| July 1, 2005 | Friday | Jumadi-ul-Awwal 23, 1426 |
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Another perspective
Five-rupee note
Internet breakdown
Retaining old names
Drive against pye-dogs
Protecting consumers
Mukhtaran Mai
Educational institutions
A shambles
Porous borders
Heavy Wasa & LDA bills
‘Justice above prejudice’
THE government is about to introduce law reforms, including property law reforms. The following are some suggestions that the government may like to consider:
a. The Transfer of Property Act 1882 should be made applicable to the whole of Pakistan, including both urban and rural areas. As there is no codified law in relation to property, there is much confusion and ambiguity about property laws among judges and lawyers, not to speak of the common people.
b. All transactions relating to land should be compulsorily required to be reduced to writing. There should be no room for oral agreements whatsoever. The scribes should be compelled to use modern and simple language in drafting.
c. No injunction should be issued in the absence of the parties affected by it except in extremely urgent cases such as imminent threat of demolition or disposition of a dwelling house. Even these cases should be avoided by making use of telephones and mobiles. A party seeking an ex-parte injunction might be asked to call up the adversary from the court and inform him or her of the hearing.
d. There should be a centralized system of land registration either at the provincial or federal level. The system may be based on the English land registration system which has been working successfully since 1925. Records of the land all over Pakistan should be entered into such a system. There should be a period of five years within which people can apply for correction of the record. Once that is done, the entries in the system should be the final and absolute evidence of title or other interest in the land except in very exceptional and clear circumstances.
e. As a much bigger and ambitious step, the government should codify property law in one statute as opposed to the current state where property law is made up of several statutes, judge-made laws, customary laws and administrative practices. This will take time but the government should get on with it without further ado.
f. The existing revenue system should be modernized. The system should use contemporary and simpler language. Instead of the current pathetic ‘patwar khanas’ and tehsils where the public goes for records and registrations, there should be modern customer service centres with focus on public comfort and efficiency. There should also be a system for applications for obtaining records through mail.
Of course, all law reforms have to be intertwined with reforms in court practices and reforms at the bar. Briefly, we should have a better and more stringent licensing system for lawyers. There should be a maximum fixed number of licences issued each year. The pay of civil and district judges should be multiplied many times so that talented people are attracted to these posts. The courts should be provided with airconditioners and electronic transcription equipment for better working conditions and upkeep of record.
BARRISTER ADIL SALEEM KHAN
Lahore
IN a Third World country the rarest resource we have is finance. No one can accuse the president or his immediate family of having benefited in that sense. As far as democracy goes, we live in a society that lacks many freedoms, besides the right to vote.
Personally I will prefer to see the poor educated and have their basic rights as citizens protected first. As far as I can tell, over 70 per cent of our assemblies are populated by landed, tribal or spiritual leaders. Does anyone honestly believe that they will strive for an educated population, or want an empowered society in their sphere of influence? The irony is that it took a general to grant women greater representation, give the media greater freedom and at least attempt to sort out national finances.
The fact that these issues were not tackled during the 90s shows a lack of interest by our elected leaders. These were not issues directly affecting the military one way or the other, so the question of the army interfering in politics does not apply here.
If we talk of democracy, then let us start by discussing how many of our democracy-loving enlightened elite would like the MMA booted out of power. All of them. The fact that the mullahs were legitimately elected doesn’t seem to matter. If they were kicked out by force, then the same bastions of democracy would say: “ Sometimes you have to bypass the system”. So let us be honest. Everyone wants what suits him best whether it is the mullah, army, politicians or the intellectual elite.
It is also interesting to note that democratic parties, especially our largest one, should have chairpersons for life — a concept that will be considered redundant for any society that truly believes in democracy. The majority still lives hand to mouth, lacks the basic rights that citizenship assures and has few prospects to strive for. These issues deserve priority first. Once they are achieved, et the people have the power to decide who should rule them.
As long as you have an honest man on top, you can see sunlight even in a storm, and Pakistan will have many more storms to weather. From within and without.
SAAD KHAISHGI
USA
THE demonetization of five-rupee currency notes by the State Bank is wrong and must be withdrawn immediately.
Look closely at any note of five to 1,000 rupees. It bears a solemn commitment of the State Bank governor that he will pay to the bearer on demand the face value of the note in rupees. The commitment does not say that it is valid up to a certain date. It does not say that the governor may back out under certain conditions and refuse to pay the face value. And it also does not allow the governor to change his mind whenever he wishes. It is a commitment for all times and without any conditions whatsoever.
The State Bank may withdraw from circulation any notes but it cannot fix any date for it. All that it can do is to ask the banks not to reissue any note that it wants to withdraw. The banks must continue to accept the withdrawn notes for payment or exchange whenever presented to them.
