| 17 June 2004 | Thursday | 28 Rabi-us-Saani 1425 |
CVT on purchase of shares
Holidays for industrial workers
'In response to allegations'
A woman's appeal
The dominoes begin to fall
Reagan's policies
PTCL's plaint
NSC burning
Request for Anwar Masih's release
Karachi Terminal
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This refers to the letter "Romancing Trotsky" (June 10) by Raza Naeem. For more than seven decades, the ideologues of western imperialism and the Stalinist bureaucracy in the Kremlin orchestrated a vicious smear campaign against Leon Trotsky.
Lenin and Trotsky had differences on several issues. Both were honest and bold enough to accept their mistakes. Lenin accepted the validity of Trotsky's theory of permanent revolution in his famous 'April Thesis' (1917). This was the basis of the unity between Lenin and Trotsky and the ideological foundation of the Bolshevik Revolution.
Trotsky organized from scratch the Red Army that defeated the onslaught of 21 imperialist armies against the infant Soviet state after the revolution. He devised the five-year plans that led to the astronomical growth in the Soviet Union. Lenin called him the most capable leader of the Bolshevik Party in his last testament.
After the death of Lenin, Trotsky fought all his life against the degeneration of the Russian Revolution. After the degeneration, Stalin carried out a brutal repression of the children of the revolution itself.
By 1936, only one person of the central committee under the leadership of which the Bolsheviks had carried out the revolution was left in the Kremlin. It was Stalin himself.
All other CC members were assassinated, exiled or forced to commit suicide. Thousands of Bolsheviks were massacred in the wastes of the Tundra. Stalin's agents murdered Trotsky's sons Sergei and Sedov.
His daughter Zina was forced to commit suicide. Trotsky's assassin Ramon Mercador (Jackson) was awarded the "Lenin Award" after his release from Mexico in 1960 by the Stalinist bureaucrats in Moscow.
Trotsky was the only person who predicted and explained how the Stalinist degeneration would lead to the collapse of the Soviet Union in his famous work 'Revolution betrayed' (1936).
The collapse of the Soviet Union and the capitalist binge of the Chinese bureaucracy is a clear vindication of Trotsky's perspective. These events and the crisis of capitalism on the world scale have decisively buried the Menshevik/Stalinist ideology of two stages and the reformist tendencies of social democracy for ever.
The only way forward for the working masses and the emancipation of the human race is Trotsky's theory of permanent revolution which calls for a socialist revolution. That is why Trotskyism is resurging across the globe.
It is unfortunate that many of those who slander Trotsky have not read a single work of his. Their ignorance only plays in the hands of imperialism and strengthens capitalist reaction.
As regards the writer's criticisim of comrade Lal Khan, he was imprisoned, tortured and was ordered to be shot at sight by the Zia dictatorship in 1980. This was not a very comfortable situation to be in.
CHAUDHRY MANZOOR AHMAD (Member, National Assembly)
Lahore
CVT on purchase of shares
This refers to a news item appearing in Dawn (June 15). The government has constituted a committee to formulate recommendations on the proposed levy of 0.1 per cent as Capital Value Tax on the purchase of shares. This has been done after traders in Karachi and Lahore turned violent and angrily protested against the government's decision.
There is another item which says that "deposits in NSS drop to Rs5.7bn". Dawn has commented: "In its consistent policy of catering only for the rich the government was understandably oblivious of the fact that the real estate and stock market are simply out of reach for the small savers.
It thus left no stone unturned to shoot them away from the national savings schemes by clamping on them withholding tax and continuing Zakat deductions while drastically reducing rates of return."
The poor NSS holders cannot do what the people did at the Karachi and Lahore stock exchanges, but the whole year they have been protesting through dozens of letters which have appeared in almost all major newspapers, especially this newspaper.
However, a day of protest by the stock market traders and the government promptly sets up a committee to examine the possibility of giving them relief from the proposal.
As far as the plight of the NSS savers is concerned, it would be fair to say that the government's action, or lack thereof, reminds one of the Urdu saying: Inkay kaan per joon tuk nahi raingti.
If the poor NSS holders cannot have the luxury of getting a body set up, will the finance minister please explain why the said body to review the CVT was set up so quickly - a day after the budget was announced. What was the great hurry?
I appeal to all the members of parliament to resist withdrawal of the CVT which is only 0.1 per cent. The rich have made fabulous profits at the stocks and they must pay their share for alleviation of poverty. The government must not back down. Also, what about the NSS, and what is the government planning to do to alleviate the sufferings of the NSS holders?
KHALID R. QURAISHI
Karachi
Holidays for industrial workers
In 1998 the Nawaz government had announced that the number of declared gazetted or public holidays in a calendar year would be 11. This number was never achieved, though the number of 16 public holidays given in 1998 came down to 13 in 1999 and 12 in 2000.
Thereafter, the number has started increasing every year as in 2001, 2002 and 2003 holidays allowed were 16, 15 and 17, respectively. This year a total of 15 public holidays, including one extra given on Eidul Azha, were notified.
