| February 03, 2007 | Saturday | Muharram 14, 1428 |
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M. A. Jinnah Road
Fake degrees
Airport alert
CSIBL creditors’ plea
Misplaced priorities
Is Bush on the march again?
Women in parliament
Leadership lapses
Only energy savers
KESC billing procedure
The meaning of ‘to serve’
Demolition of school
Traffic plan
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
IN his column ‘The nation’s health” (Jan 21), Mr Ardeshir Cowasjee has highlighted the plight of our health system. As a doctor who left Pakistan four years back for better training opportunities and ‘greener’ life, I feel the traumatic aspect of being trained in Pakistan is also one of the major factors for migration.
Besides corruption and nepotism in the medical community, training aspects are deplorable for junior doctors in Pakistan.
The financial aspects of completing your postgraduate training (residency) in Pakistan are so grave that many intelligent and bright doctors have been disillusioned by the system and have started working for pharmaceutical companies so that they can be economically viable.
The working time of doctors in training is changing all over the world, including the United Kingdom where from Aug 1, 2004 their weekly working time has been limited to maximum 13 hours at one stretch according to the European working time directives.
This decision was made after numerous research papers were published about the inverse relation of working time and performance.
There are also many unethical demands by training institutes that if you challenge them legally, they might end up in a human rights court. For example:
a. Certain hospitals will not only refuse maternity leave to their trainees but also demand them to be back to work soon, a failure to do so would lead them to lose their jobs. This is an uninspiring factor for women doctors.
b. Some hospitals do not even have on-call rooms where the doctor can rest when they are not running from pillar to post during their emergency duties. There is no concept of paid annual leaves or extra leave if you have to work on a public holiday.
c. Most of the trainees in government hospitals in Karachi are doing their jobs unpaid while some armed forces hospitals charge civilian trainees to work there and complete their training requirements.
This is not an exhaustive list and I believe it leads to unethical practices by the doctors and disappoint them further about their future in their country.
We already have a relentless brain drain to other countries. If our training continues to remain the same, I think we shall see more exodus of health professionals to alternative professions as well.
There is a proverb: “He who has health has hope. And he who has hope has everything.”
DR YASIR ABBASI
Nottinghamshire, UK
IT was in May 2005 that work on new M.A.Jinnah Road from Islamia College to Jail Chowrangi was started and after 18 months both sides of the road have finally been opened for traffic.
One track was opened for traffic a few months back. One does not need to be a road expert to judge the quality of that one track which was pathetic for a newly-constructed road. In terms of quality, its nowhere close to some of the other roads recently built in Karachi.
Some portions of the road have already developed cracks and if situation does not improve, it’ll be another one of many broken roads in our city. It is quite obvious that substandard material has been used in carpeting.
Unfortunately, the story does not end here. There is more to this road than just the substandard material used. It has a huge number of car showrooms on both sides. The showroom owners consider it their national responsibility to occupy a major portion of the road. Almost two of the three lanes are occupied by these showrooms in peak hours, leaving just one lane open for the traffic to pass. The cars are washed and repaired on the main road further shortening the life of the road. And not only the main road, even the streets in the vicinity are almost fully encroached upon by these showrooms making it extremely difficult for people to pass.
Millions of rupees have been spent on this road and if things continue to go the way they are going at the moment, all that money will go down the drain. There was absolutely no need to spend millions on the road if it was supposed to be used as a free parking space.
How much agony people had to go through during the construction is a different story altogether. It seems difficult for the showroom owners to encroach upon a major portion of the road without the help of the town administration which might be getting its due share.
If this is not the case, the authorities concerned should remove those encroachments.
SUNIL KUMAR
Karachi
THIS is with reference to Zafarul Haq Memom’s letter ‘Fake degrees’ (Feb 1) whereby he has requested any legal person to enlighten him whether any criminal proceedings were prescribed in the Conduct of General Elections Order 2002 for contesting elections on fake degrees, besides unseating them.
Conduct of the General Elections Order 2002 does not provide for any criminal proceedings in case of submission of fake degrees. However, criminal proceedings can be initiated under the relevant provisions of the Pakistan Penal Code, 1860 (the ‘PPC’).
Section 463 of the PPC defines forgery as: “Whoever makes any false document or part of a document, with intent to cause damage or injury, to the public or to any person, or support any claim or title or to cause any person to part with property, or to enter into any express or implies contract, or with intent to commit fraud or that fraud may be committed, commits forgery”.
The term ‘claim’ is not limited in its application to a claim to property only. Even a claim to be admitted to a university or in the query in hand to be able to participate in elections by submitting a fake degree is a ‘claim’ within the meaning of Section 463.
Section 465 of the PPC provides that whoever commits forgery shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to two years, with fine, or with both.
