| January 09, 2007 | Tuesday | Zilhaj 18, 1427 |
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Karzai complains
A most effective ambassador
Muslims in India
Mining the Durand Line
Islam and women’s rights
Will he become a martyr?
Hepatitis cases
Violation of merit
Pakistanis abroad
Helping hands
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
MEDICAL education today is infested with many diseases that have caused steep decline in the quality of doctors coming out of medical colleges. Medical ethics is the thing of the past. Hippocrates’ oath is buried under the debris of corruption. The consumers of these substandard products are poor people. The rich and the ruling elite receive treatment abroad, the latter on public money.
The decline is exemplified by sale of organs, leaving forceps and swabs (sometimes operation towels) in abdomen, receiving cars in return for opening a government account in banks; foreign trips from pharmaceutical companies, deaths by negligence; getting financial benefits from awards of postgraduate degrees and even as kickbacks from construction work in medical colleges in the public sector and purchase of equipment.
The government has not only accelerated the process but has done irreparable damage to medical education. An accountant of medical college/university owns a hospital in Hyderabad. Allow me to quote a few examples where the government has driven and is still driving square pegs in round holes. These are:
a. A person qualified in soil chemistry was appointed as professor of human biochemistry in a medical college. He still is teaching human biochemistry in a private medical college with catastrophic effects on medical education. The PMDC knows this and has closed its eyes. The right place for this professor would have been in an agriculture university, where he would have been of use to improve agricultural yields of Pakistan and would have been an asset to the nation.
b. A person with a severe speech handicap due to trauma to Broca’s area was appointed professor to teach medicine (which he obliged by not doing so); he was given several extensions and is still employed by a private university as professor of medicine, several years after attaining superannuation. He could have been better utilised in a deaf and dump school where speech disorders are treated. He was even given an ambulance meant for emergency patients to take him to his clinic from Jamshoro to Hyderabad and back, with great inconvenience to medical emergency patients.
c. A person who mishandled his teacher, professor, and benefactor was given 90 grace marks to pass the final MBBS examinations. This is the highest record of grace marks by Sindh University, and the record is as yet unbroken. Later on he was promoted to the post of health secretary.
d. A person was appointed on two posts simultaneously in two different cities — one as a professor of medicine, Dow Medical College, Karachi, and at the same time principal at Liaquat Medical College, Jamshoro. Justice was not done to either of the posts.
e. Students of one medical college in Sindh went on hunger strike to demand cent per cent results in the examinations. That means no student should fail. This was ridiculed internationally and broadcast by the BBC. The president had to intervene. Since this was instigated by a professor, he was transferred and the strike was called off.
These are some examples of how the structure of medical education has been destroyed. It is said: if you want to conquer/destroy a country, you jeopardise its health and education system, you don’t have to fire a shot. The most funny example is that at one time the Jinnah Hospital of Karachi was administratively controlled from Islamabad and the Islamabad Polyclinic from Karachi. Who says that we are not innovative.
PROF ABDUL GHANI SIDDIQUI
Hyderabad
THIS is with reference to Dawn’s report (Jan 5) about the joint press conference held by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and President Karzai wherein President Karzai strongly criticised Pakistan for cross-border terrorism.
Former Russian foreign minister Andrei Gromyko in his book Memories from Stalin to Gorbachev” wrote: “It is truly amazing that they (Pakistani rulers) allow themselves to be used by others, as tools in a conflict that can only damage their own national interest”
How true he was! If we look back and ask ourselves what we have got in return for becoming a frontline state in the so-called jihad against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
All I can remember is Kalashnikov, drugs, kidnappings for ransom, carjacking and over three million refugees who have badly damaged the social structure of the NWFP and some parts of Punjab.
We have not learned any lesson from history. Our present rulers are still being used as tools by the West, particularly the US and despite our best efforts we have not been able to even please Mr Karzai.
Is this not the right time for us to take a closer look at our foreign policy and address our internal problems without caring about what others would feel?
ALTAF MALIK
Islamabad
THE Afghan government never lets go of an opportunity to complain about how “terrorists” from Pakistan are the cause of everything going wrong in Afghanistan.
However, when Pakistan decides to fence and mine the Durand Line in order to curb this ‘infiltration’, the Afghan government is the first to complain citing the hindrance to the movement of Pashtun families.
Any families wanting to visit their relatives can do so through the border crossings or permanently settle in one country or the other.
Pakistan’s territorial integrity and international reputation cannot be held hostage to such flimsy excuses for not fencing the border.
An open border serves only the interests of Afghanistan by giving them something to complain about.
ALI R. KHAN MOHMAND
Karachi
THIS has reference to Syeda Abida Hussain’s letter (Dec 29).
As I had visited the US a number of times during her tenure as Pakistan’s ambassador in Washington D.C. in my capacity as a director of a UN-accredited population NGO, Population Communication International, New York, I make bold to say that she was a most effective ambassador of Pakistan.
