| July 4, 2005 | Monday | Jumadi-ul-Awwal 26, 1426 |
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Privatization and foreigners
Is closing Guantanamo enough?
Mayhem on highways
Copyright laws
ICMAP exams in Gilgit
US-India defence pact
Checks and balances
Fuel price hike
Retaining old names
Internet fiasco
Tax net
Lahore flood
IT is a bold move by both Pakistan and India to finally start trade links after a long period. Like the Indians we can now gain from these trade links. The rising prices of meat and other daily use products could finally be brought down for the benefit of the poor.
The idea of protecting our own industries from the effects of imported items is totally bogus. When imported material is cheaper than the locally made counterpart, when most of the country lives below the poverty line, saving the local industries should not be the first priority of the government. The most important thing for the government to do is to provide cheap daily use items for everyone. What good is locally made stuff when the poor cannot afford it? The biggest challenge of the government is poverty elimination.
Similarly, locally assembled automobiles are getting expensive by the day. This is not because of any other reason but extremely high profit margins. The monopoly is going on with a couple of major car assemblers in Pakistan, which sell their cars at high prices and high “premiums”. Since ordinary people have no links with higher authorities, they pay these high premiums to get their cars. Either the government should put a check on the selling prices of these cars or they should make importing of cars more consumer-friendly.
Cars of similar make are much cheaper in India. The government should open the gateway for importing these cars; this will make the local assemblers lower their prices and will infuse competition.
Many foreign countries rely mainly on indigenous materials and products, but in Pakistan local materials are being sold at such high prices that many opt for cheaper imported items. This is all because of high profits, and lesser consumer attraction.
This idea of improving trade with India might prove to be worrying for the local market, but will be a blessing for the ordinary people. The government deserves appreciation for initiating this step.
ZOHAIR BAJWA
Lahore
PAKISTAN’S Privatization Commission ought to learn a lesson or two from the US where foreign ownership of strategic energy interest has received strong opposition on grounds of “national security”.
Instead of encouraging Pakistani consortiums and encouraging indigenous bids, our bureaucrats in the Privatization Commission are going out of their way to accommodate foreign bidders. Despite local liquidity and unprecedented capital in the local capital market, one cannot comprehend the red carpet for the Arabs and the Chinese.
The concentration of holding of our key industries by just four nations — China with a virtual monopoly in all energy assets and Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar in telco/utility — is out of step in the new dynamics of free trade where Pakistan will be blackmailed into opening other markets.
It is a well known fact in the west that the Arabs made a shambles out of their own institutions and only after the intellectual bail-out by the US and the Europeans have they had a turnaround.
The encouragement of external groups who are interested in the bottom-line, without comprehension of local protocol, culture and financial running of organizations, will lead to locals losing out. Our prime minister proudly boasted how we are out of the grips of the IMF and other agencies but in reality our government is merely replacing these with foreign entities who will be equally if not more ruthless in dictating terms to our private sector (and the economy).
It is time that our technocrats learnt the new post-WTO realities of the dog-eat-dog world where only the strongest (and competent trading nations) will survive. Unfortunately, the pre-WTO protectionist and quota-based policies are history and we no longer have the cushion to sit back and let the whole system roll as it has for the past 57 years.
Only time will tell....
A CONSCIOUS PAKISTANI
London
IT is heartening to see some people finally starting to speak against the modern day version of a concentration camp such as the Guantanamo Bay. But one feels that just calling for its closure is not enough. The prisoners will be shifted to a less prominent location. The world must call for justice for those at the camp.
There are numerous inmates who have not been charged yet, have no access to any lawyers and have been given no timeframe for their detention. And not just Guantanamo Bay; many people are suffering at similar ‘detention facilities” in Iraq and Afghanistan. The time has come for us to put increasing pressure on the United States to close these camps immediately and give the prisoners a fair trial. If they are criminals then put them on trial and punish them, but by detaining the innocent and torturing them physically and mentally one doesn’t win any hearts.
After all if the “war on terror” is about seeing justice prevail, those preaching justice should be the first ones to practice it too. By calling them “enemy combatants” and not “prisoners of war” one cannot strip them of their basic human rights. It is amusing how semantics can change the status of someone from a human being to a person who can be treated more like a caged zoo animal. Can someone enlighten me how this helps the cause of those fighting terrorism?
MUHAMMAD TALHA
Karachi
THIS refers to the editorial ‘Mayhem on highways’ (June 28). The statistics provided of road accidents and the number of lives claimed during 2002-03, based on the Federal Bureau of Statistic’s Year Book-04, are nerve-racking. Despite these startling figures no serious efforts seem to have been initiated by government agencies.
Unfortunately, another gory incident has been reported — “Four students die as dumper falls on car”. A speeding dumper carrying stones, while taking a turn on Tipu Sultan Road, Karachi, went out of control and fell on the car, killing four out of five students. The dumper’s driver simply vanished, as is the wont in almost all such cases.
