| April 14, 2007 | Saturday | Rabi-ul-Awwal 25, 1428 |
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Plight of Sindh Madressah
Of Singapore
Loss of investment in Pakistan
Ban on plastic bags
Say no more
Crying over overpriced milk
Calamity-hit area
Education in the dumps
Anatomy of terrorism
New PIA chief
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 recent debate in these columns concerning Urdu and Hindi has prompted me to write. No two things in the universe are exactly alike, not even twins. That is the beauty of creation.
Yet at the same time no two things are largely dissimilar from each other. So is the case with Urdu and Hindi languages. These two languages draw from a number of sources.
They developed in almost the same period and in same region, albeit by different peoples, professing different faiths and practising different cultural patterns.
The two languages are mutually understandable in spoken form but are written in very dissimilar style.
The two languages are further distanced by the unwillingness of Muslims to learn the Devnagri script, while Hindus refuse to know the Arabic way of writing.
I acknowledge that Urdu and Hindi by many counts are two languages different from one another but at the same time in their spoken form both Hindus and Muslims find little difficulty in mutually conversing.
Greater differences surface when we resort to using either of the two scripts or official elements trying to make the two look dissimilar rather than alike. This is often done by continuously introducing alien vocabulary.
Considering the larger population of India, higher ratio of literacy and easier means of printing and publishing in India for every book or magazine that is printed in Urdu more than 20 are published in Hindi.
The two languages mutually being understandable in their spoken form it is helpful and not harmful if the two people try to learn scripts used by them.
By such practice we will be able to know each other better and for one to know what the other feel about them. I am sure very few will grudge such a phenomenon.
Keeping the above objective in view, the University of Peshawar is arranging to start teaching the Devnagri script to students of Urdu and others who may wish to learn.
The study of the Devnagri script is already proposed for inclusion in the syllabus for MA in Urdu at the University.
Once the people learn the Devnagri script they will achieve access to millions of pages published annually in Hindi script in India on various themes, some of these are hopefully very useful.
TARIQ MAHMOOD
Peshawar
BEING a former student of Sindh Madressah, I would like to draw the attention of the federal government to the depressing condition of this great school which in the past had not only played a vital role in providing quality education to Sindh’s Muslims but had also produced a number of great personalities, such as Quaid-I-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah.
The school, more or less, is on the decline socially and economically since 1999. The teachers are divided into various groups which has brought about a decline in the standard of its education.
Since 1999, no student got a place in the top three positions of the annual examinations of the Karachi Board. This tells the story of the falling standard of education in Sindh Madressah.
The selection of teachers on an ad hoc basis and the replacement of four principals within a short period of five years by the federal government (all were from Islamabad, including two retired army men), all this led to the destabilisation of the educational atmosphere in the institution and, as a consequence, to the fall in the standard of education.
I would suggest that the principal should be the seniormost teacher in all schools, particularly in Sindh Madressah, whenever there is a vacancy.
Moreover, the financial position of the Madressah is also not good as many lower staff and teachers have been waiting for their salaries for the last several months.
Furthermore, the situation in the girls’ secondary section is not good as many women teachers have been assigned such subjects as they have themselves not studied or have not specialised in them. To improve the situation, the seniormost teacher of the school should be appointed its principal; an evaluation test of teachers should be held — like the previous principal had announced but later withdrawn on teachers’ demand — to check the teachers’ ability; the practice of ad hocism in the matter of appointment of teachers should be done away with.
Also, the school should be given a university status only when the standard of education in the school and in the college level has improved. Only teachers having BEd degrees should be employed. Moreover, the recommendations made in audit report to oust the poor performers among teachers should be implemented. The federal government should immediately announce some special package for the rehabilitation and betterment of the school.
IMRAN KHAN SIAL
Karachi
IT is rightly said that to understand people you have to live with them. The saying applies to countries as well. Many of us would have visited Singapore, and so was I one of them having recently visited the country for about a month.
I have to admit and submit that neither I am an authority on economics, finance, nor on any religion, I am like any common person like you. I had a few observations – some with having interactions with a cross-section of people and others with knowledge of reading standard newspapers of Singapore.
As one enters the country, one finds greenery all around, impressive isn’t it? The population is about four million and we were told ratio of trees to a person is one is to four, that is for every person there are four trees.
Good work the government has done towards environmental safeguard, in other words to save people from environmental pollution. As far cleanliness is concerned, please correct in case I am wrong. It’s cleaner than London and New York.
As if this is not enough, the government there is seriously working on solar energy to save emissions from the vehicles.
When there is talk of vehicles, the government has taken the task of issuing licences to new cars coming on the road every month. That means they have restricted the number of new cars coming on the road in any particular month in keeping with their requirement.
