| February 23, 2007 | Friday | Safar 5, 1428 |
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Nip the evil, please
A few good batsmen
The heap of good intentions
All the horrors
KESC & TV fee
Response to HEC’s mega projects
Rising cement prices
Bullet train
Costs go up
Extremism is a state of mind
Coffee with Condi
Good governance?
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
TO my great surprise, I have learnt that a fake letter (Feb 2) under my name appeared in these columns. It contained selective contents from my article already published in another national daily on Dec 30, 2006.
My disbelief increased when I was informed that as a follow-up to the surreptitious letter, a smear campaign of baseless criticism by readers was triggered off.
Here I would like to clearly state that I deeply respect public opinion and its dissemination without any strings attached. Similarly, I respect your newspaper and especially your readers’ forum which has largely kept an independent and bipartisan approach. But the case in point looks otherwise.
However, I would like to respond to some baseless allegations levelled against the PML-N government on your opinion page.
At the very outset, I wholly denounce the deplorable incident in which the honourable Supreme Court building was stormed by unruly mob; no doubt it was a manifestation of rowdiness equal to an unbridled mob mentality.
However, a willful scheme accusing our government of inspiring and creating the episode is not only unjustified and unfounded, but it also smacks of malicious intent.
The above stand is vindicated by two different inquiries that absolved both Mian Nawaz Sharif and me of any charge. As the first inquiry was conducted during our government, the second might provide the credence and plausibility to prove our detractors wrong, as it was held after Gen Musharraf seized power.
Our respect for the honourable judiciary and due process of law can be gauged by the fact that Mian Nawaz Sharif, as a sitting prime minister, personally appeared before the apex Court, whereas, I appeared before Public Accounts Committee of the National Assembly as CM, Punjab.
I also showed my readiness in writing to appear before Chief Ehtesab Commissioner Justice (r) Mujadid Mirza after our opponents lodged some flimsy charges against me which were proven false.
In the above circumstances we were not actually bound by any law to make an appearance before the courts. We did so to uphold our respect for judicial independence, thereby conveying the message for across-the-board accountability to all and Sundry.
I have never shirked from accepting that we have committed many mistakes during the 60 years of Pakistan’s turbulent political history.
But, this acceptance does not exonerate the men who abrogated the Constitution, who forced the judiciary to take the oath under the PCO, coerced and pressured judges to condemn civilian leaders to the gallows, or else banished them into forced-exile
But we must not remain tethered to the past and move ahead by learning from our mistakes. The PML-N is committed to a fearless, free and independent judiciary as the foundation for the uplift of the poor and downtrodden majority of our country.
SHEHBAZ SHARIF
London, UK
THOSE who do not learn from history are bound to fail. Time and again a serving army general takes over the reins of the country and clings to it much like a desperate survivor would cling to a piece of wood in the open sea.
The government’s mouthpieces are going hoarse defending one policy blunder after another. The monster of terrorism is raising its head like never before.
Suicide bombers have taken a firm root in the body politic of the nation. They are free to strike at any place, at any time and at anyone.
The previous dictator gave us the Kalashnikov culture while the credit for suicide bombing in Pakistan goes to the incumbent president. This is a harrowing thought that our future generations will bear the brunt of this act of terrorism, for God alone knows how long.
The personal agendas of prolonging power, behind-the-scenes wheeling-dealing or giving the task to the utterly incompetent to run the affairs of the nation are secondary, while the primary task of this government should be to curb this menace now.
If delayed, the landscape of this country could very well become like that of Iraq now. This is not an overstatement but whenever dictators are removed for whatever reasons, the results are chaotic as such the prevalent scenarios become uncontrollable.
The priority for this government should not be forging alliances with political parties but to nip the evil of suicide bombing in its bud.
This government takes the credit of starting this menace and in all honestly it should be the one to put a stop to it.
WG. CDR. (r) ARIF MAJEED
Karachi
THE Pakistan Cricket Board has announced a 15-member squad for the World Cup 2007 which is commencing next month in the Caribbean. The team consists of all the top players of the country but the team is still not a balanced one.
There are only three regular batsmen in the team. They are Inzamam-ul-Haq, Mohammad Yousuf and Younis Khan. Inzamam and Younis are out of form; only Mohammad Yousuf is in form.
There should be at least five regular batsmen in the team. One-day matches are won by scoring runs and only batsmen can make runs.
All-round players are also necessary, but they are more in number in the current team and all are out of form.
It is necessary that a few good batsmen should be included in the team. Unfortunately the PCB has not tried new batsmen in the last three or four years which is why the team is short of batsmen.
The inclusion of Mohammad Hafeez as an opener is astonishing, as he is not making runs in the one-day matches and his batting average is quite low and unacceptable. Shahid Afridi’s average is better than that of Hafeez, but Afridi is unable to play in first two matches due to the ban.
