| June 20, 2007 | Wednesday | Jamadi-us-Sani 04, 1428 |
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Politics of diversion
Woolmer’s death and the media
Scholarship cancellation
Kidnapping
Developing nations
Investment banks
Clarification
Water filter plants in DHA
Taisar Town
Ejazul Haq
Boucher
Burden
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
HERE we are concerned with scientific research and industrial development through purposeful education, which is lacking in our country. The Higher Education Commission is trying to develop mega projects in the country.
As a member of the Karachi Industrial Research Group, I know the hazards and difficulties being faced by NGOs and individuals engaged in some research projects.
If organisations like the HEC or other NGOs and individuals are engaged in research and development programmes, we should let them do their work, otherwise it will be a waste of time, energy and money.
During 1965 two imported sewage treatment plants started functioning, treating only about 30 per cent of sewage generated in Karachi. But shortly some parts of these plants were damaged and rendered unrepairable, while efficiency of these plants remained less than 25 per cent.
Different solutions were discussed with the KMC authorities. In 1968, the KMC allotted land and accommodation at sewage treatment plant, SITE, and, with the available scanty resources, conducted some experiments. Owing to insufficient funds the target was not completed.
In 1974, the National Development Volunteer Programme (NDVP) of the Planning Commission selected the KIRG projects and started providing funds. With this, we started work on a multidisciplinary project titled ‘Sewage Utilisation Research Project’ (SURP) in collaboration with University of Karachi (KU) and the KMC. The NDVP met all our expenses.
We established laboratories, one at university campus and the other at sewage treatment plant at SITE. The dean of science faculty was the president of the KIRG and principal investigator, and the general secretary of the KIRG was co-principal investigator and in charge of office, the senior professors of biochemistry, biology, botany, chemistry, microbiology and zoology departments and members of KIRG were supervising the SURP.
Our team analysed sewage, developed different treatment methods, recycling of wastewater, fish culture in sewage water and their effect on fishes; developed cheap methods for the extraction of fats and proteins from sewage and analysed, used sewage water for agriculture purposes, developed poultries based on sewage products, and succeeded in developing crystals of vitamin B from sewage in large quantity.
The UN team preparing the Karachi master plan declared our developed sewage treatment plant most suitable for Karachi and offered their cooperation in developing this plant at a proposed site for the treatment plant at North Karachi and also said they would arrange for funds. By rejecting this offer, the KDA developed aerated lagoons, which were incapable of running and later on were abandoned.
A team of scientists from US Environmental Protection Agency also visited our laboratories and offered their financial support. For this, the two following projects were drafted in collaboration with the university and submitted for formalities: (1) reclamation of water and useful utilisation of solid wastes and (2) industrial wastewater treatment and recycling.
The Planning Commission stopped their financial support due to cut in their own budget.
They, however, recommended our case to the Pakistan Science Foundation for further funding.
Meanwhile, the dean of science, who was also the president of KIRG and coordinating KIRG and KU, left the country and different projects, including the precious US EPA projects, initiated by KIRG were taken away into different departments.
We also invented and patented a solar desalination plant, which produces cheapest water in bulk from seawater. The KIRG worked in other areas of science and developed different processes and patented and unpatented inventions, which are badly required for the country.
With the passage of time, our efforts were overshadowed by a chronic problem, which still exists. The stronghold of the research system by some institutions does not allow NGOs and individuals to exist in the research field.
I think some local NGOs and individuals working to develop scientific knowledge and experiment on use of local material should also be encouraged at different levels for the overall welfare of the people of Pakistan.
PROF ZAFAR UMAR ZUBERI
Karachi
THIS refers to your editorial, ‘Politics of diversion’ (June 14), wherein you have safely assumed that Imran Khan’s meeting with all Pakistani politicians have had no inhibitions about seeking foreign power’s involvement in our domestic politics.
In the current scenario one cannot draw a comparison between the legal stance taken by Imran Khan against the leadership of the MQM and the infamous role played by some politicians in their lust for power in the past.
In other words, Imran Khan has not sought foreign help to discredit or get rid of his political opponents and eventually get power for himself.
In fact, he has set out to expose the double standards of the Britons who claim to have waged a war against terrorism but at the same time they are not only harbouring a terrorist but they have offered him their citizenship as well.
Unlike other politicians, Imran Khan is simply trying to get justice for the victims of the incident of May 12 and to set people free from the mortal fear of those who can unleash a reign of terror with impunity.
After the fateful Black Saturday, in all conscience he could not afford to sit back and helplessly watch the turn of events from a far distance. Rather he has made a determined effort to sensitise the world to a political party’s blatant disregard for the law of the land.
In short, Imran Khan is moving a British court against a British citizen who is faced with as many as 234 different criminal cases ranging from extortion of money to violence and killing. So Imran Khan’s legal battle cannot be seen as involving a foreign power in our domestic politics. Rather it is a sincere effort to bring someone to book in a fair and square manner and that too in accordance with the law of a country of his own choice.
