| 19 July 2004 | Monday | 01 Jamadi-us-Saani 1425 |
Blasphemy law
Armitage's remarks
My school's products
Choked sewers
PTV and Wimbledon
Attock and prime ministers
Free local calls
An upsetting statement
'Sick and tired'
Retired teacher's appeal
Request to HEC
Banking system
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Dawn's report "Country faces 700MW power shortage" (July 11) and the July 12 editorial "KESC's poor performance" again highlight our critical energy situation. Drastic steps are now needed to solve basic problems such as inadequate planning or we should be ready to face serious consequences.
First, we need to conserve energy (rampant use of airconditioners at homes, encouraged by subsidized electrical energy, and steam/hot water generation in inefficient boilers in industries are worst examples of energy wastage).
Second, we must plan to utilize efficient technologies in industries, as well as for thermal power generation. Third, energy costs should never be subsidized (except perhaps for basic needs of the deprived sections of society, using a maximum of 100KWH unit per month).
It is difficult to understand the logic for paying huge amounts of our tax money to Wapda and the KESC to cover privileged people's power bills for airconditioners. There is a better way of spending our tax money to solve problems instead of encouraging waste.
Fourth, industries should not be encouraged to waste energy by giving them special permission to get natural gas supply for power generation when they are not ready to use efficient technologies. Wasting our precious natural gas on power projects which are only one-third efficient (two-thirds of our precious gas is wasted) is illogical.
Our major thermal power plants, most of them the result of the infamous 1994 energy policy, are based on most inefficient conventional steam and diesel-cycle power stations and, unfortunately, we are allowing conversion of these furnace oil plants to our precious natural gas, without any engineering planning.
All these steam power stations should have been offered to private entrepreneurs for 're-powering' so that these could have been converted to combined cycle power stations with 50 per cent higher efficiencies before allowing natural gas supply.
The additional 50 per cent power generation, with the same fuel use, could pay for the investment, and ultimately the country would be the winner. The huge amount of money being spent on getting Hubco grid connections for the KESC is an ideal example of how little we care for the economy and for efficiency.
The same money should have been spent on re-powering Bin Qasim thermal power plants so that, first, KESC costs of generation could have come down (instead, the KESC is now being burdened with exorbitant Hubco costs) and, second, a model of high efficiency presented to other plants as a basic tool.
This 're-powering' would have been done much faster than the two-and-a-half to three years (and perhaps longer) required for connecting Hubco lines to the KESC.
Even for 'efficient' combined cycle power stations (Kot Addu and Guddu), Wapda would be well advised to study modern methods of raising efficiency and power capacity augmentation in summer when these power plants lose up to 30 per cent capacity (when you need power most).
We see capacity reduction in our combined cycle power station every summer but do not even hear of steps to use modern technology to regain lost capacities at a fraction of the cost of a new power plant.
Even in America, which has been very slow in adopting conservation policies, there are now major changes in basic planning, including technologies to increase power capacity and efficiency. Even green building concepts are now being encouraged widely.
Not only are all city planners ensuring green buildings (which would drastically reduce power consumption in all types of building usages), the sense of competition is also now encouraging many private project owners there to use the 'green' concept.
We need to urgently set our energy priorities right by discarding obsolete policies if we want sustainable growth.
AINUL ABEDIN
Karachi
Blasphemy law
On July 13, an advocate asserted in a TV programme that the punishment for blasphemy in the United Kingdom was life imprisonment. He also asserted that earlier the punishment was death.
To the best of my knowledge, the last prosecution for blasphemy in the UK was in 1977 when Mr Denis Lemon, editor of Gay News, was sentenced to nine months in jail. It was the first case of its kind for than 50 years. Mr Lemon was convicted for publishing a poem by Professor James Kirkup. Professor Kirkup, however, was not prosecuted.
Before that Mr John William Gott was sentenced to nine months' imprisonment with hard labour for having published a blasphemous pamphlet. This sentence, in 1921, aroused great public indignation, with strong criticism in the press, and condemnation by a number of clergymen.
The advocate should also enlighten the readers as to why Bertrand Russell was not prosecuted for blasphemy when he published his pamphlet "Why I am not a Christian" in 1927.
Doesn't the answer lie in the fact that the British blasphemy law distinguishes between reasoned criticism and outrageous attack on religion or religious personalities having a tendency to lead to a breach of the peace? And what does the advocate say about those who are trying to get the blasphemy law repealed in the United Kingdom?
Last but not least, what does the advocate have to say about Zahid Hussain Mirza, associate professor of Islamic studies at the Postgraduate College, Mirpur, who has been languishing in jail since 1999 on blasphemy charges? Why is it that the Council of Islamic Ideology was divided on his guilt?
S.A. CHAUDHARY
Islamabad
Armitage's remarks
After visiting India, Mr Richard Armitage, the US deputy secretary of state, came to Pakistan to give us a piece of his mind. He spoke to our senior government officials like a hawaldar major speaks to his troops.
