| 8 April 2005 | Friday | 28 Safar 1426 |
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Kashmir bus service
Waiting for ID cards
Toll tax on Edhi ambulances
Matching hospitality
Woman prayer leader
‘Open season for crime’
Foreign buyers’ complaints
Exams ‘in the dark’
New car for speaker
Encroachments
Two questions
Safdar Barlas
WITH the acceleration in the surge of prices, there is understandably a strong demand for containing this vicious spiral. In this behalf some circles are urging the government to impose statutory price controls.
May I point out that the large size of our country, certain characteristics of our economy as well as corruption and inefficiency of our administrative machinery will make the enforcement of a wide-ranging system of price controls, backed by the coercive apparatus of the state, inordinately difficult and cumbersome and will breed a lot of public dissatisfaction because of its failure to achieve its objective.
The logic of price control leads inexorably to an ever-widening extension of its scope — from the price of one article to that of its substitutes and satellites, from the price of a manufactured commodity to that of the raw materials entering into its composition and from the prices of goods in general to the prices of the factors of production, i.e., wages, rent and profits, until it covers every price in the whole national system. But the administrative difficulties of such a control are prodigious and beyond the competence of our governmental machinery. Moreover, an all- encompassing price control results in distortions, black markets and poor productivity.
It has to be appreciated that prices are manifestations of numerous forces working within the economic system and, in turn, exercise a profound control as allocators of production, consumption and distribution. But what is perhaps not well understood is the fact that legally controlled price involves precisely the removal of this control by prices and its replacement by control of a different kind. In other words, the price controlling authority must neutralize or sterilize the price mechanism by reaching down to those forces that form prices themselves by bringing them under control. This, as I have pointed out, is a task which our inflation-eroded and otherwise demoralized public services are not capable of performing honestly and efficiently.
The best anti-inflation approach in our context is to stimulate productivity, exercise monetary restraint, broaden the fiscal net, stem the downward slide in our exchange rate, foster competition by eliminating market imperfections, curb waste and corruption in public expenditure, ensure adequate availabilities of basic wage goods like wheat, edible oils, sugar, tea and pulses, and imitate determined policies to remove power and transport bottlenecks.
AFTAB AHMAD KHAN
Karachi
APRIL 7 was a historic day when the first bus in 57 years plied on the Muzaffarabad-Srinagar Road covering a distance of 183 kilometres. The fact that the people on both sides of the divide can now meet is definitely a positive development.
The route passes through steep avalanche-prone glacial valleys, winding its way through one of the most militarized zones. A portion of the road peters out in a wasteland of army posts, and barbed wire with an area of landmines. Over the years the road has become dilapidated and unfit for this ‘relinking’ agreement between the two countries, needing rapid repair work, removal of bunkers and clearing of mines.
The reopening of the bus service has been enthusiastically accepted by a lot of people on both sides. But it is felt by some quarters that this could be an attempt to sideline the real issue. It is happening at a time when India has realized the need for a dialogue on Kashmir. It is also under international pressure which has forced India to move in that direction. Further the conflict in Kashmir is perceived as a nuclear flashpoint.
An important concern is the continuing repression in occupied Kashmir. This is something which should stop for humanitarian reasons and because it is affecting the psyche of the people on both sides of the LoC.
Talks between Pakistan and India should pick up speed. A CBM becomes invalid if it does not deliver.
HUMERA NIAZI
Rawalpindi
I WOULD like to draw the attention of the relevant high ups of NADRA to the ordeal applicants are facing in Jeddah. After waiting for hours and getting the forms completed on computer, NADRA representatives hand over an acknowledgement slip with a time period of 30 days and a telephone number to contact for enquiry.
However, when after 30 days no one responded or atten-
ded to my persistent phone calls, I personally went to check whether the ID card was ready.
Again after handing over the slip I had to wait for hours for the NADRA representative to let me know the status.
Most of the time applicants are informed that verification has not been received and this is a continuous process. No one knows when applicants will be able to get rid of this arduous process of getting their national ID cards.
If someone asks to meet a higher official, he is often asked wait. This means one has to sit and waste time for the manager to come to office even during office hours.
Is there any authority that can look into this problem and save applicants from this ordeal and wastage of precious time?
FAIZ ALI
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
(II)
I WOULD agree with the points raised by Dr Azfar Hassan in his letter “ID delays” (March 27) and Mr Farid Mithani in “Waiting for NICOP” (March 31).
My wife and I applied for our NICOP in April 2004. I received my NICOP in three or four months, while my wife’s NICOP was not received for about a year.
I made several phone calls to the NICOP office in Islamabad. And the Pakistan embassy in Washington DC was always helpless saying they could not do anything in this regard.
When I spoke to the NICOP personnel over the phone they were unable to tell me why the card was delayed, despite everything being computerized.
