| July 15, 2006 | Saturday | Jumadi-ul-Sani 18, 1427 |
To send a letter to the Editor
Click here
Environmental fiscal reform
Devastating Mayo Gardens
Empowering traffic cops
Is PM listening?
Minister goes missing
Bureaucrats v business community
Traumatic end of Zidane
Road menace
Rename KESC
Neglect of education
Cheney’s statement
A CHRONOLOGY on the subject of the so-called bird flu prepared from various reports published in the press, including Dawn, since October 2005 has now convinced those who care that it was an ‘inspired’ disease played up by some officials of the ministry of food, agriculture and livestock (Minfal)and the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (Parc) in Islamabad.
During three months the ministry of health has been denying that H5N1 was present in the country and no human cases detected but the Minfal has been insisting on the prevalence of H5N1 virus while no epidemic has been recorded except a few endemic cases at Charsadda and Abbottabad and followed after one month from Tarlai near Islamabad.
Moreover, it took one month for the influenza laboratory in London to confirm H5N1 virus which should not have taken more than two to three days.
Furthermore, nothing has been heard about the samples sent to OIE in the US. Such an interesting episode has caused losses exceeding Rs20 billion to the poultry industry but the stage is now set for the second part of the game regarding importing and manufacturing of bird flu vaccine in the country.
At least three different vaccines have been imported and already used, all having H5N2 strain while the Minfal has allowed manufacture of vaccine in the country with H5N1 strain, which is believed to be communicable to man. Probably the ministry of health took no notice of it.
Locally, a bird flu vaccine is being prepared at Parc, Islamabad, Veterinary Research Institute, Lahore, and Sindh Vaccine Production Centre, Karachi, besides four to five other private laboratories but nothing is known about their technological competence and experiences in this discipline. The basic requirements of SPF eggs, special luminar flow safety cabinet and incinerators are non-existent in the country.
It is reported that Karachi medical hospitals are unable to dispose of the daily 2,000 tons of their wastes except dumping it on the filling sites near the city. The non-availability of such basic requirements for vaccine production will be extremely hazardous for public health as well as for the birds.
Bird flu was and is still not reported from Sindh but the chances of spread of live virus are now very much there because faulty disposal of a large quantity of eggs carrying live virus will be leaked out at one or another point. People have started minting money from the situation without considering the consequences. It seems that the Minfal is determined to continue spreading of virus in the country and justify earlier claim of its presence of H5N1 in the country.
Just replacing the animal husbandry commissioner by Minfal will not be the solution to the very serious problem. What is required is to have a full-time secretary of livestock instead of depending on some juniors. It is astonishing that both the representatives of WHO and FAO have also not taken cognizance of the production of vaccine from H5N1 in Pakistan where no human case is reported to date.
Manufacture of vaccine particularly from a variant of highly unstable virus is not a joke. It calls for experience, specialised expertise and precise competence along with sophisticated equipment, not only to prepare a biological product but also to sustain a thorough security to prevent escape of lethal antigen through disposable and non-disposable items that get contaminated while going through the complex production procedures.
Similar questions have been raised regarding production of human anti-rabies vaccines by the national health laboratories in Pakistan. So, how many labs can claim to possess such basic essentials as SPF eggs, luminar flow cabinets and incinerators?
It is significant that out of more than 27 million birds at the farms in Karachi, not a single case of bird flu has been reported in spite of the visit of thousands of migratory birds to the great lakes of Sindh.
DR A.A. Qureshi
Karachi
THIS refers to your editorial on the environmental fiscal reform (July 7). While there is no mention of the World Conservation Union (IUCN) which has launched this innovative project jointly with the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics and the government of Pakistan, you do refer to “an international NGO”. I assume you mean IUCN.
Actually, the World Conservation Union has 900 NGOs as its members, many of them in this category of international NGO. But that is not all. In addition, 82 states (including Pakistan) and 120 governmental agencies are members of this singular global union.
It gives IUCN a unique convening capacity that is probably unmatched by any other organisation in the world barring the United Nations. Being also the world’s largest environmental knowledge network with some 10,000 scientists and experts serving voluntarily under its various specialised commissions, to boot, it brings forth cutting-edge knowledge on all aspects of conservation science, policy and practice.
Because of these capacities and a record for building consensus among diverse stakeholder groups, IUCN has been able to carry out pioneering initiatives in the country in collaboration with the government as well as with civil society, including academia and the media. From helping formulate and implement the strategies of sustainable development — at the federal, provincial and district levels — to implementing large field projects (not to say of many smaller demonstration projects), it has been striving for mainstream environment in Pakistan’s development agenda. ‘Building coalitions for change to implement pro-poor environmental fiscal reforms in Pakistan’, which is the official title of the project you mentioned, is the latest in this series of initiatives.
HASAN RIZVI
IUCN (Pakistan Programme)
Karachi
LAHORE’s heritage is under attack, the likes of which have not been seen in the past 59 years. The last five years have seen horrific devastation being wreaked on Lahore. Lahore’s forte used to be its greenery but the current government of Punjab, which is certainly the worst since 1947, has destroyed thousands of Raj era trees in the name of development.
