| August 16, 2007 | Thursday | Sha’aban 2, 1428 |
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Plunder through credit facilities
Dialogue with dictator
Polarisation
Stagnant water
Bright side of the picture
PTCL’s Nos.17 and 18
Policing the army
Tinted windows
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
IN the wake of the rising tidal wave of suicide bombings, resurgence of Al Qaeda and the Taliban, a ‘Grand Peace Jirga’ was called in. The Pakistan-Afghan Jirga comprised 50 members and touched all issues. Both sides issued a landmark six-point declaration. It stated that collectively they would fight against terrorism and curb the tendency of drug mafia. Moreover, commitment was made in terms of intelligence sharing, besides dialogues with resistance groups.
They set a staple of non-intervention; national integrity; enhancement of socio-economic development along with controlling insurgency on both sides of the Durand line. “Pakistan is hopeful that the Jirga will contribute to establishing peace in the area,” said Tasnim Aslam, Foreign Office spokesperson of Pakistan.
An optimism and ray of hope was claimed on both sides. It is yet to be seen how much joint declaration is followed by both sides. However, there were many questions left unaddressed in grand Jirga, for instance: did Pakistan-Afghan joint Jirga involve moderate Taliban in the mainstream of political dialogue? Was the declaration up to the expectations of the indigenous people? Will it bear fruit in the near future? Will America accommodate or listen to the views and perceptions of moderate elements?
Why the president of Pakistan declined to attend the peace Jirga in the nick of time? It is doubted that the Jirga was held under the auspices of the United States. These are the questions being discussed on both the sides. It is doubtful if this peace Jirga succeeds.
It is time the international community and powers came forward and helped resolve problems in Kabul. Early withdrawal of American-led forces from war-torn Afghanistan will create a vacuum that is likely to be filled by other forces. It is better in the scheme of things that the US and its allies should take a pragmatic view of the volatile situation.
It should not put the entire blame of its failure in Iraq and Afghanistan on Pakistan. America must not look after the Afghan chaos through the Indian prism.
The current quagmire Afghanistan favours those who have to fish in the troubled waters. To shatter the dreams of mysterious elements in Afghanistan, the UN must take notice of oppression, civilian massacre and killing in Afghanistan. The objective of the UN, after its establishment, was to bring peace and stability in the world. The people of Afghanistan are looking forward for peace and justice.
The media should play a constructive role in order to help sort out problems and defuse tension in the region. It is indispensable that in the future dialogue processes in Afghanistan the moderate elements will be brought to the mainstream of politics.
And those involved in creating troubles and disrupting peace and harmony, impeding our course of progress and development must be brought to justice.
Realising the gravity of the problem, President Musharaf said: “We must rescue our societies from this danger and work together until we defeat the forces of extremism and terrorism.”Whatever the solution may be, it is hoped and prayed to the international community that it would be in line with the expectations of the Afghan nation. Peace in Afghanistan is not only in the interest of the region but also in the national strategic interest of Pakistan.
PERVAIZ ALI MAHESAR
University of Sindh
Jamshoro
THE present regime ‘genuinely’ believes that alleviation of poverty, spread of education, etc., and, as a consequence, development of the contrary solely depend on the growth of commerce and industry.
Thus based on this assumption, not only has the industrial-cum-commercial sector been given unbridled power to make profit unrestrained of any morality or business ethics, even the commercial banks and are charging irrationally fabulous rates of interest on the loans as compared to interest offered to the depositors.
The authority of the State Bank of Pakistan, a watchdog of fiscal and financial dealings, has, therefore, been rendered totally worthless before the might of these money-minting depositaries.
The business class, seeing this opportunity as heaven-sent, has left no avenue unexploited to acquire riches; the scandals such as stock exchange (twice), sugar, cement, cooking oil and oil and the latest one, i.e., wheat, where fingers were directly pointed towards those who are sitting in the corridor of powers and their inquires were stopped from the above are only a few to quote.
So much so that the trust (albeit erroneously) reposed by the government in them to declare at least true profit under the new scheme of tax laws made for the first time in the history of country business (men)-friendly, they have utterly failed to reciprocate these gestures.
The commercial banks, on the other hand, using most innovative methods have generated hype through the media to lure gullible masses into various ingenious schemes generating an environment of consumerism, a 'capitalist trap'.
The result of easily accessible credit has enticed the people to go for new vehicles and other goods of luxury which has raised the cost of living enormously. The roads are now clogged most of the time, as in the city of Karachi alone more than 500 vehicles are coming on the roads each day.
Interestingly, this loot has now been joined by foreign commercial banks also, which have built multistoreyed towers, loaded splendidly with lavish furniture, with executives drawing salaries in the hundreds of thousands. From the enormous profits earned, they are transferring huge proceeds outside the country in foreign exchange at the cost of this miserable nation.
As the end result of this plunder, the teeming masses whose interest the leaders always claim to hold high are the worst sufferers because of extremely high cost of living and meager wages/salaries. These underprivileged are even deprived of safe drinking water, health care facility, education for their children and hygienic environment having suitable law and order.
