| October 10, 2006 | Tuesday | Ramazan 16, 1427 |
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Citizen is always right
POC blues
Improving the lower judiciary
Energy conservation policy
Unsung heroes
Loss for cricket
PTCL clarifies
Telephone out of order
NED ranked low by HEC
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
REFERENCE your editorial ‘Another army man as VC’ (Sept 29) expressing shock and concern at the appointment of a retired brigadier as vice-chancellor of Balochistan University “in total disregard of academic requirements.”
By now it has become a common practice to appoint retired senior army officers to top academic jobs in the universities as a part of the government policy of inducting retired and serving military officers to senior and lucrative civilian jobs.
The army officers who are appointed vice-chancellors do not fulfil the criterion set out for appointment of civilians to this office
The practice of appointing retired army officers as vice-chancellors began in the late 1970s. A retired brigadier served as vice-chancellor of Balochistan University from the late 1970s to the mid-1980s. Another retired brigadier worked as pro vice-chancellor of this university during 1998-2001.
Now a retired brigadier takes over this university on Oct 7. In addition to this, the Balochistan University of Engineering and Technology, Khuzdar, and the University of Agriculture, Water and Marine Sciences, Uthal, Lasbella, are headed by retired brigadiers.
The University of Peshawar had its share of retied army officers. In 1993, a retired major- general briefly served as its vice-chancellor. A retired lieutenant-general and former corps commander, Peshawar, assumed this office in January 2004 on a two-year contract amidst protest by students and teachers of Peshawar University. A retired air vice-marshal also headed the NWFP University of Engineering and Technology in 2003-2004.
In August 2001, a retired navy commander was appointed registrar of Karachi University. However, his appointment was withdrawn within a couple of days in view of the protest by university teachers.
One of the vice-chancellors of the Quaid-i-Azam University had a dual background of the army and the bureaucracy. A retired army captain and a senior bureaucrat presided over the Quaid-i-Azam University for four years and obtained a PhD degree towards the end of his career from a newly-established university in Islamabad.
The University of Punjab appears to be most accommodating towards retired officers. A retired lieutenant-general served as its vice-chancellor in 1993-97, who became the governor of Punjab after the military takeover in October 1999.
Another lieutenant-general has been heading Punjab University since September 1999. Two retired colonels served as its registrars during 1999-2005. A couple of colonels and others are still holding some posts in Punjab University.
The vice-chancellor of the University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore, is also a retired lieutenant-general, who is now enjoying a second term after completing his first term of four years.
Some lieutenant-generals/vice-chancellors talk of their master’s degree in defence and strategic studies from the Quaid-i-Azam University. There is a little catch in it.
This degree is awarded to them after they complete one year National Defence (ND) course at the National Defence College, Islamabad, (soon to be elevated to the status of university) because the Quaid-i-Azam University has given MA equivalence to the ND course.
If these officers register directly with the Quaid-i-Azam University, they will have to spend two years to obtain a similar degree. No doubt, senior military officers are a privileged class in Pakistan.
DR HASAN ASKARI RIZVI
Lahore
WE are all aware that the principle of “customer is always right” is now followed all over the world in business. Those business concerns that follow this principle do well and, in fact, prosper. Those who do not, languish and ultimately die. When a complaint is received in business, one does not discriminate and does not care as to who has made the complaint. Each complaint is examined.
Where a defect is found, immediate steps are taken to rectify it or even to withdraw it from the market, may it be a medicine or a vehicle or any other product, howsoever expensive and wherever located.
The one who devised and the other who adopted this principle first deserve compliments. There was a time, when all duly signed complaints received in any government department or its agencies were not only considered but were also pursued. It is recalled that even complaint cells were set up in government departments and agencies.
It was customary for deputy commissioners and collectors to have open kutcheries for listening to complaints of common citizens. Institutional arrangements also existed within the departments and agencies to hold discussions at least on a weekly basis to review working of departments and also to examine complaints. It goes to the credit of defence forces that their system of holding ‘darbars’ is still in place.
On the civil side, there is no evidence of complaint centres now working anywhere. The departments go on to defend themselves immediately, whenever they hear even a murmur of complaint. In retrospect, it appears that the policy reform announced some years ago, which made some officers and posts dependent on the pleasure of the prime minister and the president, has done a great damage to the discipline and morale of the government functionaries. This needs to be changed immediately.
There should be no change in the functions of any employee without proper disciplinary action. The system of having persons as officers on special duties also needs to be changed.
If the above changed can be made, we can expect some improvement in governance. It was hoped that the system of local government, introduced recently, would help in improving the governance at grassroots’ level, but not much improvement is so far visible on the ground. Lines of communication between the local government and the provincial government are still blurred.
In the meantime, corruption and informal economy appear to be rampant. If Transparency International is to be believed, corruption goes on increasing instead of decreasing. The chief minister of Sindh is reported to have said the other day that the corrupt have become very powerful and that it is just not possible to eradicate corruption. According to him, the best that can be done is to reduce corruption.
