| 05 December 2004 | Sunday | 22 Shawwal 1425 |
Educational standards in Sindh
PIA's Umrah flight mess
TT transfers and red tape
Tobacco control treaty
How America nicknames us
Misuse of mobile phone cameras
Is democracy in place?
Chief justice
Direct train service to Havelian
Condoleezza Rice and race
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I am 19 years old and have completed my A' Levels. Six years ago I was paralyzed from the waist down and life has never been the same since. The hardships I have faced doubled due to the lack of facilities for the disabled in Pakistan.
Initially, I was depressed and didn't attend school. Later, with the help of my therapist, I attended school. All throughout my school years I was helped by my principal, teachers and students. They arranged all my classes, including the practicals, on the ground floor. They always went out of their way to be helpful. I had always been one of the best students in the school except for the fact that I didn't take part in sports or any other extra-curricular activities. I lived almost like a normal human being until now when I am set to step into a professional life.
I was a pre-medical student and wanted, since childhood, to be a doctor. But I couldn't do this because universities here have no provisions for a disabled person like me. Thus I had to leave my childhood dream behind. As a science student there was nothing else for me to take up except for something creative like fashion designing/interior decoration, which has literally zero scope for jobs in Pakistan. We don't have a properly affiliated fashion design university and the few good universities we do have are constructed in such a way that it is impossible for a person like me to be mobile on their campuses.
It is unfortunate that some talent just goes to waste because people fail to understand it.
I can't walk but that doesn't mean that my brain works any less. In other countries old construction building plans were changed and it is now necessary to make buildings wheelchair- accessible so that the disabled don't have to depend on others for simple tasks. They even have transportation systems which make it easy for disabled people to travel.
I write this to draw the government's attention to how ignorant it is in such matters. I am a strong girl and I have decided to pursue a career as a chartered accountant, will soon start my studies and later take up a job. But what about all the others like me? What if they give up? What if their parents give up? I am lucky to have a supportive family and friends who would do anything to make my life. But everyone is not the same.
A two per cent job quota is not enough because the government forgets that to reach that level you have to study first. And thus it should make proper provisions for us so that in future no one like me has to suffer. We deserve respect and a normal life like everyone else. And it is not only about education. Society or the government without thinking disadvantages disabled people by not giving them access to the simple things in life like amusement parks, concerts or even movies.
Disability is a normal aspect of life and disabled people still function and are worthy members of society. Take for example, Christopher Reeves (Superman) who died a few weeks back. Another example is Stephen Hawking, the famous physicist.
HINA KHALID
Karachi
Educational standards in Sindh
This refers to the Sindh Public Service Commission (SPSC) report (Nov 27). I endorse the views of the SPSC.
It is a fact that the standard of education in Sindh, particularly in the interior, has deteriorated because the rulers have chosen to ignore the state of affairs in the education sector. The chief minister has no time to spare for it, and seems more interested in securing his position by consoling feudal MPAs.
The previous provincial education minister had little or no interest in education. The federal education minister, Lt-Gen (retd) Javed Ashraf Qazi, has no time to see to the education standard of Sindh. He spends most of his time in Islamabad.
Teachers are mostly untrained and appointed on political grounds and are least interested in teaching. Rather they have taken up private jobs, and take teaching as a secondary job. Some teachers prefer to encourage the use of unfair means and have produced a "copy culture" among students to hide their weakness. If this is the state of affairs, we simply cannot expect high standards from students in competitive examinations.
Primary education in the province has been the worst affected. Teachers posted to schools in small villages usually remain absent. In such a scenario the children's daily attendance is tantamount to a waste of time.
Our education officers have chosen to shut their eyes. The higher-ups in the education department, who are usually civil bureaucrats, have no professional skills to deal with the low education standard. Universities and colleges have been taken hostage by professional student leaders/unions. Vice-chancellors have no choice except to surrender before the so-called student leaders. Therefore, the standard of education is continuously falling. To remedy the situation the rulers must pay full attention to education and adopt a workable policy. I suggest the following steps:
i. Teachers should be offered a reasonable salary package.
ii. The SPSC should select teachers. It must not be burdened with any pressures, political or other (the commission itself must be purged of undesirable elements).
iii. A professional should be appointed secretary of education and be made accountable to the provincial assembly for his/her failures.
iv. Student unions may be banned or eliminated from colleges and universities.
v. Teachers should be held responsible for any student's exam failure, i.e. the teacher's promotion should be linked to their performance in grooming students.
vi. Schools occupied by waderas should be vacated. Teachers should be freed from the service and influence of these waderas.
vii. The centre should consider providing the province ample financial resources for education. A mere two per cent of the GDP in the national budget for the entire country is insufficient.
FAIZAN SIAL
Islamabad
PIA's Umrah flight mess
I performed Umrah, with a confirmed (OK) return seat for Nov 11. At the appropriate time - three days before my departure - I went to the PIA office at Makkah and Madinah to reconfirm my seat, but nobody gave me a cogent reply. On the contrary, after great efforts and a waste of time, I was simply told that my seat had been cancelled and I would have to get it reconfirmed after the Eid holidays.
