| January 18, 2007 | Thursday | Zilhaj 27, 1427 |
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The language conundrum
Tryst with destiny
Humiliation at govt departments
Amenity plot grabbed by land mafia
The crusade in Somalia
Delayed flight from Toronto
Setting an example
Celebration in Karachi
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
IT is that time again in the year when we wake up to find acute shortage of main source of energy, i.e., natural gas, in the country. This time, even Karachi is feeling the lowering of gas pressure as considerable amount of gas has been reallocated to SNGPL to meet the crisis situation up north.
First, we do not believe in energy conservation and both our industrial and commercial sectors waste enormous proportion of gas (of course, the residential sector is not too far behind in the race to waste). And then we subsidise gas costs so that there is no incentive to save.
It is common knowledge that most industrial zones in the country generate power at a very low efficiency. It is estimated that about 40 per cent gas can be saved if the industrial zone produces power centrally in an efficient manner and sells at a reasonable cost to industries. If Sui gas could be conserved, may be, we will not need to shut off gas supply to so many industrial units in winter.
The most important point to note is efficiency. We cannot afford to waste and yet we see it happening all the time and everywhere. Main energy guzzlers like steam power stations (Jamshoro, AES, Hub Power, KESC Bin Qasim plant, etc) and large industries (cement and sugar to name a few) need to be redesigned in stages to become efficient.
Just for comparison, steam power stations can be converted to combined cycle power plant with 50 per cent extra power from the same gas supply. When are we going to wake up to think about the country’s future and stop this ad hoc basis to pass time?
Most of our industries and large commercial buildings are very inefficient when it comes to electrical and mechanical services and this has been going on for years, thanks to subsidised gas costs. Now that gas costs have to rise, like oil, the industries are ‘lost’.
If we had the wisdom to announce pre-determined long-time gas and power tariff philosophy (similar to what has been now done for the auto industry), the industrialists would have invested on a long-term basis.
First, we invested billions in furnace oil power plant and then after discovering the high costs, we invested, again wrongly, in inefficient gas-fired power plants. How can our country afford such experimentations?
Even now, we need to ensure compliance with minimum efficiency standards. In the past, such decisions have been taken at the highest level (ECC’s decision one year back to only allow gas for self-generation on cogeneration design was not followed and the result is that we have inefficient systems for which we neither have the required gas nor can the industry bear the coming cost increase.)
Wake-up call is urgently required to encourage efficiency to meet the inevitable energy crisis in the country.
AINUL ABEDIN
Karachi
I AM grateful to Syed Muslehuddin Ahmed for putting my name in eminent company. What he has imputed to me, however, is the result of some misunderstanding.
What I could have said could well be what I said in the class quite frequently: If any student had a problem following what I said, he could ask any question in any language that I knew, and that I will answer back in the same language for his better understanding.
Luckily, I had the habit of putting my thoughts on paper and having them published. I quote a couple of examples from Dawn itself to bear witness to what my thoughts really were:
“The Council of Islamic Ideology and its panel of economic and banking experts are currently engaged in the study of Islamic economy.
‘‘Their thoughts seem to centre on ‘Interest-free banking.’ The Quran, of course, prohibits Riba, which is usually translated as ‘usury.’ This translation has led some people to argue that usury does not include ‘commercial interest’ and the latter, consequently, is not prohibited.
According to the Chambers Twentieth Century Dictionary, usury itself originally meant simply “taking of interest on a loan” and that the qualification of ‘iniquitous’ or ‘illegal’ was a later addition.
We, in any case, are concerned with the Arabic word ‘riba.’ All the cognates of that word carry some sense of increase, which quality commercial interest shares with usury.
Conversely, none of them carries any sense of iniquity or illegality which is the dividing line between commercial interest and usury.
This much, indeed, the supporters of interest-free banking seem to accept.
The word ‘Riba’ in fact means more than interest, which is essentially a monetary concept. It means an increase of every kind, including increase in the quantity of the commodities loaned.” (Dawn, A Friday Feature, Jan 27, 1978).
