| June 25, 2006 | Sunday | Jumadi-ul-Awwal 28, 1427 |
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All the king’s men
Hepatitis patients in Sindh
A horrendous jirga
Karachi’s postal problems
‘The fundamentalist challenge’
Saving girls from penalty marriages
Travelling with poppy seeds
Flights to New York
Margala Towers victims
THIS letter is in reference to Mr Irfan Husain’s column ‘Paranoia and patriotism’ (June 18), where he raised the important issue of not allowing citizenship to foreign husbands of Pakistani women.
I would like to point out that these laws are, in general, a consequence of our patriarchal mindset. We don’t want to give our girls the right to make their own decisions.
We believe that they don’t know the world, they can’t understand it, and so it is much safer for them to depend on their fathers, brothers, and husbands.
When I went to get my protector certificate (required by the government of Pakistan for all Pakistanis working abroad) before leaving for Australia, I was told that besides providing different documents, I had to provide a stamped consent letter from my parents or husband.
This is additional requirement specifically for women. I inquired about the situation where they had objections and was told candidly that the government would not let the lady go.
I, a 32-year-old citizen of Pakistan, had to ask my mother to sign an affidavit ascertaining my right of self-determination. Now if my mother wanted to go abroad for work I wonder what she would do, as my father and grandparents died a few years ago.
Another instance was my niece’s wedding, when maulvi sahib refused to complete the nikah ceremony because the groom had granted the bride the right to divorce.
Our laws are still discriminatory against women and wherever we have some exceptions granted by religion, we don’t want to apply them. As a society we still have a long way to go.
ZAINAB RAZIA ZAIDI
Sydney, Australia
IN reference to Mr Irfan Husain’s column (June 18), can Nadra confirm that it does not allow a woman to be stated as the head of the family in the NIC forms?
If this is true, then is it based on a legislation or some other official document? Has Nadra just aligned its procedures as per the laws?
REZA YAHYA
Karachi
I AGREE with Mr Irfan Husain. He has clearly pointed out the injustice done to Pakistani women who marry foreign men.
As a matter of fact, the Citizenship Act 1951 does not give permission to a woman to get citizenship for her foreign husband. Moreover, the interior ministry has also declined to give such permission.
The reality is that a Pakistani woman hardly ever marries a foreigner. But, in rare cases, marriage is mostly performed with the consent of parents. And parents know well about the demeanour of the man chosen for their daughter.
Therefore, instead of looking into the 55-year-old Citizenship Act, the interior ministry is requested to look into the matter in keeping with modern trends in the world.
The government may set other conditions for a foreign man getting married in Pakistan. These include a personal record from the foreign ministry of his home country and an investigation by Interpol.
SHEERAZ HUSSAIN WAGGAN
Larkana
ANY intelligent media man will admit that the best way to destroy a man is by over-exposing him. Ayub Khan, who started life as a decent human being, as president of this country was largely distorted and then destroyed by the machinations of his ministry of information which first published a book under the title Friends not Masters informing the country that it was penned by Ayub himself, and then finished him off with the ‘Decade of Development’publicity stunt.
President Musharraf’s information ministry released on June 22 a six-page ‘advertisement supplement’ devoted to him and his ‘seventh year of government.’
You, the editor of this responsible newspaper, have done your job. A box on the supplement’s front page informs us that the “texts of all speeches of President General Pervez Musharraf have been provided for this advertisement supplement by the Ministry of Information. The views expressed are those of the government.”
Five of his speeches and eight photographs have been printed at the cost to the people of a mean million and a half.
In this country the practice of throwing acid in the faces of women by men who they displease continues. The law as enforced by the government is no deterrent.
In August 2003, acid was thrown in the face of Tahira Bashir at a bus stop in Korangi. She was horribly injured, beyond recognition. She is being treated at Liaquat National Hospital where Dr Shahab Ghani is performing reconstruction surgery on her face and scalp.
The first tranche of Rs200,000 has already been provided and the second tranche of Rs80,000 is now being given. More money is required to provide quality of life to just this one woman amongst thousands who have been disfigured by acid. Any generous person wishing to donate may send money to the hospital. For further details and a copy of a disc upon which are photographs of the unfortunate disfigured Tahira kindly email : nighatmir@yahoo.com
ARDESHIR COWASJEE
Karachi
WHILE addressing a conference on hepatitis on June 20, the Health Minster of Sindh said that there were at least 5348 hepatitis patients in the province and that this number was multiplying at an alarming pace. I disagree with the figure given by the minister as in the interior of Sindh alone there are many villages where the whole population has been affected by this deadly virus. Thus providing a ridiculously low figure that is unsupported by any statistical data does not in any way serve the cause. Rather, it brings complacence at the higher level.
Therefore it is suggested that, first of all, a proper survey should be conducted through an NGO to find out the exact number of unfortunate people who have been infected by this lethal ailment. For combating such ghastly diseases not only are curative methods required, but measures must be adopted immediately to prevent its further spread. The chief cause of the rapid spread of various forms of hepatitis, besides application of unsterilised used syringes in public hospitals, is the use of unpurified drinking water.