Whenever I looked for the required NICOP on the website www.nadra.gov.pk/nicop it always said: “Your card is printed and dispatched”, which was incorrect.
However, after calling them repeatedly and waiting for almost one year, my wife’s NICOP finally arrived.
The website has not been updated and still shows the old information.
The 95,000 plus visitors to that site are being misled by the comment “your NICOP
has been printed and dispatched” when that is not the case. I would urge the NADRA chairman to look into this issue.
WASIF A. QURESHI,
Morgantown, USA.
ACCORDING to a news item toll tax is being charged from Edhi ambulances (Dawn, April 5), and the exemption from payment ofthe toll tax on highways given to Edhi ambulances has been withdrawn. There are some 800 ambulances at over 300 Edhi welfare centres throughout the country which have been providing emergency services at a nominal charge of Rs30 to poor patients for the past several decades. If Edhi has to pay Rs20 as toll tax for each one-way trip it may not be possible for it to continue the service.
Who came up with this brilliant idea of imposing a toll tax on Edhi ambulances? From the report that the Edhi Trust has appealed to the chairman of the National Highway Authority (NHA) against the exemption withdrawal, it would appear that it is the NHA that has taken this retrograde decision. How can the NHA bosses in good conscience withdraw exemption from a humanitarian trust performing a social service when it permits exemption from payment of toll tax to all defence service personnel? They are exempt from paying toll tax even while travelling in private cars and when they are not on official duty.
The NHA has to do a lot of explaining. First, it gave the contract for toll collection at the most important sections on highways to Frontier Works Organization (FWO) without inviting open bids. The reason it gave was that private contractors were not efficient in collecting tax. It was claimed that entrusting the work to the military’s FWO was only temporary but even after five years of toll collection the NHA cannot say how long the “temporary” phase would last. And asking the NHA the rate negotiated with the FWO on single tender basis is inviting trouble.
A resolution asking for the withdrawal of exemption to defence personnel travelling by private cars is pending in the Senate for the past one year. Before an embarrassing public debate is held in the Senate the NHA should itself review its policy of toll exemption to control the damage it has done to the image of defence services.
SENATOR FARHATULLAH BABAR
Islamabad
BEING a die-hard cricket fan, I applied to watch the third Test match to be played between India and Pakistan. I got a match ticket (#000745) for “M Chinnaswami Stadium” for the Bangalore Test. I got my visa (on my passport #A0007016) and tickets on the day which left us with very little time to plan our tour and gather enough information. I reached Wagah border along with many other cricket fans. Pakistani immigration officials cleared us but imagine our shock when on reaching the Indian immigration office we were refused entry on the ground that we were on foot.
According to them, entry into India is allowed only by bus, train or air. We were disappointed and shocked. All our plans to watch the match and tour India went down the drain.
I remember the cordial and warm welcome given to the Indian spectators last year when cricketing ties were restored. A large number of Indian citizens came here and enjoyed their visit. Here we are, I and others like me, left in the limbo for the entire day and sent back home, dejected and dismayed. We record our bitter protest with the Indian administration and the Indian high commission for sending the tickets too late and then returning us from the border on very flimsy grounds.
FAISAL SAEED
Lahore
DR Amina Wadud, a scholar of Islamic studies, has clearly shocked the Islamic world by leading mixed congregational prayers in New York. Like any other argument there are two sides to this one too: approving her actions as a new possibility and a step forward in Islam, and the other seeing it as an innovation in Islam with the possibility of a western conspiracy behind the picture.
The purpose of this letter is not to support one group and refute the other but rather to appeal to the intellectual masses to try to understand the dynamics of Dr Wadud’s action before delivering insensitive fatwas.
For the last two to three decades we have seen a mass “exodus” of Muslims to the United States and Europe for purely economical reasons and like the Jews before them they also faced unfamiliar customs and social norms of the new land wherever they settled. Overnight they became a minority losing the majority status which they enjoyed in their respective countries. Now under the microscope they are bombarded with many questions concerning their religion and customs and the most favourite of all issues is women’s rights. Logically there has been only two options available — either to agree with the questioner that women are leading an oppressed life in Islamic countries and close one’s eyes, assuming that the storm has subsided, or fight back citing references of women’s contribution in the early days of Islam and ironically finding none afterwards.
I disagree with Dr Wadud’s actions but I think she is honestly trying to answer this question in a new way that is upholding her Islamic identity and trying to prevent an onslaught on her religion by empowering herself and distancing herself from the established code of life by stating, “The issue of gender equality is a very important one in Islam, and Muslims have unfortunately used highly restrictive interpretations of history to move backward (reported by the BBC).” A rather bold confession suggesting that it is a matter of simply misunderstanding the religion.
