| May 28, 2005 | Saturday | Rabi-us-Sani 19, 1426 |
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A memory that refuses to fade
Clifton beach allotment
Cutting of roadside trees
Another shopping plaza
‘Truth about sacrilege’
‘Prison houses’
Pedestrian bridge
Exam centre
Bank service charges
Encroachments
FOLLOWING are my recommendations for the next budget: There is a slow borrowing for development from both bilateral and multilateral sources. This is because we are not yet ready to put it to a profitable use. The implementing institutions are technically weak and many are reportedly corrupt. It will take less money but more effort to build project identification, preparation, implementation and supervision. This is the area that needs to be focused on.
The current haphazard approach is wasteful. The quality of village drainage, rural roads, watercourse lining, for instance, is poor. The only piece well done in these projects is the marble plaque affixed at development sites projecting the names of politicians. That, too, is wasteful because the next government, like its predecessors, will demolish these plaques.
It is recommended that the size of the PSDP be reduced because we lack the capacity to utilize it in totality. It may sound like a joke that the current year’s utilization was around half the allocation but the next year’s allocation will be considerably larger. Besides technical capacity, our pattern of procedures is rustic. It fails to get into gear. And these weaknesses seldom disappear instantly.
We need to shed the myth that rural development projects will have a positive impact on rural poverty without ensuring some discipline. As of now the quality of workmanship and the material used in many cases are poor and jobs are kept within a few families while beneficiaries are called to provide labour without wages for construction-related works.
Finally, we must work on improving the statistical base of our economic data. We realize that these figures cannot be exact or perfect for such reasons as consuming a bulk of production without weighing it, e.g., milk, food grains, farm fruits and vegetables, etc. Production estimates of all these commodities are made for national accounts. Estimates made objectively are fairly accurate. But if fudging continues to be intentionally promoted, as critics say, the whole exercise will end in self-deception and would only mean a cheating game being played for getting credit for a job half done at best.
I am not up for any election in the current politically exclusive and “dollarful” environment. I, therefore, hope that the points I have mentioned will be taken for an objective consideration.
M. ALTAF HUSSAIN
Former division chief, World Bank
Lahore
OVER two months have passed since the death of Omar Kureishi, and with each passing day his absence is felt ever more acutely. He defined an era, and with his death we mourn the passing not just of the man but of an institution. He was many things, but perhaps most of all he was the language of Pakistan cricket, on the air and in print, embodying the game for legions of fans.
On bright spring or autumn mornings, with a faint chill in the air and the smell of the cricket season swirling about, his voice would crackle crisp on the radio.
Listeners would be welcomed to the day’s play with the customary greetings and with those warmly reassuring descriptions of the field, in which there was always the “keeper standing back, three slips, a gully, cover, mid-off, mid-on” and all the rest of it. The next morning we would read his analysis in Dawn — insightful and erudite, chiding when needed, waxing poetic when the spirit moved him.
Omer Kureishi will live on in many ways. To cricket fans of a certain generation and beyond, he symbolized an entire collection of inspiring and comforting memories. Imran leaping into his bowling action, Miandad cutting square, Zaheer driving past mid-on, Sarfraz swinging it late, Bari airborne for a snick, Mushtaq marshalling his fielders, Asif sprinting like a hare, and even before that the sepia memories of Fazal, Hanif, Kardar, Imtiaz, and the innocence of dreamers — it is all there in the Omar Kureishi persona, all interwoven into the essence of his legacy.
Perhaps most of all he will be remembered through his writings, which have immortalized him. Apart from the voluminous cricket reporting and analysis, there are his numerous books, each better and more absorbing than the other. It is a virtual guarantee that if you pick up a book like Once Upon A Time — the first in his signature memoir trilogy — you will not be able to put it down.
He was from on older and purer time, and he had exacting standards for everything, most of all for commentary. He could do with words what Wasim Akram could do with a ball. With his words, cricket became not merely a sport but an aesthetic celebration. By any standards, Omar Kureishi lived and died a hero, and will forever be remembered as one.
SAAD SHAFQAT
Karachi
THIS is with reference to Mr V. A. Jaffery’s letter (May 8), Mr. Noman Ahmed’s article “Privatization of Clifton beach” (April 11) and a letter by the PRO of DHA (March 23) who reminded citizens how seafronts are beautified the world over but failed to explain that such activities are undertaken by civic institutions like the city government.
The PRO also failed to tell the readers that DHAs do not exist elsewhere the world nor are such projects executed by agencies comprising men in uniform. The PRO talked about transparency without knowing that transparency is about the process of debate, dialogue, consultation and participation of the stakeholders. Such a process can never take place behind the closed doors of the DHA executive board. All qualities of transparency are missing in this case as neither the citizens of Karachi nor their institutions were consulted.
Why was such a huge project kept secret from the public? Who is being benefited here? The PRO implies that the DHA being an independent body lies beyond the reach of citizens, provincial or city government — forgetting the fact that the DHA itself lies in the geographical and territorial jurisdiction of Sindh.
