| 29 July 2004 | Thursday | 11 Jamadi-us-Saani 1425 |
Death of two forest officers
Plight of old pensioners
System for tracing stolen vehicles
Tobacco farmers' concern
Lyari's big problems
Dilemma of PIA
Business of shares
Kargil not a disaster
Medical merit?
Denationalizing schools
F grade system
Attention of the SBP
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As reported by your newspaper, the World Bank has publicly criticized some proposed and ongoing water projects in Pakistan. Should one congratulate the World Bank for apparently acting on its pro-poor agenda? One would have to do so with some reservations.
First, the Bank's critique does not cover the shoddy record of resettlement and compensation to people displaced by such projects or their adverse impact on the environment.
Another reservation relates to Chashma. Complaints filed with the Asian Development Bank by residents affected by the project have been investigated by an independent panel of international experts. The panel established that widespread and substantial human and environmental damage will happen as a result of the project.
The project has a so-called 'lift-irrigation' component to mitigate the impact of the deep channels constructed to "guide" the flood waters. If the World Bank wishes to call for a halt to this kind of irrigation technique, then what does it propose as an alternative for poor farmers deprived of their natural access to water.
Third, what does the Bank recommend be done in projects where substantial damage has already been caused to poor farmers and others by appropriating land without compensation, or by construction of infrastructure that diverts existing water supplies. The Bank wants Pakistan to borrow money for its infrastructure project.
This would make sense only if the Bank were to insist that the people affected from past projects be adequately compensated before any new project gets under way.
However, the World Bank's and the government's record on this is quite poor when we look at the continuing plight of the people affected by the Tarbela Dam or by the Chotiari Reservoir in Sindh.
Fourth the Bank is quite right in asking that rates of return should take into account the huge amounts of private investments required. These investments have been neglected by the government.
Will the Bank also apply this in the case of its own pet projects - projects that usually end up destroying national assets and then burden a country for years to come.
The World Bank suggests that WAPDA, the finance ministry and the planning commission have misused, misappropriated and wasted hundreds of millions already, and are proposing to waste billions more of public funds (extorted from the poor via indirect taxation).
Shouldn't some heads now roll in Islamabad and Lahore? Minister Shaukat Aziz will be let off rather easily if only kicked upstairs. It's depressing to be told that a person who could not manage public resources wisely is now to be entrusted with managing state power judiciously.
A. ERCELAN AND M. NAUMAN PILER
Karachi
Death of two forest officers
The killing of two missing Range Forest Officers belonging to Hyderabad, Sindh has become an eye-opening event for many but not for the concerned authorities.
It was on the evening of 12th July when a group of six forest officers, all doing their BSc in Forestry from the Pakistan Forest Institute Peshawer, went missing while they were on an expedition mission as part of their study tour. This exercise comprised other groups as well.
They started their expedition from Shogran and their peak, destination was to reach Makra Top, a 15,000 feet peak. All other groups of officers returned to their base by the evening but this group of six was missing and had reportedly lost its way on way back due to torrential rains and darkness.
The parents of the missing officers were informed about the event on the evening of 14th. The next day, four officers from this group comprising, two women and two men, were discovered and brought back to Shogran.
However, the relevant authorities passed on misleading information to the media and the concerned parents of two the missing officers, saying that all the six officers were safe and well.
One of the recovered women officers, however, told a TV channel that their two colleagues Abdul Qadeer Kandhir and Sayed Mujataba Shah were still missing. Both these courageous officers had left the original group to trace their way back.
As it happened, the four persons left behind were saved by some villagers but the whereabouts of the remaining two remains unknown. This fact, was not reported by the authorities who continued to claim that all the six had been recovered.
If the factual position had not been concealed rescue operations would have been launched well in time and two precious lives would have been saved. Pakistan Forest Institute should have sought the help of Special Crisis Management Cell or the Armed Forces.
Soon after, however, the dead bodies of the two officers were recovered. They had died of hunger and cold due to continuous rains, cold weather and lack of food. Reports reveal that despite the risky expedition, the forest officers were not provided with any communication system, hiking or tracking kit, not any guide or map.
NIAZ NADEEM
Islamabad
Plight of old pensioners
Mr Mazharul Haq's letter on the 'Plight of old pensioners' (July 25) represents the feelings of all old pensioners. It is pertinent to add that if the World War II had not been fought, there would have been no inflation, and the salaries and pensions would have remained essentially the same as they were before 1940.
It is inflation which has been forcing the government to grant ad hoc increases or revision of salaries from time to time. But these never kept pace with the rates of actual inflation.
It would seem that this important point was not brought to the attention of the learned judges of the apex court when it heard the appeal of the government against the Federal Shariat bench verdict of October 14, 1992.
