| February 19, 2006 | Sunday | Muharram 20, 1427 |
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Irsa’s powers and functions
Aftersale service
Sugar crisis
Quality and HEC
Democracy — American dilemma
Profits on savings
Strikes & demos
Bees and flowers
Electricity bills
THOMAS Carlyle in ‘Heroes and Hero Worship and the Heroic in History’, 1840 said: “The lies (western slander) which well-meaning zeal has heaped round this man (Muhammad) are disgraceful to ourselves only.”
Michael Hart in ‘The 100, A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History,’ New York, 1978, said — “My choice of Muhammad to lead the list of the world’s most influential persons may surprise some readers and may be questioned by others, but he was the only man in history who was supremely successful on both the secular and religious level.”
Another writer, De Lacy O’Leary in ‘Islam at the Crossroads’, London, 1923 said: “History makes it clear, however, that the legend of fanatical Muslims sweeping through the world and forcing Islam at the point of sword upon conquered races is one of the most fantastically absurd myths that historians have ever repeated.”
On September 17 the Danish newspaper Politiken ran an article about a writer Kare Bluitqun who was having trouble finding illustrators for his children’s book on Islam: Koranen og profeten Muhammeds liv (“The Quran and the Prophet Muhammad’s life”). After a controversy of self-censorship and free speech, the Danish newspaper, Jyllands-Posten, with a circulation of about 175,000 per day, responded by asking 40 illustrators to make drawings of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and send them in. Twelve of the illustrations, all of which share the fearsome depiction of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), were published in the newspaper on September 30, 2005, which then ignited the current controversy.
The problem is not confined to Demark; newspapers in some European countries used the same cartoons to say that they support the Danish newspaper’s “freedom of speech”. However the reality which fewer people know in Pakistan is that two Muslim countries also reprinted those sacrilegious cartoons. In Jordan, the Arabic weekly Shihan ran three of the 12 cartoons. In October 2005, the images were reportedly featured on the cover and inside pages of Egypt’s Al-Fagr.
European free speech laws are largely the product of an Enlightenment-era outlook on the role and status of religion in society. It is unreasonable to expect Europeans to overlook the cultural experiences of several centuries. And it is equally unreasonable to expect one billion Muslims to take it for granted that free speech affords others a right to ridicule their religion, while staunchly protecting another religion from the same treatment.
Danish ministers say the government can’t condemn the cartoons a daily publishes because freedom of speech is guaranteed for all and that freedom of the press is also guaranteed by the Danish constitution. Section 140 of the Criminal Code prohibits any person from publicly ridiculing or insulting the dogmas of worship of any lawfully existing religious community in Denmark. Section 266b criminalizes the dissemination of statements or other information by which a group of people are threatened, insulted or degraded on account of their religion.
In February 2006, Carsten Juste, editor-in-chief of Jyilands-Posten, apologized over his act of publishing cartoons but shamefully stated in the second paragraph of his apology: “In our opinion, the 12 drawings were sober. They were not intended to be offensive, nor were they at variance with Danish law, but they have indisputably offended many Muslims for which we apologize.”
Denmark seems ready to pay a heavy price for the blasphemous act. It is estimated that if only Jordan keeps boycotting Danish products till next summer they will lose at least 36 billion euros. Danish-Swedish dairy giant Aria Foods says the ongoing boycott of Danish products in the Middle East has so far cost it between $ 40 and $ 50 million.
As the Muslim world refuses to buy Danish goods in protest Aria is losing a million a day. Aria also had to send home 170 employees across Denmark due to the impact of the reduced sales. In Nigeria, on February 6, the MPs passed a resolution ordering the Kano state government to call off negotiations with Denmark over a hydroelectric plant worth some 25 million dollars and to cancel the purchase of 72 buses from the country.
Almost 1,000 Danish websites have been defaced by Islamic hackers protesting about the controversial cartoons. The attacks typically replace home pages with pro-Islam messages and condemn the publication of the images.
In Lahore and Peshawar, thousands of protesters rampaged through the cities on Tuesday, storming into a diplomatic district and torching western businesses and a provincial assembly. This indeed is a deplorable act. The only way to protest is peacefully and not by destroying our own property and lives. The Muslims must use their strong weapon against Denmark by imposing economic sanctions on the Scandinavian nation. I think the Muslim response will be well understood by the Danish people if we show them how much we love our Prophet. As far as the freedom of speech theory is concerned, no freedom is absolute; a person’s freedom ends when it encroaches into another person’s freedom. Muslim governments should ask the United Nations to pass a law against insulting any religion. We should use all our resources and powers — economic and political — to make this happen.
RASHID ASHRAF
Karachi
THIS is with reference to Chaudhry Mohammad Shafiq’s letter (Feb 15) on the interpretation of Irsa’s powers and functions. The authority and its functions given in the Irsa Act’s preamble and its sections should be interpreted keeping in view the intentions of the lawmakers.
The intention, the purpose and the powers are clearly provided in the latter part of the preamble of the Irsa Act. The preamble is: “Whereas it is expedient to establish the Indus River System Authority for regulating and monitoring the distribution of water resources of the Indus River in accordance with the Water Accord amongst the provinces and to provide for matters connected therewith and ancillary thereto”.
