| October 20, 2006 | Friday | Ramazan 26, 1427 |
To send a letter to the Editor
Click here
Beggars can be choosers
One laptop per child
Two crushed under container
Moderates versus extremists
Modarba affairs
Plenty of toxic waste
Penchant for blood and gore
Same old tale
Traffic light
Plea for clemency
Dengue fever
Water bill
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
THE prime minister has approved the setting up of an autonomous drug regulatory authority (Dawn, Oct 3). This will be another white elephant to be added to the series of such elephants under the names and styles of authority, commissions, body, etc., to graze on the state’s expenses and rendering the people lean day by day.
Our premier now seems to be taken for a ride by his advisers and bureaucrats whose established norm to solve a problem is to set up some kind of autonomous body to help them provide their well-wishers with profiting placements.
Prior to embarking upon such venture of carving out another white elephant, if the prime minister had read the statement of Dr Adibul Hasan Rizvi, of the SUIT fame (Sept 23), he might have requested him to take this job of crusading against the irrational and dismal attitude of the drug manufacturers towards the people’s lives.
Vested systems are not destabilised by a regulatory body or bodies. Systems of deep roots, anchored with covert support of the establishment’s indulgence, can only be re-structured and revamped with a single hand who has the highest regard for the professional ethics and devotion towards the suffering people.
On the same page, there was a report of the Supreme Court’s directions to check on drug production. The statement, recorded by various persons connected with drug manufacturing, was difficult to digest.
Another report (Oct 3) on a national page, captioned ‘Disease inescapable, drugs unaffordable’, contained the proposal of a legislator of the Punjab Assembly who had said that if vegetables from India could be imported, there was no harm in importing medicines as well, which were far cheaper than those being marketed by multinationals in Pakistan. He had said that the profit rate in Pakistan ranges between 100 and 1,000 per cent.
At a later stage, hopefully, the same legislator would disclose that open secret behind the highest profit ratio in Pakistan is because of the remittance of hefty royalties to the multinational principals and importing of the raw material exclusively from their principals, who sell the material on their on rates because of the monopolised export to Pakistan.
Nowhere in South Asian countries such type of selective monopolised trade practice, as well as paying of royalties, is allowed except the open field provided to them in our country.
Our prime minister had spent a better part of his career in western culture. He must have seen and marked the functions of markets, manufacturing and interest of the people living there in the western countries.
The prime minister had been reported to have had talks with Mr Moeen Qureshi (Oct 3) to apprise him of the improvement in the standard of living of the people. How would he have been successful in convincing Mr Qureshi is the question without any answer?
GHEEWALA AGM
Karachi
LET us emulate the example of Grameen Bank of Bangladesh, a micro-credit scheme which has given a future to “86,000 beggars in Bangladesh” as stated in your issue of Sept 5: “Targeting children has been a great success with 100% enrolment rate. School and college admissions are escalating, borrowers are assured of finances if children are being educated. Women get 50 per cent of the credit ensuring their equal stand with men.”
Grameen has proved they can do this, so why can’t we as another Muslim state ensure the end of beggary, especially little children or babies in their mothers’ arms. It is pathetic and heart-rending. Old people driven to this, deformed people, it is pathetic.
With Zakat funds and donations we should follow Grameen example to wipe out beggary where Islam says there’s a life of dignity and honour for each individual.
We must put an end to the system of beggars and vagabonds which is repugnant to Islam as the ‘Bait al Maal’ in Islam saw to it that not even a dog went hungry. This magic of Grameen does work. I know cases where beggars have been given money to start earning money and they have landed in offices. Poor children being educated are working in banks, etc
So each individual should stretch their hand out and a little bit will go a long way to ensuring the pathetic life to be changed into a new world: let our beggars be choosers with Grameens of Pakistan.
S. BABAR
Karachi
OLPC (one laptop per child) is a non-profit association dedicated to the research and development of a $100 laptop — a technology that has the potential to revolutionise how we educate children of the world.
This project is working closely with the UNDP. Their goal is to provide children around the world new opportunities to explore, experiment and express themselves. The laptop runs free software based on GNU/Linux, has a 500MHz processor, 128MB DRAM, 500MB Flash, no hard disk, and wireless connectivity. It uses a wind-up mechanism to run instead of batteries or electricity.
The project chairman, Nicholas Negroponte, is a professor at MIT and author of bestselling book Being Digital. Initially, OLPC plans to manufacture 5-10 million units in seven countries: India, China, Egypt, Thailand, Nigeria, Brazil and Argentina. The important thing is that these laptops are not for sale. They are provided free, owned by the children themselves and ready to use in local languages. These laptops will be distributed directly to schools through large government initiatives.
Pilot projects are going to commence in Brazil and Argentina in 2007. Many countries have expressed interest in the project at the ministerial level or higher. This is a great opportunity that should not be missed. There is still time for Pakistan’s ministry of education to register itself with OLPC and be eligible to receive these laptops for our country’s schoolchildren.
ASAF MARUF ALI
Karachi
IT was reported in the Karachi Metropolitan section (Oct 10) that two people had been killed under a container. This is indeed saddening and disturbing. I extend my whole-hearted condolences to the bereaved families.
