| 27 January 2005 | Thursday | 16 Zilhaj 1425 |
PMDC and private medical institutions
UK-US media scandal
Baglihar dam: some implications
Musharraf's mistakes
'Reforming our universities': a reply
Why be afraid of student politics?
National Park
Is lawlessness lawful?
Defining terrorism
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There is a basic difference of approach between the manner in which Pakistan and India are looking for a solution to the Kashmir problem. In Pakistan, an atmosphere is being created to suggest as if a solution is just round the corner. In India there is a great deal of composure.
The Pakistani leadership feels that since the Indians have agreed to settle all issues including that of Kashmir, it means that India has accepted the disputed nature of the territory of Jammu & Kashmir.
On the other hand, India has not budged an inch from its stand that there is no dispute over Jammu & Kashmir; rather the dispute is that Pakistan has to vacate Azad Kashmir and the Northern Areas.
India minces no words while stating that the core issue is cross-border terrorism. Almost everyday, India maintains that negotiations can become meaningful only if Pakistan stops cross-border terrorism.
It is categorically and repeatedly being stated by every official in India, right from their prime minister to their foreign office spokesman, that Jammu & Kashmir is an integral part of India.
India is not going to offer Pakistan anything on a platter. A bigger and stronger country, which is also in occupation of a territory, will never lightly offer any concession.
Of course, India can offer us one concession. That is, it can finally consent to making the LOC an international frontier. So where does this leave as an option for Pakistan?
Pakistan should not take positions which send across a message to the Kashmiris that it intends to let them down on their inalienable right of self-determination.
Having worked for four years as chief secretary to the Azad Kashmir government and three years as secretary with the Kashmir affairs division, I speak from some experience.
I am not saying that Pakistan should not try to achieve some level of normality in the relationship with India. We must explore avenues of co-operation. We must take all steps in which the benefits can be equally divided. But if a step is not 50 per cent in our favour, it should be discarded.
We must not take unilateral steps like the cease fire on the Line of Control. Pakistan should stand firmly on principles. The solution is as far away as it always was. No position that demoralizes the Kashmiris should be taken.
They should always feel that Pakistan stands by them. We should give them all the moral, political and diplomatic support. But we should not take steps like Kargil, which at that time appeared to have perhaps irreparably damaged the cause of Kashmir.
At present, if a mutually acceptable system can be evolved which allows the Kashmiris freedom of movement on both sides of the LOC, it would be a step in the right direction.
After all, the Central Asian Republics did get rid of Soviet domination. Let the flame flicker in Kashmir. I have faith that Kashmiris are destined to achieve their objective.
SAFDAR HUSSAIN KAZMI
Islamabad
PMDC and private medical institutions
A news item appeared in Dawn on Jan 20 saying that the health ministry has asked the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) to consider giving representation to private medical colleges with a view to streamlining medical institutions and improving their quality.
To keep the record straight, I would like to point out that it is the government, that is, the ministry of health, and not the PMDC, which has to give representation to private medical institutions.
Subsection 1 of Section 3 of the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council Ordinance provides for the constitution of the PMDC, and its relevant provision reads: "The central government shall cause to be constituted a council consisting of the following members, namely:
(a) one member to be elected by the National Assembly from amongst its members;
(b) one member from each province, to be nominated by the provincial government;
(c) one member each to be elected by the syndicate of each Pakistani university from amongst the members of the medical faculty or the dental faculty of the university or if the university has both a medical and dental faculty, from amongst the members of the two faculties;
(d) four members to be elected from amongst themselves by the registered medical practitioners;
(e) four members to be nominated by the central government of whom at least one shall be a member of the Armed Forces Medical Services;
(f) two members to be elected from amongst themselves by the registered dentists;
(g) one member to be elected by the teaching staff of each medical institution and the dental institution in Pakistan from amongst the professors on its staff, if such institution trains for a medical or dental qualification which is for the time being recognized under this ordinance;
(h) one member belonging to the legal profession, to be nominated by the chief justice of Pakistan; and
(i) the director-general health, government of Pakistan".
It is clear from the provision of clause (f) above that medical and dental institutions recognized by the PMDC, whether they are in the private or the public sector, are entitled to representation on the council.
The federal government, therefore, may get the names of the representatives of private medical institutions and notify them in the gazette with a view to making the PMDC a truly representative body for monitoring medical and dental education in the country.
SYED EHTRAM ALI
Former secretary, PMDC, Karachi
UK-US media scandal
Web-accessible and searchable archives of the mainstream Anglo-American media have provided devastating evidence of massive media lying by commission and omission.
Arguably the biggest lie of history is surely the one spun about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) - this lie enabled the illegal 2003 US-UK invasion of Iraq that has so far been associated with about 400,000 avoidable Iraqi deaths. UN and Unicef data show that the under-five infant mortality in Iraq has been 1.2 million since 1991 and 0.2 million since the US invasion.
The pre-war Bush-Blair claim of Iraqi WMDs was rejected by experts and millions of people worldwide in the absence of any concrete evidence. The US investigation team recently reported its failure to find Iraqi WMDs after two years of minute examination.
