| December 25, 2003 | Thursday | Ziqa’ad 1, 1424 |
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Musharraf’s Kashmir initiative
Diary of a gentleman farmer
An account-holder’s plaint
Marriage halls in sports complex
Case against Imran Khan
Increase in pensions
Rising cases of dog-bite
UN and the war on terror
Hyderabad airport
Telephone bills
Missile replicas
YEAR after year, on December 25, the birthday of Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the rulers and politicians and the religious leaders of Pakistan unleash a torrent of sermons reminding a confused people of the Quaid’s message of unity, discipline and faith, in full knowledge of their own role in dismantling brick by crick the edifice built by the Quaid.
In his historic address to the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan on Aug 11, 1947, the Quaid-i-Azam enunciated the guiding principles on which
the state and polity of Pakistan was to be founded in these words:
“You are free. You are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other place of worship in the State of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or caste or creed, that has nothing to do with the business of the State. Now I think we should keep that in front of us as our ideal and you will find that in course of time Hindus would cease to be Hindus and Muslims would cease to be Muslims not in the religious sense because that is the personal faith of each individual, but in the political sense as citizens of the State”
He said that the first and foremost duty of the government was to maintain law and order and dispensation of justice to high and low in equal measure. He warned the government and the people against the curse of corruption, nepotism and favouritism which were the deadliest poison to destroy a polity.
He undertook a visit to the Command and Staff College, Quetta, in his failing health to deliver a clarion message to the armed forces that their bounden duty was to obey the legal orders of the constitutional civilian government.
The Quaid chose Karachi as capital of the country he founded because Karachi was a cosmopolitan, modern, forward-looking city and formed a bridgehead between the two wings of the country.
No sooner did the Quaid leave this world than the entire civil and military leadership of Pakistan chose to repudiate all the guiding principles on which he had wished to found Pakistan. His vision of a democratic Pakistan and just society was turned into a sour dream.
SYED AFZAL HUSAIN ZAIDI
Islamabad
RECENTLY a letter, published in a newspaper, asked if a day would come when we would see the high and mighty of the land offering prayers at a place rather than bang at the head of an assembled congregation.
In this context, I would like to quote from the late K. H. Khurshid’s book Memories of Jinnah. He reproduces a conversation he had with the late Mr Mumtaz Hasan about the Quaid-i-Azam.
Mr Khurshid writes, “When the Quaid came to London in 1946, he decided to offer his Friday prayers at a mosque in London. The question was whether it should be in Putney, Woking or elsewhere. When the question was referred to the Quaid, he said, according to Mumtaz Hasan, ‘I will go to the mosque where everyone else prays.’
“Ultimately, it was decided that he should go to the East London mosque. A day before he was to go there, Mumtaz Hasan and I went to look it up. The ‘mosque’ was actually no more than a large room in a building. Next day, when we arrived with the Quaid, we found that arrangements for prayers had been made in the basement. The khutba was already being delivered. Mr Jinnah sat down in the last row. When some people wanted him to move to the front, he declined, saying that he had taken his place which should have been his. Mumtaz Hasan said this was a remark characteristic of the man.”
KHALID HASAN
Fairfax, VA, USA
THIS is with reference to a spate of news items, articles and letters about President Musharraf’s recent remarks over the UN resolutions on Kashmir.
It is unfortunate that a master stroke of intricate diplomacy is being depicted as a failure. Ironically enough, diplomats, opinion leaders and statesmen all over the world are praising the president’s stand which has put India on the defensive.
In this respect, Gen Musharraf more than once has clarified the position and stressed that Pakistan has not budged an inch from its moral and principled stand on Kashmir.
While meeting a broad section of Kashmiri leadership at Islamabad on Dec 22, he clearly reiterated the vivid and clear stand point of Pakistan about Kashmir. He made it clear in so many words that there was no change in Pakistan’s Kashmir policy.
Prominent Kashmiri leaders have lauded the unswerving stand of Pakistan which has stood the test of time.
Sardar Muhammad Abdul Qayyum Khan has praised the president for his clear viewpoint on Kashmir and termed his advocacy of the Kashmiri people as unprecedented in the history of this dispute.
I request all those who for any reason are raising a hue and cry about President Musharraf’s statement to keep the national interest first and foremost.
At this crucial juncture, we must stand united behind the president when he meets the Indian leadership on the sidelines of Saarc.
ATHER KHAN
Islamabad
President Musharraf’s recent declaration that Pakistan is ready to withdraw insistence on implementing UN resolutions for a plebiscite should be welcomed.
Equally noticeable is the indirect admission by India of ill-managing almost all assembly elections in Kashmir, excepting those of 1977 and 2002, and of accepting the APHC as an essential party to the negotiations. These are positive steps to consolidate the recent thaw between the two countries.
SUMITA MUKHOPADHYAY
Sodnac, Quatre Bornes,
Mauritius
AFTER passing my MBBS exams and completing my house job, I could not get a suitable job in the medical profession. So, I started managing my lands. As a farmer one has to deal with various departments such as irrigation, revenue, police and farm employees, besides dacoits.
