| 21 June 2004 | Monday | 02 Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1425 |
Freedom for Palestinians
Karachi killings and Waziristan
'Iraq in a logjam'
Federal budget
17.5pc sales tax on imported goods
'Romancing Trotsky'
Medical varsities
Play the best eleven
SHC judgment on jirgas
'Housing societies'
'Happy days are here again'
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If our country were to get a windfall of Rs4 billion today, how would we spend the money? I, for one, would not advocate spending the money on a lagging media outlet, which PTV has clearly become.
Thanks to media deregulation, we now have a slew of local cable channels that cater to the needs of the people. The government is no longer needed in this business unless it has other motives.
Please correct me if I am wrong, but are not these other channels financing their operations through ad revenue? If they are, why is PTV having such a hard time living by the same rules?
I have never been able to digest the concept of a TV licence fee. The collection of this fee has taken a sizable marketing budget and a fairly significant collections operations on the part of PTV. In my opinion, it is nothing less than officially-sanctioned extortion.
It has been a while since I watched PTV, but if the network cannot break even with the amount of ads it used to show, it must be highly inefficient. I remember watching drama serials where more than half of the allotted time was dedicated to ads. The ads put a toll on the consumer. We cannot add the cost of a licence fee on top of this (especially with PTV's volume of ads).
So let us not spoil PTV with this massive windfall. With such an unqualified revenue stream, it will never find an excuse to become efficient. Let us instead divert this money to more pressing needs.
If you live in Karachi, nothing seems more important than effective law enforcement. And that is where I would use this money: police and judicial reforms.
MUDASSIR SHEIKHA
Via email
(2)
It was disturbing to hear in the federal finance minister's budget speech that the government intended to tag every electricity bill with Rs25 as a TV licence fee. This mode of collection is nothing but highway robbery. The lower-income class, who do not even own TV sets, will be unduly penalized and find it difficult to explain to the authorities to gain exemption.
PTV is a sinking ship as the fees now collected and the advertising revenue cannot sustain it. The TV signal is not clearly received on normal antennas due to disturbance in the airwaves, besides nobody is interested in the trash PTV telecasts. Many people prefer to watch other channels.
It is suggested that PTV should be privatized so that it can function like other private channels, which run smoothly without any assistance from the government. These private channels also enrich the exchequer in the shape of various taxes.
The government is earnestly requested to shelve the new proposal and alternatively abolish TV licence fees altogether as has been done in the case of radio.
RAFI ADAMJEE
Karachi
Freedom for Palestinians
The Israeli government under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has committed numerous violations of human rights in its treatment of the Palestinian people. During the last 45 months, Israeli troops have martyred over 8,000 Palestinians, injured thousands others and arrested over 7,000 people who demanded freedom in accordance with UN Security Council resolutions.
Israeli troops demolish the homes of innocent, unarmed people in an organized and systematic manner with tanks and bulldozers. On resistance, Palestinians are killed, wounded and arrested, including women and children. Hence a large number of Palestinians have been hurriedly and forcibly deprived of their homes and shelter. It is a continuous process.
Ariel Sharon has arrogantly vowed to continue these barbaric acts as the Bush administration backs him in this regard. On the other hand, President Yasser Arafat has been confined to his Ramallah office, around which many houses and buildings have been razed.
His freedom of movement has been restricted for the last three years. Many senior leaders of the PLO and Hamas have been killed by the Sharon regime, with a view to frightening and threatening the Palestinians and the people of other countries supporting the freedom struggle.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan generally remains silent on Israel's barbaric acts. He issues very mild media statements when Israeli atrocities shake people all over the world.
The people of Palestine are being subjected to unprecedented savagery and violence for demanding freedom and an independent homeland for themselves which is their basic right. Is this demand not genuine and not in conformity with the UN charter?
It is deplorable that the US and other big powers are showing undue delay in resolving the problem. They are thus fully responsible for causing all the trouble and hardship to the Palestinian people.
The big powers should carry out their legal obligations with a true sense of duty and sincerity of purpose. Dishonesty and hypocrisy can only endanger peace in the Middle East.
MAQBOOL AHMAD QURESHI
Gujranwala
Karachi killings and Waziristan
This is the moment of truth not only for the Musharraf government but also for Pakistan. Recent happenings from Karachi to Waziristan have not only shaken the government but yet again exposed the threat of extremism Pakistan faces from within.
The forces of regression have now charged full throttle and threaten to disrupt the very order of our society. They must be cowed into submission once and for all.
Pakistan faces two main groups of internal enemies. First, there are those who sympathize with Osama bin Laden and the Taliban and would wreak havoc on Pakistan and kill its citizens to promote destabilization for the former's benefit.
Second, but no less dangerous are extremists who would kill to promote sectarian disharmony in the country (whatever purpose that serves). Both must be eliminated since both threaten our nation's integrity.
The current developments present an excellent opportunity to initiate firm and lasting action against these elements. What is needed is political will for drastic action (though this does not come easy to the military mind).
Gen Musharraf must surpass his institutionalized inhibitions and overcome his fears. He must get his house in order, take the nation into confidence and then start an onslaught of his own against the nation's enemies.
