| September 11, 2007 | Tuesday | Sha'aban 28, 1428 |
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September 6: then and now
Mobile woes
Mohsin Hamid
Electricity theft
Freedom to loot and plunder
Taxation officer
Attack on ISI bus
Propaganda machine
What’s the catch?
‘Kamal ka bridge’
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
IT was my great misfortune that I never saw the Quaid-i- Azam, let alone to have met him. Nevertheless, his picture gleaned from the many press photographs of a tall sartorially elegant figure with a lean handsome face, commanding immediate respect and reverent awe has remained with me big as life.
My father who was an ardent admirer of his was beside himself with grief when news of his death broke on Sept 11, 1948. Forgetting the inconsolable loss of a son, a young promising doctor of 32, to the mindless, cruel hands of sectarianism (Munir/Kiani Report on Punjab Disturbances, 1954, pp. 13/14) he wrote to me that the loss of the Quaid was much bigger a loss than our own personal loss for it had far-reaching implications for the whole of Pakistan.
How right he was. The void the Quaid left behind was never adequately filled.
What was it that to some this ‘cold as steel’, somewhat remote person had in him which so endearingly tugged at the heart strings of almost all Muslims from Khyber to Coimbatore and from Surat to Chittagong? Of course they saw him as the embodiment of courage, willpower, an acute sense of justice and, above all, impeccable integrity which readily inspired them to place their future political aspirations in his safe hands in an India then fairly troubled.
The Quaid-i-Azam was both far above and very different from the stereotype politician. His uniqueness lay in his fastidious and principled approach to life; in fact at times he would give the impression of coldly clinical. But, indeed, it was this very facet of his makeup which made him particularly sensitive to issues surrounding the dispensation of unbiased justice to provide a level field for all competing forces; essentially this behavioural trait stemmed from his implacable belief in the equality of all human beings.
Despite his thirty-year quest for Hindu-Muslim amity he, ultimately, with characteristic courage broke away from his ideal when he was convinced that a fair economic and political deal for the Muslims was not to be; for any arrangement would not be sustainable when it was in the ultimate analysis to be subsumed by the insatiable urge of the Hindu mind to dominate.
This realisation, in the context of his deep devotion to justice, was perhaps the driving motivation behind his steely, single-minded battle to secure a separate homeland for the Muslims of India. Flexibility at the expense of principles was not his way.
Yes, he never frowned upon accommodation within a fair and just outer framework duly committed to without one’s own esoteric mental reservations. This, once again together with his acute sense of justice, strikingly demonstrated his total approach to the Cabinet Mission proposals.
Much has been written about how his personality make-up influenced his behaviour in negotiations with the British and the Congress leading up to the partition of India. The British found him stiff and unbending; not surprisingly though, for deep down he had sensed the great game of chicanery that was being played by the Congress with a conniving viceroy.
On occasions, tactically, he had to out British the British in being stiff upper-lipped; not to say anything about the discomfort of the likes of Mountbatten and Willingdon when he, without affectation, taught them a few things from their very own primer of upper class British manners.
The Hindus, particularly Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru, were manifestly uneasy in his presence and, behind his back, were wont to pass caustic remarks. This was probably due to the fact that he never allowed them to entangle him in webs they learnt from their own Machiavelli, Chankya.
However, how endearingly he won the hearts of fellow Muslims despite a lifestyle not congruent with theirs can be so well judged from this touching anecdote. It is reported that a rustic central Punjabi listening to a speech delivered by the Quaid in Lahore very soon after partition, mostly in English, was seen swaying from side to side as if in a trance inspired by a spiritual Qawwali; when asked the reason for his animated state when he was not understanding a word of what the Quaid said, silenced the nosy inquirer aphoristically by the curt reply: “Indeed you are right, I don’t understand a word, but my heart tells me that whatever he is saying is right and the truth.”
M.J. AS’AD
Karachi
AFTER seeing the pictures of all those brave officers and men of our armed forces in Dawn’s Defence of Pakistan Day Supplement, who had laid down their lives unhesitatingly during the war with India in September 1965, I remembered those heady days and cried several times.
It was very painful to recall that our armed forces, whose respect was skyhigh in the 1960s because of their selflessness and valour, have lost much of it during President Gen Musharraf’s time, so much so that some people have even subjected them to unprintable epithets.
Our soldiers were absolutely willing to sacrifice their lives most unhesitatingly when the defence of the nation required it. Now, it appears that Gen Musharraf in his desire to prolong his rule is bent upon sacrificing the lives of as many soldiers and civilians as necessary by causing them to face each other.
This has defamed the armed forces and incensed the public. There is a Swedish saying: “One who grabs too much may lose it all,” while the Russians view it from another angle: “He is in the water up to the neck and is clamouring for a drink.”
A SAD PAKISTANI
Karachi
I AM going through a nerve-racking experience these days. Every now and then I receive calls from anonymous callers asking me why they have received a missed call from me?
Thereon starts a process of inquiries and apologies as I have to assure the complainant of my social ethics and knowledge of phone manners. So far almost all of them have been kind enough to accept my apologies.