She had excellent contacts in the State Department, the White House, the US Congress and the US media and the academic world.
She was easily accessible to journalists and she had many influential and helpful contacts in the Senate and the House of Representatives.
Begum Abida Hussain’s dinner parties were well-attended and many eminent Americans from diverse fields of national life were her guests. She had excellent command over the English language and the history of Pakistan.
Americans engaged in social work had great respect for her and she sent many to Pakistan on study visits. As head of the Pakistan embassy in Washington DC, Begum Abida Hussain maintained good relations with the Pakistani community in the US and mobilised its help in building up a Pakistani lobby in Washington D.C.
She encouraged many Pakistanis settled in the US to endeavour to play their part in the political life of the country by enrolling as voters and joining US political parties and by campaigning for candidates friendly to Pakistan in local and national elections.
The working of our embassy in Washington during her tenure as ambassador was efficient. Because of her good contacts in Washington D.C., funding by grant-giving US agencies for Pakistani socio-economic projects was usually substantial.
QUTUBUDDIN AZIZ
Karachi
I RECENTLY saw a television interview in which Hussain Haroon spoke of a report commissioned by the prime minister of India on the social status of the Muslim minority of India. He tried to prove that the two-nation theory was correct and that the current condition of Muslims in India still reflects the need and the foundation for the two-nation theory.
I have had a chance to read the excerpt of the report and would like to point out that Mr Haroon failed to mention a detail highlighted in the same report that the social state of Muslims in India is mostly related to the fact that the Muslims in India are still backward in their thinking and do not believe in modern education and educating their children to grow in any field or participate in the economy of India.
One should note here that education in India is almost free and there is no discrimination against anyone on religious grounds in primary schools.
So if the report mentions that 25 per cent of Muslim children of age 6 onwards have never attended schools, it really isn’t a case of discrimination but rather non-participation on the part of Indian Muslims that is to blame.
Although I agree that discrimination against the Muslims in India may exist, it is highly unlikely that in such a fast-growing economy Indian Muslims cannot participate and carve out a niche for themselves if they really wanted to.
Since they comprise such a large percentage (13 per cent) of the total Indian population, all they need to do is support themselves and their Muslim brothers in all endeavors.
MISHAL LATIF
Karachi
MR Cowasjee opposes the deployment of mines along the border with Afghanistan. (‘Mining the Durand Line’, Jan 5). As an alternative, he proposes: “Come down firmly, close down the training camps, root out the Taliban from Quetta — or at least try”. This is naivety at its height.
Pakistan not only tried but had more than 500 soldiers killed to no avail. The Taliban could not be defeated so far by American and Nato forces. Finally, Nato has resorted to making deals with the Taliban.
To expect the government of Pakistan to do better is naive. No matter what Pakistan does, Afghan President Hamid Karzai will keep on Manu Simrithi blaming Pakistan for his failures.
I agree banning the deployment of mines is a good idea, so is elimination of war, nuclear weapons, cluster bombs, depleted uranium bombs, shock and awe and many other weapons. But why criticise Pakistan alone?
Pakistan intends to deploy mines only as a last resort and to prove that it is doing everything possible to help. When Pakistan is ready to take concrete measures to close the border, Karzai is opposed to the idea.
This is precisely because that will take away the excuse often used by Karzai to blame Pakistan. Karzai cannot have his cake and eat it too.
MIR ALI
Chicago, USA
DR Tahmina Rashid has not been objective in her rejoinder, ‘Shifting blame is not the solution’ (Jan 1), to my letter of Dec 21 and has tried to ascribe to me words I didn't say. The question being discussed was some young Muslim woman's argument that the Quran gives a low status to women, so why should she follow a faith that made her inferior to men?
I had argued this wasn’t the case, otherwise why would countless well-educated and professional women embracing Islam in the West (who incidentally outnumber the male converts) accept an alternative that made them inferior? Dr Rashid couldn’t disprove it but shifted focus by slamming the harassment and abuse of women in Muslim countries, which is another issue.
I agree many women don't have all their rights and do get abused - which must be corrected - but this isn’t due to any shortcoming of Islam. Sexual harassment and abuse unfortunately exist even in the US, India and the other countries, so why single out only the Muslim ones and make it appear as the fault of their religion?
From various reports in Dawn about India, many tragic facts emerge, such as that it is losing 500,000 girls a year due to female foeticide and that they are 50 per cent more likely to die than their brothers before the age of five due to gender inequality. Also that nearly 70 per cent married women are physically abused and, in the year 2000, the ‘mother-in-law’ section of the Tihar jail in Delhi could not accommodate all the inmates responsible for dowry-related deaths.
Women don’t enjoy an equal status even in Japan. For instance, last year thousands of men and women protested against a proposal to allow a female monarch. In his autobiography, Bertrand Russell had written about a Japanese man who vacated his seat in a crowded train compartment out of courtesy, asking Russell to be seated.