There are some top bowlers in the team but most of them are unfit. Rana Naveed has given a large number of runs against South Africa in the current one-day series and taken very few wickets. The team’s fielding is also below standard.
Due to a weak batting line and poor fielding it is impossible to win matches as batsmen of the contesting teams are making a large number of runs, even against high quality bowlers.
Those teams are making more than 300 runs in almost all matches and the bowlers cannot stop the flow of runs. It is, therefore, necessary that our batting line should be stronger in order to chase runs or set a challenging target for the opposing team.
MUHAMMAD RIAZ
Thana Malakand Agency
I CAN only support in the strongest manner Michelle Chaudhry’s letter (Feb 13) highlighting yet another crime against the increasingly disenfranchised Christian community.
Sadly, this appalling but hardly surprising ‘case’ against Martha Bibi makes an utter travesty of the recent and praiseworthy Supreme Court ruling that only the state can bring blasphemy charges.
Once again, the moral degradation and ignorance of the state’s operatives, the police and the avarice of those labelled Muslims have combined to wreak havoc on the poor Christian community.
One need not be blessed with rare intelligence to gather that this is nothing but another sordid tale of extortion in the land of the pure.
The police, once again, appear to be the biggest villain and this case may well lead to abuses against the Christian community. No Christian would dare even dream of approaching anything remotely resembling blasphemy, other than as a novel way to commit suicide.
One as poor as Martha Bibi who was just eking out a living by renting planks appears to be the last person on this planet who would invite certain incarceration, in addition to a quick economic death.
The Supreme Court chief justice would do well to take suo motu notice of this gross abuse of law, and order an impartial investigation by the police. The apex court may need to make laws that make any false or biased action by the police or public punishable in the severest manner.
Without this, the commendable law restricting any individual from filing blasphemy cases may as well be sent to the garbage heap of good intentions. And even if those charged with blasphemy are acquitted, their livelihoods and that of their children would be destroyed for ever.
WASIF M. KHAN
Lahore
EACH time one reads about all the horrors visited on the hapless population of Pakistan; be it street crime, robbery, rape, murder, terrorism, armed hooligans taking over a children’s library or political party activists being attacked, one’s gut reaction is that the situation cannot get any further and the government will absolutely have to do something now.
But apparently not. The capacity of this government to stomach the horrors visited on the people of Pakistan is indeed vast. The latest in this series of atrocities is the murder of a woman minister by a ‘fanatic’ who apparently does not believe that women should be in power.
Has someone connected the dots between the lack of will on the government’s part to confront these zealots, as evidenced by the appeasement of the armed hooligans who have taken over the library, and the increasing propensity of individuals to become a state within a state in the name of tradition and religion?
Meanwhile, our president-general and the prime minister continue on their foreign tours uninterrupted.
NUZHAT AZIZ
Philadelphia, USA
For the last couple of years, the KESC has been adding Rs 25 in my electricity bills as TV licence fee. There are people who do not keep television sets at home for certain reason, but they, too, have to pay the TV licence fee, which is not fair.
At the same time those who have more than one TV sets are paying for one.
For those without a TV set the yearly loss comes to Rs300 and for those with two sets a saving of Rs300
The authorities concerned should evolve a just system to collect the TV licence fee.
Dr Zia-ul-Hasan
Karachi
APROPOS of Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy’s article ‘HEC’s unconvincing mega projects’ (Feb 10), it is clarified that the writer has mixed some facts with his personal views with a half-baked analysis of the government’s UESTP project.
He fails to mention the holistic nature of the project which is aimed first at achieving complete equivalence of standards with technical universities in advanced countries.
The new engineering universities being established will hold their foreign partner’s examinations and award their foreign partner’s degrees in Pakistan, thus guaranteeing complete equivalence of standards. The project also links employment with tertiary education.
Each UESTP is integrated closely with a technology enterprise centre or technology park. These are designed not only to bring inward investment in Pakistan from partner countries but also to generate within Pakistan an entrepreneurship culture capable of creating products and services relevant not only to Pakistan’s needs but also capable of providing exportable goods and services.
All foreign partners have been chosen carefully for their commitment to training engineers and scientists who meet the needs of industry.
Dr Hoodbhoy fails to recognise that high quality tertiary education has played a valuable role in the development of Asian economics over the last few decades.
As regards his question about the availability of faculty for these universities, it may be stated that for each new university being established, some 500 of our engineers with BE degrees are being sent abroad for MS/PhD level training. It is from this group that the faculty will be selected.
Initially, over 50 per cent of the faculty will be from partner countries but as foreign-trained Pakistani faculty become available over the next five to eight years, the foreign faculty component will be reduced to about 25 per cent.
Dr Hoodbhoy’s claim that Pakistanis being educated abroad are of poor quality is made without evidence. In Germany, Sweden and France, we received high praise for the vast majority of the Pakistani students at their universities.
