| September 13, 2005 | Tuesday | Sha’aban 8, 1426 |
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New trademark law
Poverty elimination
Occupied health units
What about net users?
Cantonment in Islamabad
‘Environmental disaster in the making’
MBA students’ woes
Loadshedding
Rejoinder
Secular or Islamic?
Madressah students
Kot Diji fort
THIS is with reference to various letters arguing that recognition of Israel may prove to be advantageous for Pakistan.
The letter writers have offered a list of advantages which they say recognition will bring to Pakistan. However, these people forget that recognition or establishing ties is a one-time act, and once accomplished carries little or no leverage.
The so-called Middle East “peace process” is in complete tatters. Israel continues to strengthen the foundations of an apartheid state, completing the separation of “unequal races” with a wall that is 20 feet high. The cost of recognition will be that Pakistanis will see this as another sell-out and it will only strengthen the cause of the Islamists. Relations with Israel will improve Israel’s intelligence gathering in Pakistan, making our nuclear assets even more vulnerable to an Israeli or Indian strike.
Besides, has the Pakistan government considered the possibility of an Israeli consulate or embassy in Pakistan becoming the target of violent attacks from Islamic extremists?
UMER MUMTAZ
Rawalpindi
THIS is with reference to the letter by Maulvi Abdul Hadi Saqi (Sept 12) on the subject of establishing ties with Israel. Mr Saqi seems to be unaware of history.
The argument put forward for recognizing Israel seems irrelevant. The issue is not whether Muslim countries should or should not befriend a Jewish or Christian, state. It is that Palestine is an occupied territory and to recognize Israel would mean acceptance of and in fact complicity in Palestine’s occupation.
ABDUL KHALIQ
Islamabad
This is with reference to the ongoing debate on whether Pakistan should recognize and establish ties with Israel. I would like to ask all those who are against this the following:
1. Did the Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) rescind any relations with the Jews of his time?
2. If we have ties with India, with a country with whom we have fought wars, what is the problem in having ties with Israel with whom we have no personal or historical enimity and have never fought any war?
3. Would our not recognizing Israel mean that it does not exist on the world map? Would not recognition be an acceptance of reality?
It would be good if those who want to debate this matter did not get emotional out and instead thought about it with a cool, level-headed approach.
BASHARAT TIRMIZI
Karachi
THIS is with reference to Rizwan Yassin’s letter on Pakistan- Israel relations (Sept. 8). I agree with what Mr Yassin has said that Pakistan should only care about itself.
I would say that Pakistan should also leave Kashmir for the Kashmiris to solve. Have the Kashmiris ever favoured Pakistan in any cause? For the last 59 years, Pakistan has spent billions of dollars on military spending, just because of India. Imagine what could have been achieved had this same amount been spent on education. South Korea was one of the poorest countries of Asia in the 1950s. It now has a GDP of over $900 billion, exports of over $200 billion and a per capita income of $18,700. And it achieved this because it invested heavily in education over the years.
On the other hand, most Arab countries have never been real friends of Pakistan. Kuwait has reportedly donated $500 million to the US to help fight the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Did Kuwait ever give a similar amount in aid to any poor Muslim country or even to the victims of the tsunami?
As far as Israel is concerned, having relations with it will not only help Pakistan improve its image in the eyes of the western world, it will help Islamabad achieve its national interest-related goals.
ALI SANA RIZVI
Houston, TX, USA
RECENTLY a new Trademark Ordinance was enforced in Pakistan repealing the earlier act of 1940. There used to be a Section 25 in the Old Trademark Act 1940 that gave protection to the owners of all trademarks, whether registered or not, i.e., if a person was using a trademark before anybody else started, he was the rightful owner of that mark being prior user whether or not anybody had applied for its registration.
The prior user had this unique advantage because it was he who had created and marketed the trademark before anybody else thought of it. This is the law being practised all over the world.
However, the new trademark ordinance surprisingly does away with provisions of Section 25. Now “brand squatting” is legal in Pakistan. All those brands that have not been registered with the trademarks registrar are in danger of being declared illegal. Now an unscrupulous person or firm can just go ahead and damage a running legal business by registering the latter’s brand name in his or its own name and legally blackmail the original proprietor.
This new law will give rise to unnecessary multiple litigation, with everybody suing everybody else. It will damage the business of this country, the people involved in business, and ultimately the country. Hence, the Trademark Ordinance 2004 must be amended to incorporate the basic rights of trademark owners.
KARIMULLAH ADENI
Karachi
ACCORDING to a press report ( Sept 6), Mr Haruhiko Kuroda, president of the Asian Development Bank, is concerned over poverty in Pakistan. The IMF and WB too are similarly concerned, and offer loans for economic development and poverty alleviation, without identifying the causes of underdevelopment and poverty in Pakistan. Pakistan is a resource-rich country and there should be no poverty if national resources are equitably distributed. But the situation is otherwise.
