| October 01, 2006 | Sunday | Ramazan 7, 1427 |
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Another army man as VC
Faulty phones
Absolute rock bottom
KESC’s customer focus
No more Anarkalis
Peculiar admission policy
Who are we fooling?
Israel — a menace to world peace
A dictator’s confession
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
AMNA Naseer Khan’s observations from Lahore (letter, Sept 12) are no doubt true but some truths are better left unsaid.
Rabid provincialism and ethnic hatred from our feudal and tribal regions are the order of the day. Newspapers are rife with portents of the 1971, East Pakistan debacle repeating itself any day. It would be a sad day for Pakistan if Punjab also joins this bandwagon.
The only institution in Pakistan, rightly or wrongly, liked or disliked, which is still in tact is the Pakistan Army. They do have discipline and at least follow a code without ethnic bias which, in fact, has been the bane of our problems. Let’s not divide this institution by labelling the generals and foot soldiers with their different ethnic backgrounds.
East Pakistan fell not only because of the generals, or injustices, or disparity with West Pakistan. Of course, there were injustices, disparities and shameful use of force by the army. This was disgraceful. Yet this was not the main reason for the break-up of Pakistan in 1971.
East Pakistan was lost because 10 divisions of the Indian army, supported by the full might of the Indian air force and navy, in connivance with the Big Powers, attacked a beleaguered contingent of the Pakistan Army in East Pakistan. One might recall Indira Gandhi’s famous words at the time: “This is our chance of the century”.
Remove the Indian army from the scene and East and West Pakistan would still be united today, despite the disparities and the bunglings of Yahya Khan and his political carpet-baggers. These injustices would have been addressed and corrected slowly but surely. The uproar and resilient protest in East Pakistan would have ensured this. The country need not have broken up. Worse dissensions exist in other countries.
Both Ayub and Yahya had been nursing treason in the country for years. The Agartala conspiracy case was an ominous reality which had been amply proved. But Ayub Khan in his magnanimity or his peculiar compulsions chose to pardon Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and we had the Mukti Bahini at our hands. Deep Indian intrigues and scheming with the Awami League brought us to the final insurgency and break-up.
Baloch equivalents to Sheikh Mujib have openly declared their desire for Indian arms. With six consulates snuggled on our western borders, the Indians, I am sure, will bend or are bending over backwards to oblige.
Rabble-rousing by our liberals, human rights ‘actors’ and other vested interests notwithstanding, treason must be nipped in the bud if we are to survive. All this breast-beating by the opposition for Nawab Bugti and the rights of the oppressed nations is just fishing in troubled waters and is a ploy for personal power. They have no love lost for Balochistan.
Harping on democracy is just a ruse to oppress and plunder. An elected feudal is no different to an unelected one. Whatever the demands or constraints of present-day politics may be, the country has to be kept together even if this has to be done by the generals, Punjabi or otherwise.
CAPT. S. AFAQ RIZVI
Karachi
I FULLY endorse the editorial ‘Another army man as VC’ (Sept 29) and would like to put forward some personal experience to elaborate on the capabilities of an army officer in dealing with professional matters like education, engineering, medical sciences and else.
At my first job after graduating I was employed in a Wapda distribution company and a serving brigadier was heading the entity. As a young engineer in charge of one of subdivisions I had many interactions with my boss.
Once while a group of engineers were travelling with him in his land cruiser, he suddenly asked the driver to stop and asked us why the poles and conductors were in such shabby condition. We were quite surprised by his question and kept silent as due to many conductor tapings this was normal and had nothing to do with the disruption of electricity.
He ordered one of SDOs to accompany the crew and clear the conductors. This was when Lt-Gen Zulifiqar Ali was heading the largest public sector company in the country (Wapda). During his tenure no major project was completed, and unable to improve the system capability we witnessed a major breakdown in the system.
Next I worked in a team which had a retired lieutenant-general. His style when visiting an industrial plant was the same as that of an army commander visiting forward checkposts. The general depended on his aides for information and if they had told him that a compressor was a turbine he would have agreed with them.
No doubt military personnel live a disciplined life but this is no guarantee that they will be able to steer a different kind of ship. Expertise in war studies has nothing to do with the cricket board, steel mill, or the foreign service. It is continuous research that makes the academic a man of knowledge. Dr A. Q. Khan is not an army man, neither are others like Dr Abul Salam and Dr Adeeb Rizvi (SUIT) who represent Pakistan retired army generals.
The appointment of a retired brigadier as the VC of a public sector university is a black day for all the nation’s academics. Let us develop trust and confidence in our high qualified professionals to steer the country’s various institutes. A retired professor can’t be appointed as corps commander, so too does the vice versa apply.
N. H. BALOCH
Karachi
MY telephones (2578273 and 2581720) have been out of order for more than 45 days. I have made repeated complaints on 18 and 106. When I talked to PTCL officials, I was told it is a cable fault.
Interestingly, the complaints registered on 18 are cleared off without being rectified after two days, i.e., for two days you are told by a pre-recorded message that “complaint for this number is already registered” and, on the third day, a new complaint number is provided.
