| December 3, 2003 | Wednesday | Shawwal 8, 1424 |
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Tribute to A. B. S. Jafri
Karachi University affairs
Bureaucratic corruption
Cricket telecast controversy
Need for peace at home
Unfortunate incident
Exam results
Mumtaz Bhutto’s plaint
The story of census
THIS refers to the letter by Mr M. Nawaz Khan (Nov 29) on the incidence of taxes and Sindh’s share in the NFC award.
It is erroneous to refer to the incidence of taxes which in no way justifies that Sindh should not claim the taxes earned by it and collected by the centre.
The question is: if the federal government is not empowered to collect these taxes, where will this income go? Is it logical that if the federal government may collect taxes from one province, they do not belong to that province?
The Sindh Assembly’s resolutions are clear on this point which allow the centre to collect these taxes only for a period of five years when the provinces establish their own authorities to collect them.
Secondly, it is useless for the centre to collect taxes from Punjab, the NWFP and Balochistan when the centre gives back 94 per cent, 100 per cent and 150 per cent, respectively, to them. When all the taxes to these provinces are returned, what is the logic to collect them in the first instance?
The provinces should be allowed to collect revenues themselves to save the costs because they already have such a machinery. The centre should also declare politely that all its expenses are paid solely by Sindh when the province has a meagre representation in federal jobs.
The contention that the brunt of taxes is borne by the consumers of the whole country is ludicrous. Does it mean that Sindh should also give share from its income to Afghanistan because the burden of taxes levied on the goods imported by Afghanistan finally falls on the consumers of Afghanistan?
If the importers and exporters of Punjab or other provinces pay taxes to banks, customs authorities and other financial institutions in Karachi, they also earn benefits from their trade. Where does the bulk of Rs10 billion export earnings go? Will the people of Punjab or other provinces share that profit with Sindh which runs into billions of dollars?
Sindh only levies taxes by virtue of its ports and financial institutions which it has natural right to claim. This is very meagre amount compared to the benefits derived by the traders and industrialists of other provinces or consumers.
If the NWFP claims royalty on Tarbela, which Sindh does not oppose, why Sindh should not claim the income derived from its ports and financial institutions. We do not ask Punjab to share income with Sindh derived from the industries of Lahore, Gujrat or other towns because the consumers of those items manufactured in those cities also include the people of Sindh. Do we contest the benefits of Lahore? Then, why does Punjab contest the benefits of Karachi?
I fully support the view expressed by Syed Sardar Ahmed, the finance minister of Sindh, that Sindh should be given back its income unfairly retained by the centre only by virtue of its collection.
Furthermore, the CBR should be abolished within the coming five years and the control of tax collection should be handed over to the provinces to save double expenses. The expenses of the centre should be contributed to by the provinces on the basis of population or on the basis of the percentage of jobs each province has in the centre.
ABDUL HAMID SOLANGI
Hyderabad
OBITUARIES written by Mr A. B. S. Jafri’s worthy colleagues and admirers have dealt at length with his enormous courage, prolific writing, admiration for Ghalib’s poetry, love for classical and folk music, and passion for sports, specially cricket. Each of these obituaries is remarkable in its revelations because it is based on the author’s personal experiences in interacting with Mr Jafri.
I have the privilege of being his youngest brother. It is only proper that I add to what these obituaries so vividly described about Mr Jafri.
The death of Mr Jafri may have ended his 57 years of career as a journalist par excellence but the legacy he leaves behind should guide upcoming journalists. His career was the continuing quest for “khoob se khoobtar” because he strongly believed in doing justice to one’s profession. According to him, nothing could be more embarrassing than eventually facing the Creator without having much to report on the use of the many creative faculties the Creator has so generously provided.
To those who had the good fortune of working with him, he taught not merely how to improve upon their writing skills but, more importantly, to be accurate and just in their analysis of any event that they choose to write about. He always said that the courage to defend what one writes (essential for any commentator) comes with conviction that is rooted in knowledge based on facts.
