| December 13, 2006 | Wednesday | Ziqa'ad 21, 1427 |
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PIA’s predicament
Unjust to women
Intelligence for or against?
Education for all
Afghan affairs
SBP policy on lending rates
NBF: Readers’ Club
The soft image
New stance on Kashmir
Employees are human beings
Tax appeals
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
RECENTLY there was news in Dawn that officials of NAB had stormed into the house of a businessman in Karachi and harassed his wife to the extent that she had to seek help of the chief justice of the Sindh High Court and in the process she fell unconscious in the court’s premises. But there are many instances of people falling unconscious because of the arbitrary use of powers by NAB, which goes unreported.
This is happening due to the open-ended power that has been conferred on NAB officials, specially in cases in which an investigation is initiated into the personal assets of a civil servant. There exists no rules or code of conduct for carrying out an investigation, and NAB authorities simply make a call at the residence and summon the person to their offices.
An investigation starts with a biased perspective to achieve a pre-determined result, as the same is not based on objectivity but on subjective considerations with a view to forcing the person to make voluntary payment to the greatest extent so that NAB officials get the 25 per cent of the deposited amount. Notices are issued to women and elderly persons without consideration of chadar and chardiwari and they are coerced into giving a statement to achieve the desired result.
Although it is a settled principle of law that where the burden of proof has been shifted to the accused, his statement is to be judged on the scale of balance of probabilities rather than beyond reasonable doubt, and the onus of proof remains on the prosecution to disprove his statement.
But NAB does not follow any rule of law and insists on production of evidences which had been conducted decades back. It is not ready to accept that the wife of a person can also earn to supplement her husband’s inadequate income.
Further, the parents, brothers, sisters and any other persons closely or remotely connected with the person under investigation are called by NAB and harassed and intimated on grounds of created connections. Property owned by parents are unduly investigated although they are not dependant on the person under investigation.
Further, every investigation has to be time-bound but in the case of NAB it is infinite and can continue for even more than five years. Ironically, when NAB does not have the teeth to probe and investigate persons who were involved in sugar scandal, stock market scam and selling Pakistan Steel for dimes, it initiates suo motu action against helpless persons for the purpose of extortion and to earn money by way of 25 per cent. This has become a form of legalised corruption.
The chief justice of Pakistan should take suo motu action against the excesses being committed by NAB and direct the authorities concerned to frame the rules or code of conduct for carrying out investigation and specify the maximum time under which an investigation is to be concluded.
Women or the elderly in the family should not be summoned in the absence of nexus and, if necessary, a questionnaire should be issued to them to which they should be required to submit answer and if the answer is not acceptable, then they should be confronted with the adverse evidence and if NAB is not in possession of the same, the statement of the family members should be unquestionably accepted.
If these steps are not taken immediately to curb the unbridled power of NAB, it will become another Gestapo and an instrument of state tyranny in the name of accountability and eradicating corruption.
MUHHAMAD AHMED
Edinburgh, UK
MR Tahir Siddiqui’s report ‘PIA financial woes likely to aggravate’ (Dec 6) is a sad but true reflection on an institution in disarray due to incompetence, nepotism, corruption and mismanagement. There was a time that this airline was regarded as the primary institution of repute and a source of pride for the country.
PIA’s problems are not the over 15,000 employees on its payroll, but the calibre of its executives and their wrong priorities. The six-figure salaries of some executives, with no experience in aviation, are the real virus, which tends to make this profit-making entity go in a loss.
The unbridled abuse of discretionary powers has robbed this airline of billions and become a source of humiliation for honest employees. Aircraft are taken on lease, at sky-high rates, which make the whole operation economically unviable.
The airline had enough loyal customers, most of them of Pakistani origin, simple folk, who found it comfortable and at home travelling in their green-tailed national airline.
It is not their choice to be served by foreign hostesses, nor do they seek high-tech gadgets which most are unfamiliar with, but the self-created priorities of a management, totally unfamiliar with its client profile.
PIA has failed to retain the vast potential of revenue-paying Pakistani ethnic traffic and cargo. It has the advantage of having a dedicated fixed eight-month Umra and Haj traffic, comprising passengers that are least demanding.
Given this vast potential, the management must have made a real mess to drive this airline into a financial mess on the verge of bankruptcy, while the nominated board of directors were busy in their free-bies, globe-trotting around the world.
Except for Nur Khan, who did wonders, all the other retired khakis have also collectively harmed this organisation from within.
SHAHZAD KHALIL
Sialkot
AMONG other things, Irfan Husain mentions in his latest column ‘Unjust to women’ (Dec 9) that he had no answer for a woman correspondent who asked him why she should follow a faith that made her inferior to men.
This illustrates a common problem with so-called ‘enlightened’, ‘moderate’ and ‘progressive’ Muslims. In their effort to exhibit the extent of their enlightenment, they pass judgment on Islamic injunctions when their knowledge of scripture is at best rudimentary.
