA Pride cars, collected Rs700 million from the general public and started delivering cars to people. Production of the company was increasing each passing day. The company paid Rs20 million to the NBP and Rs10 million to the NDFC.
It was working smoothly when all of a sudden, without any reason and justification, an FIR was registered in Islamabad, with no complaint/and no one as complainant from any bank or depositor, by Mr Rehman Malik, then additional DG, FIA. The fact that later on he fled the country and went to London after corruption charges were brought against him will help one to judge as to what extent the FIR was based on truth.
However, as a result of this FIR the factory remained closed, causing loss of job to 600 direct employees and 6,000 indirect workers. Money of the depositor bank was stuck up, and the NBP obtained a decree of Rs100.61 million. Similarly, the NDFC secured a decree of Rs26.69 million, in the absence of the undersigned, with 17 per cent interest till the realization of the decretal amount.
The undersigned made several requests to the authorities concerned. However, despite the presence of the SBP circular, No. 29, dated Oct 15, 2002, as regards the rescheduling of the loans, the NBP and NDFC sold the company to CIRC at Rs245 million, whereas the principal amount — NBP’s Rs70 million and NDFC’s Rs15 million totalling Rs85 million, with interest Rs160 million shown outstanding, meaning thereby that the interest was double.
Therefore, requests were constantly made to CIRC about the matter but it violated the law and sold the company for Rs360 million at the one-third value of the total assets. Its actual value was Rs1,100 million as per the report of M/S Harvest International Serveyor.
It must be mentioned here that the CIRC was created for checking the existing capability of sick units, through a committee. Thereafter, the unit would be auctioned if the existing owner failed to do so. But in our case the unit/company was straightaway auctioned and we were not provided an opportunity as available in the CIRC law. Whatever the CIRC did was illegal, and injustice was done to us. It is also a fact that an auction purchaser would not accept liabilities of 10,000 depositors worth Rs700 million.
Therefore, through your esteemed newspaper I request the Chief Justice of Pakistan and the Chief Justice of Sindh High Court to take suo motu notice of the matter and do justice to the aggrieved and innocent people. It is our firm assurance that if we are given an opportunity and justice is done to us, we would not only guarantee the return of bank loans but the sick industries would also be started, with a provision of jobs for 600 direct and 6,000 indirect employees.
ABDUL QADIR
Honorary Chairman,
Nay Dau Motors,
ENVIRONMENTAL degradation is one of the most pressing issues. This menace is speedily raising its ugly head all over the world. Although many remedial measures have been taken, the situation is worsening with each passing day.
Some excerpts from a latest baffling research, made in the field of environmental degradation, caught my attention while I was browsing through the pages of Readers Digest issue of June, 2003, under the title of Blinded by Light.
Every person living in an urban area knows fully well that lights at night make it impossible to see all the stars in the night sky. But what has remained unattended so far is that these lights can actually make us sick also. Light pollution has started to catch attention as a recent addition to the list of the problems arising out of urbanization and unnecessary use of energy.
According to that report, for the first time, light has been investigated seriously as a human health hazard, as well as a possible contributor to the increased incidence of breast cancer, depression and other ailments. And for many wildlife species, light pollution seems to be as grave an environmental threat as bulldozed habitat and toxic-chemical dumping. Other creatures also appear to be highly susceptible to this disturbance.
Lighting from office towers confuses migratory birds which fly into building lit up at night. Millions of birds in North America die from these crashes every year. Sea turtles and birds are clearly in danger because of the light at night. To add to this sorry state of affairs is the hardly unforgettable role being played by skyrocketed trend of iridescent billboards sprouting in every nook and corner of urban areas, as well as along the highways.
But how light does it? The key is melatonin. According to medical dictionary, melatonin is a hormone synthesized by the pineal gland which produces marked lighting of skin pigmentation by stimulating the aggregation of melanosomes. Production begins around nightfall, peaks at 1am and shuts off during the day, and even a slight amount of light at night shuts down production of melatonin.
