| June 17, 2007 | Sunday | Jumadi-us-Sani 01, 1428 |
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Duty of elected representatives
Power outages
Budget speech
What enlightenment?
Real estate brokerage business
Gas bill
Renaming roads
Ending wars
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
LAST month in a talk show Mr Aitzaz Ahsan suggested that the answer to all our problems lay in handing over the reins of power to the lawyers. At the time it seemed like an excellent idea. However, I have been having second thoughts. Here are some clips from Dawn in just two consecutive days:
Dawn (page 5, June 1): Lawyers in Sargodha forced civil judge Farzana Bashir and her staff out of the courtroom shouting slogans because she refused to accommodate a lawyer seeking adjournment in his case.
The next day (page 2): two lawyers from the Pakistan Lawyers' Forum, Islamabad, were thrashed and their teeth broken at Abbottabad by a mob of local lawyers. On page 5 the same day, lawyers from the Bar Association at Jhang shouted derogatory slogans against the session judge and locked him out of the courtroom, because the judge had dismissed a habeas corpus petition.
We have also seen the very aggressive, danda-bardar lawyers in action the whole of last month on television. If this is a harbinger of things to come, I fear that a takeover by lawyers might prove to be as bad or even worse than military rule.
"A huge procession went without incident, from Rawalpindi to Lahore. Not a blade of grass was bent". Why couldn't this happen in Karachi as well on May 12, said Mr Atizaz Ahsan. He also asserted that Karachi belongs to everyone.
Of course, Karachi belongs to everyone but does Lahore belong to everyone? Can Sindhis or Pakhtuns or Muhajirs or Macranis lay claim on Lahore? Of course not. Lahore belongs to Punjab. The Punjabis are a homogeneous, generally law-abiding, disciplined people where most families are connected one way or the other with the armed forces.
The people are also comparatively prosperous not only because they are naturally hard working but also because they reap the benefits of the capital of Pakistan being located in Punjab; albeit, after it was hijacked by Ayub Khan from Karachi to Rawalpindi.
So on a long procession from Rawalpindi to Lahore the proverbial "blades of grass" are bound to bend differently compared to a 10-km procession from the airport to the Sindh High Court, in Karachi: a city which definitely belongs to Sindhis, Punjabis, Pathans, Muhajirs and others, all tugging in different directions and having their own axes to grind. Mr Aitzaz Ahsan ought to know this.
My picture of the chief justice of the Supreme Court is a sombre, venerable figure, the personification of dignity and sobriety, dispensing unmitigated justice from his throne sitting very close to the Almighty Himself.
A grim, combative figure in dark glasses, with black coats tumbling all over him, followed by danda-bardar maulvis, rabble political activists carrying multi-coloured party flags, shouting “Go Musharraf go" and, of course, Mr Aitzaz Ahsan in the fray, does not fit my picture of the chief justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
It is said that people deserve the leaders that they have. I suppose this applies to chief justices as well. So we have to live with what we have but I do wish that the chief justice stopped leading processions. If he has the one and only purpose of addressing the Bar Associations and nothing else whatsoever, then why not use the telephone. Mr Altaf Hussain and other leaders use this facility very effectively from thousands of miles away. Is it mandatory that the address to a Bar Association by the chief justice has to be preceded by a long ‘juloos’ of slogan-mongering political activists and lawyers?
What worries me most is perhaps a slip of tongue by Mr Aitzaz Ahsan at his press conference where he mentioned that when Karachi goes rioting, business moves to Punjab and now another attempt at a juloos from Karachi Airport to the Sindh High Court is being planned. God help. Beware all Karachiites: Sindhis, Punjabis, Pakhtuns, Parsees, Muhajirs et al.
CAPT S. AFAQ RIZVI
Karachi
MR R. R. Alvi in his letter (June 11) referred to a ministry of finance advertisement captioned, ‘Pakistan Prospers", in which the government has sought to reflect achievements of the current regime with statistical figures.
