| January 27, 2006 | Friday | Zilhaj 26, 1426 |
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KPT’s role
AMU at crossroads
NBP ‘Saibaan’ scheme
Sajjad Zaheer a ‘moderate’?
KaraFilm festival
Search at NY
Road repairs
‘The fog of war’
Clarification
THIS refers to the news item “Corruption: NAB to take suo motu notice” (Jan 18), according to which NAB has decided to take suo motu action in corruption cases. This is a major policy shift on the part of NAB. The objective is said to be to expedite corruption cases and at the same time to arrest, if not eliminate, the vicious circle of corruption.
It is true that corruption is not limited to Pakistan but is a worldwide phenomenon. According to the World Bank, it is “the single greatest obstacle to economic and social development. It undermines development by distorting the rule of law and weakening the institutional foundation on which economic growth depends”. But still the level of corruption in Pakistan is alarming and needs to be fought through the adoption of a three-pronged policy: pre-emption, policing, and prosecuting.
Pre-emptive approaches are based on reform agendas seeking to prevent the emergence of “black market bureaucracies” where supplies of corrupt practices might be offered to third parties.
The policing approach rarely stands on its own, but the premise is that corrupt behaviour will be limited by the presence of a monitor, or at least a monitoring process.
The prosecutorial approach treats corruption like any crime, and to that extent it tends to focus on those acts that have been “juridified”, that is, made explicitly illegal and subject to some form of juridical process where the determination of guilt and imposition of sanctions are expected.
Corruption in Pakistan has taken different forms such as political corruption and bureaucratic corruption, and corruption as a mechanism of either “upward extraction” or “downward redistribution”. However, the main forms of corruption are bribery, embezzlement, fraud and extortion.
Political or grand corruption takes place at the highest levels of political authority. It takes place when politicians and political decision-makers who are entitled to formulate, establish and implement laws in the name of the people are themselves corrupt and use the political power they are armed with to sustain their power, status and wealth.
Tackling corruption in Pakistan, NAB was formed after Gen Musharraf took over the reins of power in 1999. If we analyze the performance of NAB, we find, according to its own statement, that 12 persons have been convicted during the last three months and 15 new cases of corruption have been filed with accountability courts (Dawn, Jan 18).
Realistically, these figures do not reflect a success story that could lead to a change of perceptions concerning corruption. In a country of over 150 million, a few hundred convictions and a few hundred investigations are a drop in the ocean. Convictions of low-ranked government officials do not change perceptions of corruption. There is not a single case of a high-profile politician having been successfully prosecuted by NAB.
Cutting of deals, especially in a non-transparent manner, and withdrawal of cases against high-profile politicians subsequently inducted in the government heighten the feeling that NAB is going the way of previous organizations, namely, the FIA and the Anticorruption Establishment set up under previous legislation.
In the final analysis, corruption has emerged as the real enemy of development and democracy. If the NAB chairman wants to curtail the rampant corruption, he has to take drastic measures to give up the selective approach to haunt and harass the opposition and let off the hook corrupt officials and supporters of the government, enjoying more perks and privileges than ever before.
MANZOOR ALI ISRAN
Khairpur
THIS is with reference to your editorial “Between glamour and essentials” (Jan 15) and the KPT’s reply (Jan 20) through its Senior PRO.
The KPT’s mandate, as we know it, is to cater to port-related projects since it runs the port on a ‘no profit, no loss’ basis. The income generated by port activity such as shipping and cargo handling is put into providing and improving port facilities. The building of underpasses and flyovers in the city may be justified to a certain extent as helping to ease the traffic problems of the cash-strapped city. But building of a large fountain, constructing huge residential complexes, shopping centres or food streets are not port-related activities, which the KPT is pursuing.
Costs apart, building of coal silos to handle coal imports by the private sector is a debatable undertaking while construction of a fountain by the KPT, which is of no use to anyone, let alone to the port, is an absurd and wasteful undertaking. The funds for building port facilities come from the same coffers as funds for any other undertaking by the KPT. So how does the KPT justify its statement that “....nor is it that funds required for coal silos have been diverted for the fountain”.
