| May 17, 2005 | Tuesday | Rabi-us-Sani 8, 1426 |
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LPG storage
Embracing Islam
Colours of Korangi 8000
‘Do we really need F-16s?’
Danger to Israel
Relief for farmers
Overhead crossing
Investment in Pakistan
Sports complex for women
PTCL phone complaint
MR Iqbal Akhund’s article on Kashmir (April 29) is headlined “Denouement or sell-out?” When Jam Sadiq Ali was chief minister, he had openly alleged that “Kashmir was sold at Shimla”. He was probably a member of president Bhutto’s delegation to Shimla in 1972. There is no doubt that the Shimla agreement fundamentally weakened Pakistan’s case on Kashmir.
From an international dispute it was downgraded to a bilateral issue. Thereafter, Mrs Indira Gandhi reminded Pakistan in August 1972 that it should withdraw the Kashmir case from the UN because “Pakistan had accepted the clause regarding bilateral negotiations in the Shimla agreement”.
Second, the ceasefire line drawn under the UN auspices which was restored after the 1965 war was entirely re-demarcated and transformed into the Line of Control.
Third, in 1973 prime minister Bhutto declared in Muzaffar abad that Azad Kashmir was being given “provincial status”. This was the culminating point of the stage-by-stage process of ‘keeping what you have’ — thus disposing of a UN presence, plebiscite and self-determination. Of course, this could not be implemented due to fear of public reaction. But the intention was abundantly clear.
The next stage of this “process” came under Mr Nawaz Sharif. The Lahore Declaration was an endorsement of Shimla. Now, promotion of trade, commerce and cultural ties has received precedence and Kashmir is on the back-burner. India had always favoured this approach. Kargil and Mr Nawaz Sharif’s exit froze this process for some time. It has again been revived. Now the president and his closest political partner Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain are vigorously advocating “flexibility” on Kashmir and “taking unpopular decisions”.
In practical terms it is nothing but a retreat. India has responded to this appeasement by completion of wire-fencing on the Line of Control, near completion of Baglihar Dam after Sallal, planning dams on the Neelum and Jhelum rivers, and reiteration of its rigid position of “no change of borders”. But we are persisting with “flexibility and CBMs”.
M. NAWAZ QASMI
Multan
WITH regard to Kashmir, any final settlement must encompass the following basic considerations:
(i) Aspirations of the Muslims of the Jammu region (Rajauri, Doda and Poonch districts and Gol Gulab tehsil of Udhampur district) — whether they want to remain in the existing Jammu region or join Azad Kashmir or the Kashmir valley — be ascertained through zonal referendum or general election with small constituencies under international auspices.
(ii) The Kashmir valley and any other adjoining area (as per above) to remain under a condominium of India and Pakistan or UN trusteeship for 10 years, followed by a plebiscite under UN auspices on three options: India, Pakistan, independence.
(iii) Kashmiri leaders who have suffered and struggled in the ongoing struggle belonging to all three regions of the state should take part in talks about a final settlement. No decision should be made over the head of the Kashmiris and without the written consent to participation of their genuine leadership.
(iv) Free, unhindered, natural and complete flow of the water of the Indus, the Chenab and the Jhelum to Pakistan.
(v) The final settlement to be made through an international peace treaty to be guaranteed by the UNSC or the big powers.
(vi) Zonal plebiscite or general election to be held in Muslim majority areas of Kargil district under international auspices to ascertain their wishes, i.e., whether they want to continue as part of the existing Ladakh region or to join the Northern Areas.
(vii) China to be associated in the final phase of dialogue about the Aksai Chin area.
KHWAJA MUHAMMAD BASHIR BUTT
Bahawalnagar
THE illegal filling and storage of gas cylinders in residential areas is a common practice in our cities. The danger of spillage or leakage of gas followed by ignition and consequent fire or explosion is ever present. The workers hired by the owner are usually unaware of the hazards of this highly inflammable and combustible gas.
