| October 24, 2005 | Monday | Ramzan 19, 1426 |
To send a letter to the Editor
Click here
Remorse and pain
Of building dams, reviving KCR
The Kalabagh issue
Veterinary groove
DHA locality
Moon sighting
Fruit flies
THE decomposition of the bodies that are still lying buried under the debris of collapsed houses and schools is creating a very serious problem for the survivors. Their health can be adversely affected. The debris must be cleared immediately.
The extremely cold weather and snowfall have added to the misey of the people who have no shelter. The reconstruction and rehabilitation work must be tackled on a war-footing.
I have a proposal that can be implemented in all the areas, including Muzaffarabad, Balakot, Bagh, Rawlakot, Battagram, Manshehra and Hazara and the work can be completed within 12 to 18 months.
Singapore provides the model to be emulated. Townships spread over 100 to 200 acres have been developed within Singapore city. Apartments of three/two/one bedroom have been built in buildings each of which may have 100 or more apartments.
Earthquake-proof buildings should be constructed in each township which should also have clinics and medium sized hospital, mosques, shopping centres, schools for primary and secondary education, a recreation park, sports clubs, playgrounds, etc. Let each township be supplied with clean drinking water and sanitation facilities.
The government could approach the Singapore government for a model layout plan, drawings (including electrical and plumbing works) and material specification to be used.
The contractors should be asked to execute the job under the close supervision of military engineers who should approve payments of running bills on the basis of the progress of the construction.
First class local contractors such as the FWO as well as foreign contractors from Turkey, China, Korea and the Netherlands can be employed for each area and the job should proceed simultaneously in all the sectors. Penalty clauses must be provided for failure to meet completion deadlines. To speed up the construction, materials may be imported from India (immediate vicinity) for these projects.
This is a quick-fix and long term solution of the problem.
I would also suggest that the government should set up, in collaboration with private entrepreneurs, mini steel mills and poultry and dairy farming projects as also provide loans for the setting up of match factories, cottage industries to provide jobs for the local population.
Simultaneously, the government should develop its own infrastructure, military and police barracks, colleges for boys and girls, etc, through local contractors, preferably the FWO.
M. YACOOB NAVIWALA
Karachi
THE human tragedies of the recent past, quick in succession, of ever-increasing magnitude of devastation and apocalyptic in nature are food for thought.
The regularity and emphasis with which mention of calamities like floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, hailstorms, torrential rain and diverse plagues has been made in the scriptures, but more particularly in the Holy Quran, could not be merely anecdotal. And, all this to be relegated to the oblivion of history!
These calamities, even though explainable on grounds of geo-physical turmoils, have always been portentous. These have come in the wake of, rejection or denial and intransigence or transgression, of moral messages and teachings of the Prophets of God, ordained to act as warners.
If the Quran is the final word of God, is it not time to deliberate and search our souls in order to realize how and where we have gone astray? God has love and concern for His creatures. He does not leave them in the lurch without due admonition.
Instead of blowing one’s own trumpet of enlightened moderation, one has to pay heed to the teachings of the Holy Quran, which is the bedrock of enlightenment.
“There shall be no compulsion in religion, for guidance and error have clearly been distinguished. 2-257. “And, “Proclaim: Hearken ye who disbelieve! I do not worship as you worship, nor do you worship. I do not worship that you worship, nor do you worship Him whom I worship; that is because you follow one faith and I follow another faith.” 109- 2 to 7
But here we were, enlightened by our bigoted religious clerics and politicians, to act as phlegmatic spectators of the killing of eight innocent worshippers near Gujrat.
And, this to happen on the second morning of the month of Ramazan, the period of time to make us holy.
IHSAN-UL-HAQUE
Karachi
THE awful tragedy and colossal disaster wrought by the earthquake, the after-effects as well as the somewhat inadequate and ill-coordinated immediate response, will haunt Pakistan’s collective conscience for generations to come. Not least because of the terrible lack of resources, as well as absence of organized entities or plans for disaster management. The independent media, people of all walks of life and, most important, the affected millions, have been deeply traumatized by these inadequacies of state functionaries and the state apparatus.