It is important to educate the masses to desist from using contaminated water, and to provide clean drinking water by installing water purification plants in every town and village immediately. In the public, as well as in private, hospitals vigilant teams coordinating with the local bodies should be formed to check unethical practices and use of substandard and spurious medicines as well as contaminated syringes. The Rs2.75 billion initially allocated by the prime minster for fighting this insidious disease, though not sufficient, must be put to the best use to help the affected.
ALTAF HUSSAIN QURESHI
Hyderabad
I HAVE begun to believe that jirgas signify horror and crudity. From it emanates crimes against humanity to which we are witnesses and we do nothing about it. Not opposing oppression is sharing the crime.
With equal horror to that of Dr Rafay Shirazi (letter, May 29) whose anguished cry, “How could a bunch of uneducated or semi-educated so-called elders be allowed to congregate and issue a verdict of death upon anyone in this day and age?” needs an answer. This is my question too.
In our society murders and rape are committed at the behest of influential on one pretext or the other — honour killing, karo-kari, siah kari, etc., for which there is no moral, social or legal justification. The jirga elders are as criminal as the actual murderers.
Dr Shirazi has suggested that the government should come down hard on such jirgas. He should know that these panchayats have the protection of the rich and influential people who rule the country. In fact, they are, as Mr Ardeshir Cowasjee calls them, the robber barons who have occupied seats in the assemblies and the Senate. For their own heinous purposes they will keep supporting this madness.
It is time to break their hold on society by banning the jagirdari or sardari system. That is the only cure for half the ills of the country. The other half will gradually go away when education spreads to all corners of the country.
S.M. KAZIM NAQVI
Karachi
MOST post offices in Karachi are depriving the public of basic postal services. Their system is deteriorating because of manpower shortage and mismanagement.
According to current standing instructions of the PMG (Sindh), cash dealings at various post offices will be closed at 7pm after which each post office concerned is restricted to dealing with a consolidated business of cash up to Rs1,000 only.
These restrictions are in force in post offices at important locations, such as Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Federal B Area, Civic Centre, Gulistan-i-Jauhar, Malir, Shah Faisal Colony, PAF Faisal Base and Nursery. As a result, several POs previously open for public dealing till 10pm are now forced to close three hours earlier because of ceiling on cash dealing up to Rs1,000 after 7pm.
It is believed these restrictions have been imposed due to lack of security arrangements at post offices and unwillingness of the postal management to spend money on security precautions to curtail expenditure.
Thus such improper arrangements are depriving the public of basic postal facilities, as well as causing revenue losses to the government.
The authorities concerned are requested to take cognizance of the matter and restore evening postal facilities, specially payment of utility bills, at all post offices in Karachi in the larger public interest.
DR CHOUDHRY REHAN ARIF RAZA
Karachi
MR Tahir Mirza’s article confuses fanaticism with fundamentalism — that should more properly be labelled Islamism — and exaggerates some minor issues (June 11).
He says: “The so-called war on terror has confused the real fundamentalist challenge.” First, as also acknowledged by unbiased western sources, “the western media often give the impression that the embattled and occasionally violent form of religiosity known as ‘fundamentalism’ is a purely Islamic phenomenon. This is not the case. Fundamentalism is a global fact and has surfaced in every major faith in response to the problems of modernity.” The examples cited include Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and even Confucianism. Its first appearance was in the US Christians around 1919.
Second, fundamentalism is actually a reaction to coercive secularism. Where the secularist attack is more violent, the fundamentalist reaction is that much greater. It is a tussle in society between the admirers and detractors of secular culture. The ‘war on terror’, which is partly an attempt by the West to impose its own culture and values, has created the challenge by pushing the Muslims to seek refuge in their religion.
In an essay in the book, After Terror: Promoting Dialogue Among Civilizations, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks has observed that the Bush administration’s response to the challenge of terrorism is incorrigibly informed by intolerance for other viewpoints. Its alarmist approach has inculcated a psychosis of fear in the Americans.
Our writer also talks of prevalent ‘hypocrisy’ and ‘show’ nowadays in our practice of Islam. An American Muslim, Samuel Lewis, who had visited Pakistan around 1960 during the early Ayub era, had felt that there was more politics and less of sincerity in religion over here. One is unable to say to what extent he was right or if it was only directed at the rulers but it does show this is not a new occurrence. Also, it isn’t restricted to Muslims. The resurgence of Islam is definitely there and it is uncharitable and painful that all or most Muslims have been called ‘munafiqs’ (hypocrites) by him. People are trying to get better but must be forgiven for not being perfect — because nobody is.
Notably, the majority of Sunni fundamentalists has not resorted to the Taliban type of extremism. The Islamist movements first began in the 1970s and 1980s and tried to change the world in less drastic but telling ways. Thus, after the 1967 Arab- Israeli war, there was a swing towards Islam throughout the Middle East. This explains Mr Mirza’s observation that the Palestinian women wear the veil but without signs of fanaticism. There are several other examples, as in Turkey, the Balkans and the Caucasus. However, the South Asian Muslims have traditionally been more religious and ardent supporters of Pan-Islamism.