“Much of the confusion has been caused by the use of the word ‘law’ in English and ‘Qanoon,’ in Urdu to designate at once what to the Muslim jurists had been two distinct categories, ‘Sharia’ and ‘Qanoon,’ which corresponded to what in the continental languages of Europe are known, respectively, as ‘Jus’ and ‘lex.’
I like, linguistic confusion attends our understanding of the two key Quranic words ‘Hukm’ and ‘Amr.’” (Dawn, A Friday Feature, 7.4.1978).
The writer, however, is no scientist, and has never had to lecture on science where, he sincerely believes, much liberty is permissible, and ultimately, as Syed Muslehuddin Ahmed rightly says, “language is least important” and where “universal language composed of signs, symbols and formulae,’ does probably better.
In the demonstrative way of teaching by example – the Sunnah – whereby even babes can begin learning, language loses its importance altogether.
FATEH M. SANDEELA
Karachi
JAWED Naqvi’s column entitled ‘India’s tryst with destiny: a dream, a nightmare’ ( Jan 7) makes for an interesting reading. I thought Mr Naqvi would be more balanced and not get swept by the winds of hatred blowing in Delhi and Karachi. I mention these places because this is where most of the unfortunate victims of partition reside after being asked to leave.
Certainly, Ayaz Amir and Irfan Hussain seem far more honest with a clean attitude. His assertion that ‘rape in moving cars is a Delhi feature’ shows his deep-seated bias.
How many such incidents has he counted since he came to Delhi? It is like saying that carjackings and AK-47 gangs are a Karachi feature, which I fear are present in many major cities globally.
Speaking of Manu Sharma, he has been convicted by the Delhi High Court and so has Vikas Yadav in another high profile case. I would love to see his statistics of how many sons of Pakistani politicians have been convicted by Pakistani courts. And don’t worry about that beast that killed poor children; he will not escape the Indian judiciary.
Lapses have been committed by the UP police and many of the policemen are already bearing the brunt.
India is a developing country with a huge population, so expecting it to have western-style policing and justice is a bit naïve at best. Still, it is doing what it can with its limited means.
AMIT JAIN
Noida, India
Note: Mr Jawed Naqvi is an Indian journalist who has lived in Delhi almost all his professional life. —Editor
I WANT to draw the attention of authorities concerned to the agony, callousness and humiliation faced by the public at the hands of government departments and corporations, especially the Islamabad office of Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Ltd.
My wife applied for an urgent gas connection. After due diligence and feasibility survey by the company, Rs8,500 was deposited in the bank on Oct 10.
Staff at the counter intimated that connection will be installed within two months as per their standard procedure.
Despite a lapse of more than three months, the needful has not yet been done. Six visits to the office, which is 30km away from our house, elicited the reply each time that a gas connection would be operative in a day or so, an assurance obviously not meant to materialise.
Innumerable telephonic calls have proved futile as the person concerned was ‘either on leave’ or ‘out on duty’. Attempts to contact responsible high-ups were met with a pet reply that ‘Sahib is in a meeting’ or ‘not in his seat’.
A visit to the Sui office reveals the height of inefficiency, mismanagement and indifferent attitude of the dealing staff.
Their mode of working is outdated and out of sync with basic principles of management and public service.
Deliberate delaying tactics in delivery of facilities in time have been adopted to extract undue monetary gratifications. It belies all the claims of good governance.
Will some someone at SNGPL, particularly the managing director, Mr Rashid Lone, try to put the house in order so that ordinary people like us suffer no more for none of their fault?
GHULAM NABI MALIK
Rawalpindi
THIS is with reference to a news item, ‘Amenity plots in the clutches of land mafia’ (Jan 6).
It is shocking that the Faisal Cantonment Board (FCB)and the city government are so oblivious to such blatant and heinous acts.
