| August 17, 2005 | Wednesday | Rajab 11, 1426 |
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Kalabagh dam: reaching a decision
Expelling foreign students
Stocktaking of agricultural policy
Illegal parking
Tracking Dr A.Q. Khan
Four-year course
Bank scam
PIA discounts
Clarification
IN his letter, “Defining ‘ummah’” (Aug 6), MNA Kunwar Khalid Yunus has made some questionable assertions.
The first one is that in these times there is no such thing as an ‘ummah’, which he has defined as “a community of free men under God who have the same ethnic, linguistic, religious affiliation.” One doesn’t know what the source of this definition is and why it should be necessary to put ethnic and linguistic limits to the term. Mr Yunus argues that in Pakistan most Muslims are neither from one ethnic stock nor do they speak one language. Also, that culture is a stronger adhesive than religion. Further, that socially, ethnically and temperamentally there is a wide difference between Muslims of different regions of the world.
In reply, one would give two examples: first, even two brothers often have widely differing temperaments. We also have many multi-ethnic families in Pakistan where one or more of the spouses living in the same house are from a different stock and have different mother tongues and even be culturally different, yet no one can deny that the brothers or the other folks are a family. Therefore, the family is a microcosm and the ummah a macrocosm. We should not try to divide it on narrow lines.
Second, every Muslim’s heart had bled for the Bosnians during their genocide of the last decade. And, at a time when the US and other western powers were dragging their feet, many countries, including Pakistan, Turkey, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Malaysia had offered to send their troops to protect the defenceless Bosnians, or had wanted to provide material help, but the US did not allow that under cover of sanctions.
If a soldier from, say, Turkey or Pakistan was prepared to even sacrifice his life in the service of the Bosnians, what greater proof of the existence of the ummah could be provided?
Similarly, every Muslim alive is seething with anger at the way Israel is exterminating the Palestinians with total American backing. Isn’t this an illustration of the presence of the same spirit of brotherhood that should pervade an ummah?
Admittedly, things are not perfect. While many Muslim nations support Pakistan’s stand on Kashmir wholeheartedly, there sadly are establishments while, because of political and other links with India, merely pay lip-service. Nevertheless, we must not belittle the reality of the concept, which is alive, and only need to put in efforts to make it better, as the OIC is now trying to do.
The second thing is his contention that ‘jihad’ has only one meaning and that the shortest definition of it is to wage war against infidels and to spread Islam through war. Mr. Yunus’s definition implies that Islam was spread only through the sword. The noted British scholar Karen Armstrong has convincingly disproved the allegation about the violent spread of Islam in her book, Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet. Many other fair- minded western writers have done likewise.
It should be remembered that if the accusations were true, then in India, where the Muslims had ruled for six centuries, the majority of the Hindus would surely have been converted to Islam, whereas they continued to be the huge majority. Besides India, the Sufis and pious Muslim merchants spread Islam peacefully to most places in Asia such as Central Asia, Indonesia, Malaysia and China.
In another of her books, Islam: A Short History, Karen Armstrong writes: “In the 13th century Muslim merchants had also established themselves along the coast of the southern seas in east Africa, southern Arabia, and the western coast of the Indian subcontinent. Muslim merchants, every one a missionary for the faith, had settled in Malaysia at a time when Buddhist trade had collapsed there, and soon enjoyed immense prestige. Sufi preachers followed the businessmen, and by the 14th and 15th centuries Malaysia was predominantly Muslim. The whole world seemed to be becoming Islamic: even those who did not live under Muslim rule discovered that the Muslims controlled the high seas.”
The bottomline that determines a Muslim’s attitude and behaviour is his or her strength of faith in God. If it is as strong as it should be or used to be in the past, then Islam provides a far better bonding than culture or other factors ever can. In Pakistan I have seen good Muslims get along extremely well with people from those ethnic groups with whom their own community was having very tense relations.
ABDUL ALEEM
Karachi
ANY project using new or existing technology in a challenging way contains risks not only to people but to the environment and the stakeholders. Consequently, construction of the Kalabagh dam is also a major project that will contain major risks which need to be identified and evaluated from the conceptual stage of the design and followed through detailed engineering, construction and operation phases.
In this process all hidden hazards, both ‘man-made’ and ‘natural’, are vigorously evaluated in terms of quantified risk assessments (QRA) and their probabilities of reoccurrence are reduced, mitigated and controlled in the design options. All design options would go through meticulous screening and comparison to select one which is most acceptable to all the provinces concerned.
The process is carried out by independent consultants, who would have no ties, financial or otherwise, with the design consultants. As for codes and standards, they do not cover hazards in the design, but there are analytical techniques such as ETA, FTA, FMECA, HAZID, HAZOP etc., which can aid the decision process.
In this way, they can tackle all known grievances and requirements of all provinces which would bring them together to share the benefits.
I think the project authorities require independent advisers, who can evaluate the risk assessment process, draw up conclusive options for the dam and present them to all concerned parties in a logical manner.
