| April 07, 2007 | Saturday | Rabi-ul-Awwal 18, 1428 |
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Accept responsibility, Mr Bari
Lifting ban on recruitment
Where is the writ of the state?
Karachi’s traffic system
Subsidised cooking oil at utility stores
Knowing when to stop
Appeal to reason
Illegal emigrants
Above the law
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
ONCE an exemplary airline (Air Marshal Asghar Khan’s era), PIA is now undergoing a ban on its flights to European Union countries for technical security reasons, the worst possible blame on the credibility of a flying carrier.
The problem needs to be looked into much more deeply by the government than simply changing the chairman and that too by a banker, as the rumours are. And this with the full knowledge that the airline is not only suffering from financial crisis but also from much severer technical problem of its fleet. What a banker can do about it.
The EU aviation authorities had raised their objections some 18 months back as comes to public knowledge through TV talk shows, thanks to private channels. The ex-chairman lingered on the issue and helped the grounding of PIA. Bravo.
This definitely deserves a management audit and investigation by one of the G-8 auditing firms of the world. If the criminal negligence is proved, there should be no getaway for the lead man, as well as for all those on his team who caused all this.
Let the public know that there are punishments for big fishes too in this country. The next logical thing that comes to a simple mind is bifurcation of PIA management into executive and vigilance tiers not by one single man in each tier but a three-man committee in both tiers, working by vote.
All executive proposals bearing majority vote should be submitted to the vigilance committee with enough time for it to look and investigate and then either to allow or veto a proposal from becoming a decision.
All this should be documented. It is too risky for a giant organisation like PIA to be assigned to a single individual and give him the liberty to err.
Also there is no guarantee that a single individual will not break down under pressure of directives and shall compromise and give in where he should not. The nation is lucky that Air Marshal (r)Asghar Khan is in our midst.
The nation will be grateful if he should consider accepting a position in the vigilance committee of the PIA management, provided the government opts for the bifurcation policy of the PIA management.
The nation has faith in Mr Asghar Khan’s administrative and technical genius and although he may not perform as an executive due to stress of age, his presence in the vigilance committee and veto power to disapprove the executive committee’s proposed actions will help to save the airline from further disaster.
PIA should also consider that even the Pakistani public is scared of flying it after coming to know the snags in its technical endurance.
Unless corrective action is taken at this stage, and national and international faith in technical endurance of the airline is restored, it is likely to lose other markets too since flying security is a sensitive subject for all.
M. M. KHAN
Karachi
WASIM Bari’s interview, given to a local TV channel a couple of days ago, was as pathetic as his efforts with the national cricket team during his tenure as chief selector.
Mr Bari blamed everyone but himself for the World Cup debacle and stated that the team was not one that he had picked and that he essentially told Inzamamul Haq to “own the team” since he had forced the selection committee to give in to his demands.
I have the following questions for Mr Bari:
1. Why didn’t you quit as chief selector when you failed to get your way or when you felt that your opinion and input was not taken into consideration? Were the job perks too good to give up?
2. If the team had won the World Cup, would you have announced that this was not your team selection?
Accept responsibility for your failures Mr Bari and please make room for fresh ideas and a fresh start.
A.A. AHMAD
Lahore
I WISH to express my disagreement with Ramiz Raja’s view (Dawn, April 5) that Pakistan does not need a coach. In support of his argument he says that if the coach was that important, then lesser teams would be playing as well as those in the big league.
Doesn’t Ramiz Raja know that this is precisely what has been happening? Ireland has bundled out Pakistan and Bangladesh has ejected India from the current World Cup.
Mr Raja should be well aware that Pakistan needs a foreign coach, not only for cricketing abilities but also for raising the image of Pakistan in the International arena. The latter seems to be at the lowest level it has been in many years.
ANEES IQBAL
Surrey, UK
THIS refers to the letter by Majid Husain entitled ‘Cricket team should be welcomed’ (March 31). His is a refreshingly different thought and should be considered by all.
The Indian cricket team was treated very badly after it returned home from the World Cup. The media adds further to the fury by airing news about their endorsement deals, personal lifestyle, etc.
The Internet is full of satirical cartoons condemning the cricketers. Just as good films fail at the box office, good cricket fails to materialise too. It is unfair to demand 100 per cent success at all times, that too in a sports event.
I share Mr Khan’s view that cricketers are the nation’s children and they have worked under tremendous pressure. The general public should be sympathetic towards them and show concern for their well-being.
Let us share their success and their failures. They are playing for the nation, and we should stand by them irrespective of the end result.
This will encourage them to perform better in a future event.
M.NATARAJAN
Kerala, India
ACCORDING to a report in a section of the press, 10 years of ban on recruitment in the various departments of Sindh has now been lifted. The decision taken is belated but appreciable.
It will not only help to remove the shortage of staff, but will also improve the efficiency of working in departments whose image was getting tarnished due to their bad working.