I do not agree with him. We have to take corruption as a challenge and adopt necessary measures to eradicate it. In this regard it is suggested that to start with, like the principle of ‘customer is always right’ adopted for business, we should adopt the principle of ‘citizen is always right’ for governance.
Any complaint signed duly should be processed properly. There may be a flood of complaints initially, but as the complaints are examined and processed properly, the number would decrease and corruption would also start reducing with beneficial impact on the governance. It may be stated, however, that initiative in this regard will have to be taken from the top.
MOHAMMED ANWAR KHAN
Karachi
WHEN it was launched, the Pakistan Origin Card (POC) was said to facilitate the community of Pakistani expatriates living around the world. There was much publicity done through advertising by the Pakistan government, encouraging the expatriates to have their cards made out through their respective embassies and consulates. As we approached the officials for having one made out, the experience turned out to be totally frustrating, and even after the lapse of three months, the episode is far from being over.
My one-year-old grandson, Sami Khan, is a national of Denmark. When the family approached the Pakistan embassy in Denmark for the POC, it was suggested by the officials there that since the family was planning to visit Pakistan, it would be more practical to get the POC here rather than in Denmark itself. The advice was followed, and all documents, along with fee worth $50 through bank draft No. 9651943, were deposited against Nadra receipt No. 0020-8262 dated July 21.
The Nadra office in Islamabad was contacted again after one month and 20 days had passed, and it was requested to issue the card at the earliest because the family was scheduled to return to Denmark shortly. We were told that while the office would try but there could be no assurances in this regard. In response to another phone call a few days later, the Islamabad office issued the POC number over the phone (2084201000393) and gave us the consignment track number (8075060413) and advised to approach the Karachi office with these details and collect the POC which, according to them, had already been despatched.
When the Karachi office was approached, officials at the Awami Markaz came up with an entirely different story. While they confirmed that the POC had indeed been received at the office, they had sent it back to Islamabad for ‘clearance and permission’. They refused to tell what was their objection, insisting that it was all done ‘as a matter of routine’. When I pressed for a reason, I was referred to an officer in uniform, who, I was told, would solve all my problems. But the colonel in question simply repeated what I had been told earlier, refusing to answer my simple query: why did Islamabad office issue and despatched a document if it had not cleared it.
The wait continues even today. The family is back in Denmark. I had to stay back because someone had to be here to receive the POC, and I was the one who had filed it on behalf of my one-year-old grandson. The official position of Nadra, Islamabad, is that the card has been sent to the Karachi office. And the official position of the Karachi office is that it has sent back the card to the Islamabad office. What kind of inquiry is being conducted in affairs related to a toddler is beyond mortal comprehension. Will someone somewhere come to our rescue?
FAHIM AHMAD KHAN
Karachi
I RECENTLY had the occasion to visit the chamber of a judicial magistrate and was greatly troubled to see two subordinate judges sharing a room separated by a partition, the size of each room being about 10 x 10 feet each. This state of affairs is perhaps general throughout the country.
As far as I know, even section officers or superintendents in federal and provincial secretariats have larger office spaces available to them. Considering it is at the level of judicial magistrates that majority of the people have inter-action with judiciary and it is the lower judiciary that daily deals with most of the cases nationwide: is this 100 square feet chamber enough? What a sorry start for young judges who are looking forward to a long and for many a distinguished career?
Considering the responsibilities resting on their shoulders and bearing in mind the amount of their daily workload, they definitely need better chambers to work in. Further, the relationship of lower judiciary to good governance cannot be overemphasised. It is hoped the government will ameliorate this situation by providing the judiciary with required funds.
If the ministry concerned cannot finance needed improvements, I would request my colleagues in the military to consider reducing expenditure slightly over two years for re-allocation to the judiciary for needed improvements.
VICE ADMIRAL (r) IQBAL F. QUADIR
Karachi
THE Dawn issue of Oct 5 brought the important news of approval of the energy conservation policy by the cabinet. Hopefully, serious attempts will be made to enforce this policy, including financial and trade incentives to achieve high level energy efficiency. However, all will depend on the intent of implementation as earlier good energy-related declarations were of no use (like gas supply policy approved by the ECC last year to allow gas connections only to efficient users, encouraging cogeneration, was brought to null and void status by continuing to supply gas to most inefficient gas engine generators).
The policy includes support for cost-effective technologies for electricity generation from coal, besides promotion of cogeneration as a means to plug power deficit. Use of coal for power generation with coal bed methane (real CBM) technology must be the most sensible answer to our energy crisis but, unfortunately, the oil mafia is hell bent on destroying the country’s economy by importing exorbitant furnace oil fuel for power generation.
We messed up our chances of economic recovery in the 1990s by relying on expensive imported oil and installing inefficient power stations and seem to be doing exactly that in the present thermal power generation scenario. We need to concentrate on real CBM, and economy of scale can ensure quick and good returns on coal development and also save enormous foreign exchange.
