| January 25, 2006 | Wednesday | Zilhaj 24, 1426 |
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Indian media
Moving Israel to Europe
US treatment
Early learning in mother tongue
Medical education
TV channel ban
Water wastage
Marco Polo sheep
KPT’s job
Reforming the judiciary
Body search
IN its short comment titled, “US must apologize,” the Los Angeles Times has exhibited crass cynicism, while also trying to show some fairness (Dawn, Jan 20).
On the one hand, it has incredulously talked of Pakistani officials’ “claim” that the US bombing (in Bajaur) killed at least 17 innocent people and, “if so”, relatives of the dead deserve an apology and reparations from the US.
On the other hand, it proceeds to say that during the Pakistani prime minister’s visit to the US he should be reminded that if Islamabad actually tried to find al Zawahiri and his boss, Osama bin Laden, instead of just pretending to do so, such attacks would not be repeated.
It goes on: “More than four years after Al Qaeda’s 9/11 attacks, Pakistan continues to play a dangerous game. The government does as little as possible to hunt Al Qaeda operatives, lest their Pakistani supporters become even more upset with Musharraf. Yet Islamabad continually assures Washington that it’s in vigorous pursuit, in order to keep the foreign aid flowing.”
This is slander and cynicism at its worst and very painful for any Pakistani to hear. As a leading American newspaper, the L.A. Times should be well aware that nearly 600 Al Qaeda and other militants have been killed or captured by the Pakistani forces since 9/11, with the big fish having been handed over to the US.
A couple of hundred Pakistani soldiers have lost their lives in the process but some Americans remain utterly thankless.
One would like to ask such people as to why the US army, with around 160,000 troops and a large number of Iraqi soldiers and civilian collaborators, has not been able to capture Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the No. 1 man of Al Qaeda in Iraq? This should have been much easier to do in the Mesopotamian plains than to catch OBL in northern Pakistan’s extremely difficult mountainous terrain, although he may very well be in Afghanistan.
Should one claim that the American generals in Iraq do not wish to apprehend him for some reason or that the CIA has created a fictitious bogeyman in order to make the Sunnis and Shias fight each other?
It must be pointed out that the US fathered the Al Qaeda monster through a combination of selfishness and imprudence. First, by walking out of Afghanistan immediately after the Soviet Union’s defeat, instead of helping either Afghanistan or Pakistan — without their help the West’s success would have been impossible — to cope with the arms and drugs proliferation spawned by the decade-long war. In addition to these were the social and economic problems caused for Pakistan by the four million Afghan refugees and the presence of the armed mujahideen equipped and trained by the West.
Second, by the foolish insistence that Mullah Omer hand over OBL to the US for trial, which was against the Afghan norms of hospitality. Instead of attacking the country in 1998 and then again in 2001, they should have accepted the Taliban leader’s offer of trying him in an Islamic court domestically or even in another mutually acceptable Muslim country.
Third, by their invasion of Iraq based on lies and deception, they have opened up a Pandora’s box, as a consequence of which they want to draw everybody into their “war on terror” that has reached this gigantic proportion only due to Washington’s follies. Now, by rejecting bin Laden’s apparently very sincere offer of a truce (Dawn, Jan 20), they are showing the same egotism the Clinton administration did and it is a blunder they will regret.
On their part, President Musharraf and his government have been bending backwards to please America by taking military action against fellow Pakistanis in Waziristan, making a muted response to the US forces’ raids on our civilians and by undermining the Islamic character of the country. It is only poetic justice that many Americans are now doubting them.
A.ALEEM
Karachi
THIS is in reference to the article “Indian media’s blinkered perception” by Omar R. Quraishi (Jan 23). It is important to note that some of the criticism by Mr Quraishi is not confined to the Indian context.
Unfortunately, it is now a global phenomenon, where the media is increasingly being treated as any other commodity you purchase in the market. Today’s news media targets certain sections of the reader’s market and publishes only what they would like to read. The Times of India and US News and Fox Television are rightwing. On the same note many consider the Guardian, Los Angeles Times and the Hindu to be more left-leaning.
It has always been up to the reader to use his discretion, however. Today’s representative reader is buying newspaper for their entertainment value more than anything else.
DEVENDRA CANCHI
West Lafayette, IN, US
THIS is with reference to Omar R. Quraishi’s article “Indian media’s blinkered perception” (Jan. 23).
Decades of mistrust and bad relations are rooted in the heart of the people. This means that good things about the other will have to be sold in doses. But I would say that bad feelings are present mainly because of the politics involved. I regularly read the Internet editions of Dawn and The Nation and get the feeling that the Pakistani media is quite unequivocal in its analysis (probably more than the Indian media) but at the same time it seems to project only the bad side of India.
As far as the people of the two countries are concerned, I don’t think there is any hatred between them. The writer has spoken of the following that some Pakistani musicians have gained in India. That is further proof of the fact that there is no animosity on a people-to-people basis.
