| June 28, 2005 | Tuesday | Jumadi-ul-Awwal 20, 1426 |
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US access to Caspian oil
Pharmaceutical industry
‘First egalitarian creed’
World Blood Donors Day
Balochistan security
Balochistan security
Water scarcity
Telephone service
Faulty meters
Cellphone loss
Commuter agony
IN a recent “interfaith dialogue” meeting at a community church here, Professor Akbar Ahmed, one time high commissioner of Pakistan to the United Kingdom, said essentially the same things which Brig (retd) Habibullah Babar has pointed out in his letter (June 23). After the conclusion of Prof Ahmed’s talk, a person in the audience stood up and asked him: “Whatever you say about Islam being a peaceful and tolerant religion based on past history may be true, but how about now?”
In fact, here lies the rub. The dramatic rise in militancy in the Islamic world, whatever its causes might be, has made the barbaric practice of suicide bombings in Israeli-occupied territories and countries like Pakistan, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia and of course Iraq, as well as the savage beheadings and displays of severed heads on the television, almost a matter of policy. In the face of such happenings, it is an enormously difficult task for any person like Prof Ahmed to convincingly present the real face of Islam. Apologists for this sort of behaviour from the militants offer the explanation that the suppression of Muslim rights in places like Palestine and Kashmir has led to the radicalization of the Muslim world. However, this argument does not hold water because such contentious issues have been simmering over half a century but infusion of militancy is a more recent phenomenon. Clearly, the export of the jihadi culture to various countries by the proponents of a very rigid Islam is to blame. Ironically, now the exporters of terror are getting engulfed by their own creation.
There are many recent actions of the western powers which have greatly disturbed the entire world. However, in contrast to the mute response of the Islamic world to the senseless slaughter of hundreds of innocent people including Muslims, particularly in Iraq, countless politicians such as former US presidents Clinton and Carter and many human rights organizations like the Amnesty International have spoken forcefully against human rights abuses in Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib prison. Unless the Muslim world develops an attitude of self-criticism, our only solace for the abysmally distressing state of the ummah would continue to be seeking refuge in the memories of bygone eras.
MASOOD HAIDER
New Jersey, USA
ACCESS to the world’s oil riches has been the cornerstone of the American foreign policy. This is best seen in its ongoing unjustified military occupation of Iraq and is also evident in the recent operation of the Baku-Ceyhan oil pipeline project, basically a US-sponsored and designed oil project, seeking control over the Caspian oil reserves.
There are four main proposed pipeline routes from the Caspian Basin region — each with its own unique geographical and political problems. For most of human history, this region has been a highly contested area. This was true in ancient times and it is true now. With the industrialized world’s increasing dependence on oil and the discovery of vast reserves in the Caspian Sea, political tension has only intensified.
Since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, a wide array of governments and international oil consortiums has descended upon the Caspian Sea Basin to plunder its land-locked crude oil. Conservative estimates place Caspian mineral wealth at 100 billion barrels — roughly $2 trillion worth — while other estimates suggest figures twice as high. Participants in extraction include, chiefly, the United States, Europe, Russia, Iran and China. In a world dependent on oil, the construction of pipelines means investment, jobs, long-term access to natural reserves, transit fees, and political and economic leverage.
The US will likely become the region’s most influential force. Ian Bremmer, a senior fellow of the World Policy Institute, writes: “American firms hold substantial percentages of nearly every major Caspian consortium agreement, and have rights over almost every major field presently under exploration or development.”
Washington wants Caspian oil to flow through many pipelines so that no single country could bottle it up, and is adamantly against having a new pipeline pass through Iran. It was fine if some of the lines would run through Russia, as they already did, but Russia should not be able to turn a valve and shut off all or most of the Caspian oil.
Owing to Turkey’s expedient geopolitical location, the US sought to transport oil through it despite the fact that the Kurdish troubles in south-eastern Turkey, contingent on Ankara’s acceptance into the European Union and a looming war with Iraq, might pose other difficulties for the MEP (the main export pipeline). Though a NATO ally, Turkey promises an expensive pipeline route which winds westwardly from Azerbaijan’s capital of Baku, through war-torn mountain regions, to the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan.
However, the American administration had also suggested an alternative, easterly route which could transport Kazak oil through Afghanistan to Karachi. The route was stalled due to the US “war on terror” in Afghanistan and general instability.