WAQAR AHMED RAJA,
Media Coordinator,
Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf,
Islamabad
IMRAN Khan, a silent majority of Karachiites are with you in your latest fight against a cancer of a different kind.
M. AHMED
Karachi
AS I read about the final judgment of the cause of Bob Woolmer's death, I was deeply saddened by the way the whole issue was treated by the press, in general, and the local media, in particular. Ever since Woolmer's death, the media, both print and electronic, painted the character of the Pakistani players a shade so dark that they themselves were afraid to look in the mirror.
In finger-pointing, our local media led the way. It pounced upon the players with allegations that make the heart shudder.
They not only challenged the team's professionalism but also called them conspirators and gamblers. The poor players were held responsible for causing Woolmer's death when it was believed that he had died of a heart attack. When it was said that he may not have died of natural causes, our media was the first to insinuate the possibility of a murderer in the team.
The passion we have for cricket as a nation is not unknown. Such reports not only turned the people against the players but also promoted negative sentiments amongst the general public. Not once did the pen pause to rethink the implications such reports would have on the physical and mental well-being of the cricketers already disheartened by the defeat.
No thought was paid to the anguish caused to Woolmer's family members either. The fury with which the story was played up by the local media, again both print and electronic, made one actually wonder if the outrage was genuine and not misdirected. Perhaps the media had channelled their annoyance on the team's miserable performance by focusing on the Woolmer case.
We are a nation struggling to deal with ongoing issues that have recently snowballed into a fully-fledged crisis threatening to tear the very fabric of society — social, political and otherwise. Even something as trivial as cricket has become a raging national issue. The mudslinging that ensued during each phase of investigations of the Woolmer case can actually be slated as the typical media response to all domestic matters these days.
While reporting the truth is the first and foremost responsibility of the media, it is essential that the truth be researched, verified and authenticated. Moreover, the truth need not be blown out of proportion. For starters, let us all have some sporting spirit.
S. JAWAID IQBAL
Karachi
MY daughter has been studying in the telecommunications department in FAST-NU, Lahore branch, for quite some time now and recently she told me some very disturbing news about the university administration and faculty.
Last year an ad from the university announced scholarships for students who had secured 900 or above marks in FSc (or equivalent). At the time of admission, students with 900 above marks were asked to pay full fees and they were promised that this would be refunded later on (which never happened).
At the start of the second semester, the administration consented to waive their fee but then at the end of the semester, they changed their minds and without giving any logical reason cancelled the scholarships of students with marks under 950.
This posed much difficulty for the parents who had to pay the fees in a few days’ time or else their children would not be allowed to sit in their final examinations.
SHAHID BHATTY
Lahore
THIS has reference to the letter written by S. Ausaf Hussain (June 14), who has carefully listed all the guidelines for a person about the do’s and don’ts of being a kidnap victim. His input is highly appreciated, for such guidelines are important in the state of uncertainty we live in.
There is no surety of our well-being and an air of tension surrounds us whenever one of our loved ones is never home on time or fails to respond to their cellphones.
I would further like to advise people not to use cellphones while they are driving or when their cars stop at the signal. This attracts kidnappers who assume such people to be rich and able to pay huge ransom payments. An acquaintance of mine was kidnapped while chatting on his cellphone and recovered three months later. The family went through sheer torture and agony.
FARYAL NAEEM WARIND
Karachi
A COUNTRY develops not only through identifying and promoting its strengths, but by recognising and acknowledging its failures, both contemporary and historically. Nationhood needs to be defined more than in geographical or commercial terms. Rights, obligations, and ultimate purpose are all vital in defining who we are and why we exist.
A nation, a society, a government, a corporation that defines itself and its mission primarily in terms of its commercial successes is losing sight of the sacred overriding humanitarian purpose that defines civilised society. Life quality, human dignity, and opportunities for salvation and enlightenment via social, political, cultural, recreational, and spiritual pursuits define progress in a civilised nation of individuals.
A country is reliant on well-being among such people as its pilots, doctors, and safety engineers for society to run smoothly. A traveller on the roads relies on the good intentions and well-being of fellow road travellers for a safe and secure journey.
A predacious model for economic development, a model via which larger economic concerns and interests consume, marginalise, and abuse individuals and organisations with less predatious tendencies, a system where only self-interested materialistic opportunism is rewarded, where worthiness is measured primarily in terms of dollars and cents, cannot be regarded as being enlightened or purposeful in terms of human progress, in terms of where we have been and where we should be going.
By seeking to retard and frustrate human development, by fomenting resentment against those who mourn, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the meek, the poor in spirit, the merciful, the clean of heart, and the peacemakers, by fomenting fear of the elderly or the infirmed, by seeking to portray such people as a threat, as economic liabilities standing in the way of self-interested material accumulations and ambitions, some leaders in commerce and industry display conduct unworthy of developed nations.
