| September 04, 2007 | Tuesday | Sha'aban 21, 1428 |
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Kidney sale
Plague and pestilence
Lodging fake FIRs
Serving to make a difference
Residents’ woes
Unfair programme
The rocky road ahead
What is going on in Karak?
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 aftermath of the Supreme Court judgments, we are witnessing a change not only in the political climate but also the political leadership. Both Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif said the right things and avoided creating a confrontational situation which augurs well for the country. Most impressive were their commitment to democracy, elections, representative rule, an end to politics of revenge, respect for the rule of law and promise of policies for the good of the people.
Gen Musharraf has said that dialogue with political parties is intended to achieve political reconciliation and national consensus on issues confronting Pakistan as this is the need of the hour.
He is reported to have further stated that dialogue is necessary for democracy and that he believed in forgiving and forgetting the past to achieve reconciliation. However, the preparations by the general for his election as president in uniform without first achieving reconciliation appears to be at odds with his declared intention.
The process of reconciliation must be initiated and concluded, not left open-ended as legal challenges are likely to be mounted. Post-March 2007 is a different Pakistan and political issues need to be dealt with differently.
The president is of the view that he is entitled under the existing constitutional provisions and law to offer himself for election as president in uniform but that is a view not shared by many and, in any event, it negates the proposal of reconciliation and national consensus. Constitutional amendments made by parliament can give legitimacy to the election of the general as president but to effectively function as a civilian president, on expiry of the current term of office, it is necessary to reach a reconciliation and consensus prior to the presidential elections. Leaving these issues to a later date may well be a recipe for disaster.
Benazir Bhutto has already confirmed that talks with the general were in the larger interest of democracy and were subject to conditions which included giving up the post of COAS, removing the bar for third term election as prime minister and a general amnesty from prosecution and disqualification to all political leaders.
Dialogues, understandings and coalitions are all a part of the democratic process. Nawaz Sharif may well get his party involved in the process for a national consensus if given the right signals but at the moment it looks like another confrontation is brewing, a situation this country can ill-afford.
What the elections will produce is anyone’s guess but there must be a will on the part of the majority party to work on democratic lines and other political parties must react positively to the reconciliation offer to achieve national consensus and pave the way for a caretaker government under which elections would be held.
What political structure will emerge from the proposed dialogue for reconciliation offered by the general is not too difficult to anticipate but this must be left to the wisdom and experience of our political leaders. Elections take place in so many countries in accordance with their constitutions and the law, so why not in Pakistan.
Let us send the right signals and show the world that this is Jinnah’s Pakistan where the constitution and law reigns supreme and the political parties and the government function for the benefit of the ultimate sovereign — the people of Pakistan.
LIAQUAT H. MERCHANT
Karachi
THIS is in response to Tanweer Ahmed’s letter, ‘Organ sale’ (Sept 1), advocating ‘legalising’ the trade by providing a health insurance cover to the donors as well as instituting a strict monitoring system. He also suggests that payments should be made to the donor’s bank accounts, perhaps to eliminate the menace of middlemen.
There are certain facts that need to be pointed out. First, the term ‘donor’ is incorrectly used in this context because what we are talking about are ‘vendors’, forced to sell parts of their body driven by sheer poverty and not donors who give out of free will without coercive influences.
A state-run money-for-kidney programme has been in place for some time in Iran and has now been shown to have major concerns, with an obvious one being that it is the poor who seem to be the only ones losing their kidneys while rich seem to be the only ones benefiting from this arrangement.
Mr Ahmed proposes what seems to be robust insurance system for the kidney vendors to take care of them for the rest of their lives. In a country where there is hardly any health insurance system worth mentioning except for the wealthy, to create such a system for the most downtrodden of this country seems a utopian idea.
As far as the suggestion for directly depositing the promised amount into the vendor’s bank accounts, many of these unfortunate souls possess what they can wear and carry around. Some have ‘salaried’ jobs which pay a paltry Rs800 a month on which they support not only themselves but their families. Others are not so lucky and are in bonded labour. To think that these people would be managing bank accounts seems rather ludicrous.
Money for body parts is an abhorrent concept, call it compensation, appreciation or gift. Paying it in cash or cheque makes it no less repulsive. Various methods of making it kosher have been tried elsewhere and have failed. It is time we stopped trying to legalise organ trade and instead strengthened the hands of those who are trying to fight this menace.
DR AAMIR JAFAREY
Centre of Biomedical Ethics and Culture,
SIUT, Karachi
MUBARAK Ali’s ‘Plague and pestilence’ (Dawn Magazine, Aug 18) in order to highlight the significance of diseases and epidemics in transforming the political order in the world history drastically had gone too far when he quotes examples such as placing the success of Muslims over Romans or spread of the Ottoman Empire et cetera on spread of diseases in defeated countries.
History is witness that rise and fall of civilisations were depending on assorted factors: in the case of ancient and mediaeval societies conquered nations, such as the Eastern Roman Empire, it was basically the decadent social order, result of its perpetual hostility with Rome and wars with Persians, coupled with tyranny of rulers, that caused severe damage to the already crumbling system.
