| February 27, 2007 | Tuesday | Safar 9, 1428 |
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Who killed Zille Huma?
Renaming NWFP
Looming energy crisis
Luckiest woman’s perspective
Senate condemns murder
Patients’ basic rights
Summer fees
Good governance?
Muted response
PCB’s wisdom
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
I AM a 25 year old male, born and raised in Pakistan, a developing country by every meaning of the word. Blessed with amazing resources and even greater parents, I have been educated both within Pakistan and abroad.
But more importantly for the purposes of this debate, I have cerebral palsy, a physical condition that predominantly affects my mobility, meaning therefore that I am disabled, handicapped, impaired, disadvantaged, invalid and abnormal. Despite the wealth of adjectives at their disposal, my family and friends still prefer to call me by my first name.
The problem as it exists in the Third World today is essentially two pronged in that (i) the society expects the disabled to be less contributing members and (ii) the disabled believe themselves, in some way, to be less contributing members of society.
Simply put, the role of the disabled is no different from the role of those who are healthy. At this point, I must admit to setting up my argument of choice by intentionally using the word healthy as a contrast against disabled, but it is a contrast that is subconsciously accepted to us all.
Grammatically, however, disabled – and all other synonymous words - seems to indicate the lack of an ability or skill. The obvious contrast then to health is sickness and for disabled is abled. One is a state of well-being, the other a functional attribute, and while the presence of a disability might give rise to risks in health, accepting the two as contrasting opposites gives rise to problems of repression.
With such a vast majority of the Third World population being uneducated, illiterate and unlettered, the threat of repression at the hands of unsound cultural and religious practices is significant and one that should not be taken lightly. This repression creates social and personal barriers that are nigh impossible to break through.
The subjugation is not just a modern cultural/religious concept either, for it was the famous Greek writer Plato who said that “the offspring of the inferior, or of the better when they chance to be deformed, will be put away”. Or the equally famous Greek philosopher Aristotle, who pleaded for “a law that no deformed child shall live”.
The disabled are here to stay. They have as much right to be part of society as you and I. The sooner we accept the barriers that impede their path, the sooner efforts can be undertaken to remove them.
Changing mindsets is the key, both on the collective as well as the individual level. It is essential that we break our minds of our prejudiced molds. It is imperative that the disabled view themselves as functional beings and it is critical that parents do not shy away from seeking professional help for their child.
All this is only possible if we all make the conscious effort to think about it.
NAVEED EJAZ
London, UK
IT was perhaps Maulvi Sarwar, who pulled the trigger that killed Zille Huma, but what about the policeman or judge who let him off in 2003 when he had confessed to killing of four women. After all, the system considered it appropriate to let Maulvi Sarwar assume for himself the role to kill women, who in his judgment were immoral, just because the relatives of these women failed to pursue their cases.
Does this not speak ill of the mindset of those serving in police, judiciary or as state prosecutors who let him off to kill again. It is God alone, who can sit in judgment over matters of life and death, not any individual based on his self assumed right to serve as judge, jury and hangman. How many more are roaming the streets free to kill, murder and rape, because of the failure of the judiciary, law enforcement agencies and the government to enforce the “rule of law”
As long as the mindset of those who serve in our judiciary and security agencies remain the same, innocent victims will continue to pay the price with their blood, honour and dignity. Today a lady minister has paid the price for failure of a system which the establishment has been protecting for short term political exigencies. Tomorrow it might be some other poor innocent soul. Does the establishment have the moral courage and political will to take to task all those involved in letting Maulvi Sarwar off in 2003.
T. MALLICK
Lahore
THE murder of Punjab Minister for Social Welfare Zille Huma is another example of the alarming religious extremism prevalent in our society. There are always apologetic responses from people belonging to different spheres of life but this ugly crime reflects our state of mind towards the female gender.
I remember when I was in Pakistan there were clerics who tried to promote violence against women by justifying it by quoting verses from the Quran.
How can we deny that it does not reflect our state of mind when even living in the West for many decades now it is the Pakistani community that is worst known for killing their girls in the name of honour. In Italy, Denmark and UK the statistics on honour killings speak for themselves and our community’s involvement in the ugly act is clear for anyone to
see.
Ironically, if any Taliban or ayatollah had been the president of Pakistan this incident would have made headlines all over the world but since its the West’s closest ally in Islamabad, no one has focused any attention to this horrific crime.
ZAHEER KHAN
Ronneby, Sweden
IN her rejoinder obviously written in response to my letter, ‘New name for NWFP’ of Feb 5, Ms Faseeha Arjumand has said that changing the names of cities and provinces is the democratic right of citizens and has cited the examples of Sahiwal, Faisalabad and Rabwah, among others (Feb 15).
She is reminded that the earlier name of Faisalabad was ‘Lyallpur’ and that of Sahiwal was ‘Montgomery’, from the names of British officials of the colonial era. Thus Lyallpur was renamed Faisalabad in honour of the late King Faisal of Saudi Arabia, while Sahiwal was restored to its previous name and Rabwah was called Chenab Nagar. None of them was given an ethnically-oriented name such as ‘Punjabipur’, ‘Punjabiwal’ or ‘Punjabinagar’.
