| 21 January 2005 | Friday | 10 Zilhaj 1425 |
EPZ workers' condition
Baglihar vs Kalabagh
India's 'secular' symbolism
GRE for PhD candidates
Traffic improvement in Karachi
'Institutions are sacred'
President and army chief
'Politicizing tsunami'
KIA Pride car scam
Tackling Balochistan issue
Paying more for less
'A lesser evil'
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A series of articles and letters have been written by people either supporting or criticising Dr Attaur Rehman's efforts, but in my view some of the key points have been missed.
There is nothing wrong with trying to create an environment in which researchers flourish but the key question is: Of what benefit such research would be to us all? We are at a particular level of technological attainment where consumption of research already done takes precedence over research into hitherto uncharted waters. Secondly, our market size is not large enough to absorb the results of any such research efforts.
Every new technology is developed because there is a certain market for the resultant products. America is so far ahead in aviation because it is the largest market for aircraft in the world.
America took the lead in the manufacture of automobiles because there were a 100 million odd people in the US at the beginning of the last century, many of whom could afford to buy a car.
Now China is taking the lead in the acquisition of computer technology since China itself is emerging as one of the largest markets for computers in the world.
India's drug industry is buying into the foreign drug industry since India is itself a big market for drugs, and Indian companies can make huge profits out of their own market. Also, that gives them enough money to spend on research and development.
It is not that no effort should be made to create human resources in areas that have hitherto not found enough markets, like bio-technology, nano-technology and bio-informatics, to quote a few.
It is the job of the government to create enough human resources to take the lead in those areas. But sooner or later the private sector must come forward and take the lead from the public sector. Unfortunately that private sector initiative, though very conspicuous in India, is almost missing in Pakistan.
Either we create our own pool of people rich enough to buy the products that are the results of new research, or explore foreign markets for them. But there too, China and India have an advantage of size over Pakistan.
India's IT industry has raced ahead not just because they are good at IT but also because of the economies of scale provided by the leading IT companies in India, which may not be possible for the Pakistani companies to match. The same is true for China.
So it's not about just how many papers you can publish in international journals of repute but whether you can find markets for your research-based products.
We will keep lacking in the latter unless we create our own pool of rich people, and not just a few dozen families, or provide economies of scale as in China or India. Otherwise we can keep excelling in academics without there being any real benefits to the public at large.
AHMAD R. SHAHID
Islamabad
EPZ workers' condition
The president recently announced an increase in the wages of industrial workers and the monthly payments of EOBI (Employees Old Age Benefit Institution) pensioners at a conference in Islamabad. He also laid stress on improving the working conditions of industrial workers.
Not long ago, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz also vowed to improve the lot of the industrial sector workforce. In this context, I would like to point out human rights violations of skilled workers in garment factories under the Export Processing Zone near Landhi, Karachi.
These skilled workers are paid ludicrously low wages. The workers have no job security even after the completion of their one-year probation period. No medical treatment is provided to them at the work premises.
Whenever a foreign delegation visits the EPZ, the management conjures up false papers depicting an exaggerated salary structure of the workers, and erects makeshift clinics to impress the visitors. If a labourer dares to reveal the truth, he loses his job.
The general attitude of the factory owners is callous. We know that in Pakistan labour is very cheap but employers have no right to treat the labourers as slaves or to blackmail them.
Supervisors hound them as the poor souls have to sew a certain number of garment orders in an hour, and this number keeps changing from owner to owner and on the whim of the supervisor. This is literally a back-breaking task.
It is a pity that the EPZ, which is in the vanguard of our country's business and economic growth and is a source of earning billions of rupees annually for the country, has such wretched working conditions and paltry wages for its skilled workers, especially in the garment sector. How can one assume that all this is going on without our high-ups knowing about it?
MUHAMMAD ASLAM
Rawalpindi
Baglihar vs Kalabagh
After "waffling and wavering for several years", as reported in this newspaper on Tuesday, the Pakistan government has finally requested the World Bank to appoint a neutral expert to settle the Baglihar dam dispute with India.
It may be recalled that the WB had brokered the 1960 water-sharing treaty between India and Pakistan. It gives both the countries the third party option in case of a deadlock over any issue.
Article IX of the treaty provides for settling disputes through a neutral expert or arbitration if they cannot be resolved between the two Indus water commissioners.
The main Pakistani objections to the Baglihar Dam revolve around the theme that the project as designed would manipulate the flow of water to Pakistan's disadvantage.
"The project can lead to acute water shortages in Pakistan due to suspension of supplies for up to 28 consecutive days during certain months", Pakistani experts say. They fear that the dam may deprive Pakistan of up to 7,000 cusecs of water per day.
Now the people of Sindh, the lower riparian province of Pakistan, have similar objections against the Kalabagh Dam or any other mega dam upstream. The NWFP has its own objections against the proposed Kalabagh Dam.
