| May 05, 2007 | Saturday | Rabi-us-Sani 17, 1428 |
To send a letter to the Editor
Click here
Mismanaged KWSB
Deal bitter pill for democracy
Press freedom
Accepting responsibility
Pakistan at a crossroads?
A medical scam
Serious objections
Positive aspect
Democracy in Pakistan and Bangladesh
Careless digging
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
WE are outraged by the indifference of the Security Council to the carnage of Somali civilians in Mogadishu by the Ethiopian occupation forces and the serious humanitarian crisis it has produced. Densely populated areas have been attacked using tanks and attack helicopters. More than 1,000 people have been killed, mostly civilians, and some 350,000 residents have fled Mogadishu and now live in refugee camps without adequate food, water and medical aid.
By directing attacks against civilians and forcing them to flee their homes, the leaders of the Ethiopian government and the Somali transitional federal government (TFG) are open to prosecution for war crimes. A senior European Union security official recently stated that there were strong grounds to believe that the Ethiopian government and the TFG violated the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. He warned that the EU, a major financial backer of the TFG, could be considered complicit in these war crimes.
As Salim Lone, a former spokesperson for the UN mission in Iraq, recently explained: “…one of the big issues here is not merely the unilateralism of the United States, but the inability of the international community and particularly the United Nations Security Council to try to play, if not an independent role, at least a moderating role. It is quite astonishing that for three months now, there has been terrible violence in Somalia, and yet we have not heard anything from the Security Council about how the carnage must stop. There is no interest whatsoever.”
Ethiopia’s invasion and occupation of Somalia is in violation of the Preamble and Article 1 of the UN Charter which requires members to settle their disputes by peaceful means. It violates Article 4 of the Constitutive Act of the African Union which requires peaceful resolution of conflicts, non-interference in the internal affairs of a member state, and prohibits the use of force or threat of force. It also breaches the Council Resolution which explicitly prohibits troops from any neighbouring country from joining even the new peace-keeping force it authorised for Somalia.
The Chatham House report has identified US and Ethiopian support for the unpopular TFG as an obstacle to the resolution of the conflict and rebuilding of Somalia. The authors of the report write: “In an uncomfortably familiar pattern, genuine multilateral concern to support the reconstruction and rehabilitation of Somalia has been hijacked by unilateral actors - especially Ethiopia and the United States."
The US delegate should be reminded of the advice given by president Truman in his address to the final plenary session of the UN founding conference. He said: “… we have here resolved that power and strength shall be used not to wage war, but keep the world at peace, and free from the fear of war... By their own example the strong nations of the world should lead the way to international justice. That principle of justice is the foundation stone of this charter."
S.M. MOHAMED IDRIS
Chairman,Citizens International
AFTER the privatisation of the PTCL, followed by the KESC and the pipelined strategy on the SSGC as well as the Karachi Steel Mills, the reorganisation of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board remains, which is an institution of collapsed system, faulty policies, spoiled infrastructure, anti-customer approach, self-interest working of its officials, gross mismanagement and the prevailing ‘Mr Bribe’ job culture.
The success and downfall of a public utility institution depends on its leadership, efficient working team, proper services and consumer facilitation. The KWSB high-ups, as well as down-the-line officials, bill consumers without provision of service in an arbitrary manner.
Its most of the area-wise offices are not equipped with computerised billing system, proper record, landline telephones, required manpower and other facilities for quick disposal of consumer problems. The KWSB has only two computerised offices, i.e., one behind the Civic Centre and the other at the Awami Markaz for the whole of Karachi.
The correction on a simple billing error consumes several months, even a year, besides rolling of the consumer between the area office and head office due to its disabled working environment.
The blocked, choked and dead sewerage system is the basic root cause of spoiling the entire infrastructure of road links in Karachi. There are no consumer services centers established anywhere in the city to attend, record and resolve consumers’ complaints in routine as the SSGC and the PTCL are doing. The relevant area offices of deputy directors and executive engineers related with routine matters of water supply, taxes and sewerage services are found either unmanned or under-manned due to regular absentees and no administrative control on discipline.
The water and sewerage service in the whole of Gulistan-i-Jauhar is the worst. The KWSB had dug most of the roads here to fix up underground pipelines but neither the pipes have been fixed nor the dug up portion filled to level, and the manpower left to dig other areas, causing utter inconvenience to residents.
The chain of KWSB offices at all levels are engaged in looking after their self-interests at the cost of consumers and national wealth, evident from its ever-growing financial deficit, on the one hand, and unsatisfactory consumer services, on the other, which certainly requires complete restructuring of the KWSB in the larger public interest.
ABU ALI AHMED
Karachi
ACCORDING to M. Ziauddin’s report (April 26), Ms Benazir Bhutto said that the impending deal between her and President Gen Pervez Musharraf is a bitter pill for democracy.
She further stated that restoration of democracy in Pakistan and saving the country from falling into the hands of extremists was more important than her creditability. She had said all this when asked: would not her creditability be severely damaged if she entered into a deal with the general? She was answering questions after a lecture on the current situation in Pakistan, at the London School of Economics and Sciences.
