| March, 16 2005 | Wednesday | 05 Safar 1426 |
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Cottage industry problem
Unchecked commercialization
Drug prices
Pet libraries
Higher education
Winds of change
Priorities gone wrong
Pensioners’ plea
Pakistan’s bowling
‘Who can say? What?’
Developing countries and WTO
Cottage industry problem
Unchecked commercialization
Drug prices
Pet libraries
Higher education
Winds of change
Priorities gone wrong
Pensioners’ plea
Pakistan’s bowling
‘Who can say? What?’
THE level of business may be different in different countries but the motive is always same, i.e., profit. There is a race to maximize profit revenue. Modern trends and techniques are being used to capture the mind of consumer.
The country we live in is a developing country. Up to 42.1 per cent of its total employed labour force depends on agriculture (Economic Survey of Pakistan, 2003-04). Basically, we are an agriculture-based country having one of the biggest agricultural economies and canal systems for irrigation, and maximum contribution of our GDP at 23.3 per cent takes place through this sector (Economic Survey of Pakistan, 2003-04)
Despite these positive features we are becoming more and more poor and could not attain the required growth in our country owing to the following reasons: No favourable land reforms, no proper water supply,landlord system, innovative technology is lacking, no institutes to develop farmer skill, political instability, high rate of inflation, inadequate communication and transportation, lack of awareness of market mechanism, unfavourable taxation policies and poor health facilities.
Under the WTO only those countries can survive which develop those things in which they have an absolute advantage (Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, 1776, London) and we have it in the sector of agriculture. Development of this sector can increase our per capita income and we can get huge revenue from the export of wheat, oil, rice, oilseed.
But we are not in position to export items because we are not producing these things. (Economic Survey of Pakistan, 2003-04) on the level required. We are importing these agro-based items to fulfil our needs which is the cause of the budget deficit.
Developed countries always exploit the situation of the developing countries through the IMF and World Bank to market their goods, and millions of dollars are being spent on advertisement alone.
Their goods become a burden on the developing countries. They cannot eve escape the heavy rate of interest charged by world financial bodies.
So it is necessary for the developing countries to strengthen their business activities to earn more profit in those fields in which they have an absolute advantage, if they want to survive under the WTO. Pakistan can improve its agricultural sector.
To do this we can take the following steps: new technology must be introduced, proper land reform be introduced, improved irrigation, construct new dams, easy loans for small farmers, favourable taxation system, production of value-added goods, restriction on export of raw material, improved health facilities, better law and order system, export consultation on agricultural requirements, provision of good communication and transport system, new market for agro-related goods, provision of quality insurance be provided, use of certified seeds and fertilizer, control of the cost of production (increase the production to control the price) to compete in the global market.
If we improve the agricultural system, the day would not be far when we would be self-sufficient in our own resources. And there will be no unemployment and economic instability. And we will be the creditors, not debtors.
AAMIR MANZUR WAIN
Lahore
TWELVE years after being allotted plots in the Landhi cottage industry by the now defunct KMC, allottees are being told that their payments would be refunded as the requisite land has been encroached upon.
About 2,500 applicants were allotted small industrial plots in a transparent ballot held under the supervision of the Institute of Business Administration in 1993. Most of those who were allotted plots were middle class professionals whose only crime was to dream about setting up a small industrial unit of some kind.
I am an engineer by profession. I applied under this scheme and was allotted a plot on which I planned to set up a small tool workshop for making various auto and electrical parts.
Such a small facility would give employment to about 12 people and also generate money in the form of taxes for the government, besides giving a competitive product to the automobile sector.
Despite tall claims of being investment-friendly, the government — and in this case the Karachi city government — is being held hostage by a small group of land encroachers.
I met the city nazim in this regard and told him that some determination on his part would result in action against this professional group of land grabbers. He did assure that action would be taken, but so far nothing has materialized.
Imagine the injustice of this decision to refund our money. In 2003, we deposited Rs20,000 as our initial deposit of the scheme. I made this payment by taking a loan from family friends under the impression that once the scheme got under way, I would quickly return the amount.
