| February 28, 2007 | Wednesday | Safar 10, 1428 |
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Samjhota Express tragedy
Manchhar lake and mangroves
Dacoits of another kind
Fata’s special status
Mega nuisance
Appeal to Pemra
Legitimacy of Constitution
Bloody Basant
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
The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has issued an official rejoinder (letter, Feb 23) to my critique that its proposed nine new Pakistan-European universities are a disaster in the making. But unwittingly this attempt to refute my facts brought forth startling new facts that make my conclusion still firmer.
My principal objection was (and still is) that the number of engineering professors available, who can teach at even a modest international level, will be miniscule compared to the number actually needed. The HEC dismisses this as a false fear: “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.”
This response is worth analysing. But first it is necessary to take stock of the current situation. Of all the nine proposed universities, the most advanced in terms of construction and planning is the French engineering university, UESTP-France in Karachi, with a completion cost of Rs26 billion. It has an ultimate faculty size of 450-600 with around 5,000-7,000 students. Its construction is under way and the official starting date is listed as October 2007.
But the French are so far absent from the French university. Given the security situation in the country, they are not to be blamed. As of the end of February, not a single faculty member from France — including the all-important head of the university — has joined. This was confirmed to me by French official sources, and has not been refuted by the HEC rejoinder. Even the skeleton crew is not on board although decent academic planning for a university requires years of preparation for the curricula, courses, laboratories, and infrastructure.
The local faculty situation is almost as bad. There are no more than two to three dozen PhD engineering professors in all of Pakistan’s engineering universities who can teach modern engineering subjects at an international professional level. So, even if every one of our current engineering universities was sucked dry of all its best, this would be barely sufficient for meeting the needs of the first phase of even the first Pakistan-European university.
As for the students sent recently to Europe, it is not clear how many will be successful, be suitable university teachers, or actually return. It is irresponsible to plan a series of universities with so little data and huge variability.
Far wiser would be to aim at, at the very most, two properly-planned new engineering universities under the collective authority of the European Union, and to seek external help for adding engineering departments to existing universities, as well as to massively upgrade existing ones. But these relatively modest goals are unacceptable to a euphoric HEC leadership. Unfortunately, power-point presentations loaded with dubious data have long displaced sober thought in the HEC.
DR PERVEZ HOODBHOY
Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad
WHILE all sane people condemn the attack on the Samjhota Express, I would like to point out to readers in Pakistan that all the reports have made a critical mistake in describing the context of the accident. The doors and windows of the train were not locked, as urban legend would have it.
All Indian train compartments, second class included, have horizontal iron railings that span the window and prevent people from sticking their heads outside. As a result of this peculiar construction, passengers were not able to jump out of the windows when the fire started spreading.
As regards the doors, they were never locked, but the intense heat from the fire fused the doors shut and trapped everybody inside. Blame the accident on negligence, and poor security if you will, but these falsehoods cast aspersions on the intentions of Indian railways and the officials, and rubs salt into the ancient wounds that our two countries bear.
The Samjhota Express is no Auschwitz Express. Ayaz Amir (column, Feb 23) does himself and his readers a disservice by drawing such a wild and bloodthirsty analogy.
VIKRAM CHANDRAN
Sunnyvale, California
AT its prima facie the Samjhota Express tragedy is the art of much-spoken terrorist action that cannot be censured enough. This action of terrorism has surpassed all those many terrorist actions that were inflicted on the then migrating Muslim adults and their innocent women and children during the 1947 partition.
Whether be it the migrating Muslims or those Muslims who are at the moment living in India, they can clearly remember that such cruelties were performed by their Indian brethren with the use of knives and daggers. But the way the massacre operation was performed on Samjhota Express clearly points the fingers to a pro-Jewish organisation because in this operation there was less terrorism action that one could have expected under such a situation than the barbaric action that was actually involved. The way the bodies were mistreated that any person can feel nothing but awfully ashamed of and disgraced.
If you take an in-depth look at this incident and impartially analyse the whole scenario, you would not help but strongly believe that the Indian government must be behind all this. Just like after 9/11 the horrified face of American and European democracy has got unveiled to the world, especially to the Muslims, exactly the same way the ugly face of Indian democracy has got exposed to the whole world.
No matter to what degree the government of Pakistan or its politicians bow down to the whims and fancies of the Indian government but never will the Muslim-loving and Pakistan-loving people budge from their rights.
The very fact that the Indian government has arranged for locking of the compartment doors of the running train shows its ill designs. Why should a country in this age of scientific development put its people in locked cages to travel? If the doors were not locked, not only the so-called terrorists would have been unsuccessful in executing their plan in such a fashion but also, hopefully, the majority of the unfortunate people would have been able to save their lives by escaping from the unlocked doors.
S.A. NAJAM
Karachi
THE Manchhar lake, according to Dawn’ (The Review, Feb 15)), is Asia’s largest toxic lake. The report goes on to add that it was once a tourist destination, a wetland that was a haven for migratory waterfowl and home to thriving community of ‘Mohannas’ and agriculturists who raised crops around the lake’s shallow bed. The condition worsened when the Right Bank Outfall Drain water was diverted into this lake, including industrial effluents from factories up north.
