| February 22, 2007 | Thursday | Safar 4, 1428 |
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Carnage at Panipat
Change in mindset needed
Cornering Hamas
Data on suicides
Reconstruction or destruction
Gearing up to go
Reality bites
World Bank & maritime sector
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
LIKE every sane and reasonable citizen I was shocked and horrified at the news of Punjab Minister for Social Welfare Zille Huma Usman’s murder. It seems to be a perplexing matter marked with utmost confusion. It is impossible to understand the shallowness of the maulvi who shot the minister on the grounds that she did not observe Islamic code of dressing and that a Muslim woman does not have the right to hold public office.
It is a matter of great concern that this same maulvi was acquitted of the murder of four other models by a court of law. Ours seems to be a pathetic legal system where the guilty are set free.
How can we negotiate with such extremists and fanatics who are determined to take extreme actions in order to prove their self-proclaimed Islamic virtues and kill innocent people?
When will this end? How many will have to die and how many lives have to suffer such agony before our government decides to take necessary steps in the form of promulgation of laws where extremism, is eradicated?
Our annihilation has begun and its only a matter of time when we realised that. I left Pakistan three years ago and even though I miss everything about my home country, after viewing such news, I consider it a good thing that I moved.
I extend my sympathies to the minister’s children and her husband. May God give them courage and hope in this hour of darkness and may her assassination make the saviours of the country, the president and his cabinet, realise the flaws in our system.
Necessary steps are needed to curb extremism, so the lawmakers must focus on them. Sadly, they are too busy pleasing western interests to get their pieces of lofty bread.
ALI MINHAS
Chicago, USA
THE murder of Zille Huma Usman is the most heinous crime committed by a lunatic who is trying to hide behind the shield of religion. Nowhere in the Quran or the Hadith has Allah allowed an individual to take the law into his hand.
I appeal to chief justice of Pakistan, the prime minister and Maulana Fazlur Rahman (who himself had worked under the premiership of a woman) to take immediate action against a murderer who has confessed in front of the nation (television footage from Feb 20) and was caught red-handed along with the weapon of murder and in front of so many people.
What more witnesses and interrogations are required? Trying to find the hidden hands behind this murderer may or may not lead to any useful information but would definitely delay and possibly deny the dispensation of justice. The whole nation looks at you three in particular and all other stalwarts of government and the opposition for speedy and exemplary justice. For God’s sake, get your act together to extend some comfort to this traumatised nation.
MIR MOATAZID
Karachi
OVER 70 innocent human beings were burnt to death, when terrorists struck the Samjhota Express at Panipat, 80 miles from Delhi. Those killed had one thing in common: they were all Muslims, majority of them Pakistani nationals. Most of these Muslims had travelled to India to meet their relatives.
Unexploded bombs and scores of kerosene bottles were also found. The fact that such a serious security lapse occurred at Delhi points the finger to complicity of people within Indian security services.
These attacks should bring home to many within Pakistan the fact that Pakistan is a safe haven for all Muslims, irrespective of their origins. It is a country where we can live as first class citizens and enjoy the fruits of freedom. Those who indulge in attacks on the Quaid’s Pakistan should wake up.
It is time to shun the politics of division, based on ethnicity, sectarianism and provincial biases. The security and lives of our children is wedded with survival of Pakistan.
We owe it to posterity to preserve and strengthen the foundations of Pakistan which was created to function as a modern, democratic, and constitutional welfare state.
GULL ZAMAN
Paris, France
I WANT to share my thoughts about the Samjhota Express incident.
It touched my heart and made me sad as my neighbour’s four relatives (parents and two young children) were among the victims.
According to him, his relatives are still with the charred bodies waiting to return to Pakistan.
Despite ringing the helplines and contacting the relevant offices, he says he has not received a single call in reply. The only call he received was from the Indian high commissioner’s office to condole the death of his relatives.