Ends of justice will be met if the apex court takes suo motu cognizance of the point stated above, set aside its decision of January 9, 2004, and confirms the FSB verdict of October 14, 1992.
Most of the pre-July 1986 retirees are the optee-pensioners. Having worked under onerous conditions arising out of having to start from scratch, the government would have acknowledged their invaluable services to the nation during that critical stage by conferring upon them twice, or even thrice the pensions granted to the post-July 1986 retirees who enjoyed comfortable living during their careers in the government.
The optee pensioners would like the government to grant, with effect from July 1, pensions allowed to the latest retirees. In doing so, the government would be including the 35 per cent dearness increase granted from June 1, 1994, to all in-service government employees but denied to the old pensioners.
JALAL AHMED
Karachi
System for tracing stolen vehicles
The system available in Pakistan to trace stolen vehicles is claimed as being fool-proof. The manufacturers say that a stolen vehicle can be located and recovered in a matter of minutes through a GPS satellite system and the use of cellular technology.
The companies claim that this technology allows them to switch off the engine of the car. However, it seems that carjackers have acquired knowledge of how to de-activate this system.
We hired the services of one such car-tracing company in January 2004. One of our vehicles (Suzuki Mehran, registration number AFP-761), was stolen at gunpoint on June 20 at 6pm in the vicinity of Kashmir Road in Karachi's PECHS. The theft was reported to the control room of the company.
According to the company, two other vehicles, with the same technology, were also reported stolen at the same time on that day. The company's mobile tracking units went after the other two vehicles, which were more expensive, while our less expensive vehicle was giving distress signals for 60 minutes.
The company claims to have searched for the car for two days but could not locate it. The company also suggested that the matter should not be reported to the police because the Anti-Car Lifting Cell had already been informed. Finally, we got an FIR registered on June 25.
M. TAZAM SHAIKH
Karachi
Tobacco farmers' concern
With reference to the news story "Growers block road in protest" (Dawn, July 12), I would like to highlight the other side of this issue which remains unreported.
Being a tobacco grower with several acres of land in district Swabi, I am well aware of this issue. There is a specific and transparent tobacco buying system in place whereby tobacco companies make written agreements with a large number of farmers clearly spelling out the terms and the quantity to be bought.
The agreement is made at the time of planting the tobacco seeds. However, a problem arises when those farmers with no contract (general referred to as "azad growers") also grow tobacco hoping to earn instant profits from this cash crop.
They do this despite public awareness campaigns by the Pakistan Tobacco Board not to grow tobacco without any written agreement with the tobacco companies. So when the tobacco companies refuse to buy the crop of the 'azad' growers, they raise a hue and cry and take to the streets in protest.
This hurts the interests of the legitimate growers when the protesters and the administration force the companies to purchase this extra crop. The protest of these so-called growers is unfair keeping in view that the companies have no binding agreements with them.
HAJI GUL ZAREEN KHAN YUSAFZAI
Swabi
Lyari's big problems
Lyari is the biggest and oldest town of Karachi with an estimated population of 1.6 million. It is the most depressed section of Karachi and consists of several big areas like Liaquat Colony, Nawabad, Baghdadi, Chawkiwaro, Kalakot, Singhoo Lane and Kalri. Most of them look like rural areas owing to their lack of civic development.
For the past several decades, the residents of this town have been facing numerous problems and living without basic amenities such as water, electricity, health, education etc.
The water shortage has become a very serious problem. The residents have been suffering for a long time. Water tankers are the only source for drinking water and for poor people it is even more difficult to pay Rs 300 for a tanker. So they go in search of water early in the morning to other areas. The distribution system in this town is also very poor.
In some parts of Lyari, when water does come, it usually comes after midnight just for a few hours on particular days. Therefore in late night, instead of sleeping, the people of Lyari are seen waiting for water.
When it does come, the water is usually polluted and mixed with sewage from defective and leaking drainage lines and is unusable for cooking and drinking purposes.
Frequent load shedding has also made the lives of residents miserable. For the past several years, the citizens have been facing round-the-clock load shedding. Old wires and transformers are the problem which is aggravated by illegal power connections (kundas) given to the public with the connivance of the KESC staff.
Most of the roads of Lyari are old which were constructed several years ago. They are in a bad condition and become even more dangerous in the rainy season. Mostly rainwater mixed with drainage overflows onto the roads and remains stagnant for weeks and due to this, lots of puddles are formed.
The sewerage problem in this town is acute. In most of the areas, cracks have appeared in the old-age sewerage pipelines and sewage gets mixed with drinking water lines.
The law-and-order situation is also very critical. Almost in the whole of the Lyari Town, people are living their life in fear. Nowadays robberies are happening almost in every part of the town. Gunpoint robberies are increasing day after day.
The standard of education is also low in Lyari. In many schools, teachers come just to mark themselves present and collect their salaries at the beginning of each month. In most schools, there are no playgrounds or other such facilities for children.
