| November 8, 2003 | Saturday | Ramazan 12, 1424 |
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Model University Act
Medical education
We and Indian Muslims
Allotment regularization
Renting out footpaths
Fighting terrorism
Aamir as a commentator
Condition of roads
Conserving forests
Rumsfeld’s problem
‘Who is responsible for Tasman disaster?’
THE minister for telecommunications and information technology has announced a cut of Rs100 in the telephone line rent. Moreover, new subscribers will pay Rs1,350 for a connection, instead of Rs1,850 charged earlier.
Last week the PTCL announced new tariffs and reduced nationwide call rates for distance exceeding 160km by 15.34 per cent, while rates on the international calls were reduced by 23 per cent, just for 19 countries, excluding the Saarc states.
The minister’s assertion that Pakistan is already offering the lowest call rates in the region is not true. A telephone firm, Etisalat, UAE, does not charge for local calls made within the same exchange area. People in Dubai are not charged for calls made within the limits of the Dubai exchange, but when the caller dials a number which works with the Sharjah exchange, the call is charged nominally.
In fact, the PTCL was suffering heavy losses and was unable to raise its revenue because the common man had switched over from a telephone instrument to a normal computer for chatting and sending emails to his near and dear ones.
By offering a Rs6.5 billion cut, the government has tried to raise the PTCL’s revenue many times, as losses of Rs6.5 billion will be recovered by the PTCL within months after Dec 1 when people will start getting new connections and also simultaneously switch over back to voice link communication by making more telephone calls in off-peak hours between 10pm and 7am.
The PTCL should pass the profits on to the common subscriber by taking into account the following points:
1. The practice of multi-metering on local calls from the country should go immediately.
2. A nominal flat rate should be charged for calls made at any hours.
3. The line rent should be cut by half and two months’ line rent be taken as security deposit, instead of charging Rs5,000 per connection from people who do not have property lease documents.
4. There should be a difference in tariff for commercial and residential subscribers, with a similar cut in tariff for mobile users.
5. Provision of more circuits must be ensured to save people’s time.
6. There should be no airtime charge for a call made from a fixed line telephone to a mobile telephone when it is not answered by the receiving person.
7. There is a need for uniform tariff for the users of mobile phones.
8. The PCO rate should be at par with that of a local call made from a fixed line telephone.
9. Prompt removal of telephone faults.
10. Yearly distribution of alphabetical and business telephone directories to all subscribers.
11. Code barring facility for local calls.
12. 50 per cent cut in the rates of late-payment surcharge and provision of ISD connections to those who pay their bills promptly.
All this because a subscriber makes more local calls than NWD or international calls. The new package will not benefit common subscribers but only a fraction of people who make NWD or international calls for personal or business reasons.
SYED A. MATEEN
Karachi
THE government has drafted the Model University Act to reform the government-funded universities. According to the rulers, its promulgation will transform the current educational system. But in fact it will have a negative effect as it will harm the teachers, students and parents in spite of strengthening them.
In case of its enforcement, teachers will have to work on yearly contracts. At the end of these contracts, they will have to renew them. This will create a sense of insecurity among the teachers. Instead of giving their maximum attention to the students, they will make efforts to save their jobs by pleasing officials.
No doubt, students belonging to the middle and lower classes make a majority in government-supervised universities, like the university of Punjab. If these are privatized or made autonomous, how will the students pay dues? Parents who send their children, particularly their daughters, to the universities will not be able to bear their expenses. Where will they go to acquire knowledge? Have our policymakers tried to ponder over this matter?
The issue is that our policies are under the influence of the IMF and the World Bank. They have planned to destroy whatever prosperity Pakistan has achieved. Therefore, they want to abolish our system of education which has produced great intellectuals and scientists like Dr Abdul Qadeer and Dr Abdus Salam.
In fact, the superpower and its allies have no fear of our atomic bombs as they possess far more advanced nuclear weapons. The real cause that threatens them is our rising scientific and intellectual class.
I appeal to the president that before he enforces such a law he should take into account the fact that educational systems of Europe and America and their universities provide full opportunities for research. These are all under the supervision of the state and funded by it. Why then are our major educational institutions being privatized?
M. NAZIR RANA
Lahore
MEDICAL education in Pakistan is the responsibility of both the federal and provincial governments. The federal government is responsible for laying down the standards of medical education and the provincial governments run and finance the medical colleges.
The private sector also stepped in during the end of last century to contribute to the extent of running the private medical and dental colleges as a business enterprise under the garb of trust or foundations. The Aga Khan Foundation was the first and genuine organization to establish the first medical college in the private sector in Pakistan. The Aga Khan Medical College and Hospital are the most prestigious institutions of the subcontinent today. The graduates of this medical college are recognized throughout the world.
Shortly a number of indigenous foundations also came into being and established medical and dental colleges but these are not much of good standard and mostly serve the purpose of money-making business. Unfortunately the federal government has failed to control the medical education, and has passed on the responsibility to an autonomous organization, like the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC), which is controlled by doctors with no expertise.