GRIEVED NEIGHBOUR
Karachi
THIS compulsion by our VVIPs to flout their authority and power at the expense of the citizens has led to a rise in the VIP culture and has encouraged “the self above all” attitude in our society.
To accommodate our leaders, busy roads are blocked for hours and the citizens and sick patients suffer in silence and some even die, as ambulances cannot reach hospitals in time.
Such insensitive behaviour by our leaders has led to resentment among the citizens and eroded their confidence and respect for those in authority, the system of governance and the rule of law. It has also created an impression that those in government do not care and are only there to serve their own agenda.
We, therefore, have to begin by trying to change our nation’s mindset, starting with our leaders, our politicians, our educated parliamentarians, bureaucrats, government servants and finally the citizens, especially the young. We have to blacklist the words ‘rule’, ruling class and VIP” from our vocabulary. The next step should be to change the feudalistic mindset of the people.
We also have to change our perception about ourselves and of how the outside world sees us. We must start by demanding good governance, a better quality of life and quality and standards from government, manufacturers and service providers. The ‘chalta hai’ attitude has to be replaced by “I matter and deserve better”.
Citizens in progressive and prosperous nations and even developing countries in our region have demanded a better quality of life for themselves and rejected governments who have not been able to establish good governance. One such nation is Malaysia, which has transformed from a poor agrarian nation with a gross domestic product of $3 billion, to a diversified and prosperous country with a GDP of $80 billion over the past 50 years.
In Malaysia education, health care and improving the basic infrastructure were given top priority. At the same time the government introduced citizen-oriented development programmes that encouraged Malays to become good and responsible citizens, take ownership of their cities and help in building the country into what it is today.
Unfortunately, in Pakistan, our leaders have paid more attention to high profile, mega projects, while the citizens are not prepared to take ownership of even their own neighborhood or the street they live in. One such example is Defence, Clifton and Bath Island area, which is now the most expensive slum in Pakistan.
Mere fist-waving and chest-thumping speeches will not win the hearts and minds of those who have been denied the basic needs to live a dignified life. If we wish to make the Quaid’s vision into reality, then we have to improve their quality of life through basic education and changing their mindset. If we fail to take ownership of our country we will always be puppets on a chain and dance to the tune of our puppet masters. And the fault will not be in our stars, but in ourselves.
H. MAKER
Karachia
FINALLY the deed is done. ‘Friendly fire’ from Saudi Arabia has been able to manage what starvation, internal strife and much blood-letting could not.
Ever since Hamas was elected by a huge majority to rule what remains of Palestine, through an election process universally acclaimed as fair and transparent, the bone of contention was recognition of Israel by Hamas in the absence of any reciprocal move by Israel.
Hamas could not see its way to doing this since its mandate was to confront Israel’s expansion, rather than acquiesce in its expansionist designs. In a worst example of arm-twisting, funds that belonged to it were withheld from the new Hamas government by Israel in collusion with the US.
The aim was to starve the newly-elected and popular government in Palestine and the Palestine populace into submission. The supporters of Al Fatah (an organisation rife with corruption and more accommodative towards Israel and smarting from its resounding defeat by Hamas in the recent elections) could not withstand, in addition, the suffering imposed by non-receipt of salaries and this led to violent clashes between Hamas and Al Fatah.
Now that Hamas has apparently been coerced into giving a sort of recognition to Israel, does it mean the parties will get back to the negotiating table to yet again talk of a roadmap towards the Palestinian state?
Hardly. Israel will never allow things in the area to settle down to a point which will kick-start the roadmap discussion. Israel wants, as has been proved time and again, to keep the cauldron on fire so that there is no discussion on the roadmap and, therefore, no need for Israel to consider the return to the Palestinians of the lands whose occupation by Israel is considered to be illegitimate even by the UN and Israel’s chief patron, the US.
