| December 9, 2003 | Tuesday | Shawwal 14, 1424 |
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Schoolteachers’ promotion
Mumtaz Bhutto’s stance
‘Empowering the poor’
BCS degree holders’ grievance
Uplift fund for PIMS
State Bank’s clarification
C’wealth
Transplant baby
Charged parking
Pensioners’ plight
Increasing suicides
AS the present functioning of the National Savings Directorate (under the federal finance ministry) is far from satisfactory to most senior citizens who invest in the government’s savings schemes, the federal government should expeditiously consider setting up a government- controlled scheduled bank for national savings, giving some representation to senior citizens on the management board.
The National Savings Directorate should be merged with this scheduled bank. Economy should be exercised in administrative expenditure by hiring on contract retired and absolutely honest banking personnel and by utilizing post offices in rural areas as bank’s outlets. This is being done in the UK in order to keep administrative costs low. The bank I have proposed can offer a variety of profitable products to the investors, specially senior citizens.
Under the national savings set-up in the UK, more than a score of profitable schemes (both short-term and long-term) are offered to the investors, specially senior citizens.
The board of management should have at least two directors from among senior citizen investors. The State Bank of Pakistan should exercise overall control over it, so that excessive administrative expenditure is avoided.
Most banks in Pakistan are making good profits and if the proposed national savings bank is efficiently managed, it should yield a good profit which can be siphoned into profits for national savings schemes investors. Along with other profitable savings schemes, this bank should specialize in serving senior citizen investors, specially those with modest means and investments. It should develop a working relationship with the State Life Insurance Corporation for offering insurance-linked savings policies.
As the government is now rich with tens of billions of dollars, and the World Bank, the IMF and the Asian Development Bank bestow on it their largesse for poverty alleviation, it can subsidize enhancement of profits from savings schemes for deserving senior citizens and elderly widows.
Pakistan’s 10 million senior citizens will be grateful to Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali’s government if it can order immediate implementation of the package of reliefs, concessions and benefits for senior citizens announced on Oct 1, 1999, by the then prime minister at a convention of some 10,000 senior citizens summoned at Islamabad.
The government’s aforesaid announcement was passed by the then cabinet, after eliciting the views of the provincial governments. It was never withdrawn, nor rescinded, nor cancelled; its implementation has been held in abeyance for unknown reasons. My own inquiries in Washington DC gave no hint that the all-powerful World Bank or IMF opposed it.
QUTUBUDDIN AZIZ
Karachi
I WOULD like to draw the attention of Sindh Education Minister Irfanullah Marwat, Education Secretary Ghulam Ali Pasha and Karachi Nazim Niamatullah Khan in particular and the executive district officers (education) in general to the plight of primary-school teachers (PSTs) who have acquired MEd degrees on their own, in order to serve the education department in a better way.
But, regrettably, the government has made no provision for promoting them, out of turn, to the post of high-school teacher (HST), as is applicable in the case of those who pass the departmental examination.
Not only this, there is no provision for additional advance increments as allowed in the case of those who acquire the BEd degree. The plea taken is that teachers having MEd degrees are overqualified for primary-level teaching and, as such, there is no provision to promote, out of turn, such PSTs to the post of HST or to grant them additional increments.
In this context, it is learnt that a seniority list of those PSTs who acquired the BEd degree up to the year 1992-93 is prepared for promoting them to high-school teacher, without considering the cases for promotion of MEd degree-holders who obtained BEd degrees at a later date, though the PSTs holding BEd-cum-MEd degrees should have been given preference and due weightage for promoting them to the post of HST for the simple reason that such teachers are better qualified, more skilled and more trained than the those possessing simply BEd degrees.
Moreover, MEd degree-holders are more competent to teach secondary school classes. Thus, for the sake of justice, a separate seniority list should be prepared to promote primary-school teachers holding BEd-cum-MEd degrees to the post of HST on a priority basis.
M.A. JAMALI
Karachi
THIS relates to the letters by Dr Ashraf Khan and Mr Sarmad Palijo, both from the USA, which appeared in your paper on Dec 5.
I have no desire to enter into a long correspondence on this issue but Mr Khan and Mr Palijo, being across the oceans, seem to be out of touch with the realities here.
As stated, the Bhuttos are a tribe estimated to be over 600,000 strong. They cannot tolerate the stigma of corruption to attach to their name just as Mr Khan and Mr Palijo would not, particularly when they are innocent. The reference to a wife by her husband’s name is a social practice throughout the world, including Muslim countries.
I would be surprised if Mr Khan’s wife is known by her father’s name. What husband worth the name allows that and what wife dislikes the name of the man she marries?
As for “working and struggling for the millions of humiliated, hungry”, etc, these have become hackneyed cliche’s in Pakistan. I, in my humble capacity, am amongst that disappearing species of politicians who still raise their voice for the downtrodden and believe in earning kudos through the service of the people. Otherwise corruption, self-interest, hypocrisy, betrayal and rigged elections are the current order of politics in our country.
