| January 11, 2006 | Wednesday | Zilhaj 10, 1426 |
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Formation of CCI
Centralized system
Pemra decision
Perspectives on Sharon’s illness
Cogeneration is the answer
Pakistani cinema
Karafilm festival
Will the SC take notice?
KPT pensioners
Mess on Eidul Azha
Indian anthem
Telephones
Poor service
HAS anyone noticed the fast disappearing green belts in Islamabad? These areas are being used for car parking in E-8, F-8, F-7, F-6; they are being used for mosques and madressahs in E-7, G-7, F-7, F-6; they are being cleared of trees and used as playgrounds by schools; in F-6 all trees have been chopped from a huge wooded area (for a road?); a large area has been taken over by the police in F-8; large hotels are clearing the trees and using the areas for car parking.
If this continues at this rate, not only will the beauty of Islamabad be lost for ever, but the ensuing climate change will make the city much warmer, full of pollution, and there will be less rainfall — an environmental disaster in the making.
The following are some suggestions for the CDA: all future buildings (especially highrise buildings) should have mandatory car parking in the basement; public car parks (like the ones in Blue Area and F-8) should be at least three/four-storey high with a rooftop restaurant serving the needs of office workers, etc.
Since the march of “progress” seems to mean more built-up areas in Islamabad, it would be a good idea to have a garden between every fifth and sixth highrise building. This could be landscaped and maintained by one of the companies.
The sites marked for mosques and schools should be adhered to strictly by the CDA and no encroachments should be allowed. All private schools should be relocated to newer areas.
Do we really need a golf course right in the middle of a shopping area, i.e., F-7? Why not have a natural green area with benches for the general public to relax in? Golf courses are normally outside city limits in vast open areas.
No mention has been made of Sectors F-10 and F-11 because there are not many green areas to be seen there in the first place. Whatever there is should be preserved and expanded upon.
Let us all sit up and take notice before it is too late and our “beautiful” Islamabad is lost and becomes another polluted, chaotic and dirty city of Pakistan.
M. NASIR SHAH
Islamabad
AFTER a wait of several years and the demand of three out of the four provinces, particularly Sindh, the federal government has finally announced its decision to form the Council of Common Interest (CCI) to resolve the water issue. However, nominations of its members are yet to be made.
The CCI’s formation is a constitutional requirement, which is beneficial for all, particularly the three smaller provinces.
The members of the CCI will be the four chief ministers and fours members to be appointed by the federal government. Obviously, the remaining four members will be federal ministers each belonging to one province whereas the prime minister may head the CCI. Since the prime minister has already publicly supported construction of the controversial Kalabagh dam, Punjab will, therefore, have practically three votes in the CCI whereas the remaining three provinces will have only two votes each. This will be a great injustice to the three provinces. Unfortunately, the same situation occurred in the appointment of members of the water committee headed by Mr A. N. G. Abbasi where seven members out of nine were pro-Kalabagh dam.
The government has announced that a decision in the CCI will be made on a majority basis which, if implemented, will be a violation of the Constitution as a decision on the issue has to be made unanimously and not on a majority basis. If the members have a difference of opinion, the matter will be referred to a joint session of parliament where a decision can be made by majority vote or the house can refer the matter to a committee appointed by it. Nevertheless, the president or the Supreme Court of Pakistan will have no authority to intervene.
I request the federal government to make the whole process from nomination of members to procedure of the CCI transparent, otherwise no one will accept the council’s decisions.
IMRAN KHAN SIAL
Karachi
THIS refers to the news item saying that the federal cabinet has decided to reconstitute the Council of Common Interest (CCI), a key constitutional panel meant to sort out differences among provinces (Jan 2).
The government has thus acknowledged the differences between the provinces and the federal government and also among the provinces themselves. The Constitution provides for the formation of such a council which shows that the framers believed that if Pakistan was going to be a federation, then such a council was needed as differences among provinces were inevitable in a federation.
Second, the lack of confidence of the provinces in the federal government is also inevitable when the federal unit has a history of favouring the major province at the expense of the smaller provinces. The provinces don’t have any confidence in federal decisions and they are not even ready to accept the KBD even with legal and constitutional assurances.
But the reconstitution of the CCI is mere patchwork to cover the fundamental faults. The need is to abolish the system itself and bring in a new system.
The system of Islam is not a federal one. It is rather a unitary system. Funds are spent equally on the affairs of the subjects, regardless of their wilayah (province). If, for instance, the revenues of a single wilayah are double its needs, the funds spent will be in accordance with the needs of the wilayah but not in accordance with its revenues.
When the ruler or ‘khalifa’ is looking after the affairs of the provinces equally, then all the provinces have confidence in the central authority and issues like the KBD would not be seen through the narrow lens of the interests of the provinces.
IRFAN ULLAH KHAN
Islamabad
PEMRA was conceived in 1997 as an independent authority consisting of professional specialists with independent minds, integrity and merit to reduce government control over PTV and the PBC and frame a code of conduct for the emerging TV and radio channels in the private sector. But as luck would have It, Pemra finally emerged as a semi-government authority directly under the control of the cabinet division. Its members are not “professional specialists with independent minds,” as originally envisioned, but retired and “hazir service” bureaucrats, who are under the control of the cabinet secretary.