No surprise at all that Israel has restarted the highly provocative digging of Al Aqsa Mosque. One would have thought that Israel has troubles enough of its own with its president under investigation for molesting several women, even rape, and its prime minister for financial wrongdoing.
The need to somehow scuttle the roadmap process before it got restarted appears to have overridden all other considerations. It will be recalled that the first intifada was started following a highly provocative visit by Sharon to the Al Aqsa Mosque, way back on Sept 28, 2000.
This fresh but true-to-type provocation by Israel will only surprise the blind.
WAJID NAEEMUDDIN
Karachi
ACCORDING to data released by the interior ministry (Dawn, Feb 15), 175 Pakistanis committed suicide last year, as compared to 155 in 2005. Of these, eight were in Punjab, 145 in Sindh and 22 in the NWFP. This seems to be surprisingly underestimated. First, almost every day one reads of one or more suicides occurring somewhere in Pakistan. Second, a few weeks back there was this news that 52 people had committed the act in Rawalpindi alone in 2006.
Thus, the figure for one city in Punjab far exceeds that now cited for the entire province. This shows that the persons responsible for compiling the data didn’t pay any attention to the big news about Rawalpindi as a sort of check against gross errors.
It also quotes police sources as saying that the data didn’t provide the actual number of crime cases since many incidents were not reported. That sounds true. However, the story from Rawalpindi had clearly stated that the figure of 52 was based on data gathered from the city’s 25 police stations. It isn’t understandable from where did the ministry get such erroneous data, if not from the primary source, i.e., the police stations?
To help the government, I decided to conduct some research by going through the 30 issues of Dawn that appeared in the 31 days between Jan 16 and Feb 15 (no issue on Jan 31 due to Ashura). The reports show that during this interval 21 people committed suicide. Of these, there were four in the NWFP and Fata, eight in Punjab and nine in Sindh but none in Balochistan and Azad Kashmir.
The ages ranged from 14 to 60, with most people being in their 20s. The males greatly outnumbered the females and the reasons for the suicides were split almost evenly between ‘domestic problems’ and ‘joblessness/poverty’ and an assortment of others, including anger of one girl over her father’s refusal to get a cable TV connection and a young man for not being bought a motorbike.
Also, on Sunday to Wednesday, the rate of suicides averaged nearly twice of what it was from Thursday to Saturday. Thus, Wednesdays were the worst, with a total of five cases and Saturdays the safest, with just one suicide during the month. In Punjab, four died in Lahore and three in Toba Tek Singh out of a total of eight, with none in Rawalpindi (which, from the Jan 18 figures for 2006 would be expected to turn up about four victims in as many weeks). In Sindh, three out of the nine suicides were in Karachi. “It must be emphasised that these figures would not necessarily represent the average monthly figure for previous 12 months, but the trends should be fairly representative. Furthermore, the actual figure of suicides in this (or any other) period is likely to have been many times greater than reported in any newspaper, going by the lessons drawn from the Rawalpindi statistics.
“At 52 confirmed cases out of two million in Rawalpindi, the figure for 160 million Pakistanis extrapolates to 4,160 suicides (or somewhat less, since rural areas may have a lower rate). And, going by police apprehensions, it could easily be 50-100 per cent greater.”
While I realise that the responsibility of the interior ministry in case of suicides probably lies only in providing the data and not in doing something to alleviate their causes, but it must at least ensure the validity of these data. It would perhaps be the job of the minister for social welfare to help curb the problem.
Thus, a scientific study should be first carried out to determine the exact number of people ending their lives and the precise causes. Only then could a policy be formulated to lessen this scourge. A questionnaire should be prepared for distribution to every police station to elicit requisite information for routing to the social welfare people through the interior ministry.
Some of the particulars could be: age, gender, education level, reason for suicide, history of significant mental or physical illness, whether suicide was ever attempted before or a warning of such intention was given, day and season, geographical location, religiosity, etc.
