| May 31, 2005 | Tuesday | Rabi-us-Sani 22, 1426 |
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‘For a place in paradise’
Education and politics
Law and order
Criminology: a neglected field
NA- 271 by-elections
We’ve learnt nothing from history
‘Balochistan crisis’
Car delivery
Creating doubts
Status of Punjabi
Rangeela’s correct age?
KTC driving institute
Traffic signal
F-16s?
ACCORDING to data released by the World Health Organization (WHO), every year tobacco kills 4.9 million people worldwide. About 500 million people alive today will eventually be killed by tobacco. More than half of these people are now children and teenagers. Tobacco kills a smoker every eight seconds. By 2030, tobacco is expected to be the single biggest cause of premature deaths, accounting for about 10 million deaths per year.
According to the Pakistan Paediatric Association, 1,000 to 1,200 children between the ages of six and 16 years take up smoking every day. Pakistan Society for Cancer Prevention says 37 per cent of men and four per cent of women over 15 years of age are smokers.
The tobacco pandemic is a communicated disease. It is spread through advertising, through the example of smokers and through the smoke to which non-smokers — especially children — are exposed. Despite numerous health and economic costs, the consumption of cigarettes continues to rise in Pakistan.
The tobacco industry has found a haven in many developing countries, where there are often no laws designed to regulate and monitor their activities. There is also enhanced competition amongst the makers of tobacco products to capture these emerging markets, resulting in lower prices, greater advertising and promotion expenditures, and similar activities that stimulate demand for their product. The tobacco industry, like all other profit-making industries, depends upon consumers for its growth. The advertising and promotion of tobacco products are therefore mainly focused on young people, who the tobacco industry sees as the source of replacement smokers.
Countries like Australia, Finland, France, Italy, New Zealand, Portugal, Singapore, Thailand and Turkey have recognized the increasing threat of tobacco consumption and imposed bans on all kinds of promotion of tobacco products. The European Union aims to phase out all types of tobacco promotion by the year 2006. But countries like Pakistan are still deliberating on how to tackle the issue focusing on the economic argument rather than its health impact. However, Pakistan has ratified the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). The FCTC is the world’s first global agreement devoted entirely to tobacco control. Issues addressed in the FCTC include tobacco advertising and promotion, smuggling, taxes, cessation and treatment, passive smoking and tobacco product regulation.
Strategies need to be put in place for chalking out a road map to achieve comprehensive bans on all kinds of tobacco promotion in Pakistan. This ban should accompany pricing measures that have proved effective in many countries. According to the World Bank, higher taxes induce some smokers to quit and prevent other individuals from starting. At the same time it will provide extra cash for the government to spend on health and education.
The government of Pakistan has promulgated the ordinance entitled “Prohibition of Smoking at Public Places and Protection of Non-Smokers Health Ordinance 2002” aimed at placing restrictions on the promotional campaigns of the tobacco industry. These restrictions, though partial in nature, are the first statutory move towards restricting smoking.
There is urgent need now to effectively implement laws and regulations.
DR ZUBAIR SHAHEEN
Multan
MR Ardeshir Cowasjee’s “For a place in paradise” (May 29) was a heartrending epitaph of the most macabre tragedy at Bari Imam in Islamabad.
The writer has rightly pointed out that the most obvious breeding ground is our home-grown madressahs (particularly those filled with Afghan students). The students of these madressahs are indoctrinated and groomed in such a way that they start believing that they are the only true servants of God and that they have been charged with the duty to crush the enemies of Allah in order to purge the face of earth.
I would like to say to the religious leaders that they should not only march against the desecration of the Holy Quran but also against the desecration of human lives (for whose guidance the Book has been revealed), that they should also teach the lesson of love for humanity.
MUHAMMAD EJAZ RAZA
Wazirabad
THIS is in response to the article by Mr Ardeshir Cowasjee. On May 27, two events took place in Pakistan — the blast at Hazrat Bari Imam killing at least 20 persons and injuring many before the Friday prayers, and thousands of people marching against the desecration of the Holy Quran in various cities after the Friday prayers.
Mr Ardeshir Cowasjee, the prophet of doom, as always chose to vent his ire against “obscurantist and fossilized forces” as he brands them, who had held peaceful marches to register their protest wherein not a single stone was hurled at anybody or at any interest. He cunningly gave it a twist to repeat his oft-repeated remarks about Hudood laws and mixed marathons.
Nobody in his right mind can ever condone barbaric, insane and inhuman acts of terrorism like the Bari Imam incident. But Mr Cowasjee is very fond of putting the blame for such dastardly acts on the pupils of madressahs, taking the cue from the Americans. While most of the perpetrators of the attacks on the president and the prime minister have been apprehended, none of them has been cited as a trainee of any of our madressahs.
