| October 29, 2005 | Saturday | Ramzan 24, 1426 |
To send a letter to the Editor
Click here
PTCL affairs
School experience
‘Tabloid television’
Tent hazards
Geological mapping
Location of the epicentre
Shoaib’s threat to sue
Passage blocked
Ramazan and high prices
Funds for rebuilding
THE current crisis management efforts of the government have exposed the fundamental problems of the whole system: lack of professionalism in government machinery, corruption both at the public and private (NGOs) level and a misplaced focus on appearances rather than on substance at the political level.
The huge compassion being witnessed at the level of the ordinary citizen has shown again that our nation is not dead despite all the disappointments and degeneration of the system.
This has resulted in a situation where, on the one hand, there are thousands of donors filled with compassion and willing to donate whatever it takes to do the job, and on the other, millions still in painful need of help. There is no shortage of funds, volunteer services or goods. The only thing lacking is management of the relief effort on the part of the government. There is a crisis of management of the worst order.
We are a team of 15 medical professionals (including an orthopaedic surgeon, an anaesthetist, medical specialists, medical students, paediatricians, etc) from Multan and Faisalabad who decided to go to Islamabad and help the over-burdened system of medical services with our volunteer services. Our ordeal of having to face the system in its cruellest form has led many of the members of the team to go back totally disappointed. The rest of the team is planning to pack up.
We have visited more than 10 medical centres/hospitals in Rawalpindi and Islamabad and have found, to our utter dismay, that our services were not welcome at any official level. The same was the experience of a group of 40 nurses from Karachi who were going back to Karachi totally disappointed with the response they received at the hands of the officials at Islamabad. Some of the key weaknesses we have observed are highlighted below.
We found that there was no organized system of providing primary healthcare to the wounded victims at the various camps set up around Islamabad and linking them with a system of secondary and tertiary care where more advanced level of medical services requiring higher skills and advanced medical infrastructure (operations theatre, surgeons, paediatric surgeons, plastic surgeons, etc) could be referred.
We found trauma patients lying at a medical relief camp in F-10 for 10 days and we saw that their bandages had not even been changed in that time. We also saw that there was no segregation of patients requiring surgery or operations theatre facilities to carry out urgent surgery.
Donors are at a loss to know the genuine NGOs they can trust. There are no official guidelines for the NGOs published in the newspapers for proper accounting of the donations being received. A transparent system of donation collection, accounting, distribution, purchases and so on is not in place; if it is, it is not widely publicized.
For some NGOs and public officials, the earthquake has come as a once in a lifetime opportunity to convert compassion into cash. Our observations at one medical relief camp in Islamabad represent a typical situation. A local NGO has set up an office in front of the relief camp. All the donors are guided into the office and are strongly discouraged to reach the wounded victims for direct help. They are told to deposit the donations with the office. We have observed expensive injections and medicines being requisitioned from the donors without any evidence of their distribution to the patients. Donors are satisfied that they have provided medicines for the relief victims whereas we have found, during our medical round of the relief camp involving bandaging and consultation, no evidence of the expensive medications being dispensed. The same is the situation with regard to goods like shawls and blankets.
We were pained to see a lot of officials and some NGOs visiting relief camps with a video camera arranged just to have a photo shoot. These videos are sent abroad to prove that charity work is being done by the NGOs and to convince the donors to donate money. Ordinary citizens are providing food to the relief victims while the NGOs are giving the impression that all the arrangements are being done by them to convince the donors to donate more money.
Despite all the dismal observations at the formal level, we observed remarkable display of compassion, charity and sacrifice at the informal level by ordinary citizens. A lot of overseas Pakistanis are already pouring in their money and are ready to donate additional huge sums of money for the relief victims. Their only requirement is an assurance that the money will be spent in a transparent manner.
It is suggested that the government carry out an audit of unscrupulous NGOs and publicize the proper procedure and guidelines for collection and accounting of donations.
SHEHZAD FAROOQ
Faisalabad
WITH reference to the letter by “Desperate PTCL Officer”, I would like to highlight some new developments. Unlike other government departments, PTCL had improved considerably over the last few decades, providing excellent services and making huge profits. This was despite widespread inefficiency and corruption.
