| 03 February 2005 | Thursday | 23 Zilhaj 1425 |
Thefts of automobile parts
AKU exam board debate
Karachi mass transit plan
Gas load shedding
Overloading in buses
Musharraf's address in Okara
Gujranwala transport troubles
'A model public servant'
Cell phone use at gas stations
Making films the Iranian way
Balochistan situation
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This refers to the news item "India, China to broaden strategic contacts" (Dawn, Jan 24). Understanding or even cooperation with India on strategic issues has been a long- standing plan of China and may not be taken as something of recent origin.
What follows below shows that China had wanted and hoped for triangular cooperation with Pakistan as the third party, but for some reasons this could not come about.
Therefore, for some time now, China has been going ahead on its own, increasing understanding with India in small measured steps leading to the present position between them with good prospects of further and deeper understanding to follow in economic, political and scientific fields.
From March 1971 to June 1975, I was the army and navy attache in Paris when owing to reasons of India's interference in East Pakistan I had frequent contact with the Chinese defence attache (Brigadier-General) Feng Wen, a veteran of the Long March.
We practically met once a week when sometimes he would pass me messages of a political nature, which I would forward to my administrative head in Islamabad. This particular message was given to me a little after Pakistan had recognized Bangladesh, and was repeated a number of times thereafter.
The message conveyed the hope that soon Pakistan and India would be able to improve their relations and resolve differences, which would be to the mutual benefit of all three.
Our discussions brought out the Chinese fears that continuing India-Pakistan friction would cause the US to fill the vacuum left by the British withdrawal from the Indian Ocean and would not be in the interest of Pakistan, India and China.
The intention did not appear to be to unite against the US but merely to achieve an understanding that would not provide the US any occasion to play one against the other. A close understanding would also provide scope for greater economic cooperation.
Recent world developments - particularly those that could affect the free flow of trade in the Indian Ocean and oil from the Gulf to China and India, increasing need of China for outsourcing to India, plus international terrorist threats and the need for steps to avoid a trade war in the Indian Ocean and Asean countries - have accelerated the process of establishing strategic understanding between the two countries with a view to avoiding frictions between them in the future.
VICE-ADMIRAL (retd) IQBAL F. QUADIR
Karachi
Thefts of automobile parts
The Empress Market in Saddar in Karachi is a highly unreliable area to park your vehicle. No sooner you do this, you lose some of its parts such as mirrors, wheel-caps, headlights and tape recorders.
Shopkeepers around are aware of what's going on but will not speak for fear of the area hoodlums. Who are these hoodlums and why aren't they afraid? A few days back, my husband and I went shopping and parked our car at a place in Saddar, leaving our son sitting in the rear.
We returned after five minutes and found the side mirrors removed. We learnt that two persons had taken away the side mirrors in front of shopkeepers and had disappeared into the market area. Our son was so frightened that he could not even raise an alarm.
When we inquired from shopkeepers who these people were, they said thieves roamed about the area and that nobody could do anything about it. Does it mean these thieves have some backing? If yes, then backing by whom? The police themselves are busy collecting bhatta from hawkers/vendors and there are whispers that it is their own hired people who are behind these robberies.
The security personnel of the area should be held responsible and removed if they themselves are involved. Similar thefts are taking place all over the parking areas around the city and there seems no end to it.
My suggestion is to put a ban on the purchase and sale of old car parts (just like the ban on the purchase of old mobile phones) without a purchase receipt and identity card copies of the purchaser and the seller. The shopkeepers should be fined heavily if found purchasing or selling parts without the necessary papers.
MRS SABRINA D'SOUZA
Karachi
AKU exam board debate
This is with reference to the debate on the establishment of a private exam board in Pakistan by the Aga Khan University. There are some who believe that the formation of a private board is akin to the government abdicating what they say is its primary responsibility to provide examination and assessment systems to students in mainstream schools.
I would like to point out here that the Cambridge and London exam boards are in the private sector and not set up by the British government. Yes, the UK government might give some money in funding to both Cambridge and London universities but they are non-profit private institutions.
I would also like to add an anecdote from personal experience. Some years ago I and my wife were managing and running our own school which was affiliated with the local government-run exam board. Every year, our affiliation was renewed by the board without anyone ever coming and inspecting our facilities.
Apart from that, we were more than once approached by officials of the board who said that if we paid them a certain amount, they would see to it that our students would be among the position-holders in the board's annual exams.
So much for credibility and honesty. This doesn't happen in the Cambridge or London systems and students who gain awards and honours in their exams can at least feel that they have earned their grades.
Those who think that the government should be responsible for providing everything under the sun should first take a look at the track record of successive governments in this regard.
