| 05 February 2004 | Thursday | 13 Zilhaj 1424 |
Scientific research
Juvenile justice system
Presidential form of government
Largest land mammal
Strangulation of civil liberties in America
Strengthening defence ties with China
Bush's motive
Nuclear scientists
Open drainage
Burqa
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The National Finance Commission (NFC) was finally constituted on November 13, 2003. It has held several meetings since then and is expected to announce the new award by the end of the next month. It means the commission must have completed most of its work by now. Will the new award be any fairer this time around? Will it signal a change from the past? If the press coverage of the NFC meetings provides any clue, it will be none of the above.
It is reported that an understanding has been reached to distribute the funds on a 50-50 basis between the federal government and the provinces. This will not satisfy the demands that the distribution should be 80:20 in favour of the provinces out of the total recoveries in the country, not out of a fraction of them that is declared as the divisible pool.
Several economists have pointed out that a sizable portion of the recoveries is not even included in the pool. The proposed increase in the provinces' share will mean nothing in real terms any way, as it will instantly be taken away by abolishing the Rs20 billion subvention pool for the smaller provinces and the passing on of many of the expenditures to the provinces.
The demands to transfer the GST and other taxes to the provinces, recognition of provinces' rights over natural and other resources, transfer of the concurrent list to the provinces and letting the provinces collect the taxes have not been addressed yet.
It is believed that no realistic change can be seen in the distribution of funds until the federal government drastically cuts its non-developmental expenditures. The national budgets during the last half a century have been "defence specific"; not much is left for the development sector.
The three smaller provinces have often been left out in the cold to fend for themselves. They scavenge for funds even to pay salaries to their employees. How are they supposed to undertake any development projects? It has been seen at least in Sindh's case that a major portion of the meagre funds allocated for the province is not even disbursed during the fiscal year or is returned diligently.
The present NFC can best be described as a shabby attempt at window dressing. It is clear that the commission is not aimed at redressing the grievances of the smaller provinces which have demanded not to make the population alone a criterion for the distribution of funds. They think that revenue generation, area, financial needs and poverty should also be given weightage while deciding the award. They have not yet succeeded in bringing that point home.
People see no hope for an equitable settlement on the distribution of resources. They point out to the composition of the commission. Out of the 10 members, five belong to Punjab, two each to the NWFP and the urban Sindh and one ostensibly to Balochistan. Please note that no Baloch and none from the rural Sindh have even been included in the commission as if they had no stakes in the award. Most of the members are past and present loyal government servants. Who will expect them to go against the military-dominated federal government which happens to be the major beneficiary?
There is a great need to change the ways through which we make important decisions. Insincere, half-hearted measures would not do any good. They would only aggravate the situation, deepen the crises, create ill will and disharmony and increase disenchantment in the masses.
AZIZ NAREJO
Corpus Christi, TX., USA
Scientific research
This is with reference to the letter "Scientific research" (January 28) in which a reference has been made to a lecture delivered by Sir Julian Huxley at a Karachi University auditorium 50 years ago.
Sir Julian (1887-1975) was an English biologist, philosopher and educator who greatly influenced the modern development of embryology and studies of behaviour and evolution. In the book Religion without Revelation, he has propounded a theory that with the splitting of the atom all man's conception of matter has been drastically altered. In fact, the advance of science in the past century has culminated in the explosion of knowledge the like of which was never before experienced in human history. In the wake of this development, he writes, ancient ideas about religion have to be re-examined.
The challenge put by Dr Huxley has been aptly answered by Maulana Wahiududdin Khan, a great living scholar of our times, in his book Islam and Modern Challenges (Urdu version Mazhab aur Jadeed Challenge. He has scientifically proved that far from having damaging effects on religion, modern knowledge has served to clarify and consolidate its veracity. Many modern discoveries support claims made 1,400 years ago that what is laid down in the holy Quran is the ultimate truth and this will be borne out by all future knowledge.
"We will show them Our signs in all the regions of the earth and in their own souls, until they clearly see that this is the truth." 41.53
This book was the result of the author's 30 years of research and thorough investigation of the subject. Daily Al-Ahram (Cairo) in its review in 1973 said: "In the fourteen hundred years of Islamic history, innumerable books on Islam have appeared. There are just a few books calling mankind to God which are clearly distinguishable from the rest because of the clarity and force with which they make their appeal. Without doubt, this book is one of the kinds."
This book has been translated into different languages and at present is being taught at least in six Arab universities.
MANZOOR H. KURESHI
Karachi
Juvenile justice system
This refers to the report "Minor girls being used by drug dealers" (January 27).
It is deplorable that minors are being used as a cover-up in such heinous crimes. These children mostly come from the poorest part of society that experiences discrimination and lacks opportunities. In other words, we cannot control crime without addressing poverty.
Although minors are responsible for wrongs they commit, it's the obligation of the state to reform them. To begin with, the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance 2000 ought to be implemented in its entirety to help and protect the rights of children. The police should also be sensitized on children's rights.