Under the Factories Act, the Sindh labour secretary had declared two additional holidays: one on March 13 on the occasion of an India-Pakistan cricket match and the other on May 12 for by-elections, which were applicable to the industrial establishments in Karachi only.
A notification for the holiday on May 13 was issued after the event but back-dated to May 12, 2004, whereby the owners of factories had to bear the penalty of paying overtime to workers who came to work on that date.
In order to allow holidays to industrial workers, the gazetted holidays declared by the centre, under the Negotiable Instruments Act, have to be confirmed by the labour secretary of each province as festival holidays under Section 49-I of the Factories Act.
Although declaration of public holidays is a concurrent subject for the governments, there is hardly any instance in the past except the one this year mentioned above, whereby a provincial government might have declared a festival holiday in addition to those announced by the centre.
Holidays cause loss of production and profitability to the national exchequer in terms of taxes. Workers employed in continuous process industries, who are engaged for work on a festival holiday, have to be paid overtime at double or thrice the normal rate of their wages.
I fail to understand the logic behind allowing additional holidays to the industrial workers in a city which has already been shaken by frequent and devastating acts of terrorism and by strikes.
I would suggest to the centre not to allow more than 11 days of public holidays during 2005. The provincial governments, especially that of Sindh, are also requested not to allow any holidays under the Factories Act in addition to those announced by the federal government at the beginning of a calendar year.
PARVEZ RAHIM
Karachi
'In response to allegations'
This refers to Qazi Hussain Ahmad's article 'In response to allegations' (June 10). He responds to the 'allegations' made by Mr Javed Jabbar ("Allegations most unbecoming", June 3) concerning threats to the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) by the religious alliance (MMA) if it (AKF) takes up the task of revising the education syllabi of Pakistan.
Mr Ahmad does not, however, deny the fact reported by the media and by Mr Jabbar that "he (Qazi Hussain Ahmad) warned the Aga Khan Foundation and Ismaili community that people would also launch a movement against them if they continued to impose a secular education system in Pakistan".
Instead, he claims that this grand religious alliance, constituting the Jamaat-i-Islami and the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, "frustrated a global conspiracy aimed at hitting the country's ideological foundation". A word on the country's ideological foundation would not, therefore, be out of context. Mohammad Ali Jinnah, on August 11, 1947, said the following to the constituent assembly:
"You are free, free to go to your temples; you are free to go to your mosques or to any other places of worship in this State of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or caste or creed - that has nothing to do with the business of the State."
The ideological foundation of this country thus demands of Mr Ahmad and his following to weigh the merit rather than the religious affiliation of the Aga Khan Foundation in forming their opinions.
Mr Ahmad subsequently goes on into an analysis of the US-Iraq war, the atrocities committed through it and other afflictions and conflicts in the Muslim world.
He does this regardless of the fact that these happenings are all irrelevant to the topic at hand which is education of the youth and promoting religious harmony in Pakistan. Mr Ahmad thus appears to be trying to win public support for his stance by using emotions generated by an unrelated US-Iraq war. In contemporary politics, Mr George Bush is another figure that has used similar tactics.
MUBASHIR KHAN
Indianapolis, IN., USA
A woman's appeal
I belong to a community which does not encourage girls to go to school. However, I struggled hard and passed my MS examinations in 1993 from the University of Karachi. In 1995 I got the job of a management trainee at the SSGC, Karachi.
Getting a respectable job at the SSGC was not only a source of income for me, it also sent a strong message to women of my community that they were no longer inferior to their male counterparts.
But unfortunately, in 1997 I lost my job under the downsizing policy. All my dreams for a respectable career were shattered by that cruel decision of the management. However, I tried my best to get my service restored. For this I wrote to the president, the prime minister and others but to no affect.
I also visited the prime minister's residence in Karachi a number of times in the hope that I might meet a member of his family who could convey my request to him, but every time I was stopped at the gate.
I live with my brothers in a two-room government flat. Their meagre salaries and a small flat are insufficient for their own families. In these circumstances, my presence is an additional burden on them.
I have fought uneven circumstances, but with growing age, my courage is diminishing. In this situation I have spent six years in severe mental pain and agony and I am going through a hard time, both financially and mentally.
Through these columns, I request the president, the prime minister and other relevant people to consider my case on humanitarian grounds, and reinstate my services with the SSGC so that my dream to stand on my own feet is fulfilled, and I am able to show the girls of my community that education will give them respect and prosperity.
RAZIA DILMURAD BALOCH
Karachi
The dominoes begin to fall
Strangely, instead of the Middle East, the dominoes have begun falling at home. The event recalls the adage that one who digs a well for another often himself falls into it.
Two fell one after the other - three if you include the Pentagon's blue-eyed boy, Ahmad Chalabi. First, it was the CIA chief, George Tenet, followed by his deputy, James Pavitt. Tenet, aka 'slam dunk', was the architect of Bush's senseless aggression on Iraq.
He forgot that he was a 'public servant', his allegiance being due to the American people. Instead, he acted as if he were Bush's personal lackey, pandering to his master's blind desires. Even a gentleman's gentleman would not stoop that low.
