| October 02, 2007 | Tuesday | Ramazan 19, 1428 |
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Profits at whose cost?
Justice vs justice
Lawyers’ agitation
German forces in Afghanistan
Nation in a cage
Supreme Court verdict
Controlling traffic
Tragedy with French scholar
KU: core centre for foreign students
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
THERE are hardly any truly democratic countries in the Muslim world today. As Muslims we have a very poor democratic record in history. Three of our (first) four Caliphs were brutally murdered and democracy never truly flourished from the very start in the Muslim world. Lacks of education and sincerity have been big factors throughout.
Only a few quasi-democratic countries like Malaysia, Iran, Turkey and Indonesia may be sighted today at the most. Malaysia having a king as a symbolic head of the state (in rotation, a unique system in the world) and a prime minister to run the daily affairs of the country, it has marched towards gradual and exemplary progress in almost all fields of life since its independence in the 1960s.
Although a clear Muslim majority, they have several different religions and ethnic groups, but people live in comfortable sectarian harmony. The other three have all had prolonged dictatorships, excluding the recent past, in the name of kings, PMs and presidents, respectively.
In our country, unfortunately, there have been several confrontations between the democratic forms of government (both parliamentary and presidential) and undemocratic forces. Almost 33 years of our 60 years of independence have been consumed by our military rulers on one pretext or the other.
Irrespective of whether any of them proved to be good or bad, they all claimed to have taken over the ‘helm’ of the country forced by ‘the circumstances’ or ‘on public demand’. Never in their wildest dreams could even the parents of our five generals, i.e. Iskander Mirza, Ayub Khan, Agha Mohammad Yahya, Ziaul Haq and Pervez Musharraf, imagine their sons assuming, or rather usurping, the presidency of Pakistan -- almost in progressive successions, with only three short-lived intervals of civilian governments.
Today again, unfortunately, there is a new struggle between the democratic and undemocratic forces, not taking any lesson from our past experiences or history. Why this unnecessary fuss about imposing a ‘forced democracy’ in Pakistan on external pressures? It may be better and wise, as well as economical (in terms of life and property), to have a presidential form of government which may better suit our nature and national temperaments. We may thus avoid the frequent and costly confrontation again and again.
An honest, sincere, efficient, hardworking and caring (for the masses) form of government is essentially most desirable for our country regardless of whatever we may choose to call it.
IJTABA ZAIDI
KARACHI
DR Ali Akbar Dhakan’s question (Sept 8) took my mind to the fabulous profits made by oil companies during the last five years, the amount of which stands at the staggering figure of Rs100 billion.
My heart sank at the newsbreak. The petroleum ministry has spoken the truth at last. The oil companies had arm-twisted it in 2002 and extracted a formula of oil pricing in which the profit and commission was added to the final cost which meant that the general public had to double-pay the taxes on oil, commission and net resultant profits. Our public may not be that stupid – but they are made to look fools by the use of such secret and fooling formulae.
Who were those persons involved in drawing up such a formula? How and why were they blackmailed or bribed into formulating such blood draining pricing? And still the officials of the ministry have been saying that the government was subsidising the oil prices; it had paid Rs80 billion in subsidy from March 2002 to October 2004.
Had those people forgotten the fact that the government was pocketing Rs20 per litre profit itself? The government had no business to charge profits and also pay subsidy. It earned about Rs200 billion, during those five years, and paid Rs80 billion on subsidy. It earned a cool 120 billion.
But Dr Dhakan is saying something about banking. He says banks are gluttonous as they are earning huge and unreasonable profits at the expense of general public, especially the middle class which is the backbone of any progressing society.
The profit of banks for one year is close to Rs50 billion. I know for certain that the returns they offer to depositors is nowhere near reasonable rates. The State Bank of Pakistan, the superpower of all banks, should keep a vigilant eye on all commercial banks to regulate banking operations keeping in view the interest of all classes, especially the middle one.
M. K. NAQVI
Karachi
SOON after the decision of the apex court on the application of Qazi Hussain Ahmad, the local media got very active in getting the comments of eminent scholars and legal experts.
Well, everyone has his own version of the interpretation of law , both agreeing and disagreeing with the majority decision.
Among them I heard Justice Wajihuddin Ahmad , who is running for the office of the president. Quite naturally, he disagreed — understandable because everyone has the right to form his own opinion — but the way he spoke on a private channel did not suit his status.
He not only disagreed with the decision but directly criticised the character of the honourable judges.
He said that out of six judges two were seen having lunch with Sharifuddin Pirzada and one was involved in rigging in the elections when he was election commissioner.
I do not know much of law but I think that uttering such small words about the judges of the apex court doesn’t suit a decent and law-knowing person.
If he had any objection to the composition of the bench, he should have pointed out to the lawyers of the petitioners as per law.
The lawyer would have then requested for removal of these judges from the bench. I feel that his criticism on the judges and their conduct are enough to prove that he has lost balance, and that he is running for that coveted position, pity my country.