LPG is a colourless and odourless gas, which is highly flammable. In order to detect releases of LPG from equipment and storage cylinders it has been given a distinctive odour. There are two types of LPG that are in general use: butane and propane (butane has a much lower vapour pressure than propane). LPG has a density of 1.5, so it is heavier than air. It is, therefore, difficult to disperse and on being exposed to any source of ignition, usually a fire, its cylinder acts like a bomb.
The government should immediately ban the filling and storage of LPG in residential areas. Moreover, the adoption of some safety precautions regarding the handling of LPG can also avert accidents. LPG cylinders must be moved, transported and used in an upright position. Smoking and other ignition sources must not be allowed within an LPG store or within the minimum separation distance allowed for the stored LPG.
Access to LPG storage areas should be limited to competent, trained and authorized personnel. Storage should not be in an area that the general public has access to, unless it is within a suitable cage which prevents unauthorized tampering with the cylinders.
LPG cylinders and other containers can be stored within either a specially designed single-storey building, or a specially designed storage place within a building or a cabinet/cupboard, subject to specific requirements regarding the store’s construction and maximum quantities of LPG that may be stored. External store areas must be at least two metres from an opening into a building, or a cellar, or a pit. Because LPG is heavier than air, any escaped gas will potentially travel along the ground into such areas, creating a fire/explosion hazard. LPG cylinders should not be located directly beneath electrical power cables, because of the risk of a spark igniting leaked gas causing fire or explosion.
There are limits to how much LPG can be put into a cylinder. A properly filled cylinder will have a vapour space left at the top of the cylinder to allow room for expansion of the liquid with a change in atmospheric temperature. An overfilling prevention device must be installed assuring that the cylinders are not overfilled.
It should be noted that the cylinders are considered to be a hazard even when they appear empty, because they will contain a residual amount of LPG.
The Lahore tragedy on April 2 in which 32 people were killed should serve as an eye-opener. The incident occurred during refilling of smaller cylinders from bigger ones.
RASHID ASHRAF
Karachi
IT was indeed great to see a former beauty queen (Miss Illinois), Ms Jennifer Mckinley, embrace Islam. She met somebody from Pakistan on the Internet and started learning more about Islam. She didn’t have to wait long to learn the reality and find the truth. Earlier, she went to Makkah to perform the Haj. If Islam was not a peaceful religion, why would pop singers and beauty queens — Yusaf Islam (formerly Cat Stevens), Jennifer Mckinley — embrace Islam?
The Holy Quran states that Islam — the complete submission of man before his one and only unique Creator — is the one and only faith and way of life consistently revealed by God to humankind from the very beginning. Noah, Solomon, David, Abraham, Moses, Isaac and Jesus (PBUT) — prophets who appeared at different times and places — all propagated the same faith and conveyed the same message of oneness of God, prophethood and the Hereafter. These prophets of God were not founders of different religions to be named after them. They were each reiterating the message and faith of their predecessors.
The original message was earlier corrupted and split into various religions by people of different ages, who indulged in interpolations and admixture. These alien elements were eliminated by God, and Islam — in its pure and original form — was transmitted to humankind through Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), the last prophet.
I am a professor of theology and have studied Islam thoroughly and in the end I have decided to embrace Islam (Alhamdulillah). I would like to request through your esteemed newspaper to all Muslims around the world and especially in Pakistan to provide me more information and material on Islam to quench my thirst. RANDALL FREEMAN
Brentwood, USA
freeman_randall@yahoo.com
THE main road in Karachi’s Korangi industrial area is now called Korangi 8000. This is the busiest road in the Korangi area. There are hundreds of industrial units starting from refinery, tanneries, textiles, garment factories, pharmaceuticals, foods, engineering, petrol pumps, etc.
It appears that there is no control on the effluent they are discharging onto the road and into the sewers. Driving on this road, one can see pools of different coloured water on this road and in its bylanes. There is a kilometre-long 10-foot-wide purplish blue lake on the left hand side of the road. This has been there for the last many days. On the right hand side, the colour of the water is pink, which has been there for as long as I can remember. Puddles of dark green water are also visible in different sections. Then there is our common blackish brown sewerage. Elephant grass has grown on the roadside, eating up the pavement.