Impossible, as it is, to avoid light, specially at night, but excessive and unnecessary use requires to be cut down. Mass awareness and dissemination of information can also play a key role.
Night-friendly lights are also a valuable solution. While the health and environmental impacts of the light pollution are staring to capture attention, some has other concerns too as fading of heavens can also result in the fading of human imagination — a loss which is irreparable.
RAFIA SALEEM
Multan
THE strong reported plea of the Japanese foreign minister, Ms Yoriko Kawaguchi, to reform the UN for more effectuality in the unfolding post-Iraq scene is timely, well-advised and welcome. The route she suggests is in-depth reform of the world body.
The matter of the UN’s reform has been coming up in diplomatic circles off and on since the early ‘50s. Much writing and debate continues about possible reforms, some of considerable academic and practical merit.
Nevertheless, the telling residual truth remains that the pathology of the present dysfunctional United Nations does not lie so much in its infrastructure and cumbersome procedures but in the mindset of the founding fathers — the Big Five. Unfortunately, they have not set an emulative example since the body’s very inception for the ever-expanding membership, which now totals 190.
Indeed, even today, notwithstanding many glaring shortcomings, the UN can play a reasonably effective and beneficent role in the mired political sphere. However, this can happen only if the delegations inhabiting its famous ‘glass house’ HQ focus more on building consensus in world interest rather than throwing pebbles at each other, and the more powerful even holding it in contempt ready to fold it up.
In essence, to obtain some desired mileage out of the UN is not that complicated. The difficult portion is the sincere re- pledging to its principles, policies, and procedures. The prerequisites in this process centre on:
1. the Big Five re-learning the purpose and surrounding discipline of the ‘doctrine of unanimity’;
2. all member-states realizing that it is not a social club on the East River but a purposeful forum to protect and promote world interests;
3. the entire organization changing the genetic code of its work culture to be attuned to rapid change going on around them;
4. making the Universal Declaration of Human Rights enforceable through international courts, for it will go a long way in stemming the proliferation of failing and failed states; and
5. taking effective measures to design and make operational the framework envisaged in the provisions of Chapter VII of the UN Charter.
M. J. AS’AD
Karachi
I WAS sitting quietly having lunch one day. Across the table sat two “educated” gentlemen having a casual conversation. One said he had no cook because the last one he had was suddenly demanding too high a salary, so he had let him go.
The other added: “You know these people are very clever, they know exactly how to extract money out of us”.
Then he went on to relate the story of various domestic employees he had in the last several months, including one who had become “too big for his boots” and so he had to be told to leave.
The conversation went on in this vein; invariably he referred to domestic help as “these people”.
The whole thing seemed bizarre: first, the dark ages of the Raj flashed in front of my eyes — “No Indians and dogs allowed in” written above the door of a restaurant — then the thought of so many millions of people stricken with poverty being classed as simply “these people”.
First, I doubt any person with a sensibility beyond barbarism can say that any two people in the world are the same let alone more than 80 per cent of the population of Pakistan and, secondly, if you are poor and your children are hungry, you may just be forced to become demanding to feed your family, you may also be prey to a certain degree of irritability.
“These people” deserve some credit for being human beings. The fault there lies not entirely with these two individuals but with our entire society, which condones this kind of generalization. Thus, before we have even started to try and tackle the problems of equal rights for men, women, equality between the poor and the rich, child labour and the umpteen other issues that are of serious concern, we have negated everything simply by the way that we talk.
We cannot do one thing and say another. It means that we do not feel passionately about what we are doing and if we do not feel passionately about our actions, how can we succeed at improving the conditions of our society. What is the message we are conveying to our future generations? What will our children learn if we ourselves are so constrained by our concepts that we can’t move in any positive direction?
My point ultimately being that we cannot refer to human beings in such vague categories, where we diminish all respect for individuality. Everyone is truly unique.
Similarly, when we talk of men and women, we place them in boxes. How often do we say things like ... “women are more understanding and patient than men ... men are more aggressive by nature..” This is just one example of the umpteen generalizations we have about women and men. Women and men are endowed with brains, that is all that matters, physical differences have no bearing on people’s minds. This is not just a matter of language, it is a question of concepts.
