| November 7, 2005 | Monday | Shawwal 4, 1426 |
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Earthquake aftermath
PIAC dividend
Role for lawyers
Rescue plans for victims
‘When soldiers cry’
Hasba again
Funds for quake victims
Tent fire hazards
The quake & ‘jihadis’
Aid pilferage
‘The real moral lesson’
Catchment areas
Madressahs & relief
MEDICAL and dental education in Pakistan has faced a lot of turmoil and upheavals, all this not always with the aim of bringing about improvements in the system leading up to the grant of degrees for the practice of medicine and dentistry.
Dentistry has always been on the back burner vis-a-vis medical education. It is governed by a 1962 ordinance constituting the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council and amended by Act No. X of 1973 after the creation of Bangladesh (although Dhaka and Rajshahi are still listed in various schedules as being universities of Pakistan).
In contrast, the Dental Council of India was constituted by an act of parliament, “The Dentist Act 1948 (XVI of 1948), with a view to regulating dental education, the dental profession and dental ethics. It came into existence in March 1949 and the council was constituted on April 12, 1949.”
It consists of six constituencies representing the central government, state governments, universities, dental colleges, the medical council of India and private practitioners of dentistry a total of 37 members. An executive committee of seven members is the governing body of this organization, which deals with all procedural, financial, and day-to-day activities and affairs of the council.
The “act provides for a dental council at the centre and formation of state dental councils in the states and Union territories. This Dentists Act 1948 was amended by the Dentists (Amendment) Act 1993 “for permission to set up new dental colleges, opening of higher courses of study and increase of admission capacity in dental colleges.”
No amendments to the PMDC Ordinance of 1962 or the act of 1973 was brought about to accommodate the opening of private dental colleges allowed by the health policy of the civilian government in 1988. At present there are eight dental colleges in the public sector and 11 in the private sector. Of the total of 19 dental colleges, seven are in Karachi. The PMDC has for the last three years “imposed” an embargo on opening of dental colleges. The total annual intake of dental students stands approximately at 690, ranging from 25 to 50 per college.
Comparatively, India has a total of 163 approved/recognized dental colleges, with 30 in the public and 133 in the private sector. Of these, 60 colleges have 100 seats and a majority of the rest range from 40 to 60 admissions per year. The yearly intake of students stands at 10,877 with a breakdown of 1,327 in the public and 9,550 in the private sector.
Even taking into account the vast area and population of India, it would take Pakistan over 20 years to cover the gap, unless drastic and revolutionary measures are taken today. A Pakistan dental act and in consequence constitution of a dental council are long overdue.
This is imperative for better and effective management of dental education, professional development, post-graduation and control of quackery. Could we rise to the occasion?
DR S. BAQAR ASKARY
Chief Executive, Fatima Jinnah Dental College & PMDC member,
Karachi
OCTOBER 8 was a catastrophic day for Pakistan. There are many issues for us to ponder. The first is the military budget. Is it justified in the face of what we have seen — below average living conditions, no civil infrastructure, no administration — virtually inhuman conditions? And this is the territory over which we have fought two wars. If the military can’t even look after one part of this disputed land why does it want the other?
It is about time the country woke up to the reality that 90 per cent of our population is impoverished with no amenities of life. If we want to survive we must improve the lot of the poor and make them into a strong middle class. Abolishing feudalism is the first step. Bureaucratic red tape and corruption must follow so that an Islamic country can live with people that are equal in the eyes of God.
The wrath of Allah comes on nations who do not change themselves and God forbid a catastrophe hits Karachi or other places there will be many Margalla Towers crashing down and with no civil administration, one can just imagine the scale of damage.
Let the nation think deeply and the leaders, administrators and the privileged people reshape this country for each and every citizen.
S. BABAR
Karachi
AT PRESENT there is an outpouring of compassion from the entire nation, fuelled in great part by the extremely disturbing scenes of devastation and misery that are flashed on our television screens. First-hand accounts from earthquake-hit areas being carried by the print media have also been effective in bringing home to us the enormity of the situation and impressing upon all of us the need for continued support to the relief effort.
However as time goes by and the earthquake no longer remains headline news material, the initial fervour is bound to taper off. And that is something that we cannot afford to let happen. The print media can be of great help in this regard. Each of our prominent national dailies can reserve one or two columns worth of space on the front page of their respective publications and call it “Earthquake corner” (or whatever suits them) for as long it is needed to keep the memory fresh in the minds of the nation.
This space can also be used to help inform readers what materials are needed most in the quake-hit areas and how and where these can be sent. This will be a great national service worthy of a great national institution such as the print media.