Admittedly, the import of coal is a recent phenomenon but its handling has been made a mess of by the KPT. Every handling/movement of coal spreads coal dust in the air, which then is blown far and wide by the wind, causing serious air pollution. First, the coal is discharged by port cranes and dumped and piled on to the berth/plinth (first handling). From there, the trucks/dumpers are loaded (second handling) and taken to the groyne yard within the port and dumped and piled in the yard (third handling). From there the owner/consignee loads the coal in his trucks at his convenience (fourth handling) and takes it to his factory and stacks it in his yard (fifth handling).
This way, the most affected sections are the port area near the discharging berth, the groyne area from where the wind blows the dust on to the residential and commercial area along the Clifton beachfront and lastly the truck route going to the factory.
It appears that the KPT has not made any serious effort to eliminate or reduce the spread of harmful coal dust. People residing along the Clifton seafront are suffering from the air pollution and their houses are covered with coal dust — outside and inside. One solution would be for the KPT to force the consignees to take direct delivery of their cargo from the berth and cart it off directly to their factories, bypassing the storage at the groyne yard.
This would reduce handling of the coal to two stages only, thus reducing the dust pollution to the bare minimum. This may slow down cargo clearance but then the consignees would employ more trucks to clear the cargo in order to avoid delays to the ship.
Coal dust is a serious air pollutant and a health hazard. Coal itself is a serious hazard being prone to spontaneous combustion leading to serious fires. The KPT, therefore, must act to eliminate or at least reduce this nuisance and eliminate our perception that the KPT is not bothered.
As for the “mention of polluted seashore”, Dawn has not confused the KPT with the ministry of environment or the director-general of marine pollution. In fact, we would like to remind the KPT that the port area and its environs, which extend to three miles from the breakwater and includes the seashore at Clifton, fall under the jurisdiction of the KPT and as such it is the KPT’s responsibility to ensure that it is pollution-free. We well remember the KPT’s pathetic effort to clean up the Clifton beach after the “Tasman Spirit” disaster.
CAPT A. KARIM BONDREY
Karachi
ON Jan 5, the Allahabad High Court took away the minority tag from the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU). The court upheld its judgment of October last year terming as “unconstitutional” the grant of minority status to the AMU and 50 per cent reservation for Muslims.
The judgment has sent shock waves in the Indian Muslim community. The problem is: where does the AMU go from here? This is a very difficult question when we realize that secularism and tokenism have failed us.
The AMU was founded at a time when Muslims were facing a paradigm shift. After 1857, the British had increasingly acquired a hostile attitude towards Muslims, thanks to their role in the ‘mutiny’. Instead they began favouring Hindus because of their loyalty and better education.
When Sir Syed Ahmad Khan established the Mohammadan Anglo-Oriental (MAO) College, the precursor to the AMU, he aimed at equipping Muslims (read the Muslim elite) with modern (western) education to keep abreast of their Hindu counterparts. Times were changing, he reckoned. Over the decades, the AMU became the bastion of Muslim intelligentsia and politics (the one feeding the other, with Muslim communalism emerging as a by-product), especially of north India.
After India’s partition, the AMU became the educational hub for north Indian middle-class Muslims. Thousands of Muslim students — sons and daughters of Muslim doctors, engineers, lawyers, teachers, traders, and even politicians — came to study at this great seat of learning, many contributing to its incremental decay by staying on to join the faculty, practically shutting the door on talented outsiders.
India has become independent. Most of the Muslim elite has shifted to Pakistan and Bangladesh. The cold war is over. The Babri Masjid has been demolished. Scores of communal clashes between Hindus and Muslims have taken place.
Now the question is: are we Muslims ready to take advantage of the situation? The trouble is our leaders have not adequately prepared us for a secular society based on merit.
In the case of the AMU, the perceived ‘minority tag’ fight is for the 2,000 seats in the professional courses, out of which about 70 per cent go to Muslims, according to an expert’s calculations. After the minority tag is removed, all these seats will be open to all Indians.
It is clear the future holds great opportunities for the AMU and for the Muslim community (look at the Jamia Millia, Delhi; it has not done badly, considering its lack of a ‘minority tag’). The trick will be to avoid the pitfalls and seize the opportunities.
