| 05 March 2004 | Friday | 13 Muharram 1425 |
Education and democracy
Separate electoral rolls
Will helping US benefit Pakistan?
University without PhDs
Cooperative housing societies
A researcher's plaint
House tax
Kashmir issue
A seafarer's woes
Aziz Bhatti Park
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Recently the mutilated bodies of two minor girls, Hajra and Sassi, were found at a place adjacent to the Gadap police station, Karachi. Three policemen, who already had a shady record, were arrested and the fourth is absconding. Gadap SHO and four others were remanded in police custody.
The contention of the Sindh police chief that this time the police "are serious about setting an example" rings hollow in view of the special treatment being meted out to police officers presumed guilty (Dawn editorial, February 27).
Police violence against street children, especially in the Third World countries, is well documented. In Guatemala, a boy, Beto R., 15, complained: "The police treat us badly. They hit us with their rifles, or with their sticks, on our backs and stomachs.
Not for any particular reason . . . just because they feel like it." In September 1996 more than 10 street children in Guatemala were murdered under suspicious circumstances, yet by April of the following year all of the perpetrators were still at large.
In Bulgaria, the police have harassed and beaten street children, chased them away from areas of safety and shelter, jabbed them with electric shock batons, smeared the glue that the children sniff on their faces and clothing, and sprayed them with gas.
Police robbed street children of their money, and sought out girls on the street for sexual harassment. Often, they were witnessed by passersby or other police officers.
More than 18 million children in India live and work on the streets. Street children have been routinely detained illegally, beaten, and tortured and sometimes killed by the police.
The scale of violence against street children in India sometimes included custodial deaths of children. Between 1986 and 1995, 14 children are known to have died in custody in the Andhra Pradesh province, but no police officers were prosecuted in that period.
The situation, as told to the Human Rights Watch, is no better in Kenya either. The street girls were asked for sex in addition to money to avoid arrest or to be released from police custody.
In 1996, 18 months after the acquittal of one Kenyan police reservist for killing a street boy, another street boy was killed by a police reservist.
Several factors contribute to this phenomenon of police atrocities: police perceptions of street children as vagrants and criminals, widespread corruption and a culture of police violence, the inadequacy and non- implementation of legal safeguards, and the level of impunity that officials enjoy.
Street children are easy targets because they are young, often small, poor, ignorant of their rights, and frequently do not have responsible adults to look out for them.
The police also have financial incentives to resort to violence against children. They beat children for their money or demand payment for protection, to avoid false charges, or for release from (often illegal) custody.
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed Paulo Sergio Pinheiro of Brazil as an independent expert to lead a global study on violence against children.
The purpose of the study is to provide an in-depth picture of the prevalence, nature and causes of violence against children. The study will be guided by the Convention on the Rights of the Child which emphasizes children's rights to physical and personal integrity, and outlines states' obligations to protect them from "all forms of physical or mental violence", including sexual and other forms of exploitation, abduction, armed conflict, and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
It also obliges the state to enact preventive measures and ensure that all child victims of violence receive the support and assistance they require.
PROFESSOR (DR) P. NASIR
Gujrat
Education and democracy
I agree with Mr Ayaz Amir ("Piety and sin, balance destroyed", February 27) that General Zia's regime was one of the darkest periods in the history of Pakistan when the country lost its 11 years and no progress was made. It was also during these years that intolerance was spread in society and a fake drive of Islamization was launched by General Zia to prolong his rule.
"Pakistan may have had its political troubles right from the start but otherwise - in social terms, that is - it was a pretty relaxed place until the end of Bhutto's days in power. Then with General Zia's coming, everything went wrong," writes Mr Amir. But it is also true that it was Mr Bhutto's mistakes that gave the military a chance to step in.
Having analyzed President Musharraf's policies, I think he is one of the best things that have happened to Pakistan in at least my lifetime. He is not a demagogue like Mr Bhutto, nor is he cunning like General Zia (I am mentioning only these two rulers because only they profoundly affected the social and political life of the country in the post-'71 war era.
Mr Nawaz Sharif was General Zia's follower and Ms Benazir Bhutto her father's. The only objectionable thing about President Musharraf is that he is in uniform.
I would like to see more liberal people with a vision to come in succession as leaders through the political process to make the foundation of the country strong and put it on the path of prosperity and development.
One shares Mr Amir's concern as to what will happen after President Musharraf. I believe the president can strengthen the political system of Pakistan and make democratic institutions stronger, but the biggest challenge he faces is to educate the masses as democracy flourishes with education. So, education holds the key to solving our political crises and leading the efforts aimed at democratizing the country.
There is a correlation between educated population and development in many parts of the world. In developed countries, the literacy rate is almost 100 per cent.
In under develop/ developing countries, it is very low. In Pakistan it is between 15 per cent and 20 per cent. Education enables people to reason. Therefore, for real democracy to flourish in the country, the government and non-government sectors must make a concerted effort to educate the masses.
