| 26 April 2004 | Monday | 05 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1425 |
Relief for senior citizens
A teacher's ordeal
KESC meter readers
Lower Gizri residents' plight
Kidney patient's plea
Cancer that never was
Bhopal's Union Carbide disaster
Distress of a parent
Faisalabad bench
Khusrau Park
Security around US consulate
Urdu Afsana conference
Poverty alleviation
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Since the submission of a report by a special committee of the National Commission on the Status of Women a few months back, a debate has been raging on whether the Hudood ordinances promulgated by General Ziaul Haq should to repealed or not. The orthodox are up in arms.
To them the repealing of these ordinances is unacceptable and Zia may have been the worst thing that happened to Pakistan but he was a hero to them for introducing the Hudood laws.
But how sacrosanct did Zia himself hold the Hudood ordinances is apparent from the extract below from the recently-published book Charlie Wilson's War by George Crile:
"Wilson had worked his magic with his own subcommittee, and everything seemed on track for him to make his legislative strike when Doc Long (Chairman, Congressional Appropriation Committee for the CIA) stumbled across an article recounting the plight of a young, blind, orphaned Pakistani girl who had been raped.
To the chairman's disgust, the article explained that by Islamic law a rape can be proved only if there are four witnesses. Since here there was only one, and since the girl admitted that intercourse had taken place, the Pakistani authorities promptly tried her and threw her in jail for fornication (Zina).
"All bets were now off. Hair swirling, eyes bugging out in fury, the chairman was suddenly calling his newfound friend General Zia a barbaric dictator. "Zia is not going to get a dollar of foreign military aid. Period, screeched Long.
"I want him to know that I control the buck." Long dispatched his aide Jeff Nelson to inform the Pakistani ambassador that if the girl was not immediately pardoned, put in a home and cared for, Pakistan would be cut off.
"For a moment, the plight of this unfortunate teenage girl became the most sensitive issue in US-Pakistan relations. In Wilson's view, Long was just powerful and crazy enough to sabotage the entire Afghan war effort if Zia did not yield.
"The next day Zia's ambassador General Ajaz Azim appeared in the chairman's office and announced: 'His Excellency the President has asked me to communicate to you that the matter about which you communicated with him has been resolved in the exact terms which you requested.'
"Doc stared at the ambassador, shouting back at his aide, 'What the hell does that mean?'
"Very quickly, General Azim assured Long that the girl would be taken care of in a private home for life. The president, he said, wanted the chairman to know that he personally guaranteed this. 'As far as I'm concerned,' says Nelson, 'the blind girl was the key to everything.'"
It would thus appear that for Zia these ordinances were just a gimmick. Never before in the history of Pakistan had anyone used religion so hypocritically for the advancement of his political agenda.
The obscurantist fail to realize that when one calls for repealing the Hudood ordinances, it is not a call to repeal the Quranic injunctions of the Hudood but to repeal Zia's ordinances for Hudood, which were enforced hurriedly without any debate whatsoever.
These have brought about untold misery for women because of their inherent defects. Surely our obscurantists acknowledge that Islamic laws are meant to bring about justice and not injustice and statistics are there to show that Zia's ordinances have brought about nothing but injustice.
Unfortunately even though our obscurantists are conscious of the failings of Zia's ordinances, against their better judgment they oppose its repeal because most of them believe that it is a good instrument, when used in tandem with tribal cultural traditions, to keep women in perpetual subjugation.
M. SHAIQ USMANI
Karachi
Relief for senior citizens
The government deserves credit for coming to the aid of senior citizens by launching Bahbud savings certificates designed specifically for the elderly. They can invest their savings and receive profit for 10 years at a reasonable rate unaffected by the ups and downs of the money market.
Interestingly, the national saving schemes, of which the Bahbud certificates are a part, were originally designed to meet the budget deficit. But over the years they have become a refuge of weak and vulnerable groups with modest savings - the elderly, pensioners, widows and the unemployable.