There are several photographs in the report and one could see bushes and shrubs surviving in the lake, they appear like mangroves. Mangrove specialists in IUCN and WWF can verify this. Mangroves survive on saline water on the sea shores but need a dose or two of fresh water in a year. Rain and flood provide this opportunity every year.
The great Sunderban forests in Bangladesh comprise mangroves and is home to the royal Bengal tigers amongst dozens of other animals and scores of birds.
Mangroves are surviving on the shoreline of Korangi industrial area where toxic effluent-generating industries like leather tanneries are located. There are several chemical factories located in this area too, which also dump their untreated effluent into the sea.
The Malir river is used as an industrial drain along its route. One can easily see brackish and foul-smelling water in the Malir river bed, generating surf when it falls into the sea on the Korangi Creek Road. Similar condition persists on the SITE industrial area drain channel.
If mangroves can survive on the polluted shores of Karachi, why can’t they survive in the Manchhar lake? Mangroves are ideal nursery for the school of fish and prawns. Migratory birds and other domestic birds are attracted to the fish. Conversion of freshwater lake into saline water may have killed all the freshwater species, but there are thousands of salt water fish on our shoreline which may survive.
IUCN and WWF have the knowledge and the expertise to suggest if mangroves can be planted there. Fishery experts can tell us as to what type of fish can survive in the water of the Manchhar lake after doing its water analysis.
It will give the Mohannas something to live on. Several NGOs are already working on or around Manchhar. If they get some guidance from specialists in IUCN, WWF and fisheries department, they can perhaps help turn the fate of the Mohannas. All is not lost at Manchhar.
S. NAYYAR IQBAL RAZA
Karachi
THIS has reference to Mr Hafizur Rahman’s article ‘Dacoits of another kind’ (Feb 14). His version is correct that more and more educated people every day are taking to larceny, dacoity and occasional murder as a side business and even as a vocation.
In this regard I would say that crime of kidnapping for ransom is also becoming a flourishing business these days by such people. In Peshawar 36 people were kidnapped for ransom during the last one month because kidnappers became millionaire in a few days by kidnapping some rich people or their children (Dawn, Feb 14).
In November last an industrialist’s son who was educated at Lawrence College, Ghora Gali, and British School and was himself owner of a flour mill, was arrested by the police and had up to 200 cellphone snatchings to his name.
He owned a flour mill in Karachi’s Site area where he hired security guards and used them in cellphone snatching and used to dump the snatched cellphones in his flour mill for further disposal (Dawn, Nov 14, 2006).
Similarly, in December last year a boy, Sami, son of Abdul Sattar, a prominent figure of Mirpurkhas, was kidnapped by two of his friends, Arshad, son of a Cadet College principal, and Rashid, son of a feudal, on Dec 5, 2006 in Mirpurkhas and was brought to Karachi where they demanded Rs20 million ransom from his parents. But they killed the boy when they failed to receive their ransom demand. However the kidnappers were later arrested by the police (Dawn, Dec 15, 2006).
The above two examples are enough to prove that educated and well-to-do people are now taking to crime as their side business, merely driven by greed. Sadly the blame goes to our so-called modern society in which a race is going on by our youngsters to become rich overnight. This also reflects a neglecting attitude of teachers and parents in this regard.
SQN LDR (r) S. AUSAF HUSAIN
Karachi
IN August 1947 when the Quaid-i-Azam accorded a special status to the tribal areas of the NWFP, it was his most prudent and benign decision at that time.
However, later history has proved that the independent status of the belt has been misused as a sanctuary for miscreants, both locals and foreigners. While the tribals continue to live freely, the country that has given them the free life has become their hostage.
Fata has become a breeding ground for the terrorists that is wreaking havoc on the dwellers of the settled areas. To protect religious congregations and other sensitive government installations from terrorist attacks by deploying security personnel does not only cause strain on public exchequer, it has not achieved its objective as bloody events continue to go unabated in cities that were placed on high alert.
In order to check the spread of a deadly disease, say malaria, you don’t have to go for killing individual anopheles that attack a prospective patient, rather you need to take care of puddles that breed these predators. Besides restraining women from exercising their constitutional rights to vote, many un-Islamic activities take place in the form of business.
Private houses in Jamrud, tehsil headquarters of the Khyber Agency, display for customers sparkling bottles of White Horse and Black Label that can be delivered to any part of Pakistan. Again, Jamrud, only nine kilometres from Peshawar, the seat of the Muttahida Majlis Amal’s Islamic government, boasts of running the biggest den of gambling.
Cars hijacked in settled areas are parked in showrooms so that the victim recognise and bargain for getting his own car. Private jails keep kidnapped men in fetters, to be returned to Pakistan after receiving a hefty ransom. Whereas Pakistan nationals cannot enter the tribal area or buy property at will, a foreign national, say an Arab or a Chechen, can live and marry there provided the local Maliks approve of this.
