| September 19, 2003 | Friday | Rajab 21, 1424 |
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The irony of it all
We and Indian Muslims
Water rationing in Islamabad
Musharraf’s plan to solve water crisis
Pre-paid mobile phone cards
Misuse of public road
Invigilation during exams
Helping out the libraries
PTV news time
Tasman Spirit’s grounding, KPT & PNSC
FROM Brajesh Mishra to L. K. Advani and down the line, all the ‘king’s men’ are on record that there is something natural about the proposed axis between US, Israel and India. People of India are at a loss to see the point. If they see any natural ties between three, it can only be the common cause of all of them: the flavour of the season —— deep hatred against Islam and the Muslim world.
For the US and India, it could be a temporary phase, while the rightist governments in both countries last in power; the future for both is highly uncertain. While in the case of Israel, Islam and the Muslim world has now become a full-time national obsession. In such a situation, how Vajpayee and Advani could convince the majority of people of India as to some kind of natural commonality between the three partners of the axis.
At another level, to some extent, Jews and Brahmins do believe they both are the chosen people and, therefore, a notch higher up than the common people of the world. That could be taken as something ‘natural’ and ‘common’ between them. But taking US-Israel-India in totality, those chosen people too are in a very minuscule minority.
They cannot leave out vast majorities and pick up some obscure and esoteric connection, and brand it as something God-given and natural to the three countries. That, in effect, is the same old stark racialism in new bottles. Beside this primordial bestial deformity, certainly there is nothing natural to the interests and ethos of the three countries.
Last but not least, the US and Israel are for milking the rest of the world, in their relentless greed to loot all the resources of the world. India is still in that stage of its development, when it has yet to exploit to the fullest its own resources, its own markets and build up its own defences against both the US and Israel. When the US and Israel jointly mark up a sale of defence arsenal, they see to it that India gets all the opportunity to use them. The jury is still out, as to who among the three will gain more when India throws its people and resources into war adventures to chase ideological shadows. India better beware. Can there be any natural kinship between the hunt and hunters.
GHULAM MUHAMMED
Mumbai, India
DO we need to increase permanent seats on the UN Council? Maybe yes and maybe no. Yes, because of the need to balance representation on it. No, because even the founding permanent members have yet to learn the rudiments of employing the ‘doctrine of unanimity’ with mature judgment in the wider interest of humanity.
This doctrine was to be the cornerstone of the UN charter on the sanctity of the assumption and pledged assurance of the ‘Big Five’ that they will severally and jointly ensure that the world is ‘saved from the scourge of war’. They were to accomplish this pledge in the spirit of and in accordance with the principles, provisions and procedures of the charter, of which they were the authors.
This is not the place to comment in depth on the kind of complexion that the world would like to see of the Council. However, every world citizen is anxious to see that any new entrant on the permanent slate does not make things only worse confounded.
I am in no position to offer an informed opinion on other aspirants to occupy this high ground of influence and vicarious power except India as I have lived through and suffered because of its intransigent myopia. So far as India is concerned its embarrassing anxiety to come on the Security Council as a permanent member (Dawn, Sept 16) is a slap in the face of the United Nations and insult to the collective intellect of the world. How can you countenance appointing the biggest land grabber around as a revenue commissioner?
The irony of it all is that Europe, particularly the UK, the devolving power in India, and America are suffering from an acute attack of amnesia that they have forgotten the lessons of Versailles (injustice) and Munich (appeasement) and expediently serve India and make it bolder still in flouting all civilized norms in the pacific resolution of international disputes.
The long and short of this submission is that India should never be allowed entry to the hallowed permanent seats unless it fully subscribes to the procedures of the UN charter and gives up its designs of hegemony for peaceful co-existence.
M. J. AS’AD
Karachi
THIS is with reference to the article by Mr Anwer Syed on the above-headlined subject. I fully agree with the comments on the article by Mr Avtar Wasson (Sept 10).
The tragedy of Gujarat apart, which the saner elements in India have condemned vehemently, the Muslims in India are as badly or better placed as any minority in a Third World country. As a matter of fact, Indian Muslims have more or less equal opportunities to show their merit in all walks of life, as mentioned in his letter by Mr Avtar Wasson.
I would like to add to the list of Indian Muslim luminaries, two Muslim chief justices of the Supreme Court of India, and two air chief marshals who were chiefs of the Indian air staff. By the way, how many Hindus have we inducted into our armed forces?
Mr Anwer Syed’s heart goes out for all the plight of Indian Muslims. He surely must be very apprehensive about the Palestinians, Iraqis and Chechen Muslims as well. My question to him is: how many times has he raised his voice for the repatriation of non-Bengali Pakistani Muslims stranded in Bangladesh who fought side by side with the Pakistani army against the Indians and the Mukti Bahni, about whom the so-called vested interests in our country put all their intellectual might to prove that they are not Pakistani?