All of them will be eligible for welfare benefits under any social security system in the world. Besides, the development has a lot to do with the financial chaos caused by the collapse of the Taj Company, cooperative banks and countless other shady corporations. Millions lost money in these troubled times.
There was real danger that the vulnerable groups would fall victim to corporate and private fraud again on account of sharp cuts in the profit rates of these schemes over the last two years. Hopefully, the Bahbud package will discourage potential swindlers.
Now that it has rallied to the elderly, the finance ministry should also take care of the staff of the national savings centres. They are deeply unhappy that their pay and perks compare very unfavourably with those of bank employees, although both perform the same functions.
Also, it is time the centres got a face-lift. They wear a dismal look. With a little care and a bit of money, they can be turned into cheerful places where senior citizens can meet and talk to while away the tedious waiting time.
RASHID AKHTAR
Rabwah
A teacher's ordeal
I am working as a senior teacher (B-16) at the Waris Shah Special Education Centre for HIC, Sheikhupura. Before my transfer to Sheikhupura, I had been working at the special education centre (SEC) for MRC, Lahore, as a senior teacher since October 29, 1988.
I am facing a lot of difficulties living in Sheikhupura with my two infants because my husband is posted in Karachi and there is no other male member in my family who would look after the family in his absence. I am staying in Lahore with my elder sister, and travel daily from Lahore to Sheikhupura. Now I find it impossible to continue doing so after I have undergone an operation for hernia. My doctor has advised me to avoid exertion and travelling.
I am in a dilemma. I do not want to quit my job as I have always enjoyed working with special children. My field is not very common in Pakistan and there are not many job opportunities available.
I am highly qualified and skilled and have a professional experience of 15 years in the field of special education. I want to utilize my potential and experience for the welfare, rehabilitation and training of special children.
I would request the adviser to the prime minister on women's affair that in consideration of my predicament I may be transferred from Sheikhupura or attached to any other SEC at Karachi as soon as possible.
MRS FARAH DIBA NIAZ
Waris Shah Special Education Centre, Sheikhupura
KESC meter readers
Our domestic meters have six digits - the last digit being a decimal figure. It has been observed that the KESC's meter-readers record only five digits by omitting the first digit if it is a zero but they never indicate that the last one is a decimal. The net result: the poor consumer has to pay electric bills which are, so to say, highly inflated.
Let me illustrate from just a single month, i.e., February 2004, for which the KESC's electricity bill records as under:
Present 69042 units
As against this, the correct billing, which should duly take into account the last digit as a decimal figure, ought to be recorded as follows:
Previous 68655 units
Total 387 units
Present 06904.2 units
One may roughly form an idea of the thousands of rupees of which a domestic consumer would have been cheated over the years. The managing director of the KESC and all supervisory officers concerned are requested through these columns to address this grave issue of public interest forthwith.
Previous 6865.5 units
Total units billed 138.7 units.
RAFIQ HUSSAIN AGHA
Karachi
Lower Gizri residents' plight
Lower Gizri, adjacent to Defence Housing Authority, comes under one of the richest, if not the richest, Cantonment Boards. It has not seen any improvement or development since the inception of the Clifton Cantonment Board (CCB). The area next to it, which is part of Phase IV, DHA, does not appear to be any better.
Utility services not only ignore but punish us for being a kutchi abadi. We are subjected to frequent and prolonged shutdowns and forced trippings which take hours to be re-energized.
Our houses are plunged into darkness but in the areas where people who matter reside and clubs are located the sun never sets. The only consolation (I am being mean) is that we found an unwilling partner in phase IV which also suffers and becomes a target along with Lower Gizri.
We continue to be discriminated and singled out, which is solely based on our being underprivileged. Repeated requests and complaints have fallen on deaf ears and have invited wrath in the form of shutdowns.
Will someone who feels for and is concerned about the sufferings of Lower Gizri stand up and be counted? Regret, there is none.
