| June 06, 2006 | Tuesday | Jumadi-ul-Awwal 9, 1427 |
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DHA plots’ balloting
PCB affairs
Protesting Da Vinci Code
Murder near a school
UN report on slum clearance
Shortage of power
Buying power
Kashmir problem
Misuse of relief funds
Potable water
TWO letters appeared on May 28: one of them was written by a retired army officer pleading for a sensible increase in pensions. The government should honour the promises and commitments made to the old pensioners by the previous governments. The experience of pensioners in this country has been most disappointing and the attitude of some governments has sadly been not only indifferent but actually hostile.
In the late 1970s when the difference in the rates of old and new pensions of government employees of the same grade began to widen abnormally, the old pensioners appealed to the federal ombudsman against this injustice and requested for indexing of the pensions as is the case in most of the other countries in the world, including India. The federal ombudsman strongly supported our case and recommended its acceptance to the government. President Ziaul Haq ignored this advice. The old pensioners then took this up with the federal Shariat Court which upheld their case and gave a judgment in their favour. The government appealed against this judgment to the Supreme Court which upheld the government’s appeal on legal grounds.
In the meanwhile, two major developments took place. In his last budget speech as finance minister the late Dr Mahbubul Haq undertook to undo this injustice and announced the government’s decision to remove this disparity in three yearly installments. The first he implemented and the old pensions were increased by 33 per cent but the remaining two steps were never implemented. After Dr Haq left office, the ministry conveniently forgot this commitment. On Oct 1, 1999 prime minister Nawaz Sharif publicly announced on the Old Citizens Day function that the pensions of those over 70 years of age would immediately be increased to that of the new retirees of the same grade.
This injustice has since been brought to the personal notice of President Musharraf and also to that of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz. A letter was also written by me to a former prime minister, Mr Zafarullah Khan Jamali, which he kindly forwarded to the ministry of finance. The reply received from the ministry was factually incorrect. It appears that the ministry either has no record of these commitments or these have been deliberately ignored. In the meanwhile, during all this long period the old- timers are dying fast and most of those still alive are living in penury.
It will be interesting to know that our pensions are generally about 40 per cent of the new retirees. Today a newly retired captain in the army gets almost the same pension as an old major-general.
It is we old-timers who put this country firmly on its feet. We also contributed to the establishment of the mighty Fauji Foundation from the money received from the British government as our personal share of the War Fund. Is it fair to be treated so contemptuously in our old age?
R. ADMIRAL (retd) S. Z. HASNAIN
Karachi
IN his letter ‘DHA plots balloting’ (June 2) Mr Ghulam Muhammad has wondered whether plots in the Defence Housing Authorities (DHAs) were allotted by balloting or gambling.
All balloting by definition is gambling. Those who apply for plots and permits that are allotted on the basis of ballot should know it. But the allotment of plots in DHAs is gambling of the type “head I win, the tail you lose”.
Last month the DHA, Lahore, invited applications for allotments in Phase 7 ‘through ballot’. Fifteen different categories were declared Eligible, including both from the military and the civil. The categories in the defence included serving army and AFNS officers, recently retired military officers, next of kin of martyred army officers, and the next of kin of deceased army officers, to name only a few. The civilian categories included senior citizens, serving civilian officers of all grades in government and semi-government departments, elected representatives, journalists and overseas Pakistanis below 65 years of age. But the advertisement gave no details about the quota for each category.
Queries about quota made to the DHA, Islamabad, when it invited similar applications for plots last year were not entertained. Finally, a question was asked in the Senate on Sept 16, 2005. It transpired that 52 per cent of the plots were reserved for serving army officers and 10 per cent for retired army officers. Serving PAF and naval officers were allotted five per cent of the plots. Civilian employees of all grades, members of parliament and journalists had five per cent each while senior citizens above 65 years had a quota of three per cent.
Lured by attractive advertisements and foolishly believing that they had a level playing field, a large number of civilians applied for allotments even though a miniscule quota was reserved for them. If they had been informed about the number of plots actually available to them, they would have made an informed decision and not wasted the five thousand rupees non-refundable fee.
Why would a civilian employee of Grade 17 or 18 or a civilian senior citizen or an overseas Pakistani waste time, effort and Rs5,000 rupees on applying for a plot of land for which he stands no chance at all? Any private housing society involved in such a business practice would be chased by NAB.
FARHATULLAH BABAR
Islamabad
THIS has reference to the letter ‘PCB affairs’ (May 31). In his letter Mr Butt asserts that most cricket-playing nations have finalised their squads, along with strategies, for the World Cup. The event is nine months away and I don’t see any of the countries with a final playing eleven already drafted. All the nations, including Pakistan, have marked a pool of players.
As for linking the team’s performance with their average age, except Inzamam (34) and Yousaf (31) all the players are under the age of 30. Although age shouldn’t even matter as long as the players are performing, it is worth noting the average age of Australia’s cricket team and its success rate.
