| 20 May 2004 | Thursday | 29 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1425 |
Nursing the terminally ill
School problems galore
A poor plantation plan
Wheat crisis
PMIC metamorphosis
Need for price control mechanism
No dividend
US atrocities
Railway help centres
Unity without principles
Silencers
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The recent buzz is: Punjabi is not the mother tongue of Punjab. We will soon be hearing that Urdu is the mother tongue of the Japanese also. This hypothesis has been formulated by Fateh Muhammad Malik and cited by Mushir Anwar in his "Literary Round up"(May 7). This is indeed a horribly twisted concept.
It is no joke to replace the language of another origin with the language of another land. It only serves the all-powerful vested interests. Things are not the way they have been claimed
Mr Anwar writes: "Punjabi is an undeveloped form of Urdu." This should be written in history in golden words that the developed form of Punjabi (the mother language of the people of Punjab) got structured at and emerged from Fort William College at Calcutta in the hands of non-Punjabi munshis under the watchful eyes of our colonial masters.
At the same time, people of Punjab were speaking the same undeveloped Punjabi language in their homes and doing their daily chores in their mother tongue "Punjabi" and the poets of Punjab were still writing in Punjabi. (Nobody told the Punjabis about it: they suddenly woke up to the fact that a language for them is being cooked up and evolved elsewhere).
The British troops had to undergo ferocious fights in Punjab, because they had a wonderful gift for the people of Punjab - the developed form of the Punjabi language - and they had also this munshi class with them to teach the language (although we have been learning the developed form of Punjabi for one-and-a-half centuries, we, Punjabis, are still grappling with the proper pronunciation and accent).
When the British got hold of Punjab, they tried to root out and propagated against the Punjabi language through these munshis. Only the victorious could mete out such a treatment to subjugate and humiliate the people of the land (documents are on record).
If we see through the logic of Fateh Muhammad Malik and Mushir Anwar, all distinguished of the Punjabi language, from Baba Farid to Mian Muhammad Bukhsh, are nothing because they have chosen to write in an inferior and substandard language.
Urdu is the federal language of Pakistan. It can play a meaningful role by linking all of us - Sindhis, Punjabis, Baloch and Pathans - in a harmonious blend, keeping intact our cultures and languages.
In this way, it becomes the symbol of our national identity, but one should refrain from allotting it the role of dictatorship. We had been victim of that psyche of monolingual imperialism in the recent past, in 1971.
The demand for Punjabi as a medium of instruction is as old as the birth of Pakistan and is not a new thing for all of us. We should all endorse this demand, as the drop-out rate of school-going children in Punjab is very high. One of the factors for this deplorable situation is that children are denied their basic human right to read and write in their mother language.
We should all strive to make Pakistan a place where all languages can attain equal status, can flourish and grow without the danger of extinction. We hope the day arrives soon when these languages will become the source of earning and status for their respective communities.
MAQSOOD SAQIB
Lahore
Nursing the terminally ill
This refers to the views expressed by Mrs Shabana Saleem Lalji (May 17) regarding provision of healthcare to terminally ill patients. The healthcare provider is only an adviser to the patient. However, the concept in Pakistan is that healthcare professionals consider themselves as the ultimate authority.
This approach has entirely changed in the developed countries; now the patient, the user of health service, makes the decision about his/her health or treatment. The healthcare provider - be it a physician or a nurse - has to make a shared decision with the patient.
The healthcare professional has to inform the patient about all available treatment options, benefits and side-effects of each treatment method. Research has proved that this approach has a far better health outcome. The main decision-making power lies with the patient who is the ultimate beneficiary of the treatment being provided.
Similarly, for the management of a terminally ill patient, the consultant has to discuss the situation with the patient, and relatives should be involved only when the patient so desires. If the patient wants to be resuscitated, the healthcare provider has to do what the patient has asked for. If a patient is also mentally incapacitated, his/her relatives have the right to take the decision.
Physicians have a specific role in such situations and they have to inform patients regarding the sequence of events in case of a terminal illness. Here again if the patient or his/her nominated persons do not agree with what the care provider thinks is right, the care provider has to respect the views of the patient or the nominated persons.
Unfortunately, in Pakistan health has never been a priority. We have never had enough resources to provide the people with a healthcare system that could be compared to laid-down international standards.
Our elite spend a lot of foreign exchange on getting treatment abroad but they never allow better health facilities to come into the country for the benefit of ordinary people. Although most of the healthcare systems in the UK and the US are being run by Asian and Pakistani doctors, our own people cannot get proper health care.
It is time every Pakistani thought seriously of his rights, duties to his younger generation and his responsibilities in the present global situation. We can provide care to the terminally ill people when our system matches international standards.
DR MISFAR HASSAN
Via email
School problems galore
Dawn's issue of May 12 carried three related items on education, namely "Plight of adopted school" by Zubeida Mustafa, "40 govt schools lack facilities" by your Sialkot correspondent and "Team begins probe into textbooks printing" by the Hyderabad correspondent.