At both centres I noticed that some brokers were trying to convince pilgrims to contact travel agencies in the city for a confirmed return to Pakistan by paying some charges since they have personal contacts with PIA officials.
Since I had an urgent piece of work to attend to in Pakistan, I contacted a travel agency in the Jarwal area of Makkah where I found that some Pakistanis like me were also getting their confirmed seats reconfirmed for the date of their choice. They paid SR300 to SR500 for each seat. The travel agents' employees - who were Pakistanis and were doing their bargaining business - took away our tickets and returned them to us in seven to eight hours with confirmed seats.
At the airport booths also, the PIA teams show mismanagement by giving boarding passes to pilgrims with chance seats, and jump seats to their own staff or staffers' parents. All they had to do was pay them some money through porters who secretly did the job. No proper system or checking appeared to be taking place.
Your editorial (Nov 19) called for a high-level PIA probe into the Umrah flight issue and I would like to make some suggestions:
a. PIA should immediately discontinue its monopoly with Saudi airline and allow other airlines to compete for this service.
b. A third agency should keep a check on the performance of PIA's service centres in Saudi Arabia.
c. PIA should follow the system other airlines follow, like the Indian airline.
d. There should be no increase in fares during Ramazan.
e. A limited number of Umrah visas and passage with a pre-confirmed return date should be arranged.
f. Arrangements should be made with the Saudi authorities to ensure a hassle-free pilgrimage.
g. Adequate staff should be deployed at PIA centres.
h. Embassy service counters should be set up - at least 10 of them - closest to the vicinity of Baitul Allah and Masjid Nabvi to guide pilgrims. These centres should be controlled by ulema.
GHULAM MUSTAFA LODHI
Karachi
TT transfers and red tape
Policymakers appear keen to attract more and more investment to create jobs and bring prosperity to the people. Investment in small and medium-sized industries is the answer to creating jobs.
However, it has been observed that policymakers' efforts in this direction are being ignored by bureaucrats who feel their powers are being curtailed and who want to keep a grip on things for the purposes of self-interest.
There are many aspects and various departments which need to be corrected and liberalized.
I offer the example of the State Bank, which issued various directives to commercial banks on Nov 1, thereby strengthening their grip on foreign exchange. One of these is that banks are not allowed to make advance payments by telegraphic transfer (TT) and the reasons given for this order are ridiculous.
There are many other options available to check the value of the rupee and there was hardly any need to disrupt normal commercial activities by taking the drastic measure of restricting foreign exchange TT payments.
Most advance payments are made for small-value orders and hardly affect the rupee's value. This means there is no liberal foreign exchange in Pakistan and the State Bank has adversely affected the country's investment climate. On Nov 10, the State Bank stated that it had softened the foreign exchange regime and directed commercial banks that they could remit advance payments by TT to the extent of 50 per cent of the value, subject to the SBP's approval.
This again is a negative approach. Why 50 per cent and why approval? It wants bureaucratic control. If the SBP is afraid of a very large outflow of foreign exchange, it should have put a limit, say, of a maximum amount of $25,000 per order for an advance payment by TT.
I hope that policymakers and the authorities will do the needful in this respect.
MRS N.F. WAZIR
Karachi
Tobacco control treaty
It is heartening to know that 40 countries have so far ratified the tobacco control treaty called the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (Dawn, Dec 1) and more are likely to follow suit.
The government of Pakistan can take the initiative by discouraging the growth of tobacco crops in the country. This will not only benefit public health, but also improve human resource productivity which is affected by premature deaths through tobacco-related ailments such as heart diseases and cancer.
The land thus made available can be used to grow cash crops such as tea which are equally remunerative to farmers and help establish an industry which will generate more jobs than the tobacco industry.
S. AHMAD
Karachi
How America nicknames us
"A nickname is the heaviest stone the devil can throw at a man" is a western proverb. Count some of the stones the US threw at the Muslim Ummah: terrorists, fundamentalists, extremists, religious zealots, radicals, enemy combatants, insurgents and non-moderates. This letter will examine the background of the US's need to nickname us.
What would have happened, the world over, to US values and its civilized image had it issued its orders for Fallujah without ever naming it a 'stronghold city for terrorists'? Was such a nickname not a US face-saving requirement?
"The truth for those who rule Washington in these days is an outdated concept," so writes American Professor Huck Gutman. This is true for Fallujah's nickname also.
The US generally regards Muslims as non-moderates. "A US general advised that his troops should first enlist moderate Iraqis to provide intelligence before attacking Fallujah" (Oct 3). Are "moderate Muslims" not a US requirement?
In 2002, the US decided to keep most of the Guantanamo captives under lock and key, without trial and indefinitely out of the Geneva Conventions. It did this by calling them 'enemy combatants'.