The latter portion of the preamble gives full powers to Irsa to settle all issues that are connected and ancillary to the development of water resources of the Indus River in accordance with the Water Accord for its implementation. Irsa has to carry out the purposes of the act under its Sections 3 and 8(2) to implement any question in respect of the Water Accord.
As such, the Water Accord’s para 6 only allows “feasible storage for planned future agricultural development”. It does not allow technically and economically infeasible and controversial water projects to be implemented under para 6 of without its verification in the light of the preamble of the act. It lies within the authority’s powers, functions and jurisdiction to know and verify the dam’s feasibility as required by para 6. The design of the Kalabagh dam became doubtful as project consultants had recommended in the feasibility report providing unrestricted a low-level sluicing design to evacuate silt.
But Wapda directed the consultants to provide a “restricted mid-level sluicing design” that cannot evacuate silt. Besides this, the KBD is located at the tail-end of the Indus drawing silt amounting to about 540 million tons from a vast catchment area of 110,500 square km? The KBD has obviously the poorest capacity-inflow ratio that gives a very short life of about 25 years.
Moreover, the dam site at Kalabagh is infeasible for a height of more than 160 feet as revealed in the feasibility report by the consultants. Against this, the height of the dam is 260 feet. Similarly, the dependable power of KBD is 1,400 MW and not 3,600 MW. This is why a 2,000 MW thermal power plant is attached to the KBD to support its poor hydropower. The KBD was also underdesigned for earthquake. It is, therefore, not feasible hydrologically, hydro-geologically, seismically, economically and structurally.
It is an obsolete project of disputable nature that needed re-designing to make it feasible in the light of para 6 of the the Water Accord. Therefore, Irsa rightly rejected the KBD under the preamble and its Section 8(2) of the Act and para 6 of the accord.
Irsa is fully competent to review and appraise infeasible and disputed projects. The Wapda chairman as ex-officio member of Irsa can participate in Irsa’s functions and jointly implement the Water Accord. Moreover, the ECNEC cannot approve of a new water project unless recommended by Irsa under Section 8(1)(g) of the act. The KBD cannot be made feasible by simply assuming that Irsa has no powers and responsibility to appraise flawed project to waste $20 billion. The case can be referred to the Council of Common Interest if Wapda is aggrieved as per Section 8(3) of the act.
ENGR. FATEH ULLAH KHAN
Former chairman, Irsa,
Peshawar
WHENEVER the question of prices arises much is claimed by the local car manufacturers about after sales service etc., to the extent that the then finance minister and now the premier supported local manufacturers versus importers, saying the consumers will have immaculate warranty related services available locally.
The experience has been to the contrary. I bought a locally made 2005 model of Japanese origin and a month later started experiencing a left drift, which was so severe that it often made me think of driving below 60. Some of my friends also shared a similar experience about another Japanese and a Korean brand. The after-sales service remained lip service only.
The drift could cause an accident and is dangerous, but the representative of the company says that is a normal thing and all their models have this problem.
I have spent money and wasted time on going to the designated workshop for numerous adjustments but my problem regarding the drift remains same. The technicians keep blaming road conditions for drift, once I drove in the opposite direction and showed them the drift which existed even on the wrong side of the road which convinced them to make at least some adjustments.
Anyway I would be obliged if someone with some authority could take notice of the situation and direct local manufacturers to satisfy their customers.
SALEEM MAHMOOD
Karachi
GENUINE or artificial, the fact remains that there is a shortage of sugar in the country and a panic has been created in the public. Everyone, rich or poor, is out to buy sugar all the sugar he can get at any cost. The letter off ones are buying in bulk to forestall any future difficulties. The poor are requesting government officials known to them to buy for them as they can ill afford to pay Rs45 a kg in the open market and they are also stocking more than their requirement. This hoarding by individuals is also a cause for the crisis.
The shortage is not a new phenomenon. Every four or five years one faces a similar crisis in the country; either wheat flour disappears or sugar or onions or tomatoes. The prices of these commodities then go sky-rocketing, affecting the common citizen.
The characters involved and responsible for the shortage items are unfortunately our worthy politicians who are either mill owners or growers and form part of the government. So no action is taken against anyone, no raids are conducted on mills or godowns.
There is another unfortunate part of this story. There is no organization in our towns to promote consume resistance. Consumers should now decide to stop using sugar like we find in China. They export 100 per cent of their sugar production. In Pakistan we have a class who can afford to buy sugar even if it is Rs100 a kg like they buy mutton at Rs250 a kg. The meat-seller next to my house tells me that they have customers who would buy mutton even at Rs1,000 a kg.
Let us stop buying sugar and eat substitutes and let dietitians play their role by advising the general public how to make up for the sugar deficiency. MUHAMMAD AZHAR KHWAJA
Lahore
THIS is with reference to Ch. Athar Amin’s letter (Dawn, Feb 16) on the HEC. In his letter he raises the issue of the graduates of public & private universities and the job market available to these students. He also showes his concern about the quality of universities.