Their way of interpreting Islamic decrees is akin to the crimes of the Greek mythology figure of Procreates who used to stretch, chop and bend his victims to fit his special bed. Such people approach religion with mordancy and resort to misconstruing Islamic injunctions to make them fit their preconceived notions.
A basic scrutiny of comparative religion would provide Mr Husain and his correspondent with the answer to their question. Out of all religions, Islam is the first to elucidate a basic charter of the rights of women. Surah Nisa and Surah Noor alone would suffice to prove this point.
These rights were introduced by Islam to a society where women were sold as items of trade and wives were passed on from father to son. Would people belonging to such a society have accepted women as equals all at once?
Islam is a very practical religion; it takes into consideration human limitations and the intricate web of society. One wonders what this word emancipation means to certain people though.
If it means equal rights with men, it is in complete harmony with the spirit of Islam. But if it means the right to lewdness and vulgarity then, indeed, Islam cannot emancipate women.
The Quran gives us basic instructions: if one expects the Quran to provide every minute detail of existence he will never benefit from its teachings.
The Quran is a book of guidance: it is the light that shows us the way. It is up to us to complete the journey.
KHWAJA KHUSRO TARIQ
New York, USA
APROPOS of the news items ‘Frontier CM accuses IB of bomb attack bid’ (Dec 6) and ‘Frontier PA calls for IB officials’ arrest’ (Dec 7), till today the common people were of the view that all intelligence agencies work in the extreme interest of the country and their utmost job is to covertly keep an eye on, observe and monitor elements working and conspiring against the interests of the country.
This is a rare example perhaps at least to come to public in which the chief minister of the province accuses an intelligence agency of conspiring against the provincial government.
This event of ‘arrest of an IB official’ by the police and then his release expedited by a ‘joint director-general’ of the same agency is extraordinary, or one should say, unprecedented for becoming a news report as it appeared in the media for general public to read.
The NWFP is part of Pakistan and it should be treated as such, notwithstanding the representation of provincial government and its opposition to the centre.
By the same token, the Frontier government should also conduct itself in a responsible manner which does not affect the integrity of the country and the federation of Pakistan.
We do not know what exactly happened and with petite luck will never know in the future either, but the prudent way to sort out these matters was to contact either the prime minister under whose supervision the IB works or use channels which are deliberated to resolve such issues which require extra sensitive care in handling as this accusation and the whole scenario could blow out of proportions and could go ‘out of control’.
ANAS A. KHAN
Edmonton, Canada
THIS refers to your editorial ‘Ensuring education for all’ (Dec 2). It is revealed that 6.5 million children in the age group of five to nine years in Pakistan are out of school. The situation is shocking. To counter the situation, it is proposed to inject more money in the education system.
But feudal lords, as a policy, keep their people illiterate/uneducated. School buildings are used by them as ‘autaq’, cattle-sheds or storage facilities.
There are 12,737 ghost schools in the country as revealed in the National Education Census (Dawn, Oct 7). Also, there are far more ghost teachers. Beneficiaries of this shocking revelation are not the ghosts but landlords and influential people of rural areas in collusion with the education department. Therefore, any further funds injected into the system will go into wrong pockets.
The need is, therefore, to prepare the ground, i.e., motivate landlords to let children be educated in the larger interest of the nation. In any case, the government’s existing education system is flawed. It needs reforms to conform to democratic norms. No O or A level — one system, one syllabus and common examination system for all Pakistani students. This could only be achieved through a democratic dispensation.
ABDUL SAMAD KHAN
Karachi
MR Ghani Dotani’s rejoinder (Dec 6) could hardly have been more Orwellian. He has tried to distort history of recent decades, but all people don’t forget things so readily.
He has labelled my contention that Pakistan had helped Afghans expel the Soviets from Afghanistan as a “gross misrepresentation of facts.” In his view, the Soviets had entered Afghanistan at the invitation of its government led by Noor Mohammad Taraki.
The Soviet Union had come there “to help the progressive government in Kabul to defend the . . . Saur Revolution from the obscurantists who were fully backed by foreign forces,” he continues.
Mr Dotani has turned a blind eye to how Moscow’s communists had converted many East European states into their satellites, including the Muslim Albania, imposing communism by colluding with local collaborators, when necessary.
Many other Islamic republics in Central Asia were occupied and converted to their ideology. The Soviets had sent troops into Poland while there was a full-scale invasion of Czechoslovakia in the 1960s and trouble in Hungary as well.
No wonder, all the Soviet satellites and Islamic Republics hastened to break away from Moscow’s grip as soon as the USSR collapsed.
Ironically, the correspondent has termed the Afghans who ‘invited’ the USSR into Afghanistan as ‘progressive’ and called the Muslims fighting to preserve the Islamic character of their country as ‘obscurantists’.
Coincidentally, Dawn’s editorial, ‘The Afghan mess’, published in the same day’s issue noted that Afghan leader Babrak Karmal “came to Kabul riding a Soviet tank . . . ”.
If the Soviets had succeeded in Afghanistan, soon enough they would have got somebody in Pakistan also to ‘invite’ them in.