Another advertisement with photographs of the president and the prime minister appeared in Dawn of the same date under the caption, ‘Pakistan's largest budget, serving the poor, the worker, the farmer'. This is an election year and the government of Pakistan by these costly advertisements is making endeavours to impress the people of Pakistan with its alleged achievements, most of which are incapable of specific verification.
However, what is rather strange is the expression of the government of Pakistan (ministry of finance) that by its achievements, as reflected in "Pakistan's largest budget, it is paying back the debt of gratitude to millions who elected us (government of Pakistan) to serve better'.
A government does not owe any debt of gratitude to the people who elect their representatives to parliament and in turn expect them to serve the nation and the people whether in government or in the opposition. Therefore, it is a question of duty not gratitude.
The citizens have a right to ask the government whether the state has fulfilled its obligations to the citizens. The citizens must be prepared to listen and examine the government’s subjective assessment of the performance of its own obligations.
There are mutual rights and obligations as between the state and its citizens. The rights of the state constitute the obligations of the citizens while the rights of the citizens constitute the obligations of the state. In this context the question of enforceability of the rights of citizens and their assessment of the performance of the government comprising their elected representatives is of prime importance and this exercise must be undertaken on a continuous basis, particularly prior to elections.
In relation to the issues which arise from repeated government advertisements relating to its achievements, I would reproduce two brief quotes of the Quaid as under:
a. “The government can only have for its aim one objective - how to serve the people, how to devise ways and means for their welfare, for their betterment. What other objects can the government have.......”
b. "Representative governments and representative institutions are no doubt good and desirable but when people want to reduce them merely to channels of personal aggrandisement, they not only lose their value but earn a bad name. We must subject our actions to perpetual scrutiny and test them with the touchstone, not of personal or sectional interest but of the good of the state."
LIAQUAT H. MERCHANT
Karachi
THANKS to the Privatisation Commission (PC), the government, and the KESC, the citizens of Karachi are going through the agony and miseries of power outages for the last several months. Even public demonstrations and violence have not brought any sense to the three organisations that have created this mess.
The PC has to bear the brunt of this wrong act in handing over the KESC to a Saudi Arabian group who had no experience in running a power station. The whole thing reeks of corruption. The government also bears a great share in this affair.
Why has the government not published the conditions of privatisation agreement? What are they hiding from the people? When the government holds a gun at the nation’s head, how can you make it accountable?
Lastly, look at the record of the KESC. If you do not pay their bills, they disconnect your electricity, then why cannot they be held accountable for six to nine hours of outages day in and day out?
At the time of giving you connection the KESC has signed an agreement to provide you with electricity for 24 hours/seven days a week at a constant 220 voltage.
At present at no time they have given more than 200 volts, ruining expensive equipment such as computers, refrigerators and freezers. Should the KESC not pay for this damage? Is this not blatant dishonesty? But the amazing thing is that with daily outages of six to nine hours and more, your monthly bill has not decreased, on the contrary in some cases it has increased. Is this not highway robbery?
The government should not forget that they will soon face elections and the citizens of Karachi will remember their sufferings.
Finally, what about the ‘rakhewals’ of Karachi? Why cannot they show their street power to protect the rights of Karachiites?
Citizens of Karachi rise and make your voice heard right up to Islamabad.
MOHAMMAD AKRAM
Karachi
IN his budget speech, state minister Omar Ayub Khan criticised the previous governments for inefficiency, corruption, loot and plunder. If he was referring to the one dismissed in 1999, his illustrious father was foreign minister in that cabinet.
Ironically, most of the present cabinet members like Sheikh Rashid, Humayun Akhtar and Ijazul Haq were also in that dismissed government. Moreover, PML-Q chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain was interior minister and the party secretarty-general, Mushahid Hussain Syed, was information minister in the then government of Nawaz Sharif.
