| December 15, 2005 | Thursday | Ziqa’ad 12, 1426 |
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Lack of response
‘Cautionary tale’
Wasim Akram and the ICC
Expressway dislocation
Dialling 119
Stock brokerage houses
Kite flying ban
Chitral Internet
One-sided?
Multiple pilgrimages
Thanksgiving day
Burning garbage
Cadet college
OIC summit
IN their letter, “Aid, not weapons” (Dec 12), some friends from Sweden’s NGOs and other organizations have opposed the sale of Swedish AWACs to Pakistan on the grounds that due to the devastation caused by the recent earthquake, we need their aid, not weapons.
One greatly appreciates their concern about the plight of the earthquake victims. But they are not being neglected and the citizens and the government are doing everything humanly possible for them, assisted by the international community. A very positive indicator of success is the prevention of the outbreak of any epidemics that had been a very real fear earlier.
There are some facts that one would like to inform the correspondents about, which justify the need for us to remain vigilant about our defence needs.
It is no secret that there’s been tension and hostility created by some hawkish elements in India since 1947 because they had not mentally accepted the creation of Pakistan and wars have been fought between the two.
The Indian attitude will be apparent from the fact that the well-known British philosopher and peace activist, Bertrand Russell, as well as other independent western observers had held India responsible for initiating the 1962 border war with China. Then, as now, it had exploited the West’s fear of China to get weapons as well as moral, material and political support.
In 1971 New Delhi had capitalized on political trouble in our eastern province and broken up Pakistan. Soon thereafter, in 1974 it committed the cardinal sin of introducing nuclear weapons in the region, forcing Pakistan to follow suit.
Besides that, since the partition of the subcontinent, the South Asian giant has illegally occupied many territories including Junagadh, Hyderabad, Kashmir, Goa, Sikkim and Siachen. According to the book, “India’s Rise to Power,” by the Australian defence analyst Sandy Cordon, due to its desire for hegemony, India has had trouble with every neighbour — Nepal, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Bhutan and Bangladesh.
Given this record and India’s ongoing relentless acquisition of offensive weapons such as AWACS, hundreds of high-tech jet fighters, nuclear submarines and aircraft carrier, anti-missile systems etc., most of which are Pakistan-specific, we cannot afford to be complacent. Neither we nor the international community would want Pakistan to get into a situation, due to greatly asymmetrical conventional defence capability, where the normally unthinkable — use of atomic weapons — occurs.
As lovers of peace the Swedish friends are urged to raise their voice against this needless militarization of India that is causing problems in the region and beyond.
Another noteworthy fact is that the financial terms for the purchase of the Erieye airborne surveillance systems are very convenient and payments by Pakistan will probably begin only after five years. Their purchase will not hamper the relief and rehabilitation work in any way.
K. CHAUDHRY
Karachi
THERE is a general complaint that government offices at the federal and provincial and even the district and municipal levels do not reply to letters written by taxpayers or citizens.
Even at the federal government level no proper arrangement appear to have been made to handle email correspondence. Many of my emails written to the Pakistan embassy in Washington, the ministry of commerce, etc., remain unreplied and unattended. Use of auto-responders for emails is not known. If one complains verbally or on the phone, usually one comes across evasive or misleading answers.
Although bodies like the KWSB and the KESC may sometimes act on one’s complaint, they usually do not send formal replies to one’s letters. It also appears that no disciplinary action is taken against persons neglecting their duties or harassing citizens to extort money.
“Politeness is as much concerned in answering letters within a reasonable time as it is in returning a bow immediately,” said Lord Chesterfield, English statesman. Some of our bureaucrats may not answer letters due to indolence or insolence, but the majority appears to be afraid that their incompetence would be exposed if they send a written reply.
SHAH NAWAZ KHAN
Karachi
THIS is with reference to the column “Cautionary tale” by Ayaz Amir (Dec 2). As a concerned citizen of India, I couldn’t agree more with what he has written. UP and Bihar are like heavy drags on the progressive wheels of India but, for the press, since everybody already knows it, there is nothing new to sell. The entire belt from near the Nepal border in Bihar to Andhra Pradesh is reeling under the Naxalite menace but barring a few ‘spectacular’ events like the killing of a politician in Andhra or the daring storming of a jail in Bihar to release 300 odd prisoners, nothing gets reported.
All states to the east of Assam (Assam included) have had a law and order problem for the last 20 years. Ordinary citizens like me would need special permission to visit these states. However, who wants to go there? And so cares? If citizens don’t care, then why should the press? Even if a story gets reported from these areas, it is consigned to some inside page.
In fact, one finds stories on AIDS in India or the country’s technology more in the foreign media. The fourth estate in India is rapidly becoming an FMCG industry, the motto being: “Feed the consumers what they want and increase market share and the rest be damned”.
