| January 05, 2007 | Friday | Zilhaj 14, 1427 |
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Our Karachi Festival
Nawaz Sharif’s remarks
The spoils of war
Damaged roads
Saddam’s execution
Unification of Islamic calendar
New GHQ in Islamabad
Theocracy versus religion
Nepotism in STBT
America in Iraq
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
YOU published a letter (Jan 1) from a reader concerned about recent changes to the UK’s Highly Skilled Migrants Programme (HSMP). Allow me to set out exactly what the changes to the scheme are, and, I hope, to reassure him about the effects of those changes.
The UK is committed to attracting suitably well-qualified individuals in order to boost the British economy. One route is the HSMP. Applications are based on a points-based system and so applicants can see, before applying, whether or not they qualify.
We have recently introduced changes in the rules on HSMP applications in order to make the system more open and accountable.
Applicants will now be required to speak English to an internationally-recognised standard (set at IELTS level 6.0). Extensions of stay under the scheme in the UK will also now be assessed under the points system using the same criteria as at the initial application stage.
We are aware that many HSMP permit-holders initially take lower-paid employment on their arrival in the UK while they are establishing themselves before moving to higher-level work. In recognition of this HSMP, permits are now initially valid for two years rather than one and the extension is granted for a period of three years. This five-year period before permanent residence status brings the HSMP into line with the other categories of permit that lead to permanent residence status.
As your correspondent says, there are of course some individuals now in the UK who would have met the old criteria but fail to meet the new ones. But we do not believe these changes will significantly affect more than a handful of permit-holders currently in the UK. Individuals will only be required to leave the UK if they are not working at a suitable level or if they are unable to maintain and accommodate themselves and their families without relying on government funds.
Transitional arrangements have been put in place to ensure that individuals are not unfairly disadvantaged.
Details of the Highly Skilled Migrants Programme and other routes to working legally in the UK, and guidance on how to apply, can be found at www.workingintheuk.gov.uk.
ROBERT BRINKLEY
British High Commissioner
Islamabad
JUST imagine: 54 events to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee of the Karachi Municipal Corporation (KMC) building stretching over a period of 13 days. First I thought it was a sick joke.
The KMC was a symbol of civic identity for the city of Karachi. Under the mayorship of stalwarts like Jamshed Nuserwanjee and Hatim Alavi, streets of Karachi were washed every night. It was the cleanest city of the subcontinent.
But what to do we have now! Roads and streets full of potholes, heaps of garbage and rubble, overflowing gutters, ugly billboards and with a few drops of rain the whole city comes to a grinding halt: is this the city of 21st century? Meanwhile, tall claims continue to be made about making Karachi the “Paris of Pakistan”.
The KMC building within its own boundary wall has had ugly structures built over the year without any regard to the historic icon of Karachi.
What happens inside the building is another story - it is a shameful sight. The KMC building is 130 years old but what have we done to it in the last 59 years.
Are we celebrating its total neglect as with other historic buildings of Karachi?
Among the events are listed films, mushaira, polo matches, etc. This will cost good money or is money falling from the sky?
In attendance will be guests from India and I suspect from other countries. Surely there will be city tours for our guests from abroad – what do we have to show? A hideous mile-long sea wall or the Karachi Port Trust fountain, or the dugout trenches of Clifton!
I wonder whose bright idea this Karachi Festival is and I am surprised that this event has the blessing of the President of Pakistan.
In this day and age our image should remain low key as we stay hard at work, we do not need this useless extravaganza. Frankly no one is in the mood for such frivolity - birthday or no birthday.
HABIB FIDA ALI
Karachi
ACCORDING to a report, the PML-N seems to have decided to use ‘Musharraf-army baiting’ as a tactical weapon during the election campaign (Dec 21).
The party’s leader Nawaz Sharif has criticised Yahya Khan for surrendering to India in 1971, making 90,000 soldiers prisoners of war. He has also blamed the army for almost all the ills and setbacks suffered by Pakistan in the last 60 years and said it fought three wars with India, losing all of them.
We didn’t really lose three but only one, i.e., the 1971 war, which was due to the extremely adverse circumstances our armed forces were faced with; India had lost to China in 1962 despite a far more equal contest.
Furthermore, our politicians aren’t blameless, either. The need of the hour is not to create divisions within the country or hatred for the army. If there is an insurgency or a war, it is the army, not the politicians, who will be called in to fight.
It is unfair and short-sighted for the politicians to blame the entire army for their differences with Musharraf. One is neither a politician nor a soldier but an ordinary, patriotic Pakistani and doesn’t agree with the general’s blatantly pro-American policies.
These are harming national unity and bringing the armed forces into disrepute due to things like military action in Waziristan or owning up to the Americans’ attack on the Bajaur seminary.
Mr Sharif (and the other politicians) should restrict themselves to trying to remove Gen Musharraf from power through the elections, rather than defaming the military.
Because of its discipline, which is indispensable and not ideological or ethnic considerations, the army always follows its chief, otherwise there would be a complete breakdown.