Until a few years ago the higher management comprised regular PTCL officers, who were promoted through a well-defined process. This system has now been replaced by a new management costing several million rupees because their salaries are between three and 10 times more than what the old management was getting. The new management was asked to perform important tasks such as re-structuring, removing inefficiency, increasing profitability, ensuring smooth privatization and so on. A few years down their performance may be judged from the following:
The company’s net profits have been reduced by Rs 7.5 billion because of increases in cost due to the failed V-phone project, an increase in the salary bill because of the rising number of highly-paid contractual employees, and a decrease in sales.
The “smoothness” of PTCL’s privatization is very obvious. The mismanagement of the whole affair resulted in a strike which ended in a 35 per cent increase in gross salaries of the striking staff, while officers who worked round-the-clock (during the strike) were given only a 15 per cent raise and that too on their basic salary.
There is frustration among employees and this mainly has to do with a lack of direction and clarity of policies. While regular workers are being squeezed to the limit, new hiring is being done on lucrative contractual basis, thus causing massive disparity in pay. Many talented workers have left this company for better and respectable options. Some hope may lie with the privatization but the takeover by the new owner is being extended again and again causing further uncertainty.
The National Assembly, the media and intellectuals are urged to look into this matter and scrutinize the performance of the PTCL senior management and the relevant ministry. Otherwise a national asset will be lost to gross mismanagement.
FRUSTRATED PTCL EMPLOYEE
Karachi
I wish to refer to the goings-on at a private school in Swat. On the day of the earthquake, the administration of the school forced some 550 students to attend classes inside the building.
Despite the fact that the building had developed cracks because of the earthquake, the principal ordered that the children should go back into the building.
The school by itself is quite a good one, with many facilities and covering an area of eight kanals. It has a separate block for the adminstration, an auditorium, a store, a guest house, a mosque, two bungalows for the administrator and principal, seven flats for teachers, and a large mess.
The school also gives free uniforms, books and shoes, transport and even scholarships for higher studies to children who come from working class backgrounds.
The only problem is that the administrator seems to run the school like an army boot camp and what he did on Oct 8 is inexcusable. Corporal punishment is common — a few months back a student of class IV was beaten for merely talking to his neighbour in class when a teacher was absent. The boy almost fainted and when the parents were informed they sought a meeting with the administrator. They wanted to use a school vehicle to take their child to a doctor but the administrator refused. Even some of the teachers asked him to lend the vehicle but he refused, though the vehicle is used if someone wants to go to mosque.
I should also add that the students of this school are prevented from attending extra-curricular programmes arranged by other schools because once the administrator went to such an event and came back saying that since they had women without veils in the audience he could not send his school students to take part.
The parents of the schoolchildren are mostly factory workers and because they are uneducated they are unaware of their rights. No one is able to stand up to the unreasonable attitude of the administration.
We appeal to the directorate of the Education Workers Welfare Board, to the NWFP education minister, the DCO and DEO of Swat, the district nazim and to local trade unions and NGOs to investigate the situation and take immediate action.
WORRIED PARENT
Swat
THIS refers to Zubeida Mustafa’s column “Age of tabloid television” (Oct 26.) It’s hard to disagree with the contents of her piece particularly where she writes: “But worse was the free rein given to religious scholars, clerics and others laying claim to religious knowledge. Since it was the holy month of Ramazan, religious programmes would in any case have received precedence. But these were directed at the earthquake tragedy. The ‘wrath of God’ was a common theme reminding the survivors that their sins were responsible for bringing this disaster on themselves thus giving a fillip to religiosity that is already on the rise in our society.”
The writer is also very right in pointing out that “any channel with some imagination and professionalism would have tried to procure films and the participation of experts (seismologists, geologists, geographers, historians and civil engineers/architects) rather than religious leaders to drive the fear of God in people’s hearts when there is already so much panic and anxiety around”.
EFTIQAR HAIDER
Islamabad
This is with reference to Zubeida Mustafa’s column. The electronic and the print media must address the issues that this unfortunate tragedy has brought to light in a serious and professional manner.
S. FAIYAZUDDIN AHMAD
Leicester, UK
THE following should be done to avoid any accidents or loss of life in the tent cities set up for the earthquake survivors:
1. Fire-fighting equipment and trained fire-fighting staff should be provided on all tent city sites. 2. There should be enough space between the tents, so that fire in one tent does not jump to another. 3. Residents should be strictly forbidden to light fires inside for cooking, heating or any other purpose. 4. For cooking food, a separate kitchen away from the tents should be provided. In this, wind direction and other aspects should be carefully considered. 5. Assistance can be taken from the planners of tent cities in Saudi Arabia.
