| February 14, 2007 | Wednesday | Muharram 25, 1428 |
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Planning for the future
Murder of merit
Wheat export
Cricket and ‘soft image’
Saving precious lives
Karachi traffic trauma
National mindset
Railways
Delhi Jamia Masjid
Musharraf’s Mideast quest
Hats off to the taxpayers
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
ACCORDING to local newspapers (Feb 11), the chairman of the Development Authority Muzaffarabad (DAM), Zahid Amin, has announced a cash prize of Rs40,000 for police officials of district Bagh who recovered an abducted university student and arrested her kidnappers. Giving cash prizes to police officials for doing their job is not unusual in this country, but one may ask in which capacity and under what authority Mr Amin has doled out the money meant for the development of the areas falling under the jurisdiction of DAM.
In the first place, the police do not deserve any prize but instead should be reprimanded because the girl was abducted at about 8:45 am from a commercial hub of Muzaffarabad and before being intercepted by traffic police near Paddar Nullah (district Bagh) four hours later, the vehicle had passed through the jurisdiction of three police stations and two police posts without being spotted and stopped. This also belies the claims of the administration and police officials that they had put the police on high alert soon after learning about the abduction. It was just a routine checking by traffic police and shouts of the girl which led to the arrest of kidnappers.
Even if the police deserved to be rewarded, the money should have come either from the head of the government (prime minister) or the head of their department (IGP). Why Mr Amin jumped to do something he is not supposed to do by any statute of law or the rules governing his position is anybody’s guess. It seems he may have wanted to gain publicity, as has been alleged by some speakers during the demonstrations held by shocked residents on the day of the kidnapping.
His act is also reminiscent of his earlier stint as chairman of DAM (1993-96) when instead of developing even a single housing society he wasted money for the purpose on erecting fences around the city graveyards. This earned him praise in some circles, including those of the habitual sycophants, but not among those who knew that he had overlooked his primary job. One would advise Mr Amin not to repeat the mistakes of the past and make rightful use of DAM funds to justify his appointment.
MEHWISH LATIF
Muzaffarabad, AJK
IT is heartening to see that Karachi is fast completing its mega road projects to provide signal free corridors for the traffic in its busiest intersections. Completion of these projects is likely to solve traffic problems of this city for many years to come as the signal-free corridors help the flow of traffic rather than slowing it down.
In this context, I wish to draw the attention of the administration and the engineers of the Capital Development Authority towards the likely outcome of their ongoing efforts to improve the road network of the capital. Compared to any capital city of the world, the traffic load on the roads of Islamabad is still not disproportionately high. However, the existing chaos is the result of completely ignoring the original master plan of the city which had no intersections with traffic lights.
Thanks to the model traffic police, for their untiring efforts have salvaged the problem to some extent. However, current activity of converting most of the green areas to roads (as per master plan) but without the underpasses or overhead bridges (contrary to the master plan) is going to produce many more large intersections of the magnitude of Faisal Avenue intersection.
Thus, in the short term, traffic might look well regulated. But, as soon as there is another surge in the number of vehicles, we are likely to see vast empty roads and numerous choked up intersections. And this future picture is not likely to be far away.
My suggestion is that instead of exhausting all their resources on construction of more roads, very serious consideration should be given to making more underpasses than are being planned. I feel that at least, the newly built roads should join with the existing roads with underpasses and Islamabad’s terrain favours that new roads can be more easily built at different levels. Adding an underpass to an existing intersection, of course, has shown to be very cumbersome.
Like the upcoming 7th avenue, the aim should be to make 9th Avenue and the full length of the Jinnah Avenue from Parliament to the F-11 sector free of traffic signals. I consider the construction of this type of signal-free corridor as the only solution to the future traffic problems of Islamabad the beautiful.
ABDUL REHMAN
Islamabad
AS per Mrs Tanveer Khalid’s letter titled ‘Murder of merit’ (Jan 30), an interesting assertion has been made with regard to violation of merit. I want to share my perception of this aspect of our nation even creeping in a strong institution like the army. Discriminatory procedures in the selection board have led to violation of merit hurting the pride of many like me. The following is submitted in this regard.
Against the convention, this time five courses were included while sufficient number of qualified candidates was available in the two courses due for promotion. This must have led to undue competition as the vacancies were generally the same.
This time infantry was allocated minimum vacancies, so inclusion of more courses for infantry would mean undue elimination of good officers. So even if it was a well-intended decision to include armoured officers, infantry should have been spared.
There was no harm in breaking the entity of course; many are pending for reason of not having vacancies.
All officers in the past have been considered on the basis of seniority, and after filling the vacancies the remaining ones are reconsidered next year. This time the rule was not applied to infantry and infantry officers were considered on the basis of some merit list irrespective of seniority. This led to deprivation of infantry officers. This is certainly against the spirit of merit frequently professed.
