| April 5, 2006 | Wednesday | Rabi-ul-Awwal 6, 1427 |
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Foreign delegates & Kashmir
Expatriates’ role
Re-employmentRe-employment
Blind to road signs
‘Better investment prospects’
Jhelum Road traffic jams
Mayo Gardens
Conversion
Old pensioners
‘Mindless evictions’
Women passengers
Inzamamul Haq
Loudspeaker nuisance
MR Kuldip Nayar writes (April 1) about his visit, in the company of other Indians, to Shadman Chowk, Lahore, where they laid flowers at the spot where the British had hanged Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev 75 years ago. He complains about the absence of Pakistanis on the occasion marking the anniversary. The reason he gives is that we were afraid of the maulvis and that is why we did not attend a function honouring Bhagat Singh and his comrades. He describes the liberals of both India and Pakistan as cowardly. One finds it difficult to disagree with him as one knows the role of liberals on many issues only too well. The liberals in our society mostly belong to the chattering classes.
But the absence of Pakistanis from the Shadman Chowk event could be due to sheer apathy or lack of knowledge about history. Perhaps our liberals were busy elsewhere, as Mr Nayar also speculates.
The problem is that right from the start and more so from Ziaul Haq’s period, Pakistan’s political culture has moved in such a direction that we only study the Muslim League movement and in most cases our history starts from 1937. Even the role of Mr Jinnah in Indian politics has been reduced to the last 15 years of his life. In these circumstances, who would bother about Bhagat Singh?
Mr Jinnah was present in the Central Assembly when Bhagat Singh with his comrades threw a bomb inside the assembly. Mr Jinnah was against violence and revolutionary means to achieve independence but he fought for Bhagat Singh and his comrades and blamed the British Government for pushing these young men to adopt an unconstitutional path. He spoke in the assembly (September 1929) in favour of these revolutionaries:
“I think I am speaking on behalf of a large body of people when I say that, if there is sympathy and admiration for the accused, it is only to this extent that they are victims of the systems of the government”.
He further said that the Punjab government was keen to send them to the gallows and it was difficult to have a fair trial with that bent of mind.
While writing in Young India on April 18, 1929 about the bomb explosion, Mahatma Gandhi had said that Congressmen should not extend any approval of the deed. He had condemned the action of Bhagat Singh as madness. At the same time, Mr Nehru had called them lunatics and their action as the work of lunatics. Later, by way of repentance, he had applauded their courage and spirit of self-abnegation.
Bhagat Singh and his comrades had said in court that they were not lunatics, but believed in using all weapons to wrest freedom from alien yoke and those who called them lunatics were cowards.
I am sure many Pakistanis would love to attend such ceremonies if they are told that the founding father of the nation had taken such an interest in the case of Bhagat Singh. Some of us were keen for greater participation, and I had learnt during a recent visit to Kolkata that a Sikh journalist, whose name I do not now remember, was planning to bring a delegation to Lahore and Karachi on this occasion. I asked the veteran Congress MLA of West Bengal, Ggyan Sing Sohanpal, to join the delegation and be our guest in Pakistan. But nothing came of the plan.
SAYEED HASAN KHAN
Karachi
DURING a three-day international moot organised recently near Peshawar several foreign Muslim scholars were invited by the Jamaat-i-Islami whose bills for travel and board and lodging were paid from Zakat funds.
While the foreign delegates used the Peshawar forum, set up by the Jamaat, to plead the case of their individual countries, making a generalised reference to the plight of Muslims, the core issue faced by the host country, the Kashmir dispute, was ignored.
Hamas leader and former imam of Al-Quds Mosque Sheikh Mohammad Al-Sayyam talked about wiping out Jews from the area of Al-Quds. The chairman of the Sudanese National Conference, Sheikh Abdul Rahim Aali, said America wanted to divide Sudan and then occupy it and that Sudan, Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan were faced with a single enemy, the US, that wanted to crush Muslims.
Egypt’s member of parliament and leader of the Ikhwanul Muslimoon, Sheikh Almaqsood Askar, stressed the need for unity among the Islamic movements all over the globe.
Addressing the women’s wing of the congregation, Nasira Khanum, secretary-general, Jamaat-i-Islami, India, urged womenfolk to fight along with their men against anti-Muslim elements. Shockingly, she never mentioned a word in sympathy for Kashmiri women tortured by Indian troops for the past 56 years.
Either the Pakistani holders of the extravagant, multi-million rupees, three-day international congregation had not done their homework to impress upon the invitee foreign delegates the significance the Kashmir dispute hold for us Pakistanis and the Ummah or else the delegates did not have the courage to annoy the Indian government by mentioning Kashmir as a hell-on-earth for Muslims.
Even the chief host, Qazi Hussain Ahmad, confined his last day’s speech to unfurlling his plans that envisages playing the ‘last round’ in Islamabad to oust President Gen Pervez Musharraf from power.
The trend of the speeches had tilted internal politics and exuded the desire of the Jamaat leaders to occupy Islamabad rather than take steps to glorify Islam.