The federal government should effectively exert and control the medical education. All actions of the PMDC, including the recognition of medical colleges, are subject to the approval of the federal government. In practice it is not so.
I, therefore, request the federal government to look into this matter and review the working of the medical colleges, particularly in the private sector.
DR MAHMUD AHMAD KHAN
Karachi
MANY letters have appeared in this paper under the above headline from expatriate and resident Indians, stating that the 140 million Muslims in India are being treated with justice and magnanimity.
Let us overlook the demolition of the Babri Masjid and the massacre of 2,000 Muslims, many among them women and children, in Indian Gujarat while the police watched approvingly. But can the so-called secular democracy of India justify the fact that Rs200,000 compensation was paid for a non-Muslim life lost during the Hindu-instigated Gujarat riots and only Rs100,000 for a Muslim’s?
Indian writers are never tired of pointing out that their powerless president is a Muslim and that a few handsome and talented Muslims have reached the pinnacle of their profession in the Indian film industry.
Against this background, I would like to mention that barely three per cent of the Muslims get jobs in either the government or private sector. And those who try to work their way by hard work are discriminated against and stopped from going higher up.
I have personal knowledge of at least three cases where Muslim officers are not promoted above a certain grade despite their abilities. But as the one who was born and grew up in India and was forced to migrate, I may be considered prejudiced. I, therefore, advise all such writers to read a well-researched investigative article, “Unveiling the rage. Are Indian Muslims being pushed to the Breaking Point?”, by Alex Perry in the well-known Time magazine of New York of Aug 11.
B. A. JEDDY
Karachi
THE land utilization department, Board of Revenue, has published (Business Page 11, Oct 2) a very clear-cut procedure for regularization of allotments which were regarded as cancelled by way of the promulgation of (Cancellation of Allotments, Conversions, and Exchange Ordinance 2000) which pertained to residential, commercial and industrial allotments.
However, no mention is made to allotments made for amenity plots, viz. educational, hospital, park, playgrounds and cricket clubs. These allotments were prima facie made free of cost, and no payment was charged, in view of its noble purpose and public usage, in the otherwise short public institutions.
Ipso facto, so being so the allottees are in a fix, as no development work can be carried out, in view of the cancellation in effect.
Since no payment was demanded at the time of allotment and, de jure, the allottees are holding on to the possession, justice demands no recovery is due on them.
It is hoped that the committee, headed by eminent jurist Abdul Rehman who is well aware of the plight of such allottees, will come to their rescue. However, it is heartening to read that the Member, Land Utilization, has published the names of officers who are handling the revenue cases, and complaints, if any, may be sent to him on the fax and phone numbers mentioned.
We would like to see the publication of the name of the officer who will handle the amenity cases.
D. QAMBAR ALI SHAH
Karachi
THIS refers to the news item “Renting out of footpaths — Court seeks action against officials” (Nov 4).
The report says that Kotri Municipal Committee officials have rented out footpaths and portions of roads to encroachers who have set up cabins and makeshift shops there. The Hyderabad bench of the Sindh High Court is reported to have directed the ombudsman to take action against the officials because their misdemeanour amounted to maladministration.
It appears that the hatchet always falls upon the poor. It is unfortunate that encroachers are never proceeded against. Take, for example, the American consulate on Victoria Road opposite the Frere Hall in Karachi. As early as 1992 it commenced encroaching on the adjoining roads and footpaths by occupying the small lane between it and the adjoining bungalow of the Sindh government. Then it occupied the collector’s lane between it and the Government Guest House. Then the footpath on Victoria Road itself was occupied by its bulwarks.
Finally, Brunton Road between the consulate and Marriot Hotel was occupied and closed. The whole area now looks like a dirty slum with an ugly fortress in the otherwise beautiful, serene and green surroundings.
A former provincial ombudsman took suo motu notice of this in 1998 and issued a notice to the local administration to remove this encroachment and to persuade the foreign office to contact the American embassy in this regard. Nothing came out of all those efforts. The suo motu case is still pending before the ombudsman.
ONE WHO KNOWS & CARES
Karachi
TERRORISTS have lately targeted Karachi. We remember how they gunned down five brothers and a doctor within a week on Jehangir Road and in a Malir area and fled the scene. But the authorities responsible for maintaining law and order have not expressed even sympathy for the members of the bereaved families.
In this newspaper, a lot has been written and, specially, the World Market Research Center has analyzed Pakistan as No.3 in the list of 186 countries to be targeted by terrorists. Colombia and Israel are the only two countries ahead of Pakistan.
Truly, terrorism becomes a routine for the simple fact that terrorists feel free to act, having no fear to face any punishment. The police department is least bothered about the safety of innocent citizens who are being killed unnaturally, more often than not. The police reach the scene of crime very late despite the fact that their mobiles patrol the city.
It is time the relevant authorities revamped its machinery to curb terrorists so that the citizens could live in peace.