The president, prime minister, federal/provincial governments, etc., have been prompt in acknowledging that there has been some weakness in response. As any discerning person will accept, this has been more due to wide scale of the destruction and the collapse of infrastructure, as well as the afore-mentioned organizational and planning gaps. And, truth be acknowledged, officialdom has been in its usual lethargic mode (which does include the army, to an extent).
However, the media and columnists have also been “intemperate” and have not keept things in perspective. The victims tend to be distraught in their woes — the media and general public should be more circumspect. It does not behove Dawn to be party to remarks that are denigrating and tasteless, as in Ayaz Amir’s Islamabad Diary of October 14.
The Pakistan Army responded in its traditional spirit to the unfolding disaster and, I am sure, its valiant soldiers and their leaders were able to be of immense service to mitigate further misery and provide whatever succour and aid that was possible. Yes, dozens of brave common folk and volunteers, a few journalists and a trickle of NGOs were able to reach some places that were either inaccessible to organized relief teams or were not in the scope of immediate relief. It is being “economical with the truth” to suggest that the army was “...scandalously slow to reach the worst-hit areas.”
This is similar to what the BBC showed on October 14. It showed a clipping of a Pakistani expatriate who had flown in from the UK and gone to Balakot, BBC newsperson in company, to face the horrible tragedy of her uncle’s/aunt’s/ cousins’ deaths. The expatriate is shown requesting an army officer for help in extricating the bodies of her relatives from under tons of collapsed structural and heavy debris, while the officer is shown gesticulating his helplessness in the absence of heavy-lift machinery. The BBC reporter states that, “...she (the expatriate) was in a state of shock at the refusal [sic] of help by the army persons ....”!! The BBC is an old hand at this ‘game’ of journalistic brinkmanship with the truth — we expect higher standards from Dawn.
BRIG(retd) MATEEN M. MOHAJIR
Karachi
BECAUSE of non-availability of fabric tents, the best choice is fibreglass polyester hand-moulded small houses. These houses do not require any sophisticated machine or electricity, and one can mould the house on the site itself.
Producing such houses is even faster than fabric tents and will certainly boost reconstruction without loss of time.
It is also highly thermal- and sound-insulated and waterproof material, quite suitable for mountainous regions. The government should look into this possibility on a priority basis.
ASGHAR Z. ATTARWALA
Karachi
A FEEBLE attempt is made here, based on the eyewitness accounts published by you, to reflect what the feelings may be of a girl affected by the Oct 8 earthquake:
Destruction, disaster is what I see all around me. Remorse and pain the things I feel standing in my own shoes. I am the cursed girl who lost her younger brother and sister as the earth caved in to engulf whole towns, villages and cities. I feel helpless and frail as I realize my own weaknesses, despite the tall claims my ego makes at being God’s greatest creation.
Shall I be able to live another day with the same courage, hope and patience which I possessed even only a short hour back? My world collapsed around me and ever since something has also broken in my heart, which fears and trembles at the thought of what lies ahead. It is a horrifying experience as it is to hear your sister’s cries for help and yet be unable to reach her, take her in your arms and comfort her. And wasn’t it my fast growing brother on whom I had started to pin all hopes of our future as a happy and content family?
What was the point of my sister’s life, when it has been erased in such a sudden manner from the face of the earth, on which she tread, oh, ever so softly? What is the purpose of my life now?
All these negative energies and thoughts add to my already frustrating day, as I am at a loss to know how to banish them from my system forever. Can I shut out all the disheartening images around me? How can I find solace knowing that my kin are underneath this rubble? Shall it be the right decision to prepare for their funerals?