He not only told Pakistan to do more to stop cross border terrorism in Indian held Kashmir, but also made allegations that there were still terrorist camps in Pakistan and they must be dismantled. On the question of gross human rights violations by Indian troops in Kashmir, his tone was diplomatic.
The sad part of the story is that our foreign secretary, Mr Riaz Khokhar, was quiet throughout as if the US deputy secretary of state were right in his observations.
We are not only a sovereign state but a nuclear power. We should not allow anybody to take us for granted. If the US government has declared us a major non-NATO ally, it does not mean that they can pass any comment on our internal matters.
Mr Armitage should have pulled India up for violating UN resolutions on Kashmir. Does he not know that they have built a number of dams/barrages on rivers flowing towards Pakistan and lately erected a wire fence all along the LOC, thus caring nothing for the UN and international law?
Pakistan has done so much for the war against terrorism that it is now hurting our own security. Even our president is not safe and there have been three attempts on his life due to his policies to eliminate terrorism, especially operations in Wana and Northern areas.
I think the government should take stock of Mr Armitage's uncalled-for remarks on our performance and make a formal protest to the US government.
MUHAMMAD AZHAR kHWAJA
Lahore Cantt
My school's products
As a rule I do not write in Dawn about Mr Ardeshir Cowasjee's columns, and instead write to him privately concerning any matter. This departure is on account of mention of my school, St. Patrick's High School, and Father Petronius.
This is the second time Father Petronius's name has appeared in his column (July 8). He had referred earlier in a column to Ruby Shield and the inter-school cricket tournament before independence.
If he wishes, I can recall for him the victory of St Patrick's High School team over the Parsi High School at the KPI ground in the final of Ruby Shield. It was a famous victory (Old kaspar). I will also recall Agha Sadruddin Durrani, captain of both the cricket and hockey teams, and Jack Britto, the star of both teams.
The column states that the president and the finance minister both studied at St Patrick's. I was aware of the former as the school had, on his becoming president, a reception presided over by Arch Bishop Simon Pereira. The president, in turn, donated Rs200,000.
Father Petronius was not in charge of the school's sport. It was Father Modestine, assisted by OB, father of Olympics in Pakistan. Father Petronius taught Latin. The school also taught Persian and French, with an additional fee. He taught French to our class for only one year. He knew Hebrew and Sindhi as well.
H. A. HAJI
Karachi
Choked sewers
For the past many years there has been a dispute between Faisal Cantonment Board and the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) over the jurisdiction of some blocks in Gulistan-i-Jauhar.
None of them accepts the responsibility for maintenance and service of gutter lines, though the KWSB takes sewerage charges from the residents. In other words, we pay to the KWSB and also to private sweepers for maintenance and service of sewers.
On September 23, 2003, the Sindh government, vide its notification No. SO-VIII (LG)/KW&SB/2(17)/2003, extended the KWSB's jurisdiction to areas falling within the limits of the city district government and to areas of the cantonment boards of Karachi, but the KWSB still does not respond to public complaints.
KWSB officials say they will perform their duties only after taking over the sewerage lines, though there is no agency from which they have to take over. Sewage has been standing on roads and in open plots for the past few months to the agony of the residents. We request the KWSB high-ups to ask their staff to carry out repairs and maintenance of the sewers.
S. RIAZ AHMED AND OTHERS
Karachi
PTV and Wimbledon
Apart from live coverage of the quarter finals, semi-finals and the final of the Euro Cup Football Tournament 2004, PTV also telecast the preliminary matches of the tournament. But it was quite lamentable that it did not even show the finals of the Wimbledon lawn tennis tournament 2004.
Wimbledon is one of the most prestigious tournaments and is quite avidly followed by tennis enthusiasts all over the world. It has a large following in Pakistan as well.
In the past PTV used to show the women's and men's finals of the Wimbledon live every year. But it stopped doing so a few years back. It is hoped that PTV will not ignore a tournament as important as Wimbledon and will not force its viewers to switch over to other channels.
RAFAT MAHMOOD ANSARI
Islamabad
Attock and prime ministers
This will be for the second time that a prime minister will be sent to Attock. After the military takeover on October 12, 1999, the then prime minister Nawaz Sharif was sent to the historic Attock Fort as a prisoner.
Attock and prime ministers are not new to each other. The historic town was the birthplace of an ex-British prime minister, Anthony Eden, whose father was deployed there as an officer of the British Army before independence.
Sir Sikander Hayat Khan, prime minister of undivided Punjab in British era, was also returned to the legislature from the Attock constituency in the '30s. His native village, Wah, was in the jurisdiction of Attock (then Campbellpur) district before the first martial law of General Ayub Khan.
Ayub Khan had separated Wah from Attock and included the town in Rawalpindi district to weaken his political rival, Sardar Shaukat Hayat Khan, a staunch supporter of Mohtarma Fatima Jinnah.
Sardar Shaukat Hayat Khan represented Attock in the legislature from 1946 to the imposition of the longest martial law in the country's history by General Ziaul Haq in 1977.