The changes that journalism underwent, particularly during the last decade, were a source of worry for him because he felt that newspapers were turning into profit-making enterprises rather than concentrating on their main function, i.e. reporting news. To him, it was a bad omen because it posed a serious threat to the integrity of journalism. But, as an eternal optimist, he had faith in Pakistan’s upcoming journalists, many of whom he rated highly for being honest and forthright in their commentaries. It is this budding group that held out the promise of a return to true professionalism in journalism.
A. B. SHAHID
Karachi
THIS refers to the letter by Prof (Dr) Muhammad Iqbal Choudhary about the HEJ Research Institute of Chemistry which restricts its whole analysis to the performance of the institute under the generous financial inflows and lucrative offers for its research staff.
There is no doubt that the HEJ has won a good name for the University of Karachi through its performance in research and publications. There are, however, some deeper issues we need to point at in a holistic way.
For many decades the University of Karachi, one of the largest public educational institutions of the country, has remained deprived of sufficient fundings because of the tendency of privatization of the higher education. Despite the fact that the university accommodates thousands of students every year from the middle and lower strata of society, the government has turned a deaf ear towards improving the quality of education and increasing its budget for research and publications.
We cannot afford islands of excellence in the ocean of poverty as it is the ocean itself we need to take care of. We tend to believe that the HEJ and the likes will bring a real change in educational quality in society where the majority of students of the country cannot even think of entering. It seems appropriate to rethink our educational policies of creating models without addressing the real issues.
Professor Chaudhary has referred to certain instances to substantiate his argument that the HEJ is the indicator of successful policies of Dr Attaur-Rahman and his team but he is rather obsessed with sticking to the performance of the HEJ alone which does not indicate any real improvement in education at the Karachi University.
Why is the government so serious about entrepreneurization of education rather than allocating funds to provide quality education to those who are educated in public institutions?
AMIR HUSSAIN NIHAL
London, UK
THIS is apropos of Mr Anwar Syed’s article “Bureaucratic corruption” (Nov 30).
People who indulge in corruption do not belong to some alien planet but are the fathers, uncles, sons, brothers, cousins, mothers, sisters and friends of those who live among us. Most of them are intimately known to those around them, but how many of us do make a point of disowning, disapproving or reporting against them?
We, as a people, have adopted the possession of wealth as a symbol of success and respectability. Values such as uprightness, self-respect, honesty and simplicity are no longer in vogue. It is unrealistic and hypocritical to expect the bureaucrats to maintain scrupulous standards of honesty and integrity while society itself makes these redundant. We not only facilitate corruption but also make it acceptable.
For more than half a century, we have been appealing to those in power to deal with this malignancy only to see it get from bad to worse. The time for sanctimonious sermons and gratuitous advice to dummies, who are not listening, is long past. Nations are made great not by self-seeking and self-serving men in power but by the people.
If there is to be redemption, each of us has to do his or her part. This applies just as much to corruption as it does to education, health, civic amenities and just about every other sphere of life.
K. HUSSAN ZIA
Lahore
IT was most disappointing not being able to watch the first one-day international cricket match between Pakistan and New Zealand on TV. Worse was the way the whole issue was subsequently handled.
Not holding anyone responsible for this sorry incident and just saying that the matter has been resolved through the president’s intervention is tantamount to hiding facts and insulting the intelligence of the people of Pakistan.
It is quite apparent that petty rivalries and vested interests were the principal causes for this mess. Unless we ensure accountability at all levels and transparency in our dealings, we will never improve.
BISMEH SHAFI
Karachi
THE present government has gone overboard making concessions abroad while showing no let-up in its repressive and highly divisive policies at home. These overtures may bring a brief respite — a temporary peace — at borders and may solicit a little international support for its purloined power but it remains to be seen how beneficial they will be for a nation that is at a perpetual war with itself.
Playing a questionable role on the country’s western borders and displaying some hard-to-believe anxiousness on the eastern front, the regime is engaged in excessively coercive methods in the country. It has disenfranchised large sections of the population, bludgeoned the opposition and has intimidated the judiciary and lawyers’ community. It is applying all means at its disposal to carry out character assassination of political opponents and has forced the leaders of two major political parties to live in exile.
