| December 07, 2006 | Thursday | Ziqa'ad 15, 1427 |
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May I read a book of my choice?
Protecting consumers
Downpour a blessing?
Create a commission
Bahria Town affairs
Hudood laws: ongoing debate
Frankly speaking
MMA rally
Visible line
Shahid Nazir dropped
Lucky Yousuf
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
ACCORDING to a news story, the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament (EP) is currently debating a draft report on Kashmir (Dawn, Nov 30). The report is said to brush aside the demand for plebiscite in Jammu and Kashmir.
The British Member of EP, Baroness Emma Nicholson, who visited Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan and India in June, has prepared the document. She is the vice-chairperson of the EP’s Foreign Relations Committee and was appointed by the European Parliament to write a report on the final solution to the Jammu and Kashmir problem.
When the Baroness visited the disputed state on fact-finding mission in June, she evoked criticism for interacting only with the pro-India parties and not meeting separatist Kashmiri leaders or even the moderates among them.
This is an irresponsible and biased way of trying to find a solution to a long-festering problem severely affecting the human rights of millions of Kashmiris, which has undeniably turned the region into a nuclear flashpoint.
It may be recalled that a delegation of the European Union Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs, Common Security and Defence Policy had also been sent to both parts of Kashmir a couple of years back and had made a very fair assessment of the situation (Dawn, Aug 24, 2004).
Some of its observations regarding Indian-occupied Kashmir were:
a. The average of custodial killings of innocent Kashmiris stood at 17 a day.
b. One member, Mr David Bowe, noted: ‘‘Kashmir has been turned into the most beautiful prison in the world (by the 700,000 Indian troops).’’
c. Another member, Mr Gahrton, had said he failed to understand why India was antagonistic to the holding of a plebiscite as committed by the UN and the late Indian prime minister, Mr Nehru.
d. The Kashmiris, with Pakistan and India, must be involved in resolving the dispute; human rights abuses by the Indian troops must be stopped; ceasefire violations by India must stop, which had caused at least 1,000 deaths since early 2004; the Kashmiris’ struggle is indigenous and must be respected. It also demanded that the UN observers’ group be permitted entry by India.
Interestingly, it was also reported that India had withdrawn its assistance to future visits to the Valley by European parliamentary delegations. In view of all this, it appears very strange that the Baroness has come up with such a controversial and unjust proposal that is in total opposition to the findings of the earlier delegation.
This gross neglect of ground realities and requirements of justice is what fuels militancy in many Muslim lands languishing under foreign occupation. How could she have ignored the 100,000 Kashmiris who have lost their lives since their uprising against the Indian occupation began in 1989, thousands of women who have been raped and the other grave violations of human rights as acknowledged by groups like Amnesty international?
If the European Parliament really wishes to find an equitable solution to the dispute, the least it can do is to either act on the findings of the delegation of 2004, or to appoint a mission consisting of a number of parliamentarians.
This would preclude the possibility of one prejudiced/misinformed lawmaker coming up with an unjust proposal. Our foreign office must actively pursue the matter with the EP.
K CHAUDHRY
Karachi
EVERY year the federal government in collaboration with the Services Book Club provides books to its officers in BPS-17 and above against at source annual deduction of Rs200 from their salary.
I pay tribute to those who first presented and implemented this great idea decades ago. In my view, the spirit of this scheme was to make the officers develop the reading habit which would eventually help them to increase their knowledge, and thus broaden their vision and help improve official working.
The amount deducted is not the worry. It is the books provided which is questionable. For the last few years different volumes of a book entitled Muarif-ul-Quran have continuously been provided.
A few days back, the 8th volume of this book had been given against this year’s quota. Each volume contains certain chapters of the Quran along with translation and explanatory notes by Maulana Mufti Muhammad Shafi. Provision of a book without its reader’s consent and choice is unjust. I have reservations about this for the following reasons.
First, as we all know, there are different schools of thought in Islam, viz., Sunni, Deobandi, Shia and Ahle Hadith. All these factions have differences of beliefs among themselves. The book in question is written by a man who follows one of these schools of thought.
Even differences exist in the Urdu translation of the Arabic version what to talk about the explanatory notes which depend on the will of the explainer. All the Muslim officers follow different schools of thought and a follower of one school of thought would prefer not to read the Quran as translated by a follower of another school.
Second, it is a fact that there are officers who belong to the minorities. Is it appropriate to give an Islamic book to a non-Muslim officer?
Third, it also seems inappropriate to distribute a book on a particular subject among people having different interests.
Some people may like to read religious books but others may like to read literature, poetry, fiction, politics, law, etc. In my opinion, the true spirit of reading books goes to waste when a book on science is given to a reader with keen interest in literature and vice versa.