On a positive note, there are still a handful of regional and national English dailies like The Hindu which continue their work of serious journalism without falling a prey to the vagaries of consumer behaviour. For the information of your esteemed readers, The Hindu has nothing to do with any religion, and in fact is one of the most respected newspapers of India.
RAJESH GANESAN
Warsaw, Poland
I REFER to Wasim Akram’s criticism of the ICC, where he said that the organization was being run and dominated by “goras” who had made little impact during their cricketing careers. Though I have the utmost respect for Wasim’s contribution to cricket, I feel that his recent statements are in bad taste, and unbecoming of a sportsman of his stature.
I can’t believe that he said these things knowing that the current president of the ICC, Ehsan Mani, is a Pakistani. And with regard to past ICC presidents, it should be mentioned that cricketers of the calibre of Sir Clyde Walcott and Lord Colin Cowdrey have held this prestigious position. Regardless of race, they were as great players as Wasim was.
He also said that the cricketing “passion” was most evident in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Well, if that is the case, then why can’t India or Pakistan beat Australia? And why is it that as soon as a young cricketer from the subcontinent is acknowledged possessing some type of cricketing skill, his first thought is to travel to England to play county cricket? How many budding players from the subcontinent have preferred playing for Bangalore or Mumbai over Sussex or Warwickshire?
Wasim, you are a living legend of cricket — one of the best players the game ever produced. Please don’t tarnish that by making illogical and irresponsible statements.
NASIM AHMAD
Karachi
OUR domestic help used to live in a small basti in Gulshan-i-Iqbal where the construction of the Lyari Expressway (LEW) is under way. She and her family had been living there for almost 12 years. When the expressway project began, government officials offered her family a plot in some remote area along with a cheque for Rs50,000. However, when they officials came to ask the residents to sign the papers for their plots, they openly asked them to transfer the amount of the cheque to their name, or else they (the families) would not be given the plot papers.
Our maid’s husband refused to do this and one day the same officials came and demolished his house, not even giving them any time to remove their belongings. The residents tried to approach the town nazim but in vain. Is there anyone who can help those poor people and investigate the acts of corrupt officials?
ARSALANA KHULSAI
Karachi
THIS refers to a letter on Dec 4 by one of our valued customers stating that he had tried to call our emergency response centre on 119 to register his complaint but was unable to do so.
As a responsible public sector company, we take pride in providing quality service to our customers and are obviously distressed when inconvenience is caused to anyone. On very rare occasions a customer may encounter a problem caused by our Automatic Voice Response (AVR) system. The incoming call, for some technical reason, is not transferred to a customer service officer and the company’s messages are repeated incessantly.
A simple solution in such cases would be to hang up and call 119 a second time. This way the call would immediately get through to our call centre and the customers’ complaint would be promptly addressed. However, if any customer feels the need to discuss their problem in greater detail, they may call the general manager (customer relations) on phone number (92-21) 9231533, during office hours.
EJAZ WASAY
Corporate Communications, SSGC
Karachi
THIS refers to Mr Shaukat Rizvi’s letter “Regulating stock brokerage houses” (Dec 11).
Although the correspondent has not mentioned the Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) by name, looking at item # 5 of his letter referring to the trading hall, it appears he means the KSE. To set the record straight, replies to all his complaints are given below:
1. After abolition of the group account facility of CDC, the question of dividend pertaining to an investor to be received in the name of a brokerage house does not arise. Consequently, all investors have been advised to open investor accounts in their personal names or sub-accounts with members to whom they trust.
2. Time has proved that rates of commission cannot be enforced artificially. There is no scale of commission rates prescribed on a uniform basis at the KSE. Because of this, investors tend to gain competitive rates as they can negotiate the rate of commission based on the services desired and the volume and nature of their trades. The Finance Act, 2004 has imposed the following two taxes on securities transactions, which brokers may charge to and collect from their clients for onward depositing in the government treasury through the management of the KSE: (i) capital value tax (CVT) at the rate of 0.01 per cent on purchase value of shares and (ii) withholding tax at the rate of 0.005 per cent on sale value of shares.
Investors are expected to know the rates of commission/taxes while trading in securities. Any amount charged to them by a brokerage house in excess of the above may be brought to the knowledge of brokers by the investors themselves and in case of non-resolution of any complaint, the matter may be referred to the KSE management by specifically mentioning the name of the brokerage house concerned.
3. In order to allow sale/purchase of shares in shares of a quantity less than the normal market lot, a computerized window is opened on the computer trading screen for two hours on a daily basis during which the shares of odd lots can be traded officially in a very transparent manner.