The plague visited Cons-tantinople in AD 541 whereas Gen Khalid b. Walid defeated Byzantine in the battle of Yermuk in AD 634, i.e. almost 90 years after the epidemic.
Accepting Mr Ali’s thesis will, in a way, be to tantamount to discrediting the valiant general who won this decisive battle with 40,000 soldiers against 240,000 on the side of the Romans.
The same numerical disparity was in the case of Sassanids of the Empire of Persia who in the battle of Nehawand were wiped out at the hands of Muslim forces where former was one against six.
In the case of Ottomans it was more of their style of governance than any epidemic which kept their number substantially low in the area they conquered in continent of Europe.
Unlike Ottomans, the Arabs were reconciliatory in their approach towards subjugated nations, that is why almost all countries they conquered, especially in Africa and the Middle East, now identify themselves with Arab countries: today around 26 countries are members of the Arab League.
I disagree with Mr Ali’s fatal dependence on Howard Sinson’s thesis (the impact of diseases on American history) that “the Europeans were able to conquer America not because of military genius but by waging unpremeditated biological warfare”.
However, the biological agent was used in the case of Crimea in 14th Century and in American colonies; and in the recent history Japan used it against China as one of the weapons but at the same time 16th Century pre-eminence of Europe in modern armaments and military discipline over mediaeval America, as a decisive factor of battle, cannot be denied.
The Hernán Cortés (1485-1547) victory over Aztecs was also primarily the ascendancy of modern firearms, art of war, albeit supported by chicanery, over ancient weaponry such as spear, bow and sword with rustic social order.
MANZOOR H. KURESHI
Karachi
I HAD quite long back written in these columns regarding the misuse of lodging a fake FIR by the police. I had also invited the attention of the higher judiciary and the Sindh home secretary to the deplorable attitude at the various police stations.
It should be made obligatory for the investigation officer (IO) to ask for evidence, documentary or circumstantial, before proceeding to submit the challan with the judicial magistrate.
Moreover, if the magistrate is not satisfied with the evidence placed before him, he is empowered to quash the proceedings. The police desist from investigating the matter and proceed to submit a challan under influence or seeking illicit gratification. In case a petition for quashment is submitted to the higher judiciary, normally it is dismissed with directions to seek remedy from relevant courts. This entails huge expenses, which a middle class person may not be able to sustain.
I had sent the cutting of Dawn to the home secretary to annihilate this process and grant relief from such fake FIRs. Subsequently, the Sindh government has formulated Sindh Criminal Prosecution Service (SCPS).
As reported, this body has so far failed to take off for various reasons. This body is headed by the prosecutor-general with the powers to withdraw the FIRs and even withdraw such criminal cases as lack evidences.
In the recent past the Supreme Court had observed that an FIR is not a piece of evidence. As reported in this paper (Aug 23), Justice Abdul Shakoor Paracha of the Lahore High Court admitted, on Aug 22, a petition of Samina Bibi, aged 22 years, for quashment of a fake FIR and issued notice to the SHO of the Murree police station to appear before the court.
The government should wake up to the issue of the police incriminating innocent persons and forcing them to physical and mental agony. Our superior judiciary has become vibrant and the police should take stock of it. If it is established that the police have not acted in good faith but with a mala fide motive, the person concerned should not go unpunished and the complainant should be prosecuted.
SAIFUDDIN E.
CONTRACTOR,
Karachi
THIS is apropos of the article, ‘Elite consensus under strain’ (Aug 30), in which my friend Tasneem Siddiqui has repeated the insinuation made by Dr Ayesha Siddiqa in her book (Military Inc.) about my abandoning the elitist economy thesis after joining the military government in 2000.
I did not take notice of the book as the author had insisted on defending her priors even when the facts and evidence were presented to her which refuted her basic thesis. Instead of dealing with my criticism of her propositions, she decided to make a personal attack on me. I wish that the level of debate and discourse in our country could shift from personal and motivational attributions and stick with the substance of the argument or the evidence.
But when my friend, Tasneem Siddiqui, for whom I have highest respect, takes a snipe at me in his article, I cannot but help putting the record straight.
In my article, ‘ Revisiting the elitist economy of Pakistan’ (Jan 7, 2006), I made an objective analysis of the elitist aspects of the economy during 1999-2005 period with which I was associated. The conclusion remained the same that out of the three basic deterrents to the elitist capture -- financial sector, education and judiciary -- we had made some modest progress in the financial sector by opening it to the middle class, small farmers, SMEs and micro finance -- the sectors which were traditionally denied access to credit by the banks but have the potential to break the elitist domination of the economy.
The number of borrowers did increase from one million to 4.5 million in this period and, therefore, some headway was made but not enough. Only one million poor households out of six million have access to micro credit so far which, in my view, is not satisfactory. The other two sectors of education and the judiciary remained unaffected.