It is nonetheless really disturbing as I am suffering for apparently no fault of my own.
Imagine if someone is not kind enough to accept my apologies and starts inquiring into the causes of my unsocial behaviour? Can the mobile operators and of course the PTA help? Other readers/sufferers may chip in too.
ASHFAQ ALI
Karachi
I WAS glad to see the name of a Pakistani writer on the front page of Dawn (Sept 7) for being shortlisted for the Booker Prize.
It’s a matter of pride and has provided a platform to upcoming writers. I congratulate Mohsin Hamid and wish him good luck.
SHAGUFTA JABEEN
Sargodha
WHEN consider the substantial loss in revenue due to power theft, it may be realised that the problem is bigger than the attention has ever been paid to it. Estimates from these thefts are counted in billions of rupees every year for Karachi alone. Is it not easy to understand that no company can withstand these losses for too long and keep the interests of the investors still intact?
Electricity theft can take many forms: it can be in fraud (meter tampering), stealing (illegal connections) or unpaid bills. It is the sorry state of Karachiites who fail to understand that the final impact of their pilfering comes back on them only with the KESC forced to charge higher tariffs from its consumers under the crunch of reduced income from the sale of electricity.
According to rough estimates, electricity worth over Rs10 billion goes unaccounted for through residential, commercial, industrial and agricultural pilferage. Have we ever given a thought as to who pays for these? It is the consumers – or rephrasing it – the bill payers who are compensating for the wrongdoing of others.
But then why should we pay for someone else’s consumption of electricity? Probably the authorities have several excuses for this, than one can relate to. However, the ground reality remains that massive power theft prevails in all sectors throughout and, unfortunately, the people who do these are the ones who complain the most.
The tragedy being the KESC not able to do anything about it despite the fact that the ground force of the company is well aware of the stealing points. The reason behind their sluggishness may be understandable that many of these offenders are influential persons – one has to be wary of ruffling their feathers. The others in the katchi abadis are well organised and militant enough to resist KESC moves.
It is evident from the fact that the poor performance of the utility in terms of power failures is closely associated with power theft and electricity sabotage. According to reliable sources from the KESC, the current non-technical losses stand at 17 per cent a year. This loss, which comprises theft, sabotage and non-payment of bills, counts towards huge financial losses for the company, which already has efficiency problems leading to its poor performance. Where the company has its own inadequacy in power generation and distribution, we consumers are also to be blamed partly for it.
The need of the hour to amend the KESC malfunctioning is a relentless drive to cut power waste and promote energy conservation to avert the crisis. It is through joint efforts of the KESC, consumers, law enforcers and the government that we can have the massive power theft — kundas and otherwise — rooted out in a systematic manner. Otherwise, the poor and the middle class will continue to pay very high rates for power as well as suffer the misery from frequent loadsheddings.
YASIR KHAN
Karachi
\THE letter, ‘Freedom to loot and plunder’ (Feb 6), and another, ‘Beggary of a different kind’ (Sept 2), bemoan the plundering of banks by politico-business tycoons, who contrive to get mammoth loans written off.
This is not a new phenomenon but gained momentum since 2002. During Nawaz Sharif’s tenure back in 1999 finance minister Ishaq Dar told the Senate that loans worth over Rs30.6 billion had been written off or part of these rescheduled.. The celebrated advocate M. D. Tahir petitioned before the Lahore High Court that a political family got loans worth Rs204 million written off during 1999. In the same year Dr A. R. Kamal, chief economist of the Pakistan Planning Commission, said that the structural deficiencies and political influence in writing off huge loans had resulted in bad debts exceeding Rs300 billion.
More than 11 years ago a Supreme Court bench ordered all nationalised commercial banks and the development finance institutions to submit a complete list of the written-off loans, with names of the beneficiaries and reasons for writing off these loans but with the exception of the ADBP none of the other entities complied with. The oft-repeated excuse being the application of the law of confidentiality. Thus the real colour of the looters remains undetected.
People’s Party Parliamenta-rians (PPP) Senator Enver Baig claimed that rich and big industrialists, including some influential government officials, had got loans worth Rs22.24 billion written off from five major banks in the year 2005. Another news on the same page (Aug 17, 2006) said that the ministers’ foreign trips cost the government over Rs51 million.
Government banks and financial institutions have written off loans totaling over Rs33 billion during the last three years.
M. M. Khan (letter, Sept 2) regrets that the poor of this country will never be able to come up to an honourable status and take their fair share from the national resources and economy as long as these human vultures and crocodiles who loot the national wealth are protected by their sponsors, putting dust in the eyes of the whole nation. How long shall this be allowed to go on?
A writer in a section of the press states that his bank turned down a paltry loan of Rs25,000. He feels sorry not to have gone to a nationalised bank where he could borrow Rs250 million and then apply for a write-off. The state can write off the loans of the shamelessly rich and obscenely powerful people.
The State Bank of Pakistan made write-offs easier, allowing banks and non-bank financial institutions to write off loss-making loans up to half a million rupees without moving courts. Loss-making loans are the loans whose principal or mark-up or both remain unpaid for three years. By the end of June of that year banks reported a combined stock of non-paying loans worth about Rs168 billion which was roughly one-fifth of their total advances. Non-paying or non-performing loans are the loans whose principal or mark-up or both remain unpaid 90 days or more.
