| 03 December 2004 | Friday | 20 Shawwal 1425 |
Phone call charges
Extortion or fine collection?
Banned publications
Mobile phone snatching
Nawaz's response to Asif's release
Islamabad airport
Traffic jams
Why not our own engineers?
Harassing the Good Samaritan
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Never before in history have terrorists been as organized and equipped as they are now. The last quarter of the 20th century was an ideal time for fundamentalists, extremists and terrorists to find grounds for their future designs and now they are ready to play their bloody game and produce terror through a series of diverse attacks.
Today, Afghanistan is an abode of terrorist groups and every act of terrorism in the world can be traced back to the land of Afghanistan. Since Pakistan was directly involved in the Soviet-Afghan war, it is a potential target for these groups in the global war against terror.
They have discovered in Pakistan a safe haven as they have in Wana and the areas adjoining the frontiers. Every nook and cranny of the country is within their reach for attacks.
A series of attacks in different parts of the country have brought us to believe that terrorist groups can target the state and society fast and furiously. The question now arises whether these terrorists are foreigners. If so, then who is supporting them not only in Wana but also in Karachi and other parts of the country?
Certainly these groups have the support of religious parties and other extremist elements which have a soft spot for the Taliban and Al Qaeda, since their beliefs and ideologies are in harmony. These parties condemn terrorism but, when the state takes action against terrorists, they condemn it. Such are the double standards of these parties.
Nobody can support terrorism and anti-terrorism in the same breath, but these extremists are doing this with ease. The myth that the operation against terrorists is just to please Washington is loud and clear in their comments and speeches.
The ongoing military operation in Wana has been called a war between the army and the people. This is too much since such pronouncements distort the realities. This is not making a point in opposition to the government, but it is time to understand the realities.
What is the reality of the day? The fear of death has dominated our psyche. Lives are insecure and terrorists are free to play their bloody game. The president and a corps commander have been targeted. The attempts were meant to do more than create panic in the public. The message is clear: it is to dilute the commitment of the state in the war against terror.
There is a conflict in the agenda of extremist forces and the state, but the state is unable to take concrete measures to combat terrorism. The reason is that both cooperate in political matters.
There is no other reason to keep the Pakistan People's Party and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz out of mainstream politics. At least these so-called moderates, the PPP and the PML-N, have no connections with terrorism. If the state is determined to combat extremism and terrorism, it has to reshape its political strategy.
Things are not so simple as can be explained. It has been said that some foreign terrorists, members of Al Qaeda, are responsible for terrorism in the country. The military is hunting terrorists in Wana and the rest of the country, but it is a long way away from controlling the situation.
It would be more appropriate to discover the sources of terrorism. One of the sources could be foreign terrorists, but these creatures cannot act without roots in society. Extremism is at the root of terrorism and unfortunately it is a reality.
The strategic depth syndrome enabled religious parties, extremist groups and the clergy to act as they wanted. They exploited deprived sections of society, trained them at seminaries, sent them to foreign lands with arms and ammunition, assigned them goals and produced extremist minds with the tendency to produce terror.
When left with nothing in Afghanistan and Kashmir, the extremists found it hard to assimilate back into society. Now, they are trained and angry and who is behind them? Religious parties.
Should the Musharraf-led government cooperate and tolerate these parties? The answer is no since these parties promote extremism and have made a deal with the forces that are responsible for terrorist activities in the country.
It is time the government decided whether its top priority is to root out extremism and terrorism in the country or maintain the status quo. If its top priority is to root out extremism, it must look forward to cooperating with its natural allies, the PPP and progressive parties in the country.
SOHAIL KHALID
Toba Tek Singh
Phone call charges
I go to various countries in connection with my business. Recently I was in Canada and was horrified to learn that the charge for a long-distance call to Pakistan was 29 cents a minute while a call to India or China cost five cents.
I was told that the difference in the charges was kept by the PTCL as profit. It is a common marketing principle that lowering the cost for the customer increases sales which increases profits. But the PTCL's high charges reduce profit, making it difficult for Pakistani expatriates to regularly keep in touch their relatives back in Pakistan.
It is learnt that the PTCL is being partially privatized. It has least consideration for its customers. If one's telephone is out of order, one has to call the relevant staff at least five or six times as they shift responsibility from one to the other.
This means you are bogged down for more than an hour and that too without any fruitful result because most of the telephones you ring up remain engaged. My suggestion is that such an organization deserves to be totally privatized. There is no sense in keeping it artificially afloat.
I have also been to some of our embassies abroad. They treat citizens from their own country, especially students, as untouchables. Most of the time the staff keep itself busy doing their private business.
The embassies should help all expatriates rather than assuming the role of police stations. Will the foreign office look into the plight of Pakistanis abroad, especially students?
QADIR A. CHAUHAN
Karachi
Extortion or fine collection?
Recently while driving with our families from Sukkur to Karachi on the National Highway, with my nephew in another car, I was stopped by the motorway police after crossing the Naushero feroze Bypass. A police officer approached me and said that I was speeding at 111 khr as detected by the speed gun.