Her answer is devoid of any reality because how could her deal with the general restore democracy in Pakistan? As understood, the deal foresees BB’s support for the general’s re-election (in uniform?) for another five years’ terms and to be a coalition partner in assembly to provide façade of democracy to the army rule. In return, BB would get all corruption cases against her and Asif Zardari withdrawn, which she needs disparately.
As regards corruption, produced below is a news item that appeared in Dawn (April 15, 2006): “Asif’s assets – court freezes Asif Zardari’s assets, accounts worldwide was a recent headlines on front pages of many national dailies. The assets included a long list of palaces, mansions, apartments, ownership of offshore companies and hundreds of acres of land.”
As the situation stands, Pakistan is destined to be ruled by the army in collusion with the corrupt politicians, unless the poor masses wake up from deep slumber.
ABDUL SAMAD KHAN
Karachi
A NEWS item in your paper (May 2) says that Pakistan is amongst the 10 worse countries for press freedom. The report is attributed to the Committee to Protect Journalists, based in the United States. Its executive director is Joel Simon. One doesn’t know the credentials of either Mr Simon or the committee.There was censorship from 1958 to 1988 when the PPO was repealed.
However, for the next 10 years from 1988 informal methods of intimidation were used occasionally against journalists. The prime example being Mr Najam Sethi who was roughed up under the direction of Mr Nawaz Sharif for making a demeaning speech against Pakistan in India.
Since 1999, however, there has been a relaxation and today the press and the media are relatively free.
Despite this, the other problem that we have is that our media tends to quote anything appearing in the western press as God’s own truth.
The western press tends to adopt self- censorship and supports their government’s policy. This happened in the case of the Iraq war in its early stages. It has now turned sour. Recently, the western media has generally sung praises about Boris Yeltsin on his death.
He is much admired in the west because Russia was destroyed as a superpower during his tenure in office. On the other hand, Putin is reviled because he is trying to restore Russia’s previous position.
Since India is an aspiring world power, their journalists support the idea of ‘incredible India’. Our journalists, on the other hand, remain indifferent as pointed out by Dennis Macshane (Dawn/The Observer News Service): “Pakistan is neither dictatorship nor democracy. Its newspapers are louder in criticism of their president than the anti-Blair or anti-Bush in the West. Its intellectuals roam the world trashing their country.” This is a fair assessment of what is happening in Pakistan today.
ZAFAR IQBAL
Karachi
THIS is with reference to the news item titled ‘Naeem denies letter sparked crisis’ which appeared in your paper (April 29). In his first public response since the judicial crisis began, Supreme Court advocate Bokhari has vehemently denied any part in the controversy that arose from his controversial letter.
It is an open secret that Mr Bokhari is responsible for instigating a judicial crisis with his letter. It would have done him no harm to accept his fault and apologise to the nation for his horrendous act. Instead he has continued an almost 60-year-old tradition of this unfortunate nation whereby no individual, whether a public servant or diplomat, ever accepts his/her fault.
By accepting his mistake Mr Bokhari could have salvaged his shattered image among the judiciary and the general populace, but alas that was not to be.
JUNAID ABBASI
Leicester, UK
IN HIS letter, ‘Pakistan at a crossroads’ (April 27), Mr Shyam has been uncharitable and cynical in his two claims. First, that the Pakistanis should realise that their country is getting torn apart not by the US, India or Karzai but by the mullas and hand-in-glove intelligence agency. Second, that under clerics’ rule there would be no music, cinema, sports, etc., but only public executions for weekend entertainment.
We were already torn apart by India in 1971 and efforts are now being made by it to break away Balochistan, as confirmed by our highest authorities. Junagadh and Manavadar were seized in 1947, despite their rulers’ formal decisions to merge with Pakistan, which were accepted by Mr Jinnah and had been placed on Pakistan map -– their cases are still pending with the UN.
The mullas aren’t going to break up the country either. They are all for an impregnable Pakistan, for which they have been strongly backing the successive governments’ activities in the nuclear domain and to acquire advanced weapons like F-16s.
Also, it is preposterous to suggest that the intelligence agency hinted at by Mr Shyam could do such a thing. It has been credited with helping drive out the Soviets from Afghanistan, failing which they would have overrun Pakistan, as acknowledged by President Musharraf himself in his autobiography. Thus, the agency actually helped save Pakistan in the 1980s and has killed or apprehended hundreds of Al Qaeda and allied operatives since 9/11.
As far as the Lal Masjid brigade is concerned, things seem to have been exaggerated – some people even claim it to be the government’s ploy to divert focus from the judicial crisis. In any case, the correspondent may like to read the clarification given by its principal, Mr Abdul Rasheed Ghazi (Dawn, April 15).
Among other things, he said that they never talked of depriving women of education and, besides religious studies, students at Jamia Hafsa are taught modern science and English. They had never forced anyone to sport a beard because it is just a Sunnah and not obligatory; a shuttle-cock veil is similarly not thrust on its students or anybody else since there are many ways of observing purdah.