S. SATHYAMURTHI
Jawa Barat Indonesia
THIS is with reference to the letter by Mr Murad Bey (Jan 4), endorsing the proposal of Iranian President Ahmedinejad that Israel should be moved to Europe. This view is correct.
History confirms the persecution of Jews in mediaeval and modern Europe. German laws forbade marriage between Jews and Aryans, and the Jews were subjected to a reign of terror. Their property was confiscated and their movement and habitation restricted, and they were systematically eliminated. Altogether, six million Jews were murdered by Europeans during World War II. These truths cannot be challenged.
It is time the Organization of Islamic Conference took notice of the Iranian prime minister’s suggestion for moving Israel to Europe. We now know that it was our backwardness and military weakness that enabled the West to plant a festering sore in the heart of the Muslim world. As for Jewish holy places, the UN and the whole world should guarantee their sanctity. The Jews should have no fear, because throughout their history they have enjoyed peace in the Muslim world, unlike the persecution they suffered in Euurope.
SYED AIJAZ HUSAIN
Karachi
THIS has reference to Mr Murad Beg’s letter wherein he quotes Toynbee as suggesting that Israel should be given a homeland in Germany and not in Arab lands. The idea put forward by Iranian President Mehmood Ahmedinejad provides for a fair and just solution of the matter.
MOHAMMAD RAFI
Karachi
I AM a student at University College London. After I came out of the lecture hall the other day, a friend of mine from Greece, with a grin on his face, taunted me: “Hey. What sort of a country is Pakistan? You guys command no respect anywhere in the world. American security personnel conducted a search of senior cabinet members and officials who were accompanying your PM on his visit to the US. If this sort of thing had happen with our ministers they would have come back home.”
Embarrassed as I was, I had nothing to say to him. I came back home, turned on the television and to my astonishment Aftab Ahmed Sherpao was trying to defend the government’s decision of not launching a protest against what had happened. I then saw the footage myself and the embarrassment of our officials who were made to take off their caps and belts. I wondered why no one protested against this.
Why don’t Pakistani authorities search American officials who come on official visits to Pakistan? If I was one of the officials who were searched and had I known the incapacity of the government to protest of my behalf, I would have taken all my clothes off there and then in protest.
KASHIF ELAHI
London
I AM responding to Mr Ziauddin Ahmad’s rejoinder (Jan 23) to Ms Zubeida Mustafa’s article “Early learning in mother tongue” (Jan 18) and would like to make the record straight about some of the claims made by Mr Ahmad in trying to advocate the cause of English, in preference to the mother tongue, as the initial medium of instruction for children.
For instance, he claims that Dr Salam went to a school where English was taught at the primary level. I personally know, being a contemporary of Dr Salam, that he went to a local primary school in which English was not taught. In those days, English was introduced from Class V onward. I am sure the same goes for Allama Iqbal and Faiz Ahmad Faiz.
He has advanced the example of India and thinks that India has progressed and prospered because of its adopting English as the medium of instruction. I know that the language institute, Bangalore, has vehemently supported the idea of the mother tongue being the first medium of instruction for children.
By and large, the mother tongue is used in India in the state-run schools as the first medium of instruction for children. It is not an “either/or’ situation; we can use the mother tongue as the first medium of instruction, while at the same time introducing English at the earliest possible level as a second language. It is a disastrous situation at the moment when three out of five children drop out of school at the primary level because of the language in school not being their mother tongue.
CAPT ABDUS SALAM KHAN
Rancho Cucamonga, USA
THE standard of medical education, or rather its decline in Pakistan, has been the focus of public attention for the last many decades.
At one point in time, up to the late 1960s and even the early 1970s, the basic medical qualification in Pakistan enjoyed a reciprocal recognition in the UK, to the extent that a medical graduate of Pakistan with PMDC registration could walk into their health delivery system and enter into any post-graduate and research-oriented programmes. Pakistani doctors held and still hold sensitive and high profile posts in their policy-making bodies. In the mid-1960s Prof (Dr) Hamid Ali Khan, head of children’s hospital, JPMC, Karachi, was elected the president of the British Medical Association. As a Commonwealth member, Pakistan enjoyed certain facilities and was given preference.
The US, where the majority of young medical graduates was required, devised its own method of polite inquiry into the knowledge of foreign medical graduates by subjecting them to a three-hour, single-day written ECFMG examination, held in the graduate’s own country. Invariably, all candidates qualified and were accepted at par with their own graduates. Our doctors’ performance there is second to none.
The erosion of the standard of medical education in Pakistan started in the early 1970s. The government of 1971 and subsequent governments, both civilian and military, indulged in promoting a mushroom growth of medical institutions for political considerations, without planning and giving any thought as to the consequences. Medical colleges were doubled. The previously-established colleges were overstuffed with hundreds of students without a corresponding increase in space, equipment and faculty. In institutions teaching 130 to 150, students up to 400 and even 600 were admitted, closely watched by the international medical community. This continued as late as the mid-1990s.
