Privatization of PSO and OGDC

MR Khalid Abdussalam (Oct 16) and Mr Atiq Rehman Awan (Oct 17) have opposed transfer of the management of PSO and OGDC to foreigners on the grounds that these are strategic assets of Pakistan.

I think both writers have failed to acknowledge that this is Pakistan in the year 2003. We have a history of nationalization (1974) and thereby annihilation of our own industrial groups’ drive for capital formation. Where and how do we find domestic investors willing to buy these entities? If we do not privatize them, how do we cater to the deeply-embedded socio-political system where the incumbent rulers determine the quantity and quality of abuse to be meted out to our national assets from time to time?

Why do we choose to ignore the fact that these assets never leave Pakistan physically, and that there are enough provisions in the transaction structure to take over operational control of these companies in times of war-like emergencies.

At the recently-concluded OIC summit, Dr Mahathir Mohamad has correctly stated, “We missed the industrial revolution completely and we are still not doing much to catch up. While we dilly-dally, the world of business is moving fast.” His statement encapsulates the state of mind of uninformed people commenting against privatization of PSO and OGDC.

How long will the people of this country remain hostage to changing moods of incumbent governments in Islamabad and Rawalpindi? Why should we give them the potential power to abuse our assets? Let the private sector step forward and assume its time-tested role in civilized societies.

The question is: are we a nation that has the wisdom to understand the changing international investment paradigms, and the courage and organizational capacity to adopt an appropriate position on these issues?

Privatization does not only mean a sell-off of state-owned assets, it also implies a social revolution encouraging young talent to occupy professional managers’ seat. It implies breaking from the shackles of undue political and bureaucratic interference. And if we do attract direct foreign investment in the process, let us not discount that it brings along evolved organizational structure and superior technology, which has positive spillover effects.

We can see the advantages the nation reaped by the restructuring of the financial sector. The bankers are no longer arrogant. They actually treat you like customers. And where did we get the manpower for these reforms? The multinationals. Where did we get managers to turn around PSO? The multinationals. Let us continue with the reforms.

SHAHBAZ JAMEEL

Karachi

Software for jail record

THE letter by Mr Amjad Ullah Khan (Oct 14) is amusing. On the one hand he rightly refutes the claim of Nadra for having developed the first software on prison record at Peshawar, but on the other he falsely claims credit for his own company for the innovation.

The ignorance of Nadra is not acceptable, but what is unfortunate about Mr Amjad Khan is that he chose to conceal the fact though he knew it fully well that the CPLC, Central Reporting Cell, Karachi, had initiated and developed the first complete Criminal Record Management System (CRMS) in 1996.

The credit goes to the then prime minister who in 1995 entrusted the task to the CPLC to conceive, initiate and implement computerization of all FIRs and prisoner record from 1987 to date.

It is the proud achievement of the CPLC to have put in place a complete computerized CRMS software in 1997 which, while collating the massive data, was simultaneously tried, tested and improvised over a period of six years. It was even vetted and acclaimed as excellent by Justice (R) Z. A. Channa, DG, Sindh Judicial Academy, in May 1997. The UNDP further assisted the CPLC in putting in place the latest applications for a provincial network, which was also made operational since January 2003. The Police National Bureau organized its presentation in Islamabad, 2002, before a team of police officers from all the provinces, who acclaimed the software as a remarkable achievement, which should be adopted on a national police network.

The software comprises 376,676 FIRs and 142,539 prisoner records of Karachi, relating to the entire history of the crime and prisoner records, having assisted the Central and Landhi prisons in answering all their queries from time to time for the past six years, as compared to merely 25,000 entries collated in two years as claimed by Mr Amjad Khan’s company.

So, instead of adopting the already developed software of quality, funds are being sought / utilized and wasted on developing softwares all over again. We must stop taking pride in re-inventing the wheel and if we want progress, both Nadra and the police stop wasting national resources and adopt the CRMS and the most modern Call Centre developed by CPLC and professionalize the policing institution to benefit the entire nation.

JAMEEL YUSUF

Former Chief, CPLC-CRC,

Karachi

India-Pakistan standoff

IT is a welcome sign that articles such as “Reinventing Quaid’s vision” (Oct 9) by Mr Mansoor Alam, as well as its commendation in a letter from Mohsin Hafeez (Oct 19), are published in your esteemed daily. I have also read your editorial of Oct 19, and am greatly impressed by your way of presenting your viewpoint.

As an Indian citizen, I will be the most happiest person if the relations between the two countries improve to the extent that we the people in the subcontinent can communicate and do business with each other without any fear or mistrust.

I am a Hindu to the core of my heart and am of firm opinion that religion is only a matter of one’s individual faith and cannot be a reason to be in collision with any other person following some other faith. Religions are only like the clothes we wear and there cannot be any argument about one’s superiority over others.

