| May 26, 2006 | Friday | Rabi-us-Sani 27, 1427 |
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Balochistan issue
Privatisation policy
Special report
Trend of Islamic banking
Pigs: a health hazard
Illegal hoardings
Way out for bureaucrats
Sound and fury
IT was enlightening to read Ayaz Amir’s piece called “Nervousness at high places” (May 19). Surely, the ‘Charter of Democracy’ is an important milestone in the political history of Pakistan for it brings the two arch rivals in the political arena closer to each other for the cause of democracy. Therefore, an objective scrutiny of this charter is worth the effort to educate people.
The opponents of the charter are, in my view, showing a lot of prejudice due to their personal vendetta against the top leadership of the PML-N and the PPP. They have shown no intellectual rigour in their analysis of the charter. Their entire focus and diatribe is against the personalities of the leaders of the two parties rather than the document itself.
The lingo and rhetoric used to oppose the document betrays any objectivity. All this shows government anxiety, nervousness and, above all, anger. Now unfortunately the president has joined the fray.
The protagonists, in contrast, give the impression that the charter is going to be a quick fix and final recipe for complete restoration of democracy in the country. They are oblivious to the fact that this document, despite its popular rhetoric, will not achieve its purpose without a well-thought-out plan with timelines indicating specific actions to mobilise public opinion in favour of the charter. Regardless of the absence of an implementation plan at this time, the charter merits an objective scrutiny due to its national importance.
First, the charter is vital to our political system because it has brought closer the two arch rivals of the past. They had committed not to repeat the mistakes of the past by inviting army intervention in the political domain. It lays down the groundwork for fostering a culture of political tolerance for the opposition. It also promises to promote a mindset according to which popular political mandate will be considered a sacred trust of the people.
Also, the charter clearly spells out the damage that military dictators have done to our institutions and it promises to bring the army back under the civilian rule. This is a worldwide democratic norm and we don’t have to flout it. The charter talks about taking measures of disbanding NAB since it had become a political tool in the hands of the rulers. And, finally, it talks about righting the wrongs committed during the last seven years of military rule.
On balance, therefore, one can safely conclude that the charter in itself is a document that if implemented in letter and in spirit shall unfold a new era in our political history. Recognising the importance of the charter, one question begs answer. Where do we go from here if the charter is not an end in itself?
For the charter to achieve its purpose, attempts must be made to mobilise other political leaders to sign off on it. People like Imran Khan, Qazi Hussain Ahmad and leaders of other regional parties must be convinced about the import of this charter so that they also become signatories to it.
Let us hope and pray that this charter will free us from the military rule, free our judiciary from the provisional constitutional orders, and that our politics shall be cleansed from the ‘lota’ culture.
DR ZAFAR IQBAL QURESHI
Lahore
RECENTLY, five bomb explosions took place near the police training college in Quetta killing six policemen. An organisation called the ‘Balochistan Liberation Army’ claimed responsibility for the bombing.
Here the question arises as to whither the province of Balochistan is steering and what objectives are involved behind the restive circumstances? Both the government and tribal fighters are reluctant to negotiate.
Undoubtedly, establishing a state within a state, as well as keeping a private army, is utterly ominous. But creating a war-like situation and recourse to bombardment are no solution to the problem. The federal government must provide the Baloch people their legitimate rights and then endeavour to clear the territory of illegal weapons.
The irony is that our articulate president overtly threatens tribal chiefs to forgo their rights. Obviously, to make people feel they are vulnerable is a transgression of the Constitution.
On the other hand, the Indian secret agency, Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), is busy in imbroglios against Pakistan’s interests in Afghanistan. RAW agents instigate the impeccable Baloch youths to fight against the state of Pakistan.
Gwadar is going to be the world’s busiest port. America, therefore, wants to possess this strategically important territory of the world. But America’s desire will not be fulfilled until Balochistan gets separation.
The backwardness of Balochistan is quite clear. And this is due to the federal government’s discriminative policies. Natural resources of the province are being unfairly usurped for the sake of Punjab’s development. Despite this, Baloch ultra nationalists are clamouring that they are not being accepted as a federal unit. It denotes their patriotism but they do want parity in the country.
In this regard reforms should be enforced in the secret services so that the secret agencies can chop the covert hands whereever they araise, for instance Afghanistan etc.
Kidnapping suspected compatriots denotes inefficiency of our secret services.The government ought to start negotiations forthwith. Talking with the vulnerable is not an embarrassing act. Real causes of the insurgency must be sought and legitimate rights restored to the province. Sui gas pipelines should urgently be provided to all districts, villages and towns of Balochistan. Until all of Balochistan receives Sui gas, new projects for other provinces should be delayed.
Each district of the province should additionally be given one billion rupees in the forthcoming budget for a quick development process. If the federal government is not able to do this, Punjab should make a sacrifice. The Baloch youths should be recruited in the army and cantonment projects should be stopped until the situation gets better. In future, Baloch generals should inaugurate cantonments.