ZAFAR ANJUM
Singapore
MY wife and I are both serving in government departments, I in PASSCO in Lahore and she at the Punjab education department in Sheikhupura, which is where we plan to construct a house. My salary is about Rs11,000 and my wife is getting Rs10,000/ (both take home). My wife is drawing her pay from the National Bank of Pakistan, Civil Lines Branch, Sheikhupura, whereas my pay is deposited at Askari Commercial Bank, Lahore.
Before applying for an NBP Saibaan loan, I got relevant information from the NBP Civil Lines Branch, Gujranwala, as the bank’s Sheikhupura branch had no information. I gave all the relevant details to the bank and the staff was very confident that my case was in A-1 category and would be approved.
I applied on May 2, 2005 through the NBP Civil Lines Branch Sheikhupura and to date my case has not been finalized. I have been told to ask my department to shift my salary to the National Bank at Lahore. I informed them that this is not possible. There are two solutions: one that I can draw my salary through cheque and the other I can pass instructions to my bank that as soon as my salary is credited into my account, it should be shifted to the NBP. However, the bank staff has not informed me about its decision in this regard. If my case does not fall within the policy, why should the staff ask me to apply?
Since I applied for the loan I have visited and contacted NBP Gujranwala and head office staff several times for finalization of my case. I have spent a lot of money on telephone calls, visits, preparation of documents, courier etc. but with no results.
ZAHID RASHID
Sheikhupura
WE do not know whether the Sahitya Academy of India is a state-run organization as our Academy Adbiyat is. What we know is that “Sahitya” is the Hindi equivalent of “Adbiyat”. Both would mean ‘literature’ in English.
Whether the Sahitya Academy was prompted by the government of India to do it or thought of it on its own, it decided to celebrate the birth centenary of Syed Sajjad Zaheer. And it did so with no qualifications of “left” or “right”. So it is no wonder that spokesmen for the academy sidelined the progressive characteristics of Sajjad Zaheer, alias Banney Bhai.
Moderation, therefore, marked the character of the academy, of its participants, and also the role of Banney Bhai.
We cannot say about others, but Intizar Hussain is found to be in clear-cut disagreement with the view that Banney Bhai was a moderate progressive from the start. Rather, he considers it the result of progression. Intizar Hussain does not deny the fact that Banney Bhai’s views about Hafiz and his poetry are moderate in contradistinction to the view adopted by Zoi Ansari, for example.
We feel that it would be wrong to consider Zikr-i-Hafiz “a piece of advice to a zealot disciple” as Intizar Hussain has maintained in his “Point of View” appearing in the Dawn Magazine on Dec 8, 2005.
Banney Bhai had already extended his advice to Zoi Ansari in a letter written to him from a jail in Pakistan: “......Zoi Ansari, Razya has sent me your essay on the ‘ghazal’. You know that in a jail things are read quite minutely. (your essay) has angered me. What nonsense (Kufr) are you spreading? Though the excess of ghazal writing is nauseating, such an apish study of Hafiz’s poetry! Lahol Vala Quwat......! (a quote from Zoi’s article)”
Zikr-i-Hafiz is an open book, not a letter. It offers a well-thought-out “theory” of reading literature, of the past and of the present, i.e., under the dynamic socio-historical context of the time.
Moreover, Intizar Hussain has not been careful in sighting out Banney Bhai’s early viewpoint in support of his “Point of View”. The “viewpoint” he has sighted is the concluding line, or paragraph, of the preface written by Banney Bhai for his novel London Ki Ek Raat whose subject is the life-condition of some students studying in a foreign land, London. It is a subject which does not synchronize with the life-condition of the proletariat, the class Banney Bhai chose to live in after his return from London. The quote from Lawrence: “Do not listen to the story-teller. Listen to his story” — “London Ki Ek Raat, and not to its preface which is, in fact, a post-face, i.e., written after the completion of the novel.
