| August 25, 2005 | Thursday | Rajab 19, 1426 |
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Kalabagh dam
Kachhi Canal
Senate secretariat on gifts & dinners
Pakistan’s auto sector
Voting for moderation
Pakistan visit — ‘a disappointment’
KU’s external exams
‘A bizarre tradition’
Special persons
Kashmir issue
Rising crude oil prices
DR Aftab Ahmed (Aug 23) is right that when something is published it is available in the public domain. However, it does not at all signify that it will have any effect on deeply held historical prejudices.
For instance, a lot of published material is available on partition which might lead to conclusions other than the authorized version starting with Lord Wavell’s Viceroy’s journal. The most important was the publication between 1970 and 1983 of the British documents relating to the transfer of power. These were edited of embarrassing material by Prof Mansergh before release. The most critical was Volume 12 which contained the role Mountbatten played during the last months of his viceroyship.
Substantially based on these disclosures, Dr Ayesha Jalal published her book The Sole Spokesman in 1985. This was followed in 1988 by the unexpurgated version of Maulana Azad’s India wins Freedom. The most trenchant criticism of Gandhi and the Congress leadership was by Hormusji Maneckji Servai in his book Partition — legend and reality, published in 1989. However, the most interesting has been Prof Stanley Wolpert’s biography of Nehru published in 1996.
The trouble with all these serious and semi-serious books is that they are not widely read. The authorized version has more or less been formulated by the bestseller Freedom at Midnight by Lapiere and Collins. This is basically a hagiography of Lord Mountbatten. A recent publication in this anti-Jinnah genre is by Mr Rafiq Zakaria.
People’s opinion is nowadays formed or possibly reinforced by television, their favoured daily newspaper and the gossip indulged in by the person’s friends and acquaintances.
On the whole, I would submit that up to now no newspaper worth its name is prepared to publish anything except the ‘authorized version’ about partition.
ZAFAR IQBAL
Karachi
REFERENCE letters by Mr Khurshid Anwar (Aug 12) and Mr B.A. Malik (Aug 14), it appears to be just a waste of time on the part of all of us to discuss this subject as a decision to build the dam has already been taken by the powers-that-be. But to put the record straight, I am replying to the letters of Mr Anwar and Mr Malik.
They say that the resolutions of the three assemblies are political. If so, then all the other resolutions, of all the assemblies, including the National Assembly and the Senate, are not tenable. The gentlemen should know that these assemblies have passed resolutions more than once — the NWFP thrice and Sindh twice — after threadbare discussion and considering the technical aspects of the dam and suggesting alternatives.
So the people of the three provinces are not ‘misguided’, but I fear those of Punjab are being misguided. The argument that the dam will not block even one cusec of water flowing to Sindh stands refuted as a canal has been taken out from the Tarbela Dam, after 25 years, in the name of the Pehur High-level Canal. As such the argument that ‘surplus’ water will be ‘distributed’ has no value, because of the experience of the Chashma-Jhelum link canal and the Greater Thal canal (which, although being denied, has been completed and tested).
In the presence of these facts, there will be no ‘surplus’ water to be ‘distributed’. Regarding 38 MAF, it was Mr B. A. Malik, who, in his letter (July 24), had said that this quantity of water flowed downstream Kotri every year.
It is good that Mr Malik visited the Kotri barrage in 1951 and later crossed over the bridge several times. The availability of 129,000 cusecs of water on July 13 was not there as a right of Sindh nor a gift from Punjab, but it was due the divine intervention in the shape of floods, the reasons for which are open to discussion.
Mr Malik asks: if the telemetry system worked in Egypt, why shouldn’t it work here?
I agree with him, but it is the intention that counts, and unfortunately the ‘pious’ intentions in this case have not been translated into real actions. Hence the doubts and misgivings on the part of the smaller provinces.
The sacrifices of Punjab have been talked about, forgetting the obstacles put by it in the implementation of the Water Accord of 1991 and the NFC Award. Why not adopt the principle of parity among the provinces, i.e., 25 per cent each, as was done in 1955 while creating One Unit and disregarding the population factor, although the population of East Pakistan was approximately 55 per cent?
ZAFARUL HAQ MEMON
Karachi
THE Kachhi Canal is being built to irrigate 700,000 acres of land in the districts of Dera Murad Jamali, Naseerabad, Bolan and Dera Bugti in Balochistan. It will take off from Taunsa Barrage. It will have a capacity of 6,000 cusecs and will be 500km long. It will cover a distance of 300km in the districts of DG Khan and Rajanpur before entering Balochistan. The length of the main canal in Balochistan will be 200km and that of the distribution network 2,000km. The project is estimated to cost Rs32.5 billion.
The canal was initially supposed to start from Mithankot by building a barrage there. It would then have had a length of about 300km, out of which only 100km would have been in Punjab. Probably due to topography or the need to bring more area under command, the take-off point was shifted upstream to Taunsa.