It will also provide jobs to the unemployed educated youths who were badly frustrated due to the ban on recruitment.
It is fervently hoped that the federal government will also see that the continued ban on recruitment, which has led to corruption, inefficiency, and overwork of the staff in government and the semi-government departments that are haunted by lack of full sanctioned strength of the staff, now goes.
The Pakistan Central Cotton Committee (PCCC), the only federally-managed cotton research institute established in the various provinces of the country, is equally suffering from lack of technical staff in full strength.
The PCCC, which is stranded from its headquarters on M.T. Khan Road, Karachi, is suffering from lack of adequate staff and location for its relocation for more than a year.
The “why and wherefore” of keeping a handful posts vacant for years is not understood by an outsider.
It is hoped that the minister for food, agriculture and livestock, who is the president of the PCCC, will also consider lifting ban on recruitment of a handful technical hands due to which one technical hand is holding the charge of more than one technical post to the detriment of research work.
Let the creation of new posts in the PCCC at its headquarters and institutes at the various centres in the provinces go as the continued ban on the sanctioned posts does not speak well.
It brings only a bad name to a well-established research organisations for which the ministry of food and agriculture is responsible.
The PCCC may also be allowed to fill all the vacant posts for better working and the uprooted headquarters be also relocated at a suitable place.
How long can an organisation, which is badly under-staffed, and also not relocated, work to the aspirations of the users of its services.
M. SHAFIQUE AHMED
Karachi
MR Haseeb Ahmed (Dawn, March 30) from Rawalpindi writing on the above subject has relied on Jamia Hafsa episode to seek an answer to his above query.
Jamia Hafsa students have at least shown the right to protest. None of us support such actions but what one can do when we find that the writ of the state is not visible anywhere.
If one had seen the attack on Geo and Jung building by the fully uniformed policemen, one would shudder and shiver what an ordinary citizen would go through.
As if this was not enough, we saw no less a person than the chief justice of the Supreme Court being manhandled.
Yet the inquiry commission was told that this was not done by the police.
The fact that they were there was visible to a blind person as well. What were the police doing to save the chief justice?
Heads were broken and blood was flowing because the police had lathi-charged respectable members of our society, the lawyers, and tear-gassed the premises of the High Court?
Did we see any writ of the state? This list can go on and on but suffice to say that the state’s writ is not there — even a glance at the traffic, obedience to authority, law and order, etc., etc., would show.
The writ of the state has not only to be seen but also to be strictly observed and felt. Let us pray we shall be able to enforce this to take Pakistan to greater glories, failing which we shall continue to be there where we are.
MAHER ALAVI
Karachi
THE city of Karachi, the largest in the country, suffers grievously on account of its poor traffic system.
Students, labourers, office-goers and people at large suffer every day because roads are in bad condition, too many vehicles of too many varieties — animal-drawn vehicles, pushcarts, bicycles, motorcycles, auto-rickshaws, mini-buses of various sizes, buses, cars, pick-ups, trucks, tractors, dumpers, lorries, trailers, water-tankers, etc — are operating on congested roads -– at times all together at some places — traffic signals rarely work properly and to cap it all the traffic police are rarely present in good numbers whenever the traffic is overwhelming.
In such a situation a small error on the part of a driver of any one of the above-mentioned vehicles paralyses the entire movement of the traffic.
For those in a hurry to reach their offices or those on way to hospitals, or on their way to their examination centres, or to airports, etc, etc, the game is up. No way one can reach his or her destination on time.
The traffic problem is worsening with the rising population and increase in the number of vehicles.
What is immediately needed is the posting of traffic police in good numbers at important roundabouts and intersections and elsewhere to make people observe traffic rules.
This will inject some sense into our traffic system.
MARYA PARVEEN
Karachi
THE prime minister has taken a personal interest in providing relief to consumers by announcing a subsidy of Rs6/kg on the cooking oil being sold through the Utility Stores Corporation (USC) of Pakistan.
The USC is selling the said cooking oil, being produced and supplied by a leading cooking oil manufacturer, at the price of Rs61 per pouch (inclusive of subsidy of Rs 6/Kg) so as to provide relief to the consumers.
However, according to our investigations, the product has been rejected by consumers, as the selected product weighs only 900 grams, whereas the store’s own brand is widely sold at the price of Rs67, but is available in 1,000 gram packages and has not been given the subsidy of Rs6/kg.
So the question arises as to why the government has not given this subsidy to its Utility Stores Corporation brand or any other brands. This is discriminatory practice as it restricts the freedom of choice of the consumers, which is their fundamental right.
At the same time, according to experts, the subsidy of Rs6/kg by the government is not being passed on to consumers, as the basic cost of the product is less.
The calculation is as follows: the cost of 1,000gms is Rs67, therefore 900gms cost Rs61. If the six-rupee subsidy is subtracted, the cost should be Rs55 and not Rs61, the rate at which it is being sold.
