| September 12, 2007 | Wednesday | Sha'aban 29, 1428 |
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HEC’s criteria for journals
Northern Bypass bridge
Shelving education project
Flawed textbooks
Appeal for justice
The Saudi factor
People’s voice
Why deals?
Shoaib Akhtar
Senior citizens’ welfare
Pushtuns in Balochistan
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 9/11 Commission Recommendation Act of 2007, passed by the US House of Representatives in January this year and approved by the US Senate, is a comprehensive document containing complete Pakistan-specific policy guidelines for the present and future US governments. Going through these guidelines, one gets the impression as if these are designed for some ‘occupied territory’ after the end of World War II.
Apart from the rhetoric of how to combat the Taliban, securing borders, cooperating with the US in fighting international terrorism, there is strong emphasis on two very critical points, i.e. (a) building of secular public schools and (b) Pakistan’s maintenance of a network for the proliferation of nuclear and missile technologies would be inconsistence with Pakistan being considered an ally of the US.
a. Building secular public schools in Pakistan is clearly an attempt to change the Islamic character of Pakistan into a secular character. Here the US policymakers are either ignorant or underestimating very strong Islamic undercurrents in Pakistani society.
b. This clause means that Pakistan will not be considered a US ally if it continues to pursue its nuclear and missile programme to maintain a minimum deterrent capability, thus exposing it to permanent nuclear or even conventional weapons blackmailing. Even if Pakistan gets a sort of loose guarantee of providing nuclear umbrella, our past experience during 1965 and 1971 is very bitter. Can Pakistan trust such guarantees?
c. One quite obvious catch for Pakistan’s foreign policymakers is to “work with international community to secure additional financial and political support to effectively implement the policies set forth, and help to resolve the dispute between the government of Pakistan and the government of India over the disputed territory of Kashmir.
Keeping in mind the landmark nuclear deal between the US and India, can anyone believe that the US government will put it to risk, just for the love of Kashmiri people? Because any such attempt will certainly make India politically weak, and India will certainly threaten to cancel this and other trade deals on the pretext of strong opposition from domestic political forces. So the US will never want to lose big Indian market and its support vis-à-vis China.
To defuse this 9/11 Commission Recommen-dation Act, the only solution is to revise our foreign policy according to the recent and prevailing world developments.
ABID MAHMUD ANSARI
Islamabad
APROPOS of Dr Arifa Farid’s letter, ‘HEC’s criteria cause for concern’(Sept 6), we would like to clarify the issues raised which indicate that Dr Farid is not fully aware of the position regarding approval of journals. The HEC has developed clear criteria for the approval of journals.
In order to address the issue of applicability of criteria to the journals, meetings of the relevant subject experts were convened. Seventy experts from all over the country participated in the meetings. It was on their recommendation that it was decided to approve all such journals published up to June 30, 2005 that were indexed by any of the international indexing agencies as given in the Ulrich Periodical Directory (UPD).
In fact, the Journal of Islamic Studies, Iqbal Review, the Journal of European Studies of Karachi University and the Journal of American Studies of the Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, have been given limited approvals and this information is available on the HEC website.
On the recommendation of relevant subject experts, Mujalla Iqbal was not included in the list of approved journals.
It is to be clarified that the criteria for approval of the social science journals and the procedure for their approval are very transparent and are available on the HEC website. The six main criteria for approval of these journals include regularity of publications, diverse editorial/advisory board, peer review by at least two reviewers (including one international), abstracted/indexed internationally, publication of abstract in English for journals of other languages, and references need to be given according to international standards.
Various journals are required to apply to the HEC on the pro forma given on the HEC website and these journals are reviewed by the specialists to place them in four different categories, according to the degree to which the journals meet the approved HEC criteria. The placement of journals in these categories determines the status of the publication for appointment of authors in the university, act as approved supervisor of PhD students, and HEC support grant, etc.
It is important to realise that while the HEC is striving hard to improve employment conditions of the university faculty through provisions of Tenure Track Package and the upgradation to higher grade in BPS scales, it is equally vigilant and concerned that only high quality faculty, having a proven track record of publication in high quality journals, is inducted and appointed to senior faculty positions.
SAMINA WAQAR
HEC, Islamabad
THE recently-collapsed portion at Shershah crossing was the most delayed part of the Northern Bypass bridge. The completion of this particular portion had taken more than a year which indicates that the NLC was facing some design problems at this particular juncture.
As a layman and frequent user of this bypass I often wondered at the radii given at this portion. It was a sharp turn spread over around half kilometre which seemed an uphill task for the heavy vehicles. Furthermore the NLC recently made a speed breaker in the middle of this part to avoid over speeding by heavy vehicles.
