| June 05, 2007 | Tuesday | Jamadi-ul-Awwal 19, 1428 |
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Sonmiani port
Scapegoats
Water filter plants in DHA
1857 celebration
Language in education
Red tapism
Muslims and the West
The MNP extravaganza
Shifting of a slaughterhouse
Global warming
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
TOLERANCE and compromise are essence of democracy. As air and water are the ultimate essentials for sustaining life, in the same way the principles of tolerance and compromise keep democracy alive. These provide the oxygen, nay, the very life blood, which keeps democracy and its institutions alive and in good health.
The death of democracy in Pakistan in 1958, 1969, 1977 and yet again in 1999 was not that this was inevitable, but because those at the helm of affairs and their antagonists lacked the spirit of tolerance and compromise.
If these qualities had been in evidence during those critical times, the martial laws which followed could have been avoided, and we would have had an all together different history of our country.
Today again we are faced with critical issues. What started off as a reference served on the chief justice on March 9, by the president, ostensibly with the intention of obtaining his resignation, and the former’s refusal to do so, has galvanized the lawyers’ community, who have interpreted the event as a deliberate attempt on the part of the executive to curb the freedom of the judiciary and the rule of law.
The political parties belonging to the opposition, always on the lookout to embarrass the government, seized the occasion to push forward their own agenda. They were joined by a fairly large section of the people, as evidenced by sizable gatherings, at various road-side intersections as the motorcade of the chief justice travelled to various cities to enable him to address the Bar Councils there. This exercise turned into a ghastly tragedy in Karachi, where a number of precious lives were lost on May 12.
If the mayhem which took place in Karachi is, God forbid, repeated at another place, we may very well see the promulgation of an emergency, or, in an extreme situation, the imposition of martial law.
This would be a real tragedy for the country. To avoid any such occurrence, it is imperative that the issue between the executive and the judiciary should be defused on the basis of dialogue, and in the spirit of tolerance and compromise. I would suggest that the following steps should be taken:
a. The reference against the chief justice should be withdrawn, and he should be re-instated forthwith.
b. The president should seek re-election from the present assembly, as provided for in the Constitution, but his term of office should be restricted to three years. Keeping in view the seriousness of the external environment, he should be allowed to retain his uniform.
c. The coming elections should be held on time. These should be conducted by an impartial election commission, appointed by the chief justice.
d. A code of conduct should be drawn up for members of parliament and ministers, spelling out in detail their functions, their powers, their perks and privileges (down to the number of servants, the type of accommodation, the number and type of vehicles, etc) and their other entitlements.
e. As constitutional amendment(s) to give effect to the above proposals would take time, it is suggested that a referendum should be held on them. This should be preceded by a round-table conference in which the participants would be the president, the heads of various political parties and representatives of the judiciary.
The above proposals are not final. These could be enlarged and further refined by experts. However, the important point to bear in mind is that time has come to abandon, once and for all, the politics of confrontation, revenge, vendetta and character-assassination, and conduct the business of the state in a mature and a civilised manner, and on the basis of tolerance and compromise.
The proposals which have been put forward are based on these principles. These contain a built-in mechanism for providing an honourable exit strategy for the military leadership, a graceful face-saving for the chief justice, and an effective check on our parliamentarians and ministers to put a stop to unbridled corruption and bad governance, which the people have suffered at their hand in the past.
SALAHUDDIN K. LEGHARI
Lahore
THE minister of ports and shipping’s announcement of the construction of another port in Balochistan at Sonmiani has rightly been opposed by the Balochistan Assembly, which has also questioned the motive of the project.
Purportedly the port is for the benefit and development of Balochistan coast. The port is only 35 miles from Karachi. With no large Baloch population centres in the vicinity, it is not difficult to visualise who the real beneficiaries of the project will be.
Karachi already has two ports. A third port does not make commercial, strategic or logistic sense. Commercially, the port would have little utility as the KPT and the PQA are working below capacity. The efficiency and capacity of these ports can be further enhanced, if the managements are directed to concentrate on port activities rather than real estate development which appear to be the prime focus of both the KPT and the PQA these days.
The port does not provide any strategic advantage as its location would enable even a lone submarine to intercept shipping to all the three ports. It is surprising that the navy has not objected to the project even though it may not have been involved in the initial decision.
All the three ports would be sharing the same road and rail networks to upcountry and any disturbance, such as on May 12, would disrupt working of all the three ports. The port would also be an environmental disaster as it would denude the mangrove forests in the area and eliminate a number of sea birds and water creatures such shrimps, crabs, dolphins, fish and turtles.
If at all, another port on the Balochistan coast is considered essential in the immediate future, Pasni, which already has a fish harbour, and Ormara, with the naval base, are considered better alternatives in terms of cost, location and benefit to the local population. A commercial port adjacent to the naval port in Ormara had already been proposed by the Turkish firm which constructed the port.
In any case, before any decision on such mega projects, a feasibility study must be undertaken with the involvement of all stakeholders to select the best site. Balochistan has 80 per cent of Pakistan’s coast belt, it would be appropriate that a member of parliament from Balochistan is appointed minister of ports and shipping. This would give the Baloch a sense of involvement in the development of their coast.
