| March, 29 2005 | Tuesday | 18 Safar 1426 |
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CPSP & dental postgraduation
‘A worrying trend’
Corporal punishment in schools
‘Friends with America’
Revival of KCR
Kashmir via NWFP plebiscite
Housing societies
Reward for securing US
‘Para likha Pakistan’
Sui gas bills
Omar Kureishi
Civil servants
I am thankful to Mr Imran Khalid Arain of Canada for his response (March16) to my letter (March 11) regarding the foreign faculty problem created by the Higher Education Commission (HEC) in our country. However, it is a disappointment to see that Mr Arain has overlooked basic facts about this issue and quoted from my letter only that which supports his views.
The fact is that most of the foreign faculty hired by the HEC is incapable of contributing any significant research to our public sector universities because they are hired for a year or so. Research work requires more time. Therefore, they should be appointed here through universities themselves on permanent basis. But this would not be possible, for it contradicts the very idea of a foreign faculty.
Consequently, we have an inherently contradictory programme insofar as any significant contribution to research is concerned. Thus, it would seem quite strange that we should hire them just for exchange of ideas, as Mr Arain suggests. Why not just go on the internet for this purpose rather than pay them in millions for a year or so? If the funding of foreign faculty by the HEC were redirected towards local faculty, the results would be far more in our control. But, unfortunately, this is not the HEC’s policy.
Our authorities are wrongly convinced that foreign standards are higher standards that must be incorporated in our system. The result is that not only our people are deprived of their basic rights in the name of reforms, but the arbitrary interjection of foreign standards has created irresolvable conflicts in our system as well.
Besides, there are other facts we need to attend to before embarking upon the question. Mr Arain says: “The American system may not be prefect but still it is better than any other.” Is this really true? Granted that the American system is designed for perfection, but this does not mean that every country should follow that. There are vast socio-cultural differences between us. Many of our children studying there never come back because they become unfit for our society and its everyday life.
According to Mr Arain, every foreign faculty is a tenured faculty in America and so they are not applying for lucrative packages, for they are already self-sufficient there. Does this suggest that they are coming here with an idea of serving Pakistan by sacrificing their time? I doubt very much that this is so.
Moreover, why has a purely American professor never applied for foreign faculty for Pakistan? Why only Pakistani origin faculty is applying and that too mostly beyond their middle age? Their nostalgia may be the motive behind this which goes with the opportunity provided by the HEC.
Mr Arain also ignored the fact I suggested that the foreign faculty programme needs to be task-oriented rather than enforced on us. Specific areas of need should be worked out before hiring abroad. But this is not done. One example is the foreign academic sent to the philosophy department in Karachi University whose subject is Islamic modernity, which is quite extra-philosophical in its implications. There are other misplaced placements I would prefer not to mention.
Thus, it may be that Mr Arain’s enthusiasm about the American system is good in spirit but the reality points otherwise, especially after the world has seen what America can do to other countries. Again, I would suggest that our social scientists should be consulted before implementation of any reformative policies in higher education. Otherwise, similar incompatibilities of policies and practices would continue to engulf our systems.
DR ZAHOOR BABER
Karachi
There has been considerable discussion in the recent past over CPSP affairs in general. However, in response to the CPSP’s announcement of DCPS in dental specialties, one would like to bring to light the role of the CPSP in dental postgraduation.
It contained statistics provided by the CPSP which it uses to lament over the sorry situation of postgraduation in the country and at the same time, to highlight the “key” role it is playing in postgraduate dental education.
Think of it: In a population of 150 million, the total registered dental graduates are 5817 and the total registered specialists are 260. FCPS trainees are 207 in number in 18 accredited institutions under the supervision of only 30 approved supervisors.
At present there are 19 dental colleges approved by the PMDC — eight in the public sector and 11 in private — graduating 758 students every year. It is important to note that it was the CPSP itself which closed down the MCPS qualification in 2002, thereby being a contributing culprit in the creation of the crises of shortage of dental specialists and faculty. Now that the situation has reached an unbearable level, the CPSP is jumping into the scenario, posing as a saviour of postgraduation and trying to get all the credit for seemingly helping to solve the problem, hoping “that this new postgraduate programme of shorter durations will increase the pool of dental teachers and help access to specialist dental care and improve oral health of the masses”.
It is saddening to see one institution, by its hypocrisy, taking the entire country’s doctors, students, health sector, government and the public for a ride. More saddening is the fact that the universities are sleeping and not playing any role whatsoever in introducing postgraduate programmes in dental specialties and the whole country is depending upon one institute to cater to its postgraduation needs.
DR RAJAZZ ABBAS
Karachi
The apprehensions expressed in the editorial “A worrying trend” (March 18) have come true. The shares market in Karachi has collapsed. It was a temporary speculative trend which attracted small investors who have been stripped of their hard savings. It was speculation in a very few selected scripts and nothing else.
The prime minister had said some days ago that the cost of doing business in Pakistan was less than that in India. He had also said that under the prevailing circumstances if a businessman fails to earn profits, then he is not a true businessman.