A section of Lahore Zoo was taken over to expand the chief minister’s secretariat. Now they want to completely destroy the 10,000 trees on both sides of the Canal Road. These trees give the residents of Lahore a sense of pride and happiness. Every outsider falls in love with Lahore because of these trees. One finds it hard to imagine how the city’s rulers can even imagine such a travesty.
A few years back a massive portion of Mayo Gardens, with 70 British-era homes intact, was bulldozed to make way for an elite club for the super-rich. To make up for the housing shortage as a result of this, the railway authorities have decided to launch a massive construction project in what is left of the Mayo Gardens.
Mayo Gardens are not just a housing estate but part of our heritage. They are one of the most beautiful and green spots in Pakistan but they too are going to be history once the plazas and five-star hotels are built on the vast swathes of the lush green gardens. A similar campaign is also under way in the GOR colony where gardens are being destroyed to set up houses for ministers and bureaucrats.
Finally, the worthy chief minister has earmarked funds to build a new Punjab assembly building since the MPAs feel very crowded in the one which still looks as new and majestic today as did when it was inaugurated during the Raj more than 70 years ago.
AMNA NASEER
Lahore
WITH reference to the letters by Adnan Abbasi, Sana Zubairi (July 5) and Shaikh Salman (July 9), what we need is a system where there is a minimal interaction between cops and people. This can be done if radars are installed for traffic violations, strictness in the issuance of driving licence, motor vehicle registration system to be modernised as per international standard, proper marking on the roads, etc. If these things are implemented, people will be forced to follow traffic laws.
The reason for this is in our society we tend to live by how powerful we are, what contacts we have. When a traffic cop knows he does not have to interact with people, whosoever it might be, then he can perform his duty without fear. Because in our current system half the time he will be afraid, or will be coerced, or will not be given importance when he signals some one to stop as the violator might be an influential person in society.
If we follow a system based on vehicle registration or licence-based, then the cop doesn’t have to interact with the people. Even the Malaysian prime minister did not know he violated until he checked the registration of his vehicle. In this way when people will go for renewal of their vehicle licence, they will have to pay hefty fines, and then only they will start following traffic laws and anyone who violates law by driving without vehicle registration or licence can be easily brought to judicial probe as little investigation will be required and proof can be acquired easily.
REHANUL HAQ
Sharjah, UAE
MR Prime Minister, the word ‘accountability’ was a preferred word in your vocabulary alongside ‘transparency’. Alas, you have misconstrued us, the public, on both accounts. A small example would be the recent power problems.
Karachi has always borne the brunt of the power supply irregularities (pick a leaf out of the power supply register of May-June 2006 and still continuing). Whilst Karachi is your biggest tax-paying, revenue-generating city, it has long been meted out this treatment of the ‘pariah’.
Is Karachi really so far from Islamabad that the minister of power in your cabinet cannot make a trip here and arrange a meeting with the common citizen of Karachi who may want to lodge a complaint with him in person, perhaps demand an explanation, or try to work out a better way for consistent supply or even ask for his resignation... which I am sure he will have the grace to tender.
You were recently quoted by the press as having faith that the system of democracy is still apparent in this country... kindly lead by example, sir.
A CITIZEN OF PAKISTAN
AFTER the historic decision on Pakistan Steel by the Supreme Court of Pakistan, the federal minister, Awais Ahmed Khan Leghari, seems to have disappeared.
He is totally out of news these days. For his information, there is no need to be afraid because he is part of the Musharraf government, and NAB only takes action against those who are not part of the Musharraf government.
GULZAR AHMAD
DG Khan
QUAID-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, while addressing gazetted officers on March 25, 1948 in Chittagong (formerly East Pakistan), explicitly said: “You are now the servants of Pakistan. Servants can only do their duties and discharge their responsibilities by serving. Those days have gone when the country was ruled by the bureaucracy. It is people’s government, responsible to the people more or less on democratic lines and parliamentary practices.”
Father of the nation was a man of vision and intellect who knew that if bureaucrats were allowed to run like wild camels without a rein, they would continue to dominate administration of the country, which will be prejudicial to the state.
The regrettable aspect of the situation is that despite lapse of more than half a century, we could not get rid of this practice of which the founder of Pakistan was highly critical. It’s a stark reality that since long bureaucrats continue to hold a firm grip on the pulse of administration of the country which amply demonstrates their proclivity not to let any legal lacunae stand in their way of whatever they want. It’s a well-known fact that “corruption is a tree whose roots grow from the top. Corruption in high places is the main reason for corruption at the lower levels.”
Despite lapse of more than five-and-a-half decades, Pakistan failed to maintain pace of prosperity due to weaning away from the ideological moorings and putting the norms of parliamentary practices on the back burner against the wishes of the Quaid.
