| 29 June 2004 | Tuesday | 10 Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1425 |
Reforming panchayat system
Hudood ordinances
PIA's purchase of planes
Surrendering funds
A visit that did wonders
Water crisis: some misconceptions
Encroachments in Rawalpindi cantonment
Canadian visa problem
Law and order
Lahore road
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The whole drama - from Mr Jamali's resignation as prime minister to the nomination of Chaudhry Shujaat as interim PM ultimately resulting in Mr Shaukat Aziz's becoming the 22nd PM of Pakistan - makes one laugh because it is a joke with democracy. It seems "section officers", and not prime ministers, are being appointed for the PM's office.
The question is: what was the prime reason behind Mr Jamali's removal? There are no corruption charges or scandals on the surface that could be cited as the cause of his ouster.
His case resembles that of Mohammad Khan Junejo who had to go because he had committed two 'blunders' - signing of the Geneva Accord and setting up a commission to probe the Ojheri camp blast. Where is General Musharraf's promise that the current set-up will last till 2007?
AFZAL RAHIM
Peshawar
(2)
One fails to understand what is the rationale for nominating Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain as inerim prime minister when Shaukat Aziz is to be the country's eventual prime minister after two months. The people of Pakistan will now see three prime ministers in a single year.
This whole episode has made a mockery of the office of chief executive of Pakistan. Having an interim PM makes no sense especially when no elections are being held. Such actions will not augur well for the democratic institutions and weaken the democratic process in Pakistan.
Mr Jamali could have stayed and Shaukat Aziz be made new prime minister after two months.
TARIQ ALAM
Chicago, Illinois, USA
(3)
Nomination of former federal finance minister Shaukat Aziz as future prime minister is a good omen for Pakistan. He is a technocrat of known stature and has international recognition. But perhaps his best attribute is his not being a politician and we all know how politicians have been bilking this country.
One only hopes that our politicians will let him operate freely and do not put obstacles in his way.
ABU AHMAD
Columbus, GA., USA
(4)
It seems the PML and its members have taken on the special colours of Pakistan's very own royal family. Elections will be held to elect a person who has already been designated as future prime minister. No wonder he seemed so smug at his press conference.
We are told that we will "progress like China and Malaysia," but our political process resembles picking prefects in school. Is this really the democracy that we were promised?
DR MUZAFFAR HUSAIN
Leeds, UK
Reforming panchayat system
Panchayat in rural Pakistan is a community-based forum for settling family disputes and local controversies. It has played a pivotal role in keeping peace and harmony in rural areas. However, lately some panchayat committees in Sindh and Punjab have been guilty of breaking the norm and resorting to a series of uncivilized, outrageous and unethical decisions, casting a long shadow on the system's viability.
There are various reasons for this decay, such as ignorance, intolerance, abuse of powers, the undemocratic way of selection of heads and members of panchayat committees, lack of a regulatory and monitoring system at government level and non-existence of a code of conduct to be followed by committees while deciding cases.
We can still save the system by adopting the following measures:
1. A regulatory and monitoring authority should be established at the provincial level for registering and overseeing the performance of panchayat committees. It should be made mandatory for all such committees operating all over Pakistan to have themselves registered with a proposed authority within a given timeframe, after which all unregistered committees should cease to function.
2. The composition of such committees should be changed from the dictatorial to a democratic style by ensuring selection of heads and members of committees through election. Also, some academic qualifications for committee head and members will have to be made mandatory. Some seats should be reserved for the pesh imam of a local mosque, the headmaster of a nearby school and other persons engaged in respectable and qualified professions such law, banking and teaching.
3. A universal code of conduct and terms of reference should be evolved by the proposed regulatory authority to be strictly followed by panchayat committees. The tenure, jurisdiction, authority and responsibilities of such committees and the nature of cases to be heard by them should be clearly defined.
4. All panchayat committees should be required to submit details of cases referred to and decided by them to the proposed regulatory authority on a monthly or a quarterly basis.
5. To create awareness among local communities, the scope, functions, jurisdiction, authority and responsibilities of panchayat committees should be made public through a booklet.
With formalization and constant surveillance of the above committees by a regulatory authority, the system can be saved and made workable. This will also ease the burden of cases pending in courts.
MOHAMMAD RAFIQ
Karachi
Hudood ordinances
The other day I watched a telephonic interview of Chaudhry Sardar Muhammad, a former IGP of Punjab, on a television channel. To a question, he admitted that he had also been a collaborator in formulating the Hudood ordinances.
He said that Ziaul Haq had convened a meeting of high-ups to speak on the deteriorating economic condition of the country, especially after the death of Zulfikar Ali. Bhutto.
Zia told the meeting that the US and the European countries had stopped financial aid and only Saudi Arabia could extend financial assistance to Pakistan in its hour of need.