Remember when Idi Amin took over Uganda, he asked all Asians settled there for generations to leave the country. It was the white Christian England which did not put forward one argument for refusing them asylum either on the grounds of religion, colour or culture.
I advise Mr Syed not to lose his sleep worrying about Indian Muslims; they are quite capable of looking after themselves. He should save his tears for massacres taking place in mosques, imambargahs and clinics of Pakistan, of Muslims, for Muslims and by Muslims.
INAYAT SHER KHAN
Karachi
APROPOS of the letter “Water rationing in Islamabad” (Sept 13) by Mr Hyder Raza, may I confirm the statement made by Mr Raza that the residents of the federal capital are facing an acute shortage of water, and that the Capital Development Authority has steeply increased the water rates.
However, the point which the correspondent missed was the excessive water rates levied by the CDA in the recent past. The rates were increased during the three-year army rule, and consequently no one would answer why the rates had been increased. Incidentally, during the same period the CDA also increased property taxes by 300 per cent.
Recently Dawn published a report which says that there has been more than average rainfall this year in this city, and, logically, there should be more water to meet the needs of the residents. We now have a reverse situation; less quantity of water coming through taps (about 50 gallons per household on alternate days — the requirement internationally computed is 200 gallons of water a day per person.
Today, our complaint number was 55 for the supply of water through tankers, on payment of a fee. About 6pm I checked up with the complaint centre and an attendant replied that the present beneficiary would be the person whose complaint had been entered at serial number 13, and that this after 12 hours had elapsed.
He also volunteered information that the centre had only 12 functioning tankers to do the job, and 38 other tankers were decrepit and had not been repaired (for lack of money). When I asked him the reason for the water shortage in the city, he said it was also difficult for him to figure out why it was so. According to his estimation, the recent rainfall has made enough water available to city residents.
JONAID IQBAL
Islamabad
THE president, Gen Pervez Musharraf, in his recent speech on TV and radio touched on some very basic and outstanding issues regarding the distribution of water resources.
The president was rightly worried about the shortage of water. During his address, he said mistakes had been made in the past and that he apologized for it. He repeatedly tried to appease Sindh and talked of Punjab’s magnanimity. He also said he had given more funds to Sindh and Balochistan during his three-year tenure, but made no mention of the NWFP. Only in the closing remarks he appealed to the people of the NWFP to show support for the construction of reservoirs.
I have a few comments to make here:
1. While he tried to address the people of Sindh and talked of their fears, he never spoke of the fears of people of the NWFP. The President just want their best agriculture land for the lake.
2. He also talked of canals, tube-wells and four water reservoirs, and the official media started talking of the Kalabagh Dam. During News Night, one of the guests lost his cool and started making personal remarks against Ajmal Khattak and Maulana Samiul Haq. As a policy, only Punjabi guests are invited at different TV stations to endorse the views creating an impression of universal support.
3. The president said he had given more funds to Balochistan and Sindh. I request the president to show the same magnanimity to the NWFP and northern Balochistan where people are equally poor (northern Balochistan saw total neglect during the three-year army rule).
I suggest Punjab make water reservoirs in its own area instead of in the NWFP, in the larger interest of the country and Islam.
JOHAR ALI
Quetta
I WAS so surprised when I got a Jazz connection along with a pre-paid card. The other day at 9pm when I checked balance in my mobile it was Rs412, but by 6am the next morning the balance had come down to Rs295.
Wondering why Mobilink had deducted Rs117 from my account, I went to five Mobilink offices for complaint in Peshawar but there the staff told me I was not the only complainant, and that they received hundreds of such complaints daily. They told me that it was not their problem, saying that they did not have any records about it because those were pre-paid cards and there was no security for it.
The next day when I checked the balance again, Rs100 was deducted from my card. I am not the only one who faced this problem; there are a lot of people with such complaints, but unfortunately the company is either unable to grapple with the problem or is perhaps not interested in attending to its customers’ complaints. I request the government to take some action against Mobilink for fleecing its customers.
MOHAMMAD ZAIB
Peshawar
THE other day I happened to visit a shop/office opposite Services Hospital at Race View Road, Lahore. I wanted to park my car opposite an office where I wanted to see some computer tables. There was ample space on the small road opposite the office and it was safe as the car was visible from inside the office, and there was no blockage of any kind. But the security guard and a traffic policeman asked me to shift my car away from there and not to park on the road.
I was annoyed at the idea of parking my car half a kilometre away on the other road, unguarded, and then walk down to that office. I pointed out to the policeman that there was zero traffic on that road, and as there was ample parking space available, I did not see any wisdom in shifting my car from there and parking it somewhere else.
The policeman and other people said that this is by the orders of a justice who lives at Race View Road, and he has appointed this policeman there to make sure that no one should park his vehicle on the road, whether an employee of an office there or a visitor to any of the various offices and a college situated at that road, merely because he has to pass through this road to his house freely and speedily, without any hindrance or slowing down his entourage.
My question is, is it legal to convert a public road into a private property? It seems an ordinary citizen is simply insignificant, a slave or a subject to the powerful judiciary, bureaucracy, military or police and he has no right to even exist.