The ordinance under Section 4(6) specifies to conclude the trial of an offender within four months. Section 10(2) of the JJSO stipulates that a child accused of a non-bailable offence shall be produced before the juvenile courts within 24 hours from the time of arrest. Further, under Section 10(7), except in cases where the delay in trial is caused by the accused, the detained child should be released on bail if he is being accused of any offence punishable with life imprisonment, and has been detained continuously beyond six months and whose trial has not ended.
Nevertheless, many juvenile offenders have not been convicted, they spend many years behind bars in violation of the JJSO; their trials have either yet to begin or have not yet been completed, and by the time they are convicted, they become adults.
The law also doesn't allow a child to be tried for an offence together with an adult, but it doesn't happen because our courts are already overburdened with cases. This ultimately results in children being transported and held in lock-ups with adults, which is not healthy. Surprisingly, the concept of social investigation report is not that clear to the police department.
The truth is that children in police custody and prison are tortured. Every day offenders are converted into victims of atrocities behind bars. According to Amnesty International, children in Pakistan are often the victims of abuse and neglect by the very people who have the responsibility for their welfare.
NADIRA RAHMAN
Karachi
Presidential form of government
In his article 'Rethinking export strategy' (January 27), Mr Omar Yousuf has reproduced the summary of the UK government's trade advisory on Pakistan in which the British nationals were advised against travelling to Pakistan, primarily due to deplorable law and order situation throughout the country.
On the same day Mr Aziz Narejo rightly pointed out in his letter that the main reason for all the ills in the country was the absence of sufficiently- empowered civil society. One of the manifestations of this unfortunate situation is the absence of preventive community policing, with the result that even the motorcade of the uniformed president is not safe. In fact, the whole country is groaning under the weight of the unholy alliance of political oligarchy of the feudals and the colonial-style bureaucracy, designed in the Constitution on the pattern of the Government of India Act, 1935.
The remedy lies in adopting the presidential form of government as developed and fine-tuned in the US through 27 amendments, and not through the fraudulent one introduced by Ayub Khan in 1962. In this connection Colonel (retired) George L. Singleton in his letter of January 27 rightly recommended for Pakistan the US democratic model. He is a true friend of Pakistan because the American system of democracy will outweigh all the F-16s and the loans. Normally the developed western countries, giving only lip-service to democracy, prefer an undemocratic and totalitarian type of leadership for the Third World countries.
Allama Asad (Leopold Wess) in his book Principle of State and Government in Islam has recommended the presidential system as being practised in the US. The Quaid-i-Azam at a meeting with the viceroy had jotted down on his pad that the presidential form of government was most suitable for Pakistan.
S. FEROZ SHAH
Karachi
Largest land mammal
This refers to the letter (January 30) regarding a write-up on a presentation on Baluchitherium by Professor Welcomme, published by Dawn on January 23.
The reconstruction after the recent discovery of the largest land mammal and naming the tertiary rhinoceros as Baluchitere is no different from Baluchitherium discovered earlier by GSP's geoscientists.
The GSP paleontologists had discovered in 1985 and 1987 a partially damaged skull and mandible of a rhinoceros with all the cheek teeth in place from the Chitarwata Formation in the southern Bugti Hills, north of Sui in Balochistan. This skull is on display in GSP Museum, Quetta, with almost a full set of cheek teeth of the upper and lower jaws present, only the P-1 of the right mandible is missing.
The fossilized remains of this rhino were first discovered in 1906 by British paleontologists Froster-Cooper and later Osborn (1923) who described the genus Baluchitherium represented by some neck vertebrae, foot and limb bones found in close proximity in the same fossiliferous bed.
The French team of paleontologists led by Professor Dr Jean Loup Welcomme had unearthed a complete skeleton of Baluchitherium in 1999 from the same area. The rhino is believed to be 25 feet long, 18 feet high, weighing 30 tonnes and roamed this region 30 million years ago. It was a herbivore and consumed one ton leaves per day. Its great height and long neck made it possible for it to find food high in the tree tops.
ASIF RANA
Museum Curator, Geological Survey of Pakistan, Quetta
Strangulation of civil liberties in America
Four days after 9/11 President Bush declared a "war on terror, a conflict without battlefields or beachheads". Actually there have been battlefields and beachheads, first in Afghanistan, then in Iraq. Again, another war has been declared - a war on civil liberties - and is being fought ostensibly in aid of the war on terror.
President Bush signed "Provide Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act", i.e. USA Patriot Act, into law on October 26, 2001. It gives new sweeping powers to both domestic law-enforcement and international intelligence agencies and has eliminated the checks and balances that previously gave courts the opportunity to ensure that these powers were not abused. Like the war on terror, the Bush administration's war on civil liberties was undertaken in the name of national security and in defence of "freedom".
