| December 8, 2005 | Thursday | Ziqa’ad 5, 1426 |
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The dam controversy
Paying for studying abroad?
Ties with Palestine
Street dogs
‘Commonwealth rebuke’
Murky moon
Commonwealth scholarship
‘What will become of Sindh?’
Prep students
THE UN oil-for-food programme investigations implicated both the ruling Congress Party of India and its minister, Mr Natwar Singh. The Indian political establishment immediately moved in for damage control. The minister’s foreign affairs portfolio was taken away, pending investigation and he was later obliged to resign. Instead of indulging in denials, which is what most dictatorial regimes in the Third World would have resorted to, the checks and balances of a democratic system came into play to prevent the media from exploiting the situation.
Individual acts of irrational behaviour, when protected by the state or an organization, tend to damage the credibility of the whole system. Allegations of corruption should always be probed, and the individual involved, irrespective of his rank, must be subject to due investigation.
Suspension of such individuals, during the timeframe of the inquiry process, lends credibility to the system. Such individual actions when protected by the state or an organization harm it more than the process of accountability would.
Unfortunately the state apparatus in Pakistan does not realize that without credibility the whole system is liable to collapse when caught in an adverse situation. This culture of protecting individuals at the expense of an institution’s credibility has harmed many state enterprises and semi-autonomous corporations and institutions like Wapda, PIA, KESC, railways and the police.
The manner in which the provincial government of Punjab initially handled the Mukhtaran Mai case damaged the reputation of this nation. We have also seen the negative impact of lack of transparency in the events following the Oct 8 earthquake. The state of Pakistan had to bend over backwards to reassure the donors that aid would be fairly disbursed and audited. Yet there are allegation of impropriety in the Senate about tents worth Rs1.8 billion being supplied that do not meet specifications. The Boeing 777 historic flight conducted on Oct 10 should have been a PR coup for PIA, yet the individual action of a senior executive reportedly became an embarrassment for the national airline.
We need to learn some lessons from others as to how to resort to damage control by allowing judicial or in-house processes to take their course. This requires political maturity and willingness to submit to rule of law by all those who wield authority. There should be no exception. Institutions need to be strengthened, instead of being subordinated to individual interests.
N. A. ABRO
Middlesex UK
NOW that work on the Kalabagh and Bhasha dams is to be taken in hand concurrently, it is time to expose the fiddling done with the Bhasha dam by vested interests inspired by Ms Benazir Bhutto to give it priority over Kalabagh.
The dam parameters were changed drastically for this purpose. The dam height was increased to a dangerous 908 feet from the original design height of 608 feet, enhancing storage capacity to 7.34 MAF from 5.7 MAF, which previously made it inferior to the KBD.
It would have been the highest dam in the world, with unknown complexities, in an active seismic zone. By a sleight of hand, the cost instead of increasing with the increased parameters, was shown to be less, i.e., $5 billion instead of $6.6 billion.
The need to artificially project the superiority of the Bhasha dam is no longer relevant. Better sense should prevail and the dam parameters be downsized to give full attention to the safety of the dam, rather than any other vested considerations. Politics and dams do not mix well.
KHURSHID ANWER
Lahore
TODAY most experts in the world are against building big dams as these, in their opinion, have progressively lost their utility, interfered with ecology and uprooted populations from traditional settlements. Experts feel small dams could do a better job.
Our government should understand the hazards of big dams as their construction is harmful for many valid and obvious reasons. First, a large number of people would be displaced. We have the example of the Tarbela dam where all the displaced people could not be settled even after 37 years. The Kalabagh dam will render, according to Wapda, more than 120,000 people homeless.
Second, because of seepage about 40 per cent of water will become useless. In case of collapse, it will bring unprecedented ruination. There are examples of such devastation before us. Therefore, construction of small dams should be encouraged.
Unfortunately, construction of large dams in Pakistan is demanded on political grounds. Three elected provincial assemblies out of four have passed nine resolutions against the construction of the controversial Kalabagh dam.
Furthermore, the Kalabagh site is in the Salt Range and also in the earthquake zone.
I suggest the government should not lay emphasis on building large dams in view of the ground realities.
IMRAN KHAN SIAL
Karachi
I AM writing this letter as a last resort after all my previous efforts went in vain. I have written to the secretary, economic affairs division, the minister of economic affairs, the governor of Punjab, the chief minister of Punjab, the prime minister and the president before this. I appeal to them again through your paper to consider my problem.
I am a Canadian by birth but I was brought up in Pakistan since my parents wished to raise me in our own cultural environment. I had my high school education in Pakistan and got straight A grades in both O and A levels. I did my A levels on scholarship and was nominated for a world distinction in chemistry by my school.
I applied to the economic affairs division for admission to a Punjab medical college on a foreign student seat but to my utter dismay, despite being above almost all other students selected by the division on normal seats, I was selected for a self-finance seat. On my inquiry I was told that since I did my A-level in Pakistan, I could only qualify on a self-finance basis.