LATIF KHAN
Kuwait
MANY people think that the recent India-created flood could have been averted had the Kalabagh dam existed. This is not so. This flood brought ruination in upper Punjab whereas the Kalabagh dam is proposed to be built in lower Punjab.
Moreover, former Irsa chairman Engineer Fatehullah (July 31), himself a supporter of the proposed dam, says: “The design of the Kalabagh dam is not of the nature where floodwater can be stored.”
Nowhere in the world dams are built on the basis of unwanted water such as released by India. Supposing that the Kalabagh dam exists and is already filled with water, what will happen if unwanted water is released by India without any schedule?. Will it not wash out the dam?
It was also previously said that the KBD would be used to store rainwater, but after the general lack of rainfall for several years it is being said now that the dam is for storage of floodwater. Facts speak otherwise.
It is also surprising to read that KBD supporters connect the ruination of Badin to the absence of this dam. In fact, the ruination in Badin was the direct result of rains. How the KBD, a long way from Badin, could have saved the city from “rain ruination” ?
IMRAN KHAN SIAL
Karachi
A trio of commentators comprising Prof Mukhtar Ali Naqvi, Ajmal Kamal and Mumtaz Ahmad has spoken its mind on sending back all foreign students studying in Pakistani madressahs (Aug 13).
Prof Naqvi has criticized the government for expelling the foreign students as their study of years may be wasted. He believes that some or all of them might lose their degrees or certificates.
Mr Kamal considers the expulsion a positive step toward ending the possibility of their involvement in prospective terror attacks. He also advises changing the system of education from day-night studies to only day-time schooling as board and lodging create many other problems like abuse of minor students.
Mr Ahmad has asked a hypothetical question. What if US and the UK expelled all foreign students considering them to be potential terrorists? Then, answering it himself, he says that they won’t do it as — he now praises them — they are law-abiding countries unlike ours.
The decision to deport foreign students is not a new one. Four years ago, just after 9/11 when it was alleged by the US that foreign students were involved in the attacks, some contributors of this column had suggested that all foreign students, especially Arabs, should be sent back to their countries lest they might indulge in terror attacks.
The reason of this decision seems to be the fear that another horde of Taliban-like student militia might be producer by the madressahs that prepare them for religious extremism which creates intolerance and racial hatred. The Taliban had studied and were trained in the NWFP and Balochistan before going over to Afghanistan. Their chief, Mullah Omar, was a schoolteacher in the early 1990s in Quetta from where he was expelled by the school management. Pakistan cannot afford a second wave of religious fanatics.
S.M. KAZIM NAQVI
Karachi
THIS has reference to the news item, “22,000 tons Chinese sugar arrives” (Dawn, Aug 9). Ours being an agricultural country with a population of 150 million, it is depressing to note that even after 58 years of independence we have not achieved self-sufficiency in agriculture. China, by contrast, has 1.3 billion mouths to feed and yet it manages to export agriculture produce. Doesn’t this call for a stocktaking of our agriculture policy?
Sugarcane production during the year 2004-05 dwindled by 15.2 per cent on account of a shortfall in the area under cultivation by a staggering 127,000 hectares, triggering a gap in supply and demand. As a result, the price of sugar skyrocketed, prompting the government to intervene and import sugar to meet the shortage and stabilize prices in the market. Thus, we also lost precious foreign exchange.
The decline in area and production can be attributed to the growers’ exploitation at the hands of millers who unjustifiably delayed payment of previous for the year’s crop while the government did not go beyond paying lip-service.
Disgruntled about the treatment meted out to them, the growers switched to other crops.
We witnessed a yawning trade gap last fiscal year and with this year beginning with the import of sugar, a gloomy scenario seems likely to prevail unless the government ensures timely payment to growers and considers incentives to encourage cane production.
M. SHAHID DAYO
Ghotki
DESPITE complaints to the authorities concerned, coasters, wagons, buses, vans, trucks and cabs in Karachi continue to illegally use and occupy space for parking and block flow of traffic on service road and the main road adjacent to Jauhar Chowrangi in the direction of Darul Sehat Hospital, Gulistan-i-Jauhar, Block-15, and other roads.
The area around Jauhar Chowrangi has become a permanent ‘parking lot’ and repair workshop for commercial vehicles. They are being patronized by some unscrupulous elements against payment of ‘bhatta’ reportedly being shared by some officials of the law-enforcement offices of the area.
The governor is requested to put a stop to the illegal parking and post traffic police at Jauhar Chowrangi, which should be provided with traffic lights.
ARSALAN JAMIL
Karachi
THE former Dutch prime minister, Mr Ruud Lubbers, has told the Dutch public radio that Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan had worked in his country between 1975 and 1986 (sic) and that at the request of the CIA the Netherlands let him go (Aug 10).
The report says that in 1975 Mr Lubbers, then minister of economy, received information that Dr Khan was stealing secrets about the enrichment of uranium (from Urenco, his employers at the time). He was never indicted for his activities because the CIA had asked the Netherlands to let him go.
