| December 11, 2005 | Sunday | Ziqa’ad 8, 1426 |
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Army relief & rehabilitation
Rodent infection
‘It takes two to hold back’
No degree yet from Kinnaird
Peace in Karachi
Prisoner in France
Sanitary workers
Another option
AWACs deal
Karachi road
DUE to declining rates of profit in national savings schemes and bank deposits, quite a large number of investors have diverted their savings to the stock exchange market through stock brokerage houses. However, there appears to be no regulatory instructions from the Securities and Exchange Commission Of Pakistan (SECP) for day-to-day working of such brokerage houses with regard to quality and standardized services for customers. Whereas the quantum of business of such houses has increased manifold and so have their profits, they have failed in providing normal services to their account-holders. Some of the common complaints are summarized below:
(1) Monthly statements of account and statements of dividends received are not provided to account-holders. Such statements are provided upon request only and that too after reminders, follow-up and much delay.
(2) There is no uniformity in the rates of commission charged by such houses on sale/purchase of shares on behalf of their customers. It is also observed that they debit extra amount to their customers’ accounts on transactions, in addition to their commission, CVT or withholding tax, without any explanation. Such extra debits are not shown as a separate entry but consolidated with their commission, CVT or WT and value of shares sold/bought, as the case may be. Such hidden charges need random audit by the SECP to check if houses are passing on the tax payable by them to the government to their customers?
(3) Most of the houses do not undertake sale/purchase of shares in lots less than 500 and some of them do so by charging 10 to 20 per cent extra over and above the market value on sale/purchase of such odd numbers. This practice is a discouraging factor for small investors and should be stopped by the SECP.
(4) They do not accept physical shares from their account-holders for deposit into sub-accounts of the CDC and refuse to provide verification services of transfer deeds and insist that the customer should himself get verification done, though such services were being provided by brokerage houses till recently by charging “handling commission.”
(5) Trading halls and electronic index display boards have been closed and discontinued on the pretext of introduction of “online trading”. These should be re-opened/restarted.
(6) The staff and equity dealers of most brokerage houses are generally unskilled, inexperienced and miserably low-paid. The SECP should lay down a framework for a recruitment policy for staff who should get a reasonable pay package. The houses should arrange proper training of their staff and equity dealers before they are put on customer service desks.
The SECP should emulate the policy of the State Bank of Pakistan which lays down policy guidelines and instructions for banks and financial institutions for their day-to-day business dealings with their customers. The brokerage houses should bear in mind that their thriving business, ever increasing turnovers and profits are due to the trust placed by their customers in them. It is expected that the SECP would take due notice of the prevalent practices of stock brokerage houses, which have accumulated so much wealth that they are buying huge complex buildings and power projects.
SHAUKAT RIZVI
Karachi
WHILE speaking at a book launching ceremony that apparently turned into a nationalists’ platform, Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy said strong nationalism had emerged in the Northern Areas and Kashmir (Dec. 8)
According to him, the reason for that was the virtual control of all relief and rehabilitation activities over there by the military after the recent earthquake. We remember that it had taken the army a few days to get into full swing after the catastrophe, for which it was quickly criticized.
During that time there had been many complaints that relief goods brought in by the civilians being looted and some of the victims had demanded that the army should be made responsible for distributing these or providing other help.
Now, after that has been done and it has been fulfilling the responsibilities placed upon it very well, as also acknowledged whole-heartedly by Mr Kofi Annan and other western visitors, people like Dr Hoodbhoy are unduly chiding the army.
The gentleman has also said that ironically it was the military rather than the Kashmiris who decided where to build a hydro dam in Kashmir. The reference is apparently to the Mangla dam but the professor should remember that the decision may have been taken during Gen Ayub Khan’s rule but the Tarbela dam was also built in that period in the NWFP based on the suitability of the sites.
The army has its faults but its good points must not be denied.
ADIL ABDULLAH
Karachi
A CLERK was sent to clean up a storeroom in Maui, Hawaii. When he got back, he complained that the room was filthy and that he had noticed dried mouse or rat droppings in some areas. A couple of days later, he started to feel as if he was coming down with a stomach flu, complained of sore joints and headaches, and began to vomit.
He went to bed and never really got up again. Within two days he was severely ill and weak. His blood sugar count was down to 66, and his face and eyeballs were yellow.
He was rushed to emergency, where he was diagnosed to be suffering from massive organ failure. He died shortly after.
No one would have made the connection between his job and his death had it not been for a doctor who specifically asked if he had been in a warehouse or was exposed to dried rat or mouse droppings at any time. They said there is a virus (much like the Hanta virus) that lives in dried rat and mouse droppings.
Once dried, these droppings are like dust and can easily be breathed in or ingested if a person does not wear protective gear or fails to thoroughly wash his face and hands. An autopsy was performed on the clerk which verified the doctor’s suspicions.