KHALID RASHID QURAISHI
Karachi
Karachi mass transit plan
Any attempt to restore local train service on the main line and the KCR will require a thorough reassessment of the expected travel demand, keeping in view the availability of effective and convenient feeder services at various points - Landhi, Malir, Airport, Drigh Colony, Drigh Road, Cantonment, City, Tower, N. Nazimabad and Liaquatabad, etc., at an affordable cost.
Besides, such a plan should be made compatible with the approved and notified Karachi Mass Transit Master Plan. This will also require disincentives for parallel long-distance bus services. Keeping the above observations in view the following steps can be considered while planning to revive main line and KCR train services to make these viable:
- Revive all station approach roads which are at present encroached upon and made inaccessible.
- Reassess the travel demand in view of the city's changed demography.
- Extend a rail branch from N. Nazimabad station to Nagan Chowrangi along the KMTP priority corridor No. 3 on one lane of the boulevard to operate trams or a few trains in morning and evening peak hours at close intervals, till the LRT is built.
- Similar extension may be planned from Liaquatabad to Sohrab Goth at a later date, unless the LRT is built on corridor No. 1 simultaneously.
- Review all long-distance bus routes to attract most commuters to rail, diverting such buses and mini-buses to serve as feeders.
S.M.H. RIZVI
Karachi
Gas load shedding
The statement by a spokesman of Sui Northern Gas Pipe Line (reported in the press on Jan 30) that there has been no load shedding for domestic consumers is adding insult to injury. In my locality, Sherzaman Colony, Lane 5, Rawalpindi, complete stoppage of gas from 6am to midnight has been taking place every day since the first week of December.
Frantic telephone calls by myself and other residents only elicit the simple reply that pressure was low and that we should contact the higher-ups. We spoke to the metering department and sent a written complaint to the GM, Islamabad Region, as well as to the SGM, head office, Lahore, but all to no avail.
The SNGPL spokesman is totally wrong when he says that to maintain gas supply to domestic consumers, supply to industrial consumers was discontinued. While we have a total stoppage for two months, two CNG stations just across the road are running at full throttle, not to mention the scores of tandoors.
Imagine school-going children washing in ice-cold water in the morning, housewives having no fire to cook and older people shivering for the whole day in sub-zero temperatures.
On Jan 28, some desperate youngsters took to the streets at Murree Road and created a law and order situation. These seemingly little grievances sow the seeds of widespread unrest. Will somebody take note?
SALIM BAHADUR KHAN
Rawalpindi
Overloading in buses
Most of the old buses plying in Karachi are unsafe. The floorboards are broken and dilapidated. Bus owners get the seating arranged in a way so that more passengers are accommodated standing. The support railings are often too high for persons of average height.
In other cases, the roof is so low that even a person of average height has to slouch. Besides, the conductors perpetually walk by the passengers packed like sardines, asking over and over again for the fare, looking suspiciously at the passengers as if they are cheating on him.
Some big new air-conditioned buses have started to appear on Karachi roads. It has been a while since this comforting and more organized system has been introduced but we still need more such buses.
Lately, mismanagement has been witnessed on the new buses also, particularly with regard to overloading, frequent stopping and the cooling system. Nevertheless, these new buses are a boon, and an increase in their number should help to reduce the number of the rickety old buses and wagons.
MUHAMMED Z. QURESHI
Karachi
Musharraf's address in Okara
Addressing a public meeting in Okara (Dawn, Jan 30), both Gen Pervez Musharraf and Punjab Chief Minister Pervaiz Ellahi spoke about almost everything under the sun but neither said anything on the dispossession of thousands of tenants on state lands in Okara.
The Okara tenants' issue has attracted national and international attention and criticism. The Human Rights Watch described last year the assault on tenants as "a dangerous moment in Pakistan".
This year's HRW report criticized the military rulers for having "acted with increasing impunity to protect its grip of Pakistan's economic resources, especially land".
The Senate took note of the issue and set up a special parliamentary committee. In December last year it made some concrete recommendations to address the problem.
However, whenever the tenants demanded their rights or protested against atrocities or whenever a national or international body took note of their plight, they were subjected to even greater suppression and brutalities.
Just when a Senate report was made public, security forces besieged the tenants. When as a member of the Senate committee on Okara I demanded last month that I should be informed through official channels of what progress had been made towards implementation of the Senate recommendations, the response was a deafening silence.
The Punjab chief minister claimed that development projects of over Rs1 billion had been undertaken in Okara. This is welcome. But he should also have said as to what his government had been doing to recover the lease amount for the past 50 years from the military for the land leased to them.
He should also have said as to what his government was doing to solve the problems of tenants who were tilling land belonging to the government of Punjab and not to the military.
It was also important for Gen Musharraf to address this issue for another reason. Reports of the military's acquisition of lands and jobs have reached a stage where they are attracting criticism.