“The political allure of the BTC project for the United States is self-evident,” writes Mark Berniker, an American oil and gas correspondent. “The BTC pipeline could deny Iran a significant role as a Caspian energy exporter, reduce the dependence of the Caucasus and the Central Asian states on Russian pipelines, and bolster fledgling regional economies, especially those of Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkey.”
S. Q. AFZAL RIZVI
Karachi
MR Zaheeruddin Babar in his letter “Pakistan’s pharmaceutical industry” (June 17) has touched on a sore point when he laments the doings of national and multi-national organizations in fleecing patients and yet being unable to provide medicines at lower prices.
In this context, the only medicines produced in Pakistan are paracetomol, a pain killer, aphedrie for asthma, and santomin, a deworming drug for intestinal infestation. All the rest are only bottled or filled in ampoules in the country after the purchase of the ingredients or generic drugs from Eastern Europe, China, South Korea, Taiwan and some other countries. Medicines bottled in the country and sold under local trade marks depend on their sale on the army of salesmen employed to ‘persuade’ doctors to prescribe them, particularly in the better known medical institutions. The practice of the multi-national pharmaceuticals is also probably same. Their ingredients are also not those produced in the developed countries but bought from the developing countries.
Another factor worth remembering in connection with the inefficacy of drugs sold when imported from outside Pakistan is that proper facilities for refrigeration are not available at any seaport or airport in the country. They are, therefore, exposed to inclement weather that can affect their potency.
What can be done? Two steps can at least save the sick much trouble and expense. The entry of pharmaceutical salesmen should be banned in government institutions. This will also persuade the consultants to look more at medical literature. Private health institutions should also be requested to make salesmen’s entry difficult.
The second step is to develop a system of auditing treatment procedures, including medicines and surgery, in public health institutions.
Medical auditors in the person of well-known clinicians, preferably retired but informed, ought to be requested to monitor the use of drugs and where required call for an explanation for prescribing new or costly medicines or surgical procedures.
ZAFAR OMER
Lahore
THIS refers to the article by Mr Jafar Wafa, “First egalitarian creed” (Dawn, June 24). The writer has done a good job of a scholarly exposition of the subject in the context of the relevant Quranic verses. There is, however, a pitfall he could not escape.
He presupposes a self-sustaining environment, independent of governing elements, conducive to humanitarian activities for the goodness of mankind.
Congeniality of environment for achieving social, economic, political equality is created by enactment of laws and by setting up institutions. This kicks in the need for an honest patron state to facilitate a free flow of pious and righteous activities of individuals. The state does not fall out of the loop of responsibility.
Today, we have the Divine Message with huge volumes of interpretations by a large number of exegetes. Why is there no impact?
There are honest, inspired people who earnestly want to practise an egalitarian creed in their individual and collective capacity by setting up role models. They find themselves hampered by the prevalent system. They are not leaving the job to the government. All they want from the state is to create an atmosphere where activities of promoting equality and justice are productive.
The great scholar in Mr Wafa would do a much bigger job by relating his discourse on any religious segment to the present needs of today’s Muslims in trouble. The time for high philosophical sermonizing and recalling the glorious past is over. We cry for a solution to our problems.
DR BASHIR NAEEM
Lahore
THIS refers to the letter by Mr Aftab Ahmed Awais (June 15). I agree with the contents but would like to say that some non-governmental and governmental blood banks are doing well in Karachi and they had organized seminars to mark World Blood Donor Day. The PMA, Karachi, had a year ago prepared a guideline for safe blood transfusion with the help of senior and experienced haematologists that may he worth reproducing here:
Guideline for blood banks:
GUIDELINES FOR CONSUMERS:
DR S.M. QAISAR SAJJAD
Hon. General Secretary, PMA,
Karachi
THIS refers to the report ‘Balochistan needs to improve security’ June 24) in which British High Commissioner Mark Lyall Grant, while speaking at Quetta, urged the governments of Pakistan and Balochistan to improve security in the province. In a few words he has spoken volumes.
The other speaker of the conference, ‘British and Pakistan economic relations with reference to Balochistan’, was Mir Jan Muhammad Jamali, the former chief minister of the province. He said that construction of Gwadar port and the Iran-to-India-via-Pakistan gas pipeline would make Balochistan a hub of trade and economic activities. The province of Balochistan would be the chief beneficiary.
That’s possible only if those blowing up gas pipelines, rail tracks, power pylons and bridges stop being supported by the sardars.
Prosperity in Balochistan will bring education which will be like drilling holes in the sardari system’s ship. Therefore the sardars will not let any government — provincial or federal — bring education to Balochistan.