4. The delivery of physical shares of those companies which are already in the CDC cannot be accepted by the brokerage houses. It is the responsibility of the owners of shares to have the transfer deeds bearing their signatures verified from the respective companies. Moreover, the facility of accepting physical shares for converting them into electronic form is now available with the CDC at a very nominal fee.
5. It is incorrect that trading halls and electronic index display board are not functioning. These are very much in operation showing live statistics of the market.
6. The staff and equity dealers of brokerage houses are skilled and experienced and so much in demand because of their technical expertise that it is very difficult to get a fresh person and train him for such a technical job. Moreover, it is not the duty of a regulator to lay down a framework for the recruitment of staff of a brokerage house and fix a salary package.
Mr Rizvi’s reference to members of the Stock Exchange having accumulated wealth and built huge complexes and power projects has no relevance to the governance of stock brokerage houses.
SYED MUNAWAR ALI
Manager, Public Relations, KSE
Karachi
IT is with great dismay that I have been reading the recent ‘trial’ of kite flying in the Supreme Court of Pakistan. Evidently the court took suo motu notice of this activity.
Kite flying contributes to the joy of childhood and is an activity that most children will remember when they grow up to be adults.
No one is condoning reckless endangerment of the public through irresponsible kite flying practices and this must be stopped. But there are laws on the books that can do that. One only needs to enforce these laws.
However, I respectfully submit to the honourable Supreme Court that it should also address social evils such as the practice of vani and honour killings?
Also, do the honourable justices see that their directives may just end up destroying one of the few joys of childhood?
DANISH MUSTAFA
Rawalpindi
THE Internet service in Chitral started deteriorating about a month ago and now has reached the verge of collapse. This is causing a great deal of loss to Internet cafe operators and much inconvenience and hindrance in work in offices, especially NGOs which they do much of their work online.
IT takes almost half an hour to open an email. Both the PTCL and the ISPs fail to give any satisfactory reason for this deterioration, but sources say the PTCL lines provided to Chitral for the purpose of internet connection are very few and cannot bear the load of the increasing number of Internet users.
More lines should be provided to Chitral so that its residents can have access to a fast and reliable internet service.
BASHIR HUSSAIN
Chitral
ALL through these columns one mostly finds letters on how bad things are in Pakistan. Scanning through the news channels one finds people discussing how bad the government is. We need to be more patriotic. After all it is our country and it is up to us to make improvements.
The economy is growing and standards of living are improving. People have to understand that things cannot change overnight.
We must be optimistic and I think Pakistan is moving in the right direction. We talk about improving Pakistan’s image.
I ask how can we do that if we ourselves always criticize everything?
ASHMAL KHAN
Karachi
I AGREE with Faqir Ahmad Paracha (Dec 9) about people performing Haj two or more times. I wonder if these people understand their responsibilities as Muslims.
These people should know that they will not be asked about their “nafil” Haj but they will surely be brought to task for not spending this money on the needy. By performing the Haj multiple times all they are doing is making the airlines, hotels and the travel agents rich and ignoring their responsibility to others.
MIR ALI
Chicago, IL, US
THANKS for the editorial on Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg (Dec 9) spending time with some of the child survivors of the Oct 8 earthquake. You very correctly stated that “this world is not without its quota of decent human beings who believe in sympathy and compassion for others irrespective of differences.”
Ayaz Amir has also written in one of his columns that some American doctors working in the area did not have any problems cleaning the toilets of the clinics where they were working. These people were working round the clock in an area which even the Pakistan Army considered inaccessible.
I have a suggestion to make and that is that the president should announce a “Thanksgiving Day” for all these wonderful people and governments who helped us in our time of need. The world has been good to us, and we should be equally good to it.
MALIK WAQAR
Las Vegas, US
CHEERS to the CDA for painting roads, erecting signboards and installing new baskets on green belts to hold fresh spring flowers. But can it also do something about the garbage burning which continues unabated every day in Islamabad? Or is the federal capital well on its way to becoming as polluted as Karachi or Lahore?
USMAN ALI KHAN
Islamabad
MEETING an old demand of Ghotkiites, the government had approved a cadet college for Ghotki district two years ago. Land on the National Highway at Sarhad was also allotted for the purpose. After that, construction work was started earlier this year. But soon after, it was stopped for unknown reasons and has not yet begun again.
The authorities are requested to expedite early completion of the project.
AGHA ALI GOHAR KHAN
Ghotki
IT was quite amusing to see the gathering of dictators, autocracy and kings who have strangled the aspirations of their people for so long being lectured to by our own military president on how to bring about a renaissance in the Muslim world. Without doubt, a Renaissance will come to this part of the world. But it will not come until the coterie of self-serving and self-appointed rulers are removed from power.
M.H. KHAN
Indianapolis, US
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