The value of the land earmarked for the scheme has more than quadrupled in this 13 years. And yet the city government is insistent that we take the money that we deposited, despite the fact that we had even been allotted plots in the scheme and legally that land is our property.
I am surprised why the might of the city government cannot take on such small but enterprising land grabbers who will now sell the land to others and go and occupy land elsewhere.
MUHAMMAD YASIN Karachi
OVER the years, the bane of commercialization has started creeping on to Davis Road, so that no residence has been left on it. And now this demon has also trespassed on Habibullah Road, primarily in the form of private schools and colleges — a mushroom growth from one end to the other. In the morning and afternoon when the schools open and close, the traffic slows down to an agonising crawl, with the smoke of noisy vehicles, particularly the sputtering ear-splitting rickshaws, infiltrating into our homes.
Habibullah Road is short and narrow, but over it 10 speed breakers have been raised far above the standard height. Unless you stop and then inch over them, the underside of your vehicle can get scraped and damaged. And this susceptibility to accidents increases at night because most streetlights remain out of order. In fact, there have been such accidents — some of them fairly nasty ones. These speed breakers have, therefore, become an additional nuisance because they have slowed down traffic all the 24 hours of the day. They should be removed. If one or two of them have to be retained, then at least their height and width should be reset to appropriate level.
Our greatest disappointment is that the city government lacks the civic responsibility to hold back this onslaught of commercialization which keeps burrowing deeper and deeper into the entrails of residential areas. The city government should not only draw a firm line of demarcation between the residential and commercial areas, but also reverse this trend. It is the story of the camel and the Arab: the camel should be pushed out of the tent!
If nothing else can be retrieved or rectified, we, the residents of Habibullah Road, request the city government to, at least, do something about our complaint about the speed breakers.
AKHTAR TAUFIQ Lahore
THE rates that multinationals charge for producing drugs in Pakistan are exorbitant by any comparison. They have now even run out of excuses for their phenomenal profits.
The first excuse is that in comparison to India the market in Pakistan is small. But look on the other side: the market in Iran is even smaller, but the rates for most medicines are lower than in Pakistan.
Another excuse given is that the money being charged is for research done by the mother company. In most instances, the patent for the formula of the drugs has expired and yet these companies continue to fleece us in Third World countries for investments that they have recovered many times over.
A third excuse given is the cost of raw materials. The price of raw materials will naturally be higher if the company sources this from the mother company.
Why aren’t raw materials sourced from third countries like India, China, Brazil or South Africa where most such materials are available?
For this injustice that our multinational pharmaceutical companies continue to impose on us, I can only blame our government, particularly our ministry of health.
Two things need to be done at the earliest. Drugs of all varieties should be allowed free import, particularly from India, China, Brazil and South Africa.
At the same time, incentives have to be given to local medicine companies to produce more drugs on their own, sourcing their raw materials from the country of their choice. These companies have to be supported by the government.
ALMAS ALAM Islamabad
THERE was an interesting report on the BBC in which a pet library was cited, which is sponsored by the Birla Group in India. In this unique library the students could get a pet issued for say a week. The person who takes the pet gets a list of the food and care required in handling the pet. The range of pets include rabbits, birds and tortoises, which fascinate the children. The students can enjoy the company of the pet for a week and return the same to get another animal. The children can study the behaviour of a varied species of animals in the comfort of their homes.
A friend of mine bought a Persian cat for Rs5,000. In the beginning it was an object of interests for all members of the family. It was served imported cat food and received lots of love and attention. After about one month the lady of the house felt extremely annoyed when it sat on the sofa and ripped off the upholstery. The children also lost interest and kicked and bullied the poor animal. When the cat fell sick the master was reluctant to spend money on its treatment. Finally, the cat was left at the mercy of the servants who hardly bothered to feed and care for it. Eventually the cat was handed over to another friend for gratis.
Philanthropists and NGOs are requested to explore this avenue and set up similar pet libraries. This will immensely help in upholding animal rights and also provide a new concept of adopting pets for short terms.
RAFI ADAMJEE
Karachi
THIS is apropos of the letter “Higher Education” (March 11) by Dr Zahoor Baber. He wrote: “The fact is that Pakistani people who have worked as professors in the United States and other countries have rarely done significant research that could be counted internationally”.
