| June 27, 2007 | Wednesday | Jamadi-us-Sani 11, 1428 |
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Needed: more ‘bad’ laws!
Ignorance supersedes knowledge
Food inflation
Water shortage
Motivation and development
Wind energy required
Loadshedding
Sacred cow
Police behaviour
Unkindest cut
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
FOR the benefit of both Pakistan and world history, my experiences at the start-up of the series of battles between Pakistan and India in 1965 could be of historic perspective interest in view of the recent letters about Ayub's diaries and the 1965 war with India.
The advent of the Rann of Kutch skirmish between Pakistani and Indian ground forces, Jan 31, 1965 which, in military intelligence (US) annals, was preceded by bombardments in the disputed Kashmir area and the other less publicly-discussed December 1964 Rann of Kutch skirmishes caused the US State Department to call a joint high-level meeting of key Karachi and New Delhi US embassy staff held at the old US Embassy in Karachi, early spring (March), 1965, which I attended together with my boss, the colonel commanding the US Air Base in Peshawar.
Since 1963 I had been based at the US embassy in Karachi as the USAF liaison officer for the US Air Base in Peshawar, where about 1,000 US military, civilian dependants and civilian employees stood in harm’s way being so close to Kashmir.
In anticipation of the eventual Indian Air Force bombings of the PAF HQ in Peshawar during the 1965 war, we at our nearby base had dug and had to later use slit trenches to seek shelter during the eventual IAF bombings. Some humour during all this war tragedy was caused by water inside our slit trenches from a recent rain so that when our boys dived into the bomb shelter trenches they came up dripping with, covered with fresh mud!
Our meetings at the US embassy in Karachi, 1965, focused on ways and means to keep the peace between the two nations through our diplomatic efforts.
Once the war was at its hottest from April through fall, 1965, in spurts so to speak, US military equipment and spare parts were equally and uniformly 100 per cen cut off to both nations.
This did have a material effect to help end the war as once planes, tanks, and other military hardware broke down, there were no spare parts to repair same in either country.
One of my key duties was to keep uptodate at all times the military evacuation plan for our Peshawar-located air base.
Our evacuation plan had an ‘either/or’ use of a then single north/south rail line vs. use of American C-130s and C-141s to tactically or logistically bring all US men, women, and children, military and civilian, out of Peshawar in the event of war with ‘whomever’.
As the 1965 war intensified in spurts, the decision was made to evaluate the US air base by air, which was done by direct round robin flights from another US air base in Turkey, to Peshawar, and back to Turkey. The use of the north/south rail line was too slow and absurd under all then existing circumstances.
By 1970 the resumed base operations by military only personnel without civilian dependents at the US air base at Peshawar permanently ceased when Pakistan refused to renew the treaty dating from 1955 which had established in 1958 the joint US-Pakistani intelligence base at the height of the Cold War.
I was, of course, rotated out to another USAF stateside assignment in mid-1965, so I was not involved in the 1970 final removal of all US personnel and equipment. However, on Jan 7, 1970 when our base was finally closed for good, we used both the airlift and the north/south rail line to complete our base closure withdrawal.
The final 1970 base evacuation was done under the unchanged, since my 1965 written updates, USAF base evacuation plan from what colleagues there at the time have told me in later years.
George L. Singleton,
Colonel (r), USAF,
Alabama, USA
THIS is with reference to the article titled, ‘What remains of the Pemra law’, by Mr I. A. Rehman (June 16). The article presents a timely and useful comparison of the original clauses in the Pemra law and the abortive amendments attempted on June 4, which were subsequently reportedly withdrawn on June 9.
The writer makes the following comment:
"The Pemra Ordinance in its original form was a bad law to start with .."
I respond as one who as a federal minister had the privilege of helping draft the first Pemra law, 1997 (deliberately lapsed by the second Nawaz Sharif government) and the precursor (in 2000) to the Pemra law (2002).
For a law that is considered ‘bad’, the Pemra law seems to have certainly done a lot of good for the proprietors of electronic media, for thousands of electronic media personnel and professionals, and, above all, for millions of Pakistanis to whom this ‘bad’ law has very quickly brought an extremely large number of new channel choices, and an unprecedented level of candid, scathing criticism of government day in and day out, on a variety of issues, besides enabling new directions of programming in the electronic media.
As the situation in several other countries shows, all this was not inevitable due to technology or global trends. These basic changes took place because of governmental initiatives and progressive lawmaking. It is another matter that the very same government has, in other respects, and in the recent crude amendments, shown some extremely negative facets.
Also, this so-called ‘bad’ law has encouraged investment of hundreds of millions of rupees and, in turn, allows the media to earn millions of rupees every day through the broadcast of excessive amounts of advertising, besides enabling newspaper proprietors, including those of Dawn, to become proprietors of radio and TV channels as well.
For a country in which freedom of expression has allegedly always been suppressed, the media themselves seem to have done very well indeed in gaining new levels of freedom, in reaching new heights of prosperity even as over 40 million Pakistanis remain mired in deep poverty. Perhaps the media could do with some more such ‘bad’ laws!
