| 20 October 2004 | Wednesday | 05 Ramazan 1425 |
Police reforms
Hayatabad's woes
Uplifting insurance industry
Doing a disservice?
Some questions
A question for the PM
A father's appeal
Abortion law
Robberies on the rise
Traffic action
Spread of deadly diseases
CBR and Edhi Foundation
Tampered chassis
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House mortgage financing requires improvement in Pakistan as far as the rate of mark-up based on rental sharing and quantum of monthly instalments, length of payment of monthly instalments as well as waiver of government duties/ stamps and relaxation in documentation are concerned.
I suggest long-term house financing of 20 to 30 years, involving a low mark-up rate to the extent of seven per cent per annum, and no excise duty on cement and about 40 allied industries.
The methods of calculating the equalizer based on rental sharing should be clear and simple. Profit in mortgage financing should be based on "diminishing partnership".
The quantum of monthly instalments is a vital issue. The present quantum is not practical and not within the reach of the common citizen. It is for the "privileged class" and not designed for the low-income people or the middle class.
The period of payments of mortgage financing should be increased for 20 to 30 years based on not more than seven per cent mark-up rate for calculation of rental sharing.
Long-term mortgage financing arrangement will lead to instalments to the extent of monthly rent supposed to be paid by the borrower. If the instalments of mortgage financing are of about 30 years on a flat of value of Rs1 one million with 10 per cent down payment, the borrower is supposed to pay an instalment of Rs6,000 only per month. If such mortgage financing is developed, the government/semi-government and corporate employees, who are getting about 40 per cent of their monthly pay as house rent and/or allowances, can enjoy mortgage financing and right of ownership.
The 40 per cent house rent will be a guaranteed amount of payment. The benefit of ownership, increase in price of property during the period of financing and decrease in the principal amount of mortgage financing will be an additional incentive to avail of mortgage finance.
In Pakistan, there is a need for seven million houses in rural areas and 13 million in the urban areas. If mortgage financing is provided to five million houses in three to five years, the construction industry will register a boom and cement as well as about 40 allied industries will be strengthened. More than 10 to 15 million people will get employment directly or indirectly if 100 per cent or 70 per cent excise duty is waived on cement and other allied industries or products.
Stamps/registration fee should be abolished in respect of registration of mortgage deed relinquish or redemption deeds, etc. Further, the monthly instalments should be treated as "expenses" or otherwise be tax exempted. More, a mortgage house should be exempted from property tax.
SAALIM SALAM ANSARI
Karachi
Police reforms
This is apropos of Mr Karim Gora's letter (Oct 9) on public safety commissions. The setting up of these commissions has been delayed more due to financial and political constraints rather than any opposition from the police as alleged. In fact, the police would and should welcome these commissions as a forum to help improve the image of the force and encourage much-needed cooperation from the public which the police are there to serve and to protect.
There has been a spate of letters in Dawn recently criticizing the deployment of police on VIP duties allegedly to the detriment of public safety on the streets. The guarding of vital installations (205), foreign missions (103), sensitive points, churches, hostels, foreign banks and food chains, etc. (944), mosques (2,855), imambargahs (229), madressahs (1,700), all need a huge force requirement and are an important part of police duties which cannot be ignored.
Thus, if hardly 5,000 constables are left to patrol the streets of this huge megapolis, the answer does not lie in redeployment but in an increase in the force itself. Merely withdrawing the force on VIP duties (also essential) will not solve the problem. The total strength of the capital city police (Karachi) is 18,316 constables. According to a recent survey, a further 11,347 constables are urgently needed to make up the shortfall.
Another important matter requiring immediate attention is the question of the overall responsibility for "law and order" in Karachi. What we have today is literally a plethora of "law-enforcement agencies" all vying for a piece of the action and perhaps a glowing headline in the press. For too many cooks are stirring the pot and spoiling the broth. Now that we have a prime minister and a full civilian government in place, the police should be given back the sole charge and responsibility for maintaining "law and order", currently being shared with Rangers and various other "agencies". Divided responsibility can never make for good governance.
S. ASIF MAJEED
Karachi
Hayatabad's woes
The Hayatabad township was developed in the 1980s. Yet a ring road around Peshawar was built up to Hayatabad rather than around it in the 1990s. This was obviously extremely poor planning on the part of the government. Now as security in Afghanistan has improved in the last two years, the reconstruction of this war-ravaged country has picked up many times, with donors pouring in billions for the purpose. The economic activities have greatly increased.
Construction material and other items of daily use are mainly being supplied to Afghanistan from Pakistan. Exports to Afghanistan touched a record level of one billion dollars in the financial year ending June 2004, besides $600 million worth of Afghan transit trade.
Every day these goods are being transported in some 200 heavy vehicles that pass through the centre of the residential Hayatabad township, which is neither meant to cater for this kind of international traffic nor is classified as a highway as such, thus causing multiple problems for the residents.
