| May 11, 2007 | Friday | Rabi-us-Sani 23, 1428 |
To send a letter to the Editor
Click here
Space constraint at airport
Serving commuters of Karachi
Five working days
Why bother with ATMs?
Need for balanced reporting level
Too many languages
Irresponsible statement
Respect for democratic conduct
Route No 39
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
DAWN’s editorial of May 4 under the heading ‘Turkey’s testing times’ made me look for reasons that turned Turkey into a secular republic.
Soon after the Allied victory in First World War, Sayyid Ahmad, the Grand Sanusi of Cyrenaica, who was in Turkey since 1917, played a proactive roll mobilising the Islam-loving Turkish peasants to join the Turkish army which was under the command of Mustafa Kemal.
In his book Road to Makkah, Muhammad Asad wrote at page 319: “As the Allied troops were landing at Istanbul, he (Sayyid Ahmad)crossed over to Asia Minor to join Kemal Ataturk who had just begun to organise the Turkish resistance in Anatolia.
“One should remember that, in the beginning , the heroic struggle of Kemal’s Turkey stood in the sign of Islam, and that it was religious enthusiasm alone that gave the Turkish nation, in those grim days, the strength to fight against the overwhelming power of the Greeks, who were backed by all the resources of the Allies.
“Placing his great spiritual and moral authority in the service of the Turkish cause , Sayyid Ahmad travelled tirelessly through the towns and villages of Anatolia, calling upon the people to support the Ghazi (defender of the faith) Mustafa Kemal. The Grand Sanusi’s efforts . . . .. contributed immeasurably to the success of the Kemalist movement among the simple peasants of Anatolia, to whom nationalist slogans meant nothing, but who for countless generations had deemed it the privilege to lay down their lives for Islam.
“But here again the Grand Sanusi had committed an error of judgment, not with regard to the Turkish people, whose religious fervour did lead to victory against an enemy many times stronger, but with regard to the intentions of their leader; for no sooner had the Ghazi attained to victory than it became obvious that his aims differed widely from what his people had been led to expect.
“Instead of basing his social revolution on a revived and reinvigorated Islam, Ataturk forsook the spiritual force of religion . . . . . Unnecessarily, even from Ataturk’s viewpoint; for he could have easily harnessed the tremendous religious enthusiasm of his people to a positive drive for progress without cutting them adrift from all that had shaped their culture and made them a great race.”
Ataturk was saddened by the decline that has come about on the Muslims around the world since the end of Muslim rule over Spain because they fell under the influence of the mullahs with half-baked knowledge of true Islam.. The vast Ottoman Empire shrank to its present size by the end of World War I because of the Turkish-German defeat at the hands of the Allies.
He felt deeply hurt that the Arabs Muslims joined the Allies and fought against the Turks. Besides, the Khalifah became a mere shadow of great bygone days. Further, Kemal’s assignments in different countries of Europe while he was in Turkish foreign service made him enamoured of the secularism of Europe.
Incidentally, did Kemal and the members of his Republican Party have the secular polity as a part of their party’s manifesto when they campaigned for the elections to the Grand National Assembly in 1922. In other words , did they have a mandate of the Turkish people in favour of a secular polity when they were elected to the GNA?
Democracy means governance by the representatives of the majority of the people. The people pay the taxes to run all the departments, including the military. They are the paymasters and the future presidents of Turkey are going to be elected directly by them rather than by the Turkish parliament. Whomsoever the people choose shall become the president.
JALAL AHMED
Muscat
ON the night of April 25, passengers travelling out of Lahore for various international destinations, were delayed because there was not sufficient space at immigration and security counters or in the departure lounge to house passengers of the five various departing flights of Etihad, Singapore, Qatar and PIA. This is a situation that has been prevailing for the last few years and becoming more acute every day.
It is the travelling passengers who pay taxes and landing charges, which contributes to 90 per cent of the revenue generated by the Civil Aviation Authority. The authority must listen to market forces and meet the supply and demand of the public, instead of vested political agendas of their executives.
It is apathy of the CAA and PIA which forced the traders of Sialkot to go for construction of a self-financed airport at Sialkot.
Perhaps the individual airports at major cities need to be run by independent bodies, so that they can invest funds generated by revenues to develop their respective airports, instead of being slave to biased decisions of headquarters located in Islamabad and Karachi.
The fact is that the original plan and design for construction of Allama Iqbal International Airport, envisaged almost 100 per cent more covered area in domestic and international departure/arrival and check-in areas, to cater for expansion in traffic.
It is also a fact that in the last decade Lahore, Islamabad and Peshawar have become the major hubs, contributing more than 76 per cent of international air passenger and cargo traffic, since they conveniently fall in airspace that offers shorter, more economical routes that link Asia to Europe overflying former USSR territorial airspace.
In spite of these glaring ground realities and commercial factors, authorities in Islamabad slashed the design plan at Lahore by more than 57 per cent, while they continue to delay construction of Islamabad airport and expansion at Peshawar on flimsy pretexts with ulterior political overtures.