Dr ABDULLAH JAN PATHAN
Islamabad
“WHAT’S more important: learning geometry or remembering these two days all your life because you helped tip the world a little in favour of the weak?” asks the legendary musician Bob Geldof in a Times education supplement front page report. He is referring to the forthcoming G-8 meeting in Scotland’s capital, Edinburgh. An alternative social summit presenting alternative views is also planned. Tens of thousands of protesters from across the UK are expected to converge on Edinburgh to help “make poverty history”.
Bob Geldof is urging pupils and teachers to bunk off school for two days to lobby international leaders attending the G-8 conference for wealthy nations. The founder of Live Aid says: “I want every school to decamp on July 2. I want the teachers to lead the kids to Edinburgh. I want to see all their buses, their blazers, their flags up there demanding that they tear down trade barriers to African farmers’ goods and write off the continent’s international debt. They should shout: ‘Do this now.’”
That is the kind of involvement we need from our schools and colleges, which went missing after political and academic leaders decided that political consciousness was an obscenity that ought to be shunned. Our educational institutions need to absorb the spirit of Geldof. Let’s get our elite schools, colleges and universities to voice concern for the downtrodden in our society. These are the poor who get a raw deal while the affluent rejoice in the current macro-economic success of the country.
Q. ISA DAUDPOTA
Islamabad
THIS refers to Major (retd) Anwar Pasha’s letter (May 26). I completely agree with Mr Pasha when he says that we pay taxes only to protect the VIPs of this country.
It is a worldwide practice to reinvest revenue from taxes in areas such as development and law and order. This benefits the taxpayers or the common citizen at the end of the day but in our part of the world this money is only used to provide extraordinary luxuries, benefits and protection to our so-called leaders.
Recently, we saw the killing of a college principal. I read in the newspaper that the principal was fighting against some corrupt elements at the college and had recovered Rs17.5 million of the college’s bad debts. Not only was he a taxpayer, but he also helped the government retrieve some of the money owed to it. But the government failed to protect him.
As something is better than nothing, I request our leaders to at least spend one-fourth of the taxpayers’ money on the protection and well-being of the citizens and the other three-fourths can be utilized to finance their security and luxuries.
M. AZAM ABBAS KHAN
Karachi
This relates to the letter by Mr N. B. Narejo (May 27). He is quite right in mentioning several examples of how postgraduates in criminology are neglected rather than preferred in jobs related to police, prison, investigation, etc.
It is quite frustrating for professionals to be ignored in this way. I want to add to what Mr Narejo has said, especially that a master’s in criminology must be a prerequisite for a candidate’s selection as ASP.
It has come to my knowledge that the Higher Education Commission, Islamabad, has finally drafted a national curriculum of criminology which is to be placed before public universities to initiate a master’s programme in criminology. It would be highly desirable to launch such a programme.
Besides, concrete policies need to be adopted by the government to create employment opportunities for criminologists. Research-based organizations must utilize research inputs from the new social scientists — the criminologists.
HASSAN LATIF
Hyderabad
IN the general elections in 2002 the people of Balochistan were given a surprise when the MMA candidate won by 25,775 votes. The MMA’s close rival was BNM, with 21,913 votes, while the PML-Q secured 1,435 votes.
However, during the NA-271 Kharan/Panjgur by-election the mood of the voters was apparently transformed. The MMA secured a paltry 9,672 votes, the PML 25,136, while National Party got 17,600 votes.
What does this indicate? Defeat of the MMA’s policy based on politicizing Islam in every matter or manifestation of the constituents’ real aspirations which were quite mysteriously warped like in many other constituencies in 2002 general election?
Will the MMA please inform the people of Pakistan as to where its 63 per cent voters or 16,103 votes vaporized in barely 31 months, why such results were accepted with such humbleness unlike in the past and how the PML gained 94 per cent more voters and 23,701 more votes from its 2002 performance?
KUNWAR KHALID YUNUS
Karachi
THIS is with reference to the letter by Mr Shahbaz Khan Ghurki (May 29). Correct lessons can only accrue through proper analysis of historical facts. It is true that Pakistan was let down by the US during critical periods but without examining the background and without conducting an introspection of our own follies, wrong lessons are likely to be drawn.
Take the 1965 war with India for example. The US military aid to Pakistan during the period was provided for a very specific purpose. That it was meant to combat the spread of the menace of communism in the region and not against India was clearly enunciated. And yet we were naïve enough to have provoked India into aggression and still hoped that the US would side with us. A decade and a half later our allied status with the US got reinvigorated again but was based on a single point agenda — bleed the USSR in Afghanistan. To achieve this aim, the US was even willing to look the other way at our efforts to produce nuclear weapons, which they had been fiercely opposing earlier.
Once the US objectives in Afghanistan were achieved, our allied status was dismantled overnight and sanctions were applied on us with a vengeance, primarily because of our nuclear programme. We should have expected such a turnaround and prepared ourselves for it. With hindsight we know that more concessions and aid could have been extracted and the period could have been used to enhance self-reliance and reduce dependence on the US. The lesson that comes out from our historical experience is “extract maximum benefit when placed in an advantageous position and utilize the opportunity to become more self-reliant to reduce vulnerabilities when environments change”.