Recently in a sweeping attack on private cable TV and radio channels, the authority closed down as many as 60 channels and 12 FM radio stations. It also pulled the plug on 713 illegal cable TV operations and shut down a large number of channels peddling pornographic material.
A majority of the 60 channels closed down by Pemra were Indian channels which were very popular among Pakistani viewers and advertisers. Drama serials like “Kahani ghar ghar ki”, “Sas bhi kabhi bahu thi” “Kaun baneyga crorepati” and many other clean decent and cultured entertainment and informative programmes on Star channels were being watched by millions of people in Pakistan. The reason given by Pemra for closing these channels was that it could not allow “programmes which are against our faith, culture and traditions”.
Ironically, however, it allowed Pakistani private channels to telecast old Indian shows and drama serials full of nudity and vulgarity. Likewise, there is no ban on American and other foreign channels which are mostly full of sex and violence.
How could Pemra explain its abrupt decision to close down popular and quite decent Indian channels except as being arbitrary and hypocritical?
DISGUSTED VIEWER
Karachi
VARIOUS opinions are being expressed about what could have caused the current illness of the Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon (Dawn, Jan 7).
The hardline Jewish settlers evicted from the Gaza Strip under Mr Sharon’s orders have claimed that his plight was due to divine punishment for selling out to the Palestinians. Some far-right activists have even said that a death curse (“lashes of fire”) they cast on him last July had kicked in.
The American evangelist Pat Robertson, too, sees it as “divine retribution” for dividing “God’s land” of Israel by giving away Gaza and parts of the West Bank (to the Palestinians). Meanwhile, the doctors are speculating whether the delay in transporting him to hospital caused aggravation or whether his stroke had resulted from internal bleeding in the brain due to the blood-thinning medicines he was taking following an earlier stroke.
Another conjecture is that the stress caused by the re-opening of an inquiry just the other day by the Israeli police into whether Sharon’s family received a three million dollar bribe contributed to his collapse.
Ironically, nobody in Israel or America has considered the possibility of this being the harvest of the killing of thousands of Palestinians in the Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps and in Palestine itself during the ongoing intifada ignited by Sharon’s provocative visit to the Al Aqsa mosque compound in 2000. The heartless destruction of the homes of thousands of Palestinians by using bulldozers supplied by the US through American taxpayers’ money is also being ignored.
Z.A. JALALI
Karachi
WITH reference to the letter “Gas management policy” (Dec 30, 2005), many discussions have followed whether cogeneration will really solve our energy “crisis”, specially relating to gas availability and lower production costs.
If we continue to use outdated technologies relating to steam/hot water production and power generation in the industrial sector, we will certainly exacerbate our energy shortages. Cogeneration (or combined heat and power) systems will obviously not solve all our problems but these highly cost-effective efficient systems will reduce the problem to manageable size, and the present criticality of continuously rising gas tariff and supply shortages will be better controlled.
In spite of very clear guidelines from the ECC, we do not see any improvement in actual working only because gas companies have not accepted this challenge. The “conversion” of the wrong mindset in the industrial sector has to be initiated from the gas companies since they are the real source of gas system planning. If they had insisted on efficient technologies just around industrial sectors in the Lahore-Raiwind area, we would have saved enough gas to possibly avoid, or at least considerably reduce, the unfortunate gas-shedding in that area. And, of course, the country’s economy as well as individual industry would benefit immensely due to reduced cost of production.
Most countries with a proper industrial base have accepted cogeneration as the norm but we seem to be hesitating all the time and the result is that our precious gas continues to be wasted and our costs of production continue to rise. How long will we be able to afford this is anybody’s guess but the truth is: not for very long.
The US used to be criticized for its wasteful methods but the way they have adopted efficiency as their goal, specially in the last three-four years, constitutes an example to be followed. You hear of many industries there with cogeneration installations and recently a very efficient (in excess of 90 per cent in total energy terms) cogeneration power plant was commissioned for gypsum wallboard industry (the third largest producer in the world). Even the building sector there has become more and more efficient due to codes following the green building requirements. The proposed “Freedom” Tower (in place of the twin World Trade Centre) will also have cogeneration power plant and we seem to ignore this very efficient technology in our large projects with central airconditioning and continue to waste enormous energy through inefficient utilization of our precious gas resource.
The Lahore airport terminal building is one bad example of energy wastage. Hopefully, we will learn and the Islamabad airport terminal building will be different. Giving examples of “efficient” buildings in Dubai is not fair. That part of the world has not yet accepted that fossil fuels are finite and very soon the rising energy costs will force them to change and even large buildings there will have to consider efficient technologies if they want to survive in the present energy scenario.
The good news there is that they are laying a large natural gas piping network from Sharjah and perhaps, in the near future, we will see a cogeneration power plant in Dubai building projects also.