NISAR AHMED BALOCH
Panjgur
Is privatisation of our national assets a solution that our government run by business managers would have us believe?s Nations that preach free market economy do not allow foreigners the right to own all assets. While they welcome foreign investment in consumer-based industries, they use discretion when it comes to the sale of strategic assets.
Telecommunications, energy and steel are of strategic importance to any nation. The Mittal Steel Group of India, in spite of being the highest bidder for a major steel-producing French company, has been denied the right to buy it. Its initial bid of $26 billion was rejected. It has now raised it to $32 billion, which has not yet been favourably responded to. America similarly rejected the highest bid made by Dubai Ports to manage a few US ports, on grounds of national security.
A developing country like Pakistan must first concentrate on building a sound infrastructure before opening its market. This is a role the state has to perform.
Private business entrepreneurs are only interested in making money. On the other hand, the state invests in development of human resources, the fruits of which are harvested by future generations.
On the dictates of donor agencies, this regime is bent upon handing over education and health to the private sector. Even in the most developed of nations in Europe and America, the state continues to bear almost 70 per cent of major cost of health and education. It is the policies of our government which has created the largest deficit between imports and exports. Our trade deficit is today almost 77 per cent of our total forex reserves.
The policy of importing all consumer items is beneficial to the economies of nations from whom we import them. Whose interests do our economic planners serve? Certainly not ours. We have undersold all major state-owned industries to foreigners, though most of them were making profits. The ones like the KESC, which were not being run efficiently before, are today worse than they were before privatisation.
The state must continue to regulate private sector industries, while maintaining their management of key state-owned industries. Monopoly control must be strictly enforced, otherwise the recent price hike witnessed in the case of sugar will plague this country and threaten its national solidarity and interests. Sanity must prevail and we must not allow anyone to sell all our family silver.
ANEELA CHANDIO
Hyderabad
THIS is with regard to the special report on Sindh in your business section (April 23).
It certainly raises many important issues that continue to plague Pakistan in general and Sindh in particular. Sindh has indeed suffered considerably in the last many decades and continued to slide downhill compared to the rest of the country, particularly Punjab and the NWFP.
Clearly, the investment hub has shifted from Karachi to Punjab. Even many investors from Karachi are finding it easier and beneficial to set up new or even re-locate some industrial units from Karachi or Kotri to Punjab because of better law and order situation (i.e., better security and fewer disruptions in production), easy availability of water, larger domestic market for their products, and relatively larger and cheaper pool of skilled or semi-skilled labour.
All major investments in the recent past in the country’s telecommunications sector like cellular phone network infrastructure have been located in Lahore or Islamabad. A few recently privatised banks are gradually relocating their management and operations to Lahore. Generally, standards of education are getting high compared to those falling rapidly in Sindh.
The report has raised the relevant question: why is all this happening? You are right, the root-cause of this problem is inefficient governance structure and a fragmented and fractured society that has failed to develop a consensus. Lack of homogeneous society and diversity of people is not the real impediment — lack of consensus among the stakeholders is. ‘Consensus’ is the foundation-stone on which a system of good governance is built. Highly fragmented along volatile ethnic dividing lines, a city like Kuala Lumpur had similar problems of social and political strife till the early 1970s when under a new leadership of Mahathir Mohamed a ‘consensus’ was eventually built among warring ethnic groups of son-of-the-soil Malays and the immigrant Chinese and Indians to ‘increase’ the size of bread rather than fighting over it. The respective roles were clearly defined for a common objective. The results of this ‘consensus’ over the next 30 years are truly amazing. We, unfortunately, still lack that critical ‘consensus’.
AHMED KAMRAN
Karachi
THE recent demonstration in Peshawar by the depositors at an investment bank has brought to mind the financial scandal involving the registrar of the Supreme Court that made headlines in the national press some time ago, and a stark reminder that the affected bank-depositors have continued to suffer since then.
Islam has been exploited in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan in more ways than one by politicians, traders, military rulers and mullahs. The latest trend is the Islamic banking system that has resulted, over time, in the mushroom growth of investment banks offering ‘halal’ investment and other financial services. Thus, Islamic Investment Bank Ltd, a listed company on the Karachi stock exchange, chose Peshawar to be its headquarters aiming to rob a region known for its fondness for all things Islamic.
Within the short span of a few years, it emerged as the largest investment bank in Pakistan, with deposits exceeding two billion rupees as on Dec 31, 2002. The management meticulously plundered these deposits, apparently with the connivance of the powers-to-be. First, the huge loans drawn by its directors were written off, and then there were embezzlements on a large scale.
This resulted in weak financial position of the bank as its accumulating losses amounted to nearly one billion rupees, to the extent that even the bank auditors doubted about its ability to continue as a going concern.
None of the regulatory authorities such as the State Bank of Pakistan, Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) and the ministry of finance, however, were moved to take corrective measures, until early 2004, when the case of the Supreme Court registrar came to limelight and the bank collapsed.