In response to the Senate committee questioning about WMDs, Ms Condoleezza Rice recently confessed: "And, yes, we thought Saddam Hussein had stockpiles, which he did not have. We had a problem with the intelligence" (The Age, Melbourne, Jan 20).
Nevertheless, an English-language advanced google search for "WMD", "weapons of mass destruction" and Iraq plus "weapons of mass destruction" has yielded 3.1, 4.1 and 3.5 million results, respectively, indicative of massive media coverage of the big lie.
In contrast, advanced google searching for the phrases "under-5 infant mortality" and "under-five infant mortality" has yielded meagre results of 394 and 125, respectively (and 284 and 11, respectively, if Polya is included in the search).
Similar results are obtained by directly addressing the searchable archives of major newspapers and media groups. The Anglo-American mainstream media are overwhelmingly guilty of simultaneous lying by commission about the biggest lie of history and lying by omission about the biggest crime in human history.
Exposure of this mendacious mainstream media complicity in Anglo-American "democratic imperialism" applied to Afghanistan and Iraq may help constrain further Anglo-American violence throughout the world that has been foreshadowed at the 2005 presidential inauguration. Ms Condoleezza Rice has put Pakistan's neighbour Iran on the US target list.
DR GIDEON POLYA
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Baglihar dam: some implications
Having waited for years, the government has now decided to take the issue of the Baglihar dam to the World Bank. It would be appropriate to review some of the implications of this dam for the people of Pakistan.
It is not only water supplies but our defence network which can also be adversely affected by storage of huge quantities of water in Indian-held Kashmir, on the River Chenab.
At Marala headworks originate two major water channels - the Marala-Ravi link canal and the upper Chenab canal. At Bambawala originates the Bambawala-Ravi-Bedian (BRB) canal. The BRB was a formidable barrier against Indian troops in 1965.
In 1948 when the BRB was dug, Liaquat Ali Khan, then prime Minister of Pakistan, had categorically stated that one day the people of Pakistan would get to know the importance of this canal.
That day was Sept 6,1965. People of my generation who were quite grown up on Aug 14, 1947, cannot forget all the vicissitudes and deprivations inflicted upon us by intransigent attitude of governments of India by withholding our share of financial and defence assets.
We have only two options: one, to plan connecting the Jhelum to the Chenab at Marala. Secondly, in view of the security threat from India, we can approach the Security Council now.
It may be mentioned that it was originally planned that the Jhelum could be connected with the Chenab but the World Bank later ruled that there was no necessity to link the rivers at the Marala head works.
Militarily speaking, building of obstacles and laying of minefields can only delay the onslaught of a powerful enemy and deprive him of the element of surprise to some extent but considering the past policies of the Indian government, we have to do something more concrete and prepare a viable strategy.
One appreciates the sentiments of a majority of the people of Pakistan for developing friendly relations with India and of a sizable population in India that wishes to reciprocate these sentiments. But Baglihar has seriously eroded the confidence-building measures on which we have laid lots of emphasis and spent so much time.
BRIG (retd) KHALID HASSAN MAHMOOD
Karachi
Musharraf's mistakes
I think Gen Pervez Musharraf has made the following mistakes: not implementing his seven-point agenda in totality; holding a referendum; backtracking on blasphemy laws, not abolishing them; breaching his promise on the uniform; not conducting across-the- board accountability of the corrupt; patronizing the PML-Q and the PPP Patriots; not separating the judiciary from the executive; not reforming the election commission; sticking to the failed parliamentary form of political governance; not granting autonomy to the provinces as envisaged in the 1973 Constitution; allowing madressah graduates and corrupt politicians to contest elections; not reforming the education system; not reforming the police; extending a hand of reconciliation towards the looters and plunders of past regimes instead of punishing them through due process.
S.T. HUSSAIN
Lahore
'Reforming our universities': a reply
Apropos of Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy's two-part article (Jan 3 & 4), I appreciate most of what he has said. However, the HEC, despite all the weaknesses it might have, has done some wonders as well. And the proof lies in KUST (the Kohat University of Science and Technology).
The contention that "the HEC's generosity extends even into largely illiterate tribal areas" is a tribute (instead of a stigma as the writer would like readers to believe) to Prof Dr Attaur Rehman. It's only education that can make inroads even into the tribal societies that are so averse to modern education and so fond of mullahs and madressahs.
Similarly, both the Orakzai and Kurram agencies are in the proximity of Kohat. If we don't educate these next-door tribals, we should not expect them not to be fighting over petty religious differences.
If, on the other hand, we want the status quo, as the writer has suggested (by implication) for the tribal areas, we may not have higher seats of learning in the vicinity of sensitive tribal areas.
By the way, why is it that Darra Adam Khel is the most peaceful of all the tribal areas? Because it has educational facilities both to its north (Peshawar) and its south (Kohat). Shall we stop providing them with an education?
Then the writer's assertion that "there are so-called universities.... where it is difficult to detect the slightest potential for successfully establishing modern universities" is so insidious that it leaves little room for any intellectual discourse, to say the least. Let me ask the following few questions:
(i) What makes someone think that it's difficult to detect the slightest potential to establish a university in a place like Kohat?