I told him that I had not crossed 100 khr to 105 khr and may have reached 110 khr only on the bypass while overtaking and that the speed limit of 110 khr was permissible according to the motorway police. I explained that usually cars were not equipped with digital meters and I might have touched 111 khr while overtaking some vehicle.
We also informed them that, in our lane, a double cabin driver was driving carelessly, speeding and overtaking from the wrong direction all along. He only lowered his speed where he knew a speed gun was installed. But the police officer called out more officials of the speed gun vehicle and started misbehaving with us.
We kept explaining for 45 minutes that we had not been speeding and that we were accompanied by our families who were getting worried and needlessly delayed, but they kept insisting we paid the fine and threatened to seize the vehicle.
The behaviour of the officers was belligerent and abusive even after introducing themselves as responsible government officers. The purpose of the motorway police seems to only extort money on the pretext of speeding by setting a single speed gun at one location throughout the 320-km highway.
It should be controlling crimes such as careless driving, improving road conditions and learning to be polite and helpful to travellers, especially with families.
M. FAISAL
Karachi
Banned publications
I want to bring the attention of the authorities concerned to extremism at the campus of Peshawar University. On Monday I visited the university's central library where I was surprised to see newspapers and magazines of banned organizations duly stamped by the librarian, with the instructions that they should not be torn since they belong to the library.
The newspaper was Zarb-i-Momin while the literature was about Rasheed Trust. These papers and magazines, which are promoting extremism, are banned by the government because they are full of hatred.
After that I visited the libraries of other institutions and some of the offices of the teaching staff, including professors and administrative staff. I was surprised to see that a majority of educational institutes were full of materials which could promote sectarian conflict at the peaceful university campus.
The most alarming thing was that, when I visited Agriculture University, some students told me that Commander Ashfaq, head of the banned Lashkar-i-Taiba, was officially invited by the university administration for a Friday sermon and he spoke for an hour, inviting young people to participate in jihad.
Everyone is aware that the so-called version of jihad used by these banned organizations is not against non-Muslims but is against fellow Muslims who belong to different sects. The silence of the university's administration and the government in this regard is incomprehensible.
The government should take strict measures by punishing those responsible for the propagation of extremism at the university campus, Peshawar.
ZESHAN QADRI
Peshawar
Mobile phone snatching
With increasing options to acquire the latest mobile phone sets and their huge inflow to the markets of Karachi, it is common to see people of different ages carrying mobile phones, some expensive and extraordinary and some ordinary.
This craze has also given rise to the mobile phone snatching nuisance; each day is a field day for the culprits who have plagued the streets of our city. All they need is a person with a mobile phone.
Regardless of whether it is daylight or dark, at a mosque, a general store or a barber's shop or offices and even residential compounds, you can be conveniently deprived of your mobile phone set and perhaps other belongings too.
The agonizing factor is that you are helpless if you undergo such an ordeal. Filing a complaint with the authorities will only lead to ridicule. You will be inflicted with a hefty charge to get the SIM card reissued and will end up buying a lousy mobile phone set the second time around after learning the lesson the hard way.
There is no way you can undo this pain and the only thing you can do is try and recover from the shock. It should be understood that the authorities cannot be blamed for everything.
Although they can and do enhance patrolling in affected areas, their role needs further specific structuring to handle mobile phone theft specifically. This is an area where the rate of theft and snatching incidents are continuously increasing.
Neither the public nor the government is able to devise any mechanism to enforce or implement measures that can make the recovery of stolen mobile phone sets possible, not even a little.
ABDULLAH SHEIKH
Karachi
Nawaz's response to Asif's release
This refers to a news item (Nov 25) that former prime minister Nawaz Sharif called Pakistan People's Party chairperson Benazir Bhutto from Jeddah to greet her on the release of her spouse, Asif Ali Zardari.
The former prime minister expressed his happiness over the release of Mr Zardari and said that he had also phoned the former senator to felicitate him on his release.
What a cruel joke with the nation! The citizens of Pakistan do not have such a short memory. Only eight years back, Mr Sharif came to power through a "heavy mandate" which he remained proud of throughout his stay in power and kept reminding the nation of.
He accused Mr Zardari and Ms Bhutto of all possible charges of corruption, criminal activities, etc., and his media team left no stone unturned to present Mr Zardari as the most corrupt person on earth.
Well, now out of power, living a luxurious life in Saudi Arabia, the same man of the "heavy mandate" is "happy" about the release of a person who remained behind bars during his entire rule when the only law of the land was a "heavy mandate".
The mandate was so "heavy" that even the highest judicial authority had no value and the ruling party's elected representatives were given free rein to attack the Supreme Court.
The electronic media under the control of the ruling elite was allowed to make fun of the judiciary and the sitting chief justice of the Supreme Court.
Mr Sharif, while felicitating Mr Zardari on his release, must have also requested Mr Zardari to pardon him for fabricating all sorts of charges against him and keeping him behind bars away from his family and loved ones.