Sir, our market economy is purely that of sellers. The short-lived boom was reminiscent of the Ayubian era’s export bonus laissez-faire economy which ultimately culminated in a collapse of the economy as well as of the government.
As you say in your editorial, even essentials are getting out of the reach of common man as a result of an inflation rate hovering around 10 per cent. Advances from the banks for estate and stocks have become easy for the reason that no industrial ventures are being taken up because such investments carry the risk of loss whereas the former mode of business is all profits.
Referring to the Indian economy, the editorial says the Indian economy is also heating up and there the petroleum prices are skyrocketing. In fact, they are higher than in Pakistan. But one does not hear of any unusual activity in the Indian shares markets or in its real estate sector. The unemployment rate in India as well as wages have kept up with the rate of growth. What is and where is our rate of growth?
GHEEWALA A.G.M.
Karachi
This refers to the recent case of a six-year-old child brutally beaten by a school principal in Malir, Karachi, with an electric wire and paraded half naked as a lesson for other students not to defy the principal’s orders (news item published in all major newspapers in Pakistan on March13-14 and Arab News, Jeddah, on March 14).
My 12-year-old son faced a similar though less violent situation recently in his school in KDA Scheme No. 1, Karachi.
He and his classmate were playfully teasing each other, which all children do at this age, when a female teacher dragged my son from the collar and slapped him hard on his face thrice in front of the entire class, instead of politely handling the issue as a mature adult and a teacher who plays a vital role in building a child’s personality should.
Our son was detained after school till late afternoon and we were not informed. A note was written in his lesson diary that he had been suspended from school for a day. We have approached the education secretary to look into the incident.
We would like to ask the people in power, especially the ministry of education, as to what they are waiting for and when will they take appropriate measures against corporal punishment. Why are such teachers not made accountable for their unacceptable behaviour that is damaging our youth’s personalities? We send our children to school to learn good things, but what examples are being set by the teachers and school heads?
FARHANA FAHEEM
Karachi
This refers to Mr Ayaz Amir’s column “Friends with America”(March 18). I want to concretize his argument. Centcom’s estimate of Pakistan’s cost of services offered in helping the US fight terrorism in Afghanistan from out of Pakistan was a cool $9 billion, but our then finance and now Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz asked for $2 billion.
Another instance is of Ayub Khan letting India off the hook in the 1962 Sino-India conflict on a phone call from President Kennedy. (The scenario was played out on 9/11 but the caller was a secretary of state and not the president.) Given the opportunity, India availed of the chance offered in 1971 without a second thought.
Currently, India is fudging the Kashmir issue and turning the river waters off but the general is happy on pulling off a cricket trip to India.
Mr Amir mentions two holy warriors who deserve more than a passing reference: Both were and are great exponents of strategic depth in Afghanistan. One general was full of “strategic this” or “strategic that’”. When the US attacked Iraq the first time around, he started, against his government’s policy, with his litany of “strategic objectives”, “strategic alliance” and “strategic defiance” against the US. One of his colleagues prayed that for once he should also know how to adopt “strategic silence”.
Again, without seeking approval from his civilian prime minister, he took army action in Hyderabad and then had the cheek to tell his prime minister (who did not miss the loaded sarcasm) patronizingly: “This is your army; it is acting under your command.” (Iqbal Akhund, “Trial and Error” — OUP).
The second one promised to get Jalalabad within a week in the presence of the prime minister and the then US ambassador Robert Oakley. The town never fell but the general was dined out to Multan (Iqbal Akhund).
Generals have set this country on a disastrous course in this tilted friendship with America. Realization about this dangerous liaison has still not sunk in.
ASLAM MINHAS
Karachi
This refers to the recent inauguration of the Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz.
I have no doubts that this project will go a long way in improving the existing transport system of Karachi. But, the whole purpose of starting this mega-project of Rs6 billion would fall flat if due attention is not paid to one single aspect, i.e., punctuality. We are all well aware that our airliners are late without exception, our trains are late, our buses are late, our TV programmes are late, and a vast majority of our government servants is late in coming to work.
Let’s hope that the KCR would be a service with a difference. No excuses, whatsoever, will be accepted in delays, if any, in the operation of this service. For this purpose, a lot of homework will have to be carried out by the people responsible for the efficient running of the service. The establishment of an exclusive monitoring cell for the purpose would be a better idea; or even some sort of automatic monitoring system.
Let me sound a note of warning to the authorities in the KCR: once the confidence of the general public is shattered in the punctuality of this service, the KCR will run but without passengers, and this project would be relegated to the status of other similar projects which, in the past, were there and maintained at exorbitant costs, yet were of no utility to the country. We must learn from our mistakes.
AIR CDRE (Retd.) AZFAR A. KHAN
Rawalpindi
Mr Kuldeep Nayar (Dawn, March 19) says: “Soon after independence, a plebiscite was held there (the NWFP) to determine whether the state would like to join India or Pakistan. Instead, the plebiscite got reduced to a choice between Hindu and Muslim, the Gita and the Quran.” This is not correct. I happen to be one of the thousands who voted in the plebiscite and participated actively for Pakistan.