The reassertion of independence of the judiciary after July 20 has reinforced , in my view, another deterrent against elitist economy. But we have a long way to go to transform the education sector into a powerful egalitarian force . My conclusion In January 2006, therefore, was and still today remains the same that the elitist character of our economy has not so far changed in any substantial manner, though some inroads have been made. I had proposed in that assessment article that the institutions of state, tax and public expenditure system had to be reformed too for making a dent on the elitist orientation of the economy.
In my book I had never singled out any particular class but included the landlords, industrialists, politicians, big businesses, civil servants, military, religious leaders as part of the narrow elite which ruled Pakistan and is still ruling the country after 60 years of our independence.
If Mr Siddiqui had cared to verify the facts by even cursorily referring to the book rather than repeating the unfounded assertion of Dr Siddiqa, he would have found that the military was not singled out but included with other components of the elite class whom I blamed and still blame for the uneven development of Pakistan.
As all the past and future governments in Pakistan have been or are likely to remain elitist in nature, so I do not feel any sense of guilt working for any particular government -- civilian or military -- as long as it provides me an opportunity to make some modest contribution to the improvement of Pakistan’s economy. It is for history to judge whether remaining an arm-chair critic is a better option for our intellectuals or serve the country in whatever little way they can make a difference.
ISHRAT HUSAIN
Karachi
I AM a resident of Defence View which is a constituency of Jamshed Town. About 22 months ago the main entrance road of Defence View was dug up for inserting optic fibre line. Later on it was again and again (three times) dug up by the Water and Sewerage Board for inserting water pipeline. After that whatever was left of the road was dug up by the KESC for their purpose. One can understand what would be the present condition of the road after digging it up so many times.
On our approach to the Jamshed Town nazim, he had promised that the repair work of the road would be completed soon, but we regret to say that despite our repeated follow-ups with the nazim, town nazim and the city nazim nothing has been done so far.
Following the recent heavy rains, which lashed the city recently, the entire sewerage system has collapsed and the road condition has further deteriorated, while rainwater, accumulated with sewerage water, is still standing on the streets of Defence View and creating problems for the residents and commuters as well.
I, on behalf of the residents of Defence View, have approached all the authorities concerned but the situation still remains unchanged. I have also lodged a plea with the city government’s central computerised complaint centre but there’s no action as yet. My complaint number is 070814 and IT code is KQFV.
On follow-up with the complaint centre we have received a computerised reply: ‘On waiting’. We are rather surprised that after 22 months we are still receiving a reply: ‘On waiting’.
Who should the residents of the Defence View look to for resolution of their grievances?
SHAIKH MUHAMMAD IQBAL
Karachi
THIS is apropos of a news show on PTV News on Aug 27 where Imran Khan was the guest. It was shocking to hear the anchor make personal attacks at Mr Khan. The anchor did not let Mr Khan answer the questions (read allegations) properly and clearly had an agenda of assassinating Mr. Khan’s character. It was a totally despicable way of interviewing someone. He made Bill O’ Reilly of Fox News look like a celestial angel. At the end of the show, my respect for Mr Khan, and disgust for this government had increased.
This is typical of our government’s hypocrisy. When the government talks about the crucial responsibility of media personnel, may be it ought to look no further than its own state-owned refurbished propaganda outlet.
JAMAL NADIR
Lahore
I WOULD like to laud Muneer A. Malik’s article, ‘The rocky road ahead’ (Aug 7) in which he expressed the Supreme Court Bar Association’s resolve for a military-free political Pakistan. As a token of gratitude and appreciation, I would like to ensure that the people of Pakistan are equal partners in this historic struggle.
It is heartening to witness the media stepping up to take the position as the state’s fourth pillar. It is providing an equal platform for everyone to express their point of view.
My only question is whether the think tanks of the establishment watch and read the celebrated public opinions or not. The public is not at peace with the military at the helm of politics and these views are extremely vocal these days. Journalists are closest to the public sentiments and, therefore, are the perfect measure of the direction of the flow. How can the government be so aloof as to not even consider these opinions as factual?
President Musharraf is at a crossroads not only with respect to the state of the country but for his own sake. If he, ‘in national interest’, peacefully paves the way for free elections and true democracy, he will be placed in the category of leaders such as the Quiad-i-Azam. If he still tries to legitimise an unconstitutional regime, he will be remembered as a dictator who put forth personal interests ahead of national welfare.
USMAN SHAHID
Lahore
KARAK district is an essential part of the NWFP. It has every right that other districts of the NWFP have. Other districts have benefited from Karak’s natural resources while Karak has been ignored. Currently there are some ongoing mega projects in Karak but it seems that these were started without consulting the local authorities and that these projects provide no role or benefit for the local people.
The companies working in Karak had invited contractors from other provinces despite the fact that a large number of investors were available locally. Such things create doubts in the minds of the locals about the government’s sincerity towards its citizens.
The government had started gas supply from the Gorgori oil and gas field in 2004, but Gorgori town itself got no gas. The federal government has promised to supply gas to 18 villages of Karak district, but so for no village has been supplied gas.
The government of Pakistan will face a situation similar to the one in Dera Bugti if it does not provide the district with gas facilities.
SHOUKAT I. KHATTAK
Karak
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