Even in this case those left should have been pending for next year. Many are certainly better than those promoted earlier under seniority procedure. This would not send the heavy national investment made on them down the drain.
The worst thing is that no senior infantry officer pointed out these flaws. This gives an impression to the civilians that those with upright personalities and ideological orientation have been eliminated. I hope Gen Musharraf will look into the results and prevent the damage.
AN ARMY DAUGHTER
Karachi
AN enigmatic report was carried in Dawn (Jan 24) saying that the country may suffer over Rs222 million loss on export of 0.5 million tons of wheat. What a bizarre thinking of the government to throw away millions of national exchequers like pebbles. A petty shopkeeper would not like to sell a grocery item worth rupees five at the price of rupee one.
Our wizards are of unique quality. First they will export wheat and then import it once the scarcity has been created. In the past we had seen that cotton had been exported at throwaway prices and then imported at the prices of the exporters and carried to Pakistan as air cargo to meet the urgent needs of the spinners.
A little sagacity is required on the part of the government.
A report on Baitul Mal (Dawn, Jan 24) stated that the prime minister had decided to head the social sector coordination committee himself in order to oversee the activities aimed at mitigating sufferings of the poorest of the poor.
Our prime minister has lived long in America and must have observed salvation leagues working there for all the poor and not the poorest of the poor. Often food for aid is offered to other countries free of cost and freight. The prime minister should take immediate action to prevent this estimated wheat export loss of Rs222 million. He should transfer the 0.5 million stock of wheat to Baitul Mal for distribution amongst the poor people in bags of five kgs and the recipients shall get the wheat grinded themselves at manually-operated small mills (chakis).
Let charity begin at home. The Baitul Mal will also be in a position to cater to the basic food needs of rural society provided they act as honest brokers instead of eschewing away the wheat stock by selling it away behind the doors as is the normal institutionalised embezzlement practice in our government setups. In that way unwarranted loss of millions of rupees will be turned into a welfare profits for the government.
GHEEWALA
Karachi
THE World Cup is just around the corner and our team is presenting itself as not worthy of representing our country at this international competition. On the field they lack strategy to produce results, and off the field they make a nuisance of themselves.
If our team is counseled professionally to present themselves differently, such events would be the best way to project the elusive ‘soft image’ of Pakistan without financing million-dollar promotional campaigns in the international media to change the ambiguous image of the country.
The World Cup will give us a television audience of more than 1.5 billion people globally to ‘showcase’ Pakistan – the package including, statesmanship, friendship, behavior, attitude, aptitude, composure, conscientiousness and above all chivalrous sportsmanship – in a positive perspective and establish an indelible ‘image’ that will certainly help us a great deal.
Pakistan is forever under microscopic observation for all the wrong reasons and therefore it is imperative that our team and its management who will go to West Indies are given rigorous counseling on how to present themselves on the world stage as their mandatory qualification to make the team. Unfortunately, occasions like the World Cup are not just limited to the game, be it cricket or soccer, but international diplomacy and world politics.
Good luck to Pakistan but Inzi and party must not depend on luck alone. They must play the game ‘mindfully’ for convincing wins and not lose matches ‘mindlessly’.
MENIN RODRIGUES
Karachi
RECENTLY, while on a trip home from Dubai, I saw a crowd of people standing around in front of the PSO station located on 26th street in Karachi’s Defence Housing Authority. It was 2: 30 am; my friend and I parked the car and got off to see what the crowd was gathered around. What we saw was a champagne-colored Toyota Prado jeep that had been damaged very badly from every side. On the road beside the jeep was lying the dead body of a woman/girl which had been covered by a black cloth by someone in the crowd. I pray for the soul of that girl and my deepest sorrows and prayers for the family as I can only imagine what they must be going through.
The accident had happened approximately 10 minutes or more before I reached that spot, and while standing there for another 20 minutes I saw boys from some political party arguing with others and misbehaving as a result of which a fight broke out. They only wanted to assert that they had the most authority to make the necessary decisions.
While all this was going on, I called the “15” number to contact the police. Their efficiency impressed me as they picked up the phone on the second bell.
I reported that a major accident had taken place and a body was lying on the road. In response I was told (in Urdu) that “we got a call before we have been informed so don’t worry the police should be arriving in some time”.
After 15 minutes of my standing there the police arrived, which means that after the first call was made by somebody else it took over 20 minutes for the police to arrive. What surprised me more was that despite my saying that a body was lying on the road no ambulance had yet arrived.
The police mobiles came at a speed of not more then 20 km per hour and as the policemen got off, they were least concerned about the dead body. Instead they were giving importance to matters like not letting the driver - who was in a state of shock - run away and saying things like “don’t let anyone move this car from here”. I am no mechanic but what I do know that when two tires of a car have been ripped off and the radiator has burst it is really not in a state to move.
