| December 16, 2006 | Saturday | Ziqa'ad 24, 1427 |
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Auditors for small NBFCs
Residents’ woes
Accumulated bills
National losses
SPSC vs unemployment
Indian judiciary
Gathering storm?
Composite exams
Road in a mess
Army building govt schools
Pearls of experience
Pandora’s box
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
THIS is about the most beautiful park in Pakistan, Ayub National Park, once famous for its green dense forest and enormous animal habitat. The park, which had numerous lakes and divine beauty, is in the midst of ruins. People who loved nature and wildlife had great attraction for the park.
The park was home to numerous birds and animals. Besides migratory birds, the park was home to hedgehogs, boars, jackals and foxes. The park has been torn apart piece by piece. First, Gen Zia extended a golf club into the park.
However, the extended portion was open for the public. Later the club was extended further and almost half of the park was engulfed into the golf club.
All the destructive work is being done by our army. The leftover portion was invaded in Gen Musharraf’s regime by the army again.
The leftover portion is divided into many sectors. One sector has been allocated for the army Heritage Foundation. The other sector has been allocated for industrial exhibitions. Again a blunder.
Industrial exhibitions have been held many times before but in the Nawaz Sharif Park on Murree Road. It best suited for the exhibition because no one had to cut any trees to fix hundreds of stalls and tents.
The leftover land has been occupied by army personnel along with their heavy equipment for the safety of the nearby army house.
They can establish security posts but why the golf club and the heritage foundation and industrial exhibition. Why has a great national asset been brought to ruins?
Besides being a great national asset, the park was an attraction for foreign tourists. I have brought many foreigners myself and they were really amazed by the divine beauty the park had. It is regrettable that no one even in the National Assembly raised any hue and cry on the destruction of this great national asset. No one even from NGOs raised a voice against the destruction of the park.
I wish the beauty of the park could be restored as it was before 1987. All the mess, e.g., golf club, heritage foundation and industrial exhibition site, should be flushed out as soon as possible because the park was constructed long ago with the money of the people of Pakistan and not with the money army had earned.
I write this letter on behalf of all those nature lovers who shed their tears of sorrow in private in order to defuse their tension caused by the destruction of the park.
This act of the army alone shows that it’s not ‘Sub say pahlay Pakistan’.
SARFRAZ ABIDI
Islamabad
THE Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan is a professional organisation, and always does its best as a regulator to ensure that all concerned are treated equitably.
However, on account of audit of NBFCs, including modarabas and insurance companies, the SECP insists on using category A auditors only, even if NBFCs have assets worth Rs30 million to Rs300 million and have one/some branches.
However, the criterion used by the SECP is similar to what the State Bank Of Pakistan prescribes in its various circulars for audit of banks/NBFIs.
Whereas the SBP criterion states that banks/NBFIs with assets worth Rs50 billion and above with 100 or more branches may use category A auditors, whereas banks /NBFIs with assets between Rs5 billion and Rs50 billion with up to 99 branches may use categories A and B, and banks/NBFIs with assets of less than Rs5 billion with below 10 branches may engage auditors of category A, B or C, the SECP insists that NBFCs, including modarabas and insurance companies, use auditors of category A only, as mentioned above.
Most NBFCs have much less than Rs5 billion assets and lots of them have less than 10 branches.
In fact, a number of modarabas and insurance companies have assets in the range of Rs30 million to Rs300 million and have single office/a few offices, thus the SECP should allow NBFCs with Rs30 million to Rs300 million assets and have one or a few offices/branches to engage auditors of categories A, B and C except for larger institutions where categories A and B audit should be engaged as stated.
At present, small NBFCs are forced by the SECP to engage category A auditors only. This insistence of the SECP creates doubts and shows favouritism.
This act of the SECP is likely to lead to the formation of cartel among category A audit firms. Hence, it is strongly suggested that the SECP should follow the SBP guidelines for small NBFCs, and allow categories A, B and C audit firms for engagement, as this would result in an equitable level playing field for all firms of all categories of audit firms.
NAILA KHAN
Karachi
WE, the residents of Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Block-6, opposite the KMC playground near Aero Club, are in great distress. We are deprived of a healthy living environment. Some of the major points are mentioned here for remedial action by the authorities concerned.
Two large garbage containers are kept just in front of bungalow C/27/6 on the main road. The bulk of garbage is poured in from adjacent flats/complexes and commercial areas around. Further garbage is brought in by donkey-carts and push-carts from far-flung areas of Blocks 6 and 7, creating a huge dump of rotten material. This results in a foul smell forcing residents of our lane to keep their windows shut, thus depriving us of fresh air. The polluted air is not only injurious to the health of the residents but also of the young boys who come to play in the playground.
Mosquitoes and flies breed in the dump. Animals, i.e., cows and goats, are brought from around to be fed on the garbage. Animals spread the rubbish on the road, narrowing the road, creating a traffic hazard. Health-wise, aesthetically or legally the placing of these two large containers at this place is wrong.