My lips are dry, my throat parched as I wait for someone to earn a blessing by giving me a mere drop of water to drink. It gets colder out here beneath the wide and open sky, as the evening and the search for survivors progresses. My mind and my body have grown numb. As I lie on my back on the very heartless earth, even the stars and the galaxies which previously used to be so cheerful, appear far and distant. The sun, the wind, rain and hailstorm and all of nature torment me as if to act as a reminder of the power it has over us mortals.
A READER
Karachi
MY letter with the above caption appeared in this paper a year ago (Oct 8, 2004). The chairman, technical committee, water resources, A.N.G. Abbasi, contacted me on the telephone from Islamabad for the two books on the hundred year history of building more than a hundred high dams in the US and its consequences mentioned in the letter. The member of the committee in Karachi, Mr Mughal, took these two books and another, Couplings to Khyber, a history of the North-Western Railway, to make photocopies and return them to me within a fortnight. Neither have these books been returned to me nor have I heard from any one of the two gentlemen ever since. The report was to be finally submitted to the president on Aug 30, 2005 and this has been done.
With my experience of repairs of damage due to floods in the rivers of the Indus system in 1950-1973 and the knowledge of the failure of monsoons in the last several years I am convinced that the country only needs more rain during the season and no more dams. The sudden melting of the snow accumulated for the last 50 years on the mountains which caused out of season floods in the Kabul river this year should be considered as a danger signal.
The KCR should not have been born. I have been involved in the design of the transport needs of Karachi since the 1960s. When I opposed the conversion of the Karachi Cantonment Station into a second terminal for passenger trains and recommended a new passenger terminal outside the city as in Dhaka (Myhlan in 1954), I was guided by the conversion of three terminal stations for parking into one in the 1950s. The KCR was never circular and can never be unless it is separated by intercity trains. The KCR was created as an appendage to the Karachi Central Station, a terminal on the right bank of the river Lyari. Its only remnant is the Gilani Station. A greater folly committed was the establishment of the terminal station in front of Karachi Cantonment on which crores have been spent. Now the only sector available is the Faisal Airbase.
H.A. HAJI
Karachi
I AM constrained to draw your attention to Mr Latif Qureshi’s letter (Oct 18). It appears that everyone is ready to play the Kalabagh dam issue. At times one is appalled at the irrelevant, incorrect and confusing material about the project carried by your esteemed journal.
A multiple-purpose storage dam as at Kalabagh is a highly complex, gigantic engineering undertaking. Only a well-qualified and experienced professional in dams and appurtenant structures, geology, river hydrology, etc., may be competent to express a view. But Mr Qureshi’s off-the-cuff sweeping judgment would astound even a well-regarded professional. He writes: “The main reason for the opposition of the NWFP was that the project would result in waterlogging in fertile frontier areas adjacent to the dam...”
Kalabagh falls in Punjab, not the NWFP. He further says that a “feasibility report of the Kalabagh dam ... was prepared in the 1960s but construction could not be taken in hand due to opposition by the NWFP and Sindh”. Again this is wrong. No Kalabagh feasibility was prepared nor was any opposition to it registered in the 60s. The Mangla dam was not built on the Chenab but on the Jhelum River. The Bhasha dam is no substitute for Kalabagh. Munda, Gomal Zam and other so-called small dams are for local irrigation. Such dams must be built. But none could make any real contribution to the mainstream Indus flow.
ENGR. B.A. MALIK
Lahore
THE word ‘veterinary’ essentially denotes a “branch of medicine dealing with the prevention and treatment of diseases and injuries in animals, especially domestic animals.” This branch of science was taught at partition by the erstwhile Punjab Veterinary College, Lahore, which ran a four-and-a-half-year degree course culminating in a degree of BVSc. (Bachelor of Veterinary Science).
The department dealing with the subject was civil veterinary department. Later on during the 50s, emphasis shifted from purely animal health to animal production and the department was named as the animal husbandry department and the degree awarded was changed to BVSc and BSc AH, i.e., bachelor of veterinary science and bachelor of animal husbandry.