There is massive corruption. Corruption and poverty go together — massive corruption and mass poverty. Corruption prevents trickledown of economic benefits and funding for poverty alleviation to the grassroots. Therefore, the rich are getting richer and the poor poorer.
Look at the size of the federal cabinet — 70 ministers/advisers, even when seven would do the same job efficiently. The situation is similar with provincial cabinets. Bullet-proof luxury cars are being imported when the poor do not even have shoes to wear. Umrah and other foreign trips by high officials and others with planeloads of free loaders, allotment of government land/plots to favourites at cheap rates — this is high-profile institutionalized corruption.
Now please look at the corruption at the lower bureaucracy, which the common citizens face. Nothing moves in government/semi-government offices without a bribe. The situation is severe in rural areas where feudals rule. The hold of feudalism is not only on politics and economy; it causes greater devastation on the social fabric of the villages.
IMF/WB/ADB would do well to focus on elimination of corruption in Pakistan, rather than haphazardly giving funding for development/poverty alleviation, because much of these funds ultimately go into the pockets of vested interests.
ABDUL SAMAD KHAN
Karachi
ACCORDING a report in Dawn (Sept 6), state functionaries such as the police and magistrates and also some private persons have taken control of 14 hospital and health unit buildings in Larkana district, depriving the local people of crucial medical services.
Moreover, about 57 health units of Larkana district are running without new expenditure being sanctioned for them. This is highly disappointing and reflects apathy on the part the authorities concerned towards public healthcare.
Barring a few metropolitan areas, the rest of the country, especially rural areas, does not have even bare minimum medical services.
And even the existing highly inadequate and out-of-date facilities are being encroached upon by those who are supposed to look after them. If in one district of Sindh whose people are politically advanced, there exists such a pathetic state of affairs, one can imagine the situation in the rest of the province’s interior.
Not only should possession of the buildings be restored to the health department at the earliest but enough funds should be made available for purchase of medical equipment and medicines for the health-care centres.
ALTAMASH MANZOOR H. KURESHI
Karachi
In July of this year, Pakistan’s sole Internet link with the rest of the world broke down. Alternate arrangements were made by PTCL through satellite links but connectivity suffered a great deal. Internet Service Providers (ISPs) were provided limited Internet bandwidth but it was reportedly free of charge.
Although the ISPs got free bandwidth they did not pass on the benefit to their subscribers. The subscribers suffered because the download speeds during the breakdown were extremely slow which meant being connected for a much longer than usual period of time.
Recently PTCL has made an announcement that the ISPs will be compensated for the losses incurred by them during the above mentioned period. But what about Internet users? The logic is quite straightforward: when the ISPs were not charged for Internet bandwidth, why should the subscribers be?
It would be appropriate for the ISPs to give their users credit hours for the time spent during the breakdown. As an industry regulator and custodian of the public interest, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority should look into the matter as well.
The consumer interest should be of paramount importance as they are the ones who are main source of business for the ISPs.
MUHAMMAD AHMED
Karachi
THIS is with reference to a news item “Cantonment to be set up in capital” which appeared in Dawn on Sept. 8.
First the army set up a housing society on the periphery of Islamabad in Rawalpindi and expanded its scheme to Islamabad. Despite opposition from legislators and civil society, the president promulgated an ordinance giving the housing society the status of a defence housing authority. And now we hear that a cantonment is being set up.
This reminds one of the British raj where there were cantonments and civil lines for rulers, while the natives lived in areas like Raja Bazar, Gowalmandi and Dhok Rattta. Our country is ruled by four major groups: the armed forces, the bureaucrats, public representatives and feudal lords. Each of these groups has a marriage of convenience with the other three.
Lastly, I wonder if there is a cantonment in Washington DC, London, Moscow or Tokyo.
M. K. SUFI
Islamabad
THIS is in reference to Omar R. Quraishi’s informative and well-reasoned article (Sept. 8) on the proposed New Murree project.
This is an issue that needs to be better covered, especially in the Urdu and the regional language press. The project itself purports to be pro-development but is its antithesis. To qualify as ‘development’ something must be sustainable which New Murree will not be.
According to Mr Quraishi’s article the project envisages the construction of “five star hotels, golf courses, residential apartemenets complexes, shopping malls and even a monorail.” Can’t all these be built elsewhere if they are of such paramount importance to the Punjab government?
Is it ‘development’ to convert a natural forest which has evolved to its present state over millions of years into slabs of concrete and sheets of bitumen?
As the writer correctly stresses, real development would be if the existing Murree were to be renovated.
The New Murree project will be an eye-sore with mounds of litter dumped by those who will visit it and will be patronized by the land mafia which will obviously invest in it in the hope that the investment pays off handsomely. It would also not have the history of Murree and the nostalgia attached to it.