Like all citizens of Karachi, I too have been watching with concern the callous and unscrupulous loading, or rather overloading, of cargo trucks including containers and passengers on buses. Despite the fact that your newspaper has been publishing such photographs in the paper, the police department concerned takes no notice and has so far made no effort to correct the increasing trend.
Small trucks can be seen lifting containers larger in size and weight than themselves. On top of this, the containers are not at all secured after placement on the deck. Further one, large numbers of trucks picking up loads much greater than their axle load would allow are a common sight. This practice has gone unnoticed even on highways and motorways whose police force is regarded as efficient and law-abiding.
Immediate action must be taken to remedy this most unwanted and dangerous trend. It is suggested that the KPT should take the lead and refuse entry of any truck in and out of port which is picking up load of cargo greater in weight than its axle is designed for or larger than the size of its deck and height would permit.
This will hopefully force the transporters to adhere to authorised loading conditions. Meanwhile, the law-enforcement agencies must look into this issue and apply the laws.
If adequate laws are not available, the legislators are requested to take appropriate steps to legislate in this regard in the best interest of citizens.
REAR ADMIRAL (r) SYED A. BAQAR
Karachi
COLONIAL powers ruled Third World countries by pursuing the policy of divide and rule. And that policy has not changed yet. Just consider what is happening in Iraq: Shias are fighting against Sunnis, while Arabs are fighting against the Kurds. In Palestine Hamas is fighting against Al-Fatah.
The same thing happened when the colonists left India; they divided it and left Kashmir as a bone of contention between two countries. One can only guess what will happen in Afghanistan when they leave.
Gen Musharraf is serving western interests by dividing our nation into moderates and extremists, and pitting one against the other. There have always been moderates and extremists in our society, although they were not classified by these names.
This is relatively new terminology coined by the rulers. But military rulers of Pakistan are fanning hatred and instigating one group to fight another only in order to perpetuate their rule. I think the president is playing with fire only to serve the western masters and to stay in power.
HASAN RAZA
Karachi
DURING the period October 2003 to October 2006 the KSE 100 index jumped from about 4,000 points to around 11,000 points. A fantastic increase of 275%. However, during exactly the same period four leading Modarba funds listed at the KSE performed as shown in table.
The losers, of course, were several thousand small investors who trusted the professionalism, judgment and honesty of Modarba managers to take care of their hard-earned money. While a lot of lip-service has been rendered by the two wizards of the ministry of finance and the SECP, not a single eyebrow was raised on this debacle. Probably this was taken as a humble contribution of the small investors to the newly-created empires at the KSE.
MOBASHIR H. SHAKIL
Karachi
Share value Share value Loss of
Oct 17, 2003 Oct 13, 2006
value
1. First Equity Modarba Rs 13.50 Rs 4.50 67%
2. First Habib Bank Modarba Rs 12.35 Rs 7.85 36%
3. BRR Int. Modarba Rs 09.05 Rs 6.65 26%
4. First Habib Modarba Rs 10.00 Rs 7.00 30%
THE liquid effluents of Pak-Arab Fertilisers contain toxic substances which are highly injurious to human health as the factory has no waste water treatment plant. The liquid waste is being dumped into a canal named Multan Branch (commonly known as Naubahar Canal) through a four-kilometre-long channel.
The channel passes through a 132-foot-wide and four-kilometre-long vacant piece of land. The abandoned land belongs to the irrigation and power department. The irrigation department never permitted Pak-Arab Fertilizers to use its land for the disposal of waste water of the factory.
But the administration of the factory did not care for it and constructed the waste water carrying channel. Now the factory has gone entirely to the private sector. The administration, as well as the owners of the factory, has made a nefarious plan to grab the abandoned land through which waste water channel is passing, notwithstanding the fact that the land is owned by the irrigation and power department.
Contiguous with the aforementioned vacant piece of land is the green belt of housing colony V-block, New Multan. The general manager, administration of the fertiliser company, has threatened the dwellers of V-Block, New Multan, that they should dismantle the green belt on their own, or else the law-enforcement agencies would be used to get it done. The green belt has been approved by the housing and physical planning department for which it has already charged money from the residents.
Obviously, the owners and the administration of the fertiliser company intend to occupy the vacant piece of land owned by irrigation department as well as the green belt owned by the dwellers of V-Block. The Punjab chief minister is requested to intervene in this matter. The vacant land should be developed into a public park to curtail the pollution caused by the fertiliser company.
MALIK GHULAM MUHAMMAD
New Multan
THIS is with reference to Jawed Naqvi’s article, ‘Being bloody-minded in the land of Gandhi’ (Oct 9). He states that “were he alive, Professor Kailash Nath Kaul would be traumatised by the penchant for blood and gore the largely vegetarian Indians possess.” The professor also believed that “the South Asians had most probably descended from social groups that practised cannibalism.”
I wonder how much more the good professor would be traumatised had he witnessed the infamous ‘Rape of Nanking’ in 1937 by the Japanese army, or by the Hutu-Tutsi mayhem in Africa, or the atrocities by the Pakistani army in East Pakistan in 1971, or more currently the genocide of blacks in Darfur by their Arab compatriots?