The project as designed has some inherent weaknesses, which one would like to point out to the authorities. First, the alignment of the main canal runs across the foothills of the Suleiman Range in Punjab and will be prone to flood damage from the numerous hill torrents crossing the canal. Second, the upper riparians along the canal in the Punjab districts will always breach the canal to irrigate their lands, if the canal does not carry a share of water for their lands. It would be next to impossible for the government of Balochistan to check this activity. It is feared that very little water will reach the boundary of Balochistan.
The best course would be to make this an inter-provincial canal to cater for both Punjab and Balochistan districts. Its repair and maintenance as well as its protection will then become an inter-provincial responsibility and liability and it is hoped that the provinces will discharge their respective duties efficiently.
FAQIR AHMED PARACHA
Peshawar
THIS is with reference to your editorial ‘Extravagance unlimited” (Aug 18) where you have mentioned the expenditure incurred on purchases of gifts and the hosting of dinners by the Senate secretariat.
The secretariat is thankful for your kind concern and assures you that we share the common objective of economizing on expenditure.
Normally expenses for our functions are below the average you have mentioned. The high average was because of some of very largely attended functions that were held specifically in view of the nature and significance of the visitors and events, which required high interaction with a large cross-section — dinner for the visiting Hurriyat leaders from Kashmir during their landmark visit; dinner for Mr Melih Gokeck, mayor of Ankara, and his 110-member delegation; and a dinner for a SAFMA delegation.
A large retinue, security staff support and logistic personnel were also present. Our effort has always been to keep the per head expenses below Rs500.
The gifts are not for any one event but stocked for use over a period of time, for which there is a proper log.
RAFIQUE AHMED DAHAR
Director (PR), Senate Secretariat
Islamabad
EVEN though Pakistan’s auto sector is a fast growing industry, it faces numerous obstacles. While the industry has shown commendable growth in revenue generation, bringing in foreign exchange, creating employment, human resource development and technology transfer, the government is not supportive of the industry. It has recently taken decisions which in the end will reverse the gains and growth made by the auto sector, even when it understands that all countries which have achieved any major growth in the industrial sector have concentrated their efforts on their engineering industry, the focal point of which is the automobile industry.
According to the recent statistics available on the government’s website, production of cars in 2004-05 increased by 27 per cent as compared to the fiscal year 2003-04. Production of motorcycles has doubled during the same time.
This continued growth in the automobile sector will benefit the country. The biggest problem is unemployment and with the huge increase in production the auto industry promises to provide a solution to the problem. It is quite evident that the industry will take the country towards self-sufficiency in a very short span of time. Will the government wake up to the call of the future?
BILAL FAROOQI
Karachi
THE ANP and the PPPP have re-emerged in the NWFP and the MMA has suffered a downslide in spite of the latter’s stronghold in the NWFP and its efforts to draw in the people through the Hasba bill.
In Karachi, too, the MQM has won a landslide victory leaving the Jamaat-i-Islami far behind in the first bid. People seem to have reposed their confidence in the president’s agenda of ‘enlightened moderation’.
HINA KHAN
Lahore
AFTER spending 15 years in Saudi Arabia and vacationing in many cities of the world, we this year decided that it was time our children aged 13, 10 and four got to know about our motherland. We, therefore, booked ourselves on a two-week tour of Pakistan at an amazingly low price. (The reasons for the low price became very obvious at the end of the tour.)
The nightmare started with an 18-hour journey from Karachi to Faisalabad. Although the train was reasonably clean and airconditioned, the toilets were another story. As a friend of mine remarked, “I wouldn’t put my dog in there”. My four-year-old daughter refused to enter the toilet.
I had read so much about Faisalabad that I was really excited to see the city. The reality was a huge shock. Faisalabad is an extremely dirty, depressing city.
As soon as we left the station we were swarmed by an army of beggars who refused to leave us. We left for Rawalpindi in a coaster and after a six-hour road trip reached Pindi. Rawalpindi was also a huge disappointment. It is a really rundown city.
The next day we left for a trip to Islamabad. This was the only bright spot in the entire tour. Islamabad is a well-planned city with beautiful parks and places. However the city is dead at around 10pm.
We left for Swat Valley the next day. The Swat Valley has always been projected as a land of clear blue skies, beautiful mountains, blue water, etc. The reality is quite the opposite. Mingora is a dreadful city, with acute poverty and filth.
We went to Malam Jabba the next day. The beauty of the surroundings was considerably marred by the acute poverty of the people residing there. As soon as we reached Malam Jabba we were surrounded by beautiful children all begging for alms or trying to sell something.
The mountain was littered with empty juice packets and other filth. There were no trash can in sight.
Kalam is the place which will haunt me forever. My younger children both had severe cases of food poisoning there. With no decent medical facilities available, I had to rely on the medication which we had brought with us.
There are no medical facilities, tourist information centres, emergency centres, etc., in all the places I visited. I just cannot think of the nightmarish consequences of somebody falling sick or injuring himself in places like Naran or Kalam where access is both difficult and dangerous.