The farmer has to sleep on a bed of thorns, otherwise he cannot enjoy the fruits of his lands, progressively. Since 2002 our sugar mills have adopted a blood-sucking policy. The share price in 2002 of my area’s sugar mill was below the face value, i.e. Rs10, which is at present above Rs38.
The grower’s outstanding dues and quality premium are still withheld. The mill owners are pressing the farmer to settle at 50 per cent. Our government showed its helplessness before the mill owners and reduced the rate by two rupees per maund, having declared it at Rs43 per maund. Thus, our cane growers association lost the battle.
Owing to heavy rains, chilli, cotton and onion crops were heavily damaged and attacked by various insects. The farmers could not get any savings from this year’s crops after paying the taxes, dues and the cost of seeds, fertilizers and pesticides.
Our government bosses are busy with two issues, i.e. the Legal Framework Order and Kalabagh Dam/GTC. The prices of cotton, chilies and onion crops are attractive but the produce is below normal. Hence the farmers and haris are living in great hardship.
So, the farmers have to wait for a resolution of the pending issues and continue to be gentlemen.
DR A. K. H. KHEMANI
Mirpurkhas
I HAVE been keeping an account (salary account) at the HBL, Chunian branch (1612), for the last four years. At the same time, I have an account at the bank’s New Garden Town branch in Lahore. Eleven/12 years ago, when I was a student, I kept an account at the bank’s Punjab University branch in Lahore.
Last year I got sanctioned a flexi loan (Rs56,000), to be repaid within two years. Up to December 2003 I have paid back 13 instalments out of 24. (The bank deducts the loan instalment from my salary account).
On Nov 25, 2003, just one day before Eid, when I went to draw my salary, the manager (HBL, Chunian branch) gave me some papers and asked me to fill these first as, according to him, he had misplaced/ lost the file regarding my flexi loan. I told him that I would fill these papers after the Eid holidays, but the manager refused to encash the cheque and left his office.
I left for my native town, D. G. Khan, embarrassed and with an empty-pocket on this very special occasion.
After the Eid holidays I sent a cheque (#x03114077) through my account 8844-3, HBL, New Garden Town Branch, Lahore, on Dec 1 but the manager of the HBL, Chunian, has withheld my money illegally and immorally. The amount has still not been transferred to my account in New Garden Town branch, Lahore.
Is there some authority to redress my grievance?
MUHAMMAD TARIQ
Lahore
THIS is to invite the attention the authorities concerned to the state of affairs at the KMC Sports Complex (now CDGK Sports Complex) on Karachi’s Kashmir Road and the land reserved for indoor gymnasium (incomplete structure), now encroached upon by the Officers Association of CDGK.
Since the new set-up of the city government, the Officers Association of CDGK, with the connivance of marriage lawn mafia, has discreetly developed illegal marriage lawns at the above site reserved for the purpose of sports and recreation. This encroachment has been named “Kashmir Corner City Officers Lawn”.
Typical of the encroachment pattern, the association has now encroached upon another piece of land, very much inside the Sports Complex, as CDGK Club Lawns.
A few years back a ban was imposed on holding any function other than sports and recreation at the complex. We tried to raise the issue with the city district government but no one at the CDGK has bothered to check the encroachment by their own officer’s association.
CONCERNED CITIZEN
Karachi
THIS is with reference to the news report “Imran Khan booked for holding rally”, published in Dawn the other day.
The military-led government is resorting to the same tactics of section 144 that was so frequently used by the governments of Gen Ziaul Haq, Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif. They all greatly hurt the democratic process in the country.
A major part of democracy is the freedom of speech and expression. If FIRs are going to be lodged against “peaceful” demonstrators, and if honest leaders are going to be arrested just because the government feels threatened by them, we need to rethink if we are really free.
If we plan to become a democratic society, we first need to be tolerant of others and open to criticism. In an already choked society, the army rule is making it worse by requiring permission to hold peaceful demonstrations.
Mr Khan is an honest, truthful and respected individual. It is appalling to hear such plutocracy on the part of the government. By raising such petty objections, the government is not only belittling itself, but also further deteriorating the reputation of the army-led rule.
By lodging this FIR against Mr Khan and other leaders, the government is sending out a very negative signal and further betraying the trust of the nation. Unless we can learn tolerance, we will remain in the dark age.
SARDAR TARIQ AHMAD
Nashville, TN, USA
THIS with reference to a letter (Nov 19) on the recent increase in the pensions of government employees.
The recent 100 per cent raise in the salaries of the parliamentarians does not seem compatible with the mere 15 per cent increase in the salaries of government employees and the pensions of the retired government employees, as announced in the budget for 2003-04.
Considering the spiralling cost of household commodities etc, this meagre increase further loses its purpose and charm.
Moreover, it is highly disappointing that after the announcement of the salary increase the actual disbursement to the working employees of the Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research took four months. The pensioners are still awaiting the disbursement of their dues.