The most recent complaint numbers issued for the above mentioned phone numbers are 342 and 343, respectively, on Sept 21. At 106, the complaint number 156 was issued on Sept 22.
FAROOQ AHMED
Karachi
I WOULD like to inform the authorities concerned that my telephone 2220849 has been dead for the last over three months.
No one has bothered to rectify the fault in spite of repeated complaints on a daily basis.
It is an irony that while the above phone is dead, I am paying Rs220 being fixed line rent and other taxes on a monthly basis.
I hope someone will look into my complaint.
A. MAJEED S. HUSSAIN
Karachi
GOD only knows for how long I have been fleeced by paying for telephone calls made by strangers from my telephone — No. 5855644 — and billed to me. On average, my monthly bill came to Rs4,000, which I have been paying thinking my family was using the telephone.
During July, we had gone out of the country for two weeks. Our house was closed and no one had access to the telephone. Yet July bill listed calls to upcountry and mobile numbers during the dates we were away.
I went back through my previous bills and to my astonishment the cheating has been going on for many months.
I have sent complaints by fax to the divisional engineer, Defence telephone exchange, and copies to GM, DGM, DGM, and other relevant PTCL officials of Clifton/Defence.
I have not yet received any response from any of these officials. I do not know who else to approach.
ZIA UL QADIR Karachi
WE booked three calls for Ahmedabad, India, from our phone No 6632280 on Aug 9 for duration 2.59 minutes and five minutes and on Aug 12 for duration 2:36 minutes.
We received a bill which shows different unit rates: the amount billed is Rs67.50, Rs103.50 and Rs 37.50, respectively, whereas the PTCL’s tariff is Rs10 a minute.
It seems that even after privatisation customers have to suffer.
Hopefully the PTCL will give some logical explanation through these columns.
AMIRALI R. BATADA
Karachi
ON Sept 24 ‘El Pais’ (the most widely read Spanish newspaper) published an article about rape punishment in Pakistan. It explains that there is a rape every two hours in the country and that there are villages in which rape by several men is prescribed as revenge. The most outrageous part is yet to come though: the Spanish newspaper reveals that with the Hudood Ordinance a woman needs four male witnesses to put the rapist in jail, so it is virtually impossible to get him in prison. Rapists roam free. Not happy with that, the woman who denounces a rape and does not produce the four male witnesses is accused of adultery. So it is more likely that she ends up in prison rather than the rapist.
People around the world who come to know about this will have the lowest image of Pakistan. But this sadly it is not just an image, it is the reality. It’s sad to say that with this law Pakistan hits rock bottom of barbarity and nonsense.
This law harms the image of Pakistan more than the purported links to terrorism because people consider that terrorism is a marginal activity carried out by a few and punished by the law. But for a whole country to allow this “rapist’s rights bill” to become law and keep it for so long is a sign that the citizens in that country have an extremely perverted sense of justice or do not care enough for its people (mothers, daughters, sisters and citizens of Pakistan) to ban that law for ever.
ROCIO MUNUERA-LOPEZ
Surrey, UK
APROPOS of the letter from Helpline Trust (Sept 26), I would like to point out that if one goes to the ‘contact us’ page on the KESC website (www.kesc.com.pk/contactus.asp) the webpage reads “under construction”.
Citizens understand that physical complaint centres all over Karachi may take a while to complete, and may get damaged time to time due to the uncivil ways of protest our nation has chosen to adopt. However, a simple web-based contact page is the basic need of any business website.
I actually believed in the new management’s attempt to reach out to people. We wanted to contact the KESC to help them set up a centralised call centre. However, based on the fact that their website doesn’t even have a proper ‘contact us’ page, one has to re-think the decision of not buying a generator this summer.
FARZAL ALI MUHAMMAD
Karachi
ANARKALI, Karachi Zoo’s 65-year-old female elephant, died in July this year. Upon her death she became food for the other zoo animals. Her body is to be stuffed and put on display in the zoo’s natural history museum while the zoo’s director, Mansoor Qazi, considers ways to get another elephant soon.
In recent years there has been a growing public debate around the world about the ethics of keeping elephants in zoos. Had Anarkali not been taken away from her natural habitat in the wild, she would have lived in a large social group and roamed up to 20 miles a day foraging for food and water. Perhaps none of us could see the loneliness in her eyes, the perpetual wounds on her body from having to sleep on concrete, or the stress and discomfort she endured chained to the ground by three legs for 20 hours a day.
Far from educating us about the importance of protecting the habitats and populations of wild elephants, the confinement of this gentle giant taught us that it’s acceptable to chain an animal just so we can see it up close at our convenience. According to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna , the Asian elephant can only be imported for conservation and breeding purposes and only to facilities equipped to house and care for them.
Try as they might, Karachi Zoo would be hard pressed to meet any such requirement let alone meeting the minimum welfare standards for captive elephant management and care as set forth by the American Zoo Association and the European Association for Zoos and Aquaria.
