| February 6, 2006 | Monday | Muharram 7, 1427 |
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Flawed approach
Consensus on dams
‘Call out the fire brigade’
Zafrullah Khan remembered
Move on Iran
Finance appointments
Clarification
Karachi traffic mess
Senior citizens
Cellphone users
PRESIDENT Musharraf, during his recent visit to Davos (Switzerland), stressed the conducive investment climate in the country and urged entrepreneurs to open up their wallets and invest here. So did the prime minister during his recent visit to the US as also the minister for petroleum and natural resources while signing an oil & gas exploration agreement with a local company. But what are the realities on the ground?
The government should know that oil and gas companies perform only 30 per cent of their task and the remaining activities are carried out by sub-contractors providing different services. Multinational companies and local contractors have been facing tremendous problems in providing services to these companies, because waderas and jagirdars do not allow them to operate without receiving their share of money. This makes nonsense of budget forecasting.
I have seen companies and their contractors employing a workforce beyond their legitimate requirements at the behest of the local elite, notwithstanding the money regularly being paid to local political leaders, persons claiming to represent the local media and labour leaders who do not have even the remotest link with the area or the CBA concerned. As if this weren’t enough labour departments support their unlawful activities and act on the advice of labour unions in achieving their objective (taking advantage of infra-CBA rivalries), as they too have to earn their livelihood by whatever means. The office of the chief inspector of mines, functioning under the administrative control of the ministry of labour and manpower, has its own axe to grind, forcing the sub contractors (who are not directly or indirectly concerned with the oil & gas exploration) to follow the mines act, 1923 in blatant violations of the law. Then again comes the department of EOBI, under the ministry of labour and manpower; their regional officials insist that the number of employees be halved for the purpose of payment on account of EOBI so that they can also grease their palm.
The situation is the worst in the Badin, Khairpur, Larkana districts and adjoining areas. Balochistan is no exception, and unscrupulous persons and so-called political elite and known dacoits of the area have made the operations of such companies extremely difficult. The vehicles of these companies are stopped at gun-point. They are looted and threatened with dire consequences if their demands are not met. Consequently, these companies and their contractors become hostage to the locals for fear of being abducted. The local police are part of the whole exercise and often work hand in glove with the locals in minting money.
Will the relevant agencies and all those who are directly or indirectly connected with the development of the oil and gas sector look into these serious issues and take corrective steps in the supreme public interest? The authorities need to take measures to enforce the writ of the state in those areas where oil and gas exploration and production activities are carried out, and eradicate the problems posed by local political elites and so-called leaders and their cronies and also government agencies which continue to threat the companies and their contractors of dire consequences.
It will perhaps be in the fitness of things if the ministry of petroleum and natural resources holds periodic meeting with the oil and gas exploration and production companies and their contractors to redress their grievances failing which, I believe, efforts to boost the country’s oil and gas production will remain a dream not come true, at least for the near future.
WALI KHAN KHATTAK
Karachi
THE West never tires of lecturing others about democracy and human rights but often fails to practise what it preaches. The most recent example is the hurt that is being intentionally caused to the Muslims by the publication of caricatures that are deemed blasphemous.
These were initially published by a Danish newspaper on Sept 30, 2005. The ambassadors of dozens of Muslim countries in Copenhagen had protested against that but to no avail. The caricatures were republished on Jan 10 by a Norwegian Christian magazine, which caused Muslims’ sentiments to boil over worldwide. Now, even after seeing all the hurt this was causing to a group constituting one-fourth of humanity, some newspapers in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and Spain have followed suit (Dawn, Feb 2). This can only be seen as a deliberate effort to insult the adherents of Islam.
Before that, when the Saudi Arabian customers of a giant Danish food producer started a boycott of its products that has a market of $328 million over there, the European Union quickly jumped into the fray by converting a Danish problem into a European one and threatened WTO action against Riyadh if the Saudi government supported this boycott.
About a year ago, websites were set up in Israel that contained extremely insulting material about the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) while some American evangelists were concurrently engaged in vile and blasphemous propaganda against Islam and its Messenger.
This is in contrast to the fact that there has not been even one incident anywhere in the world where any Muslim has showed anything but respect to Prophets Moses and Jesus (peace be upon them). This shows our tolerance and enlightenment, compared to the West’s hypocritical policies. Some Muslims have taken to militancy and extremism in recent years after the conquest of Afghanistan and Iraq by American-led forces and the barbaric treatment meted out to Palestinians, Bosnians, Chechens, Kashmiris and other Muslims by the occupying powers.
American and European leaders must answer the question: is it all right to continue injuring the sentiments of other people, to occupy their lands and bomb their innocent civilians and to threaten action even if they take non-violent measures to safeguard their interests?
