| December 28, 2006 | Thursday | Zilhaj 06, 1427 |
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A bitter-sweet victory
The cat is out of the bag
Wild goose chase
Who’s to blame?
Karzai’s tears
The Quaid’s unrealised vision
Shrinking jobs for Muslims
Jinnah and moderation
Yet again
Walk the walk
Simple solutions
Islamabad airport
Training for govt officers
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
M. SAEED’s letter “A protest at the opera” (Dec 23) contains many errors which must be corrected in the interest of the public. He asserts that Mr Neuenfel’s opera was designed “specially to hurt sentiments of the Muslims.” However, he then concedes that the opera does not only involve the Prophet Mohammed (peace be upon him) but also Jesus, Buddha and even the Greek god Poseidon. The opera is therefore a protest against organised religion in general, including Islam but by no means limited to it. This makes Saeed’s complaint about this opera being an example of “nefarious designs of the anti-Islam crusades of the western world” nonsensical.
Indeed, in choosing not to make a distinction between the theatre directors, the whole of the western media and the current German government, M. Saeed seems to believe that the West is one monolithic bloc with ulterior motives against Islam. In fact the West, just like the Islamic world, is full of conflicting opinions on various issues, whether it be freedom of speech, the rights of women or the Iraq war.
Whatever our views about the opera may be, I see no reason why a peaceful opera should not be allowed to go ahead with full security for both the performers and the audience. Censorship reflects society’s lack of confidence in itself. If we are secure in our faith, we should be willing to allow others to criticise it without fear of violence. The correct response to violent protesters wishing to disrupt the opera should not be to cancel it as M. Saeed suggests, but rather ensure that the opera goes ahead safely, or else we would be allowing violence to dictate what we can and cannot do.
USMAN AHMEDANI
London, UK
M. SAEED’s paranoia about a Western crusade against the Islamic world is unfounded. He refers to a play by a German director where the actor playing the King of Crete protests the religions of the world by holding up the severed heads of several religious figures.
After witnessing the fallout over the Danish caricatures the director had decided to abandon his months of labour for fear that he would anger Germany’s Muslim community. But when German Muslim leaders learned of the play - and the obvious concern of the director- they reassured him that Muslims could respect freedom of speech and good art in general. On opening night Muslim leaders are expected to take front row seats. German Muslims are practicing a pluralistic and tolerant Islam; perhaps this is a lesson for Muslims living elsewhere in the world.
FAIZ LALANI
Montreal, Canada
PRIME Minister Shaukat Aziz and President Musharraf recently awarded an astounding Rs6 million to cricketer Mohammad Yousuf for his incredible record-breaking performances on the cricket field. While Yousuf and other high achievers deserve such appreciation, not many have received the same incentives.
There are hundreds of bright students in the country who need scholarships to pursue quality higher education. If our government has enough funds to spend so lavishly, why doesn’t it fund these students’ education in the same way?
Every now and then we hear about the huge sums of money the government has allocated for the educational sector. Yet our education budget as part of GDP is the lowest in South Asia. We see no new universities that can compete with the world’s best schools (at least none that affordable for those who are not swimming in diamonds), while the condition of most of the existing ones is worsening.
My brother and I both attained excellent O Level results (nine and 10 A’s respectively) and both got distinctions across the whole world, amongst many other credits to our names. Students like us deserve to graduate from the best universities but, alas, the government isn’t putting any such help at our disposal. Lack of opportunities can be very discouraging as we have experienced. While I couldn’t enroll in one of the top schools for A Levels, my brother was rejected admission in one of Pakistan’s few top universities. Talk about setbacks!
The aforementioned gentlemen might never read this but seeing this letter in print will be a bitter-sweet victory for me and family.
ZAINAB SHAFI
Karachi
THE US Iraq study has recommended privatisation of Iraqi oil in favour of US companies, thus exposing the real purpose for attacking Iraq and causing massacres of thousands of innocent Iraqis, besides high US casualties, ending in the long civil war, only to grab Iraqi oil. Surely this could be achieved through peaceful means too.
Almost similar is the case of the war on Afghanistan, to grab control over the huge oil and other reserves in the northern CAS areas. This proves that the bogey of 9/11, WMDs, Osama, Al Qaeda, the vicious propaganda against the Muslims and Islam, going on for several years were only a camouflage for grabbing oil, little caring for the immense loss of innocent human lives, property and sufferings. This was precisely what Saddam Hussein had declared in the very beginning of US invasion of Iraq.
Can the world conscience ever rest in peace, after killing so many human lives, for merely grabbing oil? Perhaps the invading powers have already realised that they are losing these wars and are trying to have secret deals in Iraq and Afghanistan for face-saving.
It is doubtful if such a plan will succeed at such a late stage through the US stooges, without the goodwill of the real representatives having roots among the people, who will be fully justified to demand full compensation for all war damages through an impartial world court.