The authorities concerned are requested to expedite the process of disbursement of the pensioner’s dues.
DR S. I. AHMED
Karachi
ACCORDING to the excerpts of a press conference at the PMA House at Karachi as reported in your esteemed paper (Dec 9), the experts expressed concern over the rising incidents of dog-bite cases in the country, deaths of patients due to inadequate wound management and poor quality of vaccines at the public hospitals. It was also stated that the vaccine declared obsolete and discarded by the WHO in the 1980s was still being used in Pakistan to treat the patients with dog-bites.
It was reported that 30 persons fall prey to dog-bites every day in Karachi where the number of stray dogs is estimated at more than 100,000. That is, undoubtedly, a horrific situation and needs immediate remedial measures on the part of the authorities concerned.
I appeal to the Sindh health minister and the city nazim to deal with the situation on priority.
MUMTAZ A. PIRACHA
Karachi
SINCE 9/11, the world has continued to see unnecessary deaths and destructions on a large scale. People are constantly under fear, so are many powerful nations. When all these will end is not known even to military experts.
When some time back the UN Security Council appointed a committee to look into the remnant affairs of Al Qaeda and the Taliban, there was a ray of hope that it might bring new ideas to solve the problems emerged in the wake of war against terror. For this end, it was welcomed by all.
Now when the committee has released its report, nothing new has been revealed — everything in it is what the press has been saying for the last two years. The committee ought to be reminded that it has accepted, like the US, the highly disturbing status quo of the war against terror as its starting point to further proceed in the matter. As such, it has also indicated that it has no other options, which may prove to be a bad precedence in time to come.
We assumed that the committee’s talents were meant for restoration of peace and not war and that its approach could always be better than that of a single country or even a group of countries. Like in the past, the UN was supposed to promote thoughts which are based on verified truths and appeal to reason. This is missing. The committee has also, like the US, failed to prove any connection between Al Qaeda and the 9/11 incidents. This is required for transparency rather than for defending Al Qaeda.
The UN also ought to know if our earth has to become a monument of peace and non-violence. It is only the UN that can do so. The people now demand peace from the UN as per its charter, which it has ignored in its report. Besides, its very foundation is based on dialogue which it has also ignored.
The responsibilities of the UN vis-a-vis the war against terror primarily demand that it should not act in a manner that it looks like a change of hands and more of the same. It should make it clear that it would like to know the unknown.
Al Qaeda has no pitch to play on. Where the other party will play and with what consequences? Reportedly, the US killed over 20,000 men, women and children in Afghanistan as against a hundred or two Al Qaeda and Taliban people. The UN can’t be the US. The US victories in Afghanistan and Iraq can best be described as victories over the dead and the dying.
The UN committee also failed to sort out whether the 9/11 incidents were more a case of crime against humanity or a cause for war. This can’t be brushed aside easily. The UN also ought to know that it can’t eradicate malaria by killing flying mosquitoes.
Within days of the release of the report, a delegation of the committee arrived in Islamabad. It appeared to be in a hurry. This also smells the start of the election campaign in Afghanistan and US elections in June and November next year. It also appears that the delegation was either unaware of or it preferred to ignore the findings of the International Institute of Strategic Studies which say: “It would take a generation to dismantle Al Qaeda.”
To start with, the first requirement is that Kofi Annan oversee the working of the UN committee for bringing in new ideas and options.
Z. A. KAZMI
Karachi
THE prime minister in his recent visit to Hyderabad announced that Hyderabad airport would be reopened and regular flights would be started very soon. He also announced a grant for the relief and rehabilitation work in the city. But nothing seemed to have been done so far.
In the past, the airport not only proved to be a great facility for regular travellers, but also generated vital commerce activities for the local exporters.
Unfortunately, Hyderabad airport has been neglected by successive governments, except Ms Benazir Bhutto’s second government that took a prompt decision to improve it. Ms Bhutto had also promised to start regular flights from this airport, but her government was once again toppled.
I request President Gen Pervez Musharraf to take prompt action to ensure resumption of flights, and to do the needful to improve the condition of the airport.
QAZI NAZIM NAEEM
Hyderabad
IT is most regrettable when you find your telephone bills scattered/littered on the floor of your door and that too without any envelope or any cover, sealed or closed.
One of the main disadvantages of this is that anybody can reach/get this bill and or make a photocopy, and there is no secret between the PTCL and the customer. Anything can happen.
All utilities bills must be sent in an envelope or sealed/stapled and must be addressed only to bona fide customers and in full respect.
I hope the PTCL will stop this practice forthwith.
MIR DAVID J.L. KHOKHAR
Karachi
THIS refers to the letter “Missile replicas” (Dec 21) by Rias A. Khan who states that placing missile replicas on the roundabouts makes us a war-mongering country.
I think placing such replicas is a matter of pride for our country because these replicas are of the indigenously made missiles that prove that we have the capability to defend ourselves.
ALI TARIQ
Karachi
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