And what did the learned professor think of the annihilation of the native peoples of North and South America by the European invaders? Each of these events resulted in the loss of thousands of human lives, in some cases even millions.
There are innumerable examples like these in the blood-soaked history of mankind. So then, do the whites, the blacks, the Arabs and the Orientals also qualify as descendants of people who practised cannibalism?
After all, each of these groups has been infinitely more brutal than the ‘largely vegetarian’ Indians. In order to support the cannibalism theory, Jawed Naqvi gives the example of some very bloody invectives that the South Asians use to express their anger. Surely we all know that every language in the world has a graphic way of expressing one’s feelings.
“The penchant for blood and gore” is not a monopoly of the people of “the land of Gandhi.” Others have proved that they are capable of doing a more thorough job. No sane person can condone these acts whether they are committed in Gujarat or Darfur, Algeria or Iraq.
RAMDAS VALLABH
Dallas, Texas
The PTCL recently ran an advertisement in newspapers, urging customers to “get your number converted to IDD/NWD and enjoy lowest-ever rates” by calling 1240-1111 for activation/de-activation.
A call to the given number, however, offers only a recorded response: “The number you dialled is not listed. Please contact inquiry 17 for assistance”.
A call to 17 drew a complete blank from the operator. An attempt to call the helpline number 106, which was mentioned in the advertisement, also proved futile. There was no response at all from 106 and the phone just kept ringing.
The adage “The more things change, the more they remain the same” seems to hold true for the PTCL despite privatisation.
NUSRAT VOHRA
Karachi
Coming from Saddar and turning from Garden Road toward the Quaid's Mazar has become hazardous because the green arrow giving the go-ahead for the right turn no more appears on the traffic light at the crossing of Garden Road and M. A. Jinnah Road.
Previously, motorists coming from Saddar would wait, first, for the red light to turn green (which would allow through traffic to proceed) and then turn right after the arrow for the right turn appears.
Now the arrow does not appear, red turns into green, and motorists wishing to turn right toward the Mazar just do not know what to do and when to turn right. This also brings them in conflict with traffic coming from Garden.
Will the Traffic Engineering Bureau kindly restore the arrow?
A MOTORIST
Karachi
I READ online about the seemingly unending ordeal over the past 18 years of Mirza Tahir Hussain, as reported by a London Times correspondent who visited the hapless prisoner a few days ago in his death row cell in Rawalpindi Central Jail. It made me immeasurably sad, and the thought of his continued suffering continues to nag me.
Hussain was only 18 years old when on that fateful night in December 1988 he hired a taxi at Islamabad airport to take him to his ancestral village. He was on his first visit to Pakistan since the time in 1970 when he migrated to England as a babe-in-arms.
But as luck would have it he never reached his village. On the way the taxi driver reportedly pulled a gun on him in an apparent attempt at robbery, but was overpowered by Hussain in a scuffle that resulted in the taxi driver’s accidental death. Instead of fleeing from the scene Hussain drove the taxi to the nearest police station.
Since then there have been trials and re-trials, temporary reprieves and pardons, but the death sentence has not been commuted. Hussain’s family has also offered ‘blood money’ — reportedly as much as a hundred thousand pounds — but the taxi driver’s family after initially accepting the offer has rejected it, ostensibly on being chastised by their relatives for agreeing to a price for their son’s ‘blood and bones’.
His 18 years on death-row have turned Hussain into a deeply religious man. Even Tony Blair took up his plea for clemency with President Musharraf during his recent visit to the UK. Time is indeed running out for Hussein as the temporary reprieve granted to him during Ramazan may well be his last. Barely 18 at the time of the incident, Hussain has spent the following 18 years fighting for justice.
Murder by accident or in self-defence is not the same as a pre-meditated act to take someone’s life. The former is termed manslaughter, for which the agonising incarceration of 18 years and the attendant mental anguish of the prisoner and his loved ones are punishment enough. Mirza Tahir Hussain has paid his debt to society. It is now time to free him.
ASAD SIDDIQI
Lahore
DENGUE fever is on the increase in the city and schoolchildren are more vulnerable to it (Oct 13). According to your report, the number of the patients having viral hemorrhagic fever has now risen to 124 patients in six parts of the city by Oct 12. It is really a matter of natural concern.
Before the fever takes a serious turn, let all the schools pay special attention to keep their premises clean, resort to recommended fumigation and should see that water does stagnate to breed mosquitoes.
Private and government doctors should be invited by the various TV channels to create awareness among the people about the causes of this fever, its difference from other fevers, about its symptoms and how one can escape from its onslaughts.
M. SHAFIQUE AHMED
Karachi
SINCE the introduction of the new system for collecting water and sewerage bills on a monthly basis, people are put to great inconvenience as most banks that receive payments for other utility bills do not accept a water bill, as they have not being approached by the KWSB to do so.
One has to make an effort to go to a specific bank, stand in a very long queue and pay one’s bill.
Will the authorities concerned designate more banks to accept water bills or ask those accepting other utility bills to also accept water bills?
ABDUL QAYOOM LALAI
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.