Mr Butt wants remedial measures for the ‘frivolous and pathetic’ results against India in the one-day series. I don’t think Pakistan needs any radical changes just because we lost one series. What about the successes against England and Sri Lanka and also the Test series win again India, which this very team produced? Just because the team lost a one-day series does not call for panic and wholesale changes in the team. That’s what used to happen in Pakistan cricket. Instead we need to give players the confidence which will help them.
And is the board really ‘hostage to pressure from key players, most of whom are over the hill and cannot last till the World Cup’? I don’t know of any player(s) in the squad who cannot make it to the World Cup, except maybe Inzamam. And just because Inzamam has had a few bad games does not mean he should be shown the door. We have all seen the results he has taken over as captain and also his personal contributions which have been nothing but amazing. We can’t expect a player to score all the time and the team to win every game. Pakistan team is on the right path and Inzamam should lead a unified and positive team to the World Cup.
DANYAL MALIK
Arizona, USA
THIS refers to Mr Irfan Butt’s letter ‘PCB affairs’ (June 1). While I agree with some of his concerns about PCB affairs, I also have some reservations. Mr Butt mentioned that the fault lies with the authorities who appointed Mr Shaharyar Khan as PCB chairman, who he alleges lacks specialised skills.
If by specialised skills he means that one of the past great cricketers should be appointed as chairman, I think his argument is unjustified.
Even the ICC chairman has no cricketing background. The head of the cricket board needs to have a diplomatic or political background to encounter the various issues related to cricket affairs. This doesn’t mean that Mr Shaharyar’s management has no flaws. The point here is that only the cricketing brain cannot run a cricket board, at least not the PCB. It needs some additional capabilities.
MALIK MURAD ALI
Karachi
THIS is regarding the letter entitled ‘Protesting Da Vinci Code’ (June 1). Sundus Anwar is justified in questioning the protests of Italians, since the western world in general criticised the Muslims for protesting against the cartoons of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (pbuh).
However, there is a vast difference between the two forms of protests. I live in Australia which is predominantly a Christian country, but people here are cool about the movie. Those who are interested will watch it and those who don’t care for the movie won’t watch it. The Italians protested publicly, and burnt a few books but so what? They did not harm those who went to see the movie, or threaten to kill the actors or directors.
On the other hand, many people got killed (ironically most of them Muslims) when the cartoons were published. Public property was also destroyed. I think that is where the difference lies. There is one segment of people which goes into a frenzy and kills or destroys and another which adopts more peaceful means of protest — or even better, completely ignores the issue.
LAXMI MURTHY
Sydney, Australia
A 24-year-old girl was murdered on a side lane of Peshawar Road in Rawalpindi during the wee hours. Her throat was slit open and she was lying in a pool of blood. An English-medium school and a petrol pump are located next to the scene of murder. The chowkidar of the school heard the screams of the poor girl but no one came to her rescue. Not only this, her body was left lying there till nine in the morning.
Onwards, parents and drivers kept coming to the school in a stream, stopping and looking at the the body but none had the courtesy or decency to even cover her body with her ‘dupatta’ lying a few feet away till the traffic sergeant at Chur Chowk saw the body and deposited it in a Suzuki van. We claim to be an Islamic society. Yet this incident is nothing less than barbaric.
KHALID RASHID
Rawalpindi
THIS is with reference to the news report ‘Karachi project cited in UN report: slum clearance’ (June 2)
Mr Miloon Kothari’s report on ‘forced evictions’ for the Lyari Expressway project and other shanty towns in the name of infra-structural development reeks of double standard or a lack of any standard whatsoever. To understand this, one should read Mr Kothari’s interview with Tony Jenkins, Philippe Bolopion of Radio France Internationale, and Ricardo Alday of Notimex (April 27, 2004 United Nations, Miloon Kothari, UN Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing). This interview is available in print and in video at http:// unjobs.org/video/1106918331.13.
It is ironic that Mr Kothari finds the Lyari Expressway project to be a human-rights issue, as he is known to have a history of going after politically-motivated targets in developing countries.
He targeted Zimbabwe when the West was fuming over the Mugabe government’s takeover of lands from the colonial whites. While Mr Kothari had no issue with the US military’s takeover of vast peasant lands for its military camps in Afghanistan, he did report the eviction of about a dozen Afghans from their lands, which were then used to provide housing for the newly installed Afghani ministers. Mr Kothari has reported on evictions in the Philippines, but not against the evictions of the Muslims in southern Philippines.
Mr Kothari has no issue with Israeli evictions of the Palestinians, or Thailand’s forced eviction of Muslims in its south. He seems to also conveniently ignore the laws in the West, which laws allow forced eviction by eminent domain. Perhaps he has not heard of “Susette Kelo et al. v. New London (in Connecticut, US), 2005 wherein the US Supreme Court ruled that “the government may take property if it uses or gives the public a legal right to use the property.” In this case, the land and properties built upon it were forcibly taken away by the city of New London to sell the land for construction of commercial buildings, which it considered to be of ‘public use’ simply because the new commercial construction would have created more than 1,000 new jobs for the city.
