| March 31, 2006 | Friday | Rabi-ul-Awwal 1, 1427 |
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PTCL directory assistance
Stock exchange business
Promoting education
UK ship dismantling
Pakistan day
Uplift work
Word play
Not in Middle East
Call for strike
ON March 15 you published two excellent pieces of political prose. One deals with the ‘views of Washington Post?Eand the other with the comments of Mr Gorbachev regarding democracy. TheWashington Post has tried to bring to the notice of the Americans that democracy cannot be imposed by force and unless a mature civil society is in place, democracy cannot develop.
As reported by Nick Paton Walsh, Mr Gorbachev while celebrating his 75th birthday bitterly criticised the Americans and stated that while it took them 200 years to develop their form of democracy, they want Russians to reach that stage in 200 days. He has also said that Americans themselves need a lot of reforms in their system.
Democracy is certainly an evolutionary process and various nations have developed their own systems. We have talked of democracy springing from the ancient city of Athens although the fact remains that their own women and slaves were not permitted to vote. Even in England where democracy is reported to have taken root in 13th century, the labour class was not permitted to vote till the middle of 19th century and the women given the right to vote in 1912. The status of the blacks in the US and South Africa is a story of only recent past.
With this background it is important to examine our own situation with the expected elections in 2007. Democracy in Pakistan, whatever was its form, got derailed on the following occasions:
a. 1954: When Malik Ghulam Mohammed dissolved the constituent assembly.
b. 1958: When Iskandar Mirza dissolved all assemblies and imposed martial law.
c. 1969: When Yahya Khan ousted Ayub Khan and imposed martial law.
d. 1977: When Zia-ul-Haq ousted Z.A. Bhutto.
e. 1999: When military disagreed with the appointment of a new COAS in the presence of previous COAS and ousted the prime minister.
Since the perpetuators of all these events have been cleared by our superior courts, there is no point to brood over our past mistakes and blunders. We may, however, recollect that on all these occasions up to 1977 there was an extensive political unrest in the country and some parties were more keen to demonstrate their strength by the so-called street power rather than a constitutional change.
In 1999 there was not that extensive political unrest but after the atomic explosion of 1998 and the Kargil debacle we were certainly at a perilous path economically and politically at the international stage. When political unrest is precipitated by the perpetual mistakes of the people at the helm of affairs or by design and pressure of external power, then any upheaval is likely to occur. We have seen it Iran and Pakistan.
It is, therefore, important that in order to safeguard the future of democracy all parties and politicians should come up with reasonable proposals and create an atmosphere of mutual trust for holding the next elections.
The appointment of the chief election commissioner should have been welcomed. Some individuals have criticized this action unnecessarily. If in the past our judges of the superior courts in order to avoid anarchy, chaos and civil war accepted a less pleasant situation which took us away from the democratic path, this cannot be an excuse for the continuation of criticism of the judiciary.
I think for this appointment whether a person is retired or in service is immaterial. Instead of creating doubts and relying on street power and calling the appointment of the CEC as “pre-poll rigging” (Dawn, March 17), let us all unite and create an atmosphere of mutual trust and tolerance so that democracy is properly established in our political system.
PROF (DR) KHALID HASSAN MAHMOOD
Karachi
A FEW years back inquiry 17 was located in the central exchange building. At that time subscribers were at liberty to call inquiry 17 to know about a particular telephone number of an organization or a person by providing name and location.
In case of late or no response from inquiry 17, subscribers would call directly to inquiry supervisor on telephone numbers 226123 or 226124, at which time the required numbers were provided to the subscribers.
Now the PTCL has de-centralized inquiry 17 and all telephone calls are diverted to the area telephone exchange from where a subscriber dials inquiry 17, where telephone operators seldom pick up subscribers?
Every time when a subscriber dials inquiry 17, he or she is diverted to a pre-recorded message in Urdu and repeated message in English language which says: “Thank you for calling PTCL directory assistance. We are sorry, but all operators are busy assisting other subscribers. Please wait and you will be connected to the first available operator”.
But the “first available operator” does not come on the line and after a few minutes the telephone line is automatically disconnected. Despite repeated attempts by subscribers, telephone calls made to inquiry 17 are repeatedly diverted to the same pre-recorded message.
I do not understand the PTCL philosophy for publishing telephone directories after every five years? Last time telephone directories were printed and published in Karachi in 2001. Before that they were printed and in 1996. Most probably the PTCL will now be printing its telephone directories some time this year, though it sends telephone bills to its subscribers every month.
If a subscriber does not pay the bill on the due date, the PTCL disconnects his line without giving a reminder call to the subscriber to settle his bill.
I hope that once the UAE-based telecommunications company Etisalat will take over the management of the PTCL, it will make it a point to print, publish and distribute the updated residential and commercial telephone directories on a yearly basis, instead of every five years, as it is the right of every telephone subscriber to have an updated telephone directory at his residence or in his office, so that he can find a particular telephone number, in case of an emergency. This will save precious time and money of telephone subscribers by consulting the yearly updated telephone directories, instead of repeatedly calling inquiry 17.