From the practical point of view, the State Bank has not ensured that every single person in the country, as well as outside, is aware of the withdrawal of the five-rupee note. Issuing a news release of a few lines is not enough at all. A single-column, three-line news item in newspapers or a sentence on radio and television news bulletins by no means reaches the entire 150 million people of the country. The message does not reach everybody even in the cities, not to speak of the remote villages.
The State Bank notification is not a law that everybody is supposed to know. The consequence of the demonetization will be that the people will be losing billions of rupees. Why should a citizen lose his money simply because the State Bank has issued a notification?
So, the State Bank must ask all branches of all banks to continue to exchange the withdrawn five-rupee notes with other notes and then give these notes to it in the normal way.
MUHAMMAD Abd
AL-HAMEED
Lahore
EVER since the time Dr Atta-ur-Rehman because federal minister of science and technology, we were always told that Pakistan has two international connectivity links that make us stand out in the international outsourcing market. These links are FLAG and SEMEWE-3. Both of these international links are connected in all countries through their own separate submarine cables.
But to our surprise, on the evening of June 27, Pakistan’s entire international submarine link was cut off and was still down as on June 30. We are informed that SEMEWE-3 has developed a fault.
But where is FLAG? No one at the PTCL is ready to give an answer. As service providers, we are paying millions every month to PTCL on connectivity with FLAG, on the clear understanding that FLAG is a submarine cable that is providing an alternative to Pakistan’s previous SEMEWE-3. We are shocked to know that the ministry of S&T decided to bring FLAG onto the existing SEMEWE-3 submarine pipe.
What a great idea. Now Pakistan’s international business image has been damaged in these few days, which will not be easy to repair. As an association of call centre operators, we have been marketing Pakistan as an alternative to India and the Philippines, especially after India imposed a 36 per cent income-tax on internationally-owned call centres. This challenge has become more difficult to meet.
An inquiry should be conducted into the episode, which has entailed a national loss.
ABDULLAH BUTT
President, Association of Call Centre Operators, Pakistan, Karachi
THIS is with reference to the letter by Mariyam and Daniyal Ali (June 21). I endorse their views.
Any attempt to disown history always backfires by depriving people of natural links to their own heritage. The prestigious Islamia University, Bahawalpur, was established in 1925 Sir Sadiq Muhammad Khan Abbasi V, the late Amir of Bahawalpur. Keeping in view the glorious history of the Abbasids from Baghdad to Bahawalpur, the university was named Jamia Abbasia.
Later in 1975, for reasons not known, the university was renamed as Islamia University. Thus one of the oldest universities in the subcontinent not only lost its identity but also its history.
In the interest of future generations and recognition of the contributions its founder made in the field of education, the original name of Islamia University, Bahawalpur, should be restored to Abbasia University.
Tolerance demands that history and historical names be given due recognition, as is the case in most Muslim countries that have a past to be proud of. To my knowledge, the military academy in Cairo still bears the name Abbasia Military Academy.
DR RAHIM YAR ABBASI
Islamabad
WE have been informed by the Pakistan Animal Welfare Society that “thousands of stray dogs who have long roamed the streets of Karachi, Pakistan, may soon be the target of an extensive and cruel campaign to eliminate them”. It is said that the authorities will spread capsules of strychnine in the streets.
We must protest against this kind of cruel action. Strychnine is a very violent poison which causes a slow death. Populations of stray dogs and the rabies must be controlled, but certainly not by a slaughter.
We urge the authorities concerned to reconsider their plan and discuss it with the Pakistan animal welfare associations in order to find ways to resolve the problem of rabies without cruelty.
MARIA BORREMANS
Brussels Belgium
THIS refers to the Karachi city government’s plan to eliminate pye-dogs by laying out poison-filled sweetmeats and meat in every town and union council. This not only poses a threat to pet dogs and cats but also to garbage pickers and beggars. Moreover, it is a cruel way to get rid of pye-dogs.
Pakistan has been using such these methods for the past 50 years, and they have never worked, which even the City Government acknowledges. The government should adopt the method that has been successful in countries like India — an animal birth control programme which is a humane way of countering pye-dog population and rabies.
Street dogs are captured, surgically neutered, vaccinated against rabies and re-released in the same area where they were caught. The aim is to produce a smaller, healthier, more stable street dog population in which rabies are better controlled.
The World Health Organization now recognizes that slaughter often produces a short-term effect. Even maximal catching rates (up to 24 per cent of the dog population per year) make no significant impact, because where dogs are removed, others migrate into the area to fill the ecological niche.
The Karachi city government should reconsider this approach, and adopt an animal birth control programme.
SABA IMTIAZ
Karachi
OUR experts are these days extolling the advantages of privatization, making people believe that all the ills of this country will be cured once all its assets, whether losing or profitable, are sold to the highest bidder but losing sight of the majority stakeholders, consumers.