The current “friendly” phase and the US offer to provide us with F-16s should be viewed in this light. One could argue with the number of F-16s that should be procured, but from an operational point of view these aircraft are urgently needed to close the present window of vulnerability that has resulted because of the possession of a beyond visual range (BVR) missile capability by the IAF. Only the acquisition of later models of F-16s and modification of the current fleet held by the PAF can bridge this gap in the short run.
The induction of the JF-17 Thunder is three to five years down the line whereas should America so desire the F-16s can be made available in a much shorter timeframe. I have no doubt that the PAF has learnt its lessons of history and will not let the process of indigenization and diversification suffer as a result.
JAMAL HUSSAIN
Karachi
THIS refers to Mr Amir Usman’s article “Genesis of Balochistan crisis” (May 23) He has analyzed Balochistan’s current situation in a subtle way. However, there is a factual inaccuracy when he writes that Sardar Ghous Bakhsh Raisani, a political opponent of the then chief minister, Sardar Attaullah Mengal, was appointed governor of the province.
In fact, if my memory doesn’t fail me, Mir Ghous Bakhsh Bizenjo was governor of Balochistan during chief minister Sardar Mengal’s tenure (from April 1972 to February 15, 1973). And if I recall correctly, it was the 9th of Moharram when the Mengal cabinet was shown the door along with governor Bizenjo.
The late Sardar Ghous Bakhsh Raisani was made governor by Mr Zulfikar Ali Bhutto during the third week of December 1971, just a day or two after assuming power as president on December 20, 1971. He continued in that post up to the assumption of office by Mr Bizenjo.
All this happened due to Mr Bhutto’s pact with the NAP-JUI coalition for forming provincial governments in Balochistan and the NWPF.
SHOUKAT QAZI
Lahore
I BOOKED a car on November 10, 2004. The tentative date given to me was January 2005. At the beginning of the month, I started calling to confirm my car delivery but at the end I was told that delivery has been delayed by two more months (i.e., end of March). In March, I followed the same routine but again at the month’s end I was informed that the car would be delivered by the end of May. This time the company issued a written letter. Now that May has passed, I get the news that my car will be delivered by the end of August.
I would request the authorities concerned to put a check on delaying tactics. The car manufacturing companies are enjoying advance sales and holding the cash amount for almost a year. Apart from this, the mental stress which we are facing is something which cannot be quantified.
USMAN MAHMOOD
Faisalabad
THIS is with reference to the letter by Mr Rafi Adamjee (May 19).With all due respect, if you don’t like a channel, don’t watch it. Nobody can force people to watch TV or a specific channel. But limiting freedom just because some people are offended by it seems immature, especially in this day and age.
What’s next on the list? Banning computers, internet, movies, DVD players and then, finally, TVs?
TALAL TAYYAB
Manama, Bahrain
MR Shakeel Nizamani (May 4) got me absolutely wrong.
I quoted historical facts just to negate the prejudiced views of the speakers at the Punjabi Conference. They represented specific areas, whereas Urdu represents Pakistanis as a whole all over the world.
The language controversy has been sucking the blood of our nation since the beginning. We should do away with these differences. But we would never be able to do it without an open mind and heart — and except by respecting all languages as our own but keeping Urdu higher as the mother of all our languages.
We failed to give our country a viable and workable constitution till 1973 because of language and representation disputes. And we could have avoided the “Dhaka debacle” if we had not quarrelled on this issue.
RAMLA RAUF KHAN
Arifwala
IT is imperative to bring to your notice that the issue of Dawn of May 29 had two articles on the late legendary comedian Rangeela. The one in the Advertiser section written by Mr Murtaza Razvi mentions that at the time of death the renowned artiste was 74, whereas in another article in the Sunday magazine’s Newsmaker your writer Ms Ambreen Arshad mentions that the count stopped at 68.
NADEEM MEMON
Karachi
THE news (April 27) that the KTC drivers training institute lying closed for several years is to be revived is more than welcome. Bus, coach, truck and van drivers must be imparted training and given tests before they are issued licences to ensure safety on roads.
Pedestrian crossings are important, and we need pelican crossings where pedestrians can press red-light button to cross.
S. BABAR
Karachi
THE absence of traffic signals on Karachi’s Gulistan Club chowrangi does not only cause inconvenience to people living near the crossing but also obstructs the fast flow of traffic on Shaheed-i-Millat Road.
Traffic signals may be installed at the chowrangi to maintain a smooth flow of the traffic.
M. SAEED JUMLANA
Karachi
I READ in Dawn that Pakistan wants to purchase 86 F-16s from the US. The approximate cost comes to nearly $4 billion. Somebody needs to tell our rulers that we cannot afford this.
ZULFIQAR MIR
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