KHALID CHAUDHRY
Karachi
I WOULD like to bring to the notice of the authorities concerned that the widening of Jhelum Road, Rawalpindi, is being undertaken by the NLC. I reside in a house located on Jhelum Road and I want to highlight some problems that have been created by the NLC contractor on the site who is not ready to take any remedial measures.
There was a waste water drain in which the sewerage lines from three houses were terminated. During the course of widening, the said drain was earth-filled and, resultantly, the sewerage lines were cut off and water is now running on the road.
There is a rainwater nullah over which the existing bridge was widened. As a result, the contractor caused damage in two ways. The slope of the nullah leading towards old golf club has reversed causing stoppage of flow of water, and stagnant water has accumulated along the length.
During the bridge construction, huge stones and waste building material were thrown into the nullah, which has aggravated the situation, causing almost complete blockage, and results during heavy rain can be devastating and now two feet of water is standing after the recent rains.
Moreover, the small bridge/culvert and the service road have been damaged.
In this connection I sent a letter addressed to the director-general of the NLC by fax on Dec 28, 2006 (re-sent on Jan 19) in which I stated the problem and requested for immediate cleaning/excavation and improving the gradient of the nullah, construction of a drain along the new retaining wall and repair/reconstruction of the service road and the bridge.
But no one has either contacted or visited the site and now another contractor is trying to cover up by filling it with mud and concrete.
MOHSIN AMIR
Rawalpindi
ACCORDING to a recent New York Times report, all efforts are being geared up by the CIA to attack the Waziristan region of Pakistan on the pretext that the Taliban are training recruits in this area.
We do not have the capacity to answer the American onslaught if they decide to attack our sovereign country. Whereas this matter can be amicably handled through the talks, all efforts must be made to protect our nuclear facilities wherever they are placed.
The US has full intentions of destroying our nuclear facilities and all this planning is part of it. I request the authorities concerned to immediately take appropriate action before it is too late.
NAIMUR REHMAN
Islamabad
THIS has reference to the news report (Dawn, Feb 20) that a clarification has been sought from the Pakistani government by the UN special representative to Afghanistan on the statements recently issued by the governor of the NWFP.
First, the UN representative is not supposed to seek clarification from the government that has really done something, unlike others who only talk rhetoric in public.
We have sacrificed the lives of 700 outstanding soldiers and peace in the country has been ruined as never before.
Second, I wonder how long the coalition forces will continue with their ostrich-like strategy to avoid looking into the looming danger.
More than five years have passed, yet there is no sign of halt to this unbalanced overstretched war. Do they want to see their soldiers using the post-traumatic stress relieving software so often? Perhaps it is not among the best of the choices.
It was rightly pointed out by the governor of the NWFP that they should focus on including Pukhtoons in the broadbased government of Afghanistan. It would not only curtail the poppy cultivation to some extent but would also bring political stability in Afghanistan.
I think it is time the UN representative recalled his basic duty of enduring peace under the UN umbrella rather wasting time in seeking clarification.
SYED SALAHUDDIN AHMED
Karachi
DR Shahid Hasan’s letter ‘WB and maritime sector’ (Feb 13) is reflective of the state of affairs as professional matters are being dealt by fellow generalists. What is really needed is professional expertise not only in the maritime ministry but also in its subordinate organisations. This is what the World Bank desires, i.e., virtuoso to deal with relevant subject.
Although I do not subscribe to the views about having a maritime ministry, it may yet be desirable to resuscitate both the maritime ministry and industry.
The idea is not to denigrate and be tendentious. The bottomline of the World Bank report is that professionalism is key to success and growth. The enlightened president and the professional prime minister may intervene to implement the World Bank report to rejuvenate/reinvigorate the neglected sector of our economy.
The acceleration in the national trade corridor hinges on bringing reforms in the public sector as suggested by the World Bank maritime experts. Last but not the least, Dawn be complimented for bringing the awareness.
S. IQBAL
Karachi
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