ANIL KHAN LUNI
Lahore
THROUGH these columns I wish to inform my fellow citizens of Karachi of a new menace that has recently cropped up. Here goes:
On Dec 14 my uncle and aunt arrived from the US at Jinnah terminal at around 6am. From there they were tagged by a white Land Cruiser/Prado with tinted glasses and no number plate.
The moment we opened our main door for the car to come in they barged into the house and held the inmates at gunpoint and left with their entire luggage (including passports and green cards).
The matter was aptly reported to the police and the CPLC from where it was discovered that we were not alone and that there is a long list of people before us.
After a little research and talking to a few other victims, the following became very clear:
1. All the incidents happened with passengers whose flights landed between 6am and 9am.
2. In almost all the incidents (including ours) the perpetrators were two males — one bearded and the other clean shaven — and were driving either a white Land Cruiser or an Alto without a number plate.
3. All the victims were initially offered help with the loading of their luggage in their cars just outside the terminal building (this is where information about the victims is transmitted to the waiting car outside the airport).
My advice: Keep looking in your rear-view mirror; call ADT/security five minutes before you arrive at your destination. It may save you from a lot of trouble.
A CONCERNED CITIZEN
Karachi
THIS is to request the president and the prime minister to intervene and resolve the CSIBL matter, as the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) has not handed over CSIBL till Jan 19 to any buyer since its takeover in August 2006, while CSIBL’s depositors and creditors are stuck as the SECP is neither paying mark-up, nor responding to any of our letters.
The SECP Lahore crew handling CSIBL is non-responsive and maintaining complete silence while the assets of CSIBL are being eroded with every passing day.
Would the president and the prime minister instruct the SECP to hand over CSIBL to a consortium of CSIBL’s creditors, namely financial institutions, to take charge, and complete the task of handover of CSIBL to a new buyer in two/three weeks’ timeframe.
Handing over CSIBL to its creditors most immediately will bring the much expected results and it will also stop depositors and creditors of CSIBL from the miseries being inflicted at present. It may be added that the SECP controlling CSIBL since August 2006 till now has neither been productive, nor fruitful to any stakeholder of CSIBL, and the SECP’s lip-service through media of its finding of a new buyer of CSIBL does not appear to hold any weight, as no tangible outcome has yet emerged.
Therefore, all depositors and creditors of CSIBL would be grateful to the president and the prime minister for early action and intervention in the matter.
NADIA SOOMRO
Karachi
THIS is apropos of editorial ‘Misplaced priorities” (Jan 26) wherein you have rightly disapproved of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz’s decision for establishing two medical towers containing state-of-the-art medical facilities at Karachi and Islamabad, each costing in all Rs5 billion to make available services to the privileged class. The ground-breaking ceremony of the first tower has already taken place at Islamabad.
I appreciate your criticism of the prime minister for spending such a colossal amount for a class who being rich can afford medical treatment anywhere in the world, when the majority of the poor are not provided with even basic health services.
However, I cannot blame the PM solely for the reason that essentially he represents the moneyed-class and not the poor and underprivileged of the country.
DR ALI AKBAR M. DHAKAN
Karachi
A RECENT press report quoting Ms Rice indicated that the US is now seeking to organise a coalition of Israel and conservative Arab states to confront Iran. When taken together with other reports of the US and Nato strengthening their forces in the region and the simultaneous escalation of US anger at Iran, and resentment against Pakistan, one wonders whether President Bush has something in mind more than mere diversion of world attention from the crisis in Iraq. Is he on the march again?
If this situation persists, the US president would soon find himself on the trodden path of three years ago with no backdown provision. However, any breakout of large-scale hostility between the US and Iran would automatically result in a drastic change to the present amorphous world order.
Russia, China and France having lost oil concessions granted to them by Saddam in Iraq, not wishing to be the loser again in Iran, the US will soon find their greater resistance to future American moves: economic, political and even military: worldwide. Emerging India would happily watch this situation from the sidelines.
What will be the final outcome, only God knows best? However, the loss of credibility in the United Nations after the demise of the Soviet Union, and the loss of world community’s faith in just actions by the sole superpower would certainly open the world to the dreaded “free for all”.
I am sure neither any non-American nor an American, even President Bush himself, would want such a situation to arise. The situation would become real dangerous if the loose cannon-ball, Prime Minister Olmert, might get tempted to mistakenly jump into the fray and try to settle his score with President Ahmadinejad.
One hopes that President Bush and his close confidants understand well the complexity of the so-called Oriental mind that has fashioned over three millenniums of history. Certainly his nation has realised the true convolution of the situation in the strategic triangle that the neocons had in 2001 set out to manage. Still, it is not too late to follow the sagacious Chinese proverb, which states that the one who strikes first admits he has run out of words.