Isn’t it ironic that a foreign student studying outside Pakistan can study for normal fees paid in Pakistani rupees whereas someone who resides in Pakistan has to study on a self-finance basis, with a hefty fee to be paid in dollars? Furthermore, what is the difference between A levels taken from abroad and those taken in Pakistan? Isn’t it unfair that a foreigner who chooses to live and study in Pakistan has to be extremely rich to continue her studies at the professional level?
I am being offered scholarships by many medical colleges abroad but again my parents’ apprehensions stop me from going out. While my parents wish to see me become a doctor, a self-finance fee of Rs3,000,000 is virtually beyond their means. I should not be penalized just because I studied in Pakistan.
I have been given Dec 15 as the last date by the economic affairs division to convey my decision to them, i.e., pay the hefty fee and retain my seat in college or vacate it for another candidate. I would request the authorities concerned to look into this anomaly and help me continue my higher studies in Pakistan.
ZAINUB ALVIE
Lahore
THIS refers to the article “An equation with Israel” by Kunwar Khalid Yunus (Oct 13) in which several statements have been attributed to some Muslim League leaders from before and after the country’s independence. The original and the most authentic stand by Pakistan is the speech made by Pakistan’s representative to the UN at the assembly session in which the resolution creating the Zionist state of Israel was approved on May 14, 1948.
Pakistan’s foreign minister warned the world organization that this illegal act would lead to half a century of bloodshed in Palestine and the Arab world. A clipping of an extract from this speech with me is inadequate to clear the issue. The MNA is, therefore, requested to obtain the original from UN records and have it published for public knowledge.
The Zionist state was created under the personal pressure of US president Truman to ensure his re-election. The subsequent foreign policy of the US has made acceptance of the Zionist state a foundation of elections of presidents and members of Congress. The true feeling of the Muslim world towards the Zionist state of Israel has been stated for the first time by the young president of Iran. The ultimate aim of the Zionist state irrespective of US President Bush’s pronouncement in the UN General Assembly is contained in the statement of the defence minister of Israel, quoted by daily Yediot Aharonot and reproduced in Dawn of Oct 29 and forms the basis of Dawn’s editorial of Nov 3.
One of the earlier prime ministers of Israel had aimed at continuing to talk with Palestinians “until the subsequent generations forget their right to their ancestral homes of their elders and earlier generations.”
H.A. HAJI
Karachi
MR H. A. Haji’s letter (Dec 4) stated among other things that street dogs should be taken to the Galliat and released there so that they can be eaten by mountain leopards. I would like to point out that not only is this senseless but it is also inhumane. Instead of killing street dogs in such a cruel manner, we should control dog overpopulation by other means such as neutering and spraying. The cost of catching stray dogs and determining that they do not have rabies and releasing them in the Galliat would probably cost more than an effective programme for neutering them. Many animal rights organizations such as PETA (People for Ethical Treatment of Animals) have noted how cruelly Pakistan deals with its stray dog population and is willing to help out.
SUBUL AHSAN
Karachi
THIS refers to your editorial “Commonwealth rebuke” (Nov 29).
We are not against democracy but certainly do not support a Westminster-type of government in our country that favours the minuscule elite against the interest of the majority. This small elite is very strong and difficult to dislodge from parliament which is based on the “sacrosanct Constitution of 1973” which is based on the 1935 Act of the British government of India leading to two strong personalities — the prime minister and the president — who were inimical to each other. Hence, our unstable governments.
What rights and benefits are there in remaining a member of the Commonwealth “club”? What problems and disputes of Her Majesty’s former colonies are solved under the umbrella of the “Commonwealth”? Where is the “Commonwealth” that we the deprived nations can share? Is it not a fact that the Kashmir dispute between the now two nuclear powers is a legacy of the British Empire and has caused bitterness between two members of the Commonwealth? Why doesn’t the Labour government today in the UK take the responsibility for the perpetual bloodshed, since independence, as the successor of the Labour government of Lord Attlee, the then prime minister, which took the credit for giving independence to British India by dividing it into two dominions?
Your editorial says it was highly embarrassing for Pakistan that the communiqué issued in Valetta, the capital of Malta, by the Commonwealth summit should have mentioned Pakistan as being kept on the “watch list” of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group and retained on its agenda “pending the resolution of this issue” — the issue being the offices of head of state and army chief held by one person, Gen Pervez Musharraf.
You may recall that during the first visit of Don McKinnon, secretary-general of the Commonwealth, to Islamabad, Gen Musharraf, the then chief executive of Pakistan, reminded him clearly and candidly that the system of government in the UK is not the only type of democracy in the world. Apparently, he was pointing out that the system of government and the legacy left thereof by the British in the subcontinent had failed as is evident from the fact that all the four countries of the subcontinent have not been able to attain the status of a welfare state during all these 58 years of independence.