AHMAD MUKHTAR
Karachi
Kidney patient's plea
I am 82 years old and am a CRF (kidney failure) patient living on home dialysis since May 2003. Unlike haemodialysis treatment with a machine and hospitalization, this CAPD dialysis treatment is a home treatment managed by the patient himself without hospitalization. It involves intake, retention and draining of a dialysis solution daily at regular intervals.
I have been prescribed this treatment by no other than Professor S. Ali Jaffar Naqvi, honorary surgeon captain of Pakistan Navy, consultant in nephro-urology, PNS Shifa, Karachi, as entitled to free medical treatment being a retired defence employee but I am being denied the prescribed necessary dialysis solution at OPD, PNS Shifa.
It is requested that PNS Shifa be authorized to issue the prescribed dialysis solution through the OPD.
MUHAMMAD IQBAL
Pak/1412, Squadron Leader (R) Karachi
Cancer that never was
He is about 70 and his movement from one place to another is rather restricted due to his obesity. Some months back, he had a persistent cough and an unresolved pneumonia for more than a month.
His physician had him have a CT scan, which showed consolidation of one of the basal segments of his right lung. Erroneously reported as a malignant lesion, without any branchoscopic biopsy and cytology, he was referred to radiotherapy and chemotherapy.
It was a very debilitating and painful experience, causing anaemia, weight loss, depression, demoralization, multiple transfusions, and radiation burn on the lower lobe of the lung.
He was greatly disturbed to know that he was diagnosed for a pulmonary cancerous growth. His interest in day-to-day activities diminished. Cytological study and sputum culture luckily negated the suspicion of any malignancy.
The case turned out to be one of basal pneumonia by culture of infective organisms. Happily, he responded well to treatment by antibiotics according to culture. He gradually picked up weight.
As an aftermath of radiotherapy and chemotherapy, there was loss of appetite and anaemia for which he was given four pints of blood and iron injections, which to his good luck worked well.
Due to radiotherapy, two-thirds of his right lung had already been destroyed, which caused serious brancho -pneumonia and mucopurulent exudation from the lungs, that necessitated long treatment and chest-physiotherapy.
He was in course of time mobilized and is having chest-physio regularly to drain out the bronchial exudate, which was still required by him for a couple of months for full recovery.
The message is that before labelling malignancy of any part of the body, cytological study and biopsy are essential for confirmation. Cancer is a dreaded disease. Not only a patient is devastated but his or her dependents are also greatly disturbed by his or her suffering and by subsequent chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
The patient, who has requested anonymity, is now in a better shape. He has regained his lost confidence; appetite and his interest in life has also returned.
DR RAFIQUE AHMED MIRZA
Karachi
Bhopal's Union Carbide disaster
According to an April 19 AFP report from San Francisco, two Bhopal ladies, Rashida Bee and Champa Devi, were among seven grassroots activists from around the world to be awarded this year's Goldman Environmental Prize and honoured as environmental champions.
The awards are in recognition of their defiance of social norms, poverty and sickness in a quest to hold Dow Chemical Company accountable for the 1984 Union Carbide disaster in Bhopal that killed more than 20,000 people.
A Muslim youth - he must be in his mid or late forties now - employed in Union Carbide was reported to have climbed up a plant and shut off a valve through which poison gas was leaking, thereby saving many a Hindu/Muslim/other life. His courageous and risky action was beyond the call of duty.
What adverse effects he may have suffered is not known nor if his brave deed beyond the call of duty was duly acknowledged by the powers-that-be. Maybe, Bhopal's AFP correspondent or Dawn's correspondent in India can throw some light on this.
JALAL AHMED
Karachi
Distress of a parent
Schools have adopted novel methods of fleecing parents in the form of different charges/fees/subscriptions/fine/ others. Previously, this was the practice in private sector institutions but now schools run by the Defence Housing Authority have gone all-out in the same direction.