SYED A. MATEEN
Karachi
STILL nothing is lost and urgent intervention by the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan, ministry of finance and the State Bank of Pakistan is solicited to arrest any further decline and corrective measures are taken to stabilize the stock market. It is the need of the hour as thousands of small and medium investors have lost a fortune and continue to lose endlessly due to factors not understandable.
Much before steep decline started there, it was said that the market would probably see the index level of around 10,000 points. The KSE Index which stood around 10,093 in the middle of January increased by more than 1,500 points in a matter of three weeks, made a record increase when it crossed the 11,000 mark and reached 11,609 on Feb 23 and was expected to reach 12,000 mark predicted by our market experts.
However, the bubble suddenly burst and once again the stock market made a new record when it declined by 490 points in a single day surpassing the record of decline in March 2005 and, finally, in less than 10 working days from March 23 the KSA Index lost more than 1,500 points to close at 10,094 some time back.
An investigation should be made into the sudden abnormal increase as well as into steep fall in prices of the shares. This is all the more necessary as some of our investment analysts/market pundits had justified the upsurge and bullish sentiments to lure small investors to play in the hands of manipulators who at anytime could play with the market the way they liked as was being evident during the intra-day trading where the market went high and low as and when it was so desired by vested interests.
What happened to market fundamentals which still remain strong, where has the foreign buying gone suddenly. Why no buying is witnessed especially for shares considered to be heavyweight in the bourse and which at present are at more attractive levels than they were being traded at inflated levels. How come the spreads in the ready and future market offered returns of 25 to 40 per cent for future contracts for January/February. The spreads that were to be made in ready and future market only added to the volatility.
The report of the findings should be made public so that the present as well as future investors know what had gone wrong.
M. SABIR HOSSAIN
Karachi
I WAS dismayed to read the article “Two-thirds of world’s illiterates are women” (March 24). It made me ponder the low literacy rate in Pakistan. There is dire need in Pakistan for quality education, particularly for women, which must begin at the primary level. Also, private and public educational institutions should be at par to improve the national level of education.
The problem can be solved if a meeting of school principals, coordinators and senior teachers from public and private in every district is held at least once a month. These meetings should focus on teacher training, school curriculum and teaching methodologies, and finally teacher and student exchange programmes.
Teacher training is the backbone of any educational set-up. The entire nation depends on teachers and progress cannot be made without the proper training of school teachers. Foreign teachers should be invited to conduct training workshops.
Secondly, the school curriculum must contain all the elements of character building along with enunciating ways to incorporate them. School teachers would benefit from an interactive discussion on this subject.
Finally, there must be inter-school teacher and student exchange programmes. This will not only evoke spirit of learning among teachers and pupils, it would also bring students of public and private schools closer. There should also be a teacher and student exchange programmes with developed countries.
Napolean Bonaparte once said: “Give me good mothers and I’ll give you a good nation”. There is no doubt that the socio-economic development of a country can be achieved only by educated citizens.
DURDANA KHAN
Lahore
ACCORDING to a news report, an asbestos-riddled British warship was recently dismantled at the Gadani shipyard in Balochistan. The report was initially published in The Sunday Telegraph (March 19) that the Sir Geraint, which saw service in the Falklands War, was being broken up at Gadani in violation of international law.
The ship was sold by the UK ministry of defence to Babcock Support Services (BBS), reportedly on the condition that it would not be sent to South Asia for scrapping. The BBS is said to have attached a similar proviso when it sold the vessel to Regency Projects. The ship then sailed from the UK and was ultimately purchased by Bismillah Maritime Breakers, the company which dismantled the Sir Geraint at Gadani.
Mr Hammad Naqi Khan, director of the Freshwater and Toxics Programme, Worldwide Fund for Nature-Pakistan (WWF-P), has already confirmed the presence of asbestos in the ship along with other hazardous substances. Asbestos is considered to be a ‘type A1 confirmed human carcinogen’. Over the years, a number of studies have shown that occupational exposure to asbestos leads to increased mortality and incidence of lung and gastrointestinal cancer as well as mesothelioma, a rare form of cancer in which malignant cells develop in the protective lining that covers the body’s internal organs. Mesothelioma is always fatal, and death is slow and painful.
It may be remembered that asbestos is classified in the “red list” of the same European regulation (annex IV). At the moment, asbestos removal in the ships — which is a very complex operation in order to be done without danger — is not regulated and controlled in Pakistan by a law, which aims at avoiding any danger for workers and the environment.
In a similar incident a few months ago, an attempt was made by a French ship to dump hazardous material in India but the move was resisted by environmental groups. The Supreme Court Monitoring Committee on Hazardous Wastes Management on Jan 6 gave a ruling according to which the French warship, Clemenceau, should not enter India.