The civil society, which now has revealed some sign of life, has to reflect and look into this most alarming aspect of its members’ vulnerability at the right earnest, else in this self delusional atmosphere where sermons of all-is-well are the norm, the beneficiaries will always remain exploiters.
ALI AKBAR M. DHAKAN
Karachi
BEING a fan of Zufikar Ali Bhutto and his party, I am very much disappointed by the statement of Benazir Bhutto that appeared in Dawn (‘Benazir willing to share power with Musharraf’, Aug 6).
It is also learnt that Ms Bhutto is ready for a power-sharing arrangement with President Pervez Musharraf for which she would like to strike a deal to return and make a possible shape of a future government. Her statement that “there have been contacts between the military regime and the Pakistan People's Party, including myself, and that we have been trying to search for a solution that could take Pakistan peacefully toward a democratic set-up” is unfortunate.
Let me remind her that ZAB, the founder of the PPP, gave his life for his sheer democratic principles and never compromised with the generals. He was also offered many ways but he preferred to test the taste of death rather than make a deal or compromise. And this is the only reason that even till today the ghost of ZAB still haunts every military general.
Being the chairperson and head of the PPP, she has a very important and historical responsibility on her shoulders. The people of Pakistan are highly disappointed by the regular military dictatorship mindset: they simply cannot afford to see any military general or a uniformed president ruling them with the help of the largest democratic party of the country.
The deal of Ms Bhutto with Gen Musharraf or any other man in uniform shall be her political suicide. Therefore, a deal of any kind with any uniformed general or ruler should be considered a political blunder and a betrayal of the 160 million Pakistanis.
QAZI NAZIM NAEEM
Hyderabad
IT is ironic that recently two arch political rivals of Pakistan met in Abu Dhabi, it stirred a storm in the cup.
For the Darling of the West, I have the following couplet to offer:
“Khoob pardah hai ke chilman se lage baithein hain,
Saaf chupte bhi nahi samne aate bhi nahi”
And for the generalissimo:
“Dhoom thi apni parsai ki, kee bhi kis se ashnai ki”
SAFIR A. SIDDIQUI
Karachi
ANIL Khan Luni’s excellent letter (Aug 7) read with Fahd Khan’s letter of the same date shows the unfortunate polarity that still exists in some quarters of public opinion in our country.
As an old Aligarian who took an active part in the Pakistan Movement in 1946/47, I firmly believe that Pakistan was never created to be ruled by the army.
But it must not be forgotten that, as of today, in the majority province of Punjab (which still rules the roost) there is scarcely a family which does not have some relative or other serving in the armed forces.
It is equally true, however, that be it in Punjab or in any other part of our country the desire for a democratic order still moves the spirit of the man in the street, who would prefer a Benazir-led coalition to a pure military dictatorship.
Mr Luni is right in saying that even a corrupt but democratically-elected civilian rule is preferable to a military setup.
The rumoured tie-up between Benazir Bhutto and Gen Musharraf would, therefore, be a welcome beginning which may hopefully lighten the present darkling horizons of our country’s future.
S. ASIF MAJEED
Karachi
WHILE the nation celebrated the 60th independence anniversary of Pakistan, me and my family and many residents of Khayaban-i-Rahat, Phase-VI, were stranded and forced to remain confined to our houses as knee-deep rainwater accumulated in front of our houses, and has yet to be cleared.
I contacted the office of the administrator of the DHA and was told by somebody responsible that the DHA is responsible for catering to complaints from Phases I, II, and IV only. The other phases of V, VI, VII and VIII are the responsibility of the Clifton Cantonment Board.
Both the DHA and CCB are collecting heavy taxes from the residents but the services offered are pathetic. I wonder, one day, the Defence Housing Authority and the Clifton Cantonment Board will wake up to do something positive for the stinking stagnant water in Phases V and VI.
ASIF SAIGAL
Karachi
THE grumble of Rajendara K. Aneja for various socio-economic tribulations, which India could not overcome, appeared vide letter ‘Happy birthday, my dear, big India’ (Aug 14) has genuinely made me demoralised. If the spending of 4.8 per cent of the GDP on health and 4.1 per cent on education in India are found inadequate, then where do we stand?
In these most vital social sectors our spending is hardly two per cent of the GDP. Similarly, Mr. Aneja has raised alarm on eight per cent spending on defence whereas in this area our outlay is more than 25 per cent; it is besides the expenditure on pensions etc which is paid from the civilian kitty.
The salaries paid to the Indian prime minster and the president at $1,250 a month as compared to billions of rupees spent on maintaining lavish PM and President Houses is just another instance of our leaders’ misplaced priorities.
The writer also laments that 39 per cent of their population cannot read and write, 14 per cent do not have access to clean processed drinking water, with electric power cuts in capital.