The study has tried, in vain, to camouflage this outright international robbery bid through some saintly gesture of sharing the oil revenue between the three areas of Iraq on a population basis, besides some paltry concessions for Palestinians.
It is now clear that the main element behind a world war against Muslims is the powerful Jewish lobby in the US, which is the enemy of both Christians and Muslims. They apparently planned and enacted the drama of 9/11 to embroil the US in these wars.
It is time the Americans and the EU people cried a halt to these wars, withdrew from Iraq and Afghanistan and paid for war damages.
S. RIZVI
Karachi
WESTERN media, particularly the British media, has toiled for centuries to earn its prestigious reputation as a free, balanced, ethical and purely professional medium to educate the people on the happenings across the globe. But this myth of free and fair journalism was shattered by just one article that appeared in the Sunday Times on May 21, 2006.
Marie Colvin has concocted a cock and bull story about a religions organisation in Pakistan called Jamaat-ud-Dawa which is engaged in converting Christian kids to Islam and training them to fuel Islamic terrorism. This fake story was so aptly woven that it motivated human rights activists to protest this heinous crime. So much so that a French TV team comprising Ms Marijana (US national) and Mr Manla (French national) arrived in Pakistan to make a documentary on the subject . They stayed in Pakistan from Nov 11 to Nov 19, 2006 and travelled to every nook and corner of Pakistan but they failed to find any activity of the sort mentioned in the article.
The government of Pakistan deserves appreciation for allowing the team to see for itself that no such activity is taking place in Pakistan. Since the piece clearly written to defame Pakistan, the government of Pakistan should lodge a strong protest with the British government and ask it to prove its much trumpeted claim of having a professional, ethical and a free press.
RASHID MINHAS
Rawalpindi
THERE was recently a news item in the Karachi metropolitan section about the city government attracting foreign investors for resolving the garbage disposal problem in Karachi. I feel this is only a partial solution to the problem.
Most people in Karachi routinely treat the streets as a garbage dump. I am appalled to note that even educated people can be seen throwing wrappers wherever they please.
This has become so natural for people that they don’t even think twice about what they are doing anymore. Instead they blame the government for not providing enough dustbins.
But how about keeping the wrapper in one’s pocket or somewhere else until one finds a suitable place? Don’t we as individuals have any responsibility? If every citizen is more careful when it comes to disposing garbage our streets would automatically become much cleaner.
ZOAIB KHAN
Karachi
WHOEVER found Hamid Karzai to be the most suitable person for the office the president of Afghanistan, should at least have urged him to take a crash course in the ethics of international diplomacy before taking office. There are several universities in Pakistan that can help Mr Karzai in this regard.
HAROON AWAIS
The Netherlands
REFERRING to the Quaid-i-Azam’s address to the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan on 11 August, 1947, Shamshad Ahmad in his article “The Quaid’s unrealised vision” (Dec 25) has recounted a number of aspects, such as law and order, education, women’s emancipation and religious freedom, etc. but he has missed the most important part of the speech.
The Quaid had said, “You are free; you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other place of worship in this state of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or caste or creed - that has nothing to do with the business of the State. We are starting in the days when there is no discrimination, no distinction between one community and another, no discrimination between one caste or creed and another. We are starting with this fundamental principle that we are all citizens and equal citizens of one state.” This is the crux of the Quaid’s address which the writer failed to mention. There has been a tendency to suppress this part of the speech, which can be rightly called the Magna Carta of Pakistan.
I refer to Memoirs and Reflections by Dr Nasim Hasan Shah, the former chief justice of Pakistan. In the chapter entitled “Islamisation of Anglo-Saxon laws”, he writes that the “Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the father of Pakistan, had very specific ideas. He was not only a political activist par excellence but a distinguished jurist and deep thinker of the contemporary Muslim world. He died a few months before the (Objective) Resolution was adopted by the Assembly. But his various pronouncements and views on the nature of the state structure of Pakistan had a profound influence on the authors of the Objective Resolution.”
Dr Shah also quotes from the following pronouncements of the Quaid: an Eid day message, an earlier address of 1943, address to the officers of the Defense Services on Oct 11, 1947, address at Sibbi Darbar in February 1948, speech on July 1, 1948 at the opening ceremony of State Bank of Pakistan. Oddly enough, the address of Aug 11, 1947 delivered to the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan which is the only relevant guideline to the framers of the future Constitution is conspicuous by its absence.
The parliament is a sovereign body. It can legislate in any manner it may like. Nobody can question its acts. But it is not correct to attribute its every act to Quaid-i-Azam’s vision.
FAQIR AHMAD PARACHA
Peshawar
I agree with M. J. Akbar’s assertion that Indian Muslims have fallen significantly behind other communities (Dawn, Dec 21). It is true that Congress and other ‘secular’ governments have treated Muslims as vote banks and hoodwinked them with populist slogans instead of taking concrete actions.
