| January 31, 2006 | Tuesday | Muharram 1, 1427 |
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Stuck in a time warp
Recruiting ban in research
Tinted glass vehicles
Road repairs
Religion is a collective matter
Lease of land by railways
Indian media’s perception
Ban
Litter
Wedding meals
KPT fountain
Renunciation
THE delay in opening of the Pakistan consulate in Mumbai is indeed a matter of concern. The agreement between Pakistan and India to open consulates in Mumbai and Karachi simultaneously in January is not being implemented in its true spirit, thus causing misery and hardship to those wanting to travel to see relatives and friends in these two major commercial cities.
It may be difficult to procure office space in Mumbai but certainly not impossible. Our insistence on getting the Jinnah House located in Malabar Hill in Mumbai as the consulate is difficult to understand. A lot of time has been wasted in this exercise. The Quaid made a bequest of this property to his sister Fatima Jinnah in his will made in 1939. This will was upheld by our court in 1948. The government of Pakistan gave Fatima Jinnah the Mohatta Palace, an evacuee property in Karachi, in lieu of the property at the Malabar Hill, Mumbai, while the government of India took over the Jinnah House at Malabar Hill and has held control uptodate.
If the government of India is persuaded to release this property, it could be put to appropriate use as an India-Pakistan History Museum and reference library as it was the scene of major political meetings and decisions involving the Quaid, an all too important figure in the struggle for the independence of India from the British and the creation of Pakistan. The other option is to release this property to the Quaid’s daughter Dina Wadia.
What is also difficult to understand is the nuisance which was allowed to become the reason for opposition by the occupants of Mittal Chambers in Mumbai to the use of apace acquired for the Pakistan consulate. I have visited Mittal Chambers where PIA also has its offices in Mumbai. It is located in a crowded part of the city and if visa applicants were to line up for visas, it could create a problem but this could have been remedied by introducing the rule which most embassies and consulates have done to receive applications only through courier service and send back the visas in a similar manner, thus eliminating the possibility of crowds and any possible nuisance. l am confident this option was taken into consideration but why it was not implemented needs an explanation.
Until such time as freedom of travel, trade and tourism are restored to the citizens of the two countries and the harassment and delays to which applicants are subjected is stopped, no amount of other so-called confidence-building measures will restore normal relations and the expression that the “peace process is irreversible” will have no significance. The leadership in both countries must move to effectively restore these rights to its citizens and the first step will be to rein in the bureaucracy and stop treating visa applicants as suspected enemy aliens.
LIAQUAT H. MERCHANT
Karachi
SINCE independence we have always been governed by rulers who were either elected representatives or men in uniform. There is another element which is gaining ground and threatening not only the existence of this nation but also painting Islam in the ugliest form one could ever conceive. Our “Mard-i-Haq” Ziaul Haque used Islam as slogan to perpetuate his rule and allowed free hand to misplaced clerics to interpret and misinterpret the Holy Quran, Sunnah and Shariat to sow the seed of hatred and fanaticism.
One of the holiest pillars of Islamic doctrine, jihad, was misconstrued giving birth to the Taliban and much else. The mullahs use their clout to enforce their will on others in the name of Allah, the Holy Quran and Islam, misleading and misdirecting the masses. They grabbed vacant land and constructed mosques and seminaries to teach and practise their version of Islam. Interestingly, no mullah has ever issued any statement deploring illegal land-grabbing for construction of mosque and seminary. In their version of Islam land-grabbing for a mosque or seminary is not considered un-Islamic.
They have strange logic and explanation to profess their belief. They destroy billboards portraying women without realizing that the problem lies in the eyes of the beholder. Many foreign athletes from both genders took part in the first international marathon held in Lahore. It was given wide media coverage and we all saw it live on TV. We saw the race, the competition, the spirit, the healthy participation, the sense of sportsmanship, the discipline, the arrangement and we saw the flag of Pakistan hoisted high. But what did our mullahs see — they equated it with vulgarity.
They and their cronies use their street power to stop Christmas and New Year festivities. Similarly, they have strongly reacted in the past to Basant calling it a Hindu custom. As for their hate-America campaign these clerics cry hoarse against that country but their kith and kin study or work in the US. Also, these clerics have never condemned suicide bombers, especially given that committing suicide in any form is forbidden. Why don’t they themselves volunteer for this sacrifice?
D.H.
Karachi
I share the concern shown by Mr Ahmed on the recruitment ban in some research organizations (Dawn, Jan 24). I fully endorse it.
As an insider, I can tell that a number of posts are lying vacant in the Pakistan Central Cotton Committee (PCCC) and the work is being done as an additional burden given to the junior staff. The government is spending billions of rupees of the national exchequer on the upkeep, pays, perks and unnecessary travel abroad of an army of advisers and ministers and the other high-ranking officials, but when it comes to filling posts in research organizations, there is no money in government kitties. There is no one to care a fig for agricultural research or its improvement to come at par with the developed countries, although the country is still having agriculture-based economy.
