| December 01, 2006 | Friday | Ziqa'ad 9, 1427 |
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Behind the assassination
Accepting ground realities
Cellphone snatching
Nadra: a tale of apathy
Adjusting to multi-faith societies
Rallies vs public
Three cheers for LEA
Long-term allies
Lest we forget
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
DECEMBER 1 is World Aids Day. The story of HIV/Aids in Pakistan is set against a backdrop of poverty, gender inequalities and low levels of literacy; the general public is now more vulnerable to HIV/Aids than ever before and due to several specific situations of risk. The latest United Nations report recently warned that 85, 000 people in Pakistan, representing 0.1 per cent of the country’s adult population, were estimated to be infected with HIV at the beginning of 2006 and the death toll had reached 3,500.
In Pakistan there is still limited epidemiological data on HIV/Aids and almost no resources or facilities to measure HIV prevalence among vulnerable groups, apart from a few pilot studies of some high-risk groups. This is a cause for concern because of the potential for HIV to spread to the general population.
The people living with HIV and Aids need care and support. The present infrastructure of the government caters to two or three hundred HIV/Aids patients only, as there are only four or five government facilities that provide Anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs to HIV/Aids patients. Hospital locations make things even worse. People living with HIV/Aids have not only medical needs but also economic and social needs. They need to be looked after, cared for and supported by the society because of the discrimination and stigma attached to the disease.
However, innovative and increased efforts are needed to prevent HIV. To meet the challenge of keeping the next generation HIV free, it is necessary to invest more resources to protect young people of both sexes. To commemorate the World Aids Day in Pakistan the Association of People Living with HIV and Aid’ is being established. It is very necessary that this association, the civil society organisations, government of Pakistan and UNAINDS come together and fight the escalating HIV/Aids epidemic in Pakistan before it is too late. Until a cure is found for this disease, the government as well as the public and private sectors should do all they can to prevent this disease from spreading.
RABAIL Q.
Karachi
IN a recent issue of Time magazine there is an advertisement by Pakistan’s national AIDS control programme regarding awareness and health education. This is clearly a waste of time, money and effort. They should know that only a handful of people in this country subscribe to this expensive magazine. This advertisement must not have been cheap by any standard. The ministry of health and the national AIDS control programme should use some common sense before embarking on these kinds of blunders that do nothing more than waste national resources.
DR ABDULLAH PATHAN
Quetta
HOW very convenient for Israel! Just when it appeared that Syria was being allowed to come out of the pariah status to which it had been condemned by President Bush and friends, so that it could help pull America’s chestnuts out of the fire in the quagmire that is Iraq has become, a Christian, allegedly anti-Syria cabinet minister in Lebanon, is assassinated.
For CNN, Fox news and the BBC, this is currently providing round-the-clock fodder for their partisan propaganda guns to almost total exclusion of daily murders of innocent civilians by Israel in Gaza and other atrocities on hapless Muslims around the world by America and Britain.
Now that the western media is pointing the finger at Syria (and piling on ‘circumstantial’ evidence by the ton), the prospect of rapprochement with Syria by America -- a possibility that is dreaded by Israel, Syria’s arch-enemy — has receded into the future. How very opportune for Israel! For a change, Tony Blair has chosen not to tow the American line by not rushing to accuse Syria of complicity.
Another cause for satisfaction by Israel in the development is that the assassination aggravates the already tense relationship between Hezbollah and the Christian community in Lebanon and this mitigates somewhat the universal feeling of hatred for Israel in Lebanon following its murderous blitz on the civilian population during recent attack on Lebanon and creates difficulties for Hezbollah at home.
In the absence of any direct evidence of the perpetrator of the crime, therefore, the finger of suspicion must point at Israel as the direct beneficiary of the assassination and not at Syria which has a great deal to lose by it.
Here one must ask how long will America al1ow Israel to sour America’s relations with a large section of the world’s population which is a direct result of Israel’s murderously expansionist designs and actions -- both overt and covert -- in defiance of innumerable UN resolutions and indeed against all norms of civilised behaviour. WAJID NAEEMUDDIN
Karachi
M.Y. Khan’s letter ‘Jaswant Singh’s talk’ (Nov 29), makes for interesting reading. I find his remark about India being responsible for Pakistan’s “floundering’ to be queer. I also wonder where he has come with the figure of nine million of Muslims massacred in 1947 while the figure for Hindus massacred were only a fraction of this.
India has fought more wars than Pakistan; if India could recover from them why couldn’t Pakistan? India was not responsible for the crackdown on the Awami League in East Pakistan by Yahya Khan. The events that followed need no justification. The only reason Pakistan flounders is the hold the army has in its national polity and the fact that it has not matured as a nation in the manner a nation ought to be run (judiciary, parliament, elections, etc). Is India responsible for the coups that keep happening with monotonous regularity? How can a partition that took place 50 years ago be the reason for poor mental health of the nation today?
Accepting ground realities is the key to move forward. Till the army in Pakistan does not stay in their barracks and its people start deciding their own future, the nation will continue to ‘flounder’ as Mr Khan has put it.
