| August 26, 2006 | Saturday | Sha'aban 1, 1427 |
To send a letter to the Editor
Click here
Rain catastrophe continues
Tribute to Wasim Raja
Concern over harassment
Betrayal has limits
Conditions of photo
Jurisdiction of NAB
Bismillah Khan
Muslim troops for Lebanon
Taiser Town applicants
‘.....that we are underlings’
Readers are requested to restrict their comments to a maximum of 400 words. We reserve the right to edit letters for reasons of clarity and space. Letters, including those by e-mail, should carry the complete postal address of the sender. The views expressed in these columns do not necessarily reflect the views of the newspaper.—Editor
A SAD and unprecedented controversy came to light on Aug 20 on the fourth day during the second and third sessions of the last cricket Test between Pakistan and England at Oval. As an avid and keen follower of the game, I watched it all live on TV. Like me, many millions of cricket fans must be deeply saddened by this event. To begin with, I feel that a molehill was made into a mountain by none other than umpire Darrel Hair. This particular umpire has a long history of extreme prejudices against any Asian team, particularly Pakistan. In the first place, the ICC should not have nominated him for the series as was requested by Pakistan.
While an umpire’s decision is final and binding on all players, at the Oval they did not handle the issue sensibly at all or in accordance with the rules. When umpire Darrel Hair thought that the ball had been tampered with, he should have informed Inzamam about it, giving him some concrete evidence, if need be supported by another umpire and/or technology. The umpire labelled the Pakistan team as a cheat which hurt everyone on and off the field.
His unilateral decision without consulting the captain about the issue and awarding five penalty runs was not in good spirit. His argument was that he believed that the ball had been tampered with. What a childish argument. If the ball has been tampered with, umpires are expected to report the matter, in the first instance, to the match referee who then proceeds further as per the rules. This is what we saw in the past similar incidents. Yes, the Pakistan team was right in protesting but probably wrong in the manner and style they adopted. They should have played on and launched their protest in normal course in accordance with the rules of the game.
Also, the umpire’s decision to award the match in favour of England was correct in accordance with the rules. But who brought the Pakistan team to this state where they were pushed to the wall. Certainly, poor handling by not only the field umpires but also by the match referee turned the situation so ugly.
On top of all this, Malcolm Speed has sprinkled salt on the wounds of the Pakistan team by stating that all the four umpires have his and the ICC’s total support. Totally an unfair attitude and I would say biased.
He goes on to say that Inzamam and the Pakistan team have brought disrepute to the game. This is a one-sided statement devoid of any evidence and inquiries to reveal the truth. Did not the four umpires bring disrepute to the game and honourable profession of umpiring? Yes, they very much did.
There are no axes to grind between England and Pakistan. The two teams are friendly and cordial and wanted to play in the fourth Test. They are keener to go ahead with the One-dayers (minus Darrel Hair and Billy Doctrove, if I were to be asked).
In this entire sad saga I and all Pakistanis feel deeply aggrieved and hurt. Hurt deepens when ICC boss Malcolm Speed also showed no sympathy and sided with the umpires without any further inquiry.
In this entire episode one aspect is very heartening. The commentators, all Englishmen except Rameez Raja, were absolute fair and unbiased. They gave the devil their due and passed fair comments as per the rules and fair analyses of events whether it went in favour of Pakistan or the umpires. Well done, Englishmen commentators.
REAR ADMIRAL (r) SYED A. BAQAR
Karachi
I WAS shocked by Hair’s decision as I don’t think I saw any Pakistani player behaving suspiciously with the ball. Further, with so many cameras around, I doubt if any player would do something so stupid in full view of the cameras. How the umpires made their decision is beyond my comprehension.
I wish Inzamam had reacted strongly at the very moment the ball was changed and his team penalised five vital runs. He should have registered a protest there and then in full view of the media and the fans.
I feel that some of these umpires and match referees do not like the teams from India and Pakistan. Inzamam and Sachin have been given out many times on extremely dubious decisions by people like Hair, Bucknor and Doctrove.