The DHA had earlier reclaimed and allotted hundreds of plots to its officers by reclaiming the bed of the Malir river (phase-VII extension) and part of the coast itself in phase VIII. The Sindh government had strongly resisted such a reclamation but it was only after the military takeover in October 1999 that the provincial government was made to settle the matter with the DHA. Now the Defence Creek Club has reclaimed and occupied a sizable portion of the creek which is a natural feature. No law of the land allows the reclamation, occupation or allotment of natural features.
I would also request Dawn to publish the Karachi coastal recreational and development plan for public knowledge and urge members of the Karachi city and town councils to raise this issue through council resolutions urging the provincial authorities and military rulers to review their decision of commercializing the Karachi beach.
It is high time the people of Karachi realized the gravity of the issue and rose to fight for their natural rights.
AKBER ALI KAZI
Karachi
LAWYER Mukhtar Ahmed has earned the gratitude of many people like us who watched the beautiful trees being chopped down but did not know what recourse they had to stop this mutilation of our environment. Justices Ataur Rahman and S. Ali Aslam Jafri of the the Sindh High Court also deserve credit for recognizing that the matter raised was of “great public importance”, and issuing notices to all the respondents.
We were very surprised to learn that the Environment Protection Agency claims that its only mandate is to protect the environment from industrial pollution. Similarly, the horticultural department states that it is only responsible for the trees that are in the parks. We would like to know which department or agency is responsible for maintaining the many large trees that line the streets of Karachi. Unfortunately, their number is fast decreasing and if the agencies concerned have such a callous (or “materialistic” according to the Dawn report) attitude that the trees are being sold, we will be left with a concrete jungle.
We fully support Mr Mukhtar Ahmed in his fight to save the trees and request the city government to also support these efforts.
SALMA H. BADRUDDIN, NARGIS Z. ALAVI & SHIREEN HABIB
Karachi
THIS refers to the news about the sale of the Mideast Hospital, Karachi (Dawn Metropolitan, May 20). It is incredible that the hospital which was built on two residential plots is being converted into yet another shopping plaza. Economic forces have a way of eventually bulldozing all zoning and environmental laws in this city to make life more miserable for its citizens. Is there no individual, NGO or set of laws which can prevent such blatant commercialization?
There is no dearth of shopping plazas on Clifton Road but there is only one hospital in that area which serves as an emergency medical centre for Clifton and Defence areas. It is, therefore, an indispensable amenity. Even if the road has been declared commercial, the plot on which the hospital stands must be designated an amenity plot and be prevented from being converted into a commercial plot.
I urge concerned and responsible citizens, especially those residing or working in the vicinity, to mount a campaign against conversion of the hospital which is a much needed medical facility in the premium shopping-cum-residential area of Karachi.
ASIF JAH
Karachi
THE news of the desecration of the Holy Quran at Camp X-Ray has revealed many facts about many individuals and institutions. To begin with, as also noted in your editorial, “Truth about sacrilege” (May 23), Newsweek’s retraction of its report has raised many questions. The magazine, which had earlier favoured the Muslims by exposing the incident, has now, dismayingly, been giving odd statements, including holding Imran Khan responsible for triggering a political firestorm in the Islamic world (Dawn, May 19).
This irrational response, presumably resulting from the US establishment’s pressure, fails to note that if the magazine had not published the report, there would have been no “firestorm”. Imran Khan is not the only Muslim who reads Newsweek and, if he had not pointed it out, someone else surely would have, with the same consequences. However, it goes to his credit that he took the lead.
Two events refute the denials by the Pentagon, the US state department and the White House about any sacrilege. According to a report from London, several Britons who had been held at US military prisons in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay have claimed that they had seen their US guards desecrate the Holy Quran (Dawn, May 18). One of them, Moazzam Begg, swore that he had himself seen a copy of the Holy Book snatched from a captive’s hands and thrown to the ground (at Camp X-Ray). An American sergeant, Erik Saar, who had been a member of the US military intelligence and worked at Guantanamo Bay for six months, has come out with shocking revelations about the prison in his book, “Inside the Wire” (Dawn, May 19). Sgt Saar has confirmed that the Holy Quran was indeed defiled over there. He has also stated the number of detainees who tried to commit suicide was much higher than acknowledged by the prison officials. Further, of the 600 or so prisoners no more than a few dozen were “hardcore terrorists” and many interrogators believed a large number were ordinary civilians. He notes that what he saw there changed his attitude towards the camp and his country.
Other people exposed by the episode include the Afghan president and, indirectly, the Northern Alliance. After the widespread rioting and protests in Afghanistan, it seems Mr Hamid Karzai did not say anything against the desecration. Instead, in one self-congratulatory statement he said the demonstrations proved democracy was flourishing in Afghanistan (Dawn, May 12) and in the other he blamed the “enemies of peace” opposed to the US-Afghan alliance for the violent protests (Dawn, May 14).
Sgt Saar’s recent expose shows that after the ouster of the Taliban in 2001, the Northern Alliance had handed over a large number of civilians to the US military, labelling them as terrorists because the alliance was paid $5,000 for each suspect they caught.
