| 21 July 2004 | Wednesday | 03 Jamadi-us-Saani 1425 |
Punjab University bridges
Fighting American interests
Dump trucks
Falling education standards
Blaming others
Built with sand
Bypass road
Nazimuddin's dismissal
'Temporizing yet again'
Happy hour
Pen-pricks
To send a letter to the Editor
Click here
Organizations created in haste and agreements executed under confusion to solve chronic disputes always remain deficient. The Water Accord is an example. It was created in 1991 under the preamble of the IRSA Act.
For implementing such a great task, Irsa was not given the required administrative, financial, judicial and policy-cum- decision making powers. It was not empowered to deal with issues relating to storage dams, irrigation infrastructure, drainage and water management.
The mere recognition and acceptance of an authority carry no intrinsic powers to act. The IRSA Act shows only expediency and mentions regulation and distribution of water and does not give powers for implementation of the Water Accord.
Major deficiencies in the Accord are that it did not specify the quantity of the average, annual available surface water of 142 maf. This is the pivotal figure involved for regulation, monitoring and distribution and for the implementation of the Water Accord.
Presently this basic figure is made disputable. It is claimed by some quarters that water for the construction of a new dam is not available. In the Water, Accord para 2, a figure of 117.35 maf of water was adopted and allocated to the provinces against the actual available figure of 105 maf of water.
This shows that 12.35 maf of water as allocated is imaginary and is in excess of availability. This imaginary quantity has created confusion and dispute.This needs clarification and amendment.
Obviously 12.35 maf as allocated is flood water that falls under para 4 of the Accord but is treated as perennial flow under para 2 of the Water Accord without giving reasons.
It was perhaps not realized at the time of allocation of water that the creation of 12.5 maf of water requires the construction of more than three dams of the size of Kalabagh or Bhasha.
How long it will take to build these 3 dams is left to the imagination of the reader. Besides this, the very availability of water is made disputable and is under study for verification by the Technical Committee on Water Resources.
The water sharing paras of the Water Accord are ambiguous and confused. Even the Law Ministry is in a fix how to interpret it on whether to share shortages as per para 2 or para 4 or para 14(b). The ambiguity has created a dispute that needs removal.
Over and above the said deficiencies, it is not understood why the 'consensus drama' on the construction of Kalabagh Dam is being played out for years when specially the feasibility para 6 of the Water Accord between the provinces is their written consensus.
The Water Accord is a man-made document and therefore it can not be considered sacrosanct, as it is full of deficiencies, ambiguities and disputes. Such a conflicting law or agreement becomes satanic in its essence, as it is not workable and progressive.
ENGR. FATEH ULLAH KHAN
Former chairman, IRSA, Peshawar
Punjab University bridges
I wish to take note of your editorial 'Uncalled for rumpus' (July 17) in which you have written that the academic community should "not turn the matter into one of prestige and pride."
Let me tell you what the real issue is all about. There were eight bridges in the new campus at Punjab University which students used for moving between campus and hostels.
There are more than 7,000 students on campus. Among them are 75 who are physically disabled. All the departments and institutes are not just on the road side. Some departments are at least two kilometres away, which students reach on foot. Moreover, for lunch, students come back to their hostel between 11:30 am to 12:30 pm and then go back for their practical classes.
I myself use a bicycle between the hostel and my department. It took me 10 minutes to reach my department before the dismantling of the bridges. Now I have a detour of at least three kilometres and it takes me 25 minutes.
The traffic is much faster now. I cannot lift my bicycle with my hands four times a day to cross these overhead pedestrian bridges, which are so high that using them is not easy.
My question from all thinking quarters is why is one class of society allowed to move so fast while putting a full stop to the progress of other classes of society.
Secondly, now the government has said it will build two underpasses. This would be a good step if they fulfil their promise but still it will not be comparable to those eight bridges that were in place previously.
Shahbaz Sharif also wanted to break these bridges but he first just blocked the bridges but after negotiations he accepted the student point of view. When the police came to dismantle the bridges in the night, teachers and students went to them for negotiations with the only claim that first they should develop the underpass or first let them talk to the government officials concerning the issue.
But they were treated with abuses and rough language followed by tear gas and shelling. My humble suggestion is that the government should not unnecessarily waste public money and should complete the ring road plan which will automatically alter the load on the canal road and put back the bridges which have been dismantled.
MUHAMMAD SAFWAN AKRAM
Lahore
Fighting American interests
It was not General Zia who had Mujahideen trained as guerilla fighters for Jihad against the former Soviet Union over its occupation of Afghanistan. The cost of this training was borne by America. One cannot forget the Ojhri Camp fireworks, the only means to know how the American money was, in practice, spent.
Those Mujahideen, crusading for America, were Pakistani madressah graduates, most of them were Pakhtoons - mostly Pakistani but also Afghan. It was these Mujahideen, calling themselves Taliban, who established an Afghan Islamic state, recognized only by Pakistan and two other Arab-Muslim countries, not even by their real creator, America, who later took a U-turn to crush those very Taliban whose training it had financed.