SHAMIM ZUBERI
Karachi
THIS is with reference to the letter “No word from GSP” by Inam Khawaja (Oct. 26). We want to bring to the notice of your readers that the Geological Survey of Pakistan (GSP) is chartered to undertake basic and applied research in all fields of earth sciences, besides its prime role in mineral exploration, geological mapping, geohydrological, geotechnical and paleontological investigations.
As the nation’s premier earth science research agency, it is responsible for the study of the geology of the country in all its pertinent details, engineering and geo-hazard studies. It has prepared a seismic risk map of northern Pakistan (1988), a tectonic map (1982), a seismotectonic map (1979) and a seismic risk zone map which are available for public use. A publication called ‘The Geodynamics of Pakistan’ published by the GSP in 1979 provides a comprehensive picture of the past, present, and ? possibly even future geological processes. The GSP has also published maps and reports about the geology of each outcrop area of the country and also district geological maps for big cities like Quetta, Karachi, Chitral and Islamabad.
The GSP also carries out post-earthquake investigations as every event is geologically unique and our three teams of geologists from the Islamabad and Peshawar offices are already undertaking a survey of the affected areas. A team was also dispatched to the high-risk zone in the Alai and Battagram areas and which ruled out the possibility of any volcanic activity in the area. A joint team of meteorological department and the GSP in Karachi has also been dispatched to the Neelum Valley to examine the area. The results of these surveys were promptly conveyed to the prime minister and army officials and were published in all newspapers.
Our director-general, spokesperson and director for Islamabad appeared on Pakistan Television to brief the public about earthquake geology, and have made themselves available for comments whenever contacted by the media.
Another point raised in your columns is about updating of the GSP website on regular basis. The recording of any seismic activity and observations on aftershocks come under the purview of the seismic centre of the Pakistan met department. The GSP has no facility to monitor earthquakes and so any daily updates about any seismic event are provided by the met department.
However, the GSP website contains related material about geology, seismotectonics and hazardous zones of the country, including Hazara, Kohistan and the Northern Areas. The website of the US Geological Survey carries a web link to the GSP website. It should be kept in mind that geological processes take time and the risk zone maps were prepared on an assessment of the last 100 years. The data now available will have to be re-analysed and re-assessed for revision of risk and the vulnerability of the earthquake? prone regions of the country, specially Karachi and Islamabad.
The GSP Museum often arranges geoscientific talks on earthquake preparedness. It also started a series of lectures and drills at local educational institutions on a voluntary basis soon after the Oct 8 earthquake. An international conference is also planned on earthquake geology.
ASIF NAZEER RANA
Curator, Museum of Historical
Geology, Geological Survey of Pakistan, Quetta
MR SHAHID Javed Burki in his article (Oct 18) has stated that the “epicentre was located in the Hindu Kush mountains near the town of Garhi Habibullah, a small town close to the Line of Control that separates the part of Kashmir administered by Pakistan from the one controlled by India”. This is absolutely wrong.
Garhi Habibullah is situated in the NWFP at a distance of six miles from Balakot on the Balakot-Muzaffarabad Road. It is six miles inside Pakistan from Brarkot, a custom checkpost on the Pakistan-AJK border.
Garhi Habibullah is the first town on the Pakistan side on the century-old Srinagar-Muzaffarabad-Mansehra-Abbotabad Road. From here, two very old roads go to Batrasi-Mansehra-Abbotabad and Balakot. As such, Garhi Habibullah is the junction. Three all-weather roads converge here built by the British government in India.
There is another town, Garhi Doppata, at a distance of 12 miles from Muzaffarabad on the Jhelum Valley Road, going to Srinagar.
It is 24 miles away from a very small village called Oppi, the last point on our side of the Line of Control near Uri on the other side.
Both towns, Garhi Habibullah (in Pakistan) and Garhi Doppata (in AJK), are on the main road and are now totally devastated. They are not close to the Line of Control. All these details can be checked in the Oxford School Atlas, pages 12 and 13.
TARIQ FAIZ
Islamabad
THIS is with reference to the news item “Shoaib threatens to sue TV channel (Oct. 26]” which says that the Pakistani pace bowler has threatened to sue ESPN-Star India for making? derogatory remarks against him.