I remember an old Pakistani movie in which the hero (Mohammed Ali) pleads with the judge after getting released from jail after 12 years behind bars on a false criminal charge: "Judge Sahib, mere barah saall lautaa di jeay" (Mr Justice, give me back my 12 years).
Well, Mr Zardari has every right to demand his eight years back from Mr Nawaz Sharif. Will the felicitation from Mr Sharif bring back Mr Zardari's eight years? Is it not surprising that Mian Sahib is "happy" about Mr Zardari's release? What is the reason for this happiness?
AAMIR AQIL
Lahore
(II)
The release of Mr Asif Ali Zardari after eight years in jail is an indication that the government has developed a positive attitude towards leaders of the opposition parties.
Gen Musharraf-led government wants to develop cordial relations with those sitting on the opposition benches in parliament. PML Secretary General Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed has also confirmed that Gen Musharraf has called Mr Nawaz Sharif and Mr Shahbaz Sharif to condole the death of their father, Mian Mohammad Sharif.
Leaders belonging to the opposition and ruling parties may have different views on certain issues, but they are all patriots. For national cohesion, the government may allow the Sharif brothers to visit the grave of their father who died last month and is buried in Pakistan.
SYED A. MATEEN
Karachi
Islamabad airport
I am writing with reference to the current chaotic condition of the Islamabad airport. Capital airports present the mirror image of a country. They reflect or convey a positive message to visitors from overseas. But the Islamabad airport puts on a very poor show.
It simply reflects chaos, disorder and intimidation. Since our government is working hard to convey a soft image and a message of enlightened moderation overseas, it is high time it improved the physical space of the airport and the attitude of people who work there.
I had a very unpleasant experience a week ago. The Raval lounge was closed for "security reasons" when I had to see off some visiting American and European colleagues. They are renowned leaders in medicine and were visiting India. They came here on a short visit on my request.
Our capital, people and the peaceful and calm shining city surrounded by hills impressed them. But we got a rude shock at the Islamabad airport. There were airport functionaries with no respect for or sensitivity to passengers, a parking issue and rude behaviour in the guise of "security checks", to name a few.
I request the authorities to look into this and improve the situation.
MUZAFFAR GILL
Islamabad
Traffic jams
Traffic jams on both service lanes along Karachi's Sharea Faisal are a regular feature. The main culprit is general in discipline that has plagued this nation since its inception. Bad road and traffic management is also to be blamed.
The primary reason behind a traffic jam on these service lanes is that parking is allowed on either side of the service lanes, which leave only enough space for one car to pass. Since two-way traffic is allowed on the service lanes, traffic jams occurs whenever two cars moving in the opposite direction come facing each other.
A simple solution would be to only allow one-way traffic on the service lanes in the direction opposite to the adjacent main road. For example, the service lane adjacent to the main road going from airport to Metropole Hotel should only allow traffic to move in the opposite direction, i.e., from Metropole to airport.
This would allow a car to enter the service lane from Sharea Faisal and move in the opposite direction while searching for a parking and reenter if there is no parking available. This vehicle driver can then reenter the service lane from the place where it had first entered and try his luck again.
OMAIR KHURSHID ALLAWALA
Karachi
Why not our own engineers?
One so often reads news about Chinese engineers constructing dams, canals and hydro-electric powerhouses and Iranian engineers constructing bridges in Pakistan.
I am shocked every time I read such news because, being an engineer by profession, I know that, at the time of independence, Pakistan inherited not only the world's biggest canal network and one of the best and biggest road networks, but also engineers and constructors second to none in the world. Pakistan also inherited the most modern irrigation research laboratory that was of course operated by capable research engineers.
At that time China was a ruined country fighting a civil war and lacked all these facilities. Iran and Turkey were far, far backward countries compared to India. I can assert this with confidence because, as a young engineer, I was working in Lahore when I saw all this. As a junior engineer, I also heard the facts being discussed by my seniors at the meetings of the Punjab Engineering Congress.
Is it not time Pakistani intellectuals, social and political scientists, university professors and research scholars investigated the causes of this shameful decline through in-depth research? They should also suggest social and political remedies to recover our capability.
GHULAM KIBRIA
Karachi
Harassing the Good Samaritan
A citizen (Nov 18) has drawn our attention to a very important and serious point. He says that when any accident takes place, the injured mostly die on the road since people hesitate about taking them to hospital because if they do so they are detained by hospital authorities until the police arrive.
Today we have a mushrooming growth of so-called human rights organizations, financially rich NGOs, so-called human rights activists, professional columnists, judges, ombudsmen and human rights advocates al-ways trying to express their pain for the common man's suffering. Despite this, why has no one addressed any real issues so far?
It is suggested that the accident victim get immediate treatment at the nearest hospital or clinic while the doctors there simultaneously inform the police. Some consideration should also be given to people who out of humanity, despite being aware of the problems they could face with the police and courts, pick up the injured and take them to the hospital.
JAVED
Karachi
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