About three years ago in London, Henry Kissinger compared the new unity of Russia and China with the US to combat terrorism with the European 'concert of powers' that combined after the Napoleonic wars to ensure that no future revolution would threaten peace. Nonetheless peace was threatened by the Russian revolution, and Fidel Castro's Cuban revolution brought President Kennedy and Khrushchev to the brink of a nuclear war. Kissinger did not mention ruthless repression of dissent in Russia and China and strengthening of police powers which cost many innocent lives.
Special military tribunals are being set up for non-whites suspected of indulging in terrorism. "The reality is: "We wouldn't tolerate these rules if they were applied to US citizens," commented Marine Corps Major Michael Mori, who represents Australian "enemy combatant" David Hicks, captured by US troops in late 2001 in Afghanistan where he was fighting along with Taliban troops.
A new law which the Bush administration is trying to enact will undermine the basic right of each American to retain his citizenship in all circumstances, says a legal publication, Find Law. In the US even convicted criminals have the right to retain their citizenship, but the proposed law, called Patriot II, will deprive certain citizens, who have migrated from Muslim countries, of this most basic right.
Xavier Becerra, a Democrat Congressman from California, has said: "The new legislation allows police and law- enforcement agencies to arrest immigrants initially for seven days on simple suspicion of their involvement in terrorist activities and the period of arrest can even be indefinite. All that is needed is an attorney -general's approval." He regretted that the US government had given the entire tragic incident "an Islamic signature".
The new laws being enacted hurriedly are draconian. A Swedish report last month condemned the illegal detention of prisoners by the US and Russian operations in Chechnya. "The great majority of the world's countries are gradually moving towards more respect for human rights," said Swedish Foreign Minister Laila Feivalds. "But over the past year the threat of terrorism has led to a deterioration of the respect for human rights... in several countries."
PROF P. NASIR
Gujrat
Strengthening defence ties with China
Our country is going through one of the most difficult times since the fall of East Pakistan. India and Israel have formed a strategic alliance and their aim is to strip us of our nuclear cover and bring us down to our knees. It is no hidden fact that all this is taking place with the approval of the United States.
Russia also has always favoured India against Pakistan and is ready to do so in future because of its long strategic terms with India. All these powers are out there to corner Pakistan, the only Islamic nuclear country in the world.
To deal with this situation Pakistan needs to strengthen its strategic relationship with its tested friend, China. Unfortunately, our leaders have always considered the United States our saviours, although we have always been deserted by Americans when we needed them the most. On the other hand, we have never truly taken advantage of our good relations with China.
What we need is to get China more involved in our country's strategic decisions and follow advice of Chinese leadership in matters like protecting nuclear assets, the Kashmir issue, relationships with neighbours.
At the same time we should be ready to offer whatever we can in return to China because time has proved that China has been a sincere friend of Pakistan.
KHURRAM SHAHZADA
Karachi
Bush's motive
I am struck that the announcement "poison powder in Senate leader's office" which resulted in closing down the US Congress was made on the very same day of the all-important "Super Tuesday" primary.
What could be more dramatic to underscore Bush's drumbeat about the importance of "homeland security" than our legislators under attack by terrorists?
Bush wants more money for his crusade against the terrorists and will surely seize this event as an opportunity to advance his policies. Voters will go to the polls today, with this dreadful news repeated endlessly on all the news media.
Until now I have rejected those ascribing conspiratorial motives to Bush and his collaborators, but not any more. The disturbing confluence of these events and actions recently taken by Bush and his administration demands an immediate investigation of this incident, and certainly, not by members of a commission appointed by Bush. Otherwise, I fear the worst.
HAROLD S. KRAMER
Farrell Ct Marblehead, MA., USA
Nuclear scientists
The people of Pakistan are proud of their nuclear achievement. Dr A. Q. Khan and his colleagues achieved "mission impossible" by setting up a uranium enrichment plant and giving the nation the much needed nuclear deterrence and fortified its defence. The National Command Authority has emphasized that Pakistan's N-capability is solely for the country's defence and security.
The process of the 'debriefing' of Dr Khan and his able colleagues is a smear campaign. Dr Khan, a D.J. College alumnus, has celebrity status. He is the greatest genius the country has ever produced. Please stop giving a bad name to the nation's benefactors and take steps to reestablish their dignity.
CHAGHTAI MIRZA EIJAZUDDIN
Chairman, D.J. College Alumni Foundation, Karachi
Open drainage
I am a resident of Staff Lane, Khayaban-i-Jami, Phase-II Extension of Karachi's Defence Housing Authority, and lodged a complaint with the DHA administrator many months back, requesting him to have the broken wall of an open nullah, located near my house, repaired. I warned the administrator that there might be a fatal accident if the wall was not repaired.
Unfortunately, in spite of repeated reminders, no action has been taken so far. A few days back a jeep belonging to a security service business plunged into the open nullah. Will the administrator ensure repair of the wall without any further delay?
AFAQ ASLAM
Karachi
Burqa
Karachian's contempt for burqa is obvious in his opening sentence of Karachi Notebook (Dawn, February 2). May I request him not to be disrespectful to the age-old Muslim traditions of our culture and society?
SHAMEEM AHMAD
Karachi
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