While working with government schools in Karachi and Punjab, it is evident that the infrastructure is dilapidated all over the country, more so in the rural areas. It is also a fact that wherever a concerned citizen gets involved, the standard goes up.
Consequently, children around that area flock to this school, classrooms swell with students, and teachers cannot cope. Other schools around that area have not been able to maintain or improve standards and have empty classroom and excess staff.
Approaching the district education officers concerned for rectification of the problems, we receive the comment that transfer of teachers or disciplinary action has to go through a cumbersome procedure and is highly politicized.
The new system of nazims and union councils has not taken root and the distribution of power is not clear, and a constant tug-of-war is going on. The main victims of this situation are teachers and students.
On top of it, the scandal of late printing of books means that all schools have been without books for the past two months. The summer holidays are approaching which will further affect teaching at schools.
All of us who are working to improve government schools are at a loss to understand why expensive advertisements are appearing with photographs of the president, chief ministers and education ministers promising the moon for school-going children when the ground realities comprise a rotten infrastructure, a system overloaded with cumbersome procedures and unclear demarcation of powers between provinces and local governments.
Concerned citizens' efforts can only yield results if the infrastructure is improved and a conducive educational atmosphere is created.
A. MAJEED
Karachi
A poor plantation plan
Recently an announcement was made that 5,000 saplings would be planted in Saddar Town in Karachi. This was announced by Mr Waseem Akhtar, adviser to the Sindh chief minister, and town nazim Farooq Fariya. It appears they made the plan without giving any serious thought to it. I have the following questions to ask:
1) Do you have enough water for these 5,000 saplings and the thousands of trees planted over the years that are now dying?
2) Do you have trained gardeners to look after the saplings, manure them and keep them alive? We have an example in the hundreds of date palms planted by the government in Karachi in the last few years; 50 per cent of the trees are dead or dying.
3) How are you going to protect these saplings and the other roadside plantations from the civil organizations that dig up roads and cut into the roots of the trees? Twice or thrice a year the KESC massacres trees whose branches come close to electric wires. Should they not use electric saws instead of hacking them so crudely and ruining these majestic trees?
Apart from this, tree trunks are covered and cemented over when footpaths are made, leaving no room for giving the tree water or manure.
4) The worst is colouring the trunks of the trees with green, red and white paint. Can the municipality explain the reason for painting trees with toxic paints? How would they like their legs to be painted red up to their knees?
Some years ago when my family built our house, we planted several trees outside our home. After 10 years only six are there because they have been boxed in with cement round the base of their trunks, leaving no space for water to get into the roots or for the trees to breathe.
The only alternative for me is to take the law into my own hands and dig up the sidewalk.
A. REHMAN
Hyderabad
Wheat crisis
This has reference to the report "Jamali, Shujaat discuss situation" (May 2) in which the prime minister is quoted as having said: "Punjab is the main wheat producer and it has the right to take steps keeping in view its own requirements."
Here one would only like to remind Mr Jamali that Balochistan, where he comes from, is the main producer of gas, the NWFP of power and Sindh of coal, oil and custom revenues.
Would the chief executive of the country pronounce, let alone try to implement, a policy in respect of Balochistan, the NWFP and Sindh that they have the right to take steps keeping in view their own requirements?
I am sure he would not dare dream about it because he knows that it was this policy of claiming control over their resources that cost quite a few Baloch, Pakhtoon, Sindhi and Bengali leaders their governments, sent many of them to jail and some even to the gallows.
This leads one to George Orwell's Animal Farm where all animals are equal but some are more equal than others. And this indicates the stand of the people of Sindh, Balochistan and the NWFP that policies are made and decisions often taken in the interest and with the consent of Punjab.
ABDUL KHALIQUE JUNEJO
Chairman, JSQM, Karachi
PMIC metamorphosis
This refers to the news item regarding the revival of the Prime Minister's Inspection Commission (PMIC). The report said it would be an anti-corruption entity, which is not an appropriate description because this entity was never vested with powers under any criminal law.
This organization had existed in one form or another for decades and had been variously called the "President's Inspection Team" during the regimes of Field Marshal Ayub Khan and General Yahya Khan; Organization of Prime Minister's Representative on Administrative Inspection (OPMRAI) in Mr Z. A. Bhutto's time; Federal Inspection Commission in General Ziaul Haq's days; Prime Minister's Inspection Commission in Mr Muhammad Khan Junejo's and Ms Benazir Bhutto's time; Prime Minister's Inspection and Implementation Commission under Mian Nawaz Sharif's government, and Chief Executive/ President's Inspection Commission until 2002.
The jurisdiction of this organization has also differed. OPMRAI functioned as an ombudsman administering equity and intervening in cases of mal administration, but did not set up parallel court-like structures.
It had a skeletal staff, but also inspected markedly mal administered areas like sea customs, central excise and land customs, dry ports, railway sleeper factories, movement and shortages of food grains, fertilizer imports and spurious drugs. The primary purpose of inspections was to improve systems.