In the land of pure, we have half of the population, i.e., 80 million who cannot read and write (editorial, Aug 14), whereas accessibility to water, despite having one of the largest water systems of the world, the less said the better. The small minority of the haves is using bottled mineral water and the rest of the country is drinking highly contaminated water supplied from the river Indus, which is no more potable as it carries sewerage of towns it passes through.
In view of the increasing demand of electricity, along with the diminishing prospect of its further generation, its availability to rural areas has been a forlorn dream. Now the entire country is in the grip of outages which go for hours and hours in the city like Karachi, a hub of industrial and commercial activities.
On this occasion, Shahid M. Amin in his article, ‘Profiling Pakistan at 60’ (Aug 14), gives an optimistic overview of our 60 years’ performance, showing just the bright side of the picture, i.e., increase in per capita income and cellphones et cetera. This is not the whole truth.
The people of this country, a huge majority of which are living under grinding poverty and perpetual fear of insecurity, deserve better treatment as optimism only add to their miseries. They merit true representation of their state of affairs, though in analysis one may differ.
Whatever growth has been achieved in the GNP and per capita income, as claimed by the authorities, is going into the purses of those who are at the helm of affairs and industrial-cum-commercial nexus. The convoluted policies of the government have made only the rich as ultra rich, throwing the underprivileged perpetually into abject poverty.
With the skyhigh increase in cost of living, the middle class, which always played a backbone of a prosperous society, has been more or less obliterated, leaving the rich and the poor in the field. The difference between these two classes can be seen from the rapidly sprouting palatial houses in schemes such as the DHA et al, private and public educational institutions — former charging enormous fees with English as medium of instructions — and ghost schools and substandard education imparted by the latter.
Likewise, gross disparity is also apparent from day to day arrival of large numbers of new luxury vehicles on the roads and the style of living and costly apparel of our leaders appearing in the official or private functions when the so-called middle class is hardly able to buy his day to day kitchen items, let alone provide its children a decent living and proper education.
I appeal to the intellectual class of our society that for the sake of greater good of the greater number of people, instead of showing the ‘bright’ side of the picture (always far from reality), should depict the factual position which, if doesn’t bring any good, at least will make the policymakers realise the harm they are doing to their masters (people) on whose taxes they are thriving.
MANSOOR UL HAQUE
SOLANGI
Karachi
THE PTCL’s inquiry No. 17 and complaint registration No.18 in the Karachi exchange are not fulfilling the required standard of service, contrary to the service standard claimed by the PTCL. Many system faults still exist without improvement even after its privatisation and the services are unreliable, undependable and unsatisfactory.
In general, the system at 17 offices is disabled and not equipped with updated information; as a result, the customer inquiries are responded to either with misinformation or lack of knowledge, and the staff attending phones vindicate themselves right on whatever information available.
The telephone faults reported in repetition through PTCL No. 18 are not rectified over months and the written complaints deposited in the office of the DE concerned are not attended to and subscribers have to run here and there, experiencing physical and mental agony without any gain.
When the calls in systematic waiting sequence are transferred to some staff identified by operator number (1, 2, 3, 4...), the attending staff is heard already talking to someone else around them rather than responding with As salam o Alaicum or may I help you or yes please.
At times, the staff at telephone inquiry 17 or complaints 18 answer inquiries/complaints with telephone Nos. either not in service or number already changed but not fed in the system, causing nothing but anxiety, perplexity and confusion, besides inconvenience, to subscribers.
Talk Freely No. 106 is found always busy and most of the operators attending calls are not aware of No. 16. At times, the operators attending calls talk in most rude, discourteous and proud tone and handle customers in most unprofessional, ignorant and negligent attitude.
The automated system at No. 17 is not equipped with option to transfer the call to duty officer or AE/DE in case the attending operator fails to satisfy customer or misbehaves in service. In such cases, all operators neither provide nor advise telephone contact of their seniors to discourage complaints against them and, finally, the operators monopoly persists.
PTCL highare requested to please cross-check and update information not only in the PTCL system but also provide training of customer services to its staff.
ERUM QURESHI
Karachi
OUR army and police, the very forces meant for providing security to the public, need another force to guard them against attacks of unknown assailants or miscreants.
In the Swat district the army was deployed recently for any possible action against some extremist elements in this beautiful valley, or if we have to believe the government they were deployed to restore law and order there. But whenever the army personnel are on the move, within Swat, policemen have to be deployed on the routes to protect them from attacks. The police personnel, police stations and police checkposts are also prone to attacks.
It seems the government must evolve another force to protect our army and police personnel.
IQBAL HUSSAIN
Islamabad
MANY countries of the world allow you to tint your vehicle glasses, especially in the Gulf. New models of some cars come with factory fitted tinted shades. When have the police ever recovered anyone from a tinted car other than to make a few bucks? Why are many official vehicles or police mobiles tinted? Because it’s getting hotter everyday and the only protection you have from direct sunlight is the protective sheet of dark plastic.
Tinted glass improves performance of the air-conditioning of the vehicle, and it will save you in case of glass being shattered or broken by a mob, which is more probable in Karachi.
SYED ALI RAZA
Karachi
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