ANAND K. SINGH UP
, India
IT was amusing to read M.Y. Khan’s letter. This behaviour is typical of South Asians; instead of rationalising and owning up to our weaknesses, we tend to blame our neighbours for all our problems. We also start proposing solutions to our neighbours’ problems.
I have one simple question to ask Mr Khan. The three important challenges that Pakistan faces today are growth of religious fanaticism and terrorism, lack of a democratic culture, and increased poverty resulting from lack of economic growth. Are these problems caused by India or did they arise from wrong choices made by the leaders and masses of Pakistan?
Instead of worrying about Dalits and Christians in India, should not Mr Khan be more concerned about the plight of women in Pakistan or the total breakdown of law and order in the large metropolis of Karachi?
S. RAVI
Singapore
ON Nov 21, as I opened the gate of my house on Zamzama Boulevard to go to my clinic, two young men put a pistol to my temple and snatched my mobile phone (0300-8907525). I immediately rushed in my car to the Mobilink office which is also situated on the same road.
The staff was kind enough to immediately close the number and issue me another SIM of the same number. The whole process took 10 minutes. As I came out of the Mobilink shop, I found my car, Suzuki Mehran AEY 514, standing at a distance without the front bumper.
A traffic police inspector was standing besides the car. A few yards away a towing vehicle with Defence Housing Authority logo was standing with the bumper of my car. The inspector told me that if I will not pay the fine for the wrongly parked car, more damage would be done to the car.
He ordered me to pay Rs200 to the driver of the Defence Housing Authority towing vehicle, which I did immediately. The driver issued me receipt No. 2815.
The traffic police inspector after checking all my papers asked me to pay a fine of Rs600 for parking violation. I explained to him the agonising process which I had gone through 20 minutes back. But he did not bother to listen: I gave him a currency note of Rs1000. He said he did not have the change and asked me to leave. On my refusal, he threatened me with dire consequences of pounding the car. I drove away dazed.
I would request the DHA authorities to ask the drivers of the DHA car-lifting vehicles to be careful not to damage the cars and take action against the driver.
I would also request the DIG, traffic police, to take action against the traffic police inspector for taking Rs1000 from me, not issuing a challan receipt and not returning the rest of the money. On inquiring, I have come to know that the challan fee for parking violation is Rs150.
Dr IRSHAD AHMED SETHI
Karachi
MY wife and I obtained passports when in government employment. When computerised NIC was introduced, we were living in a rented house, which address was entered in the card. Later we moved to our own house. Since the passports were to expire and new machine readable ones were to be obtained, we thought it expedient to have the address of our own house on both the NICs and the passports.
We visited the Fortress Stadium centre of Nadra, obtained the token and were shown to the hall where key-punch operators (KPOs) were busy entering data. When the operator started asking us the primary questions, we inquired as to why particulars available on record cannot be pulled up by swapping the card through the machine more so when substitution is to be made only in the columns for ‘permanent residential address’.
He, however, insisted that full data be given. We were then asked to move to the photographer and then to the finger-printer hereafter. Finally, we were given a computer printout of new applications. The gentleman at the counter then instructed us to get the details, as entered on the form, verified by a gazetted officer and to deposit these along with original ‘utility bill’ having the address which we wanted to appear on the card.
A letter from the cantonment board intimating that the house has been transferred in my name was not acceptable and the insistence remained for utility bill of gas, electricity or telephone. This form, after attestation etc, was to be deposited within 10 days or else the fee would be forfeited and process undergone afresh.
The argument that though utility bills may have continued in the name of the original owner, the transfer of ownership of the house was a more reliable evidence, was brush aside with disdain.
Back at home, I read the entries in the form rather carefully as these were to be presented, for attestation, before “a gazetted officer not below the rank of B-17”. I was astonished by the following entries:
— Column 16 – Level of Education: “Post Graduate”
— Column 19 – Profession: “Armature Winder”, and
— Column 20 – Professional: “Unemployed”.
Obviously the KPO was either irresponsible or incompetent, or both, in as much as a post-graduate senior citizen of over 65 years (as per the date of birth already noted on the form) could not be considered unemployed or an armature winder when he had unequivocally mentioned his past employment as “state functionary of the superior services”. I could not make out whether it was a prank (at state expense) or hostility to undermine Nadra or just uninterested discharge of duties.
Next day I visited the in charge of the centre, but his attitude was equally nonchalant though he screened on his personal computer the relevant record and started correcting the mistakes. Of no avail was my insistence that recording the term ‘unemployed’ on the forms of those (male and female) who have long crossed the age of retirement or those who (unfortunately) for lack of education, coupled with advanced age, are incapable of any economic activity, distorts the national statistics.
The idea to advise the clerk concerned to be careful in future was brushed aside as inconsequential denunciation. Further, when told that the surname was wrongly spelled on the form of my wife, the in charge attributed it to the computer which, by default, generates English spellings for Urdu words. With condemning reluctance he conceded to correct the mistake when confronted with my form where the computer had not made such a mistake as was the cause of complaint. No regret was expressed for the unfounded stand initially taken.
