| May 27, 2006 | Saturday | Rabi-us-Sani 28, 1427 |
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Slaughter of trees
Persistent calls for strike
Power meter readings
‘The CSP: dead as a dodo’
Trend of Islamic banking
Efficient judiciary
Cricket team composition
Double jeopardy
INVESTOR confidence in America got a boost following the conviction of two Enron executives, including the Ceo, for robbing pension funds and fraudulently handling investor accounts. They were accused of misusing “inside information” for personal benefits and bad accountancy practices. The Dow Jones registered a sharp growth after the conviction was the announced.
This does not mean that corporate America is now clean and transparent. But the message delivered is that even if the most elite group of executives is caught defrauding innocent investors and pensioners, they will not be spared but rather treated like common criminals.
In Pakistan we fail to hold such people accountable on the grounds that investor confidence will be eroded. The common man is told that his interests can be sacrificed, as long as the black economy flourishes. If this is not money laundering, than what else do we call it?
Based on “inside information”, senior bureaucrats, uniformed officers and politicians went on a spree to buy land in Gwadar before a public announcement was made about its launch. This robbed innocent locals of their legal birthright to benefit from the fruits of development in Balochistan, which is at the core of their disenchantment and unrest. The same has happened recently in large-scale acquisition of barren land in South Punjab by those who knew that this area would soon have access to water canals and highways.
Bad accounting practices and maintaining of double ledgers are routine in Pakistan. There has not been a single conviction in Pakistan of an individual guilty of fraud. Yet every day we witness deals that defy international law, religious law and even the Constitution of Pakistan.
T. MALLICK Lahore
I HAVE the misfortune of leaving behind a settled life in the UK and starting a business in Pakistan. I was told that the economy here is booming and things have been made simpler for new businesses. I recently got a contract from NOKIA to obtain power connections at Telenor sites. I took the contract thinking that it is a straightforward process as the government is giving top priority to the telecom sector. Well, it is not as simple as I thought. First, it took several days to submit the application for power connections. Then the next step was to get the demand note for the material used at site. That was issued exactly one month after the subsmission of the application. The amount demanded by the IESCO was deposited duly but 24 days since after I deposited the money, the stores still don’t seem to have any poles so that our power connection can be given to us.
I decided to make a complaint to the brigadier in charge of IESCO but no luck there either, my complaint was recorded and I was told that I will be contacted shortly to be given an appointment. A week later I haven’t heard back from his office. I hope that someone from IESCO will read this letter and take some action.
FARRUKH MUNIR
Islamabad
I’M writing to you regarding the incalculable felling of trees throughout the country, an issue which the government seems to have eschewed.
With the increasing population, there is a higher demand for cars, housing and timber. To solve the traffic situation, the roads have to be widened and thus trees are cut. During this process, however, instead of a limited amount of trees being cut, twice the amount is being eliminated. Many people seem to condone this.
In the Northern Areas where forests once survived and swept across the lands for miles around have disappeared, only because the people living there aren’t provided with gas and require wood to make fire. This drastic change to the environment has caused the animals living within the forests to move away. With the dying population of prey in the forest endangered cat species like the leopard and lynx are forced to feed on livestock and even man. The smaller animals such as birds and squirrels are losing their home — the tree. Landslides have increased, as there aren’t any trees to hold the soil together. Our rivers are silting at a much faster rate, increasing the risk of floods.
Moreover, pollution has increased and there is no more fresh air to breathe. Every day the refreshing greenery seems to grow less and less. The felling of trees has increased so much that even certain species of trees have been banished from the face of the earth.
The trees of Lahore have been planted since the time of the British and to cut them now is foolish. They stand with their long beards and bear the stories of those times. They add to the beauty of our beloved city and provide shelter and shade.
Cutting them is not solving anything. The traffic problem that haunts us today is only due to the disorganisation within the city. With the felling of trees we’re only destroying ourselves. Measures to protect the environment are compatible with the population and economic growth.
Do I have any suggestions? We need to hold more campaigns. If one tree is cut five more should be planted in its place, thus, there should be a ‘tree bank’ from which trees can be ‘drawn’ to plant.
The government needs to curb the cutting of trees and should really enforce the law against this. Other than that, I really favour the ‘adopt a tree’ system in India, giving the ones who really care the responsibility. The WWF and other organisations are doing a great job in protecting the environment, however they need more support.
People should be encouraged to donate to them. Perhaps even more NGOs should start up. Schools should send students twice or as many times in a semester as possible to go out and plant trees in a park or even in the ‘tree bank’. If only we join hands and form a cohesive unit, we will not only save the environment and save our great-grandchildren from suffering (the hardships we created) but most importantly, Mother Earth as well.
God willing, our problems will subside. Our beloved Lahore was always very beautiful and only we can keep it that way.
AZAL ZAHIR
Lahore
AGAIN the clerics have called for a strike on May 27. After the tragedy at Nishtar Park in Karachi, a complete strike was observed on April 12 throughout the country.