Even London Zoo, which had displayed elephants for 170 years, decided in 2001 that its facilities were inadequate and shifted its three Asian elephants to the countryside setting of Whipsnade Wild Animal Park. Given the plight of elephants in captivity, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in the UK published a report that recommends the phasing out of elephant exhibits in zoos worldwide. The report also calls for an urgent improvement of current elephant management standards and states that no animal should be housed singly, especially females. The Karachi Zoo management, hell-bent as they are on getting another elephant, would be well advised to get hold of a copy of this report to reconsider their decision.
Let us not have another Anarkali.
PAKISTAN ANIMAL WELFARE SOCIETY
Karachi
THE Dow University of Health Sciences has announced its admission policy for MBBS. According to it, marks of Urdu and English will not be counted for making merit list for intermediate candidates. On the other hand, for A’ level students nearly 10 per cent marks will be deducted. Why?
According to the old policy, equivalency certificate for A’ level students were issued after deducting nearly 10 per cent marks. But if there is a new rule for intermediate students, why there is not a new rule for A’ level students?
The old rule was made because A’ level students used to achieve higher percentages in comparison to intermediate students. IBCC (Inter Board Chairman Committee) does not consider Urdu and English marks in the equivalency certificate they issue to A’ level students. Urdu and English are in fact low-scoring subjects and they tend to reduce the overall percentages of the intermediate students. To balance this, IBCC regards 90 per cent to 100 per cent marks in A’ levels as equivalent to 85 per cent marks in intermediate. Thus a bright student getting 95 per cent in A’ levels in all subjects is treated as equivalent to 85 per cent marks of the intermediate examination. This was quite fair.
But now according to the new rule a student actually getting 80 per cent overall marks in intermediate can have more than 85 per cent marks in the merit list of DUHS, when his/her Urdu and English marks are not counted. This means a student achieving only 80 per cent marks in intermediate is considered better than the top scoring student of A’ levels, who might have 99 per cent marks in all subjects, yet will have to face about 1,000 students from intermediate who will have a higher position in the merit list.
If this unjust policy is not revised soon, hardly any A’ level student will succeed in getting admission to Dow University and, as a result, all colleges conducting classes for A’ level will have to shut down their pre-medical sections. Thus, despite the better transparency of A’ levels, the students of this system are at a major disadvantage.
MOHAMMAD ZAKIR
Karachi
THE purpose of road-sweeping machine is to suck all the dirt and filth to its tank and unload the same to an allocated place.
In Karachi the Defence Housing Authority’s small road-sweeping trucks are often seen working along the road islands, polluting the atmosphere. These trucks are sucking the dust and are throwing it in the air, instead they should retain the same in its dust-tank.
At the same time they are cleaning the road and polluting the atmosphere, who are we fooling?
DANYIAL AHMED
Karachi
MY best compliments to Dawn on its excellent editorial ‘Kissinger’s wisdom’ (Sept 15). Having known Kissinger during my posting in the Pakistan embassy in Washington DC in the past, I agree with your observations.
Kissinger, in my view, is a congenital warmonger who hates Muslims and is more aggressive than the neo-cons in seeking to leash Muslim countries.
Even in his dealings with Pakistan during the Nixon era, he tried his best to prevent Pakistan from acquiring weapon-grade nuclear technology.
He was beholden to the Israeli lobby in the the US. He was pleased when Israel with F-16 bombers destroyed the Iraqi nuclear centre at Osirak.
Kissinger wants to make the world safe for Israel. At present Iran is the only Muslim country which is likely to succeed in its nuclear pursuit, hence his propaganda stints against Iran. Israel has many atom bombs hidden in its nuclear arsenal at Dimona.
Has Israel ever allowed UN inspectors to visit its atom bomb stockpiles. CIA agents are seemingly busy mobilising some Arab states against Iran’s nuclear programme.
They are doing a copycat re-play of the diabolic intrigues of British secret service agents deputed by the British authorities during World War II to mobilise pliant Arab warlords against the Ottoman Empire and foment unrest among Shias against the Ottoman rule.
Their modus operandi was to exploit Shia-Sunni differences against the Sunni Turkish rule. The Muslim world should be made fully aware of the designs of Israeli agents to sow discord in the Ummah so that Israel is made more powerful. The Israeli lobby in the USA is upset and chagrined by Hezbollah’s success in exploding the myth that Israel is invincible.
QUTUBUDDIN AZIZ
Karachi
I CAME across a very interesting confession by the fascist dictator Mussolini, who said in an interview a month before he was hanged by his beloved people and duly recorded by author Farrell in his book An Anatomy of Fascism, which I would like to share with your readers and all the dictators around the world.
Mussolini confessed: “I have erred and I shall pay. I did not have the strength or the courage to retire in time. Have you ever seen a prudent, calculating dictator?
They lose their equilibrium in the clouds, in quivering ambitions and obsessions. They all become mad.”
I hope my message gets through to all the dictators of the world.
A. REHMAN
Hyderabad
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