It seems that this speed breaker played a key role in failure of this bridge. The application of brakes by every heavy vehicle at this speed breaker (which was in the middle of the radii) under the influence of sharp turning led to some unbalanced forces whose thrust was centrifugal in nature. This phenomenon was so frequent that it ultimately forced the bridge to bend over and collapse. This speed breaker was made only about a month before.
Now it is for the inquiry committee to judge the NLC working. I can only request them to also witness the collapsed walls of the bridge which is six to eight kilometres away from Shershah. This bridge was built at the intersection of the Northern Bypass and Hub River Road. The recent downpour caused slipping of the walls along with protecting stones of this bridge, though it was provided adequate protection against flowing waters.
What is more painful is that even when the bypass was in use for the last three to four months, nobody bothered to repair the dilapidated Hub River Road. Today, in the absence of the Northern Bypass, this road becomes a crucial artery connecting Karachi to Quetta. But is this road worthy of withstanding the load of heavy traffic?
We can only hope that the area nazim after reading this letter takes a ride from Shershah to Quetta bus stand on this road. He will then be in a position to arrange some squeezed budget to get this Hub River Road in a travel-worthy condition.
M.Z. JAFRI
Karachi
THE news recently that Rs5,880 million’s worth of decentralised elementary education project (Deep), one of the biggest ever initiated at the behest of the Asian Development Bank, has been shelved by the Bank authorities for lack of proper response by the Sindh provincial government is a source of great disillusionment for the people of the entire province.
The ADB project was started in agreement with the federal/provincial government way back in 2003 and was to complete by the year 2009. The scheme was to upgrade 1,200 primary schools to the middle level, besides providing them with laboratories and new buildings. In addition to this, it was decided to establish 1,000 English-medium schools, 350 model schools, and a nursery school for boys and girls in each union council and providing roofs to 1,200 coverless schools. Funds were also allocated for the fresh appointments of 7,000 and training for 12,000 teachers.
It is reported that up till now except for buying 23 vehicles (16 Pothohar Jeeps, five Hiace vans and two double-cabin vans) for the officers of the education department and selecting 213 schools, no notable work was done on the project.
On the one hand, insignificant funds are being set apart in the national budget for the education and, on the other hand, abandoning valuable project such as Deep for negligence reflects lackadaisical attitude of the authorities towards education of this province.
Somewhere else such criminally callous approach towards projects of national importance having commitment with international funding agencies might have cost jobs of many but alas the priorities for the establishment here are different, probably for them imparting education to the people is of less significance.
MANSOOR UL HAQ SOLANGI,
Karachi
WHILE solving a numerical problem in science subjects (especially physics), if a simple diagram, called free-body diagram, is drawn according to the given data, the solution becomes far easier. But unfortunately, the textbooks published by the textbook boards rarely use this technique.
As a result, students and teachers follow suit. In this way the solution of numerical problems become vague and students use trial and error methodology or take refuge in rote learning even for the solution of numerical problems.
There is an old saying: “Too many cooks spoil the broth”. Now the problem is that each textbook in physics published by textbook boards is written by seven or eight persons or even more.
Here lies the rot. How can there be adequacy when so many people are involved in writing a textbook. Moreover, to draw a correct diagram before solving a numerical problem is a time-consuming job and needs comprehension of the subject which mostly people lack and avoid.
Moreover, when a lot of people are involved in writing a textbook, nobody would own the responsibility for any flaw or inadequacy in the textbook later on.
Such inadequacies in science textbooks encourage rote- learning which is the root cause of the deterioration of our standard of education.
PROF A. H. SUBHANI
Rawalpindi
MY son, Mohammad Bilal, had taken admission in first year MBBS in Hamdard Medical University, Karachi, in October-November 2006. He was studying there till the second week of August 2007. He had done additional Mathematics in FSc due to which he could apply to engineering colleges also.
In 2007 he came to know about entrance test of GIK Institute for session 2007-2008 and applied for registration for entry test. He sent photocopies of all his documents to the GIK Institute along with the entry test form.
He was called for written test in Pearl Continental, Rawa-lpindi, which he cleared and was placed in the merit list.
He was invited through a letter to deposit Rs280,000 and join the GIK Institute in the discipline of electronic engineering.
All the dues of the institute were deposited in the first week of August.
To get his original academic certificates from the Hamdard Medical University in Karachi for depositing them in the GIK Institute, he applied for cancellation of admission to the Hamdard Medical University in the second week of August and got his certificates after termination of his admission from the medical university.
As per instructions of the GIK Institute, Mohammad Bilal reported to the GIK on Aug 26, and his classes started from Aug 27.
Now the officials of the GIK Institute are cancelling his admission on the plea that his percentage of marks in FSc mathematics is less than required.