It is time that commercial sense and consumer rights prevail over political biases and vested interests. Lahore airport badly needs expansion in international departure and arrival lounges, along with construction of cargo village and minimal hangar space for maintenance facilities, because there is abundance of land available. One only hopes this vacant land is not taken over by the land-grabbing real estate mafia that dominates our ruling establishment.
SHAHZAD KHALIL
Peshawar
THIS is with reference to the ongoing plan by the CDGK for elevated expressway. I need to mention here that since almost all our current nazims and ministers are frequent travellers to London, they must have seen how they have developed the mass transit network to cater the millions of commuters.
If we even leave the example of a developed country, please see how the local governments in Delhi and Mumbai are doing work on local subways on fast track.
Instead of building road networks in the first phase, which will never solve the problem of millions of average commuters of Karachi, they would have built the three corridors for elevated trains; one from Surjani to Old Numaish through Nagan Chowragi - Nazimabad, second one from Sohrab Goth to Old Numaish through Liaqatabad and the third from University to Old Numaish through Uuniversity Road.
Once at Old Numaish, one track could go up to Tower. If we have to invest a billion on this project, we should go for it as this scenario alone will put hundreds and thousands of vehicles off road and ease the burden on the existing road network.
One can see hundreds and thousands of commuters sitting on rooftops of minibuses along these three routes day and night and no matter how many buses are used and how wide we build roads, the problem would never be resolved. Incidentally the major vote bank of the current setup live along these routes and would positively benefit.
The same mode of transportation is used throughout the developed world and now underdeveloped countries are using the same in South Asia and South America. Local train networks built hundred years ago still serve in those countries. When will our rulers invest something that is beneficial for our city?
JUNAID ALAM
Karachi
THIS is in reference to the letter published in your newspaper regarding six working days a week. I wish to record my protest against such a feudal/ slave approach. The writer either seems to have a vested interest or is completely ignorant of the aspects of human behaviour which needs some refreshing time apart from work.
What quality time do people have in this country? A person’s life cannot be just about working from 9 to 5 (or even more) and getting only Sunday off which is passed all day sleeping. What do we want to make of our work force: machines or slaves?
What does a common person need in life? He/she needs happiness and pleasure apart from a routine job. Why don't people adopt an approach whereby they can do good quality work in five days instead of six days a week? An inability to do so indicates a management problem. Thus an employee cannot be blamed for that.
In most parts of the world people work five days a week and many of them go on holidays abroad almost every year. Our employers don't provide employees with a salary that enables them to afford foreign trips but they should at least be allowed to pass time with their family members or pursue hobbies or sports.
Go and ask the common person or employee to see just how fed up he is with the six-day work week. I urge decision makers to look into this issue and make a five-day work week a law. This decision would not only be motivational from the employees' point of view but it has economic gains which one can understand in terms of saving millions of rupees of petrol, electricity and other overheads.
AKBAR KHAN
Karachi
SINCE 2002, I have been living in Karachi as a paying guest and am dependent on my family to send me money.
The only way I can access that money is using ATMs, and I withdraw cash once a week. Whether it’s getting some photocopied notes, shopping, commuting around the city and even eating, every aspect of my everyday life depends on readily available cash.
During my five years here, I have been the victim of numerous ATM malfunctions which always prove to be very disruptive and gruelling.
Each time an ATM-related error occurs, it leaves me and a lot of other customers flabbergasted, astray and confused.
Due to this uninvited brokenness, I have gone through traumatising events like sleeping hungry, unable to buy books/notes when needed, unable to repay my rent and having to face the music as a result.
At certain instances, I have walked miles just to try using my ATM card at another location.
Today I have again returned with disappointment, as I needed money to buy a train ticket for the following day but the "Issues link" was down.
It is useless to call the 24-hour helpline as most of the personnel are rude and unprofessional, nor can they do anything even if they tried. I have moved my account to other banks but this problem continues.
Why is no one being held responsible for this lack of maintenance of technology? Many articles continue to be written on the plight of ATM users but no action/initiative has been taken. Why?
Do customers pay an annual ATM fee just to get deprived of their money when they need it the most? What about people who are in dire emergencies like accidents or urgent need of medication?
Will no one be held accountable if a serious loss occurs? What good is a glistening 24-hour banking billboard if one out of every five times the godforsaken-antiquated-ill-maintained machine is not working?
ALI HASSAN MEMON
Karachi
I am not in any sense biased towards the extent of coverage the western media gives to the so-called anti-civilisation stories from the Muslim world, but reading through the BBC website I couldn't help but notice the recent comment from the previous top man of the British Army, Sir Michael Rose.
Sir Michael comments, 'Insurgents right to take on US' (as labelled by the BBC), can be perceived in many ways... but in plain English, without a question, it would direct towards the fact that in reality the US should concede defeat or face a long-term battle with the insurgents.
In hindsight, had these comments originated from a Muslim scholar or a head of a moderate Muslim state, then the West would have broken all relations with that government, listed the media channel or newspaper in its list of biased reporting medium, called for diplomatic sanctions and asked the UN to flex its muscles too.
