| November 25, 2006 | Saturday | Ziqa'ad 3, 1427 |
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Can it get any worse?
Hope for the future
Ranking of universities
Glossing over harsh realities
Special people
Rooting out violent ideologies
Youm-i-Nijaat
Checkmate
The buck stops here
Prime time for Iran
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 ‘16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence’ is an international campaign to raise awareness about violence against women which starts on Nov 25 and ends on Dec 10, which is International Human Rights Day around the world.
Many people ask why it is necessary to have an international campaign. The answer to this question often makes some people uncomfortable. The fact is that each year three million women lose their lives to some type of violence at some time in their lives simply because they are female.
Violence against women is a persistent and an ongoing problem around the world. It affects women’s social and economic equality, physical and mental health, well-being and economic security. Violence against women stops them from fulfilling their potential, restricts economic growth and undermines development.
It is a major public health and human rights issue that has far too long been denied the attention and concern of international organisations, national governments, traditional human rights groups and the press. Decision-makers require a clear understanding of the nature and severity of social problems in order to develop effective responses
Only recently have governments and the international community acknowledged the prevalence and scope of violence against women and girls. Meanwhile, hundreds of millions of girls and women around the globe continue to endure debilitating and often fatal human rights abuses.
It has been found that as many as 5,000 women and girls are murdered by family members each year in so-called ‘honour killings’ around the world. Honour killings have been reported in Bangladesh, Brazil, Ecuador, Egypt, India, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Morocco, Pakistan, Sweden, Turkey, Uganda and the United Kingdom. These crimes are socially sanctioned in many countries (and in some countries legally sanctioned as well) and the killers are treated with lenience because defence of the ‘family honour’ is considered a mitigating or exculpating factor.
Meanwhile, between 12 and 25 per cent of women around the world have experienced sexual violence at some time in their lives.
And results of large-scale studies conducted in various developing and industrialised countries indicate that between 16 and 52 per cent of women reported having been assaulted by an intimate partner. According to the United Nations Population Fund, an estimated four million women and girls around the world are bought and sold either into marriage, prostitution or slavery.
Gender-based violence is perhaps the most widespread and socially tolerated of human rights violations. It both reflects and reinforces inequities between men and women and compromises the health, dignity, security and autonomy of its victims Violence against women can only be eliminated by addressing discrimination, promoting women’s equality and empowerment, and ensuring that woman’s human rights are fulfilled.
CYMA RIAZ
International Rescue Committee, Islamabad
HUNDREDS of Palestinians thwarted Israel’s attempts to kill Mohammed Baroud, a member of the Popular Resistance Committee, and Mohammed Nawajeh, a member of Hamas, by surrounding their houses as a human shield.
These daring people climbed on the roofs after Baroud and Nawajeh both received a call from the considerate Israeli army informing him he had 30 minutes to vacate his home before it was destroyed by missiles.
What kind of a world are we living in where a cold-blooded army, even when it comes to carpet-bombing children and other civilians, is sending warning messages and tries extra hard to depict a sympathetic image that belies their satanic motives.
I read a piece by Louise Roug (reproduced in Dawn) in which she wrote about a family devastated after their son was killed by one of the countless bombs that decimate Iraqi civilians every day.
Where are the champions of freedom and democracy? Or the western leaders that are out to rid the world of terrorism and nukes? Wallowing in pools of hypocrisy as usual.
How dare they accuse these nations of being undemocratic? Would their people ever climb on their roofs and protect them from possibly the most potent air force in the world?
And where is the regard for the rights of children that they always act so holy about? They may accuse Afghanistan of being cruel to women; they may accuse Saddam of being cruel to minorities.
They are absolutely valid in their accusations.
But to clamp on sanctions that killed millions of children because they had no access to medicines (Iraq after the Gulf War) and to be indifferent to all the oppression children are facing in Palestine and Iraq and everywhere else they have tried to step in is unforgivable.
I understand there are millions who already know this and I understand there is not much I am doing that will eventually be constructive for ensuring peace or something that will be beneficial for the sufferings of so many. But I wish the prayers of all the oppressed and the cries of all the children, dead and living, would be heard and justice prevail.
YOUSHEY ZAKIUDDIN
Karachi
THE new vision of PIA, carefully crafted last year out of the suggestions of PIA employees themselves, must be given the legitimate time it deserves and a helping hand where required, to allow PIA to become a model corporation to be emulated by all the nearly hundred-odd public sector corporations in Pakistan.
This optimism is grounded in the belief that a public sector corporation in Pakistan can be run as efficiently and profitably as any private entity, given the right person to govern it.