He also stated that they are not advocating the destruction of TV, video, VCRs, etc., but are only against their abuse. Finally, that they had no plan to enforce Shariah by force.
In fact, Mr Shyam should be more concerned about India’s Hindu extremists who keep hurling threats at the Pakistani cricketers whenever they go to play in their country and had even damaged the pitches where some of the matches were due to be played, so the venues had to be changed. The Pakistani religious zealots have never terrorised the Indian teams playing here, nor have they advocated inhospitable treatment to them. In contrast, the bus carrying our players had been stoned in India.
Worse still, the Hindu extremists of Gujarat had massacred over two thousand Muslims and slashed the bellies of pregnant Muslim women to remove foetuses during the anti-Muslim pogrom of 2002 and thrown the victims into fire, as confirmed by western and Indian sources. No Pakistani has ever treated the Hindus or other minorities over here in such a manner.
In the same issue, a report in the ‘Los Angeles Times’ refers to a recent survey showing that overwhelming majorities of Muslims in Egypt, Morocco, Pakistan and Indonesia believe that the US seeks to “weaken and divide the Islamic World”. It has warned the Congress members and President Bush to ‘memorise’ these numbers. Gen Musharraf’s pro-American policies and now the judicial crisis are driving a huge wedge between the army and the civilians and pose a greater risk of splitting the country. But the people from across the ethnic, sectarian, and political divide have united to challenge him.
A. ALEEM
Karachi
I HAVE been an arthritis patient for years now and recently developed sciatica. I went across to a Chinese acupuncture clinic in Block 3, Clifton, where the doctor said I would be cured of not only the sciatica but also arthritis in 15 days. Though the treatment was expensive -- Rs1, 000 for consultation and Rs1, 000 per 30-minute session -- I decided to give it a try for my long-term benefit.
The pain started subsiding but after 10 days of treatment it flared up again and even became worse than it was initially. When confronted, the doctor admitted he might have done something wrong. And while talking to one of his physiotherapists, I discovered that the effect of the treatment apparently begins after 15 days and that treatment usually takes up to a month or sometimes even more.
This is absurd. The doctor obviously promises a cure in 15 days to lure patients who would think twice before committing to a month or more of treatment which would translate into Rs30,000 or more in fees. Apart from being fleeced in terms of fees, the doctor also charges exorbitant prices for Chinese herbal medicines which I later discovered are available for sale at certain stores at much reduced prices.
Clearly the whole business is a money-making racket and a scam, and I would advise people to think not twice but thrice before getting lured in.
DISGUSTED PATIENT
Karachi
I AM a regular reader of Dawn, especially the columns by regular contributors. I have some very serious objections to the articles written by Ayaz Amir. His articles are not at all objective.
He seems to have a personal agenda against Gen Musharraf which he pursues in all his articles.
An intellectual should write to educate the public about various issues and not settle his score with anyone.
I suggest the writer have a more sensible approach to the problems facing the country.
MUNIR AHMED
Karachi
IT was an honour to watch our international umpire Aleem Dar officiating the World Cup final. Made me feel we were there in the final after all. Let us look at the achievement with pride and let the team rest in peace.
Surely, we must look at the positive aspect and appreciate it too.
MIRZA NAIM BEG
Peshawar
RECENT turn of events in Bangladesh bear an amazing resemblance to democratic rule in Pakistan which alternated between Mian Sahib and BB for a decade. This period was aptly called the ‘wasted decade’ by astute political commentator Shahid Javed Burki. In Bangladesh, democratic rule shifted back and forth for 15 years with nothing to show except massive corruption, inefficiencies and incompetence.
The sorry record in both countries leads one to question whether western-style democracy is even suitable for Muslims, who throughout their history have been ruled by kings, potentates and absolute monarchs and where furthering one's own limited interests invariably supersedes any efforts towards the good of the community, society and the country.
Even in the established western democracies, democracy is viewed as a flawed system of government but no better system is available to take its place in these societies. Every four years a very large percentage of the American electorate stay away from the elections, and those who do participate, usually choose between “the lesser of the two evils”.
Perhaps Pakistan could follow the Turkish model where general elections were recently held but the watchdog army is lurking around so that the elected officials don't interpret their election victories as a licence to pilfer and plunder the state treasury for fear that they might be out of luck until the next election, or even before that if their excesses invite their overthrow.
MASOOD HAIDER
New Jersey
I WOLD like to draw the attention of the authorities concerned towards frequent damage caused to the PTCL cable during excavation for development work in certain areas of Karachi’s DHA, particularly in Phase-I and Phase-VII. As a result of the digging , a number of telephones go out of order. My telephone is one of them.
This intermittent digging has been going on for the last two years and every time the telephone cable is damaged, we have to approach the PTCL people who do their best to help us. But this is no solution. The DHA must ensure that no such thing happens while development work is being carried out. Care and concern on the part of the DHA is necessary to resolve this problem.
MUHAMMAD ALI NADEEM & OTHER RESIDENTS
Karachi
You can also send letters to the Editor
Just send your message to the following address: letters@dawn.com
Make sure you include your full name, postal address, e-mail address, and in the case of Pakistan your day-time telephone number.