Farrukh E
Lahore
ONE had felt a certain elation at the countrywide sentiment against the high-handedness with which the chief justice of the Supreme Court was treated during the pendency of a reference against him.
If the agitation was aimed at getting a fitting redress for the mistreatment, then an appropriate punishment must be given to the ones found guilty of the infamy, a humble apology from the government must be called for and, indeed, a decent monetary recompense by way of damages to the aggrieved chief justice must also be made.
However, the truth in the reference must in no way be nullified by the unfortunate occurrence of mistreatment. It would be a travesty if the truth in the reference is overlooked because of matters rather extraneous to it.
Of course, if the reference is found to be false, then those filing it must be made to suffer an appropriate punishment; but truth must not be swept under the carpet, nevertheless.
Now, as the unfortunate matters arising out of the reference have apparently been laid to rest by the SC some while ago, yet the lawyers’ agitation continues with increasing ferocity.
They have now, in association with the flotsam of politics, moved into the realm of pure and uncouth political chicanery. The very SC whose status they were so ardently defending yesterday, they are publicly accusing of delivering an iniquitously favourable verdict for the government.
They have been resorting to unseemly strikes in law courts; they are guilty of assaulting those lawyers who represent an opposite view.
The irony is that the assemblies they have been assailing as unqualified to elect a president have been legitimised as electoral college by their very own candidate.
I would urge Wajihuddin Ahmad to extricate himself from this situation. The agitators seem to be too ignorant to realise that they have tied themselves in ugly knots in all this.
SULTAN AHMED GEELANI
Karachi
IT was disheartening to see the manner in which law-enforcement agencies were harassing the lawyers who are representatives of a prime institution: the judiciary.
Prominent lawyers, such as Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan, who are an asset for Pakistan were physically beaten. Such atrocities occurring around the vicinity of the Supreme Court is certainly a matter of shame for all Pakistanis as the Supreme Court represents not only the dignity of a nation but also forms a nation’s foundation.
If such violence has occurred just a day after the Supreme Court’s decision in Musharraf’s favour, one’s mind even fears to think about what Musharraf’s rule will bring about next.
RABAIL NAZEER
Karachi
THIS has reference to Palvasha von Hassell’s article, ‘German forces in Afghanistan: mission impossible’ (Sept 25).
What the writer actually wanted to say was, in his own words: “Thus, while most Germans favour a withdrawal this year, the government cannot afford to antagonise the US by doing so unilaterally. The answer to this dilemma is for all foreign forces to quit Afghanistan, which would also give Pakistan’s troubled tribal areas some relief.”
The writer has tried to say that the Germans generally are opposed to keeping their forces in Afghanistan but due to international political compulsions the government of Germany has been keeping its forces there.
The writer should know that these are not international compulsions but the reality is that Germany is an occupied territory of the US, as the US is still keeping one of its largest army bases in Germany. Germany is a subordinate of the US. But, look at the proud Afghans they preferred to lay down their lives but did not accept the former superpower, the USSR, on its land.
They are not yet accepting any foreigner on their land even when they have lost many lives and are materially inferior. There is an embedded lesson for the Germans to learn. If they remember, the fall of the Berlin Wall happened because of valour of the Afghans. In that sense the Germans should be indebted to the Afghans. That was the sacrifices of the Pushtuns of the tribal areas of Pakistan and of the Afghans who made unity of East and West Germany possible. The German people should be grateful to them.
At the end of the article it is written that the writer is a Cambridge-educated analyst. It seems to me that the writer wasted his time at Cambridge as he doesn’t know the history of the German reunion, which I mentioned above briefly.
If the US is a sole superpower today, it is again because of the Afghans who defeated its rival. Does the writer think that the Afghans will now accept the hegemony of the country which was made the sole superpower because of their sacrifices and courage?
DR QAISAR RASHID
Lahore
BETWEEN Sept 11 and 19 three photographs appearing in Dawn, to my mind, bear an eerie resemblance to our current situation in Pakistan.
On Sept 15 a picture on page 14 was titled, ‘The predator’ and showed an osprey flying off with a fish after swooping down and grabbing it in its claws from a bay in America. This immediately reminded me of a shot published on the front page in the Sept 11 issue, depicting a PIA Airbus taking Nawaz Sharif from Islamabad to Jeddah.
The aeroplane was like the osprey, with Mr Sharif being the helpless prey to be carried across a body of water (the Arabian Sea) just as that fish was hauled across an American bay. It is also noteworthy how the first picture originated in the United States.
Finally, on Sept 19, a photograph appeared on page 14 with the caption, ‘A bird on a walk’. It showed a man in China sitting in a park reading a book, with his pet bird perched on a table of sorts, but imprisoned inside its cage. This reminded me of the Pakistani situation. Here, 160 million folks (‘birds’) are entrapped in a huge cage at the point of an invisible gun being carried by one man.