Most of the treasury members thumping the desk enthusiastically on his crisp remarks were present in the then PML, headed by Nawaz Sharif.
And if he was referring to older governments, his grandfather Field Marshal Mohammad Ayub Khan had ruled the roost for 11 long years, killing the democracy. So I wonder whom the state minister was hinting at.
HAFEEZ AKHTAR
Lahore
IMMANUEL Kant the philosopher defines enlightenment as: “Man's emergence from his self-imposed immaturity (which) is the inability to use one's understanding without guidance from another.
This immaturity is self-imposed when its cause lies not in lack of understanding, but in lack of resolve and courage to use it without guidance from another.
‘‘Sapere aude (dare to know)! Have courage to use your own understanding!” That is the motto of enlightenment.
The trumpeteers of enlightenment have tried to deprive us of the pleasures of sapere aude on June 2 and afterwards by gagging the media.
No doubt, the restriction to complete and direct access to information is an attempt to kill the truth.
But truth like a Phoenix rises from its own ashes.
The enlightened people of the country know enough history and philosophy of the enlightenment movement to be swayed by hollow slogans of ‘moderate enlightenment’ or ‘enlightened moderation’.
We will never be befuddled into submission by the bogey or spectator of fundamentalism or extremism.
DR ABDUL QADEER
Karachi
THIS has reference to the letter, ‘Real estate brokerage business’ (May 29). It makes some good business points. As a former US resident (USAF officer with the old US embassy, 1963-1965 of Karachi, where I lived in PECHS, your realtor market there in Pakistan is nothing short of "vast."
Noting first that Syed A. Mateen's suggestions of how to improve and set up a national real estate licenser standard is commendable, here is how the real estate industry operates in the US:
1. We all took a national Realtors examination at a local college or university where it was administered. You pay to take the examination, pay annually for your licence once it is earned, and pay for all continuing education out of your pocket. In short, you only "make a living" via commission on a sale when it closes between the buyer and the seller as agent for one party or the other gets a commission cheque made out to your employing real estate firm which you then split the cheque with under a predetermined formula.
2. Your real estate examination (written) consists of both a National Realtor examination section and a State Realtor’s examination, which second part is added into the package at the national examination assembly level and ship out to all test sites. Key parts of both national and state examinations focus on federal and state laws governing contracts and ethics, i.e., doing business in a open to all-eyes-fashion. Your math skills are tested also.
3. After one successfully practices active, full time real estate as a real estate salesman or in your terms estate agent for three full years, you are then eligible to sit for a brokers licence under a similar examination process at the same examination locations.
4. All 50 US states and the US Territories now also require you to do five recurring courses of continuing real estate education every other year to keep your estate agent or estate broker licence active.
5. We are also required by and within each state to obtain and have errors and omissions insurance to protect against either accidental errors or wilful errors in doing our jobs and closings as Realtors.
6. Several major universities, usually state-funded colleges and universities with every state, have as a part of their educational operations a real estate institute used for ongoing real estate continuing education every two years, which cycle works out to every year for some of us, one person being an odd year renewal, another being an even year renewal agent or broker.
7. While both bachelor and master degrees are now offered in real estate, one can take a business degree and an MBA with focus on finance, accounting, and real estate law and come out as well if not better prepared educationally.
8. There are three types of real estate brokers, all of whom have the exact same brokers licence, but this broker’s licence is sometimes applied differently: (a) There are owning brokers; (b) managing brokers; and selling only brokers, which is what I am.
9. For anyone to go full time into real estate as their sole vocation is very expensive and requires hard work. About eight out of 10 who start a career in real estate quit by the end of one year and return to a salaried job.
10. Taxes on Realtors here in the US are only at the state, city, and county levels of taxation, not at the national or federal taxation levels. We do have to belong to National, State, and City Realtor Associations and pay annual dues to all three.
