| September 11, 2005 | Sunday | Sha’aban 6, 1426 |
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Humour and reality
Haj operators
Rate of return
ADB’s warning on poverty
Oil price calculation formula
Patients’ right
Mangrove forests
Flyovers
Great deluge
Students’ dilemma
Inzamam & World XI
Killer dumpers
THE president, the prime minister and other important ministers of the government are frequently emphasizing the supreme importance of self-reliant growth and development by eliminating our dependence or external aid.
The basic philosophy underlying the concept of self-reliance is the capability to bear any crisis on the basis of internal strength and resilience. Self-reliance, however, is not synonymous with economic autarky, implying a closed economic system with no international economic links. Self-reliance signifies the achievement of a stage economic development characterized by a state of economic equilibrium based on normal commercial transactions rather than forms of special external support such as concessional bilateral loans and grants.
Basically it implies freedom from dependence of foreign assistance. It means self-confidence and the capacity for autonomous goal-setting and decision-making. Consequently, it emphasizes the need to resist and reject all forms of dependency, self-invited or externally imposed that can be converted into political pressure and weaken our national sovereignty.
Self-reliance would lose much of its significance if it were associated with a low level equilibrium trap. What is to be aimed at is dynamic self-reliance where the rate of economic growth is accelerated while simultaneously developing the capacity to sustain it exclusively from our domestic resources. This means that a self-reliant economy during its process of growth must generate enough savings and exports to maintain the momentum of its growth at a robust rate.
It has to be clearly understood that the journey towards a self-reliant economy will be a long and arduous one with difficulties faced at several points.
The planners will have to devise and implement a coherent strategy aimed at building up human resources and promoting positive interactions of growth with savings and investment.
In the context of mobilizing resources for the implementation of a strategy aiming at self-reliance the importance of austerity cannot be overemphasized. No doubt there has been a lot of noise about avoidance of waste, ostentation and avoidance of conspicuous consumption but little effective action.
The lack of consonance between professed ideals and existential practice has brought into prominence the growing contrasts between the lifestyles of the rich and the poor. If this trend is not decisively reversed, it is bound to unleash forces whose power and effects cannot be anticipated and which may retard our progress towards self-reliance aside from generating de-stabilizing social tensions.
AFTAB AHMAD KHAN
Karachi
IN his column “Humour and the dark side of reality” (Aug 28), Mr Ardeshir Cowasjee has used one example of maltreatment of a pelican to write off the moral progress of the whole nation.
Why is he forgetting the countless Pakistanis who daily feed pigeons and other birds, stray cats and dogs and those who pay some unscrupulous people money to free the birds caged by the latter? How about the innumerable poor who get free food at Sufi shrines and commercial eateries, paid for by kind-hearted Pakistanis?
He is also forgetting that millions of his compatriots who look after their old parents, other family members and relatives. Besides, according to research conducted by respectable organizations like the Aga Khan Development Network, the Pakistanis are among the most giving of people in the world. According to one estimate, the amount of money spent yearly by local and expat citizens nearly rivals the amount collected by the government as taxes and that is what makes the numerous welfare trusts such as the Edhi Foundation work.
Another notable example is the way Pakistan Army helicopter pilots risked their lives in a recent daring operation to successfully rescue a Slovenian mountaineer stuck in a snowstorm on the Nanga Parbat at over 21,000 feet altitude.
Once, my motorbike would not start no matter how much I tried. A young woman who happened to be watching my plight from a bungalow across the street called out to suggest I may be out of petrol and offered to provide some. At another time I fell down when my bike skidded and was slightly hurt. Some strangers hurried across, picked my bike up and helped me get onto my feet.
If Mr Cowasjee happens to fall down and get hurt while walking along a city street, a swarm of the same Pakistanis whom he demonizes will gather around and hasten to help him. The gentleman would certainly be aware of such facts but he persists in running the country down, which is painful.
SALIK
Karachi
APROPOS of Mr Sarfraz Zia Ansari’s letter ‘Haj operators’ (Sept 1), the factual position is that the ministry charges Rs1,500 as fee for the registration form from group organizers. This amount is deposited in the public account. As for Rs2,000 per form, no such amount has been received and the statement is not correct.
A sum of Rs50,000 was charged as earnest money for Haj 2005, which has been fully refunded to all the group organizers registered for the purpose. Further, the earnest money charged for Haj 2006 has also been refunded to the unsuccessful group organizers whereas it will be refunded to the successful group organizers after confirmation of bank guarantee by the banks as per procedure.
A bank guarantee has been made mandatory to ensure that group organizers adhere to the package offered to the Haj pilgrims. In the event of satisfactory performance, the amount will be released to them.
The cabinet while approving the policy for five years had also made allowance for making necessary adjustments in subsequent years. The Haj policy 2006 envisaging certain adjustments was duly approved by the prime minister and no deviation has been made from it.