How did Dr Baber find out this “fact” about Pakistani-born professors? It appears that he has some misconceptions about American universities. First, professors are hired on the basis of their publications, academic references and potential to get grants from external agencies and for carrying out research. Second, during the hiring process, a perspective faculty candidate visits the department and presents his latest research in an open-house session. Even an undergraduate student is at liberty to ask him probing questions. How well he delivers that presentation affects his chances of getting the faculty position. There is no preferential treatment to Pakistani-born faculty candidates. They follow the same stringent process. The American system may not be perfect but still it is better than any other.
I am a graduate student of computer engineering in an average American university. In the last five years, I have come across professors of different backgrounds, including white Caucasians, Indians, Russians, Polish, Arabs, Pakistanis and mostly Chinese. Although there are fewer Pakistani-born professors, yet they are doing the same quality research as their counterparts. Stereotyping Pakistani-born professors as having inferior intellectual capacity is simply absurd. There are several reasons why there are few Pakistani-born professors in the USA. Over the last 10 years the Pakistani students’ enrolment has dropped by 8.6 per cent from 8,017 in 1994 to 7,325 in 2004. For the same period, Indian students’ population has increased phenomenally by 129.1 per cent from 34,796 in 1994 to 79,736 in 2004.
Another reason is that fewer Pakistani students enroll into graduate school. Last year 32.9 per cent Pakistani students joined the graduate schools as compared to 79 per cent from India. In my department there are over 60 PhD students and only one is from Pakistan.
Dr Baber also wrote: “Most of these professors are incapable of conducting any intensive research here and seem merely to take advantage of the lucrative packages”. Again he is so incorrect. According to the HEC website, one needs to have five to 12 years of post-doctorate teaching and research experience to apply for these one-year contract position. So, all the applicants will be definitely tenured professors in America.
I hope Dr. Baber knows that it takes at least five to six years of hard work to get tenure, and tenured professors rarely relocate. He will be leaving his family and accepting a temporary position at the fraction of his pay. It is not a lucrative deal.
No one disagrees that local resident supervisors are preferable and it should be the ultimate goal. But do we have enough of them at present. Take the example of IBA, Karachi, a premier institute. According to its website, even the chairpersons of accounting, management and marketing department are not PhDs. Will MBA teachers produce PhDs? Instead of becoming the part of the problem, the local academicians should become part of solution. If someone has constructive ideas, they should convince the readers and suggest concrete ways to improve the existing process. There is no need for the local faculty members to feel insecure, rather they will get the unique opportunity to exchange their ideas with foreign faculty.
Normally the government bureaucracy is not efficient at doing things but the HEC deserves the credit of starting the process. It is a small step in the right direction.
IMRAN KHALID ARAIN
Windsor, Canada
THIS is in response to “The Winds of Change?’ by Irfan Hussain (March 5).
What kind of change does he want to introduce in madressahs? Does he want cable connections installed in them showing the latest movies? The most modern invention, the computer with all its disadvantages, has already been introduced in many madressahs and the users are talking about actors and actresses. Should the child who is learning the Holy Quran and the Hadith watch such futile things?
Then he opposes the mullahs for joining hands with the ruling party on the honour killing bill. It should be asked of the ruling party why it opposed the bill. The bill can do injustice to those who have never committed such crimes, and are downtrodden. The Wadera is the most terrible thing under the sky. The cruelty that he shows towards his “slaves” is never seen by the proponents of enlightened moderation, only practising Muslims are the target. Why?
The writer is against money collection by madressahs. Who will feed the millions of orphans and poverty-stricken creatures if the mullah does not do so? Are there any organizations to take the responsibility? If madressahs are closed, hundreds of thousands of hapless children will become beggars or robbers.
M. AKRAM SAQIB Sahiwal
I AM shocked by the news that shopkeepers in Lahore have threatened to go on strike in protest against the decision by the provincial government to make the wearing of helmets mandatory for motorcycle riders.
One is sometimes left bewildered as to where our society is heading. No protest was held by shopkeepers or any other community except for a handful of women organizations after the accused in the Mukhtaran Mai case were let off by the Multan bench of the LHC.