Now look at the situation:
a. I paid Rs280,000 for one year in the first year MBBS in Hamdard Medical University, Karachi, with recurring
monthly expenditure since October/November 2006.
b. He kept on studying in first year MBBS in Hamdard Medical University, Karachi, for almost 10 months.
C. He cleared entrance test and other formalities to get admission in the GIK Institute. The reason for applying to the GIK Institute was that it is an elite institute and close to Rawalpindi where my family is residing in Askari-7 Rawalpindi.
d. He cancelled his admission in Hamdard Medical University due to the reason that his admission to the GIK Institute was confirmed.
e. Now authorities of the GIK Institute have issued him a letter to leave the institute or in other words they are cancelling his admission due to the percentage of mathematics marks in FSc.
My son had sent photocopies of all his required testimonials with the application of entry test. No one of the authorities concerned pointed anything during the long process of the entry test and even during offering of admission by the institute and during depositing the dues.
It is tantamount to the loss of the career of Mohammad Bilal and monetary loss to the family.
1. The boy lost money and admission in MBBS in the Hamdard Medical University, Karachi.
2. He wasted one precious year of his career.
3. He deposited Rs280,000 to the GIK Institute.
4. Now the GIK Institute is bent upon cancelling his admission, thus closing all the doors to his career for which he has been studying for the last 14 years.
Our entire family is in great tension. The boy is in great pain and mental stress and I am afraid he may do harm to himself because of the adverse situation created by the GIK Institute.
My request is to let him complete his studies in the institute on merit-cum-humanitarian grounds.
Hoping for justice.
LT COL (r) SARDAR KHAN
Karachi.
BEING a Muslim and a Pakistani I have always carried a very positive image about the government of Saudi Arabia. I have always considered them friends of Pakistan. However, their role in politics of Pakistan has deeply tarnished the image of this great country in my mind.
That the way Saudis have come to rescue a dictator and trying to prolong his rule in this country has put a lot of questions about the sincerity towards this country.
I still feel that they are doing it under pressure, nevertheless this is the true test of a friend. With great respect I would like to request the Saudi government not to become a party with a dictator and let the people of Pakistan decide the future fate of their country.
ARSLAN ASHRAF
Karachi
I AM surprised to note that while everyone is talking about the common people, there is hardly any platform where one can hear their voices.
Look at the TV discussion programmes, for an example. There is absolutely no doubt that they are doing a wonderful job in bringing the diverse political views of the leaders to the people. Yet, one waits in futility to hear the voice of the common people.
Programmes that reach out to the people in the streets across Pakistan, telephone call-ins as well as question-answers with studio audience are absent.
It is time the media ensured that not only the voice of the political leadership reaches the people, but also the voices of the people reach leadership.
JAHEZ HUSSAIN
Hyderabad
WHAT is the fuss about the deal between BB and Musharraf? If an election is going to be held, let the public decide who is going to be in majority. If the president himself is already thinking about deals before polls are held, then what is the validation of an election?
If a certain leader is going to be prime minister again, even if this means amending the Constitution, then I suggest we not waste money in elections. Don’t we have any other leaders in Pakistan?
FAKHURDDIN M. ALI
Karachi
MY advice to the PCB is to send Shoaib Akhtar to Guantanamo Bay. I assure you that all of Pakistan has had enough of him and without him the team will be better off.
I can’t even think of a single match that we have won because of him. Please get rid of him and let new blood get into the game.
FAROOQ BEG
Karachi
APROPOS of report (Aug 17), it is heartening and encouraging to know that our ever- vigilant chief justice has taken suo motu notice of the plight of Senior Citizens of this non-welfare state and to improve the rotting social structure of this country.
I, on behalf of many dozens of pensioners, would like to bring one more issue to his notice. Despite open letters to the Sindh governor and the chief minister, the benevolent fund has not been paid for the last 21 months which, otherwise, is payable monthly. Hopefully, the authorities would read this and expedite payment as early as possible.
I further want to suggest that senior citizens should be asked to voluntarily contribute a sum, initially, to the proposed fund of Rs1 billion. I am sure many will agree.
The bill, let us hope and pray, will get through one day.
A SENIOR CITIZEN
Karachi
THIS has reference to your editorial, ‘Balochistan revisited’ (Aug 30). You have suggested that the centre should hold talks with all Baloch leaders to arrive at a minimum consensus regarding problems facing the province.
Balochistan being a multi- ethnic province, I would suggest that equal attention should be paid to the
Pushtun-inhabited areas of Balochistan where the influx of Afghan refugees and the menace of religious extremism, and the prolonged period of drought have destroyed the livelihood of the people residing in that region -- a region with no infrastructure and one of the highest infant mortality ratios in Pakistan. I was shocked to learn that a matriculate in that area can barely express himself in Urdu.
MOHAMMAD IQBAL ABID
Karachi
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