South Asia has become a favourite dumping ground. From January to July 1993 waste dumping increased by 97.3 per cent in India, 126 per cent in Pakistan and 37 per cent in Bangladesh. Today India, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Malaysia are among the favourite global destinations of waste products, including hazardous waste of redundant ships. In the US in 1980 the cost of waste disposal was $15 per ton which grow to $250 per ton in 1989 and further to $600 per ton in 2001. Under these circumstances, possibilities of dumping waste in Third World countries made economic sense.
Dispatching an asbestos-laden ship to Pakistan was in clear violation of the Basel Convention on the Control of Trans-boundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal. Pakistan and Britain are both signatories to the Basel Convention, which was adopted in 1989 and came into force in 1992. Of the 160-plus parties to the convention, Afghanistan, Haiti and the United States are the only countries that are yet to ratify Basel.
The practice of profiting by exporting the costs of pollution to developing economies is immoral. The government should stop the dismantling of all asbestos-laden hulls. An investigation has to be ordered against those who have indulged in this criminal act of deteriorating environment.
Moreover, the government should ask the ship-breakers and yard owners to provide personal protective equipments to their workers. It must value the safety of workers and of the environment higher than the so-called economic benefits of allowing the ship-breaking industry to do someone else’s dirty and dangerous work. The government has to ensure that ships that come for demolition are free of contaminants and dangerous chemicals. Moreover, guidelines for ship-breaking should be immediately prepared and enforced.
This is significant to mention here that we, being stakeholders, have already given up hopes as regards the role of the Environment Protection Agency, Sindh, to counter-check such types of violations.
RASHID ASHRAF
Karachi
THIS is in reference to M. Nawaz Khan’s letter regarding the inscription on Allama Iqbal’s mausoleum. Although he makes a good point in saying that the message could be written in Urdu, I don’t think it is against Iqbal’s message to have an inscription for him in a language other than Urdu.
Iqbal studied English literature at Punjab University, and also studied at Trinity College, Cambridge, and in Germany, writing both poetry and philosophical works in the English language.
More importantly, some of Iqbal’s best poetry was written in Persian such as the poems ‘Asrar-i-Khudi’ and ‘Rumuz-i-Bekhudi’. Judging by his proven mastery of three difficult languages, Iqbal would probably have been concerned with the content of the inscription rather than the language it is written in.
RABIA SHAKOOR
Chapel Hill, USA
IT is unfortunate that this year March 23 passed without any recognition or significant mention of it having been the golden jubilee of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan — the modern world’s first Islamic republic. Neither editorials in leading newspapers nor statements from the head of state and head of government made any specific reference to this aspect.
The Post Office issued commemorative stamps to mark the day as the golden jubilee of the Supreme Court of Pakistan rather than the establishment of the Islamic Republic itself.
MAJID HUSAIN
Norwich, UK
THE Karachi nazim, Mr Mustafa Kamal, visited the site of three under-construction bypasses at 4.30am and suspended people who were absent from work (Dawn Karachi Metropolitan, March 13). When leaders take such pains, show ownership and take action, contractors become alert, officials don’t take leave, work gets completed on time.
We hope the nazim would also pay a visit to Korangi 8000 where the only thing you see are boulders, stones and flying sand, in some of the sections of the road it seems one is participating in the Paris/Dakaar rally. The late Mustafa Zaidi had said for such roads: Inheen patharoun pay chal kay aasako to aao Meray ghar kay rastay mayn koe kehkashan naheen hey.
S. NAYYAR IQBAL RAZA
Karachi
I WAS intrigued by education minister Ashraf Qazi’s clever use of language when he claimed that the government had not been taking jihad out of the syllabus.
Well, from what I have seen of the changes to my children’s books over the last six and a half years, the government has gradually omitted all references to fighting oppressors to liberate Muslims. Instead, the government has narrowed the definition of jihad to the struggle with one’s own desires for the sake of Islam.
I realise that Mr. Qazi is caught between a rock and the deep sea. On the one hand the ummah is very much alive with jihad, fighting bravely to expel the American forces in Afghanistan and Iraq and, on the other, America is pushing Pakistan to ensure that Muslims turn the other cheek rather than fight for their legitimate right in occupied lands such as Kashmir and Palestine.
The minister should not let people down on the matter that is dearest to them, that is Islam and Muslims. If Mr Qazi has his way, future generations will root for Raja Dahir and denounce Muhammad bin Qasim as a cross border terrorist.
Dr ABDUL WAJID
Lahore
I REFER to Wizarat Rizvi’s letter (March 27). It is true that Denbigh high school allows its girl students to wear shalwar-kameez and hijab. These were made part of the school uniform after consultation with Muslim parents and Muslim staff members. And this arrangement has been in place for many years. The school’s main objection to the jilbab was that it is unsafe for sporting activities.
The Arab dress is a product of the climate and culture of that region. It is worn by non-Muslims Arabs as well. The Arab dress is not compulsory for Muslims living in other regions, where the cultural and climatic conditions are different.
KHALID A.
London, UK
I WOULD like to call for a strike. The purpose of the strike is to call for an end to all strikes henceforth.
MOHAMMED YUNUS
Karachi
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