According to Chaudhry Sardar Muhammad, the government decided to immediately formulate Hudood ordinances in order to please the Saudi government and get substantial aid.
In the formulation of the Hudood ordinances, more than religious considerations, economic factors were involved, and when the ordinances were presented before Justice Samdani, the then federal law secretary, he refused to sign them.
From the interview of Sardar Muhammad, it is evident that the sole consideration behind the formulation of the Hudood ordinances was financial. Now when the economic and political scenario has changed after 9/11 and Pakistan as an ally of the US in the war on terror is getting economic aid, the government after mobilizing public opinion may get rid of, or at least amend, the controversial clauses of the Hudood ordinances.
This will definitely add to the stature of Pakistani society in the comity of nations.
DR ZAINAB RIZVI
Lahore
PIA's purchase of planes
PIA's purchase of eight B-777 planes for $1.6 billion (Rs95 billion) at $200 million each contrasts with a China Eastern Airlines' contract on June 11 to buy 20 Airbus A330-200 long-range aircraft for $2 billion ($100 million each).
Is it essential to spend such large amounts on planes when Pakistan spends just Rs6 billion on health and Rs10 billion on education, with the majority having no access to potable or tap water? A close scrutiny of this deal is thus essential as Rs30 billion has already been passed to PIA and an additional Rs95 billion is being guaranteed.
Many delays have occurred on B-777 flights due to software problems caused by hot, humid and dusty conditions. Five incidents of fire in the landing-gear and hydraulic failures have already taken place, leading to an emergency situation at Manchester.
Even if PIA acquires the B-777 LR, direct operations to the US may not be possible as US authorities are averse to direct operations from Pakistan due to security threats.
Being a PIA employee I know that PIA's corporate planning had recommended purchase of the Airbus aircraft, but US government pressure to buy the Boeing prevailed. For the record, the purchase committee was headed by the DG, CAA, who reported it to the defence secretary.
It is in PIA's interest not to acquire more B-777's as this aircraft is already poorly rated by Saudia and Emirates which are owned by wealthy countries which can afford extravagance which Pakistan cannot.
PIA EMPLOYEE
Karachi
Surrendering funds
The report by M. B. Kalhoro (June 16) that the "management of the Chandka Medical College Hospital has surrendered unused funds amounting to Rs1.52 million to the Sindh government" has come as a shock to people of this cash-starved province.
Surprisingly, on the one hand funds under the heads of salary and allowances are sanctioned in excess of the requirement, which the hospital ultimately has to surrender in the end of a financial year, but on the other allocations made for various essential utilities or welfare work (catering for a 1,230-bed hospital) such as Rs4.45 for a meal and Rs45.37 for medicine per day for each of the patients in the ward are low when compared to the funds under the same heads allotted to other hospitals of the province.
If the authorities sympathetically consider the above situation and reappropriate the surrendered amount for meals and medicine at the hospital, it will improve the condition of poor patients, who visit the hospital from far-flung areas.
ALTAMASH MANZOOR H. KURESHI
Karachi
A visit that did wonders
Last year, the then prime minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali visited Dhoke Kashmirian, adjacent to A Block, Satellite Town, Rawalpindi, to address a public meeting for a by-election. Before his arrival the area looked a century old and after he left, it looked 50 years younger.
Keeping this in mind, the new prime minister should announce plans to visit A Block of Satellite Town a week before, and then on the seventh day, he should cancel his visit.
The end result? The aging streetlights will be replaced by new ones, broken roads will be given a facelift within days, choked sewerage lines will be replaced, and garbage dumps will be emptied.
SALIM NAZA JILANI
Rawalpindi
Water crisis: some misconceptions
Despite Sindh's unanimous opposition to any mega dams on the Indus River and three out of four provincial assemblies' multiple resolutions against the proposed Kalabagh Dam, the federal government seems all set to start work on at least one of the several proposed multi-billion dollar dams to garrote the already choked river.
Many believe that such an extremely divisive decision will cause irreparable loss to the country especially when a large number of people feel that it is based on misconceptions, distortions and misrepresentation of facts. Hence, the government may be advised to give thorough consideration to all aspects of the issue before taking the final plunge.
One of the many mistaken beliefs is that a dam is the only answer to the water crisis. It overlooks the actuality that a dam is merely a vessel to store the already available water.
It cannot create or increase water. It is like someone having a liter of water. That water could be poured into one, two, three or more cups but it will always remain a liter. Pouring it into several cups won't increase the quantity.
The government argument that a huge quantity of water is wasted annually is based on the most controversial figures presented by Wapda which has a track record of misleading the government and the public with fallacious data.
The true quantity of water available in the Indus River System is yet to be determined. The proof is the appointment of a "technical committee" for that purpose. Although many people have objections to the formation and the composition of that committee, it is imperative that it is allowed to work independently.