Lyari provides an ideal environment for drug peddlers and drugs are easily available. Recently the city government announced plans to develop 10 parks in different towns of Karachi at a cost of Rs60 million but the biggest town was again ignored. Do the children of Lyari not need any good park?
IMRAN KHAN SIAL
Karachi
Dilemma of PIA
Pia has recently been a beneficiary of massive financial grants from the exchequer. PIA should have been the trend setter for aviation in Pakistan but this is a role which it seems to have left to others.
Reservation of seats has been a headache for its clients and yet the airline management, which is hostage to the beneficiaries of this outdated system, continues to drag its feet.
Now that a few airlines in Pakistan have come up with the concept of e-ticketing, we hear that PIA is planning to follow suit. Why was this not thought of some years back when almost all airlines of PIA's size went and introduced this system?
The only thing that PIA seems to be interested in is a no-holds bar spending spree on expensive new aircraft, coupled with fare hikes on one pretext or another. The basic problem is that of finding an affordable, reliable and efficient mode of travel with a people friendly sales and reservation system, etc. PIA needs a massive overhaul of its management, its policies and its priorities.
IRFAN BUTT
Manchester, UK
Business of shares
Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL) has been in the news recently. A lot of people are taking interest in the stock market. Last week, almost all financial institutions had a large number of people filling out the form for the shares of PPL. Before this, a large number of people applied for the shares of Bank Al Falah and OGDC.
It is encouraging to see that such a large number of people is taking interest in investing in the capital market rather than just saving in banks. And why shouldn't they? This investment opportunity guarantees a 154 per cent return to an individual.
But only under two conditions. First provided the share prices don't fall drastically and, second, if the individual is lucky enough to get the shares in balloting.
MUHAMMAD FAISAL SHAIKH
Karachi
Kargil not a disaster
Kargil was not the only factor behind the military takeover in 1999. Multiple causes for that coup can be cited. The Kargil incident was nothing new in the history of India-Pakistan relations.
Such incidents were considered normal on a yearly basis between the two countries. That year, however, the Vajpayee government internationalized the incident to possibly gain a few points over its increasing domestic unpopularity.
An alternative explanation suggests that the Kargil incident, despite India's attempts to portray Pakistan as an aggressor, fired back in psychological terms and revitalized the importance of Kashmir.
AFTAB KAZI
Washington DC, USA
Medical merit?
I am a student of the King Edward Medical College, Lahore, and have secured admission on merit. But I have come to realize that talent or intelligence can get you nowhere. You have to be the dean's son or the daughter of a professor to achieve distinction.
At first I didn't give any credibility to what the seniors had told me but then the result of the first professional exam proved what I had heard. The topper and the student who came second were children of the college staff.
I have this predicament of not having a medical background or coming from a known family of doctors. Does this mean I have no right to strive for the top? And if so, will I get it in the presence of the monopoly of these professors and their children?
STUDENT, KEMC
Lahore
Denationalizing schools
ST. Patrick's and St. Joseph's colleges in Karachi, nationalized in the 1970s, are now being returned to their original owners, the Catholic Board of Education. The understanding is that the schools will not be made into elitist institutions retain their affordable status with better teaching and other facilities available to students.
I have always wondered why, despite the fact that the Catholic Board has one of the largest network of educational institutions in the country, and also charges reasonable fees from students, a large portion of the Pakistani Christian community remains illiterate or barely literate.
Doesn't the Board put back money into the community, specifically its own community? It is an irony that several thousand Christian families are not able to send their children to school because they can't afford the fees despite the fact that their own clergy runs some of the best educational institutions in the country.
YUNUS MALIK
Hyderabad
F grade system
For the past two years, the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, Lahore, has been playing a strange game with the future of thousands of young students.
It all began when the board decided to discard the previous marking system and devised a new system in which there would be no failures. Those students who did not make the grade were awarded an F only and allowed to continue their studies.
But after some time, when many students who had got F grades applied for admission to intermediate classes, the F grade was announced as denoting a fail. These unfortunate students were directed to give supplementary exams.
The last date to submit forms was July 26 and the exams will begin in the second week of August. This gives only a short time for preparation to the students who once thought that they had passed the exams.
RANA SHAKEEL
Ferozwala
Attention of the SBP
I submitted share applications to purchase PPL stock at Habib Bank's Barkat-i-Hydri branch in Karachi. I had to pay Rs10 cash per application extra and for this I was given no receipt. When I asked the bank staff the reason I was told that this was a service charge without which the application would not be processed.
Now I have found out that no other bank applied an extra service charge on the PPL share applications. The State Bank is requested to look into this matter and ask the Habib Bank to refund the money paid to it as service charge.
ZAKI-UR-REHMAN KHAN
Karachi
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