| 07 April 2004 | Wednesday | 16 Safar 1425 |
The West and extremism
Mistakes in IELTS TRF
Encroachments galore
Pollen problem
SDPI report on textbook reforms
Definition of democracy
Road a shambles
Over burdened NSC staff
Criticism of US, Israel
Transport problem
Sinister motives
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The time has come for immediately solving the Kashmir issue to the satisfaction of the Kashmiris, the Indians and the Pakistanis to expedite the process of economic growth of the common masses fast enough to make up for the lost time of more than 50 years. Expediencies should not be allowed to come in the way.
The problem of Kashmir is Jawaharlal Nehru's creation. Gandhiji was against partition, but once it was agreed upon by both the Congress and the Muslim League, he favoured whole-hearted cooperation between them. The Chanakya/ Machiavelli in Nehru withheld the Rs550 million, the share of Pakistan in the liquid assets of British India.
Gandhiji proceeded on a fast-unto-death in protest. Nehru relented. Behind the back of Gandhiji, Nehru had already acquired land access between India and Kashmir using Mountbatten and Radcliffe to assign certain Muslim majority territory of Gurdaspur district, originally assigned to Muslim majority Pakistan under the principle of partition, to India.
Manoeuvring a so-called accession of Kashmir by Hari Singh - the tangible evidence of this is not available - Nehru sent Indian troops on October 26, 1947, into Kashmir and occupied Jammu province, Kashmir Valley and Ladakh.
On October 31, he sent a telegram to PM Liaquat stating that the wishes of the Kashmiris would be allowed to decide the question of accession on return of peace to the state. He also confirmed this pledge to the Kashmiris at a public meeting in Srinagar declaring: If you go your way, we will go our way."
This promise wasn't made in haste, thereby complying with the first part of Gandhiji's dictum mentioned above. That he was a Chanakya at heart was exposed four months later after General Franc Messervy convinced him that Kashmir rightfully belonged to Pakistan. He asserted that his actions on Kashmir were because Kashmir was written on his heart, just as Calais was written on Queen Mary's heart.
Lacking in far-sightedness, he failed to anticipate Pakistan's reaction which led to a 'no-war, no-peace' situation forcing both countries to devote, on the unproductive annually escalating defence budgets, billions upon billions, at the expense of the economic uplift of the common masses who are no better now than during foreign rule - common masses comprising the poor and the far-from-the-rich, now around 700 million - while the rich are getting richer and richer, some filthily rich.
If Nehru was faithful to Gandhiji and his dictum, instead of succumbing to his Kashmiriness, India's middle class would have grown so much as to make India the third economic giant of Asia besides China and Japan with Pakistan not lagging too far behind. More importantly, India and Pakistan would have been enjoying peace and jointly playing important roles in world affairs by allowing the plebiscite under the UN during his premiership of 17 years.
JALAL AHMED
Karachi
The West and extremism
After holding a day-long chance session with some students of American and European history, I became convinced that the West, equally if not more, is responsible for the curse of extremism in our society. The crux of the matter is that anger breeds extremism and the West has all the ingredients to make us angry. Consider the following:
- History is witness that 40 million people of west Africa were killed by Americans in captivity.
- After widening the range of targets from Algeria to Vietnam, more than 21 million people in Third World countries were killed, mostly by the West after World War II.
- Ten million Algerians perished in the struggle for liberation from French rule.
- Suharto killed 10 million of his own people with a list provided by the CIA.
These old statistics demonstrate that the West expects us to accept death as our fate, and that there is no respite from war. What it does not want to know is that things have changed and the Third World looks at things differently.
- The US manoeuvred to steal some vital votes in the UN General Assembly in 1947, otherwise establishment of Israel was not possible.
- After successfully experimenting in Gulf War I, the US again used 2,000 tons of depleted uranium in Iraq last year, which causes cancer. In 1991, Iraq had a barrage of 1,100 million American aerial sorties also as if war ethics had no sense of extremism.
- In 1991, the US invaded Iraq and again bombarded it last year killing nearly 5,500 people for "establishing democracy" in the area.
- "I am strongly in favour of using poison gas against Afghans and Iraqi Kurds," so said Winston Churchill once.
- "Only fear will re-establish respect for the Americans in the Middle East," said James Woolsey, ex-director of the CIA.
- Machiavelli, in his book, The Prince, has also advised that "it is better to be feared than loved".
- The notorious 1916 Sykes-Picot treaty between the UK and France created new countries in the Middle East to divide and weaken them, say from about eight to the present day figure of 22 countries.
All signs point to the fact that extremism in our society is driven by the western domination and occupation of Arab and Muslim countries.
Z.A. KAZMI
Karachi
Mistakes in IELTS TRF
I would like to draw the attention of the Karachi British Council director to the above subject. I appeared in the IELTS test on July 18, 2003 - candidate No. 1013 and centre No. PK010. However, when I received the test report form (TRF), to my utter surprise Punjabi was written as my first language in place of Pushto which is my first language. I still remember my first language code 086.