The International Red Cross has played a dubious role by remaining silent for over two weeks during which 16 Muslims died and more than a hundred were injured in protests. It came out with a confirmation of the defilement when doing so served to ease the pressure on the US by underscoring its claim that no sacrilege had occurred after Jan 2003.
It is obvious that the neocons in Washington have been devious and insincere in their dealings with the Muslims. They merely want to subjugate them either by installing puppet rulers or through military action, if necessary. Instead of following this self-defeating approach that is backfiring regularly at them, they should try to understand their own faults and treat Muslims fairly.
As the Abu-Ghraib and Camp X-Ray incidents show, there are many Americans — God bless them — who are conscientious and truthful and value humanism more than their rulers’ expedience and dishonesty.
QADRI
Karachi
IT is indeed ironical that the soldiers who desecrated the Holy Quran did not realize that it contains a whole chapter named Surah Maryam related to the pious Hazrat Maryam (AS) and Hazrat Isa (AS) — Mary and Jesus Christ.
Moreover, Islam shares with Christians and Jews the sacredness of various prophets such as Adam, Noah, Solomon, David, Abraham and Moses (peace be upon them).
It would be worthwhile underlining the enormity of such an act of sacrilege committed by these Christians against their own religion also.
YUSUF ALI
Karachi
THIS is with reference to the article, “Prison houses or money minting dens?” (May 22) by Ms Nafisa Shah, district nazim, Khairpur. Ms Shah’s courage deserves to be praised for showing us the horrifying realities of our jails. The media, although more vocal these days, has seldom highlighted the facts and suggested remedies.
Ms Shah has shown a ray of hope to the people of Sindh, particularly to women from interior of Sindh. Being myself a native of Sukkur I am aware of the environment in our jails, yet when I read the article I realized that even I did not know some of the facts — the inhuman and evil activities taking place right under the noses of the so-called bureaucrats and politicians and that government officials are involved and responsible for making our jails a breeding place for criminals.
The government is requested to change the whole system and take cognizance of the gloomy conditions prevailing in our jails and help the prisoners in their rehabilitation and not allow them to turn into terrorists.
The role of NGOs and politicians is required in the administration of jails. Prisoners should not be left at the mercy of the cruel jail police, a la Abu Ghraib.
FAHAD AHSAN PIRZADA
Sukkur
LAST year the Karachi nazim had announced a decision to build a pedestrian bridge opposite Dak-Khana (2K bus terminus) on the main North Nazimabad Road near the Sakhi Hasan Chowrangi. It was a good decision in view of the continuous flow of all kinds of traffic coming from the very busy intersection of Nagan Chowrangi. It is hazardous and risky for children, women and the old to cross this section of the road to go to the other side. Motorcyclists who do not follow any rules further compound the problem. Also, no traffic constable is there to assist people crossing the road, although a police kiosk is just a furlong away.
Will the authorities concerned look into the matter and implement the plan at the earliest?
Z. ARTABAN
Karachi
MY daughter, a student of intermediate science (pre-engineering) at St Joseph’s Government College for Women, Karachi, appeared in chemistry paper-II (roll #197658) on May 19 held at the Government Women’s College, Shahrah-i-Liaquat. She was given a seat (in room #35) in a remote corner, a very hot place without a ceiling fan over her head. Just after the examination started she informed the invigilator on duty that the heat made her sick but the invigilator did not take any notice and asked her to sit down.
She had only attempted one question when she fainted over the desk and remained in this position for about two hours.
No first aid was arranged nor was the examination superintendent of the centre or the principal of the college informed about the girl’s condition. She was taken home with no action or inquiry ordered in her case.
This incident was brought to the notice of the principal of the Government Women’s College, Shahrah-i-Liaquat, and the examination superintendent of the centre on the day of her next paper (May 23), who gave a patient hearing and made inquiries.
It is requested that my daughter be given a chance to reappear for her chemistry paper II so that her career is saved.
MIR NASIR ALI
Karachi
THIS is with reference to the issue of “bank service charges” for individual account holders raised in the press from time to time. According to the prevalent practice, it is essential for PLS account holders to maintain a minimum deposit of Rs5,000 in a government bank and Rs10,000 in a private bank otherwise bank service charges are deducted every month.
Many poor and middle class employees of the private sector are compelled to operate bank accounts because their employers pay them their salaries through banks. It is beyond their financial capacity to maintain a minimum deposit of Rs5,000 or 10,000 in their accounts on a regular basis considering this could be equivalent to a month’s salary for many.
The State Bank of Pakistan is requested to grant exemption to the salaried class from payment of a monthly penalty while operating their PLS accounts, as it has exempted government servants, students, pensioners and widows, etc.
SHAMIM AHMAD
Karachi
ENCROACHMENTS on the Alamgir Road opposite Alamgir Masjid, Bahadurabad, Karachi, are on the rise, creating problems for the residents. The authorities concerned should look into the matter.
ABDUL MALIK
Karachi
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