For this reason, the forces had supported the secularist Ayub Khan and Yahya as well as the Islamist Zia. If some bearded general, rather than Musharraf, had led the 1999 coup, I am sure the army would have backed him similarly.
R. KHAN
Karachi
IF Khwaja Shamaas has written his rejoinder (Dec 20) after reading my second letter on ‘Afghan affairs’ (Dec 13), it would be very ironic and indicative of a mind closed even by a failed ideology.
Also, if he has been reading the ‘50 Years Ago Today’ column of Dawn in recent weeks, he would have seen how the USSR had invaded Hungary and Poland, apart from marching into Czechoslovakia in the ’60s (as noted in my letter). Had all these countries and the Central Asian (Muslim) republics, too, ‘invited’ Moscow in like the Marxists of Afghanistan?
Incidentally, this column from Dec 23, 1956 notes that the Hungarian coal miners and the Budapest Central Workers Council had demanded the “withdrawal of Soviet occupation troops”: this proves it was Moscow’s habit to occupy other countries.
And, what percentages of the Afghan people were, or are Marxists? Mr Shamaas, let’s not fudge history – this was merely the ‘standard operating procedure’ of the Soviets. Is he really so naïve as to believe the USSR would have declared beforehand that it planned to invade Pakistan as well?
President Musharraf has said in his memoirs that if the Russian army had not been driven out of Afghanistan, it would have invaded Pakistan to reach the warm waters of Arabian Sea.
If the writer thinks he has a greater grasp of military strategy than Gen Musharraf does, that’s another matter.
The writer has also stated that millions of Palestinian refugees have been living in Lebanon since 1948 but the latter have neither complained nor boasted about their sacrifices.
Sir, Lebanon has a total population of four million, so there couldn’t be ‘millions of Palestinians’ over there.
Anyway, he should note that the Palestinians were neither responsible for bringing in a drug culture, nor did their leaders, unlike the Karzai government, start pestering their hosts, act thanklessly or slander the latter by accusing them of wanting to make gatekeepers for Karachi’s hotels out of their compatriots – as if these hotels need millions of these foreigners – or enslaving them.
Nor, of course, did they try to subvert Lebanon, as is being done in Balochistan.
S. KARIM
Karachi
MOST of the road links and traffic islands in Gulistan-i-Jauhar, Karachi, have been a shambles for a long time, causing utter inconvenience to people.
Ever since development of Gulistan-i-Jauhar, the government agencies/offices like the KDA (now CDGK), KWSB and CBF have not considered the construction of proper road links, service roads, footpaths, electrification, besides roads, laying of water and sewerage lines.
The said agencies/offices have been issuing NOCs to the builders for construction of high-rise buildings without provision of basic amenities of life, including parking lots.
In fact, the roads were laid by using poor quality material. This is why roads are not good enough to sustain the impact of weight of traffic movement, nor is the drainage system working properly.
At regular intervals, the sewerage lines burst out on both sides of the Jauhar Bridge and around Jauhar Square, creating pools of dirty sewerage water on roads where thousands of residents live in flats. This is causing environmental hazards.
Besides, traffic islands in Jauhar Square are either washed away by sewerage water or broken at short intervals.
The road links in Gulistan-i-Jauhar require immediate laying of main roads, service roads, footpaths, etc.
HASAN ADIL
Malir, Karachi
SADDAM Hussein is dead, but his legacy is more alive than ever. The appalling abuse of human dignity displayed at Saddam’s execution only reflects one thing that Bush is the biggest butcher of 21st century on this planet.
It is said that Saddam was executed because of “crimes against humanity”, what I don’t understand is why isn’t Bush standing trial, for dropping bombs that have killed more than 100,000 of innocent people in Iraq?
American people need to wake up and put a stop to what their government is doing to the rest of the world.
It was a kangaroo court, for which the West will have to hang its head in shame. Saddam’s captors did not allow him the basic dignity to be offered to a man before being hanged. If they wanted to taunt him till the end, it is so sad. This is wrong. I do not believe in the death penalty and I am surprised at the deafening silence from all who call themselves champions of justice.
The only question that strikes me as a layman is: when the Middle East will learn that fighting among them will keep them enslaved to outside powers. If they don’t learn to forgive and forget, there is going to be no peace at all.
To me the killing of Saddam by the US and their collaborators is a signal towards those who now work for the US in the region.
Why wasn’t Saddam brought before the International Court of Justice? What were the US and its puppets in Iraq afraid of? And how can anyone call this theatre justice? I would simply name it as cruelty sold as justice.
This is unbelievable: taking pictures and videos of killing a human being brings shame to all Iraqis and humanity itself. Saddam should have been given a life sentence or an internationally-recognised trial.
What has the western world achieved with this execution, except the pleasure of satisfying its desire to rule over the sovereign people of another nation?
Will this help to bring the US out of Iraq? With the execution, the law-enforcement forces in Iraq will be facing greater insurgency.
The execution shows the disregard by the US for world norms. Is this the manner in which democracy is going to be spread in the world? I don’t think so.