If we do not learn to recognize individuals as entities in their own right, we will fail to bring about a balanced and secure society. Men and women will never be seen as capable of having equal rights. The same is the case with the rich and the poor, the young and the old, even people from different areas in our own country will continue to discriminate against each other. Unless we revise our concepts, our language will continue to translate the wrong message.
AYESHA SALMAN ALI
Islamabad
THE oil spillage from the Tasman Spirit is a great environmental disaster and should hopefully be tackled to the best of all available abilities and facilities.
I would, however, like to take this opportunity to bring up another related issue. In Pakistan, like most of the developing countries, thousands of litres of automotive lube oil are dumped daily into the drainage water system by the automobile service stations. Oil is even sprayed on vehicles as a corrosion prevention measure. All this oil either ends up in our rivers or seeps down into the earth and is pumped back up through tube wells for drinking water supply. Its catastrophic environmental effects are beyond imagination and this situation is getting worse day by day.
I know that in North America the used oil has to be recycled and retreated and no one can imagine dumping it into the soil or the drainage system. In fact, it is against the law. Of course, every consumer pays a small percentage as oil recycling/disposal fee while buying oil. Even an oil spillage of three to four litres has to be reported to the agencies concerned.
It is time we put in place proper laws regarding disposal of oil and other harmful contaminants in Pakistan. If such laws already exist, let’s then try to implement them and also educate people about them.
I am sure all multinational oil companies can make arrangements for proper disposal of used oil. It won’t hurt if lube oil manufacturers/suppliers can put it in writing on oil containers that the used oil should be properly disposed of. Let us take care of our planet, for a change!
DILAWAR AYAZ
British Columbia, Canada
IT is irksome to drive at night in Karachi. The people in general are either ignorant about traffic rules and regulations, or do not mind violating them flagrantly. The worst are those who drive their vehicles with full beam at night, thus subjecting the driver coming from the opposite direction to uneasy glare and, at times, obscuring the vision to partial blindness.
Driving with full beam at night, particularly on a two-way road, is extremely hazardous and has resulted in many fatal accidents. There is no check, whatsoever, on such violations. As law-abiding citizens, we must learn to be courteous and drive with headlight beam lowered.
May I request the traffic police authorities to launch an extensive campaign against those driving with full beams at night? This may reduce the rate of accidents and save some precious lives.
LT-COL (RETD) SARFRAZ AHMED KHAN
Karachi
A KESC meter (No. 001045) is installed at my office, M/s Windsong Group, Room No: 405, Plot No: C.A. 16, Blocks 7 & 8, Karachi Cooperative Housing Societies Union Ltd., Karachi, which comes under the jurisdiction of KESC Societies Zone, Karachi. The above office has been closed for a year and the consumption of energy is obviously zero. However, the normal charges for the meter rent etc are regularly being paid through the monthly KESC bills.
Last May I unexpectedly received an inflated bill showing consumption of 400 units, on an average basis, whereas the actual reading of the meter was nil. I approached the KESC billing section which rectified the bill after ground checking. I was asked to deposit the corrected bill which I did, accordingly. I was sure that now I would get normal bill from June. But I was astonished to receive the bills for June, July and August showing arrears therein.
Now this has become a regular practice for me to go to the KESC billing section for rectification of the bill and every time I am told I will not get the bill with uncalled-for arrears. I have also written several letters to the KESC officers but all in vain.
I am a senior citizen and cannot do the running about for nothing. I, therefore, draw the attention of the KESC high-ups through these columns for relief.
M. FAKHRUDDIN KHAN
Karachi
I HAVE been making complaints to the Karachi city Nazim about the deteriorating sewerage in Block-B, North Nazimabad and the area near the North Nazimabad Railway Station.
Will the city Nazim spare some of his time to look into the matter and do the needful?
KHAN ZAFAR
Karachi
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