There must be no half measures or temporary deals; no let-up in pressure lest the same extremist elements surface again in the future. Swift and decisive action is needed, be it in Karachi, Waziristan or any remote village in a far-flung region of the country.
The road would be hard and painful but history would favourably remember such action.
MUBASHIR KHAN
Indianapolis, IN., USA
'Iraq in a logjam'
Dawn's editorial of May 30 rightly says that Iraq's prime minister-designate Iyad Allawi who will take - or should one say will be given? - charge of the provisional government on June 30 is a non-entity for Iraqis.
It is obviously a Washington-dictated choice for Iraq like the Washington-inspired selection of Mr Hamid Karzai to head Afghanistan's provisional government.
Mr Allawi has been given a three-point agenda to (a) end the chaos in Iraq, (b) rebuild the infrastructure and (c) prepare the country for elections for moving towards democracy. He has recently been imported from the US where he lived comfortably and was working with the CIA to topple Saddam Hussein. He will be another pawn in Iraq where he will have no writ - not even in Baghdad.
So in Iraq, like in Afghanistan, chaos will certainly remain; there will be no rebuilding, no elections and no democracy. Americans too know that. For that reason, and as announced by President Bush himself, American forces will remain In Iraq even after June 30. Aren't they still in Afghanistan even after the formation of Hamid Karzai's provisional government?
No sane person will disagree with the proposal that salvation of these two countries is possible if the UN is given an effective role in governance there. The law and order situation should be the responsibility of UN forces which should be composed of neutral countries' troops, especially non-Muslim countries.
Inclusion of any Muslim country - and one abhors the possibility of troops from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Turkey to be included - would worsen relations with their Iraqi and Afghan brethren.
S. M. KAZIM NAQVI
Karachi
Federal budget
Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz while presenting the federal budget 2004-2005 declared in the National Assembly that the GDP had increased by about seven per cent, the budget deficit had decreased and foreign exchange reserves had shown an upward trend.
All the magical figures presented by Mr Shaukat Aziz might be correct, and we do believe that the country under the present regime has progressed economically.
But why have the fruits of this economic bonanza not reached the common man yet? About 80 per cent of the population are living below the poverty line, and with the current rate of inflation, soon most of them would be starving. The possibility cannot be ruled out that economic benefits might have been consumed by the rich upper classes before they could trickle down to the poor and lower middle classes.
The BJP government in India made more economic progress than Pakistan, but the "India Shining" slogan failed and the BJP lost the elections. The reason was that the fruits of the economic progress could not reach the poor of India.
The ruling party in Pakistan may meet the same fate if something concrete is not done to alleviate poverty, thus giving the poor some economic relief.
DR ZAINAB RIZVI
Lahore
17.5pc sales tax on imported goods
Through the federal budget 2004-05, the government has added to the miseries of the people through imposition of an excessive rate of sales tax on import-related services and by raising the rate of sales tax from 15 per cent to 17.5 per cent through an ingenuous devise under the threat of "pay it or face a detailed audit" under a "special procedure for payment of sales tax by commercial importers on value addition".
Section 14 reads: "A commercial importer who pays sales tax on a value additional basis, as prescribed under these rules, for a year shall not be subjected to any audit for that year, and detailed audit shall be conducted of a commercial importer who pays sales tax in any manner other than these rules."
Section 10 reads: "A commercial importer shall pay sales tax on supplies of imported goods at the rate specified in sub-section (1) of section 3 of the Act on a value addition of not less than fourteen per cent through a challan in triplicate, at the same time as making payment of custom duty and sales tax in the bill of entry for such imported goods, calculated as shown in the example." But, under rule 10(1), "challan for payment of sales tax on value addition by a commercial importer" has prescribed columns: (i) assessed import value (value for sales tax purposes), (ii) sales tax paid on bill of entry, (iii) value addition (minimum 14 per cent), (iv) sales tax payable on value addition and deposited in bank."
The threat to accept sales tax at 17.5 per cent is too conspicuous. If one does not pay, one is implicitly threatened with a 'detailed audit' whose parameters are shrouded in a mystery.
What should an importer do? Should he not pay at 17.5 per cent and pass it on to the consumer? On the other hand, if one opts not to pay 17.5 per cent, one faces uncalled-for harassment through a so-called detailed audit or manages to settle with auditors. Would it not open the floodgates of corruption? Corruption is rampant and will be boosted beyond measure through these so-called 'detailed audits'.
When an importer opts to pay 17.5 per cent in custom under Section 10, how much else and why should he pay through a bank and why should he be required to submit a challan under rule 10(1)?
NOOR MOHAMMED
Karachi
'Romancing Trotsky'
I wonder how many of your readers noticed that opposite Raza Naeem's letter so viciously slandering Trotsky, there was an excellent article attacking Blair's imperialist hypocrisy by a leading Trotskyist, the journalist Paul Foot, and a comrade of mine in the Socialist Workers Party of Britain. A small indication perhaps that despite Raza Naeem's abuse, Trotskyism is indeed alive and well.