From Shaukat Hayat to Shaukat Aziz is a long journey. When Shaukat Aziz drives to Attock from Islamabad to meet the electorate, he is greeted with the slogans of "Shaukat Aziz qadam barahao, hum tumharey saath hein". Most of those raising slogans are turncoats who had been raising such slogans in favour of Nawaz Sharif, Benazir Bhutto and other rulers in past.
Photographs on TV screen show that the banker-turned- politician is encircled by most of those 'fair-weather birds' from northern Punjab and the Frontier who have been changing sides frequently and always prefer to sit on the treasury benches.
Kudos to the opposition ARD for fielding a consensus candidate, Dr Sikander Hayat Khan of the PPP, who had bagged more than 41,000 votes against Shujaat's niece, Eman Wasim, in the 2002 general elections.
The MMA has fielded Qari Saeedur Rehman, eminent religious scholar, minister for religious affairs during Nawaz Sharif's previous government in the Punjab (1988-90) and former vice-chairman of General Ziaul Haq's nominated Majlis-i- Shoora. General Ziaul Haq used to offer his prayers in the 'imamat' of Qari Saeedur Rahman at the Jamia Islamia, Kashmir Road, Rawalpindi Cantonment.
MOHAMMED ISMAIL KHAN
Attock
Free local calls
Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited has unveiled a package that says local calls between midnight and 6am will be free from August 14. This seems to be nothing more than a joke.
The question is as to how many people in Pakistan are awake between midnight and 6am. Only a small number of people will be able to avail themselves of this late-night facility, and the majority of people will get no relief.
This will further spoil teenagers who are already addicted to chatting on computers. Their studies will be affected. There will also be more consumption of electricity.
The entire circuits of the PTCL will be jammed when many subscribers will try to avail themselves of the facility of making free telephone calls at the same time, especially immediately after midnight. Instead of offering free calls from midnight to 6am, this facility should be from 1800 hours to midnight.
SYED A. MATEEN
Karachi
An upsetting statement
It was sad to read former Test cricketer Safraz Nawaz's statement published in Dawn on July 16 in which he has criticized Pakistan's newly-appointed cricket coach Bob Woolmer. I think that we should give some time to Mr Woolmer and see the results before making these comments.
He is an experienced coach and would have given the best advice to Shoaib. There should be absolutely no doubt over his credibility. Discouraging remarks will only upset the coach who has just accepted a big assignment with a lot of optimism and confidence.
I hope that in the future former cricketer instead of demoralizing the coach will come up with encouraging words to boost the morale of the team that only needs a little support in this difficult time to regain its past glory.
KHURRAM KHAN VIRK
Lahore
'Sick and tired'
I totally agree with your opinion (editorial "Sick and tired", July 16) regarding the tone and wording being repeatedly used by the US, India and, to top all, Afghanistan that "Pakistan must do more".
It is true that we have committed blunders in the past by supporting other people's causes and thereby damaging our own interests. But Pakistan has done enough that should make it clear to the world that we learnt our lessons and expect fair treatment.
M. WASIF BUTT
Karachi
Retired teacher's appeal
After attaining the age of superannuation I took retirement as primary school headmistress from government service, effective December 31, 2003. Now I am in receipt of a cheque for payment as GPF, along with a final GPF authority letter in respect of A/c No-SED 030024, issued on June 15, 2004.
It is shocking to note that the payment in question has not been made in accordance with the GPF ledger account slip issued by the AG, Sindh, for the year 2002-2003, which shows a different and larger sum for the period up to May 2003. The remaining GPF accumulation from June 2003 to December 2003, as such, stands payable to me. I subscribed to the GPF regularly.
The authorities concerned are requested to ensure that I get the actual GPF difference and am issued a revised GPF (final) authority letter to meet the ends of justice.
ANWAR PARVEEN
HM (retd), G. G. Primary School-4, Korangi, Karachi
Request to HEC
The Higher Education Commission has initiated an indigenous PhD programme offering almost 5,000 PhD scholarships across Pakistan. I am one of the beneficiaries of this programme from Karachi.
Although much appreciated, I realize that the HEC has no management science experts from Sindh listed on their website of "approved advisers list". I request the HEC on behalf of all students in Sindh to provide us with supervisers in management sciences from the province.
With several recognized business schools, especially in Karachi, the commission should have no difficulty in finding such people.
WELL-WISHER
Karachi
Banking system
I am a senior citizen, 75 years old, and have a bank account (# 8225-0) at NBP, Model Colony, Karachi. The bank has deducted Rs400 from my account without intimating me. I came to know of this while inquiring about the balance. The bank people said whoever had less than Rs5,000 in his account would be fined Rs50 every month.
Had I known this earlier, I would have transferred Rs5,000 from my joint account # 9771-6 maintained in the same bank branch. Will somebody at the helm of affairs stop this unhealthy practice?
M. A. RAHMAN
Karachi
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