SYED G.B. SHAH BOKHARI
Karachi
IN her article “How expatriates can help,” Ms Zubeida Mustafa has made two assertions (March 29). First, that “cultural traits determine a person’s approach to philanthropy and the Muslims of South Asia have not been known for it”. Second, that donations in cash and kind made by Pakistani expatriates, amounting to one billion dollars a year are not impressive and amount to only one per cent of their earnings.
This is in contrast to the findings of the Aga Khan Development Network report of October 2000, which had noted that the Pakistanis are amongst the most giving of nations. Indian Muslims, who are economically worse off than us, and Bangladeshis, millions of whom have migrated to Pakistan for economic reasons, may be more restrained than us.
In her article “Philanthropy in Pakistan” (July 20, 2004), Ms Shahnaz Wazir Ali had noted: “Driven by religion, people are more inclined towards social giving than those in many western countries.” Also, that voluntarism in Pakistan, at 58 per cent of the total individual giving, is more than twice the global average and even exceeds that of the United States.
As far as overseas Pakistanis are concerned, their donation of one per cent of earnings to Pakistani philanthropic activities doesn’t mean there will be no other commitments. One Pakistani-American factory owner I knew used to donate generously for an Islamic centre and school and for the needy Pakistanis in the US, besides helping out over here. I also know of many middle-class Pakistanis who spend money on building mosques and schools and on helping the jobless and sick members of the expatriate community.
In his column “Being a religious person” of the same date, Mr Hafizur Rahman has finally found something good to say about fellow Pakistanis: more of them are now saying their prayers regularly. But he was quick to find many faults with them. It must be pointed out that it isn’t true or even likely that most of the prayerful people also indulge in the undesirable activities noted by him. The Caliph Ali had said: “Reject all malicious speaking, be there justification for it or be there none.”
One wonders why some of our writers and intellectuals instead of trying to improve the nation’s image unfairly run it down.
AHSANUL HAQ
Karachi
THERE is a story recited in Arabian Nights that a kind person found an old man sitting tired on the wayside. The kind person offered to carry the old man piggy back. However, the wily old man refused to get down from the back and tied the neck of his helper with his shoe laces so that he could ride forever on his back.
A somewhat similar situation seems to have developed at the University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Lahore, where the incumbent vice-chancellor, a septuagenarian retired some two decades ago, was appointed as the first VC of the new university by the founding fathers of the varsity in good faith.
However, after availing himself his three years of tenure with extension of another year he seems to be poised to seek a further term of four years, thus dooming the career prospects of senior university professors who would retire at the age of 60 years.
The four years record of the UVAS is not so inspiring that the present incumbent be granted yet another term. It would be in fitness of things if a new educational administrator is appointed as VC to move this institution out of the morass that it has landed into.
DR.M.YAQOOB BHATTI
Lahore
A PROTEST has held from March 25 to March 27 against the violation of traffic signals and road signs by just about everyone.
The venue was Karachis Khadda Market in Phase 5, DHA, and the protestors were students of the visual studies department at Karachi University.
The students posed as blind individuals with dark glasses and white sticks from five pm to nine pm, when traffic chaos is at its prime.
They held placards that read: “Can you not read the road signs?” which were directed at drivers who ignored the “No turn” sign in the area.
While there were some drivers who stopped and went the right way, most simply hastened away. The blind were trying to establish a metaphor for the ignoring of traffic rules and road signs.
Traffic chaos has reached catastrophic proportions which nearly affects everyone. The public service by the design students will hopefully go a long way in imparting a sense of civic duty and road manners.
SARAH MOQUIM
Karachi
ACCORDING to your editorial ‘Better investment prospects’ (March 27), the external debt was stabilized at $33 million in mid- 2003 but it rose to $38 million in 2005. This is despite the prime minister’s earlier assertion that the begging bowl has been broken and that the government will follow self-reliance policies.
But the bureaucracy, it appears, is addicted to foreign loans, which they grab under one pretext or the other. Borrowing funds for development projects which yield returns to pay off the debt may be acceptable but loans for non-development expenditure are not excusable. Look at the following few instances:
1. World Bank loan $55 million for officials’ training abroad. (Dawn, Aug 25, 2005).
2. WB to give $6 million for environment projects. (Dawn, Feb 26).
3. A driving training institute being established with assistance from World Bank. (Dawn, Feb 21).
4.$350 million ADB loan for “access to justice” in December 2001 (Ref.: a column in Dawn, Dec 29, 2005).
It is a known fact that officials trained locally or abroad cannot apply the knowledge and skill gained in such training since they function under the highly corrupt ruling class. Some of the officials are equally corrupt. They eventually return to their old style and the borrowed money is wasted.
Also the drivers trained at the WB-funded institution shall not be any better. Pakistani drivers are well accepted abroad because they perform better and follow all the traffic rules. However, if they break any, they are punished. But in Pakistan, they break all the traffic rules and go scot-free.
Similarly, “access to justice” is not any better today after receiving $350 million in loans. The aggrieved parties seldom get justice. The situation in the lower courts is alarming where graft is common. Then who are the beneficiaries of the $350- million loan?