With good reason, I suggest. For in today's world of poverty, imperialism and war, Mr Naeem's idea that we follow the guerillas of Peru and Columbia, or the aggressive free market governments of China and Vietnam, not to mention the bankrupt North Korea, would be laughable if the matter were not so serious.
The fact is that Stalin's Russian empire has collapsed; Stalin's idea of socialism in one country could never work. Indeed, in today's globalized world, not even capitalism in one country is possible.
Guerillas, peasants, intellectuals and party bureaucrats, however well intentioned, cannot on their own be the force that brings a better world. As Trotsky (and Marx) argued, the emancipation of humanity lies with the working class, now hundreds of millions strong, concentrated, educated and organized by the development of capitalism across the world. A class that has nothing to lose but its chains, but a world to win.
GEOFF BROWN
Via email
Medical varsities
This is with reference to the letter by Dr Hussain Bux Kolachi (June 8) in reply to my letter about medical universities in Dawn (May 8). I would like to inform him that medical universities have no concern with primary healthcare and hospital care.
The faculty profile of the University of Health Sciences, Lahore, as mentioned by him, is not correct. It has no faculty but only an examination system which has caused debate in the medical community. Eight rooms, 12 telephones and 30 cars do not constitute a university.
I would like to inform him that medical schools at Oxford, Cambridge and other universities have produced thousands of great doctors without being upgraded to university level.
I also want to inform Dr Kolachi that the Aga Khan University is not a medical university and the Aga Khan Medical College is producing some of the best medical graduates.
It is a sound decision of the faculty of the King Edward Medical College and the Fatima Jinnah Medical College to remain with the Punjab University. Our country needs a good healthcare system and caring doctors, not big buildings and hollow slogans.
DR SHAHID MALIK
Lahore
Play the best eleven
With the Australian tour six months away, the PCB should ensure that Pakistan plays an unchanged side throughout the next six months, even against the second string Zimbabwe team that is planning to tour later this year and in other one-day competitions scheduled during this period.
I believe experiments have been made already and good players have been identified in the last six months. If the team plays a consistent line-up, there are chances that they may perform well down under.
It was only due to bad planning that we lost against India. Hopefully, we could surprise the hosts in December if we play an unchanged eleven for most of the forthcoming season.
KAMRAN A. SHAH
Karachi
SHC judgment on jirgas
Reference is made to a news item in Dawn (May 3, another in Kawish (April 30) and Mr Ardeshir Cowasjee's columns (May 2 and 9). In Jacobabad, after the SHC judgment on jirgas, a jirga was held in a murder case pending in a court and a fine of Rs1,680,000 was imposed on a party.
According to the Supreme Court, PLD 1976 SC page 608, a discussion on a pending case outside the court is contempt of court. Under Section 338-E of the PPC, Qisas and Diyat can be waived, subject to Section 345 of the CrPC. Under Section 345(2) of the CrPC, murder cases are compoundable with permission of the court.
By granting such permission, the court allows the parties to discuss pending cases outside the court, to save them from committing the offence of contempt of court. In the above-mentioned jirga, a case pending before a court of law was first discussed, then a trial was held and a decision given and executed against a party before the court's verdict.
I appeal to the advocate-general, NGOs, human rights activists and advocates to come forward and file a contempt of court application against the members of the aforementioned jirga, as well as against the DIG, DPO, TPO and SHO of the area, who violated the directions of the court.
Historical and landmark judgments such as the SHC judgment on jirgas are public properties. Courts have performed their functions. It is now our responsibility and duty to preserve and protect them.
CHANDIO MUNIR AHMAD
Thatta
'Housing societies'
Many 'housing societies' have come up because of the recent boom in real estate prices. All of them are currently offering 'plots' and displaying impressive entrances and wide roads, parks and arcades in the advertisements being published by them in newspapers, whereas no roads and other development works exist on the ground.
In most cases, even all the land has not been purchased and the advertisements are being issued and plots spread over thousands of kanals are being 'booked' for sale on instalments.
It is pointed out for the information of intending purchasers and the relevant government departments that such sales of plots without actual transfer of land is not only violative of the basic civil and criminal law, but is also violative of the deposit rules as amended in 2003.
The Securities and Exchange Commission, development authorities, the cooperatives department and the administration are requested to investigate the affairs of these housing societies and ensure sale of land only on actual transfer or at least acquisition by the seller of the land involved.
Otherwise, the nation will see another scam - this time a housing societies' scam - in which billions of rupees of unwary purchasers will be doomed.
LATIF QURESHI
Lahore
'Happy days are here again'
This is with reference to Ardeshir Cowasjee's columns (May 30 and June 6) pertaining to the industrial plot scam by SITE Ltd. I was delighted to read in Part-II of "Happy days are here again" that Dr Mutawakkil Kazi, chief secretary of Sindh, constituted an inquiry committee on May 29, with the directive to submit its report within seven days.
The seven days of the inquiry committee are over. I would now like to request the chief secretary to make the report public to ensure transparency.
NAZIM F. HAJI
Karachi
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