This was a voluntary strike without any call from any religious wizard. Was this strike not a token of sufficient protest on the part of the whole nation against the tragedy which grieved everybody? But it was not considered enough and a religious enthusiast issued a call for strike in the country for April 14.
Religious and political leaders may have their own axe to grind by calling such strikes while they ignore the plight of the poor daily wage-earners. Are thus these religious people less callous than their political counterparts?
The religious enthusiasts believe more than a common man in the ‘rizq-i-halal’. The question is: from which ‘halal’ source expenditure incurred on arranging large-scale street processions and large-scale meetings running into millions of rupees comes from?
The making of arrangements for strikes, street processions and public meetings needs a large number of workers. Are these workers of religious parties so affluent that they fully place themselves at the whims of religious men without caring about their bread-earning? Conversely, if these workers are paid by their leadership, from which ‘halal’ source such funds are generated?
Vis-a-vis the present crisis in Balochistan, the government has discovered that a few political elements are maintaining paid private armies and the government is endeavouring, as a first step, to block the source of their funding. Will it not be prudent for the government to initiate action against all religious parties with a view to finding out the source of their income and regulating the same unless it is too late and at some point of time they come up against the government with arms. It is not uncommon in our past history that a few sectarian zealots indulged in a lot of sectarian fights and they were receiving funds from abroad.
Incidentally, this ‘road blocking’ and ‘jalsa’ type of Islam entered our country and more particularly the big cities in the days of Gen Ziaul Haq. A quarter century back, this type of Islam was almost non-existent. Do these religious enthusiasts realise how much inconvenience the road blocks (due to processions) causes common people, particularly patients moving to hospitals? Does all this inconvenience to the general public adds any ‘sawab’ in their books with the God? Will these religious people ponder over these issues?
GHULAM MUHAMMAD
Karachi
THE frequent calls for strike by various political and religious groups in Karachi have already damaged the image of Karachi and affected its residents enormously. In my opinion the worst affected area is education. Those who have called for a strike on May 27 don’t seem to realise that students taking examinations on that day will be affected.
There are students in Pakistan whose parents work in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries. The children are required to return to Saudi Arabia to validate their visas. Rescheduling examinations due to strike may result in cancellation of their airline seats and expiration of re-entry visas.
MANZOOR A. SHAIKH
Dhahran, Saudi Arabia
LAST April I visited our ancestral house in Pirpiai village, Nowshera. There are two houses with two meters, one is in my uncle Shah Jehan Babar’s name who passed away in 1978, and the second one is in my late father’s name, that is, Mr Lal Badshah Babar, who died last year on March 7.
The first meter reading shows excess reading of almost 8,000 units and the second one in excess of almost 2,000 units. Both these houses have been vacant since 1970 except for a few days of the year.
My father had complained repeatedly to Pesco authorities but to no avail. This time our neighbour, whose brother works for Wapda in a town only 150 miles away, explained why we are being charged excessively.
It seems that the meter readers are specifically advised to target vacant houses like ours, a certain number of units are added every months to the bill regardless of its use. On the other hand, meters that belong to Wapda officials or their relatives like our neighbours are specifically charged considerably less units than they had used. This way those that use little or no electricity pay for the electricity used by Wapda employees and their relatives.
I expect that one day a Wapda official will turn up and say that our meters are faulty and need to be changed and with this all records of their theft will be washed away. It is unfortunate that Wapda employees have to resort to stealing from consumers to add to the perks of their jobs. It is well-known that Wapda’s financial position is quite desperate but I didn’t know that they can resort to daylight robbery from their own customers. Now I can understand how this company is dragging the whole country down.
DR IZHAR.U.BABAR
United Kingdom
MS Anjum Niaz (Magazine, May 14) has wished that “some passerby may some day decide to go deep-sea diving and bring ashore the sunken vessel that has buried within it the secrets of the rise and fall of the CSP”.
In my opinion, after the partition, there was no need for the government of Pakistan to continue CSP or similar class of services such as PSP, Foreign Service, Finance and Accounts, Railway Accounts, Military Accounts, Taxation, Customs and Excise Service, Postal Service, Military Land and Cantonment Service, Central Secretariat Service or the Central Information Service, as people appointed under these service cadres, instead of serving the masses who are the real strength of the country, became the elite class of Pakistan and thus failed to deliver the requisite results.
The simple question which comes to mind that how can a government servant who travels in an airconditioned car, lives and works in an airconditioned environment and keeps himself isolated from the masses solve the problems of the poor people, who are the real strength and are in majority in the country and have been living in miseries for the past 59 years?
Poor people do not even get facilities such as clean drinking water, basic health facilities, proper education, a simple house to live in, whereas one can quote a number of examples that have been published in the print media during the past few years about the elite class of the government servants, who have not only accumulated illegal wealth in terms of making several properties in the name of their spouses and children, but have also transferred the illegally earned money to foreign countries.
