| 08 November 2004 | Monday | 24 Ramazan 1425 |
Child conductors
American elections
Inflated electricity bills
Mumtaz Rashdi: a loyal friend
Five years of gains and failures
'Command & control'
National unity
Acts of terrorism
Allowance for researchers
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The organizers of the two-day international conference in London on "Towards Stability, Peace and Security in South Asia" must be commended for providing a high-profile forum for discussing the Kashmir issue at the international level.
Lord Nazir Ahmed, a member of Britain's House of Lords, who has been working to enlist British help in resolving the Kashmir dispute, has come up with some valuable suggestions. Speaking at the conference, he proposed that former foreign secretary Robin Cook be appointed as Britain's special envoy on Kashmir because he is a most respected politician with high international credibility (Oct 26).
Lord Ahmed further stated that Kofi Annan should also name his own special representative for the same purpose because such involvement in many a dispute in the recent past, as in Northern Ireland, has had a positive effect on negotiations, leading to amicable resolution of very difficult problems.
If India is really sincere about solving the Kashmir issue, it should have no hesitation in seeking international mediation, without loss of time. In fact, Mr Gahrton, who was a member of the European Union Parliamentary Committee delegation that visited held Kashmir a couple of months back, had said that he failed to understand why India was antagonistic to the holding of a plebiscite in Kashmir as committed by the UN.
Another positive development was the offer by the British peace activist Gerald Frances to raise this most important issue at next year's European Social Forum. He wisely said that Kashmir needs to be taken to a much wider audience and, like Palestine, it must be brought into the main stream of world problems. Mr Frances also shares Noam Chomsky's view that terrorism can only be stopped if states stop participating in it.
Senator Mushahid Hussain made two important observations. First, that Pakistan's nuclear capability has given us the necessary confidence to negotiate peace with India without fear of being overwhelmed by the much bigger neighbour. Second, that at a meeting on Oct 23, eight former Indian army chiefs of staff had advised the Indian government that their Northern Command (in held Kashmir) could no longer take the pressure (of the freedom struggle).
This second observation needs to be noted carefully and we must be in no hurry to keep offering concessions to India over Kashmir. It's good to try and think out of the box provided the other side also does that. The BJP's recent statements reflecting its unwillingness to budge from its past stand on Kashmir are also noteworthy, as are the Indian foreign minister and the PM's security adviser's conflicting statements.
Above all, it is the Kashmiri people who have suffered enormously for 57 years and sacrificed over 300,000 lives since then in their quest for freedom from Indian occupation. Their huge sacrifices must not go in vain and they should be the ones, more than anybody else, to decide their future.
As far as Pakistan is concerned, the whole nation is one on the Kashmir issue. Our impoverished country may not have a model economy or an enviable democracy, but even the poorest of Pakistanis have always opened their hearts and pockets for our Kashmiri brothers and sisters undergoing Indian repression.
KHALID CHAUDHRY
Karachi
Child conductors
The other day I had an encounter with a child conductor on a coach. He was about 12 and shouting "Nursery, Gora Qabaristan, Cantt Station," etc, to draw the attention of prospective passengers.
It is sad that a child who should be in school is forced to work as a conductor. After the Cantonment station, when the bus was nearly half full, I asked him what hours he kept as a conductor. Pat came the reply: "I get up at 4am, and spend all the time on the bus until midnight."
On being asked how he managed to get up so early, he gave a very painful reply: "My ustad (driver) kicks me three to four times to make me stand up. It has now become my habit."
Meanwhile, he told me that he doesn't know anything about his parents, and added: "This ustad is everything to me. I know no one else in the city except the transporters' community."
When I asked him about his future, he said: "I will drive my own bus." I was still talking to him when his ustad thundered: "Why are you not shouting out for passengers, and only busy gossiping?"
Child labour in Pakistan is increasing day by day. Fifty per cent sports goods are made by children under 14. There are more than 10,000 child beggars in Karachi. I know lots of people who can feed their dogs and spend millions of rupees on unnecessary things but cannot bear the education expenses of one child nor can they adopt any child.
According to an estimate, 900 children were abused in the first six months of 2004. We have the Javed Iqbal case, the Sassi and Hajra case (Gadap), the Muridke magician case, etc, enough to hang our heads in shame. Recently, in Lodhran three girls were murdered after being criminally assaulted.
Problems like child labour, child education and child health are linked with poverty and the economy of the country. We cannot solve these problems unless we develop Pakistan economically.
Child abuse is concerned with our moral values. We cannot solve this problem until we improve our social environment morally. So, it is also linked with education.
Now if we try to find out what is the main reason behind the slow rate of economic growth, the answer will be corruption - either by politicians or government officials or by ourselves. We cannot blame a special group of people. It should be admitted that as Pakistanis we all, barring a few, have done nothing. We are responsible for 10,000 child beggars, we are responsible for those children who are working instead of studying. I don't know how and when we will change our thinking and will think about Pakistan.