In any case, responsibility for serving the people is entirely on the shoulders of those who have enjoyed long periods in power and still boast of their complete support. Instead of being with them to alleviate their miseries, such politicians have chosen to abscond to the luxurious havens of the world. What does Mr Palijo think of them?
SARDAR MUMTAZ ALI
BHUTTO
Chairman, Sindh National
Front, Karachi
THIS has reference to the thought-provoking and conscience-stirring article “Empowering the poor” (Dec 4) by Sultan Ahmed.
The World Development Report 2004, released by the World Bank, includes a grim warning that it will not be possible to reduce poverty and improve human development by 2015 (the targeted date) without socio-economic reforms percolating to the poor who are getting shoddy services in parts of the developing world owing to leakage of funds.
The agonizing questions the report poses to right-thinking people are: Is it not possible to create a just and compassionate society through economic progress? And, will it be correct for a country like Pakistan with its deep religious roots to aspire to become an economic giant if in the process it is crippled spiritually and emotionally?
The numerous slums blighting the landscape all across developing countries, Pakistan included, and the millions living in these insular ghettos are socially invisible to the more fortunate. As Professor J. K. Galbraith, a leading US economist, once said: “We ignore it (poverty) because we share with all societies at all times the capacity for not seeing what we do not wish to see.” This may be the real reason why public spending never wholly reaches the poor.
‘Bureaucracy’ tries to obscure the intolerable fact of malingering poverty with statistical quibbling. It appears that the ‘discipline’ of economics is essentially politics with some numbers thrown in for supporting claims (of having reduced poverty levels) like the drunk using a lamppost for support rather than for illumination.
KANGAYAM R.
RANGASWAMY
Madison, WI, USA
I WANT to highlight the plight of graduates who possess three-year Bachelor of Computer Science degrees. On and off, the Higher Education Commission (HEC) announces scholarships. But the eligibility criterion is fixed at a four-year bachelor degree.
All universities, public as well as private, are considering our degrees equivalent to a two-year bachelor degree. To add to our miseries, the Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, does not allow BCS (three years) graduates to apply for admission to disciplines where two-year bachelor degree is required because they are not considered even equivalent to graduates holding two-year degrees. So, now, the situation is:
— BCS (three years) is not equivalent to BSc since its duration is one year more.
— BCS (three years) is not equivalent to BS since its duration is one year less.
— BCS (three years), in its own right, is not the eligibility criterion for anything in Pakistan.
We spent three years studying computer science but we are not being given the credit for studying one additional year. Thus, we are being forced to waste our one year. If this credit is not to be given, why are the universities awarding such degrees? Does anyone in the HEC care about what the universities are doing?
It is evident that no planning, whatsoever, is done before initiating a new degree programme as to where these graduates will be consumed and what the degree’s equivalence will be.
M. R. KHAN LODHI
Sukkur
THIS is with reference to a news item in Dawn (Dec 4) regarding the approval of projects worth Rs929 million for the uplift of PIMS, Islamabad.
The Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences was built in the mid-80s by the Japanese as a gift to the people of Pakistan. It was supposed to be a centre of excellence where the best medical minds would tackle the most confounding medical problems.
Sadly, as it happens so often in our country, this centre of excellence turned into a centre of negligence. Politically-motivated appointments, pressure groups and gross corruption, starting from the top, destroyed this huge complex, and the poor state of affairs it is in now is a testament to that.
Having worked at PIMS for more than a year as a junior doctor and also having experienced patient care, or lack of it, it will come as no surprise to me if this Rs929-million-rupee grant is not utilized judiciously.
Having also seen first-hand the patient care and services being provided in hospitals in the US, one’s mind fills with rage at the state of affairs prevailing in PIMS and many other such institutes back home.
Although there is no comparison between a first world hospital and a Third World hospital, I still think if the money allocated to PIMS had been spent judiciously, this hospital would have become one of the best in the country, if not in South Asia.
Will the government ensure spending of this colossal amount wisely? It is time we realized our responsibilities as citizens of Pakistan, woke up to what is happening around us, and did something to stop it.
RAJA SOHAIL ABBAAS
(MD) Charleston, WV, USA
THIS is with reference to the letter by Mr Gholam Hasnain, published in Dawn under the title “Scarcity of 100-rupee notes” (Dec 6).
It is clarified that there is no scarcity of hundred-rupee notes as these notes are being supplied in abundance to commercial banks/NBP Chest branches on a regular basis by the SBP Banking Services Corporation.
On the occasion of Eidul Fitr, fresh bank-notes of Rs100 denomination, exceeding 58 million pieces worth Rs5.8 billion, were injected into circulation.
The situation was reviewed by the management of the SBP Banking Services Corporation after Eid holidays wherein it was reported that a sufficient quantity of fresh bank-notes of Rs100 denomination are still lying in bank/branches vaults that will be circulated on a regular basis.
It may be pointed out the Karachi office of the SBP Banking Services Corporation’s has already established a Help Desk and any person having difficulty in this regard may kindly contact the chief manager at phone No. (021) 9212435.