I support Pakistan’s decision to protest whole-heartedly. I just feel it should have been sooner rather than later.
SATYAN S. ISRANI
Mumbai, India
DUE to the aftermath of torrential rains Karachiites are in a state of helplessness. Right now we need more aid than compassion. The endless traffic jams, power failures, abysmal services of mobile phone networks and sewage problems test our endurance daily.
Karachi is in a position it was never before the current city government acquired authority. Whatever the reason behind this catastrophe, people have realised that Karachi by no means has undergone through appropriate planning process. The present city government came into power with so many promises, but the same old story was repeated when the rains tested the strength of Karachi’s infrastructure.
Recently-built roads were wrecked, water flooded apartments, houses, shops, and even the posh areas of Karachi were affected due to the terrible sewerage system. Much has been said and almost nothing has been done. If the authorities still do not take measures to deal with the situation, only the worst can be predicted.
ZAKIR AHMED
Karachi
I AM a resident of street number three in Bath Island. The area has been under at least three feet water for the past seven days. In the first spell it took the authorities about 12 days to drain out water from the streets leave alone the water in our basements. This time the situation seems worse. The authorities are not doing enough to drain out the water. We talked to the area nazim as well and he does not know how to handle such a large-scale disaster.
I have an eight-month-old daughter and was forced to leave my house as the water level in the area is so high that not even cars can reach the area. I am living at my relative’s place but it’s causing inconvenience for all of us. I don’t know where to go and whom to contact who would listen and work to drain out the water.
No effort is being made even though the authorities claim that they are trying to improve the situation. Will the relevant authorities please take notice of the inconvenience and problems residents are facing due to the situation?
SARAH ADNAN
Karachi
I WISH to express grief over former Pakistan cricketer Wasim Raja’s sudden death due to a heart attack while playing in a club match in England. Raja made his international debut in 1973 and went on to play at the international level for 12 years, appearing in 57 Tests and 54 ODIs, including matches in each of the first three world cup tournaments in 1975, 1979 and 1983.
His greatest achievement as a player came during Pakistan’s 1977 tour of the West Indies where, against the home side’s legendary pace attack, he scored 517 runs, including an unbeaten 117 in Barbados.
West Indies, the undisputed kings of the cricketing world at the time, had great respect for him. I offer my sincerest condolences to Wasim Raja’s family and friends.
QAZI ASIM NAEEM
Hyderbad
THIS refers to the news report ‘Wasim Raja will continue to rule the hearts’ by Khalid H. Khan (August 24). Mr Khan has covered the late Raja’s cricketing career quite well. But I understand that Wasim Raja was also one of the finest humans to have played cricket. I have read about his ethical behaviour in the Indian media and from Indian cricketers. It seems he played his cricket very fair and never abused.
I trust that more tribute to Raja covering non-cricketing aspects of his life will be forthcoming. I am hoping that his contemporaries like Sunil Gavaskar will contribute to our understanding of one of the finest all-rounders produced by the subcontinent.
ANIRUDDHA G. KULKARNI
Pune, India
“RAJA rules the West Indies”. This was one of the headlines in newspapers during Pakistan’s 1976/77 tour of West Indies in which Wasim Raja displayed his brilliant batting skills.Those who watched Majid Khan and Zaheer Abbas play at their peak were very lucky, but I feel that those who have seen Wasim Raja in action the luckiest.
Wasim Raja had the fluency of Majid and the flourish of Zaheer Abbas. He was a treat to watch. A very humble person, Raja will be missed by his fans around the world.
ALTAF AWAN
Islamabad
MY attention has recently been drawn to a letter by Manzoor Ali Isran (July 10) and another by distinguished scholar Dr Hasan Askari Rizvi (July 14) regarding Dr Mehtab Ali Shah, who is under some pressure by officials at Sindh University for expressing his opinion on academic and other matters.