The editorial very rightly observed that apart from apathy of the agencies concerned, we have been desensitized. There was time, and not in the remote past, when even a solitary road accident could bring the entire state machinery into action.
Now things have come to such a pass that even most dreadful accidents in which innumerable precious lives are lost are casually treated as an everyday affair. They evoke a few columns, editorials and letters and flaws in the system and suggestions offered. But these proposals fall on deaf ears.
We ought to realize that the loss of a single life in an accident involves many families. The loss of 4,713 lives in road accidents during the year 2002-03, as pointed out in the editorial means that almost the same number of families were affected.
This problem needs to be tackled like any other issue of national importance by forming a high-powered commission comprising officials, qualified traffic engineers, planners and representative citizens. The remedies suggested now and then at local level so far have failed to deliver due to the inactivity of the stakeholders.
MANZOOR H. KURESHI
Karachi
IT was surprising to read the views of Dr Nouman Ikram Alvi (June 17) criticizing copyright laws. It seems the correspondent does not know the implications of piracy for the national economy, nor is he aware of the extent of loss this social evil will cause to our moral fibre and cultural values.
Without going into the complexity of the technical or legal meaning of copyright infringement or piracy, suffice it is to say that piracy means stealing and theft in any shape, form or under any circumstances and is a most undesirable act.
No one has any right, morally or legally, to take away any property without the permission of the property owner.
Unfortunately, intellectual property, despite being as good a possession as any other landed property, being abstract in nature, is generally not treated as a materially visible property.
Hence, it is stolen without much fear of prosecution. In fact, any work of intellectual property like book, software programme, film or music is exactly the same for its creator, as a land, house, car or factory is for the owner.
Intellectual property is a source of livelihood for its creator and taking away this livelihood through piracy amounts to robbing the person. We need to develop our own legitimate resources and encourage creativity among youth, thus paving the way for a real independent and honourable nation.
Piracy kills creativity. It deters investment and destroys the economy. It mars national identity and culture.
NISAR SARWAR
Karachi
ONE would like to draw the attention of the ICMAP (Institute of Cost and Management Accountants of Pakistan) authorities to the fact that the institute’s campus office in Gilgit has not been operating for the last one or more year. Due to this, registered students at this campus have lost their chance to appear in the last two examinations. We all students hereby strongly appeal to the president of the ICMAP to take personal interest in reopening the campus office and save our future.
We can still save the winter session if something can be done before July 20, the last date for admissions.
ICMAP STUDENTS
Gilgit
EDWARD Gibbon in “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire” says: “Trajan was ambitious of fame; and as long as mankind shall continue to bestow more liberal applause on their destroyers than on their benefactors, the thirst of military glory will ever be the vice of the most exalted characters.”
So, America and India sign a very dangerous defence pact that seeks an aggressive build up of anti-missiles in a move that could make Pakistan missile force ineffective if India chooses it to be so in the future. Peace and friendship have a meaning if they accompany disarmament and even denuclearization. You cannot tell a person that you want peace with him and at the same time sharpen your knives even more vigorously.
We are witnessing strange things where you cannot differentiate between a friend and a foe. China is befriending India, and Pakistan and India are talking friendship. America is getting full cooperation in its war against terror. Then why there is a sudden flashing of swords to destroy this spirit of peace and goodwill, or is it a way to trap the innocent ones unguarded at a later time? Pakistan’s nukes have proved to be the only guarantee against very heavy odds and to nullify them will be a very cruel reward. Deployment of anti-nukes in the future should never have been the agenda of the US-India defence pact as this is playing with the lives of tens of millions of innocent people of Pakistan.
With things like this happening, we should not side with any big country but should honestly wish that the world’s imbalance ends soon. We must pray that the world moves out of sole superpower status and China, as it marches fast to become a superpower, does become a balancing power today rather than tomorrow. We do not favour one power over the other but balance in the world is urgently needed today for not just the security but the survival of the weak ones.
It is sad that Pakistan will be forced to build many times more and cheaper offensive missiles to offset the expensive anti-missiles. America must give anti-missiles to Pakistan as well. After all we are America’s favoured ally and the real partners in the war against terror. Pakistan will have to have decoy missiles amongst the more potent ones.
China’s big strides and rapid progress in energy consumption and refining will have to be welcomed as the balancing acts for the future world. Energy consumption is the index of a nation’s development and military might, and China is getting there at a very fast pace.
Let us hope and pray that the big powers stay sane and the massive transfer of weaponry does not turn against our little Pakistan that least deserves it.