For a start, the government should make secondary education compulsory. It should be illegal for a child to work under 17 years of age. Such measures can help increase the literacy rate. Once we have educated the majority of the people, it will be very difficult for unscrupulous politicians and mendacious religious leaders to mislead the people.
ALI KAMAL
Burnaby, BC., Canada
Separate electoral rolls
The statement of the chief election commissioner (Dawn, February 16) reconfirms that, in negation to the basic concept of joint electorate, there will be separate electoral rolls for Muslim and non-Muslim voters.
The CEC has clarified that separate forms for Muslim and non-Muslim voters will be used as have been in vogue since 1978. This assertion does not take into account that these forms were introduced because a military dictator in his zeal to Talibanize Pakistan changed the earlier agreed upon and operative system of joint electorate to that of separate electorate.
So, when the country has reverted to the previous system, the documentation should also change as per the previous procedure and the forms prescribed under separate electorate should not be kept intact.
The CEC, referring to a recent government decision, has also specifically confirmed that the status of Ahmadis shall remain unchanged. This affirms that for Ahmadis the electorate system continues to be separate, not joint, and as before they will remain out of the election process being unable to register themselves as voters against their belief.
This singling out of one community among the citizens of Pakistan is continuation of discrimination and ill -treatment in line with the state policy initiated in 1974 and strengthened in 1984 by civil and military rulers at the behest of a handful of extremist clergy.
Most Ahmadis have been kept away from all elections held in the country since 1985 and it seems they will remain so till the return of sanity. The fact is that the joint electorate system has not been fully enforced in the country.
JAMIL AHMAD BUTT
Karachi
Will helping US benefit Pakistan?
Presidential elections in the United States can be a desperate affair, especially if a president is hoping to start his second tenure. In fact, presidential elections have often been rocked with swindling asseverations and counter- allegations.
One such instance was that of Bush Senior who went so far as to ask the British prime minister to try and find any black spots in Democratic aspirant Bill Clinton's records from the institution where he studied in the United Kingdom.
Now his son, George W. Bush, is prepared to go to any lengths to capture Osama Bin Laden to cement his vote bank. The Israeli and Indian lobbies are all up to their age-old Machiavellianism.
For Pakistan it is an ideal opportunity to wheedle the United States into providing more money and military equipment to us in exchange for making efforts to capture Osama bin Laden.
Unfortunately, the chances of this happening are not bright; while the Pakistan government may be going out of its way in trying to capture Osama bin Laden, it seems unlikely that it will drive a hard bargain, not with all the American pestering for his arrest in return for which they will keep mum on the nuclear proliferation fiasco.
History proves that the Americans don't give aid on a silver platter. The government despite its limitations must, however, make hay while the sun shines during this election frenzy. We saw the tremendous scope lost during the '80s. One hopes there will be no repeat of that and this episode will not go down in our history as yet another missed opportunity.
TAIMUR T. MALIK
Islamabad
University without PhDs
This refers to the letter "Education in private universities" (February 8) by "A student" of the Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology.
I am a second-year student of the university and doing my BS in computer engineering. There are in the second year six subjects, but none of my teachers is a PhD. Five of the total six teachers have a Bachelor's degree and are students of Master's programmes in the same university.
How can the holder of a Bachelor's degree match the level of knowledge of a person who is a PhD? If the university cannot provide us with teachers having PhD degrees in their respective subjects, they should appoint only such persons as lecturers or teachers as have some experience or full command over their subjects.
Most of our teachers cannot teach well as their own concepts are not clear. This can be judged by their reactions. When a student asks them good and valid questions, they evade answering them. It's the duty of the university administration to immediately appoint qualified teachers to improve the standard of education.
MUHAMMAD WAQAS
Karachi
Cooperative housing societies
A number of letters from victims of fraudulent cooperative housing societies, as well as editorial comments and news reports highlighting their unscrupulous activities, have been appearing in the press for quite some time. However, no punitive action has so far been taken against those responsible.
As far back as the middle of 2000 it was reported that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had launched a country-wide inquiry against hundreds of cooperative societies that were involved in fleecing and swindling thousands of people out of their lifetime earnings/savings.
It was further reported that the then NAB chairman had asked all provincial chief secretaries to implement an action plan prepared by the bureau after investigations into the cooperative scams that had occurred from 1990 to 1999.
NAB also directed the provinces to wind up all non-functional societies and proceed against their office-bearers who had embezzled public money. It also asked the chief secretaries to direct the cooperative departments to cancel the registration of dormant societies within two months.
However, before winding up these societies, their record had to be inspected to determine the position of their funds. Thereafter, NAB, with the assistance of deputy commissioners, would recover the amount from the promoters. Unfortunately, the NAB move did not take off.