Cogeneration must be the only option available to both industrial and commercial users of gas since we just cannot afford to waste our precious gas in either conventional steam/hot water generation, inefficient power generation using simple cycle gas turbines (as being forced upon the country by Wapda in the ‘rental’ joke) or gas engines or so-called ‘efficient’ direct-fired absorption chillers for airconditioning (since absorption cycle, by design, is the most inefficient process with coefficient of performance of only one-third of even the inefficient window airconditioners).
The other very important part of the policy referred to for power generation relates to renewable energy. It rightly covers development of cost-effective solar and wind energy technologies.
The emphasis has to be on economics. What use is God’s gift of free wind if the mafia will supply power at nearly 10 cents per kWH? For reference, it is always good to remember that we refused to accept 5.7 cents per kWH from a Chinese company, based on our own Thar coal only last year.
Other than emphasis on power generation, the policy also covers the very important field of low energy use in buildings. In this sector, we have failed to develop even basic common sense in our approach to designing and construction of commercial and community buildings.
It is a pity that no building of even medium size in the country can attempt to qualify for just 1-star (lowest rating of silver star) of energy efficiency in buildings (LEED programme or other similar rating). We have just not cared to plan for Pakistan and, in our greed, have developed massive commercial plazas and large community buildings which are simply energy guzzlers. We need urgent building codes for energy conservation since the government did not follow the earlier codes developed by the ministry of housing and works in the late 1980s.
Needless to add again, we just have to conserve energy and avoid wastage in every sphere of our activity and the right emphasis must be on industrial and commercial sectors (of course, we have to ensure similar conservation in transport and agricultural sectors).
We are too used to remain inefficient in our ways and expect the government to provide subsidy to cover our inefficiency and the news of further subsidy to the KESC (in billions) is indeed sad since all we are doing is giving a very clear message to those wasting electricity: continue with your wasteful ways and we will reward you with more and more subsidy. Alas, when are we going to really learn to encourage conservation and correctly charge the offenders who are responsible for most of the energy problems in the country?
AINUL ABEDIN
Karachi
WE have all heard of the plight of the Chinese pilgrims who had come from Xingjian province to get their visas to go for Haj and Ummrah to the Holy Land. These thousands of potential pilgrims had been accommodated by the Saudi embassy in Islamabad in the past but were refused the issuance of visas this year for reasons best known only to the embassy officials.
As expected, this led to a near chaotic situation in front of the Saudi visa office in Sector F-6. The visa office had about 3,000 visa seekers at their doorstep. These intending pilgrims had no place to go; they had to sleep in the open in front of the consulate without food, water or toilets and that too in the holy month of Ramazan.
Seeing the plight and discomfort of these travellers the neighbours of the consulate, Babar Rishi and his wife Nazo, opened their home to provide home-cooked ‘sehri’, ‘iftari’ and washing facilities for an average of 1,500 to 3,000 Chinese every day. They did this without any fanfare and without expecting any return.
I feel proud of Mr Rishi and his wife and thought I should share this information with other Pakistanis. We are all proud of these citizens who give our country such a good name.
ANIS UR RAHMAN
Islamabad
IT is sad that we Indians will be missing Inzamamul Haq in action in the forthcoming Champions Trophy. Inzamam, a soft-spoken Pakistani skipper, was innocent and not guilty in my view. He, unlike his predecessors, always begins his conversation in any interview with the words, Insha Allah.
A captain who is religious will not indulge in cricket scams like ball-tampering and match-fixing. It is time to banish the ICC, which has been acting in a partisan manner when it came to hauling up cricketers. I am with Inzamam and all Indians are with him, not with the ICC.
K.PRADEEP
Chennai, India
THIS refers to the letter ‘Telephones out of order’ (Oct 9) regarding the faulty telephones 6647516 and 6641821. The PTCL would like to clarify that after publication of the letter, the officer deputed the lineman concerned to the customer’s premises and the cable was fixed the same day.
SALEEM KHAN PRO, STR-III
Karachi
The telephone at my residence (4641807) has been out of order since Sept 4. Even though I have followed the prescribed procedure many times over, no one at the PTCL has bothered to come to my rescue except issuing complaint numbers which turn out to be of no use when I go to register a reminder. As such, a fresh complaint has to be lodged every time.
While I thank senior PTCL officers of the area for assuring me that my problem would be solved soon, I would be even more obliged if they could actually solve the problem as well.
DR TALHA IQBAL
Karachi
I AM an ex-student of NED University and was shocked to see that our prestigious university is close to the bottom of the rankings released by the HEC. NED alumni in the United States in particular are concerned about the rankings by the Higher Education Commission.
We would like to hear an explanation from university officials on this matter. From time to time we heard that there have been a lot of improvements done in terms of facilities and the teaching faculty but I guess this wasn’t really reflected in the rankings. Does the low ranking really reflect the deteriorating standard of education, or is there a missing link here?
SHAHRAN ASIM
New York, USA
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