To overcome the problem, the authorities concerned are requested (a) to place one large container on the other side of the lane near plot ST-6 where it previously used to be, (b) another container should be put at its original place where it was for more than 15 years before being shifted to this location, i.e., near the end of the Aero Club and (c) residents of the flats/complexes should be advised to keep their own containers instead of throwing rubbish at other’s places.
Also, drainage in our lane spurts out on the road more often, which floods the lane blocking the gates and creating a traffic problem. The drain pipes installed are of insufficient size.
The pipe should be replaced with larger dia pipes as being done by the water supply and sewerage board on the road at the back of Zohra Square, near plot ST-6.
MOHAMMAD YAQOOB & OTHER RESIDENTS
Karachi
APROPOS of your news item ‘Anger wells up against Wasa’ (Dec 12), I should like to say it is not only Wasa but the Rawalpindi Cantonment Board has also woken up after three years with enhanced water rates. They have sent huge bills, amounting to thousands of rupees, to the residents of the Cantonment.
Previously, the bills used to be sent half-yearly and it was convenient for the residents to pay. But now they have doubled the rates and sent the accumulated bills with retrospective effect.
Whereas people living in the city has the right to protest and show anger against Wasa, the Cantonment dwellers can do neither. In the years gone by, the provision of the most basic civic necessities like free provision of potable water was the responsibility of the civic bodies, but now with the passage of time the citizens have to pay heavily for the supply of irregular and contaminated water.
Then, the civic bodies were at the service of the citizens and now the citizens are at the mercy of the so-called civic bodies and connected departments. But then we were not a nuclear power and now we are.
COL (r) SYED IFTIKHAR HUSSAIN
Rawalpindi
PIA Chairman Tariq Kirmani has confirmed that PIA lost Rs9 billion during the first nine months of the current financial year. That is Rs1 billion per month and PIA is reportedly paying its CFO Zafar Usmani a salary of Rs850,000 a month for achieving this feat.
What cost cutting ingenuity. PIA is also paying approximately Rs600,000 a month to a consultant, i.e., Philip Morris; Rs300,000 a month to Uzma Bashir; Rs7 million per three months to Naeem Sadiq and more than Rs500,000 a month to a number of other employees.
In the meantime, PIA employees based in the US have not received a salary increase for the last so many years. This is simply insane.
During a high-powered meeting it was pathetic to note that our senators were more worried about air hostesses being made to stay in ‘substandard’ hotels and directing the PIA chief not to sack crew members who sport beards.
This state of affairs makes one realise that as a nation we deserve to stand where we are.
MOHAMMAD ASIM
Woodridge, USA
THE Sindh Public Service Commission had advertised vide advertisement No. 02, 2005 dated 31/03/2005 for recruitment of mukhtiarkars in PBS-16 in the Board of Revenue Department. A large number of candidates had submitted their applications, along with challan forms, for written test. Although it is now over one year, the SPSC did not hold the test.
Again on Nov 26 the same posts were advertised in Dawn vide advertisement No.02/2006 dated 21112006.
Once again candidates rushed to redo the exercise of preparating documents and completion of other formalities when suddenly a small advertisement was published in Dawn on Nov 28 regarding cancellation of advertisement No.02/2006 of Nov 26 vide Corrigendum No. PSC/ Sec-1/2006/261 due to some unavoidable circumstances. I request the SPSC to stop playing tricks on the unemployed candidates.
Furthermore, now the world is an electronic global village which needs a rapid decision rather than red-tapism. Someone may clarify what type of circumstances had taken place in just one day that the advertisement had to be cancelled.
HUSSAIN DINO THEBO
Kotdiji
JAWED Naqvi’s analysis (Dec 11), it is feared, does not cover the Indian judiciary with glory. While he has written about the Bhopal gas tragedy, the demolition of the Babri Masjid and also the 1993 bombings across Bombay, the main thrust of his article is on the death sentence given to Afzal Guru who was found guilty of the Dec 13, 2001 attack on the Indian parliament during which five of the six attackers and eight or nine of Indian security personnel were killed.
The trial was held under POTA, a law legislated after the attack for the purpose of ensuring a death sentence even on flimsy grounds not usable under normal law.
Mr Naqvi also wrote that Penguin India has assembled a collection of writings by lawyers and rights workers that throw fresh light on Afzal Guru’s case and that Arundhati Roy and Nirmalangshu Mukerjee, who has written a book on the case, have long tried to see traces of the Reichstag fire in the attack on the Indian parliament.
Ms Roy has raised 13 questions in her newly-released book, the answers to which are good enough to overturn any verdict because it punches so many holes in the prosecution theory.
In the light of Mr Naqvi’s article in which he has listed the 13 questions referred to above, should not the Supreme Court of India take suo motu cognizance of Ms Roy’s book and quash the sentence of death on Afzal Guru, acquit him and order his immediate release?
Incidentally, the ruling Congress (I)-led UPA lost a great opportunity to exploit the plight of the BJP-led NDA to improve its vote bank by calling upon it to make good the people’s billions that were squandered from the government treasury by unnecessarily lining up 500,000 Indian soldiers along the Indo-Pakistan border for a year on a concocted basis that Pakistan was behind the attack.