The seat of learning and education has today shifted to Europe and America and it is quiet conceivable that many new ideologically provoking ideas will emerge from these new centres sheltering many Islamic scholars from all over the world.
As Islamic jurisprudence evolved some 1,200 years ago in a Muslim-dominated environment assuming that Muslims will never become a minority, the Islamic scholarship of mainstream Islam today finds it difficult to answer these new social challenges and, if I have been successful in conveying what I intended to say, you can foresee that the future holds many new shocks and surprises.
To understand this point further, consider another social problem about to loom in the West, and that is the religious rights of children born out of mixed-religion marriages. Which religion will they follow? One or the other, or one with a mixed flavouring? Which church or mosque will they go to? Or will there be a universal place of worship for them? And who will lead their congregation? If the established jurisprudence does not answer these questions ahead of time, then another radical solution will be sought in the future and may be then we will realize that evolution finds its way to express itself. Are we witnessing the birth of a new “fiqa” in America? Only time will tell.
DR MOHIUDDIN WASEEM
Karachi
THANK you for Anwar Mooraj’s excellent article “Open season for crime” (Dawn, April 4). Apropos of the (earlier promised) F-16s “paid for a long time ago” and “not supplied” and the money “not returned to the purchaser (Pakistan)”, may I say that the money paid for the F-16s the last time around was, indeed, “returned” to Pakistan by the then US government in the form of shipments of soyabean and wheat. The quite remarkable, nay shameful, aspect of the whole matter was that the inept government of Nawaz Sharif agreed that the Americans could term those shipments as “food aid”.
That is, whilst one of the world’s poorest countries’ own money was being returned by the world’s richest country which reneged on a solemn agreement, after an inordinate and unconscionable delay, the world’s richest country let it be known that it was only “aid” it was giving. A fine way of making friends.
KAMRAN SHAFI
Rawalpindi
IT is a matter of deep concern that there are complaints from foreign buyers about cheating in export business by some Pakistani trading houses / exporters. The buyers’ claim that imported material from Pakistan at the final destination / port was found faulty and contrary to the letter of credit.
Needless to mention, the current situation is not only against business ethics but also is creating a bad reputation for our country. Since the government is striving hard to achieve progressive growth in exports through upgradation of quality products and establishing credibility with overseas importers by institutionalizing professional business norms, such complaints are causing unrest and lack of confidence among foreign buyers.
In order to boost our exports and attract major foreign businesses, need is felt to control fraudulent business activities in the country. The government is also requested to ensure transparency at all levels and find ways and means to eradicate such complaints.
MUMTAZ
Karachi
THE KESC cannot be blamed more for uncalled-for power cuts. But the Board of Secondary Education (BSE), Karachi, should at least ensure at the time of holding examinations that the examinees get a fair share of air and light at examination centres.
When the secondary examinations began in Karachi on March 29, the city faced long power cuts even in daytime. Some of the examination centres were dark and dingy schools where the examinees were made to sit through in depressing conditions — poor lighting and bad ventilation, etc.
The BSE should have considered these eventualities in a city famous for its uncertainties and made arrangements to provide alternative power supply or chosen better venues as examination centres.
TAJWAR FATIMA
Karachi
THE justification the National Assembly speaker offered for buying a new Rs11.7 million-Mercedes is that his Iranian counterpart has got his own airplane. But in India, all VVIPs use locally made cars. Surprisingly, the parliamentary committee comprising both ruling and opposition members approved the purchase without any objection.
In another meeting both parties also agreed to propose a pension schemes for all current and previous MNAs, in addition to the already increased perks and privileges. Perhaps both parties are two sides of the same coin but with different agendas when they face the public.
S. ASAD HUSSAIN
Islamabad
A PETROL pump has been built in the midst of a residential area on Rashid Minhas Road, Karachi.
The petrol pump has encroached upon land meant for widening the Rashid Minhas Road and offshoots. Those suffering are residents of the Pakistan Railways Employees Cooperative Housing Project II, Gulshan-i-Jamal.
RESIDENTS’ WELFARE ASSOCIATION
Karachi
THERE are two questions that I would like someone to answer. Number one: why is it that Israel being one of the staunchest allies of the US does not have a single Israeli soldier fighting along with the American soldiers in Iraq?
The second query pertains to Palestine: why is it that we do not find any Al Qaeda fighters or its elements fighting their so-called jihad along with the Palestinian freedom-fighters or jihadis against the Israeli army?
SAEEDUZZAMAN JANJUAH
Karachi
MY association with Safdar Barlas dated back to 1943 when we were together at the Lucknow Christian College as students, a friendship that ended on April 3, 2005. He was a man of literary taste from the beginning. I remember his writings as a reporter for the college magazine.
He never refused to give a helping hand to his friends. He maintained his good spirits to the last day, and never
disheartened by his terminal illness.
S. SIBTE HASAN
Karachi
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