There are demands to review policies which permit the armed forces to take over land for a pittance, build industrial complexes, take over civilian housing societies and convert lands given for specific defence purposes into golf courses, petrol pumps, housing schemes and commercial plazas.
All this has been revealed in answers to parliamentary questions. The revenues derived from commercial activities such as from the Lahore Fortress Stadium are not being credited to the Central Consolidated Fund as required under the Constitution.
SENATOR FARHATULLAH BABAR
Islamabad
Gujranwala transport troubles
Through these columns I wish to draw the attention of the authorities in Punjab to the problems faced by users of public transport in Gujranwala. Thousands of commuters - including women, the elderly and students - suffer daily from non-availability of vehicles.
This shortage is due to the monopoly over public transport enjoyed by one bus company at the behest of a provincial minister. The minister first banned wagons from plying on the GT Road and has now banned motorcycle rickshaws as well.
The result is that bus operators use the GT Road as their personal domain, stopping at will, causing traffic jams, and cannot be prosecuted because they have been allowed on the road by the "higher-ups". There is simply not enough space on the GT Road for more buses, and commuters have to wait endlessly for over-crowded buses.
The losers in this money game are the poor citizens of Gujranwala, who have nowhere to turn to for redress of their grievances. Contact with local transport authority, district government, and traffic police have proved futile, as all of them claim to act on "directions from above".
I request the provincial authorities to end this unjust monopoly and allow wagons and motorcycle rickshaws to operate on the GT Road in the public interest.
SALMAN MUQEEM
Gujranwala
'A model public servant'
The obituary "Ejaz Ahmad Naik - a model public servant" (Dawn, Jan 26) by Dr Humayun Khan is an excellent piece. It has done justice to a man who truly deserves the compliments.
It is indeed very sad that no one in government gave recognition to such an outstanding civil servant on his passing away. I met Mr Naik for the first time when he was appointed chief secretary, NWFP, in 1970.
When the JUI-NAP government assumed power in the province I was not sure whether he would be able to work in view of his different culture and background. When the government made shalwar kameez the official dress, all of us thought he would never be able to adopt a dress he had never worn.
We were wrong. Like a good public servant he complied because that was the official legal order. Mr Naik was a quiet and unassuming officer but very firm and objective in the decisions he took.
He always gave excellent and balanced advice to the provincial cabinet which met regularly twice a week. The then chief minister, Maulana Mufti Mahmud, always appreciated his counsel because it was fair and objective.
He was an officer and a gentleman and I can confidently say about him that there is nothing so strong as gentleness and nothing as gentle as real strength.
MUHAMMAD AZAM KHAN
Peshawar
Cell phone use at gas stations
This is regarding Mr Rashid Ashraf's letter on banning cell phone use at gas stations (Jan 29). The Discovery Channel has a show called "Myth busters". The show has successfully busted the myth that cell phones cause sparks at gas stations.
I feel that the entire premise of banning the use of cell phones at gas stations is absurd. Sparks can be set off by any item rubbing against another especially synthetic clothing such as nylon which creates static electricity easily through friction.
The whole premise that cell phones are electromagnetic and cause heat that warms the surrounding air is also not true, since the EM waves caused by a cell phone have absolutely no significant effect on temperatures at all.
While it is true that the government of certain countries have banned the use of cell phones at petrol stations, it would be wiser for governments to educate people on grounding themselves before fuelling their cars.
In the US almost all of the incidents in which explosions caused at gas stations were caused by people failing to ground themselves (i.e., touching any metal object before touching the fuel pump) before fuelling their own cars.
S. OWAIS AHMAD
Holyoke, MA., USA
Making films the Iranian way
A few days back PTV showed an Iranian film Nora in its late night transmissions. It was a wonderful film - no sex, no songs, no dances, no expensive sets.
It was a film based on the relationship between a brother and his sister, set in a rural background. The direction was superb. The story was so absorbing that one couldn't move away for a second.
This movie should be a reminder to our filmmakers who should stop following Indian cinema. The Indians move in a different direction. They are following the Hollywood model.
We being a Muslim country cannot copy them. Let us have a break and turn our attention towards art movies. The majority of cinegoers may not like it, but taste and understanding can always be raised.
KHALID RASHID
Rawalpindi
Balochistan situation
The results of years of nurturing sardars and waderas and their 18th-century system are now bearing fruit in Balochistan. These sardars are opposing all development projects for fear of losing their grip over the lives of the ordinary people of the province.
A nation which is weak and unwilling to stand up to such lawlessness cannot blame anyone else for its woes and an even darker future. It is time people understood the reality and stopped being fooled by these so-called political leaders or nationalists.
TANVEER ASLAM
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