The gravity of the situation demands that the government should act urgently to provide relief to the victims. For this it must set up an authority to do the following:
i) Examine the bona fides of each society and scrutinize credentials of both its original promoters/sponsors and current operators and managers.
ii) Carry out a physical survey of projects of each society, scrutinize its record pertaining to the land/plots it claims to own and verify the same with the revenue department concerned. Ascertain that the society actually owns the land it is offering for sale to its members and that it has 100 per cent legal and transparent title to it and is free from all encumbrances, disputes, litigations, etc.
iii) Arrange physical inspection of the land and ascertain whether it is in one compact block or scattered in pieces over a large area; In the latter case it will be impossible to develop a housing society.
iv) Check and see if the society has been cleared by the development authorities, namely CDA, LDA, KDA or district councils, and is in possession of no-objection certificates from them.
v) Examine original terms and conditions on which the society offered plots for sale at the time of launching the scheme/project and whether they scrupulously adhered to them and were fulfilling all the promises and commitments made to the buyers.
vi) Dig out facts as regards deviations and violations of the original terms and conditions with particular reference to any arbitrary increase in the price of land, imposition of extra development charges and delay in carrying out development works.
vi) Engage professionals to survey each project and ascertain the pace and extent of the development work executed by the society. These experts should also see the quality of the development work and submit their report to the authority.
Last but not least, the cooperative departments need to be gingered up. They should keep vigilance over the working of societies under their jurisdiction.
SYED IRFAN AHMED
Lahore
A researcher's plaint
I applied for a doctorate programme under the topic "Role of journalism in Pakistan under military rule - 1958 to 2003", at the Department of Mass Communication, University of Karachi.
A required synopsis, an abstract bibliography, a pay order, an affidavit and all such other required documents were submitted to the department and were found in order by the relevant authorities.
I also produced a composed thesis on "World oil politics" which university officials recognized as a document of international standard. Although a long time has passed, the university has so far taken no step to enable me to do my research.
I would like to draw the attention of the vice-chancellor to a news item published in a section of the press (January 23) claiming that the Sindh education department has been authorized to confirm and prosecute MPhil/PhD programmes.
It is surprising that while the chairman of the Higher Education Commission, Dr Atta-ur-Rehman, has publicly stated many times that the government wants its citizens to join MPhil/PhD programmes, Karachi University appears to be lax in this regard.
If I am not granted registration of my MPhil /PhD programme, I will be left with no choice but to take this matter to a court of law under the Constitution of Pakistan, as well as the UN charter which grants all citizens the freedom of expression and the freedom of the press.
MOHAMMAD ALI KHALID
Karachi
House tax
This refers to the news item "MLC seeks tax exemption for rented houses" (February 25).
Armed forces' officers, federal/provincial government servants and their wives/widows, living in self-occupied houses in cantonments, have been exempted from paying the house tax. The MLC now wants the rented houses in the cantonments owned by the above class to be exempted from the tax.
It is a travesty of justice that a category of retired armed forces' officers, occupying houses purchased in the name of their sons who are at present residents abroad, are denied the same privilege - exemption from the house tax.
I urge the ministry of defence to extend the same facility, i.e. exemption from the house tax, to those parents, retired armed forces and federal /provincial government servants whose sons are residents abroad and have gifted their houses to their parents for occupation. It is hoped that this category of officers will be treated as living in self-occupied houses and as such exempted from the house tax.
KHAN A. SHAMSHAD
Karachi
Kashmir issue
I fully support the enlightened views of Prassana S. (February 29) to resolve the Kashmir dispute. As articulated in his letter, any solution to the Kashmir dispute can only come gradually, with the improvement in relations between India and Pakistan being the most important ingredient and catalyst to nudge the solutions along.
My hat goes off to Mr Prassana S. for his vision. I solicit support from others in India and Pakistan in creating the right climate for our rulers and politicians to act.
ABDUL KHALIQUE
New Jersey, USA
A seafarer's woes
I want to bring to the notice of the Turkish government the poor working of some Turkish companies. Seafarers working with a ship management company, Furtran, based in Istanbul, which has its manning agents Terra Marine in Karachi, often suffer owing either to delays in the payment of their wages or non-payment thereof.
I was promised payment of my wages after signing off with the company in July last year, but my wages have not been settled yet despite many reminders which the manning agents and I have sent to the company.
I submitted my case to the Turkish consulate in Karachi last December, seeking a meeting with the consul general about taking up the matter with the relevant authorities in Istanbul, but I have not yet received any reply or help in this regard.
A SUFFERER
Karachi
Aziz Bhatti Park
Senior citizens residing in blocks 10 and 11 of Karachi's Gulshan-i-Iqbal usually go to Aziz Bhatti Park for walking. For their convenience, the park administration has provided an entrance to the compound wall by putting a stone slab over a sewage drain, which flows close by. The stone slab was recently broken, thus making the park inaccessible for the area residents.
Besides, the road leading to the park from Block 10 is in a deplorable condition. It has not been recarpeted for the last so many years. The road has developed cracks, cavities and potholes.
In view of the foregoing, the nazim of Gulshan Town is requested to visit the place and take appropriate measures to make the park accessible to the people of the locality.
PROFESSOR S.K. HASAN
Karachi
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