| October 19, 2006 | Thursday | Ramazan 25, 1427 |
To send a letter to the Editor
Click here
Craving for democracy
The real issue
5,000 more policemen
GHQ horizons
Maligning the ISI
Once peaceful place
Two thumbs up
Setback for Pakistan cricket
University ranking
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 Mr Irfan Husain’s article ‘Beyond the veil’ (Oct 14), the matter to consider is whether women are commanded to veil themselves when they go out for their needs. These needs may be either religious or secular. Two prominent instances of the former are taking part in public prayers (which unfortunately is unheard of in Pakistan), and the performance of pilgrimage.
If it had been necessary for women to wear veils, an injunction should have been given to wear them on these two sacred occasions on which men’s sentiments should be purest, and when, therefore, all those things that excite the passions must be avoided.
There is, however, not only no such injunction but it was a recognised practice that women came into the congregation of men in mosques, unveiled. It is also a well-established fact that the mosques in the Prophet’s time contained no screens to keep the two sexes separate. The only separation between the men and the women was that women stood in separate rows behind the men. Otherwise, they were in the same room or in the same yard, and the two sexes had to intermingle.
In the pilgrimage, there was a much greater intermingling of the sexes, women performing circumambulations of the Ka’aba, running between Safa’a and Marwa, staying in the plain of Arafat and going from place to place, along with men, and yet they were enjoined not to wear a veil.
This injunction rather shows that the veil was adopted simply as a mark of rank or greatness, and the unveiling was required in order to bring all on a level of equality. Maybe the order to remain unveiled in the pilgrimage is a clear proof that wearing the veil is not an Islamic injunction or practice.
Finally, in all humility, and with due respect, I would draw your kind attention to Verse 52 of Surah Al-Ahzab (chapter 33) which, to the best of my knowledge and understanding, shows us clearly that during the life-time of our Prophet (peace be upon him) Muslim women could not have been covering their faces with a veil. Dealing with the subject of the Prophet’s wives, Verse 52 states:
“No [other] women shall henceforth be lawful to thee — nor art thou [allowed] to supplant [any of] them by other wives — even though their beauty should please thee greatly: (none shall be lawful to thee) beyond those whom thou [already] hast come to possess. And God keeps watch over everything.
KHWAJA SAYEED SHAHABUDDIN
Karachi
MR Irfan Husain in his column ‘Beyond the veil’ ( ) is right in saying that the veil is not a compulsion in Islam. The fact that many Muslim women take it is their own decision, and they have all the right to it. Muslims all over the world have not been angered by Jack Straw’s words because they contradict an Islamic teaching, but because they are discriminating against Muslim women. Jack Straw’s arguments about why the veil should be banned would fail to convince any sensible person.
If body language and and facial expressions are that important for a conversation, there should be a ban on the telephone and on Internet chatting as well. Why doesn’t anyone feel ‘uncomfortable’ when talking on the phone? It’s the biased attitude and thinking which leads to discomfort, if any.
The “colorful mix of races” that Mr Husain has talked about is not possible until we learn how to respect the beliefs and traditions of others. What needs to be changed in order to have a more progressive and tolerant society is the thinking of the people, not the dress sense.
Furthermore, I beg to disagree with the fact that the veil limits a girl’s extra-curricular activities at school. What extra-curricular activities has Mr Husain tried to refer to? If they are those like debating, public speaking, writing, playing games like table tennis, I don’t see how the veil is an obstacle. But yes, if the activity is, say, swimming, the veil certainly is an obstacle. However, in order to take part in such an activity, more than just the veil needs to be removed. Basically, there is nothing that a girl in a headscarf can do that a girl in a veil cannot.
Today when there is such a hue and cry for women to get ‘equal rights’, they have to bear things like hooting and ogling in public places. If they want to avoid this by wearing the veil, what is wrong with it? If elevating the position of the women is what the argument is all about, then that is exactly what the veil does.
KANEEZ ZAINAB
Karachi
THIS is with reference to Mr Zia Rehman’s letter ‘Craving for democracy’ (Oct 11). I appreciate his quest and deep approach about democracy in Pakistan, despite being away from the country.
The question that he has asked all the worthy readers is: why hasn’t democracy taken root in Pakistan for the last 58 years of its independence as compared to India? The best answer is to be found in my last letter ‘What makes us invincible’(Aug 28).
Moreover, I disagree with his notion that the majority of people is under the general impression that Pakistanis are terribly frustrated with any government that comes to power, be it democratically elected or through military take-over. Let me put the record very straight.
Yes, Pakistanis are distressed and disappointed by regular military takeovers since its inception, but they are not troubled by any elected political government that comes to power democratically without the umbrella of military establishment.
There is no doubt that Pakistanis still cherish the dram of true democracy, but it does not mean that they are happy with any military-cum-puppet regime, such as the present one. This is not to say that there has not ever been any corruption in Pakistan, but it simply does not mean that we have angels in military regimes.