We visited Jheel Saiful Malook — a breath-takingly beautiful place. We also went to ‘Lalazaar’, although the roads made us wish we hadn’t. From Naran we went to Rawalpindi and on the last day we went to Nathiagali, Ayubia, Murree, etc. A two-day tour was cramped into a single day and we were all exhausted at the end of the day. The next day we left for Karachi by plane.
The trip killed all the romantic notions I had had since childhood about places like Swat, Rawalpindi, Abbottabad.
SOHAIL FAZAL ABBAS
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
AS an external candidate for an MA in international relations, I had a rather unpleasant experience at Karachi University. The toilets were not clean and students were made to sit in the open air on broken chairs and tables with tons of dust on them. One had to sit continuously for three hours in this terrible condition for the master’s exam held in the last week of July and the first week of August when fortunately the weather was pleasant.
However, one fails to understand why the university was not making good use of the vast space and resources it has.
Moreover, the university’s website which was last updated in March 2005 required several attempts to be accessed even for general information while seeking information over the telephone is not possible because nobody bothers to attend to calls. The attitude of the staff towards visitors and students is brusque, to say the least, and they do not guide anyone seeking information.
One fails to understand where our education system is leading us to in today’s world of modernization and how much time it will take to improve. The university has done nothing to improve the quality of our education system despite charging a huge amount in fees from students.
The authorities concerned are requested to look into the matter and try and make the most of our resources to provide students with at least the basic facilities, and to upgrade their departmental resources which are in the worst possible condition.
SHAHZAD NOOR ALI
Karachi
THIS has reference to the news report ‘Saudi women keeping up bizarre tradition’ by Syed Rashid Husain (Aug 21). The agreement between men and women in some tribes in Saudi Arabia under which women do not show their faces to men and even close relatives such husbands, fathers and sons is really bizarre.
Your correspondent correctly says that this has nothing to do with religion. Here is the classic example — as in Pakistan and in fact in every Muslim society — of culture defying religion. In Far Eastern Muslim countries, dancing and singing are not considered irreligious. In north-eastern and central African Muslim countries, couples have children without marriage as they believe that marriage is not traditionally and culturally necessary.
I think education from the grassroots’ level is the need of the hour. And it is needed everywhere, in each corner of the world, especially the Muslim countries. The educated amongst us should embark upon a mission to bring the cultures and customs of tribesmen at par with religion which in itself is a treasure of knowledge.
S. M. KAZIM NAQVI
Karachi
THIS refers to Mr Umer Inayat’s letter ‘Cars for special persons’.
Will all the MNAs and VIPs display on their cars “Duty-free — paid by the public?”
Special people are better than we normal beings who ‘hear no evil’, ‘speak no evil’ and ‘see no evil’.
Cars for special people should be duty-free and be allowed hassle-free. This is the Zakat we can pay for not being special.
BASIT ALAVI
Karachi
I REFER to President Musharraf’s interview to the Daily Telegraph (Dawn, Aug 14) urging India’ leaders to expedite the peace process between the two countries towards a just Kashmir settlement which will strengthen his hands to tackle the bane of extremism with more vigour and effectiveness.
There is eminent merit in what Pakistan’s president said. When Philip Ziegler’s biography of Lord Mountbatten was launched in London in 1985, I recall that, according to Ziegler, Lord Mountbatten had devised a proposal for settling the Kashmir dispute which he wanted to submit to India’s prime minister Pandit Nehru in New Delhi for the Indian government to consider.
Its crux seemed to be (a) independence for the disputed princely state of Jammu and Kashmir and (b) complete demilitarization of the state. The Mountbatten biography does not say whether Mountbatten actually submitted the proposal to Nehru; it appears that his friends in the then Indian cabinet dissuaded him from doing so.
Mountbatten also believed that the partition of Jammu and Kashmir was the only answer to the Kashmir problem (page 451). Nehru’s emotional involvement with Kashmir was seemingly a hurdle in the search for a solution. Mountbatten’s biography says on this aspect of the Kashmir problem (page 445): “Kashmir affects me (Nehru) in a peculiar way (Nehru was to write some time later to Edwina Mountbatten); it is a kind of mild intoxication — like music sometimes or the company of a beloved person”.
The Mountbatten biography also says that Nehru paid lip-service to the idea of a plebiscite in Kashmir and did all he could to ensure that such a test did not take place (page 446).
QUTUBUDDIN AZIZ
Karachi
PHILIPPINE President Gloria Arroyo’s orders to her countrymen to take “drastic steps to conserve energy” (Dawn, August 22) should also serve our own countrymen as a wake-up call. We must not only conserve energy but at the same time try to find alternative sources as a replacement for the costly fuel used in our vehicles and power generation.
Some quarters have already started predicting crude oil prices going beyond $100 per barrel by year-end. Liquefying crude oil is a viable option as was successfully adopted by South Africa while under sanctions and recently being done by China foreseeing her huge energy consumption in the near future. We have large coal deposits in the country and some of them are being explored for gasification purposes but not for fuel.
Recently, Greenpeace has demonstrated running a car on vegetable oils. So, there are alternatives after all available for those who look for them.
MOHAMMED ALI JAWAID
Karachi
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