MUHAMMAD ILYAS DAR
Joint secretary (Haj spokesman)
Islamabad
ON Sept 1 the State Bank of Pakistan directed all banks/financial institutions to explicitly indicate the annualized rate of return on deposits without putting any hidden conditions that are generally not read by the majority of depositors, including corporate ones.
If one looks at the balance-sheets published by the various banks in the last six months, the wide gap that exists between the average cost of the deposit, the interest that the bank pays to its depositors and the average cost of borrowing from the bank, and the interest that the bank charges to its customers, it virtually amounts to a white-collar fraud.
The profit of listed banks on the Karachi Stock Exchange recorded tremendous growth and registered an increase of 96 per cent in the first half of 2005 on higher credit lending at higher interest rate while keeping depositors’ money at a low stagnant rate.
During all this time the central bank of the country was aware of the extremely low interest amount paid to the public/depositors of the bank. Yet it chose to address the issue only after considerable time had passed.
To what extent the country’s mother bank is contributing to inequality in society is food for thought.
SHIRAZ SACHEDINA
Karachi
AFTER reading your editorial “ADB’s warning on poverty” (Sept. 8), many questions came to mind. Can Pakistan push back poverty and maintain its current rate of growth? Has Pakistan’s economic growth benefited only an increasingly wealthy urban elite? And is poverty reduction really possible in our country?
Dramatic improvements in infrastructure and the investment climate are required to sustain the country’s recent growth. Severe bottlenecks, including in power, water and transportation services, continue to impede its economic competitiveness. Basic services, such as improved health and education, need to reach all its citizens. Major changes will need to be made to ensure the effective delivery of these services, especially to the vulnerable segments of the population.
Basic education, health and infrastructure need better and more public spending to reduce poverty and to encourage growth. Withdrawal of the government from non-core activities through faster privatization (not just sales of minority shares) in manufacturing and service sectors, such as airlines and hotels, and increased private sector participation in infrastructure, will allow the government to focus on truly public sector activities that can improve social well-being.
UMER MUMTAZ
Rawalpindi
APROPOS of the letter “Price of petrol” (Sept 5), the Oil Companies Advisory Committee would like to say that the formula being used by it to calculate the price of POL products has been approved by the ECC and provided to the OCAC by the ministry of petroleum to calculate and announce POL prices on a fortnightly basis. Actual workings are available on the OCAC’s website www.ocac.org.pk
OCAC is responsible for calculating the price for regulated products such as petrol, HOBC, kerosene and light diesel oil. The price for diesel, which is deregulated, is announced separately by the oil marketing companies.
Pakistan imports its crude oil, diesel and fuel oil from the Middle East — all prices taken are from the Plats Oil Gram Scan Report, published daily. While we mostly see crude oil prices in newsprint, the pricing for petroleum products is based on import parity price for refined products. The finer refined products fetch a higher price and the lower distillates a lower price than that of crude, i.e., while the price of crude in the Gulf region may be $56/bbl, the price of diesel published on Sept 5 was $76/bbl. The price depends upon the demand and supply in the region.
An average price of the 15 days is used for the pricing of the POL products as published in Platts for the Arab Gulf region. To the 15 days average a freight premium is added which is also published in Platts separately for white and black oils — white oils are considered to be petrol, diesel, and kerosene whereas crude oil and fuel oil are considered to be black oils. The freight premium varies and is dependent upon the availability of freight vessels, which would call at our ports. An element of 0.9 per cent of C&F is added to the cost to cover handling charges including bank charges, letter of credit (LC) commission charges and marine insurance. Add to this current wharfage charges applicable for the import by the relevant port. A 10 per cent custom duty is levied on the import of diesel. There is no customs duty on petrol/HOBC.
Ex-refinery prices (IPP): Calculated on the basis of average Arab Gulf Mean prices published in Platts Oilgram on a daily basis as stated above. Excise duty: Notified by the CBR: 0.88/litre for petrol/HOBC. No Excise duty on other products. Petroleum development levy (PDL): Notified by the petroleum ministry based on budgetary revenue targets. At present PDL is zero on all POL products.
Price differential claim (PDC): This element has been added to stabilize the price and not to pass on the full impact of the increase in prices of the international market. This element varies from fortnight and has been as high as Rs5.22 for diesel.
It may be noted that the OMCs have been subsidizing the cost of POL products and claiming the same from the government. The total claim till today is Rs19.5bn out of which Rs13.5bn has been paid, and Rs6.5bn is outstanding. The cost of financing is not included in the claim.
OMCs margin: Maximum 3.5 per cent of ex-depot sale price. The OMC margin covers operating, financing and other costs including measures OMCs have taken to ensure product quality and quantity at their state of the art retail outlets.
Dealers commission: Maximum 4.0 per cent of ex-depot sale price to cover their costs of overheads and expenses.