Fahad Majeed Abbasi’s letter to on the issue (Sept. 7) carries an interesting statement attributed to several senior officers of the Punjab government and NESPAK’s consultant who said that the designing and planning of houses had been undertaken in such a manner that trees would not be chopped down.
How can a “tourist city” with its malls, five-star hotels, golf courses, monorail, etc., be rammed through a natural coniferous forest without chopping a single tree? Perhaps the officials meant leaving a few scattered large trees, after felling the entire forest.
The consultant is also supposed to have said that all trees will “be numbered with steel plates to ensure their protection”. What he failed to explain was how the numbered steel plates would save the trees after their roots had been damaged by the construction and all, how would be nourished with life-giving forest soil buried under bitumen and concrete?
With the land grabbing mafia pushing the project so forcefully, our only recourse is to our enlightened president to save the Patriata forest for our future generations.
G. M. KHATTAK
Peshawar
THE Pakistan Institute of Management (PIM) started an executive MBA evening programme in 1998 in affiliation with IBA, Karachi. Till now PIM has been taking batches of students every year.
IBA withdrew its affiliation with PIM in December 2004 but despite this, the latter recently admitted a new batch of students. Those students who were enrolled at PIM in 1998 and could not graduate because of a low GPA were told by the PIM management to continue studying (despite the fact that it was no longer affiliated to the IBA) till such time that the institute might get degree-granting status. This however has not happened and nobody knows in the institute itself how much longer it will take.
Because of this, the ultimate losers are the students who end up paying hefty fees. We should add that the institute has no specified time period in which to announce its results. In the past it has sometimes taken up to three months for results to be announced.
We would request the HEC to look into PIM affairs.
STUDENTS
Karachi
MR Ahmed Faraz in a TV talk once said that one needs to bring two important factors into society — one is truth and the other is justice. We lack both. Anyone who assumes power resorts to false promises and as the majority is illiterate it gets away with the false promises.
For the last one decade all high and mighty connected with power generation and distribution have been telling us every year that there will be no loadshedding from the next year but the menace continues and the situation has worsened.
This time it was promised that there will be no loadshedding at least on Shab-i-Mairaj but electricity went off after midnight and did not return till after the morning prayers.
MUSHTAQ A. QURESHI
Karachi
THIS is in reference to a letter by Brig. (r) Khalid Hasan Mahmood (Sept. 12) where he has referred to Nirad Chaudhri’s remarks on non-violence in Hindu history quoted by me in my letter captioned “When apologies count (Aug. 28)”.
Nirad Chaudhri did not incriminate Asoka and Gandhi, as suggested by Brig. Mahmood. In fact Nirad Chaudhri said just the opposite as I had said in my letter which I quote: “In the 23 centuries between Asoka and Gandhi there is not a word of non-violence in the theory and practice of Hindu statecraft,” thereby clearly acknowledging Asoka and Gandhi as apostles of non-violence.
MAHDI MASUD
Karachi
THIS refers to Mr Anil Khan Luni’s letter “Pakistan: secular or Islamic” (Sept 3). Mr Luni states that the Quaid-i-Azam wanted a secular state. I disagree.
However, our Constitution states that the head of state can only be a Muslim. Furthermore, the Objectives Resolution of March 1949 states that the principles of democracy, freedom, equality, tolerance and social justice, as laid down in Islam, would be observed in the Constitution and that Muslims would be able to live according to the teachings and requirements of Islam.
This suggests that the state will follow Islamic principles. As for the Quaid-i-Azam’s vision for a secular state, his idea was of a separate state for Muslims where they could follow their religion freely.
SARAH AZHAR
Islamabad
THE government decision regarding foreign students of madressahs is a violation of human rights.
I agree that the objective of most of the madressahs is to promote political and sectarian ideologies for which they can go to any extent. They create hatred and develop suicide bombers and terrorists. So, the government must close down such madressahs. I would even suggest that the government should also take action against mosque imams who spread hatred and indulge in brain-washing innocent children.
But the government should deport only those foreign students who are seen as receiving militant and unhealthy instruction. Madressahs should be instructed not to give admission to any foreigner until he is cleared by the government.
IKRAMUL HAQUE
Lahore
IT is matter of concern that the historical fort of Kot Diji, situated 25kms south of Khairpur, is suffering from neglect. This landmark monument was built by the Mirs of Khairpur for the purpose of stationing their troops.
It is suffering from lack of maintenance and is losing its original shape. The inner and outermost walls have been eroded by salinity and waterlogging, threatening the entire structure.
The fort attracts many visitors who face severe difficulties due lack of arrangement even for drinking water or refreshments.
The government should construct a rest house with basic facilities at the fort site. Immediate steps must be taken for repair and maintenance in order to save this cultural heritage from the ravages of neglect.
DR PERVEZ AHMED SHAR
Khairpur
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