The US and its media call us 'extremists'. This has been promoted so that the US can escape its own historical and on-going 'extremism'. A few cases: History is witness that the US killed 40 million West Africans in its captivity and killed 100,000 Philippine Muslims when it occupied the country. The CIA provided a list to Suharto which guided him to kill 10 million of his people, and there was Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Why should we forget a barrage of 1,100,000 aerial sorties in Iraq in 1991 and, of course, Fallujah?
"The US is presently in the hands of extremists," writes George Soros in his recent book The Bubble of American Supremacy (March 15).
We, the 'terrorists', are not called this because of 9/11, since the US made a budgetary provision for anti-terrorism measures in 1996. The US used the same word for British mutineers. According to the US kind of thinking, Iraqi 'terrorists' are fighting without a cause and want to undo an established system of governance. Terrorism has not suddenly appeared as the US wants us to believe.
Saudi Arabia was such a good friend of the US that it handed over $80 billion to it for the Gulf War I in 1991 (Sept 28, 2002). Today? The US blames and pressures it when it comes to Wahabism. The US claims that religions do not play any part in its diplomacy but it singles out, worldwide, only Muslims for all bad and criminal adjectives, as if others, including itself, were above this.
Our nicknames have reached many Muslim countries (terror reporting, rogue states, axis of evil, Saudi Wahabism), our cities (terrorist stronghold Fallujah), our localities (Sunni triangle and Shia majority areas), our organizations (terror- financing zakat) and Al Qaeda. Al Qaeda has been selected because it is an Arabic word that appeals to born-again US Christians. The US has included North Korea when it says 'axis of evil' and 'rogue state', since this communist country refuses to budge an inch.
Z.A. KAZMI
Karachi
Misuse of mobile phone cameras
Over the last few years the trend of using mobile phones has developed in all classes, genders and age groups in Pakistan. Despite the various negative aspects of this technology, people have accepted it and it is here to stay, it seems. Well and good. But now, of late, new mobile phones with cameras have made an appearance.
On the eve of Eid, I accompanied my daughters-in-law and grand- daughters to Liberty Market, Lahore, so that they could get mehndi applied and buy bangles. Many women were present there. However, it came as an unpleasant shock when I noticed that, despite a sizable police presence, there were groups of young men (some accompanied by women) who were equipped with mobiles phones with cameras. They were taking pictures of women left, right and centre. It was a decidedly shameful spectacle. They were photographing with impunity and, despite the obvious discomfiture and objection of women, were violating their privacy.
When I asked some of the women and young girls why they didn't complain, I was told that it was a very 'sensitive' issue and their complaints would disgrace them in the eyes of their men. Therefore, they stayed silent.
How can we allow something as shameful as this to occur? Why doesn't the government or the opposition (or the courts acting in public interest) immediately ban all such instruments?
MRS S. SALIM
Lahore
Is democracy in place?
It was reported in Dawn on Dec 3 that Gen Pervez Musharraf has said in Buenos Aires that "democracy is in place".
I am sure this is not what the mighty general wanted to convey. What he wanted to say was that "democracy has been put in its place; subservient to his whims".
Another statement by Gen Musharraf that democracy "cannot be derailed" seems true because he has already effectively done so; one can't derail what has already been derailed.
AKRAM MALIK
Gympie, Australia
Chief justice
This is with reference to Mr Ayaz Amir's comment ('Triumph of expediency', Nov 26) regarding the chief justice of Pakistan.
It is amazing to know that the chief justice is not accessible and does not own a single house or a piece of land in Pakistan. This kind of honesty from a man of power is so rare in our country that we are pleasantly surprised and still wondering about his miracle.
DR MIRZA ALI AZHAR DR HABIB SOOMRO DR SHERSHAH SYED
Karachi
Direct train service to Havelian
The Pakistan Railways took a good decision to run a direct train, Chenab Express, to Havelian for people from Abbottabad and Mansehra region. But I was a bit shocked to note a very strange fact while going through its schedule.
According to the time-table, the express would reach Rawalpindi at 8.15am and depart at 2.30pm, a wait of 6.25 hours. Does this make any sense? It may have something to do with operational reasons but why should passengers be penalized? Under these circumstances, could a direct train connection be established between Karachi and Havelian? Road transport between these two points takes two to three hours.
Why should someone wait in a train for six hours when they just need to cover a distance of three hours on their onward journey? The railway has already lost a big share of its business to road transport because of such unrealistic approaches. This is another example.
Could the railway authorities make the Chenab Express a real direct train between Karachi and Havelian by eliminating this unrealistic wait at Rawalpindi?
ENGR DILAWAR HUSAIN
Karachi
Condoleezza Rice and race
One cannot help pointing out a contradiction in Mr Asad Siddiqui's letter (Dec 1) on Dr Condoleezza Rice. If she is as talented and competent as correctly acknowledged by the letter writer himself, the "whites" must have rewarded her on the basis of her merit in Stanford and elsewhere.
Why then would she feel "indebted" to people she met on her way up since a well-earned upward mobility carries no baggage of "benefactors" as insinuated in the letter?
DR MAHNAZ FATIMA
Karachi
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