At the same time, it has started some controversial water projects and has established a unitarian form of government in the country amassing all the powers in its hands. All these things have polarized society, creating disharmony among the people and the provinces.
The need of the hour is to reach out to all the sections of society, encourage dialogue, respect the will of the people and make it possible for all citizens to take part in the affairs of the state. Allout efforts must be made to heal the wounds, create consensus on major issues, promote goodwill and establish balance and fairness.
A nation can only prosper when it is at peace within.
AZIZ NAREJO
Corpus Christi, TX, USA
YOUR editorial “Unfortunate incident” (Nov 30) about the violence that erupted at a variety show a week
ago in Clifton, Karachi, generalized the cause of the violence in too broad a term. In recent years we see men from well-to-do and educated families
lose control when around women.
You are of the opinion that this violent behaviour by young men represents the whole society. I disagree. When we glance at instances of this nature, whether from recent past or even those from a quarter of a century ago (the sad event of the Hawksbay girls college picnic in the late ‘70s), we see that the culprits are from the upper-middle class.
Though no matter what the cause is and who is to blame, these events do represent a very sad trend.
I agree that those arrested should be dealt with severely (even if they are from influential families).
Secondly, organizers of such events should be (like everywhere in the world) solely responsible for security. Presence of police have negative effects. And, most importantly, we as a society must do a better job by raising self-respecting honourable men. It seems to me that we micro-manage every little thing that the girl child does at home, but fail to teach our boys many things essential for living a productive life.
We, after years of making heroes out of “angry young men”, have finally succeeded in making our young men destructively angry. It is time we took a serious look at why we are failing so desperately in raising our men.
JAWAID SHAIKH
Chicago, USA
THIS is to draw the attention of the vice chancellor of the University of Punjab, Lahore, to the fact that the results of BSEd (III Professional) examinations conducted in June, 2003, have not yet been announced.
This delay has caused us much worries, besides wasting our precious time. We, the students of BSEd (III Professional), request the VC to ensure that the results are announced without any further delay.
ANXIOUS STUDENTS
Islamabad
IN the second instalment of my article, titled ‘What became of good governance’ (Nov 24) you have, along with some unnecessary editing, referred to Benazir as Bhutto, which I have stopped doing since her marriage. I have the original draft of this article where Benazir is referred to as just Benazir for the reason that she does not like to be called a Zardari and, of course, she is no longer a Bhutto.
I have in the past issued legal notices to newspapers even in America and England for calling Benazir a Bhutto because much disgrace is attached to her name on account of multiple cases of corruption for which she is absconding. No Bhutto is even remotely connected to any of these charges and there is no justification or cause for the name to be tarnished.
The Bhuttos are a venerable family whose history stretches back to the thirteenth century and which has earned many laurels in the political field. The Bhuttos are also a tribe estimated to number six hundred thousand located in Sindh, Balochistan and Punjab. They will not tolerate any blemish on their name.
I, therefore, lodge a strong protest against your attaching the name Bhutto to Benazir and insist that this letter be published by way of mitigation.
SARDAR MUMTAZ ALI
BHUTTO
Chairman, Sindh National Front, Karachi
MR Hafizur Rahman’s wonderful article “The story of census” brought back two memories: one, it reminded me of how much of the first census (1951) was carried out by volunteers.
As a 13-year-old schoolboy in Karachi, I was taught how the forms should be filled out, and told to persist politely until the respondents answered all the questions. In view of the fact that almost nobody in the area to which I was assigned seemed to know why the enumeration was being conducted, the persistence factor turned out to be quite important.
The second memory concerns another type of census, namely, the Agricultural Census of 1960. As a young officer in the planning commission, I was summoned by the agricultural census commissioner, Mr Masud (known as “khadar-posh,” because of his preference for that type of clothes), and asked to correct the figure in the census for the number of donkeys in West Pakistan. He said that the enumeration was short by 200, because it had inadvertently omitted the officials of the planning commission. He added that he had previously served as secretary, planning commission, and knew what he was talking about.
KHALID IKRAM
Potomac, Maryland, USA
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