| March 7, 2006 | Tuesday | Safar 6, 1427 |
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Credit cards
Naming missiles
Assessing Pakistani science
Bird flu
Europe’s emotional jabs
Defender of the faithful
‘Black Day’
Don’t worry
Postponement of history
Public buses
IT is after a long time that we have a man in the White House who is so friendly to Pakistan. His job is all the more difficult, because a section of the American media and some die-hard India lovers work over time to malign Pakistan. Yet President George Bush has the wisdom to make his own judgment. Just the mention of the word “Kashmir” hurts India, and President Bush had the courage and foresight to speak of Kashmir not just in Pakistan but when he was in New Delhi.
In a TV discussion, a participant was saying that US-Pakistan friendship was confined to the war on terror and that with India the US was developing a strategic relationship. This is wrong. The joint statement issued at the end of the Bush visit made it clear that the two countries would continue to remain engaged in developing a strategic relationship. The statement also spoke of cooperation in defence. Time and again, President Bush and his advisers have spoken of a long-term relationship with Pakistan. The delivery of F-16s was withheld when ex-President George Bush senior refused to issue the certificate needed under the Pressler amendment. His son has undone the wrong by agreeing on military sales, including F-16s. This is part of the three billion dollars economic-military package pledged by President Bush at the Camp David summit.
It is a pity that some sections of the media and politicians have made it a mission of their lives to miss no opportunity to malign the US. As a Pakistani I am going to look at American policy from the point of view of Pakistani interests and not from what America does or does not do to another country. At best my criticism of America’s behaviour in Palestine and Iraq will be theoretical – and for record’s sake.
AZIZ M. KHAN
Karachi
INDIA recently announced a 7.2 per cent increase in its defence budget, which was followed by President Bush’s hot cake “civilian” nuclear programme partnership offer and a mouth-watering defence cooperation deal, all of this with an icing of a significant tilt in the US policy towards India at the cost of vulnerable Pakistan.
China, which is fast becoming a second line of resistance, after the former USSR, against US ascendancy of the world, is strategically antagonistic to India. Ostensibly, it is in the interest of the United States to strengthen India both militarily and economically in a bid to use her against China (in a similar way as the US used Pakistan against the former Soviet Union).
China, on the other hand, announced a massive increase of $35 billion in its already prodigious defence budget. China’s interest in Pakistan, as a strategic ally against India, is obvious. Therefore Pakistan would get further military and technological support from China.
Keeping in view the bearing of Russia, Nato, Iran and North Korea on the current geo-political scenario, one might wonder if these recent developments are pointing towards the birth of an era of another Cold War — the Cold War II -— if not another World war.
UMER FAHIM KHAN
Islamabad
THE facts stated in the report by Mr Shahid Iqbal (Dawn Business pages, Feb 24) narrate just half the ordeals of the people of Pakistan. Banks are not only charging 32 to 36 per cent interest in the name of service fees/finance charges, etc., but also deduct like percentage from merchant who accept their cards. As such, their earnings go to a hefty amount of 64 to 72 per cent per annum or five to six per cent a month. In addition to this exorbitant amount, the innocent customers are indiscriminately debited with late charges/penalties, transaction charges, cash handling charges, counter charges, over-limit fees and a host of insurance cover premiums. Banks are paid all these amounts, though they already receive regular interest at the above-mentioned exorbitant rates, on the actual outstanding balances.
Banks may have nominal losses in this sector as compared to the corporate sector where millions of rupees are advanced, in some cases, without proper security, fictitious valuation of the properties offered as security and the borrowers decamp with the bank money and that the bank could realize hardly a fraction of their lending. Whereas, in this case they adopt coercive measures against the poor white-collared credit card holders, even if a month’s default is made.
Being embarrassed, the card-holder is compelled to hand over some money or cheque to them. What I mean is that there may be a few defaulters and the amount being just nominal.
It is a sorry state of affairs that the main victims of this mess are the white-collared middle-class salaried persons who, without realizing the consequences, are hired away with a free credit limit of three to 10 times of their monthly earnings and feel jubilant with a credit card in their pocket and start spending lavishly.
Most of the merchants welcome the cards and charge rates/amounts at their free will and the card holder, without getting alarmed, signs the bill and realizes the situation only when he receives the card bill or frequent phones from the bank.
This ordeal began in 1993/94 when a bank introduced credit cards for the first time in Pakistan. It went fine till 2000 and also when other competitors came in the market. As a result of competition, all banks instead of reducing their charges started luring away their customers with a number of gimmicks like reward points, bonus points, smart instalment plan, BTF instalment and extended payment plan, free mobile connections and some other promotional offers, but no reduction in the interest that is being charged in the name of service fee/finance charges.
Our demand is simply that banks should reduce the burden on their so-called “valued clients”, not to impose unreasonable variety of other fees, specially counter-charges, cash handling charges, late payment fees (or reduce it to a nominal level), insurance charges and, above all, reduce their service fees/finance charges to 1.5 per cent as done in case of other advances/deposits.
