| April 09, 2007 | Monday | Rabi-ul-Awwal 20, 1428 |
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In search of democracy
PCB chairman’s resignation
Signal-free corridors
Lack of proportion
Thai woman’s murder
Children in private jails
Rising extremism
Currency notes
Share registrar service
Language and ethnicity
Lease registration
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
RECENT actions by the female students of Jamia Hafsa have helped corroborate the western media’s allegations that some madressahs in Pakistan are being used as breeding grounds for extremism. Emboldened by the government’s flaccid stance, the madressah’s administrators have now decided to establish a parallel judicial system and that too under the federal government’s very own nose.
Various justifications for these illegal acts have been offered by the students of the madressah, with some students protesting that the writ of Allah is supreme and must clearly override the writ of the government, and others claiming that it is an obligation on Muslims to forcefully purge society of all its evils.
However, they fail to understand the enormous implications of their act. If everyone in society was to follow their example, there would be absolute anarchy, as the people of this country are more likely to use religion for their own selfish ends as opposed to establishing the writ of Islam.
Our increased scepticism might, in part, be due to the apparent apathy of the religious parties regarding the rising incidence of inhumane practices against women and minorities in Pakistan. Their noticeable silence on practices such as swara, vani, domestic abuse, gang-rape, and honour killings makes their action against these helpless women appear hypocritical.
It is, therefore, not surprising that the majority of the population regards this act more as a ploy to maintain the ascendancy of the religious parties and less as a means to turn people towards the faith.
Also, the majority of this country’s population would much rather have some form of democracy -– however tainted -– than any form of fascism. After all, we did all vote for freedom and independence in 1947.
Consequently, the country is alarmed at the lukewarm response of the government when dealing with such groups. Even the most credulous minds of the country regard the flimsy excuses offered by the government difficult to swallow.
While force must always be the last resort, lateral thinking might be more feasible at this juncture. The government’s mild rebuke in this case is in stark contrast to the punishment meted out to lawyers protesting in Islamabad just three weeks earlier. The fact that the lawyers’ protest was peaceful and legitimate and the madressah students’ protest is not, is also noteworthy.
The passing of the ‘Women’s Protection Bill’ and the president’s appeal to the common man to vote for the more liberal parties in the coming election had earned him the respect of many enlightened Pakistanis. However, if the government now succumbs to the pressure tactics adopted by these groups, the much exploited mantra of ‘enlightened moderation’ will have been relegated to a mere platitude.
TAHA KAZI
Karachi
FURTHER to Mr Rizvi’s letter (April 6) under the above caption, please allow me to ask who in the world wants democracy? The right answer is no one. Why? because no one is seen to be working to achieve it. To have a democratic system in place the absolute responsibility lies with the people at large. People need to show their responsibility by coming together to develop the democratic process in the very locality where they live in.
They have to come together in their respective locality, to meet each other regularly so that they can establish what is called a caring society. They have to come together to institute a process of effective representation of the people. Throughout the world there is utterly no representation of the masses anywhere. It is so, only, because the masses do not unite to achieve effective representation.
So, if ever, the masses, and more especially the educated and the intellectuals among the masses, realise the fact that it is they, themselves, who need to do something to create a caring society, only then democracy will be born and will flourish.
It is the educated and the intellectuals among the masses who have to do the hard work to achieve democracy. Otherwise no one anywhere in the world will ever have democracy.
Much lauded elections alone do not give people effective representation. Most ordinary people in the western world suffer a lot of injustices due to lack of democratic process even there, simply because the governments of the western world are in the clutches of pressure groups, cartels, corporations and mafias. Like anywhere else, these people must come together to win back democracy in their respective countries.
In order to achieve democracy people have to be prepared to come together to work for it. Every responsible citizen must realise that this is their country and they have to play their effective part in the enforcement of the laws and rules that they make collectively through their effective representation. There is no other way to achieve democracy, law and order and hence peaceful living.
S.H. WASTY
London, UK
SENATOR Enver Baig, a member of the Senate Committee for Sports, has criticised President Musharraf, who is the patron of the Pakistan Cricket Board, for not accepting the resignation of its chairman, Dr Nasim Ashraf (April 1).
He rightly said that the patron had preferred his personal friendship with Dr Ashraf to the aspirations and emotions of the Pakistani people. Senator Baig felt amazed that the president had not felt the anger of the Pakistani cricket fans and opined that the World Cup debacle was the sole responsibility of the PCB chairman. He said Dr Ashraf had been in the PCB as a member of the ad hoc committee for three years and chairman for six months, so he could not be absolved of the responsibility.
While there are likely to have been some other factors as well that led to the debacle and must be properly investigated, it has disappointed even the non-Pakistani Test players and fans. Dr Ashraf was correct in tendering his resignation, which should have been accepted.