Dr Hoodbhoy’s claim that the usual ‘PC-1 form’ procedure is being bypassed and hundreds of millions of rupees are being spent by the HEC arbitrarily is wrong. Not a single rupee has been spent without PC-1 approval by government agencies.
As regards his reference to the article in the Chronicle of Higher Education, it may be said that it is highly biased as is evident from a neutral and unbiased World Bank Report entitled ‘Pakistan Higher Education Policy Note’ published recently.
In this report, which was a result of several detailed visits carried out by World Bank team led by Dr Benoit Millot and comprising a team of eminent experts of higher education, the programmes of the Higher Education Commission were appreciated and praised. This report is available on the web (http://www_worldbank.org.pk)
The World Bank representative, Dr Benoit Millot, has already complained to the editor of the Chronicle of Higher Education about the distortion of facts.
He says: “The report also recognises that HEC has shown strong leadership and a good track record in introducing important reforms after decades of neglect. We believe that the principle of these initiatives is sound, and that the HEC is on the right track to improve the quality of university education in Pakistan.”
His letter is being published in the Chronicle of Higher Education.
AYESHA IKRAM
HEC Islamabad
APROPOS of Hussain Siddiqui’s letter ‘Rising cement prices’ (Feb 18), let me add the following:
a. Quality of cement manufactured by most of the units in Sindh does not qualify for the international standards with respect to its initial and final setting time.
b. Such cement does not achieve designated compressive strength.
c. Units manufacturing cement of international standards sell it on higher prices.
d. People, in general, purchase cheaper brands without knowing the deficiencies.
e. Cement is packed in substandard papersacks with three to four piles which results in abnormal wastage and is attacked by weather. Thus cement stored under shade gets set quickly.
f. Like the refuelling dealers, each bag is deficiently-filled by four to five kilograms.
g. Silica in some brands of cement contains excessive salts which results in gradual disintegration in wet weather.
It is time the government set an agency to check for these deficiencies.
RAEES A. KHAN
Karachi
THE Pakistan Railways has started new fast trains between Peshawar and Rawalpindi, Rawalpindi and Lahore and Lahore and Karachi.
The railways minister has announced recently that an agreement for the preparation of a feasibility report for a bullet train between Lahore and Rawalpindi will be inked with Spain and Austria.
The track laid during the days of the British has completed its life and that is why many accidents involving derailment (especially of fast trains) and collapse of bridges resulting in death and injury to many have occurred during the past year or two.
In fact, laying of the new track and construction of bridges, many in the Potohar region and the NWFP, are the need of the time. Hence the minister is advised to work on this need.
LATIF QURESHI
Lahore
THIS is with reference to the article, ‘House building costs to go up as cement, steel prices surge’ (Feb 19).
I can understand prices of flats going up in buildings where the construction has not yet started, but why should prices escalate by 20 per cent in cases where only finishing is required?
More than 90 per cent of cement and steel is consumed in raising the structure.
When will the builders’ mafia stop looting the innocent people who have booked flats with all their hard-earned money?
SHAKIR LAKHANI
Karachi
SCHOLARS at a recent meeting at Islamabad rightly pointed out how Talibanisation of Pakistan is causing havoc in the form of sectarian violence and is a threat to freedom and democracy in the country.
The problem is extremely grave because many Pakistanis admire these fanatics as brave fighters, which they are not. This mindset has only been possible because of pandering by religious parties.
Whenever religion enters politics, it is generally corrupted by the latter. Pakistan must find a way to save Islam from being equated with the extremists who are misusing its name. As such, the fight against the Taliban must also be carried out in the political arena.
The government must explain what the Taliban did to ordinary Afghans during their short reign of terror in Kabul. Extremism is a state of mind and can only be countered through education and proper information.
IJAZ TABASSUM
Malaysia
ONCE again Ms Rice had a coffee table meeting with Mr Olmert and President Abbas. The US mediator had a casual encounter concerning the Israel-Palestine issue. She stressed that recognition of Israel is essential for any further dialogue.
The oil-rich Arab states should offer generous aid packages to the Palestinians so that the arm-twisting by the EU and the US becomes meaningless.
In consequence to the coffee table meeting, a roundtable conference may be offered provided the Israelis abide by the pre-1967 borders, After these pre-requisites Israel can be recognised by all the Muslim countries.
RAFI ADAMJEE
Karachi
FOR the last 60 years cruel jokes about good governance as regards the removal of encroachments and observance of traffic rules have been played with the people of this country.
One day a team of highups, including the police staff, ‘attacks’ an area and removes the encroachments. Within hours or at the most the next day the same encroachers reappear, perhaps after ‘muk muka’.
We hear big announcements regarding removal of tinted glasses and action against un-authorised number plates. The tinted glasses of Suzukis and Charades are removed but not of Pajeros, Land Cruisers, Toyotas, Hondas.
Why to cut such cruel jokes?
ZAFARUL HAQ MEMON
Karachi
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