I did not bother to pursue correction in the TRF as I had scored very low band and took the test for the second time on November 15, 2003 - candidate No. 002336 and centre No. PK010. This time when I received TRF, a wrong entry has been made in respect of my date of birth.
However, I received a letter of apology from the British Council and was advised to submit the original TRF, which I complied with. When I received the new TRF, I found the administrator's signature missing. (The original copy is still with me as proof.)
If this is the quality of work of the British Council, Karachi centre, in filling the IELTS TRF, how can one believe that they would have entered correct band values for each module? It is quite possible to enter 8 for 5 or 7 for 6.
About how to conduct an IELTS examination, the British Council staff should check everything - passport, NIC, photos and appearance verification - so as to conduct a transparent IELTS test.
It is also necessary to check if there is any forgery. It is also the duty of the examination section to make correct entry in the IELTS test report form. There should be a system to verify the transfer of band scores from the answer sheet to TRF, otherwise it is only the candidate who will suffer.
If a candidate opts for rechecking, he is asked to submit rechecking fee amounting to 60 pounds sterling, but the examination office will never bother to check if a mistake is made during transfer of band score to TRF, let alone admitting or expecting a mistake on its part.
KHADIM SHAH
Karachi
Encroachments galore
I am a social worker and have been approached by a delegation of women residents of Mansfield Street, Wellington Street and Juma Gali in Karachi with a plaint that they are suffering from certain problems which they want the officials concerned to solve.
According to them, they suffer day and night, with their families, because of land-grabbers. All the footpaths are occupied by chairs and tables where rickshaw drivers gather to have tea, halwa-puri and tikkas till midnight.
Sometimes a KMC van comes for checking but as the hawkers get prior information, they hide their stuff, chairs, etc., in the bylanes. To show their efficiency the city government officials on the round then pick up some chairs and stools of those hawkers who have not made any payments to their departments.
You find even policemen enjoying free breakfast and dinner. Traffic is jammed. The police do not care about it as long as they get free tea and groceries.
A Christian lady who lives in Wellington Street complains of a fish market, with vegetable hawkers, next to her residence. Another complainant, a resident of Sakina Manzil on Mansfield Street, says there's a snooker club in Amjad Mansion which operates until midnight, playing loud music.
A Parsi lady says she has appealed to the human rights department to protect their rights so that they can have a peaceful sleep, without being bugged by these footpaths being converted into a food street at night.
I am writing these few lines after confirming that whatever they say is true. I hope the departments concerned will look into the matter and provide succour to the residents.
CDR. GULZAR AHMED CHAUDRY
Karachi
Pollen problem
I am writing this in response to the government decision to cut down trees that produce pollen in Islamabad. I have read letters hailing this decision and one that even suggests that people should volunteer to cut down the trees. First of all, trees alone do not cause allergies; grass and weeds can cause them, too. So, cutting down the trees to solve the allergy problem is not any solution.
Secondly, the environment in Pakistan has been abused and misused to an extent that the climate in some regions is changing. We have lost many forests and wetlands to housing schemes and industrial development. If we continue to abuse and mishandle our natural resources, we will turn our country into a desert with patches of concrete structures.
There is a very simple and easy solution to the problem of pollen allergies. In the modern world of medical advances, there are anti-allergy medications and even allergy shots that can take care of the "immense problem" of the people of Islamabad.
Cutting down the trees will wipe out the total population of beautiful trees like pine, birch and oak. This will have a massive ripple effect on wildlife and may cause erosion and further enhance the problem of global warming.
Humans have a duty to protect other forms of living beings. I request the relevant authorities to reconsider this decision and work out a strategy to save the trees of Islamabad.
SARDAR TARIQ AHMAD
Nashville, TN., USA
SDPI report on textbook reforms
Ms Zubeida Mustafa in her March 31 article writes about the recent SDPI report on curriculum and textbook reforms. She concludes: "The positive aspect of the SDPI report... is that for the first time in years the issue of textbooks contents is receiving some attention from the authorities, although the press - at least this paper - and the educationists who care had been crying themselves hoarse for decades about the poor quality of the textbooks that are being taught in our schools."
I think one reason for the change that Ms Mustafa describes is that as violent religious sectarianism has grown in our society, moderate and progressive voices have rallied around the need for sweeping reforms in the education system.
I am heartened by these developments, both as someone who has been part of this effort to reform the curriculum and textbooks since 1984, when Pervez Hoodbhoy and I wrote an essay together about this, and as one of the compilers of the SDPI report.
I was however saddened to read Ms Mustafa cite Dr Rubina Saigol's concern about "plagiarism" and "intellectual dishonesty" in the SDPI. It is unfortunate that before publishing such serious accusations against the SDPI report, Ms Mustafa chose not to ask the compilers of the report for a response or explanation. We would have expected this to be standard practice for journalists in such a distinguished newspaper.