Similarly, no one comes out on the streets when murders, rapes, kidnapping, abuse and cases of gross injustice take place against common citizens.
But when such action is taken which in fact is for the greater good of the country, like imposing helmets on motorcyclists, or gathering information for tax purposes, or even trying to change the syllabus in our textbooks to take away some of the hate material that it contains, thousands of people come out on the roads in protest.
It is obvious that our country suffers from misplaced priorities. One wonders what should be done to change the path of self-destruction that we are treading now.
ILYAS ALAM Lahore
PRESIDENT Pervez Musharraf announced on PTV on Dec 28, 2004, that the minimum ceiling of EOBI pensions has been raised from Rs700 to Rs1,000 per month.
Although the date of increase was not indicated, the affected pensioners felt a great pleasure since they had urged it time and again and hence expected such a concession.
Unfortunately no express orders or government notification has been issued even after lapse of two-hand-a-half months of the declaration.
If the president was committed to what he said, then lack of action was not understandable. Perhaps delay in issuing the appropriate notification has been caused by the relevant ministry which might have lethargically picked up the declaration and failed to do its homework while the needy pensioners awaited the outcome.
SADIQ NAWAZ SALEEM
Khushab
IT was highly disappointing to see Pakistan‘s performance in the first Test match. There seemed to be no definite plan as far as bowling or batting was concerned. Let us just not talk about our fielding.
The performance of Younis Khan makes one wonder regarding the legitimacy of his place in the team as a player. I hope he is not selected for the next Test simply because he is the vice-captain.
We need an extra bowler and for that purpose Shahid Afridi is an excellent choice, as he boasts a good record on Indian soil.
SHARJEEL AHMAD
Morgantown,
West Virginia, USA
WITH reference to Mr Ardeshir Cowasjee’s column “Who can say? What?” (Feb 27), I would just like to add that a missionary who is not easily approachable or available to his flock is no missionary and is not worthy of wearing the frock of a priest, let alone being a bishop.
It is now understandable why armed guards surround him and denial of easy access to meet him is so strictly enforced.
The schools that run under his chairmanship in Rawalpindi/Islamabad need to be looked into because most of the poor of his flock are denied admission on one pretext or another.
T. A. Bowers
Rawalpindi
THE level of business may be different in different countries but the motive is always same, i.e., profit. There is a race to maximize profit revenue. Modern trends and techniques are being used to capture the mind of consumer.
The country we live in is a developing country. Up to 42.1 per cent of its total employed labour force depends on agriculture (Economic Survey of Pakistan, 2003-04). Basically, we are an agriculture-based country having one of the biggest agricultural economies and canal systems for irrigation, and maximum contribution of our GDP at 23.3 per cent takes place through this sector (Economic Survey of Pakistan, 2003-04)
Despite these positive features we are becoming more and more poor and could not attain the required growth in our country owing to the following reasons: No favourable land reforms, no proper water supply,landlord system, innovative technology is lacking, no institutes to develop farmer skill, political instability, high rate of inflation, inadequate communication and transportation, lack of awareness of market mechanism, unfavourable taxation policies and poor health facilities.
Under the WTO only those countries can survive which develop those things in which they have an absolute advantage (Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, 1776, London) and we have it in the sector of agriculture. Development of this sector can increase our per capita income and we can get huge revenue from the export of wheat, oil, rice, oilseed.
But we are not in position to export items because we are not producing these things. (Economic Survey of Pakistan, 2003-04) on the level required. We are importing these agro-based items to fulfil our needs which is the cause of the budget deficit.
Developed countries always exploit the situation of the developing countries through the IMF and World Bank to market their goods, and millions of dollars are being spent on advertisement alone.
Their goods become a burden on the developing countries. They cannot eve escape the heavy rate of interest charged by world financial bodies.
So it is necessary for the developing countries to strengthen their business activities to earn more profit in those fields in which they have an absolute advantage, if they want to survive under the WTO. Pakistan can improve its agricultural sector.