Instead of doing that, the philosopher let his own girlfriend sit down. Ironically, this infuriated the man because women were supposed to be very inferior in his culture and it was insulting for him to see Russell's girlfriend getting precedence. The situation got so bad that they nearly came to blows.
Things have improved over there but it does prove the point. Incidentally, it was a female Japanese academic and convert, Dr Sachiko Murata, and not I, who had made that observation about the western feminists in relation not just to the Muslims but also to the Japanese.
However, Dr Rashid failed to view it with an open mind, as also the results of the survey of women in many Muslim countries whose overwhelming majority did not feel any oppression. Prince Charles had once said in a speech that Islam gave many rights to women 1,400 years ago, some of which the British women didn't have even until his grandmother's generation. Princess Diana had kept praising Islam’s family values for several years until her death.
Islam gives a woman certain privileges of which man is deprived. She is exempt from some religious duties permanently and from some others temporarily. In brief her rights and duties are equal to those of a man but not necessarily identical; if she is deprived of one thing in some aspect, she is fully compensated in many other aspects.
S. QADRI
Karachi
IN his otherwise reasonable analysis of the situation in Iraq, Najmuddin Shaikh (Jan 7) has either unknowingly or deliberately neglected to trace the chronology of sectarian violence after the American invasion of Iraq.
For months and months a brutal and barbaric campaign of suicide bombings targeting Shias was waged by the fanatical jihadi Salafi terrorists. Retaliatory attacks were muted as prominent clerics like Ayatollah Sistani counselled restraint.
This campaign of terror was praised by an influential columnist writing for this newspaper as ‘the grit’ of the insurgents in a sentimental and poorly-thought reaction to America’s invasion. It was quite clear that these provocations by the jihadists would plunge Iraq into a full-scale war, which is exactly what has happened and the barbarism of the Sunni insurgents is now matched or exceeded by the savagery of Shia militias.
Unless the civil war is a prelude to a wider conflict involving Shia majority countries on the one hand and Sunnis on the other with devastating consequences for the entire Muslim world, the madness that has gripped Iraq must end.
Muslims ought to stop blaming others for their dysfunctional societies and acknowledge that killing innocent populations merely for differing religious beliefs is mediaeval and archaic.
There should be a way out of this morass through the mediation of relatively objective Muslim countries which can urge the sponsor countries of both groups to abandon the senseless course of violence and reach a compromise that respects the interests of all.
MASOOD HAIDER
New Jersey, USA
I WOULD like to draw the attention of the health ministry to the increasing cases of hepatitis in Pakistan, especially Karachi. First of all, I really appreciate the decision of allocating a handsome amount of money to improve the deplorable condition of public health.
But, surprisingly, no one wants to know the sources of this horrible disease. The answer is government hospitals. They don’t sterilise the instruments and use the same instruments for every patient coming to the hospital. The autoclave machine (used for sterlilsation purpose) always remains out of order.
I request the authorities concerned to come out of their air-conditioned rooms and see the ground realities themselves. To deliver speeches in seminars or allocating money is not enough. We need proper monitoring by the higher health officials on a continuous basis at these hospitals if the people are to be saved from the wrath of this rapidly spreading ailment.
DR ALI
Michigan
THERE is resentment and disappointment among senior police officers belonging to provinces other than Punjab.
The recently-posted police chiefs in different provinces of the country belong solely to Punjab.
This ignoring of senior police officers of other provinces has created mistrust and prejudice against Punjab by the people of these provinces.
Their anger is compounded by the fact that the recently-promoted officers to grade 22 in the bureaucracy were also all from Punjab.
It is time Gen Musharraf took stock of the situation and provided justice to these senior police officers.
Otherwise this situation will give rise to hopelessness among their ranks, which would in turn lead to inefficiency.
SHER KHAN
Islamabad
GOING through letters in these columns, it seems that all those who have left Pakistan are the ones most worried about this country.
I request these Pakistanis abroad to please direct their attention to their newly-adopted countries or else come back to Pakistan to actually solve the problems here they insist on pointing out.
Sending worrisome messages back home serves no purpose. Rather, it adds to the frustrations of those of us who live here.
SAIRA HASSAN KHAN
Islamabad
THE letter written by Zainab Shafi (Dec 28) was heart-breaking. It is sad to see such young intelligent people getting a setback so early in their career.
Our country is in dire need of scientists, doctors, inventors and professors who will not only take Pakistan on the path of prosperity but will bring political, economical and religious stability to the country.
Every fourth or fifth person I have seen at MIT or Harvard is an Indian.
The pride of being a citizen of a rapidly developing nation is palpable among them.
Every third or fourth taxi driver in New York is a Pakistani. There are many expatriate Pakistanis who are interested in supporting such students.
Zainab, please feel free to contact me to work out details about getting admission to a good university where you can pursue your dreams.
BABAR S. HASAN
Boston, USA
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