Ch. Athar Amin is right in pointing out the poor quality of many private and public institutions/universities. The mushroom growth of hundreds of institutions/universities/colleges that are producing low standard graduates with no job prospects in professional fields has done a lot of national damage. The HEC has therefore taken several initiatives to force these sub-standard institutions to improve standards or to close down if they do not meet the minimum cabinet criteria.
The Higher Education Commission has accordingly taken several steps and initiated numerous programmes with the objectives of improving quality, access and relevance of the higher education sector in Pakistan.
A major step towards the achievement of quality assurance in higher learning taken by the HEC is the establishment of a Quality Assurance Agency (QAA). The agency is developing policies and guidelines to assure the quality of higher education. The HEC is also establishing quality enhancement cells (QECs) in all the universities of Pakistan in a phased manner. These cells have already been established in 10 universities of the country. They will implement the guidelines developed by QAA for improving the standards of education in various universities.
The HEC has also established discipline-wise, accreditation councils. The computing accreditation council has already started working while agriculture, teacher education, business, and other accreditation councils will also start functioning later this year. These councils will assure that certain minimum standards for each programme are fulfilled. The councils will also develop minimum subject-wise benchmarks keeping in view international standards.
The HEC has also facilitated a number of Pakistani universities establishing of international linkages with the universities of technologically advanced countries in order to make research and education compatible with technological advancements of the world. Some fifty linkages would be functioning with British universities during the current year.
Moreover universities are going to be ranked on the basis of criteria developed by the HEC. The ranking of Universities should stimulate positive competition for improving their standards. In order to enhance the standard of PhD programmes in the universities, minimum criteria for award of PhD degree have been developed and circulated to all the universities for strict observance. PhD degrees of those universities which do not implement HEC quality criteria will not be recognized.
DR. RASHID MATEEN
Higher Education Commission,
Islamabad
America invaded Iraq in March 2002 on the pretext that the country possessed weapons of mass destruction, was acquiring uranium from Niger and had links with Al Qaeda.
With the passage of time, all these charges have been proved to be false. Then the invader took the position that it wished to bring democracy not only to Iraq but also to other Arab countries. This is again a bogey. The entire over-half-a-century history of American foreign policy shows that it has always found it convenient to get its objectives achieved through dictators.
Whenever the public has been allowed to express its free will in general elections, the tide has turned anti-American. Let us begin with Algeria where a few years back people elected a religious party. In Turkey too a pro-religion party has been elected. In Egypt, the Ikhwanul Muslimeen has gained sufficient ground although the party did not contest elections for all the seats. And now Hamas has won elections in Palestine. Apart from the Muslim world, there is a tide tide of anti-American in many countries of Latin America also.
America should have accepted the verdict in all these countries. But it installed an undemocratic regime in Algeria and is waiting for a chance to overthrow the elected regime in Venezuela. The religious party has been allowed to rule in Turkey — but perhaps because Turkey is a Nato ally. But Europe is making sure that Turkey is not allowed to enter the European Union. The recent victory of Hamas in Palestine is also not digestible for America and its immediate reaction is to stop economic.
GHULAM MUHAMMAD
Karachi
THIS refers to the letter “Profits on savings” (Feb 8). The main objective of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, who also holds the portfolio of finance, is to increase the income-tax base.
Mr Aziz is prepared to disregard all consequences. His income-tax base has been widened and returns increased at the cost of the weakest sectors of society.
Some of the steps he has taken for the implementation of his objective are: reduction in the rate of profit on private savings, both national and postal, imposition of 10 per cent withholding tax on postal savings, reduction in the profit on savings accounts in banks, resulting in net negative return, and permission to banks to impose huge banking charges on transactions.
H.A. HAJI
Karachi
IT is fortunate that India, our immediate big neighbour, is a good friend, and would not wish to harm us in any way. If it had been otherwise, and it wished to keep us at the bottom of the economic league table while it soared to the top, all it would have to do would be to publish a blasphemous story or cartoon every month or so. Our mobs, led by our mullahs, would in their righteous outrage ensure that our economy was truly wrecked within a year.
In the league table of self-destructiveness we must be undisputed champions.
RASHID AHMAD
Karachi
IN the Karachi Metropolitan section (Dawn, Feb 13), Nerium flowers photographed by an expert clearly show honey bees sucking nectar (flower juice) but are wrongly described as extracting pollen from flowers in the caption. The nectar is transformed into honey by the bees and used as food.
In the process of sucking nectar, pollen grains (male) get stuck to the legs and wings of the bees which are taken to other flowers, has taken, a natural phenomenon for bringing male and female plants together for pollination and cross fertilization leading to the production of seeds (baby plants). Thus plants maintain the continuity of their species.
DR M. JALALUDDIN
Karachi
The meter reader of our Sialkot locality takes readings apparently without taking the pain to move out of his office. The meter of my home read as 36278 on 26-12-2005, while the reader saw it as 36310 in November and 36460 in December. I complained against him upon which he came to me and requested me to pay the bill with the assurance that he would adjust the excess amount in the bill for January. I paid the bill, but he has again taken a blind reading.
SHAHZAD ASHRAF
Sialkot
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