This month, with the start of the new academic year, I have received a fee bill for my child in Class V in the DHA Model School, Phase IV. It contains 24 columns reflecting different heads where I have been asked to pay, apart from others charges, building maintenance Rs1,000, examination fund Rs250 and entertainment charges Rs1,000.
What justification is there to charge, from each student, an amount of Rs1,000 in the name of building maintenance, which is the job of the DHA, and Rs250 and Rs1,000 as examination fund/ entertainment/annual charges?
For a white-collar middle-class person these charges are unbearable. I beseech the authorities concerned (the Defence Authority and the education department) to come to the rescue of helpless parents.
AGGRIEVED PARENT
Karachi
Faisalabad bench
Newspapers tell us that the government plans to establish a bench of the high court at Faisalabad on the demand of the District Bar Association. District and sessions courts are the basic trial courts in the districts.
The high court is an appellate forum and, constitutionally, has exclusive jurisdiction to protect the fundamental rights of the citizens. However, some powers have been delegated to the sessions courts of all the districts under Section 22-A of CrPC, so the high court must not be divided into further benches.
Faisalabad is about an hour and half's drive from Lahore and transport is easily available 24 hours between Lahore and Faisalabad. An LHC bench at Faisalabad will prompt other district bar associations to make similar demands.
The District Bar Association, Sargodha, has made the same demand many times. On the other hand, the issue of the establishment of the Multan and Rawalpindi benches is already sub judice.
NAZR ABBAS SYED
Lahore
Khusrau Park
The management of Amir Khusrau Park in Block-4 of Clifton has come up with the novel idea of watering the park by blocking the down flow of the sewer running outside the park and obtaining water from there. This results in overflow of the sewerage line during the night.
The KW&SB seems to be totally oblivious to the situation and is not at all interested in putting an end to this menace.
MAHMOOD H. DADABHOY
Karachi
Security around US consulate
I would like to bring to the notice of all the authorities concerned the acute hardship and inconvenience being caused to the public in Karachi on account of stringent security measures introduced on Abdullah Haroon Road between Hoshang Road and Hotel Metropole to provide security for the US consulate located there.
Lately, the police have started stopping taxis, motorcycles and many other vehicles from using that portion of Abdullah Haroon Road. Marriott Hotel and ABN Amro Bank are located there and many people have to visit them but they are not allowed to do so if they are travelling on motorcycles, taxis, or a high roof vehicle.
I recently wanted to go to ABN Amro Bank for normal banking business and was asked to get down at Hotel Metropole and walk up as the taxi in which I was travelling was not permitted to cross the barrier near the hotel.
If the US consulate is under such acute threat, why not move it to some secluded area? As it is, the consulate is virtually closed to the public and no service is being provided from there and for every little thing we have to travel to the embassy in Islamabad.
IQBAL AHMED
Karachi
Urdu Afsana conference
This refers to your news item in the issue of April 20 about the Aalmi Urdu Afsana conference. In order to set the record straight, I have to say that the Arts Council of Pakistan, Karachi, had voluntarily at their own discretion appointed me convener, coordinator and organizer for the conference vide their letter dated January 20, 2004.
Thus, the withdrawal of appointment is arbitrary. Your news includes the false allegation that the Arts Council paid me Rs15,000 for conference expenses. The fact is that they paid me Rs5,000 only.
AHMED HAMESH
Editor, Tashkeel Quarterly,
Karachi
Poverty alleviation
President Musharraf while addressing a gathering at the Governor's House, Lahore, on April 18 said that he wanted to do something concrete for the poor of the country.
I appreciate the short-term efforts so far made by the president and his advisers in improving country's economy. However, long-term planning is required to alleviate poverty and to achieve that I shall quote an old Chinese saying - if you give a fish to a hungry poor man, he will have his one meal but if you teach him how to catch fish, he will manage his meals for his whole life.
DR ZAINAB RIZVI
Lahore
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