To do this we can take the following steps: new technology must be introduced, proper land reform be introduced, improved irrigation, construct new dams, easy loans for small farmers, favourable taxation system, production of value-added goods, restriction on export of raw material, improved health facilities, better law and order system, export consultation on agricultural requirements, provision of good communication and transport system, new market for agro-related goods, provision of quality insurance be provided, use of certified seeds and fertilizer, control of the cost of production (increase the production to control the price) to compete in the global market.
If we improve the agricultural system, the day would not be far when we would be self-sufficient in our own resources. And there will be no unemployment and economic instability. And we will be the creditors, not debtors.
AAMIR MANZUR WAIN
Lahore
TWELVE years after being allotted plots in the Landhi cottage industry by the now defunct KMC, allottees are being told that their payments would be refunded as the requisite land has been encroached upon.
About 2,500 applicants were allotted small industrial plots in a transparent ballot held under the supervision of the Institute of Business Administration in 1993. Most of those who were allotted plots were middle class professionals whose only crime was to dream about setting up a small industrial unit of some kind.
I am an engineer by profession. I applied under this scheme and was allotted a plot on which I planned to set up a small tool workshop for making various auto and electrical parts.
Such a small facility would give employment to about 12 people and also generate money in the form of taxes for the government, besides giving a competitive product to the automobile sector.
Despite tall claims of being investment-friendly, the government — and in this case the Karachi city government — is being held hostage by a small group of land encroachers.
I met the city nazim in this regard and told him that some determination on his part would result in action against this professional group of land grabbers. He did assure that action would be taken, but so far nothing has materialized.
Imagine the injustice of this decision to refund our money. In 2003, we deposited Rs20,000 as our initial deposit of the scheme. I made this payment by taking a loan from family friends under the impression that once the scheme got under way, I would quickly return the amount.
The value of the land earmarked for the scheme has more than quadrupled in this 13 years. And yet the city government is insistent that we take the money that we deposited, despite the fact that we had even been allotted plots in the scheme and legally that land is our property.
I am surprised why the might of the city government cannot take on such small but enterprising land grabbers who will now sell the land to others and go and occupy land elsewhere.
MUHAMMAD YASIN Karachi
OVER the years, the bane of commercialization has started creeping on to Davis Road, so that no residence has been left on it. And now this demon has also trespassed on Habibullah Road, primarily in the form of private schools and colleges — a mushroom growth from one end to the other. In the morning and afternoon when the schools open and close, the traffic slows down to an agonising crawl, with the smoke of noisy vehicles, particularly the sputtering ear-splitting rickshaws, infiltrating into our homes.
Habibullah Road is short and narrow, but over it 10 speed breakers have been raised far above the standard height. Unless you stop and then inch over them, the underside of your vehicle can get scraped and damaged. And this susceptibility to accidents increases at night because most streetlights remain out of order. In fact, there have been such accidents — some of them fairly nasty ones. These speed breakers have, therefore, become an additional nuisance because they have slowed down traffic all the 24 hours of the day. They should be removed. If one or two of them have to be retained, then at least their height and width should be reset to appropriate level.
Our greatest disappointment is that the city government lacks the civic responsibility to hold back this onslaught of commercialization which keeps burrowing deeper and deeper into the entrails of residential areas. The city government should not only draw a firm line of demarcation between the residential and commercial areas, but also reverse this trend. It is the story of the camel and the Arab: the camel should be pushed out of the tent!
If nothing else can be retrieved or rectified, we, the residents of Habibullah Road, request the city government to, at least, do something about our complaint about the speed breakers.
AKHTAR TAUFIQ Lahore
THE rates that multinationals charge for producing drugs in Pakistan are exorbitant by any comparison. They have now even run out of excuses for their phenomenal profits.
The first excuse is that in comparison to India the market in Pakistan is small. But look on the other side: the market in Iran is even smaller, but the rates for most medicines are lower than in Pakistan.
Another excuse given is that the money being charged is for research done by the mother company. In most instances, the patent for the formula of the drugs has expired and yet these companies continue to fleece us in Third World countries for investments that they have recovered many times over.
A third excuse given is the cost of raw materials. The price of raw materials will naturally be higher if the company sources this from the mother company.