Furthermore, it is extremely disappointing that in spite of the clear explanation in my letter and Mr Ghayur Ahmed’s article, ‘Renaming the NWFP’ (Feb 6) that Punjab and Sindh were not named after Punjabis and Sindhis, some people are still insisting on asserting their ethnicity.
The reason, which Ms Arjumand would surely know, why most Pakistanis are opposed to the use of names like Pakhtunistan and Pakhtunkhwa is the move at the behest of some foreign powers and local politicians, since 1947, for the creation of an independent entity. It is no secret that the late political leader, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, had spearheaded this movement and even chose to be buried in Afghanistan rather than Pakistan, as a sign of his anger at not being able to create Pakhtunistan.
Nobody is denying the right of our brothers and sisters to change the awkward name of the NWFP, but at the same time, we do not wish to grant recognition to the separatist trend. One political party (PKMAP) has even been suggesting the name ‘Afghania’, along with the two others quoted above. What justification is there for it? We must put the interests of Pakistan ahead of our provincial, sectarian or ethnic preferences, if we wish to survive as a nation.
In my letter I had proposed 10 names and, in view of the NWFP people’s religiosity, five of these, ‘Karimia’, ‘Karimzar’, ‘Nooristan’, ‘Noorasia’ and ‘Salaamwal’ were based on three (out of 99) names of Allah. What could be better than basing the name of the province after one of these names?
I had provided five other names as well along with the suggestion that additional names could be solicited from all of the Pakistanis, be short-listed by a Supreme Court judge and voted upon by the legislatures. It makes much sense not to insist on ethnic and provincial discrimination when these have only served to disunite the country.
KHALID CHAUDHRY
Karachi
IT seems that the circular debt crisis that plagued the energy sector in the late 90s has emerged once more to test the patience of gas producers and transporters.
WAPDA owes over Rs10 billion to the Independent Power Producers (IPP) which are crying hoarse for its recovery. SSGCL has been more “tactful”.
It has retained billions of rupees from billings of only its public sector suppliers – OGDCL and PPL justifying non-payment on the grounds that it’s leading consumer KESC has not paid SSGCL billions of rupees for gas supplies.
Under the petroleum policy introduced in the 90s, and still applicable, the price of gas produced from gas wells in Pakistan is posted in US dollars and is revised every six months with reference to oil prices prevailing in the international markets. With oil prices escalating at alarming rates, this has not unnaturally increased the wellhead prices of gas produced in Pakistan as well.
However, domestic electricity and natural gas tariffs have not (and cannot) keep pace with these increases. Thus the poor electricity and natural gas utilities are faced with a cash crunch as their margins are squeezed by higher gas purchase prices.
The utilities also have themselves to blame for this sorry state of affairs, by failing to stem technical losses resulting from poor maintenance of their systems, and losses through large-scale pilferage and non-recovery of debts mainly from public sector customers..
It is said that for every three units of electricity that KESC generates it realises the proceeds of only one. Of the remaining two one is lost through pilferage, and the other sold to the public sector is never realised and has to be written off as a bad debt. It was thought that privatisation of the utilities would lead to a lessening of such losses but this has not materialised.
So better management of electricity and gas generation and distribution losses by the utilities would, to a great extent, avert the looming crisis in the Pakistan energy industry.
ASAD SIDDIQI
Lahore
According to a report on Dawn’s front page (Feb 17), a German paraglider survived after being catapulted to an altitude of 30,000 feet by a deadly storm, then managed to land in a semi-conscious state covered in ice.
Ewa Wisnierska, 35, said: “I could hear lightning in front of me, behind me, around me” and, “I was shaking and everything ....” She, who has been hailed as “the luckiest woman in the world” by experts, further observed: “I don’t know who to thank, I thanked the angels, but I don’t believe in God.”
This reminds me of two hair-raising experiences of my own. Once, a few months after arriving in the US as a student, I was travelling in my car during the Christmas season. I had no experience of driving in snow and let an Indian friend drive, since he had been there for a few years.
Suddenly, I thought of fastening my seat belt and advised him to do likewise but he turned out to be rather careless and declined.
About two minutes later, as soon as we reached a major freeway, the car skidded on the ice, turned around and got headed in the wrong direction.
Our speed was hardly 20-30mph and we could do nothing to stop the car. The traffic was coming towards us and I could see the middle-aged driver (with a seat belt) in the leading car look horrified, since he, too, could do nothing to stop it and there were also some female relatives with him. Within moments, we had a head-on collision.
A police car arrived a few minutes later. Luckily, mine was an old but big and extremely strong eight-cylinder-type American car, while the other one was a six-cylinder-based new model. There was some sprain in my neck and minor damage to the car, but the opposing one was completely smashed up from the front. It was amazing how its passenger cabin remained intact.