The depth to which medical education has sunk today is due to the connivance of everyone in authority and those wielding even the slightest power in this matter with the active connivance of medical professionals placed strategically in prominent positions along the way.
The ministry of health and the PMDC played a role in it or looked the other way to oblige their masters. The Pakistan Medical Association also went along and put up no resistance. They must all take collective responsibility for this debacle.
By and large, this has been the state of affairs in other developing countries as well. The British first introduced work permits and later followed this by assessment on arrival in the UK and later started qualifying examinations to assess overseas graduates and to judge them according to their required standards. This procedure has been progressively made stringent over the last 10 to 15 years. The US has also made quality assessment of foreign medical graduates more rigorous.
By devising ways and methods to filter the bulk of the applicants wishing to practise medicine in the UK and the US, these countries have presented unqualified people from practising medicine. This should allay the fears of well meaning Pakistani doctors, including the “gentleman who requested anonymity”, for writing a six-page letter to the General Medical Council (GMC), London (reference Mr Ardeshir Cowasjee’s column appearing in Dawn, Jan 8) and Dr Hayee Saeed’s letter (Jan 16) and many others. Our doctors who filter past these international barriers do so to their personal credit, with little or no thanks to the system.
What should occupy our attention now is how to protect our own people from this malady. The majority of these medical graduates left behind to serve their people either need reassessment and/or enrichment. There has been an allegation that the present situation has arisen due to the entry of the private sector in this field over the last 15 years or so. At present medical universities and institutions are equal, 28 in each sector, public and private.
Lop-sidedly, about 70 per cent doctors are being produced by approximately 40 per cent available, qualified and employed faculty in the public sector. The facilities available in public medical universities and institutions, according to PMDC criteria and according to its own inspection reports, are pathetic to say the least.
In this serious situation, the action lies with the profession itself. The physicians of Pakistan must influence in whatever capacity and position of power they occupy at present. No remedy will succeed without justice and fairplay on their part. They must rise to the expectation and shed off their personal, financial, parochial interests and shun nepotism. Until physicians heal themselves, they cannot heal the nation.
DR S. BAQAR ASKARY
Chief Executive, Fatima Jinnah Dental College, Member, PMDC (Sindh)
I FAIL to understand why 35 channels have been banned without giving any logical reason. Some of the reasons being talked include: a. absence of ‘landing’ rights; b. obscenity; c. the Pemra chief is a former police officer and wanted to show who’s boss; and d. pressure from a local channel because many of its advertisements were going to the banned channels.
The Pemra chief should see cable TV for himself. He will find at least 20 Indian movies being shown by cable operators. This is in addition to vulgar stage shows. The obscenity and vulgarity reason cited by the authorities makes no sense because there are Pakistani channels which show similar programming.
KHALID RASHID
Rawalpindi
THOUSANDS of gallons of drinking water are being wasted every day for the last two months due to a leak in the water pipeline that supplies water to Askari Apartments located near the Jinnah Hospital. The leak is next to the boundary wall of the Askari II project. Will the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board do something to stop this leak and save the water for those localities which have a chronic shortage.
CONCERNED CITIZEN
Karachi Cantt
I AGREE with what Ali Shah said in his letter (Jan 19) in response to a picture in your Sunday magazine where a hunter was shown with a dead Marco Polo sheep. The article and the picture were both in bad taste.
WASIF ASLAM
Hyderabad
Karachi Port Trust’s Senior PRO writes (Jan 20) that it is not the KPT’s job to build silos for coal. What is the KPT’s job? To build fountains and underpasses? When the land on which the coal is stored belongs to the KPT, who will build the silos?
Huma
Karachi
THE performance of the judiciary is far from satisfactory. This is known to everyone and it comes under discussion in the media every now and then. One reason for this is induction of judges on a political basis.
It is a well-known fact that during the course of practice, almost all lawyers develop affiliations with one political party or the other. They then take advantage of this to get appointments to posts of judges. Every government tries to induct its own lawyer activists into the judiciary, irrespective of the fact whether they are capable and deserving or not.
It is time to reform this system. The government should launch a separate service cadre of judges under the banner of ‘Judicial services of Pakistan’. Recruitment to this service should be made by the Federal Public Service Commission independently from the fresh law graduates who start their career from the post of magistrate and civil judge. Each promotion should be made after training and grooming, as is done in other civil service cadres and the armed forces.
MUHAMMAD IQBAL
Islamabad
THIS refers to the news on television showing the Pakistani delegation accompanying Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz to the US being body-searched in an offending manner. It is to be noted that this was a domestic flight and not an international one. Such unbecoming conduct on the part of US security personnel towards the visiting ministers and VIPs of Pakistan is really very shocking. The US government should conduct an immediate inquiry into the matter.
M. OZAIR AZAM
Karachi
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