WAQAS AHMED
Vial email
American elections
"Let us never forget that government is ourselves and not an alien power over us. The ultimate rulers of our democracy are not a president and senators and congressmen and government officials, but the voters of our country," said Franklin Roosevelt.
Tuesday's US polls showed that Americans turned out in near record, if not record, numbers, not only in battleground states like Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania, but also in states not in play such as California.
This suggests voters were particularly engaged in this presidential election, the first wartime balloting since 1972. It does much to dispel the notion that the American electorate is hopelessly apathetic, that the mass of Americans think their votes are inconsequential.
In truth, no election in decades has fomented such passion among Republicans and Democrats alike. And while there hasn't been much on which the rival parties have seen eye to eye, both agree, rightly or wrongly, that the contest between George W. Bush and John Kerry ranked was the most important in a generation.
Yet, no matter how bitter the battle for the nation's highest office, no matter how close the outcome of the race, when all the ballots are counted, when all the disputes are resolved, all including the losers accept the results.
Yes, there will be hard feelings on the part of some whose preferred candidates fell short on election day. And, yes, there will be some especially sore losers who will insist the election was somehow stolen from their candidates of choice.
But most Americans retain an abiding faith in the democratic process. Most of them remain confident in the overall integrity of the electoral system, even as they acknowledge that the system is imperfect, even as they recognize that voting foul-ups sometimes occur, as in Florida four years ago, or that the outcome is delayed, as in Ohio this time.
That faith in how Americans elect their leaders, from president to governors to mayors, explains why America remains the world's oldest democracy. It also explains why, every four to eight years, there is a peaceful, orderly transition of power at the highest level of government.
It is a historic triumph of ballots over bullets. It is America's quadrennial election miracle.
HUMAYUN AKHTAR
Via email
Inflated electricity bills
On Aug 18 I sent a letter to the KESC billing department informing it of change of ownership, along with copies of property documents, to get the next month's bill in my name.
On Aug 19 a KESC inspector came to our house about noon and asked my wife to open the door to allow him to inspect the electricity connections. On my wife's refusal to open the door in the absence of any male member, the inspector issued a notice, dated Aug 19, alleging reverse connection.
On Aug 20 I wrote a detailed reply defending my case and got the letter received at the KESC's Garden model zone, subdivision IV.
On Oct 2 I received a bill for Rs5,400, issued on Sept 28, which carried the expiry date of Oct 13. It was delivered by a special messenger. The same day I rang up the AEE, Garden IV, and explained verbally the situation and the receipt of the bill. He advised me to see him the same day, with an application. When I met him, he asked me to come with all the relevant documents/evidence. I took a half-day off from my office and visited his office next morning with an application, dated Oct 2, attaching all the previous correspondence and one year's bills, which were not more than Rs600 each.
I was then referred to an official who mans a complaint window and who examined the papers and advised me to meet another official. The latter received my complaint under diary No. 275. When asked about payment of the bill before the expiry date, etc., he said payment could stay until a normal bill was issued. However, he said if I received notice of any arrears, I had better pay as those would show the penalty amount or they would contact me or send me something in writing.
On Oct 19 I received a normal bill for Rs435.66, along with arrears as on 08.10.04 of Rs4,892.54, the net amount payable totalling to Rs5,300.
On Oct 20 I once again spoke to the AEE over the telephone but according to him there was no way out. He explained that the arrears would have to be paid as a penalty.
I request the relevant authority to look into this.
MOHAMMAD FAYYAZ KIRMANI
KESC a/c # 0221041503404, consumer # AL883798, meter # 989533, Karachi
Mumtaz Rashdi: a loyal friend
Making friends came to her naturally. And what a caring friend she was. It would not be wrong to say that she was love and understanding personified. Some of her friends called her Mumtaz, to some she was Begum Rashdi and to a large number she was simply Mummy.
She was born, bred and educated in Bengal. Music and literature ran in her blood. She loved the dark clouds that brought rains and was used to listening to the music of raindrops, but when she came to live in a desert after marrying an equally sensitive, intelligent and cultivated man from Sindh, Pir Ali Mohammad Rashdi, She never regretted having left her beloved Bengal. It did not take her long to start loving the thirsty and rainless land of Sindh and its simple folks.
She mixed with the landlords, the Haris, the pirs and the fakirs as if she had known them from eternity. Above all, she loved and respected the man she had married, who was 29 years older. In the three decades of enjoying her friendship, I never once heard an unkind word from her mouth about her life in the totally changed environment. She always mentioned her husband lovingly as "meray mian" (my husband) and was never tired of counting his qualities of the mind and the heart. When Pir Sahib was in the Pakistan foreign service, Mumtaz hobnobbed with world leaders and royalty, but she was as at ease with them as she was when meeting her Haris and servants. I never heard her comparing the culture of Bengal with the culture of any other province in Pakistan.
She was not only highly educated, but a very well read person too - and a sensitive writer. Having a wonderful memory, she retained everything she would read. That perhaps made her talk about too many things at the same time. But this did not bother her friends; we loved her despite these frequent digressions in her conversation. What was remarkable, when she stood up to deliver a speech, was that these deviations were not present in her discourse.