Much can be written about the positive things that have happened in PIA in the last 18 months, the innovations being put in place, the customer focused application of cutting edge technology, like web-based ticketing, revenue management system and soon, even reservations by mobile phones, introduction of the new concepts of corporate and change management, the cleaning up of wasteful processes, the adoption of standard operating procedures for new processes necessitated for running the new systems in almost every area, the creation of a fully computerised archive, international certification of PIA accomplished in many areas by international auditors, namely, EASA, IOSA and ISO series certifications, the setting up of a computer-based emergency response planning system, consolidation and formation of corporate social responsibility, the creation of a heightened state of awareness about health, environment, safety and security, the list goes on and on.
Let me briefly mention that the European Union has not banned PIA flights. PIA flights are still going to Europe and will continue to fly there. Capacities and frequencies are being readjusted and maintained.
PIA is currently involved, and almost finished, refurbishing a particular category of its fleet that will start rolling out in the next few days and fleet schedule will be normal again.
As for PIA’s financial health, due to the fact of unprecedented fuel prices, PIA has, since the end of 2004, absorbed a massive 74 per cent increase in fuel prices. In the last 18 months alone, PIA has spent Rs18 billion more on fuel.
Consequently, four months ago PIA submitted a financial restructuring plan to support the overall comprehensive restructuring.
It is expected that in a couple of weeks the government will give its formal approval and PIA will be able to swiftly carry on the good work now under way to completion.
Capt. Hassan Jaffery
Karachi
AFTER the Higher Education Commission published its criteria of ranking universities in Pakistan and actually ranked them, a number of letters have appeared in these columns raising questions about the methodology of ranking and whether the HEC, which is engaged in improving the standards and quality of higher education in universities, can be an appropriate and neutral agency in ranking them. Some letter writers have suggested that the press should assume this responsibility
I would like to bring to the attention of the readers the work of the Council of Social Sciences (COSS), an autonomous, non-profit and politically neutral body of social scientists that came into existence in 2000. Since its inception, the council has described and evaluated the state of the social sciences in the country and issued a number of publications on the subject.
At present the council is finalising a study which has ranked the social science departments and disciplines in various universities. It has used three indicators of their performance: the number of PhD and MPhil theses they produced, the qualifications of their teachers and student-teacher ratio in them.
The study has prepared a list of theses written from 1948 to 2001. From this list it has worked out the number of theses a department produced annually and by adding all the theses the social science departments of different universities have produced, the council has calculated the ranks of the universities.
The council has also determined the overall educational qualifications of teachers in each of the 145 social science departments that existed in the country in the year 2001 to rank them. By adding the score of all social science departments in a university, it has determined the rank of 18 public universities. The council is planning to publish this study in the near future.
DR INAYATULLAH
President, Council of Social Sciences,
Pakistan, Islamabad
PRIME Minister Shaukat Aziz recently addressed students at Princeton University. His talk was entitled, ‘Pakistan’s Role in Regional Peace and Development’.
I always thought (and still do think) that Mr Aziz is a great finance minister and I appreciate the fact that, unlike most people in the government, he is well-educated, has extensive foreign experience and upholds his civilian, middle-class background.
But I am negatively biased towards him because of the fact that he is not an ‘elected’ prime minister. Pakistan needs to have an established democracy and this goal cannot be achieved while Gen Musharraf remains president with Shaukat Aziz as prime minister (not that there have been many worthy candidates in the past, but one can always hope).
Mr Aziz’s speech was a glossed-over version of the harsh realities in Pakistan, although he did make a few controversial points. He mentioned: “Pakistan is a misunderstood country that unfairly suffers from a negative image due to terrorism, extremism and communalism, clash of civilisations and value systems.”
I think he successfully identified the root causes of the problems in Pakistan, but Pakistan is suffering from a major identity crisis and imposing an identity on a relatively conservative nation is not a solution to the problem.
He emphasised the importance of free media and the growing number of television channels; however, based on what I saw on Pakistani television during my summer vacations, most of the programmes are rip-offs of either American or Indian television programmes.
These do not necessarily cultivate a more liberal mindset. Mr Aziz blamed the Aghan War for the creation of Al Qaeda-type militants. While that may be true, the Afghan refugees are Pakistan’s problem now and a better strategy should be developed to deal with the situation than simply repatriating and relocating them to Afghanistan.
The premier also neglected to mention the ban on political parties in Pakistan, although he made the point that elections were to be held next year.
Finally, Shaukat Aziz stated that “Pakistan is a responsible nuclear state” (since when?) while ignoring the entire debacle involving Dr A.Q. Khan in 2004.
He also failed to mention the issue of sectarian violence in Pakistan which I personally think is important for regional peace and stability.
However, I was pleased to note that Pakistan would continue to have good relations with neighbouring Iran and that he condemned the use of force against Iran.
MAHA QASIM
Princeton University, USA
THE other day our school went to a foreign fast food restaurant in Gulshan where they speak all languages — the restaurant employs special people.
The employees are all very much contended and courteous. They take pride in their work. They taught us how to speak in sign language.
Most of us spoke to a special person for the first time in our lives. We will always remember this experience.
Some years ago, a mob burned down a branch of this fast food chain. The chain responded by opening a new branch not far away from the burnt one.