QAZI NAZIM NAEEM
Hyderabad
THE hanging of Saddam Hussein in the Haj season clarifies the position of the US president towards Islam. It reminds me of bombing of Mazar Sharif and Tora Bora in Ramazan when some quarters requested the Americans to stop fire during Ramazan. President Bush said he could not give enemy any concessions.
Since this war is an ideological war, the rituals of the enemy are not important.
I have seen many movies in which a person is hanged. They show the rope around his neck and then the screen turns black with a dreadful sound.
How can they show a scene of hanging in reality, while we do not see any American soldier even wounded on the same TV screen?
How can Maliki and his guards do this disgraceful thing to humanity with all the facilities to broadcast the video on TV channels?
GUL RASUL
Abbottabad
IS Pakistan defying the OIC resolution for unification of Islamic calendar? The resolution of the NWFP Assembly to dissolve the Central Ruet-i-Hilal (CRH) committee is justified. It is disappointing that because of that said committee the federal government continues to defy the resolution of the OIC for unification of Islamic calendar as different months begin on different days of the week in different countries and the communities within the country because of bigotry of Ulema who themselves follow Christian calendar for various affairs.
The demand to enforce the decision of the CRH as a decision of the Supreme Court is unjust and despotic. The governments of Pakistan and other Muslim states should take steps for unification of Islamic calendar according to resolution of the OIC in the eighth session of the OIC summit (Session of Dignity, Dialogue) held in Tehran, from 9 to 11 Shaban 1418H (Dec 9-11, 1997).
Some Ulema regard announcements at Holy Kaaba valid for the whole world. And some Ulema of the NWFP and Balochistan say that instead of following the sighting in deep east of the country their people should follow the sighting in the nearest location even if in another Muslim country like Iran, Afghanistan or Gulf states that are nearest to them.
The CRH has modified the old Fiqh positions ignoring the fact that Islam does not encourage nationalism and lays much greater stress on unity of the Ummah.
The mass of earth is 80 times greater than that of the moon. A new crescent takes two to three days to become visible in different parts of the world.
The crescent in deep west of Makkah is generally visible a day earlier than in Makkah and in deep east a day later.
Many Muslim communities follow either the announcement at Holy Kaaba or the Ummul Qura calendar, which is based on calculations of appearance of crescent at Ummul Qura (mother of all cities), the Holy Makkah and the Qibla of the Islamic world.
SHAH N. KHAN
Karachi
THE construction of new GHQ in Islamabad has just started. The construction will cost exchequers hundreds of billions of rupees.
This is being done in the backdrop of the country’s lowest rank in the Human Development Index (HDI) released recently by the UNDP. The land purchase made below the market rate by the army has already caused billions of rupees’ loss to the CDA.
Nobody has the courage or can stop the construction of new GHQ, not even legislators — perhaps in the national interest. The military involvement in politics is ever increasing and not diminishing and will continue as long as Pakistan lives.
We, therefore, should welcome their involvement. It would be a noble idea to squeeze in the current presidency, the PM’s house and the Parliament house in the newlybuilt GHQ to show solidarity with the armed forces and demand to share the maintenance cost of these houses in the defence budget.
After the shifting, the current PM house, the presidency and the Parliament house may be donated to run hospitals, libraries, university, orphans village, etc. Money thus saved will be used to improve the HDI of the country.
SYED ASAD HUSSAIN
Islamabad
CONCLUDING his letter (Dec 31), Siddique Malik asked: “If theocracy is alien to Islam, how can a Muslim-majority country legislate on the basis of religion? Would this not give rise to a theocracy?” Theocracy and religion are not synonymous, it may be mentioned.
There is no theocracy in Islam means no one has divine rights, all Muslims are equal under the law.
Whereas, to legislate on the basis of religion means to legislate on the basis of the Quran and the Sunnah, as also stipulated in the Constitution of Pakistan.
Being Muslims we are supposed to live by Islam, hence it is a must to legislate on the basis of the religion.
That’s why God has endowed us with the Guidance. If we don’t, that means we don’t believe in Islam.
However, in order to legislate according to the religion we had to get rid of the prevailing corrupt and exploitative system and establish the system of social justice of Islam.
SARDAR AWAN
Lahore
I WANT to draw the attention of the chief minister and the provincial education minister towards the mess in the Sindh Textbook Board.
Nowadays it is a worse example of nepotism. Some months back some persons were appointed on a contract basis. No advertisement was published in any newspaper and no interview was conducted. They were appointed direct on hefty salaries.
On the other hand, promotion was due to some other employees but denied.
On this issue, the employees of the board filed an appeal in the Sindh High Court which directed the chairman of the Sindh Textbook Board to give due promotion to the employees concerned.
But the affected employees are still waiting to see justice done. I request the chief minister and the education minister to look into the matter.
MOINUDDIN
Hyderabad
AMERICA’S predicament in Iraq reminds me of the assessment of the American character in wars by Mao Zedong. At the height of the Viet Nam war, the legendary Chinese leader had said: “Americans will tire. They do not have the patience for this sort of thing”.
WAJID NAEEMUDDIN
Karachi
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