It seems Dr Saigol feels the report did not give what she felt was sufficient credit for her work in this area. As one of the compilers of the report, I would like to express my regret if Dr Saigol feels slighted. She is an eminent scholar and I hold her work in high regard. However, I would like to make clear that her accusations are unfair.
The SDPI report is based on a study by a group involving 30 scholars and educationists. Dr Saigol was part of the group that conducted the study, and her name is listed along with the others in the study. Dr Saigol was asked to contribute a chapter to the final report. Unfortunately, she declined.
The report released in June 2003 is an effort at looking at the current state of curricula and textbooks, not a historical study of how these have evolved - or rather not evolved.
Our goal was to look into the curriculum documents prepared by the Ministry of Education in May 2002 and printed and released in early 2003, and textbooks printed by provincial textbook boards in 2002 and 2003. No other book or report had by then, to our knowledge, looked into this source material.
Nonetheless, the introduction does note there has been earlier work by many eminent scholars on the damage that has been done by the national curriculum and textbooks over the years. The chapter by Ahmed Salim specifically refers to work by Rubina Saigol, K.K. Aziz and others. These references clearly credit them with precedence in pointing out the malaise that our textbooks suffer from. The report is available in full from the SDPI, Islamabad, and on the web at www.sdpi.org.
DR A. H. NAYYAR
Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad
Definition of democracy
I have failed to understand whether there is a recognized definition of "democracy". The US and some other economic and military powers insist that they must bring democracy to the poverty-stricken and underdeveloped nations.
And now with the concept of "pre-emptive" strikes against underdeveloped nations not falling in line with their aspirations, they want unlimited control over the destiny of such nations. There is no doubt that it needs prolonged and honest efforts to achieve tangible results.
But the last 60 years have demonstrated that no such achievements go to the credit of the proponents of democracy, including what happened in Nagasaki and Hiroshima in Japan, Vietnam and now in Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine and Haiti.
Our focus is now on the United Nations to give some semblance of democracy when even the will and decision-making of the overwhelming majority of the 192 member-countries is thwarted by the veto power enjoyed by five nations.
IRSHAD H. KHAN
Karachi
Road a shambles
Chok Mari Link Road, which is about 35km long, is an important road which links the National Highway to the Indus Highway via Guddu (TPC). This link road goes through Ghotki and Jacobabad districts. Heavy traffic bound for the four provinces move on this road. Also, this road passes through scores of villages and small towns.
On both sides, it has large strips of fertile land having sizable agricultural output. Since the National Highway and the Indus Highway have been rebuilt and developed greatly to ensure a smooth flow of traffic, Chok Mari Link Road needs to be rebuilt and developed immediately to facilitate the flow of traffic. At present, this road is in a shambles, causing a great inconvenience to thousands of motorists.
I hope the National Highway Authority will repair and expand this road as early as possible.
AGHA ALI GOHAR KHAN
Ghotki
Over burdened NSC staff
The National Savings Centre in Gulshan-i-Iqbal of Karachi is always crowded. The NSC staff are overburdened with work which is adversely affecting their performance. This is an additional source of misery for investors.
It is requested that the staff should be reinforced.
SYEd HARIS HASSAN
Karachi
Criticism of US, Israel
Opinions voiced in criticism of the US and Israel usually centre on the idea that their policies are likely to work against their aim of arriving at a peaceful solution. It is often stated that "Israel is mistaken" if it thinks it can have peace by eliminating the Palestinians.
Such sentiments are the result of a rather naive belief that it is peace which the US and its henchman Israel are hoping for. In fact, world peace is the last thing that a superpower wants.
Man calls on a power it considers to be greater than itself only in times of distress. If the spectre of war was to disappear completely, what use would we have for a country that has as its greatest merit the largest stockpile of arms and the capacity to cause the most destruction? How much influence would the US wield in a world free of transgression and terror? Those who consider the US their deity and saviour only turn to it in the face of terror, and it is from these that it draws its strength.
If the US were to clear the world of terror, it would reduce itself to a white elephant.
ZAIN MANKANI
Karachi
Transport problem
There is a serious problem of transport in Karachi's Boating Basin area. Only one wagon (X3) operates on this route, and no other van/bus goes to Saddar from there. The population of this area, which has grown over the years, is facing great hardship due to this problem.
Also, there is no transport here that goes up to Karachi University and, as such, students are suffering greatly. The relevant authorities are requested to run public buses and coaches from Boating Basin to different areas of the city.
RESIDENT
Karachi
Sinister motives
The following news items appeared in Dawn on March 29:
1. A conference of religious parties declared the defeat of the Pakistani cricket team at the hands of India as "engineered" to help Prime Minister Vajpayee in his election campaign.
2. The Wana operation was part of Bush's poll drive.
3. President Karzai has postponed polls till September. (presumably he may also be looking for "help" from Pakistan).
Questioning the strategy or mode of any action by the government is a democratic norm, but ascribing sinister motives to every action is an insult to the genius of 150 million people.
FAQIR AHMED PARACHA
Peshawar
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