But the president, who has paid no heed to the sentiments of the people regarding the judicial row, which is far more important for the survival and future of the nation, cared even less for the sport’s fans.
The major reason appears to be that if Gen Musharraf had accepted the PCB chief’s resignation, it would have implicitly meant an acceptance of his own favouritism and fault in appointing an unworthy head of the cricketing body. This his ego could never allow him to do, especially in the prevailing tussle with the CJP.
He has not been honest with the nation by failing to accept the rightful blame in this case. He and his friends should have no say in the PCB affairs.
A CRICKET FAN
Karachi
THE signal-free corridor from Karachi’s Sharea Faisal to Nazimabad does offer quick access to the motorists between these areas, however the question is to assess what percentage of the city’s commuters can be benefited by this development at the cost of Rs3 billion, and whether this amount, if utilised in implementing a part of the Mass Transit Corridors, could offer better result in reducing the present woes of the citizens.
There are some opinions that the funds spent on several projects such as the Lyari bypass, Northern bypass and the University Road flyover, if utilised in implementing the approved Mass Transit Project, the structures of two highest priority corridors could have been completed, permitting BOT companies to operate LRT trains on them, offering far more benefit to the city’s suffering people.
As far as the carriage of freight to and from the Karachi Port is concerned, the century-old railway scheme for adding two more tracks from the KPT to Pipri, for which even land is available, would be amply sufficient to allow almost all the freight traffic to be carried by rail, thus considerably releasing the traffic congestion on Karachi roads caused by trucks, besides ending all the present losses to the Pakistan Railways, offering huge savings of oil, decrease in environmental pollution and accidental deaths on roads.
The prime minister and the Planning Commission are requested to look into this important aspect to save the suffering people of Karachi and losses to the national economy worth billions of dollars yearly.
S.M.H. RIZVI
Karachi
THE destruction of Islamabad’s F-9 Park continues unabated. Considering the pace of so-called development, in a few decades Islamabad will be a city of skyscrapers with hardly any place left as green areas. Large parks are a place for ordinary citizens to escape the monotony of apartments and concrete houses. Why should we not look at large parks in other capitals of the world, such as London, Berlin and Stockholm, where no construction of club or any other activity is allowed.
All around the world, parks have large trees, rose gardens and maintain lawns with narrow paths for people to take their children for picnics or playing. Commercial activity such as fast food chains and roller coasters are not allowed in public parks. These are an obscenity in national parks. Now, on top of all this, it is reported that there are plans for developing an 18-hole golf course in the park. This is blasphemous. What does a golf course have to do with a public park for ordinary citizens? Golf is a game for the rich as the kit itself costs more than Rs50,000. It may be recalled that there is a smaller park in sector F-7 where plans for a mini- golf course were stopped by the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
The chairman of the Senate, speaker of the National Assembly and all the distinguished members of the two houses are requested to take action by stopping the destruction of the F-9 Park, through a resolution in parliament and forming a high-powered committee to oversee the future development of this national asset.
HAMIDULLAH KHAN
Islamabad
IT WAS very shocking to read that a Pakistani man killed a Thai woman and then dismembered her body, whom he had met through an Internet chat room (Dawn, April 1). He was earlier given the death sentence but it has now been reduced to life imprisonment.
What boggles the mind is that Mohammad Arif, 35, had apparently gone in search of love and friendship all the way to Bangkok, yet he treated the 28-year-old English teacher, Dissanee Thongnarkthae, in an extremely gruesome manner in such a picturesque country. Thailand is so full of nature’s beauty that it had provided much inspiration to a lover of photography and poetry-writing like me. During my student days overseas, I had also developed close friendship with a Thai doctoral student and was often invited for dinner with his family. In spite of being Buddhists, they had even requested me to provide them with an English translation of the Holy Quran.
The beautiful associations with Thailand and its friendly people come rushing to mind and make one dejected and also ashamed of why a fellow Pakistani chose to act like that. One would like to offer heartfelt sympathy and condolences to the victim’s family. It won’t bring her back but remembrances, like preserved blossoms, transcend time and space. If these words can dry some tears, that would be a big consolation.
One would request the Thai embassy in Pakistan to kindly convey this message to the family of Ms Thongnarkthae and to let them know that the Pakistani people are deeply saddened and ashamed by this tragedy. Also to Mr Arif, who has brought shame to the country -– perhaps he may care to let the nation know through these columns why he dealt so savagely with someone who had trusted him and hoped to realise that wonderful emotion called love through the man of her dreams?
A SAD PAKISTANI
Karachi
THIS is apropos of your editorial (March 23) about the rescue of 24 students from a private jail at a madressah in Kot Addu. The police found chains, iron rods, and aphrodisiacs in the madressah. The boys were beaten up, forced to massage their teachers at night and were sexually abused. From your editorial one would assume that if all madressahs are duly registered and scrutinised, such abuse of children by religious teachers will not happen.