Defamation is an injury to the reputation or character of someone resulting from the false statements or actions of another. Reputation is not what a person thinks of himself; it is what others think of him. The views expressed by the channel are in consonance with the opinion of the general public. Mr Akhtar has a record of indiscipline and is notorious for his arrogant attitude. I hope that his lawyer will tell him that fair comment is a valid defence against a defamation suit.
ANIL KHAN LUNI
Lahore
I work on the third floor of a high-rise building on I.I. Chundrigar Road near the Habib Bank Plaza.
This building had a corridor on the ground floor which opened on two sides. The landlord has raised a wall across the corridor and handed over the possession of the blocked portion to a new tenant, a bank. They have, however, opened up an alternative passage which is much smaller than the original one.
Since this has been done against the approved design of this building, the office-holders of this building had complained to the official in charge of the Saddar Town of the KBCA. While he had promised to remove this unapproved wall, he has in fact hushed up the matter.
I have spoken to many people working in this building and we are all afraid that in case of an earthquake, due to the blocking of the corridor on one side of the building, many people would be trapped.
I request the KBCA to have the wall that has blocked the corridor removed.
ISHRAT BEG
Karachi
THIS is to bring to public notice the menace of ever-increasing prices in Ramazan. Unlike in the West, where the advent of Christmas brings in hundreds of sales, in Pakistan the opposite happens before Eid. Shopkeepers take advantage of the fact that people have no choice and have to shop anyway not only for themselves but also for their loved ones.
I would like to request all the shopkeepers to kindly keep prices affordable. This will also aid those who want to provide aid to the earthquake survivors by sending them Eid gifts.
SHANILA RIZVI
Karachi
AFTER the poor response at the Geneva conference for the rebuilding of the earthquake ravaged areas, the government has said that it will have to raise Rs 300 billion from its own resources. It is now being admitted that the budget will have to be revised and some expenditure reduced to generate funds for reconstruction and rehabilitation. It has also been pointed out by sources in the government that cuts will have to be made in the defence and development budgets. This is not entirely surprising. The humanitarian compulsions created by the natural calamity cannot be ignored and in the absence of adequate aid from abroad the nation will inevitably be required to share the hardship of its unfortunate compatriots in the north. It is therefore essential that the government initiate the exercise of planning revisions in the budget expenditures that were announced barely four months ago.
The most important aspect to be emphasized is that the cuts should not be across the board. Some of the sectors have been conventionally so badly off that it would be wrong to make any further cuts in spending on them. The most notable of these are the social sectors which receive only a small fraction of our total national spending. The neglect of the health and education sectors has produced an abysmal impact on the quality of life of the people. This in turn has affected every sphere of national life leading to poverty and underdevelopment. Similarly, it is essential that the budgetary readjustments should not be allowed to affect the government’s poverty reduction programme, employment generation schemes and economic growth.
The government would thus do well not to make any cuts in the allocations for these areas. There are, however, some heads where a reduction in expenditure will not affect the national interest, though it would call for a change in the culture and lifestyle of our rulers whose perks and privileges consume a huge amount of scarce resources. One is the massive amount we spend on administration or the running of the government and this has constantly been on the increase. For 2005-06 the federal government has earmarked Rs 399.4 billion for its “executive and legislative organs, financial and fiscal affairs, external affairs”. In 1999-2000, the last year the budget was drawn up by a civilian government, the expenditure on administration was Rs 21.1 billion. Similarly, defence expenditure has increased from Rs 142 billion six years ago to Rs 223.5 billion this year. These two heads make up for a big chunk of the federal budget (57 per cent) and there should be no problem in reducing these expenses if our parliamentarians, bureaucrats and army generals would tighten their belts a bit and give up their lavish lifestyles. Creditably, the expenditure on foreign debt servicing has been reduced but it still forms 10 per cent of the budget. Our creditors may be requested to write off some of the loans or reschedule them to provide relief.
A major concern now is how the money coming in for quake relief and rehabilitation will be spent. Will the bulk of it be siphoned off by greedy and corrupt middlemen, contractors and government functionaries? Will the victims actually benefit? The government must institute a transparent system of spending and a scrutinizing mechanism to ensure honesty and avoid wasteful spending. Although the president had promised transparency when he appealed for donations for the relief fund, nothing so far has been done.
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.