This is why it is extremely important to always carefully rinse off the tops of canned sodas or foods and to wipe off pasta packaging, cereal boxes, and so on. Almost everything you buy in a supermarket was stored in a warehouse at one time or another, and stores themselves often have rodents.
Most of us remember to wash vegetables and fruits but never think of boxes and cans. The ugly truth is that even the most modern, upper-class stores can have rats and mice. And their warehouses most assuredly do.
Whenever you buy any canned soft drink, please make sure that you wash the top with running water and soap or, if that is not available, drink with a straw. The investigation of soda cans by the Centre for Disease Control in Atlanta discovered that the tops of soda cans can be encrusted with dried rat’s urine, which is so toxic it can be lethal.
A CONCERNED CITIZEN
Via email
SHAHID Javed Burki’s article “It takes two to hold back” (Dec 6) was an interesting piece for an Indian reader like me. Without indulging in a superior attitude, let us try to understand the difficulties that Pakistan faced after partition, preventing it from becoming a successful democracy.
First, the educated middle class in Pakistan was miniscule compared to India. The credit goes to the English-educated Indian middle class led by the first prime minister for building the foundation of a secure democracy. Had the educated middle class been as proportionally numerous in Pakistan as it was in India, the history of the former might have been different. Second, almost every province of independent India could boast of a large number of public figures who were well versed with the concept of rule of law.
Lawyers who formed an important chunk of politicians were to be found in almost every Indian subdivisional town, I doubt whether, barring Sindh and Punjab, any other province of Pakistan had an adequate number of public figures who understood the importance of rule of law.
Third, a modern democracy cannot be built on the platform of a non-secular ideal. Even if we accept the thesis that the Muslims of undivided India required a separate homeland for their safety, the moment Pakistan came into being, its leaders should have turned it into a secular state. I know this will be difficult for most people of Pakistan to accept but I would request the enlightened readers of Dawn to find out what history tells us. If India has survived during the last 58 years successfully, it is due to its secular and inclusive ideals.
SUSANTA MAJUMDAR
Kolkata, India
I am writing this letter with a lot of regrets. My daughter joined Kinnaird College’s M.A. in the applied linguistics programme in 1998 (for graduation in 2000). She completed the programme with good results. However she has yet to be awarded a degree, and the reason for that is because the college, when she was enrolled in the programme, was not authorized to award a degree because it did not have degree- granting status.
My point is that if they did not have such a status, then why did they enroll students in the programme? The Punjab education department also seems to have looked the other way as all this was going on because it failed to monitor what the college was doing. Now after five years the college is asking the students to appear in an exam again to qualify for the award of degree. Many of the graduates have gotten married and are settled abroad. How can they be expected to prepare for the exam and then to come all the way to Pakistan to sit for it?
This is totally unjust, callous and shows a very non- professional attitude on the part of Kinnaird College and the Punjab education department. I would request the chief minister of Punjab to instruct the college and the department to issue degrees.
COL(retd) ANEES AHMAD KHAN
Lahore
ACCORDING to a news report (Dawn, Nov 15), the Sindh governor told a group of young diplomats undergoing training in Pakistan that a positive image of Karachi around the world has emerged with the improvement of law and order in the city over the last few years.
As if waiting for the cue to prove the governor wrong, terrorists struck in the morning of Nov 15 by exploding a bomb in a car near the PIDC House, resulting in a number of deaths and injury to many more.
Karachi has not known real peace since the early 1970s. During the last three decades the city’s tranquillity has been disturbed with uncanny regularity by language riots, ethnic riots, sectarian strife, religious militancy, wheel-jam strikes and assorted terrorist attacks. This long period has been interspersed with only small interludes of relative calm.
Although it can be argued that the situation in Karachi is reflective of the conditions that obtain in the country, one can discern a pattern in the incidents that have wrought so much havoc in the city. Whenever a period of relative calm begins to settle on the city providing Karachiites the feeling that the situation has taken a turn for the better, a rude shock is administered to them by way of a bomb explosion or a riot causing death and mayhem.
The mystery about such events is that one cannot point to any particular cause. On the other hand, terrorism related incidents occurring in other parts of the country can somehow be connected to certain triggering factors.
If we were rational people, we would be most concerned about maintaining peace and order in Karachi not only for the reason that it is the main port of the country, its commercial and industrial hub and the largest city but also because so many families all over Pakistan have relatives living and working in the city. This S implies that all of us have a stake in keeping Karachi peaceful and free of disturbance.
Until the early 1970s Karachi was a city which vibrated with feverish commercial and industrial activity that provided jobs not only for the professionally qualified and skilled and semi-skilled workers of the city but countless others who would come to Karachi from all parts of the country in search of a livelihood. The number of international flights that touched Karachi was more than the number for Dubai; Karachi port was a place where work never ceased; public transport comprising buses, taxis and rickshaws (with their fare meters in working condition) was functional and even the Karachi Circular Railway was operational. Those visiting the city in those times said that the city did not sleep at all. The city had the potential of becoming (minus its sinister aspects of course) another Bangkok if not Hong Kong or Singapore.