NUSRAT BOKHARI
Rawalpindi
THIS is in continuation of letters about PIAC dividends (Oct 30). PIAC paid the last dividend to shareholders after a break of several years. It was just at the rate 35 paisa per share. This was announced at that time when the privatization commission had offered shares to the general public to make the offer more attractive. During that time the trading price of PIAC shares in all stock exchanges of the country rose to Rs20.
But, in fact, this was a matter of jugglery by some stock brokers backed by certain circles. These stock brokers have their influence on market and pattern of trading according to their wishes. Even government financial institutions were involved in the buying of PIAC shares to increase the volume of shares traded in those days.
I can recall that the privatization commission chairman was questioned about the sale of PIAC shares. Now if small investors are suffering on account of their decision to invest in these shares and they are without any dividend so far, I think they have a right to ask the privatization commission questions in this regard. The privatization commission’s chairman should try to explain why this share having a face value of Rs10 is being traded at only Rs7.
DR ALFRED CHARLES
Karachi
MR Sharifuddin Pirzada, a successful lawyer for ages, has come forward with the offer to fight the case of Margalla victims in the Supreme Court for free, two senior officials of the CDA have already been booked and I am confident the unfortunate victims will be well compensated.
At the same time I feel the attention given to those affected by the Margalla Towers collapse is out of proportion to the losses incurred by the people of Azad Kashmir and the Frontier.
I urge the presidents of the bars at Peshawar and Muzaffarabad to each form a body of lawyers that may take up the cases of the unfortunate children who have been victims of the earthquake. At the same time I urge the vice-chancellor of the University of Engineering and Technology, Peshawar, to send a team of civil engineers to study each site of the collapsed school and health unit buildings in the NWFP and Azad Kashmir and submit a report to the bar associations. I feel this is the minimum we can do for the students who could have been the builders of this nation.
TARIQ MAHMOOD
Peshawar
THE Oct 8 earthquake disaster requires more than $5 billion for relief and reconstruction, and only 15 per cent of this amount has so far been received. And winter season already started and there is fear of great loss of human lives if timely steps are not taken.
The infrastructure of the 3.5 million Afghan refugee camps may be utilized and the government should start shifting those willing to these camps so that they may be saved from the harsh winter. Meanwhile, the reconstruction of the affected areas can be carried out, and when winter is over after a few months, the victims can be shifted back to their homes from the camps.
The government has more than $11 billion as foreign exchange reserves which should be utilized in this critical time without waiting for foreign assistance. The government should use its own funds to carry out important tasks like the purchase of tents and relief goods, as well as construction of houses, rather than relying on donations from the international community.
The NCC/scouts/reservists should be engaged in relief work after being given a short training course.
M. OZAIR AZAM
Karachi
THE article “When soldiers cry” (The Review) should silence all those voices who have been unjustly criticizing our brave soldiers. The part about a foreign reporter who took the picture of the colonel “asleep” when the truth was the exact opposite shows how manipulative the foreign media can be.
Already this disaster has started fading from the news headlines, when actually the scale of the disaster has only just become clearer. Money has been pledged, but only a fraction has been received. And it was only after some rich countries were criticized for doing absolutely nothing that some meagre amounts were then pledged.
SAIMA ABBAS
Karachi
THE evening news on Oct 31 showed the proceedings of the NWFP Provincial Assembly after presentation of the Hasba Bill by the government benches. How I wish I had not been a witness to the spectacle. It was painful to watch the honourable members of the government and the opposition gesticulating at each other and the ladies violently throwing papers around.
It was a scene of complete commotion and turmoil in the assembly and it showed the house divided against itself. The killer quake — though extremely unfortunate — had brought the entire nation together. People from all walks of life — soldiers and civilians, politicians and workers of all political parties — forgetting their differences, doctors and nurses, students and teachers, industrialists and labourers, NGOs and social organizations, mediamen and showbiz celebrities, they were all out there in the calamity-hit areas to provide succour and solace to the afflicted. The entire nation stood as one as seldom it had done before. It made each of us proud of being Pakistani.
And here comes the Hasba to divide us once again. I ask the movers of the bill: Did they not know that it controversial? Did they not know of the reaction it would evoke from the opposition? Could they not wait for a little while more? Why were they bent upon creating disunity and disharmony in the nation which had for once forgotten all about petty differences and become united to serve suffering humanity? And so many of the sufferers are from their own province. The same poor and pious people who had voted them into power. Why are they hurting them by giving Hasba priority over their needs? They should have been instead discussing the rehabilitation and reconstruction of the quake-hit areas.
Or, is it because that they find it hard to see the nation so fully united that they want to sow the seeds of discord again?