The volume of exports is going to increase many times when the Central Asian markets are opened up and a transit trade agreement is reached with India. An agreement for improving the Kabul-Tashkent Road has already been signed between Afghanistan and Uzbekistan.
In short, it is illegal to use the road built for the Hayatabad residential area for international commercial traffic. The National Highway Authority should, therefore, build another road bypassing Hayatabad township as the residents can no longer put up with this hazard of ever- increasing volume of heavy traffic and air and noise pollution.
There are other problems of the township also such as overcrowded schools working in residential houses, a neglected sports complex, illegal occupation of the Arts Council building by the town nazim-III for his office use and deteriorating civic problems that demand immediate resolution.
ABDUL GHAFOOR
Hayatabad
Uplifting insurance industry
Insurance is indispensable for the smooth working of an economy. Its importance can be realized from the fact that after 9/11 all planes were grounded and many airlines collapsed simply because no insurance company was ready to insure them. Similarly, no import-export, no movement of goods whether by road or by sea, no construction and development projects and no other business activity can take place without insurance coverage. Despite this, the insurance industry in Pakistan is not getting its due share of importance like other major industries, e.g. banking and textiles.
Good students graduating from business schools or engineering universities do not want to become insurance technocrats and try their utmost to join already saturated fields. As a result, the insurance industry fails to attract suitable and qualified persons. I suggest some measures which can reduce, if not eliminate, the problem of a shortage of skills in our insurance industry.
a. Business schools should introduce insurance and risk management courses in their curriculum and should also introduce specialization in insurance as they have done for marketing, finance, IT, accounting and human resources.
b. Pakistan's insurance industry should itself arrange introductory and informative seminars in educational institutions, and professionals of the industry should offer their services as part-time lecturers.
c. Insurance agents, being the face of the industry, should be adequately trained and taught business ethics so as to give a positive impression of the industry. If the insurance industry is recognized as a major player in the economy and qualified young people join it, it will also reduce the burden of unemployment in general.
ADEEL AHMED QURESHI
Lahore
Doing a disservice?
Those urging Gen Musharraf to retain his uniform are doing him a great disservice. He has already lost ground by conceding to a referendum, carrying the excess baggage of befriending the MMA and accepting turncoats of political parties who switched loyalties to serve their own interests. Whatever little moral authority that he commands by virtue of his personal stature will be lost if he violates the spirit of the Constitution.
Far more damaging will be the growing perception that national unity has been relegated to individual self-interest. Ambiguous and vague endorsements of support by the so-called coalition partners against terror are time-serving and, as in the past, will brazenly be forgotten when the purpose has been served. The fallout of the Afghan jihad at the behest of the Americans is around us and should serve as a chilling reminder not to rush in where angels fear to tread. The grim harvest of what we have sowed is being reaped in the rising numbers of innocent civilians being killed almost daily.
To de-escalate this violence and control rising lawlessness there is an urgent need for some soul-searching on the government's part. Catchy slogans and clever announcements will not do. The government is failing on many fronts but when life and property are no longer safe, then other lofty claims ring hollow.
JAVED KHAN
Haripur Hazara
Some questions
1. A 15-year old Muslim high school student who refused to remove her headscarf and was barred entry into school in France, had to shave her head in protest and was allowed to return to class.
2. The Turkish government seems to have succumbed to European pressure to scrap adultery as an offence from its penal code to meet conditions for entry to the EU.
3. The OIC summit decided in Kuala Lumpur in Oct, 2003 to form a committee of elders to recommend measures to reorganize the OIC to make it vibrant and purposeful. The committee is nowhere in sight after the lapse of one year.
4. Recently, some desperate Chechens held school children hostage. Instead of exhausting all other possible means, the authorities resorted to military action to tackle the situation. A large number of casualties among children and other innocent civilians took place. The act of hostage-taking was highly reprehensible and so it was rightly condemned by everybody, irrespective of creed.
The question is why everybody remains tight-lipped when thousands of women and children, the old and infirm and innocent civilians are ruthlessly butchered through the worst form of state terrorism in Palestine, Kashmir, Chechnya, Iraq and Afghanistan? Why this discrimination and duplicity?
5. Why are 22 Arab states silent over the happenings in Palestine? What is their Arab League for? Won't this situation have repercussions in the Arab states and outside? The Arabs cannot afford to remain unconcerned about the Palestinians.
6. All news about the happenings in Islamic countries are reported by western media with a slant. The Muslim world has rich people and areas, but they cannot afford to have even one international news agency and one global TV channel.
7. The UN and its nuclear wing seem to be meant to check human rights' violations and proliferation of WMDs only in Islamic states, while their discriminatory policies encourage such activities in other states. The 57 OIC members have no permanent representation at the UNSC. It seems the situation will continue.
KHAWAJA MUHAMMAD BASHIR BUTT
Bahawalnagar
A question for the PM
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, in an exclusive interview with a private Sindhi TV channel (Sept 25), has said the NFC award could not be announced earlier because there was no consensus - one of the provinces had differences.