Then unfortunately the situation took a turn for the worse. The number of international flights touching Karachi began to dwindle, the port worked in fits and starts, the public transport system deteriorated, the Circular Railway ground to a halt and the city lost its capacity to generate employment for the growing number of its young population.
At present the city presents a picture of almost total neglect, despite the many recently constructed flyovers and several others which are under way. Indeed Karachi has come to a very bad pass.
What are the reasons for the massive overall decay that has engulfed Karachi? There is a need to seriously examine this issue. Planned development of a major city acts as a catalyst for the growth of the country. The growth that Thailand has achieved is in large part due to the development of Bangkok; the levels of growth attained by South Korea, Taiwan and Malaysia are due to the development of Seoul, Taipei and Kuala Lumpur. Karachi had the potential to play the same role for Pakistan but the opportunity was missed.
Perhaps all is not lost yet. It is time we worried more about the situation in Karachi, in the quake-hit areas, in parts of Balochistan and the NWFP rather than looking outside Pakistan.
KHALID IDREES
Islamabad
FRANCOIS Turchi has been imprisoned in France for five years without a judgment. Since January 2001 he is a prisoner, waiting to have trial by a French tribunal. All requests for his liberation have been rejected.
He has been indicted for an alleged night bomb attack in Corte (Corsica island) against an empty public building, in order to obtain increased police and justice investigations about his friend Jean-Michel Rossi’s assassination by the mafia on Aug 7, 2000.
At present, French laws provide that nobody can be detained without trial and judgment for more than four years, even exceptionally. France is a country allegedly respecting human rights. Regarding François Turchi, human rights are not respected.
Turchi is detained pending trial, not for an alleged attempted bomb attack, but just because he claimed clearly French justice was too slow and French police not motivated enough to investigate correctly a political opponent’s assassination.
Strangely, friends of Jean-Michel Rossi and most of the participants in his political reflection group called “Presenza Naziunale” have been assassinated, even tortured before murder, by criminals since 2001.
Turchi’s young wife died last year. He was not even allowed to attend her burial. His daughter Stella, born after his imprisonment, has never seen her father free since she was born.
It is not our story; it is the simple story of a man risking his liberty in memory of a friend murdered for being against the mafia in Corsica.
It is the story of a new/old way to shut up the voice of politicalopponents in a so-called “democracy”.
JUSTICE SEEKER
Via email
THIS refers to an advertisement headlined: “Non-Muslim sanitary workers required on contract basis”, released by the Baldia Town nazim and published in this paper (Dec 7), inviting applications for sanitary workers.
The questions that arise are:
1. Why have Muslims been excluded from this job offer?
2. Isn’t it demeaning for non-Muslims only to be qualified for sanitary work? (Don’t Muslims perform this work in the holy cities of Makkah and Madina, where non-Muslims are prohibited entry?)
So much so for enlightened moderation.
NAZIM F. HAJI
Karachi
THE composite dialogue between India and Pakistan has been going on for quite some time without any concrete result. There is no possibility of Kashmir being discussed in the foreseeable future. India is moving according to its set plan of delaying the question of Kashmir as long as possible and keep Pakistan engaged in CBM talks; and at the same time complaining about Pakistan not doing anything to check infiltration across the Line of Control.
Moreover, even if Kashmir is discussed, the outcome is already known as the Indian prime minister has already ruled out any change of frontier in Kashmir.
Having tried the CBMs for quite some time without any change in the Indian attitude, it is time Pakistan also changed its strategy and try other options. Suspend all connections — social, economic, cultural and political — with India until India is prepared to have meaningful discussion on the core issue of Kashmir. I am sure this state of affairs cannot last long and India will be bound to discuss Kashmir giving it the top priority.
ZEYAUR RAHMAN
Karachi
THIS is with reference Khadisa Khashe’s letter of Nov 30 on the AWAC’s deal. I agree hundred per cent with her views. A country can be economically powerful if it is self-sufficient internally.
We can not even cope with a disaster and have to go round begging for financial assistance and we want to buy planes worth over a billion dollars.
The 9/11 attacks proved to be a boon for Pakistan, saving it from financial bankruptcy. Pakistan should revaluate its foreign policy of supporting jihadis and develop its infrastructure for the betterment of its people by spending more on fields like education.
M. A. ANSARI
Toronto, Canada
THE road that runs past Zabist on 3rd Avenue, Block 5, Clifton, Karachi, and goes towards what is known as “Aunties’ Park” has a deep cut in front of the KDA Kehkashan Bungalows. It has been there for several months and makeshift efforts by residents to fill it do not last. The road has fairly heavy traffic because of the Karachi Grammar School further up, beyond the park.
There are also open manholes near the neighbourhood mosque, and while the mosque management seems fairly well-off, it doesn’t appear to much care about the safety of “namazis” or their children.
RESHMA MIRZA
Karachi
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