| 16 April 2005 | Saturday | 06 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1426 |
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Houses for civil servants
KSE speculation
HEC and NUML
‘The myth of history’
Award to Inzamam
Woman prayer leader
US approval to release F-16s
‘No alternative to democracy’
Entertainment aspect
Senior citizens
Final settlement
Robbers on the prowl
Poverty in Pakistan
ON the subject of Iran and its nuclear ambitions, American “intellectual” Michael Eisenstadt is quite candid when he writes: “The Iranian nuclear programme is not unique to the current Islamist regime. Iran’s nuclear programme predates the Islamic Republic.”
He adds that the programme commenced under Shah Reza Shah Pehalvi. In short, Iranian nuclear ambitions are not regime-dependent. An array of geo-political factors would probably push a successor regime in the same direction, although it would probably be easier to manage the implications of proliferation if the country was headed by a more democratic regime.
It is not difficult to make out that the American Jewish neo-cons are resigned to concede Iranian the right to be armed with a nuclear shield; it being a natural big power in the Middle East, given its history, the size of the country, its population, its oil resources and the strategic position it holds at the centre of some historical faultlines in the Middle East.
After his visit to the US, even Ariel Sharon appears to be a bit chastened.
When a CNN interviewer asked him if Israel plans to attack Iran the way it unilaterally attacked Iraq’s nuclear weapons facilities back in 1981, he replied that it was not Israel’s sole lookout to ensure the security of the region, Europe and the US.
The US want its own stooges running the show, to judge the country if it is “responsible” enough to be worthy of possessing nuclear bombs.
Besides, US hegemony is not just overlordship for exploitation of the victimized nations’ resources. It is more sinister, as it aggressively works to impoverish Third World nations so that they may never pose any armed threat to the US and its interests.
Those innocent souls working for banishing poverty from the world are, in fact, working against the bottom line of the US exploiters, who are actively working to impoverish the whole world, so that they can “peacefully” enjoy their war booty.
GHULAM MUHAMMAD
Mumbai
WHILE laying the foundation stone of 1,000 flats for civil servants in Islamabad, the prime minister said that every civil servant in the country would be provided with a roof over his head. A remarkable step towards the welfare of government servants which would certainly relieve them of great anxiety, allowing them to concentrate on their duties more diligently and reducing the need to indulge in corruption.
The army had realized long ago that at the time of the retirement of an officer his expenses were at the peak — grown- up children needing higher education, full-size shoes and clothing, girls coming of marriageable age, food and lodging for the family which might involve running of more than one establishment, etc., while his income is reduced drastically.
Of all his needs a house to live in was the most important and also the most expensive. The army, therefore, introduced a housing scheme for officers who would pay in advance instalments for a period of 15 to 20 years for a house which would be given to them on their retirement. Today we see them as Askari housing schemes in places which were totally inhabitable at the time of the start of these schemes. Just to remove any misconception, each and every such house has been paid for in full and actually been purchased by the officer it is given to.
If I may suggest, similar civil servant housing schemes should be set up on non-productive lands near big and small cities without encroaching on the cultivated land and should be managed by efficient and honest officials.
Everyone must pay for the house allotted, either in short-term or long-term instalments depending upon the individual’s service structure. The house should be non-transferable except to the heirs. Permission to sell may be given in extreme hardship cases, but to another civil servant only, who will not be given a house under this scheme. Armed forces have a few more such welfare schemes for their pensioners; re-employment, free education for children, healthcare, etc., which could as well be emulated by the civil services.
COL (retd) RIAZ JAFRI
Rawalpindi
AS the gurus of our financial markets and their regulators, headed by our first-ever financial wizard PM, ponder on how to forensically analyze what went wrong and where, the same predators prepare for more attacks on the helpless poor and middle classes.
Anyone having knowledge of the stock market knows that when billions are said to be lost, it’s not as if they were lost to a fire or flood. They went into another’s pockets. The same happened in the case of foreign funds in the 90s which wiped out our small investor clean and left. This time around people from within us have seemed to grasp the way this works and have emulated the same very, very successfully. No one seems to be wanting to stop it happening again.
Various bureaucratic procedures, checks and balances are being suggested. Why are they trying to reinvent the wheel? It’s neither rocket science nor something that needs invention. It has always been known how these things work. The lack is in the will to really want to check it.
One doesn’t have to be clairvoyant to see that we will find the same pattern repeated again and again over the next few months — till the golden goose does in fact die.
Nowhere does there seem to be any urgency to want to prophylactically preempt and avoid it happening again. The red herring seems to be “what happened?” So that while everyone looks the other way, the hands that strike stealthily rise again and the weapons are aimed to be launched.