But the new branch employs special people only. Few other employers in Pakistan would employ these people. This foreign chain did. It changed their lives. We owe this chain our gratitude. For look what we did to them, and what they are doing for us.
STUDENTS
Civilizations Public School
Karachi
YOUR editorial entitled ‘Fighting terorrism’ (Nov 13) offered a brief account of the rise of ideology of violence in the name of religion by dint of Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda and its infiltration in many Muslim societies, including Pakistan.
The terrorist ideology propounded by bin Laden, you were very right in saying, has been chiselled in the minds of many Muslims, including those who grew up in the relatively secular western societies, partly because of the miserable condition of the Muslim world and partly because of the exploitation of Quranic teachings by the miscreants.
It was suggested that to root out this ideology — which is in the interest of our own country and due to which we have already suffered a lot — instead of using force, the task should be handed over to teachers, intellectuals and ulemas.
As only an ideology can alter another ideology, so we would have to look whether the arguments used by militants to justify their acts as a work of God have any bases in the Holy Quran.
Obviously their assertions are vague and have no basis in Islam, but by using our madressahs and mosques where no one was there to stop them from their diabolical indoctrination they carried out their operations successfully.
So now by using the same means which the extremists used, i.e., the mosques and seminaries, the terrorists could be dealt with effectively.
Moreover, the dichotomy in our education system where madressahs impart education in a militant mode and the modern schools engender scepticism must be eliminated.
The mosques should not be allowed to become a breeding ground of sectarianism.
Unless this problem is dealt with urgently, it will be very difficult for anyone to save us from the effects of such ideologies.
NAUMAN YOUNIS LODHI
Rawalpindi
AFTER the departure of the British, the Muslims in Pakistan never envisaged they would have reason to celebrate a ‘Youm-i-Nijaat” again.
December 7 should go down in history as ‘Youm-i-Nijaat’ for the people of Pakistan, in general, and the people of the NWFP, in particular, if the MMA submits its resignations on that day.
A sizable majority of the NWFP will take a sigh of relief. Among the disillusioned people are the rich and the poor, the educated and the uneducated, the religious and the non-religious.
Under the pretext of Islam, the the MMA has exploited not only religion but the very people who follow it.
FAISAL JAN
Peshawar
THE outcome of the US elections has swept the rug under the Republicans. The Bush coterie feels alienated and apart from Rumsfeld. Many heads will roll like nine pins.
The Iraq policy will undergo a massive upheaval, resulting in the collapse of imported puppets as their strings slacken, already there is talk of partition of Iraq, which suggests loss of interest in the enterprise which has cost billions of dollars.
With the victory of the Democrats in both houses and governorships, the Bush government faces a checkmate.
The world feels apprehensive that they will disturb the chessboard and hand over oil-rich prime land to Israel in a Balfour-like declaration.
RAFI ADAMJEE
Karachi
WITH the approaching elections in 2007, we are once again being bombarded with promises of ‘A better Pakistan’, progress and development. Each candidate picks up his favourite social problem and then harps on about how he/she is going to fix it.
Of course, these promises hardly ever materialise but at least they acknowledge the existence of problems.
The one issue they all fail to address, however, is a disease which has been plaguing the country for a long time. I call this disease, “pass the buck”.
You can see its manifestations in every corner of the country, from the rural backwaters to the most modern urban centres.
Our politicians thrive on it like bacteria, and the people simply provide oxygen to support it. Everyone is looking for someone to blame for their misery; the poor blame the rich, the rich blame the system, the system blames the people. Furthermore, the people blame the politics, the socialists blame the liberals and vice versa. No one ever wants to really do anything about it.
Somewhere along the way we have forgotten all about self-help, a sense of civic responsibility, so important to human progress and development, which is severely lacking in our people.
We really do not need more hot air about better roads, more jobs, less inflation, and more schools and hospitals.
What we need is something bigger than that, something which requires a lot more strength and effort than any of these other individual efforts. What we really need is for someone to stand up and say: “The buck stops here.”
SIKANDER EJAZ
Lahore
NOW is perhaps the most crucial time for the United States to seek help from Iran in stabilising the anarchy situation in Iraq. But as a whole, Iran once again has got a significant importance in the current scenario. The tension of Iran’s nuclear power has taken a secondary status now that the US is more concerned about Iran’s role in helping to stabilise Iraq.
Another aspect of Iran’s importance is its energy resources in which both China and Russia are interested. So Iran now has the prime opportunity to utilise the situation. Iran can play the role of arbitrator in Iraq by putting some conditions to the US.
If the US takes help from Iran, it must soften its behaviour towards it. And if Iran joins Russia in the energy sector, it will not only lead to an energy provider’s bloc but also this bloc may change the politics.
For Europe it will be a critical situation as Europe is already worried about its dependence on Russia for energy. So both Europe and the US can be by Iran if it tries to manipulate the situation.
M. REHMAN
Islamabad
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