Why aren’t raw materials sourced from third countries like India, China, Brazil or South Africa where most such materials are available?
For this injustice that our multinational pharmaceutical companies continue to impose on us, I can only blame our government, particularly our ministry of health.
Two things need to be done at the earliest. Drugs of all varieties should be allowed free import, particularly from India, China, Brazil and South Africa.
At the same time, incentives have to be given to local medicine companies to produce more drugs on their own, sourcing their raw materials from the country of their choice. These companies have to be supported by the government.
ALMAS ALAM Islamabad
THERE was an interesting report on the BBC in which a pet library was cited, which is sponsored by the Birla Group in India. In this unique library the students could get a pet issued for say a week. The person who takes the pet gets a list of the food and care required in handling the pet. The range of pets include rabbits, birds and tortoises, which fascinate the children. The students can enjoy the company of the pet for a week and return the same to get another animal. The children can study the behaviour of a varied species of animals in the comfort of their homes.
A friend of mine bought a Persian cat for Rs5,000. In the beginning it was an object of interests for all members of the family. It was served imported cat food and received lots of love and attention. After about one month the lady of the house felt extremely annoyed when it sat on the sofa and ripped off the upholstery. The children also lost interest and kicked and bullied the poor animal. When the cat fell sick the master was reluctant to spend money on its treatment. Finally, the cat was left at the mercy of the servants who hardly bothered to feed and care for it. Eventually the cat was handed over to another friend for gratis.
Philanthropists and NGOs are requested to explore this avenue and set up similar pet libraries. This will immensely help in upholding animal rights and also provide a new concept of adopting pets for short terms.
RAFI ADAMJEE
Karachi
THIS is apropos of the letter “Higher Education” (March 11) by Dr Zahoor Baber. He wrote: “The fact is that Pakistani people who have worked as professors in the United States and other countries have rarely done significant research that could be counted internationally”.
How did Dr Baber find out this “fact” about Pakistani-born professors? It appears that he has some misconceptions about American universities. First, professors are hired on the basis of their publications, academic references and potential to get grants from external agencies and for carrying out research. Second, during the hiring process, a perspective faculty candidate visits the department and presents his latest research in an open-house session. Even an undergraduate student is at liberty to ask him probing questions. How well he delivers that presentation affects his chances of getting the faculty position. There is no preferential treatment to Pakistani-born faculty candidates. They follow the same stringent process. The American system may not be perfect but still it is better than any other.
I am a graduate student of computer engineering in an average American university. In the last five years, I have come across professors of different backgrounds, including white Caucasians, Indians, Russians, Polish, Arabs, Pakistanis and mostly Chinese. Although there are fewer Pakistani-born professors, yet they are doing the same quality research as their counterparts. Stereotyping Pakistani-born professors as having inferior intellectual capacity is simply absurd. There are several reasons why there are few Pakistani-born professors in the USA. Over the last 10 years the Pakistani students’ enrolment has dropped by 8.6 per cent from 8,017 in 1994 to 7,325 in 2004. For the same period, Indian students’ population has increased phenomenally by 129.1 per cent from 34,796 in 1994 to 79,736 in 2004.
Another reason is that fewer Pakistani students enroll into graduate school. Last year 32.9 per cent Pakistani students joined the graduate schools as compared to 79 per cent from India. In my department there are over 60 PhD students and only one is from Pakistan.
Dr Baber also wrote: “Most of these professors are incapable of conducting any intensive research here and seem merely to take advantage of the lucrative packages”. Again he is so incorrect. According to the HEC website, one needs to have five to 12 years of post-doctorate teaching and research experience to apply for these one-year contract position. So, all the applicants will be definitely tenured professors in America.
I hope Dr. Baber knows that it takes at least five to six years of hard work to get tenure, and tenured professors rarely relocate. He will be leaving his family and accepting a temporary position at the fraction of his pay. It is not a lucrative deal.