In one of her books Karen Armstrong has spoken of surveys that show a large proportion of veiled women in the present era hold progressive views on such matters as gender. She says these females are joining the modern world but on their own terms and in an Islamic context that gives it sacred meaning (which can be verified even in the campuses of Karachi and among the younger activists of women’s wings of major religious parties. Mr Mirza is, therefore, wrong in contending that they are doing it post- 9/11 merely to assert their cultural, religious and political identity vis-a-vis the West and not as a sign of their religiosity.
Also, there is nothing wrong in saying that the Islamic world looks towards Pakistan for inspiration and protection. After our nuclear tests of 1998 in response to those of India, a woman Arab journalist (probably Egyptian), covering the event had praised our accomplishment with tears of joy in her eyes and said it was a matter of pride for the whole Ummah. Several Palestinians had expressed their shock after Pakistan’s diplomatic overtures to Israel last September and said it had shattered their image of Pakistan being their benefactor and source of strength.
A. ABDULLAH
Karachi
I COMMEND the action taken by the Sindh chief minister in saving five hapless girls from penalty marriages in the Kamal Magsi village near Thul by annulling the illegal verdict of a jirga.
I appeal to PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto to demand an explanation from Mir Hazar Khan Bijrani as to why he took part in such an unlawful jirga.
The signatories to the ‘Charter of Democracy’, namely Ms Bhutto and Mian Nawaz Sharif, should give a pledge to the nation that if they win the next election, they will outlaw such reprehensible customs as karo-kari, vani and tribal jirgas.
All human rights organisations in Pakistan should launch a nationwide campaign for eradication of such outmoded and oppressive customs. . Kudos to Dawn for reporting these unlawful episodes in its news columns.
QUTUBUDDIN AZIZ
Karachi
THIS week a Pakistani man was sentenced to four years in prison for carrying poppy seeds to the UAE.
The family man with three children had about a kilo of the substance with him when he arrived at Dubai airport from Pakistan.
The four years is a lenient sentence, thanks to the fact that he was able to prove the banned substance’s cooking purpose.
Poppy seeds are a commonly-used cooking ingredient in the subcontinent but the UAE’s tough anti-narcotic laws strictly prohibit the import, use or retail of poppy.
Ignorance of this law cost this man and many other innocent people like him very dearly.
With the advent of the summer vacation season, hordes of overseas Pakistanis will be visiting their country.
On their way back, almost all carry back some specialty food item. This is to request the Pakistani government’s concerned departments, GCC countries’ embassies in Pakistan, all media channels as well as airline and airport officials to please educate travellers about the prohibition.
Putting up clear warning signs at check-in counters and departure lounges of all international airports regarding the danger of carrying poppy to Middle Eastern countries would help in preventing innocent people from getting in big trouble on foreign shores.
HUMA IMAM
Dubai, UAE
THIS is in response to the general manager of PIA’s letter ‘PIA flights to New York’ (June 20) He writes: “Due to restrictions imposed by US security, passengers from Karachi could not benefit from the convenience of a non-stop flight.”
If PIA cannot make non-stop flights to the US, then why did they buy the US-made Boeing 777 in the first place? Looks like someone didn’t do their homework before placing a multi-billion- dollar order to the US.
SYED NOOMAN NAQVI
Illinois, USA
BOEING 777 LRs were bought with the intention of making direct flights between the US and Pakistan. With much fanfare these flights were announced, but the plan soon fizzled out.
Due to US security concerns the long range capability of 777 LR was reduced to that of 777 aircraft that are already in service.
Why was the security issue ignored? And why was the US government not consulted on the matter of security clearance for US-bound direct flights?
Direct flights between US/Canada and Pakistan would reduce the cost incurred by travellers stopping over at Manchester and also save them the hassle of getting a UK visa.
Why is PIA so willing to fill British coffers rather than running a direct flight between the US and Pakistan?
MOHAMMAD ASIM
Woodridge, USA
IT is a fact that Pakistanis are still recovering from the catastrophic earthquake that hit the northern parts of Pakistan on October 8, 2005. We all share the victims’ grief. We have also seen and read a lot about the plight of the Margala Towers victims in Islamabad as media coverage was given to them when they staged demos at assemblies and, in return, were supported by various politicians. To this day they claim 80-100 thousand rupees per month from the CDA for their loss.
There is a group of Margala Towers victims that have so far been ignored. These are the senior citizens and widows who bought these apartments with their savings they had’ and then rented them out. Their livelihood depended on this rent money. In reality, it is these people who need to be helped. No court, lawmaker or even the CDA has talked about them. They are too old to come out on the streets, and too weak to shout slogans. The question remains who will take up their cause, and will prompt the court to take suo moto action?
ABULHASNAIN
Islamabad
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