ANWAR MAHMOOD
Alberta, USA
THIS is with reference to the current development in the US-India defence ties where both have signed an agreement for 10 years that will result in collective making of weapons and upgrading of missile technology and will include the sale of an anti-ballistic missile system to India. The reservations on the part of Pakistan have not been heard in the White House.
So, as was expected, the US has repeated its betrayal attitude for Pakistan as it did after the Cold War by passing the Pressler Amendment.
One can expect the US to favour India’s entry into the UNSC as a permanent member. These US developments are actually to check the new and emerging communist bloc that will perhaps consist of Russia, China and North Korea having vast strategic ties with India and Pakistan.
SYED ALI IMRAN
Lahore
REFERENCE the news item “NAB probe initiated against some nazims” (July 1), after the 1999 bloodless military coup one of the many steps General Pervez Musharraf had committed to the people of the country was to bring governance to the grass-roots level.
It seems the resolve by Gen Pervez Musharraf was actually to bring “corruption” to the grass-roots level. We need to have more checks and balances and not “cheques and balances” to plug the leakages in our governance system, including hidden investigation and vigilance of those who are in positions that can be easily exploited. There should be an ongoing “auditing” process for our system to run properly so that the need for NAB-type investigations should not even arise.
ANAS A. KHAN
Edmonton, Canada
THE Oil Companies Advisory Committee and Oil Marketing Companies must be crazy to raise prices by Rs3.41 and Rs2.68 per litre for petrol and diesel. Petrol is now being sold at Rs49.04 and not Rs48.94 as announced since all petrol pumps charge eight to 10 paisas extra.
The other day a report indicated that by keeping petrol prices frozen for the last quarter, the government had to bear Rs58 billion in subsidies. That was the prelude to the present unrealistic and illogical rise.
The most hit hard is the middle class — ranging between 40 to 75 per cent of the public to which our finance managers do not belong. In fact, their fuel expenses are borne by the government that they represent. When import is allowed at friendly rates from Arab countries, there is no justification for such an increase.
S.M. KAZIM NAQVI
Karachi
THIS is in response to the letters by Dr Rahim Yar Abbasi (July 1) and Mariyam and Daniyal Ali (June 21) regarding retaining old names. I cannot agree more with them as some names (like Dow Medical College or Ganga Ram Hospital) have been retained by a special clause in the law.
This is not new as we often hear about some political leader proudly participating in a ceremony to change the name of a public place or a road.
Changing the names of roads or historical places tells a lot about the current generation — that we have been unsuccessful in constructing enough institutes or roads to name them after people of our choice.
May be, no new roads, building or institutes have been built in the last five decades. May be, we will be called a generation of “name-changers and non-builders”.
SHAKEEL AHMED KHAN
Pennsylvania, USA
The minister of information technology and communication, secretaries of related ministries, the chairman PTCL and all other top bureaucrats — some of whom may be retired or sitting high-ranking army officers as well —directly related to the Internet fiasco should be taken to task.
One can guarantee that no one will resign admitting his or her responsibility and negligence since we do not have any such precedent. This is what is expected from incompetent and inept authorities who are rewarded based on family, clan, connection and loyalty and not ability and experience.
Running the entire country’s Internet infrastructure on a single point of failure is incomprehensible and a big joke with the consumers.
NIAZ HODAChicago, USA
THIS is in response to the letter by Mr Shams Naqvi (July 2) on the damage to the undersea cable. Mr Naqvi may be right about the naval exercises and the damage to the cable. But there is one very important factor to be considered here. The high ups in the PTCL should have provided a backup.
It shows their total lack of understanding of IT and communication and poor judgment.
MOHAMMAD A. MIRZA
Saudi Arabia
IT’S interesting that the government can increase petroleum prices and put an increased burden on the already hard pressed consumer but doesn’t have the courage to tax stock market punters. To top it all, even a Rs25,000 cheque is taxed as per the new budget.
The daily consumption of petroleum in our country is estimated to be 18 million litres per day, so a five-rupee increase generates incremental revenue of Rs90 million per day. A lot more can easily be generated by a meagre tax of 0.30 per cent on the stock market whose average daily turnover, conservatively speaking, is Rs30 billion per day. Hardly 15 per cent of the stock market turnover is by the common man, so protecting the interests of the stock market is actually protecting the interests of the rich.
We have no right to support the stock market using the shoulders of the common citizen to attract foreign investment. The government should realize now the pressure on a common salaried person and seriously try to increase the tax net on the rich people to give some relief to the poor.
M. ADNAN MIRZA
Karachi
THIS is with regard to the picture of Lahore’s flooded streets (July 2) showing a portion of a propaganda hoarding on top right corner bearing words “Tajdeed-i-Wafa” with pictures of the Chaudhris of Punjab. The headline below the picture reads, “Rain wreaks havoc in Lahore; eight killed.”
No comments.
BAKHTIAR AHMAD
Karachi
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