Inland freight: Actual transportation cost incurred on movement of petroleum products from supply sources to the designated 29 depots/locations to keep the prices equal across the country. This an actual cost given to the transporters.
GST: 15 per cent.
ABID SAEED IBRAHIM
Secretary-General, OCAC,
Karachi
I WAS really mystified by the report (Sept 1) of an incident involving rape by a 54-year-old doctor, father of three children, who allegedly raped a 16-year-old girl in his clinic at Lahore.
The girl was given some sedative and later subjected to sexual assault. She was admitted to hospital as an emergency case.
The PMDC should cancel the registration of doctors involved in any such disgraceful incident. Patients also need some understanding of their rights. They should be aware of the guidelines for the examination of a female patient.
Professionally, a male doctor is not allowed to examine a woman patient alone. If such awareness existed among women patients, no male doctor would be able to transgress the limits of decency.
To explain the process, let me use the term “chaperone”. It is defined as anyone who is present when a physician examines a patient of the opposite sex, i.e., another female should be present with the doctors during examination of a female patient.
This female can be a nurse or a relative of a patient. Even the western world is alert to this risk to the extent that the Medical Council of Ireland’s guidelines for doctors state that any intimate examination should be accompanied by an explanation to the patient, irrespective of age or gender, and should be conducted only in the presence of one additional female.
It is one of the fundamental rights of patients to ask for such female support. It is also recognized that such examinations are extremely personal and a woman might feel more comfortable in the presence of another female.
Basically the measure seeks to protect both the patient’s and the doctor’s integrity against chances of false charges.
DR MOHAMMAD AHMAD
Karachi
MANGROVE forests are an important natural resource. They are under severe threat, especially those mangroves which fall under the jurisdiction of the Sindh forest department, the Port Qasim Authority (PQA) and the Sindh Board of Revenue due to lack of proper management.
For instance, the dredging of Karachi port is done in violation of international dredging laws and without consulting the Sindh forest department because of which large mangrove tracts forest have to be cleared.
ARSHAD HYDER KAMARIO
Peshawar
THE recent decision of the Defence Housing Authority, Karachi, to build overpasses or flyovers at all major intersections in Defence would be nothing short of a disaster, both in terms of development and aesthetics.
As is evident at many other locations throughout the city, overpasses or flyovers tend to become dumping sites for garbage and attract beggars and street children to establish their homes there. Besides being an eyesore, this increases the incidence of petty crime, which is something that the residents of Defence, or any other locality for that matter, can ill afford.
What would be far more preferable is to establish underpasses at these sites which are not only known to be more cost-efficient but have none of the problems associated with overpasses.
SHAHID TAUFIQUE
Karachi
THE Titanic sank in 1912, killing 1,200 people on board, with very few survivors. In those days SOS calls were sent by wireless. As a result, rescue ships reached when all was over.
The present mayhem in New Orleans and America’s Gulf Coast is reminiscent of the Titanic tragedy of yesteryear.
In the modern age storms are forecast days earlier allowing ample time to draw up rescue and relief strategies.The US government with its state of the art assets showed its weakness in helping the marooned people.
It was incredible to observe that a superpower which supplies food, arms, etc., to soldiers in war zones thousands of miles away facing difficulty in air-dropping food and water to its own citizens in their own country.
RAFI ADAMJEE
Karachi
WHAT should I do? That’s a question that would be in every student’s mind who has received his results. The first reason is that most of the students have not planned for their future and the second is that they do not have any career development institutions which may help them.
Then another thing is the parent factor, which forces a student to choose fields such as medicine or engineering without checking one’s ability or inclination.
If they cannot get admission, they take the way of private colleges, and we know that there is a private college in every street these days which is not up to standard.
And if these students cannot obtain standard education, they will lose the chance of shaping their future.
HAROON RASHEED AHMAD
Lahore
THERE have been rumours that Inzamamul Haq might be called in as a replacement for the injured Sachin Tendulkar for the World XI cricket team.
First of all, the decision not to select Inzamam was not a good one. I think he is a better batsman by far than any other in the World XI team on current form. Even Tendulkar, keeping in mind his recent form, cannot be called as a better batsman.
However, what the Pakistan Cricket Board and Inzamam both need to do is to refuse this if it happens.
This should be done to show the resentment of the people of Pakistan against what was clearly a biased decision in the first place to not select him for the World XI.
ASHAR WASEEM
Lahore
THE people of Karachi are under attack by dumper trucks and their drivers. It has become an almost daily occurrence that someone is killed or injured by these monsters and no one in any position of authority does anything to take action against the drivers.
The drivers should be taught at proper driving schools and if they are involved in an accident they should be caught and punished in accordance with the law.
Also, there should be a separate lane for heavy traffic on our roads with the traffic police ensuring that this demarcation is adhered to by drivers of heavy goods vehicles and dumpers.
FARHAT J. AZAD
Karachi
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