It seems that like his mentor, Muhammad Hassan Askari, Intezar Hussain too does not want to read in the gaps and absence found in Lawrence’s writings. In Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers, for example, there is “determinate absence” as Graham Holderness suggests and fills it with the “bourgeois class” to comprehend the content of the novel in full. If the “determinate absence” in Sons and Lovers is the “bourgeois class”, the “determinate absence” in London Ki Ek Raat is the “petit-bourgeois”.
There is no denying the fact that Banney Bhai was first a communist. He was, like any other communist writer, committed to the Third Communist International that had consented to Stalin’s credo of “Socialism in One state” and to the theory of “Socialist Realism”. The concluding paragraph of the preface to London Ki Ek Raat clearly accorded with Banney Bhai’s commitment.
Banney Bhai may not have been a moderate progressive, but he was a moderate man acceptable to most of the writers in India and in Pakistan.
Literary diplomacy would work better and faster to bring India and Pakistan closer as compared with business, bus or cricket diplomacies. Where lies the harm in it?
ELEYA ABBAS
Karachi
I FULLY endorse the views of Mr Naqi Mustafa relating to the contributions made by the KaraFilm Festivals in creating a sizeable group of viewers of parallel cinema by encouraging a new genre of enthusiastic and upcoming young filmmakers (Jan 11).
However, one aspect of the letter is really mind-boggling. In present-day Pakistani films a lead actor is paid between Rs1.5 and Rs2.5 million. There are at least two sets of lead actors. Hence, the total cost of an average film goes close to Rs9 to Rs10 million.
Furthermore, one single insertion of a full-page colour advertisement on a specified page in a leading Urdu or English language daily newspaper costs around half a million rupees.
In view of this scenario, how has the writer suggested sponsorship cost of Rs300,000 to Rs500,000 only? What is his rationale?
REHANA
Karachi
I WAS horrified to see the TV footage of the treatment meted out to members of the prime minister’s entourage at New York airport. Our foreign secretary, a seasoned diplomat, was made to stand with his hands up.
I think it is high time we looked into our priorities in dealing with the Americans who have taken this country for a ride for their own vested interest. If we cannot do that, then we should resign ourselves to being a dying nation with no self-respect or sovereignty.
M. S. UPPAL
Karachi
MEHMOODABAD Road in Karachi is an important link for traffic going from the National Highway to some of the busiest colonies across the railway track. Unfortunately it is in ruins. Since this is the only road leading up to the Parsi Gate we are totally handicapped.
Besides being a traffic hazard as buses and trucks pass over it, the area has now become a breading ground for criminals and petty thieves. Due to the slow traffic there have been several cases of phone snatching and looting and the residence of the Avari and Minwala colonies are the victims.
I have already written to the Sindh governor (8-8-05), city nazim (22-10-05), executive district officer (25-11-05), town municipal officer — Jamshed Town (8-12-05), managing director — KWSB (26-11-05) and town municipal officer — Jamshed Town (05-01-06).
None of this has yielded any result, though some of the recipients have acknowledged receipt of my letter and passed it on to the concerned officers.
I am now addressing my concern to this public forum in the hope that it will attract the attention of somebody in the right place and action will be taken.
N. G. IRANI
Karachi
MR Irfan Hussain’s column “The fog of war” (Jan 21) raises an important point about sovereignty of a country and specifically of Pakistan. The bottom line is that one cannot expect others to respect Pakistan’s sovereign status unless we as a nation and in particular our so-called leaders start respecting the people of this country.
We have no regard for our own people. Our leaders are all in it for the power and the money. Yet we expect others to show some respect. I mean come on. Let’s get real.
ADNAN KHAN
Pensacola, Florida. USA
THIS is with reference to a news item entitled “Proposal to provide state land for private industrial zone” (January 19). It mentions the name of Mr Aga Tajammul as head of the Aga Khan Group of Companies.
It needs to be clarified that no entity by the name of the “Aga Khan Group of Companies” exists. The Aga Khan or the Aga Khan Development Network has not entered into any collaboration with any foreign company for establishing an industrial zone in Sindh.
ABEDEEN HUSSAIN
Communication Coordinator Aga Khan Shia Imami Ismaili Council for Pakistan, Karachi
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