Similarly, a person with no interest in reading religious books would not benefit from such books.
Finally, most of our official work is carried out in English which is neither our first language nor our mother-tongue. So in order to improve our official working, we should be encouraged to improve our English by being given English books to read.
I would suggest that the authorities concerned give the officers a selection of at least 10 books (English only) on different subjects so that they can choose a book of their choice.
I am sure that by doing this the government would be better able to achieve their desired goals.
ABID H. FRAZ
Rawalpindi
NOW that the government has finally succeeded in partially protecting the rights of the women by having the Women’s Protection Bill passed by the National Assembly, we hope the president, the prime minister, the chief justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan and our “educated and enlightened” ministers and graduate assembly will give due to attention to protecting the rights of the consumers and introduce the Consumer Protection Bill and Consumer Courts.
Pakistan is one of the few countries in the world that does not have consumer protection laws, especially Sindh where the CPL was signed by the governor on Aug 12, 2004 but has never been presented to the Sindh Assembly to go through the due process to become legislation.
As Pakistan has never attached any importance to quality and standards, it has become a dumping ground for substandard and semi-expired goods. As a result, consumers are being blatantly poisoned and cheated by being supplied substandard and adulterated foods, beverages and medicines and escalating prices.
This has also affected investment in the country, our exports and our way of life as even basic laws are being ignored or violated without fear of punishment.
HELPLINE TRUST
Karachi
WHILE talking to a friend I commented upon the current weather in London. When I mentioned the heavy rains, he replied that the rains are ‘Baran-i-Rehmat’.
I had to remind him about ‘Toofan-i-Nooh’, which left him speechless. When will Muslims wake up from their slumber and realise that the weather is controlled by the laws of physics?
The same weather can be a blessing for one person and a calamity for the other.
This reminds me of an old folk tale about two brothers: one was a farmer and the other a potter. The first one asked his mother to pray for rain and the other asked her to pray for dry sunny weather.
She advised the first one to work harder at the water well and the other to cover all the mud pots with suitable covering.
Allama Iqbal said: Naheen iss khulee faza main koeey goshai-i-fraghat/Yeh jahan ajab jahan hai, naa qafas naa ashianaa.
KHALID A.
London
APROPOS of Mohammad Aleem Shaikh’s letter titled “Wheels of governance” (Dec 3), I can safely conclude that, along with the writer of the original article commented upon, these two gentlemen between them appear to be sufficiently capable of undertaking and completing the task assigned to the commission, i.e., “ remove obstacles in the way of efficient provision of services to achieve a visible improvement in the quality of life for the common man and fill the gap between the formulation of policies and simplification of rules”.
Here I am reminded of a famous saying concerning our system of governance, “If you want to do nothing on any popular demand without getting blame, just put a commission on it and forget your worries”.
This appears to be the design and very purpose of the creation of a National Commission for Government Reforms.
M. SAEED
Islamabad
BAHRIA Town, Rawalpindi, announced its phase VII in early 1998. According to the announcement, the cost of a 250-square-yard plot was Rs325,000 and these plots were supposed to be handed over to the allottees in five years’ time. Bahria Town later demanded Rs82,500 for a 250-square-yard plot for electrification, Sui gas and telephone charges from the allotees.
Now after eight years, plots have not been handed over to the allotees.
Bahria Town is again demanding Rs200,000 for 250-square-foot plot as town development charges, thus almost doubling the cost of the plot.
This is not justified. Instead of providing compensation to the allotees for not handing over the plots in time, the Bahria Town administration has escalated the price of plots.
Notice should be taken by the respective authorities and relevant departments for monopoly and illegal actions by the Bahria Town administration.
KHAlID EBAD
Karachi
I FULLY agree with Brig (r ) Mateen M. Mohajir (letter, Dec 5) that the MMA’s response to the passage of the Women’s Protection Bill is unwarranted and perplexing.
I would like to add that the fundamental aims and objectives of Islam are to provide justice to people without discrimination. Should the fate of our society be decided by generals, as one general suggests something and then the other comes in picture and changes it arbitrarily?
I don’t know what the aftermath of the bill will be but one thing is settled that in our society there is a great dearth of justice. If this bill is so meaningful, why are the same old atrocities against women being committed so soon after its passing in the parliament?
Laws written on paper are not a remedy unless they are implemented in letter and in spirit.
RAJA SAIM UL HAQ SATTI
Rawalpindi
WITH reference to the ongoing debate on the subject in general and in response to the letter of Brig (r) Mohajir, I would like to draw attention to a serious misconception of the writer and the public in general.