After 9/11, Pakistan too was forced to take a sharp U-turn. The Mujahideen, after successfully crusading for America, returned to their tribal homeland in Pakistan. Some mysterious figure or institution in Pakistan sent some of them for Jihad against India in Kashmir.
Many of them got the honour of Shahadat there. The others on return also peacefully settled in the tribal areas. Under which Islamic or international law or which moral code do Pakistani rulers call their own trained Mujahideen (and their off-shoot Taliban) terrorists?
Not only did the leaders allow America to use Pakistani bases for their fight against the Taliban in Afghanistan, but worse, they themselves started a bloody operation in Wana against their own citizens peacefully living in the tribal belt.
What the present Pakistani rulers didn't do was to learn from their predecessors what they had to face after mortgaging Pakistan's sovereignty to America, for short term personal gains.
Can future Pakistani rulers learn from these examples about the cost of acquiring or continuing friendship with America? Pakistani rulers also forget that Pakhtoons never forgive or forget humiliation.
GHULAM KIBRIA
Karachi
Dump trucks
I would like to bring some facts to the notice of your readers about the dump trucks being released from the Karachi Export Processing Zone and Sambrial Export Processing Zone (near Sialkot) during last two to three years.
These dump trucks are basically cargo trucks, imported from Japan and Singapore. According to the standards available with various manufacturers a normal size chassis is used for many types of trucks.
The classification changed by a Customs House committee (vide file No. SI/MISC/275/99/ VIII) is based without any comparison of the actual specification of an 'off-highway' dump truck.
Most of the models/chassis series now being released from export processing zones have never been marketed as dump trucks even by their original manufacturers.
The specifications and parameters set by the customs for these trucks are baseless and prepared only on assumption. No official catalogue or specification chart is available from the original manufacturers for these so-called dump trucks.
A majority of the trucks being used to fabricate the so-called dump trucks were originally registered as cargo trucks from the country of export. However, the documents being provided to the customs show them as dump trucks and this seems to be happening with the connivance of the exporters abroad and local computer experts.
It would be advisable to use the standards used for 'off- highway' dumpers in America and use them as the criteria here. These standards can easily be obtained by searching the Internet.
I should mention here that the local market is being flooded with scrap and automobile parts and their origin is the EPZs. This needs to be stopped lest we see potential automobile manufacturers, from countries like China, backing out.
ABDUL HAMEED
Karachi
Falling education standards
There cannot be two opinions about the failing standard of education in Pakistan. The system of examination and assessment in place has contributed to the decline in standards.
All that the students seem to be interested in are grades and all examiners seem to be concerned with is the number of copies they mark - the greater the amount the more they can earn.
Grades seem to be the only desire of students and parents but good grades do no guarantee admission to good private colleges or universities, most of whom have their own entry tests. Position holders are known to have not cleared such entry tests and given that what is the use of getting such grades?
The exam papers should be revamped to include more objective or multiple choice questions. The heads of educational institutions should be taken into confidence in educational policymaking.
Instead of mentioning grades, a certificate of qualification should be given to each successful student. That certificate will not only encourage learning habits among students but will improve the standing of the examining bodies.
Fifty percent of a student's overall exam marks should be assessed on the basis of his or her performance in the school. Also, there should be no restriction on the number of times a student can attempt an exam.
In addition to this, the curriculum should be such that it encourages students to conduct research and engage in exercises that sharpen their analytical and thinking skills.
MUHAMMAD JAMIL AWAN
Hyderabad
Blaming others
I read your editorial saying that enlightened moderation is in itself flawed. Every great religion has had to go through this phase, where a clergy or an outspoken minority of religious zealots hijack the religion and cause harm to the majority. What is happening with Islam isn't any different.
Islam is not too hard to follow, that is if we really understand the religion. We are quick to blame western society for all our ills. We look at its faults like teenage pregnancies, alcoholism, marital infidelity, abortions and so on and conveniently blame everything on western society's lack of religion. Perhaps we do this to please ourselves.
And all these things only prove to us that western society is better than ours. The reason they have these problems and the reason why western society or at least the governments have distanced themselves from religion and drawn a clear line between church and state is because that's for the best for them.
Western societies have been through a lot more than we have. They have been through the industrial revolution, the women's rights movement, the civil rights movement, the French revolution and the free love period. Such experiences make them stronger, mature, developed and more civilized than us because we haven't been through any of this.
Soon the commercialising influence of western media and adoption of modern lifestyles will have driven us to such a point that Islam will only be left to a handful clergy and a few other people.
This is not a good thing at all. An outspoken minority has held the silent majority of Muslims hostage. The silent majority will revolt, and that revolt will lead people to be even less religious.
The daily constraints of modern life have made it difficult to adhere to Islamic principles, even the relatively easier ones. The most corrupt, dishonest, fractured societies are Muslim societies where the local population is angry and frustrated. Where is eve-teasing the favourite past-time of entertainment starved youth? In Muslim societies.