It’s a peculiar phenomenon of our country that the critics are always under bad books of bureaucrats. They are subjected to political victimisation and unnecessary harassment. In acceding to their genuine requests the bureaucrats deprive them of their legitimate rights, making their business suffer without realising its adverse effect on the economy of the country. This mental attitude of the bureaucrats inflicted unhealable wounds on the economy of the country since inception.
The decline in industrial activities, the backbone of a country, is a result of inept treatment meted out to the industrialists by bureaucrats which halted the growth of industrial activities. For a handful of bureaucrats to satisfy their insatiable lust for wealth, millions of Pakistanis have been denied their means of living and more than 50 per cent people have been forced to live below the poverty line.
In order to emulate the Quaid’s vision, it is imperative for all to scrupulously follow his guidelines given while defining the commercial policy of Pakistan on April 27, 1948 when he said industrial activity is left open to private enterprise which would be given every help by the government for the establishment and development of industry.
The government will create conditions in which industry and trade may develop and prosper.
It is unfortunate that no government could provide infrastructure for growth of industry or created conducive atmosphere for the prospective investors to invest in the country as desired by the Quaid, rather the business community was discouraged through privatisation/nationalisation of running businesses. This practice must come to an end for ever and tangible steps in this regard need to be taken to attract locals as well as foreign investors to restore their confidence in government policies.
MUTTAQUI ALI
Karachi
IT is said that ‘All’s well that end’s well’. But this saying would be very painful to the world’s most prolific football player, Zinedine Zidane of France, who had to end his golden era in a traumatic fashion. He literally left the field in tears after an ill-tempered World Cup final where he was shown the red card in the 111th minute, after he head-butted Materazzi in the chest in an incident not seen by the referee.
Hitting the ball has always proved productive in this game, but hitting an opponent player is a totally different scenario. Zidane, who was the hero of the 1998 World Cup, lost his temper for which he had to pay a heavy price. And Italy’s winning the final was insult to his injury. It was certainly not the way Zidane would have wanted to end his glorious career.
The gifted son of Algerian immigrants, who recaptured his brilliant best during this tournament, will always be remembered as one of football’s all-time greats. I wish him the best luck for his future life. He is truly an unforgettable football player.
QAZI ASIM NAEEM
Hyderbad
I WOULD like to draw the attention of the authorities concerned to the road menace created by unruly drivers of tractors and trolleys -– which have no number-plates — in various localities of Rawalpindi.
It is young boys who drive such tractors and trolleys at the speed of 100km an hour in narrow streets, instead of at the prescribed speed of 10km an hour, causing injuries to people who run helter-skelter on the sight of these tractors.
The authorities concerned are requested to look into the matter. As preliminary steps, these vehicles must prominently display their number-plates, with names of tractor owners and their phone numbers. Besides this, a cash security deposit of Rs100,000 for a tractor should be enforced. This security deposit should be confiscated in case a tractor violates the rules and causes injuries to anyone.
RAJA GHAZANFAR ALI KHAN
Rawalpindi
I WOULD propose that considering the recent performance of the KESC, the corporation should be renamed the KELSC (Karachi Electric Load Shedding Corporation) instead.
KHURRAM SHAIKH
Karachi
THIS refers to your editorial ‘Neglect of education’ (6 July). It is rightly stated that the government has been neglecting its duty to provide education to the masses. But this has been going on for the last six decades. The present government too would not listen to what you said.
The government is composed of feudal lords and other rich people. The elite educate their children in best private schools in Pakistan or abroad but do little for education of the poor children. They rather discourage opening of schools in their areas As a result, there are no schools for about 40 per cent of poor children, while 8,000 ghost schools are flourishing with far more ghost teachers. This is daylight robbery of education funds.
The school buildings are often used as ‘autaq’, cattle-shed or storage facilities by feudal lords. No one is there to stop them. According to Ms Zubeida Mustafa’s article, (June 28), 82,200 schools do not have regular school buildings with toilets, 68,000 schools do not have drinking water’ 107,000 schools operate without electricity and 82,000 schools do not have boundary walls.
The education system needs reforms — no O or A level — one syllabus and a common examination system for all Pakistani students. But this could only happen when a real democratic government is in place.
ABDUL SAMAD KHAN
Karachi
RECENTLY we heard on a private TV channel a statement by US Vice President Dick Cheney who said: “The Muslim countries of the world and their Muslim population of 1.4 billion through ‘terrorism’ in the West, and supporters of their foreign policy (toward the West), specially towards the US, are planning to establish the Khilafat for the Muslim world”.
Apparently, he was voicing and supporting the statement of President George W. Bush in the wake of 9/11 in which the president had publicly said that that the fight against terrorism was, in fact, a crusade being waged by the US in collaboration with most of the countries of Europe, Australia, New Zealand and a few from Asia like Japan and South Korea.
Such a statement from the number two man in the US administration has surprised all countries, particularly the Muslims, and lowered him in the eyes of all.
S.M. ZAKERYA KAZMI
Karachi
You can also send letters to the Editor
Just send your message to the following address: letters@dawn.com
Make sure you include your full name, postal address, e-mail address, and in the case of Pakistan your day-time telephone number.