I believe that everything needed can be supplied by Islamabad provided the chief termite which is eating away at the province, the sardari system, is abolished.
S.M. KAZIM NAQVI
Karachi
THIS refers to the report ‘Balochistan needs to improve security’ June 24) in which British High Commissioner Mark Lyall Grant, while speaking at Quetta, urged the governments of Pakistan and Balochistan to improve security in the province. In a few words he has spoken volumes.
The other speaker of the conference, ‘British and Pakistan economic relations with reference to Balochistan’, was Mir Jan Muhammad Jamali, the former chief minister of the province. He said that construction of Gwadar port and the Iran-to-India-via-Pakistan gas pipeline would make Balochistan a hub of trade and economic activities. The province of Balochistan would be the chief beneficiary.
That’s possible only if those blowing up gas pipelines, rail tracks, power pylons and bridges stop being supported by the sardars.
Prosperity in Balochistan will bring education which will be like drilling holes in the sardari system’s ship. Therefore the sardars will not let any government — provincial or federal — bring education to Balochistan.
I believe that everything needed can be supplied by Islamabad provided the chief termite which is eating away at the province, the sardari system, is abolished.
S.M. KAZIM NAQVI
Karachi
A VAST majority of Pakistan’s 135 million inhabitants does not have access to drinking water. Much of the country suffers from scarcity of potable water due to industrial and agricultural wastes that contaminate drinking water supplies.
People are unable to cultivate their lands due to lack of water and have started to use ground water resources where feasible. As a result, about 25 million acres of land have been abandoned uncultivated, affecting the livelihood of millions of people.
Water-related problems are increasing by the day. The government should take up this mater seriously and start building dams, reorganizing the water infrastructure using the latest technology to improve water supply and filtration along with good distribution and management.
IRFAN SALAM
Lahore
THIS is with reference to Mr Abdul Hameed’s letter (June 18) regarding faulty telephone line (#4938318). PTCL attended to the number the same day and has verified with the complainant that it is in perfect working order.
SALEEM KHAN
PRO, STR-III
Karachi
IN late July last year, the electricity meter No. AL 639194 at my house D-111/4, Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Karachi, was replaced with a new meter in line with the KESC’s policy.
After two days of its installation when I checked the meter I noticed that it was not functioning (not showing any consumption).
The same day I visited the KESC office of my area and reported the matter to the SDO in writing. I was assured that the defective meter would be changed soonest.
Seeing no action from them, I visited their office again after two weeks and on Aug 26, 2004 reminded them of my problem in writing.
On Oct 2, 2004, again, I visited the KESC office concerned and met an official about my problem. The official immediately sent his men to my house to change the meter.
To my surprise, this meter was running overly fast and recording unbelievable consumption.
No relief has been forthcoming despite repeated requests for the meter to be replaced.
I continue receiving bills as much as 400 per cent higher than overall. For example, the bill for May 2004 was for Rs 892 and this year for the same month it is Rs 4,400.
KHALIQ AHMED
Karachi
I WAS walking to a friend’s place at around 8am in the Buffer Zone, Karachi, when two motorcycle riders intercepted me and snatched my mobile phone and wallet at gunpoint and fled.
I called police helpline “15” from my friend’s place. I made several vain attempts but the number was perpetually busy.
In order to get my SIM blocked to avoid misuse, the next best thing was to call up my mobile service provider’s helpline 111-333-100. I was told that the company network was in the process of “upgrading” and hence my SIM could not be blocked, and that I should try half an hour later.
After every half an hour that I called the company helpline, I was conveyed exactly the same message. Finally I gave up.
Being technologically sound and web-literate I logged on to mtrack.mobilezone.org, a website prepared jointly by Sindh Police and MobileZone to help save mobile thefts and report stolen mobile phones. I had already registered my mobile phone with this website. I found out that the website had been “closed”.
Can any government official or a representative of the mobile phone company tell me what are they doing to prevent mobile thefts and, more importantly, to safeguard their consumers’ privacy?
SALMAN HAIDER
Karachi
THE performance of the Karachi city nazim has been outstanding, but there appears to be lack of coordination among various departments of the city government as far as the Clifton bypass is concerned. Before the start of such a project, an alternative route should have been developed. On the contrary, side roads have also been dug up to lay cables/ pipelines. To make things worse, these roads have not yet been repaired.
I would request the city nazim and other officials concerned to undertake a trip from Do Talwar to Teen Talwar and back in order to understand the agony of the commuters — before the monsoon season, if possible.
S.H. JAFAREY
Karachi
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