The NWFP was a Muslim majority province with more than a 95 per cent Muslim population. The Hindu-Muslim question was never an issue. There was a Congress ministry with Dr Khan Sahib as the chief minister; the Muslim clergy under Jamiatul Ulema-i-Hind, Jamaat-i-Islami and Majlis-i-Ahrar-i-Islam were against Pakistan. On plebiscite day, Congress did not participate, and the ulema beseeched people not to vote for Pakistan. However, people overwhelmingly voted for joining Pakistan. Dr Khan Sahib and the Red Shirts accepted the result and served Pakistan in different capacities.
The stand of the Quaid-i-Azam on religion has been stated in his August 11 speech at Karachi, Pakistan’s raison d’etre in his March 26, 1948 Chittagong speech, as “brotherhood, equality and fraternity of man”. He said: “And we fought for Pakistan because there was danger of denial of these human rights in the subcontinent.”
The NWFP plebiscite was not fought on religious bigotry. The right of self-determination is a basic human right which does not become obsolete by the passage of time. The sooner Kashmiris get it the better for India and Pakistan.
DR A. HAYE SAEED
Via email
We the residents of Gulgasht Colony, Scheme 33, at a prime place on the main Karachi University Road, are facing extreme hardship due to non-provision of utilities.
Plots are being sold and a fee of Rs40,000 is being charged on every transaction by the managing society. There is no representation of the residents in electing the governing body. The same old office-bearers are elected and re-elected with no change.
The society has no approved water connection, electricity distribution and roads. Although it is a residential society, commercial organizations are in abundance. While the total number of constructed houses is only 30, there are three schools, one petrol pump and one nursery.
The society is earning a handsome amount from these commercial ventures as well as the transaction of plots, and these funds should be utilized for the improvement of infrastructure.
If there is any regulatory body, why aren’t the affairs of cooperative societies monitored? Where can residents get justice?
RESIDENTS OF GULGASHT COLONY
Karachi
According to a report, the nappy bag of President Musharraf’s grandson Hamza triggered an alarm at a US airport (March 16).
Consequently, the president’s son, his wife and their one-and-a-half-year-old infant Hamza were asked to wait while the bag was passed through the X-ray machine half a dozen times. As a result, they missed their flight. Apart from this incident, look at the spate of other disturbing news in the preceding few days pertaining to Muslims in America.
— “CIA secretly jets (Muslim) suspects overseas for interrogation: TV” (March 8).
— “Distrust festers between US Muslims, agencies” (March 12).
— “FBI accused of targeting Muslims” (March 13).
— “Muslims face discrimination in US jails: report” (March 13).
Pakistanis in the US form a sizable part of the American Muslim community. But this harassment is what we are getting in return for making the United States safer. Will that win our hearts and minds?
ONE CONCERNED
Karachi
The campaign of the Punjab government, “Para likha Pakistan”, is a welcome effort in the struggle to achieve higher literacy. It will definitely have an effect on the people, who will be attracted to education after watching the campaign advertisements over PTV. Won’t it be possible for the authorities concerned to extend the campaign to the entire country and call it “Para likha Pakistan”?
SAIFQURBA
Mansehra
I would like to draw the attention of the minister of petroleum and gas and the prime minister of Pakistan to the heavy Sui gas bill I received for the month of February. I got a gas bill of Rs1,700, which is beyond my capacity to pay. My previous record of bills is sufficient evidence to prove that I never received such a heavy bill.
I simply use gas for cooking purposes and nothing else. I do not use a geyser for heating water. I am at a loss to understand why such a heavy bill was slapped on me. I approached the officers concerned and asked them the reason. None of them could give a proper justification and instead forced me to pay the bill “otherwise connection will be severed”. They said that I have to pay the bill first and then ask for any justification. I think it is entirely a wrong approach.
I am a retired teacher having worked for 25 years, but regret to say that I have received no benefits for my future life. I only receive old age benefit worth Rs700 which is not even enough for medicines.
MRS SURAIYA B. YOUSAF
Faisalabad
I had the opportunity of sitting side by side with the great cricket commentator Omar Kureishi along with Jamsheed Marker in the commentary box at the Dhaka stadium as a representative of the then Radio Pakistan, Dhaka.
Throughout the day of the Test match Mr Kureishi constantly kept his shrewd eyes on the field. He was so elegantly sharp and spontaneous in delivering his commentary, full of delightful cricket vocabulary.
I was also a constant reader of his writings not only on cricket but also socio-cultural topics. He always shared with the reader his pleasant memories gathered while travelling throughout the world. Cricket and journalism have indeed lost an institution in him.
MUHAMMAD ARSHAD ALI
Karachi
According to a statement by the Chairman of the Pay and Pension Committee, Mr Moeen Afzal (Dawn, March 17), “10-15 per cent of our civil servants are excellent, 75 per cent are above average and five-10 per cent are below average”.
This is incredible. If we think we have the best civil servants in the world, we must go over these figures again. And if there are hardly any average civil servants in Pakistan, one wonders why we are one of the least organized and the most mismanaged countries in the world.
M. A. JAN
Karachi
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