COL (retd) RIAZ JAFRI
Rawalpindi
AS a self-respecting nation united in adversity, we should explore and bank on our own resources and sustained effort for earthquake relief and Rehabilitation. The following measures may be considered:
a) MNAs, senators, MPAs and others being affluent people should forego full/half salaries to contribute towards the President’s quake fund.
b) All outdated taxes/surcharges (some continuing from the days of East Pakistan) should be dispensed with and a reasonable earthquake tax should be imposed instead.
c) All salaried persons in the public and private sectors should donate, say, one per cent of their emoluments towards the earthquake fund.
d) The government should curtail expenditure on tours abroad of ministers and officials and huge delegations of parliamentarians.
e) Overhead expenditure on administration be rationalized including purchase of costly limousines for VIPs and high-ranking government functionaries.
f) The affected people should be engaged in productive activities according to their qualifications and experience.
MOHAMMAD ALEEM SHAIKH
Karachi
AFTER the Oct 8 earthquake, the government has started rehabilitating thousands of survivors in tent villages. These tents are located very close to each other so that it should be easy for government officials, NGOs and other volunteers to distribute necessary aid items to victims of the earthquake.
A recent press report about two child survivors, 12-year-old Saad and his sister Maria, 14, who were badly burnt when their tent caught fire is quite shocking.
Both the children received 80 per cent burns while their father was seriously injured. They were evacuated by army pilots and were rushed to a burns hospital in Kharian, some 200 kilometres southeast of Balakot.
People of the earthquake-affected areas are used to lighting fires during every winter season. Those engaged in relief work should educate the survivors about fire hazards in tents and urge them not to light fires in their tents.
SYED A. MATEEN
Karachi
WHILE some journalists have criticized the “jihadis” for not doing anything, the fact is that the Jamaat-ud-dawah (the welfare wing of the Lashkar-i-Taiba) was on the scene as soon as the Abbotabad-Muzaffarabad road opened. Its volunteers reached the survivors with food and tried to help rescue their loved ones.
The first occasion on which the volunteers went, their trucks were looted. The next time they took armed commandos with them. In fact, the commandos of the Lashkar-i-Taiba even escorted the Turkish and British rescue teams which made their way into the area soon after the quake.
The only properly furnished orthopaedic and surgery hospital in the city is being run by Al Dawah. One of the organization’s supporters resident in the UK — and a native of Mirpur — is said to have individually sent a donation of Rs 30 million. Many other generous donations are also being made. Contrary to this Asma Jehangir is said to be in the US, as is Mukhtaran Mai, who has gone to receive an award from a US magazine.
RIZWAN AHMED
Mirpur
HERE is an account of what a close relative (a police officer) told me when he came back from Muzaffarabad recently:
“As soon as some relief goods came from an NGO, a DSP deployed in the area for security despatched some tents and medicines to his home, back in Lahore. Being highly ‘courteous’ he left some of the goods behind for the earthquake victims. When the DSP was asked what he would do with the medicines, he replied that he would use them when his children fall sick.” This is shameful and someone in authority needs to take action against the police official.
SADIA MALIK
Lahore
IN response to your editorial ‘The real moral lesson’ (Oct. 25), M.J. As’ad gave his views (Oct. 30) and these can be best described as mediaeval. The most astonishing thing is Mr. As’ad’s indifference to man’s curiosity and his ability to doubt and ask the very things that led to the age of discovery and scientific achievement, by calling your editorial “an implacably agnostic view of the gigantic natural calamity”.
I totally agree with your editorial. How can God unleash His wrath on humanity indiscriminately? We believe God loves His humanity more than anything else. To say that natural calamities like earthquakes constitute retribution is not logical.
We do not understand why natural calamities take place, though we do know the scientific reasons of how they occur. But this is not enough to say these are meant as punishment and then walk away from it all.
KHURRAM HANEEF
New Jersey, US
SOME of our leading economists have mentioned that there is no or little impact of the Oct 8 disaster on our national economy. But I want to draw their attention towards the importance of the catchment areas of Mangla and Tarbela reservoirs.
Massive landslides, soil erosion and debris accumulation were observed in the catchments of the reservoirs. These may eventually silt up our dams. Due to the sedimentation, the life span and working efficiency of the dams could also be reduced.
As this may reduce the power generation from dams, it will affect industrial production and dent our economy.
Let us put our heads together to overcome this problem by applying bio-engineering techniques to the catchment areas.
DAWOOD AFRIDI
Peshawar
I WONDER what happened to all those always active in collecting funds for jihad. Now that there is a ‘jihad’ at our doorsteps none of them are to be seen anywhere. Where is the madressah ‘brigade’ Why don’t the madressah teachers lead their students into the mountains. I am not sure if it ever occurred to such people that jihad has many dimensions and the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) had said that working for humanity was a “Jihad-i-Akbar”.
As for the transporters, sellers of shrouds and others who have increased their prices during this time of national crisis, all one can say is that they have made their choice.
NASREEN TALAT
Karachi
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