However, job reservations for Muslims are short-sighted; this will only benefit the upper class Muslims and lead to further communal tensions.
The real solution is in encouraging Muslims to improve their education levels and vocational skills by granting education subsidies or conducting special coaching classes.
Leaders in the Muslim community should stop focusing on irrelevant issues (like tennis player Sania Mirza’s short skirts) and instead encourage Muslims to become scientists or smart businessmen to take advantage of India’s economic growth.
Why should a community which ruled India till a few hundred years ago be dependent on government charity or job reservations?
Given the right mind-set, Indian Muslims can achieve great success and become role models for other minorities.
SUBRAMANIAN RAVI
Singapore
REFLECTING on the life of the Quaid-i-Azam on the occasion of his birthday, I was struck by his style of moderation. He did not offer prayers. He did not fast during Ramadan. He paid no zakat as such.
He had no inhibitions in the matter of what he ate or drank. He married a Parsi lady in a civil ceremony. And so forth. But — and this is very important — he never berated Islam or called it imperfect.
He never talked of “Moderating Islam” like Zafar Iqbal (Dawn, March 7, 2004).
He never spoke of “Restructuring Islam” like F.S. Aijazuddin in his book When Bush Comes to Shove. Instead he hailed Islam’s principles of social justice and equality and he highlighted them at every opportunity.
The Quaid was a lawyer and as such was better versed in Muslim law than the CSP Zafar Iqbal. Yet he never found fault with Islam’s precept of qisas in cases of homicide. Alexander Pope was right, “A little learning is a dangerous thing.”
S.G. JILANEE
Karachi
IN his letter ‘Yet again’ (Dec 25) Syed Arman Raza has raised an issue which is on the minds of so many Pakistanis living abroad who wish to not only visit, but to settle down in and help build Pakistan. But my wife, while with my two-year old child, was robbed at gunpoint during a visit to Pakistan.
My mother and two brothers who live in Karachi have all been robbed of valuables and mobile phones at gunpoint.
My aunt died of the terror after her house was raided by some dacoits during daylight hours.
Many professionals like me have been thinking for a long time about coming back to Pakistan to give something back in return for what Pakistan has given us in terms of education, etc.
But, alas, we continue to live abroad with the hope that one day we may be able to show our kids the city that we all lived and grew up in.
The same city that was once the city of peace and love.
SYED FARHAN QADRI
Mississauga, Canada
The current Pakistan government is certainly talking the talk, but it remains to be seen over the next few years whether it will walk the walk.
Nevertheless, there are at least moderate grounds for optimism and for thinking that a corner has been turned in Pakistan.
What is needed now is not years but decades of sound government policy, aided by open markets in the West.
After all, at five percent economic growth per capita per annum (a very optimistic hope) Pakistan will take 29 years, which is more than a generation, to achieve the real per capita living standards of a developed country.
NAUSHIR H. MALLI
London, UK
WE in Pakistan believe in finding new solutions for problems that have already been solved. Given that we are experiencing a shortage of electric power right now, there is already a proven solution for the problem. India had overcome this problem in Bombay by putting the weekly holidays in rotation.
Similarly, in the case of Karachi, we could divide the city’s industrial areas into four or five sections. Say SITE can be closed on Monday, Korangi on Tuesday, Federal B. Area on Wednesday and so on.
So on any given day in the week at least one industrial area is closed and electricity is made available to other areas.
This will help to reduce wastage of resources due to electricity interruptions and also provide some relief to overburdened utility company. In the meanwhile we should start work on generating more power for the future.
AMJAD MEHMUD
Karachi
I RECENTLY went to the Islamabad airport to receive my guests who were arriving from Karachi, including a child struck by polio. I parked my car in the side lane near the arrival lounge but when I came out with my guests to my horror and astonishment I found my car missing. Upon inquiry I was told that my car had been lifted by the ‘efficient’ car lifting squad.
As I collected my car after paying the fine, I pointed out to the officer the rows of cars parked just outside arrival lounge.
The officer peevishly said “we can’t check them, they are government vehicles”.
All government servants - both civil and military - have free license to flout authority. I fail to understand why these so-called VIPs can’t walk a few steps to get into their luxurious cars parked in the designated car parks.
After all, they do walk quite a distance when they travel abroad. The law should be applied uniformly to all the citizens and government personnel should be setting an example, rather than flouting the law.
KHALID RASHID
Rawalpindi
I fully agree with Abdul Samad Khan’s views (letter, Dec 20) that sending officers to Singapore for training is sheer extravagance for a poor country like ours.
However, Singapore being one of the few corruption-free places on the globe, if it helps to improve the financial propriety of our officers then of course the training would be of some meaning.
ALTAF HUSSAIN QURESHI
Hyderabad
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