In industrial democracies, we have developed mechanisms via which the weak, the infirmed, the disadvantaged can find political voice and opportunity, can find the means to spiritual, social, cultural, and recreational development, within the context of our economies and industries. A nation that takes pride in harmony in its industrial relations only insofar as there are diminished opportunities for labour to organise, to mobilise, to exercise or demonstrate dissent, to alert the public to wrongdoings, or to promote social or environmental causes, cannot be regarded as truly free, fair, open, or founded in dignity and fraternity.
In the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the 1944 ILO Declaration of Philadelphia, and in the ILO Declaration of Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, we see commitments by civilised nations everywhere to the means via which employees may freely associate, collectively bargain, and lobby, where individual might need not be solely pitted against the power and authority of multinational corporations, private equity concerns, business councils, and boards of directors in matters such as achieving just and favourable remunerations.
We also see the bases for establishing conditions conducive to both individual and communal material well-being and spiritual development in conditions of freedom and dignity, of economic security and equal opportunity. We see too the recognition that, in a civilised democracy, labour is not a commodity, it is a citizenry, it is a basis for family and community.
In order for democratic nations to progress, we need both the means via which potential victims of abuse may find protection and the means via which potential abusers of commercial authority and power may find enlightenment and reason.
BRUCE TERRY
Tasmania, Australia
I UNDERSTAND that investment banks in Pakistan are not scheduled banks. It means they are not being controlled by the State Bank of Pakistan but by the Security and Excahnge Commissions of Pakistan.
During the last two years two of the eight investment banks went bankrupt, namely, Islamic Investment Bank and Crescent Standard Investment Bank.
If these are not under the purview of the State Bank, then the central bank must tell the general public this fact.
It is better that investment banks should be eliminated altogether or should be told to become commercial banks. One of the banks had the reputation of having two sets of accounts, which the SECP was not able to find when its operation was closed. What are auditors of the SECP and banks for?
Millions and millions of funds of the public are held up by the above banks and many may follow. Will someone throw light on the above?
INAYAT SHEIKH
Karachi
THIS is in reference to a fatwa by Maulana Abdul Aziz, head of Jamia Hafsa, against Octane magazine (Dawn, June 17).
Octane is a Pakistani magazine catering to a young audience. Our editorial policy is based on free flow of information as practised in a democratic and enlightened society. We always try to portray truth without any agenda.
Recently, Octane published and commented upon a distasteful advertising campaign of a cellular company, and fashion advertisements by local fashion designers.
The endeavour was to bring to light the true picture of the tactics of this company, which is trying to increase its growth through cheap advertising. In a reaction to that, the company is providing wrong information to the media against Octane.
We never intentionally published anything controversial and we submit deep regrets, unconditionally, if any of the material carried in the magazine hurt the feelings of any of the readers in any way.
OCTANE EDITORIAL TEAM
Lahore
APROPOS of Shaukat Rizvi’s letter, ‘Water filter plants in DHA’ (June 5), it is clarified that these filtration plants were installed, commissioned and tested before being handed over to the Clifton Cantonment Board (CCB) a long time back.
The first plant at Beach Avenue was inaugurated on April 6 and the residents are enjoying this 100 per cent quality water free of cost. It is for the CCB when to make the remaining water purification plants available to the general public.
The company behind this project has to its credit some 56 such projects nationwide, completed in 2006-07.
SEEMA FARRUKH
Director, Marketing,
Aqua Flex Technologies
Karachi
We had deposited money about five months back in the Taiser Town project but the results of the draw is yet to be made public.
Taisar Town authorities are requested to do the needful.
FAROOQ MEMON
Karachi
THE tactics of Minister for Religious Affairs Ejazul Haq, son of Ziaul Haq, will not work.
May I suggest that he persuade his president-general to declare war on the United Kingdom, and parliament permitting, a special aircraft should be provided for Mr Haq to carry and deliver the ultimatum himself.
ARDESHIR COWASJEE
Karachi
THIS is in reference to US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher’s talks with opposition lawmakers and officials in which they conveyed their reservations about the forthcoming elections.
The whole lot of Pakistan’s leadership — secular or religious, powerful or powerless — has unanimously bowed before Mr Boucher. This lot appears to be competing in proving themselves as more docile than the others. They are inviting, no praying, for US, western, even Indian, intervention and that too simply for their personal blessing.
AFTAB ALAM
Swat
Schools are following the system of educational year from August-May. The results are not being given to the parents who had not deposited the fee up to August in advance.
Such a burden on parents’ pocket is not justified by any means. If parents/guardians have planned to withdraw their child from any school, the school cannot prevent them by doing so.
FARID MASOOD
Wah
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