Later, the role of the Inspection Commission was restricted to inquiries assigned to it by President General Ziaul Haq under MLO 17, but the strength of staff underwent vast expansion. Mian Nawaz Sharif assigned the function of monitoring implementation, particularly of his directives. His commission was a hybrid of the legislature and the executive because sitting MNAs were appointed as chairmen of the commission.
One way of determining the powers and functions of the revived commission could be to place powers and functions of previous commissions in juxtaposition before the cabinet, or possibly before parliament, so that the nature of the commission is not altered every now and then.
The financial, planning and administrative powers of ministries have been gradually encroached upon by the finance, planning and establishment divisions over the years.
Therefore, the PMIC will have to handle inquiries with circumspection, and avoid treading over command functions of the ministries. Otherwise ministries would be emasculated further and their capacity to deliver would be impaired beyond redemption.
It would be an achievement if the PMIC could ensure that standing instructions regarding the annual inspection of subordinate offices by the secretaries of ministries are implemented.
MUHAMMAD AFZAL
Former director-general, Federal Inspection Commission, Islamabad
Need for price control mechanism
Since the judiciary has been separated from the administration, the public is facing many difficulties, some of which are as under:
a. There is no any authority to check the prices of essential commodities in the market. If there is, it has badly failed to perform its duties.
b. Vendors are moving about in the streets, using loudspeakers for hawking. The result: people, specially the sick, are disturbed and there is nobody to prevent this.
c. The prices of meat have gone so high that poor and middle class people are unable to buy it. There is nobody to take notice of this or to control the prices. The nazims are powerless and fear the vendors because they would need their votes in the future.
d. The sellers/shopkeepers have fixed their own rates/ prices. They raise prices whenever they want.
e. If the power to control prices, markets, and hawkers are with the judicial magistrates, then they have no time to come out from their courts.
I would like to suggest that the local administration be made responsible for controlling prices, the unnecessary use of loudspeakers and unwanted traffic in the bazaars.
WILSON GILL
Renala Khurd
No dividend
I hold a few shares of a financial institution that has not declared any dividend for the last so many years. Today I have been notified of the terms of appointment of the bank's new CEO that entitle him to a joining bonus of Rs20 million and a monthly salary of Rs600,000, subject to an annual increment of a minimum of 10 per cent.
The contract is for a period of three years renewable for further terms of three years, each subject to the approval of the board. He will also be entitled to annual performance bonus in accordance with the criteria fixed by the board.
He will additionally be entitled to other benefits and allowances such as medical expenses, an office-maintained vehicle, reimbursement of utilities at actual, gratuity fund, provident fund and medical and travel insurance.
Termination of the CEO's contract may be made after three years by payment of one year's salary in lieu of notice, and before three years by payment of salary for a minimum one year or remaining term of three years, whichever is greater, plus amount of any performance bonus and/or termination payment due in accordance with the bonus criteria approved by the board.
Can anyone work out the actual money this lucky person will get from an institution which has paid me nothing for so many years? He will be even luckier if he is fired prematurely after a year having been found unfit.
S. M. H.BOKHARI
Rawalpindi
US atrocities
US President Bush and his Defence Secretary Rumsfeld are seeking the Iraqi people's forgiveness for the maltreatment of Iraqi prisoners by the US military. A big issue is being made out of this, though this is side-tracking the main issue - the invasion of Iraq and the cruelties inflicted on the Iraqi people.
Where are the WMDs? Where is the proof of links with Al Qaeda? Now when Saddam Hussein is in America's custody, it should not be difficult for them to have information about all this. The US should not be allowed to dodge these questions.
MUHAMMAD RAFI
Karachi
Railway help centres
On May 9 I was travelling by the Karakoram Express from Sukkur to Karachi. On arrival at Karachi I came across a policeman who was escorting a disabled person on a wheel-chair. Out of curiosity, I followed him and soon arrived at the Police Help Centre at the Karachi Railway Cantonment, where I met the officer in charge of the centre.
On inquiry he told me that the inspector-general of the railway police had established police help centres at every major railway station. In one year the centre in Karachi restored 119 missing children to their parents and legal guardians; restored 138 missing articles to their rightful owners; provided wheel-chairs, stretchers, and ambulances to about 2,000 needy people and returned cash, jewellery and cheques worth over Rs1,100,000.
These help centres are rendering services from Peshawar to Karachi, and their work needs to be noted.
FAHIM MIRANI
Sukkur
Unity without principles
The editorial "Unity without principles" (Dawn, May 14) states that the PML factions that recently merged into one party "have invariably revolved round personalities, not principles".
I beg to differ with you. These factions have ferociously followed two principles: one, stay close to the centre of power, and, two, don't follow any other principle.
SIDDIQUE MALIK
Louisville, KY., USA
Silencers
Last August, the DIG, Karachi, had ordered that motorcycles/rickshaws must use silencers, otherwise they would be penalized. But 90 per cent of them are running without silencers. There are too many traffic policemen who can make lots of money out of this order and yet do nothing to check the violation.
M. ZAIN ASLAM SIDDIQUI
Karachi
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