I cannot have a fixed opinion one way or another about the substance of the issues themselves, but I do know that Dr Shah has a sterling reputation. I have known him for many years, and have used his work in my own writings about Pakistan and South Asia.
It now appears that Sindh University has fallen very far from the days when it was one of South Asia’s leading institutions. I visited the campus about 30 years ago, and found many scholars working to very high standards despite very difficult conditions.
These conditions seem to have worsened at Sindh, as well as at other Pakistani colleges and universities, which saddens me greatly. Pakistan’s redemption as a society and state must be rooted in the idea that open inquiry is not only tolerated, but encouraged. Dr Isran cites Robert Maynard Hutchins, who was head of the University of Chicago just before I attended that university, and there were many tales on campus of how president Hutchins defended the faculty, and the student body, from the McCarthyism of that era.
A country as complex and as diverse as Pakistan must encourage expressions of opinion, on all matters, and let them contest in the marketplace of ideas.
I believe that many of my American colleagues who know and respect the scholarship of such professors as Dr Shah would be very disappointed if he (like other world-class scholars in Pakistan) is further harassed. I will follow this case closely.
STEPHEN P. COHEN
Professor-emeritus,
University of Illinois, & Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution,
Washington, DC, USA
IN ‘Betrayal has limits’, Mr Akhtar Payami has been unnecessarily harsh and pessimistic and tried to send the nation on a guilt trip for some events in which most of us had no role to play (Magazine, Aug. 13).
One agrees with his major contention that the stranded Pakistanis of Bangladesh should be repatriated, especially because they had made big sacrifices in 1971. But, he has simply ignored the fact that some past governments had been working to bring them home and Mr Nawaz Sharif, during his premiership, had actually got apartments built in Punjab to accommodate thousands of returnees that are still lying vacant, the reason for which Mr Payami would know.
However, one cannot concur with many of his other observations. To begin with, he says: “Holy persons no longer make this land of the sinners their permanent or temporary abode.” It is very unfair and regrettable for him to stereotype the whole nation as being that of sinners - despondency is something we certainly don’t need more of. Ironically, just a few days later, on Aug 17, after a very heavy downpour had flooded the streets of Karachi, there were numerous episodes where pedestrians were seen voluntarily helping individuals and families stuck in the rainwater start their cars by pushing them.
A student of Karachi University returning in a coach told me of many instances where people were being helped in this way. Even the driver and his two colleagues got down when they saw a lady stranded in the middle of the road since her car had broken down. They pushed it to the side and advised her to take a public transport home since there could be no hope of fixing it in the prevailing conditions. Moreover, the driver did not even charge fare from some of the passengers in his vehicle.
Besides that, at the NIPA crossing, several students were assisting the cops manage the huge traffic jam. What can only be called an ‘angel’ probably saved my brother’s life by warning him to avoid a point he was walking towards on I.I. Chundrigar Road where a live wire had fallen. If Mr Payami’s car gets caught in a rainstorm, these very ‘sinners’ are likely to help him out. Let me assure the writer there are lots of good men and women all over. From experience one can say there are many saints also living everywhere in Pakistan. One has to believe in their existence and search sincerely for them.
Another questionable assessment is about the bad blood between India and Pakistan. The massacre of about a million Muslims fleeing to Pakistan just before and after the partition under a pre-planned conspiracy, as noted by Pakistani and British officials, was the main cause of sowing hatred between the two countries, which was added to by the spontaneous and totally unplanned reaction against a 100,000 or so Hindus and Sikhs after the news of the Holocaust in India reached here.
India’s attempts to strangulate the newly-born Pakistan by withholding its share of assets, usurpation of Kashmir in connivance with Mountbatten and the cutting off of our river waters later on added immensely to our pain and perpetuated the distrust. That India pursues same policies is obvious from its occupation of Siachen; the construction of many hydro-electric projects in Kashmir that will divert the waters, as also stealing from Farakka Barrage outflow to Bangladesh and the planned river- linking project against both of which the Bangladeshis have held many protests and long marches.