(ii) Does the writer know that KUST is the only emerging university whose all faculty members of the physics and chemistry departments are PhDs?
(iii) And are we determined to deny that all this has been possible only because of Dr Atta's policies?
We at KUST have signed MoUs with six agencies of international fame, two of which are from Japan. These are Qarshi Research International, SMEDA, CHET (Centre for Higher Education Transformation), International Centre for Chemical Sciences, University of Tsukuba (Japan) and the University of Kitasato (Japan).
As such, both our faculty and students will have ample opportunities to work at some of the most prestigious seats of research and experimentation. Moreover, we take pride in our system of tests and can share our experience with any public sector university interested in benefiting from our system of selection.
We do not deny anybody their right to appear for a test provided he qualifies for it. As for the suggestion that every PhD aspirant be given a GRE (or GRE-type) test, we welcome it and will see to it that at least our PhD students do pass through such a process of filtration.
Instead of promotion based on seniority, KUST is developing a system for teachers' evaluation not only by their seniors but also by their students. Any teacher found below a certain level will be warned.
If improvement does not materialize, the next year he will have no place at KUST. As for the universities elsewhere in the (so-called) backward areas, let them speak for themselves.
IQBAL MUHAMMAD
Director, Planning, KUST
Why be afraid of student politics?
This is with reference to the letter of Mr Anwar Abbas (Jan 17). Students have always taken an active part in movements all over the world. The French movement of 1968 against President de Gaulle's government and the Prague Spring during the same year, which led to the Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia, reflected the strength of student politics and showed how it can inspire a whole nation.
In the subcontinent, who can deny the role of Aligarh in the movement against the British Raj and how this institution nurtured future politicians? If we scrap student politics from the pages of history, we would see a void in political activism.
Gen Musharraf's statement that "there should be no politics in universities" reflects the political wisdom of a soldier. In the past, dictators had backed some student organizations.
The ruthless cleansing of student leaders in the 60s by Malik Amir Muhammad Khan, the then governor of West Pakistan, can never be forgotten. This had a serious impact on students, impairing their political understanding and diminishing their progressiveness. Zia's ban on student politics led to the culture of drugs on campus.
Despite being a champion of democracy, our president doesn't understand where the roots of democracy lie. He wants to cut the root and grow the tree at the same time. If students are prevented from taking part in politics, our nation will suffer.
ADAM PAL
Lahore
National Park
Many residents of Islamabad are alarmed by the rapidly growing illegal population in the National Park area on the Margalla hills facing Islamabad. Fresh huts and homes are being constructed while the authorities turn a blind eye to their activities.
It will not be long before the hillsides are covered by an ugly sprawl of illegal villages and completely denuded of vegetation. At the last Saarc summit, the LEA had closed off the Margallas completely. How will they do this when it is a giant township? And what about the new GHQ in the foothills?
Even now, the few pine trees that remain are being cut down for firewood by the burgeoning village population, as anyone who has hiked in the Margallas can confirm.
Contamination of ground water and springs has started already, as reported recently. The destruction of a national park is against the law. Through these columns I appeal to the president and the prime minister to take note of the looming environmental catastrophe and security problem in their capital city, and to direct the authorities concerned to take immediate action. The longer you wait, the more expensive and difficult it gets.
A. H. AKRAM
Islamabad
Is lawlessness lawful?
A police constable killed an innocent civilian in Karachi because he reportedly did not pay him Rs50 (Dawn, Jan 17). According to a Jan 19 report, the Karachi police chief claimed that the police had killed two criminals, but the next day they turned out to be innocent civilians and their fault was to have asked a police officer to pay for a car wash.
Another Jan 19 report said that an innocent civilian had languished in jail for 17 years as an under-trial prisoner. After 17 years a court found him to be innocent and set him free.
A report published in Dawn on Jan 16 said a mother in Hyderabad killed her four small children and the killing remains a mystery till date. Also, there is a gang war in progress in Karachi's Lyari and it is reported to have taken more then 60 lives so far.
Curfew is currently imposed in some northern areas of the country, where a religious leader was recently killed. An army operation is imminent in the Sui area where again innocent civilians may be at the receiving end. However, the prime minister says "all is well". Is lawlessness lawful in Pakistan?
BADAR JATOI
Karachi
Defining terrorism
The US has unleashed a reign of terror against Muslims in Afghanistan and Iraq and has termed its war a crusade but Muslims have not called it Christian terrorism. Israel is killing hapless and unarmed Palestinians but Muslims have not called it Jewish terrorism.
Indians have killed nearly 100,000 Muslims in Kashmir but nobody has called the killings Hindu terrorism. Why has an exception been made in the case of Muslims? Muslims must create harmony in their rank and file and thwart the evil forces working against Muslim cause.
There is need to revitalize the OIC, the Arab League and the Ummah as a whole to meet the present and future challenges.
LT-COL (retd) IRFAN HAIDER
Karachi
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