Is there anybody at the top to stop further foreign loans and save the coming generations from the responsibility of paying off the loans.
ABDUL SAMAD KHAN
Karachi
Traffic jams on Jhelum Road, Rawalpindi Cantonment, at Kutchery Chowk, these days are much annoying. The situation has become worse by the closing of two U-turns near the Kutchery.
At times the traffic jam is as long as a kilometre. Delays in conveying patients to hospitals, inconvenience to commuters and wastage of costly fuel can be imagined.
Now that Jhelum Road is being widened, this is the right moment to create a properly designed traffic light-controlled crosing at the point where Jail Road and Fort Road meet Jhelum Road.
This will enable a smooth flow of traffic between Fort Road, Jhelum Road, Jail Road and Golf Road bypassing Katchery Chowk.
GHULAM MUHAMMAD
Rawalpindi
IT was reported in the media (March 21) that the Pakistan Railways plans to build 100 new houses in Mayo Gardens, Lahore, and the construction has also started.
There are 41 houses already in the Mayo Gardens, built in sprawling lawns shaded by towering age-old trees, which gave the colony its name.
It has been promised by the architect and the authorities concerned that the existing Victorian-style architecture will be preserved. One wonders how will it be possible to retain the Victorian look without causing damage to the environs?
Green spots are becoming rarer in Lahore, with its growing jungle of concrete highrises and commercial plazas at every other street corner, uprooting of trees to widen the roads to cater to the increasing number of cars, the pollution caused thereby and the burgeoning population.
Let it not be said by posterity that the Mayo Gardens was also once a green spot.
SURAIYA HAFEEZ
Lahore
REFERRING to the case of Afghan national, Abdul Rahman, I want to ask the following questions from the muftis of Islam.
First, when they insist on the death penalty for anybody converting from Islam to another religion, why do they send their missions all over the world to convert followers of other religions to Islam?
Second, when cricketer Yousuf converted to Islam, all Islamic circles welcomed it by saying that it is one’s right to adopt a religion if he is convinced of its authenticity. Why cannot the same argument be applied in the case of Abdul Rahman?
Finally, it is said that there is no compulsion in Islam but if someone is kept as a Muslim because of the threat of the death penalty, will this act not amount to compulsion?
SYED FAROOQ ALI
Karachi
OLD pensioners like me have been waiting for implementation of the Supreme Court decision for 25 years ago, granting both new and old government pensioners the “same rate of pension,” but the former president Ishaq Khan pleaded bad economical conditions to stop pensions on new rates.
Eventually, succeeding presidents followed suit. But now when the government says that the economy has improved and the per capita has risen income to $730 a year, it is appropriate that the government should implement the Supreme Court decision regarding uniform pension scale for both new and old pensioners to meet their escalating expenses and the rising cost of living.
SHARFUDIN AHMAD
Karachi
YOUR editorial ‘Mindless evictions’ (March 26) is a great consolation for the people living in shanty towns. It has rightly been asserted that the people so uprooted should be amply compensated so that they can rehabilitate themselves elsewhere.
Sir, the policy of evicting people without warning or compensation is what will hardly be appreciated, for whatever good cause it is done.
The case of Pakistan Central Cotton Committee (PCCC) and its PICRT is another example of uprooting them from their leased land for more than 50 years on M.T. Khan Road, Karachi, by the KPT.
The land vacated by the PCCC and its laboratories has been leased to the US consulate for its relocation in Karachi.
The PCCC’s majestic building, which had an enviable past and historic value, has now been demolished brick by brick for the US consulate in Karachi. It was neither a shanty building or coming in the way of any development work in the city.
What is most astonishing is why the ministry of food, agriculture and livestock and the ministry of ports and shipping so readily yielded to vacate 130,000 square yards without feeling any scruples.
M. SHAFIQUE AHMED
Karachi
THE government did a good job by partitioning buses, wagons, coaches and allotting seats for women passengers but it is generally observed that some men are allowed by conductors to occupy ladies’ seats.
Conductors are seen usually standing at the entrance/exit allotted for women commuters. Not only this, they allow hawkers, beggars, donation collectors and others to enter through the gate meant for women and stand in front of women which makes women passengers feel uncomfortable.
I will request the authorities concerned to take action against conductors/drivers who allow all these persons to stand in the portion meant for women.
AMBER BHATIA
Karachi
THERE has been widespread criticism of Inzamamul Haq in the Pakistani media following Pakistan’s defeat by India in the one day cricket series. As an Indian I am really astounded at this media frenzy. Inzy is not only a superb cricketer; he is probably amongst the top three batsman in international cricket today — and also a thorough gentleman.
His behaviour on the field has made him a role model for budding young cricketers. To talk of axing him from the team is heresy.
S. JAYASANKAR
Mauritius
A LAW or rule ought not to be made if it is meant not to be enforced. It not only loses public respect but also encourages defiance. Some years ago the government enforced obedience to the loudspeakers ordinance. The mullahs, however, continue to torment the public in the name of religion. For 1,400 years Islam has spread without the loudspeaker. The government should implement the law at the earliest.
SHAISTA IKRAM
Lahore
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