F. REHMAN
Islamabad
YOUR front-page news item (May 26) about the transfer of secretaries of ministries of water and power, and that of food and agriculture for ‘poor performance’ is perplexing.
Secretaries are career government servants who carry out the direction, policies and priorities provided by the minister of the respective ministry. Ensuring results is the minister’s responsibility. The minister, chief executive of the ministry, assigned by the government for a specific area of responsibility, gets his cue from the cabinet which follows the prime minister’s guidelines and finally the buck stops at the president’s desk.
Let’s take the ministry of power and water. Is the replacement of its secretary going to result in less loadshedding and better water availability? Of course not, but perhaps focusing on the minister of power and water may make some difference, even if miniscule one.
Mr Liaquat Jatoi has been the minister for water and power for the last three years. Before that he was minister of industries and production, and before going underground, when Mushrraf took over, chief minister of Sindh during the Nawaz Sharif government. All these positions, spanning a period of about 10 years, were closely linked with the water and power issues.
He also happens to be the chairman of the Independent Power Producers Board. What has he contributed to the betterment of the country or the province in areas of his responsibility? Not that replacing him will make a great difference in the condition of the people; however, it would have made more sense to evaluate his performance than just transferring the secretaries. That is, if betterment of the masses features among the top priorities of the government.
IMTIAZ PIRACHA
Karachi
SOME time ago a press release from the Clifton Cantonment Board/DHA was published in newspapers that the CCB/DHA has started installation of potable water filter plants for the convenience of residents in every phase of the DHA, Karachi.
After a short break it was notified by CCB/DHA through the newspapers that water filter plants have started supply of potable water at the plants. However, when the residents checked up the actual position from the water reservoir located just adjacent to the CCB’s office, it transpired that work on installation and completion of filter plants has come to a standstill and the contractor to whom the CCB/DHA has awarded the contract has abandoned the project and run away.
This is not the first time that false claims have been made by the heavyweights of these two bodies. It may be recalled that the project of renovation, repair, carpeting of roads and laying of new water and sewerage lines in Phase I also met with the same fate.
The contractor stopped working and the residents of Phase I and other visitors from all over were faced with environment and other various problems because of digging of roads etc. The problems were multiplied due to monsoon rains, and with the advent of summer the residents faced an acute water shortage in the DHA.
It is a pity that the CCB/DHA has not been able to solve this problem even after 50 years.
The residents are constrained to buy water form tanker wallahs who are selling water for Rs1,000 per bowser of 2,000 gallons against the official rate of Rs370.
It is necessary now that the residents of the various phases of the DHA should take over the responsibility of managing their civic problems. This should be effected through an election system.
SHAUKAT RIZVI
Karachi
IN his letter, ‘1857 celebration’ (May 29), Abid Mahmud Ansari has made claims that makes a mockery of history. The 1857 Sepoy Mutiny is celebrated as the first war of independence in India because it symbolised the first joint struggle by Hindus and Muslims against the British rule.
It was incidentally started by a Hindu sepoy of Bihar (at that time part of Bengal), Mangal Pandey, and, consequently, by Hindu and Muslim soldiers alike in protest against the use of beef fat (tallow) and pork fat (lard) respectively on cartridges that needed to be bit by the sepoys in order for them to be used in the British-issued Enfield Rifles.
While the titular figurehead of the struggle was Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last and powerless head of the Mughal dynasty, the actual war was fought by the Hindus and Muslims of Avadh (Oudh) , Jhansi ( under Rani Lakshmibai) and Maharashtra (under Peshwa Nana Sahib).
The Sikhs, who had only recently (in 1849) been defeated by the British using troops from the rebellious provinces, were obviously bitter, and were eagerly used, along with Punjabi Muslim recruits, by the British to put an end to this rebellion by those same provinces. This was a classic divide-and-rule policy of the British, and could not in anyway be representative of the ‘two-nation theory’.
Mr Ansari also claims that the Muslims of Punjab were mercilessly executed and discriminated. This is not only factually erroneous, but a deliberate misinformation. Punjab was virtually unaffected by this rebellion. In fact, Punjabi Muslims and Sikhs became favoured ‘martial race’ recruits because they aided the British in crushing the 1857 revolt by their fellow Indians.
Mr Ansari should also be aware that along with Muslim recruits from Punjab and Gurkha Hindu recruits from Nepal, Muslim states like Hyderabad were aiding the British in this war against fellow Muslims and Hindus, and all his assertions about the ‘two-nation theory’ having origins in the 1857 event is a travesty of the truth.
The wholesale slaughter/hanging that he alludes to was of Hindu and Muslim sepoys and civilians alike in Fatehpur, Kanpur, and villages on both sides of the Grand Trunk Road between Allahabad and Kanpur in the present-day Uttar Pradesh in India. This macabre massacre was conducted by the British officer Lt-Col James George Smith Neill and was lionised in the accounts of contemporary British memoirs.