Our bureaucrats do not want that the government should establish a direct contact with the masses and, therefore, create hindrances, when possible. Due to typical attitude of the elite government servants the rules and regulations, policies and procedures could not be simplified for the benefit of the common man.
Before the war of 1971, bureaucrats of former West Pakistan made the life of Bengalis so difficult that an anti-Pakistan movement was launched in the former East Pakistan. The seeds of hatred were laid down by the CSP class of former West Pakistan and the fuel was added to the fire by politicians. Had the elite CSP class intervened and suggested to the government that Sheikh Mujibur Rahman should be given power to rule, and the Quaid’s Pakistan would have been saved.
But along with politicians, the bureaucrats of former West Pakistan did not also want that they should be ruled by the government of former East Pakistan and obey the orders of people who were sitting on the other side of the border. Eevn though, since independence, the people of East Pakistan had been governed from afar by bureaucrats sitting in the former West Pakistan. Thus the CSP, the elite government servants’ class is equally responsible for breaking the country.
For the past few years the system of city governments has been introduced in which people feel more comfortable in interacting with elected councillors, nazims and deputy nazims in their offices who listen to their complaints and also issue on the spot instructions to resolve the problems. Whereas bureaucrats are neither interested in meeting a common man in their offices, nor do they listen to a telephone call made by an ordinary citizen.
There is an urgent need to change the attitude of bureaucrats. This is only possible when the federal government will make it a must for the future civil servants to serve at least three years in the private sector, before appearing in the CSS examinations. For this to be possible the necessary relaxation in age limit should. be made.
SYED A. MATEEN
Karachi
THIS is in response to the letter by Hussain Siddiqui (May 26). While Mr Siddiqui rightly points out the blemishes in our system which fails to check the authenticity of institutions, the public also needs to be aware of unscrupulous elements who aim to defraud them through dubious marketing schemes.
With a history of setbacks like the Mehran Bank, the cooperatives scandal, and the Samad Dadabhoy story, the public should ensure that it invests in institutions with a strong, reputable sponsor group.
In case of Islamic banks, resident Sharia’ advisers (their credentials and actual input in financial undertakings of the bank) are an important facet to look into. The image and reputation of the sponsor group, and their actual ‘muaamlats’ are as important as the hype surrounding a particular institution.
In this case, Islamic banking is not to be blamed. Islamic banking will be the next paradigm shift in the financial industry and has proven its practicable success in Malaysia, the Middle East, Europe and North America. Pakistan will not be an exception to this growth.
Customers, however, need to be careful of dubious schemes, deceptive advertising claims, and amoral personnel who defraud in the name of religion. The final responsibility lies with the user, and not the authority. After all, it’s our money and we are the best judges of how and where to invest it.
ARSALAAN A. SIDDIQI
Karachi
WITH reference to the news item ‘Bridegroom jailed for hosting valima feast’ (Dawn, May 25), I must admit that I am amazed at the efficiency of our worthy judiciary.
On the one hand there is a huge backlog of pending cases related to serious violations of human rights like murder, rape, arson, dacoity, property disputes and police excesses which are usually adjourned and delayed for years thus delaying justice. But on the other hand, our honourable judges can find time to take prompt action, often suo motu, in dealing with such petty offences where, interestingly, no human rights are violated.
Will our worthy judges then care to take suo motu action against the serving of wedding meals at places like GHQ Artillery Officers’ mess, Army Welfare mess and Air Force Officers mess. I have personally seen wedding meals served at these elite clubs, but I am ready to bet anything that no action, suo motu or otherwise, will be taken against these violators.
IQTIDAR A. SHAH
Rawalpindi
THE Pakistan cricket team is leaving for the UK shortly. The names of the probables have been announced. Mushtaq Ahmed, however, has not been included in the squad. He may be slightly older than the rest of the players but his form, fitness and familiarity with the English conditions are beyond doubt.
For the last many years, he has been one of the leading wicket-takers in the county championship. His county Sussex used to be amongst the lower-ranking teams but ever since Mushtaq Ahmed joined it, his continuous good performance has enabled Sussex to reach top positions. He is a sure wicket-taker.
What then is the harm in including him in the team, especially when getting English team out twice at its home grounds would not be an easy task? No doubt Danish Kaneria is a good bowler but there is no short cut to experience.
Mushtaq Ahmed has enormous experience of English conditions. And, above all, he is a great source of inspiration for his team mates. When he was last included in team a few months back, he worked so hard with his fellow bowlers that he was later named assistant coach.
DR EHTASHAM ANWAR
Islamabad
THIS is with reference to the news story ‘Minister’s guards beat up major” (Dawn, May 23). Imagine if it was some common mortal like me and not a major who was beaten up. I am sure the FIR would have been against me.
OMAR ZUBAIR
Karachi
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