Decades ago, young people overthrew the Shah of Iran because they resented the forced westernization of their societies and the general lack of freedom in their society. Today there's even more resentment among Iran's young and a sort of a rebellion against the clergy is brewing.
In Saudi Arabia a significant proportion of young people have become disenchanted with their government and this resentment is growing. Clearly, such conflict-ridden societies are not a good reflection of Islam. And then we console ourselves by blaming everything on the West.
AMIR MAHMOOD QURASHI
San Jose, California, USA
Built with sand
The picture of a brick-tiled pavement on Jail Road in distressing disarray speaks volumes for the profiteering of the contractors engaged by the PHA as well as the callous disregard of public property by reducers and the apathy of the pedestrians who use these pavements. (Dawn Metropolitan, July 7).
It is a common sight - the straddling of such pavements by motorcyclists as a short-cut from the servicelanes to the main Jail Road. The combined weight of the motorcycle and its two (sometimes three) generously proportioned riders was something the pavements were not designed for.
The illegal cost-cutting by Government contractors combined with the misuse of the pavement by motorcyclists was bound to produce this result. At least the motorcyclists can be prevented from venturing onto the payments either by vigilant and honest traffic policemen or by erecting some barriers against invasion by motorcyclists.
ASAD SIDDIQI
Lahore
Bypass road
Muzaffargarh badly needs and deserves axing bypass road because the highways coming from all the four provinces converge on this city and the resultant heavy traffic passes right through its centre utterly disturbing its civic peace and order.
While all our governments including the present one have always admitted the importance of urgently building this road which will be 53 kilometres long and will cost Rs. 320 million, no funds have ever been allocated for this purpose. This is really a case of step-motherly treatment being meted out to our district.
Sui gas has since long been promised to the Farid Colony here but no action has been taken towards fulfilling that promise. Here again the LPG-cylinder companies are alleged to have paid megabucks, to the higher authorities to stop extension of Sui-gas supply in their own best interest.
Similarly, this colony is short of telephone lines and the applicants' requests for connections continue to be ignored. The public representatives here seem to be sincere enough but perhaps their voice remains unheeded in the central corridors of power.
MUHAMMAD NAEEM
Muzaffargarh
Nazimuddin's dismissal
In Anjum Niaz's column in last week's Sunday magazine , it was said that General Iskandar Mirza had dismissed Khwaja Nazimuddin's government in 1954. In point of fact the dismissal was done by Ghulam Mohammad who was then the governor-general of Pakistan. Please correct the mistake for record's sake.
SHAHMIR ARSHAD
Karachi
The error is regretted. -Editor
'Temporizing yet again'
Your editorial 'Temporizing yet again' (July 13) should be appreciated by all those who believe in providing relief to the sufferers of Gen Zia's Hudood laws, who used them to enhance his standing as president of Pakistan.
The prime minister's decision to refer the issue to the Council of Islamic Ideology seems to be a delaying tactic. Whenever a decision on an issue has to be delayed or postponed, the matter is referred to the law department for advice. The latter takes months or even years to give the 'advice'.
One classic example is when Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah requested the army chief for protection, while hearing a corruption case against then prime minister Nawaz Sharif. The then army chief, Gen. Jehangir Karamat, referred the issue to thearmy's judge advocate general branch. However, before the advice could come, the PML's workers ransacked the court.
Being a crafty rightist politician, the prime minister wants to avoid a decision on this matter during his 45-day rule. Let us hope that issues like this will be resolved by Shaukat Aziz when he becomes prime minister. Probably he has been selected for this slot to overcome problems of greater magnitude which routine politicians dare not face.
MASOOD ALI KHAN
Lahore
Happy hour
The telephone users are extremely pleased to receive a happy hour package effective from August 14 onwards. In short, users will be able to use telephones absolutely free from midnight to 6am.
It is suggested that the timing may be extended from 6 pm to 6 am so that people may call at respectable hours instead of waking somebody up in the middle of the night. Besides this we request that calls be multimetered after ten-minute intervals during prime time, instead of five minutes at present.
We are also thankful for further reduction in telephone connection charges. This will encourage the use of our land-line-based telephone system which already stands obsolete in comparison with the mobile phones which offer a multitude of benefits.
RAFI ADAMJEE
Karachi
Pen-pricks
Pen-pricks cartoon in Dawn of July 9 was a good piece of humour exposing the real drama of our political mockery. The population of the country is victim of illiteracy no doubt due to political exigencies of all the men who have been ruling the country last more than fifty years. Still the people are not under hiberation.
They are not slumbering. They enjoy the approach of contestants with plethora of promises which they know are nothing but a mirage. It is also ridiculous on part of the candidates to go to the voters with package that could never be materialized.
GHEEWALA A.G.M.
Karachi
You can also send letters to the Editor
Just send your message to the following address:
Make sure you include your full name, postal address, e-mail address, and in the case of Pakistan your day-time telephone number.