In the process, courses of animal nutrition and livestock management and poultry production were added to the degree course. The veterinary and animal husbandry disciplines were separated during the 60s by the creation of two separate graduate degrees of DVM (doctor of veterinary medicine) and BSc AH [(Hons) bachelor of animal husbandry] at the newly-established University of Agriculture at Lyallpur, later Faisalabad.
However, veterinary graduates could not stomach the creation of a new discipline of animal husbandry in the country as the new degree-holders would compete in jobs of livestock production with them. After nearly four decades the newly-established Pakistan Veterinary Medical Council, with the collaboration of the University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Lahore, manoeuvred to convince the chancellor to abolish the BSc AH (Hons) degree of the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, by asserting that the updated DVM degree which included some 20 per cent courses of animal production was enough for imparting training in both the subjects of animal health and production.
The name of the department concerned had meanwhile been changed to that of “livestock and dairy development”, again indicating a shift to the production and husbandry aspects of animals rather than confining it to animal health.
The newly-created UVAS also named new faculties of animal production and technology as also livestock business management to denote a shift towards production aspects.
However, it failed to institute new basic graduate degrees in new disciplines and remained content with the DVM degree already awarded by the College of Veterinary Sciences, Lahore, thereby choosing to remain in the veterinary groove, which was a retrogressive step. This happened because the first VC, appointed in good faith to head the university, was a retired veterinarian who was content with the image of a dignified veterinary college rather than a fully-fledged university that embraced many disciplines connected with veterinary as also animal sciences — which was the express objective of the founding fathers of the new university.
Thus the dream of a full fledged university was did not materialize during the first four years.
DR M. YAQOOB BHATTI
Lahore
I am living in Karachi’s DHA locality, paying high property tax and a high price for water tankers. Just opposite my house there are heaps of stinking garbage. At night one finds bonfires at different places. Smoke produced from the burning of plastic bags kills one’s appetite and tends to cause cancer.
In two vacant plots in the DHA one finds donkeys, goats and horses while urchins remain busy smoking heroin in the darkness of the night.
A. ZAINUDDIN
Karachi
THE Saudi government announced the sighting of the moon on Oct 3. I think there has been an error in the sighting of because there was a solar eclipse on Oct 3 that ended at 4.30pm Saudi Arabia time (6.30pm PST). Thus the Saudi government announced the sighting of the moon just about two hours after the solar eclipse. This is not possible.
The moon is sighted only when the angle between the sun and the moon is about 12 degrees or more. This angle is created in about 24 hours. During a solar eclipse the angle is zero. So, the earliest time the moon can be sighted is at least 24 hours after the eclipse is over and not in two hours after the eclipse.
MOHAMMAD MUNIR HASAN
Karachi
IT was good news to learn that scientists have created GM (genetically modified) mosquitoes to combat malaria (Oct 16) which is one of the greatest scourges of mankind. In addition to malaria, there are female fruit flies of mango and guava which on mating with their male counterparts inject fertilized eggs under the skin of the mango and guava fruits. The fertilized eggs develop into larvae inside the fruits.
When the fruits ripen and fall from the tree, the fruits burst. The larvae emerge from the fruit and develop into fruit flies, thus increasing the population of fruit flies. When these infested fruits reach our tables intact we find the larvae of the fruit flies inside when the fruit is cut.
The varieties of mango and guava prone to such infestation by specific fruit flies can be checked like GM mosquitoes of malaria.
The female fruit flies on mating with male GM fruit flies will lead to the abortion of fertilized eggs. This requires the creation of male GM fruit flies.
This technology can thus save a large amount of fruits from being discarded due to infestation.
DR M. JALALUDDIN
Adjunct Professor of Agriculture, University of Karachi
You can also send letters to the Editor
Just send your message to the following address: letters@dawn.com
Make sure you include your full name, postal address, e-mail address, and in the case of Pakistan your day-time telephone number.