Well, Mr Prime Minister, when a province differed on the NFC award, it was not announced, but when three out of four provinces are against the construction of large dams like the Kalabagh dam, why is the centre insisting on building it, particularly when the three elected provincial assemblies have also passed at least seven resolutions against its construction?
IMRAN KHAN SIAL
Karachi
A father's appeal
The story of the 10-year-old Sahibzada who lost both of his legs due to aerial bombing in Wana is most tragic (Dawn, Oct 8). As a matter of fact, there may be hundreds of innocent children like him who have lost limbs in fighting enemies in Palestine, Afghanistan and Iraq, but are not cared for. If such a case had happened in the West, it would have attracted the sympathies of all.
Why hasn't the federal government compensated the poor parents is not understood. The child has suffered for no fault of his.
Muhammad Iqbal's grief can be partially mitigated if he gets some financial help for his son's treatment and to repay the loans taken for his treatment. Apart from the federal government and the NWFP government, the governments of the other three provinces, philanthropists and social welfare organizations should respond to the SOS of Muhammad Iqbal for financial help to treat and rehabilitate his son to make his future life easier for him.
One hopes that doctors who are treating him would also see that the boy gets artificial limbs as a first step to kindle a ray of hope in his unhappy life.
M. SHAFIQUE AHMED
Karachi
Abortion law
A report (Dawn, Oct 9) says 900,000 illegal abortions are performed in Pakistan at great risk to the life of the mothers.
I would like to draw attention to the report of the Commission of Inquiry for Women, presided over by Mr Justice Nasir Zahid of the Supreme Court of Pakistan. In the attached schedule at the end of the report, an extract from "Law and Population", a research project done by Mr Khalid M. Ishaque, the late scholar and eminent lawyer, is given. In numerous references, he proves that abortion is allowed in Islam within 120 days.
References to sources allowing abortion within 120 days are too numerous to quote here. But to give an example: Fatwa-i-Alamgiri says that abortion is allowed within 120 days and it must be remembered that Fatwa-i-Alamgiri was the joint effort of 500 ulema.
Therefore, our government should legalize abortion done within 120 days. It will save thousands of lives and the resultant misery. We should take heed of the research done by eminent scholars such as Mr Khalid Ishaque.
A. RAZZAK ADVANI
Karachi
Robberies on the rise
Every now and then a house is looted in streets from five to nine of Karachi's Nazimabad No.5, but the police have not arrested even a single robber.
My second concern is the snatching of mobiles and carjackings. Last month when my father was coming home from a bank, two men deprived him of all his valuables.
Will the high-ups in the police department do the needful?
RESIDENT
Karachi
Traffic action
Isn't it ironical that the only police officials against whom action has been taken are those who were responsible for allowing traffic to proceed during the movement of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz some time back in Karachi? This earned the wrath of officialdom.
However, no action is taken against the rise in crime in the city, the rise in terrorism or against widespread corruption in the city police.
AKHTAR KHAN
Karachi
Spread of deadly diseases
This refers to the letters you have published on this serious crisis affecting thousands and thousands of families (Sept 25 and Oct 4). I whole-heartedly support the sensible suggestions made.
Two things really shook me up. One was that the head of healthcare in this country, the federal minister of health, could not provide correct information to parliament on this critical issue. The people of Pakistan would have expected this kind of information to be on his fingertips since these diseases are killing millions around the world. If these officials do not even know the magnitude of the problem, then how accurate will their measures be to solve these deadly problems?
The second shock was a to hear of a cumulative taxation of around 50 per cent on bringing in good quality syringes. What message are the people concerned in Islamabad trying to convey? By their actions the relevant ministries are saying that they do not need to bring good international quality syringes to Pakistan.
I would urge Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz to direct the relevant ministries to remove this very high taxation which is causing a lot more misery and disease.
RAHEEL QURESHI
Karachi
CBR and Edhi Foundation
This is with reference to Muniza Agha's letter "Edhi Foundation and CBR" (Oct 7).
One could not agree more with Ms Muniza Agha. She has highlighted the fact that it is the many NGOs and welfare trusts that are doing the work that our governmental organizations should have been addressing. Why, if Mr Edhi were to stop his ambulance service, havoc would reign supreme (taking into consideration the total population, as well as the number of emergencies that occur).
Instead of letting vehicles imported from China to be released immediately, our government imposed on them the duties and taxes.
One hopes that the vehicles will be immediately released.
ALI HAMID
Karachi
Tampered chassis
Many owners of recovered cars, with tampered chassis and engine numbers, are facing multifarious problems while selling or seeking clearance through police checkposts.
I appeal to the federal interior minister to authorize incorporation of the tampered chassis and engine numbers in the radio frequency identification tag along with the original numbers for the whole of Pakistan. It will greatly help the affected persons.
MIAN M. AFZAL
Karachi
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