Myanmar (Burma)) was also a part of the British Empire and is being ruled by a military junta and is self-reliant and not going to the West with a begging bowl.
The type of democracy which suits our genius and polity is that of the congressional system, prevailing now in the US. Its first president, George Washington, himself was commander of the liberation army that defeated the royalists of the British Empire and wrapped up the Westminster-type of democracy then prevailing in the 13 British colonies of New England and adopted the congressional system in which the president is the head of state as well as chief executive and is directly elected by adult franchise. Having been elected, the president appoints his secretaries from among experts in the relevant fields who are not members of either the Senate or the House of Representatives.
S.M. ZAKERYA KAZMI
Karachi
ONE day my youngest daughter and I were sitting in the balcony of our apartment enjoying night air when all of a sudden my daughter commented: “How murky is the moon tonight”
She then asked me why the stars were not twinkling. I thought how unlucky we are today that we cannot enjoy nature’s beauty. I told my daughter that it was due to pollution and unclean air that we were unable to observe nature in its original colours.
This is the dilemma of the 21st century. Our cities have become polluted and the filth is spreading. How miserable today’s man is, already deprived of the basic amenities of life as he faces hunger, unemployment and inflation, and is now prevented also from breathing in open and clean air.
Thirty years ago I had enjoyed the same sky but it was open and its colour was blue, with blinking stars and a dazzling moon at night.
The responsibility for protecting the environment is on every human being as well as on the government and the environmental protection agency. City planners should keep a vigilant eye on threats to the environment.
SYED SADAQAT HUSSAIN
Karachi
THROUGH your newspaper I would like to point out a grave act of injustice committed by the ministry of education. An advertisement for Commonwealth General Scholarships 2006 appeared recently in newspapers and on the website of the National Testing Service.
This ad contained detailed eligibility criteria for each of the membership countries offering scholarships under this scheme.
I applied for a UK scholarship after ascertaining my eligibility. I scored 83 marks in the test conducted by the NTS which was the second highest score, and was quite hopeful of being selected.
However to my dismay, I received a letter from the ministry of education stating that my candidature stood cancelled because I had not received my requisite degree in the last five years — a requirement. However, the official website of the UK Commonwealth scholarship scheme does not mention this as a requirement at all. The requirement for having a degree that is less than five years’ old was never mentioned in the advertisement or is a requirement set by the UK government.
It is clear that this has been done to adjust some ‘favourites’ into the scholarship scheme. I request the education minister to look into this matter and help me get what is my due right.
NASIR MEHMOOD
Islamabad
THE article by Ameer Bhutto “What will become of Sindh?” (Dawn, Encounter, Nov 26) was blunt and thought-provoking. Despite the writer’s grievances and lamentations, certain facts cannot be ignored.
We in Sindh invariably look towards the government for solutions to our problems. We are still subjected to the feudals’ “autaq” culture which we have not been able to shake off.
We are fond of government jobs and a majority of our educated folks are engaged in government employment right from peon and clerk to the officers’ grades.
The nationalization of industries, schools and colleges by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had, perhaps, the motive of encouraging the people to come into the mainstream of commerce and industry, the backbone of a progressive people.
But this process met with a tragic end with the collapse of the whole nationalized corporate sector because all those who had been inducted into that programme succumbed to greed and, therefore, failed to produce positive results.
We, the people of Sindh, are unmatched in our hospitality. An open-arm welcome was extended to the migrants on the partition of the subcontinent.
We are intellectuals, thinkers, writers, ulema, but not our own benefactors.
Had we been diligent in helping ourselves, our status would have been that of a province to be reckoned with.
Therefore, to answer the question what will become of Sindh, we must ask what have we made of Sindh?
GHEEWALA
Karachi
RECENTLY I had an opportunity to glance through the English book being taught to children of prep one studying in a private school. What I saw was enough to make my blood boil. The very first page of the textbook has: “A is for apple, ant, arrow, aeroplane, aquarium, alligator.”
When I pointed to the “aquarium” and asked my daughter what it was, she said “fish” because she did not know what an aquarium was. How many children have seen an aquarium? Naturally when they see an aquarium they are going to say fish.
A child who cannot even write her name properly nor other words can certainly not be expected to correctly spell aquarium in tests and examinations.
My son, who is also studying in the same school, in prep two, is being taught how to make salad. The ingredients used in the making of the salad were also mentioned, including capsicum. Being a postgraduate I too cannot correctly spell capsicum properly. I would like to know what percentage of children at this tender age, their formative years, can remember such complicated and difficult words.
I would like to ask the honourable federal education minister and the provincial education minister what need has a child of prep two to make salad? If he gets injured in the process of making the salad at home when there is no one to supervise him, who will be responsible?
Children at the prep level should be taught simple words and not complicated words like “aquarium” and “alligator” nor how to make salad.
I would ask the relevant ministers and other officials concerned to take note of this serious issue. We need concerted efforts to raise the status of education in the country with respect to quality.
SAVAIRA KAWISH
Karachi
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