SULTAN ALI
Karachi
Aamir Sohail’s appearance at Ten Sports recently is woeful. He is not a commentator, rather he is a propagandist who is biased, rude to fellow commentators and does not have a good vocabulary. His knowledge of cricket is not of the standard to make him an expert.
Sohail should give up both of his jobs. If not, his employ-ers have a duty to Sohail
and the public to free up his time.
Ideally, commentators should not be employees of cricket boards, unless they happen to be uniquely insightful and honest. On all these counts Sohail should clear out of our living-rooms.
ALI GHAZNAVI
Via email
THROUGH these columns I draw the attention of the nazim and the deputy nazim of Karachi’s Gulshan-I-Iqbal to the pitiable condition of the road between Farrukh Medical Centre and Wasim Bagh. It is a pity that this road has been neglected in all projects.
Incidentally I may state that the nazim and the deputy nazim have personally inspected its dilapidated condition, two or three times, but no measures have so far been taken for its repair or recarpeting. You will appreciate that broken roads with so many potholes and other hazards are nothing short of a menace. They are inflicting untold miseries on the residents, car drivers and bus owners. The recent rainfall has further aggravated the condition. Every day cars and other vehicles are badly damaged owing to the sheer negligence on the part of the department concerned and its officials.
The safety of citizens and maintenance of roads are the responsibilities of the state. Hence it is impressed upon the nazim and the deputy nazim to ensure carpeting and repair of this road on a priority basis, in order to provide relief to the taxpayers of Gulshan-I-Iqbal.
PROF M. Z. ARSHAD &
OTHERS
Karachi
HATS off to the Sui Southern Gas Company that has provided gas cylinders and stoves free of cost to the residents of Ziarat and adjoining areas (Dawn, Oct 26). The aim is to take the load off the nearby juniper (sanober) forest and to conserve our natural heritage.
Juniper plants are very slow-growing. They hardly grow an inch or so in a year. Five to 10 thousand years old trees can be seen there. Its wood is soft. Hence it can be used only as fuel.
The Sui Southern Gas Company has done a noble act that will help conserve the natural heritage. Nations which do not conserve their past have no future.
I request Mr Owais Ahmad, governor of Balochistan, to get the entire area fenced and declare these forests a national park.
MUHAMMAD IQBAL BRULA
Karachi
“ARE we capturing, killing, deterring and dissuading more terrorists every day than the madressahs are recruiting, training and deploying against US?” asks US Defence Secretary Ronald Rumsfeld (Oct 25).
Can we not remind him that almost all the 19 September 11 pilots were trained and educated in America and not in madressahs? His approach to fighting terrorism appears to be faulty.
Z. A. KAZMI
Karachi
THIS is with reference to the letter by the Senior PRO of the Karachi Port Trust in response to my piece in Dawn titled “Who is responsible for Tasman disaster?” Instead of answering the points raised in the article, the PRO has tried to question my judgment, the qualifications of the people I quoted and has added information that is either irrelevant or untrue.
To put things into perspective, let me first question his final assertion that “the task (of issues related to the Tasman Spirit) is in safe hands and there are quite competent Pakistanis addressing the issue.”
I challenge this assertion in its entirety.
While we have to wait and see who is at fault for the actual grounding of the ship, I hold the KPT and its management fully responsible for the cover-up operation it undertook, to mislead the people of Karachi, about the scale of the disaster and its effects on the city.
Had it not done so, we would have been caused less trauma, and the clean-up operation would have been done in a professional and systematic way and not the haphazard manner in which it was undertaken at the behest of the KPT. The Tasman Spirit ran aground on July 27. The people of Karachi want to know why it took the KPT till Aug 11 to acknowledge that the ship was leaking oil. Even then, the KPT PRO claimed that the spill had been plugged. On Aug 14, KPT Chairman Ahmed Hayat, who has no shipping experience and is a supplies man, raised the alarm that the ship may break into two. Till then there was no plan in place for the public on how to take precautions and deal with this disaster.
Regarding the KPT’s response being appreciated by foreign experts, and the fact that the equipment it initially used was not all wrong or that much has been done to rehabilitate the damaged areas, let me just say that I challenge all these claims and that the people of Karachi will continue to suffer the consequences of this disaster for several decades.
I invite the KPT chairman to a public debate on the issue so that he can explain to the people of Karachi the actions of his organization. I know that he is unaware of the concept of accountability to the people but since we are now living in a supposed democratic set-up, this is the least he can do for the city that has been damaged beyond repair.
Finally, the KPT has faulted me for not getting its point of view while writing my pieces. I have on several occasions contacted the Senior PRO, who seems to be perpetually in the chairman’s office, and the pointman for the disaster, Brig Iftikhar. When I did finally get to talk to the brigadier after several calls on his mobile, and asked him for the chairman’s response on issues that I had raised, he seemed to find this quite amusing and laughed when he said that he would get back. He never did.
KAMAL SIDDIQI
Karachi
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