Where is our Environment Protection Agency? Does it ever analyze this water? If so, does it penalize the defaulters? When was the last time our nazim visited this area? It appears that the drains are blocked. Who is responsible for their de-blocking?
S. NAYYAR IQBAL RAZA
Karachi
IT is indeed good news that serial production of multi-role combat aircraft, the JF-17 Thunder, will start at the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (PAC) Kamra from 2007 (Dawn, May 10).
The news report says: “Production of the JF-17 would lessen the dependance of the Pakistan Air Force on the fleet of US made F-16s as the first choice for combat operations as the new aircraft is designed to meet the requirements of the contemporary battle space with an ability to carry the latest BVRs (beyond visual range) missiles.”
The jointly developed JF-17, said to be carrying half the price tag of the $25 million US-made F-16, will also be able to carry short-range, BVR, anti-ship and anti-radiation missiles, high and low drag bombs, laser-guided runway penetration and cluster bombs.
Pakistan must not depend upon the US for the fighter jets as America has always been unpredictable in its relations with Pakistan. In 1989, Pakistan and US signed a $1.2 billion deal for 60 F16 jets and Pakistan had paid around $650 million to the US by 1990. After the dismissal of the Benazir government the US government put an embargo on Pakistan and declined to provide the planes for which it had already acquired the money in advance. And it is on the record that despite the advance payment only six F16 jets were produced by 1992, which means the US took three years to produce only one-tenths of the entire order. The $650-million payment was returned to Pakistan in shape of cash and soybeans after the Pakistani government decided to move the US courts.
This time the US has once again agreed to sell the F-16 fighter planes to Pakistan as a reward for its role in the “war against terrorism”. According to defence analysts, if the production of the F-16 planes starts this year it would at least take three years for the company to produce 24 fighter jets, i.e., by 2008. This time the payment for the jets is to be made from the annual US aid of $600 million in instalments of $300 million each year.
The unfortunate part of this episode is that the US is forcing Pakistan to comply with all its wishes, be it the war against terrorism or the nuclear proliferation issue, and if this time America declares Pakistan a “rouge state” and puts a defence embargo on it Pakistan would neither be able to claim the F-16s nor can it move any US court for the money as the US will deduct $300 million each year from the annual $600 million aid to Pakistan and thus claim that Pakistan is not paying for the F-16 planes.
ZEESHAN UL RUB JAFFRI
Karachi
SYED Shahid Husain often picks up thorny issues and touches upon sensitive areas. I was intrigued to recall some sorrowful history relating to the legendary F-16 by his brief, “Do we really need F-16s?” (Encounter, April 30).
The first consignment of the precious F-16 outside the US was ordered by the late Raza Shah of Iran, the closest of America’s allies. The Shah had made advance payment in 1975 but at the time of delivery in 1979, the Americans wanted to make him pay revised prices which were almost 50 per cent higher than the contracted ones. Raza Shah was obviously perturbed by this demand and thought it was an unfair deal, particularly from friends.
I recall that in an article he proposed that there should be some fair and reasonable formula for pricing industrial goods of developed countries and raw materials and basic products of developing world so that covert transfer of resources from developing countries to the developed world could be stopped or at least minimized.
In the context of the F-16 deal for Pakistan, Mr Hussain has detailed how Pakistan was made to make an advance payment but refused the F-16s in 1990. Even warehousing charges were loaded on to the cost of the undelivered F-16s and ultimately we were consoled by soybean as settlement.
Now this sudden volte–face is definitely enigmatic, as described by Mr Hussain, and also a bit intriguing and there is not much to rejoice over, particularly when this reward for our services for anti-terror war is off balanced by the offer of the F-18 to India along with technology for local fabrication in consideration of their strategic partnership.