NAWEED AHMED
Lahore
I HAVE just taken the examinations of Part-I of the masters programme in Political Science held by the University of Punjab, Lahore. All the papers were conceptual and attempting them required full concentration and a calm environment.
The candidates, however, were disturbed by the superintendent and a number of invigilators who kept on hovering over our heads and issued directives, warnings and advice several times, besides checking our pockets, wallets and ID cards apparently in their attempt to ensure that no unfair means were being used in the examination hall. Not only this distracted our minds, but also wasted a lot of precious time.
I, therefore, request the Punjab University examination authorities that while deputing staff at examination centres, please give them proper training so that the candidate is able to attempt the paper with complete peace of mind. All necessary directions, as well as cautions against using unfair means, should be given before the start of the paper, and not during it.
MUHAMMAD MAHTAB BASHIR
Islamabad
ENCOURAGED by the gestures of some overseas Pakistanis to help out the libraries in Pakistan, as a librarian I feel obliged to join the efforts being made for the promotion of libraries in the country, and endorse the suggestion by Shahbaz Azmi that the government should exempt freight charges for the books sent as donation from abroad to different libraries of the country.
It has come to my knowledge that the Karachi nazim has a plan to establish a modern library in Karachi. I don’t have the relevant information about this plan and would request the readers to furnish me with the details regarding this proposed plan so that I could donate some books for this library.
I would also like to have the email or mailing address of the Karachi nazim.
SHAFIQ R. KHAN
Dhahran, Saudi Arabia
A MAJOR portion of the PTV news time is consumed by the newscasters in reading out the news, whereas it should be devoted to pictorial news, otherwise there would be not much of a difference between listening to the news on the radio and the news on TV.
Furthermore, there is a marked difference in the quality of English of the newscasters and that of other PTV correspondents appearing/commentating in the same bulletin. The grammar, pronunciation and style of PTV correspondents are pathetic. Most of them cannot even pronounce their own names correctly. It is time someone took notice of this.
AZHAR ALI
Lahore
WE are surprised to read the exoneration of the Karachi Port Trust, its chairman, Vice Admiral Ahmed Hayat, the Pakistan National Shipping Corporation, its chairman, Vice Admiral Tauqir Hussain Naqvi, by Mr Ardeshir Cowasjee in his column (Dawn, Aug 24) in which he states that “no charges of negligence or incompetence or indecision or tardiness or dereliction of duty can in any way be justly levelled” against the individuals mentioned above.
While we agree that the primary liability lies with the shipowner, it would be seen hard to justify the lethargy on the part of the Karachi Port Trust in failing to take any steps themselves to remove the oil from the oil tanker once the ship had been grounded. We may also refer to the obligation of the Board of Trustees, including its chairman, under the Karachi Port Trust Act, 1886, sub-section (1) of Section 90 of which states: “The Board [of Trustees] shall be responsible for maintaining the marine environment of the Port’s limit from pollution of the sea.”
Quite clearly a statutory obligation has been imposed on the Board of Trustees, including but not limited to the chairman of the Karachi Port Trust, to insure the same in any case to act fast to ensure that the marine environment of the Karachi Harbour is not devastated.
The KPT and its chairman have downplayed the Tasman Spirit’s grounding, and continue to do so, despite the fact that Karachi’s coastline has been decimated. The KPT has demonstrated complete insensitivity. No attempt was made by the KPT or the MSA (also headed by navymen and equally responsible) for trying to empty the tanker. They waited for 18 days for the disaster to strike. The only salvage that took place was by private operators. These are the facts which suggest gross negligence, total incompetence, indecisiveness, extreme tardiness and complete dereliction of duty.
The PNSC chairman has also not informed the nation why he deemed it safe to bring tons of crude oil into Karachi Harbour on an aging tanker. The tanker was bringing in the much needed oil. Does it not amount to treason, or at the very least betrayal of national security when the accessibility of the channel is put to risk trapping the entire naval fleet.
About the Pakistan National Shipping Corporation, one may question the need to charter ships in the first place. A question that needs to be asked is, why does the Pakistan National Shipping Corporation not own an oil tanker of its own? Is it more profitable not to have one, i.e. for the Pakistan National Shipping Corporation, or its executives?
We also take this opportunity to raise the following questions:
1. Is the defence of the realm a part-time affair that serving admirals are heading civilian organizations?
2. Are the PNSC and the KPT not important enough to demand full-time leadership?
3. Do the present leadership have the expertise to head either the PNSC or the KPT and if so, what is the criterion for heading such important commercial organizations which are the backbone of our commerce?
4. Does an inquiry conducted by single individual captain inspire confidence? Should not there be experts also part of the inquiry?
It is in the supreme national interest that the aforesaid questions are answered. This is far too important and crucial a matter to be jettisoned into the Arabian Sea.
SHEHRI-CBE
Citizens for a Better
Environment,
Karachi
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