| August 29, 2007 | Wednesday | Sha’aban 15, 1428 |
To send a letter to the Editor
Click here
Broken promises
Australian uranium for India
Making DHA accountable
Roosevelt Hotel
The pride of Pakistani skies?
Clifton residents’ woes
A pleasant experience
Environment impact assessment
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
THE nation is rejoicing at the restoration of Chief Justice Chaudhry Mohammad Iftikhar, whose struggle was generally supported by all segments of civil society, with the lawyers being in the vanguard of this campagain. The solidarity of the masses proved that we are a nation and not a mob.
This kind of stand is also expected from the political leadership of the country as they claim their roots are in the masses. Had they put their foot down like the chief justice did, things would have been different long ago.
The character of Nelson Mandela, who braved the apparatus of state coercion for 27 long years, is a most recent phenomenon. But, why should our politicians adopt him as for them politics is no more a public service, rather it is an industry where people enter to grab benefits.
It may be appreciated that judicial activism only cannot solve myriad problems confronting the general masses, that alone by suo motu actions even though exercised on a big scale.
It appears that the executive branch of our state has virtually collapsed, at least for public advantage. The failures of the administration have pushed the people to seek help from the judiciary, even for their trivial problems.
The fact remains that the larger section of our population is illiterate. At times, even knowledgeable people fail to understand the complex provisions of law. Therefore, a petitioner is at the mercy of lawyers during the entire procedure which begins from filing of the complaint, its proceedings and up to the final outcome.
If the lawyer is conscientious, the person would demand reasonable charges and will be sympathetic and loyal to the cause of the client, otherwise the whole struggle of the petitioner will end up in wastage of money and efforts.
The practice of following the complaints in person is in vogue in higher courts but due to high cost it is very limited.
Therefore, it is desirable to reduce the court fees. The appointment of extra public attorneys may be made who should extend meaningful assistance to the petitioners. To encourage people to appear before the judge in person, the cause list of such cases may be made public through newspapers.
The honourable members of superior courts may like to study judicial system of our next door neighbour, Iran, where the petitioner only takes the trouble of registering the complaint in the religious court, having no charges of any kind. A thorough and fair inquiry immediately starts and the process completes in the shortest possible time.
The verdict given by the judge is normally acceptable to the plaintiff and the respondent with negligible rejection by the contestant parties. The system is working so efficiently that a majority of people approach the religious courts for arbitration. However, conventional courts are also available.
The members of the judiciary are being paid ridiculously lower remuneration, not sufficient to meet everyday expenses. The generous increase in pay scales and facilities will contribute a great deal to enhancing the performance. The numerical strength of judges in the courts must be commensurate with the workload at all times and the position that falls vacant may be filled in without loss of time.
The hapless citizens wish that henceforth the rule of law shall replace the rule of thumb in our country.
S. BUKHARI
Karachi
THE Sharif Brothers may have won a constitutional battle but they will end up losing a moral and spiritual war. First, they kept on denying that there was such an agreement or undertaking. When the government exposed their lies, they resorted to spin-doctoring and damage control, arguing that they never had an agreement with Musharraf or the government.
But ‘undertakings’ are undertakings; these are going to haunt them forever even in their graves, even though they and their media managers may be able to fool their ‘jiyalas’ with jugglery.
For now, however, let us assume that they do get elected and one of them becomes prime minister. In sovereign dealings not everything is written. How likely is this friendly government going to believe what they say, when the written/signed undertakings mean little to the brothers? Let us not forget that it is not any ordinary friend but the most ardent supporter of Pakistan; what credibility are they likely to portray?
The Sharif Brothers are also proclaimed champions of Islam (Zia’s protégés and legacy), yet they feel no shame in going back on their written promises defying one of the basic qualities of a faithful.
Forget about the eternal world but how are they likely to face their benefactors and the government here that facilitated their release, remission of harsh sentences and cosy exile?
What is also interesting is that Musharraf is complaining about broken promises, agreements and undertakings when he himself has not been an exact role model. He did not set a very good example when he conveniently chose to renege on his own promise to shed his second skin, i.e., the uniform.
What a choice of leaders to choose from; God help Pakistan.
Q. KAZMI
Sharjah, UAE
THE president - general, who openly admits to breaking a promise made to the country by staying in uniform, expects the deposed exiled politician, Nawaz Sharif, to be ‘morally - bound’ by the deal made with him and stay out of the country.
Are we taking hypocrisy to new levels, openly admitting that we cannot be trusted or purposely trying to make ourselves a laughing stock?
MOHAMMED ADIL
Karachi
GENERAL Musharraf announced that although Nawaz Sharif was ‘legally’ allowed to return to Pakistan -- courtesy, of course, of the Supreme Court -- ‘morally’ he had no right to do so. Now, ‘morally’ speaking, Musharraf should have doffed his uniform in December 2004 when he had promised the nation he would do so.