On the other hand, a tribal can buy and own so much property or run other business as he likes in the settled area without paying any government taxes. Is it not a negation of the two-nation theory at Fata level? Even the quota system in government jobs is misused by tribal residents because after availing themselves of the opportunity they never go back to the backward area to bring development there but choose to make houses and settle in the settled areas -– the backwardness continues past 60 years.
The abysmal state prevailing in Fata is fully known to all those who can bring about changes but personal interest and lack of determination come in the way of changing the status of the region. Pakistan has suffered enough in the past 60 years due to the special status accorded to Fata. There is a need for a David to come to grips with the Goliath -– the law of the country must extend to the tribal area as they are practised in the rest of Pakistan.
G.B. SHAH BOKHARI
Peshawar
THIS is with reference to the Metropolitan section report on the inauguration of Bagh Ibn-i-Qasim in Clifton, Karachi (Feb 27).
The park has been anything but a “no-go area for the last 20 years”. Long-time residents of the neighbourhood will tell you that weekends and public holidays saw the old park packed full of working-class people and their families. In fact, following its development, the “largest park of the country” has in effect been turned into a no-go area for a large percentage of the population of this city.
In the evening, the ‘beautiful park’ is an eyesore and a nuisance. Since work began on the park in earnest, the night sky has been obliterated by blinding floodlights that have destroyed the ambience of the quiet residential area in which it is located. To add insult to injury, when hundreds of families in nearby flats swelter for hours without electricity, the park continues to devour tens of thousands of watts of electricity.
More alarmingly, the park now encroaches on the privacy — and private property — of ordinary, law-abiding citizens.
Last November, the park hosted part of the ‘Ideas 2006’ festivities. For three days, the neighbourhood was cordoned off in the evenings. The streets were crawling with the police, military and paramilitary troops, and personnel belonging to unidentified agencies.
During this period, security forces descended on nearby apartment schemes, deputing armed men on the rooftops of all these buildings for up to six hours each evening. Despite the protest of residents, two separate sets of security personnel, complete with automatic weapons, were forcibly deployed on even those rooftops which could only be accessed through people’s homes.
Lest we forget, Article 14(1) of the Constitution states that the privacy of the home “shall be inviolable”. Now that the park has been completed, it would seem that fundamental constitutional rights no longer apply in the area. Residents can now expect their privacy — and personal security — to be violated with impunity every time a two-bit dignitary deigns to grace the park with his or her presence.
CONCERNED RESIDENT
Karachi
THIS is to bring to the notice of Pemra and the ministry of information, Islamabad/Sind that the management of Roshni TV (the channel is off nowadays) has not paid its journalists and employees for the past several months.
As a result, the employees and their families are facing great hardships in meeting their day-to-day expenses while education of their children is going to get a severe jolt when they will not be able to clear the backlog of their fees at the earliest.
We, therefore, seek intervention of the relevant quarters in the matter.
AFFECTED EMPLOYEES
Karachi
THIS refers to Captain Afaq Rizvi’s letter ‘Bhandara’s amendment: with a proviso’ (Feb 25) in which he questions the right of the members of the National Assembly elected in 1970 to draft a constitution.
He says: “How could a small minority of leftover members from the elections of a country with a completely different geography, demography, polity and completely different electoral mandate, assume the role of constitution-making for a new Pakistan, without fresh elections?”
I take exception to this line of thinking. The assembly members who drafted the 1973 Constitution were not few but 138 strong. They were elected on the basis of pure adult franchise unlike previous National Assemblies that were indirectly elected. Their credibility is impeccable if we look at the Constitutions of 1962 and 1956.
The 1962 Constitution was drafted by Ayub Khan himself and then was thrust on people by an executive order. The 1956 Constitution was drafted by a National Assembly whose members were elected indirectly, from the provincial legislatures.
This is why these earlier constitutions did not last while the 1973 Constitution still breathes despite all the mutilations. India has had just one constitution that was drafted by a legislature elected on the basis of restricted franchise in pre-partition India in 1946.
Yet nobody questions the legitimacy of the Indian parliament, which was elected in 1946 before the mass migrations and massacres, in drafting a constitution of independent India. That legislature had lost quite a few of its members who belonged to areas constituting Pakistan, nobody says that Nehru should have held a new election on adult franchise to elect a new assembly to draft a constitution for India.
Having said this, I agree with Mr Rizvi that the Quaid’s inaugural speech should become a part of the 1973 Constitution.
OSAMA MUSTAFA
Islamabad
INNOCENT lives were lost again this Basant. Yes, the administration was responsible for this but the blame is shared equally by another party as well — the Lahorites.
I find the policing of kite-flyers by the police a ridiculous approach to solving the issue which is unmanageable to say the least.
It is the social responsibility of people residing in a particular area to be aware of the dangers of kite-flying, especially the use of metal wire. It was the people that were using metal wires, not the police; it was they who were doing the aerial firing, not the administration.
How many people advised their friends, neighbours, family members and children that they should not do such acts because it can kill someone? Perhaps they were all too busy merrymaking. Innocent blood is on their hands too. My sympathies are with all those who have lost their loved ones.
FAIZ GUL AWAN
Peshawar
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