SYED WASIMUDDIN
Public Relations Division,
SBP, Karachi
THIS refers to the recent Commonwealth summit’s decision not to lift suspension of Pakistan from its Council despite some western members’ view that Pakistan cooperated with them in the US-led “war against terror”.
After World War II whatever was left of British Empire, they changed its name from Empire to Commonwealth. What was in the name? It has been the most disgraceful political piracy. Its name too was a fraud. With the majority of people living in Commonwealth countries, it was more a Muslim than a British Empire. Their refusal to re-admit Pakistan is a good riddance from British imperialism.
Gen Musharraf should have given them the reply which Gen Yahya Khan gave to Sir Alec Douglas-Home, “Pakistanis are asking what the hell are we doing in Commonwealth?”
CHAGHTAI MIRZA
EJAZUDDIN
Karachi
THIS refers to the letter “Transplant baby” by Dr Almas Khuwaja (Dec 7) regarding omission of the name of Dr Adibul Hasan Rizvi in the first liver transplant in Pakistan.
The name of Dr Rizvi was not mentioned because of the fact that SIUT believes in teamwork.
I would like to take this opportunity to bring a few facts to the writer’s knowledge.
SIUT, which started working in 1972 as an eight-bed unit in Civil Hospital, Karachi, has today grown into a 300-bed centre of excellence. Why? Only because SIUT believes poverty should not limit one’s right to live. Whenever health fails, SIUT tries to prevail. That is why SIUT is striving so hard to give these unfortunate victims of renal and related diseases the gift of life by providing them with treatment free of cost.
Eleven million people suffer from kidney diseases in Pakistan and about 10,000 of them die annually. SIUT means service to the millions who suffer.
Last year, 136,000 patients came to SIUT for treatment because of its holistic approach to medicine. SIUT has also endured difficulties and pains in the past. Had it not been for the patients’ confidence in SIUT, it could not have expanded its programme as much as it has.
DR ALEY BILGRAMI
Karachi
RECENTLY, I have read a number of letters in these columns on charged parking in Karachi.
Why do we have to be different from the rest of the world? Why do our elected administrators of the city government punish and make the citizens suffer? Parking fee, wherever in vogue, is charged between 8am and 8pm and on working days only.
However, Karachiites are being skinned to the bones up to 11pm and on the seven days of the week.
Will someone in authority be a bit considerate and kind and provide some relief to the already burdened public?
KHAN A. SHAMSHAD
Karachi
PIA has increased the amount of its pensioners from 20 to 400 per cent, according to a scale applicable as per the retirement time.
All pensioners of the federal and provincial governments, as well as of the armed forces, have been striving for years for a similar decision by the government but in vain.
The more the period of retirement is, the less the pension in some ranks. In many cases, the current amount of old pensioners is almost less than a charity to anyone who cannot even pay a month’s utility bills.
AMMAR KHAN
Karachi
WITH reference to the letter “Increasing suicides” (Nov 24) by Sayed Shah, Nadira Rehman disagrees in her letter (Dec 1) with Mr Shah’s statement that there is “no rational reason” for suicide.
There are some cogent reasons indeed that justify suicidal acts, no matter what the moralists and religious folks preach. Suicide is an act of voluntarily or intentionally taking one’s own life but this definition does not specify the outcome of such acts.
People in the right frame of mind when pushed too far have no recourse but to sacrifice God’s gift at the altar of oppression, intransigence, economic straits and state’s terrorism. Insanity as a disease is an aberration from normal well-being that can lead to any irrational behaviour, with or without any justification.
Most social scientists believe that a society’s structure and values can influence suicide rates. French sociologist Imile Durkeim argued that suicide rates are related to social integration — that is, the degree to which an individual feels part of a larger group. Durkheim found suicide was more likely when a person lacked social bonds or had relationships disrupted through a sudden change in status such as unemployment.
As one example of the significance of social bonds, suicide rates among adults are lower for married people than for divorced, widowed, or single people. Those who attempt or commit suicide usually suffer from extreme emotional pain and distress and feel unable to cope with their problems. They are likely to suffer from mental illness, particularly severe depression, and to feel hopeless about the future.
Suicidal behaviour has numerous and complex causes. The biology of the brain, genetics, psychological traits and social forces — all can contribute to suicide. Although people commonly attribute suicide to external circumstances such as divorce, loss of a job or failure in school, most experts believe these events are triggers rather than causes in themselves.
The suicide bombers are typically unmarried men in their late teens and 20s. They act in the belief that they will go straight to paradise, where they will get places of honour next to God. They are likely to be motivated by religious fervour. These bombing seem to confirm the fears expressed by most independent analysts that the US’s unilateralist approach to combating terrorism and its emerging Middle East policy will likely bring more violence and terrorism to the region, and naturally more suicidal acts. This is an indication of mounting anger in the region against emerging American designs to reshape the Middle East according to their own lights. America’s unilateral policy in Iraq adds to the anti-US feeling in the stability of the entire region.
Barry Taylor said: “Suicide is a long-term answer to a short-term problem.”
PROF. (DR) P. NASIR
Gujrat
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