M SALEEM CHAUDHRY
Karachi
RUSSIAN president Vladimir Putin, on the eve of his first visit to Israel, had assured it that “missiles for Syria pose no danger to Israel” (Dawn, April 24). The report says Israel fears these missiles might fall into the hands of terrorists. Who are the “terrorists” actually? Ben Gurion, Menachem Begin, Yigol Allan, including Ariel Sharon, Moshe Dayan and Golda Meir were known and declared terrorists with large head monies and had become political leaders after the establishment of Israel on May 14, 1948.
Mrs Golda Meir, the former prime minister of Israel, had officially declared Syria a terrorist state during the Ramazan war of 1973. Will the sale of these missiles to Damascus not give a pretext to Israel to retaliate?
S.M. KAZIM NAQVI
Karachi
WE, the cultivators, of Mauza Lundi Pitafi in Muzaffargarh district, on the river Indus, borrowed some money from the Zarrai Tarraqiati Bank Limited (ZTBL). However, large parts of our lands have been washed away by the Indus and we are left with nothing but misery. The bank, acting under the so- called international law, is now bent upon auctioning off our remaining subsistence land. Isn’t it the state’s duty to compensate people for the loss suffered by them due to natural calamity?
The president has announced a relief package for farmers, but unfortunately it contains no provision for hardship cases like ours. The president is requested to order the bank to desist from confiscating our land. It is further requested that those of us who have to pay the last instalment under this package by June may instead be allowed to do so by the end of the year when we expect to harvest some cash crop.
SEVERAL CULTIVATORS
Muzaffargarh
THIS is with reference to the discussion going on in these columns on Karachi’s “Clifton Cross”. It is surprising that the simplest, most functional and cost-effective design, i.e., overhead crossing and cloverleaf interchange, has been turned down in favour of the straight-through underpass which will cater for only part of the traffic while those wishing to turn right will have to also go straight and take a U-turn after several kilometres.
The reasons being put forward for this decision are aesthetics and the shopkeepers’ point of view. Once again, our priorities are not right. Smooth and unhindered flow of traffic should have priority over all other factors. If aesthetics were a consideration on the roads, monstrosities like the concrete structure at the junction of Tariq and Shaheed-i-Millat roads would not have been built. What about the multi-tiered interchanges found in almost every major western city? Is their aesthetic sense inferior in any way? It is not too late to change the design and the most appropriate one would be a standard flyover with cloverleaf interchange for right turn and at-grade left turn facility. Another busy intersection for which this design is most suitable is Hassan Square.
I request the relevant authorities, especially the Traffic Engineering Bureau, to design and build need-based and practical flyovers at all points announced by the city government recently in the interest of better traffic management.
ASIF JAH
Karachi
THE prime minister has indicated that all barriers to foreign investment have been removed. But while Indian businessmen are keen to invest in Pakistan, they are not allowed to do so until the dispute over Kashmir is resolved. By mixing a political issue with the economic welfare of the people of Pakistan, we will only increase poverty and unemployment.
Why isn’t Pakistan following the Chinese policy of foreign investment, which allowed Indian companies to invest in China despite the territorial dispute with India? Indian investment in Pakistan and Pakistani manufacturers’ access to the large Indian market would usher in an era of prosperity for the people of the two countries.
ENGR. S.T. HUSSAIN
Lahore
THE country’s first sports complex for women is in a poor condition. Situated in Gulshan-i-Iqbal’s Block 3, Karachi, the sports complex does not have proper staff to look after its large library, jogging track, multi-purpose indoor gymnasium, skating area (for under-14 children), swimming pool, two squash courts and a dressing room.
This is a complete sports complex which is going waste. Proper utilization can only be possible with the availability of appropriate staff, a good sports trainer and proper security. All these things are lacking.
SADAF SAEED
Karachi
MY telephone, No. 6997296, has been out of order for the last five months. Various complaints lodged with the department concerned have so far produced no result.
ADNAN A. QADIR
Karachi
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