I would also add that on ‘moral’ grounds he has absolutely no right to seek re - election from parliament that has already elected him. Given his two - faced record while in power, I would go as far to suggest that he is the last person to preach morality to anyone.
SHEHRYAR MAZARI
Karachi
EARLIER this week Nawaz Sharif said that there was no agreement signed between him and the government and he dared the government to produce it before the courts if indeed such an agreement existed.
When the documents were produced in the court, Shabaz Sharif said they were signed at gun - point. This is in clear contradiction of his brother’s statement. This clearly shows that the two are not truthful and that they will go to any length for the sake of power.
OMER MAJEED
Canberra, Australia
AUSTRALIA sits on the world’s largest uranium reserves, 40 per cent of the total uranium ore is in Australia. The Australian government believes that in order to lower the impact of global green house emissions the world has to shift to uranium for power generation, especially emerging industrial giants like India and China.
The recent decision by the Australian government to sell uranium to India is generating a lot of debate here. The Australian announcement comes only a week after India signed a civilian nuclear technology deal with the US which will finally give India access to US nuclear fuel and equipment.
India, like Pakistan and Israel, is a non-signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Is Australia thumbing its nose at international law? Maybe this particular law needs to be flouted as it does not apply to countries that have tested nuclear weapons prior to 1967, a case of nuclear ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’.
India has agreed, in theory, to use Australian uranium for energy generation but makes no such claims about its existing uranium reserves which will be used for weapons-grade plutonium and has at this time only agreed to partial inspection of its nuclear facilities.
The Australian prime minister is trying to defend the indefensible.
SARAH CHAUDRY
Australia
THE recent suo motu actions by the superior courts of the country to address the sufferings of the citizens are a welcome step.
The honourable courts are requested to take notice of the miseries of the residents of the DHA, Karachi, after the recent rains.
Most of the area from 26th Street going towards the sea is submerged in filthy water with overflowing drains for the past 15 days and is now infested with all kinds of creeping crawlies.
Even the main roads are closed for traffic due to standing water, and residents of many streets are trapped in their houses without water and electricity. The commercial areas are the worst hit, with flooded basements and parking lots, and schools in phase VIII have been forced to declare holidays.
While the rest of the city recovered relatively quickly due to immediate action by the CDGK, the DHA’s apathy and laziness continues to haunt poor citizens in its jurisdiction. Its pathetic planning of roads, poor maintenance of drains and lack of investment in machinery despite charging exorbitant property tax have exposed the level of incompetence and corruption in the organisation.
The media’s criticism of the CDGK and fear of the voter’s accountability have forced the city nazim to take immediate actions to address the problems in his domain. As
the DHA’s administration is run by retired and serving army personnel and is not accountable to anyone, who should the residents of the DHA look to for resolution of their grievances?
FARID A. KHAN
Karachi
THE undue haste being shown by the government in selling the Roosevelt Hotel at below market price is intriguing and immediately brings to mind the annulled sale of Pakistan Steel Mill.
What is more surprising is the fact that the hotel is profit - making venture and this prime property in the heart of Manhattan is likely to escalate in value.
It is strange that much against the advice of the chairman and two of the directors of PIA the government is bent upon selling this dependable revenue - generating asset.
Rationality of sale of this national asset needs to be discussed in the parliament and current process needs to be halted for lack of transparency and viability.
ABU AHMAD
Columbus, Georgia, USA
I WAS somewhat surprised to read the exaggerated story on the Roosevelt Hotel owned by PIA (Aug 25). Even some one with mediocre knowledge about real estate knows that no developer in his right mind would pay $1 billion for the Roosevelt’s site to build a sky scraper unless of course the skyscraper is twice the size of the Petronas tower in Kuala Lumpur.
The Roosevelt site at best is worth $450 million Even the 100 -acre site where television city is being built — the
most prized real estate in New York -- sold for $970 million. The least the reporter could have done was to do some research before publishing the story.
SAAD SIDDIQUI
Karachi
THESE days it is safer to walk blindfolded on the broken road between Landhi and Malir with incoming traffic than to undertake a transcontinental journey with PIA thanks to the many technical failures reported in the global media in the last six months.
At least the European Union, for one, seems to be thinking along the same lines, having banned PIA from flying certain aircraft types to European destinations. As a result, the victim is not only the confidence of the travellers but also the pride of 160 million Pakistanis.
PIA that once ruled the skies across the globe, and leased its planes and trained the staff of the Emirates Airline, is now being seen as an ailing unit of the state. With 42 aircraft in its fleet, it employs 19,263 people (published airline reports) with employee to aircraft ratio of 458.64 employees per aircraft.
Meanwhile, the Emirates Airline, one of the top airlines in the aviation industry, has a fleet of 106 aircraft of all sizes (108 new aircraft on order) yet it only employs 20,273, thus having the employee to aircraft ratio of 191.25 employees per aircraft. This clearly demonstrates gross mismanagement and overemployment in PIA.