Is the real estate market also facing a similar future and standing on the brink of a similar debacle? Only time will tell but the indicators seem strongly in favour of such an eventuality.
DR BILAL KHALID
Lahore
I HAVE been following the criticism of the HEC and NUML in the press. As one interested and involved in education for long I would like to submit the following to balance the picture:
The HEC (former UGC) and the NUML are national institutions which need a national and nationalistic approach, and not an egocentric personalized one. No doubt leadership matters, but systems are more important to serve the national interest. I’ve been, and remain, a critic of the Pakistani system, including its education system, but only from the national perspective. New institutions have well-known teething problems. That is all the more reason to give them a fair chance to deliver. Both the HEC and the NUML are new. And both of them are striving to live up to their own objectives and commitments. Their dynamism is impressive. Of course, one cannot ignore the following criteria and caveats:
i. Division of the roles and responsibilities in education between the federal and provincial governments, so as to avoid duplication and wastage of precious and rare resources.
ii. A similar division, for the same reason, between the federal ministry of education and the HEC.
iii. The critical need for quality control and standardization, vis-a-vis international standards.
iv. A balance between S & T education and human and social sciences education, to serve the national and societal interest.
v. Recognition and empowerment of merit — strictly on merit.
A prejudice and personal approach needs to be avoided.
DR IKRAM AZAM
Islamabad
IN the article ‘The myth of history’ (Dawn March 27), Prof Shahida Kazi seems to be trying her utmost to woo the so-called “secularists”. She is not the first person to belittle Muslim rulers, their conquests and anything that a Muslim regards as glorious.
I know that she is aware of the achievements of Muslims in India, their liberal approach towards the non- believers and the equal treatment meted out to them. In contrast, a glaring example of the small-heartedness of the non-Muslim was the attitude of spectators at the Kolkota one-day match between Pakistan and India last November. There was not a single bit of applause for Salman Butt when he was scoring runs. The whole stadium was silent. But the reverse was happening in Pakistan when the audience was applauding every shot by Indian batsmen.
I would suggest to people like Prof Kazi o be objective in their writings.
SHAHID TUFAIL SHEIKH
Lahore
PRESIDENT Musharraf is not entirely my concept of a hero, neither is Inzamamul Haq, our cricket captain. On most occasions Inzamam will bat to the last ball. President Musharraf on most occasions will simply withdraw from the crease.
He has done this on the issue of the blasphemy law, the religion column, the women’s marathon — you name it.
When Inzamam hit the last ball across the boundary to make Pakistan win the fourth one-day match, President Musharraf was quick to announce an award of one million rupees for the great batsman.
The state exchequer is public property and cannot be arbitrarily used to dole out money for scoring more runs. If that be the yardstick, I am afraid Inzamam might end up in jail one day if he ran into a run-out situation, as he is often prone to do.
NAEEM SADIQ
Karachi
IN his letter of April 8, Dr Mohiuddin Waseem has tried to justify the actions of some Muslim feminists based in the West by saying that the mass “exodus of Muslims to the US and Europe in the last two to three decades has made them face unfamiliar customs and social norms. Being a minority over there and confronted with many questions about Islam, especially women’s rights, they are trying to find novel solutions”.
I accept that the immigrants take many challenges, but I disagree with the correspondent’s contention that Dr Amina Wadud “is honestly trying to answer this question”. Immigrant Muslim women have been living in Europe for at least as long as in the US but, instead of capitulating before the western onslaught and making innovations, they are struggling to practice Islam properly, as in the case of wearing head-scarves out of choice.
A noteworthy point is that there are probably a lot more white female converts to Islam in Britain than in America, who would obviously be very sensitive to the question of women’s rights. However, they aren’t demanding the right to pray alongside men in the mosques, much less being made prayer leaders.
I have had the opportunity to see or meet numerous American converts to Islam, including whites, African Americans and men and women in mosques and private gatherings. They never protested against the established practices although often appearing more knowledgeable about religion than the average “born” Muslim.
The only exception I heard was the black “Nation of Islam” sect which is now led by Louis Farrakhan but considers Elijah Mohammad to have been its leader. They have some strange notions including that Elijah, after passing away from this world, is not dead but in orbit around it in a spaceship. They have also made the innovation of letting women pray in parallel with men. But Malcolm X, who was their leader in the past, had changed his stance after going for the Haj and subsequently acquiring a correct knowledge of Islam.
Given the fact that going to a mosque is not compulsory for women due to the upbringing of children and other difficulties and that not even one per cent of them pray in mosques, individuals like Dr Wadud are simply making an issue out of a non-issue.