At the same time, usurpation of land of a park by such a reputable organisation as the Pakistan Telecommunications Limited (PTCL) is in itself a reprehensible act.
Equally lamentable is the attitude of the FCB that though the said amenity plot (ST-6), located within the residential area of block 12 in Gulistan-i-Jauhar, falls under its jurisdiction and administrative control, no effort has been made to retrieve it from the clutches of the PTCL and turn it from a stinking junkyard into a beautiful park for which it has been earmarked.
In the last two years several requests were made in this regard by the residents of the area to the FCB’s chief executive, the city nazim and, subsequently, to the governor and the chief minister, but all in vain.
Now the residents of block 12 reserve the right to refer it to the Sindh High Court and request its chief justice to take suo motu notice and help restore the rights of the residents to the afore-mentioned amenity plot.
RESIDENTS
Gulistan-i-Jauhar, Karachi
THE former Pakistan ambassador to Somalia and Dawn’s columnist, Dr Maqbool Ahmed Bhatty, has presented a very knowledgeable and unbiased assessment of the Somali problem down to the current events in ‘High stakes in the Horn of Africa’ (Jan 8).
His observations are borne out by several fair-minded western analysts in their recent write-ups in Dawn, such as Gwynne Dyer and Niall Ferguson.
Mr Ferguson, for instance, while noting that the Islamists in Somalia had created order, even if not of a western type, angrily slams in an L. A. Times article the US partisanship in the crisis (Promoting anarchy, Dawn, Jan 9):
“At least in the Cold War, ‘our son of a bitch’ – the local anti-communist strongman – could be counted on to impose a brutal kind of order.
‘‘Now, in the war on terror, the United States would rather see a country torn apart by multiple sons-of-bitches than ruled under Sharia law.
“But, the more US foreign policy promotes anarchy instead of order, the stronger the Islamists’ appeal will be. And the darker the shade of mischief that will ensue.”
Ironically, some of the warlords whom the US is now backing had been fighting against the US peacekeeping troops in the mid-1990s.
Thus, the militia of Farah Aideed, the father of the present Somali deputy prime minister and warlord Hussein Aideed, had killed 18 American soldiers and dragged their bodies through the streets of Mogadishu, to the horror of this correspondent and many Americans who were watching the gory incident on TV.
The unrepentant Bush’s ever-widening crusade against Islam has made him take strange bedfellows.
Another important fact is that recent US media reports reveal Washington had, since 2002, quietly poured millions of dollars of weapons and sent military advisers into Ethiopia to help it drive the Islamists out of Somalia (Jan 9).
After the rout of the latter, American sea-borne forces are trying to kill off the escaping Islamists by conveniently labelling them as members of Al Qaeda.
For the Christian Ethiopia, all this has been a windfall to help it consolidate its grip on the Somali territories it had occupied decades ago and to repress its restive ethnic-Somali Muslim population.
Several reports by western agencies had shown how
the Somali Islamic Courts Council (SICC) had brought order to the country within six months.
For instance, after 15 years people in Mogadishu and other SICC-controlled areas celebrated Eid-ul-Fitr in a really enjoyable manner (Dawn, Oct 25).
A resident stated that he and his family used to celebrate the occasion indoors, being too scared of warlord militiamen to go outside.
“Life was hell under the warlords’ reign. You cannot compare it to the Islamists rule now. Before, we could not come to the beach with our children clad in new clothes for fear of the militiamen stripping them naked,” he said.
Sadly, the gunmen, who used to extort money from terrified residents at checkpoints, sometimes killing them and had been chased away by the Islamist forces, have now returned.
In view of this, all Muslim countries, especially Pakistan, should pay heed to the caution sounded out by Dr Bhatty. First, that Ethiopia, along with its close ally Israel is becoming the third pillar of a (western-created) strategic structure that surrounds the Islamic heartland.
Second, that the situation in the Horn of Africa involves high stakes and Pakistan needs to promote greater solidarity among the countries that have come under pressure, support the United Nation system and build close relations with the key players including China, Iran and Saudi Arabia.