While the directors of PIA continue to draw international standard salaries, the national airline is losing Rs1 billion a month. Convert this loss into possible money spent on education per month in any province of the country and suddenly the opportunity cost of this blunder dawns on a person. I do not suggest wholesale, across - the - board sacking of Pakistani employees but, as noted by your learned editors, we can do without many foreign employees who are being compensated heavily in valuable foreign exchange and we can also draw plans of strategic restructuring over a certain period that would counter any sudden moves that can cause anguish to our citizens employed by PIA.
If PIA has to be privatised, then it must be done in a transparent manner and all persons who worked on the doomed Pakistan Steel privatisation should be kept away. The amount raised through privatisation should be directly linked to debt reduction so that the entire nation benefits and not just the top few ambiguous personalities.
It will be a sad ending to a glorious airline, an airline which has achievements such as being the first Asian airline to operate a jet aircraft, first airline in Pakistan to operate a flight with an all-female crew at command and serving in the cabin, first airline to show in- flight movies on international routes, first airline in the world to induct Boeing 777-200LR, the world’s longest range commercial airline, etc, if the culture and the management of PIA is not turned around to, once again, make it the pride of all Pakistan and Asia.
SARMAD PALIJO
Karachi
I AM a resident of Clifton, block III, supposedly a ‘prime area’ of Karachi. Ever since the rain in the first week of August, my street was flooded with waist-deep water. Part of the rainwater dried up naturally but as soon we started to feel relieved, gutter water started pouring in with all its filth.
Then came the second bout of rain last week. Now there is knee - deep water. We are marooned in our house as no car can be driven in this water, without causing much damage to it. My brother-in-law has sent us a van which five people in our house use as a shuttle to continue our daily chore.
I have tried in vain to contact authorities. In fact, the KDA office is opposite my street. No one seems to know which authority we are under. We are just orphans!
There is a lot in the papers and on TV about the work in the DHA but none in Clifton, though a large sum of money was allocated for the Bath Island and Clifton.
The sweepers who are seen some time say that our water will never go as all the gutters have been cemented when the Bin Qasim Park was built.
We could have done without the park as life has now become unliveable in the presence of water and choked gutters.
NAUSHABA ZUBERI
Karachi.
I WOULD like to bring this to the attention of the Secondary Board of Education, Karachi. I am visiting Pakistan currently and had the unwanted task of collecting my Intermediate marks sheet of the year 1991.
With the common notion that any task involving a government office in Pakistan is a hassle and usually the staff is impolite, I went to the Karachi Board office wondering what I would go through. Not to my disappointment at all, upon entering the office I found that the information desk was closed at 12.45pm for ‘lunch’, which should have technically begun at 1pm.
Regardless, I marched directly into the office and met a gentleman, Javed Anis. He turned out to be a considerate person who, though he was having lunch with his colleagues, offered me guidance and even helped in completing the documentation.
I think in an organisation, which is very well-known for its incompetence, individuals like Mr Anis uphold the values of a functioning body and help create an overall good impression. I had a very pleasant experience, due to him, with the Board. I would again like to say a humble ‘Thank you’ to Mr Anis for helping me out in my time of desperate need.
FARIHA ABRAR
Karachi
We know laws do not mean much in our society. Shall we accept it and turn a blind eye to whatever and whoever is bending our present and future?
If not, I implore the Supreme Court and other relevant bodies to take action on grave violations of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)’s in the case of the construction of the huge complex Centaurus in Islamabad. EIA is mandatory under the Pakistan Environmental Protection Act.
If such a project is indeed crucial for the “development” of our country, if only building tall plazas is the way to Duabi-like heaven, if only Singapore can be replicated in vertical habitation, then at least these rich people need to pay a reasonable cost for it. Only recently a flat worth the guide price of £1,750,000 has been advertised.
Why should such a project be allowed to go ahead without proper scrutiny? What would be its impact on diminishing groundwater reservoirs in Islamabad and areas adjoining the capital?
Why should the poor and middle class in the Saidpur village, I-10, Rawalpindi and kutchi abadis suffer so that the very rich can breathe in cleaner air at a few thousand feet above everyone.
Environment, water, air are all public goods. Anyone who has the most basic knowledge of anything knows this.
The real question is how can passive (rather submissive) and toothless organisation like the Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency be made, at least, slightly more effective so that it can begin to dream implementing laws effectively that were enacted a decade ago. Can it be done without the intervention of the Supreme Court of Pakistan? Rather unlikely.
FOQIA S.KHAN
London
You can also send letters to the Editor
Just send your message to the following address: letters@dawn.com
Make sure you include your full name, postal address, e-mail address, and in the case of Pakistan your day-time telephone number.