In the interview cited above, Mr Kothari states: “I think states are using infrastructure development, energy projects and beautification projects as a means to evict the poor from the cities and the poor from rural areas without payment or proper resettlement of the people so evicted”. He further points out: “When I was in Afghanistan in September 2003, there [sic] was in Kabul land-grabbing was taking place where poor people’s homes were destroyed, people were being evicted essentially to clear the land, to build housing for the ministers”. In a way, he appears to be setting up his definition of “unacceptable forced eviction”.
If that is the case, can we say that the Lyari Expressway project fits the criteria Mr Kothari or UN Human Rights Commission have set up? While Mr Kothari’s must-read interview highlights his inability to rationalise his own thoughts, the UNHRC should have no objection to the Lyari resettlement programme since, in this case, the need for land is for an expressway. This is as public-use as it gets. The residents are being resettled in government-funded housing certainly far superior to what the residents previously had.
It would be helpful perhaps if Dawn were to print links and references to relevant background information and articles while reporting such matters of significance.
SHAMS NAQVI
California, US
THE federal water and power minister says: “There is no shortage of power in the country and that breakdowns are something we will just have to be patient with.” After reading this statement, I recalled an equally brilliant power and water minister who was given a briefing at the Tarbela dam. When it was explained to him how water sets the turbines in motion which, in turn, generate electricity, he asked: “What do you do with the water afterwards, drain it in the sea?”
“No sir, we use it for irrigation purpose”, he was told. The minister did not like the idea and said: “When you have already taken out electricity from the water, how can this useless water boost your cultivation? That’s why you had very poor crop the previous year”.
LT-COL (r) SAFIR A SIDDIQUI
Karachi
A COLLEAGUE of mine lives in Bath Island, Karachi, and I was astonished to hear that in this area no loadshedding takes place.
When I inquired why Bath Island is free of this curse, I came to know that the corps commander of Karachi resides in this area.
In my humble opinion all residents of Karachi should move to this area in order to enjoy this basic necessity of life.
MIAN JUNNAID SAJJAD
Karachi
UNNECESSARY lighting should be banned. Neon-signs should be switched off at 10pm. Arrangements should be made with the respective companies in this regard. Streetlights should be switched off at sunrise. A team should be assigned the task to monitor this.
A public awareness programme should be launched to inform people about austerity drives for electricity consumption. The austerity drive should be started from the top, i.e., the governor, the chief minister, ministers, MNAs and even the KESC’s top brass.
There should be a time limit for functions held in the night. All marriage halls, lawns and clubs should have their lights switched off at 11pm. If all these measures are properly enforced the impact will be significant.
A CONCERNED CITIZEN
Karachi
AT the launch of the 5,000-rupee note the State Bank governor strongly disagreed with a reporter’s suggestion that the buying power of this note today is perhaps less than that of a 1,000-rupee note in 1987.
She was absolutely correct. Perhaps implication was that two 5,000-rupee notes would equate to buying power of a 1,000-rupee note 20 years ago.
S.A. MASUD
Karachi
IT is about time that a solution to the Kashmir issue was found. As a Pakistani I have had enough of this situation. Our schools, hospitals, roads and essential services are in ruins because of a lack of spending.
Instead, money is being diverted to the Kashmir issue for massive spending on defence since the perception is that one day India will take some sort of aggressive action. But now, enough is enough.
It’s time we fixed our own home rather than try and build someone else’s.
After all, if the Kashmiris want freedom, Pakistan must give independence to its own administered territory, make it an independent nation and then let them take up the issue of liberating Indian-administered Kashmir with the UN and other countries.
This is the only way for us to wash our hands off this issue and focus on the development of our country.
If Kashmir, Afghanistan and now Iran want to commit suicide, we can’t keep getting involved in their conflicts.
They must learn to sort their own mess. After all, Germany and Japan were able to overcome horrendous destruction that we cannot even imagine.
NASIR SIDDIQUE
Karachi
MULTI-billion rupees for the drought emergency relief assistance (DERA) project are meant to save the poorest of the poor from extinction. It is disgraceful to embezzle or misuse funds from this project.
According to press reports (May 23 and 24), luxury cars have been purchased for families of some top government functionaries out of the drought funds.
The subsequent announcement that the office of the auditor-general of Pakistan will carry out an audit of the DERA account is welcome. I hope the culprits are brought to book.
GHULAM MUHAMMAD
Rawalpindi
THERE are two contrasting reports in Dawn’s issue of May 26). The picture at top of the page shows construction work under way at Bagh-i-Qasim while the news item below the picture is about the mounting number of people affected by contaminated water.
Should work continue on the Bagh or should funds be diverted to provide clean drinking water? The planners ought to realise that all projects undertaken by provincial and district governments are for the benefit of the people. In the present case I would vote for the clean drinking water project.
KHAN A. SHAMSHAD
Karachi
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