The shifting of PCCC from the Maulvi Tamizuddin Khan Road to the rented Hussain Plaza, main Sharea Faisal, Karachi, is a sad episode indeed.
It has disturbed the cotton fibre research facilities that were collected at a place for over 50 years or so. The ill-fated PCCC has been thrown out of its own building and research laboratories that provided a relaxed environment to the workers, of which they are denied now.
Who is the ultimate beneficiary or gets kick-backs from getting the PCCC land vacated is a guarded secret? If we aspire to make headway in our agricultural or other research in other faculties, we should attach importance to our research facilities and not let them be ruined at somebody’s instance.
ASHFAQUE AHMED KHAN
Karachi
IT is heartening to read in Karachi’s news media that the city police started a strong drive against motor vehicles having dark glasses, sirens, fancy and fake number plates that helped the anti-socials to escape scot-free. It is decidedly a welcome move, but it should include all influential, high-and low-ranking government functionaries and big-wigs of law-enforcement agencies for their identification. There should be only one law for all and no excuse to justify it in one case and not in the other. The drive will make the traffic rules respected by all without any “ifs” and “buts”.
Drastic action should also be initiated against the hundreds and thousands auto-rickshaws and yellow cabs that are plying in the city with rigged fare meters or no fare meters at all. They go by word of mouth and a commuter having no choice has to ultimately pay the fare demanded. It would also be a good service to the public if the authorities concerned take cognizance of the growing menace of meter-less auto-rickshaws and taxis and see that fare meters, if they were doing any good, are brought back and kept in order to facilitate their hiring.
Action is also necessary against the over-speeding by minis-buses and trucks that cause daily deadly accidents in the city to keep driving on the city roads safe for others with poor nervous control. People who are born and bred in Karachi whenever they revisit their homeland from abroad shudder at the growing lawlessness and unruly traffic and have no nerves to drive here in the growing wilderness of traffic mess.
Driving is a pleasure for many of us, but they cannot dare do it in the maddening and disorderly driving in the city. Let us make our roads safer by careful driving and observance of all traffic rules to be included in the civilized nations. But all this is possible only when traffic rules are strictly followed and wrong-doers are punished for ignoring rules and regulations.
M. SHAFIQUE AHMED
Karachi
KARACHI’s Mehmoodabad Road is an important link road for traffic going from the National Highway to some of the busiest colonies across the railway track. Unfortunately, it is in ruins now. Since this is the only road leading up to the Parsi Gate, we are handicapped.
Besides being a traffic hazard and ruining the cars, buses and trucks passing over it, it 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 we residence of the Avari and Minwalla colonies are the victims.
I have already written to the Sindh governor, the Karachi city nazim and all other relevant authorities about the problem but the result is zero.
NOWSHERWAN G. IRANI
Karachi
THIS refers to the rejoinders of Mr Anil Khan Luni (Jan 22) and Ms Sobia Fayyaz (Jan) 23) to my earlier letter.
First, I wasn’t discussing secularism itself but whether religion was a matter entirely between man and God. Second, I wasn’t focussing only on women or provocative dress but on both sexes and on provocative behaviour as well, since Islam forbids it for both as being harmful.
Third, I didn’t say that a young woman’s provocative attire alone could cause a male to lose control over his passions. Instead, I had also quoted an American psychiatrist and self-development expert to include the cumulative effect that movies, magazines, songs, ads and friends’ exhortations have on continually stimulating one’s libido.
That specialist further explains: “When you are motivated by your libido, your thoughts are overwhelmed almost all the time. Your inner world is almost exclusively oriented around sexual thoughts and evaluations based on appearances.”
Thus, with the increased access to vulgar and pornographic cassettes and CDs, satellite dishes, cable TV and Internet, the incidence of sex crimes is shooting up. The “thousands of cases of rape of minor girls in Pakistan” he mentioned don’t occur primarily in villages but to a large extent in cities and towns due to the greater access to the sources of obscenity mentioned above. Indeed, a correspondent has complained even on Jan 22 about vulgar programmes being shown on the cable.
Fourth, I never said that women should be confined indoors or must wear a burqa, which is not the only form of modest dress. Mr Luni has further said that the lack of education and of interaction between men and women in our country is the reason for men’s inappropriate behaviour. Why does the US, that has such interaction and widespread pre-marital and extra-marital sex, have the incidence of rape amongst the highest in the world
I never said that I only want the male members to keep their female relatives in check to maintain proper moral conduct. That is a calumny. Collective responsibility, as should have been implicit from my comments, would equally lead a mother to withhold her son or a woman her husband from using intoxicants or engaging in other objectionable behaviour such as sexual misconduct.
Talking of intoxicants, Mr Luni implies that I am ill-informed in not knowing that law in secular countries forbids the excessive use of alcohol. Actually, there is no such law and people can drink as much as they like in pubs or homes, etc., but the only restriction is against drunken driving. I have spent many years over there, seen their many problems and talked to many converts to Islam, on the basis of which I became convinced of the supreme value of our religion.