Time has proved that in Pakistan also massive corruption is done in military regimes. Corruption is not a syndrome, it is an attitude towards the misuse of powers. It has certain degrees which vary greatly, from minor uses of influence and patronage to do and return favours to institutionalised bribery and beyond.
The end-point of political corruption is kleptocracy, literally rule by thieves, where even the external pretence of honesty is abandoned.
Corruption does prevail in Pakistan, but it simply doesn’t give any licence to an army general to take reins of the country on such a pretext. India is also a part of the subcontinent, corruption does also prevail there, but how many military coups d’état have we witnessed in India?
Mr Zia Rehman’s letter has also compelled me to name the preference for a president and a prime minister for Pakistan. I would only say in this regard that we need a prime minister and a president of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s calibre, who allowed every citizen of Pakistan to dream of democracy and that he was born to enlighten the poor masses about what true democracy is.
In order to be a democratic country, we need a prime minister and a president who should not only not give false hopes, but also has to be ready to give his/her life as did Z.A. Bhutto.
As the likes of Bhutto are not found every now and then, for the present there are two names — Benazir Bhutto and Imran Khan — who can meet the democratic aspirations of the people.
QAZI NAZIM NAEEM
Hyderabad
ALL the questions addressed to Lt- Col (r) Rafat Naqvi, PRO, DHA (Dawn, Sept 23), on matters relating to environmental devastation and degradation of biodiversity on the 4,100 acres of land east of Khayaban-i-Ittehad (approximately half the size of entire DHA) remain unanswered.
Zafar Iqbal, president, Defence Residents Society, has, however, replied (Dawn, Oct 7), calling the allegations as assumptions and non-issues. He further states that “there is no use agitating about an issue endlessly without understanding the real issue”.
Will he kindly enlighten the Karachi public as to what he thinks ‘the real issue’ is. Let me point out very clearly what exactly is the real issue. The coastline is God’s gift to every citizen of the Karachi city, poor and rich, and we demand our ownership, period.
As a promoter of offshore sportsfishing in Karachi and having been associated with the sea for three-and-a-half decades, I have the following questions to ask of the PRO.
Why have the marine environment and ecology (seashore, mangroves, wetlands) been bulldozed time and again by the DHA, don’t they love the natural habitat? The DHA talks of water sports for the common public.
Why then has the DHA not built a single pier or jetty for the common citizen? Why does illegal fish netting go on without check in the creek and channel facing Marina Club?
How then can the DHA PRO claim that it is taking full cognizance for environmental protection and coastal conservation when a copy of the Environment Impact Assessment for the area under discussion has not been made public? It is about time the DHA brought transparency into the much debated and controversial matter.
SYED AZIZ AGHA
Member, Shehri
Karachi
THIS refers to the news published under the caption ‘Sindh police given 15 days to curb crime’ (Oct 15). It is fascinating to learn that Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has taken serious notice of the increase in street crime in Sindh, particularly in Karachi, and has directed the Sindh police to curb crime within 15 days.
The prime minister has also approved a proposal to recruit more manpower for the Sindh police to help improve the law and order situation in the province.
Instead of recruiting 5,000 additional policemen, we should follow high-tech crime fighting techniques of ‘crime mapping’.
Beside the US, the police in many countries around the world are using this technique to successfully curb street crime by using a computer-driven mapping tool known as CompStat.
By displaying crime-data on easy-to-read digitised city maps, the police can anticipate where criminals are going to strike next so that the police can be at the right place, at the right time.
I, therefore, suggest that this technology be studied, and if found feasible it may be purchased to curb crime in our country.
It is time we adopted high-tech crime fighting technology rather than relying on the old manpower-based system.
SQN LDR (r) S.AUSAF HUSAIN
Karachi
IT is simply amazing how limited the social horizon of the GHQ is. With a stroke of his pen, President Gen Musharraf could have done something for the very poor, even as he courts, or rather demands, legitimacy from the middle class.
A nationwide network of utility bills payment could have been linked to zakat recipients. This way the uniforms could have won some applause for their public service.
A. ERCELAN
Karachi
APART from the usual finger-pointing at Pakistan’s Inter Service Intelligence by India for all of that country’s woes, some western nations, notably Britain, have also commenced what seems like a campaign to malign and scapegoat the agency.
The question is, if the ISI had been so omnipotent as it is being made out to be, things would have been very different for Pakistan itself. To begin with, it would have found out in advance the plan to kill Gen Ziaul Haq who, after the US president Ronald Reagan, was the chief patron of the Afghan mujahideen and an Islamic fundamentalist. He would obviously have commanded all the sympathies and loyalties of an agency supposed to be dominated by fundamentalists.
Not only that, it could not even find out who was responsible for the air crash that took the lives of Gen. Zia and many other Pakistani generals, including the former ISI chief Gen Akhtar Abdul Rehman and the American ambassador to Islamabad.