The problems faced by us in the subcontinent are of unemployment, poverty, inadequacy of the availability of scientific education, etc. The number of temples and mosques in the subcontinent is much more than required for our populations. Like in India, where the leading party in the ruling coalition at the central government uses religion to get vote to catch power, in Pakistan religion is used additionally to subjugate people and exploit them for the nefarious ends of the leadership. But fortunately in India we have secular parties ruling some states like West Bengal and Tripura where the leaders are very secular.

Unfortunately, the people are deprived of such leadership in any part of Pakistan. Yet it is very encouraging that at least some people exist in Pakistan who are not in tune with such narrow jingoistic mindset of politico-military leadership distorting the requirements of an egalitarian society.

I wish your paper to maintain the tradition as it has followed till date in spite of some problems definitely with the political leadership in Pakistan. I feel the day is not far off when the people-to-people contact will be more frequent without any restrictions.

A. D. MITRA

Ghaziabd, India

OIC’s future

THE 10th OIC summit in Putrajaya, Malaysia, was held at a very critical juncture for the Muslims world. Unfortunately, the OIC has failed to develop and project effectively an Islamic perspective on the issues that the Islamic world has been facing for quite some time. It is probably due to limited financial resources and capabilities and the lack of political will that the OIC finds it difficult to implement its resolutions and remove constrains to deal with crucial crises.

Addressing the summit, President Pervez Musharraf proposed a commission of eminent persons to be drawn from the OIC member-states to develop a plan of action to help the Ummah meet the challenges of the 21st century. He also proposed that the commission should consider establishing an “Islamic development fund” for financing OIC programmes through mandatory contributions and that the commission should also evolve recommendations for restructuring the OIC system to infuse dynamism in its working.

The summit, presided over by Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, approved President Musharraf’s proposal to constitute such a commission and requested the OIC chairman to head the commission.

The final communique issued at the end of the summit rightly rejected “selectivity and duplicity” in combating terrorism and condemned attempts to associate terrorism with a particular religion or culture.

We hope that the resolution will not be forgotten and the member-nations will pursue the pledge to combat the problems of the Ummah. We also hope that the proposed commission will come out with such recommendations at the end of the next OIC summit to be held by the end of 2004 as will not only help restructure the OIC for the better but also entrust it with pushing this new Muslim vision.

AAMIR UMAIR KAYANI

Islamabad

Elusive Hyderabad package

A FEW days back I happened to visit Hyderabad, my native town. I was flabbergasted to see the deteriorating condition of once the cleanest city of our country. Numerous craters and potholes have appeared on most main roads, posing a serious threat to motorists, specially motorcyclists.

Furthermore, stagnant filthy water in many residential areas has made life miserable for the residents. The apathy of the authorities concerned towards the plight of the residents is highly deplorable.

To my astonishment, I saw some banners with claims such as “We congratulate the worthy prime minister for sanctioning Hyderabad Development Package worth billions of rupees”. It is still uncertain whether the much-needed relief pledged by Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali during his recent visit to Hyderabad will arrive or not.

While in power, former prime minister Mian Nawaz Sharif had also announced in public a Hyderabad Relief Package worth Rs50 million. No development whatsoever was witnessed by the hapless residents.

I urge the relevant authorities to spare some time to ensure that the city is given the promised funds and its infrastructure is repaired without any further delay.

NADEEM MEMON

Karachi

Smoking in buses

SMOKING in public transport has become a nuisance in Karachi. I often see smoking and non-smoking commuters having altercations over smoking. In the absence of no-smoking instructions in buses, it becomes more difficult to convince smokers that it is a forbidden act.

The police authorities should in the first place make sure that no-smoking instructions are displayed in all buses. Also, bus conductors should be instructed by the competent authorities to support non-smoking commuters in this drive and to force, if necessary, smoking ones to get down from buses.

ENGR. NIZAMUDDIN QURAISHI

Karachi

PTV Tijarti Khabrain

THROUGH these columns late last year, I had urged the PTV authorities to include, on a regular basis, the Tijarti Khabrain in their Khabarnama. It was hoped that this would act as a barometer for the state of national economy just like such segments in most news programmes the world over. But this hope remained only a hope.

Over the months, the Tijarti Khabrain has almost become an advertising agency for several multinationals and even state organizations. All these are using the Tijarti Khabrain to improve their sagging and poor image. For example, the Export Promotion Bureau is depicted as a dynamic agency organizing shows and exhibitions. But what else does it do, if anything? No news on this.

Our auto industry is shown as a rising star in investment, export, employment and the national economy. No information is ever provided on how much it is a protected sector and how it is fleecing the hapless public. Similar skewed information is also dished out about other big multinationals.