If things had been as bad in Bangladesh as the writer portrays, we would not have seen many of its citizens fly Pakistani flags or cheer our cricket team against India in matches played on their soil.
Indian columnist Kuldip Nayyar had expressed his unhappiness at the way Begum Khaleda Zia attaches much greater importance to Dhaka’s ties with Islamabad, illustrated further by her visit to Pakistan last year, noting that she travelled to India only after that was done.
M. ALLAUDDIN
Karachi
I am ashamed that in the so-called Islamic Republic of Pakistan when I went to have my NIC made at the Nadra office in Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Karachi, I was asked to take off my headscarf as my hairline and ears had to be visible for the photo.
When I tried to explain to the official that I didn’t want to do so, he just pointed to a board saying: “Ye likha hai parh lain, aisey he banay ga.” End of discussion. It was so embarrassing for me to take my scarf off in front of all the men so that my picture could be taken. Other ladies were also treated in the same way. The same condition goes for Pakistani passport photos.
If a non-Muslim state can allow photos with a headscarf on (reference Rukhsana Khalid’s letter, August 11) then why can’t an Islamic state? It seems that they have more respect for our religion than we do. Isn’t that ironic? I appeal to Nadra authorities to take serious notice of this situation.
YOUSRA ANWAR
Karachi
IT is good to know that “the National Accountability Bureau has settled the issue of cancellation of ARY flats in Dubai between the ARY Group and the allottees” (Dawn, July 27).
Will NAB like to enlighten us (the common Pakistanis) how its jurisdiction extended to a private business group in a foreign country, even if the group’s customers happened to be Pakistanis. We would also like to know if NAB will intervene in dispute between flat builders and their helpless customers in Pakistan. It is no secret that “deliberate acts of cheating” by local builders are rampant.
SHAMEEM AHMAD
Karachi
I ENJOYED reading Jawed Naqwi’s article on Bismillah Khan. It was informed and sincere tribute to a great musician. Musicians admired on both sides of the India-Pakistan border, many of them Muslims, such as Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Vilayat Khan, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Mallik Mansoor unite the people of our two countries in a way no politician ever can.
ARVIND NANGIA
Hong Kong
ALMOST a month of fighting has passed and Hezbollah has proved invincible to the savage Israeli army. The Israelis had planned a prolonged war so that they could destroy Hezbollah while Israeli politicians opposed the early ceasefire for the same reason. Israelis were also expecting that by destroying infrastructure and showering bombs on civilians they would turn the Lebanese against Hezbollah but their ploy has utterly failed.
Not only Lebanese but Muslims from all over the world extended their support to the Hezbollah. Sheikh Nassarallah has become the hero of the Ummah. Arab rulers, who initially held Hezbollah responsible for instigating the conflict, are now giving statements against the policies of their own mentors (UK and US).
The resistance has transformed the divided Ummah into one entity. Shias and Sunnis are praying for the Hezbollah, while Muslim businessmen are collecting funds for their war-torn Lebanese brethren. Ehud Olmert and George Bush have helped to unite Muslims and brought them together on one platform. So thanks to both of them for accomplishing a task that Muslims themselves were finding very difficult to achieve.
SARFARAZ AHMED KHAN
Karachi
THE applications for Taiser Town Scheme 45 were filed on April 6 and President Gen Musharraf did the balloting some time in July. But the unsuccessful candidates have still not been refunded by Allied Bank. Can the authority concerned please inform the thousands of unsuccessful applicants the reason for this delay.
HABIB G.H.
Karachi
MR Sultan Ahmed’s article ‘More facilities for legislators’ (Aug 10) regarding monetary benefits and privileges of amazing proportion sought by the legislators at the cost of miserable voters, whom they had vowed to ‘serve’, reminds me of Shakespeare’s saying, most suitable to the occasion: “The fault, dear Brutus, lies not in the stars but in ourselves that we are underlings.”
M. HAQUE SOLANGI
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.