JAVED JABBAR
Karachi
Fortunately, western intellectuals appear to be aware of what is going on in the Middle East. Britain’s next Prime Minister Gordon Brown apologised for mistakes in intelligence made in the run-up to the Iraq war in a BBC television interview on June 22. Moreover, other western intellectuals have been advising the US to stop annihilating humanity.
However, history appears to repeat itself: ignorance in civilised disguise remains the same in all ages. Once again, civilians have been killed in Afghanistan.
As everyone knows that the policies of the US have been the obvious manifestation of injustice and inequality, it simply seems that the ‘war on terror’ is to slaughter the poor masses, and to bring them under the sway of ‘capitalism’ and ‘Zionism’.
Here, it would be better to learn that the inevitable corollary of ‘capitalism’ (an economic system) and ‘Zionism’ (a religious system) is the creation of two classes of ‘chosen people’ and ‘unchosen’: the systems may be coined economically as classification of ‘haves and have-nots’. This is the goal of 'globalization'.
Unfortunately, intellectual culture of the western world seems no longer effective. It is now clearer that the Machiavellian ‘might is right’ has crushed all human values, and war makers or in term of Noam Chomsky ‘new crazies’ are more influential than sound intellectuals.
Following in the footsteps of the US, Britain under command of Blair has also led the most ridiculous war of history. In addition, a series of provocations to accelerate one-sided war has created a more bizarre situation.
In fact, materialistic and unqualified estimation of scientific achievements have convinced war-makers that they can lead the world. However, winning the hearts of people is the only way to lead the world. Undoubtedly, people of Iraq and Afghanistan are victim of ‘terrorism’: which is to lose the hearts. As a result, in future, ignorance seems to supersede knowledge in the ground of facts. How Gordon will tackle the situation is unpredictable.
NASIR FAROOQ
Karachi
ACCORDING to the Pakistan Economic Survey (2006-07), food inflation is at 10.2 per cent level. The average level of food inflation during the last three fiscal years remains approximately 10 per cent ( 9.9 per cent more precisely). Food inflation is generally considered less important by economic managers and they prefer to concentrate on a measure of inflation that will mimic the aggregate demand pressures in the economy. Thus, to get such a measure of inflation they usually exclude food and energy prices from the inflation calculations. The reason given for this practice is the short term and temporary nature of food and energy price fluctuations which, it is believed, would come down automatically.
However, that is not a right approach. This approach implicitly assumes that food inflation has no affect on the long-term or core inflation. That is not the case. Food items are necessary items and consumers encounter them more often than anything else in their consumption basket.
Frequent increases in the prices of the food items thus cause a psychic effect and help build the inflationary expectations. These inflationary expectations have the potential of realising themselves and thus cause an increase of core or long-term inflation.
Therefore, the separation of inflation in different kinds and believing in one of the measures without regard to others is a bad approach. Our economic managers must be bold enough to see the realistic picture and must have the ability to device realistic policies to achieve good results.
UMMAD
Karachi
WE are experiencing water shortage in Mehmoodabad 5 area in the following streets: C Area – Streets 19 C, 20 C, 21 C, 22 C, 23 C, 24 C, 25 C, 26 C, 27 C, 28 C, 29 C, 30 C.
B Area – Streets 19 B, 20 B, 21 B, 22 B, 23 B, 24 B, 25 B, 26 B, 27 B, 28 B, 29 B, 30 B. In the above areas, only 10 houses close to the water pipeline get water and the remaining 10 houses have not been getting any water for the last four years. Say about half of the locality has not been getting water. Many reports to the authorities have been made and even to the new setup but no action is taken.
Water to Mehmoodabad is supplied on alternate days and that too feeds only 10 houses. The KWSB has been informed but no action has been taken.
ALLAH DAD KHAN
Karachi
FOR the information of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board, Gulshan-i-Iqbal's block 4-A has not received its share of water for a week. For some lanes it has been more than 10 days without water. Will someone in the KWSB kindly help us by doing his duty?
JAVED AHMAD
Karachi
LACK of training and motivational plans for employees of government and private organisations is responsible for inefficient work flows, delays and red-tapism. And it happens due to unmeritorious persons who are sitting in the higher tiers of management and who have acquired these positions because of nepotism, favouritism and sycophancy. Such persons are cancerous for the organisation, slowly eating it away. And these very persons are the ones who don’t care to educate the staff/employees because of their vested interests.
Various motivational plans are at present operational in MNCs and modern proactive organisations, viz., Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, ERG theory, and two-factor theory. But what needs to be done is the proper training and education of employees and honest implementation of these motivational plans in government and newly-privatised organisations.
Many studies have shown that those employees who are having a high level of job satisfaction are the most productive and contribute highly towards the profitability of the organisation.
Employee motivation, good working conditions and marketable pay (which means a respectable salary keeping in view the inflationary pressures) are the ingredients which greatly help in enhancing the employee performance. It is time our managers gave attention to the training and development of human resources in government as well as in private organisations so that we can produce still better managers and reap the fruits of enhanced output.