Studies in the US have shown a steady rise in alcohol use at ever-younger ages. More than a third of college women in a poll said they drink just to get drunk. Also, that 90 per cent of all rapes reported on college campuses happened when either the assailant or the victim, or both, had been drinking. Furthermore, alcohol-related accidents were the leading cause of death among young people aged between 15 and 24.
Apart from that, the alcoholics and drug addicts (including the millions in Pakistan) are shown to be very frequently involved in the physical, emotional and sexual abuse of their spouses, children and others, besides other crimes. So, isn’t it far better to follow Islamic injunctions against using intoxicants than having such needless and terrible problems? A Hindu lady settled in America who was constrained to work in offices because her husband was addicted to alcohol told me that she likes two things in Pakistanis: they don’t drink and they don’t make their women work.
S. QADRI
Karachi
THE Pakistan Railways has one major strength, its property in choicest areas in all major cities in Pakistan. It has started by offering its property from the prime residential colony in Lahore, then it offered unutilized lands in major cities for setting up hotels and lately it has have asked for invitation to bid for 64 sites for setting up commercial ventures, petrol pumps and CNG filling pumps (Dawn, Jan 6 and Jan 16). This should have happened decades earlier.
In Karachi, the Pakistan Railways has about half-a-kilometre-wide land starting from the costliest commercial area near the Karachi Port Trust all the way to the Cantonment station. This length would be around five kilometres. International bids can be invited for the construction of highrise buildings over this property, giving adequate clearance space for the trains to run safely.
This will also create automatic bridge like linkages between the congested I.I. Chundrigar Road and Maulvi Tameezuddin Khan Road. Builders can use piles for foundations, minimizing obstruction to the daily rail traffic and construct their skyscrapers on top. Similar things can be duplicated in Lahore, Rawalpindi, Multan and other major cities.
If trains can run underground, through the mountains, over the rivers, under the sea, surely they can be made to run below commercial buildings.
S. NAYYAR IQBAL RAZA
Karachi
THE article “Indian media’s blinkered perception” by Mr Omar R. Quraishi (Jan 23) hit the nail on the head. It was about time the Pakistani media picked up on this, as it was quite obvious from articles of people like Mr Kuldip Nayar that indeed the Indian media is filled only with hostility and suspicion. The word “hogwash” that the writer has used sums it very aptly. That’s what the Indian media and the government are full of.
The Pakistani electronic media should also get involved and have a special show which discusses the role of the Indian media (print and electronic) regarding Pakistan.
SAIMA ABBAS
Karachi
IT is indeed heartening to note that Sindh Home Minister Rauf Siddiqui has issued a notification banning the public display of weapons. Of course, such a ban will remain till an MQM minister is caught, and then the anti-weapons campaign will be called off.
KASHIF NAQVI
Karachi
WHILE it may not be surprising to see beggars throwing trash all over sidewalks it is quite a shock to see educated people who throw litter out of the windows of their cars. It seems as if most of them only have money but no etiquettes. Besides, if the educated are going to behave this way, what examples are they setting for the illiterate to follow?
MARYAM HIDAYATALLAH
Karachi
A LOT has been said in these columns for and against the serving of meals at weddings. Somehow, the Supreme Court’s judgment, even though well-intended, also needs to be reviewed.
The judgment states: “Wedding dinners are permissible within the premises of a house for members of a family attending a marriage ceremony” (irrespective of the number).
These days, plots of 1,000-2,000 sq yds are now being frequently used by the elite to entertain over a 1,000 guests for dinner. This destroys the peace of residential neighbourhoods. However, if you have a small house and cannot accommodate your marriage guests, you are not allowed to hire a premises to equally rejoice this auspicious occasion with dignity.
Such a law is depriving the greater segment of society of entertaining even 100-200 guests in marriage halls, restaurants or community centres with only a single dish, merely because they do not own a palatial residence. The honourable chief justice is requested in all fairness to review the judgment, whether to allow, limit or disallow all such ceremonies across the board, irrespective of one’s status or wealth.
If for any reason such limitations or restrictions cannot be enforced, these should be withdrawn before they create animosity against the haves by the less fortunate.
JAMEEL YUSUF
Karachi
I do not wish to engage KPT in a debate over its efficiency, as it would shift the focus from the original topic of wastefulness of the Rs225 million water sprouting equipment to scoring half baked points for public consumption.
Interestingly, the same newspaper (Dawn) on the same day, in its Business page has a bold heading which says, “Karachi Port Trust is expected to substantially reduce tariffs to compete with other ports of the region”.
That much for the efficiency of the Karachi Port Trust. They could have been at least internally more efficient to wait for another day to give this news. I also reconfirm that KPT did place a quarter page ad in a Dawn supplement intended to celebrate an individual’s birthday (Sept 17, 2005). For more graphic details please see Mr. Ardeshir Cowasjee’s article “A mixed bag” dated September 18, 2005 .
NAEEM SADIQ
Karachi
GEORGE W. Bush has called upon Hamas to renounce violence. I think it would be much better if Mr Bush himself renounces the violence being perpetrated by the US and Israel upon the people of Iraq and Palestine.
SHAKIR LAKHANI
Karachi
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