This is the only hope for the poor people of Somalia, who are faced with floods, food scarcity, endless suffering and a crusade.
The SICC had given them real hope having rebuffed Al Qaeda’s attempts to dictate to it right at the start and, as another proof of its sincerity and wisdom, was already planning to deweaponise the country in a well-thought-out, phased manner, unlike the present occupiers’ brutal method.
All the fair-minded sections of the international community should intervene on behalf of SICC, before Somalia becomes another Iraq.
MIAN PERWAIZ CHISHTI
Karachi
PIA’s flight from Toronto PK 790 arrived in Lahore at 10am on Jan 13 instead of Jan 10 at its scheduled arrival time of 5 pm. When PIA bought Boeing 777 Long Range aircraft there was a lot of jubilations as if from now on things will change for the better.
This plane took off from Toronto airport only to land back in an emergency with severe engine damage. An engine failure is a serious problem which becomes more precarious on a two-engine aircraft.
These aircraft are hardly a year old. Yet there have been so many incidents from the date the first Boeing 777 ER was inducted. We have still not digested the frequent fires on 777 landing gears.
It seems PIA is not geared to handle new technology aircraft, or it points to bad managerial decision in training personnel and selection of individuals. PIA passengers’ confidence in new aircraft is shattered. A 60-hour delay is too long and very inconvenient to passengers travelling with families.
There was also this embarrassing controversy about the crew, which was telecast on Toronto local television. It is time to overhaul PIA’s maintenance, so that such failures do not occur on new aircraft. Mere denials will not resolve what is an evident lapse.
T. G. HASSAN
Mississauga, Canada
THE motorway police are one of Pakistan’s best police forces. They are tough and do not discriminate on the basis of position or power. This is how they make it clear that no one, not even a politicians or a government official, is above the law. But sadly some civil servants do consider themselves to be untouchables.
On a recent trip to Lahore via the motorway, there was this one car which was a black Corolla with a green number-plate which was overspeeding. The car did not stop even when the police officer signalled it to yield. Upon reaching the Lahore toll plaza the same car was ahead of us, and was eventually caught by the motorway police.
The police officer was making up the fine slip when the car sped off, without even paying the toll. They were able to run away as the barrier at the toll plaza was broken. Later I found out that this car belonged to the federal cultural secretary.
As a 17-year-old student, it rather shocked me that such people who hold a position of power and authority behaved in such a manner as these are the people as run our country and they are the ones who set an example for us to follow.
NESHMIYA ADNAN KHAN
Islamabad
WHAT is there to celebrate in Karachi? On Jan 13 there was no electricity in Seaview Township from 10am to 7.30pm while music boomed and pounded the residents for some people chose to celebrate life at the Seaview Beach. I wonder how many areas in Karachi have such electricity breakdowns.
Karachi has more broken roads than well-carpeted roads. Gutters overflow in innumerable places (including some apartment buildings of Seaview Township); there is water shortage in hundreds of areas (for example Gulshan-i-Ghazi Union Council of Baldia Town); garbage abounds the lanes and bylanes; cellophanes and cars are snatched; hundreds of children are out of school; quality of healthcare is not accessible to a large number of Karachi residents (remember that nearly 40 per cent of Karachi’s population live in kutchi abadis); buses are crammed with people as they cling for their dear lives on its back.
This list can go on and on to show there is more to cry about than celebrate in Karachi.
It is said Rs60 million has been spent on these celebrations. This money could have gone a long way to address the needs of the millions of poor in Karachi.
To have some people singing and dancing does not take away the difficulties and challenges faced by the people of Karachi.
Karachi should not be turned into what many private channels present – a cacophony of songs and dance with no pause to see the suffocating realities that hound and engulf people.
The district government should be accountable for ensuring basic services to all the residents of Karachi (including those in the katchi abadis), and not pretend that all is joyful in the city.
VERY WORRIED CITIZEN
Karachi
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