A columnist once observed that the leniency shown to the defaulters without sifting whether the default is genuine or contrived might accentuate the malpractices that have led us to the present pass, especially when the instrument of ‘provisioning’ would remain in place, maybe for an indefinite period with a large volume of money being available to set off the bad debts.
DR. P. NASIR
Gujrat
THE provisions of Section 239 (2) envisages an income tax authority which is competent under IT Ordinance to make an assessment in respect of a tax year. Under the provisions of IT Ordinance 2001, commissioner or an officer having duly delegated power under section 210 is competent to make assessment under Sections 120, 121, 122 and 221.
The scope of Section 239 (2) is restricted only to the extent that the taxation officer should have been appointed to make an assessment.
Once power under Sections 120, 121, 122 and 221 is delegated to a taxation officer by the commissioner, the provisions of Section 239(1) come into operation and all the powers under the IT Ordinance 1979 are exercisable by the so delegated income tax authority.
In my opinion, the case of Allied Motors Limited vs Commissioner of Income Tax (2004 PTD 1173 – HC Karachi = (2004) 90 Tax 24 (HC Karachi) also envisages the delegation of authority to a taxation officer to make assessment under the provisions of Sections 120, 121, 122 and 221 of the Income Tax Ordinance 2001.
The concept of delegation of specific powers under various provisions of the IT Ordinance 1979 is not inferrable from Section 239(2) and/or the case of Allied Motors Ltd. Once a taxation officer gets authority under Section 210 to exercise power of assessment under Sections 120, 121, 122 and 221, the requirement of Section 239(2) stands satisfied and the so delegated taxation officer can exercise all the powers under the repeated ordinance because delegation is required only to constitute the income tax authority and the provisions of the IT Ordinance 1979 do not require to be specifically delegated, as being thought for Section 239(2).
The principle of specific delegation as laid down in the order of the ITAT (ITA No. 4121/LB of 2004 decided on 15.10.2004; (2005 PTD 720 (Trib.) apparently needs to be reconciled, with the principle of Section 239(2) read with the case of Allied Motors Ltd, in my opinion.
SHABNAM
Karachi
SUICIDE bombings are fast becoming a norm in our society. From the rugged mountains of Bannu to heavily fortified regions of Islamabad and Rawalpindi, there is no place immune to this deadly menace.
However, the recent attack on the bus carrying the employees of ISI that happened right under the nose of GHQ has shaken the national security by its foundations. It is a unfortunate that the ISI chief whose prime job is to be pre-emptive in thwarting such incidents is busy overseas brokering power- sharing deals whereas his men’s’ blood is being spilled next to GHQ. The moral within the ranks is touching the bottom rock whereas the anxiety and resentment is touching its new peaks.
Brig Cheema has asked the Frontier government to stop infiltration of terrorists. This is a great question but should also be directed to the ISI. The only way this country can now survive is if the generals stop mingling into the political affairs, give the reins of the country to elected government and return to barracks with dignity.
DR AMJID NAZIR
California, USA
LATELY we have been bombarded by advertisements on TV and in newspapers on how Gen Musharraf is taking the country towards prosperity. The TV advertisements also show Pervaiz Elahi and the great reforms and progress taking place in Punjab.
These marketing campaigns have the dual goal of bolstering the failing popularity of the current regime and muzzling the media by providing generous contributions to their bottom lines through contributions from the national exchequer.
It is unfortunate that public money is being wasted in this way. Is this why we pay taxes? But then again I guess that Gen Musharraf is working on a one- point agenda of continuing his rule and does not concern himself with such matters.
While it is my sincere belief that the media has brought about a silent revolution in this country and has contributed immensely towards our national growth and integration, some pondering by media gurus is needed on how such falsified and propagandist advertisements can be run on their dailies/channels with public money.
In case the conclusion, for whatever reason, is that the media will not stop showing such advertisements, it should at least also run advertisements for other parties that directly question the claims of the government.
AUN HUSSAIN
Islamabad
IT was a deal which sent Nawaz Sharif packing to Saudi Arabia, and it is a deal that is bringing Benazir Bhutto back. What’s the catch?
If you want to buy a government, contact the only authorised dealer in governments, Gen Pervez Musharraf, duly approved by USA Inc.
IRFAN ALI KAZI
Sukkur
THE city government has been singing claims about giving Karachi numerous uplifting projects during its tenure. Whether the projects are uplifting or just face-lifting is an open secret. The recent bridge collapse, responsibility for which no one is ready to accept, was the very bridge Mustafa Kamal claimed was his proudest achievement.
He told a TV channel recently that he was proud that people could get from Lalukhet to Shershah in just 12 minutes compared to the previous time of over an hour.
Well, not only has Mr Kamal made the journey from Lalukhet to Shershah shorter, he has also made the journey to Heaven from anywhere in Karachi much quicker.
AMBERINA IMRAN
Karachi
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