Why is it that the governments of Punjab and Pakistan turn a blind eye to their concerns? If they object to Baglihar on similar grounds, how can they go ahead with KB or any other dam of their own? Why can't they abide by their own argument? Why this duplicity and hypocrisy? Why the double standards?
It may be time experts in water and legal matters, sympathetic to the point of view of Sindh, the NWFP and Balochistan, prepared their own case and requested the World Bank to make them a party in the dispute as the government of Pakistan is not listening to them and the proposed dams on the Indus River are going to adversely affect them.
AZIZ NAREJO
Via email
India's 'secular' symbolism
This refers to your front page story "Kashmir a symbol of occupation: FO" (Dawn, Jan 18) referring to New Delhi's claim of Indian-held Kashmir being a 'symbol' of their statehood founded on secularism.
Indian External Affairs Minister K. Natwar Singh had actually told the BBC's Hindi service on Sunday, Jan 16: "It is not a question of flexibility. We cannot compromise on the reality, the basic question.
For us, Kashmir does not merely mean a few square kilometres of land. It is the symbol of our secularism. We are proud of the fact that in our country, we have a state with a Muslim majority.
The chief minister of this state is a Muslim, so are a majority of ministers and many legislators. It is the foundation of India's secularism, and we would not allow that to be compromised."
May he be reminded that when UN representative Sir Owen Dixon visited India and Pakistan between May and August 1950 to resolve the Kashmir dispute, in line with his proposals for bifurcation of the state after all other proposals were rejected by India, the Indian cabinet under Nehru proposed the exclusion of Buddhist-majority Ladakh and Hindu-majority Jammu from the dispute, and to go ahead with a plebiscite in the Muslim- majority valley?
Indian cabinet minister Dr B. R. Ambedkar stated: "Give the Hindu and Buddhist parts to India and the Muslim part to Pakistan as we did in the case of India... If we cannot save the whole of Kashmir, at least let us save our kith and kin."
This sentiment was echoed by the famous Indian parliamentarian and scholar, Shyama Prasad Mookerjee (reported in Frontline India, Vol 19, Issue 21 of Oct 12-25, 2002). If those Indian proposals were not based on religion, what were they based on?
RAFI AHMED
Karachi
GRE for PhD candidates
The Higher Education Commission has belatedly woken up to the need to ensure quality in its PhD programme instead of merely multiplying the number for such degrees. According to a report in Dawn of Jan 19, the HEC has decided to now make GRE (graduate record examinations) mandatory for admission to PhD programmes.
This recommendation was put forward in two excellent articles by Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy, published in Dawn on Jan 3 and 4. The government and the public need to ponder over his suggestions and realize the imperative of rectifying the terrible state of education in Pakistan.
There is not much room for optimism for a quick turn around. The malaise is deeply rooted in the wider societal norms, values and fundamentals. The general level of competency of teachers and students needs to be raised by fostering creative thinking in our educational institutions instead of rote learning.
How this would actually be achieved for the huge population of 160 million in the rampant conditions described by Professor Hoodbhoy seems exceedingly difficult.
There is no dearth of quick-fix ideas, but when it comes to people who will implement them and the bulk of the existing teachers, the results are likely to be bad. It is correct, however, that at least the numbers game should stop and the current emphasis on devalued degrees and mass produced PhDs be brought to an end.
AMIN JAN NAIM
Islamabad
Traffic improvement in Karachi
This is with reference to the news item "Completion of road before time ordered" (Jan 19). During a recent visit to Karachi I noticed the wonderful work the Karachi city district government is doing viz-a-viz providing flyovers and taking other traffic control measures to handle the rapidly expanding vehicular traffic in the city.
I also understand there are plans, among others, to build a ramp over the entire Sharea Faisal between Metropole and the airport. This would expedite VIP movements from the airport to the city.
But all flyovers and other traffic measures are bound to fail. Such measures have been tried in Washington, DC, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Houston, etc., and have failed. The reason is that as soon as these facilities are provided, the public goes out and acquires more vehicles to make their own lives easier.
Los Angeles has 10-lane highways which choke up every morning and evening on weekdays. Similarly, traffic heading into Washington DC stalls about 20 miles outside the centre of the town every morning. In Houston, the evening traffic hour rush lasts well past 8pm.
What the transportation departments in the US are now doing is to encourage mass transit usage. Los Angeles has just recently put in their first metro rail system. Washington DC provides $100 monthly cash benefit to those who use mass transit to go into the city. London has just initiated a five-pound fine for those entering the city during rush hours.
Karachi once had the wonderful circular railway system which was discontinued instead of being expanded, with branches into the outlying areas. Building a mass transit system is not really rocket science.
I am sure we can build one if we put our brain and brawn together to do it. We currently have 'can do' type leaders at the helm. Let's hope they prove their mettle by tackling this task.