KHALID CHAUDHRY
Karachi
THERE is a lot of heat and argument in the air on the issue of building new water reservoirs in the country, especially on the Indus River. The opposition from the NWFP to the Kalabagh dam is mainly based on the fear that a vast arable area of the province and the city of Nowshera will become water-logged and may even be submerged during filling of the dam to its proposed capacity (height). The alternatives suggested are Bhasha and Skardu dams which are much higher on the river Indus. The opposition from Sindh is based on the ground that the construction of dams in the upper regions on the Indus would reduce the availability of water for irrigation in Sindh and especially downstream Kotri which will damage agriculture, forest and marine life in the katcha areas of the Indus delta.
In my opinion the issue is not water reservoirs in the country whose need is acknowledged by all. The real issue is sharing of available and conservable water by all the provinces. So what is needed is an assessment of the total available and conservable water in the country and an agreement among the provinces on its sharing before construction of any dam on any main river or its tributary, especially on the sharing of water proposed to be conserved by the reservoir. The federal government and the provinces need to work on this urgently and sincerely.
Similarly, the issue of royalty and especially the amount to be paid to the provinces raises its head off and on. A demand for raising the royalty for the dams constructed in the NWFP and electricity being produced therefrom is often made by the government of the NWFP. According to my knowledge, under the Constitution the rivers and their waters are the ownership of the federal government and the dams already built have also been constructed by the federal government.
So, legally no royalty for the same is payable by the federal government to the provinces. Of course the provincial governments and the private owners of land acquired for construction of water reservoirs have to be compensated by the federal government along with compensation for dislocation of population.
The provincial governments and the private users, in their turn, are liable to pay to the federal government for the water obtained by them from the reservoirs. What is needed is a consensus (rather a binding agreement) on all these issues between the federal government and the provincial government in whose area a dam is proposed to be constructed.
LATIF QURESHI
Lahore
REGARDING Mr Ardeshir Cowasjee’s eye-opening article “Call out the fire brigade” (Jan 8) he has rightly exposed the ill-mannered and disorganized system of house jobs.
Referring to his statement as to “how doctors obtain house job certificates without spending a single day in their wards”, I know numerous colleagues who have done their MBBS from public sector medical colleges like DOW and the SMC in Karachi and are sitting at home knowing that their house job certificates are cost a bare few thousand rupees for them. They don’t do calls (overnight duties), nor attend the wards, at most they visit the hospital once a week to jot down their attendance for the whole week and sit at home preparing for post-graduate examinations like the FCPS.
The situation is less alarming in private sector hospitals where graduates spend a whole year completing this mandatory period for clinical training before going in for post-graduate training in Pakistan or abroad.
Private medical universities have strict rules regarding house job training, with regular attendance, case discussions, weekly meetings, seminars, monthly stipends and in the end a certificate which really means that the doctor concerned was in the wards rather than sitting at home.
The PMDC is doing well to improve the state of medical education in Pakistan and with the advent of members in the PMDC from private colleges a more stable position will evolve. We young doctors can only hope and expect the PMDC to keep this trend going and also ask the president of Pakistan to please increase the pay scales for doctors in Pakistan. This profession demands hard work, taking its toll on both body and spirit.
DR S.H. MUJTABA
Karachi
ZAFRULLAH Khan, who is being remembered by his friends and admirers today (Feb 6) on his 113th birth anniversary, had an extraordinary public career spanning over 40 years. He was spokesman for the Muslim delegation to the round-table conferences; member, viceroy’s executive council; judge, federal court of India; foreign minister of Pakistan; judge (also, severally, vice- president and president) of the International Court of Justice; president the UN General Assembly; honorary Bencher, Lincoln’s Inn; honorary doctorates from Universities of Cambridge, Columbia and Berkeley; honorary fellow, London School of Economics, etc.
He possessed a phenomenal memory and had the gift of repartee. He also had a cultivated sense of humour which he could employ with telling effect in argument. An opportunity for this arose in the dead-locked Kashmir debates before the UN Security Council in 1952, on the issue of defining “bulk” as applied to the Indian forces that were to stay behind in the territory during the agreed plebiscite. The Indians would not accept anything.
Summing up the ambience, Zafrulla Khan writes in his memoirs (Servant of God that at one stage, out of sheer frustration, in an attempt to expose India’s chicanes, he intervened and submitted to the Council: “Deadlock persists over what constitutes the bulk of India’s forces in the state of Kashmir. Bulk is not a term of art. Its plain, simple connotation is the greater part. India submitted a plan to the Commission (UNCIP) for the withdrawal of the bulk of its forces from Kashmir.
“We do not know what India had offered to withdraw nor does the Security Council. There can, however, be no doubt that what it had offered to withdraw was in its opinion the bulk, the greater part, of its forces in the state, and what was to be left was the smaller part. In order to break the deadlock and make a move forward, we are prepared to take a risk. Let India leave in Kashmir what it represented to the Commission as the bulk, the greater part, of its forces in the state, and withdraw from the state what it represented to the Commission as the smaller part.
“The Indian press reported that Prime Minister Nehru’s comment on the foreign minister’s proposal was: Fantastic. The comment would have been justified only if the prime minister had conceived that the foreign minister was so naive as to have entertained the hope that India could be persuaded to accept and carry out the proposal.”