The emphasis on renewable energy should be correctly planned. A recent advertisement covering comments on “wind energy” project is most discouraging news.
The load factor for local wind conditions will be only around 20 per cent and we should really examine the cost benefit for such large investments. Solar power generation continues to be prohibitively expensive and we should judge each renewable energy project on simple economics and only economics.
AINUL ABEDIN
Karachi
THIS refers to Mr Sevy Ali’s articles (Dawn’s Image, Jan 8). Certain figures about production of Pakistani films must be cleared. Pakistan did not produce 300 films in the 70s. The fact is that Pakistan has never produced 300 films a year. In 1970, West Pakistan and East Pakistan together produced 142 films and that was our highest score. In 1974, Pakistan produced 113 films. Again, Pakistan is now not turning out 20 films and the number of productions last year went down to 48.
I agree with Mr Ali about releasing films from all foreign countries in Pakistan, including India. Pakistan must also go for co-production with India. In return, India must also explore possibilities of releasing selected Pakistani films in India (there are dozens of our classics from the 50s,60s,70s and 80s which can do well in India). Our Punjabi films have a good market not just in Indian Punjab but in other in parts as well where Indian Punjabi films are released.
AIJAZ GUL
Islamabad
A SMALL group of young, dedicated and committed visionaries have successfully created a large group of enthusiastic viewers of parallel cinema in Karachi through the Karafilm festival.
They have inspired talented creative artists to produce low-cost (Rs300,000 to Rs500,000) meaningful cinema with subjects relevant to our present-day society. Films like “Home” by Faisal Rehman, “24 Hours” by Shahid Shafaat, “Shaista” by Abrarul Hasan, “Aina Wohi Rehta Hai” by Owais Khan, “Dus Rupay” by Sharjil Baloch, “Kan Rus” by Farooq Rind, “Eclipse” by Maheen Zia, “Social Circus” by Adnan Malik, “Ward # 7” by Shamoon Abbasi, “Shahrukh Khan Ki Maut” by Ehteshamudin and “Awaiting the Crains’ Return” by Samina Aslam, shown and receiving appreciation at the fifth Karafilm Festival 2005 prove my point.
The environment has been created. The field has been ploughed. Seeds have been sown. Now is the time for financially resourceful people to come forward and support these young girls and boys to continue creating sensible cinema so that Karachi can regain the cultural glory of yesteryears and become the hub of parallel cinema in Pakistan.
NAQI MUSTAFA
Karachi
THE news item “Traffic jams: two die failing to reach hospital” in Dawn of Jan 7 is horrifying. I request the Supreme Court of Pakistan to take suo motu notice of this alarming situation.
Clearly people dying on their way to hospital because their vehicles are stuck in a traffic jam is something more inhuman than rape, vani, swara or a violation of the ban on serving dinner at wedding feasts.
SHAMEEM AHMAD
Karachi
WE, the majority of KPT employees who had opted for 50 per cent golden handshake, appeal to the chairman to pay 50 per cent commutation to pensioners in a lump sum as the meagre amount of the monthly pension is not enough to meet our daily needs.
MUHAMMAD AKRAM
Karachi
WHILE Islam enjoins its followers to slaughter animals it also places a heavy emphasis on cleanliness. Come Eidul Azha and the roads are filled with animal waste. Even a posh area like Defence is full of empty plots where one can find animal remains and offal. People even hang their butchered animals on electric poles for skinning.
This all reflects the state of our society. It is time that the educated in our society came forward and did something about this. In other Islamic countries like Saudi Arabia and the UAE, there is a separate ground for slaughtering and keeping animals. The same should be done here.
MARIA ILYAS
Karachi
THIS refers to the news “Good relations between India and Pakistan” (Dec 30) saying that Professor Siddik, a member of the visiting Indian delegation to the Larkana Writers Club, asserted that “Sindh” was included in the national anthem of India.
This means that from Aug 14, 1947 till now successive Pakistani governments have taken no notice of this fact or objectd to it. This is a serious matter. Sindh is an integral part of Pakistan.
Considering the ongoing confidence-building measures, the Indian government should take out the word “Sindh” from its anthem.
FAYYAZ MUDDASSIR MUBEEN
Karachi
I WOULD like to draw the attention of the PTCL authorities to the fact that telephone Nos. 5080651-2 (two lines), 5080751-3 (three lines), 5083642, 5083645-8 (four lines), 5082826 (fax), 5080624, 5081653 and 5083654 have not been working properly since Sept 26, 2005 in spite of several complaints.
Linemen point out that these are primary and secondary faults and have to be addressed by the DE, telephones, and the SDO.
MAJ (retd) SYED YOUSUF SHAH
Nakshbandi Industries Ltd
Karachi
BANKS are providing poor service or no service to their credit card customers. I am also a victim of same thing that Asghar Ali and Farah Akbar have mentioned in their recent letters. I request the State Bank to take errant banks to task on this issue, especially in their dealings with credit card customers.
AIJAZ ALI KHUWAJA
Karachi
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