IQBAL F QUADIR
Karachi
THIS is with reference to the news report published in Dawn (Jan 26) on page 21 titled ‘Ex-minister deplores lack of access to information’. Referring to my response to a question about the role of women in public life, the report attributes the following words to me: “He said that people could disagree with the present regime but it was a fact it had ensured 33 per cent representation to women in Parliament”.
For the record, my response was as follows: “That even though the present government can be validly criticised on several grounds, it has ensured 17 per cent reserved seats for women in the federal Parliament and in the provincial legislatures and 33 per cent reserved seats in local government councils”, ie, the percentage of reserved seats in the federal and provincial legislatures is about half (17 per cent) that of the reserved women’s seats in the local councils (33 per cent).
JAVED JABBAR
Ex-senator Karachi
THIS has reference to the article ‘Leadership lapses’ by Andleeb Abbas in the weekly Magazine (Jan 14). God has promised that leaders will be imposed on nations similar to their own character.
This is a natural phenomenon and people have to support or oppose the leaders to make it work and achieve an honest and efficient leadership.
For example, Gen Musharraf, when he took over, sought support from the people for his very convincing agenda but failed and later succumbed to local and international pressure to bring back the same lot into the assemblies whom he had discarded as trash.
The problem is that we may come out on the roads to condemn a leader, but we never start a campaign in favour of a sitting leader to support him and help him to withstand the pressures from so-called leadership who can bring a few goons on the road to prove their so-called popularity.
AGHA AMIR AHSAN
Rawalpindi
WITH reference to an article in Newsweek (Jan 29), it is very interesting to note that almost 20 per cent of all the electricity is used to power the old-fashioned incandescent bulbs, the 19th century technology. The compact fluorescent lamps or energy savers use 70-80 per cent less power to generate the same amount of light.
I remember that the electricity department in Washington, DC, changed all the old-fashioned bulbs in the houses with the energy savers free of cost about 20 years back, and in the end they saved money by not having to build an extra power station which would have been very expensive.
In my opinion, if the government of Pakistan bans production and import of the old-fashioned 19th century technology bulbs and allows only energy savers, we can save up to 20 per cent of electric energy. It’s something to think about.
DR KHALID BUTT
Karachi
WE have a new KESC billing procedure whereby your electricity supply will be disconnected on non-payment of a month’s arrears.
This is unjust as sometimes the bill is not received or your payment is not recorded in a particular month’s invoice.
I would request the KESC to review this procedure as it is causing unnecessary hardship to consumers.
ASAD HASAN
Karachi
THIS is with reference to Mian Shehbaz Sharif’s letter (Feb 2). The public memory is not too short to forget the very big and very wild incident that occurred just seven years before — the storming of the Supreme Court by the party workers of Nawaz Sharif. There is no similar example in Pakistan and the punishment for doing that and for ridiculing Justice (retd) Sajjad Ali Shah came to them not from a court but from God. I was both stunned and pleased to read the fourth para in which they write: “A fearless, free and independent judiciary .... under the leadership of Mian Nawaz Sharif, when it returns to power, will be to promulgate the absolute independence of the judiciary”.
In their attempt to reclaim power we hope they will remember the contents of their letter.
M. M. Khan
Karachi
I ENDORSE the views of Ms Rabia Ali (letter, Feb 1). It is most painful that on the one hand the government claims to commit itself to a literate Pakistan and on the other hand its own functionaries are ruining the functioning educational institutions.
A few days ago, when the school building demolition began, the news appeared that the provincial education minister had ordered an inquiry into handing over the school to a private party.
God knows what have we achieved by holding inquiries into serious issues, but as far as the school is concerned, the parties concerned taking advantage of Muharram holidays have grounded the school building.
At the outset, I would also like to mention that the controversial handing over of the Korangi Industrial Area fire station to a private party has also raised a number of questions in the minds of citizens who care for the well-being of the country.
It seems obvious that some quarters at the helm of affairs are behind these acts for their personal gain. It is time all concerned citizens raised their voice against this practice to save our valuable assets.
M. KHALID
Karachi
THE traffic situation in Karachi is getting worse with each passing day. On the one hand vehicles are increasing exponentially while roads are getting blocked due to the mega development drive of the city government.
The major reason of traffic jams in Karachi is the road construction. Road construction works are in progress on M.A. Jinnah Extension Road, Rashid Minhas Road, Sharea Jehangir, 5000 Road in North Karachi, 8000 Road in Korangi Manghopir Road, etc.
Flyover works are going on at Time Medico intersection, Hasan Square intersection and Sohrab Goth.
Works on underpasses are also under way at Gharibabad, Liaquatabad No. 10 and Nazimabad No. 2. Most projects are without any traffic diversion plan. Solving traffic-related issues is no easy task and requires planning.
Considering the availability of resources and funds, it is best to utilise what is readily available rather than opt for new solution which causes more strain on tax-payers’ pockets.
SAIMA KHURSHID
Karachi
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