I would request Mr Ansari to be a little more objective in his assessments. It is strange that some Pakistanis like Mr Ansari still need periodic proclamations of the validity of the ‘two-nation theory’ even after 60 years of independent and divergent trajectories of statehood of India and Pakistan, but — even so — why should it involve the cost of maligning the watershed event that marked the beginning of an era of a joint struggle for independence by Hindus and Muslims of undivided India, which would only end with the pamphlets of Chaudhry Rahmat Ali, and the Lahore Resolution of the Muslim League in 1940 ?
A.K. SIRCAR
New York
FURTHER to the recent correspondence regarding 1857, the uprising resulted from a century of insult to the dignity and threat to the way of life of the Hindustanis’ (both Muslim and Hindu). The uprising was spontaneous and supported by the masses. It wasn’t funded and there were no ‘father’ figures.
The stars of the uprising were plain, anonymous sepoys and sowars who could no longer put up with the British puffery. When the uprising subsided, the Muslims were singled out for harsher treatment. With that ended what William Dalrymple repeatedly stressed in The Last Mughal, the syncretic existence of two great cultures.
GANESH S. KRISHNAN
USA
A DEBATE is going on about whether the English language should be replaced with the national and regional languages at least up to Class III. No doubt, a child understands better if he is taught in the language he is familiar with but the English language has gained much more momentum with the world becoming a global village.
We can’t ignore its importance. If we do so, we are not just lagging behind in the race for development but we will also take credit for creating much greater divide between public and private schools that is already quite widened.
There is a need to make English accessible and affordable for the underprivileged class. If we actually want to see our country as a developed state, the government should take steps to promote the culture of English language and not let others to create hurdles on the road to prosperity.
KHALIDA PARVEEN
Islamabada
AFTER publication of two letters regarding non-payment of benevolent fund (April 4 and May 3), it was expected that the authorities would wake up. But they have not moved an inch since. The fund which is payable on a monthly basis has not been paid since October 2005. The recipients are senior citizens.
In Pakistan, there is always something ‘great’ going on – from earthquake to bomb blasts to ethnic violence to judicial crises – you name it. And in the process smaller problems are forgotten. It is small for the government but very big for the people who survive on the meagre amount they hope they will be paid.
With every dawn the prices of daily use commodities increase and nobody knows the limit. Inflation is another monster let loose on the hapless people of this land.
It is known reliably that the Sindh finance department has been allocated more than Rs200 million for disbursement. So, where is the money and why not being paid?
Kaun jeeta hai teri zulf
ke sar hone tak.
ANOTHER SUFFERER
Karachi
THIS has reference to Syed Muzammil Hussain’s letter, ‘A plea for inter-faith dialogue’ (May 20). The writer has praised the International Islamic University, Islamabad, for conferring an honorary degree of DLit on OIC Secretary-General Prof Ekmeleddin Ishanoglu during his visit to the varsity. Addressing on the occasion, Prof Ishanoglu had emphasised on bridging the gap between Muslims and the western world.
He mentioned two points in this regard: first, the acceptance of Islamophobia by the West based on poor or little understanding of Islam and Muslim perceptions and, second, Muslims must say goodbye to old hatred and start a new era of understanding with the western world.
I would like to inform that a Lahore-based institution, named Iqbal International Institute for Research, Education and Dialogue (IRED), which was established in March 2006, is working on the same lines. This institution aims at becoming a crucible for a cutting-edge, moral and intellectual development of present and future leaders of Pakistan and the Muslim world, which will be seen by the global society as models of true enlightenment and civilisation.
This institute is engaged in a seasonal dialogue with the West as well as with different groups within the Ummah in order to promote communities that are educated, enlightened, compassionate, forward-looking and life-affirming.
MAHMOOD GILANI
Lahore
WHEN mobile number portability (MNP) was announced, people heaved a sigh of relief as it gave frustrated consumers a chance to discontinue their relationship with their pathetic mobile phone operators. I happened to be one of them.
However, as is the fate of every Pakistani, the MNP proved to be a false promise. I am a U-fone ‘forced customer’ and want to switch on to other cellphone company where I hope I will be treated better.
I started using U-fone some four years ago and, for some unknown reasons, the SIM serial number on the back of my SIM card has faded and is now illegible.
On contacting the U-fone ‘helpline’ (a misnomer) a customer representative gives me a new serial number which never matches the data, resulting in a decline to my request for MNP. I was finally told that the information I need is ‘classified data’ and cannot be supplied.
WASIF FAROOQ
Karachi
IT has been a couple of years that there is a slaughterhouse in our locality which is densely populated area of Sukkur. But unfortunately all the time we are facing a lot of the disturbances due to a deadly stench of animals’ slaughtering, and their unwanted atmosphere.
Regrettably enough, it is said that instead of demolishing the afore- mentioned building, the administration is getting it reconstructed.
Due to this slaughterhouse there is always environmental pollution in our locality, which not only spoils the atmosphere but also creates many diseases which badly affect the human health.
The district administration should build a slaughterhouse away from the populated area and instead build a dispensary at the present site of the slaughterhouse.
IBADUR REHMAN SHAIKH
Sukkur
TO overcome the issue of global warming and pollution in Pakistan, We should assign projects of plantation to schools, universities, etc., especially in summer vocations.
S. AMIN
Multan
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