I stayed in the car but my friend had to get out to fulfil the police formalities, along with the other driver. He laughingly told me later that the American gentleman was saying; “Now I believe in God.” I had no difficulty with that because, as a Muslim, I already believed in the Almighty.
At another time, when I was about 12 or 13 years old, I had once gone to Saddar to buy some sweetmeats to celebrate standing first in my class in the final examinations. In those days there used to be trams running, on steel tracks.
On my return, as soon as I got down from the tram, which was operating in the middle of the road, my new leather shoes slipped and I started sliding across the road.
At that very moment a taxi driver came driving on the wrong side and I realised I would get run over-the irony of meeting my end with a box of sweets in hand struck me — but I remained very calm. Some of the passengers of the tram, who were watching this lightning-fast drama, involuntarily let out a muffled yell, since they had concluded I would soon be dead.
Suddenly, it seemed that some kind of brakes got applied to my shoes. The taxi driver also swerved to avoid me and I survived. A look at the road surface showed there was nothing that could have provided a braking action. I thankfully went home but told my folks nothing and offered them the sweets, while ruminating about what might have happened.
Ms Wisnierska probably didn’t wonder who made the angels she believes save her life. I think I know who put into my mind the thought of wearing the seat belt just two minutes before the accident without which my head would have banged into the windshield, without the steering wheel in between, with dangerous consequences. I also know who prevented me and my box of sweets from being crushed under the taxi. Who else but God?
A MUSLIM
Karachi
THE statement by Senator Kulsoom Parveen is as reprehensible as the act of the barbaric murder of Ms Zille Huma.
I am aghast at this idea of justice coming from the leadership of our country, especially from a women leader. All honour killings, what happened to Mukhtaran Mai and other such incidences can also be termed justifiable as repercussions of perceived or actual crimes committed by the victim’s family members.
These are the pre-Islamic concepts of justice. Islam, as I understand it, believes in personal accountability. Such corrupt and illiterate mentality of our leaders brings to my mind a famous saying: “A nation is never broken from outside unless it is already broken from inside”.
ANJUM QURESHI
Michigan, USA
THIS is with reference to Dr Irshad A. Sethi’s letter (Feb 24) in response to Dr Mirza’s letter regarding patient’s basic rights. I disagree with Dr Sethi regarding allowing the patient to pursue only scientifically proven treatments.
The patient has a universally accepted right to accept or reject and pursue any treatment. We as physicians can only provide and recommend scientifically proven treatments and even then the patient has the right to refuse them and pursue any alternative medicine treatment including reflexology etc.
Physicians have a duty to give complete and full information to every patient about their disease, its prognosis, all of the scientifically available treatments and all possible outcomes.
DR TALAT M. NAZIR
Virginia, USA
I AM the parent of a student of class 10. Recently I received a notice that regarding the payment of fees for the month June, 2007 for my child who is studying in a private school in Karachi.
The final examinations of class 10 (Metric) will be held in the month of April, 2007 and end in the last week of April. Practicals will be held in the month of May, 2007. There will be no school session after that. Why then are private schools charging fees for the months of June and July?
I request the authorities concerned to take immediate action and please instruct the directorate of private schools to revise this policy.
JUNAID
Karachi
APROPOS of the letter titled “Good governance” (Feb 23), the writer says, “One day a team of high-ups, 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’.”
But what about the mosque which was demolished after having been declared illegal but is now being reconstructed by the government, likely at public cost but with any apparent public demand. The government has simply given in to threats by the ‘Zinana Brigade’ of the Taliban at Madrassa Hafsah.
By the way, what are our ‘watch dogs’ of the law and public money, namely the Supreme Court and Auditor General’s office doing, to check this brazen lack of good governance?
TALAT
Attock
THE muted response of some of our political elite to the outrageous massacre of innocent Muslims on board Samjotha Express is mind-boggling. What is the reason behind the silence of vociferous men like Maulana Fazlur Rahman and other nationalist leaders? Does not the murder of poor people travelling in a third class bogey stir their emotions; or will they brush it aside as if this was fated by destiny.
Even the government spokesman was apologetic, more mindful not to annoy India than caring for the sentiments of our people. We must have cordial relations with all our neighbouring countries, including India, Afghanistan, Iran, and China, but without compromising on the welfare of a single Pakistani individual.
NAZEER ABRO
Hyderabad
I AM completely baffled by statements by the PCB regarding the doping tests of Shoaib and Asif. There are speculations that the bowlers may still test positive for the banned substance as it can be detected in blood samples for a long time after the discontinuation of use.
With this in mind, and also keeping in context the earlier reversal of charges on the basis of possible ignorance about the drug’s properties, repeated positive test results would be inconclusive.
Therefore using them as a pretext for imposing life bans is unfair and speaks of total disarray within the cricket board. Cricket is all that we are known for in the sports world and we cannot even manage that one sport properly.
REHAN KIDWAI
Toronto, Canada
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