Writers and researchers from foreign lands, like Anne Marie Schimmel, Isobel Shaw and others, who came to study Sindh could not have a better guide than Mumtaz Rashdi, who took them to the remotest places in the province as her personal guests - be it the shrine of Lal Shahbaz Qalandar in Sehwan, the shrine of Shah Latif in Bhit Shah, the ruins of Arore, Manchhar Lake, the shrine at Neng, Moenjodaro or the Kot Diji fort - and looked after their comfort with the minutest details.
After the death of her husband some years ago, she had become quite unsettled in her life and lived in one rented house after another. But the setbacks did not deter her from doing her social welfare work in the rural areas of Sindh.
Above everything else, she remained a loyal friend to her last breath.
S. M. SHAHID
Via email
Five years of gains and failures
The editorial "Five years of gains and failures" (Oct 12) carries a realistic analysis of President Musharraf's five years of tenure. Two positive developments have been discussed in substance. One being the economy of the country and the second being the peace process with India which may lead to a settlement of the question of Kashmir.
The third aspect is that of domestic policy. It has been pointed out that the country was achieved by constitutional means under the leadership of a constitutional veteran. No doubt that the generals have always blocked the development of democracy in Pakistan. But it is an open secret that casting of votes in rural areas is controlled by persons who dominate the voters by way of their influence as feudals and heads of clans. The voters are not aware about the forms of government and or their representatives' roles in the assemblies. In urban areas division of the voters is visible in their thinking about their representatives.
Only a very small segment of the population of the country is educated and think and write about the rise and fall of democratic institutions. Nowadays this segment has also been diverted towards achieving a rich standard of living because of the leasing system introduced at the clever advice of the then finance minister and now prime minister of Pakistan with the result that everybody is busy in repayment of instalments, besides managing domestic expenses. Hence they are not free to think who governs the country.
The role of the opposition seems to be confined to creating chaos and turmoil by asking the people to come out in the streets without any intellectual approach. It may be recalled that those who strangulated the rising democracy in 1977 by flouting their word of honour for second elections are now praising the then prime minister as the greatest democrat. Therefore, the chances are small that the country can be governed exclusively by the people's representatives in the obtaining circumstances.
GHEEWALA A.G.M.
Karachi
'Command & control'
Pakistan's permanent representative to the United Nation Munir Akram tells the UN General Assembly that four years ago his country had established the National Command Control Authority, responsible for the country's strategic nuclear assets. "There is no question of their (nuclear assets) falling into wrong hands," he said (press reports, dated Nov 3).
Only a day earlier, four gunmen intercepted the official vehicle of the National Command Control Authority and snatched away from its staff about two million rupees at gunpoint in broad daylight.
What if the gunmen had come asking for strategic assets?
MATIULLAH JAN
Islamabad
National unity
Pakistanis both at home and abroad often ask themselves the question: how can unity come about in our ranks and how can we see a unified Pakistan? I am of the opinion that every province that is doing something good should share its experience with the other provinces. This will lead to provincial harmony and respect for each other, which could ultimately lead to national unity.
AFZAL RAHIM
Islamabad
Acts of terrorism
The new wave of terrorism in Sialkot, Multan, Lahore and Karachi claiming more than 100 lives and leaving more than 200 wounded is despicable and has enraged people.
Most of the deadly incidents of death and destruction appear to be the acts of Pakistan's enemies - within and without. India may be mending fences with Pakistan but its policy remains the same; Afghanistan, mostly under the influence of the Northern Alliance which is as deadly against Islamabad as it is to Kabul, is openly accusing our army of meddling in Afghan affairs.
And then there are the Taliban scattered in Pakistan and Afghanistan. They are sworn enemies of Pakistan where, sadly to say, they have like-minded friends and even relatives. The Taliban, protectors of Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaeda, may be part of the problem, including the attempts on President Musharraf's life. The more Pakistan fights terrorism the more it becomes a victim of terrorism itself. The enemy, including the Jihadi outfits, know that the responsibility would be blamed on rival sectarian groups.
The government should give some attention to these groups which are opposing the war on terrorism. It should be kept in mind that these groups have been masquerading in the guise of sipahs, lashkars and jaishes.
S.M. KAZIM NAQVI
Karachi
Allowance for researchers
In view of the importance of a PhD degree, the government had initially granted four advance increments to PhD degree holders, which amounted to Rs1,500, This allowance was further raised to Rs5,000 wef July 1, 2001, to encourage talented young master degree holders to undertake research leading to the acquisition of PhD degrees required for the economic progress of the country.
It must be noted that the PhD allowance granted during service is subject to income-tax deduction but is not included for purposes of pension.
The meagre amount of money received as pension is not adequate to meet the barest needs. Many retired scientists and teachers are still active and able to work for the betterment of the economy and literacy in Pakistan like those fortunate few whose services have been hired by the HEC (Higher Education Commission). It would be only appropriate that a PhD allowance is given to all those PhD degree holders who are willing to work in their field of specialization.
DR S.A. JAMIL KHAN
Karachi
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