KHURRAM SHAIKH
Karachi
I DISAGREE with your editorial of Feb 26 ‘New missile crisis’ on several accounts. First, you have belittled the exemplary deeds of courage performed by our living heroes as well as those who had embraced martyrdom by saying we would be unable to find anyone locally to name our missiles after.
The living hero, Sqn Ldr [now Air Cdre (r)] M. M. Alam, had created a record after World War II by shooting down five enemy planes single-handedly in a matter of seconds, during the 1965 war. He had proved his superior skill and valour by outwitting the five Indian pilots chasing him in equivalent or better fighter aircraft than the F-86 Sabre jet he was flying and destroying them in a dogfight. As a result, he was given a gallantry award.
Many other military officers and jawans have been decorated with the highest medal of Nishan-i-Haider for showing uncommon courage and patriotism during which they laid down their lives.
Second, you have also said that thankfully no one in the subcontinent has given a name to an atomic bomb. Actually, India had deceptively designated at least its first nuclear weapon that it exploded in 1974 as the “Smiling Buddha” whereas it is well-known that Buddha was a great man of peace who taught the lessons of love, non-violence and forgiveness. Pakistan did not engage in such hypocrisy but was forthright in naming its strategic arms.
Finally, you have suggested that we should not make any missiles or atomic bombs. If the West had followed such advice in facing the militarist and expansionist USSR after War II, the world map, geopolitics and social set-up may have been very different today. Neither the Arabs nor Pakistan can be complacent in dealing with Israel or India, which have a track record of occupying territories and persecuting the Muslims. Weak nations only get trampled upon, as the Muslims’ recent painful experience with the issue of blasphemous cartoons has shown.
As far as the Afghan claim about naming of Ghauri and other missiles is concerned, it is untenable. The king may have been born in Afghanistan but he ruled over parts of Pakistan (and India) and lies buried over here, so we have a claim upon him. Maulana Rumi was born in Afghanistan but most people don’t even seem to know that and consider him to be Turkish because he had settled down over there and his mausoleum was also built in Turkey.
AHSANUL HAQ
Karachi
THIS refers to Prof (Dr) Pervez Hoodbhoy’s letter “Assessing Pakistani science” (March 3). He has stated that the Higher Education Commission is reaping huge monetary rewards for publishing so-called scientific research papers.
The fact is that the HEC came into existence in October 2002 and has not rewarded even a single person for publishing scientific articles. The HEC has no programme for rewarding people for publishing in journals. Dr Hoodbhoy has got his facts wrong.
The HEC takes the issue of plagiarism very seriously and has actively promoted a policy of “zero tolerance” in this regard. 1t was due to intervention of the HEC that a professor of computer science was removed from the International Islamic University when a plagiarized article of his was brought to light.
In the research and development domain, publications from Pakistani scientists have registered a remarkable increase of over 20 per cent yearly growth in prestigious international journals. This fact can be independently verified from the Institute of Scientific Information http://www.isinet.com/. Since its inception, 2002, the HEC has launched several programmes to facilitate Pakistani researchers to conduct research and present their works at national and international forums. For the first time any researcher of a public sector university who gets a paper accepted for presentation in an international referred conference is able to travel and present his or her work there. Research grants can be obtained after competitive review.
Students from Malakand to Karachi are able to collaborate with peers in different parts of the world. Researchers in Pakistan have a new lease on life as witnessed by the phenomenal growth (over 350 per cent as compared to 2003) of requests for funding by researchers to present their work in international conferences overseas. Requests for hosting of conferences in Pakistan have registered an 87 per cent growth over the past two years. The record speaks for itself.
DR RASHID MATEEN
HEC, Islamabad
YOUR report on NARC lab handling bird flu tests (Feb 25) confirms that the said lab has facilities for serological molecular diagnosis and virus isolation with its characterization. But the federal health minister has stated (Dawn, March 1) that the samples from the infected birds have been sent to the World Reference Laboratory in the UK for confirmation of the N component of the virus.
One fails to understand if we had an excellent lab in Islamabad, then what was the fun in sending samples to the UK. Should I presume that our scientists were not capable of doing the job while a huge foreign exchange aid and local money for setting up the said facility have all gone to waste and we still need help from outside?
Second, I would like to know if the National Institute of Health and Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences have any such set-up or not. To my knowledge probably no such facility exists in any of the medical institutions or a university in Pakistan.
DR A.A. QURESHI
Karachi
A gives B a punch on the face. When B protests, A argues that in his country people have the freedom to beat anyone, especially if they are weaker. Nevertheless, very reluctantly he acknowledges and regrets the pain his punch caused to B but says he cannot apologize for it and then proceeds to lecture the latter on acceptable modes of protest.
This is effectively the approach followed by the European Union (Dawn, Feb 28) while asking for an end to “bitterness” between Europe and Muslim countries over the publication of blasphemous cartoons, in a statement issued by its foreign ministers headed by the Austrian envoy.
