| September 27, 2007 | Thursday | Ramazan 14, 1428 |
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Supreme Court’s pending verdict
The Bush story
Third-degree treatment
Man-made rain havoc
Reacting emotionally
Unwanted deaths
Amazing experience
KWSB: predicament and remedy
THIS refers to M. Ziauddin’s analysis, ‘Osama comes to Musharraf’s rescue’ (Sept 22). He has also considered some western analyst’s contention that the timing of the release of Osama’s threat to President Musharraf could help the general in his Oct 6 election rather than harm him.
This would be so because it would presumably make Pakistan’s anti-Osama moderates -- supposed by the West to be in the majority -- and the Osama-haters in Washington, London and Brussels to rally around Musharraf. Even the Supreme Court would not want to be seen to have become a party to Osama’s war against the president by giving a ruling against him.
Mr Ziauddin goes on to point out that according to these analysts, paradoxically Osama also wins if Musharraf wins because the terrorists never had it so good as they did in the last five years of the military-led government.
This line of thinking is supported by another event. Shortly before George Bush’s re-election a couple of years back, Osama had issued a similar threat against him, which had made the Americans rally around and vote for Bush, as a natural reaction to seeing their presidency in danger. This had resulted in the incumbent’s success.
Last year, there was a report that the CIA’s brains had been puzzling over this reality and had wondered why Osama had done such a thing. What they could not understand until then was that the Al Qaeda chief would have calculated that his intimidation of Bush and, by extension, the American nation, would cause a reaction leading to his re-election. OBL simply wanted Bush to win so that his flawed policies would continue to hurt the US on the one hand and radicalise the world’s Muslims on the other, which is what has actually happened.
This also appears to be what Osama desires regarding Musharraf so that extremism and terrorism in Pakistan and, thus, the support for the militants increases even more. It may be pertinent to recall what the international financier George Soros had written about the US in a Wall Street Journal article a year ago (Dawn, Aug 20, 2006).
He said that America’s woes were of its own making and asserted that ‘the war on terror’ is a false metaphor that has led to counterproductive and self-defeating policies. He opined that five years after the 9/11 attacks, a misleading figure of speech applied literally has unleashed a real war fought on several fronts — Iraq, Gaza, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Somalia. To his list one can now safely add Pakistan as well.
Mr Soros warned: “If we persevere in the wrong course, the situation will continue to deteriorate. It is not our will that is being tested, but our understanding of reality.”
This is exactly what we in Pakistan, above all Gen Musharraf, need to understand. It is his wrong and blatantly pro-American policies that are fuelling all the extremism and terrorism here, as has become even more evident after the heavy-handed Lal Masjid episode. Hundreds of soldiers and civilians have died in the skyrocketing suicide bombings and other attacks since then. After Iraq, more people have been killed here than even in Afghanistan due to terrorism.
The inescapable lesson is that though OBL, in a perverse way, or some western supporters of Musharraf want him to continue in office, it is the dire need of the hour that he should make way for a democratically elected civilian government.
This should consist of moderate elements who would be able to calm the religious extremists down. Failing that, there will be no end to the fighting between the Musharraf-led army and the ever-growing local Taliban and other militants, ending in the destruction of Pakistan, like Iraq.
M.Y. KHAN
Karachi
I WISH to take issue with Mansoor Alam on his letter, ‘Supreme Court’s pending verdict’ (Sept 26).
It is considered a misdemeanour in a civil society to cause prayers to be published in the form: “ I pray that God would bestow the requisite wisdom on the nine judges to give the right decision without fear or favour,” just when the court is intensely occupied with historic constitutional issues.
Mr Alam’s words are fully pregnant with the implication that (a) the possibility of the nine judges not having ‘the requisite wisdom’ is real, hence the prayer; (b) and despite the ‘requisite wisdom’ in the nine judges, the element of fear or favour must be overcome by the judges, to deliver the ‘right judgment.’
Honestly..!, what next!
Mr Alam’s letter does not rest there; while agreeing with “pro-establishment politicians and lawyers (who) are taking the stance that the three branches of the state: the parliament, the executive and the judiciary: should only work in their respective areas of jurisdiction,” Mr Alam rhetorically asks, “.. should this principle not apply to the military? Is it the job of the military to run the politics of the country?. The answer is a definite ‘no’,” Mr Alam asserts.
Well, in which country, may I ask, are politicians so utterly and shamefully beholden to the army for their political career. From a gentleman who built up his career with unabashedly ‘daddying’ a field marshal, to another person whose moral/intellectual gifts would never have allowed him to rise above his hereditary scrap iron trade. Did these so-called statesmen serve public interest, or army interest, when they were politically uplifted by the grace and favour of the army.
And indeed when the army-made politicians donned the garb of public interest and rose to power, did one of them not demonstrate unmistakable leanings to fascism by creating uniformed party carders to enforce a cult of personality. Did he not imprison quite a few of his finest colleagues, in the manner of very crude fascist purges. Was the late Habib Jalib (God bless his soul) guilty of defaming him when he wrote the famous ’Larkanay chalo verna thaney chalo.’