Bush ascended the throne with the fixation to remove Saddam Hussein. He asked everyone he could get at - to find the flimsiest, the most fantastic excuse to go against Saddam. But while others refused, George Tenet eagerly bowed.
In the book Price of loyalty, written by Ron Suskind, based on 19,000 documents supplied by former treasury secretary Paul O'Neill, the latter is quoted as saying: "From the start, we were building the case against Hussein and looking at how we could take him out and change Iraq into a new country.
And if we did that, it would solve everything. It was all about finding a way to do it. That was the tone of it, - the president saying, 'Fine. Go find me a way to do this.'"
By contrast, the British scientist, David Kelly, committed suicide for much less. Having convinced himself that Iraq did not have any WMDs, he had assured his Iraqi friends that their country would not be attacked. So, when Iraq was invaded, he felt his honour had been compromised, which he could not bear.
Commenting on Tenet's conduct, Richard Cohen writing in The Washington Post (Sword-passing, July 24, 2003) observed: "Tenet has put a huge dent in the vaunted - and valued - independence of the CIA.
It's impossible to see him now as a pillar of integrity, someone who speaks his mind no matter what, and values keeping his independence over keeping his job. He's shilled for the president once too often. He's got to go."
But Tenet had a thicker hide. He went only when it was apparent that the report of the 9/11 inquiry was going to maul his face beyond recognition. Who are next? The New York Times, Guardian and Independent have asked that Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz should go.
S. G. JILANEE
Karachi
Reagan's policies
I couldn't help but smile recently when I listened to a multitude of American politicians eulogize President Reagan's efforts to "advance the cause of world freedom" in the US media.
Wasn't it the Reagan administration's obsession with viewing every global event through the prism of the Cold War that led it to unreservedly support a retrogressive dictatorship in Pakistan? So focused was the United States on liberating the citizens of the "evil empire" that it chose to ignore the complete destruction of Pakistani civil society by its ally, General Zia, who was often feted on the lawns of the White House.
The Americans will do well to understand that the seeds of our present mutual discontent were sown in those seemingly halcyon days when the CIA, the army and the mullahs formed an alliance.
IRFAN RIZVI
Morgantown, West Virginia, USA
PTCL's plaint
Various civic bodies carrying out development activities in Karachi pose a challenge to the PTCL inasmuch as they hinder it in its efforts to rectify faults. During the last couple of months, civic agencies' development activities caused losses to the PTCL network because the departments concerned did not coordinate with the phone company despite its repeated requests.
In some cases, the underground cable network of the company was badly damaged during the work carried out by the civic agencies, because the departments concerned, i.e., DHA, Cantonment Board and the City District Government Karachi, did not allow the PTCL technical staff to evaluate the actual position at the affected sites, causing a loss to the company.
The PTCL wants the civic bodies to coordinate with it and develop a system of prior intimation about future projects to safeguard the existing network.
ATHER JAVED SUFI
Media Coordinator, PTCL Headquarters, Karachi
NSC burning
Several hundred national savings certificate holders, mostly pensioners and widows, are suffering as a result of the burning down of the NSC savings centre in Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Karachi.
We are told by the manager that important records were burnt by miscreants following the murder of Maulana Shamzai in May. As a consequence, our payments have been withheld while efforts are under way to reconcile the books and verify the accounts.
We are told that the process may take several months. If that is the case, we appeal to the government to make some alternative arrangements under which we are provided our monthly income for the time being.
MUHAMMAD MOYEED
Karachi
Request for Anwar Masih's release
I endrose the plea of Karin Svensson of Amnesty International for the release of Anwar Masih on bail. It is disturbing to note that in his case only the statements of Muslims were registered and not those of the Christian witnesses. Where is the equality for minorities that our political leaders constantly talk about in their speeches to the press, here and abroad?
Now is the time for them to come forward and prove to the world that they practise what they preach with regard to equal treatment of minorities. Will the federal minister for religious affairs look into this matter and care to investigate the motive behind this charge against Anwar Masih?
As blasphemy cases are sensitive, the police should be directed to refrain from registering such cases without proper evidence and to investigate the case thoroughly before they take any action. We have seen how this law has been used as a tool for settling personal scores.
TYRONE MASCARENHAS
Karachi
Karachi Terminal
A few days back I went to Jinnah Terminal, Karachi, in the oppressive heat. At the entry to the car park, there was a checkpoint which took 15 minutes to clear me. Later, two cops told me to show them my licence etc., costing me another 10 minutes in haggling.
Visitors in the waiting area of the terminal were standing, since there were not enough chairs or benches. Some of them were sitting on the floor. A nauseating stench of sweat was coming from the crowd, as the fans were not working.
The Civil Aviation Authority has spent millions on decorating the terminal with imported granite. It charges airport tax, parking tax, etc., but remains indifferent to the hardship of people who use the airport.
The CAA should provide airconditioned waiting-rooms with closed-circuit televisions facing the arrival lounge. This could be made a self-financing proposition by imposing nominal entry charges.
RAFI ADAMJEE
Karachi
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