They also failed to make amends for the deaths suffered by the affected civilians and the damage done to their cultivable lands by the movements of the tanks and other heavy military vehicles on them.
JALAL AHMED
Muscat, Oman
A RECENT Imran-Nawaz meeting in London can be termed a gathering of storm in the politics of Pakistan. If one is a former prime minister of Pakistan overthrown by the military, the other is a worst critic of the military ruler.
Their meeting cannot be brushed aside as an ordinary meeting of the two politicians.
Nawaz Sharif has been meeting other political leaders, including Benazir Bhutto, in London before, but they do not share the same sentiments against Pervez Musharraf as Imran Khan and Nawaz Sharif do.
On top of it, Imran Khan must have assured Mian Nawaz Sharif that he has the blessings of the Jamaat-i-Islami too.
In the present scenario, after taking Syeda Abida Hussain and Fakhr Imam back in the fold, Benazir Bhutto has once again violated an unwritten contract with Nawaz Sharif and the two are not honey and milk anymore.
Nawaz Sharif must have realised that his alliance with the PPP will always remain unnatural and unworkable. So he should not waste any opportunity of entering into an alliance with some one reliable and truly a hard-liner from the very core.
In this backdrop, Imran Khan and Qazi Hussain Ahmad could be the best choice that Nawaz Sharif has ever had since he was shown the door by a coterie of generals in 1999.
As it is, these three leaders can certainly create ripples in the otherwise serene waters of the politics of Pakistan. If they show the sincerity of purpose, they can cause a big turnaround.
However, it would be interesting to see if the agencies do not divide them too and the general continues to rule.
TAJAMUL BUKHARI
Lahore
THE world is adopting the semester system, splitting one year study into semesters. It has now been proved that it is the most effective system of learning that enables students to digest knowledge slowly and gradually.
In contrast, we are moving just in the opposite direction, asking our children to appear in examinations once in two years’ time, appearing in 14 papers at a time. The decision of the government to hold composite examinations of Classes IX and X in one go is unimaginable.
As an educationist, I can foresee the disaster for our children. It looks as if either the education minister does not have any vision and realisation of difficulties or it is being done deliberately to push parents to go for O’level for their children. The need is that we revert to the old system.
PROFESSOR ALTAF MUKATI
Hamdard University Karachi
I was very much depressed after going through Mr Altamash Kureshi’s letter (Nov 29) regarding the state of affairs in Bath Island. When conditions in a very old, posh locality is such I wonder who will come to our rescue in Gulistan-i-Jauhar, where the situation is getting worse day by day.
The road from Samama Shopping Centre to Jauhar Chowrangi is in a terrible state, with overflowing sewerage and water supply lines. Service roads are gradually being occupied by second-hand goods selles and nurseries. The road from Jauhar Mor to Jauhar Chowrangi is even worse.
If appropriate measures are not taken by the authorities concerned now, I’m afraid this place, which is also an entrance to Gulsitan-i-Jauhar, will turn into a permanent mess.
MUHAMMAD ASHARF
Karachi
APROPOS of the news regarding the rebuilding of government schools by the army (Dec 8), it is not the job of the army to do things like this. If the army engineering corps has so many surplus engineers, the size of the corps should be cut down.
It will save taxpayers’ money and help reduce the fiscal deficit. If the department of Public Works and Department of Communication and Works are incapable of doing this job, the bids for such a huge project must be publicly invited and the contract should be competitively granted.
The army is not a construction company and should not be allowed to even bid for these commercial activities.
This case is a typical example of ‘legal corruption’ in which a general is favouring army ‘legally’ to fatten up pockets of the officers that will be involved.
It is no different from ‘illegal corruption’ that our politicians are often involved in when they give contracts to their favourites.
AAMIR RAFIQUE HASHMI
Toronto, Canada
THIS is in response to Dr Athar Osama’s article ‘Military men on the campus’ (Dec 1). I think it is easy to comment on the dismal condition of academia in our country while sitting in the US and Europe.
What Dr Osama wrote is generally right but his argument overlooks the reality on the ground. We neither require army generals, nor the present breed of academicians who mostly lack commitment to bring excellence to our institutions as they are preoccupied with their personal gains inside and outside the campus.
Baring a few committed men, most of the faculty is found running from pillar to post in order to cover as many institutions in a day as they can, leaving little or no time to read something new that can add value to their lectures.
As a result, they start delivering what I usually call ‘pearls of experience’. In this atmosphere where lack of commitment to the profession and academic excellence is the order of the day, neither generals nor ad hoc academics can bring any change to the eroding educational system.
NADEEM NASIR
Rawalpindi
THIS is with reference to the news item ‘Balochistan wants 20pc share in PPL’ (Dec 10). Surely this kind of consideration must then be done for all provinces of Pakistan.
If Balochistan wants a chunk of the mineral revenues generated by the province, Sindh will ask for the revenues obtained from the seaport and so on. Then the cities will ask for their share.
A makeshift arrangement to resolve the Balochistan issue will open a virtual Pandora’s box. A well-thought-out distribution of resources is the need of the day.
SHAKIL AHSAN
Calgary, Canada
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