Besides that, it could not deter the Al Qaeda and its local associates from launching attacks on Gen Musharraf, Prime Minister Aziz and the corps commander of Karachi. Nor has it been able to stop the militants from killing hundreds of our own soldiers in the fighting in Waziristan. Likewise, it wasn’t able to prevent the murder of many Islamic scholars in various parts of the country or apprehend the masterminds of the rebellion in Balochistan allegedly supported by the Indian intelligence agency RAW.
The perplexing thing is that the US in Iraq and Nato in Afghanistan, with their enormous military and intelligence resources have not been able to restrain the insurgents or train local people to set up potent counter-terrorism or intelligence networks.
But, in the case of Taliban they blame the ISI or at least some of its former officials for making the Afghan militia a formidable adversary of the much bigger and powerful western forces in Afghanistan. This is all so ridiculous and obviously meant to scapegoat Pakistan. Now, the Scotland Yard is even rushing a team of its officers to India to find out how the Mumbai police detected the ISI’s link with that city’s recent bomb blasts (Dawn, Oct 11).
Another important fact is that the Guardian, in its issue of Oct 2, had published the story of an Iranian youth named Abdullah, whom its correspondent reportedly met in an Afghan intelligence lockup.
The report says the young man received training in a camp located near the Iran-Iraq border after which some of his colleagues crossed over into Iraq for fighting the Americans whereas Abdullah went to Afghanistan but got arrested in Ghazni.
The Guardian alleges that the Iranian intelligence operatives are distributing weapons and money amongst the Taliban.
American columnist and army veteran Eric Margolis has many a time referred to the ISI in his columns.
The gist of his observations is that prior to 9/11 it was the best in west Asia but afterwards it lost its effectiveness because of American interference in its affairs.
Nevertheless, the West seems to have forgotten how the Pakistani intelligence agencies have helped arrest and deport hundreds of Al Qaeda members or foiled the conspiracy to blow up airliners over the Atlantic, among other things.
Some forces inimical to Pakistan, who have for years been unhappy at the prowess of its premier intelligence organisation and wish to weaken it, have been trying for a long time to defame it as a rogue institution out to create trouble far and wide. India’s machinations apart, it now appears that in the coming days the western media and officials are likely to increasingly target both Pakistan and Iran for the troubles in neighbouring countries as a part of the grand plan against the leading Islamic countries to bring them to heel.
In the end it is suggested that President Musharraf be more circumspect when talking about sensitive national or international issues. He should in particular remember the saying: “Birds are entangled by their feet and men by their tongues.” His recently published book is already causing a lot of problems.
It is also hoped the ISI will be freed from foreign interference and its resources not wasted on matters like politics so that it can focus on its real job.
KHALID NAQSHBANDI
Karachi
KARACHI’s Clifton Block 9 used to be a calm, peaceful place until someone had the bright idea of constructing the underpass, a project which is designed to provide permanent employment to many people for many years to come.
Before the recent rains, they filled the storm-water drains with the sand which was removed from under the road to make the underpass, and which was supposed to be removed to a remote location.
The contractor thus saved a huge amount that would have been incurred in taking the sand away and he is no doubt at present in Europe, laughing every time he looks at his bank statement.
And when they wanted to find out why Clifton Road had been turned into a giant swimming pool, they discovered that the storm water drains had disappeared, so they dug up most of the service road which runs parallel to the underpass in Block 9, for the rainwater could again find its way to the sea.
But before they could do the remaining work of lining the trench with concrete, the rains ended and for more than a month now the luckless people who live or work here have been at great risk.
Since the present contractor has not thought it fit to provide concrete blocks to prevent cars falling into the kilometre-long trench, some unfortunate person will end up with a broken neck when his car falls into it.
And knowing how things are done in this country, you can be sure that the ditch and the trench will remain in their present condition for a long time.
SHAKIR LAKHANI
Karachi
THE government of Libya recently announced that it would provide its 1.2 million school-going children with cheap durable laptop computers.
On the other hand, our government has announced a 15 per cent sales tax on computers. Two thumbs up for our government.
KAMRAN PARACHA
Karachi
IT was disheartening to see two key members of the Pakistan cricket team, Sohaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif, returning on the eve of the Champions Trophy.
I assume both the players were injured a few months back and received treatment for their injuries. The doctors might have used banned substances for treatment unknowingly. This is quite common in sports and doctors should be advised not to use such items in the future.
I believe both the players are innocent, as well as key to Pakistan’s cricket fortune over the next few years.
I hope they return soon as it will be a big loss for cricket not to have the two stars of the Pakistan on the field. The PCB should investigate the possible source of the banned substance and help the players to return to the playing field.
BISHNUJEE SINGH
Everett, USA
IT was certainly a great shock to see university ranking where no university or educational institution in Karachi other than the Aga Khan University stands at the top.
Both faculty and students need to tighten their seat belt in order to work hard and not let this potential city down.
LT CDR (r) J. MANNAN
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.