Again, it is only in America, because of the fundamentalist Christian, Zionist and libertarian influence, that such rebels are being encouraged and facilitated, because hostile forces want to destroy Islam. They are providing funds, academic and other opportunities to create trouble.
We must definitely strive to ensure all women get their rights while remembering that the Holy Prophet was acknowledged even by some western writers to have been the greatest champion of women’s rights.
MUSLIM
Karachi
THIS has reference to Air Cdr (retd) Iqtedar A. Khan’s letter (April 13). I had an opportunity to work at IBM and one of my American colleagues was a nephew of one of the chiefs of the Missile Programme in USA.
According to my friend, his uncle told him that when the US sold computers to the former Iraqi regime, they installed a special chip in each and every computer they sold.
Hence when in 1991 the Gulf war started, these computers played a vital role for the US Air Force in locating their targets.
The F-16s being supplied to us may have many moles fabricated inside the machines. It is a possibility that though US supplies these high tech machines to Pakistan, one or more chips in these machines could play a vital role to provide their location to the Indian forces.
Also, it is possible that one or more computer chips would be capable of making the engine stall during a critical moment.
As Air-CDR (retd) Iqtedar A. Khan has said, we should not only count on the F-16s alone but should have other options ready with us.
AMEER PAUL
California, USA
SYED Mohibulah Shah in his article “No alternative to democracy” (April 14) has rightly concluded that the only system of governance that has been successfully tested and tried from time to time is democracy.
Therefore, for the future stability and development of the country, this system is indispensable. Since independence, almost every leader has been in agreement with this mode of governance.
Some professed to be democrats to the core themselves and some assumed power with the commitment to bring “true democracy”. But the end result is what Mr Shah has correctly pinpointed — we are still lurking in the midst of confusion.
So the question as to which system of governance can be adopted for the future is settled but, under the given circumstances, how can this system be brought into being? This is a million-dollar question.
DR ALI AKBAR DHAKAN
Karachi
THIS is with reference to the obituary on the TV character actor Aslam Latar, published in the Images section (April 10). While the article was timely, it seems as if your newspaper only covers TV actors and actresses when they pass away. Surely, some space can be set aside for coverage of television-related issues, events and personalities in your weekly entertainment magazine. In the past this important aspect of entertainment was given its due share but now there seems to be a bit too much emphasis on fashion and glamour.
MASOOD IQBAL
Karachi
PIA has withdrawn the incentive given to senior citizens on tickets from March 2005 without assigning any reason.
In the US, the UK and other European countries, senior citizens get many benefits. Even India provides several facilities for its senior citizens.
MUHAMMAD IQBAL SURYA
Karachi
ARIEL Sharon visited President Bush’s ranch in Texas and repeated that the settlement expansion would continue in the West Bank despite Mr Bush’s repeated admonition that settlement building and expansion were contrary to the roadmap to which Israel had pledged to adhere to.
Sharon brushed aside these differences as minor, and an Israeli spokesman reiterated that Sharon considered settlement expansion as permissible under the roadmap.
The Palestinians have been left between a rock and a hard place. Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak, writing in The Guardian, London, has also reiterated that the major settlement blocks in the West Bank would not be evacuated under any agreement.
The situation as it stands is that nearly a quarter million Jews have been settled in the West Bank and the wall the Israelis are building alone encroaches upon seven per cent of the land in the West Bank. The Israelis view these as ground realities that cannot be reversed. These settlements make a contiguous Palestinian sate a near impossibility. Therefore these settlements must go.
OMAR MIRZA
New York, USA
HIRA Anwer’s letter “Robbers on prowl” (April 3) provides food for thought. If the police department and the government are sincere, this menace can be cut down drastically.
Robbers are most vulnerable when they are busy plundering a house, because they take their own time in doing this job. If the police can be alerted during this period, they can surround the house and catch them red-handed. Can’t a simple alarm system be installed in the neighbourhood of each police station as that simply by pressing a button an alarm can ring in the police station, showing the number of the house from where the signal is coming? The rest will depend on the skill of the police.
The cost of this system can easily be recovered from the residents in easy instalments / rentals. Some security agencies are minting tons of money by providing this service on exorbitant charges.
N.A. KHAN
Karachi
I WAS astonished to read President Gen Pervez Musharraf’s statement “Poverty reduced” (Dawn, April 12).
Everyone is aware of the fact that poverty in Pakistan is still more dominant than in the other Muslim countries. Poverty is the main reason behind reports of daily suicides, murders and exploitation. is the main reason behind poverty. Many can hardly afford bread twice a day.
SAJJAD RUSTAMANI
Hyderabad
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