The well-known observation that computer would throw out garbage if it is fed with garbage, should serve as a word of caution for taking utmost care when feeding data in the computer. A careless or incompetent bunch of KPOs can sabotage the whole operation because the flawed data would churn out wrong statistics resulting in wrong conclusions, leading to wrong policies.
In my own case, as detailed above, mentioning an already superannuated over-age person as ‘unemployed’ unnecessarily swells the number for which the government is expected to create job opportunities. The remedy is not simply to correct such mistakes, rather employ competent people for such jobs.
A.A. ZUBERI
Karachi
A NEWS item with the caption ‘Muslims asked to adjust to multi-faith societies’ appeared on your Internet edition (Nov 22). The article was about a speech made, a day earlier, by Dr Anwar Hussain Siddiqui, president of the International Islamic University in Islamabad, in which he exhorted Muslims living as minorities in non-Muslim countries to be respectful of laws of the country of their residence and “try to become an integral part of the societies in which they were living, instead of trying to be seen as strangers”.
This is a great piece of advice, but what about non-Muslim minorities living in Muslim majority societies? They should have the right to become an integral part of their societies too. If the discriminatory attitude of the majority, statutory provisions and even the country’s Constitution itself impede them, is it not the majority’s moral duty to rectify this situation? Muslims in America are protected by a system that treats everyone equally and ensures complete freedom of religion to all. The tragedy is that while enjoying the bounties of such systems, some Muslims of Pakistani origin living in America do not fathom the need to eradicate discriminatory laws and customs back in Pakistan. This hypocrisy is mind-boggling.
All societies are “multi-faith societies”, even those who pretend not to be so. It is the moral duty of every member of each society to respect diversity. One should demonstrate this magnanimity regardless of whether one is a member of a minority or the majority. In the end we all belong to the one majority, the human race.
SIDDIQUE MALIK
Louisville, USA
I AM a resident of Multan Road, Lahore, and I go to work by public transport. One morning when I reached the bus stop I was astonished to see an unusually large crowd of the people waiting for the same bus. We waited for a long time but no transportation was available.
This was the consequence of an MMA’s rally headed for Gujrat which caused the road and public transport to close down. Many of us were students who had to take examinations; the others were employees, women and old people. Everyone suffered due to the non-availability of public transport. I have a short question: What role the MMA is playing in favour of our beloved Pakistan and in the lives of the masses?
M.SAEED PIRACHA
Lahore
THE heading of this letter was my first impression when I read the news ‘Bandit rob many near Expo Centre’ (Metropolitan,, Nov 22).
When the Karachi city administration imposed ban on pillion-riding for 15 days, some quarters felt that the ban was imposed to provide fool-proof security to participating delegates of the IDEA exhibition. Later, the Karachi police chief ruled out the impression and said the move was made in a bid to control ‘street crime’.
When the reports of IDEA exhibition were pouring in before its beginning, one of my friends told me that since more than 11,000 personnel of law-enforcement agencies will be deployed in the city, Karachiites will have a sigh of relief, at least for four days, in terms of law and order situation related to street crime. But I had predicted to my friend that snatching of mobile phones and vehicles will continue as usual despite presence of 11,000 or so law-enforcement agencies’ officials.
The incident of Nov 20 in which a member of the team that organised IDEA was robbed along with many others on the road just opposite the Expo Centre. Interestingly, the incident occurred within minutes of departure of President Gen Pervez Musharraf who inaugurated the IDEA exhibition. My sympathies are with all those who lost their mobile phones, money and other valuables but this incident has exposed the tall claims of the government, the police and the city administration about the law and order situation to be under total control.
The government must admit that it has left the common people of this city at the mercy of God.
M. RAFIQUE ZAKARIA
Karachi
IT is heartening to hear that Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee will soon make a visit to Pakistan. This has been agreed when Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri is in India. There Mr Mukherjee is expected to invite President Pervez Musharraf for the Saarc summit in India. This will also pave the way for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s first visit to Pakistan since he took office.
All these meetings will give a new impetus to the peace process. Both countries should move on terrorism, CBMs and dispute resolution. It’s time that both governments took into confidence the people, other political parties and the opposition on the progress made through the back-channel. India and Pakistan should quickly remove the baggage of the events of the past century since they are long-term allies.
PRANAV SACHDEVA
New Delhi
I REFER to Mr Ardeshir Cowasjee’s recent column (Nov 26). I have two points to make:
He describes former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto as a democrat, socialist and humanist. Can Mr Cowasjee please explain how someone who denied the Awami Party of East Pakistan its right to form the government be considered a democrat?
How can one be described as a socialist when the slogan “roti, kapra aur makan” never became a reality in his regime? And, finally, how can someone be described as a humanist when anyone who opposed him was abducted and put away in some jail?
Mr Cowasjee says that the Qadiani community was declared non-Muslim and the concerned legislation was passed in 1974. Is this not a year during Bhutto’s era? I will plead with Mr Coswajee that yes, we all admire Bhutto’s many good qualities, but please don’t go overboard.
ZAKA SHEIKH
Surrey, England
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