Once I sent two of my staff members to a famous and registered madressah to get a fatwa on a certain matter. There they saw two small boys chained to a pillar in such a position that they could not sit. My staff members pleaded with their teacher (the maulana) to be kind to the boys and forgive them. But the maulana said that in order to keep discipline in the madressah the boys had to be punished.
Therefore, it is my request to the authorities concerned to ensure that all the madressahs are regularly visited by a team constituted by the provincial governments. Apart from madressahs, I have also seen small boys who are sent to mosques for learning the Quran being mercilessly beaten by their teachers. There may be genuine madressahs and mosques in our country where children are well looked after, but what percentage are they of the total sum?
M. YUNUS
Karachi
Lately, the phenomenon of Talibanisation is steadily taking root in the tribal belt, as well as in some of the districts of the NWFP. Girl students are forcibly prevented from attending schools. Barbers are threatened not to shave or trim beards. Video shops and schools are bombed with impunity. NGOs are threatened to pack up and go.
Anonymous letters are dropped at doorsteps to harass law-abiding citizens. Constant propaganda is carried on against the government, as well as against institutions, through the privately-owned FM radio channels.
Worse still, the police are reluctant to take action against them. Consequently, an atmosphere of fear and prejudice is prevailing in the province.
It is time the law-enforcement agencies, assisted by the learned ulema, dealt with this phenomenon, before it is too late.
SARDAR ALI AMAN
Chitral
ACCORDING to a news item (Dawn, April 5), the government is reintroducing the five-rupee note and its design is being worked on. Recently there has been a trend to produce low quality currency notes which don’t last long and thus create a poor image of the State Bank of Pakistan.
For example, the new Rs10 and Rs20 notes are of poor quality both in terms of the standard of paper and printing. Within days these notes fade away and the paper deteriorates.
The bank should realise that these notes are also used by foreigners and the country’s reputation thus becomes involved. A good quality currency note acts as an ambassador of the country.
The above-mentioned condition of notes shows that either some high-ups have been careless or they have extorted money in the process. Therefore, I appeal to the president to order an inquiry in this matter and bring the defaulters to book. In future the quality of notes must be improved or at least brought to the previous level.
M. IKRAM KHAN
Lahore
THERE are over two dozen firms in the country providing share registrar services and transfer agent. Some are big firms but most of these have meagre resources, both financial as well as manpower.
These firms operate without any regulatory obligations even though the job of share registration is very critical and risky and could end up in issuance of bogus shares as happened in the case of shares of the MCB etc in the past where re-verification of all share certificates was undertaken under orders of the CLA.
At present there are companies whose paid-up capital is in billions such as the OGDC=44, the PTCL=50, the HUB Power=12, Fauji Fertilizer=10, the PTA=15. These are at face value, and market values come into many times more. The legal position also seems to be confusing that, on the one hand, the Companies Ordinance 1984 provides under Section 76(6) as under:
“In the case of public company, a financial institution duly approved by the Authority may be appointed as the transfer agent on behalf of the company.”
On the other hand, none of the over two dozen firms of share registrar meets requirements of Companies Ordinance, yet the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan or the ministry of finance or the State Bank Of Pakistan or the Karachi Stock Exchange had not taken notice of this violation.
I request the SECP to take necessary action against violation of Section 76(6) and ensure protection of investors from possible manipulations and irregularities.
ASAD SHAH
Karachi
WITH reference to the discussion on Urdu and Hindi (letter, April 4) in India and Pakistan, we are forgetting the reader and writer. Good literature is translated from one language to another. Whether it is Tolstoy or Shakespeare both were translated into ‘enemy’ languages such as French within no time. After all, we do not need a translation between Urdu and Hindi. Only script is the problem.
There are so many languages in the world which do not have script or have borrowed the script from some other language. If Urdu has adopted its script from Arabic, Hindi has borrowed the Devanagari. In the olden days Sanskrit used to be written in the local scripts.
For example, old copper plates and other legal documents found in Karnataka were written using the Kannada script, but in the Sanskrit language. The bottom line is that script does not mean language. With so much similarities, we should be able to use a single script for Urdu and Hindi.
RAJENDRA KULKARNI
Houston, USA
MY husband has been a member of the Karachi University Employees Cooperative Housing Society since 1984. The Society has allocated a plot to me in Gulzar-i-Hijiri, Sector 18-A, KDA Scheme 33.
I have been writing to the Society since May last for registration of lease of my plot in my name to enable me to obtain a loan from the bank for construction. No written reply has been received but I have been informed on telephone by the secretary of the Society that the registration of leases has been suspended by the government. May I request the authorities concerned to resume the registration of leases of plots given to the members of the Karachi University Employees Cooperative Housing Society to enable them to proceed with construction.
MRS. S.A. HAMEED
Karachi
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