M.J. AS’AD
Karachi
THE IAEA is at present considering the referral of Iran to the UN to seek sanctions over its nuclear activities.
It is surprising to note that Iran, which may be at least 10 years away from a bomb, is considered a threat, while Israel and North Korea which possess nuclear warheads are put on the back burner. A probable strategy behind this leap-frogging seem could be that the US intends to make the world forget about Iraq and Afghanistan. It wants to concentrate on deployment to attack Iran — thereby affording a graceful exit from the quagmires of Iraq.
Many have often mentioned that Iran is not Iraq. If a folly such as this is committed, it is bound to leave the Middle East in flames, resulting in the actual wiping out of Israel from the map.
RAFI ADAMJEE
Karachi
A SECRETARY-general has been appointed in the ministry of finance by the government, a gentleman who has already availed himself of two years’ extension after superannuation. Now we have in the finance ministry a federal minister, an adviser, two ministers of state, two secretaries, a chief economic adviser, seven additional secretaries and scores of high-profile consultants on fat salaries.
All are here to serve the poor masses while sitting in palatial offices to reduce poverty, which now stands at 38 per cent, inflation running at nine per cent making the poor more vulnerable and eliminating low-salaried jobs through the reckless privatization process being pursued on the dictates of the IMF and the World Bank.
Incidentally, all these gentlemen have strong connections with these institutions.
JAVED
Lahore
APROPOS of Talat Rahim’s letter “PTCL wireless service” (Jan 21), PTCL would like to clarify that state of the art technology has been used in the V-fone service having global recognition. The system is working perfectly well and is integrally equipped with the latest features, including Internet services.
The customer has not intimated his MDN number or other contact number for contact for technical support. Customers occasionally face some difficulty in using sophisticated technical features of V-sets provided by the company. Technical support is provided on toll-free number 0800-77888 as well as by PTCL customer service centres/franchises. Customers can also contact PTCL focal persons for V-fones in Karachi during office hours on 5879920 and 5364656 in this regard.
ATHER JAVED SUFI
Karachi
MUCH has been written in your columns about the traffic mess of Karachi and its roads. As is customary in our sad history of the past few decades, nothing gets done for there seems not only a lack of will but also lack of follow up by the powers that be.
The traffic mess cannot be solved until attention is paid, first, to proper training of drivers. Many on the roads do not even know why there are white lines — single, double or fragmented ones. The rule of keeping ones vehicle on the left of the road is simply a fact that people either do not know or care about. People freely and blatantly violate rules of driving on one way streets and do the same with divided roads where frequently people drive in both directions.
People come out of side streets and without looking both ways and just force their way into moving traffic. Turn signals are seldom used before making turns and many a times the turn signals keep flashing while the driver is not actually turning.
Second, there has to be implementation of laws without favour. Much has been written on how the VIP culture takes precedence over the law. The recent example of the state minister for religious affairs, who in some circles is also considered an ‘aalim’, is very demoralizing. If our educated elected representatives can continue to flout such common rules, how can anyone expect the uneducated or the man in the street to comply?
There must be a simple methodology of issuing challans for violations of rules where there is no discussion or arguments taking place on the streets, holding other traffic at bay. The challans must specify the fine and that should be paid within three days into a bank or the person be hauled up for further handling.
Buses of all kinds must stay in one lane and stop only at designated bus-stops.
People who drive without a properly issued driving licence must be jailed. Most bus drivers either have no licence or have ones obtained illegally or fake ones.
MOHAMMED HASAN
Karachi
THROUGH these columns I appeal to the new governor of the State Bank of Pakistan to have a study done of what facilities, if any, are being given by the scheduled banks in Pakistan to their account-holders who are senior citizens. I recall that the former governor, Dr Ishrat Hussain, used to take a keen interest in whatever facilities, e.g., rates of profit on deposits, were given by the banks to their senior citizen deposit holders.
My best compliments go to those scheduled banks which offer higher rates of profit on deposits and the consideration they show to senior citizens. As the government begins to give shape to the new budget, I asks the finance ministry to offer higher rates of profits to investors in savings certificates.
In the Scandinavian countries, banks offer substantial returns to their senior citizen deposit-holders. It may be useful if Pakistani banks study the banking policies and practices of public banks in Norway and Denmark.
QUTUBUDDIN AZIZ
Karachi
I WANT to draw attention to a problem which the community of GSM users of one firm is facing. On Jan 30 I loaded a Rs100 scratch card in my mobile phone. When I checked the balance, the credit was Rs62.50 instead of Rs91. When I contacted 111, the helpline, the customer service representative told me that “you have been converted into an octane package, so your balance was deducted”. I had not requested the company to include me in that package. I dislike it because daily Re1 is deducted from my balance. The other problem is that I have not added three friends or family numbers to my number, while this company has deducted service charges from my account.
NAWAZISH ALI
Lahore
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