In deference to the wishes of some member-states, these diplomats refused to apologize but only said that the EU governments “acknowledged and regretted” that the cartoons were considered offensive and distressing by Muslims across the world (as if it was their fault to have such feelings).
On his part, the German foreign minister said the EU strongly supported freedom of the press and of expression and insisted that those who believed their religious sentiments had been hurt must not resort to violence.
Yet another jab to the Muslims came from the new German Chancellor, Ms Angela Merkel, who called upon her conservative Christian Democratic Union party to make a clear statement recognizing Israel’s right to exist and include it in their manifesto (Feb 21). She further stated that in the light of its responsibility for the Holocaust, Germany has made the defence of Israel’s right to exist a core tenet of its foreign policy. It is a cruel joke that those countries which could not tolerate the Jews and had kicked them out now want them to be given a right to live on occupied Muslim territory.
Many leaders in the West indulge in such hypocrisy when dealing with Muslims. Someone should tell them that emotional trauma could frequently be more painful than the physical one.
S. QADRI
Karachi
ON behalf of the Pakistani blogger community, I wish to thank Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) for protecting our faith. For some time now all blogs hosted on the popular Blogger site have been inaccessible from Pakistan. Some Blogger blogs were displaying the cartoons that need no introduction, and were it not for the PTA’s timely action, the faith of Pakistani Internet users would have been in jeopardy.
I would suggest that the PTA expand upon its role as defender of our sensibilities and ban Internet usage altogether. In fact, the government should take into account the harmful effects of such un-Islamic devices as televisions, telephones and computers, and make the possession of them a crime. All in good time, I’m sure.
ZIA AHMED
Geneva Switzerland
ACCORDING to BBC news on February 27, instructions were issued to Internet service providers across Pakistan to block about a dozen websites of various origins about the cartoons of the the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) . One of the blocked sites is hosted on Blogspot, which led to the blocking of all web journals hosted on the site.
The bloggers in Pakistan found their blogs blocked, even though they are not connected with the cartoons. This is absurd and needs to be corrected. Why are all the blogs blocked? .
FAWWAD SHAFI
Lahore
THIS is with reference to the “Black day” observed in Sukkur against US President Bush’s visit. As a member of a minority community I feel cheated that leaders of a leading political party would decide to protest against the arrival of Mr Bush and the publication of blasphemous cartoons in Denmark, but not against the atrocities that were committed against the Christians in Sukkur.
Is it that a Muslim’s life is more important than that of a non-Muslim’s? Or that the sentiments of a Muslim should be held in higher regard than that of a non-Muslim. How is it that the party officials keep chanting slogans about atrocities in Palestine and Iraq, but their lips are sealed when atrocities are committed in their own backyard? The burning of a mosque is sacrilegious but the burning of a church, of Bibles and the desecration of the Cross is not?
I do not condone what is happening in Palestine or Iraq but I do think that it is highly hypocritical of the MMA leaders to protest against one and not against the other.
ARNOLD XAVIER
Sukkur
I just want to tell all Pakistanis that things are not so bad. Yes we are facing the fallout of war on terror, we are facing internal disturbances and the sacrilegious caricatures have given an opportunity to the opposition for agitation. Despite all this, let’s believe in our able President. He has tackled many challenges prudently. We are not Botswana or Rawanda.
We are an able nuclear country, we know what we are facing and we know our options well. We are not dependent on the USA, we have backdoor channels. China is there and we are an important country in the Ummah. So my humble request to all of you is to be confident and forget all pessimistic thoughts.
YASIR HAYAT KHAN
Nowshera
THIS refers to Mr Ayaz Amir’s column (March 3). There is no doubt that this regime is actively pursuing a US agenda that is not necessarily in our national interest. Like previous military dispensations, this one may also one day find itself left high and dry. Some say that is already the case.
In the early decade of the last century the British came into Iraq as liberators trying to establish the rule of law and democracy, and then ended up fighting the ingrate insurgents. A century later, a former British colony is trying to the do the same there with exactly the same consequences.
In 1953, the CIA and MI6 toppled the popular socialist government of Nuri-as-Saeed in Iran and brought back the Shah to save their own interests. It all came to a naught after 25 years when the religious revolution took over the country. Under oppressive regimes religion provides the ultimate outlet. It seems the US and the UK had merely deferred history in Iran, not changed it.
In 1977, when a moderate Bhutto was replaced by Zia, the obscurants soon swamped the scene. Enlightened moderation had to be reinjected into the body politic not through popular will but through a dictate. How long it will hold, only history will tell.
ASLAM MINHAS
Karachi
THE other day while going from Karachi’s Defence to North Nazimabad at 5pm, between Allahwala roundabout (Tariq Road) and Aisha Manzil bus stop, I counted seven buses with passengers on the roof. Such blatant and dangerous traffic violation speaks very poorly of traffic officials of the areas concerned.
Each division has an SP (traffic) under whom there are quite a number of officials and if they are not able to enforce traffic laws, it is a matter of great concern. The negligent officers should be taken to task.
FAROOQ DAWOOD
Karachi
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