We must see that in order to be reasonable we must take things seriously, if we don’t, then we would not be able to get the things done properly. Management of an organisation depends on the managers who are given the task to manage and lead the employees. If they are able and learned persons, then they can lead the organisation in the right direction and the employees would be satisfied and willing workers. The organisation itself is not good or bad, it is the employees who make it so.
And where do we find good employees? Good employees are not found, good employees evolve to be good. The persons are inducted, they are given training and imparted proper skills and knowledge. Only through such a process good workers are generated. The knowledgeable workers contribute greatly to the development of the organisation. And the organisation also reciprocates by rewarding the employees with incentives and benefits. Only a few organisations have such understanding. In today’s corporate world where cut-throat competition is the norm of the day, we can only survive by giving best of ourselves. Even slightest lethargy on our part can reduce our business and ultimately our profitability. This can be unaffordable for the organisation and unbearable for the employees.
So, how can one manage such a corporate entity in a way which is not only rewarding for the employees but also profitable for the organisation? Do the right thing on right time. Take the right decisions regarding the future course of action and implement these decisions in true spirit. For soil well done produces good crop. And only such a strategy would be rewarding.
Where do we buy right decisions? Not in the market but definitely from the market. We can see the market trends and gauge our understanding and then base our decisions on the same. If we are able to do such analysis, then of course we can take right decisions which are beneficial for the organisation and the persons who work there.
IRFAN ALI KAZI
Sukkur
THE potential of the coasts of Karachi and Thatta (Mirpur Sakro) is massive in terms of wind power. It is 2007 and the Alternative Energy Development Board launched a programme to install 2000MW through almost 20 companies and the implementation is yet to be done. If the cost of power is 12-15 cents per kva for the next 20 years, then surely this will be very cheap and affordable for Pakistan in the next three years.
Pakistan should offer wind power companies a higher rate now and since there is no import of fuel in the picture, wind is forever free and the rate will be constant. So let us offer the interested companies a higher rate and let them install 10,000 MW of capacity in next three to four years.
This will meet our present shortfall of 5,000MW and our expected demand in five years. This will also put Pakistan on the international map of environmental-friendly power producers, and a self-reliant power producer, which is the way of the future in all semi- and fully-developed countries around the world.
Another thing which also needs to be considered is that all the land given to the wind power producers along the coast of Thatta is prime land for palm oil production. This should be retained by another independent government company for planting a full-scale plantation of palm oil trees. Pakistan spends billions of dollars every year on import of edible palm oil. This needs to be balanced with enhancement of domestic production.
The model best suited for Pakistan is of Malaysia, where the government has taken direct interest to invest in the land and plantation costs, and the remainder of the process and distribution is done by the private companies.
Z. H. Effendi
Karachi
WHEN my house is plunged in darkness at night, the streetlight at a distance of 100 feet glows with full intensity. If the domestic supply is disrupted by a breakdown, which force energises thousands of yellow lights all over the city to pay tribute to the city district government?
Can’t the available energy be passed on to households, and illumination on roads and in parks is deferred till the generation of required load is achieved?
NASEER A. MALIK
Karachi
THIS refers to Lt-Col (r) K.M. Ismail’s letter, ‘Sacred cow’ (June 13). I can’t match his verbosity or emotionalism except offer him a leadership dictum: “Don’t demand respect, command respect”.
SAFIR A. SIDDIQUI
Karachi
THE recent drama enacted by the Punjab police in Islamabad over the death of their colleague has clearly indicated the level of training given to them.
They stormed into the shops at Aabpara market, broke the shops and damaged many items in them. They also blocked the main Aabpara Market Road and set things on fire. They were so brutal that they had beaten up the constables of the Islamabad police as well.
They have the right to protest against people responsible for death of their colleague but it should be according to the law. Violent protest is not acceptable in any country of the world.
The police are considered a force that keeps law and order in the country and ensures the safety of life and property. But their display of force is found contrary to their duty on many occasions.
In the past few months they have greatly abused their power. First, they stormed into the High Court building in Lahore and damaged the offices of lawyers and injured scores of them.
The second episode was in the form of attack on the office of a private channel in Islamabad.
Their behaviour is leading the country to a police state and it would be dangerous for all of us.
Now, it is time for the authorities to consider the issue seriously and do something tangible on the ground. These things can improve only through proper training.
FARRUKH SHAHZAD
Islamabad
EVERYONE in the world is talking about democracy, equality, no discrimination against human beings, etc. But let me ask all statesmen if they are following democratic policies, then why are HIV/AIDS-affected citizens of the world not allowed to visit the places of their choice?
Whether it is a government or an NGO, everyone is claiming to have a positive approach towards HIV/AIDS carriers. They are like us. They are supposed to be loved and treated kindly.
There should not be any discrimination against them, but there are countries that do not accept their entrance.
A young person is awarded a scholarship to study abroad, applies for a visa but does not get it because his medical report says he is HIV-infected. This is the unkindest cut.
If any government is really serious about giving HIV people their due rights of existence, then such discrimination as mentioned above must come to an end.
SAIMA ILAHI
Hyderabad
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