No final decision on a dam should be taken before the committee presents its final report. However, it is more appropriate to involve internationally credible experts to undertake the task.
The other argument for a new dam is that Tarbela has lost its storage capacity substantially due to silting. Many experts have suggested ways to overcome this problem.
In 1997 TAMS, the designers of Tarbela Dam, conducted a study that recommended sediment sluicing to solve the problem. It advised that Tarbela would become a perpetual storage of six million acre feet if new tunnels and an underwater dyke were constructed for its proper sediment sluicing.
In 1998 an eminent American engineer, who had spent about six years at Tarbela and many years with TAMS, advised the ministry of water and power that by using the existing low-level tunnels three and four for sediment sluicing, the existing storage capacity of Tarbela can be preserved without the construction of new tunnels and dyke.
Syed Shahid Husain, former power and water secretary, also strongly advocated use of tunnels three and four for the sediment sluicing of Tarbela. Experts suggest that the expenditure on the de-silting process will only be a fraction of the cost of a dam.
Raising the height of Mangla will also provide an increased storage capacity to offset any loss. The government should consider the feasibility of a dam. It will require huge amounts of foreign and local resources.
The country is already under heavy burden of foreign and local debts. Will a mega dam deliver as much as it is projected to? What will be its costs in national and human terms? How will it affect the unity and the integrity of the country? Have we explored and exhausted all alternatives?
AZIZ NAREJO
Corpus Christi, Texas, USA
Encroachments in Rawalpindi cantonment
I am surprised to learn from a press report (June 21) that according to cantonment executive officers (CEOs) of Rawalpindi and Chaklala cantonment boards, encroachments in the Rawalpindi cantonment area are due to unemployment which will increase further, and that any action against shopkeepers and vendors for violating bylaws of the Cantonment Act 1924 could result in a law and order situation.
Civic conditions in the Rawalpindi cantonment area have been deteriorating for some time. This is visible everywhere now - the permanent occupation of public car parks and footpaths by car dealers, parking of pickups on Haider Road and Canning Road instead of at a nearby allocated pickup stand, renting out of footpaths by many shopkeepers, extension of raised shop floors to footpaths and car parks, illegal and dangerous road humps on roads, construction of houses within the 100-foot prohibited safety zone of the Army Central Ordinance Depot and the cantonment land for railways on Jhelum Road, etc.
As regards unemployed encroachers, vendors and beggars swarming the area are so used to earning in this easier environment that they are not prepared to take on jobs requiring hard work. For this reason, the allotment of an alternative location to vendors has failed to improve the situation.
I hope the new station commander, Rawalpindi, will provide full support and guidance to the CEOs to enforce civic laws, particularly those concerning violations adversely affecting the rights of the citizens and posing safety, security and health hazards.
GHULAM MUHAMMAD
Rawalpindi
Canadian visa problem
Pakistanis who apply for visit visas to the Canadian high commission in Islamabad are made to suffer. Every applicant is charged Rs3,300 for a single visit visa entry and the amount is non-refundable even if the visa request is rejected.
In the first week of May I, with my wife, applied for visit visas for Canada to see our daughters and grandchildren there. I applied through a courier service by paying about Rs700 as service charges for each passport.
I enclosed the required documents, including a bank draft for Rs3,300 for each person, a bank statement and our passports with valid multiple US visit visas. But to our surprise and dismay, the passports were returned with objections which had no justification.
I then appealed through other courier services with some more clarifications, but I have received no reply from the commission staff so far.
SYED KAMAL HUSSAIN KAKVI
Karachi
Law and order
Mr Daud Ansari's letter (June 14) on the above subject has offered some useful suggestions about improving the law and order situation. However, the foremost action required is to identify causes that lead to terrorism and to address them. Some of these are as under:
a) Coups which take away the collective power base created by public vote.
b) Huge expenses on defence, leaving little for public welfare despite the nuclear and missile deterrent.
c) Carjacking has been ignored knowingly for a long time. This is the real training ground for potential terrorists as persons hijacking cars at gunpoint and even killing victims if they resist become terrorists.
It is understood that carjackers get about Rs10,000 for each car. If they are offered Rs50,000, they are likely to commit any other act of terrorism like firing at a mosque or placing a car-bomb anywhere.
It is understood that carjacking can be stopped in a short time if modern techniques are used to immobilize the culprits.
S. M. H. RIZVI
Karachi
Lahore road
The citizens of Lahore have praised the efforts of the district coordination officer and the district nazim for removing encroachments on drains and nullahs and other places.
Encroachments on the nullah of Katcha Lawrence Road have been identified and removed under the discipline and by-laws of the corporation. This road needs to be expanded and the nullah near it replaced with a big sewerage pipeline because (a) the population of this area has increased, (b) more houses and plazas have been constructed, and (c) traffic has increased due to schools and offices.
PROF (DR) M.A. SOOFI
Lahore
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