Sadly, the regulatory authorities, though conducted initial investigations but without any results, no more assume the responsibility for financial irregularities committed by the bank. The State Bank somehow denies that it regulated the Islamic Investment Bank Ltd, whereas the SECP claims that the bank functioned without a licence.
Is it something to be believed? Ironically, the bank is still, as on today, listed among scheduled banks operating in Pakistan, on the government’s official website www.infopak.gov.pk and also that of the Board of Investment’s www.boi.gov.pk.
It is unfair to the thousands of pensioners, widows, and senior citizens who continue to be deprived of their hard-earned savings at the hands of the government, judiciary and accountability setup.
Two years on, no mechanism has yet been evolved either for the revival of the bank or to pay compensation to the depositors. It is time for the government to resolve the issue on an urgent basis, and to adopt regulatory measures to discourage defrauding public in the name of Islam.
HUSSAIN SIDDIQUI
Islamabad
THIS is in response to some letters about the above topic. Certain misconceptions have to be correct. First, cysticercosis is indeed a serious disease but does not spread by eating vegetables contaminated by pigs’ excreta. It is caused by eating vegetables contaminated by human excreta containing eggs of pig tapeworm, which lives in human intestine. Human beings develop pig tapeworm (tenia solium) by eating pig meat, which contains intermediate stage of this tapeworm, also known as cysticercus, and pig develops this intermediate stage by eating eggs of this tapeworm in human excreta.
In short, there are some people in Islamabad harbouring pig tapeworm in their gut. They developed this worm by eating pig meat, probably abroad, as pig meat is not eaten in Pakistan regularly (I hope).
Now they are excreting eggs of pig tapeworm in hundreds of thousands. Sewerage treatment/disposal system is not perfect anywhere in Pakistan. Thus people consuming vegetables contaminated by these eggs/human excreta are at high risk to develop cysticercosis.
Pig tapeworm lives for many years in human intestines. These people need de-worming/treatment to control this disease.
Further, pig population has to be controlled if not eradicated because these pigs must be carrying intermediate stage of tapeworm.
It is quite possible that someone unknowingly or a non-Muslim may eat these infected pig meat and develop this pig tapeworm in their gut, completing the life cycle and excreting eggs in their faeces causing cysticercosis, I wonder this already has happened!
DR SERAJUDDAULA SYED
Karachi
IT has been reported that the Sindh goverment is considering taking tough actions against illegal hoardings in major towns of the province, and it will be working on laws that will ensure beautification of the towns.
I think it’s about time authorities in all major cities of Pakistan came up with strict rules and regulations before authorising corporations to erect any billboard of their own choice.
The current state of billboard culture in Pakistan is only projecting glamour on the front side of the board while the back-end of the board always gives a look of an intricate iron design with interconnecting labyrinth of rusted steel.
Besides giving massive ugly looks of rusted irons and polluting the environment, it’s equally dangerous for any possible accidents during storms.
SYED ALI JAFRI
Lahore
THIS is with reference to a news item (May 5) about the thrashing of a senior government officer by a parliamentary secretary. First, my sympathy to the aggrieved officer. In fact, the bureaucracy which has been facing deterioration for the last several years is completely battered after this incident. This is proof of the fall of the bureaucracy.
Now the Federal Public Service Commission should put out an advertisement for the CSS with some such title as: “Join Civil Service of Pakistan and be thrashed by joint secretaries”.
This also shows a disarray among civil servants. In Pakistan no parliamentary secretary can dare thrash a clerk because the “All Pakistan Clerks Association” will go on an indefinite strike till the removal of the parliamentary secretary. This is an evidence of the famous proverb “unity is a strength”. In order to restore their dignity, bureaucrats are required to form an association like “All Pakistan Bureaucrats Association” and this forum should be used to deal with issues of thrashing of its members by educated MPs.
However, if bureaucrats find the aforesaid solution difficult to implement, the best solution will be to appoint serving army officers in the National Assembly secretariat. The joint secretary should be replaced by a brigadier, additional secretary by a major-general, etc. Officers of the armed forces will definitely restore the dignity of the bureaucracy. However, if both the above-mentioned proposals are non-implementable, I will suggest to the bureaucrats of the National Assembly secretariat to wear the dress of the riot-police for their own safety. This will definitely reduce the agony of thrashings by MPs.
Our Chief Justice of Pakistan is requested to take suo motu action on the incident.
M. IMRAN
Faisalabad
THERE are those who use the letters to the editor section to peddle their pet technologies — coal or thermonuclear. And they do that while bashing other technologies, often with uninformed opinions.
I personally am not in favour of either coal or thermonuclear energy but I am willing to give them the benefit of doubt. The point I would to make is that if the letter writers feel so strongly, then they should do something constructive.
They will personally profit from it and so will the country. They will say, “Ah! I don’t have the resources to do any such thing”.
Lead, follow or get out of the way. Blaming the government will not get anyone anywhere. It has never worked before, it is not working now and chances are it will not work in the future. Remember: “Ask not what your country can do for you: Ask what you can do for your country”.
MIR ALI
Chicago, Illinois, US
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