Is not his legacy a party that now consists of mere dynastic loyalists masquarading as democrats? The proof of dynastic loyalism rests with the fact that when room at the state’s political top was available to the PPP, it unhesitatingly chose a totally inexperieced and very young dynastic woman for the highest office in the land.
Her very gifted father had to work well over a decade to reach that position. Men of commanding ability take years indeed to rise to high office in civilised states. Dynastic politickers in Pakistan wallow in lionising a ‘princely personage’, despite very ugly indictments in courts at home and abroad.
And the premeditated attack on the Supreme Court, among other felonies, should speak volumes about the ex-scrap trader.
So, not to belabour the subject I would like to conclude by saying that riding the hobby horses of imported ideologies — democracy; separation of powers; and all that jazz — Mr Alam and the ‘democracy ideologues’ would do well to recognise that the army alone, for what it is worth, alas, is the only answer till the rise of a real leader, with capability to stare the army down and create a state structure closer to our historical urgings. Otherwise, why should the army govern through upstartish stool pigeons who only create a greater mess when ‘freed’ from army control.
SULTAN AHMED GEELANI
Karachi
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
AFTER the Cold War ended, America thought that the world had become much too quiet. So, Bush said: “God says, ‘Go thou and fight’.” Thus began the modern-day crusades.
After the suicide bombings became too troublesome, an evangelist friend cautioned him: “This way too many Muslims are going to heaven.” But Bush said: “I and my supporters would rather go to hell than share the heaven with those evil terrorists.”
When he was reminded that some Muslim leaders and politicians in various countries were also among his camp-followers, he observed: “They would remain with me because if they try to desert the coalition, Osama bin Laden and his men would be waiting for them at heaven’s door with a pile of grenades.”
Moral: Samuel Johnson had defined a fishing rod as a stick with a hook at one end and a fool at the other. After some years, historians may describe the ‘war on terror’ as having been a crusade with a suicide bomber at one end and Bush at the other.
IBNE INAYAT
Karachi
REPORTED in Dawn Metropolitan (Sept 20) is the disclosure of an anonymous police officer that a suspect is hung upside down from the ceiling and beaten up in such a way that bruises and contusions do not show when he is given the third degree. But the third degree is applied in view of the suspect’s condition.
If he is an elderly person, making him stand for two to three hours at a stretch would amount to giving him third degree and that results obtained from four days of tactful questioning could also be obtained by torturing a suspect for four hours. How gory and hair-splitting the said statement had been.
Our police force is, in fact, a kind of terrorist force with no human sympathy or mercy in their minds.
Place a bundle of currency notes on the table and you name a person who will be brought and put behind the torture cell and after a third degree confession will be brought before a judicial magistrate who will ask the tortured person weather he was being tortured.
The poor soul cannot say in positive for the fear of repeated third degree after obtaining remand from the court on the fictitious grounds that still further inquiry is necessary by the police.
We had read the report (Sept 22) regarding beating up of a French elderly scholar by the Thatta DPO who had categorically denied the charge alleging that the lady was a drug addict and mentally unstable whereas some police personnel, including a woman constable, had confirmed the incident.
So these are the men of our police force who can readily tailor and manufacture a number of allegations to save their skin. Under the circumstances, honest efforts are needed to save the innocent people from the iron clutches of the police.
GHEEWALA
Karachi
THOUGH it is some time when rains came to Karachi, the residents of DHA are still suffering from the after-effects due to errors of planning and bad engineering that turned rains into man-made havoc.
Houses at 10th street, phase V, were inundated by flow-back of the rainwater due to the connections made to the sewerage lines of houses to the stormwater drain built at great cost to take care of rainwater.
Some time back after the construction of the stormwater drain when the sewerage line got choked, the Clifton Cantonment Board in their wisdom got the sewerage lines of the houses connected to the stormwater drain, which incidentally runs beside the water supply line.
For reasons best known to them, they did this deliberately though the residents had pointed to the risk in doing so. As expected, the stormwater drain got choked by sewerage and flow-back of rainwater caused inundation of the houses through sewerage line connections, causing colossal damage to property and hardship to the residents as the water level on the road was four feet high and took five days to drain, thanks to pumping sets and staff provided by the Sui Southern Gas as one of their employees lived on the same street.
The same thing repeated when the rain came for a second time. The residents hope that the blocked sewerage line will be replaced to prevent the repetition of this tragedy and remove the contamination threat to the waterline by the leakages from the stormwater drain, which at present carries the sewerage from the houses located at the above street. Is this too much to ask for? In any other country the residents would also get remission of taxes and compensation for their losses.
NIZAM UL HASAN
Karachi
ACCORDING to a report (Sept 16), the District Bar Association (DBA) of Faisalabad, apart from calling upon the government to refrain from harassing the judiciary and implementing its decisions, also touched upon the second exile of Nawaz Sharif.
The bar president said the DBA would take up the issue of changing the name of Faisalabad as well because of the Saudi role in the expulsion of Mr Sharif.
