| January 07, 2007 | Sunday | Zilhaj 16, 1427 |
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Disappearance of activists
Shabby media treatment
Not on the negotiating table
Another 1977
Call for rescue
The language conundrum
Then and now
It must be a joke
Inexpensive & speedy justice
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
WITH reference to Mr Faqir Ahmed Paracha’s letter ‘Hydel profit’ (Dec 21), it is stated that the correspondent seems to be unaware of the facts and figures and has not gone into the dynamics of utility operations. It is also seen that the figures of generated and consumed hydel units given by Mr Paracha for the current or the last fiscal, i.e., 13,806 and 5,500 million respectively, for the NWFP are also incorrect.
Statistically speaking, the simplistic view taken in this letter is because of these omissions and wrong figures, otherwise no one would ever think of requiring Wapda to dole out Rs110 billion as it is.
In order to put the record straight, indeed Article 161 of the Constitution assures net hydel profit for the province in which power is generated, but it is also a fact that the AGN Qazi formula is impractical and cannot be implemented because of obvious reasons.
Moreover, according to Wapda’s website and the figures posted by the Federal Bureau of Statistics, we see that the NWFP usage alone for FY 2005-06 was 11,671 million units. On the other hand, the monthly usage of electricity in comparison to hydel generation leads us to some very interesting conclusions — some of which have been ignored by the correspondent altogether.
We see that during five-and-a-half lean hydel generation months the NWFP gets a hefty 2,000 million units from thermal generation situated in other parts of our country. In the same analogy, it transpires that for the rest of the six months or so of full hydel generation months, about 5,000 to 7,000 million units are spare to be used elsewhere.
Imagine the cost of production in case the spare generation could not be transmitted and distributed to the rest of the country and also the misery during generation — short periods. It is, in fact, the enormity of scale that makes hydel generation cost small in comparison to thermal plants. These facts lead us to the truth that no subsidy — advertent or inadvertent — is being given to Punjab, Sindh or Balochistan at the expense of the NWFP, proving the point that no area in Pakistan is an island and that we can live and operate profitably only by using the resources jointly. And so should be the use of other produces of the country like natural gas, coal, refined petroleum products, water and even crops like cotton and wheat.
From all this, we conclude that a parochial outlook will not suffice. However, it does not mean that constitutional guarantees like hydel profit should be done away with. The fact of the matter remains that all such royalties have to be judicious, even-handed and based on technical and economical realities. These also cannot be calculated on vague formulas like that propagated by the most venerable Mr AGN Qazi, specially when it did not hold water then and does not seem to be good for today.
We must also remember that the electricity tariff frozen since November 2003 (for the last three years) can only remain so if royalties etc are rightly borne by the government of Pakistan through the revenues collected by it from us, the people of Pakistan, and not through choking national institutions like Wapda by increasing the already high electricity tariff.
KHALID PERVEZ BUTT
Lahore
IT is extremely disturbing to read about the ‘disappearance’ of political activists throughout the country, particularly in Sindh and Balochistan. Once it was the dictatorships in Chile and other Latin American countries that were infamous for this heinous crime against humanity. Now the practice has come closer to our homes.
The Supreme Court of Pakistan must be praised for its suo motu action into the matter resulting in the freedom of some of the ‘disappeared’ activists. The action needs to be expanded, as many more still remain unaccounted for.
One such person is Dr Safdar Sarki, a political and human rights activist who was arrested on Feb 24, 2006 in Karachi. Eyewitness accounts in the press said that Dr Sarki was severely beaten at the time of his arrest and was taken blindfolded to an unknown location.
They had also identified the police official who had made the arrest. Dr Sarki’s relatives and friends in Pakistan and his wife in the US have since tried their utmost to know his whereabouts and well-being but to their dismay nothing is known of him so far. This is a serious humanitarian issue and it should be a matter of great concern for all the citizens of the country, as the loss of liberty for one should be considered the loss of liberty for all.
The government should either produce him in a court of law if there are any charges against him or it should release him immediately and take action against the officials who have arrested or kidnapped him.
Otherwise all the talk of establishing the writ of law would just be a ruse. One also requests the Supreme Court of Pakistan to take a suo motu notice of this matter on humanitarian grounds as the life of Dr Sarki may be in real danger.
AZIZ NAREJO
Texas, USA
RETURNING home late one night I casually switched on the television at 12.30am and was thrilled to find ‘sitar nawaz’ Ustad Rais Khan and his son Farhan Khan performing on PTV. Not only was the presentation of raag music by the father and son duo out of this world, but the set design, the lighting, the sound, camera work, editing and every other detail had been superbly taken care of. And not only I and my wife (who is not much of a classical music buff) but my daughter and her 13-year-old son too came and sat down to enjoy the exquisite programme. Such was the pull of the beautifully produced and high class music presentation directed by Farrukh Bashir.