No one disagrees that local resident supervisors are preferable and it should be the ultimate goal. But do we have enough of them at present. Take the example of IBA, Karachi, a premier institute. According to its website, even the chairpersons of accounting, management and marketing department are not PhDs. Will MBA teachers produce PhDs? Instead of becoming the part of the problem, the local academicians should become part of solution. If someone has constructive ideas, they should convince the readers and suggest concrete ways to improve the existing process. There is no need for the local faculty members to feel insecure, rather they will get the unique opportunity to exchange their ideas with foreign faculty.
Normally the government bureaucracy is not efficient at doing things but the HEC deserves the credit of starting the process. It is a small step in the right direction.
IMRAN KHALID ARAIN
Windsor, Canada
THIS is in response to “The Winds of Change?’ by Irfan Hussain (March 5).
What kind of change does he want to introduce in madressahs? Does he want cable connections installed in them showing the latest movies? The most modern invention, the computer with all its disadvantages, has already been introduced in many madressahs and the users are talking about actors and actresses. Should the child who is learning the Holy Quran and the Hadith watch such futile things?
Then he opposes the mullahs for joining hands with the ruling party on the honour killing bill. It should be asked of the ruling party why it opposed the bill. The bill can do injustice to those who have never committed such crimes, and are downtrodden. The Wadera is the most terrible thing under the sky. The cruelty that he shows towards his “slaves” is never seen by the proponents of enlightened moderation, only practising Muslims are the target. Why?
The writer is against money collection by madressahs. Who will feed the millions of orphans and poverty-stricken creatures if the mullah does not do so? Are there any organizations to take the responsibility? If madressahs are closed, hundreds of thousands of hapless children will become beggars or robbers.
M. AKRAM SAQIB Sahiwal
I AM shocked by the news that shopkeepers in Lahore have threatened to go on strike in protest against the decision by the provincial government to make the wearing of helmets mandatory for motorcycle riders.
One is sometimes left bewildered as to where our society is heading. No protest was held by shopkeepers or any other community except for a handful of women organizations after the accused in the Mukhtaran Mai case were let off by the Multan bench of the LHC.
Similarly, no one comes out on the streets when murders, rapes, kidnapping, abuse and cases of gross injustice take place against common citizens.
But when such action is taken which in fact is for the greater good of the country, like imposing helmets on motorcyclists, or gathering information for tax purposes, or even trying to change the syllabus in our textbooks to take away some of the hate material that it contains, thousands of people come out on the roads in protest.
It is obvious that our country suffers from misplaced priorities. One wonders what should be done to change the path of self-destruction that we are treading now.
ILYAS ALAM Lahore
PRESIDENT Pervez Musharraf announced on PTV on Dec 28, 2004, that the minimum ceiling of EOBI pensions has been raised from Rs700 to Rs1,000 per month.
Although the date of increase was not indicated, the affected pensioners felt a great pleasure since they had urged it time and again and hence expected such a concession.
Unfortunately no express orders or government notification has been issued even after lapse of two-hand-a-half months of the declaration.
If the president was committed to what he said, then lack of action was not understandable. Perhaps delay in issuing the appropriate notification has been caused by the relevant ministry which might have lethargically picked up the declaration and failed to do its homework while the needy pensioners awaited the outcome.
SADIQ NAWAZ SALEEM
Khushab
IT was highly disappointing to see Pakistan‘s performance in the first Test match. There seemed to be no definite plan as far as bowling or batting was concerned. Let us just not talk about our fielding.
The performance of Younis Khan makes one wonder regarding the legitimacy of his place in the team as a player. I hope he is not selected for the next Test simply because he is the vice-captain.
We need an extra bowler and for that purpose Shahid Afridi is an excellent choice, as he boasts a good record on Indian soil.
SHARJEEL AHMAD
Morgantown,
West Virginia, USA
WITH reference to Mr Ardeshir Cowasjee’s column “Who can say? What?” (Feb 27), I would just like to add that a missionary who is not easily approachable or available to his flock is no missionary and is not worthy of wearing the frock of a priest, let alone being a bishop.
It is now understandable why armed guards surround him and denial of easy access to meet him is so strictly enforced.
The schools that run under his chairmanship in Rawalpindi/Islamabad need to be looked into because most of the poor of his flock are denied admission on one pretext or another.
T. A. Bowers
Rawalpindi
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