Noor Mohammad Taraki, Babrak Karmal or any leader in another country calls for outside help only when he or the system he wishes to impose is unpopular amongst the people and resorts to such undemocratic and treacherous methods to grab or retain power.
Finally, Mr Dotani touched the height of cynicism by holding Pakistan responsible for forcing millions of Afghans to take refuge in neighbouring countries because of its support to the ‘insurgents’ (Bushpeak for ‘freedom fighters’) over there.
How about the US, the UK, other western and Muslim countries that were supporting the Afghan mujahideen, all of whom, like Pakistan, had called a spade a spade?
S. KARIM
Karachi
THIS has reference to the speech made by State Bank of Pakistan Governor Dr Shamshad Akhtar (Dec 3) regarding lending rates which, she says, stand lower than those of countries in the region.
According to her, these should be further increased. Thus she wants banks working under the SBP to further multiply their profits at the cost of industry.
Banks like the ABL and the UBL were incurring losses a few years back but now they are making profits in billions.
These profits encourage banks to open new branches, etc. China is planning to open a bank in Pakistan. An European bank is also coming up.
But the problem is that unless industry, which is a client of banks, gets relief, runs and makes profit, banks will not grow and prosper.
Years back when mark-up was 8 per cent, business started and production geared up — business activities in Pakistan were at their peak. Property started adding values.
But now, when mark-p is 13 per cent, business activities are down, textile is downsizing. Property rates have gone down and buying stopped.
Let industry work and for this the mark-up is one major factor which allows you to compete in the world.
India stands at second position in the software industry. Will Dr Shamshad Akhtar tell us the position of Pakistan in that ranking list?
SHAHBAZ SIDDIQUI
Karachi
ANY service to mankind and particularly in the field of education is highly adorable and praiseworthy.
The National Book Foundation has recently formed a Readers’ Club (I am also a member) allowing one person to purchase books (with some restrictions) from specified book shops at a 50 per cent discounted price.
However, the total original cost of the purchased books should not exceed Rs2,000, say in one year.
In the above context I would request the National Book Foundation authorities to increase this amount to Rs20,000 as the cost of printing material is very high and very few books could be purchased in the allowed amount.
Moreover, I had to return empty-handed after travelling quite a distance on two occasions when the shop’s employee, authorised to prepare the NBF bill, was absent.
One does not visit Urdu Bazaar so frequently. I hope the National Book Foundation will remove this discrepancy without delay and inform its readers through these columns.
S. HASAN SHAHID RIZVI
Karachi
THE book, A Mighty Heart by Mariane Pearl on the life and death of the Wall Street journalist Daniel Pearl in Karachi is being put on celluloid.
The film stars Angelina Julie; her husband Brad Pitt is the producer. Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and beheaded in Karachi five years ago.
Instead of shooting the film on the actual locale, the film unit is in Pune, India. A few Pakistani actors are there for the shoot. The reason: Pakistan is not safe enough a country.
After seven years of bloodshed, bombings and what not under the guise of fighting terrorism, this government has failed to make this country safe for foreigners.
It is unsafe, nay dangerous for its own citizens (kidnappings, murders, car snatchings and rapes).
No doubt the captain is abandoning the crew en masse and trying to take on new deck hands.
The ship itself seems to have sprung a leak; the water is in the hold and the steering wheel is jammed. As in 1969, 1988 and now 2006, the joke “it is déjà vu all over again” is on us.
ASLAM MINHAS
Karachi
ISN’T it a pity that even after almost 60 years of intransigence on the Kashmir issue there is this old school that still can’t get the big picture?
Bandying the ‘national security’ doctrine and allowing it to come in the way of progress that would likely chart the future course of these two countries up (or down) the socio-economic ladder doesn’t quite cut it from an economic perspective.
Here is a man, Gen Musharraf, attempting to throw up some out-of-the-box options, and then there is Dr Ashraf (letter, Dec 8) who sounds like a strong nationalist, albeit from the sidelines, styming the process.
If nothing else, his comments sound anachronistic, clearly out-of -step with the real world. What is Dr Ashraf’s stake in the future of the region? Or if that’s too macro, let’s just focus on Pakistan.
MADHU LALL
Toronto, Canada
AT 11pm on a cold November night in Islamabad, I saw six employees of the city’s busiest catering company hanging behind a loaded company truck.
They were probably going back to the company after finishing with some wedding party. When will employers in Pakistan learn to treat their employees as human beings?
MUNZAR ATA
Islamabad
THIS refers to Rehan Hasan Naqvi’s ‘Disposal of tax appeals’ (letter, Dec 5) wherein he has raised objection to using the word ‘disposal’ for ‘decision’ by the tax authorities. I do not challenge Mr Naqvi for the literal dictionary meaning he has given for the above two expressions.
However, being a senior and distinguished tax practitioner, he must be aware of the fact that in departmental parlance for ‘decision’ the expression historically applied is always ‘disposal’. Thus in my opinion ‘stress for disposal’ in no way distorts the spirit of message and obviously does not cause any harm to the tax-payers.
RAFIQUE AHMED SIDDIKI
Karachi
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