What even more surprising is that such a large contract of purchase was placed without floating a tender, which is the legal requirement for placing such a large order.
Pakistan Vanaspati Manufactures Association (PVMA) has also expressed its objections to this fact and its chairman, Amjid Rasheed, has apprised the ministries of industry and finance about the loopholes and drawbacks of the scheme.
According to fair market policies, it is a fundamental right of consumers to choose which brand to buy and they should not be restricted or forced to buy just one brand due to financial reasons.
The CPC had suggested to the government that in order to provide overall relief to consumers, it should consider reducing the duties or sales tax on cooking oils.
According to our information, PVMA had prepared and submitted a subsided price formula to the CBR chairman.
The formula would have provided a relief of Rs2.50/kg on all brands of cooking oil and would have given relief to the masses, without putting any financial burden on the government revenue, but it was rejected by the CBR chairman.
Under the present arrangement, instead of providing a subsidy, the consumer is being misled and at the same time the government stands to lose Rs1,440 million/year.
So the question arises, who is benefiting from this subsidy, because it is not the consumer?
As such we strongly suggest that before this ‘subsidy’ turns into another national scandal and an embarrassment for the prime minister, the government should hold a full inquiry and examine the formula it has adopted.
CONSUMER PROTECTION COUNCIL
Karachi
“VISION 2030 is the first-ever document urging the government in plain and simple words for political freedom and to ensure the rule of law and access to economic justice and opportunity to all its citizens like in developed countries” (Dawn, March 22).
With as much to know, the celebrity culture of post-2030 era for lesser mortals like me if survived, I am ignorant of the logic as to how so many and so different good wishes for us, including some hot button issues, can be bracketed in one and the same timeframe?
I mean, why not the political freedom the other day and implementing the ‘sovereign’ democracy vision when the next elections are held?
For this, the most probable reason can be that the present rulers are repeatedly claming that these two ‘facilities’ are already available to the nation and no remedial political surgery is required.
Since the document has been made public so far, I won’t call it as the first sour dream of the Vision 2030.
And also, why can’t the fault lines of economic justice and opportunity be repaired in a few years? Are not the authors of the document interested in seeing some of their great achievements while in office or alive (God willing).?
Not knowing when to stop, the document is in conflict with the Quaid’s ideals. He once said that the first priority of the government was the safety of our lives and property.
“Presently, it can be safely presumed that the number of fortnightly heinous crimes being committed in Pakistan is equal to the annual figures of 1970-80” (letter, Oct 16, 06).
Z.A. KAZMI
Karachi
THIS is with reference to Ardeshir Cowasjee’s letter entitled ‘We will shoot you’ (April . I sympathise with Mr Cowasjee and hope that the matter will be resolved peacefully.
The people of Pakistan, especially Karachiites, owe a lot to Mr Cowasjee and his family. They deserve our support and prayers in these testing times.
I appeal to Altaf Bhai and the top leadership of the MQM to kindly look into the matter as there is a strong possibility that someone may be using the MQM’s name to pressure and threaten Mr Cowasjee’s family.
It is extremely painful to note that our country is falling apart bit by bit every day with a steady rise in the crime rate and growing lawlessness.
Imran Khan is right to label us a banana republic but I wonder if we deserve to fall even in that category, because there is a strong chance that when we will peel the banana after a while all that will be left will be its skin.
S. NAVEED AHMED
Kowloon, Hong Kong
A PRESS statement of the FIA director has appeared in national newspapers that during the last three years over 60,000 illegal Pakistani migrants have been deported from various countries and other 24,000 are in jails of some of those countries.
Due to rampant unemployment in Pakistan and lure of better prospects abroad, poor Pakistanis sell all their property, as well as take heavy loans, to pay in lakhs to so-called recruiting agents who make arrangements for their migration but which turns out to be illegal and results in their deportation or land them in jails.
Shiploads of such migrants have been and are frequently deported from Oman and on reaching Karachi they are arrested by the FIA/police.
Although these unfortunate job-seekers do narrate their plight at the hands of recruiting agents in Pakistan, the FIA or any other government agency has not taken any action against any such recruiting agencies to save ruination of poor people by them as they have connections with high-ups in Pakistan.
Would the FIA director give details, through another press statement, of names of such recruiting agencies and actions taken against such agencies?
S.M. YAQOOB
Karachi
WHAT kind of justice is this that the judge who awarded former prime minister Bhutto the death penalty admits that the sentence was wrongly awarded under duress, while the colonel who was notorious for the cruelty he meted out to Mr Bhutto now admits that the ex-prime minister was wrongly implicated and that he knows the culprit who actually killed Mr Kasuri.
Both persons are liable to be taken to task under the law of the land.
Unfortunately they are both above the law as one of them is from the judiciary and the other from the army.
SABIR ALI BALOCH
Karachi
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