He wants the encaged people to go wherever he wishes to take them, all the while thinking he is doing everyone a favour by taking us along on his ‘walk’. His helpers in this ‘outing’ are, above all, the world’s most powerful man, with additional assistance coming from some Pakistanis engaged in wheeling and dealing.
In the meantime, one of the 160 million ‘birds’ — a DawnNews TV reporter, who had covered the recent suicide attack on SSG commandos in Tarbela, has revealed that he was kidnapped from outside his home in Rawalpindi. Then he was blindfolded and taken on a four-hour journey in a jeep (‘walk in a park’), interrogated, intimidated and finally released after two days, apparently by the operatives of an intelligence agency (Sept 19).
There’s much food for thought in Abraham Lincoln’s words: “Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves and under a just God cannot long retain it.” It would also be good for such people to remember, “O how small a portion of earth will hold us when we are dead, who ambitiously seek after the whole world while we are living.”
S. KARIM
Karachi
TWO things are emerging from the Supreme Court and presidential candidate drama currently being played out. First, the SC judges have shown high calibre and commendable impartiality, by legally allowing President Musharraf to stand for re-elections in spite of his previous tussle with Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry.
Second, the lawyers’ brigade has shown their true colours by their vociferous opposition to a judgment made by the same court whom they applauded with jubilation and fervour a short while ago.
So now arises the question of fair presidential and general elections?
We have 40 presidential candidates, a plethora of political parties and a population of 164 million people who are fed up with this political mongering and will be mostly apathetic to the voting process.
Instead of spending so much energy vilifying and denouncing each other’s credentials and motives, why don’t the parties spend more time and effort towards projecting their political agendas and platforms to the public so that the voters can make some sort of an informed decision?
HUSSAIN KAKAL
Toronto
I WAS shocked to read (Dawn Metropolitan, Sept 12) that at a meeting under the chairmanship of the DCO, Karachi, to review the measures to overcome the problem of traffic jam, one of the decisions taken was to enforce the traffic laws strictly during Ramazan.
My question to the DCO is that shouldn’t this be done throughout the year and that too, without discrimination? Why just restrict this measure to the holy month?
Moreover, the steps being taken by the city government and the federal government to make essential food items available at reasonable prices should also be an all-the-year-round effort and not just restricted to the holy month.
Nazim F. Haji
Karachi
I WAS shocked to read the news item (Sept 23) that French scholar Florence alias Farida Boryak who just came here from Turkey to complete her PhD work in Makli, Thatta, was severely beaten by the police authorities and before this she was even robbed of her valuables while she was on a visit to the Makli site.
It’s shame for us to treat a visiting scholar like this. There seems to be no rule of law in our country and no one is safe, even our visiting guests. The government should punish the guilty to assuage the feeling of hurt of the visiting scholar.
GHULAM KADIR SHAHANI
Hyderabad
LIVING outside your homeland can be a tiring experience. It is good once in a while to go abroad, either for studies or for a visit. Interestingly, what you get in return is more than something material. It is treasure trove of experience and a new way of dealing with problems in a systematic manner. It is believed that if the person knows how to solve his or her problems, it is a gift and can help him or her lead a better life.
Interacting with others from different cultural, religious and ideological backgrounds contribute a colourful experience to your world perception. Only when you look at the other side of the coin that you come to know the reality of the living standards of foreign students, particularly Somali students, at Karachi University. For example, an inquiry conducted recently among Somali students showed that most of them see Pakistan as their second home where there is neither such a cultural shock nor any religious difference and students feel and get a warm welcome from their brotherly local people.
The KU administration makes admission process easy for foreign students, particularly from the Muslim world, and a large number of foreign students enrol each year at KU’s different departments. For instance, 75 to 80 Somali students are currently enrolled at the University of Karachi and the majority of them being in the faculty of Pharmacy and Microbiology. Also many students from various other countries are currently enrolled at KU. These students live in the Federal Boys Hostel of the University of Karachi.
Not only at Karachi University, Somali students are also enrolled at many public and private universities in Pakistan. The second largest Somali students enrolled at the International Islamic University in Islamabad and at the University of Engineering and Technology in Lahore. When an inquiry was being conducted, the students highlighted how grateful they are to the KU administration and the Pakistan government. They say they will not forget the good hospitality they got from their brothers at KU and they will carry these good memories with them when they go back to their homeland.
There is a friendly atmosphere at KU where the foreign students share their views with the administration and the professors of their respective departments. For example, the Somali students at KU recently hosted an annual dinner at which Vice Chancellor Prof (Dr) Pirzada Qasim Raza Siddiqui, student adviser Dr Khalid Iraqi, foreign student adviser Prof (Dr) Kaleem Raza Khan and other professors and administration officials were invited.
They took the moment as an opportunity to share their pleasure with and to thank the VC and other officials for the warm welcome, guidance and the proper care they gave here at Karachi University.
DURRAN HASSAN ADEN
Mass Communication Dept
Karachi University
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