One would like to offer some advice. The banishment of the former premier has angered me as much as it has upset the majority of Pakistanis because it reflects the government’s contempt for the recent Supreme Court ruling on the subject and disrespect for democratic tradition. While I may or may not be a supporter of Nawaz Sharif, yet I censure it.
By this means, Gen Musharraf has managed to drive a wedge between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia due to his desire to hold on to power, which is not good for the country. The Saudis should not have intervened in the matter.
Having said that, one would like to point out that the name of the city of Montgomery was changed to Faisalabad probably in the 1960s in honour of the late King Faisal of Saudi Arabia who was a great friend of Pakistan. The grand mosque in Islamabad is also named after him and numerous Pakistanis have adopted his name.
One must not react so emotionally that even King Faisal is in a way punished for the decision of others. Instead we must work at undoing the harm while making our displeasure known in more mature and sober ways.
M.P. CHISHTI
Karachi
A WOMAN and her disabled daughter in a village near Bahawalpur swallowed poison after scuffles with male members and ended up in a cemetery” (Sept 4). Such suicides were also reported in the past.
These deaths do raise fingers at the living us: (a) what has happened to our social fabric that the two women lost all the hopes where to fall back upon while alive instead of committing suicides?, (b) how come a woman living in a village near Mardan kept poison in her house for instant use (May 3)?, (c) why do the tiny medical stores in villages keep stocks of poison for sale to them without a question? and (d) why doesn’t the health ministry take any notice of the matter and not enforce its own rules and regulations, including doctors’ prescription, for the sale of the deadly item?
I shall also avail my self of this opportunity to remind that all kinds of unwanted deaths in our country are becoming fairly higher for the last some years and for that hardly anything now surprises our society any more.
Z. A. KAZMI
Karachi
I WENT through an amazing experience while dealing with a medical surgery. Unfortunately, I have dealt with surgery cases in my family so many times and every case was a torturous experience full of agony and mental stress.
The timings given for operation are never followed. You never know as to how long will your patient be kept in the ICU after operation.
Lastly, it is never confirmed as to when your patient would be released from hospital.
The attendants are always asking one question or the other regarding different things concerning the patient. Recently one of my sisters was operated upon by Dr Kishwer Nazli in Fatima Hospital in Lahore. The case was handled with amazing professional ethics and efficiency.
Patient and caretakers were told about each and every step in writing. These instructions included each and every question that could come to your mind. Timings for every major event were spelled out well in advance. The punctuality of events was remarkable.
I was just wondering as to how this could happen in Pakistan. All this reduced our worries to almost nothing as we knew well in advance what is the sequence of events and we prepared ourselves accordingly.
Hats off to the professional standards maintained by the respected doctor and the hospital. I wish other hospitals can also follow the same standard.
DILAWAR HUSAIN
Karachi
LATELY newspaper reports have been showing how pathetic the financial position of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) is. According to a report, the KWSB has a debt burden of Rs30 billion. Another report shows that the collection of revenue, that is the recovery of bills from individuals, government and semi-government departments/organisations for providing — or rather not providing — the utility, i.e. water, is Rs2.7 billion and expenditure of the KWSB is Rs4.5 billion.
This shows a shortfall of Rs1.8 billion. Furthermore, the KWSB is said to need a major overhaul such as downsizing of surplus staff, which is long overdue, induction of technically qualified staff in the finance and administrative departments etc.
For curtailing the financial shortfall of the KWSB and providing relief to the hard-hit consumers, my humble suggestion to the city nazim and concerned authorities:
a. For recovery of accumulated arrears, the KWSB is advised to forgo the amount of surcharge against late payment. A further incentive could be a waiver of 10 to 20 per cent to the individuals that clear up their total long outstanding dues by making full payment (10 per cent on half payment in two instalments and 20 per cent for full payment).
According to a report (Feb 13, 2005) the KESC announced such incentives to clear the outstanding dues: “The KESC is offering a relief package to its consumers to help clear their long outstanding dues.” These proved very fruitful both for the consumers and the KESC.
b. There should be two categories of consumers for tariff purposes: (1) those having 35 to 45 years old water and drainage connections and (2) the newly-constructed buildings, residential and commercial.
For category one the KWSB spends almost nothing. The water and sewerage lines in many areas were laid by cooperative societies years ago, such as in the PECHS. The KWSB took over these already developed areas. The KWSB incurs minimal maintenance charges on this category of consumers.
In this category the rate of water and sewerage charges should be much less. In fact, there should be a three-tier/slab system as followed by the department of excise and taxation. The property tax rate varies according to the year of construction – the older the construction, the lower the rate levied and vice versa. Similarly, the KWSB charges should be worked out on the basis of year of construction.
For category two the KWSB must be spending like 90 per cent of its revenue for newly-developed areas like K3 scheme, laying 84” diameter water pipelines over long distances in our ever-expanding city. The current high rate of billing should be applicable to only this category.
I urge the city government and the authorities concerned to give serious thought to my two suggestions.
M. IKTIDAR AHMAD
Karachi
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