Mr Lubbers further said: “The American intelligence services preferred not to arrest the man but let him go. They thought: ‘Give us all the information but do not hold that man. Let him go, we will follow him and get more information.’”.
According to him, that same year Dr Khan probably felt his cover was blown because he never returned from a holiday to Pakistan. Finally, the Dutch authorities did open an investigation in 1979 that led to Dr Khan being sentenced in absentia in 1983 to four years in prison. His conviction was overturned on appeal because of procedural mistakes.
At the time there were still possibilities to continue with the proceedings against Dr Khan but the authorities again backed off at the request of the CIA, by which time Mr Lubbers had become prime minister.
There are several problems with this story. The Pakistani scientist had started working in Holland since getting his PhD from there in 1972. Dr Khan had been given the total responsibility of setting up the uranium enrichment facility in 1976 by the then prime minister Z. A. Bhutto and it was for this reason that he no longer required to return to his previous employers. The Dutch PM has jumped to the wrong conclusion by insinuating that the former felt his cover was blown.
Another odd thing is that a minister for economy should have been taken into confidence by the CIA about Dr Khan stealing nuclear secrets rather than their foreign or interior affairs ministers.
Further, it is unlikely that the CIA would have been on Dr Khan’s trail in 1975 when Pakistan’s nuclear programme did not even exist. What is more likely is that the agency became aware of the man named Khan considerably after 1976 and it was only then that Washington must have put pressure on the Netherlands to try him. That is also why the trial was held in 1979 and not 1975. He was sentenced in absentia to four years’ imprisonment in 1983. Dr Khan unhesitatingly went across to defend himself against the verdict because he had no fear his ‘cover was blown’ and he also knew that he was not guilty of any wrongdoing. The court overturned the earlier decision, as reported in a leading national Urdu daily.
That seems to be the factor governing the Dutch authorities’ decision not to pursue the case. One amazing thing is that the establishment in The Hague appears to have been a mere puppet in the hands of the CIA or the American administration. It should be embarrassing for anybody from a developed country, who was a prime minister at the time, to admit it.
S. QADRI
Karachi
CONGRATULATIONS to the Karachi University Teachers Society (KUST) for opposing the proposed four-year honours degree programme in public sector universities, as recommended by the HEC.
In many Commonwealth countries, including Pakistan, a three- year honours degree is offered. The HEC recommendations for increasing the course by a year might be based on the assumption that it would entitle our degrees equivalence to foreign degrees. This appears to be mere fallacy.
It is not the number of years, a quantitative consideration, but the quality of education which our universities should be offering that matters.
Equivalence with the advanced countries will be achieved by bringing about qualitative change in the standards of higher education. In order to achieve this objective, a number of steps should be taken. These include: increasing the amount of money spent on education, providing better reading material and easy Internet access to students, sending young teachers for doing their PhDs from good universities abroad, allowing academics to travel freely abroad for attending conferences or doing research, and appointing reputed scholars as vice-chancellors of our public-sector universities.
DR MEHTAB ALI SHAH
Sindh University, Jamshoro
THE Supreme Court gave a bold decision on June 5 in the Islamic Investment Bank Rs633 million scam case. Thousands of citizens, including pensioners, widows and senior citizens, had deposited money in the bank but were unaware of the illegal going-ons behind the curtains. It took months to even encash a certificate of Rs500,000. The bank was neither giving any interest nor the principal amount.
Although the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) was aware of the bank’s worsening financial position, it did not bother to issue a public notice. Even now it has not made any statement about the future of deposits and what action has been taken regarding the merger of the bank, which is in the best interest of the depositors.
I request the SECP to take this matter seriously and inform the public about the progress in this regard. I also request NAB to kindly recover the entire amount as soon as possible.
MOHAMMAD TARIQ
Peshawar
ONE would like to draw the attention of the PIA management regarding discounts available to people above 60 when flying to Pakistan.
PIA has stopped giving discounts to septuagenarians and above any more, and it has affected quite a number of settlers in the UK.
No reason has been given and yet at the same time a 15 per cent discount has been allowed on some routes by PIA but not to UK residents, which seems unfair.
May I request a response from the PIA management on this discrimination?
A. H.MALIK
London, UK
THIS refers to the news ‘Govt attends to nano S&T’ (Dawn, Aug 8). Your reporter quoted Dr Nawab Akhter as referring to non-utilization of fuel cells at the NED University. This information is outdated. At present a scholar is preparing the proposal for a PhD project using this material.
The project’s concept is based on collaborative work with a German university already doing research on fuel cells. Data and information collected through experimentation on this material and simulation carried out in Germany would also be exchanged between the two universities for improving fuel cell performance.
This project would be jointly supervised by the undersigned in Pakistan and Prof (Dr) Kabelac in Germany.
Dr R.Q. HAMID
NED University of Engineering and Technology,
Karachi
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