At 1.30am when the programme finally ended, I felt sorry not only for the millions of music lovers who must have missed it for at that unholy hour only those suffering from insomnia would watch TV. This brought to mind the bad old days of Gen Zia when PTV was extra careful not to show any classical music shows until the viewers had gone to bed.
The show called “Raag Rung” would invariably start at midnight, without any proper announcement of the artists for Radio Pakistan and PTV were under instructions not to present such programmes at prime time lest the image of the Islamic government was tarnished.
It was also taken for granted by officials that people did not wish to listen to classical music. Looks like Gen Zia’s legacy is not dead yet. At least as far as the old bureaucratic thinking is concerned.
S.M. SHAHID
Karachi
IN his article ‘Need for flexibility on Kashmir’ (Dec 4), Dr Tariq Rahman says: “Once the ruler of Kashmir acceded to India, Pakistan helped the Pashtun tribesmen, including army volunteers on leave, to fight against the Indian army.” As usual Pakistanis place everything that is unpalatable to them on its head because they fool themselves into believing they always act on principles.
Dr Rahman would have us believe that the Maharaja executed the accession instrument before the dispatch of marauders, looters and plunderers by Pakistan into Kashmir backed by its ‘regular’ army. In fact the Maharaja, who had executed a ‘standstill’ agreement both with India and Pakistan, was compelled to accede to India because of the desperation that Pakistan put him into by its betrayal of that agreement.
Dr Rahman he should not delude your readers about joint control and UN administration of Kashmir and a subsequent referendum or plebiscite. None of this is ever going to happen. India looks at Kashmir as its ‘atoot ang’. Be reminded of Soviet premier Alexei Kosygin’s admonishment to the self-appointed Field Marshal Ayub: “What you cannot get on the battlefield, you should not expect on the negotiating table”.
GUNGA DIN
USA
HISTORY is repeating itself. A dictator mauled the 1973 Constitution in 1977, then after about 23 years, another dictator did the same. President Musharraf keeps pretending that he will hold a fair election. How can we trust him on this count after seeing the past two elections in his regime? The vice-chairman of the PPP eloquently said the other day in a programme on a local channel that while he was in jail, his vote was cast in the referendum in favour of Gen Musharraf. What else is rigging? In the pages of In the Line of Fire, the author himself admits that he did a few blunders in the referendum.
A military government is insensitive to public opinion, the Musharraf government is no exception. If he wants the election to be fair, why doesn't he give the charge to caretakers? Or to be more specific, why doesn’t he keep his promise to leave office in December of 2006.
Moreover, he likes to contest for the presidential election. If this president knows the Constitution of his country, he must be knowing that 1(a) and 1(b) of the Constitution do not allow him to contest for the election. But still our president says: "Everything will be done according to the Constitution". The statement would have made sense to the nation now if he had used another word 'abrogated' before the Constitution.
MUSAVIR GAJANI
Khairpur Mirs
APROPOS of the letter ‘Call for rescue’ (Dec 17), I share the anguish of former employees of the DPA (Department in Pakistan) run by His Highness Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan. Employees numbering 857 were associated with the department and, with the closure of the department, they are now having sleepless nights over the prospect of receiving inadequate settlement dues.
We request His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al-Nahyan to explore the possibility of accommodating DPA employees in other departments being established and run by the Gulf states in Pakistan.
This would enable the staff laid off by the DPA to find respectable job opportunities by employers that they are trained to serve.
AN EMPLOYEE OF DPA
THE article by Ms Zubeida Mustafa (Dec 20) should be an eye-opener for the federal government.
I do not know the credentials of our education minister in the field of education, but I do know that being an educationist has never been a pre-requisite for recruitment in military service.
It is not clear whether the education minister has consulted eminent educationists and that they support him. I am giving below some such opinions:
a. Dr Abdul Salam emphasises teaching of science in English and in Urdu.
b. Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan says a nation cannot progress, whose medium of instruction is a language owned by neither the teachers nor the pupils. This is a great impediment in our progress.
c. Dr Ataur Rehman wrote (Dawn, Feb 1, 1987) that Urdu can work as language of science and technology if certain pre-requisites are met (if there was a will, all these pre-requistes could have been fulfilled in these 60 years).
d. Dr B.C. Roy, who was an external examiner for MBBS in Osmania University (Urdu medium), admitted that these students understood the subject better than did others and were more efficient in practical work.
e. Barrister F.M. Sandeela used to lecture in English at S.M. Law College. He said that one day, as an experiment, he lectured in Urdu. His impression was that students paid full attention to what he said.
All eminent scientists and scholars of Pakistan studied through the Urdu medium up to matriculation. Dr Iqbal, Dr Salimuzzaman Siddiqui, Dr Abdul Salam, Dr Raziuddin Siddiqui, Dr Hamidullah, Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan are some examples.
Osmania University adopted Urdu as medium for all science faculties in 1917, and within 10 years all Indian universities and most British universities including, London, Oxford and Cambridge, recognised its degrees for admission to postgraduate courses without further coaching in the English language.