I don’t know how the night passed for the rest of the people who were there, and again my deepest condolences to the family of the girl, but all night long I thought to myself that I do love Karachi but I am happy to be living in Dubai. At least there I have the satisfaction of knowing that if I am ever involved in an accident and if not instantly dead, I won’t be lying on the side of the road with people fighting over the most ridiculous things. And within seven to eight minutes I would be safely escorted to a hospital where my life could be saved in an orderly manner.
TALHA RIZVI
Dubai, UAE
AT the best of times Karachi traffic is an ordeal for the commuters. The situation gets exasperating when religious and political rallies take place.
The citizens suffer quietly, as road blocks of normal routes obstruct routine life and business. Any objections to these practices are seen as disturbing sectarian harmony or worse, an attack on religion and its sacred rituals. Furthermore, when the president and prime minister arrive to bless a gathering or perform an opening ceremony of some project, the security arrangement to protect the lives of these popular leaders from their public lead to the closing down of main routes of the city for long periods.
The resulting traffic congestion affects the whole city. The suffering of Karachi residents due to traffic has been are well publicised in newspapers and television. Yet there is still no let up or respite in their suffering. The recent election fever in Karachi saw unruly crowds of political parties disrupting the traffic and causing unnecessary obstruction to the movement of vehicles.
The citizens of Karachi have a choice to register their protest against the menace of motorcycle riders and crowded buses of political parties workers waving banners and holding up the flow of traffic.
The voters should deny vote to those who through their political workers rallies are causing disruption to normal traffic and life, as no one can expect any improvement after they get elected.
OWAIS HASIN
Karachi
KUDOS to Ardeshir Cowasjee (Feb 4) for pointing a finger at the hare-brained schemes of our banker prime minister who announced two elitist medical towers, one in Islamabad at a cost of Rs2 billion and the other at the JPMC, Karachi, at the towering cost of Rs3.4 billion.
Imagine all this happening in a country with one of the lowest budget allocation as percentage of GDP, even much lower than other South Asian countries, and the result being one of the highest infant mortality and mothers’ death during delivery.
In a country with a big gap between the haves and have-nots, doesn’t the proposition of mega projects like elitist medical towers at a cost of Rs5.4 billion just in two cities sound hare-brained?
What kind of leadership would work out this kind of plans? How many Adnan Kakakhels do we have to challenge such Don Quixotes?
M. SALEEM CHAUDHRY
Karachi
HAS Sheikh Rashid Ahmed ever thought of resigning from the post of the minister for railways? Since he has taken over the charge, numerous people have lost their lives, besides the financial loss of millions of rupees suffered by the ministry. Has he got some heart?
ABU ABYAN
Karachi
NAVEED Sheikh (letter, Feb 11) takes a balanced view about the Delhi Jama Masjid’s poor state. There’s no way the Indian government can call it a heritage site like the Taj Mahal for it would immediately be construed as intruding into Muslims’ privacy and subsequently become a very sensitive issue in India.
The best way forward is for the embassies representing Islamic countries to come together and maintain the mosque. They may even make it open for non-Muslims to be able to visit, if only to appreciate its grandeur. Important Buddhist sites in India (Sarnath and Bodh Gaya) get liberal grants from South and Far Eastern countries for their maintenance, which makes them hot tourist destinations. I hope Mr Sheikh enjoyed some super parathas in “Parathe wali galli” during his stay.
MANOJ
Kolkata, India
THIS refers your editorial (Feb 7) and the letter on the same day by Mr Qamar titled “Musharraf’s Mideast quest”. I agree with Mr Qamar who was bold enough to outline the real design of Dr Rice’s new strategy which requires a person like Gen Musharraf to help in implementing these plans.
Your editorial deals with the routine journalistic aspect of the visit by a Pakistani head of state, as many before him have ventured on and probably in a more impressive manner.
The leadership of Hamas, which is the true representative of the Palestinian people, is not foolish enough to believe a man who did not even bother to give them a word of support in their time of need. Our president looked spineless when Hezbollah needed only moral support while fighting one of the mightiest fighting forces in the world.
Does anyone think that Muslims in the Middle East are fools and would listen to people like Gen Musharraf? Of course he will find there rulers like President Hosni Mubarak, King Abdullah and some others who, like him, will take instructions from Dr Rice and will also be able to see many positive aspects in his Middle East peace quest.
KHALID MUSTAFA
Lahore
THIS is with reference to the advertisement supplement published by the Central Board of Revenue. It is high time that the taxpayers who pay the highest tax should be honoured and not the collectors. The names of taxpayers should have had been advertised in the supplement too.
In our country we bestow respect and honours only on those who “milk” the public. There is no recognition of the importance of the entrepreneur who has invested in land, labour and capital in order for industry to grow.
It is the entrepreneur who makes difficult decisions and starts organisations for the collectors to milk taxes from. Hats off to those who are paying the highest taxes.
INAYAT SHEIKH
Karachi
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