It is seldom that these things get noticed but only the other day (Wednesday)when the afore-mentioned report was the top read story on the BBC website and by the following day it had become a news piece in a subsection of the site.
I am not debating as to whether Sir Michael was right to make such comment or any action that the UK government should take, but I would only like to bring your readers’ attention to the matter of swayed reporting by such credited medium and its impacts (in this case none) on a larger community.
We have seen plenty of examples on biased reporting by the West where if you flip the scenario, then it would not be difficult to imagine that either the government of Pakistan or a Pakistani was involved in a criminal incident.
Woolmer's death is one example where if the murder had occurred in Pakistan, then Pakistan as a country would have been classified as a “all travel prohibited” destination; another example have been ball-tampering issues by the Pakistani team.
As someone making a living in the West, it has become a norm to see front-page tabloid stories blaming Muslims for the carnage the world is in today. As a responsible and credible media channel, the BBC should take notice and more importantly bring a balanced reporting level, specifically on its website.
M. SIDDIQUI
Islamabad
RECENTLY the NWFP Assembly's standing committee on education decided to declare Pushto a compulsory subject up to Class VIII.
In my humble opinion this decision is tantamount to overburdening students with the load of languages.
This kind of pressure on school children is the main reason of our dismal educational standards.
Being a multi-lingual nation, we all begin learning various languages at primary education level.
The majority of our students have to learn national language Urdu and official language English at primary level, given that both languages are not their mother tongues.
When I was studying in a secondary school, learning the Arabic language was made compulsory from Class VI to Class IX, and for the arts students up to Class X.
I studied English, Urdu, and Arabic at school and have to learn Pushto due to my long stay in Peshawar, ironically none being my mother tongue.
The result is that we master none of the mentioned languages. Will it not be better if the English language is made the sole medium of instruction at educational institutions? I stayed in Karachi for a year and during my stay I came across many people, and especially, children who spoke Urdu but could not write and read it. Children studying at English medium schools couldn't even comprehend Urdu numbers.
May I ask our learned policy-makers, whether they need simply educated people like other parts of the world, or do they want to make the whole nation linguists right from the primary level?
MANZOOR A. SHAH
Peshawar
PRIME minister Shaukat Aziz stated in a press conference that the Constitution allowed the option of ‘emergency’ but its use depended on conditions and circumstances laid down in the book
(May 6).
A prime minister who doesn't know the ABC of politics or the Constitution is not supposed to talk about such a sensitive issue of emergency.
By doing so he has shown intentions to harass a common man and also put the country's economy in jeopardy.
I am afraid that the people like Mr Aziz will act irresponsibly -- as he did in the reference against the Chief Justice -- by advising the president to impose an emergency. Guess who will suffer the outcome of an emergency?
Again the common man, because history has shown that when the situation gets worse, these imported prime ministers take refuge in the countries they belong to.
SABAHAT KAZMI
Lahore
ARE the Muslim countries living in the pre-18th century world dominated by ignorance and prejudices? None of them has made any mentionable contribution to the progress and prosperity of mankind.
For several hundred years, they had lived under the misconception that their rulers have been ordained to govern them as they liked.
They were convinced that nobody had the right to challenge them. The lowly creatures must serve them without making any complaints.
With the era of enlightenment, old and fossilised theories and concepts have disappeared giving rise to a new period of awareness and realisation.
Now the people have come to the conclusion that democracy is the only form of government that can assure sustained and unhindered development.
Despite all these changes, there are some rulers who presume that they have the right to rule for an unspecified period.
They do not proclaim that they have the divine right to govern, but they behave as autocratic kings with no sense of accountability.
We should be grateful to the British who had set up for us durable institutions to guard and promote civil conduct.
It is for this reason that today we have well-defined laws and principles in the country.
We must concede that democracy is the only form of government that guarantees freedom.
We must respect the norms of democratic conduct and take steps to strengthen it.
AZIZ AKHTAR
Karachi
THROUGH your esteemed newspaper I would like to bring to the notice of Punjab Transport Secretary and the Regional Transport Authority Secretary the plight of commuters of route no 39.
There are a few buses being run by a single bus owner but this is insufficient to meet the ever growing numbers of the commuters of this route.
This bus starts its journey at Shera Kot via Bund Road, Whadat Road, Kalma Chowk, Firdous Market, Liberty round-about, Main Market, Gulberg, Siddiq Trade Centre. R. A. Bazar to its final destination at Lahore Airport and accordingly comes back through the same routes.
One wonders why only one bus company has been allowed to run the buses in limited numbers on this very route?
The entire route has been monopolised by one company which runs these buses at their own sweet will instead of facilitating the passengers.
The philosophy behind running buses for Lahorites was to facilitate them rather than create inconveniences.
One fails to understand why the Secretary of Transport or Secretary of Regional Transport is not taking any serious view of this problem.
I appeal on behalf of many commuters of route No 39 to immediately grant the routes to other bus companies or order the existing company to increase their fleet of buses.
FATIMA MINHAS
Lahore
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.