It is interesting to note that the education minister proposes English for science and maths, whereas a language is least important for these subjects.
These subjects use universal language composed of signs, symbols and formulae. Japanese and Koreans know very little English compared to our students, but they top in American colleges.
It is advisable that our minister should look to the East, including Malaysia, instead of copying the West.
A language brings its culture with it, as can be seen in the military establishment. Perhaps our minister has the same in his mind.
It will be pertinent to quote what British viceroy said in 1916:
“As a university man, I want to ask if our education was conducted in a foreign language, what would have been our fate? No wonder we would have discontinued our education due to frustration.”
How American students of high school grade fare in science and maths can be judged by the following remarks passed by the US department of education in 1991 and published in popular Science in August 1992:
“Of particular concern was the low state of science and mathematics education. If a foreign power had brought our educational system to such a pass, the action would have been grounds for declaration of war.”
It is universally agreed that a child must be taught in his mother tongue in his formative age. Any change will bring disaster to our nation, and this government will be responsible for it.
In this connection my two letters (Nov 26, 2005 and Dec 30, 2005) will prove as guideline while formulating education policy at the primary level.
SYED MUSLEHUDDIN AHMED
Former UN expert on technical education
Karachi
AFTER Khwaja Nazimuddin had been dislodged by Ghulam Muhammad as the Governor- General, he was often seen being driven around in a Skoda car. This was the cheapest car (built in Czechoslovakia) and was at the lowest level in quality and price among the cars available then.
One day somebody asked Khwaja Sahib why he did not import an expensive duty-free car to which he was entitled as the Governor General.
He said someone did suggest this while he was the Governor-General. However, he thought how the people would feel about this — that while he held that office for a while he could not restrain himself from using that entitlement.
This was the moral level of leaders of Pakistan then.
Recently the apex court stopped the sale of the Pakistan Steel Mills over which the prime minister had presided. The court found the sale not to be transparent.
If Khwaja Nazimuddin were to find himself in this situation, surely he would have apologised to the nation and in conformity with the democratic tradition, which Mr Shaukat Aziz reverently holds, resigned as the prime minister responsible for the decision of this sale.
These two instances occurred in the living memory and they illustrate the level of the morality of the leaders then and now.
MUNSIF BAIG
Karachi
THIS refers to the advertisement supplement on Dec 30 last regarding the achievements of the Sindh governor. It says that major socio-economic problems of the province have been solved. It is claimed that, besides other achievements, (a) street crimes have been controlled, (b) transparency and reliability have been achieved in board examinations. This is unbelievable.
On average, 20 vehicles and 50 cellphones are snatched or stolen at gunpoint daily, besides the various dreadful crimes.
It is common knowledge how the board officials manipulate the results of matriculation and intermediate examinations. Even if half of the stories narrated by parents and students are true, then we are heading for a disaster.
There has been some headway during the last few years and I do not mean to undermine the efforts but it does not deserve felicitations of this order. We have a long way to go, Mr Governor.
A BEMUSED CITIZEN
Karachi
NEWS items regarding the Punjab ombudsman's decisions published in newspapers have, in my view, just a one side of reality. Unfortunately, our courts, including the ombudsman, have just become a farce which focus their energies on legalising illegal functions of high-ups, providing nothing to complainants.
I have a bitter experience regarding my complaint filed before the Punjab ombudsman against the Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, as I had applied for the post of deputy registrar/ deputy controller/deputy treasurer, passed the written test, was called for interview after three years of the test, while the interview was postponed on the pretext of short quorum.
Months after, the situation was not clear and the interviews were not being conducted. A request was made to the ombudsman for conducting the same. The representative of the university stated before the ombudsman that the same posts were filled by promotion and the same was done because the university's rules provided that these posts could be filled either by direct recruitment or by promotion/selection from the university officers.
After hearing the parties, the ombudsman, in his decision, directed the university to revise its regulations by specifying the quota for filling up posts through different modes and ensure that the delay in the recruitment process, which occurred in the present case, should be not repeated in future.
It was also admitted in the order that the complainant was treated wrongly by the university, while mere saying so and advising the agency was not the solution to my problem. So a representation was made before the Punjab governor against the said decision, saying merely that the decision of the ombudsman did not provide me any relief.
Parties had been heard. The governor, in his order/decision, showed the BZU administration to be purely inefficient and callous. The VC was directed to inquire into the matter and submit his findings to the governor within a fortnight.
The need for quota fixation was also stressed and the representation was disposed of in the light of the foregoing directions. Was all of this solution to my problem? Years after, no progress has been made in this regard so far.
May I ask the authorities what kind of decisions are these? For how long will we keep on hearing the sonorous claims of the provision of speedy, inexpensive and fair justice and that to for all?
MAHER M. RAFIQUE SHAHEEN
Chak # 228/E-B, Vehari
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