There is no watchdog to monitor the aftersale effects on the common citizen. This will entail giving a free hand to the operators of these entities whose only driving force will be to make maximum profits and remit them to their country of origin.
M.A. QURESHI
Karachi
I ENDORSE the views expressed by Dr Ghazy Mujahid on the above subject (June 26). Not only will Mukhtaran Mai do a greater service to Pakistan and Pakistani women by staying in Pakistan to educate the women — and men — of Pakistan, but she would do a big disservice by going abroad.
While her staying on in Pakistan will strengthen and empower women, her going abroad will weaken their resolve: any female victim — past or future — of male brutality and savagery who may wish to speak out will feel that the only way to do so is by going abroad, which hardly one or two would be able to do. So, the majority of victims will opt for silence.
Pakistani women need to realize that they are equal to and as powerful as men and also that all right-minded and educated men are with them. I hope Asma Jehangir and other women activists will realize that the arena for their struggle has to be in Pakistan — PTV, Radio Pakistan and public meetings, not in the West on the CNN and the BBC.
MAHMOOD KHAN
Karachi
THE Supreme Court’s decision to try the men who were acquitted by the Lahore High Court in Mukhtaran’s Mai’s gang rape case has come as a relief to the victim and human right groups across the globe.
It is appalling that an innocent woman had to bear the beastly behaviour perpetrated on her at the behest of a village council. Such councils have no place in civil society and should be done away with.
BARU KUMAR MAHAPATRO Behrampur Orissa,
India
ONE can often see in the newspapers pictures and news items of the president or the prime minister or other ministers and politicians distributing degrees among graduates of mainly private universities that are charging high fees. One rarely finds such accolades for government-owned educational institutions.
I did my graduation from the Punjab University and the convocation never took place, as ministers could not manage time for a government-run institution. Then I did my master’s from the Quaid-i-Azam University, the chancellor of which is the president of Pakistan. He could not manage time for the convocation. But one could see his pictures distributing degrees among graduates of private institutions.
One wonders why children of these ministers and politicians don’t study in government-run schools or colleges.
Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, who is using the slogan of “education for everyone”, should modify this slogan to “uniform education for everyone”.
SHOAIB AHMAD
Lahore
LESCO cannot get its electricity right. Their chief says he does not have the money, equipment and manpower to overhaul the system. WASA cannot get its water right. The whole water system suffers from insufficient water pressure and faulty distribution. Water comes and goes as it pleases, not to mention its quality.
The PTCL cannot work our phones right, nor can it get our Internet working properly. Its fibre network broke and it does not know why.
The city government cannot fix our roads and streets, cannot work our streetlights right, nor can pick our garbage and dispose of it properly. What a way to run our cities and this country.
MOHSIN MALIK
Lahore
PAKISTAN is not the only country in the world to have porous and vulnerable borders. Mr Zalmay Khalilzad, the departed US ambassador to Afghanistan, would have done his profession of diplomacy a lot of good if he had kept that in view. He would not then have accused Pakistan of harbouring Al Qaeda elements.
Even US borders, according to a New York Times report published on June 21, are vulnerable. The US government’s efforts to prevent terrorists from smuggling a nuclear weapon into the United States are so poorly managed and reliant on ineffective equipment that the nation remains extremely vulnerable to a catastrophic attack, scientists and a government auditor warned a House of Representative committee recently. The assessment, coming nearly four years after the September 2001 attacks and after the investment of about $800 million by the US government, prompted expressions of frustration and disappointment from lawmakers.
It is quite clear that Mr Zalmay, despite being from this part of the world, shows little understanding of either his profession or the state of borders.
FAROOQ AHMED MAJOKA
Lahore
THROUGH these columns we want to draw attention of the Lahore Development Authority and Wasa authorities regarding sewerage/drainage bills received by residents of the Baba Farid Colony and the Bhatti Colony, Chungi Amer Sidhu.
For example, I have a 3.5-marla house for which the two civic agencies issue me a bill for Rs676. This is too much since there is no proper sewerage system, and the sewage overflows into streets and open plots. In the last two-and-a-half years no one from these agencies has cared to visit the area.
I hope the authorities concerned will look into the matter, and reduce the billing package.
MOHAMMAD Arshad
Lahore
I WAS puzzled by some of the comments made by Mr Kunwar Idris in his column ‘Justice above prejudice’ (June 26). I think he got carried away a bit when he quoted a couple of Punjabi folk expressions to prove that a crime like gang-rape is not possible in conservative, rural Punjab.
The facts belie such romantic folklore. According to the HRCP’s report, 670 cases of rape were reported in the first 10 months of 2004, out of which 350 were gang-rapes. A majority of these happened in rural Punjab and the ‘walled cities’.
AZIZ AKHMAD
New York, USA
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