Coming to education, the standard is quite high as per their statistics of A graders in A and O levels and yet the authorities are trying to raise the standards further.
They are also attracting foreign students to come to Singapore institutions for studies. Teachers are very qualified and merit is very much appreciated in academia.
It’s up to readers to judge and make their own minds why Singapore, a country with one-fifth of Karachi’s population, is now a developed country having achieved independence in the late 1960s where the bench-mark for economic progress is India and China, its airline is graded fourth or fifth in the world. It’s time for us to analyse the reasons, find out the root causes and move ahead as 60 years is a long time and yet we can make it if there is a strong will. Hope should never be lost.
PRO BONO PUBLICO
Karachi
THIS refers to the letter by Mehmood Riaz (April 1). While condemning what he has gone through, the government must set the record straight by taking appropriate legal actions as it pertains directly to the issue of making investments in our country.
This would serve as encouragement for other investors to follow suit. The treatment of investors must not be made worse by corrupt practices by government officials in connivance with the land mafia.
Advertisements for different housing and commercial schemes in Gwadar, that being tirelessly shown on print and electronic media, invite people of all classes to make investment in mega projects.
But still doubts persist in the minds of people about the veracity of all the Gwadar schemes, especially due to the fear that the government might cancel the allotments without any rhyme or reason with all dues paid by the allotees notwithstanding.
With a bit of digression, I also draw the attention of higher authorities to the harsh terms being deployed by Port Qasim authorities relating to the setting up of an industry in the PQA zone. The imposing transfer fees, development charges and non-utilisation fee are so discouraging that some investors, who had acquired land in this region for industrialisation, have almost wound up their plans of doing any business in the area.
The attitude of PQA officials is non-cooperative. They are creating hurdles that are causing potential investors turn away from investing in Pakistan.
ZAHID YUSUF
Karachi
ALTHOUGH plastic bags have been banned, there is little hope that our environment and sewerage system will improve.
This is because there is no system of refuse collection and we are expected to dump our garbage at nearby open plots from where, if we are lucky, council vans will some time pick it up and until they do so, stray animals and scavengers are free to rummage through them and leave the rest flying around.
The Defence Housing Authority has provided receptacles for every house in the DHA where the household garbage is neatly deposited and from where the DHA vans come and collect them regularly.
If such an arrangement can be made by the DHA, why cannot our city district government do the same? The city district government collects huge amount by way of property tax, sewerage tax and water tax without providing any service to the taxpayers.
In our area, gutters are constantly overflowing, and when we complain, there is no one to listen to us and ultimately we have to hire private labour force to manually clear our manholes and get whatever little relief we get from that.
It is time our local authorities stopped being satisfied with tall claims in the newspapers about their achievements and provide some relief to housewives who have to suffer daily for lack of basic civic amenities like garbage collection, water and sewerage.
MRS SHIRIN TAYEBI
Karachi
THE statement made by President General Pervez Musharraf during a symposium at NDU regarding continuation of war on terror (Dawn, April 13) is most forthright and timely. His tone and tenor was also excellent.
The world, especially the US military, must appreciate the sacrifices that have been made by Pakistan, in general, and the military, in particular, to stem the tide of terrorism against the US.
The president deserves BZ (bravo zulu) on this. Hopefully the American administration and the Afghan government would take stock of the situation and stop demanding that Pakistan ‘do more’.
CDRE (r) SHAHID NAWAZ
Islamabad
A CONFLICT has arisen between the CDGK and the milk dealers. City Nazim Mustafa Kamal had stated that the government’s duty is to protect the interest of poor people and the government would take all necessary action to ensure that no one challenged its authority.
“The sudden rise in milk prices is a challenge and the government would take necessary action to implement its authority as well as protect the rights of consumers and the poor people of the city”.
As such, on the orders of the nazim, the DCO, the EDO of enterprises and investment promotion and the EDO of municipal services started to clamp down on the wholesalers and retailers of fresh milk.
They held separate meetings between the dairy farmers, wholesalers and retailers and representatives of consumer protection organisations, including Helpline Trust, and had tried to work out prices which were acceptable to all.
However, unfortunately, no agreement was reached and both the wholesalers and retailers refused to accept the retail price of Rs28 fixed by the CDGK.
The dairy farmers stated that the price hike was not their fault, and was due to the high prices of fodder, cattle and inflation. They complained that the committee had not taken into consideration the inherent problems and other factors when fixing prices of milk.
The wholesalers submitted their cost sheet, showing Rs35/litre as their cost, whereas officials of CDGK had calculated a cost of Rs26/litre, a difference of Rs9/litre and rejected the workings of the wholesalers, stating that the figures submitted by them were inflated and misleading.
This led to the dairy farmers in, not only threatening to stop the supply of milk, but also to create a meat crisis in Karachi.