The lack of four witnesses does not mean that a rapist or an adulterer and adulteress will not be punished if material evidence, such as DNA test results, medical examination and fingerprints, is available.
In such a situation, only the Hadd punishment will not be applied. The ‘tazeer’ punishment will, of course, be applied — whatever that is as per the law of the land.
The Hadd punishment is supposed to work as a deterrent not to be put to use every weekend. Consider this: would two consenting adults commit adultery so openly that there may be four witnesses?
Of course not. So even if they get reported and even if there is material evidence the lack of four witnesses means that the Hadd punishment would not be applied.
In the case that a person rapes a girl, and the medical examination done within hours of the incident and DNA testing confirms it but there aren’t four witnesses — the person may be punished but the Hadd will not be applied.
How many rapes are reported in the UK and the US every day? How many are proven as rapes and in how many cases does the convict ‘walk’ because there isn’t enough evidence to prove whether it was rape or consensual sex?
If one looks at the historical evidence of convictions in rape cases, one will realise that even with all the latest technology rape is very hard to prove.
The major issue of the protection of women’s right in Pakistan lies not with the Hudood Ordinance (though I am sure it can and should be improved) but with our police system, our medical and legal system, as well as illiteracy and poverty.
To protect the rights of women in our society, these are the problems we must address.
It is indeed a great travesty to even think that Islamic jurisprudence would not consider material evidence.
This shows our collective ignorance of Islam and our history. Islamic jurisprudence, though not in practice, is as much if not more advanced than what the modern world has to offer.
People think that Islamic law is cruel because it prescribes public flogging or stoning to death. Some one needs to tell them that Allah has built in mechanisms into the code so that these punishments remain a deterrent and extremely difficult to implement.
ASIF MISBAH
Karachi
I REFER to Dawn’s special supplement on Aids (Dec 1) which was sponsored by the ministry of health to mark World Aids Day.
It was nice to see an advertisement in the supplement that read: “HIV is mostly transmitted through sexual intercourse with an infected person. Choose safety, wear a condom and help prevent the spread of HIV and AIDS”.
Thank God that we have finally learnt to speak openly about a subject that was considered a taboo in our society till recently.
Creating awareness about HIV and AIDS among the masses is very important.
Prevention is better than cure. Some diseases have no cure and the only way to avoid such diseases is to prevent it from spreading.
The publication of the supplement on HIV and AIDS will create awareness among the people who are unaware of the sources that cause this disease to spread.
M. RAFIQUE ZAKARIA
Karachi
THIS is with reference to the letter by Mr M. Saeed Piracha (Dec 1) bewailing the lack of transport in Lahore that particular day because the MMA rally had disrupted the transport system.
This is not the first, nor the last, time that this has happened. These ‘religious’ parties have turned our religion into a ‘fitna’. They should know that the first duty of every Muslim is not to take action that will hurt another human being. May God give some common sense and character to our maulanas.
It is true the so-called secular parties also cause inconvenience to the people, but at least they do not claim to work for religious causes.
RIZWAN YASSIN
Karachi
I HAD to take a test at a five-star hotel in Lahore last week. When I reached the general bus station at Badami Bagh, I asked a rickshaw driver to take me to the hotel but he refused.
He said that rickshaws are not allowed to pass in front of the hotel. This was very astonishing to me.
Why draw such a visible line between the haves and have-nots; is it necessary to proclaim so emphatically that such hotels are only for those people who live in the lap of luxury?
IMRAN BHATTI
Sialkot
IT was surprising to see that Shahid Nazir was not selected in the squad for the One-day series. It’s very hard for players to perform again after being dropped from the team, yet he has continuously proved his worth, even after playing on average only one Test a year.
Nazir is a genuine swing bowler and can trouble any batsman on any kind of pitch. To say that he would be a vital bowler on the next tour of South Africa would be an understatement.
I would encourage the selection committee to make him a regular part of the team so that he can further build on his confidence and boast the much deprived bowling attack of the Pakistan team.
SYED WAQAS BALKHI
Karachi
PRESIDENT Musharraf has given Rs5 million to the record-breaking Mohammad Yousuf while the prime minister awarded him Rs1 million a day earlier. While encouraging players with such incentives is understandable, one would like to know whose money is being doled out by them.
I can understand the wealthy PM parting with an odd million or so quite easily, but I never knew Gen Musharraf to be that rich to gift away millions to the cricketer.
By the way, was it their own money they gave away or the tax-payers’? If it is theirs, they are most welcome to do whatever they wish. But if it is yours and mine, at least no one has asked me before giving it away so generously.
Does the Constitution permit our leaders do what they wish with funds we have entrusted to them? One would like to know their financial powers in this regard.
COL (r) RIAZ JAFRI
Rawalpindi
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