PTV is a government channel and its programmes should tell the whole truth about the national economy and not lace it with half truths for the benefit of some vested interests.

H. U. HASNAIN

Islamabad

MMA and Ramazan

THE decision of the NWFP government declaring the saying of prayers as compulsory for government servants during Ramazan raises many questions. First, why should the offering of prayers be made compulsory just for Ramazan? Does the MMA consider the remaining months of the Muslim calendar to be observed without any compulsion for holding prayers? Or is the month of Ramazan the only time to seek God’s forgiveness, as appears to be considered by the MMA government?

Both ways lead to creating the impression that Islam is centralized around merely the observation of rituals. Will this act not add to the misconceptions which have arisen regarding the true meaning of Islam?

Islam preaches welfare for all humanity. What is the MMA doing about maintaining moderate prices of food items during the month? Why has there been an increase from Rs900 to Rs1,000 in the price of edible oil just before Ramazan and the MMA has not reacted to it? What is being done in support of the common man?

IRUM AFSHAN QURESHI

Karachi

C’wealth

ARE we in the Commonwealth or not? If not, why do we have high commissions instead of embassies in the Commonwealth countries?

By the way, what do we gain out of it that we are clamouring so badly to re-enter it?

COL. RIAZ JAFRI (RETD)

Rawalpindi

FPSC & SPSC candidates’ problems

WITH the graph of unemployment going up all over the country, thousands of candidates try their luck to get out of this situation by appearing in various competitive examinations.

Thus every year a number of candidates from rural areas in Sindh have to go to Karachi to sit in the examinations, but before they do so, they have to confront a host of problems. Many of the candidates find the journey to Karachi long and costly. The non-availability of FPSC and SPSC exam forms is another problem that takes away their peace of mind.

After the announcement of jobs in newspapers, there remains very little time for sending applications. Generally, candidates are not able to get exam forms in time to apply for the posts. It will be only proper that exam forms are made available at Larkana, where an exam centre should also be set up as this city is accessible to all rural candidates in Sindh.

HIZBULLAH SOLANGI

Larkana

Action against policeman

HATS off to the police constable who dared to stop a serving major-general’s family car with tinted glasses at a police picket in Lahore a few days ago. He has certainly set a remarkable example for others in the ranks to emulate.

The consequence, on the other hand, came as no surprise to me. The army officer felt so infuriated that he took the matter right to the chief minister of Punjab who proved to be more loyal than the king and made the SP of the Model Town division an OSD (the ultimate destination of scapegoats).

In the early days when NAB wad formed, an accountability court in Quetta convicted a former minister on a single count of misusing his official vehicle. Here, an army officer has “misused the official vehicle” and “abused his authority”, but no action was taken against him.

All I can say is that we need a few more people like this dauntless constable and we will get rid of such lawbreakers. Together, we can make Pakistan a better place to live.

DR AMJID NAZIR

California, USA

‘Scourge of terrorism’

IN HIS article “Scourge of terrorism” (Aug 21), Mr Shamshad Ahmed has identified the underlying causes of this menace.

To my mind the most important of these is the feeling of utter despair in a section of society or state (mainly Muslim), which believes that their legitimate political rights have been denied to them by the all-powerful West, particularly the US.

The heroic struggle of the Palestinian groups against the Israelis is not just for land, but for the restitution of their political rights which were blatantly violated by the infamous Balfour Declaration of 1917. The Kashmiris, likewise, have been denied their political right of self-determination. We find a similar scenario of denial of political rights, followed by blood and mayhem, in Chechnya.

What is a freedom struggle to the militants is perceived in the West and the US as acts of terrorism. Another unfortunate aspect of this is that since most of these militant groups have originated in the Muslim countries (because it is these countries which have been the victims of political fraud and double-dealing in the past), Islam has come to be seen in the West as a religion which breeds terrorism. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

And nobody has given a more eloquent or a more forceful testimony of this than the noted British scholar Karen Armstrong, who in her recent book Islam — A Brief History has observed that “in the campaign against terror, on which the United States has now embarked, accurate intelligence and information are vital. To cultivate a distorted image of Islam, to see it as inherently the enemy of democracy and decent values, and to revert to the bigoted views of the mediaeval Crusades would be a catastrophe.”

She underlines the importance of religion in today’s world, and says that it has “helped human beings to cultivate decent values”. In this, the role of Islam has been of pivotal importance. “Islam,” she observes, “kept the notions of social justice, equality, tolerance and practical compassion in the forefront of the Muslim conscience for centuries”.

This may just be a cry in the wilderness, President George Bush should consider the words of wisdom of scholars like Karen Armstrong rather than follow the advice of the neo-cons who apparently advocate US world hegemony, US control over world resources and the imposition of American values on the international community.

SALAHUDDIN K. LEGHARI

Lahore