SYED SAULAT SHERE
Fredericksburg, Virginia, USA
'Institutions are sacred'
This refers to Justice (retd) Fakhruddin G. Ebrahim's pointed and pithy letter (Jan 14) on the retirement of chief election commissioner Justice (retd) Irshad Hassan Khan. It is worth repeating that restoration of the suspended assemblies was very much on the cards when Justice Irshad gave Gen Musharraf carte blanche.
In the Nusrat Bhutto case against the CMLA, the then chief justice, Justice Anwarul Haq, had similarly used the doctrine of necessity in the judgment announced on Nov 10, 1977 by a bench of nine judges.
Later, another usurper General Ziaul Haq was empowered to change the Constitution. Justice Anwar had inserted the words "including the power to amend it (the Constitution)" in the typed verdict, in his own handwriting. Without consulting his brother judges the CJ did it the night before the judgment was to be formally announced.
Sharifuddin Pirzada, then Zia's legal-eagle (now Musharraf's), had simply pressured Justice Anwar at a party to get the desired judgment. (K. M. Arif, Khaki Shadows, OUP 2002). Justice Irshad gave us the referendum, the elections and, without anyone's asking, a three-year reprieve to the successor of Ayub, Yahya and Ziaul Haq.
ASLAM MINHAS
Karachi
President and army chief
This is in response to the letter "President and army chief" (Jan 20) by Dr Nora Saeed. It is clear from the letter that the correspondent needs a dose of reality because the claim that the current assemblies have legitimate representatives is not only false but highly amusing as well.
It appears the writer is totally oblivious to what was going on in Pakistan during the elections in 2002, such as the creation of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q, the mysterious group of independents who ended up supporting President Musharraf, the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, the PPP Patriots, the splitting up of the Awami National Party and the fact that two very popular leaders were in exile.
The elections were manipulated and only the European Union had the guts to say that. The US of course ignored the issue as President Pervez Musharraf was strategically important at that time. While the ARD leader may have been wrong in his facts, Dr Saeed needs to realize that there is no substitute for democracy.
SALMAN ALI
Boston, Massachusetts, USA
'Politicizing tsunami'
In your editorial "Politicizing tsunami" (Jan 17), your statement that Sri Lanka was refusing to let the UN secretary-general visit rebel-controlled territories of its northern and eastern parts was presumably based on a news item published by a section of the Sri Lankan press.
The Sri Lankan government in an official news release has rejected this allegation and added that the itinerary for the UN secretary-general was prepared by UN officials in Sri Lanka in collaboration with the government.
It was UN officials who did not want to include a tour of the rebel-controlled areas without government officials accompanying the secretary-general and also due to security reasons, although the Sri Lankan government had no serious objections to include this in their itinerary.
S. Egalahewa
Karachi
KIA Pride car scam
From an advertisement, published in the leading dailies on Jan 14, it appears that the government has at last heard the cries of the 18,000 people affected by KIA Pride car scam of Tawakkal Group. As a first step, Tawakkal Garment Industries have been advertised for public auction.
Those affected believe that the proceeds from these assets and others will be distributed among those unfortunate souls who were swindled years back. These unfortunate people still keep the receipts in their lockers in the hope that some day they will be able to be compensated. The government is requested to take immediate action and do the needful.
S.U. KHAN
Peshawar
Tackling Balochistan issue
I appeal to Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz not to order large-scale military operations in Balochistan. He should opt for negotiations and a dialogue with tribal leaders of the affected area.
With the army virtually mired in an endless engagement in Waziristan, it will be counterproductive to have a new war front in the equally hostile terrain of Balochistan.
The negative results of the military operations conducted in Balochistan under Bhutto's fiat are still fresh in our memory. Safeguarding Pakistan's economic assets in Balochistan is essential.
Recalcitrant tribesmen should be leashed but a dialogue with them through British-style political agents and immediate measures to boost the economic development of the tribal area and placating the tribal chieftains of the area in which the disturbed Sui gas field is located may be a better conciliatory device than a precipitate resort to the force of the gun.
Some show of strength may be necessary for a short period of time but time-consuming military operations should be avoided in the national interest.
QUTUBUDDIN AZIZ
Karachi
Paying more for less
Gas used to be a utility that Karachiites could rely on, but now it appears that it too may become a thing of the past owing to the government's mismanagement of the Balochistan conflict.
Karachiites can never depend on either power or water supply. Most businesses and residences that can afford it have standby generators and in many parts of the city water is transported via tankers rather than water lines.
It is safe to presume that in the near future every household will also be equipped with a gas cylinder and there might emerge a gas mafia providing re-filling services to those who can afford their prices.
While dwelling units move towards autonomy (as far as utilities are concerned), providing for their own water, power and gas, it is highly unlikely that the government will reduce its taxes. The trend seems to be that one is constantly paying more and more for less and less.
ZAIN MANKANI
Karachi
'A lesser evil'
During a recent speech George W. Bush bragged: "People re elected me because they like me and also like my policies." People re elected him because there was no big choice before the people. It was a clear example of 'electing a lesser evil'.
INSPECTOR QABACHA
Lahore
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