Dawn may want to consider starting up a Real Estate Agents column for questions and answers regarding the practice of real estate throughout Pakistan. And the Pakistan parliament may want to look at having national as well as provincial and city real estate rules and regulations so that the licences Pakistani estate agents and estate brokers get are actually issued by each province (in the US all Realtor licences are issued by each State's Real Estate Commission) under overall national legal standards as implemented by provincial laws, rules, and regulations.
Col (r) GEORGE L. SINGLETON,
Alabama, USA
I HAVE received my gas bill after three months and that too after three visits to their office.
The gas bills are not being delivered due to the negligence of the SSGC and their appointed courier company. This negligence is causing problems for the consumers.
I did not get my bill for three months -- March, April and May. When approached in May at their Defence/Clifton zone office to complain, they noted down my customer number, which is 6619230000, and advised me that the bill would be sent by courier as due to non-availability of electricity they were unable to give me a duplicate bill. However, the coming month’s bill became due. I visited again their office at Defence Society on June 5 to complain.
They gave me a duplicate bill for three months which was accumulated to Rs6,980. This includes late payment surcharge for the months of April, May and June, which is because of the fault of the SSGC. I do not understand why I should pay late surcharge for three months when it is their fault.
When the manager inquired the courier company about the bills not being delivered at my home, they did not accept it and the person who claimed to deliver the bills regularly said that he had regularly deposited bills in the letter-box installed at my home. The fact is that there is no letter-box posted at my house.
Will the authorities concerned look into the matter?
H. FEROZ SHAMSI
Karachi
IT is an unthinkable practice to rename streets and roads, just to keep alive the memory of a dead personality’s contribution in some field of national life.
Changing old names causes several unnecessary problems, for instance, property records, identity cards, contacts with individuals and organisations both at home and abroad.
A case in point is the renaming of Bazaar Road, after about four decades, in Sector G-6/4 of Islamabad, to Begum Sarfraz Iqbal Road. This was arbitrarily done by the CDA one fine morning without consulting the affected residents.
Begum Iqbal, though not known for any outstanding contribution of her own to Urdu literature, was, however, reported to be popular among writers for her patronage. Islamabad continues to expand and any new road can be named after her, if that is necessary to preserve her memory. I would, therefore, urge the CDA to reverse their arbitrary decision and restore the original name of Bazaar Road.
AZHAR MAHMOOD,
Islamabad
THIS is in reference to Tanvir Ahmad Khan’s article ‘The war that never ended’ (June 11). In the article, Mr Khan writes: “Egypt did not want war and did not prepare earnestly for it. It sought to relieve pressure on Syria by sending a fairly large force into Sinai and then, far more provocatively, by closing the narrow Strait of Tiran to Israel.”
Mr Khan is very forgiving of Egyptian and Arab leadership’s failings during this war. One month before the six-day war, the Soviet Union informed Egypt of Israel’s intentions to attack Syria. Even though most Egyptian generals were doubtful of this information, President Nasser decided to manipulate the situation for political purposes. He initiated the biggest mobilisation of Arab forces using pan-Arabism as a slogan.
There was war frenzy all over the Arab world and everyone, from Saudi Bedouins to Egyptian intellectuals, naively thought that Israel could be crushed within a matter of days. Nasser though sceptical (in private) about the abilities of his own forces and suspicious of their commander, Gen Abdul Hakim Amer, was swept up by his own rhetoric.
The mobilisation and military buildup was so intense that King Hussein of Jordan, who until that moment had refused to allow his forces to fight under a joint Arab command, reluctantly agreed to do so.
It is impossible to conceive that after creating such bellicose hysteria, Egypt did not want war, or worse, it didn’t prepare for an imminent confrontation. In fact, it highlights the ineptness of Arab leaders who, while ferociously beating war drums, totally failed to prepare for the most obvious scenario — a pre-emptive strike from the enemy.
ABROO SHAH
Westfield, USA
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