They threatened that they would stop the supply of cows and buffaloes to the meat merchants if the CDGK forced them to sell milk for less than Rs35.50/litre, the price which they have fixed from March 1.
However, the retailers agreed to sell milk at Rs28 per litre, provided the wholesale price of milk was 16 per cent lower, to cover their cost. They stated that they were helpless due to the extraordinary increase by dairy farmers, which had forced them to increase retail prices.
The CDGK reacted in its usual knee-jerk manner. As they had been provided magisterial powers and have been directed by the nazim to ensure that milk is not sold beyond the CDGK-fixed price of Rs28/litre, they started arresting the retailers, thus aggravating the situation further.
All stakeholders, including representatives of manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers, traders, custom house, KCCI and consumer protection organisations, should be members of a committee.
The committee should meet every month to fix the prices of essential commodities and take into consideration all the market forces that contribute to the cost of an item.
CONSUMER PROTECTION COUNCIL
Karachi
I WOULD like to draw the attention of the federal government and the provincial government of the NWFP towards the recent calamity in Chitral due to heavy snow and rainfall which has caused a heavy loss of both lives and property.
As many as 65 people have been reported dead as per preliminary information but the number is expected to escalate. Apart from heavy devastation of property, thousands of animals are still buried in the debris.
In addition to that, an overwhelming number of fruit tress have been washed away. No information about the calamities has yet been received from most of the far-flung areas of Chitral due to paralysis of the communication system.
One can imagine the intensity of the situation that people from one village have no access to an adjacent village due to fear of further avalanches and landsliding.
It is praiseworthy that local representatives, with the backing of provincial government and non-governmental organisations, have endeavoured to extend their moral and financial support to the victims but the intensity of the situation deserves much more attention.
I, therefore, request the provincial and central governments to declare Chitral a calamity-hit area and extend the services for the restoration of normal life on an emergency basis.
Any delay in the provision of support is likely to cause a further loss of lives as a number of people are either living in open air or under dilapidated shelters.
MOHAMMAD RAHIM
London, UK
A GARBAGE dump in front of a school does not reflect the quality of education imparted by the school, rather lack of interest from the sanitation department concerned. I am shocked to read the remarks under the photograph of an adopted school (Metropolitan, April 10). According to the caption, the school is responsible for the illegal garbage dumped on an empty plot across the school. How could one have remarked so without knowing the facts.
Fact no.1 is that the plot in question does not belong to the school or the adopter.
Fact no.2 is that it is not the responsibility of the school’s management to have private plots cleaned but the government’s or the owner’s. Moreover, plots are required to have boundary walls.
Fact no.3 is that there is a land mafia behind the garbage dumping, which is intentionally done to harass them into shutting the school in question. Daily at night garbage from far-off areas is brought to this site and set alight in the morning when the school is in session, causing numerous health hazards.
Fact no.4 is how does the caption writer know about the quality of education inside the school without even visiting it?
A SHOCKED OBSERVER
Karachi
THIS is with reference to Shahid M. Amin’s article ‘Anatomy of terrorism’ (April 11). I agree with the views he has put forward in his article, especially his remarks on the contradictory nature of the extremists’ claims about Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden.
I have, on numerous occasions, heard people voicing the same contradictions one after the other, sometimes even within the short span of an hour. People first deny that Al Qaeda had anything to do with 9/11 and then go on to state that this was ‘just’ revenge on what Americans have been doing in the ME.
They say that Saddam was the only one who had the courage to stand up to the US, and seconds later they state that Saddam was a US agent.
This form of ‘mental gymnastics’ is not limited to Islamist extremists only, it is also being used by the general public. It is disappointing to hear such contradictions from educated people who are not involved with the so-called jihadis.
I think that Pakistan’s educated middle class needs to stop believing in such propaganda and analyse the issues rationally for themselves. This is a critical time for our country and religion, we need to focus on and resolve the ‘real’ problems such as poverty and illiteracy in a sincere, clear-headed and rational manner.
HAREEM A. ZUBERI
Toronto, Canada
AS reported in Dawn (April 10), Mr Zafar Ahmed Khan, who is basically a mechanical engineer from Peshawar University, has assumed the charge of the seriously ailing national carrier.
Mr Khan, as official CV shows, has remained on boards of various prominent organisations and has retired from Exxon Chemicals after completing 35 years of service.
Although the credentials of the incumbent chairman at the face of it are very inspiring but so were the credentials of those who left the renowned origination such as PIA in ruins.
I would thus like to ask this distinguished paper to provide the public with detailed information about Mr Khan’s contributions to the organisations which he claimed to have served and knowledge of aviation business which is fundamental for a head to run an airline successfully.
MANSOOR-UL-HAQ SOLANGI
Karachi
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